#yaoji

The Yaoyorozu-Jirou household performs an evening ritual on their couch each night before patrols: Momo plucks a thick tome from her mountain of chemistry books and sits on the center cushion to read, and Kyouka tucks herself against Momo's side to watch MTV. It's a tradition they started after the two of them went pro and a close call scared them into remembering that their lives are on the line every minute they're on the job, so they carve out this time to treasure each other. Sometimes Kyouka's snarky commentary on whatever's on TV reduces Momo to half-stifled giggles, and sometimes they simply drape over one another in comfortable silence. Tonight, Kyouka casts a blanket over the two of them and munches on chips from a Momo-crafted bowl. Momo has one hand resting on Kyouka's hip, whose head is in turn pillowed on her shoulder. MTV reports the weeks top twenty music videos and the two leave words where they lie, communicating instead through little touches and satisfied sighs.

The music videos mostly suck and it isn't long before they devalue into background noise, so instead of gazing at the screen, Kyouka nudges her nose against Momo's cheek. The message is understood and Momo turns her head to kiss her. Their lips glide together, slow and indulgent and practiced, and then they part. Momo's smile is too close to Kyouka's face to see it, but its evidence remains in the lines of  her face as she returns to her reading. Kyouka loves their couch dates. She do patrols to procure them every night, if she could.

Minutes pass. Momo studies the Kroll process (whatever that is) and Kyouka studies this woman she loves, watching her eyes dart across the page behind her reading glasses and counting the eyelashes on her lower lid. The music videos have been replaced with advertisements, and she's perfectly content to ignore them. Until she catches the wistful way Momo looks up from her book to take in a car commercial featuring a pair round-faced babies, and she watches that quite smile get a little sad. Every time she watches that reaction play out, Kyouka feels like she's cheating her.

For her part, she has always been pretty "meh" on the prospect of becoming a mother. The thought of all the crying and the diapers, the sleepless nights and the tantrums... The notion of dedicating her life to that stuff had pretty much ground her breeding instincts into the pavement like a cigarette butt in front a dive bar. She has a great career, a pretty decent band, and a love that makes her so happy that sometimes she can't even think straight. She couldn't imagine a baby doing anything for her other than fucking it all up.

Momo, though, Momo is different. Her body designed to make. She dedicates her life to endless research and practice, always learning how things are put together so she can try it for herself. Her mental catalog is diverse, from lighters to blankets to plates to sniper rifles complete with laser scopes. Excluding a couple of wedding gifts and their twin U.A. diplomas hung up side-by-side, almost every single object the two of them have in their spacious apartment came into existence straight out of Momo's own skin. Creation is who part of who she is. Of course she wants a child of her own.

The "kids or no kids," argument has tiraded itself into the breathy dying words of so many other relationships - it's the biggest question couples are supposed to get out of the way early on, so they don't fall in love only to find that their futures are incompatible. The two of them sort of skipped that step, though – Instead of proper dating, they stumbled into a dizzy high school romance that they never managed to grow out of. The prospect of children didn't seriously come up until Kyouka had already ended a concert by dedicating a sedulously-written song to Momo, marriage proposal weaved into the final lines. (The crowd had completely lost it cheering and Momo had sobbed, clamoring onto the stage to overwhelm her with kisses and chant "Yes, of course! Yes!")

They'd never really hammered the nail into the coffin by talking about it, but she knows that Momo knows she hasn’t ever wanted kids, and Kyouka in turns knows that hurts her. Momo is strong and practical, though, so she has tried to let her wish of becoming motherhood fade away, even if that effort hasn't been too successful. Reminders of children bring a blemishes of regret to her wife's features, if only for moments at a time. After she realized how much it actually meant to her, Kyouka spent weeks suffering under the terror that she would lose Momo one day, imagining herself being replaced by someone more willing to parent alongside the hero that brings things into being. It's not as if they couldn't have a child themselves – there are plenty of people working in health-care with quirks that can overcome the inconvenience of incompatible genders. But the two of them worked their asses off to become heroes - They're finally doing what they've always wanted to do, and both of them are happy - she knows that for a fact, even with a few desires left unfulfilled. There's no way the gears of their reality can still turn as they do now with a kid thrown into the works, and she never really thought that was ever going to change.

But one night they're tangled together, stumbling towards their bed and panting into each other's skin between kisses, until she's falling back onto their comforter and Momo following her down to suck against her neck. Kyouka is thumbing open the buttons of Momo's shirt too slowly, and Momo rears back, wild, gripping each half of the top and ripping the fabric open herself. They're both soused in the kind of passion that's irrational and frenzied – the kind that makes them act before they think.  

"I love you, Jirou Kyouka. I want to have a baby with you." Momo comes down onto her elbows to loom over her, breasts pressed together tight and eyes glittering dark and ravenous. "Get me pregnant," she ordered, and then she kissed Kyouka breathless.

What the hell was Kyouka supposed to do? Say 'no'?

The morning after, Momo is a blushing mess of apologies and assurances that it was just the heat of the moment, and she can't believe she really said something so silly. She hides her face in fist-fulls of sheets, but Kyouka laughs and assures her it was hot. What Kyouka doesn't tell her, though, is that she had felt it too. In that instant, for the first time in her life, the idea of having a baby had seemed completely right - the natural next step, the way things are supposed to be. She imagined their child - theirs, the sum of the two of them – and thought even with the all the crying and the messes and the potty training, that raising that little kid up with Momo by her side might be the most wonderful thing in the world, somehow.

That had happened back in September, just before the leaves had started to turn to warmer colors. Now the first snow is falling outside their window and she hasn't stopped thinking about it. Kyouka watches it drift, turning that moment over in her mind, decision settling heavy into her bones.

"My love? Are you feeling alright?" A warm hand slides up to the curve of her shoulder and Kyouka flinches back into the present. "You seem a little dazed."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Kyouka brings herself up, stretches her arms over her head and then rakes her fingers through her short hair. She doesn't usually zone out like that. But she doesn't usually change her plans for life in split-seconds, either.

"Are you feeling sick? Midoriya-san and Todoroki-san could probably cover our shift if I call them now."

"Nah, babe, I'm really fine. Just, ya'know..."

"Daydreaming?" Momo asks, tucking a bookmark into the cleft of the pages with a smile.

"Yeah," Kyouka replies. "Yeah, something like that."

Momo sets the book on top of her stack and rises from the couch in fluid motions, graceful as ever. "Let's get ready for work," she suggests, and presses a final kiss to her love's forehead. She walks into their bedroom with her balletic steps, but Kyouka doesn't follow her. Instead, she fishes her phone from the depths of her pockets, looks up a phone number, and dials it before she has the chance to chicken out. It rings twice and Kyouka tries to swallow the thick feeling in her throat.

"Thank you for calling Conceptions Fertility Clinic, how may I help you?"

"Hi, yeah," she manages, and it almost sounds natural. "My wife and I are considering having a baby."

In their bedroom, something clatters to the floor.

"We wanna schedule an appointment to discuss our options. When's your next opening?"

Momo appears in the door-frame, both hands clasped over her mouth. Kyouka struggles to give a crap about answering the series of questions the woman is firing off. She gets through them, though, and the lady lists a date.

"Seriously? Next year?" Her eyes flick to Momo's face, whose hands drift down to clutch over her heart. "Are you sure you can't manage anything earlier? We're kind of high-profile, I think it would be really good for your business if you see us 'cause this'll probly make the news..."

The woman on the other end starts to prattle about scheduling and Kyouka is seriously starting to lose her nerve. Tears are welling in Momo's eyes across the room.

"Listen, I'm talking about Creati, okay? Creati and Earphone Jack, we wanna come into your clinic and talk about our options for starting a family. How soon can you get us in, for real?" Momo doesn't even scold her for pulling the famous hero card, just stares in doe-eyed disbelief. The tears spill over as woman on the other end suddenly changes her story. "End of the week? Awesome. Yeah, we'll be there. Thanks."

She presses the End Call button and all but collapses back onto the couch. Momo comes forward like she's stepping onto a lake of ice – cautious, hesitant, afraid that the moment will shatter and plunge her into frigid cold.

"I know I didn't ask you, but I sorta thought you'd be fine with that."

Kyouka flashes her the best confident grin she can fake, and the air in Momo's lungs all sighs out in a rush.

"You're serious. This isn't some kind of joke. You're serious, aren't you, Kyouka?"  

"Yeah," she affirms. "I'm pretty serious. Trust me, I'm surprised about it too, but I mean it. I'm serious." She tugs one of her wife's hands to her mouth and presses a kiss against her knuckles. "You're the love of my life, ya'know. I want to have a baby with you, Momo."

Her wife's free hand flies back up to hide her mouth again and her shoulders tremor with emotion.  She's quickly turning into a beautiful mess of joy too potent to express without tears, now free-flowing and reddening her face. Kyouka swipes a bit of wetness from her own eyes and clears her throat.

"So is the end of the week okay for you?" she asks. Momo throws herself back into her arms, back on their couch and kisses her wildly, laughing against her mouth and clutching her tight.