A Mapped Life...: Ch 19: the Birth of a Prince...

I DO NOT OWN Inuyasha or the Crew, Rumiko Takahashi does. But I do own my original characters.

A/N: Hello again! As I said I count with a lot of free time on my hands, and I wanted to get this chapter out as soon as possible since I couldn't keep lil' Sesshou waiting to be born any longer or Lora would burst!

“That poor girl! She almost died!”

But read just read I won't say anything else about the storyline, or I'll ruin everything nice in the chapter!

Well what else, umm oh yeah, it's a shorter chapter, just in case you hadn't noticed…I plan on updating again before the end of the month! Yay!

“Do not fear! I will complete this story if it takes all I have got!”

And as one of my favorite fanfic writers says:REVIEWS ARE INSPIRATION FOR MORE CHAPTERS!!!”

Japanese Meanings for words used in the chapter:

Yukata: a silk sleeping robe held together by an obi (belt) of the same nature.

Fundoshi: a long and soft strip of cloth used to wrap around the neither regions and act as our equivalent to modern day underwear (same style as ones seen on sumo wrestlers).

Youki: Mystical energy expelled by magical creatures of the Sengoku Jidai period, youkai magic of good nature.

Sesshoumaru: Perfect Death

Ren: Lily

Ume: Lily

Chiyo: Eternal

Tatami: Japanese mat style carpet, usually made from palm or hay or rich fibers in most cases used indoors for comfort.

Mate: Youkai equivalent of soul-mate or life partner.

Clan: equivalent of family for the Inu youkai in my story.

Crests: Marks youkai are born with to show royalty and semblance to their sire.

Naming Ceremony: a ceremony i made up to make the time family or/and clan get together to name their children in my story more important.

Inu no Taisho: Togas' station as Dog General in the manga and anime, Taisho will be used also as common denominator last name for all of Toga's decedents.

Chapter 19: The Birth of a Prince, and what special love it brings…

After a regular dinner, just like the one a few days ago, now ten days past their arrival at the mansion and no semblance of natural childbirth Toga was worried, more over what Ren had discovered about Lora's health, he then had approached Ren and asked her to take which ever action necessary for his heir to be born before the end of the week since Lora was now past due and on the verge of completing a full nine months when youkai only needed seven and a half to eight months of gestation period to properly develop.

Ren and Myouga met in the kitchen and discussed what was to be done, he informed Ren of all of the happenings on the trip towards the mansion, Ren nodded her head as she put her thoughts together and came to the conclusion that she had to take her chances and rush the birth of Toga's Heir.

She jotted down some herbs and essential oils she would need to put together a brew of tea she had only used twice in her life. Once when Ken's mother was about to die before birthing him, and then as Toga's mother fainted before beginning the onset of labor, in such circumstances Ren knew that the mother could not be saved, and that she had to find a way to save the child in anyway possible, the brew was so strong that it provoked immediate labor pains upon ingestion.

This time it was different since Lora was in no danger of dying, at least not by birthing her son, so she had to alter the brew to only trigger labor, she changed the poison ivy leaves for rose petals, and finished jotting down everything else. After Myouga was on his way Ren then called Ume and ordered her to go hover around Lora so she would lose her patience, then she sent Maki to Toga's sleeping quarters to inform him that Ren would administer the birthing potion to Lora, and to stay in his room until she called for him.

With that the only thing left to assure was the room they would use for Lora to give birth in, she had to be in a room where no male could have been for a long time, and should not be able to smell any male in the immediate area. Being in the same room as birthing Inu Youkai bitch was very dangerous if you did not know how to handle yourself. So she had Noah and Chiyo dress in pure white linens and scrub the walls and floors down with hydrogen peroxide, then Noah carted in a chair used to accommodate the birthing female, it had a soft cushioned back, the seat was oval and cut out in shape of a half circle, so when she had to engage into a crouching position using stirrups she would not feel to uncomfortable.

A basin was placed beneath the chair to hold any birthing fluids, blood and afterbirth. The warm water to bathe the infant, clothes and swaddling cloth was left ready upon the table to Ren's left, the table on the right contained surgical utensils, if by any case that the birth got complicated and the mother died in the process, she then had to cut the child out.

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Lora was on the verge of lashing out in the most primal ways at the pest of a maid Ren had sent to care for her while she took her evening bathe. `It must be a conspiracy!

“…but Lady Lora, are you sure you don't want me to scrub your back?”

“No…”

“How about I bring you some more warm water, that water looks tepid already,”

“No…”

“Well how about some more fragrance oils? Surely you liked the gardenia essential oil right? I made it myself…”

“No, no, no and no!”

“”Oh don't loose your temper lady Lora, remember it is bad for the baby” said Ume.

“Then stop bugging me you dimwit! Just leave me alone you useless twit!”

Lora grabbed a sponge that floated by her in the tub and flung it towards the maid, missing her by just a hair; Ume ducked and wiped the splashed water from her cheek.

“Damn it Ume! Just leave me alo-ne MMMPH!”

“Is everything alright Lady Lora? Do you need anything?”

Lora gripped underneath her extended belly as she felt for the baby through her pain. She closed her eyes and tried breathing through the pain, but was unsuccessful to no avail. The pain withdrew itself from her lower abdomen and for this Lora was grateful, she pressed her back into the cool marble of the tub, and gathered herself, and then she threw the towel at Ume, making sure she had hold of it; Lora pulled herself to her feet with great difficulty and wrapped herself up in the towel Ume was extending for her, the pain once again pulling on her lower belly.

“Ume please go and bring me something to calm my nerves, and make a rush of it! I don't want my baby to be born yet, I don't want to let him go yet, come on you twit move!”

Lora said as she pulled a thick bathrobe on and sat on the edge of her bed. The pain once again in its full blown glory and Lora screamed as she rolled into a fetal position clutching her belly. Kenichii heard all this and pounded the wall making the paintings adorning it rattle and dust to fall from the support beams, `Why? Why do I have to sit hear and listen to this? Why can't I help her?

Kentaro pulled him away from the wall and pushed him into the leather chair in the corner of the library. They had been instructed to stay away from whatever happened that night, but Kenichii was having a rough time, his youkai threatening to come out on to the surface and making sure it's self-proclaimed mate was O.K.

Toga was in a similar situation but he was worried about his son, if he would be born healthy and well, it was the only reason he had brought Lora with him to America, so his son would live his childhood without having to experience nor watch gore and bloody battles in plain daylight. His son deserved to have a tranquil childhood, and conserve his innocent state of mind for as much time possible.

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Ume arrived at the kitchen with word of the abdominal pains Lora was currently suffering, Ren's eyebrows shot up under her thick salt and pepper bangs. She quickly poured the tea into a pot and gave Ume the tray with sweet cookies to disguise the evident, and so Lora wouldn't know that they were provoking her birth, the smell of the potion very faint and disguised by the rose petals and essential oils.

Ume rushed the tray to Lora's room pouring a cup of the concoction and offering it to her mistress, Lora easily agreed and drunk the cup of warm liquid quickly. Ume then put the cup back on the tray, and sat on the edge of the bed, using a handkerchief left on the nightstand to wipe Lora's brow which was damp with cold sweat.

Minutes rushed by and Lora's moans increased in pitch, she no longer felt comfortable lying on her side and now rested flat on her back. Moaning and mumbling incoherent phrases all the while. Then a strong pain hit, making Lora grab onto Ume's arm in a death grip and stumble out of bed, she knelt and clutched her belly with her free hand, Lora felt a warm sticky liquid gushed out from between her legs, but she was relieved to feel the child still moving inside her, the pain inside was to great and she gave in to her will, screaming at the top of her lungs for Toga, Toga heard this and started pacing around the enclosed area of his room stopping every few minutes to look menacingly at the door.

Kenichii stood upright knocking his brother off balance as he heard Lora scream, of course he had had his couple of experiences with females in labor, his household was once full of females, cousins and servants alike, and ever so often one would come upon the time to give birth, but none of what he heard as a kid in his early childhood household compared to the traumatizing agony he was sure Lora was going through at the time. Kenichii used his youkai ability to move faster than this brother and was out the door and down the hall almost knocking down the study oak door to Lora's room in the blink of an eye.

Kenichii knelt before Lora on the hardwood floor, he knew something was wrong, she was in too much pain, and it was tearing him apart from inside to see her agonizing in such way, `Toga shouldn't allow this, the strong odor of Lora's pre-birth fluids stung his sensitive nostrils, but he decided to push it aside as he reached out and started trying to pry her death grip from Ume's arm. He then hefted her up bridal style in his arms and walked quickly toward the room where he could smell Ren in, arriving at the door, he placed her upon the birthing chair and sat behind her supporting her upper body and giving his arms for her to hold on.

He locked eyes with Ren, and signaled for her to come close, Ren frowned and approached him signaling for him to leave; he shook his head as he explained the circumstances for his presences in hushed tones,

“…Kenichii boy, you must leave, she can not feel you nor smell you near while she is in labor, otherwise I am going to have to chain her down to the chair and subdue her the hard way…”

*Growl*

“No nana Ren, you don't understand, something is wrong she was in pain before Ume gave her the potion, her water already broke and she keeps gripping under her belly, please nana, please I have to be here…”

Ren shrugged, and motion for him to wash his hands in the antiseptic basin on the surgical table,

“…Well if you say so, I don't see Toga saying the negative my boy, go wash up and support her from behind, give her strength, by what you say it sounds like there could be complications in the birth of the little one…”

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Ren blinked in surprise as Kenichii busted through the door to the birthing room. But after she got one glimpse at the deviled Lora she decided that there were other matters of extreme importance. She made quick work of rearranging Lora's posture on the chair, pulling her feet into the cold metal stirrups and checking how many centimeters she had dilated, her cervix already had thinned out and moved forward, within a few seconds Lora was hit with another wave of contractions, this one bringing along a lot of show, Lora whined and held strong onto Kenichii's arms for support, Ren said nothing of this and tested the position of the child by pressing on the top of Lora's belly earning a string of expletives from said patient.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours and Lora scrambled, screamed and moaned in the uncomfortable position the chair provided her, she joined her knees every time a contraction hit, hoping to delay at least a bit more the child's birth, but by doing this she brought more unnecessary pain upon herself, and would quickly loose all her strength or would pass out from shear exhaustion. Ren massaged and felt for the baby's posture over and under Lora's belly, noticing she had expelled almost all the pre-birth fluids, meaning that she would have to start pushing before the birth started getting risky.

Kenichii narrowed his gaze at Ren and she only met him stare for stare, nothing needed to be said as they nodded and each pushed Lora's posture forward, Ren pushed on her knees so she wouldn't try to pin them together, and Kenichii on her upper body so she wouldn't arch away from the chair as the next wave of contractions came, this time expanding dilatation for the full six centimeters, by the next contraction Lora would be ready to push. Ren pulled the chair Lora was in into a full crouching position and pushed down on her belly provoking the next contraction, Lora screamed at the top of her lungs and tried to get out of the chair, but was held down by Kenichii, Ren slapped her knees to get her attention and get her to quit trying to pin them together as she called out to her,

“Lady Lora it is time, when the next contraction hits you need to push, are you ready? On my count…1, 2, 3…push Lora!”

Lora whined and scrambled in the chair, never in her entire life had she experienced such pain, she felt like she was being run through by a sledge hammer, the baby's' head was large, even for youkai standards, or was it because she had delayed the birth more than necessary? The pain she was feeling increased ten fold as Ren pushed down on her belly again and barked out for her to push, she panted and whined poor Lora was seeing stars by the second push. The death grip she held on Kenichii's arms never faltering as she leaned back into his embrace and whined in defeat,

“Ichi, I can't, I tried, but I can't, this is too hard, I can't loose my baby, I can't do this anymore…please Ichi make it stop…please make it stop!”

Kenichii felt tears swarm in his eyes, if there was something in this world that could make him feel helpless was hearing Lora whimper and cry in agony and defeat, and not being able to help her. He whispered sweet nothings into the shell of her ear, promising better and brighter moments only if she completed the task of giving birth to her son. Ren called their attention and put their minds back on track informing them that the baby could suffocate if he wasn't born soon, but before any of this happened she would gladly cut Lora open and save the baby herself.

“Lora honey, you need to keep going, you need to do this, and you need to give birth to your son. I promise everything will be better after he is born, I promise, but you have to keep going love…keep pushing koi…”

“No Ichi, I don't want to give my baby to Toga, he's mine, I can't do this, I really can't! It's too hard! It hurts too much! Please Ichi make it stop…save my baby Ichi, but please make it stop…!”

“Be quite both of you! Stop wasting precious time damn it! If you don't push Lora I will gladly cut you open and save the child myself, if you don't push he will suffocate from lack of air and Lord Toga can not and will not lose his Heir, so PUSH!”

Lora whined and gripped harder onto Kenichii's arms drawing thin strings of blood with her delicate claws, as she pushed with all her might. She felt the head and shoulders slide through, followed by the hips and chubby legs, a few seconds later the trauma and agony was over, the child was born. Ren cut the umbilical cord and slapped the baby's rump earning her an earful of long expected sobbing and screaming. Toga ran down the hall and waited outside the door patiently for Ren to present him with his child. She made quick work of bathing and clothing him, then she presented the baby to Toga's waiting arms, just outside the room in the hall,

“Congratulations are in order Lord Toga, it is a strong and healthy baby boy, be careful now hold his head and the other hand goes under his rump like this…”

Ren showed Toga how to hold his son and let him alone with the child, to finish attending Lora as she expelled the afterbirth and the rest of the liquid and placenta. She cleaned her and wrapped her neither region in a soft cotton fundoshi and quilt motioning Kenichii to move her over to a more comfortable bed located in the same room. Lora was asleep in scarce minutes after Ren let her settle down. Kenichii kissed her forehead and excused himself from the room, using the open window to exit the room and climb up to his rooms' windowsill.

He sat on the veranda ledge and lit a cigarette while he looked out over the countryside. He had helped Lora through her birth for the simple and selfish reason of wanting her to be rid of her commitment to the Inu no Taisho and finally be free to be his when the time came, and also because if she died giving birth to Toga's son then there would be noting in his life left to keep wishing and dreaming for, Lora was the key to all his dreams becoming true, and that was that.

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Ren joined toga in the room across the hall where he had temporarily accommodated with the baby while she attended the post-partum process with Lora, he was sitting in front of the lit fireplace, in a large leather sofa, with the baby in his arms, he had long ago stopped sobbing and given in to sleep in the comfort of his sires' arms. Toga's dark blue crests and golden eyes shone in the dancing firelight, as he looked down upon his son and kissed his forehead, his child had inherited the poison nature of Lora's clan, and bore the same teal crescent moon on his ivory brow. A silver tuff of hair visible from the top of his swaddling cloth and his cherub face adorned with very thin twin arcs of magenta youkai crests on both his rosy cheeks, one of his tiny chubby hands gripped on to Toga's thumb, his miniature claws also bore the color of his crests on the tips.

Toga then acknowledged her presence and gave a brief nod, and looked back down upon his slumbering son as Ren quietly informed him that Lora had awoken from her exhaustion induced nap and that everyone was readily waiting outside of the room to perform the Naming Ceremony, in which the child drunk the first milk from his mothers' breast and his sire acknowledged his birth and named him in front of all the important members of the family and clan, proclaiming his son and also heir.

Toga nodded and stood walking towards the door, that Ren had left ajar to cross the hall and enter the other room, Ren called out to him, and he stopped in his tracks and looked back,

“Lord Toga?”

“Lord Toga, forgive my insolence but why was Kenichii present in your sons' birth, I had thought that if anybody would be present it would be you…?”

“Is there some affair going on between Lord Kenichii and Lora?”

Toga sighed in defeat and nodded, then took one more step towards the door and decided to respond Ren's questions, I was the least he could do,

“Nana Ren, I only married Lora to have her birth me a strong and worthy heir, and as you also should know she will be not my problem after my son is weaned off her milk, so if there is an affair going on between them it is of no importance, and if it does not present an inconvenience to my station nor my son's welfare I will allow it, the least I want right now is for Lora to go back to her behavior before his birth, you must already have been informed of such happenings by Myouga, am I right?

Ren nodded and bowed to her Lord as he finished walking out of the room,

“Hai Lord Toga…”

And just as Toga exited the room and crossed the hall, Ren gave a silent plea inside her head,

`Oh my long lived Ken-sama! Just what kind of situation do I have on my hands now?

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Lora was arranged atop numerous fluffy pillows and clean blankets after she awoke, her mind was still hazy from the after effects of the potion that Ume had supplied her with, so Ren had taken upon herself the task of cleaning and dressing her in more proper robes, and sitting her up on the bed and fixing her posture with pillows. Chiyo was sent in with a light dinner and broth so she could start replenishing her strength, and would be ready to breastfeed her child as soon as Toga named him.

After the plates were cleared from the room and Ren finished brushing her hair up in a tidy topknot, she asked to have the curtains drawn so she could observe the sliver of moon visible through the clouds, `waning half moon, she smiled, `I managed to keep my son with me until the waning half moon, thank you Kami-sama for allowing me to be well after his birth…

Soon after Toga entered the room and stood at the side of the bed next to her, waiting for the servants and his cousins to file in accordingly so the ceremony could begin. After everybody had settled down on the tatami mat, he began his speech;

“Fellow clan members, my cousins Kenichii and Kentaro, my dear nana Ren and my loyal retainer Myouga, and assisting loyal servants of the House of Inu, today is a grand day for our clan, we have been blessed with the arrival of my son and heir, he is the first grandson of our deceased Lord Ruler Ken-sama, he is first born of my station, and so I Toga Inu no Taisho, proclaim this child my first royal lineage born son, he bears the same teal crescent moon on his forehead as his mother's clan and magenta crests, gold eyes and silver hair in semblance of my person, and so my son shall be named `Sesshoumaru”

Toga unwrapped his son from the swaddling cloth and held him up for everybody to see,

“All attending fellow clan members bow down to your prince and heir Sesshoumaru…”

Everybody bowed down touching their forehead with the tatami mats and then sat up, to watch as Toga handed the child to Lora to cuddle and breastfeed for the first time in the short period she would be able to tend to his newborn needs.

After the ceremony was over they all filed out in quiet orderly fashion and resumed their daily tasks in the busy household.

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Lora basked in glory as her first born son suckled noisily on her nipple, she had not been happy with the name Toga had awarded her son with, her selection would have been `Yuudai or something prettier, something fit for her beautiful baby boy. But she had not been informed that non-mated mothers did not have the choice of suggesting a name for their newborn child.

She frowned as her son pulled a bit too hard on her breast causing her to grit her teeth and refrain from educating him in not pulling her nipple, but she did not have the authority to do so, if she did Toga had the authority to punish her and chain her down while his son was held to breastfeed by a member of his staff.

She slouched as the weight of all the happenings in the day came down on her and Ren was by her side in a blink of an eye, to relieve her of the now sleeping baby. He was accommodated in the opposite side of the room next to bed in an oak wood crib and white first down blankets. Ren would be sleeping in the room across the hall, so if he awoke in the middle of the night, she would be able to assist him and attend to his needs quicker.

After she re-adjusted Lora's garments and pulled a blanket over her chest, she felt her brow for any sign of fever, finding none Ren nodded and checked the wall clock for the last time the baby was fed, so she would be able to calculate how long it would be until his next feeding and be by his side before he started crying. Then Ren checked on the baby one last time and exited the room, closing the door behind her, her enhanced youkai senses capable of hearing the baby through the thick oak doors of Lora's sleeping quarters.

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After all the noise died down in the mansion Kenichii slipped off the ledge of the balcony in his sleeping quarters and summoned a cloud of youki under his feet to fly over to the ledge of Lora's room, he touched down silently outside her window and pushed open the windows that Ren had forgotten to check in her old age, he smirked and shook his head knowingly of the nature of the words that could spurt from her mouth if he ever mentioned that she forgot to do something required of her station;

“…Oh and by the way nana Ren, last night I found Lora's window left open and unlocked, somebody could have easily slipped in and taken Toga's son without you noticing so…”

“Oh! By the Gods! Stop your foolish blubbering right this minute, I did no such thing and might I remind you that I raised you, you two-timing scoundrel you!”

Kenichii slipped into the room without making a sound and locked the window behind him, he stood basking in the ethereal beauty that Lora portrayed lying in bed wearing only a white silk yukata and her waist length hair spayed out around her gone loose of the once tidy topknot Ren had arranged it in, her skin luminescent and rosy parted lips visible in the beam of moonlight that danced over her figure through the window pane. His slowly approached her sleeping figure to grace her tempting lips with a long awaited but very brief and chaste kiss, and then he slid into bed next to her and played with a lock of her blue-grey hair while he safe guarded her slumber.

Kenichii nuzzled her cheek and whispered sweet nothings into her ear as he drifted off to sleep, but not before he proclaimed his love for her, and forgot the episode from long ago in the bathroom of the cruise ship on their way towards this new land.

“You did well today Lora, I must congratulate you for being brave enough to give birth to your son koi, I know how important he is to you,”

“I must admit that I had doubts about you being able to do the right thing and let nature take it's course, I was worried you would die birthing him because you were past due, I don't know what I would have done if you would have left me Lora, I am nobody without you, and you are mine, even if you don't know it yet…”

“I apologize for what I said on the ship koi, I don't know what I was thinking…I-I need to tell you that I cant live without you,”

“I need to tell you that I love you and that I am a fool to say this while you are sleeping…”

He sighed and draped a muscular arm over her sleeping form, but he did not notice that subtle twitch in the corner of her lips nor the silent tear that raced down her pale skin all the way down to her chin, Lora sighed and curled up to him as she to acknowledged her feelings for him,

“Thank you for staying by my side Ichi, I need to tell you that I love you too, I need to be by your side everyday and have you feel me near you from this day forward…”

Lora drifted off into peaceful slumber in her lover's arms, and that was how Ren found them the next morning when she entered the room to wake her so the baby could be breastfed.