Nocturne
Slowly closing the book resting in her lap, Ami removed her glasses
and rubbed her eyes wearily. In the dim light of the lamp on her
bedside table she glanced down at her partner and smiled sadly. For
the last month and a half she had been as a woman possessed, driven by
the need to get so far ahead in all her studies that she could afford
to spend the first two or three weeks after Miki's birth giving her
undivided attention to him and his mother. Gazing down at Makoto's
hand resting gently on her stomach, she started to wonder if maybe she
hadn't over-done it just a bit.
As soon as school was over, she would walk Makoto home, then leave
immediately for the library, where she would do research until it was
time for cram school to start. By the time that was over and she got
home, Makoto, who was due most any time now, would more than likely
already be in bed, asleep. Thinking back over the last two weeks, she
realized with a shock that it was difficult to remember spending any
real quality time with her moody and emotional lover. Understandably,
love-making had pretty much come to a screeching halt for the time
being, but it seemed the only times they were alone together were in
the mornings before school, and when they were asleep. Ami had taken
to studying in bed, despite the bad lighting, just so she could at
least be near Makoto.
Tonight, as she had prepared for bed, she had noticed that Makoto
seemed restless, tossing and turning a bit as if she couldn't get
comfortable, her face clearly unhappy. Easing gently into their bed,
Ami had whispered quiet reassurances, and as she had settled into her
accustomed place, pillow at her back, Makoto's hand had landed on her
stomach. With a smile on her face, Makoto had curled up on her side
next to Ami, and finally drifted off to dreamland, her fingers gently
caressing Ami's tummy.
Reaching up, Ami placed her hand protectively over Mako's, which was
still resting, if quietly, against her and felt the slightly unusual
warmth of it. Most of the time, Makoto complained of being too hot,
and her physical appearance would support her words. Tonight was no
exception. Her face, now in repose, was slightly red, and she had
kicked off most of the covers, with just a small bit of her belly
showing from under the edge of her sleep shirt. As her eyes focused
on that spot in the dim light, she realized that she wasn't the only
one still up.
"Hey, little guy," she said gently as she watched the tiny thumps
against her partners belly. "Did my light wake you up?"
As if in answer, the tiny thumps returned with vigor, causing a
delighted smile to cross her features.
'I wonder if Makoto's right and he really does recognize my voice,'
she mused as Mako released her hand and shifted onto her back,
covering the previously exposed area, but revealing another, slightly
larger one.
Just as Ami started to miss seeing the tiny bumps from her playful
son, she saw them again, this time from under the newly exposed area.
'Hm-m-m,' her tired, yet still agile mind thought. 'I wonder if he
can see the light, and that's what's got him going?'
Turning off the lamp, Ami reached into the bedside drawer and removed
a small penlight, then scooted down in the bed next to Makoto's belly.
With a quick glance upward, Ami confirmed that her lover was still
asleep and seemed comfortable. Taking a deep breath, Ami raised the
penlight and flashed it over the exposed skin on Mako's tummy. As she
watched intently in the dim light from the window, a gentle tap hit
exactly where she had shown the light! With a grin of delight, Ami
unconsciously held her breath and tried again. Once again, a tiny tap
hit the area she had flashed! Deciding to challenge her new discovery,
Ami carefully exposed more of Makoto's stomach, and flashed a
different area. Sure enough, a small 'thump' appeared at the same
spot she had lighted! Enchanted, Ami continued her game, trying
different areas, always with the same result. One flash here. Another
here. Two more over there.
'Whoa! Okay, he had to have used his foot for that one,' Ami
concluded after one particularly difficult test.
Losing all track of time, she added flashes, as many as three, and
always the thumps hit right where she had shown her light. After
several minutes of this delightful game, she began to get the feeling
she was being watched. Looking up, she found her eyes captured by the
knowing, gentle gaze of her partner.
"Are you two having fun yet?" Makoto asked sleepily. Smiling, she
reached forward to run her fingers softly through Ami's hair.
"I'm sorry, love," Ami said, her guilty conscious kicking itself into
high gear. "Did I wake you up?" she asked, though the answer was
pretty obvious. "I really didn't mean to."
"It's okay," Makoto said as she watched the way Ami's blue locks
sifted through her fingers. Ami's eyes closed in pleasure as she let
herself get lost in the wonderfully relaxing aura she felt surrounding
her as Makoto continued to caress her hair. "Just what did you call
what you were doing anyway?" Makoto asked as she let her fingers drift
over Ami's right cheek.
After taking a moment to think about it, Ami opened her eyes and,
smiling at her lover, answered rather simply:
"I was playing with my son."
Unbidden, tears sprang to Makoto's eyes as she felt the depth of the
love within her almost as if it were a physical presence lodged within
the center of her chest, as surely as her heart was.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she whispered, "He's missed you,
you know."
"Yeah, I've missed him too," Ami said, stroking the rounded tummy of
her love, "but not quite as much as I've been missing you. Are you
okay?" she asked, gently leaning her cheek against Makoto's swollen
side.
"I'm fine," Makoto said, regaining her composure. "Really," she
reassured her lover. "I'm just, I don't know...tired of being tired
all the time, I guess. Tired of feeling bloated and fat and clumsy,
and..."
"Sh-h-h-h. Enough of that," Ami said as she hastily scooted up to the
head of the bed to wrap her frustrated partner in her arms. "I guess
I've really been negligent in my duties if you've started feeling this
way."
"The facts are the facts," Makoto said, even as she cuddled against
her smaller partner. "I'm as big as a house, I eat all the time I'm
not sleeping, which isn't very often, and I'm as graceful as an
elephant trying to perform 'Swan Lake'. You make the call."
"Okay," Ami said, tightening her hold on Makoto. "Let's look at this
calmly and logically. You're as 'big as a house' as you say, because
you're going to deliver a normal, healthy baby boy any day now. Your
eating and sleeping more are responsible for that. As far as
gracefulness is concerned, the additional weight of our son is
throwing off your normal center of gravity, so a bit of unsteadiness
is to be expected. Sweetheart, I promise, you'll be your old self
again in no time after Miki gets here!" Ami reassured her love.
"You don't think I'm ugly?" Makoto said, the words barely audible
against Ami's chest.
"WHAT???"
"It's just...I mean I know you've been studying awfully hard, and I
know it's so you can spend more time with us when Miki's born, but..."
"But nothing!" Ami insisted, fighting down her natural urge to
vehemently deny her lover's suspicions. "Silly Mako-chan! Love, now
you know that's just not true. Ugly? Kami-sama, Makoto!" With a
sigh, she pulled Makoto even closer to herself, burying her face in
the reddish-brown mane. Taking a moment, she steadied herself by
breathing in deeply of the rich and wonderful scent that was her
Makoto's alone.
"Don't you know, my love, that you are the very definition of beauty
to me?" Nuzzling Makoto's ear, she whispered, "You always have been.
At all times and in all places. The way you walk. The way you move.
Your voice. The way you smile. The way you think. The way your hair
curls up at the end of your ponytail." She felt Makoto chuckle and
snuggle closer. "I love everything about you," Ami continued. "I love
your eyes. Did I ever tell you how much I love your eyes?"
"No," Makoto said against Ami's neck.
"Well then, just let me say this," Ami said, kissing Makoto's
forehead. "I love your eyes! The way they sparkle when you're happy.
The way they flash when you're not." Again, she felt Makoto chuckle.
Lowering her voice, she whispered, "And I really love the special way
they glow, just for me, when we make love." Ami rejoiced in the
shiver she felt from Makoto at her words, as it echoed her own.
"Ugly?" she questioned, taking Makoto's chin in her hand and raising
her face to see her eyes. "You, my heart, are beauty itself," and she
sealed her words with a gentle, reaffirming kiss.
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