Epilogue 7: Rest Day (Emi POV)

"You're sure you two are up for this?"

"Yes, dear, we are quite capable. You do remember Sho is a nurse who works with children, right?"

I sigh, "You're right. I'm just nervous about leaving her for the first time."

My mother hugs me, "I know it's hard. But you get to have a nice night with your husband, you deserve it."

"You're right. Thanks a lot mom."

My mother is at our place to pick up Kayoko, who is currently snoozing in her car seat which is sitting on the floor. For the first time in the three months since we adopted her, she isn't going to be staying the night in the same place as us.

Tonight is Aoki's event in the Paralympics, and Hisao and I decided to turn it into a little date night. We're going to get some take out and stay up late to watch it. We weren't planning on having my mom take Kayoko for the night, but as soon as she heard about our plans, she swooped in. I appreciate it, but it is hard letting her go.

"It's no problem." She picks up the car seat, and speaks to the sleeping Kayoko, "We're going to have a nice night at grandma's, aren't we?"

I bend down and kiss Kayoko on the head, "Have fun with Grandma. I love you."

"Okay. Call us if there are any problems, okay?"

"We will. You and Hisao have a good night together, okay? There won't be any baby in the house tonight. Just relax and enjoy each other." She winks at me.

I guess it's kind of nice my mom wants to make sure my sex life is doing okay in the aftermath of adopting Kayoko, but she doesn't have to be so creepy about it, does she? I could have done without the wink and the suggestive tone of voice.

"Yes mom, we will. Thank you for all your help. Drive safe on the way home!"

"I will sweetie. See you tomorrow."

I close the door and try to relax. Kayoko isn't here which should be relaxing, but I've gotten so used to her. I miss her already. But my mom and Sho will do a good job, and I do really think Hisao and I could really use a night together.

My mom isn't wrong that our sex life has suffered some since our daughter came along, as we sort of predicted it would. We have a lot less time and a lot less energy to spend on one another now.

It isn't like we're never intimate. I think as far as new parents go, our sex lives are actually pretty active. We've done things for one another several times, but we've only had actual sex twice in the last three months. And both of those times were quickies, which is nice and all, but not how we normally like to do things. Kayoko being out of the house until tomorrow does give us an opportunity. I'm going to need to get some rest first though.

Let's see, it is a little after 3. Hisao probably won't be home until 6. I have time for a nap, then I can clean up a bit and take a bath. While I'm a little anxious about Kayoko not being here, I think knowing she isn't will probably also allow me to sleep a little more deeply than I have been lately.

I get in bed and my eyes start to feel heavy almost immediately.

…

"Hey sleepyhead."

"Mmn...?"

I wake up to Hisao's voice and the feeling of him holding me from behind. It is one of the best feelings in the world.

Oh. Hisao's home. Shit.

I roll over to face him and give him a bashful smile. "Hey, I meant to take a little nap…guess it wasn't so little, huh?"

He kisses me. "You probably needed it. When's the last time you napped for so long? I mean, how many times have you slept three hours straight in the last three months at all?"

"A handful of times probably." I yawn. "But…I wanted to take a bath and pick up a little before you got home."

"Well, I took the liberty of picking up before I got into bed with you, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Okay that's good. Now I'm trying to decide if I have the energy to bathe."

He laughs and brushes my messy hair out of my face and looks me in my eyes. "Well, as I've told you before, you look amazing even when disheveled, so if you were taking one on my account, you don't really need to."

Looking in his eyes I can see he really believes what he says, which after all this time still makes me blush.

"Hmmm. What time is it?"

"About 6:30."

"And when is Aoki's event?"

"Not until 10."

"Oh, good, then we have plenty of time."

I notice a subtle shift in his face that tells me he knows exactly what I mean, but he still asks, "Time for what?"

I giggle and put my arms around him and whisper in his ear. "I really need you inside of me, Hisao."

He responds by wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly against his body while we kiss passionately.

I was only sleeping in underwear and a shirt, and now I notice he is only wearing a shirt and his boxers, so we can immediately feel every bit of our bodies against each other. Before long he gets on top of me and takes off his shirt, before removing mine.

He kisses me and begins grinding himself against me causing me to moan softly. He is already entirely erect. Now, this part of him is confirming what his eyes and words told me earlier. Even when I've just gotten out of bed and I haven't bathed he wants me this desperately. He really does make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. And I love it.

As he continues to grind himself against me, I notice that he is no longer contained by his boxers. I let out a sound that is part giggle and part moan, causing him to pause.

"What was that about?"

I reach down and wrap my hand around him and start stroking softly. "This just popped out of your boxers. It reminded me of the first time you stayed the night with me. Remember?"

He smiles and gasps softly at my touch, "Of…course I do."

I put a hand on his cheek and look up at him while I continue to stroke him.

"I know I usually only get emotional after, but I was just thinking how happy I am that that night led to this wonderful life we have together. I'm your wife. We have a daughter. It's just…it's perfect. I love you, Hisao."

He smiles down at me while continuing to enjoy the pleasure I'm giving him. "I love you too, Emi. So much."

He kisses me and then reaches down to rub me through my panties, causing me to moan. Then, he reaches under them and rubs me softly for a few minutes before sliding one of his fingers inside of me and moving it around causing my loudest moan of the night. After doing this for a bit, he gets a grin on his face that is both lewd and mischievous.

"This is what you meant when you said you needed me inside of you, right?"

"Ahhn…this does…feel really…good. But you…know what I mean, you know I want this." I squeeze him for emphasis.

He laughs softly before removing his fingers and sliding off my panties and his boxers. "Okay, then that's what I will give you."

His words have me writhing in anticipation. He gets in a seated position and pulls me up off my back before lifting me slightly so that I am sitting in his lap. I wrap my legs around him and adjust my position so that I can slowly lower myself onto him as we both moan and sigh in anticipation.

Once he's all the way in, we tightly wrap our arms around each other and kiss passionately while I move my hips up and down and he thrusts his hips up. This is our favorite position. Making love while we can embrace each other completely and kiss at the same time is one of our favorite things, and it has been a long time since we did it last. Too long.

We continue like this for some time, never releasing one another from our arms or breaking our kiss. That is, until I start to get close enough that I can no longer keep my mouth on his because the pleasure is too great. When he notices this, he starts kissing my neck and collarbone and grabs hold of my hips. He moves me up and down much faster than I would ever be able to under my own power. I can also tell from the sounds he's making that he is close too. It's enough to push me over the edge. I squeeze him as tight as I can before letting out a series of rapid-fire moans that coincide with tremors that are traveling from my groin throughout the rest of my body. In the midst of my orgasm, he pulls me down hard, making himself go as deep inside me as possible before finishing inside of me while moaning my name. I moan his back in response, as his orgasm seems to spur mine on.

Then, we stay in position holding each other and kissing softly. It feels so nice to be this close to him. We then lie back down, and he holds me from behind.

After silently basking in the aftermath of our lovemaking for a while, Hisao says, "So, should grandma take Kayoko one night a week?"

I giggle. "We'll see how tonight goes at their house. But yes, tonight at our house is off to a very good start. I missed this. You know, having both the energy and time to really take it slow and cherish every minute of it."

He squeezes me in response, "Me too. I like cherishing this body of yours as much as I can."

I playfully elbow him, "I know I'm smokin' hot and amazing in bed, but that was not the kind of response I was looking for."

He laughs, "You know I'm not just in this for your body. I love taking it slow too. It feels much more intimate. And…it just feels better honestly. More like 'making love' than just ''having sex' I guess. That position really does feel like we've become one. More than any other."

"That's better." I laugh. "Hey, what time is it now?"

"A little after 8. We should probably order some food and make sure we can get the Paralympics stream going. I think there are supposed to be more track and field events we could watch to warm ourselves up."

"Okay, you take care of those things. I do think I'm going to take that bath now." I turn around and kiss him. "For some reason I'm all sweaty now."

He laughs, "Okay. I guess I will take a quick shower later." He grabs me and puts his hands on my lower back. "Or I could just come take a bath with you right now. Who needs food, right?"

I giggle, "That could be nice, but we would be cutting things very close, and I would never forgive you if I ended up missing Aoki at the Paralympics, no matter how incredible the sex is. I'm also starving after what we just did."

He playfully scoffs, "Fine, fine. Be practical and responsible. I see how it is." He kisses me and releases me from his grip with a smile. "Have a nice bath, okay? Take your time. I'll go take care of the rest."

…

When I get out of the bath, I see Hisao has ordered my favorite thing from our usual place and the Paralympics track and field events are on the TV.

"You got it working?"

"Yep. They are doing the 200-meter now. How was your bath?"

"Good. I feel very relaxed. Most relaxed I've felt in a while, really."

"Great. I got an update from Meiko and everything is going well there too. She had a good afternoon and they got Kayoko to bed with no problems."

I breathe a sigh of relief. While I did already feel relaxed, that was really the last thing that was weighing on my mind. Now that I know everything is going well, I feel even more relaxed. Of course, that's only going to last until a little before Aoki runs, but I'll take it.

Hisao gets up and hugs me, "I'm relieved too. It will be great if everything goes well with her staying the night there. Shall we eat and watch some sprints?"

I nod and we sit down on the couch with our food and watch TV. After I scarf down my food, I start to get a little envious watching athletes sprinting on blades at such a big, important event. I was always the fastest at Yamaku, but that's mostly just because I worked my ass off. I was always way too small to compete at this high of a level. But at least I have a former student who is there. I can live vicariously through him.

Hisao finishes eating and then scoots over to me and puts his arm around me. I lean into his chest.

"How are you feeling about Aoki's chances?"

"Pretty good. I know I'm going to get a little crazy when he's actually running, but I kind of feel like he already did something this amazing, so I'm not too anxious. And I won't be too disappointed if he doesn't get a medal. He does have a reasonable shot at it, though. His times have gotten even better since he graduated."

Hisao nods, "Yeah, it's amazing he's even there. Have you heard from him lately?"

Aoki hasn't really stayed in touch since he graduated. It hurt my feelings at first. I spent three years with the kid mentoring him and teaching him how to run. I thought we had really bonded. But he almost never initiates contact and doesn't usually respond if I do. Then I remembered how awful I was at keeping in contact with people at his age. It helped some. It still bothers me a little though.

"Not really. He sent me that nice text when we adopted Kayoko, but nothing since then. We've interacted with each other's posts on social media, but that hardly counts."

"Yeah, that does seem to happen when they graduate, doesn't it? I'm sure he still really appreciates everything you did for him and thinks about you a lot. It's kind of like how I didn't speak a word to Sho after I graduated even though I really appreciated everything he did. It took meeting him again 16 years later for me to actually tell him that."

I nod, "Yeah, at least he did tell me how much he appreciated me when he was still here, unlike you with Sho."

He scoffs at me. "Yeah, yeah. I should have told him, but I was a little distracted the last few months of the semester, okay? I was having surgery and getting married right after graduation, not to mention moving to Tokyo and trying to get into a cram school. It was a crazy time."

I pat him on the shoulder, "I know, I'm just teasing you. I can't imagine the stress you were under during that time. But you're right. When we're that young we don't really stop and think about that sort of thing."

"This is the 600-meter final right? It's almost time."

I start to get butterflies in my stomach and feel the need to move.

I take a deep breath. "Okay. I can't sit anymore." I stand up and start walking back and forth in front of the TV.

Hisao laughs, "I figured as much. Let me know if you want to try and break my hand later."

I laugh and look at him bashfully, "I'm honestly less anxious about this than I was the qualifiers. I don't think I will squeeze as hard."

Aoki finishes in first in his first two heats, and it wasn't particularly dramatic. He has really improved his mechanics for getting upright, so he started out ahead and never was in danger of losing his position.

"Let's hope he keeps this up in the final. Maybe my hand will escape the night unscathed."

I playfully glare at Hisao. "You know if he doesn't medal now, it's your fault right?"

"Yes, I'm sure concern for my hand from thousands of miles away will have a big impact here."

I stick my tongue out at him.

"I um…will be needing your hand for this one."

Hisao gives me his hand. The runners are lining up. The gun is fired and I squeeze Hisao's hand. Aoki unfortunately looks a little more like his old self here, and doesn't reach full speed as quickly, so he is in the middle of the pack. I squeeze Hisao's hand tighter. It's the last 200 meters and he is still in sixth. I squeeze Hisao's hand tighter. Aoki unleashes everything he has left and has a burst of speed. He passes one runner. I squeeze Hisao's hand tighter. He passes another. I squeeze Hisao's hand tighter. He passes another. He's going to medal now if he can just hold on. He's gaining on the runner in front of him. Just as they reach the finish line, he manages to inch past him. I let go of Hisao's hand and barely notice that he is wincing and shaking it.

I stand there with a huge smile on my face, amazed to see the name "Aoki" on the TV in the second-place position with a tiny silver medal next to it. I feel a little like I'm in shock.

Hisao is apparently surprised at how reserved I am and is looking back and forth from me to the TV with a confused look on his face.

"Emi? He's going to get the silver medal, right? Am I missing something?"

"No, you're right. He did it. He actually did it."

"THAT'S AMAZING!"

I turn to him and smile, "It really is. I'm so happy for him."

Hisao's face returns to one of confusion. "I'm…um, a little surprised that you aren't more emotional. It feels like I'm the more excited one right now."

Before I can respond, I'm distracted by the TV. After it is clear which three runners will be on the podium, the Japanese broadcast quickly interviews Aoki on the track.

"Congratulations on winning the silver medal today, how does it feel?"

He looks absolutely elated. He was never someone who smiled a lot, so I'm not sure I've ever seen him smile quite like he is right now.

"It feels…really amazing. I really want to thank my family, and my girlfriend for supporting me. But most of all I want to thank Ms. Ibarazaki, who taught me to run. I wouldn't be here…today without her."

His voice gets a little bit choked up at the end, and the moment it does I go from being completely stoic to bursting into tears. I didn't think he forgot me, but I didn't think he was going to say that.

I bury my face in Hisao's chest and cry happy tears while he holds me, "Yeah, okay. He's way better than I was at his age. It only took him like two years to thank you, so he beat me by 15. Plus, he did it on TV."

I laugh, "Yes, I *sniffle* guess he wasn't quite as selfish as young Hisao."

"He got your name wrong though, so he can't care that much, right?"

I pinch Hisao's arm prompting an "Ow!" out of him.

"This really is amazing, Emi. You did great with him."

I smile up at him, "Thanks. It makes me kind of miss it."

"Miss what? Track club?"

"Yeah."

He nods, "I'm sure it's hard giving that up for a while. You love it."

I smile, "I do. But I love Kayoko more, so it's okay."

Hisao furrows his brow for a moment. "You know, we can probably find a way to get you back to track club next trimester or something, now that we have gotten used to being parents."

"How?"

"Well, if we plan the schedules out for science club and track club so that the days we are there aren't the same, it would work. That way, on track club days I could come home from teaching and be here with Kayoko and then you could go."

"Are you sure? Won't you be tired after working all day?"

He scoffs, "Not any more tired than you are after being with Kayoko all day."

He's right. Here I was thinking very rigidly that I had to choose between Kayoko and my Yamaku duties for a while. Working my day-job isn't doable, but continuing to be the track club teacher is. Especially now that we've gotten used to things.

I give Hisao a squeeze and smile up at him. "That's a really good idea. I would like that a lot."

Hisao pats my head, "Good, let's plan on that then."

I look up at him, and he meets my eyes. "Hey, you know what I just realized?"

"What's that?"

"Without Kayoko here, we can actually run together in the morning." I giggle. "That might actually be better than the whole sex thing."

Since the day we adopted Kayoko, we have only run together a few times, and only then when my mother has been here to stay with her. When it's just the two of us, we have to run separately so someone can be at the house with her.

He laughs, "You're probably only partially kidding when you say that. But I agree, that will be really nice. I do miss watching you run."

I put my arms around his neck and pull him down for a kiss. "I bet you do."