>>”I’ll bet you were all over the place. ”

Shin smiled. Now, she was thinking about him as a kid, he figured. Fun-ny stuff. He'd have to share baby pictures. He idly wondered if his mom still had those. All of them. And all of his stuff in his old room, all the junk that was useless and funny.

Not that it mattered. Kealey was sharing a story about her own mother.

Shin tried to imagine it. "You as a kid..." What had she been into? Who had her friends been? Where exactly had she lived. Kealey had shared stories, but not everything. There were tiny details he'd never asked about, and probably never would, things that couldn't be asked about, because they had to be lived. Shared as the memories flooded back. Kind of like what would no doubt happen when he took her to Japan. Spur of the moment rememberings. "Maybe I need to hear more stories about those days sometime?" He asked.

Maybe they needed to visit where she'd grown up. He left that thought unstated. Plenty of time for considering stuff like that later.

As Kealey spoke, trying to describe what she was feeling from the baby, Lee's hand came to rest on her stomach, and a small smile spread across her face. Almost overwhelming calm, and a sleepy, still feeling? That was good, right? It had to be.

But the woman seemed to be having trouble explaining what she was feeling. Lee simply shook her head slightly. "Don't worry if you don't think you're explaining it well, or quite right," she said. "I know it's hard, if not impossible, to actually explain how one's powers feel or work. I'm just glad that things are going well, and that he's happy."

It didn't take long after that for Kealey and Shin to get wrapped up in each other, talking about each other's childhoods and the need to tell stories in the future. Lee just leaned her head back against the back of the couch, the smile still on her face. They weren't exactly making out with no memory of where they actually were, so Lee didn't see a need to drag them back to reality just yet.

Well this had gotten happy fast. Kealey grinned at the turn the conversation had taken, and waited to see if Shin would expand more on his childhood. It was something they hadn’t talked about very much for whatever reason, and as it turned out it was something she was really interested in.

Apparently the same was true for Shin. He wanted to know more about her as a kid…stories sometime. Kealey grinned and nodded, those were things that were fun to talk about. She could do that…much better than any of their earlier topics of conversation. Which reminded the blond…they weren’t the only ones in the room and they were being SO unintentionally rude.

Kealey liked Lee…a lot. The other woman really understood how difficult it was to put words to powers. They were kind of kindred spirits with their powers that had absolutely no visual component...and she didn’t want to be a poor guest.

”Soooo, have you guys picked out any names yet?” she asked, trying to bring Lee back into the conversation. ”Names are so very interesting.”

And just like that, the topic had gone full circle. One minute, it had been him and Kealey, in their own little world, and the next, Lee and Kealey talking about baby names. He'd liked the Kealey-Shin side of things. He kind of wanted to talk more about it, but apparently... and the realization dawned on his face slow, but surely... that had been rude. Well, he didn't like being rude. So... Shin cleared his throat, and drew himself back into the conversation, much in the same way a skydiver draws himself back towards the land via gravity. He threw himself out an aeroplane.

"I like the name John." He interjected quickly. "Also, Jade."

And, apparently she didn't need to do anything to remind Kealey and Shin about the world around them, about the fact that they weren't alone. But maybe that was because they weren't nearly as distracted as she and Tarin normally were when they forgot...

And when they remembered the fact that she was there too, the conversation came around very quickly to baby names. She shook her head slightly. "No, we haven't decided on anything yet," she replied. "We've got books and lists and stuff all over," well, most of it in the bedroom, she thought, "but no decisions yet."

Then Lee blinked as she looked at Shin. "Jade?" She questioned. "Isn't that a girl's name?"

Kealey turned to smile at Shin for a moment while she waited to see what Lee had to say about names they had or hadn’t picked out for their baby. He hadn’t been thrilled when she turned the conversation back to Lee, and Kealey reminded herself to save some of the topics for later, so they could finish what they’d started. Also there was Japan, and baby pictures of Shin to look forward to.

Lee admitted that while they’d been looking at a lot of different things, they hadn’t been able to decide on a name for their baby yet. Shin had suggestions, though, suggestions that made Kealey laugh out loud. ”Those are great names.” she said, with a bright grin and a nod.

…but apparently they were only looking for boys names.

”Oh! You’ve found out he’s a boy?” Kealey said, running through names in her head, ”My family was all girls!” she said, with mild exasperation, ”Besides, I could probably only come up with Irish names…”

"A boy, huh..." Shin held his chin. "There goes Jade and Rose, then. Cal, too. Too lil. I dunno." He glanced Kealey's way. "I only had Sasami, growing up. My older sister. And Kokoro, too. My cousin. Really don't know many names for boys... though technically, those were Japanese, and this baby will not be. Hmm..."

He'd gotten lost in thought, it seemed. Though, and plotting. Why plotting? He had no idea.

”Oh! You’ve found out he’s a boy?”

"What?" Lee asked. She could feel herself blushing slightly as she turned toward the blond. "Oh, uh, no, not exactly. He just seems so much like his father with how he pokes and prods at me, well, when he decides to kick and stuff, that I started thinking it's a boy..."

Lee trailed off with a shrug. There really was no more reason to her thought that her baby was a boy than that. It was something she had decided at a time when she was barely able to think that it was hard not to continue.

Then Lee heard Shin's words, and smiled, even laughed a bit. "No, he's not going to be Japanese, but this is New York City," Lee replied. "Plus, it can't be every day when a Texan and a Canadia get married and have a kid."

Kealey grinned as Lee stumbled a little bit over her choice of words. They’d not found out anything specific about the baby, but she just had a feeling that the child was a boy. ”I’ve heard it said that a woman’s intuition in these things was to be trusted.”

On the subject of names…it appeared that neither she nor Shin had much to contribute. They’d both come from homes full of women. It was an incredible predicament!

Lee pointed out that while the child was not Japanese, his parentage was a little rare. Kealey had to laugh, ”That is a pretty large geographical range.” she said without much more to add. She hadn’t grown up in the States, and didn’t know the geographical stereotypes that native North Americans grew up hearing.

”I wish we were more help!” she said laughingly, ”But I’m not sure I’m fit to give you anything that’s not a silly reference.”

No idea, none at all. The current conversation was lost to him, and Shin had no idea why. Certainly, it wasn't because for a second, he'd tried considering what he would name his own kid... or what that entailed. Nope. He shook it off with a small laugh.

"Yeah, sorry. We're both comic nerds. We'd probably try to give our baby comic names. Like Yusuke, or Harry, or Dave."

Shin smiled at Lee helpfully. "Tarin is a smart man. I'm sure he'll be able to figure something out." And if he needed help, Shin was always around to help him whittle down lists of names.

Lee smiled as she heard Kealey's words. She had also heard that mother's intuition was normally right as well, but she wasn't sure how well that could be applied to something like this. "Tarin was convinced at the start that it was going to be a girl," Lee said softly. Just because in that shared dream they had had a daughter, didn't automatically mean that this child was going to be a girl. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Neither Shin nor Kealey seemed to have any other ideas on name suggestions. That was alright, Lee simply shrugged. "I'm sure we'll come up with something," Lee assured the two she was sitting with. "And if all else fails, we can always just use the first name that comes to mind once the baby's born."

Not that that would ever happen, Lee knew that she was far too detailed oriented to let something like that to go that long before being decided. But, with talking about sisters and cousins, there was one place Lee hadn't thought of getting a name from before now. She was going to have to ask Tarin what his father's name had been.

Kealey had to giggle a little bit when Lee pointed out that Tarin had been convinced their baby was a girl at first. She couldn’t help it, ”And how on Earth would he know?” she commented, genuine curiosity mixing with mirth as she pondered the question. She knew what Tarin’s power was, and surely it couldn’t have had any bearing on the baby. ”But between us…I think you’re right.” Kealey tilted her head to the side and concentrated, ”He feels like a boy. You’ll have to tell me if my prediction skills are good. Might be my way to my first million.”

On the heels of that, Shin pointed out that any names he and Kealey came up with would most likely be some sort of reference to some sort of something that was important to them and Kealey, once again, had to agree. ”It’s just not something I’ve ever really thought about.” and she hadn’t…babies were…pretty amazing…but still. Names? The blond had never been one to sit around and make lists.

Shin spoke again and it appeared that they all had supreme confidence in her husband to help her make the right choice. They had a good last name…there were lots of things that would sound right. Or…they could follow Lee’s suggestion and use the first thing that came to mind when the baby was born.

”As long as it wasn’t something like…’coke’ or ‘chocolate’…that last idea has merit!”

>>”As long as it wasn’t something like…’coke’ or ‘chocolate’…that last idea has merit!”

"Or Mel," Shin chimed in. He faked a frown. "Mel's a bad name. Absolutely terrible." And in no way a reference to any celebrities at all. No possible way. "Hopefully, it won't be this hard figuring out names for a kid for us."

Pause. Had he really said that? Why yes, he supposed he had. Today was apparently a great day for actually saying things. Who knew?