(2/19/11)
Tuesday...
Today, I went to Minako's place, but I found it abandoned.
I decided to look around, but instead heard a pitter-patter of feet. Suddenly becoming suspicious, I summoned my sword, but it wouldn't appear. Grabbing an umbrella, I decided to poke around.
While I was walking up along the halls, one door suddenly swung wide open. I cringed backward as there wasn't any wind. Reluctantly, I decided to check it out.
"Minako? Minako? Where are you?" I hollered, "It's really spooky here. I'm not playing games..." I said as I peeked into the room.
Strangely, there was nothing inside, but a stroller. I decided to take a look and saw a really cute baby with tufts of blue hair.
I smiled at it, but suddenly, I felt something pulling my leg. Wen I looked, it was another kid, this time, with red hair. Then suddenly, little kids came out of the woodwork. They grew in number until they virtually surrounded me. Suddenly, the started attacking me, but I couldn't fight back because they were, well, babies.
"You killed her!" They hissed in a demonic undervoice, "Dada!"
"Ahhhhh!"
I jolted awake.
Breathing heavily, I checked the clock, to see it was 4:36 AM. Inadvertently, I had fallen asleep in Minako's bed, with her warm body snug asleep besides me. She snored lightly and, again, was drooling in my arm, but I didn't mind. I moved my hands to her abdomen, where life was being nurtured. I looked at her and gave her a quick kiss in the ear.
"What the hell, dude..." She groaned, "Quit that shit..."
I chortled and went back to sleep. And for the first time in a long time, I had a dream about Elder.
It was set in the Astronomy Tower.
"... you can't renege on our cause, Guinevere." Elder's mellow voice said smoothly, "Even if you are afraid, you must carry out your mission."
"Master..." She bowed low, "I apologize for speaking out of turn... but I truly am afraid..."
"Apology accepted, my friend." He smiled, "I choose you not because you are fearless in the face of the Messiah, but because you fear them rightly so. I have grown stronger since the shootout. Its too bad that you didn't kill the Messiah when you met with him not long ago..." He turned.
"Master? I'm sorry."
"Its fine. I do not begrudge you for it, Recipient of the Lover's Arcana..." He said in a low voice, "I am just... disappointed." He said as he walked away.
"Master? Master!" Guinevere cried out as the dream melted.
"Hey, Minako, wake-" a voice said before yelping, causing Minako and I to wake up. It was Kamina, who averted her eyes, but still grinning as the daylight streamed into the room.
"Its not what it looks like!" Minako cried sleepily.
"That's right!" I cried as well.
"Look, if you two wanted to be alone, all you have to do is ask... You crazy lovebrids!" Kamina winked.
"Come off it!" Minako cried back, "That's the last thing on my mind!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Kamina dismissed, "But, Minato, I thought I was your forever girl?"
Minako looked livid, "Kamina..."
"Just kidding!" Kamina said quickly, "Geez, you're so sensitive..."
"Kamina, Minato's a touchy subject, so try not to mention him." Minako said as she defensively covered me.
"...hmmm... Alright. But this Minato thing... It isn't over." She winked and went out.
Minako turned around shyly at me, "Mornin'."
"Hey. Good morning." I smiled as she inspected my arm.
"Did your arm have a wet dream or something?" She joked.
"Oh, this?" I looked at my arm, "You kinda drooled at it."
"Aaahhh... really?" She said sheepishly, "S-Sorry..." She said as she discreetly wiped it with her blanket.
"Well, I gotta get back." I said as I checked my watch, "I better head back before Leah goes on a manhunt..." I said as I began to get my stuff.
"Wait." Minako said, "Um... After classes... Will you come with me to Junes?"
"Really? What for, exactly?"
"To buy stuff, okay?" She said quickly.
"Ah... I see." I said, "Okay. Sounds good."
She smiled as I went to my room and changed. As I went down, Koromaru greeted me by tackling me and licking my face, "Hey, quit it, Koromaru! I miss you too, but we see each other everyday!" I cried as I wrestled with the Shiba-Inu.
"Hey, sup Dude?!" Junpei cried, "Hehe... Where were you last night?"
"I, uh..." I stammered, "I... I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hehe... Were you with Minako?" Leah asked as she, Junpei and Akihiko laughed.
"No!" I cried, "That's not it... Maybe I have a night job or something... Like Vigilante duty with bows and arrows."
They didn't drop it as we had breakfast. I devoured mine quickly and went to school to avoid further ridicule.
Minako waited for me at the gate, where she wore a melancholic smile as I approached her. Wordlessly, we went inside school and attended class.
Yukari seemed down about something. I didn't pay much attention, though. I was too busy admiring Minako's face. And when she caught me staring, she'd stab me with a pencil, which really hurts if they're newly sharpened.
After classes, Minako and I went out and just talked on our way to Junes.
"So, did you do your homework for Ms. Toriumi's class?" I asked as we trudged along the bridge.
"Yeah, I tried, but I couldn't concentrate much." Minako said ashamedly.
"Haha, good move. It's better not to force it. You should try Ritalin or something." I joked.
"I don't have ADHD, you ass!" Minako laughed as she smacked my arm.
"Maybe a little... Hehe... Its probably for the best. It wouldn't be good for you or the baby."
She smiled, "Yeah... I know this one chick who took too much alprazolam meds and she took off her clothes, jumped into the Paulownia Mall fountain and she was like, "Raaaa! I'm a Sea Monster from under the sea!"" She waved her arms wildly.
"I heard that was you."
"Well, if you insist on making this personal," she said huffly, "I'm not gonna comment on it any further."
I chuckled as we eventually made our way to Junes. Minako then dragged me to a store. A baby store.
"Man, I should have known..." I muttered.
"Hey, don't be like that, man!" Minako said affrontedly, "Failing to plan is planning to fail."
"I guess that's what brought us to this situation in the first place..." I mused wryly.
We looked around for a while, "Oooh! Lookie, these bibs are really neat! And these milk bottles... They'd go well with formula."
"Whoa, you aren't breastfeeding?" I said in shock.
"Uh, no way." Minako said, "That sounds pretty strange. Cows milk will do well enough, I guess."
"Heh. Not if you're willing to let the baby drink milk from an animal. I said scoffingly, "With all sorts of heat-resistant bacteria and microbes found in cow's milk, feeding it to a newborn baby is like giving it E-Coli, syphilis, listeria and salmonella."
"Okay... Never mind then... Breast feeding it is then." Minako said nervously.
"Hehe... I'd like to sample a taste sometime." I joked.
"You want a taste of this first?" Minako snarled, balling a fist.
"Point taken." I said sheepishly.
"Oooh, these strollers are pretty rad!" Minako sighed, "D'you think we should get the double stroller?"
"Double stroller?"
"You know, if it turns out they're twins or not..." she said.
My heart skipped a beat when she mentioned the possibility of twins. But whatever the reason, wether twins, triplets, quadruplets or quintuplets, I'd need to man up and stand by her side.
"Yeah, I guess we should just buy it just in case." I said, pulling out my wallet.
"Well, isn't Daddy excited?" Minako teased, "I guess we'll buy it another time. Not now, of course. I don't want to make Kamina suspicious."
"Isn't she already suspicious enough when she saw you drooling in my arm this morning?"
"Sigh... Can we please drop it? Its not my fault I hypersalivate in my sleep!" She cried.
"Alright, alright..." I conceded.
"At any rate, we're just looking around, for now. I don't really want to buy anything right now. We'll have plenty of time for that later. Right now, we're buying stuff for Momma." Minako said as she grabbed some supplies and paid it, "Let's go have some ice cream at the food court. I'm hungry."
"Sounds good." I said as we made our way to the food court. I ordered two King-sized cones as we sat by the courtyard.
"So, any plans for the baby name?" I asked.
"Well, we should decide whether we want a girl or a boy." She said.
"I'd like a daughter." I said.
"I want a son." Minako said.
We looked at each other, "Obviously, its gonna be a girl. We're naming her Yūki."
"I want a boy. He's gonna be called Mako." Minako countered, looking ready to fight, "And if you disagree, we're gonna have a scrap on our hands."
"Alright, look." I said tactically, "Lets agree to name it Mako, if its a boy, and Yūki, if its a girl. Okay?"
"Hey, justaminute, why do you have a say in this?" Minako asked, "I mean, if I'm gonna be carrying this kid for nine months, I should have full naming rights."
"Well, I contributed in this, remember?" I countered, "Unless you conceived without a man."
"I don't see why. I'm bringing it to this world-"
"See it this way, Minako... If a man inserts a coin into a vending machine and a can of MadBull comes out, who does it belong to?"
"..." Minako thought for a while, "Okay, fine, we have a deal." She shook my hand, "But this isn't over. Hahaha!"
"I guess."
"Oh, I'll probably become as big as a whale in a few month's time. Will you still think I look cute?" She asked.
"Well, I always think you're cute. In my opinion, you're the most beautiful girl in the world." I said as Minako stopped eating.
"Awww... Minato." She said, genuinely touched.
"But what happens after the baby is born?" I asked as she licked her ice cream thoughtfully.
"I dunno. I expect the baby will suckle on me while you change its diaper." Minako said teasingly.
"I'm serious." I said.
"Uh? What're you talking about?" She asked.
"You know... Should we get married or something?" I said awkwardly.
"...what?" Minako said with a raised eyebrow.
"Just saying, you know, it might be a good idea to-" I began, but I stopped when I saw her face.
"Well, you could go out with Yukari." She said amiably, "I mean, why get married to broken product?"
"Because I broke you." I said, "I break it, I buy it."
"Nice analogy."
"You're mad. Why are you mad?" I asked.
"Well, i'm not really ready for marriage, you know..." Minako said.
"But you aren't ready for pregnancy either." I pointed out.
"Geez, because I was bored that day and didn't have anything better to do. And you're getting pissed because I don't want to marry you!" Minako cried.
"Well, I wouldn't marry you anyway. You'd be a bully wife! Anyway, I know you weren't bored that day since you bought Froot Loops and rented a copy of Avatar the day before, so don't give me that!" I shot back.
"Fine. You can marry Yukari then!" She spat back as she stood upand struggled with her bags.
"Sigh... Let me take that..." I offered.
"No thanks." She growled as she carried it and left. I followed her until she bumped into two muscular and creepy-looking guys.
"Hey, hey, where you off to, Little Lady?" The first creep asked, showing his yellow teeth, "Wanna hang out?"
"Nowhere." Minako said, "Geez, don't you ever brush?"
The second one went close to Minako's face, "Little Ladies need to mind their own business..."
"Why? Got something to hide, Horse-breath?" Minalo said as she pinched her nose.
"Maybe your ears don't work properly-"
"Too bad my nose does!" She said nasally as she pinched her nose.
"Why you little-" he raised his hand as I got in between.
"That'll be enough." I said defensively as Minako hid behind me.
He pushed me, "Who's this clown?"
"There's no need for that." I said, unwilling to fight with them, but ready to defend Minako.
"Piss off!" The muscular one pushed me as I stood my ground, "We're gonna teach this bitch a lesson!"
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down!" I said as I stood in front of the tall, muscular but grotesque man, "You know, in all my travels, I've never met a man like you before... With so much muscles, blistering halitosis and who has absolutely no penis." With that, I gave him a skull-crushing headbutt, causing him to fall six feet.
His friend ran towards me as I headbutted him too, but he was so tall that I hit his chest instead as he punched me away.
"That's enough outta you, asshole!" Minako cried as she jumped behind him as Mall Security swooped towards us.
Later, Minako and I had walked out of the Police Station as we were released by Officer Kurosawa. We were already near our place.
"I still cannot believe you just headbutted that guy's front teeth out!" Minako cried with an impressed tone.
"Yeah, and I can't believe you just gave that guy a nosebleed and an atomic wedgie..." I moaned as I applied ice into my swollen forehead.
"Well, Minato..." Minako bit her lip, "Thanks. I've got a feeling you'll be a good father."
"I hope so." I laughed as I opened the gate, "See you around."
"Yeah... And thanks, Minato." She smiled and blew me a kiss.
I smiled and went in my house.
"S'up dude?" Junpei greeted, "Oooh! Your head!"
"Yikes, what happened?" Leah asked as she inspected it.
"Looks like a concussion." Akihiko said.
"I headbutted some guy at the mall today."
"Nice." Junpei remarked as we had dinner.
After we had dinner, I went upstairs to change, when I heard a voice beckoning me.
I followed the noise and found myself in front of a mirror.
"Strange." I muttered and was shocked when my reflection didn't follow my lip-movement, but smirked.
"Hello, brother." The reflection said.
I jumped back, breaking a chair and toppling over several items.
"Minato, what the hell is going in there?!" Akihiko shouted from below.
"Uh, nothing! There was a rat! I killed it!" I shouted back as I looked into the mirror, "What the... Who...?"
"Its me. Don't you remember?" He smirked, "Your brother. He who was forgotten."
Suddenly, flashbacks of my brother appeared in my mind. As the forgotten memories flooded my mind, I remembered that I did have a brother, who either died with my parents in the crash or was slaughtered by Ryoji's incomplete form.
"Yes. I am Jōhei." He smiled.
"Jōhei?" I said, "I'm sorry I forgot about you."
"Never mind that. Are you sure about your decision?" He asked.
"My decision?"
"Your decision to become a father." He sneered, "Why? You are ill-equipped to be a father. Babies... They poop when they cry and they cry when they poop. Then, they grow up to be insolent whelps. Trust me, you're better off running away."
"Run away?" I said in contempt, "No way."
"Remember when we were in that petstore years ago, and you wanted that puppy, but I reminded you about caring for it, feeding, bathing and toilet training it. This is much like that, except with a human being. I mean, I'm glad you're getting a kick out of the possibility of being a father, but this is big."
"This IS big." I said, "This will convince Minako I'm ready for bigger things."
"You better lose the kid before you mess both your lives and his mother's!" He cried. "That kid's better off living in a dumpster than with you as his father!"
"I'll be a good dad!"
"That's impossible. All you care about is your people!"
"This conversation is over!" I shouted.
"Minato?" A voice from beside me said, "Are you alright?"
It was Minako, "Yeah, I'm okay," I said, looking at the mirror to find my brother's image lost.
"Well, take it easy." She advised.
"Thanks." I said as she left. Shrugging off the strange encounter with my 'brother', who may or may not be a hallucination, I went to bed to rest and get ready for what tomorrow promises.
A/N: Well, finished with that chapter! I'm glad I'm done. Please take your time in reviewing, please!
I apologize if this chapter was so confusing!
Q/A:
MinexLaggante: Don't worry, I won't. :) also, define 'overdo'?
Rick: Actually, that didn't have anything to do with Celebrity Paradox...
Thanks! I'll hopefully remedy the angst when I have the time!
Reaper: Thanks for the compliment! Well, to answer your question, I definitely don't like her, but I hate her less now. She ranks third in my Most Hated list, Ryoji and Ken being first and second respectively.
Blah: First of all, sex doesn't necessarily count as romance. Its LUST. Look it up on Google. And yes, it could be normal for Friends with Benefits, the name of the chapter when they do it.
Huh? You're not making any sense, kiddo. And if you read the story, instead of skimming it, you would have seen they planned it. Unless you're asexual, wanting to do it is a PRIMAL NEED. Something in biology.
Not really. Its a common plot in anime, and Minato isn't hers, so she has no reason to interrupt.
Rightly so. Its MY story. I can depict Yukari as a firebreathing dragon if I want to. But I don't, since I respect her character. I don't really tell you how to write, so if you want a Yukari story, where she's an angel with feathered wings, you can write one, and I'd be sure to help out of I can.
About Aigis... Do you make a habit of jumping to conclusions? Its something I chose to do.
As for your post script... Everyone goes to your profile page, obviously since your story is located there. No one will listen anyway. I don't need your tips for now.
Your longest review, huh? Ah, okay.
Hoshiro: Yeah... Unless I somehow inject morphine and do it, which I won't.
Thanks! Haha, truth be told, I never played Aigis's S-Link, so I wouldn't really know what her personality is. That's one of the many reasons why I avoid writing about her. I don't know much about her personality.
So sorry you feel that way... But rest assured, the next four chapters will capture your heart as well as your interest.
Kronos: Well, a woman can still get pregnant if a man pulls out just as he's about to pop one. A little bit sort of 'leaks' before the load comes. Its kind of weird, I know...
Infinite Carnage: Maybe... You'll see soon enough.
Radaketor: As much as I hate Aigis, you can't deny that without her, there would be no Days of Autumn. I hate her less now, but I put her up for my readers who like Aigis.
Aniki: Well, the debate we had opened my eyes a little and had me thinking, so you're part of the reason why Aigis is in the story.
Donald: Don't worry, fight scenes will resume on the fourth chapter after this one. Thanks, finals were done last week!
Somnus: Yep. He caused her 'pregnancy', which you'll see more in the later chapters.