#➤ 𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎 ┊ amelia & mariano ➷ (𝟎𝟎𝟏.)

[flownintothesun]

 ⋆ ✰ ⋆ ───    ∗ 𝟐𝟔﹕ 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫  𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬  𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐜𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞 - 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨

                            ⋆ ✰ ⋆ ─── 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬. ( @astremourante )

       𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘, 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄, whether she’s aware of it or not. The mafia doesn’t deal in petty revenge unless it’s their own, and they dabble even less in personal slights unless it’s relevant to the boss. To do anything else would allow outside influence to make them some powerful enemies. His boss, Claudio Renaldi, can be ruthless to the point of recklessness — and single-minded in all of the wrong ways. The boss’s empire is ruled with fear and an iron fist, crushing everyone beneath his boot (which is pretty goddamned easy to do when the man stands at over seven feet tall).

     This woman isn’t among the first who want such a man as an ally — but she ticks all of the wrong boxes. On a good day, Claudio would laugh at her — and on a bad —

       For one, she isn’t Italian — for another, she is a woman. If there are two things Claudio has no respect or mercy for, it’s women and foreigners, though the list gets rather extensive. Luckily for this woman, Claudio also doesn’t have the patience to deal with paperwork or first meetings for tentative alliances. He’s off-putting and crass, and anyway — that’s what an underboss is for. Mariano is all of the things that Claudio is not, and that’s worked well for the empire.

       Smoke burns his lungs as he inhales. Nestled here in the city, you’d never think it was the mafia’s playground — all brightly colored homes and turquoise sea and people smiling and laughing. That’s how the underworld works, though — it’s a world of its own, blending in to the other that normal people inhabit. The only time Mariano’s among them is when he’s blowing off some steam — otherwise, he’s just the angel of death or mercy. He’d never asked for it, but he didn’t have to — this was always going to be his life.

        The English is a barrier — Mariano had learned it in school, but it’s rusty and he feels a bit like a goddamned idiot when he’s speaking it — his accent still pronounced and apparent, “Revenge is....a messy business.” It’s Claudio’s obsession with hunting down his own family that gets them all into trouble more often than not. Family is supposed to mean something here, but often it means the wrong thing. “Little by little — it tears apart at —” he taps his chest, “What makes you human to begin with. My boss — he have no soul left. He is a dangerous man.”