safety first; au

When Lightning had first found out about her pregnancy, she had immediately been gripped with nervousness and fear above all else. The thought of taking care of a person other than Serah was completely daunting to her. All she could wonder for the first few months was if she'd do something that would end up making her own child hate her. What if she repeated the past, and left him or her alone like she had with Serah?

Of course, she'd somehow forgotten about the fact that Hope would always be there. He was completely over the moon about the fact that he was going to be a father. It seemed like every little thing he did lately was with her and their future child in mind.

That definitely wasn't a bad thing.

Just annoying at times.

"Hope - " She tried to brush his hand away, but he went right back to adjusting the scarf around her neck. It was as though he was determined to cover every exposed bit of her skin that he could. "Seriously, I'm fine. I'm probably going to be outside for a grand total of five minutes."

"You still need to bundle up!" He knotted the scarf, presumably so she couldn't pull it off. "We might have to park farther away than usual or something. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Right, because the doctor's office is always jammed packed this time of day." She rolled her eyes, slipping her hands into her pockets with some difficulty. It was pretty cold outside, so she'd dressed appropriately in a long-sleeved turtleneck and loose pants, intending to simply throw on her jacket over it, especially since she could still zip it up all the way.

However, Hope had seen it fit to make her put on a hat, gloves, an extra pair of socks, a sweater, and now the scarf. She looked like a marshmallow, and that was before the ever-growing baby bump in the way.

"C'mon, Light. Humor me." He kissed the tip of her nose since the scarf was in the way of her lips, and chuckled when she only scowled at him. "It's cold out there. You're not just taking care of yourself now, you know?"

"…Yeah." She sighed. "I know."

"Good." Hope smiled and took one of her hands - his were ungloved - and started to lead her out of the house. They'd taken maybe three steps when Lightning abruptly stopped and made a surprised noise, pressing a hand to her side. Hope immediately turned, his brow furrowed in concern. "Light?"

"I'm fine," she replied automatically. It'd become a habit with her over the past couple of months, since her husband had been watching her like a hawk pretty much since she first showed him the positive test, and every little thing seemed like a huge deal to him. It wasn't so much to her, for some reason.

Except for this.

She pressed her free hand to her side with a slight frown, though it faded to a quiet gasp. The briefest of smiles crossed her lips, though it widened when she caught sight of Hope's utterly confused expression. She squeezed his hand.

"I think the baby's kicking."

His confusion immediately melted away to awe and wonder, and he reached out with his free hand to cradle her bump. "It is?"

"I don't know for sure." Lightning's voice grew teasing. "It's a little hard to tell with all of these layers in the way."

She'd meant it as a joke, but Hope didn't take it that way, apparently. He reached up to unzip her jacket and take off the scarf, then hiked the sweater up after a nod from his wife.

"What about now?" he asked.

"Hmm…" She shifted her weight around - quite a feat, considering how big she'd gotten lately - and rubbed her side a little, only to be met with the feeling of motion against her hand. "…Yeah. Now."

"Really?" Hope's grin was so big that it was wonder it hadn't split his face. Lightning felt oddly calm at the sight of it and took his hand in hers, placing it to where she could feel the kicking. His smile only grew from there.

"You know what?" she murmured after a full minute of silence, where they just stood there and felt her bump. Hope glanced up, a look of rapture still on his face, but obviously still paying attention to his wife. She chuckled and shook her head. "I think it was protesting all these clothes."

She almost laughed at the sheepish pout that he made in reply. "I know it's a lot, but…" He met her eyes. "I just wanted to make sure you were both okay. That's all. I mean, I couldn't bear it if something happened that was entirely preventable."

"I know." Lightning smiled before she could help herself. He'd always had that effect on her. "But I promise you that a slight chill isn't going to hurt us."

He stared at her for a moment as thought contemplating if she was right or not, then finally nodded in agreement. "All right," he said, leaning forward and sealing that with a kiss. "I'll try not to be so…"

"Ridiculous?"

"If you want to call it that, yeah." He kissed her again, grinning into it, no doubt at the motion that he could likely feel under his hand.

"In that case…" When they pulled away, Lightning took off the hat and gloves so she could pull off the sweater and scarf. She couldn't quite bend over to remove the second pair of socks, so she simply put the jacket back on, definitely feeling better - like this was much less constricting. "Come on. We're going to be late."

"Wait a sec." Hope picked up the scarf and looped it over the back of Lightning's neck with a little smile. "Just as a precaution. For me? I mean, it's cold out there."

She wanted to roll her eyes, but felt another tiny little kick in her side from the baby, as though that was the answer…and smiled.

"Just this once."