09: Check the date
She was up to something. His wife, the mother of his child, was up to something. He wondered if Mai thought he couldn't tell. He could definitely see that she was planning something; he'd certainly noticed the way she and Yasuhara-san had whispered together and hurriedly hidden the notes between them—jottings that he hadn't been able to even get a glimpse of and he'd tried. In trying to puzzle out what exactly he was missing, Lin had briefly entertained the idea that Mai might be cheating on him, but dismissed it when she showed an unruly client that hit on her the engagement ring and matching wedding band; then she introduced her husband to the client, stating that said client was welcome to talk with Lin if he felt the need to; it was funny how the client shied away after that.
No, Mai wasn't cheating on him, Lin knew. But she was up to something. Something that even Naru was privy to. He'd asked his Shiki, but they'd ignored his question—something he hadn't thought was possible. Well… ignored wasn't the right word—they'd evaded saying that they didn't know what was going on.
Which, of course, made him want to know more than ever. But how to find out? He peered at his petite wife. He could seduce it out of her… it'd be pleasurable for them both. A small, albeit evil smile, lit his features up briefly before they smoothed out to their placid lines.
At home, he trapped her between his body and the wall outside of Kohane's room. She looked up, a puzzled look on her face. Leaning closer, he captured her lips with his, her mouth opened for him and he leisurely took his time, appreciating her breathy moan into his mouth. Releasing her lips, he worked his way over her jaw and down her lovely neck.
"Is there anything you want to tell me, Mai?" he asked, watching her eyes go dark and blind with need at his ministrations.
"Yes," she responded, whimpering as he caressed the shell of her other ear. "I want you. Inside me. Now."
That wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he felt her rub against him and coast her lips down his neck, and her hands creeping into his pants; the frisson made his mind go blank. Her hands, he loved the feel of them on his body. Fuck it, he decided, he could ask tomorrow. Her touches were driving him insane. Snatching her from the wall, he carted her effortlessly to their bedroom.
…
Mai wasn't there when his alarm went off at eight-thirty. Lin didn't want to get up, he was comfortable in bed, naked, and content to just make love to his wife all day long. That was a problem since he was alone in the bed. With an aggrieved sigh, he turned the alarm off and sat up, shivering in the early morning cool. Disoriented and in need of caffeine, he looked around blearily, wondering where Mai was until he saw a note on his bedside table. Reaching out, he snatched it and read the missive. Kohane had a doctor's appointment, he wondered, searching his memory. He rubbed his forehead. Ah, yes, she was getting her first round of vaccinations. He grinned, not envying Mai at this moment. He'd see her at the office, no doubt with a grumpy Kohane in tow.
When he arrived at the office, Mai was nowhere in sight and Yasuhara was playing with Kohane, making all sorts of silly faces for the baby's amusement. The sound of his daughter's gurgling laughter was a soothing balm to his anxiety of Mai not being in the office.
Going over to the baby chair, he swept Kohane up and planted a big kiss on her soft cheek. "Good morning, little one," he cooed.
The baby smiled contentedly at him and snuggled into his shoulder for a nap. Yasuhara looked greatly amused at that. "Lin-san's a very comforting presence," he announced. "She was wailing when Mai-san got here and your wife wasn't very happy. Naru took one look at Kohane-chan and retreated into his office, post-haste. He hasn't come out even though she stopped crying," he announced, pitching his voice just a bit louder at the last statement.
Lin smirked and chuckled. "I can't wait for him to have kids. He won't be able to do that." It was a pleasing thought. Shifting the now-slumbering baby he asked, "Where's Mai?"
"Ah, Naru sent her shopping. Apparently, his tea supply is getting rather low." The other man made a face at Lin, showing what he thought of that. "She asked if she could leave Kohane with me, knowing you'd be in soon."
Lin was about to send a Shiki to her, but recalled she had Mamoru and Sebastian. She'd be fine. "By the way, Yasuhara-san... Is there something I should know?"
Osamu kept his face carefully puzzled. "Pardon?" he asked.
Lin sighed and wondered if he was being paranoid. Then again… Yasuhara was a consummate liar. But he looked so… clueless—or was it guileless? The sorcerer mentally shook his head. Enough looking for conspiracies, he had work to do. "I'll be in my office if you need me."
The day was uneventful. When Mai came in, he gave Kohane to her, wondering where the stuff Naru asked her to buy was. Maybe the market had been out of tea? If so, then why hadn't she come straight back to the office? Had she gone somewhere else? He didn't get the chance to ask as Matsuzaki-san barged in and announced that she was stealing Mai for the rest of the day and she'd return her later; Naru had handed the brunette investigator another shopping list before the two ladies had left.
He'd followed Naru into his office and tried to pry out of his former student what the hell was going on, but Naru had only told him to look at the date. Aggrieved with his charge and his cryptic comment, he ensconced himself in his office and proceeded to ignore the world, getting work done. He was the last one to leave the office and trudged home to an empty house. Upset, he started dinner and tried not to think about the lack of packages and alleged shopping lists.
Maybe she was having an affair.
The thought made him go cold with rage.
The front door opened, revealing a harried looking Mai and their daughter. Packages galore were literally dripping from her arms. He glanced at the time and smiled tightly at her, noting that her dress was wrinkled and wet in some places—what the hell had she done when she was with Matsuzaki-san? He peered at his Shiki, but they remained unresponsive. He chided himself. They wouldn't know. He hadn't set them to guard her today. Swallowing bitter thoughts he said, "Welcome home."
"We're home," she responded, slipping out of her shoes and going over to him. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. He frowned at the sweet and musky scents wafting from her. He tried to place it—it smelled of… some sort of fragrance and baked goods. Where the hell had she been?
"What happened—" He didn't get the chance to finish his question, she'd turned to their daughter and he noticed that she was holding Kohane in such a way that she was facing the world.
"Come on, missy. To the bath with you—throwing up all over me and yourself, ugh!" She carted the baby and the strange packages down the hall.
That explained the wet spots on her dress, but not the disheveled state of said clothing. The only time he'd seen her clothing rumpled was when they'd been off her body for a while. His heart clenched with pain. It was becoming more and more clear that she was doing something behind his back. But why now? Their marriage was too new… but, he told himself, dread digging a hole in his heart, some women were just that capricious.
He'd just never expected Mai to be one of them.
"Dinner's almost ready," he called.
"We'll be right there!" she called back. He heard the baby gurgle in response.
Later after dinner, Lin tried to talk to Mai again, but he'd been interrupted by a phone call from Takigawa-san, something that puzzled him greatly because he knew the monk had seen her in the office when he'd stopped by for a moment to see Naru. Speaking of Naru… what the hell did he mean by check the date? January eighth meant nothing to him. He was more curious to know what was in those bags. He didn't get the chance to look. Kohane had once again thrown up being fed and it took both him and Mai to clean her up and strip their bed. The thought of the packages fell to the wayside and they were gone the next day. His stomach churned when he realized it. It added to his suspicion that she was having an affair behind his back.
Three days later, Lin read a text from his wife, asking him to pick her and Kohane up. Things had been rather tense lately with Mai putting in extra hours (as she'd put it) and him sleeping fitfully. Lin was on the verge of telling his wife to take the subway rather than him leaving the house to pick her up after her romantic rendezvous. If she was going to have an affair, then she could walk home. But... she had Kohane with her and that alone made him get dressed again. His daughter was the innocent party in this sordid affair. Be there soon, he texted back. And on the way home, he and Mai were going to talk about her sudden secrecy. After he and Mai had their talk, it was time to get Oliver to explain exactly what he meant by 'check the date.' If it meant something, the younger man was going to explain himself, even if Lin had to throttle it out of him.
The office was dark when he finally arrived and he peered up the stairs, a perplexed look on his face. Had he somehow misunderstood? He checked his phone—no, Mai had said the office. The other option was...a dark thought gripped him, biting and vicious: the other option was that someone had gotten a hold of Mai's phone and was offering to show him what she'd been doing behind his back. Cold flooded him and made him frown savagely. With a look of grim resolve, he climbed out of the car and walked slowly up the stairs, trying to prepare himself for the worst. Locked, he wondered, trying the door again, just to be sure. It was locked all right. That made him even more suspicious, but he took his keys out and unlocked the door, steeling himself for the worst.
Inky black and utter silence greeted him leaving him confused and startled. He couldn't even hear breathing much less the moans and groans of lovers. Where was Mai? He glanced towards his Shiki but they remained opaque, as they had been for the entire week. They knew, he thought, they knew what was going on, but were actively deciding to keep quiet. He'd punish them later. He reached out to the light switch and blinked when bright light flared from a single candle sitting in a cupcake.
"Surprise!" a small cacophony cried out.
Lin stared in shock. Illuminated by the candle's glow was the entire S.P.R group, with his wife and daughter in the center, his wife grinning at him like a loon.
"Surprise for what?" he asked, turning on the light and gawking at the gaily decorated common room: party streamers, birthday signs, a small feast on the desks that had been clumped together and cleared off, and of course, a birthday cake in the center of it. He looked at Naru curiously and noticed that his ward was strangely blank.
"For your birthday," Mai answered handing Kohane to Chiaki, going over to him, and hauling him down for a mind-blowing kiss. She rubbed the dark shadows beneath his eyes sorrowfully and kissed him again.
Birthday? he wondered, holding his wife close, relieved beyond belief that he wasn't seeing his worst fear.
'Check the date,' Naru had told him. He craned his neck to look at the calendar on the wall. January eleventh. Check the date; he'd meant it quite literally—there'd been nothing cryptic about his statement at all. He chuckled. It was his birthday; Lin was twenty-nine as of today. "That's what all the secrecy was about," he realized, astonished that he hadn't even thought of his birthday. All the secrecy had run him ragged and the mirror had been an unforgiving spectator. He looked down at his wife who looked back, her expression contrite. "I thought the worst; that you were cheating on me," he told her.
Chiaki shook her head, bouncing the baby on her hip. "I can't believe you thought Mai would cheat on you."
"In all fairness, Chiaki-san, she was coming home late every night. One night she came home with wet and rumpled clothing. There are or were packages in our house that I couldn't explain that weren't there the next day. What would you have thought?"
"The exact same," Naru said, his eyes sliding to Chiaki with reprove.
To stall any further arguments, Mai led her husband to the couches and sat down next to him, wrapping her hands around his; the light gleamed on her wedding rings.
"To start, the night you saw me all rumpled…" she sighed and shot Ayako a dirty look, "Ayako dragged me off to a local animal shelter. She and Bou-san adopted a couple of dogs and she wanted to know how they'd do around Kohane before they brought them home, since they babysit her when we need them to. The older dogs did just fine, but the puppy… well, he was rambunctious, but thankfully he didn't hurt Kohane-chan, in fact, she rather enjoyed the attention. And you know that black doesn't show on black—that damn dog left my dress a mess; however, but Ayako said she's pay for the dry cleaning," she said, aiming a saccharine sweet smile at the priestess, who blanched visibly.
Mai turned back to him, gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and continued, "After that lovely and harrowing time—which believe me, scared me boneless— Kohane really did throw up all over herself and me in the process. Don't get alarmed, honey. Ayako said that until she gets used to the formula, it's to be expected. But we were in the bakery of all places, hammering out the details for your cake when she decided to upchuck. Everyone was very kind helping me clean your daughter up and a very nice customer helped me with my dress. But whew! Her perfume! My gods, it was suffocating. The rest of the week was spent getting the decorations and evading your questions so you wouldn't find out what we were up to. Stupid Naru almost ruined it, however when he told you to check the date," she finished, aiming a nasty glare at their fellow ghost hunter who had the grace to simply shrug.
Lin watched Mai stand and retrieve the cupcake. "Make a wish," she told him.
Holding her eyes, he made his silent wish and blew the single flame out, watching the smoke curl around his wife. They, he decided, were going to spend the rest of the night in bed, naked, and making lots and lots of love when this was over. Snagging her hand, he dragged her down to his lap and kissed her soundly. "The best surprise ever."
"Oh, I have more for you at home."
He shivered in anticipation and wondered if Mai would get around to telling him that she was pregnant again.