Chapter 495: We’re Too Late?
Joanne poked her head around a corner.
Relieved that the coast was clear, she let out a contented sigh as she shuffled over to the sofa.
She pulled a blanket over her head and wrapped it around herself until only her face was visible.
"Coast is clear, snowball. Let’s do it."
"Got it, mommy..!"
Coming from behind Joanne, Shiro mimicked her mother almost to a tee. Her snowy princess blanket was wrapped around her head and torso.
Like a pair of bandits, they crept over to the sofa and immediately claimed their place.
That was when they finally noticed Anna and Mal lying side by side in each other’s arms. They were so deeply asleep, and their auras so faint that they had barely felt them.
"Whoa, look at mommy..."
Shiro sauntered over to Anna with apparent curiosity. Joanne could scarcely blame her.
Anna’s formerly short, black hair was now so long that it was spilling onto the floor. Her locks were streaked with cobalt blue, and somehow made her even more beautiful than she was just that morning.
"Mommy is pretty." Shiro crawled over her mother’s sleeping body and squeezed her cheeks with deft little fingers.
"Yes, she...really is." Joanne blinked. Never before had Joanne been jealous of her daughter, but now she couldn’t help but find herself just the tiniest bit envious.
Anna’s skin was glowing in a way it never had before. Her body was so defined and soft-looking that anyone would be captivated by it.
"..." Silently, Joanne peeled back the collar of her t-shirt and poked her head inside. She stared at her chest, then her daughter’s.
"I don’t know what happened here... but it feels grossly unfair."
"Eh?"
"Just know that time is a thief, babydoll."
At that moment, Sei returned to the room while rubbing off her hands with a paper towel.
"Oh? What are you two doing in here..? And in your movie watching blankets no less."
Caught, Joanne began to feel a little bit flustered. "O-Oh, we were just... hanging out a bit. As mothers and daughters do."
"Quality time." Shiro nodded cutely.
Sei looked as though her heart was full enough to burst. "Well, that’s.. very sweet, girls. It really makes me feel good to see our family just... being a family, you know?"
Sei kissed Shiro on her forehead before giving Joanne a longer, much more meaningful kiss. Now, Jo felt guilty.
She knew her wife would have an entirely different reaction if she knew they came in here to watch Oppenheimer and Django: Unchained.
"Why are mommy and daddy not waking up?" Shiro asked as she stuck a finger into one of her parents’ nostrils.
Sei’s brow creased with worry.
"Well... right now, your mommy and your daddy are in the bad place."
"Mississippi?"
"What? No, baby, I mean-"
"Florida?!" Shiro gasped.
"No, sweetheart, I mean hell."
Shiro made an O-shape with her mouth while Joanne seemed to become immediately concerned. "What? Why is she in hell? How is she in hell?!"
Sei smiled nervously. "W-Well, she really wanted to go with our husband, and since Mal needs to sleep to send himself, I kind of just... linked their dreams together and made them tired?"
Joanne brought her hands to her brow. "Sei..."
"I know, I know, but what was I supposed to do?!"
"Say no!"
"I couldn’t! Anna was really upset, saying that she wanted to protect Malachi, and I just didn’t know how to tell her to stay here when I’m worried about him too..!"
Joanne shook her head grimly. "This is crazy. Have you seen how she looks?? How do we know that she hasn’t been taken over by something down there?!"
As if responding to her mother’s worry, Anna sleepily wrapped her arm around Shiro’s neck and pulled her in like a hibernating grizzly bear.
She nuzzled her daughter’s fluffy ears, smiling subtly before going still once again.
"Mmm, mommy loves you, snowball..."
""...""
Sei and Shiro both turned to stare at Joanne.
"...Okay. So maybe she’s fine." She relented.
Shiro held out her hand and the television remote came floating into her palm.
As she switched on the television, Joanne took Sei into her arms and rested her head in the comfort of her neck.
"What has our life turned into...? Are we just going to have to keep acting as if things like this are normal from now on..?"
"Honey, you have wings coming out of your back and our husband routinely turns into a giant tiger to play with our children, the kitsune, and the baby shadow tiger. I think that ship has long sailed."
Joanne let out a deep sigh as she sank further into her wife’s embrace. The pillowy texture of her body was perhaps the greatest respite the world could offer.
"I guess... I just thought at some point we’d get to live with a little bit more normalcy in our lives, you know?"
Aubrey burst into the room with Aisha on her heels. "I learned the magic spell to locate our kidnapped friends!"
"It looks like I’m going to be waiting for that for a while."
Aubrey rushed over excitedly while carrying her grimoire.
"I think this was the hardest I’ve ever concentrated to learn a spell! It was worth it though, I think, since I could use it to find buried treasure and the rubber bat-a-rang my brother lost when he was six, and now I’m confident I can find-"
"Hey, it’s Uncle Morgan!" Shiro pointed at the television.
Bewildered, all of the women in the room turned to the television screen.
Something that looked like a press conference was being held on the steps of a government building.
Morgan and Arias were bound and gagged, side-by-side. Surrounding them numerous men and women in black. At the very head of the group were three men who were already speaking.
One was Kincaid. Though he surprisingly did not seem to be the leader of this rag-tag group and instead seemed more like an attendant.
However, even the word ’terrorist’ was written beside his name.
But it was the other two whom the group could not take their eyes off of. Joanne must have read the names at the bottom at least sixty times, and yet she still did not believe her own vision.
"Shiro, honey... Turn that up for us, would you..?"
