A/N: This story is rated M for a reason. Yaoi (Seifer/Zell, Irvine+Squall), male pregnancy, violence, language, non-con... you name it :D Feedback is welcomed with open arms, but don’t come and tell me that mpreg makes you gag, because it’s not really any of my business.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII belongs to Squaresoft as we all know. And Zell is Seifer's. But the story in itself belongs to me, and so do the OCs.

Chapter 1

Zell stared at the doctor in front of him, mouth agape, but no sound came out of his mouth. He blinked a couple of times while trying to understand just what in seven hells the doctor was talking about. “I... beg your pardon?” He winced at how his voice sounded a few octaves higher than normal, but now he had something else to think about. Something he certainly had not been expecting.

He had been on a mission in the Centra continent together with Raijin – yes, he and Fujin had been allowed back to Garden, along with Seifer (with some protests from both students and instructors) and they all had made it to SeeDs, as Headmaster Cid had expected – plus some new low-level SeeDs to eliminate the leftovers of the Lunar Cry. They had gotten a word that some of the monsters had somehow managed to fuse together, creating even more dangerous breeds that needed to be taken care of immediately to avoid further problems.

This shouldn't have been a hard mission in itself, but the kids had obviously passed the field exam by luck, or then they were simply disobeying Zell and screwing up full-time intentionally. Zell sure did hope it was neither of those, the SeeD had no space for people who couldn't do their jobs.

Maybe it had just been the pressure about their first real mission. Yeah, that must have been it.

When their party had been back-attacked by a level-94 Blitz/Tri-Face thing, and he had been wounded enough to bleed for all of the people in the party, he sure as hell hadn't expected to wake up in a hospital bed, the doctor telling him that he was pregnant.

The doctor – named Kurosaki, as read on his name tag – who was standing next to his bed tapped the clipboard he was holding and nodded. “So... I guess I must congratulate you,” the man smiled, going into a detailed description of how they had, with Zell's mother's permission, tested him for various negative status effects in case the new breed would also have developed new toxins they should watch out for in the future, and to their amazement discovered that Zell was, indeed, pregnant.

But Zell wasn't listening to the doctor's explanation. His mouth was dry and could hear his heartbeat in his ears. A part of him was expecting Selphie and Irvine to jump out from under his hospital bed and reveal the prank, but the other part was utterly panicking since the doctor seemed very much serious about the matter, but not at all surprised, as if pregnant men were something he dealt with every day. “How... How can that be possible!?” Zell shouted, interrupting the doctor's explanation, and quickly sad up on the bed. “I, I'm a guy for Hyne's sake, just...” Zell shook his head and closed his eyes. If this all turned out to be a joke, he wouldn't talk to Irvine and Selphie ever again. He rubbed his temples, sighing deeply. “Hell, I must be dreaming... What a nightmare.”

“Well, it is rare, but not entirely impossible,” told the doctor as he pulled a chair for himself and sat down. “You're not the only man that has ever gotten pregnant, I could tell you of all the other cases throughout time, but I'm afraid that would take too much time. Now, the most important thing is that you'll take care of yourself, because from now on, there will be two persons to worry about, instead of one...” He lifted his eyebrow, as if asking if Zell understood his meaning.

“This isn't a joke,” Zell realized, his heart jumping into his throat. He really was pregnant, the doctor wasn't lying. “B-But... How is it possible for a guy to... to... I...” Zell sighed, lay back down and slung an arm across his eyes. “I don't understand...”

The doctor patted his shoulder sympathetically. “I understand that you're confused, it's not every day you hear something like this. But it's quite simple, really. Works much the same way as with women,” the man shrugged.

“Oh? And how so?” Zell asked bitterly. Same way as women, yeah right. Except that he wasn't one. And how would he give birth to the kid, how... He opened his eyes in horror. How, indeed!?

“Men get pregnant the same way as women. It's a simple thing called sex,” the doctor explained.

Zell blushed deep red and moved his arm to be able to glare at the doctor. The glint in the man's eyes told him he was trying to embarrass the young SeeD, and he was able to relax a little. He appreciated the doctor's attempt at lightening the mood, but he was still shocked as hell.

“Are you in a steady relationship?” the doctor asked suddenly, taking out a pen and turning a new page on his notebook.

“U-Umm, no. I'm not.”

Dr. Kurosaki lifted his eyebrow. “Hmm. This could get a little complicated, male pregnancies may be more difficult than...” The doctor paused and then shook his head. “But I'm sure we can take you through this,” he gave a quick smile and continued, “Do you have an idea who could be the... father, since you're the one with the child.”

Zell rolled his eyes at the teasing tone, but decided to seek out an answer anyway. Hmm... The last time he had bottomed for someone, was... “Holy mother of...” he mumbled, catching his tongue in time. He groaned and put his arm back over his eyes. Of all the men on the planet! Why, Hyne, why!?

“Not... a very pleasant person, I suppose?”

Zell merely shook his head. He was doomed. Doomed to bear a child and raise it by himself and...

“Could I possibly get a name?”

“Is that... absolutely necessary?”

“Well...” Dr Kurosaki scratched the back of his head with the pen in his hand. “He does have the right to know that he's soon going to be a father, and you will need all the support you're able to get...”

“Well I won't get no fucking support from him,” he snorted. There was no way in hell he could be 'supported' by that guy... “And what, so you want me just to call him and say: 'You never know what has happened! You're gonna be a daddy! What do you mean how do I know? I'm the mother!' or something like that?”

The doctor hid his amusement with a cough and shook his head slightly. “Hmm, maybe... So can I get the name, or do I have to guess? Wait, don't answer that, just give me the name and I'll call him here. We need to know if he's ready to help you to take care of the child.”

“Oh please...” Zell rolled his eyes. “Never gonna happen.”

“The name, Mr Dincht...?”

“Let's pretend I forgot.”

“Mr Dincht!”

“Fine, fine...” Zell sighed in defeat. This was not going to be pleasant... “Seifer Almasy.”

Apparently the doctor recognized the name – who wouldn't? – because he paused for a while, lifting his pen from the paper, hesitating.

“You heard right.”

“Oh, I apologize,” Dr. Kurosaki wrote the name down hastily, not that he really needed to, he would surely remember that one. He stood up to leave, but his patient's voice stopped him.

“Don't call him if you're gonna be like that.”

The doctor frowned. “Excuse me?”

Zell turned to look out of the window of the irritating white hospital room. “He may be an asshole, and he's done some... bad things in the past, but he's not an evil person at heart, not the Seifer I know.” He frowned. Why was he defending Seifer? The guy didn't exactly deserve that, he was still an asshole, even after everything that had happened! Zell paused to think. Even though he didn't trip cadets in the corridors anymore, or call people names so much – he'd never gotten rid of the 'Chicken-wuss', though – or get into physical fights, or beat someone up because they sat at his table at the Garden...

All right, so Zell had to admit the Seifer that was in the Garden with them now wasn't that bad. But despite the fact that hey had become friends of some sort, the gunblader kept making his life... well, not exactly hell, but... he teased him, and...

“I apologize, but I must say that he did many horrible things during the War,” the doctor said calmly, and Zell got a good guess about the doctor's opinion about the man they were discussing

However, Zell shook his head, keeping his eyes in the thin slice of blue sky which he could see through the window. The doctor frowned. “He didn't. That wasn't Seifer. I've known him since we were kids, he ain't like that. Sure, he's a bully and an asshole and he never sees losing as an option, which makes him kinda thick-headed, but...” Zell shrugged. All of that was true, at least in his eyes. He'd talked about Seifer with the others a lot, especially Quistis since she seemed to be the only one who didn't immediately start insulting the man, and they both wanted to believe that Seifer, who had grown up with them all at the orphanage, couldn't be such a bad person. “And besides... He's my kid's dad,” Zell then whispered. “So, I... hope that when--if he comes here, you wouldn't treat him as the sorceress' knight, but as a normal... good person. And a soon-to-be father.”

Dr. Kurosaki smiled faintly. “Of course.” He turned to go again, telling the young man lying on the bed that he was going to call Almasy there.

A tall, blonde man sat in the reception room of Balamb Hospital, waiting for some white-dressed blockhead come and call his name so he could get away already. He hated hospitals. They had never done him anything good, he could only wonder what in hell he was doing in one, at the very moment, especially when the phone call he had gotten had been so hasty and almost secretive. It was as though the doctor who had called him didn't want him to know why he had been called there.

“Mr Seifer Almasy?”

He looked up to see a doctor looking at him expectantly. Kurosaki, read on his name tag. “I am.” Was it only him, or had the whole reception room fallen silent when the doctor had mentioned his name?

“This way, please.”

He followed after the white-dressed man, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his infamous grey trench coat, once again wondering why the hell he had been called there. He sure did hope it wasn't, again, one of those people wanting to yell at him about killing half of their family or something like that. He had had enough. He already felt bad enough... It took him a moment to realize that the doctor was actually talking to him. He blinked innocently at the glaring man.

The doctor sighed. “You know a young man named Zell Dincht, am I right?”

Seifer blinked again, but this time he was confused. What did Zell have to do with that that he had been called to the hospital? “Yes...” Maybe something had happened? But if that was the case, why had he, of all people, been called? Suddenly he felt damn nervous.

“Good. Please follow me.”

They had become some kind of friends with Zell. Or well, at least they didn't fight or call each other names anymore... much. And even though Seifer hated to admit, Zell, the boy he had bullied so mercilessly since they had been kids, was one of the very few people who didn't blame, or hate him, for what had happened during the War. He couldn't understand why, though, and the martial artist had actually gone as far as telling the others that he, Seifer Almasy, needed someone to cheer him up after all that. And well... He was right, not that Seifer would ever admit it.

Surprisingly, the orphanage gang had pulled him out of his self pity, and he almost thought he had friends. Along with Fujin and Raijin, of course. It meant a lot to him, even if he didn't voice it, that the guys had bothered to make sure he of all people was all right after the War.

“Mr Almasy?”

Oh yeah, the doc was still there. “Hm?”

“I just want you to know that I'm acting civil with you only because Mr Dincht asked me to.”

Seifer lifted his eyebrows. Not one of these guys, again... “Oh?” Wait. Zell had asked him to? So he was alive, at least. For a while he'd thought...

“Yes,” the doctor turned to face him. “I, like many others, will never forgive you for what you did, but Mr Dincht seems to believe you're a good person. I'm doing this only for him. He's going to have rough times ahead of him, and he deserves all the support available. He's waiting for you.”

Seifer nodded, once again following after the doctor. He entered the room where the doctor led him, still distantly wondering what he was doing there.

“Mr Dincht?”

“I thought I told you not to call me that, doc.” Zell was in the room, lying on a bed, looking out of the only window in the room. He seemed alright...

The doctor chuckled. “I apologize. Zell.”

The blonde turned to smile to the doctor and noticed Seifer leaning against the wall next to the man. His smile faltered a little.

“I'll leave you two now,” Dr Kurosaki said and left the room.

For a while it was dead silent. Zell had turned to look out of the window again, while Seifer stood next to the door, his arms crossed across his chest. Finally he decided to pull a chair for himself and sat down next to Zell's bed. “So. Do you want to tell me why I was called here?”

Zell sighed. “Yes... and no.”

“And which will it be? Why don't you call your mother or something, I don't wanna waste my time here, Chicken, I've actually got things to do.”

“Shut up! I'm thinking how I should say this.”

Seifer leaned back on his chair. “Gee. Sounds like a big thing, then...”

“Well yeah,” Zell laughed a little, nervously. “So, umm... Promise me one thing first, okay?” He turned to look at the older blonde, who frowned. “Yeah, I know it's a hard thing for you to do Almasy, but just this once I wish you would listen to me to the very end without interrupting me. Okay?”

“Ookay...”

“You promise?”

“Sure, Dincht.”

“Good...” Zell turned to the window again to gather his thoughts, hoping that the blush on his cheeks wasn't visible to the other man in the room. “Uh... You remember, a couple of months ago, when we...” He cleared his throat in slight embarrassment. “After Selph's party...”

Seifer lifted his eyebrows. Ooh, he sure did remember didn't he... A slow smirk crept on his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at nothing in particular. That night had proved that he'd been right in going to the stupid party Selphie was throwing, since he'd gotten something out of it... And Zell asked if he remembered!

Zell turned to Seifer by the sudden silence, only to find him dozing off with a grin on his face. “H-Hey, Almasy! Are you listenin' to me!?”

“Sure, sure...”

“Just... stop that smirking, okay? It's creeping me out.”

“Oh but come on, you know you liked it too...” Seifer cooed teasingly. “Maybe we should try it soon again, you know, just to—“

“Seifer I'm serious!” Zell sat up on the bed, glaring at Seifer with all his might, which seemed only to amuse the older man. “Would you please listen to me when I'm talking? You fucking promised!”

Seifer shrugged. “Sure. You just asked if I remembered, and hell, I do...” He smirked again. “You do know that you look damn cute, all blushed up like that. But anyway, I've got no diseases, what the hell does this have to do with what we—“

“Seifer!” The martial artist shouted again. “Just... listen, okay?”

The gunblader shrugged again. “Do speak.”

“Well, um... I know this sounds stupid and... uh, I didn't believe it myself at first, but... it's true.”

“So...?”

“Seifer...” Zell took a deep breath and then said, “I, I'm pregnant.”

tbc...