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Eventually, Malachi simply went back to leaning against the wall and brooding silently with his eyes closed.

Just as it seemed he was on the verge of falling asleep, he felt a pair of hands grab him.

Or, a part of him technically.

Opening one eye, he found Celeste holding a very babyish Gwiya as she fed him jerky from her pocket.

Manda soon became jealous, and he also went over to her side to demand treats.

"...Is this how it\'s always going to be between us now?" she asked quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"You\'ve barely said ten words to me ever since that day that you left our quarters. I thought we had established a better friendship than that."

"..." All of the serpent heads on Malachi\'s back turned around to face him like they too were waiting for an answer.

Embarrassed, Malachi scratched his cheek. "I... didn\'t really think you would want to see me if I\'m honest."

"Why? Because you and Melanie didn\'t work out?"

"..."

Celeste sighed in disappointment.

"I do think it would have been nice if the two of you had\'ve patched things up, but I won\'t penalize you, or her, because that didn\'t happen. You should know me better than that."

"You\'re right... I\'m sorry." He admitted.

Celeste didn\'t actually say whether she accepted or rejected Mal\'s apology, but he knew for a fact that she wasn\'t completely past it.

It appeared as though his attempt to keep the peace had hurt her a lot more than he\'d first thought.

"...How is she?" he suddenly asked.

At first, Celeste was going to lie, but she decided that it would be unkind of her to do so and elected for the truth.

"Well... she had a hard couple of days. She sat with me and cried a lot, but she\'s getting better. She has even apologized to Bianca, Nadine, and Anna."

This new bit of information admittedly took Malachi by surprise, because he hadn\'t heard anything about this.

"I see... I\'m glad. I hope that she keeps getting better."

Celeste opened and closed her mouth several times as if she was fighting to say something, and eventually she decided to plead her daughter\'s case.

"Malachi... she truly is sorry for what she did to you. I really think that if you gave her another chance then you would see that-"

"Celeste, please don\'t go there..."

"I beg you, just hear me out. She\'s a sweet girl, and she really-"

"I can\'t. Too much has already happened, and it would in no way be fair for me to go back to her since I.." Malachi\'s words started to trail off and he looked away to save face. "It just... wouldn\'t work."

"Why wouldn\'t it work? What were you about to say??"

"Just drop it, please..."

"I want you both to be happy, and I know that you\'d be good for each there if you just-"

Malachi suddenly grabbed Celeste by the waist and pulled her body into his.

With their lips dangerously close, he finally spat out the words nobody but his fiances knew.

"I can\'t be with her because you\'re the one I have feelings for, Celeste. Not Melanie."

In this moment, Celeste was like an old computer that hadn\'t been booted up in a while.

She didn\'t understand any part of what she\'d just heard, and it took her forever to grasp it.

But because she knew Malachi liked older women, she wasn\'t naive enough to think he was just joking with her.

"I-I, uh, y-you, m-me... I-Is that why all of your fiances keep on hanging around me?! And why Nadine and Luna keep asking me questions and trying to touch my breasts?!"

"Ah... I\'m sorry about that, but... probably." he admitted.

He told the girls not to put Melanie\'s mother through any kind of interview because he was sure he would never act on his latent feelings, but it seemed as though they did it anyway.

\'I\'m definitely going to spank them when I get off...\'

Celeste looked like she was wrestling for something, anything to say.

Her eyes never left Malachi\'s lips that were dangerously close to hers and she felt like her heart was going to leap out of her chest.

She almost leaned in to kiss him, but then she remembered the most important person in this entire equation.

Her daughter.

She lowered her head, suddenly unable to look him in the eye.

"I\'m sorry, I... I can\'t do this.. not to my baby. Can you please let me go..?"

Did it hurt to hear those words? Yes.

However, it was not at all unexpected.

Malachi knew that Celeste was a good woman with strict principals and a strong sense of loyalty.

It was partially the reason why he liked her so much.

And because he already expected her to react like this, letting her go like she asked wasn\'t nearly as hard.

With an intense blush on her face, Celeste slowly began to back away from Malachi.

"I think... I am a little bit tired after all. I\'m going to turn in for the day if you don\'t mind."

"...\'Course not. Take all the rest you need."

Celeste nodded and left in a hurry after that, and Malachi went back to his previous position of leaning against the wall.

Trying not to let himself become despondent, he stared up into the ceiling and altered his plans for tomorrow just a bit.

\'I think... It\'d be better if I headed out tonight instead.\'

-

It was 2. A.M. when Malachi finally stoped pretending to be asleep.

His frightening violet eyes flashed open and he sat up without disturbing Nadine or Sei.

Ever so gently, he kissed all six women in his bed before slipping out from underneath the covers.

In the dark, he pulled on a pair of sweatpants, a simple black tank top that couldn\'t hide the lean muscles lurking underneath.

Slipping on a pair of slides, he had his cover and was all set to leave.

Discreetly opening his bedroom door, he ran into his home\'s extra occupants.

Since the revelation of Ryo\'s betrayal, Serana hadn\'t set foot back in her quarters.

It was just far too hard for her.

She had been crashing at Malachi\'s place on his couch; crying silently every night and gorging herself on every Japanese desert Sei knew how to make.

Last night, Aubrey and her girlfriends stayed over on accident.

They spent the night watching some terrible show that focused on the overall theme of \'men ain\'t shit\'.

Malachi tried to come out here a few times and join them, but everyone just glared at him when he tried, so he hid inside of his bedroom.

Malachi walked over to Serana and checked on her.

As he expected, she was still crying in her sleep.

He wiped her face as gently as he could without waking her, and gave her a kiss on the top of her head; siphoning a bit of her negativity in the process.

\'I hope you heal from this soon… You have no idea how much I hate seeing you like this.\'

"Are you going somewhere?"

Malachi hadn\'t realized that his sister Aubrey was awake and paying attention to everything that he was doing.

But it was okay because he had planned for this.

"Yea, I just wanted to check on her before I left… I couldn\'t sleep so I was just going to take a walk."

Aubrey stared at her brother for a moment without saying anything.

Eventually, she just nodded and pulled the spare blanket further over her body.

"Alright then… Don\'t stay out too long, yea?"

"I make no promises.. got a lot on my mind, you know?"

"Mhm."

Malachi gave his sister a kiss on top of the head just like he did for Serana, and he began heading towards the elevator.

Once the metal doors closed, he sank into the shadows on the floor and his entire demeanor changed.

\'Alright… let\'s try to make it back in time to make breakfast for everyone."