Blessed by Night

"Alright… let's get to it!"

Malachi sat atop the kitchen counter with Camille on his lap as he watched the six women in his life draw straws to determine which of the three of them would be going with him to Wyoming.

He was a bit surprised by the fact that even Sei was competing to go, since she was usually quite mellow and laid back.

He wondered if it might have been because this mission was going to take a substantial amount of time and she didn't want to be cooped up at home for that long.

"Bu…"

Camille made a depressed noise in Malachi's lap and he realized that this was the first time he was going to be separated from her since he'd been back.

While the mission was in no way a year long effort, it would likely be a couple of weeks before he was back at home full time.

"Don't worry, munchkin. I'll be back before you know it and I'll still make sure to kiss you to sleep at night. So don't look so sad, okay?"

Camille offered no words of agreement in response, making Mal somewhat feel like his words had fallen on deaf ears.

She simply tightened her grip on his trousers just a bit more, and left her father's heart tearing into two with every second that ticked by.

"""Yes!"""

"""No!"""

Finally, the girls had gotten done drawing straws and were both elated and devastated by the results.

Bianca, Anna, and Sei were all jumping up and down with excitement as they held up the three longest straws.

Nadine, Luna, and Joanne were standing around in a circle, crestfallen looks on each of their faces.

The most hurt by this turn of events was Joanne.

Through no fault of her own, she and Mal were still in that fresh stage of being together where they were practically inseparable.

Everything she did was cute, everything he did was sexy, she was so much funnier than he realized before, yadayadayada.

She would follow him all the way into the bathroom at night if he still had a working digestive system.

And now that she knew that she wouldn't be able to follow him all the way to Wyoming, she was crushed.

But because Luna and Nadine were also still experiencing separation anxiety from Mal's yearlong disappearance act, they weren't really that far behind her.

In that moment, three serpentine tails wrapped around the waists of the girls and pulled them over to where Malachi sat.

"Now what are all of these sad faces for? You girls act like I won't be coming back to check on you all at night."

Malachi held up Camille so that her face and his were lined up identically.

"And in the meantime, you got mini me here. Isn't she just as good as the real thing?"

The girls smiled wryly at their similarities as Nadine took their daughter happily.

"I guess you're right. We'll have plenty of fun while daddy is gone, isn't that right sweet pea?"

Again, Camille was in a rather downtrodden mood herself, and it would require more than a few cheek kisses to change that.

Discreetly, Malachi sent a message into Joanne's mind that only she could hear.

'While I'm gone… I want you to try to connect with Camille a little more. You two really haven't had a chance to get to know each other yet.'

Joanne would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

What if she dropped the baby? (Cami can fly.)

What if it didn't like her? (Babies like almost everybody.)

What if she ended up teaching her bad habits? (She couldn't do any worse than Anna or Nadine.)

What if she overslept and forgot to feed her? (Cami would NEVER allow that to happen.)

Despite all of her fears, Joanne already knew what the right thing to do was.

She had made the wrong choice once before and regretted it almost everyday for twenty-two years.

It would never happen again.

"Can.. I hold her?" She asked weakly.

Nadine seemed a bit caught off guard, as was Luna, but in the end she smiled and handed over their precious daughter without a fuss.

Once Joanne actually held Camille for the first time, it was easy to see the surplus of emotions that were running through her.

She was mesmerized by Camille's wide, innocent eyes that shined like amethyst in the moonlight, and she felt an instant connection between the two of them that was nothing short of miraculous.

It was also familiar to her, because she had felt this with Anna once before.

She made an enormous mistake back then but from this point on… she would do everything right or atleast die trying.

"H-Hello.."

"Bu…"

Faced with this touching scene, Anna felt that it was her solemn duty to make a joke that would make everyone uncomfortable.

"…So you did have it in you."

"A-Anna!"

-

The next morning, Malachi was saying goodbye to what had become his perfect little family.

Camille did not cry, but she certainly did sniffle a lot and made it monumentally more difficult for her parents to leave.

Malachi in particular contemplated abandoning the mission exactly seventeen times within the span of four minutes.

'A race of warmongering rapists doesn't necessarily need to be eradicated… r-right?'

Ultimately, the only thing that allowed Malachi to hold firm to his resolve was the memory of what those things had tried to do to Melanie and Opal.

Once he was finally able to give his munchkin back to Luna, he received a text on his phone from Serana.

Instead of asking to babysit again, she was asking for him to meet her in the hangar in a few minutes.

And a moment later, he got another text from his sister asking for the same.

"Hey girls! We got to make a pit stop in…" As he watched his three traveling companions exit the bedroom, he got three more reasons to want to stay at home.

As a show of her affection, Bianca had designed custom made bodysuits for all six of the girls.

They were made a from tear-proof fabric, along with a thin layer of titanium dipped tri-weave fiber mesh integrated with MR fluid that was designed to harden in response to impact.

But Malachi could not have cared less about the schematics of their outfits and was instead focused on their overall design.

'T-Tight, very tight…'

'A-Anna's thigh…'

'S-Sei's butt…'

'B-Bianca's… everything.'

Malachi didn't believe it was medically safe for his dick to be this hard.

"Pit stop? Where?"

Bianca came dangerously close to Malachi and he felt like he was going to implode.

She and Anna had given each other matching haircuts last night in a fit of boredom and he had to admit that they were really working for them.

Her suit was black with shades of military green on her thighs, ribs, and arms.

This, in addition to her warm cocoa butter scent and full glossy lips temporarily sent Mal's mind into a shut down.

"I.. um… S-Serana, she.."

Anna raised a brow as she came over, and Mal's problem got exponentially worse.

Her leather suit made her look more like a dominatrix of some sort rather than a soldier, and the thick black and purple puffer jacket she let hang off her shoulders was both functional and stylish.

"What about Serana? Why are you stuttering, babe?"

"I.. umm.. h-here."

With no other option, Malachi just handed over his phone to the girls and tried to think about innocent things like nuns in church or puppies singing their ABC's.

"Honey..? Do I look okay..?"

Sei worriedly shuffled about in her bodysuit and it was easy to tell that she was feeling a bit out of her element in such tight clothing.

Her design was much simpler than Anna's and Bianca's, with only a sleek black design and a white chest plate.

Malachi's chest started to rise and fall more noticeably as he wracked his brain for the right words to say.

"Sei… you.."

- 45 Minutes Later

"What the fuck took you guys so long!?"

Serana, Aisha, and Aubrey folded their arms annoyedly as Malachi and the girls finally came into the hangar almost an hour after she texted them.

"W-We um.."

"Wardrobe malfunctions.."

"R-Right.."

Serana looked at the girls' flushed cheeks, slightly disheveled hair and she turned back to Malachi with one, inescapable conclusion.

"You're such a sexual deviant."

"I know…"

Anna: "It was so worth it though.."

Bianca / Sei : "Uh-huh.."

"Gross!"

Rolling her eyes, Serana finally gestured to the twenty other personnel who were gathered inside of the hangar and geared up like they were ready for a mission.

"Your bedroom antics aside, I hope that you didn't think we were all going to let you run off and do something this dangerous all on your own? You make it sound like you guys will be pretty outnumbered, so we are at your service."

Smiling wryly, Malachi ran his fingers through his hair as he stepped forward with a leader's natural demeanor.

"Preciate' all of you for offering to come with. But I think before you make your decision we should head to the briefing room so that you can know exactly what you'll be walking into."