Two months later, Nyla

"Princess, I'll protect you with all my heart, my body and my soul. They can kill me instead if they try to harm you."

Sara looks at San weirdly before she utters, "Can you stop being so overdramatic? We're just-" She stops talking as something hits her back, and she falls dramatically as San lunges to catch her in his arms.

"Princess," San cries out before he looks up to find the culprit. His eyes burn with anger as he calls out, "Jung Wooyoung!"

Yeosang stretches his fingers to make sure his attack would make a fatal hit. "We're literally just-" he shoots out his hand, aiming the bullet towards Seonghwa, "-having a snowball fight." He cackles evilly as he sees Seonghwa kneeling on the ground, frustrated hands messing up his hair as the king of Lucida has his family of snow ducks he made destroyed by Yeosang's fast hands.

"Kang Yeosang, you've destroyed my snow duckies!" Seonghwa utters, before using the snow the snow ducks are made from, balling it up bigger than his palm, lifting it up and throwing it over to Yeosang.

Yeosang, whose quick eye catches the movement of the king, immediately grabs Mingi to shield him, the latter having snow smacked right in the middle of his face. The palace doctor lets him go, patting his back. "Thank you, you've made a huge contribution." He immediately ducks again as another snowball soars towards his direction, catching Hongjoong by surprise as it hits the back of his head, and the blacksmith lands face first into the snow.

Meanwhile Jongho is dutifully compacting snowballs, getting them ready on the ground before he picks them up one by one, shooting them towards anyone he can target. He pumps his fist up in triumph as he sees that finally, he has managed to hit Hongjoong, Yeosang, Mingi, Yunho, Wooyoung and San in that particular order. When he's about to aim for Seonghwa, he sees Akira narrowing her eyes at him, and he slowly lowers down his hand before aiming for Wooyoung twice.

Yunho is silently looking at the battlefield, his eyes moving around to see whether he can find a victim. He picks up a snowball, but before he can throw it towards Mingi, he staggers forward as he gets hit on the back of his head. He turns around, feeling somewhat betrayed before he spots Akira throwing a snowball up and down, smirking. He turns around quickly to aim for the queen, throwing with all his might in her direction.

Akira is ready to dodge as she sees the snowball speeding up towards her, but she catches Seonghwa's eyes before he stands in front of her, staring at her as he takes the hit. She watches as he grabs her shoulder, face contorting as he gets hit multiple times by the snowballs on his back.

"I will," Seonghwa manages as another snowball hits his back and he staggers forward, landing in the arms of his wife, "protect you with my life."

Akira rolls her eyes as she holds him up, but he continues shielding Akira as Yunho keeps battering his back. By the time Yunho's done, Seonghwa collapses to the ground as Akira falls forward, dragged by him. The king of Lucida lies on his back with Akira on top of him, and he circles his arms around her waist as he chuckles.

"This is nice," Seonghwa comments. "If protecting you means I get to cuddle with you."

"Your Majesty," Jongho says as he appears in Seonghwa's view, his body bent forward. "I humbly request for you to respect the singles in the kingdom." Then he grins before dropping a load of snow on the king's face.

Akira laughs as she dusts the snow off his face, before flicking his forehead. "I thought you're making snow ducks."

"Ah," Seonghwa's eyes turn wide as he sits up, pulling Akira onto his lap, "my snow duck family." Then he frowns, "Yeosang murdered them. We need to revive them." He stands up, pulls Akira to where he was making the snow ducks before both of them crouch in front of the pile of snow. He makes one, then the queen does the same, as they alternately make snow ducks and manage to make 12 of them.

"They're the rulers of the Lucida kingdom..." Hongjoong scratches his cheek before he receives a smack on his face, this time by Mingi as the former falls onto a pile of snow again. He grumbles as he stands up, his hands balled into fists, "Can all of you stop attacking-" He gets cut off as yet again, Wooyoung throws another snowball to his face for at least five times in a row. "You know what, I give up." He immediately lies down on the snow, waving his arms and legs as he makes snow angels.

Mingi wants to step forward in the snow but yelps slightly as he sees two figures on the ground, before heaving a heavy sigh of relief as he realizes that it's only Jihyun and Sara making snow angels side by side. He tries lying down too, and ends up making a bigger snow angel as he's much taller than the two of them.

"Why 12?" San asks as he approaches the king and queen of Lucida, referring to the snow ducks they made.

Akira chuckles before pointing to 8 ducks. "Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, you, Mingi, Wooyoung, Jongho." Then she points towards the ducks beside 'Seonghwa', 'Yunho', 'San' and 'Wooyoung', "That's me, Jihyun, Sara and of course, Suria."

"Ah, wait!" Seonghwa gasps as he remembers something crucial. He looks like he's going to get into trouble if he doesn't do it, before he makes two more ducks and puts them in front of the two ducks they designated as him and Akira. He grins, "And our children."

Akira blinks, remembering the fact that she's pregnant and she's bound to give birth, which means that the scary stories about pregnancy will gradually happen to her. She sheepishly looks at Seonghwa who is excited as he pats the heads of their two 'children', and she awkwardly chuckles. Feeling tired after crouching, she lands slowly on her butt as her shoulders sag.

Seonghwa looks at her, mouth slightly pursing as he asks, "Are you alright?" He gasps, "Are you feeling nauseous, sick? Do you want to go inside and rest?"

She shakes her head. "I'm just worried but I'm fine." She grimaces, "I will be, right?"

"You will." He nods, "And I'll be right by your side when you give birth, so you don't have to worry."

She sighs. "Ah, I'm so excited to see the twins but I'm scared for the process." She sighs, "I can't imagine how scary it was for my mother to be experiencing pregnancy alone." Then she clutches onto his shirt as she utters, "But I'm glad your mother was there for her."

"I wish," he says, "that they could see us get married, have kids..." He smiles as he remembers how he was basically telling them everything when he and Akira visited their graves a few weeks ago here in Nyla, relaying everything that he could not say. "But fate has other plans."

"At least we have a bigger family now," she breathes, before pointing to the others. Most of them are screaming as Jongho is single-handedly chasing them, threatening to bulldoze them with snow. "Them and our babies too."

"Awh." He pretends to get shy before lightly hitting her shoulder with her fist, another fist over his mouth. "Hearing you say 'our babies' is so cute."

She lifts up her eyebrows, but doesn't say anything more as Sara gasps loudly, immediately springing up from the ground before she speeds towards the direction of the Nyla palace. All of them look at each other, puzzled, before their faces break into understanding what Sara was going to do.

"Ah," Wooyoung complains, "that idiot must have forgotten about her donuts in the oven."

San beckons for the rest of them to follow into the palace as the sun is already slowly starting to set. He ushers them into the dining hall, where he asks for all of them to sit down as he goes to the kitchen to see whether Sara is alright and make tea. When he sees that everyone is settled and are just waiting for their spread, he signals for them to patiently wait before he pops his head into the kitchen.

He frowns as he sees Sara crouching on the floor in front of the oven, seemingly crying. He goes over to her, ready to comfort her as it seems that the donuts were a failure. Just as he's about to reach a hand, he immediately pulls back as he's surprised when she suddenly shoots her arms up, hand holding a half-eaten donut and she exclaims.

"It's," she breathes in, "delicious." She jumps up, immediately shoving the rest of the donut into his mouth and hugging him.

He tries to swallow even as she's clutching onto him, jumping up and down. He chuckles as it seems that after he had told her that their feelings are mutual, she's been randomly giving him hugs, even at times people usually don't. She had told him that's her gesture of showing her love to him; she'd hug him whenever she feels like it.

"Of course," his eyes move to her after he finishes swallowing, "your donuts are always delicious."

"We can serve them now," she chirps. Her hands are already transferring the donuts onto a serving plate as she dusts powdered sugar on top of it.

While she's busy with the donuts, San moves over to brew tea, but almost gets a heart attack when he opens one of the cabinets to see their cat, Twinkle hiding in it.

"Twinkle!" he utters before pulling the cat out, putting him down on the counter. "You're waiting for the donuts aren't you?" He narrows his eyes as slowly, the cat nods before looking at him with eyes that garner pity. He chuckles, looking over to Sara, but almost gets a heart attack again when he sees Micko is already waiting at the opened back door connecting the kitchen to the outside. "Micko's here too."

Sara finishes with her serving of the donuts, already separating the ones she'll be giving Twinkle and Micko. She puts the plate for their pets on the kitchen counter, before Twinkle and Micko obediently take their places, munching on the donuts politely and quietly. She turns to San who's finished brewing the tea before they step out of the kitchen at the same time.

By the time the rest can see them, the chatter of excitement increases, especially since Sara has managed to prove that her baked donuts are delicious. As soon as the donuts and tea are served to them, it doesn't take a second invitation for them to dive in.

"I told you," Sara narrows her eyes at Wooyoung, satisfaction on her face as she sees that even he can't resist her donuts, "they're delicious."

"They're just okay," Wooyoung utters as he pops his fourth donut into his mouth.

"Oh really?" She only smiles before taking one donut, reaching out across the table then shoving it into his mouth to shut him up. "That ought to shut you up." She cackles, "I've always wanted to do that."

San snickers seeing Wooyoung's eyes bulging right after Sara had shoved the donut into his mouth. Naturally, the king of Nyla opens his mouth slightly and this time around, Sara tears a small piece from another donut before lovingly feeding San. He makes a point to chew slowly and close his eyes as if he's enjoying every single area of the small piece.

Wooyoung only looks at the two of them with a dissatisfied look on his face, crossing his arms. He grumbles, "Must be nice to be in love." He pouts as he's reminded of Suria back in Estar; since she's a princess of another kingdom who still has a family by her side and they're not married yet, he couldn't simply ask for the princess to be living in the same kingdom with him. Still, he goes back and forth to Estar frequently, him and Mingi becoming a duo in bargaining and collecting items from different kingdoms.

Apparently Wooyoung has also found that his charms and sweet talk work on getting items at a cheaper price, so now he won't consider himself jobless. It also makes him slightly proud how he can go over to Suria and tell her all the stories he has to tell from all over the kingdom. He has also built a reputation among Suria's sisters, with them gushing at how lucky she is to be able to catch a man like him.

Quietly, Wooyoung only munches on the donut Sara had shoved into his mouth, smiling as his cheeks puff up when he remembers Suria. Even his parents and younger brother have been invited to live in Nyla now that things have returned back to normal. San had instructed them to build a comfortable cottage inside the palace compound; his parents had refused the invitation to live inside the palace, so as a compromise they'd live on the palace compound.

It seems that his younger brother, Yeohan, had become good friends with Sara, and sometimes the latter would bring him together to teach him different names of plants and animals they'd find in the wild. Over time it might even look like his younger brother would become much closer to Sara rather than him, but whenever they come back from their 'adventure' Yeohan would always have something as a souvenir for him. Apparently Sara had said that Yeohan is so much nicer than him, and she had stuck out his tongue to Wooyoung as Yeohan only laughed at their minor fights.

Along the table, Hongjoong, Yeosang, Mingi and Jongho are reminiscing their days when they were all here, never failing to make sure to include the fact that Seonghwa had always been perverse to new relationships but now he's already having two children on the way. While Seonghwa is only glaring at the others as he huffs and takes his wife's hand to hold it tight, Akira is only smiling as she keeps eating the donuts, too delicious and even more when her appetite is increased now that her babies are growing more.

Akira slows down her chewing as she sees that Yunho keeps on transferring his food to Jihyun's plate, before his hand is subtly placed on Jihyun's stomach as if no one would notice it. The queen narrows her eyes, her heart already telling her that something's different. She hides her smile before turning her attention back to her plate, where Seonghwa is helping her to tear the donuts into small pieces. She feels him nuzzling his nose into her hair before asking her to eat as much as she wants. She does, and by the time they're done with the donuts she feels like she has gained an extra kilo.

When everyone leaves the hall, they plan to watch the fireworks show that's happening, but Akira stops Yunho in his tracks before she pulls him to the side. She looks over to see that no one is listening to them, so she shrugs before she grins.

"How long are you planning to keep it a secret?" She shrugs, "Until it's obvious?"

Yunho only nonchalantly blinks as he manages a "Huh?"

"How long has it been?" She juts out a chin to Jihyun, who's taking a place beside Sara as they eagerly wait for the show to start.

Realizing that he has no more use of acting oblivious, he relents as he scratches his head, smiling. "Less than a month old."

"Ah..." Akira exclaims, smirking. "I asked you to teach her self-defence and now you're having a baby of your own."

He chuckles awkwardly. "We were slightly drunk that day and- well, it just happened." He clamps his lips. "She's excited for the baby."

"Awh," she says as she wiggles her eyebrows. "Looks like even our children would be friends now."

Yunho nods, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "We wanted to make it a surprise, but I guess you caught on, Your Majesty."

"Oh please," Akira puts the back of her palm onto her forehead dramatically. "I'm the ex-general of Lucida. I have to be sharp at least," she nervously chuckles, "well, I didn't even realize I was pregnant but I can tell when it's Jihyun right away."

"We should enjoy the fireworks show, Your Majesty," he gestures towards where all of them are gathered.

"Of course, shall we?"

Both of them join the group, with Yunho naturally going over to Jihyun while Seonghwa quickly pulls Akira over to sit with him. They smile in awe, their eyes shining with every pulse of the fireworks in the air.

They haven't forgotten Madam Eurielle, and of course every time they come to visit Nyla they would make a point to visit her. When the noblewoman found out that Akira was pregnant, she couldn't hide the fact that she's overjoyed, finishing it off with a comment about how her gift of energy drinks were working well. Of course, this made the king and queen blush like crazy. Having Madam Eurielle is a blessing to them, but even though they have invited the noblewoman to live in Lucida, she politely declined while saying that Nyla has been her home, always.

To all of them, it now proves to be true; both Lucida and Nyla have become their homes, even though it means they'd have to travel back and forth which takes hours.

They have family in Lucida and Nyla, so what is a few hours of travel?

---

Around six months later, Lucida

Akira opens her eyes slowly to a dark room, heart at ease as she hears Seonghwa's soft snore beside her. She turns to lift her head up to see upfront, but all she sees is her swollen tummy, that she can't even see her feet which get numb sometimes. Her face contorts as she feels something moving in her body, the pain unlike any other before. She takes a deep breath, unsure of what's coming as she feels a cramp in her lower body before she feels another unfamiliar sensation that she can only prop herself up with her arms then falls back again to lying down.

She reaches out a hand to touch Seonghwa, shaking his shoulder lightly. As the bedsheets rustle to tell her that Seonghwa has turned to look at her, she calmly says, "Seonghwa, I think the babies are coming."

"Hmm," he hums, clearly only half-awake. "Our babies are indeed coming and I can't wait."

She pulls his ear lightly, citing, "I think you don't have to wait anymore cause they're coming now."

"Now..." he drawls before silence. Then he immediately springs up, eyes full and round as he turns to her. "The babies are coming now?!"

She nods before gesturing towards the door, as calmly as she could. "Can you call the midwife over?" She grimaces.

He starts gaining back his consciousness before he panics, almost tumbling out of bed before he puts on his slippers, gesturing to her with his palms wide open. "Just- just stay put and stay calm, take deep breaths and wait for me to come back."

"I am calm," she says as she chuckles. "It looks like you're the one who's not."

Seonghwa looks frantic as he bends over, not even forgetting to press a kiss on her forehead before dashing out of their room, waking up the whole palace as he shouts. He can't even think straight anymore as he realizes that she's about to give birth soon, that he's exclaiming throughout the whole palace looking for the midwife as he runs around in his pajamas. When the whole convoy prepared for the babies' delivery approaches him, he skids on the floor as he promptly turns around, already running towards their room again.

Yunho and Jihyun are brought over by the panic early in the morning too, as Yunho guides her who's due soon through the palace. Excitement rings throughout the whole building as Jongho joins the crowd of the palace staff who are all eager to welcome the royal twins as they gather near the room where Akira is currently being prepared for the delivery of her babies.

Seonghwa looks faint as he fusses over Akira, body jittery as he keeps shuffling his feet, while the queen, although slightly scared as this is her first experience - not to mention that she'll have to deliver two babies - looks calm, curious even as a cloth is immediately stretched in front of her and blocks her view. The king makes a point to hold her hand, even though his chest is rising up and down quickly, lips pale as if the blood has run out and he's the one who's about to give birth.

He caresses her hand, face slightly contorted as he sees all kinds of equipment being brought out to assist in the delivery. His eyes widen as he sees various sharp objects, and he can't even imagine what they'll use them for. He gulps as he sees Akira's face crinkling in discomfort, and he helps to wipe her sweat before assuring her that everything's going to be fine.

"I'm scared," Akira says, lips already pressed shut as she feels another wave of pain.

"I'll be by your side," Seonghwa assures her. He helps to calm her down by caressing her hair, and even though he can see how she has started to become more restless as the time comes closer.

It must have been at least five to six hours as she waits for the first sign that she's going to start going into active labour, that she grabs her husband's hand tighter as she feels it.

As soon as the midwife tells her that she'd need to be calm and try to push, Seonghwa looks like he's going to faint anytime soon even though he's still holding on to her hand. He makes a mistake of accidentally taking a peek at what's happening before his legs turn to jelly and his eyes roll to the back of his head as he collapses to the floor.

"Park-" Akira says, almost shouting as a wave of extreme pain hits her before she shakes his limp hand. "Yah Park Seonghwa! You said you're going to," she winces as she shouts out again, almost breaking into tears as it's like she feels numb but pain at the same time. "You said you're going to hold my hand and be by my side, you idiot!" Her breath hitches as she tries to calm herself down.

"I'm-" Seonghwa slurs, picking himself back up from the floor as he crouches next to her. His face is pale and his eyes look like they're lost, grey swimming in his irises. He takes a huge gulp of air as he manages, "I'm here- I'm just- I'm just..." He whimpers as he hears the midwife prompting her to push. "I'm here," he smiles weakly. "I'm still awake."

If not for the extreme pain dominating her lower body that seems to diffuse to every other part, she would probably have chuckled while saying how all men know is to lie, but she can only cringe as she feels like her body is about to break from her effort to give birth to a baby. Thinking that she'd need to go for another round as she's giving birth to twins, she could only steel herself as she hears Seonghwa's breath seemingly louder than hers.

She doesn't even know what time of the day it is, or how long she's been on her back before she hears the cries of a baby resonating through the room. She hears the midwife announcing to her that she and Seonghwa have gotten a baby boy, but before she can give a proper response she's prompted for another round. This time around, it seems that Seonghwa has started regaining his bravery as he keeps holding on to her hand, giving her encouragement as his eyes keep glancing at their firstborn, already excited to hold him in his arms.

It feels like hours to her before the midwife finally exclaims that their second is a girl, and she slumps back before Seonghwa hugs her, already starting to cry as he keeps telling her how amazing she is for being able to pull through. She could only laugh with tears in her eyes as she feels it's funny how he is the one who looked panicked even though she's the one going into labour, and even now his tears seem to be louder than their babies' as if he's looking to outdo them.

"You idiot," she manages as she presses the back of her head onto the pillow, every emotion mixing inside of her as her hands lightly brush through his hair. "You're not the baby here."

"I-" he looks up as he cries again, and the others in the room look on with amusement at how the king of Lucida looks so small and uncertain. "I'm becoming a father to two beautiful babies." He pouts as tears stream down his face again before he attempts to hug her, but she only cringes as she can barely feel her lower body.

"You already are, Your Majesty." Two of the helpers hand over their firstborn to him, followed by their second to Akira as the new parents beam at each other.

It's obvious how tired and spent Akira is, but seeing the faces of her newborn babies, she smiles, no words could ever describe how she's feeling at this time. The feeling overwhelms her as she traces her finger on their baby's small mouth as a cry comes out again, before her arms flail and her fingers flutter. The queen looks over to see Seonghwa smiling as his eyes rest upon the baby in his arms, holding him so gently.

Akira can't help but finally cry that even Seonghwa crouches next to her, holding their babies close together as he helps to calm her down. Fatigue runs out of her as she sees her husband's face then her babies before the king smiles at her, that warm smile that she never thought she'd get from someone she loves before.

After everything is packed up and both of them are left with their babies, well cared for and looked over, Yunho, Jihyun and Jongho silently file into the room, looking as excited as the new parents. The three smile as they see how Seonghwa is beaming, looking like he won't be able to peel his eyes off his babies that even Akira points out how he better not ignore her now that he has someone new to take care of.

"I'll take care of all of you," Seonghwa says, already opening and closing his eyes as he brushes his hand on both of his babies' cheeks lightly. "My wife and my babies are beautiful."

Akira chuckles, finally letting out a small sigh of relief as she's glad that she has gone through one of the moments she had feared. She watches as Jongho carefully holds their baby girl, asking what their names would be.

"Seonghwa went through a whole list of names and he kept asking me which ones would be pretty," Akira comments. She leans her head against the headboard as Seonghwa grabs her hand, slowly caressing it. "It was a long process but we decided-" She gazes at their baby girl, "Park Yeona," then to her baby boy, "Park Youngjae."

Jihyun claps her hands, beaming as she tugs at Yunho's shirt. "We should start deciding on a name for our baby too."

Yunho smiles as he nods, even though he's feeling overwhelmed by the fact that even he is going to be a father soon. As the king offers him to hold Youngjae, he feels nervous as he carefully holds the baby in his arms. As opposed to Seonghwa who looks like he's already used to it, the general looks at the baby in wonder, heart pumping as he realizes that he's going to be in the same position as Seonghwa most likely soon.

"You're getting your own, Jeong Yunho," Akira speaks up as she tilts her head towards Jihyun. "You better not faint just like Seonghwa did."

Seonghwa gasps as Jongho tries to hold back his snicker. "I did not faint."

"Your eyes were literally rolling to the back of your head and you collapsed to the floor," she deadpans. "If someone were to see they would have thought that you were the one giving birth instead."

Seonghwa scratches his cheek, grimacing. "It was scarier than I expected, but," he quickly changes the topic, "I kept my promise and stayed by your side the whole time."

"Ah, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to tell Your Majesties before I forget," Jongho speaks up. "We've already informed those in Nyla about your successful delivery. We can probably expect their visit sometime soon."

The rulers of Lucida nod before looking at each other, then to their newborns. Their hearts bloom as they feel their warmth, their small fingers clasping and unclasping.

Akira turns to look at Yunho, who nods as they seem to share the same thoughts.

Looks like you have a family of your own, Akira. What you've always wanted.

I was wrong though. I've always had a family, even though I never appreciated them enough, Akira thinks. This time around, I'm not going to repeat the same mistake.

My new family. One that I love so dearly.