(no subject)
Title: For the Love of a Lilly
Author: Adasif
Characters/Pairings: RomanoXLiechtenstein, appearances from a large portion of the world
Rating: PG
Warnings: My lack of knowledge of 1930’s America is evident as minor points may be anachronistic. There are also some offensive views held by the characters. Random time skip. Story is set in a 1920s-1930s AU and the narration is an attempt at hardboiled style. Un-betaed.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and the views expressed by the characters are not my own.
It's a busy road. A boy darts in and out warily attempting to chase a ball. He falls down and skins his knee. Tears bubble up and he begins to wail and cry.
"Are you a girl?" asks a voice reminiscent of gin, cigarettes and failed justice. The boy looks up. It's a dick, a private dick. The boy stands up and smiles. The man looks like his cousin so he decides to talk.
"That's a boy. What's your name?" asks the dick.
"I'm Peter. Peter Kirkland," says the boy, "Tell me a story."
"I know a lot of sob stories boy. Not all of them are fit for children," he says wryly. Peter tugs on his coat impatiently. The man sighs and leads Peter into a diner.
"What the hell, I feel like being a good guy..." he mutters, "I'm your cousin, I'm Alfred F. Jones."
"Whoah~" says the boy, "Papa told me about you! Why haven't you've been back home!"
"It's not a place where I’m welcome," says Alfred sadly, remembering the fights and the waving of guns. He stares out of the window and lights his cigarette. Peter looks downcast as he begins demolishing his pie. Alfred smiles, apparently back to his ‘cheery’ self in an attempt to put Peter at ease.
"You wanted a story right? I'll tell you one about a Lily who got plucked before she bloomed."
1) Romano
It's the 1930's. Jazz, fast cars, easy women. Plenty of grog, believe it or not. They want cha to believe it was all sunshine and rainbows but that rainbow was jiggled til it had no more gold.
There was a kid who was propelled to the middle of that world. Name was Romano Vargas. Not a bad kid, foul mouthed, coward, wrong side of the law.
His parents were always busy so he was raised apart from his brother. He was raised up by a weird guy. Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. That guy wasn't too bad, once he retired, he acts as though he has completely mellowed out. Likes little kids and tomatoes a bit too much though.
His parents died early so he had to take control of the family. He'd just turned 23 and there ... he had to take care of his family, his ditzy brother and all the fragile relations with all the big racketeers in the town, the dirty picture guys, the smugglers, the arms dealers, the Russian and the pimps.
He wasn't doing too bad a job at it. He sucked at confrontations… he was a coward but if he really tried he could do it. It helped that his brother was raised by the former and now the pretty boy of the current head of the Grog smugglers.
So he was living life rather calmly... well as calmly as one can, considering his profession. Until he met her.
2) Party
The China man threw a party. He's a cunning yellow bastard. Smarter than all the people in the town and even controls the rebellious bunch. Has his fingers in every pie somehow. They say he’s going a bit funny because he keeps hitting the opium too often but I haven’t seen evidence of that.
The China man didn't throw the party for fun. He threw it to show off his power and to scream from the rooftops, 'A Yellow Bastard is richer and more powerful than the rest of you.'
So everyone came to this party to scope out the scene. Obviously every player came along. Francis Bonnefoy - he does dirty pictures. Gilbert - controls all the small fry though they say he’s losing his power. Ludwig - grog maker. Ivan - rival, his family is even bigger than Lovino's because they took over all the small gangs. Even the former heads were there Antonio, Elizabeth Héderváry and Roderich Edelstein. More came...
I'm forgetting someone. Oh yes, Vash Zwingli - arms dealer. Sells weapons of any kind to anybody. Short tempered guy. Cute sister though, real cute. The kid's a real lady, you can't catch her legs getting anywhere off the ground.
So it was Christmas and everyone was dressed real fancy.
Romano was bored. He’s a real womanizer, pick one up, drop the next morning. He looks around and sees no one that wouldn't be low risk. After all, he's a smart guy and most of the women there have someone to castrate him or can do it themselves. He sees a kid, well someone who looks like a kid get cornered by Francis. Romano scoots over to them.
"Hey, don't you think the lady would like some punch?" he asks smoothly. Francis looks reluctantly and walks away, he didn’t consider the little kid as million dollar material anyway. Romano talks his chance to drag the little lady over to Elizabeth. He wonders what such a little kid was doing there in the room.
"Take care of her," he tells Elizabeth and she laughs. The little lady tugs on his sleeve, wanting to ask him something but she doesn't speak. So he kisses the little ribbon she wears on her hair and waves off.
That's how you catch a woman's heart Peter. Ignore her.
3) Snow
It's a rare day for Lovino, a day where he gets to take a break. He's doing so by walking up and down the boulevard.
The little lady spots him and hurries to him. He tips his hat to her.
"Thank you," whispers the little lady "for the other night." She's wearing all white and looks like she could blend in with the snow. Lovino thinks that with the crowd she's hanging about, there's no way she can stay white.
"Wasn't a problem," he says dismissively. He's tired, he just had to break up a fight amongst the small fry. She catches his arm.
"You're hurt," she whispers, trying to scrub off the blood off his arm. He jerks back, "You don't have to interfere god **** it!" he yells at her. She's hurt. Good. Maybe she'll go away.
She shakes her head and gives him the handkerchief before scurrying away. At that moment, Lovino doesn't know why he feels so lonely and decides to seek out his brother, Feliciano.
3) Drop in a barrel
He goes over to the grog smugglers place. It's not the friendliest place to be but it's safer than other places he can think of. After all, Feliciano's there and the head isn’t the type to shoot without processing the proper ‘paperwork’ first.
He's ushered into the sitting room. He used to come there all the time, Antonio would bring him over when ever he wanted to speak with Roderich and Elizabeth. He sees photographs, of him, of his brother and of the people who live there. It would look like an ordinary house and it is, despite the people who live there. He sees a picture of the little lady when she was a kid and he wonders why he hasn’t seen her about in the house before. He picks it up and smiles and until a cough interrupts him and makes him drop the picture.
He's greeted by Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s one of those women who can greet you with a smile then snap your neck. Her favourite weapon is a frying pan and she can do more than just cook with it. They say she's calmed down after marrying Roderich but I reckon it's just a cover. She can’t keep a secret though but no one has found her dirty picture collection. It’s like the King’s legs: it exists but it ain’t a dinner topic.
Elizabeth smiles widely. "You lady killer," she jokes.
Lovino looks away. "I haven't been doing any*******thing."
Elizabeth laughs. "Come on, you charmed the socks off little Lilli and she can't stop thinking about you."
"Who?"
"The little blond you rescued.”
“Oh her.”
“Lilli is Vash Zwingli's sister. Well, actually she's Ludwig's half sister, they get their blonde hair from their mother. She used to live with him until Gilbert got us to take care of her when their place got too hot for comfort. Then Vash, he’s Gilbert’s second cousin, took a fancy to her and took her in. Nothing improper, she was ten at the time. She’s 16 or maybe 17 now. She's become quite the little lady thanks to Vash. Excellent at finance. Get her to do the taxes. She does all the finances for us round here."
"Why the ***** are you telling me all of this?" spits out Lovino while he blushes furiously while storing all this information. Then he realizes, by the standards of the underworld, Lilli is practically a saint, canonized and all, if all she’s doing is book keeping, even if the numbers are playing games.
"Because you secretly wanted to know," replies Elizabeth with a smirk while she hands over some close up shots of Lilli. Lovino pockets the shots anyway… he wouldn’t want them to get into the wrong hands after all.
5) Park Times
He sits down at the park. He's just finished a few deals and he's tired. There's men watching him just in case he gets attacked but he keeps them relatively hidden for his sake. He likes to think that he's alone.
"Mr. Vargas?"
He looks around and sees Lilli. He wonders how she knows his name but he assumes that Elizabeth told her. "What are you ******* doing here?" he asks suspiciously.
"I’m walking," she replies demurely.
"Isn't that ****** Zwingli gonna get worried?" he replies. He pats his cheeks. He must be coming down with a fever, they’re hotter than usual.
"Brother is out. Please do not refer to my brother in that manner" she whispers.
He’s surprised that Zwingli even lets her out of the house when he’s gone. Lovino peeks at the girl whom has started to feed the pigeons. She’s so small and tiny, he hardly believes that she’s sixteen. She catches him staring at her and she blushes red. It’s kind of cute, he thinks, she looks just like a tomato.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home…” he sighs. She nods and follows him.
He wonders what it will take to make her stop following him and he wishes that she never know. But he knows that she probably knows too much about him. Word gets about quickly in their part of town.
6)Intermission
Zwingli hadn’t been seen around town for 6 weeks now.
In that time, Lovino had getting very close to Lilli. Not close enough to make her legs lift off the ground but close enough that he didn’t want her to be put into danger. He was glad she was Catholic. It simplified things. But first he had to speak to Vash and ask him if he could.
For some odd reason, Lilli’s gotten used to Lovino’s periodic fits of rejection. She finds it rather cute and sometimes casts it up to him when she gets him to calm down. Lilli’s been staying at Elizabeth and Roderich’s place for the past 6 weeks, Zwingli sent her a letter asking her to stay there for exactly 6 weeks. Lovino knows that Zwingli probably in another state, with even fishier business but he’s not one to talk about the families of others.
The six weeks have finished. He’s escorting her home in his car. For once, no one is following them, by car at least: on foot is another matter entirely.
He wonders how she can still smile that way. He shrugs, lets her cling to his arm as he drives with one hand. They soon reach her house and she opens the door.
She collapsing, her face contorted in shock.
Lovino knows what that looks means. It’s the ‘there’s a dead body in there?!?!’ look. It’s a thing you forget how to do as time passes.
7) A Reaper Came to Play Today
Zwingli’s dead.
It looks like he’s been dead for the past hour at least.
His head’s been snapped. His lifeless eyes are just staring, staring at the ceiling. His limbs have been tied up like some Christmas parcel.
The Russian killed him. The trademark tap was next to his head. It was probably over arms. There were rumors that the Russian was angry with Zwingli for selling his stock over to the Jap for a higher price.
Lilli is crying her heart out. It hurts him too, not the fact Zwingli was dead because that guy enjoyed overcharging, but the fact Lilli looks as though someone killed off her family, kicked the dog and punched her in the stomach.
He hugs her roughly, he’s never been good with contact. But he figures that she really needs it. She clings onto him, trying hard to get back onto her feet. She’s trying hard to be strong in her own way but the shock is just too strong for her.
“I’ll protect you…” he mutters, hugging her tightly, “I’ll protect you.” She sniffs and nods. He takes her back out to the car because they both don’t want to look at the body and he doesn’t want any funny questions asked.
8) Drive Off and Away
He’s driving off. He doesn’t know where. He just wants to get away from everything. Out of the country maybe? Just out of the city.
But in thirty minutes they will have to return. He has to look after his family, his idiot brother especially. In 50 minutes he will have to teach Alfred. F. Jones a lesson about policing. It makes him want to drive away from everything. He wants to curse, he wants to scream but she’s sleeping in the seat next to him.
She’s sleeping. Almost like an angel if it wasn’t for the crying and the periodic whimpering. He rubs her head and sighs. He almost regrets not sending her back to the potato bastard because he doesn’t know what to do with her. If she was just one year older and if he could protect her, he would have marked her with a ring, to prove she was his. Either way, with him or with potato man, she’ll end up stained; it’s just a matter of how dark.
He takes one last look at her when she is still snow white. He sees the gun.
Bang.
“I better take you home,” says Alfred as he slaps the money on the table with an extremely small tip, “Come Peter.”
“What happened?” asks Peter, knowing that he isn’t being told the whole story, “Tell me more.”
Alfred suddenly stops and covers Peter. Peter peers out only to see a dark brown man with a weird curl in his hair, stop and glare at Alfred. Alfred stares resolutely back at Lovino. Lovino steps into an expensive black car and drives off, leaving Alfred to glare at the car.
Alfred comes to and motions for Peter to follow him. “Who was that? What a scary man! Not as scary as Papa but still scary! Who was he?” Peter asks constantly until he catches sight of Alfred’s face, which is angry and stone hard.
“He’s the one who tore the lily to pieces. ” says Alfred angrily, “But I’ll put him behind bars yet.”
Author: Adasif
Characters/Pairings: RomanoXLiechtenstein, appearances from a large portion of the world
Rating: PG
Warnings: My lack of knowledge of 1930’s America is evident as minor points may be anachronistic. There are also some offensive views held by the characters. Random time skip. Story is set in a 1920s-1930s AU and the narration is an attempt at hardboiled style. Un-betaed.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and the views expressed by the characters are not my own.
It's a busy road. A boy darts in and out warily attempting to chase a ball. He falls down and skins his knee. Tears bubble up and he begins to wail and cry.
"Are you a girl?" asks a voice reminiscent of gin, cigarettes and failed justice. The boy looks up. It's a dick, a private dick. The boy stands up and smiles. The man looks like his cousin so he decides to talk.
"That's a boy. What's your name?" asks the dick.
"I'm Peter. Peter Kirkland," says the boy, "Tell me a story."
"I know a lot of sob stories boy. Not all of them are fit for children," he says wryly. Peter tugs on his coat impatiently. The man sighs and leads Peter into a diner.
"What the hell, I feel like being a good guy..." he mutters, "I'm your cousin, I'm Alfred F. Jones."
"Whoah~" says the boy, "Papa told me about you! Why haven't you've been back home!"
"It's not a place where I’m welcome," says Alfred sadly, remembering the fights and the waving of guns. He stares out of the window and lights his cigarette. Peter looks downcast as he begins demolishing his pie. Alfred smiles, apparently back to his ‘cheery’ self in an attempt to put Peter at ease.
"You wanted a story right? I'll tell you one about a Lily who got plucked before she bloomed."
1) Romano
It's the 1930's. Jazz, fast cars, easy women. Plenty of grog, believe it or not. They want cha to believe it was all sunshine and rainbows but that rainbow was jiggled til it had no more gold.
There was a kid who was propelled to the middle of that world. Name was Romano Vargas. Not a bad kid, foul mouthed, coward, wrong side of the law.
His parents were always busy so he was raised apart from his brother. He was raised up by a weird guy. Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. That guy wasn't too bad, once he retired, he acts as though he has completely mellowed out. Likes little kids and tomatoes a bit too much though.
His parents died early so he had to take control of the family. He'd just turned 23 and there ... he had to take care of his family, his ditzy brother and all the fragile relations with all the big racketeers in the town, the dirty picture guys, the smugglers, the arms dealers, the Russian and the pimps.
He wasn't doing too bad a job at it. He sucked at confrontations… he was a coward but if he really tried he could do it. It helped that his brother was raised by the former and now the pretty boy of the current head of the Grog smugglers.
So he was living life rather calmly... well as calmly as one can, considering his profession. Until he met her.
2) Party
The China man threw a party. He's a cunning yellow bastard. Smarter than all the people in the town and even controls the rebellious bunch. Has his fingers in every pie somehow. They say he’s going a bit funny because he keeps hitting the opium too often but I haven’t seen evidence of that.
The China man didn't throw the party for fun. He threw it to show off his power and to scream from the rooftops, 'A Yellow Bastard is richer and more powerful than the rest of you.'
So everyone came to this party to scope out the scene. Obviously every player came along. Francis Bonnefoy - he does dirty pictures. Gilbert - controls all the small fry though they say he’s losing his power. Ludwig - grog maker. Ivan - rival, his family is even bigger than Lovino's because they took over all the small gangs. Even the former heads were there Antonio, Elizabeth Héderváry and Roderich Edelstein. More came...
I'm forgetting someone. Oh yes, Vash Zwingli - arms dealer. Sells weapons of any kind to anybody. Short tempered guy. Cute sister though, real cute. The kid's a real lady, you can't catch her legs getting anywhere off the ground.
So it was Christmas and everyone was dressed real fancy.
Romano was bored. He’s a real womanizer, pick one up, drop the next morning. He looks around and sees no one that wouldn't be low risk. After all, he's a smart guy and most of the women there have someone to castrate him or can do it themselves. He sees a kid, well someone who looks like a kid get cornered by Francis. Romano scoots over to them.
"Hey, don't you think the lady would like some punch?" he asks smoothly. Francis looks reluctantly and walks away, he didn’t consider the little kid as million dollar material anyway. Romano talks his chance to drag the little lady over to Elizabeth. He wonders what such a little kid was doing there in the room.
"Take care of her," he tells Elizabeth and she laughs. The little lady tugs on his sleeve, wanting to ask him something but she doesn't speak. So he kisses the little ribbon she wears on her hair and waves off.
That's how you catch a woman's heart Peter. Ignore her.
3) Snow
It's a rare day for Lovino, a day where he gets to take a break. He's doing so by walking up and down the boulevard.
The little lady spots him and hurries to him. He tips his hat to her.
"Thank you," whispers the little lady "for the other night." She's wearing all white and looks like she could blend in with the snow. Lovino thinks that with the crowd she's hanging about, there's no way she can stay white.
"Wasn't a problem," he says dismissively. He's tired, he just had to break up a fight amongst the small fry. She catches his arm.
"You're hurt," she whispers, trying to scrub off the blood off his arm. He jerks back, "You don't have to interfere god **** it!" he yells at her. She's hurt. Good. Maybe she'll go away.
She shakes her head and gives him the handkerchief before scurrying away. At that moment, Lovino doesn't know why he feels so lonely and decides to seek out his brother, Feliciano.
3) Drop in a barrel
He goes over to the grog smugglers place. It's not the friendliest place to be but it's safer than other places he can think of. After all, Feliciano's there and the head isn’t the type to shoot without processing the proper ‘paperwork’ first.
He's ushered into the sitting room. He used to come there all the time, Antonio would bring him over when ever he wanted to speak with Roderich and Elizabeth. He sees photographs, of him, of his brother and of the people who live there. It would look like an ordinary house and it is, despite the people who live there. He sees a picture of the little lady when she was a kid and he wonders why he hasn’t seen her about in the house before. He picks it up and smiles and until a cough interrupts him and makes him drop the picture.
He's greeted by Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s one of those women who can greet you with a smile then snap your neck. Her favourite weapon is a frying pan and she can do more than just cook with it. They say she's calmed down after marrying Roderich but I reckon it's just a cover. She can’t keep a secret though but no one has found her dirty picture collection. It’s like the King’s legs: it exists but it ain’t a dinner topic.
Elizabeth smiles widely. "You lady killer," she jokes.
Lovino looks away. "I haven't been doing any*******thing."
Elizabeth laughs. "Come on, you charmed the socks off little Lilli and she can't stop thinking about you."
"Who?"
"The little blond you rescued.”
“Oh her.”
“Lilli is Vash Zwingli's sister. Well, actually she's Ludwig's half sister, they get their blonde hair from their mother. She used to live with him until Gilbert got us to take care of her when their place got too hot for comfort. Then Vash, he’s Gilbert’s second cousin, took a fancy to her and took her in. Nothing improper, she was ten at the time. She’s 16 or maybe 17 now. She's become quite the little lady thanks to Vash. Excellent at finance. Get her to do the taxes. She does all the finances for us round here."
"Why the ***** are you telling me all of this?" spits out Lovino while he blushes furiously while storing all this information. Then he realizes, by the standards of the underworld, Lilli is practically a saint, canonized and all, if all she’s doing is book keeping, even if the numbers are playing games.
"Because you secretly wanted to know," replies Elizabeth with a smirk while she hands over some close up shots of Lilli. Lovino pockets the shots anyway… he wouldn’t want them to get into the wrong hands after all.
5) Park Times
He sits down at the park. He's just finished a few deals and he's tired. There's men watching him just in case he gets attacked but he keeps them relatively hidden for his sake. He likes to think that he's alone.
"Mr. Vargas?"
He looks around and sees Lilli. He wonders how she knows his name but he assumes that Elizabeth told her. "What are you ******* doing here?" he asks suspiciously.
"I’m walking," she replies demurely.
"Isn't that ****** Zwingli gonna get worried?" he replies. He pats his cheeks. He must be coming down with a fever, they’re hotter than usual.
"Brother is out. Please do not refer to my brother in that manner" she whispers.
He’s surprised that Zwingli even lets her out of the house when he’s gone. Lovino peeks at the girl whom has started to feed the pigeons. She’s so small and tiny, he hardly believes that she’s sixteen. She catches him staring at her and she blushes red. It’s kind of cute, he thinks, she looks just like a tomato.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home…” he sighs. She nods and follows him.
He wonders what it will take to make her stop following him and he wishes that she never know. But he knows that she probably knows too much about him. Word gets about quickly in their part of town.
6)Intermission
Zwingli hadn’t been seen around town for 6 weeks now.
In that time, Lovino had getting very close to Lilli. Not close enough to make her legs lift off the ground but close enough that he didn’t want her to be put into danger. He was glad she was Catholic. It simplified things. But first he had to speak to Vash and ask him if he could.
For some odd reason, Lilli’s gotten used to Lovino’s periodic fits of rejection. She finds it rather cute and sometimes casts it up to him when she gets him to calm down. Lilli’s been staying at Elizabeth and Roderich’s place for the past 6 weeks, Zwingli sent her a letter asking her to stay there for exactly 6 weeks. Lovino knows that Zwingli probably in another state, with even fishier business but he’s not one to talk about the families of others.
The six weeks have finished. He’s escorting her home in his car. For once, no one is following them, by car at least: on foot is another matter entirely.
He wonders how she can still smile that way. He shrugs, lets her cling to his arm as he drives with one hand. They soon reach her house and she opens the door.
She collapsing, her face contorted in shock.
Lovino knows what that looks means. It’s the ‘there’s a dead body in there?!?!’ look. It’s a thing you forget how to do as time passes.
7) A Reaper Came to Play Today
Zwingli’s dead.
It looks like he’s been dead for the past hour at least.
His head’s been snapped. His lifeless eyes are just staring, staring at the ceiling. His limbs have been tied up like some Christmas parcel.
The Russian killed him. The trademark tap was next to his head. It was probably over arms. There were rumors that the Russian was angry with Zwingli for selling his stock over to the Jap for a higher price.
Lilli is crying her heart out. It hurts him too, not the fact Zwingli was dead because that guy enjoyed overcharging, but the fact Lilli looks as though someone killed off her family, kicked the dog and punched her in the stomach.
He hugs her roughly, he’s never been good with contact. But he figures that she really needs it. She clings onto him, trying hard to get back onto her feet. She’s trying hard to be strong in her own way but the shock is just too strong for her.
“I’ll protect you…” he mutters, hugging her tightly, “I’ll protect you.” She sniffs and nods. He takes her back out to the car because they both don’t want to look at the body and he doesn’t want any funny questions asked.
8) Drive Off and Away
He’s driving off. He doesn’t know where. He just wants to get away from everything. Out of the country maybe? Just out of the city.
But in thirty minutes they will have to return. He has to look after his family, his idiot brother especially. In 50 minutes he will have to teach Alfred. F. Jones a lesson about policing. It makes him want to drive away from everything. He wants to curse, he wants to scream but she’s sleeping in the seat next to him.
She’s sleeping. Almost like an angel if it wasn’t for the crying and the periodic whimpering. He rubs her head and sighs. He almost regrets not sending her back to the potato bastard because he doesn’t know what to do with her. If she was just one year older and if he could protect her, he would have marked her with a ring, to prove she was his. Either way, with him or with potato man, she’ll end up stained; it’s just a matter of how dark.
He takes one last look at her when she is still snow white. He sees the gun.
Bang.
“I better take you home,” says Alfred as he slaps the money on the table with an extremely small tip, “Come Peter.”
“What happened?” asks Peter, knowing that he isn’t being told the whole story, “Tell me more.”
Alfred suddenly stops and covers Peter. Peter peers out only to see a dark brown man with a weird curl in his hair, stop and glare at Alfred. Alfred stares resolutely back at Lovino. Lovino steps into an expensive black car and drives off, leaving Alfred to glare at the car.
Alfred comes to and motions for Peter to follow him. “Who was that? What a scary man! Not as scary as Papa but still scary! Who was he?” Peter asks constantly until he catches sight of Alfred’s face, which is angry and stone hard.
“He’s the one who tore the lily to pieces. ” says Alfred angrily, “But I’ll put him behind bars yet.”