Chapter 1479: Beloved Tyrants

"Hello, Mom. Kudos for ignoring your daughter." Melissa lifted a hand in greeting, her expression amused rather than wounded.

"Oh, look at the two of you!" Chaos replied, choosing to admire them instead of acknowledging the accusation. Melissa shook her head against Phei’s shoulder, accustomed enough to her mother to recognise the deliberate evasion.

"My handsome boy," Old Woman Lin said, still inspecting her grandson; her brow suddenly creased. "Have you been eating properly?"

Phei closed his eyes. He should have prepared an answer before calling. "Grandma, I’m fine."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

She waited until he opened his eyes again, apparently unimpressed by the reassurance.

"I’ve been eating," he assured her, only to earn an immediate demand to know whether he had been eating properly. His answer had scarcely left his mouth before she asked whether he had been eating enough.

Phei turned towards Melissa, who was enjoying the interrogation far too much to offer assistance unprompted. "Tell her," he whispered.

"He eats very well, Mother Lin," Melissa assured her. The Lin Matriarch nodded, accepting the testimony with a readiness she had denied her grandson, then turned the same scrutiny upon Melissa.

"And you? Are you eating properly too?" At Melissa’s agreement, she appeared satisfied. "Good. Make sure he takes care of you."

"I’m literally sitting right here," Phei protested, looking from Melissa upon his lap to the screen in his hand.

"I can see you," his grandmother replied, her expression betraying little of the amusement he suspected beneath it.

"And hear me?" he asked, inviting the answer with considerably less wisdom than he might have liked.

"Unfortunately."

Chaos burst out laughing, and Melissa joined her before Phei could maintain even a respectable pretence of being offended. He settled back against the couch, holding her comfortably while the two grandmothers finally acknowledged each other.

"Fiery Old Woman," Chaos greeted, smiling across the divided screen. "What a lovely surprise."

"Chaos. You’re the surprise." Old Woman Lin regarded her with the composure of someone entirely prepared to begin another argument.

"Still charming and a fiery beauty, I see," Chaos observed.

She earned an immediate: "And you’re still unbearable." from the Lin Matriarch.

Melissa covered her mouth against Phei’s shoulder. He watched the two women with a grin, enjoying the ease with which they resumed their insults. He suspected neither would admit how much she liked the other’s company if he dared to ask, and he was sufficiently fond of his peace to leave the matter unexamined.

"Little Dragon, how have you been?" Chaos returned her attention to him. "You haven’t called nearly enough."

"I called recently," Phei said, although Melissa’s earlier question remained fresh enough to weaken his defence.

"Not enough." Chaos offered the verdict without hesitation, and he glanced down at Melissa to find her smiling into his shoulder.

"I could call every morning," he suggested, testing the extent of his grandmother’s expectations.

"That would be lovely." Her immediate enthusiasm encouraged him to add every evening as well, which she welcomed with an even brighter expression.

Old Woman Lin nodded approvingly and told him to listen to his grandmother.

"Both of you?" Phei looked from one to the other, then tightened his arm around Melissa. "See what I deal with?"

"Your grandmothers love you," she replied sweetly, looking towards her mother as she said it.

"An unreasonable amount," he complained, though he was smiling too openly for either woman to believe he wanted less.

"There is nothing unreasonable about loving my little Dragon." Chaos spoke so fondly that he let his next teasing answer go. Looking at her smiling face, he could understand why Melissa had refused to let a few unanswered silences decide how he should speak to her now.

"I love you too, Grandma," he said, and Old Woman Lin promptly cleared her throat. Phei turned to her without losing his smile. "And you, my beautiful fiery Grandma."

"Good boy." Her face brightened at once.

Chaos laughed, and Melissa kissed his cheek, leaving him thoroughly pleased with the reception.

"How have you been, my dear?" Old Woman Lin asked Melissa. Her answer that she was very well received a searching look and a second question, as though the first reply might have been given merely to save them trouble.

Melissa reassured her, confirmed that she was taking care of herself, and watched the matriarch’s attention drift towards Phei again.

"And this troublesome grandson of mine hasn’t been giving you headaches?"

"Grandma," he groaned. Melissa appeared to consider her answer, and his eyes narrowed. "Mels."

"Well..." She gave him an innocent smile, obliging him to use her full name before Chaos leaned closer to encourage her.

"Oh, tell us," her mother said, plainly delighted by the prospect.

"Wonderful. My wife is conspiring with my grandmothers." Phei looked down at Melissa, who was laughing as she rested her cheek against his shoulder.

"He’s been wonderful, actually." She lifted her face to meet his eyes. "Very protective. A little too protective sometimes."

"I heard that," he murmured, his hand remaining secure about her waist.

"I know. But wonderful." The tenderness in her answer made him draw her closer, glad she was sitting where he could hold her while she said things like that.

"As he should be," Old Woman Lin said, nodding her approval. Chaos looked between her daughter and grandson, her smile lingering upon the way Melissa settled against him.

"My darling boy," she said fondly, and Phei found himself pleased by her affection all over again.

He had rehearsed this call several times since they left Dr. Avery’s consultation room:

In one version he announced the twins immediately; in another, Melissa told them.

He had even considered holding up the photographs and allowing his grandmothers to work it out. Now that he had them both before him, he was reluctant to hurry. Their complaints about his eating and demands for more calls were familiar pleasures he had spent too little time enjoying.

Nearly a year had passed for him in the Primordial Frozen Zone without any of this. Sitting here with Melissa upon his lap and both grandmothers fussing over them, he could feel how much he had missed those ordinary family moments. Their voices came through the small speaker with all the affection he had known was there, however poorly any of them had managed the distance.

Melissa’s fingers moved through his white hair as she watched him, leaving him to enjoy the conversation without another reminder about their news.

Chaos noticed the way they were looking at each other. "Little Dragon, why are you both smiling like that?"

"Like what?" he asked, attempting innocence while Melissa lowered her face to his shoulder. He could feel her laughing against him, which did little to help his own expression.

"That." Chaos leaned closer, drawing Old Woman Lin’s attention to them. "Look at them."

The Lin Matriarch examined the pair, her eyes narrowing at Phei’s increasingly unsuccessful attempt to appear blameless. "Phei. What have you done?"

"Why does everyone assume I’ve done something?" he asked, receiving a look that suggested she considered the question unnecessary.

"Because you usually have." Chaos laughed at that, and Phei shook his head, protesting the cruelty of the accusation.

His fiery grandmother remained unmoved. "Answer the question."

Melissa lifted her face, her cheeks warm from laughing. Chaos studied her daughter, and her amusement gradually softened as she looked from Melissa to Phei.

"Little Dragon, is there something you want to tell us?"

He glanced down where the photographs rested in Melissa’s lap, and she met his gaze with bright violet eyes before nodding. Phei adjusted his hold so they both sat comfortably within view of the camera:

"Actually, we do have some news."

Old Woman Lin straightened while Chaos asked what it was. Phei looked towards Melissa’s belly, where she had laid her hand, and covered her fingers with his own. His smile widened as both grandmothers followed the movement. Chaos grew still; Old Woman Lin’s lips parted.

"Grandmas... Melissa and I went to the hospital today." At his words, Chaos’s gaze moved from their joined hands to the photographs resting in her daughter’s lap.

"Phei—" she said, her voice quieter now, and he could scarcely contain his excitement long enough to explain.

"We had our first proper appointment today. Everything went wonderfully. The doctor checked Melissa, examined the baby and told us that everything looks good." He watched Chaos’s eyes glisten while Old Woman Lin leaned so close that every change in her expression became visible. Beside him, Melissa smiled at her mother, then at the other grandmother waiting so intently upon his words.

"Actually, Grandma, there was something rather extraordinary about the appointment."

He turned to Melissa as she laughed softly and nodded, squeezing the hand beneath his own.

He remembered the two heartbeats in the consultation room.

Hearing the first had been wonderful; the second had nearly undone him. Two little lives, already so loved that he could scarcely imagine what it would be like to hold them. He swallowed and looked back at the grandmothers who would get to hold them too, his smile growing helplessly beneath their attention.

Chaos watched him tenderly.

Old Woman Lin, having endured quite enough suspense from her favorite grandson, leaned towards the camera. "Spit it out, brat!"

Phei burst into laughter, and Melissa moved closer until her cheek rested against his. With their hands still resting over the babies, he looked at both grandmothers and finally gave them the news together. "We’re having twins."

Both women went still upon the screen, their expressions caught in the same astonishment.

Phei had scarcely begun to enjoy it before all hell broke loose.