Like a Demon

Every member of Akuma argued for their place in the hospital room as Jayne’s body painfully prepared itself for the birth of her second child. Kyo’s spot was a given, and he stood nervously at her side as she tried to block out the pain, terrified that something would go wrong. Mei won the argument and stood on her other side, brushing the hair out of her face and smiling that everything would be all right every so often. Kyo wanted to tell her those things, but was too nervous to form words, as everything seemed to rush around him.

In the waiting room sat the entire bridal party, members of Dir En Grey, men of Akuma, the Tochikura family, and Robert. Ray was terrified and sitting beside Robert as he held him, promising that everything would be just fine. Drew was juggling his lucky drumsticks, while Shinya sat nervously bouncing his leg beside him. Being hit every once in the while in the shoulder, and once in the eye, with a stray-flying stick.

“It seems that this boy will be very much like his brother.” Michio muttered jokingly, making Dex smile a little bit.

“How do you mean?” Die questioned blankly.

“Ray was also born early. He didn’t want to wait anymore; he wanted to be born now. It was a very quick delivery.” Robert laughed.

“I hope it is an easy delivery.” Shinya nodded quietly.

“It’s Jayne, nothing is ever easy!” Drew scoffed, “But she will be okay. Believe me.”

Mr. Tochikura nodded his agreement as silence filled the room and a woman’s scream sounded from down the hall.

“That can only be Jayne-chan,” Kaoru announced in a mix of sadness, and mostly worry, noting that the scream resembled a feminine Kyo.

“She screamed worse with Ray.” Robert assured as Ray continued to cry for Jayne and Kyo, worried that she was going to die.

“You’re doing fine, Jayne, just breathe for me.” The doctor instructed as tears rolled down her eyes and she gripped Kyo’s hand with all of her strength as he tried to offer her some of his. His heart ached to see her in so much pain, but she refused any medications to make the pain easier. She was sweating, and crying, and appeared to be fighting a battle with how much energy she was using. The baby wasn’t turned properly, and she, Mei, and Kyo were all terrified that something would go wrong. According to the doctor, the umbilical cord was caught around his neck. If they did anything wrong at all, he would be strangled.

“Come on, one more push Jayne.” Mei encouraged as Kyo looked up at her with wide, terrified eyes. This was so much more different than he had expected. In fact, it was nothing like he had expected.

“I can’t,” She cried.

“Yes you can, just one more and he should be in your arms.” She smiled.

“I’m scared!” Jayne confessed, breaking Kyo’s heart even more as tears built in Mei’s eyes, “I don’t want to lose him,”

He knew that there were complications with Ray, and that he was technically stillborn, but was able to be revived, and knew her fears of losing this child as well.

He helped her to push, yet again, and once again she squeezed his hand so tightly that he thought she would break bones, and suddenly the sound of an infant’s cry filled the room. Mei started laughing excitedly as tears began to roll down from her eyes, and Jayne smiled weakly and fell into her exhaustion as Kyo anxiously watched the doctor.

This was the defining moment.

This was what he had been secretly waiting for since he received the news that she was pregnant.

Was the boy in the doctor’s arms half Japanese?

Was this a product of his and Jayne’s love; was this his son?

“Congratulations,” the doctor smiled, placing the blue-ish, still bloody, alien looking baby in Jayne’s arms, “She is perfectly healthy!”

“What?” she and Mei demanded together.

“Is something wrong?” Kyo demanded worriedly.

“He said it’s a she!” Mei answered, causing him to dumbly move the blanket to inspect the baby’s gender-deciding parts. Sure enough, ‘he’ was lacking certain parts. Instead of being disappointed though, he started to laugh and kissed Jayne’s forehead.

“Kyo,” Mei beamed excitedly, clapping her hands and getting more excited when he looked up at her questioningly, “She has your eyes!” she squeaked.

“Kyo, she’s your daughter! OUR beautiful little girl.” Jayne smiled as tears built in his eyes and he very carefully touched his finger to the baby’s hand. There were no words to express the emotions that flooded his heart in that moment. To know that the small life, that tiny person before him was a part of him. To know that such a simple act between himself and the woman beside him created an entire human being that was a combination of both of them. It was overwhelming joy, it was fear, it was complete and unconditional adoration, it was nothing short of love. It was a love more powerful than anything he had ever felt before. More than what his music meant to him, more than the band meant, more than he could even comprehend. And the little sleeping baby girl that held his hand represented it all.

He didn’t even notice Mei leave the room as the nurse came over to clean the baby up, and let Kyo cut the umbilical cord. His entire focus was on his daughter.

“Mei! How is she? How is the baby? Is everything okay?” Shinya gasped as soon as she walked into the waiting room.

“Jayne is fine, the baby is a BEAUTIFUL, half-Japanese, little girl, and Kyo is completely in love with her!” she beamed, bouncing with excitement.

“Wait, he’s in love with HER?” Robert asked slowly, only receiving an overly excited bouncing nod for an answer.

“It seems she will need some new baby things after all.” Toshiya laughed as Robert and Dex stood up and started walking for the door.

“Where are you going?” Shinya questioned.

“To meet the baby! Come on!” Dex answered, bouncing excitedly while tugging his arm to find Jayne’s room, as she had been moved, to find her lying in the bed with Kyo sitting beside her gently resting his finger on the side of the baby’s face as she sang to their daughter the same lullaby she always sang Ray.

As soon as their group poured into the room, Toshiya lifted Ray up so that he could see over everyone’s shoulders by setting him on his shoulders to look at the baby. “He’s so little!” he whispered, wide eyed as he stared at what he thought was his little brother.

“She, Ray, you have a baby sister. We were wrong when we thought it was a boy.” Mei informed calmly.

“I don’t have a brother?” he asked sadly, breaking Jayne’s heart as he was moved to carefully join her in the bed.

“I’m sorry baby,” she sighed.

Ray looked long and hard at the little thing in his mother’s arms before smiling and giggling, “She looks like my baby pictures!” he laughed, “But her eyes look funny.”

“The baby has Kyo's eyes.” Die snickered, “And they do look funny sometimes.”

Jayne very carefully helped Ray to hold his sister as he looked at her with wide eyes, staring in pure curiosity at his little sister as he accepted the fact that he would not have a little brother. But somehow it didn’t matter anymore. All of his plans of playing cars, and trucks with his baby brother, and building mud pies, and having army men wars, they didn’t matter anymore. He was very happy that he had a sister now, and he was going to take very good care of her.

One by one their “family” greeted the baby, and congratulated her parents, taking a total of five hours before Jayne was permitted to go home. However the baby needed to stay in the hospital to be sure there were no unseen health issues, as she was born early. Kyo was not happy at all about leaving the baby behind, and he and Jayne both were talked into leaving the hospital. Had they been given their way, they would have slept there that night.

“I think you should call your parents.” Jayne sighed as she rested her head on his shoulder while Dex drove them home.

“I have been thinking about that.”

“I know this isn’t exactly the ‘socially acceptable’ way to do things in Japan, but they should know that they have a newborn granddaughter.”

“I know that, I haven’t thought of how I am going to tell them. They knew that you were pregnant, but until now no one was sure that it was my child or not.” He explained.

“At least your parents love you, though. You may not always be on the best terms, but your family cares about you.” She smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder and snuggling comfortably.

“Why did the doctors take the baby?” Ray Shinya, looking up at him with the saddest, and most heart-wrenching expression the drummer could have imagined. Puppy-eyes couldn’t hold a candle to the sad cuteness that Ray had.

“They took her so that they can be sure she isn’t sick in any way. If something as wrong and we didn’t know it. She is very small, and needs a lot of care right now.” He explained.

“But when can we take her home to play?”

“She is a newborn infant, Ray, she is too young to play right now. In a few months she will be able to, but when she comes home with you, she will only be able to lay and rest.” He explained with a smile.

“But why isn’t she strong?”

Shinya sighed and tried to think of an answer that Ray would understand, but wasn’t having much luck.

“Ray,” Kaoru spoke gently, catching the child’s attention as he continued to get worked up about his newborn sister. “Your sister has only been alive in this world for a few hours. She hasn’t learned how to play yet.”

“But we can teach her!”

“Yes,” he chuckled, “but first she needs to learn other things. How to breathe, how to open her eyes, how to use her voice, and move her arms and legs. She doesn’t know anything about the world, yet. Also, her muscles are weak, and need to grow to be strong enough for playtime.”

Ray was quiet for a while as his eyes narrowed for a moment before growing wide with fear.

“Does it hurt her?” he whispered worriedly.

“No, she is not in any pain. She is only tired.” Shinya answered calmly.

“What if she’s scared?” he asked after a short while of silence.

“She has nothing to be afraid of, and neither do you.” Kaoru assured in mild amusement. Ray nodded and eventually fell asleep cuddled up with his stuffed bear against Shinya’s side.