Then comes Marriage

By Katia-Chan

A/N: So, I'm...kind of...not dead? I mean for the purposes of writing I may as well be because grad school's kind of hell and has smothered all my creativity under piles of deadlines and undiagnosed anxiety disorders. But I did manage to wring this out of my brain a while ago (seriously guys this is the first and only thing I've written in, like, 3 years it's practically a miracle). It was just taking up space on my hard drive, and then recently I just decided what the hell. I don't even know if anyone still pokes their noses into my fics anymore, or if I'm posting into the void. But it felt weird having an unpublished fic just loitering. So...here it is. And I mean, if the world can have one more fic about Hatori and Mayu, it should have it, no matter the quality or the togetherness of the author. And I just kinda missed posting and interacting with the world of ffnet. So, hi...and have a thing.

Disclaimer: It makes me feel sixteen to put a disclaimer here...but y'all know the drill.

XXX

Mayuko was not a patient person; she had things to do, and if she moved slow it was because other people were in the way. But somehow, when it came to Hatori, somehow she didn't mind waiting. He took things so slowly, moved with such deliberation, and she loved that about him. He was careful, and thoughtful, and methodical in the way he loved her. And he always came through—they dated, and eventually they got married, and it didn't even take the ten years Shigure had predicted and she had secretly feared. But she'd have waited, even if it had. He was worth it.

But this was not in the plan.

She'd felt like a naughty teenager, hiding her shoebox far, far under the bed. And the fact that it was full of prenatal vitamins and pamphlets about pregnancy really didn't help. She would wait for him to leave for work, then wriggle under to retrieve it, hurriedly popping supplements and skimming the pages of booklets that scared her to death.

It wasn't that they didn't want children; they did. But Hatori had seemed, well, hesitant, and Mayuko couldn't blame him. Not much trumped Souma baggage. And he hadn't said no, but he hadn't thrown her down onto the bed that second, either. He was nervous, she could tell, and so they had said they would have children, and she had resolved to give him time to adjust to being married, and to slowly convince him he'd be a wonderful father. She knew how not to push him; she could wait. After all, they had years. And she could wait a long time on that thought alone.

That had been the PLAN. But things happened, and 97% effectiveness still left 3 percent out in the cold, and that pregnancy test had stared up at her, accusing. 'you rushed it, he's going to panic, he's not going to like it, you're pressuring him'. She'd thrown it away, in the gas station bathroom across town that had been the only place she felt really safe taking it, and held out as long as possible so she could come up with just the right way to break the news.

And now it's time to tell him. She's planned out a whole speech. He'll come home, they'll have dinner together. She'll light candles, and tell him how much she loves him, and try to ease him into the idea.

"Hatori I'm pregnant!" She has not planned on shouting it at him less than ten seconds after he walks through the door. And she certainly hasn't planned on starting to cry as soon as she says it. He doesn't instantly reply, and he's staring at her in with his mouth open, and she is absolutely certain that she has just ruined whatever stupid little moment of perfect they were having.

"I know we didn't want to rush, and that we'd talked about doing this later, and I know you weren't ready because your family's crazy and you're afraid it's contageous. And I know that this wasn't in the plan right now and that you must be feeling so pressured, and I'm sorry!" She's bawling and gasping, because it's hard to get through a whole sentence like that without breathing. "And if you want me to go away and raise it somewhere else for a while I'd totally understand!" She sounds crazy—she doesn't care she can't stop.

It's hard to see his expression because she's thrown her hands over her eyes. So she's also not expecting it when he gently pulls them away from her face.

"What on earth are you talking about?" His voice is soothing, and only the slightest bit bemused as he brushes at her tears with his fingers, and he's being sweet and she wants to shake him for it wasn't he listening? "Why are you apologizing? If you're…if we're going to have a baby, that's…I mean…" It's not too often that he's speechless, but it happens then, and she'd panic again, except she's never seen him smile like that before; he looks ten years younger, and like he might clap his hands if he wasn't Hatori. And he said 'we'… She wants to fling her arms around him, but old habits die hard, and so she wedges herself against his chest, as close as she can get.

"You're not mad?" she whispers after a minute,, almost suspicious, hiccuping as she works to get the crying more or less under control.

"Of course not…how could you think I'd be angry?" She sniffs, wiping a hand across her eyes.

"It wasn't…it wasn't in the plan, yet." He laughs then, and he's giving her that face that means he thinks she's insane, and then he's kissing her.

"Then we'll just make a new plan."

They hold each other for a little while longer, and even though she spends most of her time with her face against his shoulder, she's pretty sure a tear or two makes its way onto her hair. But every time she looks up at him, he's smiling.

"Let's go make dinner," he says after a while, stepping back and brushing damp hair off her face. She nods, and scrubs at her eyes once more, and absently fixes the collar of his shirt. "I think I need a beer."

"You'd drink a beer in front of your pregnant wife?"

He just smiles.