The sentence changed him again.
Father.
He repeated it inside himself.
'I am someone's father!'
His fingers tightened slightly against her.
Someone would one day hear the word Dad and think of him.
Someone will run toward him when frightened... a tiny person might crawl onto his chest and fall asleep there because they trusted his heartbeat enough to call it safety.
Someone would reach toward him with little arms; someone would cry his name, he/she might one day be embarrassed by him in public, which, considering who the father was, seemed almost guaranteed and grow while watching him and learn what a man was partly by looking at him.
That realization scared Phei more than the cultivation questions.
His expression became serious: "What if I mess this up?"
She stopped smiling.
Phei looked up.
There was the fear underneath everything.
"I don't mean protecting." His voice lowered. "That part I understand. I'll destroy anything that tries to hurt either of you."
