Chapter 29
Learning the Basics.

Rhuba knelt there in the rain. Her baby cried loudly as Garagus lay face down in a puddle.
Screaming his name, Rhuba watched the paddle turn red with blood.
Before she could even tear her eyes from his lifeless body, the same monster who killed Garagus swooped down and snatched her baby from her hands.

"NO!" Rhuba screamed, reaching out helplessly while Freeza cackled with laughter as he ascended into the sky, disappearing into the sun.
It was then that the sun was blackened by a brighter star held in Freeza's hands.

Rhuba watched her baby turn to ash, vaporised right before her eyes.
As her breathless screams called out, Freeza dropped the sun on her.

Rhuba screamed herself awake, looking around helplessly when she found herself in a bed.
"Just a dream." She told herself. But dream or not, she felt awful.
Her head was pounding, her body felt sore and sticky with sweat.
All she wanted was a hot bath, but a shower will do.
"Garagus…" She looked to her right, finding the bed empty. The window showed it to be nighttime.
Thinking she overslept, Rhuba climbed out of bed.

Despite her pains and aches, and her unusual nakedness, getting out of bed felt much easier than usual…
"Garagus!" She screamed, feeling her tummy was flatter. Much flatter.
Visions of her dream came screaming back to her mind.
"GARAGUS!" Ignoring the pain and lack of modesty, she ran out of the room and fled down the hallway.
Arriving in the bridge, she saw no sign of him. Running back the way she came, she was met with Garagus running out of the Galley

He was shocked when she suddenly hugged him.
"Are you alright?"

"The baby! Where's our baby?" Her puffy eyes were red and burning with tears as Garagus led her through.

As she walked, Rhuba was frantically crying as she tried to put into words the dream she had, and of course the fear from him not being there when she woke up.
But she fell silent as she walked into the galley
Lying on the table on layers of quilts with rolled-up blankets making four walls, Rhuba's eyes locked on to a tiny Saiyan gurgling away.

"Try not to be too loud." Garagus whispered as he walked Rhuba forward. "Rhuba, this is our daughter."

"daughter…?" It was there, standing over their baby that the adrenaline from her terror, and all the exhaustion finally brought her to her knees and she almost collapsed.

Garagus caught her, lifting her back up and refusing to let go until she was sitting down. Even if it was on the floor and against the wall.
"Are you okay?"

"No…" She breathed so hard, it was hard to even keep her eyes open. Something Garagus could sympathise with. "Tell me what happened."

Garagus got Rhuba a drink of water and wrapped one of the quilts around her for modesty.
Then he brought over their daughter before sitting down with Rhuba and explaining everything to the best of his ability.

"I had to lie. I told the villagers that the monster they saw killed you, and our child. I told them not to worry about it because I destroyed the body so they wouldn't look for it. I apologised to them for not being there to save them in the future. I think they understood. After all, who wouldn't need time after losing their family?"
Garagus remembered the big farewell when he flew away. He felt like such a fraud when he knew he'd be landing on the other side of the woods.

"So… I was seen?" Rhuba asked, breathlessly.

Garagus nodded.
"And thanks to those stupid suns around Arlia, you didn't change back for over thirty hours. You slept nine of those, plus three on board the ship. I've not slept at all. And this little one would cry and scream herself to sleep on and off from the moment she turned back."
Holding the baby close, Garagus nuzzled his nose on the baby.
He'd felt the heat from her head from all the screaming she'd done.

He knew turning back was stressful, and painful.
There's so much compulsive rage that comes from being in that state, and for her to have to suffer it at such a young age, he didn't blame her for crying so loud.
But he sure was thankful that she was calmer now.

Rhuba hadn't been able to take her eyes off the baby since Garagus started talking.
That was her baby. Right in front of her.
The baby she was thinking of ending all those months ago.
The baby she carried since.
The baby she dreamed about.
There she is. She's real, and she's there…

Sniffing and rubbing her eyes. Rhuba weakly held her arms out.
"please, let me hold her."

Garagus leaned close, placing the baby in her mother's arms.
"I, hope you don't mind… I've… been naming her… something…"

For the first time since she sat down, Rhuba's eyes shot to Garagus so fiercely he almost felt stabbed by her gaze.

"Not Cumbar!"

"NO!" Garagus pleaded. "I… realised the issue with that one…"

"Oh, Did you?" Rhuba growled, hugging her baby close. But she eased up again when the tiny girl whimpered. She didn't want her daughter's first time being held to be a frightening one.
"Then introduce me to her, properly." Rhuba held her breath as Garagus placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and under the baby's head.

"Rhuba, this is our daughter, Celerave."

Rhuba looked down at Celerave like she was the most beautiful thing in the universe and beyond.
But the name was meh at best. There must have been something else.
"Hi Celerave, I'm your mummy~" Rhuba felt tears coming back as she took in every part of her baby.
She was so tiny yet so beautiful. Her eyes were, interesting though.
"Garagus, are… her eyes, red? Is that normal?"

"I don't know." He answered, looking very unsure. "But that's not the, weirdest thing… remember how I said she had pink fur?"

"Yeah?" Rhuba watched fearfully as Garagus pulled the wrapping from Celerave's head. Rhuba's jaw dropped at the sight of the girl's light silver hair. "what…? How, what is… it'll get darker, right?"

"I don't know… When you both turned back, I carried you to the ship and washed her in the sink… Her tail is just white."

"White?" Rhuba didn't know what to think. Saiyans have black hair. Black hair, brown tails, dark eyes. "Wh-what does this mean?"

"I don't know." Garagus sighed. Every question she had had already been thought up and got nowhere inside his head before she even got out of bed.

Celerave started crying. At the sound of which, Garagus looked ready to fall on a sword.
"oh good." He sighed.

"Why is she crying?"

"I don't know!" Garagus sunk his face in his hands. "Sorry, I… I've not slept… I don't know what's going on… I only had her quiet for a little bit…"

Rhuba held the baby Celerave, staring at her with absolutely no idea of how to remedy the situation.
"Is she in pain?"

Garagus shook his head.
"I don't know…" He offered his arms out to take her back. There was a gentle rocking motion that used to calm her down. "She was born as an Oozaru, she was born angry and violent..." Looking up at the mother, he remembered how good she was at controlling the little one without hurting her.

Rhuba watched him back. He was calming her down, already she could hear the crying take a new tone.
Now that she had time to think, she had to know.
"So, where are we headed?"

"Back to the plan. Our Arlian daughter is born, which I think gave us more bad luck than we avoided if I'm being honest."

"yeah, fuck that planet." Rhuba agreed, nodding vigorously.

Garagus gasped loudly as his jaw dropped, covering Celerave's ears with his arm.

"What?" Rhuba asked, but instead of a response, he simply stood up and walked out of the room with the oblivious baby in his arms.
"She can't understand me! Come back!" Rhuba objected, only seeing his face reappear at the door, face still in shock as he shook his head before disappearing once more.

Going after him, Rhuba negotiated the return of her baby. But first she had to promise to stop swearing.
"Okay okay. But listen, you need sleep. And I need a shower. So how about you go lie down, and I take Celerave in the shower with me."

"Your showers are too hot."

"When did you become so good at this?" Rhuba pouted.

"I don't know. But when I look at her, I want to crush anything and everything that could hurt her. That's why she's wrapped in four quilts."

"I was wondering that." Rhuba put her arms out, silently pleading to be trusted with her. "I'll take a cold shower if it makes you happy, I promise I'll be careful… I did carry her for most of the year, already."

"Yeah, you did…" Garagus smiled, glancing between the two ladies in his life. "So it's surely my turn."

"Hand her over, and lie down before you fall down." Rhuba giggled as Celerave was placed in her arms again. "Hi Celerave, hello~- What in the world was that?"

"Oh, yeah. You might start talking like a fool when you speak to her. She casts a spell or something."

"Hmm… No more talking to you~ Oh wow, that's scary." Rhuba held her tongue until she was alone with Celerave in the shower. If she's going to sound stupid, she at least wants Celerave to be the only one hearing it.

Once the bathroom door closed, Rhuba shook off her blanket and undressed Celerave too.
Garagus need not know how close she came to dropping the baby once she was free from the layers of binding keeping her little arms, legs and tail together.
Rhuba quickly learned that she had to be ready to support a wriggler.
"He didn't lie, your tail is white… and it's so cuute~" Shaking her head, she tried to get over this witchcraft. "Okay stop that." She grumbled, stepping into the shower and letting the tepid water wash away two days' worth of sweat.

It felt amazing. But not as wonderful as holding Celerave.
Feeling her skin to skin, it was strange. So different from before.
It was like there was an electricity that instantly bound them together as mother and daughter.
Rhuba spent the first ten minutes of her shower just staring at Celerave's body. Taking in every detail and imprinting it onto her heart and soul.

Celerave's hand rested palm down on Rhuba's chest.
The girl's eyes were wide and filled with wonder as she looked around but always would lock back on her mother's face.
Her mouth was hanging slightly as she took shallow breaths.

It was confusing in a way.
When Rhuba thought of Garagus in the next room, part of her wondered how he was able to just hand Celerave over without a fight.
The way she was feeling at that moment if Garagus wanted her back, he'd have to pry her from her dead hands.

"Ah..!" Rhuba felt the baby bite her. "eh?" Pulling away gently, and keeping Celerave at half an arm's distance, she rubbed her boob clean of spit. "I'll get you food, you can't eat your mum."
Looking like she was about to get an earful of cries again, Rhuba cuddled the baby close once more.
"no no no, no tears, shhh, shh… Ah-!" Again the baby bit her.
Though not with teeth, just holding her in her wide mouth. Her wet baby lips just pressed against her skin. "just… okay… f-fine..."

Rhuba bit her lip. What do you do when your baby wants to eat you?
At least she was calm and quiet.
Calm and quiet is a million times better than crying and loud.

To rest her legs, Rhuba turned the heat up ever so slightly and then sat against the shower wall, still letting the water wash over them.
Celerave was still quietly nibbling on her boob right next to the nipple while Rhuba took a moment to rationalise everything that's transpired so far.

In her head, she still felt like she missed something.
She went through months of pregnancy. Things got blurry. Now there's a baby at her breast.
But there was no birth. That whole part of the process was missing.
It obviously happened, but her mind was vacant at the time.
The miracle of childbirth, and she wasn't cognitive for even a single second of it.

"Yes…~" Shaking with teary laughter, she felt like she dodged a punch.
All that fear she'd been harbouring of how painful and stressful it was going to be, and the moon goddess blessed her with the strength to kill her enemies and skip the most painful part of it all.
"See Celerave? If we had you in space, I'd have been in pain when I had you, that's called bad luck. Having you on that icky bug planet gave me good luck~. Even if your dad had a worse time than I did…" Giggling to herself, she decided to break the bad news. "By the way, your wiggly half-brothers and sisters were left behind. We're not going back for them."

Rhuba felt Celerave's mouth getting closer and closer.
"Okay you little weirdo, let's get u-AH!" Rhuba tensed up as Celerave's mouth landed right on the mark.
It felt weird. It was like two magnets connecting and her whole boob suddenly felt warm and tingled slightly.
But still,
"No, bad baby…" She pulled her boob away, but when she did…

In the room Next door, Garagus was having a wonderful dream about sleeping in bed.

"Garagus!" Rhuba called from the shower, snapping his eyes open and summoning him through the door.

"What is it?"

"I'm leaking!"

Garagus saw her sitting in the shower.
"You're too tired to get to the toilet?"

"No you idiot, from my boob!"

Garagus stared at her for a moment, then noticed Celerave trying to lean forward, even reaching with her hands.
"Sure it's not drool? I zoned out and found her chewing on my shirt."

"I'm positive- wait, why was she doing that?"

"I think she's hungry. But she doesn't have teeth, so I don't know what to do. What eats with no teeth?"

Rhuba couldn't think. Especially not while the baby was trying to feed on her.
"Aren't there leaches that don't have teeth? They drink blood, right?"

"No. it left Russell a bite…" Garagus leaned against the wall, eyes shut. "foot had teeth…"

Rhuba was caught trying to fend off being eaten and listening to Garagus' sleep-deprived mumbles.
"Go back to bed."

"o…k…" Garagus walked back through, closing the door on his way into the dark room.

Eventually, the baby Celerave started crying, screaming out even when Rhuba tried rocking her the way Garagus had.
"Come on, stop crying for me…" Rhuba pleaded, keeping her close but also at a distance in case she tried biting again.
As the baby flailed her tiny arms and legs, even her tail curled and wagged, the whole ordeal along with being wet from the shower made Rhuba nervous about dropping her.
Holding her out was becoming too much, and so decided just to give in.

"here, try this…" Rhuba curled a finger and held the knuckle to Celerave's mouth.
The baby suckled and chewed for a moment of calm, but then started resisting again.
This went on for the rest of the shower until Celerave cried herself to sleep.

At that point, Rhuba climbed out of the shower without yet having a proper wash but at least she wasn't feeling so icky anymore.
After rubbing herself down with a towel and carefully dabbing the baby dry, Rhuba returned to the bedroom.
"you're still awake…?"

Garagus was staring at the wall. He'd look dead if he wasn't sitting upright. From the moment he sat back down, his mind had been phasing in and out of consciousness.
There was something he wanted to tell her, but retaining the thought proved difficult as memories, intentions and dreams fought for attention.
But hearing Rhuba's voice and seeing her standing in the doorframe, the pistons in his brain started firing again.
Garagus blinked once before yawning.
"I remember…" He waved her forward to sit with him. Once she was close, he positioned Rhuba's arms to have Celerave's mouth up against her.

"Please don't, I just put her to sleep… I don't want her to wake up and bite me…" Rhuba was almost too fatigued to put up any real resistance.

"When you were Oozaru… you held her like this…" He said, carefully opening the baby's mouth. "remember after the cold seasons back home, the young animals would suckle from their parents?"

"yes… Mum said they were drinking milk…" Rhuba's puzzled expression turned dark. "Am I making milk?"

"You did say you were leaking." Garagus leaned on her shoulder, falling asleep right there.

Rhuba had one baby sleeping in her arms, sucking at her teat while her husband slept on her shoulder.
"Oh this is brilliant…" She sighed, moving Celerave onto one arm while she gently set Garagus on the pillow. Then she walked around the bed to lie down herself.

Celerave quietly fed from her mother while Rhuba cradled the baby in her arms, curving her body so she was almost embedded within Rhuba's person.
"Welcome to the family, Celerave." Rhuba whispered, kissing the girl in the middle of her silver hair.