"Kenjii! What a surprise." Sophia opened the door wider, allowing her adoptive brother into the house while expertly catching her crawling son with her ankle before the baby got too badly underfoot. "I haven't seen you in… good Goddess, you look terrible."

"… Where's that idiot brother of yours?" Kenjii muttered, peering first down the hall and then up the staircase to the second floor. "He wasn't at his room… how does he keep that thing without a moogle being around? I'm pretty sure moogles are required in the residential housing."

Sophia tilted her head. "He's in Tavnazia… he always goes this time of the year to visit with Malay and Kirious, remember?"

He huffed in irritation as he removed his shoes and went into the sitting room to flop gracelessly onto a couch. "Of course he's away when I need him. Spoony bard."

"Eeeevery year, saaaaaame time." Sophia sing-songed as she picked up Seth and sat down next to Kenjii. "Of course, if you actually paid attention to these minor details, these things wouldn't be such a shock.

Kenjii grunted, then did something unexpected. Without a word, he reached over and grabbed Seth off of Sophia's lap, and balanced the baby on his knee. She watched in shock as her brother eyed the child, who in turn took the somewhat awkward position with great fortitude and cheer.

"He looks like his father." Kenjii finally spoke after two minutes, his voice quiet and contemplative. "Except the eyes. Those are kind of big, like yours. And round." He seemed to realize what he was doing, and quickly handed Seth back. "I don't get what the deal is. Babies are noisy, smelly, and expensive. There's enough kids in the world, really don't need to keep adding more."

"Avina's talking about having a baby, I take it?"

Kenjii's unusual behavior spoke much louder than he did just then. "No," he finally sighed. "She's not talking. She's… she's already pregnant."

Sophia knew better than to congratulate him right then and there. "Oh, yeah?" She tilted her head in interest. "How far along? Has she seen a doctor yet?"

"I guess she did; she told me this morning before I left for the school that she had an appointment. And then when I came home, she..." He ran a hand through his hair as he sat forward. "She didn't even give me a warning. I walked in the door and she jumped out of… I don't know, -somewhere-, and yelled 'You're going to be a daddy in seven months!'."

"She's excitable at times. You know that. We all know that. What happened then?"

"I turned around and walked out…"

Sophia stared at him. "You walked…" She paused, then took a deep breath. "Okay… This is completely salvageable. Avina's known you long enough that this sort of behavior isn't out of the blue." She paused again. "… You… were okay with having kids, right? I mean, you two got married…"

Kenjii was still acting unnaturally subdued. "It was an eventuality." He stood up and started pacing around the room. "We're not ready for kids! They're expensive and we have nowhere near enough money saved up. The house is too small… or we'd have to do some major changes. There's a thousand other things we need to take care of before we can have one."

"I think you're more ready than you think you are." Sophia said as she put Seth on the floor; the baby was getting restless and reaching for the pile of toys on the other side of the room. "Roy and I tried for a year because we 'thought we were ready'. Nothing came of it, so we just took it as a sign that it wasn't a good time and we moved on, worked on some of the other things we wanted to do. And then when we learned that Seth was on the way… it most certainly wasn't what we'd call 'good timing'. Things were rough and hectic, but it worked out just fine." She smiled. "We also learned that all that time we 'thought we were ready', we were actually grossly mistaken."

Kenjii frowned, but seemed to accept that as he stopped the pacing and returned to the couch, pausing long enough to pick up Seth along the way. He settled back down and held up the baby, turning him this way and that as if he was inspecting a raw gemstone. Seth found the experience hilarious, and let out a peal of laughter at the new 'game'.

"Well. That's a sight I didn't expect to ever see." Roy said from the doorway as he hung up his coat. "Don't be so jerky with him, Asgard. He's still breakable."

Sophia caught Seth when Kenjii jumped and nearly dropped him, and rolled her eyes. "You startled him." She set the baby on her hip and crossed the room, giving Roy a quick kiss before beginning to speak to him in a low voice.

Kenjii stared at them with first annoyance and then jealousy. It wasn't fair. The world just seemed to hand things to Roy. A successful military career where he climbed the ranks with ease and speed. A wife (he hesitated to call Sophia 'pretty' because, well… she was still 'Draenen' at her edges and his sister. But, he was willing to admit that she had a certain appeal and both marriage and motherhood had done some rather interesting and noteworthy things to her) that loved him. A rather nice house. A seat in the Senate. A son. A family.

And what did he get? He lost his family at a young age…

Yeah, but you know the truth of all that mess now; it wasn't as bad as you thought it was and you still do have a family.

His family house and inheritance had been tricked out from under him...

What would you have done with that big empty place? It serves a greater purpose now. So what if the house you have now is small? It's cozy and you know you love it.

Years of training, to each time have his accomplishments pulled out from under him by injury, interference, and the loss of his memories. Sacrifice of years and being thrown into hellish situations, impossible battles.

Please. You're all healed now. Stronger, even. It was all training for the Bigger Picture. There was stuff that you needed to do, stuff only you could do, and each 'loss' was just another step in the road. And you're still alive. Hell, your Azure is only a minor inconvenience these days.

Kenjii frowned and looked to the other end of the couch. The spot where Sophia had been sitting was still empty, but he could almost see Tegian sitting there, smirking at him and shooting down every argument.

There's nothing for you to compare against him, you know. You both went through your own hardships; yours were mostly physical, his were against himself. You two are on equal ground, the quality of what you have is the same. The only difference is the quantity; he's getting more because he needs, not deserves, but –needs- more than you. But it all equals out in the end.

He frowned, then looked back at where Roy and Sophia were still standing and talking quietly to each-other; at some point, Seth had decided he wanted to be held by his father and had been handed over. Okay, yeah, he knew that they'd had rocky moments. He'd comforted Sophia (even though it was entirely contrary to how he felt about the situation) a few times after she and Roy had a disagreement back when they were just dating. There had been a huge misunderstanding in the first year of their marriage, and he had allowed Roy to spend a couple nights on the couch while her rage tapered off. And there had been those unsettling couple weeks where a complication during the pregnancy almost made her lose Seth.

Nothing is ever perfect. There's always going to be a bump here and there… if, you know, you –stick around- for your –own- family…

"… Oh…" Kenjii's jaw dropped, as realization finally hit him. He had just done what he had accused and hated his own father for, for years. "Oh. Shit…" He sat forward, and put his head in his hands. "… She's… we're… and I walked off…"

Roy chuckled as he handed Seth back to Sophia, and then sat to pull his boots back on. "C'mon, Asgard. You and I are going to go have a talk and a drink while Sophe does damage assessment.

########

"Where is he."

Sophia's face went pale as the door swung open to reveal Ederick Burkhart, Avina's father, standing on the threshold. Gulp. "Ummmm… he's still getting adjusted. His brain sort of overloaded."

"I'd track him down myself, but the rat has been using that popular cologne… it's on eighty percent of the men in the whole city."

"… Ah, yes…" She tried to peer around the man. "… Is Avina in?"

Avina's voice came from the direction Sophia new the living room to be in. "You can't fix this one, Sophe. You might as well go away."

She rolled her eyes, and pushed her way past Ederick, trying to ignore how he sniffed at her as she passed. Crap. She didn't wear perfume, but the oils she used daily for her health doubled in that department. It was a custom blend, and she knew that the scent was strong enough to cling onto others. "I'm not here to fix anything. Just to help you drown your anger in ice cream."

Avina was sprawled on the couch. She had the expression of someone who had been mortally insulted but her eyes were red and puffy. "I don't want ice cream."

"Aw, you sure? And I even brought you a whole carton of your favorite. I finally got that shipment of those nuts from Adoulin for it and I spent a good chunk of this morning making this…" Sophia put the container and a large spoon on the coffee table in front of Avina, then took a seat across from her and started taking off Seth's traveling jumper.

Avina glared, then with a huff reached over, opened the carton, and a moment later jammed a heaping spoonful of the offering in her mouth. "Can't believe he walked out." She muttered, viciously stabbing the spoon back in. "With how much he likes to go at it, you'd think he was trying to get me knocked up."

"He was in a bit of a daze when he showed up." She put Seth down and handed him a few toys to busy himself with. She heard the front door open and shut; Ederick had left, presumably to try and hunt down Kenjii and Roy. "Buuuuut, when I last saw him, he was doing a fantastic job of giving himself a guilt trip. You'll have an apology from him before bedtime tonight. He just got overwhelmed; it's common enough that I can't say he went and did something never done before."

"You're assuming that I'll accept his apology."

Sophia raised an eyebrow. "… Seriously?"

Avina frowned into the now half-empty carton. "… Okay, fine. I will. But he's going to pay for this."

"Poor Kenjii." Sophia laughed. "You're going to run him ragged with the food cravings. And after this, there's no way he'll be able to say 'no' without feeling like total scum."

########

"—mood swings aren't too bad to deal with. Just keep calm, treat everything she says as being serious. It's just all those hormones and the weight."

Kenjii stared at his half-empty glass. He had protested when Roy dragged him into the bar and ordered them both drinks. Last thing he wanted to get was drunk, but Roy had insisted. Thankfully, his choice seemed to have been something mild on the alcoholic side, and after two drinks Kenjii was only feeling relaxed. "… What about the food cravings? I remember hearing about you begging the Rhinostery in Windurst to make some plants bear fruit in the wrong season."

Roy laughed. "Oh, yes. She wanted strawberries in the middle of the winter." He took a sip from his glass. "They need extra nutrition, you know? But I personally think it's not always genuine. It's kind of like they're getting nervous that since their belly is getting big, we might not love them anymore. And a husband that's willing to take apart half the world for exotic shellfish is a husband that still loves them."

"… I'm not feeling so calm all of a sudden."

"Look at it this way… when a women is pregnant, she goes through physical and emotional changes that, as men, we just can't understand. And they don't complain about most of it. When they can't handle it anymore, that's when we hear about it. How comfortable would you be feeling if you knew there was another person growing inside of you?"

Kenjii winced at that. "Okay, you have a point."

"Besides, it's all worth it." Roy smiled. "And all doubts are wiped the moment you –see- your child, Asgard. When you realize a new life is on Vana'diel, and that it has a bit of you in it… it's a whole new feeling." He paused. "Though, I wish Seth had gotten Sophia's or my mother's cheekbones and not my father's."

Kenjii stiffened, his imagination suddenly running away on him. He saw Avina in a maternity dress, her stomach impossibly huge. She started pressing on her stomach, and something fell under her skirt. A moment later, the hem of the skirt rose like stage curtains, and a miniature Ederick charges out at him, wielding an axe and with a manly scream. He shuddered and grabbed his glass, downing the rest of it in one go. "… I am screwed."

"I know that face. You had another of your weird fantasies, didn't you?" Roy quickly raised a hand, cutting Kenjii off as he opened his mouth. "No. Don't tell me. I have to give an important speech tomorrow, and I don't want to laugh in the middle of it."

########

Sophia awoke to a tap on her shoulder, and she blinked around blearily as she sat up and rubbed the back of her stiff neck. Kenjii was standing next to her, a finger raised to his lips. She looked past him to Roy, who was in the process of bundling Seth back up so they could leave.

"… You're late…" She half-mouthed, half-whispered as so not to wake Avina, who was asleep on the other couch.

Kenjii nodded and responded in kind. "Didn't want to risk being even just a bit drunk." He paused. "… Thank you."

Sophia smiled as she stood up, and then reached over and ruffled his hair. "Good luck."