Kyoko had spent the last few weeks throwing herself into her work and trying desperately to keep herself out of her own head. She had thoroughly embarrassed herself by running out of Ren's apartment and being unable and unwilling to speak to him about what had transpired there. Every time she thought about their kiss, and how wonderful it had been until reality had come crashing down around her, she wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

She missed him, but she was terrified of what he would say to her if they talked. She didn't want to see his hurt up close, and worse, could not commit to anything more serious than what they had before. Every text that he sent made her fingers itch to send one back, or to press the call button to hear his voice, but she knew that she had hurt him, and she didn't know how to make it any better without actually making it worse.

She had gone to TBM that morning for a Yappa Kimagure Rock fan appreciation event and had spent it hugging and taking pictures with fans in her Bo suit. She had been on her way back to her changing room, with a souvenir Bridge Rock towel over her shoulder, when she heard a retching noise echoing down a nearby hallway. When she looked down the hall and saw him, and saw that he was sick, her feet moved on their own.

He froze when he saw her as Bo the Chicken; obviously no one was supposed to know that he was ill. Typical workaholic, she thought. She assumed her gravely Oji-san voice. "You looked like you could use some help, Tsuruga-kun." He accepted the towel from her with a soft 'Yes, thank you," and wiped his mouth. She guided him back over to the bench. "Are you alright? Do you need me to get anything for you?"

He shook his head. "I'm okay. I appreciate the offer, but I don't need anything."

She gestured toward the trash can with her wing. "Most people puking like that would stay home from work."

Ren chuckled a bit. "I really am fine, Chicken-san. My breakfast just didn't agree with me."

Her eyes narrowed on him from inside the chicken mask. He was using his bright, dazzling liar smile, and she could see he was wearing light makeup. "You're lying to me, Tsuruga-kun. What do you have, the flu?"

Ren almost laughed. No, Chicken-san, actually I have an embryo. He sighed, though, and looked down either side of the hallway. "It's nothing contagious. I know you can keep a secret, so I'll be that honest with you."

Kyoko froze momentarily. He's sick, and it's not contagious? But he was lying about having food poisoning. Is it… really serious? Her neck hair stood on end. "Is it… bad?"

Ren shook his head. "Not bad… maybe life-changing, but not necessarily bad."

Kyoko decided that she didn't like that answer. Life-changing did not bode well. "Does your high school girl know?"

He sighed and put his face in his hands. "She's not allowed to know. I don't want to burden her with this."

Kyoko did her best to stifle her alarm. "Tsuruga-san, if it's that serious, she would probably want to support you."

He smiled at that. "She hasn't spoken a word to me in over a month. I have a feeling she'd prefer to be as far away from me as possible at the moment."

Kyoko swallowed, weighed her options, and pulled her Bo head off. "Or… maybe she saw you puking and now she's really really freaked out."

Ren jumped to his feet in alarm when he saw her face. "Y-y-you're the chicken!? You can't be!"

Kyoko looked up at him, concern flashing in her golden eyes. "Apparently, I can. You're sick. I know you're sick. How sick are you?"

Ren's mind raced a million miles a minute. GodDAMN me for being too honest with the fucking chicken! He searched for something, anything that he could tell her, and all that came out was, "Why do you care?"

Kyoko looked up at him, a mask of hurt coming over her face. "Why? Because I… I– you know…" her cheeks were turning more pink by the minute.

He crossed his arms. "I don't think I do know. I have been texting you for weeks, and haven't had a single reply. I see you in public, you run the other direction. But I puke once, and suddenly you care?"

Kyoko's eyes welled with tears. "It's not like that, Tsuruga-san! I… I was really scared after… you know. The thing."

He frowned down at her. "You can't even say it. The kiss, Kyoko. After we kissed."

Kyoko's eyes went wide and then she hid her face in her hands. Hearing her name come out of his mouth made her heart beat faster than a bullet train. She felt an overwhelming surge of guilt about the happenings after the kiss.

Despite his sudden annoyance with her, when he saw her blush and cover her face, Ren was overcome with the urge to hold her. Why, WHY does she have to be this cute!? He was trying his best to drive her away, to get her angry so she wouldn't find out about his predicament, but he was starting to realize that their feelings were too deep to be washed away by a petty fight.

He sighed in resignation and collapsed on the bench beside her. "I… I'm sorry, Mogami-san. Please don't be upset."

She peeked through her fingers. "You're not… going to die, right?"

He smiled, the kindness coming back into his eyes. "No, Mogami-san. I am not going to die." He looked at the floor. "I just can't worry you with this. You need to concentrate on your studies and your career. I'll be okay."

Kyoko sighed and looked down at her lap. "This is why I came to you as the chicken in the first place. You don't trust me."

His head snapped back up. "What!? No, that's not–"

"Then why won't you tell me?" Her eyes were large and pleading. He gritted his teeth.

"I…–"

"Ren, I found the vending machi– Kyoko-chan!" Yashiro rounded the corner and when he saw Kyoko, he immediately broke into a nervous sweat. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever! How are you?," he asked, trying to act natural with his armload of snacks.

Kyoko blinked at the snacks he was holding and then narrowed her eyes on Ren. "Are all of those for you?"

Ren swallowed. "I– yeah. You've been telling me to eat more, and I decided to take it to heart."

She burst into tears. "You're dying, aren't you!? Please don't die, Tsuruga-san!"

He put his hand over her mouth. "Shhh! Not so loud! I told you I'm not dying!"

"B-but," she pushed his hand away, "You wouldn't eat like that unless something was really seriously wrong with you!"

He exchanged a look with Yashiro, and Yashiro's eyes went wide. "Ren, I don't think–"

"Mogami-san, come to my apartment tonight at 7, and I will tell you everything."

"You will? Really?" she sniffled.

He gave her a solemn nod. "Really."

Yashiro's cell phone alarm went off, and he yanked Ren up by his elbow. "It's time for your interview." He bowed to Kyoko. "Please excuse us, Kyoko-chan. Good to see you." He half-dragged his charge down the hall, dropping snacks on the floor as he went. "Are you crazy!?," he hiss-whispered. "You're going to tell her!? I thought you weren't going to tell her!"

Ren sighed. "Did you see her face? I can't lie to her. I don't know why I ever even considered it." Except, he did, because he knew that this would change her life irrevocably. Yashiro clapped a hand over his eyes.

"You are going to be the death of me."

Ren's interview went off without a hitch. He managed to convince everyone on the set that he was perfectly normal, king of punctuality and professionalism, and sexiest man alive, thank-you-very-much. Yashiro had watched from behind the curtain, the gears turning in his head as to how to handle the oncoming shitstorm.

He imagined every scenario, how Kyoko would react, how he would handle her schedule to allow for her bonding with and caring for the baby, how to announce publicly that she was the mother. It did occur to him that she might decide to not have anything at all to do with the situation and decide to go back into obscurity, never to be seen or heard from again. He took his glasses off and polished them with a cloth from his pocket at that thought. Get real, Yukihito. That is not going to happen. But what if it does? His brain whispered back. It's your job to keep their shit together, Yukihito, and if she leaves… he imagined Ren laying on the floor, a husk of his former self, and bonked his head on the wall beside him. Fuck. Why me? He wondered if it was too early in his mental breakdown to check himself in for a grippy sock vacation.

After the interview concluded, Yashiro made Ren sit down and eat half of the snacks (that he hadn't dropped in the hallway) that he bought, and drink a bottle of water. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

Ren rolled his eyes as he finished the water. "You don't have to mother me, Yashiro-san. I'm fine, really." And he was. He even felt okay about eating the snacks, though maybe it was a little much. Yashiro nodded and checked his phone. "You have a modeling shoot in two hours, across town. Is your stomach settled?"

Ren nodded. "Yes. I'll be able to make it through."

And he did. He posed for the camera with a button-down shirt half-open, exposing his abs that had been coated in a thin layer of baby oil, no one the wiser that he was actually with child. When they finished, he took Yashiro to the side.

"How many more modeling commitments do I have?"

Yashiro opened his phone calendar to check. "Seven in the next two months, nothing after that. It's probably wise to not book anything past that point anyway. You'll probably be…showing…" The idea of Ren with a big pregnant belly was still far too alien for him to really be able to picture it.

Ren grimaced. "Can we… cancel them?"

Yashiro blinked. "You want to cancel them?"

Ren wiped the baby oil off of his body and pulled his shirt back on. "It feels weird. I feel very… exposed. What if they can tell early?"

Yashiro chuckled and patted his friend's back. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. Most women don't start showing until the end of the first trimester."

Ren narrowed his eyes on him. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a woman." He had always considered himself fairly comfortable in his sexuality, but his pregnancy was testing him. He wasn't quite sure how to go about everything as a heterosexual male. Women had been giving birth since the dawn of man; there were guidelines for them to follow. There had, of course, been a few trans men that had given birth… Maybe I should look some of them up for ideas… he thought with a frown.

Yashiro rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Ren. I only mean, if this is going to be like a pregnancy carried by a woman, then you can expect to have a few more weeks before you start actually looking pregnant."

Ren sighed. "I didn't mean to bite your head off, Yashiro-san. Dare I say it, I think I'm feeling… hormonal."

Yashiro waved his hand at his charge. "Think nothing of it. We'll get through this, Ren. We'll probably stumble a bit along the way, but it's going to be okay in the end."

They went out to Yashiro's car, and Yashiro drove them back to Ren's apartment. When he parked in the garage, he was silent for a moment and then turned to Ren. "Are you sure you want to tell Kyoko-chan?"

Ren looked down at his feet. "I don't think I have any choice. I already let slip that I was 'sick'. I don't want her to be stressed out for the next three months until I have to go public with it anyway, and then have her thinking that I… cheated."

Yashiro swallowed hard and nodded. "I understand." His stomach was in a knot over the incoming PR nightmare. You have weeks to plan, Yukihito, and by the grace of the gods, you work with Lory Takarada. It's going to be okay. "Well then," he said finally, "I wish you luck."

Ren bowed to him as much as he could in the car. "Thank you. I think I'm going to need it." He exited the vehicle and went up to his apartment to plan.

Kyoko arrived about two hours later, her hands trembling with nerves. She was so scared that what he would tell her would be awful news. She kept imagining a funeral planned by Lory Takarada with fire breathers, elephants, and belly dancers, with Ren in a tacky, Egyptian-themed casket on a dais at the front of the room. Her hands clenched. Don't worry, Tsuruga-san. I won't let him do that to you.

She hit the door buzzer, and he buzzed her in a few seconds later. She took the elevator to his floor, and when she got to his door, she took a deep breath. It's not that bad, she thought. He said he's not dying. So it can't be that bad, right?

She knocked, and he opened the door to let her in. "Mogami-san. Welcome."

She bowed and took her shoes off at the door. "Thank you, Tsuruga-san."

He gestured to the living room. "Would you like to have a seat so we can talk?"

Her stomach twisted. "Um… yes. Please."

They sat on either end of the couch in silence for a couple of minutes, neither one really knowing what to say. Finally, Kyoko couldn't handle the silence anymore. "So, I need you to be honest with me. How sick are you?"

Ren ran a nervous hand through his hair. "I'm not really sick."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "Then why did you vomit? Why did you tell me you were sick?"

He twiddled his thumbs in his lap. "I think I should start at the beginning. I did a commercial for a drug a few weeks ago called MPREG. It's a drug that allows for people assigned male at birth to conceive and carry their own babies. Normally, when doing a commercial for topical creams and such, they use a fake cream… but this time… they uh… didn't." His cheeks were getting redder and redder as he explained. Kyoko blinked in confusion.

"So… you have… lady parts now?"

Ren covered his face with his hand. "In a manner of speaking. It caused me to grow a womb."

Kyoko looked aghast. "I– so what do you have to do now? Do you have to have surgery to have it removed!?"

Ren shook his head. "No. It will go away on its own, with time. But that's not the most pressing problem. I…Mogami-san, I'm… pregnant."

Kyoko stared at him, the dots connecting inside of her head. Is this a prank? But he looks so serious. I don't think he's joking. But if he's not joking… then he's been with someone else. Kyoko had seen enough in health class to know how babies were made even if she had not engaged in the act. She blinked at him, and then blinked again, her face going slack as she buried her emotions. She got to her feet. "I see. Thank you for explaining, Tsuruga-san." She headed for the door.

Ren got to his feet. "Where are you going!?"

She looked him in his eyes. "Well, it certainly can't be mine. We haven't–" she couldn't even speak the thought into being. She cleared her throat and started shoving all of her feelings back into their lockbox. "I wish you, and whoever you're pregnant by all of the bes–"

"It's your baby!"

She froze. Ren hadn't meant to interject such important information in that way, but when she seemed ready to walk out of his life forever, he had to speed it up. She narrowed her eyes on him.

"How?"

He sighed. "The drug. MPREG makes pregnancy possible through DNA 'swapping'. When we kissed, you got your DNA… inside of me." He covered his face with his hands. "Goddamnit that sounds so bad. I'm sorry."

She stared at him. "You didn't kiss anyone else that day? You didn't have a drama to film or a commercial that required it?"

He shook his head. "No. Only you. I swear."

Kyoko felt faint. Yayoi Fuwa had drummed into her head from a very young age that being a teen parent would be frowned upon, and that she should preserve her virtue until marriage and focus on her studies. And she had done all of that. Though, she thought, Ren is technically my third kiss.

Ren saw the deer-in-the-headlights look on her face and frowned. "I don't expect you to drop everything. You should concentrate on your studies and your career. If you don't want to be a mother, that is entirely up to you. I just didn't want you to think that I was seeing someone behind your back."

"So… you're keeping it then?"

Ren nodded. "I can't bring myself to destroy something that you and I made together, no matter how… weird… the circumstances are."

Her heart twinged. That is actually really sweet, she thought. She took a deep breath and then came to stand behind the couch to face him. "When is it due?"

Ren shook his head. "I don't know any of that yet. They're going to tell me at my next appointment in six weeks."

Kyoko looked into his eyes. "C-can I be there?"

His mouth fell open. "You… want to be?"

She looked down at his abdomen. "If it's mine, then I should be. I can't just walk away and expect you to do everything. That wouldn't be right."

He nodded. "Of course you can be there. Does this mean you want to co-parent?"

Kyoko's brain stuttered at the 'co' part of that sentence. A shiver ran up her spine. "Do we need to be… together?" She wasn't sure what to think of all of this, but she knew that being with him as an official couple scared her to death.

Ren felt as though she had shot him. "No," he said finally. "We don't."

Kyoko nodded. "Okay." She steadied herself, her stomach unwinding just slightly. "I don't know how, but we're going to make this work."

Ren's hand settled over his abdomen. "Yeah. We will." He frowned at her. "If I had known about the DNA thing, Mogami-san, I wouldn't have… you know."

She tucked a flyaway behind her ear, and blushed fuschia. "Don't worry about it. Things happen. Are you… feeling okay?"

He laughed, the tension that he had been holding in his body releasing. "Yes. I've had morning sickness for a couple of weeks, but nothing out of the ordinary. Except for, you know, the whole pregnancy."

Kyoko couldn't help but giggle. "Yes. This is definitely a scenario that I had never thought to find myself in."

He looked at her with eyes full of worry. "How are you feeling about this?"

She wiped an errant tear from her cheek. "I'm going to be a mother. I'm scared, but… wow."

Ren smiled and nodded. "I feel the same."

She went to the door and slipped her shoes on. Ren frowned. "I was hoping you might stay just a little bit longer…"

She smiled as she put her shoes on. "I am. But I know you haven't eaten anything yet, so I'm going downstairs to buy ingredients. We have to make sure we keep you fed so the baby grows big and strong."

He sat back down on the couch with a relieved smile. "Thank you, Mogami-san."