"You want us to do what?" Alfred gaped, eyes wide while Mathew just stared dumbfounded.
"You heard me. You two have to find a way into someone's home for one night." Antonio reiterated, smirking at their disbelieving expressions.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Alfred asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"That's up to you. You want to be part of this gang you have to do it."
"I-i thought gangs did things like jump ins?" Not that it sounded more pleasing but it would be quicker and have less of a chance of the brother's going to jail!
"We can't afford injuries, especially from a jump in." Toni explained.
"But breaking into someone's house won't get us injured?"
"I never said you had to break in. Just get in. Think of it as a test of skills. I've only known you guys for a day but I have a feeling about what you guys might be good at."
"When Toro get's a feeling he's normally never wrong." Ivan commented, grabbing a box of teriyaki.
"I've learned to trust my instincts after a few years." The Spaniard smiled then took a bite of an egg roll. He suddenly glanced to Mathew, the violet eyed boy quietly staring at the table. "What do you think, Mathew? Is this a good challenge for you two?" He asked.
"Um," The young boy bit his lip, glancing to his brother then back to the table. In truth, Mathew wasn't very fond of the idea of going into some stranger's house. Even if it wasn't breaking and entering the idea itself just sounded...criminal. But then again that's what he was now-him and Alfred both-criminals. Alfred was a murderer and Mathew was practically his accomplice. Criminals...accomplice...gang...he felt like his life had been sucked into a television show. And before he knew it there were tears in his eyes.
"Mathew?" Alfred whispered before the boy hopped up and left to their room, closing the door after himself. Alfred looked to Antonio momentarily, the Spaniard raising a curious eyebrow before the former blond left after his brother. "Hey Mat?" Alfred said, opening the door. The walls had been stripped and the few personal belongings of it's former tenant had been removed. Sitting on the bed, back against the wall with his knees drawn to his chest was Mathew, weeping quietly. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Al asked, climbing next to him.
"I...I h-hate this." Mathew hiccuped, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Hey, we don't have to stay here. We can just tell Toni-"
"No!" Mathew cut him off then looked to him with water eyes. "This! Us! I hate the f-feeling of knowing that w-we're criminals. That w-we can n-never live a nor-normal life!" He sniffled and wiped his nose.
"It'll be alright," Alfred whispered, putting a comforting arm his shoulder.
"No, Alfred, it won't." Mathew whispered back. "We don't have a home...we can never go b-back to school..." He rested his head on his brother's shoulder. "If we were to ever get caught by the police you could go to jail. I could go to the DH." He sniffled again. "I don't want to live like that..." His voice was so quiet, Alfred had to strain to hear him.
"Mathew," Alfred whispered. "I-I'm sorry. I never thought of that." Of course the thought of going to jail had crossed his mind but he had never thought any deeper than that. Being separated from his brother...that was worse than going to jail! "Mattie, we don't have to stay here. We can leave if you want. I..." He trailed off. What else could he say? They could leave but anywhere they went they'd still be criminals. They would always have to hide, never be apart of public society again. "We could leave," He said again.
"We can't though," Mathew whispered, bringing a hand through his short hair. "This is our only option,"
"I know," Alfred whispered back, closing his eyes.
The two sat in silence, both stewing in their thoughts before finally Mathew sighed and raised his head. "Let's do it," He said.
"W-what?" Alfred stuttered.
"Let's do Toni's initiation."
"Really?" Alfred cocked his head to the side, staring at his twin.
"Well, we both know we have no where else to go. There's nothing else we can do and this is the only thing we can do." The younger reasoned, drying his eyes of the rest of the tears with his shirt. His voice was unhappy but he knew as much as he hated this life this was the only thing the two could do. No where was safe and a home was a home no matter what they had to do to keep that home. "So let's just do it and get it over with."
Alfred stared then smiled at him, suddenly putting into a head lock and gave him a noogie. "You are so bi-polar!" He teased him.
"I am not! Stop it!" Mathew cried, a small smile on his lips.
"You big cry baby! 'Boo-hoo, I'm Mathew! I'm a criminal! I'm over it now! Let's break into people's houses!'" He mocked him, letting his brother go.
"He said he we didn't have to break in. Just get in." Mathew said, fixing his hair and glasses.
"You got any ideas on how?" Alfred questioned.
"Um, a few..."
The twins exited the room, a strategy planed out in their minds as they returned to Toni who hadn't left his seat at the table-thought his legs were now thrown up on the surface while he munched some fried rice. "Oh, you're back!" He said happily, as though Mathew hadn't run out crying. "Foods almost gone so you better take what you can before Lovi eats the rest. He's so small yet he eats so much! I keep waiting for him to blow up!"
"I heard that, you bastard!" Lovino called from the living room, a few of the other boy gathered around to watch TV.
"Te quiero!" Antonio called back, giggling to himself. The two former blonds looked to each other then back to the Spaniard.
"Uh..." Alfred mumbled quietly, glancing to his brother, waiting for any sign that he didn't want to do this. None. He cleared his throat nervously-no, not nervously. He was Mattie's her and hero's definitely did not get nervous. "Um...w-we'll do your indoctrine thing or initiation or whatever." He finally said. Toro beamed at them, finishing off the last of his food.
"Good, good. Do you know how you're going to do it?"
"Sort of," Alfred replied. "We just need a victim,"
"Please don't say it like that, Alfred! I feel like we're about to kill someone." The violet eyed boy paled at his own words, looking down to his feet.
"Nice choice of words, but you don't have to anything that drastic...yet." Antonio assured him, smiling gently. "But since we don't want you walking into the house of a serial killer I'll help you out a bit. Kiku will take you to the park and show you your first 'victims'."
"Why the park?" Mathew asked.
"Because serial killer's don't go to parks, duh!" Alfred stated, as though it were completely obvious. "At least not in the day time."
"You may or may not be right but there are other dangers that lurk in the day time." The three teenagers swiveled their heads around to look at Kiku, the small Japanese boy holding a carton of white rice and chop sticks, seeming to come from no where.
"Just the man I wanted to see!" Toni said cheerily. "When you're ready-and after I change Alfred's gauze-I need you to take these two to the park to find the two blonds-the euros."
"Yes, sir." Kiku said, exiting to the kitchen.
"Dude doesn't say much, does he?" Alfred commented, snatching up the last of the food for him and his brother.
"Not really, no. He's been like that since I've known him which hasn't been very long. Only a few months so far." The Hispanic boy replied. "He's so quiet you can't hear him coming half the time. Scares the shit out of everyone when he does speak."
"Sounds like Mattie. Dude's like a ghost. I think he turns invisible sometimes." Alfred said.
"That's not true," Mathew defended himself.
"Mattie? Where'd you go? I can't see you!" Al put his hands in front of him, feeling Mathew's face. "I told you you were invisible!"
"Jerk," Mathew muttered with a smile.
"You love me," Was Alfred's reply. He then turned back to Toni. "So, how long do I have to keep this gauze on my face?" He asked, resisting the urge to start picking at it.
"You can take the gauze off but depending on how fast you heal you have to keep it covered a few more days at the most. I don't want it to get infected if you take it off." The green-eyed boy informed him.
"You seem to know a bit about medical things." Alfred said, popping a piece of chicken in his mouth.
"I've seen a few injuries worse than yours. I learned a thing or two about cuts and scrapes from leading a gang. You should always be prepared for the worse when you bang." Antonio shrugged, hopping up from the table. "Let me go get the first aide while you eat." He said, walking away from the table.
"You sure you want to do this?" Alfred said quietly, looking to his brother while they ate.
"I'm sure," Mathew replied as Antonio came back.
"So, if we're going into someone's house how will we, like, know when we can leave? Do we just up and leave in the middle of the night or...what?" Alfred asked as the Spaniard peeled the gauze off his face and began to clean the cut once again of the dried blood.
"Don't worry, you'll know when you can." Tonio replied, placing a large band aid over the cut. "There, all good now! When you guys are ready just get Kiku and you'll be on your way!" He smiled at them then began to clean up the table of the empty food cartons.
"You ready then?" Alfred asked, looking to Mathew who looked just a little more than apprehensive.
"Yeah, I guess." Mathew replied quietly, standing up.
"Good, let's go." Both of the boys turned to look at Kiku who-once again-popped up from just about no where.
"Dude, how do you do that?" Alfred asked, getting just a hint of a smile from the Japanese boy.
The three boys left the apartment immediately after, traveling north towards the large park that held a playground, a gazebo with a few chairs and a picnic table, and a path for joggers and dog walkers. "So!" Alfred began, riding the group of the silence that had lasted since they had left. "Kiku, right? What was your initiation test thing?" He asked.
"Ah, it was a relatively simple task, almost like your own but not as long. Antonio saw that I was very quiet and very good on my feet so he asked me to go into someone's house with out them knowing." The black haired youth replied.
"Breaking into someone's house? And you actually did it?" Alfred looked almost taken back. He wouldn't peg the small quiet boy as the B&E type of guy.
"Yes, like I said it was very simple. The only difficult part about it was I had to start from the top floor and come down through the front door."
"So what? Did you just teleport from the ground and some magical way you ended up on the top floor?"
"Of course not! I'm climbed!" Kiku told him, giving him a sideways glance.
"You climbed...the side of the house?" Alfred cocked his head to the side and looked to his brother to see if he was understanding this any better than him. Apparently not by the blank look he received.
"No, I climbed the tree near the top window and got in from there. It was quiet difficult. The branches were very thin and nearly cracked. It was also winter and I had the possibility of slipping and falling about seven feet."
"Whoa," Alfred looked to him with wide blue eyes, a new respect for the boy. "You could have died and yet you still did it?"
"Hai. But Antonio knew what he was doing when he put me to the test. I survived and got out the house with out alerting anyone."
"But don't breaking and entering's happen all the time?" Mathew quipped in.
"Yes, but the house was very old. You could hear it creak from the outside. When I came out Antonio said his ear was to the door the whole time and he couldn't hear a thing." A hint of smile graced his lips. "Antonio is a very good judge of talent."
"Guess so. So, what does he figure mine and Mattie's talents are?" Alfred asked.
"It can't be sneaking into people's houses. Alfred isn't really the quietest of people." Said Mathew, smiling gently as Alfred gave him an unamused look.
"I am too quiet! I can be just as quiet as you!" Alfred told him(ironically, none-too-quietly).
"I'm not too sure what he thinks your talents may be. You'd have to ask him yourself." As the three chattered on, Kiku then abruptly stopped and pointed to the path. "Those there are your targets," He informed the twins, pointing out a couple. Both were men and blond, though one was much larger than his friend with a pair of glasses situated on his stoic face, the other wearing a small white beret and dog leash in his hand. "This park is part of our territory as a gang. We've seen those two enough to know they are no harm. Your task today is to get in their house by any means necessary. I wish you luck." With a bow the Japanese boy silently strode off, leaving the former blonds to their test.
"Okay," Alfred started, leaning against a tree and watched the couple walk down the path. "We're both against just breaking into someone's house. You suggested that we just trick them to let us in. Do you have any idea how that's going to happen though?" He questioned his brother.
"Well not really. That's about as far as I got," Mathew admittedly sheepishly, blushing lightly. "It can't be too hard though, right? We're not exactly the most suspicious looking people. And they look nice..." The violet-eyed youth bit his lip, beginning to doubt his own plan. "I mean, one of us could pretend to be hurt or something..."
"Aha!" Alfred stated loudly, snapping his fingers. "I got an idea!" Smiling widely, the older twin turned around and jumped high, grabbing onto a branch of the tree.
"Alfred, what are you doing?" Mathew asked with wide eyes.
"Don't worry, Mattie!" Alfred assured his brother as he scrambled up the tree, as nimble as a squirrel. "I'll just 'fall' out the tree and you call for help and bingo! We're in!" The blue eyed boy smiled down at his brother from his perch, precariously scooting onto another branch.
"Be careful, Alfred!" Mathew called up to him, violet eyes filled with worry. "Maybe we should make a new plan instead. One that doesn't involve you nearly breaking your neck."
"Hey, it was your idea. Don't back out of it no-" With a snap, the branch Alfred had balanced on had broken, sending the thirteen year old was sprawling to the ground, flat on his back.
"Oh no!" Mathew gasped, rushing over to where his brother lay. "Alfred! Alfred, are you okay?" Lowering himself on his knees, he shook the boy, tears springing into his eyes when he didn't respond. "Alfred! Say something please!"
"What...ow, my head." Alfred groaned, opening his eyes slowly.
"Oh, God, Alfred. I think I nearly had a heart attack. Stay here, I'm going to get some help!" Mathew said, turning around to see the couple from earlier coming upon the scene. "Excuse me! Can you help us?"
"Oh, what happened?" The smaller of the two asked, handing the dog leash over and ran the rest of the way. "Is he okay?"
"I don't know! He fell out the tree and I think he may be hurt." Mathew explained, pushing up his glasses to wipe his eyes off.
"Oh no. Poor thing," The man sympathized, pulling off his hat and began to wring it in his hand. "Can you walk?" He asked Alfred.
"Ah, I'm not sure." Al replied, sitting up gently then began to stand up. "Crap," He muttered as he started to put pressure on his left leg, then leaned against the tree for support. "I guess not,"
"Oh, that's terrible. Where are your parents?" The twins looked at each other then Mathew bit his lip.
"We...don't...really have parents." He admitted, glancing up at the man then back down. "We...live on the street." He heard them both gasp and exchange a look.
"What d' we do, Tino?" The taller of the men asked, holding the wiggling dog in his arms.
"Give me the dog, Berwald, and you carry him. We'll take the boys to the hospital." Tino said.
"No!" Alfred and Mathew said at the same time before Mathew cleared his throat. "I mean, that won't be necessary. It's not broken or anything, is it Al?"
"No, I think just sprained a little." Alfred said, picking his foot up gently so it wasn't touching the ground then moved it around in a small circle, hissing in pain. "No, definitely not broken but it hurts like hell." He said through his teeth.
"Okay, good. Well I still want to make sure you're going to be okay." Tino shared a glance with his husband then replaced his hat back on his head. "You two don't mind coming home with us, at least so I can look at it?" He asked.
"That does not sound like a bad idea," Alfred said, nodding. "Mattie, you okay with that?"
"I guess," Mathew replied, still a tad uncomfortable with the thought of going home with strangers.
"Great," Tino smiled at the two then took the dog from his husband. "I'm Tino by the way. And that's my husband, Berwald." He introduced them as Berwald picked Alfred up-very gently to Alfred's surprise despite how big he was. "And no matter what Berwald says, I am not his wife." Tino added, sending a bemused look to his his green eyed lover.
"I'm Mathew and that's my brother Alfred." Mathew said, Alfred snickering at Tino's comment.
"Wife?" Al said, smirking at the blond.
"Yes, he tells everyone that." Tino admitted, smiling gently. Admittedly, it was kind of funny but he still hated being called a wife-it wasn't his fault he was smaller! It was Berwald that did most of the house work; he was the one that cooked, that adopted Hanatamago-though Tino did name her-, and that proposed they adopted a child! If anything Berwald was the wife, not him!
"'S'cute," Berwald mumbled, shifting Alfred in his arms.
"It's not cute! I'm not a female!" Tino argued, while the four plus dog walked out the park. "So I can't be a wife."
"I can solve this debate!" Alfred suddenly quipped in.
"How?" Mathew shot back.
"Who said their vows first?" Alfred asked, looking from husband to 'wife'.
"Berwald," Tino said, wondering where he was going with this.
"Then you're the wife because everyone knows that the bride always says her-or his in your case-vows after the groom!" Alfred beamed at them, proud at himself for recalling that little tid bit of knowledge. And they said movies rotted the brain! That little fact held true in every single movie had ever watched!
"But-but..." Tino stuttered, glancing to Berwald who held just the smallest of smiles on his lips. "It's not funny. I'm not a wife!"
"According to the data, you are." Alfred teased.
"Alfred," Mathew warned him. "If he say's he's not a wife, then he's not a wife."
"Thank you. Some agrees with me!" Tino said, smiling thankfully at the boy.
"S'm'wife," Berwald whispered to Alfred who snickered once more.
The group continued their playful banter as they made their way from the park, ending up just a few blocks down. The couple lived in a large, brick townhouse attached to others. Decorating the little plot of land was a plastic reindeer and something that resembled an elf riding on top. "Uh, you do know you left your Christmas decorations out, right?" Alfred said as Tino unlocked the door.
"Oh, I know. I just like Christmas and I thought it was cute so I left it out. Right, Berwald?" Tino asked.
"Mm," Berwald replied, placing Alfred on the couch gently. He then bent down and gingerly fingered the boy's ankle. "Hurt?"
"A little," Al replied, then pursed his lips as the man applied more pressure.
"'S'probably not sprained," He mumbled, standing up.
"I should probably just stay off of it for a while," Alfred said, gently rubbing the ankle, wincing. "Hey, where's the bathroom?"
"There's one down that hall," Tino said, gesturing towards the entrance hall. "Do you need some help?"
"Mattie, help me up." Mathew obliged, slipping an arm around his brother's waist while Alfred leaned on him, making sure to keep his foot up.
The two hobbled down the short hall awkwardly, Alfred glancing behind them when they made it to the bathroom. "In," He said, putting his foot down quickly and pulled Mathew in with him, closing the door after them. "We did it," He said quietly, smiling. "That was easier than I thought it would be."
"Hey, I thought you hurt your ankle." Mathew said accusingly.
"Nah, I just faked it. I didn't think we'd get in unless they thought I was hurt." Alfred took his glasses off and breathed on them, rubbing them on his shirt before replacing them on his face. "Pretty smart huh?"
"Yeah, I guess but next time tell me when you plan on falling out of a tree. You could have gotten seriously hurt." Mathew told him though there was a hint of a smile on his lips. In truth, that was a pretty smart idea. Only Alfred would be reckless enough to fall out of a tree and pretend to sprain his ankle.
"Actually," Alfred smiled sheepishly, placing his hand behind his head. "I...kind of did fall out the tree." He laughed in embarrassment. "I just kind of...went from there." Mathew sighed and shook his head.
"Alfred," He mumbled, a smirk pulling on his lips. "Well, we got in. That's what's matters right now," About to leave, Mathew put his hand on the knob but was stopped.
"Wait, I really do have to pee. Besides, you have to help me walk out." Alfred said, turning to the toilet.
After Alfred finished the two then hobbled back to the living room both plopping down on the couch, Mathew lifting Alfred's leg up sending him a look that said 'don't get used to this'. His brother merely smiled at him, muttering a 'Thank you, Mat.'
"So, boys are you hungry?" Tino asked, smiling at the two.
"Yes, I'm starving!" Alfred replied, despite the fact that he had just recently ate. "Do you have any hamburgers?" He asked hopefully.
"Um, Berwald do we have hamburgers?" Tino asked, looking to his husband curiously.
"Don't think so," Berwald replied.
"I think we have ground beef. Maybe we could make some hamburgers," The smaller of the two suggested.
"That would be awesome!" Alfred smiled widely at the blonds as they made their way into the kitchen. "Finally, some decent food!"
"We just had some Chinese not too long ago. How can you be hungry again?" Mathew asked, picking up Hana and set her in his lap.
"I'm a growing boy with a hurt ankle. I need food!" Alfred said, placing his hand on his stomach. "How can you not be hungry?"
"Maybe because I'm not a bottomless pit." Mathew replied, petting the dog in his lap contently.
The two then lapsed into silence, listening to the sounds of the men in the kitchen, Tino humming a song that sounded like 'Jingle Bells'. "So," Alfred then whispered, looking around for a moment then to Mathew. "How long do you think we have to stay here?" He asked.
"Well, Antonio said we'll know when we can leave. What ever that means," Mathew whispered back, shrugging.
"But we don't know when that'll be!" Alfred said a little too loudly then lowered his voice again. "That could be at five in the morning. We could be sleeping." he said more quietly.
"We'll just have to trust Antonio for now." Mathew said, looking up at his brother for a moment to watch his eyes spark. They may have accepted to live in his home but it was clear that Alfred didn't exactly trust the Spaniard.
"Right," Alfred mumbled, reaching for the TV remote, end of discussion.
"Hey, Al?" Mathew whispered after some time had went by, the smell of cooking burgers wafting through the house.
"Hm?" Alfred muttered, intent on watching a show on the old west on National Geographic channel.
"I just thought of something," Mathew glanced to his brother nervously. "We're probably on the news,"
"Wait, what?" Alfred looked at his brother, eyes wide. "What do you mean on the news?"
"Alfred, Francis was murdered and we're missing. We're either number one suspects or thought of as kidnapped victims. We have to be all over the news." Mat informed him, watching Alfred give a look of pure shock and a 'why-didn't-we-think-of-this-before?'
"Shit," Alfred mouthed, biting his lip. Even with the hair cuts and new color, with a close enough inspection they were still easily identified, especially if their pictures were on the news regularly. "What do-"
"Boys!" The two were interrupted as Tino called them from the kitchen. "Your food is done!"
"We'll talk about this later," Alfred whispered, letting Mathew help him up and to the kitchen.
The day passed by quickly for the boys, Tino and Berwald both agreeing that the boys should stay there for the night to let Alfred heal properly. "Thank you again for letting us stay here. It means a lot to us," Mathew said, crawling into the guest bed that him and Alfred would be sharing for the night.
"It's not a problem. We're happy to help, right Berwald?" Tino said, smiling gently at the boys.
"Right," Berwald mumbled, Hanatamgo situated in his arms.
"If there's anything you need don't be afraid to come to ask us." The smaller of the two blonds said.
"We won't," Alfred mumbled sleepily, burrowing his head in the pillow.
"Good night, boys." Tino said, turning off the lights.
"G'night," Berwald mumbled, following his husband/wife out the room and shut the door. When Alfred was sure the two had left into their room he sat up and looked to his brother.
"So, about earlier. Do you really think we're on the news?" he asked.
"Of course. We have to be. I'm surprised we didn't think of it earlier." Mathew replied, laying down and took his glasses off, setting them on the bedside table next to Alfred's.
"We were too freaked out to even think of it I guess," Alfred said. There was a long silence before he spoke again. "What do you think we should do?"
"There's nothing we can do. Our pictures are already up. People already know we're missing. We can only hope that no one notices us even with the changes and that's still a far stretch. Our hair may have changed but our faces are still the same." Alfred bit his lip thoughtfully then yawned, rubbing his eyes.
"Well these two didn't seem to notice so I guess we're okay for now unless they just don't watch the news." He muttered.
"Could be," Mathew replied, closing his eyes. "But we're going to have to be careful for now on...or at least more careful than we already are."
"Yeah," Alfred mumbled, laying back down and wrapped his arms around his brother. "C'mon, let's go to sleep. I'm too tired to think of this anymore." He yawned again and began to feel himself drift to sleep.
"Okay," Mat snuggled into his chest, listening to his heart beat steadily, a soothing lullaby. "Night...love you."
"Love you too,"
Tap tap tap
Alfred yawned, rubbing his eyes sleepily and looked around the dark room the brothers were sharing for the night. "Matt?" He mumbled then glanced to the window where he was sure the sound he had heard had come from. Kiku balanced himself on the branch outside the window easily, looking to him with brown eyes. "Huh?" The new brunette mumbled, hopping out of the bed and tip toed to the window, throwing it open to allow the Japanese boy in.
"Konichiwa, Alfred. Thank you for letting me in." Kiku said, smiling gratefully at him. "But we should probably go downstairs now and see to everyone else." He added.
"Wait, everyone else?" Alfred said, grabbing his glasses off the side table and put them on. "Who else is here?"
"Antonio, Gilbert, Ludwig, and Yao." Kiku replied, waiting for Alfred to wake up his brother and gather their clothes.
"Mathew, wake up. We're going." Alfred said, shaking the younger twin awake.
"We're leaving?" Mathew whispered, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and gathered his glasses on his face. "Oh...hi, Kiku." He mumbled, still half asleep.
"Hello, Mathew." Kiku said, glancing to the door and listened for any sign that someone in the house might have heard them.
"Come on, Matt. Get up. We got to go." Alfred said, putting his shoes on then handed Mathew his. After the two had re-dressed themselves the small group silently entered the hallway, looking up and down the empty hall before retreating downstairs.
"Good job, boys." Antonio smiled at the three as Alfred opened the door, his green eyes practically glowing in happiness. "You passed your test!"
"Oh, awesome!" Alfred smiled gently, then yawned again. He'd be happier tomorrow...when he wasn't tired...and full of weird Swedish food that they had eaten for dinner. "You hear that, Matt? We did it."
"Cool," Mathew smiled, leaning slightly on his brother. One day he may just get used to being woken up in the middle of night but definitely not any day soon. He hopped this wasn't going to become habit.
"You two are definitely tired. Stay right here and look out for us, we'll be right back." Antonio told them, walking into the house.
"Wait, where are you going?" Alfred asked, stopping him. "Why are you going in?" He watched as the other four entered the house, intent on the next part of their night.
"I didn't send you in there for nothing. You two are now our official inside men." Tonio explained, watching the blank expression on the young boys faces.
"Inside men?" Alfred cocked his head to the side, blue eyes conveying his confusion.
"Si, now that I know you two can get in houses with out causing suspicion I'll send you in when our supply starts getting low or we need a few things." The Spaniard said.
"Wait, wait, wait...you mean...we're going to be staying at random people's houses so you guys can...steal stuff?" Alfred asked, eyes wide as the realization struck him. "You can't do that!"
"And why not?" Antonio asked, folding his arms over his chest.
"Because it's wrong! Stealing from people is wrong!"
"Nice way to make yourself sound like a hypocrite." Alfred furrowed his brows, scowling in indignation.
"Me and Mattie stole because we didn't think we'd eat that night! We didn't know when we'd get the chance to eat next so we took what he could at the time!" Alfred placed his hands on his hips, unaware that his voice had risen. "But you guys have stuff! You have food and a place to sleep! You don't need to steal from people!"
"And you want to know how we got most of the stuff we do now? We stole it!" Antonio's eyes hardened as he glared at the newest addition to his gang. "We take what we can when the time is right and right now is that time. If you're going to be staying with us you're going to need to drop this righteous attitude and get with the program. Not everything we do in life is 'right'. I started this gang for people like me, people who would do anything to survive. So, I'm sorry if you don't know the exact meaning of the word 'gang' but you're going to have to deal with it."
Blue and green eyes met in a glare, tension thick in the air, neither boy daring to break contact first. Finally, Mathew cleared his throat, his skin crawling from the testosterone thickened air. "Hey, guys. I think we should leave soon. Someone might-" Before the sentence was out of his mouth a light from upstairs flickered on and Tino's voice drifted down the stairs.
"Alfred? Mathew? Is that you down there?"
"Shit," Antonio cursed then whistled. "Round it up!" He called, glancing into the home for a moment before taking off, the four boys running out the house with the remaining two trailing behind. Glancing behind him, Mathew saw Tino lean out the door with a surprised expression, eyes wide. Biting his lip, the boy turned his attention back to getting away, trying to ignore his stomach tightening viciously and the hurt he was sure he saw in the nice man's eyes.
A/N: I am sooooooo sorry everyone for the long wait! It's okay to hate me, I know you probably do even if you don't. I'm a a horrible person for making you suffer like that. I'll try not to do it again but I can promise anything. And sorry for the half-assed chapter. I totally changed the ending just a little bit ago so that has nothing to do with the wait. I'm hopping to get the next chapter up a little bit quicker than this one hopefully! Anyways, not much to say here. Does it feel like I rushed through this chapter though? I hope not. But yeah, comments as always are appreciated! Thank you for sticking with me through this horrendous writers block of mine. You are loved! ~Ciao! Love Stripes!
