NO REST for the WICKED
Chapter Seven: Wifey Material
By Indicaa, inspired by the will to raise a child through thick and thin, heaven and hell, and everything in between.
"You're watching as the world comes down, you wonder why you don't want out! I promise I can change, I promise I can change, just wait until the night is over. Your eyes are glassing over!"
"Stay Now"
All Good Things
Regan sighed as she inserted the key into her loft's door and pushed it open, exhausted after a long day's work. And by long day's work she meant a long day of watching others do the work she was too lazy to do and had the newbies do it instead.
It was a win-win situation for her, though. They gained the extra experience and she didn't even have to lift a finger unless someone got their fingers caught in a rotating engine or something just as bad or worse. That would've been troublesome.
Upon entering the complex, however, Regan paused. Something was amiss.
Her statuesque form stiffened as a rather peculiar aroma wafted past her nostrils. She took a deep breath, her mouth watering as the scent slithered down her airways. It was like inhaling the delicious aroma of the sweetest ambrosia.
What sorcery is this?
"Natsuki?" Regan asked timidly, briefly wondering if she had mistakenly wandered into another apartment. But it didn't explain how she got in with her key, and looking around the familiar setting she confirmed that she was in fact in her own apartment.
There were unfamiliar sounds coming from the kitchen, also the location in which the mouthwatering scents were coming from. She tossed her bag on the couch and lifted her sweater over her head, draping it along the back of the loveseat, leaving her in a dark long-sleeved cotton shirt.
The stairs creaked slightly, indicating that someone was making their descent from the second floor. "Natsuki?" She scoffed as the young woman fixed her with a curious look when she reached the final stair.
"Heh, I knew it was too good to be true," The kid said, "You in the kitchen, cooking. One could only dream."
"I could say the same for you." Her father replied with a severe eye roll. "If I'm here and you're there, and we both know that Nao would burst into flames upon even setting foot in there, then who's in the kitchen?"
Natsuki had a few ideas that might've been the reason behind a certain brunette's mysterious disappearance. She beckoned her father over and together they made their way to the formerly neglected kitchen.
True enough, Shizuru was reason behind all of the glorious scents wafting throughout the house. She's standing over the counter with a knife in one hand and a salt and pepper shaker in the other, simultaneously chopping and seasoning the meat all the while keeping a close eye on the various pots and pans on the stove.
"Bruh," Natsuki uttered breathlessly, leaning against the wall for support. It was by far the most beautiful sight she'd ever had the pleasure of seeing. Well, next to a hot and sweaty and naked Shizuru writhing beneath her, but she decided to keep that to herself.
Hearing the breathless utterance, the tawny-haired girl's head whipped around, sending fine locks of honey and silk fluttering around her shoulders. "Ara, good afternoon, Natsuki. I hope you slept well."
She then looked at the girl's father and flashed her a stunning white smile. "Ara and good afternoon to you as well, Kruger-san. I hope you don't mind me using your kitchen."
Regan glanced at her daughter, who was staring at Shizuru with a goofy, lovesick smile and coughed into her hand. "Oh baby girl don't even worry about it. And it's just Regan remember?"
Shizuru smiled warmly. "Ara, of course. The food will be ready momentarily. The meat will only take a few minutes." And with a sultry wink, the brunette turned back to the task at hand.
Natsuki plopped on the couch and let out a dreamy sigh. Shizuru could cook from the smell of it. She was smart, gorgeous, funny, and knew how to please in more ways than one. She was total wifey material.
And she's having my kid, Natsuki thought with a fond smile.
"Please tell me you guys are dating and planning on getting married," Regan teased as she too plopped on the couch and propped her feet up on the table. "Because if that's my future daughter-in-law, please tell me now so I can kick Nao out and have her move in."
Natsuki raised an eyebrow. If her father was this persistent about keeping Shizuru around, convincing her to let her stay with them would be a piece of cake. She liked the girl, she could see it in her eyes and hear the fondness in her voice when she spoke to Shizuru or of her.
Shizuru had a way of doing that. She was extremely kind and woefully charming, and she carried herself like a queen. She was like everyone's wet dream and more. She was the kind of girl you'd want to marry, settle down and have kids, and grow old together.
Luckily for Natsuki, she already had one of those things checked off on the wifey list.
"Dinner is ready!" Shizuru shouted from the kitchen as she sautered out balancing a pair of fully loaded plates in her arms. She set one in front of Regan and the other in front of Natsuki before going back to the kitchen to retrieve her own before eventually joining them in the living room.
"Ara, I left one on the counter for Zhang-san."
"She'd better come and get it before someone else does," Regan said as she eyed the food. Steamed veggies, sticky white rice, and a mouthwatering piece of baked chicken decorated the fine tableware. "Wow, this looks amazing! Almost makes me want to take a picture and Instagram it. Almost."
Natsuki nodded in agreement as she broke apart her chopsticks and dug in after a thankful kiss to Shizuru's cheek. The food tasted as good as it smelled, and she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning aloud. Oh yeah, definite wifey material.
"This is literally the best thing I've eaten in years." Regan complimented, flashing the young woman a charmed dimpled smile.
Shizuru blushed softly. "Ara, you are too kind."
She even ate like a queen. She separated her portions, chewed with her mouth closed, and dabbed at her lips with the folded up napkin in her lap after every bite.
Regan grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
"Usually we order takeout or something and watch TV until it arrives. But you my dear have changed the fabric of reality. What do you want to watch? Natsuki and I usually just flip on it but it's your call."
"Ara, I've never watched TV really. My…" She paused briefly, "It was always seen as a distraction. I'm fine with whatever Natsuki wants to watch."
Natsuki grinned as she squeezed the girl's hand and grabbed the remote from her father. She shoved a spoonful of rice into her mouth as she browsed through the selections. "American TV shows are hilariousl. There's this one show called Ridiculousness this famous skater hosts and they make fun of all the dumb shit people on the internet do and post."
Natsuki found MTV2 and clicked on it. The screen showed a man wearing a hat and blue hoodie leaning against a monitor that resembled a laptop screen laughing his ass off along with the hysteric crowd. A dark-skinned man sitting on a red couch was seemingly operated the controls behind a little red box. He was accompanied by a petite blonde woman who's laugh inwardly grated Shizuru's insides.
Shizuru couldn't really understand what was being said so she just watched their actions and assumed there were jokes flying around. The host's face was bright red from laughter.
"I like this show!" Regan squealed with an uncharacteristic giggle. "It's funny watching stupid people get hurt. I mean seriously, the stuff they do is absolutely ridiculous."
"Hence the title." Natsuki added. "Oh look, here's my favorite segment. It's called 'Your Friend's a Dick.' Once again the title is self-exclamatory."
Shizuru watched as a drunken middle-aged man and his equally drunken friends laughed and snorted as they shoved what looked like fireworks up their sleeping friend's behind. They lit the little poppers and stepped back, boisterously guffawing as the unlucky man awoke with a pained start and frantically jumped around to alleviate the burning.
"Oh my," Shizuru gasped, bringing her hand to her lips, "Why would anyone do such a thing?"
"Yeah, dad," Natsuki said with a pointed glare, "Why would anyone do such a thing?"
Regan grinned. "Humans can be totally asinine when drunk. Or high. Or sober, actually. However, the point still stands!"
Dinner was eventually finished and Shizuru took the plates back to the kitchen and promised she would do the dishes later. Regan, however, objected and nominated Natsuki for the task as she excused herself and went about doing some configurations on her motorcycle.
"I'm full." Natsuki said as Shizuru took her usual place cuddled into her side.
"Ara, Natsuki shouldn't have eaten so much." Shizuru replied softly as she raised her hand to Natsuki's belly, giving it an affectionate pat before continuously rubbing soothing circles into her abdomen.
"But how are you though? Any morning sickness? Aches? Anything?" Natsuki asked sweetly as she brought her lips to Shizuru's head.
Shizuru was only about two and a half weeks pregnant and there weren't any significant issues other than the morning sickness, the fatigue, and the frequent trips to the restroom. But her feet had begun to ache sometime during the wee hours of the morning and had been ever since. She wasn't sure if it was the pregnancy or from the running around in a pair of heels.
"My feet hurt." She said softly.
Natsuki gently disentangled herself away from the brunette in favor of planting her behind on the coffee table in front of the couch. Her father would probably nag her later but she didn't care at the moment. She gently took Shizuru's long, flawlessly pale leg and set her foot in her lap where she began rubbing it gently.
"Natsuki doesn't have to..." Shizuru began, but Natsuki shook her head.
"I want too," She replied as she massaged the slightly swollen appendage. Shizuru watched her with an expression of complete adoration. Natsuki was incredibly sweet despite popular belief. "I used to do this to my mother all the time."
"Natsuki is sweet." Shizuru said gently, knowing the dark-haired girl's mother was a touchy subject.
"Heh, don't tell anybody." Natsuki mock-threatened as she moved on to the other foot.
This time it was Shizuru who fell asleep. Her long golden hair cascaded over the edge of the couch like waterfalls of the finest honey. Long lashes fluttered over pale cheeks buried into the crook of her elbow. Her lips were parted slightly as she breathed. Natsuki had never seen a more beautiful sight.
She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek before throwing the duvet on the back of the couch over her sleeping form. With one last fond look, Natsuki shuffled out of the living room to find her father. She was in the garage kneeling beside her beloved bike.
30 Seconds to Mars' Hurricane wafted gently from the speakers. She was wearing a pair of loose sweats and a dark shirt. Her cheeks and hands as well as the rag in her back pocket were smudged with dirt.
"Dad, it's cool if Shizuru stays with us for a while, right?"
Regan paused in her ministrations of tampering with her motorcycle to glance at her daughter. "Sure, but is there a reason why she doesn't want to be at home?"
"Her dad's a jackass." Was Natsuki's evasive yet informal reply.
Regan pursed her lips. "Fair enough, but if her old man comes looking for her, you're dealing with him. I'm not being held responsible for a kidnapping."
"Thanks, dad!" Natsuki said, grinning like a fool and looking every bit like a kid in a candy store.
"No need to thank me, kid. She's a wonderful girl and I like her a lot. If her dad can't appreciate that then he's an idiot. Besides, it'll be nice to have a woman around the house, don't you think?" Regan replied, waggling her eyebrows in a manner that disturbingly reminded Natsuki of Chie.
Natsuki rolled her eyes.
"Where's she gonna sleep?" Regan asked, though she already knew the answer. She didn't mind the girl sleeping in Natsuki's room. Natsuki wasn't stupid enough to do something… stupid, like have sex without protection! "It's cool with me."
"Oh whatever," Regan chuckled as the kid childishly rushed forward and threw her arms around her neck. She pat her daughter on her head. "Alright, alright, enough of that."
Grinning sheepishly, Natsuki released her and scurried out of the garage. Regan watched her go with a fond smile before returning to the task at hand.
"Damn kids." She laughed with a shake of her head.
/
Shizuru was still sound asleep by the time Natsuki returned, lying on her side with her cheek tucked into the crook of her elbow. She snuggled deeper into the duvet which had actually been Natsuki's blanket when she was a child.
It was royal blue and had an intricate wolf design on the front. It was warm and extremely soft, and probably smelled divine because of the frequent washes it had and the body spray it was exposed to when she or her father wrapped it around their shoulders.
Bored and strangely not in the mood for Battlefield or Dead Space, Natsuki pulled out her iphone and opened Youtube. Looking around for any wandering eyes, Natsuki typed a single word into the search bar.
Babies.
Literally thousands of suggestions came up. Cute baby Vines, babies vs. pets, babies and dogs, babies doing baby stuff, babies being dressed into ridiculously cute and humiliating outfits, babies, babies, babies, babies, babies, babies!
She scrolled through the videos and paused, her thumb hovering over one involving a woman giving birth. She cringed; the thumbnail looked absolutely insane.
Might as well, she thought, and clicked the video.
Immediately the sounds of a woman in pain blasted through the speakers and she nearly dropped her phone on the floor. Luckily, it hadn't woken Shizuru. She spotted her Beats on the table and slipped the matte blue headphones over her ears before unpausing the video again.
"Oh no, no, no," Natsuki muttered as she held her phone further away from her face, as if doing so would lessen the intensity of the image. "Natural water birth? Why would anyone…"
Natsuki winced as she caught sight of the force in which the woman's hand was clutching her husband's with. He tried to play it off but she could see the pain in his eyes, and she could practically feel and hear the bones as they were mercilessly crushed and grinded together.
"Okay, Lisa, push!" The woman beside the soon-to-be mother cried, "You can do it!"
"It feels like my uterus is being torn apart and then soaked with acid and lemon juice." The woman moaned, and Natsuki was suddenly very thankful for having been born with a penis.
"Push!"
With a mighty heave, the flustered blonde woman threw her head back and let out an agonized yowl. A little dark head appeared from between the apex of her thighs a few moments later, followed by the sound of tiny, high-pitched cries.
The other woman carefully held the baby's head as the woman continued to push. "Just a little more, Lisa, come on!"
So far, she had been much more supportive than the actual father of the child. And where was he you ask? Oh, he was passed out face-first on the deck near the pool the woman was sitting in. Natsuki snorted; what a pansy.
After a few more pushes the baby slipped out into the woman's waiting arms. "It's a girl!"
Enamored, Natsuki watched as the flustered little girl was gently settled into her mother's arms The woman sniffled as tears of joy poured down her cheeks. She cradled the precious bundle of joy in her arms and roughly shoved the heel of her foot into her husband's back to rouse him from his involuntary slumber.
"Huh, where am I?" He cried as he shot up. His dark eyes quickly darted to his wife and child, his mouth wide open and his expression utterly flabbergasted. "When did that happen!"
"When you were being useless as usual." The other woman scoffed.
"Billy, we have a daughter!" She cried as she tore her tear-stained blue eyes from the baby's to his dark ones.
He sniffled and nodded as snot and tears began to dribble down his face before getting smudged in his beard on their way down. Only when the cameraman started to zoom in on the man's disgusting display of joy did Natsuki pause the video.
Damn, I hope she chooses to have the kid in a hospital or something. I mean, I'm cool with whatever she wants, but a natural water birth is no joke. I don't even think we have a pool or anything she would sit in. I'll ask her when she wakes up.
Natsuki returned to the suggestions and watched a few more videos that didn't involve birthing. She settled on the cuter ones that consisted of little itty bitty children dominating big, otherwise ferocious dogs. One little girl had a vicious rottweiler down on his belly wagging his tail as she stacked dog treats on his nose.
After about an hour of watching little cuddly-wuddly, heartwarming, teeth-rotting fluff between babies and animals, Natsuki placed her headphones back on the table, locked her phone, and sighed.
How could anyone not want to be in such a sweet little thing's life? They're absolutely precious, with their gigantic eyes, tiny noses, and chubby faces. They looked like the adorable little plants from Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for god's sakes!
GAH! Natsuki rubbed her temples in exasperation. She was far too excited to be a father! She was too young, too inexperienced, and it would be insanely difficult caring for a child at this age! But she just couldn't help it. Just the thought of holding that little bundle of joy -her little bundle of joy no less- in her arms made her joyous beyond relief.
Nine months is a long ass time, Natsuki groaned, but it gives me time to prepare for… you know. Baby clothes too. I'm going to have to start hustling again for some extra cash. Damn it, I've got to go and buy pink clothes! GAH, pink is such a horrible color! If someone sees me buying pink baby clothes they'll never let me live it down. Especially NAO!
Argh… but if it's for my baby girl, I'll do anything. Anything. That includes pink clothes and cute little stuffed wolves…
Natsuki smiled softly, unlocked her phone, and put her headphones back on her head. She watched parenting videos until her phone eventually died two hours later.
/
Daddy!Natsuki is really life. If only she were real.