#gaetano

What if, in that barn at the beginning of Famiglia, Enzo tells Gaetano (wounded) to follow him at a distance, and when Il Merlo and all find them, the first thing to leave Enzo’s mouth is ‘run’ but Tàno (1) doesn’t want to leave his friend, and (2) can’t because a couple men blocked the exit? What if Enzo turns into a damn honeybadger, swearing off the men cornering his friend with threats that mean nothing from a boy in his position, saying ‘don’t touch him don’t touch him I’ll kill you don’t touch him!’ and things of that nature?

What if, when they’re saved, and Enzo is able to get to his feet, his first move is defensive, getting Gaetano behind him, arm out and checking for an instant to make sure he’s there and safe and alive still? And that fire Luca talked about seeing is even more evident and Enzo has more to live for than himself so he has more bite than he should, but it pays off all the same??

And maybe he insists that Gaetano stay unmarred and not take part in jobs that involve violence or bloodshed, attempting to protect him, to shield him from any and all threats and horror because he failed to do so that final day in the mines and he isn’t going to let that happen again— but it means nothing when Tàno sees him come in with blood on his sleeves and he’s beat up and cut up and tired and…unmoved. It means nothing when he watches Enzo become—in his eyes—a monster.

They fight when he gets made. Gaetano calls him a hypocrite, says he doesn’t even recognize him anymore, says he’s tired of living under murderers and tired of watching them make his best friend into one. Enzo says this is their way to a good life. Gaetano reminds him about America. Enzo doesn’t respond kindly.

But then— Gaetano asks why he can’t go out on these jobs with him, can’t help him, at the very least, to make sure Enzo doesn’t lose his head. They fight. Enzo relents, taking Gaetano out to look for Lorenzetti back in Collezolfo in what he thought would be an easy enough mission.

We all know how that chapter went.

Gaetano gets in the way, panics and makes Enzo lose focus, nearly getting them both killed in an already risky situation— and then he wants Enzo to have mercy on them? It’s safe to say that Enzo is pissed by the end of the mission. But he’s too tired and has to report to Torrisi and doesn’t want Tàno getting too involved with him either, so he gives him a once over, tells him to wrap a burn, and sends him off to bed.

And before I get in over my head about describing the conflict after THAT mess of a chapter, I’ll make sure to mention the other possibility of if we have this same situation and issue between these two, but Enzo thought Tàno was dead for a year+ and just gets him back, so he has a reason to be protective, but is only even more overbearing with it. They have a huge dispute over something as meager as Gaetano collecting money with Luca— which would’ve been fine, but isn’t because Luca gave him a gun to threaten the citrus farmer (I forget his name and don’t feel like rabbit-holing I’m sorry…).

But I digress. I only mention this because I feel a vomitable fic fragment coming on and want to mention my idea here in case I forget. But to wrap this up—

They argue, Enzo walks out, Gaetano cries. Maybe he goes to the stable to hang out with the horses and check on Nivula, soothing himself in the process, but Luca is there. It’s not hard to tell Tàno and Enzo have been having a hard time with each other, so maybe he tries to talk to the former about it. Maybe Luca makes him feel a little better, maybe he makes him feel worse— no matter his efforts.

Gaetano and Enzo would most likely grow apart, with Enzo climbing the ranks— and, hell, maybe Gaetano disobeys his friend and follows him right up the hierarchy. Maybe he reaches his doom before Enzo, maybe he lives and goes to America with a deep-seated resentment for Isabella that he holds steady solely by the stillness of his lips.

Or maybe, the first mission with real violence needing caused that he goes on with Enzo is before Industia or even Disgrazia— maybe he rushes away, riding out to the mountains himself upon hearing Enzo went after Messina in Il Barone, or perhaps he comes with Enzo in Vendetta D’onore, and Enzo ends up having to shoot Ludovici when Gaetano was supposed to, because he’d seen Tino’s gun and wouldn’t let what he knew would happen happen.

So Tàno is horrified, looking at Enzo with terror and fear and nausea, and suddenly nobody in the world feels safe. He wants something familiar, wants something that reminds him of the comfort and warmth he used to know, so while Enzo gets made, he stays in the casena, curled into himself and feeling like every late-evening shadow is weighing down on his soul and mind and he doesn’t want to move his eyes beyond the cot he and Enzo share, in fear of finding them staring right back at him.

But good horses always come home, so maybe—just maybe—that night, while everyone is drunk and unaware, he leaves. He takes Nivula and rides back to Collezolfo, shooing her back home because he knows that—unlike him—she’ll always go back to Villa Torrisi, to Enzo. She always did prefer the older boy to him, and he was usually the one checking in on her, cleaning her, both working and figuring her out. Because maybe Gaetano likes horses, but prefers the company of someone he can talk to and feel present with, and he just doesn’t have that anymore. And he’s lonely and scared and doesn’t know why he’s doing this or where he wants to go and all he can do is run to the home of the only one he knows the name of here.

Anyways yada yada Spadaro: HEYYYYY LITTLE SONGBIRDDDD!!! CAT GOT YOUR TONGUEEE?!?!.?.!.! ALWAYS A PITYY FOR ONE SOOO PRETTY AND YOUNG!!!.!1!

Enzo’s lament to Gaetano

“Little brother…sorry I failed you. I couldn’t save you. No, I can’t even save myself. Little brother, they cannot hurt you anymore.”

“Does anybody care when a greaser (carusu) disappears?”

Making a little something for Gaetano and these are a part of it.

E quante volte hai pensato che alla fine il sorriso è una parentesi se vedi bene? Quante volte hai pensato che alla fine il sorriso è una paresi se vedi bene?