Blessed by Night

Serana knocked on the door twice before entering.

"Hey, guys... I brought a tonics from home that I thought might help, Stepmom."

Everyone inside the bedroom looked up at Serana as she entered. More specifically, they looked at the brown jar that she carried with her.

Sei raised her brow in mild distrust.

"That's very kind of you, sweetheart, but... Exactly how strong is this little tonic of yours?"

Serana looked down at the jar and blinked as if the thought hadn't occurred to her.

"...Now that you mention it, babe did tell me not to drink it without diluting it with water first."

"How much water?" Luna asked.

"How many gallons is in a swimming pool again..? It's not that much, right?"

Sei took the tonic from her daughter like it was radioactive material. "Erm... thank you, darling. We had Zeke and Loki come in to run some tests, so we'll give her this once she wakes up."

Serana smiled, pleased with the fact that she had actually been helpful in some way or another.

But when she looked around her mother's quarters, she realized that she was the only one who looked cheerful.

They had left her grandparents in quite a rush. She didn't think they had even bothered to give a proper explanation as to where they were going.

"So... Looks like I'm getting another super-powered step-mom, huh?"

Somehow, everyone's expressions became much darker.

"W-What? Come on, guys, what'd I say wrong?"?" Serana panicked.

"Ah, it's nothing." Anna sighed from her chair. "It's just... I don't think Celeste ever really wanted powers. She never seemed like it."

The rest of her partners nodded in solidarity.

Typically, when you imagine a mundane person living with someone who has superpowers, you imagine them to be inquisitive about everything.

'What's it like to fly?'

'How do you shoot ice out of your hands, and does it come out of anywhere else?'

'Could you jump off a building and survive?'

Questions of that nature are almost expected.

But Celeste never asked any of her lovers about anything like that.

She asked Nadine and Luna how it tasted to drink blood. She asked Malachi what it felt like to grow fur. But she never asked anything about their powers or seemed envious of them.

And they all knew the reason why. Celeste was a woman who was content with herself.

She wasn't envious of others and had quite a high sense of self-esteem. Celeste lived her life focused on the things she had and the things she wanted. Things that weren't attainable for her were never really something she paid much mind to.

"Do you think she'll be bothered when she can suddenly fly and shoot lasers out of her butt?"

"SERANA." Everyone said at once.

"Oh, come on! I'm not saying that's literally going to be her power, I'm just being colorful with my language!"

Malachi checked his watch and stood up suddenly while pulling on his jacket.

"If it's just that, I think she'll be fine. But I think you're forgetting that some mutations affect the body differently."

Serana almost cursed herself for her lack of thought.

Some people don't exactly get movie-star good looks with their powers. They can develop reptilian skin, fur, hair made of flame, or even just animal heads.

The Saints had already said vows to love Celeste no matter what form she took. However, they couldn't do a lot to help her if she started having issues with herself.

"I'm going to pick up the kids." Malachi slowly sank into the shadows on the floor. "Try not to brood all over each other while I'm gone."

When Malachi vanished, the girls indeed returned back to brooding.

Joanne was the worst of all.

Bianca slipped her hands around her shoulders and made herself impossible to ignore. "Keep frowning, and your face is going to get stuck like that."

Joanne cracked a small smile.

"If I don't frown, I may just have a damned stroke.

We have to report home in about an hour, and Mal and I have to tell the United States government that during the time we've been here, we've been caught up in a civil war, met with potential insurgents, and learned about a viral sickness that will literally change the world as we know it."

Bianca bit her lip anxiously. Something that Joanne instantly noticed.

"What? Is it because I said I was about to have a stroke, because I was joking about that-"

"No, I know you were. It's just..." Bianca sighed. "I don't think you should tell the government about what we found just yet."

Joanne immediately started to pull away. "B, I-"

"Just hear me out!" Bianca tightened her grip around Joanne and pulled her back into her seat forcefully. Thrilling and terrifying her all at once.

"I'm just saying, things always go bad when humans start fearing extinction. They always get bigot-y and murder-y, and they start building giant robots of death and destruction!"

Joanne blinked slowly. She reached out to hold Bianca's face with both hands.

"Bianca, hon, ... what the fuck are you talking about?"

Luna, Nadine, and Anna answered at the same time. """It's X-Men."""

"It's her favorite comic series."

"Also, the one that fills her with the most paranoia."

"Remember, we had to talk her out of getting that Magneto lower back tattoo?"

Joanne vaguely recalled that last bit. Only because she was definitely in favor of tramp stamps of any variety.

Bianca frowned at Joanne and started to pinch her cheeks. How are we married and you don't know the comic I talk about literally all the time?"

A lightbulb flickered on in Joanne's head. "Ah, is this the thing you and Malachi start talking about together, and you both start talking super fast, and no one else can follow you?"

"""Yes.""" Nadine, Anna, and Luna answered again.

"Ah, that's why... It also might not hurt for you two to start walking around the house with shirts on when you have these debates."

"You shut your blaspheming mouth!" Nadine yelled from the ceiling.

Joanne instantly realized her mistake. "You're right, babe, that's my bad."

'This family is so fucking weird...' Serana sank further into her seat and buried her nose in her phone.

Bianca got up like a woman on a mission.

The Saint's bedroom was a large space, divided into a common room, their bedroom, a bathroom, and multiple individualised rooms for hobbies and storage.

Bianca's was filled with the nerd memorabilia she had managed to save through an entire apocalypse. While initially appearing chaotic, she had quite an organized system.

She went inside and came back out with a short stack of comics and an iPad.

She firmly established her place in Joanne's lap and pulled a blanket over them.

"Well, I like the first part of this..."

"Keep your hands to yourself, babe, this is about education!" Bianca insisted. "You have to learn what the future of our civilization is bound to encounter!"

"You smell nice."

"FOCUS, WOMAN!"

She held up the two items she'd gone to retrieve for Joanne to see.

"Alright, which one do you want to start with? Reading House of X, or watching X-Men '97?"

"Dweeb." Serana snickered.

Bianca threw a pillow at her so hard that it knocked her onto the floor.

"Wait a second, B." Anna objected. "You can't start my mom on those, she doesn't even know anything about the lore."

"These two pieces of media most accurately convey the potential threats that might arise someday! My Jojo's smart, she'll learn quickly." Bianca turned to Joanne with a big smile. "Won't you, babe?"

"Uhhh... sure.... Wolverine's that African guy in the black suit made out of magic metal, right?"

The wind left Bianca's body so quickly that she almost thought she had been punched in the gut. She clenched her chest to stop the pain from consuming her.

"... I feel like I just got hate-crimed."

Anna was dying of laughter. "I so wish babe was here to hear that just now."

"Already texting him." Luna finished pressing send on her phone.

The girls didn't have to wait three seconds before their husband's head popped out of the floor, wearing an incredulous expression.

"She said WHAT!?"

"I know, right!" Bianca yelled back. "Why'd we marry this woman!?"

Joanne was starting to feel embarrassed. As Malachi emerged in the room with both of the girls on his shoulders, she tried to shift some of the attention over to another one of their brood.

"N-Nadine and Sei don't know anything about comic books either!"

Nadine dropped down from the ceiling and took Camille from Malachi.

"I think Peter Parker's relationship with MJ is physically exhausting, and I would totally give my left boob for an adaptation where he settles down with Black Cat, also known as Felicia Hardy."

Joanne needed a forklift to help pick her jaw up off the floor.

She turned to Sei, crestfallen and looking for at least one ally among her family of nerds.

"Babe, you... you don't know any comic book stuff either, right?"

Sei tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her free hand played with the fabric of her pants absentmindedly, and opened her lips to ask a question that had nothing to do with comic books.

"I'm sorry, I just need to ask… earlier when you said that you have to tell the government that you think we met insurgents... who were you talking about?"

Tension suddenly flooded the room. It became unreasonably quiet.

Malachi regretted not taking the kids to the kitchen for an afternoon snack first. He hadn't expected to be bringing them into this.

Joanne slicked her hair back and let out a breath.

She didn't know how to beat around the bush. Not with anyone here.

"I… I don't know how to tell you this, but I… I'm pretty sure your parents are trying to overthrow the Japanese government."