Pussy-care Prescription #2
She rubbed it between her fingers for a few seconds. "Warming the heel first helps the circulation."
I looked at my own hands. An hour ago they had been around Kiko's throat. I had felt her windpipe go flat under my thumbs and the shape of her neck change. And now those same hands had soothed her newborns. I had expected to feel something after killing Kiko. Grief, sickness, or even guilt.
Now it was just a hollow place where the rage had been, and that scared the shit out of me.
Humming to herself, the doctor brought out a square of gauze, dabbed the twin’s skin, and gave the small heel a tiny prick.
So tiny I barely saw it.
The baby jerked, and his face scrunched into a fierce little knot as his mouth stretched open.
The cry arrived a heartbeat later.
My heart ached.
"Oh, sweetheart." The doctor caught the first bright bead of blood in a narrow collection tube. "I know. I know. You're telling me exactly how unfair I am."
The tiny cries became sharp little hiccupping wails.
Without thinking, I slipped my hand back through the porthole.
"It's okay." My fingertips rested against his side. "I'm here."
His crying softened and he leaned the smallest fraction toward my hand.
The doctor looked up with raised brows. "He knows your touch already."
Warmth filled my chest. “Maybe.”
The doctor continued collecting several more crimson drops before pressing fresh gauze against the heel. "Perfect."
She wrapped the foot in the gauze for another moment before releasing it. "Now your brother."
That twin is going to see it coming.
Sure enough before she even reached in, the other twin wrinkled his tiny nose, sniffled once, and then twice. Next, his little fists opened and closed inside the sleeves of his blue onesie.
She gently grabbed his foot and warmed the second heel exactly the same way.
Before the prick came, I slid my hand farther inside until I could rest two fingers lightly against both of them.
When she took the sample, his whole body stiffened, and his lips pushed into the tiniest pout I'd ever seen, but no cry came.
Look at you being a warrior.
The doctor continued with another sample. “The nurses are happy you’ve been in here with the twins. Somehow you keep them quiet.”
I kept my fingers against the warm small bodies. "But, the twins keep wanting to cry a lot, even when they've eaten and been changed. Are they okay?"
"Premature babies often have nervous systems that are still developing, so they are having difficulty regulating themselves. That’s why they appear more jittery or easily startled. It will calm with time."
"So they're not in pain?"
"No, Tora. They are doing very well, actually. Their weight is good for the gestational age. Their lungs are stronger than expected. We have them on oxygen as a precaution only."
I let out a sigh of relief. “Alright.”
The doctor frowned. “Babies born on an island of war. What a way to start off their lives.”
“Yeah.”
The doctor picked the chart back up and began jotting down notes.
I watched the twins and suddenly the room around me went thin. The hum of the incubator pulled back. The voices in the corner faded out. The fluorescent light dimmed, and a new vision came.
I was on a mountain.
Cold wind moved across my face and smelled of pine resin, snow, and stone. The sky above me had gone to the deep blue of high altitude. Below me the world fell away in green ridges and white peaks all the way to a horizon I could not name.
Two young men were rushing through the air, chasing someone yet their feet didn’t touch the mountain. So fast, they floated through the air.
They were enormous men.
Shirtless.
Identical faces.
Both at least six-four. They must have been close to two hundred and forty pounds of pure muscle. Broad shouldered. Thick necked. Narrow waisted. Their forearms were carved with veins. Their hands looked like they could break stone if they were tired of breaking bone.
And they moved like predators.
And then. . .I just knew. . .they were Hiro's sons. The shape of the eyes. The set of the mouth. The faces I had just been watching breathe in an incubator now grown into the faces of men.
Their hair was long and fell to their elbows. The first twin had white hair—the color of snow. A tattooed white tiger climbed over his chest. The beast’s claws curved up his throat and stretched to the underside of his jaw with all these beautiful roses around it.
When he turned, his white hair lifted, whipped in the air, and showed the storm clouds and lightning tattooed on his back.
His brother had black hair pulled into a long braid down one side, the loose hair on the other side moving with him in the wind. His chest carried a massive tattooed black tiger.
And just like his brother the claws struck under his jaw. But instead of roses, lotus blossoms surrounded the claws.
When he turned to run off with his brother, his back showed the wind. A large tattooed swirling current with cherry blossoms caught in updrafts and mist.
The twins hit the ground, and then they rose in the air, spun around, and raced back my way.
I shrieked and jumped to the left and that was when I saw who they were chasing.
Hiro.
But, an older Hiro.
His hair was longer than now with streaks of gray. There were lines under his eyes that I had not yet seen before. He was still muscular, but now he had new tattoos on his chest—a pink tattooed paw over his heart.
Coming in fast, the twins got to him and roared as they charged, and Hiro moved between them like water and was somewhere else before either strike could land.
“Too slow.” Hiro chuckled. “You two say you’ve still been training in college. I don’t see it.”
“Then, let me show you, Father.” The white-haired twin got close and brought down a heavy punch that should have broken a mountain in half.
Hiro slipped under it and tapped his son's shoulder as he passed. “I’m waiting. Show me any time.”
Black-hair came in low with a kick that would have folded a normal man at the ribs.
Hiro caught the ankle, redirected the momentum into open air, and his son spun out and recovered before his foot touched the rock.
They were frustrated. Both of them. I could see it in the white-haired twin's jaw and in the black-haired twin's narrowed eyes. They were grown men, highly-skilled killers, and they still could not lay a hand on their father after all this time.
And. . .they were also so goddamn happy to be with him. . .that my eyes watered.
Hiro crossed his muscular arms over his chest. “Your uncles say you two are in love.”
White-hair blinked.
Black-hair frowned. “Our uncles should enjoy their retirement and stop spying on us.”
“Yeah.” White-hair nodded. “I wish they were more like Uncle Kenji. He minds his business and just hangs with us from time to time.”
“Trust me. My brother watches you most of all.”
The twins appeared like they didn’t believe him. I could tell that in their minds. . .Kenji could do no wrong.
Smirking, Hiro dug into his pocket and pulled out a gold lollipop. “You go to college with some of the most dangerous kids in the world. Their parents are ones that your uncles and I have fought in the past.”
“Their parents may have been dangerous, but their kids are nothing.” White-hair chuckled. “We don’t fear them.”
“And never will.” Black-hair added.
And it made me think of Aki and Yuki.
I snickered.
Hiro unwrapped the lollipop, pocketed the wrapper, and placed it into his mouth. “They say you’ve been getting into it with the Lion’s brood.”
The twins went silent.
Hiro quirked his brows. “Haven’t your uncles and I told you to stay away from them?”
Black-hair cleared his throat. “It’s a small conflict that we are. . .finalizing.”
“Soon.” White-hair nodded. “All is fine, Father.”
Hiro leaned his head to the side. “Bullshit.”
They both stepped back.
Hiro twisted the lollipop stick to the other corner of his mouth. “You kidnapped one of the females.”
I parted my mouth in shock.