1.7 Day 7

Nozomi gets dressed slowly. She pulls on her shoes reluctantly, not eager to go out after last night's failure. 

Taras wakes up and finds Nozomi fluffing her pillow. 

Last night must have been hard on her, Taras thinks, feeling a pang of sympathy. What should I do? 

He pulls her into his arms. She does not resist. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks. She shakes her head. 

He's not entirely sure how this happened. One moment he was staring into her eyes, the next his lips were on hers and his hand was tangled in her hair. 

So...many...sensations, he struggles to think. They've never really taken their time with each other before. 

A car nosily honks outside. 

He hesitantly pulls away, "I've got to go to work." 

His regret is mirrored by the desire in Nozomi's eyes. 

With Taras out of the house and her thoughts saturated with longing, Nozomi needs a distraction. 

Of course now that she's alone, her tricks work perfectly. 

The empty stage is the only witness to her flawlessly executed sleight of hand.

Eventually, this does change. Emboldened by the presence of others, Nozomi approaches her tricks with a new fervor. 

The doves fly at the right time, bouquets spring from her hands, cards elegantly pour from her palms... she feels on top of the world.

Even though she's exhausted, Nozomi happily greets one of her curious spectators. There's no such thing as too much praise. 

The heavily pregnant woman invites Nozomi to join her picnic. 

"You're very good," the woman compliments around a mouthful of peanut butter jelly sandwich, "Do you do birthday parties?"

Nozomi is caught off guard. 

"Um...not yet," she stammers, "I mean... I've never done one before."

The woman sighs, slightly disappointed. "That's too bad." 

Nozomi comes home earlier than usual; Taras is still up. She passes him wordlessly and shuts the bathroom door. 

After her shower, she lays down next to her husband. He shuts his book.

"I think I might have messed up." 

She tells him about her conversation, and bungled job-offer, with the pregnant woman at the park. 

"That doesn't sound too bad," Taras says when she's finished, "If you see her again, just tell her you were surprised by the offer and if it's still open, you'd be happy to do it." 

Nozomi nods, but then frowns. "But I've never worked with kids before. What if they don't like me?"

Taras laughs. "Seriously? You're worried about the approval of people not even old enough to drive?" 

"Hey, it's a valid concern! I've never been good with children! How am I supposed to entertain them?" 

"You're a magician! Just...wave your wand around and make a bunny come out of your hat!"

Nozomi rolls her eyes. "This is exactly why I shouldn't do birthday parties. Or have any interaction with children, really. It'd be awful!" 

Taras's smile fades. "So...you don't want to have kids with me?" 

"Wait...what? Kids!? You and me!?" She sputters. 

"Well...yeah. You know, I thought since we're married and all..." he trails off. 

Nozomi sighs. It's true that everyone who gets married back home is expected to immediately pop out a bunch of babies- in fact, a lot of them get married for that reason- but she thought with Taras, it would be different... 

"Look, Taras, I know we're expected to have kids, especially since our parents set us up... but we just got this house, and we haven't even....you know...since our wedding night," she starts blushing furiously, remembering their one awkward night of fumbling together, "Can we wait awhile?"

Taras nods seriously. He can't exactly explain it, but there's something else making him want to have kids with her, something other than doing what he's "supposed to do".  

Seeing his serious expression, and thinking he's disappointed, Nozomi changes gears. 

"But just because we aren't going to have kids...umm...right away...doesn't mean we can't get a bit of practice." 

Taras can't really argue with that logic. 

AN: Wooh, some info dumping! 

I hope that clears up why Nozomi originally felt so awkward being married to Taras.