Warning: Mpreg. HELL YES!! I just went there!!! Fuckin' yeah!!!! -done for Vampire Scooby's mPreg challenge on SHINE-

Edit: GRAH!!! Sorry! I didn't mean to mix them up like that, but it happened. Either way, tis fixed now!!

The Magic Of Baby Eyes

Kyouya was not fond of the color amber. More over, he hated the power that a certain set of amber pools had over him. It was obnoxious and plainly stupid that he was reduced to a somewhat blubbering pile of human flesh whenever those eyes teared up. And yet…there wasn't anything he'd do to remove them from his presence, nor the head that belonged to the eyes from nuzzling his abdomen and lying on his chest. Perhaps those eyes weren't that bad, as long as they only looked to him.

"Kaoru?" Kyouya asked, brushing a sweaty lock of bangs from the pathway of those eyes and watching them perk up at the mention of their name. "What are you plotting?"

Those eyes blinked tiredly, but sweetly. "'M not plotting anything," was the answer he received. "I'm just…contemplating the difference…"

"Difference in what?"

"Your muscles…They look different now as to before. They're more relaxed and mold better with your skin; a couple minutes ago, they were, well, you know…And I can't stop thinking about them like that and to…to…" his cheeks tinged a slight ruddy pink, but it was lost in the flush that was still subsiding from the time they had started.

Kyouya couldn't stop thinking about how he'd like to see the muscles of his chest-warmer tense and stretch, and witness the rebirth of that adorable flush tenfold. He smirked and almost missed it when his lover murmured, "You?"

"Beg pardon?"

"What are you thinking about, Kyouya? You asked me and I made a complete fool of myself in answering, so I'm doing the ninja thing and diverting the attention to you by asking you pretty much the same question. So, what are you thinking about?"

A smug and comfortable smile wormed it's was onto the brunette's features as he allowed one arm to raise up and encircle around the younger boy's frame, securely melding them together again. "Your eyes…" was his matter-of-fact answer.

Those eyes glowed as light butterfly kisses were transmitted from Kaoru's mouth to Kyouya's chest, and eventually making their way up to the older boy's mouth. Deepening. And then, the Ootori found himself disregarding the Hitachiin's eyes and solely concentrating on his mouth.

-

-

That mouth opened for the fifth time that morning, spilling the last of his breakfast into the porcelain bowl in liquid form. Kaoru coughed, working that mouth and spitting some of the bile into the toilet and a hand reaching for the coffee cup he had emptied and refilled with the bathroom's tap water just moments before he had rushed to the stall and collapsed onto the emasculate tile floor in his designer slacks.

The younger of the Hitachiins groaned, leaning back against the wall and wondering just exactly why he had come to work if he had already thrown up his eggs three times, and then the granola bar in the car, and now the meager coffee and muffin he had barely even bitten. And why did it all taste like cucumbers?

Somewhere outside the stall, the main door of the bathroom opened casually and the sound of polished shoes clicking on linoleum echoed in the enclosed space, generally pausing my the only occupied stall. "Are you okay?" a strangely familiar voice asked, concern etched into his tone.

"Hikaru?" Kaoru asked, slightly surprised to hear his brother's voice in this building, let alone this bathroom.

"Kaoru?" came the shocked reply, the owner of the voice resorting to elementary techniques and dropping to it's knees so as to crawl under the door to meet his twin. "What are you doing here? And why…here? What's with the bathroom?"

A hand absently massaged his sore abdomen and the younger of the twins groaned. "Kyouya wanted me to help him out with a business presentation and I just about ran out of there when I was half way done to come here and…" he gestured vaguely towards the toilet. Hikaru looked mortified.

"He brought you to work even though you've got the flu? What kind of a boyfriend is he!?!?"

Kaoru flushed. "Just because he doesn't bend over backwards to act like my servant whenever I'm sick doesn't mean that he doesn't care about me! Speaking of slaves, how is mi'lord?"

"Fine," Hikaru waved a hand loosely. "He wants to drop in on you and Kyouya 'unexpectedly' with bunt cake or some other commoner treat…Oh, and we're going to take Haruhi to the Camen's next month."

The younger's mouth puckered in distaste. "That sound like a horrible way to spend your anniversary. Come on, nii-san! That can't be what you had in mind!"

"So? That's what he wants, so I'll go along with it—And we haven't seen our toy in quite some time." Hikaru twirled a lock of his vibrant red hair around a finger and sighed. "Maybe I'll persuade him against it…who knows… Anyway, what about yourself and Kyouya? Anything special planned?"

Kaoru was about to answer when he felt that sickening in his lungs and lunged for the toilet, barely making it before he retched up the water he had consumed. There was a sound of shock and disgust, and then Hikaru was there, patting his back gently. Finally resurfacing from praying to the toilet gods, Kaoru gasped for breath an moaned in agony. "An express trip to the doctor's office. I've never been this sick in my life," Kaoru moaned again and wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his hand.

--

--

Both hands were in his lap and, although they weren't nessisarily stationary, they didn't move from their spot in the red head's thighs. Kaoru bit his lips nervously and shakily reached one of his hands around to clasp the hospital gown he'd been forced to wear; the type that made you feel more exposed than when you were actually naked. It was a nice hospital room, but who in their right mind could be at ease in such a doctors office? Well, beside Kyouya, who had spent a great deal of his childhood inspecting and observing things in such places.

The red head fidgeted, glancing to the doctor-comfy brunette across from him. "Can we go? I feel fine, now!" he whined, pouting slightly.

His lover did not look up from the PDA he held, instead simply saying, "Hikaru threatened me with Tamaki and bunt cake if I didn't take you here—and as soon as he said that, he insured me that he would castrate me with his bare hands if I ever took you to work sick again, so I really had no choice, did I?"

"But—" Kaoru whined again, only to be cut off as the door opened casually and a smiley female doctor introduced herself as Hatori and asked the complaining red head to lay down and pull the gown to the side so that would be able to see what was going on.

Still smiling, Hatori asked sweetly, "Hitachiin-san, tell me about your symptoms."

Kaoru thought for a second, before reciting. "I've thrown up, but I always feel better afterward, and I won't eat some of the food that I used to love because they smell undercooked, and I usually hate banana bread, but…" he coughed, slightly embarrassed. "I've eaten seven loafs in the past three days. Also…I guess you could say that I feel like crying a lot…like a LOT! Way not normal, a lot. And…Uh…I…to be frank, I haven't been this horny since—"

"Do you think you know what he's got?" Kaoru heard Kyouya interrupt from off to the side, finally pocketing his PDA and turning his eyes on the pair as Hatori squeezed a large amount of blue jelly onto Kaoru's flat midsection with a doctor tool that felt somewhat like a rolling pin while looking at a small screen.

Every single way she moved caused Kaoru to either have to pee or throw up, and he constantly twitch, biting the inside of his cheek in discomfort until it felt somewhat like resembled the texture of mincemeat. Silence reigned, and only the 'whoosh-whoosh' of the machine as it took a look at the red head's midsection was heard. Kaoru gulped, Kyouya watched and Hatori simply smiled as she pulled the rolling pin from somewhere between his pelvis and belly button and looked at the two knowingly. "Just as I thought…"

Something about the way she said it made the younger mans hands fly to his abdomen only to slap the cold gel deeper into the skin of his stomach.

--

--

Everyone was staring at him and his stomach—or so it felt, even though it was only his parents. Heat rushed to his cheeks and Kaoru suddenly wanted to either turn tail and run, or sob into his mother's shirt. He supposed he could always compensate and do a mixture—run, sobbing, into his mother's shirt tails, but that didn't sound right and it seemed rather childish.

He felt his skin heat up and sweat start to break out on his neck as he reached for another slice of banana bread before thinking better of it. It was one of the few rare time that both the Hitachiin parents had been home at the same time—it was almost as if the heavens were conspiring, saying 'tell them! Tell them!', but it was still too hard. Where was Kyouya or Hikaru at a time like this? Oh…right. Talking to his father and in the Camens with his boyfriend. Respectively, of course.

"Kaoru, sweetie," his mother said in a saccharine tone, sipping her tea and gazing at her son over the top of her cup. "You said you wanted to talk to us, and however much your father and I love spending idle time with you and Hikaru, you're starting to worry us. Is something wrong?"

And then he lost it. It started with a few simple tears, and before he knew what was happening, the youngest of the Hitachiins was bawling his eyes out on the table cloth as his mother raced around the table to hug him and his father also found his way around the table to offer his child a handkerchief. However, the hankie came just a little too late, for the boy's face was already buried in the Hitachiin matriarch's shoulder and being thoroughly rocked back and forth as he blubbered incoherently about "commoner coffee" and "banana bread". It took a while, but when the flow of tears finally steamed to a bare minimum, Kaoru was held at arms length by his mother and asked sweetly, "Kaoru, honey, what's wrong, baby?"

In response, the red head pointed violently and vehemently at his stomach and took a deep breath of air before finally saying, "I'm pregnant."

The words sounded strange against his tongue. Indeed, neither he nor Kyouya had even said the 'p' word, nor the 'b-a-b-y' word, so for him to say it now was odd and alien, and almost at once, Kaoru wanted to take the words back. But he couldn't. It was too late.

"You…you're what, Kaoru?" his father asked, voice quiet and slightly guarded. "Did I hear you wrong?"

Not sure weather or not to be ashamed, the youngest dipped his head in submission and murmured, "No, father…I'm pregnant."

And the next thing he knew, he was enveloped in a gigantic, monstrous bear hug—one that was soon joined by the eldest male figure at the table. Kaoru continued to blubber like a child who had just fallen over and scraped his knee on the ground. However, that analogy only worked if falling was sex, and the ground had somehow gotten his knee pregnant.

"Oh, god," he moaned as the tears finally subsided and the youngest Hitachiin suddenly found himself aware of what was actually happening. "Oh, god…Mother, father…how aren't you guys freaking out?"

A sensitive hand stroked his hair and one of the bodies detached from the hug, a hand remaining on Kaoru's shoulder. "Oh, Kao-chan—baby!" came the coddling voice of his mother. "We already knew!"

"What? How?"

There was a large toothy and motherly smile on the face of the matriarch when her son looked up into her face. "The second you called and asked for banana bread and jasmine tea. Minus the tea, I craved banana bread when I was carrying you and your brother, and when I wasn't pregnant, I hated it otherwise."

"Oh…" a light flush rose in his cheeks.

--

--

Those cheeks were pulled back in a cuddly smile, light dimples forming as the red heads nose rubbed into his lover's neck. The two of them were sitting on the living room couch of the Hitachiin Twin Two flat, the top one in a central building in downtown Tokyo, watching a corny love movie with a splash of comedy and smut. It was times like these that assured Kaoru he loved Kyouya—there was no need for words during these times and it was so relaxed and open that it was not uncommon for the two of them to fall asleep in this very position. It was pure love.

However, this time, there was a very pregnant pause (no pun intended), one that needed to be breached now or neither of them would get any sleep that night, pretending everything was okay. But, neither wanted to end this (un)comfortable silence.

Kaoru took a deep breath.

Kyouya sighed and rested his cheek against Kaoru's hair.

It had to be done.

"Kyouya…" Kaoru said, his voice barely above a whisper. He secretly hoped that his lover hadn't heard.

To bad he did. "What is it, Kaoru?" the brunette asked, his voice calm and composed.

The Adam's Apple of the red head bobbed up and down and the boy suddenly found his mouth to be dry. He swallowed several times before opening his mouth. "I'm…I'm sorry."

A black eyebrow quirked. "Sorry? For what, exactly?"

Kaoru's cheeks flushed darkly. "For…this thing. You didn't have to tell your father about me until this…screw up…And I know he slapped you—I can see the mark—and for that, I'm sorry…"

He couldn't exactly see Kyouya's expression, only feel his pulse beat at a regular pace in his arteries. Kaoru nuzzled the older man's neck for reassurance, only to be pushed back.

A breath hitched and Kaoru's lower lip pouted out in a hurt expression as he stared at the brunette. What was the meaning of this?

"Kaoru," Kyouya said darkly, fingers gripping his shorter lover's arm with an almost intense fury, "Just because this relationship had a hidden merit does not mean that there's anything to be sorry about. This isn't your fault."

"It's not yours either, Kyouya," Kaoru mumbled. "He shouldn't have…"

"Be that as it may, this…" the Ootori paused, looking down and extending a hand to allow his fingers to ghost over Kaoru's abdomen. The muscles twitched and gurgled acidly. Amber eyes looked to coal ones, but the coal ones just looked down. "This thing can't…hurt, can it…"

"Kyouya…" Kaoru breathed, eyes darting down to where silky fingers plucking at the button of his dress shirt and toying with the always tender skin of the Hitachiin. "Kyouya, do you think…I'll be a good mother?"

The fingers stopped their dance and eyes finally returned the gaze. "I think you'd make an excellent parent, but don't lower your standards so much as to be called mother. It's rather demeaning."

The red head smiled and flopped his head forward cutely, allowing his bangs to brush in his eyes.

--

--

"Hair like that's hereditary, Kao-chan!!" Hunny bubbled excitedly as he munched on a large piece of devil's food cake. Mori handed his younger cousin a napkin, onyx eyes watching the Hitachiin's growing midsection. "Baby-chan could have your hair, Kao-chan!! Isn't that exciting, Kyou-chan?!"

Kyouya opened his mouth to respond before he was cut off rudely by his obnoxious best friend, who sat next to him. "Of course!!! Hitachiin hair is a…a…a…" he looked lost for a second, eyes glazed over and jaw slightly slack.

"A fashion statement?" Kaoru supplied, his eyes focused on his plate at his own cake. "Hikaru, stop playing footsies with Tamaki under the table. You're distracting him…"

There was a silent pause, then the scrape of a shoe on the ground being dragged. "Oh, was that your leg, Tamaki…?" Hikaru asked suggestively, giving no explanation of who else's leg he could have thought it to be, and smirking at his plate. "Sharp, Kaoru."

"I could practically smell the testosterone. Do you need the bathroom, tono?"

Red flooded the taller blonds face and he spluttered violently, indignant and complaining about the younger red head saying such things in front of his "daughter". Haruhi shook her head, but allowed a warm smile to grace her features, dabbing her mouth with a napkin before dipping under the table and producing a boxy, brightly wrapped parcel.

"Here, Kaoru," she said, handing it across the table. "We couldn't think of what you could possibly need that you didn't already have." She was right. Hikaru and Kaoru themselves had taken care of the baby's wardrobe; Tamaki had secured the child a place in the Ouran school system; Kyouya's sister had supplied loads of toys for his or her various life stages; and many gifts had been delivered after the pregnancy was made public-with-limitation. Haruhi looked at Mori and Hunny, watching the two of them nod before smiling. "So we got you this—I hope you like it. Hunny found it special order."

This successfully intrigued the only pregnant one at the table, and Kaoru reached across to take the present without hesitation and with a bit of back pain. "Thanks, Haruhi," he said cheerfully, handing it to Kyouya. "You want to open it?"

The Ootori shrugged and took the parcel, neatly slipping a finger under the edge of Haruhi's emasculate wrapping and opened the present. There was a box inside and Kyouya opened it without hesitation.

"What is it?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked in unison, one's tone quiet and expectant, the other mischievous and expecting.

Somewhere, deep in the lines of Kyouya's face, something twitched upward into a smile. "Trying to be smart, you three?" he asked, the general shape of the box still obscuring the box from view of the others. Hikaru, Kaoru and Tamaki all looked at Haruhi, Mori and Hunny for an explanation. The commoner smiled, as did the Lolita-shota and Wild type.

"Do you like it, Kyou-chan?" Hunny asked.

"Let me see," Kaoru all but demanded, pressing one hands to his back and leaning forward to snatch the [resent. Kyouya let it go without a fight, and watched as the red head stared at it for a second before, looking down, tears began to seep from the corners of his eyes. In a moment, he was quietly bawling.

There, in the box, surrounded by bright yellow tissue paper, were onsies, all white and bearing dark purple stitching in the words: "My Daddies Love Me", "I Love My Daddies" and "My Mommies Love Me". Kaoru smiled.

"You like it, Kaoru?" Haruhi asked, knowing eyes trained on him and smiling sweetly.

"I love it, Haruhi…" he said quietly, dabbing his eyes and setting the box where his twin and blond upperclassman could see its contents before making to stand and exit the dining room and towards the kitchen.

"Kao-chan, where are you going?" Hunny called after him. "Don't you want your cake?"

There was a non-committal wave over the red head's shoulder. "No thank you—you can have it, Hunny-senpai…I really want some watermelon in a banana bread sandwich…Or a honey-mustard and apple butter sandwich."

And the group watched him go, murmuring quiet "ew"s under their breaths or else smiling at the way Kaoru was waddling slightly, holding his back firmly to compensate for his baby bump.

--

--

The first time that Kyouya felt the baby kick was in his own stomach, transmitted from the mound in the red head's abdomen and a complete shock. He was jerked awake, startled, and looking down at the exposed stomach of his younger lover with a sort of awed expression. Was that…Did Kaoru's skin just…ripple?

The other figure stirred, turning over and settling on his other side, back to Kyouya and stomach obscured from view. On any other night, the Ootori would have simply curled one arm around the other's form and allow himself to go back to sleep, but tonight…with the mysterious belly-ripple taunting him, sleep did not come and the Ootori would rather die than try to wake Kaoru up in his last trimester. Apparently, hormones messed with one's sleeping habits so much that it was now very likely that the Hitachiin was blood type AB. So, instead, Kyouya settled for climbing out of the warm confines of the comforters to kneel on the floor on the other side of the bed, eye level with Kaoru's stomach and staring at the skin intently.

The darkness made the task difficult, but a shallow chink of moonlight made it possible for the observation of the unborn baby to be useful. The skin moved again, and this time, Kyouya could have sworn that he saw a shoulder prod its way out through the flesh before the smooth surface was calm again, and taught as a full blown beach ball. Kaoru's belly button was completely inverted and his once slim and petit form was enlarged, leaving stretch marks on hid once immaculate skin. Kyouya had earlier heard his lover bemoan his appearance, saying he now looked like a fat pig with a fire on his head; but Kyouya had to disagree. To him, Kaoru looked beautiful.

The rumble happened again, and it was like watching an earthquake on a miniature globe: the mountains were there and then they were gone. Only this time, before the rumbling had stopped, a hand was placed above the goings on and…inhaled sharply.

Kaoru groaned and blinked open a bleary amber eye, mouth puckered in distaste and throat emitting an almost pained sound. Kyouya hurriedly withdrew his hand as the red head sat up, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. "Kyou…" he started wearily, reaching out a hand towards his partner and scooting over on the mattress. "Kyouya, come back to bed. What are you going up? Is something wrong?"

"The baby is kicking," he supplied weakly, sanity skewed with exhaustion. "It's…making your stomach move."

Kaoru looked down in shock. "Oh? …Well, come back to bed, Kyouya—the baby had been doing that for a while now, but the skin moving thing is new…You can keep your hand on the baby if you'd like…"

And he did. Tired and confused, Kyouya climbed onto the mattress and placed a hand, once again, on Kaoru's stomach as his mind whirled into many confusing thoughts when it came to the child growing inside the other figure. Kaoru, in turn, snuggled closer, breathing slowly and allowing his breath to ghost over the older man's collar bone until they were both deep in sleep, legs intertwined comfortably.

--

--

Kaoru's legs were the first to go on that fateful day. He was visiting Hikaru and Tamaki at the Hitachiin Corp. Industry's head office, chatting animatedly about the latest photoshoot and the models when, with a wince and a pained gasp, the knees of the younger red head buckled dramatically, leaving him slumped against a wall. All at once, Tamaki and Hikaru converged on him, expressions of worry etched in their features.

"Kaoru!" Hikaru said worriedly. "Kaoru, man, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I…I don't know," the younger twin admitted, attempting to stand. "I felt fine—ah!" He fell again, and it was soon apparent that his legs would not hold his weight.

"I'm going to call a doctor," Tamaki announced, standing and leaving the twin to their own devices in search of his cell phone.

Neither of the Hitachiin's acknowledged this, but it was an understandable oversight. Hikaru fluttered over his twin, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes at his inability to do anything of use to help Kaoru, and his inability to guess what was ailing him.

"Kaoru…Kaoru, what's going on?! Are you alright? Tell me! Please, tell me; What's happening? Are you—" The elder twin's worrying was cut off violently as his tie was cinched tightly around his throat by his little brother. Kaoru pulled Hikaru's face closer until their noses almost touching. At this proximity, Hikaru could easily see the condensed sweat on the younger's forehead, as well as practically hear the grinding of his teeth.

"K—Kaoru…?"

"Get…me…a…fucking…doctor, Hikaru. Get me one NOW! Now, or I will fucking kill something. Do you have any idea how much this hurts!?" He might have had more to say, but at that very moment, his stomach spazzemed and Kaoru's back arched off of the wall. He screamed; loud, long and high pitched. The sound reverberated off the wall, magnifying every raw element it displayed.

Hikaru would have screamed with him, but at the current time, he was slightly shocked that his twin could even make such a horrible noise. The pain must have been immense, Hikaru thought as his eyes watered and ears throbbed. The screaming had subsided now, in favor of heavy panting and swear words.

"Get Kyouya!" Kaoru yelled violently, just as Tamaki rounded the corner again. The blond nodded, struck mute by what he was seeing. He had never been very good at telling the twins apart; he was pretty fair at it when not relying on just plain luck, but no where as skilled at it as Haruhi or Kyouya. But at this moment, the difference was the most obvious he had ever seen.

Eyes alight, Kaoru's forehead was gleaned with sweat and his teeth were gnashing his lip with a vicious nature. His face was contorted in back and back doubled over, as if trying to fold his whole body in half but the baby bump kept getting in the way. There was an old saying: "Take your bottom lip and stretch it up, over the back of your head; then you'll know what labor pain feels like." The younger Hitachiin didn't need to; but he might have done it for the rest of them if they kept standing there like idiots.

"They…they're on their way," Tamaki squeaked, flipping open his cell phone and scrolling through his contacts until he found Kyouya's number. There were three rings before the line was open and he heard his friend's classic greeting on the other end.

"Ootori Corp. Kyouya speaking."

"K—Kyouya," Tamaki said timidly, his voice warbling as the paramedics rushed past him with a stretcher so as to assist Kaoru. "Uh…we could…you see…Uh…"

Kaoru screamed again as he was hoisted onto a stretcher. "Stop gobbelmouthing, you stupid blond and tell him to get his fucking ass to the motherfu—Arg!!—hospital room before I castrate him with a chopstick!"

Tamaki looked like he'd been punched in the face. "Uh…Kaoru says get to the hospital…Delivery section," he censored bluntly, before the cell was ripped from his hand by a red faced Hitachiin.

"Kyouya…KYOUYA!!" he yelled in frustration and pain, tossing the phone back in anger. "He hung up!!"

The ride to the hospital was mostly a blur. All Kaoru knew for sure was happening was the burning sensation below his rib cage, the jello feeling in his legs and the deathly grip on Hikaru's hand and the distinctive smell of sweat. The sky went from reasonably dark to bright, and then suddenly dark again, and there was the prick of a needle in his arm.

"Sir…Ootori-san…? Can you hear me?" asked a pretty nurse in pale purple scrubs. "Ootori-san?"

"H…Hitachiin…My name's Hitachiin…" his tongue was heavy and stiff, and his eyes felt sticky.

"No, sir. You've officially been dubbed an Ootori by the family. I assume it was to make sure you received the best care possible, but you would have anyway…" There was a hint of adoration in her tone. "We'll take good care of you. Now; you've been prepped for an emergency C-section. We have you morphine in your I.V. and I'm about to inject you with Dilaudid—and then we will take you into the operating room to deliver your baby. Is there anyone special you would like with you?"

Under any normal circumstances, he wouldn't have asked, but judging by the way this woman was smiling at him, Kaoru figured that she already knew. "Is…is Kyouya…?" his eyes rolled ominously, then righted themselves.

"No, Ootori-san. He's approximately fifteen minutes away. But your brother is very anxious and we must act quickly. Would you like him to…?"

"Sure ," he nodded, "But Kyouya…"

Suddenly, a warm, tingly feeling spread over him and the wonderful blackness of unconsciousness washed over Kaoru's limbs. His amber eyes fluttered behind dark eyelashes and closed as the nurse proceeded to exit the room in search of Hikaru and the doctors quietly.

And then there was nothing. Save the breathing.

--

--

Breathing was the first thing that he registered. There was a small amount of shuffling and the sound assaulted Kaoru's dulled senses, gradually growing louder as sleep wore off and the amber eyes blinked open lethargically. Ambient music played gently in the background as the squeak-squeak of a mahogany rocking chair joined in the fray. Almost everything hurt. Mostly his lower section and general stomach area, but Kaoru's head was also killing him and…

"Are my nipples supposed to be this tender?" he asked in a monotone before his eyes widened drastically and he bolted upright, ignoring the pain that seemed to rip his midsection right open in favor of something more important. "BABY!!"

In an instant, someone was clutching his hand in a vice like grip and an unspecified force pushed his back onto the hospital bed. Kaoru would have fought harder, but at the sight of familiar, glassed eyes and a thin set line that was a mouth he had often met with his own, the quick witted Hitachiin found himself uncharacteristically and suddenly speechless.

He waited and waited, and then waited some more, practically desperate for him to talk, to say where the baby was. It was one of those rare times where the glass coating over those eyes acted as a mirror, and in their depths, Kaoru saw his own terror reflected. Not necessarily shared, but reflected being the key word.

There was a soft knock on the door and before either of them could answer, the same nurse from before (this time in powder pink scrubs and a name tag that read "Chi—Postnatal Examination") tiptoes in, pushing one of the plastic bassinettes with a name tag and bundle of squirming medical blankets clearly visible through the translucent cradle. Quietly as she could, the lady maneuvered the crib until it was right along side the main bed and she smiled at Kaoru. "Would you like to hold your son, Ootori-san?"

Something in the red head's face must have spoken for him, for the next thing he knew, there was a small, warm and slightly fussing child in his arms. Kaoru's eyes glistened.

The baby's flesh was raw looking and pink, and the baby itself smelled of over seasoned ramen. Both the small infants eyes were squinted closed, reminding Kaoru of a newborn kitten, and it's mouth paged open as it to scream and cry, but ended up only grunting. His legs, ones that had kicked so violently in uetero, were thrashing spastically, as well as his arms. A small, pink and blue stripped hat lay on top of the baby's head, obscuring the general head shape and hair color from view, and thus Kaoru curiously tugged the cover from the sair whose color did not surprise him: bright read and slightly wavy, like his and Hikaru's had been in the countless child's pictures that had documented their existence.

"He's…he's beautiful," Kaoru breathed out, his voice quavering in adoration and weakness. Amber eyes darted up to onyx ones and he tried to smiled, but couldn't keep his gaze from the baby for long enough to keep the expression.

"I know," was the answer he received, Kyouya's tone displaying obvious pride and…paternal instinct, perhaps?

"How…I…You…" the red head's mind wasn't transmitting words properly to his mouth. "How did we do….You and I are…This…this is ours…"

Ours.

The door opened and closed twice in the silence that followed this glorious proclamation. The second time, there was a shuffle of five sets of feet and the new parents looked up in time to spot their friends.

Haruhi's eyes were glowing in usually suppressed female instinct and her mouth was in a quiet 'o' shape. Hunny gave them a knowing and happy smile, as did Mori. Tamaki looked like he would explode into flowers, kittys, rainbows and ponies and…Hikaru looked pale.

"He's. so…oh my god, you two are parents…" Haruhi's voice was quiet. "I'm so happy for you two."

"Kyou-chan and Kao-chan did a wonderful job with Baby-chan. I think he's cute.'

"He is adorable."

Tamaki forced himself to keep quiet, but his eyes clearlt said 'Can I hold him?' and received, as a response, the Hitachiin clutching the child protectively close to his chest and giving the blond a reproachful glance.

"Thanks, guys…" Kaoru flushed and turned his gaze to Hikaru, raising an eyebrow in question.

The elder looked as if he didn't want to talk about it, but muttered ruefully, 'I fainter, alright? That was one nasty operation…"

Kaoru wanted to laugh, but suppressed it. He was about to open his mouth to speak again when there was suddenly a long, high pitched, drawn out howl. It sounded like Kaoru's labor screams, only less sure and weaker. All eyes darted through space and finally, landed on the baby. His mouth was open, and both parents could clearly see the insides of his mouth and throat quaver. There was a moment of silence in which the child drew breath before he started screaming again.

The other members of the since disbanded Host Club looked at each other cautiously and began to edge towards the door as Kaoru looked worriedly at Kyouya. Hikaru looked faint again. There was a 'whoosh' and a click, and the newly created family was left alone.

"We're screwed, aren't we?" Kyouya said darkly, snorting and refusing when his lover tried to pass the miniature red head off to him.

"Help me! Oh god, I have no idea what I'm doing. Help! We aren't…I'm not…PARENTS?!?!? Oh my—"

And then he saw it.

The baby opened his eyes to gaze at him and the crying stopped for a second in order for those orbs to gaze into amber pools. And in that second, Kaoru was assured that they would be okay and he felt a faint smile touch his lips again. And then, as the crying began again, he realized just how much power those little onyx eyes would have on them both in the future and mentally cursed Kyouya's genes for making their son irresistible.