9

.

Being pregnant was one thing but being married was just... Well Orihime Inoue, Kurosaki now, couldn't really explain it. She was going to be a mother and that felt so real, she could feel her baby growing inside her tummy and the feeling was amazing, but being a wife of the famous Ichigo Kurosaki was just so... That didn't feel real at all. Not even when she read the newspaper this morning.

Someone must have been telling the press about their marriage, it was even on the television! She was relieved though because at least the didn't know about their contract, or about her. They had been speculating about his new wife but she knew they would never guess that his wife was someone as old as her. Not to mention, as plain and unattractive as her.

Another surprised was, Ichigo didn't seem to be bothered too much about the news. He read the newspaper casually and tossed it aside after he read it for a minute. His face was unreadable. She wondered what was in his mind as he eat his breakfast.

They were in the kitchen. She made her own breakfast and was sipping her morning tea when Ichigo entered the kitchen sleepily. He made a cup coffee and drank it slowly as he read the newspaper, Orihime decided to make some sandwich for her, he mouth a thank you casually as if it was something that had happened everyday. For a moment, it amazed her how casual they had acted around each other though it was only their first morning as husband and wife.

"I didn't expect them to know this fast."

Somehow Ichigo sounded much calmer than Orihime expected he would be. For someone so rough, she didn't expect him to be this calm. She had read articles about how often he almost lost his patience during an interview. She thought he hated press and this news would definitely bother him.

Ichigo observed the sandwich, wondered why the sandwich smell weird. Yes, no matter how she looked at him, he looked so calm as if the news didn't affect him.

"You expected them to know?" Orihime frowned, she hadn't had her morning sickness for a while but lately she got irritated easily.

Ichigo shrugged, "why do you think I married you?" He bit his sandwich and put it back down, he drank his coffee hastily. "Now it's just about time for my family to found out. By the way, what was in the sandwich?"

"Strawberry jam, tomato, lettuce, ham and peanut butter..." Orihime frowned when she saw his expression, "what? Don't tell me you hate tomatoes?"

He didn't say anything though. He continued eating his sandwich, praying that he wouldn't commit later. Maybe she was doing this to make him angry, or was it the baby? He had heard that pregnant women and their food preference. However he tried to finish the sandwich without actually complaining about it.

There was something else bothering him though.

"What are you looking at?"

Orihime blinked. She didn't realized she had been staring at him this whole time, "oh no... I just... Uh... Don't you plan to sue them?" She pointed at the newspaper on the table.

The carrot head looked amused, "for what?"

"Wrong information?"

He sighed and shook his head, hands crossed, "but that is NOT wrong. They got it right. We're married."

"But what if your fans knew about it? You would break their heart..." The auburn haired woman pouted. "Don't you think you could lose your fans?"

Again, he surprised her when she heard he laughed. His laughter was manly and after two seconds she decided that she liked his laughter and wanted to hear it more often. It amazed her, and scared her, because he kept showing his other side to her that was nothing she had expected from him.

Not that she hated this other sides of him. In fact, she found that it was kind of attractive.

"Professor," he smirked and she hated her hormones because he looked too sexy to be true and it took so much for her to control herself not to jump on him and rape him, "I am a soccer player, not one of those boyband members, I don't need a fan to work."

She disliked the way he called her 'professor' to mock her, but she loved how sexy his voice was in her ears, "well, but you do need the supporters to support you."

"I do," he nodded, "but for that, I have my family and friends."

And wife.

But he didn't say it and somehow she felt disappointed. She didn't really know much about soccer but she had learned and she would not mind to support him if he wanted her to. But he didn't say it and it pissed her off.

"So," Orihime looked away, if she looked at his handsome face for too long she was afraid she would really jump over the table to strip him and then finally, rape him. Oh yeah she can do it, "how about your family, they would know about our marriage by now..." She paused, "what would we do?"

"Well, don't worry about them, they would be happy to know that I finally settled down. The only problem is, my mother would be sad if she knew that the real reason we got married is because YOU had tried to steal her first grandchild away from her," Ichigo didn't realize the sadness in her eyes as he continued, or maybe he pretend not to realize it, "so please don't say anything about your stupid plan in front of my mother, or my sisters. It would hurt them."

Orihime shook her pretty head, she smiled sadly and assured her that she wouldn't do anything that might hurt his family. She knew she had been wrong. She shouldn't have been doing this in the first place but she really wanted to have a baby. Not only a baby, she really wanted to have HIS baby. Of course she couldn't say it out loud. And what made her sad wasn't because he accused her for stealing his right as a a father but because she knew he was right. What she had done and tried to do was really bad.

"Good if you understand. Now let's talk about the rules. You live in my house so you have to follow my rules."

Here comes the barbaric man once again. Orihime gritted her teeth. She was here because he had kidnapped her yet he had the nerve to act oh so almighty to her. She glared at him but it didn't bother him at all. She couldn't scare him, if anything, she looked kind of cute when she glared like that.

Oh not that he would admit it out loud. No, she was not even his type.

"First, you shouldn't open the door to anyone when I am not here. Even if someone knocked on the door, you mustn't open the door. Just ignore them and wait until I came back!" He tapped his fingers on the table, "and you shouldn't answer the phone either, I have answering machine. Also you couldn't go out without me, in case it is an emergency, which mean someone is or might be dead or hurt, you have to call me first. Or leave me a message." He looked at her sternly, "understand?"

Actually, Orihime understood very well the reason why he gave her those rules. Of course he didn't plan to introduce her to any of his friends and that was so understandable. She understood but yet, for a weird reason, it hurt her heart. Just thinking that he was ashamed to have her as his wife hurt her so much. However she nodded and tried to hide her real feeling.

"Yes, I understand."

He sighed and stood up from his seat, "good, now get ready, we're leaving."

Orihime blinked her gray eyes, "leaving? Where?"

"I already made an appointment for you, we're gonna see a doctor. I need to know about the baby condition," he said casually as he walked to his room, "and after that, we're gonna visit another place. Just make yourself presentable."

Orihime pouted. A scowl, mirroring his, appeared on her beautiful face. Who did he think he is? He ordered her so easily. She felt annoyed by his attitude but still, she stood up and and got back to her room to get ready.


"The baby is really healthy. The heart beat is really strong. You got nothing to worry about."

The doctor was a handsome middle aged man with attractive silver hair who reminded Orihime to someone she had met before but couldn't really remember who. She listened to the handsome doctor seriously. He was not her doctor but Ichigo assured her that he was the best and he would not let anyone but the best to take care of his kid, though for a reason unknown to her, he looked like he didn't really like this doctor.

"In your next appointment, we could do an USG," the doctor himself, though he was fairly nice to her, seemed to return Ichigo's sentiment, "for now, I would prescribe some vitamin and supplement for you."

"Good, so the next appointment would be?"

"The first Friday next month," the doctor gave her the recipe and smiled, "you can give this to the nurse and get the supplement and vitamin."

Orihime returned the smile and she could see the older man obviously sighed and glared at her husband.

"I can't believe you finally got yourself a wife, Kurosaki, your father must be proud," the level of sarcasm in his tone surprised Orihime.

"Yeah," Ichigo rolled his eyes as he stood up, "you should told Ishida if you wanna have a grandkid as soon as possible."

Ishida?

Then it clicked in Orihime's head. The handsome doctor was Ishida Uryuu's father. She met the guy once so she didn't really remember his face but now that she met his father, she had to admit that they look alike. Or at least the aura seemed alike.

Orihime bowed to the doctor before she followed her husband leaving his office. She met the nurse who was explaining about the vitamin and supplement while trying to hard to get Ichigo's attention. Orihime bit her lower lip, looking at her husband from the corner of her eyes and almost failed to hide her relief when he was just scowling as the nurse giggling and joking about something that was actually kind of embarrassing.

His big hand was on her shoulder as he sighed, "so, it's that all? Ok, thanks. We gotta go now."

The nurse looked a little disappointed but only for a second before she tried again, "well, my name is Senna," she smiled, "I would be happy to help if you want to consult about your wife pregnancy, Kurosaki-san."

Orihime pouted. The woman had been rude. How could she said that right in front of his pregnant wife? Did she realize that their marriage was not real? Did she feel that Ichigo didn't really love Orihime so she thought she might try her luck? Orihime had so little experience about flirting but she was sure that the woman had been trying to flirt with her husband and she didn't like it.

However, Ichigo furrowed his brows as he put one of his 'I don't care' face, "yeah thanks but I think we'll be alright."

When they left the hospital building, for the first time after they got married, Orihime felt so proud of her husband. She was sure that the woman had been flirting with him and she knew he realized it too, but whatever reason he had in his mind, maybe she wasn't his type, or maybe he wasn't in the mood, or maybe he thought of her feeling, whatever the reason was, Orihime felt so much better.

Maybe Ichigo Kurosaki wasn't as bad as what she thought he was.

"Are you listening?"

Orihime startled, "what? Uh, sorry, I was..."

Her face turned beet red because he caught her off guard. Her head was so full of many things so she didn't realize that he had been saying something. She chewed her lower lip and looked at the driving man apologetically.

He sighed, "you were thinking about something. What's it about now?"

She frowned, "nothing."

"Yeah sure," he rolled his eyes, not really interested to ask her more about that topic, "whatever, I just told you that from now on, you have to call me by my first name."

Orihime gasped, "what? Why? So suddenly!"

She wasn't the type of woman who would call a man by their first name casually. Besides, this is Ichigo Kurosaki. Calling his first name would be too intimate. Would be too... Nervewrecking?

"It is not suddenly," he frowned but he didn't look at her as he drove the car, "you're my wife, it'll be weird if you call me Kurosaki, you're a Kurosaki too right now."

Well, he was right. They were husband and wife and it was just natural for them to call each other by their first name. But still... Orihime blushed. Her lower lip was bleeding because she bit it too hard. Ichigo... Well, it wasn't that hard, was it? Ichigo-san? Ichigo-kun? Well Ichigo-san sounded too coldn while Ichigo-kun was more... She liked Ichigo-kun more. Right, she just have to call him that right? Sure, that was easy. She could do that.

Couldn't she?

"Try it."

She wasn't ready. Wouldn't he gave her some time to practice? She was about to say something when she realized that they didn't drive home. She narrowed her eyes, they were in the free way now, why didn't she recognize this before?

"Where are you taking me? This isn't the way to your house!" She just realized that they should have been home fifteen minutes ago.

Ichigo smirked, "you just realized it now? I told you but it seemed like you had your mind somewhere else."

"I wasn't listening! Where are we going?" She tried to sound calm but it was hard to hide the uneasiness in her voice, "this is..." She looked at the board on the road side, "we're leaving Tokyo?! Where are you taking me?"

"Relax, woman," Ichigo sighed, "it wasn't good for the baby if you kept screaming like that."

Orihime blushed, "I-I wasn't screaming."

"You were."

"I wasn't!"

To her surprised, Ichigo laughed. It wasn't loud or noisy, rather it was a manly and deep laughed. Orihime face became redder than it had been. She liked his laughter but there was no way she would tell him that.

"You were." He said again, "and we would go to my parents' house."

Orihime blinked. Her brain tried to process his words. She was a genius, yet it took nearly a minute before the words hit her.

"WHAT?!"

"See? You are screaming."

She didn't care, "but I wasn't prepared! How could you!"

Orihime felt like crying. She wasn't ready to meet his parents. How could he do this to her? She looked at herself and now she felt tears were ready to fall from her beautiful eyes. She should have wear something better than these old dress.

"You should have said something." She hissed. Oh how she hated him.

"I did, you weren't listening."

"But still!" She protested, "now I am not prepared."

"That's why," somehow he sounded amused, "I told you to call me by my first name. We wouldn't want my parents to realize that our marriage is fake, would we?"

She didn't say anything but Ichigo knew that she understood what he meant. She was smart after all.

They didn't say anything after that. He looked at her few times but she avoided him by turned her face away, pretending to be mesmerized by the view outside of the window.

Ichigo sighed. Actually, he didn't plan to bring her home to meet his parents this soon. He wasn't ready to explain to his mom, and his crazy father about his sudden marriage but he had no choice now. He knew his family had read the newspaper and knowing his family, he had to prevent them from doing something crazy. It would be better if he brought her to visit them than to let his family came to his house to meet his wife.

Besides, he needed to stay away from the crazy paparazzi now. He knew that after the news of his sudden marriage, more paparazzi would surround his house to get more scoops about him and his new wife. He was used to this but he knew that Orihime wasn't. He knew how bad it could be, those damn news seeker would stress her out and as much as he wouldn't let her know about it, he worried that it would affect her and her pregnancy.

At least, his parents house was safe. His family was crazy but he knew he could trust them.

.

Ichigo's parents' house wasn't like what he had been expecting. It was big but not huge. It was almost normal, a total opposite to his luxurious apartment in Tokyo, but still, it had this warm atmosphere a house should have.

"Remember, you've to call me by my first name, okay?" Ichigo whispered before he rang the bell.

Orihime didn't say anything. She was really nervous. The fact that he had one of his big hand around her waist didn't help.

"Yes?" A girly voice was heard from the intercom, "who's that?"

"Karin? It's me."

"Onii-chan?"

"Yeah. Could you open the door?"

"Wait, a moment, Yuzu! It's Oniichan!"

Ichigo chuckled when he heard his sisters were running toward the door. His sisters would never fail to amuse her (though they, especially Karin, could be annoying as hell if the wanted).

He felt Orihime stiffened as she heard the door being unlocked. He smirked. He could feel her nervousness.

"Listen," he whispered to her ear, "if it's difficult, you may not call me by my first name."

Orihime frowned, "what?"

He couldn't hide his grinned, "you may just call me 'darling'."

She managed to pinch his side once just right before Yuzu opened the door.

.

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TBC