I wanted this to be a one shot but this ended up being longer. Oh well.
If Only For A Night
Disclaimer: Don't own S-Cry-Ed in any shape or form. Because if I did, Mimori and Ryuho would have ended up together. Oh, and Scheris would have lived, if only to grow out of her annoying infatuation with Ryuho and end up married to Cougar.
Mimori Kiryu's youthful ideals had been tattered by the greedy power struggle between alters and humans who craved alter powers. But what truly shattered her was Ryuho's continued icy reception towards her.
Cougar had told her about his mother's death at the hands of a native alter user. Mimori sympathized and understood his withdrawal from the world, even from the people in it. Mimori understood that seeing her face brought back painful memories of when his mother was still alive. It was understandable that he didn't want to remember her or the happy times before his mother was murdered. But it didn't make it any easier to take.
Being thrown into prison for questioning HOLY had given her a lot of time to think. And she had certainly had put it to good use, Mimori thought wryly. But the bottom line was the fact she loved him but he didn't love her.
He had denied her a lasting place in his life, something that she had craved. Mimori had been desperate to keep from being forgotten. She would have been overjoyed to be his true love, even satisfied to be a lover or desperate enough to settle for being a friend. Any place would have done except for the spot that she had been placed in. 'Annoyance from the past.'
She had initially been shocked by his disorientation when he had finally returned from the alter dimension. He had needed some sort of comfort and she provided what he had needed at the time. It had been about reassurance and the need of the touch of another person on his part. But for Mimori, it had been about love and the desperation to have some part of the man she loved.
They were too hungry and full of need to be without each other for long. She was exhausted but couldn't sleep. She knew that if she did fall asleep, he would leave and take her heart with him. But Mimori also knew that he didn't feel the same about her. So she feigned sleep when she felt him turn in the bed and look at her.
Apparently satisfied with what he saw, his weight left the bed. She heard the sound of him dressing and took the risk of being caught as her eyes opened. She looked at him hungrily, determined to memorize every detail of his slim, almost gawky body. Seeing him begin to turn, she closed her eyes again and heard him leave.
She got out of bed and watched the cloudy day outside as it began to rain. She lowered her head into shaking fingers and cried along with the storm. Mimori was left to face the consequences of their actions, alone.
The sadness and the tears were all she felt at first. And she wallowed in her grief for a long time. She felt that she deserved that much at least. Hours later, her dry eyes burned with tears she couldn't shed because her tear ducts had run dry. But her sorrow had morphed into anger, and anger fed her need to extract something precious from this intimate encounter.
Mimori rose from the bed she had collapsed onto earlier, and made her plans. Satisfied, she left her room to borrow some equipment from one of the smaller HOLY labs and smuggled it back into her room.
Later, she would feel a small amount of guilt that she had resorted to such measures. The anger that she felt towards Ryuho sustained her through the critical periodBut in the end, she felt that it was worth it and she never regretted it for an instant. Especially after her daughter was born.
Ryuho had eventually cornered her alone and spoke to her. He stated that what had happened between them was a mistake. That it never should have happened and would never happen again. Mimori listened, anger flaring at his flat, monotone voice. But her white hot rage smothered what anguish she might have felt in that instant, cocooned in it as she was since she had woken to find him gone.
He concluded his monologue with, "I'm sure that you are on contraceptives, Miss Kiryu, so you have nothing to worry about. Correct?"
Mimori never responded. She simply turned and walked away without even acknowledging his existence.
It was a month later when Mimori realized what she had prayed to happen, was in fact taking place. She was feeling ill and having dizzy spells. The medical technician that scanned her told her that what she was feeling was normal for a pregnant woman.
"Congratulations!" The tech said, smiling.
The last of the anger that had encased her body disappeared as she assimilated what she had been told. It left a hollow, cold place inside her. There was a minute of silence before Mimori began smiling. The piece of Ryuho that she had been so desperate to have for herself now lay inside her. A rush of motherly love towards her unborn child filled up that cold place and made it disappear. She thanked the technician joyfully and heard the lecture on taking care of yourself during pregnancy.
"Thank you very much!" Mimori bowed and turned to the door.
She left the office humming. It was only after she reached her quarters that she remembered how dangerous her job was. And how easy it would be to miscarry under the stress she endured on a daily level. That's when she began to worry for her baby and lose sleep.
She waved away all concerns about her health for the next two weeks. That is until Cougar demanded to know why what had happened to her. Unable to take it anymore, Mimori dissolved into tears and mumbled incoherently. Seriously alarmed, he hauled her away from the exclamations of concern of the people around them.
"What's going on?" He demanded as he held onto her elbows and tried to look her in the face.
She couldn't stop the words that escaped her mouth. "I'm pregnant."
Mimori's body went weak and only Cougar's grip on her elbows saved her from falling to the floor. He concentrated on hauling her up and getting her to her room. He didn't grasp the meaning of her words until they kept repeating themselves in his head.
He looked shocked. "What?"
"I'm pregnant." Mimori repeated in a flat voice.
Cougar who had seen no others publicly coveting his precious Miss Minori was stunned by the news. "Who is he?" Cougar said, angrily. "I'm going to kill him for taking advantage of a good girl like you. To think that he got you into such a situation and refuses to do the right thing. For shame! I'll make sure he can father no more children! I'll-"
Mimori interrupted. "It's not like that at all!"
"Who is he?" Cougar shouted.
Mimori tried to calm him down. "He doesn't matter anymore." She prayed to be forgiven for such a blatant lie about her feelings. "All that matters is this now."
She touched her stomach with protective fingers. Cougar's eyes followed hers and lost some of his anger. Mimori's stomach was still flat and showed no sign of the life contained within her.
"What will you do?" Cougar asked her in a gentler voice.
Mimori shook her head. "I don't know. I still want to continue my studies here in the Lost Ground but I'm tired of HOLD and HOLY's horrible treatment of the inners. I want to be able to help them in some way."
"Why don't you return to the Mainland?" Cougar forced himself to say the words.
Mimori shook her head with a smile. "There's nothing left for me there. My future is here on the Lost Ground, not moldering away in a lab where my days would be filled with numbering slides."
Cougar thought for a long time then said thoughtfully. "I think I might know the right person to help you."
Three weeks later Mimori volunteered for another expedition into the Lost Ground. She wasn't refused because she was the daughter of HOLD's major contributor. They wondered at her request for her own vehicle but granted it anyway.
There was a minor accident with Cougar, her driver. His insane love of speed had gotten them in trouble and they crashed against a hill. Mimori and Cougar survived unhurt from the explosion and wreckage of the vehicle to their relief.
It was an apparently shaken Mimori who went back to HOLY and gave her resignation to Commander Zigmar. Zigmar received it with transparent relief. Having Mimori in harm's way all the time was no way for him to angle more funds for HOLY out of her father.
Mimori disappeared during the week after her accident. Gossip had many different stories about where she went or what she was doing. But they all ended with her being back at the Mainland and away from the Lost Ground.
After all, she had planted those stories with a hint here and a homesick sigh there. Those that she had told in confidence where she was going fell all over themselves to reassure Commander Zigmar that Mimori was far from dangerous territory and away from any trouble she could possibly get into.
Ryuho finally noticed Mimori had left without a word to him, so he contacted her home extension to tell her what a wise choice she had made to leave the dangerous work to those who could handle it. Like himself, of course. But it was Ryuho who received the news that her family didn't know she was coming back.
In fact, she must be taking a little vacation before she returns, the cheerful housekeeper told him, because Miss Mimori hasn't come back yet. Don't worry, I'll make up her room right now in case she visits suddenly. Thank you for the news, kind sir.
Ryuho found himself staring at a blank screen. His mind was busy calculating out the possibilities of Mimori's location. Ryuho finally decided that there was no other place for her to go. She wasn't here in HOLY headquarters and no one had seen her on their routine sweeps of the Lost Ground. By default that left her somewhere on the Mainland. She was entitled to a vacation and some relaxation time before she headed home to her parents estate.
It was rather odd that she hadn't contacted them yet but it wasn't impossible that she was swanning about shopping or whatever preening women did when coming back to civilization. That must be where she was, Ryuho decided. He sighed and pulled out his communicator to speak to the commander and tell him what he discovered.
Meanwhile, Mimori had arrived at her destination. She woozily disembarked from the vehicle and shut the door behind her. Her luggage had been piled by the door of a tired little house where she would be staying. The urge to throw up had passed and she noticed her surroundings.
The neighborhood she was in was probably one of the few that could be considered the best the Lost Ground had to offer. The neighborhood had an air of gentle decay, if that was possible to say about houses. The one closest to her seemed to be the best repaired, it only had a few shutters hanging loose and a few other little things that seemed to be in need of repair.
"Well," Mimori sat down on top of her luggage and gazed around. She absently caressed her stomach. "We seem to be home now, little one."