Chapter 8 – Family2

"Why would I need to sit down?"

"I was feeling quite ill in the morning yesterday too."

"Oh, why didn't you say so? Do you want to go back to bed of a while?"

"No, thank you Tomoya, I have just made a doctors appointment for tomorrow after work."

"Do you feel that bad? If you're that ill you… should… Oh." My brain finally made the connection. "So you think that you're… "

"Pregnant, yes."

"I'll nip to the chemist, I'll be right back." By the time I returned Kyou had arrived for work.

"Oh, hey Tomoya, you were out early today."

"Yeah, I needed to pick up a couple of things for Kotomi."

"Oooh, anything fun?" Kyou opened the bag I had put on the counter. "Ginger tea? And a…" She stared at the second item in the bag for a moment. "Pregnancy test?"

"Kotomi has been feeling sick the last couple of mornings."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go and do that test, I'll put the kettle on." Kyou looked really excited as she handed the test to Kotomi and gently pushed her towards the bathroom. "I can't believe I get to be here for this, it's so exciting." Kyou was grinning from ear to ear. She was like a five-year-old on Christmas morning.

Once Kotomi returned with the test, our vigil began. It must have look quite absurd, three people staring at a small plastic stick that someone had just peed on.

"Haven't you invented a faster one of these yet?"

"I am sorry Tomoya, but bio-chemistry isn't really my specialty."

"How long are these things supposed to take anyway?"

"Five minutes I think, but it felt like hours last time."

"It must have been five minutes by now."

"It has been three minutes, you are even more excitable than Tomoya was last time." As calm as Kotomi sounded, her fingers were drumming impatiently on the side of her tea cup.

"Look, look it's doing something… two blue bars? Is that good? Where's the box?"

"Kyou, settle down will you. It means it's positive. We're having another baby." Kotomi grinned at me, then threw her arms round my neck and kissed me.

"Congratulation you guys." Kyou joined in on the hug.

"Thanks, Kyou. One question, why are you so excited? You were more impatient than I was."

"What, aren't I allowed to be happy for my two best friends?" I just looked at her and raised an eye brow. "Fine, I just love babies, Negisa was sooo cute."

"Get your own then."

"I'd need a husband first, and anyway, when they're someone else's you can give them back when they stink." I had to admit you couldn't argue with her logic. "Wait till Ryou hears, she's going to flip."

"Whoa there, hold your horses."

"What?"

"First off, I'd rather wait until after the doctor confirms it, and secondly, do you not think that maybe, and I could be being a little strange here, but just maybe, we might like to tell people ourselves."

"Right, yeah, sorry, I got a little over excited."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Kyou just stuck her tongue out at me and put her phone back in her pocket. "Kotomi, do you want to take the day off work? If you're not well, I'm sure they'd understand."

"No, thank you, I'll manage."

"In that case, we'd best get a move on. Kyou can you finish up Negisa's breakfast please."

"No problem, I'll sort little Onee-chan here, see you tonight."

The following morning, I was woken up by Kotomi making a run for the bathroom.

"Yep, that'll just about confirm it."

"I hate this part."

"I know angel, and I hated to see you go through it last time, but it's not for too long. You just take your time and get your breath back, I'll go and make you some tea." She nodded before flopping back on to the bed.

The blood test at the doctors was just a formality really, but it didn't stop me getting butterflies in my stomach as we waited for the results. When we got home, we were greeted by a manically smiling Ryou.

"You told her didn't you."

"I didn't, she worked it out herself, I swear." Kyou was adamant she hadn't said anything to Ryou about it.

"Honestly, Kyou didn't tell me. I just figured, why else would both of you go to the doctors."

"makes sense, I guess. Well either way it's official now, Negisa is going to have a little brother or sister." Ryou sprang to her feet and hugged Kotomi and me.

"Congratulations Kotomi-chan, Tomoya-kun."

We decided that it would be easiest to wait until Negisa's birthday party to make any kind of announcement, practically everyone we know would be there, aside from a few co-workers.

My Dad and my grandmother were staying with us for a couple of days, so they could be here for Negisa's party. Kotomi, Kyou and I had been trying to teach Negisa to say 'Oji-san' as a surprise for my Dad, we had got as far as 'Oji' which we decided was good enough, she is only one year old so just that was pretty good going, but I wasn't quite convinced she understood that we talking about the person the picture was of and not the picture itself.

When they got here Negisa followed me to the door, it's usually Kyou or Ryou that come to the door, so she was probably expecting it to be one of her aunties, the instant she saw it wasn't who she was expecting she hid behind my leg, clinging on to my trousers.

When he saw that Negisa was hiding my Dad crouched down to speak to her at her level.

"Hello Negisa-chan, do you remember me?" Her interest was piqued enough for her to poke her head out from behind my leg, she stared at him for a few seconds, then she looked up at me, I tried mouthing Oji-san, to try and prompt her to say what we'd been practicing. All the time we'd spent did pay off as she looked back at my Dad.

"Oji." The last time he saw her in person she wasn't talking much, so he was surprised, but very happy, with a little more persuading we managed to get her to go to him and let him pick her up.

With her in his arms he turned to my grandmother.

"Do you remember Hī-obāsan?" Negisa didn't seem to remember hr very well, not surprising given she's only been around her for one week, a few months ago. When obāsan got closer to her to take her off my Dad, she turned away and stretched her arms out towards me.

"Dada." Roughly translated meaning, that stranger is making me nervous and I want to hide behind my Dad. Negisa's cunning plan to escape her great-grandmother back fired, as I took her over to meet her anyway. Negisa countered this by attempting to hide by pressing her face in to my shoulder.

"Come on Negisa-chan, say hello to Baa-baa." Hī-obāsan is a bit too ambitious for a one year old so obāsan had decided that she'd go by Baa-baa, to make it easier for Negisa. The child in question was stubbornly refusing to talk to obāsan, she had met her, but she was only a couple of months old, so she really wasn't going to remember.

Negisa could be quite shy when it came to meeting new people, Kotomi had been much the same way as a child, and to some extent she still is, (unless she's showing off her daughter).

She does however have a major weakness, she is really, really ticklish and once you've got her laughing, she forgets to be shy, so once her Baa-baa had started to tickle her, she was happy enough to be held by her, and within and hour was slowly depositing the contents of her toy box on to obāsan's lap, it was something of a habit of hers, she seemed to want any visitors to have at least one toy, so if we had more than one guest, they would all take turns at being given a toy. Unfortunately, Negisa would occasionally decide that this was far too much fun to just stop at one toy and would keep going until she either got bored or she ran out of toys to give out.

It could be coincidence, but each time my Dad came to visit, he was always given the fuzzy dinosaur that he used when he played with her before he moved.

Kotomi had planned Negisa's birthday party in meticulous detail, Negisa of course was oblivious to the approaching event, let's be honest, she one year old, dates don't mean a whole lot, and she has absolutely no concept of what a birthday is or what happens on a birthday. That said, I think the party was more for Kotomi than it was Negisa, she truly loves to show off her daughter.

Negisa's reaction to her party was priceless, and in hind sight, quite predictable.

I led Negisa by the hand towards the dinning room where Kotomi had everything set up, there were balloons and banners everywhere, and a large colourful cake, made by our local master baker Kyou, all of our friends, Dad and obāsan.

When Negisa saw all of this she stopped stock still for a moment, and then released my hand and ran in the opposite direction, much to the amusement of everyone except Kotomi.

I did eventually get her to come and join in, but she flat out refused to let me put her down and she held on to my shirt with at least one hand at all times. Given how shy Negisa is in general, I half expected her to react a bit like this, not quite to the extent that she did, she wouldn't even let Kotomi or Kyou hold her, it had to be dada.

Kotomi wasn't too disappointed, everyone had fun, and like I said, it was more about mom showing off her daughter.

Kotomi's first trimester was characterized by Vomiting, heartburn and mood swings, mainly just crying for no particular reason. The second trimester didn't go as smoothly unfortunately, the first thing that burst our bubble was a problem with Kotomi's blood sugar, the doctor called it "gestational diabetes" apparently it's relatively common and not something to worry too much about, Kotomi just had to check her blood sugar a couple of times a day and make sure to eat regularly.

The second however was not so small, we heard from Kotomi's godfather, that his brother and our favourite teacher Komura Toshio, had passed away. The school held a memorial service for the much beloved teacher, it was astonishingly well attended, to the point where the venue had to be changed from the assembly hall to the sports field. It looked as though, every student he ever helped to get through school had turned out with their whole family to say goodbye to the man that we all respected. It struck me that the blessed life that I now lead would never have happened if Komura-sensei hadn't taken the time to drag me through the first two years of school. A lesser man would have written me off as a lost cause, but he never once gave up on a student. I had hoped that Sunohara would turn up, but if he did, he had avoided us. We added Toshio to the list of potential names for our second child.

Negisa seemed to be growing really fast, her speech was improving in leaps and bounds, she was still very shy when I came to strangers but, hopefully she'd grow out of it in the end. Negisa was now more than capable of telling us what she wanted, she was still very much a daddies girl, much to Kyou's frustration, if she told Negisa to do anything she didn't want to do, she would always look at me first, as if she was asking if she really had to do it.

With three weeks to go, before the due date Kotomi started having Braxton, Hicks contractions again, I wouldn't mind so much if it was just during the day, but it always seemed to be the middle of the night, I mean seriously wasn't the sleep deprivation of having a new born wasn't going to be bad enough, but this child had to get an early start on it.

Kotomi wanted to go with a home birth again, given how well it worked with Negisa, I didn't have any reason to disagree, we had got the same midwife to help us again. Although Kotomi did want to change the area she had set aside for the birth, getting up and down from the floor was a bit awkward last time, and Kotomi wanted to pace around a lot when she had Negisa so we decided that one of the spare bedrooms with a double bed would work well. We were a bit more relaxed about it all this time around thankfully.

Generally, Kotomi was calm, very tired a lot of the time, but calm. At least until she hit nesting mode, at which point she started cleaning anything that didn't move. We had very much reached the point that the whole pregnancy thing was getting a bit old, and both of us were ready for it to be over with.

Kyou decided she would move in for a while, so that she could be there when Kotomi went in to labour and look after Negisa while we were occupied, it was a nice thought, but I did find it amusing that she just told us that it was happening.

It was two in the morning when I was woken by Kotomi groaning.

"Braxton, Hicks again?"

"I am not sure, it feels different."

"Well we'll find out soon enough, can I get you anything?"

"Yes, a glass of water would be good, thank you."

"Alright, I'll be right back."

After another twenty minutes she was still having contractions, so we were pretty sure it was the main event.

"I'll give the midwife a call, did you want to move through to the spare room yet?"

"I believe I will move through to the spare room. Do you wish to tell Kyou-chan yet?"

"No, I'll let her get some more sleep, nothing much is going to happen for an hour or two anyway."

"You are much calmer than last time."

"Well it was the first time then, it's not quite so scary this time around. Yagi-san will be here in half an hour."

The arrival of Yagi-san the midwife was enough to get Kyou out of bed, although I'm not sure I'd say she was really awake just yet and the degree of bed head was hilarious.

"Not much of a morning person are you Kyou?"

"Shut up, it isn't morning yet."

"You can go back to bed if you like Kyou, Negisa won't be awake for a couple of hours."

"No, I'm awake now anyway."

"I'm not sure I'd agree there." Kyou just glared at me.

"Besides, all the movement could wake her up."

"I'll give you that much, but maybe I should make the coffee."

"Why?"

"Kyou, that's the blender, not the coffee machine." Kyou gave me a puzzled for a moment.

"Oh, yeah… how did I manage that?"

"Honestly I'm amazed you made it downstairs." That one earned me a punch in the arm.

"How's Kotomi doing?"

"She's okay considering, she's in the spare room if you want to see her, before she gets too far into the labour."

"Yeah, thanks, but maybe I should get dressed first."

"You'll probably want to do something with your hair too, it kind of looks like an exploded hay bale." The phrase 'if looks could kill' sprang to mind for some reason. "How are we doing in here then?"

"Did Kyou-chan wake up?"

"I don't know I'd go that far, but she's out of bed anyway, she said she'd poke her head in shortly. Yagi-san, would you like some coffee?"

"That would be really nice, thank you Tomoya-san, I had an early morning call yesterday as well."

"I'll make it a large coffee then, do you need anything Kotomi?"

"No, I am fine for now, thank you Tomoya."

It was another half an hour before we officially entered active labour and Kotomi could start to push, at that point I stayed by Kotomi's side, so Kyou was on fetch and carry duty. Twenty minutes after that Ryou arrived with the largest and most comprehensive first aid kit I have ever seen.

The labour was progressing faster than last time, but we'd had been told that it probably would already, I was just glad I wouldn't have to see Kotomi go through it for as long as with Negisa.

Forty-five minutes and one mildly crushed hand later and the head was out so we were almost done. I had hoped it would be quicker, but it was twenty more minutes before Kotomi got to meet our second daughter. I got my first hold while Kotomi was being sorted out, and took her to meet aunty Ryou and auntie Kyou, but they would have to wait to hold her until later, I wasn't going to cut short my first moments with her for anyone other than Kotomi, it still felt like it had been too short when I gave her back to Kotomi so she could have her first feeding.

This time around we hadn't managed to quite decide on a name, if we'd had a boy then we had settled on Toshio, but we had a girl and no decision on the name.

"What do you think Kotomi, is she a Mizue or is she an Atsuko? She's definitely got your hair."

"Yes, she does, doesn't she." Kotomi gazed down at her daughter adoringly.

"That would make her a Mizue, wouldn't it?"

"Are you sure?"

"We can use my moms name if we have another one."

"If you are certain, then Okazaki Mizue it is."

"Hello Mizue-chan, pleased to meet you." Kotomi giggled, but never looked away from our new baby. "Two girls huh, well that'll mean even more boys to chase away." We were interrupted by a quiet knock on the door. "Looks like the twins, can't wait any longer, shall I let them in or chase them off?"

"Let them in please, I know how excited Kyou has been."

"Alright, you two, come on in." Two heads popped in through the door.

"Are you sure? I mean if…"

"Come on get in before I change my mind." Kyou was in like a shot followed by Ryou rolling her eyes.

"She's beautiful, have you decided on a name yet?"

"She's Mizue. She's got Kotomi's hair, so it seemed to fit." We kept the first visit short, Kotomi was understandably exhausted so we gave her some time to sleep.

The day was very much the same as when we had Negisa, the Furukawas were the first to arrive, but even they waited until ten o'clock, Sanae-san had brought us some bread, but Akio assured us it was safe to eat. Kotomi was already awake, Mizue was asleep but then sleep is a new born baby's main pastime, Negisa had woken up some time ago, and was currently hiding behind my leg, she knew everyone, but she was a bit nervous because of all the excitement.

My Dad called on the phone and promised to visit soon but wanted me to send photos as soon as possible. Some of my co-workers turned up with arms full of stuffed animals and flowers. Kotomi's colleagues' gifts were a little more practical, but not by much.

Kyou was just as eager to hold Mizue as she was Negisa when she was born, Ryou was more enthusiastic about taking her turn than she was last time, but she had to go to work in the afternoon, so she grudgingly passed Mizue back to Kotomi.

Kotomi and I were very glad to have Kyou around as much as she was, Negisa had been sleeping in a five-hour chunk at night within a month, Mizue was less cooperative preferring to stick to sleeping for no longer than three hours at a time.

It was exhausting, even though I couldn't feed Mizue, being rather under equipped, I did still try and take my turn doing the changing, and when a baby starts crying everybody knows about it.

My paternity leave was over far too quickly, I really didn't want to go back to work just yet. However, it did cheer me up when I saw Kotomi was waiting for me at the gate again, taking the opportunity to show off her girls to the other moms at the school.

Mizue didn't start sleeping much at night for another month, it was the most exhausting two months of my life, but it soon eased off once Mizue worked out what nights were for.

Kyou's job got a little easier, as Negisa seemed to find her little sister fascinating, and she'd stand and watch her ten or twenty minutes. The cutest thing to come out of that was when Mizue started crying while Negisa was watching her, so Negisa started to deposit cuddly toys in to Mizue's crib, Kyou managed to get a video of her doing it, on her phone.

Mizue's early months didn't differ much from Negisa's, although I think we were less prone to panicking when she was ill, not that either of them was ill very often. But when your first-born baby gets a temperature, it's scary quite frankly, but the second go around it's less of a big deal.

From the moment she could crawl, Mizue and Negisa were inseparable, and always up to something. On more than one occasion I'd find them out in the back garden playing together, only to think 'where did they get that from?' Most notably a large wooden starfish, that I don't remember owning.

In the following years, their bond remained strong, temperamentally the both took after Kotomi to some degree, quiet for the most part, but the were quite mischievous when they were together.

From time to time I would think about Komura-sensei and what he saw me doing as a teacher, and I would always wonder if I should move on from kindergarten to a middle school or secondary school, but when it came down to it, at this point in my life, I simply couldn't be and happier, I have a loving wife, two wonderful girls who adore me and a job I truly love.

So, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, as I watched Mizue and Negisa playing on the lawn and Kotomi sitting reading an old battered book at the table and chairs I repainted all those years ago, I had to think to myself.

"We really did get our happy ever after."

The End (For now at least.)