When Malachi emerged from his bedroom with Nadine kind of trailing behind him, Sei and the others were understandably surprised.
Malachi still had everything that had happened with Nadine fresh on his mind, but he tried his best to push everything to the back of his mind for now.
These people had dropped everything to come here and celebrate him. He would be an unbelievable jerk if he didn't at least pretend to be thrilled to see them.
'We're going to talk about this later, you know?' Malachi said telepathically.
Nadine didn't say anything back in response. She just tightened her grip on Mal's hand.
'I'm sorry, I'm ruining your..'
'No. You aren't ruining anything.' Mal comforted. 'We're going to figure out how to help you no matter the time or place. That's what family is for.'
Nadine smiled bitterly. It had been over two years now, and she still wasn't used to some of the softer points of this life.
"Happy birthday."
