.
.
Anko is throwing up again.
"You are ill!" Kimimaro says. Anko waves her hand and retches into the toilet. "You need to see the medics," Kimimaro says.
"I'm fine," Anko says. She flushes the toilet, glaring. "Stop following me into the bathroom. It's creepy."
Kimimaro watches her, doubtfully. "Have you bled?" Kimimaro says.
"What?"
"Bled," Kimimaro says. "What women do during that time."
"I'm not pregnant," Anko says. She stares at him. "I'm not!"
"Hm," Kimimaro says. "But I would be very happy if you were."
"Oi! If you fucked around with my contraceptives, I swear to god-"
"I did not touch them," Kimimaro says. Anko's face turns green.
"Fuck!" Anko says, and starts throwing up again.
xXx
.
It takes three straight days of vomiting before Anko finally drags her sorry ass to the doctor.
Blood and urine tests aside, Anko figures she probably has a stomach bug. She waits as Shizune reviews the results of her tests, the paper gown feeling scratchy and irritating against her skin.
"Well," Shizune says. She snaps shut her clipboard. "You're pregnant."
Anko only stares.
"What?"
xXx
.
When she tells Kimimaro, he has this stupid look on his face, like he's trying not to smile or look too giddy or happy or something, but it pisses her off and she slaps him against the arm.
"This is your fault," Anko says.
"What?" He blinks. Anko glares.
"We fucking used condoms, we fucking used pills, I fucking had a chakra cap over my goddamn cervix, and what the fuck, why are you laughing, I could fucking kill you, you selfish baby-making ass."
"You told me you hated condoms; you were noncompliant with the pills, and even though that chakra cap only works fifty percent of the time, you told me you were so regular you knew when you were ovulating like clockwork," Kimimaro says. He smiles. "I only went along with it because I'd like to see you with child."
"I hate you," Anko says. Kimimaro smiles.
xXx
.
As it turns out, being pregnant really goddamn sucks.
Her feet swell up so much she can't wear her boots anymore, and half the time she's too tired to even bother looking. She starts wearing Kimimaro's shirts because she can't be bothered to buy new clothes.
xXx
.
Because Anko can't ever do anything easily, labor progresses too soon and her pressure shoots up, her feet swells and she nearly has a seizure.
Kimimaro is quiet and pale during the surgery, which is emergent and there's a complication, the baby isn't breathing and the medic nin pull him aside, closing the curtains to the observatory while they work on them.
Twenty-four weeks, premature. That's what the doctor said. But all he can think about is how the baby is so small, it could fit in the palm of his hand.
"Did it hurt?" Anko asks. She watches through the observatory window, their daughter hooked up to machines to help her breathe. Kimimaro shakes his head.
"I was unconscious for most of the time," Kimimaro says. "I do not remember most of it."
A month passes. The baby gets bigger. She has Kimimaro's eyes.
xXx
.
Kimimaro is surprisingly good with babies.
"She likes you!" Anko says. "She likes you better than me."
"That is not true," Kimimaro says. Anko takes the baby from him; the baby starts to cry.
As for Kimimaro, it is as if the baby transforms him. He had always been gloomy, taciturn, pretty much anti-social and humorless-everything against Anko's normal type, she only liked him initially because she felt sorry for him-but now there's always a small smile on his face. Even when the baby is screaming and kicking up a fuss and they run out of diapers and they can't sleep, Kimimaro isn't phased. Anko watches, bleary-eyed and exhausted, as Kimimaro hoists the baby on his shoulder and rocks her until she stops crying; watches how he strips her diaper and powders her as if doing so is the most elegant and important thing in the world.
"She is so soft," Kimimaro says. Anko tries not to smile when Kimimaro strokes the baby's palm with his index finger, then picks her up to kiss her on the temple.
xXx
.
"Ne," Anko says. "What are we going to call her?"
"I thought we already picked a name," Kimimaro says. He sets Sayaka in her crib, gently.
"No," Anko says. "I mean, what are we going to call her? Mitarashi Sayaka, or Kaguya Sayaka?"
Kimimaro's face darkens. "I was never a Kaguya," Kimimaro says. "I was never a part of their clan."
"You still wear those markings," Anko says. Kimimaro doesn't look at her. Gently she slides against him, leaning against his back. "You two can become the new Kaguya clan," Anko says. Kimimaro looks up.
"Anko?"
"I think you should," Anko says. She rests her cheek against his shoulder. "It's lonely, being the last," Anko says. "I don't want that for you. And I don't want our daughter not knowing where her papa came from."
Kimimaro blinks. There is a warmth behind his eyes, and Anko seems to catch it, because she kisses his cheek and hugs him, hard.
Later, she makes fun of him for being such a goddamn girl.