Chapter 1462: Maya... the Baby’s First Heroine!

Maya looked around the table and visibly began losing her composure: "I did not mean their first time doing anything else. Clearly that particular ship departed the harbor long ago, circled the continent, returned with supplies and apparently left Melissa carrying evidence."

Phei made the fatal mistake of laughing.

Maya’s finger immediately swung toward him. "Do not make this worse."

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face did."

"My face is naturally expressive."

"Your face is naturally shameless!"

Eira landed directly on the table and folded her little arms with enormous satisfaction, telling Maya she thought the sentence had been beautifully phrased. Maya immediately accused her of enjoying her suffering with a stare.

Maya drew a breath and tried again. "What I am trying to say is that certain moments belong to a family and certain moments belong to the people directly involved in creating the particular situation around which the moment exists!"

She stopped, frowned at her own wording and continued before anyone could interrupt:

"Which sounds worse now that I’ve said it aloud because technically everyone here is family, so I’m not saying we aren’t involved. Obviously we’re involved emotionally. I mean directly involved: Phei, Melissa, baby. Three people. Well, two people and one currently very small person who has not yet developed voting rights and therefore cannot object to the arrangement."

Phei was lied with affection while Melissa bit her lip trying to not laugh as Maya rambled on; ’She’s so cute when she rambles.’

"This is their baby. Their first proper appointment. Their first time walking into the hospital together knowing they’re there because the little person currently living inside Melissa needs to be checked, and they’ll get to see whatever they’re allowed to see and hear whatever they’re allowed to hear and ask questions and probably panic over something entirely normal because parents apparently do that even when one parent is a Dragon and an Angel and the other has enough terrifying people around her to invade a country if somebody misreads a scan.

"They should have that moment."

Her voice softened naturally on the last sentence, and the laughter around the table faded.

Maya looked toward Melissa and continued: "Just them. Not because the rest of us don’t care. We care, obviously. Probably too much. If somebody at that hospital says one worrying sentence, half this table will somehow know before Phei finishes asking what it means, and then somebody will frighten a doctor, which I would like to state in advance should not happen."

The Goddess looked thoughtful, and Maya pointed toward her immediately. "Especially you, Goddess"

The Ashford Madam lifted one elegant brow. "You are accusing me of a crime that has not occurred."

"Exactly. Preventive governance."

Phei coughed into his fist to hide another laugh, but Maya had already continued. "And if Melissa wanted everyone there, then obviously everyone should go. All of us. Although that would be insane because— have you actually counted us recently? We’d need half the hospital just to stand somewhere without blocking doors, and Phei would hear that and decide the reasonable solution was purchasing the building."

Phei opened his mouth, but Maya’s finger shot toward him without her even turning. "No."

His mouth closed.

Eira nearly rolled off the table.

"I didn’t say anything," Phei protested.

"You were going to."

"You don’t know that."

"I know you."

"Could’ve been anything."

"It was going to be either, ’How much does a hospital cost?’ or, ’I can build one.’"

Phei considered this for a moment before reluctantly admitting, "Okay, that’s unfairly accurate."

Maya gave him a triumphant look and immediately lost her original train of thought. "Where was I?"

"The baby," Melissa supplied gently.

"Right. Baby. Hospital. Privacy." Maya straightened as though those three words had somehow restored order to her entire argument. "My point is that if Melissa originally wanted everyone to come and then agreed to go alone with Phei because of whatever deeply suspicious wager those two made this morning, which I do not need explained and absolutely refuse to have explained because Melissa’s face already told me enough and I value the tiny portion of innocence this household has somehow failed to murder, then we should respect the agreement they reached."

Melissa’s eyebrows rose.

Did Maya just reveal she knew about the deal despite not being there?

Maya noticed immediately. "Not because I’m judging the wager."

"I didn’t say you were."

"I know, but your eyebrows did."

Phei brightened. "See? Faces are expressive."

Maya glared at him. "You stay out of this."

He looked delighted, which only made her narrow her eyes harder before she continued:

"Therefore the appointment belongs to them unless Melissa changes her mind. We shouldn’t all leap into the invitation merely because Phei suddenly remembered the hospital while Sienna was approximately four seconds away from burying Maddie beneath the dining room floor."

Maddie slowly raised one finger and started, "In my defense— " only for Sienna to look toward her. Maddie’s finger lowered immediately, Elena couldn’t help but laugh.

Maya nodded in approval to Phei. "Excellent instinct. Keep developing that."

Phei folded his arms. "I was not panicking."

Maya looked directly at him. "You changed the subject so violently I felt the wind from this side of the table."

"Strategic redirection."

"Panicking with vocabulary."

Laughter spread across the dining table at once, even Sienna’s mouth softened into a small smile.

Phei shook his head, smiling despite himself, before his gaze moved toward Melissa. She was already looking at him, and this time there was no silent argument hidden inside her eyes, only warmth. He reached beneath the edge of the table and found her hand.

Melissa gave it to him immediately, her fingers curled naturally through his before he lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss against the back of hers.

"Just us," he said softly.

Melissa’s entire expression softened. "And our baby."

Phei kissed her hand again, lingering for another heartbeat before meeting her eyes. "And our baby."

Then he looked toward Maya and mouthed: "Thank you."

Something bright entered Maya’s face before she could stop it, and for all the ancient power, impossible confidence and unsettling mystery she normally carried around herself, those two simple words made her look almost embarrassingly pleased.

She tried to restrain the smile, failed, tried again and somehow failed worse.

Melissa reached across the table toward her and added: "Thank you, Maya."

That destroyed whatever remained of Maya’s attempt at dignity as her smile spread warm and almost girlish across her face as she told them they deserved to have the appointment together, then immediately began rambling again:

"Really. And then when you come back you can tell us everything. Well, not everything everything because I assume the hospital visit itself will be normal and I do not require a detailed report of every time Phei stares at Melissa like she personally invented pregnancy, but the important parts. Whether the baby’s healthy, what they tell you, if you get to see anything. If there is a picture, I want one. Actually, everyone will want one, so get several."

Phei laughed, prompting Maya to insist she was serious. When he assured her he knew, she immediately warned him again not to buy the hospital.

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Good."

Phei paused just long enough to become suspicious. "Unless it’s nice."

Maya closed her eyes and muttered: "Why do I bother?"

Melissa laughed and squeezed his hand.

The breakfast slipped into one of those surprisingly gentle moments that somehow continued appearing in the middle of their absurd household. There were no ancient enemies demanding attention, no Original Progenitors awakening, Primordial Lotus hanging over the heavens and no impossible new powers requiring someone to rewrite everything they believed about Phei.

There was only family gathered around an enormous table while two people prepared to go see their unborn child together.

CRUNCH!!

A heavy crunch broke through the quiet, followed by vigorous chewing and the unmistakable rip of meat being torn from bone.

Everyone slowly turned.

Dragon Lady sat beside Soraya, and calling what she occupied a chair felt increasingly inaccurate because most of the surrounding table had disappeared beneath enough meat to qualify as a small butcher’s morning inventory.

Plates appeared to have become optional at some point. Roasted cuts, ribs, thick slabs and several pieces Phei could not immediately identify had been gathered into an impressive territory around her, while a small Dragon Lady sat happily in the center of it all with the absolute concentration of someone performing a task of genuine importance.

She tore another piece from the bone, chewed contentedly for several seconds and only then noticed the silence around her. Dragon Lady looked up, silver-white eyes travelling slowly around the table as everyone stared back.

She paused with another piece of meat halfway toward her mouth, her expression settling into such pure confusion that Phei could practically hear the question forming behind those eyes asking why everyone was looking at her.

Nobody answered.

Dragon Lady waited for another heartbeat, apparently decided whatever strange adult problem had interrupted breakfast had nothing whatsoever to do with her and took another enormous bite.

Bone cracked between her teeth with enough force to carry across the table.

Everyone broke into laughter but Dragon Lady simply continued eating as though the entire room had collectively become strange around her.

Phei wiped at the corner of one eye and stared around the table, thinking about how yesterday he had been anointed beneath the Primordial Lotus, awakened Genesis Angel, formed a Genesis Core, gained an Essence Sea and stepped into Half Divine Stage, yet this morning he was preparing to take Melissa to the hospital to see their unborn baby while his little sister attempted to consume enough meat to threaten the local livestock industry and Maddie casually tested whether the Nether Goddess was willing to commit murder before breakfast.

Somehow, surrounded by laughter, food and the beautiful insanity of the people he loved, it felt exactly right!