The Homemaker [Spy X Family fic]

My So-called Friend's Dying Wish

As you began to hack up a lung trying to get the food stuck inside your throat, Loid rushed to hand you a glass of water while rubbing your back in comfort

"Are you okay?" he asked once you had settled down.

"Yeah. Just got food down on the wrong pipe."

"I didn't mean to catch you off guard."

"It's fine, it's fine," you said, taking another gulp to wash the uncomfortable sensation.

He finally returned to his seat and was silent for a moment until he was sure you were no longer ingesting something.

"So..." You glanced at him when he spoke, "About my question?"

You blinked. "I...I guess I'm fine with it," you answered after a second or two, "I mean, who wouldn't want a little person who looks just like you and me?"

Loid sensed that there was more to your words. "But?"

You sighed. "You remember what the doctor said," you shared lowly, eyes downcast, "It's not possible for me anymore. Not after...not after what happened last year."

From your seat, you watched him frown at the memory, likely recalling the horrible car accident that you and your father were involved a eight months ago.

Your father had died on that day and since his body was not found after weeks of searching, he was eventually declared as dead. Forensics claimed that his corpse were probably long consumed by the resulting fire when the car exploded from the impact which was why they couldn't find a single trace of his remains. You on the other hand...you were a miracle itself. Somehow, you survived the incident through sheer luck.

However, you didn't escape it unscathed. The incident had given you internal injuries so severe that the doctor, after a series of tests, finally declared that you could no longer carry children.

That, along with the sudden death of your father, devastated you. You remember being inconsolable for days.

Now that you thought about it, it was probably why Loid leaving for a 'conference' abroad had made you develop a sense of anxiety, especially as the days stretched on. You had feared that because you were a defective wife, he would leave you. But your husband must have seen through your thoughts, which was most likely the reason why he would call you as often as he could even though international calls were costly.

Shaking your thoughts off your mind, you glanced at your husband.

"Anyways...why the sudden question? Do you want us to have children?" you asked, curious. You figured that as an undercover spy in an enemy territory he would refrain from such a thing. It was one thing to marry you, but siring children with you? Even if you could, was he, a spy, even allowed to do that?

"I don't know. I never really thought about it before. But then I was given...I mean that happened and I..."

"What are you talking about?"

Loid hesistaed. As if he didn't know where to begin. Then he sighed.

"You see, I have this friend," he began slowly after a few minutes of silence, "Someone whom I grew up with."

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise. Friend? You didn't think your husband have many to call his friend. From your past observations of him, he simply regarded his colleagues at the hospital as acquaintances at best.

Really, the only people that you saw Loid exchange words on frequent basis was Franky, whom you think was his informant since he seemed to know things a few people knew, and possibly Sylvia, an attache at Westalis Embassy whom you met many times at the parties that your parents regularly hosted.

Funnily enough, the first few times you come across them talking, you once thought that they were having an affair. When you confronted Loid about it, his face actually contorted in distaste. That sort of reaction from your normally composed husband pretty much cemented that she was not his other woman. Apparently, she really was just a conversation partner who he finds rational and tolerable to talk to. But when you learned of your husband real work as a spy, well, it was easy to deduce that the woman was a colleague.

But you digressed.

Long story short, your husband didn't have many friends. Well, there were the guys of your circle of friends, but that they were pretty much the husband group that he occasionally joined in whenever you and your female friends want to do girly stuff together like shopping and going to salons to pamper yourselves. Which was why you were instantly suspicious of this so-called 'friend'. Did this friend even exist in the first place?

"And do I know this friend?" you asked him.

Loid looked at you in the eye, his face carefully blank. "No, you don't."

Very suspicious.

"I see. So what about this...friend?" you asked, playing along.

"He died just a week ago. And when I met with his lawyer, he told me something interesting," he stated, "Apparently, before he died, my friend learned that one of his late ex-girlfriends had died giving birth to his daughter four years ago. Because the ex-girlfriend no longer had any relatives left, that baby ended up in an orphanage. "

He paused, watching you freeze in realization from your seat.

"So when he died, he left a will stating that his last wish was for me to take care of his daughter in his behalf."