HALLO THAR
When I first typed up 'Welcome to Existence', I wasn't expecting a sequel to pop into my head. But it did! So here ya go
Disclaimer: I don't own KH, only Kari and Kala
"Kari! Kala! It's almost time for dinner!"
The twins stopped in their tracks of the game 'chase me, find me' to see their father at the threshold of the door that led to the backyard, smiling. "C'mon up, you two have been out there all afternoon!"
Kala smiled, her hazel eyes brightening up. "Coming!" she yelled back. She smiled to her slightly younger twin and took her hand. "C'mon, let's go!" Kari grinned, letting her sister run back to the house, her own hand in hers.
Roxas watched as the twins came rushing up to the door and inside, the smile on his face never leaving.
It had been eight years since Axel had had the twins, thanks to being a test subject for the magic company at the time known as Unversed. Since then, Roxas' old company of Verseless Industries and the Unversed Company had merged and gone global. Thanks to this merger, the potion that Axel had taken that made it possible for males to give life had been made common-place, as well as giving Roxas a much better job in a different department that paid a much higher salary.
And because of the success of the potion from years ago, Axel and Roxas had decided to have more children.
"Where's Mommy?" Kari asked when she came in, Roxas shutting the door behind her. The blonde male's smile fell a little. "Mom's still napping," he answered. "Why don't you two go wash up and I'll go wake him up?"
The twins complied and headed off toward the bathroom, Roxas heading in the direction of his and Axel's bedroom, feeling a little worried as he went.
When the red head was pregnant with the twins, it was one thing that he had felt tired a lot or something to that extent. But he hadn't had any health issues because of or despite the fact that the pregnancy was more or less a test to see if the potion at the time even worked.
But now…
Roxas quietly opened the door to their bedroom, smiling a little when he saw his husband asleep. He went over to the bed and sat next to Axel as carefully as possible, wondering what he was dreaming about as Roxas began to stroke his hair. He almost didn't want to wake Axel, but knew that the red head had to eat.
This time around, Roxas and Axel were having a boy; they had decided to find out this time so they could see if they could just pull out the twins old clothes or if they would need blue this time. As excited as the two were when they found out about having a boy, they got an equal amount of disappointment as well when the doctor kept talking.
It seemed that this was considered as Axel's 'first-true' pregnancy, and because of that factor that he had developed preeclampsia, a condition that sometimes developed for those who had first time pregnancies. It was taking a lot out of the red head, in shorter words. So the doctor had said that Axel was to be on plenty of bed rest, which didn't really leave Axel much to do, but if it kept both Axel and the baby healthy, then Roxas was all for it.
"Hey Ax, it's time to wake up," Roxas finally said, brushing some of the red head's hair away from his shoulders. His husband shifted a little, emitting a soft, sleepy moan. "C'mon Axel, it's just about time for dinner and the twins are waiting."
A pair of emerald eyes opened and looked at Roxas. "Hey," he greeted, smiling a little. Stretching a little, Axel sat up and carefully propped himself against the headboard of their bed, resting a hand on his eight-month pregnant belly. "How long have I been asleep?"
"It's about 6:30 now, and you conked out at close to 2:00 this afternoon," Roxas answered. He kissed the red head on the cheek. "It's dinnertime. Are you hungry? Demyx is gonna be here with food."
Axel smiled. "That's right, he promised to stop by tonight, didn't he? I hope he brings lots of curry-"
"Mommy!"
Roxas and Axel looked at the bedroom door to see the twins standing there, smiles adorning their faces. "Hey you two," their 'mother' greeted. He patted the empty space on his other side. "Why don't you two come over here?"
The twins giggled and made their way over, Kala taking the empty space next to Axel while Kari sat next to Roxas. Axel hugged them both, kissing the twins on the top of their heads. "Have you two been good while I've been sleeping?" he asked.
Kari giggled, her aquamarine eyes shining brightly as Kala answered. "We were playin' 'chase me, find me' in the back yard. Daddy played with us for awhile, but left us alone 'cuz he said he had some stuff to do."
Axel looked at Roxas, one eyebrow raised, showing the confused look on his face. Despite the fact that the backyard was fenced in, was not all that big, and the town they lived in was one where children could play outside after dark without fear, Axel still worried about the girls, sometimes at a much higher level than Roxas thought he should.
Then again, being as the red head had been the one who carried the twins for nine months, Roxas could see why he would worry.
"I came in because I was either checking on you, calling Demyx, picking up a bit around here, or cleaning the kitchen," the blonde told his husband. "And I only left them outside by themselves for about an hour."
Axel seemed to relax at that statement and smiled. Suddenly, he felt a sharp kick to his stomach, alerting him of another presence. "I think your brother wants some attention," the red head said to the twins, laughing a little.
Kari looked at her mother's swollen abdomen, looking like she was pondering something while Kala put her hand on top of Axel's stomach, smiling. "Hi little brother," she said, Axel petting his daughter's dark orange-red hair. "Are you gonna come see us soon? Kari and me are waiting..." As the girl continued to chatter at the red head's stomach, Roxas looked down at Kari, the little blonde girl looking a little scared. "What's the matter sweetheart?" he asked quietly.
"...he's not hurting Mommy, is he?" Kari asked, looking up at Roxas. The blonde male stared at her, confused why she'd ask something like that. "Of course not," Roxas told her, trying to keep the conversation quiet so as not to distract Kala from her 'chat'. "Why would you ask that?"
" 'cuz Mommy's in bed a lot," she said. "And don't sick or hurt people spend a lot of time in bed?"
Roxas was about to answer when Axel cut him off. "Just because I've been spending a lot of time in bed doesn't mean anything. Your brother isn't hurting me and I'm not sick. The doctors just thought that bed rest would be good for me." When he noticed that the slightly wary look on his younger daughter's face wasn't leaving, he held his free arm open for a hug. "C'mere Bright-Eyes."
Smiling a little, Kari crawled over to her mother, Axel hugging her. "Don't be scared," he told her, kissing her on top of her head. "There's nothing wrong. The doctors thought this would be good and we follow what doctors say, right?" Kari nodded, looking up at the red head. Axel smiled. "That's my girl. Now, do you wanna say hello to your brother? I think he wants to hear you too."
Kari slowly put a hand next to her sister's on Axel's belly. She smiled when she felt a kick. "He kicked me!" she said excitedly.
Roxas couldn't help but smile at the little girl, who was now conversing with her mother, sister, and soon-to-be brother.
Axel woke up later that night feeling...strange. An odd pain was lacing itself through his back, it felt really weird...and it hurt. A lot.
Turning over to face his sleeping husband, the red head took a hold of Roxas' shoulder and started to shake him awake. "Rox, wake up," he said urgently. The blonde next to him groaned sleepily. "Whuzzit?" he asked, opening his eyes a little, looking into Axel's own deep green ones.
The red head was about to answer when he felt something 'pop' and a nasty, warm wet feeling begin to pool between his legs. Why, of all places, did that have to happen in our bed? Axel thought. "...water just broke...and my back hurts a lot..."
It took a moment for this to apparently register in Roxas' head because one minute he was laying there with a sleepy, dumbfounded look on his face, and the next he had shot up, fully awake. "Do you think you can get up and make it to the car, or should I call an ambulance?"
"Th-think I can make it out-" Axel started, but stopped when a wave of pain hit. "Scratch that...call an ambulance...and probably Demyx so he can stay with the twins..." Roxas helped the red head sit up, propping him up against the headboard while placing a few pillows behind him. Somewhere in this process, the blankets had gotten shoved off Axel and Roxas saw what his husband was talking about.
And here I thought the doc was kidding when he said that Ax had grown a 'birth canal', Roxas thought, taking a quick look at the wet spot on the bed before going to grab the phone to make a few phone calls. First, the ambulance.
Axel just kept staring downwards, one hand on his stomach, the other clenching into a fist every so often.
The first time he had done this with the twins, there had only been one way to get them out (due to the limitations of the potion at the time) and that one way was through a c-section. He had thought about doing the procedure again with the new arrival, but after hearing Roxas talk about how much he had been worried because Axel had lost a lot of blood, he decided against it and opted for a natural birth this time since the potion now let men grow a 'birth canal'.
The red head let out a breath when he saw something he shouldn't have.
...
Roxas had gotten off the phone with 911 and was just about to call Demyx when he heard, "R-Rox...s-s-something's wrong..."
Noticing the distress and fear in Axel's voice, he came back to the bed. "What is-" His eyes widened, question dying in his throat. Blood was beginning to stain the red head's gray pajama bottoms. Not much, but enough that it scared Roxas.
"Roxas...what's happening?"
The blonde paced in the waiting room of the Maternity Ward, worried sick about Axel.
Upon arrival to the hospital, Roxas had been seperated from the red head and hadn't been allowed to see him until this check up or whatever was over with. Only problem with that was that had been over two hours ago and the blonde was getting impatient. He knew Axel was scared and Roxas was sure that the doctors knew that too.
So why were they keeping the blonde from comforting his husband?
"Roxas? Why are you out here?"
Said male quickly turned around when he heard that voice. "Demyx? What are you doing here? Why aren't you with the twins?"
The musician shrugged. "After you told me what happened, I got worried, so I called Sora and Riku. They're with the twins right now."
Roxas relaxed a little. His cousin Sora and Riku could take care of the twins well enough, considering that they were expecting one of their own. If Demyx had said that he had taken his roommate Zexion to watch the kids, Roxas would've been mad. While he didn't hate Zexion, the two of them had just never been on good terms with one another.
"Anyway, you didn't answer my question," Demyx said. "Why are you out here instead of in there with Axel?"
The slightly younger blonde sighed. "It wasn't my decision if that's what you're wondering," he said, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "I tried to follow him in, but the doctors and nurses won't let me until they're done finding out what's wrong."
Demyx took a seat next to his friend. "But he is in labor, right?"
"...yeah..."
The two sat in silence for a long time, wondering what could possibly be happening in the depths of the ward they were in.
...
"Roxas Raiff?"
The blonde stopped his pacing, looking up to see a female doctor. "Yes?" he asked, wondering if she could tell him what was going on or if she'd let him see Axel. Roxas walked over to the doctor, Demyx waking up from the nap he had been taking to see the scene before him. "Is my husband alright?" Roxas asked. "He was bleeding when we got here-"
The doctor held up a hand for silence. "He's doing better," she said, lowering her hand. "Are you familiar with a condition called 'placenta previa'?" Roxas shook his head. "It's a condition that has several interesting factors tied to it. According to your husband's medical records, he was a test subject for the current male pregnancy potion from the former Unversed Company and gave birth to twins via cesarian section."
"I already knew that, I was there," Roxas said, a short-tempered edge to his voice. "What does a c-section or our twins have to do with what's going on now?"
"They're the two factors I was talking about," she answered. "Placenta previa can occur when there were multiple children in a single birth or when a cesarian is performed, among other factors. Your husband had both, at the same time, which makes him more of a candidate for this complication, even if the procedure and your children were born almost ten years ago."
Roxas looked down in disbelief. "So what happens now?" he asked, Demyx standing from his seat and coming up to the blonde's side, placing a hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. "Are Axel and our son ok?"
"Yes," she answered. Roxas looked back up at her, his eyes brightening a little. "We've had to give him a transfusion due to the bleeding, but he's doing better now. And all testing shows that your son is well."
"...can I see him?" Roxas asked timidly. When she nodded, the blonde looked to Demyx. "Call Sora and Riku, tell them what's going on and make sure that the twins are still asleep," he instructed. Then Roxas turned back to the physician. "Can Demyx come back too when he's done?"
Once again, she nodded. "He can just come to the desk and ask where the room is." With that, the female doctor led Roxas back towards where Axel was.
...
Axel looked toward the door of the room he had been placed in to see Roxas standing there, looking worried. "Rox, what's wrong?" the red head asked, though he had a pretty good idea as to what the blonde was going to say.
His husband just stood in the doorway for a moment before coming over to the bed and hugging him, being careful of the equipment that was monitoring both Axel and their unborn son. "I'm gonna guess you've been just as worried as me?" Axel asked. Roxas sighed, kissing the red head on the cheek. "You have no idea," he finally answered. "The good news is that our son is ok and you're ok too."
"...but?"
"But nothing," Roxas said, as he sat in a chair next to the bed. "She didn't mention doing a c-section, and if there's a choice, I'd rather you just stick with what you've been wanting to do for the last few months. She didn't mention much else, just told me why this happened and what they did to help."
The blonde took Axel's hand in one of his own, being careful of the IV's that were hooked up, the two sitting in silence for a while. Finally, the red head broke the all-too quiet in the room.
"...Rox, I...I'm scared..."
Roxas just squeezed Axel's hand a little, trying to reassure him as he tried to keep tears from coming to his eyes. "Me too."