Curse of the Sea Horse
Chapter XIV.
The woman had a hand covering her mouth, her hazel eyes wide, and glossy with tears threatening to pour at any given time. The doctor who had his arm wrapped about her shoulders was staring at Shigure with open incredulity. The couple was visibly shaken.
Haru turned his gaze over his older cousin, who was currently sporting a solemn expression, which the ox thought was disgustingly fake. Well, at least it was for Haru, having known the novelist for a long time. How the dog was able to keep a straight face after what he just told the couple was beyond the younger Juunishi.
"I-is that even possible?" muttered the doctor, almost to himself.
Shigure, however, deemed it was for him to answer. He nodded gravely, wiping a non-existent tear in the corner of his eye. "We had never thought it was during the first few weeks. But when she came home from that travel, looking l-like—"
Here, the novelist's voice broke as he gave a small sob, hiding his face behind his sleeve. His shoulders were shaking hard, so the woman gently patted his other hand, her eyes watering sympathetically.
Shigure was obviously giggling, and the pervert was so obviously enjoying the contact. Haru almost rolled his eyes.
With a deep breath, Shigure lifted his face from hiding, his face a picture of despair, before continuing brokenly. "We didn't know what t-they did to her there, o-or who those people are. She was t-terrified when she got back… She thought that we'd be ashamed of her and leave her. But we'd never do that… We love her. We're… family."
At that, the woman buried her face on her fiancé's shoulder and sobbed hard. The doctor patted her shoulders consolingly, before turning to Shigure with a sad look.
"I… have no idea what medical practice they gave her," he said hesitantly, as if he was ashamed that his profession gave him no immediate response to this particular dilemma. "We all know about sex change, but it was more often than not men changing to a woman, not the other way around. I guess it is possible for a woman to be turned into a man by surgery, but to forcibly administer it to a pregnant woman..." He shook his head grimly. "I just never thought it was possible. Don't worry though, your secret is safe with us."
"Thank you for understanding my… wife's condition," said Shigure gratefully, although for Haru, it sounded more like relief. "There are too few people these days that will understand our situation right now, and to hear you say so just warms my heart."
The doctor frowned thoughtfully, staring at his fiancée. "Are you going to let her stay the way she is right now, Sohma-san?"
Shigure leaned back on his seat, a tired look settling on his face. At least this time, to Haru, it looked rather genuine. The canine must have been really tired. "I don't really know, Watabe-sensei… It depends on her, I guess."
Haru, tiring of the tale the novelist was spinning around the couple, stood up. "May I see the baby, Kana-sensei?"
The woman straightened up, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. "Of course, Sohma-kun… Right this way. Excuse us, Omi-kun, Sohma-san."
Haru followed her through the hallway with his hands shoved in his pockets. As they passed through the kitchen, he saw a huge aquarium, acting as a divider. He paused, studying it intently.
Kana must have noticed he was no longer following. "Is there something wrong, Sohma-kun?'
"Are there any fish here at all?"
Confused, Kana stood beside him, looking at the aquarium quite fondly. "Of course there are. There are the sea horses."
"I meant real fish."
"Hm, you mean fish like gold fish and angel fish?" she said, picking up the bottle of fish pellets and dropping several into the water. "No. I have a strange liking over sea horses. I find them real cute and easy to raise, unlike any other pets."
"I thought they are much more complicated to keep," said Haru, having watched Momiji try raising a couple of sea horses for Hatori a few years back (which ended up in the belly of a very hungry orange cat, to a much larger sea horse's wrath).
"Really?" said Kana in surprise, at Haru's nod, she shrugged. "I guess I just really like them so I never notice."
Hm… a mystery… Is that liking had something to do with Hatori-san?
"Why do you like them so much, Kana-san?"
Kana frowned thoughtfully. "I actually don't know. I seem to remember having a pet sea horse before, and that I really, really love him. But somehow, he got lost… And I never knew what happened to him. So when I finally had some cash, I bought lots of them in his memory."
The ox was quiet. He was with Momiji when the incident between Akito and Hatori happened, and both of them watched silently as the sea horse emerged from the room he shared with Kana, pale and shaking. Somehow, her story about her 'pet' sea horse was too close to what really happened for comfort. So Haru decided to let it go.
"So who does the baby resemble, Kana-san?"
Kana watched as the white and black haired-boy peered at the infant within the incubator carefully. She found a great liking at the strange, quiet boy. He was very much well mannered and smart, and she felt very much comfortable with him.
It felt like she had known him for quite a while now, which she found weird. It was the first time she had seen the boy. The flash of familiarity when the boy first looked at her was also disconcerting, much like the novelist's expression when he opened the door.
"Is he really a boy, Kana-sensei? But he looks so… girl."
Kana shook herself out of her thoughts and turned to the boy with a slight smile. "Indeed. Maybe it's his pale skin and brown hair that made you say so… But he looks really sweet, doesn't he? Besides, looking feminine isn't that bad. I'm sure he'll grow out of it in a few years time."
She was rather startled at the blush coming on the boy's face. "I'm not saying looking like a girl's bad," he muttered, apparently remembering something, or someone. He turned his dark eyes back at the sleeping infant. "Besides, he looks too much like Hatori-san to be a girl."
Kana started. "H-hatori?"
The boy glanced at her curiously, and seeing her expression, his eyes widened and opened his mouth soundlessly.
She heard that name before. She was certain (and she was confused as hell to know how) that that name had once been a significant factor of her life, but once she began delving her memory for more information, she found a strange emptiness.
Nothing.
Impossible!
How could something she felt was so important be nothing in her mind? It began to frustrate her. Other memories she could remember, but she filtered thru them, searching for that particular name. But the deeper she delved, the more petrifying the nothingness became. It was as if someone sorted through her memories and removed certain parts of it.
It terrified her.
"Why does that name so familiar?"
"Probably it was the name of your pet sea horse."
The soft voice broke into her thoughts. Kana whirled to see the boy holding out a piece of paper. She recognized it as one of her prescription pads. In it, by her own hand, a doodle of a sea horse was drawn with a speech bubble saying 'Hi! I'm Hatori and I love water!'.
She carefully took it, trying to stop her hands from shaking. When had she done this? She vaguely remembered sitting down one afternoon in this room, waiting for Omi and doodling absently. But why she drew a sea horse and named it Hatori was beyond her.
She shook herself again, trying to regain her composure. She looked back at the boy who hadn't remove his eyes from her. "Why, it must be, Sohma-kun! How silly of me to forget," she chuckled. The boy held a doubtful look, but she couldn't really blame him. Her voice sounded too cheerful to be genuine. "Although, why does your mother have a masculine name?"
"My mother?" She waved at the room next door, and the boy understood. "Oh, that isn't my mother. That's my cousin. And about his—I mean her—name, it's actually Haori, but Shigure-san called her Hatori outside our house. That way, people won't ask silly questions."
"Oh," was Kana's intelligent reply. She still too shaken at the discovery of too many holes in her memory, and she knew she needed some time alone. Fast. "I'm sorry Sohma-kun, but can I leave you here for a minute? I need… uh, to get something upstairs."
The boy shrugged and turned his attention back to the infant once more.
Kana hurriedly left the room and fled upstairs, locking herself in the bathroom. She couldn't stop shaking. The feeling of mixed dread and despair was threatening to swallow her up.
It scared her shitless.
But what was more frightening, she didn't even know what caused it.
Haru sighed as Kana left the room. It was honestly a close call, and he wanted to kick himself for not watching out his words. Kana hadn't been close to him in the past, but whenever the woman spoke to him and Momiji, they always get along really well. He felt a sense of security and fell for it.
Fortunately, he glimpsed a piece of paper in the floor and scooping it out, he found a credible excuse. But he could see the woman didn't really buy it, and the troubled look on her face told him she was trying to remember.
He wondered briefly what would happen if Kana suddenly remembered everything.
He shuddered.
Haru hoped she wouldn't.
He was sure it was going to break the woman's heart once more, and she will fell into that ruinous depression again. And when that happened, Hatori will have to do the same soul-breaking task he had to do to save her. Hatori had suffered enough already the first time. To do it a second time…
Haru shook his head and simply stared at the baby.
The infant does look like Hatori, but he inherited his real mother's light brown hair. Haru wondered what the color was the baby's eyes. Perhaps it would be Hatori's olive-colored eyes… At least the baby didn't inherit any deformities Hatori's animal counterpart might—
His eyes snapped wide.
The curse…
Then, just as sudden, he relaxed. He remembered Kana stepping out of the operating room holding the baby in her arms. A baby, not a sea horse.
No one in the Juunishi died recently, so it was safe to assume that Hatori's son would be perfectly normal. It was also a relief that the baby turned out to be a boy. Haru knew how much it would hurt Hatori not to be able to hold his child. At least the infant had that certainty that eluded most of the Juunishi: the certainty that your parents want you.
"Hey, kid," he spoke thru the glass. "Grow up soon, ok? I need a kid brother again... Momiji grew up so fast."
Of course, Haru conveniently forgot that he and Momiji are of the same age.
A/N:
Yep, I'm back again! I've been stuck in the Death Note land since March and still, I couldn't get out… hm, maybe it's because I don't want to leave (I'm absolutely hooked on it, much like L is to sugar)… but anyway! Here's chapter 14 of Curse of the Sea Horse! Yay! (-,-)v
The gist of Shigure's excuse of Hatori being pregnant while a male is this: someone who has an uncanny fixation for sex change 'kidnapped' his 'wife' and apparently turned him into a 'man' while pregnant. Shigure apparently found this hilarious for some reason, while Haru can't find any humor in it (just like you all probably, eh… (-.-;) ).
Oh, and before I forget, by this chapter, I'll start responding to reviews and stuff. I realized I've been missing out on friends by not responding to such wonderful reviewers! You guys are the best ever, and I can't take you enough for taking time to review my story. So I decided to honor that by replying… (-,-)v
So… questions, suggestions, remarks, exclamations, gasps, tears, giggles and LOLs are welcome!
Um, I deliberately left out critiques and violent reactions as people tend to abuse these two, and my heart could take only so much. If you're going to leave something like these two, please be reasonable and considerate.
If not, I'll write you off in my Death Note.. BWAHAHAH—(cough) Ahem..
Aa.. no other stuff to explain. (-.-)
Thanks a lot for reading!