Blessed by Night - C.242: How To Live

"Honeyyy!!!"

Like a brown haired rocket, Sei came flying into Malachi's arms and nearly knocked him over.

Wrapping his arms around her, he rested his head in the cradle of her neck and inhaled her inviting scent to the point that his human lungs could have burst.

'Did she always smell this sweet..?'

""Babe!""

In the next second, two more familiar faces plummeted out of the sky and joined in the group hug.

Bianca and Anna were every bit as intoxicating as Sei, with their own unique scents and flavors, and- god, he had never been more horny in his life.

"Two whole weeks.. I really don't know how I survived." He muttered.

Sei: "Imagine how we felt when we had to do without you for a year."

Bianca: "Let's just make a commitment not to separate from each other longer than this if we can avoid it. Agreed?"

"""Agreed!"""

While Malachi and the girls were in the midst of their reunion, Aisha and Aubrey were doing the same.

The grey haired young woman wrapped her arms around her girlfriend possessively, and kissed her with no small amount of need.

When they separated, Aisha was the one who looked like she had been placed under some kind of love spell.

"I'm glad to see you haven't gotten any injuries since the last time I saw you... how was your trip?" Aubrey asked as she straightened her hair.

"G-G-Good…"

"You're stuttering again, babe."

"I-I'm just a little cold because we had the air on full blast in the car!"

*Malachi from afar* : "No we didn't!"

"Shut up, prick!"

Laughing, Aubrey refocused her girlfriend's attention and brought their lips together in another tender embrace that made her knees go weak.

"AHEM!!"

A loud, unified clearing of throats drew the attention of Malachi and his sister.

The members who had tagged along on this extermination mission so far were all standing around with their arms folded, unwillingly subjected to this display of dogfood.

Once again, they received a very painful reminder that the nightfall faction had quite the large gender imbalance.

It wasn't cool of the higher-ups to keep rubbing their happy relationships in their face like this!

"Show some restraint, guys. Everyone here doesn't need to see some gushy reminder of their relationship status." Serana chided.

Malachi: "You have been rubbing Ryo's abs since you showed up."

"D-Do as I say, not as I do!"

Malachi rolled his eyes as he briefly peeled himself away from the girls.

Serana's insanity aside, he did need to address the unit sincerely as well as disclose the reason for coming here.

He was still no good at public speaking, but he felt that he owed it to those who had worked so hard over the past fourteen days to acknowledge their efforts.

"Right, umm… I guess I want to start this off by saying thank you. I know that we asked you girls for an impossible task and you've likely seen some shit that you're going to remember for the rest of your lives…"

"We're big girls, boss."

"We can handle a little discomfort."

"Besides, it had to be done."

"And the job's still not finished."

Malachi felt immensely grateful to the girls in that moment; for the simple fact that they truly seemed to bear no resentment towards him even though this campaign was a taxing one.

"Be that as it may… for the next seventy-two hours I want us all to get a well needed rest. If you like, I will transfer you back to base right now, or…"

Malachi held out his hand and the shadows spit out a metal box the size of a rubix cube.

"We can stay out here and play with some alien technology instead. What do you think?"

Immediately, the eyes of the girls sparkled like gemstones as they inched closer to the device.

"W-What is it?"

"Munchkin loaned me her birthday present. And I'm going to use it to bring us a little bit of a vacation."

Malachi pressed a silver button on the back of the metallic cube.

An odd alien voice spoke in a language that no one but Malachi and his fiancés could roughly understand.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, he held it just above the receptacle, and there was a series of flashing lights before a different, more familiar language played.

*Schematics, Archictecture, and Cultural Database for planet 527 - Earth, have been scanned and registered. Please express desired environment.*

A full and toothy smile revealed all four of Mal's poisonous fangs.

"Give me a…"

Immediately, Bianca, Aisha, and Sei felt their heart's speed up.

Sei: "Oh honey, can it really do that?"

Aisha: "No way, no way!"

Bianca: "I'm going to explode!"

Malachi instructed the group around him to get clear, and then dropped the talking device right onto the ground.

Suddenly, an Olympic pool's worth of Liquid Metal spilled outwards and created a thirty meter tall block with no real impressive features.

A few seconds later, the sounds of drilling occurred, and Malachi knew that the device was working perfectly.

"Right then. While we're waiting on our 'tent' to get set up, let's eat something other than rations, yea?"

Tapping the swirling shadows at his feet, Malachi pulled through three individuals and no small amount of equipment.

Barbecuing equipment that is.

Aisha's father Trevor, Mal's adoptive grandfather Rowan, and Bianca's father Ali all came floating into view, with various cuts of meat and serious looks on their faces.

Trevor : "I've been waiting for this all week… my handmade spicy sausages will annihilate you both."

Rowan : "You young lads are always so impetuous. Today I will show you that there is no defeating a perfect barbecue chicken."

Ali : "I got something for both your candy asses. When these girls can't get enough of my beef ribs I want all your rations for the next two weeks.

Rowan / Trevor : "Big bastard"

Ali : "Oh it's on."

With determination in their eyes and ingredients prepared from Nightfall's in house farm and garden, the three men spaced out and got to work.

Each of them loaded fresh applewood into their portable grills and lit the kindling using matches or their daughter with magical flame powers.

Rowan / Trevor: "Don't cheat, you bastard!"

Ali : "I made her. She's not breaking the rules. Ain't that right, baby girl?"

"Sure dad. Happy to help."

"That's my… where your clothes at?"

"I burned em off accidentally." Bianca shrugged underneath her blanket.

"Oh lord…"

Ali glared daggers at Malachi, almost like he was trying to make sure that he wouldn't see something he shouldn't.

Mal and all four of his tails turned their heads away, thanking the night goddess that Ali didn't know the password to his phone.

Out of nowhere, a small nudge in the ribs gathered his attention and stopped him from thinking about certain death.

Aisha appeared next to him in an instant, wearing a nostalgic smile and a sad gaze.

"This brings back memories… haven't had my dad's sausage since.."

"Eighth grade. Remember our parents wanted to do something different that year, so we had a damn barbecue for thanksgiving."

"Oh, that's right." Aisha laughed. "It was the first time your mom let mine make Mac and Cheese."

"…I never forgave auntie for that day."

"Completely understandable." Aisha nodded.

The two of them stood in silence and the white haired girl rested her head on Mal's shoulder in a rather tender gesture.

"I've gotta ask… what made you think of this?"

A softness formed on Mal's face that wasn't quite there before.

"I don't know really… I just wanted everyone that helped us to have a chance at some normalcy for a minute.

I know the world ain't pretty right now, but I wanna make sure we don't get so caught up in survival that we forget how to live. How to be happy. Speaking of.."

Smiling, Malachi opened up the shadows at his feet for one last time.

When Joanne came flying through, he caught her in his arms and gave her a cheesy- but sweet whirl in the air like a princess.

"There you are, my love. Glad to see you stayed up for me."

"You thought I wouldn't keep my word when we still have business to handle? Seems my new man doesn't know me at all."

"Oh? You gotta show me everything that I'm missing then."

"I intend to."

Aisha wore a disgusted, yet helpless face as she watched her childhood friend tongue down a woman who was twice his age.

Though he was a degenerate, he was her degenerate.

'Auntie and Uncle would be so proud of you, Mal. You really turned out just like they'd hoped… even if you are a manwhore.'

- 30 Minutes Later

The air was filled with the smell of grilled meats and the sound of laughter as the barbecue competition seemed like it was about to come to an end.

Trevor : "Alright, y'all come and get it!"

Rowan: "Remember to vote fairly now, ya hear?"

Ali: "Don't be trynna act too cute out here, just dig in!"

"""T-Thank you, Mister Ali …~"""

"You ladies are more than welcome."

Bianca's eyes narrowed as she watched a group of young girls start giggling around her dad like horny schoolgirls.

"I think I understand how you felt when Aisha fucked your mom now. This sucks."

"Urk!" Malachi choked on a beef rib and had to have Sei rub his back so that he didn't go into lung failure.

"Seriously, babe… why'd you have to put it like-"

*Ding!*

Finally, the lodgings for the group finished their generation, and Malachi looked up with renewed excitement.

However, his was completely incomparable to Sei's, and she practically teleported in front of the large structure.

With baited breath, she watched the mechanical doors slide open slowly to reveal something she'd missed sorely ever since she came to America.

"I-It's… it's really… a hot spring resort!!!"