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The first time they meet it’s in a darkened art gallery with duffel bags loaded down with paintings over both their shoulders.
Geno’s standing just inside the shadows coming through the floor to ceiling windows on the second floor and as Sid looks him over and doesn’t feel the need to pull the gun that he keeps tucked into the waistband of his pants.
“You don’t look like security,” Sid says and Geno huffs and shakes his head.
“Neither do you.”
“Then what are you-.”
He’s interrupted by footsteps coming rapidly towards them and then Sid’s squeezing himself through the window that he propped open down the hall with Geno following after him.
They part ways on the sidewalk. Sid goes in one direction and Geno the other but Sid cannot stop thinking about him.
All about him.
Why he was there? What was in his bag that Sid had missed on the initial sweep? How could anyone’s shoulders be that broad? How did his eyes shine so bright with only the city lights through the window illuminating them?
Sid tries to shake it off but they kept running into each other.
Literally.
In a bank vault and a jewelry store and finally Sid has enough and shoves him against the brick wall of a warehouse and finally pulls his gun.
“Why are you following me? Who sent you?”
Geno makes no attempt to get free. “Sent me?”
“Why are you here? Who are you?”
“Put down gun, Sid. Is useless.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Same way I know you won’t shoot me. No bullets in your gun.”
Sid pulls it away from his temple.
“You’re a thief not a killer.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Know lots. Know you never hit the same places twice.”
“That’s just being smart.”
“Know you never steal guns or drugs. You always leave through an open window, you anonymously donate most of the money you get, and you always work alone.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“I want to work with you.”
“You just said I always work alone.”
“Was before you met me. I’m best, you want to work with me.”
Sid rolls his eyes and suddenly an alarm blares.
“Maybe we go talk somewhere quieter,” Geno yells and Sid turns on his heels.
Somewhere quieter ends up being a dive bar twelve blocks from the warehouse.
Geno picks the pocket of a sloshed businessman in an expensive looking suit and fights his way to the bar as cop car after cop bar speed by on the street outside, sirens blaring.
“Shitty beer,” he says when he joins Sid at the table and puts the glasses down. “But can’t expect much in a place like this.”
Geno shrugs and takes a long sip. Sid doesn’t touch his.
“How do you know about me?”
Geno sets his glass down. There’s foam sticking to his top lip. “Lots of guys know about you. You’re a big deal.”
“No one has ever approached me before.”
“People are intimidated.”
“But you’re not?”
“Told you.” He winks. “I’m best. Surprised you haven’t heard about me.”
“I don’t pay much attention to what other people are doing.”
“So what do you think? You and me, work together?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Sid.”
“Why would I want to split the profits with someone and make less?”
“There’s two of us. We steal twice as much make twice as much money. Maybe you even come out ahead.”
“Why do you want to work with me?”
“I already tell you, I’m-.”
“You’re the best,” Sid interrupts. “You already said that.”
“Yes.” Geno rests his elbows on the table and leans in. Sid takes a deep breath and doesn’t lean back. “I’m the best, but so are you. We should already be together.”
They work great together.
Any hesitancy Sid might have had drifts away the first time he goes to tell Geno something in the middle of a job and Geno waves his hand at him and walks off into the dark.
He comes back ten minutes later loaded down with the exact number of diamond necklaces and emerald earrings that Sid wanted him to grab.
“Teammates,” Geno says as he passes by him. Sid’s still loading rings into his bag.
“We just need to-.”
“Hit the safe, yes.” Geno sets his bag down. “Going there now.”
“Okay,” Sid says as he checks his watch. They’re three minutes and thirty seven seconds ahead of schedule. “Okay.”
They work their way up and down the coast reading each other’s minds and making more money on the black market than Sid has ever seen before.
In DC they take a night off- already so far ahead of the game that Sid doesn’t feel guilty about it.
Sid lets Geno drag him to bar after bar and Sid watches him down drink after drink until his mouth is slick and red and leans heavily into Sid’s side.
“Why you wanna do this,” Geno ask as they walk to the next bar. It’s warm out and Geno’s having a bit of trouble putting one foot in front of the other. “All the things in the world you could do and you turn to crime,” he whispers and then laughs and Sid wraps a hand around his elbow to keep him from stepping off the sidewalk.
Geno ends up walking backwards in front of him.
“Why do you do it?”
Sid shakes his head pulls Geno sharply to the right so he doesn’t walk into a bench. “I’m good at it. I like it. It was such a rush that first time….I wanted to feel it again. Haven’t you ever done anything just because you liked the way it made you feel?”
Geno stops and Sid knows his next move before he makes it.
He’s expecting the broad hand Geno puts on his hip and the feel of the brick against his back when Geno presses him into the building.
“Like the way you make me feel,” Geno says and Sid closes his eyes as their lips meet.
They have a halfway decent hotel room for the night and Sid’s thankful for it and the sheets that are soft against their skin.
Sid has his hand in the middle of Geno’s bare chest as he leans down to kiss him.
His heart is beating out of control and Sid knows his is doing the same.
It’s the kind of rush he only feels seconds before security turns up or an alarm goes off.
-
In Baltimore they steal ten thousand dollars worth of paintings from a gallery and then Geno drops to his knees in front of him in the cramped shower in their motel room.
-
At the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic city Geno counts cards and wins them seventy five hundred dollars and a suite on the top floor of the hotel.
Sid tastes every inch of Geno’s body before he fucks into him slow enough to make Geno beg for it.
-
It’s a bank in Philadelphia and messy handjobs in the darkened alley.
Jewelry in Brooklyn and designer handbags in Manhattan.
In every place they find themselves sweaty and spent laying next to each other in a rented room.
-
They’re luck runs out in Providence.
A job goes bad and just when they think they’ve made it to the safety of the back alley Sid trips over a garbage can lid and twists his ankle.
Geno stops to help him and as he’s getting Sid to his feet a shot rings out.
The bullet grazes Geno’s shoulder and his hisses in pain as Sid clutches at his arms, nails digging into his skin.
“Geno,” Sid says, voice full of panic and Geno pulls Sid further down the alley and away from the museum.
“I’m fine,” he says. “Don’t need to worry, just get back to the motel.”
At the motel they fight against each other in an attempt to make sure they’re both okay.
Geno’s trying to get Sid’s shoe off to check to see how swollen his ankle is and Sid is pulling at Geno’s coat and shirt to get a look at his shoulder and they’re both getting nowhere fast.
“Stop,” Geno says sharply and Sid’s hands freeze on the side of his neck. Geno is kneeling in front of him with his fingers caught in the laces of Sid’s boots. He leans in an rests his forehead on Sid’s knee and Sid slides his hand around to the back of his neck.
He can feel Geno take a deep breath, his shoulders rising then falling as the air leaves him.
This is why Sid always worked alone.
Bringing someone along was too much of a risk. He put Geno’s life in danger tonight. Geno should have just left him but he knows if the roles were reversed he would have gone back for Geno.
“I’m fine,” Geno says when he looks up. “Just a graze. Probably won’t even need bandage.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Geno sighs and sits back on his heels so he can take off his coat and pulls his shirt over his head.
There’s a red mark the top of his shoulder. It’s not deep and it’s not bleeding anymore but Sid’s heart still burns when he looks at it.
“Bad shot,” Geno says. “But I’m fine, just like I say.” He wraps his hands around Sid’s ankle. “Might hurt when I take this off, do it on three, okay?”
Sid nods, the lump in his throat makes it impossible for him to speak, and braces for the pain.
He can’t put any weight on it and their job up in Boston is out of the question but neither of them talk about that as Geno helps him into the shower and holds him up as he washes his hair.
Geno dries him off and helps him into sweats before he pulls back the covers and waits for him to get in bed.
“You don’t have to baby me,” Sid says quietly as Geno pulls the comforter up around his shoulders before he heads back into the shower to wash the rest of the shampoo out of his hair.
When he gets out he turns off the light then slides right into bed next to him, too tired and worn out to even put on boxers.
“Long day,” he says as he rolls onto his good shoulder and wraps an arm over Sid’s waist. “Tomorrow has to be better.”
Sid runs his fingertips over his arm and says “if that happens again promise me you’ll leave me.”
He can feel Geno tense everywhere they’re pressed together. He rolls away and turns on the light.
Sid squints at the sudden brightness but when Geno leans over him he blocks it out.
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Why wouldn’t I? It was stupid to stay. You got shot.”
“Barely.”
“What if next time it’s not? What if it’s a security guy that doesn’t have shitty aim? He could have killed you. You could have died today.”
“Worth it.”
“Geno.”
“Sid,” he says forcefully and Sid’s mouth snaps shut. “Would you leave me? If things were the other way would you have left me?”
Sid shakes his head.
“Then how could you ever ask me that? How could you ever think that I would leave you?”
He sounds hurt and Sid carefully wraps his arms around him and pulls him down.
“Okay,” Sid says, “I’m sorry.”
“I will never leave you,” Geno says into his shoulder and Sid holds him a little tighter.
Sid’s voice cracks with emotion when he says “neither will I.”