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Unprecedented: Chapter 9

Lock and Key

Description: Mafia AU. Crona's home life isn't great, but Kid's seems perfect and normal. Even though it's not quite normal to keep a mafia.

Crona's heart pounded in her ears, loud enough that she was afraid that it might alert her enemies to her presence. She clutched the diamond necklace to her chest and tried to push down the slight sense of thrill that threatened to rise up within her soul. She'd get captured if she let her emotions cloud her instinct, she scolded herself, and instinct was the only reason that she had continued to pull off all her robberies without getting caught.

It wasn't as if she had wanted to steal. It was simply that Medusa had demanded that she start pulling in a living for their pathetic little household. Crona had deemed herself hopelessly inadequate for any kind of real job, but if she didn't bring her mother some sort of money, she knew there'd be consequences.

So she had resorted to petty thievery. It was a new low, if she was honest with herself. But she wasn't honest with anyone else, and lying to herself was almost as easy.

She had taken a liking to a large mansion on the outskirts of town. The grounds weren't nearly as well guarded as she would expect from the seemingly richest estate in the whole of Nevada, so it was easy to slip in, grab a valuable, and slip out. Though the man she sold the goods to, a shady pawn shop owner named Noah, seemed privy to secrets regarding the mansion. But whatever he knew, he wasn't about to let it slip.

Crona realized her hands were shaking. She tightened her grip on the necklace to try and calm her nerves, listening for footsteps. Hearing none, she darted her way across the floor, attempting to slip in and out of a patch of moonlight before being seen. For the last few weeks that she had done this, it worked.

This time it didn't.

She didn't know how he had arrived so quietly. She didn't even see his face. All she was aware of was a rough arm suddenly wrapping itself around her neck, gagging her. She dropped the necklace in fright as a man's voice whispered deeply in her ear.

"We've been waiting, thief."

She heard no more before his fist collided with her head, knocking her out cold in an instant.

"You. Lavender. Wake up," someone snapped. Crona could vaguely feel cold metal pressing to her forehead, and her eyelids peeled open blearily.

Her navy-blue eyes flew wide the second she found herself gazing into the barrel of a gun, and her mouth went dry as she found her shaking hands bound to the support beam behind her.

The pink-haired teen's eyes shifted across the room. She couldn't keep her sight in one place, but she also didn't want to meet the eyes of the thugs that surrounded her; a ragtag but fierce-looking group of both men and women. Some stood and some sat in chairs, couches, or the concrete floor, and they appeared to be in some sort of basement. The walls and ceiling were covered with plumbing, wires, switchboxes, and valves. Various metal support beams - like the one she was tied to - bridged the gap between the roof and the floor.

"That's better," the voice continued. Crona dared to allow her gaze to travel upward, up the arm of the hand holding the gun, and to her captor's face. He had tanned skin, startling green eyes, and oddly blue hair, as if a chunk of the sky had crashed on his head. "Do you realize how much money you've cost our mafia?"

Crona's entire body began shaking at his words. "M-mafia?" she stammered. The man before her smirked.

"You heard me right. Mafia," he grinned. "So if you don't give us back every penny that you stole, we have our ways of making you squirm like a worm on a-!"

"Blackstar!"

The man froze at the angered shout that boomed from the stairwell behind him. He whipped around, and Crona craned her neck to try and see the source of the oddly familiar voice, but Blackstar and other mafia members stood in her way.

"I, uh," fumbled Blackstar, "I caught the thief, boss."

Their apparent leader let on an exhausted sigh. "You're supposed to tell me these things," he muttered, shoving his blue-haired subordinate to the side. "Not wait for me to figure it out myself…" He trailed off, his golden eyes growing wide. "Crona?"

Crona froze as well. "Kid?" she breathed.

Blackstar's eyes switched back and forth between Kid and Crona. "You two know each other?" he asked naïvely. Kid promptly turned around and smacked him upside the head.

"Idiot!" he yelled. "How dare you tie up my girlfriend! Release her immediately!"

Blackstar blinked at him. "Girlfriend?" he repeated.

"NOW!" Kid demanded, causing various mafia members to rush forward and quickly untie Crona.

Kid slammed the car door after Crona set herself in the passenger seat, before he walked around to the other side of the car to sit behind the steering wheel. They sat there for a moment in silence, Kid's expression hard to read, Crona's shoulders bunching together.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Kid abruptly growled, slamming his head into the car horn and startling her.

"You better be!" he cried.

"I didn't know it was you," she whimpered. "If I had known it was you, I would've-!"

"Would've done what?!" he shouted, whipping around to fix her in a withering glare. "Stolen from someone else? What were you thinking, Crona?!"

The pink-haired girl felt as if she wanted to shrink back into her seat and disappear. She didn't speak further, but sniffed a little. Immediately the anger drained from Kid's face.

"Oh no," he murmured, his eyes wide. "No, no. Don't cry." He reached out to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders to pull her to his chest. Crona didn't protest, instead turning her face into Kid's shirt.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," he continued. She felt one of his hands move to stroke her hair, calming her slightly. "So, so sorry. I was just scared for you. Blackstar could've easily hurt you, or you could've been arrested long before now."

Crona nodded against the fabric of his shirt. "I k-know," she said softly, squeezing her eyes shut. She heard Kid sigh.

"Promise me not to do it again," he pleaded. She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded silently. She felt the tension relax from Kid's shoulders, and she almost wanted to take back her answer and tell him to not believe her lie.

Kid pulled away from her after a moment, starting the car and moving it down the driveway. Only after they had passed the main gates did Crona speak again.

"How long have you been keeping a mafia in your basement?" she asked softly. Kid's eyes flicked over to her for a moment, but then he settled them back on the road.

"Going on a year now," he replied flatly. Crona took in a deep breath through her nose.

"And you're their boss?"

He nodded.

"Is that why you didn't invite me to your house after last January?"

Another nod.

Crona looked out at the cars beside them on the road. She had been dating Kid for almost two years, and not once had he ever hinted that he might not be the perfect model citizen that he so often portrayed. But Crona had never revealed her true identity either, she sighed a little.

"How'd you get involved with them?" she questioned.

Kid frowned a little. With one hand on the steering wheel, he reached his other hand across the front seat to weave his fingers between hers.

"Dad left me alone for too long," he said. "I got mixed up with a gang and beat myself to the top of it. But I wasn't satisfied with that," he confessed. "I turned that ragtag pack of teens into a full-scale mafia. Even adults joined us, and I set up our headquarters in my estate."

Crona couldn't help but feel admiration for her boyfriend. Getting to that position of power at his age was nothing to scoff at, even if that path had led him to the mafia.

"Well, we're here," Kid said after a minute, parking himself next to the sidewalk in front of her small condo. Crona stiffened instantly, and Kid frowned at her. "Is something wrong?" She shook her head, but the shadow over her boyfriend's face didn't lessen. "I'll see you in class tomorrow," he added. The pink-haired teen merely nodded as he reluctantly separated their fingers, slipping outside. The walk to her front step felt like trekking across brimstone and into lava. She barely set her hand on the knob before Medusa threw the door open.

"Where have you been?!" she shouted, grabbing her daughter's arm so tightly to the point that Crona cried out a little in pain. "You were supposed to be back hours ago!"

Crona flinched at her tone. If her mother was cross now, she dreaded to think about how she would react when she realized that her daughter had returned empty-handed. With one last sad look at Kid, whose face projected a mix of disgust and horror, she stepped inside and closed the door behind herself.

Crona clung to her bedsheets, unable to sleep. Medusa hadn't done anything severe to her yet, so dread and fear kept her awake. Daylight would break soon anyway, she thought, closing her eyes and turning to her side.

A loud thud stirred her, and her navy blue eyes shot open. She laid motionless as more noises followed: sounds of footsteps upon her bedroom floor, a cold wind whistling past her ears after her window had been forced open from the outside. Unmoving, Crona stared at the wall opposite her open room, where it seemed as if whoever there was currently grabbing everything they could.

Shaking, Crona turned her head slowly to see her burglars, who had their backs to her. It was hard to see in the dark, though she could tell that one stood close to her bed, near enough that she could touch them if she wished. She shifted her weight very slightly, moving her body to get a better look, but her old mattress creaked beneath her. The thin teen instantly froze and closed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing. She heard close shoes clacking on the floor, as if whoever stood near her had turned, and she could almost feel them lean over her to inspect her.

Despite all her best efforts to pretend to be asleep, when someone set a hand on her shoulder, Crona's fist sprung out from under her bedsheets to punch whoever touched her. A cry of pain in the dark told her that she had hit her target, and the hand on her shoulder whisked away. She pulled her fist back for another blow, but her target's harsh whisper stopped her.

"Crona, it's me! It's okay!"

Crona paused. She squinted into the shadowed room, lowering her fist.

"Kid?"

Reaching to her nightstand, her long fingers grabbed hold of her flashlight and switched it on to whirl its light in the face of her intruders. Kid winced and covered his eyes with his hand.

"Kid," Crona sighed, relaxing. She shone the light around the room, highlighting other members of his mafia, who had managed to form a bucket brigade line with her things to haul them out the window. The group presently had her clothes from her dresser in their hands.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked. Even though Kid calmed her, she couldn't help but regain a bit of her anxiety upon realizing the amount of dangerous strangers in her room.

Kid blinked a little, his golden eyes almost glowing in the faint light that Crona had positioned at the floor instead.

"Well," he began. His face wasn't easy to see, but his girlfriend could guess from his tone that he probably had traces of a blush on his cheeks. "This isn't very easy to say nicely, but… You see, we're kidnapping you."

Crona almost dropped her flashlight. However, before she could question him, Kid continued.

"But it's not quite kidnapping, per se. We're not holding you for ransom or anything, and we're bringing all of your things with us," he said, picking up a stuffed whale from the end of Crona's bed. He handed it off to Blackstar, who stood behind him. "If I see a single piece of fluff removed from this plush, you are going to personally buy her eight new ones," he snapped. Blackstar nodded hastily and clambered out the window, taking special care of the whale. Crona heard Kid sigh. "And, of course, we'll only take you if you're willing."

The thin girl stared at him. Only one question remained in her mind, and it carried to her lips.

"Why?"

Kid didn't answer for a minute. He handed off another stuffed animal to Blackstar upon his return, but once he had left, the mafia boss whispered softly, "Because I need to get you out of here."

Crona could only stare at him. He turned back to her after a moment, and held his hand out to her. "So," he said his voice slightly louder and more confident, "Do you want to come with me?"

She didn't hesitate. Crona reached out and took his hand, and she could faintly see Kid's smile as he helped her stand.

"So I'll be in your mafia now?" she asked. The eagerness in her voice surprised her, and it evidently had the same effect on Kid.

"Of course not," he said swiftly, sternly. "Can you imagine what danger that'll put you in?"

"But you're in that danger all the time," protested Crona. "I've proven that I'm a great thief already. I can help you. And even though you want to protect me, I want to protect you, too."

Kid frowned for a moment, and Crona got ready to defend her point, but Kid prevented further argument by slamming his lips against hers. His soft but cold hands positioned themselves to hold the sides of her face as he moved his lips and tongue. They had never kissed quite like this before; almost desperately, feverishly. She could clearly taste lingering caramel flavor in his mouth: His comfort food. He had been upset, likely after he had received a glimpse of how Medusa treated her. He had only scratched the surface, thought Crona ruefully, but Kid quickly distracted her from any further contemplations when he tugged at her bottom lip.

When Kid finally separated their lips, his girlfriend stared at him with wide eyes, speechless. Even so, his smile seemed sadder than before.

"In my line of work," he murmured, tucking a strand of her dusty pink hair behind her ear, "You never know which kiss will be your last." He stopped for a moment, but he then wrapped his arms tightly around her thin form and brought her to his chest. "Is that really a life you want to share with me?"

Crona returned the embrace gradually. She breathed in the scent of his black suit, which possessed an odd mix of gunpowder and sweet-scented laundry detergent.

"If it's with you," she replied, "Then I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Kid breathed a sigh of relief, pulling apart from her. His smile held less sadness then; in fact, he seemed excited.

"I love you," he smiled. Crona opened her mouth to reply, but a loud shout from the room beside hers interrupted her.

"Crona? What's all that banging?!" Medusa yelled.

Her daughter stiffened, but Kid placed his arm soundly around her waist. "That's our cue to go," he smiled, leading her swiftly to the window, where his group had attached a ladder. A large van waited beneath them, and Kid turned to smile at Crona before he climbed out.

"Welcome to the mafia," he declared. Crona smiled and followed him.