Friday was inarguably one of the most stressful days of my life. First, there was the waiting for my appointment at the health center, then came the actual appointment, during which there was the confirmation of everything I didn't want to be happening. I truly was pregnant. Whether I wanted it or not, I would be having a baby in September; because despite what I may have said to Lenalee, there was no way that I would ever be able to abort a baby.
And as if that weren't bad enough, Uncle Tyki decided that Friday was a good day to show up without warning and pester me.
I found him in the same spot as always: lounging on a bench outside the music building, smoking and hitting on all the women that walked by. I scowled as I passed him on my way to the dining hall but otherwise ignored him; I did not want to deal with him right now. That didn't stop him from getting up and following me though. "Oi! Shounen! Is that any way to greet your favorite uncle?"
I crinkled my nose, both at the comment and at the heavy smell of tobacco smoke that surrounded him. That was not good for my baby. "One: you're not technically my uncle, two: I'm not a boy, and three: if you want to talk to me, you're going to have to put out that cigarette. Smoking is prohibited in this area of campus."
"You're so mean, Shounen." He whined, but he at least stopped and ditched the cigarette before following me again.
"What are you even doing here, Tyki? Don't you live on the other side of the country?" It was a pointless question - I knew from his previous visits that he wouldn't answer it; according to Sherril, Tyki was using me as an excuse to get out of doing his work.
"Can't I just visit my favorite niece? Must I need a reason to come see you?"
I was not in the mood to deal with him today. "Seriously. Stop making up crap. Everyone knows that Road is your favorite. And you may like to visit me on campus, but that's only to hit on college girls, and you wouldn't travel all the way across the country just for that, so..."
"I'm here on business for the Earl. Why do you have to take the fun out of everything?" His fake pouting didn't last for long before he resumed his usual obliviously cheerful teasing of me. I was seriously ready to hurt him. "Speaking of taking the fun out of things, why haven't you answered any of Road's love letters?"
The comment made my glare deepen. "I have a boyfriend, you know."
He retorted, but I didn't hear it. I was too busy thinking about Kanda and what I'd learned that morning. Lenalee seemed convinced that he would want to know about his baby, but I didn't really believe her. Maybe I needed a man's opinion. Tyki did seem to have a lot of experience with dating; maybe he knew something that could help me.
I sighed and turned my attention back to my uncle, who was currently making eyes at a blonde. "Hey, Tyki? You've... been with a lot of women, right?"
"I guess you could say that." He laughed at me, but his gaze stayed on the girl he was trying to flirt with.
I frowned but went ahead and asked my real question, trying to be as nonchalant as possible about it. "And if you ever ... got one of those women pregnant, would you want to know about it?"
Tyki's attention was back on me in a heartbeat. "What brought this on?"
The way he was staring at me made me squirm, and I did my best to play off the question. "Nothing, I'm just curious."
He stared suspiciously at me for a moment, but then he burst out laughing. "Oh! This is about you!"
I blinked at his reaction, but that confusion was ignored as I realized that Tyki now knew that I was pregnant. I squirmed in embarrassment as he laughed at me, but when he went straight from amused to angry, I nearly had a panic attack trying to keep him calm. "So where is he? Where is the bastard you let knock you up?"
His word choice pissed me off a little. "I didn't 'let' him do anything. I'm on birth control and we used a condom. This was very much an accident."
Tyki wasn't listening and had begun to walk off. I grabbed his arm and pulled him down onto a nearby bench, rolling my eyes at how eager he was to get at Kanda. "He's not on campus, he graduated last year. But you already know that. And you going after him isn't going to do me any good. I only found out this morning. I haven't had a chance to tell him, and I don't need you to do it for me."
I eventually got Uncle Tyki calmed down - and got him to agree to not do anything to Kanda - and our conversation returned to my original question. Unfortunately, he agreed with Lenalee that I needed to tell Kanda that he had gotten me pregnant.
As our conversation wound down, Tyki stood up and stretched. "Oh. I almost forgot. The Earl has a business meeting here next week."
I frowned at that, knowing Uncle Neah would use Adam's meeting to as an excuse to come visit me. But before I could thank Tyki for the warning, he smirked darkly at me. "He's bringing the whole family with him and expects you to join us for dinner on Friday night. And just in case you're thinking of skipping out on it, remember that I know your secret. If you don't come and bring your baby daddy, I might just have to tell a certain someone that you got yourself pregnant."
I swallowed hard at the threat, trying to keep the panic from bubbling up. "Oh my god! When Neah finds out I'm pregnant, he's going to go ballistic! He'll kill me!"
Tyki continued to smirk at me. "Exactly. That's why you need to introduce him to your boyfriend first. So, you can either bring him to dinner and get your act together before you tell Neah yourself, or I can tell him for you and you can watch him explode."
"You're so mean, Tyki." I couldn't decide which option was worse. Family dinner was enough of a fiasco without bringing my boyfriend with me, having Kanda there would only make it worse. But on the other hand, Neah finding out about my pregnancy was just about the worst possible thing that could happen in my life right about now.
He laughed and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it as he walked away and guaranteeing that I wouldn't follow him. "See you next Friday!"
