Chapter Ninety-Four: An Unexpected Surprise

Sumi's POV

Most of the weekend was spent mostly to ourselves instead of together outside of meal times. Takashi and I spent our time in the library researching charity programs and business ventures. Tamaki and Kaoru hung out in the game room playing video games on the flat screen TV. Kyoya spent all of his time in his room, we only saw him at dinner the first day. The second day, he found his way into the library so we could help him with everything he needed to put together what he needed for the applications for the universities he showed interest in and apartments in between the schools he was applying to and the one Yuki was attending. By the time he was supposed to call Yuki that night, we had him all set to go. Even his flight, rental car, and hotels were booked for his next vacation. He and Yuki would have to schedule the apartment and house tours closer to when he was supposed to leave. By the time they had all left, we only had an hour to ourselves before Mitsukuni and Reiko dropped off Hana. By the looks of it she had even managed to tire Mitsukuni out. Takashi was able to calm her down and get her into bed so we could go back home the next morning.

When we arrived home, we quickly found we were not the only ones there. Takashi's parents were standing outside of the townhome with his brother, Satoshi, who was sitting on the porch steps. Satoshi and their father were arguing, about what I couldn't tell, their conversation was super vague. His mother stood silently disapproving of Satoshi's behavior. Takashi and I looked at each other, both confused as to why they were here.

"I can take her in if you want." I told him softly, referring to Hana, who was sound asleep in his arms. His parents had made it clear how they felt about his choice to be with me and Hana. I didn't want to be in the way if he wanted to talk to them. I'd only make things even more tense than they already were and Hana didn't need to be in the middle of that. She had experienced so much hardship already, she didn't need to be pulled into more. The decision was ultimately Takashi's though, it was his family.

"No." Takashi responded, "I don't want to disturb her." He looked down, "It's going to be okay." He kissed Hana's head before shifting her in his arms and then took my hand. "We'll invite them in and talk after we put Hana to bed."

"Mr. and Mrs. Morinozuka, Satoshi." I greeted them awkwardly. Takashi only greeted him with a nod.

"Hi Sumi, Taka-kun." Satoshi smiled at us genuinely. I was a little confused, although this had been one of the first times I had actually spoken with Satoshi. We had only seen each other in passing and at dinners, but we never really talked. It had been a complete 180 from how he had been before we walked up to them. "Is that Hana? She's adorable. She looks so much like you guys, it's hard to think she's adopted. She's gonna have a sibling soon, right? Do you know if I'm getting a nephew or another niece? Do you have any names yet? I've been wanting to see you guys, but Mom and Dad wouldn't let me on my own, so I convinced our driver to take all of us to you. Ignore their disapproving looks, they don't want to be here." He waved off both of his parents, who only continued to glare at him. He looked at them pointedly, before continuing, "But I do. I think how they're acting is childish and unfair. You guys should be part of our family still, if you want to be. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. You've been treated horribly, especially you, Sumi." He looked at me directly, "And all you've ever been is kind and you're so good to Taka-kun. My parents aren't willing to be grown up enough to apologize to how we've treated you. I'm sorry I didn't say anything until now. I should have."

Carefully, I bent down to his level. He didn't need to apologize for anything, there was nothing to apologize for. That's just how life happened. I brushed his hair out of his eyes, he looked so much like his Takashi. "Would you like to come inside? I have a new tea blend that we could try. It's a white tea with apricot and vanilla. If you're willing to wait a little while, I've heard my sugar cookies aren't bad and I have all the ingredients to make them. You all are more than welcome to stay for dinner. We don't have any servants and we probably won't eat until after Hana wakes up from her nap, but you're more than welcome to stay."

"I'd like that." He responded, helping me up.

"Satoshi-" Mrs. Morinozuka started disapprovingly.

"Satoshi, can you help Sumi with Hana and anything she needs." Takashi cut her off, "I'd like to speak with our parents for a few moments." His tone was controlled, but he wasn't thrilled about his parents behavior. Satoshi nodded and came over to him to take Hana. "Be careful with her, mind her head, try not to wake her up." He instructed as he gently set her in Satoshi's arms.

Making sure he was okay as we headed into the house, I shared a look with Takashi. He nodded and we both went inside. Shutting the door behind us, I told Satoshi, "Izumi. The question you asked earlier, we want to name the baby, Izumi. We don't know the gender yet, we wanted to wait."

Takashi's POV

After watching Sumi and Satoshi take Hana inside, I faced my parents stoically. Anger boiled inside me as I thought of their reaction to my relationship with Sumi. They had found out before I could tell them and waited for me to come to them to confirm if what they heard was true. Not only had I confirmed that it was true that I was seeing Sumi again, but, as I had told them after we came back from Karuizawa, that she was pregnant with our child. They gave me the choice of either being disinherited or leaving Sumi. I left the estate without looking back. Didn't pack anything, just walked out without a word. Satoshi was nice enough to pack up what he could of my things and gave them to Mitsukuni so that I would have them. Later that night, Mitsukuni took me home so that I could be with Sumi. The original plan was to go the next morning, but I didn't want to leave her alone that night. Not after everything we had been through. I didn't want to be away from her or Hana another night. I couldn't. That night Sumi held me while I broke down. She apologized repeatedly as I cried. It wasn't until I heard her blaming herself for the predicament my parents had put me in that I stopped feeling upset about what I had lost. She had absolutely no blame in the situation and yet she was taking all of it, it wasn't right. It pained me to see her expression when she saw my parents today and that she still blamed herself. I'd make sure she knew tonight that there was nothing for her to feel guilty for and that the only choice I was ever going to make would be with her, Hana, and Izumi. For now though, I was going to establish some boundaries with my parents. "Sumi is my wife. I expect you to give her the kindness and respect she deserves as such. She doesn't need the added stress right now."

"She wouldn't be your wife if she hadn't trapped you-" My mother attempted to snap back, but I interrupted her.

"No, you were the ones who wanted to trap me in a marriage with someone I didn't know and couldn't care less about." I corrected bitterly, "I was lucky enough that the girl ran off with the person she loved and I met Sumi instead. I should have taken Natsumi's idea and ran off with Sumi as soon as she told me everything. Letting her go when I had the chance to help her will always be my one regret in life. Sumi and the family we've created are the best things that have ever happened to me; either you can accept it and we can all move on with our lives or you can leave and I'll bring Satoshi home after dinner."

My mother turned away and walked towards the limo. Upon opening the door, she looked back at my father. "Akira."

"Leiko, I'm going to visit with Takashi for a while." My father told her, "I'll bring Satoshi home when I'm done. Why don't you attend that gala you wanted to? You'll have a better time without me and Satoshi there. Michi is supposed to be there and I happen to recall you both rather enjoying yourselves the last time you were together." The distaste in his voice was palpable. I raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. I already knew what little love my parents shared for each other dissipated years ago. They had been sleeping in separate rooms since Satoshi was born. It wasn't a stretch to believe either of them had taken on lovers over the years.

After my mother shot him a scornful look, she got into the limo and drove away. My father turned to me. "I'm not saying that I approve of the decision that you made, but I understand it. I was faced with the same decision at your age and I chose to stay with the choice my family made for me instead of the one I wanted. I don't regret it because I have you and your brother. I want to be in your life and be a part of the family that you've created."

We stood there in silence before I invited him inside and closed the door behind us. When I saw Satoshi sitting at the island with his tea while Sumi was busying herself in the kitchen, I raised an eyebrow at him, "You were supposed to be helping."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Satoshi responded awkwardly, "After I got everything out for her, she said she was alright and didn't need anything."

"I'm fine, Takashi." Sumi reassured, "We're having curry for dinner, do you want it with rice or udon?"

Knowing her preference was udon, that was what I answered with. I didn't care what it was paired with, I would have been happy with either. It didn't hurt that Hana loved anything with noodles. Sumi nodded, accepting my answer and pulled out the udon noodles that we had picked up from the store so they could be prepared with dinner. After gesturing to my father to sit down next to Satoshi, I poured him a cup of tea and walked up behind her, resting my arms around her shoulders and my head atop hers. Unlike my brother, I wasn't going to take no for an answer and she knew that. I would stay in this position until she gave me something to do. When we first started living together, she'd tell me verbally what she wanted. Now she typically would hand me what she wanted me to prepare or point to what she wanted taken out. After a few moments, she handed me the hot pads. I looked up at the timer for the microwave. Understanding what she wanted, I turned off the microwave timer, took the sugar cookies out of the oven, and then turned it off. After putting a five minute timer on the microwave for the cookies to cool, I asked Sumi, "What time should we wake Hana?"

"I'd say another fifteen or twenty minutes so we can finish making dinner." She answered, "She'll want to eat as soon as she gets up."

I nodded and kissed her head, "Sit down, I can get the rest." We had made curry udon enough that I knew how to make it without looking at the recipe anymore. Since she's been pregnant, curry was one of the things she'd been craving. Curry fried rice, curry udon, coconut curry, katsu curry… I've had so much curry that if I never see it again after the baby is born it'll be too soon.

"You sure?" She asked, "I can get it, I'm alright."

"I know." I kissed her shoulder. I didn't care if my dad and my brother were watching, they did drop in on us. It'd be their own fault if they felt awkward. "I like to."

"Okay." She agreed.

"Thank you." I let her go and handed her a cup of tea. She then sat down with my dad and Satoshi.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Satoshi, unable to help himself any longer, asked, "So, how did you end up with Hana? You don't seem old enough to have adopted her as a baby."

"So, Hana and I were in the same orphanage." Sumi answered softly, "When I was eleven, an infant was dropped off on the doorstep of the orphanage. The matron didn't want to take the baby in and was going to leave her outside to die. I argued with her about it, I didn't think it was right. She placed Hana into my arms and told me if I wanted her I was going to be the one to take care of her. She's been mine ever since. I named her, taught to walk, talk… I've tried to do everything I can to make her feel loved and wanted."

"How'd you end up there?" Satoshi asked curiously.

"I don't really have any memories of my life before I was taken there." She admitted, "With some help and research, I figured out what my life was. That's not what you asked though, I was found wandering around without any parents and no clue of who I was or what I was doing where they found me and I was dropped off there."

"So where did you go to school while you were there?" Satoshi asked her.

"I didn't." Sumi told him simply, "When I started at Ouran, I had learned how to read a little and it was a long time ago. At that point, I knew enough to get around. I couldn't write much outside of simple phrases and signing my name. Everything I know I learned from my friends so that I could make a slightly better life for Hana and stay with Takashi for as long as I could. I wasn't expecting everything that happened."

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." My father quoted gently. I smiled softly at his words, remembering the song from when he used to sing it to Satoshi and I when we were little. I hoped I was good as he was with us with my children.

"You did all that for Taka-kun?" Satoshi asked gruntled, "That's awesome. Not that he doesn't deserve it, he's the best."

"I think so too." She agreed, which was kind of her. I didn't always feel like I had done the best for her or at times Hana. I didn't go after Sumi when she left. I avoided her and Hana after Mitsukuni got his cavity because I was so wrapped up in myself and my guilt over him. When I first started living with them, it was a learning curve because I wasn't used to the simpler way they lived and becoming a full time parent was new. I learned a lot in that short period of time, I still am. If anyone deserved any praise throughout all of this though, it was Sumi.

Reiko's POV

When Mitsu and I finally got home from our weekend with Hana, the first thing we did was lay down for a nap. How Sumi and Takashi were able to do this every day amazed me. By the end of our time watching Hana, we could barely keep up with her. The weekend didn't dissuade me from having kids, but it definitely proved I wasn't ready for them. I probably won't be ready for them for a while. I wanted to go to university and travel a bit more before we considered having kids. It'd probably be a good five to ten years before I was ready. His parents will probably be disappointed. They had started mentioning kids to us as something to think about after I graduated, they wanted to make sure their family had an heir after Mitsukuni. My parents weren't too keen on the idea of us starting a family this early. After spending more than just a few hours with one, I completely agreed.

"Mitsu…" I spoke up, hoping he hadn't fully fallen asleep yet. As much as I had tried to sleep, I couldn't. My mind weighed too heavily to rest. Mitsukuni didn't seem to have the same issue as he was already fast asleep. Carefully, I got out of bed so I wouldn't disturb him.

As I made my way to the kitchen to prepare dinner, I tried to clear my mind or at least put it on something else for the time being. It was all I could do until I was able to talk with Mitsukuni. Unable to drown out my own thoughts with silence, I put in my headphones and let the music do it for me. After a couple of songs, I was able to focus on what I was making and figure out a couple of desserts. While I was waiting on the oven, I started to clean the mess that I had left from dinner. As I heard my ringtone play halfway through the Hey Monday song I had on, I nearly jumped.

"Hello?" I answered without checking who it was, too lazy to remove my phone from my back pocket.

"Rei, I've been calling your name for the past five minutes." Mitsukuni told me, "I decided to call you since you couldn't hear me, I'm standing right behind you."

Turning around to face him, I hung up the phone, "Hey."

"Hey." He replied softly, "What's on your mind? You usually don't blast your music like that."

"Our weekend with Hana and the hints your pants have been dropping about us having kids." I admitted.

"Hint is a bit of an understatement." He replied, "I thought they'd wait at least a little longer before they start talking to us about that. I'm not ready to start thinking about having our own yet, I'm okay with being an uncle to Takashi and Sumi's kids right now."

Letting out a sigh of relief, I told him, "I'm glad we're on the same page."

"I'd be okay with a pet or two." Mitsukuni suggested, "Maybe we could talk to your parents about letting one of your family's dogs live with us."

"That would be awesome." I agreed.

"I'll talk to my parents about us waiting for kids." He stated, "Ten years sound good?"

I nodded, "Ten sounds perfect."

Yuki's POV

Sighing exhaustedly, I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up a little to finish my math homework. "Ugh, screw this." I shoved the book in my backpack next to my bed. I still had a few days before it was due. "It's not like I'm ever going to use it anyway." I looked at my phone, it was almost 6 am. I had stayed up all night trying to figure out my math and science homework. I had no clue how I was going to pass those. As much as I studied, none of it ever made any sense.

Pulling out my phone, I tried to see if Kyoya was available on Skype or Messenger. He was off though, probably at some family function or other. After leaving a message on Messenger to see how he was doing and if he could help with my homework when he had the time, I locked my phone. After checking on Rocket, who was asleep on his bed, I changed into my pajamas and tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately, the moment my head hit the pillow and I started to fall asleep, my alarm went off. I groaned getting up, knowing I had a Zoom class lecture that I had to attend this morning. Luckily, I didn't have to put my camera on. I'd be able to stay in my pajamas, record the lecture, and sleep through it. It's not like the teacher ever called on anyone, she breezed through it because she wanted it to be over just as much as we did. It was easy to tell in her voice, she hated talking about what she was teaching us and that it bored her to death. People don't typically sound like the teacher from Ferris Buller because they enjoy what they're talking about. If she didn't want to teach government, maybe she should have considered not teaching high school seniors.

Stumbling out into the kitchen, I pulled a Green Mountain cinnamon sugar cookie coffee k-cup out of the pantry and placed it in the keurig to pour myself a cup of ambition. It'd take at least another two to three more before I was awake enough to tackle anything else today.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Matthew asked. I shook my head, not even bothering to ask why he was up so early. "Look, I don't have to be at the theatre til the afternoon, you go back to bed. I'll attend your morning classes, just go back to sleep. We'll see what help we can get for you with whatever homework you spent all night on after I get back from rehearsal tonight."

"Thank you." I told him.

"Don't worry about it, just give me your coffee and I'm going to take a couple of packets of poptarts from your stash and we'll call it even." He replied, "Now go get your laptop and sign in for me so I can attend whatever you have going on."

I nodded and did as he said. After he was all set up in the living area, I went back into my bedroom and went to bed.

Kyoya's POV

"Tamaki, we've been over this three times." I exhaled, "We have everything set up and ordered for while I'm gone. Kimiko will be keeping an eye on everything. I'm not telling you where I'm going, all you need to know is that I will be attending a family matter and will be unavailable for the entirety of the break. I don't care what you think your emergency is, I am not getting a plane to help you."

"So, you're leaving the country." Tamaki pestered.

Groaning, I stood. I was done. He didn't need to know my business. He wasn't all that involved in my relationship with Yuki when she was out here, he didn't need to be now. If he wants to be involved in her life, he can reach out to Sumi like I did. He never did while we were with her this weekend. He chattered on about Haruhi and hung out with Kaoru. As always, Yuki was the last thought on his mind. Staring down at him, I told him, "It doesn't matter where I'm going. All that matters is that I'm leaving the day after midterms and I won't be back until the week after school starts after break."

"Okay." Tamaki conceded.

"My time will be limited outside of school and club meetings, so we won't be planning anything until I get back."

"Okay." He nodded.

After leaving, I checked my phone to see if Yuki was up yet. Messenger showed she had been away for a half an hour, but she had left a message right before she left to help her with her homework when I had the time. I texted her back to let her know that I was free whenever she was up. It would be awhile before she was if she didn't fall asleep until after she sent the message. Scrolling through my other messages, I noticed I received a picture from Kaoru. I opened his chat to see what it was. It was a picture of the ring I had asked him to pick up for me. The ring was a simple white gold with a moonstone center and pear shaped diamonds on either side. Under the picture was a message asking if the ring was the right one. I confirmed that it was the right one and asked when I could pick it up. After a couple minutes, he replied that I could meet him, Hikaru, and Kimiko for dinner and he'd give me the ring then.

When I reached the restaurant he had asked me to meet at, the three of them were already sitting down at a booth. Next to Kaoru were a couple of clothing boxes. Noticing me, Kimiko nodded to Hikaru and Kaoru and then waved. Kaoru greeted me with a short 'Hey' and Hikaru nodded in acknowledgement. Kaoru moved the boxes to his other side and I sat down.

"We haven't ordered yet, we thought we'd wait for you." Kimiko told me, "We were thinking of ordering a fondue for the table if you're okay with that. They have a really good chicken one that they pair with these really nice baguettes."

"Yeah." I agreed, "Do you guys have the ring?"

"I do." Kaoru pulled out the ring box from his jacket pocket.

"We also brought a couple of other things." Hikaru added.

"When we heard you were going on a trip and you asked for that ring, we thought we'd send with you." Kimiko told me, "Hikaru and Kaoru still had Yuki's sizes. And if you two were to be using your vacation time to get married, you should have something nice to wear."

Kaoru opened the top box, revealing a sleeveless burgundy v-neck lace dress and a dark grey peacoat with a sherpa lining and hood. Smiling, I told them, "They're beautiful, she's going to love them."

"We have some boots in the box as well that we paired with it and in the box underneath is a suit for you. It's a charcoal suit with a burgundy tie. Wanted to keep it simple, we guessed you'd be doing something like a courthouse wedding." Hikaru replied, "We also picked out a ring we thought would pair nicely with the moonstone wedding ring." He placed a ring box on the table. I opened the box gratefully, I hadn't even thought about my own ring. The ring was silver with a black center with bronze, silver, and gold shavings and gold trim around the black center. "The ring is titanium, meteorite, and black stardust."

"It's perfect." I told them, "Thank you."

"We wanted to help however we could." Kimiko responded, "Hikaru actually did the sketches for Yuki's dress and your suit."

"They were just simple drawings." Hikaru waved her off, modestly embarrassed.

"They were amazing, you should take pride in them." Kimiko insisted, "Kaoru made the sketches for the boots and they turned out gorgeous."

After a few moments, Hikaru embarrassedly suggested, "So food?"