The meeting was actually enjoyable before the notification ruined it all.

Cinder was sitting behind two different name plaques. One had her Lunar name on two lines and one had her Earthen name as if she'd never gotten married. She could always have a new one made – and honestly, it had been five years, so the chore was overdue – but then her Earthen plaque would be two lines too. "Linh Cinder" was infinitely easier to read from a distance alone than with the suffix "of the Eastern Commonwealth".

The plaques were really only there because the staff had set them out anyway, as all the people in this room were friends and were entirely too engrossed in their activities to feign embarrassment over a title or full name. Especially in Cinder's case. The first few meetings she'd been in as a young Luna Queen had been full of "Selene – no – Cin – Linh? Linh-mei? Your imperial maj- oh no, I just meant… Your majesty!?"

Thorne had loved to make jokes out of that.

Nowadays, the plaques were budged aside in favor of their models and ideas. Cinder often set hers at angles so the Lunars could read the name they were most comfortable with and the Earthens could read the name they were most familiar with. Sometimes, she'd just stack them.

Actually…

She picked up "Linh Cinder" and set it on top of "Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn", then slid them both to the edge of the table as she leaned forward. "We don't need all these large homes," she said. "Yes, they're beautiful, but they're not practical. Only two people per home! Imagine how many we could house if we built small homes, only one or two bedrooms, and all the same shapes. Kai and I have been studying it on Earth. It's an in-between to high-density housing and expensive large-family homes."

"Plumbing could become an issue," said one of her engineers. "Luna runs off recycled water. For us to have lots of homes close together, we'd need to decide a water system differently than our large homes – one each – or complexes."

"The groundwork would be hell," another said, though he didn't seem too dismayed at the idea. They were all too excited trying to design plans for the rebuilding of one of the outer colonies. No one was bothering with formalities and they were proposing grand ideas without worry of judgement.

"I propose a park in the middle of the city," said one of the scientists, putting a finger on a grid cast by tiny laser lights on the table. "Let's put the water receptacle in the middle of the park and give it an outward design that will be attractive. Beautiful, and useful."

"Keep in mind that water will have waste in it," someone cautioned. "People won't like the smell."

"Put the filtering systems underneath the public gardens that Cinder wanted to go into the park." One of her advisors glanced at her. "Instant delivery-"

"Yes!" Cinder almost jumped out of her chair. "The entire park can be both a filtering system and a public space, and a source of community food!"

There were several sighs of approval, several whoops, and laughter. A light lit in her retina display, indicating "Increased Levels of Dopamine and Endorphins" briefly, before she flicked it away. She drummed her hands on the tabletop before high-fiving the advisor to her left. The metal of her hand on the granite meeting table gave a much sharper sound than her flesh hand, making her drumroll sound like "Ba-ting, ba-ting, ba-ting!"

This was a great meeting, with great people, about a great cause. Cinder had come to enjoy infrastructure planning. Kai – who was living with her on Luna for the next two months - had been teaching her about banking principles and a central bank. Hard pegs and inflation versus interest rates. He'd shown her supply and demand charts and univization, where countries could adopt others' currencies. Since the Earthen colonies all used univs, Luna was voting on making the switch and Cinder had to be prepared for their decision.

Some people might find it boring. Soul-draining. Not Cinder, because everyone was equal at her table and they were equally excited for change. No matter how complicated it was.

"Consider some apartment complexes here," an architect began, but a designer hushed him as she finished drawing in the gardens as planned. Cinder leaned forward to draw some ideas for mechanisms underneath the gardens when her retina display lit up again and a teal blue icon she'd never seen before floated into her vision. "Detecting Levels of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin."

"What?" Cinder said aloud, causing the designer to pause and look up, confused. It was a mark of progress that Cinder was too distracted to celebrate – that they no longer flinched when they detected anything but happiness from her.

The other advisors leaned forward, examining where her flesh fingers were hovering over the north garden, where herbs would be planted. "Is something wrong with the interface, Your Majesty?" Someone asked.

"Yes – er – not ours. Mine." Cinder drew her hand back. "I've just got a weird notification…" She swiped it away.

"Is something wrong on Luna?" Someone asked, alarmed.

"Or earth?" One of the few earthen people in the room – an engineer, was leaned forward.

"Nope, everything's fine. I got it to go away." She gestured to the grid-laid array. "Let's keep going."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than her retina display lit up again.

"Detection Test Complete."

What detection test?

"8.072 mlU/ml detected."

An amount of that size wouldn't be visible to the human eye in a pile.

Then a new icon appeared on her retina display, teal blue, looking like a two-leafed plant growing upside-down inside of a bubble. The leaves crossed to form a heart. Her retina auto-selected the new icon for a guide of the new system and green text scrolled underneath her vision:

"Welcome To The First Trimester."

Cinder made a sound like a guinea pig that did not want to be picked up. "Reeeeet!"

She scooted her chair back so fast that she slammed her head into the wall behind her. Spots danced across her vision. It did not stop the green text.

"Estimated Time Elapsed – 15 days. Days Remaining In This Trimester…"

"Your majesty?" One of the guards was holding her arm and shaking her a little. An engineer had put his hand to the back of her head to prevent her from hitting it. "Are you alright?"

Cinder only squeaked and put her hands beside her eyes, like shields, before she remembered that they couldn't read over her shoulder. The screen was in her head. No one would ever be able to read over her shoulder. Even Kai, who knew the screen was there, couldn't ever tell what she was looking at.

Oh, Kai. Oh stars.

The green text finished scrolling. "Estimated Gestation Period Remaining – 251 days. Expected End Date – November 5th.133 T.E."

The voices in the room asking if she was okay were as equally loud as her startled heart thudding in her ears. She was surprised her brain wasn't warning her about her temperature or trying to initiate a guided breathing exercise. How hard had she hit her head?

In her state of confusion, Cinder said the only thing that made sense to her.

"I think I need to go home."

Silence filled the room. Her advisors exchanged looks. Cinder took a deep breath. "I mean… everything's fine. No one is hurt. Nothing's wrong. But I just… my head is… I need to go put some things together. And check my head." She put her hand where her engineer's had been and felt the beginnings of bruising there. "Please… you can keep going without me… I'm sorry I reacted so suddenly…"

They waved her away with understanding and lingering concern and Cinder stood slowly. Her fingers screamed, "Door!" but her head screamed, "Fall on the floor until you feel better!" Cinder put a foot out to test her own weight and slowly shuffled to the door. She bid everyone goodbye and sorry again before slipping out into the hall.

Her two guards looked at her in concern. Neither were Kinney – which was good because he would have had the gall to follow her and ask questions. She forced a smile. "I'm fine, but I'm retiring early," she said. "You can head on out."

Both guards nodded and headed to the right, towards the exit. There was no reason for them to disobey her request. Even if she wasn't Luna's Queen anymore, they all still treated her like one. And she was still a high-ranking member of the Republic. All guards had bioelectricity blockers so they would know for sure it was her and not someone else (and also to keep them from being manipulated by anyone hostile or otherwise). So they left, without a question, and Cinder took a deep breath, letting the stiffness from the shock leave her system. Her freeze response was wearing off.

So she did the most reasonable thing she could think of and turned to the left of the corridor to run like she'd just escaped hell. Like if Iko were bringing her heels to try on. Like if she was late for dinner. Like if Levana was chasing her down.

She sprinted through the halls – an awful idea after hitting one's head – and skidded to a stop outside a random, quiet room. She snuck in, shut the door, locked it, moved to the opposite side of the room. The teal icon – different than the usual green – was pulsing in her retina with its guided walkthrough. She pulled it up and noted new features along the left and right sides of her vision. Many were blank fields. Length and width and estimated weight of embryo. A timeline of three trimesters with an indicator at the very beginning. An icon with the symbols for male and female overlaid in it had a question mark icon beside it. When she selected it, text appeared saying "An embryo's sex can be determined after fetal DNA is detected – estimated time remaining, 2 weeks. Hide this feature?"

When she deselected the icon, the extra tabs went away and she could sink her retina display away. Her hands were shaking with shock. So much shock that she couldn't even register her own feelings on this.

She ran diagnostics on herself to make sure her banging her head hadn't damaged her control panel. Her metal hand and foot moved through their basic motions. In the absence of coherent thought, memories replayed themselves in small screens in front of her eyes. One in particular put itself on a loop. Dr. Erland, examining her when she was sixteen.

"Look at this wiring along your spine. Pristine workmanship. And ah! Look here! Your reproductive system is almost untouched." In the memory, Erland was gesturing to a holograph of her. The same holograph that Kai had studied once she'd become a fugitive and that she'd politely requested erased after she'd become Queen of Luna. It had been taken against her will and was filled with far too much private information. "You know, lots of female cyborgs are left infertile because of the invasive procedures, but from the looks of it, I don't suspect you will have any problems."

Cinder closed her eyes when Doctor Erland chided her for her indifference. "You should be grateful your surgeons took such care."

"I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on," sixteen-year-old her replied, and Cinder flinched.

The memory had itched at her for several reasons over the years. It was a point of happy irony considering the guy in question turned out to be the next person to enter the room after she'd made that proclamation. She'd mentioned it to Kai once after they got married and he had laughed, laughed, laughed for ages about it.

But the memory did have a bite to it because she knew that Erland had been completely aware at that point that she was Selene. So while she was thinking about the dismal chances of a cyborg being desired on earth, he was picturing the chances of a princess.

And the memory was uncomfortable because she was aware that he, like the elusive Logan Tanner – her original surgeon – was pinning hope on her being able to have children to carry on the Lunar Monarchy. Neither of them knew that she would grow up to dissolve the monarchy and abdicate. The thought probably wouldn't have been something they'd ever considered.

But rewatching that memory, hearing her voice and watching Doctor Erland spin her holograph… it gave her the creeps. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, just that it was uncomfortable to think that anyone had planned your pregnancy for you.

But that was part of being royal.

And speaking of royalty…

Cinder dragged herself to her feet after her diagnostics came back fine. She unlocked the door and hauled herself into the hall. It was still relatively early afternoon, but she knew she wouldn't be returning to her meeting just so she could be caught not focusing on things she truly was excited about.

Her feet found a route out towards Artemisia Lake. She avoided without much thought the area where she'd almost drowned. She kicked up the sand. Kai would be… somewhere. He was good at making himself useful. He could be addressing things down on earth or inquiring about some economic concern he had, or…

A footstep crunched the sand behind her and she glanced over her shoulder. There he was, removing his shoes.

"I thought you'd be off making yourself useful somewhere," she remarked. It was not a cold remark. She'd made the observation to him before and he'd responded that it was his intention. He looked up at her through his messy hair as he set his shoes on the path she'd abandoned. "I thought I'd come be useful to you out here."

She snorted. He straightened up, but didn't approach her. Only looked her up and down. Did she still look winded? Pale? Her metal hand went subconsciously to the wound on her head.

Still, he waited. And when almost thirty seconds of silence had stretched between the two of them, and Cinder's mind was racing for something to say, he asked, "Did you get a weird notification today?"

Her brain blanked out. "What?" She asked.

"Did you get a weird notification today?" Kai repeated, a little slower.

"What do you mean?"

"What I said."

Her hand fell by her side. "I…" she stammered, then all the air left her lungs. "You… you know?"

"I know I got a weird notification," Kai said. He took a few steps closer to her. "Are you pregnant?"

Cinder deflated. "I – how come you were notified?"

"Because we have partner sharing enabled," Kai replied. Cinder groaned and covered her eyes with her metal hand. Of course, of course. She got notified if Kai developed a high fever in the middle of the night. The last time she'd come down with a cold, he'd gotten a notification in a meeting and packed up to put her in bed.

"Yes?" she said. "I think? I mean, it's a lot of information all at once. My brain has this whole new software that opened up… I didn't even know it would do that." It must have been downloaded for years. Just waiting for whether or not it would be needed one day. Because some surgeon was planning ahead. Maybe they'd even designed the system for her, considering how few fertile cyborgs there were in the world.

Kai stepped a little closer, his voice a little quieter. "I was able to see quite a lot of information too," he confided. "I don't know if it's different from yours, but I saw that you're two weeks in and 250 days out and November is the expected due date and that it's a girl and-"

"I couldn't see that," Cinder cut him off. "I mean, I saw the days, but my system said it couldn't determine gender for another week or so."

"Mine said it was a girl," Kai said, but Cinder was already pulling up her retina. She found the gendered icon and received a new message. "Fetal DNA Detected. Do You Wish To Proceed?"

Well, she thought, the surprise is ruined anyway.

She proceeded, and the teal colour turned a bright coral colour. The sex icon changed to reflect a female.

"How long ago did you check?"

"Not long."

Cinder sighed and sent the retina display out of sight. "Yeah, I got the notification in my meeting… and I banged my head on the wall because it surprised me." She rubbed the sore area. "Couldn't have been more than an hour ago. Crazy how fast this all went down."

"Well, I suppose," Kai was fighting the beginning of a smile now, "that having very advanced monitors embedded in your bloodstream helps speed the process of finding things out."

"As does linking health notifications with your husband." Cinder rolled her eyes. A new memory began playing in place of Doctor Erland's examining her, which had faded to dull background noise. Kai, speaking to her in the hospital after her fight against Levana. "We never even had time to consummate… I'm still thanking all the stars, one by one."

She snorted and turned away from him. "Crazy that my body can figure out the gender before I'm a month in."

"Your body is a marvel of science, undoubtedly-"

Dr Erland's voice began replaying again.

"-But I know you're probably feeling uncomfortable in your own skin right now."

She looked over and met his eyes. Both the memories playing in the background faded away. Of course he'd know. He, who had examined her cybernetic makeup while she'd been gone and had been embarrassed to admit it. He who loved learning things about her but never pushed her into feeling uncomfortable. "It is weird," she admitted. "You know, most female cyborgs are rendered infertile by the invasive procedures. I'm quite the experiment."

Kai's eyes narrowed for half a second as he reached the same conclusion she had. "You feel that this was always expected and you're an experiment come full circle in your surgeon's plans?"

"Well, to be fair to them, it was this life or dying," Cinder said. She flexed her metal hand and the distance between them finally began to feel uncomfortable. She stepped a little closer and he, as if he had felt it to, held out an arm for her to hide herself underneath. "And I've been aware of people planning my children before. And yours. You don't even want to know how many fanfictions there are of-"

"La-la-la-la-la!" Kai put his hands over his ear. "Nope, nope, you're right. I don't want to know."

Cinder chuckled. "I bet I could even find some from back when you were married to-"

"Stop." He put a finger to her lips. "Please. I will literally go insane." He paused. "You read fanfictions of us?"

"Absolutely not," Cinder replied. "I'm not stupid. Iko sends me statistics to embarrass me."

"Good."

Kai took out his port with one hand and turned it on. It was still open to all of the details that were on the left and right sides of her brain. As Cinder watched, the embryo length changed by one millimeter. She shuddered and looked away. "It looks very different from mine. But they probably wrote the software for me and the computer has a standard display for you."

"Same information, different layout?"

"Yup."

Kai looked at all the numbers, and then put the port away. He seemed unsure of what to say. He opened and closed his mouth and then said, "We're naming her Peony, right?"

A very heavy calm settled over Cinder. So much of this situation felt beyond her control, like she was the culmination of years of experimenting. But Kai's words put a piece of the mess back into her hands. Like she was being given control over something. A nice feeling.

"I'd like that," she whispered softly. "I'll probably get an earful from Adri and Pearl though. Pearl may want to use the name herself."

"Are you ever planning on seeing them again?" Kai asked. "Because I'm not, and I'm not planning on my daughter meeting them either."

"Fair," She said. His words, again, provided some grounding to the situation. The world was spinning slower because he'd made a decision and offered her one. Funny how that worked. "I like Peony. We could also use your mother's name."

Kai kissed the top of her head. "Peony Dae of the Eastern Commonwealth," he mused. "Not that we don't have… two hundred and fifty…"

"Fifty-one"

"Close enough."

"I mean, depending on what time in the Eastern Commonwealth it is, it might be-"

"My point was we don't need to name her the first day we find out she exists."

Cinder chuckled and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for making me feel better," she said. "I feel like less of an experiment now."

"Anytime," he replied. He dropped his arm off her shoulder and took her hand – the metal one. "Care for a walk around the lake?"

"Look at you, being useful."

"And you with all your gadgets and gizmos… weirdly attractive."

She laughed, and they began their walk together.