Hey, there! Remember this story? Yeah, the one that's gone an entire month without an update? Sorry about that. I have no excuse.

Thank you all so much for your reviews! I mean, eight reviews for the first chapter? That's never happened before! I hope that continues, because I really like it a lot. I cannot repeat it enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

NorthAmericanJaguar: I like your names! I'll keep them in mind for when I start getting into the third trimester ;)

And...well, I'm thinking that I might not do the wedding. What do you all want? I dislike anything cliche, and I just...I've been thinking about different ideas for over two months. I'm seriously drawing a blank. So unless you guys can come up with some ideas, I might just skip over it.

The Dare

The first thing Nya noted when she woke up was the sound of Jay's soft breathing. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that the sun was not shining. The sky was clear last night, wasn't it? She wondered. Yes, Zane showed me a shooting star. The sky must have been clear if we could see that.

Nya turned over and examined her fiancé's face. His eyes were shut, his hair tousled and in need of a shower. A brown scruff caressed the skin around his smiling lips, indicating that he had not shaved the night before.

She yawned as she sat upright and gently peeled the sheet away from her shivering body. The air was ridiculously cold.

Sweater, she thought as she opened the closet door. I need to wear warm clothes.

"Hey, sis?" She heard Kai's voice on the other side of the wall.

Nya turned her head to look at the door. "Come on in," she said softly as she selected a blue hoodie and a red long-sleeved shirt.

Kai opened the door and stepped through. He wore a pair of faded jeans and T-shirt with a candy advertisement on the front. "Good morning," he said. "Sleep well?"

Nya turned to him with an impatient look in her brown eyes. "Can we skip it today?" She asked. "I don't feel like swallowing three spoonfuls of baking soda on my wedding day."

Kai snorted. "That was yesterday's bet," he reminded her. "But don't worry. I've spent the entire morning thinking about it." He raised his hands and spread them apart. "I had an epiphany as I walked down the hall a few minutes ago."

Nya raised a defined black eyebrow. "An epiphany?" She asked. "Do you even know what that word means?"

Kai let his arms drop back to his side. "Eh, no." He grunted. "But it's fun to say. I had to use it at least once."

"Spill it, Kai." Nya rummaged through her drawer to find a matching set of socks- she really needed to get the bin organized- and yawned again. "Give me today's bet, then get your sorry bottom out of our room."

Kai and Nya had been playing a betting game for the past week. Every day they would exchange bets. If they actually did the embarrassing act (swallowing baking soda, poking hornets nests, etcetera), they got one point. Refusing to take the bet resulted in a loss of two points.

So far, Kai was at six points. Nya tailed closely behind with five. The goal was to reach ten.

"Okay," Kai said with a grin. "This one isn't really that hard, and you might actually enjoy it." He jabbed a thumb in Jay's direction. "You need to wake him up."

Nya tossed a pair of matching cotton socks onto the floor behind her and gave Kai a tired look. "I do that practically every day," she said. "Are you running out of ideas?"

Kai shook his head. The strange grin was still stuck to his lips. "No," he said. "I've got it all worked out. First, you're going to get onto that bed and give him a kiss."

Nya felt her face flush. "While he's sleeping?" She asked. "Like...how deep of a kiss?"

If Nya didn't know her brother any better, she would have thought him insane. The smile grew to a low, controlled chuckle. "As deep as you can get," he said. "When he finally wakes up, you're going to tell him something."

Uh-oh... Nya thought. She lifted a hand to her temple and sighed. "What?" She asked. "Seriously. Spit it out, I've got a lot to do today, in case all the hectic preparation yesterday didn't clue you in."

"All right," Kai replied. He leaned closer to her ear and spoke in a low tone; he did not want the poor sleeping man in the bed to wake up before he could be preyed upon. "You're going to tell him that you're pregnant."

Nya took a step backward, shocked. A strangled cry escaped her throat. "How..." She stuttered. "How did you-"

"Relax," Kai set a hand on her shoulder and winked at her. "I know you're not really pregnant. It's a joke." He saw Nya's panicked expression and shook his head. "Aw, come on. Don't tell me you haven't played around yet. You've been sleeping together for an entire month. Being delirious from sleep and the kiss, he should totally believe you when you tell him."

Nya glanced at Jay and hesitated. The problem with his joke is that she was pregnant, and she knew Jay well enough to know that if she actually agreed to do this bet, she knew he would end up spilling the beans with some comment along the lines of, "I know, Nya. You feelin' okay?"

"Well?" Kai asked. "You gonna do it, or should I change the scorecard to six-three?"

Nya sighed. "Fine," she said. She threw her blue jeans on the floor in her frustration and walked over to the bed. "Don't you dare video this."

Kai held up his hands. "Do I look like I'm holding a camera?" He asked. "Get going. I'm supposed to be running an errand for Cole."

Then what are you doing in here? Nya wanted to ask, but she kept this retort to herself.

She climbed up onto the bed and sat on her knees next to her fiancé. After flashing Kai a pointed look of annoyance and exasperation, she leaned over and pressed her lips to Jay's.

After receiving no response, she ran a hand through his hair and tried to get her tongue into his mouth. To her mild surprise, his jaw was slack. It allowed her easy access to his teeth and beyond. She grimaced slightly at the bitter taste. Had he forgotten to brush, too?

Jay's sleepy blue eyes fluttered open and blinked at her. He didn't seem too surprised by this sudden move on her part, just slightly confused. "H-hey," he managed to say. It was hard to speak when a pair of lips and a tongue were fighting for dominance in his mouth. "Goo-d...mor..." He gave up after that and leaned into the kiss.

Kai gagged from his spot next to the door. "Yeah, good morning," he said. "Could you two oversized lovebirds speed this up? Nya has some important news to tell you."

Nya found herself growing impatient with her brother's nagging. You wanted me to do this, she thought as she nibbled Jay's lower lip. You wanted a kiss? I'll give him a kiss that will give you nightmares for weeks to come. That'll teach you.

Actually, she was beginning to enjoy herself. Her heart fluttered like Zane's mechanical butterflies in her chest as she pressed her body close to his and kissed his jaw, then nibbled that tender spot just beneath his ear.

"Oh, no. Please," Kai's exaggerated gagging noises morphed into loud retches. "What did I just do to myself?"

"Nya," Jay whispered. With his lover's lips occupied with kissing other parts of his face, his mouth was free enough to get out the words. "Why is Kai in here? Isn't this just a little bit-"

Her lips pressed back into his mouth, stopping his words. No you don't, she thought. Just roll with it, no questions. I need Kai to leave so that I can get away with not doing step two of this prank.

Jay finally forced her away and sat upright, gasping for breath. "I love you too," he said. "Please don't suffocate me."

Nya glanced back at Kai, who had a relieved look on his face now that Jay had pulled away. Great. She wasn't going to get out of this one...

"Jay," she sat back and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. The saliva dripping from her chin was distracting. "I have to tell you something important."

Jay didn't seem to mind the wetness around his mouth and other parts of his face. He blinked at her and yawned. "What is it, baby?" He asked.

Nya frowned. He was starting to make a game of calling her that, even though he knew she didn't like it.

She forced herself to calm down. This was no time to bicker about his list of endearing (and teasing) names for her. "I'm..." She cursed in her mind. This was incredibly ridiculous. "I'm pregnant, Jay."

There. She said it. Now, if all went well, Jay would react in a way that would appease Kai's cruel sense of humor and not give them away.

Jay blinked at her in surprise for a long, tense moment before speaking. "With who's kid?" He asked. "Can't be mine."

Now it was Nya's turn to be surprised. What is he doing? She asked herself. "Umm..."

Jay sat leaned forward and pecked her cheek. "Funny joke, you two," he said. "Who's winning the game?"

Nya smiled, relieved. Why had she ever doubted him? He knew better than to give her away. "We're tied now," she told him. "Six and six."

"Aha," Jay nodded. "Well, figure out something especially embarrassing for your brother's next bet; he totally deserves it."

"No," Kai deadpanned. "I think that watching you two make out was punishment enough."

Nya exchanged a glance with Jay before they both shook their heads. "Not really," she said. "Just give me a little while, guys. I'll think of something terrible enough for him later today."

"But you won't have time later," Jay reasoned. "Or did you already forget about our wedding?"

Sarcasm. Was it a gift from heaven or hell?

Nya slid off the bed. "No," she said. "Stop pestering me, Jay." She began shoving Kai toward the doorway. "And you're running an errand for Cole, remember?" She waved a hand at him and shut the door with a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Jay," she ran back over to the dresser and pulled out a shirt for her fiancé.

"No problem," Jay said. He had recovered from his laughing fit and now sat on the side of the bed with his feet on the floor. "I woke up when Kai knocked on the door. I heard the whole thing."

So that's why his jaw was loose enough for me to kiss him, Nya realized. The sneaky eel. He was awake the whole time. She tossed the blue shirt in Jay's direction. "We'll have to tell them eventually," she pointed out. "We've waited too long for any of them to believe that the baby was conceived after our marriage."

Jay reached out and caught the shirt. "I know," he admitted. "But we've been so busy trying to find the Nindroid base. It can hardly be helped that our wedding is happening today instead of three weeks ago, like you'd wanted."

Nya reached into another drawer and pulled out a pair of faded jeans. "Just blame the Nindroids," she said as she handed then to Jay and pecked his lips. "I love you, Mr. Walker."

Jay returned the kiss and smiled. "I love you too, Miss Biles."

Nya turned to her pants drawer and pulled out a pair of blue jeans. She sighed as she turned to the full-length mirror. "I don't think these will fit me anymore," she said. "I'm getting so fat."

"Aww, no," Jay stood up and went to her side. "I hardly even notice the difference yet. You're only like...what, eight weeks?" He wrapped an arm around her. "Even if you are a little bigger in the waist, I don't care."

Nya allowed him to turn her away from the mirror. "You're not a woman," she said. "You don't understand how girls feel about having muffin tops when jeans get too tight." In a sudden fit of anger, she threw the jeans on the floor and hugged her stomach. "I'll need to shop for maternity clothes soon."

Jay blew air through his lips. "Stop it," he said. "It's not that big of a deal. You'll survive. Maternity clothes don't come into play until you're like...halfway through the second trimester."

Nya paused, then felt tears well up in her eyes. "Why are you so insensitive?" She asked. "You...I...why..." She picked up her shirt. "I hate this, Jay. I'm not even into the second trimester, and I'm already failing." She seemed oblivious to the fact that she was being 'wordy.'

"Hey," Jay grabbed the shirt from her and tossed it aside. "It's just hormones. Calm down, okay?"

"No!" Nya cried out. "I...why, Jay? I'm so terrible at this!"

Jay sighed softly and kissed the top of her head. "You were so happy a minute ago," he said. "I'm sorry. It's hard for me to learn. I'm going to need a lot of patience if I'm going to be anything but a knife in your gut these next several months."

Nya shoved him away angrily and went for the door. "You're not making me feel any better," she sobbed. "And my neck hurts."

Jay threw up his arms. "That doesn't even follow," he argued. "I'm sorry that your neck hurts. Do you want me to massage your shoulders?"

Nya stopped right before her hand hit the door, and she moaned. "I need a big shirt," she said. "I'm getting so fat, it's obvious that I'm pregnant. Give me that sweatshirt, I'll-"

"Stop," Jay said firmly. He strode up to her, grabbed her hand, and pushed her onto the bed. "Sit still and shut your mouth. You're not fat. You're going to be a great mother. Now lay down and let me rub your shoulders.

Grudgingly, Nya obliged him. She dropped her head onto the pillow face-down. "You should stop lying to me," she said. "Just be honest and tell me the truth. I am-"

"No, you're not." Jay hopped onto the bed and straddled her legs. "Put a smile on your face. I am telling you the truth. Stop acting like you've got bipolar disorder and put a smile on your face."

"Fine," Nya's gruff voice was muffled by the pillow.

Jay began to massage her shoulders gently. "Nope," he said. "Try again. I can hear the frown in your ragged breathing."

"How do you hear a frown?" Nya asked.

"I'm Jay. I just can."

"Does Jay have special powers or something?"

"Yep," Jay replied. His fingers attacked a particularly tight muscle behind Nya's left ear- a terrible place to be sore- as he smiled. "I'm the ninja of cheesy grins. All frowns beware; I know the tickle."

"Uh-huh," Nya sighed. "Move your hand down a little."

Jay did as he was told with an eye roll. "Someone needs a visit from the Optimistic Ninja," he said. "The Dark Frown is polluting your brain. I must hurry. You don't have much time left!"

Nya turned over and glared at him. "Can you just let me be mad?" She snapped. "Take your optimism to another room. I feel sick again; please go away."

Jay threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine," he said. "Sorry. I'll be in the kitchen, eating whatever Misako is cooking for breakfast."

"Go suck an egg," Nya rolled over again, shoving her face deep into the pillow.

The lightning ninja turned on his heel and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

But instead of finding an empty hall, he came face-to-face with Kai.

"What was that about?" Kai asked, bewildered. "I was just walking by and heard some yelling."

Jay felt his heart rate skyrocket. How much did Kai hear? He wondered. If he heard Nya's rant, we're hooped.

"She was just smiling a minute ago," Kai continued, noting Jay's flustered expression. "What'd you do?"

Jay gestured to himself. "Oh, so her attitude is my fault," he stated sarcastically before shoving past Kai.

"Now hold on," Kai grabbed Jay's shoulder. "I was kidding. Don't be all sensitive about it."

Jay shook himself free. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" He asked. "Go find Cole or something." Without giving Kai time to respond, he stormed down the hallway toward the monastery's kitchen.

"G'morning, Zane," Cole said pleasantly as he entered the kitchen. "Where's Misako? I thought she was cooking."

Zane flipped a pancake expertly with his spatula before letting it fall back into the hot pan. "She had to run a few errands," he replied. "So she passed the buck. I hope you're not disappointed."

Cole waved a dismissive hand. "Naw," he sat down at the island in the center of the spacious kitchen. "Don't tell her I said this, but her cooking is a little bland. Not enough sugar in the batter, not enough salt in the stew."

"Hmm," Zane grunted in agreement as he set the golden pancake on a plate neatly atop about a dozen others and poured more dough into the pan. As he set the bowl back on the counter, he noticed a dime-sized droplet of batter had landed on the stovetop. He grimaced. There I go again, he thought as he reached for a paper towel and wiped it up. It's unfortunate that my obsessive-compulsive problems didn't go away when I traveled back in time.

Cole drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. "I asked Kai to find me a pair of scissors," he said. "Why hasn't he come back yet?"

Zane shrugged as he threw the paper towel away and picked up the spatula. "Maybe he's playing peeping tom on Nya and Jay," he joked.

Cole raised a brow. "Since when have you been so jocular?" He asked.

Lloyd spent his entire college life in the future picking on me, Zane wanted to say. It can be difficult to not pick up on it.

"Since I became a human," Zane answered shortly. He rolled up his sleeve and opened his wrist panel. "It's much easier to have a sense of humor when you have an organic brain, you know."

Cole snorted. "Jay was messing with your systems again, wasn't he?" He asked.

"No," Zane said honestly as he shut the panel and let his sleeve relax. "It was Nya." The pancake was getting bubbly, so he flipped it.

Cole shook his head. "You haven't been making a lot of sense lately," he said. "But I doubt that it's insanity, so I'll try not to get too worried."

"That's very considerate of you," Zane replied. "But I'm not fine; I've been diagnosed with at least four different serious mental illnesses, including manic depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

Manic depression, he repeated in his head. There's an oxymoron, if ever there was one...

"Since when?" Cole snorted. "I don't...believe..." He paused, looking to his left. "Do you hear that?"

Zane stilled his hand and turned his head to follow Cole's gaze. The indistinct sounds of people shouting drifted toward his ears. "Sounds like Nya and Jay," he stated after a few seconds.

Cole whistled. "Not even married, and they're already fighting." He smiled. "How long to you think their 'happily ever after' will last?"

"Forever," Zane said. "At least, it'd better." Considering what I gave up for them to be together, he added silently.

A crashing sound echoed through the house moments later, then dead silence, making the sounds of the stove seem abnormally loud.

"Uh-oh," Cole mumbled. "You hear that? Jay's coming this way. Act natural, and maybe he won't strangle us."

Jay came storming into the kitchen not ten seconds after Cole's proclamation, grumbling angrily under his breath.

"Good morning," Zane said pleasantly as he set another pancake on the neat, uniform stack. "Sleep well, Jay?"

"No," Jay sighed as he dropped in a seat next to Cole. "Nya kept on waking up. I'm tired."

"Sorry to hear that," Zane said. "I saw her around three this morning; we went out and watched the stars for a few minutes together."

"Well," Jay sat upright, brows lowered in anger. "Since you two are so chummy, would you mind talking some sense into her?"

Zane paused. "Me?" He asked. "Why would I do that? It seems like I'm needed here."

"Just put the pancakes on hold," Jay said. "You can go and talk to her, then come back. She won't listen to me."

"Elaborate, please." Zane said. "What are you trying to tell her?"

Jay threw his hands in the air. "I don't even know!" He exclaimed. "She was complaining about being fat and her neck hurting. I was trying to make her feel better, and she exploded!"

Cole stood up slowly and backed away. "I'll leave you two alone," he said. "There's stuff that needs to get done, anyway."

Zane nodded his thanks, then turned his attention back to Jay.

"What did I do wrong?" Jay asked, his voice more subdued. "Was it my fault?"

"In part," Zane replied. "There's one important thing that you need to know about women. Sometimes, they just want to be heard. They need someone to sit with them and patiently listen to their problems. The last thing you want to do is try to fix it when they complain like that. Sometimes, women just need to be mad for a little while." He gave Jay a friendly smile. "Leave her alone for twenty minutes. I'm sure she'll cool down a little bit, then you can go apologize."

Jay pressed a hand to his pajama shirt. "Why do I need to apologize?" He asked. "She's the one who got mad at me."

Why do I suddenly feel like a counselor? Zane thought with an inward smile. "You're at a stalemate with Nya," he said out loud. "One of you needs to apologize because if you don't, things won't end well. Since you're the man, you should step up and act like it."

Jay rolled his eyes. "So what you're saying is that just because I'm a guy, I should take all the blame?"

"No!" Zane exclaimed. "Look, sorry. It made more sense in my head, but...you know. Just cut her some slack. Being pregnant isn't easy."

Jay sighed. "Yeah, I guess..." He blinked, then jumped, startled. "Wait...how did you know? Does anyone else know? Oh, that's why Kai asked this morning, isn't-"

"Jay," Zane held up a hand. "Relax, okay? No one else knows, and I don't plan on telling, either."

Jay blew a puff of air through puckered lips. "Why do you have to be so smart?" He asked. "It's impossible to keep a secret."

"Within a week, you won't be able to hide it at all," Zane reminded him. "She's almost nine weeks, right? I'm surprised she's made it this far without being found out. But back on our original track, I think you should consider these four points." He paused to make sure Jay was listening. "Patience, love, forgiveness, and respect. Got it?"

Another quote from Nya's book. Future Kai was a lot wiser than Present Kai, apparently. Duh.

Jay was silent for a moment. He lowered his chin into his hand and hummed a low note. "Yeah," he said eventually. "Thanks, Zane. Where'd you learn this stuff?"

It took Zane less than a second to come up with an answer. "The same place that I learned Nya was expecting," he answered quietly, tapping his forehead.

He started and turned back to the stove. A burning smell permeated the air. "Goodness," he exclaimed. "Look what you did, Jay. Don't distract me while I'm cooking. Get out of here; go talk to Nya, and don't come back until you get a smile from her."

Jay faked a moan and slid down from the chair. "Fine," he whined, although he was smiling. "And by the way, I've never seen a more uniform stack of pancakes in my life." He left the room.

Zane scraped the scorched fry cake from the pan and threw it away. He looked back at his tall stack, puzzled. Was it really that uniform?

There were about twenty pancakes so far. Each one was about the size of a saucer, and the stack went straight up like a pillar from its base; the plate.

He smiled and shook his head. Perhaps it was just a little overdone.

Oh, well, he sighed and went back to work. Some habits just can't change.

Writing Cranky Nya was fun. I bet I could come up with at least four different brain conditions to try and explain her behavior. But the only thing that anyone can say right now is, "She's pregnant." That's really the only way to properly explain her irrational behavior.

Does anyone else out there have some good names that you'd like me to use? I need both boy and girl names because...hehe...well, asking for just boy names, or just girl names, would be a dead giveaway. I'm keeping the gender a secret.

I love how Zane cane be completely honest, and they still don't believe him. He sounds like he's joking when in reality, he's dead serious. Poor guy...that OCD will haunt him forever.

Please review! :D I love you all for reading. Constructive criticism appreciated.