Never Give Up
By Ginta and Hakakku Fangirl
Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket.
A/N: I'll try to make this a long chapter, okay-kay??
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hatori had just announced that Tohru's cervix had begun to dilate; her body was preparing itself to give birth.
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To say that he was nervous would be the announce the understatement of the year. Kyo resumed in his new favorite hobby: Pacing.
"Kyo!" Tohru's voice carried up the stairs; Kyo's head snapped up and he snatched the bag he had packed for Tohru more than a week ago before racing down the stairs.
"You--you ready?" he panted, as soon as he had reach Tohru (new record, 3.126 seconds! A/N: sorry, couldn't resist!).
"Oh, um…" Tohru blushed. Kyo cocked his head; Tohru was sitting at the table with Hana and Uo, one hand on her stomach, the other holding her teacup.
Kyo sighed. "Still not yet?"
"No, sorry." Tohru gave Kyo a small, tired smile as the Cat sat down beside her.
"It's been four days!" Kyo said. "Shouldn't we ask Hatori about this?"
Tohru sighed. "It's not that long."
Kyo could tell, though, that Tohru was growing impatient and restless as well.
Tohru was now four days past her due date, and that simple fact seemed to have the entire household, and Tohru's friends, on pins and needles. Forget household, the entire Sohma family seemed to be anxious! Kazuma was at Shigure's, every moment he could spare away from the dojo (although, as Kyo's dad, this wasn't really all too surprising), and Hatori had come everyday since graduation, almost two weeks ago.
Kisa and Hiro came often, as did Momiji, and it seemed that Ayame sent at least three bouquets a day: Roses, daisies, tulips, each bouquet full of different flowers, and all in shades of pink and orange (it's in the manga, Tohru is pink because her parents were red and white; Kyo, of course, would be orange).
Hatsuharu came as often as Kisa, mainly to torment Kyo and follow Yuki closely around the house, right on his heels, although he always came with a gift from himself or someone else of the Sohma family, or a greeting from Isuzu, who was currently in the hospital, yet again, for her stomach ulcers; Tohru was happy that she was okay, and that they would be in the same hospital.
Even Yuki and Ayame's parents had come over once, and Shigure's parents were now visiting for the third time. It seemed the everyone wanted to see for themselves that the Cat really was going to be a father; not many of them, however, seemed very surprised that he and Yuki could barely look at each other without getting into a fight.
Shigure spent most of his time now running all over the house, cleaning and rearranging the flowers sent by Ayame. Just today, he had made Yuki clean his room, had made all the beds, cleaned the kitchen, and had "baby-proofed" (if you could even call it that) the entire house, despite Hatori, Mine, both of his parents, and even Ayame, attempting to tell him that no baby-restraints had to be put on the cabinets in the kitchen yet, not until the baby starting crawling. Failing that, they had tried to keep the Dog at least from securing the cabinets that even he had to reach up to open; they failed at that, too. Miserably. Until Miichan had shown up. Then Shigure had spent the rest of the day avoiding her, much to the relief of Hatori, who was finally able to concentrate solely on Tohru.
Akito, too, was frequent visitor. That is, was until Tohru's due date had passed. Now Akito came early every day with Hatori, and stayed until late. Strangely, though, this didn't seem to bother Tohru at all. Yuki and Kyo, however, both seemed to be too stunned to feel anything about the situation.
Akito was a girl.
It had happened at their graduation party, right after the ceremony at school had taken place; Shigure had leaned in and kissed Akito.
At first Yuki and Kyo had just stared, stunned, thinking that Shigure had just had a little too much sake. They waited for the raging anger…
But it didn't come. Instead, Akito had passed her drink to Hatori and shrugged off her coat, her thin, snug shirt revealing the ace bandages wrapped tightly around her chest, obviously proof that she bound her breasts down, before pulling Shigure back to her.
Needless to say, all but Kureno, Shigure, Ayame, Hatori, and Tohru were shocked, Tohru having been told more than a month ago by Kureno about Akito's secret.
But it almost seemed that Tohru was drawing comfort from having the head of the household in Shigure's house. True, it was more for Shigure than it was for Tohru, Kyo, and the baby, but, nonetheless, Tohru seemed comforted, knowing that she could be in Akito's presence and not feel the slightest threatening thought directed towards her.
And besides, Tohru was so happy to have graduated! She was able to hold her diploma in her hand, just like Kyoko had wanted for her; Kyo had heard her whispering to her mothers photograph the night that they had graduated, telling her exactly how it had felt: The graduation; the ceremony; finally holding her diploma; even all about making flowers to decorate for the ceremony, and about the party that Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori had held for her, Yuki, and Kyo. Kyo had to admit, it was pretty cute, how she always talked to her mom. And, now that she had the picture of her parents together that Kyo had given her for Valentine's Day, she talked to Katsuya as well.
Kyo sighed as he sat next to Tohru; he accepted a cup from Hana and downed the tea in two swallows; Uo gave him a sympathetic look.
Not only had Kyo been at the dojo as often as he could, reluctantly leaving Tohru in the hands of her (far more capable, as much as he hated to admit it) friends, he had barely slept the past four nights, laying awake beside Tohru, on hand behind his head, the other on Tohru's abdomen, feeling the restlessness of the baby, shifting inside of Tohru's body.
This, Hatori said, was good. The baby was constantly moving, Tohru was fidgety. And she was now dilated a full two centimeters and a half. Hatori had just told Kyo a moment ago that, if Tohru dilated anymore before having any contractions, then he would induce the labor.
This had made Kyo nervous at first, until Hatori had explained that it wasn't too uncommon for a woman to have her labor be brought about medically. In the meantime, he said, other things could be done to help Tohru's labor along. They had tried them all: Spicy foods; long walks; you name it. Although (and Kyo turned a furious shade of red to remember it) Hatori had said that sex probably wasn't the best way to persuade Tohru's labor along, although that was another option to try.
Kyo's thoughts were interrupted by Akito crashing into the living room, anger spiraling from her in all directions.
"Um…" Uo stared at her; Hana looked shocked at the amount of electric waves Akito was giving off, and Kyo tensed, ready to spring to his feet at a moment's notice.
Tohru, however, just smiled.
"Would you like some tea, Akito?" she asked; Akito rounded on Tohru, only to come face to face with a steaming tea cup and a small plate of sweet buns.
Akito's features softened for just a moment, before reverting back to rage.
"Fine," she muttered, taking the cup and plate from Tohru; no sooner had she swallowed the first sip, then Shigure had run into the room as well, tears in his eyes.
"There, Ha'ri! I told her the truth!" he called over his shoulder. "I told Mii that the manuscript really is done, that I was just teasing! Are you happy now? You never let me have any fun!"
In the hall, they could hear Shigure's editor crying and Hatori's irritated sigh as he tried to comfort her.
"Is that all that you have to do today?" Akito demanded.
"Huh?" Shigure blinked up at Akito, attempting to look innocent (no on bought it). "Oh, you mean torment Mii? Yeah, that's all that I have to do!" Shigure grinned; Kyo was surprised that Akito's cup hadn't broken, she was clutching it so hard.
"Uh, where's Yuki?" Kyo asked hastily.
"He's at the hospital." Hatori came in and sat down as well. "He's visiting Rin with Hatsuharu."
"Oh." Kyo looked away. "Good, I don't have to look at his smug girly face," he muttered.
"Um, Kyo?" Tohru whispered.
"Uh?" Kyo looked down at her.
Tohru blushed. "Could you help me stand up, please?"
Kyo blinked, surprised; he'd thought that she was going to ask him something personal; his surprise left, though, when Tohru, as soon as Kyo had helped her to her feet, immediately shot towards the bathroom.
Kyo shook his head. It wasn't too long ago that all Tohru could think about was food and sex--and now all that she could think about was sleeping and peeing.
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Kyo smiled softly as he pulled the blankets up and over Tohru's shoulders where she lay, fast asleep on their bed. Tohru had just spent the past half hour trying (almost desperately) to stay awake, even though it was only three in the afternoon. Finally, they had managed to get her to agree to try to take a nap. Akito, had convinced her, actually. Kyo had the sneaking suspicion, though, that it was just so that Akito could get Shigure to herself without anyone getting in her way. And as for Kyo…
"Kyo!" Kazuma whispered.
Kyo turned around to face his dad, who was standing in the doorway.
"Yeah?"
"We have to go now, if you want to get any work done; I've got a class in less than half an hour, remember?"
"Oh, right," Kyo muttered, glancing down at Tohru's alarm clock. "Let's go."
"Good. Oh, and Kyo?"
"Yeah, Dad?" Kyo grabbed his jacket from Tohru's bed before following Kazuma out of the room; he slid the door closed, as quietly as he could.
"I know I don't usually have you work for me five days in a row, but do you think you could get the students warmed up?"
"Yeah, sure. But why?"
"Hatori and I have to go to the hospital."
"Why are you going to the hospital?"
"It seems that Rin is having a little more trouble than usual with her stomach ulcers. We're going to go check on her."
"Oh."
"Besides, Hatori is going to make sure that he'll have at least one nurse there to help him when Tohru goes into labor."
"Why would he need help?" Kyo asked, before realizing that he had asked a rather stupid question.
Kazuma just smiled. "You already know the answer to that, Kyo: it's going to take a while for Tohru's cervix to dilate the full ten centimeters, and maybe even longer after that."
"Oh, right."
"Hatori will drive you to the dojo before he and I stop at the hospital."
"Okay."
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Kyo sighed and stretched, grinning widely. He was finally finished, and now lounging in Kazuma's kitchen; the entire place was painted.
Several months ago, Kyo had asked Kazuma to start paying him to work; Kazuma had agreed, and had even helped Kyo with his plan:
Kyo had put a down payment on an apartment, hardly a block away from the dojo.
Granted, it hadn't exactly been easy; while it was, by absolutely no means whatsoever, a cheap apartment, it didn't exactly look all that great. The paint needed to be touched up, and a few lights replace, but really, that was it. Other than that, the apartment was perfect: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living/dining room, and a big kitchen.
But Kyo hadn't exactly been happy with it's looks. So, he had ripped up the carpet and tile, and had replaced them; he'd stripped down the wallpaper and had painted the walls in clean, white strokes.
Kazuma, of course, had helped by helping Kyo to secure a small loan with the bank; and then Kazuma had gone a step further, and had asked Shigure for help. Kyo didn't mind that fact (too much), and he really didn't mind that Hatori had agreed to help either. But then Ayame stepped in, and Kyo thought that that had been just one step too far. Way too far. Well, that was what he had thought at first. Then Ayame had really surprised him when the Snake had simply asked him what color scheme each room was going to have.
"Scheme?" Kyo turned in surprise to gape at Ayame.
"But of course, Lucky Kyo!" Ayame pushed his hair back.
"What do you mean, 'color scheme'?"
"I mean, what color do you want each room to be? What color furniture? Bedding? Carpet? Paint?"
"Oh…um…" Kyo thought a moment. "The baby's stuff is mostly pink and yellow," he said lamely.
Ayame sighed.
"You have no idea, do you?"
Kyo shook his head.
"Well then, we'll just have to start at the beginning!" Ayame beamed, and pulled out a pencil and a sketchbook; Kyo followed him to the kitchen, apprehensively.
So now the kitchen was green, the living/dining room was blue and maple, and the baby's room had yellow walls, white carpet, and pink trim, all to match the white crib and pink bedding. He had left his and Tohru's bedroom white, and had bought them a new, dark royal blue bedspread (Tohru's bed was more than big enough for the two of them, as far as Kyo was concerned.
Now the only thing missing was--
Kyo's thought's were interrupted by Kazuma coming into the kitchen; he handed him the phone.
"It's for you."
"Hey, Kyo?" It was Yuki.
"Whadda ya want, ya damn Rat?"
"Miss Honda's just gone into labor, Stupid Cat."
Kyo went white; Kazuma sighed and took the phone from him.
"I'm guessing that Tohru is on her way to the hospital, am I right?" he asked.
"Yes, she's with Hatori right now. How did you know?"
"Kyo looks ready to faint," Kazuma said simply. "We'll meet you there."
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Mwahaha! Cliffee!! Sorry that it took so long, by the way. I got caught up in other things.