Hoodies, sweatshirts, and yoga pants. That was all Hiei had been wearing since Halloween. They were loose, they were comfortable, and they had managed to hide most of the pregnancy-related changes in Hiei's body from view. The only exceptions to this were the other places the fat had gathered, mainly, in Hiei's face, which obviously wasn't covered by clothing, and his ass, which the yoga pants only seemed to enhance. Hiei felt self-conscious, but Kurama seemed to love the way he looked.

"Your cheeks have never been so pinchable," he would say to Hiei. Or, "Your ass has never been so squeezable." Hiei had to be on the alert for the snuggles and kisses that constantly came his way. But recently, he had started noticing an increase in fat somewhere else.

"Kurama, does my chest look different to you?" Hiei asked one evening, staring into the full-length mirror in their bedroom at his shirtless self. "It's still kind of sore, and it looks…puffy to me."

"Dr. Setchi said you'd start developing breasts around this time," said Kurama casually, looking up from his book. "They'll eventually get big enough that you'll need to wear a bra."

"I don't know how to buy a bra," said Hiei. "And I'm guessing you don't, either."

"You could get Yukina or Shizuru to help you," Kurama suggested, mentioning the only two females they knew who were aware of the pregnancy.

"I'm not that desperate yet," said Hiei, throwing on a baggy sweatshirt.

…

Kurama continued to monitor Hiei for worrisome signs and symptoms as he entered his tenth week of pregnancy. Things seemed to be going a little better; although Hiei still seemed emotional, he had less angry spells, and while he still felt nauseous, this was the first week since they'd found out that he hadn't thrown up. There were a few more foods he could add to his menu, mostly salty things, although he still couldn't eat anything sweet. He seemed self-conscious about the way his body was changing, but Kurama was trying to help him with that.

Hiei also appeared to have more energy these days, which was good, but as his lethargy subsided, he spent much less time in the house. Hiei had refused from the start to live in a house that wasn't surrounded by trees and nature, and now more than ever, he was nowhere to be found, no doubt basking somewhere in the great outdoors. It was November, but the cold didn't bother him, and he said fall was his favorite time of year in Ningenkai.

It did get lonely, though. Sometimes Hiei would be gone all day, returning home only after the sunset. Kurama would come home from work, looking forward to seeing his husband, only to find the house empty. And on Saturday afternoon, when Yukina asked to see the sonogram photos again, the photos weren't where Kurama had left them, so they had to go find Hiei to see if he knew where they were.

Despite his power level being lower, the pregnancy made Hiei's smell very strong and distinct these days. Kurama was sure most demons would be able to pick up the scent of a pregnant youkai by now. Because of this, he and Yukina were easily able to find Hiei in the woods surrounding the little house. And that was when Kurama saw where the ultrasound photos had gone.

Hiei had them. The pregnant demon was sitting underneath the Tree of Life, studying them closely, as if he was trying to crack a difficult code. Not even Kurama could read his facial expression; he was neither smiling nor frowning, just staring almost unblinkingly at the tiny demon that was growing inside him right now.

"What's he doing with those?" Yukina whispered. "He doesn't look very happy."

"But not sad, either," Kurama observed. "It's almost like he doesn't understand them."

"Hiei?" said Yukina quietly, stepping into her brother's field of vision.

"Yukina!" said Hiei, dropping the photos as his face turned red. "W-What're you doing here?"

"I just came to see the sonogram pictures again, and the video," she said. "Can we go back inside the house?"

"Oh, um, sure." Hiei seemed flustered as he tried to gather the photos up from the ground. He kept dropping them, so Kurama followed Yukina to where Hiei was sitting and scooped them all up for him, while Yukina helped Hiei to his feet.

"What's the matter, Hiei?" Kurama asked as the three of them headed back to the house, Kurama and Hiei trailing behind Yukina.

"I'm fine!" said Hiei, despite his red face and the fact that he was sweating like a pig. "What are you talking about?"

"You just look all riled up, that's all."

"Well, I'm not!"

"All right, Hiei," Kurama told him. "But just remember, if you need me, I'm always here."

"Whatever," said Hiei.

…

"I like this one the best," said a teary-eyed Yukina, looking sideways at one of the photos. "You know, Hiei, I think the baby has your nose! See?"

"You might be right, come to think of it," said Kurama, looking closely at where she was pointing. "His ears, too, I daresay. Good eye, Yukina."

"Who do you think the baby will look the most like?" she continued. "Whose powers do you think it will have? What do you think its personality will be like? Do you think it will be a boy or a girl? How big do you think it will be?"

Why was it that when Yukina said the baby looked like him, Hiei felt like she had punched him in the gut? Recently, he had just felt out-of-sorts, and he couldn't seem to blame it on the regular pregnancy hormones, although those didn't help. The more these troubled feelings nipped at him, the more they felt like an instinct, telling him something was wrong, especially when he looked at the pictures. But he couldn't figure out what his instincts were warning him about, and he was scared to talk to anyone about it.

"I'm only on my tenth week," Hiei told her. "It's impossible to answer any of those questions."

"It doesn't hurt to wonder," said Yukina with a smile. "You should be enjoying your pregnancy, Hiei. Babies are always a blessing."

"Babies are always a blessing?" said Hiei doubtfully.

"Yes, always," said Yukina firmly. "I know what you're thinking, Hiei, but in my opinion, no child is cursed. In fact, since you were created with love, that makes you the most special and blessed of all."

"That's a wonderful way of thinking about it, Yukina," said Kurama, but Hiei couldn't have spoken if his life depended on it. The truth was, Yukina was his weakness, and the angelic expression on her face was cutting into him like a knife. Even if she said it was okay to cry, he didn't want to. And he definitely didn't have the heart to remind her that they weren't even keeping the baby in the first place.

Luckily, Hiei didn't have to answer, because that was when they heard a loud knock on the door. Kurama went to answer it, and it was Yusuke and Keiko.

"Hey there, Kurama," said Yusuke. "Listen, it's Keiko's 'time of the month,' and she was wondering if she could have some of that herbal tea of yours."

"Of course," Kurama replied, smiling at them. "Does anyone else want tea?"

"I'll have some," said Hiei, since his pregnancy was giving him cramps, too. "Make sure you put salt in it. And ginger."

"You take your tea with salt, Hiei?" said Yusuke, looking disgusted, as Kurama headed for the kitchen.

Hiei glared daggers at him. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"I guess not," said Yusuke, shrugging. "Anyway, I gotta use the john. I'll be back."

Yusuke left to use the downstairs bathroom, while Keiko sat down on the couch next to Yukina, looking down at the ultrasound photos spread out on the coffee table.

"That looks like an ultrasound photo," she said. "Is someone pregnant?"

Yukina and Hiei glanced at each other uncertainly. Keiko was an ordinary human; what would she think if Hiei told her that he was pregnant?

"If I told you, Keiko, you'd never believe me," said Hiei.

"Really?" Keiko raised her eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

"It's…it's kind of a demon thing," said Hiei awkwardly. "Most humans would find it a bit weird."

"My own husband is a demon," Keiko reminded him. "If it's a demon thing, I probably know about it already."

"Yusuke hasn't been a demon very long, and it's not likely that this will happen to him," Yukina said. "Is it okay if I tell her, Hiei?"

"If you want," said Hiei, trying to hide how nervous he felt.

"Okay." Yukina took a deep breath, then smiled. "Keiko…those are Hiei's photos."

"They can't be Hiei's," said Keiko. "You and Hiei are twins, remember? If that was Hiei's sonogram, the photo would show two babies in the womb, not one."

"That's not what I meant." Yukina shook her head. "Hiei is the pregnant one."

"How is that possible?"

"It's possible because demons are built a little differently than humans," Yukina explained. "Both male and female demons are capable of pregnancy, because males are born with a womb, just like females. Demon energy can be fertilized by sperm, just like a female egg can, so if a male demon has unprotected sex with another male, whether it's a human or a fellow demon, he can become pregnant."

"That is, as long as he's the one who took it in the ass," Hiei added bluntly. Yukina blushed.

"I suppose there are a lot of things about demons I still don't know," said Keiko finally. "Is a demon pregnancy different than a human pregnancy?"

"That depends on the type, but Hiei is an elemental demon, which means his pregnancy is going to be very similar to a human one," said Yukina. "That means forty weeks is considered full term, he's going to give live birth, and almost all of the symptoms and stages are the same."

"When are you due?" Keiko asked.

"June 14," Hiei told her. "I'm on my tenth week, or a little past two months. But we weren't going to make a formal announcement until the second trimester, so you can't tell anyone. You can't even tell Yusuke."

"Tell me what?" said a voice from the doorway. Yusuke was back from the bathroom.

"Uh…" Keiko glanced nervously from Yukina to Hiei, then over at her husband, her cheeks peppermint pink.

"I give up," Hiei groaned, falling back onto the couch.

"I'm going to be an aunt," said Yukina, beaming. "Hiei is pregnant!"

Yusuke blinked. "What?"

"Yukina tells me male demons can get pregnant, just like females," said Keiko. "And apparently Hiei is pregnant."

"You don't look very pregnant," said Yusuke, glancing over at Hiei's abdominal area.

"Well, I'm only about two months along," Hiei told him, deciding not to mention that if he had his shirt off, Yusuke might think differently. At the same time, he wondered what Yusuke would have said if he did look pregnant. Tactless as always. "I probably won't 'look' pregnant for another couple of weeks. But that doesn't mean I'm not."

"And we've got proof," Yukina added, showing Yusuke one of the sonogram photos. "Look! Isn't this the most adorable thing you've ever seen? I think it has Hiei's nose."

"Could be," said Yusuke, looking at the sonogram photo. "Well, I guess it's not too surprising that you'd get knocked up, Hiei."

"You mean, because you've seen much more shocking things than male pregnancy in your career as a spirit detective?" Hiei guessed.

"No." Yusuke grinned. "Because everyone knew you and Kurama would end up in a relationship eventually."

"Everyone but you and Kurama, that is," Yukina added, with a smile of her own.

As if on cue, that was when Kurama came back in the room with the tea, cutting their conversation short.

"Kurama, you dog," Yusuke teased, as soon as his friend walked in the room.

"Excuse me?" said Kurama.

"They know," Yukina told him.

"I thought male pregnancy seemed a little strange at first, but then I realized there are a lot of things demons can do but humans can't," said Yusuke. "Now I'm only shocked that it didn't happen sooner."

"Well, it shouldn't seem that strange, Yusuke," said Kurama mildly. "Now that you're a demon, you have the ability to get pregnant yourself."

"W-What?" said Yusuke, the color in his face draining.

"Yeah, who knows, Detective," said Hiei with a smirk. "Someday you might be the one throwing up in the mornings and having to pee every five minutes."

"Don't worry, Yusuke, they're just teasing," Yukina reassured him. "You can't get pregnant unless you're intimate with another man."

"No chance of that happening," said Yusuke, looking slightly better, but not much.

"Does this mean we get to tell everyone else, then?" Kurama asked Hiei. "People are going to know something's up eventually, even if we're putting the baby up for adoption—"

"You are?" said Yusuke.

"Yes, we feel that's best," said Kurama woodenly, though Yukina looked heartbroken. Hiei felt bad for her, and for Kurama, too, since he knew full well Kurama thought it would be best to keep the baby.

"Well, you should do what you think is best," said Keiko. "But like Kurama said, who else are we going to tell? I won't tell anyone unless you say it's all right."

"Let's just stick with our demon friends for now," said Hiei. "I don't feel like explaining this to any more humans."

…

As the days went by, the changes in Hiei's body became more noticeable to Kurama—not just his newfound breasts, but everything. Hiei was convinced that Kurama was just lying to make him feel better, but the fox-demon was completely honest when he said he loved it. The little "baby bump" Hiei had was probably more bloating than anything else, but Kurama thought it was adorable.

On Tuesday night, after a long day of work, Kurama was reading the Makai Tribune in bed while Hiei changed from his standard sweatshirt and yoga pants to his pajamas. He got the stretchy pants on all right, but he was having trouble fastening the buttons.

"I really need to lay off the snacks," he commented, his face pink.

"Hiei, don't be so hard on yourself," said Kurama, setting down his newspaper. "You know this is normal."

"But I feel so fat."

"It's difficult, honey, I know." Kurama got out of bed and headed over to Hiei, wrapping his arms around his husband. "But the hormones in your body are just doing their job."

"That doesn't help, Kurama," said Hiei, his voice quavering. "I hate those stupid hormones."

"I wish there was more I could do," Kurama said honestly, "and I wish this was easier for me to understand. But one thing I know for sure is that while you may not love your new body…I do."

Hiei's face went from pink to tomato-red. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I think you should come to bed with me, I can give you a nice massage, and we can see how you feel after that," Kurama replied, giving Hiei's head a kiss.

Kurama realized he did get a little turned on by the changes in Hiei's body. Maybe it was because of some evolutionary reason, or maybe it was just because he was just so stinking cute now, but it was just impossible for Kurama to resist, especially his chubby face and rounder ass. After they climbed into bed, Kurama set his hands on Hiei's cheeks, surprised at how warm they were, even for a fire demon.

"Let me get this straight," said Hiei, setting his hands on top of Kurama's. "You're turned on by my baby body?"

"I'm turned on by you, Hiei," said Kurama. "But yes…I like these pregnancy-related changes very much."

"But why?" said Hiei. "I feel so fat and gross."

"Well, then…" Kurama leaned over and gave Hiei a kiss on the forehead. "Shall I make you feel as sexy as you really are, Hiei?"

"You mean, you want to…?" Hiei swallowed. "You want to have sex? While I'm pregnant?"

Kurama just smirked, feeling a tightness in his pants that could only mean one thing.

…

Hiei didn't think he had ever felt this nervous. Ever since his symptoms started appearing, he had felt so unsexy and disgusting that he was surprised Kurama was even able to touch him, much less initiate sex. Hiei's stomach had been a little calmer recently; Kurama had purged the house of anything that made Hiei sick, so now there were far fewer nauseating smells drifting around the house. And he hadn't thrown up at all yet the whole past week. But that didn't change the way he felt about his "baby body." And if he didn't feel good about his body, could he really enjoy sex?

"I-I can't," said Hiei quietly. "I'm too fat already, and I'm not even in my second trimester."

"For the last time," said Kurama, staring into Hiei's eyes. "You. Are. Not. Fat. Your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing."

"But it doesn't feel that way."

"Honey, if only you could see what I see," said Kurama with a sigh.

When he looked under the covers, Hiei could see that Kurama's hand was brushing his belly ever so slightly. Objectively, his baby bump wasn't all that big, but even the slightest pregnancy-related change was enough to send Hiei's self-esteem spiraling even lower than usual. The soft, tender fingers strayed lower, around Hiei's waistline, and then…

Hiei gasped. Was that Kurama's hand?

"Oh, I'm sorry, Hiei." Kurama yanked his hand away, looking slightly alarmed. "I didn't mean to—"

"Do that again!" Hiei demanded, his cheeks flushed.

"You mean this?" Kurama seemed shocked that Hiei would have such a strong reaction, since all he had really done was sort of swipe his fingers against his pregnant husband's crotch. But Hiei had never felt anything like that before, even from Kurama.

"Yes!" said Hiei. "That felt…that felt great!"

"If that felt great, maybe you should tell me how this feels." Kurama plunged his hand down into Hiei's pants and grabbed his stiffening penis deftly between his thumb and forefinger, massaging it, kneading it with those two fingers, just below the tip. Hiei made a startled noise that kind of sounded like, "Hoh!" as the hand job of his life began.

Hiei could tell that he had already pre-came just a little, and it was surprising how quickly his nose picked up the salty scent, making his mouth water. And at the same time, he was basking in the light of Kurama's fingers on his penis, which was already fully erect. Sex with Kurama was always good, but a hand job? How could a simple hand job possibly feel this good? Every stroke, every featherlight touch of Kurama's fingers seemed to sink deeply into Hiei's groin, leaving his nerves screaming for more. Hiei already felt that telltale pressure way down in his abdomen, and he was suddenly filled with adrenaline and passion. It was like the feeling he'd experienced in the hospital bathroom a few weeks ago, except about a million times stronger.

"Kurama, fuck me now!" Hiei shouted, his eyes blazing, as he kneeled up in bed and pushed his husband in the chest.

"I-I was planning on some foreplay first, but okay," said Kurama, clearly shocked. "What position do you want?"

"Who cares? Just do it!" Hiei panted. Even with Kurama's hands off him, he could still feel that burning. He had to be penetrated. There was already an ache, a longing, that he could feel, one that wouldn't go away until it was satisfied. "And do it hard!"

Kurama still seemed blindsided, but he certainly wasn't complaining. The two of them didn't really experiment with positions all that much, but tonight Kurama did something they hadn't tried before. He pulled Hiei's pajama pants down to his ankles and bent him over backwards on the bed so that Hiei suddenly found his chin just inches from the hardwood floor. He yelped as Kurama slapped his ass. Hard. Physically, it stung, but it only made Hiei hornier.

"I am going to fuck the hell out of this," he declared. Hiei felt a jolt of excitement, all the way from his pounding heart to his tingling fingers and toes. He bit his lip as he felt a cold but familiar sensation around his entrance—lube—and he figured Kurama was applying it to himself, too. But he barely had time to think about this before he felt Kurama, slippery and hard, enter him.

It was like losing his virginity all over again, what with the new sensations and the extreme pleasure careening through his body. Just as Kurama knew, Hiei loved taking it in the ass, but for some reason, it was as if his prostate was suddenly about a million times more sensitive. Since they had been having sex for over a year now, Kurama knew exactly the right place to hit, the right buttons to push, and there was the added excitement factor of a position they rarely used—Hiei's feet in Kurama's face, his hands pressed to the floor, his ass in the air.

"Harder!" Hiei cried, his spiky hair brushing against the floorboards, his bangs hanging in his face, sweat dripping down his temples. He could feel everything. With each jolt of pleasure, his moans grew louder and more intense, the world around him blurring out. Kurama's hard plowing was starting to hurt, but somehow that only made it feel better—a heavenly mixture of pleasure and pain. Kurama started to jerk Hiei off with his right hand, his left hand on Hiei's ass to steady himself.

Kurama hadn't been inside Hiei for very long at all when Hiei felt the most amazing orgasm of all time hit him like a tidal wave, gasping as he came into his husband's hand, the sticky liquid splattering all over the floor as well. Kurama laughed good-naturedly as he kept going; the thrusts became more uneven, less rhythmic, and finally, Hiei felt the warm, wet rush of Kurama's cum inside him.

Hiei collapsed onto the floor, leaving his elbows to support his weight. Kurama was panting with exhaustion, his left hand still on Hiei's ass, his right hand now limp, though the tips of his delicate, smooth fingers still grazed his husband's now-flaccid penis. When he finally got enough strength back, Kurama hauled Hiei up to lie next to him on the bed.

"Oh…oh, wow," Hiei breathed. "That was the best it's ever been."

"You can thank the hormones for that," Kurama told him, grinning, and in a matter of minutes, they were asleep for the night.