Chapter Twenty:
Yugi was busy putting away his things upstairs when noise made him look up. He uttered a squeak and dropped the pair of pants he'd been holding.
Seto was standing in the doorway.
"S-Seto. What are you doing here?"
"I live here," Seto said testily. He walked into the room, his blue eyes intense as he looked Yugi up and down.
Yugi ignored the dropped pants and uneasily circled around Seto as the brunette stared at him, dropping his gaze and nearly bumping into the corner of the bed. He bunched the hem of his sweater in his hands, heart pounding. Seto was early! He'd just shown up, unannounced, and early! Damn him, refusing to accept what he was told and doing what he wanted! Yugi wasn't ready for this!
"You left the Expo early. Seto, I said not to do that."
"You act like you're hiding something from me and you expected me to stay at that fucking thing?"
"I'm fine!" Yugi exploded. He looked up at Seto and thrust his arms out to his sides. "See? Why couldn't you just believe me?"
"You can't just have magically gotten better."
He had used the word in the normal, derogatory way, and Yugi almost wanted to laugh at the irony. "Seto-"
Seto was across the room and grabbing his face before he could blink. Their lips met and Yugi whined, immediately sinking into the kiss and wrapping his arms around Seto's neck. The kiss was firm and a long time in lasting before Seto finally drew his head back.
"Tell me," he said.
Yugi swallowed nervously, then slid away from him and gestured for him to sit at the foot of the bed. Looking like he was steeling himself, Seto did so reluctantly. Yugi crossed the room back to the dresser and drew out the ultrasound that was still in his overnight bag sitting on top of it. His hands were shaking.
Turning back to Seto after pausing for a second to fortify himself, he walked back over, sat down beside him, and held it out. Seto took it and looked down at it, then frowned.
"What is this?"
"It's…an ultrasound. M-My ultrasound."
As Seto looked up at him in confusion, Yugi hesitantly raised his sweater up, showing the rounding distension of his abdomen. Seto looked down.
"What-"
Yugi lowered his sweater. "Do you remember about five months ago, when I came home and jumped on you in your office? I was really horny and… Do you remember?"
"Yes, but-"
"Well, earlier that day, Grandpa had asked me to have Yami come over and look at some stuff dug up at Dandarah, in Egypt. There was a statue in there, of Tawaret, a fertility goddess. Joey had come over, too, and he picked it up. I was trying to take it back from him when we accidentally activated it." Swallowing hard, Yugi went on. "It had a spell or something on it. It made me and Joey, um, fertile."
Seto was still staring at his midsection, even though Yugi had lowered his sweater and he said nothing.
"Somehow, it-it made it so that…Even though I'm a guy, it made it so I could get pregnant. I'm pregnant, Seto. And that ultrasound is…is our daughter."
Seto slowly tilted his face up to look Yugi in the eyes. He was stark white. He abruptly threw the ultrasound away like it was something dirty and jerked to his feet.
"You can't be serious," he said in a tone utterly unlike him. His voice was weak, barely a whisper.
"I am serious," Yugi said in his own shaking voice. "The baby is ectopic, attached to my liver."
Seto stared at Yugi like he was an alien. Unable to meet that gaze anymore, Yugi looked at his shoes.
"All of the nausea and being tired all the time was the first trimester. Morning sickness. I'm feeling better because I'm in my second trimester. Just before you left, I saw that I was gaining weight, even though I was sick, so I looked at one of those medical websites online and it said I was pregnant. I rejected that, of course I did, but the idea kept coming back to me because of how I'd felt that night, and how I was feeling since, so finally I just went and bought a damn pregnancy test and took it and it was positive."
Silence.
Yugi started twisting the hem of his sweater, not looking up at Seto. He felt tears prickling at his eyes.
"I went to Yami and told him everything and he said Joey acted the same way I did. He's not pregnant because… Anyway, we realized what had happened and that I would need help. So, I went back to the doctor's office and when Anna, the ultrasound technician, used the machine to look for the gallstones, she confirmed it, too. She saw it. She's the one who gave me that." Yugi gestured despondently at the ultrasound lying on the floor.
Silence.
"Anna told me I should get an abortion, and I was going to, but I-I couldn't go through with it. I couldn't. I want to keep…our…baby. She and Kuribayashi have been helping me, after they realized this was real. They don't know anything about the magic, but it doesn't matter, they're-" Yugi broke off, realizing that he was straying from topic. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Seto, but I just couldn't say something like that on the phone. So I let you think I was lying to you until you got home."
More silence.
"Please say something."
"Fucking…Egypt…" Seto said in a strangled voice. "That goddamn shit all over again."
Yugi looked up. Seto's fists were clenched and he was red now instead of white.
"It was an acci-"
"We'll set up an abortion with Kuribayashi Monday. They can still do it this late-"
"NO!" Yugi jumped to his feet. "I already told you, I'm not going to-"
"Yugi, you're not thinking clearly. You've got this curse on you-"
"No, Seto, it's not like that."
"Isn't it? You activate some damn Egyptian magic and you don't think it's possessing you?"
"It's not a curse. Seto, it was meant to just be a fertility spell. Help someone who couldn't get pregnant get pregnant." Yugi put his hand on his bump. "And it did."
"Yugi, you would say that. Why Kuribayashi and Yami are going along with this instead of snapping you out of it and taking care of that thing, I don't know, but I will definitely be having that conversation with the both of them after you-"
"Stop!" Yugi cried. He was shaking, angry and scared and hopeless. "It's not a curse! It's not a thing! She's our daughter, my daughter, and I'm having her!" Collapsing back onto the foot of the bed, Yugi put his face in his hands and the tears started. "I knew you wouldn't understand. I don't care how it happened, but I am not crazy, I'm not possessed, I'm not cursed. You don't have to have anything to do with her, but I am not giving her up."
Silence.
Yugi couldn't take it anymore. He jerked to his feet, shoved past Seto, and ran from the bedroom. Feeling too shaky to drive, he fled through the manor halls on the familiar path to the conservancy and to the koi pond. Falling into one of the chairs, Yugi drew his legs up until his heels were on the edge of the chair, put his face in his knees, and cried until he couldn't anymore. Until he was as drained and tired and nauseous as he had ever been during the first trimester.
He felt Yami, drawn by his emotional upheaval, knocking several times on their closed link, but Yugi never answered and eventually his darkness subsided.
Yugi raised his head, lowering his legs, the muscles stiff and sore from their long-held position. His eyes felt swollen, a headache was throbbing behind them, and he couldn't seem to catch his breath from hiccupping so hard. It was evening, the autumn sun heading towards drowning in the sea. The conservancy was filled with red-orange light and was still except for the water filtration in the miniature koi pond.
He didn't know how much longer he sat there, just staring without really seeing at the koi swimming in their pond, but it was full dark when he finally got to his feet. The cobblestone path through the conservancy was lit by tiny footpath lights set on a timer and he followed their cold, white glow back to the manor.
Feet feeling like lead, Yugi trudged back up to the master suite. He'd get his things and go. Back to the Kame Game Shop, or over to Yami and Joey's.
His heart sank when he entered the room and saw Seto was in there. He was sure the brunette would have left, gone to Kaiba Corp or just somewhere. Instead, he was sitting on the foot of the bed.
He held the ultrasound in his hands and was staring at it.
He looked up as Yugi turned to go. Caught, Yugi refused to look at him as he entered the room. "I'm just going to get my stuff."
"Come here."
Yugi stopped and shook his head. "I don't want to hear it."
"Yugi, damn it, come here." Softer. "Please."
Yugi walked over to the foot of the bed without raising his gaze. Seto set the ultrasound on the mattress beside him and then reached out. Yugi didn't draw back, and Seto took the hem of his sweater and lifted it up, revealing the rounding curve of his stomach.
"Yugi, I don't know how I can believe you're not under some mind-altering spell," Seto said in what sounded like a voice that was calm only through tremendous effort.
Yugi couldn't respond. His throat was choking up again, but he didn't think he could have any tears left.
"Even if you're not…This is crazy. This'll kill you!"
"It won't. It…" He trailed off. He couldn't do this.
"It what? Tell me. Stop hiding things from me, and tell me everything for once."
Yugi winced, then said, "Kuribayashi told me I can't carry her all the way, so I know I can't. I don't have any way to deliver her. The magic didn't change my body at all, it just made it so she's…there somehow. So, he told me he'll wait until she's too big for me to support anymore and then he'll give me a C-section." Swallowing hard, thinking that this would do nothing to prove to Seto he wasn't crazy or under some spell, he continued. "We'll wait as long as possible, but I'm not delivering her. It won't hurt me."
Knowing that was an outright lie, or at least a promise he may not be able to keep, Yugi still couldn't meet Seto's gaze. He didn't want to see the look on his face.
"We were going to ask to use the medical facility downstairs, to keep it a secret, but we can find somewhere else-"
"Yugi, look at me."
Yugi shook his head. He pulled the sweater from Seto's hands and backed up. "I can't. Not like this. I'm-"
Seto's hands seized his and held them. "Look at me."
He didn't shout or try to force him, so Yugi slowly raised his eyes to his. He wasn't sure what he could read from Seto's gaze as those bright blue eyes stared at him. His face was that expressionless mask he so often wore and Yugi hated it right then.
"Look me in the eyes. And tell me this isn't some curse."
"I already did. It isn't. What difference would it make what I say anyway? You won't believe me."
For a second, Seto's eyes narrowed into a glare, but it faded away almost instantly. He stared at Yugi silently for several seconds, then sighed and lowered his own gaze. "It's late. Or, at least it's been a long day. We'll talk about this some more in the morning."
Yugi looked at him in confusion. "You…want to talk about it some more?"
Seto frowned at him. "Aren't we going to need to make plans?"
Yugi gaped at him. "You-Seto, you're…I-I-I thought you'd want me to leave. I thought you thought-"
"You can think whatever you want to think I think. Because I know I don't know what I think. I have no idea what I'm supposed to think about this whole fucking situation, but I know I don't want you to leave." His hands tightened around Yugi's. "I want to sleep. I want to forget about this tonight. Come to bed."
Yugi stared at him, utterly flabbergasted. He hadn't broken them up and he didn't want Yugi to go. What did that mean?
Seto stood up, still holding Yugi's hands. "Are you going to stay?"
"You really want me to?"
"I said so, didn't I?" As Yugi stared up at him, he shook his head. "Yugi, I don't know what the hell you want me to say. And I am too tired right now to argue. I want you to stay. Isn't that enough?"
Seto let go of Yugi's hands and walked over to the dresser. He picked up the pants still lying on the floor from where Yugi had dropped then and tossed them on top of Yugi's abandoned night bag, then yanked out a pair of pajamas for each of them, threw Yugi's towards him on the mattress, then started undressing. Mechanically, Yugi picked up his own, then started to undress. His head was swirling. He felt like Seto had just done a one-eighty and it didn't make sense. This wasn't the way Seto was going to react.
Was it?
In their pajamas, Seto and Yugi both got into the bed after Yugi moved the ultrasound to a safe place on the nightstand. Yugi slid under the covers and then stared at Seto hesitantly, not sure what to do. This felt so wrong, and it was what he wanted.
"Don't look at me like that," Seto said with a tired sigh. He sounded as drained as Yugi had felt in the conservancy. "I'm not accepting this, Yugi, so don't get any ideas like that. I just want to go to bed." He lay down with his back to Yugi.
That was more what Yugi had expected and he felt crestfallen even though he wasn't surprised. Seto wasn't accepting it. Why he was having Yugi stay like they were going to remain together, he didn't understand. Unless he was planning on trying to talk Yugi into getting rid of their daughter in the morning.
"I'm not having an abortion, Seto."
Seto turned over and sat up in a flash. "Damn it, Yugi, I-" Seto stopped and then said, "I don't want to talk about it anymore. Leave if you have to, but I want you here. I'm not going to say it again."
Yugi looked at him for a moment and then smiled tremulously. His heart was breaking, but he didn't want to leave, not until he absolutely had to. He just couldn't walk out.
Seto studied his face as if he was looking for another argument to start, then relaxed. He leaned forward, seemed to falter for a second, then kissed Yugi lightly. He leaned back, then studied him again as if waiting.
Yugi swallowed and continued to smile weakly. He wanted to kiss Seto again, harder, make him talk about it, make him accept it, make him break up with him, something. He wanted to kiss Seto and make love, desperately wanted to, but he didn't move or say anything. He could see it in Seto's eyes. The brunette was on the verge of snapping. Seto was too emotionally fragile for anything right then.
"Good night, Seto."
Seto slowly lay down again, this time on his back and looking up at him. Yugi looked away, reached over to turn out the light, then lay down on his side with his back to Seto.
/Yami, if you're awake, I just wanted to let you know Seto came home early and he knows./
/Do you need me to come get you?/
/Not yet./
/Aibou?/
/Just…not yet./
Yami sent a swirl of comfort to him. /It'll be okay, Aibou./
Yugi wished he could believe that. Wished desperately.
tbc...
