A/N: As always, thanks for the reads, reviews, favorites, and follows! We're back to the present and it's time for Allen to make an important decision...

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~Present Day~

Allen was oddly content as he lay naked on Kanda's bed with the samurai at his side. They were both breathing heavily, their bodies were soaked in sweat, and the fluids that covered Allen's stomach and leaked out of his hole were uncomfortable and sticky, but overall, he was feeling pretty good. Sex had been everything he had been told it would be, and nothing like his hazy memories of that day in the forest. He was almost embarrassed that he'd been so reluctant to give his body to Kanda, but he felt too good to dwell on that.

And it wasn't the high of orgasm that made him feel that way.

Allen had undeniable proof that Kanda's feelings for him were genuine. And that felt better than any orgasm ever could.

At the height of his climax, Kanda had screamed out a name. But it wasn't the name of a previous lover like Allen had expected. Instead, it was Allen's own name. And not his real name, though that probably would have been touching. No, as he came, Kanda had cried out, "Moyashi!"

While it had initially pissed Allen off to be called that during sex, he had quickly realized that that was actually a very touching thing.

Several times over the last few weeks, Kanda had claimed that his feelings had started the moment they met. It was a claim that Allen didn't even sort of believe, but that had changed now. After what had just happened between them, Allen knew without a doubt that Kanda genuinely loved him and had been falling for him long before he got pregnant. And it was all because of that nickname.

Allen had hated his nickname from the moment the samurai had given it to him. Being constantly called a bean sprout was horrible and degrading, and he had always felt like Kanda was looking down on him whenever he said it. He had thought that the nickname would go away now that they were together, figuring that Kanda would no longer need to degrade him if they were married, but if anything, Kanda had only been calling him "Moyashi" more frequently than before. It irritated him, but after what had just happened, he realized that he'd been interpreting it wrong from the beginning.

"Moyashi" wasn't meant to be demeaning. It was meant to be sweet. It was a nickname given to a lover rather than a rival. Whenever Kanda called him "Moyashi", he wasn't saying that he was short and insignificant, he was saying that he was precious, important, something to be treasured. That horrible insult was actually a term of endearment.

All that was left was to see if Kanda would confirm his suspicions. While Allen was pretty sure that he was right and felt like he was one step closer to the impossible goal of understanding the samurai, he was curious as to whether or not the man would be honest when asked directly about his feelings. "Hey, Kanda? What does 'Moyashi' mean?"

Kanda chuckled at the unexpected question. Of all the things Allen could have said immediately after sex, that was way out there. The Moyashi really was an idiot if he had forgotten that. "Didn't we cover this years ago?"

Allen couldn't tell if the question was genuine or if it was an attempt at steering the conversation in a different direction, so he pressed. "Not the actual word, Bakanda. The nickname. What were you thinking when you first called me that?"

And when Kanda's reaction was to sigh and hold him closer, Allen knew that the words that followed were the truth. Kanda didn't have many tells, but he tended to tense up ever so slightly when he was telling the truth about his feelings, and the lack of distance between their naked bodies made it easy for Allen to pick up on that change. "I was thinking that you'd probably kill me if I called you 'adorable' to your face."

Allen almost laughed at just how true that statement was, but Kanda wasn't done. "And I didn't want to admit to myself that I found you attractive, so I came up with a word to describe you that I thought would help me convince myself that you weren't worth pursuing. It didn't work. Obviously."

Following the declaration, silence fell between them once more. For Kanda, it was a comfortable silence, treasuring a rare moment when the Moyashi was at his side without protesting being touched or crying his eyes out about something. But for Allen, the silence was quite uncomfortable. Kanda's last words had only further confirmed that the man's feelings were genuine, which meant that Allen had a very important decision to make. The choice he made in this moment would change the entire course of his life.

Having made up his mind, Allen broke the silence with a heavy sigh. "So this really is what you want. You want me to bear your child and live the rest of my life at your side."

The hint of bitterness in Allen's voice made Kanda feel guilty. As much as he wanted their marriage and unborn baby, he felt horrible that the Moyashi had had very little choice in the matter. He wanted Allen to love him back, not resent him. "It is. I'm so-"

The apology was cut off before he ever got the words out. Though if Allen had known that that was what the samurai was about to say, he would have let him finish his thought. As it was, Allen had no clue that Kanda was willing to apologize to him, so he kept the conversation moving forward. He had made his decision and now he needed to see it through. "Then I guess I'm going to have to figure out how to make the best of this situation. I don't want to be pregnant and I don't want to be married to you, but what's done is done. I'm just going to have to learn to love you both. I don't know that I'll ever return your feelings - there's definitely a part of me that hates you - but I can accept them."

Kanda hated the way those words made his heart leap. He needed to know what exactly the Moyashi meant by that statement before he allowed himself to feel hopeful or he'd just end up getting hurt. "I don't know what that means, Moyashi."

"I don't know either. I'm still working on that." Allen let out a heavy sigh and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. He began to speak his thoughts out loud, hoping that the answer would come to him. "You've said something to me quite a few times in the past couple weeks, and I've wanted so badly for someone to say that to me that if it were anyone but you who had said it, I would have said it back in a heartbeat. I am so desperate to be loved that I would have reciprocated their feelings without putting any thought into it whatsoever. Even if I knew that they didn't really mean it. But I know you mean it. I know that you genuinely love me, yet the best I can muster up is apathy. I-"

Kanda placed a hand over Allen's mouth to make him stop talking. The things the Moyashi was saying were simultaneously making him hopeful and making his heart ache. The scars of his childhood at the circus were clearly deeper than the happy memories of his childhood in his previous life, and Kanda wanted nothing more than to make Allen forget that he'd ever been an orphan. But now was not the time for that conversation. "I love hearing you speak so honestly about your feelings, Moyashi, but it's late and you're rambling. I just want a concise answer so that we can go to sleep. What do you mean when you say that you're going to accept my feelings for you?"

Allen frowned in thought and let Kanda pull him back into an embrace. After a moment, he sighed heavily. "I guess it means exactly what it sounds like it means. I know your feelings for me are genuine, but I still have trouble believing that you really do love me, so I'm going to do my very best to stop fighting against you."

Sensing that Kanda still didn't understand and was about to cut him off again, Allen tried a different approach. "I guess what I'm saying is that if things continue like they have been, I can see myself staying married to you after I have the baby."

Kanda froze. That was not at all what he was expecting to hear, and he very nearly pounced on Allen for it. It was only his disbelief that kept him in place. "You're giving up on your plans to divorce me?"

Allen let out a resigned sigh. "Yeah. I guess I am."

Before he could say anything more, Kanda was suddenly kneeling over him, plundering his mouth with a deep kiss. Allen was struggling to breathe by the time Kanda let go, but that didn't deter him from moving lower. He added several more hickeys to the Moyashi's already marked neck, and through the haze of pleasure that was starting to overtake him, Allen was thankful that the samurai was making sure to stay low enough that the marks would be hidden by his shirt. Allen wasn't sure that he wanted another round of sex so soon after the last, but that was clearly what Kanda was after, and he really should have known that his words would have that effect on his husband, so he didn't bother trying to stop it.

Kanda worked his way down Allen's chest, marking as much of the pale flesh as he could, while simultaneously loving his scars and wishing that the skin were flawless. He didn't stop his ministrations until he reached the mess left by their previous round, and though he liked the idea of using his tongue to clean up the Moyashi's stomach, he found the thought of getting semen in his mouth disgusting, so he passed over the mess and focused his attention on Allen's legs; an intimate action like that could wait until they were both more comfortable with each other.

The feeling of Kanda's lips and teeth on the sensitive flesh on the inside of his thigh made Allen squirm even more than he already was. It was both pleasurable and painful, and he couldn't take it and tried to pull away. But Kanda had him pinned down, making the halfhearted attempt to escape futile. Of course, trying to get away only made Kanda give the spot more attention, and by the time the samurai finally let go, Allen didn't think he could take any more. All of his muscles were tense and his entire body felt like it was overheating. But even though Kanda was satisfied with that particular mark, he wasn't done yet and moved on to a similar spot on the other leg.

Allen moaned and writhed under the touch, not realizing that trying to get away was only increasing the friction that was driving him crazy or that the noises he was making were only spurring Kanda on. He tried to make his hands move, but his brain was too fuzzy and they just continued to lie limply at his sides. And when Kanda suddenly changed targets, attacking his balls rather than his thigh, Allen came completely undone, his whole body shuddering as he reached orgasm.

Kanda smirked to himself as the Moyashi came, but he didn't stop what he was doing until he had left a vivid red hickey on that very intimate spot. While he didn't doubt that Allen was going to be completely faithful to him, the brat would be far too embarrassed by the marks to even think of sleeping with someone else, which would only further guarantee his fidelity. The hickeys would also, hopefully, remind Allen that he was loved and get him to loosen up a little.

But now wasn't really the time for thinking of those things.

While Allen was still distracted by his orgasm, Kanda adjusted his position between those spread legs and pushed his length into the waiting hole. The feeling of being inside his Moyashi was absolutely amazing, and Kanda reveled in both the tight heat that surrounded his shaft and the physical closeness of the one person that he had always been able to completely trust.

The moment Allen returned to his senses, Kanda began pounding into him without mercy, and while the pace was rougher than the last time, the sex itself was definitely better. Each thrust sent shockwaves of pleasure through Allen's body as Kanda's cock rammed relentlessly into that sensitive spot that made his vision go white. And although he was just learning to actively participate and not just lie there and take it, Allen seemed to know exactly where and how to touch Kanda to intensify the pleasure he was feeling.

They came in unison, and for that one moment, it felt like they were on the same page with their relationship and pending parenthood. In that moment, they felt like they understood each other completely and were actually going to be able to make their marriage work. And even as the high faded and they moved so that their bodies weren't touching quite so intimately, that feeling lingered. If they could connect like that during sex, there was no reason why they couldn't someday connect like that on everything else.

To Kanda's surprise, Allen spoke up and broke the silence between them rather than opting to just pass out after his third orgasm of the night. "Aren't you going to kiss me good night?"

The question was just as startling as the fact that he had spoken. "I thought you didn't like it when I kissed you."

The Moyashi was only silent for a moment before he spoke again, and even though his voice was quiet, Kanda recognized the sincerity in the words. "I don't like being kissed awake in the morning, but I do like the ones at night."

"Really?" It took a lot of effort to contain his excitement and make the inquiry sound simply curious. Kanda was ecstatic to learn that Allen actually liked being kissed.

Allen shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, trying to make his next admission seem as mundane as he possibly could. "They make me feel loved, and while I'm still on the fence about you being the one loving me, I like feeling that way."

Much like Allen expected, Kanda laughed in response, but he wasn't laughing at him, he was relieved. Kanda never would have guessed that his kisses made the Moyashi feel loved, but that was all the more reason to do it. He leaned in and kissed him chastely before pulling the blankets over them both. "Goodnight, Moyashi. I love you."

Allen didn't reply, but he did snuggle closer into the samurai's arms, and that was better than any verbal response he could have given.