Archive of Our Own ^beta

“They don’t have it, do you want anything else?”

The silence that follows tells Toji everything he needs to know. He sighs through the speaker, making Suguru pout.

“I can’t help it, it’s your son’s fault. He really wants pickles,” Suguru says, running a hand over her slightly swollen belly where their second son is cooking in his sixth month. And he really, really wants some pickles. It must be him because Suguru never liked those sour pickles before, so clearly, it’s the baby who demands to be fed.

“I’ll check another store, alright? Don’t start crying again,” Toji grunts into the speaker. In the background Suguru hears the chatter of people, the beeping noise of a scanner, the swoosh of automatic doors and then he’s outside again. “Do you want anything else? I’m not going again later.”

“You’re so mean to me,” Suguru says, but she does so lightly. Maybe she did cry the last time she wanted strawberry ice cream, and her husband came home with pistachio. But it’s really not her fault. Toji only has himself to blame, he put their baby inside of Suguru after all.

“Thank you, I love you,” she adds, hears Toji hum in response—that guy. Suguru smiles as she hangs up. Several years together had taught Suguru that Toji isn’t a man of big words. Maybe she had minded in the beginning, when it had made her unsure and insecure about his feelings for her. They met when Suguru was about to graduate high school and Toji had been a few years older, always involved in some sort of shady business.

She found him on her way home from her night classes as she took a shortcut and stumbled upon his beat-up figure in the alley. All she got then were grunts and hisses, and he told her to piss off even when she started cleaning him up.

He hadn’t changed much, still mostly talked in grunts, rarely smiled but Suguru knows him. Knows he loves her and their babies because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be running around different grocery stores after a tiring day of work to get his wife some pickles.

Dinner’s ready, but Suguru keeps stirring it on low heat so they can eat together once Toji comes home. Right past the kitchen aisle on the dinner table, Megumi sits, swinging his little legs while drawing pictures that Suguru would probably later receive with the expectation of finding a spot for it on their already full fridge.

“Is Papa coming home?” he asks without looking up, having heard Suguru on the phone.

“Yup,” Suguru says. “He just has to get some pickles for your brother first.”

“Yuck,” Megumi makes, twisting his chubby face into a grimace. “Why does he like them? And how can he eat them if he’s in the belly?”

“Why do you like ice cream?” Suguru asks, deciding to skip the part where she’d have to try and explain to a three-year old how a baby gets nutrients in the belly.

“cause it’s yummy,” he says and shrugs his tiny shoulders. “Pickles aren’t.”

“Everyone likes different things, don’t you think?” she laughs when Megumi shrugs again, not convinced that anyone could like pickles, but their conversation is cut off when the doorbell rings.

Did Toji forget his keys again? That wouldn’t be the first time. Just today though, Suguru wouldn’t scold him for it, he brings the pickles after all. She tells Megumi to make space on the table so they can have dinner, and the boy disappears to his room as Suguru goes to open the door.

Her greeting gets stuck in her throat however when it’s not her husband standing out in the dark, but a group of men. It does not take long for Suguru to see the metal pipes and baseball bats they’re armed with, held tightly by bruised fists. Suguru swallows.

“That’s not him, is this the right apartment number?” one says to another, who sneers back that it’s definitely the right one. They’re looking for Toji? Why? Suguru finds her bearings then, seeing the men momentarily distracted among themselves, she takes the chance to slam the door back shut.

But just shortly before it falls into the lock, a pipe is wedged into the opening, stopping it from closing. Then someone rips it back open and points the weapon in her face.

“Fushiguro,” he says, “Does he live here?”

Suguru shakes her head without thinking. Whatever this is about, she’ll find out later when there are no thugs holding metal pipes on her doorstep anymore.

“I just moved in recently, very recently actually, just last week,” Suguru lies smoothly, a skill she had picked up when she had started dating a certain delinquent and needed to convince her parents that she came home late because she fell asleep at the academy.

The men start grumbling among themselves, perhaps Suguru really managed to deter them.

“That bastard,” one mumbles, and it looks like they will leave. Suguru grabs the door handle and bows her head at them even if she is ignored mostly. Until someone’s eye catches on her finger.

“Where’s your husband, miss?” he asks.

“My husband?” she repeats, following his gaze to her ring finger where the silver wedding band had sat ever since she said yes to Toji.

“He’s got a wife, can’t believe it,” the thug says to himself.

“And she’s knocked up, too,” another comments, causing Suguru to cradle her belly protectively. The door is wedged open again, and Suguru falls back as they close in on her.

“Your husband owes us quite the sum, miss. You think he’ll pay more if his pretty wife tells him we’re here?”

“I think he’ll pay even more to get his pretty wife back,” another snickers.

Suguru swallows hard. She doesn’t know what’s going on, who these people are, and what the hell Toji did, but she wracks her brain trying to come up with something that would buy her time. If she got her phone, she could call the police—her phone!

“I’ll call him,” she says calmly, doing her best to hide the storm of anxiety in her chest. “I’ll let him know you’re here.”

“Do you think we’re stupid?” the leader says. “No, I think you’re coming with us. You can leave a message for your husband later.”

Suguru bolts. She gets a little head start, as the thugs probably hadn’t expected her to run out on them. She rushes into the hallway where Megumi stands, hidden in the shadows all this time, too afraid to come out. His eyes are wide in shock, and when he sees Suguru, tears well up in them. She picks him up and rushes into the bedroom, managing to lock the door just in time before a body slams into it from the other side.

“Mama?” Megumi says, as Suguru all but shoves him into the closet. She lifts a finger to her lips, trying to shush the little boy who’s sniffling full of confusion and fright.

“Stay in here and don’t come out, you hear me?” Suguru says sternly. Megumi shakes his head and reaches for her, but Suguru shuts the door and looks around for something—anything to defend herself with. There, in the corner of the room is the iron still out from the laundry she did earlier today. Suguru grabs it by the handle and watches the door shake under the force of several men trying to break it open.

Finally, it splinters, then breaks off its hinges and makes way for the intruders.

“I’m home,” Toji calls, drawing the door shut behind himself with a foot. Hands packed with grocery bags he kicks his shoes off. He can’t wait to put these damn pickles down. He’d picked up five jars in the other grocery store and as he stood in line at the checkout wondered if maybe their usual store was out of them because Suguru has been devouring them like there’s no tomorrow.

As he steps into the open living space, the first thing he notices is a burnt smell coming from the kitchen. He drops the bags on the dinner table and rounds the counter. Opening the pot left behind on the stove, he finds vegetable stew cooking but when he attempts to stir, half of it is already burnt and stuck to the bottom.

“Shit,” Toji grumbles and turns it off, taking the pot off the stove and placing it in the sink. “Suguru!”

Did she fall asleep again? Lately, he’s been finding her napping in the oddest places, slouched over laundry or on the dinner table. The second pregnancy had made her tired, and Toji had worried about exactly this kind of thing happening one day.

Good thing he showed up when he did, but that also means no dinner tonight. All they have now are five jars of pickles...he supposes one can order takeout once in a while.

“Suguru,” he calls again, making his way into the hallway. “Megumi.”

Megumi was never the type of kid that ran up to him when he arrived home, but he always made himself known somehow at least, accepting Toji’s big hand in his unruly hair, giving him a good ruffle. But he’s not anywhere to be seen either. A short look at his phone confirms that it’s too early for Megumi to be in bed.

“Sugu—” he cuts himself off. The bedroom door has a big hole in it, and barely hangs onto its hinges. In an instant, Toji’s heart begins to race. He rushes into the bedroom, finding a pure mess of ruffled sheets, splinters, and blood on the rug.

Fuck. Fuck.

Though it’s stupid, Toji tears all doors on their closet open, drops to his knees to check under the bed, leaves to check Megumi’s room, the bathroom, any space in their apartment where a frightened woman and a toddler would fit into. It’s a slim chance, but Toji holds onto it till the very end, to the chance that whoever had broken in here had been fended and chased off by his wife, and he’d find her and Megumi, shaken up but fine.

But they’re nowhere, and no one reacts to his calls.

Worst of it all, he doesn’t even know who could be behind this. He’s pissed a good few people off in his life, and he killed a fair share too, given that that is literally his job. The problem? Suguru didn’t know.

He promised her to straighten up his act when she announced her first pregnancy back then, but fuck did he not expect taking care of a then-girlfriend and upcoming baby to be that expensive. Call him traditional but he forbade Suguru from working when her parents cut her off for letting some mutt put a bastard in her, was determined to take care of everything himself. And he did. They get by. He’s making enough to pay the apartment, to buy pickles and whatever pregnancy cravings Suguru has, enough to not worry when the news of a second pregnancy came.

But now she knows. She’ll be furious. Toji runs a hand through his hair, wracking his brain for who could be behind this. He’ll gladly take Suguru’s fury, because suddenly he realizes that she could be...

No, no, that makes no sense, he thinks and tries to calm himself. If the goal was revenge, he would’ve walked in on two bodies tonight. But they took them instead, so they’re alive.

As if on cue, Toji’s phone dings with a notification. It’s a text message from Suguru.

Hastily he opens the message from the contact titled Wife, a contact name Suguru pouted at, because he wouldn’t even put a heart next to it. But the text isn’t from Suguru, even if it’s coming from her phone. It’s a photo.

Suguru in the back of some musty van, hands and feet bound tightly by rope and her mouth covered by a piece of duct tape, even though she seems to be unconscious. He doesn’t know if he’d rather have it that she was awake for all of this, but the blood on her face that comes from somewhere hidden in her dark hair concerns him. He knows better than anyone how deadly simple head wounds can be if untreated.

And Megumi is in the picture too. He’s tied just like his mother, but he’s clearly awake, staring into the camera with wide, teary eyes. Toji grips the phone so tightly, he hears it crack inside his fist.

You got an hour to bring the money you owe the boss, says the message under the picture. Don’t do anything dumb. The guys are eager to have a turn with your little miss.

Below is an address, but Toji doesn’t read it, instead he presses the call button and brings the phone to his ear. It’s ridiculous he knows—it’s not like Suguru would pick up. But someone does.

“Who is this?” Toji says.

“You don’t even know who we are? Have this many debts?” comes a voice back. “Let’s talk about this in person alright? After all, clocks’ ticking. You’re really lucky, are you? A pretty wife with tits like that...I can barely hold the guys back.”

Toji doesn’t rise to the bait, even when the way that guy speaks of Suguru makes his fingers itch with the need to cave his face in.

“Put her on the phone,” Toji almost growls into the speaker, earning himself a chuckle.

“None can do. Little miss is out cold—”

Toji hangs up. As much as it drives him crazy, he knows it’s no use trying to talk to these people. He’s only wasting time, wasting Suguru’s and Megumi’s time. And that of their unborn son.

He pockets the phone and calms himself. He doesn’t know how many there are, who they work for, what kind of weapons they have. But they’ll need to die, all of them.

“I’ll fucking kill them all...” Toji mutters to himself, running a hand over his face. He grabs his keys and heads out.

He arrives at the designated spot fifteen minutes early. An empty parking lot with a single flickering lantern illuminating the dark van standing in the middle of it. A few thugs are circled around it. Toji approaches, duffle bag slung over his shoulder—he’s still got no idea who these people are and what he owes them, but it wouldn’t matter.

“Ah, you’re here! Welcome!” some guy at the front calls and Toji recognizes the voice as the person he spoke on the phone with. “You brought the money?”

“My wife and my kid,” Toji says, setting his eyes on the van. The main-thug shrugs and motions someone else to slide the door open. The inside is illuminated so Toji can see her unconscious form sprawled out on the floor and the man with the hands under her shirt, who startles when he’s suddenly revealed.

“Oi, we said no touching!” the man from before scolds and bats him with his metal pipe. Had they hit Suguru with one of those...? That would explain why she’s still unconscious after all this time, but it also means he’d have to hurry and get her to a hospital sooner than later.

The guy in the van slides out and now all of them are looking at him in expectation. Toji can’t see Megumi, so he must be somewhere in the van as well.

“So,” the thug calls. “The money?”

Toji grunts and throws him the bag. As expected, all of them swarm around it like the pack of idiots they are, moving in close into one big pile to fawn over the heavy bag stuffed full with old newspaper. Toji takes the gun tucked into the back of his pants and shoots three of them dead before the group even realizes what’s going on and begins to scatter.

Now the main guy is already bleeding out on the pavement, but that bastard who’d been groping Suguru is still alive and coming at him together with the remaining survivors. He can get angry now, he decides. They’re away from the van, his wife and kid safe for the meantime. So Toji puts the gun away and slips a knife from his pocket instead. Knives, after all, are personal, and this is as personal as it can get.

Uncoordinated and spooked as they are, Toji ends up making short work of them. He saves that one guy for last and finishes him with the knife to the neck. Killing isn’t something he particularly enjoys, it’s just a job to him. But that, watching that bastard choke and wheeze on his own blood, that feels good.

As silence returns to the parking lot and the excitement quickly fades, Toji rushes to the van.

“Suguru!” he calls her, touching her shoulder to jostle her lightly. “Megumi—”

There’s one more left. Judging by the look of him, just a kid himself. He’s shivering when Toji’s eyes land on him, but he’s still holding a knife to Megumi’s throat.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asks as calmly as he can. Megumi is sobbing but can’t get any sounds out because he’s still gagged, but the rest of his body is stiff like he understands that one wrong move would end up hurting a lot. Toji feels the anger rise in him again—Megumi is just three, and that fuckass kid is holding him at knifepoint.

“If you don’t have the m-money...I-I’ll kill him,” he stutters.

“Fuck off and be glad I don’t kill kids,” Toji growls at him. “Now take your hands off him or I’ll break my own rules.”

The kid looks at him, trying to determine if what he says is true. He heard the gunshots, knows he’s armed and knows also that Toji just ended all of his colleagues.

“I’ll kill your boss later, if that’s what you’re scared of,” Toji says, and means it too.

The kid swallows heavily, then slowly takes the knife down. He moves away from Megumi, then past Toji with raised, empty hands like he’s some wild animal triggered by sudden movement. He looks like he’s about to piss himself when he sees the bodies strewn around the parking lot but then he rushes off into the night.

With all of them gone, tension bleeds from Toji’s shoulders. He frees Megumi first, rubs the marks on his tiny wrists with a thumb—really, who the fuck ties up a toddler? Megumi is positively shaken up, clinging to his arm so tightly his fists turn white as Toji moves to cut the rope off Suguru as well.

“Is Mama dead?” he asks in a tiny voice.

“No,” he replies gruffly, swiping Suguru’s long strands out of her face. The blood on it had dried. “Just asleep.”

“The bad man hit her with a stick,” Megumi says. Toji reaches out to ruffle his hair but hesitates when he spots the blood on his fingers.

“Did they hurt you?” he asks instead. Megumi shakes his head.

Toji grabs them both. Balancing a pregnant woman and a toddler in just two arms is hard work, but he makes do. He tells Megumi to close his eyes and dutifully, the boy complies until Toji sets him down in the front seat of their car, and places Suguru in the back.

When he gets in the driver’s seat, Megumi is looking at him with unsure eyes. Had he seen after all? Now that the whole mess is over, he feels guilty. Fuck, neither Suguru nor his children were ever supposed to know, weren’t supposed to see him do this. He’s not sure he could take it if his own kid grew to fear him now.

“What?” he asks, though afraid of the answer.

“Mama says I can’t be in the front seat cause I’m small,” Megumi replies. Toji gapes at him, then bursts into unexpected laughter.

“It’s a secret then. Don’t tell her.”

“Alright.”

Suguru wakes up dizzy, kind of numb but not in any pain. She blinks her eyes open but the light above her is blinding and makes her squint. Where is she? She’d been on the phone with Toji, then the doorbell rang and then...

Startled, she attempts to sit up.

“Megumi!” she calls, frantically looking around but a big hand pushes her back into the bed. It’s no stranger, but Toji who is guiding her head to lay on the pillow, and she is in a hospital room. Her husband is holding Megumi in his arm, the little boy fast asleep.

“What time is it?” she asks first.

“Almost 3 am. He wanted to be up when you wake but fell asleep ‘bout an hour ago,” Toji responds.

“Give him to me,” Suguru demands. Toji complies and helps settle the little boy into her arms. Megumi must be exhausted, because he makes not even a sound as Suguru brushes his hair out of his face and checks him for injuries. She can’t remember how they got here. Was she out this whole time? Tears well up in her eyes.

“I told him to stay in the closet, but he didn’t listen. He actually tried to fight these men, can you imagine?” Suguru says with a sniffle, placing a kiss on Megumi’s hair. “What happened? Who were they?”

Toji doesn’t respond. He places his hand on Suguru’s swollen belly instead, caressing it softly. Suguru feels like she could start bawling. Still so scared even though it’s over, but so glad that both her babies are fine. But her husband still isn’t answering, and Suguru is getting upset.

“You promised you wouldn’t do shady business anymore. Your job is paying fine, isn’t it?”

“Please,” Toji scoffs. “Do you really think construction work is paying enough to take care of a wife and two kids in this day and age?”

Suguru doesn’t know how to react to that attitude. It’s just how Toji is when he feels guilty, she knows him well enough by now. He’ll lash out when feeling cornered, but he’ll come crawling back later full of remorse. But Suguru has no patience for it now. How dare Toji act like she’s stupid for believing a lie he apparently crafted so carefully.

“You promised,” she says again.

“Look, I don’t get into fights or gamble, alright? This didn’t happen because of some unpaid debt.”

“Then why? What do you do that makes people break into our home?!” Suguru exclaims.

“Shut up, you’ll wake him up,” Toji says calmly. Suguru can’t believe him. But she does keep quiet then, turns her head away from Toji and swallows sobs.

“Suguru...”

“No,” she sniffles, pulling Megumi closer against her chest and buries her nose in his hair. She’s so mad. Terribly upset. Whatever Toji is doing could’ve cost their little baby his life. Their two babies. If Megumi wasn’t asleep against her chest, she thinks she would’ve turned this whole room upside down and put Toji in a hospital bed next.

But she’s tired. A numb ache returns to her head as the hospital meds begin to lose effect. Suguru closes her eyes again, blocking out the offending lights of the room, and though Toji’s hand on her belly feels offending now that she’s so upset with him, she lets it be.

They get home the next night. The doctors had kept Suguru for one more day but as soon as they deemed her fine enough to leave safely, the little family left. Once they step through the door of their apartment, Toji attempts to take Megumi from her, but Suguru turns away. Her back hurts, Megumi’s weight on top of that of her belly isn’t doing her any favours but she’s still upset with Toji. Her husband sighs as she makes a beeline for Megumi’s room but doesn’t follow.

She helps Megumi change into pyjamas and promises to stay until he’s fallen asleep. It’s only natural that the little boy is scared to be alone now, and if Suguru could, she’d take him back inside of her to keep him safe from the world.

She caresses his head and hums him a soft tune until Megumi is out like a light. Pulling the covers up and placing a plushie in his arm, she kisses his cheek and leaves the room, leaving the door slightly ajar for Megumi’s comfort, but also for herself.

She washes up then, changes into new underwear and one of Toji’s shirts that even on her pregnant form remain oversized. Though she’s mad, she heads to the bedroom, nonetheless. Sleeping alone out there...Suguru had not admitted to it out loud, but the whole thing had shaken her up as well. How could it not?

“I got your pickles,” Toji says and points at a jar on the nightstand. Suguru ignores it and sits on the edge of the bed, towelling off her hair.

“Thanks,” she mutters. The silence in the bedroom is tense. The door had been replaced sometime yesterday.

Toji reaches for her from behind, but Suguru shakes the touch off. But her stupid husband doesn’t let off. He runs his hands up and down her shoulders, presses kisses to her back, her neck, then her ear.

“Stop, I’m upset...I’m so upset!” Suguru exclaims. Toji says sorry as little as he says ‘I love you’ which is never. But Suguru can read him like an open book. He’s feeling guilty, trying to appease her with his touch and Suguru is one weak woman. She falls right into him, allows him to slip his hands underneath the oversized shirt.

At first, he simply caresses her belly, an innocent touch that fills Suguru with warmth. Then his hands wander until they settle on her full breasts. His hands are so large that he almost manages to cup them. He squeezes, massaging them always a little too rough for Suguru’s liking but every harsh touch is full of want and that had always aroused her more than she was willing too admit. He pulls and presses them together, playing with her tits like they’re an oversized pair of stress balls. Between his fingers he traps her nipples, rolling the brown buds between his digits until they turn hard.

“Stop it, it’s gonna...” Suguru cuts herself off with a moan. Her nipples have been sensitive lately, and her husband’s rough touches are sending tingles of pleasure right into her core. Even worse, the shirt suddenly grows damp where the material rubs against them, and she realizes that she’s begun to leak.

“Toji...” she mumbles. He notices the wetness on his fingers too, and without a second thought squeezes her nipples so tightly that she screams. Quickly Suguru brings a hand to her mouth to muffle her own sounds. A gush of slick soaks her new panties, Toji chuckles into her ear, milking her tits till the front of her shirt has grown wet, dark patches.

He helps her out of the shirt, so Suguru can see her own abused nipples, swollen and red from the painful touch. Toji lays her down on her back, making her hair fan out around her head like a halo. He kicks her legs apart with a knee and rubs her roughly through the panties. That’s the only warning she gets before he pulls the fabric to the side and shoves two of his fingers into her wet heat.

She gasps, covering her mouth once more as her back attempts to arch off the bed as a reflex, but her heavy belly doesn’t allow her to. He leans over her and grabs one of her tits again, squeezing her flesh tightly to watch the white liquid spill from her nipples. She knows what he means to do before he does it, and she means to say no—they talked about this! But all that gets out is a choked moan as he latches onto her tit and sucks on the poor bud like a candy.

Suguru feels herself spill into his mouth and he laps it up eagerly, sucking her deep into his mouth all while his long fingers fuck her roughly. They reach so deep inside of her, almost long and thick enough to fill her out completely—if she hadn’t taken his cock before, she’d be scared just about now.

Suguru closes her eyes and presses her hands hard into her mouth as the pleasure threatens to come to a peak. He’s making a mess between her legs, spreading her slick everywhere as he thrusts into her pussy. The noises are obscene, what he’s doing is obscene.

He’s biting her nipple at the same time his fingers curl inside of her, hammering up into that sweet spot that takes her over the edge. Suguru sobs out a moan as she cums, wetting Toji’s hands with her juices as the orgasm washes over her violently. Finally, he leaves her poor tits alone, pulls his fingers from her hole and shakes them off. Suguru flushes at that display but is too exhausted to turn her head away. But her husband, of course, isn’t done.

He’s naked in a second, nudging himself between her legs. His thick cock slides into her pussy without resistance. Thick as is it long, Suguru never not feels like someone just punched her in the gut. But Toji had long shaped her into the perfect mold for him. He fills her out completely, her pussy made just to take this cock and this cock alone.

He fucks her so roughly, and Suguru is reminded of a day long in the past when her parents had invited her to come bring a newborn Megumi to have lunch with them. Silly Suguru had gone, happy that her family wanted to get back into contact with her, only to find a strange man sitting at the dinner table, and her mother excitedly telling her that this gentleman was willing to marry her and even give Megumi his name. She excused herself to the bathroom and called Toji, asking to be picked up.

Toji arrived in record time, punched that guy in the jaw, drove them home, and then fucked Suguru so roughly, that hand-shaped bruised and love bites marred her skin all over.

Toji was afraid to lose her. Now as well.

Suguru lifts a hand from her mouth, running it up his muscular arm to get his attention. He complies and gives Suguru his hand, intertwining their fingers. They hold hands as Toji thrusts his cock into her pussy, and he watches her, never breaking the eye contact as she whines and moans from the overstimulation.

She comes again with a cry of his name. He fucks her through her orgasm and finally buries himself inside her to the hilt, spilling hot deep inside her.

Suguru shivers as he pulls out, breathing heavily, exhausted. She has no energy to tell him to stop it as he pulls on her pussy to watch his cum drip out in thick waves.

“I’m not gonna get any more pregnant,” she exhales when she feels him push it back inside her. He says nothing, but he doesn’t have to. Suguru knows what this is about and well...Megumi is here today after all because Suguru thought being claimed this way was really hot.

Toji cleans them both up. Helps Suguru into new panties and a shirt, then lays down with her and pulls her close. It’s silent again between them as Suguru rests her head on his chest.

“Will you quit whatever you’re doing?” she asks after a while.

“No,” Toji says. “It’s what I’m good at and it pays well.”

“I don’t care about the money. I can work as well—”

“Shut up,” he says gruffly. “My wife isn’t working.”

“You’re insufferable,” Suguru huffs. “I’m scared you know? Can’t you understand that?”

Toji stays silent for a moment, pondering her words. His face softens and the arm around her pulls her close.

“It won’t happen again. I promise. Nothing’s ever going to happen to you, or Megumi or that little squirt in your belly.”

“What of it does?” she asks but sighs and decides to let it be. That stubborn husband of hers, she should’ve known back when she married him that there was no changing him.

“It won’t, but I’m getting you a gun anyway. I’ll take you and Megumi to the gun range once the baby is here, you’ll learn how to shoot—”

“What?! No way!” she exclaims. “You’re not teaching my son how to shoot a gun!”

“That’s my son as well. And you’re my wife. I decide, end of discussion,” Toji says, making Suguru pout but she doesn’t argue further. They’ll see who has the final say, but for now, Suguru is positively spent. Toji turns them onto their sides, cushioning her belly with a hand so she can rest comfortably. When she’s about to drift off to sleep, he leans close and whispers something into her ear.

She blinks her eyes open in surprise, but her husband doesn’t let her turn to look at him. She rolls her eyes, smiling to herself.

“I love you, too,” she says.