Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater or any of the characters.

Maka collapsed down on the sofa with a groan. She was so exhausted that she didn't even complain when Soul fell on top of her while attempting to drape his body over the couch. They both lounged in silence for a minute before simultaneously releasing a sigh. Soul broke the silence first, voice muffled from his arm which was slung over his face.

"We are never, ever doing that again."

Maka let her head roll to the side so she could look down at him.

"Come on Soul, babysitting was not that bad. You're being melodramatic," she argued weakly, knowing full well that is really was that bad.

"Pft, yeah right. On a scale of one to ten, how tired are you right now?" he asked, moving his arm away from his face.

Seventy at least, she though with a sigh. He grinned smugly at her silence.

"Point taken," she muttered.

For once, Soul really wasn't being overly dramatic, babysitting for Black*Star and Tsubaki had been one of the hardest, most tiring experiences she had been through, and that included hunting kishin eggs.

Maka made a face, "Poor Tsubaki, I feel so bad that she has to deal with that every day."

Soul mimicked the pinched up expression she wore.

"Yeah, but it's her fault that she wanted to have kids with that hyperactive idiot."

It was true, Black*Star and Tsubaki had quickly become engaged and then married after the battle on the moon. The entire gang was delighted to find out that they were expecting twins several months later, Kid had even cried at the prospect of perfect symmetry. Unfortunately for him, they were born fraternal twins. One, a boy they named Red*Star, and a girl named Blue*Star. They didn't look much alike, but they definitely shared the same personality and it was scarily akin to their father's boisterous attitude. Now, with both at the age of four, Tsubaki finally had a meltdown which resulted in Black*Star swiftly proposing a vacation to soothe his frazzled wife.

They had called upon the twins' favorite aunt and uncle to babysit for a few days so Tsubaki could recuperate. Maka had been really excited at first, and she had suspected that Soul was secretly happy as well. They had started dating not long after the twins were born and babysitting gave them something to do as a couple. The experience probably would have been great if the kids had been normal and not the spawn of Black*Star.

Not that the children themselves were bad, they were actually quiet sweet. They just had a tendency to be loud. And clumsy. And horrible at following directions. Five days of rambunctious twins had worn Maka and Soul down to the bones.

It was only 7:30 at night and Maka was ready to throw in the towel and go to sleep.

"Move your legs, I'm going to go change and then sleep for a few months," she half joked.

Soul let out a cross between a grunt and a sigh as he slowly pulled his legs off her one by one. Maka stood up stiffly, her spine popping as she stretched. She stared down at her boyfriend as he put his legs back in her spot, his eyes closing.

"Don't fall asleep there, you'll mess up your back again," she said, walking to her room.

She changed into comfy shorts and one of Soul's shirts and leaned out of her doorway, peering into the living room where Soul was still draped over the couch.

"Soul," she warned. She heard him shuffle and start to get up, probably more because he didn't want to be chopped than to save his back some pain.

He walked past her to his room and she followed, dropping on to his bed while he changed. He stripped off his shirt and exchanged jeans for pajama pants. She normally would have found this sexy, but she had already settled under the covers and her eyes were starting to droop.

Soul turned off the lights and dropped onto the bed beside her and settled his arm over her shoulder. She wondered sleepily when their relationship had become so comfortable. She smiled a bit, it was nice and it had slowly torn down the wall her cheating papa had built during her younger years.

"Good night, Soul," she muttered into the darkness.

"Mm, g'night," he said, already more than half asleep, with Maka not far behind.

It was barely dawn when Maka woke up with a start. The filtered light cast over her boyfriend in a serene way that she would have liked to enjoy it if she wasn't so blindingly nauseated. She tried to get out of bed quietly without disturbing her sleeping partner. She had just disengaged his arm from her torso when her churning stomach took priority over Soul's sleep. She flung the covers off and made a dash to the bathroom before emptying her stomach. Her elbows rested on the cool porcelain edge and her hands supported her head as she willed the nausea away.

"Hey, you okay?" a groggy Soul asked from the doorway. She turned her head meekly toward him, his eyes were clouded with sleep but concern seemed to be battling its way onto his face. She opened her mouth to answer but she felt the bile rise in her throat. As she continued to be sick Soul crouched behind her to pull her hair away from her face and rub soothing circles on her back. After a few minutes when her nausea subsided and she was sure her stomach was totally empty, she flushed the toilet and took the cup of water Soul was handing her. Once she had washed the awful taste from her mouth she sighed and apologized for waking him up. He shook his head.

"No big deal. What do you think all that was from?" he asked as he put his hand over her forehead. "You don't feel like you have a fever."

"Maybe I just ate something bad…the kids did make us eat their 'special breakfast'," Maka reasoned with a grimace. The thought of half cooked pancakes covered in toppings that should not accompany pancakes made her feel sick all over again. Soul must have seen her face pale and picked up on it too.

"Don't think about that, you'll make yourself throw up again. Still, I ate those too and I'm okay," Soul said.

Maka raised a skeptical brow at him.

"You sir, have a freaking iron stomach, you could eat the entire fridge and be fine," she accused with a glare.

He shrugged at her and then took her hand to lead her back to his room. He settled her back on the bed and pulled the comforter over her.

"Maybe some more sleep will help," he said while climbing over her to his side of the bed. He stroked her hair until she could feel the tiredness wash over her. She smiled and wiggled closer to him.

"Thanks Soul," she mumbled into his chest.

Four days. Four days and she was still getting sick and it was really starting to grate on her nerves.

"Sorry to cancel on you Tsu, I was really looking forward to having breakfast with you. I just can't seem to kick this damn stomach bug," Maka said into the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder. She was sitting in the bathroom with her back against the tub, still fighting some lingering nausea.

"I'm so sorry Maka. Have you gone to Stein yet," Tsubaki's anxious voice intoned over the phone.

"That's the thing, I get so sick in the morning and by the time I start to go see Stein I feel completely better for the rest of the day."

"Only the morning…" Tsubaki trailed thoughtfully.

"Tsu?" Maka asked after a few moments of silence.

"Oh, nothing!" she exclaimed followed by a nervous laugh. Suddenly Maka could then hear the twins yelling in the background about breakfast.

"Sorry Maka, I have to go. I hope you feel better!" Tsubaki rushed as the volume of the twins intensified.

"Thanks, I'll talk to you soon," Maka said before hanging up the phone and putting it by her side. She wondered if she could leave the bathroom long enough to get dressed before the next wave of nausea hit. As soon as she stood up she felt sick again and wretched over the toilet. She was glad Soul had a Death Scythe meeting with Kid this morning, he was really starting to worry over her. Hopefully she would feel better before he got back and she could tell him that she'd been fine. Not that she wanted to lie to him but she rather not get him too worked up over this.

She had just flushed down the evidence when Blair walked by the door in her cat form. She paused mid-step and looked inside.

"Still sick huh, Maka?" Blair asked sympathetically.

"A bit, but I think it's passed for now. How weird that it has only been happening in the morning," she mused as she filled a cup with water.

Blair seemed to freeze for a second before a wicked grin that only a feline could achieve appeared on her face.

"Ohhh, kitten," Blair chuckled as she padded toward the sink. "Blair thought this might happen at some point but she didn't think her kittens would be so clueless!"

She continued to laugh as she pawed open the cabinet under the sink and slinked inside making a few rustling noises.

"What do you mean? What exactly did you think would happen?" Maka questioned, confused as to why Blair seemed so smug and amused all the sudden.

The cat reappeared with a small plastic package in her mouth and dropped the item at Maka's feet.

"This might help explain a few things," she said slyly. She turned with a flick of her tail. "Blair-chan has to go out for a bit, bye Maka!" she finished cheerily before walking out of the bathroom.

Maka glanced at the pink plastic wrapped object at her feet wondering if that was what she thought it was.

"Wait Blair! Th-this is. Why would you…How did you…?" Maka stumbled over her words with a surmounting feeling of dread. Blair turned around with her cat-like smile.

"Nya, Blair can guess what her kittens are doing behind closed doors," she said with a wink before she jumped onto the window sill and disappeared outside.

Maka flushed several shades of red and gaped at the pregnancy test before her. She slowly sank to her knees in front of it trying to convince herself that Blair had it all wrong, that this morning nausea was a fluke. Still, deep down, she had a clear idea of how this was probably going to play out. She stood back up on shaky legs and opened the wrapper with even shakier hands. She scolded herself, she had helped bring down the freaking kishin, she shouldn't be afraid of a tiny stick.

It had been two minutes and Maka was sure she was going to explode, why did these things have to take so long?! She was about to peek at the test again when the door to the apartment opened.

"Maka, I'm back," Soul called from the living room, "And I picked up some soup if your stomach is still bothering you."

Maka stiffened. Crap. She hadn't even grasped this situation herself and she had no idea how she was going to relay it to Soul. The shuffling from the kitchen stopped.

"Maka?" he called out with a touch of concern in his voice.

She started to call out to him but something caught her eye that fully immobilized her. Soul's steps sounded in the hallway and he was soon standing in the entrance to their small bathroom. He sighed in relief.

"Jeez, you had me going there for a minute bookworm. You didn't answer when I came in, everything okay?" he asked. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub she made no move to answer him. She was starting to freak him out and he gave her a more thorough once over. She didn't look injured but suddenly a tear slipped down her face.

"Oi, Maka! What's wrong? Does something hurt, do we need to go to Stein?" his hands started to flutter around her, not knowing where to place them in case she was in pain. This seemed to snap her back to attention. She raised her hand to wipe away the tear that had made its way to her cheek without permission.

"Soul," she whispered. His hands stilled in the air around her.

"Yes?" he asked a little too loudly, completely alert and ready to spring to action if she gave the word.

"Soul, I'm-" she faltered, still staring at the object pinched between her thumb and index finger.

He finally followed her line of sight to the small stick in her hand. He sucked in a breath and she could practically hear the gears turning in his head just as they had been in hers several minutes ago. He placed a warm hand over her free one.

"What-" he gulped and continued quietly, "What do two lines mean?"

"It means…means that I'm pregnant," the words sounded heavy and awkward on her tongue.

They both looked up and their eyes locked. A beat of silence and Soul broke out into the biggest and dopiest grin that Maka had seen from him. Excitement shone brightly in his viridian eyes and for some reason that did in the last restraint over her emotions. Her lip trembled followed by tears making their way down her red cheeks.

"Hey, hey! Maka, what's wrong? Aren't you happy?" he was quick to wipe away the moisture on her face with his thumb.

She let out a laugh that sounded strangled through the crying. She leaned her head into the juncture of his shoulder.

"Of course I am, but it happened so fast it also makes me feel terrified," she admitted softly. She felt Soul start to run his fingers through her hair as a comforting gesture. Maka heard him let out a low whistle.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see that day Maka Albarn admits that she is scared," he teased in mock seriousness. Even though her punch hardly had any effort behind it, Soul still had to rub his arm as he winced. "Seriously, what is there for you to be afraid of? You know I'll be right here for you the entire time," he attempted to assuage her worry.

"I know, I know, it's just- just, I'm growing something inside of me! What if I'm not ready, what if I don't do a good job? I have no idea how to be a mother and I'll probably screw up and then it will resent me for the rest of its life, and- and," she paused as something bigger occurred to her. Her eyes widened as she pushed out of Soul's arms only to grab his collar and pull him so close their noses almost touched.

"Oh my Death, what if they are like the twins?" she hissed in panic.

Whether it was this new revelation or Maka's anxiety ridden rant, Soul actually faltered for half a second. The silence was soon replaced by his laughter though and his shoulders shook with the force under Maka's grip. When she socked him in the arm this time it held some warning that he was treading on thin ice.

"Ow, I'm sorry!" he said even though he was still grinning. "You just think too much is all, nerd. First of all, there is no way a cool guy like me will have kids like Black*Star's."

Maka had to giggle a little bit, Soul hadn't pulled the 'cool' card since their early teenage years.

"And second," he continued with a soft smile reserved for only her, "You will be a terrific mother. Heck, you've been taking care of me for years, it really can't be that different."

Maka took a careful look at the man smiling down at her with unwavering tenderness. It strengthened her resolve and eased her apprehension. She pulled him into a tight hug because she didn't know how she could end up with someone as good as him. She felt him whisper his love for her against her ear. Suddenly an idea flitted through her head and she grinned mischievously against his neck.

"I love you too…and since you are so confident about this whole thing, I suppose you have no problem breaking this to my Papa."

"Shit."

I'm finally back! I am so sorry about the late update, writers block and participating in the adult world has been holding me up. Hopefully this isn't too bad, but editing was done at an obscene time of the morning. As always, thank you to everyone reading and giving feedback, I really appreciate it!