I hope this chapter isn't as much as a disappointment as the last one was...

"Len! Come here! And hurry!" Rin yelled.

Len flew up the stairs and into their room, leaving behind the ramen simmering in water on the stove. He threw the door open in a dead panic, searching the room for Rin. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw her standing in front of the closet doors which had full-length mirrors on them. She looked alright, standing in the middle of the floor in her short black nightgown(Len fought to keep his eyes away from her legs to avoid another inconvenient nosebleed), her hand on her lower abdomen.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, walking closer to her. Rin simply looked up at him via the mirror. She turned sideways.

"Nothing's wrong…I just…noticed that I have a bump now. Look." She smoothed the midnight black material over her slightly larger abdomen. Len felt his heart nearly stop when he noticed the barely visible bump of Rin's stomach. She smiled at him and took his hand to place it on her abdomen.

"I'm gonna start showing sooner than we thought, Len."

Len rested his forehead against her temple. "That's not a problem, is it?"

Rin smiled. "Of course not. It just means we're a step closer to our baby."

"You know, this whole cheating situation isn't as awkward as I feared it would be," Meiko said, placing a plate of leftover okonomiyaki in the refriderator. Rin smiled.

"I know. I'm glad it passed as easily as it has."

"Though I have to say, I was really surprised when you just came out and told me Len got you pregnant."

Rin looked down. "Well, Len and I were going to tell you and Kaito together around a week after I found out about the baby, but you guys were…um…busy."

Meiko blushed. "What do you mean?"

Rin bit her lip. "We heard you guys in Kaito's room and just decided to wait until later. We were gonna tell you together, but when I saw I had a chance to tell you myself, I decided to take it before my courage was gone."

". . ."

". . .what?"

Meiko chuckled. "That's kind of funny. Kaito and I were going to tell you and Len about us, but you guys were making some tell-tale noises in Len's room when we worked up the courage to."

Rin laughed. "So you know how we felt."

"Exactly."

Rin continued wrapping up leftovers from dinner as she mulled over the question begging to be asked of Meiko.

"Meiko-nii. . .?"

"Yeah, Rin?"

"I was wondering. . .do you think a couple should get married when they're expecting?"

"What brings this on?"

"I'm just wondering, because, you know, I was encouraged by my mother to wait until I was married to have sex, and here I am, sixteen, pregnant and unmarried to boot."

". . . do you want to marry Len?"

Rin bit her lip. "Y – yeah. But I'm afraid of telling him that because I don't know if he wants the same thing."

Meiko dropped all she was doing and turned to face Rin. "What's the harm in telling him? Maybe he's trying to find a way to tell you that he wants to marry you. At this point, you guys have no legal ties to each other, but you both have ties to the baby, you especially. Len would never leave you or the baby – we both know that he isn't that kind of person. So I don't see what harm there is in hinting that you want marriage."

Rin brushed a piece of blond hair behind her ear. "Maybe," she pondered aloud, "marriage wouldn't be best for us right now."

Meiko gave Rin her best 'are-you-serious' look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, we're already under a ton of pressure, trying to get the money to pay for the doctors' appointments, all the preparation for the baby's room…actually, not so much the baby's room as an apartment."

"You're gonna move into an apartment together?" Meiko asked, a smile spreading across her face.

"We want to, but we won't have the money for a long time. I don't know if Gakupo-nii will be happy having a new baby in the house. That'd mean a ton of responsibility for all of us. Not to mention sleepless nights for everyone."

Meiko smiled. "Believe it or not, when I'm sober, I absolutely love little kids. I'll be more than willing to help you and Len out when the baby comes."

Rin's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Yeah!"

Rin suddenly burst forth and threw her arms around Meiko. "Thank you so much, Meiko-nii~" she sang. Meiko laughed and hugged Rin back.

"You're welcome. I think you could use the help, especially right after you give birth."

After you give birth. Those words seemed to strike fear in Rin's heart. She knew it was supposed to be painful.

"Hey, are you okay?" Meiko asked, putting a hand on Rin's shoulder to steady her. "You're lookin' kinda. . .ghosty."

Rin nodded after a second or so. "Yeah…I'm fine," she murmured, swallowing. "Just a little scared is all."

"About what?"

"Labor."

"Hey, you've got another six months or so before you have to worry about that. Don't worry, they give you painkillers and anesthetic during the birth and morphine afterward. Seriously, they give you this little button to push once a minute to send morphine through your system." Meiko snickered. "Morphine makes me really hyper, for some reason. . ." she rambled on.

Rin tried her hardest to smile as she continued packing up dinner's leftovers. Why was she so afraid now? Shouldn't she have been afraid before. . .?