Title: Turn back the pendulum (Nanao)
Pairing: None
Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me or THIS would be true!
Author's note: One shot written for an exchange with my sister (yeah, she's always the one to be blamed... she was my beta for this one anyway). Written at 3 in the morning... also, don't be too hard on me, I'm a very shy person.
Night, seireitei:
In a darkened room with only one oil lamp and a white futon in which a woman laid, shouting in pain... still praying to all Gods, which she knew were not real, for no one to notice her cries. Tears streamed down her face and her lips were drenched in blood from previews attempts at silencing herself. Her luxurious dark hair, once tied in braids, invaded now her forehead, neck and pillow, heating her already sweaty body like a cursed curtain. Kneeling beside her, serving as both emotional and technical support, occasionally changing from her side to between her tights, was a man who's blond, long hair, even if usually left to grow and spread at it's will, was now tied back in what looked like a very rushed ponytail. The room smelled of blood and sweat and tears, echoing the woman's cries and panting in impossibly loud ways.
"Please, Lisa-san, try not to be so loud... also... I do know it hurts and that you're doing the best you can... but if you don't put more effort into it this child will never see the sunrise... and so won't you..." Ever so delicate, Shinji had placed himself once more between the young woman's tights but stretched his arm so their fingers could lock.
"DAMN you, I know...nhh... AHRG!" A blinding strike of pain invaded her as another contraction overwhelmed her body. She was aware it wouldn't hurt as much if the circumstances where different but she wasn't about to complain, she actually found a way to make like the proof of her sin and managed to find someone trustworthy enough to help her bring it to life... she only wished for the little devil to cooperate and slide out faster.
Three hours had passed since both of them met inside the abandoned pavilion and she was sure they were already being missed... even if she'd been out on a mission for the best part of the last six months and it was about 4 in the morning... they didn't have much longer.
After one more our and what it felt like days of agony, the man announced joyfully.
"The head, I'm seeing it!" Carefully he pulled his right hand away from hers and placed it, together with the other, around the baby's head. Slowly he started to pull it out, grabbing the shoulders as soon as they came out. The rest slid out easily and seconds later he stood there, knelled between her legs, with a baby girl in his shaking arms.
Exhausted the mother tried to lift her upper body so she could see the child properly but her muscles didn't answer and she felt back on the hard old pillow.
"Shinji... the baby..." Panting she managed to call the other back to the reality, as he kept looking at the creature in his hands as if it was made of pure light.
He lifted his head, faced the mother with a very wide smile and tears of joy and relief in his eyes.
"It's a girl Lisa... and she's beautiful!" Still shaking he got up, cleaned the child's little mouth and nose and laid her on the top of her mother's breasts.
"She's perfect, isn't she?" Lisa immediately closed her arms around the small trembling body, as if to protect her from the world. Suddenly she noticed the child was very silent and raised her eyes, tearful due to both the effort and the pain. "She hasn't cried yet... should we...?"
"Be thankful she hasn't... if your shouting was bad enough specially at such an hour, we could always say you were having rough drunk sex... if otherwise they ever heard this little one cry..." he trembled "Just feed her already and then try to get some sleep, both of you!" This last part he said it in a sweeter tone turning to the baby, then he went back to the serious tone "I'll be out for a while, pretending I've been in my squadron all along, I'll do what I can to cover you up." That said he stood up and looked at his bloodied hands one more instant before turning around. "One more thing... did you already thing of a name?"
"Yeah... actually... I was hoping for a girl..." She looked at the silent child with the warmth of the sun shining in her eyes. "I thought of Nanao..." Not wanting to take too long, Lisa undid the upper part of her kimono and placed swollen nipple to her daughter's tiny mouth, pressuring the breast a little so the milk would come out easier.
"Cute... that will do then... I'm off." And he was gone, leaving both mother and child alone in the dark division.
Dawn, some years later:
The one thing I remember is a very pale and soft hand, holding mine... a black sleeve... and then only mist... and I look up and try to see the face it only gets thicker and I eventually give up. We walk in silence and I'm cold... shivering.
There's this big wooden gate in front of us and I get entertained trying to figure out the little details in each corner... I feel the cold morning wind in the fingers of my right hand and almost instantaneously I look back... and I'm alone. Not knowing what to do, where to go or who to call I sit there, waiting for either the sun to rise or someone to get out of the said gate. The second option happens first and next thing I know I'm being held by a very tall man with hard fingers and a sleepy face. He makes me lean against his shoulder and pulls some pink flowery tissue over my shoulders, for which I'm very grateful. Trying not to look too much confused I glance up at him and he smiles. He makes me lean against his shoulder again and this time I agree to say still. His long messy curly hair smells of smoke and alcohol... and flowers. I want to ask him where I am what am I supposed to be doing there... but I fall asleep on the man's shoulders far before I even find my thoughts to form coherently.
Author's note (2): Cunstructive critics? Coments?