A Surprise
Two
Warm fingers brush errant locks of hair off her forehead.
"Hey," Jen smiles as she opens her eyes. "Are you coming to the office today?"
Ruki turns so that she's on her side, pressed against him. "I have to," She grumbles as his hands wrap around her, holding her closer. "I said I was taking the rest of yesterday off, not the rest of the week."
She misses the concern on Jen's face as he speaks. "You know, you could take the day off if you really don't feel well."
And so it starts, she thinks to herself. Jen's normally quite good at respecting her need to take care of herself and doesn't subject her to unnecessary worrying on his part, and she'd hoped recent events wouldn't change that. But maybe he's only worried because she'd spent half the night throwing up, so Ruki doesn't call him out on it just yet.
"I'm good," She tells him, making an effort to move away from his arms and sit up properly. Her vision swims for a few seconds. "Besides, I should probably save those sick days, just in case…" In case she decides to keep the baby and needs those days off for when she's too pregnant to bother with work. Ruki doesn't say this out loud; she doesn't want to get his hopes up.
"Alright then," Jen says and she wonders for a moment if he knows what she was about to say. He stands and holds out a hand, which she accepts with an eye roll but grips tightly when he pulls her to her feet and she gets hit by a wave of nausea. There's no way he doesn't notice the way she suddenly squeezes his fingers, but he does an admirable job of pretending everything's alright and waits until she lets go.
Ruki heads for the bathroom while he walks to the door. As per their routine, she'll shower while he makes breakfast and she'll do the dishes when he takes his turn in the bathroom.
"You'll be okay on your own, right?" Jen can't resist asking just as he's about to walk out of the room and Ruki smiles fondly at the way he'd blurted out the words, as if he'd been holding the question back for too long and it had just burst from his lips.
"Go make me breakfast," She orders jokingly and he smiles in relief, both at how normal she seems and at the fact that she hadn't snapped at him for asking. Ruki disappears behind the bathroom door with one last smile and he heads out of their room.
Terriermon joins him and they walk to the kitchen together, where Renamon has a pot of tea ready.
"Good morning." The fox says evenly, nodding in acknowledgement of their presence.
"Good morning!" Terriermon parrots with considerably more enthusiasm. Jen simply smiles at the taller Digimon, and then looks curiously at the pot of tea. It isn't uncommon for him and Renamon to share a pot of Chinese tea in the mornings, but the aroma wafting from the still-steaming pot doesn't match their usual preference.
"Ruki's grandmother would make her drink ginger tea when her stomach was not well." Renamon informs him.
Understanding dawns upon Jen. "You made this?"
Renamon simply nods. He leaves it at that and begins to prepare breakfast, trying not to make her uncomfortable. She and her Tamer are a lot alike sometimes, especially in the way they show how much they care rather than expressing themselves with words.
When Ruki comes down twenty minutes later, Renamon hands her a full cup and she accepts it grudgingly, complaining about the taste. But there's no hiding the grateful smile on her face, which she eventually obscures by sipping at her tea.
Breakfast is the usual quiet affair, with Terriermon and Jen too sleepy to add much to the hushed conversation Ruki and Renamon engage in. When Jen is finished, he leaves his dishes in the sink and brushes a hand past Ruki's shoulder as he walks out of the kitchen.
Terriermon lingers in his chair while Ruki gets up to wash the dishes and Renamon clears the table. There isn't much to wash; Jen had cleaned up after cooking, an attempt to make things easier for her, no doubt.
"How are you feeling?" Renamon asks quietly when she comes to stand next to her Tamer and dries the dishes Ruki hands her. She considers the question for a while, watching the water rinse away soap bubbles.
"Much better." Ruki finally says. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out yesterday," She adds. "I was just… shocked, I guess."
Her partner nods. "As we all were."
"Hey, what're you two whispering about?" Terriermon butts in, hopping down from his chair and padding over to them.
Ruki rinses off the last plate and hands it to Renamon before turning to the rabbit. "Nothing much." She smiles at the sight of Terriermon struggling to contain a yawn. "Are you coming with us today?"
Terriermon nods. "I was promised cake." He says solemnly. Ruki gives him a questioning look. "It's someone's birthday, I think. All I know is there will be cake."
"Well, you can't miss out on that, obviously." Ruki teases. She thinks she hears a chuckle but when she turns to look at Renamon, the Digimon is busy returning the now-clean dishes to where they belong.
"Hey," Terriermon pouts, crossing his short arms. "Are you teasing me?"
Ruki bends down to pat the rabbit on his head, which Terriermon narrowly avoids by dodging away at the last second, earning himself a pat on his left ear instead. "Teasing you?" Ruki gasps. "Never!"
"Yeah, right." Terriermon huffs, and this time they both catch Renamon laughing.
"What's going on here?" Jen asks warily, hesitating by the doorway. Renamon immediately snaps back to her stoic self while Terriermon jumps up on his back.
"Finally!" He exclaims loudly in Jen's ear before he jumps down to the ground and runs out of the kitchen. "Let's go!" The rabbit calls from outside, where he's waiting by the front door. "Caaaaake!"
Jen shoots Ruki a mystified look. "Apparently it's someone's birthday." She shrugs as they walk out to the living room, where she picks up her jacket and bag.
"He has a serious sugar problem." Jen sighs as Renamon opens the front door and Terriermon rushes out to push the button for the lift. He locks the door behind him and Ruki waits while Renamon goes ahead to subdue Terriermon.
"Imagine dealing with a kid like that." Ruki quips absent-mindedly, only to freeze in place when she realizes what she's said.
There's a beat of silence while Jen stores the keys in his pocket, and then a fake shudder. "Terriermon's bad enough as it is." He jokes, and Ruki tries to hide her relief at the way he'd handled that by swatting his arm.
"Don't let him hear that," She orders. "Or we'll all have to deal with his pouting and grumbling in the car."
The lift arrives and the Digimon enter first.
"Beats him shouting caaaaake the whole way to the office." Jen shrugs just before they join their Digimon. Terriermon jabs repeatedly at the button for the garage, and finally Jen picks him up and pins his hands to his sides while the rabbit squirms and demands to be let down.
"If you're this hyper without cake, maybe you shouldn't have any at all." Ruki comments idly, a subtle threat.
Terriermon quiets down immediately.
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Renamon appears half an hour before lunch, back from whatever she was doing while Ruki juggled reports, incoming proposals and pre-meeting preparations.
"You're supposed to meet Juri for lunch today." She reminds her Tamer, who brightens up immediately.
"We're leaving right now." Ruki decides, gathering her things. "I can't spend another minute looking over these reports."
The fox stands silently by her side as she double-checks with her staff that everything's ready for their meeting this afternoon and delegates some paperwork to her assistant.
On their way out, she gets a call from Jen.
"Hey, you're having lunch with Juri, right?"
"Yeah, do you want me to get you anything?" She asks, pointing out to Renamon that they should turn left as they walk out of the building. It's still early and the weather is a bit cold for spring, just the way she likes it, so she decides to walk to the restaurant.
"No, thanks. I was just checking."
Ruki sighs, but doesn't put more effort into expressing her annoyance. "Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously." Jen says, and she can almost picture him sheepishly running a hand through his hair while avoiding her eyes. "I'm sorry; it's just… you know how you get sometimes, and I was afraid you were going to work through lunch to get ready for later."
"Well, you can stop worrying about that." Ruki says with no trace of her previous ire. "I just left the office half an hour before lunch to get away from work."
"It's not going to be that bad."
"You won't be saying that later." Ruki challenges. She's been to more of these things than he has, though they frequently hold meetings together.
Ruki's informal title is The Guardian, though officially she heads up a department that deals with negotiations and partnerships. It's a new department, and before this she'd been the only one in it. After all the fuss over the Digital World had settled down, various third parties and even government agencies had rushed over, looking to partner with Hypnos. Most of them had plans to take advantage of the Digital World – tourist spot, exclusive real estate, theme park.
But some of them, mostly independent think tanks, have brilliant ideas that could solve the very real problems humanity faces. A group of scientists are interested in the way data can be manifested physically in the Real World, and wonder if the science could be applied to, say, human organs. If someone could figure out the right codes for vital organs, perhaps they could be developed virtually and then Realized in the human world, thus providing a solution to the shortage of human donors. Another group aims to program solar panels into the Digital World, manipulate the codes so that the panels would be fully charged, and then transfer that energy into the Real World.
In the beginning though, such ideas had been lost in a sea of exploitative, profit-orientated business proposals, and so Yamaki had seen the need to form a team tasked with looking over these ideas. He'd recruited Ruki fresh out of college, knowing that the safety of the Digital World would be her number one priority and she would never approve any sort of proposal that might put the world and its inhabitants in harm's way. Renamon's extensive knowledge of her home world is an added bonus, because she can easily tell if an idea has any potential or if it is too far-fetched to work. If the idea is approved by both Ruki and Renamon, it's forwarded to R&D, two floors down, where Jen, his father and the other creators of Digimon research the idea and put together a brief report on whether or not it's viable and worth the effort. After all of that, a meeting is arranged between Hypnos and the third party, where they discuss specifics and draw up plans and timelines.
Needless to say, such a big effort and collaboration between three parties can sometimes turn into a never-ending meeting, and if the outside party feels they're not getting what they want, that meeting can turn into the mother of all headaches.
"I think these guys will be okay." Jen tells her, somewhat hesitantly. He doesn't sound very convincing. They're meeting with a group that deals primarily with clean energy. It's the fourth such group they've held talks with; the first three hadn't quite worked out.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Ruki says as the restaurant comes into sight. "Are you sure you don't want me to bring anything back to the office?"
"We're good here. Turns out it really is someone's birthday, and he's called for food to be delivered here."
"Well, what do you know?" Ruki grins. "That rabbit of yours was right after all."
Jen laughs, and it nearly blocks out the sudden increase of background chatter. "Food's here." He announces, though she's figured it out on her own.
"And I've just reached the restaurant. I'll see you later, I guess." She spies Juri in their usual booth, and Culumon is perched atop one of the ridiculously tall decorative vases the restaurant features, looking like he's about to be swallowed whole by the huge flower arrangement. The small Digimon's ears extend in delight as soon as they enter, and he floats towards them, landing on Ruki's shoulder.
"See you later. Say hi to Juri for me." She vaguely registers Jen's voice as Culumon wraps one ear around her arm.
"Ruki!" He squeals, cuddling into her. She's still mystified by the Digimon's fondness of her. Officially, Juri is Culumon's designated care provider, and she does a good job of keeping the little thing safe and fed. But Culumon can be found floating outside Ruki's window just as often as he is in Juri's house.
"I will," Ruki promises. "I've got to go now; Culumon might accidentally suffocate me."
"Say hi to the little guy, too." Jen laughs. "Bye, Ruki."
"Bye." She hangs up, pocketing her phone before she pulls Culumon away from her shoulder and holds him in front of her.
"You're a friendly little thing, aren't you?" She questions rhetorically. Culumon tilts his head to the right and emits a tiny, questioning sound.
"Friendly!" He finally parrots before squirming free of Ruki's hold to land on Renamon's shoulder instead. She leaves the bundle of energy to Renamon; the fox can handle herself. Ruki turns her attention to Juri instead, who's just spotted her and stands up to give her a hug as she nears the table.
"Hi!" Juri nearly squeals before taking a seat. "I got us the usual."
"Oh, good." Ruki smiles as she sits down. "I'm starving." A waiter comes by and sets down four glasses of water, and assures them their food will arrive momentarily.
Juri rambles on and on, updating her on everyone's life. Takato has a new anime coming out, Guilmon is doing voice-overs, Hirokazu and Kenta finally got over their pride and agreed to work for Takato…
"So, how are you? And Jen?" Juri tacks on with a sly smile.
"We're good," She says and wonders when she started saying we're good instead of I'm okay and he's alright, or going even further back, I'm okay and why would you ask me about him? "Jen says hi."
"Oh, say hi to him too." Juri smiles when she realizes her tight-lipped friend has nothing else to add. "And you, Renamon?"
"I am well." The fox says while Culumon flies circles around her head. "Thank you."
"Alright, then…" Juri flounders for a way to jump-start their conversation, and smiles in relief when their food arrives. The waitress is new and mixes up their orders, so it takes a minute for them to trade plates and dig in. In between bites, Ruki pauses.
"By the way," She says, scooping up a spoonful of food. "I'm pregnant."
Juri almost chokes.
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The meeting runs late and they don't get home until seven.
"I think that went well." Ruki decides as they clean up after dinner. It's just the two of them; the Digimon have left for their nightly meeting with the others. Impmon and Guilmon frequently hang out in the park at night, and Terriermon likes to join them when he can. Renamon tags along and claims to be their chaperone, but she gets into as much mischief as the rest, and there's always Culumon, flying about and coming up with new games. For the most part though, it's just playful hand-to-hand training and some target shooting, so that they can burn up some of their excess energy. Impmon has long abandoned his mean pranks.
Jen brings over the last of the used dishes and nudges her out of the way, taking over washing duty. She picks up a dishcloth and gets to work on the few she's already rinsed off.
"Better than the last three, that's for sure." Jen agrees. "And my father thinks they've done their homework more than the others. Everyone's hoping this works out."
"On my end, too. The department's been sifting through proposals for three years now but we haven't actually had a single successful partnership. Yamaki says the benefactors are getting a bit antsy, demanding something they can spin into positive PR for the public." Ruki says, accepting a clean plate from Jen.
He sighs. "I know it's better for Hypnos to be funded by individuals rather than any government, but it all seems so ridiculous sometimes. Did you know Takato's in talks to do another Digimon series in partnership with Hypnos? They want higher public approval numbers or something."
"Good for the kid." Ruki shrugs. "Juri says Hirokazu and Kenta are finally working for him."
Done with the washing, Jen picks up another cloth and helps her dry the remaining dishes. "Is that all she said?" He asks casually, deliberately avoiding eye contact.
Ruki knows what he's getting at. She hasn't said anything, but Jen probably guessed that she'd tell her closest friend. And he guessed correctly.
"Juri thinks we're more prepared for this than most people." Ruki repeats what her friend had said after the last of her coughs had subsided and she'd thoroughly chastised Ruki for dropping such a bomb on her while she was eating. "We're twenty-four, we've got stable jobs…"
She's quiet for a long while, and eventually they drift into the living room and end up on the couch, with her curled up and leaning into him while he flicks through the channels.
Jen wraps one arm around her, his fingers splayed over her side. They twitch, occasionally, and Ruki thinks it's because he's itching to move his fingers forward just a bit, to rest on her stomach. She wants to let him, wants to pull his hand over so that it frames her stomach, and lace their fingers together so that they're both cradling the baby.
Instead, Ruki rests her head on his shoulder.
"I need more time." She whispers, closing her eyes. "Just a little bit." Jen pulls her closer with the hand wrapped around her waist, his fingers still resting so close to her stomach.
He drops a kiss on her temple. "I'll wait."
There might have been too much rambling in this chapter. I went off-topic no less than three times, I think. Sorry about that.
I was beginning to think no one's actually reading this (and was strangely resigned to keep writing for an audience of zero anyway, because I can't help all these feels!) but then NeoDarklight and lesmystiquestar swooped in and left wonderfully encouraging reviews on AO3 and ff, so shout-out to you two! Thanks for making this feel a little less like a crazed, half-mad effort to exorcise all of my shipper feels in a rambling story no one wants to read. And thanks to everyone else, if there is anyone else. It's okay to lurk, I appreciate you just reading this. But I wouldn't mind hearing from you guys…
Happy Halloween!
E Salvatore,
October 2014.