The Clovers Underfoot (Nagito Komaeda x OC)

Chapter Four: Conflict

"Kami?" Hajime called out as she clutched tighter to his arm, trying her best to stay stable. Her misty eyes looked over the infant once more, focusing on his identical hair color and those stupid red eyes...

"Take deep breaths," called Komaeda from the couch as he quickly moved to stand a few feet away from her. "Hajime, I know that you are holding her up. However, if you can give her a bit of space, she'll need-"

"I'm missing so much of my memory. What in the world is happening?!" Kami exclaimed, feeling confused tears pounding against her eyes. "I'm tired and I just want to know everything-!"

"It's too much of a shock..." Komaeda tried to explain before Kami turned to look at him with an irritated expression.

"It was only a matter of time before she started to question you," Chiaki murmured from where she sat, sad eyes peering at Kami. "If you want, you can sit beside me."

After a few moments, Kami slowly nodded, prompting Hajime to move over and get her situated beside Chiaki. Kami didn't notice how his fingers stayed a bit too long on her wrist, instead focusing on keeping her breathing level steady.

"How do we even explain...?" Kami could hear Hajime tentatively ask after she had finally calmed down. "It's not too easy to tell her without explaining everything, and I know that a few of us don't want to do that."

"Kami?" Nagito's voice murmured, causing her to look up at him quickly. "Are you okay?"

"...I don't know-" she started before looking over at Chiaki's concerned expression. "Stop worrying about me. I'll be fine-"

"Do you want to know right now?" Chiaki asked, moving to rub the whining infant's back. Without a word, Hajime moved forward to gather the baby in his arms and move away from the living room.

"Please, it might be too much-" Nagito pleaded, quieting down when he earned a hard look from the pink-haired gamer. 

"She deserves to know, and you cannot withhold something like this from someone. Besides, she actually wants to know." 

"She has no idea what-" 

"Can you please be quiet? I can make this decision for myself!" Kami interrupted, her irritated voice causing their discussion to quiet down finally. Chiaki and Nagito shared a subtle look with one another before focusing on Kami, who took a deep breath to calm herself. "Keeping this away from me is only going to make me angrier. If you two can explain my situation, I would really appreciate it." 

There was a short silence before Chiaki nodded her head in understanding. Kami shot a glance at Nagito, whose face gave enough evidence that he did not agree with the current trajectory of the conversation. However, he didn't show any sign of speaking out against Kami's wishes. 

"I...I really don't know where to start..." Kami mumbled as her lips turned down in thought. "The kid has m-my hair color so..." When she trailed off, she looked back up at Chiaki for a further explanation. 

After glancing back at Nagito, Chiaki finally relented and softly commented, "That's right. He did get your hair color. That makes you the biological mother-" 

"That doesn't make sense! Surely, I would remember my own son!" 

"He's only been alive for seven months, and you have been in a coma for eleven months. You wouldn't be able to remember him." 

"Is something like that even possible?" Kami asked, her brow knitting in confusion. 

"I'm sure that it is possible, but he was made in a laboratory setting and was put in an incubator for a few months." 

"That definitely sounds like an option I would choose for myself," Kami murmured as she moved her legs to her chest. "Who's the other parent?" Kami uncomfortably picked at her nails as an awkward silence hung over the room. "Judging from the eyes, I can make the prediction that it was the one with brown hair. What was his name? Ah, Hajime!" 

"I hope that you three are not talking bad about me," Hajime said as he walked into the room, earning a glance from Chiaki. "I'm sorry, but Isamu still won't calm down." 

Kami stiffened up as Hajime neared the couch, finally relaxing when he passed the fussy infant over to Chiaki and not her. Chiaki's lips spread into a sentimental smile as she patted the baby on the back, finally fixing her gaze on Kami. 

"I saw your reaction," the pink-haired girl teasingly said as she finally settled Isamu down. 

"Heh, yeah... I-I never really planned on having kids, so I don't even want to imagine how much convincing it took," Kami replied as she palmed the back of her neck. 

"You don't have to worry about the idea of taking care of him. Hajime and I adopted him." 

"Though I do appreciate that, I-I thought that I had Isamu with Hajime. We must be in a relationship, right? W-why would you two adopt him?" 

"N-no, we're not in one!" Hajime exclaimed, his cheeks burning in embarrassment. "This is gonna be hard to explain..." The man looked over at Nagito, who was quietly watching the scene unfold. Once he noticed the reproachful expression on his friend's face, he turned back to quickly say, "W-we can say that this is a sort of...surrogate mother situation. Chiaki can't have a child in any situation, so you offered your help." 

"I-I did?" Kami's eyes squinted in deep thought before flashing a tentative smile at the two. "I must really like you two, then." 

"Yes, and the same can be said for us," Chiaki sweetly declared as she stood up from the couch and shot a meaningful look at Hajime. "I'm afraid that we really have to go." 

"So soon?" Kami exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting up. "I really want to talk to you two some more. We have so much more to talk about-" 

"We'll be back very soon. I'll make sure to talk to you soon. We can talk about whatever you want," Chiaki tried as she quickly placed Isamu in the baby carrier and tackled Kami in a tight hug. "Please take care!" 

With that, Hajime and Chiaki disappeared into another room, closely followed by Nagito. Kami let out a deep sigh as she draped herself fully across the couch. Trying to ignore the pain in her legs, the girl tried to focus on the story that she was given, attempting to paint a picture of her past life. 

--- 

"Why did you not tell her?" Chiaki asked as she adjusted the baby carrier in the car, focusing all of her energy on the task. 

"How do you think we can explain it to her? It's only going to upset her, and she's going to have multitudes of questions. When she gets to know her situation better, we might reveal it to her," Hajime answered as he moved over to help Chiaki with the baby. 

"I don't like that we have to hide this from her," Chiaki murmured, letting out a heavy sigh and allowing Hajime to finish her work. She moved into the passenger seat and waited for Hajime to climb into the driver's seat. "I feel so bad for the poor girl..." 

Hajime remained silent as he took one final look at the mansion, a dark mood settling over him. Chiaki glanced over at Hajime's troubled expression as her lips fell, her hand moving to intertwine her fingers with his in silent support. 

"We'll get through this..." she softly murmured, but that did not seem to console the man. Chiaki let out a soft sigh, moving her hand away and staring out the window. 

How do I fix all of this?