May 5, 1961

"Boy are you getting fat."

Xuan looked up from the book she was reading to glare at him. She laid one of her hands almost defensively over her swollen stomach. While the statement was true he really had no right to say that.

"You try keeping up your skinny-boy physique when you've nearly carried a child to term," she retorted.

"I think I'm slim, not skinny. And small chance I'llget pregnant," he said, sliding into the seat on the couch next to her, "That could be really weird."

Sighing Xuan continued reading. Very faintly she felt Klaus start to pull her hair. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to be irritating. After a few seconds she turned around and asked;

"Don't you need to be helping Pogo or something?"

"He's taking a break," Klaus answered, "And before you say it, my bro' says he still doesn't need my help breaking up Seung's stupid little smuggling ring. I think he's still bitter about getting tricked into coming to the wedding."

"How about Hoa then?"

"Out getting food or some shit like that," he said, "You know Xuan, you are trying awfully hard to get rid of little old me. Why, it's almost like you don't want to see me."

"Not when I'm reading."

"You can read any time though," pouted Klaus, "You can't talk to your husband anytime you want though."

"Yes, I can. It's getting you to shut up that's the trick."

"Awwwwwww!" he whined, "Now you're being unfair."

She sighed and put the book down. It was going to be impossible to get any reading done now. One of the things she'd learned was that if he started to talk like that he was going to stay where he was for a loooong time.

"That's better," he grinned as he moved his arm around her shoulder, "Now that we've gotten rid of the stupid literary world, how are you doing today?"

"You were there when I had morning sickness a few hours ago," she said, raising her eyebrows.

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were. You asked me why I'd had to eat so many carrots."

"Ahhhhhhh. I remember."

"So," she said, "I think you know how I'm doing."

"That was this morning."

"Well, I'm still nauseous."

He looked at her with something almost like concern.

"You need some water or something?"

"Nah," she laughed, "Besides, water just helps people throw up. You knew that right?"

"Hell yeah," he said, looking offended, "I just wanted to know if you thought that would help. After all, I have had to throw things up pretty damn quickly in the past. So yeah, I know how to handle shit like that."

Xuan was tempted to ask what sort of situations. In the end, like most things with Klaus, she didn't. Suddenly she winced.

"You okay?" he asked.

"It's nothing," she said, gritting her teeth a little, "The kid's just kicking again."

Klaus frowned and moved his free arm over so that he could rest his hand on top of her stomach.

"Quiet down you little bugger," he admonished casually.

Xuan fought to repress laughter. His frown deepened as he said;

"Seriously though. Don't make me come in there."

That was a bit too much. An odd sort of laugh escaped from her lips. He grinned.

"Halfway along and the doctors say that there won't be any trouble," she laughed, "but this one's a kicker."

"You trust doctors?"

"Don't you?"

"The one doctor I was acquainted with," he said, "Made a machine that ate people so that he could feed a disease that should've been eating him from the inside out. He was polishing off Finland when we got him. Managed to eat one of my sister's arms too. So no, I don't really trust doctors."

There really wasn't anything that she could say to that. Instead she decided to change the subject.

"I've been thinking about names recently and I think we should name it after Hoa if it's a girl," she said.

"So she can grow up to be an intimidating screechy matron?"

"What name do you have in mind then?" she snapped.

"How 'bout yours?" he asked, "It's puh-retty, don't you think? And it means like, spring or something, and it'll be born in spring so-"

"It's due in July," interrupted Xuan.

"Close enough."

Rolling her eyes Xuan continued;

"And I was thinking that we should name it after you if it's a boy."

"Say what?" Klaus said, shocked.

"It appears that I can't pick a name you like," she said as she let out a frustrated sigh, "I like the name Klaus."

"I don't," said Klaus firmly, "Like I said, Klaus means that some fancy-pants father tried to make his son sound smart. It's pretentious."

"I think it sounds nice," she said, "I kind of like the idea of naming him after his father anyway."

"I don't though," he said.

"You just said if it was a girl we should name it after me," she argued.

"That's different. Your name is puh-retty and mine's stupid," he said as he moved the hand on her stomach up and down, "I'm looking out for you in there, little guy. There's no chance you're getting stuck with my stupid name. None, zip, zero, nada."

She gave him a long stare before she smiled mischievously.

"We'll see."

"No we won-" he paused and sniffed the air.

"What's wrong?" she frowned.

He turned to look at her.

"Do you smell something kind of rancid, 'ya know, like burning, or is it just my imagina-?"

The explosion blocked out the rest of his sentence. Xuan's eyes closed instinctively, for all the good it would do her. Strangely enough she didn't feel anything hit her. Opening her eyes she looked up to see Klaus with his hand outstretched, stopping the debris. Slowly he let it fall.

Turning her head she looked around the room. The place wasn't destroyed, just slightly singed. Looking back at Klaus, who still had his back turned towards hers, she suggested;

"Seung?"

"Probably," he said, his voice low.

Turning back to her he said, hands on hips;

"I hope you know, this means war."