Summary: Erik and Nikki, pregnant with Monique, comfort each other during a state of self-consciousness

Rated: T for language and an intimate setting

Enjoy!

-Jessie

The bathroom door swung open to reveal Nicole, clad in a satin robe, her protruding belly lifting the hem scandalously short.

"I'm fat," she said flatly.

I scoffed. "You're pregnant."

"I'm fucking fat," she growled, approaching the bed.

"Mouth, young lady," I replied sharply.

She chortled and then sighed as she lay back on the bed. "God, these hormones, driving me nuts."

I sat beside her on the bed and gently pushed some hair that landed on her face away from it. I tucked it behind her ear and she looked up at me into my eyes. Slowly, her hand reached up towards my face. Her fingers grazed my left cheek and I found myself closing my eyes, relishing the feel of her smooth fingers against the exposed side of my face. I didn't even feel her approach the masked side, but when I felt her fingertips curl inside the crack between my face and my mask, I stopped her by her wrist.

"Self-conscious?" she said. "Erik, we've been legally married for five months and you still won't let me fully undress you. Everything but the mask." I sighed and my lips tightened. With a little grunt, she sat up and touched the exposed side of my face. "I love all of you," she whispered. "Your imperfections don't gross me out." My hands were clenched against my lap. Her right hand held my wrists together, a bit above the line of gentleness, and with a sharp breathe in I let her peel the mask off my face. I felt the cooler air graze the missing skin and scars. It almost stung for a moment. She put the mask on the nightstand and then with her hands both free because she released my wrists, her fingertips began to touch either side of my face. I tilted my face until my lips reached her left hand so I could kiss her palm. My eyes were closed, but I could feel her smiling gently as she ran her left fingers gingerly down from my right temple to the side of my jaw. Her hand then cupped the deformed side of my face, her fingertips gently tapping on it. "Erik, I don't give a damn about your deformity," she whispered. "Stop being self-conscious. You're with me now." Her hand dropped and she pressed her lips gently against the right side of my face, her right hand sliding down to rest against my neck and shoulder, her thumb stroking between them. I sighed again and she whispered, still against my right deformed cheek, "I love you." I could feel her warm breath against it. My hands wandered to her growing belly and I opened my eyes to see her smiling gently, peering down at it. "She's going to be a really cute kid," she said.

I cocked an eyebrow. "She? You found out the sex?"

"Yeah," she said sheepishly. "Sorry…if you wanted it to be a surprise." She sighed with a smile. "I guess you'll have two women in your life."

I wasn't upset that she found out. In fact, I wanted to at some point. I lowered my back, my hands falling to the side of her belly, and I kissed the top. "She will be beautiful, if she turns out anything like you."

Her fingers lifted my chin and I looked up at her. "If she's anything like you, too."

I sighed and sat up again. "I suppose I am a little self-conscious."

"Hey, so am I," she said. "I'm all fat. Getting some gross stretch marks there."

I placed some more of her hair behind her ear. "My love," I breathed, caressing her belly and looking into her eyes. "You're beautiful."

Her fingers stroked the deformed side of my face again. "So are you." With an exhale through her nose that passed as a chortle, she said, "Say you're not one more time and I'll smack you." She breathed in and said, "I'll make a deal with you. I'll love your body, if you love mine."

I smiled gently. "Deal."

She moved her hand to the back of my neck and pushed me closer until our lips touched.

I know deep down she was self-conscious about her advancing pregnancy, and I remain somewhat self-conscious about my deformity, but neither of us were ashamed in front of each other.