"...."

Joanne opened the refrigerator and reached for a bottle of wine.

"No!"

Malachi shut the fridge before she could touch it and lifted his wife off her feet with his tail.

Joanne let her body remain limp in his grasp, her will to get through the day declining rapidly before the eyes of her spouses.

"Just one day... I’d like just one day where our family doesn’t have to deal with something that potentially undermines global economic stability."

"Aren’t you being a little bit dramatic, darling?" Nadine pouted.

"NO! She turned our ottoman into a gallon of gasoline! If ANYONE found out she could do something like that, we’d never be able to step outside again!"

"We could always move to one of the godly realms with Nyx’s help." Luna smiles. "Live as little demi-gods." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"...I’m glad you find this so funny, babe."

Joanne turns to her family with tired eyes. "Why didn’t we have a regular honeymoon again? One where we send the kids to their grandparents and we walk around the house naked all day?"

Malachi chuckles. "If I didn’t think you’d go insane from missing the kids after a day I might just want to take you up on that."

Joanne gives her husband a droll look. "I’ll make the sacrifice. My brain needs a rest from everyday being some kind of high-stress situation."

Sitting on the sofa, Celeste looks down at her hands.

"I... don’t think I like having powers. I never even really wanted them. A-And now that I know they’re something so dangerous, I just..."

Luna took Celeste’s hands and held them firmly.

"Nothing about you is dangerous, hon. What’s happened has happened, so there’s no need to waste time regretting anything."

Luna sat down on the sofa beside Celeste and wrapped her arm around her.

"Nothing has changed for our family. What’s one more big secret on top of the spaceship-sized mountain we’re already carrying?"

Malachi reverts to normal with Joanne slung over his shoulder like a duffel bag.

He softly cups Celeste’s face in his hand.

"If you really don’t like your powers, it’s nothing for Aubrey to bind them for you. Don’t spend any time stressing over this. I think the thing that makes our family exciting is that we’re all a little dangerous around here."

Celeste smiles halfheartedly. "You’re all very sweet. I appreciate it."

She looks down at her hands again, a little less apprehensive around them now than she was only moments before.

"I don’t know... right now, I think I just want to take a bath without worrying I’m going to turn the water into gold or something."

"Well, what triggered your powers this time?" Sei asked.

Bianca flipped her hair back. "That would be my dynamic hip wor-"

Celeste clasped her hand over Bianca’s mouth and showed her a smile that was not a smile.

"Actually when I was lying on the ottoman, I was wishing it was... softer, I guess. Then the next thing I know, I felt this tingle in my hands and... it felt like I pushed something even though my arms didn’t move."

Malachi rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I guess since you were rearranging molecules that makes sense..."

"Can you do that to people??" Joanne asks from time-out.

"Well..."

Celeste grabs her chest and concentrates.

She closes her eyes and tries to think back on the feeling she experienced in the bathroom.

She hears a small puffing sound, and her family gasps. Suddenly, she has difficulty breathing.

When she opens her eyes, the formerly comfy sweater she wore is made of an entirely different material and is nearly three sizes too small.

"Ugh... it... didn’t work." She gasped.

Nadine uses her claws to cut open the back of Celeste’s sweater and free her from her bondage. "What exactly were you trying to do..?"

"I wanted to try and make my chest a little smaller..."

Malachi blinks. "That’s... not exactly how transmutation works, babe."

"...Superpowers are so stupid." Celeste sighs.

Her spouses believed that she may have been the only person in the world who would say such a thing.

"Ugh..."

Suddenly, Celeste grabs her head.

"Celeste!"

"I’m fine, I’m fine..." She sighs. "Just a little migraine."

Malachi starts to relax, but then his body stiffens once more.

A small bead of blood drips from Celeste’s nose.

Malachi quickly procures a tissue and gently dabs her nose with the cloth.

"...How about no more powers until we can get you checked out?"

Celeste nods weakly. "Great idea..."

-

Anna finally made her way home after spending the past few hours in professional settings.

She had never wanted to die quite so badly in her entire life.

As she flew into the ship through a hatch in the hangar, Anna wanted nothing more than to undress, veg out on her couch, and drink a beer.

She cries a little bit on the inside when she remembers that there are people in their house now, so she can’t just walk around braless as she would prefer.

"You’re back?"

Malachi closes the trunk on one of the family cars and smiles at his wife sweetly.

His eyes admire her formal, business-like attire. From her mother’s heels all the way to her burgundy pantsuit.

"...Damn."

Anna feels her ears turn red before her husband steps into full view.

Her eyes immediately go to the dark tattoos along his forearms that were certainly not there when he came to bed last night.

"...Mama likes. Mama likes that a lot."

Malachi recognized the look in Anna’s eyes as she stalked towards him, kicking off her heels without breaking her stride.

"Wait-"

"Nope."

Anna jumps onto her husband and wraps her legs firmly around his waist.

Before Malachi can object further, Anna’s lips are on his and he can barely recall what he was doing beforehand.

When Anna pulled away from him, it was only to take off her jacket and unbutton her shirt. "You mind getting the lights..?"

Malachi smiles at her helplessly.

"As nice as this all sounds...do you think we could put a pin in this until I get back..?"

Anna gives her husband a sour look. "And where the hell do you have to go that’s so much more important than easing the burdens of your stressed out wife?"

Malachi smiles. "Making sure thirty-something legions of stupid demons don’t run wild in hell and make my life more difficult than it already is."

Anna stares at her husband for a long time with a look of deep contemplation.

"...Fuck, that sounds awesome. I wanna go."