Parcae (BWWM) (Book #1 of the Falcone Series)

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"I guess you won then huh brown eyes?" he smirked, sitting up next to her. She smiled, patting his shoulder.

"Yeah, you almost had me but you messed yourself up at the end," she chuckled, standing up.

"You're not going to help me up brown eyes? I thought we were friends," I saw Richie say with feigned hurt. She rolled her eyes as she stuck an arm out, helping lift him up. Everyone looked at them oddly, and I did too. Was I missing something?

"Damn, that was some punch," Bambi exclaimed as she lightly touched her nose, slightly wincing.

"Sorry Bambi, but a fight's a fight, no mercy," he frowned, looking at her nose more closely. He was a little too close to my niece for comfort, so I decided to ask what everyone was wondering.

"How do you two know each other? And why are you all 'buddy buddy'?"

"We go to school together Uncle Brian, and he's my friend. I know he didn't exactly have all that much of a choice in whether he wanted to fight or not," she spoke, shrugging her shoulders.

I looked back and forth between her and Richie, wondering if there was more to the story than what she was letting on.

"The real question is, how did I not notice Richie here before," she asked, looking at me.

"He-"

"My family just moved to this village, we haven't even been officially inducted yet," he interrupted me. Did he really just interrupt me? Bambi must've read my facial expression because she gave me a "Don't" look before giving her attention back to Richie.

"You two shou-"

"We should head to the infirmary and get these wounds checked," he just interrupted me again. This little shit-

"Stop cutting my Uncle off, you're gonna piss him off. He already looks like he's about to pop a vein," she giggled as she pointed to my forehead. I deadpanned while un-creasing my forehead and calming down. She and Richie walked away, arm in arm. Vinny and Tua came and stood at either side of me.

"He's hot," Tua smirked as she looked at Richie's retreating figure. "His butt is nice."

"You're so gross," Vinny frowned. "Bambi did an amazing job today."

"She kicked ass, just like I expected her too!" Tua teased as she skipped around Vinny and me.

"Language," Fletcher said as he walked up to us.

"You're no fun," Tua pouted, stopping in front of him.

"Will a piggy back ride make you feel better?" Vinny asked her, ruffling her hair. She nodded her head 'yes' and jumped onto his back. He laughed lightly as Tua bounced onto his back and yelled "Giddy up!"

We walked to the infirmary, wanting to congratulate Bambi on her first win. As we walked in, we saw Ivy attending to Bambi's wounds. Her nose was slightly swollen and she had a cut on her arm. In all honesty, she didn't look that bad. Richie had a cut under his eye and on his lip. His nose was swollen too from the impact of his face onto the ground when he had fallen.

"Can I touch your battle scars?" Tua pleaded as she jumped off of Vinny's back.

"No-"

"I wasn't talking to you Bambi! I was talking to the stud muffin over here!" Tua whispered loudly, but she knew we could hear her. Richie chuckled, saying, "All of my fans are allowed to touch me."

"Just so you know, I'm a fan of your face, strictly. I'll always root for Bambi in anything else," she explained as she jumped onto his lap and began touching his face.

Richie began to flinch as she touched the cut under his eye to which she replied, "Suck it up!"

"So Richie, I expect you to work on your anger skills, you got sloppy when you started to lose," I scolded him. In the line of fire, the last thing you want to do is let rage overtake you. Leave blind rage fighting to the supernatural bastards.

Everything was nice, Bambi and Vinny are talking again and they were talking with Richie and Tua about some weird fighting technique. For once, everything seemed normal. But like always, I spoke too soon. My gaze found Fletcher who looked as if he were in deep thought, running his hands through his hair as Ivy whispered something into his ear. His eyes widened after her mouth left his ear; he turned around and dashed out of the room and down the hallway. I must'nt have been the only one who noticed, because I could hear footsteps thudding onto the ground repeatedly behind me as I followed Fletcher.

"What's going on? What happened?" Bambi asked.

"It's Chauncey, he's awake," Fletcher said as he rummaged through drawers, looking for something. He pulled out a bag of a clear liquid and hooked it onto an IV as we heard the groans pour from Chauncey's mouth and his eyes open.

"What happened to me?" he asked groggily, looking down at his hands and his surroundings.

"You're in the hospital father," Tua said, pushing her way through us and next to him. His eyes widened a bit, before it relaxed, he must have remembered what happened. Chauncey reached up and touched his daughter's face, her head leaning into his touch.

"Believe it or not, I missed you even though you're an asshole," Tua grinned as she took his hand in hers. Fletcher whispered a 'language' to her, which she ignored.

"I know Pudding Pop, I've been a shitty person and an even worse father. I love you no matter what okay? Even if you're a girl, you're still my flesh and blood," he smiled weakly, ruffling her hair as she giggled. Pudding Pop?

"Where's Bambi?" he asked as she stepped forward. "I severely underestimated you, and I apologize for the hurtful words I said to you. It was wrong of me to even have such an anti feminist view of women and I feel terrible about it. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I'd appreciate it."

I ... and well, everyone else were speechless. He had just admitted what a shit he was and apologized to not only his kid, but Bambi too.

"Why now? What made you come to this conclusion?" she spat, fists clenched at her sides.

"Number 1, you were strong enough to put me into a coma," he chuckled to himself at this, and then continued. "Number 2, the whole time I was unconscious I had different ... 'visions'. And there was one of you, on top of a hill with dead bodies surrounding you but you looked victorious. There was no one beside you, it was like you had killed off all of those people by yourself. You turned your head and looked down at me, and you gave off an aura of valiance and strength, one that should be feared. Then a whole group of people emerged from behind you and cheered for you, yelling 'Bambi' over and over. And if that's not enough for someone to believe that women are powerful, I don't know what is."

Bambi looked even more surprised as she thought about his words before declaring,

"Apology accepted."