Chapter Text
Today was a good day. Akihito’s day had started out with a light ache in his hips he would never admit to liking, followed by good tip-off on a diet member’s illicit affairs. The tip-off had led to a fruitful stake out of which he would need to share the profits of with his un-official partner in crime Mitarai.
But since that was something that was easily brushed off considering it was front-page news, Akihito didn’t let the split profits bother him. He had finally received the pay for a photograph assignment that had been late due to problems at the bank.
At the store, they’d had his favourite pocky flavour which normally always sold out as soon as it was laid out. Not to mention that there had been no-one in line before him at the cash-register, allowing him to breeze through it without a problem with one of his items forgotten to scan by the sour cashier, meaning free.
Outside in the sun warming his skin under a blue sky, nibbling on a pocky stick as he walked with two full bags in hand, Akihito wondered if he should buy a lottery ticket. He hadn’t been this lucky since his early teenage years. Amusing, how low Akihito’s standards of being lucky were.
Amusing also, how easy this could get washed down the drain. Or in his case, flushed down the toilet. Reality check, his day was nothing like that.
Akihito’s day started indeed with a twinge in his hips, but also with his head in toilet bowl. His stomach was being funny, dizziness just making it worse. He wasn’t even talking about his mood, which swung from this to that at the drop of a hat. Not that he was the only one.
It was hot as balls outside. For some reason, in the beginning of the summer, it was crazy hot outside. It was only June, for Christ’s sake. It was no wonder Akihito was so moody, though normally, he liked the summer, spend every available minute in the sun as if he worked on solar energy.
Now, he didn’t have the energy for it. He was lethargic, tired and really just wanted to sleep. Coming out into the sun still helped with lifting his spirits, but a bed would help more.
Overall, Akihito just felt off. As he looked in the mirror, that feeling was confirmed. It wasn’t that he looked bad, but it clearly showed on his face that he wasn’t like usual. There were tired lines under his eyes, an overall sleep-deprived look on his face, the corners of his mouth hanging down. Also, he could really use a haircut. He just didn’t feel like it.
Pushing his bangs back with a sigh, Akihito left the bathroom where he had run into right as he had been preparing to leave to meet Takato and Kou to go shopping. In the genkan of the penthouse, Akihito slipped into his white sneakers.
He checked his clothing for the last time, pushing the front of his light cotton white shirt behind the waistband of his pale-blue jeans, adjusting the rolled up sleeves of the solid light-blue flannel that hung over it.
He glanced on his watch before moving out the door. The watch had been a birthday present from his mom. One he didn’t know he needed until he had it. The watch that he had had before, broke the day after his birthday, leaving him grateful to exchange it for the slightly more expensive Nixon kensington watch with light-brown leather straps. He was sure it was actually a lady’s watch, but he didn’t really care as long as it was useful.
Takato and Kou were waiting for him at the shopping-district, waving when they caught sight of him. Akihito’s wonder about why he decided to come outside on a day like this, was forgotten as he stepped up next to his friends before they continued to the shops to look for a wedding anniversary gift for Takato’s wife.
In the lingerie store Takato had decided on, the two blondes looked around unfazed while Kou felt a bit uncomfortable. The raven stuck to Akihito, considering the fact that their married friend was picking out the most raunchy and ridiculous things.
“Can I help you?” a store-worker asked and the trio looked up at her.
“Yeah, actually. This guy is looking for a gift for his wife” Akihito said as he jerked his thumb at the taller blonde who smiled.
“Okay, did you have something in mind?” the brunette asked as she directed her attention to Takato.
“Yeah, my wife and I just had a son and she feels insecure about her body. I want to buy her something to help her regain confidence. It’s not for me to look at but for her to feel sexy in” he said and the store-worker looked impressed.
“That’s a very nice thought. What’s her size?” she asked and as soon as Takato’s hands came up, her impressed look disappeared. Akihito and Kou couldn’t help but snort as Takato tried to show the measurements with his hands.
“You don’t know your own wife’s sizes?” Kou asked and Akihito shook his head.
“You’ve been married to her for two years. How can you not know what you play with?” he asked and Kou frowned pitying.
“And then people think you’re the smart one of us, I don’t get it” he said and Takato’s cheeks flushed as he glared at his friends. Even the store worker had to chuckle at their antics as Takato hissed at the idiots he had asked to tag along.
“I’ll just ask her” Kou said and pulled out her phone.
“Don’t tell her it’s for a gift” Takato said and the raven rolled with his eyes. Akihito shook with his head at his fellow blonde, his shoulders shaking with light chuckles. Luckily, after getting the sizes with an excuse of how Kou was shopping for his girl-friend, choosing became easy.
With a look at the time, Takato suggested to stop somewhere for lunch, something Akihito reluctantly agreed to. He wasn’t feeling too good yet, but being around his friends made him feel better. He had managed to eat half a bowl ramen before he had to excuse himself.
“Akihito, are you okay?” Kou asked worried as the blonde sat back down at their table. Akihito looked up and forced a smile onto his face.
“Sure, just tired and a little sick. Maybe it’s just the cold Chinese I ate last night. It tasted funny, but I was hungry” he said and Takato shook his head.
“Aki, you know midnight snacks are unhealthy” he said and Akihito scoffed.
“Yeah, whatever, daddy” he said and Takato grimaced.
“Please don’t call me that. I don’t want to know what kind of kinks and your partner have” he said and at the mention of partner, Akihito’s smile dampened. Of course his friends knew about Asami, they had figured it out a while ago, not that Akihito was all that secretive. Towards the two in front of him, he couldn’t lie to save his life.
“Is something wrong between you two?” Kou asked, noticing Akihito’s look at the table. The blonde looked up and gave a shrug.
“I don’t think that it’s important, but things are just a bit weird” he admitted and Kou and Takato waited in silence, gently coaxing the blonde to talk.
“We don’t really talk anymore” Akihito said and rested his cheek onto his raised hand, drawing circles in the table with his finger.
“I mean, we still sit together and have sex and such, but we don’t talk. I tried to, don’t think I didn’t. He just, shot me down every time I tried” he said and shrugged again, trying to brush off the uneasy feeling in his stomach.
“It’s like he’s getting tired of me, but he’s getting clingier at the same time. I don’t get it. He’s usually not that clingy, but now, every time we sit together, he has to touch me in one way or another” he said and shook his head.
“He’s always been rather difficult to understand, but I thought I was good at it. I used to be, but now I just can’t seem to get any height of him and I don’t know what to think of it” he said and glanced up at his friends.
“It’s like that, you know. The feeling before you hear the sentence ‘we need to talk’” he said and the duo across him grimaced, both having experienced that feeling.
“I know there is something going on, but nobody is telling me anything. And on top of that, I’ve been feeling like shit all week long” he said and shook his head, brushing his bangs back.
“I feel like sleeping all the time, I can’t stand the smell of tuna, I nauseous, I actually snapped at Emi two days ago. I just feel off and on top of it the situation with Asami, I guess it’s just the stress getting to me” he said and Takato shrugged.
“That or you’re pregnant” he said and both Kou and Akihito looked at him.
“Hey, I’m just saying. My wife was like that too when she was pregnant with Hiroto and male pregnancies aren’t impossible” Takato defended himself and Akihito frowned.
“They aren’t impossible, but they are rare. Like, only 9 percent of the total human population has the ability to become pregnant, no matter which gender or which partner. I’m not one of them” he said and Takato shrugged.
“You could be” he said and Akihito shook his head.
“Don’t be ridiculous. My mom would have told me if I was” he said and slouched in his seat, wanting the conversation to end. He didn’t want to think of the possibility of him being a carrier of the Mpreg gene. Asami and him had been going at it bareback ever since the beginning.
Have you heard of the Mpreg gene? It’s a genetic mutation that allows males to carry a child. Like females, they develop a womb during their time in their mother’s womb, despite being male. Just like females, they produce fertile eggs that allows them to be impregnated the same way females do.
Only nine percent of the complete human population has this genetic mutation. It might not seem like much, but it’s enough to make it recognized in the medical field. There is even a special city where people with the Mpreg gene can live together with others like them.
That was the exact text Akihito had read from his very first biology book when he was a child. It had stuck with him even now. There had been a time where being a carrier of the Mpreg gene had been an unwanted mutation, an abomination of nature. But that had changed and people became more used to the idea of men being able to get impregnated.
The cities that harboured the carriers still existed in a somewhat secret and protected area. New generations had gotten used to the idea and saw it as normal. As if it was a mutation like albinism or something.
Akihito had never considered the possibility of him being a carrier. Yet his friend’s words had sprouted a bud of doubt inside his chest. Something that led him to stop in front of the pharmacy on his way home. He bit on his lip before going inside, glancing back once because he knew he had a guard on him.
“Hello, can I help you?” the pharmacist asked and Akihito swallowed.
“Yeah, I’d like some vitamins tablets, a male pregnancy test and stomach relief tablets” Akihito said, mentioning the pregnancy test in between in the hope to make it sound normal. He ignored the look the pharmacist send him before he gathered Akihito’s order.
“They’re pregnancy safe, just in case” the older man said and Akihito wanted to die. He paid for his order before taking the bag and walking out of the pharmacy like it was on fire. In his mind, he was the one who had started the fire, to get rid of the evidence of one of his stupid ideas.
Because that was what it was. A stupid idea that Takato had mentioned. Akihito had just bought a test on a whim because his bottle blonde friend had told him his wife had had the same symptoms as Akihito had. But Takato was not a doctor nor an expect, so Akihito had just bought it as a silly joke.
Or more like, to reassure himself that it was just a silly joke.
Akihito looked on his watch after capping the test and putting it on the edge of the sink. Five minutes and he would be able to laugh. He would probably snort at himself for thinking of wasting money on something so stupid and throw the test in the trashcan.
The he would tell Takato and Kou and they would laugh about him, make fun of him that he had even been so gullible and stupid to believe Takato for one second. If he told Asami, the man might even talk to him again, if only to tell him what a brat he was for believing something like that.
Honestly, who knew five minutes could take that long? Akihito felt that he could run to the store for some pocky, come back, prepare dinner and be ready even before the five minute wait was over.
Akihito loitered in front of the bathroom-door, walking back in forth before it while his timer was blaring at him. He was trying to encourage himself, because really, how hard could it be? He would go in, take a look at the little screen of the test and have a good laugh. He laughed a lot, he could do this.
So Akihito did. He opened the door of the bathroom and walked in as if he was going to take a piss. He picked up the test, like he was checking the time on his phone. And he laughed.
Two lines.
Two fucking lines.
Well that brought a few things to light. Akihito’s mother, the person he had thought to have given birth to him, hadn’t. He was well aware of the fact that only men could pass down the Mpreg gene, so that could only mean that his ever-evasive father was the one who had given birth to him.
Akihito stumbled back until he was seated on the toilet, his thoughts racing. The people he called mom and dad were siblings, he knew this. His mother hadn’t hidden this fact and urged him to call her by her name. When he was alone, however, he called her mom. Because to him, she raised him and loved him, and thus that was what she was.
His dad on the other hand, was out of the picture most of the time. He was a national geographic photographer and he travelled all around the world to capture the most beautiful images. He had given Akihito his very first camera when he was thirteen and Akihito always received the very first prints of the magazine.
But Akihito had always thought that his mom had been the one to give birth to him and that his dad had just taken on the role of father-figure because his biological father was out of the picture. The positive pregnancy test made it clear that it was the other way around.
If it had been a female pregnancy test, he could have pushed it on possible testicular cancer. But with the one that was created especially for carriers, it was impossible. They were specialized to pick up on the hormones only pregnant men had. Akihito had.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, fuck, god-dammit” Akihito cursed, his vision blurring and his hands trembling. He let the hand with the test in dangle from his knee, the other covering his face as he desperately tried to force the tears back, biting on his lip until he tasted blood.
What the hell was he supposed to do now? He was 24, which wasn’t really a bad age to get children, but that didn’t mean he felt ready for it. That didn’t mean he wanted to give up his job. And then Akihito wasn’t even talking about how targeted he would be if Asami’s enemies knew he was carrying the crime-lord’s child.
Akihito chocked on the air entering his lungs.
Asami. Oh god, Asami. What would the crime-lord think of this? Would he be okay with it? Would he want to keep it? Would he deny it, but still support it? Would he force Akihito to abort it? Did Akihito want to abort it?
It was an option, to abort it before Asami found out and before Akihito would need to quit his job. But would he be able to do it? His mother and father always been against abortion and he had grown up thinking the same way. He agreed that in some conditions, it couldn’t really be helped. But he was in no such condition.
But maybe, he was just freaking out about nothing. Maybe the test made a mistake. Or maybe he had done something wrong. It could just be false alarm. He wouldn’t know for sure unless the doctor confirmed it. All he had to do was make an appointment at the hospital and he would be okay. Then he would know for sure.
Akihito fingers trembled, barely able to type in the number of the hospital front-desk. He could do this, no problem. He would go to the hospital, get himself checked out and then decide what to do. If it was false alarm, no harm done. If it wasn’t, then he would… he had no idea.
The blonde photographer literally had no idea what to do. He wouldn’t be able to keep this from Asami. Stopping at a pharmacy was easy to explain with the vitamins and the stomach tablets, but going to the hospital was something else entirely.
Akihito didn’t have a choice but to go. If he really was pregnant he needed to go to the hospital, no questions asked. After receiving a positive test, he couldn’t just ignore it. He needed to know the truth before he could decide what he would do.