Salty Coffee
Chapter 12 – Weed Power Prevails!
" Ohayo." Soujirou greeted, gave Yuuki a quick peck and gotten into his usual seat at the dinning table.
" Ohayo." Yuuki greeted back with her best smile and poured him a cup of lukewarm coffee (which Soujirou would prefer), without forgetting to sprinkle some salt into the content.
" What are you looking at?" Soujirou asked as he peered behind the newspaper when he sensed no further movement from his wife. However, he received no reply because Yuuki had worn a dazed expression on her face while she was stirring the coffee as if she mesmerized by the stirring actions.
" Yuuki?" Soujirou called out again.
" Huh?" Yuuki finally had her wandered soul pulled back. " Do you need anything else?" Yuuki asked, with a note of concern. Then she passed the coffee cup to Soujirou who had the content washed down his throat with one gulp.
" I never see you drinking hot coffee, you know it would be better to have hot one rather than lukewarm." Yuuki remarked.
" Ehh…old habits die hard." Soujirou shrugged. " Are you alright? You looked so…spaced out." Soujirou said, trying to divert her attention to something else.
" Oh. Did I?" Yuuki smiled innocently.
" I guess I would just never get enough of that charming face of yours." Yuuki joked and almost immediately she felt a gush of heat surging up behind her ears making her face as red as the tomato slices lying in between their morning sandwiches. How on earth did I find the courage to cajole, especially so early in the morning? Yuuki wondered out loud.
Time came and went so fast that Yuuki didn't realize that they had been faithfully married to each other for five years. However, Yuuki would still blush at times when Soujirou had paid just a little too much attention to her. May it be only a glance or some whispering of little sweet nothings, they never failed to bring Yuuki back to the very first time they met, at Shizuka's party.
No matter how Yuuki tried, she just couldn't control that naughty heart of hers. Perhaps her heart had already been taken and she no longer held its ownership. As a matter of fact, she had indeed given it away to that someone special the moment a ring was slipped into one of her fingers.
" What can I say?" Soujirou smiled a satisfaction smile. " I am really flattered to hear this." Soujirou then pulled Yuuki into his arms and embraced her like he had never embraced before. Yuuki let out shy giggles when Soujirou started to nuzzle behind her neck. Yes, it might be very ticklish but Yuuki simply loved it whenever Soujirou does it.
It somehow made Yuuki felt real. It was like a string used to have a balloon filled with her hidden uncertainties tied securely onto the ground. It was not an everyday issue that a plain and common girl would have a genuine prince charming to sweep her off the ground. The probability was low, however, she was glad she had been one of them.
" Err hem…" Yuuki quickly pulled herself away from Soujirou. " Ohayo gozaimasu." Yuuki quickly greeted out after readjusting her clothing and quickly got back to her unfinished chores.
" Ohayo." Mr. Nishikado greeted back. He was getting a little embarrassed for his untimely entrance. " Discretion is the keyword." Mr. Nishikado solemnly reminded after he settled himself into his seat.
Despite the seriousness in his voice, deep down inside, Mr. Nishikado was delighted to see that their romancing fire was still intensively ignited. Melancholically, he shifted his glance to the empty seat beside him, who used to be occupied by a woman who had given him three sons. The woman who would forgive him and still loved him wholeheartedly despite his unfaithfulness, so many times that he had lost count. He knew his retribution arrived. It arrived the moment when he decided to repent and she did not give him enough time to compensate for his misdeeds.
" Are you going for the prayer later?" Soujirou asked.
" Yes." Mr. Nishikado nodded with a sigh because the day of her anniversary always reminded him of how late his repentances had come. Suddenly, Mr. Nishikado lifted his head and shifted his glance to his son as though he had remembered something.
"So, when are you two going to have a baby? You know, it was your mother's last wish." Mr. Nishikado asked concernedly. It had been two years since his wife had passed away.
Yuuki swallowed hard as she fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. Of course, she knew it because those were the very last words Mrs. Nishikado had made sure she had personally requested to Yuuki just before her last breath ended. However, there was nothing they could do, or it should be, they had already done everything they could do. So now, all they could do was to wait.
*****
" Kaasan! Kaasan!" A little boy cried out in the most devastating voice when those colourful wooden blocks, that he had skillful stacked just seconds ago suddenly collapsed after he had made one fatal mistake.
" Stop being a crybaby. Just have restacked." Shaking her head, Tsukushi lectured as she rested her heavy body onto one of the settee, which Tsukasa had designer to custom design them when once Tsukushi had complained having backaches.
Little Domyouji Matsu, the first-born (during the second year of their marriage) of the new generation in the Domyouji household prolonged his pouting as he started re-gathering the scattered pieces so that he could rebuild his wooden castle.
" Why don't you just cajole a little? He is just a child." Yuuki remarked as she sipped her tea. Both of them were having their routine high tea and it was Yuuki's turn to visit Tsukushi.
" He is just trying to get my attention, especially after he heard his father telling him that he would be having a sister soon." Tsukushi laughed as she pointed at her bulging tummy. " A possessive little brat." Tsukushi shook her head as she watched her son rebuilding his tiny 'empire'.
"He is getting all the bad genes from Tsukasa. But I am glad that he did not get his father's hair." Tsukushi heaved a sigh of relieve as she said that and Yuuki laughed.
" It seem just like yesterday when I had attended the grandest wedding in Japan and now, here you are, having your second baby." Yuuki remarked enviously while she stared at her slightly bulging tummy.
" Well, you are going to be a mother very soon too." Tsukushi comforted.
" But we have been trying for so many years since my mother-in-law had passed away. Look at Matsu, he is already six years old." Yuuki muttered.
" And this isn't going to be an easy one." Yuuki sighed, her eyes began to redden as she recalled her doctor's reminder. Somehow, her naughty heart doesn't welcome a baby like how it welcomed Soujirou's affections.
" Mrs. Nishikado Yuuki." Tsukushi called out after she had managed to sit upright and had her gaze solemnly fixed at her best friend's.
" Where is the courage that you have shown when you had decided to accept Soujirou's love even when you were so afraid that he might not be true to you?" Tsukushi demanded.
" Where is the determination that you have displayed when you were fighting for your father-in-law's recognition during those tough days and at the same time you were taking such good care of your bedridden mother-in-law till her very last breath?"
Yuuki remained speechless. In fact, she was asking herself the same question too. How did she manage to get though all those though days? She wondered. Was it her love for Soujirou or was it Soujirou's unconditioned love for her? She wondered again.
Never had she been a person whom possessed strong characters in her younger days and she had always been relying heavily on Tsukushi for protection or even advice in life. Once, she was being bullied by a classmate, she would not have any gut to confront him, face-to-face, and demanded for an apology. It was Tsukushi who made him apologized in the end.
She never expected getting a fairy-tale liked relationship in her love life despite the fact that she admitted she was pretty envious whenever Tsukushi always kept her updated about those incredible encounters she had in Eitoku High. Nevertheless, fate had given her a fairy-tale story.
Of course, the path towards her fairy-tale world was though, but so was Tsukushi's. Yuuki didn't mind, because with the faith they had in each other, didn't they manage to weather pass all those storms and gales?
" Do all fairy-tales ended with happily every after?" Yuuki finally asked.
" Yes." Tsukushi nodded.
" Good. Then I will make sure mine would be happily ever after too." Yuuki declared, with a smile of strong determination for she was no longer the little flower in the greenhouse. It was love that shattered the glass barrier, which had mercilessly deprived her of what Mother Nature had generously provided to her children.
To be continued…
AN: I hope this chapter is not too boring. Anyway, the next chapter will be the finale. (Finally…I managed to finish one HYD series fic…thank god!) (I will also attach the original short fic of 'Salty Coffee' after the last chapter) For those who had followed this fic till this chapter, I would like to express my uttermost gratitude to you all for reading and reviewing this fic. THANK YOU! ^_^