Work Text:
Two lines.
Two goddamn clear lines.
Nene stared blankly at the pregnancy test in her hands. Her brain could barely process through what it meant. Moment by moment, it seemed like the clearest sign in the universe, and then like it was written in hieroglyphs. She squinted her eyes, trying to make them focus while the world nearly blurred out around her.
“Nene? Neneeee!!! Are you still there?”
She flinched and nearly dropped the thing. She’d almost forgotten she called Emu. For emotional support while she was sick, mostly. Or, well, “sick” now.
She scrambled to pick up her phone off the counter, almost dropping the test again. She felt like her fingers could barely grip her phone case now, like this had drained all the strength from them.
“Y-Yeah, I’m still here.” she called, probably louder than she should have. Voice volume control wasn’t her priority right now. She turned the phone away for a moment, still holding it while she kept muttering.
“Holy shit. Holy… Holy shit.”
“Neneeee, are you alright?”
“I thought I was just sick, Emu!”
“Did you take the test yet? I know you said it was unlikely, but you should just in case!”
“It’s positive, Emu!”
Nene felt her breaths catch in her throat when the sudden silence hit. She wasn’t even sure she could hear any sign Emu was breathing on the other end.
Until-
“CONGRATULATIONS NENE!!!”
Nene nearly dropped the phone now. She scrambled to grab it midair as it tumbled for a few long moments.
“U-Uh, thanks- I mean, no…”
“Hm? Nene… how do you feel about it?”
Nene had to pause for a few long moments while she tried to string together any sort of coherent idea. All that kept coming to mind were half sentences she created and then discarded before they could reach the end of a thought.
“Nene?”
“Sorry- Sorry. I feel… everything right now. Holy shit.”
She sat down on the ground with her back against the wall and put the phone down on the ground.
“Do you… do you not want it?” Nene heard Emu’s concerned voice over the phone, just barely while the phone was further from her.
The thought made Nene’s chest tighten all of a sudden, forcing words out of her mouth in a panic.
“No! No, that’s not- That’s not what I meant. I mean- I think I want it. It’s just- Oh my god. Fuck.”
“Nene?”
“Give me a moment. Just- Just give me a moment.”
She buried her head in her hands until her fingers blocked out all the light around her. The feeling in her chest wasn’t something she could name at the moment. It burned, it squeezed, but she didn’t feel like crying. She felt like hiding in the bathroom cabinet that was just so temptingly close to where she was sitting right now and never coming out. She felt like calling Tsukasa immediately and telling him the news. The good news. The bad news. The- She wasn’t even sure what kind of news this was.
She picked up the phone again.
“Emu?”
“Oh, Nene!!! Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah, I just- Okay. I… want it. I’m terrified, though- We didn’t plan this at all, I don’t know how Tsukasa’s gonna react, he’s totally going to freak out, I kind of always wanted to be a mom but I thought it was gonna be a lot later than this and we have nothing ready and oh my god Tsukasa’s gonna kill me and-” She realized she was rambling and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I… I would’ve liked to be at least a little more prepared than this.”
She heard Emu take a few deep breaths, loud enough that it came through the phone.
“It’s okay! Are you happy about it?”
Nene had to think about that for a moment too, but in the end gave her a nod she couldn’t actually see through the phone call. It was more for herself, maybe.
“I’m… stressed as hell, but… I can’t say I’m unhappy.” She looked down and put a hand over her still flat stomach. It seemed to fit there like the most natural thing in the world, like completing a puzzle she didn’t even know was missing a piece.
“Oh my god.” This time, her voice was filled with more awe than panic.
She heard Emu giggle. She couldn’t tell if it felt more like taunting or reassurance, but she swallowed whatever feeling she had about it in a thick gulp.
“You should tell Tsukasa!”
“That’s… that’s the whole problem. That’s what I’m worried about. Okay- okay.” Nene could feel herself beginning to panic again. “Oh my god. I need to just be put in a dark silent room for like, half an hour and have my brain turned off so I stop thinking. Holy shit, this is every emotion at once- fuck.”
She pulled her knees to her chest.
“Okay. So, Tsukasa is kind of the type to panic. I don’t… I don’t want him to panic- holy shit- I don’t know if he’ll like it. I-I mean, he wanted to be a dad in the future, but that’s the future and not now. I-I don’t know, I don’t know… I don’t…”
“Where is he right now?”
“He went out to the store to buy some medicine. We thought it was a stomach bug…”
“I can help you decide what to say! Here, rehearse with me!”
“Emu, I’m not sure that’ll be the same…”
“Well, how long until he comes back?”
Nene slipped the test into her pocket and slowly exited the bathroom. She stared at the front door down the hallway.
“Um- Ten minutes, probably.”
She heard the door unlock. So did Emu, apparently.
“Oh! Bye, Nene! Good luck!!!”
“Wait, Emu-”
She didn’t have a chance to plead with Emu before she heard the click and saw her phone screen go dark. She stood frozen, halfway out of the bathroom door and still holding her phone as the front door swung open.
“I’m back!” There was Tsukasa, with a grocery bag hanging from his arm. It looked a little too bulky to be just one or two boxes of medicine.
“Oh! Nene, you’re just coming out of the bathroom now? Were you in there the whole time- Did you get sick again?”
She didn’t have a chance to answer any of those questions between him spitting them all out one after another with no pause and the way her throat seemed to tighten on her.
Nene slowly approached the counter as he dumped out a bunch of boxes.
“Here, I got you some medicine for your nausea. Take some now, and I’ll remind you to take more before bed if you want!” He put one nearly in her hands. She spotted all the warnings down the side of the box, her eye catching on the warnings about taking it during pregnancy first. She pulled her hands away silently, sputtering for a few moments before getting out a coherent sentence.
“Um- No thanks.”
Her heart dropped as Tsukasa’s head tilted.
“Do you feel better now? It’s safe, I double checked.”
“N-No, I just… I have something to tell you!”
She felt a pit in her chest. She hadn’t even prepared anything to say beforehand. She could’ve at least waited a while more and gotten her shit together before blurting something like that out. But now, Tsukasa was looking at her with those curious eyes, waiting for what she had to say. It was now or never.
She reached into her pocket and put the test in his hand, pressing it into his palm for a moment before pulling her hand away to reveal what it was.
“U-Um, so don’t be mad.”
She watched for his reaction. Her heart sped up every moment as it seemed like he wasn’t reacting at all, like he was frozen in place. She was convinced he had stopped entirely until he took a single shaky step toward her.
And then he let out a low hum, almost like a whine.
And then-
Thump.
He was on the floor.
“Tsukasa?! Holy shit, holy shit .” She crouched next to him, only barely reassured by the fact he was still breathing.
“Tsukasa, are you okay?”
She backed up a little as his arm made a slight movement. He pulled just the top half of his body off the ground at first.
“Sorry, sorry, I-” He almost got up, and then she watched as his eyes reached the test still in his hand. “THIS IS REAL?!”
Nene almost would have chuckled, if she didn’t feel like she was about to have a panic attack.
“Um- Uh, yeah. I know we weren’t exactly… prepared yet. Yeah. Just- just don’t be mad.”
She saw tears forming in the corners of his eyes and heard his breath becoming shaky. It made her heart drop further. She wanted to take it all back, to hide, to be able to never mention this again.
And then, he just screamed. Nene pressed her hands flat over her ears.
“WE’RE HAVING A BABY?!?!”
Nene looked down.
“U-Um, yeah, that’s- yeah.”
That’s when the tightness released from her chest. Whatever was gripping her heart to the point she thought it would crush under the pressure, finally let it go. That was when she saw him begin to smile. Just a small smile at first, and then something that reached from ear to ear.
“YES!”
Nene didn’t have time to react besides letting out a shocked little squeak when she felt his body collide with hers, and then his arms squeezing her tight.
She didn’t know how to respond. She felt safe here. Warm. All the nervousness and panic melted off her body in thick droplets and fell away quickly. She found her breath becoming ragged and her lungs choked with tears.
Nene buried her head into his shirt and cried. Not with fear or distress, just relief and excitement. Feeling Tsukasa’s trembling body against hers, his contagious excitement radiating into her skin in a way that was warmer than sunlight, she felt like they could do this.
“I-I’m so glad you’re okay with it.”
“You’re kidding! Best. Day. EVER!!!”
She just squeezed him back as she heard him squeal. Usually, she’d reach to cover her ears, but something made her want to bask in it right now.
It was everything she’d wanted.