Anger Management [Meloghia]

Chapter 15: Unfit for Combat

TRIGGER WARNING

Sorbet was sitting on the couch that evening watching TV with Gelato snuggled into his chest. Prosciutto and Pesci were on the other couch absorbed in the drama unfolding on the screen. He fiddled with Gelato's earring absently and then ran his fingers through his hair. Gelato stared at the TV vapidly as he lay there. Sorbet wished he could do something to make his lover smile that wicked little grin he always wore back before the mission to discover the boss's identity. Now he was lucky if the facade even touched his eyes. Sorbet looked down at Gelato's arm wrapped around his body and glimpsed Gelato's wrist. There were more little burns peeking out from his shirt cuff.

Sorbet took a deep breath and sighed.

He didn't know what to do anymore. He tried talking but that never ended well. They wanted different things. No matter how many times Gelato brought up their leaving Passione, Sorbet managed to talk him down each time. There was nowhere to go. There was job security here with Esecuzioni. He'd worked with Risotto since the beginning. He, Risotto, and Prosciutto were here because they wanted to be. They were good at what they did and they took pleasure in their work. The others had all joined Passione for different reasons: protection, security, hope. It was Sorbet's fault that Gelato was here in the first place.

After they had first met, they continued to bump into each other at a popular nightclub in Napoli, Polvere di Stelle, that many Passione members went to on their off time. Gelato had found him at the bar after Risotto had left him to find Prosciutto. It wasn't long before they were making out on one of the couches in the place. He found Gelato exotic. At the time he had his brow and tongue pierced along with his left nipple. Later that night, he'd found some other piercings that had made sex interesting. Gelato had since removed the brow piercing but he'd kept all the others, and Sorbet still loved seeing them every time he undressed Gelato.

Back then, Sorbet made it a point to go to the club every Thursday to see Gelato. Gelato was six years younger. He had been kicked out of his parent's house at seventeen for being gay and had lied about his age to obtain work as a stripper. He also did less legal sex work on the side which hadn't bothered Sorbet; Gelato did what he had to do in order to survive. At the time, no one knew that Sorbet was gay which is why he'd kept their meetups a secret from the gang. It had been hard since Illuso always pried into everything. Illuso was actually the first to find out about him and Gelato; he still held that as a point of pride to this day. These were still the early days before Formaggio, Ghiaccio, Melone, and Pesci had joined, otherwise, Sorbet was sure Melone would have been the next to know.

They had been meeting up every week for two months until one night when a woman had decided that she was going to win Sorbet over no matter what it took. She hung on him all night long and tried to dance with him several times. The most distressing part was that Gelato was nowhere in sight. He was hoping to shake the woman off as soon he arrived by making out with him in front of her so she would get the hint. He never showed up. Eventually, he managed to shake her long enough for a cigarette. When Sorbet went out to the back alley to light up, he heard a struggle nearby. He heard crying. He still didn't know what made him go look. Any other time Sorbet would have just smoked his cigarette and let the universe play its scene out before his passive audience. Must have been fate because that night's decision changed his life forever.

When Sorbet turned the corner, he saw Gelato pinning the woman from earlier up to the wall with a knife to her throat. She was crying and begging for her life.

"Gelato?" Sorbet called out to him. Gelato turned, grabbed the girl and spun her so she stood in front of him, knife still to her throat.

"This bitch thought she could really have you," Gelato smirked, that wicked smirk that stirred him up inside and made him fall so hard. The woman pleaded with Sorbet to help her. "Shut the fuck up, whore! He doesn't care about you. He isn't yours. He's mine."