Blessed by Night

The wedding went by seamlessly, much to Malachi's internal relief.

The service was beautiful. However, the girls would hardly remember it later on, as they started drinking soon after.

Joanne only drank regular human alcohol that couldn't affect her mentally, but the rest of the girls partook in some of the harder stuff that Melanie and Belloc brought from Tehom.

As for how it was going, Joanne was struggling a bit on her own.

"Mrs. Officerrr~!" Bianca sang drunkenly.

Joanne barely managed to keep Bianca's hands above the belt. Especially in front of their friends and family.

"Not that kind of officer, darling… also, I haven't held that position for over twenty years now."

"Ooooh, positions."

"Easy, little miss. After party hasn't started quite yet."

Although Joanne was currently resting the urge to comply with a hasty trip to the bathroom for good-natured marital relations.

'Marital relations, huh..?'

A warm, happy feeling spread throughout Joanne's chest.

In her youth, she had a lot of fucked up relationships. Though nothing that ever even came close to marriage. She spent her twenties, thirties, and early forties solely absorbed in her work.

The last thing she ever expected was to stumble into a relationship with not one, but six different people. And with two more kids to boot.

It felt a little insane when she stopped to think about it sometimes. She didn't know if her parents would have approved of the life she was living here in America.

But sanity was overrated. And she had stopped caring about what they wanted for her a long time ago.

"What are you thinking about so hard..?" Bianca slurred her words as she rubbed her face on Joanne's chest like a cat.

"I just… I'm really happy that you decided to marry me, B."

The already emotionally unstable Bianca deteriorated even further. Her eyes instantly began to water like amber faucets.

Joanne realized immediately that she had made a mistake.

"I-I love you so much!" Bianca yelled drunkenly.

Joanne nervously began trying to calm Bianca back down before she caused a scene. "I-I love you too, but-"

"Let me touch dem' boobies!"

"Alright, bedtime!"

Joanne started looking around for Sei so that she could put their favorite little nerd to sleep.

As she scoped out the party, she saw that the wife she was looking for was being straddled by Luna, and the latter was taking shots out of her cleavage to great applause.

Joanne was glad the kids had already been put to bed. She didn't know how they would ever live this down otherwise.

While she was scoping out the party, caught sight of her now husband with a serious look in his eye.

She followed his gaze toward Awena, who was standing by the bar and seemingly not paying attention to anything going on around her.

Joanne knew by now that was all an act.

"Serana!" She called out.

"Hm?" The pink-haired girl walked over with a plate of cocktail shrimp in one hand and champagne in the other.

"Watch your new stepmother for a second, would you? Thanks."

"Que?!"

Joanne naturally moved fast even before she had superpowers. Serana was left standing around, babysitting a drunk girl the same age as her who also happened to be her stepmother starting today.

"This family is a nuthouse…"

-

Joanne walked up to Awena just as Malachi did. The air was already tense.

"Everything alright over here..?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm fine." Awena shrugged. "Nice little shindig you've thrown here. I usually have weddings, but this is fun."

"And you were nice enough to let Arias out so that he could come through." Malachi said sharply. "Hell of a gesture."

Awena stared at him calculatively as she sipped from her glass. "I thought it would be a nice gesture… don't tell me you don't appreciate it?"

"Not about that."

"Since when do you do nice gestures?" Joanne raised a brow.

"You make me sound like such a bitch." Awena frowned.

"Well, you left me in a black site internment camp, so.."

Awena instantly became flustered at Joanne's casual reminder of the past. She even choked on her drink.

*A-Ahem…* "I told you that I was sorry about that already…"

"You did." Joanne nodded. "And I forgave you. You going to spurn me twice by lying to me at my own wedding?"

Malachi forgot that Joanne could be slightly intense when she got into her business-like persona. He had also been drinking a bit, so he didn't know if he could fully resist jumping on her when they were alone.

"No need for all of the ultimatums… I was going to try to talk to you before I left anyway, but since you're such an impatient couple…" Awena put her drink down.

"It has come to the attention of the United States government that you are planning to leave the country tomorrow."

Malachi stiffened. Joanne didn't look surprised at all.

"Given that we haven't exactly resumed international travel or relations with anyone outside of Canada and Mexico in the wake of the rebuild, you can understand why this might make the boys upstairs a little… tense."

"I don't understand anything at all. Since when do they care about mission trips overseas? Or is it because there won't be a photo op that they're feeling-"

"Don't be difficult about this, Jo." Awena sighed. "Aside from the potential nightmare of super-powered American individuals illegally crossing into a country's borders, one of whom is a highly decorated military official- your involvement in these countries' affairs could be seen as a promise of American interference. Beyond that... It does hold some slight merit."

Joanne's nerves worsened considerably.

"...So this is what they came up with?"

"It's not a bad deal, Jo." Awena shrugged. "You all get to go and do the whole helping people thing that you want to do, and you can do it with actual government recognition this time. All you have to do is take a few more people with you and communicate home a bit."

Joanne's gaze sharpened. "This isn't a babysitting trip, Awena."

"No one said it was." The British woman shrugged. "But this is the game, Joanne. You are some of the strongest Evolved we have on record. And now, you've all just gotten married. You should've known that they were going to be keeping a close eye on you. They're worried enough you're living in a house they can't bug that you apparently spent no time building."

Awena glanced at the impressive Tuscan mansion sprawled out before her and shook her head. "Do I even want to know how you got this? You rubbing elbows with someone who can create matter out of thin air now?"

""Yes."" The duo answered in unison.

"Smartasses." Awena rolled her eyes. "Just please try to at least make this a little bit easy for me, would you? I've been instructed not to so much as let you step into a shadowy corner until we've reached an agreement."

It was only now that Joanne realized the government must've thought that they were going to fly or teleport overseas. No wonder they were trying so hard to speak to them before they left.

She looked up at Malachi to discern what kind of expression he was wearing and what that meant for their plans.

She was relieved, and a little bit moved to see that his steely-eyed gaze was as firm as it had ever been. Nothing had changed for him so far.

It was nice to know that his commitment to helping people was this strong. But she worried that he may not have known what he was getting them into.

"...We'll talk. On one condition, though." Joanne finally said.

Awena looked relieved.

"Don't unclench your ass just yet. I promise you won't like it."