I may have doubted Kanda's sincerity that first night, but given the way he would ambush me over the next few days, it was pretty obvious that he truly did want to get me pregnant. He would pounce on me any time we were alone, no matter where we were at the time, and he frequently sought me out at times he knew Erika would be studying or training with one of our friends. Fortunately for my sanity, the novelty of trying to knock me up wore off quickly, and he stopped pouncing on me in public places before the week was over. Yuu still attacked me whenever he got the chance, but he always made sure we were someplace private before he did it. Eri had never walked in on us during sex, and I wasn't anxious for that to change, so I was incredibly thankful that he had gone back to being careful around her.

When three weeks passed and I hadn't started showing the signs of being pregnant, the excitement that we both shared died quite a bit. We both wanted another baby, so it was disappointing that it hadn't happened, even though we knew that it wasn't going to happen on the first try. Yuu took it especially hard, and it was only the reminder that we had been together for six months before I conceived Eri that cheered him up. I wasn't that much better off, as the emotional turmoil that came from knowing I hadn't conceived yet was made worse by my jealousy of Miranda, and I wanted a baby even more now than I did when we first started trying.

So when another month passed and I started experiencing morning sickness, I was thrilled. I was a little worried that I was imagining things - I definitely didn't want to tell Yuu that I was pregnant just to have it turn out that it was something else - so I kept it to myself until I was certain. I would have felt bad about hiding things from my husband, but he was away on a longer mission, which meant that he wasn't around for me to lie to. What I did feel bad about was the fact that he wasn't the first person I told about my pregnancy.

Much like with my last pregnancy, the nausea and vomiting began to affect me around food. It confirmed my pregnancy, which was great news, but the fact that I could barely get through breakfast was not. Most days, Erika was the only reason I managed to even make it into the dining hall. I had a responsibility to make sure that my daughter was fed, and while that got me into the cafeteria, just the thought of eating was enough to make me start vomiting again. So I decided to tell Jerry that I was pregnant; he had been a great help last time, and I definitely needed his help again this time.

Having made up my mind to tell the chef, I decided that it was best to just do it the next time I saw him and get it over with. I wasn't particularly worried about telling him, but I was worried about how he'd react. Jerry was a very flamboyant person and he tended to get loud when he got excited. There was a chance that he'd blurt out my pregnancy to the entire cafeteria before I was able to tell him that it was still a secret.

So when I approached the window at dinner that night, I was very careful with how I worded my news. "Can I talk to you in private? I need to tell you about something, but I don't-"

There was a knowing smile on his face as he cut me off. "You've got a bun in the oven, don't you, Sweetie?"

It took a second from the euphemism to click, and once it did, I turned bright red. I looked down at Erika, worried that she had just been told something she wasn't supposed to know yet, but she remained blissfully unaware of the true meaning of the phrase. I turned back to Jerry, trying to decide what to say to him, but in my panic, no words came out. I was so unprepared for him to already know that I was pregnant that it caught me completely off guard.

Jerry just laughed at my reaction, continuing to put together for himself what was going on. "So it's still pretty new. How long have you known?"

I don't know how, but I managed to make my tongue work enough to answer the question. "For certain? About three days."

He smiled and reached across the counter to tousle my hair. "Don't worry about a thing, Sweetie. I've got it all taken care of. Just remember to take care of yourself and drink plenty of water, and I'll handle the rest."

His easygoing nature made me smile. "Thank you."

.x.x.

I used to enjoy going on longer missions, but that had changed when Allen got pregnant. I could no longer stand to be away from headquarters for any length of time, and any mission that lasted more than three days was especially rough. Long missions kept me away from my Moyashi and our daughter, and that was something that was completely unacceptable.

But when Eri was two, Allen and I hit a rough patch in our relationship. We were having a horrible time getting along, and we were on the verge of breaking up and going back to hating each other. It wasn't what either of us wanted, but it was what was happening. It was by complete chance that I got stuck in the middle of a freak July snowstorm on my next mission and was gone for a week longer than planned. Our relationship was fine again when I got back, and it wasn't too hard to figure out that what we had really needed was some time away from each other. We had simply been seeing too much of each other and needed more alone time. So ever since then, I made sure to take the occasional longer mission. I still hated being away from my family, but I was doing it for the health of our relationship, and that was a good thing.

On the other hand, accepting a long mission while I was in the middle of trying to get Allen pregnant felt like torture.

I planned to pounce on the Moyashi the moment I got back, so it just figured that he wasn't alone when that finally happened. At least Erika was used to seeing us kiss, and I wouldn't scar her by greeting him that way. The kiss got a little more heated than I meant it to, but that was nothing new. I pulled Allen as close to me as our clothes would allow and practically ravished his mouth.

I broke away when I felt a sharp tugging on my pant leg. Looking down, I found Eri scowling fiercely at me. The little neko was somehow both adorable and terrifying like that and I couldn't figure out how to respond to her.

When she noticed that she had succeeded at getting my attention, Eri huffed and crossed her little arms over her chest. "Daddy! You have to be careful with Mommy. He's sick."

I knew better than to laugh at her overprotective side, so I let go of Allen in favor of picking up my daughter. I kissed her forehead and held her close, all while looking the Moyashi over with a critical eye. "Oh? Mommy's sick?"

Erika threw her arms around my neck and nestled closer to me as she nodded. "Mmhm. He's been throwing up."

I froze at that. The Moyashi suffering from vomiting could mean many different things, but it could also mean that he was pregnant, and I desperately wished that that were the case. "Really?"

Allen smiled sweetly as he took Erika from me. His face was the picture of innocence, but I could still see the knowing smirk behind it. "The past couple mornings. And sometimes when I eat."

I felt my jaw drop at the confirmation of my hopes. Allen actually was pregnant. I was almost too happy to react. "You mean you're-"

The Moyashi cut me off before I could finish the thought, turning his attention on our daughter as he set her down on her own two feet. "Eri, why don't you go find Aunt Camilla and ask her to braid your hair?"

"Ok!" The little neko immediately toddled off, smiling brightly at being allowed to roam headquarters unsupervised. It wasn't something we let her do very often, preferring to keep her where we could see her, but we did trust her to do what she was told without getting distracted - she was definitely my child in that respect.

I had Allen wrapped in my arms the second she was gone. I was much too happy to wonder why he had just sent our daughter away. "You're pregnant."

His grin practically split his face. "I am."

It was in that moment that I finally understood why he had sent Erika off. "Eri doesn't know?"

He shook his head before leaning against my shoulder. "I've thought about telling her, but it was just too hard. Plus I didn't want her accidentally telling anyone before we were ready."

I released him in favor of grabbing his wrist and tugging him towards the door. I was so excited that it was threatening to bubble out and that was quite a new feeling for me. "Then let's go tell everyone."

But Allen didn't budge. "No."

I could only blink at him in confusion. "'No'?"

He smiled gently as he pulled my hand from his wrist. I half-expected him to pull away, but he stepped closer so that we were embracing once more. "At least, not yet anyway. We really should talk to Marie and Miranda first."

I couldn't resist rolling my eyes at that. Of all the reasons he could be delaying our announcement, it had to be because he was worrying about hurting someone's feelings. "Right. You want to make sure that we're not going to offend them by announcing our news."

Even though I couldn't see his face, I could still tell that Allen was pouting. "You say that like it's a bad thing. Is it really so wrong to be thinking about their feelings?"

I almost argued with him, but that was when I realized that being pregnant meant that his emotions could flip in the blink of an eye and baiting him was not something I wanted to do. It was far safer to concede, no matter how much I wanted to get my way. This was not an issue worth pressing. "I guess not, but I'm just so excited that you're pregnant again. I want to tell everyone."

Allen snickered. "So settle for telling your brother. And then we can figure out how to tell Eri that she's going to be an older sister, and after we've told her and made sure that she's ok with it, then we can talk about telling everyone else, ok?"

The well-reasoned logic made me suspicious of him. That argument was too thought out to be spontaneous. "Just how long have you known about this?"

The question was rewarded with a tug on my hair, telling me that Allen was annoyed, but he wasn't so annoyed as to not answer the question. "Relax, Yuu. I told you the first chance I got."

I didn't believe him, but he clearly knew that, as he continued to talk. "The morning sickness started the day after you left. So I've known for about a week, but I haven't been down to the infirmary yet, so technically nothing is confirmed and I'm just operating on suspicions."

"Idiot." I flicked his ear before sighing and running my hand through his hair. "You really should go have an exam."

Allen shuddered in my arms. "Don't wanna. They're going to poke me with needles."

The whine made me laugh. The Moyashi was a grown man with a child, yet he was acting like a little kid himself. But I knew how to deal with him when he was being a brat. "Fine. Then how about this: if you go have an exam, I'll agree to not tell anyone about your pregnancy until you're ready."

"You're stooping to bribery? Really?"

I rolled my eyes and flicked his ear, annoyed at how surprised he sounded; he was well aware that I was willing to use blackmail and bribery to manipulate him into doing things like this. "Do we have a deal or not, Moyashi?"

The Moyashi frowned but otherwise didn't respond to the question. "We don't have to go right now, do we?"

When I didn't dignify that moronic question with a response, Allen changed tactics. He wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled his face into my neck. "Couldn't we go do something else? We really should celebrate my pregnancy, right?"

In case I didn't get what he meant by that, Allen began rubbing his tail along my thigh, but it was all too obvious that he was trying to distract me with sex. And while I may have wanted sex, I was much more focused on getting Allen to go have an exam; after what he'd said earlier, I needed medical confirmation that he was pregnant. "Moyashi. Infirmary. Now."

Allen grumbled under his breath as he pulled away from me and headed towards the door. "Fine. Fine. I'll go. But you better not be using that bribery thing on our daughter."

"I wouldn't have to." I couldn't resist making a jab at him as I followed him out into the hall. "Eri may be a stubborn little kitten, but unlike you, she knows to do what she's told."

The Moyashi grumbled some more at that and shot another insult my way. We bickered all the way down to the infirmary, earning a few dirty looks from people who just didn't understand that that was how we communicated and we didn't mean anything by the insults.

Allen grew quiet when we reached the infirmary, but he perked right back up when he saw that the nurse on duty was the one who had delivered our baby; they had some sort of strange bond after that whole ordeal. I had to hold him down so that she could draw his blood - apparently the Moyashi really did have a problem with needles - but otherwise the exam was uneventful. Waiting for the results of the blood test was agonizing, but it was worth it when the results came back positive. Allen and I really were having another baby.