Part 2

The beauty of this mess is that it brings me close to you

May 10, 1994

"I can't believe you did this to me," Skye said, staring down at the massive mound that was her belly.

Kai rolled his eyes, yet didn't turn his attention away from the movie. He was used to her dramatics at this point.

She was just at 30 weeks, which meant her belly was only going to get bigger. It was difficult to imagine.

They were still in the Cincinnati bungalow - above their heads, on the second floor, was the completed nursery. They had decorated it with a zoo theme in mind like Skye had originally wanted. Painted in a pastel green and accented in shades of brown and tan, with dark wood furnishings, a little koala decal hung on the wall above one crib while a lion decal hung above the one opposite it. In the corner sat a giant stuffed giraffe. Skye had made blankets with material she stole from one of the stores they frequented - it had a cartoon elephant pattern.

Now that it was completed, and as she grew bigger, Skye was having trouble finding other tasks to keep her preoccupied.

Kai was not having the same trouble - he had spent the months reading up on multiple pregnancies and delivery, learning to operate an ultrasound machine, charting her progress, keeping her well-fed, and making sure she had enough rest. He kept her on a regular diet, monitored her caffeine intake, and scrutinized every movement she made.

She would almost find it sweet if he wasn't so clinical and detached about the whole thing - acting more like he was her live-in OB-GYN rather than a doting father-to-be.

She was bored out of her mind, and it was getting more difficult to be up and around for long periods of time. After only an hour of activity, her feet, which felt like they swelled up to a new size, protested. Her back would join in after fifteen more minutes.

She couldn't read because she could never find a comfortable position….she could barely sleep through most nights for the same reason.

She couldn't even concentrate on the movie they were watching because she was thinking about how the living beings doing gymnastics in her womb were undoubtedly going to push their way onto her bladder - she dreaded a walk to the bathroom with the way her soles were aching.

Kai complained that her new favorite pastime was complaining. That's when she'd accuse him and tell the whole situation was his fault and he'd rejoin, "It kinda takes two, babe."

Presently, Skye rubbed her belly. She smiled as she felt the movement against her hands. It was a strange sensation, to feel the movements of the babies both externally and internally but it was also really exciting. If she lifted her shirt, she would able to observe it as well. They were very active now, which apparently was more normal than she'd previously thought.

"They're kicking," she told Kai. He didn't respond, as he was too entranced by the explosions on the screen.

She shook her head. Kai only touched her belly when he was examining it, hardly expressing an interest in feeling his offspring move.

He had observed it once, while they laid in bed, and she raised her shirt up, exposing her bump. He watched them shifting under the surface of her skin then remarked that it reminded him of that scene from Alien and promptly vacated the bed, only returning the next morning to wake her.

Now, he acted as if he didn't even hear her.

Feeling lonelier than she had in a long time, Skye closed her eyes and drifted off, her head leaning on the arm rest.

"You've definitely gained weight, babe."

Skye's eyes fluttered open for a few seconds and the first thing she saw was Kai's sharp-angled face, closer than she expected. She felt as if she were swaying, and it took her a moment to realize that Kai was carrying her.

She tensed up then and glanced around blearily. They were in the hallway of the second floor, which meant he already made it up the stairs with her securely and blissfully unaware in his arms.

"Relax," Kai grinned down at her. "I won't drop you."

She stared at him.

It made her think of a moment in time when her life and their relationship was less complicated...

July 1993

"Thanks again, mom, for coming to help," Skye said as she lifted the trunk lid. "I really appreciate it."

Her mother smiled, and pushed a lamp aside so Skye could reach a laundry basket full of clothes and picture frames. "Of course, baby," she said while she reached for the second laundry basket, this one filled with towels. "I couldn't miss it. Besides," her mother continued, as they turned to walk up the sidewalk, laundry baskets propped against their hips. They were headed for the exterior staircase that would lead them to Skye's and Kai's new apartment. "I'm hoping you'll set an example for your sister."

Skye laughed. "You want her to move in a boyfriend, possibly prematurely?"

Her mom frowned. "She doesn't attract guys like Kai. If she ever has a boyfriend like Kai, I would encourage it, often and loudly."

Skye laughed harder this time. "Kai does have his moments," she agreed.

They began their ascent up the stairs, Skye's mom falling slightly behind her.

Skye had sobered quickly, though, her mom growing unexpectedly silent too until she suddenly broke it.

"What did you mean by pre-maturely, Skye? Having seconds thoughts?" Skye could hear her mom's concern in her tone.

"Nope," Skye was quick to reassure, not turning back. She readjusted the basket, pulling it in front of her. "Not really...but, then again, it's only been 6 months."

"That's longer than most of my relationships," her mom told her as they arrived on her floor's landing. "And your sister's, now that I think about it."

Skye looked back and took in her mom's warm eyes, eyes that were similar to her own, feeling more certain as the seconds passed. Skye smiled gratefully at her.

"Now, show me which one it is," her mom instructed, tipping her head towards the long row of doors. "I want to see where my baby's gonna live for the next year."

Skye lead her down the landing until they reached the door of Apartment 308. She swung the door open wide, walking into the mostly empty space of the living room. She set her basket down on the carpeted floor. She next took the basket from her mom's arms and set it down beside the first.

"Babe," Kai called from the next room, his voice becoming steadily lower and clearer as he closed the distance between, appearing in the doorway of the bedroom. "We need to designate who the spider killer is in this relationship because I just found a monster in the closet...Oh, hey, Pat," he trailed off as he spotted their first visitor. He grinned charmingly at her mother, while Skye shook her head. Kai was the only one who could get away with calling her mother Pat - she preferred Patricia but had never bothered to correct him.

"Kai," her mom greeted, smiling back. "Are your folks gonna come by later to see your new place?"

Kai's grin fell, and Skye leveled a chastising look at her mom. To which she replied with an innocent "what did I do?" expression.

"I think they're busy," Kai said, his usual light-hearted tone sounding hollow now.

There was a beat of awkward silence, and Skye wished she had had the foresight to warn her mom of the 'no-go' zone.

Kai cleared his throat, and moved towards Skye. "So what about this spider, babe?" he asked, as he stopped in front of her, crossing his arms.

"Uh ... I think I'll let you take care of it," Skye told him.

"Aww, I was hoping we could keep it as a pet. Name it Fluffy. Ironically, of course. Buy it a cute little terrarium with a rock."

"Ha ha," Skye deadpanned, a severe expression on her face. "If you're not down in five minutes to help with the rest of the stuff, I might just pack it all up again and head back to my mom's house."

"Too late," her mom interjected. "There's a no return policy. You have to keep her forever."

"It's true," Skye chimed in, wrinkling her nose at him.

He huffed, "Fine." But then he dipped down to brush a kiss on Skye's cheek, flashing her a mischievous smirk as he pulled away and disappeared back to the bedroom. Skye narrowed her eyes after him, suspicious, half-hoping he was joking about the spider and half-afraid that he might just make it their new pet.

Skye and her mom went back down to the car for another load, and her mom asked question as Skye searched the back of her car for the boxes marked 'Kitchen.' "What's the deal with his family?"

Skye shrugged as she set one box down on the sidewalk. "I honestly don't know. He clams up about them - he claims they don't like him."

Her mother hummed as she leaned up against a car door.

Skye dove back into the trunk, pulling out another box of pots and pans. "But they send him a monthly allowance. It's the main reason we'll be able to afford rent so I'm not complaining."

She was going to say more, but they were both distracted as a car pulled in the parking lot, and then parked beside her mom's car.

Anya stepped out, with sunglasses on, her hair in disarray, looking worse for wear. She instantly started around the back, going for the backseat door on the other side.

"You're late," Skye told her just as her mom demanded, "Where's my baby?" Anya only waved a hand towards them dismissively while Skye mused with some jealousy on the fact that she was only the baby until Anthony came onto the scene.

"You're lucky I showed up at all," Anya grumbled, before she ducked inside her car momentarily. Three seconds later, a wild-haired toddler was popping out from the behind the car, running to Skye and her mom, clutching a Hot Wheels in each hand.

"Grammy! Aunt Skye!"

Skye picked him up, hugging him to her tightly. "Hi, baby boy. Whatcha got?"

He held up the cars to her nose closely, almost hitting her in the face in his excitement. "See?"

She grinned wide. "They're awesome!"

That's when Kai arrived, bounding down the stairs. "Hey, Squirt's here." He came up to Skye's side and ruffled Anthony's hair. He screeched with baby outrage, swatting away Kai's hand. Kai backed away, holding his hands up in surrender as Anthony said, "I's not a swuirt. You a swuirt."

"Hey," Skye chided. "That's not very nice."

"He's cranky," Anya explained, with an apologetic look at Kai. "Woke him up early to get here. He went to bed late last night."

Skye set him down, frowning, and he immediately went to her mom, grabbing her pant leg and pouting back at them. Skye faced Kai, ready to apologize too, but he waved a hand, with an easy smile, unbothered. She couldn't help but smile back at him before she turned to her family, who were waiting expectantly.

"So Kai and I will deal with the heavy stuff," Skye started, headed for the box on the sidewalk. "You and you -" she directed, pointing to her mom first and then Anya, "-can get the other, small stuff. Let's hope Munchkin cheers up and wants to pitch in," she added teasingly, towards Anthony, finally provoking a small, reluctant grin from him after she pulled a funny face at him.

She walked up the sidewalk, box in her hands. Kai was right at her side with the second. She finished,"I don't think it should take that long. We don't have much anyway."

"We'll work on that," her mother promised.

She was right; it didn't take much longer. In just thirty minutes, all of her's and Kai's possessions were resting upstairs in boxes or laundry baskets. They were working on bringing up the last large item: the mattress.

Everything else had gone smoothly enough - just one or two stressful mishaps so far like Anthony dropping a small box full of their most valuable CDs (but Skye blamed Anya for entrusting him with box anyways) and her mom opening the box Skye had tossed her birth control and their extra supply of condoms in (not that her mom cared, she was probably proud of her for practicing safe sex) - but carrying up this item with Kai was causing her to question her decisions, as annoyed as she was rapidly becoming.

"Babe, to the left...," he instructed. She pulled her edge of the mattress to her left and bumped into the wall.

He sighed, pausing, as she tried to readjust her half of the mattress. "Your other left."

"No, you meant your left, which was my right," she retorted, struggling to keep the mattress upright, lifted off the dirty, concrete stairs, and maintaining her eyesight on Kai.

"Hence why I said your other left," he smirked.

"Kai, I swear to God," she snapped. "You can walk up the stairs backwards, and I'll give you dumb instructions."

He chuckled, drawing out more irritation from her unwittingly. "Well I would say we could switch, but that would be difficult to do, too."

"You think?"

So they kept it up, slowly but surely, eventually making it to the third floor without much more fanfare.

They stuffed it through their apartment's front door, passing by her idle family to take it into the bedroom, and tossed it down on the floor. The queen size bed took up most of the relatively small space, but Skye was just happy to have a bed bigger than the twin sized beds she was used to - those were difficult to share with Kai, a.k.a the over-warm clingy marsupial.

Her family stayed for a little bit longer, her sister and mother helping her unpack some of the boxes while Kai gave Anthony piggy-back rides around the rooms.

After three o'clock passed, her family decided to depart, wanting an early start back to Salem.

Skye and Kai walked downstairs to see them off; they had to because Anthony refused to get off of Kai's shoulders. His mother pried him off, and they all said their good-byes.

As she hugged her sister, Skye watched Kai pull back from hugging her mom. Her mom smiled brightly at him and then said something - something Skye couldn't hear. Skye almost groaned, wondering what her mom had possibly told him - probably something embarrassing, she'd bet. But Kai's reaction had her confused. His own lazy smile faltered, his face paling.

Her brow furrowed, but her sister had retreated and her mother was reaching towards her next.

They left soon after, and, by then, Kai had regained his color. She looked at him curiously, but he only grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the staircase.

They had stepped onto the landing of the their floor when he dropped her hand then, unexpectedly, wrapped his whole arm around her waist from behind, tight like a steel band was closing over her. She squealed when his other arm swept up under her knees, lifting her up into his arms, her feet leaving the steps.

Alarmed, her hands automatically went to his shoulders, clutching for dear life.

"Um, Kai - what are you doing?" Skye asked after a moment, in which he nonchalantly carried her, bridal-style, in the direction of their door. Her eyes shot to his face then, which was just as nonchalant as his actions, until he met her gaze and rolled his eyes.

"Relax," he told her, before he flashed a playful smile. "I'm gonna carry you over the threshold."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "But we're didn't get married...," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "Close enough. Closest I'm ever gonna get, I think."

"Why?" she demanded. "Plan on living in sin for the rest of your life?"

"It is the only way to live," he pronounced, gravely.

She laughed, thought it was a short one, not fully disguising her uneasiness with her nonexistent grasp on solid ground.

She tried to pull one leg free, but he tightened his grip and sent her a scolding look. "It's fine. Unclench."

She hadn't even realized how tightly she'd wound her muscles. "No," she protested. "You only have, like, 40 pounds on me."

They were halfway down the landing now, just a few more feet from their door, and he showed no signs of weakening. But that didn't mean he wouldn't drop her suddenly - honestly, it seemed like something he would do.

"Are you calling me scrawny?" he asked, mock-offended.

"No, I'm stating facts. I'm 120 pounds, and I doubt you're any more than 160."

"I'm tall. Which makes me deceptively heavy. Besides, muscle weighs more than fat," he reminded in his arrogant, "I'm a pre-med student," way. She felt his muscles flex around her, for added effect, she supposed.

She refused to be affected or give up the argument. "I'm tall, too."

She froze as his lips brushed her ear, unexpectedly. He murmured, "If I can hold you up against a wall for sex, I'm pretty sure I can carry you up a flight of stairs."

She flushed, her face heating as she remembered the encounter. Her judgement had been dubious at best, that day. And he was so damn persuasive.

"You weren't complaining then," he said lowly. Their eyes locked, his smoldering, hers dazed.

That's when they reached their neighbors' doors, and he turned away, eyes ahead as another resident came out of their apartment. Kai pivoted them, turning her lengthwise and parallel with the railing, so the girl could pass. She did with her head down.

Skye groaned, burying her face into Kai's shoulder. "Great, now our neighbors are gonna think we're weird."

"We are weird," Kai said. "It's better to give them the correct impression right away. Maybe then they won't try to come over asking to borrow sugar or something equally stupid."

She raised her head and scoffed, "Nobody does that in real life."

"You would know better than I would," he said cryptically, as they stopped in front of their door.

He opened it and carried her through the threshold. She loosened his arms from around his neck, but he tightened his grip once again, then crossed the room to the bedroom door hurriedly.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Once inside, he released her unceremoniously, tossing her to the bed, where she landed with a bounce. Then, he grinned mischievously, revealing what he was planning to do the moment before he did it.

"No, Kai - Don't you dare- Oof."

She had tried to protest, but it had been too late. He had jumped and landed heavily on her, enough to knock the breath out of her, and they became a mass of tangled limbs.

"Kai," she wheezed. He only laughed, as his body weight pinned her, and his lips found her jaw. He started peppering kisses, working his way up to her mouth. She kissed him back soundly for a few long moments, but then drew away to push at his chest.

"Let me breathe," she panted. "You are deceptively heavy."

He snickered, but rolled off of her. She turned to her side and he laid on his side to face her, one hand propping his head up, the other roaming down her side to her hip.

One of her hands went to his face, cupping his jaw. She grinned at him, so widely her cheeks ached. He stared back at her, his expression more muted, but his eyes were amused.

"Oh my god, we live together now," she said, as the weight of it settled over her suddenly.

"I know," he said.

"In our own apartment..."

"Yep."

"With our own things..."

"Uh huh."

"And no one else around..."

"That's my favorite part."

His declaration brought her up short, and she forgot what she had been preparing to say next. And there it was - the barely controllable urge she had sometimes to just blurt out insane or cheesy things in response to his rare, unexpected admissions. Like now, she yearned to say "Mine, too," or "How are you even real?" or "I love you so much. Like a lot. So much sometimes I swear it feels like it could never, ever be otherwise." She chose not to say any of those things, however.

"It also means we're gonna annoy each other now with our bad habits. And argue over petty things like you leaving the toilet seat up or my hair clogging the drain. Whose turn it is to do the laundry, whose turn it is to cook... money."

"Those are so cliche," he said, rolling his eyes. "I feel like we're much more interesting than that."

She guessed they would see in the coming months.

"Plus, you missed some other positives. Like having new furniture to break in," he smiled at her, cheekily.

She let a begrudging chuckle escape her.

He moved forward then, his mouth seeking hers again, and she obliged him eagerly. She even deepened it, pushing him on his back, moving up to straddle him. His hands trailed to her waist, but, soon, they were sneaking under her shirt's hem, teasing her bare skin.

"Nu uh," she reprimanded, withdrawing, reaching around to still his hands with hers. "Come on. We still have other boxes to unpack."

He groaned, but complied good-naturedly, letting her drag him off the bed.

The rest of the boxes were empty now and broken down, most of the items that had been occupying them now in their new homes.

They had opted for a break, during which they decided to order dinner from their favorite Chinese restaurant.

Several take-out cartons - filled to the brim with fried rice, rice noodles, garlic beef, and honey chicken - now sat on the surface of their new (to them) but actually old coffee table, along with two bags of crab rangoon and egg rolls. They sat on the floor, across the table from each other, splitting a bottle of wine between them - simply sipping from the bottle itself, which was a housewarming gift from her mom - and picking food from the cartons at random. Skye was using chopsticks while Kai used his fingers, interestingly, causing her to raise a brow.

"Buttercup, you do realize you're supposed to use utensils when you eat, right?" she asked.

He scowled at her, for the petname. Since he had actually taken to calling her "babe," since their conversation during their first date, she figured it was only fair to return the favor.

He held up a finger towards her, grabbing another piece of chicken with his fingers and popping it into his mouth, chewing for several prolonged moments before he attempted speech. "The forks' location are unknown as of right now, and I'm too hungry to go search," he explained.

She snorted and reached for the other pair of chopsticks in the bag. She held them out to him, shaking them insistently when he gave her a skeptical look.

"I don't know how to use those," he complained, but took them from her anyway.

"It's not that difficult, Kai," she reassured, as he slipped the two sticks from their paper wrapper.

She held up her own chopsticks to demonstrate, showing him the correct hold. She then reached over and positioned his fingers, when he stubbornly refused to hold them right.

She pulled back. "Try it," she encouraged, nodding her head to the beef, believing the small beef chucks would be the easiest thing to grasp for a beginner. Kai sighed, but humored her, reaching for a piece. It took a full thirty seconds before he could even get a good hold, and he lost it on the way to his mouth. She tried to contain her laughter as he huffed, discarding the sticks on the table, and picked up the piece from his lap with his fingers instead.

"Kai, you have to use more than two fingers for them to work. You hold them with two, you're supposed to use a third finger to direct the top stick. It takes practice," she explained patiently, after she calmed.

"Or I can just do this," he countered, using one of the sticks to skewer a piece of chicken and brought it to his mouth to eat like it was a kabob.

She shook her head. He grinned at her, revealing half-chewed bits of chicken. She replied to that with a disgusted face.

"I'm gonna love watching you try to eat rice," she told him.

But he avoided the rice, choosing to finger-eat the noodles. But she was sure she caught him shooting her envious looks when she easily scooped up substantial amounts of rice with her chopsticks. She only offered him a smug smirk, taking a leaf from his book.

After they were done eating, and Kai went to the kitchen to put away their leftover containers, Skye glanced around their living room forlornly.

They hadn't chosen to eat on the floor simply for the Asian aesthetic, but because they had no couch. They also had no television. Or other tables. Or decorations. They'd had little time to prepare for their new environment, because they had rushed the process, wanting to find a decent apartment as soon as they could before school started. They'd also had to move in asap or risk losing it to other college students.

Kai returned, plopping down right next to her now. She turned to him, moving so their knees touched, leaning towards him.

He grabbed her leg and pulled it over his, resting it in his lap. He began rubbing his hand along her calf absentmindedly, his eyes following his actions.

She sighed. "I hoped you enjoy dinner. We're gonna have to start saving our money now. No more ordering out. No more going out."

"I know," he said quietly, his soothing action never ceasing, his face still downcast.

She studied him, as his hand trailed down to her bare foot, stroking the sole. He looked up then, as if he felt her examination.

"What?" he asked.

"So why did you ask me to move in with you, huh?" She hoped she'd phrased the question nonchalantly enough to earn an answer. Of any kind, because her curiosity was killing her. She had never anticipated he'd be the one to suggest them moving in together, let alone be serious enough about it to actively pursue it - he'd been the one that found the apartment they sat in now. And it was disconcerting, sometimes, to have physical confirmation of his love but never any verbal or emotional expressions of it from the source himself.

He frowned. "Isn't it a little late to wonder now?"

She shrugged.

"If you must know, the primary reason was so we could turn our naked slumber parties into regular, naked parties."

She considered it. "So just to have your own personal sex slave on hand then?"

He nodded solemnly, and now, the hand moving against her skin felt less casual, more intimate.

"Guess I can't blame you, that's why I agreed," she said.

He laughed - it was small, but it was husky and still caused a pleasant tremor to shoot through her. "To be my sex slave?"

"No, to have my own sex slave on hand," she teased.

"Joke's on you, I like being objectified."

It was her turn to laugh, but, in the next second, she sobered quickly, as her insecurity overwhelmed her.

"But seriously why?" she demanded, less smoothly, ten seconds later, abandoning all semblance of her dignity.

Pursing his lips, he inhaled sharply. "Why does it matter?"

She pulled her leg from his lap and shifted, raising up on her knees in front of him. She grabbed his face, making sure his cautious gaze was focused on her, before she spoke, "I don't you to wake up tomorrow, regretting you asked me." His eyes were unreadable to her, but they glimmered with something so she continued, "By then, I will have already staked my claim over everything, and it would be super awkward for you to back out."

He smiled, close-mouthed, showcasing his dimples. His hands reached up, smoothing her hair away from her face, pushing her bangs from her eyes. "Don't worry about it, babe. If I haven't gotten rid of you yet, I probably never will."

The statement wasn't the most romantic, but it was enough for now.

So she decided to drop the subject, but Kai seemed ready to keep pursuing it, because he told her as much before he stood and went the bedroom. He came back out, holding a plastic bag.

He handed it to her. "Since you seem to need more reassurance of my commitment to you - because apparently my deciding to share a living space with you wasn't enough - I offer you this housewarming gift."

It was a book (it was always a smart move to gift her a book) on feng shui. And it was perfect. She felt guilty as she gazed at it, because she had not thought to buy him anything.

"I feel bad," she admitted finally, looking up at him.

He stared at her, his eyebrows drawn together. "Why?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"I didn't get you anything."

He took this in, his face blank. Then shrugged. "So? Not gonna lie. This gift was more for me than you."

"Really?" she asked, feeling more amused now, as he sat back down beside her.

He nodded vigorously. "I just really wanted to," - here, he paused, reading over the book's tagline - "'infuse some harmony' in our life, babe."

Later that night, they laid in bed, Skye with her head resting on Kai's bare chest, hoping his heartbeat will lull her to sleep (because she could never sleep easily in a new place at first) she recalled the moment she witnessed earlier in the day - Kai going white at something her mom had said to him in private.

"Hey, what did my mom say to you? Earlier today when she hugged you?" she asked softly, unwilling to break the peaceful quiet, but needing to know the answer.

"Hmmm?" he questioned sleepily.

She re-asked the question, and when comprehension finally dawned on him, she felt the rumble of his chuckle.

"Oh yeah, she threatened me," he said finally.

Skye shot up, with the force of her shock. "Threatened you?" she repeated incredulously.

He grabbed her hand, trying to bring her back down. "Very creatively, I might add. I was like, 'Damn, Pat.' But don't worry, babe. It's just run-of-the-mill parental over-protectiveness..."

Skye settled back at his side, but her anger still simmered. Her mom was definitely getting a call in the morning.

Kai was still talking, "Not that I would know anything about that first-hand, but I've seen enough family sitcoms..."

Skye flinched, now her sympathy for Kai at war with her anger. She pressed her ear closer to his skin as his hand moved into her hair.

"It was nice, even if it was equally terrifying."

She smiled into the darkness. She let a beat pass then whispered, "Kai?"

He emitted another drowsy hum.

"I second whatever she told you."

She expected a laugh, but she felt his lips brush against the top of her head instead. "Like I said, babe. You don't need to worry."

It felt like a dream, but it had been reality.

Kai settled her in the bedroom, and she had fallen asleep fairly quickly on her side, her belly propped up by a pillow.

She was jostled awake again in the middle of the night, once again Kai's face in unexpected proximity to hers. But his attention was focused away from her, a frown on his face.

He was crouched down by the bed, his hand on her stomach.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, her voice thick.

She could've sworn he jumped as his eyes snapped up to meet hers.

He went to remove his hand, but she stopped him. Enclosing her hand around his, she pressed his back to her belly.

"It's okay," she told him.

Blank-faced, he let her keep her grip, even when she started stroking his knuckles.

"I think they're asleep," she said after several minutes of silence. "So they might not move anytime soon. It might help if you talk to them. They respond to the sound of my voice sometimes."

He gave her a doubtful look. "What the hell do I say? 'Sorry, it must suck that you're stuck in there, but we'll see ya soon.' Or how about, 'I can't wait till you come so your mom can finally stop complaining.' Or-"

Just then, a little foot or elbow or whatever jutted out, striking Kai's hand and cutting him off. His eyes widened, his mouth falling open.

She laughed, grinning. "Why are you so surprised? Your mom had a bunch of pregnancies, didn't she? Didn't you ever feel her stomach?"

His face darkened. "I wasn't allowed to touch my mom, especially while she was pregnant."

Skye's smile fell, and she kept silent in the wake of this admission.

She only squeezed his hand then removed hers. To her surprise, Kai kept his hand on her stomach.

He seemed to be waiting for another movement.

"Talk to them some more. I think they like hearing your voice."

"I wasn't talking to them before. I'm not one of those weirdos that's gonna talk to your stomach."

As he talked, she felt them shift. She reached over and dragged his hand to the spot. She pressed his fingers there and held them in place.

"This is weird," he commented as she pushed his fingers against the spot and after a moment, there was a slight kick. "I-"

Once again, Kai was struck mute. And that's when the baby stopped moving.

"They go even crazier when I play them music. Come feel them the next time I play The Beastie Boys. 'Sabotage' is their favorite."

Kai didn't respond, only gazed at her stomach, his hand limp on her stomach. His face was closed off, but Skye felt lightened by the exchange. He finally was showing more than a clinical interest. Finally.

"I think they're both gonna be boys. What do you think?" Skye ventured.

Kai met her eyes and shrugged, indifferent.

She deflated. Too far, she thought. She stayed quiet, schooling her features, as Kai got a far-away look on his face.

"I'm hungry," she proclaimed suddenly to break the awkward silence that had befallen them. "I want ... muffins and bacon."

Kai, startled out of his reverie, shot her a look. "Seriously?"

"You knocked me up, that is the least you could do."

He stood and waited expectantly. "Well, come on, baby hippo."

"Please just bring it up here," she shamelessly whined, unconcerned by the insult. She was long past being sensitive about her size. "You know how long it takes me to get up."

Later that night, Skye, full of blueberry muffin, slept on her side, Kai huddled behind her, spooning her. She used his right arm as her headrest, which was rapidly growing numb. His other arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand resting on her distended belly. A soft, orange light glowed in the space between their skin.

He was not siphoning, he was sensing.

They had magic - strong magic. It was not kicks he felt earlier, but electric charges. They were reacting to his touch - the most visceral reaction they had ever had towards him (and he towards them). No wonder Skye had been sleeping and eating so frequently lately. Their magical energy was probably very draining, especially to a regular human, notwithstanding the normal struggle of a pregnancy itself.

He was not lying earlier, the whole present situation with Skye was weird….was too domestic for his taste. It was a situation that had gotten stranger the bigger Skye grew. But now that he had felt the stirrings of magic, he realized that the babies were his too. Something - someone - he could wholly call his own. Something -someone- that he would have the most common ground with.

They were what was gonna save them from the Prison World.

A/N: Some lines of dialogue in this was inspired by a pregnancy prompt I saw on Tumblr. Progress on Bloodsport is still a little slow-going so I thought I could upload this as a consolation.