This story is a collaboration with my friend Yggnomial. It started as a joke, but as dumb fandom jokes are wont to do it gradually turned into "wow I really want to write this, actually". Most of the Rita and Estelle scenes are written by her, and most of the Yuri and Flynn scenes are written by me, with a few exceptions. This story is less a single cohesive plot arc and more a series of one shots arranged in chronological order. Also, we didn't want this to be super depressing so as far as we're concerned, dogs in Terca Lumereis have a much longer average lifespan because Repede is around 12 when the story starts and we didn't want him to die of old age.

Chapter One: The Arrangement

Yuri wasn't really sure why he'd been summoned to the castle. Estelle invited him to tea every time he was in Zaphias, but this time the invite had explicitly asked he come alone. Since he and Judith always travelled together, asking him to come without her was unusual.

Getting summoned to the castle in general happened a lot more in the eight years of his post-Adephagos life than it ever had before. To be fair, his pre-Adephagos summons were always more along the lines of 'jail sentences'. Some of the knights at the front gates apparently remembered those days, based on the scowls they gave him on his way in. He grinned and waved his invitation at the, and they reluctantly waved him through. By the glares he received, he guessed that they were some of the guards he'd beaten up on one of his jail breaks in the past. Not everyone was thrilled with his new status as personal friend of the princess, and Yuri didn't think his life would be without hassles for quite a while. He wouldn't have it any other way.

He made his way down the halls of the castle. He knew the way to Estelle's quarters well enough, since she invited him over enough times. He usually made a fuss about getting dragged away from guild work to sip tea with nobles, but he couldn't deny the reunions were nice. Rita, who lived with Estelle, sometimes even put her books away for the entire afternoon to socialize, mostly on the days when they managed to get Karol and Raven to Zaphias, too. After all, she wasn't about to waste time talking if the entire group wasn't present. Estelle usually managed to drag Flynn away from his office, too, but for some reason he didn't count as far as Rita was concerned.

Yuri wondered what his chances were of seeing Rita book-free if it was only going to be him. Once again, he wondered why Judith had been asked to stay at home. They shared his tiny apartment above the inn on their days in Zaphias, and though he'd left Repede in her company, he felt bad leaving her with nothing to do. She said she didn't mind, but she said that about practically everything.

He knocked on the door, and Estelle opened it almost immediately. Her face lit up when she saw him, as it always did. "Yuri! It's good to see you."

"Hey, Estelle," he said, striding into the room. Estelle lived in a suite in the castle, complete with her own sitting room, kitchen, and several bedrooms.

Rita sat at the table that straddled the line between the kitchen and the sitting room, an open book on the table. "Hey, Yuri," she said, not even looking up. Rita had been living with Estelle for a few years now. As far as the castle officials were concerned, they were roommates. To those who knew them better – namely, Brave Vesperia and Flynn – they might as well be married. Only the Empire's prohibition on same-sex relationships kept it from happening.

He looked around the room. Flynn wasn't here, and Flynn was never late so he could only assume Flynn hadn't been invited. From the way Estelle hovered around the room, fidgeting her hands, there was something on her mind.

"So… what's up?" Yuri asked.

"Sit down, Yuri," Estelle said, hurrying to the kitchen. "I'll get you some tea."

Yuri had never been a big drinker of tea, and quite frankly sipping tea from Estelle's flowery china cups made him feel silly, but rejecting the tea would hurt Estelle's feelings and he feared Rita's retribution for making Estelle sad.

Estelle came back with three cups of tea on a small tray, and then sat down next to Rita. It was a testament to the seriousness of the occasion that Rita actually closed her book and put it off to the side. Yuri was starting to get a little worried about whatever it was they had invited him to talk about.

"What's going on with you two?" he asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Well…" Estelle said, "Rita and I were talking and, um, it's about the Children of the Full Moon. You see, we think I'm the last one and that it would be bad if there were no more."

"Would it?" Yuri said. "It seemed to cause a lot of problems for you."

"The Child of the Full Moon isn't a problem anymore," Rita said. "Now that we've converted most of the world's aer to mana, all it means is that they're a person with above average healing abilities, and that's a useful skill."

"But," Estelle said, "I'd need to have a child to pass on the lineage, and, um, that would be…" she looked over at Rita meaningfully.

Rita folded her hands on the table. "Basically, Estelle and I want a kid. Both because of the Child of the Full Moon thing, and also just because hey, we're grown-ups and we want a family. 'Course, I think even you, Yuri, can figure out a problem in our plans to have a child."

Yuri nodded slowly, not entirely sure what they were getting at. He certainly knew enough about biology to know that two girls couldn't make a baby, but he didn't know why they were explaining this to him. "So… what are you planning to do?"

Estelle took a deep breath, puffed herself up and then blurted out, "I want you to father my child, Yuri!"

A pin could have dropped and made more noise than the three of them. Estelle stared at Yuri with stubborn resolution, Rita crossed her arms and averted her eyes, and Yuri stared at Estelle with his tea cup halfway to his mouth.

After almost a minute of silence, he said, "You… what?"

"Estelle and I aren't making a baby by ourselves," Rita said. "We'd adopt, but that won't help with passing on the Child of the Full Moon lineage."

"We talked about this for a long time," Estelle said. "We knew we needed to ask someone to father our child and we decided we'd like it to be you."

"Uh…" Yuri wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this. His brain was still too busy running over the words 'I want you to father my child' to pay any attention to new information, so the only question he could think to ask was, "Why me?"

"It was between you, Flynn, Karol, and Raven," Rita said. "I still think of Karol as a kid, Raven is gross, and we didn't think Flynn would agree to it. So that left you."

"Hey, wait, I'm your back up because you didn't think you could get Flynn?"

"No!" Estelle said. She was a pretty terrible liar.

Yuri remembered he was still holding his tea cup and put it down with a clatter. "I'd be a way better father than Flynn!" He had never even thought about having children before, and he had definitely never thought about having a child with Estelle, but now that it was a competition with Flynn he was determined to win.

"Does that mean you're ok with it?" Estelle asked, cocking her head to the side.

"I didn't say that!" This was a pretty major decision to make lightly. "How exactly is this going to work?"

"Well," Rita said, "the normal method is that you both get naked and then you put your-"

"I understand the mechanics, Rita, thanks."

Estelle's face was red as she said, "We – we would have to… you know… But only once. Then, you wouldn't have to deal with it. Unless you wanted to, of course. Rita and I would raise it and you could have as much or as little interaction as you wanted. So… what do you think?"

Yuri let out a deep breath. "I guess… if you guys are sure you want this… I'm going to have to talk to Judy about this."

"Right!" Estelle said, nodding firmly. "I don't want you to do anything that would mess up your relationship. Takes as much time to decide as you need."

"Alright…" He looked down at his still mostly full cup of tea. "I think I'm going to head home early." After that bombshell had been dropped, sitting here and trying to have a normal conversation would be pretty impossible.

"Ok," Estelle said. "I'll talk to you again soon, ok, Yuri?"

"Right," Yuri said, standing up and heading for the door. "I'll see you guys around." On his way out of the castle, the biggest thing on his mind was imagining Flynn's face when he inevitably found out. Having a child with Estelle would almost be worth it entirely to see that.

Zaphias was a large city; the walk to the castle to the lower quarter was enough to span several smaller cities, and it still wasn't enough time to sort out his thoughts on the previous conversation.

Sure, he was no stranger to the matter, but that was with one specific person, without the end goal being a baby. He travelled too often to be weighed down by something that needed that much sleep and care, and the most responsibility he put into anything was Repede. Dogs could be trained to keep watch, remain quiet, fight monsters – everything that a human baby was incapable of.

By the time he'd reached his front door he'd come to one important decision. He would have to discuss this with Judith before even weighing his own options, as she was involved in this almost as much as he was. This was hardly something he would think about without her input. The lock clicked open and he walked through the door.

"Hey Judy." He saw her immediately, laying on her back on the bed, absently reading a book borrowed from Estelle. Repede lay on the floor below her, lazily guarding the room. It was a rather small place, almost no different from when he lived here alone years ago. With the amount of time they spent travelling and sleeping in inns, neither of them found a reason to spend the money to move.

"What's wrong, Yuri? You look troubled." She closed her book and sat up, scooting over to make room for him. Repede opened an eye and looked up, unmoving. "You weren't gone very long; did your visit go badly?"

Yuri walked the several steps it took to reach the bed and sat down next to her with a sigh. "Not exactly. We need to talk though." There was no point in dodging around the topic all night, and he'd feel bad if he kept Rita and Estelle waiting. It must have taken a lot for them to come forward about it.

"Then tell me what's on your mind," she said simply.

"It's about Estelle and Rita, when I was there." He leaned on her, and she pulled his head onto her lap to tangle her fingers in his bangs. "They've been considering starting a family, apparently."

"Good for them." She smiled, already having shown that her stance on their relationship couldn't be more relaxed.

"You're missing the part where they can't have their own children." He looked up at her, serious.

"Yes, and what of it? I'm sure the royal family can find an orphanage to visit."

"Estelle is a Child of the Full Moon," Yuri reminded her. It was rarely relevant anymore now that the aer was balanced, and Judy always put irrelevant things out of her mind. "She needs to continue the line before they're all wiped out."

Judith stopped messing with his hair to pause and consider what he'd said. The pieces clicked together without his having to explain as directly as Estelle had. "So they asked you to help her carry."

"Yeah, pretty much." He pulled away from her to sit up and sigh again. "I'm not really sure what to do, Judy."

"Well, I think it's a fantastic idea," she told him immediately. "You care about Estelle, don't you? Friends help each other out."

He had a feeling she would accept, but she was almost encouraging him. It was his body, but she did have a point. With one last sigh, he leaned back against her shoulder, shaking his head. "So how much choice do I have in the matter?" he smirked.

"As much as you want – it's your decision. But it seems you're the only one undecided on this." She turned and wrapped her arms around his middle, resting her chin on his shoulder to rub on his cheek. "This is a lot to ask of someone. I know they won't be upset with you if you say no."

"I'd like to believe you, but Rita seems intent on this." He chuckled, reaching around to rub her shoulder. "I'd be scared to tell her no after she worked herself up to ask me."

"Then tell her that."

"It's not exactly easy to just tell them yes and follow through."

"Would it be easier to tell them you won't?"

Yuri closed his eyes and sighed, unable to refute that one. He pictured just how sad the girls would be if he said no, and how painful it would be for Estelle to either accept that she was the last of her line, or go through with her plan with someone else, someone she didn't trust nearly as much as Yuri. He didn't want to put her through that. "As long as you're okay with this."

"I trust you, Yuri, and I like Rita and Estelle, too. If it'll make them happy, I'm fine with it."

"Yeah, I guess." He glanced at the castle invitation he'd tossed onto his desk as he came in. "I'll go see them tomorrow about it and get it out of the way. I may not be home for a while in that case."

Judith leaned over and rested her chin on the crook of his neck, slipping her arms around his chest. "If you're worried about having trouble getting into it with Estelle, I can help get you in the mood before you go tomorrow."

Yuri reached up one hand to caress the side of her face and then turned his head and kissed her on the cheek. "How can I refuse an offer like that?"

She pulled away and suddenly stood up. "Good. What do you want for dinner?"

"Aw, hey," Yuri pouted a bit, "don't lead me on like that."

She leaned over and lightly kissed the top of his head. "I told you; tomorrow." She walked away, stepping over Repede on her way to the tiny kitchenette in the corner. The dog raised his head and looked at her, and then back to Yuri. He could tell something had his master on edge, but he was unaware exactly what it was. With a light whine, he sat up enough to nudge Yuri's shin with his nose. Yuri leaned down to ruffle the fur on top of his head in return.

"Just take it easy and relax," Judith said. "You'll make Estelle uncomfortable if you're more tense than she is."

"Easy for you to say; does anything ever bother you?" He sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Judith but with one hand still scratching the dog head in his lap.

"Hm… It's quite bothersome when you throw your laundry on the floor," she told him.

Yuri couldn't tell from her tone whether she was joking, or serious, or both. "I'll keep that in mind."

Yuri lay awake for most of the night. He and Judith never spent enough time here for him to bother buying a bigger bed, and besides, it was an excuse to lie close enough touch every night. She was asleep with her head nestled at the crook of his neck, her expression completely peaceful. Yuri wished he had Judith's ability to remain so level-headed and calm in any situation.

He had already mostly decided to go along with Estelle's proposal, but it still weighed heavily on his mind. He wanted Estelle and Rita to be happy, and it wasn't like they were asking him to perform some challenging feat. At the same time, it would feel weird having sex with Estelle, even if it didn't mean anything, and he didn't even want to start considering how he'd explain this one to Flynn.

It was all well and good to say that the kid would be Estelle and Rita's, but the fact was that there would be a little kid running around who has half-him and he didn't know how he felt about that. He didn't want to take responsibility for a child, and neither did Estelle want him to, but if he was confronted by this child who was in many respects his own, could he really ignore it?

Something cold brushed the hand hanging off the side of the bed. He turned his head and saw Repede resting his head on the side of the bed. Yuri absently reached out and scratched him between the ears.

"What do you think, Repede?" Yuri asked, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Judith. "How would you feel about puppies?"

Repede licked Yuri's wrist. Even if the dog wasn't fully aware of what the situation was, he knew his master was in distress and would do what he could. Yuri appreciated the gesture, choosing to interpret it as sage words of wisdom.

"I guess you're right, but don't you think it would weird?"

Repede growled and nudged Yuri's hand with his nose.

Yuri sighed. Repede had a point. This might be weird for him, but Estelle wanted this so badly. He could make a little sacrifice that would mean the world to Estelle and Rita. Repede barked slightly, and Yuri snickered in agreement. If he didn't agree, they might go ahead and ask Flynn. In the competition for who was chosen to father Estelle's child, Yuri sure as hell wasn't going to let Flynn win.

Yuri was back at the castle the next day. A visit to the castle so soon after his last one was unusual, but these were far from usual circumstances.

"Yuri!" Estelle said when she opened the door. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."

He walked into the room, closing the door behind him. Rita looked up from the test tubes she was pouring over on her desk by the window. Yuri didn't waste time beating around the bush. "I'm in. You guys still sure about this?"

Estelle stared at him with hope in her eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah," he said. "You do still want to do this, don't you?"

"Oh, uh, yes," Estelle said. She clasped her hands together and looked to Rita. "We were afraid you wouldn't agree. What did Judith say?"

"She said to do whatever will make you guys happy. This will make you happy, right? So, let's get it over with and make this baby."

"Right now?" Estelle asked.

"Might as well," Rita said. She focused on the test tube in front of her, analyzing the colour. While doing that, she said, "A woman can only get pregnant during a certain time of the month and based on the timing of your last menstruation, you should be ovulating right now."

Yuri and Estelle stared at Rita for a moment. Estelle's face was nearly as pink as her hair, and then Yuri said, "…That is a bit more information than I was anticipating."

Rita looked up. "Use the bedroom. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"I think we got it," Yuri said, walking to the bedroom. This would be a lot easier without Rita's help. He was having enough trouble convincing himself this wouldn't be like sleeping with his sister, and Rita's attempts to treat it like a scientific procedure weren't helping him feel comfortable.

As Yuri entered the bedroom, Estelle paused to give Rita a nervous smile. Yuri just caught a glimpse of Rita returning it with a nod and a comforting smile of her own. Then Estelle followed him into the bedroom and closed the door with a click behind her.