[BL]Hunted by the God of Destruction-Chapter 291: Perfect life

Chapter 291: Chapter 291: Perfect life
Connor stared at him, breathing unevenly, his expression a war between fury and something dangerously close to affection.
"You can’t do things like this," he said, voice trembling at the edges. "You can’t adjust the universe because you... because you..."
"Because I love you," Uno supplied.
Connor flinched like the words hit him in the ribs.
Victor leaned toward Elias and whispered, "Is this what our early relationship looked like?"
Elias didn’t even look up. "No. Ours had more attempted murder."
Uno, however, was focused only on Connor. "You are a dominant alpha," he said quietly. "You have the right to choose your own future. I only wanted to make sure the future did not choose for you."
Connor shut his eyes. "I hate it when you talk like that."
Uno stepped closer. "And yet you stay."
Connor didn’t move or speak; he just breathed, slowly, like he was recalibrating an entire worldview.
Finally, without opening his eyes, he muttered, "If you ask me about children again today, I’m leaving the building."
Uno nodded. "Then I won’t ask."
Aria clapped her hands and the door’s hinges glowed gold.
Elias pointed tiredly. "Uno, fix that before we lose infrastructure again."
Uno lifted a finger. The hinges obediently un-glowed.
Connor opened one eye. "Stop showing off."
Uno smiled faintly. "Make me."
Victor sighed dreamily. "Ah, young love."
Elias threw a pen at him.
And Connor, still absolutely furious and absolutely in love, muttered, "I hate all of you... except the babies. The babies are fine."
—
The mansion was quiet in the way only a large home with three small children could ever be quiet, meaning it was not quiet at all. It was a layered soundscape of soft coos, distant giggles, the subtle hum of baby monitors, and the faint, unmistakable sound of Victor scolding an appliance that Aria had once again accidentally overcharged with ether.
Elias lay in bed, propped against a mountain of pillows, cradling the newest addition to their family against his chest. A tiny daughter, pink-cheeked and blinking up at him with sleepy, unfocused dark eyes. She was only days old, still impossibly small and warm, with a faint tuft of black hair that refused to lie flat.
Victor had cried when he first held her.
Well, not cried, he insisted. Just experienced
"a temporary emotional overflow."
Elias found that adorable.
He brushed a gentle finger across his daughter’s cheek, marveling, again, at how soft newborn skin could be. She sighed in her sleep, her tiny mouth forming a perfect little "o," and Elias felt his heart twist with that familiar, overwhelming tenderness he never would have believed himself capable of five years ago.
A soft knock came at the door.
Victor stepped inside, barefoot and shirtless, dressed in sleep pants but still managing to look like a myth carved in polished obsidian. His eyes softened instantly when he saw them.
"How are my loves?" he murmured.
Elias smiled. "Hungry, tired, and capable of reducing you to tears within ten seconds."
Victor placed a hand over his chest. "That is slander. I did not cry."
"She touched your nose," Elias reminded him.
Victor sat on the edge of the bed, carefully stroking his daughter’s curls. "It was a very meaningful moment."
"It lasted two seconds."
"Two very meaningful seconds."
Elias huffed a quiet laugh and leaned his head back. "Where are the other two?"
Victor sighed dramatically. "Aria is helping Connor
’learn patience.’"
Elias winced. "Which means?"
"She is rearranging the living room furniture telekinetically."
"And Otis?"
"Napping. On Uno. Again."
Elias didn’t bother opening his eyes. "Is Uno napping?"
"No," Victor said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "He is lecturing Otis about historic gravitational anomalies, and Otis is drooling on him while asleep."
"Good," Elias murmured. "Let him suffer a little."
Victor laughed softly, then turned his attention back to their newborn. "She looks like you."
"She looks like a potato," Elias corrected, smiling despite himself. "A very loud, very perfect potato."
Victor shifted closer. "May I hold her?"
Elias lifted their daughter gently into his arms. Victor accepted her like he was receiving a divine relic, which, to be fair, was not that far from his perspective. He cradled her close, eyes softening, expression melting into that reverent tenderness that Elias had come to recognize as Victor’s most unguarded truth.
"She is perfect," Victor whispered.
"She is," Elias agreed.
Victor glanced at him. "And you... how are you feeling?"
Elias hesitated for the briefest moment.
Physically? He felt like someone had rearranged his organs with a shovel despite Victor healing him right after giving birth.
Emotionally? He felt full and happy.
Elias hesitated for a breath, fingers absently stroking the newborn’s hair as she slept against Victor’s chest. "I feel... good," he said slowly. "Tired. Happy. A little terrified. Strangely peaceful." He tilted his head, eyes warm but sharp. "And very sure."
Victor straightened at that, something in his posture tightening in quiet anticipation. "Sure of what?"
Elias didn’t answer right away. He shifted, moving carefully until he was sitting upright again and could see Victor clearly. Their daughter gave a soft sigh, settling deeper into the crook of Victor’s arm. The sight of them together, the massive, dangerous man holding a seven-pound baby like she was the heart of the universe, made something inside Elias break open in the gentlest way.
"I’m sure," Elias said, voice low and steady, "that this is the last time."
Victor blinked. "The last... pregnancy? The last child?"
"Yes," Elias murmured. "Three is enough. More than enough. They’re wonderful. They’re perfect. They’re chaos condensed into tiny human shapes." His lips twitched. "I don’t have the stamina for a fourth."
Victor exhaled slowly, almost cautiously. He nodded, brushing his thumb over their newborn’s cheek. "If that’s what you want, then that’s what we do." His voice was calm, but the tension in his shoulders told Elias he was bracing himself, waiting for something else.
Elias gave it to him.
"But, Victor," he continued softly, "it also means we’re free."
Victor’s eyes snapped up to him, crimson brightening, widening with a startled, hopeful fear. "Free... for what?"
Elias reached out and touched his face, a light, grounding brush of his fingertips along Victor’s jaw. "Free for me to make the choice we’ve been circling for years."
Victor swallowed, throat bobbing. "Elias..."
"I want to become your soulmate," Elias said.
Victor froze.
He didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. For a long, suspended second, he didn’t even seem to exist in the same physical reality as anyone else. The words hit him like a hurricane, cracking through every layer of self-control he had built to keep from pressuring Elias.
"You..." His voice failed. He tried again. "You want... that?"
"I do." Elias shifted closer, resting his hand over Victor’s heart. "I want you. I want us. I want to bind my life to yours. I want to stop waiting, hesitating and stop overthinking. Our family is complete. We have everything we dreamed of and now I want the last piece."
Victor’s breath shuddered out of him, a raw, uneven sound he didn’t manage to swallow in time. "Elias," he whispered, like the name itself was a prayer.
"You’re the love of my life," Elias continued, steady and sure. "You’re the father of my children. You’re the man I trust more than anyone. And I want to spend whatever comes next with you as your equal. Your partner. Your soulmate."
Victor pressed their daughter carefully into Elias’s arms, his hands shaking just enough for Elias to notice.
Then he cupped Elias’s face with both hands and kissed him.
When he pulled back, Victor was smiling, wide, disbelieving, and broken open in the best way, and tears streaked silently down his cheeks in quiet, radiant joy.
"You just gave me eternity," Victor said, voice trembling, forehead pressed to Elias’s. "You don’t know what that means."
Elias smiled through his own sting of emotion. "I think I do. I chose it."
Victor kissed his forehead, his nose, and the corner of his mouth, unable to stop himself. "I promise you," he whispered, "I will be worthy of it."
"You already are."
Victor shook his head in awe. "Let me try anyway."
A sudden thump sounded against the bedroom door.
Then a very dramatic sigh.
Then Connor’s muffled voice: "Victor, if you don’t open this door, I swear I will break it. Aria is attempting to levitate Uno to demonstrate
’kinetic synergy,’
Otis is trying to follow, and Uno thinks this is spiritual development."
Victor didn’t move.
He couldn’t look away from Elias.
"Victor!" Connor yelled again. "Do not abandon me to this relationship dynamic!"
Elias snorted softly. "You should probably let him in."
Victor wiped his face quickly with the back of his hand. "In a moment."
He leaned in and kissed Elias again, soft, lingering, and full of a promise they would finally claim.
Outside, something exploded.
Connor screamed. Uno laughed and Aria shouted, "I did it!"
Elias sighed. "This is our life."
Victor smiled. "It’s perfect."
And for the first time, Elias agreed without a single reservation.
It really was.