"She was uncomfortable and in pain. Karin watched her warily and even sent Starrk out to refill their water containers and bring back a chunk of hollowed wood for a bowl if he could. He had protested at first, not wanting to leave them unguarded, but Karin had insisted it was necessary for the cubs to be born.
"Why do women want kids?" Nanao moaned.
"Because the other side is worth the pain, or so I've been told," Karin answered without hesitation.
"Answered that one before, huh?" Nanao asked, wincing as another contraction struck.
"A dozen times," Karin chuckled. "From what we saw in the pit though, it should be easier than a normal birth. There are eight in there and they won't be full size. After the first one comes, the rest should follow quickly."
Starrk returned with a piece of crystalized tree that was slightly hollowed out, enough to act as a makeshift bowl anyway. Karin filled it with water and set it aside before going through their few pieces of fabric and picking out one of the sacks.
"It's going to get messy, so this one we can use for you to rest on. Not sure how we are going to clean all eight pups though," Karin frowned.
"I will clean them," Starrk declared.
"How long do you think this will take?" Nanao asked between contraction.
"Depends on how the birth goes. Once the water goes, it should progress quickly. How apart are your contractions now?"
"About ninety seconds, sometimes more," she answered.
"Soon than. Let's get you stripped. I want to check the dilation."
She pulled off her clothing and lay down on the birthing sack. Starrk moved behind her to act as a backrest while Karin settled between her legs. Probing fingers started to feel her up and she winced in discomfort. What was worse was when Karin pressed down on her stomach, feeling around.
"You are about sixty percent dilated. The pups will be here in a few hours at most," Karin answered. "For now, try to relax and save your strength."
She had some choice words about the idea of relaxing, but she held them back. Karin would get her due shortly anyhow. Water was offered frequently as she was sweating it off and it was important to remain hydrated. Finally, a buildup of pressure released, and liquid ran down her legs onto the sack and sand. Behind her, Starrk's ears perked and he gave a little whine.
Karin probed her again, not at all concerned with the squishy mess before giving a nod of her head. "You are fully dilated. You can start pushing with the contractions."
Yes, pushing. She wanted the things out of her. She wanted the pain to end. She wanted to turn Starrk's hide into a rug and use Shunsui's as the underside for keeping her out of battle for so long she'd fallen prey to the Vandervich so easily.
With the next contraction she bore down, groaning in discomfort and wishing she had something to grasp with her hands. As she panted waiting for the next one, she grasped around until she found something warm and round shaped. Starrk's yelp of pain as she mangled his tail on the next round of pushing almost absolved him of the crime of doing this to her.
"Perfect, I can see the head already. Nice and small as expected. They shouldn't take long each," Karin encouraged.
It didn't. A dozen pushes and the thing plopped out of her. Karin quickly wrapped the baby in a sack and moved it over by Starrk's head. Nanao didn't get a chance to look because she could already feel the second one coming. Behind her, Starrk started to lick the squirming, cutely grunting offspring clean of birthing fluids without any sign of discomfort.
Karin caught the second pup as it was born, transferring it to the sack by Starrk's head with barely enough time to catch the third. Now that the first two had stretched the path, the rest were following in their siblings wake quickly. Before long, Starrk has his head buried in a squirming pile of pups with his tail wagging like a possessed thing, even with Nanao's grip on it.
Two came out feet first but with their small size the only result was her needing to push a bit harder. Finally, the last one was out, and she collapsed against Starrk in exhaustion; releasing his tail so it could fan her with its swift motions.
"All eight, about four pounds at most I would say," Karin announced.
"I want to see," she panted.
"Sure, you can hold one while I get you cleaned up."
Karin handed her one of the pups, and pup was an apt name. It was white with black splotches on its scales and had black hair on the top of its head. Its eyes were closed, and it made cute little puppy noises as it nosed about looking for milk. Nanao hardly even noticed Karin cleaning up the mess between her legs and removing the soiled sack and sand as she gazed at the extremely cute thing in her hands.
Hesitantly, she offered it one of her nipples and it latched on. She accepted another pup, this one pure black with white hair on its head, and offered it the other breast.
"Feeding all eight is going to be a nightmare," she groaned as the other six whimpered for their turn. "How do hollows do it?" she asked.
"Most females have more tits at this stage to match their base form," Starrk answered.
"If it's not too bold, I could help," Karin offered hesitantly. "Listening to them whimper has me leaking," the girl groused.
"Please," she begged without hesitation. "Wet nurses are a thing in noble families," she pointed out when Karin looked surprised at her easy capitulation.
"I didn't realize you were nobility."
"Lesser."
Karin took two of the pups and offered them her breasts. They latched on like hungry leeches. Starrk used his muzzle to sooth the remaining four while the first four were feed.
"What I wouldn't give for eight bottles and a case of formula," Karin sighed.
"I just hope Grimmjow makes it back before your six are born, or we will spend our entire time on our sides with offspring at our breasts."
"And no cream to help them from getting rubbed raw. Starrk, you are going to have to hunt. Giving birth and breast feeding take a lot of energy."
"When the pups are fed and settled, I will hunt."
Once all eight were feed, they curled up together on the makeshift bed. Nanao took one side of the bundle while Karin took the other, using their own body heat to keep the pups warm. Starrk took the soiled sack, filled with soiled sand, out with him so the den wouldn't keep the smell to alert predators. Nanao was asleep before her mate had even exited the tunnel.
Two days of travel and he could finally see Las Nochas in the distance. The sight lit a fire under his tail, and he ran faster, giving up stealth. If the Quincy fucks caught up to him, the resulting battle would be obvious to the city and he wanted to be found by the patrols on their side. He even let his reiatsu loose. The time for stealth was over. By now, Nanao would have given birth to her cubs, or was in the process of it. Starrk would need to hunt, and that would leave their mates vulnerable.
Since his senses were at full alert, he noticed the enemy with enough time to dodge the hail of projectiles aimed his way. He retaliated with a cero and moved to the defensive. Four of the fuckers, including what looked like one of the sternritter as their leader.
Well fuck, he cursed. As an arrancar he could have taken them, as an adjucus the elite Quincy were, he was reluctant to admit, out of his league.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in," the leader laughed.
"As if I have never heard that one before," he scoffed.
"You are lucky, his Majesty would sooner you be taken alive if possible, or you would already cease to exist."
"Would sooner die than go back," he growled. "You going to fight me one on one or hide behind your troops like a pussy."
"You are not worthy of personal attention. Take him."
The four charged at him, ripping a snarl from his lips as he dodged their projectiles and tried to fight back. Four on one was just not fair when they were ranged, and he was melee. They didn't give him any chance to charge or fire a cero. Closing on one just left him open to the other three. It galled him to do it, but he ended up tucking his tail and trying to run. He had a mate and cubs to return too.
He felt it first, and almost relaxed in relief as black and yellow power flowed over him. The Quincy barely had time to register someone new was on the field before all four lap dogs were dead and the leader was cursing up a storm while trying to run.
"Get back here runt," Kenpachi shouted happily, chasing after the fleeing Quincy.
"Grimmjow?" Ichigo stared at him in shock.
"Took you long enough, Kurosaki," he growled, panting.
The hybrid was suddenly beside him, running hands over his hide as if to assure he was truly there. "I thought you were gone," Ichigo whispered.
"Che, I am too stubborn to go out," he growled.
Ichigo just continued to stare at him and he was reminded how Karin had told him his supposed death had affected his partner.
"Oi, what's with those eyes," he snarled. "You look defeated."
"Sorry, a lot has happened while you been missing. I've lost…"
"She's fine," he snapped.
"What?"
"Karin, she's fine. Stupid fuckers thought it would be amusing to try and feed her to me." He decided it would be a good idea to leave out the fact he hadn't recognized her right away and would have eaten her if she hadn't been a tough bitch.
"She's alive?" hope lit up those brown eyes.
"Starrk's guarding the girls in a safe den. We figured it would be safer if I approached since most of you know me."
"Girls?" a new voice joined the conversation.
"Girls," he confirmed. He glanced over at the approaching taichou with long, white hair. Fuck if he could remember the guy's name.
Behind them, the backlash of battle raised up winds and sands and he could still hear the manic laughter of Kenpachi, the only Shinigami he could honestly relate with. He felt more power approach and growled, turning to face the danger.
He needn't have bothered. Reinforcements from Las Nochas had arrived, and a secondary battle kicked off. Good, he was not in the mood to be tangled up with these fuckers when his mate and unborn children would need him.
"C'mon," he ordered, turning to face the way he'd come. Kenpachi's battle blocked his intended path and, with a growl of frustration, he took off on a roundabout way to bypass it.
"How far away are they?" Ichigo demanded.
"About two days travel," he answered.
"When was the last time you ate?" Ichigo demanded.
"Don't know. Not important."
"Like hell it isn't," a hand grabbed his tail, pulling him to an embarrassing halt as he landed on his chest.
"The fuck, Kurosaki?" he snarled.
"Wait here a sec," Ichigo ordered sternly, before disappearing.
"It would be wise to bring provisions for such a long journey. While we wait for Ichigo-kun to return, can you please clarify what you meant by 'girls?'"
"Starrk is guarding the girls until I can get back. His mate was just about whelping, and it was too dangerous to keep moving, so we denned up."
"Mate?"
"Black hair, light blue eyes, killer with kido. Something about being attached to the guy that almost killed Starrk," he shrugged.
"Nanao," the man breathed in shock.
"Sounds right. She's Starrk's mate, not mine."
"Mate?"
"How about we save all the explanations for later. I hate telling a tale more than once," he growled.
"Very well."
Ichigo returned at that moment, a large sack thrown over his shoulder and a large orb of pure reishi in his hands.
Damn if he didn't slobber over the sight of that and devoured it like a starved man, which he was. Food hadn't been the best on the run, and he'd been running a lot in the last little bit.
"Lead the way, Grimmjow-san."
He took off again, doing his best to ignore the battles taking place not far away.
"How is Karin?" Ichigo demanded.
"Fine last I saw her. She's got a fire that makes yours look like a candle. She's a tough bitch, gave those fuckers what for," he laughed. "Even knew who I was. Didn't know you talked about me so much, Kurosaki."
"You said they were trying to make you eat her?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah. The fuckers got an arena of Adjucus, and they feed us their prisoners for their own entertainment. Tossed her in when it was my turn to feed. From what I understand, Hashwald didn't know who she was when he caught her, thought it was one of your human friends instead."
"Are there other prisoners there?" the other man asked.
"Hm, yeah, Hanatarou is there, he's the one that got the girls some food and supplies to help our escape, and some others they keep as slaves to clean the pit and help with the births."
"Births?" both men asked.
"Talk later, save your breath for running," he growled in annoyance.
They did so for a while, before Ichigo grew impatient and picked him up, throwing him over a shoulder.
"The fuck, Kurosaki," he snarled, trying to rend the hybrid's back with his claws and only succeeding in tearing the black cloth.
"You are too slow," Ichigo grunted.
He definitely didn't yelp as Ichigo launched into a shunpo so fast it left his head reeling. Even the other taichou could barely keep up as they raced across the sands at a speed Starrk had once been able to pull before his regression. What had taken him two days took Ichigo and his companion twelve hours.
"Oi, put me down, we are almost there," he snarled.
They came out of shunpo and Ichigo set him down. His stomach and back were sore from the undignified position and he took a moment to stretch out before looping towards the den. He hated to admit it, but the rest and food had helped him recover a fair amount.
"Starrk's mate should have whelped, so he might be testy," he warned.
"Whelped?" Ichigo asked.
"You'll see. Let me go first."
He led the way to the small entrance to the den, poking his head cautiously into the tunnel.
"Starrk?" he called.
"Here," the coyote answered, coming around the bend. "Help?" he asked.
"Yeah. Kurosaki and some white-haired guy."
Starrk sniffed the air before letting out a sigh and moving up to join him. He took his head out of the tunnel so Starrk could exit.
"You are looking different, Starrk-san. We thought you were dead."
"One as old as I do not die so easily, thought Lilynette did not make it out of the battle. I hold you to no blame though. Aizen made us fight, though I desired not to. To either side was death."
"Shunsui was not happy about the battle either, but we all had our duties."
"True enough. He took Lilynette from me, and I have now taken Nanao from him. She is mine. We are even. Come, Jushiro-san, Ichigo-san, the girls will be happy to see you."
"All eight make it?" Grimmjow asked.
"All eight made it," Starrk grinned, tongue lolling out and tail going a mile a minute.
"Surprised you still have your hide," Grimmjow laughed.
"They are too busy caring for the pups, for now at least. They are hungry."
"I don't doubt it," he chuckled.
Ichigo was the first into the tunnel, followed by Starrk. After a moment, Jushiro crawled in next, leaving him to enter last.
"THE FUCK!" Ichigo's roar echoed down the tunnel.