Chapter 7 (Redemption)
Subaru could not believe the scenario he found himself in. Here he was laying on a disgusting couch feeling the horrible hangover of his night out with Ram.
The worst part wasn't his raging headache or the giant stomach bug he felt squirming around. It was the fact that Ram of all people was laying on top of him with both of their clothes scattered all over the living room.
Their bodies were both sticky from sweat and covered in saliva in some areas, a direct result of last night's love session.
Subaru was also kind of disappointed to not even be granted the privilege of being able to remember his first time. Ram was pretty attractive, and he just wished he could at least remember a small bit of it.
He never even got that far with Rem and they were technically together for months, but with Ram it only took one date.
An urgent problem was still on Subarus mind, and that was the price he was going to pay when Ram finally woke up. He already knew she wasn't going to be too happy to know that she slept with him last night.
For now though Ram rested peacefully breathing in relaxing patterns, she clearly got so tuckered out after they finished mating. To the point she just fell asleep on top of him.
Subaru was also still going through a horrible hangover.. He wanted to get up and get something to drink to try and ease the symptoms, but he had a sleeping Ram on top, that was holding him in place.
Though she seemed to be in a very deep sleep. Making slight movement of her body possible. Subaru gently slid himself onto the floor carefully laying Ram down on the couch.
Subaru just wanted to stare at her attractive body for hours, but this hangover was getting the best of him. He felt like he was about to vomit at any second. He felt too terrible and sick to feel perverted.
Gathering his clothes from the floor Subaru slipped them back on, and not long after he felt last night's dinner start to rush up from his stomach. Quickly rushing to an open window he leaned his head outside and vomited onto the ground.
Subaru never had a hangover before, but now he could finally say that he had. But it wasn't something to brag about in Subarus mind since it felt horrible.
After finishing vomiting into the ground outside. He moved his head up and saw that the neighbor across the street was giving him a weird look.
Moving his head back inside he closed the window and paid no mind to the mean looking neighbor across the street.
Little did he know, the neighbor heard everything that happened last night between Ram and Subaru because Subaru kept the window open. In fact all the homes in the surrounding area heard him and Ram. They even kept up a small innocent child, who listened to Ram's innocence being taken.
After getting himself a giant glass of water, he sat down at the kitchen table and started to feel sorry for himself. He was also waiting for Ram to wake up who would probably end up executing him right on the spot.
A little bit of time went by and Ram had finally awoken, also feeling a horrible hangover, but to her confusion she also felt very sore in her undercarriage area.
Opening her eyes she tried to collect her surroundings, she didn't recognize the living room she was in, but was able to notice that all her clothes were thrown all over the place, and that she was laying naked and totally exposed on a disgusting looking couch.
Feeling her raging headache grow worse Ram let out a giant groan of pain. Subaru overheard and knew that Ram had awakened and the big show was about to begin.
Ram only peaked her head over the couch to see Subaru sitting at the kitchen table. He looked as sick and hungover as she was.
Ram felt like time froze as memories of the previous night came back to her mind replaying in crystal clarity.
She remembered every moment of her time with Subaru, and she couldn't have been more disappointed in herself and embarrassed. Ram immediately wanted to blame Subaru for what happened, but she knew she was the one that seduced him. Even the first one to start stripping down.
"Barusu did we just-"
"Yes," Subaru interrupted, not even letting Ram finish her sentence.
"How much do you remember from last night?' Ram asked.
"I didn't remember much of anything actually. Last thing I saw that night was you undressing, and next thing I knew I woke up with a headache feeling nauseated with you laying on top of me"
Ram let out a shameful cry and covered her face in humiliation.
Not wanting to lay there naked on the couch any longer. She began hunting for her clothes that were scattered all over the living room.
Unfortunately one of her clothing pieces was thrown far from her reach. Being forced to get off the couch in order to retrieve it.
"Barusu can you get up and pick up my skirt and hand it to me." Ram asked.
Subaru got up from the table and walked over to Rams skirt and picked it up off the ground and started to walk towards the couch.
"Just throw it to me! Don't walk over here, you pervert!" Ram shouted.
"Oh come on, please just one glance"
"No!" Ram said.
"Alright fine geez, I was just joking"
Subaru threw Ram her skirt and returned to the kitchen table to down more glasses of water. After Ram finished changing back into her clothes she got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen table.
"Why did you make me drink so much last night!?" Ram asked
"To be fair the first drink was completely fine, so was the second..."
"I'm not even going to fight you Barusu, I don't feel good," Ram said.
"Neither do I"
"Listen, I need to lay down somewhere that is not that disgusting couch that is just covered in whatever fluids are on it" Ram said.
"What do you want me to do about it Ram?" Subaru asked.
"Find the key to one of those bedrooms and let me lay down for a bit" Ram said.
"Ram, the only chance I'm opening one of those rooms up again, is you are planning on staying here. If you are staying here, I will open up the guest bedroom for you to use. So Ram, are you planning on staying?"
Ram paused for a minute trying to figure out her answer. It was true she sort of buried the hatchet with Subaru, but she was still unsure if she really wanted to be around him any longer then she had to.
She felt like them sorting things out that one dinner was enough to leave each other to live out their separate lives on a positive note.
Ram just needed some time to figure out what she was going to do going forward. It may take a couple weeks for her to decide, but she will eventually come to her decision.
"I just need time to think, Barusu. I will stay here for a couple weeks at least and… Figure out whether I want to stay or not, but do not expect any more of what we did last night!" Ram said.
Subaru nodded and got up from his chair. He walked over to the cupboard to grab the guest bedroom key. The second he pulled the key out Ram gave him a really nasty look.
"Ram, why are you looking at me like that?" Subaru asked.
"Didn't you tell me that you forgot where you placed the keys to the bedrooms last night, Barusu!" Ram said.
"I just said that so you wouldn't press me on the issue of sleeping next to me" Subaru said.
Ram let out a giant sigh feeling too nauseated and hungover to fight with him. Subaru unlocked the bedroom door and hesitated for a few seconds before finally opening the door to reveal the guest bedroom he hasn't seen in over two years.
The second he entered the room, memories of how Rem would take care of it washed over him. It hasn't been touched in two years so there was dust everywhere, but the room for the most part still remained the same.
Just the way it was kept reminded him of Rem, and how she cleaned so neatly. Always having a unique and distinct style to how she cleaned and maintained things. Everything looked pretty much perfect, even the way she folded the bed showed no errors.
She always maintained it for her sister Ram, and surprisingly to Subaru it didn't seem to have been in vain. She was finally going to use it after two whole years of waiting.
Two entire weeks went by. Ram had yet to come to her decision on whether she would stay with Subaru, or go out and find another maid job. Ram was leaning toward the option of staying with Subaru until she had enough money to afford her own place.
Ram never saw living with Subaru to be a permanent type of thing. All Ram needed to do was find herself a job and start making herself some money. Sadly for her, not a lot of places were hiring her.
Mainly because of one recent recurring issue. Ram had lately started to find herself becoming light headed and nauseous at random intervals of the day.
It didn't feel like a flu or anything of that sort since most times it would just go away in an hour or two, but then magically reappear the next day or sometimes earlier.
Ram awoke one morning feeling sick to her stomach once again. She wanted to get to the bottom of the reason she felt so sick all the time.
She hadn't been telling Subru about her illness, since she didn't want him to get all worried and start to cling onto her like a worried parent.
The morning was very early, so early in fact the sun had yet to rise. Despite this Ram still got up and questily made her way out of her room, and snuck past the sleeping Subaru on the disgusting couch that had not been cleaned in forever.
She slipped her shoes on and walked out the front door making her way to the doctors office to get checked out. While walking to the doctors Ram had to stop and vomit at least twice on her way there.
Luckily Ram was able to make it to the doctor's office, and found it just opening up for business that morning. Ram was actually the first patient of the day.
When Ram arrived she told the doctor what she had been going through the past couple days. What preceded next was a bunch of medical tests that would tell her if she was alright or not.
After going through her many medical tests she waited in the chair for the doctor to walk back in and read her results. He had walked off to test some of Ram's blood and other samples, to search for any diseases or illness.
She was very nervous to hear her results. Each second felt like a minute of anticipation and fear. She just hoped whatever sickness Rem had did not rub off on her by sleeping in the guest room she constantly tended to.
Eventually the door opened and the doctor walked up with a calm and collective look on his face. Not one that carried dreadful news to inform.
"Well Ram you are… You're going to be alright" The doctor said.
"That's a relief, thank you for your services" Ram said as she got up from her chair and prepared to exit.
"Wait hold on, I still have some news for you that you might want to be sitting down for" The doctor said.
Rams heart rate spiked up as she sat back down in the chair nervous about the seemingly important news the doctor had to provide.
"Well… what is it?" Ram asked.
"I just hope you see it as a good thing because you Ram are… Expecting"
"... What do you mean"
"You are pregnant. You're going to have a little girl in nine months," The doctor said.
Ram nearly fainted when the news was dropped on her ears, she couldn't believe this was actually happening to her. She had completely forgotten about what dangers came from herself and Subarus drunken dance a couple weeks ago.
She didn't know how to react, she had not yet decided on what emotion she wanted to feel. In fact she was feeling a blend of every emotion in the book.
Not knowing how to take in the news Ram just stared at the doctor with a frozen expression, still trying to process what reality she was living in and if she was dreaming or not.
"Are you… alright?" The doctor asked.
Ram snapped out of her reflective thoughts and got up from the chair once more.
"I'm fine, I… will be going now," Ram said.
She made her way out of the doctor's office, now knowing about her new acquaintance who would follow her everywhere for the next nine months.
While walking back to Subarus house, Ram was trying to figure out how she was going to tell Subaru. She felt that if he knew about her being pregnant that he might take off again leaving her to raise their child alone.
Ram didn't see Subaru to be mature or responsible enough to raise a child with her.
But then again, he seemed to have learned his lesson about running off from his problems. Ram just didn't want to go through the pain of having Subaru run off on her and leaving her alone.
She especially didn't want Subaru to lie and pretend to be supportive of her pregnancy, but then immediately disappear when she looked in the opposite direction. Having her hopes and heart crushed like that would be too much to handle.
An idea appeared in her mind. Ram would write a letter about her pregnancy, and leave it in an area for Subaru to stumble upon.
She would then wait in a certain area in Kararagi to see if Subaru would show up, and if he did it would prove to her that he truly learned his lesson and is willing to take responsibilities of a parent. If he didn't show up he instead proved to her how irresponsible he really was.
This would act as Subarus' redemption test, all he had to do was show up and be willing to care for Ram and their child. If he did this Ram might be able to finally look past the incident at the mansion two years ago.
Going back to the house. She walked in and unsurprisingly found Subaru still passed out on the couch. It was still very early in the morning, butt the sun was starting to shine in the sky
Ram proceeded to write her letter, and walked up to the sleeping Subaru and placed the note on his chest, and walked out of the house and back into the city to await his awakening and response.
Subaru had until late noon to accept his responsibilities. If he didn't show up and it was late into the day, it would be clear to Ram what his response to the current situation was. She just hopes he changed like he said he did.
A couple hours went by and Subaru had finally awoken. He noticed the piece of paper left on his chest, and grabbed it to start reading what it was.
"Barusu, I left this note to inform you that I have finally made a choice if I am going to stay with you"
Subarus' heart rate picked up in nervousness reading the first sentence. He bolted up from the couch and practically ran over to her room and was devastated to find it empty, and the bed made neatly.
He collapsed onto his knees in disbelief and distraught. "What did I even do wrong!" Subaru cried out.
Being so heart broken by Ram's supposed departure, Subaru didn't even feel like reading the rest of the letter, but he knew there was still more to read and he might even get an explanation to why she left him.
Walking back to the couch he picked up the letter and began to finish reading it.
"I went to the doctors this morning before you woke up and was informed that I am now expecting a little girl in nine months. Of course there could only be one possible father..."
Subaru couldn't believe what he was reading, he was not ready to hear this sort of news, but he also felt sad thinking that Ram saw him as too irresponsible to look after their child along with her. But there was still more to read.
"I will be waiting near the pier for your optional arrival. If you do not wish to help me raise the child, don't even bother showing up, but if you truly want to help me in this you would show up immediately after reading this. If you dont you proved to me that you never changed and you are nothing but a lying coward that runs away from his problems. Help me or not, make your choice"
Immediately after Subaru finished reading the letter he knew what he had to do and was going to do by any means necessary. Quickly getting up from the couch, he ran to the door and slipped his shoes on to go and find Ram.
He bolted out the door, but before he could step onto the sidewalk. He wanted to go back for a special item he was going to need, running back into the house he grabbed his primary bedroom key and walked over to Rem's death room door and unlocked it.
Walking inside he was met with Rem's beloved room. The basket with her folded clothes still held her faint scent was on the floor still. But the most emotional part was Rem's wrinkled side of the bed, her resting spot.
Going to his nightstand he opened it and found the engagement ring that he had placed there two years back.
"Might as well," Subaru said to himself.
Placing the ring in his project he took off to Rams location.
Ram waited by the pier wondering if Subaru was even going to bother showing up. Simply not knowing if he had the maturity and responsibility to step up to the plate and take care of a child with her.
As more time went by, her hopes of him showing up were starting to go down. She hated to admit it, but she really wanted him to show up and just help her.
The streets were crowded with people and they all walked by Ram paying no mind to her. Ram was on the verge of giving up all hope on Subaru, and felt tears build up at the corner of her eyes looking into her dark future of trying to raise a child by herself in Kararagi.
"Hey Ram!" Subaru called out.
Ram looked over in the direction of the call out thinking that her ears were deceiving her in a fit of desperation to keep her happy, but to her disbelief Subaru was there walking towards her looking happy as ever.
"Barusu…. You actually came back" Ram said.
"Of course I came back, I'm not going to leave to raise our child alone" Subaru said.
Ram couldn't hold back her fountain of emotions and hugged onto Subaru while she let out her tears in his chest. Subaru had officially managed to redeem himself for his actions two years back.
"Before you get all emotional Ram, I have something to… Show you…"
"What is it, Barusu?"
It was now time. Reaching into his pocket Subaru grabbed onto the engagement ring. Taking some deep breaths in he pulled the ring out to show Ram.
"Ram whatever your last name is, will you… Marry me?"
Silence descended between the two as Ram figured out her response to Subarus proposal. Subaru looked into her eye and saw her processing her response.
"I will, Barusu"
"Really!? I didn't expect you to actually say yes to that"
"Well we already have a child on the way, so I guess we are kind of stuck together" Ram said.
"I wouldn't put it like that, I want to be with you Ram. I can tell you that for a fact" Subaru said.
Apparently his words were enough to flatter Ram who latched herself onto Subaru to hug him tightly. Subaru was now no longer alone, he finally found someone to keep him company for the rest of his life.
It was still rather shocking at the fact he ended up getting married to Ram instead of Emilia or Rem, but Ram had her own unique perks that Subaru could look forward to hearing everyday.
"Anyways Ram, do you wanna go home now?"
Ram nodded her head in agreement, and they both returned home, and immediately when they arrived Ram began cleaning up the mess in the home Subaru had created over the span of two years.
Subaru pitched in and assisted Ram in cleaning the house. Of course during the cleaning session he got barraged with insults by Ram who was questioning why he even let it get this bad to begin with.
After cleaning was over and done with, it was approaching time for them to drift off to sleep, and of course now being married both Subaru and Ram were going to be sharing a bed. They decided that the guest bedroom would be their child's room going forward in the far future.
Ram being pregnant meant that she was still going to feel lightheaded from time to time. He wished Ram would have told him about her nauseousness sooner, but he didn't care too much. Before he got into bed Subaru retrieved a bin for Ram to vomit in, just in case she needed it.
"Ram, I am placing this bin here by your side of the bed. If you feel sick just vomit in this, or try to at least. Do not vomit on me please" Subaru said
"I'm not going to vomit on you Barusu. "
"I'm just saying," Subaru said.
"Well say less"
Subaru walked over to his side of the bed and laid next to his demon wife, who was now wearing the ring Subaru gave her.
Subaru tried to drift off to sleep, but the curse of late night curiosity came to his mind. He was very curious to what child he was going to have with Ram, and just had to ask some questions to know what abilities it would possess.
"So Ram… Since you don't have your horn… Will our child also not have a horn? Or will it still have one?" Subaru asked.
"Maybe… I just hope our child doesn't end up as useless as you" Ram said.
"Look at that, isn't even born yet and you are already calling her useless"
"I called you useless, not her. I will obviously be the better influence on her. Judging by the complete disaster you left this home in"
"You need to tone it down on these insults. You can't be saying stuff like that in front of our child. It might grow to be to much like you, and I will be out numbered two to one"
"I would be very proud of her, if she also started to call out your mistakes. It would prove to me that I raised her well" Ram said.
"Why do I actually enjoy you constantly insulting me?"
"Because your weird and like that sort of stuff"
"I am just going to go to sleep, and stop digging my own grave," Subaru said.
"Alright then, you better not snore"
Subaru and Ram layed around in bed for a bit, the bed Subaru had not slept in or even looked at in two years. Subaru was very excited to see his child for the first time, and was still quite curious to see if it would have a horn.
He thought it was pretty crazy that his child would be part Oni, never in his life did he think he would create a child with a demon of all things. It didn't even sound real.
During the struggle to fall asleep, Subaru felt himself slowly shuffle his body over to Ram. Even though she probably didn't like to be held by him. Subaur was just going to do it anyway out of habit.
Holding onto Ram felt amazing for Subaru, it made him feel very relaxed. Just like how it would fel holding Rem two years back.
"Barusu, why are you holding me again?"
"Why do you always have to ask questions, I just like holding you alright. Can you just like, lett it happen for once"
"Fine, you can hold me… But no rubbing your per-"
"Don't worry about that happening! Just go to sleep"
"You better not get too excited, that's all I'm saying. Goodnight I guess" Ram said.
"Goodnight Ram," Subaru said.