Louis was enjoying the weekend in luxury. Hot chocolate in a mug, wearing his leopard print fluffy robe, relaxed to the max in his recliner and looking up at the wall-mounted television. It was free from the noises and smells of the shop. He had his phone set on silent and while he heard a buzz from time to time, he was too relaxed to reach over and pick it up.

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There was a sudden and loud thumping on the front door. Louis nearly fell out of his chair, his cup of hot chocolate clinking against its saucer as he tried to keep it level. "Oddio!" He set the hot chocolate down on a small table beside his recliner. The knocking continued. Hell, it wasn't knocking it sounded like someone was throwing themselves against the door. He could see the door shaking and the doorknob jiggling.

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"Let me in!"

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Louis knew that voice. He hurried to the door and opened it quickly only to see Joe fall forwards on the floor with a voice cracked yell. Queenie flew in to land by the hot chocolate mug to yell into it. "What the hell happened to your nose!?" Louis noticed the blood that had run down Joe's nose bridge and the variety of forming bruises of his face which meant that he had been on the ground earlier.

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"Queenie bit me! But that's not what matters!" Joe pushed himself up off the floor slowly. "Close the door, you fuck! Maybe I'm being followed."

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Louis did as told and locked the door. He also readjusted his bathrobe's waist tie. "did you hit on a girl who already had a guy? Come on and talk Joseph! What got you in trouble?"

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Joe shrugged "Nothing. I didn't do shit. I ate a burger and drank a beer. Ate from waffle fries and wanted to go to the park with Queenie but no! Two assholes had to wanna beat me up for no reason." He sighed.

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"You must have done something." Louis gestured for Joe to come to the kitchen and have a sit-down. He looked at his friend's face bruises and poked around at the gash that Queenie had left on Joe's face. He opened the cupboard and began to search for his first aid things.

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"They targeted me." Joe sat down backwards on a chair and rested his chin on the backrest. "They knew I'm with either with the snakes...but how."

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Louis looked back over his shoulder, "Well we do carry the brand of the snake, Joe." He sat in a chair as well and started to clean the blood off of his friend's face. "Queenie got you good, but I'll close this up for you. I used to work ER but it got to me."

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Joe closed his eyes as his friend wiped the blood off his face, "I was wearing my jacket, Louis! B-besides! Those two have never stepped foot in our shop, I know it." He felt Louis's fingers testing the gash's ability to close by pinching the edges together. It stung but not that bad. "They mentioned a name though. It was Leon. Have you ever heard that name before?"

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Louis shook his head. "I don't know of any Leons. Even if I did, he doesn't belong to us if they did this to you. The Rosy Anacondas or even the Black Vipers must have done something they thought was better for the community." He paused his nursing to looked into Joe's eyes. "Joseph. I think its time for us to actually arm ourselves. We've been mostly a communication line for the other gangs and watchdogs but never truly had much of our own defense."

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"You think!? I was lucky I decided to carry my knife with me. Without it, I don't know if I could have beat them."

 

Joe kneaded his fingers on his forehead and temples. "Louis.."

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Louis took out some super glue from his first aid kit, "This might sound stupid but a few dots of this'll work like liquid stitches. I could do normal stitches but why put you through the pin of a needle going through such sensitive skin." He uncapped the glue. "Hold still." Then he carefully dabbed small amounts and closed the cut as neatly as possible. "Done and I'll get the R.A.s to deliver some firepower to us. They have more than enough to spare."

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Joe opened up his eyes when Louis said he was done treating the cute. "The Rose Anacondas...you know they don't do anything for free. We'll owe them."

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Louis began to pack up his first aid kit but gave Joe a bottle of painkillers. He made sure Joe took one for now with a glass of water. "Heh, it doesn't matter. It's like asking a sister to lend you some money. We can just pay for them later. Besides, the Black Vipers are doing enough as it is since they moved here. They found a drug runner and are investigating his contacts. Maybe we'll find who's in charge soon enough and get rid of all those rats from our turf." He placed the first aid box back on the shelf. "Did you want some hot chocolate?"

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"Yea, I could use something warm n sweet." Joe hugged the chair's backrest, "I'm not hungry though, I honestly just ate. Queenie ate too so she'll be fine with just water."

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"You know you can crash here if you need to, I don't mind." Louis handed Joe a mug of chocolate with a smile, "I know you're hurt, battered, n bruised but I want you to come to work with me on Monday. Not to work though! At least not unless you want to and you're not hurting yourself. I want you there so me n Vern can make sure nothing happens to you and that you're not too hurt to take care of yourself later."

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Joe took a sip from the hot chocolate, "This is delicious, you'll have to make some more for me to take to work on monday and if I feel good enough I'll work. You know I have nothing better to do." He got up and pointed towards the living room "Let us watch something fun on your television..I'll text Vern what happened."

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Louis followed Joe back to the living room and watched over him to make sure his friend was alright from the obvious blows he had received to the face. He looked into Joseph's eyes, not that it was difficult to see that the pupils were fine and evenly sized. "I'll get in contact with the Rosy anacondas then. Elmira and Piers can probably get us sorted before the end of the upcoming week." He picked up his phone, searching for Piers and began a call all the while he stepped into his bedroom to get dressed. "Piers, its Louis. I need a favor..can you get me and my two boys some heaters?... Yes, Dagmar bumpers would be perfect additions. Thank you. Drop them off at the shop when you can."

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"Dagmars and..heaters? Louis! What are the anacondas going to want from us?" Joe frowned, biting his lower lip slightly.

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"I'll be back in a bit. Have some rest for now." He pulled a throw blanket from behind the couch and draped it over his friend's head and stepped out under the cover of darkness. He glanced back once at Joe who was pulling down the blanket from his head. "Stay. Put."

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It seemed like he had to look into the graffiti in the area to see if the attack was made by someone new or an old adversary. He wore thick clothes just in case, mostly for warmth but also for protection. He didn't want to get shanked too easily because of Joe's recent encounter. Whoever had bruised his friend was probably still on alert but he was curious.

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He headed to his car, a small pony car which he liked over something like Joe's muscle car, and looked in the trunk to take some spray cans and place them in the passenger side footwell. He didn't think he would use them at all but better to have them just in case.

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Normally these turf things were new and inexperienced gangs trying to find their footholds. Blue Xs were a known non-agressive way to tell other gangs that this area was taken along with tagging your own gang's symbol. He wouldn't look too hard but even so, he found a few symbols that he had to cross out. He even found some crowned cobras that seemed to be drawn by Vernard's hand, the King Cobra's symbol, that had been x'd out.

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"Who do they think they are..." Then drove some more, into other nooks and crannies of the streets and alleys. He noticed a few numbers, some of them were codes for certain things like drugs, prostitutes, safe places for the homeless or even places that were unsafe for them.

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Then he noticed one specific number over a crowned cobra, this one he knew to be drawn by Joe's hand. The number was in red. "O-one...eighty-seven...no..." Louis felt his face grow cold and pale. He felt the warmth in his body sink down and his hands began to shake. He felt as if they had been encased in ice. "Madooooona mia..."

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He didn't stop driving and instead raced back home. The car felt like it flew across the asphalt, past all the intersections no matter the color. What did it matter? It was the number of death. A crash here or a bullet into his body, it would be the same. He had to tell Joseph. Now.

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He pulled up into the driveway and swung the car door open. He kicked it closed, rushing to the front door."Hey! Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!" Louis shook Joseph awake, his bruises looked a lot worse now but those things always looked worse before getting better.

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"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Joe groaned and slapped at the hands that had dislodged him from his deep sleep. His parrot fluttered awake and seemed to grumble to herself as she fluffed up and watched Joseph ask, "What's going on?"

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"It's worse than we thought. It's a 187." Louis picked up a throw pillow and tossed it at Joe. "Its not just you that they want. It's you, me, and Vernard. All three of us and anyone else who used to be a cobra." Louis pointed towards Joe's arm tattoo, "That thing is going to be your death sentence, Joseph. Why couldn't you get it on your chest or back...or something that it wouldn't be so easily seen?"

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Joe slapped his left hand over the tattoo, it didn't cover the whole snake. "I don't know I wasn't thinking! I was drunk remember!? We were all drunk!"

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Louis took off his coat only to wring the sleeve in an attempt to relax and act cool. "Alright it's fine, we can't change it anymore. The only thing we can do is arm ourselves as I said." Louis let out a sigh of exasperation. "We'll be fine. It's ok. If we get them first they can't get us, understand?"

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"M-maybe the Rosy Anacondas haven't been doing the strikes we've told them about lately for some reason. Maybe their numbers are suffering? Could that be why the Black Vipers showed up? They were called in?"

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Louis felt bad, he could see Joe's eyes searching his face for a hint that this was a joke. Those blue eyes betrayed every movement of his pupils. Where they looked and where they fixated. Honestly, it was the source of scalding glares too but right now it gave him kicked puppy vibes. "No matter the cause. We should try and take up some of the weight off their shoulders, don't you think? We have the firepower on the way."

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Joe pulled on a smile and Louis could tell there was only fear and nervousness that fed it. "Hah...haha, I-i...you know we've only ever done that like-uh two times, Louis. You don't really expect me or Vern."

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"We might not have another choice, Joe. A lot of people recently have been taking up jobs they didn't sign up for. I signed up to help people who were hurt, like you, and I ended up as a mechanic. Now you who signed up as a mechanic is going to have to help protect everyone else." It was Louis' turn for a smile, this one to ease the tension and bad news. "But you're still a bit hurt. You should eat a little more. Get that energy up that you spent running around and getting beat up."

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"I already told you.." Joe gestured out the act of eating his sandwich from earlier in the day. "Besides, you just woke me up."

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Louis tilted his head up and let out an amused 'hah!' right at the ceiling. "Oh, we're not buying, silly. Its some leftovers. I know how much you like my cooking." he grabbed Joe's arm and tugged him onto his feet. "Have a taste of the proscuitto capeletti I made."

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"Whatsit with ya n eating?" Joe rubbed his aching ribs as Louis pulled a pot from the fridge and began to heat it on the stove. Before he knew it a bowl full of pasta and a spoon was shoved into his hands. The spoon was then pulled out of his hand and Louis spoonfed him one of the capeletti. "Mmm, Thats-a some good pasta."

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"You put a lil butter on that. a little alfredo sauce if you want or the broth they're already in." Louis touched his thumb and index finger to make an open circle. Kissing the join between his fingers in a 'chef's kiss'. "Per il potere di Dio, deliziosa perfezione."

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"Delicious perfection? I got that part." Joe spun around, bowl in hand as he munched on some more of the pasta dumplings. "I want to melt a lil bit of some mootzarella n swirl it in there so it gets-"

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With a sudden quiet tone, Louis interrupted. "Lemme tell ya something, Joey."

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The blue-eyed greaser paused and looked over his shoulder to his friend, ''did I say somethi-"

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Louis continued with the quiet tone, "-about the way my mama makes rigatoni."

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Joe moved towards the table, settling down to listen. "Okay, how she make it?"

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Louis acted out the movement "she cooks ground beef just nice and she makes her special pasta sauce by putting the spices in. Bam. A little cumin, a little tarragon, basil, salt, pepper. Don't even get me started on the thyme. not the time like what time it is but the T H Y M E."

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"Oh fuck!" Joe hollered out, "You're makin' my noodle hard talking bout these delicious foods. I can't handle the talk about pasta. All this talk about the skettis." he laughed, "Just kiddin'.  Not a chance with the kind of stress we're in right now."

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Both Louis and Joe finished up their plates, feeling a bit better about their situation after some more messing around. They could simply look forward to their next day at work and hope the pistols showed up sooner than their enemies.