"Oshou... what again?" Jacob asked as he entered the main room.

"Oshougatsu. The Japanese New Year," Kasumi said excitedly as she set the low table for them both.

It had been only half a year since the defeat of the Reapers and Kasumi was ready to party. There had already been a celebration of massive proportions throughout the galaxy, but Kasumi was ready for something more low key and personal. Especially with Jacob, whom on Shepard's and Miranda's insistence, accompanied the thief back to one of her safe houses on the Amaterasu.

It was a small and humble affair. Prefab accommodations on the outside, but a treasure trove of stolen... 'acquired' merchandise on the inside. The insides comprised of a single bedroom, a bathroom, a small leisure room, and a kitchen, packed with food stores meant for extended shelf-life. There was also the hidden passageway to the aforementioned trove, but she didn't bring too much attention to that since she knew he wouldn't care for it too much.

At first, Jacob gave an uneasy look at the kotatsu in front of him. It was a functional table, but the fact that he was expected to sit on the floor to eat, with his legs underneath the blanket draped over the table itself, left him apprehensive.

"Have a seat. The food'll be ready in a minute," the asian woman called from the kitchen.

"You sure I can't help?" he called as he eased himself down to the floor, and picked up the blanket over his legs.

"I'm sure," she called back.

He sighed a bit and looked to the holo vid playing on the display on the wall. She'd spared no expense for her safe houses, to be sure, however, it still seemed rather spartan in comparison to other apartments he had seen.

The series of traditional japanese drawings and sketches on the wall, while they gave the room a sense of color, still felt like they had blended into it.

"What do you think? I did the decorating myself!" she asked happily from the kitchen.

"It's nice. Not what I'd expect from a safe house," he answered.

"Pfft. I loved Keiji, don't get me wrong, but his choice in decorum when he laid low was abysmal! Nothing but grey walls, grey ceilings, grey EVERYTHING! It drove me crazy!" she yelled over the roar of several indistinguishable sounds.

Jacob smiled. While it had taken some time with Kelly to help her truly let Keiji go, she had made it a point that Jacob's involvement with her had allowed her to lay the past to rest. While she was usually mischievous and playful when they had first met, she was always tense, as though someone who wished her harm was just around the corner. Now, she seemed more relaxed and laid-back.

"Gift for you!" she chirped happily as she brought a pot, full of some sort of stew, into the room and set it on the table. Before he could thank her, she skipped back into the kitchen and brought out a few more trays with an even larger variety of foods, ranging from inari-zushi, to artfully cooked eggs and rice, copious amount of sake, to actual sushi, arranged in a half circle and plenty of various spices on the side.

Jacob blinked several times in shock as his host took her on seat at his side with a wide grin on her face.

"I didn't have all the time in the world to prepare this, but I think I did pretty well, all things considered," she said with a look from him to the feast she had somehow materialized out of nowhere.

"Kasumi... I don't know... I don't think I can eat this," he said as the words became harder to find.

The thief's face faulted as she asked, "Why?"

"It seems more like some art work than an actual meal!" he said, flustered.

Kasumi threw her head back and laughed, "Jacob, you'll be fine! We Japanese do this all the time. Especially for the holiday."

A moment passed as he considered her words. He turned to her and said, "You sure?"

While the smile never left her face, she repeated a question she had asked him some time ago. "Jacob, do you trust me?"

The memories came back and his unease faded.

"Yeah, I do."

"Good! Then let's eat!" she said as she handed him a pair of chopsticks and proceeded to educate him on traditional japanese cuisine.

"...and so he climbs down the ladder, turns to the clown and says, 'What and give up show business?'" Jacob with uncharacteristic mirth.

Kasumi held her hands to her face as she failed to hold back the giggles that had overcome her. It was a terrible joke, to be sure, but given what they had consumed, along with most of the sake, they would have found curling linoleum hilarious.

When the laughter died down, Kasumi sighed wistfully and leaned against him with a semi-audible *whump*.

"I needed this so much, Jacob. Thank you," she said wearily.

He smiled down to her, gentle raised his arm and enclosed her petite shoulders with it. "You're welcome, Kasumi."

"For the first time, I truly feel like I can truly rest. I can move on. Anything could happen and I would be fine with that," she said as she snuggled into his embrace.

He nodded and gently bumped his head against hers. "Good," he whispered. While his own demons had been laid to rest a long time ago, his own future lay bare in front of him. What to do, now that the greater threat to the entire galaxy was vanquished?

"Oh! I just remembered something!" Kasumi cried as she woke up from her lethargy.

"What?" he asked.

She turned to him excitedly, "It's your birthday, Jacob!"

He blinked once and then realized something which made him blanch. He had completely forgotten about this. Granted, the whole Reaper war's winding down and reconstruction had occupied his time, but the fact that he had forgotten his own birthday made him realize how much time had passed.

So, he waved it off. "Don't worry about it. Besides, the older I get, the less inclined I am to remember that I'm getting older."

Kasumi frowned. "Oh no, you don't! I have no intention of letting you go through another birthday without some form of gift!"

Jacob cocked his eyebrow as she got up and ran into the other room. For a second, her head poked out of the hallway, "Don't go anywhere! Be right back!" and vanished again.

He remained that way as he heard the rustling of something from her bedroom, along with a crash, and a small yelp of surprise.

"Don't move! Almost ready!" she called from the bedroom as though he had heard none of the earlier noise.

He was about to get up and see what was wrong when the lights suddenly went out. Now, the only source of light was the single bulb at the entrance of the hallway as Kasumi's long, and bare, leg waved out.

"Happy Birthday to you..." Kasumi sang in her huskiest voice as she stepped out.

Jacob blanched as she saw the normally shadowy and elusive Kasumi Goto in a form fitting, silver colored dress that left very little to the imagination. The blonde wig she wore made her natural gold colored eyes shimmer seductively in the low light.

"Happy Birthday to you..." she continued as she slowly approached him.

When she reached him, she bent over, purposefully showing the valley between her bosom as the dress strained to hold her form in. "Happy Birthday, Mr. President..." To her elation, his eyes were locked to her own. Gone was the shock and in its place was a smile that said so much to her. She knew she had chosen well at this point.

She slid down his front, which gently placed herself on his lap, and she leaned in and whispered, "Happy Birthday, to you..."

His smile didn't fade as he said back, "I think I can retire from military life after having Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way..."

Her golden eyes glimmered in what little light there was as her smile turned mischievous. "Who said that was it, Mr. Taylor?" Her hand took his and guided it to the back of her dress. Slowly, the zipper came down.

ONE MONTH LATER...

"Jacob," Kasumi said on the other side on the line, her face pale and drained of color, "it's blue!"

Mr. Taylor sat back in his chair in complete and utter shock as the same feeling of dread overcame him.

"I'm really sorry, Kasumi," he said as they approached the door of their house.

"You've said that enough, Jacob. Stop it. It was something we both did. I'm the one who forgot to take the morning pill," she said calmly, despite the somewhat noticeable bulge in her stomach. It also didn't help that they repeated their... 'celebration' several times while he was with her. It wouldn't be much longer before the hormone changes would make things even more chaotic, so, they both agreed the best thing to do was to get it out in the open and make plans.

The first, and worst part of those plans; tell their respective parents the news.

Jacob's mother had taken the news surprisingly well.

"Good boy! I knew you had it in you!" Samantha Taylor said with a mile wide smile. "Just be sure they're healthy, so I can spoil them rotten!"

Kasumi's parents, on the other hand...

Jacob felt as though he were Saint George in a fight with the dragon, without his sword, as Kasumi's mother screeched in various Japanese profanities at the prospect of her daughter pregnant out of wedlock and the man responsible in front of her.

However, despite the force of nature that Ryouko Goto was, he stood firm and made it clear that he had no intention of abandoning Kasumi and planned to marry her, which had earned Shouhei Goto's approval and subsequent blessing. He seemed remarkably calm and once his wife had learned of the wedding plans, she too had become as calm as her husband, however, the change had been so drastic that it left Jacob unsettled.

"I think mom liked you. The reaming she gave Keiji was a lot worse in comparison," Kasumi remarked, surprised.

He took the compliment in stride as he opened the door to their house. Thankfully, it was a buyer's market and it hardly made a wound in their financial savings, since both knew how to live frugally.

Physically, and emotionally, exhausted, they both plopped down on the couch against each other and watched the sun slowly descend in the west of Amaterasu's landscape.

"So much for the Big Damn Heroes," Jacob said as he wrapped his arm around Kasumi's shoulders.

"I don't know. It's not always a bad thing to *not* live a life of constant adventure. It can get rather obnoxious if you think about it," she said as she looked up to him.

He looked down to her and smiled, "What next? Are we going to be on 'Lifestyles of the Once Dangerous'?"

She giggled and said, "No, thank you. Fame is almost has bad as constant adventuring." She looked back to the sun and asked, "Do you regret anything, Jacob?"

Surprised at her question, he took a moment to consider it. "Well, if there was something I regretted, it's not asking you to marry me before I got you pregnant."

She shrugged it off. "It happens. Granted, I was never sure if I was going to be good parent material, but I guess fate has a way of getting you into roles you never expected."

He held her close, "For what it's worth, I'll do all I can to make good for both of us."

She smiled and leaned in closer, "While I don't expect you to do it all on your own, I know you will. And I'll be there to help."

All of the sudden, the thought of a domestic life, with all its boredom, didn't seem so bad to Jacob. "By the way," he asked, "I accidentally heard your mother say something about 'infidelity prevention'. What did she mean by that?"

Kasumi kept her calm, despite the horrid implications of the things her mother did to ensure that her father didn't philander.

"Trust me; don't ask."

The End