West Side Story AU

WSS AU

Dedicated to taciturnMasquerade who helped me come up with this idea.

WARNING: Violence, blood, guns, death, swearing.

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Doc looked to his fists, trying his hardest to keep the salty tears from spilling from his eyes. He looked up to Tony, the boy he had hired and grown to care about as if he was Doc's own son.

"Why do you fight like there's a war on?" Doc asked, slightly breaking down. He couldn't do it, but he had to. Tony deserved to know, but he didn't deserve for it to happen.

"What's wrong, Doc?" Tony asked, worried. The poor kid. Doc only worried about how he would react to the news. Tony and Maria were in love, and Doc could see it clear as day... and now Maria was dead.

"That customer upstairs was Anita. Chino found out about you and Maria-" the aging man paused and took a breath before letting the next words leave his lips.

"And he killed her." Doc looked to the ground as a single tear left his eye. All he heard was the sound of Tony running from the basement yelling.

"CHINO! CHINO! COME GET ME TOO!" Tony cried. This couldn't be happening. Maria had been his life source, his miracle, everything he could wish for. They were going to run away together. She couldn't be dead... but Doc never lied; and deep down, Tony knew that.

Tony ran through the streets screaming, banging on metal, and shaking fences. Anything he could do to get Chino's attention. If Chino had a gun, and killed Maria; Tony wanted to die too.

Then he saw her.

Maria stood under a lamppost, just around the corner. She saw him and smiled.

"TONY!" She called, full of glee.

"MARIA!" Tony yelled with the same tone. She was alive, and that's what mattered.

The two ran to each other, longing to be in each others arms once more. Before they got any closer, Chino came from around a corner and fired the gun. He froze and stared at the sight ahead. He had been aiming to hit Tony, the American boy who had stolen his fiancés heart from him...

but he missed.

Maria stopped and looked down to see the blood seeping through her shirt. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Tony and Chino's eyes both went wide.

"MARIA!" Tony ran to her faster than he has run in his entire life. He yelled with so much pain, anger, heartbreak, and hope in only one word. Pain that he had lost her, found her, and was getting her taken away. Anger that Chino would do such a thing. Heartbreak because he was loosing the one he loved. Finally, he hoped that this was all but a dream. A sick nightmare he would awaken from at any moment, but sadly, that wasn't the case. This was real, but Tony would have done anything for it to not be.

He reached her in a second, and fell to the ground beside her. He pulled her head into his lap and held her hand.

"Maria, please, no. Oh, no. Please!" He cried and begged, but nothing changed, and there was nothing he could do. Maria smiled weakly, and rested her hand on his cheek. Tony held his hand over hers as she wiped his tears away.

"Tony..." He kissed her hand as he cried more and began to sing.

"Hold my hand and we're half-way there-" Maria lightly sang along, "Take my hand and I'll take you there. Someday, somewhe-" Maria's voice faded as her breathing slowed and limbs dropped. Her lips paled and her eyes remained open, and motionless. Tony gripped her hand as he sobbed. Slowly, he closed her eyes as he broke down into endless sobs.

Then, he remembered who pulled the trigger.

People began filling the basketball court. Jets, Sharks, and Chino. Chino stood where he had been the whole time, staring at the gun in his hand. Tony walked up to Chino and ripped the weapon from his hands before pointing it back at the murderer.

"How many bullets are left, Chino? Tell me, how many goddamn bullets are there, huh?!" He got angrier by the second. One of the Sharks moved towards Maria's motionless body, and Tony turned to him.

"BACK OFF!" Tony shouted, pointing the gun at the man's face. Chino regained his thoughts.

"One." He had put two bullets in so that if he missed Tony once, he would get a second chance... but he had missed by too far, and he would have to live with that...

Or would he?

Tony opened the barrel of the pistol, to double check. Chino had not been lying. Only one bullet remained of the eight slots. He thought carefully of what to do with the bullet, his last chance.

"You don't deserve it..." Tony spoke quietly. "You don't deserve to die. You know what you deserve? You deserve to live, with only the thought of what you have done. You deserve to suffer, and live with the fact that you killed one of the best people on this planet! You killed the girl who just wanted the fighting to stop, it's all your fault! I hope you rot with the memories of what you did to that poor girl! What you did to the only good thing in my entire damn life!" Tony quickly turned his wrist and pointed the pistol to his temple. Salty tears streamed from his face, to the ground as Sharks and Jets all watched in shock of what he was doing. A few Jet's stepped forward to stop him, but were too slow.

"You deserve to live."

Tony pulled the trigger and a loud BANG pierced the air. Everyone stopped as Tony and the gun fell to the ground. Six Jets came out to carry away Maria's body, and six Sharks came out to carry Tony's.

Baby John stood in the group sobbing, and A-rab pat the boy's back to comfort him. Baby John turned to the rest of the Jets and spoke.

"I didn't sign up for this." He began walking away before he saw Anita. She watched as the men carried away Maria, the girl Anita had seen as her sister and closest friend, and fell to the ground in sobs. Baby John caught the grieving girl, and hugged her, stroking her back lightly. Everyone began filing out, but Anita and Baby John just stayed there, holding each other. Baby John felt weird about it, they didn't really know one another, but he knew that she had no one else to turn to. He could see it in her eyes.

No one knows exactly how long they stayed like that for, but they knew that it didn't matter. What mattered that, due to a stupid little feud over a piece of street, two lovestruck, hopeful, and finally happy people died that day.

All that was left was who was to break the news to Doc...