Blessed by Night

Joanne played with her cup ramen absentmindedly.

Malachi noticed how distracted she seemed. Out of respect, he tried to let her keep her thoughts to herself.

Though, he did lean against her a little as a way to remind her she was not quite as alone as she currently believed.

The two exchanged a brief look. For a moment, she no longer seemed quite so despondent.

"Apologies that we cannot offer you more. We have a limited number of rations that we can spare at the moment."

"O-Oh, it's okay!" Sei nodded her head a little too hard. "It's not as if we didn't come with our own supply of food after all."

Sei's father looked intrigued. "Yes, I suppose you wouldn't... How exactly did you end up here?"

He started to look at Malachi. "I had heard of your capacity for teleportation, but I was unaware that it was to such an extent."

"Oh, we didn't come here through Malachi's power, Dad. We flew!"

"Flew?" Ayuka questioned.

"Yes, with-"

"Any evolved can fly if they train their telekinetic abilities enough." Joanne suddenly spoke up after spending the last five minutes in dead silence. "Plus... some of us don't actually need psychic help." Joanne gave her wings a flutter.

Sei's brow crinkled. 'Honey, why would you...'

'I'm sorry, babe, just... trust me for right now, okay? Let's wait a little bit before telling everyone what we're really here for.'

Sei was conflicted. She didn't really like keeping secrets, but she also had an unshakeable trust in Joanne.

So she faltered. And didn't add anything else to the conversation.

Her brother, Sota, looked back and forth between Joanne and Anna like he was noticing more in common than just their wings.

"My mystery sister has a type, it seems... Your winged women look so much alike I could swear they were related."

Everyone at the table felt a rush of color flood their cheeks, and they turned their faces towards the table.

All except for Serana. Who couldn't seem to find anything funnier than this. "Oh man. Are you going to laugh in about thirty seconds from now."

Sota looked back and forth between Joanne and Anna again.

"...Sisters?"

Serana made an incorrect buzzer noise.

"....Cousins?"

"Getting colder there, Little Uncle."

He looked back and forth between the two women again. "...No way."

"Way!"

Sato and Serana burst out laughing like a pair of old friends. Sei's face just kept turning redder and redder.

Ayuka looked significantly less amused.

"T-This... is devianism! It's bad enough you're sleeping around with all of these people and calling it marriage, but a woman and her daughter, Sei?? Can your tastes in relationships be any more concerning??"

Just like that, the mood within the mess hall became noticeably more tense.

Ayuka soon turned her wrath on Malachi.

"This is your influence no doubt. Leading my airheaded girl into this kind of explicit relationship without any sort of commitment or standards-"

Serana pointed her chopsticks at Ayuka menacingly. "I don't give a damn if you're old, you yell at my friend again I'll deck you."

"S-Serana, that's your grandma!" Malachi winced.

"I know what the hell she is, my eyes work just fine. Besides, I'm married now and I've got enough grandmas to fill up a boathouse. One of them has biceps bigger than my head."

Malachi was starting to think he should pay closer attention to the abyss next time he went for a visit, because he didn't have the foggiest idea who she was talking about.

Sei suddenly felt very small again. And it wasn't until now that she realized how unused she had become to feeling like that.

Perhaps that was what gave her the courage to speak up despite having never done so before.

"I know it doesn't… make sense to everyone. I'm not even sure that I would have gotten it at one point or another in my life.

But these are my partners. It's the best relationship I've ever been in and I couldn't trade any one of them for any reason."

"Oh, please-"

"Enough." Kenji placed his hand on the table. "It's not any of our business. Our only concern is that you continue to live well. Make wise decisions."

Sei's face lit up like a tree in December. "I-I will! Thank you for your blessing!"

'That was a blessing..?' Everyone thought at once.

Sato was still having a harder time coming to grips with all of this than everyone else.

"So… I have a sister. And no one was going to tell me about her?"

"Your sister left the family when she was about your age." Ayuka answered without looking up from her cup of lukewarm tea. "She ran away to America to be with one of her little classmates, though he is noticeably absent now. I wonder what happened to him?"

"Dead as fuck." Anna replied through a mouthful of noodles.

"Rest in piss." Serana added.

The two shared a small fist bump.

Serana hadn't exactly come here to be liked or politically correct. She came to make sure that no one was fucking with her mom or Malachi.

And when it came to the mentions of the father who never even put a single thought into her life, she had no semblance of respect for him. She may as well have been talking about a stranger.

"I-I have to admit, I was surprised to meet you" Sei smiled awkwardly. "I hope this isn't… strange."

"Oh, it's strange." Sato nodded furiously. "But I don't mind that. It's the most interesting part of my life so far."

"Oh, I don't know about that.. you have powers, so something interesting must have happened."

Sato scoffed.

"Hardly. I just kind of woke up one day and-"

"I don't… I don't feel so good."

Celeste suddenly fell back from her seat and collapsed. Her family was immediately beset by panic.

"Oh my gid, babe!"

"Celeste, open your eyes, honey!"

"She's burning up!"

Celeste writhed on the ground weakly. Meanwhile, her body temperature was so high that it was starting to get dangerous.

"Do not panic." Kenji suddenly stood up.

Sei might as well have not registered her father's words at all because they did nothing to comfort her.

"W-What's happening to her? Why is she like this??"

Sota brought over cold towels and ice.

"She'll be fine, it's just the same thing that happened to most of us. She's contracted the superhuman fever."