☆BACKLOG☆ - Reborn and Bianchi history

[deadlydelicacy]

Who: Reborn and Bianchi
What: Their first real mission together
When: Two years before the start of the game. ☆BACKLOG☆
Where: A place a lot like New York


To say Bianchi was nervous would be an understatement. It did not help that she'd been paired with Reborn for this mission and was still trying to decide if it was a test or someone just didn't think she could handle it on her own. None of that was making things easier. And she was pretty sure Reborn remembered her little obsession with him from when she was twelve. Her eyes darted sideways for a moment, the dark fedora hard to see but the orange band blazing even in the dim light. There was no way she'd let on she was on edge. Reborn wouldn't treat her differently and she didn't want someone she had great respect for to think any less of her. It was her job to prove herself regardless of what this evening was about.

Both their heels clicked on the sidewalk as they moved toward the building their target was supposedly inside. The expensive black Ferragamo shoes Reborn wore had a hollower sound from the wider heel. And Bianchi's made that higher pitched, focused sound of a three inch stiletto. Her arm was curled lightly at his elbow and they certainly made a fine looking couple as they approached the gallery, the lights from the building throwing the shadows crossways to those cast by the streetlights outside. The cars passing by threw their own shadows making light dance around dizzyingly. As they grew closer, the bouncer at the door was visible. The show was invitation only but of course they didn't forget that detail, Reborn had the invitation in his jacket, Bianchi's clutch was obviously too small to carry it without having to fold the fine paper. Her eyes lifted up the tower of the building and she took note of the windows that were lit. Then let her gaze fall back to the building looking for other exits. "Looks like quite the party." She murmured, voice lazy more because of effort on her part than any real state of calm. Her hand was just a little tight against Reborn's elbow. Madonna it was like having your teacher by your side while you took the SATs.

Comments

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

"Not even a silencer." She murmured in disapproval. She tilted her head a little watching Reborn do something that ended up with him holding Barelli's gun arm behind his back. It was quite impressive. She smiled slowly as Reborn used her as the threat. That was nice to hear. And she was even more flattered when Barelli's eyes locked on hers and color drained from his face. She lifted her chin a little, posture completely melting from the frightened woman to something far more confident, one hip cocked and one hand on it. "I don't believe we've formally met." She was certain the police were occupied and out of earshot before extending a hand. "Bianchi, though I suppose most people know me as Poison Scorpion." She looked at him, unable to take her hand and let out a low chuckle.

"I suppose some formalities have to be waived when you've been so careless, Antonio." Her hand fell back to her side and she waited patiently for the man to speak, taking two steps forward she lifted a hand to touch his cheek in an almost affectionate caress. "I do hope you suddenly find yourself mute. It means a little more fun for me."

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

Reborn could feel his prisoner shiver as Bianchi touched him, the mixture of fear and unexpected excitement, but even so, he stayed still and silent, forcing his face to remain impassive even as Reborn shifted his grip on his twisted arm slightly (and painfully).

"I've always found it to be wisest to indulge a lady," he murmured in the other man's ear. "Are you sure you won't reconsider?"

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Barelli glared down at Bianchi mostly because he couldn't see Reborn. "I have nothing to say to you." He said in Italian.

Bianchi's fingers on his cheek drifted down his neck slowly. Luckily she was wearing heels because she could step close enough to whisper to him without anyone but Reborn overhearing. "Have you ever heard of Arsenic, Tony? I don't imagine you read much so perhaps I should tell you what it does." She turned her head so that her lips brushed his cheek as she spoke, her body pressing close to his. "Arsenic causes horrible stomach aches, Tony, burning pain in your throat like you've swallowed glass, then it makes you vomit, until there's nothing left in your stomach to vomit and even then you keep vomiting up all the digestive acid and then blood. And that's not the only blood you'll lose, Tony. Arsenic also gives you diarrhea, imagine for a moment what it would take to make you have bloody diarrhea. That could't be pleasant."

She curled a finger in his tie and leaned her head back until she could look at him. "And the best part, Tony, is that if I give you enough, you'll die just slowly enough for it to feel like eternal hell, but quickly enough that the autopsy will find only an inflamed stomach and possibly a trace of arsenic in the digestive tract." She smiled a predator's smile. "So what do you think Tony, are you thirsty or do you think you can talk without all the fun?"

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

When Barelli stayed silent even so, Reborn shrugged. "I think he's shy. Let's go somewhere a little more intimate," he said softly, glancing at Bianchi. "It would be irrational to expect a good conversation in all this crowd." There are only a few police officers left in this room, the "informal security" having disappeared at that first sign of law enforcement. And Reborn could already see some of his already identified contacts, including the lawyers from the various assembled families, speaking with them, demanding that everyone be released. But it would take a while for such things to get put through to the proper channels, and they didn't have the time, if his suspicions were correct. The knife in his pocket felt heavy, demanding for him to examine it more closely.

"Do you have anything with you that isn't quite so final, Bianchi?"

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

She released his tie and took a step back, the vial slipping down her dress front again, purse clutched at her side. She gave Reborn an unfathomable look that if he knew her well enough he would know was mild irritation. Because of course the vial wasn't actually arsenic. She had some but it was for emergencies. The one she'd been threatening Barelli with actually syrup of ipecac, it would make him vomit and probably terrifying him but it wouldn't kill him. She finally turned toward the back room where servers had been entering and exiting. "I have Vecuronium." Vecuronium would paralyze the man for a while, just under an hour. "And I have SP-117." The Soviet truth serum. Which had the added bonus of making the drinker forget the entire conversation later. "But I don't see any reason to go easy on a man willing to put a gun to your head.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes it pays to be charitable to the imbecilic," he quipped. "If you use the vecuronium we can possibly get him to a more...suitable location. I'd rather not try the other here, considering the...delicacy of the information he might be able to give us. What do you think?"

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

She watched him quietly for a moment and the pulled her purse forward again, flipping open the case and pulling out the proper vial. "Open wide Antonio." She snapped the case shut and tucked her purse back under her arm, uncapping the vial. "You don't want me to get the dosage wrong now." Giving Reborn a nod she stepped in close and wrapped her fingers around Barelli's jaw, pressing hard like one might when force feeding a dog.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

Reborn holds on to Barelli's body as the vecuronium takes effect, the neuromuscular blocking agent paralyzing him, causing him to lose his balance, expertly shifting his grip from restraint to support, until it looks as though he is trying to help the man. He let him slide to the floor, his expression seeming frantic, "Are you all right, sir?" His voice is completely uncharacteristic, and draws exactly the right kind of attention from their onlookers.

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Bianchi's hand dropped down Barelli's arm to snatch the gun out of his hand and slip it into her purse before anyone noticed it. "Darling, why don't we take him to a back room. Perhaps he's had too much to drink." She glanced up at Reborn looking worried.

One of the other men stepped forward. "Two of us should be able to get him." He offered politely.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

He takes a look at the people approaching them, and seems to relax very slightly. "That sounds like a good idea, thank you for your help, Mr...?" His voice trails off with uncertainty, but his eyes are coolly calculating. He recognizes their volunteer.

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

"Giaccone." The man replied smoothly, leaning down to help lift their fallen compatriot off the ground. Bianchi stepped back and watched him, one hand at her cheek as though still worried though her eyes cut to Reborn again. She couldn't just dose everyone with this stuff. Though she didn't personally recognize the man, Reborn's gaze had cooled off considerably. "Let me get the door for you gentlemen." She said primly, waiting for them to manage the fallen man between them. And he might be unable to control his skeletal muscles but his eyes and ears work just fine. She can see his worry with the little movement available to him.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

His demeanor changes entirely the moment the door is closed and locked, a small room tucked away that even the police would probably overlook. "Alessandro," he said coolly, referring to the man who'd helped them wrestle his attempted assassin into the room, "what is going on here." It is a question only in the most technical sense, as there is no hint of insecurity or confusion in his tone.

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Bianchi leaves Alessandro to Reborn, dropping down next to their fallen friend and checking his pupil dilation, and his pulse before doing a quick sweep of him for more weapons. Yanking out one of his well known knives and smaller switchblade. She tsked at him as his eyes tracked her movement. "Don't look so resentful Tony. It's your own fault for being an idiot." She smiled down at him.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

Well, Bianchi seemed to have things well in hand. He turned to the other hit man, who had been one of Marco's associates. Had been being the key phrase.

"Did Marco give it to you?" Alessandro asked, with no preamble. Reborn didn't look confused, but an instant later he had taken the knife from earlier out of his pocket.

"You mean this, I assume."

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Her eyes scanned the little room and she found an apron, moving to grab it she ripped it into strips and started tying Barelli up so she could get him talking. Her gaze went to Reborn and Alessandro as the knife came out, her hands worked without thought, all muscle memory as she secured her charge. "A knife?" She asked with a frown, securing each of Barelli's wrists to a metal pipeline, then tying his feet together.

Finally she sat back on her haunches and waited to find out what was so special about a knife that it had to be a message. Her eyes stayed mainly on Alessandro because she wasn't yet sure he wasn't a threat. The sounds from outside the room were somewhat chaotic. Police sirens, people talking and yelling. This whole thing seemed like a problem waiting to explode.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

"What's in the knife, actually," he replied absently, long fingers examining it carefully, turning it over and over, until he makes a twisting sort of motion and he withdraws a slip of paper from the now revealed to be hollow hilt. It is a small sheet, and it takes him very little time to finish reading it, but his expression is absolutely cold as he rips it deliberately into pieces and glares at Alessandro. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

The other man shrugged, looking from Reborn's expression to Bianchi, and then to Barelli, completely tied up and paralyzed; the only nervous part about his expression is in his eyes, but he meets Reborn's gaze steadily. "Because we let you know it was going on."

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Bianchi narrowed her eyes at Reborn's world, every alarm bell in her head clanging at once. She gazed back at Alessandro as his eyes moved to hers and then back up to Reborn, waiting for some sort of explanation, even while uncapping an antidote vial and dropping two drops on Barelli's tongue, just enough to get his mouth working. His muscles would remain weak.

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

"They knew," he said to Bianchi shortly, the slightest tone of disgust in his voice, "and decided to capitalize on our oh-so-convenient presence to divert attention - " He breaks off and looks at Barelli, glaring murderously at them even as he regains the use of his tongue. "Keep him quiet for me, Bianchi," he requested politely, and turned his attention back to Alessandro. "So our mutual friend," he says the word with heavy irony, "doesn't realize that he's playing into your little game just yet."

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

"Knew about our job?" She repeated trying to clarify. Her eyes drifted to Alessandro and then she settles down so she's sitting across Barelli's thighs, her thumb running along his lower lip. "Oh he'll behave." She said with a slow smile. She doesn't quite understand what's going on yet. If the mutual friend is Barelli or this mysterious third party who knows they're there. Instead she focuses on Barelli, pulling one more vial out as she puts the antidote away. She shows him the vial and smiles sweetly, "Let's just listen for a moment, shall we?"

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

He nodded, eyes still fixed on Alessandro. "Yes, they knew that we would be called in for this job, and they've been waiting for quite a few years for an opportunity to...shall we say, consolidate some mutually held business interests?" He had the jargon down absolutely pat, the delicate language for something that was, quite simply, a hostile takeover. "But Marco owed me a little something, after all these years, and he and Alessandro have an...understanding." He glanced at Alessandro, who doesn't react with more than a slight slump of his shoulders. "So our target is dead twice over today, the two of us are set up to take the fall -"

Alessandro shrugged with a kind of desperate nonchalance. "Messy, I know," he said, with the slightest accent. "But we are not dealing with subtle people."

"- and our dear friend Tony here," Reborn continued, "would have been quite convenient if he'd managed to succeed in adding another layer of bafflement to the entire situation by offing me." A whimsical quirk of his mouth. "I wasn't exactly going to oblige."

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

"I do hate being used by idiots." She muttered, "And I don't think I feel like taking a fall today." She was really starting to feel like Tony needed to die. Pro bono. Sometimes charity was very important.

"So does this kind explanation mean you know a way out?" She lifted her eyes to Alessandro, "or was this as far as the professional courtesy extends?"

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

Alessandro smiled to match Bianchi's glance, but it seemed slightly pained even so. "I am...constrained somewhat by other obligations, much as I hate to disappoint a lady," he replied, his voice lilting and musical, with some kind of unfamiliar accent.

Reborn frowns briefly and then his smile turns sardonic. "Oh, so I'm supposed to use the precious little information you've managed to smuggle to us to complete our already compromised job without incident, extricate my employer from a territorial war he has absolutely no interest or stake in, and still manage tread carefully among the little factions building up here?"

He tilted his hat down slightly, hiding a brief smirk. "Well, so long as you're asking for the impossible."

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Bianchi looked down at Barelli. "Well we have a sacrificial lamb." She murmured, lifting a hand to trail her fingers through the man's hair in something bordering on a caress. "So if we need a distraction that much is covered." And if he died, well, these things happened.

Bianchi was not anywhere near Reborn's skill level with a gun, she might be more hindrance than help if it came down to a fire fight. The sirens had quieted, now the police were taking statements, so there would just be lights and a lot of people. Most of whom weren't even involved in the mafia. Leave it to assholes like this to involve civilians.

"What would you like to do, Reborn?"

[chameleongun.livejournal.com]

"First off, we need freedom of movement. I'll assume they were clean?" He asked Alessandro matter-of-factly, referring to the weapons that the police were sure to find in the room upstairs and on Marco's person upstairs.

"So was he," Alessandro nodded, confirming. Well, that was one small mercy at least, though he would have thought much the less of them if that hadn't been the case.

Outside the room, the police were still making their way through interviews with the witnesses, who no doubt gave suitably garbled renditions that possibly resembled the actual events very vaguely while the lawyers attempted to redeem their exorbitant fees by arguing for the release of any incidental (read: incompetent) mob members who had happened to be caught up in this investigation without managing to escape.

"What was Marco's back up?" He asked softly, glancing at his watch. "I know he didn't have only the one contingency in place." He nodded at Barelli's still, furious form.

"The building is insured quite heavily in case of fire - both accidental and arson," Alessandro replied.

"Oh, well, that's something, isn't it?"

[deadlydelicacy.livejournal.com]

Bianchi was already pulling an extra vial of poison out and dumping half the contents on Barelli's jacket before she capped it again, wiped her fingerprints off with a kerchief and then curled his fingers around it. She smiled at him sweetly and she could see him realizing what was going to happen. "At least I'm not feeding it to you, yes?" And then she tucked it into his coat pocket and patted it. She leaned forward and began undoing his bindings.

"N... no." He groaned as his hand flopped to the floor.

She glanced up at Reborn as Barelli came completely free. "He's ready."