Chapter Text
“Then you should have thought of that before running around with your legs spread like the slut you are!”
Her father tried once more to swing for her but before he could make contact, her mother instead caught the blow, letting it glance off her chin.
Inko gasped through her tears, scrambling for her mother, unsure what to do. Her father had been angry before but never like this, never so uncontrolled that he didn’t worry that someone could hear or see his abuse.
Apparently, the act of one last physical strike was enough to calm him to the point where he just snarled at both of them before storming off to his office. Probably to fuel his anger with a fresh bottle of whiskey.
Hopefully, they’d be safe upstairs before he could get to that point.
Inko half-sat, half-lay on the floor, just doing her best to breathe and clear her eyes of tears. The only sounds heard in the foyer were the ticking of the grandfather clock and the women’s heavy panting, broken up by the hiccups of Inko’s sobs.
Not sure how long they sat there, Inko was surprised when her mother stood on shaky feet. A strong arm wrestled around her middle and hoisted her up. Together they managed to slink upstairs, quiet, as if afraid to breathe.
Alone together in her room, Inko managed to make it to her bed before flopping into it and burying her sobs in a pillow. On the edge of the bed, her mother just rubbed gently at her back, dabbing at the blood from the split in her lip that had come from when her husband’s fist connected.
“Inko…”
“I’m not getting rid of it!” Inko shouted, jerking her head up, the tears coming back in full force. “I’m not hurting them because I made a mistake!”
“No, darling…” her mother said softly, her hand stilling between her shoulder blades. “I won’t make you make that choice.”
This was enough for Inko’s breathing to even out, if just slightly.
They sat there in silence for a long moment before her mother slipped off the bed, quietly padding her way to the closet.
Upon the top shelf, too high to reach without a ladder or a levitation quirk, Ms. Furuipawa floated herself up high enough to reach for things long hidden.
She dropped back to the ground and slipped back over to the bed, almost too loud under the deafening silence of Inko’s halted sobs.
“Here,” she said in lieu of an actual conversation starter.
Inko looked up, first to her mother’s face and then to the items in her hand.
They were stuffed animals. A cat and a kitten to be exact. Bright green eyes stared at her with almost a sad expression, surrounded by the midnight black of their fur.
She sat up and her mother put them in her outreached arms and she was almost surprised at how soft their fur was. Their whiskers were slightly stiff but not pointy. Wherever they were from, they were very extravagantly made.
“They were a gift, from my mother while I was pregnant. You had so many stuffed animals already and these had so much sentimental value, especially when she died before you were born. I saved them, and I decided that I’d give them to you for your baby. I just wasn’t expecting that to be barely sixteen years later…”
Seeing Inko shrink back into herself, her mother distracted her with a hand on her shoulder.
“I…I don’t really know what to say about this whole situation. I…You made some bad choices. They will probably affect you and this family for years down the road. You can’t go back. You can’t undo this. You can’t make this go away. All you can do is move forward.”
Inko was silent as she took in this information. Unconsciously, she pulled the animals to her chest and buried her face in their fur. Through her swirling emotions, she recognized the scent of the lavender embedded into the fabric of the toy.
“I…” she finally began to speak. “…will not abort them. They shouldn’t be punished for my mistake. I-I don’t know how I am going to make father see that but I-“
Her voice cracked and she fell silent. Most likely thinking of the danger she is putting herself in again and how it would probably be for naught.
“Just let me handle it,” her mother said, her voice more confident than she felt. “I think you ought to go to bed. It’s late.”
Too exhausted to argue, Inko nodded before going through the motions of getting ready. Ms. Furuipawa took the cats from the bed and moved them to a visible shelf, this time where they could watch over her daughter.
“Mom?”
She looked down to see Inko frowning at her.
“Yes?”
“You do realize I can see your panties. Right?”
A flush came over her cheeks as she realized that, yes, she was wearing a skirt while floating several feet overhead.
“Well, now I do. Thank you, dear.”
She floated down, landing soundlessly, before herding her daughter towards her bed.
Despite her daughter being a bit too old for the gesture, Haruka tucked the sheets gently around her body before kissing her forehead.
“I love you, darling.”
“I love you too, mama.”
Before she could talk herself out of it, she leaned back down and kissed Inko’s belly.
“And I love you little one.”
They both had to pretend that didn’t hurt as much as it did.
-----
It was well after dark when Haruka was able to slip through the house, feet half an inch off the ground while pushing along the walls. She faced the door she had been afraid of for most of her marriage and almost wavered. But the image of a newborn with a little tuft of green hair spurred her on.
It took another moment to swallow all of her fear but the second she swung the door open, a fire raged where it once was.
“Furuipawa Maru, you are going to listen to me and listen to me well.”
The addressed man drunkenly pulled up his head from his desk only to scowl at his wife.
“What do you want, bitch?”
“I want,” she snarled, “for my daughter and my unborn grandchild to be safe. After twenty years of dealing with your bullshit, I think I deserve that much.”
His scowl turned to a snarl.
“You expect me to care for that slut and the mistake its father doesn’t even want? Get the hell out. She’s going to have that thing removed tomorrow. I’ve already had to clean up enough of her messes, I’m not letting this my a stain on my reputation.”
Bile rose in her throat but before she could raze the man she once loved, his eyes unfocused before he slumped back into his chair.
“Stupid drunkard.”
She stared down at his passed-out form for a long moment before leaning around his desk and grabbing his trashcan, a decorative bowl she had on a shelf, then everything in the room her could possibly use for a puke-bowl.
A few barricades and other tricks she learned from the years under his thumb and he would be completely locked inside his office. At least until he puked all over his nice rug or his important papers. Maybe by then, he’d sober up enough to notice what she’d done.
Maybe she should be scared of that.
But maybe he should remember what happens when someone hurts her baby and now her grandbaby.
Now completely calm and cool, she had the confidence to walk back through the house, actually touching the ground this time. Once she made it a safe distance, she brought out her phone and dialed a number she hoped to never have to use for this situation.
It rang twice before a low female voice yawned out, “I was hoping this call would come in at a more reasonable time but this works. Is it time to get the hell out of there?”
Haruka couldn’t help but sigh into the phone.
“No, Mai. I…It’s Inko. She’s pregnant and the boyfriend skipped out. He apparently lied about his age and no one can find him. Maru heard about it and I thought he was going to kill her.”
She heard her sorta-friend’s breath hitch somewhere on the other side of the line.
“I managed to separate them but I need you to help me stop him from forcing an abortion on her tomorrow. I don’t think she’d mentally survive that.”
“Wow, I…I don’t know how much I can do. Especially at this stage and with the kind of lawyers he can get his hands on. I might be able to delay it long enough to get more together but that’d take more people and a whole lot more time.”
“Anything, Mai. I promised I wouldn’t let him hurt her and I’m failing. I can pay anything.”
“Alright, alright, I’m not worried about the money, remember? Just let me check your file.”
There was the sound of shuffling papers through the speaker.
“Mai, it’s the middle of the night. Either you have my file in your bedroom or you’re still at work. I’m not sure what I find more disturbing.”
Another yawn but Mai either didn’t hear her or ignored her.
“Well, I’m going to preempt this whole legal business with two things. Based on my general knowledge of previous cases these are probably going to be ultimatums.”
“Anything.”
“Okay. So, one, you’re probably going to have to use your compiled domestic abuse evidence either as evidence in this case or as blackmail to force our way into a trial in the first place. Which will either void it or at least make it very hard to use.”
A cold hand gripped her heart at the idea of being stuck with this man any longer than she had to but after a moment’s consideration, it stopped there.
“Done. What’s the second part?”
“This one’s probably worse. Inko is probably going to have to give the baby up for adoption.”
Yes, that one was much worse.
“Mai…”
“I know Haruka, but you know how hard it is going to be just to force him to let her carry it to term. He’s probably going to ship her off to the other side of the country to keep the whole thing out of the spotlight. And…can you imagine even trying to raise another unwanted baby in your environment?”
Haruka thought her heart was going to burst inside her chest.
“Is there any way-“
“Haruka. Like it or not, this is the best-case scenario. We don’t know if we can even fight him at all on this. I’ll do everything I can, but…”
“It’s…It’s okay Mai. It’s not your fault. Is there anything I can do tonight to help?”
“Get every medical document you have on Inko and maybe anything you have about your pregnancy with Inko. They might try to spin it by saying that the pregnancy is too risky for her. Also, pull any new evidence against your husband you haven’t given to us yet. And If anything, get Inko out of the house and away long enough so we can slap a legal label on this and stop him from forcing anything.”
“Mai?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“Oh honey, don’t thank me yet. We’ve got a long way to go.”