"Ok, Hajime, hold still while Mommy finishes tying your shoes, ok?" Smiling, Tohru crouched down in front of her son, slipping on his shoes and tying the laces just as Kyo came walking into the entryway. Seeing Tohru bending so low, Kyo gave her an exasperated look as he dealt with his own shoes.

"I was gonna take care of that, Tohru, you shouldn't be down on the floor if you don't have to be."

Finishing with Hajime's shoes, Tohru straightened up and gave Kyo an amused look. "I wasn't 'on the floor,' Kyo, and it's fine. I'm fine, and I will continue to be fine," she said, slipping on her own shoes. "I'm only sixteen weeks along; it's not like I'm in imminent danger of giving birth!"

Kyo chuckled as he handed her coat, then bent to put on Hajime's. "I know that, but I also know that you're..." He trailed off, not quite sure how to delicately phrase what he was thinking.

Fortunately, he didn't have to. "Big, Kyo. You might as well just come out and say it, I am big," Tohru said with a sigh, looking down at herself. Even though she was only four months pregnant, she was showing quite a bit more than she had at this stage for Hajime. Apparently that was common; subsequent pregnancies tended to show a lot sooner. But it definitely made Tohru feel a little self-conscious...if also a little excited.

Though Kyo did have to correct her. "You don't look big, you look pregnant," he said, his voice firm. "There's a difference."

"Yes and no," Tohru said with a smile as Kyo finished putting on his own coat and picked up Tohru's bag.

"Yes," he repeated firmly, then called back over his shoulder into the house, "We're heading out, Dad! We'll be back later tonight!"

"Have a nice time," Kazuma's voice called back. "I'll see you when you get back!"


It was New Year's Eve, and they were back in Tokyo to celebrate New Year's with their family and friends. Tonight was the night of the Sohma family banquet at the main house, and it was also the night they were planning to tell the rest of the family about their upcoming addition.

Though when they'd initially made that plan, Tohru hadn't anticipated she'd already be wearing her maternity coat!

Still, as Kyo picked up Hajime and she took Kyo's arm, it was hard not to feel excited. Because of how busy they'd been with the house that autumn and Kyo's work schedule during the summer, the last time they'd actually been back in Tokyo had been that May when they'd come back so Tohru could meet Hana-chan's new baby son Rio. Since then, Kazuma had been up to visit during the summer festival, and Kisa had made the trek once in early October, but that was all that they'd been able to see of any other Sohma.

It honestly made Tohru a little sad to think about just how easy it was now, to go long periods without seeing anyone. She had known that moving so far away would make things difficult, but it was hard to appreciate just how difficult until they were actually living it. The distance was a huge hurdle; jobs were another complication, for everyone. And then children came into the picture, and now...

Video chatting was a wonderful invention, but Tohru couldn't wait to see everyone.

As they walked along, Kyo looked down at Tohru with a big smile. "So...are you excited to see Momiji?"

The look Tohru gave him in response to that question was one of pure reproach, and he laughed as he squeezed her hand. "Just checking. It's been at least a day since you mentioned the guy, so I thought you might've stopped caring."

Tohru laughed, ducking her head at a little at the teasing. It was true, she might have maybe been talking about Momiji a lot lately, but there was no way Kyo could be surprised. After six and a half years in Germany, Momiji was officially moving back to Japan, him and his German partner Hans both. Even though she understood the reasons, both personally and professionally, that had kept them in Germany so long, in Tohru's mind the move was a change that was long overdue.

She smiled, leaning her head against Kyo's shoulder. "I'm just hoping they're not too tired! They only flew into Japan the day before yesterday, Momiji was saying, and considering how long the flights are, and the time change...that really doesn't seem like enough time!"

"Well, if they're droopy and jetlagged, then they can have that in common with you," Kyo teased, earning him an elbow to the ribs from his wife. "Careful, I've got the kid!" he said, laughing as he twisted away, and Tohru promptly fired back.

"I do, too!"

Then the both smiled each other, smiles that turned once more to laughter as Hajime indignantly broke in, "I not the kid, I Hajime!"


In the entryway to the main house, Tohru and Kyo took off their coats and gave them to the waiting maid, then exchanged another smile at the sound of the voices already drifting down the hall from the banquet room. In the years since the Curse had broken, the event had naturally changed; now, instead of a meal open only to the twelve Zodiacs themselves, it was a large party for all of the Sohmas on what was formerly considered "the Inside." All of the former Cursed, Cat included; spouses and partners, children, parents. The people attending each year varied, depending on the claims and commitments of each individual person or household, but it was common for there to be fifty people on any given year.

Tohru and Kyo were actually running late, but that wasn't entirely their fault. Instead of coming back the day before like they'd planned, Kyo had ended up covering at the dojo for one of his coworkers who'd had a family emergency. The dojo was always closed the first week of the new year, so yesterday had been the last day of classes before the break. Kyo was the only one of the instructors actually able to cover, so he had, but that meant that they'd been unable to leave for Tokyo until New Year's Eve itself.

Neither one of them wanted to even think about what their train tickets had to have cost, or what strings Akito must have had to pull to even get them seats on New Year's Eve at such late notice. But when Tohru had called the family to apologize and say they would probably miss the banquet, Akito had adamantly told Tohru not to worry, she would handle it.

And Tohru would definitely be paying Akito her first New Year's visit, tomorrow. Even though the banquet was held in the main house, they both knew Akito would not attend; she never did, even now.

But however Akito had managed it, they'd made it Tokyo, arriving in the midafternoon with enough time to get to the dojo and for Tohru and Hajime to both take a nap. Too long of a nap, honestly, as she'd been quick to reproach Kyo, but he'd simply pointed out that she wouldn't have a very good time if she was tired, and none of them would have a good time if Hajime was tired. Besides, it wasn't like the meal was formal, and there were sure to be other people running late as well.

Considering how many of them had little kids these days, she could admit that was a possibility.

And late or not, it would still be wonderful to see everyone.


As they walked down the hall to the banquet room, Tohru glanced down nervously at her midsection. "Are you sure I look ok?" She asked Kyo, looking from her baggy sweater dress to him.

"Kinda too late to do anything now, isn't it?" He teased, then immediately regretted it when her eyes widened. "You look great, Tohru, really. That's a great dress, it looks great on you, you are a picture of adorability. I promise," he said, giving her an affectionate look.

She was still a little upset with his initial comment, but couldn't help but smile at the compliments, especially with the smile that accompanied them. And while she knew he was biased...she still really loved to hear them.

They walked into the banquet room to a chorus of greetings, greetings they returned happily. Right before they'd entered the room Tohru had scooped up Hajime, his clinging form a temporary shield to prevent anyone from noticing her bump...yet. And Hajime was more than happy to cling, feeling a little bit shy in front of so many people.

"Tohru, Kyo, it's so great to see you," Kisa said, running up and giving Tohru a hug around Hajime. "And Hajime too, hello!" She said, beaming at the little boy who lifted his head to give her a shy smile.

"Hello, Kisa, Happy New Year!" Tohru said, beaming at her. "It's so great to see you, I can't wait to sit down one of the days we're here and have a good talk! I've got so much I want to hear about school, and how everything is going!

That spring, Kisa had graduated from teacher's college and begun her new job as a middle school teacher. Tohru had initially been surprised to hear Kisa's choice of age range; while she'd known for years that Kisa wanted to teach, somehow Tohru had always had it in her head that her sweet, affectionate 'Little Sister' would be teaching elementary school. But once she'd realized Tohru's mistake, Kisa had firmly corrected her; middle school had been Kisa's own personal low period, and the way her teacher at the time had handled it had been...unimpressive. While Kisa had been able to overcome her struggles with the help of Tohru and her family, it didn't change how bad the situation had been in the first place.

If Kisa herself could be there to help one child navigate those awkward years without feeling the pain she herself had felt, she'd be a happy woman.

At Tohru's statement Kisa nodded her head in total agreement. "Yes! And you'll have to tell me all about how the house is going, those latest pictures have been so exciting!"

"Of course!"

Kyo had given Kisa a greeting as well, then he put his hand on Tohru's shoulder. "I'm gonna grab some food for Hajime, Tohru, you wanna find a spot for us to sit?"

Tohru didn't even have a chance to answer before Kisa latched onto her arm. "I'll take care of it, Kyo!" And she promptly dragged Tohru along to the table where she had been sitting, along with-

"Momiji!" Tohru squealed excitedly as Momiji stood up, beaming, and wrapped her and Hajime in a hug. "I can't believe it, you just got back and somehow you're sitting at a nearly empty table? How lucky!"

"Lucky, or planned?" Momiji asked with a smile. "Kisa and I were in total agreement, we wanted to do our best to make sure we got to sit with you. I'll have you know I actually chased people away from these spots, just so you three would have room."

"Well, I'm touched," she said, smiling up at him. "It's so very, very wonderful to see you!"

"You too," Momiji said softly, his eyes shining. "And Hajime, my goodness," he said, looking at the little boy who was peeking up at him from Tohru's shoulder. "How is this boy almost three already, Tohru? And how have you gotten so big, Hajime?" He asked, smiling at the toddler. "I know it's been a year since I last saw him in person, but my goodness!"

"A year is a long time when you're not even three, Momiji," Tohru said with a smile, and Momiji laughed.

"Ja, I suppose that's true enough! Well, come now, sit down."

They did, and Tohru turned her attention to the other blonde young man sitting beside Momiji. "It's so good to see you, Hans, hello! Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year, Tohru," Hans said in his thickly accented Japanese, smiling back at her. "I hope you all had a good trip?"

Tohru smiled, then took a breath and said in halting German, "[We did, did you? It is nice to have you here with us.]"

Both Momiji and Hans were beaming. "That was very good, Tohru," said Hans.

"Did you practice that?" Momiji asked her with a smile, and she nodded, blushing.

"Hans has made such an effort to learn Japanese, I really wanted to try...just a little bit." She smiled and looked back at Hans. "[But I know I am saying not everything right, so be forgiving me?]"

Hans and Momiji both laughed, and both of them nodded.

"Thank you," Hans said, "For you to be making the effort is very nice. I have been practicing a very long time with Momiji and I am still struggling with Japanese, so please don't worry about any mistakes."

"There's also English, too you know," Momiji teased her, and Tohru simply made a face.

Kisa was giggling. "I forgot how much you disliked English, Tohru! It's such a useful language, though," she said, shifting slightly into 'teacher mode' and getting a giggle in response from Tohru.

"Maybe for you, Kisa...and I admit, it might make things a little easier on Hans," Tohru acknowledged with a smile. "But it's definitely not something that either Kyo or I have much need for, ourselves."

"What's not something we need," Kyo asked, sitting down beside her with two plates for himself and Hajime.

"English," Tohru said with a pained expression, and Kyo promptly made a face himself, earning a laugh from the others at their table.

"Well, regardless," Momiji said, "we can all understand each other enough, and that's what's important."

Tohru nodded, then gently turned her attention to her son. "Hey Hajime, are you ready to have a little supper? Would you like to sit down in Mommy's lap and eat?"

"Tohru, would it help if I took him," Kisa asked suddenly, looking at Hajime. "I'm almost done, so he could sit here with me and that way you could go get some food yourself!"

Tohru and Kyo exchanged a glance that didn't completely escape notice, and after a moment's hesitation Tohru smiled at Kisa. "Let's see." Gently rubbing Hajime's back, she asked him "Would you like to sit and eat your supper with Kisa, right here next to Mommy?"

Hajime turned his head to the side, studying Kisa for a moment as she smiled at him. Then he nodded slowly, and Kyo slid Hajime's plate to Kisa as Hajime carefully unwound his arms from around Tohru's neck and climbed over to Kisa. The sight made both Tohru and Kyo smile; although Hajime knew many of their relatives well enough from video chatting, it was another thing entirely to be around them in person.

But Hajime was quickly warming up to Kisa, and that was enough for Tohru and Kyo. Giving Kyo one more glance, Tohru quickly got up and headed over to get herself some food from the buffet tables.

As she made her way along, she tried not to think that anyone was looking at her in particular. It was a party, people were eating and talking and moving around, no one was probably paying any attention to her getting herself some food. And no one was going to look at her and immediately know she was pregnant; she might have popped, but she hadn't popped that much!

Except, as she was all too aware, she actually had.

Momiji was talking to Kyo and Kisa was preoccupied with Hajime, but Tohru couldn't help but notice the thoughtful way Hans was looking at her as she made her way back to the table. Then Kyo stood up to pull out her chair and help her sit down, and Tohru saw Hans lean in and say something to Momiji, whose eyes immediately flew to Tohru as she was sitting down.

More specifically, Tohru's midsection.

And Tohru knew, before Momiji's eyes even met hers, that the cat, or at least the Cat's secret, was officially out of the bag.

Momiji gave them a minute, though, allowing Kyo to sit back down and Tohru to pick up her chopsticks before asking with an almost Cheshire-Cat grin "So, Tohru and Kyo, is anything new happening with you two?"

Tohru did her best to sound innocent. "You mean with the house?"

Momiji was trying not to laugh now, and Kisa was starting to realize she'd missed something, looking in confusion from Momiji to Tohru to the blushing Hans and the rueful smile on Kyo's face as he looked down at his food.

"Ja, a little bit with the house. Maybe with the house's occupants?"

Tohru and Kyo were both chuckling now, and they exchanged another look. Then Kyo stood up, glancing around the room and calling out in his best dojo voice "Hey, can I get everyone's attention for a sec?"

Since Kyo was not in the business of public pronouncements (and was very good at making himself heard), he almost immediately got the attention he asked for, everyone looking at him curiously. Then he grinned, offering Tohru his hand and pulling her up to stand up with him, and she felt as though every eye in the room went straight for her stomach. There really wasn't a need to say anything at that point, but Kyo gave her a smile anyway as he murmured "You wanna say, or should I?"

She smiled back. "You go ahead."

Kyo nodded, then looked back around the room with a big grin. "Tohru and I are gonna have another baby!"


The mood in the room after that was pretty excited, for the most part, with lots of hugs, congratulations, and excited squeals. It had ended up being a little overwhelming for Hajime, who'd started crying at the influx of so many people around the table, and Tohru had scooped him up and taken him out to the hallway for a little bit to calm down.

But Kyo had accepted the well-wishes in their absence, smiling and taking each joke and jab in stride.

At one point, Haru came over balancing his one-year-old twins in either arm.

"So, we make it look so easy managing two of 'em that you guys decided to try it too, eh?" He commented, grinning at Kyo. "Guess you'll have to see how good you are at keeping up."

Kyo chuckled, reaching out and tickling Sora's reaching fingers. "Hey, don't knock us 'cause we actually know how to pace ourselves. Just 'cause you guys thought you'd do this in insane mode doesn't mean everyone does."

Haru chuckled himself. "Ok, maybe you got a point, but aren't you guys still in the middle of building a house, talking about 'insane mode?'"

Momiji perked up as he took Riku away from Haru, looking at Kyo with wide eyes. "That's right! How is that going, by the way? I remember Tohru saying how they'd hoped to be done in December, but that it ended up getting pushed back?"

Kyo sighed and nodded. "Yup. Currently looking at the end of February, maybe beginning of March. We just gotta wait and see."

Haru shifted Sora in his arms. "When's Honda due?"

"June 19th."

The others nodded thoughtfully, then Momiji smiled. "Well, hopefully you have plenty of time to get settled in the new house before the baby comes! And you'll have to let us know when you're moving, so we can come help!"

Kyo raised an eyebrow at Momiji. "You. Helping move house?"

Momiji grinned and looked at Hans. "Well, we have practice now!"

"Though we actually had a moving company move us here," Hans admitted sheepishly.

Momiji wasn't the least embarrassed by that, though. "Ja, of course we did, we moved internationally! What were we going to do, walk from Berlin to Tokyo with all of our things on our backs? But we are going to unpack our own boxes, and that's basically the same thing."

Kyo was chuckling now, still not quite sure he trusted Momiji's usefulness but still touched by the offer. "Maybe you can be in charge of keeping Tohru outta trouble. It's like you're actually allergic to building muscle or something, even after all this time your arms are still noodles."

"Not all of us are meant to be labor, Kyo, some of us are meant to be management," Momiji said with a cheeky grin.

Haru was looking thoughtful. "You know, Kyo, moving aside, it would be kinda cool to see your new place once you've settled in. Maybe you guys could host something a little further down the road, once the baby's older. Give us all the tour."

And honestly, Kyo didn't hate the idea, though he was a little skeptical about what Haru meant by 'something.'

"Hey, if Tohru's onboard maybe we could figure something out. We'll definitely have more room at our new place, and there's the onsen ryokan in town people could stay at, too. But that'd definitely be later on."

There was only so much stress that a person could handle at once.

Kyo could see that Tohru was back in the room, talking with Machi, Kisa, Kagura and Rin. He didn't see Hajime at first, but then a familiar shriek amongst other unfamiliar shrieks caught his attention and he looked over to see Hajime running in circles around some of the tables with Kinu, Hibika, and Mutsuki. It was a cute sight, one that made Kyo smile.

Had he ever been that carefree, when he was Hajime's age? Definitely not here, in the main Sohma house, that was for damn sure.

The others had followed his gaze to the kids, and they were all smiling.

"It's nice, isn't it," Haru commented, and Kyo glanced at him. "To see kids running around here. Making noise. Being kids, and getting to enjoy it."

Momiji was nodding, smiling at Riku in his arms. "Ja. Not being told to be quiet, or to remember where they are, or to remember that they need to set an example."

Kyo could only smile wryly at that; he had certainly never been told to set an example. He'd been the opposite, the example to avoid.

It had taken some time, for Kyo to become comfortable with coming to the New Year's banquet. The first couple years after the Curse had broken, they'd stayed away, spending the entire evening with Kazuma instead. But each year, the others had pressed them, reminding them that they were welcome. Really welcome, and really wanted. And eventually...Kyo had agreed.

It still felt strange being here inside the main house on New Year's Eve, even though they'd been coming to the banquet since before they got married. But watching the joy on his son's face as he ran around, giggling uncontrollably with the unparalleled joy of a toddler...it made him happy.

All of this made him happy. Hajime, running around with his cousins. Tohru, glowing happily as she talked to her friends. The new baby. The new house. His job.

His life.

It was definitely shaping up to be a Happy New Year.