I was mesmerized, watching her hand come out of the baby clothes. Tohru's hands were small and, in juunishi form, our daughter fit into one of them.
The snake had curled her tail around the smallest of Tohru's fingers and curled the rest of her length into her mother's palm. Tohru quickly folded one of the baby blankets around her hand, and then looked at me.
I blurted out the first thing I could think of. "I hope she's not like Ayame!"
Tohru looked startled, then slowly smiled and started laughing. "Kyo, is that all you can say?" It was so good to see the familiar sparkle back in her eyes that I didn't care if she was laughing at me.
POOF!
Tohru moved quickly to hold our baby's newly reappeared form, and suddenly it hit me. I can't hold my daughter.
"Yes, you can." Tohru was looking at me. "You can hold her; you'll," she hesitated and dropped her eyes. "You'll just have to get used to her zodiac form." Tohru's head lifted suddenly, her eyes blazing with intensity. "Promise me, Kyo; promise that you will hold her too so that she know you love her."
That's my Tohru! I chuckled and reached out to caress her cheek. "I promise, Tohru. Now are you going to dress Yuri or are we going to get strange looks from the nurses?"
She blushed and started putting Yuri back into the sleeper.
This new development was going to change a few things. "I'd better go call the family."
"Kyo, we need to talk more before we tell them this."
"Why, Tohru, you want to keep a secret from everyone else?" I teased gently, flustering her immensely. I sobered up. "Akito and Hatori will have to know. We'll need to meet with them as soon as you can travel. I won't tell anyone else; we'll wait until everyone is face-to-face."
"Okay." Tohru tilted her face up for a kiss on the lips, and I brushed a kiss on Yuri's forehead too. Then I left to put my stored cellphone minutes to use.
