And WOW, it seems you're really liking this so far! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all those amazing reviews, you can't even imagine how much they warm my heart!
Hmm… If jealousy is going to take the best of Mariah? I afraid I can't tell you just yet. You'll have to read on to find out. (grins)
Alright, alright, on with the show! (Yeai, a short a/n!) Let's see how things are going in month four…
January
With Kai being already four months pregnant, he – with much reluctance – had to agree with Ray that ultra-scan would be a good idea to make sure the baby was alright.
Carefully making sure that they had absolute privacy, Ray walked up to Kai, who was laying on a bed, seeming to be in deep discomfort. " I'm not sure if I'm an expert on these things, but…"
" No creep touches me or the child", Kai almost growled, hand reflexively shielding his barely visibly swelled belly.
Ray couldn't help but smile at the way Kai was protecting his unborn child. He could only wonder if Kai had self noticed his maternal instincts kicking in.
Shaking the thoughts away, he begun to work on Kai. " I'm gonna put on some gel. Don't panic if it feels a little cold."
Despite the warning, Kai gave a loud gasp as the gel was placed onto his bump.
" Sorry", Ray apologized.
Kai gave him a murderous glare. " 'A little cold'? It felt like you'd dropped ice-cubes onto my stomach!"
Ignoring the complaining with a smile, Ray continued his work, eyes on the small screen that showed the picture from Kai's abdomen.
Soon enough, he found the fetus. As far as he knew, it seemed to be fine and dandy, kicking furiously.
A little warrior, just like its parents.
He was just about to tell Kai about his discovery, when something caught his attention.
Kai was immediately alarmed when he heard Ray give a light gasp. A deep frown appeared to his features. " Ray?" he asked, voice more tense than it'd ever been. " Ray, is there something wrong with my baby?"
For a long moment Ray hesitated. Kai had been through a hell already, received one shock right after another. Would the Russian be able to handle this? But… Kai was going to find out sooner or later. Taking a deep breath, he decided to break the news. " Kai… According to what I see… It's not just one baby." He looked straight into Kai's rapidly widening eyes. " You're going to have twins."
For a long, stilled moment, Kai stared at him in utter shock and disbelief, almost like unable to register his words. " Twins?" the Russian finally breathed out. Judging by the look upon Kai's face, the young man would've fainted, had he not been laying down.
Ray nodded cautiously. " Yeah."
Shivering from shock, Kai buried his face into his hands, drawing in huge, panicking breaths.
This… just… wasn't happening…
He'd just somewhat gotten used to the idea of having one baby, managed to convince himself that he'd be able to take care of the child. And now… Twins?
Oh dear God…After several minutes, it finally seemed that Kai had gotten over the first shock. Still speaking rather cautiously – fearing that Kai might collapse, burst into tears or go into shock – Ray chose to go on. " You know… It's possible to see the babies' genders now", he informed. " Would you like to know?"
After some moments, Kai removed his hands from his face and gave a faint nod. Looking at his friend's face, Ray gladly noticed that he didn't seem that panicked anymore. Slowly, a smile crept up to his features. " You are going to be a father of… a girl and… a boy."
For a moment, Kai seemed dazed, and Ray feared he might go into shock again. But gradually, a small smile graced the Russian's pale features. " Son and daughter."
Ray's smile widened. " Yeah."
Kai blinked, still smiling, looking at the screen that showed the picture of his babies. " Wow."
For a moment they stayed like that in silence, Ray holding Kai's hand without even noticing it. Eventually, Ray realized that Kai probably wanted to get his shirt back on, and gently started to rub off the gel from his abdomen.
As he touched Kai's soft, milky skin, he was once again struck by such a wave of emotions that it was almost impossible to resist them. Kai was there, so close… It would've been so easy just to reach out and…
Scared of himself, he quickly shrugged the thoughts away. Seeming to notice his absentmindedness, Kai gave him a rather worried look. " You're spacing out again."
Ray gave a small laughter, shaking his head. " Sorry, I just…" Noticing that there was no more gel on Kai's skin, he quickly pulled his hand away from the reach of dangerous temptation. " You can get dressed now."
Subtly turning his gaze away (although a part of him seemed strangely reluctant to do so) Ray stared out the window while Kai pulled on his pullover. For a moment it was silent, until a thought suddenly popped into his mind. " Kai… Have you thought about telling others? I mean, they're bound to notice sooner or later."
" Then I prefer it to be 'later'", Kai announced. Turning his head, he found the Russian fully dressed. " Look, I can hardly handle this whole… pregnancy-thing myself. I can't even imagine what it would feel like to tell someone else – much less to someone like Tyson."
Ray couldn't help but smile. It was easy to understand Kai's reasoning. " You're probably right", he admitted. " Besides, there's no hurry. You can wait until you're ready."
Kai snorted. " Like I'd ever be ready."
Just outside the room, barely on hearing range, a man sat on a bench, carefully listening to the words that drifted into his sensitive ears.
So… Kai is going to have twins. A creepy smile crept up to his features. This is even more perfect than I dared to dream of. Now, I'll have two warriors instead of one.
With that thought, he disappeared like a shadow.
What Kai and Ray didn't know was that Mariah had just entered the hospital, a look between rage and worry upon her face.
She'd been supposed two meet Ray in a cafeteria during his lunch-hour, but – just like alarmingly many times during the past four months – the male neko-jin had forgotten her, or at least that's how it seemed. For the first times, she'd actually managed to convince herself into believing that Ray probably had a good explanation to his delay. But now… She'd been forgotten for far too many times. This time, she wasn't going to listen some lame excuses.
Mariah was – to put it mildly – a jealous type, had been from when she was just a little girl. And therefore she just had to get to the bottom of this, or she'd end up losing her mind.
Seeing the look upon her face, and hearing who she was, a small, rather timid-looking nurse on reception had rather easily told her that Ray was in observation room 24; if there was a patient with him, she hadn't known.
She had prepared herself for pretty much anything as she placed her trembling hand onto the door-handle, feeling her heart bound furiously and a taste of blood in her mouth. But when she pulled the door open, and saw the two young men behind it, a gasp that sounded almost like a growl escaped her. " Kai?"
The view itself was purely innocent. Kai was just standing there, obviously about to leave, looking at her with slightly surprised eyes, and Ray (who'd been putting away some equipment) was sitting on a chair, staring at her. But what froze her heart was the look in her boyfriend's widened amber eyes.
Fear. Confusion. And – most of all – guilt.
All the times Ray had forgotten about her… The way her boyfriend spoke Kai's name… The lack of connection between them… The way she'd sometimes caught Ray looking at Kai, how guilty the neko-jin always seemed afterwards…
Pieces begun to click painfully in her mind, making her heart shatter.
Her mind was spinning so badly that she could barely register Kai's lips moving as he tried to speak to her. Nausea crept up her throat, and she actually had to use all her willpower and place a hand against her mouth to keep a heave from coming as she took one step back, then another, shivering all over.
She had already whirled around, about to run away, when a hand – surely Ray's, she figured – roughly graphed her shoulder. At that moment, her rationality wouldn't work anymore; the adrenaline flooding through her veins had made her completely numb and senseless, blissfully washing away the immense pain she'd been in. All she could feel was rage. " Get off me!" Aiming blindly, she shoved her elbow backwards with a horrifying force, and felt almost chilling satisfaction when it met something soft – most likely a belly.
That's what you get for hurting me, Kon.
It wasn't until she heard a small, scared and pain-filled meow she came back to her senses. She turned around slowly, almost scared of what she'd see – and a gasp of panic and remorse escaped when the view met her.
Apparently, the punch meant for Ray hadn't found its right target. Behind her stood Kai, supporting himself unsteadily against a wall with one hand while another clutched to his stomach. It was easy to see that the Russian was shivering violently, a look of immense pain and terror upon his face that was paler than she'd ever seen them.
Despite the rage and jealousy still rushing through her, Mariah felt her heart fill with panic and guilt. She… She hadn't meant to hurt Kai, never, no matter how jealous she was of him! And… She hadn't even elbowed that harshly! " K – Kai?" The whisper was small and weak, almost pathetic. Kai probably couldn't even hear it. " Kai, what's wrong?" She gulped roughly. " I… I'm so sorry…"
It wasn't until then Ray – who'd stood frozen since she'd first entered – woke up from his trance, finally realizing what was happening. Never before had Mariah seen such rage in Ray's flaming eyes they had when he looked at her. Chills ran up and down her spine when she realized that the look was close to disgust, like she'd turned into some repulsive monster before him. And at that moment, Ray seemed like a total stranger to her. " What the hell did you think you were doing!" he roared, voice filled with venom and thunder. His moves, however, were nothing but gentle and caring as he wrapped his other arm around Kai's still trembling form. But his eyes… They were still ones of stranger's when they glared at her, filled with such abhorrence that it froze her to the core of her being. " Do you have any idea of what you've just done? DO YOU!"
Mariah found herself shivering, eyes widened. For a first time, she was afraid of him. " Ray…"
She became – if possible – even further confused when seeing tears slide down Ray's drastically paling cheeks. " You… You might've killed…"
" R – Ray…" Even though Kai's voice was thin and laced with pain, it still claimed all of Ray's attention. " The twins… They're moving… They're alright… We all are…"
And for a second time, Mariah's world started spinning wildly. " P – pregnant…?" Once again, rage secluded sense. Eyes squinting into furious slits, she glared at Ray. " Those brats are yours, aren't they?" At least according to her knowledge, only among neko-jin's males could become pregnant. So, if Kai really was carrying twins… they had to be Ray's. Suddenly, so many things started to make sense to her…
As Ray looked at her – still gently holding Kai with one arm – his eyes were first filled with disbelief, then darkened with annoyance. " Mariah, don't be ridiculous! Of course I'm not!" he snapped – but the evident hurt that radiated through his entire essence clearly gave out that he would've wanted to be. He then sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. " Look, I… I'm sorry… I just… We'll talk later, but now… isn't the right time." With that, all his attention was on Kai again. Mariah could only watch frozen as Ray ever so gently supported the still shivering, tired – and pained – looking Russian up, carefully guiding the young man towards a nearby bed. " I'll help you lay down, 'k? We'll make sure the twins are alright, and then… then I'll take you home to get some rest." Kai grimaced and squeezed his eyes tightly shut as Ray guided his still rather slender form down, a whimper of pain could be heard from the Russian. " Sh…", Ray soothed. " It'll be okay. Just relax… Everything's gonna be just fine…"
And as Mariah watched the way Ray touched and looked at Kai, she suddenly realized something that'd been lingering in the air for the past four months.
No matter how much talking they'd do, no matter how hard Ray would try to convince her, nothing would ever be the same between them.
And truthfully, she wasn't sure if she even wanted things to be the same.
Some days later, the old team once again gathered into the living room of Tyson and Hilary's house, which was now quiet with Theo having gone to bed. (Once again, Max wasn't present.)
While the others were happily chatting away, Kai had hard time disguising his discomfort from them. With every new day of pregnancy, it seemed that the pain in his stomach increased at the same rate. And at the moment – after a particularly rough night with Tala haunting him in nightmares – the pain was almost unbearable.
Fair enough, Tyson might not be the smartest being on the face of our planet, but he's not blind. Seeing the way his Russian friend constantly squirmed, the bluenette frowned. " Now what's with you? You look like you'd be sitting on a bed of nails."
" So would you in my condition", Kai snarled under his breath. By the time he noticed he'd spoken loud enough to be heard, it was too late. His burgundy eyes widened. " Shit…"
" 'In your condition'?" Hilary repeated, look of suspicion and worry upon her face. " Kai, what's wrong? Are you sick?"
" No!" Kai bit out, then noticed his tone and sighed, speaking more softly. " No. I'm not sick."
" Then what is it?" Tyson kept pressuring on.
" You're getting us worried here", Kenny joined in.
Kai shot a look of utter desperation towards Ray, wordlessly begging for help. But the Chinese just gave him a look that clearly stated 'I think it's you who should tell them'. Kai gave a deep, exasperated sigh, and after a long moment started to speak quietly, refusing to meet the others' eyes. " I… This… operation was done to me when I was a kid. And…" He gulped loudly, running a trembling hand through his hair. " I'm pregnant."
For a longest moment, it was very, very silent.
" Wow…", Kenny finally managed.
" That's just…", Tyson begun, but was cut off by Hilary.
" For how long?"
Finally lifting his gaze, Kai was prepared to meet gazes of disgust, perhaps even hatred. Therefore he was surprised when he found Hilary's soft, brown eyes filled with understanding. " Tala… Tala is the father. So…", he almost whispered. Threatening tears stung his eyes. " Four months."
Hilary smiled. " That's amazing."
" So…" Tyson frowned, apparently trying to grasp on the idea. " … we're going to be uncles – and aunt?"
Kai couldn't help but smile slightly. " Yeah."
Tyson grinned widely. " Cool!"
For a moment it was a complete fuss as the trio congratulated Kai, and the Russian almost ended up punching Tyson when the bluenette persistently tried to touch his belly.
As the chaos ceased, Kenny gave Ray a look. " You don't seem too surprised", the computer-whiz noted.
Ray bowed his head slightly, seeming a bit ashamed. " I… I've known for a while now. Kai needed a doctor he could trust, so…"
Hilary nodded, smiling. " Understandable." She then looked back at Kai again. " Do you know which gender the baby is?"
Kai gulped nervously, still not comfortable with the idea of sharing this all with his friends, when he'd hardly grasped on the idea of parenting himself. " Actually… I'll have twins. Boy and girl."
Another stunned silence followed. " Uh-huh…", from Tyson finally pierced it.
Deciding that Kai probably didn't need Tyson's… thoughtless comments, Hilary got up. " Kai, I think you and I should you have a little talk." She gave the other three young men a meaningful look. " In private."
Feeling a wave of gratitude flood through him, Kai eagerly nodded. After all, Hilary was a mother; she knew exactly what he was going through right now – although she was a female, and hadn't been forced to handle the prospect of single-parenting. Perhaps she would be able to shake away some of his fears.
They ended up into bedroom, and after hesitating for a while Kai took a seat beside Hilary on the bed. It took for a second before Hilary spoke. " You're probably scared to death right now, am I right?"
Kai nodded, not looking at his friend. " I… I'm just not sure if I can do this – alone."
" Now that's where you've got it all wrong." The brunette's tone forced him to look at her. She had a look of utter sincerity and softness upon her face. " Kai, we're all here for you. Whatever happens, you won't be going through this alone."
Kai wasn't sure if it was due to raging hormones or what, but the words made his eyes grow watery. What Hilary had said… Ray had kept telling him the same thing from the beginning, but it wasn't until now it truly hit him. First time since Tala's death, he didn't feel utterly, completely alone. Even if he'd lost the one he'd loved beyond anything else, his friends were still there.
Without warning, he suddenly wrapped his arms around Hilary, hugging her tightly. " Thank you", he managed to give a teary whisper, then laughed. " Gosh, I feel like such a sappy goofball right now!"
Hilary laughed as well, returning the hug. " Oh, don't worry. When I was expecting Theo, I spent pretty much twelve hours a day crying over everything imaginable."
Kai tensed when Hilary suddenly gave a surprised yelp. " What's wrong?"
" The twins…", Hilary whispered in a dazed voice. " Another one of them just kicked."
Kai blinked in surprise. The twitches he'd been feeling for about two weeks… were the babies kicking? Still stunned, he broke the hug and slowly brought his hand to his bump, feeling a strong, clear thrust. " So that's what this is…"
Hilary couldn't help but smile as she saw the look upon Kai's face. The Russian was surely still terrified by the idea of becoming a parent, but the softness in his burgundy eyes… There was no doubt about it. Whether Kai himself knew it or not, he already loved the twins very much. " Can I try?" she asked after a rather long silence, slowly moving her hand towards the bump.
At first there was slight hesitance upon Kai's face, but eventually the Russian nodded. A huge smile spread across Hilary's face when she felt yet another kick. " Amazing…", she whispered, only vaguely aware that she was talking out loud. " I'm gonna be an aunt."
Kai also found himself smiling. " Yeah."
Both were startled when the door of the room suddenly opened, and Tyson, Kenny and Ray stumbled in. Tyson grinned sheepishly, scratching his head. " Eh… Sorry 'bout that."
Hilary's eyes squinted dangerously. " Were you three eavesdropping us?"
Everyone was taken by surprise when a soft, deep laughter suddenly ran through the room. Eyes widened with wonder when they realized that the voice was actually coming from Kai. " It's okay", the Russian assured them, then touched his bump. " Wanna try?"
Deciding to take advantage on Kai's mood-swing, both Tyson and Kenny nodded eagerly and walked up to the Russian. Despite the fact that they were both already fathers, the two gave astonished gasps when feeling the babies kicking determinedly. Smiling at the two, Ray calmly took a seat beside Kai, his hand almost instinctively crawling so that it was just an inch from touching Kai's.
As Kai looked at his friends, he all of a sudden found himself smiling softly.
Perhaps, just perhaps, he'd make it through this after all.
TBC.
A/N: Uh-huh, twins! I just couldn't resist the idea – I have this huge obsession about twins.
And yeah, things are finally starting to brighten up for Kai! And now the gang – plus Mariah – knows.
But hey, what's going to happen between Ray and Mariah – and more importantly, between Ray and Kai?
Hope I'll meet you all next time! And PLEASE, review!