A/N:

Pachelbel: Huge delay, but not as huge as the delay before this one . Only a few more chapters to go; everyone still with us? Anyone need flashbacks? LoL, I do have to say, this chapter was made possible by a grant from the reviewers…particularly the Duck Hunters.

Borath: Wow, this took a while. Shared blame, but still lots of apologies. Yes, thanks to everyone who has pestered us for an update. Was very sweet to feel so loved. Just hang in for a bit longer as this thing's nearly finished, and don't forget to cast a vote at the end.

A big thanks to everyone who reviewed! This thing would likely be long dead if it weren't for your support. Okay, it seemed dead for a while but that's beside the point…

SPAWN

"You're eight months pregnant," Yami mused loudly, packing away the ultrasound equipment and handing Bakura a tissue to wipe off the gel. A printed hummed to life in the background and started screeching. "How are you feeling?"

For his part Bakura scowled, swinging his legs back over the side of the bed and scrubbing at his stomach. To anyone unaware of his Twinkie-obsessed child it appeared normally flat and toned, but to everyone else he was practically blossoming. And he appeared most displeased about it.

"Bloody fantastic, like I'm going to explode really."

Yami ignored the scathing tones and walked to the now silent printer, picking up the small image and scrutinizing it carefully before handing it back to Bakura. The thief shoved it into his back pocket without a glance and tugged his shirt back down. "And you're eating properly?"

"Yes." The reply was testy and dubious at best.

Turning nonchalantly to the third person in the room, Yami raised a brow. "Rishid?"

"He is not eating his five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. The best I have managed is three," the taller man rumbled, his arms crossing across his chest.

Bakura frowned and made a shooing motion at his new guardian. "Oh go away. It's not like I even asked you to come with me." Turning to look at Yami again, his next words dripped with impatience. "Is there anything else you want or can I go now?"

"Well actually there is. I think-"

ADVANCE d 4

The thief's eyes suddenly widened as he cut Yami off. "Shit, need to pee."

Motioning towards the door with a bemused smile, Yami hopped up onto the bed that Bakura had just occupied and watched the other teen disappear into the corridor. "I definitely don't miss that." At Rishid's look he continued quickly. "The being taken by surprise part of it."

Rishid nodded slowly in understanding. "It is a trying time."

"Extremely, but despite the trials I wouldn't have exchanged the experience for anything in the world. And even though he won't admit it, he wouldn't either."

Rishid didn't answer, though he didn't look entirely convinced.

A few minutes later, Kiara appeared scurrying past the doorway and carrying on down the hallway at an impressive speed on her little legs, completely destroying the conversational tone. Particularly as she was carrying the Millennium Ring. Bakura appeared in the doorway seconds later, although he stopped and leaned an arm on the frame, watching Yami's daughter vanish around a corner. At their questioning gazes he merely shrugged.

"She's got Shadow Magic."

"So do you," Yami pointed out.

"…I'll get it back later. 'S'not like I gave it to her or anything," Bakura muttered suddenly appearing distinctively uncomfortable, alluding to the fact that that might not have been the case, and that she might just have liked it and looked really cute and he was going soft with all of his new hormones.

"Right," Yami drawled, not looking entirely convinced. "The only other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is the upcoming birth. Now, I know that it's not something that you're going to particularly want to think about, but-"

Bakura waved a hand quickly to cut him off, grinning mentally at having interrupted the Pharaoh twice in five minutes and from the looks of it irritating him immensely because of it. "No need to worry; Tetsuo and I have been chatting about that and we've got something figured out."

ADVANCE d 4"You didn't tell me that," Rishid piped up looking mildly hurt.

"Hey, you're only involved in all of this because you feel some weird sense of duty. I didn't ask you to be in the loop, so I don't have to tell you anything," Bakura snapped back, giving the Ishtar a stern look which had no effect.

Choosing to ignore the exchange, Yami sent out a message to Kiara to return to him with the Ring. He thought that if Bakura had it back it might calm him down a bit. Bakura and Rishid were still bickering when the toddler reappeared, bouncing up to the Game King and stretching up on her toes to give him the Item. Picking her up instead and taking it away whilst planting a kiss on her forehead, he returned his gaze to Bakura only to find that he was getting a very odd look.

Getting a brainwave, Yami spoke to Kiara aloud. "Kiara, give Bakura back the Ring."

The Ring came away from his hand and floated in mid-air, beginning a short trip to Bakura until Yami snatched it back and held it still.

"No, go to him and give it back, without using magic," he clarified, setting her down on the floor as he spoke and handing her back the Ring.

Bakura for his part had absolutely no idea what Yami was playing at but was finding watching the father and daughter interact fairly interesting. When Kiara tugged at his trouser leg he mimicked Yami by picking her up, relieved when lightning or similar didn't strike anywhere near him for his actions, and settled her on his hip. This wasn't entirely comfortable, but she simply couldn't go anywhere else. She could see his enlarged stomach, petting it absently once Bakura had manhandled the Ring back around his neck with one hand.

His own child seemed delighted at having a new playmate, thrashing and kicking merrily and generally being a terrible nuisance to its father's innards. But joyous and happy thoughts were being poured into Bakura's head from it so he wasn't going to quibble about it.

"See? It isn't so hard," Yami commented, watching them both like a hawk although he was trying not to appear too threatened. Rishid looked quite pleased himself and when the baby's movements became bruising, Bakura happily handed Kiara over to him. She immediately occupied herself with tracing the lines down the side of his face.

"Suppose not. The hard part's to come, and then it's eighteen years of pure joy until I'm free to do what I like again after that. Future's looking peachy," Bakura groused, coming up alongside Yami and sitting up on the bed beside him for the sake of his abused back. His whole body had started objecting to Malik's spell now and it was extremely tiresome.

Yami made a thoughtful noise, regarding Kiara in Rishid's arms, the child dwarfed by the man's size. "The majority of birth is unpleasant, and the tantrums when they're about this age are awful, but other than that it's not so bad. The good outweighs the bad, without a doubt."

Bakura snorted. "What? Like turning into a cow for a year? Yeah, that can get outweighed by spit bubbles easily." The thief was masculine by nature and the whole "making milk" thing had had a severe impact on his ego. In fact it was still bruising.

"You might not even be able to do that. Do you mind if I check?" Yami asked, his hand already reaching for Bakura as he spoke. At the other's assent, he prodded his chest very lightly before bringing his hand back into his lap. "Sore at all? Did that hurt?"

"Nope." Hope filled Bakura, something that he'd been missing recently.

"It doesn't look like you will be able to, then. You're quite lucky," Yami commented, remembering the substantial discomfort it had caused him in the past.

"Why could you even do it? Second time around, I mean?" Bakura asked, seeking an answer to a question that he had idly pondered before in the middle of the night.

Yami gave him a droll look. "Tetsuo." That explained everything in Bakura's head. "He though that I would appreciate it and gave me the ability to without telling me beforehand. He also sustained that aspect of the curse for several weeks after the Nyanichuan curse wore off after Kiara's birth. He "turned it off" so to speak at my insistence." He pointed at Bakura sharply and gave him a serious look. "If you start feeling an ache in your chest, talk to him immediately."

Giving a slow, wide-eyed nod, Bakura decided that he'd probably just been given some extremely good advice. "Gotchya."

Calming down a little now, Yami clapped his hands together in finality. "Well, if there's nothing else you're free to go. Make sure you're back next week; we need to keep a closer eye on your progress now."

Rolling his eyes at the fussing, Bakura slid off of the bed and placed a hand on it to steady himself before walking out the door. Rishid handed Kiara back to her father, returning the wave he received off of said toddler, before following after his charge as well.

Yami watched the empty exit silently with Kiara fussing in his arms. The room darkened by a barely perceptible amount and a third presence appeared. Kiara gurgled a small greeting before squirming out of his arms and trundling off after their departing guests.

"I could, you know."

"I know," Yami replied, not even looking at the other.

"It would help him to bond with the child," Tetsuo reasoned from the new shadowy recess in the corner.

"It would also help him to bond his magic with certain parts of your anatomy." Yami frowned, looking over his shoulder at the monster thoughtfully. "At least I think he could."

Tetsuo's eyes narrowed quite distinctly. He had no choice but to have unlimited patience with his master and to not make entirely rude comments and retorts. But sometimes Yami could really push it. "The debating of the presence of my reproductive organs aside, I do believe that the ability to feed his child naturally will be something that Bakura will ultimately appreciate."

"And I believe that you should cease meddling with his body unless absolutely necessary," Yami stated firmly, the Puzzle flashing briefly as a reminder of who exactly was in charge at the end of the day.

Raising his hands in surrender, Tetsuo gave a thin smile before receding back into the Shadow Realm. Yami sighed and put his head into his hands. "I really wish that someone had been around to lecture him on my behalf last year."

Tetsuo couldn't say that he felt especially happy about his interactions with Bakura. The Thief was essentially an enemy to Yami, and therefore to him. And even if Bakura's reactions to being pregnant were...amusing...they were also unpredictable, and at first had been infuriating.

He was more than a little inclined to go back to practicing on the Celtic Gaurdian, but Bakura's child needed his help and wasn't likely to find anyone else who would be willing to give it a hand. The consolation was that Bakura seemed to be warming to the idea of parenthood. He never got drunk, and Yami had said that Bakura had even exchanged babysitting hours for an ultrasound. It did look promising.

But Tetsuo also knew something Bakura didn't seem to grasp. Just because the tombrobber was sometimes eating right, and just because he now had a crib and clothing for the child, the pregnancy wasn't over yet. In fact he was nowhere near done with being pregnant, and it would only get worse before it got better.

Fortunately he had another remedy for the thief. A few months ago, he might not have bothered, but over the months he had come to enjoy watching Bakura slowly accept and, in the dark places of the night, look forward to having a child. And so as soon as he had the specifics of this newest magic worked out, Tetsuo calmly plucked the tomb raider from the real world and yanked him into the Shadow Realm.

To his mild surprise, Bakura turned on him, glaring like a cat who'd been dunked in a tub. "What the hell do you think you're doing now?"

Bakura was never very happy to have his life interrupted, but he had never reacted quite this way.

Tetsuo gave him a slight frown. "I am helping you. Again. This particular spell will take some time, however, so you'd do well to make yourself comfortable." The monster moved away from him for a moment, intending to lead him further into the Shadow Realm. Instead he felt Bakura beginning to head back into the physical world.

Irritated, Tetsuo turned back to him and tugged him closer. Bakura looked ready to hit him. "I don't have time for this. You told me last time you'd done all you can and the rest is all me, right? So sod off!"

"Yes, I had done all I could at the time, but now–"

"I'm not interested!" Bakura wrenched out of the magical hold Tetsuo had on him and stalked away.

"Stop!" The monster's voice was quiet, but firm with the undercurrent of a threat, and Bakura stopped without turning to face the other. Tetsuo moved easily and fluidly in front of him. "You can spare a few hours, I'm certain. Sit down and be silent while I work."

Bakura shouldered him aside and disappeared, this time making an effort to block the monster's ability to call him back into the Shadow Realm. Tetsuo stared at the empty space where Bakura had been and debated with himself. He could simply wait until Bakura was asleep, but the thief had said he didn't want anymore "help".

With a soft nod, Tetsuo decided. Bakura was mistaken if he thought simple spells couldn't be worked from inside the Shadow Realm to someone on the outside. He outstretched a hand, conjuring an image of what Bakura was doing in the physical world, and then awakened muscles within the spirit that had been dormant.

Had Bakura not been so hasty, Tetsuo would have blocked the pain he'd feel during child birth. Instead he had now awakened the muscles in Bakura's abdomen...very specific muscles for labor pains.

Suggested Derogatory Names for An Abhorrently Ignorant Writer
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