Minako tossed wearily in her sleep, dried tears on her cheeks. She had cried herself to sleep over the townspeople leaving with no prior notice. She missed Maria and Jezibiah dreadfully.

He was taller than her.
There was a man in her dream, and he was taller than her. Not as broad as Kunzite, though, and his hair was wavy and fell about his eyes in soft blonde locks. Jezibiah? No, no. The feeling was wrong.
His face was in shadow as she approached him, but she knew, somehow, that she was safe. She reached him, nightgown in cream-and-silk waves around her. He turned, took her into his arms, and kissed her cheek, head bowed over hers. She still couldn't see his face, but his eyes glowed at her, golden, and his breath was cool against her face.
"How's our baby?" he asked tenderly, smoothing her hair.
"Fine," Minako whispered back. "Very rowdy. I think it's about to come."
He held her until the darkness of his tall figure blended into the blank darkness of dreamlessness and she woke.
"Ow," she gasped, wincing, and her eyes widened in the grey of dawn. "Oh dear."
A short while later, a midwife was in Minako's room and there was a small assembly of worried personages clustered outside the door, some pacing and some fidgeting.
"Ah, Goddess!"
Nephrite winced. "She sounds like she's dying."
"Ami wouldn't allow it," Zoicite replied calmly. His fiancee was helping the midwife, while Makoto was busily making a feast to help Minako regain her strength afterwards – bossing the kitchen around with the prowess of a princess. Rei was inside, working a charm to protect Minako in labor, and Serenity was allowing Minako to hold her hand.
"OW!"
"OW!" Serenity chorused.
There was a string of expletives and then silence for a brief moment.
Serenity slipped out of the door and Endymion hurried over to her. "Your hand!" he cried.
She smiled painfully. "It's all right. I guess I should know better than to comfort a Senshi during labor." She looked at Kunzite and waved him towards the room. "She wants you," she told him and flexed her red fingers. She thought one was broken, but wasn't going to say anything. "Your hands are probably stronger than mine," she muttered as he passed.
He only nodded and went into the room, ignoring the shared looks behind him.
"You jerk!" Minako growled as the midwife told her to push. She was in her cream-and-silk nightgown, knees drawn up and apart, back supported by the extra pillows Ami had ordered brought in. Her body was golden and glowing with sweat, her hair stringing down about her face. "You did this to me! It's all your fault!" She followed up with some expletives as the midwife kept urging her to push. "You push!" she finally screamed, swinging out at the woman when she came within reach. Kunzite moved over and grabbed her hand, pushing it back.
"Don't kill the midwife," he muttered. He shifted through a few things on the table beside her bed as she yelled at him, listening to her with only half an ear. Finally, he came across a bright red ribbon and moved beside her, carefully tying her hair back from her face.
Ami looked up from her mini-computer at this, watching the tender moment as Minako quieted and allowed him to tie all of her hair back. She looked up in bewildered thanks and all three women fell silent as they saw the pair's eyes meet in a soft, brief exchange. Minako broke the contact, but she slipped her hand into Kunzite's – and gasped as another wave of pain hit her, so that the midwife again urged her to push. Ami and Rei shared a look, but quickly went back to their tasks.
Now she was crying, complaining that she couldn't push any more. "And you," she yanked violently on Kunzite's hand as he kneeled beside the bed. "You're no help! You get me pregnant and then you don't even [AH!] talk to me! [AH!] You jerk! You creep! You – AAAAH!" She cried out as the midwife gasped, Rei's chanting picking up speed.
"I see the head! Come on, Lady, come on!" the midwife urged.
Minako was too tired to grate out an insult at the woman, so she pushed instead.
"Come on, Mina-chan," Kunzite murmured from her side, his hand being crushed in her grip, but he was too focused on what was happening to care.
After much pain, she gave one final push and fell back, exhausted, as the midwife cut the umbilical cord. Ami helped her wash the baby and they wrapped it in a yellow blanket.
"It's a girl," the midwife said as Ami handed her bundle to an exhausted Minako.
"Thank you," she breathed, pushing the blanket back from her baby's face as Kunzite leaned forward. She glanced up as the midwife started to shoo the other two women out. "And I'm sorry about my language."
"That's okay, dear," the midwife said for them and pushed them both out, closing the door behind herself.
Kunzite was leaning far over Minako, fussing with the blanket so that he could see the baby better. Minako giggled and pushed at him. "Move. I want to see her, too," she whispered.
He only turned his head and grinned up at her, taking her breath away. His face was open and he glowed. "I'm a father," he told her, smiling. Joy bubbled up into laughter and Minako moved over to let him sit beside her on the bed. He took her head impulsively and kissed her, then bent and kissed his daughter on her small, white-fuzzed crown.
"Does this mean . . ." she hesitated and he looked up, blinking at the seriousness in her voice, "that you're not mad at me anymore?"
His eyes darkened in uncertainty, and he looked down. He was remembering all the hurt, the pain – but when he looked back up at his child and the woman he loved, all of his anger drained and he was left with nothing but the happiness of the moment. He smiled into her worried face and brushed her bangs back. "Hm. What will you give me if I do?"
Minako wrinkled her nose playfully, then declared. "A lifetime of love and devotion."
"Marriage?" his eyes lit up a bit at the idea and he looked so much a like a child in a room full of candy that she couldn't help laughing.
"Okay, yes, marriage. Though our duties must come first," she added.
"Yes," he nodded, still stroking the soft down of their baby girl's head. He looked at the bundle. "And right after our child's safety."
She nodded, silently agreeing, and watched Kunzite bonding with their daughter. "She has your hair," Minako observed in a soft voice.
"Yes, and your eyes." He paused. "What will we name her?"
Minako smiled and waited until Kunzite's eyes met hers. "I thought of classic names like Aphrodite or Eros or Cupid, but only one of those is a girl's name. It took a while before I remembered the story of Cupid falling in love with a human princess." She paused and Kunzite looked increasingly curious. With a final flourish to her voice, she proclaimed that their daughter be called: "Psyche."
Kunzite mouthed the name thoughtfully and then smiled back at her, giving his approval. "I like it."
"Of course you do," she kissed his nose primly and sat back with Psyche in her arms. "Now shut up and go get the midwife. I'm exhausted."
"Yes, milady," he teased, covering her lips with his for a long, breathless moment before turning and striding out the door, pride etched into his every move.