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Victor had always heard that you could tell when an omega was pregnant because their scent changed. For some reason he had thought that it must change immediately, as if a switch was flipped from "not pregnant" to "pregnant".
Instead, the change in Yuri's scent happens so gradually that even Victor, would would have sworn that no change about Yuri was too small to escape his notice, doesn't even realize that there's a change for a long time. He's sleepily nuzzling Yuri's neck, because it's there and he loves it so much, and something about the scent rising from his skin suddenly seems -- more. He sniffs again, more thorough, and Yuri jumps.
"Tickles," complains Yuri, trying to push him away.
Victor puts a gentle hand on the back of his neck to hold him down and continues sniffing, opening his mouth to taste the smell.
"Victorrr," whines Yuri.
"You smell," says Victor, and Yuri wakes up just enough to bite Victor's bicep. "Ow!" He probably deserves it. And the mystery is more important than escalating into a tussle that Victor will lose, because Yuri is exceptionally mean and competitive. It's just another reason Victor loves him so much. "That's not what I meant, anyway."
Yuri squints up at him. His hair is all rumpled up and there's sheet marks on his face. His eyes are all puffy and the corners are filled with sleep-sand. Victor kisses his nose. "What's that supposed to mean?" he says, still annoyed.
"You smell different," says Victor. Yuri lets him put his nose to Yuri's neck and take a deep breath in. "It smells really good." Maybe it's been getting stronger every day for a while, he thinks. Now it's just strong enough for him to pick it out.
"Huh," says Yuri, slightly more awake. "Maybe I'm finally going into pre-heat."
"It's not pre-heat," says Victor, positively. He knows exactly what that smells like, and besides, if it was preheat, Victor would be all over Yuri. Victor can't, in general, keep his hands off Yuri, but Yuri in pre-heat would tempt any saint you cared to name.
Yuri goes still for a second and then fumbles wildly for his phone. "That's not right, I should be starting --"
They're both very quiet for about a minute.
Victor scrabbles his way out of the warm covers and says, "Go drink a lot of water!"
Yuri sits up and stares at his phone blankly. "We were about to start training," he says.
Victor drags on a shirt -- it's Yuri's, but it doesn't matter. He only manages to put on his own pants on because he remembers that his wallet is still in them. "I was out for a year with my knee at your age," he says, dragging his coat on. "Having a baby will be much easier."
"Victor!" says Yuri. He's pouting a little. For some reason he doesn't like to think about when Victor was injured. Victor doesn't either, of course, but it seems to really upset Yuri. He's so cute.
"Unless you don't want to have a baby," says Victor. It hurts a little to say it, but he - he would never want Yuri to do something just because Victor wanted it.
"Of course I want to!" says Yuri. "But --" He looks away for a second. "Let's get the tests first."
Victor swoops down and presses a hard, fast kiss to Yuri's mouth. "I'm with you, no matter what," he says.
"I know," says Yuri.
Victor hesitates. If he goes to the bigger store, someone's sure to take a picture of him looking like a crazy person in the family planning aisle, and it will be all over the internet in less than five minutes. If he goes to the corner store, the auntie who owns it will immediately draw the correct conclusion and begin knitting elaborate, cobwebby receiving blankets and booties -- but she will only spread the news the old fashioned way. So, fifteen minutes instead of five.
Victor goes to the corner store. She doesn't say a word but stares at the tests and then at him, and Victor hears, as if she'd said the words aloud, that she expects him to treat that nice foreign boy right.
Yuri always does make himself everybody's favorite, without even meaning to.
When he gets back to the apartment, Yuri is in the kitchen, bundled up in an old sweater of Victor's, with a half-empty glass of juice beside him. The sweater is rucked up around his torso. He's touching his abdomen with careful hands, staring down at it with drawn eyebrows. Makkachin is leaning up beside him.
Victor comes up from behind him and sets the bag on the counter, and then reaches around to wrap his arms around Yuri, chest to Yuri's back. He feels so good in Victor's arms.
"It doesn't seem very possible, does it," says Yuri finally. Victor snorts, and Yuri's ears turn bright pink. "You know what I mean!"
Victor does.
"When do you --" begins Yuri.
Victor thinks.
Victor remembers the tail end of Yuri's heat, slipping in to bed with him in the warm light of dawn after he'd gone for toast and tea to feed him. It always seemed to him that his apartment, as white and full of windows as it was, had been dark before Yuri moved in. He hadn't known what light was like until he'd been in Yuri' home and felt the warm golden heart's-light that filled the little, low building of the onsen, curled up around the hot springs like a sleeping cat. He remembers how Yuri had stretched out as Victor leaned over to kiss the still-red and throbbing bonding gland on his neck, and how he had turned into Victor's arms to demand more. How lovely he had been, how adored. Then, thinks Victor. That's when it happened.
"Don't you know?" says Victor, in Yuri's ear, and Yuri blushes again. He knows.