Chapter Text
Francesca knocked on the door of the estate she would be living in for the next year. It was a large mansion that already housed two couples. As she knocked she thought about what it would be like to see her half brothers after three long years.
The door flung open and standing in the doorway was none other than one of her half brothers, Ricky; he stood in an apron covered in flour and icing.
“You better not be thinking of hugging me in that apron, dear. This dress is new,” She spoke, her lips curled into a smile. “Tsk,” he started “Always so picky, Fran.”
He threw off the apron before encasing her in a tight embrace. “Oh my god Fran it’s so good to see you!! How’ve you been? How’s the job paying?” He questioned, still engaged in the embrace.
“HOLY SHIT- IS THAT FRAN???” A voice shouted from behind Ricky.
Slipping out of the embrace, she saw her second half brother, Night Night, with a goofy smile planted on his face and an engagement ring on his finger.
“Since when were you engaged?” Fran asked.
“Since I was proposed to,” Night Night teased back. “Now c’mere and give your half brother a hug, dammit.”
Fran entered the house, Ricky grabbing her bags and setting them down inside. She hugged Night Night before looking around the place and spotting two other figures in the kitchen.
“And who are they?” Suspicion laced her voice, as it usually did when meeting new people.
“Oh well the one doing dishes is my fiancé, Legs; and the one mixing cake batter is Ricky’s boyfriend, Tinsley.”
“Tinsley…” She trailed off. “I’ve heard that name before. Isn’t he a PI? Seems kinda dangerous having one of those floating around here, doesn’t it?”
“Oh don’t mind him. As long as you don’t look too suspicious, he’s harmless,” Ricky argued, grabbing his discarded apron and heading back to the kitchen to assist with the cake.
Night Night turned towards Fran. “Tinsley’s a nice guy. Like Ricky said, just don’t be too obvious. He thinks Legs and I work at the bank and he thinks Ricky’s a bouncer,” He spoke with a chuckle. “It’s good to have you back. It’s good to have the family back together after all this time.”
Fran just nodded in response.
“Oh- follow me; I’ll show you to your room,” Night Night grabbed up Francesca’s belongings and strode down the hallway with a smile.
~~~
Fran sat on the front porch, enjoying a nice magazine and a cigarette out of her holder. Just then, she heard yelling coming from inside. “What on God’s name are they doing in there?” She thought to herself, her curly black hair bouncing as she stood to investigate.
She opened the door to immediately get hit dead center of her face with partially baked cake. A gasp escaped her lips as she dropped the magazine on a nearby stool and wiped the cake off with her free hand.
Once her face was clear of cake and she could see properly, she saw everyone perfectly frozen, like they were waiting for a reaction. Night Night was covered in cake, standing with some still in his hand, eager to throw it; Legs was sitting on the counter, seemingly enjoying the show; Ricky was in the same state as Night Night; and Tinsley was nowhere to be seen. She laughed dryly. “What. On. Earth. Do y’all think you’re doing?” She stared at them with a passive aggressive smile.
“HE STARTED IT!” Ricky shouted, immediately dropping the cake in his hand and pointing at his brother.
“NUH-UH!! IT WAS TOTALLY RICKY!! LEGS BACK ME UP HERE,” Night Night protested back.
“THAT’S NOT FAIR THEY’RE ENGAGED,”
They continued their petty back and forth until Fran had had enough. “You boys listen to me and you listen good,” She started, staring daggers at the two. “You either get this mess cleaned up or I call Mama to do it for you. And maybe to discipline you in the process.”
And with that, they immediately started cleaning. Wiping down counters, floors, and walls like their lives depended on it. Legs jumped down from the counter and came to stand next to Fran, who was supervising the whole ordeal.
“How’d you get them to do that?-,” He whispered, clearly amazed.
“Oh it’s quite simple; all you do is threaten to get Mama involved. When we were younger she used to make them wear a ‘get along t-shirt’ when they got into fights. Boys will be boys I guess,” she finished her sentence with a sigh.
“Have you seen Tinsley around?” She then asked.
“Matter of fact I haven’t. Why? You need him for something?”
“Well- not exactly. You guys seriously let a PI live with you??” She whisper-yelled the last part.
“I mean- It’s just good ol’ C.C. Guy wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Legs reassured.
“I just don’t trust him.”
“You get used to him.”
“I’m going to search for him.”
Before Legs could get another word in, Fran was on her way to find the PI she now lived with.
~~~
“She’s going to interrogate your boyfriend, yanno,” Night Night mumbled over to Ricky as he continued to scrub dried cake off the wall.
“What?!” Ricky’s head shot up, immediately scanning the room for his tall half sister. “Well shit,” he spoke under his breath.
“There’s no stopping her now.”
Ricky grumbled and continued cleaning, acknowledging the fact Night Night was correct.
~~~
Tinsley stood on the balcony of the room he shared with Ricky most of the time. The smoke from his cigarette flew in the wind as he exhaled. He turned around when he heard a knock at the door.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” He repeated, putting his cig out on his ashtray and walking to the door.
When he opened the wooden door that connected the room to the hallway, he expected Ricky to be in the doorway. He was heavily mistaken.
When he opened the door, Fran stood in front of him. She was only about an inch or two shorter than him and the way she smiled up at him made Tinsley feel uneasy. He already wasn’t a fan of meeting new people, but Fran just gave off an intimidating atmosphere, making things even worse.
“O-oh,” He stuttered out. “Fran. Wasn’t expecting that.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean? I mean I live here now, darling.”
“Right- I know; it’s just- the only person that ever really comes in here is Ricky so it just- threw me off,” He chuckled nervously.
“Ohh. Well, speaking of Ricky, I hear you two are quite the couple.”
Tinsley was tense. He felt uneasy because of how intimidating Fran was, he couldn’t be reminded of that enough, and he was not prepared for any sort of questioning.
“Yeah I guess…”
“What do you mean ‘you guess’???”
“No I just mean- I don’t know I feel like if we’re gonna talk couples then Night Night and Legs are literally engaged,” His words were spat out in a panic.
“Ok well we’re not talking about them now are we? We’re talking about you and my baby brother.”
“Right.”
“You seem stressed, hun.”
Tinsley hummed at this. “I’m sorry. Meeting new people is not my strong suite.”
Fran stood for a moment with her lips pursed together. “Care for a cig?” Tinsley let a small smile past his lips as he lightly nodded.
~~~
Night Night and Ricky were finished cleaning in just under two or so hours. After cleaning, Ricky decided to take a hot shower in the bathroom connected to his bedroom while Night Night went with Legs to assist with not-bank work.
He walked in to observe the door wide open and two figures out on the balcony. “Well that’s weird,” he thought. “Last time Tinsley freely talked to a stranger he was drunk out of his mind and I had to stop him from getting us banned at Waffle House.”
He slowly slid open the balcony door to be met with two pairs of eyes staring back at him. “What’s going on out here?” He questioned.
“D’you boys finish your chores?” Fran quipped back.
“Oh my god- yes Fran we finished our chores.”
“Where’s Night Night then? Hm?”
“Fran he has work-” He was cut off by Fran urgently standing and ushering Ricky back into the room, shutting the door and leaving Tinsley on the balcony.
“Woah- Fran calm down-”
“Ricky you don’t get it. I need to talk to Night Night. It’s urgent.”
“Now are we talking my-puppy’s-sick-and-needs-to-go-to-the-vet urgent or Mom-drank-too-much-wine-and-we-can’t-find-Night-Night urgent. Because let me say if it’s the second one that’s not really that urgent it was pretty great not to have to deal with-”
Ricky was cut off when Fran shoved a piece of paper directly in front of his face.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a threat, Ricky. It’s a threat.”
“From who?”
“All I know is the name Dr. Fear. It’s all the information I was given.”
Ricky was silent for a moment. “Look,” he began. “We’ll look into all this when Night Night gets back. Him and Legs are ‘at the bank,’” He made sure to wink after that. Ricky handed her the paper. “You weren’t scaring my boyfriend off, were you?”
“No, Ricky, I wasn’t. And if I’m being totally honest, he seems like a good guy.”
“What, you didn’t believe me? Of course he’s a good guy.”
“Well- you know- I’m just looking out for you Rick.”
“Fran, I'm a grown ass man. I think I can look out for myself.”
The duo turned their heads to the door as they heard it open behind them. “Everything okay in here?” Tinsley questioned, walking in and immediately hovering close to Ricky.
“Yes, Tinman everything’s okay. I was just about to take a shower if you’d be interested in joining.” Ricky suggested, smiling up at the taller male.
Tinsley smiled back. “Sure,” he replied.
“Alright. Well you go ahead and start that while I finish up with Fran, mk?”
Tinsley nodded and with that, he was off to the bathroom connected to the bedroom. Fran watched the whole time, seemingly studying the way they interacted.
“Fran,” Ricky piped up, “I already know what you’re thinking so you might as well just say it.”
“He seems like a solid 8 on 10.” She pursed her lips as Ricky let out a defeated sigh. “And you’re back to rating my boyfriends. Oh how I’ve missed that,” he spoke sarcastically.
~~~
The streets were loud and the street lights were on, indicating it was past dark. Legs and Night Night stumbled out of a phone booth and just started booking it. Strangers watching the two seemingly run for their lives might’ve been confused or slightly concerned, but they didn’t care.
As they rounded a corner into seemingly a dead-end, they stopped. They stopped to catch their breath and to hide.
“That was a close one,” Legs heaved.
“Yeah, maybe next time don’t forget the damn files darling!!” Night Night spoke with annoyance. “Maybe then we could be in and out of there without having to throw so many punches.”
“Alright alright I’ll admit that was a my bad.”
The pair of mob bosses stood there for a moment, just gasping for air; eventually, they caught each other just staring.
“What’re you lookin’ at?” Night Night snapped.
Legs chucked in response. “Yanno, sometimes it’s easy to forget you’re just a big ol’ softie, hun.”
“I am not soft,” Night Night spoke through gritted teeth, standing up off his position from the alleyway wall and stepping closer to Legs.
“Oh yeah? Prove it then.” They stood close by one another, Legs with a cocky smile spread wide across his face and Night Night trying to look as intimidating as possible.
“I love you, Night Night,” Legs whispered.
“Oh shut it,” he paused, “I love you too.”
~~~