RYAN'S POV
Once we step out of the car, I immediately see Rico tense next to me. He has never really liked to meet or talk to new people. Without looking at him, which would draw unwanted attention to him, I grab his hand and give it a gentle, yet reassuring, squeeze.
As I try to let go, he holds onto my hand much stronger than before, silently begging me not to let go.
This time, I do look at him, having to tilt my head up a bit. I see him already looking at me. I give his hand another squeeze, as if telling him that I won't let go, that I am not going anywhere, and I see him relax a little bit. My thumb rubs soothing circles on the back of his hand, trying to keep him calm.
"Are you ready to go inside?" I hear Alessio ask. I make eye contact with him, and I see a little bit of guilt in his eyes.
Why?
I nod, signaling I was ready to go inside the house.
Not home.
I hear and feel Rudy come up behind Rico and myself. He is standing behind us, but also between us so his head looks over both of our shoulders. "Just say the word and we will get the fuck out of here. I promise. Just say the word."
Rico nods from beside me, and I follow his lead.
All too soon, we are in front of the doors, which Alessandro had previously opened and is waiting for us to step inside.
Why the hell did I think it was a good idea to live with our family?
Especially if it is the Italian Mafia.
Oh my god.
I am actually an idiot.
Rudy quickly intercepts us so that he can stand in front of us. The overprotective bastard. However, I am kind of grateful. Because when I see Rudy step in, all of the chatter that was there previously just stops. I squeeze Rico's hand again, this time needing his reassurance because fuck I don't do family besides my twins.
I wipe my face of all emotions; however, I don't put up my cold and emotionless mask. No emotions are shown. For people who don't know me, they would probably think I looked innocent. As for the people who would try to read me, they would feel a void. For the people who know me, they know that I am completely serious, or I am stressed the actual fuck out.
In this case, both.
I step in first, and then look behind me to see Rico. He is breathing rapidly and looking at the ground. Rico is having a panic attack.
I look to Rudy who is looking at me, probably wondering where our younger brother is. I speak to him in Russian, almost positive that nobody else here will understand. "У него паническая атака. Я собираюсь помочь ему выбраться из этого. Убедитесь, что все находятся внутри, и НЕ говорите никому, что происходит. Да?" I see his eyes widen momentarily, looking like he wanted to fight me and be there for his younger brother, but with one stern look, he nods his head. Wasting no time, I step out and swing the door shut behind me, immediately hearing protests from inside but I ignore them.
(He is having a panic attack. I am going to help him out of it. Make sure to keep everyone inside and DO NOT tell anyone what is going on. Yes?)
I quickly step in front of Rico, making his attention go to me. I squeeze his hand letting him know I am still here, and I see he registers it. "Hey buddy. I am here, nobody else. They can't see you, I promise." As I see this, I see a security camera.
I'll take care of that as soon as I can.
I rub my thumb on his hand. I am not going to be the one to initiate contact, that could stress him out even more. However, since we were previously holding hands, this doesn't stress him out at all. "Rico, come on buddy. You can come out of it. Just take some breaths. If you want, you can listen to my heart and breathing to help you." As soon as I extend the invitation to him, he launches himself into my arms and I slowly lower us both to the floor.
I stay quiet and rub circles on his back while his breathing starts to even out.
Eventually, he pulls back from me. He seems to study my face, and I realize I had my un-emotional face on. I quickly throw my mask down so that he can see the worry and concern for him in my eyes. "You doing okay now?" I ask him to fill the silence a little bit.
"Yeah. Where is Rudy?" He asked and I can see the sadness in his eyes that his brother wasn't here with him.
"I made him stay inside to make sure the biologicals didn't come out or stress you out more. But don't worry, he will definitely be yelling at me about it later. Also, when I told him you were having a panic attack, I spoke Russian, which I doubt any of them know." I spoke quickly to reassure him because I don't want him to feel guilty or sad or even more nervous than he was before.
He nods. "Okay." He pauses for a moment to collect himself. "I think I am ready to go inside now. Do I look okay?" He does. Whenever Rico cries, it is very hard to tell. The only evidence of him crying right now was the fact that he had a couple of tears streaming down his face. I wipe them off quickly and smile at him. He sends me a grateful smile in return.
"Alright then let's go." I speak before I can pussy out.
Rico quickly grasps my hand again and I open the door and take us both inside. All the attention immediately slides from Rudy, who looks severely annoyed, but under that I can see his worry for his younger brother.
Rudy immediately pushes off the wall that he was leaning on and comes over to us, inspecting us for any injuries or something. He then turns his attention to Rico only and asks in Russian, "С тобой все в порядке, братишка?"
(Are you okay, little brother?)
As he asks his question, I survey the other people in the room, I see that none of them recognize what we are saying, and I let out a little breath in relief.
I turn to the six other people in the room and silently study them, which I suppose doesn't go unnoticed by Alessandro, who speaks up from where he was watching out interaction, me. "Boys, why don't you introduce yourselves. Age order, preferably."
A tall man with dirty blond hair and hazel eyes comes forward a bit, drawing my attention to him. He is probably 6'3. On contrast to most mafia men I know, he doesn't have a whole lot of muscle, but he for sure can throw a decent punch. "Hello triplets. I am Lorenzo. I am also 25 and I am around the house frequently so come to me if you need anything." He has a natural maternal instinct, I can tell. He probably stepped into the maternal role when Maria 'left'. I give him a small smile but decide I don't want to get too close to him because he makes me feel like I wanna tell everything to him, and I refuse to do that. However, at my smile he beams.
The next person to step forward is a skinny nerdy looking guy. He had glasses which really commented on his eye color and was probably about 6'1. His eyes were a really dark brown, almost black, and he had black hair. He gave me a feeling he was like a mafia doctor or something. "Hey." He spoke casually. Thank god. "I am Christopher, but everyone calls me Chris. I am not always around super often because I am a doctor and work is pretty demanding, so sorry about that." I nod at him showing him that I heard what he was saying.
After him, there was a smaller boy than the rest, even though he was still a giant compared to me. His eyes were a brighter blue and he had dirty blond hair. However, something had dulled his eyes. They looked dead. I immediately know that I want to get to know him. I want to be there for him. Now my maternal instinct was kicking in. He was a bit on the skinnier side and looks like he hasn't eaten in a while. This makes a small part of me mad. "I'm Marco, and I am 20." He doesn't say much. That is certainly going to make this harder. He looks like he is a hacker...
Suddenly, a super hyper voice speaks up. Oh great. Another Rico. "Hi I am Xavier! I am so happy to have more little siblings! We are going to have so much fun! I am the older of the twins and I am 18." I look over to a boy that looks like a carbon copy of him if it weren't for the different attitudes. They both have black hair and very light brown eyes. They are both about 6'0 and have a decent amount of muscle, however the one which I believe is Xander seems to have a bit more muscle than his brother.
But if I remember correctly, it is only recorded that the eldest four are a part of the mafia. And to be honest they don't seem like the type to let one of their youngest brothers join the mafia it they hadn't graduated high school yet. So, what need would Xander have to have that much muscle build up? I look to his knuckles to see them bruised.
Underground fighter?
Xander then pipes in. "Xander. 18." Just from those two words, I can already tell that he is a hot head and doesn't like us right now. I might be able to tell the last part from the glare he is directed my way. Maybe he thinks I am the weakest. Well, we can't have that. I look him straight in the eyes and let my lips quirk up a little bit into a smirk. He looks a little shocked I wasn't affected by his glare.
"I am Matteo!" Wonderful, another golden retriever. "I am so excited that I am not the youngest anymore. And even more that I have a sister! We are going to hang out and go to school together and-" He gets cut off from a slap to the head from Xander with a grumbled 'shut up'. Matteo has the lightest hair out of all of them, but it is still dirty blond. His eyes, though, are a super dark blue color. However, they aren't quite grey like my twins and Alessandro. They look almost like an ocean color. He doesn't have much muscle, but you can tell with how he seems to stand at alert that he has some basic defense skills. I smile at his eagerness, and he seems delighted.
"Well, I guess that leaves us." My soft French accent breaks the silence; however, my voice is anything but soft. It is a far cry from my mafia voice; however, it still demands respect. I gesture to myself, "I am Ryan, the eldest of the three of us." I gesture to Rudy. "This is Rudy, the middle child. Don't be offended by his glares, he does that often." Then, after stepping out of range of the slap to the head I knew I was going to receive. And I suppose I guessed correctly by the few impressed glances from my older 'brothers' that I received. I then gesture to Rico. "This is Rico, the youngest of us."
Lorenzo is the next to speak. "Right, well I will take you to your rooms so you can unpack and settle in. Then, I will send someone up to fetch you three for dinner, alright?"
After seeing a nod from all from us, he proceeds to go up the stairs to show us our rooms.
"The rooms aren't in any specific order; however, you will see that we put all of your rooms together that way you would be close with each other." He explains as he walks us down the long hallway.
After looking at all of the rooms, we found that they were all very similar. They were all black based with a splash of another color, which was cool. In Rico's room, there were accents of a dark teal color, which looked magnificent. In Rudy's room, there was splashes of a dark blue sort of grey color. In my room, there was a deep purple, which if you didn't look close enough could be black. Maybe I should get a purple bike...
Within the rooms, we all had the necessities, like a bed, closet, etc. On top of that, we each had our own bathrooms that connected through our bedrooms. Aside from having normal bedrooms, they all had a balcony that overlooked the gardens, whether it be the front or back gardens. On top of the balcony that comes with the bedroom, we all had our own little sitting rooms, which Lorenzo told us we could turn into whatever we wanted. He gave us some examples. Mini gyms, mini library, stuff like that.
I asked if we had an actual gym, and he looked a little shocked that I had asked at first before he eventually said that we did and that Matteo as well as Xavier would show us on the tour they would give us after dinner.
The first thing I did when I was left alone, though, was hack into the security footage from earlier today and delete Rico's panic attack.
Just in case they went snooping...
Rico's teal ^
Rudy's blue ^
Ryan's Purple ^