(Four Years Married)

It was a quiet evening in November; the air was crisp and the sky had already gone dark. The shades to their balcony and other windows had been closed for a while, and the whole place felt still and cozy. Sorata had arrived home from his job as a video game producer to find Mashiro focusing on manga pages. He'd made them dinner and they were now quietly eating. They were seated underneath a kotatsu but they hadn't turned the heat on as the night was not that cold, at least not yet.

As they ate, Sorata watched his wife out of the corner of his eye. He could tell there was something on her mind; she was being very quiet, even for her. He debated for a minute whether to say anything, then decided and said, "Mashiro, is everything all right?"

She looked up at him, chopsticks still in her mouth, a grain of rice on her cheek. "Yes, everything's fine," she said around the chopsticks, the words coming out garbled.

Sorata sighed tolerantly, gently took her chopsticks away and picked the rice from her face. "You seem preoccupied, dear."

Mashiro looked down at the table for a moment, then turned herself so she was kneeling and facing him.

"Sorata," she asked, "Do you want to have a child?"

"A child?" Sorata said in surprise.

"Does that mean no?"

"It means it wasn't expecting that question," Sorata said. "To be honest, Mashi-chan, I hadn't given it much thought." He paused, then laid his hand on her hand on her knee. "Do you want to?"

Mashiro gazed into her husband's eyes. "I had a dream last night that we had a child, a little girl," she said. Her voice was as even and seductive as it always was, but Sorata had long ago learned how to read the emotion behind it, and tonight he could hear her longing. "It made my heart so happy. And when I woke up and realized it was just a dream, I felt sad. She wasn't even real, but I missed her."

Sorata scooted a little closer to Mashiro. "If there's one thing I can count on with you, Mashi-chan," he said tenderly, "it's that your heart always knows what it wants."

Mashiro smiled, then looked at him nervously. "Can we afford it?"

"Yes, we can." Mashiro left all the financial stuff to Sorata, and never really had any idea how much money they had. The two of them were not rich by any means, but between the fine art sales, the popular manga titles, and the video game royalties they had a good amount of money saved and enough coming in.

"But I read online that a child can cost 40 million yen."

"That's over their whole life, not all at once."

"Oh, I see." She looked around their home, the same one they'd lived together in for almost ten years now. "But our apartment has only one bedroom."

"We'll move to a bigger place. You've been saying you need a better studio anyway. Maybe we'll get our own house in the country, like Jin and Misaki." As soon as he said it, Sorata realized that might be a tad ambitious: they didn't have the same deep pockets that Misaki's youthful windfall had granted their friends. Still, it wasn't out of the question.

Mashiro considered this for a moment, then looked down at her hand, which was still covered by Sorata's. He looked at her quizzically.

"Do you think a pet girl can be a good mother?" she asked timidly.

Sorata thought for a moment. "Mashi-chan," he said, "if we had a daughter, what things would you want to do with her?"

She looked up at him. "I would want to take care of her, and play games with her," she said. "I would want to show her how to draw, and to paint. I would want to show her how delicious baumkuchen are."

Sorata chuckled, then smiled gently. "What if she didn't want to learn how to draw? What if she decided she wanted to be a policewoman instead?"

Mashiro considered for a second, then said, "I would tell her to work hard and do her best and become the #1 policewoman in Japan."

Sorata squeezed her hand. "And what if she got mad at you, and said things that hurt you?" He looked away.

Mashiro brought up her hand and turned Sorata's face back to hers. "I would make up with her," she said.

Sorata smiled warmly. "Then you'll be a great mother, Mashiro Shiina." He squeezed her hand again. "Plus, it's not like you'd be doing it on your own. I'll be here."

"Sorata!" She reached out and embraced him, falling forward onto him just a little. He hugged her back and stroked her hair.

They held onto each other for a minute, then she straightened up. Very solemnly, she declared, "All right then. Please impregnate me."

"Right this second?!"

The next afternoon, Jin and Sorata had lunch together downtown. These days, Jin worked as a director of photography on TV sets. The company developing Sorata's latest game was not too far from the TV studio, so they met up for meals from time to time. Ryuunosuke was also working on the latest game under Sorata, but of course it was a tall order to persuade him to come out. They'd managed it a time or two, but today it was just senpai and kouhai.

Their meal and conversation was pretty typical until close to the end. "Say, Jin," Sorata said a tad awkwardly, "before you and Misaki had Ayako, how did you know you were ready?"

Jin blinked and then laughed. "We didn't, remember?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you remember what we said when we announced Ayako was coming? 'It's unexpected, but we're happy.'?"

"No way!" Sorata said. "You're telling me it was completely unplanned?"

"That's right," Jin said with his typical aplomb. "We hadn't even talked about children, and then one night we didn't, uh, have what we needed, and well, here we are."

"I see." Sorata then laughed guiltily. "Sorry for prying into your personal life."

"Don't worry about it," Jin said. "And don't get me wrong, I love my daughter very, very much. But she was a surprise to us."

"Keeji too?" Ayako was now six, and three years ago she'd been joined by a little brother.

"No, we were a little more deliberate that time." He adjusted his glasses and grinned at Sorata. "Does this mean you and Mashiro are thinking about it?"

"Yeah," Sorata said, a tad embarrassed. "We both want to move forward, but I'm still a little scared. I guess that sounds a little stupid, huh?"

"Not at all," Jin said. "It's only natural. But I don't worry about you as a father, Kanda-san."

Sorata blinked. "Why is that?"

Jin smiled beatifically as he rested his head on his hand. "Any man who would fight his senpai over the mere thought that he wasn't choosing his best life is a man who will always be there for his children."

Sorata scratched his head nervously. "You-you think so?"

"Most assuredly," Jin said. "And if I'm wrong, I can always return the favor and beat you up!"

(Ten Months Later)

Mashiro's beautiful hair was more disheveled than Sorata had ever seen. Her face belied how exhausted she felt as she lay in the hospital bed. But as Sorata entered the room, her smile came back. He crossed quickly to her side and with her free left hand she clasped his.

In her right arm, the little swaddle of blankets stirred and then the face of their daughter peeked out. She flailed a tiny hand briefly then settled back onto her mother's shoulder.

Sorata beamed at them both, and Mashiro smiled up at him.

"Sorata," she said drowsily, "your pet girl has had a kitten."

He squeezed her hand tight. "She's beautiful, just like her mother."

Mashiro said, "She'll be kind and helpful, just like her father."

Sorata nodded happily.

A little while later, the nurse arrived to take the newborn to have some measurements done. When she returned, the baby was still fast asleep. The nurse laid her in a bassinet and wheeled it so it was directly beside the bed. The newborn fussed once and then resumed sleeping.

"She won't sleep for long," the nurse said, "so I'd rest while you can." Mashiro nodded and the nurse left.

Mashiro reached into the bassinet and stroked the little baby's head gently with one finger. "What are we going to name her?" she whispered.

"I thought we might call her Yuki," Sorata said at the same volume. "I know that's a little close to Yuuko, but I thought it would be a good fit."

Mashiro couldn't take her eyes off her daughter. "I'm white (shiro) and she's snow (yuki) and she came from the sky (sora)," she said. She closed her eyes. "It's perfect, darling."

"I'm glad you like it."

"It's decided then. Yuki Kanda." She sighed happily.

They both gazed at Yuki for a little while longer, and then Sorata saw Mashiro's eyes beginning to close. "I'll let you sleep," he said, moving to leave.

"Stay," she replied drowsily, pulling him towards her. "Stay."

"I don't think the bed is big enough, Mashi-chan."

"Stay," she murmured.

When the nurse passed by the room about thirty minutes later, she glanced in out of habit, and then stopped in surprise. Mr. Kanda was in bed with his wife; she'd curled up to his side while he stroked her hair and gazed at the bassinet. The nurse thought she should scold them; something was bound to get tangled up. But the scene was so heartwarming that she just kept going, and could not stop a charmed smile from spreading across her face.

(Four Years Later)

Sorata opened the front door to their house and stepped inside, Mashiro right behind him. "We're home," he called out quietly.

Yuuko poked her head out from the living room tentatively. "W-welcome back, big brother."

Sorata frowned. "Yuuko? Is something wrong?"

Yuuko pouted, a somewhat odd look for a woman in her twenties. "I tried to get her to behave."

"Huh?"

"The state of this room is not my fault!"

Sorata looked over at Mashiro, who just tilted her head in confusion. The two of them walked over to Yuuko, who hung her head. When Sorata peered into the living room, he realized the source of his little sister's consternation. It was a mess! Toys, papers, couch cushions were strewn about everywhere. On the coffee table, there were two glasses, one overturned and one with what appeared to be a sodden cookie inside it. Beside those was an open jar of watercolor paint, and on the surface of the coffee table was a sprinkling of paint splotches.

Sorata stared for a moment, then turned back to Yuuko. "Yuki did this? How can such a little thing make such a big disaster?" he marveled.

Mashiro held up her hand. "I vote we use plan C."

"On which one of them?"

Mashiro turned back to look at Yuuko. "Hmm."

"I don't know what you two are talking about," Yuuko grumbled, "but this is not all my fault. Your kid is wild, big brother!"

Sorata sighed kindly and shook his head. "It's fine, Yuuko. Yuki does make some big messes. She's quite outdone herself this time though."

Yuuko looked away, flushing. "O-okay maybe it's a little my fault."

She helped them clean up a little, but had to rush out after a few minutes. The house that Sorata and Mashiro had moved into just before Yuki's birth was still in the city but it was on the edge of town. Since Yuuko lived on the opposite side of the city she needed to hurry if she was going to catch the last bus.

Once Yuuko was seen off and the living room was more or less presentable again, Sorata peeked in on their daughter. The four-year-old Yuki was sprawled across the bed and snoring. Her dad felt the slight pressure behind him as Mashiro peeked over his shoulder. She took in the scene, then silently blew a kiss across to the sleeping figure, and Sorata quietly shut the door.

Mashiro tilted her head to look at him again. "You don't want to go to bed yet?"

Sorata smiled. "I am tired," he confessed, "but our date tonight was very nice, and I want to have you to myself for a little while longer."

They went and sat down on the couch, sighing again at the paint on the coffee table; not all of it had come off yet. "I'm a little surprised they knew where the paint was," Sorata said. Mashiro had largely stopped doing fine art, focusing instead on manga, and planned to keep it that way until Yuki was in school.

"Cats are very resourceful," Mashiro said.

At the mention of his 'name', an orange tabby jumped up on her lap and mewed piteously. Mashiro began petting him gently, and Sorta reached over to give him a scratch behind the ears. "Yes, yes, we missed you too, Akira." Hikari the white cat had sadly passed away when Yuki was just a baby, and they'd adopted Akira not long after.

Akira leaned into the pets for a moment and then curled up pointedly on Sorata's lap. He looked up at Mashiro with wry smile. "Guess I'm not allowed to go to bed yet anyway."

Mashiro gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then leaned her head on his shoulder, snuggling herself close to his side. "You are trapped by cats," she declared.

A few nights later, Mashiro, Sorata, and Yuki were sitting around the coffee table in the living room. (It was not entirely paint-free, but close enough that it wasn't very noticeable.) Mashiro was drawing a manga page, Yuki was coloring, and Sorata was reading a video game magazine. Suddenly, Yuki asked, "Daddy, what's 'pet'?"

Sorata looked up. "Hmm?"

"What's 'pet'?"

Sorata smiled. "A pet is like a dog or a cat." He pointed to the kitchen counter, where their furry fourth roommate was loafing and judging everyone. "Akira is a pet."

"But Mama is not a cat!" Yuki protested. Mashiro looked up at this, her eyes shifting back and forth from her daughter to her husband.

"Ah, you heard me call Mama pet-girl?" Sorata said a tad sheepishly.

"Yah!"

"It's just a joke Mama and I have, Yuki-chan," Sorata said. "She's not really a cat but sometimes I joke that she is."

"Why?"

Sorata looked over at Mashiro with a warm smile. "Because she is so cute and precious to me." Mashiro smiled and nodded.

Yuki's eyes widened. "Yuki is precious! I wanna be pet-girl too!"

Mashiro turned to her and put her hands on her hips in mock offense. "No, no, only Mama is pet girl."

"Awwww!" Yuki pouted.

Sorata chuckled, then patted Yuki's head. "Yuki-chan, do you know what Mama said when you were born?"

Yuki looked up at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"She said 'pet-girl has had a kitten.' Mama is my pet girl, but you're my kitten girl."

Yuki's face lit up and she threw up in her hands in triumph. "Yes! Yuki is kitten girl!"

Sorata laughed. "Yes, yes."

"Wai! Yuki so happy!" The four-year-old pounced on Sorata's lap and threw her arms around his chest. He grunted in surprise and patted her head again, to which she made a purring noise.

Mashiro reached over and petted Yuki's hair. "Good kitty."

In that moment, the most unexpected feeling came over Sorata Kanda. He felt like he'd been transported back a dozen years ago, to the day Mashiro first moved into Sakura-sou and this fascinating, perplexing person had suddenly become part of his life. He could never have imagined then the life he would have with her. Memories of love and frustration, excitement and drudgery washed over him, leaving him only with a sense of gratitude.

With each passing year, the memories of Sakura-sou slipped a little farther away, but its presence never did. It stood not as a tower overshadowing them but like a mountain framing the landscape. They weren't the people they were back then, but they were who they were because of back then. Their friendships, their families and their careers all owed a debt to that place and those formative experiences of their lives. It would in a sense always be home.

With this in his heart, Sorata reached over and rested his hand on Mashiro's head too. She looked at him quizzically for a second, and then just smiled.