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Corte Costituzionale sentenza n. 149/2019 sul lavoro subordinato in attesa di cittadinanza

N. 149 SENTENZA 8 maggio - 19 giugno 2019

Giudizio di legittimita' costituzionale in via incidentale. Cittadinanza - Riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana ai discendenti di persone nate e residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico prima del 16 luglio 1920 ed emigrate all'estero prima di tale data - Svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa da parte del titolare di permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza.

Legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379 (Disposizioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana alle persone nate e gia' residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico e ai loro discendenti), art. 1; decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286 (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero), art. 6. - (T-190149) (GU 1a Serie Speciale - Corte Costituzionale n.26 del 26-6-2019)

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LA CORTE COSTITUZIONALE

composta dai signori:

Presidente:Giorgio LATTANZI; Giudici :Aldo CAROSI, Marta CARTABIA, Mario Rosario MORELLI, Giancarlo CORAGGIO, Giuliano AMATO, Silvana SCIARRA, Daria de PRETIS, Nicolo' ZANON, Franco MODUGNO, Augusto Antonio BARBERA, Giulio PROSPERETTI, Giovanni AMOROSO, Francesco VIGANO', Luca ANTONINI,

ha pronunciato la seguente

SENTENZA

nel giudizio di legittimita' costituzionale dell'art. 1 della legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379 (Disposizioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana alle persone nate e gia' residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico e ai loro discendenti) e dell'art. 6 del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286 (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero), promosso dal Tribunale regionale di giustizia amministrativa del Trentino-Alto Adige, sede di Trento, nel procedimento vertente tra V. P. e il Ministero dell'interno e altro, con ordinanza del 9 ottobre 2018, iscritta al n. 189 del registro ordinanze 2018 e pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica n. 2, prima serie speciale, dell'anno 2019.

Visto l'atto di intervento del Presidente del Consiglio dei ministri;

udito nella camera di consiglio dell'8 maggio 2019 il Giudice relatore Nicolo' Zanon.

Ritenuto in fatto

1.- Il Tribunale regionale di giustizia amministrativa del Trentino-Alto Adige, sede di Trento, con ordinanza del 9 ottobre 2018, ha sollevato questioni di legittimita' costituzionale dell'art. 1 della legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379 (Disposizioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana alle persone nate e gia' residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico e ai loro discendenti) e dell'art. 6 del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286 (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero), «nella parte in cui non prevedono l'utilizzazione dello speciale permesso per attesa di cittadinanza ai fini dello svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa», in relazione all'art. 3 della Costituzione, sia sotto il profilo della lesione del principio di pari trattamento, sia sotto il profilo della ragionevolezza.

Da' atto il giudice a quo che il ricorrente nel giudizio, V. P., e' il discendente di una persona nata in provincia di Trento nel 1852 ed emigrata in Brasile prima del 1920; espone che costui e' entrato in Italia il 6 giugno 2005 «usufruendo del permesso di soggiorno per attesa di cittadinanza previsto dall'art. 11 del d.p.r. 3 novembre 1999, n. 394, rilasciato il 14 giugno 2005 e avviato ai sensi della legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379».

Enuncia inoltre che, ottenuta la residenza, V. P. ha esercitato diverse attivita' lavorative fino al 15 novembre del 2008. In data 11 gennaio 2008, la Provincia autonoma di Trento emanava pero' una nota, secondo cui «sulla base della legislazione attuale i cittadini di origine italiana titolari di permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza non sono abilitati a svolgere attivita' lavorativa». Tale comunicazione trovava il suo fondamento in una precedente nota del 12 settembre 2007 che il Ministero dell'interno aveva inviato alla Questura di Trento in risposta ad un quesito ad esso rivolto.

In ragione di tali atti, spiega il rimettente, V. P. non poteva piu' esercitare attivita' lavorativa e veniva contestualmente meno, in ragione della nota ministeriale piu' sopra ricordata, l'efficacia di un precedente protocollo d'intesa, stipulato il 12 giugno 2007 tra la Provincia autonoma di Trento e la Questura di Trento, in ragione del quale si era invece consentito ai soggetti di cui alla legge n. 379 del 2000, che avessero ottenuto un permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza, di svolgere attivita' lavorativa.

Ottenuta la cittadinanza italiana nel 2012, V. P., che nel frattempo aveva percepito soltanto il sostegno economico dell'Agenzia provinciale per l'assistenza e la previdenza integrativa, aveva potuto riprendere a lavorare. Per ottenere il risarcimento del danno medio tempore patito a causa del divieto di lavoro, lo stesso, con atto di citazione del 18 luglio del 2014, adiva il Tribunale ordinario di Trento che, con sentenza 5 maggio 2017, n. 444, declinava la giurisdizione a favore del giudice amministrativo.

Evidenzia, infine, il giudice rimettente che V. P. adiva successivamente il Tribunale regionale di giustizia amministrativa di Trento, sia per ottenere l'annullamento della citata nota del Ministero dell'interno del 12 settembre 2007, richiamata nella comunicazione n. 996 dell'11 gennaio 2008 della Provincia autonoma di Trento, sia per ottenere la condanna della Questura di Trento e del Ministero dell'interno al risarcimento del danno asseritamente patito, quantificato in euro 40.000.

2.- In via preliminare, il giudice a quo da' atto dell'ammissibilita' della domanda risarcitoria ad esso proposta, in ragione di quanto previsto dall'art. 30 del decreto legislativo 2 luglio 2010, n. 104, recante «Attuazione dell'articolo 44 della legge 18 giugno 2009, n. 69, recante delega al governo per il riordino del processo amministrativo» (da ora in poi: cod. proc. amm.).

Sempre preliminarmente, afferma il giudice a quo che l'azione del ricorrente sarebbe stata tempestivamente promossa: non troverebbe infatti in questo caso applicazione il termine di decadenza di 120 giorni previsto dal citato art. 30, comma 3, cod. proc. amm., poiche' siffatto termine non e' applicabile, secondo consolidata giurisprudenza amministrativa, alle cause relative a vicende antecedenti l'entrata in vigore dello stesso codice. Di conseguenza, e in mancanza di comportamenti negligenti dell'interessato, troverebbe applicazione in questa vicenda l'ordinario termine di prescrizione quinquennale previsto per l'azione risarcitoria: poiche' il periodo in cui il ricorrente asserisce di aver subito il danno inizia il 12 gennaio 2008 e termina nel 2012 e poiche' in ragione della intervenuta translatio iudicii il termine di prescrizione dovrebbe considerarsi interrotto il 18 luglio 2014, data della notificazione dell'atto di citazione introduttivo del giudizio civile, ne consegue che «[p]er il periodo fino al 18 luglio 2009 [...] il diritto al risarcimento incorre nella prescrizione quinquennale (eccepita in via subordinata dall'Avvocatura resistente), mentre rimane vivo per il periodo successivo».

3.- Nel merito, il rimettente espone che la Questura di Trento aveva formulato al Ministero dell'interno un quesito al fine di sapere se il possesso del permesso di soggiorno per l'acquisto della cittadinanza italiana iure sanguinis consentisse lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa. Il Ministero aveva risposto osservando che l'art. 14 del d.P.R. 31 agosto 1999, n. 394 (Regolamento recante norme di attuazione del testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero, a norma dell'articolo 1, comma 6, del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286), «nel disciplinare le ipotesi di conversione del permesso di soggiorno da altra tipologia a quella per lavoro, non contempla quello per attesa cittadinanza. Pertanto, per poter autorizzare i cittadini di origine italiana in possesso di tale tipologia di permesso di soggiorno a svolgere attivita' lavorativa sara' necessario attendere una modifica normativa in tal senso».

Secondo il giudice a quo, tale affermazione corrisponderebbe al quadro normativo vigente: lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorative sarebbe consentito soltanto se i permessi di soggiorno sono stati «espressamente rilasciati a tale scopo, ovvero se cosi' prevede la legge», come dimostrerebbero le previsioni di cui all'art. 6 del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998 e di cui all'art. 14 del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999.

Osserva il rimettente come, pero', «[n]essuna delle specifiche disposizioni dedicate all'ambito delle attivita' consentite dai vari tipi di permesso di soggiorno, ovvero convertibili in una diversa fattispecie che consenta attivita' lavorativa, si occupa del permesso per attesa cittadinanza italiana iure sanguinis di cui alla legge n. 379 del 2000».

Poiche' nella determinazione dello status dei cittadini extracomunitari - secondo quanto affermato nella sentenza del Consiglio di Stato, sezione terza, 12 ottobre 2017, n. 4738 - non potrebbe farsi ricorso allo strumento dell'analogia, risolvendosi cio' in una innovazione del sistema non consentita al giudice (viene citata la sentenza di questa Corte n. 277 del 2014), in definitiva non si rinverrebbe nell'ordinamento «alcuna norma che consenta lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa ai soggetti in attesa di cittadinanza iure sanguinis».

4.- Cio' premesso, il rimettente evidenzia la diversa condizione in cui versa la generalita' dei soggetti che attende il rilascio della cittadinanza, da una parte, rispetto ai destinatari della legge n. 379 del 2000, dall'altra.

Per i primi, il possesso di un permesso di soggiorno costituisce, ai sensi dell'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999, «presupposto imprescindibile per ottenere quello per attesa di cittadinanza». Non si porrebbe dunque alcun problema di convertibilita' del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza, poiche' al piu' occorrerebbe verificare se il permesso di soggiorno presupposto possa direttamente consentire l'attivita' lavorativa, oppure sia convertibile in un permesso che tale attivita' consente.

Per i secondi, invece, la disciplina speciale di cui all'art. 1, comma 2, della legge n. 379 del 2000, «riconosce la cittadinanza italiana, senza subordinare tale riconoscimento al possesso di un diverso titolo di soggiorno»: di conseguenza, lo specifico permesso per attesa di cittadinanza «non essendo collegato ad alcun altro, diverso, titolo, e non prevedendo l'autorizzazione all'attivita' lavorativa, ne preclude [...] lo svolgimento».

Tale diversita' di trattamento sarebbe, a dire del giudice rimettente, contraria al principio di eguaglianza di cui all'art. 3 Cost., in ragione del «diverso, immotivato trattamento riservato dal legislatore a due situazioni analoghe, ambedue tutelate attraverso il permesso in attesa del rilascio della cittadinanza, ma con un ambito di facolta' e diritti del tutto divergenti, in assenza di ragioni giustificativ[e]».

Precisa il rimettente come l'intervento richiesto alla Corte costituzionale non avrebbe natura «creativa»: la «pronuncia additiva da parte della Corte costituzionale, dovrebbe ritenersi consentita dal momento che la soluzione e' logicamente necessitata ed implicita nello stesso contesto normativo».

Il giudice rimettente censura le due disposizioni anche con specifico riferimento al principio di ragionevolezza: la disciplina sarebbe irragionevole poiche' «alla situazione che il legislatore ha ritenuto evidentemente meritevole di speciale considerazione, quale quella dei discendenti degli ex appartenenti all'Impero austro-ungarico emigrati all'estero, ai quali la cittadinanza e' concessa su semplice dichiarazione, rispetto ai casi generali, nei quali e' richiesto il possesso di un diverso permesso di soggiorno, e' collegato un effetto deteriore, che consegna il richiedente all'impossibilita' di lavorare».

5.- Con atto depositato il 29 gennaio 2019, e' intervenuto in giudizio il Presidente del Consiglio dei ministri, rappresentato e difeso dall'Avvocatura generale dello Stato, chiedendo che le questioni siano dichiarate inammissibili ed infondate.

L'inammissibilita' delle questioni deriverebbe, innanzitutto, dalla «non inerenza delle disposizioni denunciate» rispetto alle questioni di legittimita' costituzionale sollevate. L'art. 1 della legge n. 379 del 2000 si limiterebbe, infatti, a prevedere uno «specifico caso di riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana», che neppure richiederebbe la presenza dello straniero sul territorio nazionale nelle more del procedimento di concessione della cittadinanza, come dimostrerebbe il fatto che lo stesso art. 1, comma 2, della legge n. 379 del 2000 rinvia all'art. 23 della legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91 (Nuove norme sulla cittadinanza), disposizione che espressamente contempla la possibilita' per i residenti all'estero di rendere la dichiarazione per l'acquisto della cittadinanza davanti all'autorita' diplomatica o consolare del luogo di residenza.

Soprattutto, l'art. 1 della legge n. 379 del 2000 non disporrebbe nulla «in merito alla tipologia di permesso atto a legittimare» il soggiorno dello straniero, ne' «in ordine alle attivita' al medesimo consentite o interdette».

Anche l'art. 6 del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998 sarebbe eccentrico rispetto al thema decidendum: esso infatti disciplinerebbe alcune facolta' inerenti il permesso di soggiorno rilasciato per motivi di lavoro subordinato, lavoro autonomo e familiare, nonche' relative al permesso di soggiorno rilasciato per motivi di studio e formazione, ma non riguarderebbe in alcun modo il permesso per «attesa cittadinanza».

Espone l'Avvocatura che l'art. 14 del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999 descrive i casi in cui le differenti tipologie di permesso di soggiorno possono essere convertite in un altro tipo di permesso di soggiorno e indica quali attivita' lavorative sono consentite per ciascuna di queste tipologie. Esso pero' nulla prevede rispetto ai permessi di soggiorno rilasciati per l'acquisto della cittadinanza: circostanza, questa, che impedisce pertanto ai titolari dei permessi da ultimo citati di svolgere attivita' lavorative o di convertirli in tipologie di permessi che consentono di lavorare. D'altra parte, la possibilita' di convertire i permessi di soggiorno sarebbe da considerarsi di carattere eccezionale e non sarebbe pertanto possibile ampliare il novero dei casi gia' indicati dal legislatore (viene citata anche dall'Avvocatura la sentenza del Consiglio di Stato, sezione terza, 12 ottobre 2017, n. 4738), al fine «di evitare, anche attraverso la conversione, l'elusione del complesso di regole che presiedono al controllo dei flussi migratori».

I sospetti di illegittimita' costituzionale andrebbero quindi al piu' rivolti nei confronti dell'art. 14 del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999 - che non contempla il permesso per l'acquisto della cittadinanza tra i permessi che consentono lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa - e non nei confronti dell'art. 1 della legge n. 379 del 2000 e dell'art. 6 del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998, che invece sarebbero «palesemente inconferenti».

La questione sarebbe altresi' inammissibile per l'incompleta ricostruzione del quadro normativo di riferimento, circostanza questa che si risolverebbe «altresi' in infondatezza [...] per erroneita' dei presupposti interpretativi». In particolare, il rimettente avrebbe omesso di considerare quanto dispone l'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999 che, stabilendo che il permesso di soggiorno e' rilasciato, tra le altre cose, per l'acquisto della cittadinanza, pur non dicendo nulla in merito alle attivita' consentite ai titolari delle varie tipologie di permesso di soggiorno, subordinerebbe «il rilascio del permesso alla circostanza che lo straniero richiedente la concessione o il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana ovvero dello stato di apolide sia "gia' in possesso del permesso di soggiorno per altri motivi"».

Dunque, la presentazione della domanda di concessione della cittadinanza italiana da parte di un soggetto gia' presente sul territorio nazionale presupporrebbe «necessariamente il (pregresso) possesso da parte del richiedente, di un titolo che ne giustifichi la presenza e il soggiorno sul territorio nazionale». D'altra parte, il permesso di soggiorno per acquisto della cittadinanza sarebbe necessariamente temporaneo e la sua efficacia verrebbe meno al termine del procedimento di concessione o riconoscimento della cittadinanza, con la conseguenza che, in caso di mancata concessione della cittadinanza stessa, «il soggiorno sul territorio nazionale dello straniero riprende - o meglio, continua - ad essere legittimato dal titolo permissivo in precedenza posseduto».

Secondo l'Avvocatura generale le questioni sarebbero, infine, inammissibili perche' volte ad attribuire ai soli titolari del permesso di soggiorno per l'acquisto della cittadinanza secondo le modalita' di cui alla legge n. 379 del 2000 la possibilita' di svolgere attivita' lavorative, possibilita' invece preclusa e «sconosciuta al permesso di soggiorno per "attesa cittadinanza" in quanto tale». Cio' determinerebbe l'adozione di una pronuncia additiva non costituzionalmente obbligata in un ambito, quale quello della regolamentazione dell'ingresso e del soggiorno dello straniero nel territorio nazionale, sul quale la discrezionalita' del legislatore e' ampia (si citano le sentenze n. 277 del 2014, n. 202 del 2013, n. 172 del 2012, n. 148 del 2008, n. 206 del 2006 e n. 62 del 1994).

6.- Nel merito, le questioni non sarebbero comunque fondate, perche' il permesso di soggiorno rilasciato a coloro che presentano la domanda ai sensi della legge n. 379 del 2000 non sarebbe affatto diverso da quello previsto in generale dall'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999. Si tratterebbe di un ordinario permesso di soggiorno che presuppone pertanto il previo possesso, da parte del richiedente, di un titolo di soggiorno.

In particolare, secondo l'Avvocatura, rileverebbe la legge 28 maggio 2007, n. 68 (Disciplina dei soggiorni di breve durata degli stranieri per visite, affari, turismo e studio), che, per i soggiorni non superiori a tre mesi, non richiede un permesso di soggiorno ma una «dichiarazione di presenza» da rendere all'autorita' di frontiera o al questore della Provincia in cui lo straniero si trova. La ricevuta di tale dichiarazione - secondo quanto previsto dalla circolare del Ministero dell'interno 13 giugno 2007, n. 32 - e' titolo utile anche «ai fini dell'iscrizione anagrafica di coloro che intendono avviare in Italia la procedura per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza "jure sanguinis"».

Non sussisterebbe pertanto quella disparita' di trattamento evocata dal giudice rimettente: sia coloro che hanno chiesto il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana ai sensi della legge n. 379 del 2000, sia coloro che la richiedono ai sensi di altre disposizioni di legge, possono ottenere il permesso in attesa di cittadinanza soltanto se siano gia' in possesso di un titolo che li abiliti a permanere nel territorio nazionale.

Espone l'Avvocatura che neppure ci sarebbe discriminazione rispetto alla possibilita' di svolgere prestazioni lavorative. In nessun caso infatti il permesso per attesa di cittadinanza consente, di per se', lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa: il titolare di tale permesso «in tanto puo' svolgere attivita' lavorativa in quanto lo consenta, in via diretta o per effetto di conversione, il diverso ed ulteriore permesso di soggiorno, in precedenza rilasciatogli "per altri motivi", di cui lo stesso e' gia' in possesso».

Circostanza, questa, che induce l'Avvocatura a evidenziare come l'eventuale problema di legittimita' costituzionale dovrebbe riguardare le facolta' connesse al permesso di soggiorno che costituisce il presupposto per l'ottenimento del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza e, piu' in generale, la previsione di permessi di soggiorno che non consentono in alcun modo di svolgere attivita' lavorativa. Si tratterebbe pero' di questione di legittimita' costituzionale diversa da quella sollevata, comunque destinata ad una pronuncia di infondatezza in ragione dell'ampia discrezionalita' di cui gode il legislatore sulla determinazione e sulla regolamentazione delle facolta' inerenti i permessi di soggiorno.

Ancora, sottolinea l'Avvocatura come anche coloro che richiedono la cittadinanza sulla base di previsioni diverse dalla legge n. 379 del 2000 potrebbero trovarsi in possesso di un permesso di soggiorno che non consente loro lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa. Circostanza, questa, che smentirebbe la violazione del principio di eguaglianza, poiche' la possibilita' o meno di lavorare dipenderebbe esclusivamente dal titolo di soggiorno collegato al "permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza" e non dal «titolo legale posto a base della domanda di concessione o di riconoscimento dello status civitatis».

Le precedenti osservazioni determinerebbero anche l'infondatezza della censura di irragionevolezza della disciplina: la situazione dei richiedenti la cittadinanza e' ritenuta in generale meritevole di particolare considerazione, tanto che il relativo permesso di soggiorno e' "aggiuntivo" rispetto al permesso di soggiorno gia' posseduto. Tuttavia, tale condizione non implicherebbe necessariamente la possibilita' di lavorare, soprattutto quando, come nel caso di cui alla legge n. 379 del 2000, non e' obbligatoria la presenza del richiedente sul territorio nazionale nelle more del procedimento.

Considerato in diritto

1.- Il Tribunale regionale di giustizia amministrativa del Trentino-Alto Adige, sede di Trento, solleva, in relazione all'art. 3 della Costituzione, questioni di legittimita' costituzionale dell'art. 1 della legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379 (Disposizioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana alle persone nate e gia' residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico e ai loro discendenti) e dell'art. 6 del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286 (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero).

Le due disposizioni citate sono censurate nella parte in cui non prevedono che il permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza - rilasciato ai discendenti di persone nate e residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico prima del 16 luglio 1920, e prima di tale data emigrate all'estero - consenta lo svolgimento di attivita' di lavoro.

In primo luogo, l'impossibilita' di utilizzare tale permesso ai fini dello svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa determinerebbe un trattamento diseguale di tali soggetti, in violazione dell'art. 3 Cost., rispetto a coloro che, ugualmente in attesa della cittadinanza italiana, siano in possesso di un permesso di soggiorno che, per sua natura o perche' convertibile in un permesso di soggiorno per ragioni di lavoro, consentirebbe loro l'esercizio di attivita' lavorativa.

Sotto un secondo profilo, la violazione dell'art. 3 Cost. emergerebbe dal fatto che le disposizioni censurate comporterebbero, a carico dei soggetti in questione, pur ritenuti meritevoli di speciale considerazione dalla legge n. 379 del 2000, un trattamento irragionevolmente deteriore rispetto alla generalita' di coloro che hanno richiesto la cittadinanza. Infatti, a differenza di tutti gli altri stranieri che hanno presentato richiesta di acquistare lo status civitatis, i destinatari della legge n. 379 del 2000, pur titolari di un permesso di soggiorno, e nonostante il favor ad essi riservato da tale legge, risulterebbero consegnati all'impossibilita' di lavorare.

2.- Le descritte questioni di legittimita' costituzionale riguardano una peculiare disciplina legislativa, riferita a soggetti che - dopo essere nati e aver risieduto in territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico - sono da quei territori emigrati prima del 16 luglio 1920, data coincidente con l'entrata in vigore del Trattato di Saint Germain en Laye (d'ora in avanti: Trattato di Saint Germain), stipulato tra le potenze alleate e l'Austria alla fine del primo conflitto mondiale, in virtu' del quale, a causa della dissoluzione dell'Impero austro-ungarico, alcuni territori gia' appartenenti a quest'ultimo furono trasferiti al Regno d'Italia.

Ai soggetti che da tali territori erano emigrati prima del 16 luglio 1920 - e oggi, in definitiva, ai loro discendenti - la legge n. 379 del 2000 concede la possibilita' di ottenere la cittadinanza italiana, qualora, entro il termine di cinque anni dall'entrata in vigore della legge stessa (termine successivamente prorogato di ulteriori cinque anni dall'art. 28-bis del decreto-legge 30 dicembre 2005, n. 273, recante «Definizione e proroga di termini, nonche' conseguenti disposizioni urgenti», convertito, con modificazioni, dalla legge 23 febbraio 2006, n. 51) abbiano reso dichiarazione di acquisto della cittadinanza stessa, con le modalita' previste dall'art. 23 della legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91 (Nuove norme sulla cittadinanza).

2.1.- La legge n. 379 del 2000 trae la propria giustificazione dagli eventi che si svolgono dalla meta' del diciannovesimo secolo al termine della prima guerra mondiale. In quel non breve torno di tempo, accanto all'ampio fenomeno migratorio di cittadini italiani verso gli Stati Uniti d'America e diverse nazioni del Sudamerica, un significativo esodo interesso' anche quanti, cittadini non gia' italiani ma dell'allora Impero austro-ungarico, abbandonarono il Trentino e i territori che componevano il cosiddetto "Litorale austriaco", corrispondenti alle attuali province di Gorizia e Trieste e alla penisola istriana.

Al termine della prima guerra mondiale, con il Trattato di Saint Germain, nell'ambito della ripartizione tra le nazioni vincitrici del conflitto dei territori appartenuti all'ormai disciolto Impero austro-ungarico, al Regno d'Italia vennero ceduti quelli corrispondenti al Trentino Alto-Adige, alla Venezia Giulia e all'Istria.

Lo stesso Trattato di Saint Germain disciplino' quello che, nella dottrina del tempo, venne definito un modo eccezionale di acquisto della cittadinanza. Secondo l'art. 70 del Trattato, chiunque avesse la «pertinenza» (peculiare istituto del diritto amministrativo austriaco, fonte di legami tra un individuo e un determinato Comune e distinto da cittadinanza, domicilio e residenza) in un territorio facente parte dell'antica monarchia austro-ungarica, avrebbe acquisito «di pieno diritto, ad esclusione della cittadinanza austriaca, la cittadinanza dello Stato che esercita la sovranita' sul territorio predetto».

Coerentemente, gli art. 72 e 78 del Trattato dettavano una disciplina speciale per coloro che in quel momento risiedevano all'estero, ma avevano avuto una pertinenza nei territori poi trasferiti all'Italia. Costoro, se maggiori di diciotto anni, avrebbero potuto ugualmente eleggere la cittadinanza italiana, entro un anno dall'entrata in vigore del Trattato, mentre, in mancanza di tale opzione, avrebbero conservato la cittadinanza straniera medio tempore eventualmente acquisita.

Alla fine della prima guerra mondiale, pero', la grande maggioranza di quanti erano emigrati tra la fine dell'ottocento e l'inizio del novecento non poterono avvalersi di tale possibilita', per mancanza di informazioni o per difficolta' logistiche o economiche. Di conseguenza, nonostante il permanere di vincoli familiari e culturali con territori ormai divenuti italiani, rimasero privi di qualsiasi legame giuridico con l'Italia, cosi' come i loro discendenti.

Tali soggetti si trovarono pertanto in una condizione diseguale rispetto a quella degli appartenenti a comunita' di emigrati provenienti da varie zone d'Italia, in possesso della cittadinanza italiana jure sanguinis e senza limite di generazione. Sarebbero potuti diventare cittadini italiani se, alla data di entrata in vigore del Trattato di Saint Germain, avessero continuato a risiedere nei territori del dissolto Impero austro-ungarico ceduti all'Italia, ma, proprio perche' gia' precedentemente emigrati, tale possibilita' risulto' di fatto loro preclusa.

2.2.- Il legislatore prende in considerazione la condizione di tali soggetti, una prima volta, nell'art. 18 della legge n. 91 del 1992, equiparandoli agli stranieri di origine italiana o nati nel territorio della Repubblica e prevedendo che essi avrebbero potuto acquisire la cittadinanza italiana dopo aver risieduto legalmente in Italia da almeno tre anni.

Pochissimi, tra i destinatari delle ricordate disposizioni, vollero o poterono trasferire la propria residenza in Italia, avendo stabilito la propria vita e i propri interessi, nella grande maggioranza dei casi, in un altro continente. Questa disciplina non raggiunse, percio', l'obiettivo che si prefiggeva.

Permaneva dunque, e veniva percepita come iniqua, la gia' ricordata diversa situazione di tali comunita' rispetto a quelle sorte all'estero in seguito alla emigrazione da varie zone di Italia, i cui componenti erano e sono in possesso della cittadinanza italiana, trasmessa jure sanguinis di genitore in figlio.

Alla luce di cio', nell'unanime consenso delle forze presenti in Parlamento, venne approvata la legge n. 379 del 2000. In virtu' di essa, viene disposta l'abrogazione del citato art. 18 della legge n. 91 del 1992, e ai soggetti originari dei territori gia' appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico ed emigrati all'estero prima del 16 luglio 1920 e ai loro discendenti «e' riconosciuta la cittadinanza italiana qualora rendano una dichiarazione in tal senso con le modalita' di cui all'articolo 23 della legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91, entro cinque anni dalla data di entrata in vigore della presente legge».

Nei confronti dei soggetti in questione viene cosi' meno l'obbligo di residenza triennale in Italia, gia' previsto quale condizione per l'acquisto della cittadinanza. Sussistendone i requisiti soggettivi, essa e' riconosciuta a seguito della sola dichiarazione che l'art. 23 della legge n. 91 del 1992 richiede in via generale in tutti i casi in cui gli interessati vogliano procedere all'acquisto, alla conservazione, al riacquisto o alla rinuncia della cittadinanza.

Secondo quanto previsto dallo stesso art. 23, in caso di residenza all'estero, la dichiarazione deve essere resa davanti all'autorita' diplomatica o consolare del luogo di residenza, oppure, in Italia, all'ufficiale dello stato civile del Comune in cui il dichiarante risiede o intende risiedere.

A fronte di decine di migliaia di richieste, l'esame della documentazione da prodursi a corredo delle dichiarazioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza e' stato affidato a una apposita commissione interministeriale, che non risulta aver ancora concluso i propri lavori, nonostante il termine previsto per rendere le dichiarazioni sia scaduto nel dicembre del 2010, e benche', in generale, la durata dei procedimenti per l'acquisto e la concessione della cittadinanza italiana sia stabilita in un massimo di due anni (innalzati ora a quattro per alcune specifiche ipotesi: art. 9-ter della legge n. 91 del 1992, inserito dall'art. 14, comma 1, lettera c, del decreto-legge 4 ottobre 2018, n. 113, recante «Disposizioni urgenti in materia di protezione internazionale e immigrazione, sicurezza pubblica, nonche' misure per la funzionalita' del Ministero dell'interno e l'organizzazione e il funzionamento dell'Agenzia nazionale per l'amministrazione e la destinazione dei beni sequestrati e confiscati alla criminalita' organizzata», convertito, con modificazioni, in legge 1 dicembre 2018, n. 132).

Il protrarsi di queste operazioni di verifica e' circostanza che ha non poco aumentato le difficolta' di quanti, venuti in Italia in vista del riconoscimento della cittadinanza disposto dalla legge n. 379 del 2000, si sono trovati nella medesima situazione lamentata dal ricorrente nel giudizio a quo.

3.- In via preliminare, va osservato che la fattispecie relativa ai soggetti in questione non appare compiutamente inquadrabile entro le coordinate normative generalmente vigenti in tema di permessi di soggiorno.

Tali coordinate sono tratteggiate nell'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999 (Regolamento recante norme di attuazione del testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero, a norma dell'articolo 1, comma 6, del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286), peraltro fonte di natura regolamentare e percio' sottratta al controllo accentrato di legittimita' costituzionale. Esso prevede che il permesso di soggiorno per l'acquisto della cittadinanza (o per il riconoscimento dello stato di apolide) puo' essere rilasciato «a favore dello straniero gia' in possesso del permesso di soggiorno per altri motivi, per la durata del procedimento di concessione o di riconoscimento».

Nella generalita' dei casi, pertanto, questo diverso permesso di soggiorno costituisce il titolo "presupposto", necessariamente preesistente all'ottenimento di quello per attesa cittadinanza. Quest'ultimo permesso solitamente si aggiunge, per tutta la durata del procedimento di riconoscimento dello status civitatis, al permesso di soggiorno "originario". In definitiva, l'ottenimento del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza presuppone la titolarita' di altro permesso, che consente la regolare permanenza sul territorio italiano e ne disciplina facolta' ed obblighi.

Diversa appare la situazione nel caso che da' origine alla presente questione di legittimita' costituzionale, poiche', a quanto si desume dall'ordinanza di rimessione, al soggetto, venuto in Italia al fine di vedersi riconosciuta la cittadinanza ai sensi della legge n. 379 del 2000, e' stato concesso direttamente il permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza, pur in assenza del titolo di soggiorno presupposto, sulla base di una non implausibile interpretazione dell'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999 alla luce della stessa legge n. 379 del 2000.

Nessuna norma, peraltro, disciplina specificamente facolta' e obblighi collegati al possesso del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza. Tale lacuna puo' giustificarsi proprio in ragione del fatto che lo straniero richiedente la cittadinanza, in tutti i casi disciplinati dal d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998, in quanto presente sul territorio italiano deve essere titolare di un altro e diverso permesso, cui appunto ineriscono gli specifici obblighi e facolta' di volta in volta stabiliti. Di conseguenza, lo straniero che, avendone maturato i requisiti, vorra' richiedere la cittadinanza, se presente in Italia per svolgere attivita' lavorativa, avra' dovuto necessariamente seguire il procedimento a questo scopo previsto dallo stesso d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998.

Una tale lacuna, viceversa, sembra assai meno comprensibile nel caso disciplinato dalla legge n. 379 del 2000. Si tratta qui non gia' di uno straniero che intende entrare in Italia al fine di svolgervi attivita' di lavoro, ma di un soggetto cui la legge espressamente riconosce la cittadinanza italiana, e si trova sul territorio italiano, come la stessa legge n. 379 del 2000 gli consente, in attesa che si concluda il procedimento di verifica dei prescritti requisiti.

Deve altresi' aggiungersi che, in linea generale, in mancanza di una apposita disposizione che cio' preveda, il permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza non puo' essere convertito in altro permesso che consenta lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa. Si versa, del resto, in un ambito - quello della regolamentazione dell'ingresso e del soggiorno dello straniero nel territorio nazionale - in cui la discrezionalita' del legislatore e' particolarmente ampia (ex plurimis, sentenze n. 277 del 2014 e n. 172 del 2012, con riferimento alla «fissazione dei requisiti necessari per le autorizzazioni che consentono ai cittadini extracomunitari di trattenersi e lavorare nel territorio della Repubblica»). E come si desume dalla giurisprudenza amministrativa - che intende preservare la tassativita' delle ipotesi di conversione per non incidere sul sistema delle quote di stranieri autorizzati all'ingresso in Italia per ragioni di lavoro - la conversione del permesso rilasciato per una determinata causa in altro genere di titolo puo' ammettersi solo laddove esista una espressa regolamentazione in tal senso, che ne precisi altresi' le relative condizioni (ex plurimis, Consiglio di Stato, sezione terza, sentenza 24 gennaio 2018, n. 476; Consiglio di Stato, sezione terza, sentenza 12 ottobre 2017, n. 4738; si veda, inoltre, Consiglio di Stato, sezione prima, parere 25 agosto 2015, n. 1048).

4.- In tale contesto normativo, l'Avvocatura generale dello Stato eccepisce l'inammissibilita' della questione, ritenendo eccentriche le due disposizioni censurate, ossia l'art. 1 della legge n. 379 del 2000 e l'art. 6 del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998, rispetto al thema decidendum posto dall'ordinanza di rimessione, volta a censurare la mancata utilizzabilita' a fini lavorativi del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza rilasciato ai destinatari della legge n. 379 del 2000.

E', in effetti, vero che il giudice rimettente ha rivolto le proprie censure nei confronti di disposizioni non del tutto conferenti nel caso di specie. Cio', in particolare, perche' il permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza, che non consentirebbe lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa, non e' contemplato dalle due disposizioni censurate e, in particolare, non lo e' dall'art. 1 della legge n. 379 del 2000, che pure riconosce ai soggetti ivi indicati la cittadinanza italiana. Ed e' anche vero, come suggerisce la stessa Avvocatura generale dello Stato, che, per quanto scarna, la disciplina del permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza e' contenuta, come s'e' visto, nell'art. 11, comma 1, lettera c), del d.P.R. n. 394 del 1999: ma si e' gia' sottolineato che, trattandosi di fonte regolamentare, il giudice a quo non avrebbe comunque potuto farne oggetto di diretta censura dinnanzi a questa Corte.

Cio' posto, l'inammissibilita' della questione, a ben vedere, discende da una ragione distinta da - e logicamente antecedente a - quella allegata dall'Avvocatura erariale.

Invero, anche alla luce della peculiare ratio della legge n. 379 del 2000, ispirata da un chiaro favor per la concessione della cittadinanza italiana a una particolare categoria di soggetti, il giudice a quo avrebbe dovuto verificare la esperibilita' di una interpretazione volta a regolare ragionevolmente - in modo conforme a Costituzione - la situazione di quanti, in Italia per vedersi riconoscere la cittadinanza, si sono trovati ad attendere per lungo tempo la definizione del relativo procedimento, dovendo in particolare provvedere alle proprie necessita' di vita attraverso l'indispensabile svolgimento di un'attivita' di lavoro.

Ribadita la non applicabilita' a casi del genere della disciplina contenuta nel d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998, poiche', come gia' detto, rispondente a una logica del tutto distinta da quella della legge n. 379 del 2000, va rilevato che non e' sconosciuta all'ordinamento l'ipotesi di permessi di soggiorno che, pur non essendo convertibili in permessi abilitanti al lavoro, consentono comunque lo svolgimento di attivita' lavorativa per tutta la durata del permesso stesso, e la consentono, percio', senza direttamente incidere ne' sulla tassativita' delle ipotesi di conversione, ne' sulla regolamentazione dei flussi e delle quote di stranieri che entrano in Italia per ragioni di lavoro (si veda, ad esempio, il combinato disposto degli artt. 29, comma 6, e 31 del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998; l'art. 20-bis del d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998, introdotto dall'art. 1, comma 1, lettera h), del d.l. n. 113 del 2018; l'art. 32, comma 3, del decreto legislativo 28 gennaio 2008, n. 25, recante «Attuazione della direttiva 2005/85/CE recante norme minime per le procedure applicate negli Stati membri ai fini del riconoscimento e della revoca dello status di rifugiato»).

Nell'assenza di una espressa disciplina che regolamenti la situazione di quanti, destinatari della legge n. 379 del 2000, hanno ottenuto il permesso di soggiorno per attesa cittadinanza pur senza avere un precedente titolo abilitante alla permanenza in Italia, e in Italia aspettano la conclusione del procedimento volto alla verifica dei prescritti requisiti, il giudice rimettente avrebbe percio' dovuto verificare la praticabilita', in base alla ratio della legge n. 379 del 2000 e alla luce della Costituzione, di un'interpretazione che non trasformi l'imprevisto ritardo della procedura di verifica (anche considerando i termini generalmente previsti per la conclusione dei procedimenti per l'acquisto e la concessione della cittadinanza) in una lesione di diritti costituzionali essenziali, quale il diritto al lavoro. Lesione che assume connotati peculiari considerando, altresi', che essa avviene ai danni di un soggetto cui la legge, oltretutto, riconosce la cittadinanza, in caso di esito positivo della verifica, a decorrere dal giorno successivo in cui e' stata resa la dichiarazione richiesta (art. 15 della legge n. 91 del 1992).

Non e' senza significato, del resto, che proprio nella direzione qui indicata si fossero in prima battuta orientate le stesse amministrazioni locali, che avevano inizialmente consentito al ricorrente nel giudizio principale di svolgere attivita' lavorativa, come si desume dall'ordinanza di rimessione.

Il non aver svolto la verifica illustrata e' causa d'inammissibilita' delle questioni sollevate.

per questi motivi

LA CORTE COSTITUZIONALE

dichiara l'inammissibilita' delle questioni di legittimita' costituzionale dell'art. 1 della legge 14 dicembre 2000, n. 379 (Disposizioni per il riconoscimento della cittadinanza italiana alle persone nate e gia' residenti nei territori appartenuti all'Impero austro-ungarico e ai loro discendenti) e dell'art. 6 del decreto legislativo 25 luglio 1998, n. 286 (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero), sollevate in riferimento all'art. 3 della Costituzione, dal Tribunale regionale di giustizia amministrativa del Trentino Alto-Adige, sede di Trento, con l'ordinanza indicata in epigrafe.

Cosi' deciso in Roma, nella sede della Corte costituzionale, Palazzo della Consulta, l'8 maggio 2019.

F.to:

Giorgio LATTANZI, Presidente

Nicolo' ZANON, Redattore

Roberto MILANA, Cancelliere

Depositata in Cancelleria il 19 giugno 2019.

Il Direttore della Cancelleria

F.to: Roberto MILANA

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tmnotizie · 5 years

Link

MACERATA -Con la consegna della Costituzione ai neodiciottenni maceratesi si chiude l’intensa giornata della Festa della Repubblica a Macerata iniziata in mattinata con le celebrazioni ufficiali al Monumento ai Caduti e in piazza Cesare Battisti.

I giovani hanno ricevuto dal sindaco Romano Carancini una copia della Carta Costituzionale durante un momento istituzionale alla presenza delle autorità civili e militari in piazza Cesare Battisti. Presenti il Prefetto Iolanda Rolli, il Comandante della Compagnia dei Carabinieri di Macerata Luigi Ingrosso, il presidente del Consiglio Comunale Luciano Pantanetti, gli assessori comunali Alferio Canesin e Marika Marcolini.

Un rito, accompagnato dal coro dei ragazzi del Convitto Nazionale Giacomo Leopardi, iniziato 5 anni fa e voluto fortemente dal primo cittadino per ricordare alle giovani generazioni l’origine e la storia della democrazia in Italia.

“La costituzione non è un luogo del passato, un diritto acquisito, ci sono temi che ci fanno confrontare ogni giorno, nelle scuole, in famiglia, con gli amici, ascoltando la tv. La costituzione è un patrimonio di libertà che ci permette di esprimere la nostra opinione, di viaggiare, vivere gli affetti e gli amori, aiutare gli altri dentro un principio solidale. Patrimonio che ci hanno relegato donne, uomini, preti, giovanissimi, che per noi si sono battuti. Non restiamo indifferenti, difendiamo la nostra “casa” costituzione, la casa quotidiana di tutti noi”.

Dopo gli interventi del Prefetto e del Presidente dell’Anpi Lucrezia Boari, che ha portato anche i saluti anche dell’Isrec, l’Istituto Storico della Resistenza e dell’Età contemporanea, il sindaco ha consegnato una targa ad Annalisa Ubertoni, coordinatrice del centro di studi e servizi per la famiglia dell’associazione La Goccia, nominata Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana dal Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella per “l’esemplare contributo a favore di una politica di pacifica convivenza e piena integrazione”.

Alla lettura dei primi 12 articoli è seguita la consegna della Costituzione ai giovanissimi che hanno risposto all’appello dell’Amministrazione Comunale.

“A Macerata, da 5 anni, il 2 giugno consegniamo la Costituzione ai neodiciottenni maceratesi- ha detto l’assessore alla Cultura Stefania Monteverde – un rito laico, bello, un’esperienza di comunità dove le parole libertà e democrazia risuonano alte, dove i ragazzi e le ragazze a voce alta proclamano i primi 12 articoli della Costituzione, dove i discorsi degli adulti e quelli dei ragazzi si incontrano in un crescendo di civiltà”.

Questi i ragazzi che hanno ricevuto le Costituzioni: Carolina Amato, Lorenzo Angeloni, Gloria Benivegna, Giulia Mercedes Bettucci, Rachele Carnevali, Ivan Cirulli, Martina Compagnoni, Tommaso Ferrari, Gianluca Fraticelli, Simone Frattani, Nicola Fusari, Valentina Giombetti, Tommaso Graziani, Dario Lippi, Tommaso Massini, Serena Matteucci, Irene Mazzola, Elisa Michetti, Milena Montanari, Agnese Mordini, Veronica Morelli, Emanuele Naso, Matteo Orlandi, Federico Palumbo, Alessio Perucci, Veronica Pietrella, Luca Pistarelli, Arianna Quadri, Lorenzo Renis, Marta Riccioni, Costanza Scarponi, Alessandra Scauda, Matteo Scoccia, Nicolo’ Silvestrini, Francesco Votino.

Le foto della cerimonia possono essere richieste scrivendo a [email protected] oppure telefondando alla Segreteria del Sindaco ai numeri 0733/ 256226; 256412; 256495.

#Marche #TMNotizie

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

Text

31 Days of Wayhaven: Day 6

Prompt: Broken Rating: G Words: 1,259 Character: Nicolo Morelli Summary: Is it a blessing or is it a curse? After nearly 400 years, Nicky can’t tell any longer.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

“No change?”

Agent Simone shook her head. “Did you really think there would be?”

Nicky sighed. “No, but I had to ask.”

Agent Simone took a sip of her espresso and set her elbows on the table. “So, what’s it feel like to be three hundred and seventy-two years old?”

He shrugged. “The same as it felt to be three hundred and seventy-one, to be honest.” He ran a hand through his thick hair. “Hey, at least I’m still handsome and not a single strand of silver in here!”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s what happens when you die at the age of twenty-nine.”

“Get murdered,” he corrected, barely managing to hold onto the urge to spit as he clearly recalled his murder’s face, even after so long of a time. “Dying implies doing so of old age or sickness.”

Agent Simone rolled her eyes. “Death is death, Nicolo. Apparently some of us get to experience it longer than others.”

“Franchesca, please. Have some pity for a dead man.” He reached over and held onto her hands. “Are you certain this curse can’t be broken?”

Franchesca narrowed her eyes, but held onto his hands. “Why does it sound like you’re hoping it can’t be broken?” She squeezed his hands. “We’ve had this same conversation every year at this very same cafe, drinking the same espressos and eating the same cannoli for the past fifty years. Every time, you’ve asked if the curse has weakened, or if there’s a chance of breaking it. What’s changed?”

“The cannoli are awful, by the way. I’ve had better back in Sicily, but I figured us Italians needed to stick together, even if you are from Milan.” Nicky slid his hands away and balled them up into fists on top of the table. “Winona. She reminds me of my sister,” he confessed.

“Oh, Nicolo.” She’d heard the story before, how he had gone to his sister in a panic after he had woken up in a ditch, blood still staining his clothes from the multiple stab wounds that had killed him, telling her everything that had happened and then grabbing a knife to cut himself and having her witness the wound close up on itself to prove he wasn’t lying. She’d been terrified of him, screaming that he was evil and that she never wanted anything to do with him ever again. He’d fled and tried to visit again the next day, but he found the church camping out at her home, performing a full exorcism. His temper had gotten the best of him and he stormed in, only to have the same priest who had known him since he was born, who had baptized him and his sister, gave the funerals for both of their parents and their grandmother, and blessed his sister’s wedding excommunicate him on the spot.

Luckily, there had been an Agency representative in the area who had taken one look at him, recognized that he wasn’t among the living, and invited him to join up. It hurt, but the memory of his sister sobbing in the arms of her husband as he left their home for the last time made it easier for him to walk away and never look back.

He stayed away from Sicily for almost twenty years. The only reason he’d gone back was when he heard of the devastating earthquake that had hit his hometown, and the fact that his sister’s family had not survived it. By that time, no one remembered who he was, so he could easily say that he was a cousin paying his respects. Someone who came to offer their own condolences had tried to joke that for someone they did not know, he surely mourned her death as if he were a brother.

“She looks at me and doesn’t see a monster,” he said. “None of my team does. I want to stay around as long as I can for them.”

She arched an eyebrow. “If you were looking closer, you’d see that a lot of us don’t see you as one.” Reaching out, she squeezed his hands again. “This is a curse that cannot be broken, Nicolo. I’m glad that you’re finally making some peace with it.”

He gave a snort of laughter. “May you never know the peace of the grave, is what my Isabela said to me the last time I spoke with her. At the time, I thought it was merely the rant of a woman upset that I hadn’t been faithful to her.” He gave a sheepish smile. “I didn’t even know I was supposed to be faithful to her, I just thought that we would have our fun and be on our way. There was never any talk otherwise.”

“Had you known, would you have behaved otherwise?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t have touched another woman! Isabela was…”he sighed. “Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe her, both inside and out.”

“Then why did you sleep with another woman in the first place?”

He shrugged. “Because, Franchesca, I’m an asshole who lets my dick do most of my thinking. I was young and stupid and I’ve regretted it for over three centuries. If I could, I’d try to find her and beg for her forgiveness.” He laughed again. “As if she’d even remember me. To her, I’m probably some idiot who displeased her and she hasn’t given me a single thought since.”

Franchesca shook her head. “I don’t know, Nicky. You’re pretty unforgettable.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he told her, waving his hand in front of him as if to clear the air and change the subject. “Besides, we’re talking as if Isabela were still alive, which is impossible.”

Franchesca steepled her fingers together and rested them under her chin. “Nothing is impossible, Nicky.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it several times before speaking again. “I swear to God, if you lower some sort of glamour and I find out that you’ve been here in disguise these fifty years…”

Agent Simone tipped her head back and laughed. “Oh, wouldn’t that be dramatic! I’m a damn good witch, but I’m not that good of a witch.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, curses like this can’t be broken by anyone other than the caster. And usually, curses like this are broken once the caster dies. If Isabela were truly dead, you would have been a bloody, one hundred percent permanently dead mess from the last stupid stunt where you tried to blow yourself up with C-4.”

“It wasn’t a stunt,” Nicky grouched. “It was an experiment.”

“And it’s also the reason you’ve been banned from watching Mythbusters without supervision.”

His fingers tightened around hers. “Do you really think she’s still alive?”

“Ninety percent certain.” She frowned when he rose from the little table they were sitting at. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the Agency. I’ve got a few contacts that may be able to help point me in the right direction.” He shrugged the jacket he had draped over his chair back over his shoulders. “Thanks for the help!”

She turned in her chair. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oh, right!” Taking a few steps back to the table, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Ciao, bella!”

“No, the bill! Honestly, Morelli, this is probably one of the reasons why you got cursed in the first place.” Sighing, she pulled out her wallet. Settling back in her chair, she picked up her cup to finish her drink. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #nicolo morelli #unit Charlie

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 2

For the @31daysofwayhaven event

Prompt: Monster Words: 1,216 Characters: Winona Adams + Nicolo Morelli Summary: Winona had a bit of an accident regarding her supernatural powers, Nicky comes in to dispense big brother comfort.

“Rough day?” Nicky leaned against the doorframe of Winona’s room and looked inside. If he hadn’t been actively looking for her, he probably would have missed spotting her, seeing as she was tightly curled up in the corner of the room doing her best impression of a sad burrito in her comforter, her head barely visible and covered with the hood of a sweatshirt.

“I’m a monster,” she mumbled, curling tighter onto herself.

“Aw, piccolina, you’re no monster.” He went further into the room and after silently asking permission and gaining the tiniest nod of approval, slid down the wall near her, close enough to touch but far enough to give her space. “Talk to me, tell me what happened.”

He couldn’t see her arms, but the way she shifted told him that she was wrapping them around her knees. “It was an accident. I bumped into Agent Hayder and…”

“Ah.” There wasn’t a need for her to elaborate further, he understood what had happened, as it was something that had happened before in the past. As a succubus from the Echo World, Winona had extremely good control over her powers most of the time, with the exception of when she was startled.

Winona had not taken to acclimating to this world well at first, and even three years into her new life with the Agency, she was still easily startled and disliked when people unexpectedly got into her personal space. The only people who seemed to have zero effect on her were her three teammates, and Nicky didn’t treat that level of trust she had for them lightly. He knew that Penny and Cam felt the same way. Winona hadn’t truly disclosed her age to them, but even though she looked to be a woman in her mid- to late twenties, he had a feeling that she was the oldest person on their team, even surpassing his own chronological age.

Then again, being nearly four hundred years old wasn’t a huge feat when one was for all intents and purposes dead and seemingly immortal, despite his best efforts to change that status.

Winona sniffled and used the edge of the comforter to wipe at her eyes. Nicky translated her accidentally bumping into Agent Hayder and her present state to mean that Agent Hayder had bumped into her and unfortunately for him, got an unexpected and depending on how public an area they had been in at the time, potentially embarrassing sexual zing for the day. “Anything I can do to help?”

She stuck out her wrist where the dampener he had fashioned for her out of Agency-regulated power absorbers sat. They didn’t fully negate a supernatural’s powers down to zero, but they did a damn good job of muting them to an extent. After finding out about their existence, Winona had practically begged for one to carry on her person at all times and seeing that they were normally clunky and looked an awful lot like shackles, Nicky had taken it upon himself to tinker with the design so she had a fashionable looking bracelet instead. “Make it stronger, please.” Her lip trembled. “He yelled at me so much, even though I apologized.”

“We both know that it’s the strongest that I can make it.” He looked at her red-rimmed eyes and saw the healthy flush of pink cheeks. It was a change from the pale, drawn complexion he’d gotten used to seeing her have. “Before this, when was the last time you fed?”

She shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

That told him it had been far too long. “You know there are people here willing to meet your needs.” Unlike vampires who gained subsistence from blood, succubi regained energy through sexual means. The way Winona had explained it at one time, sexual tension in the air could be considered a small snack, while the act of actual intercourse was an entire meal or more.

Sex. Nicky sighed wistfully. Being dead had its advantages, but the profound lack of a heartbeat or working circulatory system meant that blood just did not flow to certain portions of his anatomy any longer. While he had limitations on what acts he could perform - and he had to hand it to the woman he had scorned who had put this curse on him - he’d had enough time to figure out workarounds. But that was neither here nor there. His priority was to comfort his distressed friend, not bemoan the lack of functional plumbing.

Winona curled further in on herself. “I know. I just...don’t like doing it here. I’ve never liked doing it here. It feels so clinical, so sterile, and you know the Agency doesn’t like it when we find ways to fend for ourselves out in the field.”

Slowly, he reached over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, grateful that she leaned against him until the top of her head was securely settled against his chest. “I’m sorry he yelled at you, and I’m sorry he called you a monster. Both were undeserved.”

“But I am -”

He made a dismissive click of his tongue against the roof of his mouth and hugged her closer. “Please. If anyone here is a monster, it’s me. I’m a dead man existing well past his time who’ll never be able to lie down and actually rot in peace. If that’s not monstrous, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re not a monster, Nicky. You’re just a guy who got cursed by a witch he cheated on and then got killed all on the same day because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

He laughed, grateful that some bit of humor was back in her voice, even if he was the butt of the joke. “Well, if I’m not allowed to call myself a monster, then you aren’t allowed to call yourself one either. You can’t help the way you are, and I’ll not hear any argument from you.”

She was silent for a while. “Okay.” Winona curled closer to him. “Thanks, Nicky.”

“Always. Is there anything else I can do?” He was already planning on having some words with Agent Hayder, none of which were proper for polite company. The agent was a stick in the mud on a good day, so Nicky could only imagine how tightly the man had clutched his pearls in the aftermath of the incident.

He also made a note to inform Cam. Most likely, Agent Hayder had filed a formal complaint against Winona and there’d be a full accident report to fill out in triplicate. Hayder was an asshole of the bureaucratic variety.

Winona’s voice was muffled under all her covers. “Could you stay a while with me?”

He stretched out his legs and made himself comfortable, trying to snuggle as best he could, seeing as Winona currently resembled a pale mauve squishy marshmallow. “I think I can do that. Though next time,” Nicky made a great showing of how hard the floor was to sit on, even as he pressed a kiss to the top of her hoodie-covered hair. “Can you hide from the world in a more comfortable spot? My ass is going to fall asleep any minute here, fragolina.”

She let out the tiniest of laughs. “I’ll see what I can do.”

#31daysofwayhaven #unit charlie #winona adams #nicolo morelli #my writing

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rhetoricalrogue · 3 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 29

Prompt: Veil Rating: G Words: 1,859 Characters: Winona Adams, Nicolo Morelli Summary: Three months into her new life, Winona’s still trying to find her footing.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

Agency Facility, September 2017

“How’s it going, Champ?”

Winona jumped at the man’s greeting. She’d only known him for less than a week, was it Nicolo? Nick? “Oh, hello.” She didn’t want to appear rude, but she also didn’t really feel like speaking with anyone at the moment. It was in part because while she was starting to adapt to the English language most commonly spoken in this world, she still stumbled on certain phrases. It was also because after spending three months at this Facility, she was feeling incredibly homesick.

There was too little green in this place. It was too cold; she craved the warmth of the sun against her skin and the feel of grass underfoot. She hadn’t been confined to any one space, so she spent as much time outdoors as she could. Cam, the man she had befriended, was a constant companion, and she was grateful for his presence. There was another woman, one who reminded her of the women in her world who chose a life devoted to the martial arts, often depicted as tall, strong women with fierce expressions on their faces. Penelope - at least she thought that was her name, she was awful on names! - would have fit in exceptionally well there.

And this man. She didn’t need to spend a lot of time with him to know that he was the sort who didn’t take life seriously. He was a bit of a dandy, always fussing with his clothes or his hair, and apparently the only things he took seriously were the two aforementioned interests and food, so much that she accidentally sent him on an explanation of what pasta was that turned into a lecture and an invitation to introduce her to everything good and right in the world. This turned out to be several meals of noodle dishes, which she wasn’t going to complain about, especially when she found one that reminded her of a soup that her mother used to make for her when she had been very young and not feeling well. The flavors weren’t quite right, but it was enough that it had held the feeling of homesickness at bay for a little while.

Nicky, that was the man’s name! Nicky had found her sitting in the gardens humming to herself as she tried to get over the odd sense of deja vu. It was the beginning of fall here, where in her world - the Echo World, as these people liked to call it - they had already gone through fall and winter. Trees had been in full bloom, and she’d had flowers in her hair when she fell through the rift. Some of them survived, and she’d begged to keep them with her even though some of the scientists who worked in the Facility wanted them for study. Cam had showed her how to preserve them by pressing and drying them out, and now the last reminders of her homeworld were saved within the heavy pages of a travel book for Scotland, stuck between a description of the north shores and a brief blurb about the local folklore. She didn’t know what a selkie was yet, but Cam had given her a sad sort of smile when she showed him what page had come up when she randomly opened the book to press her flowers, telling her that it was weirdly meant to be that they had found the other.

“I can go, if you’d like to be alone,” Nicky offered, breaking her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Thank you for your company.” She wasn’t sure if it was the correct phrase, but it seemed as if she got her point across. “What is this Champ you speak of?”

He sat down on the other end of the bench she was on and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Ah. It’s a sort of nickname.” He noted her slightly wrinkled nose and winked. “Though perhaps I should work on a better one for you, that was a little too unoriginal.”

They were silent for a while before he started to talk again. “You seem to be adapting to this world well,” he commented.

She smiled, hoping that he couldn’t tell that her smile was fake. “It’s been interesting. This world is very different from the one I come from, though in some ways, it’s similar.” She played with a leaf that had fallen from the tree overhead, the bright red color reminding her of the one that her father had planted right outside her bedroom window when she had been a child.

Her father. Time moved differently here than in her home. Cam had tried to explain, but it was difficult for her to wrap her head around the concept. She wondered just how long she had been away for them. Did they worry about her as she worried about them? Did they look for her as she would have searched for them if their places were switched? She held the leaf close to her chest. Would Nelros mourn? They hadn’t been married even an entire year yet. Granted, their marriage was an arranged one, but there had been genuine fondness between them that had grown into the start of what she hoped would be a marriage full of love.

“You know, you don’t have to wear that veil all the time.”

She frowned. “I do not understand.” She knew what the word meant, but her head and shoulders were bare.

“That smile. It may fool some people, but I can guarantee it doesn’t fool Cam. And I’ve been around for so long that I can see through a fake smile when I see one.”

She scoffed. “You talk as if you are ancient, though you are probably what? A young man barely entering adulthood?”

Nicky laughed. “Ah, you flatter me. At least someone here thinks that I’m still in my youth.” He gave a smirk at her confused look. “A story for another time, piccolina.”

“I have been here for months, but I still do not know my place in this new world,” she told him. There were so many things that she was still trying to get used to, but she was slowly figuring them out. She’d discovered other inhabitants from the Echo World who had suffered a similar fate as she who were more than willing to help her navigate her new home. The language instructors who were teaching her this common tongue were nice to work with, but she turned more and more towards those who still spoke Echolian when she was sad and yearning for home.

“It will happen. Take your time, don’t rush things.”

There was another beat and Nicky fidgeted at his end of the bench. Something told Winona that he was a man who was not accustomed to sitting still. “It’s okay to not be happy all the time,” he said, grabbing a leaf from the bench for himself and twirling it between his fingers. “It may come as a surprise, but I am not the overly happy go lucky man that everyone thinks I am. There are definitely moments in my life where I hide what I’m feeling behind this handsome face of mine.”

That earned him a smile. “You have a high opinion of yourself, do you?”

“Hey, I might as well, instead of relying on the opinions of others to stroke my ego.” He tossed the leaf to the side. “But what I’m saying is that it’s okay to be sad, and it’s okay to miss your home.”

His words seemed to trigger a release on the hold she had on her tears. “I miss them so much,” she cried, hiding her face in her hands as she poured out her grief. “My brother, I worry about him. Did he make it home okay? Is he safe? Did he fall, or worse, did he jump after me and hit the bottom of the hole I fell through instead of coming through the other side? My Nelros, what must he be thinking right about now?” She knew that she was speaking in her own language, but it didn’t seem to bother Nicky that he didn’t understand her. She was vaguely aware that he had moved closer to her, his arms wrapping around her and his chin resting against the crown of her head as she sobbed into his chest.

“There, there. We were wondering when you would let yourself cry. Cam and Penny refused to place a bet on the exact time, but I had a feeling that you would need a good cry soon.” She curled her hands against the leather of his jacket and calmed her breathing, tears finally spent.

“Tears are a weakness,” she explained. She was slightly grateful that Nelros had no real standing in the courts, which in turn meant that she would not have to play by society’s games. Winona was well aware that she held her heart on her sleeve, and expressing sorrow or any other emotion was something her mother had tried to train her to hide to no avail.

“Not all the time. Tears are a release valve. We all need a good cry every now and again.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Even you?”

He chuckled, his arms squeezing her in a warm hug. “Yes, even me.” He pulled back to look her in the eye. “Though it’s been some time since my last crying session, maybe we could schedule one together, so we don’t have to go through them alone?”

It was strange, but she got the feeling that he was telling her that he would be there for her when she felt lonely and sad without really saying those exact words. “That sounds like a good plan,” she told him, reaching up and wiping her eyes. “Thank you, Nicky.”

“Any time, piccolina.”

She tipped her head thoughtfully. “That is the second time you’ve called me that. What does it mean?”

He let go of her with one arm to wave his hand in front of him, giving a universal gesture of I’m trying to find the right phrase. “It’s a word in my language that directly translates to little one, though it’s a nickname that one can use for their friend.”

“Is it because I am short?” Her height was something that she had been teased about all her life, and instead of being irritating, it was strangely comforting that it seemed as if the same could be said for this world.

“A little.” He gave her a contrite look. “I can work on another for you, if you like.”

She shook her head. “No, this one is fine.” She smiled up at him. “I like the way it sounds.”

“Then, Winona, you shall be piccolina to me.” He moved, gently rocking them together. “It sounds as if this is the start of a fantastic friendship.”

Winona burrowed closer to Nicky, her arms wrapping around his waist. The empty loneliness she’d been dealing with these past few months suddenly didn’t seem as bad. “Yes. I believe it is.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #Unit Charlie #winona adams #nicolo morelli

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 24

Prompt: Enchantment Rating: PG-13 for language, adult-type touching, and Nicky being Nicky Words: 4,332 Characters: Nicolo and Isabela Morelli Summary: This reunion isn’t going quite the way Nicky planned.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

His daughter had kept in touch with him far more than Nicky ever thought he deserved. It was strange, but not in a bad way, to receive texts from her or to be on the phone for hours on end, listening as she filled him in on the life he had missed out on. They’d laughed together, and on multiple occasions, cried together, but he was honored that she would so readily include him in her life. She’d explained the reason she was still alive: she may have inherited her looks from his side of the family, but her mother’s magical abilities had carried over. She’d laughed that when she and her mother went to restaurants without glamour, they were often mistaken for sisters, especially since Gianna had chosen to stop aging at the same age her mother had done the same. He had wondered if Tony had inherited the same since he was slightly older in looks by a few years, but Gianna had laughed and told him that no, as someone part fey, her son’s long lifespan was tied to his father’s. It was a lot to take in at once, but Nicky was grateful that he had this opportunity to get to know the family he hadn’t known he had better.

He’d asked Gianna to not let her mother know about him. Part of him wanted to go to Isabela to confront her, but another part of his was afraid to. What would they say to the other after so long apart? What would she think of him? They hadn’t even known the other for more than a week, what did they have in common, aside from this daughter that he hadn’t even known about? He’d changed over the years that his life had been prolonged, he wasn’t the same person that he had been then. Of course, the core things that made up his personality were still the same: he was as opinionated as ever and his temper still flared hot at the slightest of provocations, he still had the same sense of humor about the things he always had, and he still had the same need to wear well-tailored clothing and have the finer things in life.

He also had the same love of women that had led him to this fate, though to be fair, he had ceased any and all affairs the moment he found out that Isabela was still alive. He still flirted, because it wouldn’t be him if he didn’t, but Nicky hadn’t acted on any of the flirtation since, especially once his daughter had told him that the magic that had kept him from true death was meant as a matrimonial bond.

Marriage. The word was foreign to him, to be bound to one person and one person alone for the rest of his life. He didn’t have anything against the idea, just that it was something that he never thought would apply to himself, even when he was alive. He still didn’t know how he felt about being married without his knowledge or his consent, but he figured that now that he knew, Isabela deserved his fidelity. He had to laugh at that. His lack of faithfulness had been his undoing all those years ago.

Thinking back, he didn’t know why he had strayed from her and her bed. Maybe because it had felt too right, that it had scared him to find someone that he could have easily seen himself in love with. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to be tied down to one person that he pushed her away before more permanent ties could be made.

Or maybe, just maybe he had cheated on Isabela with another woman because he had been a feckless asshole with no real care for the feelings of the women he claimed to be fascinated with. He was three hundred and seventy-two years old, he could call himself out on his own bullshit.

Nicky squared his shoulders and brushed invisible lint off the front of his (expensive) leather motorcycle jacket. He stared at the little wrought iron fence that separated the charming house in front of him from the street and pushed the gate open. The tingle of protective magic all around him made the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end, but he kept going, pausing with his knuckles braced at the door.

This is stupid, Morelli, he thought. Just knock and be done with it.

It took a while, but he heard footsteps come to the door. There was no peephole or window, and the breath that he didn’t need caught in his throat at the sight of the woman who answered it. The glamour she wore to make herself look like an older version of herself shimmered gold over her body like a second skin before fizzling and sputtering out, leaving behind a woman who looked to be in her late twenties, dark hair curling about her elegant shoulders and skin smooth and rosy.

The rose tint that filled her cheeks with such life seemed to drain from her face as she stared at him, her beautiful eyes widening as she took him in.

“Buona sera, mia cara,” he said, giving her a wink. “May I come in?”

Isabela slammed the door in his face.

Nicky looked at the door that had missed his nose by inches. “Can we talk about this?” He knocked again.

“Go away!”

“Come on, I used up all my mileage to fly out here!” He rattled the doorknob, but found it locked, just as he expected. “Can we at least speak like civilized people?”

“I have nothing to say to you, you pig!” Nicky heard slamming and realized she was closing all the windows around one side of the house. Running in the opposite direction, he rounded the corner and jumped the low spiked iron fence to the backyard. As expected, the back door was open and the screen door was unlocked.

“Is this how you treat your husband?” he teased, eyes widening as he dodged a cast iron skillet she swung in his direction.

“Get out of my house!” She grit her teeth and swung again. “How did you even find me?”

“It wasn’t easy!” He dodged another hit, his feet moving backwards until she forced him out onto the back porch. “It only took over three hundred years!”

“I thought you were dead! You should be dead!”

He moved again. “I am dead! You made it so I can’t get any peace!” Nicky let out a grunt as the skillet connected with his shoulder, but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, holding it tightly and twisting in a way that wouldn’t hurt her, but would make her drop the pan. “Now can we please talk like adults inside before your neighbors call the cops? I don’t have much of a rap sheet, but I would like to keep domestic -” He paused as pain sparked through his body. Looking down, he noticed that he hadn’t seen Isabela fumbling in the pocket of her dress for a knife. A knife that was currently sticking out of his chest. He looked at her in disbelief and she looked back, her eyes wide in fright.

“Ow,” was all he had time to say before the world went black and his body crumpled to the ground.

He didn’t know how long it had been before he came to, but he guessed it wasn’t long, judging by the slant of late afternoon sunlight coming through the kitchen window. A shuffle of movement made him turn his head towards the sound and he found Isabela curled on the floor, her arms around her legs and her eyes staring at him.

“This was my best jacket,” he managed to say, mouth dry as it usually was when he came back to consciousness. “I’ve been shot at, chased by things with claws in it, and the person that ruins the leather is my own wife. Fitting.”

“I’m not your wife,” she whispered, voice hoarse.

“Tell that to your magic.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to work. It shouldn’t have worked.”

Nicky grunted as he slowly sat up, one leg extended and the other brought up so he could rest his arm on his knee. “What shouldn’t have worked?”

“The spell. I was young, inexperienced. I was angry.” She sniffled. “I didn’t mean for it to work.”

Nicky looked at her and let out a slow, low laugh. “So you’re saying that this spell you cast on me was an accident? Something you did in anger?”

She slapped her palms on the floor and glared at him. “Don’t laugh at me, damn you!”

“Oh, sweetheart,” he breathed, wiping tears from his eyes as he continued to chuckle. “You have got to admit there’s some cosmic irony going around. It’s either laugh or scream, babe.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t left me for some...some…” she stood up and glared. “I can’t even describe her anymore, but the fact is that you decided that you had enough fun in my bed and wanted nothing more to do with me!”

“I was young!”

She held her hand to her chest. “So was I! Youth is no excuse for breaking my heart!”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “I know that now. You have absolutely no reason to forgive me, but I do want you to know how sorry I am for hurting you. It was wrong of me and I apologize.”

His words seemed to take some of the wind out of her anger. “I loved you once,” she told him, wiping at her cheek. “I think, in a way, I love you still.”

He got up, wincing as the wound in his chest pulled his muscles tight as it continued to heal. “You loved the idea of me, Isabela. We barely knew the other, how can you love me?”

She narrowed her eyes as she came up to him, hand reaching out to trace the ragged hole in his once pristine leather jacket, the tips of her fingers warm against his skin. “Soulmates exist, idiot.” Isabela jerked back slightly when Nicky let out a barking laugh, his hand coming up to gently wrap around her wrist.

“Sounds like something my grandson told me a while ago when I first met him.”

Isabela stood straighter. “You met Tony?”

“Oh, he was pissed at me. Had we not been in public, I bet he would have swung at me.”

She snorted, her lip barely curling up in a smile. “He’s a good boy, my Tony.” She swallowed hard. “He takes after your side of the family, you know.”

He smiled and ran his thumb against the back of her hand. “So does Gianna. You named her after my grandmother?”

Isabela bowed her head and swayed towards him. It felt right to hold her close with his free arm, her head fitting in the crook of his neck as if it were made specifically for that purpose. “You weren’t supposed to know about her.” Her hand twitched under his, fingers splaying out over his chest. For the briefest of moments, he could have sworn his heart, rusty from disuse, had given a faint thump. “I didn’t want you to know about her.”

He looked down at her. “Why not?”

“Because she was mine. You already stole my heart, Nicolo, I didn’t want you to come back and take my little girl.”

“Our little girl.” He leaned back so he could look her in the eye. “Was that why you vanished? Made it so hard for me to find you?”

She nodded. “I was still so angry. At you, for making me fall in love with you and then running off to chase the next skirt that struck your fancy. At myself, for falling in love with such a fickle man. I wanted you to hurt as much as I hurt, so I bound you to me and disappeared. I wanted to see how long you would search for me. I wanted you to grovel at my door, to beg for my forgiveness.”

“May you never know the peace of the grave,” Nicky murmured. “Do you know how long I thought that you had cursed me that night?”

She frowned. “Like I said, I was angry.”

“Did you know,” he started, moving aside so he had some space between them. The faint scent of roses that clung to her skin made it hard to think. “I went back the next night? I wanted to talk things through with you, maybe see if there was anything I could save.” He remembered how they had parted, both of them screaming at the other and Isabela throwing a pot in his direction.

He hadn’t been as quick then as he was now, the pot glancing off the side of his head and drawing blood.

“Why didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “Sort of couldn’t when I got caught by a hulking slab of muscle I owed money to and he stabbed me to death and left me to rot in a ditch.” He watched as she winced, her hand going sympathetically to her throat. “Hey, but I guess I can’t really be too mad at you, had you not cast your spell, I would have been dead a long time ago. I would have missed out on so many things: indoor plumbing, high speed internet, fine Italian motorcycles…”

He couldn’t help but move closer to her, his fingers tipping her chin up so he could look in her eyes. “But for all the things I got to witness, I also missed out on so much. Getting to know you, our daughter growing up, her son growing up. I regret missing those things.”

Isabela gave a short huff of laughter. “That wasn’t something I was expecting to hear from you. You were always so brash and cocky with your words.”

He grinned. “Don’t worry, my mouth still gets me into plenty of trouble. I’ve just had over three centuries to do some personal growth.”

“Are you angry with me?” she asked, biting at her lip.

“I was,” he confessed. “I was angry for the longest time. You have no idea how long I searched for a way to end this existence I believed you’d cursed me to, how many ways I sought death, a true death, out if only to free myself from waking up whole and unscathed.”

She leaned towards him again, her eyes squeezing shut. “What stopped you?” she whispered.

“Nothing. I dove in the line of fire and got shot in the face last week like it was nothing, just to save one of my teammates. They’ve helped though. Gianna told me that the two of you know about the Agency. I’m an agent with Unit Delta.” He tapped his chest. “No heartbeat or heat signature makes me the ideal infiltration specialist, and I’m handy with disarming locks and security systems so the rest of my team can come in behind me. I’ve worked with multiple groups on several occasions since joining up, but the one I’m with now, they’re like family to me. They’re the brothers and sisters that I didn’t know I was missing until I found them, and while knowing that someday I’m going to outlive them all, they make me not want to look for that final peace as often.”

Isabela licked at her lips before nervously biting at them again. “So, where does this leave us?”

Nicky spread his hands and gave her a look that silently told her he didn’t have a clue either. “I don’t know. I’ve been in contact with Gianna and she wants me in her life. Tony’s texted me once or twice now that he’s had a chance to cool down and think about things.” He looked at her seriously. “I don’t want to lose contact with them now that I’ve found them.”

“I don’t want you to lose contact with them either.” She took a hesitant step closer, reaching out for him as if she couldn’t help herself either. “I wanted…” she took a shuddering breath and ran her hands over his jacket, fingers gripping the edges. “I often wondered what it would have been like had we been together. To watch Gianna grow, to see how we would have grown together.”

“And it always made you sad.” He leaned down and brushed his nose along the side of hers. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.” Nicky didn’t know who moved first, but his lips were pressed against hers and he felt as if he were a man slowly dying of thirst suddenly being given water after years of searching for the barest drop to drink. He inhaled sharply as her hands pulled him close, his own hands moving to her hips and lower to lift her up onto one of the kitchen countertops, which she went gladly, a moan spilling from her mouth as he left her lips to trail a hot line of kisses down to her neck. His hands slid over her legs, the material of her dress moving up until he had it bunched at her waist.

And that’s when he realized something that broke him out of the haze he’d fallen under. Something he hadn’t felt in centuries. “Nicolo?” Isabela’s lips dragged along his jaw and he groaned when she nipped at the patch of skin where his jaw met his throat. “What is it?”

He made a strangled noise as he slipped his hands under her thighs and tipped his hips just so. “Um, that.” he told her, mouth muffled by her shoulder, grinding against her just to check to see if he wasn’t dreaming that something that hadn’t happened in a very long time was actually happening. For science, if you will.

She gasped and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Yes, that,” she purred, dragging her fingers through his hair so she could kiss him again. “It may have been a while since I’ve been with you, but I definitely remember this part.”

“No, you don’t understand, Bella.” His hands moved upwards until he could run his thumbs against the underside of her breasts. “I haven’t felt this for anyone. Not since before I died that first time.” His laugh was a little on the wild side, and he let out a curse when she used her legs to pull him tightly to her again.

“Wait, are you telling me…”

His eyebrow arched up. “That this is the first time my cock’s gotten up for a woman in almost four hundred years? Yes.”

“That you’ve slept with other women?” She angrily shoved at his chest and kicked out at him, aiming for the suddenly very apparent bulge in his jeans.

Instinct had him swerving his hips out of range. “Hey! We broke up! You cursed me to this half-life!”

“We were married, you jackass! How could you run around behind my back?”

“I didn’t know that!” He eyed the skillet she had on a nearby counter and grabbed it before she could reach for it. “You made it impossible to find you and figure out what the fuck this whole spell you put me under was!”

“Did you even try looking?” She hopped off the counter and balled her fists at her sides. Nicky was just grateful she hadn’t grabbed at another knife yet.

He wagged a finger at her. “Don’t you even start. I spent years looking for you! When I couldn’t find you in Sicily, I moved to Italy. When I couldn’t find you there, I went to nearby countries to look for you. Fuck, I spent months this year alone looking for you, so don’t you bring that into this!” He angrily gestured at his groin, the long-absent erection slowly vanishing as they yelled. “But it doesn’t explain this!”

She had the good grace to look the tiniest bit contrite. “So I may have cursed you a little after that last argument.”

“A little? You call not getting this up, even with my own hand, little?”

“I was angry! You left me for another woman, did you think I wanted you to be able to use it with anyone but me?”

“Three hundred and seventy-two years, Isabela! And this whole time I thought it was because my heart wasn’t pumping blood to vital organs!” He dropped the skillet onto the table in the small breakfast nook and glared. “Why didn’t you just curse my dick to fall off while you were at it?”

“That can still be arranged!”

Nicky took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. “Okay, so this isn’t going quite the way I had envisioned. We need to take a step back, maybe take a breather?”

“What makes you think I want anything to do with you?”

He arched his eyebrow. “Because you said you wanted to, like five minutes ago?”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “That was then. Now I just want you out of my house.”

“Careful, carina. You look gorgeous when you’re angry.” Sure that she was unarmed, he swooped in and gathered her in his arms.

“I should bite you,” she growled.

“Kinky. I’ll file that away for future reference.”

She unfolded her arms and instead of pushing him away, she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer. “Why should I think that you’ll be faithful to me now when you weren’t faithful to me all these years?”

“Because, Isabela, I haven’t slept with a woman since finding out that you were still alive.” He leaned down and pressed a brief peck on the tip of her nose. “It’s been two months, it’s a record.”

Isabela made an indignant sound. “It’s been three hundred and seventy-two years,” she replied. “I haven’t wanted anyone else but you.” She stretched up onto her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against his, her body all but melting at the touch.

He reluctantly broke the kiss. “Then I hate to make you wait another minute, however…”

“What?”

He looked down at her and cupped her cheek in his hand. “I was a jackass who didn’t know what I had before. I’m still a jackass, but I want to do this right.” He leaned down and pressed the barest of kisses to her forehead. “Let me take you out.” Another kiss, this time at her cheek. “Treat you to dinner.” His mouth barely grazed the corner of hers. “Take you to bed.” His lips curled upwards into a wicked smirk when he felt the moan buzz at her throat.

“Fine, but it better be soon,” she pouted, fingers sifting through his hair before tugging. “As in tonight soon.”

Nicky nipped at her lips before moving away, the warmth from her body already missed. “Ah, but my darling, I haven’t a thing to wear.” He wiggled his fingers through the tear she had made in his shirt and his jacket. He laughed at her frustrated growl. “Some of us should have thought about the consequences to stabbing one’s spouse before sticking a knife in their chest.”

“If you’re just going to tease, then you can leave.”

He winked at her. “I’m just happy that I’m able to tease.”

“Out.” She pointed to the back door. As if by magic - and Nicky had to laugh at that! - the screen door opened on its own accord and stayed open, waiting for him to exit the way he came.

“So, can I call you?”

“You don’t have my number.”

He fished in the jacket pocket to pull out his phone, which had miraculously been saved from the knife from earlier. “No, but Gianna does!” He hopped the back fence again and made his way to the front yard, whistling a jaunty tune the entire time. He stopped when he got to the front of her house in time to see her leaning against the front door. “You never answered me, may I call you?”

She waved her hand in the air, as if dismissing him. “I’ll think about it.”

“You are a cruel, cruel woman.”

“And you are a rude man who thinks it’s fair to work a woman up and then leave.” She stood there at her doorway as he walked down the street, the faintest refrain of some song she hadn’t heard in centuries carrying on the wind. “Idiot,” she murmured, shaking her head. She couldn’t help the smile that worked its way onto her face as she closed the door and leaned against it. Well. That was certainly not what she expected to deal with when she woke up that morning. Running her hand over her hair in an attempt to put it back to rights where Nicolo had mussed it, she sighed and sank down onto the living room sofa. Reaching for the phone that was on the coffee table, she hit a pre-programmed number.

“I should be angry at you for not telling me about your father being around,” she said without preamble, listening as her daughter tried to deflect with Mama, it’s so good to hear you! “But I’m guessing that he asked you not to say a word.” She ran a hand over her neck, shivering as she remembered how Nicolo’s lips had felt there just minutes before.

“Give your father my phone number,” she told her, her voice clipped and fast, almost as if she were getting the words out before she thought better of it. “And tell him I expect a phone call soon.”

With that, she hung up the phone and got up, heading to put her kitchen to rights after the love of her life had barged in and moved things around, humming that same tune of love found after years apart without even realizing it.

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #nicolo morelli #Nicky got the longest piece I've done this month #because he is the favorite

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven: Day 10

Prompt: Blood Rating: G Words: 1910 Characters: Winona Adams, Farah Hauville, Nicolo Morelli Summary: Farah accidentally connects two dots while dishing out on some gossip. Note: Blood, bloodlines...stretching the prompt a little? Who, me? Tony first showed up in a few headcanon posts of mine as my detective Aubrey Miller’s best friend/ex-dance partner before she came back home from the City. He’s apparently evolved from a throwaway mention minor character to a bridge between Aubrey and Unit Charlie.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

“You should have seen the look on his face!” Farah bent over in laughter before flopping onto Winona’s bed. Unit Bravo was stationed at the Facility closest to Wayhaven while their new warehouse headquarters was being built and it so happened that Charlie was also in between missions. When Farah had found out about how Winona had joined up with the Agency, she had made a beeline to introduce herself, practically bouncing off the walls in excitement and hoping that her Echolian hadn’t gotten too rusty after seven years. Nate was incredibly good at the language, but no matter how fluent he was, it wasn’t like speaking her mother tongue with another native speaker.

Just hearing the same language spoken so fluently made the pangs of homesickness that hit unexpectedly now and again hurt just a little bit less. They still felt like a knife being twisted in her side, but at least they didn’t take her breath away or knock her to her knees as often.

“You shouldn’t tease him so,” Winona chastised, reclining on her side and peeling an orange to share. Winona liked spending time with the youngest member of Unit Bravo. The exuberance and sheer joy that radiated out of her reminded her of her own younger sibling that hadn’t made it through the rift she’d fallen through before it had closed almost immediately after her.

Her hands trembled for a moment, the peel of the orange caught between her fingers. Her brother would have loved having these available year-round.

“But he makes it so easy, Winona!” Farah took a segment of the orange she offered, nibbling at it to acclimate herself to the taste. The first burst of sweet yet slightly tart flavor always overwhelmed her senses, but she really did like them. She sighed as she popped the rest of the segment into her mouth. “I just wish Adam would talk to someone about how he feels. I mean, Aubrey is head over heels for him, I just don’t get it.”

“People express their feelings differently,” Winona commented, peeling another segment. “And sometimes fear makes expressing those feelings openly difficult.” Her thoughts went towards Cameron and Penelope. She and Nicky had lengthy conversations on how the two of them should just say how they feel about it instead of living in a constant state of mutual pining. The unresolved sexual tension between them was so thick that Winona often felt it buzz along her skin. It was a struggle to not feed off it - had it been two other people than the ones who trusted her the most, she wouldn’t feel guilty about topping off her energy or using her pheromones to give them that extra push they needed to resolve things - and whenever things flared up between them, she found herself raiding the Facility kitchens for anything sweet to distract her from the yearning hunger that made her fangs extend and mouth water.

It was a good thing that Unit Bravo was around. She and Mason had an...agreement. The no-strings, casual sex he offered was worlds better than the slightly formal, businesslike encounters that the Agency offered. The participants were volunteers, and she made certain that they had a good time, but it always felt more like a visit to a clinic instead of a more natural sensual moment. Cam and Penny had been sparring in the training area earlier and what Winona had walked in on made her think that seeking out Mason’s company for an evening was a good idea.

Farah rolled onto the mattress until she was on her stomach, her feet kicking in the air. “I still don’t think Adam fully understands that this guy who came for a visit was just a really good friend of Aubrey’s.” She’d been in the middle of sharing a recent incident where some man had dropped into Wayhaven unexpectedly on his way to another city and had decided to surprise his very good friend. Apparently Detective Miller had been a ballerina before settling in Wayhaven and this man had been her longtime dance partner. And apparently, Adam hadn’t taken it well seeing the current object of his unspoken affections interact so easily with a man from her past.

The best part of it was that this man had been a supernatural being himself, though from how Farah described him, he had clicked with Aubrey long before he realized there was something special about her mutated blood. Farah had giggled about the fact that Aubrey had tried her hardest to make everything in Wayhaven appear normal so he wouldn’t catch on to the Agency, and then this half-fey guy turned around and threatened the four vampires bodily harm if his best friend got hurt because of them as soon as she was out of the room.

Farah was right. Winona would have loved to have seen that unfold.

“He was a cutie though,” Farah said, digging her phone out of her pant pocket. She swiped around until she found a good shot. “See?”

Winona looked at the picture, smiling as she took in the relaxed, easy smile on the detective’s face - she’d only been briefly introduced to her once during her initial stay and Winona could tell that she had still been taking in the fact that beings such as herself existed and that she had a murderous vampire hunting for her. It had been a lot to take in, and honestly, Winona was surprised that Aubrey had taken it as well as she had.

Then she focused on the man next to her. Yes, he was attractive, but there was something oddly familiar about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Zooming in on his face, she had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What did you say this guy’s name was?” she asked, zooming in further. His eyes and the way his mouth quirked as he smiled made her dig out her own phone and pull up a picture.

“Tony.”

“Last name, Farah.” She zoomed in on her phone and held it side by side with Farah’s.

“I don’t know, something Italian?” Farah rested her chin on her hands. “Something with an M?”

“Morelli?”

Farah snapped her fingers. “That’s it! Wow, that was a great guess!” She started when Winona all but jumped out of bed and rushed towards the door.

“Nicky! Get in here now!”

***

“Are you certain this man’s name was Morelli?” Nicky asked, holding Farah’s phone as he paced around Winona’s bedroom.

“Yeah, he’s a famous dancer in the City.”

“It checks out,” Winona said, holding up her phone to show Nicky the quick Google search. “Do you think that the two of you could be related?”

He frowned. “Morelli is a common last name, it could be coincidence.”

Farah squinted. “Are you sure? I mean, the two of you look awfully similar.”

Nicky stared at the screen, his eyes boring holes into the picture. “None of my mother’s family survived the plague of 1656. I was only a child then, but my grandmother would have taken in anyone who had made it.”

“What about your sister?” Winona asked, sitting at the edge of her bed. She resumed peeling off segments of orange, purely to give her hands something to do.

“She only had one child, and they died along with her and her husband in the earthquake of 1693.” He pointed a finger at her. “And before you ask, no, I didn’t have any children.”

“Nicky, you did sleep around a lot,” Winona pointed out. “Like, a lot-a lot.”

“But I was careful! I admit, I may have been a bit of a -”

“Horny dude who couldn’t keep it in his pants?”

Nicky glared at Farah, who just laughed at him. “A romantic with a great love of women,” he pointed his finger at Winona in warning for her to not chime in. “But I was extremely careful to leave without leaving a…” he searched for a word. “Little souvenir behind.”

“Well!” Farah hopped up from the bed and snatched her phone away faster than Nicky could react. “I know one way to solve this!”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

She pulled up her contacts and pressed down on the one named AUBS that was bracketed with little ballet shoe emojis and sparkly pink hearts. “Getting info from a source.”

“No, you don’t -”

“Too late! Hey Aubs! How’s it going?” Farah bounced a little on the balls of her feet while listening to whatever Aubrey was saying. “Quick question: you know your dreamboat best friend? Ha, okay, so thanks for telling me he’s single, that’s actually really useful info, but I was wanting to know a little bit more about him. What’s his mom’s name?” She twirled on the ball of her foot in a lazy, half-pirouette that she’d been working on with Aubrey. “No, no reason at all, just really interested!”

Nicky scoffed. “Like that’s not going to raise suspicion.”

“Gianna? Gianna Morelli? That’s really pretty!” Farah gave Nicky a glance and raised her eyebrows to see if the name rang any bells. He shook his head when it didn’t. “Okay, so maybe a little weirder question, do you happen to know who his grandma is? I remember you talking about her and how she made the best chicken soup that one time the whole cast of a production got sick.” She gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. “Aubs! Of course I listen to you, I’m offended you’d think otherwise!”

“Well?” Nicky asked, resuming his pacing. Farah waved a hand at him to get him to quiet down.

“Oh. Okay. Can you call me back as soon as you ask then? And ask where from Italy she was from! Oh, cool, thanks! Okay, byeee!” Farah clicked off the phone. “She said she didn’t know, she’d have to ask Tony. She’s always known her as Nona Morelli.”

“Did she know where she was from?”

Farah fidgeted with a curl of her hair and was tempted to drag it out, but thought better of it when she saw that Nicky was incredibly tense. “She wasn’t quite sure where, but she said Tony’s grandma always talks about Sicily and how she goes back to travel there every so often. She’s really big on historical preservation and does a lot of work with the older cemeteries.”

All three of them jumped when Farah’s phone rang, ABBA’s Dancing Queen chiming out. “That was fast!” she said by way of a greeting. “Okay, fine, confession: I may have shown off a picture to some people here at the Facility and Tony may bear a remarkable resemblance to one of the other agents in another unit. No, no, not a supernatural. He’s human, just dead, like really dead. It’s a long story. Anyhow, what sort of news do you have?” Farah sat on the bed and kicked her feet in front of her. “Uh huh. Uh huh. No, it’s probably not likely they’re related, but think how neat it would be!”

“Her name, Gallinetta.”

“Oh! Isabela Morelli? That’s a really pretty name too!” Winona shouted out a warning as a loud thud made Farah turn around. Her eyes widened when she saw that Nicky had fallen to the floor, his hand clutching his chest. “Uh, Aubs? I’m gonna have to call you back. That dead guy I told you about? I think he just fainted.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #farah hauville #nicolo morelli #winona adams #Unit Charlie

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 27

Prompt: Unkempt Rating: PG-ish? Nicky may have thrown an F-bomb or two around, I can’t remember. Words: 3,271 Characters: Nicolo Morelli, Elaine from Records Summary: Nicky is about to have words for some agents who can’t spell properly.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

Nicky was many things: a charming man with a reputation with the ladies, a loyal team member adept at technology and stealth, a man who prided himself in keeping up with the latest fashions. What Nicky wasn’t was a patient man when it came to proofreading documents, especially documents that were supposed to have been written by people who knew what they were doing.

“This is unacceptable,” he growled, swiveling in the office chair he’d been assigned to. He wasn’t much of a day drinker by any means, but he suddenly craved something to vent his frustrations on as he went through the fifth document of the morning.

It was only nine. He still had an entire stack of paperwork he was expected to complete by lunch piled high on his inbox and who knew how many files in his email. He needed more coffee. The office building he was in could only be described as bland, and even that was by Agency standards. Normally, the rest of the Facility was a uniform neutral done up in white paint and stainless steel, but this looked as if someone had gone back in time, snipped off a portion of the seventies, and whisked it back to the present day. Beige walls and dark brown carpet assaulted his sensibilities. Even the very air seemed to smell of old toner - Nicky was certain that purple ditto sheets reeking of methanol and isopropanol had gone the way of the dinosaur, but then again, this was the Agency. There was probably a reason an early era Xerox printer was still being used, and as inquisitive as he was, Nicky wasn’t going to try to investigate. He was merely lucky that there was a computer hooked up to his desk, even if it was an ancient yellow box of an Apple Macintosh from the 80s that somehow had Microsoft Word installed on it. Again, he wasn’t going to question it, even if he did nervously glance down at his phone on multiple occasions to see if there was something in the office or perhaps the office itself that would transform his latest phone upgrade into a brick bag phone.

God, he’d hated that era of early technology. Everything had been so goddamn expensive and it was comical to see the cutting technology of the day compared to now.

“Welcome to my world.” Nicky peered around the plain grayish beige partition of his cubicle - a cubicle! The demotion from Charlie to Delta was irritating enough, but to have to go through an entire probationary period before being able to get back onto the sort of fieldwork that his unit was used to performing was downright galling. - that smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and watched as a tall, sturdy looking woman sat down in the cubicle next to his and sighed. At first glance, Nicky wouldn’t have thought that she belonged in an office setting. Trolls normally weren’t the types that came to mind when one thought about what a clerical staff would look like. Yet apparently Elaine was one of the best and fastest proofreaders in the Agency, shooting up from ground level staff to managerial level quicker than anyone would have thought, troll or not. Nicky hadn’t worked with her before, but he had worked with trolls in the past, so her craggy gray skin and over seven feet height didn’t put him off. She walked and sat with a hunch, to make herself smaller in the environment or if that was purely her nature, Nicky didn’t know, but her lichen colored hair was done up in a neat bun atop her hair and the tips of her fingers were painted a bright coral color that matched her lipstick. On anyone else, the color would have looked garish, but she seemed to pull it off well.

Elaine didn’t normally have a cubicle, her glass encased office was down the hall, but one of the other proofreaders had called in sick and she had decided it was easier to complete the workload at their desk instead of hauling it over to hers. It meant that the space wasn’t quite suited to fit her, the cubicle walls short enough that the top of her head was clearly visible over them and her knees bumped the top of the desk if she wasn’t careful. Nicky had already heard her mutter curses under her breath at least four times that morning alone and hoped she wouldn’t bruise her kneecaps before the day was done. The permanent scowl her mouth was set in while she worked seemed completely out of place in the cubicle: the actual owner had a thing for bright pink office supplies and the little poster of a kitten hanging onto a branch emblazoned with a “hang in there, baby!” at the bottom definitely seemed like it wasn’t her sort of decor.

“Is it always this bad?” he asked, changing the spelling and punctuation in a paragraph that a toddler could have written better. He tisked, he knew this agent and hadn’t thought they were capable of this...this monstrosity. He was going to have to have words with them once his time in purgatory was up. Not for the first time since agreeing to this sort of punishment, Nicky wished that he had swapped spots with Cam and taken on the rookie agent field assignments instead.

“Sometimes it’s worse.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard, editing as she went. “If it makes you feel any better, Morelli, I’ve never seen any of your reports cross my desk.”

He scoffed before getting up to the little breakroom, the brown low pile carpeting making way for white vinyl linoleum spattered with black and beige speckles. “I should hope not. I look over my reports for typos at least twice with a fine toothed comb before I turn them in.”

“And you still get them done in a timely manner, I’m impressed.”

He came back with a cup of coffee. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was hot and at least whoever had made the last pot had made it strong. “What can I say? I’m quick, efficient, and I get the job done right the first time.”

There was a sound from the cubicle almost as if someone were crushing gravel. It took Nicky a split second to realize that was Elaine laughing. “Sounds like the ideal traits for a troll mate,” she joked. “Careful, lest I think you’re trying to come on to me.”

Nicky grinned, though he was inwardly running through his mental catalogue of supernatural mating habits and blanched at what he dragged up. Apparently trolls had a use ‘em and lose ‘em mentality when it came to their partners. The lose part was when they bit off their heads and had them for a post-coital snack. “Now, now,” he said, holding up his hands defensively. “As much as I would like to, I am a married man!”

That gravel noise sounded again, even as Elaine’s fingers continued to clack on the keyboard. “Ha! Good one, Morelli! Pull the other leg while you’re at it!”

“No, it’s true! And believe me, it’s just as much a surprise to me as it is to everyone else!” It had been a week since coming back from Chicago where Isabela had apparently made her home. Communications with her were still in this strange state - how did one text one’s estranged wife romantically without it boiling down to looking like a booty call or an invitation to send nudes, especially when one’s long-lost spouse was prone to stabbing and spellcraft? Seeing that Isabela had already hexed certain body parts of his before, Nicky was careful of his wording, lest his best feature downstairs suffer a second cursed fate.

At least she was responding favorably to his texts, even if his buongiorno, Bella the other day had been answered with a slightly grumpy it is five in the morning, Nicolo. Even so, he’d treasured the picture she added: Isabela in her bedroom, hair sleep-tousled and unkempt, eyes still half-lidded and sleepy looking, lips slightly pursed and cheek pressed against her pillow.

It had become his phone’s home screen almost instantly.

He should just wear her down enough to give him her email address. At least then he could take his time and compose honest to goodness love letters to her, even if they weren’t of the pen and paper variety, instead of having to rely on quickly creating off the cuff compositions that while expressed his sentiments were still a little unpolished.

For someone who hadn’t seen himself as the type of man that was willing to settle down with one woman, Nicky was sure taking the whole matrimony against his will, being magically bound to one woman for all eternity, having knowledge that he’d fathered a child and was currently a grandfather dumped into his lap not even two months ago pretty well. Having this time away from fieldwork and actual missions gave him time for introspection and the fact that his daughter - and how that still had him reeling! - texted him at least once a day to catch him up on her life gave him a warm feeling in his heart that he hadn’t felt in a very long time, if ever. Nicky made a mental note to invest in one of those silicone wedding bands. Gold and other metals weren’t the best to wear out in the field and while his body regenerated severed limbs and whatnot, he really wasn’t interested in accidentally getting a finger crushed or torn off when his hand ultimately got stuck in a door or some other scenario that had already come up several times in the past. Fingers grew back. Fingers also hurt like no one’s business when they were lost and while they grew back. He would like to avoid either scenario as much as possible.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Would sending his wife an unsolicited picture of his hand while wearing a wedding ring count as flirting? While the tone to their texts had been amiable if not a little icy at times, perhaps the gesture would endear him to her a little bit. He grinned. Maybe it would even earn him an actual phone call. His grin widened. Perhaps, if he played his cards right, the phone call would change from talking about the weather to more steamier topics.

His grin faltered. He wondered what would happen between him and Isabela. While they had only known the other for a paltry week three hundred years ago, Nicky knew when a woman was interested in him but playing hard to get. But what would happen when she decided that he’d suffered long enough, when he’d taken another flight to grovel for her forgiveness at her front door like she said she’d wanted him to do? He was an agent, it was the only life that he’d known since being scooped up, shell shocked and horrified at being brought back to life after being murdered and left to rot in a ditch. He had a life here with the Agency, had a deep loyalty to his unit, surely she wouldn’t expect him to leave it behind to run away from his responsibilities with her? And what of her? She was settled in one spot, she had people of her own that were important to her. He couldn’t ask her to leave that life behind, wouldn’t ask her to leave that life behind, in favor of joining up with the Agency so they could share a cramped windowless room with a narrow full-size bed.

Nicky thought back to her cottage with its iron fence and little backyard garden. Granted, he hadn’t gotten to see the interior of her home very well, seeing as she had stabbed him to death in her kitchen and then shoved him out the back porch, he knew that he wouldn’t want her to trade that life for one here, even if it meant that all their relationship - or whatever this was that they were starting could be called - would ever be merely good morning and good evening texts with brief visits when vacation time was allotted and FaceTime calls filling up the spaces in between.

“You’re spacing out. Daydreaming isn’t going to get that pile of work done.” Nicky blinked and sighed as Elaine looked at him from over the partition. Then he growled, realizing that in the brief moment he had taken to think of Isabela, the work in his virtual inbox had doubled in size.

“No one deserves this kind of torture,” he grumbled, fingers all but slamming on the keys as he corrected “teh” to “the” for the umpteenth time and formatted the entire document to full justification. Did no one know how to write a proper office memo?

“Eh, it pays well.” Elaine got up, shoulders bunched up to her ears and back hunched so she wouldn’t risk brushing the white drop ceiling tiles - tiles Nicky was sure contained asbestos - and made her way to his desk. Before he could say anything, she grabbed the physical files in his to file inbox and made her way over to the wall of dark grey metal filing cabinets. She’d explained on his first day in the department that they weren’t actual filing cabinets, but magical portals to deliver each report to its intended recipient. “Some of us aren’t fit for field duty, so reading badly written reports is the closest we’re ever going to get to the action.”

“Aw, come on, Elaine.” Nicky hit print and deleted the file, moving on to the next. Sure, he understood the whole paper trail as means of securing Agency secrets from getting spilled, but really, all one had to do was get a strong enough firewall and other cybersecurity options and none of this transcribing digital to print would have to happen. He eyed the file cabinets. It wouldn’t take someone with enough skill to break through the security wards to change just where those files ended up to either.

Besides, there was a major loophole in Agency logic: if all the reports were done in the field via laptops or tablets, then what was stopping anyone from leaking company secrets at that level? Somehow, the bureaucratic nature of even having this department, even with the older technology on hand, seemed inefficient and redundant.

Oh well, at least no one was making Nicky type handwritten field notes and reports on an actual typewriter. He was a good typist, but not good enough to avoid going through his share of correction tape and white-out. The backspace key was his friend, one that he could not do without.

“What?” Elaine picked up the report from the copier and made her way towards the file cabinet again.

“I’m just saying, I bet you would be a formidable Agent out in the field.”

She rolled her eyes. “No can do, Morelli. Apparently the powers that be came to the conclusion that my aptitude tests put me at a higher risk of accidental exposure via bloodletting.” She went back to her cubicle and began typing again. “The risk of collateral damage would be too high to let me loose in the world.”

“Yeah, I could see that being a big minus on the pros and cons of getting you into field agent status.”

“Hey, I’m happy where I’m at. I’m being helpful and not causing havoc under some bridge or underpass somewhere. It’s a win-win situation.” She sat back down at the desk, cursing when her knee banged into the desktop hard enough to make the little fake plant that was activated by the overhead lighting wobble precariously on the cute clip-on cubicle wall shelf. “You though?”

“What about me?”

She paused in her typing. “You don’t belong in an office tied to a desk. Those powers that be? I say they did your unit dirty.”

Nicky shrugged. “Yeah, well, we win as a team and we make mistakes as a team. We wouldn’t leave one of us out to dry that way.”

Elaine leaned forward. “And I read the report that another unit gave about the whole incident. Hell, it was so full of typos that I’m pretty damn sure it was meant for me to read. Exiling Agent Adams, especially with no way of fending for herself when it comes to regaining her energy? Demoting your entire unit? Something smells distinctly like bullshit.”

Nicky sagged in his desk chair. “Fuck. And here I thought it was just me being my usual paranoid self.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s just that I can’t find any evidence that would suggest why anyone would set Win up to fail that way. And I definitely can’t find any evidence that would suggest why, knowing the way that Cam leads our unit and how loyal we are to the other, that anyone would want to take us out of commission. It wasn’t the old Delta unit, they fought being promoted to Charlie the entire way, and no one jumped up to try to play unit ranking hopscotch either.”

“I wish I could tell you something, I really do. All I know is that my gut is saying this isn’t right.” She gave him a pointed look over the cubicle wall. “It isn’t much, but I can keep my eyes peeled for any leads.”

He nodded. “Thanks, but I don’t want to drag you into anything, especially if this turns out to be something big.”

“You’re not dragging me if I go willingly, Morelli. While I may not be busting heads and whatnot out on the surface, let me do my own sort of carnage of the paperwork variety. In the meantime, take an early lunch.”

“Elaine, it’s only nine fifteen.”

“Then take an early brunch. I’ve already got myself caught up on my own paperwork and once I get this stuff done, I’ll move onto your workstation. That report that came in? Hit up Agent Kline in Unit Foxtrot, see if they’ll give you any information.” She winked. “And I’ll understand if traffic was so bad that you couldn’t get back to the office today. Just be sure to come in at regular time tomorrow morning.”

He got up and shrugged on his jacket, stuffing his phone back into an inner pocket. “Thanks, Elaine. You’re a doll.”

She made a vague shooing motion with her hand. “Quiet, I’ve got a reputation to uphold. And if you talk to her, tell Agent Adams hello.”

Nicky made his way out of the Records Department and strode down the labyrinthine hallways of the Facility. It was a strange sense to step out of whatever time era the department was stuck in and step into a more modern hallway. For a brief moment, Nicky almost preferred the archaic, not quite retro feel of the office instead. Tugging on his jacket collar, he pulled out his phone. Cam and Penny would want to hear what he discovered for themselves.

As he strode down the empty hall, texting as he walked, he thought back to Elaine. He made a mental note to make a trip topside that evening. As thanks for helping shed some light on ideas that had been bothering him, he was buying her the best coffeemaker he could find to replace the sad, beaten up plastic and glass number that took up way too much space on the counter.

He’d even go out of his way to get her the good coffee beans.

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #nicolo morelli #do I know where this rambling sideplot is going?#no I do not #will it get resolved before the month is over?#no it will not #listen I'm doing NaNoWriMo a month early with this challenge #and I'm in the home stretch with less than 8K words left to go #I do not control the story or the characters I just go where they want to go with each prompt

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 16

Prompt: Grief Rating: G Words: 1,009 Characters: Nicolo Morelli, Gianna Morelli Summary: it took longer than expected for Nicky to hear back from his daughter.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

It took Gianna three weeks to get back in contact with Nicky. Apparently Tony had given his mother Nicky’s phone number, because there was a text from an unknown number that just listed a time, place, and a message of I would like to speak with my father.

The place in question turned out to be a tiny cafe in a hole in the wall in Chicago’s Little Italy, which had been quite some ways away from where he was currently stationed. The distance didn’t matter much, Unit Delta had been grounded and basically given permission to act as otherworldly civilians, so he had packed his bags and hopped on a plane. He’d never been there himself, but was instantly charmed by the ambiance - and did his fair share of charming himself, the little old ladies who ran the cafe had patted his cheek affectionately and told him that it was so nice to have a young man his age carry a conversation with them and use some of the older, slightly outdated terms that had grown out of practice.

He was on his third espresso when the hair at the back of his neck seemed to lift. While he couldn’t do anything himself, he hadn’t been trained to recognize magic when he was in the presence of it. Without turning, he could tell that it was an old magic, interlaced with influence from the fey courts.

“My son takes after you, Nicolo.”

Nicky’s lip trembled as he took Gianna in for the first time. “And you take after your mother, Gianna. Though I see a great deal of your aunt in you too.”

She put shaky hands to her lips and shook her head. “Mamma tells me I have your eyes.” Gianna let out a sob. “She’s right.”

Nicky was out of his seat in a flash, arms wrapping around her in a hug three centuries in the making. He was grateful that she held onto him just as tightly, her breath warm against the side of his neck. “I’m so sorry,” he told her, leaning back only enough to wipe at the tears that had made tracks on her cheeks with his thumbs. “I don’t know what else to say, except that I’m sorry for missing out on everything.”

“Did you look for us?” she asked, moving away and sitting down at the chair he pulled out for her, her hand wiping at her face as she sniffled.

“I did.” He held up his cup and silently motioned for the barista to make another. “At first I combed all of Italy for your mother. I spent years searching for her, but nothing.”

Gianna took the cup the waitress pressed into her hands, Nicky realizing that it wasn’t what he had ordered, but something off-menu, telling him that she was a regular. No wonder the shop was empty save for them. “You stopped looking.”

He nodded. “I stopped looking. I figured Isabela didn’t want to be found. Even then, every so often I would pick up the search, extending it to nearby countries, but nothing.” He reached out and touched her hand with the tips of his fingers. “I didn’t know anything about you, I swear I didn’t. If I had, I would have looked harder.”

Gianna gave a watery laugh. “Mama never told me much about you. She’d always get this faraway look on her face and then grow so quiet. I stopped asking about you because she would get so sad.” Turning her hands over, she wrapped her fingers over his and squeezed tightly. “I was angry with you for a very long time,” she confessed.

“I can imagine why. Thinking that a man had abandoned your mother and wasn’t around to see all the important things in your life...I would be angry too.”

She gave him a lopsided smile and oh. It was as if he were sitting across from his sister just then. A pang of grief hit him and he leaned over to press a kiss to the backs of his daughter’s hands. “I would give everything if I could go back and do this over. To do things right.”

“We can’t undo the past,” she told him, letting go of his hands and balling them into fists atop the table. “But we can write the future with the present.”

Nicky felt as if his heart was lodged in his throat. “Would you have me in your life?”

She nodded. “As much as you can be.” She glanced at the phone he had on the table. “My Tony tells me that you’re an agent with the Agency, yes?”

He nodded. “It’s complicated right now, but yes. I’ve been with them nearly as long as I’ve been…” he gestured to himself, belatedly realizing that he’d forgotten to breathe this entire time. “This.”

“About that.” Gianna took a sip from her cup and tipped her head to the side. “I can sense Mamma’s work all over you, but it doesn’t feel like a curse, not like you told Tony she’d done.”

He sat up straighter. “What is it then, if not a curse? She was so angry when she cast it.”

“I don’t…” Gianna paused, brow furrowing in confusion. “Give me your hand, Babbo.”

Nicky was grateful that he didn’t need to breathe, or else hearing his daughter call him father for the first time would have caused his breath to stutter to a halt in his chest. “What are you seeing?”

“I know this spell,” she breathed.

He leaned closer to her. “Tell me, mia figlia.”

“This is no curse. The spell you’re under is a blessing. Mamma bound you to her as tightly as she knew how, so tight that death could never part the two of you.”

Nicky’s brow furrowed. “What are you saying?”

Gianna leaned back and laughed. “I’m saying, there’s a reason she started going by the last name Morelli.” She gave a little laugh and drained her cup. “She married you, Babbo, even if you didn’t know it.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #Unit Charlie #nicolo morelli

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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Snippet Sunday

I was tagged by @out-of-the-embers and @ejunkiet to share a snippet of what I’m currently working on. This is for the 31 days of Wayhaven event, I’m one day ahead with my finished writing and working on Tuesday the 20th’s prompt.

Jumping through windows to avoid being caught was old hat to Nicky. Yet instead of bounding over ledges and running across roof tiles to escape angry fathers or husbands who had come home too early, this time Nicky was vaulting over spiked wrought iron decorations and finding his footing on loose stonework as he chased after a local urban legend while trying not to get his ass shot at by over-exuberant modern day vampire hunters.

As if the thing they were both chasing was actually a vampire.

“All I’m saying is that you can’t eat random people!” Nicky shouted, grateful that he took a half-century or so to learn Russian back in the day, and not just the swear words or pickup lines, swerving to avoid another projectile. The idiots behind him were shrieking, partly in delight and mostly in fear about actually witnessing a vampire in the flesh and Nicky had half a mind to let them shoot him with their makeshift stake launcher, turn around, and scare the fuck out of them when he read them the riot act about shooting live ammunition at something they weren’t sure was human or not.

#snippet sunday #nicolo morelli #he’s my snarky bastard man and I love him so much

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rhetoricalrogue · 4 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 13

Prompt: Apology Rating: PG for Nicky and Tony’s foul mouths. Like grandfather, like grandson. Words: 1,482 Characters: Nicolo Morelli, Anthony Morelli Summary: Meeting his grandson did not go quite as Nicky planned.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

It had taken Nicky some time to gather enough courage to ask Farah to get back in contact with Detective Miller so she wouldn’t be surprised when he dropped by the police station, literal hat in hand, to explain his circumstances. The detective - Aubrey, please just call me Aubrey - was surprisingly easygoing when it came to speaking with him. She’d met him at a little bakery cafe for coffee and an exceptionally good apple crostata during a lull in the business day. He’d been a little surprised that she had come alone, the way that the rumor mill around the Facility ran, he would have thought any one of the members of Unit Bravo would have accompanied her. He’d almost hoped that they would have, seeing that it would add a little bit more weight to his story.

Aubrey had been quiet as he explained his past and how a chance meeting with Farah had clued him into the fact that he may have possibly fathered a child and the woman who had cursed him was an immortal witch. She’d listened, quietly eating her dessert while sipping on coffee, before nodding.

“I’m doing this because I love Tony,” she said slowly. “He’s the brother that I never had and my dearest of friends. I also know his mom and I’ve been in contact with his grandmother.” She thumbed through her phone before sliding it over to show a picture she had taken with an older woman and Nicky’s breath caught in his throat. There was a faint shimmer around her that to the human eye would have been mistaken for reflection of light hitting her just so, though someone trained in spotting supernatural talents, such as he was, could tell that she was using a glamour to make herself look older. Yet magic or no, there was no mistaking Isabela. Over three hundred years apart and he could still have easily picked her out of a crowd if someone told him she was ten feet away from him.

“Thank you.”

She nodded before taking her phone back and chewing on her lip as she composed a lengthy text to her best friend before giving up and just dialing him directly. “But if you even think about hurting him or his family, I swear I’ll kill you, curse or no curse.”

In the end, Aubrey wound up telling Tony that she had met a distant relative of his and wanted to see if he would be interested in meeting him. Nicky guessed it had been a good idea, seeing that according to Farah, Aubrey still didn’t know that her dearest friend in the world was half-fey himself and it would be easier to explain face to face since both men were well aware of the supernatural.

The meeting between himself and Tony had gone...differently than he expected. He hadn’t been expecting much either, but for a man a little older than his age - and how hilarious was it that he was younger than his own grandson! - to walk up to him and say “So, you’re the one who knocked up my nonna and then hightailed it out of town. What the fuck, man?” was definitely not on the list.

“Hey!”

“What? You don’t get to be indignant, stronzo. You’re supposed to be dead.”

Nick glared at the finger Tony was pressing against his chest. “I fucking am, you little punk. Your grandmother -”

Tony let out a snarl that would have done Penny proud. “My grandmother spent centuries mourning your loss, you prick!”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why would she do that? She flat out cursed me to never die.”

“Nonna Isabela would never do such a thing!”

“May you never know the peace of the grave doesn’t quite sound like she was giving me a damn blessing!”

“She doesn’t deal in -” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. “Fuck. You want to know where she is, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“And even if I refuse to tell you, you have Agency resources to help you find her?”

He stood up straighter. “I do.” Okay, so that was a lie, there were rules in place to not misuse Agency property for personal gain, but what his grandson didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Tony stubbornly lifted his chin and oh. It was like looking in a mirror. “And what about my mother, huh? You going to ask about her, or were you just going to walk away again like you did nearly four hundred years ago? She grew up without a father, you know. Her mother never married, just told everyone who asked that her husband had died and she’d never love another.”

“I didn’t know about -”

The anger was back, and there was something not quite human that flashed in Tony’s eyes. “Doesn’t matter, you would have still left. You look the type that fucks and runs.” He threw his hands up and turned away, but then pivoted and pointed his finger at Nicky again. “She loves you, you know. When I was a kid, I would ask her about you, but then I stopped because she always got so sad. She goes to Sicily every year to tend to graveyards because she’s hoping that maybe, maybe one year she’ll find your plot and she could get some closure.” He narrowed his eyes. “She called you her true love, someone she would have gladly bound herself to for all eternity. She even took your last name and gave it to my mother.”

Nicky ran his hands through his hair. “We only knew the other for a week!”

“Soulmates, jackass! They exist, you know!”

It was Nicky’s turn to jab a finger into Tony’s chest. “And for your information, I wouldn’t have left, had I known about your mother.” He jabbed again. “You don’t know a damned thing about me.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I was excommunicated, for Christ’s sake! My own sister thought I was a demon and disowned me when I showed up at her doorstep, still bloody from where some asshole had knifed me and left me to rot in a ditch! I spent years looking for Isabela and nothing!” He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you tell me that she was the only one living through pain. Do you have any idea what it’s like to know that you’re dead, but never getting the chance to die? I have tried poisons, explosives, knives, guns, everything and all that happens is that for the briefest window of time, I black out and experience the smallest amount of peace before I’m back, my body whole as if nothing had ever happened to it.”

Tony looked at him and while the anger was still there, it was as if someone had taken a boiling over pot off the stove to let it sit for a moment. “So, what do you want? For her to break her curse and let you rest?”

“Had you asked me that a decade or so ago, I would have answered yes. I wanted to die for good for a very long time.”

“What changed?”

“Finding something to live for.” He sighed. “Look, tell me where Isabela is or keep it to yourself, I don’t care. Just...tell her and your mother that I’m sorry. For everything.” Nicky gave a faint smile. “Gianna was my grandmother’s name. She raised me and my sister when our parents died; she would have been happy to know that her name outlived her.” With that, Nicky turned and walked away, belatedly realizing that two men shouting at the other in rapid Italian in a public area had gathered a bit of attention.

“She’s not here,” Tony called out. “My mother.”

Nicky turned around. “And if she were?” He tried to keep the hope in his voice carefully hidden, but he knew that Tony had heard it anyway.

“She’s…” Tony also seemed to be aware of the few eyes that had drifted their way. “At home, with my dad. She’ll be back in a week though, which may give her enough time to wrap her head around her father wanting to make contact.”

He swallowed and nodded. “Thank you.”

Tony snorted. “Don’t thank me yet, old man. I don’t know how she’s going to react, or even if she’ll want to see you.”

“Still, thank you.”

“What makes you think that my grandmother would want to speak with you after so long?”

Nicky tensed, but then decided to hide his nerves behind his usual charm. “Because, nipote, how could she not? Like you said, I am the love of her life.”

Tony groaned. “Okay, now I want to see how this plays out. There’s no way that Nonna Isabela actually fell for that line.”

“Only time will tell if she falls for it a second time.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #nicolo morelli #Unit Charlie

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rhetoricalrogue · 3 years

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31 Days of Wayhaven, Day 30

Prompt: Night Rating: G Words: 1,804 Characters: Cameron Buchanan, Nicolo Morelli Summary: This is the fic, if it were a show, that would be titled The Boys Talk About Their Feelings. AKA, Unit Delta (D for Demotion!) field missions are boring as hell. Note: The mention of a certain type of shapeshifting animal is a nod to the Wayhaven Writers Group and a certain Saturday book club reading.

For the @31daysofwayhaven event.

Stakeouts were usually the most boring thing Nicky could think of doing. Nothing usually happened on them and he hated staying still in one place. At least this time he was partnered up with his Commanding Agent so the company was good and he didn’t have to sit out in his car freezing his ass off alone.

“You think there’s going to be any movement?” he asked, taking a sip of his coffee. Drinking wasn’t the wisest idea he had, seeing that he’ll have to go out and find a tree or nearby bush take a piss behind sometime within the next hour or so, but the coffee was hot and he needed something to keep him awake. Napping while doing boring surveillance was a surefire way to make sure that something important did happen that he would unfortunately miss.

“Probably not.” Cam relaxed in the driver’s seat and grabbed a snack sized bag of chips he’d packed. Stakeouts always made him hungry and it was one of the few times that he liked to indulge in junk food and convenience store ready made meals, especially if Nicky was around. It was funny, the man had serious Opinions, capital O and everything, when it came to restaurant food, but the two of them could tear up a 7-11 if left alone without adult supervision, namely Penny and Winona. “Looks like this is another wasted evening.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Nicky raised the night vision goggles he had been messing with and pointed towards some people who were walking away from their car. “I think that’s a drug deal.”

Cam, who had no need for night vision goggles, tracked Nicky’s finger and rolled his eyes. “Nick, those are kids. They look like they’re twelve.”

“Then they’re out past curfew. We should sneak up and scare the hell out of them.”

Cam gave him a disbelieving look before opening his chip bag. “I’m not going to scare a few kids just because they’re walking home in the dark.”

“Spoilsport.”

“You want to be the next cryptid creepypasta on Reddit or somewhere, be my guest. This isn’t the sixteen hundreds where you just had to worry about being stabbed if these kids were carrying knives, Nicky. Kids these days are probably carrying mace and knives and I for one do not wish to spend my evening cold and covered in pepper spray.”

Nicky caught Cam mumbling especially when I could be spending my evening someplace better under his breath. “So, scaring a few juveniles is out of the picture and we both know that tonight’s another wild evening of sitting in the car watching these two were...were-” he turned to Cam. “What sort of shapeshifters are they again?”

“Bears. The husband and wife are on thin ice for apparently attacking a home intruder. They shifted into bear form while attacking her because they were afraid for their children sleeping upstairs.”

Nicky ran a hand over his face. “You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re dealing with the case that some of the agents are dubbing the Goldilocks Affair?”

Cam sighed. “Look, I didn’t name it. I feel bad for them, they were just defending their home.”

“Yeah, but they could have beaned her upside the head with a bat, they didn’t have to practically claw her to death. From what I heard, the Agency had to go in as a group of doctors to memory wipe her and make her believe that she was out jogging in the woods when she slipped and fell down a ravine.”

“How did they make her injuries look like she fell? I saw the file report, there were definitely bite marks involved.”

“You got me, you know how I feel about the Agency when they start doing shady shit like this.”

Cam nodded, grabbing the binoculars on the dash and looking around the area. He paused when he saw the husband stare out the window, his hand at the curtain. “I can’t believe that these people think that we’re here as security, just in case the woman has friends who figure things out and want to retaliate.” He gave a brief wave back when the man waved at them.

Nicky dug in the plastic bag full of food and pulled out a waxed package. Unwrapping it, he took a bite of the handheld fried pie inside, the chocolate filling seeping out from the edges. “I guess it’s better than them being paranoid and knowing that we’re here to look into them to make sure they don’t start making a habit of eating people in the privacy of their own home.” Nicky stretched his long legs in front of him and started tapping a wordless tune on the car’s console as he chewed. “So, you and Penny, huh?”

Cam stiffened. He was wondering how long it would take for Nicky to bring that up. It had been a few days since Cam had told Nicky of his and Penny’s relationship, and he was surprised that it took their friend this long to start to pry again. “Yes, me and Penny. I thought we went over this already.”

Nicky grinned and playfully punched him in the arm. “We went over the fact that you and her were an item, and the fact that you were going to be a prude and not tell me a single sex-related thing, but we never really went over how the two of you went from sighing and mooning over the other when you thought the other wasn’t looking to holding hands and leaving socks on doorknobs.”

He rolled his eyes. “There’s not much to explain? I asked her out to dinner and made it clear that I wasn’t asking her out as a friend. She agreed and we spent the evening talking about how much we wanted our relationship to change.”

“That,” Nicky spat, flopping in his seat and leaning his head back dramatically against the headrest, “has got to be the most boring of how I met my girlfriend stories I’ve ever heard. Where is the drama? The emotion? The sizzling lust that finally gets to ignite after years of longing?”

Cam laughed. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“This is the worst. Twenty years, I’ve waited for payoff to all the pining and this is what I get? Disgusting.”

“Well, we can’t all be you, Nicky. When are you going to tell me about you and your surprise wife?” As if by magic, Nicky’s phone lit up with a text notification from Isabela.

“Speak of the devil,” he murmured, swiping at his phone and giving the picture on his lock screen a fond smile before opening up their chat. “I told her I’d be working tonight, but she was free to text. Didn’t think that you would want to hear me whisper sweet nothings into my phone or else I would have said that it would have been okay for her to call me.”

“Thanks,” Cam deadpanned, finishing his chips and digging into the bag for the sandwich he’d bought. “But Nicolo, are you actually okay with this? I mean, the woman put a spell on you that won’t let you die, didn’t try to find you and made it impossible for you to find her when she was pregnant with your daughter, and from what you told us, stabbed you to death when you went to meet her.”

Nicky shrugged. “We all have our flaws.”

“Nicky, she killed you. You were dead on her kitchen floor. If that’s not a red flag that this relationship is toxic, I don’t know what is.”

“And I’ve been dead in many other places over the course of my life, that isn’t new.” Nicky had a faint smile on his face as he finished texting. “This, Cameron. This talking with a woman and slowly getting to know her instead of heavily flirting just to get into her bed for a brief fling? This is new.”

“And what do you think about it?”

“I don’t know yet. Part of me doesn’t want to put too much hope in this working out because I don’t want to be disappointed if the other shoe drops, but part of me does want this to work out.” He lifted his phone as it vibrated with her reply. “I’ve gotten to know my daughter, Cam. Having a family wasn’t quite the first thing on my mind back when I was still alive. I thought I had time to play around and be the romantic, but really I was just being a fool. And I’ve continued to be the fool all these years because it was easier to fall back on that aspect of my life instead of growing up.”

Cam shook his head. “Come on, Nicky, I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit. You’ve been a fine asset to this unit and there’s no one else I’d trust to have my back than you.”

“Thanks, you don’t know how much that means to me.” He looked at him. “And you know that I trust you and our team with mine. You’re my brother, Cameron, even if I am older than you by a few centuries.”

“Family is important, and I hope that whatever happens with yours works out for you.” He paused. “But really, what do you think will happen between you and Isabela? Will you ask her to come here? Would you leave the Agency?”

“I don’t know. You know how Facility life is, Cam. She’s a witch who’s had her own space for centuries, she’d hate it here.” Nicky laughed as he took another sip of his coffee. “Then again, could you see me as a civilian? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself, especially since I wouldn’t have the same salary to buy all the shiny new gadgets I can get my hands on here, not to mention having disposable income to get bespoke clothing whenever I feel like it.”

“I’ve seen stranger things, though I’ve got to admit, seeing you in a day job? That would be the weirdest sight of all. What would you even do?”

“I could always be a food critic.”

Cam snorted, but hid the sound by opening up a can of soda. “Well, whatever you decide to do, I’m sure that you would be brilliant at it.” He eyed him. “And don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not pushing you out of the unit either. I would love to have you around forever.”

“An eternity watching werebear houses and making sure that little tea shops run by witches were up to code?” Nicky drained his coffee cup and reached into the bag for an energy drink Winona would have had a conniption over if she’d been there to see him drink. . “Count me in.”

#31daysofwayhaven #my writing #Unit Charlie #cameron buchanan #nicolo morelli

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