Almost from the first time he had seen her, he had thought Tenten was beautiful. The first time they had spoken at the restaurant had been more than enough to make him feel hopelessly attracted to her, as if she had some kind of magnet. So his return to the country and his new semester of university had been marked by organizing himself in such a way that he could always devote his Saturdays to her exclusively.
He had come to believe that it was impossible to feel more attracted but he had been wrong about something. Yes, there was a way to feel unequivocally in-love and it was to see her completely flushed after having sex, with that innocent smile that she didn't lose despite everything they had already done and the way she shyly covered herself even though only a few minutes earlier he had seen her naked. He loved her company and the way Tenten walked around his apartment with only one of his T-shirts as a dress.
So, his conviction to introduce her as his girlfriend or at least to be able to go out on the street with her as soon as age was no longer an issue remained. And what better way to kill two birds with one stone in terms of showing her off to the world and his mother finding out than to go to some high society restaurant together.
It hadn't been in his plans, but that was how he had been found out the previous time. Still, it wasn't only for that reason that he had chosen that place to celebrate the brunette's birthday, it was that he really wanted to invite her to a nice place and change eating in plastic containers on the sofa due to the lack of a dining table in his apartment.
He went to buy the dress and not being sure of the exact size and not wanting to risk it not fitting he went for something loose, it seemed to him that the models he saw were a little tight in the chest and Tenten's breasts wouldn't fit there. Cautiously on a previous occasion he had checked the shoe size and with those two items plus the reservation he was all set.
Arriving at the restaurant he saw her slightly shy, walking only when he did and as she sat down she looked around. He clicked his tongue as he understood that maybe the place was too much and that's why she didn't feel comfortable there, however she didn't complain and evaluated the menu to choose a cream of mushroom and a salmon in butter sauce, for him he ordered as a starter a crab salad and a veal stroganoff as main course. While eating he saw her a little more relaxed, besides stealing his fries as had become customary.
He was the one who ordered the wine pairing for the two, and he saw Tenten wrinkle her nose as she tasted the dry white wine that matched the salmon, coughing slightly. So she was left with just the water. At least with the dessert he did see her smile happily with her chocolate volcano of which she gave him a bite and that was it, sticking her tongue out when he asked for more. So he decided to steal a kiss and taste the bitterness of the dessert again.
They left the restaurant with her laughing at that action, and went back to the apartment. Enjoying being able to have a night to sleep together for the first time. Sunday after dropping Tenten off at her place he received a text from Hana, their mother was upset and ranting about the house. He rolled his eyes, she had been delayed, miraculously it hadn't been the day before at the same time they were at the restaurant.
Obviously he knew that was going to happen, so he went home at once before giving his mother time to plan something, this time she couldn't send him to study far away because it was his last semester, but one never knew, she could find a vacancy in the next rocket to the moon and try to give him the place.
"What's wrong with your head?!" Was the greeting he received when he opened the front door and bumped almost face to face with the woman.
"Hi mom, I always love to know that I'm welcome at home." He said ironically and the woman frowned.
"What did I tell you about being with that beggar!" Hana at the top of the stairs saw him and he shook his head to keep her out of the way.
"Something about perspective and..." He pretended to think. "No, I don't remember anymore."
"She's an underage!"
"Not anymore," he clarified and he could see the woman's anger rising. "She just turned 18... so you can't accuse me of anything." There was silence, his mother was breathing heavily and he was just waiting now what she was going to say.
"Why are you doing this? Are you looking for a medal? Recognition for helping beggars or something?"
"Mother..."
"Wasn't your adolescence enough time for you to contradict me? Because this rebellious-son game doesn't suit you at your age."
"I don't go out with Tenten because of what you might think, I do it because I like being with her."
"Sure, a nice, brand new body." She put her hand to the bridge of her nose. "Have you ever stopped to consider for even a second what everyone will think when they find out where she comes from?"
"I've never cared, everyone can go about their own lives for all I care."
"Kiba, darling... she doesn't want you for anything but your money, gold diggers like her abound. You can't be so naive to believe that she really likes you."
"Mo..."
"Mother nothing, you're not being objective. That's why I sent you away to study, so that you would think things through... Why are you doing this to yourself?"
"I'm not doing anything to myself other than having a girlfriend who I have a good time and can talk about anything without her mentioning her family's business or trying to brag about her latest vacation in Paris."
"A WHAT?"
"A girlfriend, mom, Tenten is my girlfriend."
"For heaven's sake! You can't be serious." He held the look his mother was giving him. "Fine, bring her over for dinner on Friday. The three of us will talk about this nonsense and how things are going to be."
"How things are going to be? I'm not going to let you get involved in my relationship."
"No, but I will get involved in trying to do damage control before anyone else knows about her and the pigsty you pulled her out of." There was a slamming of the door as her mother left the room.
"Have you had your dinner yet, little-flea?" He asked raising his head to his sister who had listened to everything without moving from the place.
"No..."
"Do you want to go outside? I feel like going for a chocolate muffin or some cinnamon rolls." The younger girl smiled and nodded, going down the stairs and now hugging him as a greeting.
They went to a nearby restaurant and Hana only asked him about Tenten, not about the relationship itself but about her, their mother had deleted her phone number since the day classes ended and had strictly forbidden her to try to contact her since she had nothing to talk about. Back in his own apartment he took out his cell phone and wrote her a message.
Kiba:
We have dinner with my mother on Friday
.
She had reread the message several times before replying to him wondering if he had the wrong number, or the wrong mother. She had laughed while they fooled around before sleep overcame her, besides she had to get up very early the next day.
She had breakfast with her parents, coffee and bread before rushing off to do the paperwork to get her ID, she spent most of the day at the office and when she left she was hungry but happy. She sent the picture to Kiba covering the photo that was there, she had always heard many people complaining that no one came out well in that picture and now she saw it firsthand.
"Come on, let me see it."
"No! It's horrible," taking advantage that at home she had internet she made a video call and he on the other side laughed while she was complaining about the picture while she was eating.
She would have to make more rice because she was finishing with what was left in the pot she was eating directly, although well, it was a little more than a portion, it wasn't so much that it had already made.
"Please, you're beautiful so it can't be that bad." She shook her head because her mouth was full. "Come on sweetie, I've had a hard day at the university."
"And you want to make it better by laughing at me?"
"Of course not, it would be better if I had you here." She denied again. "Well, I could take advantage of Friday when we see each other to casually go through your purse."
"Didn't you say that we had dinner with Tsume?"
"Tsk, right." He put his hand to his chin as if thinking. "I'll think of something, but I warn you I'm going to look at that picture."
"Evil."
"But that way I like you," she blushed and nodded with a smile. "Will you ask for permission to stay that night together?"
"At your mother's house? I don't think it's a good idea."
"It's my place too, you know that... What if we came to my apartment after dinner?"
"I don't know... it's a bit secluded."
"Alright, let's survive that dinner first, and we'll see about that later. Okay?"
"A great plan."
They said goodbye because he had to study and she after making more rice to complete the meal went to the computer to review how to make a curriculum that basically included her name, phone number and name of the school she graduated from, because she had no work experience to add to it. She saw there would be a job fair the next day in a neighborhood near hers, so she wrote down the address and printed out several times the one sheet with her data that was the recommendation to attend.
She was surprised to arrive at the place and see a huge line just to get in, there were people of all ages lined up there. She patiently waited until she was allowed to enter a huge hall with several booths, each one with the respective name of the company it represented. What she had to do was to go through each of these, see if there was anything that didn't require experience that she could apply for, sign up on a form and then leave her resume. Once again she arrived home as the day was winding down, she was in no mood for anything so she laid down to take what was going to be a nap and it turned out to be more than 12 hours straight.
Wednesday was spent mailing her resume to the offers she saw, before she knew it she was munching on a pencil and strangely enjoying the taste of wood. She got up to remove the traces on her tongue and brushed her teeth at once. Thursday she was called for an interview on Friday morning, it was for a call center position and she looked in her closet what was the most formal thing she had for an interview.
She saw a spring floral dress she had saved from the previous year, it was one of her favorites and although it wasn't warm enough to be completely comfortable in it, she liked it because she thought it was appropriate for the dinner she had in the evening.
In the morning she showered hurriedly and after combing her hair she put on the dress she had chosen, struggling a bit to close it. She bit her lip, there was the result of overeating, and she noticed it so far because, unlike her skirts that were usually slightly elastic waist or the sportswear she used to keep at home when she didn't go out, this one was made of a material whose fabric was rigid. She looked at herself in the mirror from several angles, despite feeling tight it looked good, so she grabbed the heels Kiba gave her for her birthday and a light coat that she hoped would be enough because she wasn't wearing socks.
At the place they made her go to a room with many chairs and tables, there were several people gathered there. They gave her various sheets of paper with different tests that she had never seen before and finally around noon she passed with an interviewer who was asking her about her future plans, who she lived with and so on, the man frowned with the name of the school and she explained about the scholarship, after that he asked her if she really mastered English to the level that it said on the sheet and she nodded. So they made her stay for another written test now in that language and a new interview completely in English, they agreed to call her between Monday and Tuesday to tell her the next step in the process.
.
She was in a good mood as she waited because Kiba had agreed to pick her up, the job as a bilingual had a better salary so she hoped they would consider her. They went to lunch together because she was famished and then to the movies to kill time, amazingly she ate a big jar of popcorn almost by herself. As the sun was starting to set they drove to the huge property and she got her momentum before getting out of the car. She had talked to her mother the day before and she told her to be prepared for further insults from Tsume, her progenitor doubted that the woman was very happy about the relationship and the truth was that she was too.
Hana greeted her happily and hugged her all at once, praising how shiny her hair looked, and then saying that she had missed having someone to talk to and practically pulling her away from Kiba so they could sit together in the foyer. The young girl was telling her how her studies were going so far, although her mother hadn't liked it very much, she had agreed to let her study Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics, so she had started classes at a prestigious private university that had the program and unlike her brother's campus, it was in the city not too far from home, so she hadn't had to move out.
When they were told that they could go to the dining room they found Tsume already seated at the head of the table, so the two of them went to the left side and Hana to the right. The conversation continued to be led by the youngest of all who described each of her teachers and how some of her classmates looked like the ones at school, so she avoided them, but there were others she did like.
The starter was a spinach cream to which she added salt after tasting it, continuing to hear about the possibility of studying horses, she didn't remember Hana being so talkative but it could be due to all the time they hadn't seen each other.
"What about you? What have you been doing these past few months?" The bowl of soup was removed as it was empty and then they placed in front of her what looked like lamb ribs with a yellow puree, a red puree and asparagus.
"Not much," she tasted the red puree, it was beet and felt sweet, the yellow one was potato with something else but lacked flavor, so she added salt. A fortune that in the time she had gone before she had learned how it worked the salt shaker that looked like big pink crystals inside and was actually more like a kind of mill. "This week I finally started looking for a job, today I had my first interview."
"Really?" She had cut a piece of meat and tried not to wrinkle her nose. Had they purposely decided not to season anything?
"Yes," she took the salt shaker again and started to turn it so that the crystals broke and started to fall on the lamb. "They told me to..." And at that moment Tsume dropped her hand heavily making everyone's cutlery rattle and, in the process, alerting them by the sudden action
"FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" she was staring at her and she just thought it was the moment the woman would insult her, the bad thing was that in heels she couldn't run away. "How long is she pregnant?!" silence flooded the place.
"Who?" Kiba finally asked after seeing her and she shrugged off the accusation.
"Don't believe me stupid, tell me girl – How many men besides my son do you sleep with?"
"What?" She could feel the colors accumulating on her face, "with no one, and I'm not pregnant," she affirmed with confidence.
"Nobody at this table has touched that salt shaker more than you, in fact you've added a lot of salt to the food. I have two children, I have had many workers in the same situation." She pointed at her, "hair and salt. Are you telling me I don't know how to recognize a pregnant woman?"
"Mother, that's..."
"NO. What do you have in your head instead of a brain, son?" the anger wasn't abating and Tsume put her hand to the bridge of her nose. "I could put up with you wanting to shag her for a while and I've been thinking about how to make it not a complete scandal that you hang out with a beggar, but – How could you be such an idiot to get her pregnant?"
"I'm not..." she tried to affirm again but she stopped herself when she saw the woman's look that just like the first time seemed about to hit her.
"YUUKI!" one of the maids entered only a few seconds later. "Tell the driver to take you to the pharmacy and there you buy a pregnancy test," she was stunned by the order. "The kind that tells the number of weeks," the woman clarified.
"Right away ma'am"
"Make it several," was the last thing she said before the employee left the room.
Silence was what remained after it was just the 4 of them in the dining room again, apparently everyone's appetite was completely gone. She couldn't run away but she definitely felt like getting into a hole, she had gone prepared in a way to be belittled and to be called poor or a gold digger as Tsume had done on the other occasions, not for that outlandish accusation.
She heard footsteps of a new person and Tsume ordering something that she didn't make an effort to understand as she was immersed in her own head. She hadn't touched the glass of wine and the glass of water she had barely taken a few sips, so they put it in front of her and filled it to the brim, she grabbed it in her hands and began to drink all the contents in search of calming a little the accelerated beating of her heart and her mind that was now working at a thousand per hour trying to remember basic things like the date of her last period, it wasn't very regular but as far as her memory went it had been a thing of early February.
The glass was filled again and she began to drink it still engrossed in her head, thinking about the dress she was wearing and that it was a little tighter than before, blaming her overeating. How long had she started to overeat? The salt thing! How long had her mother been telling her that the food was salty? By the third glass she felt satiated, but she still tried to drink it, she didn't want to spend an hour waiting for the urge to go to the bathroom in the middle of that discomfort, the faster she felt like going the better.
"Do the honors," the maid had returned with a bag containing some boxes of different colors.
Tsume received it and uncovered one at random, handing her a plastic stick that was inside and a small paper with the instructions to make it. She nodded and closed the door behind her.
"You better not try to trick me or try to alter the test or I'll make you repeat it and I'll go in with you." She heard from the other side and although they couldn't see her she nodded after exhaling heavily.
Now she had the same doubt so she preferred to take the test and trust that the woman had made a mistake, at least the amount of water ingested had taken effect so she lifted the skirt of her dress.
She walked out of the compartment holding the test, before setting it down on a high table right there. The indications said it had to wait a few minutes so she had set the timer on her cell phone and was almost holding her breath as it reached 0. She startled slightly as she felt the device vibrate marking the end of the count and with apprehensive steps she approached beside the obnoxious woman to see what it said.
=Pregnant 3+=
She felt all the air rush out of her lungs as she read those words on the small screen and Kiba beside her hugged her at once, also not processing the news they were receiving.
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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.
Hope you like it!