Chapter 25: Hands for Healing
(Yes! The samurai heir is about to be born...with much drama and excitement for all! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. And just so you know, I am half done with a new chapter of Love Not in Vain. Tetsuya will be giving birth to a lovely Bya/Ren/Tet baby. That will be a sweet one. But first, this one. Thanks to Liv2luv (*hugs*), TokenAsian (glad you survived!), Love Psycho (Yes, the baby is here!), Kasey'sLove (Aww, thanks!), Alabirdie (*hugs*), Kiaros (The drama goes on...in the story and in RL...), TomyAllen (glad to make you smile!), and Mina Kye (Thanks, sweetie!) Take a deep breath and dive in! Love, Spunky)
Katsuro felt soft, exceedingly gentle hands touching his injured chest, and sensed that a person possessing very respectable healing power was tending to him. But the source of that power, though it felt somewhat familiar, belonged to no one he knew. At first, he thought it might be his returned father, Kazuki. But the reiatsu, though definitely Kuchiki, was something else as well. Katsuro moved, though doing so was horridly painful. He captured one of the healer's slender hands and cracked his eyes open. Again, he was at first, convinced he was looking at Kazuki Kuchiki. But then, the subtle differences began to show themselves. The healer caught his breath in surprise and pulled his hand free.
"S-sorry," Katsuro managed, "But...who are you?"
The healer paused for a moment, his handsome, youthful face betraying uncertainty.
"I am Lord Byakuya's cousin," he answered finally, "I was sent to assist with his healing while he is here, but I am also assisting others in the healing center. It was felt that you were more in need of my healing abilities than Lord Byakuya, so I was assigned to care for you."
"Ah...and do you...have a name, Kuchiki cousin?" Katsuro asked sleepily.
"Yes," said the young man, touching his face and sending a touch of kido through him to make him sleep, "I do."
Katsuro strained to hear the name, but heard nothing more as he drifted off again.
But those hands! he thought, his lips curving into a smile, I've never felt a touch like that before...
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"Calm your breathing and relax as much as you can," the king's healer said calmly, "I am going to deliver the baby now."
Byakuya nodded and slowed his harsh panting somewhat, squeezing tightly on Renji's hand and watching raptly. The healer leaned over his bared belly, soothing green reiatsu glowing around his hands, and placed his palms on the noble.
"Oh," Byakuya groaned, closing his eyes for a moment as intense pain radiated through him.
But his eyes opened again quickly as the light around the healer's hands grew stronger and he felt a gentle tugging on his insides. Kazuki mopped the sweat away from his face and held his other hand, smiling encouragingly.
He gave a ragged cry of surrender as the healer's power wrapped around the swirl of reiatsu and coaxed it very slowly upward. An equally intense sob of relief exited his lips as the baby's reiatsu broke free, and the area it had passed through shimmered, and began to close again.
Byakuya quivered, staring and unable to make a sound as the reiatsu cluster pulsed with life, and the healer set it gently in the weary noble's waiting arms. A lusty squeal rose up from the darkening spirit cluster, and the glow around it began to fade. In moments, the baby rested, fully formed and perfect, in Byakuya's arms.
"Holy shit," gasped Renji, touching the baby's face with a fingertip, as though making sure it was real.
Byakuya and Renji studied the markers of the samurai, the surprisingly thick red hair, lovely, feisty, cinnamon brown eyes and black markings over just the eyebrows.
"Um...Byakuya," said Renji, tilting his head slightly, "I thought that the Akabuke line was...all males. This is...a girl! Is that...okay?"
His eyes sought Kazuki's and the noble mate shrugged, looking as surprised as Renji.
"I don't care," Byakuya whispered, "Sh-she looks like a samurai. S-strong...like...you, Renji."
He meant to say more, but he felt a sudden clutch of intense pain inside, and a hard swell of dizziness.
"Byakuya?" Kazuki called softly.
The healer's eyes darkened.
"Take the child and go," he said quickly.
"What's happening?" Renji cried as Kazuki lifted the baby away and stood.
"Come, Renji, we must let the healers care for..."
"No!" cried the redhead, "I am not leaving him! What's wrong with him?"
The healer shook his head and leaned over the unconscious noble, quickly examining him. He shook his head grimly and sighed in frustration.
"The damage done in the demon attack put great strain on him. Even though the stabilization held him in balance, the rigors involved in the birthing were too much for him. He has gone into shock and his systems are shutting down quickly. You must go, Master Samurai, so that I can..."
"You do what you want. I'll stay out of the way, I swear. But don't you fucking let this man die! Don't you fucking dare, you hear me?"
"V-very well," muttered the healer.
He placed his hands on Byakuya's chest and face, focusing deeply, then sent a hard shock of fiery, golden reiatsu through him, making the noble's body recoil.
"Bring Tetsuya Kuchiki!" the healer snapped to an attendant, "He's in with the king's samurai. We need to join our reiatsu if we want to save this man!"
The attendant flash stepped away as the healer gathered himself and sent another blazing shock of kido through Byakuya's unresponsive body. Renji hunched over, a horrid, sick feeling taking hold of him. He brought his lips to the noble's ear and sobbed his name, desperately.
"Byakuya! Byakuya, don't do this! Don't fucking do this to me! After everything we've gotten through. After we finally got our shit together, you can't leave me now! We have a baby here. And there's another one you haven't even seen yet. You can't leave now."
Tetsuya flash stepped into the room.
"They said you asked for me?"
"Yes, quickly," the healer said, glancing up at him, then turning back to the distressed noble, "Join your reiatsu with mine. You know him well, and your powers are nearly as strong as mine. Hurry, Tetsuya! He's in decline!"
Tetsuya nodded briefly and dropped down on Byakuya's other side, his hands touching the noble's chest and face as well. He glanced at Renji, giving him an encouraging smile.
"It will be all right, Master Renji," he assured the distraught redhead, "I won't let him leave us."
The two healers let their reiatsu swell around them, then very slowly joined the power and wrapped it around Byakuya's body. Renji stared, white-faced, his eyes wide and his face oddly lit by the heavy reiatsu on the air.
"Hang in there, okay?" he whispered into Byakuya's ear, "I'm right here. I'm not leaving for a second. Come on, Byakuya. Come back to me."
The healers' eyes met and the king's healer nodded. As one, they sent their power down into Byakuya's body, once, twice, then a third time.
"Come on," Renji sobbed again, closing his eyes and reaching out for Byakuya's fading mind, "You're not going to leave me. Our story's not going to end like that. Screw fate or destiny or whatever else thinks it's going to get in our way! I'm coming to you, Bya. You're coming back...or I'm going with you!"
"Master Renji!" exclaimed Tetsuya, his face paling, "Master Renji, what are you doing?"
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Byakuya felt as though he had fallen into a deep, black, watery abyss. He still heard echoes of voices around him and felt impacts on his dying body. He didn't have to wonder what was happening.
He already knew.
I wasn't strong enough. Kami knows, I tried to be. And I gave everything to staying alive. I gave him the heir. But it was all that my body could take. I feel everything coming apart now. But...it is so strange. I thought that it would be a relief, not to be the one left behind. But I can hear his cries in my dying heart. The weight of his agony tears at me. Is this what Hisana felt when she died? What my mother felt? What my father felt? What Kazuki felt? I cannot bear to do this.
Renji.
Renji?
He felt a sudden swirl of reiatsu wrap around him and a heartbreakingly familiar voice whispered into his mind.
Just where do you think you're going?
Renji? How can you be here? Are you really here? Does that mean that you...?
It means that I'm not letting you go.
Renji, you cannot defy death! And I could drag you down with me! Let go. Let go of me!
Renji's stronger reiatsu only wrapped more tightly around him.
Shut up, will you? There is no way in hell that I am going to let you die.
Everyone dies sometime, Renji, he reminded the redhead.
Okay, someday, then. But not today.
Disbelief stormed inside Byakuya and his own reiatsu swelled in fury.
How very typical! he snapped, It is just like an Akabuke to think he can change fate!
Can't we? Renji's voice whispered, There are a lot sad stories like yours and Hisana's, but there are happy ones too. And you and I are not going to end this way. We will go down in battle, or we'll die of old age. But this way? No. I can't accept this. And I know you don't want to.
No. Renji, I love you. But you cannot...
I love you too. Hold on tight, now. We're going back.
Renji...Renji, this is...impossible...
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Kazuki stood outside the door to Byakuya's hospital room, holding the couple's newborn to his shoulder and pressed up against Akabuke, as though for protection from what was happening. The samurai's arm slid around him reassuringly, and Kazuki's eyes closed for a moment.
"Is this what it was like for you?" he whispered, "Is this the kind of pain I caused you, Akabuke?"
The samurai's head turned, and his red-brown eyes gazed lovingly down into his noble mate's.
"Do not revisit that path, my Kazuki," he said quietly, "What happened was not your fault."
Kazuki looked up at him again through shattered, tearful eyes.
"I hate that my pride made you wait for a moment, Akabuke," he said, shaking his head, "I took so long to come to my senses, wasted so much time..."
"Shh," the samurai soothed him, seeking his lips, then kissing the newborn gently on the forehead, "Your fine spirits are the greater part of your allure, Kuchiki Kazuki. Never apologize to me for them. I loved every moment of torment you put me through to win your heart. If not for your fits of pride, our lives would not vibrate with nearly so many sweet remembrances...like the time we bathed naked together and you tamed my wild hair...or when I used that slimy toad to tease you out under the full moon, where we shared our first kiss?"
His eyes fastened on Renji, where the redhead leaned with his face pressed to his struggling mate's.
"Everyone thought that our story had ended with that tragedy, but the truth is, we haven't begun yet to make the best of our memories. Have faith, my pretty mate, I think our grandson is not going to make it easy for death to claim his lover."
Kazuki followed his eyes to Renji, and he caught his breath softly.
"Akabuke!" he gasped, gripping his mate's strong arm.
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Tetsuya and the healer watched with widened eyes as Renji sat up slowly, blinking as though coming out of a dark tunnel, and in the bed, Byakuya stirred and groaned. Tetsuya quickly assessed his cousin's condition and shook his head disbelievingly.
"He has stabilized," he said softly, "Lord Byakuya. Cousin?"
Byakuya's eyes opened and blinked several times before lighting on Tetsuya, then a teary-eyed Renji. The redhead gathered him tightly into his arms and kissed him repeatedly.
"Abarai," Byakuya complained dizzily, "Mmmmm, Renji...Ren, I cannot breathe!"
"Mmmmmm, breathe later," Renji sighed, continuing to kiss him enthusiastically, "I'm just thanking my lucky stars."
"Well, perhaps you could thank them a bit more gently?"
"Ah...sorry," Renji said, loosening his grasp slightly, "Just don't want you thinking that you can get away from me."
"Did I hear that there was trouble here?" asked King Tatsuo, stopping just inside the doorway, where Kazuki and Akabuke stood, holding the newborn samurai. The king's eyes found the baby's face, then studied her more closely.
"Byakuya seems to have given birth to a girl," said Kazuki, "We were of the impression that the samurai line was all male."
The king smiled and tickled the infant gently beneath her chin and watched as she gave a loud squeal.
"It seems that already our new samurai is refusing to follow protocol. Always a feisty line, the Akabuke line has been. But I have no qualms whatsoever naming her samurai heir, right now. Does the child have a name?"
"Not yet," Renji said, "I was too busy keeping my mate, here, from leaving me."
"Leaving you," the king said, looking worried for a moment.
"He is all right now," the king's healer assured him, "With Master Renji's and Master Tetsuya's assistance, I was able to finally stabilize him. He and the samurai heir are just fine."
"So," said the king, accepting the tot from Kazuki, "Do you have any idea what to call her?"
Byakuya and Renji exchanged glances and shook their heads.
"We were expecting a boy," said Byakuya, "We didn't even consider girl's names."
"I guess we'd better now," laughed Renji, squeezing his mate's hand.
The men in the room all gazed at the softly cooing baby and thought carefully.
"May I?" asked the king, finally.
Byakuya and Renji looked at each other, then nodded.
"Katsumi," the king said softly.
The baby's eyes met his and blinked, then she emitted a happy, wet gurgle.
"I think she likes it," said Renji, "And I do too. It's like my dad's name. He's going to..."
He paused, biting at his lips.
"He's going to be very proud," said King Tatsuo, "So, she is named Katsumi...victorious beauty. The first female samurai to serve me. Welcome, Katsumi."
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Katsuro heard a soft, beautiful cooing sound and knew what it must mean.
The samurai heir.
But what of Byakuya?
He forced his eyes open and smiled weakly as he found Byakuya, alive and well, pale, but sitting with Renji, beside him, cradling a sweet looking red-haired bundle.
"He's...okay, then?" the samurai asked haltingly.
Renji chuckled softly.
"Actually, she is okay."
"Sh-she?" Katsuro asked, looking closer, "A female samurai?"
"This is Katsumi," Byakuya said softly, "the samurai daughter that you helped me to bear successfully. I thank you."
Katsuro gave a pained laugh.
"For what?" he asked, shaking his head, "For getting your mate hopping mad at us both? For not being there to stop the demon from grabbing you?"
"You stopped him from killing us all. The three of us are still alive because of you," Renji said gratefully, "Thank you, Dad."
"Hmmm," Katsuro said, kissing the girl on the cheek as Byakuya brought her closer to him, "That's what I'm supposed to do...protect my king, and protect the samurai line."
"You should get some more rest," said Renji, "Your reiatsu's all over the place."
"I'll be fine," the samurai assured him, "But..."
"But what?"
"Could you tell me something?" Katsuro asked, looking around, "Who was the healer who was with me before?"
"The king's healer?" asked Byakuya.
"N-no...the one from the Kuchiki family. The one with the big, blue eyes."
"Oh," said Renji, "You must mean, Tetsuya. He's Byakuya's cousin. He's a really sweet guy. I'll tell him you wanted to thank him."
"Tetsuya," Katsuro repeated, dropping off again.
Lovely...