Borath: Check us out! New chapter, after... what? 6 months? Wow. A start has been made on the next chapter (my turn at starting) and depending on the reception of this one and our own lives, it should be up at some stage this year. ;p
Pachelbel's Notes: Well, here's a chapter! I can't promise the next one will be out anytime soon; we've got a vague idea of what will happen in it, though. Anyway, the fic does have a heart beat again!
Spawn: Chapter 9
The baby store was overwhelming. Not only did it reek of fresh diaper cotton and spittle, but dozens of small children were screaming over the tinny strains of popular Disney songs, while their inattentive mothers shopped or gossiped.
It was a would-be children's paradise, and in its entryway, a pale thief stood. Paralysed.
"Hell no!" He growled, when the horror had faded enough, and turned to leave.
Well, turned, and ran straight into Rishid, who didn't budge an inch when Bakura rammed face first into his chest.
Ryou frowned at his yami, then looked up at the tall Egyptian. "He's just embarrassed…. I'm sure it's nothing to do with you, Rishid." The teen was smacked by Bakura for that comment. The baby came to Ryou's defense by flooding its father's mind with indignant protests.
"Welcome!" A clerk interrupted. She looked tired, as if she'd been forcing cheer out of her ears for the past eight hours, and was fast reaching the end of her rope. "Anything you're looking for?"
"Baby things," Bakura snorted. "What the fuck else would we be looking for?"
A child stared up at him when he said it, as did its mother, though one had wide eyes and the other was glaring.
The clerk sighed and forced a laugh. "Well, we have 'baby stuff' everywhere, so you won't need my assistance, will you?" Ryou could almost hear her mentally adding, 'Dumb ass'. She knew better than to say it to the temperamental tomb raider, though, which meant she was wise. Wisely intimidated, at the least.
The thief's expression had darkened to one even Ryou rarely saw. "No, we won't-"
"Well, actually," Ryou piped up, hoping he wouldn't be hit again for the interruption, "we need to know where the cradles are."
She motioned vaguely. "Aisle Eight. Or Eleven. Somewhere around there."
Ryou quickly took off, hoping his yami would follow him rather than stay to argue. No such luck, though it wasn't as bad as Ryou had feared. Instead of arguing with the clerk, Bakura had become distracted by the cash register.
"Ah, Yami!" Ryou called, jogging over to him. He reached out to grab Bakura's sleeve, but thought better of it and instead grabbed a little plush toy. "Look! We'll need lots of these."
Bakura eyed it disdainfully. "What for?" The toy was small, about the size Malik had liked duck heads to be when he practiced throwing them. Somehow he doubted that was what Ryou intended it for.
Unaware of the thoughts going through his yami's head, Ryou said, "Well, to keep it quiet. Babies need toys; it helps them learn."
"Hn." He snatched the toy from Ryou and inspected it, rubbing his fingers over the soft fur. "It's a cow, though. Find something else. A bear." Bears were popular with children; Bakura remembered seeing lots of them in Kiara and Kiseki's rooms.
"Why don't you come with? I don't want to choose something you'll only toss back again," Ryou said, hoping Bakura had forgotten about the money over the counter.
The thief shrugged and threw the plush cow back into the pile of toys. He was going to follow Ryou when a little toy mouse, the same size as the cow, caught his eye. It seemed like something the baby liked--judging by its usual cartwheels-of-joy--so he pocketed it. "Fine."
Rishid had wandered off at some point, though Bakura only noticed he'd been missing when they stumbled across the Egyptian calmly inspecting a rack of children's clothing.
When the two Bakuras walked up to him, he silently held out a little blue shirt to Ryou.
The teen blinked, then offered it to Bakura. "What do you think?"
The spirit ignored the question and dropped the shirt in a hand basket he'd grabbed. "What else?"
Rishid handed item after item to Ryou, who handed it over to Bakura, who stuffed it unceremoniously into the basket.
Once the rack was cleared of any clothing--and they'd filled up twelve hand baskets--Bakura sauntered off into the toy aisle, leaving Ryou and Rishid behind.
Rishid began to follow, but Ryou tugged on his arm and held him until Bakura was out of earshot. "I've been thinking…maybe we ought to have a baby shower for him. The trouble is, I wouldn't want to invite my yami." He grimaced, picturing the outcome of such a get-together.
"I think it's a wonderful idea, Ryou."
"But it's dangerous!" Ryou protested. "I mean, how do we get my yami to not notice we're throwing him a party to commemorate him being pregnant?"
Rishid frowned in thought. He'd dealt with Bakura for well over a year now, and kept all his limbs; he was certain he could come up with some way to fit in a party without Bakura going spastic.
At last his green-gold eyes lit. "We tell the guests to come before he's home; then we hide all the gifts, and he finds them gradually." Again he frowned. "As for the party…we'll tell him it's for you. A party to celebrate your becoming an…uncle?"
Ryou smiled slightly, pleased. "Thanks. Come on, we'd better find him."
****
Bakura had pretty much collapsed onto the sofa the second they got in the door. Ryou had taken all the bags upstairs to squirrel away until they could sort it out later, but Bakura was still unconsciously holding the cuddly toy mouse. It wasn't large and he only realized that he was still holding it when he looked, tossing it into the air idly and catching it by the string tail.
He was starting to fiddle with a beaded eye when a surge of power pressed in on all sides and inside of a blink he found himself in darkness. Glancing around the Shadow Realm in irritation, he stood up from where he had been placed on the edge of his bed and chucked the mouse behind him.
"Alright, who brought me here? Tetsuo?" he demanded of the surrounding darkness. Looking around was pointless so he settled for crossing his arms and just listening. He couldn't sense any danger and the baby seemed to be taking this as a merry adventure, twirling oddly in his gut with glee. That was quite possibly imagined though, as babies who twirl tend to get their umbilical cords wrapped around their throats and choke. Mind, Bakura wasn't even sure if the child was *that* big yet. It felt like it sometimes…
"I see that you're beginning to accept this turn of events then."
Bakura turned to face Tetsuo who had appeared a few yards behind him. He was stood by the bed and holding the toy mouse, picking at its felt ears curiously. Looking up, he tossed the animal to Bakura who held it for half a second before throwing it onto the bed again. Tetsuo raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"What do you want?" Bakura practically spat, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't as afraid of this creature as he had been before. Respectful of its power, yes, but not afraid. The last time he'd pissed it off it could have skinned him alive with just a thought, but instead it had just created an 'empathic link' between him and his child. At the time that had seemed comparatively worse, but it led Bakura to believe that Tetsuo meant no real harm.
The monster in question seemed to ignore the thief, sweeping around the side of the bed to sit down facing the spirit directly, his robes gathering thickly at his feet. "It is time that you made some decisions about your immediate future, about how you are going to proceed."
Bakura groaned inwardly. He was too damn tired to be making decisions right now. The baby gave him a mental poke anyway as a prompt. "Like what?"
"Well, your current form will become problematic within a few months, and so that needs to be addressed, and-"
"I am not changing sex," Bakura interrupted immediately, ironclad. He could have sworn that he saw Tetsuo smile.
"That's fine. It is possible to make some physical adjustments for comfort and then mask the changes with a spell. You would look exactly as you always had to mortals even at full-term."
"It's gonna be pretty big. I think someone would notice if they were stupid enough to walk into me," Bakura considered aloud, a hand rubbing his jaw thoughtfully.
Tetsuo tipped his head, thinking for a moment before answering. "Only those who wished to could feel it, I assure you. Those who are unaware would remain so. Although, other Item holders would likely be able to see you as you are. As I forged the Items, sometimes the spells I cast are, 'transparent' to the bearers."
"That's fine by me. Anything else?"
"The birth."
Bakura shuddered. It was a reflex. The baby bounced again at the prospect of freedom. Nothing against living inside Bakura; it just didn't want to listen to the process of digestion for the rest of its existence.
"You can resort to surgery or I can give you the ability to have something fairly natural."
Blanching, Bakura suddenly had the strong urge to protect his groin. He wouldn't show fear though and so just settled for tightening his arms around himself.
"Which one would be more…invasive?"
"The natural way."
"Okay, which one would be more painful?"
"The natural way."
Eyebrows disappearing into his fringe in surprise, Bakura dropped his hands, his fingers not accidentally gliding across his stomach as he did so. "Alright, which one can I do alone?"
Tetsuo appeared to scrutinize him for a moment, his head tipping back and to the side as he regarded Bakura with narrowed eyes. "Either, depending on how drunk you are, but I believe that you would cope with copious amounts of blood far better than your own placenta. I'd strongly advise your Hikari's help for either though. You may have coped with injuries alone in the past, but inflicting such a wound on yourself and then handling a creature carefully is very different."
"I guess I'll go with the surgery then."
Tetsuo clapped his hands together with a smile as he stood. "Good. Shall I make the necessary changes now or would you rather wait?"
Bakura suddenly raised a hand, frowning. "How the Hell do you know how to do all this? And why didn't you do any of this for the Pharaoh when he was knocked up?"
"I did not have the knowledge or the skills at the time. I have practiced since then," Tetsuo replied with a small but uncharacteristic smirk. Humanoid Duel Monsters were so helpful given the correct incentive. Celtic Guardian would never be the same though.
Deciding not to ask, Bakura opened his arms in a sign of surrender. "Fine. Do your mojo and then leave me alone."
There was a period of silence as the Shadow Realm seemed to pause, holding its breath, before Tetsuo nodded once. Stalking towards Bakura with his torso tilted forward, demon eyes never left the spirit. Finally, when there was barely a foot between them, Tetsuo straightened and brought both his hands up. Without warning, he clapped them together hard millimetres from the tip of Bakura's nose.
The spirit, at this close a range, just caught the gold sparkles that had appeared briefly between the monsters palms. Tetsuo lowered his hands. Nothing else happened.
"That was it?!" Bakura practically screeched, having prepared himself for the worst. His hands darted to his own body, prodding his abdomen in particular. Nothing felt different. The baby seemed quite puzzled as well, quietly poking at the walls of its 'home'.
Tetsuo quirked a brow. "You were expecting flashing lights and thunderclaps perhaps?"
Bakura scowled darkly. "I expected some sort of change. That's what you were aiming for, right?"
The monster reacted to that remark with his own scowl, but this one was of tightly-reigned impatience. "The spell will only activate when you wish it to. My intention is for you to become better adjusted to your situation, and perhaps eventually, not to feel ashamed of it."
Slightly taken aback, Bakura could find no immediate response for those insightful words. Tetsuo seemed to take his silence as a farewell though, nodding slowly before vanishing, and soon after the Shadow Realm also receded.
Bakura found himself sitting back on the sofa in the living room, the toy mouse sitting idly in his hands. Ryou walked in with a tray that he set down on the coffee table. Lunch was laid out neatly upon it. He glanced at Bakura with a smile.
"Good to see that you're back. May I ask if it was anything important?" he asked smoothly, taking a seat in the armchair opposite his yami.
"How'd you know I was in the Shadow Realm?" Bakura asked distractedly, busy poking at his physical body to see if anything had been done. Tetsuo may not have been telling the truth, but he'd need some alone time in the bathroom to check if the monster had been lying to him about not having changed anything. If it had lied, Bakura had more than a few ideas to exact swift and lasting revenge.
"A big purple and black cloud was sitting where you are now. It wasn't that hard to figure out," Ryou replied with an ironic smile. Bakura looked up at him in vague annoyance before going back to examining his stomach. Still round but it looked like his.
"I'll leave you to your lunch," the Hikari murmured with a smirk at Bakura's behaviour, standing and going back into the kitchen where Rishid was still waiting.
"You still believe it wise to hold a baby shower for him? Despite the fact that the others do not yet know of his condition?" Rishid enquired in a deep, smooth tone.
Ryou nodded with a sly smile. "What better way to tell them? I'd have to check with him first though. But for now I'll just tell them that it's my sister that's having a baby."
"Do you have a sister?"
"No."
"I see. Well done. There is just one more thing, though," Rishid said with more reluctance, his gaze lowering as he thought.
"Yes?" Ryou prompted anxiously, unsettled by Rishid's change in demeanour.
Rishid looked up again, his expression serious. "We're still not quite sure who the father is."
"Ah." A beat. "Good point." Ryou glanced into the living room where Bakura was suspiciously poking the bowl of noodles with the end of a chopstick before setting about tidying things up. He paused after a moment, looking over to where Rishid had returned to unloading all the baby things.
"I forgot to ask before," he began, the thought only just occurring to him. "How exactly did you find out about the baby? And Isis for that matter."
"It's the only thing Master Malik has been talking about for the previous few weeks," Rishid replied calmly without looking up. "He has been…scheming, far more than usual about all of this, but he is steadily warming to the idea I believe. He is no longer cursing the God Ra about this turn of events."
Ryou considered this a moment before deciding that that was an improvement then. "Well as long as he isn't going to come back here brandishing some sort of weapon."
"No, Isis wouldn't allow it," Rishid replied with a small smile. "She is very pleased that she is going to be an aunt, and the fact that there are two fathers does not bother her in the slightest."
The teen sighed, bemused, and lent back against the cabinets as he brushed a hand through his hair. "Rishid, just when did the world get this crazy?"
The older man straightened and his eyes seemed to become distant as he thought about the question. Finally, he arrived at the answer. "I believe it was about five thousand years ago, when the Items were forged."
There was a grumbling noise from the living room, and what distinctively sounded like, "Bloody Pharaoh."
***
While Rishid had scampered off to help Ryou and Bakura shop for the unborn runty, Malik had gone shopping for something else. Among many things, he'd gathered a sack of plastic acorns, day-old donuts, fake blood, milk, and lots of yarn. Now he sat in his apartment, all of his loot lying around him, waiting.
Malik sat with his back against the sofa, frowning in deep, unrippled thought. Every so often he'd grab up one of the yarn bundles, eye it critically, only to toss it aside.
Finally he chose three colors for his newly planned gift: powder pink, butter yellow, and periwinkle blue. And with this important, groundbreaking decision out of the way, Malik took up his new knitting needles and soon the only sound in the apartment was the soft clink and shh of aluminum and yarn.
****
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