Thalia

I quietly knocked on Peter's room door and began to fiddle with my fingers. I have no clue why I was being so nervous. Maybe it was just me being silly. Yeah, that was it.

I raised my fist to knock on the door again, thinking I'd knocked too softly the first time before my eyes met Peter's. His honey brown orbs widened slightly before they grew cold again.

"Not now, Thalia. Go away." He said, going to close the door. I grabbed it before he could, trying to hide my wince as a sharp pain shot up the palm of my hand.

I evidently didn't hide it well because Peter quickly grabbed my hand and looked it over, seeing if my wounds had reopened.

"I'm fine." I insisted, removing my hand from his. "But I need to talk to you."

Peter gave me a deadpan look. "I just said, not now."

"Yeah, and I heard that. But if we're not gonna talk now, then when are we gonna talk, huh? Because you seem pretty hell-bent on avoid me for the rest of my time here!"

"Thalia-" Peter began, but I cut him off.

"No, Peter, listen, I know that for some reason, you blame yourself for what happened to me, but it's not your fault!"

"Yes it is!"

"How, Peter? Explain to me what you could have possibly done to keep that situation from happening?" I demanded, raising my voice a little. Peter remained quiet, no doubt thinking about what he could say.

Suddenly it hit me. "Is this about the fight we had before work?" He stayed quiet. My expression softened a bit. "Peter," I began.

"Yeah, okay, I know I was kind of being an ass then, okay, I'm sorry." Peter fumed.

"Peter, you have nothing to apologize for." He looked up at me as I continued."You told me that morning that I didn't want to get wrapped up in all of your 'family stuff'. You said you were just trying to protect me." I brushed a strand of began to twiddle with my fingers again. "I see why now. When I was kidnapped by Jason, I was...scared." I breathed. "I thought I was going to die there. I thought I would never get to see my family, my friends, or you." I looked up at Peter. "I felt kind of...stupid, honestly. I told you that I didn't need protection, but evidently I was wrong."

It was quiet between us for a minute before Peter spoke up. "I know you have questions." He began. He stepped out of the doorway and opened the door all the way. "So, I'm gonna answer them for you."

I looked up at him with a raised brow."What?"

"You heard me." He said. I followed him into the room and sat next to him on the bed, crossing my legs and turning to face him. He mirrored my position.

"Okay, ask away." He said.

Honestly, now that I was here, all my previous questions kind of disappeared. My mind blanked.

"Um..."

"Speechless much?" Peter asked with a smirk.

"No!" I huffed. "Um...What is it that your family does. Like REALLY."

Peter licked his lips and sat up a bit straighter. "We're mob bosses." He said straight-faced. "We're in the Mafia."

I snorted, laughing at Peter's sad excuse. He couldn't be serious! I looked up at him to see his eyebrow raised.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"Oh my god, you're serious." I said as I stopped laughing.

"Um, yeah."

"Oh, holy shit...Is that why Jason kidnapped me? Because he thought I was a part of your gang?"

Peter nodded. "Yep. Basically. He thought we'd initiated you and since you were the "newest member" he found you to be the easiest target."

"Holy fuck..." I breathed. "Does your mom know?"

He nodded. "Mom was the previous Mob Queen with dad. Dad was the King...before he died that is." He muttered the last part.

"I'm sorry." I said softly, touching his arm gently."Was it...Did he die with something that had to do with the mob?"

He shook his head. "No. Normal heart complications got to him. Leo's the King now, and he's doing a good job, honestly."

"So what does that make you? I asked."

He looked over at me with a sort of confident smirk, his bad boy persona showing for a split moment. "That, my dear Lea, makes me a Prince."

"Hmm! Royalty! Nice!" I joked, getting a laugh out of him.

"Fiona is a part of it, too." Peter added once we'd stopped laughing. "Her, her boyfriend, Corey, Rhys, and a few others make up our division."

"Did you just say division?" I asked.

"Yep." Peter took one look at my confused expression and he raised an eyebrow at me. "Wait, did you seriously think that my family made up the entire Mafia?"

"I don't know how the Mafia works!" I squeaked, earning a grin and playful face palm from Peter. He flopped backwards onto the bed before muttering something incoherent before sitting up again.

"Okay!" He breathed getting up off of the bed and getting a sheet of paper and pencil. He drew a little square. "This, he said pointing at the square, "Represents our division of the Mafia. We're our own separate mob. He drew a crown on top of the square. "That represents Leo." He drew several other squares and crowns, some with two crowns. "These represent all the other mobs in the Mafia. Each of them have their own territories, their own rivalries, their own trades and businesses."

He drew a giant circle above the squares and crowns and pointed to it with his eraser. "Now this, this is the Don."

I raised an eyebrow. "The Don?"

"Yes. The Don. His name is Caesar Vindicci. He's the big man in this whole operation. He's the king of kings in the Mafia. And he's NOT someone you wanna mess with." He drew lines from the crowns to the circle. "All the kings of the separate mobs make up Caesar's inner circle. He almost never gathers them together, but when he does, it's often for something big and they're always hush hush on what they talk about."

"Oh wow." I muttered.

"Yeah, it's a little...complex at first. But It's kind of simple once you get used to it."

"So, Jason's mob and your mob are-"

"Rivals. Yes." Peter cut me off. "We've hated each other for a while now. But it started long ago, back when my grandfather was our Mob leader."

"What do you mean?" I asked with a scrunched nose.

"My dad and Jason were both out for my mom. They both wanted her. I guess you could see who won in the end." Peter explained.

"And I'm assuming that didn't sit well with Jason?"

Peter nodded. "He hasn't let it go since then. He's always being petty, attacking or shipments and ruining our trades and stuff."

"Wait, shipments? Trades? Do you mean like..." I trailed off giving Peter a look.

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, I mean like drugs and stuff."

"You're a DRUG LORD?!"

"INADVERTENTLY!!"

"HOW DO YOU INADVERTENTLY BECOME A DRUG LORD?!"

"When it's a family birthright, so you get forced into it." Peter deadpanned.

I pressed my lips together in a thin line before I sighed.

"Yeah, but...what does all this mean for me?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. I have to kill you now, because you know too much." Peter said seriously, stroking the pencil he'd just used. "Don't worry, though. You've kind of grown on me. I'll make sure your death is quick and painless."

"WHAT?!" I shrieked with a smile, tumbling off the bed. I knew he was joking so I decided to play along.

Peter stalked towards me with a smirk. "Yep. Now let's get this over with. If I call the maids in soon, they'll be able to get the blood out by five."

"Peter! Why! I thought we were one in the same!" I cried dramatically.

Peter stopped walking suddenly and chuckled. Honestly, if his eyes hadn't been twinkling with a playful glimmer, I would have thought he were serious.

"Oh, Thalia. How can two tortured souls like ours ever fit together."

With that, he pounced on me, dropping the pencils and holding my wrist, pinning me to the floor. I squealed in shock and began to struggle, nearly getting loose from his grasp before he pushed my hands back down. We were laughing so loud, we didn't even hear the clicking of Fiona's heels until she'd burst through the door, leaving us staring wide eyed at her like deer in headlights.

"RICARDO PROPOSED TO ME!!!" She squealed in happiness. "Oh my gosh! We're going to have a summer wedding! It's going to be so pretty with the lights, the flowers, the-" Then she saw Peter and I and she stared at us in shock. "Oh, um..I didn't know I was interrupting anything..." She said awkwardly, retreating towards the door.

"No! Wait! Fiona, it's not what it looks like!" Peter rushed, scrambling off of me.

"Nope, I don't even wanna know. Just use protection and be quiet please." She rushed before closing the door.

Peter and I stared at the door for a few seconds before we looked back at each other.

Then, we unintentionally burst out laughing.