"I'm sorry," Misaki was saying, "I didn't mean to ambush you like this; I know the last couple days have been really hard on you. I've just been going crazy, keeping it to myself. I needed to tell you."

"You…what?" was all Hei could manage; his brain seemed to be stuck in neutral gear, unable to form a single coherent thought.

"I don't know anything for sure," Misaki rushed to assure him, laying her hand on his uninjured arm. "I just think it might be a…possibility right now. A strong possibility."

"What - how?"

She raised an amused eyebrow. "Hei, I know your education was unconventional, but please don't tell me I need to explain the birds and the bees to you?"

Hei pinched his brow with thumb and forefinger. "That's not what I - I mean, you're on the pill right?"

His mind was still trying to stutter into gear; he wasn't ready for this. Not this conversation, definitely not, well, the subject of the conversation.

"Right. But when I was on that antibiotic a couple months ago - the doctor said it could interfere with my birth control."

"So we waited until you were off it, right?"

"Well, not as long as we were strictly supposed to. Someone was getting a little impatient," she said with a touch a humor in her voice.

"I'm not the one who left a pair of handcuffs on the pillow for me to find when I got home from the observatory," Hei pointed out.

Misaki blushed, a sight that he would never grow tired of. "Okay, yes. Fine. We both knew better, and we both got impatient. I did think it was close enough to the time the doctor said that it would be alright, though. Then the past few days I've been feeling a little worn out, more than usual; my period was supposed to start five days ago and it hasn't shown up yet. I didn't really think about it until Saturday when I was looking for my eyeglass cleaner in my purse and found my emergency supplies. Then I counted back, and…"

"Saturday?" Hei cut in. "I talked to you on Saturday, you didn't say anything."

She squeezed his arm. "I know; but you were so…off-balance from seeing your family again. I couldn't drop something like this in your lap, in the middle of all that."

"You've been dealing with it alone since then?"

She nodded, biting her lip. "I ran to the drugstore and bought a test kit when we broke for lunch at the conference. But once I had it…I couldn't take it without you being there. I want us to find out together."

"You have a test? Now?"

"Yeah."

Hei stood up so abruptly that Misaki nearly fell sideways on the couch. "Okay, where? How do we do it?"

"It's in my purse; we can do it tonight. I mean, not right now; I don't have to pee, so, maybe in a couple hours."

"A couple hours? Right. Okay."

He ran his hand through his hair, pacing up and down in front of the coffee table and shifting his arm uncomfortably in its sling. He could wait a couple of hours. He'd once spent thirteen hours straight crouched in a ventilation shaft above a crowded mess hall, waiting for his target to show. He could wait two hours for a test.

Well, one and a half, maybe.

At least one hour.

Misaki was watching him pace, an amused smile tugging at her lips. Did she look any different? He wasn't sure; what kind of person did that make him, unable to tell if something so - so significant had happened? If he hadn't been so focused the last few days on himself and -

"I guess I can drink a glass of water," Misaki said.

"I'll get it," Hei said in relief, and was already in the kitchen before she'd even half risen from the sofa.

Misaki reached for the glass when he returned, but he said, "I can help, if you need -"

"Hei, I can drink a glass of water!"

"Um, right. Here." He handed it to her as carefully as possible, then seated himself next to her on the sofa again, watching.

She took two sips, the set the glass on the side table.

"Is that enough? Do you -"

"Hei, if you're going to be like this for the next nine months, we're going to have a problem."

He gave her a blank look. "Like what?"

She sighed, then shook her head with a smile. "Let's turn on that baking competition show. You still need to bake me some mooncakes."

"I need an oven," Hei said. He tried to lean back against the sofa cushions, but relaxing was all but impossible. "And it's the wrong time of year."

The hour-long television show seemed to drag on forever. Hei couldn't pay attention to anything that was happening on the screen; although his gaze was forward, his entire attention was on Misaki and the glass of water beside her. She took the occasional, infuriatingly small sip, and he began to wonder if her normally pea-sized bladder was now inexplicably bottomless.

"Hm, okay," Misaki said as the winners were about to be announced. "I think I could go, now."

Hei sat up straight. "What do you need?"

"Well, the test. It's -"

He was already across the room where her purse rested by the front door. Digging around in the bottom of the huge, cluttered bag, he found a paper pharmacy bag. Inside that was a small flat box.

Misaki took it from him almost gingerly and, with a deep breath, headed to the bathroom. When he followed her inside, she glanced over her shoulder.

"Hei, you're not watching."

"You said we'd do it together."

"Yes, but not this part!"

"It's not like I've never seen that part of you," he said, a smile cracking through his nerves.

"Out."

He grudgingly left the room, then leaned against the closed door, trying to steady his breathing.

Why was he so anxious? If she was…well, it was already done. No point in worrying about a fact that couldn't be changed.

It was the not knowing, he decided. His entire life had been based around certainties. There was always a margin of error, of course - would that strongroom be guarded by one man, or five? But even that uncertainty was something concrete. The strongroom would be guarded, and he'd find out by how many once he got there. He knew how to deal with one guard; he knew how to deal with five. Simple. The future existed only in small, manageable increments. The next five minutes. The next hour. Worrying about tomorrow was pointless.

When he didn't know something for certain was when he panicked. Sister has suddenly become an unknowable killer? Run away from home. Her power inexplicably transferred to him, and her gone? Lash out and kill everyone in a medic tent. Abruptly confronted by his long-lost family? Have a panic attack on a loading dock.

He took in a deep gulp of air and exhaled slowly. He wasn't going to panic.

Despite telling himself that, despite his focused breathing, he could feel his heartbeat steadily ticking up, his palms beginning to sweat. He wiped a hand across his brow. He didn't have his own life sorted out yet, how could he possibly care for another?

He was so focused on his breathing that he failed to hear the toilet flush or the tap run; when the door at his back opened, it nearly spilled him onto his ass.

"Okay," Misaki said, looking a little breathless herself. "Now we just have to wait. Three minutes."

She let him into the bathroom with her this time. The narrow plastic cartridge was resting on a neatly folded tissue next to the sink. Next to that was her phone, the timer steadily counting down the minutes.

They both stared at the test strip in silence for a full minute.

"How will we know?" Hei asked at last, unable to bear the quiet.

"Two lines means yes. One line means no."

He stood behind her and slipped out of his sling so that he could wrap both his arms around her waist. Misaki leaned into him with a sigh.

"What are you hoping for?" he asked at last. He thought he could see at least one faint line starting to form, and shifted his gaze to the timer instead. A minute forty seconds left.

"Honestly…I'm not really sure. Is that terrible to say?"

"No," Hei said in relief. "I'm not really sure either."

"I mean, there's so much to think about, to plan for. This apartment is way too small. And childcare is so expensive. When you move up to detective -"

"If."

"When you move up, you'll get a decent pay bump; that will help. But it won't be for another three months at least. That wouldn't give us a lot of time to save up."

"Also, your dad will kill me."

She elbowed his ribs playfully. "He won't kill you. But…yeah, it would be nice to have a little more time to get him on board with the idea of, well, us. He'll get there soon, I'm sure."

Hei's retort was cut off by the buzz of Misaki's phone hitting zero on the countdown. They both took a deep breath. Misaki picked up the test strip; Hei rested his chin on her shoulder so he could see it too, his heart pounding so hard he almost expected to see Misaki flinch at it thumping against her back.

After a long, long moment, she said, "Oh."

Hei pulled her closer. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just…how do you feel?"

"I'm…disappointed," he said, surprised to realize that it was true.

Misaki leaned her head back, tilting her face to look into his eyes. "Me too." Then she gave a short laugh. "I really didn't expect that."

"Yeah. Me either."

"Well, at least this does give us time to plan, now. You can pass your exam; we can look for a place with a second bedroom."

"And an oven."

"And an oven," she agreed. "Do you think your grandfather meant it - about him and your grandmother coming to stay with us?"

He'd forgotten about that. He smiled. "Yeah. He meant it."

"That would help a lot," Misaki said, clear relief in her voice. "Especially if we're able to move before then - whenever then ends up being."

"So, are we…planning?" Hei asked carefully.

Misaki wrapped her arms around his neck, studying his eyes. "It sounds like we are. Are you okay with that?"

He thought about what Grandfather had said in the park last night. Why should he wait until his life was perfect, to be happy?

Maybe…maybe it was okay.

"Yeah," he said, kissing her. "I am."