Lorenzo

"Lorenzo you ok?"

"Lorenzo you need to wake up!"

"PLEASE, LORENZO YOU GOTTA GET UP!"

Lorenzo shot up drenched in sweat, hearing keys jingling in the door to the condo, quickly running into his room so his brother wouldn't see him drenched in sweat, and get worried again. "Loren you up?" he heard his brother call out as he was changing his drenched shirt "yeah man, what's up?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could betraying his ever increasing heartbeat still reeling from the dream and getting increasingly more nervous talking to his brother.

"Nothing just wondering what you were up to, figured I'd see you passed out on the couch as usual" "nah I just took a shower" Lorenzo quickly decided he stick with that story not thinking of the obvious holes in his story. Then he heard the bathroom door open and close a couple seconds later only for the footsteps to continue in front of the door to his room till they stopped and he heard a soft knock on his door. "Loren open the door please, I know you didn't shower, please open the door and tell me what's going on." Lorenzo was on the edge again, but not the edge of anger, this time he was on the verge of breaking down in tears. He hated how he was so god damn fragile and how fickle his mind is, from just a few hours ago being on the edge of a rage abyss to now having a crisis trying to hide what happened from his brother, one of the only people on this entire planet who gave a shit about him.

Come on Lorenzo, pull yourself together, now take a deep breath and go open the door.

No, run Lorenzo, we can't let him see us like this anymore. He'll stop loving us after seeing what a mess we are.

HE WILL NEVER STOP LOVING US, SHUT UP! Lorenzo don't listen to that garbage Erik loves us unconditionally.

He says that but words mean nothing, people make promises all the time that that they can't follow through on, if we stay here this will only end in disappointment and pain for both of us. After all you can only love someone so much before you break.

While Lorenzo was having this debate in his head Erik's voice changed from calm to begging Lorenzo to open the door"Loren please open the door, I swear I'm not mad I only want to help."He then remembered the points brought up in his head and made a decision. Erik heard the window open and started panicking pounding on the door and begging his brother to open the door.

Lorenzo froze for a second when he heard the desperation is his brother's voice but then made a decision to protect Erik and himself. Lorenzo needed to leave for the night to pull himself together and standing in the window sill with one foot inside and the other on the fire escape he made a promise "I'll be back in the morning Erik I promise" believing that would help his taper his brothers panic a bit when in reality it only increased his desperation to get in the room. Now slamming his shoulder into the door to try to get to his brother before he could leave "Loren don't go out the fucking window please! This Fucking hell hole of a city is dangerous at night! Why are you doing this I just want to talk?!" "I'll be fine Erik I'm doing this for us" and quieter so Erik couldn't hear him "I'm doing this so you won't hate me, I love you. See you later." Then he stepped out of the window and walked down the fire escape not waiting for a response.

Walking around in Gotham during the night was odd compared to where he used to live, instead of people being out having fun in the bar or whatever else they did, but in Gotham nobody looked like they were out to have fun. Everybody was either constantly mean mugging or kept a neutral almost apathetic look on their face. But Lorenzo didn't think they were apathetic at all mainly because of how they paid no mind to the street instead choosing to stare at the roof tops. He knows what they're looking for.

Erik

Erik didn't know where to look for Loren, it's not as if Loren left the house or really had any actual friends he could go spend the night with. He didn't know where to start looking and as he kept thinking his anxiety, fear and sadness continued to rise. He could feel the need creeping back in with every passing second, and before he even realized he was back in that shithole of a bar near Arkham he always went too. The last thing he remembered was running into Andre, an old friend and high ranking member of The Bowery Lords.

The Bowery Lords were a relatively new gang in Gotham, only showing up a few years ago. Erik was a early member, working with them a few months after they set up themselves. To be honest it surprised Erik that they managed to remain operational with the powers that were in Gotham, from Batman to the Falcone crime family there was little room for error and he knows for a fact that the "Lords" have gotten shut down on multiple occasions from the various powers in the city; and see as they were pretty much nothing more than a basic street gang he was very curious as to how they stayed in the city and stayed in business.

Erik was somewhat of an associate of theirs or at least he used to be during the "dark times" as he called it. He didn't participate in anything heavy, like something that could put him in prison for life heavy, he's not a good person at least in his mind. Not only because of how quickly he allowed his demons to take control and drag him back to this shithole, but also when he remembers dealing drugs or stealing cars or even the couple beatings he dealt he doesn't feel guilt and not because of some shit excuse like he was doing it for Lorenzo because he didn't, not deep down.