[C] In Case of an Emergency...

Spoiled rich kid.

"Twenty questions, or Never Have I Ever?" he suggested. If hew as going to be posing these suggestions, then he was going to make good suggestions.

"Twenty questions. Never Have I Ever should forever remain a drinking game. Also, it is more fun with other people."

The last time he played it the amount of dirt he had learned about Sienna that night was ridiculous. She was drinking for the vast majority of the questions, yet still drank everyone under the table.

"Okay, I'll start. Where did you learn to sing?"

"On the streets, originally. People's hearts bleed for poor kids trying to make their way. More formal practise came later, when I met Willow."

Singing had been one of his best gimmicks when he lived on the streets.

When Willow had taken him under her wing, she'd paid for singing classes to fine tune his skill.

"How long have you been doing that?" He nodded to the bag by Ciro's hip. Maybe he'd find out exactly what Ciro did in this answer.

"Oh."

He shifted uneasily, eyes flicking down. He never knew what to say or how to react when he learned that not everyone's childhoods were daffodils and daisies.

He felt relief when Maddox continued and asked him a question. About his favourite subject too.

"I have been figure skating since I was eight. So, what?" He paused, pressing the digits of his fingers into his thighs one at a time. "Fourteen years now?"

His smile split into a grin. He wanted to go on and chat about it, but he knew that wasn't the point of the game.

"Who has been your favourite role to play so far?"

"JD, from Heathers, definitely. There's just something about playing psychotic characters that just makes my day."

He loved getting into the headspace for characters like JD. Characters that slowly descended into madness like JD did were just so interesting to play.

"Did the show four years ago, with a different theatre group, while Willow and I were living back in England for a while. It was great."

His sharp eyes ran over Ciro slowly. "If you could do anything else, what would it be?"

Ciro just nodded.

"I don't know that character or show, but it sounds fun I guess?"

His theatre knowledge was limited to big shows like Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Very mainstream ones that everyone recommended and everyone had to see.

The skater blinked in surprise. Back in England? Maddox didn't have an accent at all.

Ciro held the question on his tongue for when it was his turn.

"Ballet, probably. I learned that first before skating. But I kept it up in my early teens on the side of skating. I was encouraged to explore different forms of dance after that."

None of them could ever steal his heart like skating did.

"Were you born in England then?"

"Oh, it is fun." He loved that character without a shadow of a doubt.

Ballet. He could actually see this kid doing ballet. He bet it made him flexible as hell, too.

"Yeah, in London. Moved here before I could remember a thing. Lived okay for a couple years way ma tells it." He didn't remember much before the streets, but the tale spinning obviously helped his ma feel better.

"So what are you, but Italian? Chinese, Thai, Korean?"

"I love London," Ciro commented as he nodded along to what Maddox was saying.

So Maddox may as well be Italian then.

"My dad's Thai," he answered, pleased the question wasn't the normal "are you Chinese?" that so many people liked to ask.

"My mother is Italian," he went on to explain. "She simply got jiggly when she was away then nine months later I appeared." He shrugged. "Never met him. I can't speak Thai. The only thing that gives away my heritage is my looks."

He was an Italian man, through and through.

"What made you move back?"

Maddox nodded slowly.

No knowledge of his father. A solid sense of nationality without that. Frighteningly close to his own story.

Even rich people had unconventional backgrounds. They weren't all cookie cutters of each other.

"Nothing for me there. Italy's my life. Never planed to stay anyway. Willow and I were just travelling to get out of Italy for a little while. She gets a serious case of Wanderlust when shes in a place too long." Not that it bothered him much when he got to explore the world. Until they met, he hadn't even explored much of his own damned home city. Now he had a few countries under his belt.

"Would you want to meet him? If you could?"

Ciro couldn't relate. When he was jetting off around the world in the winter he liked staying at home in the summer.

Bringing his thumb to his lips he toyed with the question in his head. He had been asked that a couple of time throughout his life - he made it no secret he didn't know his dad. But his feelings on the matter constantly shifted.

"No. I never knew him, he didn't raise me. Why should it matter now?"

He leaned his weight on his arm again, legs curling beside him instead of straight out.

"Do you know your dad?"

"Don't remember him, but he hung around for a while, ma says."

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "Way he left us? Don't fuckin' need him." He left his wife and kid on the fucking streets in a foreign country. No one needed a man like that.

"Just you and yer ma?"

"Just us. I think she tried the dating thing for a while when I was younger to try to give me a father figure, but it never worked out."

From how his mother put it, she just couldn't get romantic feelings for them. She said it was unfair for her to string them along. Ciro never minded. He was fine with the lack of father figure. Wasn't like he knew any different.

"And your ma?"

He didn't seem to speak about her a lot.

"Wouldn't touch a man again if you paid her."

His lips quirked up into a dark little smirk. "Never got the little sister I always wanted."

Maddox had always wanted a sibling, but it just wasn't in the books for him. And he couldn't ever forgive himself for wishing for a sibling to come into the world he had known growing up.

"Ever wanted siblings?"

"Huh."

Ciro was struck with curiosity. He put two and two together and came to the conclusion that if Maddox was on the streets there was no way his ma would have a child.

But why wouldn't she let another man touch her?

Sure his dad sounded like an asshole. But still.

He shook his head in response to Maddox's question.

"I've got a couple of older and younger cousins. They are annoying enough to get a firm no from me. Besides, I don't like sharing attention."

He teeth glistened as he grinned.

"Is your ma a lesbian then?"

It was the easiest conclusion he could come to.

"Is yours?" he replied with a little snort, which had him cradling his head for a moment.

"She doesn't like anyone, man or woman."

Maddox shrugged. It was hard, knowing his mother was miserable, but it was easier than constantly worrying about whether she was being taken advantage of.

"If you could be anywhere but trapped in here right now, where would you be?"

"Oh, I see."

He felt little dumb for a moment but easily brushed it off.

"Skating," he said instantly. "At the rink here. It is smaller than some of the others I have been to. But it's my home rink. And I like it is never too busy - even for the free skate."

He leaned his head against the mirror and wondered for a moment what his coach was doing right now. This was the first time he missed training in months. He couldn't even text him to explain the situation.

"What about you? Where would you want to be? And you can't say bed."

"Then at the pub," he decided. "A bit of hairy dog might be in order." He spoke the vernacular in English.

Being hungover was never fun.

"Then bed. Can you sing?"

"Hairy dog?"

He gave Maddox a perplexed expresion.

"And, really, the pub?"

He wasn't entirely impressed. Drinking this early in the morning wasn't his style.

"Well, I had singing lessons and my mother said I sounded like an angel but..."

He shrugged.

Thanks to his lessons he could hold a tune, but he didn't sound like Maddox and he definitely wasn't prepared to prove that right.

"Can you dance? - wait, no." If he was in musical theatre then he was bound to have some sort of dance skills, or at least he assumed.

"Can you skate?"

"Drink more to feel better for feeling shit for drinking so much the night before."

Simple solution. Make the mistake again to hide he repercussions for making the mistake in the first place. Vicious cycle, but it definitely helps in the moment.

"Never tried." Didn't care to, either.

"Do you eat meat?" He was going for more random general questions now. Some of their questions had gotten a bit deep.

Ciro shook his head. Even after Maddox's explanation, he couldn't wrap his head around it. Why would anyone want to do that to themselves?

There was a drop of disappointment at Maddox's answer. Not so much for the answer itself, but for his general uninterest. He didn't look or sound like he wanted to change his answer anytime soon.

"Vegetarian. Well, I mean, sometimes I end up having a burger or chicken nuggets on a night out..."

He ran his hand through his hair, giving the other man an embarrassed smile at the confession.

"Can you cook?"

"Enough to get me by."

He could cook a few things. Mostly stews and hotpots. Foods that were easy to make, could be made in bulk, and lasted a long time. A habit he had from his rougher days.

"Can you?"

Or did the rich kid live on take out and expensive restaurant food?

"I guess? Mostly simple things. I like to do a lot of meal prepping for myself. It's easier to keep track of what I am eating and it is fun!"

He did try a few personal chefs when he first moved out on his own, but they never seemed to work out. Often because they couldn't keep up with Ciro's fussy demands.

"What's your favourite food?"

So he did do his own cooking. Incredible.

"Maccu." It was a 'bit of everything' sort of meal, and it was a nostalgic sort of food. He remembered sitting curled up in his mothers lap, sipping at a cup of the soup that a young woman had cooked for the homeless in the area. That woman came around every week to feed them, always Maccu, always the best meal of the week. The hottest, the most thoughtful.

"Least favourite animal?"

He scrunched his nose up.

"I see."

That was, without a doubt, his least favourite type of food. It always tasted weird and different and just gross.

"Bugs. I hate them. Spiders especially."

The mere thought of their long crawling legs sent a shiver up his spine.

"If you were stranded on an island, what three items would you bring?"

"Nothing wrong with most spiders." Though he wasn't as squeamish as most people tended to be around them. He was the official insect mover when he was around Willow.

"Ohh." He tipped his head back as he thought.

"Assuming that I already have necessities, and I'm stocking up on luxuries? My journal, my blanket, and... Pugile. Gotta keep her around."