Livia Ximena Di Vittorio

"Watch it, Ramos," I warn when his eyes keep steering towards my cousin. I might have been younger but Camilla was someone I would protect for the rest of my life. Seb's hands fly up in surrender looking at me with a guilty expression.

"You know I won't try anything, Livy." He mutters, going back to wrapping his hands with tape. "I don't want Cami wrapped up in this messed up world as much as you."

I was startled to hear the darkness in Sebastian's voice; he is always the heir with the most compassion, the one who is always lighthearted through the darkest of times. Sebastian helped me so much last year when I was struggling even though he himself was drowning.

I sigh feeling conflicted; I was torn. Do I go with my head or my heart this time? My dad's voice rings in my head. 'Go with your first feeling, Liv. Most of the time you aren't wrong.'

"If it does eventually happen, Seb. I won't be mad." I grit out, it was a lot harder to say it out loud than I thought it would be but I needed to. "I see the way you look at her, and even though I wouldn't prefer that outcome I won't come between you."

Sebastian looks at me in shock and then he frowns. "It won't happen, Liv." He states gruffly, making sure I knew his decision was final. "I can't put her through it."

"We're all condemned in this life aren't we." I sigh, sliding down to sit on the mat and Sebastian follows me, the two of us stretching and warming up for when my brothers come for us. "At this point, none of us will ever find true love."

"I know, stupid rich kids with nothing but money and guns." He comments dryly. "Except for maybe the Princess, has she said anything to you about Ju...."

"Don't say his name, she might hear you." Both of our eyes flicked to Adelina, she had bat hearing and even though we were far and our voices were low, I didn't want to take any chances of being on her bad side. "She doesn't want to talk about it."

Sebastian sighs, but we don't comment on it any more. Last year we had both seen Adelina fall in love, but like anything in our lives, it hadn't lasted and it had left her heartbroken and colder than I had ever seen her.

"I'm heading out now," Camilla announces as she makes her way towards Sebastian and me, she smiles at us, totally oblivious to how he was looking at her, like a love-sick puppy. I blow her a kiss as she departs, returning the action.

"If you keep looking at her like that, she will probably figure it out," I comment, my eyes now following my brothers who had entered the room and not Sebastian, who murmurs under his breath.

"Yeah, like you haven't been receiving the same looks for years. It's the Di Vittorio curse"

"What was that?" I ask, refocusing my attention on my friend.

"Nothing, Livy."

I ignore the man and stand up. Sebastian followed behind me as I made my way to the boys. I hoist myself up to sit on the table and open the file with the training schedule all of us had gone through when we were between four and six. I hand out one to Seb for him and Nikolai and the other I pass to Adelina.

"Romeo, you are with me and Zi, Dante. You're with Addy first, and you two are with Seb and Kai." I announce. "The day will be split up into four sections, two before lunch and two after. Romeo and Dante, you guys will switch before lunch but you two will carry on until lunch with a break when the others do and it will be the opposite afterwards, got it?"

I wait for the series of voices to confirm before I carry on.

+

I chose a reliable, relatively easy gun for Romeo, taking a similar one for myself, only loading the one I was going to be using with bullets, but leaving the safety off both. Zion was sitting and doing a bit of paperwork while I got Romeo started and we would switch when it was time to teach him about snipers and long-distance shooting, Zion's speciality.

Romeo looked nervous. Not that I blame him. It was pretty intimidating being in a room with a wall with every gun imaginable. But in the weeks he had been here, Romeo had been the best at hiding his emotions. He hadn't shown all the nervousness the others had. He had just taken everything as it came, not batting an eye at it. Who knew it would only take a couple of guns to get him intimidated?

"Rule one," I say, my voice coming out firm as I pass him the weapon. "Do not point a weapon at anybody unless you are in immediate danger. Then just shoot and ask questions later."

Romeo fumbles around with the gun but does as I say and keeps the gun facing the floor and not at me. I watch him get used to holding the object until he makes a mistake.

"Rule number two, do not touch the trigger until you are ready to shoot." his finger moves away at lightning speed and I smile, leading him to the firing line. I set up a target sheet and step back. "This is the firing line. Obviously, in real life, you won't have one, but at the range, you are not allowed to take the safety off your gun until you get here."

He nodded along with what I was saying.

"Now for holding the gun. Are you left or right-handed?"

"Right." He answers, making me smile.

"Hold the gun in your right hand," He does and I move his fingers around until he is in the right position, then I add his right hand so it's in the right place. "Your right hand is going to be doing all the work, the left is just there to support it, taking the safety off and reloading the gun. Don't let your left hand fall, otherwise, quick reloading will be harder." Once again, I helped him move it. "Now you have to pull this to take the safety off."

He does what I tell him, well tried to, and then tries again. And then Romeo looks at me, panicked. "I think it's broken."

I hold out my hand for the gun, holding it in positing and then I take the safety off, laughing at the shocked look Romeo gives me. "Come on, Rome, going to let your little sister upstage you!" I tease, handing him back the gun. "Use the side of your index finger and your thumb."

Romeo tries again and after a couple of tries he manages to, and once he has it. "How did I find that hard?"

"It's the technique, admittedly our guns are a little harder than normal guns to use because they are of a higher calibre, but once you have it, it will be hard to lose it." | now pass it, now I have to load the gun with bullets." As soon as I said that I realised I probably should have. All the comfort Romeo was feeling with the gun was now gone and back was the nervousness I had thought we got over. "Look, I'm only putting in rubber bullets. They can pierce the paper over there but now a human. You can't hurt anyone here, badly."

I mutter the last word. It didn't damage you, but they sure as hell hurt when you got shot with them. I knew from experience. My friends and I had often taken rubber bullets to play a less messy form of paintball without the protective gear. It hurt just as bad as normal bullets. I hand the gun back to Romeo and take mine, standing in the firing box.

"So look, you need a comfortable stance. There are multiple things you can do and you will learn them all because it's your comfort. You can stand feet parallel or one slightly in front of the other. But you need to be sturdy or else you will lose your balance with the recoil." Romeo nods and copies me. "Now you keep your right arm pretty straight in front of your dominant eye, wait is your left eye dominant or your right?"

"I think it's my left eye."

"So you're like me. It's rarer to have an eye opposite to your dominant hand. Okay, so close your right eye and line the gun up with the target in the middle." I watch as Romeo steps into a stance lift his hands up and then shoots. He loses his balance a little bit, but he smiles when he sees the mark in the paper has landed a ring away from the bull's eye. Romeo looks at me for approval and I smile at him. "Not bad newbie."

"Not bad?" He asks in exasperation.

"Did I say stop shooting? There are nine more bullets in that magazine?" As he turns away, he doesn't see the growing smile on my face. I watch him as he finishes, giving him a couple more pointers and corrections.

"I want to see you shoot." Romeo declares after I've finished teaching him how to clean the gun. "You seem to know what you're doing."

"I know what I'm doing." I lift my gun, firing it ten times consecutively, and when I stop there is only a single hole, right on the bull's eye, that all ten bullets had passed through. I quickly reloaded, firing another ten shots onto the target in the next lane. This time they weren't straight. I look at Romeo once I finish seeing his jaw slack. I move forward and grab the target sheets, passing one of them to Romeo, one that I made a smiley face on for him. "I've been doing this for twelve years. I think it would be worse if I didn't know what I was doing."

I walk out with a laugh to find Zion so he can start Romeo's sniper training. Romeo runs after me to catch me up, we pass the main training room where Matteo and Martino are trying to beat each other up.

"You were six when you learnt this?" He asks softly. "That seems a little young to be playing with real guns."

"This training thing you guys are going through is done by all members of mafia families in Europe, most do it between ages five and ten, I did it at six when it was decided that I would be the successor, but others do it at different ages. Adelina went through this at four because that's when all British heirs start training."

"Four." He exclaims softly. "That's just baby age."

"Delia rushed to take you away fast because Dante was almost at the age that he would start all this. I would have started earlier, but everyone was busy since Luca had just been born. It's the way in this world. It's a little messed up for sure, but unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it."

"Even when you're in charge?"

I shake my head disappointed. "There is a list of rules each mafia has had for many, many years. Each boss can only abolish one rule during their reign, and they can add a new rule as long as it doesn't interfere with existing rules. Dad has used this already to take away the rule that only males can be the Don. Unless, of course, you get a council involved and you have this whole long meeting with everyone and there is voting and all that nonsense, that is never not messy."

"Will you change it when you're in charge?"

"No." I shake my head and he looks at me, confused. "There are many more evils in this world for children than learning how to protect yourselves. I think it's one of the better things that happened in my childhood. My training was the only thing that had saved me through some of the worst moments of my childhood, so I might have known how to shoot someone or to knock them out too, but it saved my life."

Romeo frowns at me questioningly, but with a last sad smile, I walk away. "Zion's waiting for you."

I walk away, not turning around.

I've been sick so I've had a little bit of time to write instead of school, I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Romeo and Livia bonding. And maybe a little hint into backgrounds if you caught it ;)

What else do you guys want to see or do you have any predictions???

Hope you all have a great rest of your week and I will see you Sunday

Please vote and comment and happy reading

Ara <3