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Gav and Otto had a habit of making bets. Things like which one of the mother crystals would be the next to fall, or whether or not Mid would ever go with Clive to visit her father’s grave. However, with all the mother crystals successfully gone and the world finally safe from the plotting of a narcissist god and free to recover from its losses they started to bet on the more trivial, everyday thing around them.
“So, how long do you think it’ll be before we have a bunch of little Rosfields skittering about?” Gav asked over a tankard of ale in the mess hall one day.
Otto let out a huff of a laugh. “Those two are so hopeless when it comes to romance that I doubt it’ll be anytime soon.”
“Wanna bet?” Gav challenged, plunking his tankard down on the counter and extending a hand towards the older man to shake.
“Alright, I’ll buy it,” he agreed, taking his hand. “Who you bettin’ on?”
“My money’s on my boy Clive,” Gav said. “I bet you ten gil that Jill ends up pregnant within the year.”
“And I bet you ten gil that Jote ends up pregnant within the year,” Otto countered. “He may look innocent and all, but I’ve seen the way Joshua looks at her. And the way she looks at him.”
Gav chuckled. “Man, if I had a gil for every time I walked in on Clive and Jill…”
“Which is exactly why my money’s on Joshua. You keep cockblocking the boss.”
Gav’s cheeks turned a light pink shade, but he just shook it off. “We’ll see.”
~ Months Later ~
Clive and the gang had just returned from another mission in Rosaria, the two Rosfields and their partners lending a helping hand to try and restore their homeland to some of its former glory. Alas, such a dream was still a long way in the making, but still they had hope that one day it would be realized. After all, that was what they had fought so long and hard for.
However, their return home to the Hideaway wasn’t entirely stress free either as the four of them disembarked from the Enterprise, each of the boys with an arm wrapped around his lady as they helped them down. They didn’t even stop to report in with Otto as they wasted no time in ushering the ladies over to the medical wing. There they were met with Tarja, who had the ladies sit down for a thorough examination before promptly shooing both men from the curtained off space.
“What do you think could be wrong with them?” Joshua asked. “Do you think it could be part of the curse?”
Clive shook his head in doubt, glancing down at his gloved hand, knowing full well of the curse that had almost completely overtaken it. As far as he had been able to tell, the Curse hadn’t been spreading at all across Jill’s body since Ultima’s defeat. At least not visibly so. And he assumed that Joshua would have mentioned it if it had with Jote. That couldn’t be it.
“Jote isn’t prone to sea sickness, is she?”
This time it was Joshua who shook his head. “No, we’ve often traveled by boat without any such incidents.”
“Neither is Jill.”
It couldn’t be that either.
Both Jill and Jote had been taken by a sudden unexplainable spout of nausea shortly after they had set sail for Rosaria. The illness plagued them off and on for most of the mission, leaving them in peace for short periods of time before returning without warning in the blink of an eye. They had even stopped at Martha’s Rest to give them a chance to rest a bit and try to get their nausea under control with a bowl of stew. Unfortunately they didn’t get much down before the two of them went rushing to the loo to throw it back up.
“Maybe they both ate something off last night?” Joshua suggested.
No, that wasn’t it either. “We’d all be sick then if that was the case.” They had all eaten the same things. And judging from the otherwise vacant medical facilities, they were hardly dealing with an epidemic of food poisoning.
“Well then, what could it be?!” Joshua exclaimed, reaching up to run his hands through his hair worryingly.
Clive reached out to place a hand reassuringly on Joshua’s shoulder. Although he tried not to show it too much, he was worried as well. The only thing that came to mind was that they had truly been taken by some illness, or dare he say it a disease. His chest twisted in pain at the thought. After everything that had happened, after everything he and Jill had been through together, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her now. And he imagined that Joshua felt much the same about Jote.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Tarja appeared from behind the curtains and motioned them in. They immediately followed after her without question. There they found both Jill and Jote seated side by side on the bed, appearing to be finishing up refastening their clothes from the examination.
“How are they, Tarja?” they asked in unison
“Is Jill okay?”
“Is Jote well?”
“Is it serious?”
Tarja held up a hand to silence the brothers incessant questions. “They’re fine,” she assured them with a stern look. “With time and rest, the nausea will pass.”
Both Clive and Joshua breathed a sigh of relief as they passed by Tarja to go and check on the ladies themselves. By then they had both fully redressed, and were smoothing out some of the last wrinkles and folds on their clothes. While Clive moved to take a seat on the bed beside Jill, Joshua settled for kneeling in front of Jote instead.
“Are you truly alright?” Joshua asked. “It isn’t something fatal, is it?”
Jote shook her head, not quite meeting Joshua’s gaze. “No, I don’t believe so, your grace.” Even though Joshua had assured her that she no longer needed to, she still insisted on addressing him by the formal title.
Clive noted that Jill looked like she was on the verge of crying, unshed tears threatening to well in her eyes. He exchanged a look with his brother, both silently agreeing that something was amiss. “What’s going on?” he asked. “What aren’t you telling us?”
Moments passed with neither of them saying a word. Jill and Jote briefly glanced at each other before glancing back down.
“Is something wrong?” Joshua asked gently, reaching out to take Jote’s hands in his own. “If there is, you need to tell me.”
“There’s nothing wrong, per say…” Jote trailed off.
Tarja heaved a wearied sigh as she stepped forward from behind them. “They’re pregnant,” she clarified. “Honestly, the two of you are as blockheaded as you are stubborn.”
Another period of silence passed in which Clive and Joshua could only blink as their minds tried to come to terms with the new revelation. In the end it was Clive who managed to find his tongue first, angling his body so that he was fully facing her.
“Is that true?”
Hesitantly Jill lifted her head to meet his gaze for the first time. “Yes, it is.”
“Oh, Jill…”
Unable to hold himself back a moment longer, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. A gesture that Jill eagerly returned as she moved closer to him so that she was pressed against his chest.
“I can hardly believe it,” she admitted. “We’re going to have a child, Clive.”
“A child that will come into this world, knowing that it is loved and that it is free to one day forge its own path.”
Meanwhile Joshua had finally found his own tongue, and still holding Jote’s hands in his own, brought them up to press a tender kiss atop before letting them go and leaning down to rest his head against her lap. “I’m so relieved,” he muttered into the fabric of her dress.
“You’re not upset, your grace?”
At that, Joshua lifted his head up once more to look up at her. “How could I possibly be upset by this?” he asked incredulously, a grin tugging at his face from ear to ear, his eyes glistening with tears of joy. “This child that you carry inside of you is a most precious gift. And there is no one else I would rather share it with than you.”
Jote ducked her head, her cheeks blushing scarlet at his words. “I… am still a bit uncertain about it all,” she admitted. “Our relationship in itself is already highly frowned upon by the Undying, I can only imagine how they will react to finding out that I carry your child…
“And I am not entirely convinced that I will be a good mother.” She had trained in many aspects in order to prepare herself for her role as the Phoenix’s Attendant, but she had never received any such training for motherhood.
“I’m not too worried about that,” Tarja interjected. “You managed to look after this one for over a decade, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She pinned Joshua with an unimpressed look, to which he had the decency to look properly guilty. No doubt she was recalling all the times she had been stuck trying to get him to take his medicine.
“I think you’ll be a wonderful mother, Jote,” Jill commented, pulling partially away from Clive, who nodded his head in agreement.
“And I’ll be there, ever by your side, every step of the way,” Joshua vowed.
Later that day, Clive sent out word to summon everyone over to the Mess Hall. Word around the Hideaway had always been known to spread fast, so it wasn’t long before people started to make their way over. Lady Charon was grumbling about something or other as usual, followed shortly after by Goetz who seemed to be apologizing to her for something. Otto and Gav came in and took up their regular spot by the bar, wondering what this was all about. Even Blackthorne had torn himself away from the smith for the occasion.
Tarja gave them a knowing look in passing as she went to take her place at one of the tables. Unlike all the rest, she knew what was coming, but still chose to come out of support. Clive nodded his head to her in silent appreciation.
Once he was certain that everyone was there, he cleared his throat and stepped forward to begin. “We have all fought long and hard to get to where we are today,” he began. “It hasn’t been easy, but already the world is starting to change for the better.”
The crowd was silent as they listened to what their leader had to say, not daring to interrupt him. Clive turned back to the three waiting but a pace behind him, motioning them forward. Jill stepped up beside him and linked her hand in his, smiling up at him happily and giving him a small reassuring nod. Meanwhile Joshua and Jote had stepped up alongside them as well. Unlike Jill, Jote seemed a bit more nervous, to which Joshua reached out to link his hand in hers, mirroring Jill’s actions.
“It is with great joy that we announce that the Hideaway will be welcoming two new outlaws in the months to come.”
It took but a moment for everyone to comprehend what he meant before a roar of cheers and shouts rang out throughout the hall, startling a flock of birds that had settled along the rails in the process. Mid was amongst one of the first to come running up to them, hugging all four of them one after the other, while the rest swarmed around them to congratulate them.
“You two sure didn’t waste any time, eh?” Mid teased the two brothers. “You let me know if you ever need anything. Aside from babysitting, that is. I ain’t changing any diapers!”
They couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Of course, Mid.”
“You’re not gonna name the kid after me dad, are you?”
Jill shook her head. “Oh no, we already agreed that two Cids is more than enough.”
Meanwhile, Otto and Gav were frozen to their spot at the bar, watching the scene unfold before them with wide eyes before slowly turning towards each other. A brief period of silence passed between them before they could no longer contain themselves and started laughing.
“I guess we were both right,” Gav said.
Otto gave his head a shake. “What are the odds?”
It seemed entirely too coincidental to be an accident, that the two brothers would become fathers at the same time. Had there actually been a god left to preside over the world, one that actually cared for its people, they might have assumed it was by divine intervention.
“So, what?” Otto asked. “Should we call it even?”
Gav nodded his head. “I reckon the promise of new life coming into this world is reward enough.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
And with that, they went to join the rest of the well-wishers.
Some many months later, both Jill and Jote went into labor. Jote was the first to give birth, followed mere days after by Jill. It was a long, painful process for both of them, but Clive and Joshua were there to hold their hands through it all. Joshua and Jote had a little blonde boy whom they named Elwin in honor of Joshua and Clive’s late father. And Clive and Jill had a little dark-gray haired boy whom they named Gregory.
Thus the two new little Rosfields entered the world. They were greatly loved and doted upon by all, but perhaps most of all by each other. Judging by the way the two cousins snuggled up together to sleep together, their parents looking on, it was safe to say that they would most likely end up just as close as their fathers had always been.