The Visit [3]

Summer gazed over the lounge with soft eyes. The girls of RWBY were strewn about the room bundled up in blankets, coddling up on mattresses Parc had brought out of the back room for them.

Their stay, at least, what was meant to be a little visit to meet the little one, had ended up drawing late into the evening hours. Far past any meaningful curfew Beacon may have instated.

Letting them head back now when each of them was yawning up a storm, Summer doubted they'd even get halfway to the main building before lurching and collapsing. In the end it had been her idea to let them have a small sleepover, just for one day of course. It wasn't as if they didn't have the beds, given Parc's illogical satchel with its ridiculous storage, she was thinking he was just going to pull out entire cottages for the girls to sleep in.

"Night girls."

"Night…" Ruby yawned from her bed, already wrapped tightly within her scarlet blanket with lazy eyes.

"Goodnight Ms. Rose." Weiss respectfully said as she brushed her ivory locks, straightening them out before getting herself comfortably nuzzled in.

"Mhm," Blake in turn murmured from her place against the farthest wall, her back turned to the rest. Staring at her, Summer could only feel a slight twinge of guilt well in her cheeks. After Parc's… well, himself, the girl had been nothing but a daze. Her eyes would find themselves on him, her cheeks would flush and she'd bite her lips harder than before.

'I am so sorry Blake.' Summer thought weakly. If Blake spent any more time around Parc it was just inevitable that she'd fall to his grasp. Maybe even to the degree of Kurome. A horrifying thought.

"Am I the only one a little freaked out he just happens to have clothes that perfectly fit us?" Pinching the neck of her dark brown tank top, Yang pulled it open and gazed down the crevice of her breasts, unnerved just a bit that it fit her perfectly. Baggy, but not so much that her tits would pop out as she slept and not tight enough that it would crush her boobs and hinder her breathing. Bottom down she had light yellow pair of velvet booty shorts. Still plesantly

Summer flinched, glanced over to Weiss who was casting her a lazy blink. She too was dressed in one of Parc's provided nightwears. A modest, if not fashionable thigh length dress beneath which was a pair of baggy pyjama shorts. Nothing as short and conforming as Yang's but still plenty enough that it fell softly over her modest curves.

'He's corrupting me,' Summer shivered as the notion that she was practically apprasing Weiss came into her head.

"It is a little off putting." Weiss muttered.

"Right? It's like the guy snuck into our room and just measured us in our sleep. It's creepy."

"Aha-haaa… yeah," Summers voice cracked, "try not to think about it." Because something told her Yang wasn't far off. At least, she didn't think he'd broken into their room but it was Parc. She couldn't count anything out with him.

"Now I'm going to be thinking about it even more," her daughter huffed, "thanks."

Awkwardly laughing, Summer began extracting herself from the room. "Goodnight girls, I'll see you in the morning." She said with a sense of finality.

"Night."

Flicking off the light, Summer quickly entered the hallway leading down to the bedrooms where Parc was putting Khione down and Esdeath was nursing her headache. Kurome… Summer didn't want to think about what Kurome was going through.

Patting her chest to quell her turbulent heart, Summer pushed across the hall, passed by Esdeath's room and made way to hers and Parcs, but didn't turn left into it. Instead turning right into the slightly ajar door leading into the nursery. There she stopped, gently pushed open the door and it widened without even the slightest of squeaks. The light filling the room was soft, lowered to such a point that it was more dark than light but more than enough to let anyone inside see what was going on.

She scanned the room, dashed across the soft hues and cutesy animal images dotted about and the large flower field mural she had spent the better part of a month putting together. Soon she fell onto Parc, he was standing by the crib, his back to her as he starred down at the bundle of joy sleeping comfortably within. There was something about the image that struck her. Something that kicked her heart so powerfully with how he stood. Arms slumped, hands clasping the railing tightly till his digits turned pale. 'Is he… nervous?' she thought.

Seemingly sensing her thoughts, Parc looked halfway over his shoulder towards her and she could see a slight tremble to his eye.

"Parc." She muttered in worry. With quick, sliding strides she crossed the distance and he turned away.

"My dad abandoned me." Summer's stride halted halfway towards him. "He just, up and left. Out of nowhere. I barely remember him. All I really do remember from back then is my mom constantly crying, day in and day out. It didn't end."

A knot rose in Summer's stomach and she forced herself closer.

"I just," he looked down to Khione. "I can't see it. I can't see how he abandoned us… me… my mother. It makes no sense." There was a weakness to his voice, nothing like his usual mischevous nature. He was weak, almost feeble in this moment, and there was nothing she could say except face him and set one hand over his to show him she was there. "What if I…"

"You won't." Summer rose her voice the highest it could go without disturbing the baby. "He's him. You're you. You won't leave her behind. That's just not like you."

"You don't know that Summer. I don't know that. I've been scared of so many things in my life. People, monsters, and all of them. None of them even scratch me like she does." Biting his lip, his grasp tightened around the railing even more. "She terrifies me Summer. She's so small, but she is the scariest thing I've ever seen."

Summer sucked her lips to lines and glanced down to the dozed baby and felt her body lighten. "That's normal." She leaned onto his shoulder and forcibly hooked an arm around his right, prying it from the crib so she could lock her fingers with his. "Ruby, when I had her things just sort of hit me out of nowhere. I had helped raise Yang but I don't think it was ever anything… real. I saw her as my daughter but I didn't see her as my blood. It sounds terrible saying it like that."

"I get it."

"I know you do." Turning her view up, towards the mobile of animals and clouds a sullen smile rose to her lips. "When I gave birth to Ruby it just sort of… hit me I guess. Every time I looked at her I would just, I wouldn't know what to do. She was like this little puzzle that I was missing a piece of and I was terrified I'd never finish it." Going silent, Summer nuzzled deeper into his shoulder.

"After coming back I could see that my worries didn't mean anything. That they were just these stupid little fears that meant nothing in the end. I mean, look at Ruby now, look at Yang. Those girls, they're brilliant. All of those worries, all those fears I bundled up right here," with her other hand she gently patted over his heart, "they just faded away. Of course I still feel guilty about having left them for so long but I wasn't scared anymore. I was amazed at them. They had grown so much, become so amazing that I can't even understand how. And that's perfect."

Going quiet, Summer let her words well within Parc's mind, and he accepted them slowly. He wasn't his father, he knew that much. He wouldn't let himself become him. He wouldn't leave her, them, everyone. But he knew that even without him, she'd grow and become perfect in her own way. With him though, he was going to make her better than perfect. Give her everything he never had and more…

"Esdeath's going to be a terrible mother." He weakly laughed.

Dazzed by his words, Summer felt her lips quirk and her head shake. "Luckily she's got more than one mom… mostly because her dad can't keep it in his pants, but she's got plenty of moms to pick up where Esdeath can't." Darting her eyes to the side, Summer felt a flush grow to her cheeks. "And… maybe a few little brothers and sisters."

A jostle rose and scratched against Parc's spine, rising from his coccyx to his neck bringing with it the goosebumps of a blank mind. He turned, looked down to her and saw her gaze diverted to the side and the way she was squirming as she held his arm, tugging him against her bosom to feel the softness of her breasts.

"Does that mean…?" he said with a rising smile.

"Well, maybe not yet. Maybe in a year or two."

A snort escaped him like a rumble of cracking earth as he shook his head. With a glance to Khione to see she was still stone cold asleep, he felt his heart beat with a shade of nervousness. Half was he tempted to lean down and whisper to her teasingly, 'what about in nine months?' but the other half, it wasn't ready to let him. One child was enough for him, for now, for as long as it took for him to figure out exactly what 'fatherhood' meant.

"That's a little out of nowhere."

"So was your daddy issues. We can't always hype things up now can we?"

"Wow. Ow, just, ow." He mouthed with a hint of bemusement, and as the bemusement lowered and his breathing regulated. He found his hand slowly creaping over Summer's thigh, stroking against her pyjama's, unable to reach the inside from how she was holding his hand.

Summer licked her lips then bit the lower. "Shall we go to bed?" she turned up to him, her eyes soft but hidden with the hunger of prey finally becoming the predator, even if for one night.

Parc's lips tugged upwards, "sounds good to me."