"Ami, you shouldn't over exert yourself," Kurt said, taking the dishes from his wife's hands. "You remember what Henry said."
Ami looked at him incredulously. "I was unloading the dishwasher, it's not like I was trying to run a marathon."
"Yes, but you need to rest."
She let out a loud annoyed sigh and stomped off to the living room. "I'm pregnant, not disabled you know!" she yelled from the couch.
Kurt felt no need to reply. Ami's sonogram had revealed what they had suspected, that the baby was in fact to be born physically abnormal. There was no telling whether she would inherit her father's blue skin tone or not, but she had definitely inherited his tail. On what the couple considered a plus side, their baby had already formed ten fingers and toes. The down side to all of this was that no one was sure how Ami would handle giving birth to a human/mutant baby, especially one that was anything like Kurt. For this reason, Dr. Henry (Hank) McCoy had given Ami strict orders to take it as easy as possible throughout her entire pregnancy. Naturally this had been driving her crazy for nine months now.
"Can I trust you to behave yourself while I'm gone?" Kurt asked, joining his wife in the living room.
Ami glared at him.
"You know this is what's best for you. I wish you wouldn't be so angry with me every time I remind you of it."
She sighed. "Of course you can, just make sure you come back as soon as class is over, I get so bored sitting here by myself all day."
Kurt nodded and kissed her sweetly. "I won't be gone long." He turned to pick his things up off the table, then acted like he'd just remembered something.
"What is it?" Ami asked.
"Why don't you come with me?"
"What?"
"Come with me to class, you can be my assistant."
She couldn't help but chuckle. "I don't think the Professor would appreciate that Kurt."
"He wouldn't mind, come on."
Before she could say no Kurt was grabbing her purse and the things he needed for class and heading towards the car. Feeling she really didn't have any choice but comply, Ami slipped some shoes on and followed.
After getting married Kurt and Ami had begun giving thought to moving out of the mansion, but when Ami got pregnant they felt they had to. The Professor insisted that they could stay as long as they'd like, but they insisted on going. There was a fairly nice apartment complex about a mile and a half from the mansion, one that was mostly home to mutants, many of which learned to control their powers at Xavier's school. It was a place where the two of them felt they'd be safe, and one where Kurt didn't have to fear going undisguised to do laundry or step out on the balcony.
Before the two moved out, the Professor had offered Kurt a job teaching at the school, one that he simply could not refuse. Though he would occasionally fill in for other teachers when they weren't able to come to class, his main job was to work with newer students who had not yet gained full control of their powers.
While Kurt drove Ami stared out the window feeling very tired. As annoyed as she was with all the rest, deep down she knew she needed it. She had been told that pregnant women were often tired, but she was fairly sure that her level of exhaustion was due to the fact that the baby she was carrying was half mutant.
"Is something wrong?" Kurt asked, pulling into the mansion's driveway. He had been nothing but a doting father-to-be since the moment he found out about the baby. It was obvious that he was really looking forward to having this child.
"Nah, just tired. I'll be fine."
They got out of the car and Ami followed Kurt to the classroom. Class would be starting in only a few minutes but right now the room was empty, so she took a seat at his desk while he prepared for the day's lesson.
As the students filed in and took their seats some of them recognized Ami and waved. Others looked at her questionably, which Kurt was soon to take notice of.
"This," he said, motioning towards her. "Is my wife Ami."
Sounds of recognition washed over the students, and a couple hands shot up.
Kurt sighed, knowing there was no way his lesson plan was being questioned this early. "Yes Jesse?"
A young boy stood up. "Is Ami a mutant too?"
She shook her head. "Nope, I'm just your average every day human I'm afraid."
"So… will your baby be a mutant then?"
"Yes, though we don't know to what extent yet."
Kurt smiled. "We do know that she has inherited my tail."
"So it's a she?" Another student asked. "What are you going to name her?"
"We aren't one hundred percent sure yet," Ami said. "But right now we're leaning towards Leyna."
"When's she do?" Asked another voice.
"I can clearly see that we are going to get absolutely no work done today," Kurt said, interrupting the friendly conversation, and giving Ami a little smile. "So why don't we take class outside for some exercises and you can freely harass my wife when it's not your turn."
The class had no problem with that idea and soon they were all outside, a large group with Kurt and a slightly smaller group congregating around Ami sitting on the grass. The group with Kurt was doing training exercises, though it looked more like they were playing a game. Meanwhile the group with Ami was doing everything from asking questions to taking turns feeling the baby through Ami's shirt.
"I didn't know humans could have mutant babies. Well, I mean I knew they could have them but not ones like Mr. Wagner," a young girl named Sara said tentatively.
"Well to be totally honest we're not sure either. I do know it's going to be rough, I just don't know how rough."
"But… you could die, couldn't you?" A smaller, more frightened looking girl asked.
Ami thought a second and nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose so. But at least then Kurt would have our daughter to remember me by."
Her honesty shocked the students, and perhaps even shocked herself. The idea of dying didn't really thrill her, so she tried not to think of it whenever possible. Still, she meant what she had said.
Ami turned to watch Kurt, now officially just playing with the students, all pretense of training gone. He was going to be a great father, she could tell by the way he interacted with the kids, and even though she'd never in her life planned on having children, she found that she was incredibly excited about it. Ami had come to suppose that a woman's views could change once she met the right man, and she definitely had.
"Are you ready to go my love?" Kurt asked, apparently done with his lesson.
She stared at him lazily, his gold wedding ring swinging from the chain around his neck. "Yeah… sure. You're done already?"
"You've been sitting there for an hour, are you sure you're okay?"
"Of course, I'm fine. I just want-" She stopped abruptly, a look of unexpected pain crossing her face.
"Ami? Ami, what's wrong?"
"I um… I think…" Her body was suddenly very tired and very unhappy with her. Even speaking seemed to require a monumental amount of effort, so she chose instead to collapse on the grass.
"Ami!" Kurt immediately picked her up, cradling her against his chest. He was feeling unusually helpless due to his inability to teleport, since Hank had advised against it early on in the pregnancy.
"Here, let me take her," a gruff voice behind him said.
Kurt turned to see Logan, and without a moments hesitation handed her off to him.
"Go ahead and tell Hank you're coming, I'll get her there faster than you could."
With a quick nod Kurt teleported into Hank's office, nearly causing the larger blue mutant to drop some very impressive looking chemicals.
"Ah, Kurt how nice of you to drop by. I do however wish that you'd warn me when you were going to-"
"I am sorry to interrupt, but Logan is on his way with Ami, something has happened." Kurt said breathlessly.
Hank started into action before the words had finished leaving Kurt's mouth. He prepared the table, grabbed a fresh lab coat and gloves, careful not to miss a single detail. He knew how delicate this procedure was going to be. "I do believe your lovely wife has gone into labor," he said as he did all this. "How has she been today?"
"Tired and a little distant. She kept telling me everything was okay but I wasn't really sure I believed her."
"I'm sure she thought everything was okay herself."
If Kurt had planned on replying he wouldn't get a chance to, as Logan kicked the lab's door open, nearly breaking it off it's hinges.
"Here ya go, doc. She's been out of it the whole way here."
Wishing he wasn't the only doctor in the lab at the moment, Hank went straight to work. Kurt was now feeling completely helpless as he stood in the corner of the room, only able to watch as his wife lay on the table. Meanwhile, Logan was feeling a little out of place, but stayed by Kurt's side in case for some reason he was needed.
"Doc, is this… normal? Shouldn't she be yelling and screaming or something?" Logan asked, not liking the unsure feeling that lingered around them all.
"Who is to say what is normal in this type of situation? Her body is under an incredible amount of strain right now Logan."
Kurt felt his knees go weak, and he let himself collapse to the floor. Once there he reflexively closed his eyes and began to pray.
The room fell strangely quiet, and incredibly tense as Hank stood at Ami's side, the only sound other than the moving of instruments being Kurt's prayer. Suddenly Ami let out a blood-curdling scream.
Kurt's eyes shot open and he sprang to his feet, he was unable to go any further however, due to Logan's strong arm holding him back.
"Careful man," Logan warned. "Women can get evil when they're in labor, and as much as I think of Ami, I'm sure she's no different."
The sudden normalcy of the situation calmed Kurt's nerves, so much so that he didn't even fight against Logan's restraint or words. Now that Ami was awake and screaming her head off like every other woman who'd ever been in labor, things were starting to look okay.
An hour later Ami was laying in a hospital bed, baby in her arms. The labor had gone by surprisingly quick after her body's initial shock, and other than a few scary moments when Hank wasn't sure he would be able to stop her bleeding, things had went perfectly.
Kurt sat by the bed, wearing the same smile he'd formed as soon as he realized Ami was okay. Both she and the baby were asleep, but he still watched over them diligently.
"She's an absolute work of art," Hank had said.
Logan snorted. "Looks just like you too."
While their daughter, now officially named Leyna, had in fact been born with ten fingers and toes and didn't have her father's pointed ears, she definitely had his skin tone and of course his tail.
"Kurt," Hank said softly, finally drawing Kurt's attention away from his wife and daughter. "There are some people outside who want to see you."
Reluctant to leave the bedside, Kurt trudged towards the door. On the other side stood half the mutants in the entire school, including the Professor, who insisted that since he was the owner of the establishment, he should get to see Leyna first.
"Sorry Chuck, beat ya to it," Logan said with a smug little smile as he walked out of the lab and lit a cigar.
The Professor seemed disappointed, but perked back up when Kurt let him in the room.
"Congratulations!" Ororo exclaimed, sounding more excited than he'd ever heard her sound before.
Rogue wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight ecstatic hug, later apologizing after receiving a shocked look from both Kurt and Bobby.
Following their lead various other mutants spent the next few minutes congratulating Kurt, and asking when they could see the baby. They only left when Hank threatened them all with laboratory janitorial duties so Kurt could see his wife, who was now awake.
"She has your eyes," she said quietly.
Kurt's smile broadened, if that was possible. "She's beautiful, just like her mother."
"Please, I look like shit," Ami laughed, not about to be fooled into falling for some maternal beauty line.
Kurt knew there was no point in arguing, instead he just sat down by her side feeling happier than he'd ever been in his entire life.