Chapter 619: *Stop looking at me as if I knew something...*
While the four of them were still wondering what had happened for Erik to be sick, Caleb and Kelan joined them. Dilan looked at them, surprised, and he asked them, "Yesterday at dinner, you told us that you might be too busy in the next few days to visit us... Did Alan call you too?"
Kelan nodded and told his dad, "Indeed, he called us, and when I told him that we were busy and couldn’t come, he told me to go ask Elias for special permission. As I was curious, I went to ask for it, and Elias even told me that it was indeed a family meeting that I shouldn’t miss..."
He then looked at Caleb suspiciously, and Caleb then sighed and told him for the umpteenth time, "Stop looking at me as if I knew something... I already told you that Elias and Miguel didn’t tell me anything about this meeting."
Kelan then looked at him and told him, "But obviously Elias knew something... Why would he hide something from you..."
Caleb sighed again and told him, "Stop being so stubborn. I already told you that he didn’t tell me anything..."
Nolan then coughed to attract their attention, and he said when they stopped bickering, "Just out of curiosity, Caleb, has any Warrior Spirit ever been ill before?"
Caleb then told him, still trying to appease Kelan, who really thought that he was hiding something from him, "Nonsense, Warrior Spirits can’t be ill nor get poisoned; it is a universal law..."
Caleb and Kelan then looked at each other, and they turned at the same time towards Nolan, who then told them, "Then why is Erik ill?"
Dilan then sighed because none of them had the answer to this question, and so he said to them, "Let’s wait for them; Alan is already 15 minutes late; it shouldn’t be long before he shows up."
Caleb then told them when they were all settled in the living room, "It’s impossible; it’s obviously a joke from them, right?"
Phil then told him, "We hadn’t learned it from them; it’s Axel who first told us that Erik was sick."
Caleb then frowned because Axel was one of the most upright persons he knew, so he wouldn’t joke about something so important, and before Kelan could even voice his concern, Dilan told him, "He is fine, and Alan too; Axel swore it to me."
Kelan, who had gotten tense, finally relaxed and said to them, "Well, I think they are okay too... After all, Elias seemed to be in quite a good mood when he told me that."
Caleb then nodded to confirm what Kelan just told them, and then nobody talked anymore, all lost in their thoughts. After another 10 minutes, Alan finally arrived, holding Erik by the waist, who was still very pale, and Phil immediately got up from his seat so that Erik could sit down as he looked like he was about to faint.
Caleb couldn’t believe it, and he was so stunned to see that Erik was really sick that he couldn’t even express his concern about him. As Alan thanked Phil and Erik sat down, grimacing while holding his stomach, Nolan finally said to Erik, "Wow, I didn’t think it was that bad; you look really sick..."
But then Erik smiled and said, "You are wrong; I have never felt better!"
Nolan then wanted to make fun of him because Erik looked really bad when Dilan suddenly said, attracting everyone’s attention, "You are pregnant... Is that it? It has to be; all the signs are there... That smile that expresses both your joy and your pride... The way your appetite has suddenly increased... The fact that you were always more tired than before, and finally you are holding your stomach..."
He then looked at Alan, who said with the same kind of smile Erik had just had, "You are right, Dad; Erik is pregnant."
And before anyone could start asking questions when the astonishment that this revelation had plunged them all wore off, he told them first, "We only found out yesterday that Erik was pregnant. Our baby is two weeks old, and even if Erik looks terrible, they are both fine... It’s my fault if he is in this state; we celebrated the news a little too much last night..."
Erik then glared at him, and Alan immediately shut up before telling everyone, "It’s Axel who discovered that Erik was pregnant, and then he went to seek help from Elias and Miguel, who brought us to Esme..."
Alan told them everything he knew, and he and Erik both answered all their questions.
When suddenly everyone realized that a new generation of Lans was about to appear, joy filled the room, and they all decided to take a morning off to celebrate this news as a family.
Caleb finally understood why Elias didn’t want to tell him anything about it, even telling him that Kelan would forget that he was pissed off after that meeting. It was also normal that Axel didn’t tell them the whole truth, as it was something that they all had to share in the family first.
Then after breakfast, Alan announced to them the other news they wanted to share with them, and so he told them that he and Erik were getting married and that they wanted to celebrate this day with all their friends before the war began.
This news was not as unexpected as the fact that Erik was pregnant, and so, although Kelan and Nolan were already married—one thanks to the Mark of the Union and the other thanks to the secret ceremony witnessed only by Miguel and Elias—they both decided to make their marriage official in their world at the same time as Alan and Erik. Thus, they all agreed to have a triple celebration that day.
Their friends were almost the same anyway, and they chose to celebrate their unions at the former border of their two territories to once again show their world that this border no longer exists and that it could become a place of gathering and joy instead.
