Centennial

Centennial
Gestation Part Two

Yukina and Hiei were due in a week or so. They both were moved into Genkai’s compound, so that when the time came they would have the benefit of Genkai’s healing powers, should they be needed. Botan took a week’s vacation and was staying there also to help with the births. Of course Kuwabara and Shizuru were there to support Yukina as Kurama and Yusuke were to support Hiei-- and vie for his attentions.

In the early morning, after breakfast, Yusuke and Hiei relaxed in a little sitting room. Yusuke leaned in to kiss Hiei, but he bumped into his largely swollen belly. “Whoops,” he laughed it off, repositioned himself on the couch to approach Hiei from the side. Hiei turned his head to give Yusuke better access. There lips touched mingled for moment, separated and moved together again. Yusuke put his hand on Hiei’s shoulder with intent to deepen the kiss. Just then there was loud vibrating toot.

“Uh, excuse me,” Hiei said his face turning red.

“Heh, its okay…. Better out than in, right?” Yusuke said, moving in to kiss him some more. Hiei leaned to meet him, but the movement forced out another long bubbly fart. “Seriously, Hiei?”

“I’ve got about twelve pounds of little demon sitting on my intestines!” Little demons was the affectionate term he’d taken to using when referring to his unborn children, being uncomfortable with the words babies and twins. “So, deal with it!” Hiei snapped. However the power of his fury was lessened by the short squeaky fart that slipped out of him. “Dear lord!” He huffed.

“Morning.” Kurama wandered into the room at that moment, “What are you two-- whoa!” He hit the wall of stink. He waved his hand his front of his face. “Having another gassy day, I see.”

“Don’t you start with me. I’m just glad things are moving down there again. I haven’t been able to take a dump for three days. In fact I think I’m feeling lucky.”

“Do you need help?” Kurama asked.

Hiei pinned him with a look, “I think I can handle using to the bathroom by myself.”

“I, uh, right,” Kurama meant helping him get to the bathroom, but Hiei’s pride….

Hiei struggled to lift himself off the couch. On reflex,Yusuke held his hands up behind him, incase Hiei lost the battle with gravity and fell back down again. He managed, straightened his body, rubbed the small of his sore back, and started to waddle for the door, grumbling to himself as every now and then a gust of flatulence escaped him.

Kurama turned to Yusuke, “You still want to marry him?”

“Hell yeah,” Yusuke glared at Kurama as if it were a challenge, “Nothing’s going to scare me off, not the least a fart! He’s having babies right now. He’ll go back to normal after they’re born.”

“What if he doesn’t?” Kurama put that out, “Yusuke, will you still love him if his hips expand? What if he doesn’t loose all that weight? What if he has stretch marks?”

“Stop trying to scare me off, I ain’t falling for it.” Yusuke said, “And I know he won’t have stretch marks, you keep rubbing that special oil on his belly.”

“I would have rubbed it on more than his belly, if you hadn’t interrupted,” Kurama muttered.

“Hey, I was just taking a walk in the garden,” Yusuke held his hands in the air, “Not like the time you showed up at my apartment-- I still can’t believe you did that!”

Kurama smirked, he remembered the time. He’d come home from work and Hiei wasn’t there. Kurama knew just were to look, Yusuke’s apartment. Yusuke answered the door in a poorly fastened bathrobe and looking a little worse for wear. Kurama pushed right past him, went to Yusuke’s bedroom, and there he found Hiei, still on his hands and knees. His bottom sticking up in the air, cum dribbling out his little hole. Then Hiei glanced back at him with this unbelievable look on his face, as if he were asking Kurama, “You want?” Kurama dropped his trousers, mounted Hiei and fucked him right there in front of Yusuke.

“You had sex with him in my house, too, so that makes us even,” Kurama pointed out.

“Hey, he booty called me,” Yusuke said, “Once again he was needing it and you weren’t around.”

“I was at work, making money to provide for his other needs, like the need for food and shelter,” Kurama defended, “I’m planning for the future. Do you really think my Hiei wants to raise twins in a one bedroom apartment?”

“No, but I’ll bet he’ll have no problem raising them in a castle in Makai,” Yusuke shot back, “And oh look, I happen to have one of those just lying around. It’s even got a big pile of gold in it which I’m pretty sure can be used to buy food and just about anything MY Hiei could want.”

Kurama responded with a growl. Yusuke growled back. Their agitation wasn’t just with each other. The aforementioned encounters occurred within a couple weeks after the baby shower and their individual proposals. Yusuke and Kurama both went into full ‘cock block’ mode to keep the other from having private access to Hiei. They spent so much time and energy on that, before they knew it Hiei hit his third month and they got locked out.

Hiei’s middle had just grown so ungainly large that he could hardly get comfortable at any time, let alone while having sex. Make no mistake, there were still kisses and hugs, and the two demons thoroughly enjoyed courting him. But they were somewhat flustered.
* * *
“Will you take a bath with me?” Yukina asked Hiei. It started him for two reasons. One, he had been deep in thought as he wandered down the halls. He decided against returning to the sitting room after relieving himself. He liked the attention he’d been getting from Yusuke and Kurama-- though he would never admit it-- but he didn’t like having to listen to them bicker. That was the main reason why he cut them off the sex, not just because his body had become awkward and certainly not because of any lack of desire. In fact his libido was still running at a hundred and ten percent.

The other reason he was started was because it was an odd request to pop out of someone’s mouth out of the blue. “A bath?” Hiei said.

“Yeah, I wanted to take a nice long soak in the hot spring out back, because it really sooths my aching back muscles. But Kazuma doesn’t want me bathing alone in case I get woozy. But Kazuma’s not here right now and neither is Shizuru,” Yukina explained. “So then I saw you and thought, hey, I bet Hiei would enjoy a soak too. And we could keep an eye on each other.”

Hiei thought for a moment. The hot water did sound good. Plus he needed time away from Yusuke and Kurama to think about what to do about them and their infernal competing. And they would never think to look for him in the bath with Yukina. He replied, “Sure.”

“Excellent,” she chirped, handing him a towel and folded robe, “and while we’re at it we can talk about what’s bothering you.”

“I-- there isn’t anything bothering me,” Hiei bristled.

“Oh, don’t try to fool me. Mother’s intuition,” she smiled knowingly at him as he led him down the hall, out the back door.

Hiei took off his clothes and did his best to wrap the towel around his hips. Yukina called to him, “Hiei, can you help me with this robe?”

“Oh, uh… right,” Hiei bashfully walked behind her and took hold of the opening in her robe and gently slipped it off her shoulders.

She giggled, “You don’t have to be so shy. I mean, it would be anatomically impossible for the two of us do anything indecent.”

Hiei merely grunted in response, helped her into the water. Her towel was only draped over her front, being too large to wrap it around. He settled in across from her. Of course, Yukina didn’t pry about his problems, which she so obviously knew he had. It wasn’t her way. But after a few minutes of staring at her with that pleasant, oh-so understanding and ready to help face, he cracked.

“It’s Yusuke and Kurama,” He huffed, “They’ve both been… taking care of me, but now they’re fighting over me. They… they want to marry me.”

Yukina frowned, “I don’t know whether to say congratulations or poor thing.”

He eyed her; surprised she was being so calm about the situation. Not only did he have one guy as a romantic interest, but two! Then again, he had heard that the Ice Maidens, with the lack of males for companionship, often had single sex relations. Perhaps with that upbringing Yukina assumed that men did the same. Homophobia was really more of a human world thing anyhow.

“Poor thing. It’s been going on since the shower.” Hiei scowled. “Damn it. Those two just couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

“Well, it’s only natural for a man to be possessive over the ones they care about,” Yukina told him.

“That’s right, that’s exactly what their doing! They’re trying to possess me like some little trinket,” Hiei came to that conclusion.

“I didn’t mean it like--”

“I refuse to be anyone’s toy,” Hiei stood up decisively, “I’m going to go tell them off right now!”

“Wait!” Uncharacteristically bold for her, Yukina reached out and grabbed him. The move, unfortunately, over balanced her and she started to topple forward. On reflex, Hiei half turned and caught her, but in the process threw off his own tenuous balance. Yukina brought her other arm up to brace him and once again sent herself to wobbling. This when back and for the for a couple more turns until both Yukina and Hiei were kneeled in the hot water, big pregnant bellies pressed together, and panting for breath.

“Don‘t you care about them, even a little?” she gasped.

“We’re teammates and allies,” he shrugged, “I never thought of them as more than that until recently. Actually I’ve had very little interest in those sorts of things until the little demons came along. For all I know this is all temporary insanity brought on by hormones that will abate after their born.”

“I hope not!” Yukina appalled.

“Why?”

“Well, Yusuke and Kurama are serious about you,” Yukina pointed out, “If you suddenly stop caring about them after the children-- er, your little demons are born, they’ll be crushed.”

“I-I never thought of that,” Hiei said, feeling an odd shift in his gut that was not his little demons.

“Hiei, if you chose one, you’re sure to lose the other. But if you don’t choose at all, you’ll stand to lose both!” She told him, “And don’t just mean romantically-- they may never want to see you again!”

Unbelievably, that thought hit him like a blow to the solar plexus. Hormones and horniness aside, the idea of those two just being gone from him… it was too much. But could he really go along with this marriage thing, just to prevent at least one from vanishing from his life? But at the same time a stubborn part of him said, this is all madness!

“Hiei, rash decisions is what got you in this mess,” Yukina told him, “And believe me; you can’t trust your emotions at this point. Just think about it and then think some more.” On more chipper note she added, “Hey, here’s an idea, why don’t you marry both of them?”

“That sounds like a good plan, but there’s one flaw,” Hiei told her flatly, “They’d kill each other before the honeymoon ended. Then I’d be a widow twice.”

Just then a bemused voice came from behind them accompanied by the faint smell of cigarette, “Well isn’t this cozy.”

Hiei and Yukina realized they were still embracing from after their little battle with gravity. They jumped apart, sheepishly.

“Should I take it from that little display that you and the little lady have finally squared things?” Shizuru smirked. Hiei gave her a death glare, telling her to shut the hell up.

“Shizuru, don’t tease him,” Yukina chided, “He’s got enough drama going on right now, he doesn’t need that stressing him and the babies too.” Hiei looked at her astonished. She sighed, “I know, Hiei. I know who you are to me… brother. Oh, please don‘t faint again!”

“I won’t,” Hiei shook his head. “How long?”

“Always I suppose. When I first met you, you seemed so familiar, like a near forgotten dream from my childhood. Then when I went home and they told me I had a brother, I thought, it’s him! It must be Hiei,” she said.

Hiei muttered, “You never said anything before…”

“I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.” She added, “I mean you’re such a brave, strong, and honorable man… I guess I was afraid that if I said something I might find out I was wrong and you weren’t my brother. But then you turned up pregnant on our hundredth birthday, so that confirmed it. I’m glad. I really wanted you to be my brother.”

“How could you say that? You know I’m a convicted felon, right?” Hiei burst out.

“You also saved the world several times. Gosh, we’re from the demon plane, who in that world is innocent of any crime and doesn’t have blood on their hands?” She added, “Not even I Hiei. Once when I was twenty-- only a little girl-- I was playing outside the island and I was attacked by a male. He tried to rape me, but I used my ice powers to freeze him into a solid block of ice, killing him.”

Hiei stared at her, jaw dropped.

“You didn’t think you were the only one born with high power levels did you?” She smiled, “My potential is just as great as yours. I just never chose to develop it. Oh there are times I wish I had, but…”

“Yukina, I think he’s definitely going to faint now,” Shizuru interrupted her.

“Oh, Hiei I didn’t mean to devastate you so!” Yukina gasped, helping him to the edge of the water.

Hiei rubbed his face with his, muttering, “Fuck my life.”

Shizuru and Yukina shared a glance, laughed. He was going be alright.
* * *
Later that night the whole house came together for dinner at the big table in Genkai’s dining room. It was funny, the old lady thought, she owned a table that big when she never bothered to raise a family. But now here they were, all these young people living in her house, sitting around her table.

Genkai was at the head of the table, Shizuru to her right. At the other end Kuwabara sat with Yukina to his left. Hiei had statically snagged the seat between Shizuru and Yukina, putting himself on the more crowded side of the table. Yusuke and Kurama where grudgingly forced to sit on the other side, away from their Hiei.

Both of them knew that was Hiei’s way of showing his displeasure with them fighting over him earlier in the day. They both blamed the other and spent the first course sneaking glares at each other and nudging each other rudely under the table.

Their feuding and everyone else’s conversations came to a screeching halt when, ever so casually Yukina said to Hiei, “Would you like a buttered roll, brother?”

Ignoring a table full of slackened faces, Hiei accepted the roll and said, “Yes, thank you sis.”

Of course that silence would have to break sometime. It was Kuwabara. He asked slowly, “Uh why are they calling each other brother and sister?”

“It’s probably because they’re brother and sister,” Shizuru said flatly as she buttered a roll.

Kuwabara gaped, “Wha?! You-- you mean Hiei and my sweet Yukina are related? Since when?”

“Just taking a guess, but I’d say since birth,” Shizuru rolled her eyes.

“Oh yeah I guess that makes sense,” Kuwabara scratched his head before he shouted again. “Hey how come none of you look as surprised as I-- wait a second. Did you asses already know about this and not tell me? Figures, you demon‘s think you‘re so cool and I‘m just a joke.”

“Kazuma. I’m sure the reason why they didn’t tell you was because it would have put you in an awkward position.” Yukina put a hand on his arm to calm him. It worked almost instantly. “It was secret and if you had known, you would have had to lie to me. And if you didn’t lie to me, then you would be breaking their confidence.”

“We didn’t tell Keiko either,” Yusuke added.

“You didn’t ever tell Keiko nothing,” Kuwabara pointed out, “That’s probably one of the reasons you to spilt.”

“Will ya feel better if I told you secret nobody else knows?” Yusuke leaned over and whispered into Kuwabara‘s ear, “Me and Keiko broke up because I love Hiei and we’re gonna get married.”

Of course Kurama heard it with his fox ears and interjected, “The former part is true, but the latter half will apply to me, if I haven anything to do with it.”

“In your dreams fox-boy,” Yusuke shot off.

“Then, I must be sleeping right now,” Kurama retaliated.

“Enough!” Hiei stood up, “Really, I expected better from you then this childish behavior from you two-- especially you Kurama.” He touched his stomach, “Oh, now I’ve got heartburn. I hope you’re happy!”

“Oh!” Yukina grabbed her stomach as well.

“Kuwabara asked her, “You got heartburn too, baby?”

Yukina shook her head, “No. I- I think it’s time.”

Then all hell broke loose. Yukina was rushed to the birthing room they had prepared for her. Botan was summoned from Spirit world. And with Kuwabara clutching her hand the birthing process began. That was as much as Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama knew. Being surplus, they were shooed away from the birthing room and now waited in a sitting room.

Meekly Yusuke handed Hiei a cup of lemon lime soda, “I know this helps with your stomach. I’m real sorry about all the fighting, ya know. I guess I just goT carried away.”

Hiei sniffed, “I was beginning to think you two were more interested in the competition than the prize.”

“You are more than just a prized,” Kurama interjected as he scooted in behind Hiei to rub his obviously tense shoulders. “And I agree. We were out of hand. Will you accept my apology as well?”

Hiei shrugged, “I suppose. Damn it you two, quit trying to butter me up!”

“Buttering you up… Hmm, that sounds good,” Kurama smirked.

“Literally?” Yusuke cocked his head at the fox, “But if ya did that he’d be all slippery and-- oh. I get it. Hey, I thought we agreed not to be putting the moves on him, cuz it‘s stressing him out.”

“We agreed not to fight each other,” Kurama corrected him. “We said nothing about pursuing him.”

“Same difference!”

“My sister‘s giving birth right now, gentlemen, I‘d like to focus on that.” Hiei winced and rubbed his stomach.

“Heartburn not going away?” Yusuke asked.

“It’s not that… I think I’m gonna try going to the bathroom,” Hiei stood. As he did a shock of pain lanced through his abdomen and an amount of fluid gushed from between his legs.

“Hiei!” Kurama cried, “Are you?”

“Shit,” Hiei panted, “I think my water just broke.”

Kurama picked him up to carry him the birthing room they’d prepared for him, in spite of his protests that he could walk himself. Yusuke yelled down the hall for assistance.

“You picked a fine time,” Genkai said as she hurried into the room. Hiei was a little relieved. He’d already given some thought as to how a male, like himself, would give birth. And he’d rather have the old woman witnessing that than the blue haired bubblehead.

Yusuke and Kurama were trying to remove his clothes when a contraction hit. He screamed and lashed out, punching Yusuke in the jaw. He was hardly fazed, even though his cheek was bruised. He continued to try to remove Hiei’s pants while Kurama held his arms.

“Spread your legs,” Genkai directed him sternly as she pulled on a pair of rubber surgical gloves and bent down to look between Hiei’s open knees. She touched his rear and he jumped slightly, not only was it embarrassing as hell, but his hole felt like it was on fire! “You’re only dilated about half a centimeter, boy. This is going to take a while.”

“Dilated?” Yusuke said.

“Hiei’s, er, opening has to enlarge itself before he can birth the twins,” Kurama told him. “Really Yusuke, haven’t you done any research into child bearing? You’ve known this day was coming for three months. You could have read some books.”

“Those books are for human girls, not male demons,” Yusuke protested.

“Same principles, different orifice,” Kurama scoffed.

“Will you two--NGH!” Hiei winced as another contraction hit him.

“You’re not dilating enough with each contraction,” Genkai observed. “We might have to manually stretch you. Otherwise you might rip during the birth.”

“What?!” All three demon male’s exclaimed for different reasons.

At that moment Botan poked her head in the room, “Master Genkai, we need you, it’s coming. I can see the head!”

“Coming,” she said and then shot to the three men, “Fox, make Hiei comfortable. Dimwit, fetch a bowl of cool water, a rag and a bowl of ice chips from the freezer. The fox knows what to do with them. Watch his contractions and if he’s not dilated at least three centimeters in the next thirty minutes, you’ll need to stretch him manually.”

“How do we do that?” Yusuke asked.

“The same way you always do it when you want to put something big in there,” she tossed back snidely.

Later, Yusuke was tenderly mopping Hiei’s brow with a cool rag, while Kurama survived the space between Hiei’s legs. “No where near three centimeters and it’s been half an hour.” He reported. “We’ll need to go in.”

“Shouldn’t we, like, call grandma first?” Yusuke asked.

“No, she has her hands full with Yukina right now. We’ll have to do it.” Kurama snatched a pair of sterile gloves from a box-- couldn’t risk introducing infection now while Hiei’s immunities were low from birthing. He put on his gloves and then carefully traced his finger around rosy the edge of Hiei’s opening.

Hiei hissed and clutched at Yusuke’s convenient hand. How many times in the past three months had such a touch near driven him over the edge with pleasure? But now it was only pain. His inner walls were already so tightly stretched and tender. He tried to subdue a cry of pain as Kurama probed him farther, but a small squeak of displeasure managed to escape.

“It’s gonna be okay, Hiei, I swear,” Yusuke desperately tried to reassure him. He kissed him on the cheeks and squeezed his hand, “I’m here for ya, ‘kay? I love you.” He kissed Hiei on the lips.

Hiei tore his mouth away as a he screamed, “AHH! Damn it, this is worse then the Jagan! I swear I’ll never think another woman weak again!”

“Kurama don’t you think you can take it easy down there?” Yusuke snapped at the redhead.

“I’m not doing it anymore,” Kurama looked up at Yusuke, “He’s dilating quickly now, I guess his body just needed the tactile cue.”

“Their coming I can feel it!” Hiei squeezed Yusuke’s hand hard enough to break it.

“Genkai!” Kurama called frantically.

“I’m here,” the woman called petulantly as he rushed into the door. She added, “Yukina’s doing fine by the way. She delivered two healthy babies, a boy and a girl. They both have Kuwabara’s bright orange curly hair, but other than that they seem to favor their mother.”

“Well thank god for that,” Hiei gasped through his own pain, “Names?”

“The girl’s Hina and the boy’s Yuki.”

“Swell.”

“Let’s see what we got here,” Genkai changed her gloves and examined him. After a pause, “Hiei you’re gonna want to start pushing now.”

“Just like we practiced,” Kurama said taking Hiei’s free hand, “Breathe, breathe, push.”

“You two practiced this?” Yusuke said astonished. It wasn’t so much that Kurama had prepared for this, but that he’d gotten Hiei to go along with it. When he tried to get Hiei involved with picking out furniture for the nursery, Hiei just got huffy and told him it didn’t matter what the crib looked like as long as it held the babies-- little demons, as he called them.

“Of course. He was embarrassed by it at the time, but now the works going to pay off,” Kurama responded.

“Will you two shut up!” Hiei yelled at them.

“Push harder,” Genkai demanded.

“If I push any harder I’ll pop a blood vessel!” Hiei protested.

Genkai grunted, “No good it’s not coming out.”

Yusuke asked, worried, “Are ya gonna have to give him one of those Caesar-in things?

“Cesarean.” Kurama corrected.

“I’m not a surgeon and even if I could do it, it’s too late,” Genkai shook her head, “The child has already entered the birth cannel. If we don’t figure out a way to get it out, the child won’t make it.”

Just then the door slid open and a much disheveled Yukina stood in the doorway. Kuwabara was on her heels, pleading with her to return to bed.

“I can’t, Kazuma. My brother needs my help. Go help Shizuru with the children,” she dismissed him in a curt manner that was very out of character for her. Then again considering what she’d just been through, it’s no surprise that she was in a no non-sense mood. She crossed the room, obvious the only thing need keeping her on her feet was need and adrenaline. “The position is wrong. It’s putting too much pressure on his backside. Get him up on his knees. Turn around and grasp the headboard for support.”

The boys jumped to obey this suddenly very assertive Yukina. Yusuke and Kurama helped move Hiei into the position as Yukina climbed into the bed to kneel behind him. It would have been a very awkward moment for him, if not for all the pain distracting him.

“There. This should alleviate the pressure and let gravity do some of the work for you,” Yukina said matter-of-factly as she accepted a pair of rubber gloves from Genkai. “Now Hiei push.”

Hiei let out a sound that was half grunt half sob and did as he was told. It was working. He could feel the damned little demon passing through his body. He followed Yusuke and Kurama’s instructions; breathe, breathe, push, breathe, breathe, push.

“I can see the head,” Yukina said excitedly, “One more hard push, brother.”

“Gyhh…” Hiei moaned as he put the last of his strength into the push. The head passed, shoulders and then gravity took over and did the rest. The child was gracefully received into Yukina’s hands. At the same moment a single teardrop fell from Hiei’s cheek to crystallize and be received by the pillow below him.

After that, Hiei’s arms could support him no longer. Yusuke and Kurama had to catch him before he fell. Yukina handed the baby over to Genkai, who immediately spirited it out of the room and turned to her brother. “Then next one won’t be long. Rest while you can.

“Is there something wrong, with the baby?” Yusuke asked.

“No, he’s perfect,” Yukina told him. She casually picked up and pocketed the tear gem Hiei had produced when he birthed his child, the most precious gem a Koorime could produce. She would have it properly mounted later to be give to the child. “Koorime children don’t usually cry, but his eyes were open and I’m sure he’ll start gurgling and laughing a soon as he gets his wits about him.”

“He? So it’s a boy,” Kurama deduced.

“Of course, the young of an immaculate conception is usually like small clone of the parent.” Yukina told him, “Though-- anyway we’ve more prudent things to discuss. Hiei’s only got a few minutes before the pains for the next one start to hit him and….” She shook her head, “I don’t think he has enough energy in reserve to birth the next one. Yusuke, I’m sorry to ask you this, but you’re going to have to share your energy with Hiei. I’d do it myself, but my own birthing has taxed me dearly.”

“No big deal,” Yusuke shrugged.

“Actually, it sort of is,” Kurama interjected, “Given the situation, there’s a high risk of sympatric back-lash. Or in other words, you’ll feel what he feels. It’ll be like you’re giving birth too. I could do it just as well. But I’m guessing Yukina needs me to reserve my energy for healing after it’s all finished.”

The prospect was terrifying, but Yusuke agreed nonetheless. In the next half hour, Hiei was propped up on his knees again, except this time instead of grasping the headboard his arms were twined around Yusuke’s shoulders. Kurama was nearby in case both of them should lose their strength.

“Push!” Yukina urged him. Hiei groaned with the effort. Yukina pressed, “Push again.”

This time Hiei screamed and Yusuke screamed with him. The sympatric back-lash was transmitting Hiei’s pain into him. “Oh damn this is worse than being shot-- and I know how that feels! Man I don‘t think your ass is ever gonna be the same after this.”

“Shut-- shut up,” Hiei sputtered.

“Push!” Yukina repeated.

“I’m pushing!” Hiei spat without venom. Only Yusuke’s transmitted energy was keeping him going now.

“Almost there. Once more,” Yukina told him.

“You can do it Hiei,” Kurama squeezed his arm.

Hiei gritted his teeth and pushed. He couldn’t say what happened next, because at that point the edges of his vision stared to blur and he knew he was about to loose consciousness. When he came to, it couldn’t have been too long, Yusuke was sprawled on the bed next to him, looking only half as tired as he felt. He looked around and found Kurama mixing some powered things into some jelly-like concoction. Little doubt as to where that was going.

At Hiei’s questioning look, Kurama said, “Genkai took the chi-- little demons to be cleaned and checked out. Yukina went to bed. Poor thing must have been exhausted, giving birth to her twins and then helping you deliver yours.” Kurama shook his head, “She’s some kind of girl. You must be proud of her.”

“I will be, once I manage to process it all. I’ve been seriously underestimating her.” Hiei winced as he tried to sit up and failed.

“Stay put, I’ll have this ointment ready for you in a minute. I’ll help seal the wound inflicted by the birthing as well as dull the pain.” Kurama smirked, “Once you’re all healed up I’ve got another one that will help tighten your passage. In spite of what Yusuke thinks possible, I’ll have your ass taut as a trampoline in no time.”

Hiei might have had something snide to say about that, but at that moment Botan and Shizuru came in, each with a wrapped bundle in their arms. “Oh good mama’s still awake. Are you ready to meet your ‘little demons’, Hiei?” Botan asked.

Hiei recoiled inside as the women bore down on him. He had no choice but to reside himself to the fact that he was having children a long time ago, but it wasn’t until that moment that it became real, when Botan and Shizuru placed two fragile feeling bundles into his arms. They were warm and they were wiggling. He could hear there baby giggles even before he saw their faces. Their faces….

“Both healthy bouncing baby boys,” Botan reported, “But, theirs something about them that might….”

Hiei’s face fell. Yusuke who had woken up just in time for the unveiling swore and Kurama gasped, “How?”

Shizuru stopped chewing her fingernail, which was taking the place of her cigarettes that she was not allowed to smoke around the children, and smirked, “Well, Yukina did tell me something interesting that I’m guessing you didn’t know.

“Apparently, Koorimes can assimilate another’s DNA into their young at any point during the pregnancy, not just during the conception. That’s why they’re so adamant about their isolation. And why she wanted so much alone time with my bro-- wanted to make sure the kids got a good solid dose of Kuwabara in ‘em.”

All eyes turned back on the twin boys. Both of them greatly favored Hiei‘s looks, as they should, being his children. But one child had bright red hair and deep green eyes. The other had black hair, but brown puppy dog eyes. Not to mention that both had fox ears-- and presumably tales-- and dark markings covering their tiny bodies that were unmistakably Mazoku!

“From looks of these children,” Botan tried to explain tactfully, “there must have been some back and forth going on between sires. Genes fought for dominance and got all mixed up.”

“Are you telling us that both Kurama and I are these kids’ fathers?” Yusuke exclaimed.

“Yusuke!” Kurama admonished him.

“Oh, like they don’t know. Look at these kids. What other fox and Mazoku could have been nailing Hiei?”

“Yes, but there is such a thing as tact.”

“This complicates things,” Hiei muttered to himself. But if anyone could simplify a situation Hiei could.

By morning Hiei was up and walking about. He thrust one little demon at Yusuke and the other at Kurama and said, “Watch these for me, will you. It’s necessary that I make a trip to Makai-- I do still hold a position there and I need to check in. I‘ll be gone for a few days. I expect them to be in good shape when I return. Oh, and name them for me, will you. I haven‘t much of a forte for such things.” With that he left his stunned lovers holding a pair of babies.

TBC…
A/N: Oh the plot thickens. And if you think Yusuke and Kurama are acting like idiots now, just wait. There will be dirty diapers, first time parenting, rival heart and yes just a bit of villainy coming up next time.