OtherWorld 01
Chapter 26: The Birth
During her stay in Kaede's Village, everything changed for Yukina. She saw first hand the joy that her contemporaries had giving birth to children of the men that they loved and saw how different it was having their mates helping them. Being a healer, she had witnessed several births by her fellow ice maidens but those births had involved no males. The love and bonding between the couples was incredible. It was obvious that Kouga loved Kagome and the look in his eyes when he watched his son in his mate's arms was indescribable. She decided that she no longer wanted the cold sterile life of Ice World.
Today would be the day! Yukina would tell Toya she wanted to be his mate. She had fallen in love with the handsome, quiet Ice Master and thought that he might love her also. She would tell him her decision during breakfast.
After Yukina talked to Toya, they let everyone know their decision and the Princess planned a congratulatory dinner for them. But deep inside she was very worried. She knew that Hiei had pushed Toya on Yukina, but it was for his own selfish reasons. He hated Kuwabara even near Yukina and also wanted to ensure that his sister would stay near him in the Castle. She was his only family. And Toya -- the Princess was well aware that Toya would do anything to stay here in the Castle and that he did not love Yukina at all. Everyone was making plans for Yukina's life. Now Yukina had fallen in love with Toya and the possibility of heartbreak was very real. She voiced her concerns to Vash, who listened to her, but cautioned that she do nothing. It was out of her hands now. What could she say to either of them? If she told Yukina her fears, she would only hurt her. And Toya already knew the score and had accepted it. She could only hope for the best. Toya would not hurt Yukina if he could in any way help it -- Hiei would not forgive him and Toya knew he would not survive Hiei's anger.
That night, alone in their quarters, Yukina broke her Ice World vows, as had her mother, and mated with a male. Toya was very tender with her and her fear quickly evaporated under his gentle touch. For the first time in her life, she lay next to a male -- something that only a few months ago she would have never even dreamed possible. Now she was Toya's mate. For Toya's part, even though he did not love Yukina, he was fond the tiny ice maiden and knew how much courage it took to become any man's mate for her. He would always treasure that about her -- that she had given up her entire way of life for him.
A week later, Kaede arrived to help with the birth of Aara and Vash's twins. Both Kaiba and Yukina would be on hand also. They were taking no chances. Another factor to consider is that they had no idea how the Princess would give birth -- being that she was not human. Since her pregnancy had progressed like a human one, they supposed that it would be the same, but there was always a chance that something unexpected would happen.
At sunset exactly nine months from the date of her conception, Princess Aara had her children. There was no labor pain, no contractions, nothing normal. She simply felt dizzy and lay down on the bed for a few minutes. Vash was downstairs, but suddenly felt an urge to be near his mate and ran up the stairs to their bedroom. Aara was lying on the bed, a bright golden circle of light around her middle. Suddenly the light divided and became two globes of light and then disappeared. In place of the golden light were two infants, sleeping peacefully, one on each side of her. Vash went to her side and picked one of his daughters up. She looked healthy. Aara did the same with the other child. When they picked up their children, both babies woke up and stared into the eyes of their parents. Their eyes were full of knowledge.
"Well, that was easy!" Aara said, trying to make light of a very strange situation.
Vash smiled at her and nodded. Both children had red-gold hair, a combination of his blond and her red hair, and green-gold eyes. They were identical except that the one Vash was holding had a tiny beauty mark under her left eye exactly like his. "Hello, Ashara." he said to her.
"Welcome to Otherworld, Vara," Aara said to the infant in her arms.
The Otherworld saga continues in "Otherworld 2"