“I sort of want a daughter,” Sun-Young said, settling on the end of your bed. Of course she’d come over the moment you’d told her you were sick. “You think I’m a girl mom? I just feel like that’s right.” She paused, staring at your face. “You really do look like shit.” Sun-Young grinned like it was funny you were stuck in bed all miserable.

She patted your hand. “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. It just reminded me of when you were little. Remember that one turtle stuffed animal you had? Oh, was it a turtle?” Sun-Young’s memory of it was hazy. Maybe you had a whale or something.

Her phone was buzzing somewhere in your bedroom. Probably Chandler asking why she wasn’t coming in, or Archer worried about her. They liked pretending she was all helpless and frail when she really wasn’t. That was just the image they’d made up for her.

And, truthfully, Sun-Young had let them. She didn’t mind playing up the cute, ditzy role of Pixie, the Ice Fairy Heroine with a “warm heart”, blah, blah, blah. Hero work was sorta like acting. Pixie was the sweet, bubbly first female hero who saved cats from trees and let kids touch the ice wings she produced. Part of that was Sun-Young, but it was largely make believe. She wasn’t as extroverted and oblivious as she pretended to be.

With you, though, she was just Sun-Young. It was why you were the only one who knew she was pregnant. Not even Ye-Jun, the literal father-to-be and her husband, knew yet. She didn’t know if she was ready for Ye-Jun’s fretting.

Part of her was terrified, the other part was overjoyed. Mostly she trying to ignore all the responsibilities that were about to hit her. Initium City wasn’t her ideal place to raise a potential Enhanced. She’d want better. Somewhere away from all this hero stuff.

Selfishly, she hoped her child would be born normal. No powers, not different—like Ye-Jun, Non-Enhanced.

“Soup okay?” she asked you, because you both knew she couldn’t cook. But she wanted to take care of you. Once she started a family, she wouldn’t have time to sit around in bed with you doing nothing. It almost felt like her time was running out. She blamed the hormones for how sentimental she’d become. “I can order something if it’s too salty. Ye-Jun’s always telling me I make everything too salty.”