1 Prolouge

The sound of small feet hitting the wood floor was heard as a child was walking down a corridor without any supervision. His, white mop people called hair swayed with his movement as he finally reached his destination in hopes of escaping his pursuer.

Thankfully, the door wasn't fully closed since the residents of the room didn't need to worry about anyone disturbing them unless it was an emergency. Lately, however, this unsaid rule has been broken more than usual.

With great effort on the child's part, he pushed the door open and finally spotted the ones he wanted to see.

The room was quiet, unusually so as a man and a woman were resting on the sofa with one seemingly sleeping while the other was reading a book.

The red eyes of the blue-haired man looked over at the door, spotting the child and smiling at the urgent, yet hesitant expression he was wearing.

Rolling his eyes with amusement, he closed the book he was reading and placed it on the desk that was next to the sofa, making sure not to move his other arm to not disturb the woman that was resting her head on it.

Motioning the child to come over, the red eyes watched the little one wobble over to where the two were resting. However, his march came to a halt when the sofa proved to be too tall for the child to climb without substantial effort.

"What do we have here?"

The smooth voice cut off the child's attempt at conquering the great sofa as he looked up to see the mismatched eyes of the woman that he thought was asleep moments before.

Meanwhile, the blue-haired man had a hand over his mouth to suppress the laughter that threatened to burst out at the expression of horror that was not present on the little one's face.

Two arms encircle the small torso of the white-haired child as he is picked up and brought up to eye level by the said woman.

"Uh... hi."

The kid mumbled, trying and failing to avoid eye contact and finally, the man couldn't resist and released a muffled chuckle.

The woman sent an unimpressed glance, but the man continued to chuckle. Finally, deciding that paying attention to the child was more important, the white-haired woman turned to the similarly white-haired child.

"Now, Bell, what are you doing here?"

The child, Bell, looked to the side, his big, red eyes looking at the man who was looking at the two with amusement.

"Don't look at me, kid, I got nothing to do with this."

Bell pouted and turned away with a huff, missing the fond look that crossed the woman's eyes as she tucked his small body against her own and leaned against the blue-haired man who wrapped an arm around her in response.

A few minutes later, the reason why the child ran to them entered the room.

"Alfia! Luke! Have you seen Bell any-Oh?"

Another white-haired woman entered the room. Her mismatched eyes stared at the trio with a raised eyebrow. Her sister, her brother-in-law, and her son.

Bell was snuggling with her sister, Alfia who was cuddling with Luke, who was looking at her with a finger placed on her lips to tell her to stay silent.

Meteria just sighed and shook her head fondly, slowly closing the door behind her and leaving the trio in the room to enjoy the silence.

Honestly, sometimes she felt that her son liked his aunt and uncle more than her. But she wasn't really Jelaus, after all, Bell was her little boy.

___

Luke hummed, rubbing the shoulder of the woman who was leaning against him, and pulled her closer to his body. She shifted slightly, getting comfortable and releasing a content sigh.

Luke tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling as his mind spiraled down into thought.

It's been, what? Twenty years since he came here? Man, he was such a kid back then. It was understandable at the time, he was fourteen, but... he still cringed at some things before he finally grew out of it.

In all honesty, the whole thing was like a ride, and what a ride it was.

"What are you thinking about?"

The blue-haired man looked down, meeting the mismatched eyes of his wife who was looking at him curiously. Shaking his head, He leaned closer, placing his mouth on the exploded skin of her shoulder and sighing.

"Aren't you uncomfortable?"

Luke just rolled his eyes fondly.

"I've been in worse positions than this, besides, I thought you were sleeping."

She just hummed, not responding and just laying her head on his. The silence stretched as the two remained silent while the third slept soundly.

Luke knew she liked silence, and he didn't really like loud noises either, so between being in complete silence and being in a place where there was a lot of noise, he preferred the former, so there wasn't a problem with the sudden quiet that was in the room.

"Hey."

His red eyes snapped open, darting to his left and looking at the side of his wife's face with interest.

"Hmm?"

She frowned and wiggled in his grasp, causing him to looser his arms slightly, In the end, she ended up sitting up and looking at Bell, who somehow, despite all the movement remained sleeping.

"You know how we talked about having children, right?"

Luke nodded, leaning back in his seat.

"Listen, I'm not opposed to waiting until you are ready, I know that you don't like rushing into things, so I don't mind waiting."

He tried to prevent her from apologizing. He knew that she would say no, he wondered if she wanted children at some point, he had no intention of guilt-tripping her into it. He loved her too much for that.

She ran a hand through Bell's hair for a few seconds and took a deep breath.

"I'm pregnant."

Luke kept his eyes closed for a moment, until her words registered. His head snapped to her, only to see her looking away but he could still see the tips of her ears turning the faintest shade of red.

He took a deep, shaky breath. Considering that he was the first one to bring up the subject, he thought he would be more prepared for this, but this was happening now, and back then, it was theoretical.

He reigned in his emotions for a moment and breathed out through his nose.

"For how long?"

She tilted and looked back, staring at him with her gray eye.

"Three weeks."

Three weeks... Oh wow, he was going to be a father... He was going to be a dad!

The happiness that blossomed in his chest was accompanied by uncertainty about his parenting skills. He had never been in this kind of situation before, What if he failed, What if he was a horrible dad? What if he made bad dad jokes and his child thought that he was a lame old man?!

He scooted closer to his wife, wrapping his hands around her smaller frame for comfort. She leaned into him, taking in a lung full of air and quietly breathing out.

"I'm gonna be a dad."

Luke whispered, tightening his hold on the woman that he loved, the woman that was carrying his child.

"And I'm going to be a mom... That makes me feel old."

She muttered, frowning. Finally, Luke chuckled, kissing her on the neck, and on instinct, she leaned her head to the side, giving him more space to work with.

"You are going to outlive Anyone who is below you in power, yet being a mother makes you feel old?"

The remark got a glare in response as she lowered her head to look right at him. Unable to resist, he kissed her, causing her to release a surprised moan into the kiss.

When the kiss ended, she was red-faced and breathing heavily while Luke smirked pridefully. Alfia just huffed and pushed his face away with her hand.

"Bring me some snacks."

The command was given, causing Luke to roll his eyes one more time and get up from the sofa. He leaned down and kissed her one more time for good measure.

"I love you."

He murmured into the kiss, and in response, Alfia doubled her efforts to return the favor.

"I love you too."

Finally detaching from her, Luke turned around and walked toward the door to fulfill her request.

As soon as he was out of the door, a loud cry of excitement was heard, causing little Bell to shift uncomfortably in Alfia's lap. The said woman smiled down at the sleeping child.

"Your uncle is so childish."

She remarked, running a hand through his hair one more time and leaning back on the backrest.