Tiny

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The night they had first shared still repeated itself in Suurin's mind over and over again like the ripples in the lake before him.

His strong brave Kyion was so gentle and sweet that night but ever since then, the man has been cold like a knife made of ice cutting into his wounded heart.

Kyion would rarely ever come to bed or even eat in the same room with him anymore, they never spoke it was like two ghosts in the night, just passing each other by and then off on their way.

But something else lingered on his mind as well as he felt a slight bit of cramping in his lower belly from squatting down to wash laundry for too long with his growing belly.

He was big!

Too big for being this early but when Yuki came to check up on him and accidentally walked in on him changing he said it was since he was just so skinny but still he was scared.

He was just scared all the time.

He couldn't sleep at night when Kiyon left he would cry and wish that his own Daha-san was still here for he didn't know what to do.

He loved his child with all his heart but he didn't know how to be a Daha.

He didn't even know how to take care of himself during his pregnancy! His ojiisan never let him learn such things, and now he had nightmares every night about miscarrying...just thinking about it made him cry.

He wanted desperately to feel safe and warm...but the only place he had felt that way in a long time was with Kyion...the man that didn't want children and had stopped talking to him altogether.

"Oh, my little tiny one! I'm so sorry that you have to end up in such a mess!"

He had tried to get the courage to tell Kyion for at least a month and a half but as much as he tried he never could and he even started avoiding him and wearing thicker coat layers to hide the bump but doing such a thing only made him feel shame.

"My tiny one please know that you are not a regret! Not in any way! ...Now let's be on our way home… maybe I'll have enough gumption to tell your Otōsan about you hmm"

He was quite far from the other Shiyūdōtai because he didn't want them to see him.

He knew they gossiped about him enough already and he never how to converse with them anyway.

He never had friends growing up and he never met any other Shiyūdōtai other than his own Daha before his wedding day so it's not like he had much in common with them.

Their hair was long and in twists with pretty pins and their kimonos were pretty with long sleeves and flowers.

He still only had his one old blue yukata that was ripping at the seams and grey coat layers.

They all had makeup and pretty hair combs and little silver mirrors where they admired their long hair and lipstick but he only had a small box of his only belongings.

'No wonder my husband has lost interest in me...'

He thinks to himself and as he starts to walk back his thoughts run away with him.

'A samurai as great as he would surely not want a bride so plain…'

He slips his geta back on and tries to lift the heavy basket once more but he feels suddenly dizzy and just falls beside it and tries to quell his need to throw up.

'Well so much for being inconspicuous!'

But all his thoughts are interrupted when he hears a scream and then panic from down the beach next to him which then causes him to get up and turn to look and what he sees makes him throw up and makes him drop everything to run for it.

Raifuburīzā are eating the still shaking and screaming body of a young Shiyūdōtai each one ripping off an arm or leg to eat whole.

They are tall and pale yellow with rotten sunken eyes and gaping mouths with hundreds of lips that are thousands of jagged teeth all sucking in flesh and crunching it as it goes down, opening their mouths into a gaping maw like a snake swallowing a mouse letting all the bones snap and twist as they go down.

Raifuburīzā prefer to consume those who are the youngest possible because they feed mostly on the breath of the young only eating flesh when there's nothing else left...meaning they can smell Suurin's pregnancy and they do and start to chase after him but he runs as fast as he can praying to be fast enough.

But…

Snap!...

A rather thick twig catches his step and he falls with only enough time to shield his belly but he's not sure if it's enough.

'Oh, kami!... Please, tiny one don't be dead...please!...'

Then he screams as he feels a sharp claw cut into his ankle straight through the bone and yank him down to the water and into their bloody sucking jaws.

He closes his eyes but suddenly it all stops and he hears the demons screech in agony before they die.

He's still too scared to open his eyes both out of fear of if there is any more left but also of what he will be of his leg but he is picked up into a strong pair of arms and carried off far away in a fast sprint.

Then a stop and he feels himself being set down be one of the rocks by the bridge, he opens his eyes...to see Kyion.

He looks red in the face and a lot of his Giri-kigō are bleeding crimson into the fabric of both their kimonos.

His eyes are far away and dark but as the man looks him over and asks him if he is well he freezes.

"Suurin are you alright?"

He checks for any other wounds but it's at that moment that the baby decides to give a hard kick which instinctively makes Suurin place a hand there while Kyion's hand is close.

Kyion stops and just stares and Suurin realizes that the pregnancy was uncovered but he says nothing.

Kyion is there frozen with his hands just barely touching just looming over hesitantly as he is left awe-struck and then one of his Giri-kigō near his heart begins to glow which brings tears to his eyes.

He slips one of his hands into Suurin's yukata over his bump and soon the glowing fades away and finally, the man speaks.

"Your...your with child!... you're carrying my child!"

Then he wisps his hand away as if he touching something he shouldn't have and he looks into Suurin's eyes.

His own look the warmest they have ever been but for once they great Kyion looks defeated.

"...Kyion… I'm sorry I didn't tell you-"

"That's no excuse!"

There's nothing he can say so he just cries

"Other than the leg are you and...and baby alright?"

"I...I fell…"

"I'm taking you to Yuki right now!"

He picks him up again and like that they take off.