Someone to Protect: Toga x Izayoi

Chapter 11: Product of Love - Part 2

Picture: TaylorBrooke123 on Deviant Art

They remained in the cave for well over a month, so many wondrous days that Izayoi soon lost count and found that she didn't care if she ever returned to the world outside.

She was finally with her beloved, and all was right in her world as long as she was with him.

One morning, however, she woke up to Toga sniffing her.

"What are you doing, beloved?" Izayoi giggled, his long hair tickling her as he continued to smell her skin.

"You smell different... it's still you and me...but also something...else."

Kind of how Inukimi smelled when--

A dual mixture of joy and fear shot through the yokai, but of those emotions alarm seemed to win out.

Izayoi looked at him, watching the emotions play over his face as she waited for him to tell her what he was smelling.

His face looked oddly worried, and that concerned Izayoi. Her mind raced as she considered what he could be smelling. He'd placed barriers at all the cave openings, so where was the different smelling coming from?

Even more upsetting was the thought, And what could possibly make him worry?

"Toga?"

"You may be carrying my child," he whispered, seemingly alarmed at the thought.

She laughed at the shocked look on his face, "I'd be more surprised if I wasn't. After all, we have tried many, many times."

He stared at her blankly.

She fluttered her eyes and asked with exaggerated innocence, "Because the only reason to do that is to make babies, right Toga-sama?"

His eyes met hers then, and his lips quirked, "Indeed."

He pulled her onto his lap, his arms wrapping protectively around her as his mind raced.

This was indeed joyous news, though troubling.

From this moment on Izayoi would never again be able to deny her relationship with him. She would no longer be welcomed by most humans. She would be ostracized, defamed, and distrusted by her own kind.

She would face a similar rejection, if not outright revulsion, from his kind.

And that was all if she was strong enough to give life to their child.

That was his true fear, the one that gripped his chest and forced the breath from his lungs. If his child was too strong, if the midwife was not careful... he could lose Izayoi as she struggled to bring their child into this world.

He had always known it was a possibility, but it had been one that had seemed far away. After all, being different species it sometimes took a while for yokai seed to take root in a human womb.

"Toga?" she finally asked. He immediately noticed hesitancy in her voice, and it brought him back to the present. She had ceased being so timid around him after the first week of their marriage.

"Sorry, my love, I am just contemplating what all of this means for us."

A heartbeat, then, "Are you displeased? I know fathering a hanyou--"

"No!" Toga denied with a vehemence that surprised her. His tone softening, he reassured, "Never think that, sweet Izayoi. Our child is made from love, and Kana said one day that love would change the world. Never think I would be ashamed of our son. I just... I thought we'd have more time... I don't want to lose you."