Time for yet another chapter. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. My reason? Just a lack of interest in writing over the past few weeks… But anyways, I got tired of having to say Pang Tong over and over again in parts, so I called Tong " the Phoenix" one time. I had to do say Pang and Zhuge's names so many times because I was afraid it would get confusing if I continuously said "he" over and over. Take no offence to me calling Tong a creature at one point! I was trying to come up with something different to say… Heh. And for calling him short as well… But he is short. You can't argue with that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dynasty Warriors.
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CHAPTER 19 START
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After Yue Ying had gone back inside the castle, she had gone up to her room, like she had said she would. She was already tired, so she decided to go on to sleep despite the fact that the sun had still not yet completely set. Changing into her nightgown, she got underneath the covers of her bed and sighed. Thinking of how long and tiring the day had been, she quickly fell into the land of dreams.
Not too long after she had fallen asleep, Zhuge Liang came up as well. He had just had some very interesting conversations with Pang Tong, or to be more precise, he had just heard some very interesting things while Pang Tong barraged him with his mindless, not to mention random, talk. Although it was hinted that the conversation was over when he left, Pang Tong still followed Zhuge Liang around no matter where he went. No matter where he went indeed… He ended up following Liang back to his room and followed him inside.
Zhuge Liang, upon seeing the sleeping form of his wife in the bed, was sure that Tong would shut up and leave. However, all that the Phoenix did was lower his voice and continue to whisper whatever it was that he wanted to ramble on about. Still trying the shake off the blabbing creature, Liang decided to go into the next room that belonged to him and Ying.
This just happened to be the bath area that contained the heavily ornate bath made of a polished white stone, the same that practically every general in the army had. He had thought that Tong would leave if he thought the other was going to take a bath, but still the short man persisted to follow. Liang slapped his forehead with his hand before sighing and slumping to the ground in defeat, finally accepting his fate of being tortured by mindless prattle.
Pang Tong finally left, but when he did, Liang did not know. Obviously, he had fallen asleep while listening to Tong, for when he opened his eyes, he was lying on the ground and his vision was blurred by sleep. He stood up slowly, stretching and sighing before exiting the room that contained the bath and reentering the bedroom. He changed into his nightclothes before climbing into the bed beside his wife and falling asleep himself.
x-x-x
Later on that night, Yue Ying woke up, looking around groggily while trying to make her brain, which was still halfway asleep, come up with the reason why she had woken up. That reason finally made itself known to her when there was another sharp pain in her stomach, but this one lasted a little longer than the first one. She sat upright and waited for a little while longer.
After feeling another pain, she decided it would be best if she told Liang about it, so she turned her head to look over at him. The only problem was that he looked like he was sleeping so peacefully… It would be a shame to wake him… If she did wake him, he would surely call for the midwife, and it would probably still be a while before there was anything that could really be done about the baby coming. Everyone would just be waiting around for who knows how long. Yes, it would better to wait a little longer so as to not waste so much of the midwife's time.
An hour or so later, Ying decided that it was time to wake up her husband and tell him. It wasn't that she was really bothered by it yet, though it was a bit annoying to have sharp pains in your stomach coming at intervals. It was more because she was getting bored of waiting and wanted to do something besides stare at a blank wall in the dark. Now, how exactly was it that she was going to tell him about this…? She sat for a few more minutes, trying to think of what to tell him when he woke up. Still, she could come up with nothing.
'Oh well. Guess I will just have to wake him up and come up with something to say on the spot,' Ying thought before lightly tapping Liang once on the shoulder. 'Now why I am I doing that? That will not wake him.' Just as she thought that, he happened to stir a little bit, waking from his sleep once more, and began to sit up. 'Or perhaps it will… I knew he was a light sleeper, but not that light.'
"Hmm… What is it? Did you wake me up?" Liang asked, rubbing one of his eyes with his hand.
"Yes…" answered Ying and she thought, 'Now comes the part where I tell him about the baby… Somehow.'
"Well, what is it?" He has a slight hint of annoyance in his voice as he was tired of waking up from such wonderful sleep, but he tried to keep it in check for he did not want to slight his wife. He watched as she opened her mouth to say whatever it was that she wanted to say, but closed it again when her eyes met his.
'It is easier said than done… Or, should I say, it is easier thought than said,' she thought. "Well, I… umm…" Zhuge Liang raised an eyebrow, patiently waiting for an answer, though that patience was beginning to wear thin. Normally he was a patient man, but not after just waking up and feeling the need to fall back down on his pillow and sleep more.
Yue Ying's mind raced to find the correct way to break the news to him, but something beat her to finding the answer. Another pain came on, but this time it was a little more painful than the others and it had also caught her off guard.
"Mmph." She let out a sound and put one of her arms around her stomach. Liang noticed this and he suddenly became panicked.
"What? Is it the baby? Why did you not tell me earlier!" he grabbed Ying's arms, but she just shrugged a little and gave him a small uncertain smile. He jumped out of the bed and started to run over to the door that led out into the hall, but somehow managed to get a foot caught underneath the rug.
The result of this: Zhuge Liang falling straight on his face. Yue Ying lit the lamp on the nightstand beside her when she heard the commotion. Staring at her fallen husband, she blinked slowly a few times. Liang scrambled back up onto his feet, his nose smarting from the impact of the floor meeting his face, and continued to the door.
Throwing it open, he yelled out into the hallway, "Servant!" Yue Ying sighed. Did he really have to make so much noise? He was going to wake the entire castle… And perhaps even the town that was located outside its gates. One of the servants, who was on duty at night, ran from somewhere down the hall to see what Liang wanted.
"You! Go find the midwife and tell her that my wife is having her baby! And tell her that she had better hurry up as well!" The servant had barely nodded and bowed in response when the door slammed in his face.
"That… was rude," commented Yue Ying, but Liang just started to nervously pace around the room.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Zhuge Liang rushed over to it and opened it to find the midwife and her two assistants. She walked in and looked at Yue Ying, who was still lying quite calmly in her bed. The midwife sighed. From the way the servant had brought the message, she had thought that Ying was much closer to having her child then this. Oh well… She was used to it. Fathers-to-be always were a little skittish when their wives began having contraction, even if they were not very big ones yet.
She waved to her two assistants to begin getting things ready, such as some clean towels. A bowl full of warm water would be needed as well, but it would be best to get that when the patient was closer to having her baby. If gotten now, the water might end up turning cold before the baby was born.
After almost everything that was needed had been gotten, the midwife and the assistants sat down in some nearby chairs to wait until they could actually do anything. They started to idly chat among themselves, and occasionally with Yue Ying to pass the time. All in all, it was actually a pretty peaceful and calm atmosphere; except for the still nervous and panicked Zhuge Liang, who continued to pace about the room.
It was still quite a while before the midwife could actually do anything about the child coming, but the time did finally come. Of course, the explanation of exactly how the child was born will not be given. All that can be said was that it involved a lot of pain for Yue Ying, and for Zhuge Liang as well who ended up blacking out for a few minutes and hitting his head on the floor again. It was a wonder he did not get a concussion from all of this…
Once the child was born, the atmosphere of the room changed into that of happiness. Zhuge Liang and Yue Ying were now the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy. Liang was practically beside himself with excitement; it was another one of those very rare times when he was completely out of his normal personality. Yue Ying felt almost the same as he, but she couldn't really express the emotions in the same way. All she really wanted to do after getting to hold her son for the first time was sleep. Childbirth was a very tiring thing…
x-x-x
The next day, there were quite a lot of people who came to visit the new parents and the newborn child to give their congratulations. A few of the maids in the castle kept on coming and pretended to be cleaning, though they really only came to see and comment to each other on how cute the baby was. Around noon or so, Pang Tong stopped by to see them.
"Aww… Look at the cute widdle baby!" he cooed as he bent over to look at the child, which Yue Ying was holding in her arms. The child spotted the hanging tassels on Tong's hat and reached up to grab one. Managing to catch the end of one in his little hand, he gave it a yank and pulled the hat down on top of him. This obviously frightened the child, who thought that the world was collapsing on him, began to whimper.
"Whoops," Pang Tong grabbed the hat and tossed it over onto a table. "Well, he looks like he'll be a smart one if he already knows how to grab and pull things. So what are you going to name him? I bet you're going to name him after me right?"
"Zhuge Tong? Ha. I should think not," answered Liang, who was sitting in a chair nearby.
"Why not? It's a wonderful name if you think about it! It might not really sound right with that surname, but it's still good."
"There are a few reasons for why I would not want to name my son that."
"Really? And what would those reasons be, Zhuge?"
"Well, for one, it is a horrible name. Second, well, I just do not see why I would want to name my child after you."
"Oh, that really makes me feel good," Tong said, offended by his "friend's" comment. "What are you going to name him then? You surely don't already have one, or else you would've already told me."
Yue Ying looked over at her husband. "I… never really thought about it before. I do not know of anything to name him…"
Zhuge Liang shrugged. "Same here. I have not really thought about it."
"What? You haven't thought about what to name your child? Did you get so caught up in the excitement that you completely forgot he didn't have a name? You'd better come up with one soon… He can't go nameless his entire life. And he certainly can't be called Baby Zhuge when he's twenty years old. That would scar him for life! Imagine being called Baby all the time…Of course, if it was a woman, I wouldn't really care if she called me that," Tong grinned beneath the cloth that covered his face.
"Are you done with your rambling now?" asked Liang, yawning as he did.
"You make me feel so special, you know that? Fine. I can see that I'm not wanted. I'll be going now. Tell me what you decide to name the kid." Tong stood up, grabbed his hat, and walked out of the door, closing it behind him.
"Hmm… It would really be best to go ahead and give him one so that he can learn it sooner. What should we name him?" Yue Ying asked, looking down at her son, who, now over the fright of having a hat falling on top of him, was beginning to fall asleep. Zhuge Liang rose from his seat and began to slowly pace back and forth again, thinking hard of what to name his son. He needed a good name, not one that was thought of in thirty seconds. After a few minutes of this, he stopped pacing and put his chin in his hand.
"What about Zhan? I think that would be a fine name for him. What do you think?" He turned back around and faced his wife.
"Zhuge Zhan… Yes, that should fit him perfectly. Let us name him that, unless you can think of a better name before we make it official at the ceremony," replied Ying. The ceremony being the one that nearly every newborn boy had; the baby girls usually didn't have one unless they were of high ranking, such as a princess. The ceremony was where everyone of close relations to the newborn got together to celebrate it's birth and it was also where it's name was made official. This ceremony usually took place a week after the birth of the child.
"Alright. I doubt I shall change it, so that shall be his name." Liang walked over to the bed and took the sleeping child from his wife's arms. "My son… Zhuge Zhan…"
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CHAPTER 19 END
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And so ends yet another chapter. Woo! It was a lot longer than what I normally write… Sorry. I got past the two thousand mark and couldn't stop myself. Heh.
zhugeliangsgrl - Heh, I didn't think it was that funny. Anyways, yes… That would be funny to see Zhuge pull a prank… Maybe I should try to add in something like that sometime, hehe. Thanks for reviewing!
Mrs.SleepingDragon - Thanks for reviewing!
Tdino - Yup yup! As you can see… There is a new little Zhuge running (or at least running sometime in the future) around now. Thanks for reviewing!
meliemeloe - Hiya! Yeah, I've seen a lot of fics where Zhuge abused her, too… Only evil people could ever write something like that. Zhuge and Yue is the best pairing that I know of if you compare them to others. Anyways, thanks very much for reviewing!
CrazyInsanity - Yup… Back to his old pranks again. See? There I go again with the short replies… I shall now hit myself in the head, and so I do but can't indicate that since I can't use the little star things, heh. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
