An Idiot's Guide to Ectopic Birth

Sengoku lingered outside the door of the apartment building, scared shitless. He knew he should knock on the door. . . but he really didn't want to. It's okay, he told himself, Akutsu was probably calmed down by now. It had been a few days since he had seen Sengoku hitting on Kirihara. He was probably fine.

Sengoku raised his hand to knock on the door. Then lowered it again. Maybe he could come say hello tomorrow. Akutsu would be mad at him for not coming sooner, especially since Sengoku knew Akutsu was back home, but one day probably wouldn't make a difference.

Mind resolved, Sengoku was about to turn away when the door opened.

"Che," came Akutsu's harsh voice, his head turned back towards the interior of the apartment, "just shut up about it, I'll be back soon."

Then Akutsu turned, looking down at Sengoku with eyes that spiraled from surprised to angry in a matter of moments.

"Bastard!" he shouted.

Sengoku would have said something, except that his attention was focused on some unexpected details. One, Akutsu was snapping bubble gum, instead of smoking a cigarette. Two, Akutsu had a baby sling slung over his chest. And three, there was a baby hyena in that sling, a bubble of snot coming out of its nose as it slept.

If he had been paying attention, he also would have noticed that Akutsu was very, very mad. In that case, maybe he would have dodged the left hook that Akutsu sent flying away. Unfortunately, he didn't, and soon found himself crumpling against the apartment railing as he blacked out.

"Kiyusumi? Kiyosumi, are you okay?"

Sengoku blinked open his eyes to see Akutsu's mother staring down at him. He was laying on the couch in their living room as Yuuki pressed a frozen chicken cutlet to the side of his face.

"Hey, Yuuki. You look as beautiful as always."

"I see you haven't changed."

Sengoku took the chicken from Yuuki's hand as he sat up, fighting the wave of dizziness that rushed through his head. After it had cleared he looked around the small apartment. Akutsu and Yuuki had never been particularly clean, but Yuuki did her best to keep it in presentable shape. Now though, they was clutter scattered all over the floor, toys and diapers and baby bottles.

"Don't worry about Jin," Yuuki said, smiling at him, "now that he's gotten a good punch in, he probably won't be mad at you when he comes back."

But Sengoku's head was focused only on one thing. The baby hyena. A hyena, just like Akutsu.

"Yuuki," Sengoku said, a feeling of dread rising up in his stomach, "did you have another baby?"

Yuuki laughed at that, a lighthearted sound that only scared Sengoku even more. "You're so silly, that's Jin's baby."

"Who. . . who's the father?"

Yuuki blinked at him, bewildered. "Didn't Jin tell you? It's yours, of course."

Sengoku passed out again.

When he came to a second time he was on the floor. The couch was pulled out into a bed, and there was a ball of fur rolled up in the middle. Sengoku crept closer, not really believing it was there. It was curled up, its legs and tails tucked in towards its stomach, eyes pressed closed. Its chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm, and it looked so tiny Sengoku was afraid to touch it.

"At this point," Yuuki said, coming out of her bedroom, "she really just sleeps all the time."

"She?" Sengoku turned back to the baby. She. His daughter. It seemed like such an abstract concept. Sengoku looked up, watching as Yuuki sat down on the love seat. He realized that there were sounds from the kitchen, and looked over to find Akutsu chopping vegetables. Which wasn't entirely surprising. . . Akutsu had never been a model son, but he always tried to have dinner ready for when Yuuki came back from work. At least, on those few nights when she wasn't pulling a late-night double shift somewhere.

Akutsu looked angry. But, then again, Akutsu always looked angry.

"I never thought," Yuuki said, watching the baby sleep, "that Jin would end up following in my footsteps."

"It's not like I tried to get pregnant," Akutsu bit out.

Which brought Sengoku to another topic. "How did this happen?"

"I'm thinking it happened when we had sex," Akutsu muttered, throwing the vegetables into a wok.

"No, but. . ."

But then Akutsu stomped over to his bag, grabbing a box and throwing it at Sengoku's face. "Remember these?"

Sengoku looked down at the small cardboard box in his hands. The condoms he had bought before? Madararui were generally resistant to stds, so most of them didn't bother unless pregnancy was in issue. But Akutsu had insisted, what with Sengoku's reputation, and the redhead had run to the nearest madararui-affiliated convenience store to grab a box.

He looked at the box, reading it for the first time. "New Product. . . MalexMale Special Condom. . . Parasite in the Tip. . . Super Permeable. . . Super Lubed. . . Super Ribbed For His Pleasure."

Sengoku turned pale. This looked like. . . a condom especially made for getting pregnant. "Parasite. . . in the tip? What the hell? Do these things actually exist?"

"Well," Yuuki said, "they're still experimental. And most of the time they don't even work. After all, it usually takes time for a parasite to latch on."

"I guess we're just lucky," Akutsu said, glaring at Sengoku as he all but spit out the last word.

"When do you find out?" Sengoku asked, making his way to the kitchen.

"Dinner's ready," Akutsu said, more to his mother than any one else. Then he turned to Sengoku. "You. Outside."

As soon as they were outside Akutsu went to lean against the wall, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and slipping it between his lips.

"Should you be doing that?" Sengoku asked, coming to rest against the railing in front of him.

Akutsu shrugged as he lit it up. "I'm not pregnant, and I'm not near the baby."

"Still. . ."

Akutsu ignored him, though, and took a few drags on his cigarette. After awhile he seemed a little bit calmer, a little bit more relaxed. "I found out when I was abroad. So I decided to have Hitomi over there before I came back."

"Hitomi. . ." so his daughter's name was Hitomi. This was all too surreal. Yesterday Sengoku was just a normal student, and now. . . what, was he a father? Out of nowhere? "You had the baby by yourself?"

Akutsu shrugged again. "No. Once Yuuki found out I was knocked up, she let my dad know. Can you believe it? She always told me she didn't know who he was, and now all of a sudden he's some no-talent would-be artist living in San Diego. A few miles away from me. Like she couldn't have told me when I went over there."

"Your dad." To tell the truth, Sengoku hadn't known much about Akutsu's life. Although it seemed as though Akutsu didn't either. All Sengoku knew was that Yuuki was always working at least two jobs, and Akutsu had a lot of time to spend by himself. Sengoku would show up, sometimes, late at night when he knew Yuuki would be working some midnight shift. Akutsu was hard to find during the day, off doing God knew what. But Akutsu was always there at night, on that fold-out couch that he called his bedroom, flipping through channels on their small television. Nothing to watch, but nothing else to do, no one else to talk to. And he had always let Sengoku in, always, even if it was just to watch television together. "What's he like?"

"He's an idiot. He can barely speak Japanese, despite living here a year. But, you know. . ." Akutsu looked away, eyes darker somehow. ". . . he probably would have been a good dad. Can you believe she never told him about me?"

Sengoku took a deep breath. "So, what? Are you and Hitomi just staying on Yuuki's couch now?"

Akutsu turned back to glare at Sengoku. "You think I have somewhere else to go? Look, I can take care of Hitomi on my own. We're going to be fine, just like Yuuki and me were, so don't feel like you have to do the noble thing just because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants. Besides, you and me both know that you're just not that kind of guy."

"Akutsu. . ."

But Akutsu was already stamping out his cigarette and making his way inside, slamming the door on Sengoku's face. Sengoku knocked on the door, than banged, only stopping when the neighbors started shouting at him to shut up. At any rate, it didn't seem like Akutsu was going to open the door. He sighed and turned, heading home.

But as much as Sengoku had tried to continue the conversation, he couldn't help that Akutsu was right about him. He wasn't a noble guy. He tended to run away from trouble, and rarely stuck things out when they got difficult. Even when he learned that he had a kid, the first things he thought about were how the thing was going to affect his studies, how it would affect his dating.

Sengoku felt almost ashamed of himself, thinking about what Akutsu must have been going through these past few months. Doing it on his own, huh? Sengoku figured he probably didn't know any other way to do things.

Well, whatever. Sengoku would think about it tomorrow.

* * *

Sengoku was never what anyone would call a good student, but that day in school he was even more distracted than usual. When he was in class, his eyes stayed focused on Akutsu's seat, still empty after all these months. And every time he was in the hallway, the cafeteria, or any other public area, his eyes would scan the crowds for bleached grey hair, waiting for Akutsu to come to school late.

By the end of the day he still hadn't seen Akutsu. Somewhat disappointed, Sengoku made his way to Banda's classroom. There wasn't any tennis practice any more, not for the third years, and the lower classmen wouldn't start practicing again until next week, so that was the most logical place to find the old man. Sure enough, Banda was in there, talking to some second year about some math problem. Sengoku took a seat near the back of the room and waited, watching the soccer team through the window as they started up the fall season. It was nice, he thought. . . to be at the beginning, and not the end.

Soon enough Banda was finished with his student, and came over to lean against the desk in front of Sengoku's.

"Is there something you needed, Sengoku?"

"Yeah," Sengoku replied, balancing his head on a hand as he leaned forward on the desk. "Do you know where Akutsu is?"

"Hmm? Isn't he in America?"

"He came back," Sengoku replied, watching as Banda's smile faltered. "I thought he'd be back in school, but he hasn't come to class since he's been back."

"That kid." Banda sighed, his gaze falling out the window. "I haven't heard anything from him. As far as I know, he hasn't re-enrolled in this school."

"Oh. Okay, well. . . thanks anyway."

"I thought he was serious about training in America," Banda said, his usual smile now a frown. "What could have made him quit?"

Getting pregnant, Sengoku thought, though he wasn't about to say that. Some vague sense of guilt tugged at him as he got up, saying goodbye t
to Banda and leaving.

So Akutsu had quit tennis in America, and it seemed as though he had no plans to come back to school here in Japan. Sengoku guessed it shouldn't really surprise him, but he found himself making his way back to Akutsu's apartment nonetheless.

Once he was there, Sengoku knocked on the door a few times, but no one answered. He made his way to the window, looking in to see the same cluttered mess, sunlight and shadow filtering over them through the window shades. So no one was home. He got up, about to go when the door next door opened.

"Jin?"

Sengoku looked up to see a middle-aged woman looking at him, her expression going from hopeful to disappointed in a few seconds.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you looking for the Akutsus?"

"Umm. . . yeah, but that's okay. I can come back some other time."

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "You wouldn't happen to be Sengoku, would you?"

"Maybe," Sengoku replied, wondering if he should just lie and say no.

"In that case," the woman said, "you should take your kid. I have to watch my own, you know, it's too unfair to ask me to watch yours when you've got nothing better to do then wait around for Jin anyway."

"What?" Sengoku asked, but the woman disappeared inside her apartment. She reappeared a moment later to shove a large bag and a ball of fur into Sengoku's arms. "Wait a min-"

But she was already slamming the door, leaving Sengoku dumbfounded on the balcony. He was all too aware of the living breathing thing balanced a little too precariously on his arm, still asleep despite all that ruckus. He must have stood there, frozen, for a few minutes.

Sengoku lifted Hitomi to his face, both hands wrapped around her body. She dangled in front of him, limp and breathing deeply. What exactly, Sengoku thought, was he supposed to do? He reached for his cell phone, about to call his sister, when he realized he still hadn't yet told his family about the fact that he had knocked someone up. Well. . . maybe he'd hold off on that for now. He had to tell them in person, at least. Besides, how hard would it be to take care of a baby that was always sleeping?

Sengoku was halfway home when he heard it. It started out as a sniffle, but then it was a little sob, then a full on wail. Sengoku froze as every one on the street stopped the stare at him. He held Hitomi up in front of him, bouncing her up and down a little as her mouth gaped open in large, loud cries.

"Shh," he said, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt. "Shh, it's okay, Daddy's here."

Maybe he should try rocking her? He held her to his chest and rocked her awkwardly for a bit, to no avail.

"Come on, Hitomi, stop crying for Daddy."

The people in the crowd were whispering now. Probably about how young he was to have a kid, Sengoku thought, or maybe about how he was such an awful dad that he couldn't keep his kid from crying. He sped up his pace, rocking her as best he could as he made his way through the streets. Her cries were almost screams now, and he was really getting worried when he felt someone's hand on his arm.

"Sengoku," came Kirihara's voice. "Is that your baby?"

Sengoku turned around, surprised when Kirihara took the baby out of his arms and started cooing at it.

"Aren't you cute," Kirihara said, a huge grin on his face as he made strange faces at the baby. Hitomi's eyes were still mostly shut, so Sengoku debated whether or not she could see him, but he was relieved when her cries started to die down. She was mewing at Kirihara now, her little paws swatting at his face.

"You," Sengoku said, letting out a breath, "you're pretty good with kids."

"It's because I baby-sit Marui-senpai's brothers with him all the time."

"And because he is one himself," came a voice, and Sengoku looked up to see Sanada standing there. Sanada looked as cross as always, but there was a softness in his eyes as he looked down at Hitomi.

"Sanada-fukubuchou," Kirihara cooed, "isn't she cute?"

Kirihara held her up, and Sanada couldn't resist reaching out to pet her cheek. . . only to have her glomp down, hard, on his hand.

"Mother fu. . ." Sanada yanked his hand away and pulled it to his chest, biting his cheeks to keep from cursing in front of the baby. Sengoku chuckled nervously as he grinned at Sanada.

"Sorry," Sengoku said, "I guess he takes after his mother."

"And who might that be?" Sanada asked.

"Akutsu," Sengoku answered. "Akutsu Jin."

There was silence as Sanada and Kirihara stared at him.

"No way," Kirihara finally said. "Well, whatever. You know she needs to be changed, right?"

"Eh?" Senogoku stared at him blankly, prompting Kirihara to frown and sigh.

"Seriously, you have to have diapers, right?"

"Well, I have this bag," Sengoku said, holding up the large duffel (diaper?) bag that Akutsu's neighbor had given him.

The three of them walked to the tiny park area nearby. Under Kirihara's directions, he took off his jacket and placed in on the grass, and Kirihara put the baby down on top of it.

"I hope that doesn't leave grass stains," Sengoku said, eyeing his crisp white uniform jacket.

Kirihara raised an eyebrow as he removed the diaper. "Yeah. I don't think that's what you need to be worrying about."

Sengoku cringed as Kirihara opened the madararui-formulated diaper, revealing the brown and yellow mess inside. The smell struck him in one blow, and Sengoku felt himself leaning back and away. Kirihara gave him a funny look.

"You're not doing a great job as a dad, you know."

"Give me a break," Sengoku protested, "I didn't find out I even had a kid until yesterday. I'm not even supposed to be watching it right now."

"She," Sanada corrected. "She's not an it."

He watched as Sanada handed Kirihara baby wipes and a new diaper, thinking that for two such mentally unstable people, they were doing a pretty good job with this kid. After he was done changing Hitomi Kirihara started playing with her, grabbing at her legs and tail and making noises at her. She waved her appendages obediently, not able to do much more than that and gurgle.

"Sanada-fukubuchou," Kirihara said, looking up at Sanada, "do you think your baby with Atobe's going to be this cute?"

"No. He'll probably look like Atobe."

Kirihara snickered at that. "That's what you say, but. . . secretly, you really like babies."

"Maybe that's why I like you," Sanada said, his voice almost teasing, "you're always acting like one."

Sengoku was about to gag.

"Since when," he interrupted, "were you two so lovey-dovey? Give me back my baby."

He pulled Hitomi off the jacket and into his arms, surprised when she made a strange gooing noise. He looked down. Her eyes were open all the way now, a beautiful golden amber color with flecks of green scattered in them. She cooed at him, on tiny paw gripping onto his shirt, and Sengoku's breath caught.

This was his daughter. For the first time, the thought was concrete and tangible in his mind. His baby.

"We should go anyway," Sanada said. "We still have some shopping to do."

"Oh, yeah."

Both boys got up and started brushing grass off their clothes.

"Are you going to be okay?" Kirihara asked.

"Yeah," Sengoku replied, a finger going to brush against Hitomi's cheek. "We'll be fine."

Several minutes after Kirihara and Sanada left Sengoku got up himself. Hitomi was asleep again, and he was able to pick up his jacket and the bag without waking her up. He made his way home, dreading how his parents and sister were going to react. He finally got to his door, stealing a breath before pushing it open.

"I'm home," he called.

"Welcome home," came three voices, staggered and on top of each other, all coming from the kitchen area. Sengoku made his way there to stand in the doorway. His mother was boiling noodles, her sister was highlighting one of her college textbooks, and his father was reading the newspaper. They hadn't looked up to acknowledge him yet, so he took a deep breath before spitting everything out.

"Every one," he said, "I got some one pregnant."

His sister looked up at him. "Kiyo, you are such a slut."

His mother sighed. "Well, it was bound to happen one of these days."

His father kept reading his newspaper. "I hope you plan on taking responsibility."

But a few minutes later all three of them were around the baby, cooing and petting it. Sengoku was more than happy to take advantage of his family's enthusiasm for the new addition to their family, and he slipped away as his mother took Hitomi from his arms. Making his way back into the hallway, he found a place to lean against it as he dialed Akutsu's phone number.

"What is it," Akutsu muttered when he picked up. "I'm at work."

"I just wanted to let you know that Hitomi's at my house." Sengoku could hear Akutsu shouting something about taking a break to some one on his side of the phone, and then there was clattering and jostling. Finally, things were relatively quiet, and Akutsu turned his attention back to Sengoku.

"Why the fuck do you have her?" Akutsu asked.

"Nuh uh. If I tell you, you'll just hang up, and I want to talk to you for a little bit."

"Fine. Just make it fast."

"Why weren't you at school today?" Sengoku asked.

"You think I have time to go to school now? Diapers are expensive. I have to work, idiot. Kawamura's old man gave me a job at his sushi place."

"Look, I can get a part-time job," Sengoku said. "You can come back to school, we can do it if we're both working part-time."

"Che. School's not my thing anyway. It's better this way."

"Well, I can still get a part-time job. There's no reason for you to do this yourself."

"I'm -"

"She's my daughter too, Akutsu," Sengoku said, already decided. When Akutsu didn't answer he decided to go on. "You know you can't have your neighbor watch her everyday, it's too much of an imposition. My mom doesn't work, she can help out when we're both busy. And you and Hitomi shouldn't be sleeping on a fold-out couch. My parents will help out if we want to get an apartment together-"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Akutsu interrupted, sounding a little angry. "Move in together? Don't be so soft. Just because we have a baby doesn't mean we're a couple."

"Fine. Whatever. Just. . . just, I think, we should be making decisions together, when in comes to Hitomi. You can't just cut me out of her life."

Akutsu was silent for so long Sengoku wasn't sure if he should say something more.

"Bastard," Akutsu finally said, but there was no venom in it. "I didn't think you'd be the kind of guy who'd want to raise a kid at this age. Fine. I get off work early tonight. Bring Hitomi back to my place at ten."

Sengoku smiled as Akutsu hung up on him. The other boy wasn't being nearly as stubborn as Sengoku thought he would. He went back to the kitchen, and joined in as his family took turns playing with Hitomi.

It was seven past ten when Sengoku got back to Akutsu's apartment. The space was filled with the low hum of the television, set on some channel that Sengoku knew Akutsu hadn't even been watching. It was just noise, more than anything else. Hitomi had started sniffling, a little bit, and the first thing Akutsu did was take her from Sengoku.

"Has she eaten yet?" he asked.

"About four hours ago," Sengoku replied. "But my mom said she'd probably want to eat again right around now."

"You think I don't know that?" Akutsu already had a bottle ready, and cradled the baby hyena in his arms as he fed her. Sengoku thought it looked strangely natural, Akutsu Jin feeding a baby. There had always been a kind of softness to Akutsu. Sengoku supposed that it was how he was able to gather such devoted friends, despite being such a pretty scary guy most of the time. Kawamura and Dan, and even Sengoku himself. Honestly, it wasn't so surprising that he would actually make a good mother.

It didn't take long to feed Hitomi, and then Akutsu was burping her over his shoulder as he walked into Yuuki s room. She was already asleep by the time he laid her down there, and he closed the door and went back into the living room.

"Is she okay in there?" Sengoku asked, already making himself comfortable on the couch.

"Yuuki won't be back until late, and I figure it's better than us waking her up."

"Yeah? Are we going to be doing something that might wake her up?" Sengoku grinned, but Akutsu chose to ignore him and take a seat beside him. Still, Akutsu hadn't really said no, and they had been in this same situation so many times before. . . alone, on the couch, just the television on and no one to interrupt them.

Just because they had a baby, Sengoku told himself, didn't mean they were a couple, but he could already feel himself getting half hard.

"I haven't had sex since I found out I was pregnant," Akutsu muttered, eyes suddenly dark. They shared a heavy look between them before Akutsu pounced, always the more aggressive of the two of them. He pushed Sengoku down on the couch and pushed their mouths together in a violent, bruising kiss.

"Akutsu," Sengoku said, once he was able to, "wait-"

"You don't have a choice in this," Akutsu said, bringing their lips together and grinding his hips, just so, as he straddled Sengoku's lap. Sengoku moaned as their cocks ground against each other, both obviously hard through the fabric of their pants.

"Besides," Akutsu said, licking his lips, "your ears are showing."

Sengoku could feel his canines growing as well, could feel them draw a little bit of blood when Akutsu stuck his tongue in his mouth. He was pretty awful at controlling his kon-gen when he was having sex, and he had lovers tell him that it was almost like fucking a dog. Which had always made him wonder how they would know something like that.

Sengoku leaned back on the arm of the couch as he decided not to fight it. He closed his eyes, just enjoying the feel of Akutsu's tongue on his and Akutsu's smell around him. It made him dizzy, but considering Akutsu was a heavy-weight, that was to be expected. He was only really half-aware of Akutsu tearing at his pants, didn't realize his cock was out until Akutsu pulled away from their kiss.

He opened his eyes to see Akutsu straddling him, pants off, cock thick and dripping onto his stomach. Akutsu had Sengoku's cock in his hand, and held it in position as he lowered himself into it.

"Wait," Sengoku panted, cringing at the tightness pushing onto him.

"Shut up," Akutsu muttered back.

It was so tight, too tight, he had to be hurting the other boy. But Akutsu's head was thrown back as he forced himself onto Sengoku's dick, his lips parted, such pleasure written over his face that Sengoku could start coming right then and there. Akutsu lowered himself centimeter by centimeter, and it seemed to take forever, but finally Sengoku was buried to the hilt inside of him. Akutsu all but collapsed on his chest, his head buried in the nape of Sengoku's neck, both of them breathing deeply from how amazing it felt.

Akutsu felt so damn good around him. Tight and hot, and Sengoku could feel his dick still growing inside of the other boy. His knot was forming, at the base of his cock, and Akutsu moaned as his hole had to stretch and accommodate the large lump.

"Fuck," Akutsu was saying, over and over again, voice breathy and low. "Hurry up and start already."

Sengoku buried a hand in Akutsu's hair and closed his eyes, letting the other boy's scent wash over him. It was all he needed to start coming, and his cock twitched as it sent the first long stream of cum into Akutsu's ass. That stream was followed by another, than another, each one more forceful then the last. Sengoku knew that Akutsu could feel it, could feel Sengoku filling him up, because he shivered with every surge of cum.

Sengoku spent a good ten minutes filling the other boy, it felt so good. Every time Akutsu moved, every brush of Akutsu's palm against his skin, and Sengoku was cumming again. When he was done he became vaguely aware of the stickiness in between them, of Akutsu's post-coitus panting. But they were still joined together, would be tied together like this until Sengoku's knot went down.

"Fuck," Akutsu murmured, words hot against the skin of his neck, "that was good."

Sengoku chuckled at that, running his hands up and down the hard muscles of Akutsu's back. They laid there in silence for awhile, enjoying how it felt to be tied together.

"I think," Sengoku said, only now becoming aware of the rattle digging into his back, "it would be really nice if we could live together."

He held his breath as he waited for Akutsu to answer. But finally the other boy just snorted, muttering what sounded like "fine" into his neck.

Sengoku smiled. Maybe, he thought, they could be a couple after all.