He leaned his forehead gently against hers for a moment, and Mother’s hands softened against his chest. The airport around them continued in quiet motion, staff unloading luggage, Brian being lovey-dovey with his women, Maddie watching with a smile she did not bother hiding, but the center of the night belonged to the two of them.

Phei and the woman who shared something deeper than blood. A mother not by birth, perhaps, but in every way that mattered to the heart, which was unfortunately the organ that made most official documents look emotionally bankrupt.

Mother touched his cheek. "You look tired."

"I raced here."

"So I heard."

"Brian started it."

From behind them, Brian shouted, "I absolutely did not!"

Phei did not look away from Mother. "He blocked me."

Brian shouted again, "You drifted around me like a criminal spirit!"

One of Brian’s women patted his arm with the grave sympathy like she had already chosen a side and it was not his knowing how mischievous he was.

"There, there," she said, not bothering to sound like she meant it, and the other one laughed openly, which did nothing for Brian’s evening.

Mother looked at Phei.

Phei looked innocent.

This failed.

"Tiger."

"He showed poor manners."

"You could have slowed down."

"A lawsuit would have braked."

Mother stared at him.

Maddie started laughing before she could stop herself.

Mother closed her eyes briefly, as if praying for the patience required to love a boy who said things like that with a straight face. "I see Hell’s Paradise has not made you wiser."

"It has made me faster."

"That is not better."

"It is slightly better."

"It is not."

"Depends on the road."

Mother pinched his cheek.

Phei accepted it with the solemn suffering of a son who knew resistance would only worsen the situation.

Eventually, when the teasing softened and his smile faded into something quieter, Phei looked her over properly. His hands touched her arms, not possessively, but searchingly, careful as if she were both precious and fragile despite the strength behind her eyes.

"How are you feeling?"

Mother’s expression changed at once.

’There it is,’ Maddie thought.

The question she had known would come like an inevitable little storm inside the reunion. And she noticed something else too, watching from the side: the exact moment the playful tiger went quiet behind Phei’s eyes and the other thing took its place.

Something more patient t; the part of him that kept a running tally of everything the world owed this woman and intended, eventually, to collect. Maddie thought her mind away from it with the rest of the small terrors she was steadily learning to find attractive, which she suspected said unflattering things about her own upbringing.

Mother shook her head. "Phei, it has not even been so many days since you left me perfectly fine, and you are already worried again."

His eyes narrowed.

Mother looked away.

’A terrible decision.’ Maddie thought.

Phei’s gaze sharpened with the merciless instinct of a child who loved too much and had learned to recognize evasion before most people recognized words. "Mother."

She lifted one hand and began gesturing vaguely toward the jet, the airport, the invisible direction of the house he had bought her, anywhere except his eyes.

"The house is lovely, by the way. Truly lovely. I still think it is too much, but apparently saying that to you is useless. The rooms are beautiful, the food is excellent, and Maria is a very sweet woman. She takes care of everything before I even ask. And the bed..." Her expression softened despite herself. "That bed is so comfortable it feels immoral. How could I feel anything but good?"

A/N.1

"Mother."

The word came lower this time...

Gentle...

She sighed in resignation, looking suddenly like every mother in every realm who had tried and failed to hide discomfort from an overprotective child. "Fine."

Phei said nothing.

Mother rubbed her thumb over his hand. "I still feel some pain if I stand for too long. Not much," she added quickly when his expression darkened, "but enough to notice. And when I try the exercises the doctors suggested, it pulls here and there. It is not unbearable. It is just... there."

Phei drew her back into his arms.

No teasing this time.

...just a quiet, careful embrace, his chin near her hair, his eyes open over her shoulder and turned toward something only he could see.

"Everything will be fine after today, Mother."

Mother went still.

Maddie watched him and understood enough to keep silent.

Phei knew the Healing Touch he had used before had not been complete. It had saved her, stabilized her, pulled her out of the worst of it, but it had not restored everything. It was never going to be enough for him to leave her halfway healed, not when he had a path to more.

That was one of the reasons why she was here and why tonight mattered beyond cars, races, dates and chaos.

After getting the Lv10 Healing Touch, Phei would heal her completely to her prime.

Back to the strength life had stolen and hospitals had failed to return with their expensive machines and condescending charts.

Mother’s hand rose slowly to the back of his head. "You always say things like they are already decided."

"They are."

"You are impossible."

"I learned some of that from you, remember?"

She pulled back just enough to whisper something near his ear.

Whatever she said made Phei freeze for one second.

Then he laughed, the sound breaking out of him warm and startled, finally pulling his gaze up toward the jet staircase.

Diana stood there.

Waiting and watching them with professional calm and a face that suggested she had decided not to intrude on something sacred, which meant she possessed more survival instinct than half the legacy world combined. She stood near the jet stairs, dressed neatly from travel, composed as always, though there was a softness in her gaze when Phei finally noticed her.

Phei lifted a hand in greeting, still standing close to Mother. "Diana."

"Sir," Diana replied with a small bow. "The flight was smooth. Thank you for arranging it."

Phei winced. "Sorry for forgetting you."

Diana blinked, then glanced at Mother.

Phei pointed accusingly at the woman beside him. "She has a habit of snatching my soul and attention."

Mother gave him a look. "Do not blame me for your manners."

"You weaponize affection."

"I got off a jet."

"And nearly destroyed my awareness."

"That sounds like a personal weakness."

"It is. I am bravely admitting it."

Diana’s mouth twitched.

Mother sighed. "See? This is what I mean. Too direct."

Phei turned to Diana with solemn sincerity. "She says I need lessons."

Diana looked between them. "On manners?"

"On not exposing women when they grip my shirt too tightly."

Mother’s eyes widened. "Phei."

Diana finally laughed softly, then covered it with a polite cough that fooled absolutely no one.

Maddie, still near her car, smiled wider.

She liked Diana already.

Anyone who could remain composed around this much emotional nonsense deserved either a raise or spiritual protection.

She made a small private note to learn the woman’s coffee order, because Maddie secured her alliances early, before a war nobody had declared yet, and drifted a few steps closer along the canopy’s edge, no longer content to watch the reunion from across a parking lot full of cars she had won.

Phei’s grin faded into something gentler as he looked from Diana back to Mother, then toward the jet. "Where is—"

Diana moved down another step, her gaze sweeping the group beneath the VVIP canopy, taking in Maddie, Brian, the cars, the staff, the night, the absence that should not have been an absence.

Then Mother asked, almost too naturally, "Where’s Maya?"

Phei froze.

Mother looked around again, confusion sharpening just slightly. "I thought you would come with her."