Chapter Thirteen:

-Time Skip Approximately 3 months [Youmaru is approx 4 months and 2 weeks along]-

To Kuronues delight, Sesshoumaru seemed to be brooding over something-that was not him for once. The bat was curious to know what it was. He very badly wanted to know what had the dogs furr all ruffled and out of place-figuratively.

That answer came when one of the staff let a group of people in.

Kuronue watched in interest from his 'hiding' spot on the upper floor looking down from the stair well. Kurama led in some pregnant woman to the living area chatting away with her. There was a fox who Youtaira quickly swept off with-probably to the garden.

Hell, even Youmaru had greeted the group, and went to the kitchen with the white haired guy in red. He was demon-but not completely if his smell was a hint. Kuronue was surprised. How the hell did Kurama know a Human, and a Hanyou? Granted, he could understand knowing a fox-Kurama was a fox after all.

The bat tilted his head, and smirked a bit. Well, why not be nosy and butt in?

Kagome groaned as she rubbed at her back, "How do you manage, Kurama? My feet are killing me." The miko was positively glowing with her pregnancy, about five months along, give or take.

Youko smiled softly, and moved the table putting a cushion on it and put her feet up on it. "It wasn't easy" he stated with a soft chuckle, "Well maybe for me it was" he stated playfully purring a bit as he sat beside her. "honestly I slept a lot."

Kagome sighed as she reclined back to be more comfortable, "This'll be our first, not that Inu wasn't trying earlier, the horny dog. Kami forbid I have twins my first try! Ugh..." she sighed after a moment, shoulders slumping, face buried in her hands, "I miss my mother." Clearly she was having some mood swings.

Youko could only smile softly, he understood all to well. He chuckled a bit though, "I bet that libido comes from their fathers side then." He chuckled softly. But when she spoke again he sighed but offered a gentle smile, "You've never really told me about your mother little miko, but for you to miss her so much, she must of been wonderful." he admitted softly. The smile on his face was a bit forced to stay there. Mothers were always a touchy subject for him.

It was then Kuronue sort of flopped his arms onto the back of the couch between the two while grinning, knowing Kurama needed a subject change anyhow. "Well Hello there beautiful" He gave a charming smile, "Why Kurama, you never told me you had any pretty friends!"

Kagome sniffed a bit as she looked up at the bat, giving a watery giggle. "Oh, you can't possibly mean me! I'm all fat and weepy."

Youko would never openly thank the bat for the interruption but his smile was a little less forced.

Kuronue chuckled but gave an expression of mock shock, "What? how can you say that! You're just glowing with a natural beauty! Why it's so much I might have to avoid you before I go blind from all this beauty you're bestowing on me!"

Kagome lightly swatted the bat's arm as she laughed again, "Yeah, keep talking! I'm Kagome, by the way, I don't think I caught your name..?"

Kuronue grinned and rubbed at his arm as if it had really hurt. "Why Kurama! Shame on you for not telling her about me!" he gave the fox a glance before he looked back to her smiling. "Kuronue, at your service lovely lady." He stated grinning lightly.

Youko shook his head, smiling a bit. "Why would I have told her about such a perverted bat?" He chuckled softly. "reminds me of your monk friend to be honest, eh Kagome?" He smiled warmly, but chuckled, "Well not quite..." Kuronue at least didn't ask everyone to bare him a child!

"Does he ask every woman he meets to bare his child, too?" Kagome asked slyly, an amused look on her face as she glanced under her lashes back at the silver kitsune.

Youko chuckled softly, "That would be the not quite part."

Kuronue chuckled shaking his head, "I don't want a bunch of little mes running around. It'd make me less unique!" he chuckled softly grinning a bit. "But anyways, I do need to check on the one with my little me~ Ciao~"

Kagome's eyes widened as she recalled Youmaru looked... "Really, Kurama? Oh kami. Grandchildren so soon..."

Youko smiled a bit, it was a tad sad, but it was a smile none the less. "Youmaru went into heat, and Kuronue helped him." He stated softly. "The child was unexpected, but whats done is done." He smiled gently.

-Scene Change-

Youmaru sat at the table across sipping at some tea, Inuyasha had his own cup. He glanced up at the hanyou before he asked gently, "you a dad huh?" he asked softly. He was a bit surprised, yet not at the same time. He knew it'd only been a matter of time with how much Inuyasha cared about Kagome.

The hanyou's ears twitched, flatted, then righted themselves, pricking forwards towards his nephew, "Yeah, guess I am." His gaze turned rather shrewd. "what's that stink on ya, huh? Smells awfully like-"

"a bat." Kuronue interrupted smugly as he sauntered into the room.

Youmaru would of answered, but Kuronue came into the room before he could comment more on it. He frowned a bit. Youmaru then smirked a bit, "Inuyasha, this is Kuronue... Kuronue, Inuyasha." He stated simply. He'd know it'd be a bit of an insult, as you introduced the less important person to the more important person first.

The hanyou huffed a bit of laughter at catching that, despite his brashness, and general 'I-don't-give-a-fuck' air, Kagome had been tutoring the village kids and he'd listened in every now and then. "So you're the father of the runt's pup, huh? And here I thought he had better taste in men than that." he teased lightly.

Youmaru only gave a light frown. "I'm not a runt." He stated softly. Heck, he was just about as tall as his father. He decided to ignore the last part. He didn't really choose Kuronue, it just sort of happened.

Kuronue smirked and gave the hanyou a wicked grin, "You my furry eared friend, are probably just jealous it wasn't you~"

Inuyasha froze dead, the blood draining from his face, "You sick bastard, I did not need that image in my head!" Inuyasha roared as he leapt to his feet, intent on tearing the bat a new one for implying such a disgusting thing.

Kuronue only let out a laugh grinning as he put his hands up teetering back and forth from his heels to his toes. "Whoa whoa whoa buddy! Take it easy. You asked for it anyhow with your comment! After all, There's nothing wrong with me." He grinned lightly.

Youmaru growled, sick of this, "Inuyasha, sit down... Kuronue..." He looked over calmly and a deep growl escaped him, "Get out."

Kuronue blinked a few times and rolled his eyes, "I'm going I'm going~" He waved over his shoulder as he turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Youmaru looked to Inuyasha once more. "He doesn't have a filter between his brain and his mouth... And his brain isn't even that good, I apologize for him."

Inuyasha huffed a bit, but sat down again, planting his chin on his fists, "Yeah, well, 's long as he treats ya okay, that's all that matters, runt."

Youmaru blinked, but gave a faint shrug. "It's not like I really picked him." he muttered softly, not knowing the bat was around the corner. Youmaru sighed softly shaking his head as he looked down at his cup of tea. "Mother trusted him to help me out when I needed it."

"Keh... Well, yer mom loves ya, so the bat can't be that bad, I guess." Inuyasha looked away, unable to meet his nephew's eyes for a moment. He wasn't good with this touchy feely crap.

Youmaru blinked but sighed the faintest line of a smile, "Yes, I suppose your right. Neither of them will tell me how they met though."

Inuyasha huffed, amused, "Like that's any surprise, runt? Demons that old, they got their secrets. Even if it's somethin' simple, they want to keep it. Greedy fucks."

Youmaru couldn't help but ask, "you have a guess on how old they are?" Youmaru didn't even know how old his father was let alone his mother or Kuronue for that matter.

Inuyasha smirked, eyes gleaming, "Oh, I know all right. I may not be a full demon, but my nose knows certain things..."

Youmaru watched him for a moment, "And... will you tell me?" he asked a bit bluntly.

The hanyou pondered this, toying with the idea of teasing his nephew some more, especially considering he knew the bat was eavesdropping.

Youmaru seemed to stare at his uncle for a while longer before he sighed looking down. "Figures." he muttered softly. Maybe he shouldn't worry about it.

Inuyasha shrugged, "Well, the bat's at least a thousand." He offered offhandedly.

Youmaru blinked looking up at Inuyasha surprised. "say...what?" the dog-fox was a bit stunned by this bit of news. If he was a thousand... Just how old was his mother? Were they the same age? He was silent for the moment as he looked down at the table.

Inuyasha chuckled lowly as he heard the bat grind his teeth in frustration at having his age revealed, and leave. Serves him right, the bastard. "Ya see, they think they're all high and mighty, with their oh-so-powerful sense of smell and that bull, but ya learn certain things to pick up on. They might not think it, but you can tell how old they are by certain stuff..."

The conversation trailed off as the sullen bat decided to go play 'chaperone' to the two fox kits in the garden instead. That'd be more fun anyhow.

-Scene change-

Youtaira smiled softly as she sat on the bench that was by the roses in the garden. "So what have you been doing for fun these days? It's been awhile since I last got a letter from you."

The dog-vixen smiled warmly as she listened to Shippo explain about the glasses Kagome had been holding for the kids of their village. She was interested to learn what the fox-boy had been up to.

But after awhile, she must admit, she got bored just listening so she grinned cattishly and leaned in giving him a soft peck on his lips to shut him up before she stood. "Why don't we play some sort of game?" she asked with a purr as she looked at him wondering how long it'd take for him to become unstunned.

"A game?" Shippo hummed, emerald eyes lighting from within as he jumped to his feet, tail wagging as he eyed the vixen with a heated look.

"I like games, Youtaira," he cooed, voice dropping in pitch to be a low rumble as he began to circle the lovely hybrid.

Youtaira chuckled purring a bit even as he circled her, "Then why don't you~" She leaned forward a bit, "Try to catch me?" She asked before she leapt back and off to a side with a laugh.

Shippo's laugh echoed around the garden as he fell to all fours, leaping after her and growling playfully like the animal he was. His form rippled for a split second, showing ginger fur and a vulpine face, before Shippo's humanoid shape reasserted itself.

Youtaira was surprised to see the shift she never once saw her mother shift at all, and she could only grin and moved into the garden, weaving between plants.

She only stopped with a yelp as she ran into something-or rather someone.

Kuronue sat up rubbing his head, "Whats the rush little fox?" He muttered watching her.

The bat was left in stunned silence as she only laughed got up and ran around him. He tilted his head, what the he- His thoughts paused as he turned. Oh crap, he moved to keep from getting ran over again.

Shippo cackled as he jumped over the bat, making sure to slap him in the head with his bushy tail as he raced after the fleeing girl, "Run, run, run, as fast as you can~" he chanted in sing song, "I'll still catch you, I'm the gingerbread man!"

Kagome had shared some very interesting stories from her childhood with him and the other villagers, and he'd written down some of them to Youtaira in his letters.

Youtaira laughed with glee enjoying the game of 'catch'.

Kuronue sat there watching them run off and huffed. He was so not going after them. Standing he brushed off his pants from having hit the ground. Stupid fox tails. He let a hand go through his hair as he shook his head. Maybe he should go bother Kurama again...

With a sigh Kuronue decided to not go bother Kurama. He knew the fox wanted time with his friend. Although the bat was a bit annoyed the fox had friends other than him-He was awesome! The fox shouldn't need other friends!

But with a shake of his head he decided to walk around the place. To stay in the fresh air. The faint smell of rain was still heavy around the place since it let up only the day before.

The bat let his wings stretch out before folding against his back neatly as he walked. He usually flew everywhere, but eh, he'd blame the ground-bound dog/fox family he'd been with. Walking was just fine these days. After all it's not like he had to bolt for his life at different sounds around here. Kuronue would never openly admit it but he sort of liked having been 'pulled' into this whole family thing.

He paused in his steps when he heard giggling. That sounded like Kurama's youngest little vixens.

Sneaking forward the bat silently crept closer to the sounds and blinked when he had them in view... What... What were they doing? He decided to just watch.

Ati hummed cheerily as she scooped the mud up and started patting it and rolling it into a circle while Tia picked up the mud spheres and pushed her thumbs into it to start making a cylinder. Once she was happy with the shape, her fingertips glowed green and the mud crackled as it dried.

Tia seemed to purr as she giggled, "Maybe we could put plants in them to make them prettier!" After all they both knew how much mommy loved plants!

Ati nodded emphatically, "Flowers! And leaves. Leaves are pretty." The little vixen bared her white teeth in a wicked grin as she rolled another mud ball, setting it to the side for her twin.

Tia hummed happily getting some flowers and leaves and started putting them into the wet mud before she was happy and green glowing fingers dried it out. Grinning, "Isn't it great Ati?" She asked excitedly.

"Mhm! Mommy will love them!"

Kuronue couldn't help but stare. Trust a kitsune to think of making mud cups by using their inherit poison from their sire's side to dry the make shift clay.

Tia giggled smiling as she hummed a bit decorating the next one. "Maybe we should make plain ones for daddy?"

Kuronue decided to step out of hiding grinning down at the little vixens, "You should make Sake cups." he chuckled, "They'll be easier to use." he smirked at the two twins who seemed to stare up at him for a few moments before exchanging glances then both grinned and nodded. It would be easier to decorate little bowl-cups than cup-cups!

Kuronue chuckled as they went to work on the new shapes and he shook his head, "Make sure you're done and washed up before dinner or your mother may get upset" he called over his shoulder before he headed off again, not needing to hang around since those kits would probably suck him into helping-and he had no intention of letting himself get muddy.

Making his way back inside he sighed pausing there for a moment. He wasn't use to finding someone around the place no matter where he went. He was use to his solitude. Even though he'd never really admit it he didn't mind having everyone around. It was a change, but it wasn't all that bad. Just a bit over whelming at times.

Passing the kitchen he glanced in to find Youmaru and Inuyasha still there. He didn't bother listening in as he passed by, and slapping a grin on his face he literally hopped over the couch and plopped himself between Kurama and Kagome. Grinning like a cat that got the canary and still got milk from its owner. He was sort of sitting on Kurama's lap, since he didn't want to hurt the pregnant woman. "Missed me~?" he asked playfully.

Youko grunted and slid further away to get the bat off his lap-even though Kuronue was only half on it he didn't want him there. "Oh.. of course."

Kagome giggled behind her hand as she gestured towards the little table littered with small snacks, "Care to join us for our pre-dinner meal, Kuronue-kun?"

Kuronue gave Kurama a grin then looked to Kagome and smiled warmly, "Why thank you lovely lady, I'd be delighted~" He smiled warmly, tilting his head he had to ask, "So~...How did you meet Kurama?" Kuronue quietly picked up something to munch on, hey he was hungry.

"Oh, well..." Kagome hummed in thought, wondering how much Kuronue knew of her, "I was in a sticky situation, and he helped me out."

Kuronue rose a brow and glanced to Kurama, "Aw fox, have you rubbed off on her? That was obviously vague."

Youko chuckled shaking his head, "Its up to her if she wants to share or not with you silly bat."

Kuronue gave a pout before he chuckled, "fine fine~ I won't press it for now." He smiled softly, "Although.. Kagome all sticky is a nice mental im-hck"

Kuronue glared at the fox who had slapped the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"You damn well know. She has a mate you stupid bat." Youko replied with a slight glare, but he was smirking.

Kuronue grumbled rubbing the back of his head as if it had really hurt. "Kurama's so violent! That dog mate of yours has rubbed off on you."

Youko huffed, but decided to ignore his statement, and gave Kagome a smile, "just ignore him, eventually he'll either figure out to shut up or wander off to bug someone else." He stated softly.

Kuronue gave a look of shock. "How cruel have you become Kurama!?" He soon chuckled shaking his head. One leg crossed over the other. "So~ What do you two hens want to cluck about? I'm bored~"

Kagome hid another smile behind her hand, eyes crinkling, "And here I thought -my- dog was the violent one, Kurama." Looking to Kuronue, her head tilted to the side, "I haven't seen many bat demons, and they were all in a colony. I didn't think bats were loners..?"

"What, and miss the company of my little fox here?" Kuronue laughed it off as he attached himself to Kurama, draping his arms around the kitsune's shoulders.

Youko groaned, "Get off of me ya over grown leech." He stated while attempting to shove Kuronue away as he scootched a bit further away to get more distance between him and the bat.

Kuronue only gave a laugh but let himself get detached from Kurama. He then gave Kagome a grin as he leaned towards her a bit, "So, if you don't mind my asking, Are you hoping for a boy or girl?" he asked curious, just something to fill the silence with, he really didn't care, but meh.

Kagome hummed in thought as she rested a hand on her stomach, "Well... I dunno. I don't think Inuyasha would know how to raise a girl, but I've already had experience with a boy from Shippo. I guess I want a daughter first." A somewhat evil expression lit her face, "or all girls, that would be nice. The poor boys, outnumbered."

Kuronue chuckled softly, "then perhaps you should mimic what foxy here did, after all three of his four have been girls~"

Youko rose a brow, "I didn't do anything special that I didn't do when I carried Youmaru Kuronue, it doesn't work that way."

Kagome winked slyly at Kurama, "At least, that's what we let the men believe."

Youko blinked a few times, well he honestly hadn't done anything different but chuckled softly. "The only difference I had noticed was Youmaru beat me up more." He stated with a soft chuckle. Even the twins hadn't kicked him as much as Youmaru had.

Kuronue chuckled softly but leaned back a bit more into the couch. "So... uhm." he paused for a moment, he really didn't know what to talk to these two about. Before when it was just him and Kurama, they would talk about their next heist. Where they were going to hit, who, and what they were after. But here and now, Kuronue that was not a subject of choice. Kurama's mate would probably kill the fox for even thinking about taking up thieving again. As entertaining that might be, the bat knew better.

Youko rose a brow watching Kuronue, not sure what was going through that head of his. But he smiled a bit, "Well, Kagome, why don't you tell me more about this... School set up you have for the children in your village?" he asked curiously.

Kuronue groaned, "I'm out!" he stood and left the room. No way he was listening to anything learning related. It was dull and boring to hell. Retreating from the room he didn't catch Kurama's smirk.

Kuronue wandered the halls for a bit, before boredom brought him back to the kitchen. He poked his head around the corner and nearly groaned. They were still here. Granted they didn't seem to be saying much. But the bat shrugged and entered the kitchen going over to get some tea. He held the cup and glanced over to the two. Inuyasha seemed to have been watching him, but was making it look like he wasn't. While Youmaru was not even paying him much mind.

But what the bat noticed was that Youmaru was rubbing his side. Was he all right? The bat couldn't help but wonder, but he knew better than to ask. Not wanting to anger Youmaru, or get that half-demon spit-fire wanting to maul him again.

Not like Youmaru would ever tell him. With a shake of his head Kuronue left the room with his tea.

-End Chapter thirteen-

As always, reviews are loved!