Bulma groggily turned over in bed but forced herself up. It was six in the morning, the alarm was beeping, and the Prince of all Saiyans was enjoying his once-weekly day of sleeping in. Of course that day had to fall on Trunks' birthday this week. She decided it was for the best, since during the past 9 years he hadn't mastered the concept of 'children's birthday parties.' She'll just get his assistance on the heavy things when he woke up.

She had slowly managed to make her way down the stairs without falling and nearly collapsed on the table. She focused on her mantra, repeating it to help her stop from collapsing on the nearest bed-like piece of furniture. 'Cake… cake…' Finally reaching the kitchen she headed straight for the oven, turning it on and allowing it to pre-heat. Reaching below the oven she pulled out two small round baking pans and some oven mitts from the drawer. Placing these on the table she grabbed the mixer and began pouring the ingredients she'd set aside the night before. After three minutes of mixing, and twenty-five minutes of baking she was on the phone with the nearest bakery shop requesting a large cake, "ASAP!"

Vegeta woke Trunks up an hour after Bulma's attempted cake fiasco. He gently shook the young Saiyan, calling his name in a small voice.

"Trunks… Trunks… TRUNKS!" Finally, the young boy woke up and glanced up.

"Dad, it's soo early. What is it?"

"Time for training, that's what."

Trunks grumbled and put his head under the pillow. "But it's my birthday" the boy whined. "And my friends are coming over later."

"All the more reason to train no-"

"VEGETA!" A woman's shout sent both of the proud warriors into a startled jump. "Let him sleep. It's his birthday, not yours, so he gets what HE wants."

The older man glared over at his woman and gave a small grunt but the petite female at the door continued glaring at him, her feet apart and her arms crossed. Backing down, he patted the boy on the head. "Rest up for your party, then. I don't need your mother yelling at me all afternoon."

Bulma gave a smug look and turned back around to prepare her living room for the day ahead. This wouldn't be a big party, as Trunks wished, but still the Son's were coming over and her father and mother had freed up the schedule for the afternoon. 18 may even be bringing Marron over so there were more kids. She had arranged for a bug and animal lady to come by part way through the party to amuse the children, and maybe a few adults too. It was small, it was fun, it was perfect and nothing would ruin her son's birthday.

Not that any had been ruined, exactly. His first one fell right before the androids arrival so his father was out in space training and all of her friends were occupied, but he was a baby so it didn't really matter if other people were there or not. His second and third went by smoothly, especially with the arrival of Goten. The fourth is when things started getting rough. The fifth is when Vegeta started actually taking over his 'father' role with some seriousness. The problem was, Vegeta's idea of the perfect birthday was going off in the wilderness to train and Bulma's and Trunks' was not. His ninth birthday got wrapped up in the excitement of Buu's defeat, but there was a barbecue for everyone so he forgave it. No, his tenth would be perfect, whether he liked it or not.

The cake arrived perfectly decorated. It was a nice simple sheet cake, purple, with the phrase "Happy Birthday Trunks" in big simple letters. Bulma knew from experience with this bakery that the cake would be delicious. It was nearing time for the party and Trunks' grandparents had already carried his wheelbarrow full of toys over from their smaller building near the house ("The In-law Inn," as Bunny had dubbed it) and were placing the presents down and getting drinks. They sat down next to Bulma, who was wearing a flattering new pink dress purchased just for this gathering and Trunks, whom she had convinced to wear a black button up shirt and well-fitting jeans. She had also purchased a similar set for the Saiyan prince to wear today and her "cute little idea" was not lost on the man. Still, he wore it; it's not the worst outfit she ever gave him. The doorbell sounded and Vegeta got up to answer, leaving the rest of the group happily sitting around the couches in the living room.

Opening the door he was greeted by a small squeal. "Mister Vegeta!" The small child who looked like a perfect mesh between her mother, 18 and father, Krillin, bounded through the door. Behind her Krillin and the android stood in normal clothes, her looking bored and him grinning wildly, present in hand. 'A Kakarrot grin...' thought the prince.

"Hey Vegeta, long time no see! Is everyone here?" the short man asked, entering the building as the prince stepped out of the way.

"No, Kakarrot and his offspring are running a little late," he grumbled. Vegeta decided to accept the fact that he would never be a 'party-host' kind of person.

Before he had time to shut the door he heard shouting from the other side. Walking up the sidewalk, waving his hand and smiling, neared Goku. Pushing ahead and bounding inside went little Goten while Chi-Chi and the older son of Goku trailed a few steps behind. "Nice day, isn't it!" He mused.

"Yes, very nice." Vegeta also decided that weather talk was his least favorite form of talk.

Everyone sat their presents down in front of the now-off fire place and sat around laughing. The last time most of them had seen each other was at Bulma's gathering nearly a year ago and there was much to catch up on. The women gathered on one sofa, whispering and pointing and giggling (except for eighteen, who just held an amused smirk during most of the conversation and wasn't really a 'talker'.) The boys were playing with some action figures Trunks had stashed under a table while Marron giggled in delight. Goku and Krillin sat on the other sofa, retelling adventures of their childhood together and laughing merrily. Vegeta sat on one of the two main recliners with Mr. Briefs on the other. Both watched the boys with faint amusement, the latter puffing lightly on a pipe. All in all it was very peaceful.

"Alright everyone, I think we need some cake!" Bulma shouted, winking. The boys bolted into the kitchen while the rest of those present followed suit. Candles were lit and blown out in rapid succession, a song was sung by most of those present and pieces of the delicious treat were cut and distributed to the guests. Trunks and Goten swallowed them whole while guessing what the wrapped boxes in the other room contained. Chi-Chi had been very smart to purchase and wrap the gift away from the prying eyes of her youngest son.

The natural next step was to open presents. These included a variety of games from his grandparents, along with a nice new bike ('don't they know I can fly?' he thought to himself), clothes from his parents (new taller shirts and pants from his mother, larger training gear from his father to be a bit more specific), a very interesting martial arts book from Krillin ("Hey! You managed to find a book I might read." "TRUNKS!" "I was just kidding, mom…") and a few more action figures from the boys' favorite TV show from the Son family. All in all, Trunks would count his birthday haul a success.

Once more there was a ringing at the door, which confused the rest of the party goers except for Bulma. Preparing herself, she gave a little speech as she walked to the door.

"Now guys, I know it's a little cheesy but I got us some entertainment for today."

"It's not a clown, is it?" Trunks enquired, blushing partly of embarrassment, partly from the memory of Vegeta and his 8th birthday party.

"No, this is a little more mature, I think everyone might enjoy it."

Disappearing around the corner she reappeared with a lady pushing many different cages and tanks on a cart. The youth got excited and even Goten, Goku, and Krillin were interested in what this lady might have brought to show them. Helping clear off the coffee table they pulled it back and the lady resituated the display on her cart.

"Well," the young woman asked pleasantly. "Who's the birthday boy here?" Trunks' hand shot up and the excitement over the events taking place were evident from his large smile.

"I think I may need your help first," she said, winking. Happily the young half-Saiyan jumped up and stood in front of her. "Now, are you afraid of snakes?"

The young boy laughed and shook his head. "Well, that's good, this one's harmless anyway since we had him de-fanged but if you ever find one of these in the wild you definitely don't want to approach it!" She pulled out a red, yellow, and black snake. She proceeded to tell them the difference between the King snake and the Coral snake, pointing to the different colors. It certainly kept everyone enthralled, though out of the corner of his eye Goku swore he saw a certain Prince of all Saiyans squirm.

"Well, how about you help me next?" the lady pointed to Goten, who was shaking in anticipation. "That is, unless you're afraid of spiders…"

"No way, I can handle it!" She laughed and pulled out a little tank that appeared empty, giving Bulma and Chi-Chi near heart attacks.

"Don't worry," she claimed. "This one's called a trap-door spider. If we were mice who were walking by, this spider would seem to appear out of nowhere and take us down to our lair. Luckily, we aren't mice" she added with a warm smile, noticing the growing apprehension on young Goten's face. She slowly tapped twice on the side of the tank and this seemed to draw the spider out of its hiding space. It popped up through the sand and crawled out into view. The woman stuck her hand into the tank, pulling the spider out and allowing it to crawl on her arm. "Your turn now!"

Goten glanced around at his parents, hoping for some encouragement. "Go ahead, Goten," said his older brother. "You're too big; it won't want to hurt you." This seemed enough and he put his hand on her arm and allowed the spider to step onto him.

"Hey, this is kinda cool! It tickles," the young boy giggled. Bulma praised herself on the inside; this was one of her best ideas ever!

"Now, let's put him back and move on." Replacing the lid of the tank she pulled out another one, which seemed empty aside from the mud layering the bottom. "This one feels more your speed," she said, smiling at Marron.

The little girl walked over and stared in curiosity at what could be in this one. "Now, it's not scary, but it is slimy," the youngster made a face at these words. "Don't worry though, we're not going to touch these, I just need your help adding water to draw them out."

Mr. Briefs, who had been puffing away and watching with mild amusement at the display before him, noticed on odd twitch coming from the hand on the other arm rest. He glanced over and Vegeta's face seemed ghostly white, almost blue-ish in hue. The older man glanced between the prince and the tank, curious as to what could set him off more than a spider freely crawling around his home.

Marron grabbed the small bottle of water the lady handed her and began pouring it into the tank. Seconds later, little pink head seemed to break through the surface, wiggling around in confusion.

"Ewwww," exclaimed the little girl, sticking her tongue out. "I'm glad I didn't have to touch them."

"I agree!" said the naturalist, nodding. "Earthworms are pretty gross to handle but they are ness-"

She was quickly cut off by an explosion from the tank, causing everyone to panic and look around. On one side, standing above his chair, hand glowing and hair golden blonde, was the prince himself.

"VEGETA! What the hell?" Bulma shouted. That was another source she was going to have to cross off her list of great party ideas.

"Did you not see the vile horrors that were coming out of that tank, woman? You should all be thanking me! Uugh!" The prince stormed off while the naturalist just stared at the place where her tank had formerly been sitting. She'd heard the Briefs' place had weird personal parties but this was insane!

"What on earth was that about?" 18 asked, looking at the mate of the man who destroyed perfectly fine earthworms. "He could have hit Marron." She patted the head of the little girl who looked more than a little startled.

"How should I know? He's crazy I guess. He's never attacked bugs before!"

"Actually…" Everyone looked over to the couch Goku was sitting on and waited for an explanation. "Vegeta really isn't a fan of worms. Just worms. I have no idea why, but I found out when we were in Buu's body. A bit funny, isn't it?" Goku laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"He never told me," Bulma huffed, sitting back in her seat.

"It's probably a pride thing," Goku offered. "He didn't exactly tell me either."

"Umm," Trunks' blush had worn off just enough for him to talk. "What are we going to do about her?"

Everyone looked at the lady who hadn't moved an inch since the incident aside from her eyes, which darted around, hoping someone also agreed that this wasn't normal.

"Well Trunks," Bunny offered. "I'm sure we can afford to buy this nice young lady some new wormies, especially after she had to meet your father."

Her little quip sent everyone into a giggle. Chi-Chi helped her pack her cart back up and Bulma followed her out, handing her money and apologizing over and over again. She finally managed to get the girl to take the 150 dollars (20 for the worms, the rest for a nice therapy session) and waved goodbye, trying to remain cheerful. Once the car was out of sight her smile turned into a bone chilling scowl as she turned to face the building once more. She slammed the door open and all the laughter in the kitchen stopped. Bulma Briefs was met with eyes and silence.

"Where. Is. Vegeta."

"Now sweetie," Mr. Briefs said, trying to calm his clearly angered daughter. "Maybe now is not the time. After all, it IS Trunks' birthday and it IS his party. After the party, you may yell."

Bulma seemed to puff back down to normal size and let out a little sigh. "I guess you're right."

After the entertainment the party began to wind down and everyone departed.

"Thank you guys for the presents!" Trunks yelled from the door. "Please come again!" he waved as the cars took off into the distance. Bulma, however, stayed fuming at the kitchen table.

"Uhh, Mom? I think I'm going to go play with my new video games grandpa and grandma got me, okay?"

"Of course, sweetie," she answered, trying to keep her voice calm though a vein was clearly showing in her temple. "I'm going to go find your father."

Trunks gulped and headed upstairs while Bulma stood and headed for the hallway. Surprisingly, it sounded as if the gravity chamber was off. Sighing, she peeked inside anyway, just in case, and no one was there. She turned around and headed upstairs. No one was in the bathroom, no one was in her room, and no one was in the bathroom she shared with the man in their bedroom. Just as the woman was about to give up hope she noticed a slight breeze enter the room. Turning around, she realized the balcony door was slightly ajar and with the fading light she could see the outline of her partner sitting on the edge.

"Well, well, mister 'tough guy'." Bulma wanted to hide her anger, but she was finding it impossible.

"Why did you not inform me about the presence of worms?"

Bulma blinked. He had not turned around so she couldn't see his face, but he sounded serious. It was almost surreal to her that she even needed to have this exchange.

"I didn't know I needed to. Why didn't you inform me about your fear of worms? And was going Super Saiyan in front of that nice lady to fight EARTHWORMS really necessary?" She asked, mocking him with the same tone.

"I'm not afraid I-I just don't like them." He said, starting to turn to her. A faint blush was crossing his cheeks. "I ruined the brat's party, didn't I?"

"No," she said, starting to feel a tad guilty for coming on so harshly. "In fact, I think that little fiasco was the most amusing part of the whole party."

Vegeta grumbled and turned back to looking over the city. "Well, I'm glad someone was amused by this."

Bulma sighed. Sometimes it felt like she had two children instead of just one. "Vegeta, it was silly. Like none of the others have their weird phobias? I've seen way worse from half these guys, at least you had the guts to blow it up instead of run away." The man turned his head and she gave him a little wink. He returned the favor with a half smile.

"Do you think one of these years he'll actually have a birthday that he doesn't regret?"

"Honestly," she said, nearing him. "Not in this family he won't."

A/N: Whoo! I'm on fire, that's for sure. The next chapters'll be a little more in depth and hopefully I'll be able to get a little more banter in. This was definitely the most fun one to write yet, though. Please feel free to review!