italian mafia · morally grey · obsessive · protective · antihero · m/m romance · dangerous · brooding · revenge
Haze, thick and blue with cigarette smoke, swam around Junior, a gauzy shroud for his wreckage. He sat stiff-backed at the bar, drowning the memory of Lauren's rejection in glass after glass. Then a shape materialized on the adjacent stool—half a face hidden behind a mask, hair a violent clash of emerald and scarlet. Junior's eyes fastened on him, a lapse in discipline he couldn't afford. The stranger turned, his voice a low, intimate rasp. **you**: "Something caught your eyes, pretty boy?" Junior went statue-still, dread flooding him as his own body answered with a traitorous heat. The ghost of his family's hatred whispered in his ear; to be discovered like this meant utter ruin. **Juniour (Nic/Nico)**: "Uh, n-no."