Free Talk- I am so happy that this story has found an audience and that there are other people who like this pairing. Thank you so much for the support and comments. Once again I have used the email device to make the passage of time between chapters more smooth. Things are about to start happening a lot quicker though. I was not particularly happy with the title of this fanfiction when I first posted it, but now I think it actually fits. It has nothing to do with the song, but with Meg's bittersweet personality. Anyways, I hope people like the new chapter. Please tell me what you think!
Bittersweet Symphony
By Miss Angel Maxwell
Chapter 8: Home
To: "Anezaki Mamori"
From: "Tsuyumine Meg"
Subject: Re: Get Well Soon
Anezaki (I know you said I could call you by your first name, but I'm still not sure…)
It's such a relief to finally be on summer vacation. The real relief won't start until tomorrow, though, when I finally get this stupid cast off. I was supposed to get it off two weeks ago, but the idiot doctor thought it needed to heal (and that I needed to suffer) a little bit longer. It's itchy as hell and it gets in the way of doing a lot of things. Even at work I've been delegated to the tedious job of putting shit away until my right arm is up and running. I hate housekeeping.
I heard the news about Deimon coming second in the Tokyo Spring Tournament. Not bad, considering they lost three of their strongest players. That Jyuumonji must be a decent QB, even if it's nowhere near as talented as your demented lover boy. I'm glad I'm not a gambler, 'cause I'd never have put my money on Bando. WTF?
Of course, it doesn't really matter to me anymore. My high school football days are over (unless the belly dweller is a boy, in which case they're only over for about 15 years).
Besides getting the cast taken off, there really isn't much new to report. Well, there is one thing, but it isn't exactly new, just something I forgot to mention last month. I told you all about the fight, and getting my wrist broken, and Rui carrying me out of the school in the most mortifying way. But I didn't tell you about the kiss…
After giving his macho speech about protecting me whether or not I want it or think I need it, he sort of kissed me. Well… actually, it wasn't "sort of." It was definitely a kiss and it was a good kiss. But that's all I'm going to say on the matter and if you ask me about it I won't answer you. I'm really not into talking about girly shit. Even with you.
Tsuyumine Meg
(email sent 9:54pm 7/15)
"Grrrah!" With a loud grunt, Meg flung off the quilt that covered her sweat-dampened body. She hooked a finger into the collar of the t-shirt she was wearing (one of Rui's), and flapped it open and closed to generate a cool breeze against her chest. "Could it get any fucking hotter?"
With his insulation ripped away, the boy next to her was left shivering in his gym pants and tank top. "I think it's just you," he muttered as one long arm groped for the edge of the blanket to pull it back over him. "You've got the AC blasting in here 'round the clock, woman. I have to huddle against your body heat every night just to ward off hypothermia."
He had been sleeping a lot closer to her since the night after that kiss and Meg suspected it had little to do with the climate of the apartment. There was no longer a distinction between his side and her side. They both slept in the middle of the bed now, facing each other, sometimes with one of his arms draped over her waist.
Still, it was just innocent sleep, and though their configuration under the covers had changed, neither of them spoke about the event that triggered it. But Meg thought about it, more often then she would ever care to admit.
The kiss wasn't her first. That honor belonged to a boy who kissed her in the third grade on a dare and earned himself a knee in the groin. It wasn't even her first time kissing Rui, if she included the sloppy, lust-driven lip-locks that had accompanied their desperate mating. But the kiss outside the school was the one she wanted to relive over and over.
Okay, so maybe I do have some feelings for the guy, she reasoned. But as far as crushes go, I could have picked a worse object than the father of my child.
"Hey, you okay, woman?" Rui asked, poking his face out from the snug cocoon of bedding he'd wrapped himself in. "You were spacing out there for a minute."
"I was just… trying to remember what I dreamed about last night," she made up quickly. Luckily, he was too dense to ever figure out she'd been thinking about kissing him.
"You sure?" He scrutinized her with narrowed eyes. "Go eat something. You look flushed and I sure as hell am not getting out of bed if you faint. No way I'm freezing my ass just 'cause you neglected you health."
She rolled her eyes and threw back her head. "Fine, fine. I'll eat," she sighed. "I have to get up anyways. Today I finally get to have this abomination sawed off." She waved her cast in the air.
"I agree that your arm is an abomination, but there's no reason to get is sawed off," Rui quipped.
"The cast, stupid, not the arm." She shook her head sadly. "If the toughs at school knew how terrible your jokes were, I wonder if they'd still respect you." Affection flooded her chest as she teased him.
Yep, this is the guy I like…
Surrogate brother and all-purpose chef, Tokage had breakfast waiting for her in the kitchen. "I hope you don't mind salty miso," he said. "I'm used to making it that way because it's how Rui likes it."
"Salty is good," she said, taking a seat at the table. "I usually like what Rui likes." After that line, she was sure she saw a little smirk on Tokage's face, but chose to ignore it.
The first few minutes of breakfast played out peacefully until the younger Habashira staggered out from his bedroom, bundled up in a thick sweatshirt and hoisting a huge pile of laundry in his arms. "Woman, if you're going to wear my clothes every day, you could at least do a load now and then."
"Laundry's not really my thing," she said dismissively, giving more attention to her soup than to him. "You're the neat freak. Isn't doing chores how you get your rocks off?"
Rui growled out his annoyance. "You know, ever since you moved in here there have been at least four times as many messes to clean up. I can't even keep up with all of it. You're the biggest slob I've ever met."
"Hey!" she protested. "If it's really been since I moved in, why'd you wait 'til now to start riding my ass about it?"
"I thought you'd grow out of it," he answered, a tinge of condescension in his voice. "But based on this accumulation from my floor," he nodded to indicate his armful, "that's not happening. Look, Tokage cooks, I clean… You have to start contributing something."
"What are you talking about?" his brother asked, planting a bear-sized paw on Meg's shoulder. "Little Mama contributes to this home. She provides the warmth."
"It's fifty-eight degrees in here," Rui said flatly.
"Emotional warmth," Tokage specified, tousling her hair. "She's like the Sun in our little universe."
"If you mean big, round, and gaseous… Ow!"
Meg cut off his rude comment with a well-aimed spoon. Annoyance oozed into the space where she'd felt affection less than fifteen minutes earlier.
This is the guy I like? What the fuck is wrong with me?
Having dumped his mountain of clothes in the adjacent laundry room (which was really just a closet), Rui sat down in the seat furthest away from her at the table. He rubbed the spot where her spoon hit his forehead and frowned. "I wasn't trying to lecture you, alright?" he grumbled. "I just thought that since you're going to squeeze out a kid soon, you'd want to start acting a bit more responsible."
Even his explanation that it wasn't a lecture sounded like a lecture. What did he know about being responsible, anyways? Sure, he kept this apartment spic and span (which she still found mind-boggling), but he also picked fights, neglected traffic laws, and held a flagrant disregard for any kind of authority. And he was going to be a parent too… she hoped.
"I'm getting dressed," she said, trying to focus on something less innervating. "Just one more hour until cast-off time. It'll be great to be able to ride on the back of the bike again and not have to hoof it everywhere in this heat."
"Um…" Rui stared skeptically at her belly, now approaching seven months gestation and nearly the size of a beach ball. "No offense, but I don't see it happening. You're fucking huge, woman."
Meg heaved herself up out of her chair, sighing because she actually saw his point. "I can't believe I'm going to get even bigger," she groaned. "By September your clothes won't fit me anymore."
"Yeah, well all of my clothes were in that pile," he called after her as she retreated, slightly wobbly, to the bedroom. "So you'll have to wash something if you want to wear it. Do chores or go naked! Those are the only choices you've got!"
A few minutes later, she emerged wearing a shirt that was, remarkably, very loose around her body; a green and blue checked jersey emblazoned with the number 42 on both sides and both sleeves. "I found something clean," she chirped. "Now I won't have to go naked."
Rui glared. "That's a priceless piece of sports memorabilia! You can't wear that!"
She flashed her I-want-something pout that she only used on him. "But it fits. And I think the baby likes being in a football jersey. It's moving around all excitedly."
"Really?" he asked, eyebrows raised, an optimistic smile trying to twitch its way onto his stiff lips. Meg knew she had won her case.
Rui walked with her to the doctor's office, never straying more than a meter from her in any direction. "You're hovering again," she said in a sing-song voice.
"No, I'm not," he said, slowing his pace to put more distance between them. "Is this better?"
If she were just a little less proud she could have answered honestly and told him that she actually liked having him close. Instead she kept her eyes forward and chimed, "That's a good boy."
When Rui caught up with her, waiting for him in front of the doctor's office, Meg was suddenly struck by how miserable he looked. His brows were crushed over his eyes and his shoulders jutted stiffly in front of him. The frown on his face was sullen but resolute, like a hitman ordered to off his best friend.
"I have something I need to take care of," he said before she even had a chance to ask what was wrong. "So I can't stick with you for this. Watch your back, okay? And don't go breaking any more bones." He set one hand on her head and pressed his chin to her hair, not quite a hug. "If I'm not already there, call me when you're home safe."
"Okay," she said softly, too consumed by his shocking change of mood to muster a stronger response. "Goodbye, I guess." He pushed the door open for her and she stole one last look at his grim expression as she passed through.
Meg exited the office through the same door a half-hour later, smiling and rotating her liberated wrist just because she could now. The mystery of Rui's gloominess had not been forgotten, but she decided that since it wasn't something he felt he needed to share with her, it shouldn't ruin her joy at having her cast off.
Her fingers curled around the hilt of an invisible sword, which she sliced through the humid air as she walked towards home. She missed her real sword that Ru had given her in exchange for her giving him American football. At least it died a noble death, defending her from vermin.
"Meg?" A voice from behind interrupted her pantomime and she twirled around to a familiar face with eyes remarkably like her own.
"Mom?" she gasped.
Her mother looked nervous, almost shy, shifting her weight from one leg to the other as her fingers fussed with the strap of her designer bag. "You look… enormous," she commented, unable to politely lie.
"Uh, thanks Mom. You look good, too," Meg replied just as awkwardly. She forced a smile and displayed her right arm. "I, uh, got my cast off today."
"Cast?" Mom asked in alarm.
Meg crumpled at the realization that her mom had no idea about her injury. "I kinda broke my wrist in a fi… in a fall, an accidental fall. It's really no big deal." Her mother never knew about her frequent schoolyard fights before and there was no need to fill her in now.
"Oh Meg," her mother sighed disapprovingly. "When are you going to start taking better care of yourself? And look at what you're wearing. You look like a derelict."
No response came from Meg, just a protracted silence as her fingers smoothed the white 42 over her baby bump.
"Do you think we could go somewhere and talk?" There was a humble hopefulness in Mom's voice that subtly hinted at a reconciliation attempt. "It's too early for lunch, but there is a nice bakery around here. I could treat you to some cake."
Meg's eyes narrowed suspiciously on her parent's face, as if that would illuminate whatever ulterior motive the woman was trying to hide. Tsuyumine Tsuyako was a petty and self-serving woman who didn't commit kind deeds randomly.
As fiercely as she burned to deliver a very deserved "fuck off" to her mother, Meg couldn't even bring herself to deny the offer of cake. A perfectly timed kick from the tiny creature inside her saw to that.
"Alright, I'll go," she said reluctantly, giving her mother the same benefit of doubt she'd hope for from her own child.
Meg chose a small table in the rear of the café to host their conversation and quickly took the chair that put her back towards the other patrons. There was no way she was going to let Mom corner her. The barista delivered two strawberry shortcakes on dainty white china and still neither woman had yet uttered a word.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Meg finally asked, plucking the berry off the mound of whipped cream on her cake and popping it into her mouth as soon as question was out.
"I'd skip the cream if I were you, dear," her mother sniffed. "It's pure fat. Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you have to be a cow."
With a defiant scowl, Meg scooped the entire pile of white topping with her fork, crammed it into her maw and swallowed. "Get to whatever it is you brought me here for!" she demanded. A few of the closest customers turned their eyes to the commotion.
Mom shook her head. "You were always such an impulsive child. A bright child, but brash and sorely lacking in judgment. I should have known this would happen when you chose to go to that awful trash-hole of a school."
"Alright, I think I've heard enough," Meg said stiffly, pushing both hands down on the table to leverage her girth out of her chair. "I have better things to do than sit here listen to your 'Smart Girls, Bad Choices' lecture. Especially since you made the same bad choices when you were my age."
"Meg, wait!" her mother pleaded.
She stopped, grudgingly, and looked down at those eyes full of feigned compassion. "What?" she asked impatiently.
"I want you to come home, Meg."
That got Meg to sit back down. "Mom, you say that as if I ran away. You kicked me out, remember?" She made a frustrated grunt. "And what makes you think I'd even want to move back in with you?"
"Let's be realistic here," Mom said disparagingly. "You've had your fun playing house with that juvenile delinquent, but what are you going to do once your child is born? You don't cook. You don't clean. You're too irresponsible to be a mother."
That seemed to be a popular opinion today.
"I'm going to be a mother whether I'm living in your house or Rui's," Meg told her. "But at least the latter is free from your toxic influence."
She waited eagerly for her mom's snappish response, but the woman just calmly unzipped her expensive purse and began digging through its contents.
"Please consider it," Mom urged, pulling out the glossy pamphlet she'd been hunting for and sliding it across the table.
Meg's lips twisted down in a mix of disgust and hurt as soon as she read the cover. "An adoption service? You want me to give away my baby?"
"It's what would be best for everyone involved," Mom insisted. "The child would have a loving home with mature, responsible parents. You could go to college and have a career, and not be forever tied to some miserable little punk that couldn't even be bothered to wear a rubber. And he'd be better off, too! Do you really think your biker boy wants to be saddled with a baby and a nuisance like you who can't even do housework?"
A nauseating slurry of emotions churned thickly in Meg's stomach, threatening to spill out in physical form. Her quivering jaw opened, but what came out wasn't vomit or screaming. "Would you be better off if you'd given me up for adoption?" Her voice was quiet, earnest, razor sharp.
Her mother's scarlet lips slid apart and were moistened by the tip of her tongue, but they formed no sound. Meg had her answer.
"That's what I thought," she said, her lower eyelids burning from the effort it took to suppress tears. With one strong heave, she stood up. "I'm going home," she declared. Then she turned her back to the woman who'd birthed her, and walked away.
Somewhere between the café and Rui's apartment the dammed tears were loosed. By the time she pushed open the door to 'home,' they were dribbling from her chin and staining the front of his jersey with sooty mascara.
Rui wasn't back yet and Tokage had gone out. The apartment was exactly as it was when she left. The dishes from breakfast and the colossal heap of laundry were still waiting to be washed. This was a state of disorder that she was perfectly comfortable with, but her obsessive roommate most definitely was not.
Ru must be going crazy thinking about this mess. Maybe that's why he looked so unhappy when I left him.
She immediately recalled the agonized look on his face and her mother's words razed her like barbed wire. "Do you really think your biker boy wants to be saddled with a baby and a nuisance like you who can't even do housework?"
Snorting back her tears, Meg went to the laundry closet, grabbed an armful of clothes, and hurled it into the washing machine.
…
"What the fuck is going on?" Rui's voice cut through between the pulsing shrieks of the smoke detector.
"I can't make it stop!" Meg shouted. She didn't even realize he'd come home until now, but was instantly grateful when he reached a long arm to deactivate the alarm.
"Why is the smoke alarm going off, woman?" he grunted. Then he sniffed the air loudly and his eyes followed the scent to a tray of what looked like charcoal briquettes. He turned towards Meg, raising a bewildered eyebrow.
"They're cookies!" she stammered defensively. "I made them for you, dummy!"
He looked again at the charred cookies and then back at her. "I dunno what the hell those are, but they're definitely not cookies. Why are you cooking, anyways? Have you gone nutty?"
Meg didn't have a chance to explain herself as the dryer buzzer started droning as soon as he'd finished his question and she rushed to unload it. When she opened the hatch, she was horrified. "Fuck!" she growled, holding up a t-shirt so small it wouldn't even fit that tiny Deimon cheerleader. She tossed it and grabbed another one. Just as small. So was the next, and the next after that.
Rui grimaced. "How much of my wardrobe did you ruin?"
"About half, okay?" she yelled in frustration. "The rest is in the washing machine."
"Please let me finish it," he said, more of a demand than a request. He opened the washer and peered inside. "Ah shit!" he groaned. "You put something red in with the whites, idiot! Everything is pink! Fuck, even my school pants!"
"No way!" she howled. "I made sure to separate the white stuff from the colored stuff!"
"Oh really?" Rui asked, pulling a pair of bright red panties from the machine and dangling it from one finger.
With a guttural snarl, Meg tugged at her bleached blonde hair. "Well I didn't mean to!" she bellowed. "Just like I didn't mean to burn the cookies! Or break two bowls!"
As he listened, Rui's face twisted into an expression far more disturbing than the one he had worn outside the doctor's office. "What the fuck has gotten into you? Is this a pregnancy thing or have you seriously lost your mind?"
"Errr! I was trying to do something nice, you jackass!" she screamed, flinging a doll-sized t-shirt in his face.
"BY DESTROYING MY CLOTHES AND NEARLY BURNING DOWN MY APARTMENT?"
Her jaw tightened like a bear trap and she pushed out a breath that hissed between her teeth. She could feel fire in the corners of her eyes as the crying she had managed to extinguish threatened to resume against her will. "I'm trying to show you I'm not a burden," she muttered without loosening her bite.
Rui furrowed his brows in confusion as he scrutinized her face, moving his in closer. "Meg, have you been crying?"
"No," she lied, turning her head with a sniff.
Warm fingers gripped her chin and guided it forward so she and Rui were eye-to-eye. "What happened?" he asked directly.
"Mom," she replied. "I ran into my mom on the street on my way home. She wants me to move back home." His green eyes widened slightly and she continued. "But she wants me to put the baby up for adoption."
Rui's head jerked back. "What? How could she say that? You told her to go fuck herself, right?"
"I told her no, of course," Meg explained. "But I didn't want you thinking I made the wrong choice. That I should have gone back with her. That's why I was trying to show you that I'm a productive member of this home."
"Oh," was all he said. As he stared at her, the edges of his mouth curled up into a smile, which quickly turned into laughter. "I guess we've learned the best thing you can do for this home is not trying to help." She frowned and he pulled her against his chest. "I'm not making fun of you, Meg. I'm happy you stood up to that bitch."
"You are?" she mumbled into his shirt.
"Of course," he answered. "I mean, who knows what kind of weirdoes our baby could wind up being raised by if you put it up for adoption? Maybe even a family that doesn't like American football."
Meg looked up. "So you don't think I'm a nuisance?"
"No," he sighed. "You are a nuisance. But…" The words got caught somewhere inside him. With her hands pressed to his chest, Meg could feel his heart starting to beat harder. "If you left…" he continued clumsily. "Tokage would… he'd just miss you too much…"
"Right," she breathed. "I wouldn't want… Togake to be lonely…" It was becoming impossible for her to concentrate on anything other than the heat of his body against hers and the rise and fall of his ribs with each breath. She slid her hands up into his hair and pulled his mouth against hers.
Delightedly, she found that kissing Rui was even better when she was the one who initiated it, which made her wonder about something else. She reluctantly separated her lips from his and, lacing her fingers with his, lead him to their bedroom.
More hot, wet kisses ensued as she backed him towards the bed and he lay down submissively on it. On hands and knees she straddled his body, only breaking the connection of their mouths when she tugged his shirt up and off.
He reciprocated by reaching for the hem of his jersey. "It looks fucking hot on you but it's gotta go."
They took turns removing an article of the other's clothing and then covering the revealed flesh with little nips and kisses. Nothing Meg had ever experienced aroused her as much as kissing all the way up the length of those gorgeous, perfect arms did.
Once they were both naked, he skimmed his hands up the outside of her legs to gently cup her hips and asked a single, breathless question. "Ready?"
She nodded and lowered herself onto his lap, sheathing him in her moist heat. Then she moved, grinded against him. And he moved too, lifting his hips in perfect rhythm with hers as his hands moved to her waist, thumbs gently caressing the sides of her round stomach.
This was utterly and wonderfully different from what took place in the locker room and the three bed-sessions that followed, and the reason had nothing to do with who initiated it. She looked at him and felt her heart ache with emotion, which made the physical sensations ten times stronger. He filled not just her body, but her soul.
It wasn't just a crush. She loved this man more than anything in the world. This stubborn, argumentative, ridiculous man. She loved every bit of him, even the parts she hated.
He gave her two powerful orgasms before he ejaculated and went limp beneath her.
Sated, she snuggled into the crook of his arm and rested her cheek to his chest. One hand she held over his heart. "Well," she said between still heavy breaths. "We didn't use protection. Aren't you worried you may have knocked me up?"
Rui responded with a hearty laugh. Then he kissed her lips and closed his eyes for a blissful afternoon nap.
Meg waited until she was sure he was asleep before whispering to his face, "I love you, Habashira Rui." And soon she too succumbed to slumber.
When she woke up, the sun was low in the sky and poured orange light in through the window. It was evening already. Next to her in bed was an indentation on the sheets and pillow, but no Rui. A sick feeling of déjà vu washed over her.
She got up and found a (now) pink undershirt laid out on the dresser for her. Once dressed in the color she so disdained, she left the bedroom, calling his name as she made her way to the kitchen. "Ru? Ru, you home?"
No response. But there was a note on the kitchen table.
"Meg,
Me and Bro went to play ball. He made you something to eat if you can't wait for dinner. Stay out of trouble, and for the love of god, DO NOT ATTEMPT HOUSEWORK! See you soon,
Rui"
It was so uncharacteristically considerate of him to leave a note for her. She grinned and opened the fridge to see what Tokage had made for her. Inside, a plastic Lilo & Stitch bento box was waiting and, despite it being a snack more suited to a second grader than an adult, she pulled the lid off eagerly. On top of the rice and omelet and other goodies was a black sheet of nori cut into the shape of a chameleon.
As she was about to take the first bite, the doorbell rang and she frowned. She wanted to ignore it but it rang again, impatiently. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" she grumbled, setting down her bento and stomping to the door.
Outside she could hear high heels tapping. Her stomach knotted. Mom, the person she least wanted to see, had come after her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she opened the door.
"Look Mom," she said firmly. "I already told you that I'm not interested in going back to your house so please just go away."
"How bold of you to call me 'Mom,'" a voice that wasn't her mother's hissed. "After all, you haven't coerced my son into marrying you yet."
To be continued…
