Chapter 1366: Mother, Father, Child!

For him, the woman in his arms had been absent for almost an entire year, and the difference sat so openly inside his expression when he finally pulled back that Melissa felt happiness surge through her with almost painful force.

Her eyes burned, her chest tightened, and suddenly the fact that he was here, alive, warm, holding her, looking at her like he had crossed an age just to come home became too much for the composure she had been carrying.

Melissa touched his face with both hands; her palms settled against his cheeks as though she needed to feel him properly before believing anything else. Her gaze moved greedily over the white hair, the familiar amethyst eyes carrying depths of gold deeper than she remembered them before he left, the face she knew better than almost any face in the world, and Phei barely had time to smile before she kissed him.

That ruined whatever remained of his restraint—

His arm tightened around her waist while his other hand slipped behind her neck, and his mouth met hers with nearly a year of hunger buried beneath it. Melissa inhaled sharply against him before softening completely into the kiss, her fingers sliding from his cheek into his hair as Phei tilted his head and kissed her deeper.

The first touch of their mouths carried recognition, warmth and the almost painful relief of finally having something remembered become real again, but the second kiss caught every month Phei had spent without her and dragged it straight to the surface.

Melissa’s lips parted beneath his, his body drew her closer until the soft weight of her breast was completely against his chest, and for several long seconds he could think only about how much memory had failed him.

He had remembered her lips, but memory had not captured the warmth of them.

He had remembered her scent, but not how quickly it settled something inside him. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

He had remembered the little breath she made when he kissed her exactly the way she liked, yet hearing it again nearly made Phei lose whatever dignity the Frozen Zone had failed to kill.

Phei caught her lower lip softly between his own before releasing it and returning to her mouth, while Melissa’s fingers tightened inside his long white hair with the possessiveness of a woman who had tolerated two weeks of absence and had no intention of permitting another minute without protest.

It was like they’d locked the rest of the world outside around them.

The more she kissed him, the more her happiness escaped whatever control she had tried keeping over it. Her body pressed closer, her breathing turned uneven, and Phei could feel tiny tremors moving through her where their bodies touched.

She had wanted him back, worried for him, she had imagined this reunion too, perhaps without the shameless list of bedroom crimes he had compiled in his head, but with enough longing that when he finally returned, all those carefully contained emotions came rushing out through the way she held him.

"You’ve been thinking about this," Melissa whispered against his lips when they separated just enough to breathe.

"For approximately a year," Phei murmured, his forehead blushed hers as his hand remained firmly around her waist. "You have no idea what deprivation does to a man."

A laugh escaped Melissa and warmed his mouth before he kissed her again, and for several glorious seconds all his old plans began crawling back into his head: Bedroom. Locked door. Several hours unavailable to civilization—

Possibly longer if Melissa forgot she technically possessed responsibilities. His hand slid along her waist as he kissed her, and there was indeed something small and round that pressed faintly between them where he touched.

Phei stopped.

The kiss broke slowly, not because his hunger disappeared but because every thought inside his head was suddenly replaced by one infinitely more important thing. Melissa opened her eyes and found him staring downward at the little swell beneath her dress, more pronounced now than it had been when he first learned she was pregnant.

It remained small, but to Phei it might as well have become the center of the entire existence!

His child!

The realization hit differently when there was something visible to touch; seeing this gentle curve beneath her dress, seeing unmistakable proof that someone was actually growing there, someone created from him and Melissa, dismantled him with ridiculous efficiency.

His entire expression changed: "Oh gods!"

Melissa’s lips immediately trembled.

Phei looked up at her, then back down again, wonder spreading so openly across his face that whatever remained of her composure finally surrendered.

"Oh Melissa... this— this is—"

Melissa laughed, but tears came with it now, spilling freely as happiness surged through her hard enough to make breathing difficult. Phei barely noticed because the other hand had already moved toward her stomach too with absurd caution, the same man who had thrown himself at World Transcendents, entered the Void without hesitation and spent months allowing Primordial Frozen Essence to tear apart his body now approaching the tiny swell beneath Melissa’s dress as though touching it too quickly might somehow offend creation.

His palms finally settled there.

Phei stopped breathing for a second.

Melissa watched his eyes widen as his thumb moved gently across the curve, and the expression on his face became so completely, helplessly young that another laugh escaped her through the tears.

"Holy shit," Phei whispered. "There’s actually a baby in there."

"Phei."

"My baby."

"Our baby."

His gaze snapped upward with immediate offense. "Obviously ours. I’m emotionally compromised, not stupid."

Melissa laughed harder, one hand rose to wipe at her cheeks while Phei continued staring downward like the greatest mystery of the universe had quietly taken up residence beneath her dress.

Then, without caring who else stood inside the penthouse, he lowered himself onto one knee with both hands gently along Melissa’s waist now and leaned forward until his lips pressed against the little curve carrying his child.

The room disappeared for Melissa too.

Her fingers slipped into Phei’s white hair almost immediately, stroking through it while he remained there with his eyes closed and his mouth resting softly against her stomach. She had imagined telling him about the pregnancy. She had imagined his surprise, his happiness, his ridiculous jokes and perhaps some shameless comment about Dragon fertility that would make her threaten his life.

She had never imagined seeing him kneeling before her like this, smiling against the place where their child grew as though everything he had ever acquired, conquered or survived had just become embarrassingly small beside it.

"Hello, little one," Phei murmured, his voice soft enough that Melissa almost broke again. "Sorry, daddy’s late."

He kissed the swell again and rested his forehead there afterward, one hand spreading protectively along Melissa’s waist:

"Also, before you blame me someday, your Aunt (and sister) Sienna threw me into another realm where time committed crimes against basic decency. According to your mother, I disappeared for two weeks. According to me, I was gone for a fucking year."

"Language," Melissa whispered automatically, still crying and smiling at once.

Phei glanced upward at her, considered the warning, then slowly returned his attention to her stomach. "Your mother has already begun censoring me. Remember this injustice when you’re older."

Melissa laughed so suddenly she had to cover her mouth.

Phei’s smile softened again. "Daddy missed you too," he murmured, his thumb moving gently over the little curve beneath his palm. "Almost a whole fucking year of wondering how much you’d grown, whether you’d started moving in there yet, whether your mom was talking to you when nobody was around..." His eyes warmed as he lowered another kiss to Melissa’s stomach. "I thought about you both so damn much in that frozen hell that I’m pretty sure you already owe me several months of father-child bonding time."

Melissa’s fingers tightened lovingly in his hair.

"I’ve already missed two weeks of you growing, which I consider completely unacceptable," Phei continued with increasing seriousness. "From now on, you are not allowed to do anything interesting unless I’m present."

Melissa stared down at him through watery eyes. "Phei, the baby is inside me."

"Excellent. Enforcement should be easy."

"You’re ridiculous."

"I’ve had almost a year to think about being your father," Phei told her stomach with grave seriousness. "Do you have any idea how many parenting decisions I’ve already made without consulting either of you?"

Melissa stared down at him. "That is somehow more concerning."

"It should be. I was alone in a frozen hell with too much free time and an unborn child to plan for. I have rules now."