That day's date could not have been much scarier for the father-to-come…the calendar showed that it was now November the twenty-eighth. Kyo, Hatsuharu, and Kazuma sat inside a room in an area of the main house, near Hatori's office. Kyo's nerves only became more of a problem as time went on. Tohru had been in labor for six hours now, and Kyo wasn't there to help her through what was the most painful. This bothered him a lot.
"Damn. I really hope she's okay." Kyo said, scratching at the wooden floor with his fingernails.
"Tohru may be weak, but she's strong" Hatsuharu said. Kyo stared at him. "You know, that would have probably made me feel better, if it had made a any sense at all." Haru shot a dagger-glare at his more eloquent cousin. Feeling the tension in the air, Kazuma interrupted their fight before it could truly begin.
"Kyo, I'm sure that by the time the day is out, Tohru will be fine. You will be a father, at last. And, I will be a very proud grandfather."
"Thanks…" Kyo mumbled. At first glance, the three of them looked extremely formal, in ties and button-downs. At second glance, they looked nervous, not to mention bored out of their minds. Six hours had passed since they had all arrived. They had no idea how long it would take for Tohru's baby to finally be delivered. Kyo had a feeling, though…that it would take a long time.
Several hours passed. Kazuma and Hatsuharu had left about half an hour earlier. Twiddling his thumbs for fifteen more minutes, Kyo sat there nervously, as Hatori's faced paced steps brought him to attention.
"It's okay to go in, now." He said calmly, turning back around. Kyo stood up, and followed him to a room, where Tohru sat on a bed. Her arms held a tiny baby inside a blanket. "Hi, Kyo." She calmly said.
Kyo approached her bed. "Hi yourself." Tohru beckoned him closer, and he followed. She lifted the blanket off the baby's head, and revealed a tiny, pinkish, closed-eyed creature. Their baby, his daughter, was sleeping like a tiny angel. At first glance, she was just an ordinary baby. With a closer look, he pointed to the hair at the top of her head. Her head was sprinkled with orange peach fuzz. Tohru gave a small giggle, and Kyo smiled. This marked the first of many happy moments that Tohru thought, were sure to come.
As Kyo had expected, after several minutes, he began to feel strange. This baby brought him a certain, unexplained discomfort in his stomach. Hatori walked back in and washed his hands, without a word. Tohru couldn't help but be her same, warm-hearted self.
"Hatori, thank you so much. Thank you for delivering our daughter. Here, you should hold her."
Hatori looked utterly perplexed. "What do you mea—" before he could finish his sentence, Kyo handed the baby to Hatori. The cold, unforgiving winter of the Sohma family, cast a small, subtle smile. "She takes after you, Kyo." He said, pointing at the peach fuzz.
Kyo smiled, silently. He then looked at his cell phone to check the time. It was one-thirty AM. "I'm going to head home, okay? You," he bean, looking at Tohru, "you should rest up. Don't think about getting out of bed for a second. Got it?"
Tohru accepted her child back from Hatori. "Understood, Kyo." "Goodnight".
Kyo looked back at her. "Goodnight Tohru." He looked at Hatori and nodded once "and to you, too. Be careful with my daughter and my wife. Don't get any strange, sick ideas."
Hatori gave a sharp, angry old man expression. "Kyo foiled my plan again." He said, bluntly.
Kyo glared right back. "You sick bastard," he simply said, sarcastically. "Someone should have locked you up a long time ago." "Bye." He closed the door behind him and headed to their car. It was extremely cold outside, and it was a boring, unpleasant ride home. He even thought he'd heard Tohru's voice once. He looked at the passenger's seat, and saw no one was there. Maybe, he was going crazy.
He pulled into their driveway. Kyo locked the car door and entered their home. His dizziness took over as he stumbled up the stairs to his bedroom. Without changing, he fell into his bed and went to sleep.
A few mornings later, Kyo woke to the sound of his cell phone ringing. "Hello?" he said into his phone. Tohru's voice responded "Good morning, Kyo! How did you sleep?" she asked him.
He wasn't going to lie to her. "I didn't get much. I was worried about you two all week. Is she okay?"
Tohru giggled. "She's just fine. She's being admired by your some of your relatives."
Kyo's face brightened a little. "I'm coming over. I'll be there in about ten minutes. Okay?"
Tohru's bright smile emanated through the phone. "Okay. I thought of the most beautiful name last night."
Kyo cocked his head sideways. "What is it?"
"Tomoko. Tomoko Kyoko Sohma. Isn't that beautiful?"
Kyo thought to himself. Tomoko. That is nice. He thought about it a little more, and realized that his daughter's middle name was Tohru's mother's first name. Kyo wouldn't deny her that.
"I like it. Tomoko Sohma." "I'll see you and Tomoko in a few minutes, okay?"
"Okay," Tohru agreed "Bye".
Kyo snapped his phone shut. He got out of bed and ready to leave. A huge line of cars lie parked in front of the main house. Kyo's eyes bulged what's going on? Where am I going to park!?! He thought. Frustrated, he parallel parked across the street. Approaching the room where Tohru was the night of Tomoko's birth, his pace quickened as he heard voices. A mob of people filled that room. He scanned the room, looking for Tohru. Her figure sat up in bed, watching Hatsuharu holding their tiny daughter. Kyo wandered in that direction. Tomoko was giggling, pulling at the shiny objects on Haru's ears, watching his face distort a little. Kyo laughed, and looked at his baby girl.
"Tomoko, you don't know how many time's I've been tempted to see Haru's face do that." Kyo said, taking a seat on the bed next to Tohru.
"Heh. Likewise." Haru replied winking "Your daughter's pretty cute, just like your wife. You never know, I might just have to take her for myself when you're not looking." He reached his lips toward the tiny child. Kyo snatched her away, before Haru could think about it for another second. "You sick bastard." Kyo responded. The second she was in his arms, Tomoko stopped giggling and just stared at her father. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to cry. Frantically, Kyo tried to think; how do you stop a child from crying?!? He tried to rock back and forth; Tomoko cried, and shouted. Without knowing what to do, he passed her on to his wife.
"Shhhh…it's okay, Tomoko." Tohru said, cuddling her. Tomoko quieted down, and clung to her mother. Tohru looked at Kyo. "I think it's time for her nap." She said, laying Tomoko to sleep. Hatsuharu couldn't keep the blackmail behind his teeth. "I think she likes me back, Kyo. I can hear it now; the amber alert." Kyo readied his fist, and lazily popped his cousin in the shoulder. "I regret to inform you that you're twenty-five years too old for her." Kyo and Tohru walked out into the main room, where the majority of Kyo's relatives were. The buzz was unbelievable. One voice rose above them all; Ayame's voice was definitely the loudest, and the most confident.
"I don't know about that, Shigure. She does look a little bit like Kyo, but of course I think they should have named her after me! Wouldn't that have been wonderful? I can tell just by looking at her that she'll be a diva, just like I was as a teenager, won't that be nice? Another Ayame Sohma!"
Hatori silently glared at him. "Ha'ri, did I say something?" Ayame asked.
Hatori continued glaring. "You've already said that, and I've made my decision. I'd pick suicide." He replied calmly, sipping a cup of tea. Ayame pretended to cry "You're so cruel, Ha'ri!"
Momiji stood in the corner looking out into the room. He had a lit cigarette between his lips. Kyo paced into the corner and yanked it out of his mouth. "What do you think you're doing? Do you want my child to have defects?!?" he angrily spewed.
Momiji looked at him with an icy glare, similar to Hatsuharu's. "She's already got defects, Kyo. Tomoko is your daughter."
Kyo glared right back. "Geez, Kyo. You know I was kidding. Why do you always take everything so personally? Ever since we were little kids, you've been doing that. You're daughter is beautiful."
Kyo continued glaring. "Haru thinks so too."
Momiji laughed. "He said that about my child too. At least yours is a girl, okay? My son was pretty freaked out about it when I told him."
Kyo's eyes widened. "Has there always been something so terribly wrong with him?" he asked.
Momiji shrugged. "I don't think so. I think he just likes to see the look on people's faces."
"Or, he might actually be a crazy pedophile." Kyo replied sarcastically.
"That's true." Momiji said, dryly. "You can never tell with guys like him."
The three of them, after holding it for about five minutes, just started to laugh. Hatsuharu approached them, holding a sleeping Tomoko. This created the perfect, most awkward moment. Breaking this moment, they heard the door to outside shut. Kazuma stepped gracefully in. His first reaction was to approach the new parents. "Good afternoon, Kyo." He said first. He nodded at Tohru and Momiji. "Tohru. Momiji." "Ah, Hatsuharu. I thought Kyo was the new father?" he asked, watching Haru cuddle the tiny baby.
Haru shrugged. "He is, I'm just Tomoko's lover."
"What!?!" Kyo shouted.
Hatsuharu looked disgusted. "Don't shout. Can't you see, that my love is sleeping?"
Kazuma tried to keep up with this conversation. He decided to simply let it go. "May I hold her?" he asked Tohru.
She smiled big and bright. "Sure!" Hatsuharu turned toward Kazuma, and handed him their baby. A huge, anticipated explosion echoed around the room. As soon as the dust cleared, a huge crowd surrounded Tomoko. Kyo fought his way through the dense crowd. At first glimpse, he saw nothing. With a second glance, his worst nightmare was confirmed. In Kazuma's hands, rested a tiny rat that was the color of stained oak. Just looking at the tiny creature reminded him of Yuki. This disgusted him in every way. The rest of the Sohma family let out a unanimous coo. Unaware of her husband's pain, Tohru looked at Kyo. "Kyo, look! She's just like Yuki!"
Shock and anger overcame him. "Yeah, I noticed." He said, disgusted.
Tohru looked concerned. "You don't think this will effect the relationship between you two, do you?" Of course it will. She's a reincarnation of the very person I hated the most. Isn't it obvious? She'll end up hating me, just like he did…just like I did. Kyo didn't want to worry her, but he didn't want to lie to her. "I'm sure it will be fine. I'll really try not to treat her how I treated Yuki. I promise."
Tohru sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good. I was afraid this would be a problem". He smiled at her. "Don't worry, it won't." I'm lying straight to the woman I love, the one who I've always loved. This should be considered a crime, but it does give her a sense of security, even if it's fake, and it won't last. The rest of the Sohma family began to speculate, and whisper, "Will Kyo be able to handle it?" "I don't know…" "This is not good…" The murmur echoed throughout the room. Before it could continue, Ayame, the most influential Sohma, stood out and began to speak.
"People, people, please! It isn't that big of a deal. You guys are treating this as if it were my birth. Honestly, our beautiful, newest member of the family is something to talk about but the quiet whispers are beginning to scare her. I think it's time we all got some sleep." Kyo gave him a nod in thanks. After a subtle nod in response, Ayame finished his speech. "Thank you for coming, it was a wonderful time." Tohru collected Tomoko in her arms, who had changed back during the speech. She followed Kyo out to their car, and got inside. Tomoko's reddish brown eyes that so resembled Kyo's looked up at him silently as he started the car. After a few minutes of staring at her father, she drifted off to sleep into Tohru's lap. Kyo hit a light, and looked down toward his daughter. If they compared baby pictures, hers and his would be synonymous, however there was a difference. The gentle expressions Tomoko wore reminded him of not only her mother, but Yuki as well.