Bite me, Baby
Sorry for the slow update! Hope you all had a happy Christmas! I've got some really super news: XPockyThiefX kindly volunteered to edit my chapters before they go up, to get rid of any mistakes, so thanks so much to them!
For those who are interested, yes, this story is coming to a close, and should do within about... four chapters or so, so please keep reading until then!
Also, in case anybody wants to read a certain story, I do take requests, if I like them, and after I Love is done, I'll be starting a short KonanXHidan fic, requested by FuzzySquare (sorry it's taking so long, but I want to start once this one is finished!) if you're interested.
Hope you like this chapter, thanks again to XPockyThiefX for all their help, and happy New Year!
Keeping her eyes fixed on her headmaster's, Konan stayed seated though her fists were shaking slightly. Adrenaline was pumping through her, making her heartbeat accelerate and her palms start to sweat but she tried to repress it: she didn't want Madara to know how scared she was.
"You can't do anything to me. I don't even see why, you could just expel me!" she said, keeping her voice low and steady. Madara stepped towards her again, so that he was an easy arm's-reach away, and twirled the long knife between his gloved fingers. His smile was sickening, sugary-sweet, cruel and contemplating, but it certainly didn't reach his cold, glassy eyes that were trained so intently upon Konan.
"Well, now. You certainly are a naive little girl, aren't you?" His cold, calculated tone barely suppressed the undercurrent of smugness that reminded Konan of the stereotypical bad guy who waits in their lair, overconfident and evil, stroking a cat. "Do you know what I could do with that body of yours, pregnant or not?" He had raised the letter-opener up to the light, his expression rapturous as he examined it.
It felt like a bowling ball had dropped into Konan's stomach. He couldn't possibly... What kind of a sick person would... Her eyes were wide and her hands were clammy as she instinctively jumped out of the chair and took a step backwards.
"Now, now, don't be difficult." Madara chided, waggling a gloved finger at her and walking towards her again. Konan stepped back and hit the wall, pressed against it as Madara advanced again, the knife in his hand reflecting light ominously. He pressed one hand against the wall beside Konan and she realized with a sense of dread that he now blocked the door.
"That's a mistake." she said, far more bravely than she felt. "I can kill you now, quite easily, you know. You should just let me go and I'll spare your life."
Madara's lips twitched in a small, amused smile, making it obvious to Konan that he didn't believe her. She didn't blame him: if she were him, she probably wouldn't take a death threat from a pregnant, unarmed teenage girl seriously, especially since he had a weapon so close to her neck.
"Konan, Konan, Konan. You are a funny girl." Madara said mockingly.
Konan glared into his cold eyes, trying to arrange her features into a venomous expression but all she managed was a pout and a glare. Good enough. She spat in his face. She had been planning to make a break for it as he wiped his eyes but he didn't move the hand that was blocking her. Instead, with an expression of maniacal inhumanity, he plunged the dagger with unbelievable force and violence into the wall, barely an inch from her neck while sending a chunk of her hair fluttering to the ground.
Konan stared straight at him, having seemingly lost the ability to move or talk. She could hear a ringing sound as the handle of the letter-opener wobbled from the force of the blow, a high pitched waver layered over the frantic thudding of her heart. Keeping her paralyzed in this way, Madara seemed to take immense pleasure in wiping the saliva from his face in the slowest manner possible, making it appear like some kind of sick fetish.
"Do you understand now? You're helpless. You'll stay there and listen to me, like a good girl. Or I'll punish you. I'm going to break you, Konan. Like a wild horse."
Shocking even herself, Konan shook her head jerkily.
"You-can't-keep-me-here!" she exclaimed, her voice trembling, speaking between little gasps of air. Her eyes were glued to the silver handle of the letter-opener, buried into the wall so close to her throat. It was hypnotizing, this thing that threatened so much pain, or death.
Madara raised an eyebrow delicately and placed two fingers under Konan's chin, rotating her head so she stared at him as he put his other hand on her shoulder, pressing her painfully against the wall. His touch made sweat run down her back but it surprisingly felt good and cold against her flaming hot skin.
This thought repulsed her and she jerked her chin away but he caught it again and held it tightly, pressing in on the sides until the pain was too much and she opened it. A sickening horror filled her, knowing that if she hadn't opened her mouth, Madara would have broken her jaw.
Konan watched, horror stricken and feeling terribly nauseous as Madara reached into her mouth with his other hand.
"This right here..." Madara said, holding her tongue, stroking it. Konan was staring at him, horrified. "This has got to go." Five words and Konan almost fainted. She pressed against the wall, trying to find her feet and calm herself, but it was nigh-impossible as the man who was basically threatening to cut out her tongue was reaching into her mouth, a knife only a few inches away.
A sadistic sort of grin flashed over Madara's face and one finger stroked something at the back of her throat. As soon as her gag reflex was activated, Madara pulled away completely, the hand in her mouth gone with the one that had been holding her against the wall, and Konan collapsed onto her hands and knees, throwing up painfully onto the floor. She hadn't eaten much in the day, and bile was predominant in the puddle of sick that was spreading between her hands, occasionally splashing on her arms.
Her throat was burning and as her stomach and throat contracted, ready for the next surge of vomit, she wildly wondered why on earth she was throwing up this much- unless Madara had done something to her. Unlikely, as he'd only had about two seconds near the back of her throat but the thought still filled her with unease.
Finally, after it seemed to be over, Konan crawled away from the pool of vomit and sat back against the wall, trembling as she wiped her mouth, her sweaty hand slipping over her skin. She was shaking so badly it was almost like a sort of nervous fit and her breathing was jerky and irregular. She stared up at Madara, thinking that there couldn't possibly be anyone sicker alive in the whole world.
Madara was now watching her with a happy expression of childish cruelty, like she was an ant that he had successfully fried alive with a magnifying glass. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, avoiding the puddle of sick as he strolled towards her. He squatted before her and smiled. Konan felt so weak she could hardly raise her hand let alone try to escape, which seemed to be exactly what he'd wanted. He stood up, slid the knife out of the wall as easily as if it had been butter, then returned to Konan's eye-level, twirling it between his fingers once again.
"Tut, tut, you've gotten your daddy's precious Andromeda project pregnant. What shall I do with you?" Konan might have been more shocked at this if Madara hadn't chosen that moment to start playing a sort of game with his knife; stabbing lightly into the wall on either side of Konan's neck. Identical to the knife game where someone takes a knife and makes their way over your fingers as quickly as possible without stabbing you, only far more deadly. Konan was still shaking and sick, but now she had shut her eyes tightly and was pressing her sweating hands flat against the floor as though to brace herself for what was certainly to come.
"I wish you would look at me when I'm talking to you." Madara said in quiet annoyance, and Konan automatically snapped her eyes open staring at him with a sort of plaintive supplication, an inaudible 'please'. He seemed to take no notice. "I suppose you are ignorant of this as well, just as you are ignorant of the school rules and important matters in the real world, but your body is worth a lot of money. Did you know that?"
The knife was now thudding into the wall on either side of her throat, twice per second. She watched silently, except for a hollow sort of whine as her hair fell to the floor around her in sad-looking chunks. Her accidentally grown-out hair, which had reached a few inches down to her shoulders were now lying in blue tendrils around her. She dared not imagine what she might look like after Madara let her go, albeit very unlikely, but she was more concerned with what her throat might look like by the end of the day.
"Did you know that?"
Madara asked again, clearly expecting an answer. Konan shook her head automatically and winced, earning herself a thin cut under her chin that immediately began to drip blood down her neck. His knife seemed to have closed in, now leaving barely an inch of room between its blade and her throat. Konan didn't dare move her head any more, but followed the drips of blood with her eyes as they streamed down the slope of her chest into her shirt.
Madara seemed to be looking where she was, because he said, in an offhand sort of voice; "Oh, yes, that's in the way, isn't it? Let's watch it go all the way down." He pulled the knife out of the wall, took hold of the front of her uniform and slit it as easily as if was paper. Konan watched him, immobile, as the sweater-vest she hated so much was tossed into the puddle of vomit, in rags. The collared shirt beneath it receiving the same treatment. Madara then sliced through the middle of her bra, cutting her in the process and tossed it behind him too, the same methodical expression on his face throughout the whole operation.
Konan raised her hands slowly; the automatic urge to protect her modesty kicking in as her breasts were exposed to her headmaster but her hands instead went to her stomach, which now protruded noticeably. They both watched the little stream of blood, starting at her chin, falling in a straight little line down her throat, over her collarbones, between her breasts where it was joined by a second stream of blood from the small cut between them, and continued down, traveling towards her stomach where it met an uphill and pooled for a moment before giving up and trickling down either side of her waist.
"Yes, that is interesting. While it would be nice to kidnap and sell you, it surely would not remain a secret for a week, let alone a lifetime... However I can't just let you escape, now can I? No. You might get into trouble and then where would we be?"
Madara seemed to have delved now into a monologue and Konan listened to him, her hands rubbing her stomach. The shaking from the sickness had stopped, and now she felt that really, she ought to try to escape but there was a hypnotizing sort of calm washing over her as she stroked her stomach. An odd thought struck her, as odd thoughts kind of tend to materialize when one doesn't know what to do with oneself. It was that perhaps, despite the fact that she knew that her baby, if she lived long enough to bring it into the world, might not be quite right, considering it was essentially a sort of mutant, as she was, she was willing to do anything to protect it.
Konan closed her eyes and tried to imagine her own mother, pregnant and home alone as her father went on a business trip. Perhaps she had gone into his office and looked at some papers. Perhaps she had discovered that her daughter wasn't something made to be loved, at least not by her father. Perhaps she had discovered exactly how used she had been throughout her marriage. Surely in such a situation, she might have run away? Perhaps even aborted the baby? But she hadn't.
Had it simply been that she didn't care, or that she couldn't bring herself to not love the thing that had become her most intimate possession? The one who had shared her bed, her food, even when her husband, who had promised to love her forever, in sickness and in health, would not? Konan smiled slightly, and drew a heart on her stomach with her finger. Madara was still talking but she didn't listen.
"Look at this," she murmured, half to herself, half to the baby. "Is this unconditional love, that I don't want you to leave me even thought I don't know you yet?" Her voice was quieter than a whisper, hardly making any sound but as she framed the words with her lips, they resonated with her louder than if she'd yelled them.
"...clearly the baby would be valuable, too... as a boy or a girl. Shame about the father though"
"Why?" Konan interrupted. Madara glanced at her quickly, looking as though he'd forgotten that she was there, and then shrugged, a condescending, tight-lipped smile revealing yellowed teeth.
"You have odd tastes in men. That boy... Deva, I think is the name on his school file. Those eyes of his aren't exactly attractive, are they? They look like mutations." Konan said nothing, letting Madara continue wondering out loud what to do with her as she shifted sideways, the sight of the door locked but from the inside filled her with faint hope.
Unlikely as it was, if she could get to the door... Madara didn't even look, his arm was so fast Konan didn't see him throw anything but she certainly noticed the letter-opener suddenly embedded into the wall barely an inch above her head.
"Next time, it'll be through your eyes, little miss. Don't think I won't kill you. You're just as invaluable dead as alive." he warned her, his tone icy. Konan could scarcely hear him over her heartbeat. She was sweating from fear and shifted slightly to look at the knife. What she saw made her jaw drop. Although the walls of the study were pure mahogany, probably backed up by a layer of cement afterwards, the dagger, whose blade had to be about seven inches, was embedded to the hilt.
Konan returned her gaze, full of awe and terror, to Madara, who had finished talking and was now looking at her curiously, his fingers drumming on his knees as his eyes flicked over her body. It wasn't a lustful gaze at all, Konan noticed, realizing that she really had no reason to fear Madara raping her or anything like that because he just didn't seem interested, despite the fact that she was well and truly helpless and topless, essentially at his mercy. He merely looked at her the way one might look at the cover of an interesting book.
"What to do with you? Where should I put you?" he asked then smiled at her, as though he'd just asked her what she wanted for Christmas.
"Do you really just want money? From... from selling me? Or... or is there another reason?" Konan had no idea where she'd found her voice, or why she'd decided to ask such a trivial question when she could be nearing the end of her freedom but the sudden change in expression on Madara's face was enough to tell her that she'd done the right thing. He had frowned slightly, then raised his eyebrows, plastering a nonchalant smile on his face but it was clear he was bothered by her question.
"I don't see why you're asking me this. Of course, I merely want to spend more time in your company, Konan. Simple as that." Konan wondered if she'd ever heard a more obvious lie in her life.
"You're related to Itachi and Sasuke, right? Do they know what you're-" The rest of her question died in her throat the moment a flash of annoyance passed over Madara's features. Annoyance at her question or for another reason, she wondered.
"Be quiet. You're making me tired. I should have cut out your tongue when I had the chance. However..." his expression was back to its contemplative curiosity, his voice a purr as he leaned forwards on his hands and knees, his dark eyes sickeningly bright. "I could always just cut your stomach."
Konan's hands, which had been absent-absentmindedly stroking her abdomen froze and tensed as her eyes widened. Madara shrugged. "I've decided. I mean, while any of your offspring would be worth quite a bit, for genetic principals, I don't think that little mutant'll even rack up more than twelve grand. He's not a pure experiment, is he? You can always make more, anyways. Your body's really been altered to increase fertility, as well as other physical aspects. Don't suppose you knew that, but then, you don't seem very interested in your body, past all normal uses."
Konan was pressed so hard against the wall she could feel the grooves of the wood paneling indenting similar patterns against her bare skin. Madara had crawled closer like an animal, though his expression was still one of scientific curiosity. He lifted her hand, weighing it and separating then bending the fingers, first individually, then as a group.
"For instance... this arm of yours... how much could I sell this for?" he asked, holding out his own hand and raising a gloved finger, bringing up sickening schemes. "Blood. That's valuable DNA right there. Bone marrow. Genetically-altered bone marrow. Actually, that would go for a lot... Fingerprints... could make a clone of you. Hundreds of clones. That's a lucrative idea. Fingernails, skin, hair... " He let Konan's hand drop back into her lap and reached forward, softly stroking a lock of what remained of her hair, his expression tender.
"You're a living gold mine. Even dead you'd be worth more than this school and its grounds put together. Is that a nice feeling?" He leaned forwards and put his cold, yellowed lips so close to her ear that she could smell his dry, sour breath. "You'll never be safe as long as you live. When you sleep. When you smile. When you kiss. When you eat. When you die. You'll never be safe from me, my sweetheart. My darling..." He caressed the shell of her ear with his teeth, causing Konan to dig the fingernails of her right hand into her thigh, drawing blood. "My precious, precious... we'll be together for ever." The irony in his tone was as unmistakable as the sound of sliding metal resonating from his hand as he slid another knife off the edge of his desk.
"Forever." he whispered again, licking the length of the silver blade as he lowered it to her stomach.
Konan had avoided looking at him so far but as the intense rush of adrenaline hit her with astounding force, she whirled to face him, too fast for her to see if he'd reacted, the same instant she wrenched the other knife from the wall by her head with her left hand. Madara raised his arm, but too slow. A second later, a choking, shocked cry was torn from his lungs, cutting through the silent office like a gunshot. Hot blood spurted over Konan's hands but she was already up and staggering towards the door, the dried blood on her chest and stomach tearing painfully at her skin as she stretched.
She paused for barely a second, grabbing a roll of duct tape from Madara's desk as he groaned and made terrible sounds, obviously trying to tear himself away from the wall, or trying to drag the dagger out of it. As quickly as she could, Konan fashioned a sort of bikini top, at least to cover her breasts, out of strips of duct tape wrapped around herself. She tossed the roll back on the desk and took a quick look at Madara on her way out the door. His expression was terrifying: calm, collected, not looking particularly pained despite the grotesqueness of his ear which was torn and bleeding, his own knife buried straight through it into the wall beneath.
Konan rushed from the room, flinging herself out the office doors and gasping, hyperventilating, against the wall outside before staggering half-blindly through the halls towards the one place she could think to go. There weren't many people in the halls, just four or so, because of classes. Konan was grateful because although it hardly mattered any more, she was half-naked and obviously pregnant, but it was too late for thoughts of privacy.
Her hands pale, sweaty, and shaking, she pulled open the door to the boys' hall, rushing through it like in a dream and soon found herself buried under Pain's covers, trembling and crying, rubbing her stomach and desperately breathing in his scent from his sheets. Although many hours passed, she still didn't sleep, her eyes shut tightly, flinching at every little sound, imagining Madara whipping the blanket off, his ear dangling in a horrific manner off of his head, a knife raised to her stomach, his lips at her own ear, biting it off...
She woke with a flinch and yelled, sitting up violently, twitching and staring around the room, her eyes flickering from one corner to the next, looking for Madara. She certainly hadn't expected Tsunade.
The ex-headmistress stood at the foot of Pain's bed, wearing her doctor's lab coat, her arms crossed, her expression worried. "Konan," she said quietly, reaching forward and gently tugging Pain's blankets down from her chest. Konan let the sheets fall, feeling too emotionally drained to care about modesty. Tsunade's eyes trailed in a professional manner from Konan's choppily-cut hair, to the cut under her chin, the trail of blood leading down underneath the duct tape, then reappearing lower, dried by her stomach.
"So this is what happens when you get called into the headmaster's office." Tsunade commented quietly. Konan knew she was trying to break the ice but there really was no point and they both knew it. "I'm just going to tell you my theory, and if you like, you can say I'm wrong." Tsunade said, sitting down quietly at the foot of the bed. Konan nodded, her eyes, emotions and expression as dry as the desert.
"I've been doing some research on the internet - out of a general interest, mind you, just for basic knowledge - on genetic mutations and experiments."
Konan was looking down at her hands, running her thumb over the lines in her palm, feeling quite hollow and detached from the world. Madara had warned her that he was going to 'break' her… Had he succeeded? Was this emotionless, empty state her future?
"After a while, I came across a private website called Andromeda. It didn't take long to see that it was locked, with shields up to stop unwanted personnel viewing the information and pages within. So I..." Tsunade shrugged, but looked a little guilty.
"I got Karin to break the code. She's always been good at sensing things out like that... Anyways," she cleared her throat. "Although there was no solid information out in the open, just in case someone broke the wall like I did, it was clear enough that Andromeda is a sort of illegal project." Tsunade looked uncomfortable, which was unusual for her, Konan noted vaguely.
"I was just wondering... as your doctor, I think it would be best if I knew... but of course, I doubt you are. I'm not suggesting anything... However, the recent, and almost unnatural, growth spurt you had during the summer... you must understand, it's perfectly possible, as sudden growth periods in teenagers are natural, however..." She coughed a little, not meeting Konan's eyes at all.
"However, to have grown so much in such a short period of time, certainly isn't usual. If you could tell me... just say I'm wrong, because-"
Konan decided to help her out and shut her up.
"It's true." she said quietly, flicking her gaze up to Tsunade, who flinched, shock evident in her features, but it faded to pity as understanding flowed through her as every suspicion she'd ever probably had about Konan was suddenly confirmed, every question answered.
"Oh, I see." The pity on her face was unbearable, and Konan looked away, focusing instead on Pein's bedside table. An image of her own face caught her attention and she stared at it, ashamed she hadn't noticed it before. Sitting in a little cluster on the small table were a number of framed photographs, all but one of them of herself, with Pain, hugging, laughing, smiling... The last one was of Pain's family. Konan's eyes immediately and automatically found Yahiko first. The face so like Pain's, the kind brown eyes that seemed to know exactly what she was thinking all the time... Dad. The word came to her so naturally that she didn't even notice it was odd until she remembered that her real father was probably buried already, somewhere in Italy, forgotten by the world... even by his own daughter.
Though Konan didn't have it in her to cry anymore, her throat tightened and she shut her eyes. "Oh, Konan... That's why Madara… isn't it?" Tsunade had shifted closer during the time Konan had been preoccupied with the pictures and as she reached her arms out, Konan automatically fell into them, nodding and half-crying against Tsunade's chest.
"How did you escape?" Tsunade asked, rubbing Konan's back soothingly, obviously experienced in comforting people, although you wouldn't know it when looking at her, with her stern gaze and clear, cold confidence. Konan told her how she'd saved her baby by about a second, pinned Madara to the wall by his ear, how he had probably escaped by now and might even be looking for her.
Tsunade took this information in her stride and nodded. "Right." she said, giving Konan one final squeeze then letting go, her brown eyes alight with determination. "Well. We've got to get you out of here, don't we? Normally, of course, I would say that your education has to come first but in our case, I think we can say your life is more important." Tsunade's dry humour was back and Konan nodded, feeling strengthened somehow. It seemed that even her ex-headmistress' hugs were healing.
"Have you got somewhere to go?" she asked, standing up and tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"Yes, with Pein's family. But..." Worries that had been tugging at Konan from the moment she'd buried the knife through her headmaster's ear were now spilling from her mouth and she couldn't have stopped them if she tried.
"But what about Pein? And my friends? He wants to get me because I'm valuable but he must know that I'd never leave if he threatened to hurt them, but I can't just make them sacrifice their education and everything for me, I mean... And what... what about the baby? What if..." Konan shut her eyes tight, her hands instinctively finding her stomach and holding it gently, protectively. "What if he never leaves me alone? What if Madara finds me (of course he can, he has Pein's address), and then kills my baby? What if..." And now, the worst fear, the worst case scenario flashed through Konan's mind and she let out a little cry of despair. Images of Pein dead. Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, Kisame, Sasori... Deidara... dead. Her unborn baby, torn from her stomach, or worse still, a toddler, a four-year-old… a teenager... kidnapped, mutilated, never to be seen again...
"What if it never stops? Am I going to have to live my whole life looking over my shoulder for people who want to steal what my father made? He'll never... they'll never leave me alone, will they?" she asked in despair, staring at Tsunade, who gave her another hug but didn't answer her question.
"Come on then. We've got to get you packed up and shipped home. I'll sort everything out with your friends, don't you worry. And I'll tell Pein where you've gone" They left the room, Tsunade's arm round Konan's shoulders. "No one will be able to hurt you... not while those loyal to me are within this school. You have more friends than you think, Konan." Tsunade squeezed her shoulders, sent a message to Shizune with a first-year, then escorted Konan to her rooms to pack and change.
Konan un-taped herself slowly, letting the tape fall to the floor where it lay like a dead, starved snake until she kicked it away in disgust. Aware that Tsunade was standing right outside the door, waiting for her, Konan hurried a little as she grabbed a new bra from the drawer and clipped it on. She found a loose, dark-blue, knitted wool sweater and pulled it over her head, appreciating the soft texture before discarding her school skirt in favour of grey leggings and thick purple socks. She stood just out of view by her mirror, knowing that she wasn't ready to see her hair yet. It wasn't because she was vain; it was because she couldn't face the solid evidence of what the morning had held just yet. It was too much.
She packed quickly, probably leaving a few socks behind, and was soon walking quickly back through the girl's hall with Tsunade. They were both rushing, though they hadn't agreed to, because they both knew that the bell for lunch would be ringing very soon, and neither of them wanted to have to push through a crowd of students goggling at Konan, asking where she was going, was she expelled, etc. Soon enough, they reached the front door.
"Tsunade, I'm afraid I don't actually know where Pein's house is... I know it's by a beach, but I don't even know the city…" Konan admitted shamefaced, feeling utterly stupid for not realizing before that this would undoubtedly cause problems. Tsunade smiled.
"Don't you worry about that. I've got someone who can drive you there, who knows where it is." she said, and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. Konan looked, and her jaw dropped slightly.
Appearing so silently that Konan hadn't heard her coming, Ino stepped forwards, one hand on her hip, the other twirling a little silver key on a ring around her finger. Her school uniform was gone, replaced by what Konan instantly recognized as the average 'dream driving' outfit: hot red leather jacket zipped up, revealing a black bikini top, tight jeans with a wide black belt, black stiletto boots, hair in a high, wavy ponytail held by a heart elastic, cherry-red lips and gold hoops earrings.
"Ino?" Konan squeaked at last and the other girl nodded, smiling the sort of genuine smile that Konan immediately liked. The sort of smile she'd only seen Ino wear one time before, when Konan had trusted and talked to her about her pregnancy.
"I got the address from Pein a couple months ago. Just in case I ever had to be your getaway driver." Ino admitted, linking her hands behind her back, a shy gesture. Konan grinned at her, the smile feeling truer than any she'd given for a while.
"Thanks, Ino. You're the best." Ino glowed at the compliment.
Fifteen minutes later, they were speeding down the highway in Ino's bright red sports car, listening to 'The Best of the 60s' and singing along. Konan wondered if she was just trying to forget her worries and fear, and if the smile on her face and the laughter from her mouth were false, but the lightness in her heart told her that they were real and that Ino was acting like a sort of happy-medicine. Konan guiltily remembered this time last year, when she'd been calling her Ino-bitch with the rest of the school.
"I'm picking up good vibrations, she's giving me excitations..." Ino sang with the Beach Boys and Konan quickly joined in, the feel-good music sinking into her and raising her spirits considerably. "So, do you think you'll be coming back to school this year?" Ino asked as they pulled into Pein's driveway.
"I don't think so, actually. I don't think I'll ever be coming back, actually." Konan said, twisting her hands on her lap. Ino just looked at her silently for a few minutes, then leaned over and hugged her.
"You'll miss your graduation! How awful..." Konan shrugged and Ino let go, opening her door and walking to the back of the car to retrieve Konan's trunk. Konan got out too, well aware that she could in no way ever repay Ino for what she'd done. Once the trunk was out and Konan had swung her purse over her shoulder, Ino and Konan just stood awkwardly, rocking backwards and forwards on the balls of their feet, neither one of them wanting to say goodbye first.
Finally Konan cracked, and she smiled. "I guess this is goodbye," she said, a little hoarsely, noting with annoyance that she couldn't think of anything less cliché to say. Ino nodded with a half-smile.
"Well... well..." Konan gave up and just threw herself at Ino, seizing the other girl in a tight embrace that was returned vivaciously. "I can never thank you enough. I really will miss you." Konan whispered and she could hear Ino crying.
"I'll miss you more. I... I hope you'll be happy no matter what. Please write to me! Deidara knows my address." Ino said, pulling away and wiping her eyes skillfully, avoiding smudging her mascara.
"I will, I promise. Thank you. Thank you so much." Konan said, and waved one final time as Ino returned to her car, turned the radio on again and roared out of the driveway, 'God only knows' blasting out the windows. Konan watched her go silently, not feeling abandoned so much as set adrift, then turned around and walked up to the door.
She knocked twice.
To her immense relieve, the person to answer the door was Yahiko. He looked surprised for a moment, then understanding. But when he looked her up and down, his expression turned concerned. "Hey there. Come to stay over, right?" he said, inviting her in and taking her trunk. As usual, he seemed to know exactly why she was there and what she wanted, a gift she was grateful for, as it saved her from difficult explanations.
"Yes, thank you so much... I'm sorry to intrude..." she said worriedly, but just like Pain, Yahiko seemed to shrug her thanks off and smiled.
"Don't worry about it at all! I'm really glad you came over, actually, I'm having trouble with a crossword..." Konan understood the joke a few seconds later, and looked up to see his eyes were twinkling and he was smiling brightly. He really seemed happy to see her, which warmed Konan considerably, lifting her spirits.
A few minutes later, they were comfortably settled in the kitchen, Konan's trunk and purse upstairs in Pein's room, a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of muffins in front of them, the crossword spread on the table. After helping solve it, supplying the final word, 'ardent', and watching as Yahiko folded it up and yawned, Konan could tell the questions were coming. Yahiko seemed in no hurry, however, and honestly seemed more interested in her classes and if anything funny had happened at school she recounted a couple episodes of Deidara blowing up the explosives' supply-shed by accident, of Hidan and Kakuzu starting a boast battle in the middle of lunch, of going to see the illusionary arts' exhibition and getting tricked into going into the boys' bathroom, and nearly toppling out of a window in a fit of dizziness. Then Yahiko asked about the school's dress code, and so on and so forth, until a few hours had gone by, and Konan had almost forgotten why she had left the school.
Finally, when the atmosphere was as comfortable as ever and their bellies were full of muffins, Yahiko rubbed his thumb on the table, as though erasing a stain, and asked, "So, decided to get a new haircut?" He glanced up, saw Konan's reserved expression, and narrowed his eyes shrewdly. "Or wasn't it your idea?" Konan waited before answering, to try and think of the most tactful way she could explain the day's events.
"It wasn't exactly planned." she admitted at last, looking at her hands. "It turned out that the new headmaster is aware of what the Andromeda project is." she said, and Yahiko stiffened subtly, but she noticed anyways. Although she had more-or-less explained the events of the most recent summer holidays to him, omitting a few minor details, he had made it clear that he was just as disgusted with her father's experiments as she had been, more so, in fact.
"I suppose he tried to..." he murmured and Konan nodded, not allowing him to finish for both their sakes.
"Yeah. It was quite scary... so that's where my haircut comes in... but I… and that's why I'm here." Konan knew she had hardly explained a thing but when she thought back to the... what, hours?...spent in Madara's office, just that morning, something about his voice, his calculated curiousity, his voice in her ear... his knife, a silent, deadly threat, thudding into the wall, inches from her throat every time, made the whole event more traumatic than her imprisonment during the summer. At least then she'd known she wouldn't be killed. At least then she hadn't had anyone to protect...
Konan hadn't realized that her hands had drifted to her stomach once again until she saw herself rubbing the baby bump softly, carefully. She raised her gaze quickly to Yahiko and saw that he was watching her. She examined his expression curiously. While it was quite clear he disapproved and felt uncomfortable, there was an undercurrent of tenderness and happiness in his eyes and the small curve of his mouth that made Konan finally know for certain that he was happy to be the grandfather of her baby. That he would, like her, like Pain, go to any extremes to protect this unborn member of the family.
A few days later, Konan was as comfortably settled in as could be: her trunk was unpacked and Pein had visited for the weekend to help her move into his room (Madara had cracked down upon absences from school after Konan's disappearance and it had taken a call from Yahiko to allow Pain to leave for so much as an hour). Annie and Animal, who were often home, seemed to have taken her under their wing, with whom she spent many hours playing board games or walking on the beach. Yahiko had basically said that she was as much a part of his family as his own children and had even started to knit her a 'family sweater'.
"Don't underestimate the power of the knitted sweater." he had said sternly, his eyes laughing. "It binds you to the family as well as birth certificates, you know. There are things you can't share without feeling connected, and wearing matching sweaters is one of them."
It had taken almost a full week for Konan to bring herself to look at her hair. She had, of course, showered and brushed her teeth and things, but she would always avoid seeing her head in the mirror. She could tell, of course, that it was very, very different. Her neck and shoulders felt very naked and cold, and it was disconcerting to suddenly have short hair after weeks of tying it back in ponytails or plaits. But one morning, Konan decided that enough was enough and she should stop being silly and just look.
She got out of bed, put her feet into slippers, and shuffled to the bathroom, where she stood in front of the mirror, her gaze fixed on the floor. She took a deep breath then raised her head, staring straight into the reflection of her own eyes. The moment she saw herself, she understood Pein's expression the very first moment he'd laid eyes on her since the morning of her trip to the headmaster's office. He had looked shocked. As her own eyes roved over her hairline, down the tendrils that curled slightly around her face, Konan agreed that it was very shocking. It wasn't too short, really, as it had been cut while Madara had stabbed his knife into the wall on either side of her neck.
There were long bits that looked terribly out of place, hanging down her back, but there were also ruefully short bits, near her ears, a few round the back of her head, that oddly curved outwards. Her bangs were the same but they certainly looked out-of-place and perfect when compared to the rest of her hair, which was basically what a battlefield on someone's head might look like if the choice weapon was a scythe. Grimly, Konan dug in the drawer by the sink, never taking her eyes off of her reflection. She found what she was looking for quite quickly and with a tinge of a sadistic smirk, raised the large scissors to her head. Opened them. Snapped them closed and watched some hair drift to the floor. Opened them. Snapped them closed. Turned them diagonally and did a couple small snips here and there.
It seemed like ages but it was really only a few minutes later that she put the scissors down and examined her new appearance. It was a bit of a pixie cut, with choppy layers and a couple loose ends sticking out, but Konan liked it. She felt it sort of suited the way she felt: chopped up and changed. Feeling quite proud for an odd reason, she scooped up the rest of her hair from the floor and tossed it into the garbage bin, brushing her hands and pyjamas off before leaving and going down to the kitchen for breakfast.
Her morning sickness was thankfully wearing off and after a couple minutes of searching on the Internet, she discovered that this was relatively common, though pregnancy symptoms apparently vary from person to person and even from pregnancy to pregnancy.
Once the sickness had begun to wear off, Konan found that she was a lot happier and even took a liking to long walks, something she'd hated to do even before becoming pregnant, because she was so happy she could do it now without feeling sick.
Many a morning found her traipsing along the beach, or along a little path through the park, often in the rain, humming and dolled up in the thickest rain gear available to man, thanks to Yahiko's strict Pregnant-women-shouldn't-get-colds rule.
Pein had called on his phone to tell them that Madara was banning all absences from school and if you were sick, you had to be examined by Tsunade, who was ordered to make the student stay if they weren't about to die. Funerals were no longer an excuse to leave, unless it was immediate-family and even that had to be checked out with a phone call. Konan hadn't understood why Madara would care about the other students leaving but she got a new perspective on the matter after Yahiko suggested that perhaps he didn't want any of his contacts hearing any gossiping teenagers mentioning that the Andromeda project -apparently 'Konan' was now synonymous with that- had slipped straight through his fingers.
"Do you think he'll come here? I don't see how he could not..." Konan had murmured one night, her nerves getting the better of her. Yahiko had shook his head and winked.
"Never fear, darlin'. This address is under the witness protection program already, for something before your time, but that's not the only thing we've got going for us. I think you met my best friend, Nagato, last spring? Well, he knows just about everything that goes on around us, and I mean everything. He probably knew you were the Andromeda project before you did. He'd tell us straightaway if there was even a possibility that someone was looking for us. Besides, your headmaster must see, no matter how confident he is, that he can't just lock you up within the school, or even anywhere near it. You are friends with a pyromaniac, who knows a bit too much about explosives for his own good, not to mention the others... I think I can safely say that they'd find you within two days if you went missing, don't you?" Konan smiled.
"Yeah. They're very nice." she said, and Yahiko had laughed loudly, like a lion's roar.
St Misery's broke for winter holidays soon afterwards and despite Madara's valiant efforts, including warning the school board that the students were dangerous criminals (according to rumours), he couldn't stop the pupils from streaming out of the school like ants as soon as the bell went on the last day. Yahiko, Konan, and the rest of Pain's family, excluding those with families of their own, were soon joined in the house by Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, Kisame, and Pein himself. Itachi had decided to spend the holidays with his brother, although none of his friends seemed to have any idea how he knew where to find Sasuke in the first place.
Before their arrival, Konan had laughed a lot, telling Yahiko stories of Christmas last year, omitting the part where she'd attempted to spend the night alone outside a gas station but telling him almost everything else; about the scavenger hunt and them all running outside in the opposite sex's underwear; about watching The Shining and scaring the pants off of Sasori by grabbing him from behind; about Deidara cross-dressing; the snowball fight; the failed attempt at skating... Konan vaguely wondered if this Christmas would be the same, but once they'd arrived, and even beforehand, she knew it wouldn't.
During the two weeks of Christmas break, Pain's family and their friends played a lot of board games, had a lot of snowball fights in what little snow there was and sang a lot of dirty Christmas carols. Konan spent much of her time with her jeans not zipped up as they wouldn't fit any more, along with Pein's hand on her stomach. Konan got used to a daily routine quite quickly: wake up next to Pain; brush teeth, shower, dress, etc; eat breakfast, finish Yahiko's crossword; lie around for a few hours talking with Pein and the others, her pants undone and her shirt rolled up for no other reason than for the others to draw smiley faces on her enlarged tummy; eat at an unspecified time; go to bed again.
On Christmas, she got a lot of baby clothes and toys, as well as a very useful gift that Ino had sent in the post: a set of maternity outfits, which she changed into with huge relief. She was glad she had forced herself to mail the diamond necklace she'd bought for Ino; she hadn't been sure that she should have, in case Madara confiscated it or something but she felt that it was something her new friend would like, and besides, there's not much point having more money than you need unless you spend some on the people you like. It wasn't until the second last day of her friends' school holidays that anything particularly surprising happened.
"Want to get an ultrasound done?" Pein asked one morning from behind the newspaper, where he was examining the crossword. Konan choked a little on her cereal.
"S-sorry? An ultrasound? Isn't it a bit early for that?" she asked in an off-hand tone, secretly a bundle of nerves. She wasn't sure that she was ready to see what exactly was inside her. She'd gotten used to smiley faces on skin and had given up imagining whether or not she might have a little boy or a little girl sharing her clothes, food, and body.
"Not really. I mean, you can see something, especially since you're almost five months, right? We might even find out the gender." Konan's heart began to beat rapidly, but whether it was from panic or excitement, she had no idea.
"I guess we could. It might be interesting." she said, as nonchalantly as possibly, trying to conceal how her hands shook when she raised her mug of hot chocolate to her lips.
Three hours later, Yahiko, Pain and herself were in the car, speeding along the highway towards the hospital to have an ultrasound done. They had called in to make an appointment and apparently it was not very busy, making an appointment for the same day, which Pain and Yahiko found immensely lucky, but Konan just found it nerve-wracking. She hadn't told them that she was so nervous, partly because she didn't think they'd understand, and partly because she knew that she didn't have a good reason to be.
"Look at that, we're here! Record time!" Yahiko said cheerfully, taking a swift right turn into a large carpark and stopping next to a meter.
"Yes, look at that…" Konan murmured as Yahiko got out to pay. Pain immediately leaned around the front seat and fixed her with an accusingly playful smirk.
"You are so nervous." he said, reaching out and ruffling her hair. Konan smiled, surprised at how relieved she was that he'd noticed, even though she'd been trying to hide it.
"How did you know?" she asked reproachfully, secretly very pleased. Pain rolled his eyes and assumed a rather haughty all-knowing look.
"Because I, naturally, am omnipotent. It's a talent, rather than a duty, for me to know all." he said, putting on a falsetto. Konan laughed, the tension easing from her in waves.
"Thanks," she said, wiping her eyes once she'd calmed down. "I needed that." Pain nodded, still smiling. Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Konan didn't mention it but she was pretty sure that Yahiko should have finished paying a while ago and that he was just waiting outside until he was sure he wouldn't be interrupting anything. Pain reached forward swiftly, cupping her cheek and sliding his thumb over it softly, watching her, an unfathomable emotion visible in his eyes as he held her gaze for a few moments, silently.
"I love you." he said finally. Suddenly, as she had barely registered what he'd said before he had let go, he opened his car door and was out. A few seconds later, Yahiko opened her door for her and helped her out. After registering, getting a ticket, waiting for a surprisingly short time, being admitted into the examination room, poked, prodded and interrogated before finally having a doctor slide a transducer over her stomach, Konan held tightly to Pain's hand as a blurry image appeared on the screen across from them. "There you go. There he is."
"A boy?" Pain asked but Konan said nothing. She was staring intently at the little black and white blur on the screen. Pain patted her shoulder. The doctor, whose short-cropped hair was an enviable shade of silken caramel, smiled kindly.
"It's a magical moment, isn't it?" she said, giving Konan's hand a little squeeze. Konan nodded, still frowning a little, then pointed up at the screen.
"What's that?" she asked blankly.
"It's a boy!" Konan announced as Pain helped Yahiko cart in the last of the Boxing Week shopping.
"A boy?" "A boy?" "A boy?""A boy!" "A BOY!" "...so it's not a girl?" Itachi asked in the silence following Hidan's half-shriek.
Konan grinned at her friends, who were crowded in the living room, around a half-finished game of Monopoly, creatively altered so that stealing was allowed. Konan laughed when she saw the huge stacks of money sitting in front of Kakuzu and the five-hundred dollar bills he was sliding silently away from Sasori while he was distracted but the others were plainly far more interested in the sex of her baby than in their game.
"Yes, it's a boy. Or, the doctors are pretty sure it is." she said, sitting down with a bit of difficulty. "But that just causes more problems, because now I have no idea what to call him-"
"HAMTARO~!"
"You'd better call him Trunks or I'll..."
"How about something normal? Like 'Genevieve', or 'Ebeneazer'... oh, maybe 'Hans' would be better, that's got a bit of class..."
"How about 'sexomaniac'? That'd get him a girlfriend quickly, no doubt."
"I INSIST YOU NAME YOUR BABY 'GO FOR IT! BOMBER!'"
"I-I'm sorry?" Konan choked. Maybe asking the boys for baby names had been a bad idea.