Family Moments

by aesylthryth


Chapter 7: Keiichi's history

"Mom! Mom! MOM! MMMOOOMMM!" Keiichi's voice rang from the living room.

"I wonder what it is now..." Misaki said under her breath as Takumi shrugged, smiling weakly at her.

Misaki found her son sitting cross-legged before the coffee table, a pencil positioned over a piece of paper. Keiichi was hastily beckoning his mother to come near him.

"What's with all the fuss, Keiichi?" she asked, sitting down next to her son.

"Our teacher said that we should ask our moms to help us with this homework!" Keiichi explained, flashing a killer smile which, to him, was actually just a grin, while pointing at the paper.

The words were written in his slightly improving handwriting. It said:

Keiichi Usui

Grade 5-A

My Birthing Story

Misaki realized what his homework meant. "Okay, now this is quite a long story. You ready, Keiichi?" she shouted in an energized manner while running her fist through the air.

"Ready as ever, mom!"

Takumi, leaning at the door frame, chuckled at the sight. He too reminisced about how Keiichi was brought to the world.


~ flashback ~

Misaki Ayuzawa closed her apartment's door, took off her shoes, simply shoved them to the side of the door, and sprawled flat on her bed. She did all this while grinning stupidly and staring dreamily into space.

Tomorrow was the day she'll graduate from college. And Usui...

The guy just proposed to her a while ago.

Will she call Sakura? Shizuko? Or maybe Suzuna? Her mother might be the best choice during times like this. She must have already experienced this kind of feeling. But then she remembered that Kuuga just proposed to Sakura a month ago, so her pink haired friend might be someone appropriate to talk to right now too. So it was either her mother or Sakura.

"Hmmm..."

Misaki slid her phone from her pocket and dialed Sakura's number. After a few rings, she picked it up.

"Sakura-chan," Misaki said quietly.

"Ah, Misaki-chan!" Loud rock music served as her background, so she must be in one of UxMishi's concerts right now. "Why did you call?"

"Um, first of all, will you go out of there for a moment? It's something important."

"Sure! Um, wait a minute." Eventually, the music's volume decreased and blurred. "There! So, Misaki-chan, what's this important thing, ne?" Sakura giggled after that.

"I don't really know how to say this, demo . . . Usui just proposed to me earlier."

"AH? Really?!~" The girl was squealing like a fangirl on the other line.

Misaki smiled wearily. "Yeah, really, and I just wanted you to talk about it, since I don't know how I should be feeling right now. It's all confusing and... weird, yet the same time it's warm."

"Misaki-chan is going to be an Usui soon! We should celebrate! How about we talk about this the day after your graduation, at the mall with Shizuko-chan? Ah, I hope she won't get mad at us again for taking her out for a girl talk."

"Yeah, sure. See you then."

"Okay! Bye!"

Misaki ended the call, stared at the glowing screen for a couple of minutes, then dialed the Ayuzawa household's telephone number.

"Hello! Ayuzawa residence here, how may I help you?" her mother's caring voice said.

"Okaa-san, it's Misaki."

"Misaki? Oh, yes, I was expecting you to call soon."

"Huh? Why is that, okaa-san?"

"Your boyfriend, or should I say 'fiancé' has already told me about it of course. He asked permission from me yesterday, and what can I say, go on, dear! He'll be gentle on you."

"Wha– what?" Misaki was flustering madly. "What do you mean by go on and that he'll be gentle on me, okaa-san?"

Her mother laughed quite mischievously. "Oh, you know what I mean, Misaki. Take care now. And oh! Did you say yes?"

That was an awkward question for a mother to ask, thought Misaki. "Um... yeah."

Now it was her mother's turn to squeal like a fangirl. She heard Suzuna asking what was going on.

"Misaki, I'll give to phone to Suzuna now."

"Ne, ne, onee-chan, did Usui-san proposed to you already?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"Okay, and by the way, onee-chan, I think Hyoudou-kun has a crush on me. I caught him following me after school last week. What do you think, onee-chan?"

"WHAT? Aoi likes you? Agh, it's up to you, Suzuna. If you like him, date him then."

"But that wasn't what you actually did when Usui-san harassed you almost all of your seventeen year old life, did you now, onee-chan?"

"Ah? But I didn't like him at that time! And we were just teenagers; I thought he was just playing along with me."

"Turned out that he wasn't. Bye now, onee-chan, our phone bill's increasing."

"Uh, yeah, bye."

"And okaa-san just said that we'll be having an engagement party next week or something."

The call ended. Misaki sighed, still flustering furiously. She held her left hand up, her palm facing the ceiling and the back of her hand before her. There, around her ring finger, was a diamond ring, glittering in the lamp light.


The wedding bells were ringing. Red rose petals were raining, or rather, being sprinkled from the church's top floor windows. Two hearts were bound as one just now. Two souls destined to be together through sickness and health, until death does them apart.

It was Sakura and Kuuga's wedding day.

"Here goes!" Sakura yelled, throwing her bouquet of red roses above ninety-nine squealing women, the hundredth was sitting and watching from afar.

Yet surprisingly, even miraculously, the bouquet landed on Misaki's lap.

"What –"

Lips landed on hers before she could even ask what ask what was going on. Breaking it apart before more people stare at them, Takumi smiled at her. "Well, I guess our wedding bells will be ringing soon enough. Don't you think, Pres?"


"Perverted outer-space alien..."

"Hm?" Takumi looked up from the book he was reading.

Misaki's eyelids started to form tears, blurring her eyesight slowly. "I'm pregnant, you idiot! I'M PREGNANT!"

His eyes widened in shock. He didn't think it would happen this early. It was just a week after they got married. But then again, this was supposed to happen someday, so why not now?

"What will we name him, Pres?"

"Idiot! I'm not even sure that if it's a boy yet!"

"It's a boy, Misa-chan, trust me. And he's so going to be chased by hundreds of women."


"IDIOT! BRING ME SOME ESCARGOTS RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

Misaki shouted just after jerking up from her sleep. Takumi shuffled on their bed and didn't reply. She was going to cry soon.

"Ta–sniff–kumi... I–I want– WWAAHH!"

He jolted from his sleep. Here she was again with the incredible mood swings. Misaki's face was tear-streaked but it was still so cute that he could saw awww right then. But there was a more important mission, and that was to find escargots... in the middle of the night.


"And he's going to be chased by hundreds of women when he grows up!" Sakura added.

Misaki, Sakura and Shizuko were girl-talking at a café again, and were having Misaki's baby as their topic.

"Where have I heard that line before..." Misaki muttered.

"And he's gonna have Usui-kun's looks too! But he'll never have a girlfriend in his entire life!"

Misaki looked confusingly at Sakura. "Why?"

"Because you'll think that he'll just be playing with the girls' hearts! And then one romantic night, he'll find his true love and will fight you for their love! Isn't that so cute?"

"You make me look like the bad guy," Misaki said. "So anyway, Sakura-chan, when will you and Kuuga-san have a baby?"

Sakura blushed dreamily. "Ah~ Truth is, I'm already pregnant."


"Pervert! PERVERT! TAKUMI!" Misaki was shouting, once again, in the middle of the night.

"Do you want escargots again, Misa-chan?" came Takumi's muffled voice, as he had buried his face in his pillow.

"My water just broke, you idiot!"

He jumped off the bed, quickly put clothes on, and rushed his wife to the hospital.


Pacing back and forth in front of the maternity ward's door, Takumi waited anxiously for the sound of an infant crying. And lo and behold, the sound reached his ears and his stomach did a phenomenal flip.

"Wow..." Takumi couldn't believe it. He was now actually a father!

The door opened and an aged male nurse with a lot of blood stains all over his coat came out.

"May I see her – I mean – them, now?" he asked the nurse. This was probably the first time he was this nervous, with his hands shivering and his voice stuttering.

The nurse stared at him with a confused look for a while. "You're Okazaki-san, sir?"

Takumi blinked. "Um, no."

"But it was Okazaki-san's child whose cry you just heard now."

"Ah, of course. Sorry for that, I'm just a little nervous..."

"Yes, I know that feeling as well, Usui-san, correct? It seems pretty amusing though. I had never been more scared in my life when my wife was in labor. Waiting in the lobby like this, then when I heard a cry from the ward, I jumped up from my seat then asked the nurse who just got out. Comical that you did the same, Usui-san. Oh, right, right! I forgot–" The nurse approached the man sitting at the other bench then accompanied him inside.

"Ugh." Takumi slapped his forehead with his sweaty hand when he sat down. Then he heard another infant cry. This must be it.

Again, the ward's door opened and a middle-aged female nurse came out.

"You're Usui-san?"

Takumi swore inwardly. It was time. "Yes."

"Follow me, sir."

Smiling rather tiredly at him, Misaki held a bundle of clean light blue blankets in her arms. Takumi gulped. He was about to see his first-born child. His child.

"I guess you were right, it is a boy," Misaki said, holding out the bundle to Takumi.

The feeling with a baby in your arms was something that Takumi didn't expect to experience before he met Misaki. His past life has been quite sluggish, loveless, and lifeless, so having a goal didn't really reach his mind. But then she came, and his world turned around.

The little boy shifted unconsciously inside the blankets. Takumi smiled.

He was going to be an awesome dad.

~ end of flashback ~


"... and your dad and I took turns on taking care of you. I did on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and he did on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and we both did on Sundays! We also took you out every Sunday for ice cream but we stopped when you became fourteen months old. We were worried that you might get diabetes when you grew older, and– Keiichi?"

The boy was already sleeping on the table, his head resting on his crossed arms.

An end of Misaki's lips curved upwards. She just noticed that her little boy has grown up so fast. Gently stroking her son's spiky dark blonde hair, she recalled all those precious moments, some awkward, some simply amusing, yet nonetheless, treasured.

Takumi approached the two, picked up Keiichi's pencil, and held it out to Misaki.

"What?" she asked, her face evident with complete bewilderment.

He beamed brightly at her. "I suppose it's up to you to write his homework now. Good luck, Misa-chan! I'll be checking Hikari-chan now."

And with that, he casually walked out of the room while whistling a tune.