if the mafia can learn to love

[assassinrue]

Nikolai waited patiently until he could no longer hear her feet on the side walk and turned to go back to his territory with a sigh. Who knew what would be waiting for him this time?

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

(Damn, I was going to have my West Side guy show up, but he kind of got hit by a car in my last thread and broke his leg. I don't see him walking around town)

[assassinrue]

(LOLZ!)

Nikolai went to sit alone in his apartment, which daringly sat right on the line of West and East turf and he had a feeling a neighbor of his was East. He sighed, sat back in his big chair and let Mamu, his fierce little cat, curl up in his lap and begin to purr

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He hadn't been home long when a pounding sounded at his door. "Yo, open up, you s***di**," someone shouted. Not the best way to get someone to open the door, but the person didn't seem to care.

[assassinrue]

Nikolai sighed and eased Mamu off of his lap and she raced into the bedroom to hide. He made his way to the door and opened it, making certain his face revealed nothing.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

A young man in his late teens stood on the other side of the two, two others, a bit older, behind him. He had a furious scowl on his face. "Are you Nikolai?" It was a question he didn't need the answer to, since he already knew, but he asked it anyway.

[assassinrue]

"Who's asking?" He eyeballed the two men who were backing him up. "And why?"

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

"Trae Noble," the guy in the front said. He pushed up his left sleeve to reveal the East Side tattoo there. "Myers here tells me you've been chatting up my sister."

[assassinrue]

Nikolai stared at him for a long moment. "Unless your sister is a mail order Russian bride, I highly doubt that."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

"Don't be a smarta**," Trae growled. "He saw you with her earlier today. She was walking home from school, and you started hitting on her."

[assassinrue]

Nikolai's face lit up with realization. "Oh! You mean her! God no, not hitting on her, she was simply making a suggest to help me stop me nasty habits." Nikolai dropped his voice as if talking to a confidant, "Smoking you know, terrible to quit."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Trae narrowed his eyes. "Give me one reason I should believe you."

[assassinrue]

Nikolai shrugged. "There really isn't a reason." He reached behind him and pulled his gun from his waistband. He caressed it lovingly almost, then snapped his eyes up to Trae, staring at him coldly through his lashes. "Three to one isn't really fair odds. I'll tell you what, ask you sister what she said and heard instead of taking it from a couple goons." Nikolai was deeply tempted to shoot said goons in their kneecaps, but he knew that would only result in his untimely death.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Trae eyed the gun. He had one of his own, but he'd rather not get shot in an attempt to get it out. "Leave my sister alone," he said. "Come on, guys." He pushed between the two others and walked away, headed toward the stairs.

[assassinrue]

Nikolai was not about to protest that he got off with a warning and waited until he could no longer hear the Easts before shutting his door and finding Mamu. He may have been told to stay away from her, but that didn't mean she had been told to stay away from him

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Trae never mentioned Nikolai to Aveline that night. Their family ate in silence, just like they always did. When dinner was over, Trae went to his room and Aveline settled down on the couch with Tobias to watch a movie while their mother cleaned the kitchen. A regular night at the Noble household.

[assassinrue]

The next day, Nikolai skipped out on the gang gathering to go to the park, it was the perfect time of day to take Mamu out without his brothers seeing her.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

The park, conveniently located in neutral territory, was where Aveline and Tobias went at least once a week. They'd play catch and Frisbee and whatever else Tobias felt like doing. She always obliged him.

[assassinrue]

Nikolai almost hated to admit it but the moment he had rescued the beat up little Mamu, he had been in love with her. He was shocked as a little boy when his stern father had agreed to let him keep her. Mamu was his everything now that his father died and she obeyed him like a cooperative child. He sat on a bench as she played in the grass, switching between attacking the toy he had brought and attacking the biggest bug she could find. Unlike the rest of the Ivanov family, she wasn't a killer and always brought her gifts to him still alive. He always let them go when she wasn't looking.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Aveline didn't notice Nikolai at first. She and her brother were tossing a Frisbee back and forth. She had a smile on her face, her cares momentarily forgotten.