Author's Note: This damn thing that I'm told is called "real life" has been seriously cutting into my writing time. I'll have to see about getting that fixed.

She tasted like heaven. She always did. The sensation of her mouth over his excited him, and he allowed his hand to slide lower, his heart beating faster in anticipation-

"Master! Tear!"

Luke suddenly had the urge to stab something. Something blue and furry.

Tear quickly pulled away as Mieu bounded into the room, looking as cheerful as ever. He leapt up onto the bed and smiled happily at the couple.

"Did you miss me?" he asked, completely unaware that he had interrupted anything.

Mieu had barely gotten the question out before Luke snapped, "You. Out. Now," and grabbed the cheagle roughly, preparing to literally throw him out of the room.

"Luke!" Tear cried before he had the chance, "Don't do that to poor Mieu!"

Luke looked over at her pleadingly, but she only glared back. He sighed, recognizing defeat, and reluctantly lowered Mieu back down onto the bed.

Mieu looked a bit shaken, but recovered quickly and crawled into Tear's lap, where he was happily received. Luke continued to sulk, angry at the cheagle for interrupting, annoyed at Tear for taking his side, and, above all, frustrated. It was not the first time in the past week that the creature had halted an intimate encounter that Luke would very much have liked to see through to the end.

During their journey Luke had become accustomed to having Mieu around, and he was ashamed to admit that after going so long without seeing him he had even sort of missed the little bastard. Yet all of that went out the window shortly after Mieu arrived. Luke was almost instantly reminded why he was always so annoyed by him. When Mieu learned that Tear was having a baby he was so excited that he spent the better part of an hour bouncing around the manor, babbling cheerfully in his shrill little voice. Luke was honestly afraid that his ears would start bleeding if he had to listen to it for much longer, but luckily for him Mieu overexerted himself and wound up passing out in a hallway.

"Master, what's wrong?" Mieu asked worriedly, evidently picking up on Luke's distress.

Luke let out an aggravated sigh before responding. "It's nothing, Mieu. Don't worry about it."

When Mieu spoke again, he sounded genuinely upset. "Master, why don't you call me 'Thing' anymore? Are you taking back the name you gave me?"

"I'm trying to be nice. Tear gets mad at me when I call you 'Thing.'" In his head he added, And with you around it's hard enough to get any as it is.

"That's because it's mean," Tear said defensively. "It shouldn't take me getting mad at you to make you stop."

"Whatever. I'm going to sleep. Good night." With that, Luke pulled the covers over him and lay down facing the wall.

Mieu looked up at Tear sadly. "Why is Master angry? Did I do something wrong?"

Tear smiled comfortingly. "No, you didn't. Luke just doesn't know the meaning of the word 'patience.'"

"It has nothing to do with patience," Luke muttered in annoyance, still facing the wall.

Tear ignored him and continued to address Mieu. "Let's get some sleep as well."

"Okay." Mieu hopped out of Tear's lap and curled up between her and Luke. Seconds later he was already asleep, and Tear found herself impressed by his ability to go from fully awake to fast asleep in less than a minute.

After spending a futile ten minutes trying to get to sleep herself, Tear opened her eyes and looked over at Luke. He no longer looked like he was even trying to sleep; he was on his back staring at the ceiling, still looking irritated.

"Luke," Tear whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping cheagle, "Stop sulking. You're being ridiculous."

He turned to face her, his expression changing to a pout. "Come on, can't we just lock him in a closet for an hour or something?"

Tear grinned devilishly. "An hour? Don't flatter yourself."

Luke glared at her. "Fine. Fifteen minutes. Whatever. Hell, I'd take five minutes at this point. Is that too much to ask? Five minutes alone with my wife?!"

"Shh," Tear scolded, pointing to the still-sleeping Mieu. "It probably won't be for much longer. Besides, you're going to have to get used to something small and cute taking my attention away from you."

Luke looked distressed by the notion, but was determined to continue arguing his point. "Exactly. I have less than eight months left of having you all to myself. I want to be able to enjoy it."

"Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment." Luke was about to speak up but Tear hastily continued before he had the chance. "Because we are most certainly not locking Mieu in any small, enclosed spaces. Just go to sleep for now. We can discuss this in the morning."

Luke was disappointed, but knew there was no point in arguing further. Tear had clearly made up her mind, and he certainly was not going to force her to do anything against her will. "Alright, fine." Thinking about the next day triggered thoughts of something he was supposed to remember. "Oh yeah, Natalia comes home tomorrow doesn't she?"

"Yes. Which means we get to tell her. By now our letters have probably reached the others as well."

"I kind of wish I was there to see how they'd react," Luke commented thoughtfully, a faint smile on his face.

"True, it would have been nice to tell them in person," Tear said, bringing logic to the situation as she was apt to do, "But it would have meant an excessive amount of traveling. I'm not sure what Noelle would think of us asking for another favor so soon after the last one, and it would take far too long without the Albiore."

"You know, you don't always have to explain everything to me. I'm smarter than I look."

Tear was about to use the opportunity to tease him, then realized he had taken the initiative and made fun of himself. She smiled. "I know. It's habit. Now stop stalling and go to sleep."

"Yes, dear."

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Luke groaned. Mieu's voice was not the first thing he wanted to hear in the morning. He would rather listen to Tear yelling at him about how lazy he was.

He tried to pretend he was still asleep, but this turned out to be a bad idea. He let out an involuntary gasp as something landed hard on his chest. His eyes flew open and he glared at the cheagle that was now perched on top of him. "Okay, I'm awake. But if you do that ever again I'm locking you in the kitchen and telling the cooks I want roast cheagle for lunch."

Mieu's ears drooped and he leapt off of Luke, scampering over to Tear for protection. She was sitting up, watching the scene with mild distaste. It looked as though she had just woken up as well.

"What is it, Mieu?" Tear asked, somewhat groggily.

Mieu immediately perked up again. "You have to get up!"

"Why?" Luke grumbled, finally mustering the energy required to sit up.

"You'll see," Mieu answered cheerfully, further irritating Luke.

"Well, now that we're awake we might as well get up," Tear said to Luke before he could complain further.

"Fine," he muttered, but it was another few minutes before he finally got up and got dressed. The entire time Mieu bound around excitedly telling him to hurry, and only Tear's presence kept him from grabbing the creature out of mid-air and throwing him against a wall.

When Luke and Tear were ready Mieu led them in the direction of the drawing room. He stopped in front of the door that led to it and looked up at the two of them expectantly. After a confused pause Luke reached out and opened the door.

"Surprise!"

"Huh?" Luke was startled to find himself in close proximity of a very excited Anise.

"Congratulations, you two!"

The voice brought Luke's attention to the fact that there were several more people in the room. It was Guy who had spoken. He was leaning against a pillar and smiling broadly. Standing nearby was Natalia, still in her traveling clothes, and Jade, looking as dignified and sadistic as ever. Noelle was there as well, dressed in her pilot's outfit. No doubt the others had used her for transportation purposes.

"What the heck is all this about?" Luke asked as he looked around at his group of friends.

"What do you think this is about?" Anise demanded, her tone suggesting that he was of inferior intelligence for not knowing the answer. "It's a baby shower!" She smiled cutely before adding, "And it was all my idea!"

Tear looked a bit uncomfortable. "Really, you all didn't have to come all the way here just for that."

"But we wanted to," Guy insisted. "This is big news."

Jade deemed it his turn to speak up. "I, personally, do have more important things I could be attending to. Unfortunately, the Emperor saw fit to send me here as a representative for him. I assure you I did everything I could to get out of coming, but alas, here I am."

Anise turned to him and glared, placing her hands on her hips as she did so. "Oh please! Don't lie, you wanted to come. You're as excited as the rest of us."

Jade merely shrugged. "Believe what you must."

"By the way Anise," Luke said, causing the girl to spin around to face him again, "Why are you so excited about this? I admit, I didn't think you'd care all that much."

Anise stared at him wide-eyed. "Are you kidding? Don't you see the potential here?" Luke was clearly not following, so she explained herself. "I get to be awesome Aunt Anise!"

"Aunt...?" Luke said questioningly, but she ignored the comment.

"Just think about it. Sure, the kid will love you and Tear, but the two of you will have to punish her if she does anything bad. Meanwhile, I'll come over every once in a while, bringing treats and never saying anything mean. Imagine how much the kid will love me!"

Tear frowned a little. "And what advantage is that to you?"

Anise cheerfully continued her explanation. "Well, she'll be a noble, right? That means she'll be rich. And I'm sure she'll remember her wonderful Aunt Anise, and want to repay her for all the lovely treats she brought."

Luke chose not to comment on Anise's disturbing little scheme for the moment, and instead asked, "What makes you think it'll be a 'she?'"

"It better be," Anise said sternly. "Girls are easier to buy stuff for. I just have to find things that are pretty or cute."

Luke was not pleased. "Hey, that's our kid you're talking about, not some test subject you can manipulate however you want."

"It's a shame," Jade said casually.

Luke had a feeling he would regret asking the question, but curiosity got the better of him. "What's a shame?"

"That the child isn't a test subject," Jade replied without the least bit of remorse. "The offspring of someone with a fonon frequency identical to Lorelei's, and a descendant of Yulia. It could be interesting."

Jade's comment was rewarded with a horrified look from Luke. "You're not doing any weird experiments on our kid."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Jade said in response, grinning in a way that made the prospective father even more nervous.

Luke turned to Tear, who also appeared disturbed. "Jade's not allowed to babysit. Ever."

"Agreed," Tear responded hastily, causing Jade's look of amusement to intensify ever-so-slightly.

Desperate to change the subject before Jade could comment further, Luke turned to Natalia and said lamely, "So, I guess you already know, huh?"

Natalia smiled and nodded. "Indeed. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in Baticul Port to find the Albiore there, and my dearest companions all gathered on the dock! Congratulations! I apologize for not having a gift, I only just found out."

"Gift?" Luke asked with intrigue. "We get presents?"

"Of course you do!" It was Anise who responded. "Don't you know anything about a baby shower?"

Tear was amused by Luke's enthusiasm. "You do realize that the gifts are likely for the baby and not us, correct?"

"Aw, what fun is that?" Luke complained, though his tone was more playful than whiny.

Anise crossed her arms indignantly. "After I went to so much trouble to get everyone together like this, that's all you have to say?! And I spent so much time picking out the gift, too! You don't even deserve it. Damn spoiled noble..."

Luke was taken aback by the outburst. "Wow, sorry, I didn't realize it would offend you so much."

"Just kidding," Anise replied cheerfully, giving her best smile. "I got it for Tear more than anything. I figured you wouldn't care much."

Luke rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"I'm afraid I don't have a gift either," said Noelle, speaking up for the first time. "Anise showed up in Sheridan and asked me to fly the Albiore. I didn't even know there was something special going on until we arrived in Grand Chokmah and she explained it to Jade and Guy."

Anise laughed nervously. "Yes, well, enough about that. Do you want your presents or not?"

Mieu, completely oblivious to any of the tension in the room, began skipping around merrily and chanting, "Presents! Presents!"

Anise reached behind her and grabbed a gift that was on the table, a rectangular shaped package with a shiny green ribbon. She brushed past Luke to hand it to Tear. As she offered the gift to the older woman she said, "This took me forever to find, so you'd better appreciate it!"

Tear cautiously took the package, not sure what to expect. She carefully removed the wrapping paper, revealing a plain brown box. A maid quietly stepped forward, took the paper from her, and slipped from the room, presumably to dispose of it. So curious was Tear about the contents of the box that she was not the least bit flustered by the actions of the maid, as she normally would be. She moved to the table and set the box down so that she could more easily remove the loosely fitting lid. Inside was something made of blue and white cloth, and she lifted it up to discover what it was.

It was an outfit, or a costume rather, sized perfectly for an infant. The most distinguishing feature of it was a hood that sported two distinctly cheagle-like ears.

"I know you're obsessed with cute stuff like that," Anise said by way of explanation. "I figured you'd probably have fun dressing the baby up and such."

A faint blush crept onto Tear's cheeks as she imagined how ridiculously adorable the baby would look when wearing the little costume. She did not say anything right away but Anise smiled, knowing that Tear's silence was a sign that the gift had the effect she had wanted it to.

Mieu hopped up onto the table to get a better look at what Tear was holding, and he squealed in delight when he saw it. "It will look just like me!"

"Great, just what I want," Luke muttered sarcastically, "Another Mieu around."

Tear was still too distracted to scold Luke for the comment, so Anise took the liberty of doing it for her. She turned on him and crossed her arms. "Nobody asked you. I realize that this kind of thing is beyond you, but Tear likes it so be quiet."

Luke could think of nothing to say in response. It was true that it did seem to make Tear happy, and that was something he most definitely wanted. He remained silent and looked away from Anise, trying to look as dignified as he could while he did so.

"Thank you, Anise." It was Tear who spoke. Anise turned to face her again and saw that she was still staring at the baby clothes with a transfixed look. She did not even seem to notice Luke's humiliation.

Anise brightened again. "You're welcome. I'm glad somebody appreciates me."

Tear neatly folded the outfit and set it back in the box for safe-keeping. As she did so, Anise turned to face the rest of the group. "Well, are the rest of you going to bring out your gifts or what?"

A short silence followed. Natalia and Noelle looked around expectantly, since it was already known neither of them had anything. Jade did not move an inch, simply watching Anise with his usual unreadable expression. Guy held perfectly still for a few seconds before he finally put his hand behind his head and said nervously, "Actually, I, uh, didn't know I was supposed to bring anything either."

Anise let out a highly over-exaggerated sigh and walked angrily over to Guy, who backed away fearfully. It no longer bothered him when women stood near him, but past experiences told him that Anise was likely to jump on him, an action he was still not very comfortable with. She stopped a couple inches away from him and glared fiercely. "Honestly, guys don't know anything! Why do you think we came all the way here?!"

"Sorry," Guy said as apologetically as he could. She shook her head and turned her back to him, to his relief.

"So am I the only one who thought to bring anything?" Anise demanded of everyone in the room.

"That is not entirely correct," came Jade's calm response.

Everyone turned to look at him curiously. He took his right hand from behind his back and held out a rectangular box that was slightly longer and wider than his hand. It was not wrapped, but it had a shiny blue bow on top.

Anise grinned in delight. "Colonel, I knew you at least would come through!"

"You are jumping to conclusions," Jade said smoothly. "This gift is not from me."

"Then who's it from?" Anise asked bemusedly.

Rather than respond directly, Jade walked over to Tear and bowed formally as he spoke. "The Emperor wishes to congratulate you, and present to you this gift."

Tear unconsciously took a step backward. "Please Colonel, I have to deal with enough formality with the maids."

"I apologize if I made you uncomfortable," Jade said as he rose to stand straight once again. "The Emperor sent me on an official mission to deliver this, so I decided I may as well do it properly."

Jade was holding the box out in front of him, so Tear took it carefully and removed the lid. She reached in an pulled out a small stuffed rappig.

"I could have guessed that," Anise said dully. "The Emperor is so predictable."

"Wait," Tear muttered as she inspected the stuffed animal, "This rappig looks familiar."

Luke looked at her strangely. "Of course it does. All rappigs look the same."

"No they don't," Tear insisted defensively. She inspected the creature again and then smiled in triumph. "There, you see?"

Sewn onto the rappig was a cloth representation of a collar and a tag (a real tag would have been a choking hazard). Tear pointed to the tag, which had tiny letters stitched onto it that spelled out "Luke."

"Huh?" Luke stared at the tag in disbelief. "I don't get it. Why does it have my name on it?"

"Because," Tear explained happily, "This rappig looks just like the one that the Emperor named after you. He must have had it specially made."

Luke watched Tear stroke the soft fur of the toy for several seconds before he spoke again. "So basically, our kid is going to be playing with a stuffed animal that looks like a rappig that's named after me." He frowned. "Don't you think that's kind of... weird?"

"Is it?" Tear asked innocently. "I think it's kind of cute."

Luke was about to respond with something along the lines of "You would," but thought better of it. Tear really did look happy as she looked over the two gifts she had received. He smiled, glad to see that she really did seem to be feeling better.

He was feeling significantly better too, he realized. Perhaps it was having everyone together again. Sure, they bickered among themselves often, but it was comforting in some strange way. It made everything feel normal again. It really was a pleasant surprise to have everyone show up.

Little did Luke know that it was not the only surprise in store for him that day.