Blessed by Night

"What should we do?" Shiro turned to her sister as soon as Joanne was out of sight and earshot.

Cami was already looking around for places where other children were present.

Through no fault of her own, Camille had been through limited experiences with others her own age.

She fought with Shiro a lot, but she was still grateful for her company. However, now Cami had the opportunity to make new friends.

Not just friends, cousins at that!

Malachi and Bianca were always telling them about the hijinks they would get into with their cousins when they were young. And now Camille was hoping to get that very same experience.

"There!"

Cami pointed to an area of the barbecue where several children were running around playing a game of kickball.

She bolted as soon as she saw them.

Shiro followed her sister leisurely with her hands clasped behind her head.

Unlike Camille, Shiro didn't really feel all that compelled to make friends her own age.

The main reason was that despite how she looked, Shiro wasn't human.

Bianca told her that Kitsune were supposedly creatures who lived for a really long time and developed a variety of magical powers.

In 900 years from now, any friends that she made would be dead and gone and all that she would have left is her parents and her sister.

She would rather not get attached to outsiders prematurely if she had the chance.

Besides, even though Shiro had the appearance of a girl who was only 3-4 years old, mentally, she was closer to 10.

She was far more likely to be the one ruling over other children in a sweatshop than befriending them.

"Hello!"

Camille appeared behind a group of young children with a ray of sunshine infused into her smile.

The boy she had called out to was confused, to say the least. Even more so when this strange new girl suddenly stuck out her hand like a grown-up.

"My name is Cami! And this is my sister Shiro..! …She's the little one." Camille introduced.

She wanted to make sure that the height difference between the two of them didn't lead to any annoying misunderstandings.

The children froze in surprise as they stared at their first presumed evolved person.

"…Why do you look like that?" One of them pointed.

Cami didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

The young boy pointed to her pitch-black skin, white hair, and uncanny reptilian eyes.

"You look weird.."

"And kind of scary.."

Camille's heart immediately sank.

Shiro wanted to say something, but soon she was under siege as well.

Although reactions to her were much more favorable.

"Are those tails real?"

"Can I touch them?"

"Your ears are so cute..!"

One boy remained obstinate as he folded his arms across his bird chest. "I think they're gross. They probably come out of your butt!"

Shiro, if nothing else, was surely Anna's daughter.

What does that mean? In her eyes, the best way to respond to a verbal assault was with a physical assault!

"Get fucked, half-pint!"

*CRACK!*

Shiro drew her head back and head-butted the young boy with minor force.

Not enough to give him a concussion, but more than enough to knock him onto his butt.

Dazed, the boy started to get back up when suddenly his body was wrapped in a bunker of snow that went all the way up to his neck.

"Woah!"

"Snow! She made real snow!"

"So cool! Literally!"

Shiro was suddenly experiencing a sudden burst of fame that she had never experienced before.

Suddenly, all of the other kids wanted to talk to her. And pet her no less.

She was so blindsided by all of this newfound attention that she didn't even notice her sister had already left…

-

"Great Aunt Betty!"

"Be-Be!"

Bianca embraced an older woman with pillowy arms and a head full of gray hair.

It was clear that the old woman had missed her quite a lot judging by the way she was constantly rubbing her head.

"Oh, baby… What did you do to your hair??"

Or perhaps she just had bigger issues at the moment…

Bianca smiled wryly. "I cut it, Auntie… my fiancé and I thought it would be cool if we got matching haircuts."

Aunt Betty glanced behind Bianca at Malachi, who was standing next to Anna.

The look she gave him was several different kinds of offensive at once.

"Oh… I don't blame you one bit then, baby. I'd do whatever Mr. Chocolate Thunder asked me to as well.."

Malachi felt like he needed to run and find a trusted adult. Anna knew she was supposed to be mad, but she couldn't help but snicker instead.

Resisting the urge to break her Great Aunts neck on accident, Bianca slowly let her go instead.

"Hahaha… No, not Malachi, Auntie. Anna." Bianca reached out and grabbed Anna by the hand so that she could present her like prized cattle.

"H-Hello, ma'am." Anna was sweating internally.

She was fully aware of the fact that she wasn't exactly the type of girl who one might envision introducing to their parents.

Whether it was her haircut, the fact that she had more piercings than a stabbing victim or the fact that she was covered in tattoos she randomly got on someone's couch at fifteen. All of it was a bit of a red flag.

Bianca's great-aunt looked back and forth between Anna and Bianca several times.

Bianca was already starting to get a bad feeling, but she couldn't explain why.

"Ohhh.... So yall in one of them Pythagoreans??"

'That's why.' Bianca almost hung her head low.

"No, we're polyamorous, Auntie.."

"That's what I just said. Pythagoreans."

"N-No, I think you're saying like the Pythagorean theorem, auntie... which is somehow even more impressive, but I digress." Bianca sighed.

"Oh... Well, what kinda flag y'all got?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know, them flags y'all be waving around. You know when your cousin Tisha came out, I bought her a whole bunch of stuff with them little flags on it from the Amazon. Imma get you something too since I know your daddy ain't thoughtful like that." The old woman was already pulling out her phone.

Malachi thought that if Ali wasn't currently embroiled in a literal food war, he would probably be very offended.

Or maybe not.

"T-That's alright, Auntie. I don't think we have any flags or anything like that, but I appreciate the gesture."

"Oh..." Bianca's great-aunt almost looked disappointed, but suddenly an idea crossed her mind and she visibly lit up. "Oh, well, what if I made you all a cake??"

Again, Bianca started to refuse. "Oh, we don't need-"

"That would be very sweet! We'd really appreciate it." Anna was almost glowing.

"Oh, I like you." The old woman hooked arms with Anna and started leading her inside.

"W-Wait, you're going to make it right now?"

"Yeah, baby. You see how thin and muscly Bianca has gotten? We gotta fix that quick fast and in a hurry."

Anna looked down at Bianca's visible abs. "Well, actually, I really like her-"

"Everybody needs a little bit more to push up on, don't they?"

"She likes red velvet cake the best."

"Miss Anna, you are gon' be my new best friend."

Anna wandered into the house with the old woman, leaving Bianca and Malachi on the porch together.

"...I think that went well." Malachi shrugged.

Bianca chuckled dryly as she wrapped her fiancé in an exhausted, yet weary embrace.

"Think it's time for us to go home already...?"

Malachi laughed as he hugged her back. "We haven't even been here twenty minutes yet."

Bianca whined as she buried her head in Mal's chest.

"I really thought I would've grown out of the whole, isolationist thing since I've already changed so much, but... I miss our couch."

"We do have a very nice couch." Mal nodded.

"Do you know they're going to do this until 2 a.m. and then do breakfast tomorrow? That's insanity. Where are they getting all of their energy from?"

"Might be the moonshine and fried catfish..." Malachi looked down at the cup and napkin he was carrying.

"It could definitely be that." Bianca giggled.

The two of them were enjoying a nice moment when Bianca suddenly paused and looked up at her husband-to-be.

"You alright? You seem like you're pretty distracted too."

Malachi smiled wryly. "Nothin' gets past you, huh darlin'?"

"Not at all." Bianca shook her head.

Malachi rubbed the back of his head, hoping that an idea of what to say would just randomly pop into his brain.

"It's about Arias.. or, maybe even the world and-"

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down, cowboy." Bianca pulled Mal towards a nearby seat. "Why don't you start from the very beginning and tell me exactly what's going on..."

Malachi started to open his mouth and spill everything he knew from the beginning.

However, he and everyone else at the barbecue came to a dead halt when a sudden earthquake shook the entire clearing...