Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ Kagayaku Means to Shine ❯ Shiageru: To Complete ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Written: 02 June 2005

Re-written: 01 August 2006

 

"Anshii..." Utena groaned, "It's time." Anshii blinked. 'Time for what?' The sound of water hitting the floor answered her question for her.

 

 

They always say it's best to stay calm in a crisis situation. Utena's water breaking suddenly during a conversation could, indeed, be classified as a crisis of the first class.

 

What do 'they' know, anyway?

 

Anshii was, at the moment, very quietly and very thoroughly panicked. 'Car, hospital, um...what do I know about giving birth? Think!' As she though furiously, she had the presence of mind to tug Utena's arm across her shoulders so that she could support the taller girl. Halfway to the door, a thought struck her.

 

"Utena? Is there anything that you need to bring with you? A bag or something?" There was silence for a moment, then Anshii asked again, "Utena?"

 

"Oh...yes. There's a bag, on the table by the door. I need that. Dammit, it's early..." Utena sounded rather distracted herself.

 

Helping Utena the rest of the way to the door, Anshii snatched up the bag on the way, slinging it over her other shoulder. As she opened the front door, she frowned. "Early? What do you mean, Utena?"

 

"Only thirty-seven weeks..." Utena was leaning on Anshii very heavily now, the last few weeks of bed rest having sapped her strength somewhat, the heavy load getting to her quickly. "Oh, the hospital...it's down the road, on the left. Not far." Anshii nodded and breathed an inward sigh of relief that the hospital would be easy to find. Closing and locking the door behind them, she lead Utena out towards her car. Suddenly, the pink-haired girl stopped and wouldn't go any further, forcing Anshii to stop as well.

 

"Utena? What's wrong?" It was too soon to be actual labour, so what...Anshii froze. The car. She had been driving it for so long, she had all but forgotten what the cherry red convertible would mean to her prince. After she had left Ohtori, she'd walked for a few minutes, when suddenly she came upon her brother's infamous car, just sitting quietly on the road, all by itself. The keys were sitting in the driver's seat and the steering wheel, normally on the left in Western style, was now on the right for driving in Japan. She'd almost turned and run at the sight of it, thinking that her brother had come for her after all, but the car just sat there, and eventually, fueled by the practicalities of how far she'd need to walk otherwise, she'd taken it. She'd had it ever since. Sometimes, she liked to think that it was her brother's way of honouring her choice.

 

Or his way of keeping track of her, but she preferred not to think about that possibility.

 

Back in the here and now, Utena was still standing stock-still, staring at the car. "Utena...Utena, it's alright! It's not his car, it's my car. We're not there anymore, he can't do anything to us. Utena, come on! We have to get you to the hospital!"

 

Of course, what she didn't point out to Utena was that the car had apparently retained at least a little magic. How often do the steering wheels on normal cars just switch sides all by themselves?

 

After several minutes of cajoling and reassuring, she was finally able to get Utena seated somewhat comfortably in the passenger seat of the car. Climbing into the driver's seat, she quickly turned the car on and set off for the hospital, following Utena's instructions. It only took a few minutes for them to pull up to the emergency entrance, and Utena, had she been capable, would have leapt from the car as soon as it stopped moving. Unfortunately, she was forced to wait for Anshii to come around and help her out.

 

They made their way into the emergency room and to the counter before Anshii realized that she was, for all intents and purposes, nearly helpless. She looked desperately at Utena for help, and the pink-haired girl smiled tiredly as she realized Anshii's predicament and addressed the nurse in only slightly broken English.

 

"Hello...I am here to have baby. Water break about ten minute ago." The nurse blinked, startled, but was apparently a veteran and only nodded, taking a pen and pad up.

 

"What's your doctor's name, hon?" she asked, pen in hand.

 

"Doctor Lipscomb," Utena responded, having just a touch of trouble with the doctor's name. The nurse nodded and made a quick notation on the form, which she haded off to another nurse, who picked up the phone to page the doctor in question.

 

"And your friend, dear? Is she family, or should I have someone show her to a waiting room?" By this point, Anshii was pretty much lost. She understood only the smallest bit of what was going on. But Utena shook her head.

 

"She is family. I like her come with me, please." The nurse nodded again, and then a door opened and a head popped out, a woman with short, very curly red hair and big black plastic glasses.

 

"Utena? Oh, there you are! Come on, come back. Butch! Where is the wheelchair, can't you see she's thirty-seven weeks pregnant?" It didn't take long for the door to open all the way and for a young blonde man in green scrubs to come through, pushing a wheelchair. Utena took a seat without complaint while quietly translating what she could for Anshii, who smiled with relief and followed as Butch turned the chair around and disappeared into the back.

 

Doctor Lipscomb was busily looking over several sheets on her clipboard as they proceeded towards the maternal ward, and so didn't notice that there was an extra person with them until they had nearly reached Utena's room.

 

"Oh? Who's this, Utena? A new friend?" Utena smiled and shook her head, brushing her bangs away from her damp forehead.

 

"No, she is old friend, from Japan." The doctor nodded and smiled, and left it at that, bustling around the room with the cheerful efficiency of somebody's mother, smiling and ordering Butch around. The young man just smiled with long-suffering affection and did as he was told.

 

It didn't take long to get Utena installed in a room with Anshii in a chair right beside her bed. The doctor spoke with Utena for a few minutes, then left. Utena sighed and leaned back into her pillows, then looked over at Anshii. She extended one hand slowly, and smiled as Anshii took it and squeezed it.

 

"She's worried." Utena told her in quiet Japanese. "If this is my real labour, it's coming prematurely."

 

Anshii frowned. "Real labour?"

 

"Yes. There's something called, um...Braxton...uh, Braxton-Hick..." the word came hard to her and she stumbled over it several times before giving up, "Anyway, they're like fake labour cramps. But since my water broke, I'm pretty sure this is for real."

 

"And what did you mean by prematurely?"

 

"Oh, um. Technically, a full-term pregnancy is thirty-eight weeks. I'm only at thirty-seven. It doesn't sound like very much, I know, but it can really make a difference in whether a baby is born healthy." She rubbed idly at the roundness of her belly.

 

"I suppose that's so. Do you really think there's danger?" Utena laughed softly and shook her head.

 

"I'm not really worried. I think that they'll both be okay."

 

They sat in silence for a moment before Anshii blinked, then frowned. "Wait...both? What do you mean, both? You're having more than one baby?"

 

Utena just laughed, "I knew you would react like that. Yes. I'm having twins, actually..." Anshii just sighed and lifted Utena's hand, gently kissing the back of it and smiling at the faint pink lipstick mark it left on her prince's skin.

 

"So, twins...do you know if they are identical or not?"

 

 

Utena's labour was almost suspiciously short when it finally started almost eight hours later, only about three hours from the first proper contractions to the time that was scrawled on the second baby's birth papers. To make up for the short time, it was intensely painful, leaving her sobbing and whimpering from the pain more often than not, despite the fact that both twins were perfectly positioned to be born.

 

The first baby took about four pushes to get out completely, and the second was polite enough to wait for the cord to be cut before demanding to be let out as well. It only took two pushes the second time around, and after that it wasn't long before it was all done with.

 

In the end, she firmly decided that no matter how much it had hurt, it was all forgettable. She felt the tears prick her eyes again as she looked down at the two wrinkled little brown faces and matching tufts of purple hair that were all she could see of the babies lying on her chest. She closed her eyes briefly, exhausted, and opened them again to watch as the hospital staff took the babies away to be cleaned up and placed in the nursery.

 

She laid back against the pillows, more than ready to sleep, and didn't even open her eyes when she heard the door open and close. A familiar presence filled the room, and she smiled tiredly.

 

"They're beautiful," Anshii said softly, sitting down on the edge of Utena's bed, "What will you name them?" The nurse came bustling back in then, clipboard in hand.

 

"Alright, Miss Tenjou. We have two very healthy baby girls, born at 1:32 and 1:37 am, five pounds and five pounds one ounce. Now we just need you to name them." Utena translated for Anshii, who covered a giggle with one hand.

 

Utena smiled, "Yes, I will name them now. Anshii," she addressed her friend in Japanese, "You can't look right now. I'll write them for you later." Anshii just smiled lightly and nodded, and Utena accepted the clipboard from the nurse. Reading over the forms quickly, she nodded to herself and quickly filled in the spots for names. Handing the clipboard back over, she held up one finger to her lips and smiled, "May I have piece of paper, please?"

 

The nurse quickly supplied her with the paper and a pen, and Utena gestured for Anshii to close her eyes. The purple-haired woman rolled her eyes but closed them anyway. She sat patiently for the moment it took Utena to write the names down, only moving again when Utena told her to open her eyes, then handed her the paper. Looking down at the ten somewhat sloppily-written kanji on the page and the furigana above them, she blinked and looked up at Utena again.

 

"They have the same name?"

 

Utena blushed and nodded, "Well, yes, just written differently. And I thought we could call the younger one Nishi-ko. She came after her sister in time, so she'll come after her sister in the alphabet too!"

 

Anshii just giggled and gave in.

 

"They're wonderful names," she said, sounding honest though she was still smiling. Utena blushed again and shrugged a little, neither of them noticing when the nurse quietly withdrew from the room.

 

"I wanted to give them special names, ones that they could be proud of."

 

"Well...I think that you succeeded." Utena blushed again, then leaned forward to wrap her arms around Anshii's waist.

 

"Anshii...I have something I want to ask you. Well, two somethings. I know it's kind of weird, but it's really important, so I don't mind if you want to take a while to think about it. Well, first...I want you to stay with me, and with the babies." Anshii rolled her eyes and curled one finger under Utena's chin, lifting the pink-haired girl's face towards her own.

 

"Of course I want to stay with you, Utena. I spent this long finding you, I'll never let you go again. But what else did you want?" Utena shifted uncomfortably.

 

"Well...I never wanted to be anybody's mother, Anshii, you should know that! I never thought of myself that way, and I don't think I'll do a good job. It's just not how I see myself. But I can't give up my babies. So I want to...well, I want to be like a father to them, and I want you...I want you to be their mother."

 

END CH.2