Walking into the club that night brought a new level of excitement to their day as Michael led the way through the crowd to the seated area at the back of the room, where he could only just catch the sight of Paul trying out his latest flirting technique with a girl just before the corridor leading to the back room for VIPs. All afternoon they had simply enjoyed the sunshine, lying together in the park, talking and laughing together while he held Darcy in his arms. Their playfulness brought on by the explanation of his second birthday gift, had remained as a gentle undertone all throughout the day, making them laugh countless times, first when he had asked to take her wedding dress off just to make sure for himself that she wasn't wearing it. Then, again when they were lying together in a comfortable silence, Darcy almost near to sleeping until he lay his hand over her thigh, gently pulling her forward into the warmth of his body as she lay with her head on his shoulder, only to smile to himself and slide her dress up her thigh once more, trying to steal a glimpse of just what she was wearing if not the sexy negligee she promised he would see later that night. When she had asked him to be patient though, a happy serious tone had come into their conversations again when Michael had innocently let slip that he didn't really care to ever see it and that he would have been perfectly happy just to be able to see her naked and know that however perfect she was, and however many men would adore looking at her in her sensual outfits when she passed them, he would always get to see the real girl underneath it all. And he only felt his words were proven to be more right than he cared them to be as they walked through the crowds of the club, the pulsating eighties music doing nothing to humour him as more than one man tried to flirt with his wife as she passed them.
He was about to walk over to Paul and ask him to keep Darcy company while he made a phone call, but found that he had simply chosen to play out his new methods of flirtation in safety...keeping the girl he had set his sights on well away from his friends in case she decided not to respond to him as he hoped she would, saving him from the humiliation and making it much easier for him to lie about it...the rest of his friends sitting just a few feet away, taking up an entire two tables by themselves as they talked and laughed together. "Right girls, make some room...lover boys here." Mika's boyfriend Jonathan smiled up at the couple approaching the table, well aware that his girlfriend suddenly came to life upon seeing him, brushing down her hair and fixing the cloth she called a skirt. But he didn't mind anymore, as soon as he had found out she had cheated on him, with his best friend no less, he had insisted that they have an open relationship and tonight he intended to be as open as possible. He already had two girls, who were definitely not his girlfriend, sitting next to him, one under each arm as they fawned over him the way Mika never had no matter how explosive the sex had been. "Take a seat Mike, if you can find one." He grinned to himself as Michael took one look at the table, unwilling to leave his wife in Jonathan's hands, glad to see that the sofa where he sat was filled by himself and the two girls fawning over him, with Mika, Ronin and Kaede sitting on the sofa opposite him. He didn't know Mika's boyfriend or like the way he was whispering with one girl he sat with, while the other sat kissing his neck and stroking his thigh, but then Michael had always known he was a one girl man and he felt that to leave his sweet Darcy in capable hands, that wouldn't let anyone hit on her, he had to leave her with Ben and Nara. They were busy holding their own private conversation, arguing over whether the babysitter they had hired for the night was competent enough to look after their little girl, occupying two separate, single armchairs that kept them at a safe distance during their argument. Clearing his throat so as not to make them feel he was intruding on their marital dispute, he was glad to see that Ben could only smile in approval of their arrival.
"You're late...as usual." He teased him, looping his foot around the leg of the only other available single chair around their table before dragging it closer to himself and his wife as Nara and Darcy greeted each other with warm, sincere smiles and hugged. It was nice to see them get on so well and all Michael could do was smile as Ben told him to ignore their raging hormones as they began to talk about Keiko. "Take a seat. You want a drink? The first one's on me...we've got an engagement to celebrate." He announced, Paul walking back over to their table on his own, with a thorough agreement as to their celebration, suggesting they order some champagne as he perched on the arm of the sofa next to Kaede. But their words only made Michael smile to himself in recognition of the secret he and Darcy were keeping, glancing up at her to see the blush of her cheeks as she tried to pretend she wasn't watching him out the corner of her eye, in a shared amusement of the surprise they had yet to reveal to his friends.
"Yeah, we walked over so I'll have a beer." He agreed, taking his phone from his back pocket as Darcy sat next to Ben and kept up her happy conversation with Nara over the two men, neither woman aware of Ben's disapproving sigh when he heard them discussing Darcy's plans for a family. And he only disapproved all the more when he noticed the way his friend was staring at his girlfriend so lovingly, as though he didn't care that she had practically planned out their entire life together before they were married. "Listen, I'm going to give Tai a quick call, before he starts freaking out thinking something's happened. Baby, I'll just be a minute okay...you stay glued to this chair until I get back, I don't want anyone getting ideas with you in that damned dress." Michael teased her softly, kissing the top of her head as he turned to leave, only to be stopped by Paul, Darcy and Nara laughing at his words for just a moment before they began talking about the dress she wore.
*****
Nara couldn't help but admit that the dress Darcy wore was beautiful, a rich red that only showed off her blonde hair all the more as it sat in a high ponytail, the thick waves hanging over her shoulders as she sat forward. There was nothing innocent or childish about her dress or the way she looked in it, even though Ben had mentioned just the night before that she seemed nothing more than an 'innocent kid' and that he was happy Michael had someone who would keep him in his place and remind him of just how young he still was. But the dipping neckline, falling in nothing more than two bands of fabric to reveal the hollow between her breasts and halter neck fasten, the short length that was flared enough that Nara could imagine that her young friend wouldn't be dancing tonight for fear of just how much it would reveal if she twirled even an inch, seemed altogether much too grown up for Darcy's own good. Little did she know that it was the very dress she had worn on her first arrival at Michael's house and she had worn it with the very intention of stirring his recollection of just how much he had enjoyed it then. After all, he had openly admitted that it had been the sight of her in that dress, after he had woken from his nap that night, that had made it impossible for him to spend their first night doing anything other than making love. "So Darcy... how about I get you a drink while we wait on Mike?" Ben suggested with a sigh, once the two girls had finished discussing the intricate details of the dress she wore, which he saw as being nothing more than a very cleverly thought out way of making sure that no matter what Mika did to make her fiancé mad, he would be much too busy looking at her to let it bother him for too long. But just as Darcy opened her mouth with a smile, about to tell him what she wanted to drink, Michael leant over the back of her chair answering on her behalf as though she was incapable of making her mind up.
"She'll have an orange and lemonade. No alcohol." He insisted, reminding her of their plans to start a family, and if her biological clock was so perfectly ready for that to be an option, then he didn't want any mishaps or to give her any reason to worry if she did get pregnant so soon. He knew that if she thought back, after finding out that she was pregnant, perhaps that she had become pregnant during their trip, then she would instantly single out that one alcoholic drink and worry that it would do their baby some harm and he didn't want her to worry about anything, before or after she got pregnant.
"I'm sure I can have a glass of wine Michael. I'm not pregnant yet." Darcy protested with a faint blush as both Ben and Nara studied her curious as to why she would answer the way she had, even though theirs was the only stare filled with curiosity as Mika only seemed to feel an even more intense hatred and loathing for her as she turned and explained the situation to her boyfriend who had missed their prior arguments the night before. But she didn't like her, she had told Michael that much and tonight, she really was in no mood to cater to her jealousy and he had been warned that if she said one flirtatious or spiteful thing to make her mad, she wouldn't keep her mouth shut and keep the peace as she had the night before.
"Not yet angel, but I'm trying." He admitted, kissing the top of her head before leaving her to make his phone call, and all she could do was ignored the stares and smile at his reminder of the very fact that they were trying to have a baby and she should really have been focusing on that more and being more careful with herself. And when she noticed the curiously raised eyebrows that Ben showed her as both tables went silent, waiting to hear what new revelation they were going to hear from the girl who had stolen their friend's heart so easily, with not one of them being there to see it happen.
"So...you've not just been talking about making plans then?" He asked with a knowing, and what she thought was a somewhat approving smile, as though he liked the thought of her having children with Michael, who was his best friend and had been his whole life. And she really hoped he did approve.
"No. Michael and I decided there's no reason we shouldn't have a baby, or at least try..." She laughed the words in a nervous excitement, knowing it wasn't the last surprise they were going to get that night from their friend who had never kept any secrets from them before. She was going to get a reputation for being a bad influence on him Darcy was sure, but as long as Michael was happy then she didn't really care. "We both want children. It's something Michael's always wanted, ever since he started thinking about marriage and although I can't say I'd ever really thought about it before, I very badly want to give him children. I want to be a happy little housewife who sits at home, knitting and baking all day, taking care of the kids and waiting for him to come home from work. He just makes it sound so wonderful that I can't say no." She shrugged in a blushing admission of all that Michael had managed to change in her mind about, proving to them that he had changed as much about her as she had changed about him and to Paul especially, he only saw that as a sign of how happy they were together, compromising for each other. "Anyway, we didn't see why we shouldn't try to have a family. We love each other and we both want it, we're just as capable of being parents as any other couple, so why shouldn't we give it some serious thought and really try to have a baby of our own?" Darcy couldn't help but be happy with the very thought of it all, wondering why both Paul and Ben were looking at her with two very intense stares of pride that only made her feel uncomfortable about having been so open with her feelings. But the elation at the very thought that they would all be happy for them and their decision, was short lived as Mika suddenly snapped at her with the very much unappreciated and unwelcome opinion she had about their lives.
"Maybe because you're barely out of school."
*****
Jonathan was barely keeping up with the conversation, but he knew enough to know that when Mika snapped at the young girl Darcy, who she had already explained was the eighteen year old fiancée of Michiaki's, there was more jealousy than disapproval behind it. She wasn't worried that they were moving too fast, because they had only been together a week or because Darcy was still so young that starting a family might just ruin her chances of having a real life and living her life like the eighteen year old she was. She wasn't afraid that Michael's tendency to act like a thirty year old man with responsibilities to two companies and all that money he had, to take care of his brother and father and make sure they were happy, wasn't going to result in her having to force herself into an old woman's role of being a housewife stuck at home with a dozen kids, just to fit his life. All Mika had on her mind was that Michiaki had once been her boyfriend and she had never been allowed to sleep with him, it was a conquest thing with her and Jonathan could tell that she wasn't willing to let go of Michiaki, at least not until she had got him into bed. And yet, he wasn't the only one surprised by the instant come back that met her jealous words, spoken with more frustration and anger than the words she was responding to had been. "Age has fuck all to do with it Mika. I'm sure if Michael thought, just for one second that I was too young for him, he wouldn't have woken me this morning and asked if we could seriously start planning for a baby." Darcy couldn't help but let her frustration explode in an unconscious revelation of all that she and Michael had kept from his friends all day, admitting to much more than she had ever intended to with her words, though she was entirely oblivious to what she was saying. "And I'm damned sure he wouldn't have married me, or been so ecstatically happy that none of you got to stick your oar in, that he couldn't keep his hands off me." She finished angrily, surprising them all with not only her words, or the revelation that she and Michael were married, but the fact that when she stood from her seat and turned to leave, she walked right into her husband, meeting him face on as he stood motionless and confused.
"Where are you going?" He asked, unable to help but let them be his first words, scared that she was going to run off and cry when he saw the shocked and blank stares on his friends faces as they all kept their eyes on his wife, as though she had just told them she was already pregnant and that it had been their only reason for becoming engaged. He could see that Mika in particular was speechless, looking shell-shocked and all he could do was wonder what exactly had happened in his absence.
"It's really none of your business. But if you must know, I've got a secret rendezvous with a very hot Italian waiter...I promise I won't be long." Darcy smiled up at him teasingly, a curious and disapproving frown creasing his brow as he tried to figure out how she was able to show him such an honest and real smile when he fully suspected that she was about to run off and burst into tears in privacy. And for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why she was so happy that she was teasing him, almost in a deliberate attempt to make him so jealous he never left her alone again, when all his friends looked so confused and stunned at whatever she had said before choosing to leave. "Relax honey, I'm just going to nip to the ladies room. Don't be so nosy." She scolded him in a giggle, playfully tapping the tip of her finger against his nose before pressing her hands to his chest and kissing him softly, letting it linger on for a moment before stepping past him with a smile that he found all too puzzling for his liking. "I'll be right back." She promised as she left him alone with his friends, who he fully intended on interrogating until he found out the truth of what had happened in his brief absence.
*****
When Michael asked what happened in his absence, neither of his friends seemed willing to talk about it, Ben making enough of an attempt to cover the subject with a simple shrug, claiming not to know what he was talking about as he took a sip of his beer. Ben tried to avoid the weighty gaze of his best friend as he leant the palms of his hands against the back of the chair his wife had just been sitting in, the chair she had been happily sitting in when he had left her and when the matter was passed off as quickly as it was, Michael refused to let them get away with it. Something had happened and he knew from the way Ben couldn't look at him that it was important and that he wasn't so wrong to feel that Darcy might have been upset by it. "I thought you were giving Tai a call?" He wondered, ignoring the delicate matter they had been left to face without Darcy to admit to all that she had revealed, or at least what she had claimed to be true. And it didn't help that Paul was staring at him, urging him to explain everything, but he couldn't, it wasn't their place, it was Darcy's and he was going to leave it for her to settle, no matter how long they had to wait for her to come back from hiding.
"The phone's off the hook...it went straight to answer phone." Michael explained, still confused as to why Tai was refusing to take any calls when he had so adamantly requested before they left that no-one clogged up the phone line in case Kyle called, as he didn't want him to have to deal with Natasha's pregnancy alone. Which was entirely understandable, but not even half as confusing as Darcy's swift departure from his friends company and their silence her reason for doing it. "Now does someone want to tell me why Darcy's running off to the restroom to cry and why she feels she has to lie to me about it? We don't keep secrets and so I don't like the thought that something happened that's suddenly made it important for her to not tell me about it." He made sure to let them all know how important it was for him to know what had happened and was mad when not one person decided to step up and confess, each of them giving a quick glance to Mika, as though urging her to speak before Paul took the stand and let out a deep sigh.
"She was telling us how you're going to try for kids. She said you were just as capable as every other couple to be parents, so why shouldn't you give it a go and Mika made a little snip about Darcy being just out of high school." He revealed honestly, resting his feet against the arm of the single chair Michael stood behind, able to see that he was more than angry as he stared on at his hands, shaking his head as he tried to figure out what he was going to do and whether it would do any good. If she was inconsolable then he would have to take her back to the hotel and then she'd be hurt at not only the insult, but at their night out being ruined when she had been so excited about having their first dance together as a married couple. And he couldn't figure out why Paul was suddenly so happy, smiling curiously as he kept quiet on his thought and waited to hear what Michael had to say. "Your girl got pissed...I didn't even think she could get mad, or swear the way she did. She's more of a pro than we think, isn't she?" He asked tormentingly, making Michael laugh when he recalled the way Jonas had once explained her, as being a foul mouthed, uncontrollable girl who swore and screamed at everyone for no reason, who was emotional and disruptive and a vicious, nasty bitch. And he almost wanted to share that perception of her with his friends so they knew to back off from any arguments they had in mind to make, because his girl was no push over and she would bite back if she had to. Apparently though, she had already realised she had to.
"She can be a real little bitch when she wants to be..." He agreed easily with Paul's words, surprising a few of his friends that he would say such a thing about his own fiancée. But he could remember the way she had acted at the park that morning and how playful she had been then, tormenting him and refusing to allow him any fun at all, even her parting words from him a moment ago, suggesting she was off to meet another man, showed that she was still in the same mischievous mood. What he found funny though, was that however jealous he would have been at any other time...how jealous he had been at the very mention of Marcus over his first dinner with Darcy and again that night as they made love, his jealousy on the flight over just at the thought of someone else making love to her...he no longer felt that same rage that made him want to kill any man that looked at her, of course he was still jealous, but it was manageable and he could ignore it when she chose to torment him so openly about his jealousy in a way that said she rather liked that he felt that way, and worried about other men looking at her or trying to steal her away.
"She said if you really thought she was too young for you then you wouldn't want kids with her and you wouldn't have married her." Paul mentioned, intriguing Michael so much that he couldn't keep the knowing smile from his lips as he kept quiet on the subject and waited for someone to call him on his silence, hoping not to be alone when he told them. He wanted to wait for Darcy to get back, just so that he didn't have to suffer their opinions alone, but he also knew that if he did wait for her then she might just get upset all over again. "So, we're all just wondering if it was a slip of the tongue and she meant that you wouldn't be marrying her, at some point, or whether you've gone off and been a sneaky bugger again?" He wondered, staring at him as he waited for an answer, each one of his friends trying to hide their intrigue as they watched him out the corner of their eye, secretly hoping for an answer that would explain away Darcy's words in a way that didn't mean what they all suspected it did.
"You know, she might be hell of a good looking girl and sweet as pie most of the time, but she's got a bloody big mouth." Michael sighed to himself, smiling as he straightened up and glanced back at the door leading to the restrooms curiously, wondering what was taking her so long if she hadn't really gone off to cry to herself in privacy. She was taking quite a while and it only meant that he was left with the difficult task f explaining her slip of the tongue, which he was sure she had only let slip due to her anger. They had agreed to tell everyone together, neither wanting the sole responsibility of telling someone of their marriage and finding that they only resented being left out of the ceremony or that they disapproved. "Was she really upset?" He asked quietly, a thoughtful frown creasing his brow as he directed his question at Paul, the only person who seemed willing to tell him the truth of the matter and explain just why his wife, however justifiably, was so upset and had been forced to leave in order to cry.
"No idea. She had barely shut her mouth when you got back. And you saw the way she left..." He explained with a confused shrug, never having thought at the time that Darcy would have cried over such a thing, purely because she seemed so mad at it that it had stopped her from being upset, and yet when he took a drink of his beer and admitted his thoughts, he could see the troubled look in Michael's eyes. "...It didn't look like she was about to cry to me." He thought to himself, his words not meaning anything to Michael when he remembered the day he had taken her to work with him, she had been happy then, in the car with him, explaining her thought of him being a predator to Tai only for her to turn into a shaking wreck the moment she stepped out of the car and saw the extensity of the building before her. And if there was one thing he didn't want, it was a repeat of that afternoon, he couldn't go through that again.
"Yeah but with Darcy, she can be smiling and laughing one minute and then so scared of something she's sobbing her heart out and shaking like a leaf the next. Give me a minute and I'll be back." He sighed, leaving them all to go find his sweet girl and make sure that if she was crying, then she had someone to hold her and comfort her, he didn't want her to be alone and his friends couldn't help but sit in quiet wonder as they contemplated his words as to just how fragile his wife was. And Paul was the first to vocalise his disappointment with Mika, for being unable to face facts and accept that they were a couple and nothing she could do would ever change that.