Chapter Text
The birds sing loudly. Well, no, they actually sound like they always do, but this morning they reverberate in her head. She wants to get up to close the window, but it sure will give her more of a headache.
She stretches out on the bed and barely hits Eren across the face.
"Auch."
A giggle escapes her. “Sorry.”
She turns to him and caresses his cheek with her hand.
"Good morning," he whispers in a deep voice without opening his eyes. “Am I the only one whose head is about to explode?”
"I told you the second bottle of wine was a bad decision."
"Aw, but we had a good time last night," he says, hugging her and burying his nose into her neck. “You smell like me.”
His kisses tickle her and it’s nice, but she has to admit that it would be better off if she didn't have a headache.
"You sweat a lot, that's why," Mikasa answers and he chuckles.
"I sweat a lot because you make me hot ."
Then she laughs, more because of the tone of voice that he uses than because of what he says.
“Where are you going?” Eren complains, hugging her waist as she sits on the bed.
"To take a shower."
“Need company?” he asks, kissing her nude back.
"Do you remember what happened last time? You almost fainted.”
"Oh, shit, yeah," Eren laughs again. “Ah, but we had a good time before, didn't we?”
The days are calm. She gets up earlier than Eren to go to work. She has a flower shop. Her flower shop. A few months ago they opened it together. Mikasa was able to quit her previous job, but Eren continued, because it’s necessary to have a secure entrance.
She likes it. She loves her flower shop.
When Mikasa returns, Eren is already home. Sometimes he’s making dinner, sometimes he is napping. He really likes to sleep.
Their days are calm.
She enters the apartment. She’s hot and feels heavy, all day she felt that way. Eren’s making dinner.
"Welcome," he says, leaning out of the kitchen and making an apologetic face, "I forgot a few things for dinner, could you go?"
She’s gonna answer, but she covers her mouth quickly.
“Mikasa?” he approaches, but she dodges him, walking fast to the bathroom. Eren follows her closely. “Are you okay? Did you eat something bad?”
She would reply, but she's busy throwing up.
"I'll get you water," he announces, returning to the kitchen.
When she's done, she rests one arm on the toilet and her face on her hand, sighing heavily and concentrating on not continuing to vomit.
"Here," Eren says. She rinses her mouth with the first sip, then drinks a little. "Did it pass?"
She nods. He helps her to her feet and she walks over to the sink to wash her face and teeth.
"Did you eat something bad?" She shrugs. "I'll make you some rice."
She comes out of the bathroom and goes to the kitchen.
"What are you cooking?" Mikasa asks, grimacing.
"Chicken," Eren says, "I'll cook you some on the griddle."
Mikasa denies, “No, I'm not hungry."
Not to mention that the smell of it turns her stomach.
Eren looks at her narrowing his eyes and she raises an eyebrow.
"Okay, but you have to eat the rice."
"What did you need me to buy?"
He gestures, dismissing it. "Nothing important, I'll go tomorrow. If you want to, go to bed."
That sounds good. She is quite tired. It must be from exhaustion from vomiting. She takes off her shoes and changes into her pajamas. She feels impressive relief when she takes off her bra. Curious, but welcome.
She lays down. She closes her eyes and when she opens them, Eren is sitting next to her, eating.
"Wanna eat? You fell asleep," he says. Mikasa yawns and nods, he hands her the plate of white rice. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine, surely I ate something bad."
They eat in silence, with the TV making noise for them.
She doesn't vomit again, but her nausea does recur, plus she feels more tired than usual.
"Did my bust grow?" She asks one night. Eren is coming back from the bathroom and stops at the door, looking at Mikasa's breasts. He runs a hand over his chin and squints.
"Now that you mention it... maybe so" he nods slightly and goes to hug her, "but we've also been eating in bed all these days, maybe that's why."
Clearly it’s not because of that.
Eren caresses her back and kisses her neck.
"Are you still thinking about putting your shirt on?" he sighs against her collarbone and then rises to her lips.
Well.
The damage has probably already been done.
Mikasa doesn't waste time thinking if she is or if she's not, she directly goes to the hospital. She decides not to say anything to Eren, just in case, and she walks up to one on the way to the flower shop.
They attend her quickly and in half an hour she is already at work. What she doesn't have is the result, because to receive it in the moment she had to wait and blah, blah, blah. Then, at some point in the day, they'll email it to her.
She doesn't think about it. She tries so hard not to think about it or analyze it or anything. She wants to do it with Eren.
She makes bouquets. Centerpieces. She makes sketches and designs for decorations, takes a thousand photos to advertise on social media, sells some bouquets. She stays as busy as she can, until her phone rings. She looks at it distracted, saying goodbye to the customer and then reads that the sender is the hospital and the content of the mail must be her results.
Mikasa leaves the phone upside down on the counter.
She can no longer think of anything else.
"Welcome," Eren says when he hears her arrive. It's movie Friday, so he's sitting on the couch, looking for something to watch. "We'll order the pizza whenever you want."
She sits next to him. It takes him a second to look at her, but when he does, Mikasa's serious expression worries him.
"I went to the doctor today, because of the nausea," she says before he opens his mouth, "and I have the results."
Mikasa takes out the phone and opens the mail. They both stick together while it loads so they can read it.
"What does this all mean?" Eren asks without understanding and Mikasa is the same.
She thought it would be somewhat easier, that it would just say you are or you are not, but instead there is a list of erythrocytes, leukocytes, thrombocytes and other cytes .
"I'm gonna google it," Eren says, pulling out his own phone.
They spend ten minutes, looking one by one for the names and values of each thing, until they reach the last one.
"Holy shit," Eren whispers. Mikasa's breath hitches and she looks at him. Eren looks back at her with bright eyes and a shaky smile. He lets out a laugh and hugs her.
"Am– am I?" She can't believe it.
"You are pregnant!" he exclaims and hugs her tighter, laughing, "shit, I can't believe it, this is– is–"
They look at each other.
"Is it good?" Eren asks then, unsure of her opinion. He tries, but he can't keep the disappointment out of his voice.
Mikasa would be lying if she said that she's not a little excited too.
"It's good!" She exclaims too, hugging his neck and laughing. Eren gasps and sighs in relief. "I can't believe we did this…"
"We're starting our family," Eren says.
Mikasa looks at him and wonders if her eyes are as watery as his.
"In this world, I have a place to go home to," Eren says, stroking her cheeks and smiling, "and it's you two."
She wants to say that it's the same for her, but it's impossible to speak while she cries.
Perhaps the most serious problem they face is deciding how they are going to announce it.
"Let's put it in the group!" Eren says, smiling, "that way, everyone will know at the same time and it will be fair."
"We can't announce it like that," she laughs, "it has to be done face to face."
"Oh, and we'll see their reactions," Mikasa laughs again. "How about we invite them to dinner on Friday?"
"We're going to dinner with Zeke on Friday."
"Well, Saturday, then," he hugs her. "I'm dying to tell them."
"Me too."
He falls asleep in disbelief and when he wakes up it's the same. They are having a baby. It's not something they have planned, maybe it's closer to a mistake, but it's the best mistake of his life.
When Eren comes home from work on Friday, Mikasa is already home, napping on the couch. She stole his idea from him, but he assumes that she will need it more.
He goes to the kitchen, to see what he can eat from the refrigerator.
They need another room.
Well, they need another department, actually. They need baby things. He has to ask Zeke for the baby clothes his mother had kept. She would have loved it.
Although it's all boy clothes. He doesn't even know what they're gonna be. Although he doesn't know what he wants. Does he want a boy or a girl? He's not going to lie, he would like to have both.
No, no, one baby is enough. For now.
"You're home," Mikasa's voice makes him jump. He takes the chicken leg out of his mouth and smiles.
"I'm home. How's my family?" he approaches to kiss her.
"We'd be better off if you didn't taste like chicken," she makes a face and laughs. Mikasa walks away from the kitchen and he follows her. "It's still early, get some sleep if you want."
He follows her closer and hugs her, resting his head on her shoulder and stroking her stomach.
"Lay with me."
"I have to take a shower."
"Just a moment," he asks, barely kissing her neck.
Mikasa sighs.
"Just a moment," she concedes.
They are late at Zeke's house.
"We thought you wouldn't come," Pieck smiles, opening the door for them.
"We fell asleep," Mikasa giggles. Pieck hugs them and they enter the house.
Zeke and Pieck live in Eren's father's old house. When their father died, none of them wanted to do the will, more out of lack of laziness than not wanting to. Eren didn't want to keep the house, so Zeke ended up taking over.
The three of them enter the kitchen, where Zeke is taking the food out of the oven.
"If it's dry and you'll be sorry, Eren," Zeke says. He rests the platter on the counter and hugs Mikasa with one arm. "How are you?"
She smiles, “fine."
"We're–"
Mikasa elbows Eren.
"We're fine," he says, biting his tongue to keep from saying pregnant.
"Do you want a drink?" Asks Pieck, "wine?"
"No, thanks," Mikasa says.
"Oh, designated driver?" Zeke jokes, picking up a spatula to serve.
Eren looks at her, asking permission, and she rolls her eyes.
"She's pregnant!" Eren exclaims, putting his hands on Mikasa's shoulders and barely shaking her.
Zeke drops the spatula. Pieck looks at them with round eyes, wider than they have ever been, and then laughs.
"Oh my God!" She exclaims and walks closer, hugging them. "Congratulations! God, how wonderful! Zeke…"
The three turn to Zeke.
Zeke is crying.
"… And then, Zeke cried all through dinner," Eren concludes and lets out a laugh.
Armin and Jean look at each other without understanding.
"I told you to stop telling that story, no one gets it," Connie says, annoyed at hearing it a second time and because he's sure to hear it once or twice more.
Jean gets up from the couch when Mikasa enters the apartment with Sasha. He has to shake his hand a bit for Armin to let go.
"Don't leave me," he modulates silently. He doesn't want to hear Eren's story again.
"Sorry," Jean returns in the same way, letting go. He greets Sasha and follows Mikasa into the kitchen. "Do you know the punchline of that story?"
"Oh, of course I do," she replies, laughing. She turns to Jean, “but I won't tell you."
Jean nods slowly, as if to say I can't believe my friend is a traitor.
"And he cried all through dinner!" They hear Eren say again, laughing, and Sasha lets out a laugh.
"She shouldn't encourage him," Jean says, referring to Sasha.
"Come on, they're cute when they do that," Mikasa replies. She takes out some sandwiches that she bought earlier from the refrigerator.
“Need help?”
"Thanks, I'm fine." She sets them on the counter and pulls out a tray to put them there. “Armin told me you got a promotion the other day. Congratulations.”
"Thank you," Jean smiles, leaning on the counter next to her. “That's what champagne is for, even though I thought it would be just the four of us. It's weird that you two invite all of us at once… right, Mikasa?”
The doorbell rings before she can answer.
“I'll go!” Eren exclaims, before she can escape. Jean looks at her raising an eyebrow.
"And I don't mean to be rude, but you can tell your breasts grew," he whispers. Mikasa blushes and gives him a shove laughing. “Are you ...?”
She bites her lip and knows Eren is going to be mad, but she turns to Jean, smiling so much that her eyes look small.
"Yes," she whispers.
Jean gasps and his entire confident facade collapses.
"I get now Zeke's story…”
“You're crying!?” she exclaims in a whisper and covers her mouth to keep from laughing. “Oh, God, Jean…”
"I can't believe it," he mumbles, hugging her and crying on her shoulder. Mikasa laughs and pats him on the back. “I can't believe it, I even bet with Armin.”
“Armin… Of course it was him, you're not that observant.”
Jean keeps the detail that it was he who noticed that her breasts had grown.
"How much are you?"
"A month or so."
"But why was Zeke crying?" They hear Ymir ask at the door.
"You’ll say it at dinner?" Jean asks and she nods.
"Don't tell Armin, I want to see his reaction."
"Of course," he laughs, "I want to see his reaction too… Damn, I can't believe it!"
He laughs, carrying the tray of sandwiches. Mikasa keeps smiling at him. Everyone is sitting at the table, where the pizzas that Ymir and Historia brought are.
"And Sina?" Sasha asks, sitting down across from Historia.
"It's grown-ups night," Ymir answers for her. "We left her with her babysitter.”
"What about you guys?" Asks Historia, looking at Sasha and Connie, "your boyfriends?"
"Working," they reply at the same time, just as disappointed.
They start eating. They talk about work, study, why Reiner and Niccolo preferred to work instead of seeing everyone, that Sina is about to turn three years old and that they have to have a party. Eren and Mikasa, sitting on opposite sides of the table, can't help but look at each other all the time wondering now? Or now?
They look into each other's eyes until they decide it's now and say in unison, "We're having a baby."
Armin chokes on his drink, Sasha's slice of pizza slips from her fingers, Historia leans back hard from her chair, nearly ending up against the wall, and Connie laughs.
"It’s impossible you had laid," he says looking at Eren and he frowns.
“Hey!”
“Are you okay?” Jean asks Armin, who is still coughing.
"Oh, God, oh, God," Historia seems about to hyperventilate.
"Miki, you said we would do it together!" Sasha exclaims, already standing next to her, hugging her.
"You said the exact same thing to Ymir," Mikasa replies, stroking her arm. They all turn to the one named, who hasn’t said a word.
Ymir is crying.