Little Footprints

"The wedding went well, don't you think so?"

"Yes, and now we can go for a little vacation, at least two days?"

"Sure."

We were walking on the beach. Our footprints left marks in the sand, and water would just delete them as if they were never here.

"I really never thought I would get married, you know." I said while being amazed by sand and water touching my feet.

Akari's dress was slowly waving. Wind in her hair. She was pretty, but she also looked happy. "I thought the same."

"Eyy, oyyy, you also thought that I would never get married?"

"Hahaha, not you, Toma. I also thought that I would never get married. I thought I would spend my whole life alone. Somehow it seemed easier that way."

I grabbed her hand, walking side by side on the beach while waves were just making music, holding hands. "Look at us. We are like a perfect couple." In the air, there was some nice smell. Akari's perfume and the salt from the water were giving this majestic smell.

Akari put her hand up to the sun and mimicked grabbing it. "If I were to grab the sun in the palm of my hand, I think it would be similar to you holding my hand now."

"Wow, that is the nicest thing you said to me, like, ever. That is actually the nicest thing anyone said to me."

"Toma, after this vacation, I need to go back to work and try even harder. I need to be even better, and one day, maybe I will get a chance to become even a Prime Minister of Japan."

I smirked. "Back to thinking about work, ha?"

"Yes, I always think about it."

"Let's go to the room. We can do something fun to clear our minds."

The short vacation passed like sand particles carried by the wind. The sun that was giving the warmth to the sand was also a little less noticeable these days.

Akari was back at her work schedule, and Toma was back at acting. Toma got an acting gig in some detective show. He was this witty young nerd detective. It was a little hard for him to remember all these criminalistic words that he didn't encounter in his roles before.

Sachiko was also working hard, and it seemed like he was taking his job way too seriously since appointing Akari as his deputy. Or maybe he was always like this, but Akari is just now noticing it. He works like crazy. His wife sometimes comes and brings him lunch. He doesn't even see her sometimes. She leaves lunch and talks to him, but he is like possessed, just walking around preparing speeches, going over them in his head.

The media started to report on Akari in more of a positive light. Akari couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the reporter she didn't like, Tanaka, do a nice report on her and her newly wed husband.

Akari's mother was overjoyed for her daughter. She would still call Akari regularly, but it was not so annoying for Akari now. Somehow my mother changed. She is not annoying anymore.

For a split of a second, for one tiny millisecond, in the world where a butterfly swinging his wings could cause a tsunami on the other side of the world, for a second in this crazy, chaotic world, everything seemed to fall into its place like Lego blocks. Some order could be seen in a world that knows no such thing as order and peace.

But one day, Akari came to work and thought she was sick. She went home to finish some of the work.

The next day, she called Toma.

"Hi, can you come today?"

"Oof, we record today almost the whole day. Today I need to chase some bad guy. It will be an amazing scene. It will be a long shoot, but I can maybe come around midnight."

"Yes, sure, please come." Akari said with her voice being different than usual.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I will tell you tonight. Okay, don't worry and give your best at work."

My day went terrible. I was struggling with shooting because of this call. I didn't know what to expect. The director would yell at me a little bit for my bad work today. But at the end of the day, we made it. I made it, and the director praised me at the end.

I didn't care. The whole day, I was just waiting to finish everything so that I could go and see if Akari was alright.

I drove fast, nearly crashing a few times.

When I got there, it was not even midnight. Akari let me in.

I was a little bit out of breath. "What, oof, what is— What is going on? Are— Is you— Are— Okay?"

"Yes, Toma, everything is okay. I told you not to worry about it." Akari said with some faked smile.

"Not to worry? Something is obviously happening."

Akari let me sit, and then she was standing in the middle of the room, like she was going to present me something big.

"Toma, I think we need to start living together."

A sigh of relief and a smile came to my face. "Yes, that is a great idea. I wanted that for a while now. I think that would be amazing. I was worried for nothing, really. I think I love you even more now that you proposed this."

"Also, I am pregnant."