You ARE The Father! [Finished!]

[Bee]

The midwife was now holding one of the children--a whippet cross, and Jin was vaguely disappointed that none of them had ended up pure, but they were all...adorable, in their own ways--and Jin had another two, a startlingly white little bipedal (how the hell had that happened?) and the Club, and was trying to get bottles at them. They hadn't even been tasting oxygen long and they were demanding food.

"Congratulations, you have truly magnificent sperm. And so fair! Two boys and two girls. Grab your daughter and feed her," he said, tilting his head in the direction of the makeshift bassinet where the last little girl was lying. He was faintly irate with how tired he sounded, but mostly too exhausted to care. Four. Shit. But at the same time--four. Incredible. This was going to require a shitload of bottle.

[Dark]

Rin stared with no small amount of wonder--and a fair share of nausea--at his children. He had children! Four of them. Holy shit.

All the weeks leading up to this moment had been masked in disbelief and abstraction; as pathetic as it sounded, he had never thought much past how to survive the wrath of a pregnant whippet. And now it was staring him in the face: his life for the perceivable future, bundled up in blankets.

He felt awkward and ill-equipped, but--what else could he do? He picked up the squirming baby--a girl, Jin had said--taking a moment to work out of mechanics of settling her in his lap, and took a bottle. She happily set about devouring the contents.

Looking at her tiny, perfect face, and looking at the others, Rin felt himself sliding quickly towards mushy male histrionics. Jin and he had done something pretty amazing, right here. Not that he'd ever openly admit it to the man.

"Names?"

[Bee]

"Well," said Jin, importantly, and then stopped, because out of everything else he'd planned for, he'd completely forgotten to narrow down the list of possible names to any number smaller than about 50. He looked across the little faces of all the children and felt something incredibly mushy and stupid. He was not going to let this dissolve into sentimental bullshit. He wasn't. No matter how that pale little girl's mouth wiggled over her bottle.

Shit.

Mission fucking failed.

"Well," he tried, again. "I think the little white one is a Milena." He did NOT mention that this was because the name meant "dear" in his language. He was not ready for that blow to his pride. "And the little awkward one should be Zhenya. Maybe the power of the name will reverse his fortune." He looked at the other little boy, a Spade like himself--he would be the one to carry on Jin's trouble-making prowess and Solandrian exceptionality (despite appearing half Selkie). "That one can be Kazimeras. He'll be a great little destroyer."

He realized that he had taken the lion's share of the naming.

"And of course, due to laws of possession, I will allow you to name the one you're holding."

[Dark]

How generous. Rin wouldn't argue, though; they were good names. The stress of coming up with something equally fitting was a little nauseating, though, and he only had one chance! He started to sweat a little.

He eyed the little baby in his lap--would she grow into her ears? they were overly large in a cute, baby sort of way--and grasped frantically for something that felt right.

He briefly considered his sister's name, but didn't think he could deal with a constant reminder of that particular stage of his life; time healed all wounds, or so they said, but Rin didn't particularly feel like testing that theory. It was a bit old-fashioned, besides. (He briefly reflected on his own name, and wondered what Jin would make of it if he ever found out the un-abbreviated version).

"Coralie." That was a good name, wasn't it? He petted velvet soft ears, and thought he had made a good choice.

[Bee]

Jin nodded vaguely in approval--that was a suitably pretty name for the little girl, and Rin could have picked something a lot worse. Besides, even if he had, well--he probably would have the energy to argue, actually, because he seemed always to have the energy to argue with Rin, but he preferred not to waste it at this point in time.

Milena let the bottle pop out of her mouth and yawned. He really was curious as to how her fur ended up that colorless. Was that normal for a Selkie child?

"All right," Jin said. Looking at sleepy spawn was making him tired. Only natural, he thought. He had just expended a lot of effort popping the adorable little monsters out. He deserved a nap. A nice, long nap. He gestured in the direction of the midwife holding Kaz and told Rin, "Why don't you take the little ankle-biters out and let me get some sleep. I'll ooze more sunshine over them later."

[Dark]

Rin wasn't sure what sort of sunshine Jin would be oozing over their children--didn't particularly want to know--but agreed that the man probably needed some rest after--everything.

Shifting Coralie, he went to take one of the other babies--Milena, his mind supplied; the other girl--and experienced a moment of panic. What-what happened? Rin wasn't particularly superstitious, but he had grown up in a region where that was the bread and butter, so to speak, and the little girl gazing at him sleepily definitely fell into the unnatural. Where were her markings?

Fighting back unease, he picked her up and followed the midwife out of the room. It was ridiculous that he was reacting so strongly--it was probably just a quirk of Solandrian and Selkie mixes--and he generally prided himself on being an open and understanding fellow. He didn't want some silly superstition to cripple his relationship with one of his children. He would love all his children equally, damn it.

Still. Strange.

[Bee]

Jin leaned back and thought with some degree of contentment that he had accomplished something very significant in his relationship-or-whatever with Rin--the spawn were like tiny little trophies he could trot out whenever he was accused of not doing his fair share. Though of course, were it not for the children, there wouldn't be any kind of relationship to pretend to contribute to anyway, so that line of reasoning was pretty much a crapshoot.

But his mind was wandering and it needed to stop doing that before it led him depressing places. He would think about a parental division of labor later. Right now, he was going to enjoy the small moment of quiet--probably the only one he would have for the next twenty years or so.

He pulled the blanket over his head, very deliberately did not think of anything, and slipped off to sleep.