A/N: And to think this story was supposed to stop at ten chapters, where did I go wrong? I blame my creativity/imagination and tendency to make things far more complicated than they should be.

"You really proved yourself there."

"Shut up, Tobiume."

The spirit wrinkled her nose slightly at the sharp response but still continued to keep a somewhat steady pace beside her. "So now what are you going to do? It's not like you can just walk in there and act like you guys are still all buddy-buddy with each other."

"Yes I can and I will." Momo replied; watching as the spirit only shook her head as though to taunt her further. She only sighed roughly and tried to ignore the woman as she continued on down the corridor; a new kettle held tightly in her hands. It took some moving around and climbing up a few shelves before she eventually found it- probably the only one they had for now. "Besides, it was probably just my hormones acting up."

"Or maybe it was them talking about you behind your back-"

"Would you drop it already?" she snapped.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

Shaking her head, she ruffled up her brown locks and carefully reintroduced herself into the sitting area; barely making eye contact with anyone inside. "We're in luck, I happened to have just one in stock. Hopefully it'll last through today without blowing up."

"Would you like for me to try and attempt to make tea once more?"

"Here, let me handle it; I'm pretty sure I won't make it spontaneously combust." Matsumoto offered as she started to get up from where she had seated herself.

"Okay, but only because I'm feeling really lazy right now." Momo replied as she allowed for the woman to take the kettle from her hands. She rubbed at her sore lower back for a moment before she continued on over to her usual sitting area; settling herself somewhere between Nanao and Nemu. "I don't think I'm going to be looking forward to the whole 'gaining weight' part of this."

"Yeah, all thirty-five pounds of it." Nanao remarked.

"Ew."

"On average that is; it could be less or it could be more."

"I want to aim for less." she chuckled lightly. "Although, as long as the throwing up part goes away, I guess I'll settle for whatever comes next."

"I don't know, the weird food cravings might be enough to make us throw up instead." Isane teased.

"Totally worth it."

Nanao chuckled herself before she reached into the bag she had placed at her side. "Here, I brought over some of those books you had requested; they might be able to help you sleep at night instead though."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." Momo shrugged as she took the books the woman handed to her. "I'm always up at dawn even after just a few hours of sleep; it'd be nice to be able to sleep through the night for once."

"Well from what the books say, just be glad to get those few hours of sleep regardless." Nanao remarked.

"Ah, grand, something for me to look forward to." she sighed. "Because there wasn't enough to begin with, right?"

"Well, just think of the ending product."

"Yeah, a screaming, unhappy baby." Matsumoto added as she re-emerged from the kitchen with a tray in her hands. "Talk about even less sleep."

"You haven't even been around a baby before." Nanao reminded.

"Pft, I've been to the human world plenty of times before and they have them all over the place." the blonde retorted as she tried to balance the tray in one hand and pass out the cups with the other. "They never seem happy."

"Probably because you're around them."

"Hey, hey, it could be a number of things." Isane interrupted the two as she carefully held the warm teacup in hand. "I mean, it could be lack of sleep, feeling of being uncomfortable, maybe there were too many strangers around or maybe they couldn't find their mother."

"Hence, the stranger part."

Sighing lightly, she took the offered cup of tea but set it aside for now- her stomach wasn't really feeling up to indulging something right now. "You know, the more we talk about babies, the more I get confused on whether or not I'm looking forward to it."

"Just give it a few months and you'll be excited."

"Everyone says that."

"Well then maybe you should start listening to them." Nanao chuckled.

"So, who wants to make bets on what it is?" Matsumoto offered; tossing the tray aside as soon as she was finished with it. "Because, I totally want to be the first to bet and/or hope that it's a girl. How cute would that be? You could dress her up in cute little dresses and show her off to the world."

Nanao shook her head lightly and pushed up on her glasses. "Do me a favor, if it's a girl, don't let Matsumoto around it."

"Yes because it becoming another bookworm is really going to help."

Isane chuckled as she watched the blonde only seemed to gloat at her sharp comeback while the Eighth Lieutenant only muttered something in response. "I know it's early, but have you thought of any names?"

"What? At the moment, I just figured a name was the least of my worries." Momo replied with a light, innocent shrug. "And even if I thought of one, I'd have to think of a second one incase it was a boy and then when the sex is confirmed, I'd have to rethink it all over again because I probably won't like the first pick anymore."

"Which is probably why you should start now." Isane shrugged. "Plus, I think it would be cute to toss around a few names."

"If it's a girl, name it after me!" Matsumoto grinned. "Rangiku is such a beautiful name anyways, it should be passed on."

"And what if it's a boy?" Momo questioned.

"Name it after Nemu."

Amends have silently been made and the three or four hour conversation about baby names had helped to convince her that they were still there for her; it was just ill-timing and a bit of overreaction… but the important thing was that she could trust them again.
She still didn't have a name though- she would've preferred to not make that kind of decision right now. There was a lot that she didn't know at the moment and for now, she was willing to push it off into the future for herself to deal with then. At least for now, she could worry about relaxing and getting other things together. The upcoming months would be okay but the moment she started showing, things were going to have to change quickly. So… maybe if she got everything done now, then later on there wouldn't be so much outside dependence on her- or at least, hopefully no one would question her sudden choice to avoid the outside world. But seeing how plans normally went for her… that was probably all going to go to hell in a hand basket; or run like a train whose tracks had just been uprooted and tossed aside.

Either way, in the end it was all going to crash down on top of her in some kind of fiery disaster.

But maybe there was something to look forward to in the end. Some kind of beacon of light.

… Maybe she should look into this whole name business. It wouldn't hurt to start early right? But hell, she didn't even know where to start to begin with. There wasn't anyone she would name it after- and even if there was, it would almost seem like an insult really. She didn't really know any names off the top of her head that didn't relate to someone she knew and she didn't own one of those 'baby name' books that list any and every possible name- no matter how ridiculous.

So if she were to set up a list of difficulties in her life, it would probably go: one, telling everyone she was pregnant with the child of Soul Society's greatest threat and everything about it had been consensual.

And two, finding a name for her child.