Chapter Text
After Yuno stormed out with Nino hot on his trail, the group was left dumbfounded by the sudden and unexpected burst of emotion from their usually cheerful member.
“Wh-what just happened?” After Lang took one look at the tears gathering on the edge of Yuno’s face he was more than willing to punch out Nino and go off on his pseudo-intellectual ass for pushing as hard as he did, but the duo stormed out before he, and the rest of the room, had any time to react.
Lang would be lying if he said he’d never thought about what a pissed-off Yuno would look like. Ever since the carefree man joined their ranks, he’s tried desperately to catch Yuno on his off day, maybe cursing out a local under his breath or leaving a passive-aggressive text message to his boss, hell even a change of tone from the standard peppy default would’ve been satisfying enough. But despite the months passing by and the group being put into frustrating situation after frustrating situation it simply never happened. Yuno never broke.
At least, not until now.
“Nino being Nino,” Scoffs Tony. “never knows when to stop pushing.”
“He was trying to help.” Ray defends weakly eyes glued to the door that Yuno left through, feeling lost and confused with the shift in the air. At the start of the session, he was all but ready to burn the house down in anger and argue his points to the group till he was red in the face, but this sudden tone change left him whirling in confusion, did Nino say something particularly bad? He didn’t think he did but with the way Yuno was reacting perhaps it was a little too much.
“Fuck it,” Tony huffs standing up from the table, if no one was gonna take initiative and figure out what was going wrong with his family, he’ll simply have to do it himself.
“Where are you going?”
Tony doesn’t bother to reply simply shrugging his coat jacket on and stepping outside to the balcony, leaving Raymond and Lang stuck alone, with no filler person to negate the duos tense energy.
“Well…” Lang awkwardly approaches the still mist-eyed Russian, searching the room for anything of particular interest to talk about.
It’s not that he didn’t like Raymond. He was dependable, loyal to a T, and dedicated to whatever thing he was interested in whether that be bank robberies or business. On paper he’s the easiest person in the world to like, it was just…The man was…a lot sometimes.
“Why don’t you like me?” Ray asks suddenly seemingly tired of the dead silence of the room.
“What are you- what type of question is that!?”
As he said, a lot sometimes.
“A good one!” He says almost spitefully, his gaze wavering as he attempts to make eye contact with him. “-a valid one, a real question.”
“If I didn’t like you Raymond why would I invite you to shit?” Why would he put his name as co-owner of a literal mansion? Why would he be the first person he calls when he needs help?
“Because you need me to progress.” He says with a level of certainty that Lang’s honestly never heard him use before.
“…What?”
“You need me,” Ray repeats firmly wiping the tears out of his eyes. “because you know you wouldn’t be anywhere without me cause I’m the only one in this damn group who actually cares!”
Lang would have said something snarky or sarcastic but for the first time in a while when Ray started talking he started to listen.
“-I get it alright make fun of the new guy and see how far he gets!” He yells through the house; his heart being let out all bloody and raw for the world to see. “-But fuck me Buddha even you have to admit this is ridiculous! Every day you find a new reason to hate me! Every day!”
He felt the need to disagree but something held him back, maybe it was his conscience or the nagging feeling that Ray wasn't entirely wrong in that assessment.
“Raymond…” Lang tries to approach softly.
“Yesterday I heard you were in trouble and I came running! I was there despite Yuno insisting we turn back and abandon you!” Ray cries out.
“It would have been smarter leaving us! The whole PD was on scene! They would’ve taken one look at your shitty Deagle and eaten your ass!” He defends, his temper flaring at the sudden attack of his favourite hacker.
“Taking Yuno’s side again!? He let the whole crew down yesterday and you still treat him better than me!?”
“What’s this about Ray!? What’s this whole pissing fest about because I’m getting real tired of the pity party you’ve decided to throw yourself recently!”
“It’s about respect.” There is a fire in his tone and in his eyes burning through his body. “You have never respected me the way I deserved.”
Lang scoffs. “Why bother? You respect yourself enough for five people!”
“See, Again! You hate me!”
“I do not hate you, Raymond! Stop taking everything people say so seriously and maybe that ‘respect’ your looking for might actually be deserved!”
They fight longer than they should have, both sides not willing to concede this time. It was like watching two caged tigers circling each other slowly but surely nipping pieces off as the fight dives into topics they knew would hurt the other the most.
Lang brings up Ray’s inability to have a stable relationship, a topic the Russian has moaned about to him before, back during the early bank days, a time where he was shoveling alcohol down his throat daily after the inevitable and increasingly frequent arguments he would have with Kitty.
“Because people aren’t willing to tolerate you long enough to date you, Raymond!”
“One did!”
“Yeah, and how long’s that gonna last!? Say, where’s Kitty now Ray? Still, with the man, she clearly wishes you were!?”
“You assehole!”
Ray as a result uses Lang’s insecurities about people leaving him, something the man himself had confided in him before during an Oxy run, back when the city was new and Ray’s eyes were still bright.
“You’d know a thing or two about people not sticking around long enough huh Lang?” Ray knows he’s going too far but he can’t think clearly enough to stop himself, not now, not anymore.
“Don’t you-”
“How’s Avon?” Ray pushes. “-Or what about Donnie? Do they still keep in contact? Hell, do they even talk to you now that they’ve moved on to better things?”
“Fuck you.” There is a waver.
“Oh! Finally!” Ray relishes. “The great Lang Buddha has a weakness! What a relief! I was really starting to think you’re as heartless as you seem!”
“...Yeah, and I was really starting to wonder why we let you think you’re invite into CB wasn’t anything other than a pity handout.”
—-
Tony loved his family, but that didn’t mean he understood them.
“Listen okay I-“ Yuno starts.
“I don’t get this, I don’t get what the hell is going on anymore Yuno!”
“W-what is there to get?” He weakly defends.
Tony lets his biting response die in favour of dragging the stubborn man to the others hoping that Lang had a way of breaking through to Yuno or at the very least talk him out of murdering the man. Sadly fate seemed to really want Yuno dead as walking inside they find Raymond and Lang engaged in their own heated debate.
“-If you didn’t mean it then why did you say it!?”
“It was the heat of the moment- Raymond! I didn’t mean, obviously I didn’t-”
Tony doesn’t need to hear more to know Lang and Ray are clearly engaged in their own version of ‘Therapy’. Tony takes Yuno upstairs before calling down to Nino, who was watching the whole interaction from the sidelines, to tell him to sort them out, not waiting for a confirmation he leaves the verbal battlefield.
Yuno doesn’t acknowledge the fighting choosing instead to stare down at the floor letting himself be dragged away. It doesn’t take Tony long after reaching his room to descend onto Yuno in all his Italian fury, letting go of his wrist roughly he folds his arms tightly in front of his chest reminiscent of an irate mother ready to give a lecture.
“Why didn’t you tell us!?” his voice angry and raw.
Yuno staggers to his feet and tries his hardest to avoid direct eye contact. “…Tell you what?”
“Stop. You know what I’m talking about.”
“Tony…”
“Were you ever planning on telling us?” Tony blurts out.
Yuno shrugs half-heartedly not willing to look him in the eyes. “...Eventually.”
“Eventually.” He scoffs. “Wow, thanks man it's great to know we’re such a high fucking priority to you.”
“I’m sorry you’re feeling this way but I’m serious If it was important enough I would have told you about it eventually.” Yuno’s mouth forms a thin line, despite not one to show too many negative emotions his annoyance was very apparent.
“See, Why don’t I believe you?”
“I didn’t hide anything I just-“
“Yuno, I haven’t even seen you mildly inconvenienced before let along full-on crying like you were doing with Nino!” He steps closer and Yuno steps back, feeling all the more like a cornered animal.
“Yeah, and it was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done man so can we just…” He says with laughter warming his tone but not at all disguising the embarrassment.
Tony shifts a little in his upright position, a frown pulling his expression down.“Why can’t you answer me just straight up? Without the bullshit?”
“I’m sorry you think you can’t talk to me Tony I-”
“Just- stop goddamn apologising and talk with me!”
“What? W-well-” Tony can tell Yuno’s starting to feel trapped enough to start lashing out as the tone of his voice went from guilty to defensive in an instant. “-what else am I supposed to do? You made it very clear that I’m being ridiculous and over-sensitive-”
“Stop twisting my godamn-”
“-And yeah maybe things got a bit awkward in there but that doesn’t actually mean anything like you’re not wrong storming out was a little childish-”
“Yuno! Stop it! Fucking stop it! You’re starting to really piss me off!” Tony roars banging his hand abruptly down to his table shaking his computer.
“Well…” Yuno lets slip a sob his smile stretched wide. “I’m sorry about that too then.”
“Can you just-” Tony takes a breath calming himself down. “-Talk to me. Please, I’m trying to understand but your not-”
“Understand what exactly?” Yuno says so velvety soft it was easy to miss how pointed his tone was.
“Yuno…Bro, you’re obviously not- look I’m not trying to discredit you or nothing but, you’re obviously not okay.”
“Because I was…crying on the roof?” He doesn't know why but something about his tone made Tony flush with humiliation.
“Well, I- Yeah…”
“Tony,” His tear-stained face still hasn’t dried, Tony noticed Yunos's face still splotchy and red a real contrast to his perfectly calm attitude. “I was just getting a little emotional about missing my friend Dundee. That’s all.”
“Speaking of which.. well first off ok I’m not gonna dig up your old history with Dundee, I’m not like that, I just want to know where your heads out and what this means for us and the boys. Do we need to ‘deal’ with him? Teach him a lesson maybe?”
He doesn’t respond.
Tony's starting to feel like he was the least qualified person to talk to the man about this. Lang would have gotten him to open up hours ago, Ray would have fixed the problem without even knowing about it cause he’s good like that but Tony? He was just a washed driver who let his friendships fall apart around him.
“Yuno?”
Yuno stops and the look in his eyes Tony has to fight the urge to cave, he’s gone too long without answers. He needs to know what the man is thinking. He needs to know how in the hell he got this idea that the family was that fragile that they would just shatter apart into separate lives with the slightest of pressure. Tony had to know a lot of things right about now, but the thing that has been bumping around his head since the moment he heard it uttered took precedent.
“I think I’m all good on talking today, Tony...” Screw it.
“Do you really think we’d leave you out to die?” There, like a bandaid.