Yours, Mine and Ours
A/N: I'm sorry guys but since this story is in Alternate Universe, you cannot expect the characters would be the same. But I can guarantee a little that to some extent, their actual nature would be revealed. Thank you for reading.
Reiteration of the Second Chapter:
"I'm Miyu Kouzuki…"
"I work at as a kindergarten teacher at Heiomachi…"
"Kanata Saionji"
"Managing director of Saionji Companies Private Limited…"
"It's all difficult and all… but it's really funny that we hooked up on your birthday and got married on mine…"
"Congratulations"
"I guess I got you your worst present ever," he said much to the blonde's confusion.
"What's that…?" she asked, frowning lightly.
"Matrimony," he said with a small smirk.
"I've had worse," she assured him.
"Good night, Kanata…"
"'Night… Miyu…" he muttered, under his breath.
Chapter 4
Renaissance
When she woke up with a start at the break of dawn, it was only to awaken in an unfamiliar room. She massaged her head lightly, her blonde hair getting even messier with every other scratch. Her eyes were a little dazed and she couldn't quite focus right. She got to a sitting position.
The mattress under her was definitely not the same as in her small apartment in Heiomachi. She screwed her eyes and the first thing that she clearly saw was a handsome brunet sleeping peacefully on the scarlet love seat.
She got off the bed and walked over to him in sort of a daze. With every step she took, she remembered what had happened last night. A slight patch of crimson hue crept to her cheeks as she realized her state.
"I now, pronounce you man and wife…" said the pastor cheerfully, "you may now, kiss the bride…"
She got married last night.
She had always dreamed that her wedding day would be where she'd be the most happiest for she had the right to decide whom she wanted to get married to. All her life, her parents have taken almost all of her decisions—starting from her career to the place she lives in.
The first time she had ever taken her own decision was in Mizuki Yamamura—the guy she had believed to be the man of her dreams… the guy whom she had dated without her parents' consent for the past one year. And that didn't turn out so great.
She bit her lip, her hand moving towards her stomach. She massaged it lightly and wondered how everything turned that way… and so fast, at that. And she had taken another decision and she didn't have any idea whether it was for the good or bad.
Her brunet husband, shifted lightly in his sleeping position, almost uncomfortably. She glanced at him and cringed in guilt. They were in a massive suite in a five-star hotel—on his money. But whilst she got the comfortable bed, he was sleeping uneasily on the small seat.
She suddenly had a weird feeling inside her throat. She turned green lightly and rushed into the bathroom at once.
Nearly twenty minutes later, she poked her head out of the bathroom door pulling the fuzzy towel closer around her body. Since, unfortunately she had dropped the bathrobes into the water-filled tub she had to settle with the towels around her instead.
With her tongue between her teeth, she looked around and found that he brunet was nowhere to be seen in the room. Her emerald orbs spotted the bag of her newly purchased clothes beside the massive bed.
She took in a deep breath and concentrated hard. All she had to do was walk over to the bags, select a pair of presentable dress to wear to his place and get right back into the bathroom to change before he gets back from wherever he had left to.
She reached the bags with no problem. She selected the simple and elegant emerald full-sleeved top and the pair of formal black pants. She turned and the door to the room opened and the brunet walked in busy in what she could only guess as a new mobile.
"I told you Pierre… we would be there in an hour!" he said into the phone, his other hand to his forehead. He closed the door behind him without even glancing up to see the frozen blonde wrapped in a towel.
Miyu turned a bright shade of crimson and wondered what she was going to do. The brunet had his eyes closed in frustration and his hand messing up his hair. She wondered what she was going to do.
"Please understand Pierre!" he was saying into the phone with his back to her, "you can't tell dad…"
She took a step and he turned.
There was an awkward silence whilst, she gave him a forced and embarrassed smile and he looked at her—first with a frown which easily turned into a look of shock and surprise. A slight tinge of crimson hue spread across his cheeks and he turned around at once.
Miyu turned a bright shade of scarlet, and before she could even utter another word, the brunet walked right out of the room and closed the door with a snap.
"Oh man…" she whined and dropped on the bed, with her hands covering her face, "that was so embarrassing…!"
Outside, Kanata was standing with his back on the door, with his eyes closed and a flushed face.
Great—the last thing he wanted right now—more awkwardness and embarrassment. He scratched his forehead lightly and realized that he was still in the middle of speaking with Pierre—his butler and caretaker.
He lifted the new mobile, which he had just got delivered a few minutes ago, to his ear and muttered, "Pierre…?"
"Master Kanata…" gasped the old man, "what happened..? You suddenly stopped talking…"
Kanata frowned and said, "Hn".
"That's not considered as a word, sir…"
Kanata sighed, willing the crimson streaks on his face to fade away and muttered, "We'd be there in maybe even before an hour…"
"Alright then, I'll have everything ready".
He hung up and slipped his mobile into his pant pockets. He sighed and leaned his back on the door to their suite, with his eyes closed. He had just told everything that had happened from the eve of his 25th birthday till last night to Pierre and had received nothing but gasps and reproach from the other side. But he had managed to make Pierre keep this a secret and come up with a story that would likely be less embarrassing.
He opened his auburn irises and let another sigh escape his lips. He still had to go to the office that day but he had no memory of what he's supposed to be doing today at the building.
What he did know was that today was going to be even more tiresome and difficult than yesterday.
Miyu checked herself in the mirror for the tenth time. Her hair was tied back to a pony tail but a few strands were still poking out near her ears and forehead. The dress was a perfect fit.
Miyu couldn't stop from favoring her slim body for she'd be as fat as a pumpkin in a matter of few weeks. She finally came to the conclusion that thinking about it would definitely make it worse. So, with one final check, she walked out of the bathroom.
Kanata, who had taken a bath whilst she had been combing her hair at the dressing table, was busy with his mobile again. He seemed to be shouting at some employee of his. Miyu rolled her eyes thinking that this guy can never be separated from a mobile no matter how many times he might destroy it.
She waited for another two minutes, impatiently. He finally hung up and turned around to look at her.
"Let's go," he said and made his way out of the suite.
Miyu sighed and picked up the three bulging bag that carried her old and new clothes. It seemed a lot to carry since her wedding dress seemed to be taking too much space. She wished she had not been forced into buying the wedding dress. She had wanted to rent it because she could never have afforded this one. But the brunet didn't even listen.
It had been very sweet of him, no doubt, but it was enraging that he never heeded to one word she said. And now, he didn't have the courtesy to get the bags and had left a poor pregnant woman to her own means.
She hadn't taken another step when he walked back into the room, with an annoyed look in his auburn orbs. She was sure he was going to yell at her for being slow.
"What are you doing?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"Erm…" she started and showing the slightly heavy clothes said in a low voice, "we can't leave these behind…"
"Yes we can," he said impatiently.
"What…?" she asked incredulously, "leave brand new clothes behind…?"
"So…?" he retorted, almost bored at the conversation.
"So…?" she repeated skeptically, "that's wasting a lot of money!"
He rolled his eyes and muttered matter-of-factly, "That's just a couple of bucks…"
"Couple—couple of bucks…?" she asked, bewildered, "some people don't even have enough for one set of clothes…"
"What's your point?" he asked, curtly.
"You can't waste these clothes," she said, determinedly.
He sighed and walked towards her. She frowned.
He held out his hands and said, "Give them to me…"
She narrowed her eyes and accused, "You'd throw them away…"
He sighed again, jaded and promised, "I won't…"
She handed over the bags to him, reluctantly. He seemed to be having no problem carrying them. He held on to them with ease and even laden with those heavy packages, he seemed to be walking at a faster rate than the blonde.
She smiled with satisfaction and followed him.
As soon as they checked out of the hotel, the two climbed onto his "death ride"—as she called it. The moment they were in the privacy of his Mercedes, he muttered as he started the engine, "Before we step into my place, there are certain ground rules that you should know".
Miyu gulped lightly. This was not good.
Taking her silence as a cue for him to continue, he started, "first, you cannot talk to anybody in my place about what happened Christmas eve…"
Miyu gave him, a dark smile, thinking, 'like I'd do that in this lifetime…'
"And, there would be a slight change in the story of how we met and got married…" he muttered almost inaudibly.
Miyu frowned but before she could even open her mouth to voice her confusion, he continued, "Pierre would come up with one…"
"Who's that…?" she asked before she could stop herself.
Kanata took his time answering. It was as though he was a little irritated at having to answer to her questions. But nonetheless, he replied, "he's our family butler…"
Miyu almost choked.
"You have a family butler…?" she gasped.
"What part of—he's our family butler—don't you understand?" he asked, irritated, as he drove out of the hotel's parking lot.
She glared at the brunet and muttered through clenched teeth, "I'm sorry…"
"Stop apologizing," he muttered, not even bothering to give her a glance.
"Oh," gasped Miyu, her emerald orbs wide, "my," her jaw dropped and she finished, "god!"
Kanata sighed lightly at the thought of how he was going to manage this without it turning into a complete disaster. They were entering through the most beautiful and not to mention colossal gates to his mansion.
"This is your home…?" she asked, looking at him awed.
Kanata breathed in a little heavily and stopped his car right before the steps into his mansion. He got out of the car and Miyu followed suit, still amazed at the enormity of his dwelling.
Without waiting for her, Kanata made his way through the glass doors. Miyu hesitated and she was not comfortable one bit with the looks that the security at the doors gave her. She reached into the car to get the bags when one of them walked down.
"I'll get that for you miss…" said the security guard warmly.
"Thanks…" mumbled Miyu, a little red in the face. She was never used to courtesy like this and it sounded quite weird.
Within minutes, after being guided through quite the number of doors, she was staring at an old man in his early fifties wearing a fine set of black suit complete with a bow-tie. Miyu guessed that this must be the butler that Kanata had been talking about, Pierre.
Miyu fidgeted lightly with the edges of her emerald-green top as the brunet, sitting by her side in the comfortably huge cushion chair, stared into a business magazine with a bored look in her auburn orbs, and the butler was standing before them with a reproving look in his eyes. The three were alone in the room and all the doors were closed.
The room, Miyu noticed, was a cross between a study and a lounge. But it was close enough to a small library. There were stacks of books lined up against the walls and cushions and chairs with tables were sprawled neatly across the room. Miyu wondered what kind of a room this was used as just when the butler cleared his throat.
Kanata sighed inwardly and looked up at the butler, lazily.
"Master Kanata," started the butler sternly, "do you realize what you have done..?"
Miyu shivered lightly. But Kanata seemed at ease.
"I got married," he said simply.
Miyu didn't know whether that was funny or grave. But she chose to keep her silence till asked to speak.
The old man then muttered though clenched teeth, "and why, may I ask?"
Kanata jerked his head away from the butler. Miyu looked at him as well. She had been wondering the same thing. It would have been easy for him to have called security and kicked her out of his office the moment she said she was pregnant—though that would never be attempted by any sane man.
Being that one extreme, the other extreme would have been to accompany her to the doctor for the abortion or any other alternative. But he had asked her to marry him. When she found out she was pregnant, she had thought of many possible reactions from him. But none of them had been anywhere close to where she was right now.
"Fine," Pierre said, "you choose not to answer…"
Kanata just remained silent.
"May I at least ask you whether you know how much trouble you are in right now…?" asked the butler, furiously.
Kanata sighed, almost bored.
"What did you tell your father…?" asked Pierre, "he called yesterday and told me about your new bride-to-be… but, dear god… you're already married…!"
Kanata's fist clenched and Miyu could tell that he was fighting back words.
"And he called after a few hours," said Pierre, pacing the length of the room, "furious he was that his son got married without his knowledge…"
"Even if I die, he'd be the last person to know!" exclaimed Kanata, getting to his feet.
Rage was almost emitting from his body. Miyu flinched and got to her feet as well, scared at his sudden outburst. The old man standing across the couple was not so thrilled at the brunet's eruption either.
"If you can," Kanata continued, angrily towards his butler, "tell your boss that I'm twenty-five! I've learned to live without his presence in my life… and I don't need it anymore!"
With that, he ambled out of the room, closing the door so hard that Miyu winced. She was now more uncomfortable than when she started out. With him gone, she was now alone with the old butler and she had no idea what to do now.
She was staring at the door fixedly willing the brunet to come back when she heard an exhausted sigh from behind her.
She turned.
"My name is Pierre," said the butler despairingly, "Pierre Atkinson—at your service"
She bowed and muttered with her eyes closed, "Miyu Kouzuki…"
She got back to a standing position and the butler frowned lightly and asked, "He really married you…?"
Adrenaline rushed through her body and she nodded her head stiffly. The butler examined her for a whole minute.
"Could you at the least tell me why…?" he asked, almost desperately, "even when he called me this morning, he wouldn't give me the details…"
Miyu turned even a furious shade of crimson hue and opened her mouth but nothing came out. She started fidgeting and couldn't think of the correct way to express the facts to this warm looking old man.
"Maybe over a cup of tea, perhaps…?" he offered lightly with a small smile.
Miyu returned the smile gratefully.
The tea arrived and Miyu was seated at the same couch and the butler had drawn himself a chair from across the hall. Miyu sipped the tea meekly and wondered how to start.
"Um…" she started and the old man looked up, "where did he go…?"
He sighed and informed, "Probably to work… he always goes to work whenever he's upset or angry…"
Miyu didn't find this relieving. He had casually left her in his house for her to explain everything…? How could he do this to her…?
Then she looked up to see Pierre waiting for an answer from her about his previous question. She sighed inwardly and marveled on how hard it was going to be from then on.
"Mr. Atkinson…" she started.
"Please… call me Pierre…" he offered warmly.
Miyu took in a deep breath. The butler sipped his tea gracefully and Miyu muttered, with her head bowed, "I'm having his child…"
Pierre choked on his cup and looked at the mauve blonde with his sapphire eyes wide with shock and bewilderment. Miyu moved uncomfortably in her position as the butler stared at her unbelievingly.
"K-Kanata…?" he asked, incredulously.
Miyu gave a strained smile and nodded her head lightly.
"W-wh-wh-when…?" he stuttered, obviously unable to believe what he was hearing.
"Christmas eve…" she replied, trying not to think about that fateful night.
"Oh my goodness," gasped the graying butler and sighed deeply.
There was silence for a long time between the two. Pierre was in a state of shock and there might be no word in the dictionary for how Miyu was feeling right now. Suddenly, her life is getting filled with strangers, front and back—starting from her husband to his butler.
She heard the butler sigh again. She looked up at him a little worried but saw that the cerulean-eyed butler was over whatever shock he had experienced moments ago.
"You do realize that we cannot convey that story to anybody," he said, almost awkwardly, possibly fearing he would offend the blonde.
Miyu gave him a warm smile and said, "Yeah… believe me, it's not a walk in the park to have even told your master…"
The butler chuckled and asked lightly, "I'm curious. How did he take the news…?"
Miyu shrugged and said, "Better than me… He started shouting—I think, to his own self… and then after an hour or so, asked me to marry him…"
The butler frowned.
"I don't want to offend you or anything," he said lightly, "but how did you marry him, knowing nothing about him…?"
Miyu bit her lip and shifter her gaze to her tea. The butler might even consider her as a gold-digger if she remained silent like this. She had not known that Kanata was this rich till the moment she looked at his office building. But being altogether in a very bad state herself, she had not paid attention. But when she realized it, she almost wished that she had not said "I do" at the altar in that lonely wedding hall.
"Honestly, I don't know…" mumbled Miyu, her gaze not shifting from staring into the half-empty cup of tea.
She could feel the butler's calculating gaze on her.
She took in a deep breath and continued looking right into the butler's eyes, trying to prove that she was not lying, "I was too alone… I didn't want to go through this alone and when he offered me that… I-I couldn't say no…"
"Your parents…?" asked Pierre as he sensed waterfalls.
Miyu gave him a teary smile and said, "They never find time for me… and when they do, it's only to elaborate how much of my life I have wasted…"
Pierre's eyes softened.
"That somewhat resembles Master Kanata's life," said Pierre, looking at Miyu with warmth in his cerulean orbs.
Miyu smiled and said in a calm voice, "I guessed that much when he drowned his mobile last night…"
"That would be his forty-fifth then…" observed Pierre, thoughtfully, "he has an awful temper and his poor mobiles are the first to feel the heat…"
Miyu chuckled.
Pierre smiled at the new lady-of-the-house and proffered standing up with a hand extended towards her, "may I escort you to your new room…?'
Miyu smiled at him and getting to her feet as well said, "That would be fantastic Pierre as long as it isn't as big as this library…"
Pierre frowned as he took Miyu's hand, "But this isn't the library… this is just where we store all those books that Master Kanata likes to read repeatedly… the library is in the other end of the house…"
Miyu looked at him skeptically and then gulping asked, "I'm going to get lost in this place, aren't I…?"
Pierre smiled warmly and said, "Don't worry…" and added in a whisper, "I'll get you a map…"
Miyu sighed and then gave Pierre another warm smile as he steered her to her new room in her new home—into her new life.
End Chapter 4
A/N: How was that…? I know its a little slack… But I'll try my best… :-) Thanks for reading. Please review…
Today's thought:
The Four Hardest things on Earth:
To give love for hate
To include the excluded
To forgive without an apology
And to have the courage to say "I was wrong".
