Dangerous Lines | Yuzuru Hanyu

60. Birth

35 weeks.

That was how far she was in the pregnancy when Yaeko entered unexpected early labour.

In the past weeks, she had the luck of being able to speak with Hana on the phone and speak about what to expect during the delivery. Nothing could have prepared her to have everything happen so fast.

Yae panicked from the very first second she realized what was happening and a scream was all it took for the agents to surround her. In all truth, her contractions had started hours before but she just ignored them since it wasn't the first time she felt Braxton-Hicks.

Agent Miura looked even more nervous than she was as he drove at a fast pace to the nearest hospital.

This couldn't be happening... Hadn't she had enough drama in her life already?

Hana had prepared her for this on more than one occasion, saying often that the stress that Yaeko endured was never good news in a pregnancy but after being settled for months in Finland, all of those fears had been wiped away.
Well, until now.

Had she listened to her friend, Yaeko would have a pre-made bag with all of the necessities that her baby could need but despite having bought a big majority of things, she hadn't really bothered to organize them just yet.

Now as they panicked to the hospital, she would have to embarassingly ask one of the agents to retrieve those things one by one.

It was weird how the brain worked. Weird how she suddenly thought of a lot of things that had never crossed her mind. For one, she wondered if the type of feeding bottle and pacifier were even right for her baby at that time, she wondered if the clothes were in the right season and even if it was weird that she didn't have a name for her son.

It felt wrong to make decisions without his father and now, as she probably should be focusing on making sure everything went smoothly, her brain only seemed to be able to overthink every small detail of her birthing plans.

As she arrived at the hospital, Yae felt stress consume her completely. She was exhausted, failing to even be able to utter her name to the doctors who tried to help her.
Hadn't it been for Agent Miura, Yaeko would have probably been completely lost on how to act or what to do.

Turns out that even at such an early stage, the delivery was far smoother than she could have ever expected. In fact, the short 3 hours that she suffered after arriving at the hospital seemed like nothing when her son was placed on her chest.

He was beautiful, absolutely perfect in her eyes despite the obvious small size for being pre-term. Her baby boy looked so fragile that she was scared to even move an inch.

From the moment he arrived until they took him from her lap, everything seemed to just go by in seconds. She couldn't stop staring at him and how perfect he looked, how much she loved him for all of those months inside of her and how much she loved him even more now that he was in the world.

Hadn't it been for the obvious need for him to be monitored, Yaeko wouldn't be able to allow them to take him away from her.

"Do you have a name already?" one of the nurses asked in English and Yae could only gulp in reaction. The man by her side was quick to react.

"Not just yet. We will take care of every legal procedure later."

"Of course, of course. Just take some time to rest, don't feel pressured, alright?"

Yaeko could bet that everything seemed weird to the hospital staff, not just because Agent Miura was twice her age and didn't act like a boyfriend or husband but also because she came with a whole team of bodyguards. Nothing of her situation had ever been normal and it was only becoming even more obvious as she experienced more.

They obviously didn't say anything about it.

She was informed that the baby would be taken to the NICU for a few hours just to make sure everything was fine while she rested properly.

As much as it seemed impossible to rest as she worried about the little one's well-being, Yaeko had greatly underestimated the impact of labour on her body. It took just half an hour for her to fall deep asleep, trusting blindly that those taking care of her would watch over him as well.

❣️

Yaeko would wake up a few hours later in her own room. Sitting at her bedside was Agent Miura and another agent that she recognized well.

"Hey." she heard in a soft voice "How are you feeling?"

She found herself wishing that the voice belonged to another man, one that was probably in Japan completely clueless about the birth of his own child but that was as impossible as it felt.

"I'm fine. My baby?"

It was all she could answer in the mid-depressive state that seemed to be impossible to go away. In a way, she was extremely happy that her son was finally born but at the same time, she wanted and needed his father's presence by her side.

"They said he will most likely spend the night being watched but everything seems okay."

"That's good..."

"We will need a name."

The other agent wasn't half as nice as Miura and seemed to be quite impatient with her.

"We have time."

Miura tried to defend her as it was now usual. More than anyone, he knew what she was currently going through.

"You know as well as I do that we need to file that paperwork if we want everything to go by normally without any more problems."

"It's alright " she interrupted. "Just give me a little while and I'll decide."

"Sato, will you give us some privacy? I want to discuss something with Yaeko."

The other agent didn't fight his senior and just nodded, leaving the room just as fast.

Yae was a bit confused until he took his phone and started calling someone.
On the third ring, Yaeko was handed the phone without much explanation.

"15 minutes, better make it worth it. And remember... no locations"

As she cluelessly stared at the device and placed it on her ear, Yaeko found all the answers she needed as someone's voice echoed on the other side of the line bringing her into an emotional breakdown.

"Hello? Who's this?"

"Yuzu... It's... It's me."