The phone only ringed twice before a cheerful voice answered.
   ‘Konnichi wa! Murai Residence, Karisu speaking.’
   ‘Hey, it’s me!’
   ‘Tamao? Oh I’m so glad you’re calling! We haven’t spoken for so long – how are you?!’
   ‘Fine, fine! You?’
   ‘Also great! I was just busy checking magazines...’
   ‘What kind?’
   ‘Lifestyle-magazines,’ Karisu said with a tone that sounded somewhere between exhaustion and embarassement. Tamao started to laugh on the other side of the phone.
   ‘I know, scary huh?’ Karisu replied, also chuckling now. ‘Just for collecting ideas. Nao and I are thinking about redecorating quite some stuff around the house.’
   ‘Well, and how’s it coming?’
   ‘Slowly. We don’t share the same opinion about everything. While I’d like to keep the old Japanese style he wants to do something modern. So now I’m thinking about comprimising things... But hey, hear me. Talking like the typical housewife. How’s your life going? Your tummy still growing?’
   ‘Yeah, it’s growing alright,’ Tamao replied. ‘Hardly any of my clothes still fit me, I hate it. Shou keeps saying he’ll go shopping with me for maternity clothes any time, but lately it was all busy, busy, busy. Me with my designs and Shou with Alice...’
   ‘Yeah, same here. I only see Nao when we both get up and sometimes when he’s in PSC as well. Most of the time I’m already asleep when he comes back. I can tell my pregnancy is starting to take a lot of my energy too...’
   ‘Yeah, you’re in... three months now right?’
   ‘Uhuh, just over it. I think my tummy will start growing visibly every minute now and then I can finally experience your hardships,’ Karisu laughed.
   ‘Yay, shared misery is much more fun! And it’s true that it takes a lot of energy! I’ve already stopped working full-time for a while, so I only make designs here at home and do the households a bit, but I’m really beat every night. And then Shou can’t stop annoying me with all the caring he wants to offer me and ‘good advice’. He’s being very sweet, but he makes it sound like I’m a patient off the intensive care...’
   Karisu started to laugh. ‘I know exactly what you mean! Nao is like that too. Even with carrying simple stuff or when I’m just tired for a little bit... I’m not even visibly pregnant yet and he already acts like the perfect dad! Well, the worried neurotic kind of dad that is... Even though I’m already making arrangements for working fewer days, he can’t stop himself mentioning at least once a day that I should quit working soon.’
   ‘Yeah, sometimes I also just want to say to Shou: ‘Could you please quit pampering me for one second so I can still feel like an independant woman?’ But then again, he’s being so extremely sweet to me so I can hardly be angry...’
   ‘Same here. And Nao really is right about working fewer days, but the point is... I’m afraid I’m going to miss it too much...’
   ‘Awww, Karisu...’
   ‘It’s true! Working for PS Company is what I dreamed about and what came true! I have contacts with the bandmembers and I simply love socialising with them and talking about all their new developments. Those I write down and with that I make money. That’s already awesome, but I do it most for the friends I make each day. Alice Nine, the guys from Gazette, even Miyavi... I’m just gonna miss them all so much...  ’
   Karisu let out a sigh and for a moment there was silence at her side. But just when Tamao wanted to say something again she heard her friend chuckling slightly.
   ‘...And I’ll especially miss Tora-kun and Reita-san.’
This time it was Tamao who broke into loud laughter.
   ‘Yeah, with your special live-reports... Those details you put in were –‘
   ‘Hey, and nothing but the truth, huh? I never mentioned too much, only us insiders will know...’
   ‘Yeah, they’ll know allright! When you put in sentences like: ‘how the two of them become more supple each time on stage...’
   ‘... how much they can learn from eachother...’
   ‘... the positions they’ll often find themselves in...’
More sentences were lost since now both girls were choking with laughter on each side of the phone.
   ‘They really hated me after that last article,’ Karisu said after a while, still laughing. ‘You should’ve seen the look on their faces... considering how much they were blushing as well!’
   ‘Ah, that must’ve been so cute! And the best part is; they can’t harm you because you’re a reporter, but also because if you hadn’t liked Nao over Tora, the two of them wouldn’t have ended up together.’
   ‘You mean ended up drunk in a hotelroom together.’
   ‘Outcome the same. And – ow, come on...’
   ‘What’s wrong?’
   ‘... My damn fat stomach is being troublesome when I try to pick up something.’
   ‘Awww...’ This time Karisu made a sympathic sound. ‘I can imagine it being unhandy, but I think it looks so good on you, being pregnant! You really have a motherly glow over you...’
   ‘Oh god, that’s exactly what Shou says. You’re all probably right, but believe me; when you’re fat like this someone can tell you you’re beautiful a thousand times a day but you won’t buy it.’
   ‘...Okay, I get your point.’
   ‘I mean, how can men find such a big tummy attractive?’ Tamao continued. ‘Shou is completely adored by it, and I think he’s nuts. But he truly likes it. Even in bed –‘
   ‘Oeh, oeh, interesting subject!’ Karisu suddenly interrupted her. ‘I’m sorry, please continue. Yes, in bed...?’
   ‘...Well, uhm...’ Tamao spluttered, suddenly feeling embarassed. ‘He... doesn’t mind it at all, so he... we... still do it a lot and I hadn’t really expected that.’
   ‘But sweetie, shouldn’t that be normal? I think it is, though... Nothing has changed yet between me and Nao, even since I’ve also started feeling less attractive with my growing tummy. We’re still, well, quite energetic in the bedroom,’ she ended with a shy chuckle.
    ‘Yeah, Shou is too. And it’s not that I don’t like that but... This may sound silly... I’m afraid it’ll hurt the baby.’
   Once again Karisu started laughing. ‘My, is Shou such a beast in bed? Better start taming him a bit then!’
   ‘Well, not always he is,’ Tamao replied, also laughing again. ‘Most of the time he’s really gentle and sweet. Especially now around me and the baby. A while ago, when we were watching TV from the couch, he fell asleep with his head on my tummy, hugging it in his sleep.’
   Karisu squealed then let out a long ‘Awwwwww... That is so cute!’
   ‘Yeah, and then the baby kicked him awake. Probably didn’t like his father being a lazy ass.’
   ‘Really, is Shou – Wait a second, the baby kicked?!’
   ‘Ah, yes, he’s been keeping that up for quite a while now. Really exhausting.’
   ‘He... but...’ Karisu sounded speechless. ‘But... That’s wonderful Tamao! He or she’s already... Then it’s going so fast... before you’ll actually -’
   ‘I know,’ Tamao replied, unable to stop a grin.
   ‘Wow... It’s really going so fast...’ Karisu sighed, and stayed silent after that. Tamao also sighed, staring at the wall and only listening to her friends breathing silently. The two girls stayed like that for a long moment, lost in their own thoughts, and obliviously from the other, both were winding the phonecord around their fingers.
   Finally it was Karisu who spoke again, with a very soft voice.
   ‘I miss you, Tammy.’
   ‘I miss you too,’ Tamao replied equally soft. The two of them drew breath and then said at exactly the same time: ‘Come over soon, ok?’
   The two of them chuckled.
   ‘Sure,’ said Karisu.
   ‘Of course,’ said Tamao. ‘... Bye.’
   ‘Yeah, take care! Bye bye.’

Tamao slowly put down the phone and sank back in her chair. Drifting away on her thoughts, her hands autimatically wound around her stomach and her lips curled up in a smile. Like that she stayed, even when Shou came home. He found Tamao like that in the livingroom, the back of her chair facing him.
   Shou walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind, kissing her lovingly on her cheek. ‘Tadaima,’ he whispered.
   ‘Okaeri,’ she replied, also whispering. Her hands wound themselves between his arms. She then felt a shiver going through Shou’s body.
   ‘Your hands are cold,’ Shou said, already with a worried tone. ‘How long have you been sitting here like that?’
   ‘Don’t know,’ Tamao answered, aloof. Shou took her small hands in his and started rubbing them warm, meanwhile looking wary out of the corners of his eyes at Tamao’s face. Tamao knew, and to make him stop worrying she turned to him fully with a dazzling smile.
   ‘I was just talking to Karisu on the phone. She and Nao are doing fine.’
   ‘That’s great to hear!’ Shou replied cheerful and visably relieved. ‘I was also thinking about them today. Hey, we should meet up again soon.’
   ‘Yeah, we should...’
   Shou tilted his head to the side and looked at her with a near pityfull smile. ‘You sound extremely tired. Come, I’ll take you to bed.’
   ‘For the last time; I’m not – No, don’t you dare -!’ But Shou had already lifted Tamao up in his arms and calmly started carrying her bridal style towards the bedroom. Tamoa kept making sounds somewhere between complaints but also laughs. Shou’s fingers in her sides were intendedly tickling her, she could tell from the mischievious smile on his face. Next to wriggling her legs Tamao couldn’t put up much of a resistance, and she had to wrap her arms around Shou’s neck to keep her balance. So instead she used her only attack left: she raised her head to plant her forhead against Shou’s and started giving him the deepest glare ever. Shou’s smile only faded for a second, before an even naughtier grin appeared.
   ‘Put me down.’
   ‘Nope.
   ‘Now.’
   ‘No. My dear wife is tired, so I take her and the baby to bed.’
Shou opened the slidingdoor to their bedroom with his foot and Tamao splurted out the last she could think off: ‘Why do you keep acting like the perfect dad all the time?’
   The next moment, Shou suddenly let go of her and Tamao landed on her back on their soft matras. Tamao yelped when she fell, and before she could even well register her fall Shou was already on top of her, leaning on his knees to spare her sensitive stomach and his face just an inch away from her. Tamao’s eyes were still wide-open as she looked in Shou’s beautiful brown eyes. He wasn’t smiling anymore.
   ‘Can’t I be? The perfect dad?’
   Tamao didn’t understand him at first, but just as she understood Shou locked her in a loving kiss, his one hand caressing her face.
   ‘I do want to be, you know...’ Shou whispered when they had broken away again. He gently kissed her both cheeks, her nose, her chin, then down her neck.
   ‘...And I know I can truly be a bitch about it sometimes...’ Shou let out a chuckle and Tamao also smiled, still she hardly moved her body for she wanted to hear each fragment of his words.
   ‘... but I’m only like that because I care so much about you,’ – From her face, he placed his hand gently on her stomach and kissed her several times there – ‘and the baby. Our baby.’
   Tamao felt herself melting after Shou’s honest words. The moment Shou had brought his face up to hers again she placed her hands in his neck and kissed him passionately.
   Words couldn’t decribe what she felt for him now, maybe actions could.
   Shou returned her kiss with the same amount of passion while he reached next to him and carefully pulled the sheets over the both of them. Their play of passion continued while the moonlight made the white sheets and their bodies glow.

I love you.