Sorry it took me forever to post a new chapter! Enjoy!
The air was thick with sea salt in this small town and Nova loved it. It felt refreshing and cool on what little skin showed underneath his thick black suit, on a warm summer day like this he would have given anything to be able to take it off. He longed to simply throw off his duties and go to the beach and swim to his hearts content, splashing in the water with his friends Felicita and Liberta... Nova's thoughts were interrupted by a groaning from a nearby alley followed by the sound of someone being slammed against a wall. Nova trotted quickly to an alley where he saw two men with very few visible cuts or bruises lying on the cobblestones of the alley wracked with pain. Over top of them stood a dark figure a few inches shorter than Nova.
"Get away!" Nova shouted at the two men on the ground and in one swift move her was holding tightly to the small attacker. Both men hurried away from Nova, not daring to glance back at the monster he now held for them. The two men, two of the few criminals left in Regalo, would have nightmares for weeks of the small dark figure attacking them from inside their bodies and injuring them without so much as a touch.
The figure struggled for a moment under larger Nova's trap-like grasp, then it relaxed. As an immediate response, thinking the figure had given up, Nova relaxed slightly as well. Seizing their chance the figure escaped Nova's hold and in less than a second Nova was pinned against a wall staring straight into two large, round, brown eyes. He glanced down to her hand, noticing a stigmata resembling and eye of some sort but he had no time to remark before the face in front of him leaned in closer and whispered menacingly in his ear, "Don't ever do that again." The figure suddenly let go and Nova struggled to keep his balance as the figure tipped its small leather biker hat and strolled off down the alley. Nova was too stunned to think to follow her and could only manage to mumble to himself, "A thief… with an arcana card?" Nova stood in that dark, dingy alley for a moment, thinking about the momentous problems that could come with this. Was she actually a part of the Arcana Famiglia he didn't know about? Was something else going on here? Had he actually seen that stigmata? And most importantly, what was her card? Eventually one of the men from Cups division found Nova and he was back to work, but distracted nonetheless by this girl he'd seen.
Hours later Nova met up with Felicita and Liberta, the three friends were on their way to meet Debito and Pace for dinner. As usual Liberta was awkwardly glancing at Felicita as they walked, his enormous crush on her showing to everyone around but Felicita. Jeez, she can be so dense sometimes. Nova sighed at his friend's apparent discomfort, wishing he could help him.
Nova's attention was pulled away from his awkward companion at three people carrying out a raucous conversation just outside of Debito's casino. Upon closer inspection Nova noticed that the three were Debito, Pace, and the girl from before! Nova's eyebrow twitched her paused for a moment as they carried out their conversation about a big-time player Debito had in his casino today who lost big time to the girl; who was a talented poker player.
"His face was all puffed up and red and-" the girl was interrupted by a fit of laughter from herself and the two men around her. Nova cleared his throat and Debito looked his way, he chuckled at Nova's displeased look.
"Bambina, I must leave you," Debito kneeled down and kissed the girl's outstretched hand before walking to Nova, Felicita, and Liberta.
Pace turned to the girl "Bye Dolore, we should eat lasagna again sometime!" He gave her a huge bear hug and swung her around, the two laughing raucously.
"Bye you two! I'll be calling on my white knights soon!" She called after them as they walked off toward the west, the sun glinting off the harbor in the distance. Dolore sighed and shoved her hands deep into her pockets, feeling the warm feeling of friendship slowly fade away with Debito and Pace's silhouettes on the horizon. Turning her back to the setting sun she began her long walk to The Watering Hole; a cheap inn popular with drunks and the down and out, and, for the time being, Dolore.
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