Blessed by Night

As soon as the girls heard Malachi's voice, the two of them let out excited little squeals and bolted out of the room.

Anna relieved that it was over, attempted to follow behind them when Celeste suddenly grabbed her by the wing. "Wait a second, missy. We need to talk."

Anna felt a shiver run down her spine as she slowly turned around. "Everything alright, honeybun?"

"Don't 'honeybun' me." Celeste held firm. "We talked about you…"

Celeste's words trailed off as Anna gave her a shy, vulnerable look.

Anna was close to six feet in height, but somehow she had managed to make herself seem diminutive.

"… I just… n-nevermind."

Anna smiled innocently and gave Celeste a quick kiss on the lips before rushing downstairs.

After watching her skip away happily, Celeste realized that she may have also had a weakness or six…

-

Malachi had only just entered the apartment when two pint-sized critters leaped off the top of the staircase and gave him the fright of his life.

""DADDY!""

Malachi caught Shiro and Camille in each arm and spun them around happily.

"There's my babies. You girls all ready for the move?"

"Yea! I packed and got ready all by myself!" Shiro boasted.

"M-Me too!"

Cami was lying. Celeste packed all her things while she sat around being adorable.

Completely oblivious to the truth, Mal just smiled and placed both of the little ones securely on his shoulder. "Hope you girls are ready to see the new house. You'll have a lot more space to run around..."

The girls' eyes sparkled.

"A nice big pool..."

The sparkling intensified.

"And you'll even have one big room for you guys to share."

The light in their eyes died instantly.

Malachi manipulated the shadows underneath the boxes and swallowed them up without damaging the contents inside.

At that moment, Celeste and Anna returned from upstairs and Malachi beamed with pride.

"Girls, look at that." Malachi pointed. "Doesn't your old man have the most beautiful wives in the world?"

""Blegh!""

Shiro and Camille might have recoiled in disgust, but Anna and Celeste certainly didn't.

"Easy there, young man. You still have a week left before you get to call me something like that..." Celeste blushed.

Judging by her tone, she clearly didn't seem to hate the sound of it, even if it was a bit premature.

Anna seemed much less bothered, though, as her wings carried her down into the foyer. "You can call me that whenever you want, just make sure that you don't have anything to do for the next hour."

Two more 'ews' came from the girls when Anna stood on her tip toes to give her husband-to-be a gentle kiss.

Anna just giggled and squeezed the two of them on the foot. "And you, my little rockstars, are starting kindergarten on Monday. You both have to make lots of friends so that you don't turn out like your dad here."

Malachi almost looked offended. "I had friends."

"Did they know that?"

Malachi wondered sometimes if he had made the unwise decision to tell his fiancés too much about his formative, less popular years.

Celeste swooped into her young lover's defense and gave Anna a brief nudge. "Leave him alone. It isn't as if you made very many friends in juvie, did you?"

Anna had the nerve to look crestfallen. "Low blow, babe... Such a low blow."

Celeste shrugged nonchalantly and blew her an apologetic kiss.

Malachi finally just rolled his eyes and opened up a portal for them both. "If we're done making fun of each other now, are you girls ready to go see our home for the next sixteen years?"

"Why only sixteen?" Cami asked cutely.

"Oh, your moms and I decided we're getting a beach house when you girls go off to college."

Both of the little tyrants began pulling on his ears in protest. They could be mad all they wanted, but they wouldn't deny their parents dreams of walking around naked again.

Celeste left him to fend for himself this time as she waltzed towards the portal.

"Since my curiosity won't allow me to wait any longer, I'm going to go on ahead. I can't wait to see what sort of place you found since you were being so secretive this whole time."

"You didn't mention money either..." Anna noted. "Should I be expecting to walk into a trailer park?"

"Well, you would've, but now the surprise is ruined." Mal sighed in disappointment.

Anna just flipped him off as she walked through the dark opening. Mal was grinning like a fool as he followed closely behind.

- Upstate New York

Beyond the noise and bustle of busy New York, it's quieter, more elegant side often goes unnoticed by the masses.

Anna and Celeste were staring at an empty clearing in what seemed like a forest.

The two cars that belonged to the family were already there. Bianca wasted little time voicing their confusion.

"Babe, this isn't all a part of some sick joke, right? You know I got a big fear of horror movies!"

Luna was holding the family's only normal pet- Marcelline. "I will agree that this does feel very shady. How could you just leave a couple of vulnerable women like us out here in the wilderness?"

Malachi crinkled his brow. "The scariest thing out here is Nadine and you all kiss her every day."

Everyone turned to glance at their blonde-haired bombshell. The sudden attention made her lift her scrawny arm and flex for the crowd.

Malachi tapped his foot on the dirt road. "Y'all might wanna get a little altitude for a bit. Things are about to get a little shaky for a couple minutes."

The girls didn't understand what Malachi meant until they saw him start floating off the ground.

One by one, they all followed his example. Anna lifted Celeste in her arms and carried the two of them up into the air. Joanne even made sure to lift up the cars.

"Now what?" Cami asked, dying of anticipation.

Malachi smirked and pointed towards a particular patch of grass.

Once the girls strained their eyes, they found a very small cube of metal sitting in hiding.

There was a small 'ding' and a flashing blue light filled the area. The girls had to shield their eyes in order to prevent themselves from spontaneously going blind.

When they looked back, the girls saw a most miraculous sight.

A near-ocean of liquid metal was running out in various directions.

It rushed underneath the places where the girls once stood.

The first thing to be fully formed was a long driveway that led all the way out to a road that seemed to have only recently been formed.

However, the most surprising thing was that the driveway wasn't metallic. It was actual hand-cut stone.

Once the driveway was done, the house came next.

A 5,000 square foot modern manor to be exact. Looking no different from one that had been built in a working crew.

The girls slowly turned their heads towards Malachi with their mouths hanging open.

He merely wore a shit-eating grin laced with a trace amount of feigned obliviousness.

"… Did you guys know it can turn into a space ship too?"

Bianca held her hand to her forehead before she fainted from chronic nerd overstimulation. Luna had to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Tsa-Tsa.." Cami muttered.

Malachi smiled as he nudged her little foot. "That's right, munchkin. Even if he's not around, cuzzo is still taking care of us. Gotta tell him thank you when we see him again."

Camille looked up at the sky with a faraway look.

In a rare moment of kindness, Shiro took her sister's hand and gave it a small squeeze.

Camille would never admit it, but she very much appreciated the gesture.

"Honey… how did you even figure out that you could do all of this?" Sei asked in wonder.

"And how does the plumbing work?" added Nadine.

"What about WiFi?" Anna wondered.

"Do we still have to pay an electric bill for all this?" Luna asked.

"How would we get pizza delivered to the house??" Anna asked again.

Everyone just paused and stared at Anna with a look laced with pity.

"What?!" She complained. "It's a fair question!"

The only people who agreed with her were the children.

Malachi just laughed as he floated back to the ground, prompting the others to do the same.

"Don't worry. I'll explain everything to you while we're getting unpacked."

That answer seemed to satisfy the girls' curiosity for a brief time, replacing it instead with a buzzing excitement.

They had only just begun making their way to the front door when Cami suddenly pointed into the sky again.

"Oooh..!"

Everyone else followed where her small finger was pointing.

Descending out of the sky was a familiar comet of orange flame.

Morgan slowed in his descent so as not to damage the newly done driveway when he landed.

He looked around in wonder at the new house and tried his hardest not to seem jealous.

"I… guess I was a bit late for the big reveal, huh?"

"Only a smidge." Malachi smirked. "What kept you?"

Morgan pushed his hair back and sighed.

"Got a call from our friendly neighborhood jailbird. He wants to see us."