Chapter Text
Mel had been... particularly distant with him for the past couple of days. Usually, Mel arrives home before him, and while she doesn't wait for him, when he does get home, whether it’s late at night, early in the morning, or just a few minutes after her, she kisses him on the lips. That’s when he starts cooking dinner if she hasn’t already ordered something, or they simply want to eat and chat about how their day went.
For the past three days, whenever he gets home, she’s deeply asleep, hugging a pillow close to her chest.
In the morning, Mel usually leaves a kiss on his cheek, or if she’s feeling bold, she’ll invite him to shower together or just have breakfast before the day starts.
But for these three days, when he wakes up, he finds that she’s gone, without saying a word or even saying goodbye.
The first two days, he didn’t worry. Sometimes she went through tough times, whether it was advice from her mother, Noxus, or something else. Mel just needed time before she would come to him and allow herself to feel vulnerable with him.
Jayce would hug her, wipe her tears, kiss her forehead, or simply listen to her complain for hours about the same thing until she felt better, and then she would kiss him on the lips.
However, now it was official, and he was desperately worried about her. That morning, he felt Mel’s gaze on him, as though she was analyzing him from head to toe, as if she needed to know he was solid and safe ground, as if she was about to say something important, as though she was afraid of his reaction. Then she left, without saying a word, getting ready, though he noticed her hand linger on her stomach for several seconds while she looked at herself in the mirror.
Jayce decided he was going to talk to her. He needed to know what was going on with her. Whatever it was, Mel didn’t deserve to go through whatever she was going through alone. He had promised her that in their wedding vows.
“If you’re with me, I’m with you, Mel.”
And so it would be, forever, until death do them part, or until she got tired of him and asked for a divorce, even then, Jayce would be there for her because he loved her, and seeing her suffer would only bring more suffering to him.
He arrived early to their loft, looking at the paintings Mel had recently made. There was the last one she showed him, last Saturday, he remembered seeing her wearing only his clothes, her hair down, painting with a brush, while Jayce hugged her from behind and left kisses on the junction of her neck and shoulder.
What changed from Saturday to Thursday? Was it something he did? Or maybe something he said? He couldn’t stop repeating this in his head over the past few weeks, the last month, or even the past year.
An hour later, Mel entered through the main door of the loft, looking more drained than usual, her head down, covering her body with a coat, her eyes swollen and irritated. She had been crying.
That’s when all his self-control went overboard. He quickly approached her and cupped her face in his hands, making her green eyes meet his.
“My love, talk to me… what’s going on with you?” he asked, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs.
Mel squeezed her eyes shut, swallowed hard, and shook her head. Her green eyes locked onto his before she spoke.
“Jayce, I’m pregnant,” she whispered.
Taking Jayce’s shirt in her fists, rubbing her forehead against his.
All the air left his lungs in one breath, his eyes opened wide, and his heart raced. A baby, she was pregnant with his baby, the perfect combination of both of them was growing inside her, they were going to have a child together. Someone who would look like Mel, who could inherit her temperament or his, or maybe be the best version of both—a child made with love. A child with the one he loved.
This was good... isn't it?
“Oh…” A smile formed on his lips, but he quickly hid it.
Mel didn’t seem... happy about the news, like he was. She seemed more... scared. That’s when he understood the image he saw this morning in the mirror. Or her attitude these days.
“Mel, my love, look at me,” he gently asked.
Instead of doing what he asked, she buried her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around his body and squeezing his shoulders with her hands, letting all the tears she had been holding back flow. He tightened his hold on her a little more, leaving soft, slow kisses on her hairline, waiting patiently for her to calm down a bit.
They had talked about having kids before they got married. Jayce had always dreamed of a big family, three or four kids, living in a place a little outside the city but not too far, something big and comfortable for all of them. That’s what he wanted. A home filled with warmth.
Mel wasn’t sure she wanted to have kids. She didn’t think she’d be a good mother because of the relationship she had with her own mother. Or the way she was raised. Adding to that, she wasn’t sure if her body would be able to carry a baby to term. But maybe, if Jayce and she ended up conceiving, she would plan it, she had the idea that she would plan when to get pregnant and when the baby’s birthday would be.
However, both of them had concluded that they didn’t want to be parents yet. She wanted to finish her political career, and he had many projects in mind. So, her pregnancy was unexpected.
This was a surprise. A huge surprise for both of them. He just needed to put himself in her shoes, not his. She would carry that baby for nine months, lending her body for something like that, and probably never being the same again. But that wasn’t a problem for him. Jayce loved this woman for who she was, not for her body—her physical beauty was just a bonus.
But he knew she had the final say.
“Hey, Mel, I’m with you… I love you, I won’t leave you,” he reassured, caressing her back and placing a kiss on her forehead.
Mel pulled away from his chest, looking back into his eyes. She wiped her cheeks and swallowed, maybe gathering some strength to talk to him.
“Do you want the baby?” she asked, placing one hand on her belly.
Jayce nodded, placing his hand on hers and gently pressing her palm against that spot. Maybe it wasn’t planned the way they would’ve liked to do things, maybe it wasn’t the best time for both of them, she was finishing her career, and he hadn’t completed all his projects. But it was their child, of course, he wanted this baby.
“You know I do, but what I really need to know is if you want this baby,” he cupped her face in his hands and wiped her cheeks.
“Yes… I’ve been thinking about it for days, I don’t have much left to finish my career, and the doctor said everything was fine with him or her and with me, but… I don’t know if I’ll be a good mother.”
Mel squeezed her eyes shut, trying to swallow the tears.
“I don’t have an example of a loving mother, my mom loves me, I know, but… She’s tough, and I don’t want that for him or her,” she swallowed hard. “I want to be different, Jayce, but I don’t know how…”
Ambessa always demanded more from her, pressured her to the limit, and when she didn’t meet Medarda’s standards, she was cast out of Noxus. In fact, Mel didn’t know what gentle, nurturing love was until she met Jayce. Only then did she experience the softness of this world, not just the harshness she had known.
Jayce would hug her when she was on the edge of her emotions, console her after a nightmare, make her feel loved more than desired. He made her feel like a person, not a tool or a weapon. Jayce loved her for who she was, not for what she could offer. And that’s exactly why he wanted this baby with her.
He had no doubt he’d be an excellent father to their child. Jayce was going to be the kind of father who attends every recital, the kind who plays whatever his child wanted to, the kind who kisses his partner’s belly every day of the pregnancy. But she, she didn’t know what kind of mother she would be, and that scared her.
“I believe you can be that kind of mother you want to be… think about it, you said you weren’t sure if you wanted to marry someone or live with someone, and you live with me,” he argued, smiling at Mel.
“But a baby is completely different. I don’t want to hurt our child, I don’t want him or her to hate me, I want them to…”
“Mel, my love,” he cupped her chin between his index finger and thumb, lifting her gaze. “You know how to love, I know because you love me, and otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to do this.”
He pressed his hand against her belly and smiled. This made Mel chuckle softly, and she squeezed Jayce’s hand more against her belly as two tears slid down her cheeks, which Jayce immediately wiped away with his other hand.
“And what if I’m not cut out to be a mother?” she asked with a sob at the end.
“I don’t know if anyone is made to be a parent or not. But I do know, and I won’t leave you alone with him or her,” they both smiled. “What I do know is that you’ll give everything for this baby, you’ll love him or her because you’re not a machine, Mel. You’re a person, and you’re the one I love.”
Jayce captured her lips between his, Mel groaned at first but didn’t pull away. Instead, she deepened the kiss, surrendering completely to him.
“So, you want to have the baby?” Jayce asked, pulling away slightly.
“Yes,” she answered immediately.
Jayce laughed, and Mel smiled a little, embarrassed by how quickly she reacted to the question.
“Are you okay? Do you feel dizzy or nauseous?” Jayce asked, examining her face.
“No, I started to suspect because my period didn’t come, but I’m fine,” she assured, pressing Jayce’s palm more against her cheek.
“In that case…”
His hands slid down her shoulders and arms until they reached her waist. He firmly held her with both hands and lifted her off the ground. Mel instinctively wrapped her arms around his shoulders and then her legs around his body. Jayce spun them around while placing kisses on her cheek and neck.
“We’re going to have a baby,” Mel admitted, feeling like this was unreal.
A baby. She was going to have his baby.
“God, Mel, I love you.”
Mel leaned against him completely, his strong arms holding her without any effort.
“I love you too, Jayce,” she whispered, hiding her face in the crook of his neck.
And in that moment, everything that had been worrying and overwhelming her these past days vanished into the air with a simple hug, with the security she always felt with him, and only with Jayce. Now she knew he would be with her every step of the way, that he would love that baby as much as she would do everything possible to not repeat the same mistakes as her mother.