I\'m a father?

Title: I’m a father?

Subtitle: Captain’s privilege

Author: Lady Snowblossom

Pairs: Rei/Bryan, Kai/Tala, Spencer/Ian, Tyson/Max and various other pairings

Note: Lee takes Kai for a walk and fills him in on Rei’s condition. Kai exercises captain’s privilege and places Rei on reserve status.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I just checked my bank account, still can’t afford to buy the show.


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Rei’s mouth snapped shut after his involuntary cry. He shivered slightly as his mind whirled with a thousand thoughts that all demanded his attention at once. Did Kai mean ‘kitten’ the way Lee meant it, or did he think its’ a ‘kitten’, as in baby cat? Why was he here in the first place? How was he going to find out without giving anything away?

Unaware of Rei’s inner turmoil, Lee glared at his fellow captain and snarled, “You jerk! What the hell were you doing in the kitchen!”

Causally, Kai leaned against the doorframe before crossing his arms, the smirk still firmly in place. “I was walking up the lane, when I heard yelling behind the house, so I jogged around the building, found the yard empty and the back door open; so I walked on in.”

“Well, shit! Yell the next time, will you! I think you scared Rei and I out of our next ten year’s growth!” Lee growled, baring his fangs at the other captain. Kai’s smirk just got deeper. Giving Kai a disgusted look, Lee turned to see about Rei.

Ignoring the by-play between the two captains, Rei sighed, his thoughts were chasing their tails and he was developing a massive headache from trying to figure out what to do. Closing his eyes, he reached up and began to rub his temple and immediately felt an arm around his waist.

“Rei?”

Behind Lee, Kai straightened up from the doorframe, his gaze sharpening.

Without opening his eyes, Rei mumbled, “headache, could you please stop shouting.” Lee was instantly contrite; “I’m sorry. Here, why don’t you sit down till Dr. Chiao gets here.” Lee started to pick Rei up, when a hastily mumbled, “notinfrontofKai” reached his ears. “All right, you donkey! But, I think if your trying to hide the fact something’s wrong - you’re way too late. Uff!” Lee grunted as Kai shoved him aside, a scowl on his face.

Rei’s eyes opened just as a hand gripped his chin and he found himself looking into a darkening crimson storm. Then the blazing eyes dipped for a moment and he was leaving the ground. “Which way is the bedroom?” The low growl had Lee leading the way toward a red stained wood door. “Kai, put me down! I don’t want to go to the bedroom!” Rei protested, but his words fell on deaf ears, as the Russian didn’t pause in his determined strides.

Hurrying ahead of the pair, Lee opened the bedroom door and stood aside as Kai with his burden swept passed him. The room was as sparsely appointed as the main room. A simple bed of red painted local wood stood in the center of the room. On the floor at one side of the bed was a round braided rug in blue and yellow. A single table with a candlestick stood at the head of the bed. The final piece of furniture in the room was a plain natural wood dresser supporting an oval mirror. The walls were white with a single window facing south.

The bed was covered with a white duvet and a couple of yellow pillows rested against the headboard. Kai strode to the side of the bed and deposited Rei on top of the coverings. Scowling, Lee came to a halt at the foot of the bed.

“Guys, this isn’t necessary! All I’ve got is a headache!” Rei complained as he tried to get up only to be pushed back by his captain, who glared down at his errant teammate. “Lee wouldn’t call in a doctor, if all you had was a headache.” Kai said quietly. “So, you are going to stay in bed until the doctor comes.” Rei opened his mouth, but Kai just shook his head, “No Rei, I don’t want to hear it. Obviously, something is going on here that I don’t know about, but I’m willing – for now – to trust Lee’s judgement.”

Rei growled, but knew Kai was in Captain mode and he wasn’t about to get around him, so he looked to the foot of the bed for help, only to find Lee smirking triumphantly at him. “Fine.” The tiger said with ill grace and rolled over and proceeded to ignore the other two boys.

“You know, Rei.” Lee said quietly as he reached over the footboard to strip Rei of his shoes. Tossing the footwear into a corner, the White Tiger looked at the sulking youth. “You remind me of mom. When she was . . .”

“Knock! Knock!”

Lee paused and looked at Kai, who flicked a look at him. “That must be Dr. Chiao. I’ll just go and escort him in here, then you and I are going for a walk and have a talk.”

At his words, Rei rolled back, a wild look in his eyes and he sat up. “Lee, no!” Looking back at the desperate boy, Lee sighed. “Rei, Kai is your captain and he needs to know everything that will affect his team and this does. You were in his shoes once,” Lee said sternly, “tell me, if your positions were reversed: wouldn’t you want to know?” As Rei paled, Lee turned to go let the doctor in.

Stunned, Rei slowly sank back down against the pillow; Lee’s words had hit hard. He had become so used to being a team member; he’d forgotten what it was like to be a captain and the responsibilities that entailed. “Oh, god!” He whispered. He looked up at Kai and reached for the Russian, Kai extended his hand and Rei gripped it. “Kai, I’m sorry! Lee’s right, you do need to know! I’m . . .”

“How are you feeling, Rei?” A wizen old neko-jin stepped through the door and stopped when he spotted the slate-haired Russian standing at the bedside. His sharp onyx eyes took in the joined hands of the pair of boys and he smiled cheerfully. “So, you must be the sire. I can see why Rei chose you. You certainly are a fine looking boy.”

“Dr. Chiao!” Lee broke in hastily, ”he isn’t who you think he is! This is Hiwatari, Kai; captain of the Bladebreakers, Rei’s team! He’s here for a visit.”

“Oh.” The old man blinked and turned to look at Lee. “You mean, he’s not the sire? Then why is he holding Rei’s hand?”

Mortified beyond belief, Rei released Kai’s hand like it had burned him and curled into a ball, all the while wishing the ground would just open up and swallow him – bed and all.

Kai stared open mouthed at the old man. One thought ran circles in his mind. ‘Sire? Sire of what?’

‘What a mess!’ Lee groaned inwardly even as he moved to try and salvage the situation. “Dr. Chiao, I’m sure you’d like to examine Rei in private, so Kai and I will leave and let you get on with it.” He looked at Kai and jerked his head toward the door. Kai nodded and reaching down he gave Rei’s shoulder a squeeze before following the White Tiger captain from the room.

The old man watched the two boys leave, then he turned and walked to the bed. He looked down at the tight little ball of a teenage neko-jin and tapped Rei on the shoulder. As Rei slowly uncurled and rolled onto his back, the old man chuckled softly, “well, young Rei, if your captain isn’t the sire of your baby. I can’t wait to meet the real sire; he must be something else!” Without waiting for an answer, he continued briskly, “Let’s get started, shall we?”

‘Yeah, he is.’ Rei thought, as at Dr. Chiao’s direction, he pulled his tunic up to bare his abdomen to the old man’s probing fingers.

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Lee led Kai straight through the room and out the front door. The pair hopped off the porch and walked down the lane in silence. Around them the village buzzed with activity. A party of hunters who had gone out early that morning were returning laden with a couple of wild pigs, they’d slain somewhere in the depths of the surrounding woods. A couple of small children were dragging a basket behind them while they searched for feathers the geese had dropped and a pair of young girls smiled shyly at Lee and the stranger at his side, as they hung up some washing.

When Lee stopped to pat the nose of an inquisitive calf, Kai broke the silence. “Lee, what did he mean by sire?”

Lee sighed and turned to face the Russian. “He thought you were Bryan. Rei is pregnant.”

Kai, for one of the few times in his life that wasn’t intentional was speechless. All he could do was stare.

Lee ignored the bug-eyed look and continued to calmly explain, “think of it this way, Kai, neko-jin males are both male and female. Those who are bi-sexual or gay run the same risk any female does when she has sex. Sleep with her often enough and unless you use protection there’s a good chance she’s gonna get pregnant. Bryan just caught Rei at the right or wrong time, depending on how you look at it.”

“Why didn’t Rei tell Bryan this?” Kai demanded angrily, as he finally found his voice.

Lee shrugged, “ask Rei. I’d be willing to bet, he’d never even thought about it. Damn it, Kai! He’s a sixteen-year-old boy with a lover; who as I remember he can’t keep his hands off of!” Lee eyed Kai with a glint of amusement shining through. “And I’m also willing to bet that part of what’s got your tail in a twist is he didn’t tell YOU about this little quirk of our species – isn’t that right.”

Kai walked to the fence around the pen and leaned on the top rail. His mind raced, as he watched the calf gambol about trying to catch a butterfly. Lee leaned his back against the same rail and rested his folded forearms on it. Again silence fell among the pair of boys, as Lee waited for Kai to work his way through the thorny problem, he’d suddenly had tossed onto his lap.

“So,” Kai said finally. “Rei is carrying Bryan’s baby and they aren’t speaking to each other. And we’ve got a tournament coming up that he’s going to be at.”

“That’s so.” Lee agreed, turning so that he was facing in the same direction as Kai. “Rei and I thought that he’d announce that he was semi-retiring for health reasons. That way he won’t have to face Bryan.”

“No,” Kai said slowly, “I want Rei where I can keep an eye on him. I’m guessing neko-jin’s are pregnant for nine months?”

“Almost.”

“So, if Rei is only say, six weeks or so, by next month, he still isn’t going to be showing much.”

“Your point is?”

“My point is; if I put Rei on the reserve list, he’ll still be able to attend the matches; but he won’t have to spin.”

Lee grinned wolfishly and clapped a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “He’s gonna fight you on that one, I hope you realize.”

Kai smirked, “I know, but he’ll see things my way, because I have-thanks to you-an ace up my sleeve.”

“What?” Lee asked puzzled.

“He either gives in or I tell Bryan.”

“Kai, remind me to never get on your bad side.” Lee said slowly, “but tell me, aren’t you gonna try to get them back together?”

“No, WE are going to get them back together.”

“WE?”

“Yes, how would you and the other White Tigers like to attend the tournament as my guests? I’ll contact Mr. D. and have him make housing arrangements and then when you get to the States, we can get to work on getting those two back together.”

“I’ll have ask the elders, but it shouldn’t be a problem.” Lee frowned, “actually, there is a problem. We won’t be able to tell Mariah or Kevin about the baby. Mariah would try to kill Bryan and Kevin would start a rumor that would have Bryan murdering Rei in his sleep; despite the fact, Rei was walking around – looking as healthy as a horse! At least, Gary wouldn’t say anything.”

Kai grinned and pushed away from the railing and began to wipe off some dirt from his shirt. “That’s settled then. If there isn’t anything else, we better head back and see what the doctor has to say.”

“Actually, there is a couple of things. Are you going to involve Tala? And why were you here in the first place?” Lee asked as he straightened up.

Kai looked thoughtfully off into the distance. “Yes, we might need him at some point and as for why I’m here. I guess Mr. D’s letter never made it.”

“Mail only comes a couple of times a month.” Lee said quietly, “and the next delivery isn’t until next week.”

Kai nodded, “Mr. D. has acquired a house for us to use, while we’re in America and the lease was for two months, so he wants us to use the time to train. And since I had to be in China on Biovolt business, it was decided that I’d just pick up Rei and we’d fly straight on to America. Tyson’s grandfather is taking Max, Kenny and Tyson on ahead, we’ll all meet up in New York.”

Lee nodded, “all right, I’ll talk to Grandfather and get him to approve our traveling to America, and you talk to Mr. Dickenson. And if all goes well, we’ll see you in the United States in say, a month? Then we can start working on getting Rei and Bryan back together.”

“Fine.” Kai extended his hand and Lee gripped it. The two partners in crime shook hands-sealing the bargain.

When they released hands, Lee looked up at the sun. It was high over head and he lowered his eyes and began to lead the way to Rei’s house. “We better get going, its’ lunchtime and if we don’t hurry, we might miss Dr. Chiao and I don’t trust Rei to tell us what he said!” He picked up the pace and soon both boys were jogging along, kicking up little puffs of dust as they headed towards the little white house and its wayward occupant.

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Dr. Chiao pulled Rei’s tunic down and eyed the raven-haired youth with a paternal eye. “Well young one, I don’t feel anything wrong, and like I said yesterday-get plenty of rest-and as for food, just eat whatever you can handle. There’s no reason to make yourself sick by trying to eat when you don’t want to.”

“I wish you’d tell Lee that! This morning he tried to force me to eat more at breakfast, despite the fact I told him it would make me sick!” Rei said petulantly, as he sat up and adjusted his tunic to a more comfortable position.

“Well, young Lee is a very serious fellow. But, I’ll have a few words with him and see if I can’t straighten him out for you. In the meantime, I’m going to give you some pills that I want you to take when you travel; they’ll help with the nausea. Though, if you follow the usual pattern you should be over morning sickness in another four to six weeks.” The old man reached into the pocket of his blue jacket and pulled out a bottle, which he handed to Rei. At the sound of the front door opening, Rei looked toward the bedroom door, while the doctor turned to face it.

The door closed and there came the heavy tread of footsteps, then Kai and Lee appeared in the doorway, out of breath and eager for news. “Well doctor, is he gonna live?” Lee asked with a smirk at Rei, who glared back at him.

“That was never in doubt.” Dr. Chiao answered as he bowed slightly to Rei and then turned to gaze at the other pair in the room. The old man bowed to Kai and said pleasantly, “a pleasure to meet you, young Kai.” Kai bowed his acknowledgement. The old neko-jin tilted his head at the lion at the phoenix’s side, “Lee, I want to talk to you. Please walk me to the door.”

“Of course.” He turned to Kai and said, “why don’t you stay here and tell Rei what you’ve decided about the tournament. I’ll be back shortly.” He followed the doctor out of the room.

Rei eyed his captain suspiciously. “Just what did he mean, you decided.”

Kai told him.

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“OVER MY DEAD BODY!”

Lee was just closing the door, when he heard the outraged roar. He turned and stared open-mouthed as Kai rushed out of the bedroom: the candleholder flying after him. Rei, eyes blazing appeared in the doorway with both shoes in his hands. The enraged tiger flung the shoes-one after the other-at his friend, who had his hands up to protect his head.

“Take that!” Rei shouted as his shoes struck their target. “Put me on the reserve list! I’ll reserve you!”

The furious tiger looked around for something else to throw, when nothing came to hand, he snarled and retreated to his bedroom and slammed the door.

“Hn. That went well.” Kai deadpanned.

Lee collapsed laughing.

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Guess what? It’s number four and we’re going strong! Does happy dance.

Kai: I do not act like that.

I know. Will it help that later on, you get to be nasty to poor Bryan?

Kai: He isn’t poor.

Define the word.

Kai: ?

Never mind. It would take too long to explain. Anyway, I have to go think.

Kai: Something that’s extremely hard for you.

That did it! Just as soon as I can figure out a plausible story line, I’m marrying you to Johnny!

Johnny: I was just elected Pope!

Not a chance, Buster! You and the slate haired wonder have a date with a preacher!

Johnny choking Kai: Now, look at what you’ve done!

Killing him won’t help. I’m an authoress and I have the powers of God. I’ll just resurrect him.

Johnny: Damn!