Chapter 1261: Piggybacks and Father’s Envisioned Future

Melissa laughed. "So you are still considering it."

"That is not what I said."

"It sounded suspiciously close."

Phei kissed her cheek before she could continue ruining his dignity. "Anyway. This is about our baby, not the woman who apparently abandoned her future husband and expects excellent reviews afterward."

Melissa’s shoulders shook with another laugh.

Phei smiled against her cheek, then looked down again. His palm returned to that gentle, almost unconscious stroking over her stomach.

"I think that’s why a daughter keeps appearing in my head," he admitted. "Maybe I’ve always wanted that little girl somewhere in my life."

His expression changed as soon as he said it.

The idea was suddenly no longer abstract.

Phei could see pieces of her but of course with not a face. His imagination did not know whether she would have Melissa’s features or his, whether her hair would be dark or whether some buried Dragon inheritance would decide ordinary genetics lacked ambition.

But he could imagine tiny fingers wrapped around his thumb. A little girl sleeping against his chest... her small feet planted on top of his while he walked slowly across a room... a sleepy voice calling him Dad.

A child running toward him with the absolute certainty that if Phei caught her, nothing else in the world could reach her.

Melissa felt his arms tighten. "Phei?"

His eyes remained lowered.

"I want her already." The confession came so quietly that Melissa’s heart hurt.

Phei swallowed, then smiled faintly at himself. "That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I don’t even know if she’s a she. I don’t know her face, her voice, anything. But my head is already inventing some little girl and apparently I’ve decided she’s going to sit on my shoulders whenever she wants."

Melissa’s eyes warmed. "Piggybacks again?"

Phei looked offended. "Naturally. This is an important family tradition."

"She currently doesn’t have legs that wound dangle on you chest."

"I am just planning ahead... I should hit the gym again, oh right, I am beyond that."

Melissa laughed and leaned farther into him.

Phei’s smile returned.

"What if she has your eyes?"

Melissa glanced back. "Mine?"

"Mm."

"You don’t want her to have yours?"

Phei’s face became solemn. "My eyes are magnificent."

Melissa stared at him... he lasted a second before laughing:

"But..." His thumb moved slowly along her stomach again. "I’d like hers to look like yours."

"Why?"

Phei looked at Melissa, the answer appeared in his face before he said it, soft enough that she almost regretted asking. "Because then every time she looks at me, I’d see two most impact women I love to hell and back, actually, to the Void and back."

Melissa’s eyes immediately filled.

Phei noticed. "Don’t start crying again."

"You said it."

"I know, but I wasn’t adequately prepared for the consequences."

She turned in his arms and kissed him, slow and tender, one hand touching his cheek while Phei held her carefully around the waist. When their lips separated, Melissa rested her forehead against his.

"I was thinking the opposite."

Phei’s brows lifted.

"I’d like her to have your eyes."

His expression softened. "Amethyst?"

Melissa nodded. "And they’re also your father’s eyes too."

That quieted him completely.

Phei looked at her for several seconds before his gaze lowered... the thought of his daughter carrying the same amethyst eyes that had once belonged to Seiryū reached him somewhere unexpectedly deep, Melissa could practically watch the memory move across his face.

Phei eventually smiled. "Yeah."

His voice came softer. "I’d love that too."

They remained quiet for a few breaths before Phei nudged his nose gently against hers. "What about you, though? I answered. Your turn."

Melissa leaned back into him again. "What would you want?"

Her body went slightly still.

Phei noticed immediately.

"A girl," Melissa said after a while.

His smile returned. "Really? Good. At least we’re not going to have our first parental disagreement before the child develops ears."

Melissa laughed quietly... then she looked down; "I’d love a girl too, because..."

The sentence stopped and Phei felt the change in her before he fully saw it. Melissa’s lips remained faintly parted around the words she could not finish. Happiness still lived in her eyes, but something old had passed behind it, a hurt deep enough that even this night could not entirely soften its edges.

Phei could have asked but the question never reached his mouth. He did not need every wound opened simply because he loved the woman carrying it. His arms tightened around Melissa from behind. She exhaled slowly when he pulled her closer, and Phei lowered his head to press a long kiss into her hair.

Another followed near her temple.

He stayed there.

After a while Phei murmured, "Then it’s settled. Mom and Dad are on the same side."

Melissa went still again, but for an entirely different reason.

Her hand drifted toward her stomach.

"Mom," she repeated softly.

The title seemed to surprise her.

She already had three girls and she had already known she was pregnant. She had lived with the knowledge before Phei had. She had thought about their child alone, probably touched this same place while wondering how she would tell him.

Yet hearing Phei call her Mom changed something.

Her eyes lowered toward her own hand as a fragile smile slowly appeared. "I’m going to be someone’s mother once more."

Phei’s heart squeezed at the wonder in her voice.

He kissed her cheek. "You’re going to be Little Dragon’s Mama."

Melissa laughed through the emotion. "Mama?"

"Definitely."

"And you?"

Phei immediately straightened with great dignity. "Father."

Melissa looked over her shoulder.

Phei held the expression for perhaps two seconds. "Dad," he conceded.

"Much better."

He laughed and hugged her tighter. "We’re parents."

Melissa closed her eyes. "We are."

Phei said nothing for a while, allowing that simple truth to settle between them.

Then another thought arrived.

Melissa felt him shift.

She sighed before he even spoke. "What now?"

"Do you think she’ll like sitting on my shoulders?"

Melissa stared ahead. "Phei."

"I’m just asking."

"The baby currently does not know what shoulders are."

"So we introduce the concept early?"

She laughed helplessly. Phei kissed her hair, delighted with himself.

"And if it’s a boy?" Melissa asked after recovering.

Phei became quiet.

His palm flattened gently over her stomach.

"If it’s a boy..." He looked down, and the tenderness in his expression returned without effort. "Then I imagine I’ll spend approximately half a second wondering what happened to the daughter I pictured before looking at my son and I think I will start wondering how I ever thought I wanted anything else but a boy who could be my partner in crime."

Melissa’s smile softened. "You really don’t mind?"

Phei shook his head.

"Not even slightly. Girl, boy, I don’t care. I just have an image in my head right now." He looked at her stomach again. "Whoever is actually in there already wins."

The words left Melissa suspiciously quiet.

Phei narrowed his eyes at her."You’re crying again."

"I’m pregnant."

"So this is going to become your answer to everything?"

"Yes."

"Terrifying."

Melissa laughed as Phei shifted beneath the blanket and, before she could ask what he was doing, gently turned her enough to bend down toward her stomach. His palm remained beside it while he pressed a soft kiss through the thin fabric.

Then another.

"Girl, boy, tiny Dragon disaster, whatever you are," he murmured, making Melissa’s lips tremble above him, "your father is already completely gone for you."

His mouth touched her stomach one more time. "And your mother too."

Melissa narrowed her eyes through gathering tears. "Too?"

Phei looked up.

He immediately recognized the danger. "Very much more than me."

"Better."

Phei smiled and kissed her before the pregnancy could claim its first casualty. When he drew away, Melissa settled back against him once more, and his arms wrapped around both her and the little life hidden between them.

Phei looked toward the moonlit sea. "Should we go inside soon?"

Melissa’s eyes had grown heavy. "I was wondering how long it would take you to notice I’m tired."

Phei’s brows drew together immediately. "You should’ve told me."

"I wanted to stay."

"Melissa."

She smiled at the concern already flooding his expression. "Phei, I’m pregnant. I’m not made of glass."

He stared at her for a moment. "That sounds exactly like something someone carrying my unborn child would say right before I begin treating her like priceless glass."

Melissa laughed softly.

Phei kissed her temple.

Then her hair.

Then, because apparently he had developed an addiction within the hour, his hand returned once more to her stomach.

"Fine," Melissa murmured, closing her eyes against him. "Just don’t become ridiculous."

Phei looked down at her and his expression made it abundantly clear that particular negotiation had already failed.

"Too late."

And beneath the moon, with Melissa smiling tiredly against his chest and their unborn child warm beneath his palm, Phei began wondering whether he could carry her all the way inside without waking either of them.