I know you guys have been wondering what's up with the title of this fic ^^ well in this chapter I think you'll find out!
Also…I think this'll be the last chapter I'm gonna write in a long while…you see, sembreak's over, school started again *sobs* and I promised to myself too that I'm gonna finish "Revenge" before it ends…oh well…forgive me? ^_____^
This fic is dedicated to The Great One for being my first ever reviewee/reviewer…whatever… ^^ I love your fic, btw! The one called "Ballad of the Blues Sorrow", it's so interesting! Read it guys! ^^ Chapter 3*****
Nope, he never should have thought that things are going to be okay. The freaking woman was so frustrating! He doesn't think he can ever understand her. And what's scaring him is, that he even wants to. He supposed he should be more understanding, with her being pregnant and all. But hell, it's only been two months. And it's got nothing to do with that, anyway. Everything about her is so…weird. Intriguing. He's never met anyone who's so passionate in everything she does—passionate in cooking, in cleaning, in sewing, heck, even in watching television. He once came home and caught her yelling at the TV screen, apparently incensed at the villain in one of those ridiculous soap operas she was watching.
He constantly had to remind himself that they were actually married. The situation was still sort of awkward for him—how the hell do you treat a person you barely know who's married to you? Most of the time he leaves the house and just hangs out with his friends so he wouldn't have to deal with her. But there were times when he couldn't leave—like today.
When he woke up that morning (it was near to noon actually), rain was beating hard against the windows. He got bored immediately. There was just something with the rain that makes one be lazy. He'd been moping around the apartment ever since. All the shows in the TV sucked, besides he didn't want to watch anyway, he didn't want to surf the net, he didn't want to read, he didn't want to go back to sleep, he didn't want to do anything—but he was bored. Currently, he was in the kitchen sitting by the table, staring at Tomoyo's back with his chin propped up in his hands while she was baking another batch of her to-die-for chocolate chip cookies.
"Does the back of my shirt have a hole now?" Tomoyo suddenly asked, turning around to face him.
Eriol snapped to attention. "Huh?" he said, looking confused.
She turned her attention back to molding the cookies again so he wouldn't see her smile. "I was just asking if my shirt has a hole by now, because you've been staring at my back for the past fifteen minutes."
"I was not!" he vehemently said, blushing a bit because he got caught.
She raised an eyebrow. "You'd better not be staring at my butt, buddy."
"What's there to look at?" he teased, although he had been staring at that too. He couldn't help himself ever since that bathroom incident.
"Just so you know, I have a nice butt," she informed him.
He does not want to talk about this, especially when he was having perverted thoughts. "Can we please change the topic?"
She grinned. "Anything you say." She put the cookies in the oven and walked over to the kitchen window to stare outside. "The rain's getting harder," she noted. "Bring out the flashlights and make sure they have batteries in case we have a power failure."
"You sound like my mother," he commented, rolling his eyes.
"Well…" Her hands moved to touch her belly. It was getting to be noticeably large, but not that much. "I'm going to be one anyway."
He suddenly popped out a question he'd been meaning to ask for a long time. "Did you love Darcy?"
Tomoyo looked startled at the unexpected question. She leaned back against the window and crossed her arms. "Why do you ask?"
He shrugged, running a hand through his hair. "I was just wondering why a nice girl like you would fall for a someone like him."
She flashed him a smile, feeling a bit surprised. He actually called her "nice" without meaning to. Her smile turned into a frown as she thought of her answer.
"Actually…" she said slowly. "He was okay at first. Really sweet and caring, if you know what I mean. The devoted boyfriend stuff. I guess I did love him—but now I don't. I don't hate him either, but I don't want to see him ever again. Who am I kidding, of course I hate him. Your brother's an asshole." She slapped a hand to her mouth at that. That bit sort of slipped out. How can she say that about his own brother?
Eriol wasn't angry at all; he was staring at her thoughtfully. "He charmed you, you mean to say?"
"Yeah, something like that," she said, her cheeks pink because of her outburst. Then a thought rose in her mind. "It's my turn to ask a question."
"Oh, you didn't tell me we were playing Twenty Questions," he grinned.
She rolled her eyes. "Anyway…I was wondering about this myself…why did you agree to marry me, Eriol?"
He didn't even need to think long for an answer. He looked right into her eyes when he answered, "Because I think my brother's an asshole too."
They stayed there for quite some time in the kitchen, smiling at each other.
*****
The rains stopped the next day. As usual, Eriol left the apartment and didn't return until it was quite dark. Tomoyo swears that one day she'll follow him so she'll know where he goes. She wished he would consider the fact that she would be bored just hanging around the house all day too. Thinking about the past two months, they were actually getting along quite well now. It was her fault why he always goes away, she supposed she was trying too hard to be a wife. They sort of had an unspoken agreement to start from scratch. Treating each other as friends—for now—was much better than trying to be husband and wife.
Eriol found her in front of the TV, feet propped up on the coffee table, holding a jar of peanut butter and munching on Oreo cookies. He sat on the chair beside hers to make her notice that he was there. It was hard to get her attention when she's watching those stupid soaps.
"Hi, welcome home," she said cheerily, eyes still glued to the screen.
"Wow, nice of you to still notice I'm here," he said a little sarcastically. His gaze traveled to the jar of peanut butter, then to the package of Oreos. "What the hell are you eating?"
"Huh?" she said, momentarily startled out of her concentration. She glanced down. "I'm eating the Oreo with peanut butter, why?"
"Gross!" he practically shouted. "How can you eat something so…unusual?" He winced as he watched her pick an Oreo, swipe it over the peanut butter and put it in her mouth.
"It's good!" she insisted, her mouth full. She pushed the jar towards him. "Here, have some."
He leaned away. "Thanks, I think I'll pass."
"Come on! Just try!"
"I'd rather not!"
"You won't die, you know!"
"No, I think I'll puke if I do." He crossed his eyes in effect.
She giggled. "Just try. Please?" She batted her eyelashes at him. He couldn't help but notice how cute she looked when doing that. He tried to look annoyed but failed.
"Oh all right," he grumbled, reaching for a cookie. She grabbed it from him, "No, no, I'll do it, okay?"
She swiped a generous amount of peanut butter on the Oreo before bringing it to his lips. He gave her a pitiful look before closing his eyes and eating the cookie. He kept his eyes closed while munching.
"Well?" she asked, poking him. "What do you think?"
He swallowed soundly, finally opening his eyes. "It tasted…like Oreo with peanut butter."
"So it tastes good!" she said triumphantly.
"It tastes weird!" He pretended to gag. "Normal people eat their Oreo with milk, you know."
"Yeah, I already know I'm not exactly normal," she grinned.
Eriol rolled his tongue around in his mouth, trying to get rid of the alien taste. It didn't taste that bad, it tasted pretty okay but he wasn't going to tell her that or she'll be stuffing his mouth with more, he's sure. "I think I'll just have some of those cookies you baked yesterday, with milk," he said, deciding to grab some food before joining her in watching TV. Maybe he can convince her to switch the channel.
He stood and then almost tripped. "Hey, what the—what's all this?" For the first time he had noticed that the living room was cluttered with—appliances? A toaster, an iron, a coffeemaker…
"Oh, those!" Tomoyo's face brightened. "It's, um…"
"You went shopping for secondhand appliances?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
She shot him a strange look. "No, silly. This morning I decided to, like, take a walk around the apartment building. I met lots of people and I made lots of friends." She smiled happily before continuing. "We have such nice neighbors, Eriol! Right next to us is Mrs. Bainbridge, I met her just as I stepped outside the door, she had so many groceries so I helped her get them inside, then she invited me for tea and we chatted then she mentioned that her iron wasn't working—down the hall lives Mr. Thomas but he wants me to call him Tom, his toaster's broken and he couldn't eat his breakfast without toasts—I also made friends with the doorman, Russell, and—"
"His coffeemaker's broken?" Eriol guessed.
"Yeah, you're right!" She smiled sweetly at him. "How'd you guess?"
"The coffeemaker was the only item remaining," he mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing." He cleared his throat. "So…since you took pity on their broken appliances, you decided to take them and fix them yourself?"
"No, you're going to do that," she told him.
"What makes you think I will?" he asked incredulously.
"What do you mean? I know you can!" She stood up. "Don't play dumb with me Eriol. You fixed the shower so fast, I know you can fix things in a snap."
Oh hell, she still remembers that incident—"How did you know I fixed it fast?" he retorted.
"Because I counted like, only five minutes and then I heard you use the shower after!"
He can't believe this. He can't believer her! She's so… "I'm not fixing them."
"Why not?" She felt like stamping her feet in frustration. "I know you're good at it." She stopped for a moment and thought. She looked at him. "You're really good at tinkering with things, aren't you? You want to be a mechanic or something…but your parents don't approve…and they made you take another course in college…am I right?"
"Yes, yes, and yes!" he answered angrily. The way Tomoyo was reading him like a book was starting to scare him. "Are there any more things you'd like to know? Like how they forced me to take up medicine even if I don't want to be a doctor? How I flunked all my classes and skipped school all the time? How my parents hate me now? How they used me to marry you so both of us wouldn't cause any more trouble in their perfect lives?!"
She was speechless. "Oh Eriol…" She didn't know he had such a sad life. She wanted to go over and hug him, but she didn't for fear that he'll push her away.
He caught the look of sympathy in her eyes. It was the last thing he wanted. He turned away from her. "I'm not fixing those things, and that's final."
"I—" She took a deep breath. "I'm not going to force you to…but I want to say this. I'm getting ashamed because your parents always provide for us. Maybe it's time we worked on our own too…you can prove to your parents that—" she stopped. Maybe this was not the right time to talk about this. She shot him a timid look. His back was still turned to her. "If you excuse me, I think I'll be returning these to their owners."
He didn't move. Then he heard her sob. Oh God…was she crying? He turned around and faced her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him. "Why the hell are you crying?" he demanded. He just realized how much he hated to see her sad. Someone like her should always be happy. His arm encircled her waist while the other brushed her tears away. "Please don't cry…all right, all right, I'll fix those stupid things…"
"Who cares about those!" she burst out, still crying. "I wasn't crying over a few pieces of appliances! I was crying…" her voice dropped to a whisper, "…for you."
His heart melted right there and then. He gently took hold of her chin and lifted her face to his. "You don't have to," he said, staring into her eyes. "I don't want to see you sad, Tomoyo. You're always smiling and happy, seeing you cry freaks me out."
She smiled shakily. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I'm really sorry, Eriol."
When she pulled back, she found him still staring at her. Then he smiled. He looks so handsome when he smiles, she realized. He should smile more often too.
"Thank you," he whispered. Then he snatched her thoughts away when he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers before pulling away from her.
"I'm just going to get my toolbox," he said before walking away. If he'd look into the mirror he's see that he was grinning like an idiot.
Tomoyo was still standing there, looking dumbstruck. She raised a shaking hand to her lips. Then she realized her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, and she didn't know why.