Written in response to a DRRR kink meme prompt requesting a pregnancy and the reactions of the cast/couple throughout the pregnancy.

...Quite silly.

When Celty told him she was pregnant, Shinra fainted and hit his head on the floor hard enough to give himself a mild concussion. His brain ached, his stomach was queasy, and his eyes dilated differently, but after confirming the news with seventeen new pregnancy tests, he insisted on going to the store. Once there, he bought a bullhorn and paraded through the streets of Ikebukuro announcing, "I HAVE IMPREGNATED MY CELTY. SHE IS CARRYING OUR BABY. OUR BEAUTIFUL BABY." until Celty wrapped him up in her shadows and dragged him home to scold him harshly in private.

That was about five weeks in, and it only got worse from there.

-xxx-

Celty's pregnancy was very healthy, for the most part. There wasn't any morning sickness or tiredness, and her breasts did not get tender or swollen right away (though Shinra checked very thoroughly just to be sure). The only reason she suspected it in the first place was because her period had not come, and for the first two months she barely gained any weight at all. Instead, she researched baby clothes and furniture on the internet, while Shinra fussed about the dangers of miscarriage and pampered her constantly.

A distinct concern was whether Celty's not eating made any difference. Proper diet was of course a major concern for any pregnant mother, but her lack of head made it difficult to manage that. Much to Shinra's surprise, the daily weighings he insisted upon did show a steady weight gain consistent with pregnancy, beginning in the seventh week and only continuing from there. He took copious notes about everything Celty did, and daily photos as well, fascinated in the mysteries of dullahan pregnancies just as much as he was fascinated in his wife's pregnancy.

When Celty reminded him that they weren't married, Shinra panicked and began to make plans for the most wonderful wedding ever. It would be in a lovely church (which in turn would be on a cruise ship) with flowers everywhere, and Celty would wear a beautiful white dress, and she'd look so erotic in it he wouldn't be able to resist her and would just attack in the middle of the ceremony and they'd have their honeymoon right there on the floor and –

He received a fist to the gut for his trouble. Celty told him, [I'm just fine not being married. I'm not a legal citizen anyway.]

"B-but we can at least be married in spirit, right my sweet Celty? And we could still get the dress–"

[You can either shut up or sleep in the bathtub tonight.]

"Who needs a wedding? Not me!"

-xxx-

Three months in, Shinra began petitioning for Celty to stop working. It was a miracle he'd waited that long, but she still wasn't showing unless she took off her shirt, and it wasn't interfering in her business at all. Though she was careful to avoid dangerous deliveries, Celty continued her job well into the fifth month. By the time it became necessary for her shadow jumpsuit to be altered into shadow maternity clothes, however, she finally agreed to take a break. By this point, everyone who had missed Shinra's little bullhorn expedition was finally beginning to notice Celty's state. And those who had already known were beginning to finally absorb it as truth.

The worst moment in Shinra's life, to date, was the day he walked into the apartment with some groceries to find Shizuo spreading a large hand over Celty's tummy. "Oh," he said with obvious pleasure, unaware of Shinra behind him, "I felt a kick –"

It was lucky that Celty had noticed him sneaking up with scalpel held high and shot out her shadows to hold him back, or else there would have been a death that day (Shinra's. No way could he beat Shizuo, not even with all the righteous jealous rage in the world – and it was so righteous, he hadn't ever felt the baby kick yet, how dare Shizuo).

The second-worst moment in his life had to be when his father found out. Shingen got very excited about all sorts of experiments and tests to run on both the mother and baby. Most of these were the exact same experiments and tests Shinra wanted to run, but it was another matter entirely for his father to attempt them, and he nearly had a complete mental breakdown until he'd kicked the old man firmly out of town.

The only other reaction worth mention (the rest were just the usual 'congratulations' and 'oh god Shinra's procreated, please no's) was Izaya's. The informant tapped his chin thoughtfully, and mused, "I wonder; will the baby have a head?"

Shinra couldn't care less one way or the other, but that question caused Celty some serious anxiety. So much anxiety, in fact, that Shinra retaliated by shredding Izaya's invitation to the baby shower. It would be hotpot all over again for that asshole.

That ought to teach him not to worry Celty (even though she was so very beautiful when terrified her unborn child would be a headless half-dullahan freak of nature).

-xxx-

They had decided not to find out the sex of the baby, but midway through the second trimester, both parents-to-be were already compiling their own lists of names anyway. Celty was being sensible and thinking of both male and female names. Shinra didn't even bother, only picking female names (most along the lines of 'Celty Junior' or 'Princess Darling Lovechild').

"She's going to be my beautiful little girl," he crooned to Celty's large stomach, and flailed around in bliss for the next half-hour when the baby kicked against his hand. He did all this while completely ignoring the yakuza with a knife through his hand waiting impatiently to be sewn up on the other side of the room.

Inattentiveness wasn't the only way Shinra's business suffered – he also accepted far fewer patients than before because he didn't have the time to take them in. Due to obvious difficulties, Celty couldn't go to just any doctor. So Shinra spent most of his time studying gynecology. He made a list of every single illness or unpleasant side-effect a pregnancy could ever have, and checked Celty's symptoms each morning. So far all she'd mentioned were slightly sore ankles. That single off-hand comment led directly to Shinra discovering a foot fetish, at least when the feet were Celty's.

By the time she entered her third trimester, however, Celty could often be found laying back and resting on the couch. Her back ached frequently, but perhaps the more significant effect of her hormones was her distinctly muted emotions. She had never been as excited as Shinra was about the baby, but now that the due date was rapidly approaching, she often suffered fits of anxiety and even fear about the birth. So many things could go wrong – and even if the child was born healthy, what if it had no head? What if it wasn't even remotely human? She had no idea what to expect, and at times it could be terrifying.

Shinra was absolutely her rock during these times. As always, his ability to read her body language was uncanny; he seemed to know whenever she was having these fears. For all he fussed the rest of the time, his unwavering conviction and support during those spells of anxiety was just what Celty needed to calm down and feel like the two of them would be able to handle whatever might happen.

"She's going to be beautiful," he'd tell Celty, gently wrapping an arm around her tense shoulders. "And she'll be healthy. Even if she weren't, she's got the best underground doctor in the world to look after her – but there's no way she won't be one hundred percent healthy. And she'll look just like her mother, by which I mean absolutely perfect whether she's got a head or not."

[Shinra… thank you.]

Tenderly, Shinra kissed her neck just next to the stump, one hand rubbing her belly soothingly. "I love you. I love you both."

-xxx-

Celty finally gave birth after a thirty-nine week pregnancy. Of course, she and Shinra were well-prepared by this point. They'd bought baby clothing and toys, a crib, changing table, potty, and many other supplies that honestly wouldn't be necessary for some time. Together they'd worked out a birthing plan, and Shinra had fully trained himself in the role of gynecologist. For weeks approaching the end of the pregnancy, they had been totally ready for the birth.

That didn't make it any easier.

Once Celty felt her contractions begin, she immediately texted Shinra and Shizuo. Much to her so-called-husband's disgust, she had firmly insisted on her best friend's presence throughout her labor. While she mostly wanted him for emotional support (Shinra was entirely too excitable to count on in this case, especially when he would be too busy actually delivering the baby to hold her hand and talk her through it), he might be necessary physically. Shizuo was probably the only person capable of holding Celty down if that should become necessary, and given that they'd decided it was better not to risk a negative reaction to anesthetic, Shizuo's strength could very well be needed if the pain was too much for Celty to bear.

In the end it wasn't (honestly, giving birth hurt far less than being vivisected), but Celty was still glad he stayed with her throughout the six-hour labor – particularly the brutal final hour spent pushing the baby out. She'd gripped his hand so hard at times that she was sure anyone else's bones would have been crushed into powder. Not to mention, Shizuo served as a distraction for Shinra. His actions were extremely professional, with the exception of the videotape he was secretly taking of the whole thing (which Celty later found and destroyed), but it was still his child being born so of course he was nervous. This nervousness manifested as constant scientific babbling.

Celty was a captive audience for the first four hours, during which she worked her way through her pre-labor contractions, breathing steadily and trying to relax, and he ranted nonstop about how fascinating all this was and what an interesting medical case it was and how he was very curious about how it would proceed because it was a dullahan birth after all and that was very scientifically astounding and nothing to be worried about in the least not that he was worried –

When he arrived, four and a half hours in, Shizuo had no patience for such talk. "Shut up," he said whenever Shinra got started – especially after Celty retired to bed for the latter half of her labor and the rambling often took on a decidedly more personal tone. "Shut up. I don't want to know how beautiful her vagina is. Just shut up."

"But this is so interesting from a scientific point of view. The birth has been so normal and easy which is amazing considering that a dullahan can't be expected to give birth like a human but Celty does because she's perfect. But that doesn't mean there won't be differences, and I can't help but be get excited, especially now that I… can see the head! I can see the head! Celty it is such a beautiful head!"

Celty tried to type out her pleasure that the baby had a head, but gasped at another contraction and ended up crushing the phone.

"It's really very interesting that a dullahan's baby would have a head, don't you think? Maybe it comes off later? Wouldn't that be fascinating, if it just became removable later on in life or maybe only full dullahans can remove their head, that might be possible too OH CELTY IT'S A GIRL! I KNEW IT WOULD BE A GIRL!"

"Shut up."

"…such a beautiful little girl I thought she would be a girl because she comes from my darling Celty so of course she'd be just like her mama and she is, she's gorgeous even when she's all bloody and still not completely out of her mama's sexy –"

"DAMNIT SHINRA, I SAID SHUT UP!"

-xxx-

As soon as her umbilical cord had been cut and Shinra had finished checking Celty for placental discharge and administering the baby's one-minute and five-minute apgar tests (a solid ten on both, he reported loudly), Shizuo bolted.

"Sorry, Celty," he said a little frantically. "I'm very happy for you and the baby is wonderful but – but I need to go destroy something now."

Fumbling weakly for her second phone (Shinra had anticipated everything) Celty typed, [Thank you. Sorry. Go tell Izaya?]

Shizuo grinned, though it still seemed shaky. "If he's startled enough to not dodge and die, that's not my problem."

With that, he literally ran from the room. Celty normally would have worried, for Shizuo or innocent bystanders if not Izaya, but today she couldn't care less if the two destroyed Ikebukuro completely. She didn't care if she never found her head or even if the world outright ended because Shinra had just put the baby in her arms. Her baby.

If Celty's head was still able to respond to her body, wherever it was, she was sure tears would be leaking from its eyes. She clutched the wailing little girl to her chest and slowly rocked her back and forth until her screams finally began to quiet. The world had completely ceased to matter, as Celty went into a daze of just rocking and watching her child breathe. How could she ever have been afraid of this?

"So beautiful," someone breathed, and she jumped slightly as she remembered Shinra's presence. His lab coat was bloody, and he looked exhausted, but the smile on his face was the brightest Celty had ever seen. Any doubts she'd ever had that he might not love the child as much as he loved her (even Celty knew how warped Shinra's love could be) died completely in that moment.

She didn't have a free hand to type out an answer, but somehow it didn't matter. This was Shinra. He understood her at a glance.

"I know, Celty honey," he whispered, sitting down on the edge of the bed so their shoulders touched and brushing some damp hair out of the baby's face. "I love you both so much too."

They sat together that way until sleep came.

Never had life been so peaceful.

(Until the baby's screaming woke them up, and Shinra got excited about watching Celty breastfeed and Celty found the videotape and the baby wouldn't stop screaming and Shinra remembered he still had the bullhorn and wanted to verbally broudcast the news since the video was destroyed and Celty's shadows had to hold him down and he propositioned her for sex in front of their newborn and said newborn made a noise like "uah" and both parents stopped everything because that was the most wonderful noise–).