#path to nowhere moore | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cannedpickledpeaches · 8 months ago

Text

Insert Your Name (6)

Mafia!Jade Leech x Mafia!Reader

Link to series masterlist!

Notes and TW: Here's how they met, and also some other stuff. This series will have mentions of blood, violence, crime (kidnapping, attempted assassination, extortion), and harassment, as one might expect from a mafia AU. Please enjoy!

Tags: @guava-writes @itszzmoon @twstsandturns @myteacupisempty @rou-luxe @chikitasmol

Things feel a little different between you and Jade nowadays. You can’t say you’ve gotten closer. But tentatively, you’re starting to let your guard down around him. You told him what you thought about trusting him.

“The only people who’d trust you,” you explained your theory, “are naïve fools, desperate people, or wary ones who have leverage on you or something to gain.”

He smiled enigmatically. “What category do you believe you fall under?”

“Naïve fool,” you answered without hesitation.

His chuckles in your ear felt like silk. “The fact that you can say that means you are not.”

A part of you still worries, but you’ve decided to give it a chance. No developments can be made if you refuse to take risks. Besides, you don’t have the brainspace to linger on this. The other mystery from his phone call that morning still hasn’t been addressed.

Why did (Y/N) forget you? Is it linked to the spell shielding Barry Moore’s memories from Shock the Heart? After some tests, Azul concluded that it’s not a defensive spell. Instead, it is a high-level spell locking specific memories. Only experienced mages can pull that off, even if it is someone’s Signature Spell. If it’s the same spell, why would (Y/N)’s memories specific to you be blocked off? Does it have to do with how you’re an extra in the book? By that logic, why were Moore’s memories locked, and not yours?

There is one path that has opened up. Jade consolidated a list of mages in the Carpenter Mafia. You’ve spent the past two weeks splitting the investigation into every mage between the two of you. Meanwhile, Jade has continued with advancing the plot. The story says he should be in love with (Y/N) by this point, but he still denies it to you. You have decided to take his word for it.

Your iced coffee tastes like frustration. You fiddle with the straw while observing a barrel-chested man across the street. He browses a luxury watch shop. You’ve been tailing him for a good few days, and you’ve already seen a few glimpses of his magic. His spells are crude and broad. Nowhere near the precision needed to lock specific memories. Maybe he’s acting, too cautious to show his magical prowess. You find it unlikely.

He is the last on your half of the list. Jade is done his half as well, save for someone who is a missing person the last time you checked. Not unusual for a mafia. You still think you should look into it when you return home. Other than that, did you not investigate thoroughly enough? Nobody matches the level of magical skill needed for that spell. You are starting to wonder if you are the one who is making a mistake. Maybe the one responsible is not a mage in the Carpenter Mafia. If not, who is it? The same person who wrote that manuscript in the first place?

Unanswered questions buzz around you like flies. You feel as though the more you investigate into this whole ordeal, the more questions you have. The man leaves the watch shop and you cannot find it in you to leave your corner of the café. It would be a waste of time to follow him.

Even if this investigation fails, not all hope is lost. According to Jade, (Y/N) recently won a raffle that allowed her on a certain movie set. The men you’ve planted amongst the staff reported that Vil Schoenheit took an interest in her natural beauty. The story is flowing onward without a hitch, so if all else fails, you can rely on her doe eyes. She should be able to tug on Vil’s heartstrings until he agrees to cure Jade and Floyd’s parents.

There’s no point in fantasizing about hypotheticals. If the story says it is so, it probably is. Things are easier this way. With that matter put to rest in your mind, your thoughts wander to home. With some free time in your schedule, you could make brunch for your mother. She might be sleeping in today.

Maybe you should take her back to your hometown sometime soon. Right now, you’re both living in your house in the capital of the Queendom of Roses, but you grew up elsewhere. Your hometown is on an isle on the far reaches of the Queendom’s territory, right next to the Coral Sea. That is where you met the twins, and later, Azul.

The memory of your first meeting is still vivid in your mind. You had been strolling along the beach that day on your way home from school. An odd shape caught your eye. Something distinctly green and long, half hidden behind the grey rocks of the cliffside. Loud voices of children your age filled the air. Middle schoolers, all boys. You figured it couldn’t be anything other than trouble.

But then you saw what caught their attention. And just like that, you were rooted to the spot. A long green tail with dark stripes and thin fins thrashed on the sand. Where you might have expected a fish or a sea monster’s head, you instead saw a boy’s upper body. Green, slimy, and snarling with gnashed, saw-like teeth and mismatched eyes, but a boy nonetheless. A boy who was trying his best to appear threatening while human boys stood around him in a circle.

As a child, you weren’t particularly righteous. You didn’t—and still don’t—care much about the livelihoods of people who aren’t close to you. The typical reaction for you would have been to walk away.

In fact, you were just about to turn around when you realized why his tail seemed familiar to you. Your favourite shops by the shore were owned by moray eel merfolk. When you asked your mother about them, she mentioned that moray merfolk weren’t too common. You surmised that whoever this unfortunate kid was, he was probably somewhat related to those rich business owners, and that meant you had something to gain if you helped.

It’s all very flimsy logic, now that you think back. You can forgive yourself for it. At the time, you were twelve years old. And without this incident, you wouldn’t be employed at this very well-paying job in the present day.

So you decided to chase away the boys surrounding the mer. They weren’t doing much other than talking out of curiosity, but they weren’t helping him get back in the water, either. Warning them should have been enough, but you lacked the factor of intimidation. When you yelled at them, they sneered back at you, telling you they wouldn’t listen to what a girl had to say.

In your defense, you were quick to anger as a child. Not that it excuses the five noses you broke under your fists that afternoon.

You stood next to that mer, hands dripping red with blood onto the thin layer of snow over coarse sand. The human boys threatened to tell on you or beat you up or whatever else they could think of, but after you threatened to break their arms too, they ran off. Once the coast was clear, you looked down at the boy beached on the sand. His skin was becoming dull.

“Thank you,” he said, his inhuman mismatched eyes peering up at you. “Can you help me back into the water? It’s a bit hard for me, and my skin is drying out.”

You squatted down a safe distance away from him so that you could see him at eye level. He sounded just like a normal boy. If you ignored the green skin, fins, markings, sharp teeth, and tail, he looked like a normal boy, too—although that was quite a lot to ignore. Well, a boy who looked normal could still be rich.

“Pay me.” You reached out a bloody hand expectantly. He looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

“You’ll be disappointed. I don’t have money on me.”

He wasn’t carrying any bags. But his hand clutched something shiny and blue. Before he could react, you snatched it away from him and held it up to the rays of the setting sun.

They looked like jewels, almost. But too thin, and the texture didn’t feel like any jewel you had ever held. Not that you’d held many. You could have been fooled into thinking it was something valuable based on how the boy bared his teeth at you.

“Give that back. You will regret it if you do not.”

“What is this?”

He held his hand out the way you did when you asked him for money. “Sturgeon scales. Return them.”

They were just scales, it seemed. Not particularly expensive. And your mother always told you it was bad to steal things.

She never explicitly said it was bad to extort people.

“I’ll give them back to you tomorrow if you come here at sunset to give me one hundred thaumarks.” You pocketed the scales. “I’ll push you into the water, but I’m not giving them back until you pay me.”

Begrudgingly, he accepted your help getting back to the embrace of the waves. A mer who looked exactly like him greeted him with a loud, cheerful voice. He even called out to you, asking you to come into the water and fight him, too. That was more trouble than it was worth, so you ignored him and went home with three sturgeon scales in your pocket.

The next day, you waited at the same spot after school. As promised, he arrived with a hundred-thaumark bill. As you exchanged items, he asked why you didn’t ask for more while you had the chance.

You blinked slowly. “I didn’t even think about that.”

“Ya shoulda asked for way more!” A second, identical green head popped out of the water, startling you. You didn’t even know when he arrived. “A hundred thaumarks’s chump change.”

“Must be nice thinking that way.” You crouched by the shore, staring at the money in your hands. Your mother would surely ask where you got it from. You wondered what excuse you would give her this time.

“What do you need money for?” The first twin rested his hand on his chin, his torso propped up on a rock.

You fidgeted with the bill. “My mom needs to buy medicine. She isn’t dying or anything, but it would make her life more comfortable. I can’t earn money, but I want to help.”

“And ya extorted Jade for that?” The more boisterous one laughed. You thought it was a laugh, at least. You had never heard something so similar to crunching glass. “Ya got guts, Red Handfish!”

“Red Handfish?”

“Think of it as a term of endearment.” The first twin—Jade—flicked his tail lightly. “Anyway, if you need money, I have a proposal. If you bring us things that only exist on land, I’ll keep paying you.”

It didn’t seem like a bad deal. Little did you know that it would entangle your lives until the present day.

You’re still contemplating your good? Bad? Fortune of meeting the Leech twins when your phone buzzes, pulling you back to reality. A text from Jade that says: Come to my home office. I have something to discuss with you.

You didn’t think much of it until you arrived at his front gates. Unease flickers in your gut. The mansion is quiet, the courtyard empty. Where are the security guards who should be stationed at the front? It is noon. They can’t all be off work.

You enter the front yard. No movement except for swaying branches from the trees Floyd likes to climb. The sound of the doorbell meets dead silence. Your eyes rove over the massive glass windows on the double doors. The midday sun lights up the neighbourhood behind you, which casts a reflection of your silhouette on the glass. In that reflection, you catch a glimpse of a shadow behind you.

Instincts kick in before your rational mind. Your Signature Spell envelops your body like chainmail. The knife thrusted towards you crashes into invisible armour around your skin. With a flick of a wrist and a punch to the jaw, you disarm your assailant and knock him out. Fluidly, you transition into a kick, the sole of your shoe meeting the throat of another one. More jump out at you. Your body falls into a quick, effortless flow of movements as you knock them unconscious one-by-one. A strike to the temple. Throat. Jaw. Solar plexus. Heart. Groin. Repeat. You would kill them if you had a weapon, but you’re barehanded and doing it that way takes too long. Something is very wrong here. Assassins? Where is Jade? Was that message even from Jade to begin with?

You unlock the door and rush inside, heading straight for his office. It could be a trap. No matter. You are confident you can take care of yourself. Within seconds, you fling open his office door and step inside.

Nothing seems amiss here. In fact, Jade himself sits calmly in his chair. On your side of his desk, a woman stands in the uniform of the security under his employ. Jade gives you a smile.

“You seem out of breath. Would you like a cup of tea?”

You shake your head, confused. “A hot drink is the last thing I need right now. What is going on? Why’d I get attacked?”

Jade shoots a pointed smile at the woman. You’ve known his expressions well enough to tell it is a threat. She chuckles and extends a hand.

“Sorry about that. I told my men not to let anyone enter.”

You shake her hand warily, your Signature Spell still active. “Your men?”

“Yes. Pleasure to meet you. You may call me Walrus. I have been working undercover in the Leech brothers’ residence for . . . Oh, about a month.”

“Walrus” sounds familiar. You wrack your memory. It dawns on you—it was a name in the list of mages working for the Carpenter Mafia. The one who turned out to be a missing person. Was that fake? Your shoulders stiffen. If she’s from a rival mafia, then she’s in the middle of enemy territory.

“Isn’t espionage a little outdated?”

“Not at all. Especially when my Signature Spell is so well suited for it.”

You connect the dots quickly. “You’re the one who locked Barry Moore’s memories?”

“That’s me. He’s under me. I didn’t expect him to be so careless, so I cleaned up after his mistake.” Walrus beams like a teacher congratulating a student. She turns to Jade, talking as though you are not in the room. “She’s quick. And strong enough to incapacitate all my men. Won’t you please lend her to me?”

Jade’s smile borders on dangerous. “She is an essential member of my group. I would be quite burdened if she suddenly left.”

“Please think about it a little more.”

“My decision will not change.”

You hold out your hands. “Hold on. Just give me a second. What is going on?”

Jade’s facial muscles relax imperceptibly. He gestures for you to stand beside him, so you indulge him. Only when you are properly by his side does he answer your question.

“Walrus is not truly part of the Carpenter Mafia, just like how she was not truly part of my security team. Her true allegiance lies with a smaller group in the Queendom that aims to take over the Carpenter Mafia.”

#twisted wonderland #disney twst #jade leech #twst fanfic #twst jade #twst x reader #jade leech x reader #floyd leech #mafia au #slow burn #multi chap fic

97 notes · View notes