Work Text:
Isagi stared at the table beneath him, tracing the patterns of the wood with his index finger.
Next to him sat a manga, the latest volume of some series Bachira had recommended to him. He wasn't so sure Bachira read anything, but he decided to check it out and found himself enjoying the first volume. He didn't care enough to pick up the second, forgetting about it shortly after closing the book.
In front of him sat the seventh volume, containing the first big climax of the series, if his memory served him well. He had reasons to doubt that, a headache crashing against his skull, relentless with its torment for the last month.
His finger lifted off the table, reaching for the book. With his world falling apart, it wouldn’t hurt to read something much worse happening in a fantasy setting. He scrunched his nose at the stiffness of the paper as the manga slid into his hand. It was brand new, fresh off the printers, if he had to guess.
While flipping to a random page, he caught sight of the man across from him. Wearing the biggest shit-eating grin on his face, sat Kaiser, the purchaser of the manga, and the root of all of his problems. Even with the book obstructing his view, he could see how proud he was of himself for the 'gift'. This was their routine as of late—Isagi sat in their shared apartment waiting for Kaiser to bring him something that was just good enough to convince him to let the bastard live another day.
After all he’d taken from him, providing entertainment was the least he could do.
"It's an early release." The silence between them broke, confidence bleeding through Kaiser's lips and tainting the air with his sickening pride. Isagi's stomach churned, but he ignored it for the sake of peace.
Isagi sucked his teeth, running his tongue over the top row to purge whatever foul insults his hormonal instincts told him to hurl Kaiser’s way. Unable to force a smile, he settled for swallowing the acidic bile pricking at his esophagus like porcupine spines, and looked up. "Oh really?" He flipped another page, not absorbing a single word. "How'd you get your hands on it?"
He watched as Kaiser puffed his chest out, taking too much joy in bolstering his mediocre efforts to the heights of their meaning. "I took it from a kid hanging in the manga aisle waiting for the restock." The chair’s back legs creaked underneath the weight of his body, a nasty smirk taking form on his otherwise handsome face. Everything about him was sharp, eyeliner, the bridge of his nose, and especially his tongue. “He wailed pretty hard, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Except there wasn't anything dire about delivering another volume of generic shounen to Isagi in the middle of the afternoon. Isagi raised an eyebrow as the cramp in his stomach tightened like it didn't want to be related to the man either. He would apologize for bringing them into the world with a parent and a half if he weren't in so much pain, the pressure against his pelvis drawing out a quiet wince, cracking his hardened expression.
Kaiser's eyes widened in realization.
"Yoichi..." His breathy tone carried concern, sending a tremble to Isagi’s core that reminded him how he'd gotten in this situation to begin with. A wave of regret washed over him. As much as it was his first time being pregnant, it was Kaiser’s first time getting someone pregnant (or so he hoped), and they were both trying to play the cards they were dealt to the best of their abilities. Even if there was still work to be done, they had months to work on themselves and their relationship.
Isagi shook his head, fighting to smile before a question could follow. He didn’t have the energy to speak, and the quieter he stayed, the less real everything felt. The knot dissipated after a few stretches, his stomach settling slowly. Kaiser was still scanning him cautiously, but nodded in understanding. Respecting Isagi’s boundaries was already progress for him.
"You know.... if it were ours, I wouldn't do that." A chuckle let Isagi know he was joking, and like citrus in a glass of milk, it soured his mood instantly. He couldn't decide if the attempt at humor was better or worse than a genuine defense of his actions, but it disgusted him all the same.
Biting the inside of his cheek, Isagi lowered his gaze to the book. The grayscale ink splattered across the page finally came into focus, forming a drawing he could comprehend without the need for words. In the center of the page stood a woman with dark hair, some type of magical force forming over her head as she cowered in fear, a full blanket held tightly to her chest. It was one of those sequences where the audience got to flash through random characters, defenseless as they watched as their world ended in the most dramatic way possible. For a second, it soothed him. A positive pregnancy test paled in comparison to what could happen in his lifetime. He should be grateful that the worst of his troubles were small and, if he really desired so, reversible.
But like in all stories, there was a savior who would swoop in at the end, saving the innocents from their doom. That was the difference between fiction and real life. No one was coming to teach him how to handle his changing body or write him a manual on how to deal with Kaiser’s antics. He had to live his own life to figure out what to do, experiencing trial and error until he succeeded, before that, too, became something that didn’t work anymore.
The click of a camera caught his attention, the flash momentarily blinding his sensitive eyes.
Lowering the book, Isagi stared ahead to be met with a lens pointed directly at his face. He tilted his head, and from behind the camera appeared Kaiser, smiling at whatever he saw on his side. The photo must have failed to catch his annoyance, but he knew exactly how to give him a taste—
His lips formed a line as he straightened his back to clear his throat. “I wonder-”
Kaiser met his eyes, rearing to answer the inquiry.
"Is the clinic still accepting walk-ins?"