Noll had noticed his wife was up to something. He had to admit he wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but she was quiet and happy so he left her to it.

She had, as of late, been a little out of sorts. Noll knew this was almost entirely due to the growing baby inside of her stomach and thus felt prepared for some oddities, but her seemingly random actions still unnerved him upon occasion.

"Naru?" Mai called.

Noll lent around in his chair so he could see her out of his home office door.

"Yes?"

"Could you come here for a moment?" she requested.

"Why?"

"Because I am pregnant with your child and I want you to come here."

Noll sighed, put down the book he was reading and walked into the living room. He was fully aware that Mai's reasoning was completely illogical, but could not bring himself to point that out. It would only cause trouble. He found his wife sat on the sofa with something pink resting across her stomach.

"Yes?" he prompted.

"Put this on," Mai ordered and threw the baby pink lump at her husband. He caught it and held the misshapen lump up.

"What is this?"

"A jumper," Mai said brightly . "I knitted it!"

"No." Noll threw the thing back onto the sofa and made to return to his office.

Then he heard it.

A sniffle.

In the second he had looked away, Mai had begun to cry. Noll turned back to his wife and sighed.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm going to be an awful mother!" Mai wailed, sobbing into the pink lumpen mess.

Noll frowned, unsure how she had quite reached that conclusion.

"Explain."

"I tried to make you a jumper and it doesn't even look like a jumper and if I can't do that how am I going to look after a baby?" Mai looked up at her husband with tears streaming down her face.

"How does your ability to knit adequately affect your ability to bring up a child?" Noll asked with a raised eyebrow. He was attempting to dampen the sarcasm in his voice, but wasn't sure he had quite managed it. Fortunately, Mai had not noticed.

"Because mothers knit booties for their babies!"

"So why didn't you attempt to knit a bootie?" Noll could not keep the disdain from seeping into his voice for the word 'bootie'.

"Because she isn't born yet!" Mai exclaimed. "I don't know how big to make it!"

"You don't know it's a girl Mai," Noll said with a roll of his eyes.

"I do," she muttered back and placed a protective hand over her bump.

"Mai, the doctors could not determine the sex from the ultrasound, so you do not know."

"I do," she repeated. "Its a girl, hence why I got pink wool you see?"

"Even if she is a girl, she might not like pink."

"You called her she!" Mai pointed out, looking pleased. "And I like pink."

Noll sighed again.

"If you want to improve your knitting, call my mother, I am sure she'll assist you."

"But then she'll think I'm awful!"

"Mai, my mother already thinks you are a saint for putting up with me. Give her a grandchild and she'll-" But Mai interrupted him.

"What if I do it wrong? What if I hurt my daughter?" she cried.

"Mai, you couldn't hurt someone if you tried," Noll scoffed. "And you won't do anything wrong. I will prevent that from happening."

But his wife was still trembling with tears. Noll sighed yet again and reached down to snatch the pink lump. He held it up and tried to determine exactly where he was supposed to put his head.

There were two things that could be arms, he supposed. But-

"You're holding it upside down," Mai corrected him.

"Of course."

He flipped the monstrosity over and tried to put it on. A moment of struggling later, he felt gentle hands guiding his dressing. When he emerged from the neck hole, he noticed Mai was beaming at him. Well that was something at least.

"Look," she ordered and began pointed at parts of the jumper. "This is moss stitch and this is a cable and this bit is a woven pattern that I found in that book I got. I wanted to try a bit of everything you see."

"I see," Noll said as he 'admired' the different sections of the 'jumper'.

"Pink suits you," she said as she smoothed down a wrinkle in the jumper. "You should wear pink more often."

Noll did not think he could reply without upsetting his wife, so avoided the issue by drawing her into an embrace.

"What do you want for tea?" he asked finally as he pulled away.

"Umm, can we have that thing your mother cooked last time she was here?" she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

"Lasagna?"

"The layered pasta thingy with the cheese on top," Mai elaborated.

"That's lasagna," Noll told her.

"I think Himeko likes lasagna."

"What?"

"Our daughter, her name is Himeko," Mai said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "I think she likes lasagna."

Noll decided not to argue with his wife.

"Mai, we live in Japan. Where am I going to find pasta sheets at this time on a Sunday?"

"Please?" she pleaded. Noll sighed for the upteenth time and went to find his jacket. He returned, wearing it over the pink thing, and kissed his wife on the forehead.

"I'll be back soon," he muttered as he drew out his phone and texted Lin.

"Madoka?" Lin called through from the lounge.

"Hmm?"

"Do we have any lasagne sheets?" Lin asked, frowning at the text he'd just received.

"I'm not sure, why?" Madoka appeared in the doorway from the kitchen.

"Noll's just offered to double my pay if I can provide him some in the next half an hour."

Author's note: AmyNChan provided with me the prompt "Mai knits a jumper and makes Noll wear it" and so... Ta-da!

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