Yamcha kept a slow and steady pace as he made his way up the stairs, being careful not to spill the contents of the two glasses he carried in each hand. It took all his self-control to resist the urge to go running up the stairs. It wouldn't have made any difference either way. The process of hatching an egg was a lot slower and easier than having one, or so Piccolo assured him. At the rate things were going, he wasn't going to miss anything important by taking his time.
Within a few minutes, Yamcha made his way back to their bedroom, pushing the door open with the back of his shoulder. Piccolo glanced up from where he sat on their bed, giving him a soft smile. Their egg rested in his lap, a large crack snaking halfway across its surface.
"How you holding up?" Yamcha asked as he made his way around to the other side of the bed, holding out one of the glasses of water for his partner to take. Piccolo accepted it and took a brief moment to take a drink before giving his reply.
"Fine. Not much changed since you went downstairs, though the baby's been moving around a lot inside. It shouldn't be too much longer now."
"Good. I think all this waiting's about to kill me," Yamcha replied with a light chuckle. He set his own glass down on the bedside dresser, taking a seat next to his partner. Without having to exchange words, Piccolo carefully passed the egg to him, letting it rest in the crook of Yamcha's crossed legs. The Namekian then took the opportunity to get up and stretch a bit, having sat there watching over their egg for the last several hours.
Yamcha couldn't help but trace a finger gently along the thin crack in the shell, feeling as the baby kicked and shifted around inside. He wanted so badly to help their child break out of the egg, but Piccolo had already told him that they had to wait for there to be a large enough gap for them to slip their fingers inside before they could do that. Breaking the shell open from the outside would be too dangerous, so it looked like the kid was on their own for now.
"Y'know… even after all this time, I still don't think we've prepared enough… I keep thinking we've forgotten to do something extremely important."
"Well…" Piccolo began as he returned to his spot next to Yamcha on the bed. "That's because we have neglected something very important."
Yamcha drew in a small gasp at that. Wait, they'd really forgotten to do something?! Here he just thought he was being overly paranoid! What could they have possibly forgotten to do?! Luckily for him, Piccolo seemed to pick up on his lover's internal questioning, answering with an amused smirk.
"As I recall, we've not yet bothered to discuss what we intend to name the child."
Yamcha couldn't help but blink in confusion upon hearing that. Wait, they hadn't? How could they have not talked about that until now? Yet, as he thought back through the past nine or so months, he realized that the subject had never come up. He couldn't help but blush lightly in embarrassment, running his fingers through his short ponytail nervously.
"Ah, geez… Way to put it off to the last minute, huh?" he joked lightly with a nervous laugh. "I haven't even thought about that… But wouldn't we need to know if it's a boy or a girl first? Dende never said which one it would be."
"Well, that's the tricky part…" Piccolo replied with a small sigh. "Since it's half Namekian, the issue of determining its gender is going to be a little tough. It could come out the same as any other Namekian and it would technically be both male and female. In that case, whatever we treat it as would be acceptable, and they'd likely take on the human behaviors of whichever gender we refer to it as. I was raised as a male, so that's how I behave. Of course, there's also the possibility that it could be born with any combination of human sex traits, so I think we'll really only know for sure once the kid starts to hit puberty. In the end… I suppose it's sort of up to the child themselves to decide what they want to go by."
"Great…" Yamcha groaned out. "So how are we supposed to come up with a name they won't hate if we won't really know what gender they are until they're a teenager?"
To that, Piccolo couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.
"I should think the answer would be obvious. We simply choose a name that could work for either a boy or a girl."
Oh, well, that was a simple answer, wasn't it? Yamcha hadn't even thought of that. Of course, now that it was mentioned, he couldn't for the life of him think of any name that would be acceptable for both genders.
"So, uhhh… I don't suppose you've got any ideas? I'm kinda drawing a blank here…"
"Actually, there is one I've been thinking of…" Piccolo began, his eyes staring idly down at the bed covers into nothingness as often happened when he was recalling something from his formerly forgotten life. "Back in Russia in my day, a common name for a boy was Yuri. In fact, the first human to be sent into space was a cosmonaut by the name of Yuri Gagarin, and he was something of a hero in the Soviet Union after his groundbreaking orbit of the Earth. However, in Japan – which happens to be the nation much of your own culture descends from – Yuri was a common name for a girl. I think perhaps a name like that would work just fine. Well… If that sounds alright to you."
Yamcha thought it over for a moment, taking time to imagine himself referring to a son as Yuri, then doing the same with a daughter. He found that he quite liked it either way.
"Hey, sounds good to me! Better than any idea I could come up with, at least."
"Alright, then it's settled," Piccolo replied, a somewhat relieved smile spreading across his face. "Yuri Rekishiyoma it is, then."
Yamcha couldn't help but blush lightly upon hearing that.
"W-wait, we're giving it my last name?! F-for real?!" he asked, unable to hide his elation at the suggestion. Piccolo gave him another soft chuckle.
"Of course. You're the father, after all. Isn't that the human tradition; to give the child the family name of the father?"
"Y-yeah, but… What about your traditions?"
"You needn't worry about that. Namekian traditions simply dictate that you have one unique name given to you by your parents, and the only thing close to a last name you have is that of your clan. For example, Dende's full name would simply be Dende of the Dragon Clan. It wouldn't fit very well here on Earth, I don't think."
"But what about your adoptive family? You always seemed so proud to be one of them…"
Piccolo's expression seemed to grow more somber at that.
"The Scherbakovs died out nearly a thousand years ago, and I have not been 'Ivan' for a very long time. As much as my mother raised me as an equal within the family, loving me as she would her own flesh and blood, I clearly didn't belong. I was just a visitor among them. I think it's for the best that I leave their legacy to rest…
"Besides," he continued, clearly trying his best to lighten the mood after that sobering turn in subject, "You are the only family I need now. Well… you and Yuri. Because of all that, it seems only fitting that I take the name Rekishiyoma for myself. In fact, I would be quite honored if you allowed me to do so."
Yamcha's blush only grew more intense at that, and he couldn't help but stare up at his partner in utter shock.
"A-are you serious? B-but, shouldn't we be married for that?"
To that, Piccolo merely shook his head.
"At this point, is there really any need? Don't get me wrong, I'm more than willing to go through with a ceremony if you really want one, but I don't need some piece of paper and a pair of rings to show that I fully intend to stay by your side for the rest of our lives. I can only imagine you feel the same – if your recent discussions with Bulma and your attempts to surreptitiously acquire my ring size is anything to go by."
Piccolo ended his explanation with a sly smirk, and Yamcha had never felt more caught in the act as he did now. Even so, his heart skipped a beat upon hearing how his partner really felt on the matter. Now that he thought about it, he really didn't need any of that stuff either. He'd already fully dedicated himself to the stoic alien in his mind, and that's what really mattered. Beyond that, what did it matter if they simply eloped?
He couldn't come up with an adequate verbal response to that, merely reaching down to grasp his husband's hand, threading his fingers lovingly with the Namekian's own.
After a few more hours of agonizing waiting, Yamcha found himself leaning his back against the headboard of their bed, his head resting on Piccolo's shoulder and his eyelids growing heavier by the minute. It was already well into the small hours of the morning, yet their egg still hadn't hatched. Progress had been made, the single snaking crack having turned into more of a spider web of cracks, but it wasn't there just yet.
Just as he was about to drift off to sleep despite his best efforts, Yamcha felt Piccolo's shoulder shift just enough to wake him up again.
"Hey, don't fall asleep now. You'll never forgive yourself if you missed it, now will you?" Piccolo whispered softly, but it was enough to get Yamcha sitting up straight again. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced down at the egg, quite surprised to find that one of the pieces of the cracked shell was staring to be pushed out a bit. He drew in a sharp gasp, quickly looking up towards his husband as though asking if he should do something. Piccolo nodded his head, giving him a gentle smile.
"Go ahead, just be gentle."
Yamcha turned his attention back down to their egg, suddenly growing rather nervous. Okay, this was simple enough. He could do this. He just had to manage not to fuck it up somehow. He pressed a finger against the edge of the broken piece, very carefully pulling it up and removing it. From the small hole that was left, Yamcha could see a bit of green and pink skin covered in a slimy purple substance. His heart pounded in his chest at the sight, and he proceeded to gingerly peel away more shards of shell until the form of a tiny infant was clearly visible, its body curled up in a little ball to fit onto the egg. Its face scrunched up unhappily upon being exposed to the light and the strange feeling of the outside air on its bare skin, and soon the newborn's soft crying filled the room.
Yamcha reached into the egg, one hand lifting the child's tiny body out while the other carefully cradled its head. Yuri squirmed a bit in his grasp, unsure what to do with its limbs now that it could move freely without being constricted to one position in that egg. Yamcha's first instinct was to hold the child close against his chest, and as soon as he did, the crying started to die down a bit. He wasn't sure how, but he felt like the newborn recognized him already, like it could sense his familiar energy and knew it was in safe, caring hands.
The infant opened its dark eyes once it calmed further, staring up at him as its little hand clung to his shirt. Yamcha could feel his heart fluttering away in his chest as he met Yuri's gaze for the first time, a wide, giddy grin spreading across his face as happy tears gathered in the corners of his eyes despite himself. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he'd been happier than that very moment, holding his child in his arms for the first time. He still couldn't believe this was happening. It all felt like a dream…
Yamcha took a moment to look the child over. There would be no denying Yuri's alien heritage, the infant's skin a familiar pattern of vibrant green and soft pink. Even after looking, its gender remained somewhat ambiguous. Were it a human, he would have automatically assumed it to be a girl, but he knew too much of Namekian anatomy to make that assumption. After all, Piccolo looked practically the same on the outside, and he knew better than to assume that what was seen on the outside was the whole story. They'd have to wait until they brought Yuri to be examined by Dr. Briefs to know for sure, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to treat it like a boy for the time being. He would feel terrible having to refer to their child as an 'it' now that he was officially born.
Though his appearance seemed mostly Namekian, there were some small traits that hinted at Yuri's human side. Most obvious was his lack of antennae, though there were two barely-visible ridges running along the top of his head where the appendages would normally be. Yamcha guessed that they were there in some capacity, but that they simply never separated from where they rested against his head in the egg. He also lacked the prominent brow ridges that seemed to be standard among the Namekian race, his forehead as smooth as any other human infant. Lastly, his head was covered in a thin layer of soft, wispy black hair.
Yamcha hardly noticed when Piccolo removed the discarded egg shell from his lap, but he did finally look up when the Namekian offered him a small blanket to wrap the infant in. Only then did he realize that he hadn't even thought to offer Piccolo a chance to hold their newborn son.
"S-sorry, I uhhh… I guess I kinda been hogging him this whole time, huh?" he apologized with a nervous laugh, gently removing Yuri's hand from where he still grasped as the fabric of his shirt. The infant let out a small whine as he left his comfortable spot against his father's chest, but soon quieted down again once he was swaddled in the blanket and was passed into his other parent's arms.
"It's alright. We'll both have plenty of time with him," Piccolo replied softly, keeping his voice low so as to not hurt the newborn's sensitive ears. Once finally in his birthfather's arms, Yuri seemed to be soothed even further, snuggling close against Piccolo's chest and soon drifting off to sleep. Upon watching their son sleeping comfortably there in his husband's arms, Yamcha's body seemed to suddenly remember how tired he was before all the excitement started. He let out a yawn, to which Piccolo couldn't help but give an amused chuckle.
"You can go to sleep now if you want. I can take care of this from here."
Yamcha shook his head like a wet dog shaking off water, slapping his cheeks to try to wake himself up.
"Nah, sleep is for the weak."
He glanced over towards Piccolo, just catching the amused smirk plastered on his lips.
"We'll see how you feel about that statement after a few nights of tending to a newborn…"
