Blue Star

Ruby Love

Warnings: YAOI LEMON, male preggie fic.

Pairings: Seto/Jou

Notes: Hope you all liked that rather l long lemon in the last chapter, it took me a while to get it out because it was meant to be very deep and incredibly intimate, but animalistic and intense at the same time. And to all of you who wanted/guessed Jou as the one to get pregnant, here’s a belated ‘congrats’! I thought I’d made it kind of obvious, and I’m shocked some of you had your doubts because I don’t remember ever doing a Jou/Seto story, but that’s alright. This chapter might seem a little boring and short, but hang with me because it’ll get better.

Thanks: To NEB cuz he’s a doosh and helped me bounce ideas for this story line.

~*~

“Mommy!”

I sighed inwardly, trying to feign sleep just a little longer, but Mokuba wouldn’t have it.

“Time to get up mommy, breakfast is ready and Seto’s pacing again.”

Groaning I rolled to my back and yawned, stretching cautiously before looking over to where Mokuba stood in my bedroom doorway. He had his thick ebony hair pulled into a lazy ponytail, his arms crossed in true Kaiba fashion with a broad, enthusiastic smile on his face. I rolled my eyes at him, before pushing my body up into a sitting position and swung my legs over the edge of the soft mattress.

“What’s for breakfast and where is he pacing at now?” I asked, and Mokuba chuckled.

“American style pancakes and he’s alternating between the kitchen, his office, and the den.”

It had only been a week since Sable had tested me and the results came back positive, I would be having a child, but Seto was constantly anxious, and fussing over me more than he had been the day we went in for segment two. Segment three was scheduled in just under five months, but the way my husband was acting, it was as if I were due tomorrow.

“Try and get him to sit still and I’ll be down in a minute to help.” I told my brother-in-law resignedly, standing and trudging towards the bathroom connected to the master bedroom.

Mokuba nodded and was gone the next moment, leaving me to wash up and get dressed, and I slumped over the bathroom sink, a soft smile gracing my lips.

I was pregnant.

That thought had not fully set in quite yet; it was still a shock to me that it was actually happening. This kind of procedure was unheard of, but here I stood, a living human baby slowly growing inside of me. Subconsciously my hand fell to rub lightly at my stomach, a habit I had picked up ever since the morning Seto and I had returned home with the good news, and I stood back up straight to turn the faucets on.

After washing my face and donning a thin pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt I began the walk downstairs, hearing voices in the kitchen and hoping Seto wasn’t still pacing. Lately it had been just pacing, him asking if I was all right every so often, but mostly just walking around the house to release pent up energy and anxiety. It was nice like this, being the center of his constant attention, but I was worried he was going to get himself sick thinking and distressing about it so much. We were going to have a child; I thought he would at least have smiled more often.

“There’s mommy now!”

I sighed and grinned gently as I enter the dining area of the kitchen space to Mokuba’s playful nickname. Seto was sitting down, like I had inwardly hoped he would be, and my smile grew a little.

“Good morning, Seto.” I whispered as I leant down to kiss my husband reassuringly, purposely ignoring Mokuba’s good-natured banter.

“Good morning.” He answered with a warm grin after I stood back up to take a seat next to him at the dining table.

Breakfast had already been served, and Mokuba had already been through two servings. Seto however, hadn’t touched anything, not even his morning tea or traditional newspaper. I frowned slightly, and looked at Seto pointedly.

“Eat Seto, you’re going to get sick if you don’t.” I told him, giving him a stern look when he opened his mouth to protest. He shut it wisely, and picked up his fork halfheartedly to poke at the fried dough circles on his plate.

The rest of the morning was calm, Mokuba having left to spend time with Honda making further arrangements on their apartment in America, and Seto working in his office. He’d immediately brought his job home with him, to be closer to me if something went wrong or if I ever needed anything, and because G.E.M.P. was a fairly new project, Seto used executive order to release me from my duties in my department for the duration of my pregnancy. Call it an extended maternity leave.

He was constantly on the phone, and yesterday he’d had clients come to the house for a meeting instead of the lunch date that had been planned at some fancy restaurant. I didn’t mind all that much, it was almost as if he weren’t even home sometimes, so I basically had the run of the house.

Yami had stopped by a couple days ago to drop off a gift Yugi had bought for Seto and me to celebrate the ‘good news’, because the littler twin didn’t have the time to bring it himself, and Ryou had brought me lunch yesterday to keep me company. The mansion got insanely boring after a while, and I welcomed the company with open arms. I especially loved Yugi’s gift though. It was a set of baby pajamas, hand made, one light blue and the other a dark burgundy both with small silver and black dragons stitched onto the fronts. His note had said the blue was for Seto, it was his favorite color, and the burgundy was for me, my favorite color, so that our child would be wearing a trademark of his/her parents once it was born. It was so sweet, and when I asked him who had sewn them when I talked to him over the phone that night he had merely chuckled and said not to worry about it.

I sighed to myself, resting comfortably on the leather loveseat in the family room in my sweats, and wondered longingly about Seto. Since he’d started working from home I saw him less. Since he wasn’t at the office everything had to be faxed or e-mailed to him and it took longer for him to go through everything. He was always worrying about whether or not someone had burned the towers down whenever a document hadn’t gotten to him on time, and I could see the stress eating at him a little more everyday. It sounds funny, because you would think I’d see him more now that he was always home, but it was the opposite. He was usually locked away in his office, very rarely emerging to grab something small to eat or refill a glass of water and if not then he would have a maid do it for him. I had been eating dinner alone lately, and would usually fall asleep before he came upstairs to bed. I only really saw him at breakfast if I woke up on time.

I opened my eyes lazily and reached blindly for the TV remote control. There was nothing better to do while my friends were at work or busy in some other shape or form and my husband was playing hermit in his office, so I settled in to channel-surf.

~*~

“So how you been doing lately, Mommy?”
“For the love of God, will you please stop calling me that?”
“But that’s what you are, and you need to get used to it, because it sure as hell ain’t gonna be Seto that the kid is going to be calling ‘mom’.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiled anyway at Yugi, who sat across from me at the luncheon table on my backyard patio. He’d been able to take the day off from work, Yami covering for him so he could spend time with me. The house arrest thing was getting to be a little much, but Seto had a sixth sense when it came to me, and even if he was locked away in his office he somehow always knew when I was trying to sneak out of the house. I’d already tried twice. And my excuses of ‘going to the store’ or ‘going to see Sable’ failed miserably. His answers were ‘have the maid or Mokuba go’ and ‘Sable makes house calls, she can come here’. I’d told Yugi this yesterday, and being sympathetic as he usually is, took extreme measures in coming over to keep me sane. Yugi had somehow managed to replace Seto in the workaholic category, so him not working today shocked a lot of people, mainly Yami and myself.

“Yeah, well, I’m fine with my kid calling me mommy, it’s having my best friends and my brother in-law doing it that really freaks me out.”

Yugi chuckled good naturedly, sipping on his tea as a cool breeze hit us lightly. It was a gorgeous day, and like always, I found myself wishing Seto were here to experience it with me. I hadn’t even been able to catch him at breakfast these past three days, the most I saw of him this week was a brief second when he’d past by me to open the door to another client this morning, kissing my cheek before he was taken over by business-mode again. After that I ceased to exist.

“How’s Seto doing?” Yugi asked, and I sighed, hand falling to absently rub at my stomach once more. A bulge was beginning to form, small and not visible through my light blue button down shirt, but noticeable to me. I didn’t think Seto had seen it yet.

“I wouldn’t know.” I answered him honestly, a small touch of sadness clinging to the edges of that sentence. Yugi’s expression instantly became compassionate.

“I know it’s hard. I just wish I could do more than come see you during ‘visiting hours’.”

I laughed a little, “Yeah, me too.”

Yugi set his teacup down as I subconsciously stirred my own tea with a thin straw, my free hand still on my stomach. Yugi grinned gently when he looked to where my hand was, and met my unfocused eyes.

“I see your growing.”

I couldn’t help the broad smile that overtook my face, and turned my gaze downwards. A truly blissful feeling came over me and replaced the slight depression that plagued me over my husband. Things would get better soon, I knew they would. I just hoped Seto didn’t kill himself with stress first.

“In another week Sable is going to take pictures.” I whispered, almost to myself, and Yugi’s smirk widened a fraction.

“I want copies.”

I laughed out loud, Yugi joining me, and the rest of the afternoon was spent that way. My best friend stayed there with me, all day, enjoying a small dinner made by Yugi’s favorite chef Molly, and then dessert and coffee before Yami called Yugi home. I walked him out, but as I got to the driver’s side of his car that was parked in the driveway, an exasperated Mokuba came onto the front porch.

“Jou,” He started, tone bland and frustrated. “Seto says no excuse will get you any further down that driveway.”

I groaned a little, truly annoyed now that I was being leashed, and not in the terms my husband and I used to joke around with back in the day, when I was the ‘puppy’. Yugi chuckled a little, trying to make me feel better.

“I’ll give you a call tomorrow to make sure he doesn’t have you on a collar and chained to the bed.”

I smiled and nodded, before Yugi drove away from my prison and out of sight.

I turned, seeing Mokuba still standing there, watching me with a great expanse of understanding in his emerald green eyes, knowing what it felt like to be under Seto’s overly possessive wing. It must have been nice to have finally grown away from that stage, I thought bitterly, and followed Mokuba back inside.

~*~

I yawned widely behind my hand, eyes watering a little as I glanced at the clock on the wall to my left. Midnight. I sighed deeply, every night hoping Seto would be done with work before I went to bed, and every night having my hopes shot down. I turned off the TV with an unenthusiastic motion and set the controller down on the marble coffee table in the den, before standing to trudge towards the stairs. I paused by the office; the door closed and locked, and hesitated before pressing my ear lightly to the wooden surface. I could hear the tapping of keys on a keyboard, and heard Seto’s voice as he talked with someone over the phone. I barely picked up the words ‘tomorrow’, ‘Mr. Mizaki’, and ‘client’. With a heavy heart I took a step back, watching the door and waiting for a miracle that would move Seto to join me. Nothing happened, and dragging my feet I walked up the stairs.

Getting to the bedroom hall I could hear another set of voices, this time belonging to one of my best friends and my brother in-law. I’d said good night to Mokuba and Honda when they’d come home earlier from dinner with Ryou and Bakura, and I wasn’t all that surprised that they were still awake. From the breathy sounds of their tones I knew it would be best not to interrupt their ‘alone time’, and quietly closed my bedroom door on their intimacy, locking myself into my loneliness.

The large waterbed in the middle of the room looked so empty, the sheets smoothed down and firmly tucked under the mattress, the dark blue color shimmering in the dim moonlight that managed to seep in through the silver curtains. I closed my eyes to the solitude the room permeated, and pulled off my shirt and jeans so that I stood in my plain white boxers. I’d stopped sleeping naked a while ago; almost around the time Seto had stopped being here when I fell asleep.

A full-length mirror stood to the side of the walk-in closet, and I stopped in front of it to look at myself hard. My eyes had grown little bags of fatigue; my hair had lost its luster a little, my skin paler from lack of sun. But it was the tiny stretch marks around my midsection, the barely noticeable way my belly button was starting to stick out that made me smile and brought a delicate twinkle into my brown eyes. My hands came around my stomach once more, and I hugged myself, pretending it was Seto holding our baby and me. The smile slipped, and that was all it took for my face to fall once more and tears to come to my eyes. Crying myself to sleep wasn’t a new thing to me anymore, and I let it come, knowing I couldn’t stop it if I tried.

Climbing into the cold bed, I got situated on my side of the mattress and rested my head back into the pillows beneath me. I did not sob or full out cry, but the tears fell anyway, and I closed my eyes to the darkness of the large room. Seto wouldn’t be here again, I knew he wouldn’t be and he wouldn’t be here tomorrow morning either. I rolled to my left side, back facing the doorway, and took a deep, calming breath to soothe my nerves.

I opened my eyes however, to the sound of footsteps. Pessimism overtook me, and I figured it was Mokuba or Honda moving to get something to drink or eat or something other of the sort, but my heart stopped when the feet paused outside of my bedroom door. Seto?

The door opened, but I feigned sleep. Did Seto ever even notice me whenever he came to bed? I had been starting to believe he hadn’t even been coming upstairs, just sleeping in his office or on the couch. But everything became real when he closed the door, locked it, and sighed tensely. I heard his clothes drop to the floor carelessly as he undressed, counting the articles of clothing that fell and finding even he had started to where his boxers to bed. After that, he didn’t move, and for a moment, I thought he’d actually accomplished the task of sleeping while standing. It felt like hours, but Seto did climb into the bed behind me, carefully, trying not to disturb my unmoving form although that was a hard task considering the kind of mattress we were on.

I kept my breathing even, as if I were really sleeping, and kept my eyes shut, waiting to see if I existed to him at this point.

“I’m sorry.” I heard him whisper, and was shocked to hear his voice unsteady.

“Jou forgive me, for not being around anymore.”

I couldn’t help the tears that welled again, falling down my face. Sobs were slowly choking me as I tried as hard as I could to keep them down. Seto’s hand fell lightly on my shoulder, and moved down my arm and then back up, his warm lips touching the side of my neck like a breath of wind, almost as if he were ashamed to touch me. My chest was beginning to hurt.

“I don’t want you to cry anymore, not over me.”

This time his voice was in my ear, and his hand was now moving down my side and onto my stomach. I wanted to hold my breath, but he would hear it, and it was killing to me to pretend like I wasn’t aware of what was happening. Another kiss touched my skin; this time my ear and I could almost hear the sad smile in his voice.

“You think I don’t notice, you think I don’t see that you’ve grown a little more each day for the past week. I wish I could see how happy you are whenever you stand in the mirror and see the same thing,” He paused, lips brushing my ear tenderly once more. “Wish you could see how happy I am right now, feeling the same thing for myself.”

I felt my nose beginning to run, could feel Seto lying down behind me with his arm still around my torso and his breath washing over my bare shoulder. The act ended when I finally had to sniffle, and Seto’s fingers stopped moving. Neither of us moved for a moment; before I took the initiative and moved my right hand down to hold his against my stomach.

“I just want to see you, Seto.” I managed to whisper, sniffling again and holding his hand tightly.

Seto sighed against my skin shakily, “I’ve missed your voice.”

“I’ve missed all of you.” I answered, still keeping my voice soft.

Seto leant up onto his arm, and I rolled a little so that I was partially on my back to look at my husband eye to eye. The normally ice blue was now dark, watery cobalt. But Seto was not crying, and the hold I had on his fingers tightened again. I felt an overwhelming rush of fervor at being this close to Seto after so long, my heart began to beat faster and my free arm came around Seto’s shoulders to pull him to me.

I let the dam break after that, and cried against Seto’s shoulder as he wrapped me within his arms firmly. I had been beginning to forget how safe it felt in Seto’s strong arms, had almost forgotten what his voice sounded like in my ear when he was talking to me quietly, whispering things only meant for me to hear.

He let me cling to him, the small sobs subsiding enough that I could breathe regularly and concentrate fully on the fact that Seto was holding me again, after so long.

“No more tears.” He whispered, kissing my cheek.

He lay like that for a while, Seto letting me burrow into him, letting me feel him for myself. It took a minute for my mind to grasp the fact that he was actually with me, and that I was conscious to it. I don’t know how long it took for my tears to finally stop, but when they did, Seto was still cradling me to his sturdy chest.

“Will you promise me something, Seto?” I whispered, voice stable now.

“I will try.” He answered, leaning back slightly to be able to look at me fully.

“Promise me that I’ll be able to see you.” I heard my voice quiver slightly, almost begging.

Seto watched me carefully, a great sadness filling his gorgeous eyes as it finally hit him just how hard it was for me not to be in contact with him at all for the past week. His lip twitched into a barely visible smile, one that held more misery than he would ever show me, and leant forward to finally kiss my lips apologetically. I fought back more tears, hoping the kiss didn’t mean he wasn’t going to keep this promise. I stiffened my hold around his shoulders, forcing him to kiss me more avidly, before I let him pull away so that our lips were still touching.

“I promise you Jou, to be with you every day for the rest of our lives.”

I couldn’t keep tears at bay, and in order to hide them I kissed him once more, just a slight movement this time, before he lay back down and spooned me to his chest. I lay my head on his shoulder, feeling his right hand touch my stomach once more and rub little circles around the slowly increasing size of our child, before exhaustion caught me, and dragged me into slumber.

~*~
TBC…
~*~

I figured since I took so long in posting for this story, (months, I think it’s been a year actually…), that I would post all three of the finally finished chapters for you guys. Don't worry, there's much more on the way, and I promise you that I'm really working on trying to get this one finished. I've gotten back into the 'groove' for this one, and I find myself daydreaming it's progress and where I could take it constantly. Never fear my fellow Yaoi-Fanatics, I shall return with more of a feast for your hungry eyes to read! *Takes off to her laptop*