Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

Chapter 3: Wedded

Disclaimer: Since I'd completely forgotten that I'd even written one by the end of the last chapter, I figure I definitely need to write it now. I don't own anything by Namco studios. Okay, I'm done.

If you're reading this on DeviantART (sheelos-lover. you'll be finding out what Anna looks like soon. I'm making a picture of her on MS Paint. I've got her dress, head, one of her arms, and a lot of the coloring done. Now I just need to do the other arm, feet, and their coloring, then perhaps some patch-up work and checks to make sure I've done the shading right, and it'll be ready to post!

Anna walked into the clearing with her three friends.

Kratos and Yuan walked in from the other side, Yuan holding an old, leather-bound tome. Kratos was wearing his "judgement" outfit, and of course his hair was tame so Anna could tell in a part inside of her that hadn't quite been reached that today was special. Kratos thought that Anna looked odd, with her hair curled like that.

Yuan began reading from the book. Anna recalled, in the back of her mind, those words. She knew them vaguely. It took all of her willpower not to hold even Kratos' arm. She got bored and stopped listening in about the middle of the ceremony, thinking about what her life was going to be like with Kratos. Near the end, she came back into focus.

"Kratos, do you take Anna to be your lawfully, or not so lawfully wedded wife, through sickness and health, 'till death do you part?"

"I do."

"Anna, do you take Kratos to be your not-all-that-lawfully-wedded husband, through sickness and health, 'till death do you part?"

"Of course I do!"

"You may kiss the bride."

…Or rather, Anna kissed him. She sort of flung herself at him and somehow their lips met.

Yuan looked down. When they came out of their embrace, Anna noticed.

"Oh! Yuan! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. You look sad."

"It's nothing."

"Oh… I get it. It's okay, Yuan. You can be sad. But, sometime tonight, you have to be happy, because that will make Martel happy."

"You have an unusual way of looking at things."

"Can you imagine anyone normal marrying Kratos?"

"Heh. I guess you're right."

The after party was held in Iselia. Anna saw old friends again and there was lots of socializing and… well… human things. Kratos and Yuan sort of stayed near the edge of the partygoers, except when Kratos was dragged into the mass of people, whereupon Yuan laughed at him.

"Okay, Kratos! This next game is ha-ard! Me and all my bridesmaids are going to take off our shoes and you're going to be blindfolded and you have to figure out which one's me!"

He just smiled and went along with it. He figured out which one was Anna easily by tickling each of their feet. Anna had a distinctive and rather loud laugh. He stood up, took of his blindfold, and kissed her.

It was a happy night.

No, I'm not going to spoil it by bringing in Mithos.

That night, Anna was excited. She and Kratos stayed in Iselia since it was getting really late.

The next morning, Anna proposed an idea, but Kratos turned her down, saying that she wasn't ready.

That night however, she did relatively well in convincing him.

.-..-..-.

Anna and Kratos then went house shopping. Anna could work as just about anything, and Kratos had relatively good funding from fighting as a mercenary. There were monsters in Sylvarant, and people would pay large sums to be taken between cities safely. Anna mostly just took care of their house and made things in her spare time. She knit a lot: hats, gloves, mittens socks, even a jacket. She made everything. She got particularly good at spinning, too: she could tell when to spin the spindle, when to feed more wool/cotton/flax/hemp/etc. into the thread, and when her existing thread was getting too long and she had to wind it up onto her spindle shaft.

She also learned never to serve Kratos anything with tomatoes in it because, although he would eat it, he wouldn't enjoy it, and she wanted him to be happy because that made her happy.

One night, two months after they were married, Anna sat down next to Kratos.

"Kratos, I have something to tell you."

"What? The last time I saw you smiling like that was at our wedding reception."

"Do you remember what we did two months ago?"

"You – Anna, are you really…?"

"Yes! Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yes! I… I don't know what to say!"

"Then say nothing. Just be happy for our little baby."

Kratos hugged her then, and they shared a mutual happiness that Kratos wouldn't have thought possible within himself eight months before. In his mind, there were no consequences nagging at him, no negative possibilities, just the realization that he had helped to produce something that was in all ways just as real and alive as Anna.

But, now he had to be even more careful than before.

.-..-..-.

It had been five months since Anna had told Kratos she was pregnant.

It was nine-thirty at night.

"Kratos?"

"What? What's wrong?"

"I feel fat."

"What?"

"You heard me. I feel fat."

"Anna, you're not overweight. You're seven months pregnant." She could hear the gentleness in his voice.

"I know. It's probably some hormonal thing. But it's really degrading."

"Anna, you have our child inside of you. It's healthy to gain weight."

"And I feel sick in the mornings…"

"Anna, it's nothing to be worried about. This is supposed to happen."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Anna, our child will be beautiful. Just you wait and see. But, if you still feel this way in the morning, I'll take you to Tethe'alla and get a doctor to look at you."

"What kind of doctor?"

"He's the best in his field."

"No. I know who I would go to."

"Who?"

"Well, first of all, she's a woman…"

"Oh. Okay. I won't go against you on this matter."

"Thank you, Kratos. You always make me feel better."

"I would hope so."

"Hehe…"

.-..-..-.

In the morning, Anna was violently sick in a way that, to Kratos, seemed completely out-of-character. He heard her as he finished putting on his cape.

"Kratos, I want to see the healer today."

"First, you should drink something. Come to the kitchen with me and I'll get you a glass of water."

"Okay." She knew it would be hard for her to stomach anything more.

After she had downed most of the water, she said, "I can tell it's a boy."

"Really? How so?"

"Well, if you think about little boys, they're always active. They do all sorts of stuff, and sometimes they get themselves beat up in the process; they're just more energetic than girls seem to be."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And this little guy's violent! Sometimes when he kicks me, it hurts!"

"…So you think it's a boy because he kicks you really hard."

"Pretty much, yeah. There isn't really that much else to base it on. I can make a guess."

"Probably a better guess than anyone else."

"I still want to see the healer, though."

"Okay. Do you feel okay now?"

"I probably won't until at least lunchtime."

"Do you feel better?"

"Yeah." She had her arms around her stomach, holding her baby in a way. "Let me get dressed. I can't very well wear my pajamas in public."

She went into their bedroom, shut the door, and came out in a dark blue dress that was so un-fitted that it would fit her perfectly for the rest of her pregnancy.

And they walked to the healer's house in Luin.

"Oh! Come in, come in! I was wondering when you were going to come see me again! How long has it been since we saw each other last?"

"A month."

"Really? Seems like longer. Looks like your little kid's growing."

"Oh, he is!"

"He?"

"Yeah. I think it's a boy. He's kicking me really hard."

"Well, it could be either. There aren't any tests or anything so we can tell..."

"Do you have anything to help morning sickness?"

"No. There was one, once, but then some of the babies had birth defects so we figured it wasn't too good to change pregnancy. Hi, Kratos!"

"Hello."

"So, Anna, why'd you come see me today?"

"I have a self-image problem."

"Why? You look great!"

"I feel really fat, though."

"You wanna know a secret?"

"What?"

"Your supposed to be."

They both started laughing for a reason that Kratos couldn't discern.

"Yeah. It's hard to think that way, though! I mean, I've gotten huge!"

"Well, see, a lot of that's water. Because you know how, normally, all the blood and tissue and stuff would come out of you every month?"

"Yeah."

"Well, see, all that's built up inside of you. And there's a baby inside of you. So, when all that stuff comes out, that'll be a lot of weight, especially if you think about how much water that is."

"Okay."

"Feeling better now?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Thank you for coming. It was nice talking to you."

"Great talking to you, too. Bye!"

"Bye!"

After they left the healer's house, Kratos turned to Anna.

"What the heck was that?"

"Well, see, I'm really social. And so's she. So, talking to her like that makes me feel better."

"Oh."

"Were you ever social?"

"No. Not really."

"Not even when you were a kid or a teenager?"

"Not that much."

"Oh. That's too bad. But, see, we're friends. So, she knows how to cheer me up."

"Mmh."

"Yeah. Isn't it exciting?" She held his arm.

"Yeah." He smiled.

This chapter was really short. Especially if you're reading this from because (it's 10:01 AM as I'm writing this) I just uploaded earlier this morning. But if you're reading this on DeviantART, I uploaded last night. was being stupid and wouldn't let me log in, so to get the last chapter onto fanfiction, I had to copy my story from DeviantART onto word, copy and then delete the chapter I had here, save, upload onto fanfiction, then delete that and paste the previously copied document back onto the same Word document.

People reading this on fanfiction had better appreciate that. I actually had to figure that all out because, of course, I can only have one document or picture or whatever on "copy" at a time.

DeviantART readers, you've no doubt noticed that I've finished my picture of Anna. If you're on fanfiction and you missed all the times I talked about DeviantART, my account is sheelos-lover. for reading! Sorry there are so many comments and so little story!