Prologue

Life was never easy for Angelo. He was always expected to be more like his brother, to be one of the best young mobsters the world had ever seen. He put on a front when he was around his family, knowing if he was himself around his father, he'd most likely get beaten. But hey, that's what happens when your father is a big shot Italian mafia boss. Sure, they lived in New York, but they were still big shots in the Italian mob. There were very few people he could ever be himself around. At first, this was limited to his twin sister, Molly, and his mother, Emelia. She passed away shortly after Angelo and Molly turned 12, which resulted in their father becoming more and more set on his sons taking over the family business. He started drinking and became much more violent, with Angelo being the brunt of his anger most of the time. Soon enough, Angelo and his brother Aegis were put on cleanup duty. They were in charge of cleaning up any hits the gang had taken care of. They were promoted to collectors, and then his brother was given the honor of becoming a hitter.

After that, Angelo became less and less inclined to act like the perfect mafia son around his father. This resulted in a fairly average routine that the youngest Romano child got used to fairly quickly. He got mouthy? He'd get hit. Refused a job? He'd get hit. Bad mouthed the business? He'd get hit. This went on for a few years, the same old routine. But there was one person who never judged Angelo, who never questioned why he hated his father, or why he always seemed to prefer women's clothing. From the day they were born, they grew up together. Their father's were best friends, so they rarely spent a day apart. The only person Angelo would go to for anything, would DO anything just to keep that brilliant smile on his face.

Alastor LeBlanc. The butcher's son who lived down the street.

Angelo and Alastor were best friends basically from birth. They learned how to walk together, how to talk together, and how to ride a bike together. Once school started, they'd walk to and from together every day. After school, Angelo would go try and please his father with whatever mafia work he had to do that day, and Alastor would help his father in the butcher shop. As they got older, the boys slowly began to realize the unspoken attraction they seemed to harbor for the other. Angelo was excited, he had always expected something like this would happen when he never found anything appealing about girls. Alastor on the other hand…

Alastor was terrified. He had never had any kind of feelings like this before, and it scared him. He lived with his mother and father, who had very different ideas on how to raise their son. His mother, Lillian, raised him with manners and respect. She taught him how to cook, how to do laundry… She taught him how to survive on his own. His father, on the other hand, wanted Alastor to take over the butcher shop. He wanted to pull Alastor out of school to teach him how to run the shop. Alastor leaned more towards his mother's approach, always seeming to have a stronger attachment for her. But he continued to help his father at the shop to make him happy. When he first discovered his growing affection for Angelo, at first he panicked. He knew what the world thought about homosexuals. The thought of Angelo being found out by his father scared him. He didn't want anything to happen to his only friend.

But when Angelo approached the idea of a secret romance… The idea sounded too appealing for Alastor to pass up. So the two began their relationship in secret, meeting in alleyways and catching each other in the bathroom between classes. It was thrilling. But the two of them knew it wouldn't last. After all, their fathers weren't exactly the most supportive parents. Alastor knew what Angelo's father was like. He was there to clean up the aftermath of each and every one of the blonde boy's beatings. He was there to patch up his injuries and make sure he got to bed okay. He was there to hold him until the tears stopped the day after his mother died. And the day of the funeral. He was there to comfort and soothe Angelo back to sleep after every nightmare… And yet Angelo's father never let up with the constant demands and jobs. It got to the point Alastor thought about just killing the bastard and freeing his lover from the pain. But he knew he wouldn't be able to go through with it. Henroin was still Angelo's father, no matter how shitty of one he was. Angelo would never forgive him.

It was no surprise to either of them when Angelo and Aegis were eventually ordered to take their cleanup jobs to Alastor and his father. After a while, Alastor's father left the job to his son, and Angelo would always stay to watch. There was something alluring about watching the same hands that caressed his cheeks so gently rip into the flesh and bone of what used to be a living human being. It was a strange turn on for the blonde. The brunette knew of his lover's strange fantasy, and indulged it every so often by narrating what he was doing to the corpse on his cutting table. He always had to give the taller boy a few kisses later to make up for it, but it was definitely worth it seeing the look on Angelo's face when he turned around wearing that bloodstained apron.

The jobs became more frequent, and Angelo's father was always too drunk to ask where his son was after the job was done, so it allowed more alone time for the secret couple. But… They knew it wouldn't last. They knew something would come crashing down, shattering their perfect little bubble and they would have to accept the reality of the world once again.

After all… all good things must come to an end…

But good just isn't in their vocabulary…