"Hello in there… I am your father. You may not like me, I don't expect you to…" Long pale fingers splayed across a large extended belly, as if trying to encompass the entire mound. "I ask for you to give me a chance…"

Soft laughter, confident in it's tone and light in it's weight, sounded in the spacious bedroom as one apricot tan hand grasped the pale one strongly. "You are so silly, Gaara-kun… You know he shall love you with every bit of his tiny heart!" A bright smile accompanied the words as another apricot hand wound with the other apricot hand and held onto his own pale one, rubbing the skin gently.

There was a long moment of content silence before Lee jumped slightly. He blinked with wide eyes before laughing with pure joy, pressing Gaara's hand to his belly. "Do you feel that, Gaara-kun!? Our son is being all together youthful! Yosh! He can not wait to be in the outside world where he shall be so energetic!"

Against Gaara's captured hand, steady thumps beat his palm. Pale lips gaped open as blue-green eyes flickered wider before the entire being that was Sabaku no Gaara seemed to melt… If only if one were to see the tension leave his shoulders and the gentleness that entered his eyes, anyhow.

His hand splayed again, feeling each little kick his son delivered with a sense of awe. Occasionally, he forgot that his seed had been planted into the belly of his lover. … As strange and dangerous a process that had been, yet, somehow, it still managed to slip his mind.

No one had wished for him as a child, who would wish to have his child?

Apparently, that would be Rock, Lee… Or Sabaku no Lee, as more commonly known these by and by days.

Eventually, the unborn child ceased his movements, possibly going back to 'sleep'. Lee gave a contented sigh as he leaned back onto the horde of pillows and blankets, groaning happily as his sore back was supported. "Oh, my youthful son, I shall miss the bond we alone share, but I can not say the same for the back pains…"

He nearly purred with pleasure as Gaara ran his hands up his sides, pressing his fingers into the skin to relieve some stress. "Maaaaah… Thank you, Koibito…"

Instead of answering, Gaara pushed for Lee to get onto his side. The raven did so willingly, his eyes closed and a small smile on his lips as his hands wandered over the flesh of his pregnant belly. He gasped slightly before whining low in his throat, arching his back into the redhead's massaging fingers. "Gaara-kun…"

The kazekage gave a sigh of acknowledgment. He brushed his lips tenderly over Lee's forehead, his darkly shadowed eyes at half-mast. "Does that feel good?"

Lee gave a hum of pure ecstasy, his neck arching back so he could look up into blue-green eyes with dazed over obsidian orbs. "It feels so good, Koibito!"

Gaara settled his head into the junction of Lee's shoulder, pressing a kiss to Lee's collarbone as he settled his bared body behind Lee, flush to his back. "Lee."

Lee rose an inquisitive eyebrow, his eyes closed and breathing deeply. He was so tired… Very happily so! Yet still so tired… "Mmmm…?"

"Are you going to love him?"

Lee's eyebrows drew together in distress. He began to sob, cupping his hands to his mouth as he did so, his shoulders trembling. Darn these pregnancy hormones, but that question hurt him more than any torture! He would turn around and hug his lover, yet the very creature they are now speaking of scorned just the thought of it by thumping the wall of his temporary womb, meant only to last ten months for the conception of the child, the nurturing of it, and then the birth. "Oh, yes, Koibito… He shall be the light of my eyes as you are the fire of my heart. He shall be my reason to fight as you are my reason to live!" He stroked a hand through blood red hair that tickled his cheek. "And you shall love him as well, Gaara-kun… Of that, I am positively certain!"

Gaara leaned into the caress, his eyes open, but dazed slightly. "… "

Lee twisted his neck to a near painful angle to brush a kiss over the redhead's forehead, tears streaming from his dark eyes as he scratched the kage behind the ear. "And he shall adore you, husband…"

Gaara slid his eyes closed, subtly arching into the scratch as a shudder ran down his spine. "That's a lie… With the stories he will hear, he will come to despise the monster that is his father."

"Was his father… And no longer would the villagers be so cruel to you… They all love you so dearly, so very much…" He grabbed one of the redhead's hands with his own, merely holding it because he could. "And your child would feel that love, know the greatness and power that his father has, and love you even more so…" He held their hands over his belly, just over where their son's tired beatings were becoming fainter. "Do you feel that, husband? That is life… Life we created by love and sacrifice."

"As well as biological mutation and genetic research expansion." Gaara's voice was serious if not distant, as if his thoughts were not on what was being said, but inward.

Lee had that moment in his married life to Gaara where he heaved a sigh and had to bite back both irritation and laughter. The hand over his belly rubbed comfortingly, sending little thrills down his spine he knew he could not assuage. He was just too big! Besides that, that would be… awkward, to say the least…

"… What am I to do if you die of child birth?" The tone of dominance and power was carried across in the whispery deep voice, but a lighter tone, a scared tone lied beneath it like a thief in the dead of night.

Lee's smile grew ever so much more gentle. "You are to love him twice as much! No! You must him infinitely no matter what! Yet, if I were to die…" He had to give it a long moment of thought. And then, so slow and so beautiful even Gaara had to snatch his breath back and go still in hopes of not shattering the moment, Lee gave the smile. Not the one given to every stranger on the street. Not the beautiful green beast of Konoha smile. Not any of those smiles! This was the smile that was purely Lee. A curve of the lips upwards as childish giggles escaped him and his shoulders hunched into himself. "Why, husband, you are to tell him that I loved him infinitely so, and shall always watch over him! Yosh!"

Gaara sighed, kissing the apricot pale shoulder as he pressed their cheeks together.

The world had turned against him once more. The first time, it had made him angry and murderous. This time… He felt as if he were the one being murdered; as if this was his doing and he would yet again lose someone dear to him. First he had psychotic. Usually he was aloof and stoic. Now…

Being a nervous wreck was dangerous for a kage. Especially one that has already died before. Lee was strong… always had been, always would be… He'd make it through this and prove Gaara to be a coward in this unique situation….

Maybe that was why there was so much anxiety and fear… There was no solid knowledge in this newly formed way to carry children. Everything was a variable, and he was a man used to being in control, or suffering for not being so. Here, nothing was for him to control…

Before Lee had chosen to become pregnant, he had slept two hours each or every other night. Now? His sleeping pattern was everywhere, depending on Lee's mood, on Lee's appetite, on Lee's exercise routine, on Lee's bodily reactions to the pregnancy… His life revolved around the boy and he did not know how that had came to be. He wasn't dependent on the raven haired man…

Just so very much in need… And that was nearly as bad.

He stroked raven hair out of his face, his eyes closed as his body went lax and his mind into meditation. "Don't leave me… Not for this."

If Lee heard his plea, he was very good at pretending not to have, seeing as how he snored quietly in his arms, eyes shut and mouth gaping open, hands pressing into Gaara's.

… Which did not explain the curious yet loving smile that came over his lips moments after the kage's words. "Never, Gaara-kun…"

"Kazekage-sama, he's-"

"Can I see him?"

The doctor blinked. "Well, yes, but don't you want to-"

What room has he been moved to."

The doctor blinked again, this time doing a double take. "Room 416 in the- Hey! Kazekage-sama, don't you want to know about-"

"Your job here is done. Thank you for your assistance…. Leave."

The doctor scattered as if having never been, leaving the redhead wearing blue and white robes to wander down the hall to the paternity ward. He paused at the window showing into a room full of cribs. His eyes flickered over each and every other until he found none of them to be theirs. He walked away, face blank and mouth set as moved only .52 seconds faster than before.

"You are so beautiful, oh the most handsome little man I have ever seen!"

He opened the door slowly, eyes at half-mast as he listened to his husband speak to who had to be their child. Opening it revealed Lee, hair mussed, skin pale, and wearing a hospital gown. There were bags under his eyes and a tired edge to his smile. Yet the smile itself was sincere and full of blissful joy.

Wordlessly, he tilted the baby so Gaara could see. His first impression was that they had given birth to a mutated rat. And then large orb-like eyes shot open and soared blearily around the room.

… If the creature had Lee's eyes, then there was some beauty to be found, he presumed, stepping to their side and brushing a finger across the baby's cheek, watching as the tiny being puckered his lips as if suckling from something.

"Gaara…" There was both a teasing and serious tone to his voice.

"…?" His gaze did not lift from the baby, but he knew his lover understood.

"… I can breastfeed him."

And with that statement, I end this one-shot! iCheyenna wanted to see more mpreg!… I didn't want to see another 90 chapters. SO, I compromised and gave you all this! *bows apologetically* I know it sucks, but it's midnight, and I really have no idea what I was writing. This is dedicated to iCheyenna, by the way! Just in case no one figured that out.