I own nothing but Nicki.

CHAPTER 22

"To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten."

"So…" she began, twirling her noodles around her chopsticks. Oswald looked up quickly, his mouth full of chicken. "How did you get involved with Fish Mooney anyways?"

Oswald tried to chew his food quickly, not wanting to respond with his mouth full. It had been two weeks since she had began working at Mooney's. The surrealness of the girl had worn off by now and he had grown much more comfortable around her, but that was not to say that he didn't still get tripped up sometimes when she was especially affectionate, or that he didn't still lose his place in the ledger books when it was her turn to dance, but they were close now. They were friends. Oswald had never really had a friend before, at least not as a close of a friend as he had found in her, and it was nice, he thought to himself. But it was not any reason to let manners go to the wayside.

Nicki gave a mock sigh of exasperation as she waited on him to swallow his food. SO impatient, he would have teased if his mouth hadn't been full. She was joking but he would've been slightly more truthful in his antagonizing. She was impatient. That was one of the many things he had learned about her. Over the past two weeks he had been devouring whatever information he could on her. Asking questions, watching, listening to her, listening to others. He knew she loved birds, and hated the sound of squeaky shoes, and that if she ever got anything scented it would always be cinnamon "because it reminded her of Christmas". She got fidgety when she was angry, always clicked her tongue when she was trying to think of what to say, secretly liked reading romance novels (even though she would never admit and would probably cut someone's tongue out if they ever told) and that she couldn't use a pair of chopsticks to save her life. He was actually impressed that she had made it this long without complaining about " how inefficient and laborious" they were before trading them out for a fork. (10 minutes, a new record),

Oswald finally swallowed his food and replied. "Hmmm?"

She gave a small laugh and he smiled back at her. "Fish. How did you start working for her?"

Oswald nodded. "Not without convincing," he admitted. "She didn't want to take me on at first, and her..boys…were adamant about how useless I would be." He spat the word boys as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Nicki looked sympathetic. "They can be real jerks sometimes." Oswald appreciated this, but he knew she was also their friend. Or at least seemed to be relatively close to Butch, so he couldn't help but feel that she was doing this more for show than anything.

"To be fair, you can hardly blame them. You see how I stack up to these behemoths- OW"

He rubbed his forehead and blinked at Nicki who was frowning at him, having just rapped him with her chopsticks. "Don't talk like that." She said simply, pointed them at his face.

He felt his face get hot from embarrassment. More than that, anger at her as well for scolding him like a child. He hated when she did that but he would never let her know. Normally he felt powerful around her. His pretty little baby bird for him to play with and protect, but too often she would do something like that and he would be reminded of who she really was. An alley cat, a mafia princess, a million things that secured her place above him in every way. Sometimes he felt she was naïve and needed him, but more often than not he was aware of how delusional this was. This was one of those times. He blushed and turned his gaze out the window. "I just meant that..well that..by…by comparison-" He was blushing furiously now, his heart thudding even louder in his ears over the fact that his silver tongue which he normally prided himself on was failing him. He refused to stop though, whether it be due to embarrassment or stubborn defensiveness, and continued to ramble until he felt her touch on his face.

"Hey." Small fingers touched his chin and gently pulled his face back towards her. Her eyes were large and sincere and he couldn't look away no matter how much he wanted too. "Big doesn't mean strong." She said this sternly, as if she were a teacher and he was a struggling pupil, driving her to frustration. Then, with more of a playful smile she added, "You're bigger than me and I could out you and all of Fish's boys on my own."

He smiled, partially because it was a sweet statement and partially because she was right. "I guess Ms. Mooney saw something in me as well." He said softly, his voice filling with admiration. He felt the hand slip from his face as she sat back in her seat. Nicki seemed to forget her food for a second and eyed him with a curious gaze.

"You're pretty…taken by her aren't you?" It had the weight of a question that had been waiting to be asked. Oswald looked down at the table. Was he? Or rather, was it that obvious?

"She is just…it's impressive you know? For a woman to work her way up…"

"Yeah," Nicki concluded for him, something odd in her voice. He looked up to see a slight scowl on her face as she played with her food. She cleared her throat before continuing, "She's really impressive. She taught me a lot on the whole 'womanhood' front too." Then before he could reply she fixed him with her brown eyes and added, "She seems like she treats her…boys…pretty well."

Oswald wasn't sure how to respond. He wanted to agree out of politeness or perhaps mention that she could be a bit cruel at times, but there was something in Nicki's tone that made him think he was misunderstanding the question. Was she implying something? He tried to search her eyes but she turned them back to her food and began twirling her noodles with her chopsticks again. "She does," he answered carefully, gauging her response. She smirked.

"When I was here, some of her boys would spend half their hours working in the floor and the other half working with her…privately in the back rooms."

Oswald began to blush furiously. "M-m-Ms. Mooney has her…" he swallowed hard even though he hadn't taken a bite-

"Boys she 'keeps around for exercise'?"she finished raising and eyebrow.

Oswald choked on his rice. Coughing and sputtering he saw Nicki turn her eyes back up to him, fixing him with a provoking gaze. She thinks I'm one of those boys, he realized. He was immediately flattered, embarrassed, and confused all at once. Did Nicki really think that he could be..but of course he wasn't one of the ones Fish would choose too…and what did it matter whether he was or not?

Composing himself he tried his best at a smile, fully aware that he was failing miserably. "Well that's…I mean yes…but that's just a couple…not me. Cer-cer-certianly. And not so much anymore because of the Russian-"

"The Russian?" Nicki looked surprised, then rolled her eyes. "Actually, you know what, that's not surprising at all. Nikolai right?"

Oswald nodded, feeling the blood leave his cheeks finally. This was much more comfortable topic. One that he had been debating bringing up to her actually. Normally he liked to keep his secrets to himself but he didn't mind sharing with her. All contracts and history aside he knew that she would never truly be loyal to Moony or any of the Falcone family, and that made her the best confidante he had. Perhaps more than that. He had been toying with the idea of including her in his plans. If he was going to, now seemed like as good a time as any.

He leaned across the table and in a hushed tone said, "They're planning to overthrow Falcone together."

For a moment, Nicki was a wall. Her face went blank and she did not reply. Finally she spoke. "Really," she mused, her tone betraying nothing. Oswald felt himself grow a little nervous at her lack of committal to any emotion or thoughr process but forced himself to brush it aside. This was another thing he had grown accustomed to with her. If she wasn't sure how to respond to something she would become a brick wall. He could only imagine what was going through her mind. "They have been for a while." He soldiered on conspiratorially; he did his best to seem excited about the secret, hoping to draw her in. Get her to open up.

Her eyes shifted to looking out the window and his heart sank. Perhaps he had overstepped…

"Why are you telling me this?" She didn't look at him. Yes it appeared he had made the wrong choice.

"Oh you know," he immediately forced a smile, leaning back in his chair an trying to nonchalantly poke at his food, " you work for the family now…it's just…shop talk-"

"Oswald," her voice was hard as iron but she still did not look at him. He gulped and dropped his gaze to his food. She rarely ever said his whole name, it was normally just Oz. Something about the way she said it now felt like when his mother used his full name. This felt like trouble.

"Honestly, I was just making small talk," he tried, desperately backtracking and hoping he seemed sincere, or at least surprised by her reaction. "Just work place gossip."

"No," He glanced up and immediately locked eyes with her. She was now staring him down. Talking to him as if she were scolding a child. "Oswald, you're asking me for something. Be up front about it."

He hesitated. "I want to take down Fish Mooney." He admitted. "And I think that your help would be very-"

She smiled and held up a hand to stop him. "Say no more." All of the strictness had left her and she was back to the small, sweet bird he had grown so fond of.

"Really?"

"Of course. There's nothing I'd love more that to shut her down."

Oswald smiled. He felt victorious and hopeful, for a moment anyways.

"Hey Oz," she picked at her noodles.

"Yes?"

"Don't ever lie to me again."

It was such a simple statement, but such a weighted request as well. He was caught off guard, but only for a second. That second caught her attention, however, and she snapped her eyes up to meet his. He immediately found himself doing his best at sincerity. "I won't"

"Promise?"

"Promise," he replied. Something in him knew that his promise itself would be the first of many lies. Honesty, in his opinion, was highly overrated.

Nicki, however, seemed satisfied and went back to struggling with her chopsticks. With a grunt of frustration she held them up in front of her face as if she were about to scold them. "Why do people even use these stupid things," she spat and Oswald felt the corners of his mouth lift. Here it comes, he thought, and he mouthed her words along with her as she continued, "They're just so laborious and inefficient." Her eyes shifted to him and he immediately closed his mouth and tried his best at an innocent look. "Did you say something?" she asked, squinting at him.

He pressed his lips together and shook his head, his eyes wide in faux surprise. "No…?" he responded, fighting to keep the amusement out of his voice. She gave him a withered look before turning her attention to finding signaling the waiter for a fork. He fought back a chuckle but allowed a small smile to play across his lips. 15 minutes… he thought, a new record.

Hey guys! I am so so so SOOOOO sorry I've taken so long to update. My life has been super crazy. But break is just around the corner and I plan on doing a lot of writing during that now that I'll finally have time! Thank you so much for reading and sticking with me and I love you all!