Extraneous Variables

Thanks for reading! That's all folks, hope you enjoyed this Alternative Universe fic of my own fic (is that a meta thing? I mean, writing an AU of my own fic that was an AU of Bleach?) Anyway, don't blame me, the fault goes to NaomiShihoin! Hope the smut was enjoyable!

Epilogue

More Variables: Children of Las Noches

"Fuck you! All of you!" came the high pitched scream from the medical bay.

"Ichigo, you've got to calm down! This isn't good for the babies," Szayel cautioned to the irate orange haired beta currently leaning against the wall in the room he'd converted to a birthing suite.

It had been necessary after the rash of births that had happened after Ichigo's heat triggered everyone else's. He had delivered more babies in the last month than he'd ever seen in his life. Out of all that death and pain had emerged something amazing. Untold lives had been created, and the world of Hueco Mundo had reached a new dawn.

Ichigo growled again, eyes flashing black with gold and groaning. "What is it that hurts so fucking much!" he complained.

Szayel glanced at the monitors. "The birthing canal is almost formed. That's what's giving you so much pain at the moment. Remember? Hollows, male or female, are not equipped for birthing until right before it happens. So your reiatsu is shifting and altering your biology as we speak, and then it will return to normal afterward."

"Argh!" he groaned and panted against the wall. "Well it hurts like a bitch!"

Szayel winced. He looked up to see both Starrk and Grimmjow watching tentatively from the foyer. He glared at them and mouthed "get in here or I'm going to kill you both". They came into the room and Ichigo's eyes fell on them. He looked suddenly completely distraught and Starrk went over and put his arm around him. "Ah, it won't be long now, mi amor, you can do it, I know this," he said gently.

Ichigo's expression changed and he glared at him. "Fuck you too, you are never, ever fucking me again. Next time I go into heat, I'm fucking running off to the human world and having Urahara build me a goddamned sealed room!"

Starrk smiled gently. "I know, mi amor, I know."

After another two hours of berating Grimmjow, Nel, Szayel, Ulquiorra and Starrk verbally, Szayel announced he was ready to birth the babies. Outside in the foyer, Rukia, Renji, Orihime and Isshin had come to be with him during the birth. Szayel had the alphas stand aside as he helped him into the birthing chair. Before long, Szayel was instructing the beta to bear down on the first kit to be born. A moment later there was a squealing creature in the room, but it was not the only one. Szayel had been hard pressed to tell, but he was sure there were three of them, at least. Ichigo's reiatsu made it hard to determine. Szayel turned and handed a wrapped bundle behind him. Nel took it and looked at it with a smile. It was a little girl, and on her head set a pair of ram's horns. Her hair was bright green streaked with orange, and her eyes were brown.

Ichigo let out another cry as a second was delivered, and Szayel quickly handed it behind him to Grimmjow as he caught the second. "Twins," Szayel said, turning and handing the second one behind him to Starrk. "They were in the same chamber," Szayel explained and turned back to realize there was a fourth. No wonder Ichigo was in so much pain the last month.

"One more!" Szayel said as he lifted up the last of them, and handed it behind him to Ulquiorra.

Grimmjow was staring into the icy blue and brown eyes of a tiny little girl with bright blue cat ears. His eyes were wide as he stared at her. He glanced over to the identical looking little girl in Starrk's hands; the only difference between the two was the brown dog ears on her head. They had identical ice blue and brown eyes, one blue, one brown, and vibrant orange hair streaked with shocks of brown and blue. Ulquiorra's little batwinged boy had green eyes and black hair but there was a layer of orange under the black. They looked at each other and to their exhausted beta who was somewhat out of it thanks to some pain medications Szayal had given him. He wasn't fully hollow after all, which made it harder on him than some of the arrancar.

He smiled at the alphas in the room. "Okay, so maybe you get to fuck me when I'm in heat again, that's pretty damn amazing," he said as he faded into sleep.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Izuru and Shuuhei were on ambassador detail in Las Noches when they surprised by being run into by a pair of tiny creatures zipping down the hallway. Each one of them deftly picked up the speeding bundles with a confused glance at each other.

"Lyrian! Anyia!" came the shouted voice of someone coming toward them. "You get your tails back here!"

They saw an exhausted looking Grimmjow come jogging up, with a bat winged boy sitting on his shoulder, and the little girl with the ram's horns tucked on his waist. He had a scowl etched into his brow.

"You two get into more trouble," he muttered and looked at them. "Hey, you're not busy, hold onto the brats and bring them to the main room so they can play with Toshiro's twins."

He turned and walked away, leaving both Izuru and Shuuhei with the babies. They were just learning to walk, and like most toddlers, they started running first. Of course, hollows aged differently, so they were only a few months old. They followed the alpha into the main room where Toshiro was laying on a couch with his head in Harribel's lap. She was watching their twins while idly stroking his hair. Ichigo was laying on the floor on his stomach being climbed upon by the two little ones. The girl was silver haired with Harribel's dark skintone, and the boy had bright yellow blonde hair with white streaks in it and Toshiro's aqua eyes. Both of them had been born with gills as well as lungs, and a pair of wings that they could seemingly summon at will. That made keeping up with them a terror.

"Grimmjow, isn't Aiko getting bigger than Tycho?" Ichigo asked as Grimmjow sat down the little boy on his shoulder and the little girl on his hip. "So, Lyrian and Anyia decided they needed to race, Shuu and Izuru caught them in the hall," he said, gesturing to the two shinigami who set the pair of twins down. They immediately ran over to their dam. Ichigo snuggled into both of their soft heads.

"Did Danka give you any trouble? She's been headbutting Anyia all the time the last few days…naughty little thing, wait until your ma gets back," he said, lifting up the ram horned little girl who blew a raspberry at him. He kissed her forehead and put her down again.

"She and Kotetsu were fine, just the twins that are giving me fits lately since they figured out how to run," he said, setting the little bat winged boy on Ichigo's back. He slumped into the nearest sofa.

Shuuhei and Izuru smiled at the scene. An odd family, but a nice one all the same. Shuuhei jumped as he felt someone touch his back. He turned and saw that Findorr and Abirama were both behind the two shinigami. The two arrancar exchanged a glance and then Findorr winked at them and walked off with Abirama. Shuuhei and Izuru looked at each other. Ichigo snickered and they looked at him.

"You two better watch out, Findorr and Abirama seem to think you two are worth a second glance," Ichigo said with a grin.

Shuuhei's eyes went wide. "What?"

Ichigo grinned. "Yeah, you should come around when they're rutting. They've taken a liking to you two…"

Izuru and Shuuhei glanced back up and over and saw they were being stared at. They weren't sure what to think, but Ichigo was snickering again.