August 13, 2001

"Have a good time, Shuichi," said Shiori, and Kurama bent down so she could give him a kiss on the forehead.

"See you in a week," Hiei added, trying not to sound too concerned, or too winded, despite the fact that he was very much both. Tokyo International Airport was huge, and he almost wished he'd just said his goodbyes back at the apartment instead of going to see Kurama off at the gate.

"Don't go, Otou-san, please don't go," Masaki whined, clinging tight to Kurama's legs.

"No need to worry," Kurama told him. "I'll be back before you know it."

"Can we get a move on?" Hiei demanded. "My feet hurt."

"Come on, Masaki, would you like Obaa-san to buy you and Hiei some chocolate?" Shiori offered, hoping to appeal to Masaki's sweet tooth. Hiei's stomach grumbled again at the thought, even though he'd eaten before they left. His second baby was always hungry, and certainly not as picky as his older brother had been. Sweets, salt, meat, Hiei had to have it all.

"Mm-mm." Masaki shook his head and tightened his grip, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Just think, when he starts preschool, we're going to have to do this every day," said Kurama in an attempt to make light of the situation, but Hiei didn't find it funny in the slightest, because he knew he would be the one to drop Masaki off at school, with an approximately eight-month-old baby, too. He could picture it now: the teacher peeling Masaki off his legs while he balanced a screaming infant in his arms, with what felt like the entire world standing there staring at him.

"Enough of this, Masaki!" Hiei said irritably. If only he hadn't been pregnant; then he could easily have separated his husband and four-year-old son. But by now, he couldn't even bend over to tie his orthopedic shoes, much less pry clingy Masaki away from Kurama. Luckily, Shiori seemed to sense Hiei's discomfort, and she decided to take matters into her own hands.

"All right, Masaki, Obaa-san is going to drive you and your Touchan home now," she said firmly, and with Kurama's help, the fox-demon was finally set free. He gave kisses to Hiei, Masaki, and Shiori, and headed onto the plane for his business trip.

Masaki screamed all the way through the airport and back to the car, which made the already-slow walk feel much longer than it should have. Hiei knew everyone thought he was a terrible father, and they were probably judging Shiori, too (at age forty-eight, she was relatively young for a grandmother, and when she was out with Hiei and Masaki, she was often mistaken for Masaki's mother). Hiei struggled into the shotgun seat while Shiori wrestled Masaki back into his car seat in the back. Hiei wished he could help, but even the thought made him feel exhausted.

"Whew," said Shiori, getting into the driver's seat and buckling up. "Masaki can be quite a handful, can't he?"

"That's one way to put it," Hiei grumbled.

Masaki kept crying until Shiori finally dropped him and Hiei off at the apartment. She stayed until he was finally calm again, and then left to drive back to Mushiyori City, where she still lived (most of the gang was now living in Kyoto).

Hiei felt bad for Masaki, but he didn't want to reward the bad behavior, so he just pretended it had never happened. Hiei set about cooking dinner, despite the fact that he could hardly move, and the fact that the baby had "dropped," which made things even more difficult. Hiei groaned, putting his hands on his hips to try and stretch his back after putting dinner in the oven. His back hurt so much, just like his hips and feet. It was so hot, both inside and outside. And now he didn't even have his husband around to help.

"Touchan? Are you okay?" Masaki asked, looking up from where he was coloring at the kitchen table. Hiei recalled how his son was a high-empath, and had probably picked up on his discomfort. Hiei decided to be honest.

"Your baby brother has gotten pretty big," he explained as he lowered himself into a chair, hoping against hope that it wouldn't collapse under his weight. "So when he's inside me, things aren't as easy as they used to be. I'm a little uncomfortable, but I'll be okay. Do you understand?"

"Yes," said Masaki, getting down from his chair and setting his hands on Hiei's belly. "He feels happy. I think he's excited to meet us."

"Oh really?" said Hiei, smiling. "It's a little soon. He's not even done growing yet."

"When is he coming again?" Masaki asked.

"August 31," Hiei replied. "That's a little less than three weeks."

"You think he can wait that long?" said Masaki doubtfully.

"I don't see why not," said Hiei, squirming as he leaned back in the chair, trying to alleviate even a little of his discomfort. "After all, you took your sweet time."

…

Three days into the business trip, Hiei was regretting letting Kurama go. It was tough to take care of Masaki when he was so heavily pregnant; tomorrow he would be thirty-eight weeks pregnant, that is, two weeks away from the estimated delivery date. Two weeks! It seemed like such a long time.

Hiei just could not get comfortable. Everyone talked about how painful labor was, but did they ever talk about how annoying pregnancy could be? And it was even harder when he didn't have his husband around to give him massages. Right now, Kurama was in New York, on a business trip to meet with other "entrepreneurs" (whatever that meant). Hiei didn't care what it meant or what Kurama was doing. All he cared about was that it meant Kurama wasn't here to help with all the shit Hiei had to put up with. And speaking of that…

"Touchan!" shrieked Masaki, running into the room. "The baby wants to play hide-and-seek!"

"No, you want to play hide-and-seek," Hiei said irritably. "How do you know what he wants?"

"I have to teach him how to play games," Masaki explained, as if teaching an unborn child how to play hide-and-seek was a perfectly reasonable pursuit. "I'm his big brother."

"Well, if you think about it, Masaki, the baby has the ultimate hiding place," said Hiei, pointing to his belly. "You can't see him at all right now, can you?"

"Hmm…" Masaki appeared to be thinking, then his face brightened. "Ooh! I know! We could play tag instead!"

"No!" Hiei snapped. But when Masaki looked stricken, he tried to make his voice kinder. "Look, Masaki, I just don't think the baby is in the mood to play right now."

"I think he misses Otou-san, just like me," Masaki said, climbing onto the couch and curling up next to Hiei. "He's been gone for one hundred years, almost."

"We all miss Otou-san, but he really will be back soon," Hiei reassured him. "Listen, Masaki, I need to pee again. When I get back, we can think of something for you and the baby to do, okay?"

"Okay," said Masaki, giving Hiei a wave.

It took effort for Hiei to pull himself up off the couch, and it was a long walk to the bathroom, too. On his way, he thought that however annoying Masaki might be right now, it was probably a good thing he wanted to spend so much time with the baby. Ever since Hiei told Masaki he was going to be a big brother, Masaki liked to pretend that Hiei's belly was his actual brother. He wanted to play games with him, watch TV with him, talk to him, eat with him, and even sleep next to him sometimes. Shouldn't Hiei be thankful that they were already so close?

Hiei couldn't see any part of him below his belly, and he didn't want to spend any more time standing than he had to, so for the past several months he'd just been sitting down to pee (and at least he didn't get any more lectures from Kurama about proper aim). Sitting was still hard on his back and hips, but it did give his feet a bit of a rest.

When he got back, relieved he hadn't gotten stuck on the toilet again, Hiei collapsed back onto the couch and hoped that whatever Masaki wanted to do with the baby wasn't too strenuous.

"All right, Masaki," said Hiei. "What do you want to do?"

"Can we watch TV?"

"That will work." Hiei smiled and turned on one of Masaki's favorite shows.

Things seemed to be going well; the baby, according to Masaki, was content, and not moving too much, so Hiei almost felt himself drifting off to sleep. But during a commercial, Masaki piped up at random, "Touchan? Isn't the baby going to be big when he's born?"

"Possibly," said Hiei, but then he realized Masaki was looking at his belly. "Well, probably. Why?"

"How is he going to get out?" Masaki asked.

Hiei wasn't sure what to say at first, but being honest and simple about things had worked so far, so he decided to continue with it.

"He comes out of the same place poop comes out of," Hiei finally replied, not knowing how else to put it.

"But he's so big! He'll rip you all up!"

"No, he won't." Hiei smiled. "My body is built to stretch like that."

Masaki still didn't seem convinced. Hiei was glancing around, trying to find a better explanation, when he noticed something that might be a good visual aid—one of Kurama's elastic hair bands, left on the coffee table.

"Let me show you something, Masaki," he said, holding it up by two fingers. "See this hair band? It's not very big, is it?"

"No," said Masaki.

"Watch." Hiei stretched the hair band as far as it could go. First up-and-down, then side-to-side, and finally a square supported by four of his fingers. Then he let it shrink back to its normal size and stretched it bigger and smaller a few more times, demonstrating the concept of elasticity. "See how it stretches big and shrinks when it's done? That's exactly what will happen to me during the birth."

"Will it hurt?" Masaki asked in a small voice.

"Maybe a little." Hiei patted Masaki on the back. "But everything will be okay. And after it's over, you'll have a brand-new baby brother. Won't that be great?"

"Yeah! The greatest!" Masaki responded, a look of pure excitement brightening his face. "I can't wait!"

"The baby is supposed to come in two weeks, but it's okay if he comes a little earlier or later than that," Hiei continued. "And don't worry if I seem upset or angry when the baby is being born, all right? It doesn't mean anything is wrong, and it definitely has nothing to do with you. Having a baby is hard work, but it's a natural part of life, and something my body is built to do when the time comes. Do you understand?"

When Masaki nodded, Hiei was surprised to find that comforting Masaki about the concept of birth served to calm him as well. But then, he and Masaki had always sort of fed off of each other's emotions. Masaki could sense pretty much everyone's emotions, true, but he seemed particularly attuned to Hiei's, which was why Hiei had to allow for the fact that he might not be so calm during the actual birth.