One-Shot #8 Bloom

If my parents finding out I was dating a slender was hard enough, it was unbelievably difficult to get the courage to anounce to them that I was also marrying him...but none of that was anything when compared to the mountain I had to climb, or so it felt, when I told them I was carrying his child.

It should go without saying that we had been together for ten years, so clearly we did more than just a peck on the lips from time to time, but I guess they must have felt some insane sense of disbelief... just as I was feeling now, in the hospital, waiting to bring my first child to the world.

I was never affraid of hospitals, mainly because...well...I never went to them. I was never ill, I never broke a bone, heck, I never even got any cavities! I wasn't affraid of death either...my own death that is. I never had been. No matter how long you live or what you accomplish, it's the same end result: we all die. I always saw death as being something not to care about. Why would you care? When you're dead, you're...well...dead. You don't exactly care about anything anymore.

However, now, it wasn't just my life on the line in this crucial moment. The world around me was blurred, nothing but random distant flashes of white, grey, blue and green. There were only two sensations I was actually aware of: The constant rush of static that coursed through my body and the unbelievable pain that radiated through all of me, coming from my abdomen...coming from her, the life I was responsible for. I did not fear my own death, but I feared hers, even if her life hadn't even really started yet... And I didn't even want to think about what Tom would do if I didn't make it either...

Through the haze, my eyes focused on a certain source of tans and browns. I did my best until his eyes appeared to me, although still so blurry. Reaching out a single shaky hand, which he took, I spoke to him through my mind, seeing as I could barelly register anything going on around me. "Wake me up when this is over..." I felt him flinch and saw him nod, and then the static in my mind turned into a high frequency buzz, dulling out all thoughts until I was consumed by darkness.

There were three things that woke me up. The first was the beeping and buzzing of various machines, the second was a rush of pain even greater than any I had felt before, the third, a small high-pitch cry. My eyes opened wide, awareness returning to me in an instant. I was suddently hit by waves of pain and winced, looking to my side when I felt a hand squeezing mine. Tom was giving me an apologetic look. I gave him a thankful smile, thankful for pretty much disconnecting me from all concious thoughts to save me from the pain.

"Miss?" I turned to see a short and kind looking nurse, holding a small pink bundle in her arms. I hadn't noticed the tears that started to stream down my eyes as they handed her to me. There she was, Sakura Moonlight Oakson. Suddently, all machines in the room began to buzz, screens turned to static and lights flickering ever so slightly as a powerful aura burned through the air. Without taking my eyes off the new life, I clung harder to the hand that was intertwined with mine in a mute way to say "Whatever you do, don't sprout your tendrills in your happiness."

The confusion and cries from the doctors was like something from an other world, away from us, not concerning us. The infant had relatively dark skin and showed locks of dark brown, nearly black hair on top of her head. There was a moment where it seemed no one was breathing and the whole world went still, no sound but white noise and no sensations but static, until she opened her eyes. Those shinning hazel-grey eyes... I couldn't stop myself from just hugging her close to my neck, hearing a shrill whine of protest as part of the pink blanket holding her fell back. That's when I heard the gasp and the already almost unbearable sense of pride that radiated in the room intensified.

I looked up to my husband, who's eyes were filled with amazment and pure joy, along with a few fresh tears. "She's a slender..." It was barely a whisper, carried out with a sense of pure awe. I looked down the the little child's back, seeing four darkened spots. My smile widened, to the point of hurting my cheeks. I didn't think of my parents at the time. We were the parents now...

Several sleep deprived weeks later, and my parents decided to come over for a visit. The sense of annimosity was still very much there. My parents still smiled, crying even when they saw the face of their grandaughter for the first time. Tom, him, was standing quietly behind me with a look of weariness on his face. The static tension in the air coming off of him certainly wasn't helping with this situation.

My dad shook a little stuffed dinosaur in front of the infant's face. "Kura, hey! You like dinosaurs too? You look just like your mommy!" Sakura looked up to her grandfather with wide eyes, a bright toothless smile on her face. She giggled slightly, waving her arms about and reaching for the toy from within her little seat.

My mom kept looking back and forth between the child and her parents. She'd smile when she looked at me, but she would only give a suspicion filled glare to my partner. Looking up to him, she spoke, but to me. "Sarah, is Sakura...you know... like him?" I flinched. I knew I'd have to tell her about this. "I...well...she...she d-doesn't have tendrills...at the moment. She's t-to-too young! But...well...y-yes. She will be." I looked down, stuttering. I prayed so that my mom wouldn't start an argument in front of Sakura. She's just a baby!

My mother's loving looks turned to a dissapointed sneer when she turned back towards Sakura. My dad looked back confused. I felt horribly insulted by this, but through my mind, through the air, I could feel someone else was even more so. Kura began to emit slow little sounds, as if she was calling out to everyone to calm down, picking up on her father's aura, but as a tendrill coiled around my arm, the hand I was holding now white, I knew this could end badly.

My parents, both pale, stood up and backed away a bit at the sight of the 9 foot tall man that stood behind me, eight black tendrills wavering about. He was showing his fangs. I had never seen him this angry. "Yes, I'm a slender! And she is too! What's the difference?! She didn't ask for it! I didn't ask for it. It's how we were born. This is your grandaughter! It shouldn't matter to you." He pointed one of his long white fingers to the small figure who looked back in facination. She showed no fear, seeing as this was not the first time she saw her father under his true form. I'd have been scared though... An angered slender is not something you want to pick a fight with, but I'm guessing she sensed he was defending her.

"Tom...please... If you're trying to make them NOT see you as a monster, this isn't the way to go about with it." I reached my hand back, holding onto his again. He looked down to me, his tendrills slacking. His mouth shut and he sighed. He then let his tendrills and shoulders droop. looking away and sitting down on the couch. "I'm sorry... You don't have to forgive or accept me, but please, don't hate her. She's not even a year old..."

My parents got closer again, still suspicious seeing as my husband had not reverted to a human appearence. I plucked Sakura from her carrier, holding her in my arms as I went to sit back on the couch, my head rested on the slender's shoulder. I looked up to where his eyes would be with the biggest puppy-dog eyes I could do. He slowly smiled, curling two of his tendrills around me and one around her. "I'm sorry." We both looked up in shock. My mom was looking to the ground. "I'm sorry...I'm just not used to this kind of situation." Me and Tom nodded in unity, both silently praying for her to come closer... and she did.

She reached her hand out to Sakura, standing not two feet away from the myth and her fingers nearly brushing up against the lone tendrill that was wrapped around the child. Sakura turned her hazel-grey eyes to my mom, and then reached her own little hand to grab a finger. Slowly, ever so slowly, my mom's frown turned to a smile, just like the one she had earlier.

"Just a baby?..no...not just a baby, to both of you. YOUR baby...a precious life." My mom didn't look back at Tom, but this was a start. My parents left not long after, Sakura falling asleep relatively at the same time. I gazed up to where Tom's eyes should be, silently begging for a kiss, which he gave me. "We're...parents..." As silly as it sounds, I had never thought of that. I had never thought that I had really carried this child and brought her to the world. It all felt surreal, like a dream, like something from out of a book or movie...something not really concerning me.

I was lifted from the ground by a set of tendrills as Tom looked at me in the eyes. "Why are you crying?" I blinked. I am? Oh..I am...I sniffled, wiping the stray tears. "We're parents..." He chuckled, lifting my chin up. "You don't say?" I laughed as well, pulling him in for a second kiss.

My precious little Sakura had finally bloomed.