Thud!

Kagami nearly jumped out of her skin at a noise outside the apartment door. She quickly rushed to the peephole to investigate.

It's just the neighbours, she breathed a sigh of relief. The usually level-headed woman berated herself for being so jumpy. Geez, pull yourself together, Kagami. It's just Luka. It's just a conversation.

Kagami almost resented how easily she lost her wits around Luka. In fact, during university it was one of the indicators that her feelings for him were more than that for "just a friend". It always took longer to compose herself to return to her usual taciturn disposition when she got like this. Although several years together had made them very comfortable with each other, there were still moments in her relationship where her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest.

She calmed herself down using breathing exercises that ironically she learned from Luka. Immediately she got to organising her plan of action in her mind. She made a mental list of all that she needed to say to him, the order in which she would say it, and, something that she realised was more important than she understood as a teenager, how she was going to say it. It may be just a conversation that she was nervously anticipating, but it was an important conversation. In fact, it was one those key conversations that couples tended to have.

It had been a year since it was first proposed. Looking back at it, Kagami was not sure Luka would even bring it up if she hadn't pointed out that something was bothering him. The fact of the matter was, they needed to have a conversation about having kids. At the time, Kagami had bought herself a year by bringing up that she still hadn't accomplished some key goals in her sporting and professional career that were nonnegotiable for her, and so she couldn't even think about that subject for the time being.

However, it had been a year, she did achieve what she'd set out to do, and she had put some thought into whether she personally wanted kids or not. The only thing left to do was to wait for Luka to return from his weekend trip and…

Click!

Kagami whirled around at the sound to find her husband standing in the doorway of their apartment. He had just begun to remove his shoes and shrug off his shoulder bag when he paused as he caught her eye.

"Hey," he greeted her with an easygoing smile that caused her heart to flutter, yet put her at ease at the same time.

"Hey. You're back," she responded, making her way over to him.

"Yeah," he bent over to kiss her in greeting, wrapping his arms around her waist to give her a warm hug. Kagami reciprocated by encircling her arms around his broad shoulders and nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck.

"Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" she asked him, breaking away from the hug.

"Nah, I'm good," he responded as he made his way further inside the apartment. "I had something to eat on the way here."

"Alright."

"I'm just going to take a quick shower to wash off all the 'travelling' from me," he called back to her from the hallway. "After, we can talk about what's on your mind."

"Okay." She watched Luka make his way to the bathroom to freshen up, and let out a long breath that she didn't know that she was holding in. She was slightly relieved that he could already tell that they needed to talk. And knowing him, he was well aware of the subject matter as well.

Moments later, Luka emerged refreshed from the bathroom in a clean t-shirt and joggers, towel-drying his shoulder length hair. He made his way over to the couch and plopped down, patting the spot next to him for Kagami to join him. Instead, she ignored the invitation and chose instead to perch on top of his lap. Instinctively, he held her closer to himself.

"What's on your mind, love?" he gently prodded. He lightly touched his finger to her forehead between her brows; a habit he had developed to grab her attention when she would unconsciously frown when thinking too hard about something.

Taking a brief moment to centre herself, Kagami spoke up:

"Do you remember when Lily was born? You wanted to talk about having kids but I wanted to wait a year because I wasn't ready at the time." Luka nodded. "Well, it's been a year and I'm ready to have a conversation about this."

True to form, Kagami was straightforward and to the point. She definitely did not mince words, not that Luka minded. In fact, it was one of the things he loved about her.

Luka figured that she wouldn't waste any time to bring up the conversation again, and knowing her, he wouldn't be surprised if she had waited a year exactly to the day when they had first broached the subject.

"Okay," he responded. "How exactly do we want to go about this?"

"I was thinking that we can start by stating our views and feelings on the matter, then we'll just go from there."

Ever the practical one, Luka smirked to himself. Truth be told, he already knew what he wanted; he had just had an extra year to think about it. But, now, he decided to be as straight forward as Kagami was. Before he began, he loosened his hold on her and settled for lightly resting his hands on hers. Even though he was more comfortable hugging her, he didn't want her to feel trapped, physically or emotionally, by what he was going to say.

"I want kids," Luka stated simply. "I guess I always thought that they were the next step in life, you know? Graduate, find a job, get married, have kids." Kagami nodded in understanding.

"I guess I never really thought about how that would effect you until you pointed it out. I knew that having kids would bring a permanent change in any couple's routine and lifestyle, but it disproportionally affects the mothers. And as much as I know that you would be a great mother, I wouldn't want that at a cost of you feeling robbed of the chance of excelling in your career because of a pregnancy.

"But no matter how hard I tried to imagine the possibility of not having kids, I can never feel 100% comfortable with the idea. And it sucks because I want both of us to be happy with whatever decision we come up with. So, I took the year to think about it and…" At this point, Luka let out a long breath before continuing, "and I'm wondering if you'd be open to fostering children in the future?"

Kagami's eyes blew wide open at hearing that. She shifted her position a bit so that she could fully face him.

He's serious, she realised. He really wants kids that much. The fact that he had put so much thought into coming up with a solution that would potentially meet both of their expectations really touched her.

After a beat, she realised that Luka was probably expecting some sort of response from her.

"Well, we'll back to that soon enough," she said, clearing her throat. "But now I want you to hear me out first." She felt Luka unconsciously tense, but he just silently nodded.

"To be honest, I've never really had an opinion either way about having kids; my main concern was being able to reach my goals unhindered. When you brought this whole thing up last year I definitely wasn't in a position where I could really have this conversation with an unburdened heart. Now that I've gotten some of those concerns out of the way, I finally took the time to think about what I wanted.

"I've already guessed that you would like children." Luka gave a wry smile at this. "And I was wondering what that would be like. I had doubts about being able to balance a professional and athletic career and motherhood. But, I thought to myself, 'mother was able to do it, so why can't I?'. I viewed it as a challenge to my abilities. Like I was in some sort of one-sided competition to see if I can surpass my mother." Kagami sighed.

"But then I grew ashamed. Parenthood isn't a competition. Children shouldn't be born into that kind of mindset," Kagami hung her head at this. Luka tightened his grip on her hand as if to encourage her. Eventually, she resumed:

"I then thought that maybe it would better with just the two of us. You and I love each other, so that should be enough right?" Luka casted his eyes downwards, but still didn't say anything. Kagami then reached over to him and tilted his head up to meet his gaze before she continued.

"And I do love you, Luka," she said, "so much. So much that it overflows. So much that it can extend towards another person. So much that I now understand why you want children." Confusion passed over Luka's face before hope shone in his eyes as he started to understand what she was getting at.

"So you're saying…?" he started.

"I'm saying yes. Yes, I would like to have a child with you," she confirmed with a sweet smile.

Luka's eyes lit up as he pulled Kagami towards himself again in a fierce hug.

"You don't know how happy that makes me," he mumbled into her shoulder.

"I know, my love," she softly murmured in his ear.

After a while, Luka spoke up again.

"So, when did you want to start trying?" he asked. "In a year? Maybe two or three?"

Kagami's heart skipped a beat as some of her earlier nervousness returned.

It's okay, she tried to calm herself down, It's going well so far. You've planned for this.

Suddenly, Luka felt his wife shift from her comfortable position on his lap and adjusted herself so that she was straddling him on the couch.

"Actually, why wait? If we are on the page, I don't see why we can't get started right away," she teased with a coy smile.

Luka felt the heat rise to his cheeks.

"As you wish, Ojou-sama," he smirked back at her.

He closed his eyes and leaned forward to kiss her, when he felt his lips press again something cold, hard and plasticky. Luka opened his eyes only to stare cross-eyed at this object that Kagami held in front of him.

"What's this?" He drew back to see the object better. Kagami watched the expressions on his face from confusion to shock to disbelief, then back to shock.

"T-this is–?" he stumbled over his words as he realised that he had just kissed the clean part of a pregnancy test. A positive pregnancy test.

"Y-you are?" the tears started to form in Luka's eyes. Kagami nodded as she felt the tears starting to prickle in her own eyes as well.

"I just found out two days ago," she said smiling.

"Bon sang," he muttered, trying to cover his face to hide the free-flowing tears, "you're gonna kill me."

Kagami chuckled at her husband before she held him in her arms while he tried to compose himself. Eventually, Kagami tried to peak at Luka's face. It was tearstained and his eyes were puffy, but his smile was brighter than she'd even seen. Despite it being an unusual look for him, he wore it well.

Feeling her heart well up with emotion, she grabbed his shirt to bring him in for a searing kiss, which he eagerly returned. Luka's arm slunk around his wife's waist to draw her closer to him while his other hand cupped her cheek. Breaking away for a breath, Kagami shifted her body weight, leaning them back further into the couch. Meanwhile, Luka's hand drifted from her face, and his long, calloused fingers began to tease at the buttons of her blouse.

"I can't win against you, can I?" Luka sarcastically remarked between kisses.

"Nope," Kagami cheekily replied as she ran her fingers through his freshly washed hair. She lost herself in the scent of his shampoo as he trailed kisses from her neck to her ear.

"What am I gonna do with you?" he seductively whispered in her ear, which was red from her flushing features. "You make me so weak."

"Don't worry. I can think of something."