"Why can't we have a plain white banner? It'd be easier than trying to find one that's not pink or blue."

"Hange told me she wanted to stay away from white."

"Then why don't we get a white banner and tie dye it, or something? That'll fit in with Hange's hippie attitude."

"Hey, it's her baby shower! She can do whatever she wants and at least she's not playing into that 'blue is for boys only and pink is for girls only crap.'" Levi and Petra sat on the couch at his parents' house, a binder sitting on their laps as they tried to finish coordinating their friend Hange's baby shower. His parents were somewhere in the house and his two little sisters, Mikasa and Isabel, sat in the floor in front of them, playing with their toys.

"You got a point but I don't see why we can't just get something plain," he said.

"Because she doesn't want something plain. She just wants a typical baby shower with a rainbow theme. White and tie dye don't fit with the theme anyways."

"Tie dye doesn't fit with what?" The couple turned around to see Levi's parents standing at the foot of the staircase, all dressed up in fancy clothes and duffel bags at their feet.

"We're getting things together for Hange's baby shower," Levi replied. "Are you going out?"

"We thought we'd take advantage of you being home from college to watch the girls while we have a date night," his mother said with a shrug.

"We can't watch Izzy and Mikasa. Petra and I were going to go decoration shopping tonight," he said.

"Then you'll have to either take the girls with you or wait until tomorrow," his father said. "But we're going and we'll be back sometime tomorrow evening."

"You're going to be for the day?" Levi demanded.

"You'll do fine with the kids," his mother brushed away his discomfort, walking over to the two girls and giving them hugs. "And if you need advice we're always just a call away."

"No, that's not what I'm talking about -"

"We'll see you all tomorrow! We love you! Bye!" And his parents walked out the door and to their car. Levi glared after them as if it would change their situation.

"Well, this is great," Petra commented, sighing heavily. Talk about a huge setback. "I was really counting on you helping me get decorations."

"You can take us shopping with you. We'll be good," Mikasa said, climbing onto the couch and sitting next to Petra.

"Yeah! We'll be good!" Isabel piped up, giving Levi and Petra a toothy grin. The couple glanced at each other. Petra knew Mikasa would be well-behaved, but she had doubts about Isabel. But maybe if her sister was good, Isabel would follow her example?

"I suppose we could take them," Petra said to Levi. He remained silent but he gave her a look that clearly said, "Who wants to take a five and three year old shopping with them?"

"We promise we'll behave," Mikasa said, looking from Petra and Levi. It was either take them or have to do everything last minute.

"All right, we'll take you," Petra caved. "If you two are really, really good, we'll even go get ice cream afterwards. Now go get ready." The girls cheered and got up, running upstairs to their bedrooms. Levi gave Petra a sideways glance. "I know what you're thinking. It's not going to be the end of the world if we bring them along. Hopefully"

"You've never taken Izzy to a store before," Levi said darkly. "And what are we going to do for a banner, anyway? We still haven't decided on that."

"Maybe we could get a white banner, cut letters out of it, color those and then we have a banner once we string them together," she suggested.

"At this point, I think that's our only good option," he said as the girls came running down the stairs, heavy coats thrown over their tiny frames and little boots on their feet.

"We're ready!" Isabel announced. Levi grabbed his keys from the coffee table and motioned for them to follow him out.

The drive to the store was a lot more pleasant that Levi and Petra imagined. Mikasa and Isabel were well behaved; Isabel didn't even say a word during the entire drive. Levi pulled into a parking space close to the entrance and Petra turned back in her seat to face the kids.

"Remember, if you're really good, we'll get ice cream," she reminded them with a grin. The girls nodded vigorously. Mikasa jumped out of the van with ease, staying near the car and waiting for everyone else. Isabel pouted at Levi as he undid the buckles on her seat belt.

"What?" he demanded.

"Can you carry me?" she asked, chubby arms outstretched and an adorable pout on her face. As hard-assed as Levi liked to think he was, once Isabel pouted at him, it was all over.

"Fine. Just this once," he said for probably the twelfth time in his life, pulling Isabel out of her car seat and carrying her around. He locked the car and the four walked towards the store. Mikasa reached out for Petra's hand, expectation in her eyes. Petra grabbed her hand and led her safely through the parking lot. As soon as they reached the carts, Levi put Isabel in the kids' seat, pulling the cart out as an older couple approached the carts. They looked like they were in their mid-forties and although Petra tried not to be judgemental, if she had to describe them she'd say they looked like they were the kind of couple to speak to restaurant management because their salad had dressing on the side. Petra had only glanced at them and they apparently thought that warranted glares sour enough to curdle milk. Levi gave them an equally as hateful glare. Mikasa hid from the couple in between Levi and Petra.

"You want to sit in the cart, Mikasa?" she asked the young girl.

"Yes, please. I want to sit in the basket," she replied. Petra made to pick her up but Levi intercepted, picking up his sister and placing her in the cart.

"I could've done that," Petra told him as they went into the store.

"You could have, but I did," he commented. She gave him a dark look and he smirked smugly at her. "All right, let's go get party supplies." The store was fairly quiet for a Friday night. It seemed like most of the people running around were workers instead of customers. The party aisles were dead as the four turned down them.

"What do we need?" Isabel asked curiously, trying to look over at the list in Petra's hands.

"One white banner, some paper plates, some matching napkins, plastic utensils, some plain onesies for a baby shower activity, and then something for Hange and the baby," Petra read off the list.

"What are we getting them?" Mikasa asked.

"No idea," Levi replied bluntly. "Something practical, probably. Maybe diapers."

"We can't get them just diapers," Petra argued. "We need to at least get them another thing or two."

"Why can't we get them just diapers? It's not like that's something they don't need," he countered.

"Well duh they need diapers but I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff on Hange's wishlist that no one's gotten for her yet."

"Can we get the baby clothes?" Isabel asked excitedly.

"Maybe. Everyone shops for baby clothes so I imagine the boy's going to have a huge closet," Levi commented.

"So long as those clothes don't enforce gender roles. You know Hange'll get rid of anything that she doesn't approve of," Petra said as grabbed a banner and tossed it into the cart. They quickly made their rounds across the store, getting everything on their list until only a gift remained.

"Can we get the baby a tutu?" Isabel asked excitedly as Levi put a huge box of diapers into the cart. Mikasa was curled up in a corner with very little room to move.

"I think the baby will be too little for a tutu right now, but maybe when he's older," Petra said as Levi lifted Mikasa out of the cart.

"You don't think Hange will think it's too girly?" Mikasa asked. Levi snorted.

"Hange won't think it's girly at all. If her son wants a tutu, he's going to get a tutu," he said. They turned the corner and started looking at various baby appliances. Baby baths, mobiles, diaper dispensers, everything a parent could need was down this aisle. A bright green box caught Petra's eye and an idea popped into her head.

"What if we got a breast pump?" she asked Levi.

"Is it really gonna be used, though? What's the point?" he asked.

"What do you mean, 'what's the point?!'" she demanded. "Breast milk is basically gold. Pumps make it easy to store breast milk in the freezer and save it for later. And it makes it so dads can feed the baby too, it's not just a mom thing."

"Do you think Hange would really want it?" he asked, picking it up and looking it over.

"It's Hange," she replied. He shrugged and put it in the cart.

"Can't argue with that," he said. "You wanna go look at onesies?"

"Yeah, let's do it and then let's go get ice cream because we've had two very good girls," Petra said with a grin, watching Isabel and Mikasa's faces light up with delight.

Levi scowled as they saw the older couple from earlier in the baby clothes section; clearly, he wasn't going to forgive them for earlier. Not that Petra really expected him to; if anyone looked at her wrong, he was immediately hostile. The girls were glaring at them as well. We do not need to cause a scene in Target, Petra thought, trying to think of a way to distract the girls.

"You two see this display of bibs right here?" Petra asked Mikasa and Isabel, gesturing to the rack of cheap bibs in front of them. Levi ended his own hateful gaze and walked over to the clearance rack. "If you want to pick one out for the baby, you can. Just stay together and stay here until we check in on you."

"We can get the baby a bib?" Isabel asked, stars in her eyes.

"Yes, you can get the baby a bib," she smiled back at them.

"Petra, what about this one?" Levi asked, walking towards her and the girls. She gagged at the sight of the ugly blue onesie he held up for her, the words "Ladies man" written on it.

"That's not funny," Petra said dryly as he was snickering.

"Come on, we have to force ridiculous ideals on the baby," he said jokingly. "This baby needs to know that as a man he needs to get as many women as possible. Even though he's not born yet he's still held to society's fucking ridiculous standards about masculinity." Petra laughed, lightly hitting him in the arm.

"Levi, no! We can't get that for the baby!"

"All right, his loss," he said with a grin, putting the onesie back. Petra turned to watch him walk back when she noticed the older couple giving them more distasteful looks. "What?" Levi demanded to them. "Mind your own business." Before Petra could intervene Mikasa tugged at her shirt, she and Isabel holding a pretty pink bib that said, "Mommy's favorite" on it.

"Can we get this for the baby?" Izzy asked.

"We know it's a girl color, but we think it's cute," Mikasa said.

"Sure, put it in the cart," Levi said. "Colors aren't gendered. Boys can wear pink and girls can wear blue." Petra had to fight down a smile at the elation on the girl's faces.

After a lot of deliberation, Petra and Levi decided to skip buying a onesie for the baby and try and find something better online. They got in line for the cash registers, Isabel and Mikasa chatting excitedly about ice cream. The older couple giving them dirty looks before got in line after them and kept giving them the same disgusted looks. Petra could feel their hateful glares boring into the back of her head and from the way Levi was gritting his teeth he could feel it too. Mikasa looked at the two, trying to discern what was going on.

"You got a problem with us?" Levi inquired, turning back to face the couple. The cashier and Petra tried to ignore him, but she noticed he was ringing up their items with a kind of speed she'd never seen before.

"Don't you think two kids is enough? And don't you think you're a little young for kids?" the older woman sniffed, pointedly looking down at the baby supplies on the conveyor belt.

"What? These aren't our kids and this stuff is for a friend, you judgemental fuck," Levi said.

"Don't say that last word," Petra said hurriedly to the kids.

"It's okay, I figured just never say anything that comes out of Levi's mouth," Isabel replied.

"Just because we're toting around kids doesn't mean they're ours," Levi said heatedly. "And even if they were, what's the problem with that? It's none of your goddamn business if we had kids, anyway. Get your head out of your ass."

"Oh, we didn't mean to offend you," the man backpedaled, putting his hands up as if trying to physically defend himself from Levi.

"You assumed we were young parents and were assholes to us because of that and now you're trying to cover your tracks and defend yourself because you were ignorant? Seriously, fuck you. Being an asshole to young people isn't going to fix anything, especially young parents," Levi snarled. "They have enough problems. You're not fixing anything by being rude. If anything, you're causing more problems. People like you think you're so high above young parents and I don't fucking get that. With your kind of prejudice I think any kid born to you would be better off with a young and unprejudiced parent."

"Levi," Petra told him sharply, motioning for him to follow her out of the store. He gave the couple one last glare and grabbed Mikasa's hand.

"Go suck a dick," Mikasa told them couple harshly. Petra made a terrible screeching noise as Levi burst out laughing. Petra quickly ushered them all out of the store, face bright red.

"You get two ice cream cups for that comment," Levi said, trying to collect himself but a smile still on his face.

"We can't reward that!" Petra replied indignantly.

"The hell I can't," Levi said, putting his hands on Mikasa's shoulders. The look on his face said that no matter what she said, Levi wouldn't budge. She sighed in exasperation.

"I am never having kids with you," Petra grumbled, getting in the car.