Chapter 26

These past few months I have been quite busy with all the preparations for the new arrival and I am quite beside myself with joy. Touya firmly stated it would be a girl and decided that we will not jeopardize the results until the birth itself. Shamal was disheartened however. But recently, I have been encountering several, well, problems. My emotions have been out of whirl and sometimes uncontrollable. One minute I feel happy and the next I feel like a wild blaze about to tear down anything in my path. It's utter madness. The other problem is my food cravings. I just cannot seem to ignore the temptation to eat chocolate ice cream nowadays and with an extreme amount of chocolate syrup to top it off. It is good enough that Shamal has not found out about the food cravings, she would start nagging and scold me for eating something outside of the dietary schedule she gave me. Touya is luckily willing to keep quiet…

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It has been months since she last saw her family and friends, well, not including Riku since he was with her through her off world missions. Fate was quite happy to be back and she had visited Nanoha first. The ace of aces was due to marry Yuuno soon and Fate was happy for her friend. Speaking of Nanoha, after Valentine's Day, Fate went to check in on Nanoha and Vivio like she always did and managed to corner her friend. Questioning the ace of the sky on her relationship was a trifle lot of fun. Nanoha apologized for not telling Fate for the reason that she was a little nervous about it and whenever she came close to actually telling Fate, she chickened out because she was shy. Fate forgave Nanoha but not before punishing her friend by telling Nanoha the way she felt. Nanoha had been understanding and had kindly explained her feelings as well just to clear up matters. Fate felt a little disappointed that Nanoha did not feel the same way but after spending more time with Riku, she got over it. Riku was as perfect as he could get. He was her best friend and colleague, now also playing the role of boyfriend. He understood her pain because his father had been abusive as well and he was orphaned at the age of 10 after his only parent was sent to jail. Ever since then, he worked hard to become an enforcer to save children from suffering the same fate he had, or at least give them a better life. Fate was grateful for that and Nanoha agreed to the relationship, after having gone through a rough hour of embarrassment, listening to Fate's story was great.

Nanoha mentioned another surprise waiting for Fate but refused to say what it was, just told Fate to stop by the Lost Wings Café soon to visit Touya and the children. Fate had been reminded of Erio and Caro when Nanoha mentioned children but she knew the brunette was referring to Signum's children, Sai and Yue. The last time Fate saw the two of them, Sai was still a baby, having been adopted straight from the hospital and Yue had been three years old, adopted from a care facility from another world. It had almost been a year since then and she missed everyone. Now as Fate walked through the doors of the café, she wondered what kind of surprise awaited her. The first thing she saw upon entry is a little girl with short brown hair tied in a little ponytail coming out of the kitchen with a small bowl of chocolate ice cream. Fate barely recognized her. The little girl looked up and saw Fate and smiled.

"Mama!" she called. Instead of her mother appearing, her father did.

"Now Sai, why don't you go ahead and sit with your mother at the table while I deal with this ok?" he told his daughter and the little girl plodded off on her two little feet with a smile. "Nice to see you again Testarossa, long time huh?" he greeted after seeing his little girl off.

"I know. I can hardly recognize Sai if it were not for her brown hair. She's grown so much over the year and according to Nanoha, she can talk fluently already!" Fate said in exclamation.

"Yea, she's a smart girl. Her birth parents were old, that's why they couldn't take care of her but she's grown considerably well. After all, our intelligence affects our children's as well," Touya said with a small laugh.

"Really, how old were Sai's original parents?"

"They were fairly old, around their fifties. They were sad to send their daughter up for adoption after having her around for about two years and a half but Signum and I promised to give her a good name and raise her well. It was by luck and we so happened to be looking for a young children to adopt. We were vying for a baby but it's hard to find babies to adopt, not many would do that here on Mid," he explained.

"Yea, it's because the hospitals have strict rules about putting children up for adoption, so I heard. I guess you were lucky and Sai has grown so much over the year you've had her. She's turning four this year isn't it?" Touya nodded with a smile.

"Yes, and Yue is turning six this year," he added. Fate smiled.

"I bet he's grown a lot too. Has he shown any magical potential yet?"

"Yes, Shamal says that his linker core has begun its growth and at a steady pace moreover. Signum wants to train him to become a full pledged Belkan user."

"I see. By the way, Signum is here? I would have thought she would be in her office pushing pencils, since the Ground Forces have not many cases on their hands at the moment," Fate said with a laugh.

"No, she's here, on leave," he replied with a chuckle.

With that, he led her to the table Signum was sitting at with the children. Sai was gulping down huge chunks of ice cream, not having bothered about the coldness of the dish. Yue was eating slowly, unlike his messy sister. Signum was wiping some more chocolate off her daughter's face. Fate found the gesture motherly, even for someone like Signum. But then, as Fate's eyes focused on her long time rival, she could not stop her body from freezing in shock when she noticed that her friend's abdomen was, well, swollen. Signum looked up to see her husband and tossed him a sweet smile. The sword knight noticed Fate after several moments and saw her friend, plus rival, standing stoned beside her husband.

"Testarossa, I admit is had been a long time since I've seen you but does the way I look now surprise you so much until you look like you've seen a ghost?" Signum joked.

"Um, uh, Signum, I, ah," the blonde could not find her words.

"Well, let me clarify for you, Signum's pregnant. She's in her seventh month now, according to Shamal. Not to say that the news was not shocking at first though I must say some of us took it better than most," Touya explained.

"Don't forget that Vita was dazed for a week trying to get over it. Now she's just as overprotective as Agito," Signum said, swinging her spoon at her husband. Touya laughed.

"Oh, I'll never forget that one. The look on her face was priceless!"

Fate watched the exchange with a funny look on her face. After several more moments, she shook her head and thought things over properly. Shocking, yes, but it was still a cause for celebration.

"Well, that was unexpected," Fate finally said, slumping into the nearest chair.

"Still dizzy Testarossa?" Signum asked.

"Maybe, just allow my mind to process this sudden news a little while longer," Fate replied.

"Do you want some ice cream?" it was Yue who asked. Fate looked at the little boy and smiled.

"Yes, thank you. It would do me good and would help me digest the new information faster," the blonde mage replied with a smile, accepting his offer.

Touya went into the kitchen to get another bowl of chocolate ice cream for their guest and a glass of water. Signum offered Fate the bottle of chocolate syrup.

"How did you know I like my things super sweet?" Fate asked, squirting the chocolate syrup onto her ice cream.

"Hmm, I didn't. I just thought you might have wanted some," Signum replied, putting a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. The sword knight then glanced outside the window as if checking for someone.

"What's wrong Signum?" Fate asked, looking at her friend curiously.

"Um, nothing, just checking for Shamal in any case she might show up somewhere in the middle of the day just to visit me. I don't want her to catch me eating this," Signum explained.

"Why not, she can't possibly do anything that bad, could she?"

"Yes she can. She would nag and scold because I ignored the eating regiment she set up for me. Not like I have been putting on much weight besides that which I already have," gesturing toward her abdomen.

"Oh, I see. How has it been, the months before?"

"Morning sickness has been a pain and it lasted for a month. I couldn't eat anything in the morning without throwing up several minutes later. At about one or two hours before noon is stops but it starts again early in the morning. My mood swings haven't been any better. Not that I haven't gone about trying to control it," Fate giggled.

"It sounds absolutely terrible and by the way, congratulations. Does your miracle pregnancy also mean that Shamal can do it too?"

"Thank you Testarossa and most likely, yes. It seems that whatever we have wished for since the beginning has been coming true, one by one and it is all thanks to Reinforce. We all owe her for that," Signum said with a thoughtful look in her eyes. Her eyes softened when she said those words, Fate noticed.

"Hmm, that's good. Your children must be really happy to have a new sibling on the way," Fate said cheerfully.

"Yes, they are."

"Not to mention the amount of questions they posed after being informed. It was enough to kill Signum and me," Touya complained as he came to sit next to his son.

"Questions, what questions?"

"Questions about where their little sister is coming from and Sai even thought Signum, well, ate her because we said that their little sister was, well, you know where," Touya explained, a blush creeping up on his face.

"Oh, I see," Fate said, trying to control her laughter.

"It was, not for the life of me, the easiest of questions to answer Testarossa. Until your children ask you such questions, you would not know the meaning of the word struggle," Signum said nonchalantly.

"Erio and Caro did ask but they asked mother and she seemed quite fine answering those questions."

"That was Lindy you're talking about. I was asking, what you would do if Erio and Caro had decided to ask you those questions instead of Lindy." Signum smirked at her rival's evident struggle to answer that question.

"Not so easy huh," Touya said with a chuckle.

"Not to say we didn't try," Signum added.

Signum smiled and was about to take another scoop of ice cream when she heard the door to the shop jingle open. Lord, it was Shamal. Fate saw the blonde knight too and turned to see Signum pushing the bowl of ice cream toward her husband. She really did not want to get caught.

"Hey Signum, how has today been?" Shamal asked, walking toward the group.

"Fine, thank you," Signum replied, her facial expression neutral.

"That's' good to hear and it's nice to see you again Fate chan," Shamal greeted the blonde mage. Shamal had met Fate earlier this morning when she came to see Hayate in the office.

"It's nice to see you too Shamal."

"Everyone seems to be eating ice cream, any special occasion? I hope you haven't eaten any Signum," Shamal said the latter sternly with a wag of her finger.

"No, I haven't," the sword knight replied with a straight face. How she manages to hold her expression, Fate will never know, maybe from years of practice?

"Well, that's good to hear and pray that you're not lying," damn, the woman was persistent on the truth.

"Shamal, have I any need to lie to you?"

"Yes, you have every need to lie to me just to get away with something."

"But you do know me best and you do know I have a higher level of discipline than that," Signum was a damn good liar.

"Hmm, you're right. I'm sorry to have doubted you for a moment there," Shamal said with an honest smile. Fate's jaw was hanging down at Signum's ability to actually get away with murder, or in this case, eating sweets.

"Apology accepted," not that there was any need for an apology, Signum is guilty as charged but not like she is willing to admit that.

"As for the occasion, since Testarossa is here, we decided to eat some ice cream for a mini celebration," Touya pitched in, trying to save his wife from any more of Shamal's onslaughts. "Care to join us?" he invited in kind.

"No thank you, I'm trying to watch my weight now. Besides, I decided to just drop by for a few minutes to check on Signum before my lunch break was up. I'm afraid I have to leave now, see you later," Shamal bade them well and left.

Signum watched Shamal walk away from the shop and when she was sure Shamal was not going to see her, Signum took back the bowl of ice cream from her husband. Fate was staring at her friend as she had been doing since Shamal started questioning Signum.

"I thought she would never leave," Signum grumbled, putting another spoon of the sweet dessert into her mouth.

"How do you do it? I mean, get away with murder like that and what more, with a straight face?" Fate asked in bewilderment, astonishment, shock and any other expression one could possibly think of to describe the look on the blonde's face.

"Hmm, it's easy. Shamal easily accepts logical statements and in this case, she claims she knows me best so I use that to my advantage. To make it more concrete I state a truth in my character that she mostly sees in me. As for my expression, that is easy if you believe what you're saying to be true, that and also because I'm used to it. I've never actually told anyone how I do things so consider yourself lucky Testarossa," Signum explained with a smile.

"I don't believe it. Maybe I should try that," Fate thought amiably.

"I doubt you will succeed easily without practice. You've always been a horrible liar," Signum stated with a chuckle.

"Hmph, just because you think you're better," the blonde grumbled, shoving some ice cream into her mouth.

"I don't think I'm better Testarossa, I know I'm better."

Fate gave up the debate because she knows she is never going to win in any case. Signum was far much smarter and well, doing so will only waste time and her ice cream will melt before she can finish eating it. Signum was already finishing hers and Sai as well, though the little girl looked messy with chocolate stains on her face. She looked adorable nonetheless. In honest truth, Signum's small family is in fact, adorable. Fate was having fun until Signum decided she wanted to know about how Riku was doing and when she was going to get married.

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Just some fluffy before the moment some of you may have been waiting for... Xp i actually liked this and found it funny.. XD enjoy!