Chapter Text
Alex woke up before their captor did, which was admittedly quite strange. At first they suspected it was some sort of tactic - some strange form of interrogation or maybe to lull Alex into a false sense of ease. It was curious, certainly, but they’d seen stranger things. Surely that strange person (sleeping in a dollar store plastic folding chair, to Alex’s great confusion) would “wake up” in a few minutes.
But their captor did not wake up in a few minutes - not fifteen, not thirty, not even after an hour. They seemed quite content to sleep for a while longer - that is, until Alex rattled their handcuffs angrily and, indignant, said “Hey! Hey, wake up! This is getting fucking boring.”
After a bit more rattling and quite a lot of shouting, Alex’s captor sleepily raised their head, blinking rapidly. They yawned, stretched, and waved a bit before noticing who, exactly, Alex was. Their eyes promptly widened. “Oh, shoot.”
It was ridiculous. Preposterous. Idiotic. It was completely absurd - the person who had managed to drug Alex, managed to kidnap the fucking leader of one of the strongest mafia families in this city - was, a) incapable of uttering any expletive stronger than “shoot” and b) a twenty something year old in a ratty t-shirt, who had just genuinely been asleep in front of one of the most dangerous people in the city. It was laughable. And so, that’s exactly what Alex did; laughed, an authentic laugh with their head thrown back and their eyes closed.
The sleepy stranger waited awkwardly, shifting around while also attempting to wipe the dried drool from their mouth. Once Alex had quieted down, their captor stuttered a bit before beginning, still rather nervous.
“So. Um, hi. You, uh, well, you’re in the mafia, I suppose?”
Alex wasn’t quite sure what to say, beyond obviously I’m in the mafia, you idiotic fucking moron and although they weren’t convinced that their captor was anything resembling a threat, they didn’t think that would be wise.
“Right. Obviously you’re in the mafia - I should know, right? I did kidnap you, after all. Still! Mafia. Pretty cool. Me too. I mean, I’m also, you know. Mafia. That whole shtick. It’s… pretty neat, huh?” Alex’s captor made finger guns, then promptly regretted that decision (and possibly their entire life) and opted to intently stare at their nails instead.
“Yeah. Pretty neat,” Alex said, in a way that was supposed to come out as sarcastic and suave but sounded a tiny bit more lovestruck than they intended.
“Anyway, I’m Morgan! It’s really nice to meet you.”
“Morgan, huh?” It came about a bit more collected than before, despite how idiotic and stupid and incredible that “nice to meet you” comment was, and how completely genuine it sounded.
“Yeah! And you’re, like, Alex. I guess. You’re the, um, thingy for that rival family.”
“The thingy.” Alex could barely choke out the words.
“The leader! Sorry. It’s just… talking. You know. Anyway.”
And with that, Alex was completely, utterly, in love.
Morgan continued to ramble on and Alex watched, awestruck, barely able to speak. They opened their mouth, blinked a few times, then shut it, not sure what to say. Morgan was… well, Alex didn’t quite know how to describe it. Less than competent, perhaps, would be the kindest way to put it. They also talked far too much without ever really reaching the point, if there had ever been one at all. But they were also quite interesting to listen to, and Alex wanted to do it for a while longer.
But that wasn't possible. “Sorry to interrupt, darling, but do you mind telling me why, exactly, you drugged, kidnapped, and handcuffed the leader of a rival mafia family? Because my family’s going to be looking for me pretty soon, if they aren’t already, and they’re gonna be pretty angry once they find me.” It was a threat, not a warning. There was no reason why Alex would be looking out for their captor, after all. Just a threat.
“Oh! Yeah, I- you know, it’s really cool that you’re the leader. You can’t be much older than me! What are you, twenty-five?”
“Twenty-seven, and the reason that I’m the leader is that your family killed my parents. And grandparents, aunts, uncles, every real adult in my life.” Alex glowered threateningly, or at the very least tried to - normally, they were rather good at this sort of thing, but this felt… different. Morgan felt different.
“Oh. Right. Sorry ‘bout that.”
"Eh. I mean, they weren’t exactly great or anything.”
“Oh. Good! Well. not exactly good, but-”
“I get the point. Back to my original question?”
“Well, you aren’t the only one with family issues. Although mine don’t involve dead parents. Well, one of them is dead, ‘cause mafia stuff. Was that your family’s fault? I think it might have been. I was kinda young. But yeah, so, I’m, like, not great at this stuff.”
“‘This stuff’?”
“Mafia stuff.”
“What, really? That’s shocking.”
“Thanks! Wait, nevermind, that was sarcasm. Sorry. Anyway, I kind of want to prove that I’m not, ya know, a complete and total failure who is incapable of doing anything right.”
“So you thought it would be a good idea to try and kidnap me? The task that you would almost definitely fail at?”
“Look, I was drunk and it made sense and- I don’t know. Sure, there was a good chance that I was going to die, but at least I’d die doing something cool!”
“That’s… not right. At all. That’s really stupid.” Morgan deflated a bit and Alex instantly felt a wave of guilt. Morgan had seemed quite excited, what with all their endless rambling and adorab- annoying stuttering, and now they seemed rather ashamed. “Although, I guess you didn’t fail, huh? So maybe it wasn’t a terrible idea. Although if you ever try anything like that again, I’ll kill you myself. It’s way too dangerous.”
“So you… aren’t going to kill me now? Not that you'd be able to, given you're my prisoner, but... let's be honest, you probably could.” Alex’s eyes widened, words freezing in their mouth. They weren’t going to kill Morgan, of course, but it was a rather delicate situation and their siblings would certainly kill Morgan once they found Alex and-
“I’d let you go, I would - I quite like you and feel absolutely awful about this kidnapping business - but I promised my mother that I had an important surprise and-” Morgan went on and on, words flying out of their mouth, and Alex watched for a long moment. They did feel (more than) slightly bad about this, what with Morgan being so genuine and kind and excitable and the whole thing about family pressure that wasn’t exactly alien to Alex, either. But they couldn’t let the rest of Morgan’s family find them; Alex would be killed or tortured or worse.
So they just needed a replacement surprise; something that would thrill Morgan’s family, that would ease some of the tension between the two families enough for their little friendship to continue on, something that would give Morgan’s family just enough control over Alex’s family that Morgan could be the family hero they always dreamt of being.
“Hey, Morgan?”
“Yeah?”
“How do you feel about marriage?”