Chapter Text
“Two?!” Rin couldn’t stop himself grinning as he watched his sister staring at the picture in her hands. He noticed tears filling her eyes, but head had experienced a similar reaction himself when he saw it (which he would never admit to) so he decided to keep quiet.
“Rin I didn’t even know you were having one and now you’re telling me you’re having two?!” she finally looked up from the photo to meet her brothers eyes and he held his hands up in defence, all that separated them was a small table and not a very strong one at that.
“We decided not to tell anyone until we knew for certain, you know how it is” he didn’t need to say anymore for her features to soften slightly, she was one of the few people that knew about that. Going back to staring at the picture she breathed out slowly.
“Amazing right?” he grinned again as she nodded.
“You know mum’s gonna kill you for keeping this from her” he froze at the way she said it so calmly, eyes still looking down reaching for her cup of tea as if she hadn’t just delivered his death sentence.
“A-anyway, it’ll be your turn next so she won’t have time to kill me” stuttering he tried to turn the conversation around so he wasn’t the focus.
“If you’re expecting me to get all embarrassed you’re going to be disappointed, I’m not you” she smiled peering over the top of her mug.
“I don’t get embarrassed that easily!” he retorted causing her to raise an eyebrow at him, setting her tea back on the table she crossed her fingers and rested her chin on them.
“Would you like to know exactly how my plans on getting pregnant are going?” he could feel his face heat up and he shook his head, he wasn’t exactly comfortable with their relationship yet and wasn’t sure if he ever would be. He didn’t need images of her and Sousuke added to his dreams at night.
“See, you’re so easy onii chan” she giggled turning back into his little sister again and he managed to get his blush under control enough to reach over and ruffle her hair.
“Shut up” he wasn’t really that mad and his tone of voice showed it, today was just too good a day to be angry he thought glancing at the picture. The grey shapes stared back at him, he could make out exactly where all the limbs were now thanks to having stared at it for over an hour while he waited for Gou to arrive. She moved round next to him and smiled over his shoulder.
“Sousuke will probably cry too when I tell him” Rin hadn’t even been aware he was crying until she pointed it out and he rubbed his eyes before anything fell onto the photo, hearing a small sniff behind him he knew he wasn’t the only one getting emotional. Again. Although he was a little doubtful as to whether his friend would shed tears, Sousuke rarely cried and it was usually in pain when he knocked his shoulder.
“Well if he does make sure you tease him for me” Rin knew he was in no position to talk and when Sousuke inevitably phoned him later he would probably be the one being made fun of, but he could at least try. Feeling something move in his pocket he pulled out his phone and swallowed when he saw ‘mum’ flash up on the screen, Gou sat back on her heels to watch as he debated letting the call go to voicemail.
“It’ll be your dying wish” she said as he swiped the little green phone across the screen and hesitantly held the phone to his ear, there weren’t many people that scared Rin but Mrs Matsuoka was one of them.
“Rin, you there?” realising he hadn’t actually said hello yet he coughed and mentally tried to get his shit together.
“Y-yeah, hey mum”
“You’ll never guess who I met while I was out” not having any idea of where his mother meant by ‘out’ and the fact that Rin hadn’t met most of his mother’s friends left him frantically looking to his sister for help. She just shrugged and he resisted the urge to face palm.
“Who?”
“Misaki”
Oh shit.
Maybe she hasn’t told her yet? He decided to pin any last hopes on that as he focused his attention on breathing properly, very aware the Gou was trying not to laugh beside him.
“O-oh really?”
“Rin, why didn’t you tell me?” on second thoughts maybe this would be better over the phone, she couldn’t physically hurt him this way at least…
“W-well you know how things are we just wanted to be sure before we told anyone…”
“Is that all I am to you Rin? Just anyone?” and here we go he thought, he knew she was joking but everyone knew that fake guilt tripping him actually made him feel really bad.
“No of course not! Do you know how hard it was to keep this from you guys?!”He tried to keep the edge of panic out of his voice but wasn’t being very successful.
“Then you can start making it up to us with dinner tonight” he saw Gou’s eyes light up and sighed, this was how it was when Rin messed up, it always ended with him redeeming himself by emptying his wallet. At least the only restaurants around Iwatobi weren’t that expensive or he would’ve been on the streets years ago.
Finally ending the conversation with his mother Rin slumped forwards onto the table, his family were exhausting sometimes but he still loved them. In truth he had been planning some sort of celebratory thing since they got the news, and those events usually involve food so this was a good thing. He could make up for keeping it a secret and get the congratulations out of the way at the way at the same time, two birds with one stone as they say. He brought himself out of his reverie when he realized a pair of red eyes staring at him.
"What?"
"Nothing, well if we're going out tonight I'd better go and get ready" she got up and grabbed her bag from the floor slipping her feet back into her sandals. Rin accompanied her to the door leaning on the frame as he tried to mentally organize dinner plans.
"I'll text you the details" he said giving her a quick hug, closing the door he headed back to the table and picked the picture up so it wouldn't get damaged, heaven knows Yuki would eat anything.
"And speaking of..." he trailed off as he heard scrambling footsteps heading in his direction and had about three seconds to prepare himself before the dog launched itself at him. He laughed and stroked her fur behind the ears making sure to discreetly put the photo into his back pocket for safekeeping. He guessed she’d been too busy either sleeping or digging more holes in the yard to come and greet guests.
"I'm afraid you're out of luck, Gou already left" understandably the do showed no indication of realizing what Rin had said and continued to stare at him with a confused expression.
"Alright lets go get you some food then" this seemed to perk her up a bit as Rin wandered through to the kitchen still thinking about the future nestled in the pocket of his jeans.
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"Ow!" Rin exclaimed when he found himself being hit over the head with his mother’s purse, he was seriously questioning what it was made out of. It felt like he'd been assaulted with a brick. He rubbed his head as she sat down opposite him and he heard quiet laughter to his left.
"You're supposed to be on my side!" He pouted slightly at his girlfriend and she covered her mouth her bright amber eyes staring back at him, he couldn’t stay angry for long and smiling he wrapped an arm around her.
"Sorry Rin I can't help it" her laughter faded into a grin as she poked his face which was slightly flushed, a mix of excitement, embarrassment and the restaurants apparent need to turn their diner into a sauna. Gou and Sousuke arrived shortly afterwards and took seats at the table, Rin fist bumped his friend as he sat down next to him which led his sister to question if they were still teenagers on the inside.
“You’re just jealous of our friendship” Rin stuck his tongue out at her but quickly retraced it behind his teeth at the threat of being hit with the purse again. They knew the place well enough that it only took them a couple of minutes to order once they were handed the menus, Rin knew it so well he could probably tally up the cost of their order faster than half the staff. He really needed to find a better way to make things up to his family…
“So let me see them then” his mother had her arm outstretched expectantly and Rin fished the photo out of his pocket, until now he had forgotten he put it there in the first place. Sousuke leaned in so he could see too and Rin forgot about the heat (and the pitying state of his wallet) for a moment so he could watch their reactions. Predictably his mother teared up muttering something unintelligible about grandchildren, Sousuke just nodded and clapped his friend on the back almost making him choke on the diet coke he was drinking.
“Congrats Rin” the smile was genuine as he pushed a napkin towards Rin who was still coughing slightly.
“What about me?” Misaki crossed her arms at Sousuke who laughed and reached across to pat her on the head.
“You too Misaki” she smiled brightly at him before patting Rin on the back gently.
“Since you’ll be doing most of the work” Gou chimed in twirling the straw around her drink before popping it in her mouth, the other girl swallowed but put on a determined expression.
“I’ll try my best!” they all laughed at her seriousness Rin pulling her into an embrace as she blushed slightly, everyone knew that she really would do everything she could to make this pregnancy work.
“Don’t think you can get away with slacking off though Rin” his mother warned and he shrunk back slightly.
“Yeah we expect you to pull your weight too” Gou added Sousuke nodding solemnly, how had this turned on him so fast?!
“Of course I will, what do you guys take me for?” he asked wondering how he always ended up in the wrong, was it his personality or something? The food arrived after that so Rin didn’t have time to focus on any character flaws he might or might now have, not that it mattered much to him anyway he was happy as long as his family were happy. That’s all he wanted right now.
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“Where is she?!” Rin yelled running through the hospital doors almost smacking into Sousuke in his haste, his friend grabbed him and pulled him along silently. Rin lost track of how many turns they took or how many stairs they went up, the white walls all looked the same like a maze he had no way out of. Finally they stopped in front of a room and Sousuke held the door open before Rin swung it off the hinges.
“Misaki!” he rushed to the bed, she looked up weakly at his arrival curving her lips into a smile though Rin could see she was clearly in a huge amount of pain, he pushed back some strands of hair from her forehead feeling sweat soaking his fingers. She reached out the hand closest to him and he took it immediately trying not to show his surprise by how light it felt between his palms, he noticed an IV sticking out of the other hand resting on her stomach. He looked around for their midwife and breathed out in relief when she smiled at him.
“Don’t worry Rin the first one’s in good position so no C-section necessary at the moment” she turned back to whatever she was doing and Rin rested his forehead against Misaki’s still clutching her hand tightly.
“Honestly Rin…the first thing your children are gonna see will be you crying at this rate” she smiled at him and he wiped his eyes sniffing.
“They won’t remember it” he grinned until her expression twisted in pain and she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, he hadn’t noticed until now but there was some blood staining the sheets already. But he didn’t have time to think about that, his hand was suddenly gripped as various people in the room shouted words of encouragement towards the girl.
“Just a little further!” Rin joined in keeping his eyes focused on hers which were squeezed shut most of the time but when she opened them they locked onto his red ones and held strong. But no matter how focused he was there was no way he could’ve missed that first cry, he couldn’t resist turning his head as the baby was held up, cord cut and laid gently into a cot he hadn’t noticed at the side of the room. Satisfied that someone was attending to the infant he turned back to Misaki slightly worried at her paled skin tone, the blood from her lip had dried a dark red and for some reason it sent chills down his spine.
“Almost there!” by this point Rin didn’t even pay attention to the tears streaming down his face, he was running on about two hours of sleep and his emotions were too much to contain right now. Although he’d heard it only a few minutes before the sound of his child crying still made him stop breathing for a second and again he looked round to ensure they were safe, the cots were next to each other the babies nestled inside.
“You did it Misaki, we did it” not having the strength to shout he whispered in her ear listening to her heavy breathing, using his sleeves to clean up his face he dragged the fabric across her lip to get rid of the blood. She opened her eyes slowly smiling slightly as her gaze fixed on Rin.
“Are they okay?” she whispered back and he nodded wiping tears with his arm.
“You did so well” she sighed in relief the smile still on her lips, her eyes fluttered closed again and her head fell sideways causing her hair to fall across her face. ‘I’m sure she’s tired’ Rin thought sniffing as he reached out to move the strands from her nose.
Brushing his fingers against her cheek he was alarmed by how cold she felt and drew back to look at her properly warning bells going off in his head.
“Misaki?” he asked before he was almost shoved out of the way by a doctor resting his hand against the girls forehead, jumping at a sudden touch on his arm Rin realized he had accidentally backed into their midwife. His face must have said it all because she just rubbed his arm gently in what he assumed was an attempt to comfort him, but the stony faced expression on her face was having the opposite effect. He turned his eyes back to his girlfriend and wondered how he could have missed it.
Blood was blossoming across the sheets spreading crimson over the white cotton.
He felt his breathing quicken and tried to rush forwards but suddenly there were too many people in the way yelling different things and someone was calling his name, the lights were too bright and it’s like he was watching everything through frosted glass.
“She’s getting worse we need transfusions, now!”
He heard a voice screaming in the distance, he couldn’t quite make out the words but after a while the tone became choked and as Rin put a hand to his throat he realized it was his own voice he was hearing.
“Misaki…” he rasped desperately searching for any sign that things were going to be okay, she wasn’t conscious anymore and all the colour was drained from her skin.
“She’s not responding!” another sound became apparent to Rin amongst the screaming he registered as his newborn children’s, the screaming from the other doctors in the room and his own weak attempts at talking.
The heart monitor was flat lining.
“Rin come on” familiar woman or not there was no way Rin was going to let himself be dragged out of the room now.
“I can’t leave her” he said reaching his arm out the flat line still ringing in his ears as the screaming in the room died down.
“Mr. Matsuoka, I’m sorry, I truly am” Rin shook off the hand on his arm in a sudden burst of anger whipping round and grabbing the doctor by the collar. Logically deep in his brain he knew that it wasn’t his fault but right now he needed someone to blame even if it was only for the next five minutes.
“Why, why didn’t you save her!” his voice shook with the weight of the tears he was desperately trying to hold back.
“There was nothing more we could do, she was too far gone” the fact that the doctor was keeping his calm and talking gently just made Rin even angrier, mostly because he knew he was right. Nothing he did now would change the fact that she was never coming back. He felt his arm being patted and his fingers gently relinquished their grip on the collar as he walked away.
“We’ll give you a minute, we’re taking your children somewhere safe okay?” the words passed straight through the haze surrounding Rin as he took a few steps forward, turns out he couldn’t manage any more than that and sank to his knees by the bedside. With trembling fingers he reached for her hand, he couldn’t tell if he was crying because his whole body felt sort of numb but his sleeve came away wet when he dragged it across his face. Looking up at her there was a part of him that wasn’t quite sure this was reality, surely it was a dream and he’d fallen asleep at work? He had only had about three hours sleep the night before because… oh that’s right, Misaki had stomach pain last night so they stayed up watching TV. He felt like half of his brain was still trying to catch up, probably to the half that was currently sobbing into the blood soaked sheets of his girlfriend’s hospital bed.
“Why did this have to happen?” they had always known that pregnancy would be difficult, her anemia was bound to cause complications but she had always maintained her usual strength and Rin had found himself ignoring any previous doubts. Maybe the pregnancy had been harder than she’d let on and Rin had been happy to believe everything was fine…no he couldn’t start blaming himself that wouldn’t solve anything now. Gripping the edge of the bed he hauled himself up and looked at her face one more time, he knew it wasn’t her anymore, not really…but he still felt like he should say goodbye to her here.
“I’ll take care of them Misaki, I promise. I-I love you” he choked out managing to catch his breath in a huge gulp so he wouldn’t be consumed again, realistically he knew he couldn’t stay in there with her forever.
“Rin” he turned to the door to see the midwife giving him a weird smile and he nodded numbly as he led her lead him out, his eyes stayed on her until the door closed behind him. He blinked as he took in the bright lights and flashes of colour by people running up to him.
“Rin!” he was overwhelmed with the scent of flowers and soft fabric against his skin, along with the red hair in his vision he recognized it as Gou who had her arms around his neck. He lifted his arms to return the hug but since he was functioning on autopilot he was moving a bit slowly and she drew back her eyes full of worry.
“I don’t care, now tell me what the hell’s going on!” looking past his sister Rin’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of his best friend, he had never seen Sousuke this angry and it shocked him back to his senses a little. Stumbling slightly Gou helped him over to the male who finally caught sight of Rin and let whoever he was harassing go back to their job, he pulled Rin into a hug crushing him. It must have hurt his shoulder and the thought made Rin tear up again.
“Rin…what happened?” Sousuke led him to a bench that he wasn’t aware they even put in the hallway, had this been there the whole time? He was grateful for the seat though, the exhaustion was starting to get to him, his eyes were fixed staring vacantly ahead at the wall.
“She’s gone Sousuke”
“What do you mean ‘she’s gone’?”
“Rin, do you mean…?” Gou’s voice trembled and she clasped her hands to her mouth, Sousuke still had one arm around Rins shoulders as his eyes darted between the two siblings.
“She…she’s dead?” his teal gaze joined Rin in staring at the wall and they sat there in silence for several moments, save for Gou’s shaky breathing.
“Mr. Matsuoka” they all looked up at the voice and saw an unfamiliar nurse staring down at them, she smiled when they saw her and Rin slowly stood up.
“Would you like to see your children?” the mixed emotions he felt threatened to bubble to the surface again but he kept it together enough to nod, Gou went to stand up but Sousuke put a hand on her arm. The guilt that washed over him made his stomach turn as he realized he had almost forgotten about them for a minute there, but he was slightly happy at least there was something good to come out of this nightmare. He wasn’t sure if it was okay to think that, should he be happy when his girlfriend had just died? He shook it off he wasn’t thinking clearly right now but he needed to at least try and be strong, for their sake.
He nodded his thanks as the woman showed him to two cots side by side, he didn’t trust his voice yet and his throat still hurt from all the screaming he’d done. It wasn’t until he noticed the different coloured hats on the baby’s heads that he realized he didn’t even know what sex they were. Of course they’d both agreed to keep it a surprise but any thoughts like that had been pushed out of his mind when he got the emergency call from Sousuke only a few hours ago.
“They were in her bag” Rin turned to see their midwife leaning against the doorframe, a safe enough distance away that she wasn’t intruding but close enough that he could hear her.
“She knew?” he whispered as he glanced between the pale pink and blue wool, Misaki had never been able to keep secrets from him and he always knew what presents everyone had for Christmas each year.
But she had managed to keep this one.
He was surprised and touched and sad all at the same time but before he could start crying again something stopped him. The baby girl, his baby girl opened her eyes, they were a deep sienna brown with flecks of red and veins of amber running through them. He had always been excited to see whose eyes their children would inherit but it looked like they had qualities from both parents, he looked at his son to see his eyes open as well. They were just like his sisters except for the varying quantities of amber and red, his had a more golden tone whilst hers were a warmer fiery brown.
“Have you thought of any names yet?” what parents hadn’t spent a good portion of their evenings thinking of possible names? Rin and Misaki were no different and they had a couple of boys and girls names they both liked but when he looked at them Rin knew what to call them. So when he nodded and the woman handed him a pen he wasted no time in bending down and writing their names on the cots.
“Those are beautiful names” she said as he handed her back the marker finally standing up without the immediate urge to fall down again.
“Thank you” he didn’t need to hear that she would have loved them, he knew she would be happy as long as they were happy and Rin was going to do everything he could to make that happen. They were two of the most important people in his life and he would make sure they knew it.
Welcome to the world, Sakura, Satsuki.