Chapter Text
Ichiro and Kuuko were over, helping Samatoki and Nemu finish off the nursery. No one was letting Sasara so much as touch a screwdriver, and so he sat at the island with a melon cream soda, pouting.
“Oh, come on.” Samatoki smiled. “You know it’s for the best.”
“I know…” Sasara groaned. “But it's boringgggggg!”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be back to zero downtime soon.” He put a hand gently on Sasara’s stomach, which was now a noticeable bump, and kissed him. “We’ll never be bored again.”
Sasara smiled. “I hope so.”
The nursery was really coming together. They bought a crib and a glider and set those up along with the rest of the things in that room. It didn’t match the grunge in the rest of the apartment at all, but Samatoki was happy about it.
“Should we set this up?” Ichiro asked, looking at the box for the baby jail.
Samatoki looked at it. “Nah. We’ll wait until the kid is actually born for that.”
“How much longer is left?”
“6 weeks.”
“Wow.” Ichiro smiled and went out into the hall to see Sasara in the kitchen.
The 5 of them talked for a long time, about what they were planning to do, how things would go down, all of that. No new health problems had arisen, and it seemed like everything was going to be okay from this point on.
Eventually Ichiro cleared his throat. “Um. Sasara-san?”
“Sup?” Sasara took a sip of his soda.
“I’m sorry if this is a weird thing to ask, but- um…” He looked down. “You see, I haven’t seen this kinda thing since before my brothers were born and my mom was still alive. And this kinda thing is really cool- like magical. So… um…” He looked back up at Sasara. “Could I please touch your belly?”
Sasara looked down immediately. “Sorry, Ichiro. No.”
“Ah- That’s okay!!!” Ichiro rushed to cover himself. “Forget I said anything.”
Conversation seemed to move on, but Samatoki was hooked. Why did Sasara say no? Was he uncomfortable with people touching his stomach? If that was the case, than why hadn’t he said anything before now??? 27 weeks and Sasara had never said anything to him. Did he feel unsafe to tell Samatoki?
After they left, Samatoki kept his distance from Sasara. That night, he turned away from Sasara in bed.
“What’s wrong?” Sasara asked.
Samatoki debated whether he should tell him. He hated the thought that he had been making Sasara uncomfortable this whole time. He respected boundaries… why wouldn’t Sasara tell him?
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sasara cocked his head to the side. “Tell you what?”
“That you don’t want people touching your stomach.”
Sasara froze, but then his smile softened. “Samatoki, is this about what I told Ichiro?”
He nodded.
Sasara laughed.
“What’re you laughin’ at!?” Samatoki rolled over and away from Sasara.
“Nooo, come back.” Sasara scooted to him and leaned over him. “I’m sorry.”
Samatoki rolled back over and looked at him. “So. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Samatoki.” Sasara sighed. “Did it ever occur to you that my relationship with you is very different from my relationship with Ichiro?”
“No.”
Sasara’s smile returned. “I am not having a kid with Ichiro. I’m having one with you. That’s kind of a big difference.” He pulled Samatoki into his arms and kissed him on the forehead. “I love it when you touch me anywhere.”
“Kinky.”
Sasara laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah.”
“So are we good?”
“Yeah.”