Kanou sat at his desk in his office in silence, fidgeting slightly as his dark brown eyes glanced to a clock that hung on the wall. He felt unsettled, unsettled because Ayase was home alone. He hated leaving the boy alone. Between his come-and-go fevers, his uncertain emotions, and the fact that the boy—his lover—was heavily pregnant, Kanou was an emotional wreck.

When Ayase had told him, he wasn't sure whether he was angry or happy. Usually gruff and the no-nonsense type, Kanou had wanted to yell at Ayase, at first, yet at the same time he wanted to jump for joy and embrace him; both reactions wouldn't have been completely appropriate for the situation. Ayase had been a weeping mess when he had told Kanou, so yelling would have been the least helpful thing he could have done at the time. At the same time, though, he did not want to jump for joy. In no way was he happy about becoming a father, especially since his own feelings toward Ayase had yet to be fully determined. It was a mix of love and lust; a bitter-sweet concoction of hunger for the boy's heart and the boy's body. Both feelings were unstable and were always conflicting.

To calm his lover down, Kanou chose to embrace Ayase and insisted that he was happy about becoming a father, that he would help him as much as he could, and that he—by no means—was going to force him to get rid of the child. Over time, slowly, the idea of having a and raising a child with Ayase became very attractive and, he had worked very hard to build up his trust and he didn't want something precious like that to be destroyed by something as normal between a couple as having a child.

Of course, over the months that had passed, Kanou had to keep tabs on his own demons. His rounds of sex with Ayase were more gentle; gentler than he had ever been before with him. He didn't want to accidentally bring on premature labor; something that would have surely devastated Ayase. Kanou was also careful with his lover. He was normally used to bossing and pushing the smaller male around to get his way. Now, there was a lot less bossing and a lot less pushing. As a drastic measure to make sure him and Ayase would be safe, Kanou asserted his dominance with less force around the financial firm he ran. His massive height and reputation around town was intimidating enough, but before he would go so far as to cheat in bets, bribe, and blackmail others to get his way, giving him and anyone associated with him plenty of enemies to worry about. But for Ayase's sake and for the sake of their child, Kanou called it quits to that portion of himself.

Now, with Ayase so far along in his pregnancy, it was all a waiting game. Kanou had advised him to sleep that morning before he left for work, as Ayase had complained that had an aching back when he woke up. He wanted him to relax and avoid doing anything strenuous until their child was born and he didn't want him to risk going into labor while he was not there; something Kanou saw as an inevitable fate, since it seemed he spent most of his time working in his office or away on business. He told Ayase to call him should something happen.

For the past hour, though, Kanou had been restless and unnerved by something. Something in him was screaming that he had to get home to Ayase; now. But he wasn't entirely sure. His inner beast –the thing that made him lust after Ayase—was calm at the moment and told him that the boy would be fine until he got him later that night. The more sensitive part of him, however, was what was causing him to fidget in his chair and constantly glance at the clock.

"I'm sure everything is fine," Kanou tried to tell himself, "You're just being paranoid over nothing. Ayase would call if there was something wrong."

Kanou was telling himself this for the longest time before he couldn't take it anymore and he left work early.

By the time Kanou had arrived home, his uneasiness had calmed down some. Naturally, he had figured he'd just been worrying over nothing. He could imagine himself walking inside and going to the bedroom to find Ayase still sound asleep in bed.

Who am I kidding? Kanou thought to himself, I think I'm the one who needs sleep.

As he walked into the house, he stripped himself of his business suit and tossed it aside on the chair. He walked down the hallway past the kitchen and stopped at the bedroom. Kanou was instantly concerned by the sound of someone whimpering inside the room, rather than the blissful silence that came whenever Ayase was asleep.

Kanou opened the door and froze.

Ayase was kneeling on the floor with his arms wrapped around his sharply curved stomach. The expressions on his face were tight with pain as high pitched whimpers escaped his mouth. He had shed himself of his white pajama pants, leaving him with only his sleep shirt covering him.

"Ayase!" Kanou exclaimed; his lover's pained state sending him into a state of utter fear.

The young, blonde-haired boy looked up; his large blue eyes pleading.

"K-Kanou-sama!" he whimpered, "Please, help me!"

Kanou rushed to Ayase's side, "What happened?"

"The pain that was in my back this morning, it spread to my stomach and it got worse, and worse, and worse. So I tried to get up and call you, but I fell. I tried to crawl to get the phone, but the pain was so bad that I couldn't move."

Ayase curled in on himself suddenly and screamed as another contraction struck him.

"Please do something, Kanou-sama! I-it hurts!"

His lover's words sent an ache shooting through Kanou's chest. He couldn't scold Ayase for not calling him. He did try, but the pain of his labor had immobilized him, which he couldn't get mad over due to Ayase's small size. The smaller male slowed down considerably after a round of sex, alone, so he could definitely see the labor pains being capable of holding Ayase in one place for quite some time.

Kanou sat himself behind Ayase and gently rubbed circles around the small of his back. The blonde supported his upper body with his hands as he rode through the contraction. His hips rocked back and forth in an attempt to help him through the pain.

"Has your water broken yet, Ayase?" Kanou asked.

"Yes," Ayase replied, "It did about a half an hour ago."

Already so far along? How much longer does he have before he's ready to push?

Ayase let out a sigh as the contraction ended.

"Let's move you to the bed," Kanou said, "Lying down might make you a bit more comfortable."

Ayase looked to him and nodded, "Okay."

Kanou helped him to his feet and slowly guided him towards the bed. Ayase was actually doing a lot better that he had predicted. He fully expected Ayase to be screaming nonstop and crying a lot from the time his labor started to the point where their baby had finally been born. Ayase was doing a good job about keeping calm and trying not to panic.

Just as he was about to crawl into the bed, the contractions returned with a vengeance. Ayase cried out as he leaned on his hands once more, standing at the edge of the bed.

"Kanou . . . sama, something's wrong! The pain is much worse!"

Kanou helped Ayase into the bed and sat down at his side. He took one of the boy's clenching hands into his and allowed him to squeeze and crush his hand all he liked; anything to help his lover cope with the pain he was in.

"Just relax, Ayase," Kanou said calmly, "Do what comes naturally."

Several months before, the two had debated whether or not delivering the baby at a hospital would be a good idea. The real would be how they planned on explaining a pregnant man to a doctor or a midwife. They decided that delivering their baby at home would be much better on everyone, especially Ayase. Of course there were other concerns. What if something went wrong? What if there was more than one baby? What if Ayase's body couldn't handle the labor? In case of an emergency, Kanou kept a cell phone on him and was prepared to contact an ambulance, if it was necessary.

Ayase took a few deep breaths before another contraction struck and he started pushing.

Kanou was used to seeing a lot of gruesome sights. The punishments he dealt out to those that crossed him had resorted in a lot of brutal beatings, stabbings, shootings, and kidnappings. This did not exactly compare to all of that as Kanou struggled to keep his stomach from flipping as he tried to help Ayase deliver. But he was trying to keep himself together for Ayase's sake. He wouldn't want to worry him.

"Come on, Ayase," he urged, "You can do this. Push!"

Ayase could only nod and curl forward for the umpteenth time. He'd been at this for fifteen continuous minutes and he was already getting tired, but he didn't want to provoke Kanou more than he wanted to stop pushing, so he forced himself to continue. Ayase let out a pained shriek as he suddenly felt something stretching him wider, causing an intense burning sensation.

"K-Kanou-sama, what's happening? It burns!"

Kanou had balled up a fist and brought it up to his mouth to keep to himself from being sick, "I can see the head! The baby will be here soon. Keep pushing!"

Ayase nodded. His fingers dug into the sheets below him. His face was flushed red from his efforts in pushing and his skin was slick with sweat, but he refused to give up. He curled forward and pushed with everything he had, forcing himself to whimper the more the burning and pressure between his legs intensified.

I don't know how you're doing this, Ayase. Kanou thought to himself, This is amazing! You're amazing . . .

Ayase threw his head back against the pillows and let out a final deafening scream rip from his throat. Another cry overlapped with his, and suddenly it was as if nothing had happened. The pain vanished. He was left completely and utterly exhausted , but the pain had vanished. Ayase finally gained the strength to lift his head and look to Kanou, who now held their squirming, Wailing newborn in his arms.

"It's a girl," Kanou said, smiling, "It's a beautiful little girl!"

Kanou wrapped the infant in a blanket and passed her to Ayase. She bore a head full of thick light blonde hair and large blue eyes; practically the spitting image of Ayase. A smile appeared on the boy's face and he looked back up to Kanou . . . and that smile vanished.

"Kanou-sama . . ."

"What's the matter Ayase?"

"You're . . . crying!"

Kanou brushed a hand over his eyes to find that he was crying. It was something totally out of the ordinary for him.

"Yes," he replied with a chuckle, "I guess I am. I guess I'm just so happy that we have such a beautiful daughter."

Ayase's smile returned, "I'm happy, Kanou-sama."

It was then that exhaustion hit him and Ayase fell asleep. Kanou spent many hours simply sitting at his lover's bedside and holding their newborn daughter as she too fell asleep. He had always regarded Ayase as cute—like a small animal—for his big eyes and small size. To see that cuteness reflected in their child made him happy.

Indeed, now Kanou was very happy.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 3/8/2015

"I got into the anime Okane Ga Nai a few days ago, and I was in love with Ayase's character. I absolutely HATED Kanou, at first, but it's not "as bad" now. I seriously recommend this anime (especially for any yaoi lovers here) I just wrote this to get it out of my systerm. I hope you enjoyed, and as always PLEASE REVIEW!"

-BlueRaven666