Rated T - Language
This is another contest submission on the Vocaloid Amino. If you have't checked it out yet, please do! :)
Also guys ohmygosh I wrote like 5 pages of this on my notepad at work and my coworker found it and read it and I could literally die right now *screams internally*
"Rin," a voice called. I grumbled in response. "Rin, come on. It's time to get up."
"No," I answered as I pulled the sheets over my head.
His hand was on my shoulder now, gently shaking me awake. "You already slept through the alarm. Come on. It's not good for you to sleep in like this."
I opened a single eye and peeked out of the covers to glance at the digital clock next to me. "Len," I gawked. "It's 7:30 in the morning."
"And we went to bed at 9:45 last night. That's…" he paused, counting. "That's nine hours and forty-five minutes," he told me.
I was appalled his mind could work so quickly this early in the morning.
"You were supposed to get up an hour ago." His voice was gentle, but determined.
"The alarm was annoying me."
He sighed. "You're supposed to maintain a regular sleep schedule. That's what all the book say."
"I just don't get why the 'regular sleep schedule' has to wake me up at the crack of dawn."
He laughed, but I wasn't joking. "Come on." He pulled the covers off of me. "Breakfast is ready."
Oh great, I thought to myself. More slop.
He basically dragged my half-asleep body to the kitchen table. He retrieved an already prepared bowl from the counter behind me, and set it on the table.
Yup. More slop.
He gave me a warm smile before turning around to wash the dishes.
It had been like this for almost two months. We didn't find out about the baby until I was six weeks along, and, ever since then, Len had gone into super-pre-parent mode. Hours and hours were spent on the internet researching everything from side-effects I would experience to the chances of a premature birth. The latter of which had been unfortunate for me, because now he had every waking moment of my life planned for the last two trimesters. Meal plans, exercises, parenting classes, everything. I was barely even showing yet, but I was in the full swing of pregnancy.
I would have lost my patience right away, if not for the fact that everything I was doing, Len put himself through, too. Including eating like gluten-free vegans.
Don't get me wrong, it was awesome being with someone who cared that much. I just wished I could plop down in front of the TV with a bag of chocolate-covered potato chips, a jar of creamy putter, and an entire box of double stuffed oreos.
But, as Len reminded me every five minutes, Whatever you do, the baby does.
My mouth watered at the thought of junk food, chocolate, especially. I hadn't eaten any of my favorite snacks since we found out about our little guy. Or girl. We weren't sure yet. We weren't sure we wanted to know yet.
"It's porridge with sultanas," Len informed me, still scrubbing away at the dishes.
"What the hell," I began, poking and prodding at my food with my spoon. "Is a sultana?"
"They're like raisins, but with less sugar."
Ah. So a raisin without the raisin part, I joked to myself.
I dared to take a bite. Thankfully, Len could not see the disgusted expression that formed as I set my spoon back down on the counter.
My stomach grumbled as I swallowed.
"Eat up," he joked.
"Um," I took a deep breath. "That wasn't a... Hungry noise."
Len looked over his shoulder at me, concerned. "You okay?"
Before I had the chance to respond, I fled out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, emptying what little food remained from dinner into the toilet. To my relief, it wasn't a lot. I leaned back against the cold bathtub, sighing contently at the cold surface against the back of my neck. I closed my eyes as Len ran into the bathroom after me.
"Rin?" His voice was rich with concern as it echoed through the bathroom.
I took another deep breath. "I think I'm gonna skip breakfast today."
He let out a huff. Obviously, he wasn't thrilled about the idea. But, having just witnessed me losing my stomach once, he didn't want it to happen again, so he did not object.
The nausea did not go away. In fact, it brought along with it a headache that made me never want to open my eyes again and fatigue that made my arms and legs as heavy as a bag of bricks.
So, clearly, my mood wasn't the best either.
For the first time in weeks, I completely ignored all of my scheduled activities for the day. Today was the last day of my first trimester, and I took this sudden sickness as the final battle against the worst part, well, the second worst part of pregnancy. I didn't want to deal with it while sitting in a room full of other miserable women. When Len told me it was yoga time, I curled even tighter into a ball on the couch. Today was the day I would finally catch up on all my TV shows. When Len asked me if I wanted to take a walk, I refused to move. Lunch? Didn't even want to think about it. Classes? My ass was glued to this couch.
"Have you at least had enough to drink today?" He had finally sat on the couch across from me, exasperated from his attempts at getting me to move at all.
I held up my half-empty water bottle as an answer. "I filled it twice," I muttered. Talking only made everything worse.
He glanced in my direction every three seconds or so. Deep down inside, I felt guilty about causing him to worry like this. But I just needed one day. One day. One day to sit down and do nothing. Also, my raging hormones refused to let me feel sympathetic for too long. I was still craving sweets, and nothing sounded better right now than ice cream. An entire tub of freezing cold chocolate chip ice cream. I let out a sigh, remembering how good the back of the ceramic tub had felt on my neck. Cooling everything down was the best cure for a headache. Not to mention it was nearing ninety degrees outside, and, despite our blaring air conditioner, it was uncomfortably hot inside too.
"You hungry?" He asked. "It's almost dinner time."
"No," I replied flatly. Unless it's ice cream. I don't want it.
"...But you haven't eaten all day," he pointed out. "You really should try to get something down."
"I'll just throw it up." My eyes didn't leave the screen. I had extremely mixed feelings about my blankets. I needed something to cuddle with, but they were also heating me up even more. I wondered if it would be weird to ask Len to put them in the freezer for a couple minutes.
"But you should try."
"I don't want to."
"Rin, everything you eat-"
"The baby eats too. I know." I was really beginning to lose my patience.
"So the baby hasn't eaten anything today-"
"Look. The only thing that doesn't make me want to puke right now is a giant tub of ice cream."
He hesitated. "...but it's so bad for-"
"Yeah, I know!" I raised my voice. "I know it's bad! I get it! I still want it!" I didn't look at him.
"There's fruit in the fris-"
I slammed my hand on the armrest of the couch. "I don't want fruit! I want candy! And chocolate! And oreos! Peanut butter, potato chips, pizza, and, most of all ice cream!" I glared at him in my sugar-deprived rage. "I can't stand this stupid meal plan anymore! I'll eat whatever the fuck I want!"
He just watched me, not saying anything.
"I'm sick of sitting here, doing nothing, constantly needing to puke my brains out, waking up with bloody noses and headaches that could kill an elephant, my back already starting to kill me even though I've only gained like five pounds, and, to top it off, a diet that allows me to eat nothing but oatmeal and ice cubes!"
He still didn't say anything.
"I'm sick of it," I muttered in conclusion, leaning back into my seat. Talking that much had caused my head to start pounding again, and I closed my eyes. I breathed heavily in my post-rage.
I sat like that for a few minutes, before the sound of a door closing behind me stirred me. Looking around in confusion, I noticed that Len had gone. I looked over my shoulder at the front door. He left, I told myself. He left the apartment.
Another annoyed breath escaped my nose as I cuddled my blankets up closer to me. Whatever, I thought. He's probably going to one of those stupid classes by himself. Now I can finally get some peace and quiet.
But the longer I sat in front of the TV, and the more I calmed down, the more I began to worry. I had yelled at him. Over food. And not just a snide remark or a little jab, I had loudly and angrily yelled at the guy.
Len had always been a laid back person. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with him. I could never even imagine, in my wildest dreams, him ever getting mad at someone. I almost laughed at the idea of him yelling at someone. And yet here I was, treating him like crap for caring.
I tried to focus on the show in front of me. House Hunters. Len and I love this show. Well, I love it. I'm not sure if Len likes it too, or if he only watches it because it's on all the time.
He probably left because he was sick of it, I thought. There's no way someone as caring as him could deal with you screaming and bitching all the time.
I sniffed a bit. My eyes remained glued to the screen.
He's just showing you he cares. The voice in my head continued. He cares about you and your kid. His kid, too. This baby is just as much his as it is yours.
"But he doesn't have to lug the thing around," I muttered, instantly regretting it. My eyes shot down to my tiny tummy, only barely beginning to show, as if the baby had heard me. It was ridiculous, but it worried me just the same.
Back to the show. Just stop worrying about it. He'll be home soon.
Will he?
I pushed that thought immediately out of my mind. Hormones, again.
I watched the show for a couple more minutes. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was seven o'clock. He'd been gone for an hour.
See? You scared him off.
"Where is he?" I asked myself. I grabbed my phone to text him, then hesitated. If he's trying to escape the house, why would he want me to text him?
I set the phone back down.
"Just calm down, Rin." I must have looked crazy sitting alone in my apartment, having a conversation with myself. "He'll be home soon."
The minutes ticked by. The show ended, a new episode started. My blankets were still too hot. The sun had set, and I was still nauseous. Head still throbbing. Arms and legs still too heavy to move.
And now, I was dealing with it alone.
I sniffled again, louder this time. My voice shrunk to a pathetic whisper. "He's not coming ho-"
Just before I finished my sentence, I heard keys in the front door, and it swung open. I didn't have to look to see it was him. For the first time in hours, I threw myself off of the couch, and sprinted to the front door.
"Hey ba-oof," he grunted as I slammed into him in a forceful hug, burying my face into his chest.
"I'm sorry!" I yelled. I didn't know I was crying until I said something. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have yelled like that!"
He closed his arms around me. "Rin," he chuckled. "It's okay."
"I just had a really bad day! And I didn't feel good! And I just really didn't want to eat oatmeal for dinner again! But I will now! I promise!" I clutched onto him for dear life. "And I'll go to class and I'll wake up on time and I'll go on walks and exercise and won't eat junk food and-"
"Rin," he stroked my hair lovingly. "It's okay, babe. Calm down."
Tears were still pouring out of my eyes, but my word vomit ceased.
"Sorry I was gone for so long," he apologized, still stroking my hair. "The store didn't have what I was looking for."
I sniffled again, finally catching sight of the grocery bag in his free hand. "W-what'd you get?" I leaned back slightly, still latched onto him, and looked up at him.
He chuckled at my tear-stained face. "Some stuff."
I glanced down at the bag. Letting go of him, I gently took it out of his hands and looked through it. My eyes widened. Sugar free Hershey's kisses, a family-sized bag of baked potato chips, pudding mix, a tub of whipped cream, and a tub of chocolate chip frozen yogurt.
He closed the front door, and hung his jacket up. "I know it's not exactly what you wanted, but-" he cut himself off as I looked back up at him.
The tears had stopped, and now they were back. "I love you," I whimpered, holding the bag of gold he had handed me.
He laughed again, louder this time. "I love you, too." I didn't blame him for laughing, the whole crazy emotions thing had to be pretty funny from the outside. From the inside, however, I had never been so thankful for another human being, and I didn't think anything could top this.
"Come on." He led me back to the couch. "I'll go get us some spoons."
I was still sniffling. "You think I'm sharing?" I asked with a smile. "Oh, can you put these in the freezer?" I held my blankets out to him.
He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You want me to put your blanket in the freezer?"
I nodded. "It's too hot."
"Alright." He had to be getting used to these weird requests from me. There was rustling in the kitchen as he returned with two spoons. I cuddled up to him on the couch, not minding his heat nearly as much as the blankets. I opened the tub of frozen yogurt, and tore into it like I hadn't eaten in weeks. It tasted just as good, if not better than regular ice cream, and cooled my down. I sighed as my headache eased.
"House Hunters," he noticed. "I like it."
I giggled. "Do you really though?"
Awwww. Emotional Rinny and protective Lenny.
I had the idea for this one a long, long time ago, like, before I disappeared of the planet long time ago, but only got to writing it today. It's okay, guys. I'm still traumatized that my coworker read some of this. Ugh.
I almost forgot a song! World Domination: How to - Piano Arrangement. Makes me cry. Len's high notes give me life. YouTube Link - watch?v=bfMT0ZDCzyc
Anyways, thank you as always for all of your guys' continued support! I hope you enjoyed reading!
