Angel's Lie (Mafia)

The Picture

I'm awoken by the sound of Grayson talking to someone. When I open my eyes I see he's on the phone with someone, he's pacing back and forth in front of my bed. He's using his business voice so I'm assuming he's on an important call. He looks over at me and notices I'm awake. He smiles and continues to look ahead. I stand to my feet and walk over to the bathroom when I get out Grayson is leaning his back against the headboard looking ahead. I didn't notice until now that he wore his button-down shirt and dress pants to bed; which are both wrinkled.

"Do you feel better?" I ask when I come to sit next to him on the bed. 

"Much better, it was refreshing to get some uninterrupted sleep...well until I heard snores coming from the left of me." He says while laughing at my reddening face. "Do you mind if I shower?"

"No, go ahead. I'll get some clothes from Bruno's closet." He thanks me and walks towards my bathroom while I go to Bruno's room. When I walk in he's playing video games. 

"Do you mind if I get some clothes for Grayson?" 

"Sure go ahead, all of my casual clothes are in the dresser."

 I walk over to the dresser and realize something; I haven't seen Grayson wear casual clothes since we were kids. Every time I've seen him since the wedding he's been in his business attire. It doesn't surprise me, I never see father wear casual clothes either. I pick out a white t-shirt and blue jeans before going into Bruno's bathroom to grab some hygiene products. I'm sure Grayson doesn't want to smell like cherry blossoms. When I open Bruno's shower there is only one bottle in there and a loofah. I'm about to ask where his hygiene products are until I spot "three in one" on the bottle. I pick up the bottle which says its a shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I make a disgusted face because that didn't seem like it would work, but I don't really want to walk upstairs to go to father's bathroom to grab all of his hygiene products. I know he has more than one bottle up there. When I was little I wanted to be a hairstylist so father would let me wash his hair and shave his beard for him. There was a bottle for each step, not three in one. I shrug my shoulders and walk back into my room. I knock on the door to the bathroom where I hear Grayson yell 'come in' from the shower.

"I brought you some clean clothes and sone weird shampoo, conditioner, body wash, contraption. I think you would be better off using my cherry blossom body wash." I hear Grayson chuckle as I hand him the bottle. I notice a tattoo on his forearm, he never told me he got a tattoo. once he grabs the bottle he brings his arm back in too fast for me to analyze it. I walk out of the bathroom and sit on my bed thinking of something for us to do. I told him when he woke we could spend time together. I hope he still wants to do that, but I don't know what he likes to do. We aren't kids anymore and we can't just go outside and play. 

Soon enough Grayson walks out of the bathroom wearing the jeans I picked out for him but not wearing the shirt. I now notice he has more than one tattoo. There is a tattoo on his chest and one on each side of his ribcage. He turns around to hang his towel on the door as I notice there are tattoos on his back too. 

"Stare much?" Grason says laughing.

"Sorry, I didn't know you had tattoos. Can I see them?" Grayson walks over to my vanity and sits on the chair looking me in the eye through the mirror telling me to come over there. I stand and walk over to him analyzing the tattoo on his back first.

"Do they all have meaning?" I ask. 

"Of course. Come over and look at them and I'll explain them to you." On his back there looks to be a man around Grayson's age, he has the same facial features as Grayson. I look at Grayson through the mirror who is staring at me intensely. "It's my dad when he was our age. I got it for him when he died." I move towards his left forearm and inspect the huge cross that takes up his muscular forearm. "Protection, a lot of men have it somewhere on their arms." The next one I look at is on his ribcage, It's a rose with angel flowers surrounding it. "My childhood and youth." On the other side of his ribcage, there is the words 'La Famiglia e Tutto' "Family over everything." We both say at the same time. The last one is on his chest. I stand in between his legs and closely inspect the tattoo that is located where his heart is. It's only a plain heart with a thick black outline. I run my finger over it before he flinches indicating that he is hurt. I stop immediately before seeing the smile on his face and hear the laugh fall from his mouth."This one isn't finished, it won't be finished for a while." I don't question it in case it is something sentimental.