Chapter 18
Griff rubbed his hands over his tired face and rested his elbows on the kitchen table.
"We...have a kid..."
"And isn't she just adorable?" Angela cooed, tickling the gurgling baby's stomach.
"...A kid..."
"How are we going to take care of her?" Shiva asked as she held out her index finger for the child to hold on to. Its grip was already unnaturally strong for her age and size.
"There is a kid...right...there..."
Angela looked pityingly at her spaced out boyfriend, "What is it with men and babies? It's like they're afraid of them. Speaking of which, how is Tai doing?"
Shiva's shoulders sagged a little.
"Still asleep, I think. He's depressed. Loosing a mate really is as bad as it sounds. We'll be lucky if he doesn't go insane like Moira did...oh, God damn it! This is so unfair! It wasn't him who mated with her it was Taro. He just got pulled into this whole thing by mistake. He didn't ask for any of it!"
"No one did, Shiva. And don't swear in front of the baby!"
"Can't we...just give it to an orphanage or something?" Griff spoke up suddenly.
"NO!" the two girls cried suddenly, causing the cyborg to shrink back.
"Do you really think an orphanage would accept anyone looking like this?"
Shiva took the kid from Angela's arms and held it in the air. A pair of soft, feathery black wings made little flaps as the girl giggled and drooled.
"Shiva! You can't handle children like that!"
"What? She's part demon and part god—I could drop her on her head and she would love it."
"That's not the point..."
"Well what about Primary Pillage? It's been mostly renovated and Electmon would love her," Griff suggested.
"No," Angela said instantly, "she's the only thing that seems to make Tai happy. Probably because she has some of Moira in her."
Shiva nodded, "I'll go check on him now."
She cradled the baby in her arms and left the kitchen. When she reached Tai's room she saw him lying on his bed with his back facing the door. He was too still to be sleeping so she approached him and sat on the end of the bed. Sure enough, Tai slowly turned on his back and looked at her, forcing a half-hearted smile on his face. Her heart almost broke in two at the torment and pain that flooded his once radiant eyes.
Supporting the girl in her left arm, she climbed over to him, as he pushed himself up a little, and handed him the baby before snuggling into his side. Tai draped one arm over Shiva and used the other to hold his daughter to his chest. His smile widened and his eyes lightened a little; whenever he held her the pain seemed to lessen a little. The child seemed to realize she was with her father and snuggled into his chest, fisting his shirt in her little hands.
"What's her name?" Shiva asked, petting the girl's soft head by running her hand over the tuff of brown hair.
"Hmm...I don't know. I was think something like Chelsea or Makaio."
"I like Chelsea"
"Yeah? Me too. Hey Chelsea, like your name?"
Chelsea squealed and flopped her arms around as drool pooled from her gummed mouth.
"She loves it," Shiva interpreted. Tai swallowed hard and stared at the baby.
"I don't think I'm ready for this..." he groaned, the haunted look returning to his eyes.
"You can face down hordes of evil digimon but you can't take care of a little baby?"
"...Yes."
Shiva giggled, "Don't worry. You have the rest of us to help you. Beside, just think how fortunate are you to have two women in the house right now?"
"I don't think you qualify," Tai grinned, earning a slap on the arm.
"Any way, we have to go to the real world and get her baby things. Like clothes, and food, and formula, and a crib, and toys...all that good stuff."
"Oh shit," Tai whispered, "I completely forgot—my parents—I have to tell my family. Crap."
"It'll be alright Tai," Shiva hushed as she placed a hand on his cheek, "I'll be there with you. Your family is nice, they'll understand. Besides, remember the pregnant suit incident? Your mom loved the idea of grandchildren. Even if it isn't with me..."
Tai raised an eyebrow at her, "You want to have my children?"
"Well, I'd have rather it have been me than that—that...Moira," she huffed.
"Hey, are you guys alright?" Angela asked, sticking her head into the room. She spotted the three of them cuddled together on Tai's bed, "Aww, that's so cute! Let me go get the camera."
She ran back out before anything could be said in their defense. Griff walked in a second later, looking confused.
"Where the hell is she going?"
"To get the camera," Shiva shrugged, "Hey! You want to hold Chelsea? You're the only one who hasn't yet."
Griff made an 'X' mark with his fingers and hissed playfully. Tai looked at Shiva bewildered who rolled her eyes in return.
FLASH
The couple blinked the spots out of their eyes as Angela cackled in the background.
"That one is going in my personal collection!"
"You have a personal collection of Tai and Shiva in a bed?" Griff asked stupidly. Angela sighed dramatically.
"Honey, you're cute but try not to talk so much."
"Angela, guess what? Tai named her Chelsea!" Shiva said excitedly.
"Chelsea? That's so pretty!"
"I know, and guess what we're going to do right now?"
"What?"
"Shop for baby supplies!"
"Ohhh!" Angela said excitedly, jumping around. Tai and Griff looked at each other, alarmed.
"When did we agree to this?" Griff asked.
"It doesn't matter if you agree or not! Chelsea needs clothes and formula and baby food and a crib and toys—"
"Okay! I get it, but we can't leave the digital world all alone. Someone has to stay behind," Griff interrupted. The room was silent for a moment, "...I'll stay."
"Yeah, you won't be much use anyway," Angela said.
"Hey!"
"Come on Tai," Shiva said, ignoring Griff, "We'll go to your home town."
"Uhh...alright, but I don't want anyone to know yet..." He trailed, looking decidedly uncomfortable.
"Why not? You have to tell your family some time."
"I know, and I will. But I just want to get settled down with this first."
"Good idea," Angela said, "We wouldn't want you looking irresponsible or anything."
Tai gave her a look that told her to shut up as he got off of the bed and gently held Chelsea over his shoulder.
"What should we do about her wings?" he asked, stroking the soft feathers. The baby cooed happily and burrowed her face into his shoulder.
"I can give her one of my shirts. It should be loose enough on her to hide her wings," Angela offered.
"Alright then!" Shiva exclaimed, "Let's go!"
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Tai, Angela, and Shiva went to the Odaiba Mall and headed strait for the closest baby store. The first thing they did was buy a baby stroller, which was what Tai used to cart Chelsea around the store as Shiva steered the shopping cart and Angela ran around throwing things in.
"Oh Chelsea would look adorable in these!" Angela sighed as she held up a cute, yellow bunny footie.
"It'll cramp her wings!" Tai said, grabbing it out of her hand and throwing it back on the rack, "We're going to have to find her a ring like ours. I don't want her running around with no shirt on when she's older."
Shiva and Angela shared a look and giggled.
"Already feeling those parental instincts Tai?" Shiva asked with a raised eyebrow as she tossed a pink pacifier and a baby blanket in the shopping cart. Tai just grunted and looked the other way. He paused for a moment before spotting a furniture section.
"We have enough clothes, let's get her a crib and stuff."
They spent the next twenty minutes picking out the perfect crib along with a changing table, and a highchair.
"We need diapers and baby formula and some baby bottles next. Maybe we could buy some baby food too while we're at it, but I don't think she'll be eating it for a while," Angela said.
"I'll go get some right now," Shiva said, abandoning the shopping cart and hurrying over to another part of the store
At the mention of food, Chelsea started to squirm and fuss in her stroller. Tai leaned down and pulled her out of it.
"I think she is hungry."
"Well of course she is! She hasn't eaten since we found her yesterday! Poor thing," Angela said looking sadly at the struggling baby in Tai's arms.
Shiva returned with a bag full of the necessary feeding supplies.
"Alright, let's go pay for these and then we'll grab lunch in the food court," Tai said. He began rubbing soothing circles on Chelsea's back, smoothing the feathers beneath her large shirt, to calm her down. It seemed to have worked.
"You know Tai, she's a very good baby, very quiet," Shiva commented as they made their way to the food court. They sat down at a table and Angela volunteered to go buy the food. Shiva pulled out a bottle filled with formula and then proceeded to show Tai how to hold her while feeding. Chelsea immediately latched onto the bottle and began sucking greedily.
"Damn...She was hungry."
Shiva laughed, "Yeah, you need to angle the bottle more though."
"How do you know so much about babies anyway?" Tai asked as he followed her orders.
"I have a million little cousin's I had to do the same thing for," she answered while blushing a little. Tai shifted a bit and looked down at his daughter. The feel of a baby in his arms felt so foreign to him, and at the same time so natural.
"I still can't believe I have a kid...it all seems so surreal..."
"I know what you mean," Shiva said. She leaned over and ran her hand over the girl's soft head. Chelsea chose to ignore the attention she was receiving and focused solely on her meal.
"Just like her father," Shiva laughed as the bottle was quickly drained, "you need to burp her now."
"How do I do that?" Tai asked.
"Hold her over your shoulder like this and pat her on her back for a while. Be gentle. Here, I'll get you a towel from the bag incase she spits anything up."
Shiva bent down and began rummaging through one of the many bags they had with them before picking out a cloth and draping it over his shoulder. He continued to lightly pat a spot between her hidden wings.
"Tai? Tai Kamiya? Is that you?"
Tai paled as he heard the somewhat familiar voice calling from his right. He had been hoping no one would see him so that he could keep his newest family member a secret for a while longer. He slowly looked up to find none other than Jun Motomiya standing right next to the table they were seated at.
"Jun!" He said aghast. She was the last person he had expected to see. She looked considerably different as well. Her hair was brushed down now, as opposed to the spiked look she used to favor and she seemed a bit less energetic than how he remembered her to be. Across the food court he could see two of her usual giggly girlfriends waiting for her.
"I barley recognized you!" she continued on excitedly, "You've been gone for over a year! I thought you dropped out of school or something. Did you? And whose baby is that?"
Tai blinked at her. All right, maybe she was only a little less energetic.
"Who the hell are you?" Shiva asked blankly. Tai decided to intervene, knowing that the personalities of the two girls would surely clash.
"Shiva, this is Jun. She was interested in Matt, okay? Jun, I didn't drop out of school. I just went to a new one."
Jun smiled generously, "I'm over Matt you know. He's been with Takenouchi too long."
Shiva growled at the suggestive note in her voice and Tai kicked her none-too-lightly under the table.
"So whose baby is this anyway? She's absolutely adorable!"
She leaned in closer to get a better view of the baby who had long since burped and was now dosing off in Tai's arms.
Tai hesitated for a second before replying, "She's...um...mine."
Jun looked up sharply.
"What?"
"She's his," Shiva repeated for him. She was looking at Jun with a bored expression, as if daring her to cause a scene.
Jun gave a short glare at Shiva before looking back at Tai.
"Is this true?"
"Yeah."
"Who's the mother? I mean, if you don't mind me asking."
"She, uh, she's dead," Tai said quietly. Jun gasped
"So you're raising her alone?"
"Hey, he's got me," Shiva said conversationally.
"And me," Angela had arrived with the food and placed a tray in front of each of them.
"Where do you all live?" Jun asked suspiciously, "I take it you don't live with your family."
"No, I don't. And they don't even know about her so please Jun, don't say anything. Not until I tell them," Tai pleaded. Jun sighed, knowing that her gossipy nature was being denied a great treat.
"Fine, I won't. But at least tell me her name."
"It's Chelsea."
"Oh, that's pretty—" She started before she was cut off by her friends impatiently calling for her, "Oh, I have to go. Call me if you're ever in town again!"
"Not likely," Shiva muttered under her breath, watching Jun run off to her friends.
"Hey, you're getting better at this whole let's-let-Tai-talk-to-other-girls thing," Angela said cheerfully, stuffing a French fry in her mouth.
"I try," Shiva responded dryly.
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"Hey hunny," Angela greeted Griff when they returned, "anything interesting happen while we were gone?"
"Not if you don't count Piximon catching on fire," He answered conversationally as he lifted a box for the crib and a few bags of clothes and began following Tai into his room. About a month ago they had finally gotten Gennai to allow them to have their own rooms. At first he wanted them to share so that they could get closer to one another. It had taken him a while to realize they were getting 'closer' with the wrong roommates. It was unanimously decided that Chelsea would sleep in Tai's room for the time being.
"I won't even ask," Angela muttered.
Twenty minutes later the crib and changing table were no more assembled than when they had started. Shiva and Angela, who had finished putting the clothes and food away quite some time ago, watched the boys struggle with great amusement.
"You know...it might help to read the directions..." Angela suggested.
"We're men, we don't need directions," Griff grunted, making Angela moan and roll her eyes.
"All right men," Shiva snorted derisively, "you just better get a move on with that changing table...Chelsea's starting to stink something awful."
Another twenty minutes went by before the girls, fed up and agitated, took over. Ten minutes later, the embodiment of cribs and changing tables were perfectly displayed before their very eyes.
"Well done," Tai said appreciatively. Griff murmured his agreement.
Shiva stood up, dusting off her hands, "And since us girls did all the building—"
"—You boys can change her diaper," Angela finished with a smile. The two girls strode merrily out the door, leaving two bewildered young men and a stinky baby in their wake.
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Not too long for something that's taken me a month to post, huh? Sorry people, things are pretty crazy in my world. Not to mention I have about 5 MILLION term papers. Lovely.
So Tai has his baby, which he's going to keep. Lol, I know I just randomly threw Jun in there. Anyhoo-next chapter he'll show the 'rents and digidestined his baby. Much drama.
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