Blood in the Water

Sweet and sour stories

           The man stood in the kitchen, his height intimidating. Black hair sleeked either by too much product or grease, his beard was neatly trimmed, and his eyes had a look of judgement. It was as if he knew something they did not, which in the case of his sudden appearance might have been true. There was something about his posture that set Y/n off though.
Disturbed by the sudden news of their partners relationship to their greatest enemy, Al and Seth stood in shock. Finally breaking the peace (again) was Derek.
"How ya been sweetheart?" The nickname makes them want to punch him in the face.
"I was doing okay, until now," they glare at him, murder in their eyes. It is incredible how many emotions you could feel about one person. Love, disgust, and terrible hate. He was a cruel man, her father, he'd done unimaginable things over the years. Murder, robbery, torture, and so many more crimes that they could forgive- well as much as one could forgive. It was the fact that he enjoyed his lifestyle that drove them up the wall, that made them want to punch him until he was nothing more than a bloody pulp. Worst of all now though, he came threatening their way of life.
"Hold on, hold on," Al says holding his hands in the time out formation. "Dad? HE is your father? W-why wouldn't you say anything? Bring it up! Mentioned it once in a while?!" Y/n looked at him like he was crazy stupid.
"Oh yeah, hun, let me just bring up the fact that my father is a psychotic gang leader. What would you have wanted to do with that information? Have him for thanksgiving? Invite him over for Christmas parties? I didn't think that conversation would have gone well!" Y/n bites back with sarcasm laced in their words. Seth looked at them angrily,
"But you knew that Derek was the one coming after us and you never thought maybe to mention it?"
"I was hoping someone knew better than to show up unannounced," they glare at Derek, who simply shrugs.
"Hey... I gave a note, even brought gifts" he jokes- mistake. Seth leaps at the man, but Al is quick to catch him. It is a difficult job to hold back a man with his build though.
"WHAT THE —— DID YOU DO TO HER?!"
"Listen, Santa, you shut your mouth about all that, unless you wanna get your —- rocked!" Al curses at him over top of Seth. Derek gives a knowing look at Seth and Al's outbursts. He was trying to get him rilled up.
"You need to leave." Y/n tells him, knowing if this was gonna be a brawl. Three vs one was too good of chances and maybe a part of them that cared about the cruel man or perhaps they were scared he may have something up his sleeve. He knew better than to walk in here alone.
"Meet me at Dawn's bar on the end of the street." Seth's dads bar. Seth gives a growl at this, he was very territorial.
"Why should we?" Al questions, suspecting the man ill intentions.
"Well, we've gotta have a long and hard talk about you boys hanging around my kid. And about their... inheritance." He starts walking out hollering back into the kitchen before leaving, "Be there at 10 pm, don't keep me waiting."

Just as fast as he came, he left. Seth shoves Al off of him and huffs off to the bedroom, slamming the door. Al gives a look of disappointment to Y/n and goes off to the bathroom. Y/n is stuck starring at where their father had been. The rolling pin suddenly felt heavy in their hand, questions flooding their mind. Why hadn't they told anyone? Why was he trying to start things with Seth? His actions and their own were typically more thought through. Something was off about the whole situation. Someone was pulling strings even higher than Derek. They had no idea who.

Later, Seth was the first to come out. He had talked about Al and him, the things they'd done in the past, the people they were. He spilled almost everything. When Al walked into the room, suddenly Y/n was sent for a spin. Dark black hair, piercings, a complete 180 of their bubble gum prince. Seth knew the look though well. It was Alphonse back from his gang days. Suddenly, they were more worried than before.

"I think it's time you explained," Al said sitting across from them next to Seth.
"Which part?" They joked.
"Do you know what he wants?" Seth asked.
"I know as much as you."
"Mm, yet you failed to mention the information about him being your father. So dig a little deeper." Al says with slight venom they wasn't used to being on the end of.
"I don't know what you want me to say!"
"The truth!"
"He's my father, i ran away from home at age 16, likely a little before yall came seeing as we haven't met till recently."
"Why'd you run off?" Seth asked
"Why did you?" They shoot back, "he was a dick. A killer. I didn't want to be apart of that and I knew it. It was fun and flashy when dad first had me into it, but... I just couldn't handle the amount of blood on my hands. The weight I felt from the job was unbearable so I left."
"He had you working? When? What jobs even?"
"Odds and ends at first, I was pretty young at the time. 13, but I was pretty grown for my age physically. I had been working in Dirks for a bit-"
"What?"
"Huh?"
"What's Dirks?" Y/n scrunched up their face at that.
"It's his underground bar, didn't yall work there?"
"No? We always went to Chris' House, that's the bar we went to."
"That was his public bar. It was an actual bar. Dirks was.. well it was like his home base. It's where he made plans and had his senior folks. Ya know the older guys who started it all. He treated them the same, but ya know the seniors had the perks. Wasn't such a shit hole. He kept his secrets there. The drugs, the guns, it was like his storage place for the harder stuff. I worked with organizing, deals, shipments, and sometimes... entertainment for the older guys."
"What kind of entertainment?"
"Well couldn't be a bar without some singers. It was a classy place shockingly. It was his dream to have it God father style. Won't lie the place was decked out. Pretty secretive. If you hadn't been there for years you didn't get in. Like a loyalty bonus."
Al and Seth glance at each other.
"So, what else?"
"I don't know what you know and you don't know what I know. So again. I don't know."
"What do you think of this meeting?"
"I think it's a business proposal."
"Agreed."
"So what should we do?"
"I don't think we have a choice."
"Alright, we should probably start preparing then."
"For what?"
"Probably? War."