"I'd cover everything up..for you"
a pizzadebt oneshot ( inspired by a song, Lost Kitten by metricmusic )
" Elliot, are you really gonna keep pretending that man is innocent? His job is literally to kill people, ordinary people like you. How clouded are your rose-tinted glasses, you hypocrite? "
Elliot looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, all these words in his head. Criticizing him, his demeanor towards Mafioso and his job, the memory of him encountering Mafioso on a job, the stranger's frightened eyes looking at him seconds before his lover beheads the stranger. The feeling wells up in his stomach, he can still see it. The blood gushing out from the stranger's neck, their head on the floor, eyes still twitching but his body goes limp and falls on the concrete ground.
Elliot grabs the toilet seat, lifts it and vomits. The sheer horror in his mind isn't imaginary, it happened. Only last week, he saw how gruesome Mafioso's job is, how heartless his lover looked when faced with strangers he calls " targets ".
" Aren't they innocent, my dear Eli? And yet your one and only treats these people like wild animals. They have a family too, waiting for them. What if that man had a wife and kid? Imagine, the mother finding out her husband dies and discarded like a toy. Their kid crying, lost their father at a young age. You're aware that all of this is the truth. Eli, is Mafioso really innocent? Do you really want to believe this world is all sunshine and rainbows? " the voice in his mind elaborated.
Elliot is shaking, trembling. He wasn't built for this. He never knew how horrible it is. He gaslit himself, his mind and heart, " Maf is just getting rid of bad people. ", a lie to comfort the self but it can't hold forever. Elliot tries to hold himself and yet tears began to fall, he sat there; quivering in the dark of the bathroom. He starts to remember, reminded that these "targets" Mafioso exclaims, are all normal people. People who are like him, people who struggled in their life, people who were trying their best to survive.
isn't it hypocritical of him? to let this happen, all of those things to happen to those people. and yet, in the back of his mind, he was too a "target" back then, when his father barely scraped by to pay his debts to the Sonnelinos, when Mafioso was a hair's breadth from killing Mr. Builder.
y o u ' r e j u s t a l u c k y t a r g e t E l l i o t B u i l d e r.
Elliot jolts up, body locked as he woke up from the nightmare. He's then startled by his alarm from his phone. It's 7am on a Monday, time to go to work. A little afraid and slightly uncomfortable, he quickly showered in the bathroom, trying to not remind himself what happened in the bathroom.
He arrives at the pizzeria with his scooter. As he clocks in, the day continues as normal, as everyday is with a minute pray that c00lkid doesn't come to the pizzeria and cause destruction like back then.
it was late into the night.
the scent of gunpowder in the air, the sound of rain trickling on cheap zinc roofs and a bloodied corpse lays on the bags of trash near the garbage bin, hole carved in the forehead, oozing blood down to the victim's eyes and nose, all from a gunshot. Don " Mafioso " Sonnelinno stood there, quiet and slightly satisfied.
" Way to go, boss! Another debtor dealt with. " Contractee cheerfully exclaims. " Yeah, that'll show em' not to mess with the Sonnelinos " adds Soldier. Suddenly, the two of them gets slapped in the back of the head.
" Keep it down you two! People, or even worse, the police might hear us, you dimwits. " Consigliere sternly warns them. " So boss, whaddya want us to do? " he asks Mafioso about the corpse.
Mafioso turns around, his coat swishing slightly in his movements. He walks away from them and commands them in a stern and serious tone," Throw 'im in the bin boys. Good work, im treating you all pizza tonight. "
The goons cheered, Caporegime and Soldier picks up the body, sloppily lifting and discarding the body in the bin as per following instructions. The other two cleans up the blood stains, and the trace of their existence in that alleyway before they catch up to Mafioso down the street.
Caporegime whispers over to Consigliere as they were walking behind Mafioso, " Is boss just taking us to the pizzeria to see that pizza boy? ". Consigliere just nods, looking at Caporegime as he was on his phone, checking his To-Do list of the day.
When they arrived, Mafioso insisted his boys to get to a table, letting him order. They knew his real intentions for coming there but simply cheers him on since well its their boss and he's treating them to pizza.
Mafioso approached the counter where a half-asleep and overworked Elliot stood at. " cuero mio, would you please take my order? " Mafioso exclaims in his trying to flirt with Elliot voice, deep and bold paired with a grin was mysterious and yet charming in a way, but not today, not to Elliot.
When Elliot looked up, looking at Mafioso in the eyes. He was about to greet Mafioso, but his mind. His mind wandered into last night, the nightmare, the recollecting of horror and truth. The words that said " Nice to see you darling " was stuck in his throat. Instead of spitting it out, he looked back to the ordering screen, pressed a few buttons as quickly as he could, since he knew what Maf and the boys always got, and hands the receipt to Maf, without any small talk or even the aforementioned greeting.
Mafioso confused, he was about to speak when Elliot suddenly taps his coworker's back who was sitting nearby to man the counter instead as he walks away into the kitchen. Mafioso simply watched him disappear into the back, as he places the correct amount of Robux to pay for the order. Mafioso decides maybe he'll talk to Elliot after his shift, planning to stay there until it closed.
—Approximately 20 minutes later
Mafioso waits by outside, his goons already headed back to the base. He spots Elliot, in the parking lot, slowly walking towards his scooter. He slowly waltz over to Elliot, hoping he'll go back tonight with a kiss from his cucciolo, his one and only.
" caro mio, are you doing fine? Back there, you just walked off without even speaking to me. Difficult day I assume? " Mafioso said with a gentle tone as he approaches Elliot.
Elliot looks at Mafioso, dead in the eyes. A small shock and terror in his eyes. Mafioso comes closer, attempting to give Elliot a comfort hug.
Suddenly. Elliot shouts, "Stay away from me!" as he pushes Mafioso away, hands trembling to the core.
The move confused Mafioso, " Eli, what's wrong!? ".
" just stay away from me, Maf. please, I'm asking you, begging you this. " Elliot replied, his tone sounded scared. The same tone Mafioso hears when his "targets" beg for mercy, groveling to him for a chance to live before he heartlessly slaughters them.
" Eli, what are you saying? I don't understand where's all of this coming from, dear." Mafioso trying to console and confront Elliot. " Please just tell me what's happening, love " he continued as he tries to close the distance between them.
A harsh slap stops Mafioso dead in his tracks.
" Maf, I can't keep being like this , I can't keep being with you. I don't want us to be a thing anymore. "
" Eli...No. Please don't say that, you don't mean.."
" Let's break up, let's never see meet again, let's just cut everything between us. "
" But why!? What's gotten into you.. why are you suddenly saying all of this? Eli.. please don't break us up, I can't be without you, carissimo. You're everything to me, don't do this.. "
Elliot points towards the small stain on Mafioso's inner white shirt, the smudge of blood from tonight's target.
" That. That's why we're breaking up. You're not normal, Maf. You're a murderer. "
Mafioso looks at his shirt, the spot Elliot pointed. Isn't this unreasonable? Why is he commenting about his work now? Didn't he seem fine with it?
" Eli, my dear.. That's just my work.. I thought you were fine with it, you knew for a while now, haven't you? Those targets I hunt were just debtors, they're bad people. They borrow and never returned the generosity. That's just how my family handles things. It's business.. " Mafioso's voice begins to show its cracks, even through his explanation. He was a Sonnelinno, he can't cry like this. It's not gentlemanly.
" Business? Your damn business can go to hell. You and your family can go to hell. And me being fine with it all? I wasn't, I had to live every fucking day, pretending that you were someone normal. Pretending everything was okay, but it's not. I cover everything for you, when you killed your "targets", when you stalked them, when you ordered your men to get them. I really believed they're were awful people. But the truth is as clear as day Maf,
these people aren't really as dreadful as you make them sound like right? they're just unlucky targets to you, just wild animals needing to be put down, but they're human, breathing living humans to me."
Mafioso was left speechless. Elliot was right, these targets of his aren't some different species from him. They bleed, they cry and they scream like a human, just an ordinary person.
" I was a target too wasn't I, Maf? "
" Eli. You promised me, we promised each other. That was in the past, that was a different me. It was all just business with your father. You had nothing to do with it. "
" But you stalked me. You followed me in the dark. You commanded your men to find me. If not for my father's hardwork, I wouldn't even stand before you right now. And you claim you're different now? What's different then? You still slaughter your targets like livestock, you treat their bodies like garbage and yet you say you've changed? Maybe to me, maybe you don't try to take me out. Is the reason you say you've changed is because I'm just your toy? Some ex-target you had, some new lamb for you to sink your teeth into? "
" What?! No! Why would I think of you like that? We're equals aren't we? Aren't- "
Elliot cuts Mafioso's words, and interrupting him.
" Then I'm just your lucky lamb aren't I? " Elliot continued, as he got onto his scooter.
Mafioso grabs onto Elliot's arm, " Wait, Elliot! Don't leave please!" He doesn't want to let go. But the words to keep Elliot aren't here, the sentences to stop him were minced to shreds. He was willing to be dragged on the concrete, who cares if he were to bleed or scarred, holding onto Elliot, apologizing.
Elliot yanks him arm away, leaving no words to spare for Mafioso, drifting off in the night, without looking back. Leaving Mafioso, crouched in the dark, empty parking lot of the pizzeria. Tears welled in his eyes, how is he supposed to get Elliot back? How was he going to deny what Elliot said when all of it was true to the root.
how are we going to be together again?
you were a pizza boy and i was a criminal.
