Author's Notes: Well this took me long enough, haha. Sorry about that, I've been extremely busy. About the chapter, I got a request to rewrite the first chapter in Neuro's point of view, and the thought really intrigued me, so I did it. I think my favorite part of writing this chapter was just talking about how they live, about Yako's shopping and Neuro's various antics and such. I like writing wacky domestic life stories, what can I say? XD Hope you enjoy!

I had some people ask to write how Neuro and Yako got to where they are, being married and all, but I don't want to do it for this story. Maybe when I'm done with this series, I'll go back and write about the NeuYako dating years, haha. ^_^

Disclaimer: Why YES, yes I DO own MTNN!! I OWN IT ALL, - *door gets busted down* *police swarm in* NO, I'M SORRY, I TAKE IT BACK!! I DON'T OWN ANYTHING, JUST PLEASE DON'T ARREST MEEEEE!!! TT^TT

LOL Now that that's overwith...

He'd heard it for the first time that morning as Yako was sitting on the couch, watching the news intently for a mystery. Neuro lay across the couch, his head resting in her lap, his cheek pressed against her stomach and his eyes closed, just listening to his wife's steady breathing and the news reporter's voice in the background. Then he heard something else.

Adjusting himself so that he could hear better, Neuro pressed his ear against Yako's stomach, tuning everything else out. There it was again, weak and slow, but it was still there, a sound Neuro had heard enough to know what it was, even though this new rhythm was rather alien to him. It was a heartbeat.

"Huh… odd…" he hummed to himself, confused. Normally the only sound he could hear coming from Yako's stomach was the incessant growling it made whenever she was hungry. And she was always hungry. But this was no announcement of hunger. This was, without a doubt, a heartbeat.

He was just about to speak up when Yako glanced at the clock and let out a wail.

"That late already?!" she cried, leaping up from the couch and upsetting Neuro's head on her lap. "I should have started off two hours ago!!"

Neuro didn't bother glancing up at the clock, which read 11:43 a.m. Oh yes, it was Sunday, grocery shopping day. It was routine. Every Sunday Yako left at about 10 in the morning, and didn't return home until 3 in the afternoon, when she came stumbling in with several cartloads of groceries. Though Neuro didn't particularly enjoy spending the better part of the day home alone, he had very little interest in joining his wife at the store. He usually found some way to amuse himself anyway.

Watching as his wife scrambled from the living room to the kitchen for her grocery list (a short novel to the untrained eye), Neuro attempted to refocus his attentions to the new sound, but he could no longer make it out. It had been so faint and irregular to begin with, perhaps he had only imagined it? The demon highly doubted that, but since he couldn't hear the heartbeat anymore he was forced to assume that to be the case. Settling back down onto the sofa, he went back to listening to the voice of the news reporter.

"I'll be back late!" Yako announced, skidding to a halt in front of the couch and stooping to give her husband a kiss. "Please don't destroy the house again," she added with a wry grin, her usual departure plea after she'd returned one Sunday evening to find the house turned inside out because Neuro had gotten bored and decided to redecorate. Luckily she'd taken the hint and the two of them had redone the whole house, but Yako had refused to go through the same thing for at least another ten years.

Neuro just smirked up at her. "I think I'd like a pet-" he began, almost like a threat, but Yako cut him off.

"NO INDOOR DEMON-ANIMAL ZOOS!! It took me a week to scrape that slime off the kitchen floor!"

Neuro gave her his signature blank smile, and Yako gave him one last peck on the cheek before rushing for the door. The demon listened to her retreating footsteps until they were safely across the street to the supermarket, then eventually fell asleep to the same rhythm as it roamed the isles one-by-one.

There!

Neuro sat bolt upright on the couch. He'd heard the noise again. It was slightly stronger now than it had been that morning. Glancing at the clock, Neuro noted with slight disgust that he'd slept through the whole day, and from the sound of her approaching footsteps, Yako was at the check-out line and would be arriving in less than ten minutes - and he had not caused any mischief for her to come home to! But all thoughts of immature pranks left his mind as his ears registered the sound.

He knew he hadn't been imagining it. Dark would be the day when the great genius Nougami Neuro began hallucinating! But then what could be the cause of it? Perhaps something the louse ate? That sounded plausible. Though he'd never cared to taste it himself, thanks to his 'pig' wife he had on numerous occasions witnessed some of the more bizarre things humans consumed. And he was also pretty sure that he'd heard of a place where a still-beating heart was considered a delicacy. Though it didn't make sense for the heart to remain beating all day…

There was only one thing left to do then. Interrogate the louse-wife.

As if on cue, the door opened and Yako marched in, five bags of food in her arms. The rest of the shopping was waiting outside in the driveway in the form of seven bulging carts. Neuro still remembered the day when they'd first moved in to this house, conveniently right across the street from the supermarket (Yako had seen to that). The store clerks at first wouldn't allow Yako to take the carts out of the store's parking lot, but when they saw just how much food she bought on a weekly basis and how difficult it would be for her to carry all those bags across the street herself, they decided to make an exception. And no one dared to attempt to snatch some of the carts (each one a virtual free feast on wheels) while Yako was carrying bags inside. Neuro still chuckled when he recalled having to drag an irate Yako off the one (and only) poor soul who had tried. He'd waited at least five minutes before intervening though. It had made him proud as only he could be to see her attack the unsuspecting creature with such ferocity.

This, Neuro knew, was only the beginning of the unloading, and if he wanted to get any straight answers out of her without any whining to go with it, Neuro was better off waiting until she was done. He pretended to be asleep, smirking to himself as he heard Yako give a great sigh of relief as she discovered that the house had survived another Sunday unscathed.

A half hour later the last bags were brought in, and Yako shut the door with a contented sigh. The sound was cut short by her demon husband's scaly purple hand snatching her face and squishing it.

"Louse, your insides are mutating," Neuro stated matter-of-factly. It was the only thing he could think of, after all, that would cause such a bizarre heartbeat-sound to emanate from Yako's stomach.

Yako just blinked at him through his fingers.

"Excuse me?" she demanded, her muffled voice sounding thoroughly bewildered.

"You have two hearts," Neuro explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I what?!"

Neuro released her head and returned the glove to his clawed hand, returning it to human-size. Then he held his middle finger over her heart.

"One there," he said, and then gave what was meant to be a playful poke to her stomach. The heartbeat there suddenly jumped, the already bizarre rhythm going completely out of whack, as if in response to the touch. "…and one there," Neuro added, staring intently at the spot he'd just touched, as the heartbeat settled back down again.

Very odd indeed. Yako must have eaten something truly horrible for this to happen. A part of Neuro was genuinely concerned now for his wife's safety and health, but a greater part still wanted to poke fun at Yako's supernatural eating habits. And after all, humans had organs removed in surgery all the time, right? If this mutant whateveritwas became an issue, it could simply be removed, and Yako would be placed on a special diet that would drive her insane, while her husband was with her every step of the way to laugh in her face. What was there to worry about? And like any good, caring, responsible husband, he would reassure his wife of that.

"I've told you from the beginning you were a hopeless pig," he began dramatically, wagging a finger at said hopeless pig. "It seems that all that ever goes through your mind is food, food, food. And not even tasteful food either. It seems like nowadays you'll stuff whatever into that black hole you call a mouth. Why it's no wonder you're becoming some horrible mutant. Oh, whatever happened to the ugly little monster I called my wife??"

So certain was he in the lightness of the matter, and so consumed in his dramatic monologue, that Neuro didn't even notice Yako go as pale as a sheet and clutch her stomach. Only when she mumbled something under her breath did he care to pause. Then, suddenly, she made a break for the bathroom.

Neuro wasn't going to let her go anywhere now. From the quick glance he'd gotten of Yako's face just before she ran, he'd seen a look of revelation and abject terror in her brown eyes. So she knew what exactly was going on then, and from the looks of it, it wasn't good. The time for interrogation had arrived.

Snatching Yako's head from behind, he deftly yanked her off her feet and onto her back without hurting her even a little. Pain would not answer questions, and if she was already so scared, even Neuro knew it would be bad to add injury on top of that. Then he got down on his hands and knees over her and menacingly demanded, "And where do you think you're going, mutant?"

Yako blurted almost instantly, "I just have to go to the store for something!"

"Perhaps your microscopic brain can't process this fact, but eating more will only make things worse," Neuro pointed out, almost happily. Hadn't she just gotten home from shopping all day?? What could she possible need now that she hadn't already purchased?

His wife gave him a cold glare, which he promptly ignored, and said, "I'm not buying food, Neuro, I'm buying… an appliance."

He was beginning to lose his patience. Save that glare, Yako wasn't meeting his eyes. Her breathing was shallow; she was almost panting. So she was afraid, but she didn't want to tell him what of.

"What sort of appliance would this be, louse?" he pressed, irritation beginning to color his tone.

"It… the, um… the toaster is outdated, we need a new one."

Neuro's grip tightened on her head. Avoiding the truth was one thing, but that…

"You're lying to me, Yako," he said quietly, threateningly. "What are you trying to hide?" What can't you tell me? Perhaps he found some way to make fun of her nine times out of ten whenever she confided in him, but at least he listened, and he knew that she knew that he really did care about everything she said.

Kneading her head in his fingers, Neuro realized his wife was trembling violently. Now he was worried, and utterly cross.

"You're shaking," he said aloud, as if to confirm it, his grip automatically loosening on her head. Yako's mouth was opening and closing like a fish's. Swift tears began leaking from the corners of her eyes as her gaze darted about wildly, looking anywhere but at his face. "And crying? What are you afraid of louse?" he demanded, angry at the amount of his own worry as well as Yako's fearful silence. "Are you injured? Do you know what's wrong with you? Is the sprouting of extra intestines a common human disease?"

Relief shot through him as Yako gave a genuine laugh. If she could laugh at that then perhaps the situation wasn't so serious after all. But then what in the world was she crying so much for?!

"It's not a disease!" Yako exclaimed, and she sounded almost happy now. "There's nothing wrong! It's… It's… It's a miracle, Neuro!"

Nothing wrong?? Miracle?? Now Neuro was so confused he didn't know where to begin. How could something that caused Yako so much fear be not wrong and a miracle to boot?

All Neuro could do for a moment was blink at the human. "Then what are you crying for, louse?!" he finally demanded.

He could almost see the gears working behind Yako's eyes. She was coming up with an answer, but whether it would be the truth at last or another ridiculous lie he wasn't sure.

"Well, I'm… I'm just happy!" the hysterical young woman cried. "I'm… we're… I'm… That heartbeat… It's not my heart that's beating Neuro," she said simply.

Well no duh, he'd known that from the beginning. But whether it was something she'd swallowed or something mutating, he didn't know. "You ate a beating heart?" he asked, attempting to pry the answer out of her through accusations. "Really, louse, eating bizarre filth like that…"

"No, Neuro, I didn't eat anything, it's just…" Yako paused, biting her lip and avoiding his eyes again.

Spit it out louse, what's wrong?!

"It's a baby's heart. I'm…" She paused again, taking a deep breath, then said, "Pregnant."

Whatever thoughts were running through Neuro's mind at that moment had a complete train wreck. For a long moment, he couldn't process the word's that had just come out of his wife's mouth. Without feeling or even registering what he was doing, he stood up, turning away as Yako scrambled to her feet as well. The irregular little heartbeat which had seemed so faint and distant before was suddenly pounding in his head, making it impossible to form an intelligent thought. And then, just as suddenly, his thoughts were racing.

This was good. This was great! In all his hundreds of years, he'd never expected something like this to happen to him. Granted he hadn't thought about it too much (being a mystery devouring demon detective, before he left Hell for the surface, he had never been too good at making plans for a domestic lifestyle). But yes, this was very very good. Amazing. Wonderful. A miracle.

"Neuro!"

The demon whipped around, automatically snatching Yako's shoulders and pushing her up against the wall. His joy surpassed words, something odd for a demon to experience. He could see Yako was frightened, her previous ecstasy hidden behind new tears. But there was nothing to fear. He would show her.

Very gently, he placed his hands on her hips and knelt down before her, resting his ear against her stomach and just listening. There it was again, that sporadic, faint little beat, and he felt a strange warmth, very weak, against his cheek. That was his child in there, his little monster, whom he loved, as he had learned to love. With a quiet sigh, he planted a kiss on his wife's stomach and felt her relax against him. He didn't have to speak to let her know: it would be okay.

Please review!! ^_^

Also, I'm sorry the next episode of Tag is taking so long. Again, I've been insanely busy. But it's in progress, so at least before the end of this month there should be an update. D: