Chapter Text
Bzzt bzzt!
Ena groggily opened her eyes and pawed around for her phone. She picked it up, rubbed her eyes open, and looked at the screen. She had two missed calls from Mafuyu. Her eyes went wide as she remembered everything that had happened.
“Shit!”
Ena flung out of bed and tore down the stairs, then stumbled into the foyer. She hastily undid the lock on the front door and tugged it open.
“Hey!” she greeted as her chest heaved up and down. In the doorway was Mafuyu, staring at her with her usual dull expression. She bowed.
“Hello. What happened?”
Mafuyu went straight to the point as always. Ena had to make an extreme effort to calmly bow back and not act peeved.
“At least let me make you some tea first…” she instead sighed. She stepped out of the foyer and into the kitchen. She noticed that the electric kettle still had water in it, probably from when Akito had made her tea earlier in the morning. She jabbed the reheat button and listened to the kettle hum.
“This doesn’t feel urgent,” Mafuyu commented. She turned her head left and right as she stepped into the living room, looking around as if she were waiting for something to happen.
“I swear to you, it is,” Ena griped bitterly as she rolled her eyes. Just then, the kettle beeped at her. She took out a tea bag and threw it in a mug, then poured water over it and brought it over to Mafuyu.
“Here,” Ena grunted, thrusting the mug at Mafuyu’s face. The other girl nodded in thanks and took it, then took a small sip. Ena hated how cute Mafuyu looked doing that. She hoped she wasn’t blushing.
“C’mon, let’s talk in my room,” Ena huffed, motioning with her chin toward the stairs. She then stomped toward the stairs, looking over her shoulder to make sure Mafuyu was following her. Once they were close enough, they both made their way up the stairs.
“You can put the mug there,” Ena said, waving her hand toward the night table, “and sit on the bed.” She then followed her own instruction and sunk into her soft mattress. Mafuyu did as told and sat next to her, just a hair’s breadth away from Ena.
“Wh-Why are you so close?!” Ena sputtered, her cheeks heating up as their shoulders brushed. Mafuyu looked at her pensively.
“Why are you embarrassed? We’ve had sex many times, this is nothing,” she rationalized. Ena grimaced. She wanted to flick her on the forehead for saying that, but it was unfortunately a good segue.
“Actually, about that…” Ena breathed out. Mafuyu perked up, then frowned.
“I thought you said this wasn’t about that,” she asked, slightly peeved. She lifted herself off the bed and began walking to the door. Ena leapt up after her, grabbing for her arm.
“Wait up! It’s not, it’s, Mafuyu, I’m pregnant!!”
It all came tumbling out at once, making Ena’s tongue hurt. Mafuyu, on the other hand, froze in her tracks. She turned around slowly, going pale. Short tremors suddenly racked her body.
“Oh. …Oh.”
Mafuyu’s voice was barely a murmur. She began wobbling from side to side, until she lost balance and fell onto the floor with a thunk.
“Mafuyu!” Ena grumbled loudly as she rushed to her friend’s side. She checked Mafuyu’s head to make sure she hadn’t hit anything on her way down, then checked her breathing to make sure she hadn’t died from the shock. When Ena felt Mafuyu’s soft breaths on her fingertip, she let out a sigh of relief. Not a moment later, however, she heard a hurried thumping up the stairs. She quickly lifted her head and turned toward the noise.
“Ena! Are you okay?!” Akito yelled, bursting through the door. Ena watched as he scanned the room with his eyes, then as his gaze lowered to Mafuyu. He squinted in confusion when he saw her.
“Why the hell is Asahina-san passed out on your floor?”
“She fainted when I told her,” Ena grumbled exasperatedly, putting her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe she had the worst reaction!” Akito let out a choked sound.
“Wait, Asahina-san is the other parent?” he asked, baffled.
Shit.
“Wait, don’t tell anyone!” Ena sputtered. She hadn’t meant to out Mafuyu like that. Damn her big mouth today!
“I-I won’t,” Akito replied hesitantly, still in shock. He stared awkwardly at the fainted girl. Ena furrowed her eyebrows angrily.
“I’m serious! If you out her, you’re a dead man!” Ena snapped. Akito let out a groan, then rolled his eyes.
“Says the girl who just outed her,” he pointed out, nudging his chin toward her. Ena groaned.
“Y-You were going to find out anyway!” she sputtered defensively.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Akito asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Sh-Shut up!” Ena spat back. Her cheeks were bright red. Akito’s eyebrows hopped up and his mouth went agape.
“You are thinking of keeping it! Why’d you get all pissed at me before, then?!” he yelled.
“Nothing’s decided yet until Mafuyu gets a word in!” Ena shouted, being pedantic to avoid her brother’s allegations.
“Urgh…”
Suddenly, a meager groaning interrupted their argument. Both their gazes shot down toward Mafuyu, who was coming to. With a hand pressed to her forehead, she got up.
“That… hurt,” Mafuyu huffed.
“Well, yeah, that’s on you for fainting out of nowhere,” Ena scoffed. Still, she offered a hand to Mafuyu. She took it and let herself be pulled the rest of the way up.
“…I’ll let you two talk,” Akito grumbled before turning around and leaving the room. He gently closed the door on his way out. Once he was gone, Ena sighed and pressed a hand to her temple.
“Do you remember what I said before you passed out?” she asked, her cheeks heating up. Mafuyu nodded.
“You’re pregnant, and I assume the baby is mine,” she replied monotonously. Ena’s eyes widened and her face scrunched up.
“Duh, of course it’s yours! Do you think I’m a whore or something?! The only person I have sex with is you!” she yelled. Mafuyu shuddered slightly, though she remained expressionless and silent. Ena eventually calmed down, shoulders heaving slower and slower until her breaths steadied. Mafuyu still did nothing but blink at her, however. Ena twisted her lips, frustrated. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she had no choice but to ask.
“So… what do you want to do?”
Mafuyu twitched.
“Do what you want,” she answered, cold as ever. It took everything in Ena’s power not to grab her by the throat.
“You’re not just saying that to get away from the responsibility, right?” she asked raspily. It physically hurt, right in her throat, to tamp down her rage.
“I meant it in the sense that it’s your body, so it’s your choice,” Mafuyu clarified. Her gaze then shifted to stare off into the distance.
“But if you’re asking me how I feel…” Mafuyu began gently. Ena nodded expectantly, eyes gleaming.
“I don’t know.”
And then she almost fell to the floor herself.
“Seriously, Mafuyu?! You don’t even feel something when—” Ena began to shout, but she was cut off by a weak whisper.
“…But there’s an aching in my chest. There has been ever since you told me you were pregnant. But the aching turns into a flutter when I think about you keeping the baby.”
Mafuyu looked so soft and vulnerable admitting that. Her eyes were a little less dull and… was that the tiniest blush on her cheeks?
“Mafuyu…” Ena whispered, almost in awe. Upon being called, even rhetorically, Mafuyu turned to look at her.
“I don’t know about becoming a mother. But if this is happiness, longing, then I don’t want to let go,” she admitted firmly. Her eyes now gleamed with determination.
“…Me neither. I don’t want an abortion,” Ena admitted feebly. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead onto Mafuyu’s shoulder. She gritted her teeth desperately. “But I’m scared, Mafuyu!” She clenched her fists and gently hit them against Mafuyu’s chest.
“I think I am, too. I mean, I fainted,” Mafuyu pointed out matter-of-factly. Ena craned her neck so that she was looking up at Mafuyu’s chin.
“Why did you?” she asked, undoing her fist to poke Mafuyu in the clavicle. Mafuyu shivered at the touch, and perhaps at the question as well.
“…My mother…” she breathed out. “What will she do? What will she say? If being a parent means being like her… Do I even want to be one? Could I be one?” Her breathing became uneven. At their proximity, Ena could feel her heart speeding up. She felt her own heart pang with worry.
“Hold on! My mom’s nothing like yours, right? So, every parent is different…” she rationalized, trying to assuage Mafuyu’s fears. She felt Mafuyu shiver again, but this time it was because she was taking a deep breath. Mafuyu nodded slowly once she was done. Ena felt a small smile creep up on her, glad that Mafuyu felt better. But now that that crisis was out of the way, she fully took in Mafuyu’s words. A blush, too, creeped up on her and she felt her heart flutter.
“…But, um, if I kept the baby, you’d want to raise them?” Ena asked in a small, innocent voice. She was still pressed to Mafuyu’s chest, refusing to look her in the eye. But, all of a sudden, she felt Mafuyu’s large hands on her back. She was being hugged.
“I see little other reason to keep the baby otherwise,” Mafuyu admitted. Ena’snface twisted in desperation as her heart raced even faster. She bit her lip and snuggled closer into Mafuyu’s chest.
“Mafuyu, you’re so…” she whispered.
“I’m so what?” Mafuyu asked, baffled. Ena shook her head.
“Nevermind,” she huffed. “…So, what now?”
It was a good question. They’d decided, rather rashly, to keep the baby and become mothers. There was a whole slew of semantics that came with that, though. Ena really didn’t know where to start, so she hoped that the responsible Mafuyu would come in clutch.
“You need to go to a prenatal appointment,” Mafuyu said firmly, “to find out how far along you are and get your maternal and child health handbook.”
“Then, we should tell our parents. Since you’re sixteen, they can’t force you to get an abortion,” she continued. Ena froze up against her, then lifted her head frantically. There was desperation in her eyes.
“Wh-What?! Tell our parents?! You can’t be serious!!” Ena shouted.
“You won’t be able to hide this from them forever,” Mafuyu pointed out. Ena grumbled, realizing Mafuyu was right. She didn’t want to tell their parents, especially not her father or Mafuyu’s mother, but she was going to have to. She dropped a hand to her belly and clutched it protectively.
“They’ll need to know so they can fill out all the legal paperwork for us since we’re minors,” Mafuyu began to prattle on, giving no breathing room to the panicked Ena. “Oh, and another reason to go to the doctor is so you can find out what you can and cannot do while pregnant, and make changes to your diet, and…”
“Slow down, slow dooown!” Ena shouted, clenching her eyes shut. She pushed herself away from Mafuyu, then slammed her hands on Mafuyu’s mouth. Mafuyu squirmed away with a grunt.
“I’m just saying what needs to be said,” she hummed. Ena groaned.
“Yeah, but could you spare some sympathy for your pregnant… friend?!” she whined, pausing for a moment at the word “friend”. She’d been tempted to say girlfriend, but she knew that wasn’t the case and would not be the case.
Mafuyu and Ena’s relationship was an interesting one. It’d started with an argument that ended in a heated kiss, impulsive as Ena was. Mafuyu hadn’t rejected it, though, and actually bluntly said that it’d made her chest feel funny. With Mafuyu desperate to feel more emotion and Ena craving validation, the two of them became more and more intimate as time went on. But the further they went, the more boundaries they had to set. Mafuyu had told her that she didn’t know what love was, so it was best that Ena didn’t catch feelings. Ena had scoffed at her and said there was no way that would happen. It hadn’t, for the most part. Ena couldn’t deny that her heart sometimes raced around Mafuyu, but there was someone else she had romantic feelings for. Her feelings for that girl were much different than her feelings for Mafuyu, much stronger.
Still, it would’ve been so much easier to call herself Mafuyu’s girlfriend. Friend who was having Mafuyu’s baby was a mouthful.
“Ah, my mother just texted me asking me if I’m on my way home,” Mafuyu spoke up, breaking Ena away from her thoughts. Ena blinked a few times.
“What, already? But I, we, there’s still so much to talk about!” she stammered. She didn’t want Mafuyu to go just yet. However, the other girl had already begun walking away.
“I have to go,” Mafuyu insisted. “You should also get to the hospital.” She was acting cold as ever, but Ena noticed that the back of her ears had gone pink. Ena’s eyes widened, taken aback. Was Mafuyu being bashful?
“Er, y-yeah, I will,” Ena replied, relenting. With that, she escorted Mafuyu downstairs to the door.
“Take care,” Mafuyu said softly.
“I-I will,” Ena replied awkwardly. Then, Mafuyu left without another word. Ena shut the door behind her, turned around, leaned against it, and skidded down to the floor.
“So, did she take it well or do I need to beat her up?” Akito asked, appearing from out of nowhere. Ena flinched harshly, not expecting to hear his voice.
“Wagh! Akito, you ass, don’t sneak up on me!” she yelled, puffing up her cheeks. “A-And she was fine about it, thank you very much!” Akito rolled his eyes.
“What’re you guys gonna do?” he asked, putting on a more serious face.
“…I think I’m going to keep it,” Ena mumbled. Akito’s face softened into gentle surprise.
“Well, shit, guess I’m gonna be an uncle,” he sighed. He stretched an arm backward and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
“I’m gonna, uh, go get checked out at the hospital now,” Ena told him, throwing her hand backward and pointing a thumb to the door. Akito nodded.
“…Good luck,” he said gruffly, then lightly shoved her toward the door. “Get outta here.”
“I will, I will,” Ena huffed as she slipped on her shoes. She then opened the door again and left the house with a spring in her step.