Author's Notes: Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh, this took soooooo long... I'm really really sorry about that, I've been insanely busy with school and art and moving... yay... I'm so sorry again!! I'm still not completely satisfied with it, it feels... OOC-ish to me... I tried my best to make it in-character, but I don't know how well I succeeded.

Oh, and the POV changes randomly, it just seemed smoother to me, I didn't want to break it up with lines. :/ My reasoning: they're a married couple now, so they're thoughts should be more... in sync. Even if they're disagreeing, haha. 'Course, I'm not married, so I wouldn't know, but it just feels like what should happen. In my mind at least, haha...

Disclaimer: I do not own Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. If I did.... well.... *starts daydreaming*

If someone had told him while he was still in Hell that someday he would travel to the upper world, fall in love with and marry a human girl who could devour an entire buffet without being satisfied, and then that he would become a father, he would have laughed in their faces before subjecting them to some cruel torture for wasting his time with such a ridiculous story.

But that story, in fact, was a reality, and Neuro's reaction now was far different than what it would have been then. His poor human wife could hardly pin him down, he was so energetic with excitement. After listening to his child's heartbeat for several minutes, he'd sprung right into action, though what he was working at Yako could hardly guess.

"Neuro… what on earth are you doing?!" she finally demanded of him, watching as her husband began deftly rearranging the living room.

"There is a tradition in Hell when a child is expected," Neuro began, not looking up as he shoved the sofa up against the wall with a slight flick of the wrist. "The day the pregnancy is announced, the couple's family and closer friends come together to make sacrifices in the child's honor. There are also a variety of games that are played, and a feast-"

"Sacrifices?!" Yako exclaimed, her jaw dropping in shock and disgust. Oh no. No way her husband was making some sort of demonic bonfire in the middle of her recently remodeled living room!! And there was no way on earth or in Hell she was letting him sacrifice anything in her child's honor. Though, now that she thought about it, what he had described to her sounded, albeit vaguely, like a baby shower.

"Of course," Neuro answered. "Depending on the wealth and position of the family, of course. The more powerful they are, the more live demons are sacrificed. Their lives are believed to flow into the child when released from their bodies, adding power to it. Plus it makes for quite a show."

Sometimes Yako wondered why she'd ever fallen in love with this demon in the first place. The wicked grin on his face was making her physically ill.

"We are not making any sacrifices to our baby Neuro," she said firmly. "Live or otherwise," she added, just for good measure.

Neuro paused, just about to move the other sofa out of the way. He looked up, spied Yako's serious face, and smirked.

"Nonsense," he replied. "You want our baby to be healthy, don't you?" He paused, then added, his voice darker and ever so slightly proud, "Do you realize how many live sacrifices there were when I was first conceived?"

"I shudder to think…" Yako mumbled. Neuro must have seen a greenish tint in his wife's skin and realized he'd gone a bit too far with his point, because he shrugged.

"But if you're set against it, I suppose there's nothing I can do against an abusive monster such as yourself," he sighed, beginning to move the furniture back into its proper place.

Yako flashed him a thankful grin and sat down on the newly replaced couch. "But if you really want to celebrate, I have an idea," she announced.

Her husband tilted his head at her, as if waiting for her to explain. When she didn't, he said simply, "Oh?" as if that would prompt her to elaborate. Yako just grinned more widely. Neuro could see the gears working behind her brown eyes.

Yako gave up glancing at the clock as the hour grew progressively later and shifted her gaze back up to the dark ceiling. The edges of her mouth quirked as she thought of hers and Neuro's various arguments in the past. Whenever they had a particularly bad disagreement, Neuro would abandon their bed and stubbornly stick himself to the ceiling above her. All throughout the night he would stare at her from that spot with his piercing emerald glare and allow a disgusting string of acid drool to dangle from his mouth, sometimes letting it get so close that Yako could feel the air around her tingling. He never did let it fall, but it did it's job anyway, keeping Yako up all night, making her even more frustrated and bitter. By morning she would be an absolute wreck, and so exhausted that if the fight was Neuro's fault to begin with and he apologized (he, of course, wasn't tired in the least; he could still go for days with minimal sleep), she would let him completely off the hook so long as he promised her a good night's sleep. If the argument was her fault (which it almost never was), she would be too tired to argue any longer and would apologize herself. Either way, they would both go back to bed, their differences settled, and not reemerge from the bedroom until well into the afternoon or even night.

Yako's amused smile slowly melted away as her thoughts wandered on to other things. Her right index finger absently traced circles over her stomach as she wondered and worried about what was to come. She had been excited – no, entirely relieved and overjoyed – when she realized that Neuro was so happy about becoming a parent. She could hardly contain her own excitement: there were so many plans to be made, her mother and friends to tell, things to do… But since she'd gone to bed, all the worries that had first gone through her mind had begun to seep back into her brain, choking her joy and excitement and replacing it with icy fear. She was afraid for herself, afraid for the baby, afraid of Neuro and of what would happen if something went wrong…

What if she couldn't nurture the baby like it was supposed to be? What if a human's body just wasn't compatible with a half demon child and the baby died? What if Neuro was disappointed in her? What if he left her?! But she couldn't possibly express these fears to Neuro, he was so happy!!

Swallowing hard, Yako didn't even notice her right hand start twitching as it moved in its continuous circle. Before she knew it, tears were pricking her eyes. This was wrong. She was supposed to be happy, thrilled. But all she could think of was what could go wrong. And there were so many things that could go wrong… Yako desperately wanted to love this child, but the absolute truth was that she was terribly afraid of it. She felt helpless and ashamed. If Neuro could read her thoughts right now, he would be so disappointed in her…

A large, spidery hand caught her twitching one and squeezed it lightly, stilling it. Yako sniffled in surprise as Neuro rolled over and kissed the corners of her eyes, wiping the tears away.

"You're making him dizzy," he whispered huskily, his bright eyes meeting her dark ones

Of course, he'd been awake the whole time, listening to her breathing grow steadily more shallow, and her hand as it disturbed the sheets with its circular motion. Even after so many years in the human world, and being married to a human, Neuro still had much to learn about the way humans thought and felt. But if he knew any human at all, he knew Yako, and he could make some pretty good guesses as to what she was thinking and feeling right then.

His words made Yako's breath catch. Neuro watched as reality dawned in her eyes, keeping the proud smile off his face with some difficulty. Now wasn't the time for what he thought or felt. Yako had to decide for herself.

"It… it's a boy?" his wife mumbled softly. Neuro just nodded, holding her gaze, his face empty of all emotion. A couple seconds ticked by as the human processed this new information. Then, to Neuro's relief, a small smile broke over Yako's face.

"I was making him dizzy? Really?" she asked, amused.

Neuro nodded again, this time allowing a smile to tug at the corners of his mouth. "He was following your finger."

New tears sprung up in Yako's eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her smile now a sad one.

Neuro took that as his cue to adopt the reassuring husband role that he'd perfected over the years. At first he'd refused to see any need of such a 'dishonest, underhanded' technique, but eventually he'd given in, realizing that sometimes even a tolerant human such as Yako required some genuinely positive attention, and not just steamy kisses and suggestive glances to reassure her. It had taken quite a bit of trial and error to figure out just when to pull it out, but eventually he'd become a master of this skill, and now was the perfect time to show it off. This time, however, he really, honestly meant it. Yako could tell, too. It had more of Neuro's prideful streak in it than usual.

"Who do you think I am, Yako? If I can't keep my little louse-wife safe, then nothing can. And you've never been hurt on my watch, have you?" He waited for Yako to shake her head in agreement before adding, even more seriously, "No matter what happens, I'm not leaving you. You married me, remember? You're stuck with me, no matter what you do to drive me away."

Yako chewed on her lip. Neuro was ready to go on, and she didn't want to interrupt him, but she blurted her thoughts out anyway. "What about the baby?!"

Neuro gripped her chin gently with one hand and stroked her hair with the other. "You are my first priority," he said firmly. "I won't let anything hurt you. Do you understand? Anything. No matter what."

Yako shook her head angrily, more tears falling down her cheeks. Neuro was setting aside his feelings for the child in order to protect hers. She knew what that meant, or what it could mean at least. She couldn't allow it. It was wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. And it was her fault.

"I can't let you-" she began, but Neuro cut her off. His voice was tinged with anger.

"Is that what you think of me? Unless it's absolutely necessary, I won't do anything. If you're going to die, and there's no other choice... You're not leaving me here, louse, I'm not letting you go that easily."

They stared at each other for a long time, a battle of wills raging in their stares. In the end, neither of them won. Neuro's speech had turned out less than reassuring, and instead awakened new fears in Yako that she hadn't even thought of before. All this time, she realized, she'd been worried that Neuro had chosen the baby over her, and whatever happened to her or the child, it would be her fault. What was even more disturbing was that Neuro had done entirely the opposite, deciding to do anything to save her life, even if it meant endangering their unborn son. Needless to say she was mad, more at herself than Neuro. She had overreacted, and now things were worse. But then it was his fault for making such a rash declaration. It was so… so… inhumane.

But of course, he wouldn't understand that, Yako thought bitterly, remembering all his talk about sacrifices and power, her own celebration plans seemingly dashed to pieces before her eyes. Even now…

Turning over to face away from Neuro, Yako again fixed her gaze on the clock. 3:42, and now she was angry. Yako could never fall asleep while angry, her mind was in too much of a whirl. She felt Neuro roll over to face away from her, and swallowed back the last of her tears. No silly tortures or tricks tonight, thankfully. They wouldn't help him this time…

Yako's hand started slowly tracing circles over her stomach again. She wondered if the baby was following her finger again, or if it – no, he - had fallen asleep already. Or if he even slept, at such an early stage of growth. Or maybe he was angry too…

"I'm sorry…"

None of them got any sleep that night.

Author's Notes: Uh-oh, trouble is brewing.... :( It's kind of sad, this was supposed to be a fluffy chapter in the end, but instead it turned out angry and depressed... Wow, how am I gonna fix this... lol

Credit for Neuro's freakish baby shower idea goes to sakuramiko. Thank you so much for letting me use this idea, it was real fun! XD And I'm not done with it yet... *starts plotting terrible plots*

Pleeeeeeeaaaaasee review. You have no idea how happy reviews make me. I could write a song about it if you need proof. :D Only not right now, I'm really tired... XD