A Budding Rose

Helpless

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Ichika cried and cried and cried. She had been since 1am-- and after 3 diaper changes, 5 attempted bottle feeds, and continuous rocking -- it was now 4 am and she was crying with the same vigor of her original scream-- if not more raspy from hours of unyielding cries. 

"I don't understand" Touka was in tears now. "Do you think she's sick. She's never been like this before. We need to take her to Kimi right now. We--"

"Touka." Ken lifted Ichika from her arms. "Go get some sleep."

"But--"

"She has no fever. And most disease that inflicts babies causes them to go quiet. She's just being fussy. Get some rest. I'll get her to calm down."

"But--"

"Through sickness and in health, right?"

She relaxed the tension in her shoulders she didn't know she carried. She kissed her husband on the cheek and held his chin to her lips, their daughter yowling all the while. She let go. "Did I ever mention how much I love you?"

"You are mistaken. It is I who is the luckiest man alive."

Touka stifled a comeback and left the room to collapse into their bed. Ken set in the rocking chair, rocking the baby back and forth. He looked her in the eyes and began to sing in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, can you tell, please just tell me the way the story goes."

While his voice was low it was not weak and it quieted the infant. She stared deep into his red eyes.

"Oh now, what could it be? That lives inside of me?"

She held to every word. Letting it surrounded her.

"Damaged as, broken as I am, I hold my breath and freeze."

She let the words carry her eyes close. 

"In this shaken, twisted world, I gradually become transparent and am unable to be seen."

Her breathing slowed.

"Tell me, please just tell me-- what's inside of me?" 

Ken took his sleeping child and set her down in her crib. He watched her tiny chest rise and fall, slowly but consistently. His chest was set ablaze and filled his whole body with warmth.

"You are my everything, baby girl."

He tiptoed out of the room and took his spot next to his wife and wrapped his arm around her. She turned and smiled at him half-awake.

"What finally did it?"

He paused. 

"Just telling a story I heard once."

~~~~~

A/N

This song was "Unravel me" in English. It might not be translated right. I took it from a few different websites. 

Also, I haven't posted in a while for reasons I can explain in "An Obituary to the Living" that I posted. Essentially, I was kicked out and that story is an overdramatized version of what I dealt with in the past year.