Thank you all so much for the great feedback! ^_^ You make an MPREG writer so very very happy!

Special cameo in this chapter ;) can you guess who?

TBF101

And to my lovely Cerberus, hope you continue to enjoy this flu as much as I enjoy yours :)

Chapter Twelve: Lifted Burdens

Hisashi's stone blue eyes glanced out the window as a ray of sunlight fell on his face. The blonde looked briefly through the glass at the landscape of Tokyo before going back to his sketchbook, lazily dragging his pen over the crisp paper.

A soft murmur caught his ear and Hisashi half smiled as he looked at Yuu, who had his head and arms resting on the edge of the hospital bed, his other half sitting in a chair. The brunette settled further into the mattress, light snores coming from his form as he peacefully slept. Hisashi snuggled deeper into his own spot as he continue to draw to the soundtrack of Yuu's steady breathing.

The blonde didn't mind at all that it was two in the afternoon and his boyfriend was out cold. Over the past couple days they had spent in the hospital, Yuu had slept almost constantly, dozing off into catnaps at random intervals, and Hisashi was happy to let him drift off. Yuu had overworked himself for nearly two and a half months and had neglected his own health almost to the point of exhaustion. Which was precisely why Renaka had insisted that Yuu be with Hisashi at the hospital while she went to Marukawa to deal with Ijuuin.

Both men were grateful for all of the mangaka's help. In fact, they were starting to bash their heads against the wall for not calling her sooner.

The couple had officially reported to Marukawa that Hisashi had caught the uke flu yesterday, and needless to say, things went infinitely smoother with Renaka's connections to the Isaka family. So smooth in fact, that it was highly unlikely that Hisashi or Yuu would be fired for missing work. In addition, because of the privacy policy, the information would be restricted to only the director, Kirishima, and Ijuuin, which was of equal relief. (Even though they were fairly certain that if their female coworkers found out they would receive dozens of gift baskets). Renaka was even going to talk (and threaten if need be) to Ijuuin and get Yuu set on some projects he could work on from home.

And in regards to these new developments, both Hisashi and Yuu found loads that they weren't even aware of taken from their minds. Other couples at the company had not been so lucky.

At the rising of the uke flu pandemic, Marukawa had placed new policies in order to deal with the crisis. Male workers who had "caught" (as the term came to be known) and became pregnant were required to formally tell the company if they wanted to receive any time off or benefits. Not to mention it was nearly impossible for pregnant ukes to maintain their rigorous work schedules while dealing with months and months of morning sickness.

However, for those who did tell, it wasn't all fun and sunshine. The last thing the company wanted was for half their staff to be out on paternity leave, and to avoid having to endorse all that time off, higher ups began digging into the employment records to find any excuse to fire recipients of the flu. And since workers were fired for reasons of employment (however scant they were) rather than their pregnancy, they had no possible way of retaliating.

All of this drama was the reason that Yuu and Hisashi had kept things on the down low the past three months. And the weight of their situation had pushed and ground heavily on their minds.

But now, the two were finally starting to find relief from trial, even though it had been instigated by Hisashi's attempted suicide. The two had reached the darkest point of their relationship and had struggled, but were now starting to see dawn follow the moonless night.

An unbidden yawn rose in Hisashi's chest and he exhaled heavily, his eyelids beginning to droop. He set his sketchbook on the night table and rolled onto his side, resting his cheek against the pillow. Hisashi snuggled further into the hoodie he was wearing, a blue one with stripes that Yuu had given him for his last birthday. He wore it a lot so he'd had Renaka bring it from Yuu's house. He always had a soft spot for comfy sweatshirts, and he liked that it faintly smelled of Yuu's natural muskiness.

Hisashi's drowsy eyes drifted over and stared at the sleeping face of his boyfriend, silently reaching his pale fingertips to brush the back of Yuu's hand.

The blonde yawned again and closed his eyes as a wave of fatigue washed over him. He settled into the hospital bed, cradling his stitched arm into his chest and letting his mind drift off.

Hisashi's lips tightened irksomely and he sighed. If it wasn't this darn baby bump making him fall asleep half the day it was his new regiment of pills.

Despite the circumstances of how he'd come to the hospital, Hisashi had to admit it was doing wonders for his health. Three days and a plethora of IVs and nausea meds (not to mention Renaka's incredibly persuasive methods of getting him to eat) and Hisashi felt better than he had in weeks. But in spite of the improvement, he still wasn't up to a hundred percent.

The morning after he'd come to the hospital, at Renaka's bidding Hisashi had seen the on staff psychiatrist about getting on some anti-depressants. He had been put on a trial medication for a couple of weeks to see if it would help, but at the moment all it was doing was making him fall asleep.

But even in spite of this, Hisashi's mind was much calmer now that he and Yuu were together and the brunette was getting some much needed rest. It had killed Hisashi inside to see Yuu go through such lengths to carry the blonde through these past few months. Yuu was strong and he hadn't given up, but Hisashi had seen cracks forming from the incomparable strain. It was even worse because Yuu never complained about it, he just silently fought the battle on his own.

Hisashi's lips curled in his half unconscious state, and his hand inched forward to find his partner's.

The blonde had thought this countless time over the course of their relationship, but now every fiber and cell of Hisashi knew one thing was certain in the tossing ocean of their life.

He was so unbelievably lucky to have Yuu…

"Araki-san?"

The blonde's groggy eyes fluttered open. He rolled onto his back and glanced at the door, where one of his nurses was peaking in.

"Yeah?" He replied, suppressing a yawn and sitting back up. Yuu's eyes opened and he sat up as well, stretching the kinks out of his lower back from sleeping so awkwardly.

"There's a doctor here that would like to speak with you." The nurse said. "Should I ask him to come back later?"

"No, it's alright." Hisashi murmured, combing back a stray blonde curl. The nurse ducked back out into the hall, while Yuu lengthened out his arms and let out a howling yawn.

"How long was I out?" He grunted, scratching the back of his neck.

"Couple hours." Hisashi replied.

Yuu's eyebrows rose.

"That long?"

Hisashi nodded. Yuu smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry." He murmured, shifting over to sit on the bed.

Hisashi smiled back at him.

"Don't worry about it. You could use the Zs."

Yuu continued to smile, exhaling another post nap yawn.

"Mmph!"

Yuu raised an eyebrow as the blonde let out an uncharacteristic grunt and put both hands on his stomach.

"What's wrong?" Yuu asked before suddenly grimacing in disgust. "You're not going to throw up are you?"

"No… jerk face." Hisashi muttered, rubbing his hand over his baby bulge.

Yuu's eyes widened.

"Is it moving?" He asked, leaning closer towards the blonde.

"I think so," Hisashi replied. "It just felt like a twitch. Like a butterfly."

"Let me feel." Yuu said, pulling back the covers.

"It's gone now." Hisashi replied as Yuu pulled up his blue striped hoodie and placed a warm hand on his stomach.

Yuu stayed still for a moment, but when no movement came he took his hand away. He let out a quiet chuckle.

"He must be shy."

Hisashi snorted, his lips curling into a smile. Both of their heads turned as they heard a quiet knock on the door again.

"Come in." Hisashi called.

Yuu glanced in the direction of door, and his eyes brows rose a little as an incredibly tall, well built doctor entered. His head was topped with a nest of raven hair and contrasted with the bright, happy glow of the man's face. Cobalt blue eyes looked over at the two occupants and the doctor gave them a wide, sincere smile.

"Hello, I'm doctor Kusama Nowaki. Are you Araki Hisashi-san?"

"Yes." Hisashi replied slowly, also reeling from the enormity of the man's height. "The nurse said you wanted to see me?"

Kusama nodded.

"Yes, well—more like meet you. You see Araki-san, I normally work in the pediatric ER, but I heard from Gensei-sensei that there were a couple of uke flu recipients here so I wanted to drop by."

Yuu couldn't help but darken his eyes when he heard that Kusama was interested in Hisashi's pregnancy. Although doctor Gensei had done a wonderful job with Hisashi and their baby's care, he'd heard rumors that others weren't so friendly. And yet at the sight of the pediatrician's broad smile, Yuu felt his guard recede.

"You said there's another one here? In the psyche ward?" Hisashi asked, cocking his head.

"No," Kusama replied. "The other one is on one of the main floors. I'm planning on visiting him next."

"I see." Hisashi replied quietly, still a bit confused as to why this particular doctor was taking an interest in the bed ridden and knocked up.

"But anyways," The doctor smiled. "Like I said, I wanted to come down here and talk with you personally. Your nurse informed me of your circumstances…"

Yuu saw Hisashi unconsciously shift his right arm, and he felt his guard rise.

"Kusama-sensei," Yuu interrupted. "I don't mean to be rude in the least, but what exactly is your business here?"

The tall raven-haired man wasn't at all fazed by Yuu's upfrontness. He simply continued to smile and reached an arm back to completely shut the door.

"Well, you see Araki-san." Kusama murmured. "What I really wanted was to meet a fellow carrier and see if there was anything I could do that the other doctors can't."

Yuu and Hisashi's eyes simultaneously went wide as Jupiter.

"Uh er—…fellow carrier?" Hisashi stammered.

Kusama nodded and lifted up his scrubs. Right in the center of the lean, muscled belly was a slight bump that could almost have been mistaken for a few too many slices of cake.

"I'm nearly through my first trimester." Kusama said almost proudly, pulling his smock back down. "How about you?"

"Uh…the same." Hisashi answered. "Almost eleven weeks…"

"Are you still having morning sickness?" Kusama asked.

"A little. But the nausea meds help. It was worse the first two months."

"Same with me." The doctor smiled. "Are you making sure to get enough fluids?"

"Um Sensei," Yuu cut in again, slightly shaking his head. "Sorry again for seeming rude but if you don't mind me asking…how on earth did you get…pregnant? I mean…you're rather tall."

"Height rule…" The doctor murmured to himself. "Well er…my apologies, I didn't catch your name."

"Oh sorry," Hisashi replied. "This Yanase Yuu. He's my…boyfriend." The blonde said, finding it a little odd to say it out loud, even though the two were quite open about their relationship (except at work).

"Well Yanase-san," Kusama began musingly. "I'm what doctors—well, those we specialize in the flu—like to call a 'semuke.' Meaning I'm a bit of a cross between the contrasting norm of gay couples."

Yuu nodded slowly.

"I see. So seme AND uke?"

Kusama chuckled.

"Yes, though I assure you, my Hiro—er my PARTNER is normally very much uke. He's adorable."

A few seconds of awkward silence followed before Yuu saw Hisashi look up with a bit of interest.

"Have we…met before?" Hisashi asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "I think I've seen you somewhere."

The doctor mused as well.

"Hmm. I do remember you two as well. But where was it…"

Yuu snapped his fingers.

"The Marukawa Author's Party. You were there with Usami Akihiko and another author."

Kusama's eyes widened.

"That's right! I saw you two with Rurouri Renaka."

"Yeah," Hisashi smiled. "Now I remember."

"So, you two know her?" Kusama asked excitedly. "I'm a big fan of her work."

Hisashi nodded.

"She's kind of my adoptive mother. I was a student of hers so we've known each other for a long time."

"Wow, that's amazing." Kusama smiled elatedly. Again Yuu was struck by just how much warmth the man's presence seemed to give off, and he saw Hisashi feel it too. The blonde sat up, resting his elbows on his bent knees and looking at the doctor.

"So…how was your morning sickness?"

A couple hours later, doctor Kusama Nowaki took his leave with a parting smile. Instead of going back to sleep, Hisashi grabbed his sketchbook and resumed drawing, his eyes having gained back a bit of spark.

Yuu got up from the bed and paced over to the window, glancing at the cityscape with slightly curled lips. As suspicious as he had been about the tall doctor, the man had actually been extremely helpful once they had gotten the awkward 411 out of the way. Yuu had realized earlier that although they knew (or at least knew of) other gay couples that Hisashi had never gotten the chance to actually talk with another flu victim. They had known of support groups but neither had the time or energy, plus they hadn't wanted to go alone.

But the bright faced doctor had been more than happy to share his story with Hisashi, and the blonde likewise. Yuu had actually been surprised that the two had talked so long as normally Hisashi was drained by lengthy conversations (being the antisocial introvert he was).

And words couldn't describe at how relieved and thrilled Yuu was to see his boyfriend beginning to heal. His crimson eyes drifted back over to the sketching blonde, and Yuu felt his gaze soften adoringly.

He was so happy to have Hisashi…

Yuu went back over to his chair and sat down, still processing all that the doctor had disclosed (with their promise of secrecy of course as the information of semukes hadn't officially been released to the public).

Suddenly a thought crossed his mind and Yuu raised an eyebrow, turning to Hisashi.

"Hey Sashi," He murmured.

"Hmm?"

"You know if that doctor was pregnant and he's a semuke…that means his partner must've topped him…"

"What's your point?"

Yuu looked at Hisashi with slightly surprised eyes.

"Can you imagine the monster that topped THAT?"

Hisashi's eyes widened as well and his hand stilled.

"God…He must a demon…"

Nostalgia next! Thanks for reading! I love your reviews so so much! :D

And like I said before, if you haven't read the original egoist uke flu by Cerberus Revised...you are probably very confused and curious so you'll go read it now out of sheer shock right this minute.