AN: I understand that this is a strange story that probably won't get much attention but I thought it would be very interesting to write about. I hope that you enjoy it 😊

Baby Fever

Chapter One – Little Baby Kuon

I can understand her jealousy. Even before I met him as Ren Tsuruga, Maria already felt that she had made a claim on him. It didn't matter the age difference, Maria had always been in love with Ren. I never felt bad for dating him, it was one of the best moments of my life to know that he had chosen me despite my plain appearance and boring nature over all other girls. I enjoy kissing his lips which slip around mine perfectly, his warm embraces where I can feel the warmth of his chest and the rhythm of his lungs, the body that I get to rejoice in at night.

And now that I am twenty-four, he's my husband and I am no longer just Kyoko but HIzuri Kyoko.

Still, this is the first time that we're seeing Maria since we moved to the US to be nearer to Father and Julie. She didn't attend our wedding though we invited her. It was so sad to lose such an important friend but she had contacted us, requesting to spend the first part of Kuon's birthday with us. I didn't want to pass on the opportunity and neither did Kuon.

As we sit in the restaurant, Kuon puts his arm around me and kisses my cheek. I glance down at my wedding ring. Should I take it off? Should I ask Kuon to stop with the PDA? How would Maria feel seeing this, she's only just started to open her heart to us again.

As I try to question these things, I see her approach the table. She is no longer the little girl anymore that could be lured with a homemade doll of Ren Tsuruga, she's fifteen and still a fan of the Lolita fashion style. I stand but she stares at me with a half glare and I quickly sit down again. I just hope she can forgive me.

"Maria-chan," I say to her and she ignores me. She comes closer to Kuon and hands him a long rectangular box.

"Kuon, here's your gift, I really hope that you like it," she says and Kuon takes it. He smiles one of those heavenly smiles.

"Thank you so much," he says and I see Maria looking at him as I did when I was a teenager despite the fact that he's now twenty-eight and we're into our third year of marriage.

"Grandfather says that the two of you are planning to try for a baby," Maria says and then shoots me a glare as if I'm unwanted. I almost choke on my water but feel relieved as Kuon doesn't notice this.

"We are," Kuon nods and I wonder if this is really the best time to tell her this.

"Then I hope that you enjoy your gift, please open it now," Maria says as she doesn't even sit down yet and Kuon looks at her before opening it and seeing that it's a wine bottle with a charm at the top. Maria then pulls a single glass out of her bag, I guess she's expecting Kuon to drink this alone.

"You want me to drink it now?" Kuon asks as he looks around the restaurant. I know that he knows as well as I do that most restaurants frown upon the idea of outside beverages being consumed but I had asked Kuon to do what would make Maria happiest.

"It's okay," I smile to him, "I'll keep an eye out," I joke and Maria rolls her eyes.

Kuon sighs before pouring himself a glass, "Then thank you," he smiles to her before drinking it. However, as he finishes the glass, he has a look on his face as if worried about what he had just drunk. Did it taste bad? Sour? Was it poisoned? No, Kuon wouldn't….she wouldn't try to kill him would she.

As I stand up to get someone's attention I see Kuon's head hit the table and then he starts to disappear. My heart beats painfully and I look at Maria terrified. I knew that she knows magic but it's as if Kuon is vanishing and I can't do anything to stop it.

"Have fun," Maria turns away from me and I stare after her before seeing a lump moving around in the clothes that Kuon was wearing.

What is going on here? I get down wondering if she's turned Kuon into a frog or a rabbit or something like that. It's then that I see a teeny tiny hand come out of the clothes and my heart beats painfully. I start to pull the clothes away from the moving creature and my eyes widen to see a tiny baby with emerald eyes blinking up at me.

"Ku—on?" I panic as I look at the naked baby, he doesn't even look like a one year old, something newer, maybe two or three months. I wrap him up in the button-up shirt that he was wearing and then hear him start to sniffle. How long until he starts wailing? I quickly put the other clothes that will fit into my bag and then make sure I have his ring and his wallet and put them with mine. I scan the ground again and then turn my concentration to the baby in my arms.

I kiss the top of his head before he can start screaming and drawing attention to us. "It's okay, my love," I tell him with tears in my eyes, "It's okay."

…..

…

As soon as I drink the wine I know that something is not quite right. I didn't think that Maria would ever go so far as to poison me but it doesn't make sense. I feel a cold chill through my body and it's as if my bones have turned to jelly. I'm losing track of what's going on, it seems blurry and doesn't make sense. My mind isn't grasping what's going on. Is this what it feels like to be poisoned.

I crash down and then feel as if I'm being wrapped up in very tight plastic wrap and it's pushing down on every part of my body and then it feels as if I'm being suffocated, that these jelly like bones are getting more condensed, that I'm sinking into a rabbit hole.

Then I feel it, the ground beneath me and I'm covered in something. Blankets. Is this part of the process of death? I feel that there's just darkness and blankets and…and it doesn't make sense. I have an urge to eat but then as I open my mouth it's as if my teeth are gone. Is that one of the punishments of hell? You lose your teeth but still feel an indescribable urge to eat.

I try to crawl out under the blankets but it's hard, they're heavy. Too heavy.

Someone is reaching down to lift the blankets off of me, please don't be the devil. I was never really one to be religious and maybe that's why the devil has come for me because I didn't believe. I feel like I've lost so much and that my naked body is ripe to be played with. Then the light appears and everything is huge but the same. It's like I've grown tiny and am experiencing a new world. Maybe it's because in my life I was tall and able to move freely.

However, my eyes draw onto Kyoko. I reach out for her but it's difficult to move, it's as if my entire body is sponge and that sponge is limiting what I'm able to do.

Kyoko is…well it's as if I'm a doll to her, she's gigantic. I mean, is this one of the things that can happen in limbo, you take the place of a doll. I try to wave my arm and see how chubby it is but it slaps down on the ground. Talk about feeling like you're pudding.

I see Kyoko's fear as she wraps what appears to be the shirt I was wearing around me and then takes my other clothes, putting them in her bag. I see my ring, it's bigger too. I reach out for it but she smiles down at me, tucking it somewhere safe.

"Kyoko" I try to tell her but all that comes out of my mouth are these babbles the sound of which a baby might make. Wait. Chubby arms? Gummy mouth? The feeling that everything around me is huge? The babbling of a baby? Is this my torture, to remain in the afterlife as a helpless newborn. Death really is funnier than I thought.

Kyoko kisses the top of my head, her lips are large but they feel good and warm and slightly wet. I hear her voice and it comforts me, "It's okay, my love," she tells me and I reach my arm up and try to brush away her tears but my fingers are tiny compared to her face. "It's okay."

I cuddle closer to her, I can't be a baby. How come I can remember my entire life, all those things that I learned not only as Kuon Hizuri but as Ren Tsuruga and be in the body of a baby. I try to speak again, "Kyoko, you have to listen to me, I understand you. You have to help me." Somehow my babbling continues and this time I even hear myself blow a raspberry.

Oh hell no! I'm not talking like a baby am I!? I have to make her understand that I'm not a baby. I understand what is going on, but she's quickly hurrying out of the restaurant whilst pressing me close to her chest. She kisses the top of my head again and tears are in her eyes. I try to brush them away but put my hand on her cheek. I clumsily spread out my fingers and she laughs sadly.

"Well aren't you such a cutie," she says. She doesn't understand. I need to make her understand.

"I'm trying to brush away your tears, my princess" I tell her and she takes me over to a bench where she can move her arms to cradle me. I need for her to understand but I'm pretty sure these words aren't coming out of my gummy mouth.

…

…

As I hold him in my arms, it dawns to me how helpless he now is. Underneath it all, does he remember me? Can I still say it's my husband who got turned into a baby or is he just a baby who thinks of me as a warm body. Does he still know the name Kyoko or is this developing mind more of wants and needs than actual thoughts.

"Uuuh aa uuuhuu" Kuon talks to me as he looks at me, moving around in my arms and I'm scared that I'll drop him if he squirms too much. I have to get him out of here. I don't know how I'll explain this but if people start to ask questions then it could scare him. He makes a noise with his mouth which sounds like a premature raspberry. "Uuah waah uuh uhh," he tries to speak and I feel myself beginning to cry.

This isn't his fault at all and I don't want to hurt him. Aren't babies sensitive to emotions?

I hold him in the way that I've seen mothers do in dramas, not that my own mother probably held me like this. He sees the tears or maybe he's just feeling something strange with the pace of my breathing, how much do babies this age understand anyway? He reaches out and puts his hand on my cheek before spreading out his fingers. I can picture the way that my husband caresses my cheek and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear when I'm upset. Is that something that he's done since an infant? It seems more like an adult gesture. No, he's doing this without thinking. He can see pink flesh that he wants to touch with his soft and warm hand.

"Well aren't you such a cutie," I tell him as I find a bench to sit down on. I look into his large emerald eyes which seem to have such trust in them. I want to say they have love in them but I don't want to admit that he might think that I'm his mother. As I sit, I position him in my arms more securely.

"Uwaa uh uh awaa," he continues to babble. He starts to reach out with both hands to my face desperately as if wanting to tell me something. No, I'm just…he probably just wants to have a bottle or to be put in a crib or something. I don't even have a crib for him.

"It'll be okay," I promise him, "I love you, Kuon. I'm not sure that's legal anymore but I love you," I try hard to hold back my tears. Hopefully Father and Julie will believe me, they've seen Kuon as a baby before, they know how to take care of him. As I take out my phone wondering whether I should get home to make a phone call, I feel Kuon wiggle in my arms.

He presses a sloppy kiss to my cheek as soon as he lifts his little head enough to do so.

I pause and look at him as he stares at me with his emerald eyes. Did he consciously just kiss me or is that something that all newborn babies do?

End of Chapter One

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