[Fanfiction] The Dakotas
Title: The Dakotas, because I am original
Author/Artist: lokichan2004
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Canada/America
Rating: Uh...PG, to be on the safe side
Warnings: Mentions of live birth, human names
Summary: Two new additions to the family.
North and South Dakota are born within minutes of each other, hearty wails from tiny lungs heralding their arrival. Their father Matthew catches them in a receiving blanket, slippery and coated with afterbirth, and turns them over, gently wiping the fluid from their pink skin.
“A girl, Alfred!” he exclaims joyously, eyes shining behind his glasses. Of all the children he’s fathered with Alfred there hasn’t been a single little girl until now. “Can you believe it? My God, she’s beautiful.” Alfred for his part just hangs his head with an exhausted groan; the sweat cooling rapidly on his skin and making him shiver. Matthew finishes with the babes, wrapping them each in a clean swaddling blanket and setting them in the crib before hurrying over to his companion.
“There, Alfred, turn over, you’ve been kneeling for hours,” he soothes in his brother’s ear, putting his arm around his waist and helping him crawl gingerly onto his back. Alfred grimaces as he lays on sore and tender muscles that have been stretched beyond their means, but her smiles through it.
“Thank you, Matt,” he says softly, and the note of exhaustion in his voice unmistakable. His eyes are heavy with sleep and the coal furnace in the corner of the room is making him drowsy, but he opens them when a tiny bundle is pressed into his arms. He looks down and a smile lights up his weary features. The boy, the first-born, North Dakota, looks up at him with the darkest blue eyes Alfred has ever seen. A thatch of blonde hair crowns the top of his head, the color of dry prairie grass in late autumn. He lifts a hand to brush gentle fingers across a tiny cheek; North Dakota yawns and closes his eyes. Alfred’s smile widens and he looks up at his brother, who is cooing softly to the child in his arms.
“She’s perfect,’ he says, when he looks up and catches Alfred’s eyes. “Hair the color of winter wheat in Saskatchewan.”
“Let me see her.” Matthew does so, easing onto the bed and leaning forward so Alfred can see. Alfred peers into the face of newest and youngest state, at the tiny rosebud lips and pale blue eyes blinking owlishly at him in the lamplight. A small curly hair sticks out from her forehead, and Alfred can’t help but laugh.
“We know where she gets that from,” he says, and Matthew smiles, leaning forward and taking North Dakota from his protective embrace. Alfred allows him and stifles a yawn, his eyes once more drifting shut. Exhausted as he is, he is only half-way done; Montana and Washington are still inside him, squirming and tumbling in the extra room left by their siblings. He puts a hand on his swollen belly in an attempt to soothe them and leans back against the pillows. Matthew is at his side again after putting the newborns in the crib, taking his free hand and squeezing lightly.
“You did well today, Alfred,” he speaks softly, brushing his hair, damp with sweat, from his forehead. “I’m proud of you.” Alfred smiles at this, though his eyes are still closed.
“’m not done yet,” he says, and shifts slightly. Sleep is pulling him under but he fights it. He wants to talk to Matt before it overtakes him.
“How much longer, do you think?” the Canadian asks, rubbing Alfred’s stomach absently. The American shrugs.
“As soon as Congress passes the bill. Could be any day now, though.” Matthew nods unseen and stands.
“Sleep,” he commands gently, and Alfred nods drowsily, glasses slipping down his nose. Matthew takes them and places them on the nightstand, pressing a tender kiss to his sleeping brother’s forehead. “I love you.”