It's been 2 whole months since Lem and Nelly had returned to Simpleton, and even more since Issei and his fiancées moved into their own house next to ours and the Saints'. Never before was the house so quiet, or at least I can't remember such a time. Honestly, I think morning is my favorite time of day purely because of this. The Sun gently greets Cecily's beautiful face through the window, she furrows her brows adorably to try and dodge it before rolling over. This phenomenon always wakes her up, but it doesn't stop her from squirming about like a cat until she finds the perfect hiding spot to sleep just a little longer.

"Ah, did I wake you up?" I smiled.

"Mnnn..." She rubbed her Eyes a bit as she sat up, "Mhm."

"Can't be helped that our window is facing east." I chuckled, "The Sun hits really hard at this hour."

"Yep, yaaaawn~!" She adjusted her bedhead a bit, "Still annoying though."

Already on her feet, I see. Then again, today is her day to make breakfast, so it makes sense. I'll be the one working on lunch, and she'll do dinner. Then tomorrow we swap, and so on. It's a bit odd of a system, but it works for us and alleviates a ton of the stress of having to do daily chores. Taking turns means everyone will do an equal amount, at least until one of us dies.

"Did you say something, dear?" She turned around with a cute confused head tilt.

"Hm? No, why?"

"I'm asking you." She pointed out, "Why're you knocking on the bedframe?"

"Thought of something bad, so I found the nearest wood to knock on three times." I grinned.

Yep, now's definitely not the time to be talking about death. I guess you guys were busy checking up on everyone else in the story, so you might've missed the big announcement—Cecily and I are having a baby! Well, not exactly, we just started trying for one recently, but the point is that we're actively working on giving Cene and Nelly a little brother or sister! After all, I made this promise to Cecily ages ago, but I couldn't exactly make good on it until we had some time to ourselves.

"What do you wanna eat?" Cecily asked as she got dressed for the day, "I was thinking of making pancakes for Cene."

"Ooh, someone's in a good mood." I joked, "You think we did it?"

"How the hell should I know? I'm not a doctor, and you don't exactly "feel" anything when it does happen." She shrugged, "Besides, can't I just be in a good mood for no reason?"

"Of course not, just look at me." I smirked, "For this entire chapter, I've been doing nothing but smirking, laughing, grinning and joking. It's not every day that I'm like this, you know."

"Maybe so." She giggled, gently rubbing her tummy, "Though something did feel right about last night. Who knows, you might just be correct."

That's what I want to hear, hell yeah! Honestly, I was a bit scared I might've gone impotent after dying once for whatever reason, but I guess that fear might just be irrational after all. If Aru was still here, I would've asked her, but who knows how she would reply. Most probably she would just scowl and call me out for asking her weird questions. Patience is a virtue, but until the doctor gives us the thumbs up, I'll be doing all I can in the meantime.

"I'll call you when the food is ready." She closed the door with a little wave.

Honestly, at times I just have to wonder how this marriage stuff even works. We've been together for over 15 years, married for over a year now, and yet I still don't feel the honeymoon phase setting any time soon. It's magical, mystical even. For her cuteness to not wane even in the slightest after all this time spent together, I guess I'm just lucky to have her. I've heard from Ed that, while his and Anna's relationship isn't exactly the same since they first started dating, it's still very healthy and good in other ways. That being the case, I still feel my fifteen year old heart beat to the same tune it did when Cecily first held my hand. It's truly a blessing, and what's more, that lovely lady is treating us and our son to some tasty pancakes!

"I better get dressed soon too." I tried getting up only to fall back down under the covers, "Ehh, five more minutes won't hurt."

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As I walked out of the room, I saw Cene's door was already open, meaning he woke up before us to go play with his toys downstairs. The thought that, in the not so distant future, that little guy will actually be a big bro filled my chest with an inexplicable joy. Quickly stopping by the bathroom to take care of some morning hygiene, I had started the day off fresh-faced. Downstairs, the smell of pancakes wafted through all the rooms as Cecily hollered my name.

"Hup!" I made her squeak as I hugged her from behind, "Done already?"

"Either you're getting burned or I am." She grunted a bit, "I don't know which you should be praying for."

"I'm praying for option C—To hug my pretty wife without anyone getting scalding hot sunflower oil on them." I rested my chin on her head as we gently rocked from side to side in the kitchen, "Ow!"

"See? I warned you!" She let go of the pan to check on my hand, "It's not much, but..."

"Don't worry, I can just Heal-"

"No, you can do without it." She urged.

"Why's that?"

"Because." She whipped back around with a wry grin of her own, "You might learn to not be so reckless around an open flame from now on."

"Hey! If not being able to hug my wife while she's making pancakes is the price I have to pay for not getting burned, then I might as well set myself on fire!" I flicked open the Spark hand sign.

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"You idiot! Stop playing with fire and sit down, will you!" She hissed, "Geez, you're so annoying when you're like this..."

"Oh boo. Fine, I'll stop showing you any affection." I stuck my tongue out playfully.

"Good, maybe you'll stop staring at me so intently while we have our nightly fun, then." She tossed back.

"Ah, does that bother you?" I tilted my head.

"Yes! Of course it does!" She complained, "I can understand wanting to meet my gaze or whatever, but you're full-on staring! It's really unnerving while we do it!"

Is that the case? I was staring at her? Damn, on one hand I feel bad, but on the other hand I can't help but giggle whilst imagining it. Spending the night passionately in bed, and the entire time I'm just giving her the most powerful dose of uncomfortably direct Eye contact known to man. It's not without reason though.

"I'm testing something out." I explained.

"And that would be?"

"My dad told me a fun fact a long time ago. Like, before I even knew what it meant." I added, "He said a woman briefly converts to Blue whenever she and her partner conceive a child, so I wanna know if what he was saying was true or not."

"That's not a fun fact at all! If anything, it's just weird." She gave me a weirded out look, "Besides, does that even work for me?"

"I don't see why it wouldn't?"

"Well, I'm a Yellow Iro, so I can't convert to any other color, right?" She reasoned.

"...Daaaaaaamn." I put on my best thinking pose as she laid the pancakes out in front of me.

"Get it now? So you can quit staring so intently, I hope." She sighed, "Honestly, I'd rather you looked at my body if it meant I wouldn't have to deal with the awkward tension..."

"Heh, sorry. I'll stop if it makes you feel uncomfortable." I turned to the little boy playing with a bunch of dolls in the other room, "Son, come here! Time for breakfast!"

"Okay!" He tossed them away the moment he heard breakfast was ready to sit on my lap, "Pancakes!"

"Yep! Hey, you want jam or sugar?" I presented him with the two available options.

"Sugar!"

"You just picked that cause you wanted to flaunt your Rs, didn't you?" I laughed.

"No, I want sugar, really!" He pointed to it on the table.

"Pancakes with sugar, you'll really think of anything, Cene." Cecily laughed, "This is for mommy and daddy's coffee, you know? You can't just put plain sugar on a pancake."

"Well, why not?" I humored Cene's wishes, "If he wants to try something he thinks is good, let's let him."

"You're even worse, dear..." She sat down with a tired smirk, "Look at you, sprinkling sugar on a pancake."

"If he doesn't want it, I'll gladly eat it." I said as I handed Cene his utensils, "Here you go, son. How's it taste? Oh, and be honest!"

"Good!" He simply said.

"Eh? Not even a hint of hesitation?" Cecily looked surprised, "Maybe it does work, after all?"

"You'll never know until you try, I guess." I smiled, "Want me to make one for you?"

"Sure, I mean, if Cene likes it, then it can't be that bad." She shrugged.

In the end, it seems mister jam was benched for today's training. He needs some rest too, methinks. What was supposed to be just a fatherly joke of letting Cene experiment with his food actually turned out to be a success, because apparently, sugar is just sweet on anything. It makes sense in hindsight—Pancakes are just batter with barely any taste to them, so when you add pure sugar to it, it'll obviously just adopt the sweet taste of the sugar whilst keeping the texture of a pancake. Ah, but maybe crepes would've been a better contender for this, since you can actually neatly roll them up to keep the sugar from spilling.

"A surprisingly good combination!" Cecily finished up her plate happily, "I should tell Anna about it."

"Is that really a smart idea? Ed might scold us if he finds out we're eating pure sugar for breakfast..." I got a tad anxious about it, "He'll never stop talking about cavities and the likes."

"You're way too scared of his degree, dear." She teased, "He's an assistant health advisor, not a dentist."

"Don't those two kind of converge at some point?" I asked.

"He won't say anything." She reassured me, "And if he does, I'll tell him he's a quack!"

"Don't do that! That's like, the one thing he prides himself on wholeheartedly!" I worried even more.

We laughed a bit as Cecily began taking away the dishes. Since she said she wanted to go visit Anna today, I offered to clean the dishes instead. For this selfless act of kindness, I was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek that made even the most fearsome of dishes feel like nothing but a few scrubs away from being spic and span! Cecily soon after left the house to go to the Saints next door, and Cene continued to play house in the living room. Yep, this is the life right here.

"Hey dad." Cene asked, "When are Lem and sis coming back? I wanna tell them about sugar pancakes."

"They were pretty good, son. You might just be cut out for the world class chef position." I praised him, "But when those two are gonna be coming back, I dunno."

"But it's been so long since they were helre!"

"Yup, but school's just started for them, you know?" I explained, "All we can hope for is that they do their best to make time to come back for winter break."

"When's that?"

"Four more months."

"Uuuuuugh."

Yeah, I feel ya, Cene. Worst part is, that daughter of ours really doesn't feel any pressure to come back even when a break does roll around, so it might even take longer than that. Ah, but with Lem, I feel like she might just start changing that. The boy's a bit overzealous, but there's no doubt he treasures her. Here's to hoping everything goes to plan!