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Tin had only been exiled from his home, sent abroad for his own good. For a few weeks, but he'd already gotten used to the constant rain in the United Kingdom. That let him wash himself in his alpha's, his Phob's scents. As he stood out in it after bathing with lilac soap.
He always went back inside his dorm room when his teeth began to chatter because he knew his Phob, though not by his side, would be worried about him and the life growing inside him.
“Why do you also go out in the rain?” Tin is asked by a man in the door room opposite him as he unlocked the door to his room. His accented English is still something Tin isn't used to hearing, though he hears it everyday now.
“So I can smell my mate’s pheromones on me.” Tin answered as he touched his mating mark. Careful not to touch his stomach because he hadn't shared that news with his beloved alpha and mate yet.
“Where is your mate, if you don't mind me asking?”
“Back in my home country. He should be with me, but my family…didn't approve.” Tin explained. Being vague while downplaying what happened when he was separated from his Phob weeks ago. After they came out to their families as mates.
“Oh. That's too bad. I hope you and your mate can see each other again soon. Have a good day, Tin.” Tin's building mate said before taking his leave.
“Thanks. Me too.” Tin said as he went inside his dorm. He removed his rain soaked clothes, but he kept them in his hands so he could press them to his nose and smell his mate, as he looked far past the United Kingdom brick buildings and towards his homeland where his Phob still was.
******
The weeks following his forced separation from his little prince, his mate. Where not so kind to Phob as Tin's father and older brother Chat kept him overworked, beaten down with well hidden injuries. All while keeping his chance to go abroad on a scholarship hanging over his head.
They couldn't kill him, like he knew they wished to do because of the mating bond he and Tin had since their night together. But they could and were making his life hell. But that didn't stop him from finding time to be with his little prince, even if it was only to fall asleep under the gardenia trees that had his mate's scent while trying to write letters to him. He didn't have the power to send.
When the time came for Phob to get his scholarship. He was summoned before the entire household he and his family served.
“Phob, I've gotten you a scholarship to a military school in France.” Tin's father announced as he handed Phob the required documents to go abroad.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Phob said his heart sinking at seeing his hell wasn't over, but just starting. Because he wasn't going abroad to study, but to a place of new dangers. He was soon released from service and allowed to leave the palace to make his final preparation for the future of his family while he was away in military school.
“France isn't that far from the United Kingdom. I'll find a way to get to you, Tin. Just wait a little bit longer.” Phob thought to himself while packing his few belongings. Tin's gardenia blossom to him, the most precious of everything he could call his was the last and most careful packed item.
“There you are Phob.” Tin's grandma said as she walked into the house with her maid and companion.
“I have something for you, for when you get a break from school.” She said at the same time she handed Phob a note.
“Take care of yourself and my grandson. And come back to see this old lady when you have the time. I'd love to see a great grandchild before I get too old.”
“I will, Your Highness. Thank you.” Phob said with gratitude at the blessing to his relationship with Tin as Tin's grandma left his house as quickly as she had entered.
He checked the note and he saw it was Tin’s address in the United Kingdom he never was allowed to know to send his letters, as well as money for his travel expenses from France to the United Kingdom.
There is no big farewell like there was for his mate, as Phob made his exit from Thailand and boarded the ship to France.
Military school was everything Phob expected it to be and another several weeks passed. Marking his and Tin's separate at three months.
But there wasn't a single day that he and Tin didn't find a way to smell each other's scents and remind themselves that their separation wasn't forever.
*****
“I miss your dad, little one.” Tin said as he touched his growing stomach that he could no longer hide as he carried a tiny lilac bush towards his dorm. Just bathing with lilac soap and standing in the rain had stopped being enough to mimic his Phob's scents and he had finally gotten lucky in finding a plant after almost a month of searching for one after hitting the two months pregnant mark.
He saw someone in an out of place military school uniform standing outside of his dorm building from a distance. The silhouette became more familiar with each step he took towards his dorm building. Until he was releasing his pheromones in joy. His gardenia pheromones are hit with the scent of home as lilac and rain met his release.
“Tin…” Phob said. Like his ability to breathe had finally returned to him after three months of painful separation as the scent that had been keeping him going hit him with a fresh and intense blast.
He jumped into action as his little prince dropped a flower pot and came running towards him with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. He gathered his mate in his arms as his name was cried out with a sob.
“My Phob. I've missed you so much.” Tin cried into his mate's chest as warm rain and lilac pheromones wrapped around him in the way he could barely mimic.
“I've missed you too, so very very much, Tin.” Phob said. Tears went down his face and into his little prince's hair as he hugged him tighter. His heartbeat spiked like he was going through a bomb drill as a small but noticeable bump pressed into his stomach.
He remembered Tin's grandma’s words about a great grandchild before he went to France and he suspects she already knew he might have, or did get her grandson pregnant.
“Tin, are you…pregnant?” Phob asked while pushing his little prince back just a little to look down at his stomach.
“Yes, I'm pregnant. Almost three months along. I think it's a boy.” Tin answered with the second wholehearted smile he'd had in months. He's kissed softly as his mate touched his stomach and said hello to their child with his pheromones for the first time.
“We should go inside, Phob, we have so much to talk about.” Tin said as the kiss ended. His Phob smiled at him as he took his hand. They first walk and pick up the de-potted lilac bush and then go up to Tin’s dorm room to continue the reunion they knew would come eventually. As they got through their three month separation alone.