kattobingore | [STORY] A Little Surprise

[STORY] A Little Surprise

Through most of his workday at SAI, Yuma couldn't stop thinking about Kotori.

For the last few weeks she'd been feeling really tired, run-down and not really herself. She kept insisting that she'd be fine, that she was probably just overworking herself and that she'd take a break once she'd finished her work and the holidays came around.
But then, in the last few days, she'd been starting to get random bouts of nausea and just that morning, he had sat up with her from 5am because of how ill she felt.
Because of this, she had decided to take a day or two off from her work and see how she felt. Yuma was going to stay home with her, but she insisted she was fine and that he should go to work, telling him she would call if she needed anything.

She hadn't called, so he assumed everything was fine, but he couldn't help feeling worried about her. She wasn't really the type to get sick often and she usually didn't react this badly to stress.

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Walking into their apartment at Sakana when he got home from work, Yuma was surprised to find it in darkness. Switching on the light, he glanced around at the empty kitchen and living area. Most days, Kotori would usually be in the middle of prepping things for whatever she was going to make for dinner at this time, but she had been feeling ill, so he wondered if maybe she had gone to lay down and had fallen asleep.

Moving towards the corridor, Yuma quietly opened the door to their bedroom, but he also found that empty, which meant she was out of the apartment. He scratched his head as he walked back to the kitchen.

"Huh. Maybe she was feeling better and went out to do something."

He sat down on the sofa in the living area and looked at his D-Pad, but she hadn't left a message or anything. That underlying worry he'd carried with him all day spiked a little, but he took a deep breath and told himself everything was fine. She was probably just feeling better and running some errands.
Thankfully, after about five minutes or so of him sitting down, he heard the door open and saw Kotori enter the apartment.
Yuma jumped to his feet faster than he really meant to.

Noting his reaction, Kotori gave him an apologetic smile.

"Ah, sorry I'm so late home. I went out to do something and it took longer than expected."

She walked over to the kitchen counter and placed a bag on top of it.

"I grabbed us some konbini food on the way home. I don't think I'll get round to making dinner today."

"That's fine. Are you feeling better than you did this morning?" Yuma asked, as he walked up to her.

"A little." Kotori responded. "Actually, the reason I was out was because I decided to go to a drop-in clinic and see a doctor about how I've been feeling recently."

Yuma was a little surprised. She had mentioned that she had been considering seeing a doctor for it, but she had told him she was going to wait a few days and see how she felt then.

"Oh? What did the doctor say? Is it stress causing it like you thought?"

Silently, Kotori gently took his hand and led him back over to the sofa, where they both sat down. She noticed a growing look of concern developing on Yuma's face.

"It's okay. I'm not dying or anything." she reassured him. "But it is something we need to talk about."

Yuma wasn't sure whether to feel relieved with that, or not, but no matter what this was, he'd face it with her all the way, so he gave her a tentative nod to continue.
Kotori took Yuma's hands in her own and took a deep breath in preparation.
"I am going to have to reduce some of the stress I've been under, but that wasn't actually the cause of any of the symptoms I was having. Those were being caused by something else entirely."
Looking at him, she gave him a warm smile.
"It turns out, I'm pregnant."

Yuma's eyes grew wide as what she said slowly sunk in. It took a moment for him to fully process it, but once he had, a large smile slowly grew on his face.
"Wait, really??"
Kotori gave him an enthusiastic nod in return.
"Oh my god, Kotori, that's amazing!!"
With that, he flung his arms around her and pulled her into an emotional bear hug.
"Oomph, Yuma, be careful!" she laughed as she fell onto him, before she nuzzled her face into his shoulder.

"Honestly, I feel a little silly that I didn't catch on sooner with it." she told him. "But I'd been so busy with work, I'd completely missed some of the more obvious clues and what I did notice, I really thought it was down to stress."
She moved a little in his hold. "You should probably not hug me so tight though."

"Ah, sorry!!" Yuma loosened his hug a little. "I'm just super excited! I mean, I'm gonna be a dad!"

Saying these words made this realization hit him a lot more harder as he removed his arms from around Kotori, making her sit back slightly, seeing that his expression had rapidly changed from joy, to panic.

"Oh man... I'm going to be a dad." he repeated. "I-I mean, is there anything I should be doing?? What if I mess up?? What if--"

Kotori could see that Yuma was very rapidly going through, and feeling, every emotion there was to feel right now. Slowly, she reached out and placed a gentle hand on the side of his face in an effort to calm him down before he overwhelmed himself.

"Yuma, it's okay." she reassured him. "I'm feeling both excited and anxious too. I think that's normal to feel, but as long as we do our best and have the child's best interests at heart, we'll do fine."

Yuma calmed down a bit and gave her a soft, emotional smile, along with a nod in agreement, though, he now could feel his eyes tearing up with all the emotions that were still hitting him. Noticing the tears, Kotori leaned in and tenderly kissed Yuma's forehead, before cuddling up against him. Yuma put his arms back around her in reciprocation.

"This does mean that I should definitely avoid fighting nuclear dragons now, though." she joked. Yuma gave out a light chuckle in response.

"I'm really hoping that's something neither of us will ever have to do again" he responded. Kotori nodded, before relaxing completely in Yuma's arms and closing her eyes, simply wanting to enjoy this moment together with him.