Whiskey and Wine (A Sequel)

~1~

DeNiro household

2 years.

2 whole years without them.

2 whole years since she was assigned 'Boss'.

2 whole years since the house she grew up in became a distant memory. It was hard for them to leave but no matter how hard they scrubbed, the red stain on the floor in the entrance gave them a painful twang in the heart whenever they'd see it. y/n even began to subconsciously avoid walking on it when she walked through the front door. It was all she had left of him, there was no way she could just trample over him. She often wondered why she left him alone in that house. No, it was good they moved out, they needed a fresh start. Whoever the new owners were had most probably pulled up the floor by now and replaced it with all new tiles. Meaning he was gone.

"y/n, Cooper needs bail" an all too familiar voice spoke, pulling her out of her trance. She peeled her eyes away from the photo on her desk, the one that kept her sane in her craziest of headspaces. She continued to squeeze the foamy red ball in her right hand as she looked towards the open door of her office. Her eyes were met with a pair of deep brown ones, not much else for her to see as he was wearing his signature balaclava. She just nodded as he walked over and sat on the seat in front of her desk. She put down the ball, making sure the angry face on it was facing her, if it wasn't facing her, she'd feel bad for it, even though it was an inanimate object.
"do they still take checks?" she asked, picking up a pen and clicking it against the desk. She pulled her seat forward and leaned for her check book, pulling it closer to her, almost shivering at the satisfying sound of it scraping against the desk. She looked up at him to confirm she should write it and he nodded. She began writing it out and then asked
"how much is his bail?" and after a few seconds of no answer, she looked up at the man in front of her to see him staring at her. She just sighed and put her pen down
"what?"
"don't "what" me, what's up with you?"
"what do you mean? Nothing's up"
"y/n, I've known you for nearly 4 years... what's up?"
"just...thinking"
"you know you shouldn't be thinking too much, that big beautiful brain of yours is too dangerous" y/n just exhaled a laugh slightly raising her eyebrows for a second as to say 'yeh, sure'
"Robert or Schlatt?" Her eyes shot up to him as those names left his lips
"you keep looking at the picture so I can only assume it's one of those two" he said to her, as to answer her 'how did you know' expression on her face
"Robert" she spoke quietly, shifting her gaze to the unfinished check in front of her and then back up
"don't look at me like that, Swagger, I don't need your sympathy, it's been two years, I'll get over it soon enough" she said, picking up her pen again
"no one is expecting you to get over it
y/n, you watched your dad die, for godsake, you knelt in his blood, it's gonna take a lot longer than two years to get over that. You might not ever get over it and that's perfectly fine as well. Look at me, y/n" she moved her head up and looked into his eyes, he noticed hers had glossed over more than usual, tears swelling in the inner corners that she tried blinking away.
"just because you're a mafia boss, doesn't mean you can't have emotions, you're still human" y/n's tongue migrated to her inner left cheek as she nodded
"twenty five thousand"
"huh?"
"that's how much his bail is, twenty five thousand dollars"
"what did he do?" she asked, wiping a stray tear before writing it out onto the check
"assault charge"
"well, you tell him I can't keep paying twenty five thousand dollars whenever he gets a temper tantrum, this is the 3rd time this year and it's only February" she sighed as she pulled out the check and passed it to him
"I'm not the one getting him"
"well, tell Mully to tell him then"
"will do, Boss" she just glared at him as he smirked, knowing she hated being called boss
"I'll get out of here before I need to pay twenty five grand for you" he laughed, standing up.
"yeh, good idea" she joked back before he walked towards the door
"oh, and umm," Swagger started as he turned around to look back at y/n
"everyone is planning on having a game night and Dana is making some fancy ass cocktails and shit, so if you're not too busy with business, we're hoping you'll join us"
"I'll be there" she smiled, knowing she'd have to move a few things around but she could make it happen
"a smile looks good on you, by the way" he said walking out before seeing her cheeks flash a light shade of red. Lucky for y/n, she wasn't the best at taking compliments.

Depp household

Gaege stared at the amber liquid filling up his glass, watching the tiny bubbles float to the top and then pop, only to be replaced by another, identical bubble. If he hadn't seen it just pop, he could have swore it was the same bubble.
"Gaege?"
"oh shit sorry, I zoned out" he spoke as he turned the Jack Daniels bottle upright and screwed the lid back on in a rush and then leaned down to the glass to sip some of it from the top so he could move it without spilling more than what had overflown due to his neglect of noticing
"what's up?" he asked as he picked up a rag and wet it under the sink behind the bar.
"I was just saying, I know you're under a lot of stress lately so maybe you can take a break out of your busy schedule and do something to relax yourself, you know, other than a 5 minute break to come to your bar and pour yourself a whiskey"
"uh, yeh, I know, and I will, it's just hard finding the time" Gaege spoke as he threw the rag into a little basket under the sink and then picked up his drink from the now clean countertop and walked around to the front of the bar
"well if you have a few minutes now, we can go over your schedule and I can help you move some things around, if you want?" Gaege thought for a moment and then nodded
"follow me" he said, taking a sip from his glass and began walking through the house towards this office, closely followed by his friend and underboss.
"hey Gaege" a sweet voice came from behind the two
"hey gorgeous" he spoke back without looking back or stopping, knowing who he was talking to and knowing that she would follow as well. She skipped slightly in order to catch up to him and then walked beside him, match his fast pace.
"I got the papers from Reid's deal but he said it's missing forty two and fifty eight because there were a few things he was unsure about so call him ASAP to clear that up with him" she informed as she handed him a folder of documents
"alright, no worries, I'll get that sorted, thanks Liv" he said as they arrived at his office
"and um," she cleared her throat and then whispered to him
"I wanted to talk to you at some point" a smirk grew on his face, knowing there wasn't going to be much talking involved
"later, I'll come get you" he spoke low before she smiled and walked away. Gaege turned towards Narrator who was just staring at him.
"talk, huh?"
"yeh, so what?"
"you two do a lot of talking then?" Narrator smirked, to which Gaege tutted and then said
"shut up and open to door" given that in one hand was a glass and in the other was a folder.
"so you two are dating then?" he asked his boss as they walked into the office
"maybe, maybe not, what's it to you?" Gaege responded, placing the folder and drink onto his desk and then sat down
"just want to know if I have to run around hiding your secret relationship with y/n DeNiro aka, the boss of a rival gang ever again or if that phase in your life is over" Narrator watched as his friend physically tensed up at the mention of her name
"I'll take that as I maybe" he spoke quieter and sat down in front on the desk
"she...no, you don't need...that's not important anymore" Gaege stumbled over his words. Truth is, the though of her still left him tongue-tied, but he knew better than to ever ignite that flame again. They were both leaders and rivals, it would be completely idiotic to even think of a fling with each other again. He did really like Olivia, she was perfect in every way. Every way but one.

She wasn't y/n.