Taiyoo Soshite Tsuki
(Sun and Moon)
By: Sinead
Chapter Three: Growth
Year 5855
"No! Mine! Gimme!"
"MINE!!!"
"NO!!!"
"AAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
Uso was fighting over a toy with Tatakai.
The others were playing quietly, and seemed almost odd, for the humans, to see the children this quiet together. However, all their Predacon partners had insisted that Cybertronian children, no matter how young they were or what faction they had been born in, played peacefully most of the time, forming bonds that lasted for a lifetime. Satsujinhan’nin and Baron had known each other since they had been this young. Baron still insisted upon calling Satsujinhan’nin by "Captain," although it was in fun. The two wrestled then, and the once-leader always won.
Stormsteel picked his two-year-old son up, as Fiendfire picked up Tatakai. "Boys. Enough. Play nice, or we’re going home."
Kelsi hid a smile behind her hand, as she looked to Aolani. Those two had hated each other, until recently. Their sons were amazingly quick to fight with each other, and so the fathers had wanted to set them the right image of respecting each other, and working out their differences. Now, Fiendfire and Stormsteel were starting to become the best of friends. Aolani and Kelsi returned to their conversation. The Hawaiian whispered, "So? Are you still a . . . ?"
Kelsi blushed. "Look, we don’t know what could happen."
"So I take it that’s a yes."
"Well . . . I don’t see anyone who I’d cheat on the big softie with. So yeah, I’m a virgin. Whoo-hoo, ye-eah." Kelsi chuckled, seeing Satsujinhan’nin’s bemused face across the room. "And he’s reading my lips again. It’s a great life, ain’t it?"
Aolani laughed, and her daughter started to stand, holding onto her knees. Kelsi looked over at her son, who seemed just as drawn to Tsuki, as Tsuki was to him. They played with each other quietly, and even missed each other when it was time for a nap, or for bed. They were months ahead of the others, mentally, and Wrangler, Satsujinhan’nin, and Kelsi had started to come to the conclusion that they had been given something to advance their mental capabilities during their development in the tanks.
Three techs came in, and handed small laptops to each of the fathers, then to the paired fathers, then left as silently as they had come. Oddly enough, all the children had fallen silent, and watched them come in, and leave. Taiyoo was actually glaring at the door. Kelsi looked at Satsujinhan’nin, who picked up both Taiyoo and Tsuki, and walked over to Wrangler and Kelsi. The young girl clung to her father, once she was safe in his arms, while Taiyoo reached for his mother. She ran her fingers through his short golden hair, and he turned his face into her chest, murmuring. She smiled, and held him, while Satsujinhan’nin seemed to be growing more and more angry by the moment. He was reading the laptop. Kelsi reached for it, but he quickly put it away, his crimson optics glittering as coldly as they had been when he had first met her. Kelsi reached up to his face, and rested her fingers upon his lips, feeling his breath come quick and short. Once he felt the contact, he jumped, and looked back at Kelsi. She looked up at him sadly. "It’s time, isn’t it."
He replied by embracing her, whispering, "Be strong, Kelsi. Please. Be strong."
The children were still unconscious, and Kelsi knew that her son was in pain. She had felt it, as any mother would have. Wrangler was to her left. To his left, were Rapid and Fola, looking at Jinsei, then Baron and Aolani looking at Shi. Those two infants had been paired. Wrath stood alone, looking at his Ai, while Brasswill watched Kirau’s chest rise and fall steadily. Bastion and Nari stood together, their arms around each other, while watching Shizukesa; Fiendfire’s head was leaning against the glass, while he listened through the barrier, to his son’s, Tatakai’s, breathing. Hazard and Stormsteel watched Shinri and Uso. That final pair were the most challenging of the infants who went through this procedure.
Silence was the common language, but most things were communicated through a glance or small sound. A sigh of relief, when breathing steadied; a smile of victory, when a yawn appeared upon a face; a chuckle, when a soft snore was heard through the glass.
Then, Taiyoo’s eyes opened, light blue depths reflecting the sky. He stretched, and then blinked again, and sat up, to look over at his parents, his curls disheveled. He was in a white outfit, and he looked over at Tsuki, then leaned over, and put a chubby hand upon her shoulder, patting it insistently. He wasn’t fast enough, when she lashed out, and he sat back with a whining yelp. That woke all the others up, and they all seemed to pair off, into five pairs, each content to be looking at the other.
Tsuki was still lying back, when Taiyoo leaned over her head, and said, "Soo-kee."
She giggled, and Wrangler and Satsujinhan’nin looked at each other, then back at the infants, as Tsuki replied, "Tie-yo?"
They burbled back and forth, laughing, as the others soon began to do. Kelsi was shedding tears, and Satsujinhan’nin pulled her against him, smiling. "They all survived."
"Thank God." She looked up at him sadly. "But this is only the beginning, Sats."
He nodded. "I know. And who knows when it will end."
A Maximal showed up later that week. She walked into the nursery/playroom, and saw Satsujinhan’nin. "Do you remember me?"
He stood, leaving Taiyoo with Tsuki and Wrangler. "Yes."
"I have something for the scientists."
He nodded, and she took a step closer. Before she could take a second step, four of the children had ran up to her, smiling. They were all emotion-sensitive, and always seemed to know who needed to be played with, when the others were sad, scared, or just plain down. Jinsei, Shi, Shizukesa and Tatakai waited for a response from her. She covered her optics with a hand, and Shi wrapped her arms around the elder’s leg. "Play!"
The Maximal looked down, and Shi insisted, "Play!"
Kelsi smiled. "Well, they won’t be satisfied, until that’s done. Hey! You lot! She’ll be back!" The human looked to the Maximal. "Won’t you?"
A slow nod, to which a smile was added to, seemed to send a cold chill though the human. She herded the children over to another game, allowing the Maximal to follow her partner. She sighed, and sat, feeling Taiyoo climb into her lap, and curl up against her. Tsuki reached up for her father, and he went to his beast mode, a panther, and scooped her up in one wide padded paw, then lay outside of the large playpen. Tsuki curled up with her father, and he said, "Kelsi, are you okay?"
She looked at him, and shook her head. "I’m trying to figure out where I’ve seen that Maximal before. You know that we haven’t been out much since the children came about, but she seems really familiar."
"She was the one that you saw, when we had first met, a little over two years ago."
As he said it, the faces and voices clicked together, and she nodded. "Yes, of course."
"And aren’t you celebrating your eighteenth birthday soon?"
Kelsi chuckled, and said, "Please don’t spread that around. I’d like to keep it quiet."
He made a neutral sound, and the last two of the children, Shinri and Uso, were picked up by Hazard and Stormsteel. Wrangler handed Tsuki to Kelsi, while he shut off the lights, then joined her, and took his daughter back. He sighed, and said, "Don’t tell Satsujin, but I know what the children will be going through next."
Kelsi nodded, and asked, "What is it?"
"They’ll be testing them, for Spark strength. Only . . . did he tell you what they had done?"
The human shook her head, and Wrangler said, "You know that the children have Sparks . . . and so did the scientists. They combined the Sparks of the children that are going to be together."
Kelsi stopped, and looked at Taiyoo, sleeping in her arms. She held him closer, and Wrangler whispered, "He’s going in first, and Tsuki will be next. They’re separating the tests, into the boys, then the girls. They combined their Sparks, so that if a test began to tax the child, then they would have the other to rely upon. They would not die, but only be drained."
Kelsi looked at him again, then hardened her face, and held Taiyoo slightly tighter. He sighed in his sleep, and she kissed his curls, sighing in return. As they entered their shared quarters, Satsujinhan’nin embraced her, as Wrangler put his daughter to bed. The Predacon took his son gently, and put him into his bed, in the room across from theirs, and returned to Kelsi, who held her arms out to him, like her son often did, and he picked her up, holding her tight. "You know about the schedule."
She nodded against his shoulder. "I don’t want to see him go through this, but . . . he’ll need me. He’ll need both of us."
Her partner carried her in, and laid her on their now-shared and larger bed. He sat upon the side, and said, "I’ve wanted to ask you something for the past year, now, Kelsi."
She reached up, and rested her palm upon his face, tracing his features gently in the dark. She ran the tip of her finger along his straight nose, and whispered, "You know that you can always ask me anything, Sats."
He took her hand, and kissed it, then gently rolled her over, and rubbed at her back, kneading the scars there. She sighed, as some of the pain abated, and he asked, "Will you . . . will you please stay with me?"
She turned back over to look at him. "What are you really asking?"
He pulled her close, as he whispered, "Marry me."
Kelsi wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her eyes under his jaw, as she replied in a soft, almost-scared-sounding whisper, "I thought you would never ask."
Satsujinhan’nin chuckled, and pushed her back upon the bed, holding her tight, while she laughed. Soon, though, they were still, and watched each other silently. He sighed, and said, "Do you know, that the only time you’ve kissed me, was on Shi’s birth? Even worse, it was informal!"
Kelsi blinked at his tease. "Is that so? Hmph. We most certainly can’t have that . . ." her voice continued in a whisper, "now can we?"
He blinked at her, and she pulled herself close to him, whispering, "I love you."
They kissed, not knowing that their son had been watching. Taiyoo blinked, then went back to bed, and looked up at the ceiling. His mind was expanding, growing faster than it had before . . . before he and Tsuki had become something more than brother-sister. He sat up, and thought, ~Sooki.~
He heard her yawn, then reply, ~Go t’ sweep.~
~Nuh-uh.~
~Fine. Waddya wan’?~
He blinked, then thought, ~D’ya know tha’ we coul’ do thi’?~
He knew she got out of bed, and he climbed out of his own, then met her in the living room. They sat across from each other, and watched each other. Finally, Tsuki shook her head. ~Can’t speak right, yet.~
~D’ya think tha’ the White People know?~
To the children, the "White People" were the scientists, since the children had known of a world of white which were the labs, that was where the White People were from, and where they go all the time. They were people that the children feared and disliked at the same time. Tsuki felt Taiyoo’s confused anger. ~Mum an’ Da ’re afraid, angry ’bout sumthin’.~
~You saw sumthin’ too.~
He nodded. ~They hugged. An’ . . . an’ did sunthin’ with their moufs.~
Tsuki reached out towards Taiyoo, and he put his palm against hers, a sign of friendship and love, even, between the two. To them, it signified their being equal to each other.
Their night meeting over, the toddlers went back to bed, not knowing that they were the ones now being watched.
Kelsi walked back to Taiyoo’s room, and whispered, "How’s my son?"
Taiyoo looked up, and Kelsi saw guilt upon his young face. She picked him up, and he sighed into her shoulder. She rubbed his curls. "Taiyoo, I know that you two see more than we know, and I know that you and her understand more than you can say. I love you all the same."
"Momma."
Kelsi smiled. "You’ll both live a hard life, Taiyoo. I want you to always look after Tsuki, no matter what. I know that she’ll always be looking after you. Her father had asked her that, last night."
He nodded, and Kelsi kissed his forehead. He looked up at her, and reached up for her face, resting his hand against her cheek. Kelsi smiled, and kissed it. "My baby boy . . ." She shook her head. "Go to sleep. Momma’s here."
She put him back in his bed, and he curled up, still looking at her. With a smile, Kelsi pulled the blanket up around him, and said, "I love you."
His eyes finally closed, and Kelsi stroked his curls again, then heard a soft knock upon the door. Satsujinhan’nin came out of their room, and answered it. The human sighed, and returned to her bed, staring out the window. She knew who was at the door, and even when Satsujinhan’nin walked back in, his emotions brimming over, she couldn’t bring herself to comfort him.
None of the parents slept deeply, that night.
Life sucked.