Nitori Aiichiro was sick; his stomach hurt as if someone had punched it from the inside out, and he felt like he was going to puke at any given moment.

He'd been feeling sick for more than a month off and on; it started sometime after he and Sousuke started going out, sometime after they had decided that they'd try to be the perfect mates, though it had started out a means of moving on from the guy that they both liked.

Ai had slowly over time came to adore the little things about Sousuke: the way he tried to make sure that Ai was well protected, the little way he curled his lip in almost a snarl when he was studying as if he wished to throw the book into the wall and stomp on it for good measure, or the way he obsessively cleaned his apartment now that he'd long since moved out of his old dorm at Samezuka.

He'd started to wonder how Sousuke was so good at gently pushing his not quite long hair back when he kissed him or the way his big thumb gently rubbed Ai's cheek whenever they kissed and naturally, the way he was able to take charge so easily and manage through all of that and his more than slightly worry wart side, take care of Ai.

Ai felt more safe than anything, stepping into Sousuke's arms though the store bought medicine didn't make Ai feel less sick or the water or milk or anything else.

The Omega felt more than a little out of it; he spent hours laying in bed when his stomach felt like it would pop even though he'd never quite been this lazy before.

He even had begun to help Sousuke clean up the apartment which he'd never cared for doin before but now could not help himself.

Ai impulsively bought more pillows and ultrasoft blankets which Sousuke hated, but now came to help Ai sleep better at night and make him less paranoid; these impulsive buys were getting more and more common as the younger of the two men practically filled their house with department stores full of pillows and blankets.

He leaned on his boyfriend, watching the local swimming show with rapt interest, before finally Ai felt very tired and simply closed his eyes for a second to catch a quick cat nap that lasted nearly four hours.

"Are you okay?" Sousuke nudged his boyfriend, handing him a nice and cool water bottle with his other arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ai squeaked and immediately placed the cool, water bottle to his head, hoping that it would calm his sudden burst of nausea that he'd been biting back by sheer force of will lately.

"You don't look fine." Sousuke grumbled, watching the paleness of Aiichiro's face as he sat beside the half laying boyfriend of himself.

"I'll be better soon." Ai muttered; he'd never liked to go to the hospital or the fuss that that would cause.

Sousuke gave his Omega a brief and hard stare before sighing and relenting, realizing that Ai was not the sort to back down now.

He smiled; his nausea had certainly went down in the past month or so though his stomach aches persisted and started to get gradually worse.

For now though, he was content as he carefully painted what would become their guest bedroom; Ai had longed to paint it a purple-pink color, and Sousuke had only relented on the guest bedroom to discard some of Ai's insane collection of pillows and blankets.

Lately, Ai was on a neck pillow shopping spree; he had all sorts of sizes and colors and designs all gathered into one giant collection on the corner of Ai's side of the bed.

Sousuke didn't even like neck pillows and usually Ai complained of how they felt.

Now though, the Omega loved them and couldn't help buying them.

Almost all of Ai's paycheck from his part time job went towards stocking up on all of the pillows and plushy blankets that he could buy.

"Are you nesting for your next heat or something?" Sousuke asked as he watched his Omega stack another larger than necessary pillow on top of the bed in the admittingly girly guest room that probably no one that Sousuke knew would ever want to stay in.

"No. My heats are milder than ever." Ai smiled; his heats occurred for a day or two a month when he became irritable at times but mostly adored and wanted his boyfriend more than ever. His heats had gotten a lot less intense over time since he and Sousuke had mated quite a few months back.

"Why are you filling our house up with pillows then?" Sousuke was more than a little annoyed by the large assortment of fluffy objects that Ai had been buying these past three months.

"I like them." Ai smiled; his current obessession other than obscenely large pillows were teddy bears now.

Ai would buy the biggest pillows that he saw and every kind of stuffed animal that he wanted; he'd brought home a medium sized, light brown, fluffy bear yesterday home that was softer than Sousuke ever would have thought.

"Why do you like them?" Sousuke demanded to know, wondering when Ai decided to become so obsessed over fluffy objects.

"They're cute, warm, and soft." Ai smiled at just the thought of them as he reorganized the spare bedroom bed almost like he'd developed a new nervous tick.

"It's not winter." Sousuke sighed, wondering why his boyfriend had begun to lose his mind in the past three months.

Aiichiro was not having a good day at all today; his belly sloshed like the ocean when he woke up or even tried to move.

He felt so sick as he keeled over the trashcan that Sousuke had brought to him when he told Ai to call off work today.

It was Friday, and Ai wished that his sickness would have stayed gone a long time ago when it first abated to give him a chance to live his life well.

Every minute or so, his stomach would get a pang that made his nausea worse and often had him throwing up into the trashcan that he leaned over.

He wanted Sousuke to cuddle him, help him stand and walk again, and make sure that he took medicine or something to make his headache go away.

Ai wanted to work, to be productive, but Sousuke was working, and Ai couldn't even stumble off the bed to get work done.

He sighed as he tried not to count the amount of times he'd used the moved trashcan to empty out his stomach: at least five times since he woke up.

Ai closed his eyes, trying to push away the aching of his stomach and head and the pulsing of his nausea, and promptly fell asleep to only wake up later when Sousuke pulled a blanket over him and washed his face off.

He felt fine today, alive and not at all sick; sometimes his belly ached, but he had grown to half ignore the ache.

Ai smiled as he looked into the mirror of their bathroom until he realized that he'd gained weight; his muscle was less prominent though it hadn't been over the top before.

He needed to swim, swim as much as he could, grow strong again and not worry at all about this gained weight.

A month flew by, and Ai didn't lose any weight, just gained; his belly was a bit of a small balloon in shape, and his chest ached now whenever he leaned forward too far and brushed the desk or anything else.

Ai pouted as he tried to focus on work and getting home to go to the gym with Sousuke who had started to worry more and more over Ai's well being.

He took a deep breath and tried to smile just enough to get through the day despite the pain that clung to him; at least he wasn't nauseous anymore.

Sousuke told him to go to the hospital on nearly an everyday basis as he was worried over how much Ai ate, the lack of swimming skill and mobility that he used to have, and the fact that Ai still hurt, sometimes even all over.

Ai attempted to smile and told him not to worry; he still swam relatively fast, just wasn't quite as fast as six months ago, and he could still run and work.

He figured that it was fine besides it had only been six months; Sousuke felt that unlike what Ai believed that six months was surely a long time to ache and feel nauseated.

A sudden pang made Ai throw up; he hadn't been feeling nauseas but couldn't hold it in anymore.

"What's wrong?" Sousuke brushed Ai's hair gently back with his fingers; the soft carress put his boyfriend perfectly at ease.

"Nothing really. My belly just hurts a little." The pain had already worn off, making Ai feel more than a little normal again.

"We're going to the hospital." Sousuke declared, but Ai still told him, 'no,' pushing the trip to the hospital back further and further.

Ai felt fine right now; sometimes his belly or chest ached, but most of the time he felt perfectly content and happy.

Whenever it did ache though, it pushed him, hurting; it had been almost a year and other then weight gain and slowed down movements, Ai felt like he'd gotten better.

Sousuke had mostly calmed down though was constantly trying to get Ai to move around more as he was so close to taking a sick leave from work for all of the times that his body ached and made him lose slight control like dropping an important piece of paperwork and bending down with agonizing effort to pick it back up again.

His boyfriend had taken to tying his shoes for him and trying to encourage him to work out more to may be lose some of the excess weight that surely was hurting his back.

Ai assured him that he was fine and that he didn't quite feel capable of working out for more than five minutes.

This felt agonizing, like a solid blow to his stomach followed by excruciating pushing on his lower stomach; he stared belatedly at the liquid that pooled from his clothes down to the floor beneath his feet that could barely stay stable.

Was Sousuke still home? He writhed while barely remaining standing up right and called the familiar number on his phone for his boyfriend; barely able to focus, making sure to type it all out in case he accidentally couldn't focus later, trying to draw his attention just enough to call for help.

"What's up?" Sousuke answered the phone, sounding slightly nervous as if the air had been pushed out of his mouth in a single chute.

"I need to go to the hospital." Ai shifted, pushing his jello like legs to stay upright as finally he heard his boyfriend through the phone start running, "I'll be there as soon I can."

Ai clung to his boyfriend as finally he arrived to help him away from their living room and into their car, "What did you do?"

"Nothing, I just left our bedroom and then I started hurting really, really bad." AI could barely breathe as he leaned on Sousuke, trusting him to get him safely into the car.

"Okay, take deep breaths." Sousuke was so nervous that he shook and looked angry.

"Okay." Ai took a deep breath and tried to focus on calming down and not letting it worry him all that much, "Did I wet myself?" He worried his lip in his teeth as he suddenly realized how embarrassing he probably looked.

"No, I don't know what that was though. You don't stink." Sousuke tried to soothe his fears as he gently reassured him as he drove, eyes locking on the nearest hospital as he pulled into the first parking spot he saw and rushed a wheel chair over to Ai and wheeled him in.

"Emergency, please." Sousuke took a deep breath as he stared at his boyfriend that was rushed to a room as quickly as possible as the hospital was rather small and had few people in the waiting room.

Ai tried to take deep breaths as he was lifted on to a hospital bed and a nurse greeted him first thing, "What's the matter, honey?" Her Beta scent gently washed over the room, putting Ai at ease and relaxing Sousuke.

"My-my belly hurts a lot, and I accidentally dumped some kind of liquid on me earlier." Ai tried to think rationally past the thudding aches in his stomach that made him wish that he could go back to less consistent aches like he'd had yesterday.

"Oh, I'll go get the doctor. It might help to hold his hand." She muttered, rushing out, and Ai couldn't believe how quickly the doctor and a couple of assistants knew what to do.

Suddenly everyone was encouraging him to take deep breaths and push as he lay there, wondering when the pain would stop.

Finally, many hours without food later, he finally pushed just enough for a small baby to come out and wail.

Ai took another deep breath, trying to process exactly what had just happened and how Sousuke was feeling as he gingerly brushed Ai's hair back as he stood beside him.

It was an exhausting day for sure; Ai felt sound asleep as if he were simply daydreaming this as he finally passed out.

The next morning was joyous or at least Ai felt like he sat on air as he stared at their little baby boy that he'd worked so hard for the previous night.

He smiled especially as Sousuke leaned on his one side and quietly whispered, "Do you want to get married?"

"Yeah." Ai snuggled closer against his boyfriend and their son, already half imagining what their future marriage would be like.