Sequel to A Stork For Sessha

This story is dedicated to everyone who reviewed a Stork For Sessha and aided in the chocolate-covered madness that is Imbri trying to write humor. I love you all, and I'd list you all, too, but that'd take up too entirely much space and I'm rather lazy, so you know who you are.

There. It's been dedicated.

Chapter One: Sano's Secret

A/N: HALLOOOOOOOO, MINIONS! (gets answering cry of "Hallo, Imbri, Evil Mistress of All That Is Chocolaty and Stork-Influenced!") I'm baaaaack! As promised, we have a sequel..full of thrills! Chills! And one pissed gangster!

Sano: Hell, yeah. How could you do this to me?

Imbri: Cuz I'm the purest spawn of crazed evil and everyone loves me for it?

Sano: *grumble, growl, grumble*

Imbri: Okay! If you haven't read A Stork For Sessha, I'd suggest you do so or this will make little or no sense. Anyways, it's pretty damn funny- what about Kenshin makes him such a funny pregnant person?-and it's worth your time. Actually, it's rather pointless and not worth anyone's time, but oh well! Read it still!

AND ON TO, A STORK FOR SANOSUKE!

*

It was a normal sort of day, at a normal sort of restaurant, in a normal sort of city. It was a normal sort of fight, between normal combatants.

In all, it was quite *normal*.

Except the fact that it wasn't.

Sagara Sanosuke, his anger smoldering in a pert glare, gave a short look back at his companions: Kaoru, holding her baby son Kenji, a very stern Kenshin with his hand resting on the Sakabatou-in case Sano was not able to finish the fight in his usual fashion-and Yahiko, whose fingers were tight on his shinae. He was hardly one to pick measly street-fights (ha, ha), but he was just as prepared to back Sano up if it came to that.

Sano did not acknowledge this knowledge with a spoken word: it was always assumed that the members of the 'Gumi backed each other up in any circumstance and therefore was not something to dwell on needlessly.

"Kisama," Sano growled at his opponent, Evil Man, (Sano hadn't exchanged formalities with the drunk, and consequently referred to him only as "Evil Man") who was already nursing a bloodied nose. He glowered at the young ex-gangster with beady, bloodshot eyes, stinging from the inelegant curse he had spat.

"You gonna do sumthin' other than throw weak man's words?" Evil Man growled back, slurring slightly. Sano cracked his knuckles-at least the ones of his left hand, lest he aggravate his bandaged right one. He smirked his Sly Smart-Ass Smirk .

"You bet. You had no right to insultin' Kenshin," he said, alluding to the instance that had sparked the fight in the first place.

The drunk Evil Man had made a disparaging comment revolving around Kenshin's quite-girly looks (which was only enhanced as he carried around Kenji on his first excursion to town since the baby's miraculous birth, despite his chest and still-healing stomach being tightly bound), and though Kenshin had been one to forgive and forget in usual Rurouni fashion, Sano had been enraged at the lewd, crude, and rude treatment of this man who had not only given birth some weeks before, but had also saved the whole of Japan on various occasions.

Making fun of Kenshin was simply unforgivable in Sano's mind.

He carefully forgot every single instance that he, himself, had made fun of Kenshin-good God, *everyone* had made fun of Kenshin at one point or another!-and challenged the drunk to a fight, which was quickly accepted.

All that was quite normal.

And the fight itself had been quite normal, too.

But then...the not-so-quite-normal thing happened.

Evil Man was able to land a punch, just because Sano was being easy with him-Megumi always bitched when Sano sent men to the clinic, and so he'd much rather play around and knock the fellow up a bit than be smacked later on by the one person he never smacked back.

Just *one* punch.

On the guy that had defeated flesh-mountains like Anji the Warrior Monk. On the guy that had been beat down time and time again, and yet got back up smirking every time. On the guy that had been able to take a full- brunt Ryu Tsui Sen and had been able to keep on standing. On Sagara Sanosuke, the used-to-be Zanza.

Just *one* punch to the stomach, and Sano had turned white, crumpling instantly. He hadn't gotten back up, either, which was what made the 'Gumi worried.

Kaoru had calmly handed Kenji to her husband, stealing the Sakabatou, saya and all, from his obi and had nearly bludgeoned Evil Man to death until Kenji was passed to a surprised Yahiko and Kenshin had wrestled his wife away with a cry of "No killing, koishii, remember the no-killing rule!"

After being dragged unconscious into the Akabeko, Sano was eventually revived.

He had claimed that he was fine.

But, of course, everyone knew better.

Something was most definitely up.

*

Sanosuke was a notoriously bad keeper of secrets.

It really wasn't his fault-he was a (very) open, (fairly) honest young man, and he truly had no one to keep secrets from. Sano's life as a whole revolved around his mismatched family: Himura Kenshin, Himura Kaoru, and Myojin Yahiko.

Oh. And HER, too, though Sano felt currently very disagreeable with HER, and so HER name, though clearly guessable, shall remain unmentioned.

Yes, Sano thought of Kenshin, Kaoru, Yahiko, and HER as the closest thing to a family he was ever to get, and he cherished the time spent with them. Unless he was feeling disagreeable, and then he despised being around anyone but Kenshin, who was quite nearly impossible to be angry at for any long period of time.

Kenshin was just too cute and friendly to be angry at (Kaoru shared this special logic with Sano, actually).

Which made Kenshin very difficult to keep secrets from, notwithstanding the fact that Sano was terrible at keeping secrets to begin with. Kenshin saw all, knew all, understood all. It was one of those weird Rurouni things that the 'Gumi had come to accept about the wanderer-he was, beyond a doubt, the most attentive, caring friend, though he kept all his feelings to himself and had a habit of sulking like a pregnant hamster when in a bad mood.

Sano sort of thought of Kenshin as a friend/cousin/father/uncle/savior/distant relative/cousin/pal/brother figure, more or less. The Rurouni was definitely a good part of his life, having taught him many things.

Sagara Souzo, though, had taught his surrogate son, Sanosuke, many things as well.

Some of these things were manly things that Sano probably shouldn't have learned for a good couple years (involving women in one way or the other), but then again, he was a boy traveling with a makeshift army of general ruffians, so the point is a bit moot. Some of the things were elementary- you shoot a gun, it goes boom; you wear the sign of Evil on your back, and you better be ready to have a rep.

These things were classified under Cause and Effect.

For example-Cause: you learn a weird technique that stresses your hand; Effect: you mess up your poor little hand when you use it.

Cause: you make friends with the best swordsman in Japan; Effect: you get your ass whipped ten different ways by the nasty goonies hanging about your swordsman friend.

And-Cause: you have a fight with your girl; Effect: you drink heavily; and similarly-Cause: you drink heavily; Effect: you get a hell of a hangover.

At least, that's what Sano was blaming as the Cause for waking up in the morning, puking his guts out. He blamed that time and time again for several months, although he had given up drinking because of his lack of cash and Tae's sharp remarks about certain freeloaders.

Fights with Megumi (wait, dang it, we weren't supposed to say HER name..dash it). Sano was blaming it *all* on fights with Megumi. And when he fell ill, to the point that he lost a goodly amount of weight and could hardly get out of bed, Sano refused to go to Megumi. It was all the Fox's fault he was sick-worrying over her had surely weakened his immune system, making him susceptible to this deep-lasting flu.

Deep-lasting flu indeed. After two months, one very irritated Rurouni tried to bribe Sano into getting a checkup, but still the ex-gangster refused stoutly.

Honestly, Kenshin was slightly alarmed by the state Sanosuke had sunk to- he had loss enough weight so as to make his gaunt face a collection of sharp planes, he hardly got out of bed unless it involved a mad dash to the restroom, to get violently sick, and, well, that weight loss really was heavy on Kenshin's mind, so it deserved a second mention.

It wasn't right for Sano the Skinny to be *that* skinny. It wasn't healthy.

So, Kenshin and Kenji visited the ruffian's row-house often, bringing over dinners and cheerful smiles. Sano was ever grateful for the Rurouni and his everlasting kindness, and, after a time, he managed to gain back some of that weight-hey, Kenshin's cooking did that to a person. He more than made up for his wife's dismal culinary skills, which was quite a good thing considering the Himura household would have starved otherwise.

That is how our story starts-with Sano cheerfully eating, commenting on the delectable nature of the food, Kenshin nodding as usual, discreetly feeding little Kenji. At first, it had weirded Sano out that the Rurouni had to breast-feed the baby in a womanly manner, but it hadn't taken long for him to get used to the sight of Kenji suckling noisily away from Kenshin's loosened gi.

Sano got used to things, no matter how odd or brain-bending, rather quickly. In fact, it had been he who had taken the news of Kenshin's pregnancy the easiest. He'd hardly goggled at all as the Rurouni had grown, having already assimilated the fact of his pregnancy, and that being just an effect of this said pregnancy.

Such thoughts percolated in the ex-gangster's mind as he ate. Kenshin seemed truly happy with his son, and he had yet to loose that almost maternal glow his eyes radiated when he held Kenji. It was such a profound warmth.

"Kenshin," Sano said slowly, and the Rurouni looked up, pleasantly curious, as always. "Are you happy?"

"Aa, very happy." Kenji whimpered, and Kenshin had to change breasts..er..whatever you wanted to call them (-_-x). "Why do you ask?" Evasive, Sano chased a couple grains of rice along the bottom of his bowl with his chopsticks, not wanting to meet his gently questioning gaze. He decided just to bite the bullet.

"My family's always been sort of dysfunctional," he said, sighing as he thought about the 'family' he had left behind in that backwater mountain village. "I left when I was nine or ten, y'know, so I don't remember all that much...but I didn't get many warm, fuzzy feelings. Mom was sick, and dad was a shameless drunk. I basically raised my little sister, Umi. It was rough-that was why I left."

Kenshin nodded, understanding in a way that only he could be, and Sano plowed on, not about to stop now that he had started.

"Megumi has fond memories of her family. She wants..children. Snot-nosed, hyperactive little demons to hang on me and call me otousan.." Sano shuddered at the mere thought. "But I'm hardly a father figure-I'm worse than my own dad, really. I'm every bit the roughhousing drunk he was, if not more so."

"Sessha has a feeling this is what kindled the argument between you and Megumi-dono," Kenshin said sagely, and the younger man winced at just the name. Ah yes, how well the Rurouni understood!

"More or less. Megumi's...left for Aizu for the next year. She said I need time to figure out what kind of freeloading idiot I am," Sano conceded in a mutter, still staring at his empty rice-bowl.

"Do you want sessha's input, de gozaru?"

Sano paused. Looked at Kenshin. Nodded.

"Sessha believes you *would* make a good father, Sano."

Sano didn't talk to Kenshin for two weeks after that particular comment. He would have angrily ignored the Rurouni for far longer if not for a particular eye-opening experience involving a certain winged girl and one very shocking revelation that he had secretly been fearing.

Sano was a brash young man, and he hardly listened to his body unless it positively screamed at him. Ignoring the aches and pains was far easier than picking them apart to find the source, and so that was exactly what he had always done. But some things are simply too obvious to ignore, and Sano had been uncharacteristically attuned to his body ever since Koonotori's fateful prediction on the night of Kenji's birth.

Being sick was one thing. Being sick for almost two and a half months, loosing weight, and then gaining it back with unnatural efficiency was something else entirely. Sano had hardly needed Koonotori's appearance and announcement to confirm his fearful little doubts.

In fact, the moment he awoke to that cheerful cry of "Hallooooo, Mr. Sagara!" Sano had burst into tears on the spot, not even needing the explanation to justify his slightly convex waist, the mood swings, and just *everything*.

That was his secret, the secret that he was hard-put to keep as long as he could: thanks to one very malign little Stork, Sagara Sanosuke was very much pregnant.

Which, he decided, was not cool.

*

Imbri: Muahahahaaa. Short chapter. Yup. More later. Yup. Gonna go, now.

Sano: Yup.

Imbri: Are you mocking me?

Sano: Yup.

Imbri: Remember what happened to Hiko, when he didn't believe in fairies?

Sano: Yup.

Imbri: I could have Koonotori do that to you, y'know.

Sano: Eep.

Imbri: Muahahaa. I do love this job.

~Imbrium