Persona 4 Golden: Yu and Yukiko's Full and Happy Life 14

Being the new maid, Chie didn't end up seeing a lot of Mitsuru during her stay. To be perfectly honest though, that was quite alright with her. Even though they'd fought together, Chie would have no idea what to say if they were stuck in a room for several minutes, and she was somewhat relieved that by the time she returned from school the next day, Mitsuru was already gone. Yukiko was a little bummed out until her parents shared the fact that Mitsuru had expressed an interest in coming back some time in the future, although the Amagi's could scarcely fathom why. The excited smile on their daughter's face was enough for even Fuyuhiko to attempt to calm her down. "Now sweetie, as wonderful and exciting as my grandson is, you can't expect a stranger, especially one like Mitsuru Kirijo, to be equally as excited, so do remember to temper your enthusiasm for next time."

Holding back a laugh at that was one of the most difficult things Yukiko had done in recent memory, but she somehow managed. "Alright daddy, I understand. But by the time she comes back, the baby will have already been born." Fuyuhiko was surprised by that. "Oh well yes but I was referring to the nex-" his wife cleared her throat and cut him off before he could say anymore. "We will discuss that at a later date. But for now, we have a lot of work to do. My parents are coming in two days and they are very much looking forward to meeting our son-in-law." And just like that, it was as if Mitsuru had never even been there, as the inn immediately got to work preparing for the next set of guests. Among the help, there was still chattering about how they couldn't believe Mitsuru had actually come, but among the management there was no time to dwell on such things. "Kind of ironic that a place that focuses on the past has to always look towards the future..." she said during a study session.

"Very good Chie! That is the correct usage, I knew you could do it!"

Tuesday and Wednesday could almost be considered a "weekend" for those at the Amagi Inn and as such, Yukiko's grandparents had chosen Wednesday to come leaving all of Tuesday to prepare for their arrival. Luckily for Chie, this meant her usual maid duties could be replaced with good old fashioned manual labor and even more fortunately, it got her some one on one time with Yu.

Currently, the two were cutting the grass as the mid afternoon weather was perfect for it. A relatively simple task made complicated by the fact that they weren't allowed to use a lawn mower as it could be picked up by the patrons inside and throw off the whole atmosphere. As such, they were on their knees with a bag and a blade, chopping away and sweating up a storm. Chie had grumbled at one point about how much of a pain in the ass it was to have to do.

"Yes it is," Yu had responded much to Chie's surprise. "But if we don't do it, then someone else has to. When I think of it like that, it doesn't seem so bad." After he said that, and just watching him work quietly and without complaint, Chie made a solemn vow to not gripe for the rest of the time they were working together.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

She said she wouldn't complain, but having nothing but the sound of cutting grass to keep her company was getting a bit old. Even after a week working at the inn, she just couldn't sit and be quiet for long periods like her other friends could. "So...what did Mitsuru want?"

Fortunately for her, while Yu was comfortable in the silence, he never objected to being a conversation partner. He smiled at her as he placed another clump of grass in his bag. "She just wanted to make sure there were no 'leftovers' so to speak. She could have sent someone else but she wanted to be certain of it herself." That made sense to Chie, a perfectionist like her wouldn't be truly satisfied unless she came to Inaba herself.

"Actually...didn't Akihiko mention anything about it?" At that question, Chie shot up straight which only served to earn Yu's full attention. "*Ah* w-well...no he didn't mention it *hahaha* i-isn't that crazy *haha*" she immediately buried herself back into her work but she could feel Yu's eyes boring into her back. "C-come on slowpoke! We have to get this done by evening right? You heard what Mrs. Amagi said!"

"You haven't been calling him, have you?"

"None of your business!" Immediately, Chie's hands went to her mouth as her blade dropped to the ground. "Sorry...didn't mean to shout like that..." Yu seemed as unperturbed as ever though and continued to stare until she sighed. "No, I haven't been calling, okay? What am I supposed to say? 'Hey master! I failed my freaking exams and *uh* that's it! And I've been training for two whole weeks! Isn't that amazing!"

"Sarcasm doesn't become you. And the way I remember it, you didn't 'fail' your exams, you just didn't do as well as you wanted." The tomboy opened her mouth but found herself falling short of any come back. "If you did fail, I wouldn't be as nice to you as I'm being right now," and Yu gave her a little shove which got a giggle out of the girl. "Yeah yeah I know. I am pretty proud of the work I've been putting in and I know I'm gonna crush those next exams!"

"That's the spirit! But there's still something holding you back, isn't there?" Now that Chie was at ease with her leader, she wasn't as testy but she still felt a little awkward about the whole thing. "I dunno, I guess...well he's really cool a-and he's off in college and fighting terrorists or whatever and I'm just studying for high school tests and working as a maid. I don't really want to chat his ear off about boring stuff after he's been working all day, you know? Like...I don't want to bother him is all." Now that Yu had drawn it out of her, she had to admit she felt much better. It made her inwardly chuckle, "same old leader."

"You know...I generally only give my number to people who I want to call me. I can't read Akihiko's mind but I imagine he's the same." Again, Chie didn't have a response to that and instead began to poke at the ground quietly "Chie...call your master. Not every day, but keep him updated. I was there when he gave you his number."

"...ll call him..."

"What was that?"

"I said I'll call him! Geez..." she acted exasperated, but she couldn't hide the blush or the smile on her face. When he made her say her reasons for hesitating, it did sound rather silly laid out like that. "You and Yukiko have both gotten really naggy recently, but I can't say I mind too much. Not as long as I need a kick in the pants every once in a while."

"Remember to brush your teeth," Yu replied jokingly which earned him a return shove from the girl. Although, comparing him to a nagging parent did remind Chie of the other thing she was supposed to ask him. "Hey Yu, I feel kind of bad for never having asked this, but...what are your parents like?" To Yu's credit, he didn't show any outward emotion and smiled back at Chie. "It's fine, I've been kind of tight lipped about my own life just because you guys are so much more interesting."

"*Aw* that's not true! Now come on, spill the beans already! What are Mr. and Mrs. Narukami like?" Yu smiled gently at her and cut another section of the grass, leaving her in a state of eager anticipation. "You really want to know?"

"*Uh-huh*"

"Well...I'll tell you after you call Akihiko tonight." This time, he actually managed to catch Chie's attempted punch to the shoulder which only made her more flustered. "Your mind is unfocused, making your movements easy to read." She shot up for a sparring session taking a combat stance only to notice Yu was sat cutting the grass. "We have to get this done by this evening, remember? And then we need to work on the garden." His tone was emotionless, but Chie saw the barest hint of a smirk on his face.

With no choice but to grumble and sit back down, the two got right back to work. They worked until their bodies were glistening with sweat and their forearms had pieces of grass stuck to them and their knees were green. It was fortunate that they were allowed to wear casual clothes for this, or else they'd probably be melting even in mid-afternoon May. A thin film of dirt was visible as well and Chie really felt like taking a nice hot bath out back, but of course they weren't quite done yet.

"Excellent work you two. A machine could scarcely have done a better job. Now, what I need you to do is make one last sweep of the garden. Make sure there's no weeds or litter or just anything that looks unsightly. I want papa *er* my father to know I've been taking excellent care of it while he's been gone." Honestly, this was the third time in the past month she'd asked Yu to do a sweep of the area. It was nice she entrusted such an important task to him, but frankly it had him a little worried about how strict her dad would be if she was this paranoid about there being something wrong with the garden. Regardless, he nodded and went to do his task while Chie bit back a cheer. Now this is what she was talking about! This wasn't just pumping iron in the gym, this was real functional strength! The fact that she still felt like she could do more after "mowing" an entire lawn by hand was just proof her training was coming along. Now that Yu had forced her hand, she was kind of looking forward to at least dropping that little tidbit to her master.

"Oh wait, before you go out, I made *puff* snacks!"

A smiling woman in red was huffing and puffing her way towards them with a tray with two sandwich plates and two different beverages on them. She had a much better fitting white apron with slight red trim that helped accentuate her hidden swell a bit. The was oozing on to the top of the tray and Yu couldn't tell if she was doing it on purpose to excite him or not.

"Alright! Yukiko coming in with the grub! I'm starving!" The cooking mama had scarcely put the food down for five seconds before Chie began grabbing for it. "Iwt's rwewwy gwud!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Chie," The two Amagi women said at once. The mother and daughter looked to each other with baffled looks on their faces before laughing in good cheer. "Are you trying to phase me out completely Yukiko? Taking over my inn and my role in the family"

"Noooo, don't be silly. You're just getting promoted to grandmother."

"Are you sure? It would be so easy...all you'd have to do is stand in front of me, and no one would even know I'm here." She reached around her daughter and gave the tubby mama two pats on each hip making the girl huff. "Mother!" All she could do was pout because she knew it was true. "I was going to say something nice about how it was still too early for me to replace you, but you can forget about it now! *Hmph*" The girl puffed up her already puffy cheeks which earned another laugh from Yukina. "*Aw* I'm sorry, you know I like to tease." Yukiko was about to say it was water under the bridge when her mother grasped her cheeks. "I hope this means my little chipmunk is still going to share her acorns with me!"

"M-mother!" She waddled away in a flustered fury and started rubbing her cheeks. Before long, the smile returned to her face and she was squishing and pulling at them far more than Yukina had been. "*Heehee* I suppose they have been getting pretty chubby haven't they?" For the second time in the past minute, she felt her face getting grabbed as she was pulled in for a kiss from her husband.

"I think you make for a very cute chipmunk darling." He said when they broke apart, Chie rolled her eyes while munching on her sandwich but Yukiko actually blushed at that nonsense! "Oh Yu! You're just saying that! Now hurry and eat up before it gets cold. You've been working all day and I'd hate for you to get a lukewarm lunch!"

"Lemonade for hubby and a nice tall protein shake for Chie." Chie's eyes went wide and she made a grab for the glass. "You made a protein shake just for me? Thanks Yukiko, you're a real pal!" The girl took a big swig before gagging and reaching for a napkin, coughing and gasping into it.

"Oh Chie...That's what happens when you eat too fast. Or, well, drink in this case. At least it didn't get all over the floor..." Yukiko tilted her head in confusion at the way Chie was glaring at her. "I know you're excited about becoming an ideal woman for Akihiko but-"

"No! Don't even start with that right now! That's not even the issue! What the hell did you just make me drink!? *Gaaah*" Chie hadn't noticed in her enthusiasm, but now looking more clearly, she could almost see the purple miasma emanating from it. Her guard had been down recently, especially with how tasty her sandwich had been but this was almost as bad as her own cooking! "It tasted really bad didn't it? But that just means it's good right? Because of all the protein? It has eggs, wheat, milk, steak, a little bit of dark chocolate for flavoring, almonds, fish, raw onions..." at every ingredient the marital artist's face got greener and greener and Yukina's got redder and redder as she had to hold in a laugh. "I thought Yu made you good at cooking!" Yukiko smiled brightly which only annoyed her friend even more. "Oh hubby's been a wonderful tutor! But a protein shake is more chemistry than cooking isn't it? It's to get the most amount of protein into your body as quickly as possible. Right hubby?"

Her husband nodded in the middle of his newest bite. "That's more or less correct." Chie only groaned in annoyance. "Mrs. Amagi, tell them how wrong they're being!" But the older woman just nodded her head sagely along with Yu. "No no, he's right. Next time don't forget the *snrk* cottage cheese *ehehe*" Despite her mom's corpsing almost giving it away, Yukiko gave a nod and thumbs up of understanding

Yukina made her exit with one last smirk. "Well, feel free to take a little break. Don't forget to tell my daughter how you'd like your shake next time!"

"Yeah like I'm ever going to drink one of these again!" But Yukiko's attention had shifted to her man enjoying his sandwich. "Do you like it hubby? It's a little simple I know, but I figured since you were going right back out you didn't want anything too heavy." She gave him a kiss right on the cheek and couldn't resist a quick loving hug. There was just something about her husband eating her cooking that sent her heart all aflutter even if it was something as simple as this. "How did you think it tasted?" Yu asked, seemingly innocently but the implication was clear.

"Oh I quite enjoyed the two I had, taste testing everything I make was one of the best things to happen to my cooking. You know, I think I'll make myself another one when I get back." Yu straightened up and began playing with a loose hair around her ear. "How about I make it for you? You must have been on your feet for the past hour? And that lemonade looks freshly squeezed. You must be exhausted." His voice was full of legitimate concern, but there was a tinge of teasing there too and she bit back a smile. "Oh it was exhausting, but don't worry, our sweetheart made sure his mama took a nice break halfway through. I have enough energy to make a little snack." The girl rubbed her arm in an exaggerated way and gave it a squeeze, only emphasizing the soft flab that was there. "I guess we all got a real workout didn't we?"

Chie scoffed at that, she didn't want to hurt Yukiko's feelings, but at the same time she couldn't let a statement that ridiculous just slide. "I think cutting a lawn is a liiiitttle harder than juicing. Just saying." Yukiko just smiled at her friend and let a finger sink into her soft cheek. "Well that's true but that's because we're at different levels of fitness. So really, I worked just as hard!"

"She's pregnant, Chie," Yu came to his wife's defense before the other girl could protest. His arms wrapped around his wife and he gave her a smooch on the cheek. "I think it's okay if she wants to take things nice and easy." Chie didn't really have a counter to that, but it was still a little unsettling to someone who's life revolved around fitness. "Well yeah, but I don't know if you should be winded after making lemonade..."

"Hey Yukiko!" she shouted, surprising the two young parents. "You know how you've been helping me with a bunch of stuff? How about I help you kind of get back into shape a little bit?" To her great relief, Yukiko didn't seem to be offended by the suggestion at all and was instead just smiling gently. "Yeah! Yeah! We could do like an alternating thing where one day, we focus on workouts and another day get you back into fighting shape!" The more Chie talked about it, the more pumped up she got.

"No thanks." Yukiko's gentle but firm reply undercut all that enthusiasm immediately, it was like she didn't even have to think about it at all. "Come on! Don't be so lazy Yukiko! We'll get this belly butter nice and burned off in no time at all!" An enthusiastic slap to her middle sent the whole thing jiggling and Chie was surprised at how much it contorted around her hand, like slapping the surface of the water, sloshing up and down like a wave. Yukiko's giggling only made it wobble about more and that too, served to take the wind out of Chie's sails.

"Aren't you the one being lazy Chie? Don't think I don't see what you're trying to do, putting off studying just to make me run around? Well I'm not falling for it. Besides, I do maternity stretches on my own and it keeps me in perfect shape for the baby." Her tone was jovial but stern and the brunette knew that it was her hint to drop it. Feeling a bit like a scolded child, Chie could only nod and mumble "I wasn't trying to put off studying"

"*Ahahaha* I know, it was just a little jape. But...I should probably let you two get back to work. Hubby, I'll have a bath drawn for you when you're done." A light blush dusted her cheeks, Yu had been squeezing into her throughout that entire conversation after all and she'd been privy to a certain...hardness that Chie hadn't noticed. It only made sense, she basically just announced she had no intention to exercise beyond simple and easy maternity stretches. Emboldened by his arousal, she waddled heavily over to the tray she had set down earlier. Bending over, she hoped her stud remembered she wasn't wearing panties anymore and judging by the way his breath hitched, he did. "Or maybe my breeding hips are just that arousing...I suppose I'll find out tonight when I ask him."

Yukiko had to be thankful that Yu's interests were what they were. Not only did it lead to plenty of spoiling and pampering, but just by walking around and slightly exaggerating the things she'd normally do as a doughy lazy baby making housewife, she could excite him greatly. She hoped he noticed the way the knot of the apron was starting to disappear between her back fat and developing butt shelf when she stood up straight. Like a baseball caught in a catcher's glove. Giving her hips a little sway, she took the tray out of the room and imagined her husband starring at her exit, just thinking about how lustful he was getting.

It was too bad Chie was there or else he'd be able to give her a swift swat on the bottom on her way out. That would have been great! After a hard day of working out in the fields, she greets him with a tray with a sandwich and a beverage that he enjoys greatly, and then when she takes the tray, he gives her a nice smack and sends her on her way! When she turned the corner, she let out a shudder at the thought and blushed mightily. "Oh no, mama teased your daddy so much that now she's all flustered. Ohhh I hope I can make it through the rest of the day..."

The quiet atmosphere of the garden lent itself well to conversation, especially considering most of the work had already been done beforehand. It made the ideal place for Chie to come out with her worries about her friend's ever rising weight,

"And you're okay with it!?"

"It's like I told Adachi, she grows more beautiful by the day. And it's better she doesn't overexert herself than getting a little chubby."

"Oh so you're comparing me to Adachi now!?" The exasperated look Yu gave Chie made her apologize immediately. She really had to get this temper of hers under control if she wanted to be a cop! "Sorry, sorry. It's that bad habit of mine again. Did I tell you what happened to me at Junes yesterday."

"No but I heard about it." Chie groaned in good-natured embarrassment at that. "Definitely not my finest moment."

"Nope." He chuckled at the pout Chie gave him. "You're supposed to say 'it wasn't that bad' or something comforting! Ah whatever. Important thing is, it's not going to happen again!" Chie's steadfast determination to not give up as long as there was room for improvement was still something that greatly impressed Yu, although it was preventing her from seeing that perhaps her friend didn't really wasn't interested in exercise at the moment. After the brief little detour in the conversation, Chie was right back to talking about his wife's weight. "I just think she wouldn't feel so tired all the time if she got up and went jogging with me!"

"Well that's more to do with the big meals I make, and the baby she's growing in her belly than any form of laziness. She's pretty focused any other time." Once again, Chie didn't have a counter. Yukiko was really only a groaning lethargic mess after she'd been fed, at all other times she was bubbly and bouncy and all around energetic, even if she had to huff and puff a little getting around places. "Chie, just by doing your best you're making Yukiko happy. Never forget that."

"Well thanks...but where did that come from?"

"Because I know you Chie. And I know you're doing that thing again where you're so grateful but you don't know how to express it, so you're trying to look for a way to help out." The girl felt her jaw drop at how succinctly Yu put things. "A-are you some kind of mind reader or something!? Well, I guess you probably learned a lot about me whenever I talked your ear off this past year *ahahaha*." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly but then sighed in a melancholic manner. "I mean, I know I'm working hard to be a cop and to protect everyone but that's years from now. Until then, I feel like I'm kind of...mooching...you know? Like I want to at least do something!"

"I understand, but you're already doing more than enough, and pestering Yukiko to do something she doesn't want to do isn't really helping things any." Chie knew he was right but she couldn't resist making a little quip at Yu's expense. "Are you just saying that because you like her chubby?"

Her stoic friend blushed heavily and turned away for a moment. "W-well that's...I mean I do-"

"Ha! I knew it! You think you're so subtle with your little squeezes and your feeding but I sussed out the truth! So you have been fattening her up like a butterball turkey after all!"

"I've...never forced her to eat something she didn't want to. Besides, that's not the point." The stern way in which he said it certainly got Chie's attention and she cut herself off mid accusation. "The point is, for the first time she's truly happy with how she looks. And that's more beautiful than any jiggly flab or maternity swell to me!" Chie was torn between being heartwarmed by his statement and wanting to bury her face into her hands out of secondhand embarrassment. She ended up just settling on a smile. "Yeah, she's definitely been pretty cheery lately...and she DID say the doctor said everything was fine..."

The girl slammed her fist into the palm of her hand and nodded to herself like she'd just reached a big decision. "Alright, you know what? The second she asks me for help after the pregnancy, I'll be right there for her just waiting to help!"

"And I'll be right there with you." That statement surprised Chie quite a bit and she looked at him with wide eyes before settling into a warm smile. "You know out of all the guys Yukiko could have fallen for, I'm glad it was you leader!" Yu blushed even more mightily than before, and gained a smile of his own. "Oh? Even though I'm turning her into a, what did you call it? A 'butterball turkey'?"

"Well I mean you could probably go a little easier on all the junk food, but I mean us girls love to eat. Yukiko's always been this way, she loved food but she was so worried about gaining weight that even three pounds was enough to start a diet. Happy fatty Yukiko beats stressed out dieting Yukiko any day of the week!" Even back in April or during the mid-summer when she was at her most desperate, he could never be too annoyed with Chie's enthusiasm, much like her friend it all stemmed from wanting to help others in whatever ways she could. "I'm glad I meet your standards, Chie."

"*Ahh* you met my standards pretty much as soon as we met," she added with a flippant wave of her hand. "I just never found a good time to say it without every one else around to tease me about getting all sappy. And since I can say all the sappy stuff I want right now, I'm gonna get it all off my chest! I think you'll make a great dad, I can't wait to see how cute your baby looks, I think you're the coolest guy I know, *uh* I've always thought you two would be a perfect match and *hmm*" The girl took a deep breath and readjusted herself, proudly planting her hands on her hips. "*Whew* that's all I can think of right now. But I'm sure I'll think of more down the line, right leader?"

After a big speech like that, it made it quite hard for Yu to keep the secret reward he was hiding away but he managed to hold his tongue on the matter for now. "I'll tell everyone at the end of the month," he promised himself. "When they're all together for the wedding." But to Chie, all he ended up saying was, "right, but I hope you'll be able to say that kind of stuff about yourself one day."

"*Um* you can stop being so sappy now," but she was smiling when she said it. "I'll give it a try though, *hmm* I haven't taken a cheat day once and I'm doing way more than I used to so that's pretty cool." Now it was Yu's turn to smile again. "Now just tell that to your master and you have yourself a conversation."

"Yeah yeah I got it. Sheesh, you're not trying to hook us up like your wife is are you?" Yu shook his head no. "I'd just hate for you to miss out on a potential connection because you don't think you're good enough." That answer seemed to satisfy Chie and she looked as though she felt bad for even doubting Yu in the first place. Silence fell as they wrapped up the small amount of work they had to do but Chie looked as though she still wanted to ask him something. "What is it?"

"*Oh* *uh* well...I'm kinda curious now what the appeal is of a chubby girl I guess?" At Yu's blush she quickly held up her hands. "Y-you don't have to go into too much detail or anything! I just want to know like what makes it better than normal Yukiko I guess?" That seemed to calm Yu's shyness about it and he cupped his chin in serious thought. "Soft."

"Soft?"

"Yes, she's very soft! The greatest pleasure on earth is having a wife who when I hug her it feels like every part of her is trying to hug me back! Not only that but one who has more meat than even the Mega Beef Bowl! There is never a shortage of something to grab on to!"

"Okay okay too much too much, forget I asked! Geez, do I need to get a hose?"

"No, but I need to go get started on dinner right away!"

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The conversation played again and again in Chie's mind as she starred at her cell phone that night in her bedroom. "I mean...Yu's right but..." immediately, the girl slapped at her cheeks with both hands and pumped a fist. "What am I shaking in my boots for anyway? Our fight was really close and I beat the crap outta that shadow. If he doesn't want to talk to me, he's the one who's missing out!" And with that declaration, dialing the number came quite easy.

*Ring*

*Ring*

*Ring*

With every ring, Chie felt her heart sink just that little bit more until she was practically despondent. Shaking herself out of her funk, she decided to be reasonable about it. "H-he's busy, I can't expect him to be hanging near the phone all the time. He's probably in the library or under a waterfall or something! Yeah that's it!" But despite her words, the martial artist couldn't help but be a bit bummed out. "Well...I have a bunch of stuff to do anyway. I'll just...call in the morning." She made to turn off her phone, a study tip from Yukiko, but something stopped her at the last second.

"I mean, it's only a problem if you're constantly checking it right? So if I just left it on and master just happened to call..." and no more justification was required. Honestly, it wasn't just coping, Chie really was quite busy. Studying for the police academy, part time job, a workout six days out of the week, for the first time in her life she could honestly say she was just as busy as her more responsible friend. And she didn't have a loving "hubby" to dote on her either!

But then again she also didn't have a heaving baby belly and udders weighing her down and making her ache or a full collection of maids and guests to supervise and manage every single day...so maybe it was just a "grass is greener" kind of thing. Was she using that expression right? She'd have to ask Yukiko tomorrow.

Still though, she legitimately began to lose herself in her studies. She still couldn't say she liked the actual process of "learning" per se, but knowing that it was helping her accomplish her goals made it kind of exhilarating in a sense. So much so that it wasn't until the second ring of her phone that Chie realized what was happening. "Crap, crap, crap!" She flung herself onto the bed and grasped the phone, dropping it on the third ring and frantically working to pick it up again and just barely answering before it went to voicemail.

"H-hello?" She hadn't had time to check the caller ID but Chie would feel quite foolish if it turned out to just be Yosuke or something. The joy she felt when she heard that familiar gravelly voice on the other end was immediate. "You sound out of breath; did you just get back from training?" The man couldn't hide the slight approval in his voice and his apprentice tried her best to collect her bearings. "Y-yeah...something like that." The two were silent for a bit, Chie trying to hold in her joy at the fact he had actually called her back.

"Where have you been?" Akihiko asked warmly. "Don't tell me you were nervous about calling me or something silly like that!" He didn't know much about girls, but he could definitely feel her blushing over the other end of the line. "N-no! I've just been busy! And I didn't want to call you until I started making some progress! You're not that intimidating you know!"

"Keep your voice down, you're going to wake the people who live next door to me." He heard Chie mumble something under her breath, but the next thing she said was much quieter. "I *um* I'm just going to come right out and say it, I didn't do so hot in this last round of tests." The shame in her voice was palpable and she had to hold the ear away from her phone at his shout. "You failed!?"

"Hey, keep YOUR voice down! And I didn't fail! I just...I didn't do as well as I would have liked is all...didn't even get top 10."

"Hmm well for a top student like you, that's quite a downfall. How much worse did you do?" Chie paled at the realization. That's right! She had told master that high school exams were a cinch for her the last time they'd met! She hadn't meant to lie, she just didn't want to disappoint him, but seeing as she already had, maybe it would be a good idea to get it all out now. The girl just had to hope that her drive for improvement was enough to win him over. "Master...I...about my grades..."

"Let me guess, you've always been terrible at taking tests and when you told me exams were "no problem" you were just blowing smoke? Do I have that about right?" All his student could do in response was splutter incomprehensibly. "I may not be quite at the level of your detective friend, or Mitsuru, but a true warrior needs to be observant." And of course, having been the captain of the boxing team for three years straight, he was well versed in Chie's "type" so to speak. Hard working and a bit hard headed, they'd willingly walk across a bed of hot coals if it meant they didn't have to take tests, frustrated that the approach they took for their training had seemingly no effect on the opponent known as class work. But there was one way to get them to take it seriously...

"B-b-b-but if you knew I was lying, why did you act like you believed me!?" He chuckled a bit, but she was too stunned to be upset at the derisive nature of the laugh. "Because I knew that would make you shift your butt into gear right away. No 'oh I don't need to know all this stuff so it's okay to slack off a bit' no 'well the police exam is all that really matters, so all I need to do is pass high school.' A promise to yourself is hard to keep sometimes, no matter how good your intentions. But a promise to someone else, well there's no way that a stand up gal like you would allow herself to slack in that case. I bet you busted your ass studying didn't you?"

A slight scratching on the other end gave away that she was nodding, and Akihiko couldn't keep the grin off his face. "The important thing is, did you do better than you did before?" Chie blinked rapidly like she couldn't believe what she was hearing, was she really going to get off that easily? "Yeah, I did. I did! And I'm having my friend Yukiko improve my training so I'll do even better next time and the time after that and the time after that!" Instead of being mad that her master had tricked her, she instead found herself in awe of him all over again. He had read her like an open book and set her on the path to genuine self improvement, all without ever actually giving her a direct order. "And you've been keeping up with your other training too I hope?"

"You betcha!" Chie flexed for the phone before realizing that her master couldn't actually see her. "*Um* but it's only been a few weeks so..."

"Hey, hey it's fine. Just keep at it." Before she could thank him, he took on a more stern tone and spoke first. "But despite all that, you did lie to me. And that's absolutely unacceptable as a student, a cop, and a martial artist!" Chie gulped nervously, she could just imagine that angry scowl on his manly face, and the thought made her shiver.

"For a triple violation, you're getting a triple punishment! For the next three days, you're training until you drop? Is that understood Satonaka?" She gulped again, but then the thought occurred to her that there was no way he would actually know for sure if she...

Immediately she shook such a cowardly and weak thought out of her head. That was the point! Someone with keen instincts like him would be able to easily tell if she was lying, and the whole point of this was to make sure her word meant something again! "Yes master! I'll gladly take the punishment!"

"Now that's what I like to hear! I wouldn't give you anything I know you can't handle after all."

The earlier commands to each other to keep their voices down had seemingly been forgotten in their endless enthusiasm for pushing themselves. The topic soon shifted to what Akihiko had been up to and what the college life was like. She got a good laugh at Aigis having to keep him on track and out of fights, much to his chagrin, he was expecting a little bit of sympathy! But it was certainly nice to have someone to talk to about martial arts, someone fresh and excitable who realized she still had a lot to learn, and didn't act like she knew everything just because she placed fourth in her district finals or whatever like some of these guys in the college boxing club.

Not to mention he didn't have the time he used to for managing, everyone at college was always so tired and beaten down from studying or whatever else that it was a nice change of pace to talk to someone with such a thirst for life, even if she was still a tad childish. The strangest thing though, was when she apologized for talking too much, he told her it was fine with a smile on his face. The way she thanked him with a slight laugh and a warm voice made his chest feel a little weird but it was probably just from the dinner he'd slammed down earlier!

Chie for her part, was laying on her stomach atop her bed. Unbeknownst to her, she was kicking her legs back and forth with her cell phone held up to her ear, like she was an especially girly girl from the 1950's writing in her diary. What was she ever worried about in the first place? The second she started discussing incorporating squats, her master suddenly became enthusiastic, eager to provide tips and experience to a newbie. And of course there were always tales from his two years of traveling the world to regale her with!

Before they knew it, hours had passed and with a hurried goodbye, Chie promised to keep him in the loop this time. "You better," he replied. "I'd hate to miss out on my favorite student." She could scarcely sleep.

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While Chie was busy trying her best to be a morally upstanding citizen, her prim and proper friend was preoccupied with being a little naughty. At the moment, Yukiko was sitting with her feet together and her hands on her knees, breathing deeply in and out as if she was about to start doing yoga. Instead, all she did was move her hips back and forth, back and forth, gently rocking them like she was sitting on an exercise ball without the troublesome bouncing.

"*Phew* you'll keep mama's little secret, won't you sweetie? About how lazy she is? *Ahahahaha* Ai probably does more in fifteen minutes than I do all week, let alone your aunty Chie." Even for the out of shape mother, the routine was nice and easy and while it did work up a bit of a sweat, it didn't leave her gasping and panting. Her hair hardly even matted to her forehead! The most strenuous part by far were the spread legged squats she had to do, but after she did her ten, she took a nice several minute long break on her fat bottom to recuperate and from there the rest was relatively simple. The absolute best part was that after 36 weeks, she'd no longer have to even do that much! "The more pregnant mama gets, the better things seem to become! *Ahahaha*" Any workout where you could take an extended period to happily rub your baby bump or flip the pages of a newspaper or comic, wasn't really much of a workout at all. It was true she could have done more, certain exercises were recommended to ease soreness and aches in the muscles but with a husband who couldn't keep her hands off of her, massages were plentiful and Yukiko didn't feel the need. As long as she exercised her birthing muscles, then she accomplished her workout and could relax as much as she wanted.

"Of course you can," her inner hubby whispered to her. "those are the only muscles that matter on you anyway my fat cutie of a wife. As long as you can birth our child, I'll pamper you as much as you'd like."

"Ohhhh" she moaned loudly.

The need between her legs had been growing all day, and the especially maddening thing was her husband was just in the next room in the bath she had drawn for him, relaxing after a hard day of labor. She began to knead and squeeze at her belly and continued to moan in arousal. "I'm such a good wife," she whispered to herself. A bit of her hidden arrogance seeped in and a smile crept onto her face. "*Hmmm* if I exhausted myself with pointless exercises, I'd be too tired to properly satisfy my husband at the end of a long day wouldn't I? That simply wouldn't do at all, now would it? Ohhhhhh" At this point, she was biting her lip and her circling hands were getting ever closer to her navel, a rogue finger made to dip into it and begin its sensual digging...

"Yuki? Are you alright in there?" The girl let out a gasp and immediately stopped what she was doing. "I-I'm fine hubby! J-just having a little bit of trouble with my stretching. Please just enjoy your bath!" There was silence, but if she strained her ears, she swore she could hear her husband settling back into the water with a deep exhale. Letting out an exhale of her own, the tubby titillated mama chastised herself. "I don't want to interrupt Yu's bath after a long day, and I need to do my job as a mother before...that!"

To counter just how much she wanted her husband, the mother shifted to more innocent thoughts by taking one of her favorite poses. Her hips remained where they were, but she tilted her upper body backwards. Like all her exercises, it was meant to loosen and exercise her pelvis but when she saw the pose in the mirror she could only think of one thing. She gave her gut a pat and giggled. "That was one satisfying meal! Compliments to the chef!" She felt a little sorry for her son having to hear the same joke every time, but at least it was a really funny one! And she just couldn't resist, it was just so hilarious how an exercise pose made it look like she was absolutely stuffed.

If anything, being fed before she "worked out" only helped add to the hilarity of the pose to her because she actually was nice and stuffed. "Oop, I'm getting distracted again. But you gave your mommy such a big distraction!" She hefted her orb with her hands before moving on to the next stretch. Her legs spread wide, she brought her hands together above her head, Chie's warm up was a full fledged exercise for the young mother. She leaned over to touch her left ankle, making a little accordion sound in her head at the rolls her love handles made. Shirtless and braless in the privacy of her own room, the only item of clothing she wore was a pair of oversized green sweats that were supposed to be for PE but she'd repurposed them for her own usage.

She could have tucked her belly into the waistband, but of course what else would Yukiko do but let it hang out in the open? Cute little navel on full display and the fat overhang trying its very hardest to touch the floor in front of her. There was no need for a bra either, sure her breasts would jostle and wobble a bit, but she wasn't really moving enough for it to be too bothersome. It was like just another reminder that this was a lazy slow paced stretching session for a full fat mama. Her toes happily wiggled as she let out a pleasant yawn, "time for round two," and she did the same for the right side. The grunt she let out when she couldn't quite reach all the way, wasn't particularly lady like but that just gave her all the more reason to stop early. No point in overexerting herself after all.

"Alright, just two more to go. I'm glad you're so active after a meal, mama would feel terrible if she woke you up, even if it is for an easy birthing." Her cooing over her baby complete, she stretched in between her legs and laughed at the way her stomach tickled the carpet. "*Ahaha* *mmph* tickles *heehee*" once again, her toes flexed and wiggled about happily and a smile crept on to her face.

Even if it was a little tiring, maternity stretching really was quite enjoyable. It made Yukiko feel like she was prepping both mind and body for the delivery of her baby boy, although he probably didn't like it quite so much with the way she was smooshing and squashing his home against the ground!

Unfortunately for the poor hormone crazed mother, her thoughts couldn't stay quite so pure for long, especially in such a compromising position with her legs spread wide and her rump pushed out. It made her feel particularly fat and heavy the way she was just sat there on her bottom, the way standing up or even moving from this position would be somewhat of a lethargic chore. Even in these large sweatpants, her butt was pushing against the seat in this position. "It's a good thing I didn't wear my leggings when doing this...they would have split right down the middle." It was then she realized she was facing away from the door so such a sight would be the first thing her husband saw on the way out of the bath. His wife with her fat tushie pouring out of a tear in her leggings, grunting and straining to prepare her body for birth oh he'd probably ravish her right there!

"Oooooh" she moaned again. It was just so hard to focus when he was right there, seated in the bath, those abs glistening and wet, strong arms hanging off to the side as he relaxed with the steam rising up to that handsome face. Then of course, the mental image went downward under the water where she knew what she wanted most right now was waiting for her...

"Mmmnnn no! I need to...finish first." Just one little stretch remained between her and sweet bliss. All she had to do was get on her hands and knees. The exercise was to twist her hips with every kick of her legs, one leg remaining on its knee for stability. Usually it was a good way to cap off the routine because of how silly she felt doing it, it always had a way of making her laugh. But when horny, Yukiko was slightly more observant.

"Three...*mmph*...four...don't think about it...five...*wew*...six...don't think about it." She had just put herself in a perfect lovemaking position! Knees and hands planted flat on the floor, with her belly and breasts dangling for her husband to fondle and toy with to their heart's content? It was impossible to be in this position right now without thinking about it. Again, she moaned loudly although this time she added a little hip shake to it as if on instinct. Her face went red hot when the sound reached her ears, that one was especially loud. "Oh I hope hubby didn't hear that..." but even she noticed how unconvincing that sounded and it wasn't long until her inner hubby rang in her ears again.

"Is that so? I think we both know that's not true. What you really want is for me to hear that you're needy and in the mood and get out of the bath of my accord. Such a naughty girl! But that's okay, you and I both know I love when you're a little naughty. Besides, you've finished allll your stretches, don't you deserve a little treat? We won't get to do something like this for a while." The girl moaned loudly and clearly, making sure there was no mistaking the nature of it this time. To her embarrassment, she found herself getting excited when she heard her husband move about in the bath. The mama could just imagine that concerned look on his face, chiseled jaw set firmly and strong hands clenching the rim of the tub like they'd soon be clenching on to her hips. "Ooooh"

"Yuki? Are you okay?" He asked again, except this time she could hear the smile, and arousal, in his voice. He'd figured out her little game, but still part of her wouldn't let her just come out and beg for it.

"Nooooo hubby, I'm fine. I can handle things here, you can enjoy your bath if you want. Your choice." She tinged her voice with as much desire and appetite as possible. Already knowing her husband's decision, she began the process of standing up.

A shiver went down her spine when the bathroom door opened scarcely a minute later. He probably dried off as fast as possible just to satisfy her itch for her man. So romantic. She had just managed to steady herself on two legs and yet now she suddenly felt weak at the knees starring at his fully erect manhood, completely uncovered and entirely for her. The heiresses thumbs hooked into the waistband of her sweatpants, ready to drop them down at any instant.

"My eyes are up here you know," he teased. No words came out of her mouth and all she could do was gape like a fish searching for what to say next, although the flush on her cheeks and the rubbing of her thighs made it incredibly obvious what she was trying to say. "Yuki, I didn't know you were in heat!" The look of pure embarrassment on her face made her look like the world's plumpest thermometer. "P-p-please don't say it like that...I'm not...I mean...I'm not some..." she turned away with a tomato red face until her husband wrapped her in his arms. His hardness in her back only made things worse.

"Call it what you want, but I feel it too. You're not really going to keep me waiting after you've been teasing me all day are you? Let's be in heat together until we both can hardly move." Immediately it was like her sheepishness faded and she could feel a breath hitch in her throat, she turned around to give him a sloppy kiss, but Yu was faster. Before she could react he detached his arms, and gave her the firm smack on her jiggly bottom she'd been craving all day.

"Go jiggle on over to the bed, I want to fling those sweatpants off you myself." She giggled joyfully, her embarrassment completely forgotten. So commanding~. He gave her another swat to get her moving and her laughter became a squeal of girlish delight. "Ooohoohoo hubby!" Was all she managed to say as she plopped herself on their bed and they crashed together. The sweatpants ended up thrown behind the television across the room that night.

It was honestly difficult to focus in school the next day. Not only was the meeting with her grandparents in just a few hours, but after that last night, Yukiko just couldn't stop sighing and day dreaming. To think she was blessed with a husband who could be both tender and rough on a dime. The way he would growl into her ear about how she was his fat and pregnant wife and how perfect her body was for bearing his children, how well suited she was to serving him food and beverage, it got her heart racing almost as much as when he'd tell her how much he loved her and how happy she made him, although in a much different way. She loved her fat and her softness but not quite in the same way Yu did, sure it sent a shiver down her spine just thinking about becoming a more perfect wife for him with every pound, but it wasn't really the fat itself that did it.

Actually...she was beginning to discover what really drove her wild and it all started with that fateful slap on the butt after her outing with Ai. She was her husband's wife completely in both body and soul, he pampered her almost religiously but that was because it was something he choose to do. But he could just as easily slap her on the butt and ask her to whip up something in the kitchen if he choose and she would gladly obey with a big smile and a swish of her hips. Or if he sat himself on the foot of their bed and spread his lap open, fully expecting her to know what to do with that pretty mouth of hers. She let out a gasp, and felt her face grow hot when all the other students turned to her.

"Is there something the matter Ms. Amagi?"

"N-no, just something I forgot to do at the inn this morning. I'm very sorry for interrupting." As always, the faculty was quite understanding of her outside commitment and the rest of the day went by without incident, but she didn't let it fade from her mind. As naughty and submissive as it was, she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty about it.

"Yuki? Is something wrong? You've been thinking about something this whole time." That look of concern and kindness on his face wiped any traces of guilt out of her mind. "Just about how much I love you and how much my grandparents are going to love you," she snuggled up to his arm like an affectionate cat and even mewled like one for good measure. "*Hahaha* don't forget how much they're going to love the baby." That sentence alone basically ensured she was smiling and clinging to his arm for the entirety of the walk home. One last little display of public affection before they had to tone it down for a bit.

Of course, things couldn't remain quite that idyllic forever and shortly afterwards Yukiko ran into another problem. Her uniform was missing. "Oh, where on earth did I ever put it?"

"Well luckily you don't move around too much so it should be easy to retrace your steps." The girl pouted at her husband's joke, making her look quite adorable in his opinion. "Teasing isn't nice. If you're not going to help me look, you can just go somewhere else." Immediately, she sighed and rubbed her belly to calm down. "I'm sorry hubby, I shouldn't snap like that especially in front of the baby. But I don't want to greet them improperly after they traveled all the way here! Oh that would just be embarrassing!"

Yu gave her a kiss on the forehead to let her know all was forgiven and got right to work looking, getting under the bed and in the lower drawers so she didn't have to. "Did you check the bathroom?"

"Yes, but it wasn't there either."

"Might it just be in the laundry still?"

"No. They wouldn't keep it that long, especially since I'm the assistant manager. They should have delivered it to our room while we were at school. And I'd rather not start fingering blame until I'm absolutely certain the fault doesn't lie with me." Even in a panic, she took the time to murmur to her belly. "There's a saying for that you know? 'Make sure your own house is in order.'"

"Oh."

"Did you find it, hubby?" Her husband was knelt down in front of their dresser looking at a familiar piece of pink fabric. He shook his head and turned around, "well we don't have a lot of time, so maybe you could just wear this one instead?" In his hands was her old pink work kimono that she had very clearly outgrown and she'd only gotten fatter since then. The hesitation was clearly evident on his wife's face and a hand went self consciously to her hips. "Oh, I didn't want them to be too shocked when they first walk in." After a pat to her hips, her hands moved back to her stomach for a good rubbing that made her smile. "Well...maybe it's best to get it all out quickly. I mean, I've put on a bit too much weight to hide it for very long. I suppose it's not so bad, and besides...I kind of want them to know the new me."

After the two shared a quick kiss, Yukiko began the lengthy process of dressing herself in a kimono. Yu just watched in silence, there was something about the way she did it so efficiently even despite her new size and pregnancy that impressed him, she didn't even need to look into the mirror while she did it as if it was as natural as breathing to her. The dirty part of him had to admit, he enjoyed seeing the tightly wrapped back fat be pinched and jiggled when she was smoothing out the wrinkles in her juban, but he kept himself under control. "*Um* hubby, could you help me put on my tabi please? I would do it myself but..."

"Of course." And she received her customary cheek kiss. Yukiko wasn't sure if he was doing it consciously or not, but whenever he accepted one of her requests, he would always always always peck her on the cheek or the forehead and smile before doing it. It was a little silly, but it really did make her feel loved. After he slipped on her tabi socks, it was finally time for her to squeeze herself into her old uniform.

"This must be how a sardine feels," Yukiko groused aloud. As usual, the kimono hugged every curve of her large rump and highlighted all the bouncing and jiggling that occurred back there. Her lower belly was well outlined in the front as well, and the sash helped to push some of her stomach lard upwards making her look especially soft. She gave off an annoyed moan as she grabbed a clump of belly flab through the fabric, shaking it up and down. What made it worse, was that she could feel her arm fat jiggling right along with it. She certainly hoped they weren't too bothered by having a tubby granddaughter.

As if on cue, she was embraced from behind and felt a warmth spread through her that was emanating from the hands her husband had put on her belly. "You look so lovely right now, to think how loosely this used to hang off you...I wonder how long it will take to make your new one look like this." She refused to give into her hormones this time, but she did allow herself to fall back into his embrace and grab his face with her hand for a deep kiss. "*Hmmm* you're the one who's lovely, my husband."

As she deftly put her long midnight locks into a bun, a terrible thought occurred to her then. "Hubby, you didn't...hide my uniform just to see me packed into my old one did you?" Yu waited until her hair was all done up, before moving towards her and pressing her nose in. "Does that sound like something I would do?"

"Well no but...that doesn't answer my question." Yu was wearing a smirk on his face and gave her big belly a pat. "So big and fat with child, are we sure you're not the one who hid your own uniform?"

"W-what!?"

Another almost condescending pat followed and Yu's smile widened. "I mean, you and I both know you quite enjoy people noticing how well your body is suited for child bearing, it's not too hard to believe that you might 'misplace' your uniform. Such a big big belly, there's no way your grandparents will be able to resist patting."

When he started tickling her belly roll with a finger, that's when she had had enough. She swatted his hand away and crossed her arms in a huffy motion looking a little hurt. "I...I do like the attention b-but I would never lie...oh hubby is that what you think I'm like...*sniff*" Yu sighed to himself feeling quite a bit like Yosuke. This must be the pregnancy enhanced emotions he'd heard so much about and now she was full on sniffling. Immediately, he was by her side, holding her shoulders and giving her a kiss on the neck. "Oh darling, I'm sorry. Here..." with a grunt, he lifted her up off her feet, just as quickly as the sniffling began, it stopped and was replaced by joyful laughter, looks like he could get mood swings to work in his favor. "*Ohohoho* hubby! You're lifting me more than I thought you'd be able to! I'm not hurting you am I?"

"Of course...not. It's just a...good...work out." That made her giggle again, and when he put her down, she was confused as to why she was ever upset in the first place. "Did you like being lifted up like that?"

"Yes. Yes I did. Feel free to do it anytime you wish."

"Well it's what you do to my heart everyday, so it's only fair I return the favor." The force of her hug in response to that was enough to nearly bowl him over but to her delight, he was able to hold his ground against all of her plushness. The emotional mama who just five seconds ago was about to start crying was now making it quite difficult for him to get dressed with the way she was clinging to him. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Eventually, he was able to coax her off enough to get himself ready and they made their way to the kitchen so Yu could whip up a quick snack for his baby mama. Part way through, her dad came and one of the other chefs came in with an arm full of groceries, Sunday shopping for most was done on Wednesday for them after all. "Yu could you help with-" he almost said before noticing his daughter cutely sitting beside Yu.

"Hey Yu," the man got a dumb grin on his face that made Yu groan internally knowing there was some bad joke coming. "Can you help me with this henway?"

Just as he had been hoping, his daughter cocked her head to the side. "What's a 'henway'?"

"I don't know, about three or four pounds!" Yukiko's face scrunched up in sheer bafflement before it softened in understanding, and then of course came the laughter. "Oh! OH! *Ahahahaha* *snrk* *hahahahaha*" Yu was able to bring in an entire armful of groceries by the time she stopped laughing. "Daddy that's...that's so funny! Did you come up with that yourself?"

"Of course! And...I brought you a little treat." From one of the bags, he pulled out a little package of still warm fried tofu. "Ta-dah! It's your favorite! Enjoy you two!" He gave her a big wet "dad kiss" on the forehead and gave her a belly an affectionate pat, seeming not to notice just how much it jiggled at his touch. "Say thank you to your grandpa little one," Yukiko urged her baby and the man nearly cheered in glee when he actually did feel a kick. "*Hahahaha* so you recognize me now little guy? Well good because we're going to be spending a lot of time together in a few months! Just grandpa and...well you don't have a name yet...just you and me!"

"Daddy, I'm surprised, usually you aren't this excited when grandma and grandpa come over." His laughter died right then and he immediately grew more serious. "Well...they haven't laid into me quite so much recently...but besides, all their attention this time is going to be focused on Yu." He turned to his son-in-law with a wide smile, eager to dispense wisdom. "Just remember, that no matter how much they make you want to cry, it all comes from a place of love!"

"You know, that's what I thought to myself when you were testing me." Yukiko giggled at her father's stunned reaction to the comeback, somewhere along the way, he had become the disapproving-in-law!

Store bought fried tofu wasn't quite up to the same standard of the tasty but quick rillette spread Yu had prepared, but it was a tasty snack all the same. Especially when she combined the two. To think, what used to be a full meal was now being treated like a bag full of chips to crunch between her pearly whites. She lazily snacked while the men of the house brought in and put away the rest of the groceries, not even thinking about the contrast. As soon as the food was placed in front of her, she just started grazing and didn't stop until there was nothing left, leaning back with a belly pat and a puff of air. It certainly didn't help the tightness of her uniform, but honestly at this point she just didn't care. It was going to be uncomfortable no matter what she did and at least this way her tummy wouldn't rumble in the meeting.

"Yukiko! What happened to the uniform I gave you?" When they met Yukina at the front desk, she reacted to her daughter's wardrobe situation as could be expected. "I-I don't know. I can't find it anywhere!" Her mother pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance and sighed. "Well...we don't have enough time for you to change twice. My parents will be here almost as soon as we're done with the rest of the guests. I guess there's no hiding just how plump I've allowed my daughter to get."

Her smirk returned when she caught sight of Yu. "I suppose I'm being too hard on myself though, I can't bear the entirety of the blame after all." Yu blushed in spite of himself. "Now, we'll get these dozen or so guests nice and settled and then we'll all meet back here." To her chagrin, the other three all put their hands in a circle before lifting them up like they were some sort of sports team. The worst part of it all was that it was her daughter who instigated it and then the other two followed! But it wasn't long after that the first round of guests came in and that annoyed frown was replaced with a warm comforting smile.

But eventually, the time came to greet her parents. The four stood in front of the entrance to the inn, having given the task of attending the guests to the rest of the staff. For some strange reason unknown to Yu, his wife seemed to be rubbing her cheeks in anticipation for something. "Okay," she whispered to herself. "Just a quick pinch and then it's over." And then, they arrived.

It was clear who held the dominant genes in the family. Although her hair had grayed, and there were numerous wrinkles across her face, Yu would have been immediately able to tell she was related to Yukiko even in a crowd. She was dressed surprisingly casually by Amagi standards and honestly Yu had thought she'd be dressed in a kimono of her own. Although one thing was different, unlike Yukina and his own wife, this woman was quite short being scarcely taller than Naoto. Some of that might have been age, but it was clear that the height of the Amagi women didn't come from her. That was because it obviously came from the man who entered in behind her.

He came in lugging the suitcases for both of them. Definitely a heavyset man, mostly muscle but definitely a bit broad around the belly, he even beat out Yu by two inches or so. With a half full head of combed back silver hair and big bushy eyebrows, he looked more like some kind of drill instructor rather than any kind of inn owner.

"Yukina," the woman said softly. "You look much better; I'm truly glad." It was the voice of an old soul and Yu found himself reminded quite a bit of Hisao. The two women embraced each other although Yukina had to bend down a bit to do it properly. The second they split apart, the change was immediate. "I hope that was the reason behind the decision to transition Yukiko into ownership, and I know you said over the phone you were doing alright, but you're absolutely sure you're fine? We'd be glad to come back and-"

"No mother, things are quite alright now."

"But you look so pale...you're not trying to put on a show of being tough again are you? Planning a wedding while running an inn is quite stressful so-"

"Dear, if she says she's fine, she is fine." That was all the man said. The woman looked like she wanted to protest some more, but she let the issue drop for now. Yukina gained possibly the biggest smile Yu had seen on her face since he and Yukiko passed her little test. With surprising speed, she moved to hug her "papa" as Yu had come to know him. He didn't say anything but he did smile broadly and squeezed his daughter hard making her sink into his stomach a bit. "You lost weight," she mumbled into him and at that he did laugh a bit.

"More time to run now."

"Yes but your father still can't help himself at the dinner table, still eats like he's a teenager." But it was clear from the expression on her face that the older Amagi woman didn't really mind it too much, just some friendly teasing that Yukina and her father happily laughed along to. "Oh!" Yu said in realization. "What?" His wife whispered to him in confusion. "I don't get it."

"I'll...tell you later." He had to wonder if there was a similar reason behind Yukiko's almost giddy excitement for horrible accidents and horror stories, but that was a question for another day. Besides, it wasn't long until focus shifted to them. "Now where's my precious granddaughter? I want to see how much she's grown since I last saw her."

"*Eheeheehee." Yukina couldn't hold in a snicker until a glare from her own mother silenced her. "Still haven't fixed that dreadful cackle of yours I see. I hope you at least don't let that loose in front of the guests."

"O-of course not. I keep it well hidden." It was the most submissive Yu had probably ever seen her but she perked up a bit when her father put a comforting hand on her shoulder. The grandmother's eyes fell quickly on Fuyuhiko who looked hopeful for a second, before she quickly turned away in disinterest.

The man's face contorted into a mixture of exasperation and relief, like he wanted her to talk but glad she wasn't railing into him. He saw Yukina's father briefly looking at him and took solace in the small smile he received from the bear of a man. Much better than the neutral expression he'd received in year's past and much much better than the glower he'd gotten before that. He was moving on up in the world!

"Yukiko! Oh, it's been much too long! How is my favorite granddaughter?" The reason for Yukiko's preparation became all too apparent as her grandmother pinched and wobbled her cheek around, oblivious to Yukiko's little whimper. "I've heard you're becoming quite the responsible little manager around here, but I never expected anything less from you! Scarcely out of high school and already working so hard, you're like the spitting image of myself when I was your age!" Yukiko took a moment to rub her pinched cheek but Yu was happy to see a smile quickly appear on her face. "It's nice to see you again grandmother." And the two women embraced. Unfortunately for the poor mama, that allowed her grandmother to really sink in and realize right away that something was wrong.

The older woman broke the embrace and looked Yukiko up and down, then she pat the girl's hips as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Next, her finger's tapped under the girl's chin making the double that had taken residence there wobble a bit. An accusing finger jabbed right into her gut making the girl whimper a little, the whole process made her feel like some kind of livestock honestly and as much as she enjoyed her fluff, she couldn't wait for it to be over.

"Yukiko...you've gotten quite fat."

"I know...I-" but before she could finish, her grandmother turned to her father. "How could you let this happen? And so quickly to. She was such a slender graceful thing the last time I was here, and yet now she's become a dumpling of a woman."

"Well first of all, Sachiko, my daughter is nowhere near fat. Sure she's put on a bit of baby weight but that's perfectly natural and expected! Secondly, if you're blaming me than that just shows how out of touch you are with what's going on here."

"And just what exactly do you mean by that? This might be hard for a fop such as yourself, but please don't dance around the issue." It was hard to tell what surprised Yu more, Fuyuhiko's impressive delusion towards his daughter's ballooning, him firmly standing his ground against his mother-in-law, or the fact that said mother-in-law's name didn't begin with a "Yuki-" it was all very surprising to the grey haired youth. Sensing some passive aggressive combat was about to break out, Yukiko quickly intervened. "Actually grandmother, it's because my husband loves to cook." The mention of the "husband" she'd been dying to meet got her to shift focus and her eyes followed Yukiko's arm to a particularly serious looking young man.

"My, my, my you are a tall one." Yukiko mouthed a quick "sorry" to him for throwing him under the bus for her weight gain, but he didn't mind. He would gladly take responsibility for her transformation. She circled him like a shark, drinking in every detail of her new family member. "Well muscled," she commented as she gave his arm a squeeze. "You're a very intense young man aren't you?" she said after he silently allowed himself to be inspected. Honestly, he was kind of feeling like livestock himself right now.

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am." She blinked and realized how lacking she'd been in her manners, smoothing out the front of her dress, the woman regained her composure. "Likewise, my name is Sachiko Amagi and this is my husband Jiro Amagi." The large man bowed his head politely, but said nothing although he seemed to be looking at Yu, not measuring him up like Sachiko was but instead as if he was deciding something in his head.

Eventually he seemed to come to a decision and nodded to himself and smiled at Yu when he noticed the boy starring. A friendly smile to let him know whatever the man was thinking about was nothing bad. "I must say, you're remarkably composed for a boy of your age, if my daughter had told me you were six years older than you were, I would have no doubt believed her." The comment brought Yu's attention back to the small woman in front of him, and he nodded in response. How could he possibly be anything but confident with his wife smiling at him proudly rubbing the womb that contained their son? "I've been told that before,"

"Well you should take pride in having such well bred features. It's how the future owner should look after all, I've also heard you've brought in quite a bit of money into this family already." Now her focus shifted to her granddaughter with praise in her eyes. "To think, I was ever worried about choosing a proper husband for you when you brought home the cream of the crop yourself!"

Yukiko blushed a bit but to Yu's silent joy, nodded happily. "Yes, when I saw him, I just couldn't let him get away slip through my fingers." The excitement in her voice was mistaken by Sachiko for nervousness and she tut-tutted a bit. "Oh you needn't sound worried about picking your husband before I could approve of him. Unlike with your mother, I never had to worry about you making the wrong choice. I do wish you had waited a bit after the wedding before having children, but I know better than anyone how eager you've always been to take over the inn. Oh I could never be cross with someone so enthusiastic for the profession." The woman spoke with such authority that it made everything she said seem like a fact even though she was quite off base with some of the things she spoke. That comment about Yukina had Yukiko's mother clenching her fist a bit but Yu wasn't about to shove himself into presumably decades old drama without knowing the full story.

"Let me see you again, I want to greet my great grandchild." This time, Yukiko was much more enthusiastic about displaying her tummy to her grandmother. "He wants to greet you too," but unfortunately for the poor proud mama her grandmother wasn't quite as rub happy as the others. Instead, she merely gave it two small pats and allowed her hand to linger for a minute. The old woman smiled when she felt a kick and removed her hand, "yes you're coming along very nicely. There's no doubt in my mind you'll birth a healthy heir."

"T-thanks grandmother." As embarrassing as her choice in verbiage was, Yukiko couldn't help but be genuinely proud. "Heir is such a nice word for you, my little prince,"

"Hmm did you say something dear?" Yukiko looked up surprised, "oh I was just talking to the baby."

"*Hmm* dreadful habit. Yukina, I'm guessing she learned that from you. Well be assured Yukiko that such a childish habit is unbecoming of a lady." The look of disappointment on the mother's face was so palpable that Yu wanted to reach over and comfort her right then and there, but before he could her grandmother pulled her by the shoulder and began to drag her along, rubbing her back soothingly as she did so. Being left with no choice, the other three followed along. "Rest assured that your grandfather and I will do everything in our power to give you and your husband a proper wedding. Don't worry your pretty head about a thing, that's the older generations job after all."

"Oh...well thank you, I'm happy to hear that but don't hesitate to ask for my-"

"Absolutely not. The bride should never be forced to plan and setup her own wedding in a family such as ours. My mother planned my wedding and her mother planned hers and her mother and so on and so forth and it will be the same with you. By the way, I must say your new hairstyle suits you quite well, much better than letting it fall all around, unkempt and disorderly."

"T-thank you grandmother."

"Speak with confidence dear! This is your wedding and this will be your inn sooner than you think. You're more than ready for both of those things." Yukiko let out a quiet sigh to herself, this was just how things were with grandma. Unlike the past two generations of Amagis, she had actually earned her position as the head of the family in direct competition with her siblings instead of just having it handed to her. It had created a...quite intense woman if Yukiko had to put it into words, but that just meant she intensely cared.

"Oh I suppose you're wondering why a little old lady like myself needs such heavy bags?" The usually stern lady had a mischievous smile on her face that made Yukiko smile back. "Is it a present for me?" The doting grandmother just couldn't resist reaching up to pet her head a little bit. "Yes, when I heard my granddaughter not only was getting married to a worthy husband, but getting ready to take care of a baby of her own, well I might have gone a bit over board with presents...although we might have to send the clothing back what with all the weight you've put on."

Part of the heifer honestly felt like apologizing for having gotten so plump but she held herself back. "I suppose so," she said instead. "I hope you didn't spend too much money." Sachiko cooed gently and pat her on the cheek, "oh don't feel bad. It's not your fault dear, your mother and father just failed to inform me how big you've gotten, if I had known I would have held off on shopping. By the way, that uniform is awfully tight. Why, I can see the imprint of you gut! Nor to mention how it wrinkles around your buttocks, didn't your mother give you an upsized one by now?"

"W-well she did but, I can't seem to find it anywhere. I know I put it in the laundry..."

"Ah say no more. Fuyuhiko, I specifically remember you were in charge of the laundry last I recall. Are you proud of yourself? Forcing your daughter to parade herself around like a stuffed sausage?"

The man spluttered at the accusation having no idea what she was talking about. "I never received such a thing! And if I did, I would have had it washed and pressed before anything else!"

"That may be, but knowing you, isn't it possible it slipped your mind?" The man opened his mouth to counter but found himself hesitating, he wasn't the most detail oriented person in the world so it was possible...but not when it came to his daughter! But that split second of hesitation was all Sachiko needed. "See? It's settled then. I hope you don't forget such an important task a second time." He decided to just take the fall for it. "Honestly," she murmured sympathetically to Yukiko, "it's a wonder you turned out as well as you did." The older woman let out a sigh and stopped everyone in their tracks.

"*Hmm* thinking on it, perhaps I've been too hard on you." Yukina could feel her eyes rolling into the back of her skull, if there was anyone her mother was too easy on, it would be Yukiko. "I'm actually quite glad you and your future husband fulfilled your marital duty so early, it gives me plenty of time to prepare you for properly raising an heir to the inn."

"Well this old woman has taken up enough of your time. I shouldn't keep you from your work any longer than I need to, your parents can get your grandfather and I settled in." And with that, she left Yukiko standing in the hallway feeling quite stunned. That was when she felt herself picked up and squeezed into a particularly strong bear hug. "Guess who?"

"Grandpa! *Ahahahaha* Nooo you'll hurt your back!"

"Ah don't listen to grandma, you're not that heavy." That was a lie, she was pretty heavy but he wasn't about to tell her that. He set her down and clasped her on both shoulders. "You don't look so downcast anymore." She shook her head at that and happily sighed. "Grandpa, this has been the happiest year of my life."

"*Hmm* well that tells me all I need about your new husband then."

With one last look towards Yu, the man smiled and was on his way with Yukiko's parents bringing up the rear leaving just him and his wife alone.

"They seem to like me," he scarcely had time to say before he was hugged tightly by his sweetheart. "You just make it so easy for everyone. Grandmother didn't even like Chie that much at first! Oh! And you're about to wow them with your cooking tonight, so that's even better." That was certainly true, tonight was no problem but cooking for two extra people was certainly going to run him ragged for the next month or so, but he kept the concern off his face. Yukiko might get it into her head to hold back her appetite for his sake and that was the last thing he wanted. Usually, even his loving wife would have let him go by now, but she remained clinging to him. "*Um* Yu, since there aren't that many guests to tend to tonight could I make a little request?"

He returned the hug and gazed lovingly into her eyes, "what is it beautiful?"

"*Um* could I do the cooking for my grandparents tonight? I'd like to show them what I can do now. They don't know how awful I was at it but still, I'd really like to hear what they think now." Immediately afterwards she puckered her lips for a shared kiss with her husband. "So that's a yes then?" But she already knew the answer by her husband's wide smile. "Of course. Just shoot me a quick text if there's a change in plans." And then they too went their separate ways.

As it turned out, there didn't need to be a change of plans that evening and a few hours later they were working side by side like two especially affectionate professional chefs. "Your grandfather seems like someone who eats a fair bit, I'm not doubting you but if you need me to step in or you need a break..." Yu was interrupted by his wife giggling.

"Oh hubby, you eat a lot! And I've cooked for you plenty of times now," was her answer when asked what was so funny.

"I do?"

"Well not as much as me! But yes you have quite the appetite hubby." The woman giggled and deposited a bit of pickle into his mouth. "Not that that's a bad thing of course, all my practice would go to waste if it wasn't being put to good use."

"Yeah boss, you do kind of eat a lot, but you're young so it's no big deal."

"Hey yeah! Didn't you win that mega meat bowl challenge or whatever it's called? Mr. Amagi was talking about it I think?" Yukiko clapped her hands together happily at the chef's words. "That's right, my husband conquers anything he sets his mind to. Although...I could probably put one away at this point..." An awkward silence fell over the kitchen as Yu conspicuously hid himself behind the counter for a few seconds. Then, he got a wide smile like he just thought of a wonderful idea; one of the other chefs coughed to bring him back to reality and just like that it was as if Yukiko had never brought it up except for the small smile she wore on her own face.

It was quite exciting to watch Yu in his "natural" habitat of leading people again, something Yukiko had quite missed seeing since their days in the TV World. Even though it was a slower service, his relative hands off way of leadership still shone through, where he gave the people under him a general idea of what needed to be done while giving them plenty of autonomy, not breathing down their necks, but not leaving them out at sea either. The lack of complaints even during a Saturday or Sunday as well as the past year led her to believe he conducted himself under pressure well, "I wonder if that's why he's such a great cook, because he can take the heat. *Huh* is that why I've been improving so much as well? No wonder Chie is so awful!" She too, was mostly left to her own devices which allowed strange thoughts such as those to creep into her head. "That must mean Mitsuru-san is terrible as well and Junpei-san must have the potential to be a five star chef!"

She could certainly handle the heat, but it was always nice to have a husband who knew when exactly to hand her a towel to dab off some sweat. And to give her little tastes of her dinner. And kept her topped off on ingredients when it became clear what she was making. He didn't even complain when she backed up into him and nearly made him drop what he was carrying. "Your father's such a gentleman," she told her son loud enough for Yu to hear. She took the opportunity of being in the kitchen to talk to her baby quite a lot actually, as if she was trying to make up for future lost time with her grandmother around.

"Now let's just sample some *oh* no, I'm sorry sweetie, mama's not supposed to eat raw fish. That's a shame, I guess you'll have to wait won't you? Well don't worry, your mama will whip up some sushi for you when you're old enough."

"So *uh* Yuki-chan, can the baby actually hear you? Just something I've wondered."

"Oh yes! In fact, it helps our son become more familiar with our voices for when he's ready to come out. But even if it didn't...I'd still talk to him anyway *tee-hee*." Her hips happily swayed as she got to work chopping, her humming punctuating the *clack* *clack* *clack* of the knife. "Hubby," she called behind her, "if you're not too busy, could you taste test this? I can't eat sushi for the next few months on account of our bundle of joy." If some other woman like Ai or Chie had said it, it would have come across as sarcastic, but Yu just smiled knowing that she meant every word of that statement and didn't mind in the slightest.

"I'll split it into pieces so we can all try a bit of your cooking. How does that sound guys?"

"Sounds great. Let's see just how much Yuki-chan's improved!"

"Sure. Give it here."

"You all are so sweet," the woman said happily, and proudly handed off a piece for everyone to try. "But please, you can each have a piece of your own so then I can make more and get even better!"

Yu didn't kiss her then, but he did take a moment to stroke her soft cheek which she gladly accepted. Watching everyone taste her food that she worked so hard on made her coo and sent her hands into a rubbing and patting frenzy. "Eat up," she found herself whispering almost unconsciously as a familiar maternal tingle spread throughout her body. Her baby bottles were only about half full though so she was able to hold onto her supply for the time being but seeing the young hard working men of the Amagi Inn's kitchen enjoy her cooking certainly tested their resistance. Someday, that would be her baby boy...

"*Mmm* not bad at all! A little chewy, but not bad."

"Yeah just think about how much better you'll be in two months!" Comments like that certainly made it difficult to snap out of her daze, but somehow, Yukiko managed to come to. Now facing a crowd of pleased patrons. Yu just smiled warmly at her and yet that was the praise she ended up treasuring the most. "Thank you everyone." Before she had time to bask in her accomplishments too much, the scent of her own delectable meal hit her nose and she soon found herself waddling over to her husband's station. "Oh hubby, this smells so good. I love brisket." She gladly took a piece off and popped it into her mouth, giving Yu a mewl of approval and even took another piece for the road. That's when she noticed just how much there was.

Even someone who's baby enhanced appetite would let them eat an entire roast turkey in one sitting, the slab of meat sitting in front of her was a bit much. If she ate all of that, she'd be a moaning and groaning mess for the rest of the night. "*Um* hubby, why did you make so much? Is tonight special? Did you want to...?"

At the way her face blushed and she meekly looked to the side, Yu quickly held up his hands to defend himself. "No, no nothing like that, it's for a different reason. One I can't tell you until later. Do you trust me Yukiko?"

It was a rather odd thing to ask in response but what else could Yukiko say beyond a resounding, "yes hubby, with all my heart!" The man smiled at his wife and fell silent, tearing off another piece to feed her with, which she of course happily accepted. "How did you make this sauce hubby? It's wonderfully spicy without being overbearing in the slightest" she asked after she had savored the taste.

"It's called a 'rub' darling. And as long as you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, I could just show you..." With a giggle and a waddle she was right by his side, eager to learn and eager to please. By the end, her hands were covered in various peppers and powders and her face was covered with a smile. "That's another one for your ever growing recipe book," her wonderful chef of a husband whispered to her, "it'll make a good meal for Christmas or after he gets the top scores in his class don't you think."

"Oh Yu," but in her haste to caress his face, she forgot she hadn't washed her hands and ended up smearing a brown spread across his features. "Hubby! Oh no I'm so sorry I made such a mess!" Frantically, she attempted to rectify her mistake, all the while her husband wore a bemused expression on his face and the surrounding chefs laughed their collective asses off. When it was over, Yukiko sighed like she had just prevented a major crisis which was nearly enough to make Yu himself bust out laughing. "Wash your hands before you go back to your station, Yuki," he managed to get out before giving in to a chuckle. He made a little motion with his finger indicating she needed to turn around, and her embarrassment grew even more when she realized he was tightening her kimono back up for her. "All your jiggling around the kitchen almost loosened the string all the way. Wouldn't that be quite a sight!" He made sure his tone wasn't too intense for the others in the room but his hands couldn't help but take a little pinch here and there.

"T-thank you," she was forced to mutter out, not entirely comfortable with the thought of exposing herself in front of the kitchen staff. But...now that this uniform had clearly run its course, his teasing had given her a bit of an idea. If only she'd brought her "diary of debauchery" with her to write it down, making absolutely sure she didn't forget such a wonderful idea! But there was no time for such things now, for they still had a dinner service to complete and she was sure such a thing would come up some other time in the next twenty years, surely.

The guests were quite easy to deal with that night even for someone of Yukiko's size and fitness, and it wasn't long before she found herself carrying in what she made to present to the family. "I saw that brown haired girl, what was her name? Oh yes! Chie. I saw that Chie girl dressed in one of our maid uniforms earlier today and when I asked her what on earth she thought she was doing, she claimed she was working here. Would you happen to know anything about that Yukina?" Yukiko hearing her grandmother talking about her best friend halted her advance, and she found herself standing still in the hallway to eavesdrop a bit.

"Yes I do, in fact I was the one who approved it, on Yukiko's recommendation of course."

"She's been a fine worker thus far if I do say so myself! Never late and always willing to lend a hand, she does the Amagi kimono proud!"

"*Ha* if you think the bare essentials are what makes a 'fine' worker Fuyuhiko...well never mind. I'm sure she works quite hard, but that child had the nerve to scowl at me for asking a simple question! Why, if I was in charge of this inn she would have been sacked then and there!" Yukiko could almost hear the sigh her mother suppressed in that moment. "Perhaps it was because of the way you asked it? People don't often enjoy having their abilities constantly doubted mother."

"Doesn't matter. What if it had been a guest who had asked her that question? Why, even if everyone else worked themselves to the bone to give him five star service, the only thing he'd remember was the rude little girl who acted out of line. Mark my words, it's an incident just waiting to happen. I'm sure Yukiko meant no harm at first, but sometimes we put more stock in our friends than we probably should." There was a long period of silence and the mama found herself becoming quite proud of just how long she could hold the tray of food without her arms becoming wobbly. "I might be able to hold you until you're three at this rate." One last sweet little murmur to her darling before she had to say goodbye for a little bit.

"Well I'll be the one who decides that, mother." Was what Yukina eventually said. There really was no way for Sachiko to press the issue without being improper herself, "I'll have Yukiko talk to her about it," the middle aged woman eventually compromised. Her mother said nothing, and instead let the silence speak for itself. A pregnant silence seemed like the perfect entrance for a heavy baby carrier like herself, and the best way to lighten the mood was with good food; at least, that's what her husband firmly believed.

Another thing that had been cemented from watching her husband was the importance of knowing your audience. If she was serving him or her son food, she'd kiss them on the cheek as she did so and tell them to enjoy themselves after a hard day of work and play respectively, but such a thing wouldn't fly with her grandmother. Instead, the standard procedure needed to be used, though fortunately there was no need to bow quite so much.

"Thanks sweetheart," was all her grandfather said with a kind smile.

"Thank you dear, I appreciate your constant diligence, although you needn't have carried it in yourself."

"Well actually grandmother, I *um*-"

"Don't *um* dear."

"*Oh* well...I made it myself."

That actually elicited a bit of surprise from her grandmother who immediately took a bite from her dish despite the others having not been served yet. Yukiko waited with bated breath for her reaction which her grandmother of course noticed. "Yukiko dear, how do you expect anyone to enjoy your food if you're leering over them like that?"

"O-of course, please excuse me." But her grandmother just smiled at her. "It's quite good. I don't doubt you've taken your role as a wife and mother seriously over the past few years. I take it this was one of the ways you won that boy's heart?" The thought was an amusing one for Yukiko who let out a small feminine giggle. "From a certain point of view...yes! But I'm glad you like it grandmother." Her eyes turned expectantly to her grandfather who eagerly took a bite. "It's good." He received a scowl from his wife for his response. "Our granddaughter slaves away over a hot stove for us, and all you can say is 'it's good' come now."

The man got a mischievous smile that reminded Yukiko quite a bit of her own husband. "It's really good." The older woman huffed aloud while the other two women in the room tried their best to hold back their "cackles" as the former matriarch had so lovingly called them. Honestly, it didn't matter if the review was verbal or nonverbal to Yukiko, a happy full stomach was a happy full stomach at the end of the day wasn't it? Speaking of happy full stomachs, that's when Yu choose to come in with her own meal. Easily balancing a meal for four on a tray while she had struggled with two, her husband delivered said food straight to the table with the grace of a ballerina, not able to help giving a bit of a flourish when he lifted the lid. On Yukiko's plate was a much more reasonably sized hunk of meat, only about half of what had been in the kitchen. Enough to feed two people easily but nothing ridiculous like a meal for four!

"My oh my! Yu dear, did you make all of this by yourself?"

"Yes. Cooking is one of my many passions, and I'm going to earn this place a Michelin Star by the time I pass it off to my son." His passionate declaration was met with bemused smiles all around the table except for his wife and her father who looked at him with sheer love and with sheer awe respectively. Maybe he wasn't quite up to that level yet, but with his audience being people who didn't have too much experience in the kitchen, it sure seemed like he did. To Sachiko's approval, he had even served her daughter a special dish that was undoubtedly designed to bolster the iron in her bloodstream. "Thank goodness, I was worried the new chefs wouldn't be able to cater to your needs. I'm glad to see I was mistaken."

Yukina smiled a bit when she realized what her mother was talking about and looked to her son-in-law fondly. "Yes, he's been very...accommodating. It's funny because I don't recall ever asking him to be." It was true, Yu could have easily have delegated the task of cooking for everyone except his wife to one of the other chefs, but there was something about making his underfed mother-in-law sit down and enjoy a hearty meal that he quite liked. "But it is nice not eating the same foods I've been eating for the past forty years, so thank you for that." Her joking tone didn't hide the genuine gratitude buried in there and even the grumpy grandmother found herself smiling a bit.

"Oh yes, that reminds me, when can we be expecting your parents?" The moment she said that, it was as if all the joy in the room drained out and all heads turned her way. "Aren't we being a little overdramatic," Fuyuhiko asked after a pause. "Our last encounter...wasn't pleasant true, but his dad isn't some dark lord or something."

"Yukiko dear, could you translate your father's babble for this old woman please? I'm afraid I don't have the patience for it."

Yukiko looked to her husband instead, feeling that it wouldn't be fair to speak for him which he appreciated greatly. "My father...does not approve of our marriage and neither of my parents will likely be attending. It's nothing personal, but their industry doesn't allow for much personal time." That first statement surprised Yukina quite a bit. "Yu, I don't mean to drudge up painful memories, but I was under the impression neither of them approved."

"Oh no! Hubby talked things out with his mother during Golden Week so things are fine on that front. She told me I could call her 'mother' if I wished!" Even with the honeydew glowing in her cheeks from the memory, Yukiko's mother and grandmother were all set to scold her for her improper little outburst when Fuyuhiko gave a bigger one. "Simply magnificent Yu! I know it's not easy to forgive someone who has wronged you so in the past, and to think you did it over the course of a single weekend! Why I-"

Out of mercy, Yukina elbowed him in the side knowing his future lecture on "bad influence he was having on their daughter" would only be lengthened the more he talked. To their surprise though, Sachiko didn't seem that perturbed by it. "Yu, you're 18 years of age correct?"

"That is correct, ma'am."

"Well unless the law has changed, there is nothing your father can do. You are an adult now and therefore you can choose your bride, and what a fine choice in bride you've made might I add! If your father chooses to pout about it, that's his choice but it's no sweat off of our back, understand?" Yu knew it was a little childish, but the image of his father pouting a corner somewhere brought a smile to his face and he could feel the tension leaving the rest of his in-laws as they realized the truth of what Sachiko said. "It is unfortunate though that we won't be able to share the financial burden, but that's a small price to pay for a wedding without incident, don't you agree young Yu?"

"Yes...but even still I'd like to request a spot be kept open." He made sure to keep his voice steady for his next statement, "if my father causes an incident...I'll remove him myself."

"Yes of course, it's only common courtesy after all, but we owe him no more than that." That answer seemed to satisfy Yu, and he began to plate. This led to another problem, however, when the old woman realized who the entire hunk of cow meat was actually for. "Excuse me, Yu, just what on earth do you think you're doing?" The boy looked up from his wife, who had quite the adorably eager expression on her face as he scooped slice after slice onto her plate, and the disappointed look she gained when he stopped to address her grandmother was enough to make the boy's heart ache a tad. Wives were meant to bounce in their seats and rub their stomachs, licking their lips as you slapped slab after slab of beef in front of them! And this interruption was getting in the way of that!

"I'm making sure my wife and child have everything they need. They haven't eaten in three hours after all."

"Yes...but you're giving her everything she needs and more. I think I realize now what's happened here, I apologize for being...a little harsh about your weight Yukiko. If I had known it had nothing to do with wanton gluttony..." The other Amagi's and Yu looked between each other, curious as to where she was going with this. "What better way to please your chef husband than to devour every morsel of his cooking? Oh Yukiko dear, I knew you would make a wonderful wife to a man someday but this goes beyond even what I expected. Eating every bite until your belly starts to cover your lap and your bottom starts to outgrow the chair you're sitting in..." Yukiko twisted around and wiggled her rump self consciously. "It's not outgrown yet, I'm not that big." she muttered, but her grandmother seemed to not hear.

Yukina hid a smirk behind her intercrossed hands, the idea that her daughter was "forcing" herself to eat just to make her husband happy was one that was so ridiculous it was a wonder the woman was able to not burst out laughing. But her mother could be quite stubborn when she desired to, so Yukina decided to just let her believe what she wanted in this case. She was more interested in what Yu had to say anyway.

"Yu, believe it or not, but when I was younger I was a bit of an aspiring cook myself. Not on your level of course, but I wasn't satisfied with simply learning the inn's recipes. Yes I believe the year was 1949. Yes, yes I remember because it was a particularly torrential summer that year and..." Yu looked to his wife as if to ask her if this was going to last awhile and she softly nodded her head, her grandmother did have a tendency to...ramble a bit if she was ever in the position to reminisce.

Eventually though, a point was reached in the yarn she was spinning. "...so I too got a little carried away with showing my love through food. It's an embarrassing chapter in my life, but one I hope you can learn from before you make my slender little granddaughter even fatter." Yukiko understood where her grandmother was coming from, truly she did, but satisfying her baby cravings and her husband took priority over looking slim and trim for the guests. If her grandmother thought her speech would faze her heifer loving husband, then she had another thing com-

"I think you might be right, ma'am." The shock on Yukiko's face was palpable and Yukina had to admit she was quite shocked as well. Before Yukiko had the chance to shout, she felt a strong hand grasp her hand under the table and stroke the ring on her finger. Next to him rubbing her belly, it was the best thing he could have done to calm him down and the flustered mama bit back her shout. He was planning something, and whatever it was, she would trust him no matter what.

"I'm glad you agree," Sachiko said, sounding quite pleased. "I know neither of you meant any harm, but the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Yukiko, we will begin your diet now." In one swift motion, the woman separated one slice of meat from the rest of the pile. When Fuyuhiko saw the downcast expression on his daughter's face, he immediately lept into action. "Don't you think you're being a little too harsh Sachiko? And you!" He said pointing his finger accusingly at Yu. "You're not even going to try and argue for my daughter's sake!? Just roll over and ta-"

"Now that is quite enough of that Fuyuhiko. Your daughter is composing herself with much more grace than you are, perhaps you should take a page out of her book?" The table turned to Yukiko who, while disappointed at the lack of food on her plate, trusted her husband greatly and thus was able to keep her chin up in the face of such adversity. "It's alright daddy...maybe this is for the best after all." Her tone was unconvincing but Fuyuhiko relented regardless. If his daughter wanted to give it a try, then who was he to stop her? "Don't fret Yukiko dear," her grandmother cooed while giving her a pat on her cheek. "Now that you're not being overfed like a house cat every day, the pounds will melt off in no time. That one piece is more than enough, even for a woman with child." Yukiko nodded but she didn't seem entirely convinced; the reason why became abundantly clear shortly.

Yukiko was in the middle of unhappily picking at the last of her food when a loud grumbling emanated from her stomach. What would have been enough to fill her up five months ago, was now scarcely an appetizer. The tubby mama winced as her belly was wracked by several hunger pangs. Couldn't her grandmother tell just by looking at her that she needed to be properly fed!? "I'm a mama not a maiden!" She whined inwardly. "We're supposed to get nice and ripe..."

She couldn't help whimpering a little bit, not only was the discomfort palpable, but she couldn't even assure her little bun that things would be okay as that would "improper." The only small comfort was she could see her husband grimacing and his grip on her hand got a little bit tighter. Like a striking snake, Sachiko's chopsticks struck out and caught Fuyuhiko's fingers in his attempt to help out his princess. "And just what do you think you're doing, Fuyuhiko?"

"Ow ow ow, you're pinching down harder than you need to be!" Reluctantly, the woman let go of his fingers, receiving a glare from him as he rubbed his fingers. "Don't you hear how my daughter suffers? As her father I can't sit idly by and-" but a "tut tut tutting" from the older woman stopped him dead in his tracks. "The only reason her stomach is making such a racket is because it has become spoiled, thanks to your negligence I might add. It must become disciplined once again if she is to be the caretaker of our inn."

"Hey, that rhymed!" Sachiko grit her teeth a bit at that. Sometimes, it was a little hard to tell if Fuyuhiko played up his goofiness to annoy her.

"Maybe it's best that we don't do it all at once though." The source of that statement was a surprising one for the grandmother, it was her future grandson of all people. "Why Yu, I thought you agreed with me on this?" She didn't sound particularly annoyed but that was only because she was too stunned to be and the way he looked at her made even the commanding woman want to listen.

"I do, but making her quit cold turkey is no way to go about it." The old woman looked a bit ashamed when he said that, but it wasn't for any reason Yu was expecting. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that expression."

"Oh! It means to abruptly quit something, I apologize, I should have just said that to begin with." She actually smiled at him and assured him it was quite alright, the fault lay with her for not being as worldly as she once was.

He had planned out a rather involved scheme tonight, but this actually hadn't been part of it. Now she seemed quite a bit more willing to listen to what he had to say without him having to spend extra time convincing her. "Well," he continued, "abruptly stopping a bad habit will work for a time but it's quite common for a relapse to happen in that case." He clenched his teeth when he heard his wife whimper a little, it was making her wonderfully large appetite sound like a drug problem but an extra squeeze of her hand seemed to renew her faith. "It's best to slowly wean people off, gradually and gently, so it becomes a life style. You don't 'go exercise' if you want to become truly fit, you make exercise a part of your life." As subtly as he could while still making it noticeable, Yu emphasized his muscular arm while pretending to reach for a bite of his own food. He felt a little bad about plagiarizing Daisuke a bit, but it seemed to be having an effect on the woman.

"He's right dear," the quiet grandfather of the family said. "Wish I'd discovered it years ago, but what he says is right." With the opinions of a rather trim and fit young man and her husband who was currently dieting more successfully than he ever had before to contend with, there wasn't much else she could say. "Well...won't she only put on more weight in that time?" A loud grumble barked from Yukiko's stomach, making the young girl turn away all flustered. "I mean just listen to that spoiled brat of a gut!"

"Oh I'm listening," Yu thought inwardly, feeling rather pleased with himself. Normally, the sounds of her hunger would fill him with annoyance but knowing he was so close to sealing the deal helped him see things in a positive way. To Sachiko what he said was, "fifty potential pounds now at most, but my bride is still quite young. Imagine how hard it would be to keep the weight off in the future if she doesn't kick the habit in a healthy way."

The utilitarian argument seemed to finally convince the woman and the sigh that followed announced her consent. "Alright then, I'll trust your judgement here, it is all for Yukiko's sake after all."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Thank you, grandmother." The woman fixed the two young adults in her gaze and smiled. "As long as you're part of this family Yu, you may call me grandmother as well if you would like." Fuyuhiko grumbled something to himself then about "perfect" and "like someone out of the pages of a legend," which made his own wife smile quite a bit. Honestly, sometimes it was hard to believe Yu was entirely real, thinking up a way for keeping her daughter reasonably well fed while the strict Sachiko was here before going right back to fattening her up all over again. Yukina did have to wonder what his long term plans were, but honestly it was probably be better if such things were also left a surprise.

Yu began to pile Yukiko's plate high high high with the meat she so craved and with every piece her eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger. All but one were on her plate and the delicious mound of beef made Yukiko feel silly for ever doubting her husband's ability to keep them well fed in the first place. She'd have to make it up to him somehow!

"Well maybe we could cut back a bit faster," and one more slice was taken off of the top by her grandmother. "That's a bit too fast, grandmother." Yu responded and cut the piece in half instead. Sachiko frowned, but said nothing. She was willing to compromise just this once.

Yukiko knew it would cause problems later that night, her husband's meals filled her up just enough so having even ten percent missing meant it would be grumbling and whining hours before it was supposed to. Still, while her grandmother wasn't looking, the girl gave her man's thigh a squeeze, he done the best he could and for that she was thankful. No doubt he'd have a solution for that problem as well.

Other than one more failed attempt by Fuyuhiko to sneak her some more food, the rest of the dinner was rather uneventful. The usual questions were thrown their way: how they met, what made them decide they were ready for a baby after such a short time, Yu's life before coming to Inaba, his time in France, how Yukiko had been doing in their absence, the standard things. One thing Yu noticed though was that neither of the grandparents ever asked why they fell in love which he found kind of heart warming in a way. Whatever reason they thought it was, it must have been self evident.

"Well, I'm afraid," Sachiko eventually announced to the whole table, "that the travel has left me quite tired. But rest assured I have no complaints with the way things are going. Plans for the wedding will begin tomorrow as well as an exercise regiment for my granddaughter." The look of panic that flashed across Yukiko's face then was mistaken as something completely different by Sachiko. "Don't worry dear, we won't throw you into the ocean. Like your husband suggested, your grandfather and I will help ease you into it. You'll be back into the shape of a proper lady in no time."

"I already am." But she kept that little thought to herself. She couldn't be too upset with her grandmother of course, after all it was weird to think but if it wasn't for her baby and her husband she'd probably be right there agreeing with the other woman. Surprisingly, her father seemed quite alright with that turn of events not protesting in the slightest, "okay just as long as you don't push her too hard." The more bothersome thing was the teasing smile her mother was giving her that went from ear to ear. "Yes, that sounds like the correct course of action."

"Well then you should have done it in the first place. And you have quite a lot of tasks yourself Yukina. Tomorrow, we're starting plans immediately and we won't stop until the day of."

"Yes mother."

As she stood up, she turned to Yu and smiled warmly at him. "Welcome to the family, we hope you enjoy your stay with us." Laughing at her own joke, the woman made her exit with her husband following behind. "I think planning the wedding will come quite easily to you, sweetheart, it did for me." he said to his daughter. And with that cryptic yet sweet statement, he left the room. Yu began to clean up the dishes for everyone but his attention was drawn to what his wife started doing the literal second she thought her grandmother was out of earshot.

"A regiment? Well I hope you lend some extra energy to your mama for that! We're definitely in crisis mode right now so it's a good thing you had your mommy build up so many reserves!" The girl giggled and sent her tummy wobbling with a poke which made Yu chuckle. Mild exercise and the most generous diet he'd ever seen was "crisis mode" apparently. But little did she know it was about to get a whole lot less worrisome...

"Oh I'm so sorry great grandmother doesn't want to say hello the same way everyone else does but I'm sure she'll be affectionate once you're born. You'll have to prepare those cute chubby little cheeks of yours won't you? You'll have great grandmama, grandma, and mama all wanting to give you a pinchie! Oh yes we will! Mama's adorable little button! Oh I can hardly-"

"That's quite enough of that Yukiko," Yukina was pinching the bridge of her nose and breathing deeply out of the appendage. Seemed that suppressing it only made the baby talk even more sickeningly sweet and infantile. "Go make sure everything is set for tonight and please never use the word 'pinchie' ever again." Yukiko sadly waddled out with her head down and Yu soon left to with the dishes.

"Sweetheart, don't you think that was a little harsh?"

"*Sigh* you're probably right. I guess I'm just a little on edge right now."

"Now now, unload yourself onto your loving husband! That's what I'm here for after all!"

In truth, Fuyuhiko knew what was bothering her already. It must have been incredibly demoralizing to be reminded how much more delicate you were than the average person seemingly in every conversation she had with her mother. His poor wife couldn't even have a glass of wine at the end of the day to take the edge off without risk! Poor dear.

"Whenever Yukiko and my mother are in the same room, I always feel like an awkward middle step between two great owners, a steward sitting the throne between two royals like in that book you love." she confesses to her husband. They'd been through a similar conversation probably dozens of times but if there was one thing she would always give Fuyuhiko it would be he really was great and listening to her complain about her problems.

"One of these days I'm going to have to take a picture of Yukiko when she's gazing at you during an announcement. Maybe then you'll finally believe me when I say the absolute truth! Our daughter admires you! And to be honest, I admire you quite a bit too, Yuki. I mean, I wouldn't have married you otherwise!"

"I know, I know. Listen to me whine like a child, I'm sure there are one thousand better things I could be doing right now!" But her hand was tugged as she stood up. "You're overcompensating again darling. Take some deep breaths, drink some tea, relax...whatever it takes." The woman rolled her eyes, but did what she was told. Immediately, she could feel her mind being cleared of all the thoughts of proving to everyone how strong she was and how she could handle everything by herself if she needed to. Her mother had a way of drawing that side out of her and her husband was great at putting it back in, another one of life's great ironies since it was quite the opposite back then.

"I believe I will do that, but that does mean extra work for yourself." It was a bad habit of hers, she'd say things to her husband already knowing what he was going to say back.

"That's okay! My leisure time can wait a millennium if it means helping you remember you're wonderful." It was a naughty little habit but it always got her heart beating a little bit faster, setting him up for romantic lines that she knew would bring a warm smile to her face when they came out of his mouth. "Only one millennium," she teased, "sounds like you're getting lazy."

"Well then how about five millennia? Actually...that's a bit too long for me, never mind." His own teasing got her to lean against his arm for a little bit before pecking him on the cheek. "I'll have some tea ready for you when you get back. Don't let my mother's comments get you down."

"Never do. I already got her beautiful daughter after all! Compared to that, her barbs are as impotent as a mosquito bite!" His goofy way of phrasing things never failed to make her snicker and she found herself leaving the room with a similar sway in her hips to the one her daughter possessed, although obviously much less pronounced.

Yukiko wasn't in quite as good a mood when she returned to her own room later that tonight. Today hadn't exactly been the best one despite reuniting with her grandparents and them approving of her wonderful hubby. Not only had her baby talking time effectively been cut in half, but she now had to diet and exercise on top of that! Her new mommy body had been shamed and jabbed at repeatedly, and worst of all she was feeling a little peckish from the food shortage at dinner that night.

Forcing her stocky thighs past each other to get up the steps to her room, she had to lament her fate a little more. "I'm already a little winded just from doing this. How on earth does grandmother expect to get me back into my maiden size?" A puff of air and a smile soon followed. As unpleasant as it would no doubt be, at this point it hardly mattered at all! Not when she had so much going for her in other parts of her life.

"Well your dada will rub all that soreness out. And then he'll make us a delicious meal that will light up our tastes buds like the night sky. And you should know by now that he'll tell us how much he loves us. And I can talk to you any time grandmother isn't around, *heehee* it's almost like a game!" Even the fact that her uniform was still wrapping her sweaty blubbery body like cheese cloth didn't dampen her mood. Last night had been intense, so it was quite alright if Yu needed a break from her appetites today, but that would still leave her with her little prince to murmur to and a soft form to play with while she read or studied.

So imagine her surprise when she saw the covered silver tray on the desk in their room with her husband nonchalantly reading the hot spring manual. "Oh, you're back. I managed to find your uniform by the way, a maid in the earlier shift must have thought it belonged to your mother but she didn't have time to check her laundry before your grandmother arrived." Sure enough, there was her new properly sized kimono hanging on its proper curtain rod in their open armoire.

"Oh w-well thank you very much hubby, but why is there a tray of food in here? Did you want to feed me again?" She couldn't mask the slight eagerness in her voice, but then again, she really didn't want to. He chuckled warmly at her and stood up from his relaxed yet sophisticated seating position. "Always, my adorable butter biscuit, but this is more of a...continuation...something you've been denied." Before she could ask what he meant by that, he removed the top to the tray and she had to blink at what she saw. It was the other half of that massive brisket he had made for her earlier that day!

Taking a second more detailed look, she realized that there were two pieces carved off of it and one of those two pieces was cut in half. The same amount her grandmother took from her plate at dinner.

"Y-yu, what's going on?" He walked confidently over to her and pulled her into a passionate embrace. Yukiko let out a squeak into his mouth when she felt his fingers untying the back of her tight kimono but the reassuring rubbing of her flank helped her remember that it was all for her benefit, to relax and let him whisk her off her feet and make her feel as light as a cloud. "Do I need to be naked for this?" she eventually asked after coming up for air.

Yu didn't answer and instead undid the rest of the knot, not having much to do on account of her jiggling around the inn all day. The tight pink kimono fell to the floor revealing the white body covering juban underneath which he carefully got to work on. "I suppose you don't need to be, but you've been squeezed by this thing all day. Don't you want to relax? Let everything bulge and hang like its meant to?" He gave her nipple a little tweak which got a moan out of the beautiful girl. She didn't need anymore convincing and eagerly held her arms out for him to disrobe her.

"Lazy," he teased. She puffed out her cheeks at that and shuffled in place. "It's your fault hubby, if I never met you I'd still be a slender lady and grandmother wouldn't be cross with me." Her pout immediately turned into bubbly laughter when he began to rub her belly. With her arms stretched out, it was wonderful to have someone tend to it. When he started kissing along her neck and shoulders, it really made her feel like some kind of fertility idol. It was hard to imagine this was the same man who talked with her grandmother so calmly and cordially. He was like a beast!

"Of course *heeheehee* if I didn't meet you, I wouldn't be pregnant and happy and fed well and in love a-and happy!"

"You said happy twice, Yuki."

"Well that's just how happy you make me." Her naked bread dough body crashed against him then and the passionately shared in each other. Their grandparents being across the hall doing nothing to deter them.

"Did you really carry that whole tray here just to feed me two slices of beef?" It was rather absurd and yet, somehow it was still unbelievably romantic to the baby baker. Of course, she already knew the answer to the question, but she just couldn't resist hearing about how much of sweetheart the man of her dreams was.

"Of course, you didn't think I'd let you go the slightest bit hungry did you? You're my wife after all." He gently stroked the side of her face as he spoke, making her smile and wiggle happily in place. "The only part that had me worried was sneaking it into our room, but I managed. And who said you could only have two? You can have as much as you want my flabby beautiful jelly roll." Yukiko had to laugh at all of this, it was just so ridiculous. Going through all this trouble just to ensure she didn't feel the slightest bit of discomfort or hunger and the baby got everything he needed, it was enough to make her blush and her heart to hammer.

"But, why did you make so much? I'm not sure if I could eat it all."

"Well, that's because I wasn't sure if your grandmother would buy my argument. So I made your dinner twice basically. To ensure I was prepared to give you what you needed no matter what she decided. So, lay back, get comfortable, and indulge as much as you want gorgeous." With that, he plucked the hair pin out and her locks cascaded down the growing folds and bumps of her back like a waterfall down the side of a cliff. Giggling and waddling over to the bed, it was clear she was fully prepared to enjoy a pampering.

"If there's one thing we should learn from this, it's to never underestimate how much your dada loves us. Sneaking a half of a brisket into our bedroom, whatever will he think of next!" Yu allowed himself to bask in the indirect praise as he moved the tray over to his wife. Allowing her to eat in bed was a privilege he probably would never give to anyone else, but anything that would help her grow more lovely, she got.

Laying down required that she first sit, and then bring her thick legs onto the bed, and then finally relaxing against the headboard with a sigh. "First chocolate, and now a full meal, hubby you're really stepping up your pampering! And so quickly too! Should I be expecting roast pheasant by the end of the month?" She giggled at her own joke but gulped when her husband was looking at her quite seriously. "I-I was just kidding hubby. You don't have to do that." He nodded, but part of her was worried he wasn't really listening and she would in fact be finding an exotic bird on her dinner plate in the coming months.

Actually that was kind of romantic too.

"Say 'ahh'!" And she happily held open her mouth for a delicious morsel. She mewled in surprise at the addition of cheese to the brisket that she hadn't been expecting. When she opened her eyes, she saw a saucer of fondue dip on the plate she hadn't noticed before. "Hid it behind the hunk of meat," her husband explained. "I didn't want to spoil the surprise. In fact, the only thing I want to spoil, is my lovely wife." A high pitched coo came from her lips and the heiress pat her belly in delight. The bites were kept tiny to make sure she could enjoy her pampering for as long as possible.

"If I counted correctly, your grandmother insulted your size around a dozen times this evening, so I'm going to make it up to you now." Before the girl could fully internalize what he just said, he began to stroke the space between her privates and her gut, feeding her another piece of brisket at the moment she finished moaning and her mouth closed. "I love so much that I can hold your belly now, just lift it up and let it drop. Like a big medicine ball...well maybe not yet but we'll get there won't we beautiful?" Another bite.

"Yu..." she purred, interrupted by another bite. "Shhh just relax. I haven't even finished talking about how much I adore how gravid you've become."

"And then we'll get to the rest of your body, primed for child birth and meant for motherhood." His finger found its way into her navel and began to tease and swirl around in there, she bit back moans and moved her thighs up and down as another bite slipped between her lips. "And then...your lovely personality. We have so so much ground to cover tonight, beautiful." And Yukiko let his praise wash over her. She forgot all about the weight lectures, all about the lost uniform, all about the exercise, and all about the limit on her baby talking. All that mattered right now was that she had her loving husband and was carrying their child and they were going to be married in less than a month. Although really, they already were married which only added to her joy. And that's exactly what Yu was counting on.

The fullness got to her eventually while Yu was in the middle of telling her how lovely he found her patient and gentle demeanor and her eyes began to flicker open and shut. "*Mmmm*" she adjusted herself into a more comfortable position, and before Yu knew it, she was fast asleep, murmuring his name with a big smile on her face.

"You just relax kitten, I'll join you shortly." A peck on the cheek barely made her stir, so deep was her comfortable slumber. Her face had gotten fatter recently for sure and the double chin seemed to be a permanent fixture on her face now, exactly how he wanted it to be. Alone in the kitchen washing the dishes late at night, Yu had an equally big smile to the one his wife wore. "If that woman thinks she's going to slim down my cream puff, then she has another thing coming. A fertility goddess is far more traditional than a starved sylph could ever be."

It was a joke, but returning his room and seeing his woman with a big belly spilling across the sheets and an ass that did the same in the opposite direction, it wasn't too far from reality. And every day she got closer and closer to believing it herself.

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Kanji was used to the stares whenever he would go out to Okina, especially from the girls. People in Inaba, while intimidated by him, were at least somewhat used to his presence by now, and many of them knew there was nothing to be afraid of; here though, he definitely "felt" a lot of pointing. Part of him definitely wanted to turn around and scatter everyone with an angry shout, but he held himself back. In just a few short minutes he'd be sitting in a nice coffee place with his girlfriend and he wasn't about to blow it by making an ass of himself. She'd just had a long day catching perps and the last thing she needed was that to worry about!

A gold sign made the place stand out even though it was somewhat tucked away, the word "Chagall" was emblazoned on the logo and Kanji could just feel like this was a place where someone like Naoto belonged and Yu-senpai too of course. Yu had actually been the one who recommended this place although Kanji wasn't sure any coffee could be good enough to be considered a "life changing experience."

"Hey! Could I get a-*er* I mean, table for two please?" He let out a sigh of relief at his last second save but the man at the entrance seemed not to even notice. In fact, he seemed to be sizing Kanji up, though it was impossible to tell what conclusion he came to after he was done. "Right this way," the man said but stopped the boy before he could take one step in. "Even though this is a regional chain, I absolutely refuse to serve mediocre coffee. Got that?"

"That so? Well hey I can get behind that! Good for you, man!" His response seemed to genuinely take the stoic man aback, but he said nothing as he showed Kanji to his seat. The only other people around were some old folks who kept looking his way. Kanji couldn't quite figure out why since if anything the owner of the place was probably more intimidating that he was but then he followed their eyes and remembered the hat he still had on.

His ma had told him that wearing hats indoors was rude or some such thing so that probably explained why they were looking at him. But he couldn't just take it off! It was supposed to be a surprise. The owner hadn't made a fuss about it, so what the hell was there problem? What was it with old bags always sticking their noses in places where they didn't belong? Immediately, Kanji started to count backwards from ten, he didn't want to greet his lovely girlfriend with a frown on his face and out of all the calming techniques he'd been taught, that one was the most effective by far.

Little did Kanji know, his face lit up regardless as soon as she entered. To his great delight, she seemed a little bit happier when she caught sight of him as well. Dressed in her usual blue as she had just come off of work, it didn't take long for her to remove it in the early June mugginess revealing her white button up shirt below. "Hello. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long," she said when she took her seat. She said that every time no matter how much he told her he didn't mind waiting a little bit, it would be annoying if it wasn't kind of just a little bit cute. Just a bit.

"I haven't even ordered yet so...hey what's the matter? You look kind of stressed." Naoto blinked in surprise and rubbed at them, before coming in she'd tried counting backwards from ten to calm herself after the events of that day like her grandfather often suggested, but it seems like it hadn't worked well enough. "Do I? Well it has been a long day I suppose." The girl took her seat and for the first time noticed the generic black baseball cap that Kanji was wearing. "Kanji...did you do something with your hair?"

"What the...how the heck did you know that!? Did one of the others blab? Was it Ted? Ooooh I bet it was Ted!" Naoto gave him that look where it was as though she couldn't quite tell if he was pretending to be dense or if he actually was that way.

Eventually when she realized it was Kanji she was talking to, she sighed. "No Kanji, it's because you've never worn a hat before and you just happen to be wearing a hat that covers the top of your head from view. It's not hard to figure out."

"O-oh yeah, guess that's true isn't it? *Ahem* I did change things up a bit, yeah." He decided to just get it out of the way and rip the cap off like a band-aid. Those other jerks had teased him about it, but surely someone as mature as Naoto would like his new mature and sophisticated hairstyle.

"So what do you think? This is what I look like natural. Much better huh?" His smile was short lived however when he saw the girl's hesitation. "Hey, what's wrong? Cat got your tongue or something?"

"*Huh?* N-no. Nothing's the matter, I just...well...are you sure about such a drastic change in your appearance? Not that I mind either way of course!" Her insistence that nothing was the matter and that she didn't mind led Kanji to believe that she did, in fact, mind. "Of course I'm sure! It shows I've moved past being a punk, symbolic and stuff you know? Does it really look that bad?"

Now Naoto was caught in a real pickle; she thought she'd was done with the problem solving for today! Now though, Kanji was looking at her with those puppy dog eyes of his with a quite frankly poor looking haircut. Every second that ticked by only added to the awkwardness and the only noise was Naoto attempting to fill the silence with hemming and hawing. "I'm...glad that you feel you're ready to take the next step," she settled on diplomatically but she gulped when Kanji actually glared at her; she should have known that pussyfooting wouldn't work with someone like him. That's when she realized something. Despite all his insecurity, he'd never once gotten defensive about his dyed hair or any other wardrobe change. The other girls even said he proudly wore a speedo with no problem. Immediately she shook her head to get that thought away.

"Do you like it, Kanji?"

Her boyfriend took a moment to realize what he had just been asked. "D-do I like it? Well I mean...no, not really. But...ma doesn't like wearing a kimono to work everyday and *uh* Dojima-san wears a suit even though he probably doesn't want to. So it's just something I've gotta do, you know?" Naoto sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose, one of Kanji's least favorite sights. "Kanji...do you want me to say I don't like it so you can feel justified in changing it back?"

"Wha...that's...I mean...yes." He finally admitted. "Man, you really are an ace detective Naoto! I hate this stupid look, always have! But how did you know that?" At this, she gave him a little smile and tapped the space near her eyebrow. "You did nothing to cover up your scar; to leave such a thing unchanged while claiming to want to transition your image, leads me to believe you quite like your old look and are hesitant to make any permanent irreversible changes to it." Kanji felt a little dizzy at just how quickly she saw through him, honestly it was a spur of the moment decision that he'd regretted immediately, but he couldn't go back on it after making such a big fuss about it to his mother. Yosuke, Chie, and Ai were easy to ignore and chalk up to picking on him and he still never got an answer out of Yu-senpai. But thinking about what Naoto just said made his mouth go wide in realization.

"Did you come to a conclusion Kanji?" She asked gently.

"Yeah, it means you liked my old look too!" The blush on Naoto's cheeks was immediate and she couldn't meet his eyes. "I-I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just concerned about a sudden change was all!" But Kanji wasn't going to let her go that easily, "Nah cuz see, I know that you know that my hair is dyed so seeing me without my dye wouldn't be a cause for alarm at all right? Unless you were trying to tell me to change it without actually telling me to change it!"

His tone wasn't accusatory in the slightest, in fact he sounded more proud of himself for figuring it out than anything. "And you never said it actually looked good, that's the main thing." Naoto had to admit, he had definitely caught her and sighed aloud, not willing to drag this out any longer than it needed to be.

"W-well to be honest, I'm not sure how much is due to personal preference and how much is due to a sense of familiarity with your old style, or well new style I suppose since as you are now is your old style..." as always when she got nervous, she began to babble a little bit and Kanji's own blushing wasn't helping matters. "Never knew you liked how I looked before. I-is it because you like blond guys?" Naoto looked to her lap searching for some kind of answer, eyes shifting like two billiard balls on a pool table. "*Uh* w-well you know, I mean that is to say, I d-don't have a preference specifically for a hair color, I just think it adds...character. It makes you look...different. Please tell me that's a sufficient explanation!" Her nervous pleading eyes were enough for Kanji to drop it, he had no idea what Yu saw in getting his girl all flustered but he just didn't get quite the same enjoyment out of it.

"Yeah I'll probably change it back now, hopefully the teasing only lasts for a day. Least I won't look like some desk jockey anymore. Don't know what I was thinking" Naoto's chuckle made him tilt his head. "Kanji, wherever did you learn that term?" She heard that term probably a dozen times a week at the station so it was funny hearing someone with no connection to that part of her life use it. Especially someone with such a serious face like him.

"Dunno. And hey! You laughing means I do look like a desk jockey! You're supposed to say I look fine" His tone was accusing this time but he had a smile on his face to show it was all fine. She just shrugged with a smile of her own, "well imagine the scandal if a detective got caught lying

The second a lull in the conversation happened, the server seemingly materialized right next to them. Both teens had to hold back a scream but they managed; if it hadn't been broad daylight, they most likely would have failed at that. "My name is Mumon, I will be taking your order now." He flipped open a note pad and stood perfectly still while the other two looked nervously between each other.

"*Um* I'll take it black, the darkest roast you have please." Naoto was used to getting looks of surprise at how she liked her coffee and even some derision like she was just trying to "act" mature to fit in with the adults. But it was honestly just how she liked it. If the server had given her an eye roll or an expression of bewilderment, it would have just rolled off of her like water off a duck's back but instead he actually smirked. "You can't handle my darkest roast coffee, kid. I'll give you a lighter one."

"I-I beg your pardon!" But, the man paid her no mind leaving her to fume in her seat. "And for you?" he said to Kanji.

"Yeah could I get like a macchiato, I think is what it's called? I don't really drink coffee haha." Unlike Naoto, her boyfriend actually was glared at. "I thought I told you when you came in here I will not be making substandard coffee for anyone. You will get a cold brew."

"H-hey wait a minute are you crazy!? That's not what I ordered!" But he just closed his notepad and went behind the counter. "How the hell is this place still in business?" Kanji muttered under his breath. "Well, maybe we'll find out in the next few minutes. People are willing to put up with quite a bit for good coffee." Her statement seemed to awaken something in Kanji and he clenched his fist under the table, "that so huh? Good to know."

"Kanji you're not planning to learn how to make coffee just because you think it'll make me happy are you?" But with a surprising maturity, he shook his head. "Nah, it's because I know it'll make you happy and it sounds neat."

"Yeah! It could be like Yukiko and Yu-senpai's bentos they make for each other! This is a great idea!"

"Well hopefully it's not exactly like Yukiko-senpai's bento boxes." Naoto joked. Kanji laughed at the joke but honestly she'd been a good cook longer than she'd been a bad one at this point. But if she could go from making that god awful omelette to actually tasty food, then he could do the same thing for Naoto!

"Speaking of Yu-senpai, there was something I wanted to ask you about." Naoto perked up at this and bade the boy to continue. "Well...some of us were talking and we realized that we don't actually know that much about him. Did he...maybe tell you anything?" Before Naoto could respond, the boy raised his hands defensively. "I'm not trying to go behind his back or anything like that, I'm gonna ask him upfront, I'm just curious as all."

"Kanji, you're the last person I would ever accuse of gossiping. But to answer your question, the only thing he mentioned to me is that he didn't have a lot of friends when he was a child and he did a lot of studying. He was rather tight lipped thinking back on it..." It wasn't really something that she gave a lot of thought, but now that Kanji had brought it up, it was rather odd that they knew so little about such an important person in all of their lives. "Have they announced a day for the wedding yet?"

"Not that I've heard."

"I see, well regardless we'll find out more about him then. I don't mean to attempt to subject you to a first year psychology attempt, but Yu-senpai doesn't strike me as someone who finds himself very interesting. Perhaps the reason he hasn't shared much is because he doesn't think there's much to share." Kanji stroked his chin in thought, with the way senpai was so stone faced about many things it wasn't the most out there explanation. He'd have to grab senpai by the shoulders and tell him right to his face that he's a super interesting guy if that was the case!

Their coffee arrived with a nary a sound from the owner and they nervously sipped while he watched. "Goodness! This is quite strong!" Naoto's coffee was certainly quite well brewed but the man hadn't been lying about his mythical "darkest roast" if a lesser one was this intense. Kanji nervously sipped at his own drink before seemingly deciding it was okay; a little too bitter, but not undrinkable like a lot of coffee and tea he'd tasted had been. Seeing his customers satisfied, the man took his leave.

As much as Kanji wanted to speculate about his mysterious senpai's past, that would make for quite a lame date and he found himself searching for a conversation topic. Should he tell her she looked pretty? If he said it all the time would it "devalue" it? Certainly didn't seem to with his two senpai, but once again he was reminded that if he handled Naoto like Yu handled Yukiko, he'd probably find himself in handcuffs. Blushing at the thought, he frantically searched around the table for a starter. If he was a little calmer, he would notice his shy girlfriend doing the exact same thing.

"What do you-"
"Do you think-"

They ended up interrupting each other which was followed by some awkward stammering over each one trying to get the other to go first. Eventually, Kanji stepped on up to the plate at Naoto's insistence. Honestly, once they got going things were pretty smooth sailing if he said so himself, but there was still that initial awkwardness of actually getting things started. They both had to take a class on small talk but he wasn't about to bring that up now.

"Whatever happened with that case you were working on? The one with the fabric? Did that ever get solved." The girl seemed to perk up at that and adjusted higher in her seat. "I'm surprised you remembered. As a matter of fact, I just finished my part of the case today, I meant to thank you for your assistance. It would have taken much longer without your help."

"Well...glad I could help! So, what happened? You catch the murderer?" This brought a smug smirk to the detective's face as she sipped her coffee. "Oh Kanji, I think you might be watching too much daytime television. Very few of my cases are related to homicide at all."

"I *uh* don't actually watch that much TV. Ma says it's not good for my eyes. But I guess I just thought they didn't bring you on unless it was something the police couldn't solve that was a big deal." Naoto rolled her eyes at that comment, "someone doesn't have to die for a case to be important. In fact, this one was about the exploitation of foreign workers for your information! Quite important, maybe not quite so sensational but important nevertheless!" The girl coughed when she realized she'd been raising her voice. "I apologize *ahem* I suppose I'm just a little on edge today."

"Want to talk about it?" The girl was taken a bit aback by just how calm he was at having his statement taken the wrong way and getting yelled at. "Sorry," she said again.

"No it's okay, I kind of bungled what I was going to say. I was more thinking that I couldn't come up with anything involving fabrics that would be important enough to bring a detective on. Actually, you got me pretty interested." Seeing Kanji listening with rapt attention immediately perked her up.

"Well, the gist of it there was a man in central Tokyo allegedly exploiting foreign workers to pad his bottom line but they could never nail him on it, not that they ever cared to really. It was quite a depressing situation. But of course the thing with the greedy is that they can never just stop in the grey, they always have to go into the black...the poor working and living conditions and underpay of the workers soon turned into actual abuse that they kept silent about due to threats of blacklisting. Finally, a woman did step forward about his theft of a personal belonging, a shawl from her late husband but of course he adamantly denied it."

"Of course, this blew the lid on all the other shortcuts he was taking in production but most of the police force only wanted to give him a slap on the wrist, withdrawing his license to employ foreign workers for that and go on their way. A small group disagreed, and that's why I was called in. If we could catch him on something else, the rest of the force would have no choice but to arrest him for his horrible crimes against those people, even if it was just by proxy. It turned out he would filch things from his workers and sell them at nearby market places at a high price due to their exotic nature. It would have been quite a bit more difficult to track down the only stolen good we knew for a fact, but knowing its makeup made it quite a bit easier. I have you to thank for that, Kanji." It was all starting to come together, and the young man could almost feel his mind being blown open. That was why she'd been asking about traditional makeups for shawls and if he knew anything about fabric making traditions in Burma!

"It was an open and shut case, but everyone made things difficult every step of the way. The other police, the suspect of course, even the people who were ostensibly on my side. Second guessing me every step of the way even though they were the ones who asked for my help in the first place! One even tried to take the credit for the breakthrough today even though he'd been so adamant in his opposition." The bluenette breathed heavily through her nose and looked off to the side. "I'm being too negative, most really were helpful but..."

"One or two shitheads can sour the whole experience?" She raised her eyebrow but didn't berate him for his language. Instead smiling a bit and shaking her head. "I suppose you're right. The whole thing made me sick really but it would at least be more bearable if you didn't have people trying to turn suffering into personal gain, and then accusing me of doing the same when I speak out!"

"*Ahem* excuse me," she said with a somewhat embarrassed expression; everything that she'd been holding in for the past month had come tumbling out there towards the end, but Kanji just laughed a bit. But it was a warm laugh, not the passive aggressive "you're just a kid and I know better than you" that never failed to set her teeth on edge. "But you showed all those guys right? Just like you always do."

"Well yes...yes I suppose I did."

"Nuh-uh. There's no "suppose" about it, Naoto! I hope you rubbed it in their stupid faces and made them eat shit. Damn, this coffee isn't that bad actually! Matter of fact it has a pretty good after taste." While he sipped on his own coffee, the detective gave a smile of her own. Intellectually, he was a bit dimmer than those she'd been associating with for the past month, but as she was beginning to discover, the pluses far outweighed the minuses in Kanji's case. "There was one other thing I did this month." Immediately, Kanji put his coffee down and sat with rapt attention. "You helped clear the Shadow Operatives right?" Her joy was palpable that he had actually remembered and she nodded happily. "That is correct. It was quite a bit easier than I was expecting in all honesty. It seems that there is a bit of conflict between the higher ups in Public Safety and those below them like I surmised earlier..."

"Huh...why would they be so interested in sticking their necks out for the Shadow Operatives?" Naoto clicked her tongue. "Now that, I don't quite know. I would guess however that it's because they can respect someone who operates in the field despite their wealth and power...however I must stress that that's just an educated guess." Kanji once again listened eagerly to a lecture about the behind the scenes for his girlfriend's work. Never shy about admitting when something went over his head but at the same time, never allowing his eyes to gloss over and pretend to listen.

He knew he wasn't as smart as her and he was okay with that. When they talked about reading materials, he didn't try and posture and puff out his chest about it, regurgitating analysis he'd heard elsewhere or read online, he just gave his own opinion even if it was a simplistic one. There was no mistaken belief that plagued those with slightly above average intelligence where they believed they were far smarter than they really were, he knew he had a lot of studying to do if he wanted to run the family business someday, and he was quite okay with that. "Lately, it's been a lot easier to study now that I have something to work towards, you know? That probably sounds stupid because I've always had the shop to think about but I guess something was stopping me from thinking that all the way through. Like, now I actually can feel like it's my future and I want to work for it even though I didn't give a damn before." Naoto assured him it wasn't silly at all. "In fact, I believe Rise-chan feels quite similarly to yourself."

"Yukiko-senpai too." Kanji added which actually seemed to surprise the detective a bit. "Really? I've always thought she was a bit more like myself...first her relationship with Yu-senpai and now this, she's better at keeping secrets than I first thought *hmmhmm*" At a moment's notice, he was able to shift the conversation from himself to Naoto to any one of their friends to the town or whatever else they wanted to discuss, as he was not wrapped in himself and didn't prattle on and on about what he was doing. As a matter of fact, Naoto ended up feeling a bit guilty because she was the one who ended up doing that if anything.

But Kanji always assured her he was glad to hear about her work and she could talk as much as she wanted about it. "Detective stuff's interesting Naoto, usually more interesting than what I've been doing let's not beat around the bush here."

"Usually?" Naoto said with a bit of a smirk.

"Well yeah. It's not all shirts and robes, sometimes I get to do cool stuff. Like just two weeks ago, I got to make a carpet, haven't you ever wanted to make a carpet? It's harder than it looks but it's kind of fun too."

"I can't say that I have." At this point, the coffee was long gone but they were far too engrossed in their conversation to really notice. Surprisingly, it was quite easy for Naoto to lose herself in talking to her boyfriend and it was hard to remain the same measured reserved girl she was known for being when she got to gush about the new crime thriller she was reading. For all of Kanji's good points, the number one thing in Naoto's opinion was that he listened. He really and truly listened. Her opinions and views on things were something that he took to heart and remember weeks, months, maybe even years from now and just thinking about it caused her heart to flutter for the first time in awhile.

When he said that her description made him want to get into crime novels himself, she found herself brushing some hair behind her ear unconsciously, one arm resting on the table as she leaned forward a bit. And as the date went on, it got more and more difficult to remember to shift down the pitch of her laugh until it was a full on giggle. If that old couple was still there, they'd probably be giving "him" a couple of odd looks. Not that she cared in the slightest right now, she was a bit too busy listening to Kanji's tale of struggle about making a bunny "good enough" for Ai Ebihara's standards.

Naoto couldn't be completely sure if Mumon was staring at them or not, but either way they'd been there for a little longer than they needed to. "We should probably go if we're not going to order anything else. But this place was quite good, you said senpai recommended it to you."

"Yeah, don't know where he finds all these weird places though."

"Hey, old man!" Kanji shouted at the owner. The man didn't even glance his way. Naoto covered her face with her hat instinctively but Kanji pressed on. "Next time we come here, we're trying some of that 'forbidden coffee' of yours whether you like it or not! What do you think of that?" He said nothing, but Kanji could swear he saw him wearing the faintest of smiles.

"See, now I bet if I had my old new hairstyle instead of this new old one then he would have been way more impressed!" Kanji declared when they stepped outside. He was interrupted by a huffy Naoto crossing her arms and glaring at him. "Kanji! D-don't involve me in such things without asking first!"

"Ah come on Naoto, didn't it piss you off when he said you couldn't handle it? I know if he said that to me, I'd be seething pretty hard."

"W-well I didn't like it...but that's no reason to be making such loud declarations over nothing." Kanji sheepishly began to rub the back of his head, "sorry. But hey, it might be kind of fun! Like Rise's spicy food right? Lets you know how tough your taste buds are." Immediately, Naoto's mood seemed to improve and she let out a little chuckle. "I'm sure she didn't appreciate you asking for that purpose."

"Nah, she didn't mind that much. She used me like a test dummy for Yu-senpai and I thought it was a good way to build up my tongue strength."

"A useful skill to be sure." Kanji nodded his head before realizing that she might have meant that sarcastically. "Well you can laugh now, but we'll see who's laughing when we go for curry next time." His attempt at asking for another date was the most transparent thing she'd ever experienced in her life and his hopeful eyes made it even more obvious if that were even possible. "Yes, we will. But I have no intention of burning my mouth for no reason."

"Oh...well you know what, that's okay. I'm still going to do it though, don't think you can talk me out of it!"

"I wasn't planning to."

"Good because you can't!"

Once again, his transparency was obvious. He so desperately wanted to get out of it after his brain had caught up with his mouth but this time she wasn't going to let him unlike with the hair. Maybe this would teach him a little lesson about cashing checks he couldn't keep. "I'll be sure to order the hottest they carry, Kanji." She smirked at the nervous sweat drop that appeared, and giggled to herself. So transparent, so...uncomplicated. So kindhearted.

"Sorry again about taking so long to be available!" The apology had just come out of her lips while staring into those gray eyes of his. The boy blushed hotly and looked off to the side before turning back to her with a smile. "Don't worry about it. You had to help that lady right?"

"B-but-"

"Hey! If I ever have a problem, I'll just come out and say it alright? You shouldn't spend time worrying about something that isn't there, got that? I know I'm not the most patient guy, but ma taught me to wait my turn. So don't beat yourself up so much about it." The girl shut her mouth immediately, kind of shocked that her rather goofy and friendly boyfriend could so firmly shut down any self conscious objections she might have had. Adjusting her cap atop her head, the girl then nodded firmly to the boy. "Very well, I hope I can look forward to that same honesty as we move forward." Even her serious demeanor couldn't hide the blush on her face, but still she couldn't help smiling just a little. When she turned to Kanji, he was blushing even brighter than he was but before either of them knew what he was doing, his hand lunged out and took hers.

"K-k-kanji!"

"I-if we're being honest, I want to hold hands with you when we walk Naoto!" He wasn't trying to embarrass her, but his overwhelming desire to hold his girlfriend's smooth delicate hand overpowered all else.

"If..." he waited with bated breath before feeling his chest relax when her own hand wrapped around his. "If you wish then I could..."

She never finished that sentence but she also never let go of his hand. For a minute, they just stood stock still blushing brightly holding hands in front of the cafe until they realized they were blocking the way of passerby. Then, they began to walk. Little by little they started to moving forward hand in hand. First scarcely more than a shuffle, until it morphed into a leisurely stroll. The stiffness of their shoulders and the tightness of their faces relaxed with every increase in their walking speed and eventually they ended up looking like a couple who had been together for months.

"I can't believe this, I'm truly actually holding hands with a boy! In public! I hope for Kanji's sake no reporters are on the prowl..." but those concerns fell by the wayside and the girl allowed herself to relax. So much so that it took her a moment to realize they were going the opposite way from the station. "*Er* Kanji, did you perhaps get turned around?" Was her boyfriend's mental state so flustered that his brain had been fried? It was actually somewhat exciting to think about such a prospect.

"No," he said firmly. "It's just...you were talking about feeling stressed out and I saw this place across the street so I figured, why not give it a try?" Naoto looked up to see it was a place she never thought she'd step foot into. A batting cage. "Oh no no no, I appreciate the offer Kanji but I'm really feeling much better."

"You sure? Whenever I'd get really pissed off, I'd go out into the park and smash the hell out of some baseballs. It really works, trust me!" Naoto hesitated for a moment before answering, that did sound quite tempting as she did still have a little bit of anger inside she wanted to work out but just picturing herself missing every swing had her blushing like a madwoman. "I-I don't think it will be a good idea. I've never held a bat before in my life."

"Yeah but you've seen baseball, anyone can do it. Specially you."

"I-I'm still not quite sure I should..."

"Come on, just do it. You'll feel better even just swinging the bat around." The extra moment of hesitation was all it took for Kanji to start moving forward with Naoto somewhat reluctantly following behind. She could at least give it a try; she wasn't about to let Kanji's faith in her abilities go to complete waste after all.

"One near the end please," Kanji requested. Naoto appreciated the gesture but it did little to help with just how out of place she felt here. The girl rubbed at her upper arms a bit nervously and followed behind the tall boy. Seeing how nervous she looked, he stretched his own shoulders and removed his school jacket, leaving his muscular arms on display. "Here, I'll go first just to show you how easy it is." The boy took his stance with the bat gently swaying by his head, muscles tensed and jaw firm. When the first ball came out, he smashed the thing so hard, Naoto swore the thing would have exploded into little pieces. It was quite impressive honestly, her man had quite a lot of power behind him.

He wasn't quite so lucky for the next two and as far as Naoto could tell, that seemed to be the statistical pattern for his batting performance, although she wasn't sure if a one in three average was good or bad. Honestly though, it was a little hard to focus when her mind kept telling her to focus on just how good her looked. Minus the hair obviously. Part of her wondered if he was just showing off, but she quickly realized Kanji would be way too shy to do something like that. It was just her own heated thoughts that were to blame.

"*Whew* your turn!" He said with a wipe of his forehead after some odd minutes. "I'll lower the speed a bit for you so you can get a handle on things." When he handed the bat to her, she almost toppled forward, having a bit of trouble standing upright. "Oh and a new bat."

After getting her properly situated, Naoto still wasn't quite comfortable with the whole thing. She tried her best to imitate her boyfriend's form, but when the first ball came flying, she instinctively shut her eyes and actually threw the bat behind her into the net. Turning to see Kanji watching her with his arms crossed, "don't look at me, there's another one coming your way!" Quickly she scrambled for the bat, but she wasn't able to get it in time.for the next ball.

Kanji didn't want a repeat of last time where he'd gotten up close to correct her form only for them to wind up in a heap on the ground. Well...actually he didn't not want that either necessarily but...

The boy shook his head to get himself back on track. "Look, just swing into it with your hips. Don't use your arms. Square yourself up like I was just doing. And just remember, no one cares if you suck, it's just practice right?" That last comment nettled the detective a bit, but after she missed yet another ball, she found herself seeing the wisdom in it. What was she so worried about embarrassing herself? The only other people here were athletes or teenagers trying to win the prize at the entrance. People far too focused to spectate her abysmal performance.

"Even if they did drop everything to mock me, who would be the 'loser' then. It would be them."

*Crack*

"Hey, nice job! You got it!" Naoto blinked in surprise at Kanji's shout. She had indeed 'got it' although her bewilderment at actually doing it successfully prevented her from hitting the next one. Kanji continued to feed her advice from his position and while some of it was filled with exasperation at her complete lack of athletic ability, it wasn't malicious. Besides, she was just as guilty of getting a bit short when tutoring him in school subjects, perhaps this was just payback?

Although payback didn't usually have the recipient asking to go another round.

"Look, I know you're supposed to be a wiz kid, but I've been on this force for ten years and what you're asking for is a complete waste of time. It's a little something called priorities that you learn with experience."

*Crack*

Naoto wore a little smile on her face as some lingering resentment flew away with that ball.

"Listen sweetheart, I'm not going on some wild goose chase just so you can feel useful. It's too late to do anything anyway."

This time she swung and missed but Kanji had been absolutely right, just swinging it felt quite cathartic.

"You know that detective, Shirogane, just between you and me she has some nice lips. Shame about the chest situation." Just dredging up that memory made her too embarrassed to even keep her eyes open as she swung, but after it was over, the embarrassment diminished somewhat and she felt a little better. By the end, she was a damp heavy breathing mess whose arms ached terribly while her boyfriend seemed barely phased at all.

"You okay?"

"Y-yes *puff* I actually feel quite...quite good actually. There are certainly worse ways of letting out steam although I think *huff* I'll always prefer a good book. Thank you for persuading me...I had fun today." As if on cue, her phone alarm buzzed to show that her brief window was up and she looked to Kanji sadly. "I'm afraid our time today has to come to an end." Just looking outside, one could see the shadows beginning to stretch and the sun falling low in the sky, and honestly, Naoto's current residence was quite a ways away. "I'm sorry to always be the one to cut our dates short."

"Naoto, what did I just tell you before we came in here!?" The girl had to laugh at his genuine annoyance with her in that moment. "You're right, the batting must have taken more out of me than I first thought. But I can't leave quite yet, you did plan all this out for me after all." And she reached out a hand to cup Kanji's cheek, leaning forward for a closed eye kiss.

The kiss lasted long enough to give their two senpai a run for their money, and when they broke apart, Kanji placed a finger on her lower lip, giving it a little affectionate brush as it made its way towards her upper arm, her own hand firmly clasped on his shoulder. "Till next time," she eventually whispered out, making her way to the exit with a gentle purposeful slow walk.

"Oh crap wait!" Kanji cried, kind of taking the romance out of the exit. "I made you something." Naoto turned to see a box of some sort in his eagerly outstretched hands as he looked back and forth between his girl and the gift. Lifting the lid, she saw it was a chocolate cake of some kind, it had a large hold in the center and looked quite delectable. "Kanji...did you make this...for me?"

"Well it was Ai's idea, and of course I always see how happy Yukiko-senpai is at lunch so I was thinking maybe I could do something like that! And I'm pretty good at making sweets so I thought I'd whip up a cake!" Hearing that he was good at it did admittedly make the girl's mouth water a bit. It looked good, really really rich and packed with flavor. "How...how much time did you spend on this?"

"Three hours. But don't worry about it, I wouldn't have made it if I didn't want to make it, so just enjoy it." Naoto contemplated his words for a moment before getting a blush on her face and beckoning him to come closer. As soon as his face got within range, she gave his lips another quick peck and muttered a quick "thank you for the gift" in her wake as she ran out of the building. Kanji stood bewildered before laughing aloud. "Well guess that went over well. Course that means I should probably make something for next time. I'm thinking a pie..."

Meanwhile Naoto stood with her back against the wall and her cake in her arms, smirking stupidly to herself. She couldn't believe she had just done something that sappy but it had felt so right in the moment!

Something in her just wouldn't let her leave without letting her boyfriend know she appreciated him and was absolutely flattered about all the stuff he was doing for her. Her day had just done a complete 180 and now she found smiles coming unbidden on her way home to her apartment. She wasn't about to start putting her hand in her head and sighing while plucking petals off of a flower, but she certainly wasn't going to be thinking of the people at the station when she nodded off to sleep that night.

She got started on the cake right away, eagerly cutting herself a rather large slice while doing her homework and final case summary for the textile incident. Hours later though, she began to nod off and not just because of the late hour.

"*Urp* *ooogh* compliments to the chef indeed. That was...that was quite good. I'll have to tell Kanji next time we meet." She gave her belly a small pat and slowly stood up to put the rest of the cake in her fridge. Her tongue ran around the outside of her mouth to catch any residue frosting that she missed and she was grateful to start loosening her belt for sleep. "*Yawn* it was very filling. This whole day was filling really, he really is quite kind...to build me up like he does." It was only their third date and already she was feeling faint flutters in her chest whenever she would think about him and what their next date would hold. It would flutter when she'd think about his compliments, and when she'd recall his sheer excitement when he discussed Chagall over the phone.

Of course, the womanly part of her couldn't help itself either. When he touched her lips like that...just thinking about it made her breath hitch a bit and those strong sinewy muscles. As she removed her shirt, she took a look at her bindings.

"...we did promise to be honest with each other. And with ourselves as well." As the last layer of wrappings disappeared, her breasts stretched out to their full size and she let out her usual sigh of relief

Absentmindedly, her hands stroked the tops of her chest as she let her gaze fall on to them, along with her feminine hip shape and the simple pair of white panties that covered her private area. "I want someone to love me for who I am, so maybe it's time to let who I am be seen. And loved." With a hot blush on her face, and a belly full of her boyfriend's lovingly prepared cake, the detective fell into a peaceful slumber imagining just what the future could hold.

Waking up in the morning with some quite sore breasts, the first thing the future would have to hold would be a bra.