The room fell silent yet again. "I didn't know Yusuke had a sister," Botan said nervously. She grabbed her oar and vanished before Alanna could turn toward her. Alanna shook her head.

"Huh, thought there was someone there for a sec. Must be my imagination. By the way, who the hell is Yusuke? The only Yusuke I ever heard about was some punk over at Sarayosuke Junior High, but I never met him. And where is this sister of his? His rep's pretty good, but I bet I can take both of em at once."

Kurama managed a smile that was more than the grimace he had been wearing. "I'm sure you could, Alanna, but he's out of town and won't be back for a while. Maybe I'll introduce you when he gets back. He's a friend of mine."

"Suichi, you get weirder by the minute. And I suppose nobody else here is worth breaking a sweat for? Guess I'll just have to settle for the pushover, here." She nodded toward Koenma. "Since the rest of you are all in your fancy marryin clothes, I guess he's the only one left unattached." She sidled over to him. "So, how do you feel about strong women?"

Koenma looked around himself in panic for a second and then, apparently recalling himself, cleared his throat and said, "I have nothing against strong women, but I prefer a lady with manners." Koenma didn't bother to dodge the right this time. He had earned it.

"And that just goes to show that manners aren't everything." She bent over and grabbed his hand, yanking him back to his feet. "Now, where's the bar? You look like you could use a drink."

Everyone started to leave the room, but Yukina grabbed Hiei's hand and pulled him to one side before he could make good his escape. "We're not done with this discussion, Brother," she hissed. He got yet another reprieve when Kuwabara stopped in the doorway.

"C'mon, Yukina. Don't want to miss all the neat dancing." Hiei took a moment to consider the irony of being grateful to the buffoon for distracting his sister from her ire. He shrugged to himself and went out to join his own bride on the dance floor. Kiki and Kurama were already seated at the head table and Kiki was dabbing at Kurama's bruises with a damp cloth.

After the wedding, life calmed down for all three couples. Sort of. About three months after their own wedding, all of them were gathered yet again to celebrate Yusuke's return from Makai and his long-awaited marriage to Keiko. Alanna was introduced to Yusuke at this happy event and they spent several days thereafter beating the stuffings out of Kuwabara. Then they started challenging each other. Generally speaking, they were fairly evenly matched. Alanna did notice, however, on those occasions when Yusuke succeeded in defeating her easily he seemed to be sporting some weird temporary tattoos.

Hiei and Yukina did get to have their private conversation. No one was ever made privy to the details, but there were a fairly large number of gems left on the floor and Hiei's hair had frost on the tips when they were through.

A few months later began a round of baby showers, first for Kiki, then Missy, Then Yukina and then Keiko. Then came the births. Kurama and Kiki were blessed with a pair of identical twin girls who they named Kira and Kara. In an effort to maintain individuality (and so their parents could tell them apart), the twins were each given a small tattoo on the back of their neck, just below the hairline.

After the girls were born, "Auntie" Alanna spent most of her time around the Minnamino household whenever she wasn't on tour. Since she was an internationally famous classical soprano, her time at home was intermittent, but whenever she was there, the girls loved her. Kiki was always glad for the help. It took Hiei a while to accept that the gothic, pierced monster who abused Kurama at his wedding was the conservative, dark-haired diva of the music world.

Numerous strange activities occurred which Alanna dismissed as misunderstood normal activities. Alanna seemed to dismiss anything that did not seem to be normal, natural or logical as nonexistent. No matter what she saw or heard to the contrary. Which made her the perfect babysitter. And yet...not. When asked about her belief regarding (gasp!) Demons and other supernatural creatures, her response was, "Are you stoned or just stupid? Those things are just idiotic stories somebody's mother made up to force children to behave."

Next came Hiei and Missy's daughter, Mercy. There was a great deal of ribbing from the others that she was the only bit of mercy ever produced by Hiei. At least until he started hitting people. Missy's twin Faith was also living in their house and was surprisingly nice to Hiei after the baby was born. She just couldn't hold a grudge against someone who made her sister so gloriously happy.

Yukina and Kuwabara's little bundle of joy was named Botana, though she was most often referred to as Bo. Kuwabara's sister Shizuru was an avid baby-sitter and took less time beating her brother up after he got a real job and started supporting his family properly.

Yusuke and Keiko named their little girl Genkai after the wonderful old lady who taught Yusuke to survive through his trials while growing up. The elder Genkai was actually not that impressed by having the child named after her until the little darling tossed a miniature ball of spirit energy and hit her father in the butt with it.

All five children spent a lot of time together while their parents dealt with the vagaries of day to day life. Naturally, they all spent time with their individual families, but there was a lot of together time, too. It allowed them to learn to deal with other little people without having to expose "normal" humans to the varieties of interesting quirks that all of them, being at least part demon, developed.

The little Minamino twins were wonders with houseplants. In fact, once they started, they made everyone wonder when the house changed into a jungle. Unfortunately, not all the plants they ran across were friendly. Thorns were not uncommon and having a thorny plant wrap around the ankle of the person whose attention they desired was not at all uncommon. Alanna usually swore at the plants a bit and told Kiki to stop using so much plant food. When told the growth was due to the girls, she brushed the idea off as ridiculous and continued spoiling them as usual.

Mercy's Jagan showed itself early and allowed her a much wider view of the world than most adults expected. In fact, one of the first signs that she was using it was the small black dragon, apparently made of flame, that would appear whenever she felt a lack of playmates. Small being a relative term. This one was about ten feet long. That and the fact that as soon as her mouth was physically capable of forming words, ALL the words spoken within an impressively large area seemed to fall from it. Especially the ones her parents did not really want to hear tripping from her dainty little mouth.

Botana developed a habit of freezing things that she found unpleasant. It was decided after they had to melt the kitten that pets would wait a while. Also, it was discovered that chipping a frozen diaper from the baby is NOT a good alternative to changing her immediately after she announces she needs it.

Little Genkai Urameshi, the youngest of the lot, was well satisfied with her habit of tossing tiny balls of spirit energy at anyone whose attention she desired and anything she found objectionable. Including, just over a year after her own arrival, her little brother, Jin.

Botana also acquired a younger brother, though hers was a bit further behind. She was just over two when he arrived and not terribly displeased to have a babydoll that would really scream if she pinched it. He was named after the Prince of Spirit World, Koenma.

About the same time, most of the little ones developed an interest in their bodies and the world around them. The Minamino twins would go to the park with their mother to play. Somehow, most of the other children, especially those playing with the toys or equipment the twins were interested in, would end up encased in wildly growing grass. The phrase "Ambush!" became the most feared sound on the playground.

Mercy spent one afternoon comparing face parts with her father. Hiei named them off as she touched them. She touched his nose and then touched her own. "Nose." She reached out and put her finger to his lips and then her own. "Mouth." She reached up and gently touched his closed eyelid. "Eye." Then she reached out and poked the open Jagan. "Hn."

"Damn," the little voice translated. She did not touch her own Jagan. Obviously that would not be good. Missy was not impressed by her daughter's new word. Faith snorted and left the room rather than laugh in her sister's presence.

Genkai Urameshi was also interested in learning and she and Mercy sat down a few days later to share information. Their mothers were listening from the other room and found it adorable. At first. "Eye." "Nose." "Mouth." and "ear". Were fine. When there was a quiet "Damn." and then a shriek of pain followed by the sounds of bodies bouncing off the floor, playtime was over for the day.

Learning to use language was interesting, as well. After having spent a day with her Uncle Hiei, little Botana looked up at her father with her innocent brown eyes and said, "Bwaha haha hahaha." When he stared at her in horror and then asked where she had learned that, her response was, "Hehehe Hiei."

That was the last time Uncle Hiei babysat Botana for quite some time. Uncle Hiei said that Kuwabara just had no sense of humor. But Kuwabara had his revenge. When Mercy was about three, he introduced her to the Animal Planet Channel and the wonderful activities of Steve Irwin, better known as The Crocodile Hunter. Mercy watched the channel practically non-stop for weeks. She would sit before the television and make baby animal noises back at the screen. Missy became concerned when Mercy wanted to practice being a boa constrictor and eating live mice.

Hiei, having been given the task of showing Mercy that there were better things to do than watch Animal Planet, was baffled as to how to go about it. She did not want to watch cute animated characters struggle through their everyday life. There was no challenge like trying to survive in the wild with the odds against them. Mercy pointed out in a very mature and reasonable manner that the Animal Planet was not only entertaining, but educational as well. Besides, Steve Irwin was a living example of what NOT to do around wild animals. She suggested that Hiei join her in viewing a few episodes before he completely ban her from the channel.

Over the course of the next several days, Hiei learned many things about many animals. And not a small bit about his daughter. They both found it amazingly silly when Steve managed to get himself stung by a scorpion, bitten by a spider and spit at by a cobra all in the same day. And then he went out and did it again. And again. It quickly became their favorite comedy program. Missy was not amused. She did get over it, however, when Hiei took Mercy out to the forest and introduced her to the local wildlife. No mice were hurt or eaten during these expeditions. Although numerous snakes were captured and examined.

Mercy decided she preferred to remain a mammal and not become a boa constrictor. She did, however retain a slight Australian accent and one of her favorite words, usually uttered just before some brazen act of stupidity, was "Crikey!" Hiei was not impressed. That became the second most feared word on the playground. The combination of "Crikey" and "Ambush" was guaranteed to clear the entire park of small children in record time.

When the girls were all about five, they went to spend a couple of months at the elderly Genkai's temple. Yusuke was fond of referring to the complex as "Grandma's Evil Boot Camp," but the children enjoyed their time there immensely. They all learned cool new things and developed their natural abilities in the areas of fighting and use of spirit and demon energies. They also learned to work together by combining natural abilities to protect one another's weaker spots.

Then, DISASTER struck.