It was all his choice and therefore his fault.
"Dr. Kamui, Luka-san is here to see you." The young nurse announced, cheerful as ever, tucking a short lock of messy green hair behind her ear.
"Ah, right. I'll be there in a moment." The young doctor looked up and answered, his eyes shining with glee, with the silly smile he couldn't hide whenever he thought of his fiancée, Luka, before he went back to continue typing the results of their latest research. Every time Luka was mentioned in front of him, his heart would flutter inside his chest and he would gain an instant mood boost. She was his sunshine, his future wife, and his whole life.
As he finished typing and clicked the save icon, he turned off his laptop immediately and dashed through the double door, muttering a 'Please excuse me, I'll be back in a minute' on his way. The young doctor speeded through the corridors impatiently, ignoring the crowds of doctors trying to talk to him, the medical talk could wait, but his talk with Luka couldn't, not after the message she had sent him today.
Finally the corridors seemed to come to an end, and a pink figure vaguely appeared in his vision, a few more steps and he was there, in the busy waiting room where the loud cries of the incoming patients and the noise of those who came to visit, check something up, or to study could almost deaf him, but today he didn't pay any attention to the racket, he could only hear her mutter a "Morning, doc' " which sent some sort of satisfying feeling through his whole body; it was his daily morning dose of honey.
"Luka dear, haven't I told you not to visit the hospital before? What if you catch a sickness?!" The long haired doctor reproached, holding hands with the pink-haired lady.
"Oh look at yourself! There you are trying to blame me although you deeply know you want me to be around you all day long." The young woman called Luka blinked and stuck her tongue out a little bit, mischievously. "you're holding hands with me already!" She laughed. "haven't we agreed not to mix work with personal matters? Wasn't that your suggestion, Doc' ?"
"It's not fair, you have me under your charm!" He half-complained, "I love you Luka, I only want to make sure you stay as healthy as you are, it's because I care about you that I don't want you to hang out around here a lot, specially for…him." He hesitated before he finished, slightly touching Luka's stomach, his hand trembling with the joy that he couldn't contain, and his jaw hung open as he searched for more words to say but found nothing. He shook his head at the young woman, unable to believe that he was actually going to be a father.
"him? They're only 11 weeks old, you can't be so sure! It could be a she, doctor Gakupo!" Luka smiled pressing his hand slightly against their awaited child.
"Come on, quit it with the 'doctor' already, the baby will be afraid of me! Currently, I am Gakupo the dad, not the doctor." He announced, a proud smile shining along with his eyes. "But why didn't you inform me earlier?".
"Well, dad, I wanted to make sure before I could break out such life changing news to you, besides," The pinkette paused, scratching her head and choosing her words carefully before she spoke again "I…sort of didn't know whether this was something you wanted or not, I don't know if you're ready for something this huge! I don't know if you're ready to form a family! I-I don't know! That's why I decided to let you know in a text message first, I could just say that I was kidding if you didn't like it. What if you weren't really serious with me?! wha-what if you-" she stuttered but was soon silenced with a quick kiss from her lover.
"A he, a she, a twin, a triple, I am already in love with all of our children. And of course, their mama." Gakupo quietly said, wrapping his arms softly around Luka's waist. "I will take the rest of the day off. Let's go somewhere and have a talk." Luka nodded at the doctor who was now talking with a blue-haired male nurse.
Somehow, as the couple walked out, their feet ended up leading them to the nearby park where they used to spend their times when they were still high school students. It was almost empty like it had always been, dipped in gold as the sun rays warmed it, and full of so many memories and feelings. Their first date, first kiss, first love, and now first child. So many firsts did the park host.
Gakupo watched his fiancée dance her way to their usual swing under the big oak tree they had carved their initials on long ago, the cool breeze gently playing with her long salmon-pink tresses, and pressing her white summer dress against her knees, as so many flashbacks played inside his mind, but he chose to ignore them for the time being and enjoy the present.
Luka sat on the left side of the swing and he quickly joined her. She rested her head on his shoulder closing her eyes and sighed. "This place triggers so many happy memories that I'll treasure for the rest of my life."
"And it'll record more of our happy memories. We'll take our child here and play together, and once they're old enough we'll tell them how important is this park to us, how we sat here one day to take some time off of the fast paced life and enjoy the peace, planning for the baby, perhaps thinking of what will we name them, of how I have to cut down on my working hours to take more care of the baby and mother, how we also planned out our wedding party, there are so many things to discuss…"
"We…did plan?" Luka's aquamarine eyes flickered staring into his eyes. "A small wedding party after the baby is born and old enough perhaps?".
"Anything you wish." Gakupo kissed her forehead assuring.
"I wish I could fly." She mumbled sarcastically, but Gakupo did not hesitate to make her wish come true. He was not a lamp genie, but he could place his hands on Luka's delicate waist and pull her up in the air, and that was close enough wasn't it?
"Whaaaat?! Let me down I was just kidding!" Luka squealed , kicking in the air.
"Nope. Luka wishes, Luka gets." He answered her sprinting and spinning around with Luka in his hands, their long hair locks twirling around them in so many mixed shades of pink and purple. Gakupo finally let Luka down to land gracefully on the floor as his arms got exhausted.
"Can't…go on…'ny more." He barely spoke, panting.
"That's what you get for trying desperately to show your muscles, and for scaring Luka…but I admit, it was fun, let's do it again some time." Luka said nonchalantly crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Hai hai, Waifu-chan!"
"Wifu chan? For real?" the pinkette young lady couldn't hold back her laughter. "you always come up with such weird things, but hey, at least that was better than your medical pick-up lines that are beyond my comprehending."
"No! medical pick-up lines are the best!" Gakupo pouted.
"Hear that dear? Hear it?" Luka asked rubbing her belly. "Your father there is a younger child than you'll ever be!"
"Which reminds me," Gakupo started "Please try to not visit me at the hospital again okay? It's really more dangerous than what you think. If not for you then do it for me, if not for me then for the baby! I am currently doing a research on a certain case, a patient who's been…you can say in a coma, for two months, she is infected with an incredibly powerful type of virus…"
"Oh no, here we go again with Mr.I-am-neither-paranoid-nor-obsessed-at-all. Go on please." Luka interrupted, but all ears.
"This virus seems to be able to cross the blood-brain barrier easily, but that's not just it. It seems to e able to selectively infect the areas in the human brain that are in charge of self awareness and voluntary acts, and the effects can't be reversed. It's unable of killing a person, but it does leave them as good as dead. An empty body with no sense of self, and no ability to do anything on its own. Doctors have never witnessed such a virus before, and they are hoping to be able to find out how it selects its targeted cells so that they can potentially use that method to approach other neurological diseases and perhaps tumors. We decided to name the virus PV0, or Phantom Virus 0, because it can not be clinically detected until it had already infected the brain cells and started affecting them. I personally think…wait, you're actually listening?!" Gakupo asked awed at how she was listening so intensively.
"Yup, memorized every word. I like science as well, it's just that I…thought we were on some kind of date, not a lecture." Luka answered, a bit of disappointment in her voice. "but it's alright, I realize that it's what you like to do, but viruses aren't exactly romantic, this is time off, remember?" She faked an angry expression, and the exploded laughing.
"I'm sorry waifu-chan! Let's go have coffee somewhere, we need to think of possible names for the baby. Is that romantic?"
"Er, better than viruses!" She winked.
Was he being a bad fiancé, or even a worse father? Gakupo couldn't tell, but he was most likely a good doctor, and that was exactly where the problem lied. He was being mean and unfair to Luka that way. He needed to find some sort of balance between his job and his 'family'. One sad or disappointed look of her eyes was enough to make him suffer greatly. He could not offer to displease her, not even slightly. She gave him her all and was his reason to smile, and he had to do the same for her too at the very least.