Moments: A BWWM Short Story Collection

XXIV: Replacement (Pt. 3 of 3)

Twenty minutes later, I found myself taking steadying breaths by the ball pit, running over every aspect of the plan to ensure I had it down. Mark, the guy in the Bucky suit, would pick a fight with Seth, at which point I'd step in and fight in his place. We'd exchange a few blows for realism before I knocked him out flat, which would get Seth back on my side and show Evelyn what a good father I was.

I took another breath and let it sit in my chest, unable to help but feel this "foolproof" plan was forgetting something important. I'd asked what Serendipity would think about seeing her father get beaten up by a stranger, but Mark just waved me off.

"She sees me get punched and kicked by kids every weekday." he said with a shrug. "What difference can it make if a full-grown man fights me?"

I breathed out again as a pair of brothers climbed out of the ball pit with exuberant screams. Maybe I was overthinking things. Evelynn loved the fact that I was powerful and protective; I just had to trust in the plan and everything would be alright.

Purple movement caught my eye, and I looked over to find Mark waving at me by the claw machine. He pointed to the arcade, where a depressed-looking Seth had finished up with Hyper Street Fighter II and was making his way back to the table. I waited a few seconds before nodding at Mark, who dutifully timed turning around the corner to collide with Seth and knock him to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, kid!" Mark shouted as he dusted his costume. "You have any idea how expensive this thing is?! What if you broke it, huh?!"

He shook an exaggerated fist at Seth, and I winced. What a ham.

"It was an accident, dude!" Seth said as he picked himself up and adjusted his hoodie. "Maybe if you were paying attention you wouldn't have to worry about it!"

I slapped a hand over my face as Mark gave a "them's fightin' words!" stance.

"Think you're tough, huh, kid?! Well let's see how you like some of this!"

My heart skipped a beat as Bucky threw a punch at Seth, and for a moment I asked myself what I was thinking putting my son in such a dangerous situation. However, I'd failed to reckon on two things. One, the Bucky suit was heavy, meaning Mark's blows were sluggish at best despite their soft foam delivery.

Two, Seth had played fighting games for more than a decade, and that meant he wasn't the one who needed rescuing in this fight. I watched Mark double over from an elbow to his padded belly, only for Seth to follow up with a vicious uppercut to the head. It was a move I'd come to dread when I faced Seth at Street Fighter; the shoryuken, or "Rising Dragon Fist," Ryu's signature technique.

Mark wheezed as he collapsed to the floor, and Seth crossed his arms over his chest as every head in the play area turned to him. I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment as parents pulled their cheering kids away from the scene, but I knew I had to go over and bail Mark out of his botched plan.

"Spinning bird kick!"

I'd blinked at the wrong time. Serendipity had rushed in and slammed her calf into Seth's legs, sending him stumbling back into the arcade. My eyebrows shot up, not just from watching my son get decked by the girl he liked, but from the fact that Serendipity had also used another famous Street Fighter attack.

They really did share a lot of interests.

Seth picked himself up to glare at Serendipity, and I predicted her sinking into Chun-Li's fighting stance a second before she did it.