I Will Protect You...Chapter 17[Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic]

I won't bore you with the details of the rest of the day―or the next two months, for that matter―because nothing of much interest happened in that time. Well, alright, I had a wonderful time horseback riding, but essentially everything else was fairly mundane. There wasn't much of a transition from princess by marriage to queen. Even Atem admitted that the coronation ceremony had been fairly overestimated. I had trained myself to refer to Atem as "Pharaoh" aloud, though I always thought of him as Atem. Still, life returned to some semblance of normalcy.
However, one morning, several weeks after the coronation, I awoke with the strangest feeling in the pit of my stomach. I bolted out of bed, found myself a secluded corner of the bedroom, and...well, emptied the contents of my stomach. Let me tell you, one's dinner doesn't taste quite as good the second time around, especially after it's had time to settle. Atem, being the sweetheart that he is, stayed by my side until my stomach was empty. I shook, panting. My head was spinning. I might have collapsed, but Atem caught me as soon as he saw my knees growing weak. He held me close to him, even though I'm sure I smelled terrible.
"Are you alright now," he asked me gently.
Still dizzy, I nodded. This had been happening far too often these past few days. I'd lost an unhealthy amount of weight because of it.
"After breakfast, I'll take you to the physician. He'll look you over."
"I'm alright," I assured him. "It might have just been something I ate."
"Rhea, anything you ate was also eaten by the Guardians and me. The doctor will be able to help you recover in no time. In the meantime, I'll make sure you have a bowl to carry with you at all times."
I thought about it for a moment. "Alright," I conceded, giving him a small smile.
Next thing I knew, he and I were knocking on the palace physician's door. He greeted us warmly, asking why the Pharaoh and Queen would want to see him so early in the day.
"My wife has been having stomach problems for a few days now," Atem explained. "We were hoping you could tell us what could be causing them."
"Of course," the doctor replied. "Please, come in. What sort of stomach problems are we addressing, Your Highness: vomiting, pain, or just simple nausea?"
I told him, "I haven't been able to keep much food down."
"I see." He paused for a moment, thinking. Then he turned to Atem. "Sire, I'm afraid I may have to ask your wife some rather sensitive questions. They'll be necessary for me to make an accurate diagnosis."
Atem nodded, but tensely. He protectively placed his arm around my waist. I could tell he didn't like the idea any more than I did. "Alright. Go ahead."
The doctor turned to me. "Have you noticed any tenderness or swelling in your breasts recently?"
"What kind of question is that?!" I exclaimed.
"Please answer the question, madam," the doctor replied with a straight face.
I blushed, crossing my arms in an X over my chest. "They, they have been a little sore lately."
The doctor nodded, making a mental note. "And when was your last monthly cycle?"
I counted back the days in my head. That couldn't be right, I thought, and counted again. "It had to have been before the wedding. But, how is that possible?"
Nausea, sore breasts, missed cycle...? What did it all add up to?
Rather than answering my question, the physician spoke to Atem. "Your Majesty, I've been practicing medicine for many years. I remember when your mother came into my office sporting the exact same symptoms your wife has now."
"Where is this going, Doctor?" Atem asked.
"Let me finish, please, sir. I was about to say that I believe I diagnosed her...roughly 15 years ago."
This held no significance to me, but Atem gasped.
"Doctor," Atem approached cautiously. "Are you saying...?"
The doctor smiled. He bowed respectfully. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Your wife is carrying the future heir to the throne of Egypt."
It was my turn to gasp. I lightly clutched my belly. I was...pregnant?
The physician turned back to me. "The nausea you feel is your body preparing to care for two lives instead of just one. It should soon pass. In the meantime, ginger water should help calm your stomach, for the most part. And I wouldn't eat any heavy foods for a while."
"Thank you very much," Atem said, his grip on my waist tightening. "We'll talk to you again if any problems arise." He turned me around and hurriedly led me out of the doctor's office. For a moment, I thought something was wrong. But as soon as the door closed behind us and we were alone in the hallway, he took me in his arms and spun me around excitedly, laughing as if he didn't have a care in the world. As soon as he set me down, he held my face in his hands and kissed me. He hugged me tightly, smiling from ear to ear.
Meanwhile, I was numb. How was this even possible? The human body continued to mystify me. How could I have a completely separate entity living inside me? Other than the vomiting, how else would this affect my health? And, when/if I had this child, would I be able to raise it properly? Would I be a good mother, or would my dark past with my father affect my parenthood? There were just too many things that could go wrong!
Atem must have noticed my lack of enthusiasm, because he glanced down at me and asked, "What's wrong? Aren't you happy about this?"
"I am," I said halfheartedly. I sighed. "I just..."
"You're scared about what could happen, aren't you," he guessed. "You're not sure how this will affect your health. You want to make sure that you'll be a good parent."
I stared at him, nodding. "How...?"
He lightly laughed. "Trust me; I'm just as frightened as you are. I want to know that I'll be able to be a good father. Believe me; I know I'm not perfect." He frowned, his tone growing suddenly serious. "Far from it, actually. I'm terrified that I will lose my temper and potentially harm you or our child. It's my greatest fear." He rested his hands on my shoulders. This surprised me. I'd never known him to fear anything. "I struggle to maintain control every day. But this baby gives me hope. Its birth is still months away, and yet I already feel like a father." He kissed my forehead. "Everything will be fine. I know you'll be a wonderful mother." He kissed my lips sweetly.
I smiled, comforted by his words. I hugged him tightly. "Thank you," I whispered. "And you'll be an amazing father."
"I hope so," Atem replied softly.
*---*---*---*
At lunch, we announced the good news to the Guardians and Shimon. They were ecstatic. Shimon proposed we hold a grand celebration in anticipation of the future heir. Everyone agreed, and the arrangements were made. The palace was full of activity. I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed by all the excitement. It occurred to me that those of the high class have a lot of celebrations. They get excited over the littlest things. But, I supposed, when you have as much money and as many resources as they do, grand balls and festivals aren’t as grand as they are to the lower- and middle-classes.
Barely two days into the celebration's preparations, I found myself visiting the secret garden more frequently. The fish were thankful, since I kept them fed, and I was thankful because I got to have the only company in the palace that wasn't either congratulating me or pushing past me with armfuls of decorations or design plans. For such a large and heavily populated building, the palace could be a very lonely place. I supposed Atem felt the same way, for he often accompanied me on my secluded trips to the garden.
We sat on the stone bench, wrapped in each other's arms, and watched the fish float around in their own suspended little world. I let Kuriboh roam free for a while and, after wearing himself out flying and doing flips around the garden, had curled up in a branch of the willow and fallen asleep.
A knock on the garden door broke the peaceful silence. I groaned. I thought this room was supposed to be secret.
"Just stay silent," Atem whispered in my ear. "If we're lucky, they won't know we're here." I grinned. I didn't know what entertained me more: the fact that Atem had been thinking the exact same thing I had, or that he was actually considering playing hooky.
"Pharaoh, it's Mana," the voice on the other side of the door. "I know you and Rhea are in there! Remember who showed you that garden in the first place?"
I gave Atem a puzzled look, but he simply sighed and stood to open the door.
"Please refrain from shouting about this place to the whole of Egypt, Mana," Atem said in exasperation. "It's the only place Rhea and I truly have to ourselves. We'd like to keep it that way."
Mana shrugged as she glided into the garden. "I'm sorry, Pharaoh, but the seamstresses need to take Rhea's measurements for her new dress."
"Another one?" I whined. "Don't I have enough already?”
"They said that, now that you're pregnant, you're stomach's just gonna get bigger and bigger until the baby's ready to be born. You're already starting to get a bump," she pointed out. "They want to be sure that you don't damage the dresses you have now." I covered my belly, my face flushed. Still, I stood and followed Mana out of the garden.
As I did so, I glanced at Atem out of the corner of my eye. "The things I go through for you," I hissed at him. He laughed, kissing my temple.
"I'll see you at dinner," he said. He held his hand on my stomach for a moment. "Both of you." His hand returned to his side, and I continued after Mana.
I glared down at my stomach. That goes for you, too, I thought, as if I thought the child could hear me. You'd better thank me when you're born.
---*---*---*---
It took an agonizing three hours to get me measured and get the designs set. I suggested just to have the waistband raised to just below my breasts and let the dress flow free, so that only one dress would have to be made. The seamstresses told me I was out of my mind. However, when one of them suggested it twenty minutes later, it was “absolutely genius!” I wasn’t too offended by this. I’d gotten it a lot before I was married, because many of the palace workers and inhabitants still considered me an ignorant inn worker, someone still of lower class. I was just a little surprised that I would still be treated this way even as queen.
Atem was not happy when I told him about it.
“I’ll address this, don’t worry,” he said, rising from the bench. “I’ll make sure you’re not treated like that again.”
“Atem, no. You don’t have to do that,” I responded, rising to my feet as well and taking hold of his arm.
“You’re not some nameless commoner anymore,” he argued, “and you shouldn’t be treated like one. You’re royalty now. Whether it’s by birth or by marriage shouldn’t matter; you’re their queen now, and as such, should be treated with respect, something those women today were sorely lacking. You have a voice now, and you deserve to be heard.” He started to walk away again.
“Wait just one minute,” I yelled. Frustrated, I jerked his arm back so he was facing me and flicked his ear. He flinched, scowling as he rubbed his ear.
“Ow.”
“Now you listen to me, alright?” I began. “First of all, it really isn’t a very big issue to me. I wasn’t offended by it, just surprised. Second of all, they were just doing their jobs, what you pay them to do. I know if I was in their position, being assigned the task of making a maternity dress for the wife of the most powerful man in Egypt, I’d be pretty wound up too. And thirdly, don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical of you to be so upset by their not listening to me when you wouldn’t even listen yourself?”
He paused for a moment, looking like one of the fish when it’d accidentally jumped out of the pond. I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for an answer.
Finally, his mouth closed, gradually shifting into a smile. He laughed. “I guess it does seem a bit ironic, doesn’t it,” he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
I smiled. “Just a little bit,” I replied, winking.
“Alright. I won’t punish them. But at least let me talk to them.”
“Only if I can come with you,” I bargained. “You have a tendency to get frustrated and lose your temper easily. I want to be there to calm you down, in case you try to do anything rash.”
“When have I ever done anything rash?” Atem asked.
I just looked at him.
“Oh. Right.”
*---*---*---*
I returned to the seamstresses’ workshop deep on the outskirts of the Noble District, this time with my husband standing confidently by my side. Personally, I couldn’t care less whether or not they treated me like a commoner. After fourteen years of living that way, one sort of gets used to it. My attitude didn’t drastically change just because I was married. But, if it made Atem feel better, then I didn’t mind.
I knocked on the door. We received a dismissive reply from the other side, “One moment please. We’ll be right out.” There was plenty of chatter, so it wasn’t hard to tell they weren’t in a big hurry.
“It’s me again,” I said, rather passively.
“We’re working on your dress right now, Your Majesty.” It was obvious they were trying to avoid speaking to me. “No doubt your husband will absolutely adore you in this dress. I can’t wait for him to see it.”
Atem spoke up and said, rather pointedly, “Then why not have her try it on now, so that I can see it?”
All conversations on the other side of the door suddenly stopped. The old wood door opened (rather hurriedly) to reveal the head seamstress (Madam Miyahm, I believe the other women called her) with a charming grin forcibly pasted onto her face.
“Why, Pharaoh,” she said, a little too cheerfully. “I didn’t think you’d be coming so soon.”
“Well,” Atem said, appearing noticeably calmer and more endearing, “when I heard you were making a new dress for my wife, I just couldn’t wait to see her in it. I thought, since you did such a good job with her wedding dress, and on such short notice, this new one would have to be just as marvelous; especially since you’re not in quite as big a hurry. I apologize, by the way, for making you rush so much.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all, sire,” Madam Miyahm replied, brushing the comment away with a wave of her hand.
“Madam, I mean no disrespect,” Atem began, getting straight to the point, “but my wife tells me of a certain incident that happened while you were taking her measurements.”
“Incident? What incident?”
“She tells me that, while you and your talented young ladies were offering ideas for the design of her dress, you dismissed an idea of hers that was implemented only when another seamstress offered up an identical idea a few minutes later. While she does not wish to call any attention to the incident itself, I feel personally hurt by the lack of credibility she was given.”
Despite his seemingly calm words and soft tone, I could see in his eyes that he was fuming. I had to applaud his acting skills, though.
Madam Miyahm gasped. “How terrible!” She looked at me with big, sad, melodramatic eyes. “I am so sorry that you felt so hurt, milady. I pray that you never feel that way again.”
“Of course,” I said, feeling rather disillusioned. I may not have been upset about what they did, but their blatant lack of respect for me (I now realized that the dress incident was just one wave of the proverbial Nile) being displayed, even—and especially—in front of Atem, was really starting to get on my nerves.
Madam Miyahm continued, “I must ask, though, why Her Majesty didn’t address this issue as it was taking place. She is queen now, isn’t she? What right would we have to object her?”
Atem was kind and angry enough to answer for me. “Because even though she was not born in the palace or the Noble District she was still taught how to act while amongst us. She is aware that direct confrontation is frowned upon, and as such, did not want to appear so rude as to call out something so trivial. She remembered and used her manners.”
Madam Miyahm’s eye twitched. “Right. Of course. How could I forget?”
But he wasn’t finished with her yet. He frowned as he wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulders. “You’re really very clever, Madam,” he said, keeping his voice low. “It is my assumption that you intentionally dismissed her idea, knowing that it would be considered rude for her to try and object. However, you forget that I am not so passive when someone offends me. And any offense to my wife is an offense to me. Now, I have given Rhea my word not to deliver any punishments for this, and I intend to keep that promise. However, if I hear of something like this happening again, I will not hesitate to have every single worker in this establishment replaced. Including you, Madam Miyahm. Am I making myself clear enough for you to understand?”
Madam Miyahm nodded frightfully. “Of course, Your Highness. It will not happen again, I promise you.”
“I’d suggest not.”
Without another word, he turned, and we left the workshop to head back to the palace.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I told him.
“Actually, I did,” he said. “But more for me than for you.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed. I could practically see the last of his tension escaping through his lips. “What I said to Madam Miyahm was true. Anybody that offends you is offending me as well. You’re my wife. How could I not be offended by the way they treated you?”
“Because you’re a man, and you weren’t there personally?”
Atem laughed. “So you want me to not care when someone offends or mistreats you?”
“That was one of the conditions that I listed in the Market District before our engagement,” I joked.
“I didn’t think you were serious.”
Giggling, I spun around till I was facing him, pulled him towards me, and kissed him. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I wasn’t.” I grabbed his hand, and started back for the palace.
“Come on,” I said.
“Where are we going,” he asked.
I turned around and winked. “We’re gonna go take a bath.”