Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/12911508.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      The_Creatures_|_Cow_Chop_RPF, Rooster_Teeth/Achievement_Hunter_RPF, Lets
      Play_Family
  Relationship:
      Brett_Hundley/Aleksandr_Vitalyevich_Marchant
  Character:
      Aleksandr_Vitalyevich_Marchant, Edwin_Cardona, Dexter_Manning, Brett
      Hundley, James_Richard_Wilson, Trevor_|_ModestCube, Asher_|_TheFirst,
      Jakob_|_AlsoJakob, Lindsey_Washburn, Anna_Marie_|_intricateornate, Gavin
      Free, Geoff_Ramsey
  Additional Tags:
      Fake_Chop, the_focus_is_the_sweet_sweet_rekindling_of_friendships_as_you
      lay_waste_to_a_mafia_family, I_promise_there's_a_happy_ending, Drug_Use,
      Drug_Abuse, Angst, Brett_and_Aleks_are_engaged_but_that's_not_the_focus
      of_this_fic, Aleks_and_Gavin_are_ex-mafia_bros_who_look_out_for_each
      other, Geoff_is_such_a_dad_you_guys, heavy_heart_with_very_little_comfort
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-12-04 Chapters: 1/3 Words: 3062
****** Higher ******
by TrashQueenOfficial
Summary
     Maybe we are just sinners, who go bigger but burn quicker. Just quick
     triggers.
     Aleks hates his past, never talks about it, keeps it under wraps to
     protect the people he loves. Except for the fact nothing ever goes
     that way, does it? And now he's on the run with people he hasn't been
     in contact with in years and the hands wrapped around his throat that
     never leave.
Notes
     Y'all are really gonna hate me for this one, hitting you with that
     nice Fake Chop!Aleks. There is a playlist just an fyi, should
     probably listen too it while you read this.
Sometimes, Aleks forgets to breathe. It happens when he’s in public and too
many people are staring at him, or on a job when shit starts to go south and
Trevor gets shot. Aleks forgets to breathe when they ace the heist they’d been
planning for  months , or when Brett proposed to him, snow falling softly
outside as Brett asks him to spend the rest of their short lives together. What
steals his breath today is solid, concrete proof the Vitalyev family is still
after him - that the Russian mob still has a knife to his back, pressure
steady.
It was hard enough to get out the first time, Aleks stuck in the family since
he was a child, escaping by the skin of his teeth at the age of eighteen. He
meant to stay low after that, he really did, but then Aleks met Sly. Sly, who
got him into doing freelance work, then got him with The Creatures. None of
them knew Aleks’ was ex-mafia, none of them questioned why Aleks was so good
with guns, with knives, with  everything . It’s ingrained in him, though, and
he doesn’t even think he could pretend to not be familiar with all of the
various weaponry. In the Vitayev family, you learn everything so they can get
the most use out of you. Towards the end, Aleks was very useful. Too useful. He
knows his weapons well, but he’s not the greatest with computers - nothing like
Trevor and Jakob who are resident computer whizzes. Aleks’ knows just enough to
find and track a paper trail. A discrete mafia paper trail, at that.
What he finds is the Vitalyev family paid for a couple of plane tickets to
Massachusetts three months ago, five years too late. Then a month later there
was another few ticket purchases, all to Colorado. The latest ping, the newest
purchases, were tickets to California, three days ago. Take off date is today
at eight pm. Aleks has been staring at the computer for nearly twenty minutes,
roughly breathing, struggling to take in air. Aleks’ hands are starting shake
when his phone starts ringing. He takes twenty seconds to answer, not even
looking at the caller ID, too nervous. It’s a mistake.
“ Aleksandr?”   The second he hears Nikita’s voice, he nearly vomits just at
the way the youngest Vitalyev son says his name. He hangs up, throwing his
phone away from him and onto a couch in the warehouse. He leaves then, can’t be
in that space anymore with the Russians closing in. Aleks leaves everything up
and open, forgetting how nosey his crew is. A mistake. He starts counting them.
Aleks spends hours in a Starbucks, wasting time, trying to figure out how to
tell his crew he’s just put all their lives in danger. They don’t even know
he’s born and bred mafia. The only ones who know are Geoff, Gavin, and Matt
Hullum, the only people who  need  to know.  Aleks never thought about telling
his crew about the fact that he was in the Vitalyev mob family. Maybe that was
his first mistake. No, it was definitely his first mistake. Aleks never came up
with a solid plan, just left the Starbucks with his fourth iced mocha and
headed to back to the office. That’s mistake number two. James is waiting for
him in the lobby when he gets back to the warehouse, his phone in a tight grip.
“Are you fucking dealing our information to the Russians?” James asks, his jaw
clenched tight. He’s trying hard not to yell, Aleks can hear his voice
straining.
“No,” he answers, tries to keep his voice even, calm, even if he’s on the edge
of a panic attack. A big one. But Aleks knows that if he freaks out, James will
freak out. Sometime’s James gets too paranoid, and their crew is a big target
now, on everyone’s radar.
“Yeah? YEAH? THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY LEAVING YOU VOICEMAILS?” James is
waving Aleks’ phone around, pressing play on a voice mail as he paces between
the chairs.
“Sasha that was rude! You know you’re my favorite. I know where you are, I have
six men with me. It’s time to tie up loose ends, babe. See you tomorrow.”
Aleks drops his coffee as the voicemail plays, head spinning and nauseous. He
takes a couple steps towards James, hands up.
“James, James you have to-” James has a gun in his face before Aleks can even
react, and he can’t breathe. God, this is such a mess. Before he can think
about it, Aleks starts running,  just in time for James to shoot. His cheek
grazed. Better than a bullet between the eyes. Aleks slips on the coffee on the
floor, getting it all over the knees of his jeans as he runs away from James.
“Brett!” Aleks breathes a sigh of relief as his fiance pokes his head through
the door of his office, and then he see’s James, who went around the other side
behind Brett. Aleks skids to a stop, a deer in headlights. He takes a step
back, then two, waiting. Aleks can see James whispering in Brett’s ear, can see
the look Brett sends his way. Aleks’ phone goes off again in James’ hand, and
it’s damning.
“Same number. Your boss is calling, Aleksandr.” James pelts the phone at him
and Aleks skitters back while the phone falls at his feet, screen cracking.
Aleks is so distracted staring at the number on the screen that he doesn’t
notice Brett starting toward him until his fiance has him tackled to the
ground, hands around Aleks’ throat as he sits on his stomach.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” Brett’s eyes are full of anger as he crushes
down on Aleks’ throat, ignoring the way Aleks’ nails dig into his skin as he
tries to pry Brett’s hands away from his throat.
“Ca...n espl.ain,” Aleks’ voice is raspy and breathy as he struggles to
breathe.
“I don’t want an explanation,” Brett presses down harder, watches as his
fiance’s lips turn blue, as his eyes start to roll back and he struggles for
air. Aleks is beating at his chest now, one hand smacking at Brett as the other
continues to try and peel Brett’s fingers off him. Brett lifts one hand to
catch the one Aleks is using to smack him, catch it and rip the silver
engagement ring off the traitor's fucking finger. The look Aleks gives him
makes his chest hurt, but Brett has to do this. Has to clean up loose ends,
keep their crew safe. Brett doesn’t notice Aleks unbuttoning the first few
buttons on his shirt with the other hand, doesn’t notice Aleks pull out the gun
that he keeps at his side. Aleks uses it to knock Brett right the fuck out,
rolling Brett off him after he pistol whips him.
Aleks is coughing, still struggling to breathe as he stands up, knees shaky
from his earlier slide through iced coffee. James is nowhere to be found. Aleks
knows he’s telling the others, spreading the news, expecting Brett to be taking
care of him. Aleks winces, his head pounding and his throat sore. He knows he
already has bruises. Aleks picks up his phone and tucks it into his pocket as
he stumbles out of the warehouse, then turns immediately back inside. James
slashed all his tires. Aleks tracks the coffee back through the base as he
takes Brett’s keys, and walks back outside to the car. Aleks knows he must look
a mess, jeans stained with coffee, blood running down his face and staining his
orange jacket.
Aleks throws himself into Brett’s car, turning it on, and then fucking
throttling the steering wheel in frustration. He takes a deep breath, staring
at the tan line on his left ring finger as he catalogs what he has. Aleks has
Brett’s car, Brett’s gun, and his phone. He has guilt clogging his throat and a
laundry list of mistakes. He probably has time to get to the apartment and
clean out his things, Aleks probably has time to contact Gavin and Geoff and
smooth things out before James reaches out to them. Aleks probably has a place
to stay in Austin as things blow over. Aleks does not have a crew anymore,
James has most likely turned everyone against him. He does not have his
engagement ring, or his fiance. His left-hand feels too light, his chest hurts,
but Aleks doesn’t want to focus on that right now.
Aleks blinks away tears as soon as he pulls out of the lot, turning onto the
street to get to their sometimes shared apartment. He has to change course when
he sees Trevor’s, or maybe it was Lindsey’s, little yellow Aveo barrel down the
street from that direction. Shit. James probably called everyone to meet
outside the apartment. It’s really Aleks’ apartment, turned into a makeshift
safe house incase anyone ever needed a hideout. Aleks has had everyone in the
crew crash out on that couch at least once. Made everyone breakfast more times
than he can count. His chest still hurts.
Aleks is looking for a safe place to ditch the car when he’s shot at, and he
looks in the rearview mirror and sees Asher and Lindsey, Asher hanging out of
Lindsey’s Aveo while Trevor tries to catch up to them in his, and they look
like a properly organized gang. Aleks would be proud if they weren’t chasing
him down. Trevor nearly straight rams him off the fucking road, and Asher
shoots out two of his tires. Aleks grimaces as he lets Trevor run him off the
road, flinging himself out of the car and scratching himself the fuck up in the
process. He runs towards where he just came from, knowing it’ll take time for
them all to turn around to chase him, and really he makes it farther than he
thought before Trevor tackles him to the fucking ground.
Aleks is really tired of smacking his head onto the ground. He can feel Trevor
slashing at him, as he’s struggling to flip them over. Aleks manages to get
himself flipped so he’s straddling Trevor, landing blows into his ribs. He’s
shaking as he lays into the younger crew member. He hasn’t been able to breathe
since everything happened with Brett, and Aleks can tell Trevor knows he’s
freaking the fuck out, knows it damns him in the other's eyes. Aleks manages to
get the knife away from Trevor, slamming it down into his leg so he couldn’t
get up and chase him.
“Jesus fuck! What the fucks wrong with you! The crew fucking  trusted  you! I
trusted you! You were like a fucking brother to me! Brett is freaking out!
You’ve ruined everything!” Trevor is clutching his leg and yelling, and Aleks
is so fucking numb that he can barely feel the fresh guilt wash over him. He’s
on autopilot, shaking out of his skin as he fights to survive.
“Yeah. I always do.” Aleks stares down at Trevor, making sure he can hear the
Aveo coming back before he books it the fuck out of there.
He walks into the apartment, it’s too easy for them to find him in a car. On
foot, Aleks can completely blend into a crowd. Or he can at least try, it’s
hard to blend in when you’re covered in blood, bruises, and coffee, even in
this town. Aleks takes that time to call Geoff, who doesn’t pick up. Gavin
however, does. Aleks can finally breathe, more relieved than he’s ever been.
“Gavin!”
“Aleks! What are you up to mate, its been so long!” Gavin actually sounds
excited to hear from him, and Aleks has a second where he feels bad that it’s
under such shitty circumstances.
“I’m running from my fucking crew because the Vitalyevs are finally done
letting me run around unchecked.”
“What do those tw-” Aleks doesn’t hear what Gavin says, distracted by a TV in a
shop window broadcasting the news.
“Russian police officials will be arriving in California tonight, as they hunt
for an escapee mafia member by the name of Aleksandr Vitalyevich Tchernev-
Marchant. The suspect is around twenty-five. We were given this picture of him
from around six years ago.” It’s a picture of him at eighteen, scrawny with his
neck covered in hickeys Nikita left him. He always liked to fuck around with
his bodyguards. The Aleks in the picture has a black eye, the color of his blue
dress shirt stained with blood that’s not his. He moves on quickly before he
can garner suspicion from the people on the street, swiftly picking up his
phone.
“-ello? HELLO?”
“They have my face on TV. The Vitalyevs just put a fucking bounty on me,” He
knows he says it too fast, voice shaky as he rushes down the street, “First my
fiance tries to strangle me to death, Trevor tries to stab me, and now every
cop in the country knows my face.”
“Calm down. Calm down. Whats going on with the crew? Walk me through it.” Gavin
is calm, steady. Everything that Aleks is not in this moment.
“I never told the crew, about my parents, about the Vitalyevs and the drugs,
nothing. James has always been paranoid, we are gaining traction up here, and
then suddenly I’m being contacted by a mob family, a family that might want a
seat in Cali. He freaks out, and now I’m a traitor.”
“Aleks, we talked about you telling them. I’ve told the boys about England and
Dan.”
“Yeah, how long’d it take you to do that?” Aleks knows it’s a low blow, but
he’s too keyed up, too anxious to care.
“I wasn’t fucking engaged to one of them, douche bag,” Gavin bites back, low
and meant to hurt, and Aleks just bares his teeth because he deserves it.
“Yeah, yeah. I have no clue what to do.”
“Stay with us in Austin for a bit? Wait for shit to cool down while Geoff
smoothes it over with James?”
“That only solves the issue of the crew. I’m not bringing the Vitalyevs to
you.”
“What if we can over power them?” Gavin is thoughtful, and Aleks can hear the
scribble of pen on paper. He must be on speaker. Geoff is probably in the room.
Hell, Geoff probably suggested he go out there where it’s safe, always the
doting dad to his crews.
“Nikita’s here. He says there’s six, but we both know Nikita never even goes
anywhere in  Russia  with less than fifteen guys on him. We aren’t overpowering
them.”
“Hmm. Get Funhaus and Pine involved?” It’s Geoff, who then chimes in with an,
“Oops.”
“I want as little people as possible in-” Aleks stops dead in his tracks down
the street from his apartment, and then he’s running, sprinting. They lit his
place up. His place is on fire when he gets there, the blaze heavy. The fire
department isn’t even there yet. It takes a minute, then Aleks remembers he
left Celia and Mishka at his place instead of taking them to James’. He’s
running again, trying to get into the building, but someone stops him. His
neighbors he thinks. They know his name, know his pets.
“You can’t go back in there, dude.” Aleks’ head is scrambled with grief and
panic, and he just sags to the ground and nods. He can’t do anything else,
can’t think of anything other than  pain, pain, pain.  Then his phone pings
with a text. As if his day wasn’t shitty enough.
The blond, was a great choice ;)
Aleks knows he’s still on the phone with Gavin, and that it’s rude not to
answer, but he can’t seem to find his voice. The worst part is he can’t even
say it was the Russians, because it wasn’t. This whole scene reeks of his crew,
petty and flashy, and that's what hurts. His family hurt his pets, hurt him,
and he doesn’t know how to react to it. It’s buried under the sting of what
this means. Because this, the fire raging in his apartment, has meaning. It
means they want him gone, out of Cali. Tonight. And they don’t want him back.
It takes him forever to do more than just breathe into the phone, but Gavin is
patient.
“I get the Vitalyevs by myself,” Aleks says hard into the phone, no room for an
argument, “And then you get me somewhere else. I’m willing to stay on as
freelance. I, um. I don’t know how willing this crew will be to have me back.”
“Aleks, Aleksandr. You can’t take on a whole Mafia family by yourself. You just
can’t, that’s suicide. Come to Austin, rest, think things through. Let us  help
you. ” It’s Geoff instead of Gavin, and God, the idea sounds so good. To hide
behind the Kingpin while he nurses his wounds and cries over this whole thing.
Aleks knows he can’t, though. He’s been running from this his whole life. This
whole thing started because of him running and hiding from the Russians. It’s
his fault his crew is out of whack, is stressed and paranoid.
“Watch me. This is my mess to clean.” Aleks hangs up, walking away from the
crowd as the fire department gets there.
Aleks has a plan of action. He’s got Geoff, Gavin, Brett, Trevor, and James’
numbers memorized. All the important people and then some. He tries to memorize
the number Nikita has been texting him from - his plan won’t work if the third
son can’t find him. So he dashes his phone against the nearest brick building,
effectively destroying the thing. He owned it anyway. The next step is to go to
Verizon and pay out his contract, close that phone number. Then he goes to the
nearest Best Buy and buys a cheap burner phone. Immediately, he saves
everyone’s numbers and texts Geoff and Gavin his status. He gets on a bus to
Vegas, and promptly passes the fuck out. It’s only six in the afternoon but his
adrenaline has worn off, and now he’s just tired. Too tired to do anything but
sleep and acknowledge the fact that he’ll never see his crew, his family, ever
again.
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