I apologize for not posting this up any time sooner! I was too distract with studying, nanowrimo (don't worry, I haven't stopped writing this either), etc... with my life going on. Anywho, I hope you all enjoy long one from the last chapter and now restoring to the normal length as usual.

Enjoy~

My eyes flicked open and guessed what time it was. It has already been over sixteen hours of sleep and we were arriving to dinner hours. I hadn't realized how worn out we were and that our bodies' energies weren't used to that such effort to stay awake this long. I wasn't even used to being pregnant either and I got to admit; now I understood where Vlad had come from. It drained so much from me; sleep was the only solution to store its balance in my body.

After sixteen hours of sleep, I sat up and watched Vlad sleeping. I could tell he was getting bigger almost hitting to month five soon. I'd be two months in a couple weeks after him. It had felt odd to find out I was pregnant, yet, the basic symptoms revealed obviously and it took a little while grasp the overall that I was pregnant. Vlad…I wasn't too sure how fast it was for him to accept it and sink it in quickly.

However, that was not the point for me. It was yesterday. Vlad was too nervous beyond my beliefs over the amount of children we're expected to have and we learned from the official authorizes. It wasn't exactly how I had expected, but it was insane. At least it was not twenty, thirty, or more or that would be cruelly insane.

Vlad's body turned over to the left side of the bed and curled up onto me. All I knew that he would be like to be woken up better after his turning. My hand slipped under his silver hair and soothed his neck. His body curled in closely and it had felt nice to see him reacted this way. My lips pressed against his head, slowly to his neck, and almost to his cheek. He gasped and gave in so easily to me. The moaning slipped past his lips and a pleasing emotion was exposed to me.

His sapphire eyes came to the opening and his hands soothed his bump. He became jittery. The drifting was leisurely and his soft carping held strongly to his displeased moment.

"Why must you stop?" He whined and whimpered at me, "This is not a fun tease, Daniel." As he complained.

I chuckled lightly, "Sorry, but I needed to wake you up in a good mood. Besides, we slept until almost dinner hours. We need to eat…" I gulped, "…and talk."

Vlad blinked and stared at me, "Of what, Daniel?"

"Let's get food first. I'm sure you're hungrier than I am." My arms slid under his arms and behind his back to lift him up.

Vlad instantly rested his arm around my neck and one on his bump. She was kicking so fast, I felt ticklish a bit there, and kept smiling. My feet easily led the way to the dining room as no problems to occur.

"Daniel, am I being punished for interrupting for lunch?" He was concerned more than worried, but those mate's fear was common.

I turned to the left to enter into the dining hall, "No, the king side excused that since others do not realize of importance of eating in our pregnancy and Clockwork saved us. Honestly, I was not ever planning to send you over to Queen Yang's place."

He shivered slightly, "I feared what she would do more than I could imagine."

I sheepishly smiled, "I don't blame you, but that is not what I want to talk about." My butt sat down on the large chair with him on my lap, "You aren't in trouble or being punished."

The food had appeared with my breakfast omelette and sausages – this castle knew that whenever I wake up, all I'd think end up eating is breakfast. Vlad's luncheon showed up with egg salad sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and cucumbers on the side of oranges. We took a couple of bites of our food and Vlad's eyes weren't leaving me alone much because he was too curious of his own good.

I sighed, "I have noticed you were extremely nervous and something was bothering you a lot, Vlad."

He chuckled, "Oh, it is no longer a worried, Daniel. I appreciate your concern."

I frowned, "But can't I at least know?"

He shrugged, "I supposed it is ridiculous and no longer a worry as I have mentioned. I feared they would state one spawn and forced one of us to lose a child."

I was strictly ill by the thought of such murderous act and could understand where my mate was coming from. It was beyond difficult enough as it was for the both of us to be able to handle that.

My mouth was not connected to my brain and it had startled me a bit with such thoughts. The whole time, Vlad was worried about lesser amount our future children and it drove him to such nervous wreck. I took a sip of my water and thought about what he had told me. It was helping me to clear my throat and thoughts.

"Vlad, I would have fought if they had. However, I don't know much about ten kids, but it's a bit far fetch for me there."

My mate chuckled, "Oh, which was great news for me, Daniel."

My head croaked at him as if he was insane, "Did my lover say that many kids are great news?"

Now he had worried what I had questioned him. First, Vlad was sitting down on the chair for once in order for us to have a face to face, and his emotions weren't exactly what I wanted to deal with. Unfortunately, he's my mate along with responsibilities.

"Vlad, do you really wanted that many kids? Were you worried about the amount you'd never get?" I looked at Vlad directly at him, just showing him that I'm concerned.

His sapphire eyes met mine, "I feared they would tell us no more, but I had dreamt of having a large family."

Vlad had truly meant it and there were hope inside of him, almost cute about that. I mentally hold myself together – did I just…thought cute? My thoughts shoved that shock statement and figured I was viewing him as a child or a puppy or something. His hands circling the watermelon on him and he was practically glowing about whatever was on his mind. Of course, it had to be our daughter and future children. My hand rested on his hand and kissed his cheek affectionately.

"Vlad, I would have stated that we had every right to have more kids without their permission. Look," I sighed and pulled him closer by pulling him into my arms, "I don't…want you to refrain yourself speaking against your own interests. I do want to hear and as your lover, I want full communication between us."

He was not certain, "You know of my emotions, why of my communication input must be included?"

Vlad was not certain about this at all or where I had headed on this matter. Perhaps, I found an understanding and misunderstanding here and I felt terrible for this non-verbal between us.

"I may know your emotions, but I can't read minds and neither can you. I need to understand you better by talking things out, not based on assumptions of your emotions. Vlad, I mean, you weren't telling me why you were so nervous or worried during that entire day. I was confused and the only way was to talk. If you had told me, I'd probably ask them to be expandable or something on our family tree."

My mate was growing in such happiness I could understand how…overwhelming it was to him. That might help me out with dealing Vlad and his head leaned against mine like any lovers should do. I wasn't too sure if it was wise to pretend being a lover.

"Thank you, Daniel." He breathed in deeply and smiled much to his satisfactory system.

In a way, this conversation began to change my perspective of Vlad. Everything had felt a better connection to him and I guess I can't blame him. He only wanted love…someone to love and to continue growing that. There was no way out and cannot hurt him or betray him. Maybe drinking that night was a purpose for us to be here and I gave that Vlad the opportunity to gain a first love through our daughter.

After our food was taken and we were feeling surfeited. We ended back to the bedroom and returned to sleep. We weren't ready to do any more productive activity today due to the fact that meeting had truly worn us out. Our body was not meant to handle such long hours and the next meeting will be the same again in another five years. I was pleased to know it won't be happening within a year, unless an emergency comes across.

Vlad was much positive mood and it was helping me to connect to him better. There was much I have hadn't realized…but I had to understand about his family. Maybe he has a large family, so he has the same desired as his parents had. It would make sense to me. I wasn't too sure, but I had to look forward to that conversation someday.

To watch Vlad sleep had helped me to fall back to sleep easily. He enjoyed a lot of snuggling with me and brought much help for him to gain comfort somewhere. I swear; he has an issue with that pregnancy pillow I got him when I found out the first time. Of course, I had to be an idiot that day not to realize the connection sooner or Vlad. At least it was before he had reached to the middle of his pregnancy or everything would have been drastically confusing or what if Clockwork had forced the marking immediately without us understanding what was going on. There was so much of what it could have been or what would have been later on. I wasn't too sure if I would have been pregnant then. It was odd, but in a way, I sort of wondered too much.

Right now, I had to appreciate talking and discussing with each other without a problem and sleep was too important. I mentally muttered not to forget to give Karian a two-week vacation off soon. She needed it right now after all the help she has been through for Vlad and me.

I have decided to post another one day :) I feel this one may be either too short or too simple.

A ghost for Thermos?