foreign; au

Honestly, Lightning herself was not all that surprised that she was reacting to her pregnancy differently than a normal woman would. Most seemed to broadcast it to everyone they knew and post daily progress pictures on social networking sites. They would sign up with every registry and basically plan out the baby's entire first year before it even had toes.

At least, that was what Serah had done. Lightning was glad she was the exact opposite - only Serah, Snow, and of course Hope knew she was expecting at all. She wasn't even showing yet, so she felt there was no point in blabbing the news to the world.

It was so strange. She didn't have any kind of morning sickness, and her cravings hadn't been too horrible. All of the other symptoms seemed non-existent. Most of the time, she didn't feel like she was pregnant at all. If it hadn't been for the three positive home tests and a doctor's confirmation, she wouldn't have believed it.

Even stranger to think that every passing second, someone who was half of Hope was growing inside of her.

Hope, of course, was over the moon about everything. Lightning had a feeling that if he wasn't so aware of her independence, he'd be asking her if she was okay or if she needed anything every thirty seconds. As it was, when they were home together, he barely let her out of his sight and encouraged her to relax as often as possible.

She didn't tell him that sitting around when she felt fine wasn't advisable. She knew he meant well…and oftentimes, she'd get a massage out of the deal anyway.

Like right now.

Lightning sighed in contentment as Hope's hands worked their magic getting the knots and tension she hadn't even been aware of out of her back. Maybe this pregnancy was taking more out of her than she realized, but at least it was about halfway over now.

"Are you okay?"

Lightning could hear the smile and concern in his voice, which turned her answer into a content sigh. "Mmhmmm."

Hope smiled a little more, not that she was aware, and continued his slow trek over her back. "Weird."

"What is?"

"Most of your tension is up here." He gave her shoulder blades a little pat. "I thought it'd be lower down."

"That'll probably be the case the bigger I get." She sighed again. "Which I'm sure will happen in one swoop. I've looked normal enough this whole time. I'm sure this means I'll suddenly balloon up out of nowhere in the coming weeks."

"Maybe. But you'll still look beautiful."

Lightning let out a huff of amusement. Really, her looks were the least of worries, but the fact that Hope so easily reassured her was nice. She turned her head, smiling a bit at his confused expression before she leaned up to capture his lips.

It was a kiss like any other, one of the hundreds she'd shared with him over the years. For some reason, though, this particular one made her stomach flutter. There was no way she was getting butterflies from simply kissing her husband, right?

"Light?"

She realized a moment later that he'd called her name and she blinked once, a slight frown on her lips with her brow furrowed. "Yes?"

He looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

"…Yeah." She shook her head a little. "Sorry, I just - "

The words were immediately cut off when she felt it again. That same weird, undeniable fluttering - but before she or Hope could say anything more, Lightning let out a little gasp of surprise at the completely surprising, new sensation.

"…Light?"

She shook her head slightly at his voice, not really hearing it. Instead, she rested a hand on her abdomen, glancing down at it with an expression that was mostly awe and tinged with a bit of fear. When she finally answered, it was in a quiet voice, like if she'd said the words loudly, it would make them less true.

"The baby's kicking."

At first Hope just stared as though she'd spoken gibberish, but when he finally replied, he sounded just as awed - maybe even more so. "It is?"

Lightning nodded slowly, her fingers curling into her shirt a little. Though her doctor had said it would happen soon, there'd been no mention of how it would feel and what it would do to her - that it finally clicked that she and Hope were really having a child together. There was a person under her hand right now.

Wordlessly, she reached for his hand and pressed it to her stomach, right over where she felt the kicking. She couldn't help the smile that formed on her face when it happened a few more times, eventually turning her head to see Hope wearing an expression similar to hers - one of utter awe and joy. There wasn't any fear, but she supposed it was some motherly instinct on her part.

"Wow," Hope breathed out, a grin forming on his face. "That's - wow."

"Tell me about it."

He chuckled quietly, adjusting his hand a bit. "That must feel really weird."

She hummed in agreement. "I've never felt anything like it before."

Hope smiled and moved a bit closer, resting his hand on top of hers and threading their fingers together so they could both feel the kicks. "This is going to be our life."

"…It is." And Lightning found, with some surprise, that that simple statement took care of most of her fear. After all, if she had Hope…what was there to be scared of?