As December passed Rangiku found it harder and harder to stay warm. It was an unseasonably cold winter, but nobody in Division Ten managed to bundle up as thoroughly as she did. Three layers of winter uniforms under her heavy coat as well as Gin's coat and a scarf and boots were required to keep her from shivering every moment she was outside. At night, under every blanket they owned and most of their clothing, she still shivered until they moved the futon right next to the stove, and she burrowed in right next to Gin. He found the arrangement almost unbearably hot and was having almost as hard a time sleeping as Rangiku was.
When Gin finally dragged Rangiku in to Unohana, the healer found her temperature to be slightly low but not really worrying. She recommended Rangiku stay home when it was freezing and otherwise do whatever it took to stay warm. Neither of them found her advice particularly helpful.
As yet another storm rolled in, Rangiku sat on the futon, wearing two kimonos and wrapped in three blankets with a scarf around her head. All that could be seen of her was one hand wrapped around a bowl of miso soup and her face just peeking out of the scarf.
She was glaring at the soup, trying to convince herself to eat it. Gin had very kindly fetched her breakfast from his division kitchen (he didn't cook) and reheated it before handing it over.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he brought in another load of wood for the fire. He joked that he had to or he was going to get home to find she'd fed every flammable item in the house to the fire to keep warm.
She shrugged, not that he could tell through three layers of cotton stuffed comforters. "I think I'm just getting stir-crazy," she said. "Even I can't sleep all day every day."
Gin looked around the room at the various projects she had started. There was a knot of yarn she insisted was the beginnings of a baby's hat and a few scraps of fabric he was under the impression were supposed to be baby clothes, and untouched in a corner was a pile of books he had 'borrowed' from the library. "You could read," he suggested. "Two of the books are on scatter type zanpakuto. You could learn how to control Haineko better."
"Reading's too much like work," she told him. Then she added, "You're going to be late."
"I'm not late. I already went in. As far as anyone knows, I'm just not where they happen to be looking for me," he told her with a smile.
"Of all the reasons to master shunpo," she said, with an answering smile.
"You sure you're going to be alright?"
"Pretty sure boredom never killed anyone."
"I'll come check on you at lunch."
"You don't need to."
"I will."
"I love you," Rangiku said, but he was already gone.
She glared at her miso soup for a while longer, before finally giving up and setting it aside. She felt positively odd. She had for the past couple of days, really, but today was much worse. She wanted to get up and do something, but it was so cold. But sitting was so uncomfortable. And of course it was snowing again.
She was so never doing this again. One kid was enough. There was no way she was going to go through morning sickness and being exhausted and bored and getting fat and clumsy and stupidly emotional all over again, just to have another-oh, great, and now stomach cramps, she thought as she shifted around in the blankets, trying to turn the bedding into a nice little nest so she could try to nap the day away.
Gin didn't come home at noon. She could hear the wind picking up outside. It sounded like the storm had decided to get serious. He was probably hoping it would calm down before he tried to come home. Shunpo in a blizzard was a good way to get completely lost, so he'd have to walk and he didn't really have the proper clothing for an hour's walk in a blizzard.
She would have been glad he had actually been sensible for once, but she was pretty sure the stomach cramps were not stomach cramps but contractions. Of course her kid would want to come an entire month early. They weren't coming frequently and they weren't particularly strong, and Unohana had told her many women had contractions for weeks leading up to the birth, but Rangiku had a strong feeling this kid had decided it was time.
She forced herself to eat her now cold breakfast. The baby needed the nutrition even if she didn't want it. Then she started pacing, dragging her heavy blankets back and forth in the crowded little room. This was way too familiar, just being stuck waiting all alone, waiting for Gin and knowing that even when he got here he wasn't going to be able to fix anything.
Damnit! Where was he? The stupid contractions were getting worse, and she was getting nervous, which just ticked her off more. She was a shinigami. She'd been slashed and stabbed and bitten more times than she could count. She knew all about pain. Giving birth couldn't be worse than being gnawed on by a hollow. Maybe it was just the fact that it was her own body doing it to her or the fact that she was supposed to do something that she had no idea how to do and honestly sounded impossible to begin with, but she couldn't stop worrying.
This really wasn't good. She was completely freaking out. Unohana said she needed to stay calm. Relaxing would help.
Then a particularly severe contraction hit, and she found herself on her knees by the time it was over.
"Ok, baby," she said, rubbing her stomach firmly. "I understand you're tired of it in there, but you're gonna have to wait till we get some help because your mama has absolutely no idea what to do." Then she added, "Sorry you have such a dumb mama. Maybe you'll be lucky and take after your daddy."
Gin arrived home three hours later to find his wife kneeling in corner of the now dark room, shivering and talking to her belly. The fire was nearly out, and her blankets had fallen from her shoulders.
He ran to her without a word, and dropped to the floor before her, only to discover she was sitting in the middle of a damp puddle.
"Rangiku, what-" He pulled her to her feet and tore off the damp kimonos, swearing under his breath at the icy feel of her skin.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded as he reached for a towel to dry her off.
"I-" Her breath caught, and she clutched at his arms, pressing her fingers into his muscles as her whole body tensed for thirty long seconds.
"Now?" Gin said, rubbing her with the towel as quickly as he could.
"I've told him and told him we're not ready, but he won't listen," she said.
Gin picked her up and carried her back to the futon, covering her with the two blankets that were still dry. Then he grabbed some wood by the door to restart the fire, saying nothing even as he heard her gasp as another contraction came and went.
"Gin, what are we going to do? He's not going to wait. He wants to come now. He-" she broke off as Gen held up a hand, calling a hell's butterfly, and sending it off with a message.
"You're going to get in so much trouble," she teased, though her voice was tight and strained. "Those are only for official business."
He finally turned to face her, and for the first time she could read every emotion on his face. He wasn't even trying to hide it. Fear filled eyes that were opened far too wide, and she could see something very like panic growing in their depths. "I can't help you," he said, and she could see the horror that realization brought.
"Hey," she said, smiling brightly, fighting the urge to moan as yet another contraction wracked her body.
She grabbed hold of his hand and gripped it tightly. "I'm pretty sure you can catch."
"Ran," he whispered, looking sick.
She forced another huge smile. Of course, her icy husband with his god-like control of his emotions would lose it now. "I've got everything else covered," she told him.
Gin just nodded and clung to her hand almost as tightly as she held onto his.
"Hey," Rangiku said, trying to find a distraction. "We're really going to have a baby. Really. Isn't that amazing?"
He nodded again, but he didn't really seem to care.
"What do you think we should name our son?" she asked, after another contraction passed.
"Our son?" Gin repeated. She had finally managed to get his attention.
"Just reach out a little, you can feel him. His reiatsu is so bright."
Gin stared at her for a moment, and his expression shifted as he recognized a second reiatsu bound up in Rangiku's. And like she said it was bright, not as small and weak as an infant's should have been. Aizen was right. The boy would be very strong.
He turned away abruptly, frightened of what Rangiku might read in his expression. Thankfully a hell's butterfly arrived then, and he doubted she realized he was hiding anything from her.
He held out his hand to the butterfly, and his expression darkened.
"What is it?" Rangiku asked.
"They can't risk coming through the storm," he said, biting back his anger at their cowardice. He'd made it home. Someone from Squad Four damn well could. "But there is a woman a couple doors down who was once a part of Squad Four. She's agreed to come. She should be here in just a few minutes."
"See," Rangiku said, smiling yet again. "I told you everything's going to be just fine."