Shizuo had been having a hard time concentrating for weeks. He knew how to do his job, and no matter how much he hated violence, he was grateful when the opportunity arose for him to release some of his tension. He just felt like he needed to be closer to his husband. He needed to be there in case anything happened. He knew that it was his Alpha hormones clouding his brain and making him feel as though he needed to protect his mate and their unborn child – but that didn't stop him from worrying.

"Hey man, are you sure you're okay?" Tom asked as he put his hand on Shizuo's shoulder.

"Yeah," Shizuo pretty much grunted back.

"He's going to be fine, you know that right?" Tom asked as they started to walk again. "He's a fighter – which you know better than any of us do."

Shizuo laughed at that. He and his husband had spent their first ten years trying to kill each other – then they almost succeeded. Shizuo still got choked up on the thought five years later. The thought that he had almost killed the one person he loves the most – and the thought that the life that they live now may never have happened.

"But last time," Shizuo started.

"Last time was a special case," Tom assured Shizuo as they made their way towards Russia Sushi. "And besides, this time you are taking extra precautions."

Shizuo sighed at that, yes, this time they were taking extra precautions. Izaya was staying with Shinra and Celty for the last two months of his pregnancy so that Shinra could keep an eye on the Omega's health, and Celty could be there for protection in case anything happened. Last time Shizuo had let it go to his head – he had thought that he would be enough to keep Izaya safe – but he wasn't.

Last time, while Shizuo had been at work, Izaya had been attacked. Both Izaya and the child had survived, but Izaya had taken quite some time to recover. It had taken two years before both had been brave enough to try for another – Shizuo had taken longer to agree to it. Shinra had told them that due to last time, there may be complications and that he would need to keep a closer eye on Izaya near the end.

It had been Kururi and Mairu's idea for Izaya to stay in Ikebukuro for his last two months. There they could be closer to him, and he wouldn't have to travel as far to see Shinra for check ups. That had extended directly into staying with the doctor and his wife for them to be able to keep a constant eye on his state. It was killing Shizuo though.

Shizuo hated not having his husband in bed next to him at night. He hated the fact that he couldn't be there to protect his husband if anything were to happen – which it was more likely to happen in Ikebukuro than anywhere else. That killed Shizuo the most. Even though the gang wars had settled down in the past five years – that didn't mean that the info-broker didn't have any less enemies.

They walked into Russia Sushi and sat down at the bar. Simon was there to serve them in a matter of seconds.

"How are you?" Simon asked, concern clear in his voice.

"Fine," Shizuo practically growled.

"And how is Kazuko?" Simon asked next, referring to Shizuo's first born.

"She is loving all of the attention that her aunts are giving her," Shizuo smiled in fondness for his little one. She had just turned three and was staying with Izaya's sisters while Izaya was away because Shizuo worked so often.

"You smell terrible," Denis stated as he walked up to Shizuo with a drink in hand.

"So that's why people keep asking if I'm okay," Shizuo sighed. He had guessed that he was releasing stress pheromones because of how attentive people had been towards him that day, but Denis' comment only clarified the suspicion.

"How is he?" Denis asked.

Shizuo only shrugged in response. He hadn't had time to drop in and see his husband in over a week because he was trying to keep himself busy. The empty house drove him crazy, and if he couldn't protect his Omega and baby, he could at least fulfill the Alpha role of being a provider.

"You need to see him," Simon said as he moved to start preparing their food. "he's probably going crazy without you."

Shizuo snorted in response, that was an understatement. Izaya had just started to nest before he had to leave. It was natural for pregnant Omega's to nest before the baby was born – and Shizuo knew that there was nothing in Shinra's apartment that Izaya would want to nest with. So, on top of being bored out of his mind, Izaya's instincts would be going wild as well.

"I know," Shizuo finally spoke.

"But...?" Simon prodded.

"I'm scared I won't be able to leave his side again," Shizuo admitted as he stared into his drink.

"So, don't. Simple problem, simple solution," Simon sang as he placed a take-out dish in front of the bottle blond.

Shizuo doesn't even need to open the package to know that it only has fatty tuna in it. It's his omega's favourite. He sighs and stands up, tucking the package under his arm. He's determined to go and see his mate before he chickens out again.

…

By the time that Shizuo is three blocks away from Shinra's apartment Shizuo can smell Izaya so clearly that he's sure that he can pick out the exact room in the apartment that Izaya is standing in – the kitchen.

They never bonded – they had never needed to. Now that they had been apart for over a week, Shizuo was wishing that they had. He missed his mate, and he wished that he could feel him at night, have his scent around him whenever he needed it, and to be able to know exactly how he feels. Shizuo's feet carried him to where the scent was coming from faster than he even realized. By the time he ripped Shinra's door off its hinges, he was panting for breath and could barely even remember the rest of the walk there.

"Well isn't it nice of you to barge in?" Izaya teased from his spot in the kitchen. "Miss me that much?"

Shizuo dropped the door immediately and ignored his aching lungs in favour of going directly up to his mate. Shizuo pretty much pinned Izaya to the counter and buried his face in the side of his Omega's neck. He smelled like vanilla and mangoes and pudding – and Izaya.

"You actually missed me, Shizu-chan?" Izaya asked, still standing ridged in Shizuo's embrace.

"Of course," Shizuo stated, not bothering to loosen his grip on his Omega.

Izaya started to cry in Shizuo's arms. He mumbled incoherent curses at his hormones, but Shizuo knew that there was more to it. Shizuo knew that Izaya had abandonment issues and cursed himself for allowing his own anxiety to make him loose focus on his mate.

"I'm sorry," Shizuo mumbled, face still pressed firmly into Izaya's sent gland. "I should have come sooner."

"Yeah, no shit," Izaya murmured.

Shizuo only hugged his mate closer and rubbed his back through the tears. They stood like that in the kitchen for some time, not caring how long they were there, because Shizuo was there, and he had his Omega back in his arms.

They were finally interrupted by a tap on Shizuo's shoulder.

"What?" Shizuo barked, upset at his moment being broken.

When he turned, Celty's PDA was in his face immediately.

"The cookies," it read.

Shizuo looked at the stove, and suddenly became aware of his surroundings. There was smoke emitting from the stove, and at least two alarms were going off – loud and out of sync. One had to be the smoke detector, and the other was probably the timer that Izaya had set for his cookies. He cursed himself yet again as he reached into the stove without gloves and took the charcoal bricks that had been intended to be cookies out of the oven. He dropped them on top of the stove before storming over to the smoke detector and smashing it.

"I'm sorry," Shizuo mumbled as he looked down at the device that lay broken at his feet. "I'll buy you a new one."

When he looked back up from the broken smoke detector on the ground, the first thing that he noticed was that Izaya was wearing Shinra's frilly pink apron. It had been intended as a gift for Celty, but everyone knew that Shinra was the domestic one in the house. It hung tightly to Izaya's obvious baby bump and made the man look softer. Shizuo couldn't help but stare at his beautiful husband.

"You like what you see?" Izaya teased as he started walking towards Shizuo. The Omega's voice was mocking, but the blush that covered his face gave away the fact that he was embarrassed by the attention. When Izaya got close enough, he cocked his eyebrow in curiosity. "What's that?"

Shizuo looked at the spot on the floor where Izaya was looking and immediately mentally deadpanned.

"Fatty tuna," Shizuo stated as he bent down to pick it up.

The rest of the night was restful. They stayed cuddled in Izaya's room until around eleven o'clock at night. Shizuo was starting to get tired, and he knew that he needed to be up early for work the next day. When he stood up to leave though, Izaya grabbed his shirt sleeve.

"What?" Shizuo asked, half expecting Izaya to ask him to stay.

"Can I keep it?" Izaya asked.

"Keep what?" Shizuo asked, genuinely confused.

Izaya tugged at Shizuo's shirt in response.

Shizuo could have slapped himself – of course Izaya would want some of his clothes, he was nesting. He quickly unbuttoned his vest and then his shirt, handing the shirt to Izaya. Izaya took the shirt and grabbed after the vest too.

"I can't go home on the train shirtless," Shizuo tried to explain.

He watched as Izaya's eyes started to grow impossibly big and knew that he was doomed. He later found himself riding the train home with one of Shinra's towels around his waist and grumbling about how he promised to bring the laundry basket for him the next day.

…

Two weeks later Shizuo was on the job, and in a much better mood. He had been visiting Izaya every night after work and was starting to be able to smell their child on Izaya already. They had been putting off baby names until they knew the gender, but from the baby's smell they could tell that they were probably going to be having another baby girl.

She wasn't due for another six weeks, which made Shizuo happy because that gave them plenty of time to get her room ready and to pick out a name. Everything was going as smoothly as it had been, Shizuo was sure that nothing was going to change.

He spent that weekend walking from baby store to baby store with a frantic Izaya on face time picking out the correct baby furniture and the correct colours for the room. They were hoping that they could reuse most of Kazuko's baby clothes, especially because they kept her pretty gender neutral until she could say that her favourite colour was pink.

Then it hit.

She still wasn't due for almost a month when Shizuo got the call. He was in the middle of dealing with a tough client and hadn't noticed his phone ringing. The client was just handing over a part of his payment when Shizuo felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Shizuo…" Tom sounded hesitant as he looked up at the half raging Alpha.

"What?" Shizuo barked back.

"He's going into labour," Tom stated as he handed Shizuo his own phone.

Emotions started to flash through Shizuo's face. Anger, fear, happiness, horror, anxiety, stress, and back to anger.

"What the fuck happened?" Shizuo barked into the phone.

"The heartbeat was getting weak," Shinra started to explain.

"Why?" Shizuo demanded.

"We don't know," Shinra said in the most calming voice that he could muster. "We did everything that we could, but we ended up having to induce the labour to save them."

"Fuck," Shizuo hissed as he slammed his fist with the phone into the wall.

He didn't waste another second as he took off running towards Shinra's apartment. This wasn't supposed to be happening, everything had been running so smoothly. He cursed himself for not being there when everything started, even though he knew that there was nothing that he could have done. But this time was supposed to be different.

Celty appeared next to him on the road. She tossed him a helmet and motioned for him to join her on Shooter. He was grateful that she understood that he didn't want to talk. All he wanted was to be next to his mate and to see that everything was going to be okay.

They arrived within minutes and Shizuo stormed up the stairs. He entered the apartment quickly and bolted down the hall to Shinra's medical room where he could smell Izaya's stress pheromones coming from. He took his place next to Izaya and grabbed his hand.

"You have to stop doing this to me flea," Shizuo huffed as he tried to calm himself down enough to release some calming alpha pheromones.

"To you?" Izaya demanded as he did his best to crush Shizuo's hand. "I am never doing this shit again."

Shizuo grinned, at least his mate was the same as always. He swore the same thing when he was with Kazuko.

It took three more hours. Three hours of Izaya screaming and cursing. Three hours of Shizuo doing his best to ease Izaya's pain. Three hours of Izaya saying things that he didn't mean. And at the end of it, they got to hold their beautiful baby girl.

"Okay, Shizuo, I think you should let him have some rest," Shinra instructed as he watched Izaya fighting to stay awake. Fighting to look strong for his husband.

Shizuo simply shook his head and crawled into the bed next to Izaya. He wrapped his arms around Izaya and let out one last burst of calming pheromones. With Izaya settled safely in his lap and finally breathing evenly, Shizuo closed his eyes.

This time was different.

This time they were together.

This time he was able to hold Izaya and make him feel safe. There weren't tubes and barriers between them.

This time he wasn't scared to sleep in case one of them died on him.

This time… This time was a victory.

"Hey, Izaya-kun?" Shizuo whispered to his mate.

"What is it?" Izaya asked, even though it was barely a mumble.

"I think I know what I want to name her," Shizuo stated as he petted his husband's hair.

"What?" Izaya asked.

"I think we should name her Katsu," Shizuo stated as he planted a kiss on the top of Izaya's head.

"I like that," Izaya breathed. He hummed again in agreement before he fell asleep, safe in his mate's strong arms.

Shizuo looked at the sleeping bundle next to them and smiled.

"I love you, my little victorious one," Shizuo hummed as he pulled his lover close.

This was my Valentine's present for ma belle amie.