Author's Notes:  See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.

Separate Destinies By Annie-chan Chapter Fifteen:  A Rare Event

Riku leaned back against the warm rock, breathing in the steam around him.  He and Cloud were far outside Aerie, near the far border of the Stretch.  Cloud had suggested they come out here for a few days and test their fighting prowess against each other.  Riku, who hadn't had a good fight in quite a while, had agreed.  Though he frowned at the thought of senseless violence, a vigorous battle exhilarated him, opening his veins and lungs up and making him feel more alive.  He was a long way ahead of most ylfen his age, and Cloud, who was several centuries older than him, was more or less his equal.  The winner of a fight between them was anyone's guess.

The sun was setting in the western sky.  Earlier today, they had come across a small group of springs, which turned out to be hotsprings.  It was the perfect way to relax tired muscles, as well as wash off the dirt and grime that had accumulated after two days of sparring.

"You've really tanned, Riku," Cloud observed.  He was on the opposite side of the pool they were in.

"Hm?" Riku asked, opening one eye and looking at his blond companion.  "So have you."

"So I have," Cloud agreed.  The two of them were normally very pale.  They were naturally light-skinned, but living in a canyon where half the day is shadowed caused Riku to have nearly white skin.  Cloud was only a shade or two darker.  The last two days on the sunlit prairie had made them both brown considerably.

Riku watched his long, silvery hair float lazily around him, dancing slowly in the ripples and tremors caused in the water by their movements.  Leiya loved his hair, and had admitted to being jealous of the smooth, stick-straight strands.  Her own hair, wavy and wild, was much harder to take care of.  Many times after making love, she had played idly with his hair, stroking and fingering the silky silver river.

"How has Leiya been doing?" Cloud asked, as if guessing Riku's current train of thought.

"She's wonderful," Riku replied with a smile.  "She's as healthy as an expectant mother could be, and has been for a long while."  Leiya was halfway through pregnancy, her belly slowly growing to accommodate the little creature developing inside her.

"Good, good," Cloud nodded.  "She's had a rather easy pregnancy so far, hasn't she?"

"She says it runs in her mother's family," Riku explained.  "The women in the family take well to pregnancy, apparently."  He had been born into a society where pregnancy and birth were all too common, but he had come to regard them with the same respect and awe as other ylfen.  He had seen so few babies and young children since leaving the Many Worlds.

He leaned back against the rock, closing his eyes.  He remembered as clear as day the night Leiya conceived.  She had been distraught over the sudden, accidental death of a close friend.  She had witnessed the freak accident, and had been unable to stop the bleeding before the younger woman had died.  Riku had taken her into the bedroom, intending to have her lie down and hopefully sleep her anxiety off, but she had instead pulled off first his clothing and then hers, much to his surprise.  She had pushed him down onto the bed, showing unusual aggressiveness, and had taken him so thoroughly and completely that they had both shrieked their release to the ceiling, emotions and sensations shooting through and ricocheting between them, deepening and intensifying to the point of delirium.

Through the frenzy, the madness and the lust that had overtaken them, Riku had felt a small spark appear.  He hadn't been sure exactly when it became present, but it had definitely been there.  Afterward, while lying exhausted and sated in each other's arms, he had realized what it was that he had been sensing.  His sensitive psychic awareness had been picking up on the roots of soul formation, the primal beginning from which all living beings spring.

He knew that she had been aware of it, too.  As he felt it, so too did she feel it through him.

"A child," she had murmured, her eyes slipping closed as sleep claimed her.

"Hey, still alive over there?" Cloud chided from across the pool.

"Yes, I am still alive," Riku responded with mock irritation.  "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"It's private."

Silence descended between them.  Riku moved away from the side of the pool and slipped beneath the surface of the water, getting his head and shoulders wet.  He felt his skin tingling from the warm water, and he stayed under until his breath ran out.  When he surfaced again, he stood and stepped out of the small spring.

"We better get a good night's sleep tonight," he told Cloud.  "We're heading back tomorrow, remember."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The house was quiet.  Riku sat in an armchair in the living room, a book in his hands.  He had been reading it slowly, absorbing the text gradually.  He hated reading fast, for it made him feel as if he were missing something, forgetting half of the things on the page.

Cloud had closed himself in his room, and his current activity was unknown to Riku.  Leiya had gone to bed early, as her energy had been lasting her a shorter amount of time lately.

One month to go, Riku thought, closing the book partway.  One ylfe year is a long time to humans and other Many Worlds species, and ylfe females carried their unborn children for roughly one year.  It was many times longer than a human female is pregnant, and Riku was sure they would hate it dragging on that long.

Time passed more slowly and more quickly for the ylfen, however, and Riku was surprised the birth was only a few weeks away.  Had it been that long already?

He put a marker in the book and placed it back on the bookshelf.  It was late, and he should get into bed.

His footsteps echoed faintly as he walked down the hallway.  He looked ahead of him, seeing the doors lining the walls at slightly uneven intervals.  He knew what was behind every door, but some rooms were very seldom used.  As he often did, he found himself wondering about the activities in the house before his time, before his father's time.  So many generations of his family have lived here, so many of his relatives being born and growing up here.  They were long gone, only the ghosts of their memories remaining.

It's a shame, he thought, that I can't know these things.  He would have loved to know all about his family.  There were the family history books in the city library, which had biographies that ranged from three to twenty pages long.  His family was documented from almost one hundred generations ago and went down the many various branches, the most recent entry being his father.  He had spent many long hours in that library, reading through the books on his family, but they couldn't tell him everything there was to know.  If there was some cosmic historian who wrote down every detail of the lives of everyone to ever live, no matter what world or dimension they lived in, Riku was sure he'd be fascinated with those writings.  He chided himself, knowing that to know every detail of someone was an invasion of their privacy, but he couldn't help being curious.

If there is a biographer like that, he's probably the personification of Destiny itself, he thought.  One thing he wondered was who wrote the family history books and where they got their information.  Considering the huge variety of things ylfen have been able to accomplish with magic, he wouldn't be surprised if they books actually wrote themselves.

Coming to the end of the hallway, he went through the doors into the sitting room.  The lamps along the walls were burning dimly, and the doorway to the bedroom was slightly ajar.  He went inside and closed the door quietly.  It was just as dim in here, and he walked carefully to keep from tripping on something.

He undressed and put on one of the long, light, robe-like garments that many ylfen used to sleep in.  Climbing into bed, he saw that Leiya was wearing the same.  She was lying on her back, breathing easily and deeply in her sleep.  He pulled the covers further up over them, making sure they were both warm.

Riku lied down on his side, facing her.  He was tired, but not tired enough to immediately go to sleep.  Instead, he contented himself in watching his beloved.

He gently lay a hand on her swollen belly.  They baby inside was awake, as he felt it move after a few moments.  He smiled softly and reached out with his mind, touching very lightly the tender consciousness.  It stirred and touched weakly back.  A primitive, positive emotion seeped into his mind, and he smiled again.  Though there was no conscious thought yet, the child's soul responded well to him.  When born, it may recognize him as its father as quickly as it will recognize Leiya as its mother.

Such a precious thing you are, he murmured mentally to it.  Even though it wouldn't understand the words, he hoped it got the gist of what he was saying.  I love you, just as your mother does.  We'll take good care of you.

He very gingerly broke the connection and removed his hand from his mate's abdomen.  He took her hand and squeezed it lightly.  He adored above all else this woman in the bed beside him.  He had given her his mind, his body, his soul, and now he had given her his child.

Gently, he pressed his lips to hers, putting on enough pressure to make her respond slightly, but not enough to wake her up.

"I love you," he purred into her ear, pressing close and letting his eyelids slip shut.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

PAIN.

"Gyaaaaah…!"

Riku fell against the wall and slid to the floor, his arms around himself.  A sharp pain had suddenly exploded in his abdomen, and it was enough to make his eyes water.

"What the hell…?!" he managed through his teeth.  The pain slowly subsided, and he managed to get up to his feet, shaky from the sudden sensation.

Riku! he suddenly heard Leiya call urgently into his head.  Riku, I need you!

So, that was it!  That was a labor pain he had felt.  It had traveled through the connection between them and assailed him at the same time it had hit her.  He set off down the hallway as fast as he could.  It was a long hallway, and he kept having to stop as the pain grew and subsided, but he finally made it there.  Pushing through the door to the bedroom, he found Leiya on the bed on her back, clutching her swollen middle and covered in sweat.

"Riku…" she managed, and he realized that she was in more pain than he had realized.  Birth was hard for ylfe females, their bodies so much less used to it than human females.

"Leiya!" he cried, at her side in an instant.  "Leiya, are you all right?!"

"Yes," she said between breaths.  "Please, Riku, I need your help!"

Part of him blanched.  He had never gone through something like this, and he didn't know what to do.  On the other hand, the other part of him steeled itself, knowing exactly what to do.  He realized with a start that male ylfen are as much involved in the birthing process as the females are, and they had instincts to deal with it.

Birth was a natural process, and the ylfen praised nature and its purity.  Without thinking, Riku had disrobed them both, leaving them completely naked, as natural as they could get.

"Please, Riku…!" she moaned.  The small, pleading sound pierced his heart, and he clutched at her hand, diving down into the sensory part of her brain.  He felt his own discomfort increase as he severed part of her pain, taking it upon himself.  The sensation was roughly halved between them, her suffering growing smaller and his growing greater.  He didn't feel most of the birthing sensations, none of the squeezing or the pressure, but he did feel the intense pain.  He gritted his teeth and bore it willingly, knowing that he was aiding his love.

"Do all fathers…feel the birthing pangs…?" he asked after several moments.

Leiya nodded slowly.  "The connection between soulmates…it makes the pain travel from one to another…it's just like sensing other strong emotions or sensations from each other."

The minutes dragged slowly on.  Riku, after a while, laid himself down next to her on his side.  Now, he understood why his father looked so exhausted in those memories Riku had seen of Darius and Samara's first days.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a sudden, piercing wail, followed immediately by a pain more powerful than he had yet felt today.

"Riku!" Leiya cried, practically in his ear.  "It's coming!  It's coming!"  The child had dropped as far as it would go, and was now in the birth canal.  Through the agony twisting his insides, Riku managed to push himself up and stumble over to the chest of drawers near his side of the bed.  He pulled a towel from the bottom drawer and returned to Leiya.  Instead of going back to her side, he knelt down between her bent and spread knees.  He had the soft towel draped over his hands, ready to receive the newborn as it was pushed out into the wide world.

"Come on, Leiya," he murmured, sending the words as well, using as much of his power as he could spare to calm her crackling nerves.  "Come on…just a little more!  Push hard!"  With every contraction, he winced hard, as much from the pain in Leiya's cries as from the pain in his own body.  His vision fuzzed a bit, but he grit his teeth and focused.  He had kept from crying out thus far, and he'd be damned if he deteriorated now.

Finally, shrieking, straining so hard Riku thought she'd burst, Leiya managed to push the baby's head and shoulders into the open.

"Yes, Leiya!" Riku gasped, shaking as much as she was.  "You did it!"  The rest of the baby slid out easily when he gently tugged on the narrow shoulders.  He reached over to the side, pulling a knife from its sheath.  He normally kept a knife strapped to his shin, and it hadn't fallen to the floor when discarded.  With it, he cut the umbilical cord, and the baby took its first tiny breath—

—which turned into a loud wail.  Riku was startled at first, but knew it was natural for newborns to cry.  He gently wrapped it in the towel, hoping it would be warm enough.  He grasped the free end of the cord that was still trailing from Leiya's body and tugged.  Leiya gave one last push and expelled the afterbirth.

This is one fine mess, he thought, realizing the sorry-looking state of things.  Both he and Leiya were sweaty and disheveled, the baby was covered in the white cheesy stuff that kept the amniotic fluid from damaging its skin, and the sheets of the bed were stained with birthing fluids and now the afterbirth.  This would take a lot of work to clean up…ah, screw it.  He didn't want to mess with it right now, and it would be difficult if he did it the hard way.  Instead, he merely snapped his fingers and pointed to what was roughly the center of it all.

The mess disappeared, including the stuff on the baby and the sweat on their skin.  It was the easy way out, but what was magic for anyway if it didn't save you some time and effort?  They had both put out plenty of effort in the past few hours, thanks.

"Riku…" Leiya whispered, recovered enough to prop herself up a little.

He gently lifted the still whining baby from the bedspread and moved up beside her, placing him in her arms.

"He's so beautiful," she purred, a tired, euphoric smile on her face.  "He's perfect."

"Mm," Riku replied, putting his arms around her and letting her lean against him.  The little boy had Leiya's coloring in his skin and hair, and probably his eyes.  Riku couldn't tell, as the infant had his eyes closed.  The tiny wing, however, folded against his back, was a combination of both their wings.  It was black along the base and top edge, but as it tapered down to the tip, the black faded into rich auburn instead of royal blue.

The baby suckled hungrily at his mother's breast, drawing in his first sustenance.  His mother held him reverently, in awe that her body could produce such a tiny, perfect little being like this.  Like most ylfen, she had seen too few babies and young children in her life.

"What should his name be?" Riku asked.

"Tanis," Leiya said after thinking a moment.  It was a name from an old ylfe word meaning "from love".

"Tanis," Riku repeated slowly.  "Yes, that will do."

Leiya fell into a light doze, and he gently lowered her down to lie flat on the bed, her head resting in her soft pillow.  Little Tanis was through nursing, so Riku tentatively removed him from Leiya's loose grasp.

"You come from an old, proud family," he whispered, cradling the sleeping infant to his chest, the greatest of care in his strong arms.  "You have great power sleeping within you, little one."  He touched Tanis' mind in the same fashion as he had while his son was still in the womb.  He received the same response, a little stronger perhaps.  He smiled, knowing that the little baby did indeed recognize him.

"Sleep well, my son," he said quietly, gently stroking the wispy hair on the small head.  "I will watch over you."

To be continued…

Author's Notes:  Finally, I wrote this chapter!  I've been having severe writer's block lately, and I hope it's over and done with.  I hope to start chapter sixteen soon, maybe in the next week or so.  Cross your fingers and pray that I will.  At any rate, let me know what you think of this in a review or an email to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!

I know this chapter, especially the last scene, is a little graphic.  I mean, how many fics do you read that have birthing scenes like this?  Sorry if I grossed you guys out, what with the placenta and the birthing fluids and the cheese-like stuff coating the baby.  But, giving birth is not a tidy thing, and I wanted this to be realistic.  I've never had a child, but I know people who have—which isn't a novelty, since most people do—and I've read about what goes on during a birth.  For all you women out there planning to have kids, know here and now that it's one messy business squeezing that kid out into the world.  Just be happy I didn't make the ylfen one of those cultures where the mother eats the placenta.  Yuck.

The previous chapter, chapter fourteen, was a major turning point in the story.  Sephiroth died and passed the headship of the family over to Riku.  Pretty dramatic stuff, I thought.  Yet, I got very little response to that chapter at all.  I was kinda disappointed that Sephiroth's death scene garnered such a thin reaction.  Come on, guys!  Let me know what you think!  ;_;

One last thing:  Which looking through the earlier chapters for this fic, I noticed that I mentioned in the Author's Notes of one that I was writing an Ansem-centric fic called "Heart of Darkness".  Yet, as you may or may not have noticed, I have yet to post a Kingdom Hearts fic by that name.  Unfortunately, it wrote itself into a corner, and I couldn't back it out for the life of me.  I regrettably had to scrap it.  Sorry to disappoint any of you who wanted to read it.  I might write a different Ansem fic in the future, so keep your fingers crossed.