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Chance lies on his bed as he slowly drifts to sleep. Slowly, memories of itrapped creeps in the longer time passes.
The memories of itrapped brings Chance a sense of joy. Chance remembers all those late nights at the casino, when they used to drink wine over a game of poker, when itrapped pointed all his flaws, how horrible his eyes looked without the shades, and the day when…
Suddenly everything became a nightmare.
Chance’s heartbeat spikes as he remembers that day. The sword. The lies. The insults. It all fills his brain like a burning memory.
Chance wakes and gets up frantically from his and Mafioso’s bed“AGH-!” Chance’s breaths are heavy as he holds his chest then their right eye
Mafioso quickly wakes up, looks around, then immediately checks up on Chance“Are you ok!? Did anyone hurt you..!?” Mafioso exclaimed “I’m-” Chance pants. He can barely even breathe let alone talk. Sweat falls from his forehead down their chin.
”I’m ok-! Everything’s fine! I just had a bad nightmare haha-!” Chance shows a weak smirk on his face.“Did you..have a nightmare again..?” Mafioso says softly as he holds Chance’s left hand.
Chance stops smirking and slightly frowns, “Yeah.. Yeah I did.” Chance’s vision blurs, tears threaten to fall from their eyes. “I’m here for you ok? You’re safe around me.”They take mafioso in a tight embrace as tears fall from their eyes. “Take all the time you need. You’re safe with me.”
Chance tightens their grip on mafioso “Promise me you’ll stay. Promise me you love me. Please…”
“I promise, Chance.” Mafioso rubs Chance’s back to sooth him. “Can I sleep in your arms..?” Mafioso looks back at Chance and lays his hand on their cheek with a warm smile, “Of course, No need to ask for permission” Chance shows a tired smile and lays his head on Mafioso’s chest and he drifts off to sleep.
“Sweet dreams, Chance.”
---
An alarm wakes Chance up. He looks beside themselves to not find Mafioso. “Maf? Are you there?” No response. “Don?” Chance hears noises in the kitchen.They put on their hat, shades, headphones, and grab their flintlock as they slowly creep down the hallway and peek beside the wall.
“Oh hey Chance! Good morning!” Mafioso smiles and waves. He’s already dressed, wearing his fedora and suit. Chance lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “Ah..Good morning Maf..”
“I made some breakfast for the both of us” Mafioso signals Chance to sit down with him on the kitchen table. “So how’d you sleep?” “I slept alright, how about you?”“I slept great. Although I do have to get going soon. There was an accident at one of my warehouses and I need to deal with it.” Mafioso lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Ah. That must suck.”“I’d normally let capogrime or consilegre handle it but they’re both busy today.” “Well I hope everything’s ok!” Chance exclaimed
Chance grabs both their plates and places it in the sink“I need to go use the restroom so you can prepare to leave for work now.”“Oh alright.”Chance walks into the bathroom and shuts the door
He slowly drags their feet to the mirror as he stares into their reflection. Chance takes off his shades and practices his signature smirk at the mirror, but then they look at his burn scar on his right eye. They cover the scar with their hand as his grin fades into a frown.
“You look ugly. Pathetic. Your face looks horrible. Mafioso doesn’t love you. He hates the way you look. He gets embarrassed every time someone sees him with you. Why do you ever bother taking off your shades? Put it back on. Put it back on. Put back on-”
The words repeat in their brain like a headache. Chance quickly puts his shades back on. He sighs.“There. Much better.”
“Chance! I’m leaving now! I’ll be gone for a while!” Mafioso yells from another room while Chance flinches at the sudden noise“O-Oh! Ok!” Chance gets out of the bathroom and walks to mafioso, then they hug him and kiss him on the cheek*
“Be careful ok?” Chance says with a worried face “Don’t worry, I’ll be alright.” Mafioso smiles warmly as he breaks away from Chance and walks towards the door. He then looks behind and changes his face to a worried expression.
…
“You be careful, ok? If you need to talk or anything at all just text me and I’ll be here as soon as I can.”Chance’s face masks into his signature grin. “Relax! I’ll be fine!” Chance walks towards Mafioso, “You know me!” Chance flexes his arms “I’m super duper tough! Hah!”
“pfft- Alright then. Just telling you to make sure. Take care alright? I’ll see you later!”Chance waves at mafioso “See ya!”
Mafioso leaves and Chance closes the door and locks it. Chance’s grin immediately turns into a frown and chance takes off his shades as Chance sighs.
Chance flops onto the couch and pulls out his phone to see photos of him and itrapped being together. Chance tries to delete the photos but reluctantly doesn’t.He puts the phone in his suit pocket “Gee I’m still tired..”
Chance closes his eyes.
Suddenly everything becomes a dark red. Chance opens his eyes abruptly“H-Hello..!?”He sits up and looks around him “Why aren't I wearing anything? What happend to my clothes? Where’s my shades??”
Chance walks down the red hallway floating in the middle of a black void with red mirrors trailing down the red path.“Maf..! Don..! Are you there..!?” … “Itrapped?” Chance keeps walking down the red path.
Chance squints down the path, and sees an object up ahead that he can’t quite make out. “What is that?” Chance looks around, but finds nothing but pure black void.
Well… I might as well check it out since there’s nowhere to go…They keep walking towards the mysterious object far ahead.As he walks down the red path, red mirrors follow along with him at every angle, forcing him to look at his body.
“God I hate all these mirrors. I hate looking at myself.” Chance slowly approaches the object as he realizes what it is. The darkheart.“Is that the.. no.. No.! NO!” His expression drops, and his skin turns white as he holds his mouth, trying not to throw up. “No please..I don’t want to face it. Don’t make me remember again..Please stop reminding me..” Chance slowly suffocates himself without realizing it.
Chance passes out in his “dream” and wakes up in reality and grips onto his mouth. He runs to the bathroom to throw up. His face and body is sweating like bullets
“Ugh…” Chance cleans himself up and walks to the kitchen to have a glass of water "Why do I keep having these nightmares… Why can’t my brain just move on..? I don’t want to face it again..”
Hours pass. Chance stares at the empty glass as thoughts and burdens swarm his head.
Mafioso unlocks the door, humming a small tune“Hey Chance~ Guess what happened at the warehouse! The goons pulled a surprise party for our 10th anniversary of being a mafia! It was so fun-”
…
Chance doesn’t notice Mafioso’s there as he stares blankly at the cup in front of him. “Chance? You..alright there?” Mafioso lays his hand on Chance’s shoulder” Chance screams and launches himself backward “Geez! I didn’t even notice you were there! You scared me!”
“I’m so sorry! I- I didn’t mean to! You were just staring at the empty glass and I was seeing if you were alright!”
“It’s…fine I just didn’t see you there.” Mafioso gets worried “are you ok..? You can talk to me.”“I don’t feel like talking right now.” Mafioso holds out his arms “That’s ok. No need to talk if you don’t want to. Just know I’ll always be here to listen.”
Chance looks at Mafioso and runs into his arms and cries “I hate how I look. I hate this stupid body and this stupid burn scar.” Tears fall from Chance’s eyes like a storm. He let’s out all his pent up hatred and sorrows onto Mafioso’s shoulder
“I just feel like I’m not good enough for you. I hate how I act, how I look, and how I just make my feelings feel invalid.”Mafioso keeps quiet, focusing on listening and comforting Chance.
“I just…I just want you to be with someone that’s worth being your partner. Not someone with someone like me.”
Mafioso holds his hands on Chance’s cheeks, moving his thumbs back and forth to sooth them. “You are worth being my partner. You are good enough, and if anyone says otherwise they’d be lying. You are the most handsome and amazing person I’ve ever met. Never think otherwise. I love you and your scar it makes you unique in a beautiful way, and you don’t need to be perfect for me. You just need to be you.”
Chance hugs Mafioso again.
“Thank you." “Anytime."