Chapter Four

"Oh I wish I had been there, it's been so long, and there's so much that we could have talked about!" Sora said excitedly, thinking as she was babbling that she would invite her to the mall to go dress shopping. "She's a celebrity, she could help me plan the wedding, I could sure use her help if she's free. Do you think she'd be my Maid of Honor! I-" she cut herself off when she realized that Yamato had flinched when she'd mentioned the wedding, but instantly surmised that it was just the typical male, bored with women's obsessions with such things. She gasped when she realized that, in her excitement about Mimi's return, she'd forgotten to give him her good news. She opened her mouth, a smile stretching her face, and inhaled to speak.

"Sora?/Yamato?" they both asked at the same time, but Sora, in a hurry not to lose the moment, ran right over what he wanted to say.

"Come here." She half ordered, he nodded and rose from his chair to walk across to where she sat about five feet from him. She stood to stand infront of him and noticed that he was looking at his shoes. "Yama, look at me?" Reluctantly, he brought his eyes to meet hers, uncertainty dancing in their cerulean depths, she was so excited that she didn't spare the thought to wonder why he would feel such.

"While I was visiting my mother," she began, turning sideways and looking at a picture of him and her on their first date. "I noticed that I had skipped my monthly courses-"

"Sora, I don't really want-"

"Just listen. So I went to the doctor to see if I was under stress, or not eating right or something." Her smile grew even wider. "You want to know what he told me?"

****

"You want to know what he told me?" Yamato groaned under his breath, he had a vague idea about where she was headed, but he was vehemently refusing to acknowledge it, praying to every god he'd ever heard of that might listen to him that it wasn't what he profusely hoped it wasn't. But he gulped and nodded when he noticed she was watching him from the corner of her eye.

"I'm pregnant Yamato, your going to be a Father!"

"Pregnant." He whined, stumbling backwards until the back of his legs hit the couch and he collapsed dazedly into it's cushioning embrace. Her bright smile vanished and she knelt before him, clutching the knee of his slightly loose pants desperately.

"Please say your not angry Yama-chan, please?" she pleaded.

"Is it mine?" he choked out from his shock tightened throat, surprised he'd even gotten that out. He may of had a vague idea, but thinking it, and realizing it, were two different things. Her eyebrows creased in anger and she glared up at him.

"Of course it's yours," she snarled, "whose did you think it was!"

"I just remembered I left something at Taichi's house." He lied on impulse, getting up and heading for the door; feeling the need to be as far away from his fiancée as possible, and figured a walk in the cool night air would freeze his emotional chaos, allowing him to think without feeling.

"But Yamato, wait, we need to talk about…this," she finished as he seized his coat from the rack and shut the door firmly behind him. When it was evident that he had left, and the rain beat mournfully on the balcony, she curled into a fetal position on the floor and cried.

*****

Mimi walked to the door, her transparent black nightgown trailing along the floor behind her, the doorbell rang again and she cursed venomously, though it was put off when she had to pause to yawn. She looked through the peek hole tiredly, but her sleep fogged mind cleared immediately and she gasped when she saw who was outside. Unlatching all her locks, she swung the door open and gasped again when she saw how disheveled the person was.

"Yamato! What happened?" she demanded, passing a hand over her face in a gesture of surprise. He was soaking wet, not surprising since it had started pouring just about thirty minutes ago, but his eyes were blood shot, suggesting that not all of the water making it's way down his face was rain drops.

"Mimi I…She's…she's-" He stuttered, Mimi silenced him with a finger on his lips.

"Shush, come inside, explain it after your warm and safe on the couch with a cup of cocoa." She snatched his hand and pulled him inside before he could say anything in protest, re-locking the door behind him.

*****

"Pregnant!" Mimi exclaimed, jerking her head up from sipping her hot chocolate, Yamato smirked humorlessly, swirling the contents in his mug.

"That's probably much what I looked like when she told me."

"Does this mean what I think it means?" she whispered, barely audible enough for him to hear her clearly. He nodded quietly.

"I don't see anyway out of this, I can't leave the baby fatherless. I grew up in a screwed up family, I wont let any child of mine go through that." He said sadly.

"I don't care if you marry her Yamato," she lied, "we can just go back to being friends, pretend none of this ever happened, it would be okay with me."

"It wouldn't with me." He sulked, "I love you Mimi, Sora's just my friend, that's all she's ever been, but you… you're…" he trailed off, not being able to find the words to describe how he felt for her.

"Then, would you… could we have one last night together Yamato? One that I can hold close to me forever?" She leaned forward, placing her mug and his on the table with one hand while she wrapped the other around his neck and pulled his face closer to hers. She kissed him intensely, using her tongue to tease the inside of his mouth; bringing her now empty hand to join the other as she twined her fingers through his silky blonde hair. His arms circling her waist was all the answer she needed as he deepened the kiss.

*****

"Mimi?" he asked as soon as he'd gotten his breath back, clinging to her as if she'd fade away if he let go and her to him.

"Hmm?" she replied, her head resting limply on his chest, her short hair sticking to her forehead and him.

"Do you love me?" She tensed against him, but relaxed almost immediately.

"I…" she trailed off, and he shook her gently to bring her back from the doze she was falling into. "I…" she yawned and released her grip on him long enough to rub the sleep from her eyes before clamping back onto his arm. "I love you enough to die for you Yamato." She yawned again.

"So this means that what ever decision I come to you'll be with me on it?" he asked, she nodded against his chest and he sighed sadly. "Do you want a child?" She shrugged weakly, and her grip loosened as she drifted in to sleep. He smiled down at the top of her head and yawned himself; snuggling into a more comfortable position, he soon joined her in the land of dreams.

*****

Yamato crossed a word out and wrote another with a ball pen that had been in a drawer with a blank binder of lined yellow paper, and hoped Mimi wouldn't mind that he was borrowing a piece.

~As we danced, you held me so tight~

~For that moment…we were such a lovely sight~

No, that doesn't sound right. He scribbled that last line out and started over.

~For that moment, everything was right~

He ran what he had of the song so far over in his mind and figured it would do. He fumbled over the rest the same way until he had the entire thing, then went to show it to Mimi when she woke up.

"I like it!" she said happily, reading it over again. "So I'm supposed to sing this tonight with the other songs?"

"Yep, you might either want to start out with this song or end with it, personally, I think it's the best." She smiled and nodded. "Now, time for wardrobe. This is a highschool winter-formal so how about something light and metallic, glitter makeup, and …"

*****

Yamato sped down the highway as fast as he could with all the traffic around him; he'd stayed over at Mimi's all that day, but they'd kept it innocent and talked about the gig at their old highschool, now it was time to get there and set up. He was driving Mimi and his friend and replacement Kouta, the guy definitely wasn't a genius, but short of himself, Yamato had never seen a better guitarist. In the other vehicle, the van tailing him down the straightway, was his friend Shahal who would be recording the songs, his drummer Kaminari, keyboard was Jaberu, and Taki his female backup vocalist. Of course tonight, he'd relinquished his place infront of the microphone to Mimi.

"So this is eight songs? Am I supposed to sing all of them?" Mimi asked, flipping through the eight sheets of paper.

"No" he answered, pulling the car to a stop at a red light. "There'll be a DJ there so you can only sing three, but I thought I'd give you a variety to choose from." Mimi nodded in understanding and read over the songs again.

"Okay, hmm… how about The River, The Red Strokes, and The Dance?" she asked as they started driving again, separating three sheets of paper from the rest. Yamato nodded.

"Those are fine." After a few more minutes of silence, they pulled up to the school infront of the gym and got out of the car, the black van coming slowly up behind them.

"It's sure been a long time since I was last here." Mimi said, starring up at the building.

"Yeah…" Yamato replied, coming up beside her, then he clapped his hands together with a smile, forgetting about Sora in the excitement that always overtook him when he was ready to go up on stage, or getting someone else ready. "Welp, lets get this stuff unloaded and set up, the DJ will start the dance off with a couple of fast songs, then you'll go up with a slow one when he introduces you." He went over to the trunk of his car while the rest of his band got out and began unloading their instruments.

He strapped the case holding his guitar over his shoulder and went to help Kaminari with his drum set as Mimi got the microphones and Taki the extra speakers that the school said they wouldn't provide. Jaberu was already inside with his keyboard talking to the DJ, asking how to set up when the rest of them got in and they proceeded to put everything in place.