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A seven foot, blue skinned, golden eyed goddess of the ocean and chaos.

She didn\'t bear any malicious intent toward Mal, but for some reason his body would not allow him to stop being on edge as if an attack was imminent.

"…You must\'ve found Thea\'s mother quite pretty."

"H-Huh..?"

Mal felt like he was jolted awake when he heard Celeste\'s voice come from right beside him.

It was embarrassing, but he had only now realized that they weren\'t in the same location as before.

Thea was leading Aisha, Aubrey, and himself and Celeste up a flight of stairs.

He hadn\'t even registered that they had left the presence of Thea\'s mothers.

\'Just how powerful is that woman..?\'

Tatiana was perhaps the only woman other than Nyx who left him stumped as to the depths of her power.

It furthered his questions about Thea\'s family background, and what exactly this father of hers was supposed to be like.

Celeste noticed Mal\'s disconnected behavior and her mood quickly soured.

It reaffirmed every assumption she had about him and solidified her decision to not pursue romantic involvement with him.

That little incident earlier was just a slip up.

A very nice, erotic, intimate slip-up…

\'Don\'t be fooled, Ce-Ce! Who knows how many women he put those full.. warm lips on.\'

Celeste shook her head hard to prevent herself from letting her mind wander too far below belt.

But still, she had to get one last dig in.

"…Slut."

"Eh??!"

Malachi lost the chance to offer a rebuttal when Thea suddenly stopped in front of a door along the hallway.

She checked her wristwatch for the time before placing her hand on the doorknob.

"They should all be up by now. Be warned though… you might see some pretty strange stuff in here."

Aisha raised a brow. "Why don\'t you just knock on the-"

"Big sister privileges, cutie. I get to barge in whenever I feel like it!"

Before anyone could stop her, Thea threw open the door.

Surprisingly, the sound of music spilled out instead of obscene noises.

The visitors poked their heads inside curiously.

They were looking at a very spacious and nicely decorated living room that was currently housing a small crowd.

In addition to the three who actually lived here, Mal noticed a pair of twins, a young infant who looked to be around the same age as Cami, and another young woman with fiery orange-red hair.

They along with Belloc were sitting around and cheering while Melanie and Stheno… sang a duet?

Melanie: "The plan was to drink until the pain over. But what\'s worse, the pain or the hangover? Fresh air, rolling down the window, too many Urkel\'s on your team that\'s why your wins low!"

Celeste\'s jaw dropped.

When it came time for Stheno\'s part, the entire group shared her exact facial expression.

"Can we get much higher?"

"So highhh~" the crowd cheered.

"Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, ohhh, oh!"

Malachi never thought that he would hear such an angelic voice come out of a frighteningly stoic woman like Stheno, and yet here it was.

\'This place is crazy… I kinda like it.\'

"Hey guys! I brought company!" Thea said cheerfully.

Melanie turned around and her cheerful face paled almost instantly.

"M-Mom?!"

Celeste showed her daughter a smile that was not a smile as she folded her arms across her large chest.

"And to think I was so worried about you when you left home so suddenly without so much as a goodbye, but it seems like that was all for nothing, wasn\'t it?"

Melanie gulped audibly as flashbacks of being scolded as a child consumed her mind.

"And what\'s this I hear about you getting married?"

Now, Belloc was the one who was going pale.

-

To have a more private conversation, Melanie asked to speak to her mother, and more surprisingly Malachi, in another location.

She led the two of them to a beautiful garden located on the rooftop that was unlike any they had ever seen.

There were no roses, chrysanthemums, or lilies, but there were flowers that possessed an organic glow.

They even seemed to bear some semblance of sentience.

As Malachi and Celeste walked past, the plants turned to face them as if they were curious about the new visitors that they didn\'t recognize.

Melanie led the two of them into a clearing behind a grove of trees.

A nice picnic table was there already waiting for them, and Celeste wasted no time diving into the heart of the issue.

"Why did you leave home, young lady? And what\'s this I hear about you having been gone a whole month already??"

"D-Diving right into the hard stuff, huh mom?" Melanie scratched her cheek in embarrassment.

"I think we\'re a little past easing in, sweetheart." Celeste rebuffed.

\'Those are some really big doghouses…\' Malachi was still staring at the garden around him and trying to take in as many wondrous new sights as they could.

"I just… kind of needed a change I guess. A big one." Melanie sighed. "I didn\'t feel like I could fully turnover a new leaf there."

For a while before she left, Melanie had been quite unhappy at the base.

Though nothing had happened on the surface, she felt like everywhere she went people were walking on eggshells around her.

She couldn\'t pretend that she didn\'t understand why.

She was the amnesiac girl. The ex-girlfriend of his most beloved man in their small community. And the daughter of the woman who everyone jokingly insisted would make a cute pairing with him.

It got to a point where Melanie began to question why she was even there. Why she was even alive.

She understood the dangerous metaphorical cliff that she was looking down.

As she stood on the precipice of an irreversible decision, she met Belloc.

He offered her a different path out of the darkness and a life where she could finally be happy.

She did admit that the certain \'permanent\' aspects of the offer were alarming, but after struggling for so long she was kind of tired of overthinking.

"So I kind of just jumped right into everything without really thinking about it..!" Melanie scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "…Are you mad..?"

"I-I…"

Celeste didn\'t know what to say.

But Malachi did.

"Mel, I\'m glad you\'re happy now and everything, but I wish I would\'ve known that you were having a hard time back at home."

Mel smiled and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.

"Oh yeah? And what would you have done exactly? Stopped courting my mom?"

"I…"

"T-There is nothing going on between us so you do not get to use that as an excuse!" Celeste interrupted.

Oddly enough, Melanie seemed to find her claim even more amusing.

"Weren\'t you the one who said \'you should fight harder for your relationship because back in college I wouldn\'t have let a boy like that leave my side\'?"

"You\'re taking that out of context! Out of context I say!" Mal didn\'t know it was possible for a woman\'s face to get as red as Celeste\'s, and yet here was the proof.

"I also remember you talking about him a lot before I left home…"

"I told you I couldn\'t stand him! He\'s manwhorish and cocky and-"

"Still sitting right here…" Mal muttered.

"I-I don\'t care!"

Melanie laughed until her cheeks turned red.

It was a free, lighthearted laugh that made Mal realize just how happy she really was here. He hadn\'t seen her laugh like that at the base ever since she regained her memories.

"I\'m glad you\'re happy, Mel." He confessed.

Melanie looked down in embarrassment as she realized that there was one thing she had yet to apologize for.

"A-About that day where I…"

"It\'s already forgotten." Mal smiled.

"I-It was very R.Kelly of me, and I just want you to know that I\'m-"

"Please, let it go." Mal tried not to snicker.

"What?? What happened between the two of you?" Celeste looked around in confusion.

""Nothing.""

"D-Don\'t lie to me!!"

Mal and Melanie fell into twin fits of laughter that made mature Celeste feel the tiniest bit left out.

Melanie suddenly stood up and hugged both her mother and Malachi around their necks.

Malachi returned it as if she were an old friend he had known for forever.

Celeste hugged her more tightly as if she feared the loss of something precious.

She wasn\'t sure how to cope with everything that she was feeling.

And when she wasn\'t sure how to cope with her feelings, she had a small tendency to lash out…