A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. You guys are awesome!
To Tsukiko K: You're getting ahead of the story. ;) They've only known about Allen's pregnancy for a day and a half. That subject won't be coming up for a while yet.
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I bolted from the cafeteria to the nearest restroom and lost everything I'd just eaten. When I had finished, I just sat in front of the toilet, slumped against the stall wall, unable to move. I was completely and utterly miserable. I had known about my pregnancy for a little over a day, and every time I thought I might be adjusting to it, something like this happened. I wanted to go to bed and just sleep through the next eight months.
A tap on my shoulder made me look up. I blinked a few tears from my eyes and the first thing I saw was a shock of red hair. When I finally focused, I could see that Lavi was offering me a glass of pale yellow liquid. I was suspicious of what he was doing there, he'd seemed hell bent on avoiding me for the next eight months, but that suspicion vanished when I saw the concern that was written all over his face. "It's water with ginger and lemon. Jerry says it'll calm your stomach."
As I took the glass and sipped it slowly, the redhead sat down beside me and absently scratched my ear. "I'm sorry, Allen. I got so caught up in how weird you- ... your condition is that I forgot you were going through something so incredibly stressful. I hope I didn't upset you too much."
The comment snapped me out of my slump. I elbowed Lavi in the ribs and gave him a sideways look. "I'm a guy and I'm pregnant. It was natural for you to freak out when you heard. I told you this less than half an hour ago."
He laughed and helped me stand up. I was unsteady on my feet and he let me lean on him as we walked back to the cafeteria. I didn't want to go back in, but Lavi either didn't notice or didn't care and continued to lead me to our table. The dish that had made me so sick was gone, taken away by Jerry so it wouldn't set me off again, but while I appreciated it, it did little to make me feel better.
Lavi laughed at the look on my face and gently shook my shoulders before pushing me down to the bench. I stuck my tongue out at him, but he just laughed again and tousled my hair. "Finish your lunch, Bean Sprout. Pouting can wait."
I wanted to argue, but I knew he was right. Having just emptied my stomach, I was hungry, and I needed to eat. I had decided the night before that I was going to do my best to keep this baby alive, and I was not going to give up on that. No matter how sick to my stomach I felt. No matter how much I did not want to be pregnant. I couldn't lose my resolve after less than a day.
Fortunately, eating provided me with a great excuse for not answering the multitude of questions that came my way. It wasn't hard to figure out that I had run from the cafeteria to throw up, especially given that at least a dozen finders had witnessed me doing that same thing in the bathroom that morning; it was no surprise that there was already a rumor going around that I had the flu. I responded to the repeated inquiries about how I was feeling with noncommittal shoulder shrugs, only setting down my fork to kick Lavi in the shin whenever it looked like he was about to tell someone that I was pregnant.
Eventually the cafeteria emptied, and Lavi and I were left alone. My food was gone, but I continued to sit at the table. While part of me wanted to go back to reading that pregnancy book, the rest of me was realizing that it wasn't going to be long before reading would be all I was able to do, and that was going to get boring really quickly. Without missions and sparring to keep me busy, I was going to have way too much time on my hands.
I was pulled from my moping when Lavi cleared his throat, clearly trying to get my attention. He gave me an awkward smile. "Would it be ok if I asked you some questions?"
I couldn't help snorting. "It would be weird if you didn't, Lavi. You not asking questions about this would be like Komui not freaking out over Lenalee going on a date."
The redhead made a face at me for the comparison, but it passed quickly. "Why wouldn't you let me tell that finder that you're pregnant? Is there a reason you're keeping it a secret? Is it-"
"Lavi." His mouth snapped shut at the sound of his name. I sighed heavily before explaining. I still didn't want to talk about my pregnancy, but this was something that needed to be said. "I've only known for a day. If Komui hadn't gone against my wishes, you wouldn't know either. I don't want anyone to know what's going on until I have a handle on the situation. There's no telling how everyone is going to react to the news, and I want to be as prepared as possible before it gets out. Until then, it's best to let everyone think that I'm sick."
The look he gave me was full of disbelief, but he didn't pester me about it. Instead, he changed the subject. "Does that mean that you're keeping the baby?"
"Not because I want to." The words just popped out, but it was Lavi, he had probably figured that out already. After all, Komui did tell them that he thought I was raped.
Lavi laughed lightly. "Yeah, I imagine you were pretty pissed when Komui told you that you weren't allowed to have an abortion."
Huh? 'Not allowed'...? I blinked at Lavi, severely confused. "What do you mean 'it's not allowed'?"
I listened in horror as Lavi explained in great detail that the Church was against abortion and that I never would have been able to have one. When he finished, he cocked his head to the side. "Did Komui not explain that to you?"
At a loss for words, I just shook my head, but that answer wasn't good enough for Lavi. "Why not?"
I sighed in exasperation at his demanding tone. "How should I know? He told me that I could have an abortion, then he had to explain what that was, which freaked me out, and he calmed me down by saying that no one was going to force me to do it."
The redhead laughed. "I don't know whether to feel bad for you or to make fun of you for not knowing what an abortion is."
I made a face at him, but that only made him laugh again. He stared at me for a moment before his forehead wrinkled in confusion. "If you decided to keep the baby, why are you so pissed about it?"
"First of all, there's quite a difference between deciding against an abortion and deciding to keep the baby. And second, I'm keeping the baby because I have no choice in the matter, not because I want to. The baby inherited my neko traits, and that means that I'm stuck with it." Done with the conversation, I pushed away from the table and stalked out of the dining hall.
Lavi caught up with me as I passed the bathrooms. I had heard him coming, his footsteps were far from silent to my ears, but I didn't have the energy to try to escape him. The redhead fell in step with me, and I could tell from his body language that he was about to explode with excitement. "You're having a kitten?"
I didn't answer the question, so Lavi began to prattle on about how amazing it would be to have another neko at headquarters and how adorable my baby was going to be. It was exhausting just listening to him; I think it might have been better if I would have just let him ignore me like he had originally wanted to do.
Fortunately, I didn't have to put up with Lavi for long, as Bookman came and whisked him away before we were even halfway back to my room. I briefly wondered if the elderly man had been told of my pregnancy, but then I decided that it didn't matter; Bookman was probably the one person that I could count on to treat me absolutely no differently. After all, it was what he had done back when I first became a neko.
I wandered back to my room, but when I got there, it suddenly felt claustrophobic; I had spent more time alone in my room in the last two days than I had in the previous month. There was a solution to that though. I grabbed the book from my nightstand, and headed towards the garden. I had to turn back once, when it occurred to me that I should bring my jacket; with the way my friends were worrying about me that day, I would get an earful if I got caught outside without one.
The garden was empty and quiet. It wasn't particularly warm, but the sun felt good on my skin. I found a spot at the base of a tree, made myself comfortable, opened my book, and promptly tuned out everything else. I barely even noticed Timcanpy settling down on my head.
I was startled from my reading by the sound of giggling. It was quiet and brief, but I could still hear it. The sound had come from the tree above me, and I didn't need to hear the sneeze that followed it to know that it was Camilla and that she was laughing at me.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Am I amusing you, Camilla?"
She sneezed again, and my ears twitched as I listened to her climb a few branches higher in the tree. Once she was far enough away that I was no longer making her sneeze, she giggled again. "You're actually reading a pregnancy book."
I closed the book with a sigh and set it aside. I was tired of this subject, but the Italian woman was the only one of my friends that I hadn't spoken with yet, and she was also the only one who knew Kanda's role in it, so trying to avoid talking to her was pointless. "How else am I supposed to learn about this stuff? It's not like I was expecting to end up like this."
Thinking she would either laugh or agree with me, the low sigh she let out caught me off guard. If my hearing wasn't so sensitive, I might have missed the words that followed. "I can't believe that idiot lied to me. And he made me feel bad about it too. He is definitely going to pay for this."
I looked up into the branches and narrowed my eyes at Camilla. She looked really irritated at whoever it was she was mumbling about. "Huh? What are you-? Oh. Right."
Realization dawned on me almost immediately. I pulled my engagement ring out from under my shirt and held it out where she could see it. "Kanda said I'm supposed to show you this. I can't wear it on my finger yet because everything is so complicated right now."
"So he really did propose." Camilla seemed surprised for a moment, but then her whole attitude changed. She leaned over and smiled down at me. "How'd he do it? What did he say? Did he get down on one knee? Did he-?"
She asked a few more questions, but by that point she was talking so fast that I couldn't understand them. "Slow down, Camilla. I can only answer one question at time. Besides, Kanda only proposed because he got me pregnant; it wasn't exactly romantic."
My snarky comment made Camilla laugh. "At least he had a ring. I guarantee that if you were a woman, the guy would not have gotten you a ring."
I frowned at the ring I was still holding before stuffing the chain back inside my shirt. Now that Camilla mentioned it, the timing of all this was a little weird. It was odd that Kanda had bought his 'joke' ring the same day I learned I was pregnant.
"Did he tell you why he waited so long to propose?"
I blinked up at her, completely at a loss over what she was asking. "What do you mean by 'waited'? He proposed right after I told him I was pregnant."
Camilla looked as confused as I felt for a moment, but then it passed, and she just seemed annoyed. "He bought that ring almost a month ago. He'd been planning to propose to you for weeks."
Her last words echoed through my head as I sat there in stunned silence. Kanda had the ring for weeks? He actually wanted to marry me? He didn't propose because of the baby? I blinked up at Camilla. "But he said he bought the ring yesterday morning. ... He lied to me?"
The Italian woman raised an eyebrow in thought, and then she chucked a stick at my head. It missed me, but hit Timcanpy, startling him into hissing at her. But she didn't notice the angry golem because she was laughing at me. "Yes, he lied. If he had told you the truth, you would have either made fun of him or gotten angry at him. So don't make a big deal out of it. You're carrying his baby, just be happy that he still wants to marry you. If you were a girl-"
"Please stop comparing me to a woman, Camilla."
My tone made her laugh. "That's not going to happen, Allen. Not while you're sleeping with Kanda and definitely not while you're pregnant. But because you asked nicely, I'll stop for today."
"Thanks." I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but it must not have worked, because Camilla laughed again.
Intending to ignore her, I picked my book up and opened it to the spot I'd left off at, but I wasn't very successful as she started giggling again and it was impossible to read while she was laughing at me. I glared up at her, but that did little to silence her. However, after starting at her for a moment, I was struck with a different thought. "Hey, Camilla? You're a lot ... more normal than the others have been today. Aren't you weirded out by this whole pregnancy thing?"
She snorted and chucked another twig at me. "Allen, you're half cat and you can turn your arm into a magic sword that doesn't hurt people. You being pregnant is far from the weirdest thing that could be happening."
Her answer startled me a little; it was strange to hear that she viewed the situation the same way I did.
The third stick Camilla threw grazed my ear. I scowled at her, but she spoke before I could tell her to stop throwing things at me. "Then again, it's probably not as weird to me because I know that you're gay."
I shrugged. "Maybe. But Lenalee knows that I'm gay, and she is definitely not acting like herself today."
Camilla laughed. "What did she do?"
The question made me frown. "Nothing yet, but I can tell that she's up to something."
