Daniel died, as he lived, alone.

If someone was to ask if he regretted dying in such a manner, he would take mild offense to the idea. Why was dying an activity that required things he normally avoided? He wasn't much of a coffee person, should he regret dying while not surrounded by coffee?

But more than that it was the implication that was annoying. That life choices could even be a mistake. Or that he wasn't living his life on purpose.

If it was something you decided for yourself, then accept the consequences don't whine about them.

Make your choice and live with it. Die with it.

Besides, even if Daniel had felt such regrets you wouldn't catch him searching for some bystander to blabber them at.

Daniel came awake with a start. He must have passed out. Or he should have passed away. But here he was.

Surprise changed to confusion. He could hear people speaking but it sounded like it was coming from someone underwater in another room. That is to say clearly communication but also an indistinct drawn-out booming drone.

Also, his vision was messed up beyond what blinking rapidly could fix. It was a blurry, queasy mess, like trying out someone's glasses. He thought he could make out several figures, Was that the booming droners? It seemed so. But they were giants. Perhaps the non-glasses he was borrowing were messing with his sense of scale.

Looking down and squinting there was something he could make out, although barely. He was naked, and there was a tube going upwards from his stomach and ending into the much too big hand of someone standing behind or above him.

The dawning realisations about what situation he was in were abruptly cut off as he was brusquely wiped clean and then passed into the waiting giant arms of what was undoubtedly his new mother.

Being held was bizarre. He felt vaguely patronised by the way it was helping him calm down. Even at this distance, his mother's face was a blurry outline. About the only detail he could be sure of was that she had blonde hair.

So this was reincarnation. And one that started just after birth for some reason. Not that he really minded skipping that experience. But how did this work exactly? Daniel didn't know. His mind swirled with assumptions to challenge now that he knew this was possible. Too many questions he wouldn't be getting answered as a baby. Except that too was an assumption. Maybe everyone here had been through the same thing and was waiting for him to ask.

He tried to speak and found he could not. Dumbness could be added to the list of nearly blind and almost deaf. He wasn't about to try it out but he was confident crying or other emotive sounds were possible. Attempting actual communication ran into an empty space in his mind. It felt like running his tongue over a gap of a missing tooth. Daniel worried that the sensation might be describing brain damage.

After a while, he was passed around to several other people in the room. He couldn't tell much about them apart from gender and the color of their clothes. Halfway through he was amused to find that he thought a man in green was probably his father for no apparent reason. Was that baby instinct or was he just talking himself into thinking something stupid?

He was struck by how strange it was to be touched by so many people. Even with limited perception, the overflowing affection was obvious. Daniel had been told several times in his life that he didn't like to be touched. He didn't know what it was about himself that made people decide this for him. If there was a meeting he hadn't been invited. It seemed that the people here had not got the memo.

As he was passed back to his mother he started to worry over the idea of having a new set of parents. In Daniel's past life, his family had been a disaster area that he couldn't get away from fast enough. The idea of unconditional love between parent and child was horrifying from either end when applied to his own parents and siblings.

In later life, his mother had tried to reconnect. Mainly she would alternate between worrying about every facet of his life and apologising for bothering him. And in truth, it had been a bother. The connection at that point was one-sided. He got the impression he was being mean by not feeling the same way or being willing to pretend to.

New parents were an imposition that Daniel somewhat resented. He was uncomfortable with some couple following him around and getting invested in his life. And he was fiercely against having people in charge of him. Unfortunately, as a newborn, he didn't have many other options.

As Daniel calmed down some more he felt himself start to drift towards sleep. But then he felt the need to urinate. Or, more accurately, he just went. Any control or inhibitions were gone. Normally he would find it interesting where that line fell mentally of what was lost.

Except... he was distracted by some definite oddness in the actual mechanics of what was happening. It was almost as if he was going from the wrong place. Which made no sense unless-

Oh shit. I'm a girl