Parents and Thugs

Four plates of spaghetti and meatballs were laid out in front of them as they sat around the table in awkward silence.

"So," said Johan, "You two look young and vibrant for your age. What is your secret?"

"You can call me Ms Moretti," said Luisa's mother, "and my husband is Mr Moretti to you. We had Luisa when we were young and worked very hard to get to where we are today."

"Amora," said Mr Moretti, "Why dont you find a nice Italian boy. This boy I no like."

"Papa, Mama, stop this!," said Luisa, "Johan is a nice boy. Just try and get to know him. I've dated him already for three months."

"Your boyfriend is strange," said Mr Moretti, "he say we nake-"

"Liar," said Johan coughing into his hand, "What were you doing before we got here?"

Mr and Ms Moretti's faces turned red.

"Johan, stop messing around. Papa, Mama, Me and Johan went dancing today," said Luisa, "It was so much fun. We learn't so many amazing moves, we should show you."

"What your job, Johan?," asked Ms Moretti, "you own company?"

"I came from earth just recently," said Johan, "I get paid to win fights."

Mr and Ms Moretti looked at Johan with an expression of disapproval.

"But," said Luisa, "we are working on finding him a different method of making income."

Johan raised an eyebrow curiously looking at Luisa. Luisa looked back at him with a pleading look.

"You two do the sexy sex?," asked Ms Moretti.

"Mom!," said Luisa turning red.

"You have baby," said Ms Moretti, "boy die in fight. Mi Amore, Luisa raise baby alone. Hard life. You bad boy."

"I won't leave her alone," said Johan, "I promise. I won't loose and I'll take care of Luisa."

"Luisa!," said Mr Moretti, "remember what happened with the last boy? He die in fight. Don't do this mistake again. "

"Dad," scowled Luisa, "I am a grown woman capable of making my own decisions, why can't you respect that? I am not some sully that sold herself out as a sex slave to a sect. I've been propositioned many times. You know this. I have decency. Respect my decisions and try and at least get to know Johan. We took our date day came to visit you! Yet, you have been extremely rude to him!"

Johan looked at Luisa with a new found respect. Not only was she beautiful, she was taking a stand against her parents for him. She was an independent and bold person.

"Mi amore," said Mr Moretti as his voice softened, "desolato, we will try."

"Now," said Luisa, "apologize to Johan."

"Ima sorry," said Luisa's parents.

Johan replied, "Its alright. I'd be protective too if I had a daughter as beautiful as Luisa."

"See Mama and Papa?," said Luisa, "Johan is sweet!"

"So Mr and Ms Moretti, Luisa told me she and you two came from earth. Do you miss it?," asked Johan.

"Of course!," said Mr Moretti, "back in Italy, I used to be a police officer. It was lovely. My Mama and Papa would make the best pizzas, not the pizza you get here, much better."

"He would bring me beautiful flowers," said Ms Moretti, "every day, to my Mama's restaurante, and my Mama hated him."

"The most beautiful girl," said Mr Moretti, "deserves beautiful things."

The Moretti's looked at each other lovingly and held each others hands.

-- Ø --

Johan and Luisa hugged Mr and Ms Moretti as they left their apartment.

"You a good boy," said Ms Moretti, "take care of our girl."

"If you hurt my baby," said Mr Moretti, "I come for you."

Johan laughed and said, "I'll take care of Luisa. You don't worry."

"Good bye Mama and Papa," said Luisa, "I'll see you soon."

"Come again soon Johan," said Mr Moretti, "we like you. You good boy. We will tell you more stories."

They walked Johan and Luisa to the elevator and gave them a last hug as they got on the elevator. Then the Moretti's left them and returned to their apartment.

"See?," said Luisa after they were alone in the elevator, "They are great. That wasn't so bad."

"Yeah," said Johan, "I like them. But I have a question, what did you mean when you said we were working on me getting another form of income?"

Luisa looked at Johan and said, "Johan, you can't fight forever. If we are going to start a family, you'll have to eventually do something less risky. They would have made a fuss if I said you only planned to fight, my last boyfriend was killed in a fight."

"I see," said Johan.

"If you had to choose between me and fighting," said Luisa holding Johan's hand, "what would you chose?"

Johan remained silent.

"Lets talk about something else," said Johan, "Just know this, I love you."

"Okay," said Luisa smiling understandingly, "lets go back to my place. You can spend the night."

Johan smiled and said, "alright."

They walked out of the building to find the suns setting.

Johan had gotten into the habit of spreading his perception, rather than simply relying on his sight when he was walking outside in the city due to how dangerous the city was. Every day in the ghettos, you'd hear about how someone was assaulted, robbed, raped or kidnapped. Due to the extreme impoverished state of the city, many people were desperate. Most people didn't walk outside at night because once the sun set the risk of bad things happening increased exponentially.

Luisa hummed to herself quietly while holding onto Johan's arm as they walked through the alleys towards her place in silence.

Night set in as the suns disappeared over the horizon leaving them to walk in darkness.

"Johan," said Luisa, "you seem tense, whats up?"

"We are being followed," whispered Johan.

Luisa's face paled.

More and more men with mustaches seemed to be coming out of buildings and it seemed they we casually increasing their speed to catch up to them. It was unusual to see so many people out at this time.

"What are we going to do?," asked Luisa as her eyes watered up frightened.

Using his perception, Johan realised they were all carrying weapons.

If it was one unarmed person and Johan was alone, he would have been confident in his ability to deal with them. But these men were armed, and he had Luisa with him.

"I told your parents I'd take care of you," said Johan, "and I will. Stay calm. Trust me."

"Hey!," a man wearing a leather jacket yelled, "me and my boys like your woman."

"Johan," squealed Luisa clinging closer to him like a frightened cat.

"Thanks!," said Johan, "you got good taste. I like her too, that is why she is my woman."

Johan kept walking with Luisa, glancing around for somewhere they could use to escape from the armed men.

"How about you give her to us?," asked the man who was clearly the groups leader.

"I don't give my girlfriend to anyone," said Johan, "what kind of guy would?"

"How about you die?," said another man who ran up to Johan and cut him off, "and we give her the time of her life and then kill her too."

The man then pulled out a gun pointing it at them.

A man with sun glasses behind the first man snapped his fingers and said, "he means we are gonna rape her!"

"As a group," said another man with earrings.

Tears were streaming down Luisa's face as they found themselves completely surrounded by the group of over thirty men.

There was no escaping this situation ...

Johan looked down at Luisa and realised that if he didn't think of something, this would be the end of their story.

Johan held Luisa close, and said, "Stay calm. You'll be okay."

"Be okay!?," laughed the man with the gun, "Clearly you don't see what I am holding."

He remembered one day Neil telling him the story of a boxer he'd heard of that punched another man directly on the heart and it paralised and killed him.

"Guys," said Johan, "surely we can work something out. We are men not savages."

The mustached men started to laugh.

Johan used a mana burst and created blindingly bright light and with his perception located the gun man's heart struck out as hard as he could with his foot at the heart of the man pointing a gun at him. At the same time, Johan used his free arm to punch the man's arm redirecting the gun's aim.

"BANG!"

The thug's gun went off.

"UGHHH!," groan a thug.

"AHHhhhhhh!," Luisa scream in fright, "BABY! ARE YOU OKAY!?"

Johan picked Luisa up and ran as fast as he could. The power from his legs cracked the pavement as he quickly made distance and turned a corner getting out of the thugs line of sight.

"Shhhh!," whispered Johan.

As Luisa's sight returned she realised they were no longer where they used to be. The thugs were no longer surrounding them.

"What just happened?," yelled one of the mustached thugs, "Where is the girl!?"

"Johnny isn't breathing," yelled another thug, "his ribs are broken. We need to take them to the hospital!"

"Tim got shot!," yelled another thug, "he needs a hospital now!"

"But that insane woman and man are there," yelled another thug.

"They'll die if we don't take them," yelled another thug.

"Lets get to your place," whispered Johan watching the men from around the corner, "its not safe here."

"What happened?," whispered Luisa confused, "what was that bright light? How did we get away?"

"We will talk more at your place," whispered Johan.

Luisa nodded.

"Today," whispered Luisa, "I am so glad you train as a fighter."

-- Ø --

They were at Luisa's apartment. The house smelt of incense and the walls a light pink.

Luisa was sitting on her brown sofa pale from her recent experience.

Johan prepared a mugs of hot chocolate for them and set them down on the table in front of the sofa. Luisa picked up the mug and started sipping it. He then got a blanket for her, sat next to her and hugged her.

"Are you alright?," asked Johan.

"We were out too late," said Luisa, "I should have kept track of time. This was my fault. I almost lost you because I my stupidity."

"This isn't your fault," said Johan, "it is those mustached thugs that are the problem ..."

"This city," said Luisa, "The gangs are out of control and those with power don't care. One sect could get this entire place under control in a week, eliminating all crime, without using even a fraction or their resources. But they don't. Why? Because we don't have anything of value for them. We are just regular, powerless people. Every day here, several people get raped, murdered, robbed or assaulted, and the cops don't do anything about it. Even they are afraid of the gangs."

"Once I get into a sect," said Johan, "our situation will be much better. We can leave this place."

"But this is our city," said Luisa tearing up, "don't you see that Looking Glass Kingdom is the closest thing we will ever have to home without going back to earth? If we can't feel safe here, where? There are creatures and people that can move mountains or destroy worlds in the blink of an eye in the higher realms."

"Babe," said Johan hugging Luisa tighter, "this is the one day we've set aside this week to relax and have fun. Lets not let a few thugs ruin it for us."

Luisa kissed Johan's shoulder, and whispered, "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Want to watch a movie before bed?," asked Johan.

"Why not?," said Luisa with a small smile.