broken conviction(for you know who)

[Sheeka Riva]

"I miss Shiru," a voice sighed as he stared out the window of his apartment, sitting on the window seat in his apartment. Several weeks had gone by since the attempt on him and his Sacrifice. For the most part, he'd tried to limit some of his contact with her in case he was being watched, to avoid putting her in anymore danger than he had to and was also staying inside his apartment a lot. Sure, he had video game consoles and various other items to keep him entertained while he was inside. However, Sheeka was never truly one to like spending massive amounts of time inside like he had been.

"Stay away from the window," Luca stated from his position on the couch, a book in hand while he sprawled out across it. "If it's bothering you so bad, I can call Serafina and have her bring Shiru over?" Sheeka had deemed it more appropriate for Shiru to have a female guard watching over her rather than a male guard. He felt she'd be more comfortable that way, as well. He'd enjoyed the fact that Shiru had stayed that first night after the incident over at his apartment. It helped him feel that Shiru was the safest with him, even though it was likely that she was in more danger when she was around him. His tail twitched back and forth slightly as he contemplated the idea. A moment later, he shook his head briefly. "Can we go out and see her?" he asked, slightly hopefully as he stared at Luca with the look that could rival that of a cute, fluffy puppy. It wasn't hard to see that Sheeka didn't like spending time inside, in a confined space for a long period of time. He had a mild case of claustrophobia and couldn't stand being indoors for too long. It stemmed from the fact that his stepmother and his father, whenever they would leave the house would either lock him in a dark closet or the basement... depending on how long they'd be gone. Sheeka remembered once, being locked in the closet for three days when his parents hadn't felt like letting him out. He'd spend nearly a week in the basement once. The basement had been used for longer periods of time - like if they went on a trip or something because there had been a half-bathroom in their basement and a sink he could get water from. However, it was because of that that he hated spending too much time indoors. He wasn't so much afraid of the dark has he had been, he'd gotten over that after he'd run away from home because he had to...but he still didn't care for spending too much time indoors.

Luca glanced at his phone for a brief moment, checking the time of day. It was still early. Preferably, he'd like to be home when evening and night fell since it was just the two of them and the apartment was a lot better defended than the streets. He sighed, then looked at Sheeka's hopeful face and regretted doing so immediately. "Fine...just stop looking at me like that...I don't know why you don't just ask her to move in or something" He sighed at the bright smile he got from Sheeka's puppy face as he stood up, closing his book and his eyes. He opened them to see this blank stare before Sheeka's eyes lit up. "That's /brilliant/ she's eighteen now, you know. So I could ask! I mean, I'd have to ask her parents of course...come on, lazy bones, get moving. I have a real reason to go see Shiru now! She didn't seem to mind staying the night...so she'd be able to that every night!" Sheeka chirped before bolting into his room for a few things. Which his room, unsurprisingly, had a lot of stuffed animals in it. Opening his closet, he pulled out several knives from various cute looking stuffed animals. Several knives found their homes in sheaths he hid under his clothes before he headed out of the apartment, ready to enjoy some sunlight that wasn't being filtered through glass and the heat of a summer day.

Sheeka's tail wagged proudly at the thought of being able to sway his guard - he could do that to a lot of people by staring at them with those cute, bright green eyes of his. Very few people could resist that...and he supposed that was a good thing. Sometimes, not having grown too much over five feet tall wasn't a bad thing...He doubted he could be so cute if he was as tall as Celino or something. That man was tall.

Sheeka and Luca slipped out of the apartment, casually greeting the doorman who tipped his hat slightly as they left. The doorman to the apartment Sheeka lived in, or at least one of them, was a member of the Riva. He usually worked the night shift though, but could sometimes be seen working the day and a different person working the night. Sheeka's tail flickered back and forth in a pleased nature as the two made their way along the road. There wasn't really a reason to take the car for such a short distance. It was a nice day, at least. It was after several blocks that both Sheeka and Luca stopped, realizing that they were being followed.

Luca swore in Italian under his breath as he and his ward slipped back into an alley, glancing out on either side for their tails. For now it was clear, so Luca flipped open his cellphone to text a warning to the nearest Riva member, which would have been the doorman to Sheeka's apartment and then to Serafina herself, Shiru's guard. He didn't want to risk either of them, and knew that Sheeka felt the same. "Tch. I didn't think anybody would try anything in broad daylight...I contacted Serafina to keep a close eye out," he stated carefully. "We should go back for now..."

Sheeka nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly. He was now worried about Shiru more than ever now...and he'd wanted to ask her...it'd probably would have had to wait until after the danger was over, but that wasn't a problem. He could wait. Besides, it had been just a spur of the moment thing. He'd never thought to ask Shiru to move in before besides staying the night. It certainly could leave to a lot of things...although there were rare moments of privacy in the flat with having a mafia guard you for the most part.

Before the two could move out of the alley, both of them heard something drop from the fire escapes behind them and as Luca turned, a hand gun pistol-wiped him in the face. He made a strangled noise of displeasure as the weapon cracked across his nose - effectively breaking it as he stumbled back a bit from the blow. By this point in time another one had appeared behind him and had a handgun pressed against the of his school before he could retaliate. "Get out of here, Sheeka," he spoke calmly, carefully as the blood poured from his bloody and broken nose.

There were two other men approaching Sheeka, already knowing there was nothing he could do for Luca at the time, bolted. When one of the men lunged to grab him, Sheeka ducked under him, tripping him in the process and bolting down the alley. He wasn't going to risk hurting any civilians.

"Grab him!" the man holding the gun to Luca's head snarled, momentarily distracted by his subordinates inability to capture one child. In his distraction, Luca struck, grabbing the man who had pistol whipped him int he face and turning him into the gunman who, at the moment had fired off his weapon in hopes of doing something about their escaped guard. The shield he just acquired took the blow instead of him and Luca dropped him just as the trigger was pulled and was drawing his own weapon before anybody else could move. The other two had gone after Sheeka, the one who had hit him was on the ground, coughing up blood as he tried to gasp for air - he'd been shot in the chest and it had grazed one of his lungs and the one was steadily filling up with blood as it bubbled from his mouth.

"Clever man...no wonder you're the brat's guard..." the man mused, rubbing the stubble of beard on his chin as a smile crossed over his features. Before Luca could react, a fifth member dropped down from the fire escape and shot, hitting him in the back. Blood bubbled from the back of his throat and he coughed before going down, his vision fading fast. He looked up in time to see the leader of the group stepping over him with a smile. "We're not going to hurt him. Boss wants him, though." He looked at his own man that he had shot and pointed his weapon down, shooting him in the head and putting him out of the misery. "Not taking the chance more Riva members show up...I don't allow enemies to take prisoners alive..." he carefully informed Luka who was already unconscious and bleeding out on the ground. "Body guard is down, so it Vitorio. The kid is currently 1 on 4...he doesn't have a chance. Corner him and knock him out...I don't care how, just don't hurt him too much," he reported as he contacted his men and then flipped to another channel. "You can leave him here. The shot wasn't fatal...but clean up Vitorio's body." With that, he strode off deeper into the alley, listening to his communication radio to pinpoint the location he needed to be.

Sheeka was moving rapidly, the crashing of the men in the alley behind him was unmistakable. He was worried about Luca, but knew the man was more than capable enough. He was a Riva. He paused suddenly. That sounded only like one of the two men after him behind him. Where was the other one? He continued to move though, not wanting the one to catch up with him. He turned down another alley, just in time to get trapped between the man and the one who was coming up behind him on a narrow, deserted street. This seemed familiar...only he'd had Shiru with him that time. This time, however...he wasn't going to hold back. They were steadily closing in on him...but what they didn't realize would be there downfall. When they were close enough, he rapidly turned to face the one who had cut him off from the way he was going and a knife flew from one of the sheaths on his side that was covered by his shirt. There was a strangled, bubbling gurgle as the man went down, with a knife embedded in his throat.

"Enrico! You little bastard," the second man snarled as Sheeka bolted again, plucking his knife from the man's neck as he vaulted over him. He didn't think Sheeka was still armed, but screamed as another knife found itself in his thigh. "Fucking little brat!" he swore, the Italian coming out in n angry tone. He was leaning against the wall, agonizingly hobbling after the child in anger.

"That's two down...there should only be the ones that Luca had..." Sheeka muttered as he slowed down his pace, once he wasn't sure he was still being followed. In a situation like this, Luca and Sheeka's plan was to always meet back at Sheeka's apartment. So he would double back there and wait for Luca, or Luca would already be there. They'd call Papa and inform them of what happened...maybe Lanza too, so he could warn her about any danger near her and her new Sacrifice. Sheeka hadn't met him yet, but apparently, Shiru had and she liked him well enough. He knew Shiru could be a good judge of people and he trusted her opinion on him, but wouldn't form his own until he got to know Lanza's Sacrifice. Of course, Papa had already warned him to take care of Lanza, so Sheeka didn't have to himself.

He turned down an alley that would bring him out a street or two from his apartment when a gunshot hit the wall in front of him and he stopped, moving back several feet. He looked down the way the shot had come from and the man who had held Luca at gunpoint was there with another man, both holding their guns aimed at him. Where was Luca? Oh god. What if they had...he liked Luca. "What do you even /want?/" he hissed, obviously agitated by the face that Luca wasn't with the men. He could tell that something bad had happened. He wanted answers, but really didn't want to stick around to find them. He backed up, only for the man he had already flung a knife into the leg of, to somehow have caught up to him. He was pale as blood ran down his leg. Before Sheeka could react, a crowbar came down, hitting him in the side of the head. He went down, hard. There was a nice gash in the side of his head from blow and he was bleeding. He could smell his own blood and he hated the scent of it. The man was angry enough and tried to hit him a second time, but another knife, the same one he had plucked out of the man earlier, slid back out of a sheath in his long-sleeved shirt and he, from the ground, sank it into the ankle that he had already injured. There was a noise of agony from the man as he dropped the crowbar. Sheeka moved his head to avoid being hit by it a second time as he the man stumbled back against the wall, drawing his gun.

"Stop it, Ricardo," the leader of the group snapped. "We're not supposed to kill him."

"He killed Enrico, though!"

"This is why I was against work relationships," his boss snarled before glancing down at Sheeka and shooting the ground in front of him when he tried to sneak away. "You're not going anywhere, brat. You killed one of my men...and you're lucky that we're not supposed to kill you. That doesn't mean we can't rough you up more for what you've done. Between you and your guard, I've lost two men today...maybe three if we don't get his leg looked at...I'm very testy right now..." he picked up the crowbar that had been picked up. "You're a hard one to catch...you took out two of my men the other day on your own...and two more today..." he mused. "I'd love you have you as a subordinate or a pet, you're really feisty too...wonder if boss'll let me keep you..."

"Fuck you," Sheeka spat, reaching for another knife on his person. The man shrugged before the crowbar cracked into the side of his head again, effectively knocking him out after the second blow. "Well, that took more than it should have," he drawled, picking up the child who was light for somebody his age. He handed him off the only other not injured of the group. "Search him when we get back to the car. Thoroughly. Send somebody to clean up the mess," he ordered as he hefted his injured subordinate over his shoulders with a snort of annoyance before heading out of the alley towards where they had a car waiting. He dumped him into the backseat of the car, pulling out a first aid kit from the truck and shoving it at him. "Here," he offered carelessly as he watched the other man drop Sheeka into the trunk of the car, hands flickering over him and pulling out a couple more knives off his person. "How many does he carry? He's so small, wonder where he hides them."

"A lot...pretty sure I found them all, too," the man reported as he closed the trunk over the unconscious form as he got into the drivers' seat of the car and started it. "He should be out awhile, I drugged him as well...he won't be awake for awhile, but he'll definitely have one hell of a headache when he does."

"Yeah," the leader of the group reported with a slight smile as he put the phone to his ear. "Mission accomplished, boss."

[Mattia Corvi]

It was just an ordinary day for Mattia, the only son of the Corvi family boss. He was sitting down enjoying a latte in a cafe, amusedly watching a pair of girls drink overly sweet teas and eat biscotti. He always found it funny that people in other countries liked biscotti so much when it was originally just hard, stale bread cut into strips. Yet people in other countries seemed to like it more than they should, which was a sort of idiocy that almost made them pitiful. Almost. It still was a good source of idle amusement, at the least.

He sipped at his coffee when his phone buzzed in his breast pocket. Setting his cup down gently, he reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone, which he flipped open. "Yes?" he asked, prompting the man on the other side to speak.

"Mission accomplished, boss."

That was music to his ears. Slowly, a wide, almost sinister grin spread across his face. "Eccellente! Good work," he almost purred into the phone. So far, everything was going smoothly. Now it was a matter of time before he had her, his dear little sister, back as well. "Now, take him to our base and make sure he's... comfortable. I will meet you there. Oh, and do mind your manners and take good care of him. He is our guest for now, after all. Oh and have someone get everything ready for when I return. We have a message to deliver, after all." With that, he hung up, his orders given.

He put his phone back into his breast pocket and took another long sip of his coffee before he stood, pulled out some shades from his jacket pocket, and nodded at the man standing imposingly in the corner, wordlessly signaling him to follow as he left, heading to his car, which would take him back to the building they had commandeered as their base, eager to say "hello" to their "guest". She wouldn't be able to ignore this, he thought, smirking to himself as he climbed into the back seat of his car. She would definitely come for him, and when she did, he would be waiting. It was time for her to come home, after all.

[Sheeka Riva]

"Wish I could keep the little brat, boss. He took out two of us on his own...and he still was carrying more knives...he'd make a wonderful hitman..." The leader lamented slightly to his boss as he glanced back towards the trunk of the car. "And he's not bad looking. A little young, but he's legal anyway...still got his ears...which is adorable and here I thought he had a girlfriend." he mused before changing the subject after that to finish. "We had to rough him up a bit...he'll probably have a concussion... I need to take Ricardo to the infirmary...he's literally on his last leg," he snorted slightly as he glanced back towards the pale and sick-looking man who was still vaguely conscious. "His guard...depends on how close to the spinal cord we hit him...somebody's probably found him by now....maybe. Collateral damage, I suppose."

When the trio, since it was now a trio as compared to the five who had previously gone arrived back at their base. The uninjured man took his friend to the bases' infirmary - mostly because he was the same blood-type and it definitely looked like he needed blood at the moment. Apparently, Sheeka had hit an artery in his thigh, not the femoral...but still and he'd already gone through the bandages he wrapped around his injuries.

The leader of the group dropped Sheeka in a 'cozy' little room. It wasn't quite a cell where they kept prisoners, or where they kept their VIP guests. It was a simple room. A cot in the corner, a small bathroom off the side. A chair to lounge in. He dropped Sheeka into the cot carelessly, brushing his hair back for a moment to inspect the bloody gashes they had caused by hitting him upside the head. "I forgot head injuries tend to bleed more than normal ones..." he muttered, leaving the room for a second and coming back with another first aid kit. He disinfected the injury and at least got some of the more serious bleeding to stop...but didn't care much for actually wrapping his head in bandages. Too much of a hassle. He lightly rubbed at one ear before getting up and moving out of the room. The door closed as he locked it behind him and headed off for a well-deserved drink.

It would be several hours before Sheeka would finally stir from his drug and injury induced coma. He felt sick and nauseated, vision slightly unfocused made worse as the light in the room hit his eyes. For a few moments, he couldn't remember what exactly was going on and it wasn't long before everything came flooding back. Great. Just. Great. He wasn't dead...so they obviously needed him for something and he didn't quite know what. He didn't like being out of the loop. When he tried to move his arms to try to inspect the damage done to his head, he found that he couldn't. They were feeling rather numb from the way he'd been laying on them for several hours, but a pair of handcuffs were making it impossible for him to do anything besides shift into an upright position, leaning up against the wall. They way he felt right now, he couldn't tell whether it was being caused by whatever he'd been given, or if he'd been given anything...he couldn't remember if he had or not, or from the pain originated from the side of his head and face. It was probably that and he suspected a concussion at best. The room was empty for the most part, but there was probably a security camera somewhere.

A soft sigh of annoyance left his lips as he wondered what had become of Luca and if Shiru was okay. If either of them weren't, there was going to be hell to pay. From both him and his family. Finally, though, after a few more moments of being handcuffed, he was thoroughly fed up with that as he shifted, pressing the back of his head against one of the sides of the cot, he shifted downward, scraping lightly against the back of his head for a moment until he retrieved what he needed. A hair pin, falling into his waiting hands. Several more moments had passed before the hairpin clicked in place in the lock of the cuffs, successfully opening them. He sighed, finding the security camera in the room and watching it for a moment before turning his gaze away. At least he'd find out who was behind this all.

In the security room, the man who had lead his capture raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Resourceful little bugger..." he muttered, taking a sip of his wine before pressing a button into his bosses' office. "He's awake, boss...already got out of the handcuffs too..." he reported a second time as he leaned back casually in the chair and spinning. The next few hours should be fun.

[Mattia Corvi]

Mattia had been lounging in his office chair, reading over some papers when he heard the buzz of the intercom on his desk. Things were going smoothly. He had the youngest Riva child resting in a room, and he had already delivered two messages to the rest of the Rivas: one for the main family, and another special one for the girl, Lanza. It was going to be only a matter of time before she took the bait. Smirking lightly, he pushed a button, allowing the man on the other end to speak. "He's awake, boss...already got out of the handcuffs too..." crackled the voice over the intercom, causing Mattia's face to split into almost a grin. He was awake. Perfect.

He placed the papers down neatly and then pushed another button to reply. "Magnifico. I'm glad to hear that he's come around. Make sure he doesn't leave his room. I will be down to greet our little guest shortly," he stated, flicking off the switch as he rose from his chair and straightened his collar, cuffs, and smoothed any creases out of his suit as he made his way to the door and left the room. With just a hand, he signalled the guard posted at his door and continued down the hall as he headed to where their little "guest" was staying.

Before terribly long, he reached the door and had it unlocked, his guard entering the room a mere few seconds before the silver-haired man entered, himself. "Ah, little Riva! I'm so glad you could make it. My name is Mattia Corvi, and I am the man who is your host for this little stay. Though, I have to wonder where you were going in that condition, especially after I went through the trouble to invite you here. You Rivas do seem to have a bit of a nasty habit of turning down people's invitations, you know?" he asked cooly as he leaned up against the wall, staring at the boy in front of him. "At any rate, you should be a good boy and sit on your cot and rest for a while. I was told you had a few knocks to the head. Wouldn't be good to wander too much, hm?"

[Sheeka Riva]

His brows were furrowed in annoyance as his tail twitched back and forth nervously. He wasn't sure what was going on and he didnn't like being out of the loop...it was honestly just plain annoying. If they wanted to kill him, they would have done so already. Chances were he was a bargaining chip for something. Granted, that also meant that he was to be left unharmed...mostly. He hated to admit it, but he could handle pain easily enough. He'd been hurt enough as a child that he had to get used to it. It had been awhile since he'd been hurt in such a manner, so it was taking him a few moments to adjust to the stinging, nauseating pain in his head.

He closed his eyes wearily, sighing to himself. He could attempt to escape...but he was unarmed and wasn't in any condition to until he knew at least a little bit more information and he could formulate a plan. He could hear soft footsteps from outside the door and for a moment, he contemplated on attacking whoever came through the door, but then decided that it was much more wise to wait and see what happened. He was carefully watching the door, curious about who was behind it as he situated himself back on the cot, sliding the hair pin back into his brown locks of hair, avoiding jabbing himself in the head wound as he did so. He had a couple more hair pins in his hair, but he wasn't going to waste a perfectly good lock pick for the future just because he'd already used it.

If he was going to be a captive, he certainly was going to show them that even a captive Riva was still not somebody to be messed with. With his gaze on the door, he sat up straight. He was going to find out who was behind every and that was that. They'd dragged Shiru into their dark world and he wanted to know what was so important that they'd risk revealing themselves to civilians.

The man who entered was obviously one of the higher ranked members of this family, from the way he walked and was dressed, to the guard that had followed him in. He had already discerned that his door wasn't being guarded, although there were security cameras in the room itself, probably outside as well. While there wasn't a guard specifically outside the door, he could be certain there was one nearby...perhaps out of a range that he could have heard through the heavy door. The room itself wasn't that of an obvious prisoner...more of an unwilling guest of sorts. If they really wanted to mistreat him, they would have left him in an outright jail cell of sorts. Whatever they needed him for, it was important enough to treat him at least with some kindness - head injuries aside.

He was greeted formally, despite the whole 'little' Riva thing, which wasn't very amusing to say the least because it was true he was small for his age. He didn't like it being pointed out that he was just barely taller than his own girlfriend. The name Corvi ran a bell, though. And it wasn't just a normal bell, either. It was an alarm bell that had gone off. He knew of the Corvi's, as well as his sister's connection to them. When he had first joined the mafia, part of his education had been some of the various mafia families. The Corvi had been among them and both his adoptive father and Lanza had shown a great distaste for them that he had to know. For the most part, he'd asked Lanza first since she seemed to have more of a distaste for the Corvi than their father had. Of course, this was before Lanza knew about him and they'd sort of traded off on life stories. Sheeka had already been with the Riva for about a year at the time, but the most they had known or dug up was what came up in his medical records as well as what they had assumed. There were still some things he hadn't mentioned to Lanza, mostly about what had happened in the year and a half he'd lived on the streets. A lot of things, happened that he hadn't been comfortable actually talking about, even with Lanza. Although, some of the reluctance he felt towards losing his ears, even to Shiru, would point them in the right direction. He'd spent nearly two years as a run-away, living on the streets where he was an easy target. It wasn't hard to guess what had nearly happened to him.

"Corvi?" Sheeka carefully repeated to himself carefully, his eyebrows narrowing slightly in thought. He knew of Lanza's ties to the Corvi...if this was one of the higher-ups, it was almost safe to say that he was also related to Lanza in some manner. Did they want something with Lanza? Why didn't they just go through Lanza if they wanted something? Of course, if Lanza hated her family as much as he did his own family...then it was likely she wasn't even giving them the time of day. Alessandro also tended to not want to deal with the Corvi. They had some bad blood between the two of them...Sheeka was probably the only one between the two who didn't have a hatred for the Corvi, only a dislike for what they had done to Lanza. He sighed, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling for a moment. "Well...I'd hate to be a Corvi right now...you've probably pissed off the three people you shouldn't have. Celino, Papa, and Lanza..." Sheeka gave Mattia this sort of deadpan look. "Invitation? Your men should work on their manners, then. Invitations don't involve stalking or attacking last I checked..."

Mattia dropped a subtle warning that he shouldn't attempt to escape in his 'condition,' he'd functioned under a lot more before...but for the most part, it did seem like a good idea. He definitely didn't want to be in the line of fire between the Riva and Corvi...although he was going to be the cause of there to even be a line of fire. "I bet Lanza's given you the cold shoulder if you're been reduced to 'inviting' her younger brother here...but...Lanza is not going to be very happy. There's definitely going to be fireworks...I think, for the most part, I'll remain out of the fireworks." He paused for a moment. "If you're going to invite somebody somewhere, you could at least have something to entertain them here," he snorted lightly, knowing that he really wasn't that much of a guest...but still. He was going to get bored waiting for the fireworks.