When fathers-to-be are awakened in the middle of the night for their babies' births, it's usually by the mother, the news delivered in varying degrees of worry. But for Kurama, the revelation arrived with a phone call.

Kurama and Hiei were both sleeping in the apartment they shared, in their bed, their arms around each other, when the communicator on the nightstand rang. It rang once, twice, thrice, until finally Kurama's sleepy hand fumbled around and opened it. The caller ID said it came from the apartment Yukina shared with her husband, Kuwabara. Kurama was glad Yukina had someone to be with during her pregnancy, even though it was technically Kurama's babies she was having.

"Hello?" Kurama mumbled.

"Kurama!" Kuwabara's voice was raised and almost unintelligible. "You've got to get here now! Yukina woke up in the middle of the night...I think she's..."

"Kuwabara," said Kurama, sitting up straight, "has she gone into labor?"

"Yeah, a month and a half early!"

"They're twins," said Kurama. "Twins can often come early. Has her water broken?"

"I-I think so," Kuwabara said uncertainly. "It's...it's pretty wet in the bed, and she's not doin' so well."

"Okay, we're on our way," Kurama promised, then hung up the phone. Noticing that Hiei was still asleep, he shook the small fire demon to wake him up.

"Go 'way," Hiei mumbled, half-conscious.

"Hiei, wake up," Kurama insisted. "It's time. It's started."

"What are you talking about?" Hiei's normal red eyes blinked sleepily, and his third eye, the Jagan, was slowly opening at its own pace.

"The babies are coming," said Kurama.

"W-What?!" Hiei bolted upright in bed, then he fell off. "WHAT?!"

"I said, the babies are coming!"

"Ah! Babies!" Hiei hoisted himself up, holding onto the side of the bed, and held up two fingers. "Not one, but TWO babies, are coming out of my sister?! TWINS?!"

"We've known this for months," Kurama said exasperatedly. "Besides, you're a twin. They run in your family."

"So what?!" Hiei still didn't seem able to stand.

"Hiei, you're panicking," Kurama observed.

"Yes, I am! Join me, why don't you!"

"Go to Kuwabara's and support the mother of our baby," Kurama ordered, stretching out a hand to help Hiei up. "I'll meet you there with the car."

"Okay." Hiei was only wearing his shorts, but he didn't bother putting on pants and a shirt or even shoes; he just put on his cloak, grabbed his sword, tied on the headband that covered the Jagan, and sped off into the storm, leaving through the window, as always.

The first thing Kurama did was get dressed. Then he went around the apartment gathering all their new baby materials (of course, they had two of everything). Kurama packed his bag with the two baby blankets his mother had knitted, their baby formula and bottles, diapers, onesies, tiny fuzzy socks, hats, bibs, Yukina's favorite pillow, the rest of Hiei's clothes, some washcloths and towels, a pack of sterile rubber gloves, and finally, the most important thing of all: string.

It was so hard to drive in the storm. Why not have a baby on a sunny day? And for that matter, why not have them a little closer to their due date? There were still six weeks to go at this point. But finally, Kurama arrived, where he was mobbed by Hiei.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Hiei practically screamed at him.

"I brought our new baby supplies," said Kurama, gesturing to his bag. "Where's Yukina?"

"In the bedroom!" Hiei's face was remarkably pale. "Come on!"

Sure enough, Yukina was lying on her side on her and Kuwabara's bed, wearing a white nightgown (it looked like she was wearing a bra underneath, but nothing else), with Kuwabara hovering around her in a pair of blue pajama pants, looking quite as panicked as Hiei. Yukina was panting slightly, her shoulders and chest visibly moving up and down, and her eyes were just barely open. One arm was behind her head, while the other held onto her very pregnant belly.

"Kurama," she said, her eyes widening. They were big and full of tears. "Thank goodness you're here. They're very worried."

"I suppose it's a good thing if the calmest person in the room is the one who has to push out two babies," said Kurama, gently taking her hand in his. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good...ohhhh!" Kurama could tell that was quite a strong pain. Yukina's eyes closed involuntarily; her teeth were clenched; her face was flushed, and she squeezed Kurama's hand much more tightly than he thought she was capable of.

"That's right, just breathe," said Kurama. When her body finally relaxed, he said, "Hiei, bring me that bag, all right? I brought Yukina's favorite pillow."

"Oh, thank you," said Yukina gratefully. "Just under my back here. Please."

Kurama helped her with the pillow, then asked, "Do you know how long it's been?"

"No," she said nervously. "I just woke up to a soaking wet bed and these very bad pains. They last about a minute and I get little breaks in between them."

"Yukina," said Kuwabara, moving closer to the bed, "if there's anything else I can do for you..."

"If there's anything to be done for Yukina, I'll do it," said Hiei, stepping in front of him.

"What?!" Kuwabara shoved him out of the way. "What gave you that idea?"

"She's about to be the mother of my babies."

"They're Kurama's babies, not yours, idiot! And she's my wife!"

"Well, she's my sister!"

"Some brother you are, then," Kuwabara said. "You never told her. She had to tell you that she already knew."

Hiei let out an angry growl. "Why, you—"

But they were interrupted by Yukina letting out a loud cry of pain, gripping Kurama's hand tight again. Hiei and Kuwabara both looked like they were about to go into cardiac arrest.

"It wasn't going to take this long, I thought." Hiei sounded kind of dazed. "I mean..."

"I don't know what I thought," said Kuwabara, actually voicing Hiei's thoughts for once.

"All we can do is wait," Kurama told them, pushing Yukina's mint-green bangs up off her hot forehead. Once that pain ended, she was left panting again, exhausted.

"I'm no good at waiting!" Kuwabara declared, rushing over and grabbing her other hand. "Please just push them out!"

"I can't!" she said. "Not yet."

"Well, how long?" Kuwabara demanded.

"Why?" Hiei snapped. "Are you in some sort of hurry?"

"No, I just don't want my beautiful Yukina to be in any pain!"

"Please, stop arguing, you two!" Yukina begged.

"Yukina, you would be wise to focus on your voice," Kurama said, adjusting the pillow underneath her back. "Keep it deep. Screaming will drain you of your energy much quicker."

"Well, you're one to talk," scoffed Hiei. "You always scream when you get hurt."

"Yukina's not hurt," said Kurama. "There will be pain, but she is not in any danger."

...

The storm seemed to rage on forever, but everyone had lost track of how long it had been except Kurama; he had been glancing at the clock whenever no one else was looking. They would have thought the storm would blow itself out by now, but it hadn't, and it was going on four in the morning. It had been about three hours since Hiei and Kurama arrived at the apartment; Yukina had been making progress, Kurama could tell, but that didn't seem to help her morale any.

Unfortunately, there was almost no rest in between Yukina's pains by this point, and they seemed to be the most excruciating they had ever been. Right now, she was standing up, holding onto the headboard of her and Kuwabara's bed with a death grip. Hiei and Kuwabara, on the other side of the room, were trying not to lose their minds any more than they already had, but it was a close thing. Kurama had kept a cool head because, well, someone had to (although that was basically the story of his life).

"You're doing well," said Kurama in his silky, soothing voice, at another very short break. "Let us know when you need to push."

"What makes you think you can deliver the babies, Kurama?!" Hiei demanded.

"Yukina is the one delivering the babies," Kurama corrected. "I'm just helping her out a little."

"I mean...what do you know about birth?"

"It's called foresight," said Kurama, referring to one of his most notable characteristics. Yukina had told them that she wanted a natural homebirth very early on in the pregnancy. Ever since, Kurama had been researching childbirth in his spare time, natural childbirth in particular, so that he would be able to help instead of panic. Of course, plenty of his coworkers had children, and he had been having conversations with them about their experiences with birth. Be prepared, that was his motto, but Hiei and Kuwabara obviously hadn't gotten the message. Hiei cared about his sister and the babies, and Kurama honestly couldn't remember a time when Kuwabara's heart hadn't been in the right place, but they were probably more liabilities than assets.

"Foresight?" said Kuwabara, just then proving Kurama's point. "Is that...is that, like, a labor step or something?"

"No, stupid," Hiei snarled, but then he turned to Kurama, his voice not softening. "I hope you know what you're doing, Kurama, because nobody else does, me included."

Hiei's words were drowned out by a moan from Yukina. Kurama was very thankful for his high pain tolerance when she took his hand once more. The whole thing was just a different experience for him. It wasn't frightening because he knew their twins were going to be born no matter what, but it took a lot of pain to get there. Even if he wasn't having the pains himself, it was awful to watch someone he loved like a sister go through something this difficult. Timing it in his head, Kurama counted eighty-four seconds exactly until poor Yukina's body finally relaxed again.

"Great job!" Kuwabara cheered. "You're the best, Yukina!"

These words of encouragement were met only with another groan of pain. It didn't help that there was still howling wind, thunder and lightning, and rain pelting the windowpanes; Yukina's vocals echoed off the walls of the tiny apartment, enough to make everyone present cringe. Heaven knows what the neighbors were thinking. Yukina gripped onto the bedpost even tighter, still moaning.

"This one's almost over, Yukina," said Kurama, who had been mentally counting down from eighty-four since the very beginning of the contraction. However, he didn't start counting out loud until he got to the single digits. "Ten...nine...eight...seven..."

"COUNT FASTER!" Hiei shouted.

"Hiei!" said Kurama. Yukina tensed, moaned, and relaxed again.

"Kurama!" said Kuwabara, unable to listen his beloved Yukina's pain anymore. "I can't feel my legs!"

"Fool!" said Hiei, though they were both holding onto the side of the bed for support, like Yukina.

"Please, you two, get ahold of yourselves." To be honest, Kurama was more worried about Hiei and Kuwabara than he was about Yukina, which was really ridiculous, because they weren't about to give birth to twins.

"Ohhh!" Yukina let out a low moan, but it was loud, seemingly startling Kuwabara and Hiei.

"YUKINA!" Kuwabara bellowed, rushing over to her, as she unknowingly almost crushed Kurama's hand in her pain; he swore he heard the bones crack.

Kurama rubbed Yukina's back, and Kuwabara let her hold their resident kitten when it wandered into the room; that is, until she squeezed it too hard and it stalked away. Hiei was watching them all the time, looking terrified and helpless (which Kurama knew he didn't like), but it was obvious that he felt guilty as well, possibly because he wanted to be doing something to help but didn't know what.

One thing Kurama learned from a coworker (a mother of four) was that it was a good idea to keep the mom moving around if you could, so they tried that, but it didn't seem to help. Nothing did. After forty-five minutes of all this, Yukina was in tears, sitting on the floor, leaning against the side of the bed. She wouldn't let anyone touch her, and she complained of being overheated. Kurama was kneeling down next to her, Kuwabara was on the bed, and Hiei still seemed afraid to get too close to them.

"I can't do this!" Yukina cried. "It's just too much!"

"No! You are NOT a quitter, Yukina!" Kuwabara protested. "You're strong!"

"I'm sorry, Kazuma, but I can't!" she repeated. "I'm barely getting a break in betweeeeeeeeeeeAAAAOOOOOOWWW!"

She was right, in a way; it did seem to last forever, without a pause in between. Even when a contraction ended, the next came along less than a minute after. She couldn't talk through them anymore. Kurama kept looking at the clock. Ten minutes...twenty...

It was around half-past five when Yukina made an important announcement: "I think I need to push!"

The atmosphere in the room changed immensely. Kuwabara jumped up like the bed had been set on fire; Hiei, his face as white as snow, hung onto the bedpost for dear life; Kurama took her hand again and said, "Okay, then. Let's have a baby."