So first off, a big thank you for all the new reviews, alerts, and favorites! I was surprised after posting chapter 8 to get several reviews for chapter 1. I'm glad its still enjoyable. It's just nice to see that people still enjoy the first things you do. And another big thank you to all my silent readers. I hope you guys stick with me.
Major second, I'm sorry this took me so long to post. The last chapter I posted was the last thing I had written and right before I started writing it I had only a few vague ideas. While I was writing the last chapter I somehow ended up with lots more ideas to write about but again, they're all still vague. I'm a bit lacking in inspiration right now and school starts next week and I have an intensive course that starts the second week, so updates from me are going to be really slow and possible nonexistent for a while. Sorry about that. Given the way I work, I'm hoping that I might be able to post things more consistently and frequently starting around October or November. Well here's to hoping for inspiration and now for another apology.
As you will see (or perhaps already know, if you jumped to the story first) this is not the continuation to the last chapter. I originally had not planned on continuing that story but I had figured that some people might want to see it, so it was a thought and if someone said something, I would write more. (It was also because I was running out of ideas at the time and it would give me more to write while coming up with something else. The same with Ryoma's side of finding out that Sakuno is pregnant, I had thought of something. So if anyone wants to see that or maybe if I just run out of more ideas.) Anyways, it seems that people would like to see how they make up and so I will eventually write something about it, but as I hadn't planned on writing it and I have a few other slightly more solidified ideas, it will be a while. (Also the fact that it all comes under bad timing.) So sorry to those who really wanted to know what happened right away, you're just going to have to stick around for a while. :)
And the last thing on a related side note. I didn't explain exactly how I was doing this and how this story works and I feel like I should do it now. This story started when I was writing my one-shot The Best Way to Propose. I had a couple thoughts when writing it that turned into the first two stories in this series. They weren't quite drabbles and they weren't really actual stories either and I didn't want to post them as their own stories, but I thought that they would just be cute, funny, little, moments to share. And that's when came up with the idea of relatively short one-shots of snapshots or scenes of moments in their life. (Hence my title Shots of Life.) I have delved a bit deeper into their relationship than I had planned but I still like the ones that kind of analyze their characters and relationship a bit. But the main idea is still that these are supposed to be general stories just showing random moments of their life together. Another main point is that they aren't in a particular order. I just write them as inspiration comes. Some of them I state the exact nature of their relationship because for varying reasons, for me it matters, some of them I have a specific time or age when it occurs but I don't say it because it's not important, and most don't really matter exactly where in their relationship it takes place. Again, these stories are just supposed to be little moments, so while I have a timeline of everything in my head, their age or the exact nature of their relationship is just not what I want to emphasize. Ok so, lots of and enough talking, though this will be it for a while. Enjoy the story!
Sakuno winced as the baby let out another shriek. She was trying not to stare, but she just couldn't help but look at the screaming baby and the frazzled mother who was trying to calm her child. Of course Sakuno wasn't alone as pretty much everybody in the room was sending some sort of look the mother's way, most of them being glares.
Sakuno and Ryoma were presently at the DMV and they seemed to pick the busiest day possible to run their errands. They had already been there for an hour and they weren't even close to being helped. The baby had started crying a half hour ago.
At six months pregnant, Sakuno knew it was something that she would have to deal with someday, but as she looked around the room at all the annoyed people, listened to the baby's screams, and saw the tired, upset mother trying to deal with it all, she could honestly say that she wasn't looking forward to that part so much.
Turning to Ryoma, to see what he thought about everything, Sakuno was surprised to see the look on his face. She had really expected him to be one of the annoyed people but instead she found him staring intensely at the baby, his eyes wide, a mixture of shock and thoughtfulness across his face. Sakuno giggled and wondered if the baby's tantrum was freaking Ryoma out a bit. Before she could question him though, Ryoma turned to her and with a completely serious face said, "It's crying because its brain isn't being stimulated."
Sakuno felt her jaw drop and she gave Ryoma a perplexed look. After several moments of Ryoma just returning her look with the same serious face, Sakuno finally asked, "What?" "Its brain isn't being stimulated," Ryoma repeated, "I mean look at this room. Everything is white: white walls, white counters, everything. The only color is the dingy blue carpet and plain brown chairs but they are just as dull. No wonder it's crying."
Sakuno could only just continue to look at Ryoma in astonishment. After several more moments of Ryoma still looking at her with a serious face, the corners of Sakuno's mouth turned up and she let out several loud laughs. Ryoma's expression quickly changed and Sakuno managed to contain what was about to become a bout of uncontrollable laughter.
"What," Ryoma asked defensively. "Ryoma, dear, it's just, out of all the possible reasons for that baby to be crying, I don't really think that's the one. If anything, it's crying because the mother has something really important to do that can only be done now and she can't leave," Sakuno replied with mirth."Babies do that," Ryoma questioned, bewilderment written all over his face, "They know when to do something like that?" "No, no," Sakuno replied quickly, her hands going to Ryoma's arm like she was going to drag him back to reality, "That was just a joke." Sakuno continued on, an amused expression still on her face, "Babies don't understand anything like that. Back to what you originally said; where did that come from anyways?"
"I was reading an article online about the importance of stimulating a baby's brain," Ryoma responded with, what Sakuno deemed as, a bit of enthusiasm. "I see," Sakuno said, her smile growing wider. She was finding his seriousness, along with undertones of confusion, surprise, and excitement, all to be quite entertaining. "What about those books I bought you," Sakuno asked. "I haven't read them yet," Ryoma answered, his eyes going back to the still crying baby.
Sakuno watched and had to keep from laughing out loud again. She could see the slight pity in Ryoma's eyes and knew that all he could think about right now was this poor baby whose brain wasn't being stimulated. She never believed that impending fatherhood would throw Ryoma into this strange frenzy that he had been going through for several months now. Sakuno wondered when he found the time to research all the random bits of information that he kept coming up with. She could tell that he was just confusing himself more and more as time went on and they still had three months to go. Really, if only he would just read the books she got. They explained absolutely everything, even things like this. Thinking about her husband's behavior, Sakuno let out a little giggle and eventually a resigned sigh. Oh well, at least she was finding it all to be entertaining and it was keeping her moods to a minimum.
Tightening her grip on his arm, Sakuno brought Ryoma's attention back to her and she was glad to see that he looked calmer and more capable of thinking straight. "While it is important to stimulate a child's mind," Sakuno started off gently, "That's something that doesn't quite apply in this case. When we get home, you should start reading those books and for the next several months, why don't you stay off the online forums." Ryoma took one look at the serious and determined expression on his wife's face and simply said, "Ok."