Chapter 7: Fatherhood

…Koko…

Damn it all. If there was anything I hate more than being sick, it's knowing that I'm sick because of my damn husband. Yes, I got married to Hiei—finally. We waited about a year after I graduated from high school and got done with my freshman year of college to do that. It was a nice wedding, I guess. Bri made an adorable flower girl and Okuro brought in the rings. Keiko was my maid of honor.

Blah, blah, blah, but it's all over and you missed it. Tough luck for you, I guess. Damn it. I hate being sick. Snowball was going to be in for it if I ever got out of this damn bed. I sat up and grabbed the metal frame, hoping that I could at least get to the bathroom before anything happened. The sickness seemed to subside soon after I got there, to my frustration. I took it out on the cupboard.

In case you're wondering, yes, good people, I am pregnant with Hiei's baby. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing, blah, blah, blah, and I'm damn tired of it. I was going to have a long pictorial notebook full of sketches later, though. Bri was going to draw me in all the lovely stages of pregnancy. She and Okuro were seven now.

I guess she kind of got used to having Kurama around again, because he and the other Spirit Detectives were always over here or there. Kurama had become a family friend. He was always around and I think Bri had come to count on him for things. Like when Yue did something at school.

That little bitch sure knew how to make my little cousin angry. Like their first day of school. Yue got glue in Bri's hair during some project, and Bri was bald for the first few weeks of school. Kurama had cut off two inches of his own hair and fashioned a wig for her. It was kind of sweet. Bri still had a few locks of his hair in a little scrapbook. She had decided that the one thing she would do with her new life was scrapbook everything and detail it all in a journal. Even the boring stuff.

I can see where she was going with it, but I tell you, I'd never have the patience to do it to the extent she does. Her brother, Okuro, managed somehow to let Kurama know who he was. The twins and Kurama were always hanging out, doing something. Even though Kurama was now getting ready to graduate from college with a degree in math teaching. My uncle Marion was extremely pleased to be getting him at Meikou High next year. I think we all were.

And even though somehow King Yama and Koenma had come to some kind of pact, Spirit World was still watching Yusuke. I still hadn't been part of the whole "Sensui" shit bit, but I don't think I would want to have been anyway. That's why I'm pregnant, or at least, I think that's why I am. Snowball had left for Makai eight months ago. He had promised me he would return in time for our baby's birth.

He better damn well hope he is.

So, imagine my surprise when he came into my bathroom.

"What are you doing here, I thought you were training at Lord Mukuro's castle," I said, crossing my arms over my slowly-beginning-to-bulge stomach. He smiled faintly, the smile I was used to meaning, "Yeah, glad to see you, too, Keiko."

"Hn. What did your doctor have to say?"

"Don't you grunt at me, Snowball. I want to know why you haven't been ba—"

He smothered my question with a kiss, an odd sparkle in his Christmas red eyes. I wasn't about to be dodged that way again. He'd done the same damn thing three times since I first "met" him again in this time stream. The first time I met him, when he came and told me he was going to Makai, and now. I wasn't going to fall for it this time. I broke away from him and glared him straight in the eyes. Well, I couldn't do the Jagan because it was covered with that bandana, but you know what I meant.

"What happened, Hiei?" I demanded.

Wordlessly, he removed two thick white cords from around his neck. One, I recognized. Yukina had given it to him to help him in his search for her brother, namely, Hiei himself. But the other…it was almost identical, and yet, I knew what it was.

"It's your teardrop," I murmured. "The one from your mother. How did you…?"

"Mukuro had it, as a gift from another land," Hiei said, his eyes falling to the ground. I had never seen him so openly deny his feelings. Sure, he denied them all the time. But instead of the open display, he would merely grunt or glare or something like that, which is the way he acted all the time anyway. So no one really figured out when he was denying feelings or when he was just being stupid again.

I smiled at him and lifted his chin up so he could look at me. "Then luck was with you."

"No," he shook his head. "You were."

I blinked at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hn."

I rolled my eyes. "And what about what Mukuro wanted? What's it all about?"

"The war that will break out soon over Raizen's imminent death," Hiei answered. He sat back against the wall of the bathroom. "She's made me her second-in-command."

"Second…" I murmured. "But…what about us? What about our son?"

"I will not abandon you," Hiei said, his voice gruffly fierce. "It is your choice. Once the war is over, we will make that decision. I will stay here with you or…"

"Or we'll live in the Makai," I said. I guess it wasn't too bad of a plan. It wasn't as if we couldn't support ourselves on either side. "What about Kurama?"

"What about him?"

"Will he go to the Makai? I know he's with Yomi and he's training those six fighters and all…but still. He has his family here. His mother, stepfather, and stepbrother. He's almost like a second father to Bri and Okuro."

"He will stay here."

Hiei glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. The only reason I caught it is because I'm used to him doing these things without really moving. I have to watch him closely to see anything. I guess what's really weird is that Hiei can go to the Makai without me now. It was something about the "mating process" that Kurama explained to me that really didn't sink in very well. I'd have to ask him about it later, if I remembered.

Hiei ghosted one hand over my arm. "She still loves him."

"Yeah, she does. I think he recognizes her, knows something, at least."

"He knows something is wrong."

"We all know on some level. We should tell Kurama about it. He shouldn't be so left in the dark."

"No."

"Why?"

"Bri."

"Oh."

I sighed and relaxed into a gentle hug from my mate.

…

…Bri…

Okuro, cut it out. I rolled my eyes as he, once again, pulled on Kita's ponytail. He was so stealthy about it that no one, not even Kita herself, ever caught him. It was a strange gift, I guess, but the ex-bat-boy was good at it. Granted, once he was old enough, he wanted to go back to the Makai, so he technically didn't need human school. However, mother insisted upon it.

It was strange, having a mom like Ichigo. She was really my mom by birth and she cared about me. She cared about both of us. Okuro and I had become fiercely protective of her since we, already at age seven, were strong enough to take her down if we wanted to. Our mother just simply wasn't a fighter.

But Okuro and I were. We trained in secret, using the skills that Okuro remembered from Youko's past and what I remembered of my training with Kurama. Not even Koko or Hiei knew. Okuro had taught me the one thing that Kurama never got around to: suppressing energy. We got some kind of repressed gene or something like that (so it's been a while since I've been to Uncle Gun Wa's house!) and got landed with a lot of potential energy. Kuronue was already back up to the energy level he'd had at his death, which was near B level. I was a lot weaker, somewhere around middle D, but with better training I could probably match him.

I mean, yeah, I wasn't much of a fighter, either. But I could still kick some demon butt when I wanted to. Kurama would be proud, if he was around when we were training. Don't look at me like that, Kurama's a family friend now, nothing more. I won't ever have anything to do with him romantically again. I'm only seven!

The bell rang for school to be out and Okuro and I ran out the door with all the other second-graders. You have no idea how belittling it is to be in a school where everyone thinks you're so smart, even though you're not really. Well, not for your real age, anyway. I guess I can see how Kurama felt, growing up as a human after being a thousand-year-old fox demon.

"Hey, Brat Face!" I stopped short and glared over my shoulder at our across-the-street neighbor. Yue was just as sharp as she'd been the day she moved in across the street four years ago. She had been the bane of my existence since then.

"What do you want, Junana?" I asked, scowling at her. Okuro crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her over my shoulder. Even though we were twins, he was still growing much more quickly than me.

"I want to know what you think of cats," she said, smiling. I hate her smile. What was she up to this time? "Interesting creatures, ne?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" I said, shifting the weight of my satchel to the other hand. "I like 'em, sure. Why do you want to know?"

"No reason," she said, chuckling softly as she passed by. A thin-fingered hand reached up and patted me on the head. Okuro and I glared, matching, as she passed and climbed fluidly into her father's new, also expensive car. I heard a soft giggle and turned to glare at Chihiro. Okuro groaned.

"Does that idiot girl have a thing against your hair or something?" he grumbled, taking my hand in his. "This is the second time!"

I groaned softly, letting my hand go up to my hair. When I withdrew—painfully—I saw the reason why. Gum. Blue bubblegum in my hair. I sighed and let Okuro lead me home once again, where he went to work with the scissors. I sighed and studied my hair carefully. It looked fine, a little patchy, but nothing that wouldn't fix up once it grew out again. I needed a haircut anyway.

We can't kill a human, Kuronue. You know that.

Yeah. But if she—

Forget it. I sighed and stared out the window of our former nursery. It had changed a little since then, as Dad had set up two separate bedrooms using rice paper doors and left the little space full of bookshelves and paints and such open. Okuro sighed and set a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Don't let her get to you. She's only a stupid human child."

"You forget what we appear to be?" I asked, allowing a smirk to cross my lips.

"No," he smiled. Suddenly, I smelled something familiar.

"Kurama's coming."

"He didn't say he was coming over today," Okuro said, glancing at the stairs. One of his slightly-pointier-than-normal ears twitched ever so slightly. There were several traits about my little brother that had never left him. One of those was his inability to wake up unless you did something special to him. Since he didn't have wings anymore, it was pulling his ear now.

Sure as my nose had told me, Kurama appeared at the top of the stairs a minute later. He hadn't changed much. He looked almost exactly the same, red hair the color of rose petals and soft as suede. Eyes the color of acidic green. I swear he could melt anyone with that gaze of his. It could pierce steel and ice. But I would never allow them to melt me again.

"Bri, Kuronue, I…" His voice trailed off as he stared at me. "Bri, what happened?"

"Junana," I shrugged. "What is it?"

Do you smell that? Kuronue fired at me.

What?

Do you smell it?

Salt…

Kurama sighed and offered both of his hands to us. "Come with me. Your father is…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence, but I knew.

Marion Wolf was hurt.

…

…Kurama…

I still couldn't believe it. No one could. Ichigo rang both her hands, compulsively hugging Kuronue and Bri, Koko, Gina. She finally broke down and sobbed into Gun Wa's shoulder. The stench of the hospital was in my nose, along with the scent of salts and misery. Keiko and Kuwabara raced into the waiting room, panting. Keiko glanced up at Koko, who shook her head.

Wordlessly, Keiko walked to my old partner Kuronue and hugged him tightly to her. He wasn't crying, I knew he wouldn't. All the same, he had the numb look in his now-blue eyes. It was the same look that I knew I'd had when my own father had passed away. I was much younger then and I shouldn't have cared so much, or that's what I had continued to tell myself.

Even then, Shiori was changing me.

Marion had changed Kuronue in the same way that Tousan Minamino had. I stared at Bri, the only one who was still staring at the hospital room. She didn't understand, I'm sure. She was really seven years old, unlike Kuronue. No one walked up to her. I waited for someone, anyone to hug her, hold her. The little seven-year-old girl whom I still felt I knew took a few timid steps toward the hospital room where her father lay.

No one tried to stop her.

I didn't have the heart to try, either.

She reached for the frame of the door, groping, not really seeing. Her slightly-pudgy hand grasped it tightly, her hand turning dove white. Her face was an ashen gray and she looked for a moment older, wiser. Like Genkai, like myself. Unlike her mother, she shed no tears, only stood and stared at the white-covered body of her father. I couldn't help but watch her as she let go of the frame and walked to her father's bedside.

Bridget Wolf uncovered Marion's face. I couldn't see hers, but I knew that her face was deathly white. Marion had been jumped on the bullet train on his way home, pulled into an alley. A police officer discovered him and his assailant, but the latter escaped.

Marion's face was marred, bruised. Blood dribbled from a large cut on his head, which wouldn't have looked so bad if he'd had hair to cover it. But the gaping hole there was plain for all the world, and yet at the same time, only for his daughter to see.

Bri glanced over her shoulder and stared straight into my eyes. They held no tears, no fear, no anger. Just a blank, empty soul. I don't know how or when I did it, but suddenly I was by her side, covering Marion's bloodied face with the crisp white sheet again. She hugged my waist, her strength just enough to cut off my circulation.

I didn't care. I knelt at her side.

"He's gone, Bri," I said quietly. She buried her face into my shoulder and I ran my hands down her back, comforting her. "I'm sorry."

She sobbed in response.

I picked her tiny body up and cradled her as only one could to comfort a small child. Somehow, though, I knew that Bri was not entirely a child. She had grown up far too quickly. I knew that Bri had no friends at school, nor did she seem to want them. She was content with her brother, her family, and her close family friends that may as well have been family. I was one of those friends.

And at the moment, I was all she had.

Koko and Gina attempted to take the now-asleep girl from me, but I held her closer in answer to their own silent pleas. Koko and Keiko held one of Kuronue's hands, and together we led Gun Wa and Ichigo out of the hospital. I truly hoped that Raizen would hold out. I needed to be here, for Bri and for this family.

Yomi was wrong.

My place was here.

…

…

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Er…Yes, I did kill Marion Wolf again…Necessary! O.O Don't yell at me! Okay, fine, yell at me. I really am sorry for the wait, ya'll. See you soon with the next chapter!