Life is hectic, school is rough, work is tiring and there aren't enough hours in the day. With that said enjoy the new chapter and throw me a review or two, they have been scarce lately and I could really use some input from you guys. Thanks for your patience I love you all. Enjoy
I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho
It took Kurama a while to calm down and Shura even longer. She slept fitfully, curled in the crook of her mate's arm once again in her beast form. A nagging inkling in the back of her mind awoke the vixen a few hours before dawn. She looked about, alert for any signs of danger, finding that Hiei was also awake and completely calm helped matters greatly, quickly calming Kurama. She nuzzled her kits cuddled in the soft fur of her underbelly; they were fine, as well as Kidori whose raspy breathing fell into the rhythm of the rise and fall of Hiei's slender chest.
Knowing that something was wrong, the vixen stood with a arching stretch that mimicked a cat's and yawned, her slender jaws opening wide and flashing her razor sharp, pearl white fangs to the light of the moon. She then nosed the blankets into a warm nest around Arianbi and Jiyu in place of her body heat. They stirred for a moment, quickly finding each other's body warmth and snuggling together. Satisfied that there were fine for the time being, Kurama turned and leapt lightly from the bed, her slender, nimble body not causing the slightest tremor through the mattress springs.
Although she felt Hiei's steady gaze following her every move, she didn't give him an explanation and he didn't expect one, nightly prowls about the temple were probably going o be numerous for the next few months. Only, this night Kurama didn't bother prowling the temple, the odd feeling she picked up intensified the closer she came to Shura's bedroom door. Years upon years of honed skills of burglary enabled the vixen to shift her forms and soundlessly open the door to her adoptive son's room.
Judging by his tremors and rapid breathing that Shura was awake, Kurama stepped closer to his bed, just as she was about to softly call out to the young goat Shura noted her presence, jolting his head up and turning to face her; visibly relaxing at the sight of his mother. No words were needed and none were spoken as Kurama approached the bed, she sat down on the edge, instantly Shura climbed into her lap. The vixen held him close and tucked the top of his head underneath her chin. They stayed that way until Shura's breathing started evening out, his small body relaxing and going limp as sleep took over.
"Don't ever be afraid to come and get me if you're frightened." Kurama told her drowsy son. Cradling him close, Kurama stood and made her way back to her room.
Hiei's eyes cracked open when his mate entered their room. He watched as Kurama laid her precious burden on the bed. The Jaganshi was about to comment on her coddling Shura when he needed to get over this fear of his sire more then he needed her cuddles. That was until a splash of moonlight washed over the goatling's face causing the slight bags under his eyes appear much larger. A sudden flashback of his first glimpse of Kurama after his return from Mukuro's realm, finding her half starved to death and suffering from horrific night terrors. With that image engraved deep in his mind, Hiei decided that there was no harm in letting the goat child share their bed from time to time. As if reading his thoughts, Kurama settled herself down on the mattress, spooning the already soundly sleeping Shura, and linking her large, soft hand with his own smaller one. Hiei turned his head to meet her steady golden gaze that was both pleading with him to understand both her and Shura's need for each other while at the same time daring him to protest.
After studying her for a long moment, Hiei retracted his hand from Kurama's. She watched him anxiously while he steadied Kidori on his slender chest as he turned to fae the middle of the bed not only toward Jiyu and Arianbi but Shura and Kurama as well. Once Kidori was settled in the cradle of his slender arm, Hiei reached to retrieve his mate's hand again, this time closing it and linking their fingers together. It felt odd, but then he himself was a fire demon born of an ice maiden, mated to the legendary thief Youko, who had been reborn as a human and who just gave birth to three goat hybrids father by a former Makai lord who's son was also sharing their bed. Being an oddity was just something he was going to have to get used to. Kurama smiled at him, overjoyed that he could accept all these foreign now circumstances. In three days Hiei went from sharing a bed solely with Kurmaa to having three newborns and now Shura, and that was asking quite a lot from the petite fire demon. Closing her eyes, Kurama finally felt secure enough to finally fall comfortably asleep.
Morning came all too quickly for Kurama, or more precisely, morning breakfast for the kits came all too early. Thankfully, Jiyu and Arianbi were still in their beast forms which was the easiest way to feed the. All Kurama had to do was stretch out on her side and let their instincts take over. Gently, Kurama eased herself out of her bed, taking care to tuck the comforter around Shura to mimic her embrace. Still sleeping soundly, the young goat didn't so much as twitch as his mother tucked him in then moments later crawled over him in her fox form. Jiyu and Arianbi were delighted to have their mother back and reminded her forcefully that they didn't like to wake up with out her comforting presence and her milk with whimpers and squeaks. The vixen nosed around for a moment, rearranging the nest of nest of blankets before lying down and allowing her kits to wiggle and squirm in search for her teats. After spending a few lazy minutes tongue bathing her kits while they ate, Kurama settled back down and enjoyed the near silence of the early morning that was only disrupted by the birds twittering outside the window and the greedy suckling and squeaks coming from the kits.
The serene morning peace lasted almost fifteen minutes before Kidori, too, was waking and fussing to be fed. Hiei awoke just as quickly, he was tempted to let her nurse as is, considering he was shirtless from the many other times that night he had gotten up to feed her and felt no need to re-clothe his upper body. That was until he got a good whiff of her.
"You reek." He told the fussy baby as he stood and laid her on the foot of the bed, much to his daughter's displeasure of being put down. Kurama couldn't help but chuckle at the scene her mate and daughter made, as much practice Hiei had gotten in the past fice days at changing diapers, Kidori was not one to make diaper changes easy as it usually meant that she had to be put down and she hated that. Hiei's large, crimson eyes flicked over to Kurama for a moment, meeting her amused gaze.
"I thought you said these things were supposed to absorb the odor and mess." He grouched, tossing the diaper in the garbage can in the corner of the room.
:It does, but it can only handle so much at a time. It doesn't take all the fun out of diaper changes.:
"So this is the highlight of parenthood?" Hiei grumbled as he finished cleaning Kidori's bottom with a mildly scented wipe. Once he was finally able to put on the clean diaper, he removed her pale pink outfit, leaving her in nothing but a diaper, Kidori was on her way to a full blown tantrum, her small face growing red with the effort it took to wail as loud as she was. Knowing that skin to skin contact was the best way to calm down a fussy baby, Hiei picked his daughter back up, cradling her warm little body to his bare chest, secretly relishing the skin to skin contact. Once secure in her father's strong arms Kidori sighed sharply causing Hiei to laugh, "I have some gall putting you down don't I?" Kidori sighed again, as if agreeing with her father, her face returning to its natural color and her breathing evening out.
Hiei settled back down on the mattress with his back to the headboard and a pillow in his lap so that he didn't have to arch his back to nurse Kidori. Her previous tantrum completely forgotten, Kidori happily latched on to her father's nipple for her morning breakfast. Kurama laid her head her mate's thigh, nuzzling her cold wet nose into side. Getting the picture, Hiei reached down his free hand to scratch and rub her large silky ears and smirked, amused that she would enjoy her ears being scratched like a lap dog. Kurama didn't care; she arched into his fingertips with a deep, soft sigh.
"So what are we going to do about that fucking goat?" Hiei asked after a few quiet moments.
:Nothing.: Kurama answered much to her mate's surprise. :He is expecting us to overreact and exhaust ourselves. Have no doubt we will take measures to protect ourselves and the kits, but I'm not going to become paranoid, its not fair to my children.:
"What are you planning?"
:I'm not completely sure, however, having trained him myself and then being his top advisor for the past few years I see patterns to Yomi and have come to realize that he is completely predicable. He is biding his time, for what I'm not sure, but somehow he is getting information about us and he wants me to get nervous and make a mistake and I refuse to do so.:
Hiei answered with his usual, "Hn." And left it at that. He wasn't sure whether or not this plan was a good idea, but he had faith in his mate and her years of honed skills, not only that, but she knew Yomi better then all of them put together and if her little plan kept her comfortable and sane, then that was all that mattered. He would be prepared to protect his family when the time came
Once Kidori's eyes started drooping again and her suckling slowed to a stop, Hiei shifted off the bed, "We should get these three up and dressed if you're going to catch everyone before they run out on a fucking goat hunt."
It was not a quick process changing three newborns, especially when one of them despised you the moment you put her down. Once again, when put down Kidori woke up from a sound sleep bellowing like a banshee.
"This is going to get old real quick." Hiei muttered over his daughter's screams, Kurama, looking up from her side of the bed where she was dressing Jiyu in a soft blue one piece speckled with baseballs and bats, chuckled softly.
"I'm sure it will get easier as she gets older."
"Hn." Hiei grunted, finally finished with dressing the ever fussy Kidori, he gathered her back up, cradling her in the crook of his arm and rocking her back to sleep with gentle swaying movements he had seen Kurama use. Kurama watched out of the corner of her eye at the adorable scene Hiei didn't realize he was gifting her with. It seemed that Hiei softened around the edges when he was around their babies, and luckily there were more then enough babies to go around.
"What about him?" Hiei asked, nodding toward the still snoozing Shura. Kurama looked up from dressing Arianbi who, like her younger sister, wasn't too thrilled about it, at her adopted son, when she had left him earlier that morning to nurse Arianbi and Jiyu he had clamped his arms firmly around her pillow and buried his face in it.
"Let him wake up on his own." She replied going back to dressing her eldest daughter. "If he can sleep through these two wailing like banshees then he's obviously more exhausted then he seemed."
Hiei shrugged, it meant little to him what the young goat did. Though Shura seemed infatuated with Kurama and at times seemed to follow her around like a duckling, Hiei's distrustful nature still made him a bit wary of him; something Kurama was dead set on changing. Gathering up their litter, Hiei and Kurama made their way to the kitchen, where everyone else was up and awake. the girls were preparing breakfast while Yusuke, Kuwabara and Genkai sat at the table making plans about shift of paroling the perimeter of the Genkai's mountain. The moment the vixen entered the doorway, all talking ceased for a split second, then picked right backup s Hiei and Kurama made their way to the table. Instantly Botan relieved Kurama of Arianbi, cradling the kit close to her chest and cooing baby babble words of nonsense as she sat down next to Kuwabara who instantly joined in on the cooing.
"Here's what we were thinking," Genkai started, "Yusuke, Kuwabara and I are going to-"
"No." Kurama interrupted, startling all her friends and gaining their full attention. "We are not going to play into hands anymore. He wants me to be scared enough to whip us into a frenzy and when creatures are scared they get stupid. I refuse to put myself, my kits, and any of you into that sort of situation."
"So what do you plan to do?" Genkai asked, more then a little confused. Last night both Kurama and Shura had been basket cases over their fear of Yomi and now it seemed that, suddenly, Kurama was back to her calm, cool, collected old self; after almost a full year of being a moody, weepy, and pregnant. It was a refreshing change.
"Two weeks from now I am going to put in place a security system, one that has never let me down before and one just like it still protects my den. Where I will be taking the kits in a few months when they are old enough to travel safely. My plants are not only in-penetrateable; they will relay all information of wandering demons that happen to come within its boundaries and upon my command will destroy them. If," she said after a sort pause, "they need be. Of course, none of you need to worry yourself about these plants, they know you are to come and go as you please."
"How kind of you." Genkai snorted. "Permitting me to grace the presence of your plants, which are surrounding my home."
Kurama sent her a smug smile back and placed Jiyu in the old physic's age withered arms. "Don't think of it that way Master Genkai. I'm simply protecting the only grandmother my kits have."
"Are you sure about this, Kurama?" Yusuke asked.
"Yes."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Yomi is bluffing. I know this because I have trained him, maybe not formally but, when I was his second in command I realized just how similar his plans and actions were to my own, once upon a time. He is planning something and if we play into his bluff it will only put us and my kits into further danger. The best thing to do is stay calm, which may be the last thing he would suspect."
"May be the last thing?" Kuwabara spoke up. "What if you're wrong?"
Kurama shrugged. "I won't know that until the time comes, but I can guarantee you that Yomi knows nothing of my plant system, no one save yourselves and one other who died many years ago knows of it. So consider yourselves special."
"I suppose it just goes to show," Botan chirped, "That you are your own worse enemy!"
Kurama nodded, her eyes and posture showing nothing but confidence. Hiei knew that Kurama was much more nervous then she put on, but, much like Genkai, he enjoyed seeing his mate going back to act like her normal self. This fight with that fucking goat was far from over, but for right now with the kits as venerable as they were being newly born, the plants seemed the best they could do with out killing themselves; plus, they still had to find out how Yomi was gathering information about them and the kits.
"Some one should go check on the doctor." He said, looking at Yusuke and Kuwabara. "It's possible that he might be the leak, knowingly or unknowingly. He left yesterday morning and is the only one other then us who knows all of the kits names. The two of you should go investigate him and those he works with. Just in case."
Both boys nodded promising to go just as soon as they finished their breakfast. Kurama was famished, feeding three kits every three or four hours, even with Hiei's help, was very draining and used up many calories. The vixen was hopeful that those pesky pounds she had gained during her pregnancy weren't going to stick around for long. But that didn't stop her from filling her plate.
Once breakfast was over and her stomach full, Kurama found herself growing drowsy again and excused herself so that she could go back to her bedroom and lay down until her breasts were needed for a hungry kit. She retrieved Jiyu from Genkai, not wanting her tiny son to leave her sight just yet, leaving Kidori and Arianbi to Hiei and the girls to take care of for the time being. Shura was still fast asleep cuddled to Kurama's pillow. The vixen settled Jiyu down inbetween two body pillows on the other side of the bed then resumed her previous position, gathering Shura in her arms and burying her nose in his soft black hair. She was still scared to death for Shura and her newborns, but she was through with letting her fear and that fucking goat get the best of her, she was Youko for god's sake and its about time she start acting like it. With that thought on her mind, Kurama closed her eyes and fell contently asleep.
:::TADA! I have finally found time to finish this chapter! Woot, this was the second half of the chapter that was destroyed a few months ago and I know the story is going a bit slow but I promise will pick up in the next chapter! So throw me review please and let me know what you think! You guys mean the world to me and truthfully if you didn't give my such good feed back I probably would have given up on this fic long ago! I love you guys don't give up on me cause I am still alive and this fic will go on. Enough fo my rambling. Later!