Ok, so here's chapter 7 guys! So sorry for the long wait, it's just that I've been very, very, very busy these days, what with my exams coming up and some deadlines to catch up to. Anyway, this chappie was a challenge for me, so I hope you enjoy! :D

Mommy's Corner

Baby's Name: Thinking, thinking, you've got me thinking.

Cravings: Pumpkin smoothies, gravy apples (gravles!), super helium bubblegum, pixie dust, fox eyes

Events: Baby Shower

Waist line: 46.5 inches

Thoughts to Ponder: My kouhais back at the academy have been so thoughtful about me the past few weeks, especially since Anna and Tobita informed them about my six month pregnancy. They keep sending over some stuff, like their newest chocolate-flavored howalon, and my favorite, super helium bubblegum, since some of them still visited Central Town from time to time. Anyway, Tsubasa and I have been busy preparing for the baby shower later, and he promised to come home early tonight. I just hope he's not lying, because if he is, then I'm gonna duplicate myself twenty times and beat the CRA-, crud out of him…

28 Weeks

"Tsubasa, can you make me a pumpkin smoothie? Oh, and don't forget to put in some tomatoes, ok?" Misaki beamed at her husband as she rested her chin on her hands.

"Err, I'm quite in a hurry right now…" Tsubasa didn't look up from the coat he was ironing.

"Fine, fine. I'll do it." Misaki stood up then twisted her torso.

"Oooh, my back is killing me." She said with a whimper in her voice as her bones went 'pop'.

"How 'bout your feet?"

"Sore, as usual."

"Nausea?"

"Nah…" Misaki trailed off, then ran to the bathroom a second later.

"No work today ok? You'll have to prepare for the shower later. Don't stop being adorable now, see you later!" Tsubasa lightly chuckled. He then put on his coat and unplugged the iron, putting on his winter coat on his way to the door.

"Hmmm… *bleugh*"

Tsubasa laughed again, closing the door behind him.

[At the office…]

Tsubasa looked at his watch, 5: 30.

Ok… Almost done…

"Tsubasa!" A co-worker called from the superior's office.

"Yeah?"

"Ryo-san wants to see you."

"Be right there." And with that, he stood up and made his way to his superior's office.

At the sound of the creaking armchair and shuffling feet, another figure rose from his seat, in an attempt to bring the enemy, Tsubasa Andou, down.

Takeru Sonoda has always been second-best next to Tsubasa Andou in terms of work, praise from the boss, looks, popularity, and just about anything else. And well, Andou most probably stole away HIS girl. Which was why he took this chance as the perfect opportunity to beat this guy.

Time to put my plan into action… He slyly thought, creeping up to Tsubasa's desk and slipping a little bit of who-knows-what into his coffee.

Five minutes later, Tsubasa came out all smiles, a small key in his hand.

A small key that was the key to a brand new future, and a brand new life.

Tsubasa whistled cheerfully as he took a big gulp from his coffee mug…

Seconds later, the lethargy kicked in. Tsubasa felt his eyelids droop as his head banged on the desk.

"What's this… Gin?..." He took a lazy whiff before gradually drowning in the waves of unconsciousness.

[At the apartment…]

"Misaki-senpai, you look HUGE." Mikan's eyes widened as she took in Misaki's gigantic baby bump.

"Hmm, err, well thanks. I'm sure every pregnant woman out there would like to hear those words." Misaki faked a smile behind her slight exasperation.

"Why of course! I'm sure your baby would love for you to gain a whole mess of weight!" Sumire beamed at her, stroking her tummy.

"Yeah sure…" She laughed behind the irony.

"But you sure do look great." Nonoko chirped from behind Sumire.

Misaki blushed at the comment as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a simple, yet elegant yellow cotton maternity dress that reached to her knees, with butterfly embroidery just right above the hem. Her hair was done in a loose braid, showing off her radiant pinkish white skin and big pretty eyes that both seemed to sparkle and glow as the comments keep coming. Heck, for a lady who was seven months pregnant, she looked pretty stunning to everyone else in the party.

"Aww, thanks." She smiled at all of them.

"Hey, where's Tsubasa? I thought you said he'd be here early?" Megane asked Misaki in a worried tone as he took a glance at the wall clock. It read eight-thirty.

Where is HE? Misaki took another look around. Her parents were there and weren't looking so pleased about the absence of their "beloved" son-in-law.

"Can't wait to see the father of THAT child, my dear." Misaki's mother, Juno-san, murmured, suddenly popping up beside her daughter, with her husband at her heels.

"Yes. Really can't." Her father rolled his eyes.

"Otou-san, Okaa-san… What's wrong with you?" Misaki hissed at her parents.

"Well, it's your baby shower and he can't even show up just for the sake of it. Your wedding was already a complete and utter disaster and yet you expect this relationship to even survive its first year? Hell, I won't even be surprised if he's not there when it's time for you to go into labor." Juno-san spoke in a sharp tongue, taking another sip of the champagne in her hand.

"Your mother's right, if only you chose that dashing young man, oh what's his name, SONODA-kun, over that shadow of failure, then your husband should've been present at this very important event in your life." Her father, Shigure-kun, uttered in a haughty tone. Then the couple both took a look at the party scene around them.

Probably the most evident center-of-attention was the hovering Kitsunume that was jokingly smacking the head of every nearby person. He was just about to hit someone's head when suddenly the person turned around to face the flying boy, showing that that certain somebody was actually none other than the ominous Natsume Hyuuga. Natsume sent him a cold glare, sending Kitsunume fleeing away from the shameful situation in fear.

Somewhere nearby, Ruka was chasing after Hotaru who was carrying a little box tied with a purple ribbon. Ruka was incoherently shouting at her words such as "Mine!", "Imai, don't!", and "Give it back!", leaving her firing away at the pitiful blonde boy with a deer-hoof glove she conjured out of nowhere.

"So shrill and noisy. Shut up Nogi!" Hotaru said in an indifferent tone, blowing away the steam rising from her glove.

In a corner near the sofa, Tono was flirting with one of the girls that were talking to each other, and apparently, from the looks of it, he had said something inappropriate because a second later, the girl slapped the player on his cheek and walked away with the rest of her posse.

And someplace else in the apartment, well, the shattering of glass was heard and a vein popped in Misaki's head.

"Such a raucously eccentric set of, hooligans, err, friends."

"Yes, a very interesting selection of 'friends', Misaki."

Ok, that was the last straw. Misaki was pretty much shocked, not only because Natsume attended the party and Tono had a giant red mark forming on his cheek, but also because if anyone dared to judge her friends, it was a different story. No one can ever critic her friends in such a bad way under her watch, not even her own parents.

Misaki sighed heavily and said, trying hard to maintain the euphemism in her words, "Mom, dad, if you have anything else to share, feel free. But if you don't, the door's open, right there, just for you." She glowered at them coldly, hoping to signal them to leave anytime now. Then, just like that, they gave a disapproving look at her and walked out the door, much to the surprise of most of the party guests.

Her friends were sort of like her REAL family now, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Not even those hypocrites.

[Three-thirty AM]

"Thank you so much for helping me clean up!" Misaki huffed in exhaustion, sitting down on the couch.

"Anything for you Misaki-senpai!" Mikan chimed.

"Three in the morning and you're still THIS energetic. Goodness, when will you ever die down?" Hotaru rolled her eyes.

Misaki laughed, "I think the apartment's clean enough. You can go home now. Sorry for keeping you." She weakly smiled.

"Nah, it's ok. It was actually fun cleaning after those guys, especially the vase Mochu broke. Is it really ok?" Mikan grinned.

Misaki paused. The broken vase was actually her mother's favorite ceramic vase, but she really couldn't care less right now. "Nah, it's fine."

"We'll be going now. Good night." Hotaru grabbed her trench coat from the coat rack.

"Good night, Misaki-senpai!" Mikan exclaimed.

"Good night girls." Misaki said warmly.

Mikan closed the door behind her, then there was peace.

"TSUBASA-SENPAI!" Misaki heard Mikan squeal from the hallway.

"Hey, hey, Mikan-chan, Hotaru-chan! What's up?" Tsubasa's tired tone echoed to the room.

"Eh? Tsubasa-senpai kinda smells like women's perfume and mmppphhf…" Her voice was obviously muffled by something.

That jerk… Misaki gritted her teeth furiously.

"Oi, Kage. Your hormonally-imbalanced pregnant wife's waiting for you inside."

"Geez, you make it sound so scary." Tsubasa muttered.

"Good night, Senpai!" Mikan said loudly.

"Quiet you, you'll wake the neighbors up…" Hotaru murmured.

...Some shuffling footsteps, then the sound of keys unlocking a door...

"Where have you been?" Misaki crossed her arms.

"Work. Then I's walked m'here." Tsubasa struggled to say through half-closed eyelids.

Misaki walked to her husband then took a whiff.

"Are you drunk? You look drunk. I think you're drunk. You ARE drunk." Misaki glared at her derisively.

"…And you smell like perfume too, women's perfume in fact!" She smacked his head.

"No, wait, I can explain!" Tsubasa hollered in defiance, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Explain why you suddenly thought of night clubbing on the night of the baby shower? Great!" She threw her arms up, turning her back at Tsubasa then walking to the edge of the couch to take a seat.

Tsubasa opened his mouth to argue, but was quickly cut off by Misaki who started to rant again.

"Great, great, there's something going on with my husband. He's having some sort of God-Knows-What affair right under my nose, just like what my fantastic parents theorized in the first place! And yes, Tsubasa Andou has smudged lipstick marks on his collar and cheeks, what isn't there to be happy about? Just, INCREDIBLE." She continued disdainfully, her cheeks growing redder and redder with anger.

Tsubasa swallowed, "Well… I'm sure I'm one to blame! I guess I'm so sorry, very, very sorryyy…" He irritably spoke back.

"Oh, no! I don't even think there's anything to be sorry about, my love." Misaki uttered mordantly, putting some emphasis on the word love.

"Well then, I'M SURE AS HELL THAT I SHOULD BE SORRY FOR WORKING MY ASS OFF OVERTIME, JUST SO THAT WE COULD START A NEW LIFE SOMEPLACE ELSE, huh?!"

Misaki stopped the nag that was about to escape from her lips. "I'm sorry what?!"

"You heard me. A NEW LIFE, A NEW START. Maybe, you should start listening to me more!" Tsubasa scornfully stated.

"A new life?! Isn't my salary as a preschool teacher and yours as a game programmer enough for the three of us?!" Misaki asked him in an annoyed tone.

"Hey, you know it's your fault you can't see or appreciate the things I try doing for this family!" Tsubasa yelled aggravated.

"And maybe it's you fault that my parents are practically gonna disown me from now on!"

"…"

"I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

And with that, Misaki closed the far-fetched argument and slammed the bedroom door at Tsubasa's face.

"Goodnight to you too…" He silently murmured.

And you know it's never simple, never easy

Never a clean break, no one here to save me.

Breathe - Taylor Swift

Was it hysterical? Dunno, I'm not good at writing arguements. XD R&R! I promise to finish up the story quick next time! :D Swear!