"Hi," he said, knocking quietly on her door as he entered her room.

She turned to look at him, her hair bobbing around her face. "Oh, hey."

"Long time, no see, eh?"

"Oh yeah, I've just been busy, I'm sorry." She looked genuinely so.

He shrugged and sat beside her on her bed as she sorted through papers. A piece of her short hair fell into her face. Before she could reach up to move it, his fingers had tucked it behind her ears. Her mouth was straight and her eyes serious as she looked up at him.

"Do you - do you ever think about what happened?" he asked her suddenly.

Not knowing what had brought on the sudden change of mood in her friend, she fiddled with her long nails nervously. "Sometimes," she replied honestly. "How could I not?"

With another shrug he said, "We talked about it. Just friends, right?"

Instead of answering out loud, she nodded her head. "It's better like that, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said. After a moment he shook his head, and opened his mouth to speak again. "No, it isn't. I - It's just that - I just can't -" He couldn't find the words he was looking for. Running his hands through his hair desperately, he took a deep breath. She watched him carefully as he tried to regain composure. Lacking anything better to do, he leaned slowly forward and captured her mouth with his own. His hand came up underneath her chin to cradle her face.

After a moment of kissing her gently, he backed off enough so she could breathe. "I - I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to get out of control like that," he admitted, sheepishly.

Finally she let out a breath. Her face was centimetres from his and she looked into his eyes. She took another huge gulp of air. When she let it out, the feeling of her breath on his neck almost made him grab her and kiss her again.

"Um, yeah, I'm going to be going now. Definitely going to be going now. I'll just -" As he mad a move to leave her bed, she grabbed him round the neck and pulled him back in to kiss her.

After he sat back, gasping for breath, she looked at him angrily. "What the hell took you so long?"

He grinned as he kissed her again.

- - -

"Gabriel? Gabriel. GABRIEL!"

"Huh? What is it Hitomi? Its," he rolled over and looked at his clock, "four thirty in the morning."

"Yeah, I know," she replied. "But, uh, I think we need to go."

"Go?"

"Go."

"Go wh- Oh. Oh, shit! Hitomi, be careful!" He jumped out of his bed and ran over to his friend. She stood in his door with her nightgown covering her now large stomach. Both of her hands rested on her stomach and her breathing was laboured.

Gabriel grabbed onto her shoulder and put his other hand on her lower back to escort her from their flat. Suddenly she grabbed his hand and let out a low moan, bending as far forward as her stomach would allow.

"Remember the breathing Hitomi. In, out, in out." He demonstrated for her.

Once she was safely in the passenger side of his old car and they were on their way, he allowed himself a deep breath. "Are you in pain?" Hitomi laughed at him.

"Don't be so panicky, Gabriel. I'm alright." She sounded tired.

- - -

Van lie in his bed, thousands of miles away. He looked at his clock. Sleep was still evading him after almost four hours. Something was keeping him awake and he couldn't see what it was. Once again, his eyes fell on the picture of him and Hitomi. He wasn't exactly sure why he hadn't bothered to take it down but something told him to keep it up. The same something that was keeping him awake.

He could have sworn he heard the cry of a baby right before drifting off to sleep.

- - -

"Why hello!" A man in a green nurses uniform entered Hitomi's hospital room. "I'm Steve and I'll be your nurse for this morning."

Hitomi gritted her teeth as another contraction hit her. They had been coming more and more frequently for the last several hours.

"Man oh, man, that was a big one," Steve said, handing her a cup of ice. "Now where is your boyfriend?"

"Who?" Hitomi asked, sticking an ice cube in her mouth. "Gabriel? Oh, no, he isn't my boyfriend. We just live together."

"Sorry, luv. Where is that big hunk of man then?"

"Ran to get some coffee, I guess," she responded.

Almost before the sentence was out of her mouth, Gabriel came hurrying into the room. "Everything under control here?" he asked.

Steve looked at the blonde man in front of him. He reached up and flicked some of his dark hair off his face. "Everything's just fine now."

Hitomi stifled a laugh. Either Steve had taken too many hospital pills, or he was very gay. Gabriel eyed him oddly and backed up to sit on the chair near his labouring friend. He let out a cough-sigh and diverted his eyes from the other man in the room.

Another, older nurse came waltzing into the room to check on Hitomi. When she saw the situation, she laughed. "Steve! You're going to scare our patients if you're not careful."

"Sorry," he muttered. "I'm going to go check on Mrs. What's-her-name down the hall. I'll see you later." He winked in the general direction of Gabriel and Hitomi laughed again.

The nurse sighed and came to take Hitomi's pulse. "Sorry about Steve. He's the only male nurse in the ward. Not that it shows. I don't think I have ever seen such a flaming homosexual in my life." She shook her head. "But we love him, dear thing that he is." Then she left the room, muttering.

Gabriel let out a deep breath. "Wow, that was a first. Never thought I'd see the day where I was hit on by a male nurse."

"I think he's cute!" Hitomi said honestly. "Definitely boyfriend material."

Gabriel wrinkled his nose. "Sorry, don't swing that way."

There was a noise from the door and Steve wandered in, giving a little wave. Hitomi was hit with another contraction and she let out a cry. "Easy there hunny!" the dark eyed and haired man cried.

Gabriel grabbed her hand and she bit down on her lip until he was afraid it would start bleeding. "Hitomi! Look at me. Look at me!"

She opened her eyes slowly. They were sparkling with tears of pain and the green stood out prominently from her pale skin. There was a small trickle of blood running from her lip.

"Oh, Jesus," Gabriel whispered.

"Uh oh, hunny. You just hang on tight here, alright? I'm going to go get your doctor; you're progressing quite quickly. Be back in a snap!" Steve moved quickly out of the room.

"You're going to be alright, everything'll be fine."

Hitomi let out a moan. "It hurts."

"We went to classes for this, remember? They said it would hurt. Just keep breathing."

As soon as Gabriel reminded her of that, she took a huge breath and closed her eyes to calm down. Steve came hurrying back into the room bringing a young looking female doctor in after him. They went to work quickly on Hitomi and got everything set up for delivery.

While the hospital staff was busy below Hitomi's waist, Gabriel focussed on cleaning up her mouth. After almost an hour of intense pain for Hitomi, there was a loud cry.

"It's a boy!" the doctor announced.

"Told you," Gabriel said, smoothing damp hair off his friend's face.

Steve held the baby while the doctor got everything in order for the cord that was still attaching him to Hitomi to be cut. She held up scissors for Gabriel. He turned to Hitomi.

"May I have the honour?" he asked seriously.

"Go nuts," whispered Hitomi hoarsely.

After Hitomi and her son were separated, Steve wrapped him up and handed him to her. All of the staffing left them alone in the room to celebrate quietly. Gabriel bent down to kiss Hitomi's cheek softly.

"Isn't he beautiful?" she asked, looking up at her friend with wide eyes.

"He is kinda pretty," was the reply. "Decided what to name him yet?"

"Tomo. I'm going to call him Tomo."

(A/N: Brownie points to anyone who can figure out who the two people were at the beginning. Review so I will update!)