Chapter Ten: Pregnancy Confusion

Michiru set the strip on the counter, relieved, that nothing had shown up. She walked out of the bathroom when she heard some kids screaming from down the hall. She went down the hall and opened the vacant room that was now filled with two children; Morgan and Isamu.

"What are you two doing?"

Morgan dropped what she was holding behind her, and stared up in horror at Michiru.

"What do you have?"

Morgan frowned, and handed the scrapbook to Michiru. Michiru flipped through the pages to only find pictures of Hikaru when she was a newborn to the time she turned three. Some of the pictures showed her in the nude. Michiru's eyes widened when she realized this was what they were screaming or giggling about.

"Please do not give Hikaru any problems," Michiru stated firmly. "If you guys go making fun of her, you'll never be able to live the ultimate beating down."

Morgan's eyes widened, "Whose gonna beat us?"

"Haruka, your papa."

Morgan had a slight disbelief, but decided to not prolong the situation. "Do you like Haruka-Papa?"

Michiru's eyes widened in horror, "What?"

"Do you like my mama?"

Isamu scrunched up his nose, "Don't be silly, Morgan." He quickly ran out of the room and went to find his sister.

Meanwhile, Haruka was just coming up the check on Michiru, when she noticed the bedroom door leading into Michiru's room standing wide open. She went to close it but then noticed a light shining from bathroom. She grumbled and walked over there hoping not to find one of the children. She was just about to turn the light of when she saw it. She blinked twice to make sure she had not been seeing things, when she realized it was real she picked it up.

"Michiru's…preg-nant." Her voice squeaked. If Michiru was pregnant then that would mean… Aito might have to come back into her life. Haruka frowned, and was about to set it back down when someone from behind her came up,

"Haruka-papa, you're pregnant?" Hotaru asked alarmed.

Haruka looked from the testing strip to Hotaru. She could see where she got this idea from. Not wanting to give away Michiru's news, she said, "Yes."

"Oh my goodness! Whose the father? And what does Mamma think about this?" Hotaru asked.

Haruka cupped her hands over Hotaru's mouth, "You can't tell her. I want to break the news to her slowly." She was about to throw it away, when Hotaru told her she might want to keep it with her. Grinding her teeth, she stuck it in her pocket. They came out of Michiru's room and went downstairs, pretending as if nothing had happened.

Haruka and Hotaru saw Kaimu sitting on the couch all by himself. "Aw, the poor boy. There's no little guys his age." Hotaru said sadly. "Too bad Kaemon hadn't been born four years earlier."

"Hotaru…I wanted to talk to you about your new son…" Haruka started off slowly, catching Hotaru's attention quickly. "I don't think it's Setsuna's child, it may be from the past sent to the future."

"But Haruka…he has some of Setsuna's features," she explained, almost hurt that Haruka didn't have the same beliefs as everyone else. How could she be saying this?

"Don't you think…if Setsuna got pregnant then she would've fallen in love? Wouldn't she have told us? Why is it a secret? Where is Setsuna? Have you thought of all the possibilities as to why this is more than likely not her child?"

"And have you thought of all the possibilities as to why it could be her child?" Hotaru asked, raising an eyebrow. "Come on Haruka-papa, if you can fall in love then so can Setsuna-mama. She raised me remember? Who cares if she fell in love in secret? Does it truly matter?"

"Maybe it just hurts a little that she didn't want us to be along there beside us," Haruka said looking down at her feet, uncomfortably. "If Kaemon is her son, I don't understand why she's hiding it all. As for love, I'm still in love."

Hotaru raised a questioning eyebrow, "What? With who? The babies father?"

Not that again, Haruka thought to herself. Haruka's eyes saddened, "No.. with-"

She stopped when she walked in, her blue hair a mess and a scrapbook in her hands. She went over and put the scrapbook in the drawer. Sleepily, she walked over to the kitchen table and sat down.

"All this just so she'll stop asking,"

"Asking what?" Hotaru asked, puzzled.

"Aito walked out basically. I'm not sure if he's coming back yet or not," Michiru sighed. She thought back to half an hour ago when she was scared to death of being pregnant. Luckily, she wasn't. She was so glad when nothing had shown up on the testing kit, but she was slightly worried that it could be wrong.

"Aito's gone?" Hotaru asked alarmed. "I thought it was strange that Haruka was around."

There was a bunch of screaming from upstairs. Michiru went to get up to go check on it when Hotaru told her to sit back down and that her and Haruka would tend to it. Haruka, grumbling, that she didn't want to go check on the kids, got up and did it anyway.

After a few hours, Michiru, Haruka, and Hotaru were able to get the kids to settle down enough to watch a movie. Once Michiru saw all was calm she dismissed herself and went up to her bedroom, locking the door, and crashing into her bed immediately. She no longer cared about getting dressed into night clothes.

The next morning she awoke to the sounds of snickering and foot steps going across the floor. Rolling her eyes she got up and went to see what the children were up to now. She was shocked when she saw Hotaru egging the children on. Michiru crept closer to where the children were, when she was behind them she finally figured out what was going on. They had put shaving cream and tooth paste all over Haruka's body.

Michiru had to admit, it was pretty funny, but the clean up wouldn't be nice. Hana took something out from her pocket and held it up to Haruka's ear. She gave it one good squeeze, and the horn screeched throughout the house. Haruka jerked awake, jolting up right. She went to wipe something off her face, but instead ended up with more on her face than originally.

She went to pull her hand away, but her hand was stuck. Hotaru's eyes widened when she realized that one of the girls or boys had put superglue on Haruka's hand. Hotaru quickly figured out who it was, as the superglue fell out of her pocket and onto the ground. Hana- doubled over in laughter- had dropped the superglue.

"Hana Tenou!" Haruka scolded.

"Wait, a minute!" Michiru held up her hand before the bickering could stop. "If we may please look at the situation. The girls were just having fun," she received two jolting glares from the two young fellows in the living room. "And boys." she quickly added as she continued, "And it was clearly Hotaru's idea."

Michiru gave Hotaru that look that she better follow the story. Hotaru nodded, knowing that Haruka couldn't really do anything to her. Haruka scrunched up her face, with her hand still stuck to it.

"If my hand wasn't glued to my face I would swat you right now," Haruka said.

"What's wrong with your other hand?" Hotaru dared.

Haruka glared, "I'm just too nice."

"Well, you better go get in the shower and cleaned up. We have breakfast at Makoto's restaurant this morning," Hotaru explained.

"We what?" both Haruka and Michiru said in unison.

"You don't remember?" Hotaru asked, feeling dread come over her. "Makoto, before the haircut last night, said we should meet everyone else up at the restaurant."

"Right," Haruka groaned, remembering. She turned to Michiru, "I better use your shower."

"Sure." Michiru said and walked away instantly. Hikaru followed her into the music room. Michiru took a seat on the small love seat. Hikaru climbed up and cuddled with her mother.

"What's wrong mommy?"

"Nothing darling. Mommy is just stressed," Michiru explained politely to her daughter.

"When is daddy coming home?" Hikaru asked.

"Soon," Michiru groaned slightly.

It took a little bit longer than intended to get all the children ready to leave. It was decided that everyone was going to take their own vehicle and some children along with them. Hotaru decided it'd be best if she took Isamu and Lilac with her.

Arriving at the restaurant thirty-minutes late, everyone unloaded and quickly rushed inside to be greeted by Makoto and Minako. Taylor was bubbling with joy. She had been ever since her mother told her she was going to have a brother or sister.

"Lilac, Morgan, and Hana guess what?" Taylor asked, accidentally leaving Hikaru and Ginny out of the conversation.

"What?" the three of them said in unison.

"I'm going to get a brother or sister!" Taylor squealed in delight.

Lilac's eyes widened, "Where you going to get that?"

"Is it your birthday?" Hana asked.

Taylor's gave Lilac a funny look, "You don't know where babies come from?"

Lilac shook her head no. Isamu spoke up, "They come from our mommies tummies."

"Why can't daddy's have babies? They have tummies too," Hana pointed out.

"Wow, I never knew little girls asked such weird questions," Isamu said, rolling his eyes. "Dad's can't have babies because their stomachs are rubber bands. They don't stretch."

"I guess that makes since," Hana said, uncertain.

The baby talk started over at the grownups tables. Minako and Makoto kept glancing over at Haruka knowingly. Hotaru had slipped up this morning when she had called them to let them know everyone was still sleeping and that they'd probably be late.

Finally, Haruka threw down her napkin, "What?"

"Don't get angry. You could raise your blood pressure and that wouldn't be good for the little one," Makoto explained. "Lilac was born to early because I kept stressing out and in return raising my blood pressure."

"I-what?"

Michiru turned to Haruka mortified, "You're pregnant?"

"What?"

"Hotaru told us the news," Minako explained. "Didn't you already know, Michiru?"

Hotaru sunk down in her chair, under Haruka's glares, "I guess I left that part out."

"Wait a minute! When did you find out you were pregnant?" Michiru asked, silkily.

"I went into your bathroom, Michiru and saw it laying there. Hotaru came in and thought it was mine, so I went with the story," Haruka sighed.

Michiru's face went pale white, "I'm pregnant?"

"What? Now I'm confused." Hotaru said. Everyone else's mouths dropped open, including Haruka's.

"You didn't know?"

Michiru shook her head. She quickly got up and shot to the bathroom, locking the door. Tears fell down her face like a waterfall. She thought she was safe, but now she was pregnant. She hadn't read the directions fully. She had only read the first instruction and nothing more, but she was certain now she was meant to wait longer than what she had. How could this happen? She had no choice. She had to call Aito and let him know.

Authors Note: I kind of think this chapter sucks. It probably doesn't help that I wrote it at one in the morning.