A/N: This was something I really wanted to do during White Fence, but then I thought better of it, leaving it at the ending that it was. Open ended, and not without faults, just like life is. However, just as there was an insinuation for a sequel...there was also an insinuation for no continuation at all. I threw the idea around, and decided that I would eventually revisit the series...as we all well know. So here we are. At any rate, this is touchy at best, and while I wanted to incorporate Natsuki's pregnancy, I also dared not put that part of the story into the already heavily themed fiction that White Fence was.

I felt at odds, really, because in my eyes, chapter 10 left much to be desired, and while that was a good thing in a lot of ways, it also drove me crazy in the regards of working with the series..that said, I left myself a lot of open spaces to play with intentionally. Natsuki's pregnancy was one of the gaps most worthy of visitation, so here we go.

Warning: Pregnancy is colorful in more ways than one, and I have every intention of bringing a good measure of that into this fiction. If you can't deal with that, or the "loveliness" sure to ensue, don't read this...you'll regret it, because sometimes, things get messy in more ways than one. This will be a roller coaster, just like White Fence, but the highs will be higher, and the lows, won't be quite so low.

No guarantees on update speed, but, that said, I'm far enough into the fiction to at least offer a little bit of a decent pace.

Clearly, I don't own Mai HiME/Otome...and this is AU. Please read the other stories in the series first, if you haven't already... (1)White Fence (2)Dusty Bassinet (3)First Comes Love.

On with the fiction!

Chapter 1:

Natsuki sighed a little as she tended to the grill, one of the few ways she could cook, without completely setting food into a blackened doom. The back yard was filled with the normal ruckus expected as the twins continued to argue over who's turn it was to mow the front lawn. Natsuki rolled her eyes, finally shouting that she would do it tomorrow, if only they would just shut up. She looked over at the swing that she'd carried out to the patio, surprised that Rin was still asleep in spite of the shouting. That baby could crash out like a rock, something that was both amusing, and a godsend.

"How's dinner coming?" Mai asked, bringing out two platters, ready to serve the food on, taking the dirty ones that were sitting on the side so that she could wash them.

"I can cook, you know." Natsuki muttered dryly, pointing at the food with her spatula. "It'll be another five or so, on the steak and chops. Tell Nao to sit tight."

"It isn't Nao who's complaining." Mai said then with a smirk. "The boys are hungry. You know how Tate gets." Though in truth, Mai knew she spoiled that man rotten when it came to his dinner time routine. She took one of the hotdogs and put it on a bun. "I'm going to give him this, and tide him over."

"He can't wait like a good little boy?" Natsuki muttered when Mai rolled her eyes and going back into the house, where she had two large pots of something going at a full boil. Natsuki hadn't thought to ask what it was.

Natsuki chuckled then, knowing full well that he was probably rightfully famished, and so too was his good friend, Takeda, who also decided to join them. A back yard barbecue wasn't rare among them, it was Natsuki's preferred way to eat, and she so loved it. With Mai's little family living right next door, and Nao only a short distance away, there were many nights they would gather together to share a meal.

This night was rather impromptu, and ill planned at best, or dinner would have been served over an hour ago.

However when Tate had to work late, and Takeda was carpooling, Mai had already known she was getting an extras for dinner. Who was she to argue? She loved having big meals. It only got bigger Nao and Aki called her cell phone, ranting that they wanted some decent food for a change. Shizuru was out of town for the week, and six dinners of poor quality had already been enough. Natsuki had to run to the store anyway for more milk, it seemed only fitting to buy another tank of propane as well.

Knowing Shizuru would not have been in the mood to cook after a several hour drive, and Mai shouldn't be expected to do all the work alone, they had easily come to the consensus and tossed the idea together haphazardly. It was nice, in it's own way. A reprieve of sorts, a sought after normalcy. Once the meal was prepared however, and they could all sit around enjoying the warm company, conversation seemed as varied as the clouds in the sky.

Something, they as a group, agreed on.

"It must be nice, being able to do things whenever you want, eh Natsuki?" Takeda asked as he nodded over at the baby still napping away in the swing. "I bet you'll be sad when you go back to work in a few days."

"Oh, I wish it would be that easy." Natsuki was surprised to note that she hadn't been let off the hook. "Takeda, there's something to be said about staying active." She chortled at the question. "I worked the entire time I carried Rin."

"Just like now, she's going back to work early." Shizuru sighed, a bit defeated by that. "I wish she wouldn't, but Natsuki can't seem to stay still."

Natsuki shook her head. "It isn't like that. I just like keeping busy." With a small shrug, she seemed not to be bothered by returning to work. In truth, she couldn't wait. "Whenever I stay home, I get restless. Whenever I get restless I get crabby. It's like a snowball effect...actually, it was the same when I was pregnant. Whenever I took a day off, I normally regretted it."

"Don't remind me." Aki muttered then. "I'll be so glad when she gets off maternity leave. It means I won't hear stupid things in the morning before I have to get up."

"No, you'll just hear stupid shit at the office instead." Nao told Aki truthfully. "She won't be able to go out on projects with the rest of us, so she'll be stuck in clerical with Chie. I doubt it'll be much better...now, we'll have to hear her bitching in the office." It was with a exaggerated shrug, and a cheeky grin that she harassed her friend, stealing a rather large chunk of meat off of Natsuki's plate. "We could at least hang up on her over the phone."

"At least I know how to deal with the billing!" Natsuki growled back before she turned to Aki. "When you and your brother were little, the company was still in its infancy. We had one dedicated person working the phone lines, computers, everything...sometimes Nao and I had to help out, since we were the only apprentices back then." She took a swig of some juice, nearby. "Anyway, your Aunt Jackass, opted out of computer class...so needless to say, she couldn't do anything, and screwed it up all the time."

"Speaking of that, you still have several weeks left." Mai was referring to the maternity leave. "You don't really want to take Rin into work with you, do you?"

"I don't see why not." Natsuki shrugged. "It'll be good to see the crew again, you know? Besides, that, it's time Aki learned her way around the other aspects of the company. Like Nao and I do, she should have a basic understanding of every different department. Going out into the field is all well and good, but unless she really wants to get into being a foreman like me, there are other places she can really get involved. Midori's been meaning to put her there anyway for some time now, to get a handle on working with the costumers a little better."

Nao and Aki looked at each other before they both cringed. "Ya know..." Nao began, sensing this was a superbly bad idea. "There are reasons why I got kicked out of clerical...reasons that aren't going to be much different with Aki." There were just some things that Nao wasn't meant to do, and that was customer services. "I for one, think that Aki does just fine where she is. We shouldn't move her around."

Natsuki shook her head. "It'll be a learning experience, if nothing else." Though, Natsuki had other reasons, and Nao knew well of them. "Midori's opening up a new office, now that ours has grown. It's time to expand out, and Midori already has a list of sign ups for people who want to transfer over." Natsuki had been a bit worried about that at first, but when she realized who would be staying around, she felt confidant that it would be a solid team. "It's only going to be the original crew for a while, and since Midori will be out, that puts you and I in charge." Natsuki shrugged before looking at her daughter. "you're going to need to learn the ropes, and I know we're going to be pulling crazy hours."

"Just like the old days, eh?" Nao laughed at that, but took the facts as they were. "We getting paid double overtime for this?"

"You know it." Natsuki smirked then. It was yet another reason why she refused to take off more time from work, or quit entirely.

"With a baby?" Mai gaped as if Natsuki had grown a second head. "You must be nuts, Natsuki, you're still healing."

"Trust me, she's already tried to break that rule." Shizuru said with a small sigh slipping from her lips. "I don't like it, but, Natsuki's right, she could do with the distraction." Only Natsuki would be able to detect the longing in it, and only if she were to be paying attention, which Shizuru doubted highly. "I would rather she left Rin at home, but that's also a failing endeavor."

"I think you should." Mai told her long time friend of midnight tresses. "It's fine if you want to be the working parent, but Shizuru does most of her work from home, anyway."

"Nothing doing." Natsuki shook her head, her mouth full of food. "Work is filled with family."

"It's also the brigade of idiots." Mai noted dryly. "What would you do if Midori gets a hold of Rin and corrupts her?"

"You're honestly worried about that?" Tate found himself looking at his wife confused. He knew she was a worry wart, but now, she was floating around in the clouds. "Mai, corruption isn't a matter of who, it's a matter of when. Look at who her mother is for gods sake!"

"Damn right." The fiery red head nodded. At that, Natsuki and Nao shared a high five, while Shizuru merely sat unmoved, sipping on her tea. "Though, I think Shizuru can keep the newest little hell raiser out of trouble...at least, I think she might be able to."

"That is a point." One that Takeda had wanted to know for quite some time. "I would love to hear why you got pregnant in the first place." Takeda smiled as the smug expression dropped from Natsuki's face. "Let's face it, Natsuki. You're the last person on the planet, that I can envision getting knocked up." He pointed between Natsuki and Shizuru. "It wasn't an accident, so you can't blame that."

"Just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Natsuki grumbled back, looking down at her form, and then glowering at him.

"Just that it's weird to think about." Takeda shrugged.

"I'll have you know that it was quite the experience, and I would do it again in a heart beat." Though as Natsuki said that, there was a mixture of various emotions sent at her direction. Some subtly amused, while others visibly winced. "It was an emotionally gratifying experience, to say the least."

"That's the understatement of the century..." Aki muttered, as Nao nodded in agreement. "Mom, you were horrible, especially at first."

"Oh, yeah...she was a bitch." Nao agreed.

"She wasn't as bad as Mai was." Tate finally smirked...everyone laughed at that, including Mai herself. "Anyway, Takeda if I were you, I wouldn't ask those kinds of questions. Some things are best left unanswered."

"Actually...I find it hilarious." Nao said then, and that only spurred Takeda further.

"I've gotta hear this one." Takeda finally said. "Go on Natsuki, spill it."

"I think, the only way you'll get out of this, is if you regale Takeda with your version of it." Shizuru said, breaking up what she knew would be a colorful spat if she let it continue. "I'm sure the rest of us can help along the way, if you leave out any details."

"Alright...fine." Natsuki grumbled wondering how she got herself involved in something like this, and sighed. "You start then, if you really wanna do this so badly."

"Good, then I shall begin with the day we found out." Shizuru said then, nodding more to herself than everyone else. "I believe that should cut out a lot of the more personal problems that Natsuki would otherwise not divulge so colorfully, yes?" As she looked for Natsuki to nod, letting her know that it was alright, Shizuru sighed. "Okay, well Natsuki had been planning to do this even before she and I had gotten into a relationship. So needless to say, at first, she was a bit skittish about letting me go to the appointments with her. During the days she went in, I stayed home, after all I had unpacking to do-"

….
(Flashback)

"Aw, come on, let me in." Aki's voice carried quite a distance when she wanted it to. "I am going to murder you if you don't!" It wasn't unusual.

"Yeah right..." In fact, it was quite common. "You'll have to try harder than that." It was one of the joys of being siblings, especially, if one happened to be the stronger of the two.

"Ass!" A rivalry both friendly, and yet fierce. "Don't make me bust it down..." They were as thick as thieves, but also just as willing to harass each other. It was so common in fact, that such a war zone had become second nature. "I swear to god, Kane!" As one might expect, it made for a very boisterous environment. "Open this door!"

They were twins after all.

"Kane, let your sister inside." So, during the times when such an argument occurred, there needed to be a voice of reason. "Preferably before she actually does break down the door." Shizuru was that voice today it seemed. "I wouldn't put it beyond her." She begged with a defeated sigh as she shined some of the silver that she had pulled out of a cardboard box. "That, and I don't want to have to explain to Natsuki, how you were pointedly driving your sister to break things."

"Mom's used to it." Kane shrugged, but unlocked the door anyway, allowing his dripping wet sister to come inside. "We used to break more than just a few windows." He handed her the towel he had used not a moment ago. "I told you I'd win, Aki. Better learn to keep up."

"You'd better learn to shut up, before I break your face." She growled at him, drying off her hair.

"I'd much rather you not break anything." Shizuru interjected, paying half an ear to the squabbling. Paradise, or rather, what she hoped would be something so easily attainable, was little more than utter disarray when she finally decided to move in. This was her family, of that she knew, and flawed though it was, she couldn't deny she belonged here. This was her sanctuary, her dream, and her prayers, all answered for a reason only known by the gods themselves.

"We never agreed that the loser would be locked outside." She told Shizuru with an annoyed glare. "I really should beat him into a bloody pulp."

"You never asked." Kane pulled Aki into a sideways hug. He grabbed the towel, and began to help her dry the long tendrils of multicolored hair. She was beginning to let it grow out. "Besides, the rain isn't so bad, is it sis?" Her normal fawn tresses were so beautiful to see.

"Still! Don't lock me out again." She told him. "Or I really will break your face in."

"Must you two fight today?" Through a series of events, both a godsend, and a misfortune combined, Shizuru had come to realize that life was entirely willing to throw her off balance, guard, and even into the brink of near damnable insanity. Though she used to take pride in such a thing as a prim and proper household, she knew that idea was impossible in her new life.

"Who says we're fighting?" Aki finally asked, as if Shizuru had completely lost it.

"This is normal." Kane agreed placidly. "Aki's actually in a good mood today."

"It doesn't look like it." That was a puzzle piece that would never fit. What few wits she had managed to cling onto, always seemed to be tried and tested. "It looks as if you're truly angry at him." Shizuru told Aki. "I wouldn't blame you if it were the case, but, if you aren't, then why the threats to his person?"

"He's my brother, that's why." Aki declared with a bit of acidity to her voice. The siblings were still unsure about the new addition to family life. They regarded Shizuru with caution, as if she were still an enigma. "Didn't you have anyone you fought with, when you were our age?"

"No, I can't say that I did." Shizuru often agreed with the sentiment, questioning just what she had gotten herself into. "I had many siblings, mind you. However, I dared not disrespect anyone."

"Yeah, well that's you." Aki couldn't be bothered with Shizuru's lack of understanding ,as she threw her school bag off to the side. "We're different...in case you hadn't noticed."

"Simmer down now." Kane said to her softly as he slipped off his muddy shoes and his jacket. "It was just one bad day, that's all." He also chucked his bag over to the side, and stretched, popping his back a few times. "Now that we're home, time to chill out a bit." It was a messy, clustered home, that lacked a womanly touch.

Natsuki had kept it up in haphazard order for the longest time, and while the resident foreman was a wonderful parent, she was a horrific housekeeper. She could cook basic meals, but the cleaning was another matter entirely. It was done minimally at best, though being a single parent who worked long hours, would do that to a person. Cleaning was normally last on the list of things to do. That had changed when Shizuru agreed to move in. She took that task with a vengeance. That and cooking fell upon her shoulders, frozen or leftover meals often a thing of the past.

"Hey mommy dearest, I'm going to go smoke, so give me my cigarettes." Aki demanded holding out her hand. "I know you took them out of my school bag."

"Natsuki can give them back, if she truly wishes you to have them." Shizuru told her firmly. "It's a horrid habit to have, really. You should stop while you still can." It was a battle she'd been waging, and it was a losing one at that. "It'll be harder later to quit later."

"I already understand that clearly." Aki was not in the mood for this today. Instead, she just wanted to decompress without a mothering hen flying over her shoulder. "Don't think I'll let get away with this crap! Just because Mai can, doesn't mean that you can." Aki said, knowing that the carrot top could give her a run for her money. Shizuru however, wasn't allowed the privilege of that yet. "Just give me my smokes...it's the weed I need supervision with, not cigarettes."

"Aki, try to understand." Shizuru begged her to listen. "There are better ways to go about dealing with stress." One closeted son, and a rebellious daughter...twins...Shizuru's children that for the longest time, she had been estranged from. They were now in her life again. It wasn't always easy to deal with, and all of them were still trying to find balance, one that she sometimes feared wouldn't ever come to her. "Just because your mom and Nao do it, doesn't mean you should always lean on their bad habits."

"I don't see why you care." Aki for all intents and purposes, was the spitting image of Shizuru. "Waltzing in here, acting as if you own the place, really Shizuru...get a grip." It wasn't at all an oddity, since she was their birth mother. "You don't own us." Though, Aki's personality was not one in which could be so easily explained. "Come on, Kane." Venomous to the core, and hard to manage on any given day, she was a spitfire. "Let's go chill with Nao."

"I have exams to study for." The lone male of the house said, shaking his head. "After that, I need to go meet up with Tate. My form is lacking, and I really need to step it up." He looked at his sister sadly. She was the only one he could truly be at ease with. They were honestly like glue. "I want to make the team in high school."

"What a drag." Aki sighed, as she looked outside, the rain pouring down even harder than before. "Can you at least give me a ride? I've got thirty more hours to go before I can get my permit."

"Are you kidding?" Kane laughed as he went back down to sit at the computer. "I'm not going to be your slave...besides, mom took the truck today, and I've no idea how to drive a motorcycle. You're going to have to walk, unless she-who-shall-not-be-named will let us take her car." At the reference to Shizuru's vehicle, he saw his sister curse under her breath. "What did I do now?" Incredulous, he shrugged, and went back to his typing.

"Screw it...I'll just walk." Aki grumbled as she tossed on one of Natsuki's leather jackets. "Catch you later, bro." Her venomous retreat was quick as she nearly slammed the door behind her. It hadn't also gone unnoticed that Aki had completely avoided Shizuru, who was merely standing at her place, lost for words.

It was normal.
It was common.
It was Aki's attitude.
It was because of the situation.

Shizuru had heard all kinds of excuses, but none of them really seemed fitting. Though, she had to admit, she and Aki had come a long way from the difficulties they had once faced, the truth was, there was still a deep divide between them. Part of it, a rather large chunk of it really, was because she was concerned for Aki. Trying to be a nurturing parent, however, was backfiring horribly. "I will never be forgiven, will I?" She wouldn't blame either of her children, if that were the case.

"Don't take it personally." Kane told her as the chair squeaked loudly as he turned to face her. "She's just upset because she flunked out of another year."

"Yes, well I'm sure I'm not being of any help either." She went back to arranging things on the mantle. The next thing she picked up, just happened to be an old photograph, one that faded with time, but held the dearest of memory. "I was thinking that by moving in here, it would help ease her mind, at least, a little bit."

"Who knows...Aki's always like that." Kane shrugged, opening up a different browser, one of his games up and running in windowed mode. "She has a lot in common with Nao...I think that's just the way they are." He was busy running around, and typing away in chat logs, but he didn't have his headset on. "I wouldn't let her get to you." Absentmindedly, his eyes watched her continue flit about the room, and he sighed, bored. "You know, you don't have to clean every spec of dirt." Though, he found amusement, as she tried to rid the crown moldings of cobwebs. They had been a natural part of the decorum, at least, in his honest opinion. "No one's really going to notice."

"I most assuredly will." Shizuru replied, unused to the hardships of cleaning a completely dirty ceiling. "Why did your mom go wandering off anyway?"This was something she normally wouldn't have to worry about, but the entire household needed attention only her diligence could gift...and if that in and of itself were not enough, the fact she craved some type of order came next on the list. She had only just recently trained Natsuki to put dirty clothing in the laundry basket on the first attempt, instead of trying to use the hamper as a basket ball hoop. "She was going to help me with this, as I recall." It was a small victory, and yet, one gigantic leap in the right direction.

During his fight with a monster on the screen, and his tapping of the keyboard, he didn't bother to regard her with his eyes. Those were firmly plastered to the screen, his headset around his neck to hear the goings on, though, his microphone was currently muted. "Yeah, and she got the entire stairway done before she rushed out of here this morning." A string of curses came through the headset, and silently, he agreed with the sentiment, as the raid group died, though it was only their first attempt. "I think she had another doctor appointment today."

"That would explain it." Though, she wondered why Natsuki insisted on doing everything alone. "She was a basket case this morning."

"I still think mom's nuts." Kane said, though, he'd known for a while that Natsuki had been considering having a child of her own, another sibling wasn't exactly something he wanted. Indifferent to the entire cause, he merely accepted it as apart of the natural order, or lack of it, that consumed his entire life. "The whole donor thing, really is a bad idea."

"Why on earth do you think that?" Shizuru paused, regarding Kane with worry in her eyes.

"Did Aki's whole tantrum really fly over your head so fast?" He shook his head. "Blowouts like that happen for a reason. I wouldn't want to be caught on the receiving end of any of it. Mom is a brave person, to want to invite that kind of trouble again. A donor would do that."

"It's different, Kane." Shizuru said, once again being reminded of her faults and transgressions, of which she had several. "I was to blame for that."

He just shook his head. "It isn't different." He replied softly, though he was more focused on the game in front of him. "I wish that it was, but really...it's not. The donor is kinda going to be like you...a figment of someone who just wasn't there." His words weren't mean to be harsh, just simply honest. "It's all up to how someone sees things, and you'll just have to hope they don't think of it, the same way my sister did."

…

"Okay, so you were all on bad terms." Takeda said in mumbled confusion. "But what does that have to do with the fact that Natsuki was pregnant?"

"Not bad exactly." Kane amended. "We were just...all a little uneasy."

"Yes...I can see that." He was still lost. "However, what does that have to do with Natsuki at all?" Takeda asked, yet again.

"A lot more than you'd think, actually." Shizuru said, trying her best to do justice to the situation. "I was struggling to find my place in the household, and there were times I found myself apprehensive about adding more onto the already problematic situation."

"I insisted though." Natsuki said, in truth, she was a bit singled minded about the fact. "I would have gone though with it, with Shizuru there or not...so she had nothing to worry about." She put a hand over Shizuru's knee to steady her, and they both took a calming sigh, with a small smile on their faces. "We both agreed that when she moved in, that it wouldn't change our individual lives. So, I really didn't have a say in what she did, and she hadn't the right to add a word in edgewise to what I did."

"The only thing we both had to agree on, was what to do about Kane and Aki." Shizuru explained further. "Though, in truth, Aki back in those days saw me as a freeloader, and Kane wasn't a troublemaker in the first place." A bit sadly, she sighed, recalling that. "I relented a lot, when Nao and Natsuki made a discussion, because I felt a bit inadequate."

"Well, it was one thing having her a house away. Having her actually living with us, was an entirely different thing." Aki spoke up. "It pissed me off, because she put a bunch of stupid rules over my head."

"They weren't stupid." Natsuki told her. "You were just intent to be more difficult than you should have been."

"Can't say that I blame her." Nao rolled her eyes at the look Natsuki shot her. "What?! You know just as well as I do, that no one gave a rats ass about what Shizuru said. Not even you."

"That's a bit over the top." Natsuki said then. "Though, bluntly speaking, Nao has the right idea." Natsuki knew better than to worry about it early on. "That's why it was hard back then, for all of us." Natsuki told Takeda directly. "It was a time of change. Really, my being pregnant, was only part of the way our lives changed."

"If you're going to hear part of it, you really should hear it all." Mai agreed readily. "Trust me, it'll be worth it in the end."

"You'll just get confused otherwise." Nao smirked. "Besides, some of this crap is golden."

"Sounds pretty blasé to me." Takeda shrugged.

With a sigh, Natsuki rolled her eyes. "Well, what do you want me to do, blow fire out of my ass and do a song and dance?"

"I'll go get a blowtorch!" Nao blurted out, for lack of amusement.

"If you could, that would be pretty funny." Aki laughed, as Nao gave her a high five.

"There are just some things I really don't want to think about." Kane uttered with a scowl on his face.

"Indeed." Shizuru agreed. "And that would be one of them."

"We're talking about our normal everyday lives, idiot." Natsuki finally said then to quiet down the ruckus. "However, Takeda, let me put it to you this way..."

Well, there's chapter 1 of the 4th story. More to come later...likely next week.