The Baby Bird

A Series Of Moments

"So, hear me out," Keigo starts, his girlfriend, their relationship steady and thriving, she's been living with him for almost two years.

She interrupts him. "Oh no, you're starting this with that."

"No, no, it's not bad." He waves a hand and squeezes her into his side, curling his right wing around her, she smiles and reaches up to preen the feathers. "So, we're committed right, like we're reading the same book, heading for the same ending, right?"

"I am." Kirika nods. "Are you?"

"I am." The winged hero nods. "So, hear me out," he takes a moment to piece his words together. "How would you feel about the pitter patter of little feet running around these here parts?"

She pauses in her preening and tilts her head back, sea green meeting gold, and stares at him. "You wanna have a baby?"

"I mean," he nods slightly. "Only if you want to too. I want to have a baby, but you're gonna be the one doing the heavy lifting, so only if you're ready to."

The heroine thinks it over for a few minutes and nods. "I think I'm ready to try for a baby."

He kisses the top of her head. "Awesome!"

She tugs on his feathers. "Wanna try now?"

"Yes!"

They try, for a little over three months, they get two misreading's on two different pregnancy tests, and Kirika starts panicking, because she wants a baby, she's dreamed all her life about being a mommy, and her internal clock isn't gonna start rewinding, Keigo worries, not so much that they're not having any luck, which yes, he does worry about that too, but because his beloved hummingbird is panicking, and he recommends going to see a specialist.

One of the best.

The best money can afford.

Kirika agrees, and that's how they find themselves sitting in the waiting room for the best specialist there is in Japan waiting to hear the results of the tests they'd had to perform approximately a week and a half ago, his girlfriend clutching his hand tightly, chewing on her thumbnail nervously, and he can see the cogs turning in her mind of all the possibilities as to why she can't conceive.

"Hey," he tugs on her hand for her attention and she turns to look up at him with wide worried sea green eyes. "It'll be okay, we'll make it work, whatever they have to say, we'll make it work, we'll get through it together."

She smiles up at him, lifting their conjoined hands, pressing her lips to the back of his. "I love you, Kei, so, so much."

"I love you too, Kiri." He presses a kiss to her knuckles. "With all my heart."

The door to the waiting room opens and the man, Murakami, the specialist, smiles at them. "Sorry for the wait, you can come back now, Ms. Nanako, Mr. Takami."

Kirika squeezes her boyfriend's hand as she rises from her chair stiffly, Keigo squeezes her hand and brushes the fingers of his free hand through the feathers of her right wing soothingly.

She stares at the man across the desk from them, having stopped listening when he said infertile, she just tuned him out, her world coming to a grinding halt, and she feels her eyes burn, her throat tighten.

"Kiri," she feels her hand being squeezed and turns, the pressure breaking her out of her reverie, and she turns to look at her beloved Raptor. Keigo stands, pulling her up to her feet, and then into his arms, wrapping his wings around them. "It's okay, Kiri, it's gonna be okay, we'll figure it out, we'll work through this together, there's other ways we can do it, we'll have a baby, Kiri, one way or another."