I swear this was meant to be a small fic to get me started but it just refused to let me stop.
This is my first fic so apologises for any mistakes! Please review if you have the time I love the feedback.
1921
Personally, Arthur blames Mal for all of this.
Arthur had always loved Chicago, before the war he dreamed about moving there, setting up shop and spending the rest of his days basking in the warmth of the Chicago sun. He had grown up in a small town in Colorado where his family expected him to meet a girl, settle down and take over the family hat making business, that had never been his plan though, he saved up money for years so on his eighteenth birthday he could make a start in the city and join up with his brother. The war changed all that though, torn down once hopeful dreams until they were just bitter memories, open wounds which never seemed to heal.
He made it to Chicago, but he was no longer the same wide eyed kid with dreams and naivety, he came back having seen the true, ugly side of human nature and could no longer reach the boy he'd once been.
That was how Arthur ended up working at McFinnigns bar in downtown Chicago as a 'clean' bartender and busboy, visiting his brother Alex on weekends where he spent his days in a cold cell. McFinnigns was a bitter man, he often liked to overwork Arthur by keeping him late and by giving him more jobs than the other employees, at less pay. The others were indifferent to him, when they asked him about himself he was aloof and closed off, he knew this and didn't care.
It wasn't all bad though, he had his apartment which he loved and his neighbour Mal who was his closest friend and confidante, ever since he had moved here three years ago. She had managed to get a scholarship at a college near them, and was fighting her male counterparts to prove herself as an architect.
His life wasn't perfect by a long shot, in fact it was pretty messed up, but it was comfortable, safe. Nobody trying to fire at him, or hack his head off. Nothing out of the ordinary, everything plain and slightly boring with the exception of Mal.
He blames Mal for what happened, if she hadn't begged him to go with her to see a show, Arthur wouldn't have swapped nights with Mandy, then he never would have been at McFinnigns when a man in a awful tweed blazer had waltzed in, with his charming smile and turned Arthurs world on its head.