The Monday morning after Luna's proclamation came like a lead weight. Aria was sitting in her office reportedly reviewing the quarterly forecasts, but she was really playing over and over again in her mind the moment her daughter had casually declared that Xavier was her father with all the confidence of a standard weather observation.
A text notification came through from Xavier: We need to talk. About what I don't know happens now.
The message read exactly like a standard Xavier message, direct and to the point while acknowledging that Luna's statement had created new realities considering they both need to develop immediate game plans going forward. Aria responded with: Lunch. 12:30. The restaurant at the Fullerton Hotel.
Neutral ground. Public enough to stay professional and avoid a scene, and private enough to talk about the complexities of their new family model.
By noon that day, Aria had successfully convinced herself that she was ready for any of the scenarios that Xavier can conjure up. Co-parenting agreements at the very least, custody schedules, possibly a formal declaration of paternity just for legal purposes. What Aria couldn't figure out was how Xavier changed his demeanor when he arrived at their table.
He looked different—not just his expression but the whole of him. The calculating corporate predator had been replaced by a softer, more human version of himself. Fatherhood, even recognized for less than forty-eight hours, had already begun to change him.
"Thanks for meeting with me," Xavier said, taking the chair across from her. "I haven't slept since Saturday. I've just been thinking about the moment she called me Daddy."
His voice had a sense of wonder in it that was almost painful to watch. Aria recognized that what was happening with Xavier was the very thing that she had taken for granted: being claimed by Luna Chen, along with the surging ubiquitous love that accompanied it.
"She had been working on that conclusion for months," Aria said. "Luna is not one to make emotional decisions cavalierly. Once she determined you were her father, accepting you as such was a logical next step."
"She is amazing," Xavier explained, practically beaming with pride. "The way she processed everything, and made her own decision about the nature of our relationship... I have never met anyone like her."
"She comes by that from both of us," Aria said, and regretted the intimacy as soon as it was spoken.
Xavier's gaze sharpened. "Yes. She does. Which brings me to our ongoing discussion..."
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folder—his typical method for dealing with complex conversations. "I've been thinking about what Luna needs from us now that she has accepted me as her father."
Ria's stomach knotted, in expectation of demands for expanded custody or formalizing the arrangements to include a legal agreement. Rather than demands for more time with Luna, Xavier opened the folder and produced what appeared to be information on child development and co-parenting models.
"Luna needs stability first and foremost", he said. "Luna has established her identity around your two-person family, and recently she recognized an expanded family with both of us in it. But she must understand that this change is actually strengthening her foundation; it is not a threat."
Aria couldn't believe how sensible he sounded. "What do you propose?"
"I want to support and engage her in her daily life, not just on the weekends," Xavier said. "Eventually, once she is older, I can support you as her father as we read her bedtime stories, homework, doctor appointments, school activities, and family dinners. I want to be in a real father role, not just to fill in the emotional deficit."
Aria felt as if she was beginning to lose the control she had so carefully maintained. More engagement meant more time together, more domestic intimacy, more inadvertent opportunities for their professional relationship to become complicated by personal tension or intrusion.
"That's quite a shift from what we have right now," she said carefully.
"Luna is ready for that shift," Xavier said. "The question is whether you're ready for it."
The challenge was posed delicately, but Aria knew exactly what it was. He was asking her if she could deal with sharing Luna's daily life with him, whether she could accept true co-parenting, rather than the scheduled visits they had been doing.
"I need to know what you're really asking for," Aria stated.
Xavier leaned in and put on a serious face. "I want to be Luna's father in every sense of the word. Not just the weekend excitement, but the day-to-day stuff. I want to be the one she can count on when she is sick, when she has nightmares, when she needs help with homework."
He paused a moment and softly said, "I want to be the father she deserves, not just the father she has claimed."
Her heart broke for him when he spoke so sincerely. He was asking for a great deal—he was asking not just for access to Luna, but to be woven into the fabric of all the little nitty-gritty of their family life.
"That would require serious changes to our current terms," Aria said.
"I know. I am willing to make whatever changes I need to," Xavier replied.
Aria examined his face, looking for the corporate calculation she had would expect to see from him, and instead only found real commitment, tenderness, and something that looked like vulnerable hope.
"Luna told me this morning that she wanted to introduce you to her friends at school as her daddy, and she is going to included you in her family tree project," Aria explained.
Xavier's smile lit up the room. "It would be an honor," he said.
"And she asked if you will be there at her pre-K graduation ceremony next month," Aria continued.
"I'll be there," he said without hesitation. "I can move around my other obligations."
As they transitioned to practical matters—emergency contact, school pick up, bedtime routine—Aria was listening to herself agree to things that would fundamentally alter their family structure. Xavier would have access to her apartment keys for emergencies. He could make medical decisions for Luna if she were unavailable. He would have equal say over Luna's educational and developmental choices.
Most importantly, they would work to coordinate their schedules, so Luna would have consistent access to her both parents, which would entail Aria and Xavier being in regular and constant communication about the intimate details of their daughter's life.
"There's one more thing," Xavier said when they were about to leave. "Luna asked me last night if I was going to marry you."
Aria nearly spit out her coffee. "She what?"
"She said that Emma's parents are married, and she was wondering would her parents get married too," Xavier said, his tone neutral and even. "I told her that marriage is something adults decide with a lot of information, and that some families are just different than others."
"What did she say?"
"She said that as long as both her parents love her, it didn't matter." Xavier looks uncharacteristically tender. "But she also said that she liked when we are all together, and that she wished we could be together more."
The discussion was encroaching on territory Aria was deliberately trying to avoid. Luna's emotional intelligence was giving importance to desires and expectations that were more than just co-parenting, and more than just family.
"Xavier, we need to be extremely careful about — "
"I know," he gently interjected. "I'm not inviting you to consider marriage or romantic reunion, I'm simply asking you to consider what Luna needs from us as her parents, and what, regardless of our relationship, we have to offer her, as what we have - Luna."
But after they had both walked towards the exit to the restaurant, Aria was feeling how Luna's hopes for her parents to "be together more often" (even though in all fairness it is her own fault for confusing her) were likely to redefine their family in ways that would test every limit she desperately tried to impose.
Xavier Knight was not simply Luna's father - he was now becoming a part of their lives on an everyday basis, an individual in their household, and a partner in a co-parenting venture of the biggest responsibility Aria had ever had.
And given every rational reason to enforce some professional distance, Aria was beginning to see that she couldn't parent Luna effectively together with her ex without some intimacy - not romantically speaking - but pragmatically as parents loving the same exceptional child.
The family she'd constructed so carefully was changing in ways beyond her control, and Luna, persistent and with a lot of emotional intelligence, was guiding that change toward something Aria never intended but was more and more powerless to stop.
Everything was changing, and for the first time in five years Aria wasn't sure she wanted to control how it turned out.