The Allure of Her - Riff West Side Story -

e l e v e n

A/N: is it a bird? is it a plane? no it's me posting another part! what a shocker.

Cordelia paid attention to Riff's expression as the gang member babbled to him, watching his face contort in hesitancy as he urged Riff to come look. He swiftly turned his head and looked at her, his arm still wrapped around her waist, and he held his breath.

Cordelia, although wanting to be whisked away by him and close to his side, flashed him an (attempt) at a genuine smile and she slipped his arm off her waist, lingering near his hand but eventually freeing it.

She leaned closer to him and whispered him a goodbye, assuring him she wouldn't be lost and trailed away behind a brick wall.

Riff quickly composed himself as he whipped his head back around to the few Jets.

He clicked at them and, like clockwork, they began to lead him to the scrapyard, detailing him on the damages done to the car they were working on, the profit lost.

As the jets rounded into an alleyway, Cordelia peaked her head back around the wall, sighing in relief as she heard the clicks of the jets echo in the nearby alley.

She tucked her hair behind her ears and began to casually track them into the alley, ensuring she wasn't drawing too much attention to herself incase a few jets were still making their way.

They were all huddled around a smashed up car, yelling over eachother; Cordelia dived into a bush and cleared a spot so she could just see what was happening.

"Y' see what they've done to us Riff!" A jet called out.
"What are we gonna do! They can't be walkin' all over of us like dirt!"

"Jets, Jets, get a hold of y'selves!" Riff's voice shattered through the colonies of chatter, silencing them all with his bemused tone. He stood on top of a pile of metal, forming the illusion of a podium, talking amongst his fellow members.

"Now, I think it's past-time for a rumble," he paused, a grin slowly spreading across his face, waiting for the jets to soak in his words.
"A proper winner gets all, rumble!"

The jets noticeably paused, looking slightly anxious at the stakes, but the expression soon passed as Riff jumped down from the metal and gathered closer to them.

"C'mon, we're the jets!"

"The greatest!" They remarked in union, all their faces bursting with enthusiasm and passion.

As the jets began to cheer, a fly swooped down from the streetlight, hovering past a jet member and aimlessly entering a bush, Cordelia holding her breath as she begins to bat it away, rustling the leaves.

Her throat immediately felt more enclosed, squeezing together as she began to redirect the branches of the bush to peek outside and register if any jets had noticed the noise emitted from her encounter of the fly.

The group began to go over details of how to initiate the rumble, forming a system of locating them, Cordelia recognised her disruption had caused no alarm and gingerly slipped out of the alleyway, a sickly feeling clawing at her stomach.

ding

"Val, is Tony here?" Cordelia called out from the doorway of Docs.
"Vallllll!" She drawled, her eyes surveying the shop in desperation.

"Dee, what are y' doing? Val's gone to the market." Tony murmured groggily, rubbing his eyes as he emerged from the basement door. He clearly dosed off while stacking the shelves, judging from his slightly puffy face.

"Trynna find you!" She hesitated on her next words, pushing the pair back down the stairs and bringing her voice down to a whisper, taking a few steps closer to him.
"Something big is going down, with the jets and the sharks. I think Riff is in the middle of it."

She left out the part where Riff is the one mixing up the trouble, that's something to be addressed later.

Tony's face quickly contorted, his face a blank canvas, doubtful of her words but soon morphing into a disappointed scowl, and he looked down at Cordelia.

"Alright, Dee, y' gotta go home, I can deal with this okay, I can talk some sense into Riff n' the Jets. You, go home." He paused in between his last words, illustrating a sense of urgency.

"No. No, no, Tony I can help, I don't gotta sit on the sidelines, I can come with you!"

Tony grabbed her shoulders, holding them tightly enough so she can't shrug him off but not so much that he appeared threatening. His voice dropped low, he whispered only loud enough for her to hear,
"Go. Home."

Before Cordelia could protest, a ding rung out from back upstairs, and Tony, still holding her shoulders, shuffled her sideways to him, forming a clear path back up the basement stairs for him. Releasing his grip on her, he raised his eyebrows, attempting to entice her to give up on this deluded mission, and then trekked back up the stairs, swiftly opening the door, going through, and shutting it close.

Cordelia huffed and slipped off her heels to not alarm the people above her of her presence as she timidly ascends the stairs, putting her heels back on and pressing her ear against the door to hear the distressed muffled voices.

"I know she came in 'ere Tony, you're not fooling anyone."

Cordelia could recognise that voice anywhere, it's the same one that called her ridiculous nicknames; the same one that cared for her the moment he recognised distress; the one she felt she could tell almost anything too. It was Riff. Her suspicions were shortly confirmed.

"Riff, we gotta talk. Outside."

Riff audibly groaned, and a door slammed shut, shuffling of a paper could be marginally heard until footsteps similarly retreated.

Cordelia scantly opened the door, inspecting the room for any sign of the two previous inhabiters, only a piece of wrinkled paper -clearly having been slightly scrunched up- showed a change from what it was 5 minutes ago, when she entered.

She hastily launched herself into the room, seizing the piece of paper and inspecting it.

Scrawled in black ink read, 'go home Dee, please, you can't be involved, for your own safety. I'll report back to you soon alright, at your flat.'

She folded up the paper and dropped it in the bin on her way out of Docs, making a beeline to her house, disciplining herself to not take any detours.

As she locked the door she turned and quickly flung herself into the plush leather of her sofa, she began to wait for Tony.

Florence was at her boyfriend's house so Cordelia didn't need to agitate herself with the lecture if Tony was detected in their home, allowing Cordelia to take a breath of relief.

The more time passed, the more anxious she got, doubting his appearance while simultaneously becoming uneasy at if something happened to him.

Riff wouldn't hurt him, although her scepticism about him began to creep in, she was aware he wouldn't hurt Tony. Ever.

She had anticipated a knock on the door, if any show up at all was to be expected by Tony, but instead an all too familiar knock at the window flooded the apartment.

A/N: crazy, wow, wonder who that could be.