It was an exciting day, the first day that Tohru, Kyo, and Hajime walked down to see the beginning of construction on their new house. And that excitement never faded over the course of the next couple weeks as they went back again and again to see, to admire, and to dream.

At home, Tohru and Kyo pored over the design catalogs, discussing the pros and cons of each type of fit and finish. For three straight weekends after signing their contract, they went and toured home showrooms, looking at cabinets and sinks and fixtures and all manner of things, trying to decide what would look the nicest in their new house. What they wanted. What they liked. What was actually in their budget. For the most part, the two of them were in step; it was a relief, knowing that they both wanted the same things. There were a few times that they had 'spirited disagreements,' but even those tended to blow over quickly.

And kissing and making up always made everything better.

With as committed as the two of them were to the process, it was probably unsurprising that they had finalized their list of interior finishings with a couple of weeks to go before their 'beginning of November' deadline.

And that was just as well, when Tohru woke up the last Wednesday of October feeling...tired.

Tohru lay in bed, listening to her phone alarm and trying to calm her nerves. As soon as she'd opened her eyes, she'd felt the intense urge to close them once again, fatigue weighing on her so heavily that it was like a physical force crushing her down into the bed. Even lifting her arm to turn off her alarm felt like an impossible task, one she was simply not ready to face just yet.

Especially not right now. Not when she was feeling nervous energy racing through her entire body, not when she was fighting not to get too excited about what might not even be real. But she couldn't ignore what it had meant the last time she felt this way...or the fact that she was almost two weeks 'late.'

And in spite of the fact her phone alarm was starting to give her a headache, Tohru couldn't help the giggle that suddenly bubbled up from inside of her.

Whatever other problems she and Kyo might have, physical incompatibility definitely did not seem to be among them.

Through the alarm, she heard Kyo's footsteps on the stairs, and she smiled in spite of her fatigue. No doubt he was coming to see why she wasn't turning it off.

Would he be surprised, she wondered?

Or did he already suspect?

Kyo opened the bedroom door and walked in, Hajime in his arms. "You feeling ok, Tohru? Your alarm's been going off for a while," he said, stating the obvious.

"I know," Tohru admitted. "Would you just turn it off for me?"

He walked over and hit the button, looking at her the entire time. "Seriously, Tohru, what is it," he asked, his expression slightly wary.

Tohru took a breath and looked at him. "I woke up...and I'm absolutely exhausted, Kyo," she admitted, her voice soft.

Kyo immediately stiffened and looked at her, his eyes round. "No."

"Yes," she admitted, feeling sheepish as well as excited. "And I hadn't mentioned this yet, but I'm also...late."

"No!" Kyo sat heavily down on the edge of the bed and set Hajime down, the toddler instantly racing over to his room and his toys. "We just...it's only..." He shook his head in disbelief, then stared at her incredulously. "Again?"

Tohru was giggling, at the situation as well as his reaction. She couldn't blame him; if the signs were correct, then, for the second time, they'd managed to conceive almost immediately after Tohru had her birth control implant removed.

Kyo was in shock. "'Probably take months.' Wasn't that what you said? That it would probably take months?"

Tohru was still giggling. "I said that last time, too! I'm sorry, how was I supposed to know that we're apparently super fertile?"

"No shit," Kyo said, shaking his head. "Makes me glad we never skipped the condoms, otherwise we'd have practically had a baby at our goddamn graduation!" He exhaled, then looked back at her, suddenly smiling. "So...you need to get a test, is what you're saying?"

Now it was Tohru's turn to shake her head. "Not get, take. I have some under the bathroom sink, I just have to get up," she said, sighing at the prospect.

"That all?" Kyo stood up, flipping down the blankets and scooping Tohru up in his arms. "Let's get this confirmed, then, though I gotta say I'm feeling pretty confident right about now."

Tohru smiled, resting her head against his chest. "Me too. I'm not sure what I think of that, to be honest."

"What, about feeling confident?"

She nodded. "It almost makes it feel like we're...missing out on something."

Kyo smiled as he set her down in the bathroom. "Would it make you feel better if I freaked out about it afterwards?"

She gave him an amused look. "How bad will the freak-out be, and how long will it last?"

"How long do you need?"

Tohru giggled, then leaned up and kissed his nose. "Right now? About five minutes."

He smiled at her, then repeated softly, "five minutes."

In five minutes, both of them were standing in the bathroom, Kyo holding tightly to Tohru's hand. And they each took a breath and smiled at each other before Tohru turned over the pregnancy test and they both read the word in small bold font: Pregnant.

Kyo exhaled heavily, then squeezed Tohru's hand. "So..." he said, smiling at her.

Tohru had tears in her eyes as she looked back at him. "So."

"We're officially doing this again."

"We are."

He took another breath, then abruptly pulled Tohru into a hug, cradling her tightly against him. She was full-on crying now, and he was teary too, their previous nonchalance completely out the window as they held each other and reflected on just how crazy life was about to become. It had taken time to get to this point, to be willing to risk everything that had happened before. But both of them were ready; both of them wanted this.

And both of them were so incredibly happy...

"Mommy? Daddy? Ha-me hug, too?"

They both looked down to see Hajime sitting on the floor right beside them, grinning up at them. And Kyo immediately squatted to pick him up, folding him into the hug between them.

"Yeah, Hajime, you can hug, too."

"You can always hug too, sweet boy."

Kyo was grateful for a lot of things that day. As nervous as he was about the timeframe with the house, he was happy; they'd been mentally prepared for a second child for months now, and the only thing they'd been waiting on was the house. Hopefully that would end up happening on the earlier side of the time estimates, but if not...they would make it work.

They would always make things work.

Things like navigating what it meant to deal with Tohru's extreme pregnancy fatigue while simultaneously having a very active toddler, two full-time jobs, and an active home construction project.

Once again, Kyo threw himself into the role of home management, glad he had his prior experience to draw on. Starting that very first morning, Kyo skipped out on his morning training time at the dojo to take Tohru and Hajime into Nigeyashi, getting Tohru safely to her job answering phones at the Nigeyashi OB/GYN clinic and Hajime to daycare before making it back to Hibe in time for his actual teaching to begin in the late morning. And he made Tohru promise up, down, and sideways to let him know if she needed help in the afternoon.

At first she tried to manage it herself, but after a couple days it became obvious that her fatigue was too much for her to safely wrangle Hajime. So after some discussion back and forth, they finally reached out to Ayako Matsuda, Sensei Matsuda's wife and a pseudo mother figure to them both since their earliest days in Hibe. Although neither of them actually wanted to tell anyone about the new baby yet, especially since they hadn't even had a chance to confirm it with a doctor, there was just no real way for Kyo to help in the afternoons.

And Ayako, after her initial excitement, immediately agreed to help, as well as to keep the news to herself. Not even Sensei would hear it, not until the Sohmas were ready to tell. Ayako would go into Nigeyashi in the afternoons, meet Tohru and help pick up Hajime, then see them safely back home to Hibe. That was all that the Sohmas had asked for, but she had also quickly volunteered to stay and help until Kyo got home in the evenings, with Hajime as well as dinner.

"I don't' mean to push in where I'm not wanted, Tohru dear, but you really do look exhausted and I wish you'd just sleep. You know how much I love spending time with Hajime, and I'm so happy to help you now!"

Neither Tohru or Kyo had been able to argue with the fact it was all Tohru could do to get herself to and from work; Tohru's first pregnancy had been challenge enough, and that was without having a toddler to deal with. So Ayako was a welcome help, and both of them were sincerely grateful in their thanks as the next month rolled on by.

It was an exciting day when they stood together in one of the patient rooms at the clinic and Dr. Watanabe, smiling, told them they could expect to welcome their new baby in late June. To see the heartbeat, and once again stick up that weirdly blobby first ultrasound photo on the fridge. And they smiled at each other as they looked at it, wondering just who that blob would turn out to be.

They would still periodically go down to check out the construction, though now Kyo was driving them. And as November gave way to December, they accepted that the early estimate was definitely, definitely not happening. But that was ok. Things were still progressing; the build was still moving. And each time they looked at it, seeing it looking more and more like a house (or at least the shape of one), they couldn't help but feel excited.

Tohru reached her second trimester of pregnancy in early December, and the two of them started to seriously discuss how and when they wanted to tell people. So far, her symptoms had been along similar lines to her previous pregnancy, with the overwhelming fatigue being the only major symptom alongside a few minor ones. And just like with Hajime, that fatigue faded somewhat with the advent of the second trimester, though not quite as much.

Although she couldn't really say if that was the pregnancy, or Hajime. Though their son was a very sweet boy, he was definitely a busy one; running, climbing, and actively wanting to play with her. And much as she loved it...it was also exhausting.

Last time, they'd started telling people at around this point in the pregnancy. Tohru had wanted to wait until they were out of the first trimester, and they had wanted to tell Kazuma first, something they had almost succeeded in. This time, they'd managed to keep it a secret so far, with the exception of Ayako and Tohru's coworkers, but they also admitted that there was no realistic way they'd be able to tell Kazuma in person, not unless they were willing to wait until New Year's.

And neither of them wanted to wait until New Year's.

"So, you took these today?" Kazuma asked, sitting in front of a laptop and smiling at the sight of Tohru, Kyo, and Hajime on the screen. In his hand, Kazuma was holding a cell phone, looking at the latest pictures from the construction site.

Kyo nodded. "That's right! We stopped in for a bit this evening, which is why the lighting kinda sucks. The yard light's great, but there's only so much you can see at night."

"Well, it's more than sufficient," Kazuma said with a smile as he flipped through the photos. "It's really starting to looking like a house, isn't it?"

Tohru giggled. "A very drafty house; it's a little hard to see the snow inside it and not feel a cold!"

Kazuma chuckled at her. "I can certainly understand that! But I'm sure that the snow will be out long before you're all ready to move in," he said with a smile.

"Out, but hopefully not gone," she said with a small sigh.

"Do you have any updated time estimate for it to be done," Kazuma asked, and Kyo nodded.

"Current hope is early February, but obviously we'll have to see. Weather, backorders, whatever other crap holds up construction..." He was resigned, but his impatience was obvious to Kazuma, who smiled.

"Yes, I imagine it's hard to keep waiting, when you've already been waiting for so long. But it will be so nice for you all, when it's finally ready!"

Tohru and Kyo exchanged a smile, and under the table where the webcam couldn't see Tohru squeezed Kyo's hand. Then they both looked back at Kazuma, and Kyo picked up his phone again.

"You can sure as hell say that again, Dad. We're more than ready to move, and the sooner the better. But I just sent you one more picture, if you want to check that one out."

Obediently, Kazuma opened the newly arrived text, and he stared at it for a long minute as he processed what he was looking at. It was a very nice picture of the three of them taken in front of their house build, Tohru with an arm around Kyo's waist and Kyo holding Hajime. But it was Hajime's shirt that caught Kazuma's particular attention, which read "Big Brother" in very large letters.

When Kazuma set down his phone and looked back at the webcam, his smile stretched from ear to ear. "When?"

Tohru and Kyo's expressions matched his.

"June 19th," Tohru said with a smile. "With a little bit of flexibility, obviously!"

"Obviously," Kazuma repeated with a laugh, then beamed at them all. "Such wonderful news, congratulations! I'm so very happy for you, all of you."

Tohru and Kyo traded another fond smile, and Tohru squeezed Hajime, who promptly protested "No hug!" and wriggled away, prompting a laugh from all of the adults.

"Well, I'll hug you, Tohru," said Kyo, smiling as he did so. Then he grinned back at Kazuma. "Thanks, Dad. We're pretty excited, too! Though you can probably guess why we're hoping the house is ready as soon as possible."

Kazuma nodded, still beaming. "Yes, I certainly can! But how are you feeling, Tohru?"

"Fine, thank you! Mostly, anyway. So far, this one is following a lot of the same patterns at Hajime, so I was pretty tired for a while in the beginning, but I'm feeling a lot more functional now."

"That must have been challenging, having also to deal with Hajime!"

"Yes," she said with a small grimace. "But Ayako, Matsuda? She was helping me for a while when I was struggling, and with her we were able to manage just fine!"

Kazuma smiled, happy to hear that they had someone able to assist. "She's certainly a very kind woman, and I can only imagine what a relief it must have been to have another pair of hands. Does Hajime understand what's happening?" he asked, glancing to the side of the screen where Hajime had run off.

"Not exactly? We didn't want to really talk to him about it until we had started telling people," Tohru admitted with a little blush, and Kazuma laughed.

"I suppose that makes sense. Young children aren't particularly known for their discretion, are they?"

"Definitely not," Kyo said with a chuckle. "It's already hard enough keeping things quiet in this town, the last thing we need is Hajime deciding to just yell about it in the grocery store."

Because randomly shouting in the grocery store was definitely something that their son would do, and had in fact done.

"Well, hopefully he takes to the idea well, when you do actually tell him."

Tohru and Kyo both nodded. "That's the hope, Master Kazuma! We've gotten him a baby doll to play with, and we plan to use that to help get him used to the idea. He's always been very sweet with our friends' baby, though, so that's encouraging!"

Hajime came back into the frame, plopping into Kyo's lap and holding up the toy dinosaur he'd been playing with for Kazuma to see. "See my di-o-saur, Gwapa Ka-uma? He goes WOAR!"

Kazuma couldn't help but grin in response to Hajime's enthusiasm, and he nodded in response to the question. "I do see him, Hajime, and he looks very impressive! Can you tell me what kind of dinosaur he is?"

Hajime looked at his toy for a moment, then grinned proudly back at Kazuma. "OWANGE!"

Not the answer Kazuma was looking for, but certainly valid. "You're right, he is orange. What an excellent color for a dinosaur."

Hajime was beaming, nodding his head. "And ME! I owange, Gwapa," he said, nodding his head seriously.

"Are you? I never noticed," Kazuma said, looking very solemn. "Your shirt looks blue to me, not orange!"

In true toddler fashion, Hajime found that hilarious and broke into a fit of giggles. "No, Gwapa! Not shirt, ME! I owange. Daddy owange, too," he said, patting Kyo's chest, then shook his head at Kazuma. "Mommy not owange, Gwapa. Not you, too. But me an' Daddy an' di-o-saur are alllllll OWANGE!"

Kyo and Tohru were both loving the interaction. It hadn't surprised either of them, how well Kazuma had taken to being a grandfather. But neither of them had ever seen him around babies or very young children prior to Hajime's birth, and neither of them had actually known what to expect from Kazuma and Hajime's relationship in the early days.

But they'd never had reason to worry, not even for a moment. As strange as it felt in some ways to listen to the karate master talking so seriously about orange dinosaurs, it also seemed like the most natural thing in the world. There was no doubting either Kazuma or Hajime's enjoyment with the situation, or the love in Kazuma's eyes as he looked at his grandson.

He'd always been such a wonderful grandfather.

At Hajime's strong assertion about mutual orangeness, Kazuma had nodded, his expression serious. "You're right, Hajime, you and your daddy and the dinosaur are all orange!" He then feigned surprise. Does that mean that you and your daddy are dinosaurs, too?"

Another burst of giggles from Hajime. "NO, Gwapa! We people!"

"Well, you certainly look like people...but you're orange! And I've certainly heard you roar, Hajime. Don't dinosaurs roar?"

Hajime stuck out his chin. "Di-o-saur woars, an' I woar, too. But I no di-o-saur. Just owange," he said, very matter-of-factly.

"Well, if you're sure, Hajime, But I still suspect you might actually be a dinosaur."

Hajime looked at Kazuma for a moment, then broke into an impish grin. "WOOOOOOOOOOOAR!" Then he, and his dinosaur, were off and running yet again.

Kazuma chuckled, finally turning his attention back to Tohru and Kyo. "Your house is certainly going to be very lively, isn't it?"

"Like we said," Kyo said with a grin, "The sooner the new house is ready, the better it'll be!"