The Celts (West Side Story: Riff X Reader)

Chapter 14

(I know nothing about Spanish languages, so to avoid any sort of thing that might seem racist or anything, there won't really be any upfront references)

The three of us were soon on Shark turf in the dead of night, which was obviously pretty sketchy of us. Which, of course, led to us running into three Sharks at the end of an alleyway. 

"Bernardo's gonna love this." One of them said.

"Will he?" Riff asked, a dreary and tough edge to his voice as he took a single step forward. 

"No." The guy said with a smile in his voice. They then nabbed us. I couldn't see his features in the shadow shroud that everyone's face donned, but a guy's hand encased my entire arm and pulled me.

"Don't fight with them, they ain't allowed to hurt us." Riff said over a brief commotion. Despite what her brother had just said, the sound of a scuffle came from where Andrea was standing. She'd thrown a punch at a guy, but he caught her. Riff and I were taken to a tiny salt shed to speak with Bernardo. 

We were alone until Bernardo threw open the rickety door.

"What do you want, Riff?" He asked loudly, standing directly in front of us with his arms crossed in front of his red and black striped shirt. "Another one of my sisters? Some money? A smoke? A kiss?"

"Nah, I already gots someone to kiss." Riff said with a shrug, stepping forward and dropping his tough demeanor. "We need some help." 

"You come to the right place." Bernardo said. "What is it? That new gang in town?"

"Yes." Riff nodded.

"Ain't she one of the Celts?" He asked, nodding toward me. 

"The Celts don't really exist no more. She's a Jet." Riff said. "See, we snuffed out their main guy and they fell apart. But now they's comin' back together to try and take the Jets out." 

"Kind of like how the Jets tried to take the Sharks out." Bernardo said with a slow, condescending nod. 

"Let's just let bygones be bygones." Riff said. His face seemed to be subtly falling back into stone.

"You're asking me to put my boys' lives in danger, get a lot of us arrested, and for what?" Bernardo asked stiffly.

"Give ya five dollars." Riff said. 

"Pitiful."

"Ten." My Friend fired back. "Fifteen." 

Bernardo shook his head. 

"Twenty whoppin' bucks and I'll talk the Sharks up to Krupke and Schrank." Riff said, this time louder. His voice then dropped. "I'll get Maria back to Manhattan." 

Without another moment of consideration, Bernardo slapped his hand into Riff's and they shook their agreement into existence. 

"How are you gonna do that?" Bernardo asked him. "She loves Atlanta. She ain't moving back."

"I'll just tell Tony that I gots myself a girl of my own." Riff said, finally glancing back at me. "He'll wanna meet her and Maria's gonna come up here with him for a little visit." 

"She your girl?" 

"Yeah," I nodded quickly, holding my hand out for him to shake. I'd seen Sharks around, but Ronan used to tell us to avoid them just like he had done the Jets. "Elizabeth Byrne."

"Liza." He nodded, shaking you hand. "Yeah, I heard of you. You got arrested yesterday. Got her out real quick, Riff." 

"Of course." He grinned toothily. 

"You hold up your end of the bargain, and we ain't gonna have any trouble." Bernardo said. "I'll show you the works of our stuff."

He led us out of the salt shed and took us around an alley and into a door that was slightly ajar. The room that he had brought us into was full of boys either having a smoke or playing cards. There was only one other lady that I could see, and she greeted Bernardo with a kiss. Her yellow dress swayed with her movements. Bernardo didn't introduce anyone; instead, he just continued walking us through the crowd of boys. I could feel their eyes on me.

Bernardo glanced back at me. "They can look," he said, "they just can't touch." 

Bernardo took us downstairs and into a dark room. On the wall was a giant map of New York laden with different colors, the other wall had a board with hanging knives and a single gun, and the table had an old checkers board atop it.

"What is this?" I asked, looking around. 

"What do these colors mean?" Riff asked. he was standing in front of the board. 

"Those are all the gangs and groups in the state." Bernardo replied. There was a blue circle on Upper Manhattan connected to another circle on Eastern Manhattan by a short string. I assumed it was the alliance formed by the Jets and Sharks. In the dead center of Manhattan was a tiny green circle with no connections. That much have been the Celts. There was only one other circle in Manhattan, but I wasn't sure what it was. 

(Do I smell a Newsies and West Side Story crossover???)