“I h-ATE you!” Yesung growled, his teeth gritting as he squeezed Ryeowook’s hand so hard he swore he heard something crack.

      The younger yelped as pain exploded in his fingers, and while it hurt, he bit back his real cry, knowing without experience that what his lover was going through was far, far worse.

      “Don’t listen to him Wook.” Donghae began as he took Yesung’s pulse and then scribbled it down on a clipboard beside the on the bedside table. “It’s the pain talking.”

      “No… I really hate him” Yesung panted, leaning forward to ease some of the lingering pain from his most recent contraction.

      Ryeowook stuck his lips out in a pout, for though he knew Donghae was right, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for all of this. It had been him after all that had insisted on a second child, and while Yesung was never entirely against it, he could always sense a hint of reluctance from the older whenever he brought up the subject.

      He had been in labor for nearly two hours, Donghae choosing to wait as long as he could before removing the baby despite the couple’s insistence. He was over a month early, the C-section wasn’t even scheduled for another five weeks, yet here they were.

      The nurse had insisted on waiting, claiming that every extra second was precious. They weren’t in any hurry either like they had been with the twins, Yesung and the baby’s vitals were stable, there was no rush

      There was knock at the door a few minutes later and it opened to allow Eunhyuk and a little girl to enter, unauthorized of course.

      “Aemi? I thought you and Uncle Hyukkie were going to wait outside?” Yesung asked warily.

      Eunhyuk gave the older an apologetic look as the girl went running up to Ryeowook, immediately latching herself onto his leg.

      The eldest in the room arched forward, a pained moan escaping his lips as another contraction him hard.

      Ryeowook had to bite back another yelp and merely grunted as all the feeling was again squeezed out of his hand.

      “Eomma… what’s wrong with Appa?” Aemi asked as Ryeowook scooped her up into his arms.

      “Remember when we talked about having your new little sister?” the brunette asked, pausing for the child to nod before he continued “Well she’s getting ready to come out and it hurts a little bit ok? Daddy’s fine.”

      “Yah… daddy’s fine, it only hurts a little” Yesung mocked under his breath, rolling his eyes at the understatement. He scowled when his lover shot him a look that clearly told him to shut up.

      “Really? Will I get to see her?”

      “Of course. But not yet, in a few hours. Right now, Uncle Hyukkie is gonna take you back upstairs to be with your cousins alright?”

      “Why can’t I stay down here? Minkyung is mean to me” she pouted, giving her mother her best puppy dog eyes.

      Despite his daughter being there, Yesung snapped, the next contraction so strong he nearly threw up. He reached up from his bed and gripped the collar of Donghae’s shirt, yanking the frightened doctor forward until their faces were inches apart. “Get it out of me, NOW!” he growled.

      “Jongwoon be careful!” Ryeowook scolded, rushing to his lover’s side and prying Donghae away from him.

      The doctor took a step back, as Yesung began apologizing profusely, realizing what he’d done.

      “Are you alright?” the Eunhyuk asked worriedly, coming up behind his lover and placing a hand on the younger’s shoulder.

      “Y-yah” Donghae stuttered, his hands running over his own baby bump that was only a bit smaller than that of Yesung’s, as he was nearly eight months along. He had been pregnant twice before, but neither had ended well. The first was a miscarriage almost three months in, and the second was still born at six months. They were hoping this was finally it, but they still had two months to go and that was a lot of time for something to go wrong.

      “I’m fine.” The doctor shook off his earlier worry and a bright smile lit his face, “But I think its best we begin the procedure.”

      Eunhyuk squeezed Donghae’s shoulder reassuringly before taking Aemi’s hand in his own “Come on kid, let’s go find your cousins.”

      The girl pouted, obviously upset with the visits outcome, but after some coaxing from her mother she allowed her uncle to lead her from the room and back out into the hallway.

      “Alright Sunggie,” Donghae began, grabbing a sterilized medical tarp from one of cabinets in the room as a nurse handed the older the small handful of pills and cup of water.

      He swallowed them quickly, more than happy to welcome the numbing process, and praying they kicked in before the next contraction hit. He sat forward as the nurse began undressing him, pulling the gown from his body as another adjusted the bed so he was lying down, leaving him momentarily exposed until Donghae covered him with the tarp.

      Ryeowook could sense the moment growing closer, Yesung’s hand slowly going slack in his grip. It would only be minutes before they could finally welcome their second daughter into the world.

      They had both originally wanted Zhoumi to deliver her, Donghae only having done three previous C-sections, not to mention his current condition, but the doctor had insisted that he was perfectly capable of performing the procedure, and the couple would’ve felt awful basically telling him they didn’t trust him enough.

      “How are you doing?” Donghae asked at last, the tension in the room growing as he began rearranging some of his medical equipment.

      “Alright…” Yesung responded. He could no longer move his limbs, sensation slowly becoming unknown to him as well. He wasn’t hot, nor cold, he just simply couldn’t feel.

      Donghae ran his hand over the older’s exposed belly “could you feel that?”

      Yesung shook his head “No.”

      “Ok, it’s time.” The younger smiled, one of the nurses immediately beginning to smear the iodine over his abdomen as the doctor pulled on his gloves.

      Ryeowook looked nervously down to the older, wondering why he felt nervous when Yesung was the one about to be cut open. He just knew that so many things could go wrong, Heechul and Hangeng were living proof of that, it’s why said pair never considered having another child, the twins enough to keep them busy.

      Donghae gently made the first incision, the nurse by Yesung’s head looking up to confirm the patient hadn’t felt anything. Once wiping away the small trail of blood, he made a second and a third, and eventually a fourth.

      He continued cutting layer after layer, working through skin, muscle, and fat, until he finally reached the outer surface of uterus.

      “Ready?” He asked at last, checking to make sure the nurses were prepared for the infant. When he received a solid ‘yes’, he cut through the last layer, and two of his assistants stepped in to help.

      It only took a few moments for them to locate the head, and another few after that to pull it gently out from Yesung’s belly. Donghae maneuvered it’s shoulders and arms out, eventually working out its tiny waist and legs.

      He was able to give the slimy infant a once over before it was removed from his hands by one of the nurses. He smiled as he announced “It’s a girl.” Confirming what they had already suspected.

      The umbilical cord was eventually cut by a shaky handed Ryeowook, the brunette immediately feeling conflicted as he didn’t know who to stay with; the baby, or his lover.

      The latter won in the end, as he didn’t think he’d be able to break through the wall of nurses to see her anyways.

      Yesung watched the younger with watery eyes as he came to stand beside him. A single tear escaped and Ryeowook quickly wiped it from his face smiling down at him, before he leaned and left a small peck upon his still lips.

      “Yun?” he asked softly, and Yesung smiled.

      “Yun.”

      ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

      Growls, and shrill whines echoed throughout the large upstairs parlor turned playroom, the sounds traced back to a large tiger, and a lynx and jaguar cub.

       Hangeng sat on the floor amongst the chaos, watching his daughter lunge strategically for her mother’s paws, latching onto one with her baby fangs, clawless paws wrapping themselves around the older’s large hind leg.

       Heechul growled again, jumping playfully around in hopes of detaching the child from his leg.

       His son sat beside him, tail twitching as he stalked Hangeng’s hand, eyes large as he crouched, ready to pounce.

       He couldn’t hold his pained cry when he felt Kyungil’s fangs sink into the skin of his wrist.

       The Jaguar cub backed up, brown, apologetic eyes portraying guilt as he realized he had forgotten their rule of going easy on their father. He wasn’t the same as them.

       Hangeng quickly laughed it off, scratching behind his son’s ears to let him know he wasn’t mad.

       On the other side of the room, a safe distance away from the playing family, sat Jaehyun, Leeteuk and Kangin’s second son, and Aemi, the pair playing with a puzzle.

       Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk sat on one of the couches, keeping an eye on them as well as Minkyung and Jinsang, Kyumin’s only son.

      “I saw Min downstairs in the waiting room.” Eunhyuk began, and Kyuhyun smiled.

      “Yah, he told me he wanted to help with Yesung, but I doubted they would let him do much. I thinks he’s just avoiding me again.” The younger’s eyes grew sad, something that Eunhyuk immediately picked up on.

      “I thought you two were getting better?”

      “We are…I think,” Kyu shrugged “He just gets annoyed easily, so I get pissed off, then we end up yelling at each other, and then he ignores me. It’s not as bad as it was a few months ago, but I wish we could go back to the way we were.”

      “I keep telling you, Donghae and I can watch Jinsang for a few days so you guys can go on some kind of getaway. I think you need to spend some time alone together. He usually only nags you about stuff related to Jinsang, maybe a few days away would help.”

      “Thanks, but I don’t want to do that, I’d rather not think our son is the reason for our relationship falling apart.”

      “It’s not falling apart, it’s just…chipped a bit.” Eunhyuk argued, not entirely sure how to make light of situation.

      Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and sighed, leaning back against the couch and laughing a bit as he watched Heechul pounce on Hangeng, knocking him to the ground with the twins in tow.

      He couldn’t wait until Jinsang was able to shift. They had all learned since coming there that besides walking and talking, there were a few other skills their offspring had to learn. One was morphing. Leeteuk had once spent an entire three hours trying to explain to them how important it was, how it was accomplished and at what age the children should be able to accomplish it.

      None of the foreigners still quite understood it. They knew by the age of two their animal would be finalized, but not until late into age three or early at age four would the kids be able to take the form of their animal. It was second in nature to walking, they supposed.

      The second skill was element control, but that was rare. They had to undergo a series of tests at age four to determine if they had any elemental connection and so far, out of the three that had taken it, only Sunhee had shown any positive results. They believed it was an air affinity in it’s early stages, for in the third test, they’re asked to put out three small candle lit flames without blowing on them

      The girl had simply closed her eyes, and after a few moments there was a small gust of wind, and two of the three went out.

      Neither of the boys were able to pass any of the tests, of course upsetting them, but the proctor explained that they may have late developing affinities with the possibility of them showing up later in life. Of course he didn’t add that the possibility was very low, since it had only happened to about thirty some odd people in their history.

       Aemi was due to take the test in a few days, and Ryeowook hadn’t stopped gushing about how amazing it would be to have a daughter that could control fire or water, or maybe something even more rare, like lightning.

      “Uncle!” Minkyung shouted, and of course three heads turned.

      The boy ran straight to Kyuhyun though, tugging at his leg, as if he wanted him to follow.

      The older stood, watching the prince with questioning eyes. “What’s wrong?”

      “Jinsang hit his head. He’s not moving.”

      “…What!?” Kyuhyun scanned the room frantically, searching for his son. He spotted him sitting dazedly on the floor next to an end table, on the opposite side of the room. He rushed over.

      The second the toddler spotted his father, he burst out crying, raising his arms so he would be picked up and comforted.

     “What happened?” Eunhyuk asked Minkyung, kneeling beside him when they reached the maknae who cooed softly at his son in his arms.

     “I was chasing him, but he was laughing!” the boy immediately defended. “He ran into the table and fell over, he didn’t move for a few seconds, like he was sleeping. I-I’m sorry.”

     “Ok, it’s ok.” Eunhyuk smiled softly, noting the tears gathering in the younger’s eyes. The last thing they needed was him crying too. “You just need to be more careful, ok? He’s not big like you are.”

      Minkyung nodded, sniffled a bit, and then ran quickly off to join the twins, as though he was worried Eunhyuk would change his mind and be upset with him.

     “You should take him to see-”

     “Zhoumi. I know, I know.” Kyuhyun interrupted Eunhyuk and his heels, immediately heading for the door.

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A/N: Big, like huge, amazing thanks to LovesAsianDrama, PhiaShy99, toomah, LaSerry, meyuuki214, ehrytie, SuJuelfcassshawol, CookiiezXD, and ElfKyurie1106 who all upvoted this story before it even had chapters ^-^, and thank you  to everyone that subscribed, and commented! Love ya! I'm not sure how fast the udates are gonna be at first cause I have finals in a week and and new job on top of that, but once schools out they should be quicker since I'll only have one other thing to worry about :)

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