Just some fluff, but a little tid bit I've always wondered about ;) R&R if you please! I really appreciate all the great feedback you guys and gals leave!

Disclaimer: don't own these crazy kids!

XVI.

Stay

"Shhh, you'll wake them up!" Bulma whispered to her alien husband as he casually stomped through the master bedroom door, searching for his purple-headed firstborn, who had not returned to the gravity room after his water break.

Wincing, Vegeta noted the horrifyingly sentimental scene. His mate sat in bed, cradling a sleeping Bra in her arms; Trunks, still sporting his training clothes, lay sleeping next to his mother, spooning a half-empty water bottle. "And what exactly is going on here?" the Saiyan queried.

Bulma shrugged. "Trunks came in to say hi and we just got to talking. He was out like a light after a minute. You must be going too hard on him," she replied, grinning at her husband.

Rolling his eyes, Vegeta turned to leave and finish his training alone. However, he was halted by his wife's sincere plea. "Sit with me," she beckoned, jerking her head to a free corner of the large bed. "Please?" Her eyes were so wide and expression so soft that the Saiyan knew he could not deny her request; she was clearly not in a defy-me-and-I-will-shout-at-you mood, but a show-me-you-care-or-I-will-cry state. The latter was far worse than the first.

With his second eye roll in under two minutes, the Saiyan Prince huffed and perched himself on the bed corner, eyeing his resting family. They were completely insufferable, but undeniably a handsome looking group. Trunks seemed to have grown a foot taller in just the past week-Bulma called it a "growth spurt." Apparently it was a natural part of the human maturation process. He would have pumped the woman for more information of this biological sort, but it was no sooner than she explained the phrase that she had moved to mocking him and suggesting a lack of growth spurt was responsible for his own height.

"You know what I've been thinking about?" Bulma's voice broke the Saiyan's thoughts.

"Hn?" Vegeta leaned back against the bed post and crossed his arms.

"Well," the scientist began, and her husband knew he had made a mistake in inviting her to continue. She was about to prattle off some long train of nonsense, then get angry with him when he did not actively demonstrate that he was both following and in agreement with her. It was one of his least favorite of their shared activities. "You know how you stayed on Earth to train and beat the androids? And that's how we—well, you know," Bulma said, eyes flashing to Trunks.

Vegeta's cheeks reddened and he scoffed. "Where are you going with this?" he demanded, already uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.

"Geeze, give me a second!" Bulma shot, glaring at the Saiyan. "Anyway, I was just thinking…in the timeline that Big Trunks came from, no one knew about the androids, right?"

"So?" Vegeta countered warily.

"So, why did you stay? In that timeline, I mean?" the blue-haired genius delicately shifted the matching blue-haired baby in her arms. "You wouldn't have cared about training to beat the androids because you wouldn't have known they were coming."

The Saiyan blinked, caught off guard. He had never thought about it before. Not that there was reason to—he was dead in that timeline, beaten by those obnoxious toaster twins. It was worse than irrelevant; it was embarrassing. "I must have stayed to learn how Kakarot became a Super Saiyan," he replied, decidedly. "That was my initial reason for staying on Earth, even before the boy came from the future."

"Well, sure, that makes sense," Bulma agreed, face thoughtful. "But…you didn't just stay to ask him about being a Super Saiyan. Knowing you, that's the first thing you did when he came back to Earth after his fight with Frieza," she grinned and stifled a chuckle, imagining the probable grumpy exchange between the two in the alternate timeline. "Anyway," she shook her head, pushing the image away, "you didn't fly off and never come back after you asked Goku about the Super Saiyan thing. You stayed on Earth. You stayed here and we made Trunks, and then you still stayed, even after he was born. You stayed until the androids attacked, and you died fighting them. You died protecting us."

Although there were several cringe-worthy moments in his mate's speech, "Super Saiyn thing" and the "making" of Trunks being two of the primary offenses, the Saiyan found himself to be surprisingly most uncomfortable with the fact that Bulma was, more than likely, correct. He was certain he stayed on Earth, in the beginning, to learn how Kakarot had achieved the legendary form. He could also reason himself into assuming he had stayed longer than intended because Capsule Corp. was comfortable, and the training accommodations were excellent. But, why would he stay on the miserable planet for more than three years? She was right. There was no logical answer.

"Perhaps I wished to best Kakarot before I left," he said finally, thinking that could, logically, be what happened.

"Yeah, I guess so," Bulma said quietly, although it was clear by her tone she was not in agreement with this theory. She stroked one of Bra's blue curls, eyeing the babe with immeasurable fondness. "Or maybe," she began, voice becoming softer still, "you were always meant for us. That the other, alternate you just figured it out way before you you did." She winked at her husband, that overwhelming fondness she showered on their infant transferring easily to the gaze she placed on him. This made him uncomfortable; he couldn't help but feel unworthy of such adoration, even after so many years. He was a monster; he could not even give an estimate on the number of beings who had died at his hands. Yet, to her, he was loveable—the same way her childhood friends, parents and pets were. It made no sense.

"Well, anyway, I guess we'll never know, since you went and got your butt killed by the androids! It's just something I was thinking about, anyway. Doesn't matter! " Bulma stuck her tongue out at the Saiyan, who growled and narrowed his eyes at her in return.

"Yes, that's very funny," he shot, loud enough that Trunks stirred awake. Vegeta grabbed his unsuspecting son by the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards the door, muttering all the while about how he personally had not been killed by any machinery, and it was not correct to make such a comparison.