Even though Celeste had asked Malachi if he wanted to go and see Melanie, it didn't seem like she was going to take no for an answer.
Before Mal could stop her, the buxom woman rose up from her bed and intertwined her arm with his.
"Come along now, we don't want to keep her waiting, do we?"
For a woman who had just gotten out of a coma, Celeste was moving around just fine.
She had no problem lugging Malachi all the way to Melanie's room without letting him slip from her grasp even once.
But just as the two were about to enter, Malachi finally put up some resistance and stopped the two of them from going further.
"Ma'am, I-"
"Call me Celeste."
"...Eh?"
"You make me feel old when you call me ma'am so just use my name."
"I... okay. Celeste, I-"
The mature woman blushed furiously when she realized it had been a very long time since a young man had called her by her first name.
It was significantly more embarrassing than she remembered.
Malachi was oblivious to her current emotions and continued voicing his discomfort. "I don't think I should intrude on your time with your daughter. I mean honestly I'm-"
"Oh, enough!"
"Ow!"
Celeste suddenly grabbed Malachi by the ear and began to tug on it like she wanted to take it home with her.
"You're too young to wallow in guilt like this! If you keep this up your entire life will pass you by before you know it. How can you ever move forward if you're consistently bogged down by memories of the past!?"
"I get it, I get it! Can you let me go now?"
"I haven't decided yet!"
The two attracted a great many stares from others in the hospital but neither of them seemed to notice that.
Malachi was in far too much pain to care, while Celeste never did have a good sense of surrounding awareness.
Eventually, the mature woman did release the tall young man but not before giving him another earful.
"A man should be more confident and resolute! I'm not telling you to become some cocky asshole or anything like that but you have to learn how to leave all of your regrets behind and move on!"
Maybe it was because his ear was still ringing, but Celeste's words had a much more profound affect on Mal than they normally would have.
While he did not particularly enjoy being scolded, he had to admit that her words had caused him to see a glaring pattern within his life.
For as long as he could remember, Mal had never been able to let any of his mistakes go no matter how big or small they were.
They were all little things that he carried around with him on a daily basis and thought about constantly.
He thought living like that would be the only way to avoid repeating his mistakes.
But what if he was wrong?
Could he learn from his mistakes without hating himself everyday?
Was it possible to forgive himself for Melanie?
What about what happened to Aubrey?
Or that time he got beaten up in front of the whole school in 9th grade?
Could he... forgive himself for the death of his parents?
If he was honest, he wasn't sure.
But the thought of living a life free of all of his guilty burdens seemed like such a relief that he would be lying if he said that he did not want to try.
"I get it... thank you, Celeste."
"Hmph! If you're going to say something like that then the least you could do is look me in the eye when you apologize!"
Before Malachi could stop her, Celeste reached out and plucked his sunglasses off his face.
She wasn't sure what she expected to see, but bright orange eyes that looked like they belonged to some kind of cat were absolutely not it.
Malachi Immediately closed his eyes and gestured for her to hand him his sunglasses back. "They probably scared you a bit, right? I get that a lot."
Just as Malachi reached for the glasses, Celeste hid them behind her back and lightly touched Malachi's face. "No... they aren't scary at all... I actually find them to be quite beautiful."
Malachi was visibly stunned to hear someone other than Sei refer to his gift from Bast as 'beautiful.'
He wondered if the two women were insane or if everyone else was just rather jumpy.
A smile spread across Malachi's face that threatened to flood Celeste's underwear. "Thank you for saying so... Maybe I won't hide them from now on."
For the first time today Celeste lost her composure as her face became a much more noticeable shade of red.
Malachi of course noticed this change and moved in a bit closer out of worry. "Are you alright? You aren't still feeling unwell, are you?"
"I-I'm fine!" Celeste finally realized that maybe she'd been acting a little too familiar with this young man who she barely even knew.
She pushed open the door to her daughter's room and did not even wait for him to come inside behind her.
'H-He's my daughter's ex! I-I'm sure he doesn't want some old woman thinking about him like this!'
Just as Celeste Sat on her daughter's bed, Malachi entered and sat in a chair opposite her.
She could not help but notice that Malachi seemed to have listened to her advice and now had a much more composed and confident air about himself.
It was a small change, and one that would undoubtedly take time to cultivate but she noticed it all the same.
'This is bad... He's much more attractive than before...'
The two spent an entire hour in Melanie's room.
What they talked about was something only the three of them would be allowed to know, but the one thing that was for sure was that Malachi came out of the hospital that day a changed man.