one.

The water in the shower had originally been turned on because she'd intended on getting in to clear her head, but Kaede had found herself getting distracted by the thing on her mind and had forgotten almost entirely about why she'd originally entered the bathroom. The lingering tiredness in her body from having just woken up was mixing with the unusual tiredness she'd been feeling over the past couple of days, and when she'd decided she was going to shower she had done it under the impression that it was going to keep her from dwelling too much on what the problem might have been.

To be honest, she didn't think it was much of a problem at all, given that starting a family was something that she and Shuichi had talked about at great length and had decided that was in the cards for them at some point in the near future. But the key words were at some point in the near future, and that didn't mean so soon after they'd made their decision. She'd thought she'd have a while longer to kick back and enjoy the life they'd built for themselves before she had to account for anyone else in the picture. Even still, she knew that something wasn't right with herself and she needed to put those thoughts to rest one way or the other.

It was a miracle that this happened after they'd talked about their plans, because when she'd begun to suspect that she might be pregnant it was a lot easier to bring home a bag full of tests than it would have been had they not agreed that they wanted children. At least if Shuichi had found that bag, she could have attempted to lie to him and say that it was whenever something happened in the future, not for her to use that very week. That was another nice thing about leaving the water running, she was able to rustle around in the bathroom with him on the other side of the wall and he wouldn't know a thing about it. Of course, if she spent all that time with the water on and left completely dry, her cover would be blown without any room to defend herself, so she was going to have to decide what she was going to do and then actually shower.

But like every morning since she'd gone to the store, she was hesitating on finding the answer she was looking for. Right now, she was unaware if anything really was trying to live inside her or not, and if she did find out and there was, her whole outlook on life was going to change right then and there. She wouldn't be able to play it off as if it was no big deal—yes, they wanted this, but so many things would have to change if she was actually pregnant, and some of those things were scary to consider. This was all super stressful and draining her already-tired mind of precious energy, so she decided that the next day would be when she'd find out either way, and she'd remain in her ignorant state.

The issue with that plan was that Shuichi knew everything about Kaede almost as well as he knew everything about himself, and he'd picked up on her unexplained tiredness as quickly as she had. He was aware of the bag of pregnancy tests hiding between the towels under their sink, and he knew that she was grappling with the possibility that they'd created a small, tender life that they'd have to protect and provide for; however, even though he knew this, he didn't want to tell her and make it obvious that he was just as aware of what might have been going on as she was.

At the same time, keeping her on her toes right as she thought she had something hidden from him could have been a fun time, and so Shuichi had a decision to make as well. He could either let her unravel her mystery for herself and inform him after, or he could poke at her until she felt obligated to solving things right then. Laying in the bed with his phone right next to him, he opened it to the calendar and made his choice based on what day it was. Three days before his birthday, that meant that it was entirely possible that she'd keep this as a birthday surprise for him, and while he knew he could wait three days to hear one way or the other, he wasn't sold on the idea of her being able to keep a secret that long.

She was coming to the same conclusion, knowing that if she found out then, she'd want to burst out of the bathroom and tell him right away, but there was not really much benefit in waiting other than being able to use it as a surprise if she got positive results. "Why does this have to be so difficult?" she asked herself, one foot in the shower and the other one still on dry ground. "I'm sure that anyone else would know what to do right away, but I just…don't know what I want to do!"

Her original decision was the one she ultimately went with, and so the day went on as if nothing was wrong with her, and as if he didn't know she was hiding something. Keeping up appearances was great when it was something they were only doing with each other, because the other was never as judgmental as the people they had to deal with in their professional lives. The music world was quick to judge about anything Kaede did that wasn't smile and be polite, and taking an attitude with anyone and being labeled as difficult in the investigation field was never something that Shuichi wanted to face. They were great with pretending everything was okay even if it wasn't, and in this situation that was the best way to approach one another.

The next morning came with the same struggle that the previous one had for Kaede, though, as she still felt like she was dwelling on something unnecessary and that maybe there was another explanation for her body's sudden state of being drained. But when her phone lit up with a reminder that it was the day her cycle should have started, something she'd been dutifully been tracking since before she and Shuichi had ever once slept together, it felt almost like a betrayal that she could possibly be missing that mark for the first time in her life. A voice in her head reminded her that usually, for most women, the biggest sign of knowing they were pregnant was a missed period, but it was completely possible that she was just rushing things and that she'd be starting that afternoon or evening, and that was assurance enough to push past checking for herself once more.

Again, it was a day of pretending like nothing could potentially be amiss, and as the day went on that voice in her head was telling her to keep her cool, that everything was still okay, that there was no reason to jump to such large conclusions. Shuichi, on the other hand, was aware of what day it was (again, she'd been tracking that for so long that it was a monthly routine he knew far too well), and was noticing that she was acting exactly as she had the day before, and the one before that, and so on. As badly as he wanted to call attention to her rather normal behavior he didn't want to let her in on the fact that he was suspecting exactly what she was. This was the one time in his life where giving in to those detective urges could ruin things for what they were, and he needed to resist until she was ready to tell him for herself.

It all came to reality the next morning when Kaede, determined to stop putting things off because now there was no hope for any other outcome in her mind, locked herself in the bathroom once more. The shower water was running, her cover-up for what she was really doing in there foolproof as always, and she had taken the bag out from where she'd hidden it between the towels, picking out two of the tests and setting them on the counter before hiding the bag once more. After reading the directions and steeling herself for what she was going to have to do, she set forth to get the answer she knew deep down was the one she was looking for. It worked out for her, as she was able to jump in and take a quick shower to make her extended stay in the bathroom look natural while the tests did their thing, and she was able to see the results once she was standing there with a towel wrapped around her body, looking over the two sticks with baited breath.

As if there was any other possibility, both of them were showing strong positives, and she exhaled slowly, quietly, trying to keep any emotional outburst at bay to prevent any suspicion. She'd known this to be true for days but now she had the proof for it, and now she had to save this to tell it to Shuichi in the best way she possibly could. There were so many choices for how she'd break the news to him that she almost distracted herself with that thought, but she couldn't let herself get too wrapped up on how the news delivery would go when she needed to hide the evidence before he found it. Simply tossing it in the trash wasn't the best option, but hiding the tests and their boxes at the bottom of the open-top can with a couple of wrappers obscuring them was what she chose to do. No one in their right mind was going to search the trash for evidence, not when he didn't have much of a reason to suspect anything was in there in the first place.

This was, without a doubt, ignoring the fact that Shuichi was already leaning towards the certainty of her being pregnant without her saying a thing to him, but she'd had so much on her mind as it was that her ignoring him picking up on little hints made sense. She had been correct that he wasn't going to dig through the trash to see what she was hiding, but he took notice of the carefully-laid wrappers on top of the boxes he could somewhat see, knowing that there were far too many wrappers there for the ruse to be convincing. That was the final push for making him come to his conclusion, and yet he didn't want to say a word about it to her. This was Kaede's news to announce, he wasn't going to ruin her moment by trying to pry it from her because he'd solved things already.

True to what he'd figured when he was originally looking at the calendar, she waited until the following day, his birthday, to tell him what was going on. The decision to do that might have been less because of what day it was and more because she couldn't keep the secret to herself too long without spoiling it accidentally, or perhaps it was because she was fearful she'd be offered a celebratory drink as they were sitting around at home and have to turn it down without explanation, but she spent most of the day while she was home alone sitting at her piano, thinking about how she was going to tell him.

He was barely inside the front door after work that day when she was there in front of him, her hands clasped excitedly in front of her chest. "You look like you have something to say to me," he remarked, hoping that she took that as him making a comment about what day it was, not that he was positive he knew what she was going to tell him.

"You might be right about that," she replied, her eyes closing slightly due to how big she was grinning at him. There was a moment's pause as she thought first about how everything was about to be different, then second about her line delivery one last time before choosing to go for it anyway: "Happy birthday, you're going to be a dad."

two.

Life wasn't going to change overnight for them, nor was it going to be changing anytime soon, but the pressure was there that things did need to start changing now that they both knew what was going on. It was far too early to let anyone outside of their marriage know that they were expecting, but it was almost as hard to keep it secret from their friends as it had been to keep it secret from each other. Once she knew she had her husband's support, Kaede made it a point to schedule appointments so that he could be there alongside her for every step of their journey, aside from the first one that she felt rather rushed into planning in order to get the rest set up, at the insistence of the clinic she'd found. That first appointment didn't seem like anything important, and it was just to go in and get a proper blood test done to make absolute sure that they weren't jumping to any false conclusions.

That allowed for her to have a second, more thought-out announcement after she got those results back, because being able to show him a paper that said, without a doubt, that she was pregnant seemed to be more impactful than a two-in-one statement like she'd given him the first time. "So this is what you went and did today?" Shuichi asked as he was handed the paper, the writing on it barely legible but acceptable because the information was all stuff he knew. "I wasn't aware you were going anywhere, why didn't you tell me?"

"It was done in such a rush that I didn't think you'd mind missing out on it. Nothing exciting happened, except…" Her fingers fidgeting as she thought of how to tell him what this had allowed for her to do, Kaede glanced at the paper for a moment before looking up to Shuichi's eyes, hoping he'd meet hers as she spoke. "I have a day that you need to make sure you don't have to work on. You have to be there the first time we see the little one, don't you think?"

Something deep inside of Shuichi's core began to flutter at that idea, and it took him a moment to recognize it as being a feeling of excitement that came with this whole parenting thing. "Yes, of course, what kind of person would I be to not want to be there? Just tell me when and I'll have my schedule cleared, I promise."

It was when he did as she'd hoped and looked up at her, locking eyes with her as she seemed to grow only more excited to share what news she had. The date wasn't anything special, but it was a few weeks away, which meant that until then (at least) they couldn't say a word of what was going on in their lives. "I know it feels really far off, but we have to go back at eight weeks and that should…be about eight weeks," she said, her fingers now moving to fidgeting with a loose strand of bangs that hung in her face. "Don't worry, I was confused about how that works at first, but the staff at the clinic made sure to explain it."

"That was nice of them," he replied, trying not to fall into the trap of watching her hands play with her hair while he was trying to admire her shining pink eyes. "I already knew about how you determine that sort of thing, working some of the cases I have taught me a thing or two about hiding pregnancies and all that."

Her eyes immediately dimmed as she realized what he'd said meant for her big surprise before, but she wasn't going to let him know she was a bit bummed he'd most likely figured it out before she'd told him. "You could have taught me so I knew walking in there what to expect them to say! I thought they'd count weeks from when we, you know, made the baby, not some weird amount of time before that!"

"I didn't think it would be relevant, sorry." Shuichi knew that apologizing for not telling her something wasn't necessary, as he really hadn't had a clue she'd need to know that specific information, or even that she was going to talk to a doctor in the first place. "But now you know for when someone else needs it explained to them, and I'm sure you'll have to do that explaining a lot in the coming months."

It was right then that it hit them both that this was something they were going to have to tell their friends about, and field any and all questions about when they did. Suddenly, those few weeks between then and the eight-week appointment felt a lot shorter than they really were, because after that day, they'd be able to have proof of the child they'd made to show off to their friends. Their eyes were still locked with each other, and from their held gaze it was clear that neither of them were exactly looking forward to have to admit to what they'd done to everyone they knew, whether it be because of how many times they'd have to say it or because they knew what kinds of jokes and comments would be coming.

Right now, they needed to take things one step at a time. Life hadn't completely changed for them yet, although that change was coming faster than they'd expect, and they needed to savor all the time they had where things were the same before it went wildly off the rails.

three.

Getting through those next few weeks was relatively easy, the only struggle that they faced being that suddenly out of nowhere during that second week, Kaede went from just being tired all the time to being tired and spontaneously sick whenever she felt like it. It became a miracle for her to make it halfway through the day without feeling so miserable that she needed to go lay in bed, on the couch, or on the bathroom floor, but if she could power through those bouts of illness to maintain her rigorous piano practice schedule, then Shuichi could manage to get through his day without worrying too much about how his dearest wife was doing. She was strong, and he respected that, but even with recognizing her strength it was hard to push all worries from his mind and go on with his day.

On the day of the fateful appointment, he woke up like usual and found that she was already out of bed, something strange given how she'd really enjoyed her lounging around time as of late. He hurried to get himself up and ready for the day, in case he found he needed to go somewhere for Kaede's sake, and then set off searching their small house for wherever she had gotten off to. Thankfully, it took as little as opening the bedroom door to find her, because she was standing right outside, her phone in her hand and already dressed like she was about to leave. "Kaede, what are you doing?" he asked, surprised to see her right there as she was. "Is everything okay? Do we need to—"

"Yes, everything's fine! I just, uh, couldn't stop thinking about doing something to mark how important today is," she said, pulling her phone closer to herself. "I figured that you'd find what I'm doing is kind of silly so I didn't want to ask you to help me, so I was using the mirror on the back of the door to help instead."

While that didn't clear anything up for him, at least Shuichi didn't need to worry that something was wrong with her right then. "I don't think I'll find anything silly, you just say what you need and I'll try my best to help you with it." He could see her hand tightening around her phone, as if she was trying to keep whatever was on it hidden from him, but after he repeated that he was there to help she loosened her grip before holding her phone out to him. Taking it into his own hands gently, he turned the screen on to see that she had a bunch of shoddily-taken mirror selfies up in her gallery. "Why are you taking pictures of yourself? If it's because you're worried about not being beautiful or something after this, I'm going to have to have a stern talk with you."

She laughed, hanging her head for a moment before letting it perk back up, a peaceful smile on her face. "I wanted to mark how I look on this super important day, that's all. I've heard a lot of women do that, they take pictures every week while they're pregnant to look back on, and I thought that…you know, it would be a nice memory to have." Now that he knew what she was talking about, he understood why she thought he'd think it was silly, but he honestly thought it was adorable how much she wanted to document what they were going through, week by week.

That was how, after talking about it a little more, they decided that what Kaede wanted to do was completely plausible but they needed to set up for it a bit more before they began doing it. Since it was the day that they'd been waiting for to tell everyone their news anyway, it only made sense to make that first picture the big reveal, and because this was something she wanted to stick with it made even more sense if they had some way to take consistent pictures. The full setting up for that would have to wait until after the appointment, though, because if they were to have started working on it right then it was completely possible they would have lost track of time and forgotten to go.

When the time came to head over to the clinic, Kaede was the one who took the lead, as she'd been there before and knew exactly where she was supposed to go. Shuichi enjoyed when he was being told what to do and where he needed to go, but all chances of this being somewhat attractive were squashed when he remembered why, exactly, it was that they were having to do this in the first place. They'd been in such a loving and physical relationship for so long that the chance of something going amiss had always been something to be concerned about, but when they'd had their talk about what their life goals were and decided that children were something they felt were in the cards for them, the chance of conceiving a child wasn't so much a concern as it was a possibility. It still wasn't totally planned for, and it was going to take some time to fully accept that this was happening, but now that they were going to get to see their child for the first time, it felt all the more real to him, if not to both of them.

No one had prepared either of them for the fact that the "child" they were going to see was nothing more than a blob-like figure on a screen, nothing really denoting that it was a human baby except for where it was located. The visual might have been a bit of a letdown, but hearing a faint heartbeat, the life-sustaining sound that proved it was alive, was something that both of them were sure they'd never forget. That was their baby's heart, beating quickly inside its mother, proof that someday in the relatively near future they'd be parents to something currently so un-humanlike.

"I can't believe that it's actually real," Kaede mumbled as she looked at the screen, seeing the image move slightly as she herself was moving to talk. "That's so crazy, don't you think, Shuichi? That right there's our baby."

"Yeah, it's kind of crazy," he agreed, his eyes shifting from the screen to look at Kaede's enamored expression. "I don't really know how you're holding yourself together right now. Doesn't that scare you, seeing it on screen and knowing what's going to happen?"

She closed her lips together for a moment before shaking her head. "Nope, I'm not scared about what's going to happen. With you by my side, I know that I'll be able to get through everything, and once we're done we'll have someone new to love in our life." She was reaching for his hand, and he took hers in both of his, clasping down tightly on it, not even minding that he could feel her wedding ring digging into his skin. This was what they'd decided they wanted with their lives, and now they were committed to it.

four.

Making the announcement for everyone was much more stressful than seeing the baby had been, because after leaving the clinic with a printout of a couple pictures as well as a list of the next couple of appointments they needed to go to, they had to go to the store to get everything they felt was necessary to make a solid announcement. That wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that, on the ride over, Kaede started feeling completely miserable and nearly threw up in the car a couple of times. She was insistent they take care of what they were out to do before they went home, though, and so their trip through the craft store was fast and without much thinking about what to do.

While Shuichi was grabbing things that they needed, she was pulling up inspirational images from online and using them as springboards for what else they needed. They decided on doing a chalkboard to write information on, since that seemed to be what was popular, but on the edges, rather than write the reason in chalk or paint, they decided to use wooden letters, which were supposed to be hot glued onto the chalkboard's frame. It was only after they'd actually gotten home that both of them realized that they didn't actually have any chalk or a hot glue gun to use for their crafting, and that meant that Shuichi had to go back and find what they'd forgotten to get, just to go home to see Kaede fast asleep on the floor, the board and the wood letters arranged in a way that he had to admit was adorable.

Rather than disturb her, he decided that he'd just go ahead and keep working on the project for himself, and then once she was awake they could finish it and get the picture taken. He wasn't sure what they were going to write on the board, but he figured that Kaede had some kind of idea to fill the space; because all he was doing was gluing the letters to the edge of the board he really didn't need too much more direction than what she'd left out for him. After a lot of hot glue strands getting everywhere and a couple close calls with burning his fingertips, he considered the gluing over and propped the sign up, admiring his handiwork. On the top he'd glued the letters to spell baby, and at the bottom it spelled out their last name, meaning that even if in the pictures people couldn't see what was written in chalk, they could see that it was about Baby Saihara, which the mere concept of was making him incredibly nervous to have to publicly acknowledge.

This was cute and all, but how were their friends going to take finding out this way, rather than by personal message or even a face-to-face conversation? If Kaede knew about his apprehension she might have reconsidered making this the official announcement, but she was still asleep and once she woke up there wasn't going to be time to change her mind on what they were going to do. He had to believe that they'd made the right choice in making this their announcement, and if someone had a problem with it then they could take it up with him some other time.

After an hour or so of her napping on the floor, Kaede woke up to the sight of her chalkboard sign resting against the wall, the letters affixed to it exactly as she'd wanted them to be. She still felt miserable, like her stomach was churning despite her not eating much at all that day, but she couldn't help but smile when she saw what Shuichi had done to their board. "We'll have to paint the letters once we know what the baby is," she said, looking at the bare white wood that was currently being presented. "If we find out, I mean. I bet maybe you'd want there to be some kind of surprise in your life for once."

"I think painting the letters would be nice, but for now they're fine the way they are." Shuichi was sitting nearby with a book in his lap to pass the time, just waiting for Kaede to wake up and pleasantly surprised by how quickly she was back to talking once she did. He hadn't even thought once about the possibility of knowing, or not knowing, what the baby was before they actually met it, and now that was something else to add to his already-long list of things to think about. "What were you planning on writing on the board for this? I've got all different colors for you to use, I bought the biggest pack of chalk they had."

"I've got a few ideas for what I can put. People seem to really like comparing babies to the size of fruit on these things, and eight weeks seems to be a grape, so maybe I can write that on there? And the fact that we saw it for the first time today, and heard its heartbeat, and…" Kaede's voice faded as she looked towards the couple of sonograms they'd been given. "We can put those on there too. No one would be able to see what the baby looks like, but it's the thought that counts."

"Sounds like a plan to me." He closed his book and got himself up off the floor, watching as she brought herself to sitting, only to scoot herself closer to the board and move it to where she could do with it as she pleased. Finding himself staring and watching for a few minutes as she got to work, he had to shake his head to clear his mind and go find something else to do while she worked. It felt like an appropriate time to make something for them to eat, even though he knew there wasn't going to be much Kaede would want right then, so that was what he set off to do.

By the time he'd finished heating up a frozen meal they could share if she wanted any part of it, she was setting the board back up against the wall, proudly smiling at it. As he walked out to meet her in their small living space, the food in hand, she tilted her head back to look at him and grimaced when she smelled that he'd brought something with him. "Can you possibly go eat that somewhere not near me?" she asked, seeing him turn mid-step and go back into the kitchen. "Sorry, Shuichi! I just can't stand the smell of that right now!"

"It's okay, just means I don't know what you'll be eating tonight," he replied, lamenting the fact that he'd be wasting half a meal now that he knew she wasn't going to be eating. "But I'm sure you'll handle that whenever you want to eat, right?"

Food was the furthest thing from Kaede's mind at that moment but she wasn't going to say that to him and accidentally cause him to worry about her. "Of course, I'll find something that sounds good when I'm ready for it!" Now she had to wait for him to finish so that they could get this announcement taken care of, and then she'd have a whole week to figure out what she'd be doing with the board next. From what she'd seen online, there were many ways she could handle preparing it, she'd just have to decide what she was doing and stick to it week in and week out.

After what felt like a lot longer than it really was, mostly because she'd gotten fixated on looking up different lists she could refer to for ideas on her board, Shuichi was back in the room with her with no food on his person, ready to get things over with. "We need some good lighting so people might be able to read the words you wrote," he said, turning on a lamp in the room that they never used, just to illuminate the board in particular. "And then, er, what are you planning on doing in the picture?"

Scrambling to her feet, Kaede struck a somewhat sassy pose and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I'm going to be myself, obviously. I don't want to do anything unusual right now, I think the fact that this is happening at all should be weird enough when people see it. Wouldn't you agree, Shuichi?"

"I suppose I would, now that I think about it." Normally the pictures that got shared of Kaede were her with her piano, or her doing piano-related things, so anything outside of that normal topic was going to be given a second glance anyway. "Go ahead and get into place and we'll see how it ends up looking, I really hope we can make this work out quickly and know for next week what we'll need to do."

She stopped posing and handed her phone over to him, giving him a sheepish smile when he saw all the baby-related lists on her screen at that moment. "I got excited planning for what I'm going to do next, sorry," she apologized, before taking up a more casual pose than the one she'd had before, getting in close to the board and waiting to be told that the picture had been taken so she could drop the pose and go on with her day. She stood there for a while, Shuichi not moving even slightly where he was supposed to be taking the picture, and it took her calling him out on it to get him to say sorry, to tell her that he'd started looking at those lists, and then to properly get to taking the picture.

That wasn't even the end of their adventure, though, as once they had the picture finished it came time to decide what to do with it. The only social media they shared and actively used between the two of them were a couple of professional pages that related back to their work lives, so those weren't an option, unless they wanted everyone they'd recently crossed paths with knowing that they were growing their family. There was the choice of sending it to everyone that they knew and waiting for all their reactions, but that was a lot of single messages that would have to be sent out and it would become a bit much to take care of, especially if people didn't get the message right away. They'd be dealing with responses for days in that case, and neither of them wanted to have to feel obligated to keep checking their phones for more congratulatory messages.

Since, in order to have those professional pages, they did have to have a "personal" account to moderate from, they decided that posting the picture, and all subsequent ones, on there would have to do. It was a shared account, despite being under Kaede's name, and it had just a few friends who had access to see its posts, but they felt like that was enough to start. Anyone else who wouldn't be able to get it from there could get it sent to them individually later, this was just a way for them to get the news out there to some extent, even if it wasn't perfect. There wasn't even any text attached to the image, just the image upload itself, the first activity from the account itself since they'd posted some of their wedding pictures over a year beforehand.

Yet, within thirty seconds the picture already had several reactions and a couple of shares, expanding the range their little announcement was going to have. If they were trying to keep this baby thing somewhat under the radar, there was zero chance of that happening anymore, and now that people knew there was no way they'd get to live it down again.

That became far too obvious when a phone started to ring and the familiar number the call was coming from struck fear in both their hearts. "What do you mean you've known for almost a month and just now decided to tell the rest of us?" The phone had been put on speaker from the moment the call had been answered, Shuichi not wanting to have his eardrum ruptured by the potential yelling he'd be receiving from the other side. "Not just that, but you guys told us that way, not by just calling us up and telling us, or coming over here and doing it in person. What, did you think we'd bite or something if you tried?"

"No, Kaito, that's not what it is at all," he replied, watching Kaede trying to keep a straight face from across the room where she was sitting on her piano bench, picking at the bowl of cereal she'd made for herself to try and eat. "It's been a wild few weeks around here with us accepting what's going on, we didn't want to tell anyone until we had some way to prove it. Now that we've seen the little one for ourselves, it felt right to tell everyone about them."

"I still think you should've told me and Maki Roll about it before you posted it out for the world to see. We've done everything else together, why should this be different?" There was a hint of annoyance in Kaito's voice with that question, something that struck Shuichi as strange because of what he was saying it in reference to. "I mean, I get it, you want to get to do something on your own for once, and I don't blame ya on this one, but seriously? Not even a warning that you were about to drop this news on us?" His voice became muffled for a moment as someone on his side of the phone started saying something and he was focused on talking them, giving Shuichi a chance to shake his head and see Kaede break into quiet laughter at the reaction they were receiving. "Okay, Maki says that I'm bein' a bit too hard on you both right now, and that she—no, I'm not saying that for you, I don't agree with it!"

"Thank you for not letting Kaito know about this sooner, I'd rather be dead than in Kaede's position right now," Maki said, clearly having wrangled the phone out of Kaito's grasp so she could speak. "You know how he'd want us to copy you if he'd known sooner."

"There's still plenty of time to copy them, you're just being difficult!" he called out, before what was audibly a smack rang through the phone's speaker, only for the line to go silent. Now Kaede was really laughing hard, nearly spilling her bowl on the floor, and Shuichi was staring stunned at the phone for a moment before quietly ending the call and pretending like it hadn't happened.

"That went well, I'd say," he remarked after a couple of moments just listening to Kaede's amused laughter and trying his best not to join her. "I know that Kaito will come around to this eventually, but he has to understand we weren't keeping this from him because we didn't want him to know. It just wasn't the right time to say anything before now."

Collecting herself and setting her bowl on the bench next to her so that she couldn't cause it to spill if she started laughing again, Kaede took a deep breath, let out another giggle, and then went right into responding to what Shuichi had said. "He'll come around, but that might mean he's going to c—"

"Please don't say that." His abruptness in cutting her off was enough to get Kaede laughing again, while he was left sitting there almost stunned at the fact that she'd just attempted to say what she was thinking. It had crossed his mind a couple times that when Kaito found out about this, he might react a bit brashly or even stupidly, but he hadn't once thought that he'd be so desperate to match them step-for-step that he'd try to have a child right there on the spot. "Kaito might be a bit dense at times, but he wouldn't do that because of us."

"I mean, you're probably right, but what if you're not?" Once again she was trying to collect herself, but it was hard given how absurd what they were talking about was. Kaede wasn't exactly positive that she could trust in Shuichi's belief, not if they were strictly talking about Kaito and what he wanted. "What if he somehow convinces Maki to, you know, go along with his plans to match us?"

"He won't, we have to believe in her that she wouldn't allow it, and that's thinking that he really would want to raise a kid right now." What he'd just said hit him a lot harder than he expected it to, because while he could be sure that Kaito might not want anything to do with the actual raising of a child at the moment, they didn't have a choice about it because that was something happening to them. He still had the opportunity to wait (and that waiting could last a lifetime, if Maki's statement about wanting to die was genuine), whereas their time for waiting had an expiration date. No, he couldn't think of it like that, it wasn't that their freedom was expiring because of their baby, but maybe that was how he'd have to portray it if perhaps his belief in his friend's actions was misplaced.

Kaede had mostly stopped laughing, and was now sitting on her piano bench with her hands folded in her lap, the occasional giggle still getting out but nothing as bad as it had been before. "I'd be okay if they did make that choice, but I don't think it's the best choice for them," she admitted, her eyes shifting towards the floor as she spoke. "I think it would be fun to have a friend who's pregnant right now too, but I wouldn't want it to be Maki, even if that would mean our kids could be instant best friends."

"Yes, let's…not bring that possibility up anywhere near Kaito, in case he decides he wants to grant you that wish." Shuichi knew that if Kaito were to hear that idea, he'd want to make it reality in a heartbeat, and that did not sit well with him. "I'm going to have to talk him down from wanting to try doing that anyway, I'm sure, so let's just go light on the family talk around him until he's accepting that we're doing something without him."

"Like that worked so well for getting married," she replied, unfolding her hands so that she could look at her wedding ring, before turning her eyes up towards Shuichi. "Remember? We tried keeping when the big day was hidden from him as long as possible so he couldn't feel like he needed to copy us and then he tried it anyway?"

"You're right, but he understood that us sharing a wedding day wasn't a good idea and respected at least that much of it." Their relationship's history was far too entangled in the history between Kaito and Maki to really separate them from each other up until this baby announcement, so once again the pendulum was swinging in favor of Kaito potentially trying to make a bad decision. There was only one way Shuichi could be certain that nothing would happen, and that required trying to call back that number and talking something out like a grown man would.

That was not a confrontation he really wanted to have to deal with right then, and so he chose to put all his faith in his friends' good decision making and leave it where it was for the night. There'd be more time to discuss everything with them later, and the biggest choice that needed to be made that night was not one of his own, so it only made sense to let things go and spend the evening basking in the more positive responses to what they'd shared.

five.

No one could have ever prepared them for the amount of care people would have in their personal lives now that they were expectant parents, but it was rather easy to block out everyone when needed. All it would take was Shuichi saying something about how all of the attention was draining on Kaede, or her making a comment about how she felt unwell and didn't have the energy to keep talking, and most people would back off and give them the space they needed. That explicitly excluded some of their close friends, who knew the couple well enough to understand that they were using an avoidance tactic to get out of proper conversations with people.

Even with the attempts to get away from interactions, they were usually okay with the people they were closest to coming by and hanging out with them, or inviting them out to do something for a little bit. It had been necessary to talk Kaito down from the metaphorical ledge of making a life-changing decision, but after he'd come to his senses about how rushing into something just because his friends had, he was easily the most common person to show up unannounced at the front door, ready to talk anyone's ear off about how excited he was to get to meet his so-called sidekick's child.

Usually it was Kaede there to answer his need for gushing about how he felt, as she spent most of her free time practicing her piano or doing small things around the house, trying not to plan her schedule too full in case something came up relating to the baby. She was fine with hearing Kaito talk on and on about how happy he was for them, and how he was going to teach that kid all he could about all the things he knew, but she drew the line whenever he would attempt to touch her. "You won't feel anything, trust me," she told him when she would see his hands come anywhere close to her. "That's something you'll know about when it happens, between me and Shuichi I'm sure someone will tell you right away."

"I don't want to just be told about it, I want to be one of the first to feel some moving in there. Little guy's got to know who I am before we even really meet, you know?" That was one of the few things about how Kaito had reacted to this news that grated on Kaede, his insistence that the child was a boy. Not only was it far too early for them to know what it was, but she and Shuichi were both fine with either a boy or a girl, and so hearing Kaito be so certain that it was a boy was irritating at best. "He's going to replace his dad as my sidekick when he's older, so we've got to get started on building the bond now."

"You'll only be allowed to feel them moving if you stop talking like you know what they're going to be already." That was about as forceful she would get in terms of trying to get him to knock off his behavior, because causing a scene with him would end badly for them both. "I know that you want them to be a boy so you can teach them everything you know, but I think you could teach a girl some things too!"

"Sure I could, but I'd rather spend my time being cool uncle to a little Shuichi instead of a little Kaede, if you get what I'm saying." She did, in fact, get what he was saying, and she wasn't exactly happy with it, and if she weren't trying to be respectful and not start any drama within their friend group that someone would have to fix, she would have most likely kicked him out (or physically kicked him) right then. For being some who'd gotten rather lucky in finding friends and love, Kaito sure didn't know how to act at times, and this was one of his biggest flaws.

It was also a flaw that he didn't bring up nearly as much if Shuichi was around to hear it, for some reason that Kaede couldn't quite figure out. That wasn't to say that he didn't make specific reference to wanting the baby to be a boy in Shuichi's presence, but when he did it wasn't nearly as confident as it was when he was solely around Kaede. "We just have to accept that he's excited in his own way, even if it's a bit strange," Shuichi told her after they sent Kaito on his way one evening, him leaving the house with a declaration that he'd be back the following day to see if maybe then he'd be able to start bonding with the baby. "I'm not going to let it bother me too much, you should consider doing the same."

"Yes, but…" Kaede puffed her cheeks out in indignance for a moment, before exhaling the held breath and grumbling, "I don't like that he thinks they have to be a boy for him to get to teach them things. He can teach them either way, but he refuses to actually listen to me about that. What, does he think that girls can't do 'cool' things? Does he pay attention to what Maki does for a living?"

"He does, and he knows that girls can do exactly what boys can. You know why he wants the baby to be a boy so badly, though." Shuichi did not like that Kaede was so bothered by this, even though it irritated him as well, but he knew that there was little he'd be able to do about getting Kaito to stop thinking in his current mindset. "He's looking forward to being able to drop by when I'm not here and have someone like me here anyway."

"His mini-sidekick, or a little Shuichi, or whatever he wants to call it that day, I know. I'm just saying that he will be just as happy with a little girl if he lets himself." It hadn't even been two full weeks since they'd let everyone find out and she was already more over their most persistent visitor than she thought she would be. She wasn't quite ten weeks into this endeavor and she had no idea how she was going to survive the next thirty or so weeks of social interaction with someone who was driving her to her wit's end.

Dealing with Kaito was almost able to be considered practice for dealing with the child down the road, and that was a testament to his complete boneheaded-ness.

six.

One of the greatest disappointments about the timing of everything was that, when Halloween around, there was absolutely no way someone could look at Kaede and guess that she was pregnant. If anything, someone would assume that she had been working out or dieting, given that she'd barely been eating much and predictably had actually lost weight compared to what someone would have expected. That was a bit bothersome to her, because she'd become incredibly fixated on looking up cute things that pregnant ladies could do for costumes and she wouldn't be able to pull any of them off.

"I just wanted to have something funny and adorable for this week's picture," she told Shuichi as she sat cross-legged on the floor, erasing and replacing what was to be on the chalkboard for the week. "I mean, I guess there's still plenty I can do for it, but people have some really fun ideas that I'm jealous we can't do. There's not a couples costume out there that's meant for someone who looks as thin as a rail and swears she's pregnant, I've already checked all sorts of places for one."

"Something tells me that you would be just as upset if you could do one of those costumes," he replied, watching her carefully write the different details that she felt were necessary for showing on the board. "Besides, maybe it's for the best that you can't dress up like you want to? We're not doing anything tonight, we have somewhere to be in the morning."

She froze, her hand stopped mid-letter. "I know that, Shuichi. I'm the one who scheduled the appointment. I'm just saying, if I could dress up I'd do it for the picture and only for the picture." That was when she returned to writing, and he was left staring at her, not sure what he could say to get her to see the bright side to the situation. Sure, she wanted to be able to wear a quirky costume like the ones she kept seeing, but if she were able to do that then she'd most definitely be at a stage where she'd be more uncomfortable with everything, and he was pretty sure she didn't want to be there yet. He was already dreading the first time she realized that she was starting to get bigger, and he knew that she wasn't going to be so happy about it once she got there.

"I think I have an idea for what you can do for a costume," he abruptly said, snapping himself out of his worries with what he wasn't even sure was a good idea, but one that Kaede could use hearing. "We've got a bunch of chalk, and I think that I—no, I know that I've got an extra black shirt we can use. How about we make you a mini chalkboard as a costume, and you can write some of your stuff on the shirt? It's not much, but it's something."

"If you think it's worth it, I'm willing to give it a shot." Sitting up tall, as opposed to hunched over the chalkboard where it was laying, Kaede turned to look back at Shuichi right as he got up to go find the shirt in question. "I think we could maybe even make it really look like the board if we tried, we'd just have to get creative with it."

"Something tells me you getting creative isn't going to be an issue," he said with a laugh, before heading to their bedroom to find a spare shirt to sacrifice to the crafting gods. It wasn't hard for him to find what he was looking for, given that most of his casual outfits consisted of black shirts and he could always replace one easily, but when he went back out to the living room he found that Kaede wasn't on the floor anymore, but rather at her piano, hands stretched out over the keys as she mimed playing. "Er, sweetheart? What happened to being creative?"

She shrugged, letting a couple fingers hit keys to fill the room with long notes. "I don't know, I just decided I wanted to practice playing for a bit. You wouldn't mind making the shirt for me, would you?"

"Not at all, I can handle it." The idea of sitting on the floor to work on the shirt didn't seem appealing to him, so he grabbed the chalk and sat both it and the shirt down on their kitchen table so he could work there. Meanwhile, Kaede's held notes had changed and she was now pressing down on a different set of keys. Once he'd properly started working, she began playing some scales, not exactly the best sound to work to but he wasn't going to ask her to play a proper song right then. Something was bothering her, and if it turned out she was so worked up over not being able to wear a specific costume that she had given up on what they'd compromised, he'd be disappointed in her but understanding that right at that moment, she might not have had the best grasp on how she was feeling.

All of that changed once he was mostly finished with the outline of the board on the shirt, making it match as best as he could with the actual board on the floor. His lettering was shaky at best, but he was trying his hardest to make it readable and there was something unnerving about the scales that Kaede kept playing over and over. She wasn't going to enjoy seeing the shirt, she was going to lose her mind because it wasn't what she wanted, and he'd have to deal with his emotionally-compromised wife rather than have some happy picture for them to share alongside the previous weeks' ones. He was in the process of getting the last letters drawn on when the music stopped and he heard her get up and come closer to him, but he was more focused on what he was doing than what she was.

"Shuichi, next week I'm going to have you write on the board, that's so perfect," she softly said as she came up behind him, draping herself over his shoulders and nearly causing him to lose his focus on his craft. "Everyone's going to be jealous of my cute costume when they see this, and you're the one to credit for it."

"Uh, thanks, Kaede, but it wasn't too much work and was mostly copying what we'd already done. Besides, you'll have to fill in whatever you want in the blank area, to match what you have on the real thing." He was smiling at the praise, but at the same time, there was a sadness to Kaede's voice that he wanted to address but didn't have the words to do so. It was something he'd just have to push to the back of his mind for the moment, especially when there was something much more pressing to attend to. She had taken the shirt and the chalk and was doing exactly as he'd said she needed to do, or at least, that's what he thought she was doing. Instead, she'd begun drawing something in the open space on the shirt, and whatever it was, she needed to keep referring to her phone to make it work.

Rather than hover over her, he decided he'd go back to the other side of the room and hang the sign up for the picture, using the little hanger he'd put on the wall before their first time doing this. As he was hanging it up, he properly read what she'd written on it, to perhaps take a guess as to what she was doing to the shirt, but there were so many possibilities that he couldn't just pick one. He was rather partial to the message at the bottom of the board about how much they loved the little baby, despite not having known them for very long, and he somewhat hoped that her shirt was going to talk about how loved they were.

Instead, what he was greeted with once she changed into the shirt was a rather misshapen attempt at drawing a lime, the only way he knew that being the bright color and the fact that the board itself said that the baby was roughly that side that week. "I tried my best, but I don't think it worked out very well," she said, that sadness still prominent in her voice. "You're not upset that I ruined your hard work, are you?"

He shook his head, his whole body aching to know what was bothering her so much. "Trust me, I wouldn't be upset when you drew that lime better than I could ever dream of. Come on, let's get this picture done and move on with our night." While he didn't know what was bothering her, he could tell that once they'd taken care of the picture and sent it on its way, she seemed to be cheering up a bit, even if she didn't want to acknowledge that anything had been wrong to start. This picture idea had seemed so cute, but if it was going to bother her this badly when things weren't going her way, perhaps it would be best to retire it.

seven.

"I want to make music to this sound." They were at their appointment the morning after Halloween, and after a quick check-in they'd been escorted back to the exam room, where Kaede had been instructed to lay flat on the table with her stomach exposed so that the technician could use the fetal heartbeat monitor to try and pick up the sound for them. She'd initially been uncomfortable at the feeling of the gel that had been put down to help with the machine, but once the sound of the beating heart filled the air everything changed, and that was when she'd said those words. "Think about it, the sound of a song inspired by a baby's heartbeat, wouldn't that be nice?"

"You do enjoy music based on that sort of thing, so I agree, it would be nice." Too many times had he heard her compare his own heartbeat to music, so it was only natural that she was doing that with their child's already. "I just don't know how you'd make it happen when we can't exactly hear it all the time right now."

There was a shine in Kaede's eyes when she heard that proposed challenge to her idea, but it was the technician who explained it on her behalf. The prospect of buying their own home version of the machine to use whenever they wanted was a lot to take in, because it would take away from the powerfulness of hearing the heartbeat at appointments, but at the same time it would allow for Kaede to use the sound as inspiration for music. It wasn't a discussion they were going to have right then, not when the technician was doing their job and trying to move the appointment along, but rather it was something to save for later, on the way home afterward.

Yet on their way home that was furthest from the topic of discussion, as they'd been told something rather important as they were getting ready to leave the clinic. It wasn't anything bad, but rather something that neither of them had realized was coming up so quickly, even with all of the research that one of them had done about things. "What do we do about the next appointment?" Shuichi asked, hoping that talking about that would eventually lead them to the music thing that they needed to discuss. "I know we've brought it up before, but I'd be fine, surprise or no surprise. Whatever you want."

"I knew you'd say that, and I…think I want to have it be a surprise for a little bit. A lot of people have cute reveal parties but that seems like a bunch of work." Kaede was looking at something on her phone, her free hand grasping part of the end of her shirt and holding it tightly. "I was thinking, maybe we could have them give us the information some way that we wouldn't see it, then we could hand it off to, uh, Maki, maybe? She'd keep it secret until we wanted to know, I think."

"You're right about that, Maki wouldn't tell a soul until we were ready to hear it." Curious about what Kaede was looking at, Shuichi had to remind himself not to pry into her business and to let her talk whenever she was ready. She wasn't nearly as sad as she'd been the night before, but he could tell that something was still not right about her emotional state. "That's something to look forward to, just like so much else about this."

She nodded, before setting down her phone and turning it over in her lap. "I'll ask her about it next time I talk to her, I'm sure she'll be down for keeping it secret from us and from Kaito. Especially from him, since he, well, you know what he keeps doing."

"That still bothering you, huh?" If that was what was upsetting her the night before, it would make sense—Kaito was usually one of the first people to react to their weekly updates and he hadn't stopped with his insistence that the child was going to be a boy, for his own selfish reasons. But she had been upset before he'd had the chance to say anything, so that might not have been the reason after all. "He'll know soon enough whether those comments are allowed or not, and he'll stop them if they're not. I believe in him to learn to handle this better, even if it's slow going right now."

"I just…how would he like it if he and Maki were having a baby and I kept referring to it as a girl, which I know would bother him? Do you think he'd be as forgiving as I've had to be about him doing this to me?" It was clear that Kaede was getting worked up about this, and Shuichi did not want her to start getting emotional because of someone not quite understanding that their personal desire was hurtful to others. "I want him to learn that right now, I don't want anyone thinking about if my baby's a boy or a girl, I want them knowing they're healthy and that's all that matters!"

"H-hey, let's not get so worked up about this, Kaito isn't worth the energy. He'll learn in time, let's think about something better for you. Like, what about the idea of making a song to the heartbeat, huh?" It wasn't how he wanted that to be brought up, but Shuichi didn't feel like he had much choice in terms of topics to switch to. He needed to get Kaede to calm down, and there was usually no better option than to bring up music with her. "I'm sure we can find a reliable one of those machines for fairly cheap, if you really want it we can get one and see if you can make that music."

"I'm a pianist, not a composer, I couldn't really make actual music to the sound of a heartbeat, but…if you'd be willing to let me try, I'd be willing to give it a shot." Still clearly upset about what she'd been talking about, Kaede was trying to push past it to focus on what Shuichi had brought up, yet before he had the chance to be accepting of what she'd said she was right back on their previous discussion. "I'd make it a song I could play for the baby, and probably name it after them if I did write it down, and everyone could hear it except for Kaito because he doesn't appreciate our child, Shuichi! He just doesn't!"

Internally, he was groaning at how she'd backtracked, but out loud all he said was, "Let's think about the music and not anything that our friend might have done. I'll have a long talk with him about how to be respectful towards you and the baby, as if it'll do anything but I'll try it for you."

"You're the sweetest, I hope you know." Just like that, Kaede seemed over the whole issue, and for the whole rest of the day he didn't see a hint of the sadness that had plagued her the day before. He wasn't sure if it was really about Kaito, or if it was just something she couldn't explain and had turned into that, but as long as it was gone that was what mattered.

eight.

True to his offer, Shuichi spent a few days researching where he could get a fetal heartbeat machine before buying one for Kaede, something that she immediately found herself using every night without fail. Some nights she'd find a beat quickly and try to commit the tempo to memory, other nights she'd struggle to find anything at all except static, but it became a nightly thing for her to lay on her piano bench and play with her machine. She was so enamored with the process that she even wrote it on the board for thirteen weeks, right underneath the part about how they were officially into the second trimester, where things would apparently get easier.

There was just one issue about making that claim, and that was, despite everything, she still didn't really feel like she was pregnant. Hearing the heartbeat did help to remind her that she was, as did some of the other small things that had happened in the time since she'd found out, but the biggest sign had yet to come and she was somewhat getting impatient waiting for it. "I know it's probably really weird," she said as she was using the machine one night, "but I kind of can't wait until I start showing. Just the thought of running this thing over even a tiny bump seems like it'll be so great."

"You're really glorifying that in your mind, if you ask me." The memory of how she'd acted when she couldn't wear a certain kind of costume was still fresh to Shuichi, and he honestly wondered if she'd thought for a moment about how silly it was that she was waiting for what amounted to her whole body changing dramatically. "Just wait until you've got that bump, then you won't stop complaining about it, I'm certain of it."

"Please, like that would happen! I'm so ready to look like I'm actually pregnant, rather than just having to say I am. I don't think you can understand how I feel about this, since you're not in my shoes." Kaede paused, kicking her feet up from where they were dangling to show that she wasn't even wearing shoes, just musically-patterned socks. "Look, isn't the big thing not being able to see your feet? I can totally see mine, and until I can't I'm considering this wrong and unfair."

Without thinking about how he'd be taken, Shuichi looked at her and said, "And if you're considering this wrong and unfair, I don't want to hear you use either of those words when you can't see your feet and you hate it. You're being unreasonable, Kaede, and I don't think it's going to end well for you." The offended gasp she gave as she heard him made him immediately feel bad for what he'd said, but he didn't want to take a word of it back. He knew that she would be changing her tune as soon as it didn't seem fun anymore, and he didn't want her thinking that he wasn't going to remember that.

They went to bed that night slightly unhappy with each other, as they never quite resolved the problem that had gotten brought up, but it was nothing a good night's sleep wasn't going to be able to fix. Except, when he woke up the next morning, Kaede was gone and there was no explanation for where she'd gone off to, and she wasn't hanging around somewhere in the house. He was worried, but he knew that she wouldn't do anything she'd regret in her current position, and so he was able to go on with his morning routine and head out the door to go do some casework without even a word as to where she was. At some point that day, she did try calling him but he was in the middle of talking with a client and couldn't answer, only fueling what was looking like a bit of a rift between them.

That changed when he got home that night to the sound of piano scales coming through the closed front door, and once he'd opened it he saw Kaede on her bench, fingers moving across the keys without even looking at them. "I went shopping with some friends this morning, sorry I didn't tell you where I was until now," she said, knowing who had come in the door even though she hadn't looked there either. Whatever had her attention had grabbed it and wasn't letting it go. "I thought about asking you if you'd go with me but then I remembered that you want me to stay like this the whole time and I thought better of it."

"Kaede, I never once said—"

"Look, I get it, you're not as excited about the baby as I am, and really I can't expect you to be because you're not the one with the baby inside you." Her scale-playing was slowing down, her fingers holding keys longer than they previously had been. "Don't worry, I'm not upset with you or anything like that, I just needed to go out with people who do understand what I'm feeling. Even if they don't have kids of their own. It's a woman thing."

"—you're taking everything I said out of context and making it fit your point," he told her, bothered that he'd been cut off but not too much. "I want to see you happy, that's all I want, and I just don't think you'll be that happy once you're a bit bigger. You're hyping this up in your head too much."

"And maybe I am, but what's the harm in it? I'm pregnant, Shuichi, I want to enjoy things as much as I can because I know it's going to get hard, even with you by my side." The room had gone silent, the music completely stopped, and she turned around on the piano bench, giving him a glimpse of her phone sitting on the music stand with what looked to be a blank staff on screen. "You're so big on believing in people that it's weird I have to tell you that you need to believe in me this time."

Knowing that if he argued against her, he'd be falling headfirst into a pit of issues, Shuichi swallowed down any reservations he had and told her, only half-truthfully, that he believed in her and what she wanted. "But don't come complaining to me if you find yourself unhappy," he reminded her. "I tried warning you and you insisted you were right, so if you end up wrong it's not my fault."

"Trust me, I'm not going to be wrong about this." She flashed him a grin and it was impossible to resist her positivity about what she wanted, and what he knew was going to end up being an issue in the future. At least for right then, she was going to be happy whenever she started looking more like the pregnant woman they both knew she was, and if that was what made her happy, he wasn't going to deny her it. He'd begun to learn that the best way to deal with her was let her work out her problems and not cause further ones, and that was just what he was going to have to do right then.

A/N: I wanted to wait until I had the fic finished before I posted it but I was just too excited to wait any longer! hi I wrote a really long saimatsu babyfic and I spent like three weeks straight writing this thing yes I'm okay I'll see you next week for more