Entering the bedroom to try and find her communicator, Takaka stopped for a moment before furrowing her brow.
"Get out of the wardrobe, Garoro"
There was a short silence.
"I'm not in the wardrobe" came a voice from within the wardrobe.
Takaka's brows raised, she let out a huff of disbelief. Garoro must have heard it, because he emerged from the wardrobe sheepishly.
"Do I even want to know why you were in there?" the purple frog asked.
"I thought it would be funny if I managed to make you jump"
Takaka's face didn't change, she only blinked at Garoro.
"How long were you out with Yokaka last night?"
Garoro bit his lip and looked to the side guiltily. She'd found him out.
"I leave for one day to report to headquarters and you go and get wasted with that bumbling fool" She sighed exasperatedly, though she wasn't really angry. It was just that Garoro's weird habit of somehow waking up drunk rather than hung over for a couple of hours was a bit annoying.
"It's a good thing we aren't having kids, you know" Takaka said as she made her way out of the room. "They'd be light weights like you"
"Oy!"
The sound of Takaka's fairly masculine laughter was all that was replied. Garoro shook his head. Takaka always refused alcohol – maybe she couldn't handle it herself.
Following his fiancé out of the room, he grabbed some painkillers from the table top in the living room and swallowed a couple dry. The real hangover would be beginning soon.
Taking a seat, he gazed into the kitchen, watching with silent amusement as Takaka rifled through draws and cupboards for something easy to cook, her brow furrowed in bemusement. She was not a great cook.
"I can cook for myself sweetheart, you don't have to poison me every time I get a hangover" Garoro joked.
Takaka ignored the jibe and instead pulled out what she had been apparently looking for – whipped cream.
"Uh…"
"Garoro, what kind of food can I have this on?" she asked, peering out from the cupboard she was rifling through, holding out the can of cream in full view.
"Lots of things, why?"
Takaka looked at him blankly, before turning to the can again, seemingly checking the ingredients. To most people, she'd appear a health freak, but in reality, she just preferred the taste of natural sweets like fruits rather than artificial sweetness.
She frowned to herself, biting her lip before looking up at Garoro again.
"Would it bother you if I got fat?" She asked, causing Garoro to double take.
"What? How should I know?"
The purple frog looked at the can again, before seeming to just spray it into her mouth, essentially drinking it. Garoro watched in disbelief while she did this, before throwing the now empty can into the bin, which clanged loudly as it landed.
"I'm going to the market Garoro" Takaka called as she collected her keys from the table in front of him.
"Takaka!"
Takaka paused.
"You aren't getting another can of that stuff"
She frowned.
"There was barely anything in that one!" she reasoned.
"You had to pull off the seal before pouring it down your throat!"
Takaka was silent, which was her way of showing she understood.
"You don't even like cream. You said it was too sickly" He pointed out.
"It is"
"Then why do you want to eat so much of it?"
There was a silence as the younger frog tried to work it out in her head.
"I don't know"
She put down the set of keys and stood staring at them for a moment. Suddenly, she paled, and sprinted down the hallway. Garoro didn't follow, simply staring at the spot where she stood in awe. What the hell had he just seen? It was like Takaka suddenly had an addiction to the stuff she used to despise for its taste. Of all things, why whipped cream? It was almost the same as deciding that downing a bottle of ketchup was a good idea.
Garoro abruptly halted his train of thought as a stabbing pain went through his cranium. There it is…
Later that night, Garoro had to coax Takaka out of curling into an embarrassed ball at the edge of the bed so that he could retrieve some of the sheets. Clearly, Takaka had reached lucidity at some point and was now embarrassed for her actions, but show it so openly was very strange… Garoro usually found it hard to read her emotions.
"Come on sweetheart, what's up with you today?"
Staying in a silent ball, Takaka said nothing.
"You're strangely moody today" Garoro tried in a bid to get an answer out of her. Instead, he was roughly thrown across the room. Sitting up and rubbing his sore head, he met the gaze of his fiancée, which was furious and piercing. Standing up slowly, he brushed himself off
"Shall I leave you for tonight then?" he asked gently, not wanting to anger her any more. He didn't expect her to get up off the bed and clamp her arms around him.
"Don't leave me, I'm sorry, I can change!"
"So what do you think, doctor?"
Garoro and Takaka were sat in an appointment with a local doctor. It was the only thing Garoro could think of doing, he was very unnerved by Takaka's actions.
"It's nothing serious" the doctor chuckled, tapping the back of his pen on his desk. "They're just the typical signs of early pregnancy, nothing to worry about"
The doctor seemed taken aback by the facial reaction to this explanation.
"Did you… not know?"
The doctor fidgeted uncomfortably as the silence continued.
"…We didn't want kids" Garoro explained, Takaka nodding weakly afterwards.
"Oh… that is certainly… problematic"
There was another silence before Garoro rose from his seat, Takaka following suit.
"Thank you, doctor" Said Takaka as they left the room, walking silently beside each other until they were outside the doors to the doctor's surgery. Garoro took his fiancée's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. He looked at her gently, silently asking what she wanted to do about this unexpected information.
Takaka looked down at her stomach warily. It wouldn't exactly show, eggs took about a fortnight to develop before they were ready to be laid… but it was the idea of having a real, living organism living inside her, only being able to survive by absorbing nutrients from her body. She found it very difficult not to see it as a parasite.
She looked up at Garoro. He looked torn, and she couldn't decide what he wanted. What if she wanted to get rid of it and he didn't want her to? What if she wanted to keep it and he didn't want her to? She looked down at her stomach again, and was surprised to see that she had unconsciously laid her hand on it. Now she knew it was there, she seemed to want to naturally protect it.
"I'm scared" she said, startling the both of them with the two words they thought she'd never utter, "but I don't want to… to kill it"
Garoro considered her for a bit.
"If you want to get rid of it, then do. It isn't alive yet. It's just… I don't know… cells or something"
"I know that. It's not that. I don't know why I said it"
Garoro watched silently as she visibly tried to form her next sentence.
"I just want to keep it"
Her fiancé's eyes widened, but he smiled at her.
"I always thought that might be the first promise we broke"
She rolled her eyes in return, though she couldn't hide a small smirk, and she tugged at the hand she held in hers to get them started on the way home.
They tried not to act like it, but the next two weeks were probably the tensest ones in their lives. They hadn't told anyone else, so it was beginning to feel like a dirty secret.
This was the subject Takaka brought up when they were sat up watching bad TV all night, not being able to sleep.
"Heh, I never thought of it that way" Garoro mused before chuckling loudly "Yokaka always jokes that we never… do anything like that"
Takaka blinked at him in exasperation.
"Let me guess. You want to keep it a secret for as long as possible so that when you show it to him, he'll freak out. Something like 'Dang, son, you tellin' me ya'll really got hot n' heavy wit yo fee-on-say?'"
"That is a terrifyingly accurate impression, Takaka" Garoro smirked, slightly impressed.
"It's true though, isn't it?" She said, punching him gently in the shoulder.
"Only since you brought it up, but yeah"
Only rolling her eyes again, she slumped slightly in her seat, trying to get more comfortable in the most uncomfortable looking way.
"I could do with a brew right now" she hinted, prodding Garoro in the side.
"You go and get it then"
"I'm pregnant, it's your fault, you do it."
He sighed heavily before making a show of hoisting himself off the sofa and shuffling over to the kitchen and flicking the switch on the kettle. Any day now, she wouldn't have this excuse, but was he ready for the responsibilities that came with fatherhood? He didn't know. Waiting for the kettle to boil, he glanced at the subtle, plain engagement ring on his left hand. Of course he was going to do this, whether he was ready or not. He loved Takaka immensely, and he'd be honoured to have a child with her. To be perfectly honest with himself, he was actually quite excited. What would the child look like? What gender would it be? Who would it take after? What would its name be?
"It's two AM"
"I want to check on the egg"
"Sweetheart, you're paranoid"
But still, apparently acting on a 'motherly instinct', Takaka left the bedroom and went through to one of the spare rooms, which currently housed a small tank. Although it was common for an undeveloped tadpole to live in one, Takaka and Garoro thought it was very odd, as though they were keeping a pet rather than a child, and they were very much looking forward to the day when they could switch to a crib.
Switching on the light, Takaka immediately gasped, though very quietly, and under her hand. Still, Garoro seemed to hear it, and he came into the room, staring at the tank for a few moments before smiling. Swimming lazily about the tank was a small, purple tadpole. Garoro hadn't noticed that the membrane from the egg was gone at first, but the little flickering white tail was unmistakable.
"It's hatched" He said pointlessly
The two of them approached the tank fairly slowly, as if afraid to spook the tiny life inside it. When they got close enough, it seemed to notice them, and swam to the top of the tank, poking the top of its head out, exposing red, boxed eyes. Garoro's eyes.
"He looks like you" Takaka said when she noticed this.
"How do you know it's a boy? Not mother's intuition again?" He said, chuckling softly at a volume consistent to the rest of the conversation.
"I just know" She said, reaching out with a tentative finger. The small life form eyed the appendage warily, before holding up its tiny, stubby arms, seemingly reaching for it curiously. It attempted to clasp hold of it, but there's only so much you can do with tiny, slippery stubs for arms. Garoro watched as Takaka smiled at the baby. Not one of her usual, barely there smirks, a genuinely happy smile. She seemed to just fall in love with her baby on the spot, which of course was a good thing.
Reaching into the tank himself, he gently ran a couple of fingers over the tadpoles head, causing it to retreat into the water, before re-emerging and flicking water at Garoro's hand.
"You're kidding, he already favours you?" Garoro groaned as Takaka chuckled.
"I think he just wants to play" she said, as the tadpole flicked more water at his father's hand. Garoro tentatively flicked a bit in return, causing the tadpole to giddily dart to the other end of the tank and back, before flicking more water at him again.
"I like him. He's feisty" Garoro chuckled, gently flicking more water at his child, watching it swim around happily at their little game.
The two parents could hardly believe they'd ever promised not to have kids. At that particular moment in time, it seemed as if a void had been filled. They were the happiest they'd ever been together.
Just under a month later, their child had developed its tiny limbs, though it was still unable to properly walk or crawl much. It had been identified as a boy, to Takaka's joy. Now they could finally decide on a name for him.
"I hadn't even thought about it, to be perfectly honest" Takaka said nonchalantly as she set the squirming tadpole onto the sofa next to her, where he flopped uselessly, looking rather comically as though he were confused at his inability to move about on his own yet.
Garoro stroked his moustache thoughtfully as he watched his son, who had managed to roll himself onto his front, glancing around inquisitively at his surroundings.
"How about we give him a name relating to a Pokopenian animal, like yours is?" Garoro suggested, referring to the 'Taka' part of his fiancé's name, which apparently was the Japanese name for a hawk or eagle.
"I guess so"
Takaka closely studied her son, looking for a sign as to which animal she should pick. Fairly quickly, she spotted the emblem he had on his hat; a triangular one with two small, symmetrical triangular holes in it, inherited from Garoro's older brother.
"I've always thought that looked like an andromedian husky" She stated, pointing.
Garoro gave her an odd look.
"It doesn't have enough eyes" he said.
"You see them as eyes too?"
"Yeah, wolf eyes"
Takaka said nothing and continued to watch her son, as if looking for more clues. Eventually, the child let out a big, strangely tuneful yawn
"Did he just hoot?" Garoro chuckled.
"No, no… that was sort of like a howl" Takaka said.
"What are you talking about? A howl is like a 'garu' sound, he just made a 'hoo' sound" Garoro reasoned. Takaka looked back at her fiancé.
"What was that word?" she asked.
"What, 'hoo'?"
"No, the other one"
"Garu?"
"That's it!"
"What?" Garoro asked, giving her a funny look.
"You said it yourself. His emblem looks like a wolf. Wolves howl, don't they? Besides, I like the sound of it. Garuru."
"Isn't that a bit too similar to my name?"
"Nah, its fine. Don't you think it suits him?"
Garoro watched his son, who seemed to be watching him in return. They eyed each other almost cautiously.
"What do you reckon, kid? Are you a Garuru?"
The child tilted it's head slightly, before attempting to mimic what his father had said.
"Groo."
"Close enough. Garuru it is, then."
Sitting on the sofa scanning through the morning paper, Garoro chuckled as he spotted his nine year old son peering from over his shoulder, perched precariously on the arm of the sofa.
"Getting into politics, are we Garuru?" He joked, budging up so Garuru could wedge in next to him.
"Politics is boring" Garuru stated matter-of-factly. He wasn't really reading the words on the page, rather just looking at the pictures. On the page his father was currently on, there was a picture of some famous musician he didn't really know the name of, though he automatically decided looked really cool.
Quickly becoming bored, Garuru prodded his father in the side.
"Dad"
"Any day now, kid" Garoro answered, already knowing what he would ask.
Ever since Takaka announced she was pregnant with her second child, Garuru had been very excited, impatient to meet his new sibling. He had asked about it every day since they found out. Garoro thought it was great that Garuru was so excited about the upcoming addition to the family.
At that thought, Takaka came down the stairs, having just woken up, and turned on the kettle. Garuru looked at her, and rather than greeting her like he usually did, he went up to the bathroom instead. His parents thought nothing of it until Garuru came back down stairs.
"You feeling ok? You took a while" Garoro pointed out.
"I ran a bath" Garuru stated. His father waited for more to be added to the sentence, but quickly realised that was it.
"Why?" he asked, curious as to why his logical son would run a bath and not use it.
"I felt like I should"
What was that supposed to mean?
"Well, since you've run it sweetheart, I might as well use it. It should wake me up a bit" she said, kissing his forehead before handing a mug of tea to her husband, taking the other one upstairs to the bathroom with her. Garoro watched her go before turning back to his son.
"Did you run the bath for your mum?" he asked.
"I don't know why I ran it, dad. I just suddenly felt like I needed to. I can't explain it"
Garoro smirked, patting the purple tadpole on the head.
"You're a weird kid"
The two of them were silent after that, Garoro curiously mulling over why his son would randomly run a bath while Garuru wondered what had actually compelled him to do so. Only a few minutes later were they pulled from their thoughts.
"Garoro!" Came Takaka's voice from up the stairs, and it suddenly hit both Keronians as to why the bath was necessary, though neither had a clue how Garuru knew to run it. Garoro took his sons hand to restrain him as they went up the stairs, waiting patiently by the door as Takaka unlocked it, coming out wrapped in a towel, and holding a maroon egg in her hand.
Garoro and Takaka sat by each other on the sofa, watching over Garuru as he held his younger brother closely, sitting on the floor so as not to hurt him if he accidentally dropped him. Again, the two parents were struggling to think of a name, finding it much harder than naming Garuru. Every idea they came up with sounded wrong, or pretentious. Garuru noticed that his parents looked confused for a while now, and finally decided to speak up.
"What's wrong?" he asked simply, letting his brother take hold of two of his fingers with his own tiny hand. His father looked at him and sighed.
"Your mother and I are just struggling to think of a good name for your brother. We just can't think of one that suits him" He admitted. Garuru raised an eye ridge and looked down at his brother, who was staring up with eyes identical to his mother's. He allowed him to playfully gum at the fingers he had grabbed hold of as he thought, before it suddenly hit him.
"Giroro"
Takaka looked up from her note pad, which she had been writing all her name ideas in. Garoro reacted similarly a few seconds later.
"My little brother is Giroro" Garuru stated, as though it was an obvious fact. He looked down at his brother before pronouncing the word 'giro' very clearly, as if expecting him to copy him.
"Garu"
"No, that's my name" Garuru sighed.
The parents looked at each other, than back at the child who almost seemed to be enjoying annoying his older brother by not doing what he asked.
"Garuru's right. His little brother is Giroro" Takaka said, in a similar way to how Garuru had stated it moments ago. Garoro chuckled at her reaction, turning back to look at his children.
"Garuru and Giroro. What a pair, eh?"
A/N
This was a drabble I was going to delete almost as soon as I'd typed it, but suddenly had the inspiration to continue. It was originally supposed to be a GaruTaka fic set before they'd even gotten married, but it quickly changed into a weird segmented thing about Garuru and Giroro's origins. It's choppy, and mostly written very late at night, but I reckon I'll post it anyway. At the time of writing, it is currently the thirteenth of July, and since tomorrow is Sunday, It'll basically be a rest day, because apparently Perpignan gets more lazy that usual on the weekends (I read in a travel book that French people generally are lazy in comparison to British people. Is this actually true? I'm literally at the border of France, I'm not about to make a racist generalisation XD) so HOPEFULLY I'll get some more writing done
This A/N is too long and I need sleep. Toodles XP