Nozaki ran into the kitchen after hearing a loud clattering, his heart almost stopping at the sound. Skidding to a stop was something for freshly waxed floors or wearing socks on wood or something like that. The rubber soles of his slippers provided just enough traction that he almost sprained his ankle when he stopped so forcefully after that run. What he did do was nearly smash into the frame of the arch, barely catching himself, "Chiyo! Are you alright!?"

For her part, she only look confused and maybe even annoyed by his reaction, looking up at him from where she sat on the floor, surrounded by the food storage containers kept in the lower cabinet. "I'm fine, silly! What does it look like!?"

"Mm... I heard the noise, I thought maybe you had fallen... You didn't fall, did you?"

She sighed heavily and shook her head, returning to her task of reorganizing the containers. "No. This was annoying me, so I had to fix it. And I want to clean the cabinet out anyways. When was the last time we really cleaned out all of them? And the knobs! We only wipe the surface, but what about all the grease from cooking that's probably gotten under them!? Can you get me the screwdriver kit, so I can take them off and sanitize them...?"

He stared at her, her list of complaints shocking him completely. Where did she find the energy to even want to do such work!? He knew she wasn't sleeping well, not with the due date coming up rapidly. She was large with child, sore, uncomfortable, grumpy, and tired. She woke up constantly during the night to use the bathroom, and often complained of her bladder being turned into a trampoline and her kidney a punching bag.

Yet there she sat on the floor, very carefully rearranging containers so that they were organized just so. What kind of manner that was in, he wasn't sure, as it certainly didn't appear to be the usual method of doing it by size, so they would fit all nicely together. "Chiyo... Instead of doing this, shouldn't you be taking it easy...? Everything is clean, we always wipe down after cooking and do a good cleaning every weekend..."

"It's not enough! It's not sanitary enough for a baby, we don't want her to get sick because of it!"

"She isn't going to get sick from-."

"You don't know that! If you're not going to help me, then just go away so I can take care of it!"

He sighed quietly then smiled at her, shaking his head, "I'll help, Chiyo. I'll remove all of the handles and make sure they're sanitized."

"Don't forget the holes when you pull them out!"

"I won't."

She stared at him intently for a moment, and he got the feeling he was being judged. Finally, after what felt like a minute or even two, she smiled brightly at him and nodded. "Thank you!"

Returning the smile, he walked over to her and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "I'll get a pillow for you to kneel on, too."

"Mm, you're so good to me, Umetarou... You'll be a great daddy, you know that?"

He gently squeezed her shoulders as he stood with a proud smile, "Thank you. And you'll be a great mother."

"You think so?"

"I'm sure of it."