Sora awoke the next morning to the sound of his mother shouting.
"Sora! Riku! Wake up!" April called as she ran up the stairs.
"Huh?" Riku yawned sleepily, sitting up. "What's going on?"
"I don't know." Sora replied.
The brunette rolled out of bed and opened his door in time for his mother to come running in.
"Mom? What's going on?" Sora asked, still somewhat groggy.
"Mileena is in labour." April panted. "Lee is taking her to the doctor right now. I'll have to take you, Riku."
Riku nodded, stretched his arms over his head, and got out of bed. April went downstairs while Sora and Riku. They both dressed in clean clothes and headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
"Do you think your mom is going to have a boy or girl?" Sora asked.
Riku put some toothpaste on his toothbrush and shrugged. "A boy, I think."
"Why?"
"Dunno. I just picked one." Riku replied, brushing his teeth.
Once they were done brushing they fixed their hair up and went downstairs. April only had a bike for a vehicle but her friend, Eri, was going to pick them up and drive them to the doctor. While they were waiting for Eri to show up Selphie wandered over from across the street.
"What's up?" The girl asked.
"Riku's mom is having the baby." Sora replied. "We're driving Riku to the doctor."
"Aww! That's great! Give your best wishes to your mom for me, Riku." The girl smiled.
"I will." Riku nodded. "Thank-you."
Selphie nodded and Eri pulled up in her truck. The three bid good-bye to Selphie and got into the truck.
"You need to get your licence, April." Eri teased.
"Just drive, woman." April teased back.
Eri chuckled softly and drove off. It was a twenty minute drive to the doctor's. As they exited the vehicle April thanked her friend for the ride. They entered the doctor's clinic as Eri drove off.
"Hi. My friend was just brought in. She's having a baby." April said to the receptionist. "Her name is Mileena Argent."
The receptionist nodded. "Dr. Taueret is with her right now. The waiting room is right down the hall."
"How long does it take for a woman to have the baby?" Sora asked.
"It all depends on the woman. The lucky ones have babies in mere minutes while others can take up to 14 hours or more." April replied.
"How long did it take to have me?" The brunette asked with wide eyes.
"Twelve hours." Sora's mother replied with a small smirk. "And it took Mileena fourteen hours to have Riku."
"Wow. Poor mom." Riku replied.
The trio entered the small waiting room and sat down. The TV was on but it was so quiet that they couldn't hear anything. There was no one else waiting so Sora turned the TV up a bit.
"Do you boys want some breakfast? The market isn't far from here." April said. "And we may be in for a long wait."
"Sure. Breakfast would be nice." Sora replied, nodding.
April took some money out of her purse and handed it to her son. "Buy me a croissant sandwich with cream cheese and strawberry jam at the bakery place, okay? Buy whatever you two want for breakfast…except for junkfood."
"Okay mom." Sora nodded.
April sat back to wait and the two boys left the clinic and headed for the market.
"If it's going to take your mom fourteen hours to have the baby then why aren't we waiting at home?" Sora wondered.
Riku shrugged slightly. "My dad wanted me at the doctor's while mom had the baby. Don't really know why though…"
After a ten minute walk the boys reached the market. Sora went to buy his mother's breakfast while Riku browsed the stands for breakfast. He finally settled on extra spicy noodles and bought a cup.
"How can you eat that for breakfast?" Sora asked as he returned with April's breakfast request. "Doesn't it give you a stomach ache?"
"Nope." Riku replied, twirling the long noodles around his chopsticks. "I have a strong stomach."
"Your stomach must be lined with steel." The brunette replied, heading off to find his own breakfast.
After a few minutes of wandering the teen finally bought a cone of frozen banana yogurt.
"It's yogurt so it's not junkfood." He grinned, giving the frozen treat a lick.
Riku laughed. "That's using your head."
The pair left the market and walked back to the clinic. Sora handed April her breakfast and Riku threw his empty noodle cup away.
"How can you eat those first thing, Riku?" April asked. "Your stomach must be fireproof."
"That it is." Riku grinned, sitting down.
Sora rolled his eyes and sat down beside Riku.
"Is that ice-cream?" Sora's mother asked.
"Frozen yogurt." The brunette replied with a cheeky grin.
April chuckled and shook her head. The woman unwrapped her breakfast sandwich and began to eat.
Once they had finished their food there was nothing else to do but wait. Occasionally a nurse would come and tell them that "Mileena was doing good" then leave. People came and went. No one else had to wait. Riku sighed and flipped through the 5 channels the waiting room's TV had.
"If you and Sora want to go home you can." He said, finally settling on a cartoon.
"It's all right, Riku. Someone has to stay here and make sure you don't get into trouble." April replied with a grin.
The silver-haired boy laughed lowly in response. "You're a funny one, Mrs. Everhart."
"I'll stay too. Don't want you to be bored alone. Besides…I wanna know right away if you have a baby sister or brother."
Riku laughed again. "I think you're more excited than I am, Sora."
"That's a possibility." The brunette teased.
------------------------------------------
At noon a nurse came and informed them that it would be "anytime soon". They had only waited a half hour when Sora's stomach began to growl.
"I'm hungry…but I don't want to miss the baby…" Sora said.
April laughed and dug some money out of her purse. "The baby won't evaporate the minute its born, Sora. Go buy some lunch before you faint."
"I'll go with you." Riku offered, standing up. "My legs are stiff from sitting so long."
"Okay." Sora nodded. "What do you want for lunch, mom?"
"A medium cup of veggie soup from that organic stand." The woman replied.
Sora nodded and set off again with Riku to the market.
"How come you don't seem excited, Riku?" Sora asked.
"I am. I'm just not a goofball about it like you are." The older teen replied with a grin.
Sora snorted indignantly which made Riku laugh. The market was busier around lunch time. People bustled back and forth quickly. Sora and Riku had to dodge people every few seconds.
"I see the stand mom wants her soup from!" Sora called to Riku over the noise of the crowd. "I'll be right back!"
Riku nodded and went to browse a nearby stand. He smiled when he spotted their friends standing at a candy stand admiring the merchandise.
"Hi guys!" He said as he approached them.
"Hey!" Selphie grinned. "Did your mom have the baby yet?"
"No but the nurse said it should be soon." Riku replied.
"Can we come and wait?" Kairi asked.
"Sure if you want. It's pretty boring."
"If we're there it won't be." Tidus chuckled.
Riku chuckled and shook his head.
"Hey!" Sora called, breaking through the crowd. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were buyin' candy. Now we're buyin' candy then comin' to wait with yah." Wakka replied.
"That's great." Sora smiled. "Riku and I need to buy lunch then we're heading back to the clinic."
"Okay. We'll meet at the entrance to the market when we're ready to go, okay?" Kairi said.
Sora and Riku nodded then went off to buy lunch. Riku got a cup of vegetable soup as well and Sora bought a pizza sub sandwich. They walked to the market entrance to see their friends standing their with their candy purchases.
"Are you going to share some of that?" Sora asked, eyeing Selphie's licorice.
"Only if you eat all your lunch." Kairi joked in a motherly tone.
The group laughed and headed for the clinic. April was surprised to see the group had grown from two to six.
"Did Mrs. Argent have the baby yet?" Sora asked, handing the soup to his mother.
"No." She replied, pulling the lid off the cup. "I see you were followed."
Kairi giggled and sat beside Sora's mom. "We're all excited. We want to see the baby as soon as we can."
"Did you all have lunch already?" April asked, giving the candy in their hands a suspicious glance.
"Yes. We ate before we came." Selphie replied.
With that said and done everyone ate their lunches and candy. Afterwards Selphie pulled some cards from the little green purse she carried and the kids played cards while April watched the news on TV.
It was around two o'clock in the afternoon when a nurse came in.
"I have good news." She said. "Mrs. Argent has given birth to a healthy baby boy. She will be able to have visitors in a half hour."
The nurse left and everyone hugged Riku, congratulating him on his new baby brother.
"Now that the gender mystery is solved…I wanna know his name!" Selphie exclaimed.
Riku just shook his head. He was friends with a bunch of goofballs…
The half hour seemed to just drag by. It seemed like hours and hours before a nurse came and lead them to Mileena's room. The woman was lying in bed. She looked really, really tired and was holding a small bundle in her arms. Lee was standing beside the bed.
"You brought the whole neighbourhood, Riku." Lee said.
"That's good." Mileena smiled, motioning for the group to come closer.
The group slowly moved closer and Mileena unwrapped the baby slightly. He had naturally dark skin like his daddy but his hair (what little there was) was as dark as his mother's.
"Riku…everyone…I want you to meet the newest addition to the Argent family, Jiro."
Did you think Riku's mom would have a boy or girl? X3
