Expenses Of Love

Part 6

Final part!

OoO

As soon as Yukari was taken from him, he knew something was wrong.

Not just when she was forced to leave hours ago, but when she told him she never loved him nearly nine months ago. He had come to know her as well as he knew his own brother, and it wasn't just knowing her that made him think something was wrong, but how she acted and he could sense a change in her. Hashirama tried telling him it was probably the pregnancy that was affecting her, but Tobirama knew better. He knew there was something else, there had to be.

Or maybe he just didn't want to believe what she said to be true.

He loved her more than anything else. He never thought he could care for a person so much, let alone an Uchiha woman. She wasn't even an Uchiha to him anymore – she was his family. And he took care of his family. He knew when his family was upset or there was something amiss. His senses had never failed him, though now he was beginning to doubt that. Maybe he was too involved. His reaction towards her hours ago proved that she still had his heart, and he still had hers. That only left one more mystery to him.

Why was she with Madara?

When he saw them together, he could see how tense and uncomfortable Yukari was. She didn't love him, but she pretended to. Why would she do that? He knew Yukari didn't back down from her beliefs, so something had to have happened for her to leave him for the Uchiha Madara. Could it really have been Izuna? Could she have felt guilty for being with the man who killed her lover? He tried to put himself in her shoes, to understand how she was feeling, and none of it made sense.

And then there was her pregnancy to consider.

At first he thought it was some kind of hoax, that she was lying, but when he saw her with Madara and Hashirama a month after she had left him, her baby bump said otherwise. She was indeed carrying a child. His child.

He fisted the fabric around his chest, feeling a tight, heavy pain in his chest. That could have been his child, his family. He still believed it could be. He loved her so much that he would care for Madara's child. For a while he didn't even think it to be Madara's child. She was so far along that he thought it was his. But after seeing how Madara acted around her and made sure she was alright in public, despite her discomfort around him, he began to think otherwise, and that she spoke the truth before. Madara wouldn't care for a Senju and Uchiha child, especially his child. He would have killed the child before it was born, and killed Yukari as well.

Still, he couldn't decide. His gut told him something was wrong, but when the facts were laid out in front of him they were indisputable. He didn't know what to believe anymore. Maybe Hashirama was right – maybe it was time for him to move on and forget her. No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn't shake her. His mind was her home.

His door flew open, and he shot up, coming face-to-face with a beaming Hashirama. "I have news, little brother!"

Tobirama rolled his eyes and sighed. "What news?"

Hashirama continued to smile and leaned against the door frame. "Yukari had her baby."

A flutter of joy flooded Tobirama's body. She had had her child. It was soon, he thought, but he felt happy nonetheless. That is, until he realized that it was not his child, but Madara's child as well. Still, he stood and looked sadly to his brother. "Is she okay?"

"From what Mito heard from a midwife, she's fine, and so is the baby."

He didn't want to ask, but he found his lips moving for him. "Is it a boy or a girl?"