I awoke that morning feeling odd. It was like I was waiting for something to happen, but I didn't know what I was waiting for.

I got breakfast from the near-by stream. As I was cooking it, Vegeta came in. His hair was a comical mess, his eyes half-opened as he walked.

He tapped me on the shoulder. I turned, and he got right into my face.

"No. More. Fish." He said slowly through his teeth.

I frowned. "Why not? Fish is good."

He shook his head. "No more fish. I can't take it anymore."

I shrugged. "Well, that's all I have right now." I watched as he crossed the room to the table. "What do you want instead?"

He thought about it. "I'm in the mood for bear."

"I'm not going to go out and find you a bear."

"Fine. Giraffe then."

"Vegeta," I said, indicating that he was being unreasonable.

"Kakorot." He gave me a stern look.

I shook my head and continued to cook.

"I'm not going to eat it after today, Kakorot." He said that, but I didn't think he meant it.

I set out breakfast.

He tore into it, giving me dirty looks from across the table.

"How much longer?" I asked, starting the conversation up again.

"A week maybe." He said with his mouth full. "Maybe more, maybe less."

"Less?" I paused. "So, you could have them today?"

He shook his head. "I don't think-" He paused, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He let out a groan and grasped his stomach.

"Vegeta?"

He half-grinned and went back to eating. "Just joking."

"That's not funny."

"It is, because you fall for it every time."

I frowned, finishing my breakfast. I told him I wasn't going to fall for it again, but we both knew I would.

Later that day, my task was to assemble the cribs.

I had put it off for a long time, mostly because I had no interest to get them set up. But I decided that today I was going to do it.

I went into the spare room and opened up one of the three boxes. I read the first part of the directions.

1.) Secure Plank 1 to Base

I did so. And then I was bored.

So I left the task for another time.

The nice thing about Vegeta was that he really didn't care where I was or what I did most of the time. He didn't care if the cribs were set up in time. If it had been Chi-Chi, she would have nagged and nagged until I couldn't take it anymore and I did it just to shut her up.

He also didn't mind if I came into the house with muddy shoes on. And he didn't yell at me to take a shower after I hadn't for a few days. He never told me to put clothes on if I didn't feel like it, and he didn't really care if the dishes were clean or not.

Now that I had something to compare it to, live with Chi-Chi had been horrible. She picked at every little thing until you couldn't turn around without being yelled at.

I couldn't shake the feeling of waiting I had. Maybe I was just tired.

Vegeta seemed moody as well. He was restless, and didn't want me to touch him.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," He said, "I can't tell if I'm in pain, or if I'm really horny."

This seemed odd to me. There was a pretty big difference between the two. "What do you mean?"

He shifted uncomfortably before laying on his back. "I need a nap."

I let my question drop, and crawled next to him. I propped my head up with one arm, my other arm draping over his hips.

I was half asleep, when all of a sudden, I felt him go rigid. Every muscle in his body tightened at once, like he was alert to some impending danger.

"Kakorot," He said, his voice strained. "They're coming."

I cocked my head, his statement going unregistered. "Who?"

"The children." His teeth clenched, grinning together.

"When?"

"Now."

I had less then three seconds before the screaming began.

I didn't want to move him, and it was too late to take him anywhere anyway.

I craved order, but there was no way of calculating anything before I did it. These children were coming now, and I wasn't prepared for them at all.

I grabbed Vegeta's face, trying to focus his attention.

"First; breathe. Second; what do I do?"

His head fell onto the bed, his eyes rolling backwards. He was trying to think over all the distraction.

"Get blankets." He said first, but then changed his mind. "No, get towels. There is going to be a lot of blood."

I did so, grabbing all the towels I could find in the house. We had four, which didn't seem like enough, but there were no other options.

"Should I get hot water?" I asked upon my return.

"For what?"

I thought about it. In all the movies with birth in them, they always got hot water. But they never showed why the hot water was needed. I shrugged, and he growled in agitation.

I came to the bed, pulling off his shorts.

"Don't touch me!" He practically whined. His hands came to rub his face almost obsessively. His knees drew together, just barely covering him.

I guessed it was time to wait. I sat down on the edge of the bed, watching him as he shifted back and forth restlessly.

I hadn't realized it, but my heart was beating so fast I could hear it pulsing through my ears. Adrenalin, excitement, and mortal fear all mixed together into a chaotic tornado within me.

After several minutes, he stopped shifting so continuously.

"It's done?" I asked.

"No;" He spat bitterly, "That was just the first contraction. There is going to be more."

I lay back down next to him and moved to touch his face.

"Don't touch me, Kakorot!" He said this as if he had explained this to me a million times.

I did so anyway, cupping his chin and giving him a chaste kiss. "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine."

A few minutes later, another contraction hit him. He might have curled into a ball if his stomach had not been in the way.

I could feel his muscles turn to stone.

"Just breathe." I told him.

"Kakorot," He said, surprisingly calm, "Get. Away. From me."

I backed off, sensing that he was very hostile at the moment. I retreated to the chair near the window, watching him writhe.

I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. It was the same helplessness I had felt when he had been mourning over the lost of our son, Urain.

I realized all at once that it could happen all over again. I would not be able to handle it if even one of our children died during birth. I prayed that nothing like that would happen, paranoia beginning to fill my mind.

The contraction passed, and he was quiet again. He still did not want me to go anywhere near him, so I didn't move.

I heard phantom crying. I imagined the bawl of an infant ringing through the house in just a few minutes. I was excited, but I also dreaded it. That would mean life. That would mean that life had been born, and there was now responsibility to keep that life alive.

"Almost time?" I couldn't take it anymore. The anxiety was getting to me.

"I am going to break every one of your fingers and toes, Kakorot." He said, eyes glaring at me.

My fists unconsciously curled as I thought about that.

He let out a deep groan of pain.

"How does it feel?"

He sighed, trying to clear his thoughts. "It feels like I'm being torn from the inside out." His hands came to rub his face again. "I am never going to sleep with you again Kakorot. Tomorrow we are going to get bunk beds so you won't be tempted."

I would have said something, but I figured I would just let him talk, since he was having my children and all.

Another minute passed. Then another. Then a few minutes became half an hour. Then a full hour. Finally, after an hour and a half, the head of the first infant began to crown.

"So I just catch it?" I asked, giving him a look of uncertainty.

He went into a string of sentences in Saiyan. "Yes, you catch it." Beads of sweat rolled down his face, his eyes squinted and his mouth turned downward into a grimace.

I didn't really want to look where it was going to come out, but I did so anyway, holding back my puke for another time.

It occurred to me that I had no where to put them once they were born. I didn't want to put them on the bed, fearing that they would roll off if we moved too much.

I left him for just a moment to retrieve the still unassembled crib. I put together the top part, the part that would keep them inside the crib, and lay down the cushion. I assumed that three newborns could fit into it, so I didn't need to put together the other two.

I brought it into the bedroom, putting it next to the dresser.

When I went back to Vegeta, the infant's head was nearly all the way out.

The process seemed slow, but couldn't have been that long.

A moment later, the head was fully free, and then the shoulders and the torso fallowed. I pulled it gently, guiding it out carefully. It did not cry, which meant it was not breathing.

I cut the cord with my fingers. Fear began to build, panic soon after.

Vegeta demanded that I hand it over to him. He hit it once on the back, which seemed to do the trick. It took its very first breath for air. Then it screamed. And it was a glorious scream, the kind not thought to be particularly beautiful, but it was anyway.

He handed it back to me, his head falling to the bed, arms unable to prop himself up anymore.

As the infant cried, I examined it. It was a boy, with bright, pink, skin. He was born with a tail, which was covered in mucus and blood. I cleaned him off, and set him down in the almost-done-crib. Before I covered him up, I counted his fingers and toes. They're ten of each, which I expected, but wanted to be sure anyway.

"It's a boy, Vegeta." I announced over the infant's cry. "And he's perfect. His got your nose."

"We still have two more, Kakorot. Focus."

I went back to him, and looked between his legs. Sure enough, the second head was crowning.

This one cried within seconds of being born. It was just like the first in that it was a boy and it had a soft fuzz of dark hair on it's head. This second one would not quiet for any reason at all. I set him down next to his brother, and soon realized they were the exact same baby.

They looked exactly the same in every aspect. As I marveled at their likeness, Vegeta began to yell at me.

"Kakorot, stop hovering over them. Come back over here."

The last child I could tell took more effort. He was tired, his muscles threatening to give out. Even with all his effort, this third child would not come into the world.

He mewled, which I somehow understood as a cry for help.

"Just breath," I told him.

He let out a deep breath he had been holding. "I am breathing!" He sat up, surprising me with how much strength he had left. He gestured for me to come to him. When I came, he motioned to his back. "My back hurts."

I gripped his hips from behind him, messaging his back with my thumbs.

He relaxed beneath my touch, body lulling against my hands.

"Don't fall asleep," I reminded him.

The first two babies seemed tired as well, for their cries grew less forceful.

After another fifteen minutes of that, he lay back down, bracing himself for this last child.

The head would not crown for another half hour. The entire time he seemed to be falling asleep. He was in pain, I could tell, but his muscles were weak; his mind wanted to fall into a dreamless recuperative sleep.

When the head finally did begin to crown, he seemed to wake up. He didn't need to work very hard, for this last one came out with just a few pushes.

It came so fast, I was not really ready to catch it at the time. I just barely caught it before it was too late. It began to cry, mostly from the cold and confusion of its environment.

At the sound of this, the other two began to cry as well once more.

I rolled my eyes, cleaning it off.

This third baby was not like the other two. This one was a girl. She was smaller than the other two, and her tail seemed shorter. But out of the three, she was defiantly the loudest.

I held onto her for a little while longer before putting her into the crib. I bounced her a little, but that seemed to only make her more upset. I put her into the crib, allowing her to cry herself to sleep.

I turned to Vegeta after they had all fallen asleep. He was asleep as well.

I smiled. Even though the experience was frightening and chaotic, and a little odd, I was glad it happened.

I now had three beautiful children to father. Life was so complex. You don't really know what you want until you have it, and then you realize it's all you've ever really wanted.

I have an issue. I can't figure out a good name for the girl. If you have any ideas, send them to me.