Work Text:
Aki tried not to fall asleep, but the possibility of leaving his eyes closed for a few minutes was too tempting. And so, situated behind her on the bed, while still hugging Himeno's belly, he breathed in her scent. He wouldn't know how to describe it if he were asked, but he would know how to identify it. That scent forever impregnated in his memory mixed with the aloe vera of the lubricant already used on her body. Even though the baby was no longer kicking, Aki didn't withdraw his hand at any time, thinking he might even get to hear the baby's heartbeat. Even if he couldn't, he wanted to feel her close. To know that she was there. That she was real. Then Himeno stirred a little, as if she wanted to turn to look at him:
“Are you asleep?” She asked.
Aki caressed again the area of Himeno's belly that he had covered with his hand by way of answer, taking his time to respond.
“No. I'm just relaxed”.
In those moments Aki thought about whether there was something he needed. But just being together with Himeno alone in bed, knowing that they were both expecting a baby and doing nothing but experiencing the postcoital moments... that was all he needed. Since they knew that a daughter was close to being part of their lives, Aki realized that he had no other more worthwhile goal.
That this was all he wanted.
Suddenly, Himeno stretched her limbs slightly, trying to get comfortable in that position lying on her side.
“You good?” He asked.
“Yes, but can we go to the bathroom?”
Although he hid that he was doing it reluctantly –just for the fact of having to move from her for a few seconds–, Aki slowly detached himself from her, willing to accompany her.
“Sure”.
Then the man, after standing up, approached her as soon as she sat up on the mattress until she was sitting up. There he held her from under her arms gently, allowing her to tie herself around his neck to stand up. They both knew she didn't need that much help to get up, and yet she didn't seem to mind all that attention at the moment. Himeno took advantage of the grip to end up hugging him and joined her lips with his in a kiss, chaste and simple. And, without being able to help it, Aki's corners curved slightly.
“You're more handsome when you smile” She commented.
Even though she was looking into his eyes, Aki had to look away.
“Well... you're always handsome”.
Himeno insisted as she gazed at those still curved corners, trying, anyway, to take the weight off her words. And then she wondered why, no matter how much time they spent together, no matter how many times they made love, Aki still didn't know how to fit any kind of flattery. She smiled; she had no intention of changing it either.
Then Aki brought his hand up to her face to remove a lock of hair that had been left near her eye.
“I'm going to run your bath, okay?”
She nodded as she watched him watch his own actions to prevent the simple act of holding her gaze from continuing to haunt him in an indescribable way.
While the bathtub was being filled, Aki took care to scent the place with lavender and mint. He also prepared the products to use on Himeno's hair. Even though it was just the two of them, Aki felt it necessary to cover himself again, even if it was only with his underwear. Unlike Himeno, who had no problem walking around her house naked whenever she had the chance, he always had some modesty.
He then moved his hand into the water to make sure it was at the right temperature.
“I'll help you get in” Aki declared, simply informing her.
Without saying anything, Himeno let herself be helped and, gently resting her hands on Aki's shoulders after putting her feet in the tub, she slowly descended until she ended up sitting in the tub. Once inside, she smiled at the pleasant temperature and, with her hands, poured some water over her neck and arms. With the same expression, Himeno looked at Aki.
“Get in you too”.
He raised his eyebrows slightly at her proposal, thinking it was unexpected. After all, he had prepared the bath for her.
“Okay”.
Then Aki stood up and removed his underwear. After putting one foot into the tub, just behind where she was sitting, and securing his position well, he prepared to put the other one in. And, positioned just behind her, he gently sat down.
“You weren't going to get in if I didn't tell you?” She asked.
“I didn't want to bother you”.
The water almost overflowed with two bodies submerged in it. Despite that, Aki made himself comfortable, sat on one end of the bathtub and let Himeno, a few seconds later, rest on him, just on the right side of his chest.
A few seconds later, however, Aki caught her attention.
“Wait”.
Gently, he pulled Himeno up.
“Look up for a moment”.
And so, he began to moisten her hair using only his hands and the bath water. It was a longer process than using the shower head, but she liked it no less. As she got her hair wetter and wetter, it seemed to look even longer. Or, at least, that's what Aki thought as he went about moisturizing it.
As he finished, he continued to let Himeno know every step he took in washing her hair until he found himself massaging the shampoo with his fingertips. Then came a moment when only the sound of the water caused by the movement of Aki's arms and the bubbles of the shampoo against Himeno's hair were the only communication that existed in that bathroom. In the same way he had wet her hair at the beginning, Aki began to remove the soap, always being careful not to let it fall on his face. Finally, Himeno ended up with his head resting again on his partner's chest with clean hair, but without any hurry to leave the bathtub. For his part, the man had no need to separate either. To know what time it was. Nor even to speak.
Then he looked at her.
He stared at Himeno's body on top of his, her knees bent but relaxed, causing her legs to be slightly spread. He contemplated how her navel, along with the entire belly area around it, protruded above the water.
And then he looked at her breasts.
He no longer remembered what their size was like before pregnancy. The only thing that was clear to him in those moments was that he liked everything he saw.
Then, while Himeno's body rested on his, Aki slid his right hand slowly down her belly, past her navel, and reached the lower part of her abdomen, where he finally rested his hand as if embracing it. And just like that, he stayed in that position without doing anything else. Aki noticed that, more and more, he didn't bother to hide how much he was beginning to treasure the moments when, together with Himeno, he did nothing.
In the end, it was the life he was looking for. A simple life in which everything went slowly. Without rancor, without hatred.
A life without revenge.
Then Aki returned to the present after gently caressing her belly once again. Oblivious to Aki's thoughts of gratitude, Himeno placed her own hand on Aki's hand resting on her skin. And suddenly, what started out as an ordinary gesture of affection transformed into something else entirely.
Himeno took hold of Aki's hand and brought it up to place it on one of her breasts. And there, she pressed it against her skin. When Aki turned his gaze towards her he realized that Himeno was already gazing at him. Without saying anything, Aki knew that she was looking to provoke him.
So, she squeezed his hand tighter and moved it over her breast, feeling Aki's phalanges catch her nipple.
“Wow, how impatient...” She commented without losing eye contact as soon as she noticed his erection waking up against her back.
However, Aki was not reluctant to accept her reaction. On the contrary, he moved his other hand to cover Himeno's other breast. The sensation of those breasts overflowing the capacity of his hands was enough to make Aki reach for more, so any attempt by Himeno to embarrass Aki died immediately.
Aki cupped her breasts with each hand underneath them, as if to hold them and keep them detached from the rest of her torso. She tried to push them together, squeezed them gently so that all her fingertips could feel them equally and played with them as if realizing at that moment how much he had missed it. Not forgetting the woman's sensitivity, Aki rubbed her nipples until they were erect, which happened in just a few seconds. Then, every time he ran his touch across them, he found the hardness of her skin.
“Himeno...” He murmured in a deep voice, unable to convey in more words each of his sensations.
She simply let herself do it, letting some casual sigh escape from her lips, as if it was clear to her that this was the only outcome of that bath.
“Ah...” She moaned slightly when Aki began to insist on pushing on one of her hard nipples.
He was aware that Himeno was more sensitive in those areas during pregnancy and therefore only allowed himself to experiment more if he got positive reactions from her. If she was the one who was there to give him passage, to allow him, to guide him... then Aki would continue to obey her wishes.
And so, despite keeping his eyes on his work, Aki shifted his gaze as soon as he decided to slide his right hand down Himeno's body, circled her belly and moved dangerously close to her privates. Once there, he slowly caressed her labia, appreciating how juicy the feel of her skin was in that area. Himeno allowed herself those moments to spread her legs even wider, as much as the bathtub would allow, and leave more room for Aki's maneuvers. Accompanied by her movements, the woman let elongated sighs slip from her lips at each caress as she tried to pull back her head.
Suddenly, Aki stopped abruptly.
“Look at me or I’ll stop”.
Those words had been uttered in her ear without any hesitation.
And so, frustrated at having stopped feeling his hands on her, Himeno turned her gaze back to him, who was looking at her with deep eyes.
If there was one thing Aki had missed the last time they had made love, it had been watching her face during orgasm. And then, after resuming their actions, that feeling of self-uncomfortableness that Himeno pretended to have provoked in Aki was beginning to be felt by her in her own flesh. Himeno tried to concentrate to avoid looking away from Aki's eyes, who was watching her with a hungry seriousness. While he kept his left hand holding one of her breasts, his right hand wandered in circles all along Himeno's sex. For a moment, Aki forgot about the intention and the pampering with which he had prepared that bath and thought only of provoking more signs and reactions from her to engrave them in his memory.
His erection was still pressing against her back, but Aki's priority in those moments was to seek satisfaction from her. Himeno's knees were moving the water in the tub to the point of coming close to splashing out. However, that was not Aki's concern. If necessary, he would scrub up later. But right there, all he wanted to do was watch Himeno's face contort from the orgasm that was about to take over her body. The woman's moans were getting louder and louder, unconcerned since they were alone in that house. Then Aki readjusted his hand position and tried sliding two fingers at her entrance, just the first few phalanges, while still stimulating her clitoris with his thumb. Himeno's chest was rising and falling without forgetting that she couldn't take her eyes off Aki.
“Akiii” She whimpered, not afraid to wear out his name.
This situation was not as she had envisioned it and yet it was far from disgusting her.
“Are you going to cum?”
Aki asked that question while pinning the dilated pupils of his gaze on her, unable to distinguish who was more on the verge of impatience. Himeno was only able to nod her head short and quick, trembling and pressing against Aki's hand as much as her body would allow. Then, without taking his eyes off her, Aki further tightened the intensity of his grip on his fingers and desperately sought her orgasm.
A small push of his fingertip against her left nipple was all it took for the delicious sound of Himeno's voice to bounce off the walls of that bathroom. He immediately noticed her vagina contracting and embracing Aki's few phalanges that had found their way inside her. As if suddenly Aki's warning had lost all value, Himeno threw back her head as she rode out her orgasm. Her legs, shivering, spread as wide as the tub would allow, letting Aki run his fingers in insistent circles over her clitoris to accompany her ecstasy.
Finally, Aki removed his hand from her sex and, as if it belonged there, placed it again on her lower belly. A few seconds passed until the speed of Himeno's sighs slowed down, the waters of the bath calmed down and everything became quiet again. Both were once again enveloped in a welcoming silence. Then, after resting his head again next to Himeno's, Aki spoke.
“You stopped looking at me”.
Although it should have been interpreted as a reproach, Himeno, with the happiness she carried over from her previous orgasm, could only showed a smile.
“Are you going to punish me?”
Hearing her lighthearted tone, Aki knew that they were no longer in that delicious tension he needed to keep playing, so he found himself unable to continue. Then, still gently holding her belly, he placed a kiss on her hair.
“No. You’re incorrigible”.
After all, seeing her face distorted by the pleasure caused by his fingers alone was enough to satisfy him as well.
And so, the two remained in that position, enjoying a few post-orgasmic moments in which they felt their pulses recovering a normal rhythm.
Among the stream of thoughts that wandered through her mind, now with more clarity, Himeno decided to share a very specific one.
“Aki” She called, trying to look for him with her eye from her position “We have to think of names”.
Although it seemed impossible, Aki enjoyed witnessing how the four of them had sat at the dinner table in absolute calm. He felt that, in those moments, he was able to focus solely on savoring the dinner he had prepared instead of correcting Power and Denji. Except for the small commotion of Power gobbling down her plate, everything was going on peacefully.
In fact, Aki thought everything was going on too peacefully.
Then he looked up slightly and it was at that instant that he saw that, as if Denji's appetite had suddenly vanished, the boy was not eating. Instead, and to Aki's disquiet, Denji was only looking at Himeno, who remained oblivious to Denji's attention. Aki was unable to continue tasting his plate. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on Denji, waiting for any kind of inappropriate comment, behavior, idea that might cross the mind of a person like Denji.
As he waited, Aki knew that he would not be able to anticipate any of the boy's actions. And so, his body went into a state of tension as he concluded that there was no way to prepare for something that was impossible to predict.
Suddenly, with an expression that was halfway between boredom and curiosity, Denji averted his gaze to Aki.
“Hey...” The boy said, “Where's the baby going to come out?”
At his words, Aki thought that this was the most innocent thing he could have expected from Denji, so he returned to his calm and refocused on his plate as he answered him.
“Through the vaginal canal”.
As if he had uttered a forbidden word, Power looked up from her dinner and turned her attention to the conversation to intervene in her own way.
“Through the PUSSY!!!!!!!”
“That's it, Power” Himeno added.
“PUSSY, PUSSY, PUSSY, PUSSY!!!!!”
Aki felt he had lit a fuse, but there was no point in hiding such basic information either.
“But a baby doesn’t fit in there... I mean, it can't be” Denji refuted, as if he was trying to work out a theorem.
“It does fit” Aki assured him in a slow tone, “That's how you were born too”.
From time to time, Power repeated the same word between each mouthful of food, as if Aki had sentenced that there was permission to pronounce it. On the other hand, as Denji's dinner was left forgotten on the table, the boy acquired a confused expression, trying to process the information he just received.
Not knowing what else to add, Aki finished his dinner.
If nothing else, that night was still one of the quietest Aki had ever witnessed.