The next morning was a brand new day.

We finished the triplet’s room, and were surprised at how good it turned out. The babies were thrilled too. They had completely forgotten about yesterday’s incident. They played in their room almost the entire day; until they grew hungry.

“They have to start school at some point, you know.” I said suddenly.

He looked up at me from the newspaper. “What for?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s what humans do. They send their kids to school so they can learn stuff.”

He snorted. “They can learn more here in a day than at some ‘school’ in an entire week.”

I nodded in agreement. “I know; but think about this. They’ll be gone. All day long.” I scooting closer to him and rubbed my nose against his stubbly cheek.

At first I thought the little indication had went right over his head, for his expression did not change. Finally, his jaw twitched. “Fine. They’ll go to school.”

I moved lower and kissed down his neck. I pulled his shirt back to get as his shoulder as well. We might have gotten further if the babies had not interrupted.

“Papa!” One of the boys cried. It was hard to distinguish their voices sometimes when I wasn’t looking at them.

I pulled away from Vegeta at once and looked down at them, trying to look as though I had not been doing anything.

They didn’t seem to notice what had happened. “Look it!” Lysander cried and showed me some kind of strange rock.

I took it from him and examined it. All of a sudden, a head poked out of the rock, and then quickly dove back in.

“What is it?” Vienna asked in her amazingly high voice.

“It’s a turtle,” I responded, turning it over. “Where did you get it?”

“From outside!” Lysander said excitedly. “It was in the water, and I went in and got it!” His story seemed to be true because he was soaking wet from the waist down. He put his hands up for it back.

I handed it back. “When did you go outside?”

“Can we keep it?” Vienna asked, seeming to disregard my question.

I blinked, and then looked to Vegeta. He seemed not to be paying attention. He shook his head suddenly.

“What?” He asked.

“Can we keep it?” Lysander repeated her question.

He stared at them for a moment and then shrugged. “If you can keep it alive.”

They jumped up and down, thrilled. “Yay!”

“Don’t drop him,” I said, grabbing the poor thing before it hit the ground. I put it back in Lys’s arms. “You have to be gentle.”

“Okay, we’ll be gent-ile,” He promised. “We need a box to keep him in!”

They all started chatting at once; about what to call it, where to keep it, what side of the room it would stay on, who would play with it first.

I found them a clear plastic box to keep it in and filled it with water. They all unanimously decided that the turtle’s name would be Turtle, and that the tank would stay on a table near the window so that he wasn’t on any ‘side’ of the room.

A rock was placed in the middle of Turtle’s new home, and a few bugs put into his tank.

All three of them gathered around the tank, watching it as if it were the most fascinating thing they had ever seen. When he would move, even just a little bit, they would gasp and then giggle at each other.

“They’re easy to please,” Vegeta said dryly when they were out of ear-shot. “What kind of name is Turtle?”

I laughed slightly. “Leave them alone; they’re little. Where you all that creative when you were that young?”

He shrugged, dismissing the subject. “I believe we were doing something?”

I blinked at him slowly, trying to recall. “We were talking about school, and then…” I trailed off. “Oh!”

I pushed him onto the couch, and then sat down next to him. My tongue was in his mouth and my hand up his shirt before he could do much at all. I ran my thumb over his nipple until it grew hard before I moved on to the other one.

The pitter patter of tiny feet pulled us apart once more.

Vienna stood before us with a book clasped in her tiny arms. There was a huge grin on her face, showing off a few of her new teeth. “Da, will you read this to me?”

I could just imagine his inward groan.

He nodded mutely, unable to say no to her. She hopped onto the couch between us and opened the book as he readjusted his shirt.

I stood up, taking my leave. He watched me go, disappointment in his eyes. I gave him a teasing look, shrugged, and then disappeared into the bedroom. I imagined the look of dismay on his face now.

Damn it, I was horny too. But that was the price of having children. You had to prioritize.

Maybe the book wouldn’t take that long to read to her.

I didn’t want to get rid of my erection myself; that would be a waste. I decided instead to take a quick nap and then see what I should do.

Before long, my eyes fell shut.

Not ten minutes later, though, I heard whispering.

“Maybe you should poke him?” A voice said in a hushed tone.

“But he’s asleep,” Another voice protested.

“What if he’s dead?” The first voice asked.

All of a sudden, the voice was directly in my ear. “Papa, are you dead?”

I jumped, kicking off the covers and sitting straight up.

The boys sat back on the bed, eyes wide with bewilderment. “I guess you’re not dead.” Aizel stated.

Aizel didn’t say much, but when he did, it usually was to state the obvious in a manner that seemed somewhat sarcastic; whether he knew what sarcasm was or not.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked with a yawn, stretching and cracking my back.

“Looking for fun,” Lysander replied. “Da’s reading to Vienna, so we came to play with you; so you wouldn’t be lonely.”

“I see. You want to play, huh?” I paused for a moment, threw them both onto their backs, and began to tickle them.

They shrieked with laugher, their faces becoming bright red. I stopped to let them breathe for a moment, and then continued.

They tried to form sentences, but they were too distracted by the tickling.

Soon, they were tired and all laughed out. They lay there, panting for a moment.

All of a sudden, Aizel sat up. “Papa, I gotta go potty.”

None of them were potty trained yet, so it was either my or Vegeta’s duty to take them to the bathroom whenever requested. Aizel had the most trouble though, because of some irrational fear of the toilet.

“Okay,” I said, getting to my feet. He grabbed my index and middle finger and dragged me to the bathroom with him.

When we came into the bathroom, he froze and turned to me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He fidgeted. “I don’t remember what to do.” He blurted out as if panicked.

I sighed and stood him in front of the toilet. “Remember what I showed you? You aim into the bowl,” I expected him to be able to figure out the rest, but he just stood there, pants down to his ankles. “And you just… go.” I didn’t know how to explain it in more detail than that. How does one tell someone how to pee?

He swayed suddenly, and then stepped away from the toilet. “I can’t do it!” he cried and then ran out of the bathroom, leaving his pants behind.

“Aizel!” I called after him. “Come back here!”

His feet pounded on the wood floor as he came into the living room. I chased after him until he managed to get the front door open. He abruptly began to go on the ground.

I sighed.

“He did it again?” Vegeta asked calmly, turning away from the book for a moment.

I nodded. “One day… he will go in the toilet.”

He shrugged. “If you say so.” He turned back to the book.

When he’d finished, I took him back into the bathroom to wash his hands. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me; as if he knew I was disappointed.

“It was a good try, buddy,” I said gently. “At least you tried.”

He cocked his head and then jumped from the stool, away from the sink. He dried off his hands on his shirt. He glanced over at the toilet suspiciously.

I wondered why it scared him so much. Vienna and Lysander had no problem with the toilet; although Lysander missed sometimes.

After we finished, it was about nap time. Or ‘Hell Hour’, as we came to call it.

This was the time when they all reverted back to their Saiyan instincts. They would do or say anything to get out of a nap. Vienna was the worst of them.

She had somewhat of a silver tongue; knowing exactly what to say in order to get what she wanted.

The boys were much more predictable, though, because they always did the same thing. They would first try to run, and then they would cry, and then they would throw a tantrum, and then they would try and run again.

Same thing every day.

Today, though, the boys had run off into different directions down the hall. Vegeta chased after them, swearing the entire time.

He wasn’t allowed to deal with Vienna; he was too easily swayed by what she said.

“Papa, I’m not sleepy,” She insisted, “My feet aren’t tired.” She showed me one of her tiny feet.

I nodded. “Lay down,” I said gently, “And I’ll read you a story once your brothers come back.”

“Da already read me a story,” She said, standing up on her bed and bouncing a little. “I don’t need another one until bed time. And I can’t sleep unless I have a story.”

I wondered if that statement made any sense to her; and apparently it did. “How about this. You take a nap now, and then we can go swimming.”

She shook her head. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Vegeta came in with Aizel under his arm and Lysander over his shoulder. He threw them both down onto their beds. They laughed giddily, all worked up now.

He gave me a sour, unsure look. “Uh... someone’s here for you.”

I cocked my head and then looked out into the living room. A head of black hair turned to look at me. Chi-chi.

I quickly disappeared back into the bedroom. “What is she doing here?” I whispered to him, almost as if it were his fault.

He gave me a look. “How should I know? Go ask her.”

I shook my head. “Tell her to leave,”

“You tell her to leave!” He hissed and then shoved me out of the bedroom.

I smiled nervously at her. “Hi, Chi-chi,”

She nodded. “Hello, Goku.” She glanced around the living room skeptically. “This is a nice place. You keep it very clean,” She said as if she were surprised.

“Well, with little kids, you have to. They put in their mouths whatever they can find.” I laughed nervously.

She took a seat on the couch and stared at me; observing me.

I shifted under her gaze.

“I came here,” She began softly, “To apologize to you.”

I was taken aback. “To me…?”

“Yes. I wanted to say that I’m sorry I haven’t been the wife you were looking for, and I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions when you told me what was going on.” Her eyes met my own. “Bulma told me about what happened. I understand that it isn’t your fault.”

I was speechless. I had not been man enough to go over and simply talk to her, and here she was, asking for my forgiveness. My shoulders slumped and I took a seat next to her on the couch. “I’m really, really sorry.”

“Me too.” She agreed and then paused. “When did we fall out of love?”

That was a good question. It had to have been years ago.

She saw the look on my face and then sighed. “A while ago, huh?” She paused again. “Maybe we were never really in love to begin with.”

I shook my head. “That’s not true. You know that’s not true.”

She nodded, but didn’t seem to believe me. “How’re the children?”

“They’re fine. They’re taking a nap.”

She smiled suddenly. “I remember when Gohan and Goten used to take naps. I used to have to fight them and bride them just so they would actually take one.” She seemed sad suddenly.

I heard some shuffling and turned to see four heads of dark hair staring at us from the bedroom quizzically. Vegeta had a distasteful, yet curious expression on his face.

I motioned for them to come sit with us.

The babies took this as a chance to not take their naps, and came bounding into the room.

“Hi!” Vienna chirped, half sliding on the wood floor before us. “What’s your name?”

“Chi-chi,” She replied warmly. “What’s yours?”

“Vienna!”

“I’m Lysander!”

She turned to Aizel who was always the last to introduce himself.

“Aizel,” He said with a shy sigh, his eyes dropping to the floor.

“Nice to meet you all.” She turned and nodded at Vegeta too. He nodded back a greeting, which astounded me even more. “How are you doing?”

“Good,” he answered gruffly, shifting his weight to his other leg, and crossing his arms.

Lysander crawled up onto the couch and scratched at his head. “You look like Gohan!” he cried.

The other two began to prattle, agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

“I’m his mommy.” Chi-chi said with a smile.

They turned to each other and then giggled at some unknown secret joke.

“What?” She asked, her smile widening.

“We don’t have a mommy!” Vienna replied breathlessly and they laughed even further.

I wondered why this was funny, but apparently it was. They didn’t elaborate any further, so no one pressed the issue.

Chi-chi stayed and chatted with us and the children for a while; until it was almost dinner time. When she was getting ready to leave, Aizel announced that he had to go potty.

I sighed loudly. “Okay, let’s try this again, Ai.”

“Is he scared of the potty?” Chi-chi asked. The accuracy of her answer was surprising.

“Yeah; how did you know?” I blinked at her.

“Gohan was the same way. If you put some Cherri O’s into the toilet, and tell him to hit them, I bet he’ll do it.” With that, she waved good-bye and disappeared out the door.

I turned to Vegeta. “Cherri O’s?”

He shrugged, and went to make some food as I dealt with Aizel.

I grabbed the box of Cherri O’s and went into the bathroom. I put a handful of the cereal into the toilet bowl.

At first, he didn’t know what I wanted him to do. But then he laughed when the Cherri O’s formed a smiley face in the bowl. He then began to go.

And for the first time, he didn’t run out of the room, start crying, or claim he didn’t have to go anymore. He just went.

I grinned down at him. Maybe Chi-chi wasn’t so bad after all.