Nascent, a digimon fanfic

Title: Nascent
Characters/Pairings: Koushirou, Izumi Masami, Izumi Yoshie, Sora, Miyako, Original Character.
Summary: Koushirou-centric Koushirou tries to make it work, imagines a little boy calling him "nii-san", but he can't quite comprehend it.
Notes: took some liberties with the canon information on Koushirou's family situation.

"What do you mean you're pregnant?"

Koushirou is blinking dumbly at his mother. She nods hopefully without answering, seeming to think that Koushirou's exclamation was simply something of 'well-this-is-impossible-how-could-it-have-happened'.

"You-you're not supposed to be able to carry a baby to full term," Koushirou tries and thinks that reminding them of this is just a little bit mean.

"The doctors are saying it might be able to happen this time—new technology and all that," his father explains. For possibly the first time in his life, Koushirou's brain isn't accepting this new piece of information.

"Aren't you happy you're going to have a brother?" It isn't supposed to be a question, though there is a hint of uncertainty in his mother's voice. Koushirou nods and smiles, though inside his brain feels as if it has exploded.

As soon as possible, Koushirou's parents find out the baby's sex. It's a boy.

As his mother grows (and becomes increasingly hormonal), the whole idea of being a brother still doesn't quite sink in. Koushirou tries to make it work, imagines a little boy calling him "nii-san", but he can't quite comprehend it.

Everybody congratulates him. "It'll be good for you," Sora says, as if she knows something he doesn't.

He watches Yamato and Takeru, but it isn't the same. He can't learn how to manage a baby by trying to figure out the older brother-younger brother relationship between a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old.

And, Koushirou admits to himself reluctantly, the whole big brother thing isn't something that you can really learn from books or the internet.

There is a vague fear of being the "adopted one" now that his parents will have a biological baby; Koushirou has always felt slightly insecure about this. However, he's worked most of it out and the real problem isn't that he fears the baby will get more attention then him, or be more valued by his parents (he's almost positive that this isn't the case).

The real problem here is that babies aren't Koushirou's thing. They don't like them and he doesn't particularily like them. They have a mutual agreement. But with a baby living with them—and one he's supposed to be fond of, at that—he's going to go insane.

He faints during the labor.

For some reason they had "wanted him there". There had been no solid reason for him to protest, except that he is sort of freaked out by the whole idea of being there when something is coming out of his mother's body.

But being there, hearing his mother scream, even from the other section of the nice little "birthing suite" the hospital has set them up in, it's all too much to handle.

He wakes up a few minutes later, and by then the epideral has kicked in, so his mother's shouts have died down, but Koushirou is still as unsettled by the whole thing. For a long eighteen hours, he feels like Jou.

When the baby is finally born, Koushirou is in the bathroom. He comes back and immediately has his new brother shoved into his arms.

Unfortunately, there is no magical sibling connection. He looks at the newborn and thinks that he's sort of ugly, and kind of looks like he had been fighting a battle, with little scuff marks on his minature head. Koushirou doesn't see anything particularily wonderful in this baby, and he gets a little scared—he had been counting on that connection. Really, truly counting on it.

Izumi Masuyo, his parents name the baby. Koushirou thinks the name is sort of big for such a little baby, but he doesn't say anything.

The Izumi apartment has been taken over.

It's everywhere. Koushirou had noticed it somewhat before the birth, but now the baby stuff is everywhere. There is no sense of organization. Every bit of free space is taken up by a high chair, the walker, the baby swing, a vibrating seat, the stroller, a bassinet, a crib, the changing table, baskets of diapers, empty bottles, formula lines the kitchen floor hapharzardly... it's an invasion.

Somehow, somehow it's spread to his room. Koushirou has always been rather anal about his space and this is definitely a violation of his boundaries. He is a neat person, but it seems to be impossible to keep his room even somewhat clean with his parents throwing things they no longer have space for in the kitchen or living room or otherwise. The first to come in is the bassinet (Masuyo's getting a little big for it), then one of the strollers, then an extra basket of diapers—and so on.

Tentomon doesn't seem to feel the pain in this that Koushirou does. "Look at Masuyo smile, Koushirou-han!"

He doesn't want to see the stupid thing smile if he is going to cause such problems in his life. It's nothing special anyways. A contraction of the zygomaticus muscles, that's all. It's not anything extraordinary, like everbody is making it out to be. All of his female friends have gushed over the silly little thing. I can smile, he thinks unhappily. I can smile and nobody cares.

Five longs months of having a brother pass and Koushirou has managed to not do anything more with the baby than watch him sleep for fifteen minutes while his mother showers, or mix water with the cereal that he eats now. Somehow, he even has escaped changing a diaper—he has a suspicion that his parents know how much he dislikes Masuyo, and he feels a little guilty.

Except then.

"Koushirou, we'll only be gone for the day."

"This is unavoidable—we've been putting off going to see your aunt for months. We'd bring Masuyo, but you know how the dogs at her house get... and everyone else who could watch him is busy."

"You'll be fine. You've seen us take care of him enough."

After his mother kisses both of her sons, his parents are out the door, leaving Koushirou standing dumbly after them, baby in his hands.

And then, without any warning, the crying starts.

Masuyo wails as Koushirou has never heard him wail before. His sobs come straight down from his stomach and are loud, loud, loud, loud.

He's never heard anything make so much noise (which is saying something, he supposes, since he's been to the Digital World). Tentomon is trying to tell him something, but it's completely lost over all the wailing.

Scrambling this way and that, Koushirou attempts to do a number of things to shut up his brother. He tries to give Masuyo a bottle (ends up getting formula on his shirt), tries to change his diaper (nothing there, Koushirou is almost relieved), tries rocking him and putting him in his swing and leaving him alone in his walker and giving him a toy and everything and anything he can think of but the noise just keeps going.

Half in a daze, he calls Miyako. She's a girl, after all—she has to know something about babies. Somehow he manages to convey the message that he needs help with the baby over the screams (though actually, maybe that is exactly what got the message across).

Koushirou sighs in relief. The promise of reinforcements makes Masuyo's constant crying a little more tolerable.

It turns out that Miyako just has to have been born completely lacking a maternal instinct.

She pretty much is doing exactly what Koushirou just did, except she is singing loudly and badly as well. Hawkmon is hustling to and fro after her, attempting to help in whatever way he can.

Koushirou cannot help but be amused by the image in front of him, except it's dampened by the continuous, annoying stream of noise that Masuyo is emitting. And now the baby has Miyako helping him as she is seranading him. He tries to think why he ever thought that Miyako would be a good canidate for baby tending, but he can only come up with that he wasn't thinking clearly at all.

"Koushirou," she finally cries. "Call Sora. Please." She's rocking the baby frantically, staring at him with desperate eyes.

Now getting Sora for soothing the baby will work. "Miyako," he says, "you're a genius."

Sora arrives very quickly after his call. After scooping the baby up from Miyako, she somehow manages to quiet him down to hiccupy sobs.

"How did you do that?" Koushirou and Miyako simultaneously exclaim.

Sora doesn't respond, but stares at Koushirou thoughtfully. Without warning, she plops Masuyo into Koushirou's hands. He stiffens and starts protesting ("Masuyo doesn't like me, can't you tell?") but Sora just comes up behind him and tugs at his elbows.

"Relax," she says. "He can tell if you're uncomfortable."

He tries to loosen up, but feels more awkward. Miyako is staring at him. Sora is staring at him. Masuyo's buggy little eyes look up at him, uncertain.

"He's your brother, Koushirou. Holding him is natural."

And suddenly, it is. He looks down at Masuyo, who is not a dead weight in his arms anymore, but an almost welcome warmth. Masuyo stares back, and seems to relax with him.

"Yes," he says, grinning. "He's my brother."