A/N: Sorry this is late. This chapter did not want to get written. I'm not particularly happy with it, but at this point, I'm just glad it's done.

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I was woken the next morning by the feeling of someone climbing onto the bed between me and Kanda. The change in weight had me instantly alert, but the familiar whine that followed it put me at ease. "Daddyyy!"

Not yet ready to get up but unable to fall back asleep because my position was now uncomfortable on my pregnant body, I shifted around as best I could without letting the squirmy new occupant of my bed know that I was awake. Erika may have been focused on her father, but that would change in a heartbeat if she knew that I was already awake.

Kanda woke with a groan, and even though I couldn't see it, I knew he was fixing Eri with that fierce scowl of his that terrified the finders yet somehow never fazed her. "What do you want, Sprout?"

"Breakfast!" The cheerful way she shouted the word told me that she was wide awake and wouldn't be leaving us alone until she got what she wanted. Erika began bouncing up and down, moving closer to Kanda until she was actually on top of him. "I'm hungry!"

"Get off me, Sprout." The tone was angry, but I knew from the lack of swearing that Yuu wasn't actually upset. I felt him sit up, and her weight returned to the mattress, which meant that he had physically moved her off of his stomach. "You have to get dressed before I can take you downstairs."

Eri immediately climbed off the bed, giggling and screeching as she ran back to her own room. Kanda sighed as he got up, intentionally pulling the blankets off of me in the process. "You coming with us, Moyashi?"

I growled at him as I pulled the covers back over my head and curled into a ball. "I'm seven months pregnant and you haven't been home in three weeks. It's your turn to deal with her. I'm going back to sleep."

Yuu just laughed at my grouchiness towards being woken early. I heard drawers open and close as he got dressed, followed by some squealing from Eri's room as they fought over brushing her hair, before silence finally fell once more. I relaxed and rolled over to a more comfortable position, taking more than my fair share of the bed now that I was alone, but just as I was nodding off, the baby shifted inside me, ramming her knee painfully into my side. I grumbled and changed positions again, but this time I was rewarded with a kick to the bladder. I didn't want to get up, but now I had to pee so badly that I had no choice.

I made my way to the bathroom, scowling at the woman in the mirror as I passed it. She was not pretty in the slightest, and I could not for the life of me understand why everyone, my husband included, thought she was attractive. Despite Yuu's comforting words from the night before, she was still just a painful reminder of what I used to be and would never be again.

Forcing my thoughts away from my reflection, I set about getting ready for the day, as there was no point in trying to go back to sleep now that I was up. I undid the tangled mess of braids on top of my head, but I was too tired and indifferent to do anything other than run a brush through my hair; I knew I should tie it back if I didn't want Eri to mess with it, but that required too much effort for this early in the morning. Afterwards, I pulled out the first outfit I found in my dresser, dressing as quickly as I could so that I wouldn't have to see my female body naked.

I felt better once I was wearing real clothes instead of that skimpy nightgown, and I was finally able to push my insecurities away. Throwing on Kanda's jacket, as it fit far better than any of my own, I headed down to the cafeteria before my stomach could start grumbling; our suite may have been soundproofed, but everyone complained that the growling of my stomach could still be heard three floors down.

Kanda and Eri had just finished ordering when I arrived, and the finders behind them let me cut in line so I could join them; but that wasn't really anything new, as they always insisted that my pregnant condition trumped line etiquette. As I expected, Yuu chose to give me crap while we waited for our food. "I thought you were sleeping in, Moyashi."

"Not my idea, Bakanda. Apparently both of your daughters wanted me up." In case he didn't get it, the baby kicked me so hard that I couldn't help but visibly wince.

While Yuu made me uncomfortable by rubbing my belly in a way that was just a little too sensual for our public location, Eri finally noticed me and tore her gaze away from watching Jerry prepare her food. She was just as picky as her father was, and she always watched its preparation like a hawk to make sure that it was cooked just the way she wanted it. But I was more important to her than food - at least until her parasitic Innocence kicked in - and that meant that she greeted me loudly and passionately, latching onto my leg and burying her face in my clothes. "Mommy! Good morning!"

I smiled down at her, trying and failing to pry her off me. "Good morning, Eri."

Her happy smile morphed into a triumphant grin. "I did what you told me! I woke Daddy and let you sleep!"

Not having the heart to tell her that she had woken me, as she was so proud of herself, I smiled down at her and tousled her still bedhead tangled hair. "Good girl."

She beamed up at me, but before she could say anything, Jerry announced that our food was ready. We gathered our trays and took them to our table, Erika stubbornly insisting that she could carry her own, which she barely managed to do without spilling anything.

After getting Erika situated in her booster seat, Kanda raised an eyebrow at me as he sat down at his own plate. "Why are you wearing my coat?"

"Because I was cold."

He shook his head and rolled his eyes at me, clearly annoyed by both my half answer and by my talking with food in my mouth. "Then wear your own coat, Baka Moyashi."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Doesn't fit. Besides, you can't go on missions without your jacket, so if I have it then you can't leave." I frowned down at my plates. "At least, not without saying goodbye first."

"Moyashi..." His amused chuckle faded to a serious stare. "If you really want me to stay home, just say so. You're far enough along that nobody would mind if I stopped going on missions for a while."

"I know. I'm not that lonely yet..." I smiled reassuringly at him, but it fell as I rubbed at my swollen belly. "But maybe you could go on shorter missions? Like you did last time? Three weeks without you was way too long. Especially with-"

"I win!" Proving my point before I could make it, Erika shouted and began waving her empty plate in the air.

Taking the plate from her before she could drop it and break it, I pushed her bowl of oatmeal in front of her. "Not yet, Eri. You've still got more to eat. Go slower this time. It's not a competition."

While I sighed heavily and returned to my own food, Kanda cocked an eyebrow at me. "When did she start doing that?"

"Last week. Lavi thought it was funny that she was eating faster than I was, and now she intentionally tries to finish her food first." I rolled my eyes and stabbed at my eggs. "Anyway... between being pregnant, chasing that little monster around, and the doctors trying to keep me on bed rest, it would be nice if you were home a little more often. I feel bad about constantly pushing Eri off on our friends, and they teach her weird things."

Yuu laughed and we went back to eating. After a few minutes, a finder approached our table. He looked scared, but that wasn't really surprising given that being around my husband still terrified the finders. "The head nurse wants Allen to come to the infirmary for an examination."

My mouth was full, so I let Yuu answer for me. "Tell the matron that she'll be down as soon as she finishes breakfast."

The finder nodded and ran off, clearly trying to escape as soon as possible. I almost laughed, but then what Kanda had said hit me. He had referred to me with female pronouns, and that made my blood boil. "'She'?! What the hell, Bakanda?! I thought you were going to let me adjust to this at my own pace?!"

He just rolled his eyes at my anger before fixing me with a serious stare. "Che. That is what I'm doing, Baka Moyashi. Part of that adjusting is that you're going to have to stop getting upset when people refer to you as a woman. Which means that you need someone around who's willing to keep calling you 'her' and 'she' no matter how much you yell at them."

I scowled at him. "I let Erika call me 'Mommy'. Isn't that enough?"

He rolled his eyes again. "That doesn't count. You'd let Eri call you anything she wants to. You're like Teidoll in that respect; even if she were to call you names, you'd think they were terms of endearment."

Unsure if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult, my scowl deepened. "Don't compare me to your teacher. That's creepy."

"That doesn't make it any less true, Moyashi." Yuu seemed to enjoy that the comparison had made me uncomfortable. "Besides, you've got the finders so terrified of saying the wrong thing that they're all walking on eggshells around you, and that's my thing. Got it?"

The offense in his voice would have made me laugh had I not been mortified by the realization that that finder had run off earlier because he was scared of me and not my husband. I didn't want to agree to this, but I was too embarrassed to continue arguing, so I ignored the question and turned my attention back to my food. Yuu laughed, "You don't have to pout about it, Baka Moyashi," but he let the subject drop.

When breakfast was over, I headed down to the infirmary, unsurprisingly followed by my husband and child. The head nurse was busy, so I unfortunately had to wait until she was ready for me, but that just meant that I had time to wrangle Erika and brush her hair. She gave me no trouble at all, and by the time the nurse came out, her long navy hair was not only free of tangles, but it was tightly braided so that it would stay that way.

Kanda nudged my shoulder as he followed me into the examination room. "Moyashi, how-?"

Knowing exactly what he was going to ask, I laughed as I cut him off. "You're too much of a pushover. She's not going to listen to you until you figure out how to say no to her."

While he frowned at me, I climbed onto the bed and let the doctors and nurses examine me. It was completely routine by that point, so I ignored them and focused on Eri until they were done. My daughter was adorable, and it was precious watching her tell her father everything she'd learned in school while he was gone.

It made the time pass quickly, and before I realized it, the exam was done and the head nurse was dismissing me. "Well, Allen, it looks like everything's fine. You and your baby are in perfect health. If you promise to take it easy, we can take you off bed rest. Though I am curious as to why that is, given how much stress your body was under just yesterday."

I was thrilled to be off bed rest, but then the rest of her words hit me and I blushed bright red. Kanda snickered, and I hurried to speak before he could say anything embarrassing. "It must be because Kanda's finally back after being gone for so long. I missed him."

The nurse smiled slightly at my romantic lie, but it fell quickly. "That doesn't explain the weeks before he left."

This time Kanda laughed outright. "That's because she was withholding sex."

It took everything I had not to hit Yuu for that comment; I only managed to hold it in because Erika was in the room with us. "Bakanda! Don't say things like that!"

He just rolled his eyes at me. "Che. You've been on bed rest for six weeks, we have sex, and then you're suddenly all better. Are you really going to deny that there's a connection between the two?"

"That was the plan! No one needs to know about what happens between us in private!"

I was going to say more, but the matron beat me to it. She shook her head sternly at me, and the look in her eyes said that she knew exactly what we weren't saying out loud. "Allen, you should know by now that everything concerning your body is important - especially while you're pregnant. The fact that you were going against your body's needs and withholding sex is incredibly relevant. If we had known that your physical stress was a reaction to becoming female, we would have been able to treat this situation better."

"Sorry," I whispered and shied away, quite terrified of her anger and praying she would drop the subject.

She did, but she continued to lecture me, this time about a subject she'd been lecturing me on for nearly three years. I did my best to not talk back, as I knew from experience that that would only make the lecture worse, but that was hard when I knew that there was no reason for her to be lecturing me like that. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that there had been zero warning signs before Erika was born, and it bothered me that the matron not only refused to believe me, but she seemed to believe that I had hidden my labor on purpose.

And when she told me that she expected me to come for daily exams so that there wouldn't be a repeat of that this pregnancy, I nearly lost it. But fortunately, that was when Erika reached her limit for sitting still and announced that she needed to use the bathroom. The head nurse protested when I excused myself to take care of my daughter, but I ignored her and escaped before she could stop me.

Yuu thankfully kept his silence and didn't tease me for running away, but my gratitude died when he wouldn't let me take Eri into the men's restroom. I desperately wanted to fight him on that, but by that point, Erika was quite antsy, so I had to do what Kanda wanted if I didn't want her to have an accident. Fortunately the room was empty, so I didn't have to deal with anyone seeing me and teasing me for being in the women's bathroom, but it was still mortifying being in there.

I made sure to let Kanda have it afterwards, but he didn't seem to care that I was upset. In fact, he continued to make both me and Erika use the women's room whenever we had to use a public bathroom. I eventually got him to admit that it had nothing to do with making me accept being female, but while it felt good to hear that, it was a little worrying that he had become so protective of us that he was trying to keep us away from men.

I called him 'Komui', thinking the comparison would make him stop, but he just scoffed at me instead. "You better believe it. Any guy who gets within five feet of either of our daughters better have a damn good reason for it or he'll be dealing with Mugen."