This is the prequel to my story 'To Protect You'. That does mean that this contains MPreg. If you've read that story, this happens just before the SODMP meeting. We strongly recommend that you read that story first in order to understand all the references in this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Before The Meeting

Syrus' POV

I remember when I first found out that Jaden was pregnant – it's kind of hard to forget. And yet it started off as such a normal day. Well, technically I suppose you could say that it started almost two weeks before that.

We were in the Slifer dorms – we being myself, Jaden, Hasselberry, Jesse, Alexis and Chazz – talking about classes, cards and everything under the sun, doing what we did every other day when we weren't off saving the world. Well, what we did when Jaden wasn't off saving the world, should I say.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened that day; nothing except Jaden mentioning, casually, that he had been feeling off for the past week or so. There was mild concern, naturally, but nobody thought anything of it at the time. We all sort of expected him to get over it within a few days, expecting it to be a cold or a fever.

But it didn't go away. Jaden told me increasingly often that he was feeling unwell; or not unwell so much as shaky with a few bouts of vomiting, after which he always felt much better. He didn't want to worry anybody, but eventually we all noticed that he was less energetic and that he even went off fried shrimp – that in and of itself was a cause for major worry – and Jesse convinced him to go to the nurse.

She must have told them that day that he was expecting a baby, but I didn't find out until about two weeks later. I knew something was wrong from the secretive way he and Jesse had been acting; they'd never been secretive like that, not even when they first got together as a couple. I guess, though, that they had a damn good reason for it this time.

When they first told me – I'm pretty proud to say that I was the first to know, besides them and Miss Fontaine – I thought they were kidding. On my life, I was rolling on the floor laughing. I couldn't believe that they would play such a ridiculous, pointless, stupid, unrealistic prank on me and expect me to actually believe it...

Only they weren't joking. I realised that when I looked at Jaden's face and saw how hurt and irritated he was by my laughter. I stopped laughing quickly enough, but I still didn't really believe it.

I told them I did. I congratulated them and asked when he was due, all that stuff, but I didn't honestly believe that they were going to have a baby. It was like a fantastical story, a tall tale, that I half believed and half didn't. And so it stayed until, around a month later, Jaden genuinely began to show that he was with child, and only then did I believe whole heartedly.

At about four and a half months, he wasn't very big. There was a small but defined bump, one that could be hidden by a loose shirt. I only noticed because I've known since our first year in Duel Academy how slim he is, and because I was subconsciously on the lookout for any signs that could prove what they said to be true.

And I saw the signs. He had mood swings, sickness, and now a bump around the stomach. There was no doubt in my mind by halfway through his fourth month.

I asked, several times, how it was possible, but he just gave me half-assed answers, all to do with his 'powers'; I didn't understand him then, and to this day I couldn't explain how he managed to conceive and carry a child. I wonder, sometimes, if he understands it himself.

Jaden's pretty close to the due date now. I wonder if he's worried about the birth, because I don't know – nor do I want to know – how that part's going to work.

/

Chazz's POV

I sit now with my fellow members of the SODMP, waiting for our fifth and final member to arrive, since this meeting was urgently called. That fifth member would be Jesse Andersen; he's almost like second-in-command, though why he gets to do it instead of The Chazz is beyond me. I'm way more suited to the job, especially since he managed to get the slacker pregnant. If that doesn't count as irresponsible, I don't know what does.

Jaden told me that he was having a baby when he was almost five months through already; I won't lie, that stung a bit, knowing he'd left it that late. It was also weird that I hadn't noticed, since I could see there was a relatively obvious bulge once I knew to look for it.

My first reaction to this wasn't to go 'how did that happen?' or to congratulate them – I blew up at them. For a start, why the hell was I only hearing about it until almost five months into the procedure? Secondly, I may not be perfect – though I'm pretty damn close – but I do know the value of a marriage and life experience before you go having kids. The two slackers were only young, still in school, and they hadn't been together all that long. To me, it just seemed like they weren't being careful.

Though neither of them could ever be praised on being careful in the first place, so maybe that's not so surprising after all.

I wonder what this meeting's all about. It's an important one, I know that, since we've all been urgently summoned. By the sounds of things, it's not going to be good.

/

Zane's POV

I have a bad feeling about this. This whole meeting – the way it was called, the urgency behind it, the atmosphere in this room ... you could cut the tension with a knife, and when things become so tense with Chazz and Alexis and Aster in the same room, you know something's not right.

Usually there's not mindless chatter or some arguments, either between Chazz and Alexis, or Chazz and Aster, or Aster and myself; Chazz is too pathetic in argumentative mode to be bothered with and Alexis is like my sister, but sometimes Phoenix does manage to get under my skin. To be completely honest, Jesse is the only one in our branch of the SODMP that doesn't really argue with anyone else.

Although he might get into an argument with me if he doesn't damn well hurry up. He never used to be late all the time, this has only started happening since Jaden became...

Huh. It's weird to use the word 'pregnant' to describe him even now, when he's so close to actually having the kid. I found out when Jesse told me that he needed to take a break from the SODMP, back when he and Jaden first found out about the baby; I was the first to know, although my brother thinks that that honour went to him. I'm not about to tell him that he's wrong – it's not worth it.

Jaden was in his third month when they found out, but I didn't actually see him as being quite obviously pregnant until his sixth month. Before that, I'm sure there were smaller signs – my brother says his baby bump was visible from halfway through the fourth month, but I never took a close enough look to be able to tell whether or not he was right – but it wasn't until he was six months along that people began to ask questions.

He never told the Academy, as such. His friends knew, and everyone in the SODMP. I suppose he didn't want to offer them false explanations.

I know that his ... unique ability, as it were, has something to do with him being the Supreme King. Whether or not that's a natural ability is something I don't know, but I don't have enough interest to find out.

I don't really care. I like Jaden as a friend but he has enough friends as well as his little lover – who is still not here, damn it! – to take care of him, and I'm sure they're perfectly capable. If he really needs me I can be there for him, but I don't want to fawn over him if there are other people who can do it.

I wonder if he really needs Jesse right now, or if he wouldn't mind my knocking him unconscious when he walks through the door, because we are now ten full minutes behind schedule and I really, really can't stand lateness.

/

Alexis' POV

Jesse's late. I'd normally be annoyed, but it's kind of hard to be irritated at someone who's only late because they're taking care of a pregnant lover.

Not that Jaden should be pregnant. He's a guy, and it's probably dangerous.

I don't really know anything about it, but I guess nobody does; none of us have ever heard of a male pregnancy, and believe me, we've looked. After Jaden told us that he was having a baby, we did research to see if it was some carefully hidden secret – the SODMP does have access to some secret files, though not all of them – but we came up with nothing. There is no other man in the world to have ever carried a child.

Then again, there is no other man in the world who is the Supreme King, and from what Jaden told me, that's the reason behind his condition. I want to know more about it – I never met the Supreme King, so I can't fear him like some of the others seem to, even if he is a disgrace from what I've heard. But Jaden won't tell me anything. He thinks it'll scare me, or scare me off, or something like that. I don't really know.

I'm not scared of him, though; I've no reason to be scared. In fact, I spend a lot of time with him in his rooms – the rooms he now shares with Jesse, not his old ones. We talk and all that stuff, and sometimes we even talk about the baby.

I know that he thinks it's going to be a girl. He's been convinced of that ever since he found out and, less than a month shy of his due date, he still believes the baby's female. I suggested to him more than once that he could just get a scan and find out, but he just shook his head to tell me that he couldn't – whether that's because the images of the baby can't show it or because he wants it to be a surprise is something I can't tell you.

He looks good, just let me tell you that. Alright, it's unnerving to see him swollen with the baby but he looks good nonetheless; I suppose you could apply the word 'radiant' if he had a bit more grace. He's always smiling and laughing and talking to the baby, and when he does that it's obvious that he really, really loves her.

There I go, calling it a her when I don't know that for sure. But hey, if he thinks it's going to be a girl, then so do I. After all, we'll all find out pretty soon if he was right.

/

Aster's POV

I don't like how quiet it is in here. Part of me almost wants to reach out and hit Chazz or throw some bitchy comment at Zane, just to lighten the atmosphere. I'm not going to do it, of course – I have way more dignity than that – but the tension in here's so intense that I don't half want to.

I wish Jesse would hurry up. Even if his boyfriend is pregnant, that doesn't give him an excuse to be consistently late. The only reason I've not had a go at him for it – and believe me, after he completely missed the last meeting, I wanted to – is because I know that would put unnecessary stress on Jaden if he thought we were fighting. I'm over at their rooms often enough that he'd notice.

I spend more time with Jaden now than I did before he was pregnant, and I can't really justify it as anything other than protective instincts. Regardless of the situation – which I'll admit still baffles me; how the hell a guy gets knocked up is beyond me – I love Jaden like a true friend, more than anyone else save for Sartorius and his sister, and there's a part of me that's still trying to repay him for helping me and my oldest friend a year ago.

It's not that I don't trust Jesse, just that I know the two of them are not the most mature in one another's company, and Jaden can't be exerting himself right now. Saving the world should be left to someone not carrying a baby.

And weird as it may sound, he genuinely is carrying a baby – I know; I didn't believe it either. It took a long, in depth talk with Zane and Jesse before I would listen to the story and even then I didn't really believe them until Jaden showed me the swelling of his abdomen that couldn't be mistaken. That was when he was about five months along.

He's due pretty soon now; sometime next month, I believe.

As strange as this might sound, I'm going to stay with him during the birth, although I still don't have any idea how it's going to work. But he's asked me to stay with him as friendly emotional support – I imagine he'll have another friend there as well, though I don't know who; maybe Alexis. And of course Jesse's going to be there, as his lover and the father of the kid.

If there's one thing I know, it's the value of familial bonds and love, and I'll do anything I can to make things work out for them, in a way that they didn't work out for me. I'll do that for my friend, because I know that, if our positions were reversed, Jaden would do the same for me.

/

Jesse's POV

Zane's going to kill me; I'm so late!

I just lost track of the time and plumb forgot about our urgent meeting. Me and Jay were just so caught up in trying to get things organised in the baby's room. He's nesting, let me tell you that, and it's pretty freaky to watch. The Slifer dorms were a total mess when I met him and now he wants the whole dorm we're in to be spotless and flawless – and it's all down to a miracle.

That would be our child.

There's a baby inside Jaden that's biologically his and mine, and that is nothing short of a miracle. Prove to me that it's anything else, I challenge you.

I don't like to think about how the baby was conceived. Well, not the actual conceiving bit – that part's amazing! – but more about how it is that Jaden has that ability. It's to do with the Supreme King, I know that much, and some more that I don't like to think about.

How it happened doesn't matter. What matters is that it did happen. We have a baby on the way, due next month, and we're going to be fantastic parents. Is that too optimistic? Perhaps, but we're both pretty good at rising to the challenge.

I'm almost at the selective room, where we choose to hold our secret SODMP meetings. Jaden doesn't know that this is the reason I've had to leave for a little while, but hey, I'd rather he didn't know. He saves the world enough off his own back without being involved in our little gang.

I have to admit to a great curiosity over what his urgent meeting's about, but I'm not really worried. No matter what it is, we'll overcome it. We're a pretty powerful team.

Almost as good a team as me and Jaden. I miss him already; I've got it that bad.

Oh well. All I have to do is get this meeting over and done with and I can go back to Jaden. Because nothing will ever force the two of us apart...

Please R&R