"You are most beautiful, my love." His voice whispered into her ear.
Yuriko shivered in a preintellectual state, still deep into the silent and undisturbed nothingness of her busy and late night. The lips that blew that breath were warm as they brushed against the burning helix, coaxing her as she woke from her hazy sleep.
Her lawfully-wedded husband's head now rested just short of her neck, rather than directly behind it, a breath of air fanning onto the supple skin as Junichi laughed at her uplift of facial expression, just from hearing him again. It was cool, his breath, chilling, and cautioning to every tingling hair on her body, but somehow comforting in all that way. It was that voice that made every bit of her entranced, happy in a way she is not quite sure the human body should be able to process.
It woke her every morning it could, whenever a meeting did not take him out of the bed much too early for his comfort. It shared every laugh and every cry, it made promises of the future soon to be filled and it spoke promises of love like it was the only thing made for it to do. It read stories to their children in the back depths of the libraries and it lulled all of them to sleep at night.
His kiss was smeared into her neck after he spoke, damp and cool and soft. Just so like the pillows the servants had made sure of exchanging every few hours, fluffed with tender care. Featherlight, and smooth like the velvet coverings because, as the master of the household insisted, the lady cared far too much of the health of her hair, one now under his head too, upon his arrival late into the moons showing.
Her body, now curled comfortably underneath a sheer white sheet instead of nothing but her nightdress. Because, only he knew, that if even in the event of suffering a blinding heatstroke, she would have preferred the heftiest blanket available in the household than nothing at all. So, he asked for one to be brought in as he undid his tie, removing all articles of clothing, changing into night attire, and crawling into bed with her, her seemingly endless bodily heat being just enough for him.
Alas, Yuriko is not in a heat stroke, and heaven forbid that it would strike her at a moment like this. Simply fallen ill with a slight fever was exactly what caused him to make haste on his trip to Yokohama to handle business, and come back on the same leg to Tokyo, where she and the children reside.
She, the children, and the just ready to pop out baby forming the bump in her stomach, his arm wrapping around her front side so that the palm of his hand pressed nicely into the formation.
Whether it was over or underneath the sheet along with her, was no concern to her mind and eyes that could barely crack open with the sun jabbing at them through the curtain covering the window, only joy. Joy that Junichi was here now, and that she is not alone, riddled, overcome with both the fever and nausea and sickness that had arrived in a month's time after she had found she was with child.
It took them both by surprise, how quickly it was she had needed to be relieved of her household duties and as his arm weight at parties, something that the woman noted with a deal of regret. As of recently, she is always retiring to her bedroom plenty of hours earlier than normal with every passing day and not attending to break her fast with everyone else without him, a maid or all three of her children at both of her sides and behind, helping her down the stairs all the way there.
Opting out of every single bit of that foolish leisure that she used to judge her mother so heavily for indulging, what once was the highlight of her days spent treated as though being pregnant rendered her unable to do anything by herself.
Not to mention her nocturne activities with her husband. Junichi was exceptionally competitive and she refused winning a game with outside help, so she would have to do it alone. Now, she is only exhausted by the mere thought of it.
Her other pregnancies were nothing like this, a mystery as to how she would throw up only once or twice every month and barely feel fatigued for too long, and illness would be so foreign, as though the babies growing inside her only offered divine protection from diseases.
And it all caught up to her at once, throwing her into a great fog of being hot, queasy, cranky, easily irritated, sleepy all the time, and breast so tender it hurt some to have proper clothes on. Constant backaches forcing her to bedrest, unresolvable wants for specific foods even out of Junichi's reach, an aggravating fever that appeared right out of the air like magic, and everything in between.
Still clouded by that fog, choking up on it and weaving rasp into her voice, she opened her mouth to respond to him, "You flatter me, truly, but right now I am only unbelievably sick and looking like death warmed over. You should not be this close to me."
Neither of them made a motion to move from their spots as Yuriko mumbled out the insincere words. It had been too long. Too long since her words were spoken out directed to him, and he was allowed to relish in the natural quirk of her lips as she did. Allowed to hear and feel nothing but the rise and fall of the others chest, sing songs and chirps of red kites and ravens swooping through the sky, and the tree leaves, causing friction as they brushed against each other every now and again.
Oh, and the smell, carried by the light wind, enough to make her teeth react before they had even the chance to puncture into the French delicacy, beignets. Better fit for an afternoon or even just once a week consumption for the amount of powdered sugar she has enjoyed with them since she was a girl.
Her children had, unfortunately, followed in her footsteps. The sound of three sets of feet padding through the house and creaky floor boards, increasing in speed once the cooks had spotted them attempting to steal one or two of the pastries. The other reason, of course, that he had only further attached himself to her, positioning his face into the view of her half-lidded eyes and face just so dulled of its warming colour. He was her husband, devoted in not abandoning her in her time of weekend health.
As she mustered up the biggest smile that she could, showing every white in her mouth, Junichi could do but nothing but sigh. His little lady shines as though God had plucked her from heaven and placed her into his arms himself.
"Don't speak such things of yourself." He reprimanded, light in his tone of voice but heavy in intent. "Angels are known to be some of the more beautiful things to graze this earth."
The woman has to restrain a scoff. "Do you find me to be an angel?"
"I find you fit to be a defeasance covered in human's flesh here to trick me."
Yuriko could not avoid it this time. A laugh, a laugh he had not heard since his arrival, escaped her lungs as he accused her of such a preposterous thing.
"Well, tell that to the maid. She would not let me look in the mirror all yesterday." Her face dropped back from the clouds at the remembrance, every single help asked to cover their reflective surfaces in her presence. "She said it wasn't right for a pregnant lady to see oneself in such condition."
It was an act of misguided kindness, one that taunted her head even after she had sternly asked for a handheld mirror and finally got a look. She was sickly, yes, but again not nearly comparable to the idea she had been conjuring up in her head.
Junichi kissed her there, her head, as he saw his wife's eyes start to well up, lips smothering themselves into the vast of dampened skin, fingers reaching to tuck back in the curls that had fallen out of her wrap and staying there as he breathed in her scent.
"Well then, that maid is a liar." He spoke about the woman in revulsion, as if venom would swallow his tongue whole as it rolled off. "You are the most wondrous sight I've seen in all my life. And that has never changed, it never will."
Yuriko rolled her eyes and tried to extricate herself from his hold, feeling uncharitable about indulging him in his lovesick delusion, but the man was as insistent and brash as the day she met him the third time at her parents' home.
"Ah, ah, ah." He tusked as she started shaking her head. "I want absolutely no resistance to my flattery when I say that. Besides, your sickness is derived from your pregnancy. I find it nearly impossible to imagine it would pass on to me."
"Fine, fine, yes. Thank you, Shiba, my love, for being able to cheer me up in the worst of times." She swooned, hand over her heart and eyes soft as he smiled up at the heavens, which he considered a gift.
"I decided to take off from all of my work duties for the coming fourteen days to be more present here with you through this. And I've made it clear to everyone not to intrude, except for the maids and the children, who will probably find their way to us shortly."
"The maids or the children?
"We'll see who can beat who."
Yuriko hummed in contentment, kissing his neck and gathering up enough energy to use her arms and pull Junichi closer down to her body.
"Then let us sleep a bit more before that. I've missed being this close to you."