xxx

And so, some years after Kaname had first brought the subject up, and many years before Zero really felt ready for it, he found himself walking into Hanabusa Aido's clinic alongside a giddy happy Kaname. Zero ignored him, feeling a lot less giddy happy. Soon he would probably have a child growing inside of him. The thought still felt completely surreal to him.

Male vampires went into heat in regular cycles of once every second year if they did not take heat suppressant medicine. It was then they could get pregnant. Human turned vampires did not go into heat by themselves, but could induce a heat with hormone treatments.

Zero did not really know what he expected from this heat-thingy. Perhaps he would be horny as hell and have lots of great sex with Kaname. As if their sex was not great already. Zero smirked to himself as he and Kaname walked up to Aido's office. Well, maybe heat-horny sex would be something special.

But as it turned out, it would not be all that fun.

Zero would be in heat for about four weeks, in two cycles. It was only in the second cycle, the last two weeks, the fun began and his horniness would peek. The first cycle, the first two weeks, he would feel moody and very tired. During the whole heat cycle his metabolism would change and go down and his appetite go up. Aido gave some complicated explanation, but Zero quit listening when the word 'womb' came up. He did not need Aido to tell him he would gain weight. Zero closed his eyes and sighed. As if getting round with a baby was not bad enough.

Then Aido added, "The average weight gain under a heat cycle is about fifty-three pounds."

Zero's eyes snapped open and he stared at the blond vampire, making him squirm. He blinked. "Fifty-three pounds? You are kidding, right? No! I am not going to gain fucking fifty pounds! Is that even possible in one month?"

"Oh, believe me, it is possible." Aido blushed and played with the pen in his hand. "When I was a teenager and went into my first heat, I gained seventy-eight pounds."

Zero paled.

In his chair next to Zero's, Kaname let out a soft chuckle. "Mm, I remember that."

Aido's blush deepened. "Yeah, well. I have always been kind of limitless. Even more so when I was a teenager. As I think both of you know. I sort of…embraced my cravings." He turned to Zero again. "You will probably not gain that much, Kiryu. But depending on how many hormone injections you will need, you may gain a little from the treatment too. The good news are that when you heat is over your metabolism and appetite will normalize. You will lose most of the weight in the beginning of your pregnancy. It is only temporary, Kiryu."

Zero swallowed. Temporary or not, he did not want to gain fifty fucking pounds. He had planned on working until he started showing from the pregnancy, that would not be possible now. He could not go on missions all jiggly and panting with each step. He let out a deep sigh.

Kaname put his hand on his and leaned in and kissed his cheek. Zero glared at him out of the corner of his eyes.

You knew about this, his eyes glowed.

Yes, I did. I am ten thousand years old and the king of vampires after all, the pureblood's wine coloured eyes smiled back. Mm, you will be so cute.

Zero recognized the horny glow in Kaname's eyes and turned his face away, blushing.

He took a deep breath and then he closed his eyes and let Aido shoot him so full of hormones he did not recognize himself afterwards. He had not expected to feel the effect right away, and suspected he should have listened more carefully to what the blond vampire had been ranting on and on about when he was talking about the treatment, but his mind had been too blown away with the fact that in a month he would be pregnant and overweight.

The car ride home was silent. While Zero drove – because Kaname who was used to have a chauffeur, or Zero, driving him everywhere was, to put it mildly, a complete train wreck as a driver – he went from sad to angry to angsty and then laughing-out-loud-like-a-maniac in a span if minutes. He knew that nothing of this showed on his face except for a tiny smirk as he tried to keep the laughing-out-loud-like-a-maniac-laugh from bubbling up, but he felt Kaname's worried gaze on him anyway and it annoyed the hell out of him.

But as the hormones hit full force after a couple of days Zero could not keep his feelings to himself anymore. He cried for nothing. He got angry for nothing. He quarrelled a lot with Kaname over nothing. He ate like he was going into hibernation and had really weird and strong cravings for chocolate cake. Zero had always had a low appetite and never really been fond of sweets, so this was new to him. He also completely lost his sex drive, which was high and bordering on insatiable in normal case.

He felt like a completely different person.

xxx

Over the following three months Zero had five more hormonal injections. One every second week. And Zero who had never gained a pound in his life, except from when he was young and still growing, suddenly gained sixteen pounds. All of it around his waist. Blushing and angry, he had to go from slim fit shirts to regular fit and one size up to hide the soft padding that now covered his abs completely. His mood became incredible instable and he felt constantly tired and dazed.

He moved out of his and Kaname's bedroom and into one of their guestrooms. For some reasons he could not stand having Kaname close. Which was just as good, because not for his life he wanted Kaname to see how his waistline had started to fill out. He spent less and less time at home. Instead he drove out to the woods outside of the city. There he lay on the roof of his car, watching the colour of the sky change, the clouds move, the stars gleam, and he let his mind go blank.

After his third treatment he temporary handed over his position as president to Kaien, because he was too messed up in his head to handle work. Over the years he and Kaien had grown a lot closer. Zero knew that behind his adopted father's all silly frills and strange ideas there was a sharp brain and a soft heart. There was no one else he would trust with the job.

When he got his sixth treatment, Zero was convinced it would not work. By then he was already full of hormones still lingering in his system from the earlier treatments, and Aido also tripled the doze, in an attempt to try to chock Zero's body into heat. He said it was the last treatment he would give for at least a year. Zero's body and mind needed to rest. Zero could not agree more with him. He had decided this was the last treatment he would take for forever.

As Zero walked out from the clinic after the shots, he felt completely lethal, and he looked it too. When Kaname was called away on one of his business trips three days later, Zero was equally happy to be left alone as he was proud over his self-control and that he had not shot the man he was supposed to love. Shot him like one hundred times over.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

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