Chapter 2; Lightspeed Too Slow
Baron didn't waste time with a light show – he knew what emergency meant: it meant move as fast as you can. There wouldn't be time for tea and cake either, which was a shame.
"Miss Haru? King Lune? Muta what's going on?" he asked, still drawing on his tailcoat as he left the door of the Bureau behind. There was confusion riddled over his fine furred features.
"Yuki wants you both," Lune said, his breath coming more evenly thanks to Haru carrying him, rather than having to do his own running. "She's in labour."
Baron looked sharply at Lune. The king's eyes were wide and frightened. The figurine almost smiled, the phrase "pregnant father" coming to mind. He had seen it before – the mother insisting that she was fine, the father insisting that she couldn't be because he felt nauseous.
"At your service, your majesty," said Baron, bowing stiffly in a way that managed to convey a want to be moving also.
Lune nodded and conjured a portal to his kingdom. He ran in, anxious to be with his wife again. Haru was hardly a pace behind him with Baron bringing up the rear.
Definitely a pregnant father, the orange cat thought to himself, holding onto his silk top hat as he followed at speed through the cat tails. It wasn't his top speed, if it was he would have over-taken Lune and probably be lost in the palace by now. It was better to follow.
A scream filled the castle, causing the small party to stop a moment, listening in fear.
"We're coming Yuki," Lune said, running once more.
Haru slowed down when she saw the stairs Lune was headed for. She didn't have the energy to run up those, and she knew it. Stopping for a moment, she puffed a bit before moving to take the dreaded climb, slower than she wanted to, but she would go as fast as her body would let her.
The brief pause had given her legs time to gather a committee and agree to complain, loudly. Haru felt her thigh muscles burn and her knees turn to water, then, mercifully, she felt herself being swept up off her feet.
"Thanks Baron," she said, looking up at him. She took the chance to breathe normally again, just as Lune had done when she was carrying him. The girl doubted, however, that his royal cat-majesty had checked her out beneath his lashes while she was carrying him, as she was now with Baron.
He was still dashing and handsome. Haru was hot all over, so blushing wasn't an issue, and she was still too out of breath to sigh, so she turned from her secret study of her favourite feline hunk to see where they were going. The staircase was long, but she could see a landing ahead, and Lune was slowing to take the turn into it.
"Yuki! Yuki, I've brought them!" he called, frantic, as he dashed into the first curtained room on their left.
Baron put Haru down just the other side of the dividing curtain and they walked in – quickly – in time to hear the doctor instructing the nearly exhausted queen to push.
Yuki screamed again, and Haru ran to her side. Lune was on the other side of the bed, holding one of Yuki's pale paws in his dark ones, Haru followed his example and took Yuki's other paw in her hands, stroking it as the queen screamed in agony, pushing.
Baron looked about him; he wasn't about to take a third paw, it would be inappropriate. Yuki wasn't the only one in the room screaming, he noticed. She had already delivered two kittens. He smiled, gently tickling the paler one about the neck as he lay on his back in the cot beside his darker sister.
The screams stopped and a nurse brought a third kitten to join the two already in the cot. Baron entertained himself with the little ones while Yuki grunted with the efforts of ejecting the after-birth, and then that too was over.
Careful to not hurt them in any way, Baron bundled the kittens up and brought them to their mother. Now that the pain was over, and the little ones were mewling adorably, everyone was wearing smiles.
