kento taking his pregnant wife to the beach
one ordinary afternoon, he came home a little earlier than usual, set his briefcase by the door, kissed your forehead, and placed two tickets on the dining table. you raised an eyebrow curiously while one hand rested on your seven-month belly, already large enough for rei to seem determined to remind the entire world that she existed with constant little kicks. kento waited patiently for you to read the destination before speaking.
"i thought that... if she can already hear our voices, then she deserves to hear the ocean too."
for several seconds, you didn't say a single word. you simply hugged him tightly, feeling another little kick at the exact moment your belly pressed against him. nanami let out a quiet laugh and gently caressed the spot where he had felt the movement.
your first encounter with the coast was much more emotional than either of you had expected. the air carried that unmistakable salty scent that seemed to clear your lungs the moment you breathed it in, seagulls crossed the sky with their cries while the waves broke with a hypnotic calmness, and the sand was warm beneath your bare feet.
you walked slowly because kento had practically become your shadow ever since the pregnancy had progressed. one hand stayed around your waist, while the other carried a bag with sunscreen, water, fruit, a huge beach umbrella, two towels, a book for you, another for him, and a few snacks that had become part of your daily cravings.
every few steps, he glanced down at your belly to make sure you were walking comfortably, and every time rei decided to stretch one little leg from inside, he smiled like a man who still couldn't believe that such a tiny little person truly existed.
it didn't take long for you to discover that a woman who was seven months pregnant was practically a magnet for children's curiosity. while kento finished setting up the umbrella, a small group of kids building sandcastles nearby began watching you with the complete lack of subtlety that only children possess.
they whispered among themselves, pointed at your belly, then hid behind a sand bucket, convinced no one could see them. meanwhile, you could barely hold back your laughter. finally, the bravest of them all, a little boy about five years old wearing a completely crooked blue cap, walked up to you with the utmost seriousness.
"ma'am..." he asked quietly, "...is there a baby in there?"
you nodded with a wide smile, "yes, there's a baby girl."
the boy's eyes widened as though you had just revealed the greatest secret in the universe, "can i say hi to her?"
kento, who had been watching the scene from a few yards away, was already prepared to step in if you felt uncomfortable, but you simply nodded.
the little boy placed his hand on your belly with heart-melting gentleness, as though he feared he might break something incredibly fragile.
there were barely two seconds of complete silence. then... thump! rei delivered such a clear little kick that the boy's tiny hand practically bounced on your belly.
he pulled his hand back in complete surprise before bursting into contagious laughter, "she answered me!" he shouted to his friends.
in less than a minute, there were already four children surrounding you, asking to take turns 'saying hi to the baby.' nanami watched the improvised line with his arms crossed and an expression somewhere between amused and resigned. each new child placed a little hand on your belly, and rei, as though she were truly participating in the conversation, answered with another almost immediate kick.
"i think..." kento murmured as he walked over to you, "...our daughter is going to be quite sociable."
you laughed as another little girl let out a tiny squeal after feeling the movement, "or maybe she's just already practicing how to be the center of attention."
for nearly twenty minutes, rei was the true attraction of the beach. the children said goodbye with cheerful "bye, baby!"s, promised they would come play with her once she was born, and ran back toward the water completely convinced they had just made a new friend.
when the two of you were finally alone again, kento rested a hand on your belly and smiled with the quiet tenderness that suited him so naturally. "i couldn't have expected anything less. she's far too much like her mother."
you looked at him with mock indignation, "are you implying i used to talk to strangers?"
he tilted his head slightly, "once you ended up becoming friends with a woman at the supermarket while you were picking out tomatoes."
you thought about it for only a few seconds, "...that's true."
nanami let out a soft laugh, "exactly."
after a while, the heat became more intense, and you decided you wanted to wade into the ocean for a little while. the moment you mentioned it, kento was already organizing everything. he spread out a clean towel beneath the umbrella, rolled up another one so you could sit comfortably when you came out of the water, left a cold bottle within easy reach, and checked for the third time that the sunscreen had been properly applied to your shoulders.
while you slowly walked toward the shoreline to dip only your legs into the water, he stayed behind, carefully studying the sand with a concentration that was almost suspicious. he picked up a small plastic shovel that had been left nearby and started digging.
when you came back a few minutes later, your feet still wet, you found him finishing what looked like some completely inexplicable engineering project.
right in the middle of the sand was a perfectly round hole—not too deep, not too wide—positioned exactly where your belly would be.
you stared at it for several seconds before bursting into laughter. "what is this?"
kento looked up as naturally as if the whole thing made perfect sense. "your bed."
you looked at the hole again. then at your belly. then back at the hole. "...how did you know exactly what size to make it?"
he calmly put away the little shovel. "i've been looking at that belly every day for seven months." he answered as though that explained absolutely everything.
you looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and tenderness before carefully lying down on the towel.
and then something happened that you hadn't experienced in months:
your belly rested inside the little hollow without feeling any pressure at all. for the first time since your pregnancy had advanced, you were able to lie on your stomach without the slightest discomfort.
you let out such a long, satisfied sigh that you even closed your eyes ."kento..." you murmured, nearly melting. "...i think i love you a little bit more."
he sat down beside you, rested a hand on your back, and smiled proudly as he saw how comfortable you were. "that was the goal."
the two of you stayed there for a long while, listening only to the sound of the ocean. you rested with your face on your folded arms, enjoying a position you had missed so much, while kento absentmindedly traced small circles across your back with his fingertips. every now and then, his hand drifted down to the edge of the hollow to gently stroke the curve of your belly, and every caress was immediately answered from within. rei seemed to have absorbed the peacefulness of that place, moving slowly, as though she too was enjoying the sound of the waves.
nanami then rested his entire palm against your belly and looked toward the horizon with an almost imperceptible smile.
"do you hear that, princess?" he asked very quietly, knowing perfectly well that she already recognized his voice. "this is the ocean. your mom says it's one of the most beautiful places in the world."
another little kick answered from inside.
he let out a soft laugh. "yeah... one day you're going to run across this very same sand. you're going to build sandcastles, chase crabs, even though you'll probably be a little scared of them at first, and you'll fill your pockets with rocks and seashells that we'll keep finding around the house for weeks afterward..."
he paused as he gently stroked the same spot, "...and when you're a little older, daddy is going to teach you how to float while looking up at the sky, right here."
you turned your head slightly to look at him. the wind tousled his blond hair, the sunlight softly illuminated his features, and that hand still rested with infinite care over the place where the little proof of the love the two of you had built was growing.
in that moment, you realized that even though rei hadn't been born yet, she was already creating memories alongside both of you.
maybe she would never consciously remember that first visit to the beach, or the voices of the children who greeted her, or the endless sound of the waves, or the perfectly measured hollow where her mother was finally able to lie on her stomach for the first time in months.
but somewhere deep within her existence, she would always carry that day.
because even before opening her eyes to the world, she had already been loved beyond measure.
and to kento, that was exactly the gift he had wanted to give her when he decided to take both of his girls to meet the ocean.
