Chapter 7: Little Wonder

(A lovely, windy, rainy day perfect for writing...and I have to go to work? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *sighs* Well, at least I get off early. I will try to make a second post later. An anonymous guest requested this, so here you go! Thank you, whoever you are, for the flurry of requests for chapters. I will be posting more of those soon. Happy reading everyone! Love, Spunky)

A gnawing ache, deep in Byakuya's belly brought him awake in the still dark hours of early morning. He paused for a moment, grimacing and breathing slowly, trying not to wake his red haired companion. But when the discomfort blossomed into a flare of intense nausea, he abandoned the bed and started towards the bathroom.

"Hey, you all right, Captain?" Renji called sleepily.

"Fine, Abarai," he managed, stumbling through the bathroom door and closing it behind him.

He flash stepped to the toilet and dropped to his knees, retching uncontrollably until stars danced in front of his eyes. His ears ringing loudly, he staggered to his feet and started back out into the bedroom, reeling as the ringing in his ears became deafening and Renji's voice became garbled and incomprehensible. A loud crash barely registered in his awareness, then he heard Renji's voice breaking through the retreating hiss of blood rushing in his ears.

"Captain! Byakuya, are you okay? Torio, get in here!" Renji cried, tumbling out of bed and onto the floor.

He dragged himself to the fallen noble's side, then grabbed and held Byakuya against him, rubbing his wrists and calling to him urgently.

"Come on, wake up!" he pleaded, patting the barely conscious noble's face, "Byakuya!"

"What is it? What happened, Master Renji?"

"I don't know," Renji said, shaking his head, "He just jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom and when he came out, he started swaying and he just collapsed! I think he might have hit his head."

Torio hissed a soft order to Koji, who had arrived a moment behind him and the younger man raced away. Kneeling at Renji's side, Torio quickly examined the clan leader.

"He did hit his head. He has a bump just here. I'll go and get some ice for that. Can you hang onto him for a moment, sir?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I've got him," Renji assured the attendant.

Torio flash stepped away, leaving Renji alone with Byakuya.

The clan leader groaned and mumbled unintelligibly, earning a sad smile from his worried colleague.

"You're okay. You just knocked yourself on the head pretty good. Torio's getting you some ice."

Byakuya's attendant returned a few moments later, with his brother and the clan healer on his heels. The healer examined Byakuya carefully, then motioned for Torio to apply the ice.

"Do you know why he passed out?" Renji asked.

"It's hard to say at the moment," the healer confessed, "He has been under a lot of stress, what with trying to go back to work, captain's meetings, meetings of the elders..."

"Yeah, and trying to keep me all upbeat and focused. Damn, I should've been paying better attention. He wouldn't have had to get brained before..."

"Don't be silly, Master Renji," Torio chided him, "You haven't tasked Lord Byakuya. He is most relaxed when he's with you."

"Yeah, he's pretty damned relaxed right now...unfortunately also unconscious, but hey, he's relaxed."

"W-will you stop that?" Byakuya mumbled, stirring and trying to pull free of the anxious redhead, "I don't know why you are making such a fuss. I was overtired. That is all."

"Well, then you should come back to bed. C'mon."

Byakuya extricated himself from Renji's arms and climbed back into the bed, watching quietly as Torio assisted the redhead.

"Did you hurt yourself when you jumped out of the bed?" the clan leader inquired.

"Naw," Renji chuckled, "Maybe a little bruise on my knee. Nothing to get upset over."

"But it was careless," Byakuya insisted, "You could have exacerbated the injury to your back."

"I didn't hurt my back," Renji assured him, "I was careful getting down."

"Then, what was the rather large crash I heard?"

"That was you falling, sir," Renji laughed, "You've got a bump on your head to prove it."

"Ah, well, I feel fine now, except for the bruising," Byakuya sighed, taking the ice from Torio and holding the packet to his aching head.

"Are you sure, Lord Byakuya?" the healer asked.

"Yes, Michio. I merely experienced some nausea and became dizzy."

"Well, be sure to rest, eat and drink properly. I've taken blood and reiatsu samples, just to be on the safe side. I will get to the bottom of this."

The old healer helped Byakuya back to his feet, while Torio and Koji lifted Renji and helped him back into the bed.

"C-could we go out onto the walkway for a moment, Michio?" Byakuya asked the healer, "I just need a breath of fresh air to...clear my head."

"Of course, sir."

"Hey, you're not leaving, are you?" Renji queried anxiously.

"No," Byakuya assured him, "I need to feel the cold air on my face for a bit to steady me. I will be back in a moment."

Byakuya's head cleared slowly as the two passed through the garden doors and stepped onto the walkway.

"Michio," Byakuya said softly, "I do not want to say anything in front of Renji yet, but I thought you should know that he and I have...become intimate. There is a chance that..."

The old healer's gentle brown eyes widened.

"Ah!" he exclaimed softly, "You think that you have a high enough resonance that it may have awakened the breeder ability? That is a very rare thing, however I will certainly check for that Lord Byakuya. The blood and reiatsu tests will confirm things, one way or the other. But there is a chance that I may be able to sense the forming reiatsu of the heir by simply touching the area with my reiatsu. I should be able to sense the mingling of your reiatsu and Master Abarai's, if indeed you have conceived."

Byakuya closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply, then nodded to give his consent.

The old healer's cool hands slipped beneath the soft folds of the clan leader's yukata and he laid them gently in the area just under his navel.

"This is near your soul core and where spirit chamber will have formed if there is a pregnancy."

Byakuya watched curiously, flinching slightly as he felt the cautious penetration of reiatsu moving into his body and pulsating gently. After a few moments, his lips curved into a smile.

"I will have to read the results of the other tests to be one hundred percent certain, sir," the healer reported, "but I do sense a unique reiatsu within your body."

Byakuya drew in a shaky breath and his eyes brightened.

"You look very happy, Lord Byakuya," Michio went on, "It reminds me of the look your mother and father wore when I informed them that you were on the way."

"Is that so?" Byakuya said quietly, "It is a profound thing, ne?"

"Yes. And if I may suggest, it could give Master Abarai something more to encourage him in his recovery."

"Maybe, yes."

Michio nodded.

"Well then, I will be off to run the tests. Once I confirm the result, I will inform your attendant as to your nutritional needs. It will be a bit taxing on your body as you are male and it is not such a natural thing for you. And I will be back to show you and Master Abarai how to balance and stabilize the child's reiatsu as it develops. It is not a difficult task and it should increase the bonding between the three of you. I should have a definitive answer for you within the hour."

"Thank you, Michio."

Byakuya watched silently as the healer moved away, his dark eyes still inwardly lit as he pondered the possibility.

The elders will be a little shocked if this is true, but I think they will be more pleased that our clan will be blessed with the offspring of two powerful captain levels. As much as Renji is a commoner, he is well respected, especially after the commendations he earned for his performance in the war. So, there won't be much, if any, dissent over it.

I do hope that Renji will be happy.

He glanced back into the bedroom and caught Renji looking over at him and smiling. Still slightly trembling hands smoothed his yukata and he walked back to the bed. Renji looked up at him quizzically.

"Hey, what's that expression?" the redhead asked, "You look kinda...I don't know...different. In a good way. What were you guys talking about?"

"Ah...we were...reminiscing."

"Oh?"

"Michio has been a family healer for many years. We were just speaking about my parents. I was...remembering."

Renji smiled.

"I've never really heard you talk about them," he said, moving slightly to make more room as Byakuya joined him beneath the covers, "I didn't have parents around while I was growing up. Us street kids tried telling ourselves we didn't need them, that we had each other instead, but there wasn't one of us who didn't sometimes want them, you know?"

"I only have a few distinct memories about my mother," Byakuya explained, "She died while I was very young. I know I have her eyes, though about everything else looks like my father. They smiled a lot. I remember that when I was small, we left the manor in the winter and went to one of the estates where it was warmer. She was already ill when I was born and she passed away when I was five years old. My father became quieter and he was...sad for a long time after. But we spent a lot of time together, when he wasn't on duty. He was vice captain in our division when he was killed while responding to a raid on one of the districts in the west Rukongai. After that, my grandfather was really most responsible for my education and we took long walks in the gardens, where he would tell me stories about what my parents were like as children."

"They sound like they were really something," Renji said appreciatively, "I didn't know my parents. I asked the town healer, who knew a lot of people, but he didn't know anything about them. But there were some families where we lived. They were really poor, but I thought it would be kinda nice having someone hug me like the parents hugged their kids, to help me find food and to help me keep warm in the winter. But Rukia and I used to pretend we were parents to the littler kids in our group. You know, we'd help them with their clothes and play games with them. Rukia taught some of them to read. And when they were old enough, we helped them to use whatever reiatsu ability any of them had to protect themselves from hollows. It wasn't bad, and it felt like a family."

"It was your family," Byakuya agreed, "That is not really any different than parents who adopt children and raise them. You did have a family and I am sure that you and Rukia were good role models for them."

"Well," Renji sighed, "It ended up not mattering what we did...cause all of them died eventually. Just Rukia and me survived. But that happens a lot down there."

Byakuya surprised him with a sad smile.

"Your efforts were not in vain," he assured the redhead, taking his hands, "For the time that they were with you, you and Rukia gave those children comfort, guidance and hope, things that are very hard to come by in that part of our world. That is no small thing, Renji. And it will serve you well when as you start your own family."

He watched closely as Renji's face registered a moment of slight surprise, then amusement.

"I don't think I've really even had time to think about it," he confessed, "When Rukia and I first joined the academy, we were all about getting stronger so that we could measure up and get into the Gotei 13. We weren't thinking about making families. Then, when you took her in, I was all about being strong enough to get her back."

"Exactly," Byakuya agreed, "because I took away what family you still had. Renji, just because you grew up without your birth family doesn't mean that family wasn't important to you. You and Rukia became family, one that you cared so much about that you came after me to protect it. You nearly died protecting your family. And what that tells me is that...you will make a wonderful father, when the time comes."

"Heh! Yeah, a great father I'll make when I can't even walk," the redhead sighed, "There's time, though, I suppose. I don't know. Maybe I'd like to have kids. Are you saying that you...I mean we haven't really talked about things, but you want to adopt kids or something? Will your family make you marry a noble lady or something?"

"Actually, I think I have made the impression upon our council that I will not be told who to marry."

"Oh, Rukia told me that some leaders impregnate clan concubines. Are you thinking of doing that?"

"No. I would never lie with someone I didn't love."

"Then, how are you supposed to have any kids?" Renji inquired, "If you don't want to marry a noble lady and you don't want to have one with a clan concubine..."

The ghost of a smile touched Byakuya lips, silencing his red haired lover.

"Renji, the truth is, that there was a time just after the first war with the quincies, when the noble families had suffered great losses and were in danger of not being able to produce enough young to continue the family bloodlines. The enemy had been cruel, purposely attacking women and children in an effort to eradicate the noble houses. As a result, something needed to be done. It was then that a brilliant scientist in one of the greater clans created the first breeder male. He altered the body of a man so that it was possible for him to collect reiatsu and semen in a spirit chamber within his body, and to use infusions of the other partner's reiatsu to stabilize the child and to let the child grow."

"Whoa! That's...that's really something, Captain. A little weird...and how'd they get the baby out?"

"In the latter part of the gestation, the abdominal wall of the breeder male would lose cohesion and the reiatsu could emerge through the opening. It was this ability that enabled the clans to survive and thrive again."

"But...if that's how it was, how come I've never heard of it. Rukia's never mentioned it."

"That is because I didn't tell her about it. It isn't spoken of, and many people want to forget the breeder males. This is because, once the number of women had increased sufficiently, the clans quickly forgot their gratitude. It was considered an unnatural and no longer necessary thing, and so was discouraged. Finally, the clans began to outlaw the practice of breeding that way, and they expected that the breeders would die out. What they did not realize is that some of the male children born to the breeder males were natural breeder males. Once that occured, the surviving breeder males were able to argue that if it occurred naturally in their offspring then it shouldn't be outlawed. They won their suit, but it is still not encouraged. Still, for a noble couple, it is an option if one is a breeder male...which I am."

Renji's eyes rounded.

"Y-you are a breeder male?" he asked in a stunned tone, "You can...?"

"I can either cause another man to bear a child or bear one myself."

"Holy hell!" the redhead mused a bit dizzily, "Captain, that's...!"

"I know it is odd. I hope you aren't put off by it. And actually, I am not the only breeder male in the family. Tetsuya, too, is a breeder male."

"He is? Damn..."

"Renji, I hope that this is a welcome thing. I know that you did not have your birth family growing up, but you did make a family...and you and I are also capable of making a family."

"Whoa! This is all kinda moving a little fast," Renji confessed, "I mean, I love you, Captain...I do. We've gotten really close. But we're not even married. I didn't know I could marry you. And I sure as hell didn't know we could have kids."

"I don't mean to make you feel rushed," Byakuya explained, "It is just that..."

He paused at the sad look that suddenly rose in the redhead's handsome eyes.

"Renji, what is wrong? Did I say something wrong? Are you saying that you aren't interested in me that way?" he asked.

"N-no, it's not that. It's just that...well, I need you to tell me something."

"What is it?"

"You can be honest with me. Are you just doing this so that you can find a use for me?"

"What?" Byakuya asked, frowning, "F-find a use for you?"

"I just don't think I can do this, Captain. I really love you, but..."

Byakuya turned his head aside slightly to hide the crestfallen look that came over it.

"Oh. I see."

"Hey, don't get me wrong," Renji said, taking his hands, "I'm not saying it can never happen, or that I can't accept that about you."

"Then, what are you saying, Renji?" the noble asked with forced calm.

"Captain, like I said, I do love you...and I like kids. But...this is a lot to take in."

"I understand," Byakuya said penitently, his eyes sad.

"I'm sorry. It looks like I upset you."

"No, I am fine," Byakuya said, exiting the bed, "But I do have some things to attend to."

"Byakuya, please, I said I was sorry! Don't go because I..."

The noble's lips tightened, but he kept his voice calm.

"I told you, I have things that need to be done. I am not angry."

"You may not be angry, but you're not exactly happy. I can see that having kids is really important to you. And I think it would be great to have them. I just don't know that I can...you know...let you do that to me."

Byakuya froze, staring at the redhead.

"What?"

Renji let out a frustrated breath.

"Captain, I am not even able to walk. I want to get back on my feet and get stronger. And if I let you get me pregnant, how can I do that?"

Byakuya gave him a surprised look.

"You...would consider...?

"Well, yeah, I guess. Just...I want to get back on my feet first, okay? When I'm on my feet and stronger, we can talk about me having a kid, okay?"

Byakuya stared back at the redhead, too stunned to respond. Renji started to go on, but paused as Michio returned to the room. Byakuya turned and read the expression on his face, then nodded briefly to encourage him.

"Lord Byakuya," the healer said happily, "The tests came back positive. You are definitely with child, sir!"

"Whoa! Hold on! Wait a second! You are going to have a baby? I thought that..."

"I am sorry, Renji. I did try to tell you before we were together, but you were rather insistent and not listening very well."

"You are having our kid?" Renji repeated, trying to comprehend the words.

Byakuya looked back at him through troubled eyes.

"Are you angry?" the clan leader asked solemnly.

"Am I angry?" Renji repeated, capturing Byakuya's hands again and tugging him back down onto the bed, "You'd have a kid for us? Really? You? The freaking clan leader?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly my idea to do so now, but you were more than a little irresistible."

The healer laughed softly, bowed briefly and exited the room.

"I do hope this doesn't change your impression of me," Byakuya said, frowning, "Some will look down on me. I hope you are not one of them."

"Hell no, I won't look down on you," the redhead said, hugging him tightly and earning a cautious look of approval, "I love you, and I'll beat the hell out of anyone who tries to look down on you."

"Renji, beating people up is not necessary."

The noble stared in surprise as Renji slipped his feet over the edge of the bed and started to rise.

"Renji, what are you doing? You are going to...!"

He watched in dismay as the redhead staggered onto quivering legs and tried a hesitant step. Instantly, he crashed to the floor. Byakuya flash stepped to his side, scowling.

"You fool! What were you thinking? Get back in that bed. You aren't ready to do this yet!"

He drew back slightly as Renji's eyes looked back at him with every bit of pride and rebellion as they had when the two had fought.

"That's one," the redhead panted, "Tomorrow, I'll do two!"

"Baka!" Byakuya snapped furiously, "You are going to kill yourself!"

"Maybe," Renji answered, leaning heavily against the noble's shoulder and wincing at the flashes of pain his recklessness had caused, "But if I do, I'll die happy."

He ignored the splinters of pain that continued to flare in his body and dragged the shocked Kuchiki heir down onto the floor with him, kissing his angry mouth and slowly undressing him. Byakuya froze, watching with widened eyes as Renji lowered his head and kissed his bare belly. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, fighting down his reaction to the redhead's next words.

"Hey, you in there? You hear me? By the time you get here, I'm going to be on my feet again. We are going to be flash stepping, fighting, kicking hollow ass!"

"Really, Abarai..." Byakuya sighed, shaking his head, "Will you please get back into bed now?"

"Fine," the redhead said, releasing him.

Byakuya lifted him carefully and helped him back into bed, then sat down on the edge and gazed at him quietly.

"I was correct in what I said before, Renji. You are going to be a great father."

Renji pulled the almost smiling noble down on top of him and invaded his mouth enthusiastically.

"So are you," he said between kisses, stealing away the last of his lovely mate's clothing.

Byakuya joined their bodies slowly and the two gave themselves over to that sweet expression of their love, while outside a gentle spring rain drifted down into the lovely, fragrant gardens.