"So what are we going to do now?" Kiera curiously poses to her male twin with a visible expression of concern present on her face.
"Hold on…" Kieran quickly responds to his twin's question when he suddenly spots the person who they need to talk to enter inside of the dining hall.
He nimbly grabs one of her hands and swiftly leads them over to where Rick directly stands next to their father.
"Excuse me, Sir Rick," Kieran loudly whispers to the older man with long raven-haired and black sunglasses on his face as well a tug of his shirt sleeve.
"Is there a problem, Prince Kieran?" Rick inquisitively inquires after he sharply peeks down to shockingly find the twins to the side of him.
He glances in the direction of Kiera before he returns his gaze back to him, "Kiera and I were wondering if you could tell us more about Minato and Natalie?"
The older man raises one of his eyebrows at the twins' request while he ponders, 'I wonder if they have already figured it out?'
"Come by my office once breakfast is finished." The taller male promptly instructs the twins with a small smile on his face.
The two simultaneously nod their head with the exact same wide grin present on their faces as they think, 'Phase one is still a go!'
0000
Natalie remains in a complete state of shock.
Her green eyes observe Queen Eva tightly clutches her stomach with one of her hands while she stands over a puddle of clear liquid.
"Are you alright Queen Eva?!" She nervously poses to the woman, who then uses her other free hand to lean against the silver metallic table.
"I think…I'm having the babies!" The queen manages to utter out before the pain starts to sharply increase with every second that passes.
"So what am I suppose to do?" The raven haired woman questions the pregnant woman with an expression of concern on her face.
Eva released a painful cry when she felt her contractions start to shorten and ordered, "Get Aikka...now...Natalie!"
The soldier knew she had to retrieve King Aikka since he was much more experienced with this than she is, "I'll be right…"
"Just go already!"
The young woman speedily dashes out of the kitchen at top speed before she comes face to face with numerous looks of confusion.
"King Aikka…her water just broke!" The captain abruptly informs the king, who wastes no time to his feet and takes off in the direction of the kitchen.
The raven haired woman was about to turn to follow the king when she felt a strong muscular hand on her shoulder, "Dad?"
Rick quickly spoke up to explain why he stopped her in her stride. "You wait here with the prince and princess."
"Let me handle this."
The woman only stood watch as her father followed close behind the king until they disappeared behind the kitchen doors.
"Natalie…is there something wrong with my mom?" Kiera fretfully probes about her mother's health.
Her green eyes peek down to behold the princess stands off to her right and reveals, "She's about to have the babies."
"Kieran, did you hear that?! We're finally going to have younger siblings!" She happily shouts out the news to her brother.
"We should go get ready for their arrival!" Kieran cheerfully proclaims, which causes the twins to swiftly run in the direction of their room.
"The arrival of children in the world brings such high spirited energy!" Princess Mai suddenly comments, which immediately catches her attention.
'She's still here? I thought she would have given up by now.' The captain inwardly thinks to herself.
"I agree princess…the hustle and bustle of bringing children in the world is quite a momentous occasion especially for the royal family of Noursaia." Jordan dutifully chimes in.
His voice causes a chill to crawl up her spine, after she broadcasts, "I'm going to check up on the twins to make sure that they are alright."
Obsidan eyes exchange a brief stare down with the Avatar before he decides to speak up, "I'm coming with you."
The young woman knew she could not protest against him since he is the superior officer. Plus, the twins were equally his responsibilities as they were hers.
"Fine," The raven haired woman eventually consents before the two depart from the dining hall with each other.
"Those two make an absolutely lovely couple together, don't you think Jordan?" The princess poses to the the golden entity with a smile on her face.
The Avatar ignored the question however her question did spark a thought to passed through his head, 'I don't like Natalie's current aura at the moment.'
'The blonde man still has that same bright aura around him.'
It was then that Mai noted that the Avatar bent the silverware that was in his hand and presumed, 'I think I might've said a little too much just then…'
0000
"Are you ready Rick?" Aikka inquires to the man on the opposite side of him, who responds with a nod of his head.
"3…2…1…Lift," He instructs as they manage to lift both sides of Eva with their own strength.
"Move out the way!" Rick loudly shouts as they diligently travel through the hallways with the queen in tow.
They opted to utilize the route with the less traffic since they dealt with Eva, who tried to desperately even out her intake of air and endure the painful contractions.
"Aikka," The woman cries out before she inhales a deep breath and exhales. "Rick and I got you. We just need for you to hold still for a little bit."
"You aren't the one about to push out three kids, are you?!" She irately snaps back at her husband before she feels the pain increase.
The raven haired male decides to remain mute between the lovers and instead concentrate on the mission at hand: to deliver Eva to the infirmary and wait until the three bundle of joys enter in the world.
The pair manage to travel up a set of stairs and arrive at the infirmary just in time to catch the doctor about to walk out.
"No time for questions! The babies are ready to come!" Aikka hastily surmises the situation in two sentences to the doctor.
He then moves out of the way, points in the direction of the examination table, whistles for the nurses to come and aid him to deliver the babies.
"You all know the drill!" The doctor declares once the nurses appear from their respective break area.
Once Rick and Aikka gently settle Eva on the examination table, the bespectacled man takes a step back.
He senses that Aikka needs to be near his wife during her delivery.
"Rick…I want you to remain close." The king orders him, who maintains his stance in the delivery room.
"Yes, sir." Rick was confirming before mentally preparing himself for the long hours of Eva's screaming, shouting, and cursing her husband out all while pushing out three children.
'This is going to be a long day.' He inwardly concluded as he pulled up a chair and took a seat.
0000
"Natalie…" Minato softly yells out to Natalie, who speedily walks in front of him.
She momentarily halts in the middle of her stride, rotates her head over her left shoulder and watches him canters up to her.
"I gave you enough time to think about what I told you from earlier." The blonde gravely asserts with a very stoic expression on his face.
Her green eyes instantly cut away from him before she sharply challenges, "Why are you so adamant about hearing my answer?!"
"Come on Natalie…this Iron Fist Lady reputation that you developed over the years doesn't work on me." He boldly mentioned her nickname that the military bestowed unto her because of her extremely stoic personality.
"I really hope that you would accept it but if you don't I will still remain your friend."
"Besides, it is a simple yes or no answer." The young man deliberately adds in as he steps in front of her so she could not avoid him again.
The soldier attempts to take a step back, which prompts him to reach out and secures her arm within his grasps.
"Get your hands off of me."
The knight releases a heavy sigh before he softly responds with, "Please…just don't run away again."
Minato's words seemingly strikes a cord within Natalie, who contemplates, 'If I was this so called Iron Fist Lady then I wouldn't have to run away from this.'
The male releases his hold on her once he feels her eases within his grasp. She speaks up, "I could never figure you out."
His obsidian eyes shoot her a questionable look and politely demand, "What do you mean by that? Is that a good thing?"
"I've been able to easily read all of the people that I've ever met throughout my life like an open book. Yet when it was you…"
"You were completely unpredictable! I guess that's how I first became so interested in you."
"Since most of the girls normally avoided me, I would play with the boys and delighted in the fact that they viewed me as one of them."
"Then that feeling soon was fading away as I got older."
"I was really jealous of those girls, who effortlessly caught boys' attention while I completely struggled to be acknowledged as a girl."
"That's the reason why I grew a thick skin and blocked people's access to my heart."
"Even though my childhood memories are still a bit fuzzy, I can perfectly recount all of the unfortunate adventures you and I went on as children."
"I must honestly admit that I did find you extremely annoying at first because you were totally different from the other boys that were in Noursaia."
"I assumed that you were just some spineless kid, who relied heavily on their master to fight all of their battles for them."
"However, you were always helpful and polite to absolute strangers, elders, younger children and people your own age."
"I was secretly envious that everyone seemed to just flock to you as if you were a bright ball of sunlight. I didn't want to be like everyone else so I kept you at an arms distance."
"I quickly found out that that was really hard to do, especially after the third visit."
"Then, I heard through rumors that you were well on the path of knighthood. I became extremely resentful toward you because I wanted to be a knight myself."
"I was so upset because I wasn't going to have anymore fun with you again."
"It was then that I decided to become an officer in the military instead since I was not permitted to pursue knighthood."
"Just when I thought that I wouldn't ever see you again, you unexpectedly popped right back up again like the little pest that you are."
"Plus, you seem to have this uncanny knack of being able to always find me whenever others can't and still treat me as if I did nothing wrong."
"You were the only one who treated me like I was just regular plain old Natalie Andros rather than this block of iron they call me."
"It's about time that I stop running away from you. So do you understand my feelings?" Natalie poses to the blonde man, who seems to process everything she just tells him.
0000
"Oh my god, get this thing out of me now!" Eva shrilly yells at the top of her lungs as she diligently continues to follow the doctor's instruction to push.
She was attempting to even out her breathing only to feel intensive cramps shooting throughout her body.
"You're almost there." Aikka informs his wife, who then fires him an expression of ire in his direction.
"Alright Eva, the first one is starting to crown now." The doctor claims once he spots the roundness of a head that peeps out from her lower region.
The raven haired with crimson tips gives one good hard push and feels something slide right out of her with relative ease.
The doctor and Aikka quickly work to snip the umbilical cord before the sound of a healthy newborn baby loudly cries erase the brief silence in the room.
"Congrats, it's a boy!" The nurse happily declares the gender of the baby before she gently wraps the newborn in a fluffy warm blanket.
The nurse slowly leans forward so the king could catch a glimpse at his newborn son, 'Kieran has a younger brother now…and second in the line for the throne.'
"A boy first," He merrily remarks to the nurse before he feels Eva's hand tightly grips his shirt and directs his attention towards her.
The nurse accepted that as a signal to take the baby to the area that was reserved for the newborn babies.
"There's two more left!" She angrily reminds her husband before another surge of pain hits her body like previously.
'At least the first one's safely out and healthy,' Rick inwardly conceives from the images.
He had to properly thank one of the nurse's later for the earplugs that she provided for him.
"I'm so going to kill you Aikka!" The queen's statement snaps Rick out of his thoughts when he notices that the nurse, who carries the baby boy, reappears back inside of the room.
The orange haired male merely wears a small smile on his face.
Aikka was already familiar with the abusive shouts laced with extremely foul language that his wife would direct to him, in particular.
'The first one is a success…now we only have two more to go.'
0000
No words were immediately exchanged between the pair as Minato boldly stepped closer to Natalie, who remained completely still just as she had promised.
"I told you that I wasn't…"
2222
Author's Note:
12.12.16 Major editing revision
06.27.17 Major cleaning edits