thirty-three.
Even though getting her room set up with new furniture was technically her birthday present, it was not the only thing that Aika was getting that year for her big day, and from the moment both her room and her sister's were finished it was time to focus on her actual birthday celebration. Invitations were sent out when it became clear that it was going to take a miracle to move the baby from where it was currently safe and warm, meaning there was no chance that the birthday party would be interrupted with a big arrival, and once a tentative guest count had been made planning could be put into full swing. It was never meant to be a giant affair, but when nestled in the invitation was a note that presents for the unborn baby were also appreciated, people seemed more eager to attend.
What ended up happening was a lot of decorating of the living room with pink and purple balloons and streamers and pictures of rainbows and ponies and anything remotely cutesy that could be picked up without needing to go to a party store, because Shuichi was the one who had to buy the supplies so that Kaede wasn't too tired to hang everything up. Not only was there all the decorations that needed to go up, but there were presents that needed to be wrapped (but only the ones specifically for Aika, if it was clearly not meant for her it was put in a gift bag to be re-opened in front of the guests) as well as the food for the day that needed to be prepared.
Never having been the best cook around, it was quite the challenge for Kaede to get anything made with Aika constantly underfoot and the dishes she needed always seeming to be too low for her to get on her own. She'd had to call Shuichi into the kitchen so many times the morning of the party, her struggling to reach down and grab something that would require more of a squat than she could physically provide in that moment, and if he hadn't taken the day off work specifically because of what it was, she would have been sorely out of luck. He found it endearing to have to help her, always grabbing what she needed and giving her a kiss before moving Aika out of the kitchen to give her a little bit of breathing room while she slowly made progress through her plans for the food.
The biggest thing was that she was only making snacks for everyone to enjoy, because they'd specially ordered a cake for everyone to eat, as well as a smaller one for Aika to have all to herself. No matter how tempting it was to bake something herself, she couldn't fall into that trap and sacrifice time that needed to be spent getting everything else cooked on making something delicious that she would inevitably eat all on her own. Being the one in charge of cooking was a dangerous place for her right then, as she was finding it hard to resist taking samples of everything she was making, even though she knew that she needed to have enough for the party, not just her and her currently insatiable hunger.
When she did end up giving in to those temptations and try making yet another cake to go along with the two store-bought ones, she was quickly thwarted by the pan she'd need being on the lowest shelf in the cabinet, and calling Shuichi in to grab it for her would mean him knowing she'd strayed from her given task. If there ever was a time that she would willingly get herself stuck in a squat for the sake of doing something herself, that would have been it, but she put the ingredients she didn't need back where they belonged and resumed making the things on the list, no further straying allowed.
It was mid-afternoon when the first guests started to arrive, coming into a house that was bigger than it had been the last time they'd been over, and a lot more decorated than they'd ever seen it. "I will most certainly stay behind afterward to assist with the cleanup," Kirumi said, not an offer but a promise, as she set a bag down on the card table that had been acquired solely to act as a gift table, its cheap pink tablecloth wrinkling at the weight of something resting on it. "That, or I will be here to watch the birthday girl while everyone else does the cleaning, I cannot complain either way."
The person who had come in with Kirumi was hanging back by the door, admiring the way there were vibrant streamers hanging everywhere with an awed look in her eyes, but from in the kitchen Kaede was watching her intently. "I don't know what possessed me to invite Angie to this, but I'm sort of glad she could make it," she said, looking at the woman who was barely dressed underneath her floor-grazing jacket she was wearing, watching as she set down a giant, nearly flat wrapped gift on the table. "And she brought some sort of painting it seems. Great, exactly what we need, more decorations we've got no room to actually put up."
"Yoo-hoo, Kaede! I can see you, you know!" Angie called with a giant wave, making Kaede take a big step backward and further into the kitchen, even though she knew the damage had been done. "Come on out here, I want to see how you shine with the glow and sparkle that motherhood brings to someone!"
Regretting the decision she'd made to ever send that invitation in the first place, Kaede took in a deep breath before stepping out of the kitchen just long enough to hear Angie excitedly gasp, and then promptly going right back in. "I'm working on food still, sorry I can't come out and socialize for long right now," she lied, hoping that her deception wasn't too obvious. Everything she was cooking at the moment didn't need her constant supervision, and she could have easily gone out and talked to someone she hadn't seen in a long while.
There was a reason for that, naturally, and she'd forgotten about it when she'd sent the friendly invitation, thinking that it would be nice to invite Angie to the festivities, despite her never having met Aika before. "I'll just come over there, Atua isn't stopping me from crossing this house!" she called out, before something stopped her. "Oh, Atua might not be, but Kirumi is! I'll talk to you later then!"
"Thank everything for Kirumi," Kaede muttered under her breath, wishing she had a chair in the kitchen with her and knowing she couldn't go grab one without the truth coming out. Her legs were starting to ache, as was her lower back, and she couldn't help but wonder how much longer she'd be able to stay on her feet before her legs buckled. She found things to do idly in the kitchen while she continued to avoid going out to see Angie at all costs, becoming her downfall when Shuichi came in to see what was going on a few minutes later and found her holding onto the counter to support herself as she attempted some back stretches.
"Er, why don't you go have a seat instead of doing that?" he asked, catching her mid-stretch and hearing her almost scream at the surprise his voice had given her. "I can watch the food for you, although it doesn't look like there's much you're watching."
"No thanks, I'm fine right where I am," she replied, knowing she was digging herself a deeper hole with her lies than she needed to. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be going to get our cakes before more guests get here?"
He shook his head, doing her a favor and drawing her a chair because she clearly wasn't doing it for a reason he wasn't aware of. "Ryoma said he'd pick them up on his way, since his place is right down the road from the cake shop. He'll be here soon enough, I'm sure; we were talking about this half an hour ago, before Angie and Kirumi and even Kaito got here."
"That makes sen—wait, Kaito's here?" Never more thankful for a chair in her life, Kaede had been in the middle of sitting down when those words slapped her across the face. "How did he get in without immediate coming in here to talk to me, or being loud enough to alert the neighborhood to their favorite friendly space case being around?"
"No idea, I opened the door and he went straight into Aika's room, and I haven't heard a thing since. I'm going to guess he noticed her sleeping before the festivities and took a nap with her. That's really just a guess, I really don't have any idea why that'd be where he goes first." Shuichi shrugged at his own suggestion, not really buying it as plausible, and headed back to whatever he'd been doing before (which was sitting in the living room waiting for anyone to arrive, so that he'd be the one to let them inside). That left Kaede still in the kitchen, still with the excuse of watching food that didn't need her eyes on it, still without any desire to go out and talk to one of the guests she'd invited to the party in the first place, but maybe when more people arrived she'd bite that bullet.
True to her plan, once everyone who'd been invited that day had arrived, complete with presents for the birthday girl and the things they were bringing for the party in tow, she was able to leave the kitchen and not immediately be spotted by Angie. "Are you going to be able to make it through today?" Tenko warily asked her, eyeing her from head to toe. "I don't mean any harm with this, but I don't remember you looking this…size before you had Aika."
"You also didn't see me in that last week, I'll be fine. According to my last several appointments, this baby's not going anywhere until they tell her she's evicted, and that's not until two weeks from now." Forcing a laugh, even as Tenko tried to smile to show she was believing her, Kaede wished she could've given a different answer right then. She knew that they saw zero harm in her going to forty-one weeks again, but she so desperately wanted to be done carrying around a lot more weight than she'd carried the first time around. Her whole body ached constantly, but nowhere more than her entire abdomen, wrapping around to her back that was straining to hold her up straight when she was doing anything but laying down. "We're going to make today about Aika, though, not this baby. Right, Tenko?"
"Right, it's only one kid's birthday today and that's the way you're planning on keeping it."
"Wouldn't that be cool, though, both babies having the same birthday?" Himiko said, before rethinking her statement. "Maybe not, that could create some jealousy when they get older. I don't think you want your girls being jealous of each other."
"That'd be correct," Kaede agreed, hoping that the conversation would turn away from one of her deepest-held fears for the day. She didn't want to admit to it out loud, but she was completely terrified that this baby was going to defy the expectations of the doctors and want to come out earlier than anticipated, which had been why she'd been so hesitant to plan a party in the first place. "Anyway, shouldn't we start having birthday festivities, rather than just sitting around talking to boring old me?"
They all looked at each other and laughed, Tenko actually bringing tears to her own eyes with how funny she thought that statement was. "This birthday party's for a one-year-old, there can't be that much in the way of festivities to get to," she cried out, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with the collar of her shirt to wipe up some of her tears. "That's easily the funniest damn thing you've said in a long time, Kaede."
"I hoped someone would get a kick out of it," she replied, setting a hand on part of her stomach where a real kick was most likely to happen, given how active the baby had been in the past, but there was no such luck. "But seriously, we can't sit around chatting all day when we can do that any other day. I'm almost certain Kaito's done something to Aika, given that I don't think he's come out of her room yet."
"Oh, he's done something to her," Shuichi said, cutting in without any of them having realized he was listening in the first place, as he came up behind Kaede and rested his arms on the top of her head. "Turns out he and Maki got quite the large gift for Aika, and he's doing the honors of getting her ready for it."
"What kind of gift could they possibly get that needs preparations?" she asked, before hearing someone clear their throat, a someone she knew she hadn't invited but was a welcome sound, and she leaned forward (bucking Shuichi's arms off of her) to try and look behind her well enough to see the guest. "Mahiru! Did they really invite you?"
Beaming, tilting her red-haired and freckle-faced head to the side, Mahiru replied, "They sure did. My number must be at the top of his contacts list, because Kaito called me about this months ago. I, of course, couldn't refuse since it's for Aika, but…why didn't you contact me when you…well, I'm sure you remember why we met in the first place."
It took Kaede a moment to fully understand what Mahiru was referring to, but all it took was looking down at herself to have everything click into place. "I don't know why, really," she admitted, not wanting to say it was because of the financial burden pictures would have been on them when money was already difficult to come by. "I guess because I went through it with you the first time, why would I need to go through it again?"
"I'm sure you'd fill out those dresses even better this time around," Mahiru told her, before grabbing her camera from around her neck and taking off the lens cap. "Actually, you're looking fantastic right now, so if you don't mind, may I get a couple shots of the stunning mother of the birthday girl?"
Looking between each other, Tenko and Himiko got up from their chairs. "Don't mind us, we're going to go see what everyone else is up to," Tenko said in assurance, pushing aside the chairs they'd been sitting in to clear the area. "We'll catch you later, Kaede! Enjoy your picture time!"
Even Shuichi was backing away from the scene, just so that Mahiru could do as she wished in regards to posing and positioning, telling them both that he'd be there just in case they needed him for something. While Kaede didn't feel even slightly worthy of having professional pictures taken in that moment, she knew better than to turn down Mahiru's request, so she let it go on for exactly as long as the photographer felt necessary, going through all the motions she was prompted to make. It definitely was nowhere near as glamorous as the first time she'd had pictures taken, but there was a certain level of sentimentality that she knew she was going to get from seeing those shots.
"I'll get these to you when I get all of the rest of today's pictures," Mahiru told her when they'd finished the shoot. "Hopefully it won't take too long, but the last birthday party I shot for, I had several thousand pictures to sort through, so it could be a while."
"We'll get them when we get them, and that's fine, we had no idea you'd be here anyway so it wasn't like we were expecting anything." Kaede paused, put a finger to her lips, and thought for a moment before adding, "Well, you know, except for…"
"I got you, don't worry!" With a laugh, Mahiru closed her camera's lens and headed off to go find the birthday girl she was there to take pictures of, and in her wake Kaede sighed and shook her head, going back to sitting as comfortably as she could in one of the chairs. Now that she didn't have her friends or a photographer there, she was able to properly reflect on what was going on, and get her feet up while she did it.
It really wasn't much of a party, and most of the people that were there were sitting around talking amongst themselves, occasionally motioning towards the expansions of the home, and she knew that if she could hear what they were saying, some of it was not going to be positive. She was almost certain people were being judgmental, criticizing them for their choices that had led them to needing to make their home bigger, and she wasn't looking forward to when she'd have to talk to some of them. In fact, she was so afraid of talking in-person to so many of the guests she'd invited, she wanted to go hide in the kitchen again, despite having no reason to do so.
"Kaede, come over here!" Tenko hollered from where she and Himiko had made themselves comfortable on the couch when they'd been forced to vacate their seats, and she looked to see that the people they'd been talking to had left the room. She hesitated a second before accepting the request and walking over, nearly making it before a crowd came out of Aika's tiny bedroom, fronted by Kaito almost proudly holding the little girl up over his head.
All the eyes in the room fell onto the group, watching the girl nearly scraping the ceiling with how she was held, her eyes wide and her dark hair tied up into the best little pigtails it could manage, screeching like she was having the time of her life. "What are you doing to my baby?" Kaede jokingly asked, standing just in front of the group because she hadn't been able to quite make it to where she was headed. "I'm pretty sure you're going to terrify her with how high up she is."
"She's enjoying it," Kaito asserted, raising Aika up just a bit higher, almost having his arms fully extended. "She was liking it more when her dad was doing it, but he's a bit, uh, tied up right now."
Blinking in surprise, Kaede wasn't sure how to take that. "What do you mean, he's tied up? Wasn't he in there with you?"
"He was for a bit, but then he went outside with Maki Roll. No idea what they're up to out there." It was true, there was no sign of either of them in the crowd, and the frown that made its way to Kaede's face was one of disappointment, but Kaito was not going to let her be upset about the turn of events. "Hey now, it's all good! Isn't today supposed to be about Aika? Why does it matter what her dad's up to?"
"I guess that's true." Her eyes still on Aika and how close she was to knocking her head against the ceiling, Kaede wanted to tell Kaito to put her down, but he did so of his own accord, handing her off not to her mother but to Kirumi, who seemed to have been waiting for the chance to hold her. "What, do you guys have an order of who gets to hold Aika right now? When was that decided?"
"A lot happened in that bedroom." Ryoma was the one who answered, coming out from behind where Kirumi and Kaito were both standing and hopping up on the couch to take a seat. "Kind of a disaster from the moment Shuichi left, but I think we've got things under control for the next while."
"I'll believe it, I guess." Looking over to where her friends were sitting and seeing them both shrugging as they'd had nothing to do with the group in the bedroom, Kaede decided that she wasn't going to put more energy into it than she needed to, mostly because the whole party to begin with was incredibly draining. "I hope they come back soon, I'd like to get things going before Aika decides she needs to take a nap."
The general consensus was that yes, it would be for the best if the party was able to get through its big moments before there was a tired and fussy child on everyone's hands. Ever the kindhearted friend, Kaito volunteered himself to go out and fetch the others, while the passing around of the girl continued, her enamoring everyone who got their hands on her with her sparse teeth in her smile and her way of giggling every chance she had. He was gone for a few minutes, which came as a surprise, but in that time everyone else who was inside (minus Kaede and Mahiru) was able to hold Aika for a little bit and pictures were taken of each and every time she ended up in someone else's hands.
"I'm never going to get over how she's gotten so big in just a year," Himiko said when she was the one getting to hold Aika, the girl choosing to puff her cheeks up and exhale her held breaths, laughing, then doing it all over again. "I remember when I saw her the first time, she was just a small little baby. This wasn't magic that did this, although it feels magical."
"And someday we'll be able to watch a baby of our own grow up like we've watched her," Tenko reminded her, "and that'll really be magical, won't it?" The way Himiko nodded showed that she definitely was in total agreement, and even when she was no longer holding onto Aika, she still had the look of determination to get to see that real-life magic again.
"Sorry about the delay, we had something come up that needed to be taken care of before it became a problem," Kaito loudly announced when he came back into the home, with Shuichi and Maki in tow. "The problem, of course, being some presents getting lost on their way here and someone—" he grandly gestured towards Maki, who shielded her face with her hands, "—decided she would go cause a scene on the phone to get things sorted."
"I only went to help because I didn't want her causing too much of a scene on our behalf," Shuichi explained, seeing Kaede looking straight at him with a confused look in her eyes. "I'll tell you all about it later, but it's nothing to do with today's party."
Her confusion did not wane, but hearing him say he'd tell her later let her know that there was no point in dwelling on things. "Okay, I guess that's fair," she said, giving him a small nod. "I think we're ready to start the actual party, though, since everyone's here and ready and we don't want Aika screaming and crying when she's done with everything, even if we're all not. So…shall we?" The request was one that made zero sense to ignore, and so the group arranged themselves around the house, sitting in the various chairs and moving the couch to get it into the circle they were all making.
They had laid out Aika's months blanket in the middle of the floor, which she was sitting on in her birthday dress with her hands idly grabbing at its hem. She was unfazed by the people that were around them, the ones who were strangers to her sitting behind her so that they weren't a distraction, and her favorite people to see that weren't her parents close to where she'd be looking if she stopped playing with her dress. On the blanket, they'd placed the markers around the number 12, signaling that it was her twelfth month—her first birthday—and once she'd been pushed to set her dress down, Mahiru pulled out the camera and Aika lit up for it, allowing for her to get many beautiful pictures of the moment.
From there they went right into the next portion of the celebration, knowing that time was not something they had a lot of that day. The blanket was removed and replaced with a plastic sheet, while Aika was picked up and her high chair was moved into the middle of the room, sitting on the sheet and waiting for her to be put in it. Shuichi took care of getting her situated in her chair, while Kaede went into the kitchen to grab the smallest of the cakes they had for the day, which was there for Aika and only Aika. As she carried it into the room, she could hear the shutter of Mahiru's camera going off over and over, sometimes taking pictures of her and sometimes taking pictures of the girl who was confused about why she was in the chair in the first place.
In time with the cake being set down on the tray in front of Aika, the room began to fill with wishes of happy birthday, but singing did not happen until Kaede got onto her piano bench and began playing the tune for everyone to sing along to. At the sound of music, and not the sight of her cake in front of her, Aika began to clap loudly, making it seem like she was cheering for herself, but everyone knew it was because she was entranced by her mother's playing. When the song finished (after two plays because Tenko, Angie, and Kaito, independently of each other, yelled for an encore), Shuichi guided Aika's hands carefully into the cake, letting her take a finger of frosting on each hand to taste it, and when she'd gotten the sweet flavor into her mouth, she immediately wanted more.
A rowdy cheer erupted through the room when the girl, determined to get as much of the frosting as she could, slammed her face into the cake, pulling it out right away to show that she had frosting sticking everywhere from eyebrows to eyelashes, to the wispy hairs at the top of her head and down to the bottom of her chin. She licked everything off her lips, while Shuichi was trying to get a hand in to help clean it off of her eyes so she could at least see, which became a problem when Aika tried to repeat her act and caught his hand instead, taking it into the cake with her.
By far, it was more amusing than had ever been anticipated, and even once there wasn't frosting to keep slamming her face into (on that side of the cake, anyway), Aika was having the time of her life with picking at it with her hands. "Go on, get in there so I can get a family picture," Mahiru told Kaede, who was still sitting on her piano bench. "It's irreplaceable and I think you'd regret me not getting one."
"Oh, okay, I suppose," Kaede replied, standing up and moving to where she'd be in the picture. Mahiru was able to get one in before Aika, realizing that her mom was there and hadn't been present for all of the fun with frosting, reached over and smacked a cake-covered hand right onto the most easily accessible part of her mom that she could reach, which just happened to be the side of her stomach.
As fate would have it, the moment that Aika's hand made contact, she was met with a forceful hit from within, and her squeal she gave off at the feeling underneath her palm led to her smacking again and again. "Ba!" she screamed, trying to lean over and get closer to her mom. "Ba! Ma, ba!"
"What is she going on about?" Shuichi asked, watching the smacking happening and seeing the almost shocked look on Kaede's face as she was looking down at the almost unreal sequence of events happening beside her.
"The baby's kicking, that's all." Saying it rather nonchalantly, Kaede was not expecting everyone to overhear her, but the gasps that she heard told her that they'd caught what she'd said. "I guess she wants to be a part of today's events, even if she's not ready to be here yet."
Nothing, no matter what happened for the rest of the party, was going to top Aika's cake-covered hand being enough to summon her sister to start moving around. It didn't matter what the presents were, what other cute things that Aika did on her own, because everyone had seen the sisterly bonding moment and that was going to be the top memory of the day.
thirty-four.
"So…what was that you guys were outside dealing with?" It was after the party, everyone except Kaito and Maki having gone home for the day, and they were all in the process of cleaning up. Aika had been put to bed, so since the issue that had taken them outside had nothing to do with her party, it felt like it was an appropriate time for Kaede to bring it back up. "I'm really curious, since even Shuichi seems to be in on it."
"That, right," Maki said, setting down the armful of streamers she'd collected from Kaito that he'd been pulling down. "Honestly, I'd hoped you'd forgotten all about that with everything else that went on today, but…"
"Oh, trust me, even with being badgered by Angie about clothing sizes for almost an hour I'd never forget that you guys delayed the start of the party for a while because you weren't here." Laughing, Kaede rest her arms on top of her stomach and waited for Maki's answer, which seemed to not be coming anytime soon.
So instead, she looked at Kaito and expected him to step in and explain things. "I've got nothing to do with this one, it's all them," he asserted, gesturing towards Maki and Shuichi with his head. "Getting Mahiru here was my idea, the rest of it wasn't."
"You're actually in on it?" Looking at Shuichi now, growing more confused by the second, she saw him give a meek smile in her direction. "Come on, you've got to tell me what's going on because it didn't happen today!"
"I'm buying you a bunch of new things for the baby." Finally coming out and saying it, Maki spoke quietly, almost as if she didn't want Kaede to hear her admitting to what she'd done. "I wanted the stuff to get here today, so Aika's things would stay hers and the new baby's would be separate, but it didn't happen. Shuichi's only in on it because I needed to know what would be appreciated. There, happy?"
Her bottom lip beginning to quaver, Kaede had to sit down and collect herself as a wave of emotions took over her body, the kindness of someone who she knew didn't like children such a strange gesture. "I'm so happy about this, yeah," she admitted, "because I know that doing this is for us, not for the baby, but you've still done it. Whenever the things get here, they'll be so appreciated, because they're from you."
"Yeah, well, you're welcome." Forcing a smile for just long enough to get Kaede to start crying, Maki rolled her eyes as the waterworks started and resumed helping Kaito with collecting the streamers from the walls. "I'm just trying to help how I can."
"We'll let you know when it gets here, although you'll probably be over here when it does happen," Shuichi said, stopping his own cleaning to go comfort Kaede with some gentle shoulder pats. "These next two weeks are going to be pretty crazy around here, all things considered, and those things getting here is only going to add to the craziness."
Pointing out that it was only two weeks until their live would be getting upturned again made Kaede start crying harder, overcome with too many feelings to know what to do. "It's going to be so wild as we get closer to meeting this girl," she choked out, hugging herself to try calming down but only making things worse. "I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm also not, there's so much we've got to do before then. And now adding this present into the mix and I don't know how we're going to make it all work."
"Don't worry, we'll be here to help any way we can!" Kaito proclaimed, throwing the last bit of the streamers down into Maki's waiting arms. "It's gonna be a team effort with all of us to get you where you need to be before you're off havin' that baby, and since Maki Roll went overboard on the buying gifts, it's only right for us to have to be in charge of getting those put away for you. And watching Aika when you need her watched. And, uh, maybe just coming over to chill while there's only one kid underfoot?"
"I think all of that would be appreciated," Shuichi told him, having moved on to rubbing Kaede's back as she was still crying. "Just…thank you for being such good friends. It's what we need right now."
thirty-five.
One of the biggest things about pregnancy as a whole that came as a shock was that just because the numbers said that forty weeks was all a baby needed to be ready to come into the world, it didn't mean that it was going to happen at exactly forty weeks. The first time around, that had been a bit of a blow to Kaede, who'd thought that she'd hit that mark and be done with things, but she'd been more than prepared the second time, even though people insisted that subsequent children were born earlier than the one before them. So when she got to the forty week, full-term mark, and she was standing in front of the baby's board for her weekly picture, she knew that she was still going to make it to the next week's picture with no baby in her arms.
That was confirmed once again when she went to her appointment that day, the doctor running through the exam rather quickly just because it was all routine, all done for the paperwork and not because it was going to tell them anything they didn't already know. "I honestly wouldn't be surprised if even the strongest medication drips wouldn't get this kid out of there," the doctor confessed after doing every measurement and check she possibly could. "We're going to be hopeful, of course, but we're going to be realistic and have the whole team ready to get you under the kn—"
"Hold on, what?" Not wanting to hear the rest of that word, Kaede was going wide-eyed at the idea that things were not going to go according to the plan they'd set. "But you've said she's in position, haven't you? Why are we talking about her needing to be cut out of me?"
"—Mrs. Saihara, please don't stress yourself out. It's merely a precaution that we need to keep in mind with how…your body seems to not want to be progressing. Usually by now, even if we're planning for an induction, there's some signs of progress." Pressing her hands together as she held her clipboard underneath her arm, the doctor looked at Kaede with a very genuine smile. "I'm going to be hopeful that you'll have some dramatic change over the next week, to make the induction easier, but if that isn't the case then we'll have our plan B set up and ready to go."
"I'm not agreeing to having them cut me open to get her out," she replied, panic rising in her mind as she thought about how recovering from that would be so much worse than recovering from the birth she was planning for. "I have someone at home to be watching, not just this baby, if I've got a giant scar to be babying then I'll be useless at my job."
Understanding why she was so bothered by the idea, the doctor decided to give a quick explanation about what would actually be happening, and after the basic details were delivered it became clear that it didn't matter what the truth was, Kaede was not interested in going through a surgical procedure when she'd planned to have a natural birth, and she was going to fight tooth and nail to make sure things went the way she wanted them to. "Just don't worry too much about what we've talked about today, you and the baby are both still doing fine and that's what matters." The doctor paused, before adding, "But if you really want to better your chances on getting her out on your terms, you should look into exercises and maybe even some wives' tales. I can't agree that they'll work, but they'd be a way you can try taking things into your own hands."
"Oh, trust me, I plan on making sure I get things my way," Kaede replied, deciding right there that she was not going to let anything that happened when she went into the birthing center the next week go against her own plans. "I'm going to the store when I'm done here and I'm getting anything that might help me get this baby out the way I want her out."
They shared a laugh, the doctor wishing her nothing but the best, and she was soon on her way, sending Kaito a text to let him know she was done. Why he was the one that had volunteered to drive her over and pick her up when everyone else was busy, she had no idea, but she knew that he'd been eager to help them with watching Aika and he was decent enough at driving her minivan when she couldn't, physically, get herself behind the wheel and still get her feet on the pedals. He was there in minutes, Aika in her carseat in the back babbling away as she played with a couple cloth dolls she'd gotten for her birthday, and as she was climbing into the passenger's side seat she noticed that he was focused more on the kid in the back than on her getting in. "Mind if we run over to the mall?" she asked, the sound of her voice startling Kaito into giving her attention. "I need to get some steps in and some exercise things before I go home."
"Exercise things? Isn't that something you'd want Maki Roll or even Tenko around to help you with?" The no-nonsense glare that she gave him was enough to tell him that she wasn't looking for the things for an actual working out purpose, so he chuckled and he started them off in the direction of the mall. There was one giant flaw in Kaede's idea that reared its head upon them parking outside the main entrance to the mall: they didn't have Aika's stroller with them, and there was no way they were making it through the place if Kaede was going to be carrying the girl for herself. That meant that, even though he hadn't signed up for some casual babysitting and chauffeuring with it in mind, Kaito was the one who had to carry Aika around the mall, while her mother had her way with shopping (and struggling to lug the bags she gathered around with her).
Nearly two hours later than they'd figured they'd be back, they got back to the house with a sleeping Aika in tow, and once she was laid down in her crib to try and keep napping, Kaito was able to look at Kaede and the determined glint in her eyes and ask her about what she was planning on doing. "I've just got to get some workouts in to try and get this baby out when I want, that's all," she answered, sounding completely earnest in her explanation. "I'm going to be doing everything I can to make it happen."
"Can't say I fully understand why you'd need this sort of stuff to do that, but if that's what you think will help!" He flashed her a grin before heading to the door. "You enjoy yourself with this, I'll see you later! Next week, you're dropping Aika off at our place at nine, right?"
"That's right, nine in the morning so hopefully we can be home the next day, provided that this little one wants to make a move faster than her sister ever did." Kaede gave Kaito a thumbs-up, which he reciprocated before leaving her to have to organize the things she'd bought while they were at the mall.
When Shuichi got home that day, he came in to the sight of his wife sitting in brand-new exercise leggings on a ball that she was bouncing up and down on, while Aika was sitting playing with her toys on the floor nearby. "Do I…want to know what's going on here?" he asked, genuinely curious but also confused about what he'd walked into. "Did someone say something that insulted you? Do we need to ask if anyone can come and teach them a lesson? It wasn't Miu, was it?"
"No, it wasn't Miu, and it wasn't anyone insulting me. I've just got to loosen myself up so that going in for the birth next week is as simple as possible." That didn't really explain anything for Shuichi, and so she had to recount what she'd heard at her appointment, more or less, while he was standing by listening to her. When she was finished, he couldn't say that he quite understood why she was so adamant that things go her way, but he promised her that he'd do whatever he could to support her either way, and that if it came to the so-called worst-case scenario, he'd stay home to care for the kids while she healed up. That was enough to get her to soften her stance on things slightly, but she wasn't going to go into the birthing center that next week under the mindset that being cut open was a possibility.
For the next week, spending as much time bouncing on that ball and walking around the house (oftentimes with Aika to get her to really try to get into walking, but she still was not taking unassisted steps), as well as eating just about any meal she could that people on the internet insisted would help with progression the early steps of labor, were the things that Kaede set out to do. And when a lot of her time was spent doing those things, she was draining her energy quickly and spending a lot more time laying down and wishing she could get a good nap in. There was no longer very much beauty in being pregnant, and she was looking forward to when that forty-first week came around and she was finally going to be at the end of the road with this baby.
thirty-six.
The morning of June third came with little fanfare and even less sleep, as the aching that carried itself through Kaede's tired body had kept her up for almost the entire night. She could feel the movements of the baby off and on, almost hyper-aware of them because she knew that this was going to be the last day she felt anything like that for a long time. Her legs hurt from carrying around the weight of the baby for longer than she'd needed to, as well as having been dutifully using that exercise ball every day, but the twitching and pain she felt in them was nothing compared to the discomfort she was feeling in her sides and chest. She'd really put her body through the wringer through the past two years, and she was feeling like she could go no further than she already had.
They were out of bed and ready to go on time, taking Aika over to Kaito and Maki's at the arranged time of nine o'clock, but before they'd gotten her over there they'd gotten one mother-daughter picture in front of the baby's sign, saying that it was the last day of it being the two of them, because it was eviction day for the baby. Unaware as always, Aika had done nothing but be cheesy for the phone's camera when she saw it, not knowing why she was having her picture taken with her mom that particular day. She wasn't even aware of what was happening when she, with a bag of everything that would possibly be needed for a day or two, was dropped off in Kaito's waiting arms, with Maki standing behind him looking like she wasn't thrilled for what they'd been roped into doing.
"Next time we see her, she'll be able to meet her baby sister," Shuichi said as they were walking away from the now-closed door their daughter had just been taken behind. "What a strange thing to think about."
"There's a lot of strange things to think about right now, like how we're in this position again." As Kaede was speaking, she was taking deep breaths, trying to mentally prepare herself for what she knew the day was going to hold for her. She was ready to get to walk with a normal gait, instead of the very staggered and waddle-like one she'd been relegated to using. She was ready to be able to lay on her back in bed and not have her body feel like it was being smashed into the mattress. She was ready to look in the mirror and see someone a bit less rounded than she was, with a baby on her hip to remind her why she'd been the way she was for so many months.
The entire ride over to the birth center was spent talking about they were hours from their lives changing again for the second time, both of them ready to get to meet the little girl they already loved so much and get to start watching her grow up before their eyes. But as they got closer to the building, Kaede noticed something a bit strange about the world outside the car, specifically that it seemed a bit darker than usual. "Uh, Shuichi?" she said, after they passed a road that was usually marked with bright signs on buildings. "I think there's a power outage or something around here…"
"Yeah, I'm seeing that too." As he was coming to a stop at a traffic light that was out, he glanced over at her to see her beginning to have tears forming in her eyes. "No, don't cry about this, it's all going to be okay! We're not quite there yet, you know? It's…it's all going to be fine when we do get there, the power's bound to be on there. They're a medical building, they have to have a generator or something."
The birth center did, in fact, have a generator, but when they got to the front doors and found them locked, with a sign saying all emergency power was being diverted to the nursery and therefore all services were unable to be ran until power was restored to the area. "So much for things being fine, huh?" Kicking the bottom of the door, Kaede tried to look inside but found it pitch black, and she gave a loud whine when she pulled herself back. "I don't know what we're supposed to do now! This baby is meant to come out today and I am going to make sure she gets out!"
"Act rational, Kaede!" Grabbing her shoulders to keep her calm, Shuichi turned Kaede around so that he could look her in the eyes as he spoke. "I'm sure they'll reach out to you to reschedule or tell you what to do next. There's no way they'll leave you hanging when they know you were supposed to be here today. Can you promise me you'll not freak out and worry about what's going to happen?"
"She's supposed to be born today," she insisted, before sighing and hanging her head. "But I get it, you're right. I need to not stress myself out because it'll stress her out, and if we're both stressed and we don't know what to do, that's nothing but bad news. They'll definitely call me to reschedule when they can, I guess."
"There we go, now let's go home and see if that call comes sooner rather than later. Don't want to go get Aika just to have to take her back over to Kaito's if they can still get you in today." Although it seemed Shuichi was thinking clearly, his voice was shaking as he spoke and he was just as much of a mess as Kaede was, even if it was being presented differently. This time they talked about the now-best case scenarios they could come up with as they rode, them trying to figure out what was going to happen to sort the whole situation out.
The call they were waiting on came later that day, just before sunset, after a whole day was spent worrying about having been forgotten about entirely. The receptionist on the other side of the phone seemed frazzled, which made sense given the situation, but what she had to offer was far from what they'd wanted to hear. "We've got no openings here until a week from today, unfortunately," they said, Kaede's jaw dropping at hearing how long that delay was going to be. "I'd be understanding if you wanted to reschedule at a different location, they could have openings before then, but this is where you delivered your first child so I can understand you want to return here for the second."
"Is…is it okay if I wait that long?" she asked, timid as she spoke. She knew that forty-one weeks was fine because she'd gotten that far with Aika, but forty-two? That seemed like it was pushing some boundary that shouldn't have been touched. "I don't want to agree to waiting if it could be bad for the baby."
"Ultimately it's your call, based on what your records say you'll be fine unless there's fetal distress, but as of last week it didn't seem like that was going to be likely, hence why we're making the offer. Mrs. Saihara, I can put you through to another location if you're considering it, it'll be fine either way." This receptionist seemed to really know what they were talking about, and their kind tone was enough to put a little fear out of Kaede's mind. "Also, if anything does happen between today and your appointment next week, if you choose to take it, you can go to the emergency room and they'll be able to assist you. We are not the only option you have."
She wanted to be able to talk to Shuichi about the decision before she made it, but he had stepped out to take a call of his own because Kaito hadn't actually been told that there was no baby coming yet, and he needed to address that before it got to be too much later. "I'll stick with your services there," she chose, wanting familiarity in the situation when it was going to be even stranger than the first time around. "And if anything happens before the appointment, or I think like I can't keep her in any longer, I'll definitely go elsewhere. Thank you for calling me about this."
"Of course! So let me just get you on the schedule for noon on the tenth, and…done! Enjoy the rest of your evening, Mrs. Saihara." The call ended and Kaede's phone slipped from her hand, hitting her stomach before bouncing onto the couch, and she leaned back, groaning as she did. Things over the past week had been hard enough, but now she was in it for one more stretch.
"Seven days," she said, closing her eyes and running her hands through the sides of her hair. "What's one more week?"
Retaking the picture that night when they had Aika back home with them, so that they could post about the change of plans, had Kaede repeating that question over and over again. One more week until she'd be done being pregnant, one more week until she'd have her new baby in her arms. What was one more week, except a delay to the inevitable?
thirty-seven.
If she'd thought she'd had enough before, then that last week was absolute hell for Kaede, who was getting even less sleep than she had been, could barely fit into any of her clothes because they'd already been straining for weeks but she'd put off replacing them because she thought she was at the end, and she had absolutely zero patience for anything. That last week was almost exclusively spent with her sitting on the couch or laying in bed, her incredibly swollen feet always with at least two pillows underneath them, a bottle of lotion nearby because she was at her wit's end with the itching of the skin on her sides, begging for Shuichi to do everything for her. He was suffering too, having already had the week off work because he'd anticipated having a newborn to need to care for, but he was now doing all of Kaede's bidding when she really wanted something.
Many tears were shed, many hours were spent with her begging for something to change, but every day she went back to bed knowing that the baby's heartbeat was still normal, according to their machine there at home. She didn't feel like she was any closer to going into a natural labor that entire week, even if she felt like her whole stomach had dropped further than ever before, and when the tenth finally came around and they restarted the whole process of getting ready to go to the birthing center, she was beyond done with being pregnant. "Remind me to remember this if I ever decide I want another baby," she begged Shuichi as she was watching him gather all of their things and get them out into the car. "I'll definitely think twice about it next time."
"If there's a next time, I'd hope it doesn't get as derailed as this time did," he replied, opening the front door to take everything outside. When he came back, he saw Kaede in the exact same spot he'd left her, but Aika was standing in the doorway of her room, where she definitely had not been. "Did…did you see how she got over here?"
"Who get over where?" Kaede asked in response, leaning forward but being more like a turtle stuck on her back than anything else. He gave her a look that told her to stop joking, but she was being serious. "Aika's over there? She was here by me, but I didn't see her get over there while you were outside. She okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine, but…huh." As he brought his eyes back onto the little girl, Aika let go of her grasp on the doorframe and toddled forward with a couple shaky steps, falling forward and catching herself on her father's leg while he looked down incredulously at her. "She's walking! Kaede! She's really walking!"
It took a second for those words to register in her head, and when she realized what that meant Kaede was trying to get herself up but she was effectively fully pinned down by her over-swollen stomach. "She's walking and I missed it? Have her walk over here!" He tried to do just that, directing Aika in her mother's direction, and the girl was able to give a couple wobblier steps before she fell backwards, giving a laugh when she hit the floor. "Oh geez, we've got a walker on the exact same day we're bringing a new baby into the world. What are the odds of that, Shuichi?"
Shaking his head, he answered, "I have no idea, but that's going to be quite the skill she'll be showing off all day for Kaito. Don't think Maki's going to enjoy having a walker to watch."
"But at least she showed it to us before we took her over there, I'd be so sad if I missed those first real steps because we had other things we had to be doing that day." The smile the whole thing had brought to Kaede's face was the biggest she'd felt like giving in days, and when Shuichi came over to help her to her feet he brought Aika with him, so that she could pepper the girl's face with kisses and give her lots of loving praise for the trick she'd just showed them.
This time, the picture they took in front of the board was not going to need to be replaced for anything, and once it was properly posted online they were on their way out, ready to get things over with for real. The drop-off at Kaito and Maki's took longer that day as they decided it would be fair to warn them that Aika had found her feet and could try walking around, and when they went on their way Kaito made them promise that the next time he saw them it'd be to see the new baby. "We have no intentions of it being any other way," Kaede told him, while Shuichi merely gave a firm nod. "I'm not sure I can go another day with this girl hanging out in here."
It turned out, by the count of the doctor at the birthing center once they'd been checked in and taken to the room, that she easily could have gone another day or two before there'd be reason for concern. "Forty-one and five days," the doctor said as she was writing a note on the chart on the wall. "Pretty close to the upper limit for a safe birth, but this baby's measuring on the small side so it'll be a cinch to make it natural, as long as there's cooperation, that is."
"I don't think you've been looking at the right information," Kaede blurted out in response after giving Shuichi a confused glance. "I'm supposed to be forty-two weeks today, and no one's said a word about her being small, so…"
"They must have recalculated it at some point without telling you, but I am looking at your file, I can assure you of that." Turning away from the chart to look at her gown-wearing patient in the bed and the weary husband next to her, the doctor smiled at them both. "I'm going to get you started on some different medications from the ones we tried last year, to see if they'll do anything. Before we do that, though, I need to check to see how dilated you are right now, to know how much we should start you on."
As the doctor donned gloves to begin the exam, Kaede took in a couple deep breaths and spread her legs, getting her feet as close to the handles they provided as she could before the doctor was getting up close and personal with her. "I've heard that I've been, like, getting nowhere down there," she recalled, from the last visit she'd had with her regular doctor, and this one nodded. "But maybe things will be different now that it's go time?"
"I'd say so," the doctor agreed, pulling back with her eyes shining. "We're going to be hopeful that once we start the medications labor will come quickly, because you are right there. I'll go gather the things and we'll get this show on the road."
The things in question were a lot more involved than Kaede had expected, because beyond the cocktail of medications she was given through an IV, they were already prepared with an epidural needle if she so chose to have it, and within an hour of getting checked in she was starting to feel the pressure of labor starting. It wasn't until after they'd manually gone in and broken her water that contractions came in full swing, and after the first handful of them she was almost crying for that needle to be injected in her back. "I wasn't able to get one last time," she told the nurses who were there with the needle, "and I really wish I had been able to. Am I at the point where I can get it?"
It took getting the doctor back in there to make that decision, but the moment the all-clear was given she was repositioned in the bed and they were able to give her the pain medication she was looking for. From the moment it kicked in, the contractions became nothing more than an inconvenient bit of pain and pressure, and the frequent observations of how dilated she was didn't bother her at all. It felt like things had started faster than they had with Aika, and they were getting to the end faster too—from the moment the doctor called for a nurse to grab the rest of the team and for Kaede to start breathing deeply and trying to push to the moment she was announcing that the head was visible was no more than a half hour. There was a little bit there where it didn't seem the baby was making any progress, but the moment that one of the other doctors suggested that they move to the operating room Kaede found it within herself to give even more in her pushes than she'd already been giving.
Squeezing Shuichi's hand tightly, because she didn't want to let him go regardless of what she was doing, she couldn't feel almost anything from mid-abdomen down, aside from the pressure that came with each contraction, and it was with those that she was pushing as hard as she could, not wanting to be stuck going through a surgical operation when she'd gotten so far. Her eyes closed so she could concentrate on pushing, she could tell that Shuichi had moved as close to her as he could get, his lips right near her ear whispering encouraging things to her, giving her the strength to keep going even when she was exhausted.
The first cry they heard came moments after the strongest push she'd managed to force herself to go through, and as her eyes opened she could see the doctors patting down the body of the baby they were now holding. There was the cord to be cut still, which was when she let go of Shuichi's hand, but time seemed to be slowing for her as she watched the doctors trying to give a rough cleaning to the baby. When she was laid down on her chest, Kaede looked into the wailing face of the baby as she was calming down, hearing the familiar sound of her mother's heartbeat, and without really being aware of what it was she was doing she let out a cry of her own and said, "Welcome to our side of the world, Kochou. It's good to finally see you."
She heard Shuichi say something over the sound of the fussing child, but she couldn't make out his exact words. However, based on how he was looking at her, she could make a guess as to what it was he'd said. "That…is still the name we're going with for her, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes, I wasn't questioning the name," he said, waiting until he had a pause in the whining before he'd spoken that time. "I'm just in awe of how fast this all happened, and how—" He was cut off when one of the doctors grabbed Kochou off of her mother's chest and carried her away, putting her in a plastic bassinet before rolling her out of the room. "—uh, what just happened there?"
"I don't know what happened," Kaede replied, beginning to feel rather lightheaded out of nowhere, "but I do know that I want to take a quick nap. Wake me up when she gets back in here, will you?" Her eyes were already fluttering closed as she was speaking, which was drawing concern not just from Shuichi, but from the nurses who'd stayed in the room even after most of the people left when Kochou had been taken away. The last thing that Kaede could vividly remember was one of the nurses calling her name and asking if she was okay, and then after that her next recollection came in a different room, with a different set of attendants surrounding her.
It was later that night, and she'd just experienced enough sudden blood loss to cause her to black out in the birthing room, which had prompted them to move her to somewhere more specialized to handle the situation. As she became more aware of her surroundings, the realization that her baby had been taken from her before she'd lost consciousness hit her like a ton of bricks and she asked the closest nurse for information about what had gone on there. "Oh, don't worry, they just took her for some testing," the nurse explained, while motioning to a coworker to do something. "Your husband's with her right now. What a beautiful girl, rather thin for being so far past her due date, but she's quite adorable."
"When can I see her again?" she asked, wanting nothing more than to know she was okay enough to do just that. "Soon, right?"
"Soon enough, once you've stabilized and we're certain you won't lose more blood, we'll be able to move you back into your room and you can see her there." The nurse hummed a tune to herself as she continued monitoring vital signs, and soon enough the other one came back with a couple doctors and some tests were ran to make sure that the mother was just as healthy as her baby was. When they concluded that she was, and that what had happened was merely a consequence of birth and nothing more serious, they took her back to the other room, finding that Shuichi was still in there, with Kochou nowhere in sight.
"They took her out because they said you'd be gone until morning," he told Kaede when he saw the crestfallen look on her face. "Something about needing to monitor her closely overnight and wanting to make sure she was getting fed, which wouldn't happen if you weren't here."
She huffed, before realizing that perhaps that wasn't the worst idea in the world. "I mean, if they want to keep her from me, so be it. I'd just like to get to see my baby again, but I'm sure they've got their reasons for keeping us apart right now."
thirty-eight.
Just before midnight, the nurses brought Kochou back into the room, so that they could begin to facilitate some sort of feeding for the girl. "In her exams it was noticed that she has a tongue-tie, which will need to be fixed at some point," one of them said, as the other began preparing the bed for a feeding session. "Because of this, her latch may not be comfortable or even work at all, but she won't take to a bottle and she needs to get something in her."
"I'll put up with it, even if it's a bit uncomfortable." Kaede was under the assumption that it was going to be a slight bit of discomfort, but after the day she'd been through that would be tolerable. Little did she know that after a fair bit of coaxing and repositioning, the level of pain she experienced was more on par with her early, medication-free contractions, and she couldn't do anything but sit there helplessly as the nurses worked to try and get Kochou feeding. By the time she'd gotten latched and had started to eat, there had been a couple instances of Kaede almost coming to tears from the sharp pain she was feeling, and the nurses had done nothing but keep trying to make things happen instead of realizing that something was wrong.
That was the name of the game all night, where Shuichi was able to (barely) sleep in the room while Kaede kept getting woken up by doctors wanting to make sure she was okay and nurses needing to get Kochou fed again. By morning's light she was growing irritated at her perceived incompetence at the whole thing, even though she knew she was doing her best at giving her baby what she needed, and she was ready to be able to go home. But because of what had happened in the time after the birth, they wanted to keep her and Kochou both for an extra day, just for observation, and that meant a lot more of the same routine that had happened overnight.
The one disruption came midday, when Shuichi stepped out for a minute and came back with friends following behind him, but more importantly with Aika in his arms. "Look who's here to see you," he said, bouncing the girl up and down as she noticed that her mom was in the room, screeching in delight at the sight. "I'm honestly surprised they let her in."
"We might've been up there for a while trying to make sure we could get her back here with us," Kaito admitted, scratching the back of his head, while Maki looked stone-faced towards Kaede. "It was mostly Maki Roll doing the work, though. You know how scary she can get when she wants something done."
"Whatever, I just thought it was dumb they wouldn't let a kid come meet her sister," Maki said rather defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. "I gave them what they deserved for being so boneheaded about the whole thing."
"It's good to see you both here, but where's everyone else? I could've sworn Tenko wanted to come in like last time." Adjusting how she was sitting so that she was fully covered in the bed, because she hadn't quite covered up from the last attempt at feeding Kochou, Kaede looked at the rather sparse group that had shown up. "Or did they say she couldn't come back because Aika's here?"
Looking between them, Maki was the one who answered. "She had something come up and couldn't stop by with us. No big deal, guess it means Kaito will get to hold the baby first this time. Speaking of which…where is the baby?"
"She'll be back soon enough. We're having problems getting her fed right and obviously that's not a good thing." Giving a single laugh that hurt immediately after doing it, Kaede gestured to where they could all sit down, while Shuichi carried Aika over to her so that she could give her older child a big hug. "It's so good to see you, sweetie. You ready to get to meet your baby sister?"
"Ba!" Aika yelled, familiar with the term and knowing how to respond. She was set down on the bed and snuggled right up to her mom, but there was obvious temptation in her little gaze as she kept looking at the IV drip still in her mother's arm. The first time she grabbed the cord she was immediately scolded, but the second time she was able to give it a little yank, which gave her an earful as her mother yelped at the pain of it being moved in her arm slightly. Confused, Aika looked at her with her light eyes wide with worry, and there weren't quite words available to explain to the girl why what she'd done was wrong.
"She's definitely wanting to get better at walking," Kaito started saying while they waited, passing the time with talking about his adventures in babysitting. "It's kinda fun, watching her try to cross a room and needing to fall down a bunch before she gets it right. Didn't fall and hurt herself any time, though, as far as I'm aware."
"She could've hit her head on the wall if she'd fallen backwards the one time she fell on her face," Maki reminded him, "but you yelling at her to be careful startled her into falling safely. Somehow."
"We'll have to keep an eye on that as she's getting more comfortable on her feet," Shuichi said, looking at Aika and how she was babbling to herself while still nestled next to Kaede's side. "There's going to be a lot going on in our house when we get to go back tomorrow."
Both speaking at once, Kaito and Maki both exclaimed, "Tomorrow?" before getting an answer that told them why that was the case. Since a lot of the details hadn't really been made super clear, it was hard to properly explain why a second night there was necessary, but just talking about excess bleeding was enough to give them a decent picture. "Ah, well, anyway, we'll be good to watch Aika again tonight," Kaito told them after giving it some thought. "And if anything comes up to keep that from happening, we'll just pawn her off on someone else. I bet Ryoma'd be down for it on such short notice. Or maybe even Gonta, he'd get a kick out of an overnight with her, wouldn't he?"
"Gonta! I forgot we need to tell him that his little butterfly was born yesterday!" Mentally smacking herself for making such a mistake, Kaede looked at Shuichi with a sheepish smile. "Mind sending him a picture of her when you get the chance? He won't see it right away, I know, but he'll appreciate seeing it when he does."
"Can do, I'll get him one when she gets brought back in here." Nodding to let her know he meant business, Shuichi patted his pocket where he'd put his phone after needing it to know that their friends had arrived for their visit. That brought comfort to Kaede's mind because it was one less thing she needed to worry about, but she now had her friends in there with her and no child to show them at the moment, and the fact that she was clearly concerned about that was something else that Shuichi noticed. "Do you want me to see if they can bring her by now, while they tell you about their night with Aika?"
"That'd probably be helpful, I don't want to keep them here all day if I don't have to." Feeling like she could fall asleep right there with her daughter by her side, Kaede didn't want to come off as rushing the whole meeting but she also didn't want to spend most of it unaware of what was going on. "They shouldn't object to it, I haven't heard any reasons why they would."
He went out to do exactly as he said he would, which left the room open for other conversation while they waited for him to come back. "I don't mean to come off as insulting or anything, but you look like you've been through hell a few times," Maki said, keeping her eyes shifted just away from Kaede's face. "Was it all worth it?"
"I mean, I'd say it was, she's such a cute little baby," Kaede answered, pursing her lips together as she thought about why she looked so rough, between the lack of sleep and the whole medical emergency thing that had happened. "The birth itself definitely wasn't as bad as last time, but everything else…yeah, it sucked, but it was worth it."
"I don't know how anything could be worth being stuck raising a kid, but if that's what you want to do, then I'm glad it was worth it to you." Sighing, Maki gently shook her head before leaning against Kaito's shoulder. "I found out the things I ordered you arrived last night at your place, by the way. You'll have plenty of boxes to sort through when you get home, unless you're cool with us coming over to do it right away."
Perking up at the mention of going over to their house, Kaito added, "Yeah, we'd be willing to do that! Someone's gotta update your baby board for you, and since I did it last time I was kinda hoping you'd let me do it again. Definitely made me appreciate Aika's name when I did it, so it'll give me that start on this kid's name."
"Uh, sure, you can come over when we go home tomorrow and help us out, it'll be appreciated to have the extra hands while we're getting settled in." Stifling a yawn as she spoke, Kaede really hoped that Shuichi would be back soon, because she could feel herself growing more comfortable and tired by the minute. So, to occupy her mind, she placed a hand on Aika's leg and gave it a squeeze. "I'm excited to see how this one handles having a baby sister around, it's either going to go really well, or it's going to go horribly."
Aika looked up at her mother, innocence in her eyes, and confidently said, "Ma, ba," which Kaede figured was supposed to be taken as an assurance that the meeting would go well.
Something definitely seemed strange when Shuichi came back with the nurses bringing the plastic bassinet with them, and nothing was said to those already waiting in the room until the door was closed. "They're just doing extra monitoring of all the babies this week, but no one will say why," he explained once the nurses were gone. "It'll be nice when we're out of here and don't have to worry about their watchful eyes, but at the same time, there's bound to be some reason for why they're being so hypervigilant."
"Does that really matter?" Kaito asked, as he jumped to his feet to rush to see the baby. "This girl's just like a bunch of skin and bones, what were you doing to her while she was growing inside ya, Kaede?" He seemed to be immediately enamored with her, crouching down to get a better look at her face while he was cautioned to not touch her.
A bit stunned by the question she'd been given, and actually unsure of how to answer it, Kaede gave it her best shot. "Oh, I don't know, her being so scrawny was kind of a surprise to me as well, given how heavy she was to carry around for so long."
"She'll grow into her skin, I'm sure," Maki said, coming up beside Kaito and giving him a gentle smack for what he'd said, before looking down at the kid for herself. "She looks a lot like Aika did when she was born, minus the fact that she's so thin. Guess they'll probably grow up the same way, won't they?"
"Definitely not going to help people suspecting that they're twins when they're older, that's for sure," Shuichi laughed, while going to pick up Aika from where she'd been sitting. Separating her from her mom's side was hard, but carrying her over to get her first look at her baby sister was worth it, because the moment Aika's eyes found their way to her sister's face she was gesturing with her little hands and telling everyone that she saw the baby. "Now that you've seen her, you're going to have to work on saying her name," he gently told the girl, bringing her closer to the baby's face. "So let's start practicing now. Her name is Kochou, can you try to say that?"
Scrunching her face as she got within reach of Kochou's sleeping form (how she was still asleep with all of the people talking, it wasn't clear), Aika gave it a thought before loudly calling out the only way she knew how to refer to the baby: "Ba!"
"Y-yes, right, that'll be enough of that for now. We'll get to using her name later, I suppose." Still laughing, Shuichi watched as Aika's hand brushed against Kochou's patchy red cheek, her recoiling at the touch, before going in for a grab, which promptly woke the baby up to screaming, which in turn caused Aika to begin to panic and scream as well.
Deep down, Kaede knew this was her life for the near future, but as her friends handled calming Kochou down—mostly Kaito, because he was the one who was able to hold her first, while Maki watched him and Aika was put back on the bed to stay out of the way—she knew that she was going to be able to handle this. There was absolutely nothing regarding these two girls she wouldn't be able to handle, because she loved them more than anything in the world.
A/N: one more chapter to go!