Chapter 227: Understanding All Around

*Thump, thump, thump*

The sound of Malachi's heart was reverberating so loudly throughout the bedroom that all of the girls inside could hear it.

He told himself that he was prepared for this.

Afterall, he could not stay hidden for forever and eventually his closest friends and family would demand to see him.

And though the girls told him that Serana knew already and said that she was not afraid of him, he still had his own worries.

Little voices in the back of his mind that told him that he wouldn't be accepted once everyone saw his new tails or webbed hands.

"Malachi..? Can you hear me?"

The beating of Mal's heart only got worse than before when he heard Serana speak to him with her lips nearly pressed against the bedroom door.

"Do you remember in high school how you stood up for me after Seth told everyone in my grade that I let him sleep with me in the back of his car behind a McDonald's?

You barely knew me then, and yet you still told everyone off and got beat up by like five guys from the baseball team. But even then your only concern was making sure that my feelings weren't hurt too bad."

"..."

"From that day on you were always with me and trying to help me with whatever I needed, whether it was schoolwork I was too depressed to do, or even just giving me a ride home because mom was too busy working..."

Sei gradually tensed up the longer that she listened, and it was easy to tell that her heart was breaking.

All she knew of how their friendship started was that Malachi had been there for her as an extra hand when Serana was struggling with school.

Now that she was hearing the full truth she felt her heart breaking into two.

Her hand slipped into Malachi's, and she tried her best to cover her mouth to stop from crying.

"I was never been able to articulate how grateful I was for everything that you did for me back then, or even since then... and that was wrong of me.

I'm still not able to say everything that I really want to without feeling all sappy and vulnerable but I want you to know... there is nothing that you could ever become that would make me afraid of you... you're my best friend, you know?"

Now, Serena's own heart was beating out of control.

She was horrible at saying sappy and emotional things, and it was a miracle that she had ever gotten her own boyfriend.

She didn't know if her words could ever give Malachi that needed push to get him to come outside, but she prayed with all of her might that they would.

And after almost an eternity, the door finally cracked open.

With tears in their eyes, Aisha, Aubrey and Rose also got onto their feet and waited to see what would emerge from behind the doorway.

Just like Serana had alluded to earlier, Malachi really did look a lot like his daughter.

The same deep black skin, matching dark sclera, and gemlike amethyst eyes.

Oddly enough, she believed that he may have been even more handsome than before.

He nervously ran his hands through his long grey dreads, and the girls were able to get a good look at his webbed hands and dark claws.

A bit of a shy smile crossed his face, and they were also able to see a combined total of four venomous fangs in his mouth that were even longer than Nadine's.

However, the strangest thing about him was the four, dark grey serpents that swung from behind his back, each of them fully alive and with minds of their own.

Before Mal could spray whatever awkward thought he had out of his mouth, Serana acted on her promise.

Closing the short distance between them with no fear, she threw her arms around Malachi and wrapped him in an emotional embrace.

"There's my handsome guy. I love you buddy."

Aubrey gave her girlfriend a not so discreet elbow in the stomach that made Nyx cackle melodically.

"Is my daughter jealous? You should know that I have enough love for you both."

"Y-Yes, I know... but I said we weren't doing that again!" Aubrey said firmly.

"Aww, are you sure?"

Nyx grabbed both girls by the chin and it seemed like she was going to give them both a rather provocative kiss.

Or at least she would have, if Malachi had not placed Camille's chunky cheeks between the two as a buffer at the last minute.

"Do y'all mind?!?"

Nyx laughed as if she found this all terribly amusing and slipped her sleeping granddaughter out of her son's grasp.

"Ha! It's not funny when your friend turns your mom into a water park, is it?" Serana joked.

Sei: "S-Serana!"

Aisha: "I-It was really more of the other way around..."

"BOTH of you shut up and get outta my quarters." Malachi demanded.

Unfortunately, the girls ignored him as they barely suppressed their own mischievous laughter.

Malachi's eyes narrowed as he resisted the urge to wring Aisha's neck.

"You just hope and pray that your mom don't throw her draws at me, cause if she does-"

Nadine : "And if she does what the fuck are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to fold them up and hand them back to her nicely."

"Good boy."

-

Malachi took special care to sit between his mother and Aisha to avoid the unfortunate future where he had to either kill her or himself.

Joanne was currently sitting on his lap, giving him an occasional dirty look for the comment he made earlier.

It was clear that he would have to do a lot of ass-kissing to make up for it with not just her, but the other girls as well.

...He had absolutely no problem with that.

'I should get in trouble more often...'

"I can't believe that the aliens really gave you something like that."

"Hm?"

Malachi followed his mother's gaze towards the large bear-like stuffed animal in the kitchen who was making a meal for everyone.

"I can't sense any magic from it at all. It operates from a purely technological concept." She said with slight wonder in her voice.

Finally, Mal remembered something that he had been wanting to ask his mother for the longest time now and he realized that this may have been the best time.

"Ma."

"Hm?"

"I wanted to hear it from you, but... how did the N'Kai end up coming to this world? Why did people even start getting blessed?"

Nyx temporarily froze as if she wasn't expecting to be asked such a question, and Mal immediately knew that the answer wasn't going to be something that they wanted to hear.