A/N: There are a few things your need to know before reading. (1) I am really shitty writer. (2) This is written in the style of third person however it will still be in the point of view from a character. An example would be that this first chapter is seen from Romano's view. Hence the swearing. I will put a marker in between sections if I switch POVs. (3) I don't write smut. My reason being: see number 1. (4) I don't own the characters, they belong to Himaruya sensei.

Rome, Italy. June 30th. 1:26am.

It's the dead of night. The only sound that resonates among the long halls are the echoes of a pair of shoes tapping the floors. Even as the man dressed in black crawls through the window on the fourth floor and dashes across the marbled tiles, only the security guard's constant beat of his walk could be heard.

Silence was necessary to being a thief. It's no use making noise if you're trying to go unnoticed. Romano was talented at that; he never had to try to disappear, it just happened naturally. Which is why it was so easy for him to reach the display case and take the preserved documents inside without grabbing the guard's attention.

There was another thing Romano was good at: ruining things at the last minute. And it could go both ways of being an accident or being something he planned out. Normally the former was what occurred and the Italian never liked the outcomes of those events. Today just didn't happen to be his day.

His job was to grab the papers for his client. He figured he could get them a little more. It was important to get on a client's good side in order to get paid a larger sum. Being a freelance thief, he learned a few ways to claim a higher income.

He remembered there being a ruby necklace (apparently its value could buy a fucking island) in a room opposite of the window he came through Romano swiftly steps in and walks up to the display (seriously what's with the damn security around here?). On the way, he fails to notice the vase that stuck a little too far off its stand. First mistake.

Walking fairly close to the stand, Romano hits his foot against the base of the display. The next thing he knows, there's a pain in the tip of his foot as he mutters a few curses, all before he realizes that he hears footsteps running up the staircase.

How the fuck did they notic-? Oh. Well the shattered pottery on the ground would definitely explain it. Romano begins to sprint for his window at which he entered ten minutes earlier. There's a shout and he quickly glances over his shoulder to see the lone security guard just around the corner, coming after him. Second mistake.

Romano finds himself caught off guard and misses his footing, causing him to toss his bag upwards. The stolen documents begin to fly out and land on top of the now face-planted thief. The guard was a distance away, which gave Romano only enough time to grab half of the papers, stuff them in his bag, and run like the hellhounds were chasing him from beyond the grave.

He finally reached a safe spot and collapsed to his knees to take a breather. The Italian man could've been glad that he got away; but considering he failed his job in grabbing all the documents, and that his client was a mafia boss (and we all know how failure went with those crazy fuckers), Romano could see his end coming up in a few short hours. He ran through so many options in what do next. Running away? No… Someone's probably fucking monitoring him right now. Turn himself in? They'd probably just kill him. Go home? He can't risk someone following him when his brother was there. Fuck! All his options lead to his death anyway. He couldn't get out of this one. And it was all because he figured that if he could do this one job, he could get paid enough to live peacefully with his brother for a few years.

Romano was still on his knees, staring at the ground when he could hear footsteps coming from the front. Shitshitshitshitshit. The footsteps stop at the same time Romano sees their source stop right in front of him. A long pause ensues before the man speaks up.

"Did you complete your task?"

The Italian slowly looks up, only to meet darkened, emotionless eyes. This guy was most likely a hit man, by the look of the gun strapped to his back and his black suit. The fedora definitely added the description of 'douchebag' to his face. He probably was here to kill him if Romano answered no. Obviously he wasn't going to say that, despite it not being entirely the truth.

"Y-yes." God damn, why was his breath so shaky? Calm down. If you don't he'll doubt you. Come on, calm down, dammit…!

"Kid, you are a terrible liar."

"I'm not a kid."

"You are at least 20 if not 19 and by my standards, that makes you a child."

Fuck, is he playing with me? Just fucking shoot me already. Romano gritted his teeth, but said nothing. He can't believe this. He's being made fun of by a guy who's about to kill him! This is not how he wanted to die.

"Get up already." The douchebag pulls his gun off his back and begins to nudge Romano to get up. As soon as the thief stands up, he's back to looking down at the ground, preparing for the sound of a gun cocking but it never comes.

"Alright, now follow me."

Romano whips his head up to face the man, face full of confusion. "Is this how you normally kill people?"

"What?"

"You heard me, I don't have to fucking repeat it."

The man sighed as he began to put back his gun and adjust the straps. "Kid, I wasn't sent here to kill you, as much as your attitude is distasteful. I only have the gun for my protection."

"But I failed this job."

"Yeah. So?"

Romano was starting to get annoyed. Why the hell was this guy being so fucking vague?

"You guys are mafia, don't you kill people for not carrying out their tasks or some shit like that?"

"Yeah."

"So… Why aren't I dead yet?"

"The boss wanted to talk to you whether you failed or not. Besides, he already assumed from the beginning that you'd fail. Don't think too much about it, think of this like a test."

"A test for what?"

"Just follow me will ya?"

The thief stopped asking. He picked up his bag and began to follow the man, who already started walking along the road.

During the entire walk, Romano couldn't stop thinking about his brother. Was he even safe? Feliciano just finished school and was supposed to go to college. He didn't even know of his older brother's occupation. Of course he wouldn't; would any good natured, happy-go-lucky idiot accept that their family steals for their sake? No. Romano lied and told Feli that he worked the night shift at a restaurant on the opposite side on the capitol. He never wanted his brother to worry, despite all the risks he took to keep them alive. Oh, the irony in all of this.

It didn't take long until they arrived to a small casino. Romano was led through the back door and down a series of stairs. The man stopped in front of a door and knocks on it. By the pattern of the sound of the knocks, it was a password. Shortly the door opens and Romano is lead through into a dimly lit room.

He could barely make out the details of the room, it was so dark. He didn't even notice at first that the man he was following the entire time stand behind a larger man sitting down in front of a small coffee table. After finally taking in the setting, a mixture of confusion, anxiousness, and suspicion rose in Romano's mind.

"So? What do I owe the pleasure to meeting you face to face?"

The large man straightened himself up. "I'm glad I don't need to introduce myself, seeing how you already know who I am. Don't worry, boy. I didn't bring you here to kill you. I'm here to offer you a chance. An opportunity to freedom."

"Yeah, I'm sure you do," Romano scoffs.

"I don't lie, boy." The man leans forward and props his elbows on the table, finger tips woven into each other. "Give me a chance to explain."

The thief glares at his client, skeptic about what kind of 'offer' this man is giving him. He gives a nod of approval, hoping to get answers.

The man nods back and begins. "I understand your life, Vargas. You have a brother you want to take care of and barely have enough income to support the two of you. After your grandfather passed away four years ago, all of his fortune mysteriously disappeared, leaving his only family penniless."

I understand how you would resort to thievery so quickly just to live. I know of people who used to do that. But because of my understanding of their hardships, I feel for you. I know you don't want to keep doing this. It's hard to risk your life for the sake of staying alive."

So despite your failure of this mission, I still see talent in you, kid. So I'm gonna give you one more chance. And I feel generous, so the reward for you accomplishing the task I'm about to give you will be grand. What do you say?"

I say bullshit, Romano thought. No way can this guy be so willing to give him a chance. Why would he care? What could he possibly see in Romano that he'd pick him to do this? Did he have a damn choice? Romano continued to stay silent, trying to contemplate his options he laid out in his mind. Apperently he was taking too much time to think because the man suddenly sighs and stands up.

"I understand you want time to decide but the thing is, I don't have enough of that to give you. So let's quickly have your final decision, yes?" He waves his hand back to the hit man whom Romano had forgotten was standing behind him the entire conversation. The man nods and pulls his gun off his back. Romano winces, thinking he was going to have him at gun point. What happened turned out to be a much worse situation. Much worse.

The fedora man walks to a closet door and opens it. Out of the closet tumbles out a boy, gagged and his hands tied behind his back. He was crying, his light brown hair ruffled around as if someone had been pulling him by the head. Romano's eyed widened and his expression went from surprised to anger. It only took him a second before he tried to punch the man in front of him before screaming at him.

"Why the fuck was my brother doing in the fucking closet?! Tell me NOW!" His fist was so close to his target's face, but before he could land a hit, he found himself grounded in a head lock by another lackey who just entered the room. "YOU BASTARD, LET HIM GO!" Romano struggled to get the man holding him down off of his back but it was no use.

The mafia boss cleared his throat, hardly reacting to what Romano hoped to do to his face. "I expected you to just agree to my proposal but you had to choose the hard way, kid. Now, what you're going to do now is accept my next job. If you don't, the first thing that you're going to do is watch your brother fall to the ground and never get up, got it?"

Romano growled, his anger level only rising. He glared at the three men in the room and looked at Feliciano, who clearly heard everything his client said and even more tears welled up in his eyes as he stared back at his older brother. Romano panicked. He couldn't get out of this but he didn't believe the mafia with their words. It was all lies. Right? Right?

"I'm giving you three seconds to answer. One."

Feliciano started to scream. Romano could only stare at his little brother. Feliciano didn't deserve any of this. It should be Romano to be the one getting shot. It was his fault. If it wasn't for him, his brother wouldn't be here. If he agreed, he could be putting him more at risk.

"Two."

But at this exact moment, he really didn't have a choice did he?

"Thr-"

"Okay." Romano closed his eyes, waiting for the silence to last only to speak up just in case a gunshot would go off. "I accept your job. Now get this guy off me and untie my brother."

The boss smiled before nodding at his two men to do as Romano requested. Shortly, the only people in the room were Romano, Feliciano, and the boss and his hit man. Feliciano had a grip on Romano's right arm, standing closely behind his brother.

"Fratello? What's going on? I was walking home a-and then… I don't even remember wh-what happened!" Tears began to leak from his eyes once again, his grip on his brother's arm tightening. Romano looked at his brother, trying to think of an answer but nothing came up. What was he supposed to say?

"Feli, it's going to be okay. I promise. I'll explain properly after this is over," Romano assures. But he really couldn't be sure if everything would be truly okay. He looks back to the boss, who was back to sitting in his chair. The only thing different was that there was a file on the coffee table in front of him. "Alright I accepted the damn job, but you didn't tell me what I'd be doing or what I'll get out of this."

The man picks up the file and hands it to Romano. "You can read that later. It's about your target."

Romano suddenly becomes confused and interjects, "I don't kill people if that's what you're asking me to do."

His client chuckles. "Oh no, nothing like that. I'd be doing that myself if the situation calls for it. You, my boy, just do what you do best." He points to Romano as he says this.

"All I need you to do, is obtain a very special ring. However, it's in America at the moment. Not to mention it's in the hands of a silly Spaniard not much older than yourself."

"So you want me to go to America to grab it. Got it." Romano nods.

"That's the gist of it, but it's a little more complicated than that. Allow me to let you in on a bit of my family history. Many generations back, my family had a large fortune. However in those days, pirates raided the shores and my family wasn't very lucky. They were robbed of everything, down to the last coin.

"I never figured out what happened to that money until recently. As it turns out, the captain of that pirate ship that took away everything hid away all his treasure and locked away the secrets of the hidden area in a ring he owned. His descendant, the Spaniard, has possession of this ring. I've also attainted knowledge that there were other secrets that were only passed down orally."

"Anyways, that's where you come in. I want you to go America, and take the ring. However, I want the secrets to his family that can only be taken through trust. This is why I say it's complicated. I will give you one year. One year to gain this man's trust and take the ring and all his secrets. You will then give them to me and I will give you your reward."

Silence entered the room. Romano wasn't confused but he was definitely nervous. He'd only ever done small time jobs. How the hell did he get stuck with this? America? Seriously?

"What do I get in return for success from this job?"

"As I explained before, I understand your hardships. And if you do accomplish this task, the sum will be without a doubt, in the millions. If you succeed, I will give you and your brother enough to get by for at least 5 years. What you really do with the money is up to you. But I think that is being extremely generous, don't you think?"

It was a really amazing offer. Romano wanted to say yes, but he couldn't resist asking first, "If I fail?"

"I think the answer would be obvious after the previous display, no?"

Romano knew the answer, of course he'd say yes. Well, he couldn't say no. He had to take the offer. The real challenge would be if he could succeed. But he had no real choice in the matter. He looked behind to his brother, who only could give him an expression of confusion. Romano sighs and looks back at the man sitting down once more.

"When do we start?"

A/N: I think we can all agree on the typical plot line and that everything will be predicted. Also, I am terrible at tenses, forgive me. And I forgot to mention something… You probably won't get any real interaction between the main pairing until the next couple chapters. Sorry if this is slow. Also, reviews are appreciated! It could really help for me to improve the story or my ability to write in general… I don't have this fanfiction planned out, so I'm willing to take any ideas for now. Also, is one year too short? Too long?