Brighten up the world - birthing

[Ruan]

ruan

He stood still, steadily watching the wall of flames with ice-bright eyes, muscles relaxed though he felt the tension tight within his chest and shoulders. A birth was such a wondrous event, nature's true magic: the gift of life. He could remember saying so once, so long ago. He could remember so many things that had been magical, most of which were just that. Only memories.

The father was pacing, anxious. Well did he know that nervousness, could feel it now though his own did not outwardly show. He could remember that, too. Those chaotic emotions that had roiled through him at waiting for his first born. His son. His chest clenched tighter, but he ignored the father. He understood. There was nothing he could do or say to comfort him. All either of them could do now was wait.

And soon enough, two little eyes as red and ruby as his mother's were peering through the flames, brushing them aside to slip through curiously. That little gaze was on his, lost in the shining bright blue, and a soft smile spread slowly in the corner of Ruan's mouth. He held still, though, only watched as the boy was drawn forward by that first eye contact, ready to reach and greet each other once he came closer.

But the energy shifted, tensed as Terran stepped forward in irritation, gave his son the very first sight of his father with bared teeth and clipped words. Ruan's eyes hardened, but he said nothing. It was a stressful moment for the young man. He understood. Would have reacted much the same way, perhaps. He understood. So he only stared at him silently, and took a pointed step to the side. This was his grandson, not his child. Not his moment. He wouldn't have any more of those.

He was just about to turn to check on Jinju when his golden child joined them, standing a little too comfortably close to the father of her sister's child. She didn't greet her own father, or so he'd always thought he'd been, and he didn't greet her. He ignored her rebuke towards Terran - the man can handle himself - and turned to seek Jinju, catching Heda's next quiet words and glancing in time to see her touch her sister's man. Requesting he keep a promise and take the colt to Loess, a kingdom she had forcefully taken without so much as meeting the residents beforehand, so he'd heard.

Clearly, he was not as great a father as he'd once thought. Never would one of his own act so selfishly, self-entitled. He must have failed her long ago. As he'd failed his wife, apparently.

But his focus was on Jinju, now. She and her son were the whole reason they were here, after all. Not the personal business between her sister and her boy's father that seemed thus far inappropriate. Jinju didn't deserve that, if that were the case. And he hoped she had been resting and hadn't had to see it before her, at the birth of her first child. At her special moment.

"How do you feel, Jinju?" he murmured to her, his eyes still hard and jaw tight with the sight he'd just put his back to. He tried to press a small smile to his lips, though, tried to thaw the ice in his blood. "He's gorgeous, you know. You did good. Congratulations."