Chapter Text
Characters
Primo Nizutto
- He has four older sisters, three of them married farmers and the other married a baker. They’re all timid but good men, Primo likes the baker the best.
- His Mama called him Topolino, before she passed away when he was 12.
- His father remarries and he and Primo's stepmother have a son.
- Gabriele's nickname for Primo is gatto because he’s feral and scrappy and scratchy and a trash cat. He gets gattino when he’s being condescending or cute.
- 16th birthday - his father gifts him a knife and he makes his first kill
- 17th birthday - his father hires Ada to sleep with him and they become best friends
- Primo aged 21 - Father dies, shot by a hidden gunman in the mountains, Primo watches him bleed out
Gabriele “Briga” Calati
- He comes from a pretty big family, he's a farm boy through and through.
- Briga and Primo were friends at a young age, and they were always very close. Briga is the one person Primo trusts more than anything.
- They develop feelings for each other, but it starts out rocky because Primo seeks Gabriele out for the intimacy he craves but does not wish to acknowledge what that means and what it is that's happening between them.
- Briga is Primo's nickname for Gabriele because it also means 'trouble.'
- Briga’s mama and little sisters call him Lele. No one else is allowed to but he loves their pet name for him.
- Briga does crime too, but for a different branch of the mafia. He runs the coke in and out with his pilot's jacket on. They're all in the Calabrian mafia, but Briga is in La Santa, a secret society within the calabrian mafia, and doesn't report directly to Don Salvatore like Primo has to.
Ada Santarelli
- Ada is the woman that Primo is seen talking to at the club before Fifty comes in. She also is the one that drives him and lets him into the house when Primo kills his uncle.
- Ada is a prostitute that Primo’s father hired for him on his 17th birthday to take his virginity as a birthday present to "make him a man". They didn't have sex that night, they got high together and talked instead. Ada became Primo's closest friend aside from Gabriele.
Childhood/teenage years
Primo & Gabriele’s families
The youngest of Primo’s sisters is 6 years older than him. He was a surprise baby, but his dad was thrilled because he finally had a boy.
He was a mama’s boy, though. She had a cute nickname for him, one that his dad always hated when she used but that never stopped her. She called him Topolino, her little mouse, because he was quiet and shy when he was still young, and he barely made a sound when he was coming and going. There’s something poetic about him being the mouse when he was little, and when he grows up he’s the cat.
Primo loses it if people call him a mouse though, only his mama is allowed. One of his sisters tries to once, after their mom has passed, thinking it would be a comfort to him. She hugs him, the first time they’ve seen each other since the funeral and she strokes his hair, “You must miss her, topolino. You were her favourite.” He snaps at her so fiercely that she looks a little frightened. He immediately regrets it, but it's still too fresh and that was his mama’s special name for him. She still tries to shove some baked goods into his hands, knowing there’s a good chance he hasn’t eaten that day. It’s too much for him to process so he runs off and hides for a while, until he can gather himself again.
Primo used to miss meals because he was hiding from his dad. Even now as an adult he’s still a little bit possessive and funny about food.
Dinner at Gabriele’s family’s place was always chaotic but the food was good and Primo can get seconds if he wants them instead of a lecture about being grateful for what he’s been given. The first time it happens he has to shut himself in Gabriele’s room afterwards, it’s too much kindness for him to process. Lucia, Gabriele’s mama, starts noticing Primo squirreling away food. She quietly asks if he’s getting enough to eat and Primo lies, says it’s fine, but of course Lucia can tell he’s just trying to be polite. She sends Gabriele to school with extra food every day after that. She makes Primo a birthday cake every year when she realises that no one in his house is going to. He never tells her his favorite kind but somehow she always knows.
The year after his mother dies is especially tough on Primo, but Lucia’s kindness goes a long way in helping him through it. His youngest sister got married in the year before their mother passed, so it’s just Primo at home with his father. Primo’s sisters try to look after him, but they have their own families to care for and they don’t want him to think that they’re trying to take their mama’s place. They are also concerned that if they get involved with Primo that means they're getting involved with the family officially, and they try to keep their heads down and stay out of the family business. They see him at big events and at church, but they also know better than to question how their father is parenting him. It’s a lot of slipped money and treats and little smiles. In their own way, they’re trying and doing their best but there really is only so much they can do. As Primo gets older, he pays them less and less attention and is less likely to be pleased by a chocolate bar. Besides, Briga’s mama is feeding him when she can.
Primo hovers in the kitchen and offers to help wash up after dinner at Gabriele’s house. He doesn’t know how to say thank you, but figures this is a good start. Lucia tells him he doesn't need to, but he insists, so she passes him a dish towel. She's so kind and motherly that he finds himself coming out of his shell more and more around her. At one point Gabriele pokes his head in the kitchen to see if Primo is there. When he sees Primo smiling, genuinely, and laughing with his mother he gets this fond, soft look on his face. He leans up against the door and watches them for a little before announcing his presence, and when he does Primo is surprised and goes a little pink, but he returns the soft look Gabriele gives him.
Briga’s father was involved with the family business too, so Primo's father doesn’t care that Primo is friendly with him. Over time his dad gets a new wife, and a new son, so he doesn’t particularly care where Primo is as long as Primo does his job once he’s old enough. His stepmother wasn’t outwardly cruel to him but always favoured her own son more than Primo. She always gave her son the best of everything, the bigger portions at dinner, the better cut of meat. It was clear to Primo that his father favoured the younger son, too. Primo was nothing more than a reminder of the wife his father had lost.
Primo’s friendship with Gabriele
After his mother passes, Primo goes to church and lights a candle for her every week. Gabriele is the only one of Primo’s friends that knew her, and for a time, Gabriele was the only person Primo would actually talk to after she died. Gabriele and Primo have been friends since they were little kids, but all of Primo’s other friends have only known him since he turned sixteen and started to get involved in the family business. Gabriele is the only friend Primo actually trusts, Primo trusts Gabriele, always. Gabriele has never used Primo’s weak moments against him in a way that he’s sure anyone else would. Sometimes it scares him how much he trusts Gabriele, he’s never trusted anyone that much. Trust had never been a luxury he could afford.
Gabriele turned 16 a few months before Primo did. Primo took him up into the mountains and they slept under the stars. In the morning Primo added more wood to the fire and tried to heat up water for coffee, and then pulled out a crumpled paper bag full of saccottino al cioccolato that had been halfway squished. He took a big bite of one and grinned with his mouth full before tossing the rest to Gabriele.
"Buon compleanno… You are an old man now. You can get old and fat. I will stay young and handsome forever," he teases. They always joke about the few months between them, Primo calls Gabriele old man and Gabriele calls Primo baby.
Primo is a trash cat, but Gabriele adores him anyway. They’re cuddling under the stars and Gabriele kisses him and calls him Gattino, all soft. Primo’s first instinct is to push Gabriele’s chest and tell him he’s not a kitten. But then he realises there’s no one there to judge him and it’s actually quite nice to be talked to so tenderly. He doesn’t immediately pull his hand back after pushing at Gabriele’s chest, lets his hand stay there and feel the warmth of Briga’s skin. When Gabriele brings his hand up to twine their fingers, Primo lets him.
There is nothing romantic about this at first, or at least they don't think there is. They hold each other and press soft kisses against one another's cheeks and their hands are often touching. They’ve been like this since they were kids, easy with affection.
It’s just comfort and expression of friendship and a little part of them assumes all friends are like that when they’re drunk or sleepy. Why wouldn’t they share a sleeping bag while camping? They’ll be warmer. It's not like Primo has any other real friends besides Gabriele, so Primo doesn’t have any metric of what friendship is. Primo often goes to push Gabriele away and ends up clinging to his shirt instead.
First kiss
Primos dated a few girls, messed around a bit, and Briga had a serious girlfriend for a while there, but they were each other’s first kiss. Curious thirteen year olds hiding out up in the mountains, trying to avoid their families and responsibilities. It’s kind of weird and not very good and they decide not to bother trying again.
It’s only years later, when they’re seventeen and Briga’s talking about becoming a pilot, that they try again. They’re tipsy, stole a bottle of wine from Primo’s father and have been sharing it under the stars, sprawled on a ratty old blanket.
Primo rolls over, pressing up against Briga’s side and sighs heavily, “You won’t leave me though? Even if you have to move to Rome - you’ll always come back?” He’s feeling a little fragile about the whole thing, but he would stab anyone who so much as suggested that he’s anything but composed.
“Of course. Besides, you can always come stay with me. Imagine us in Rome together - we’ll take it by storm.”
Primo smiles against his shoulder, and whip-fast, presses a kiss to Briga’s jaw.
He makes a face at the stubble Briga hasn’t bothered shaving, but doesn’t move far, so when Briga gets a hand in his hair and tugs lightly, he doesn’t have to shift all that much for Briga to be able to kiss him.
They’ve got more practice now, so the way their lips slide together is comfortable, natural - even though it does take a moment for Primo to settle into it and let Briga lead.
They break apart after a while, panting lightly and resting their foreheads together, eyes closed. The start of the kiss wasn’t perfect, Primo’s nose getting in the way and Briga, a little too enthusiastic, clacking their teeth together. But once they get into a good rhythm it’s the best kiss either of them has ever had.
Briga shifts so he can put his free hand on Primo’s lower back, heavy and warm through his thin shirt and Primo shivers a little, arching into the touch.
“You really are a gattino huh?” Briga laughs and Primo growls at that, proving Briga’s point more than anything.
He can shut him up with kisses now, though, and he takes advantage of that, shifting up into his lap and taking control of the kisses.
Once Briga works that out, it’s very easy to distract Primo whenever he’s rambling or annoyed: Briga just steals a kiss and walks away, Primo chasing after him for more. “Hey, no. You can’t just walk away from me.”
Primo tugs at Briga's belt loops to drag him closer. Briga laughs and lets himself be pulled back towards Primo, “Gattino there are things that need doing today.”
“Yeah, me.”
Establishing Ada
Primo met his best friend Ada when his father hired her for Primo on his seventeenth birthday. They didn’t have sex that night, though, they end up smoking and hanging out. Ada is a bit older than Primo, and they snuck onto the roof to drink wine and share a cigarette. He asked her questions about sex, because even though he wasn’t ready to have it then, he was curious. She laughed and stole the cigarette, “You might be my best client yet.” They spent the night cuddling under the stars and talking about where they’ll go in the future to escape their town. After that night they became ride or die best friends who occasionally made out while high. Later, Primo’s club is one of the safest for prostitutes to work from. He respects them and is pro sex workers.
Gabriele being used to control Primo
As teenagers, Primo and Briga would hide away up in the mountain caves with shitty wine, usually Communion Wine stolen from the store room at the church. They'd kiss and touch and stare out at the sky and plan their escape from Calabria.
One night Briga goes up to the mountain to meet Primo and there’s glass at the entrance to the cave. He goes in and sees all of their little things that they collected - bottles of wine, candles, books - have all been thrown around and ruined, the basic bedroll and pillow they share has been ripped apart. There’s feathers everywhere and in the middle of it all is Primo, hugging his knees and crying. He’s got a split lip and his left eye is swollen.
His father had followed him up when he saw him sneaking out that night. Primo lied and said it was where he brought girls. He did everything he could to keep Briga out of this - he knows what his father is capable of. His father saw straight through his lies, which only made him angrier that Primo would dare lie to him.
Primo hasn’t cried since the first time he killed a man on his father’s orders, but the destruction of this one precious, holy thing that he has absolutely breaks him. As much as the beating he took hurt and he fears what’s next for him, more than anything he’s terrified for Briga.
It’s after this that Primo’s father and Salvatore send Briga to train to be a pilot. Briga has always been vocal about his dream of flying, but he never expected the Nizzutos to twist it and use it to their advantage. Primo’s father thinks it’s useful to have something to keep Primo in check. Primo is always so much more obedient when he mentions that Gabriele will be out of the country a lot once he has his pilot’s licence.
Briga likes flying, but most of all he likes that it means an escape. He tries to prove himself useful, knowing that doing better will mean more independence and freedom. He doesn’t like that it means leaving Primo alone in Calabria for days on end, however.
Briga is the one who suggests that Primo be the one to meet him in Rome to help with drops to their dealers. Salvatore can’t exactly say no to that, Primo is one of the only men in the family that’s able to travel as frequently as the job requires who hasn’t already messed up on a drop. Primo’s father allows it because Primo is good at the job, and he thinks Primo behaves better if he occasionally gets what he wants. His father knows he can threaten to take it away if Primo gets out of line, and Primo is always so grateful to see Gabriele that he’ll say yes to jobs they would usually argue about.
They make the most of their time in Rome away from the family. Primo is the one who finds Bertolini and the restaurant, he happens upon it when he’s looking for somewhere nice to take Briga on a date. He brings Gabriele there not too long after. “It’s perfect, right? The old pervert will let us use his kitchens. And he will deal some for us. We are big time, Briga. Big. Time.”
Gabriele huffs out an amused laugh and shakes his head. He reaches up and pulls the chain out from under the wide open collar of Primo’s shirt. He fiddles with it and meets his eyes. “Yes. Yes, we are.”
They have dinners out the front of Berto’s restaurant, holding hands under the table and trying not to think about how Gabriele has a shitty little apartment in Rome that they can go back to for a few hours before Primo has to drive home. Primo wants to stay the night, but he doesn’t think he could get away with it. They get a little bit tipsy and Briga jokes that he has to take Primo back to his apartment to show him the goods. Primo can’t help but giggle, Rome is so far from Calabria and the distance is tangible in how free Primo feels.
The first time someone other than Primo meets Briga at Berto’s to do the hand over Briga is confused, but he’s professional so he completes the handover, making small talk with one of Primo’s cousins he’s met a handful of times. As soon as they are finished he uses the phone at Berto’s and tries to call Primo, but of course he’s not answering. He's quietly panicking, wondering what happened to Primo, why he couldn't come.
Primo is away doing a different job for his dad, purposefully busy and fully aware that he’s been kept away from Gabriele. It’s one of the nails in his father’s coffin for Primo too. One day he’s going to watch his father die, and he won’t be able to bring himself to be at all upset.