After the first clashing of swords in the war which had the ultimate goal of surrendering of the weaker fairer party in favor of the more assertive and bolder party...
After the first fight regarding the future sleeping arrangements which had been won by Zane, Aria was bit by bit getting more dispirited because of the upcoming night, as time quickly flew by. But she had no choice other than to reign in any remaining denial words she had left.
Once Zane had brought out her behavior from the past, she had lost any arguments she wanted to add to her explanations. She was inhabiting the body of another, and she selfishly wanted the children that were about to be born.
As a result she had to accept the previous Aria's life in its entirety. If she was too reluctant or stubborn insisting on having her way, if she would not compromise... what would follow would most likely be a divorce. And with Zane's capability and power, receiving the custody of the children was as easy as snapping his fingers. Not to mention he sadly had a point... as a married couple it was reasonable to sleep on the same bed.
Moreover, he had been nothing but a gentleman so far and she did not dislike him at all. She quite liked their current lifestyle. Just like this living their life together wouldn't be too bad.
Without realizing it, Aria had lowered her bottom line in regards to how close she would be to Zane, thinking it was as far as she would go, as far as she would permit. But she was not aware, that once she lowered her bottom line once, she would be prone to lower it again, until she would have no bottom line left to lower.
'Aria, eat while it is still warm.' Zane said, when he saw that the small woman was looking dazedly at her plate filled with food, but had no inclination to start eating.
Seeing her lost in her thoughts, he could guess what she was still pondering about... it was the matter about sleeping on the same bed as him. She had been a bit dazed because of this reason throughout what had remained of the day, and she was getting more absentminded as night arrived. During the day she had still been alright... somewhat. But now she was completely out of it.
Perhaps he should have brought Pudding over from the mansion during the day, especially since Aria had asked about him. But bringing Pudding over, naturally meant bringing a maid with him also. The small dog was still not trained where he could do his needs and Aria could not look after him alone without tiring herself out.
So he had reasoned with her that, each day from Monday to Friday, a maid would come with the dog as long as he was at work, for Aria to play with him to her heart's content, but would bring him back to the mansion when his working hours ended.
It was better for the dog to have the possibility to also play outside in the garden of the mansion, a possibility the apartment couldn't offer. Believing his logical arguments, Aria agreed that the dog might not get enough fresh air in the apartment and readily complied with his arrangement.
Naturally, his real reason was that with the maid with them in the apartment he could not bond with Aria, and get along with her, reaching his ultimate goal of becoming a real wife and husband. Their interactions would become limited with a third person between them. Aria felt comfortable with the maids and considered them her friends, she would most likely neglect him if one of them was with her all the time. But these words he had not told Aria, well... it was not necessary for her to know, he reasoned.
Still he should have brought the dog over at least for today, to let Aria relax her mind and let go of her worries. At lunch she had appeared alright, she had eaten all her food, then she had relaxed on the couch watching some TV shows until before dinner. All this time he had some work still left to do and also wanted to leave her some time to get accustomed to the situation so he had only stayed inside his apartment's office.
But it seemed that his assumption of how she felt about the situation was a little more positive, alright much more positive, than it actually was. His heart ached a bit knowing he was the one who caused her unrest, but it was the only way to change her current view of him. A view that absolutely needed to be changed until the twins were born. It was imperative for her to regard him as her husband before then.
The time limit of the contract he had previously signed with Aria, before the latter lost her memories, was until the first child between them was born or five years had passed without conceiving a child. As the first condition was met, then the proceedings for the divorce would begin with the twin's birth. Aria, fearing he might change his mind later, demanded when they signed the contract to sign the divorce papers as well, and leave the documents to Aria's lawyer for safekeeping.
To avoid suspicions from the public's eyes, they would still be a married couple for a bit longer, then after a month had passed from the birth, her lawyer would submit the divorce paper that he had in his possession to be processed. And the only one person who could stop the procedure from happening was Aria. As long as Aria would fall in love with him, when the lawyer would call to confirm her orders one last time, she would cancel moving forward with the divorce. Thus he could only press forward in this manner.
'Aria, the meal is getting colder.' Zane reminded once again looking at the woman, who finally reacted to his words.
'Ahhh... alright.' She replied and started to eat the food Zane had just microwaved. Although the food still tasted alright once it was warmed up, its taste could not compare to freshly made food. But to Aria right now it made no difference.
She just ate for the sake of her pregnancy. It was unknown how long the renovations of the mansion would take. She had to get used to the situation, as nothing would change even if she felt uncomfortable and nervous.
Remembering again for the thousandth time of the sleeping arrangements, her face turned pale. Then a bit red, as she remembered how she had woken up in the afternoon. Then realizing the possibility of waking up in the next morning the same, she turned pale again.
The intermittent changes of her complexion and diverse expressions did not escape Zane's eyes. He looked at her wondering expression, her frightened one, her desperate one... they were all quite endearing. The ever changing color of her face was adorable.
But, though he liked the turmoil he had caused to her heart... though he liked that her thoughts were all on him, he was not one to torture her or make her feel too uncomfortable. For one she might become too wary of him, leading to a counterproductive effect, and for two it pained him to hurt her like this.
It seemed he had become quite weak willed when it came to Aria. As such, sighing a bit, he wanted to offer to sleep on the couch in the living room, at least for a few more days, until she accepted in her mind the change. Forget it, he thought, they still had time to prevent the divorce. But he did not manage to open his mouth, when the small woman's face brightened up a bit. He did not know what conclusion she had come to, but it seemed she resigned herself to the situation.
Zane could not tell just from her expressions, Aria's exact thoughts, so he wouldn't be able to tell the complex and intricate set of measures Aria was devising in her mind to restrain herself during her sleep... to make sure she kept her distance from Zane.
Well... not exactly complex as the set of measures momentarily had only 2 strategies, but still she was in the process of thinking up more.
The first strategy was to put two pillows on the middle of the bed, to assure she wouldn't have any way of crossing over to his side, but this could only be implemented after the second strategy. Which was... going to bed only after she was sure Zane had fallen asleep.
As long as he was sleeping, she could walk on her tip toes, take a shower swiftly then arrange the pillows between them and fall asleep as close to the edge as possible. Of course, with him near it would be quite difficult to fall asleep, but it would be even better. In this way she would be alert on any wrong movements she was prone to make. And if he saw the pillows in the morning she could just tell him that she needed them because she needed something to hug in her sleep, feeling uncomfortable because of her belly.
Smiling to herself a bit, as she marveled at her genius mind, she restarted eating her dinner happily. She was feeling as though she dodged a straight bullet to her heart, when unbeknownst to her she was not only unshielded from the said bullet, she even had her arms wide open to receive it. If she had thought of her genius strategy just a little bit later... Zane would have given in and would have left her sleep by herself.
Well the defeat of Aria, was Zane's gain. He mentally stated, as he had tightly kept the words he was about to say to himself.
Finishing their dinner, Zane was about to start cleaning up the table.
'Wait, I will clean the leftovers.' Aria said resolutely, she had to have a viable reason for her delay in going to bed. No way was she going to let him clean the leftovers then possibly suggest going to sleep at an earlier hour.
'It is alright, I can do the dishes.' Zane assured her. Although raised with servants all around him, it was not like he wouldn't know how to clean a couple of plates, spoons and forks. It shouldn't pose any problems for him.
'No, I will do it.' Aria immediately intervened, as she rose on her feet and snatched the plate he had managed to lift from the table.
'You are pregnant. It is still better for me to do it.' Zane reasoned, he always saw Aria like a person he needed to protect. At the mansion, she always had maids around her, in the apartment he wouldn't let her suffer in the slightest.
'The pregnancy does not pose problems for moving my hands a bit. A pregnant woman is not a sick person, I can do this much. Don't worry. You can go and get ready for bed, alright? You should even sleep first, to recuperate your health better.' Aria reasoned, but did not wait for his confirmation, already collecting the dishes from the table and moving them to the kitchen's counter.
'If you don't want me to do them, then at least leave them for the maid, she will come tomorrow in the afternoon to bring lunch over. Your belly should still make it difficult for you to bend over to reach the sink, right?'
For breakfast in the morning, the ingredients were already in the kitchen. They ate light in the morning anyway, some fruits, milk and croissants were enough. So he had informed the mansion to send food over only at lunchtime, for Aria to eat a fresh meal, until then to leave the dishes in the sink was not a problem.
The care for her wellbeing, could not be felt by Aria who only heard the fact she could not reach the sink because of her protruding belly. His words were logical, but for the pregnant woman who kept gaining weight these days, getting puffier by the day, it only felt like an insult.
'I can still reach the sink, I am not that fat. And it's not good to wait for the maid, the leftovers would harden on the plates, making it difficult to clean them properly. Go and sleep, I can handle the dishes!' Aria replied getting bolder, as the word belly kept ringing annoyingly in her ear.
Her determined answer made his thoughts of trying to convince her further stop. He was confused as to why she had informed him she was not fat, as he always felt the opposite, she seemed too skinny and small and actually needed to gain more weight, in his opinion. But somehow, her general aura felt like she would retort with even harsher words were he to say more. He quite liked this side of her, but it was better to not provoke the small woman, lest she changed her mind about sleeping in their bedroom.
Nodding his head, like an obedient husband would, Zane turned around and went to the bedroom to get ready for bed.
With the slowest speed possible, even stopping once in a while, Aria cleaned a plate, then stood still. Then took another plate and gently and slower than before cleaned the second plate. Her movements was akin to how a turtle walked on land, just like a snail burdened by its shell moved on a branch.
With sloth like movements she finally cleaned the dishes and the table an hour later.
Sighing to herself, pleased at the time she wasted, she reckoned that by now Zane was sleeping for a long time already. They had a late dinner, as they also ate lunch later than normal, so considering the hour if she were to enter the room now, it wouldn't be a problem.
With slow motions, trying to make as little movements as possible, Aria opened the bedroom door. As she expected, inside of it the light was already turned off, and no sound could be heard.
Pleased, she closed the door behind her, but as her eyesight had gotten accustomed to the well-lit kitchen, the room seemed even darker than it was, making it difficult for her to distinguish the exact positions of the pieces of furniture. She had only seen the bedroom once during the day, so you couldn't really blame her.
'Ahhh...' She voiced loudly when her little toe from her right foot checked where the edge of the bed was, or in other words, hit the corner of the bed. The force of the knock causing tears to appear in her eyes. It hurt her so much that in her distress, she had not realize the loud sound would wake Zane up.
The fortunate thing was that Zane had not woken up because of the noise, the unfortunate thing was that... well he did not woke up, because he was already awake.
'Aria!' Anxiously called the tall man, opening the bathroom's door. Responding to some emails on his smartphone, Zane had tarried in having his shower and naturally delayed in going to bed also.
As such, he had just exited the shower when Aria's frightened voice reached his ears. His wife was at this moment pregnant, and thus was even more frail than usual. So the loud tone, made his heart skip a beat, leaving him with no choice but to barely drape a towel on his lower abdomen, before quickly opening the door.
Hearing Zane's voice coming from the direction of the bathroom's door, Aria who was currently sitting on the edge of the bed looked up, with her face still scrunched up as she was waiting for the pain to ease out. But who would have thought that it only took a short glimpse up, to make the pain of her little toe that seemed unbearable, fade from her mind instantly.
With the bathroom light behind his back, the body that stood in front of the door could not be seen clearly, only his vague general shape could be traced. But in those mere two three seconds that she had her eyes fixed on his upper uncovered abdomen, Aria could still distinguish the muscled fit body of the tall man.
The toned muscles, the small waist that continued up to show a lean physique... it was for Aria, the eighteen years old girl who had never been close to the opposite gender, destructive.
'Hiccup.' Her small body rose with the involuntary hiccup, as her stare, still did not leave his body. She was simply frozen in her position.
'Hiccup!'
'Aria are you alright? What happened?' Zane quickly reached her side, seeing her face getting even paler than it was in the kitchen. He was afraid that she had felt faint, and thus could not even stand on her feet to reach her bedside.
The small woman's pale face was a clear sign she was really unwell, though as he crouched down in front of her, the white color disappeared, as a red shade quickly emerged from the round cheeks.
'Hiccup!'
'Aria, what's wrong? Did you get dizzy?' He expressly asked, as the muscles of his upper abdomen moved along with the hand that was trying to reach her face. With her eyes already getting adjusted to the darkness, the view was getting clearer by the second.
'N-nothing happened! I... I am going to sleep!' Aria finally spoke, and with a speed she did not know she was capable of displaying with her current body's condition, swiftly climbed the bed backwards and got under the covers.
'Are you really alright?' Zane asked again, looking towards the small cocoon that had appeared under the blanket. He realized what the blush had been about, when he saw how quickly she backed away from him, but not knowing the cause of her earlier yelling voice still worried him.
'Y-yeah. I just hurt my toe a bit, now I am okay. I am really sleepy. Good night!' She quickly said, from under the covers, from which not even the smallest strand of hair could be seen. She had not taken a shower yet, brushed her teeth, or changed her clothes, but she wouldn't get up to do her night routine even if you forced her right now.
Zane did not ask her more, realizing the reason for her unrest, and only chuckled a bit inaudibly as he returned to the bathroom to put on a t-shirt and a pair of pants, before returning to the bedroom.
The blanket being lifted as another person slipped under the covers could clearly be felt by Aria, but the latter did not turn around, with only her body flinching a bit, sensing the sinking mattress.
How would she be able to sleep near the body she saw almost naked just a few seconds ago? She thought, as the image replayed vividly inside her mind. When he crouched down, because he had moved away from the doorway and came nearer, his lean abdomen was even more distinguishable. And as he looked up from below with that cold face of his, and slightly damp hair from which a bit of water still flowed...
'Hiccup!'
Really could she even sleep tonight? She almost wanted to cry, she had wanted to be a bit alert, but not this much.