The house was crowded, but comfortably so. Some families might not have liked it, but the Vir family had always enjoyed their time together, and the more of them they could fit in one room, the better.

That was just how they did things.

Growing up, all of them had been thankful to learn that they were somewhat of an anomaly as far as families go. Granted if you added extended family, things evened out, but when it was just them, things were always good.

With all of them there they weren't expecting the knock on the door that came early one morning as Jordan and Adam sat at the kitchen table, Jorden doing his level best to pry opinions out of his brother in law, who really didn't seem to have an opinion on anything , not to mention that Sunny was completely disinterested in the small things, and had given Adam permission to make all of the decisions as long as she got to sit and watch sports with Jim.

They could hear cheering from the other room as Jordan rubbed his temples.

"Ok, than why don't we start with colors you DON"T want."

Adam shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, "I.... I don't know Jordan I.... I'm not even entirely sure if this is something... I even care about. I'm not trying to be a pain, I just...... sort of thought this was going to be a small thing."

Jordan raised an eyebrow, "Ok, how about I put it this way. If I am going to be the photographer, I want the setting to be just as nice as the people I am photographing. So..." He pushed the notebook of color swatches across the table, "Humor me."

Adam sighed looking down at the colors, "Uh how about something that won't clash with Sunny."

"Ok, now we are at least getting somewhere. Nothing orange then since it is exact opposite of blue, it might work if both were pastels, but since she's such a bright color we would have to match it with an equal orange, and that would just not do. I am also thinking that most of the warm color spectrum is out, yellow is ugly in my opinion anyway, I wouldn't recommend purple because depending on the type it can be either warm or cool, and if it's cool, it is going to look too similar to Sunny herself."

He flipped through a few of the pages.

"Ah, how about this."

He turned the book back around so Adam could see.

"deep green, light grey, and this sort of grey blue color?"

"That's not bad, green is Sunny's favorite color anyway."

"Ok see, that wasn't so hard was it."

Adam shrugged again.

Jordan sighed looking over his shoulder to where David was in the kitchen, trying to figure out where his mother had hidden the cookies, "It's like pulling teeth."

David shut a cupboard door with a sigh and walked over resting his hands on either of Jordan's shoulders, "You would think that living with their mother for so long, they would have managed to develop opinions about things like color."

Jordan rested one hand atop David's hand squeezing once lightly.

"Stop acting all high and mighty. You are just as bad."

David gave a sort of Wan smile, "I said it before and I will say it again, I would have gotten married in a clown factory and been happy as long as I was getting married to you.

Jordan rolled his eyes, but Squeezed David's hand again, "Sap.'

"Only for you."

"You found those cookies yet/. Adam asked

David frowned, "No."

"Did you check the freezer, She loves putting things in the freezer.'

David was about to answer when the aforementioned knock on the door came, and the group of them turned frowning.

"Huh, weren't expecting anyone were we."

"Didn't think so."

David, who was already standing headed down towards the front door, the group of them training their necks to see who it was.

They heard muffled voices, and then footsteps just in time to see a familiar face peer around the corner.

Adam stood.

"Maverick?"

She smiled slightly past the fluff of her overly furry winter hat, dusted with snow, "Sorry for intruding."

"No, not intruding at all, why don't you sit down."

"No time, I'm supposed to meet Ramirez back on base, and we are going to head over to his parent's place for a day or two."

Maverick and Ramirez always spent leave together primarily because when his parents had learned that she was an orphan, the idea had immediately repulsed them, and they had adopted her in almost the same way that his family had adopted Sunny.

"I just came to drop someone off.'

All of them stood confused for a moment until she turned to reveal the containment pod slung over her shoulder, and inside sat a very exhausted looking Riss, with drooping antennae, doing his best to contain three wriggling jellybeans with very large eyes.

"Riss!"

At that exclamation, Krill poked his head from around the corner.

He was wearing a knit beanie and a specially made sweater, seeing as he got very easily cold. He seemed surprised to see riss there, as maverick opened the containment pod and let him step out, juggling the three baby vrul in his arms as if he was in danger of dropping them.

Adam stood hurriedly and reached down to help, taking two of the tiny creatures and passing one over to Jordan and David, who, clustered together wide eyed to coo over the tiny body Jordan held in one hand.

"Riss." Krill said, "What are you doing here? I Thought you were staying back on the ship?"

Riss looked up looking relieved now that his arms were free, "Did I say that or did you just infer it?"

There was a surprising amount of venom in his voice that was rather uncharacteristic of a Vrul.

The three humans in the room glanced between each other a silent conversation passing between them in a way that only humans can manage. And almost as if they had agreed on it verbally, the three of them stood and walked into the other room, taking the tiny vrul with them and leaving the other two to their devices.

Too bad their human hearing was good enough they would have been able to hear the argument that followed from almost anywhere in the house.

"I am sorry, are you attempting to be passive aggressive because if you are, than I am here to inform you that it is a very dysfunctional form of communication." Jordan looked at David, and then both of them looked at Sunny and Adam who were exchanging the exact same look.

Martha was out just then grabbing a few things from the store, but even Jim made a face that projected both familiarity and pity.

"No krill, I am not trying to be "passive" aggressive, I am trying to be aggressive, aggressive, but perhaps I should be a little more forceful if that is not getting across."

"Are you being intentionally facetious?"

"Do I look like I'm trying to be funny?'

"You keep asking questions and I am not entirely sure if you want me to answer them or if they are supposed to be rhetorical. If you have a problem than just spell it out."

There was silence, and in that silence the group of them could just feel all humidity in the room flash evaporate with the force of Rage.

In Jordan's hand one of the small beans tried to roll out of his hands, and he scrambled to catch it before it could fall to the floor.

Wide eyed he clutched the baby vrul to his chest and looked at David whispering, "Its so hard to hold onto."

"Fine, than I will spell it out plainly since it seems that your ability to take in information and make deductions about that information is severely lacking. I came to you with an idea, and you agreed to that idea, you and I have stepped into a mutual social contract, and for whatever reason I was dumb enough to assume that when that happened we were taking on equal responsibility."

"You are still being intentionally vague."

"And I think you are being intentionally thick, or at least I hope so because if you really are this stupid, than I have made an egregious miscalculation."

There was a pause.

"Go on."

"well thank you for your permission, I appreciate it."

"Now you are simply being childish."

"No no, you know what is childish. Childish is not taking responsibility for your actions. I did not enter into this contract under the impression that I was going to be forced to take on complete responsibility for the grubs while you neglected and ignored your duties in favor of literally everything else."

"Excuse me! But I am surgeon for an entire ship of humans. If you were assuming that I would have the time you want me to than it is YOU who can't make clear and logical deductions."

The argument up to this point had drawn Conn from the back porch, and he was now lingering just next to the entrance to the kitchen listening with a delighted smile on his face.

The others contemplated getting up for the sake of their privacy but.

It was just too.

Interesting

And kind of funny, though none of them would ever have admitted that.

Jim stretched, reached for the remote and, accidentally, managed to turn down the volume while he was looking through channels.

"Ah yes I forgot because you are the ONLY one of us who has a job aboard a human ship. I completely forgot that when Admiral vir allowed me aboard his ship it was simply to sit, as the humans would say, with my thumb up my ass. Here I was under the impression that I also had a job to perform."

"Excuse me, but my job requires more executive processing, not to mention that I help keep the crew running"

Jim winced.

There was silence again, "Did you just imply that my both easier and less important than yours/"

"Well if you want to put it so simply."

Jordan covered his mouth.

Thomas had walked in just at that moment and froze in the doorway.

Thomas had never been in a long term relationship, and by this point the family was pretty sure that he wasn't interested, but even so, he knew what was coming and began backing slowly up the hallway.

Conn was practically giddy.

"Ah yes because the MENTAL HEALTH of the crew is SOOOO much less important. I completely forgot that humans are SO much more mentally resilient than physically resilient, its not like mental health effects, physical outcomes after injury, outcome of chronic disease, nutrition, sleep, impulsivity, drug use, you know pretty much EVERYTHING involving physical health. Ah yes humans have absolutely no issue dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, and stress on a regular basis, and it most certainly isn't common on the Omen crew, who have been, kidnapped, shot at, blown up, and had their entire understanding of reality completely upturned in the past five years."

Krill had gone silent and Riss used this opportunity to continue speaking.

He was one a role after all.

"And now you also expect me to take care of the physical and mental needs of three growing Vrul. When we made this agreement it was my understanding that we were trying to prove to the Vrul council and the GA at large that the council is specifically breeding for deltas, and betas as a means of control, and that of course means that we were planning on creating a more optimal enviornment for their maturation. Yet here I am developing the plan by myself, taking care of them by myself, all after not having had a rest cycle in over a month. All of my faculties have been running at a hundred percent, and now here I find you having a nice little vacation away from the crew without even thinking about the offspring that you AGREED to bring into this world."

More silence.

"I believe the humans have a word for that too, isn't their language just so adaptable....." He was practically spitting now, "Do you know what that word is, Dr Krill. Go on, guess."

Krill did not try to guess.

"Well you are just no fun, the term is deadbeat."

The entire room winced collectively.

Conn was practically in rapture at all the Drama.

Eris appeared from the back doorway looking at her father with a reproachful expression on her face. A silent communication passed between the two of them, and she marched over grabbing him by the arm and hauling him back outside giving the rest of them an apologetic look on her way out.

They all tried to pretend they were trying not to listen.

But as is human nature.

It was like watching a train wreck.

The silence that followed was different this time, and finally with a sigh Krill said, "Your logic is undeniable despite how it was presented."

"Krill, I swear I will be the first Vrul to commit murder if you patronize me again."

More silence, and this time Krill got it right, "You are right, I am sorry. I made an agreement with you and have not kept up my part of the agreement to the detriment of both the humans and the offspring .... And you. My pride has clearly clouded my judgement. If you have not seen a rest cycle in over a month than I should only be impressed that this conversation wasn't worse."

"Good, here, I am going to find somewhere to shut off my brain for the foreseeable future, do not disturb me."

They all stayed quiet watching as Krill walked into the room a few minutes later.

Sunny and im did their best to stare at the TV like they hadn't heard a thing.

David and Jordan huddled together as if their attention had been on the Vrul child the entire time, and Adam, in a partial panic simply pretended to be napping, resting his head on Sunny's shoulder.

Cracking his one eye open, he could see that Krill was not buying it.

It was then that martha appeared from the hallway to the garage and laundry room. She did a better job than the rest of them pretending that she hadn't been eavesdropping, but a raised eyebrow from David and a knowing tilt of the head by Jim flushed her cheeks temporarily red, though Krill didn't notice, and she quickly changed the subject by taking one of the small vrul and cooing over how cute it was having no trouble holding onto it even as it wriggled, "Maya was a wriggly baby too."

"How did you avoid dropping her."

She gave a rueful smile, "I didn't. I dropped her at least once."

"that explains so much." Adam said loudly as Maya stepped into the room.

She scoffed, "You're one to talk. The first time Thomas held you he dropped you on your head."

That broke some of the remaining tension in the room, and Martha vanished for a few minutes only to return with cute little pastel wraps to bundle the tiny vrul in. Collectively they allowed Krill to struggle with all three of them for a while as punishment.

To his credit he did not complain and stoically took on his responsibility, knowing full well that everyone was doing it on purpose.

Unlike their older counterparts, Tiny vrul didn't seem scared of anything. If anything they seemed naturally curious and full of energy to the point where it was difficult to keep track of them. It even seemed that the three of them had already developed distinct personalities. One seemed to plan every action before execution, another simply enjoyed colors and patterns, mesmerized by swirling colors on the television, while the last one was a complete menace with no regard for safety, and simply did whatever it wanted whenever it wanted without regard for planning.

Later at Dinner the group of them took turns watching out for the three of them while the others ate.

Riss had awoken from his meditation in time for dinner and sat with them, though he seemed to be intentionally avoiding Krill.

Martha looked between the two of them, "Sorry for, perhaps not understanding but... are you two...."

"No." They said in unison.

"It is simply a social agreement."

Martha looked over at Jim with an expression that said, Isn't that what all relationships are, but she humored them.

"I see."

She didn't, but she didn't argue with them either. It made sense that as aliens they would have a different view of these things, and who was she to tell them how it worked.

Adam did his best to keep the Vrul from rolling onto his plate.

"So Jordan, did you and Adam get anywhere."

Jordan sighed deeply, "Finally managed to pry an opinion out of him, though I had to make a blood sacrifice."

Martha laughed, "Doesn't surprise me, just like his father."

Jim grunted, "I told you, as long as you were there I would have gotten married at a Hippie commune."

Jordan gave David a look, and David shrugged,.

"So that's where they get it from." Sunny muttered.

"Like you are any better." Adam muttered under his breath yelping when she pinched him under the table.

"Either way, I will put something together, and it WILL be nice if it's the last thing I do." Jordan announced.

And none of them doubted it