Normally, the doctor's assistant would have been right, but the sixteenth came and went, without a baby in sight. Hiei said he didn't feel any different, physically, aside from the fact that he was sick of being pregnant.

"Why doesn't he want to come out?!" he demanded, at least ten times a day.

"I don't know, Hiei," Kurama would reply. At first he thought it had something to do with the baby being upside down, but the doctor had moved him to the correct position. So why didn't the baby want to come out? Kurama loved Hiei's pregnant body, but he hated seeing the one he loved so uncomfortable, especially since he was the one who caused it in the first place.

By Wednesday, Hiei was officially one week overdue, and he was miserable. He did nothing but lay on the couch and complain, punctuated every so often by eating and using the bathroom. Nobody blamed him for his irritability, of course; in fact, they all went out of their way to tell him how amazing he was. And again, Kurama hated seeing Hiei this way, so he looked on the computer to see if there were any ways to make Hiei go into labor naturally.

The first one on the list was to exercise, but Kurama knew the answer to that would be a clear and resounding No. Hiei could barely move, much less exercise. Sex was second on the list, but with Kurama's new predicament, it was more difficult for him to perform, and Hiei would need to be active during sex. That simply wasn't going to happen until the baby was born. The third was eating pineapple, which was a fruit and therefore the only thing it would make Hiei do was throw up. Kurama was displeased that the first three suggestions on the list were unavailable to them, but then he got to the next, which seemed plausible: Massage.

When he made his way out to the living room, Kurama noticed that Hiei wasn't in his normal area on the couch, but as their current helper (Homura) wasn't there either, he figured they'd gone to the bathroom. When they got back, Kurama tried to smile at Hiei as Homura helped him back onto the couch.

"Hi, honey," he said gently, stroking Hiei's sweaty hair.

"Don't," Hiei groaned, taking Kurama's hand off of his head. "Too hot."

"Sorry," Kurama apologized, setting his hands in his lap. It was unusual for heat to bother a fire demon, of course, but once he became pregnant, as Homura had explained, all bets were off. Due to the baby using up so much of his youki in the later months, Hiei was unable to control his body temperature the way he normally would. Most of the time, keeping his body temperature high wouldn't bother him, but again, his disproportionately low energy level threw his entire system off balance, and he was able to feel the heat the way any other demon would. The fact that they were in the middle of a boiling-hot June didn't help.

"I know the feeling," Homura said sympathetically. "Never get pregnant in the fall."

"Well, I've got something that might help," Kurama told Hiei. "I was on the computer, and it said that sometimes massage can help start labor naturally."

"Really?" For the first time in a week, Kurama saw hope glimmering in Hiei's red eyes.

"Absolutely." Kurama smiled. "And not just your belly. I can give your entire body a massage. Even if it doesn't work, you'll be relaxed while you wait after this."

Hiei consented to letting Homura help him undress, while Kurama drew the shades. Homura left the room so the other two could be alone, and as Kurama started the massage, he noticed that it was getting him aroused, at least. Just because it wasn't as easy anymore didn't mean he couldn't get one at all, and as he gently kneaded Hiei's soft, bare skin, he realized that this was the firmest his dick had been since before his accident—possibly the first time it had been hard enough to penetrate.

But how could I NOT get one? Kurama wondered, gazing upon Hiei's wonderfully sexy body. Since he could really only lie on his side, the plan was for Kurama to massage one side of his body, turn him, and then do the other, and this meant that his entire nude self was visible. When he was done with the shoulders, Kurama gently massaged Hiei's left breast, wondering if he should go for the nipple, or if Hiei wouldn't want that. After some deliberation, he decided to skip it, and he just continued down to the belly instead, grabbing some lotion off the end table to help with the itchy, stretched skin.

It didn't help, of course, that Hiei's moans of satisfaction sounded an awful lot like the ones he made during sex, especially once Kurama got to his belly. Across the bottom there were some long purple stretch marks, the highest of which almost reached the belly button; although Hiei had kept up a skin-care routine during pregnancy to try and keep them to a minimum, he hadn't been able to prevent them completely, even with Kurama's special products. There was his belly button, too, sticking out straight, and the dark line across the length of his belly. Best of all, of course, the baby was inside, and he started kicking as soon as Kurama started massaging the outside of his home. This was the part of Hiei's pregnant body that Kurama would miss the most, for sure. It had gotten huge in the past forty-one weeks, but in Kurama's eyes, it never stopped being perfect.

"Oh, Kurama," Hiei moaned, throwing one arm over the side of the couch, the other over his eyes. "That feels sooo good…"

"I-I'm glad you like it, Hiei," said Kurama, continuing his massage in just the places Hiei seemed to like it most. If only the pregnant demon would go into labor already, so Kurama could take care of this problem he was having…

Once the massage was finally done, neither of them seemed to know what to do. Hiei certainly didn't report any contractions. And how was that supposed to work, anyway? Was he supposed to immediately go into labor after the method was done, or would it happen later tonight?

"You know…" Hiei looked up at Kurama. "There is one more thing you can do. Homura told me about it when you were in the computer room. But it's a little embarrassing."

"Are you talking about sex?" Kurama asked. "I read about that already."

"No…it's something else." Hiei's cheeks were a bit pink now. "Homura says he did it to himself every day until Ru-Ru was born…but that you can do it to me, too. Apparently if you touch my…my breasts…my body makes some kind of hormone or something…"

"Oh, yes, I see," said Kurama. "Well, don't feel embarrassed, Hiei. We can do that."

Kurama was immobile from the waist down and Hiei was forty-one weeks pregnant, so it wasn't easy. But eventually, Kurama helped Hiei prop his neck and back up on pillows from the couch, and he used his fully-functioning fingers to massage Hiei's perky nipples.

There had never been anything so sexy, Kurama thought, as pregnant, naked Hiei, having his breasts fondled and quite obviously loving it. Again, he was naked, so there was no hiding the fact that he, too, was aroused physically. Kurama bent over to lick and suck Hiei's nipples, so that the pregnant demon moaned in pleasure. Kurama moved one of his hands down to Hiei's dick, and Kurama was sure the moans could be heard all throughout the house. It wasn't long before Hiei came right into Kurama's hand. Kurama smiled and wiped him off with some baby wipes so he wouldn't get a rash.

"Every time I get naked around you, somehow this sort of thing always happens," Hiei said quietly, but he was smiling, too. "I feel a little better."

"That's all I ever wanted, honey," said Kurama, gently patting his beloved husband's hand.

…

After that, Hiei stayed naked in bed and he made Kurama fondle him every single night, especially his chest area. He said it was because he wanted to go into labor, and that was part of it, but the truth was, he just wanted to be touched like that as much as possible, especially since once the baby was born, his boobs would go from being pleasurable playthings to a 24-hour milk-mart.

It was the most comfortable for Hiei to lie on his side, and with some effort, Kurama would do the same, keeping Hiei in front of him and reaching around to touch all the important parts. Hiei smiled, feeling a little bit of milk leak out from his breasts as Kurama stroked them.

This arrangement seemed to please Kurama as well. It almost seemed to Hiei that what he said was true; he loved Hiei's body this way. But why? What was so sexy, Hiei wondered, about being sweatier, fatter, smellier, grumpier, hungrier, hormonal, exhausted every minute of the day, and practically living on the toilet? He had to know.

"Kurama," said Hiei, leaning his head back into his husband's chest as he lost himself in the arousal. "Do you find me attractive?"

"Of course I do, Hiei."

"Even now?"

"Especially now." Kurama gave Hiei a kiss on the back of the head.

"But…but why?" Hiei asked. "Attractive is the last thing I feel."

"I understand," said Kurama. "You probably feel a lot of things that are much less desirable—moody, hungry, tired…It's got to be hard to think of your body in that sort of light if it's giving you such a hard time."

"Right," Hiei whispered. Kurama's hands were off his nipples, but they were still massaging his breasts, staying gentle because of how tender they were during pregnancy.

"That makes sense to me," Kurama told him. "But I'm not the pregnant one, so for me, it's just different. I see not only the demon I've always loved, but also, the demon who's going to bear my child. It's been an incredible process to witness. And, of course, there's no one I would want to have my children but you."

"Yeah…I know what you mean," Hiei admitted. Before this, he would have been horrified at the thought of anything to do with offspring, but the truth was, he wanted to spread Kurama's seeds, even if it meant enduring such misery. It didn't make any sense at all.

"This is your body's most natural state of being, when it's about to perform a miracle," Kurama explained. "You're about to give life, Hiei. Do you understand just how amazing that is? I would never underestimate the beauty of a pregnant youkai."

"Thanks," Hiei muttered. Kurama had said this before, but Hiei still needed reminding of it sometimes. There was no way he could be gross if he was giving someone the gift of life, right? Didn't it go beyond all the gross bodily functions he had to deal with every single day? And speaking of bodily functions, Hiei had to pee again…but Kurama was touching his dick with one hand and fondling one of his nipples with the other, and it just felt so good…how could he cut it off now? Hiei was starting to feel sexy again, incredibly sexy…

That is, until he sneezed, and due to not listening to his body earlier, he peed all over Kurama's hand.

How embarrassing, Hiei thought, sticking his head under his pillow as Kurama yanked his hand away. There was no use pretending it was cum or something like that, since Kurama would be able to tell by both the smell and the consistency. Yuck! Talk about ruining the moment.

"Hiei?" said Kurama quietly. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

"Not anymore," Hiei mumbled, his face burning with humiliation. "Sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Kurama insisted. "We went over this. You have a baby's head on your bladder. Accidents are bound to happen."

"Accident, my ass," said Hiei. "I just peed all over your hand! And the sheets, too!"

"I can wash my hand and the sheets," Kurama told him, waving the words away. "It's not like they're dry-clean only. Besides, these days, you're not the only one who's having trouble with this sort of thing."

"I'm not?" said Hiei, pulling his head out from under the pillow.

"Because of my spinal cord injury, I can't urinate the way I used to." Kurama sighed. "I learned the hard way that a little incontinence is bound to happen. I have to empty my bladder manually now."

"What…what does that mean?" Hiei asked. "How do you empty your bladder manually?"

"I have this sort of tube thing," Kurama began, "and several times a day, I have to stick it up my—"

"All right, all right, I get it!" Hiei interrupted. Suddenly he was surprised with himself for not thinking of this earlier—that Kurama's condition would affect much more than just his ability to walk. "That sounds horrible."

"Well, it could be worse," said Kurama.

"How could it possibly be worse?!"

"I could be dead, for starters."

"Hmm…that's true." Hiei frowned. "But that's not a very high bar."

"As long as I have you and the baby, I'm content," Kurama replied, snuggling Hiei from behind and rubbing his belly. "I just know I'm going to love being a parent."

Hiei set his hands on top of Kurama's and smiled. "So am I."