Mike has picked up a side job teaching pregnancy yoga classes at the YMCA. On Thursdays, he does a special class for transgender fathers-to-be. It's a very popular class, especially considering he's the reason almost all of them are pregnant.

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At around six in the evening, Mike scanned his key card at the entrance to the YMCA, waving at the receptionist behind the desk that he recognized, but didn’t quite know the name of. He found his way to the workout room and found it still full with the previous hour’s aerobics class. The goat sat at the edge of the padded floor, scrolling patiently on his phone while waiting for it to end. Once the room was empty, he deposited his gym bag beside the shoe cubby, laid out his yoga mat, then began stretching, making sure to face the wall mirror so he could see if anyone was coming. It only took a few minutes for the first of his class to arrive.
Nolan, a dark-furred fox, waddled inside with a hand bracing against his back, his belly leading the way. He pulled it away to wave excitedly at Mike, but instantly regretted it and slapped his hand back to his back. Under his right arm he carried a lime green yoga mat that he dropped in the middle of the floor and rolled open with a kick of his paw.

“Welcome back!” Mike said cheerfully, approaching Nolan to keep him from having to walk any further. He extended a hand that the young fox took firmly. “Glad you could make it, especially now.”
“Your class is pretty much the only reason I get out of the house these days.” Nolan began absentmindedly stretching his arms, the overtaxed fabric of his shirt riding up his rounded belly inch-by-inch every time he lifted them above his head. Mike tried not to pay this much attention. “There’s this tight spot in my back. Yoga is the only thing that can work out.”
“Glad to be of service. This class is the highlight of my week, too.”
“Yeah.” Nolan smirked and gave him a sly look. “I’ll bet.”

To make a couple extra bucks, Mike had started teaching a prenatal yoga class a couple nights a week. On Thursday nights he held a special class just for expecting transgender fathers, which was very popular within that small demographic. Nolan had been attending the class for months, starting when his belly was little more than a bump hiding underneath his clothes. Now, only weeks away from birth, he still made it part of his routine, even if his body made most of the poses impossible. He, like the others, simply enjoyed the companionship with other guys in the same boat as them.
Though many of them had more in common than just expectant fatherhood.
“How’s everything going?” Mike asked as he walked back to his own mat.
“As well as it can go, I guess.” Nolan sighed as he slowly sank down to a seated position on his mat. With his legs crossed, his belly settled in his lap. “I’m on track to get induced on the 5th. If she doesn’t feel like showing up early.”
Mike frowned. “If there’s a risk of that, maybe it’d be a good idea to skip the yoga.”
“My doula says it’s fine. It’ll probably help with labor, actually. I’m doing whatever I can to avoid a c-section.” Nolan made an uncomfortable grunt and massaged the sides of his tight dome of a belly. “Anything that can get my stress down is fair game.”

The door around the corner squeaked open and the light sound of tapping hooves clicked across the tile floor. At the edge of the padded carpet, a deer wear a neon-colored tank top – that did nothing to cover his baby bump – threw his gym bag to the ground and bounded excitedly across the room.
“Mike! Hurry! Quick!” He motioned for Mike to get closer. When he did, the deer lifted back the edge of his tank top, took the goat’s hand, and pressed it flat against the left side of his belly. “He was just doing it, hang on…”
The two of them waited for a few seconds, barely moving a muscle. Then an almost imperceptibly soft motion began to flutter against Mike’s palm. It was subtle, but he recognized the feeling almost immediately as the small movements of the baby inside. He’d felt this many times before, but each and every time brought a huge smile to his face.
“That’s him, alright,” said Mike, feeling again another kick, more defined than the last. “He’s strong, too. It usually isn’t until later that anyone can feel him move but you.”
“I blame the hooves.” The deer, Brandon, stuck out his tongue and kicked one of Mike’s sturdy goat legs that ended in a black cloven hoof. “I knew he was gonna be a kicker. I blame his other dad.”

“Well…y’know…” Mike swallowed and bashfully scratched between his horns, pulling his eyes away from Brandon’s second-trimester belly. “…The good news is…the hooves come out soft, so y’know they…won’t hurt you or anything.”
“Even if they don’t, if he’s kicking like this so early on, he’s gonna be knocking soccer balls around by the time he’s due.” Brandon said this, not with apprehension, but with a wide grin and both hands excitedly rubbing his bump.
“Then maybe he’ll be better than I was.”
“You played soccer?”
“In high school. I sucked at it, but I could kick hard.”
“Then we know at least one thing he’s got from you,” said Brandon. He pulled down his tank top, covering his dome of a belly, and went to get one of the YMCA’s yoga mats from the back wall. Even after weeks of attending the class, he still didn’t have his own. “Hey, after this, wanna come over and watch TV? I got oven pizza.”
“I’ll come hang out, but the pizza is gonna cancel out all the exercise we’ll be doing here,” said Mike as he went back to his own mat.
“…Right. Exercise.” Brandon dropped his mat near the front of the room and unrolled it. He mostly came to the yoga classes for the community and an excuse to hang out with Mike, with the exercise being a bit of an afterthought to him. He could afford to, since he wasn’t paying for the class to begin with.

Brandon and Mike had met several years ago as friends-of-friends. The two of them had a sense of humor in common and ended up hanging out with one another more than the original friends they’d met through. Over time, jokes turned into joke flirting, which turned into real flirting, which resulted in a night that started at the bar and ended in Brandon’s bed. Neither of them had been in any state to remember protection and the deer found himself pregnant a few weeks later. Once the shock and terror had worn off, they both found they liked the idea of co-parenting together and Brandon decided to keep the baby. Mike had been teaching his yoga class for a while and it seemed only natural to offer the friend carrying his kid free lessons for the duration of the pregnancy.

The deer plopped down on his mat, stretching out his legs and dancing his fingers across his belly. Glancing at Nolan, the only other student there, his eyes lingered on the fox’s middle, his eyes wide as he imagined what he would have to expect in just a few weeks. Mike couldn’t tell if the look on his face was fear or excitement. Probably a mix of both.
“It’s as heavy as it looks,” Nolan said without opening his eyes. With a grunt of discomfort, he stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back on both arms. “It sneaks up on you, though.”
“Yeah, it does. Sometimes I look down and I’m like ‘wow, I forgot you were even there.’”
“Just wait. Soon enough, you won’t be able to forget.”

The door squeaked open again and Brandon and Nolan glanced over their shoulders. A lion padded silently across the floor, one arm holding an expensive yoga mat and the other resting atop a protruding third-trimester belly, neatly contained beneath the stretchy fabric of an exercise shirt. The fur around his face was dark brown, nearly black, and grew out to about half the length of a normal mane. Mike had been told this was one of the effects taking testosterone had on lions and he found it fascinating.
“Hi Xander!” Brandon took a hand from his belly long enough to wave at the lion as he cleanly set his mat in the corner of the room, which was his usual spot regardless of how full the class was that day.
“Hello Brandon,” said the lion, his voice as smooth as warm milk. “You look well.”
“I am very well, thank you,” Brandon said, adopting a similarly formal tone to Xander’s. “You are looking well yourself.”
Xander chuckled and rested a hand on his belly. “We’re both healthy, if that’s what you mean. The baby’s measuring large for this point in the pregnancy and I consider that a good thing.”
“Maybe now you do. See if you still think that in the delivery room.”
“How large is ‘large?’” asked Nolan.
“They estimate between nine to ten pounds at birth.”
Brandon whistled and cast a wide-eyed glance back at Mike. “Is that something I have to look forward to?”
“It’s not unlikely,” said Xander, also turning his sharp eyes toward Mike. “They do share the same father.”

Under the gaze of the two men, Mike rocked in place uncomfortably, rubbing his hands together while averting his eyes. “Well, I mean…my sister was about ten pounds, but I was only like six or seven, so it’s…y’know, that’s doesn’t necessarily mean Brandon’s baby will…”
“What, you don’t wanna see me all big and helpless?” The deer cast him a teasing look and rubbed his bump. “Waddling around with your ten-pounder kicking the crap outta me?”
“No, it…uh…” Mike cleared his throat and turned his attention to Xander. “Glad to hear everything’s going well.” He wanted to steer the conversation away from Brandon’s teasing both to keep the class semi-professional and because his gym shorts didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“I think it’s plainly obvious you’ve given me a healthy baby,” Xander said, taking a deep breath that pushed his middle out a few more inches. “I expected nothing less.”
“G-Good. Good.”
“Don’t act so bashful, Michael.” Xander carefully sank to his knees on his yoga mat, settling with his feet tucked under him. His hands rested gracefully around his belly, framing it between them like a figure in a Renaissance painting. He was one of the few in the class not to have gotten top surgery and the weight of his breasts settled atop it beautifully. “Be proud of the seed you’ve sown. I certainly am.”

Mike and Xander had met at a local art event in town and were introduced by one half of a lesbian couple they were mutual friends with. The couple had brought with them their toddler, a well-behaved little half-goat that the lion couldn’t keep his eyes off of. When he found out that it was Mike that had helped conceive their baby, Xander became very interested in him and began making excuses to hang out one-on-one. After time spent getting acquainted, he invited Mike to a coffee shop they both frequented and admitted his intentions. Xander wanted a baby of his own and he wanted Mike to give him one. He didn’t like the idea of using a sperm bank full of strangers and much preferred getting to know his stud of choice before carrying his baby. It didn’t take much convincing to get the goat back to Xander’s house to start the process. In a matter of weeks, the lion was pregnant, but this wasn’t the end of things. His appetite for sex grew even more ravenous. He said many times that he’d found his calling, that he was meant to be a father, and that this child would be far from his last.

“He is proud, but he’s too shy to say so,” said Brandon.
“Just know that I’m thinking about you every time I have trouble reaching something from a high shelf or feel stirring from the little one.” Xander smiled and stroked his belly. “And I’m sure I’ll be thinking of you even more on the day they decide to join us.”
Mike, feeling hot under the collar, sat cross-legged on his mat to hide the bulge in his pants. It had gotten him into enough trouble already. He liked that Xander always spoke his mind, but he was also never shy about things that, maybe, didn’t need to be said in mixed company. Mike glanced at Nolan and found he was simply doing his warm-ups and minding his own business. The fox came to yoga because he was solely focused on his own health and the health of his baby. The same couldn’t be said for the others.

The conversation hit a lull as Mike began his own stretches. He extended his right leg and tucked his left in until his hoof touched his inner thigh, then leaned forward and rested both hands on his shin. This was his favorite starting stretch, one that loosened up his legs and his lower back equally, both areas of concern for him. Brandon watched him for a moment, then tried to imitate the stretch himself, but found that dome in his middle wouldn’t let him.
“I can’t even do that one anymore,” he laughed.
“It’s not about doing the poses exactly,” Mike said, his voice soft a low in his chest. “It’s about listening to your body and working with what it wants.”
“My body’s been doing a lot of talking lately, that’s the problem. I kinda wish it would shut up every once in a while.”
“Give it time, give it time…” Xander said. He was stretching in a pose similar to Mike’s, one leg extended, but bent to the side to avoid squishing his belly. Even this far into the pregnancy, he was still lithe and flexible. “Once you embrace the changes that are happening to you, you’ll find a way to make peace with it.”
“True peace does come from within,” said a new voice.

Mike glanced up and found a capybara sitting in a perfect lotus pose on his mat behind Brandon. His eyes were closed and he breathed slowly, as if sleeping, with hands gently cradling his heavily pregnant belly, the largest in the class by far. He was wearing a maternity athletic shirt with a lotus bud on the belly, but even that was stretched beyond the point of recognition.
“Joel!” Mike gasped. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”
“Hey Joel!” Brandon tipped his head back to look at the capybara upside-down. “Holy shit, how have you not popped yet?”
“She’s not ready, that’s all.” Joel peeked one eye open and smiled at him. “She’ll tell me when it’s time.”
“Maybe she won’t. Maybe you gotta force-evict her little ass outta there.”
Joel closed his one eye and shook his head again, massaging his fingers into the sides of his bump. “Mm. No. It’ll be soon.”
“I wish my kid could tell me stuff like that,” said Brandon. “All I get is 3AM kicks demanding more peanut butter cups from the freezer.”
“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised you’re here,” said Mike. “Isn’t your due date…soon?”
The capybara shrugged. “We’re a little over, I think.”

Frowning, Mike reached for his phone and opened his calendar app. He had a lot of due dates to keep track of, so it took him a moment to find Joel’s, which had been scheduled for…
“You’re five days overdue?”
Brandon, Xander, and even Nolan looked up at this and stole glances at Joel’s belly like it was a time bomb ticking down.
“Only if you’re counting by a Western calendar,” said Joel. He was as serene as if he were talking about the weather. “My body will know when it’s time. If it says ‘not yet,’ then that’s the answer.”
“Joel, I…I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to be here, man.”
“I do.” Letting out a long sigh, he opened both of his soft, brown eyes and smiled easily at Mike. “Don’t worry so much. Your daughter and I are perfectly healthy. When she decides she’s ready, you’ll be the first person I call.”

Joel was an avid yoga practitioner and had been for years before he and Mike met in another class. While the goat mostly did it for stress relief and to improve flexibility, the capybara was much more invested in the spiritual side of yoga. Mike didn’t really share the beliefs, but he found them fascinating and Joel found his curiosity charming. He believed sex was an important, natural drive of the body, separate from romance, and thought nothing of asking if Mike would like a some private lessons. One afternoon, during a spring fertility ritual that Mike didn’t quite understand, they had an incident with a ripped condom that they suspected was the cause of Joel becoming pregnant. Mike himself was mortified, but Joel had a different outlook. For this to happen the way it did, especially during a ritual, told him that it was his karmic destiny to have Mike’s baby, that it was simply meant to be. He saw it as something beautiful, as life itself blossoming within him, and was eager to experience the act of bringing someone new into the world.

“I’m pretty sure the hospital is going to name their delivery room after you,” Brandon teased Mike.
“I’m doing a home birth. My sister had her second at home and it was the most beautiful moment of her life.” Joel looked at Mike. “I hope you can make it, whenever it happens.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I’ll be there. How could I miss it?”
Joel smirked. “From the sound of things, you’re about to have a pretty busy schedule.”
“Aren’t home births dangerous?” asked Brandon.
“Only if you aren’t prepared. I have a few doula friends that’ll be there.”
“I’m doing it in a birth center,” said Xander. “It’s only a short drive from home.”
“Why not a hospital?” Brandon asked. “I want them to give me all the drugs they have, especially if Mike’s kid ends up being a big chonker like you guys have.”
“Hospitals aren’t well equipped to deal with trans fathers in a respectful way,” Joel explained. “Besides, I want to experience my birth as fully as I can in a safe, comfortable environment.”
“I feel the same,” Xander nodded.
Glancing aside, Brandon furrowed his brow and frowned, absentmindedly stroking his belly. He mumbled under his breath, “…Should I go to birth center?”

With ten minutes until the start of class, Mike connected his phone to the room’s speakers and queued up his yoga playlist, a soothing collection of instrumental songs to fill the silence. In that time, the rest of the class began to arrive. An otter couple, Jules and Anthony, came in hand-in-hand, each of them carrying a third-trimester belly around the same size. They set up their mats in the back of the class, close to one another. Jules gave Mike a friendly wave before the two of them continued talking to each other. Not far behind them was Oliver, a quiet lynx early in his second trimester. A recent addition to the class, he mostly kept to himself, but was gradually starting to open up and find community with the other ‘seahorse dads.’ Though he said little about himself, he was more than happy to open up about his baby, a girl that he was going to name ‘Emily.’

As the clock hit seven, it seemed that the class was as big as it was going to get. Just as Mike opened his mouth to welcome them, however, the door swung inward one last time as a dark-furred ferret stumbled inside, panting like he’d been running. He was dressed in a punk style with several variety of piercings in his ears, a black vest covered in patches, and heavy boots that he struggled to unlace. His tough exterior was in sharp contrast to the gentle swell of his baby bump, early in the second trimester but appearing larger thanks to his thin, lanky body. It was covered, but easily visible beneath the cheap cotton tank top he wore under his vest.
“Sorry. I forgot what day it was.” the ferret panted, kicking off his boots and stuffing his vest into one of the wall cubbies.
“You’re fine, no need to rush,” said Mike. “We haven’t started yet.”
“Hey Wyatt!” Brandon waved from the front of the class, to which the ferret responded with a quick and flustered nod.

Rubbing a sore spot out of the small of his back, Wyatt speed-waddled to the back of the room, took one of the mats, and rolled it out behind Joel, settling into a clumsy lotus pose. Finding he couldn’t see past the large capybara, he scooted the mat a little to the left. Mike checked the time and allowed a few extra minutes to go by for Wyatt to catch his breath before class began.
“Al-right, let’s get started,” he said in a low, gentle voice. “Hey guys! Glad everybody could make it tonight. It’s all familiar faces, which is great. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I’m just hanging out with my friends more than I’m teaching a class, y’know? It feels like we’ve made a little family for ourselves.”

Brandon snorted with barely-suppressed laughter. Mike scratched behind his ear and cleared his throat.
“Well…for a lot of you, I guess that’s literally what happened but…that’s not the point. Anyway, welcome back, glad to see you’re all doing well. You’re all carrying beautifully, each and every one of you. Yoga can be pretty intense, so sticking with it while pregnant is a real accomplishment. You guys should all be proud of yourselves.”
Rocking forward, Mike climbed to his hooves and stood facing the class. The group of pregnant men all did the same, each of them struggling in their own way to get off the ground. Once they were all standing, Mike took a deep breath and put his hands together in front of his chest, which the rest of the class followed along with.
“Close your eyes and reach your arms high above your head, fingers spread as wide as you can. Fill your whole lungs with hair and breathe in, and out. In, and out.”

The class, in unison, took a deep breath of air and reached high above their heads. For a moment, Mike’s eyes drifted across the room, taking in the small crowd of burgeoning bellies that faced him. Each were different sizes, different shapes, covered in different shades of fur, but all of them carried the seed of a new life within them. He tried to keep the class as professional as he could, but he couldn’t stop himself from getting a little emotional at this sight. He had good reason to be.

Of the eight students in his paternity yoga class, six were carrying children he himself had fathered.

He hadn’t done it on purpose, of course. Each one of them had a different circumstance for ending up with one of Mike’s kids in their belly. Some, like Xander, had asked him for one. Others, like Joel, had been accidents they decided to keep. And the expectant fathers in the class weren’t the only ones, either. By accident, the goat had developed something of a reputation and had become the inadvertent stud for the local trans community. This word-of-mouth was how Jules and Anthony had found him.
Mike’s problem – aside from the looming cost of diapers and baby formula – was how many of those fathers-to-be were taking his class. Like many things, it was Brandon’s fault. He’d shown a passing interest in taking one of Mike’s classes before getting pregnant, so offering free lessons as an apology for knocking him up was the least the goat could do. The problem was that Brandon knew everyone in town and refused to keep his mouth shut. What Mike had intended as a favor to a single friend, Brandon took it as official policy and passed it on to every trans father with a certain goat’s kid in their belly. Though it was based on a misunderstanding, Mike couldn’t bring himself to turn down the parents of his future children, so the class was eventually filled with them. As of now, he only had two paying students, Oliver and Nolan. By the look of Nolan’s belly, he would soon be down to just one.

“Mike.”

Mike blinked. He’d been staring in blank silence at the class, lost in thought. The thumps and sneaker squeaks of an in-progress basketball game on the floor above them leaked through the ceiling and he realized he’d forgotten to actually start his playlist. He quickly stooped to his phone, pressed play, then stood back up with his arms stretched high above his head.
“So…what next?” asked Brandon. His arms were still high above his head, his fingers spread apart. His raised shoulders had caused the front of his shirt to rise up and expose his navel, flattened by the expanding womb beneath it. This had happened to everyone else in the class, but instead of pausing to pull his shirt back down like the rest of them, Brandon had simply giggled and left it where it was.
“Sorry, I was…” Mike shook his head and cleared his throat, then continued in a soft voice. “On an exhale, extend your arms with your wrists at hip level, then bend your legs into chair pose.”

With a collective breath, the class sighed together and squatted into chair pose, some of them with greater success than others. Joel, despite his advanced pregnancy, had perfect form, as per usual. His eyes were shut and he seemed to strain a little more than usual, but a few cycles of breath were enough to soothe him. Brandon simply did a little squat and entertained himself by looking around the room. Wyatt, in the back, was struggling to adjust to his new center of gravity and wobbled dangerously. Mike slipped past the other members of the class and steadied him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t bend forward, ease it back,” Mike said, coaching the ferret to further bend his knees and angle his butt parallel to the floor. “Like sitting in a chair.”
“I know, I know,” He moved a hand to his still-growing bump and gently pressed on it. “I can hardly even bend over, anymore,” Wyatt grumbled in frustration. This was only his third class and he was still getting used to it.
“It’s not about doing it right, it’s about doing what you can.” Mike hesitated, then allowed himself to gently stroke the side of Wyatt’s belly. “Especially now.”
The touch seemed to relax the ferret, causing his shoulders to soften as he settled more comfortably into the pose. He’d stopped wobbling enough that Mike felt comfortable pulling his hands away. He’d never dream of putting his hands on the students of his other classes, but most of these guys were close friends of his. Besides, the fact they were here meant they had done plenty of touching already.
Wyatt let out a sigh. “Okay, okay. I think I got it. Sorta.” He touched his middle again and rolled his eyes with a faint smile. “He had another growth spurt and it’s making everything way harder. Every time I drop something on the floor, a little voice in the back of my head says, Thanks Mike.”

For a while, Wyatt had floated around the periphery of Mike’s life. He knew of him, had friends that knew him, but the two of them didn’t really spend much time together. The ferret was part of a polycule of five, each one of them a different flavor of trans or nonbinary. Mike was better friends with two of his partners, who last year had invited him as a ‘special guest’ at a very intimate house party. While not really part of the relationship, he became something of a family friend, affectionately referred to as their ‘token cis.’ He and Wyatt hit it off, finding they had a lot of interests in common, a similar sense of humor, and a very loud sexual attraction to one another. Like too many people before him, Wyatt had assumed that taking testosterone worked as a form of birth control and was terrified to find out it didn’t. He wrestled with the idea of whether to terminate and finally decided, as the only member of the polycule able to get pregnant, he wanted a chance to give his family a baby. They were overjoyed at the news, doted on him day and night, and showered him with enough affection to override all the unpleasantness that came with pregnancy.

“Always happy to help,” Mike said with friendly sarcasm. Turning his head over his shoulder, he said to the rest of the class, “Stand up straight and release that tension. Shake your knees out and get loose.”
Another relieved sigh rolled through the room as the class stood out of chair pose, those that could still reach them massaging their knees. Wyatt groaned and rubbed his lower back, pushing his belly out towards Mike and barely grazing the back of his hand. “God my back is fucking killing me. Every day, something else hurts in a way I didn’t know it could.”
“That’s pregnancy for you. The yoga will help.”
“It better. I keep hearing the second time is easier. I hope that’s true.” Wyatt was never shy about all the aches, pains, and discomforts that pregnancy was causing him and complained about it constantly, but was adamant he was going to have another baby after this one. Mike wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“When you’re ready, slowly ease down to your knees. Then, place your palms on the mat shoulder-width apart. Spread your fingers wide and press down into the floor.”

It took a moment of struggle for the pregnant men to find their way to their knees. Mike jogged around the room, helping those farthest along to safely descend to the mat. As each of them took the pose, their bellies hung low as gravity pulled them to the floor. Xander wiggled in place, his tail twitching, clearly enjoying the sensation on his lower back. As Mike’s gaze drifted toward Brandon and the two of them briefly met eyes, the deer’s tail twitched and he wiggled his ass playfully in the goat’s direction, cupping one hand beneath his belly for emphasis. Mike pretended to ignore it.
“On an inhale, arch your back as best you can in a gentle curve.”
The class did so, the collective hiss of drawn breath making a sound like heavy rainfall.
Waiting a few extra seconds, Mike said, “Exhale, then arch your back, lifting your face toward the ceiling. Make your whole spine smile.”

This pose proved difficult for Joel, who was now large enough that his heavy belly was pushed into the mat beneath him as he arched his back. He laughed to himself at this development and simply did what he could still manage. For a few cycles of breath, the class repeated this motion, working up a sweat while also working out the strain in their lower backs. It was a popular pose in maternity yoga and it was one Mike liked to include fairly early into his classes to get everyone limbered up.
“On your next exhale, roll onto your backs. Lay your arms flat at your sides and bend your knees, bringing your hooves close to your butt.” Mike stumbled, realizing what he’d said. “I mean, paws. Hooves. Whatever it is you have.”
The class chuckled together as they rolled onto their backs. From his angle at the front of the class, Mike found that all of them were far enough along that their bellies eclipsed their faces. He reflected, for a moment, on how much he loved this job.

“Together, we’re going to lift our hips into bridge pose. Keep your hands and your hooves – paws – flat on the mat as you lift.”
The class lifted together, further obscuring their faces behind their bellies. A strained voice to his left caught Mike’s attention and he found that Brandon was struggling to maintain the pose. He was starting to struggle with bridge pose as he had simply grown too much belly for his small, thin body to handle. Grabbing a foam block, the goat hurried to his side and helped Brandon lift his hips high enough to slip it underneath.
“That better?”
“A lot better,” Brandon sighed. He glanced up at Mike and motioned him closer before he whispered, “My mom is coming into town this weekend and she wants to meet you. Are you free?”
“I don’t know,” Mike whispered back. “We’ll talk about it after class.”
“She says she wants to meet her grandson’s father.” Brandon rolled his eyes. “Other father, I mean. She’s trying. You know how she is.”
“I don’t actually. We’ll talk later.”

The deer pouted like he always did when Mike turned his attention to someone else. Standing up, he backpedaled to the head of the class, looking across the sea of round bellies pushed into the air and kept an eye out for any sign of struggling. In the beginning, when everyone was in their first or second trimesters, he taught classes the way he normally did by leaving all the students to match the poses on their own. Now that many of them were nearing their due dates, he kept the class relatively simple and was much more hands-on with anyone that seemed to be having a hard time. Fortunately, aside from Brandon, everyone had gotten the hang of bridge pose.
“Slowly ease your hips back down to the mat and extend your legs,” Mike said, watching as the class followed his instruction. Many of the instinctively brought their hands to their bellies, tugging down their shirts or massaging sore spots. In the back row, Wyatt’s belly visibly shifted as the kid inside him attempted to stretch and turn over, knocking the wind out of the poor father. Mike had to take a moment to regain his composure after seeing that.
“Everyone grab a block and stand it on its side. Sit on it with your hoo-paws on the floor and your knees at a little above waist level. Bring your hands together in front of your chest for garland pose.”

Beyond the pregnancy, garland pose was easier for some members of the class than others. For those that had once been skinny or those with long legs it was simple. Brandon, Wyatt, and Nolan had an easy enough time holding it. Heavier, stockier members of the class, however, struggled. In spite of his experience, Joel struggled with this pose, especially considering the weight of his overdue belly pulling him down. In the back, Jules and Anthony were having a hard time keeping their balance, so Mike took the long way around the class to go and help them.

“You guys okay?” Mike asked. He squatted so the three of them could speak at eye-level.
“This pose wasn’t made for otters,” Jules hissed. His and Anthony’s legs were short and they had longer torsos, naturally suited for swimming.
“Especially not pregnant ones,” Anthony added. He had managed to get his paws and legs in the right spot, but was having trouble maintaining his balance. Instead of holding his hands in front of his chest, he had them wrapped around his belly. He winced and Mike saw a little furry lump push out from between them. “And she’s not making this any easier.”
“Here, c’mon.” Mike let Jules put a hand on his shoulder for balance, then helped him plant his paws flat on the mat where they were supposed to be. He wobbled, put one hand on his bump like his husband had, then instinctively reached out and grabbed Anthony’s shoulder to maintain his balance. This almost pulled both of them over, but they managed to stabilize after a few seconds.
“That’s better,” Jules sighed. “My center of gravity is way off.”
“Who’s fault could that be?” Anthony said, giving Mike a pointed smirk. The goat’s ears flicked and he looked away, failing to hide a bashful smile.

Mike and Jules had been friends for several years, even going back to before the otter’s transition. They had met at a previous job and lightly kept in touch for a while after that, mostly sending one another memes and funny videos every once in a blue moon. It wasn’t until that the otter moved to a neighborhood close to Mike that the two met up again and he was introduced to his husband Anthony, a very similar-looking trans otter with a more measured personality and a sly sense of humor. It had made its way through the grapevine that the goat had already served as an accidental stud to a few of their friends and the two came to ask if he would do the same for Jules.
Obviously, the couple couldn’t conceive naturally and Jules would have had to seek out a donor one way or another, but the thought of carrying the baby of a friend had more appeal than going to a sperm bank. They’d planned to go through medical channels of getting IUI, but the two of them decided to celebrate by giving natural conception a shot to see what would happen. In all the excitement, Anthony got pulled into a messy three-way and both he and his husband each ended up pregnant with a little otter-goat, giving them pseudo-twins. Jules was carrying a boy while Anthony had a girl.

“Baby, leave him alone!” Jules pulled his hand away from his kicking belly and swatted Anthony on the shoulder. This caused them both to nearly topple over until Mike quickly grabbed their shoulders to keep them upright. With a grunt, Anthony let himself flop to the ground, his thick tail stretching past that mat and his belly bouncing slightly from the light impact.
“Okay, fuck it. I’m giving up on this one,” he grumbled as he leaned back and pulled his shirt away from his rounded stomach to air out his fur. “Just getting around the house is yoga enough for me.”
“C’mon, you can do it,” Jules said. He was still maintaining garland pose, but had grabbed a tight fistful of Mike’s shirt to keep his balance. “It’ll help with all that, it really does.”

“No, it’s okay,” Mike interjected. “Yoga’s about listening to the needs of your body. If Anthony, isn’t feeling good about this pose, he doesn’t have to do it.”
Jules rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “Okay, I guess. But don’t complain to me if I end up having an easier labor than you do.”
Anthony snorted and rolled his shirt back down over his bump. “Are you kidding? I want the good drugs. I want to take a nap and wake up with this baby in my arms.”
Mike smiled and backed away, leaving them be. While they may have had his kids in their bellies, Anthony and Jules were devoted to one another and came to the class to bond. They were going to be good fathers.

Standing, Mike spoke to the class as a whole. “Now, plant your paws firmly into the mat and lift yourself off the block.”
The expectant fathers all lifted themselves up until they were squatting with their needs spread far apart. Joel knew this pose well and put his hands in the correct position before Mike gave the instruction.
“Place your right hand against your chest, just below your neck, and let your left arm cradle under your belly.” This pose was known as ‘Goddess’ in most other classes, but Mike left the name unspoken in this one. It felt inappropriate.
Looking out across the class, he caught sight of Xander’s head from behind. By the rise and fall of his shoulders, he could tell he was breathing hard. He’d also been uncharacteristically quiet throughout this class, which gave Mike a spark of worry. He’d never had someone go into labor during one of his classes, but it was an occupational hazard in this kind of work. Xander may not have been the farthest along, but things could sometimes happen.

“Hey,” Mike whispered as he approached the lion from the side. “You doing alright?”
With a quick movement, Xander snatched Mike by the wrist and pulled his hand to press flat against his belly, raising his shirt so the goat’s palm sank into the fur that covered it.
“Can you feel them?” Xander’s voice was low growl that only Mike could hear. “Can you feel the baby you put inside me?”
There was a stirring of faint movement inside the lion’s belly before a lazy kick pushed into the center of Mike’s hand. It made his heart race even as he tried to gently pull his hand away. Xander wouldn’t let him.
“This is your cub, Michael. This is the very beginning of the pride I’ll bring into the world, all starting with you. Don’t think this will be the last time you’ll see me heavy with your seed.”

“Okay Xander, that’s…That’s great.” With a slight twist of his wrist, Mike managed to free his hand from the lion’s grip and backed away. The lion could get a little ‘intense’ when the yoga made his blood flow.
“Come over tonight,” Xander said, his voice rising above the whisper. Both hands roamed the taut sphere of his belly, reveling in it. “I want you.”
“Uh…m-maybe later. Let’s uh…” Mike cleared his throat, whirled around to turn his back on Xander, and spoke to the rest of the class. “Everybody ease up to a standing position, legs together, and hands up high in sun salutation.”

The pregnant men all breathed a collective sigh of relief as they moved into a more comfortable position. Their bellies all rose and fell with the heavy breathing that came from a vigorous workout that was nearing its end. Mike’s goal was never to overwork his students – especially not in their delicate conditions – but he wanted to make sure everybody left with their blood pumping. The goat hurried around the scattered students, carefully dodging tails and baby bumps, and assumed his position at the head of the class, palms clasped together over his sternum.
“Take a deep breath. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth,” he instructed. “Then, slowly descend to the mat and sit in your most comfortable position.”

The class eased themselves down, some far more easily than others. Joel, despite his size, sank gracefully down to his knees, hands massaging the sides of his belly with the tips of his fingers. Brandon and Wyatt got most of the way down, then just kind of bounced when they hit the mat. Mike allowed them a few extra minutes to get comfortable, knowing that ‘comfortable’ likely meant different things from week to week due to their changing bodies. When they were all seated, the goat switched to a slower, softer playlist of music and dimmed the lights in the room.
“Spend some time being present in your body,” he said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “Notice what feels different, what feels good. If your baby is moving, focus on them and try to picture how they may be sitting.”

Mike paused for a breath, looking over the class. Just as he asked them to picture the children they carried, he usually did the same. His eyes traveled over the collection of bellies he’d filled, wondering how many of them would have little hooves like his, little horns like his, or copper-red fur like his. Some part of him knew he should have been dreading this; so many mouths to feed, so many new names to keep up with, so much more responsibility. For now, all he felt was his chest swelling with pride and heart bursting with love for his many, many unborn children and their unique, one-of-a-kind fathers. He was lucky to have all of them in his life.

“Mike?” Nolan whispered, opening one eye. “Are we almost done?”
The goat shook his head and cleared his throat. “Right. Uh. Yeah.”
“…Are you okay?” asked Brandon.
He didn’t understand the question until half of his vision became blurry. Touching his eye, Mike’s fingertips came away wet and he hurried to wipe them off.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I’m…I was just…” He blinked. “...Crying.”

A low chuckle rumbled through the room.
“Everybody take one more big breath!” Mike filled his lungs, touched his thumbs to his forehead, then to his chest. After a deep exhale, he sighed,
“Namaste.”
“Namaste,” the others said together.

Mike hopped to his hooves and turned the lights back on, then went back to help his students to their paws and hooves. Joel was having the most trouble, the capybara trying and failing to get his paws against the mat. It seems his weight had finally gotten the better of him.
“Here you go, let me help.” Mike offered him an arm and tried not to grunt as Joel’s substantial weight nearly pulled him back down to the ground.
“Ngh. Thank you.” Joel sighed and smoothed his hands across his huge expanse of a belly. He glanced at Mike with his warm eyes and said, “You always go out of your way to be helpful.”
“It’s the least I could do after doing this to you.” Mike laid a gentle palm on Joel’s middle.
The capybara smiled. “What’s a little discomfort in exchange for being able to bring a life into existence?”
“I don’t think everybody sees it that way.”
“They can see it how they want.” Joel shrugged. “By the way, I wanted to talk to you. This will probably be my last class for a while.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Stay home and get some rest while you can.”
“Well…” Joel paused to wince in the briefest moment of discomfort. “It’s because I’m probably in very early labor.”

A bolt of shock shot straight through Mike’s heart and he snatched his hand away from Joel’s belly like it was about to explode. “Labor?” he hissed under his breath. Saying that word too loud in a room full of pregnant people was like yelling ‘fire’ in a movie theater. “Are you sure?”
“No, honestly. I’m going to get my dilation tested first thing in the morning, but I’ll call you if it’s the real thing.”
“Oh-okay.” Mike took a deep breath and gripped both of his horns, a nervous habit. “Do…Do I need to drive you home? Do you need anything?”
“Nope. I’m all set.” Joel gave Mike an easy smile and another ‘Namaste,’ before waddling toward the door, leaving a dumbfounded goat in his wake.

In a daze, Mike went to pack up his things. The students liked to linger and chat at the end of the sessions since this class was the last one of the day. Jules and Anthony were talking to Oliver, the soft-spoken lynx that rarely said a word to anyone.
“So what does he do?” asked Jules.
“It’s hard to describe but…he works on movie sets and concerts a lot. He’s in a union.”
“That’s so cool! I’d love to meet him sometime.”
“Is he excited about the baby?” asked Anthony.
“Oh, of course! He’s working a lot right now so that he can take a few weeks off when he’s born.”

Closer to the front of the room, Brandon and Wyatt were catching up. The ferret was breathing hard, taking drags from his water bottle in between gasps. He didn’t seem to be in particularly good shape before his pregnancy and Mike was glad to see him taking steps toward improving his health.
“Y’know, she’s trying. At least I can say that.” Brandon shrugged and folded his arms. “She keeps saying, like, maternity stuff and mom language. She was like ‘Oh, we get to celebrate Mother’s Day together’ and I had to shut that down quick.”
“You’re more patient than I am. The ultrasound tech that did my last scan called me a ‘mommy’ one too many times to be an accident and I nearly threw a fit. You shoulda seen Lilly, I thought she was gonna shove that wand up the woman’s ass.”
“I’ll bet.” Brandon hesitated. “…Who’s Lilly again?”
“My girlfriend? You’ve met her.” Wyatt raised his hand high above his head. “Super tall? Wears boots? Rainbow hair?”
“…Can you be more specific?”

Mike finished packing his gym bag and discreetly headed for the door, giving the remaining students a farewell wave. Brandon glanced over his shoulder, his ears swiveling in surprise, then hurried to catch up to him, his gait awkward and unsteady.
“Hey, hang on. Are you free to meet my mom this weekend?”
“Oh, right.” Mike shifted his bag’s strap higher on his shoulder. “Probably? I’ll have to see. When does she come in?”
“She’s staying the whole weekend. Helping with baby stuff.” The deer rolled his eyes. “She’s kinda nitpicky but I’ll take the diaper money. She’s dead-set on meeting you, though. Probably won’t leave town until she does.”
“I’ll be sure to make some time.”
“Cool, I’ll let you know.” Brandon paused, rocking in place with one hand on his belly. He glanced briefly over his shoulder, then mumbled. “So…you wanna come over tonight?”
“Oh, uh. Maybe. I want to take a shower first.”
“You can shower at my place.” The deer’s eyes traveled slowly down the goat’s chest. “…Or don’t. Up to you.”

“Oh. Oh. You mean…” Mike cleared his throat, his heart racing. “Well…I think I could make some time.”
“I don’t know if it’s the hormones or the extra weight or what but…” Brandon sighed and bit his lower lip. “Whatever you kid is doing to me, hands and toys don’t cut it. I need the real thing.”

“Michael?”
Xander stepped out of the nearby bathroom, his mane still wet, and wearing a button-up shirt that did nothing to hide his bump. Setting his gym bag down, he glided to the goat’s side and put a gentle hand on his upper arm. “Did you have other plans tonight?”

“Oh, I…I forgot, Brandon asked me over before you got here.”
“Ah, I didn’t realize that.” Xander gave the deer a side-eyed glance, his feline pupils narrowing into slits. The lion could be a little possessive. “That’s alright, I will likely be up late, regardless. Stop by when you’re done.”
Brandon furrowed his brow and snorted. “Actually, my mom’s coming over tomorrow morning. I was hoping you could stay over and have breakfast with us.”
“I…well…Maybe I could…come back over from Xander’s place later?” Mike felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck and laughed nervously. Maybe this was how he’d ended up putting so many buns in these ovens: he had a really hard time saying ‘no.’
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Michael,” Xander said. He added, with a low purr to his voice, “We’ll be up rather late.”

Brandon was about to respond, but was briefly distracted by something over Mike’s shoulder. The goat glanced back and saw a young rabbit man with dark fur on his upper lip standing in the doorway with a brand new yoga mat in both hands. He and Mike met eyes with one another and both lit up with recognition.

“Sorryguysberightback,” Mike said in one breath, grateful for the escape to the conversation. Whirling around on one hoof like a figure skater, the goat hurried to the rabbit, who was looking at him with an oddly faltering, uncomfortable smile.
“Luke! Hey, what’s up?” Mike threw his arms around Luke’s shoulders, pulling him into a brief, but tight, squeeze. “What are you doing here?”
“H-Hey, how’s it going, man?” The rabbit stammered. His voice was high and scratchy. “I wanted to…I heard somebody say you taught yoga classes here?”
“I do, a couple times a week. But uhh…” The goat paused and rubbed the back of his neck. “I actually teach a prenatal yoga class. Y’know, for pregnant people. Tonight was the dad night with all the…yeah, you get it.”

“Yeah, yeah. I…” Luke paused to lick his lips, then took his free hand and laid it over his lower stomach. Glancing up, he made long eye contact with Mike before stammering, “…I know.”

Blinking stupidly, as if this hadn’t already happened to him at least six times before now, Mike cocked his head and frowned at Luke for a moment, puzzled. Then, realization dawned on him as his eyes shot back down to the rabbit’s hand on his belly.
“…Oh.”
“…Yeah.” Luke’s nervous laughter slipped out, despite his pursed lips.

Glancing behind himself, Mike found Xander was glaring daggers at Luke, but quickly stopped and put on a more passive expression once he sensed Mike’s eyes on him. Brandon, meanwhile, had eyes as wide as dinner plates and was biting his fist to stifle his barely-contained giggles. Ignoring both of them, the goat let out a long, deep sigh.

“So the class is on Thursdays…”