UNHAND ME, MORTAL

Under the luminous night as Giovanni was trudging back to his van, Batuhan's final words echoed around in his mind over and over. When he ended his regretful statement with him being done with the life of crime, his eyes widened in shock and… fear. Batuhan seemed so unkempt and all over the place and for as long as he had known him, he had never seen him lose grip of his emotions in such a manner.

All Giovanni had ever wanted was to be free from his debt and now that he was, he could not help but be scared. Of losing his friends; his family essentially.

He did not know if he could survive being alone again.

He looked down at the docket in his hand, gripping it tightly. It contained his deepest, darkest secret. He wondered if it was the curse that caused the chaos.

The last job.

He gulped, and at that moment, he yearned to go over to his girlfriend. Firstly, to find out if she even was his girlfriend anymore. Now that she knew about his criminal endeavours, he could only hope that she wouldn't break up with him. It was unlikely she did not break off their relationship, but a man could hope.

Usually, he did not go back to the apartment after a job, just in case it jeopardised her safety, but the option was always there for him if he wanted to. It didn't feel good to know that she did not want to see him. He did not blame her though. He did, after all, lie to her.

Once he reached the spot in which he parked his van, he slowed down to a stop when a noise caught his attention, and his gaze fell on the dark silhouette of an unknown person who was clearly trying to lockpick his van.

In bemusement, he squinted over at them. A wave of amusement washed over him the longer the half naked stranger evidently struggled to get the door open. The audacity of this would be thief attempting to steal from him of all people, especially the van that was gifted to him by one of his boys.

With an amused smirk on his face, he decided to give this miscreant a little surprise. Casually, he strolled over to the unsuspecting intruder and called for their attention, "Hey."

Startled by his abrupt intrusion, the wannabe thief jumped out of their skin and quickly turned around, instantly met with his sharp gaze. In the nick of time, Giovanni spotted his balled up fist approaching his face and reflexively dodging the oncoming punch, he grabbed his arm and pushed him into the door of his van, trapping him between the vehicle and the weight of his body.

The stranger groaned, the car rattling loudly from his impact.

"That's rude," Giovanni murmured, hilarity heavily staining his tone. "Do you try and punch every single person who tries to have a conversation with you?"

"Unhand me, mortal," the thief demanded angrily, struggling to get out of his hold.

Giovanni immediately picked up on his unfamiliar accent even through his gritted words.

"You have certainly chosen a unique target tonight," he muttered instead. "Why are you trying to break into my van?"

"Let me go and I will tell you." He strained against his hold. "Stupid mortal body."

Was this one of the members of the motorcycle club? Did they send him after him, because of the turf tax he avoided?

He looked down at him carefully, trying to see his features in the dark. With how much he was trying to wrestle around in his arms, it made it quite the feat. Who even was this guy? From his deep gritty voice, he deduced that he was not a youngling, but he also did not seem like someone who was a part of a gang. He looked… innocent enough?

After much consideration, he backed away from him.

Slowly, the stranger turned around, his eyes widening with a mix of confusion and perhaps even embarrassment as he looked him up and down like he was some sort of enigma.

"What?"

"I didn't think you would actually let me go," he responded, running a hand through his locks to fix the tousled mess from the scuffle.

When Giovanni shrugged nonchalantly, the thief started to slowly back away from him, but he glowered at him to stop him dead in his tracks.

"Don't you fucking dare," Giovanni demanded again, taking a step closer to him to grab his wrist.

He stumbled to a stop, staring down at his hand around his wrist widely. "Get your grimy hand off of me before I break it, mortal."

Dismissively, I rolled my eyes and asked, "What are you doing breaking into my car?"

"I was not breaking into your vehicle," he responded adamantly after tugging his arm out of his grasp and when Giovanni glanced down at the spark plug in his other hand, he arched his eyebrow unconvinced.

After palming the spark plug, he could almost hear the gears spinning around in the stranger's mind as if he was trying to come up with an excuse, "I was… actually, some hooded mortal was trying to break into your vehicle and I scared them off so really, you should be thanking me."

"Some hooded mortal?" he muttered dismissively.

"Precisely."

Again, he stared at the man before him with an unimpressed expression painting his face while curiosity seemed to bubble around in his bright eyes as if he was trying to figure out who Giovanni even was. Did he not know who he was? Was he just breaking into a random person's car? He furrowed his eyebrows, his gaze burning into the stranger and all his entirety. Now he was confused.

Was he an undercover cop, pretending to be a homeless man?

His gaze hardened on him earnestly, alarm bells going off in his mind. Subtly, his hand lingered near his waistline where both his desert eagle and switchblade were safely tucked. If he was a cop, then that meant they knew something about the bank heist.

Can't a man catch a break?

Giovanni had been through enough trouble tonight, he almost lost a friend. He could not be fucked to go through anything else.

Although, that would not make much sense. Why would a cop be breaking into his van in the first place, half naked?

The stranger seemed to see how serious he was being so reluctantly, he admitted, "I was trying to retrieve something I misplaced recently."

Confusion swept over his face as he tried to comprehend what he just said to him. "You misplaced something in my van?"

"Yes," he responded, standing regally. "Now if you would be so… kind as to open your vehicle for me."

Giovanni scowled at him in incredulity, almost letting a peal of laughter escape his lips from his words. "Who are you?"

"What?"

"What is your name?" he made sure to emphasise each word in his question.

The stranger hesitated, his eyes narrowing and his cold stare settled on him, "Luca."

"Luca?"

"Yes."

"Luca what?"

His brows furrowed in confusion. "It's just Luca."

"That is the name on your identification card?"

"I have no idea what that is."

His brows furrowed, perplexed but after blinking away his bemusement, he murmured slowly, "Okay…"

This was obviously just a confused, homeless man.

Turning around, Giovanni unlocked his van using his key and grabbed one of his blankets, pushing it into his naked chest. It was the same quilt which was handed to him when he was in that subway, shivering his arse off.

He could not help but let his eyes linger on the ink patterns adorning his pale skin. Intricate designs of fiery demons, swirling flames, and twisted serpents covered every inch of his arms, chest and trailing onto his back. Each tattoo seemed to come alive, moving and writhing as if they held a life of their own. Giovanni blinked rapidly, to make sure his eyes were not playing tricks on him.

Despite Luca's unkempt appearance, there was a certain allure to him that drew him in. His presence exuded an air of unplaced confidence and authority, commanding the attention of all those around him. The more his eyes studied him, the more he realised that he did not belong here.

Luca gripped the blanket in his palm, the fur spilling in between his fingers. "What is this?"

"It's a cold night," he told him.

"Cold?"

"You know," he arched an eyebrow at him in intrigue, "the temperature is dropping. Anyway, now you owe me a favour, Luca."

Luca looked at him curiously through pursed lips and when he saw his fleeting gaze travelling over his shoulder to skim through what else Giovanni had in his van, he shifted in front of him and obscured his line of vision. Luca glanced back over at him after wiping the irritable look on his face and quietly asked, "And what if you never see me again, mortal?"

"I know people who can find you wherever you go," he relayed to him, "so you better make sure you fucking see me again because I will want you to fulfil that favour."

"What sort of favour are we talking about here," Luca questioned him, looking him up and down in intrigue, "I am not willing to do anything to get me in trouble with the law?"

"Weren't you just in the process of breaking into my van?" he mused with amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"That was different."

"How was that different?" he asked with a slight chuckle. "Last I checked, breaking into the property of other people is still against the law. Listen, next time you want to steal my blanket, just ask."

"I was not going to take anything you were going to miss. Do not accuse me of being a thief," he replied while wearing an indignant look on his face. "I was simply trying to see if I had misplaced something here, something that I need to return home."

Giovanni furrowed his brows in bemusement as he tried to make sense of the situation before him.

His bright emerald eyes seemed hauntingly familiar, yet he could not place where he had seen them before. Dark hair, tied up in an oddly neat manner for a homeless man, shone under the moonlight which peeked through the clouds. The curve of his jaw and the slope of his perfect brows tugged at the edges of his memory. 

Giovanni took a deep breath, steeling himself to speak. "Have we met before?"

He caught the corner of Luca's lips curling into a faint smile, his green eyes glinting with a hint of amusement. He replied cryptically, his tone smooth and measured, "I don't know." 

His enigmatic response only deepened the mystery of this homeless man.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but Luca raised a hand to silence him. "What favour do you require from me, mortal?"

Why did he sound so eloquent when he spoke?

"If you are worried about getting in trouble with the law, then my favour probably won't involve doing something illegal. Perhaps we can stick to the light breaking into random vehicles we find parked on the side of the street since you do not seem to have anything against doing that."

"I have something against it if you want to take things which do not belong to you."

Boring...

"And I am not…"

His eyes widened when under the dim sliver of light, Luca slightly blushed red.

"I am not a man who lies with other men… so if that is the kind of favour you were expecting to get out of me then you can have your quilt back because I would much rather freeze to death than do that."

He involuntarily chuckled under his breath, looking at Luca with amusement. "Did you just call me gay?"

"Gay?"

"Listen, mate, I will tell you what favour I need from you when I need it. Now scram. I want to get some sleep. It has been a really long night."

"Hold on, mortal," Luca exclaimed before he could enter his van and he heaved a heavy sigh from his chest before rolling his eyes and looking at him inquisitively, "What do I call you?"

He sat in silence for a few moments, gazing intently at the homeless guy. Bathed in the soft, ethereal glow of the moon, his appearance was almost indescribable. His most striking feature was his long, flowing dark locks, shimmering like silver under the moonlight. Even his eyes were obscured by the darkness of the night, adding an air of mystery to his enigmatic presence.

Luca reminded him of Airi in some way. Not his looks, but the naivety in his movements. He did not seem like he belonged on the streets. So did Airi. That was why she was where she was right now. He had no idea if their heist group was still going to be a thing after tonight, after the words that left Batuhan's mouth.

When he realised that he had been silent for far too long to be appropriate, he cleared his throat.

"Giovanni," he introduced himself to Luca, forgetting to remain cautious. Perhaps this unsuspecting individual was sent by Felix.

For a second, Luca looked away ponderingly, soundlessly mouthing his name to test it in his mouth and then he wrinkled his nose as if the name tasted sour in his mouth. After nodding stiffly, he threw the quilt over his shoulders to momentarily stop his quivering.

Giovanni noticed the curious look in his eyes when his gaze shifted back up to connect with his before Luca spun on his heels and quickly strode away from him. For a little while, he, with piqued interest, stared at his retreating form and the second he turned into a dark alleyway, subconsciously, a perplexed smile twitched onto the corner of his lips.

Honestly, he could not care less about the favour. He simply said that because he wanted to come off as someone who should not be messed with. Just in case. Courtesy was a sign of weakness around these parts.

Shaking his head, he entered his disgruntled van. The stench welcomed him back. It smelled like home.

He shifted his bucket hat over his eyes to shield himself from the streetlights and the moment he shut his eyes, he was swallowed by peaceful darkness. His hand cautiously held onto his switchblade.