Afterward

Delivery

Christmas came, and eventually New Year's first day passed. Anna gave birth to an adorable baby girl which she and Lee named Tori. Tori Lee Williams would be her full name. Lee didn't want to leave out her matriarchal heritage.
"She's adorable!" Jun fawned over the baby as soon as she carried her. "Aww! She looks just like you, Anna!"
"She does," Lee smiled and kissed his wife, who was still in bed rest from childbirth. "Our Tori."
"That's a really pretty name," Jun smiled, cradling the baby in her arms. She turned to Kazuya when he placed a hand on her arm to look at the baby as well. "Looks like Anna, right?"
"Exactly," Kazuya agreed, poking the baby's chubby cheek with his finger. "These two are gonna grow up as twins." He turned to Anna. "Trust me, you'll feel amazingly young when people ask if you two are sisters in the future."
Anna chuckled. "Yeah, I got that back when I went out with my mother. Nina too."
Jun realised something. "Speaking of which, where's Nina? Isn't it her birthday today?"
Anna gasped. "Oh my gosh, it is! It's the twenty-third, isn't it? Oh! Tori and Nina have the same birthday!"
"Now I'm kinda glad that we had a late labour," Lee chuckled. "Alright, this is a cause to celebrate— no alcohol, don't worry— but where exactly is Nina?"
"She was the first you told, right?" Anna asked, to which Lee nodded. "Then where is she?"
"Adam messaged me to say that they're stuck in traffic," Kazuya said, looking at his phone. "This was twenty minutes ago, apparently."
All of a sudden, Nina, Adam, and Steve rushed into the room, carrying large tote bags.
"Anna!" Nina exclaimed, seeing her sister in bed. She was huffing from running too. "Where's the baby?"
Anna chuckled. "Hey, sis."
"Baby?" Nina asked again.
"She's over here," Jun chuckled, holding out the baby.
"Aw!" Nina rushed over to look. "Oh my gosh, I'm so scared to carry her."
"Come on, try it," Jun urged. "You're a mom too."
"Not like I gave birth and raised the baby," Nina gulped as she carefully took the baby in her arms. It almost look as if she was holding a very expensive vase that she didn't want to break. "She's adorable." She snorted. "You looked kinda like this when you were a baby too."
Anna looked at her in surprise. "You actually remember that? Nina, you were like two!"
"I was, but yeah, I do remember a little," Nina chuckled. "I remember that I thought you looked like an alien."
"Oi, that's my baby you've got there," Lee piped up.
Nina started laughing as she cradled the baby. "I know, I know. She's adorable. Looks just like Anna."
"And she has the same birthday as you," Anna smiled. "So this is my birthday gift for you."
"Aww, thanks," Nina smiled. "You want me to take her home with me? You know I never got to raise my child myself."
Steve smirked. "Sure. I'd like a sister too."
Anna burst into laughter. "Oh, Nina."
"Okay, I'm kidding," Nina grinned as she handed the baby to Steve who was eagerly waiting there to look at his newborn cousin. "But it's nice to share my birthday with someone. Nicer with a niece."
"Yeah," Anna smiled.
Steve carefully took the baby, but Tori still managed to wake up. He started panicking when the little creature started crying.
"Nuts, she's crying," Steve didn't know what to do. "What do I do?"
"Maybe cradle her instead of holding her like that," Adam pointed at the fact that Steve held the baby like a giant bottle instead of cradling her. "Yeah, please hold her properly, Steve."
Steve cradled the baby and started crooning instead. To his surprise, the baby immediately calmed down. "Hey, I'm good at this," he was rocking her now. "She's so cute. Her eyes are so big and round, though she hasn't fully opened them yet."
Steve handed Tori to Anna since her father seemed pretty scared to carry her when he handed Tori to him.
"Yeah, I'm still kinda scared to carry her," Lee said. "My hands are big, while she's just so tiny..."
Steve sighed and held his hand out in front of him. "Give me your hand." Lee raised his hand and Steve pressed it to his own much larger hand. "There, my hand is actually bigger than yours and I didn't have any trouble carrying her."
Lee turned to look at his baby, who was wide-eyed and looking around now, then turned to his wife. Anna smiled and motioned towards the baby, holding Tori to him. Lee sighed and carefully took the baby in his arms.
"There, you're doing great," Kazuya grinned. "Better than me."
Jun nudged him. "You didn't even try to carry the child, Kazuya."
Lee laughed. "If this was a few years ago, I wouldn't even have you in this room."
Jun couldn't help but think of the time she had birthed to Jin. She had confined herself to Yakushima by then, and was caring for Jin alone with the knowledge of only a few of her friends. At that time, she didn't know if she should feel happy for the safe delivery of her healthy baby boy, or feel sad that he had lost his father before he could even reach the earth.
Jin and Lars entered the room with a few extra blankets for the baby and handed them to Lee. That's when they noticed that his hands were full, with him holding the baby, so they handed them to Steve instead, who had no idea what they were even for.
"Here, we managed to get these from some linen closet," Jin said as he handed the stack to Steve.
Lee looked at the clothes in surprise. "Linen closet? Where?"
"Over there, at the end of the hall," Lars said, pointing to which end of the hall it was.
Anna started laughingly. "Oh my gosh, the two of you. That isn't a linen closet, that's where we keep tablecloths!"
"Tablecloths?" Jin said, amused. "That explains the quaint patterns!"
Lee sighed and handed the baby to Kazuya. "You hold this now, and try not to crush her."
"Me?!" Kazuya said in surprise. "Why me? Why couldn't Jin hold her?"
"Because you haven't carried her yet," Lee said. "And I want my brother to be close with my baby so there."
"Aww," Lars grinned. "That's cute."
Kazuya sighed and slowly took the baby. "Okay."
As soon as Lee turned around and stormed off to get the blankets, Kazuya turned to Jun and tried to hand the baby to her. Jun refused.
"Uh-uh-uh, you're holding her," Jun chuckled, gently pushing his arms back. "Hold her, cradle her."
"Come on, Kazuya," Anna said, gaining his attention. "That's your first niece."
"Niece?" Kazuya turned to the baby. "My first niece? Oh yeah, I didn't think of that." The baby practically stared at Kazuya. "Oh, gosh. She's looking at me just like how her father did when we first met."
Nina snorted. "Well, like father like daughter. That's his child, after all."
"Yeah," Kazuya smiled. "This is my first time holding a baby. I didn't even hold mine when he was born." Jin cleared his throat. "Sorry, Jin. No offence."
"None taken," Jin replied. "Also, Happy Birthday, Nina."
"Thanks, Jin," Nina smirked. "I'm glad you remembered."
"Sorry we couldn't plan a party for you today, Nins," Anna sighed. "As you can see, I'm kinda occupied here..."
Nina smiled as she went towards her sister and gave her a hug. "Oh, Anna. This is party enough. I'm very happy for you and Lee, Anna. Couldn't be happier for you."
Anna hugged her back and cried on her shoulder, much to Nina's surprise.
"Hey, hey, are you okay?" Nina immediately pulled away and placed her hands on Anna's shoulders. "Why are you crying?"
"I'm sorry, this is just a very emotional moment for me," Anna replied, letting out a watery chuckle. "I just couldn't help it."
"Aww, but what am I supposed to do with these?" Steve motioned towards the tablecloths he was still holding.
Lars immediately came over and relieved him. "Here, I'll take them back to the... linen closet and put them away."
Steve turned to his aunt and took her hand. "Please don't cry, Auntie. This is a very happy moment for you."
Anna nodded, dabbing at her tears. "I know. Everything's perfect."
The baby started crying in Kazuya's arms, much to his dismay. "Is it feeding time? Did she soil her diaper? Did an ant bite her?"
Jun turned to Anna. "Did you feed her yet?"
Anna shook her head. "Not yet. That's why I needed those blankets. She's still very cold. We just took her out of the warmer. But then our friends brought the nice tablecloths instead."
The rest just turned to Jin.
"What?" Jin said, surprised that they would all turn on him. "It was Lars's idea." He quickly said.
Lee soon returned with actual blankets and kicked the rest out, with only Jun and Nina staying besides himself.