the sweetest most incredible feeling when someone tells me they like the way that i draw a character, there is no dopamine that could ever replace that
Hello @pancakes1173, apologies if this is late! I wasn’t your SS originally for the @rusame-secret-santa-2017, however I’m here to save the day! I had a difficult time trying to keep this under control, but here it is. I hope it was well-worth the wait!
I went with the mafia au where Al needs protecting and Ivan’s his big, buff, deadly handsome bodyguard.
cw for injuries and cursing (courtesy of Al, of course).
Also available on: ao3
“You’re giving me another bodyguard? Again?”
The blonde let out an exasperated sigh, before glancing at the tall, burly man that was standing across the table, just behind his boss. “Yes, Alfred, because you have to remember: we’re in the middle of a war. And you, as one of our best assets, need the protection,” groused Arthur, before sliding another folder across the table. “Make sure that only you and your brother read that. Speaking of which, he’s getting a new bodyguard as well.”
“Wait, what?! But I thought you already—” the younger man began, reaching for the folder and opening it. After a few minutes of scanning the contents, his eyebrows shot up so high, they threatened to vanish into his hairline. “Okay, this is just as crazy as the last assignment you gave me, if not even worse. You’re absolutely certain I need him to protect me?” he continued, gesturing to the other man in the room. As he looked at the other person in the room, he couldn’t help but wonder—where had he seen that gaze before, the one staring at him from behind the simple black mask he wore?
The other individual seemed to think the same, his own eyes widening slightly as he caught sight of the person he was assigned to protect—but before Alfred could voice out what was on his mind, Arthur’s voice called him back to the present, breaking his train of thought.
“Yes, Alfred, now don’t be such a stubborn asshole. Hell knows how far your fighting skills—or lack thereof—can take you. If you take on this, with your brother, without protection, I’m more than certain we’ll not only lose what we’ve gained so far, but we’ll get set back by several months—if not up to a year—with what Yao’s planning. You know full well we’re just the executioners, Yao calls all the shots. In fact, it was his idea that you two brothers get the new bodyguards in the first place.”
“Yeah, yeah, alright, alright, I get the point, d—Arthur,” he replied as he caught himself, holding up both his hands before picking up the folder and holding it in his free hand. “I’ll see to it that Mattie reads this. Hell knows how much trouble we’ll all get into if this fails.”
An hour had passed after that eventful meeting, and Alfred was now making his way back home through the dark alleyways and back streets accompanied by his new bodyguard, his suspicions still bothering him. No sooner had he texted his older brother Matthew about the details of their new assignment, he knew that they were getting in way over their heads, as they always did. It was just in their nature as hackers to do so.
They’d skirted past several shortcuts when Alfred decided to turn around and scratch the proverbial itch that was bothering him. He couldn’t help but wonder—he knew that the man’s gaze looked horribly familiar. Hoping that his suspicions were wrong, he then cleared his throat before speaking up, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
“Look, this has been bothering me since earlier, but…” he trailed off, reaching for his phone once again and looking at the message he’d received from his brother—no doubt having been briefed about their situation. After firing off a quick reply to him, he then decided to text a particular number, saying that he would be coming home late. Once the message had sent, he then returned his phone to his pocket, before turning around to continue on the journey back to their safehouse.
He’d missed the very subtle motions his bodyguard had gone through when he felt his own phone vibrate; nor did Alfred see that he’d hung back a few paces to send a reply, no doubt to the one that had texted him a few moments ago saying that he’d be coming home late—and that even he’d be arriving rather late as well and to not wait up for his arrival. Once the message had been sent, he then kept his phone, and kept an eye on the man in front of him.
The other man’s suspicions were confirmed as Alfred came to a stop before digging something out of his pocket, and he silently observed as the blonde bit his lip in a very familiar fashion, a trait he tended to do when he was thinking of what to say. His own fingers then flew across the keyboard, telling the other to be careful on the way home; and that he’d have a sandwich waiting for him on the kitchen counter upon his arrival from wherever he needed to be.
After he sent this reply, he then slid his phone back into his pocket; before continuing to walk forward, looking around ever so often just in case they were being followed; his new ‘bodyguard’ following him in a silent march. He didn’t hear the click of the safety releasing as his companion loaded a fresh magazine into his concealed weapon, before his field of vision suddenly lurched forward and several shots rang out above his head.
“Whoa, what the fuck?!” he yelled as he instinctively cradled his hands over his head as more shots rang out—and he eventually ended up kissing the ground due to falling hard. Much as he wanted to ask what was going on, he decided to keep his mouth shut as the gunfire continued, before he heard the familiar sound of a reloading magazine catching his attention before more shots rang out from above him.
See, this is the problem when you work for the mafia, you don’t know when you’ll get shot in a fucking dark alleyway! I swear, this regally sucks! He thought to himself as the shots then came to a stop, before he felt his center of gravity shift as his bodyguard roughly pulled him up and then pointed ahead of him. “What? You want me to run? And leave you behind?! No way, man! Come on!” he hissed, plucking the other’s sleeve as he began to run, before another round of gunfire echoed above and around them.
“I swear, don’t make this difficult for me! Come on, let’s go! I don’t want you to die here!” he yelled at his masked bodyguard, before insistently pulling him forward. The whizz of bullets by his feet caused him to yelp, before be put all his weight into pulling his bodyguard forward as he began to run away from where they were being set upon by gunmen from multiple sides. “I’m not moving until you come with me! I know you’re taking your job as a bodyguard seriously, but don’t get yourself killed!” he added, still struggling to drag the taller person along as the gunfire intensified.
And still his companion refused to talk, instead shoving him forward and forcing him to move as the gun in his hands ran out of bullets. “No!” Alfred shouted as he was literally forced to move forward as the other hastily reloaded another magazine into the gun and continued firing at the unknown attackers. “Dude, I swear, don’t be such a hard ass! You may be my bodyguard, but don’t throw your life away over me! I’m sure you have… a family waiting for you, right?!” he continued, barely budging an inch and shouting over the gunfire that continued to rain down around them.
Bullets continued to ricochet around them, some barely missing Alfred and his companion as more gunfire echoed from all around them. While Alfred was stubborn as an ox, his companion was even worse—refusing to budge an inch until he’d began his escape. Seeing that his companion refused to move unless he moved, the blonde groaned, before eventually making a break as he ran forward. “You better catch up to me, I swear! Art will have my head if I lose another bodyguard!” he yelled as he broke out into a sprint in order to get away from the battleground.
However, things would progress from bad to worse in the span of the few moments he’d wasted shouting at his companion. Alfred had barely taken twenty paces from where he’d left his bodyguard when he felt a sudden pain burning from his right thigh. Yelping in surprise, he looked down and saw that the leg of his jeans were getting stained with what looked like…
“Ah, fuck, no!” he growled, struggling to get up so that he could keep running. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…” he muttered to himself, managing to stand and limp forward a few more paces before he felt another burning pain sear through his body, catching him by surprise. The blonde then looked at his left shoulder and saw blood staining his shirt…
“Damn it!” he snarled just as his companion caught up to him, having reloaded another magazine into his gun and firing above him. “Shit, I’m sorry,” he continued, pressing his right hand to the wound in his shoulder in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “M-my mistake,” he added, wincing as he continued to press down harder, forcing himself to move forward to no avail, before slumping against the wall. “Ugh, ow…” he groaned as he attempted to press his left hand to the wound on his right thigh to stop the bleeding as well. “Fuckin’ hurts…” he muttered as he leaned against the wall in an attempt to keep moving forward. He had to get home, otherwise the other one waiting for him would worry…
Before he could force himself to move forward despite the fact his legs were now shaking, he felt a pair of arms suddenly pick him up from where he stood and dash forward through the gunfire. “D-d’you even know wh-where my apartment is…” he muttered softly as he forced himself to stay awake despite the burning pain in his thigh and shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you…” his companion rumbled softly before the blackness swimming at the edge of his consciousness swallowed him.
A hiss of pain brought Alfred back to the world of the waking as he looked around frantically—and met a very familiar gaze. “Shh, don’t move,” he heard a familiar voice say, before he felt the sting of antiseptic being rubbed into his shoulder. “Ow! What the—Vanya?!” he began, startled as he blinked the cobwebs in his eyes away.
The nagging suspicion from earlier then hit him like a train as he realized just where he was. How’d he end up in Ivan’s apartment? The very last he remembered was running through an alleyway with a newly-assigned bodyguard…
“…it was you?!” he began, his voice rising, before hissing as Ivan continued to clean up the bullet wound in his shoulder. “You—you’re my bodyguard?!” he spat out, before he felt a hand shove him back down on the couch.
“And you… you didn’t tell me you worked for Wang Yao,” Ivan hissed back as he continued to dab disinfectant into the wound on the blonde’s shoulder. “I know you work in IT, but a hacker? A hacker for the mafia? Fedya, really,” he continued, disapproval evident in his voice.
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner! I didn’t know how to… well, I didn’t want you to get involved in the shit I’m neck-deep in!” he yowled back as a thick wad of drenched gauze was applied to his shoulder. He could smell vodka on the gauze, before he felt even more bandages being wrapped around the injury as Ivan worked quickly.
“Don’t worry about the wound on your thigh, I already got that treated as best as I could while you were passed out,” he continued gruffly, wrapping the bandages tightly around Alfred’s shoulder. “I’m going to have to call Arthur and tell him what happened—”
“No! Don’t!” Alfred yelped from his current position on the couch. “He’ll lose his shit again!” he added, before realizing—“The information! Van—Ivan, have you seen the information Arthur gave me?!”
“I have it right here,” he continued, gesturing to the coffee table where the folder that Alfred had perused some hours ago currently lay. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”
“But… wait, where are we? This isn’t my place—”
“I know, Fedya, it is my apartment. I am very certain that your apartment has now been compromised, so I took the liberty of moving some of your more… ah, important items here to my place. Until we can find another safe place for you, you can stay here in my apartment until then.”
“Th-thank you,” he replied gruffly, blinking as he made to sit up on the couch. “W-well, I guess my secret’s out… while I do work for an Information Technology department during the day, I have a second job—I work for the mafia. As you’ve obviously guessed,” he began with a flat voice, before a humorless chuckle erupted from his lips.
“…well, Fedya, you are lucky I’m your new bodyguard. I did not know that your evening job was this dangerous, though,” Ivan said as he swept off to the kitchen, to get some food for the both of them ready. “We should get your injuries checked out, though—”
“Vanya, do you think we can just waltz into an emergency room and tell them, ‘oh, I got shot by the mafia’ as a reason for my injuries? I’d rather think not…” Alfred retorted, before hearing a growl coming from his stomach, which he ignored for the time being. “But seriously, though, you shouldn’t go through all that bother for me, I’m such a—”
“No, Fedya, you aren’t. Although I do remember that we agreed not to keep secrets from each other, correct?” he said from the kitchenette as he quickly prepared food for the both of them.
“Y-yeah, that’s my mistake,” the younger one admitted sheepishly as he made himself more comfortable on the couch before wincing in pain. “W-well… at least we don’t have any secrets hidden from each other now. R-right?”
“…I suppose so,” the taller one continued as he finished throwing together several sandwiches for them to eat. “You better call your brother and have him come over here instead so that you two can get started on the assignment that Yao gave you both,” he added as an afterthought, bringing out a plate of sandwiches to the other so that he could eat.
Nodding, Alfred then reached for his phone and sent a message to his older brother, informing him of the change in plans and to go to the address indicated in the message instead. Once that was done, he then reached for a sandwich and tore into it without a second thought. After he’d downed one sandwich, he then found his voice again just as Ivan had brought him something to drink.
“Iv—Vanya,” he began after he’d eaten several more sandwiches, “…honestly, what do you think of me now? Now that you know I work for the mafia during the evening…” he asked, avoiding the other’s gaze as Ivan joined him on the couch. “Are… are you mad?”
Total silence followed afterward, which was only interrupted as the other man made to take a sandwich that Alfred hadn’t eaten yet. After musing to himself, he had an answer. “Well, Fedya… at least I can keep an eye on you now. Although, isn’t it a bit dangerous for you to be out in the open now?”
“Well, me an’ Mattie are always in over our heads, you know this, but… well, we’re in it for another reason entirely. We just… well, we want to keep our family out of trouble, that’s all…” he answered, averting his gaze as he finished off the sandwich he was holding before reaching for the laptop that was on the coffee table beside the folder that contained their assignment.
“Vanya, babe, can you keep an eye out for Mattie when he arrives? I’m going to get started on what Da—I mean, what Arthur wants me to get done,” he caught himself saying again, reaching for the folder and preparing to get to ‘work’.
“Certainly, Fedya. I’ll let you know once he gets here,” Ivan replied, busying himself as he cleaned his gun while keeping an eye out on the door as he did so. “Although, I will insist that you go to the hospital after you two finish what you need to do, to get your injuries properly checked at.”
“Alright, alright, Vanya… after we get this done. Shouldn’t take too long, y’know,” he muttered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he turned his attention to the laptop screen in front of him, preparing to infiltrate and sabotage a highly-important server. While Alfred was the better one at infiltrating, it was his older brother Matthew that was much more adept at destroying the internal structures of whatever they needed to invade. There was a reason why the brothers worked better as a team, after all.
Being a part of the mafia definitely had its risks; but for the Williams brothers, there really wasn’t anything else to it.
