Finding out she was pregnant was an event.
Of course, the much-expected pregnancy of Lady Olympia of the White could be nothing less, but still, the process of her finding out she was expecting her first daughter had been fraught with emotion.
She has struggled with illness to her stomach for days on end before she finally relented and left for the hospital. Riku, despite clearly concerned about the developments of her body, did not even consider the possibility of pregnancy, attributing her nausea to a stomach bug, but still urging her to look for professional help.
Not that she could blame him, anyways. Olympia knew that they had intercourse with astounding frequency, but she never managed to put two and two together.
Once there, after two different and consecutive sets of scolding from both Lord Sakyo and Kuroba alike, the doctors joyfully confirmed that yes, she was pregnant, almost twelve weeks along with a healthy little baby.
The woman remembers running a finger over the sonogram, staring in disbelief at the little dot in the picture.
Telling Riku, that was something.
"Riku, honey?" She called, as she passes through the paper blinds into the small study they kept at home.
After their vows, Riku and Olympia moved to the Blue district, to a house near the leader's compound. It was a new build, on cleansed ground due to haku. Her husband, while he used to have a house, it also had to be purified after his foster mother's death, and so he gave it away and moved away to the military headquarters.
It had been decided that they would not be moving into the main house, even after Riku succeeds Shura in the leadership. Due to her position as a White, Byakuya splits her time between Tenguu and Tennyo, and it would be cruel to displace a woman in her old age just so the man can live mostly by himself. They would all feel more comfortable with the smaller home.
"Yes, Byakuya?" He answers, looking up from his seat on the couch, placing a bookmark in the book he had been reading.
She twists the sash of her kimono in nervousness. "There is not an easy way for me to say this, so I am just going to spit it out."
"What? What is wrong?" Riku asks, concern taking over his features.
"No, no. Nothing is wrong!" She quickly answers, dispelling his immediate concerns.
"What is it, then?" He presses.
The white-haired woman took a deep breath. "Riku, I am pregnant."
His eyes widen, falling to her stomach as if he could see the baby through layers of fabric and tissue.
"You are pregnant?" The aristocrat asks breathless, as if the news had winded him.
She supposed it may very well have. It had certainly winded her.
Olympia gestures an enthusiastic nod. "Yes."
He raises a hand, approaching her cautiously, as if afraid of touching her. "With my child?"
"Yes, with your child." She chuckled. "Do you want to see her?"
"Do you have a picture?" Riku splutters, uncouthly.
She nods, reaching for the sonogram she kept in her purse. "The hospital managed to develop a way to see into the body using soundwaves. They said it was called a sonogram. They took a picture and were even able to tell me how far along I was! I am almost twelve weeks along."
Riku takes the paper picture from her hands. His hands are shaking as he takes in the sight of the tiny foetus.
"That is our child." He whispers, holding out an arm for her.
Olympia sniffles as she walks into his embrace, his arm wrapping tight around her waist. He buries his face in her hair, hiding the tears that have started to line his eyes.
A moment of silence, and then: "Can you point her out? I cannot seem to find her."
"She is here, Riku." Olympia directs, pointing to the little dot on the dark image of her inner womb. "That is our baby."
Riku turns to her in wonder, a finger running over the sonogram, repeating, "That is our baby."
Olympia begins to hum the familiar tune that her father had often sang to her late at night, whenever she refused to sleep or woke up from a nightmare. She understood even at young age that it was rare for him to cross the strait into Tennyo Island, and so would often petulantly deny her parents marital privacy, lest he left without spending appropriate time with her.
So, he would pick her up in her arms and walk along the beach, pointing to the celestial bodies and humming a lullaby that would have her asleep smelling the incense on his clothes.
Her hands tap her bump gently, in time to the melody that she could sing in her sleep. She laughs lightly as she is rewarded with a kick from her baby.
Riku watches the scene, utterly enthralled at the sight before him. His wife sitting cross-legged on the couch, singing to his unborn child.
He did not think it was possible for him to love Byakuya even more, yet here she was, proving him wrong at every stage of her pregnancy. What seemed an ocean, unending and unbound, seemed to grow larger and larger as he realizes the extents that he will go to protect the unborn baby she carries as well. His heart seems to soar infinitely.
Her lullaby, however, inevitably comes to an end.
"Oh!" Olympia gasps, the baby kicking her again. "You enjoyed that, did you not? Shall we sing it again?"
She picks up the familiar melody from the start, laughing as the baby continues to kick her.
Her pink eyes shine as she calls out, "Riku, come here and feel this!"
He does not need to be told twice, as he is kneeling in front of his wife in an instant, his hand pressed to her bump.
"Are you ready?" The solar priestess asks, putting her hand on top of his.
Riku nods, more than ready for this.
She takes a deep breath before beginning the song for the third time, crooning the words to her daughter in her stomach. It takes less than a minute for Riku to feel the swift kick against his hand.
His eyes shine with unshed tears, surging forward to catch her lips in a kiss.
"You are amazing, you are absolutely incredible." He whispers against her lips.
"We could have a singer on our hands, Riku, or a musician." She laughs, rubbing her bump.
"I do not know about that, wife." The man smiled, mesmerized by the mental images that he conjures. "I believe that, between you and I, she is more likely to be a born dancer."
Byakuya laughs again, humming her agreement.
"Would you teach me, please?" He asks, suddenly.
Her eyes twist in mild confusion. "Would you want to learn the lullaby?"
Riku nods, his hands still placed on her stomach, eager to feel his daughter kick again.
Tears spring to her eyes and she knows it is not anything to do with the hormones but rather Riku himself. The sight of him kneeling before her, more than happy to learn a lullaby from the Outer Worlds that her father would to sing to her as a child so he could sing it to their child.
She sniffs. "Of course, love, of course I can teach you. Follow my lead."
The rest of the afternoon is spent like that; wrapped in a cocoon of bliss and happiness as Olympia teaches Riku countless lullabies and songs from her childhood that he could sing to their daughter once she arrived. His favourite one, the one that he would consistently return to, though, was the one she sang first, the one which he saw the look of utter elation across his wife's face as she sang to her stomach.
"I can barely wait for her to get here." He whispers, caressing her bump.
"She is going to have you wrapped around her chubby little finger." Olympia mocked lightly. "I think she already has."
"Certainly." The man concurs, earnest. "So does her mother."
She runs a hand through his long blue hair, cupping his cheek.
"She're going to be a wonderful father, Riku." The dancer told her husband, taken with the need for such at that moment. "She is going to be the most looked after girl on the planet, she shall not want for anything."
"That she will, wife, and I promise you that." He smiles and kisses her on the cheek.
It was all worth it. Every contraction was worth it for the bundle of rich blue blankets now being held by her already devoted father.
After what felt like an eternity, she was here, safe and sound, hitting every mark for good health. A rarity amongst children of Primary Colour parents.
Riku walks around the hospital room as he gazes down at his daughter. Her hand tightly grips one of his fingers and he wonders if this is what every parent feels when they finally meet their child. An overwhelming sense of love for both the child and the mother.
Speaking of the mother, he looks up to see her attention already on him and her daughter.
"She is perfect." He whispers.
Tears well in Olympia's eyes as Riku returns his attention to the bundle in his arms, rocking her gently side to side. They start to fall as he starts to hum the opening bars to the lullaby she taught him only a couple of months ago.