Note: Spoilers up to about chapter 229.
"Why did you think I wouldn't shoot the Vongola Tenth?"
Shoichi nearly ripped the motherboard out of a soon-to-be communicator, his fingers curling in a spasm. "Spanner!" he complained, putting down the little machine gently. Then he grabbed a cloth off his workbench to clean his hands, rubbing vigorously between his fingers and digging under his nails.
Sometimes the luxury of being allowed to get nervous ran away with him.
"It was a red-alert situation," Spanner said, raising his voice so he could be heard without needing to move. "That meant heavy firepower and any appropriate back-up weapons. Strau Mosca and a gun."
He sounded so mellow about it that Shoichi threw down the cloth and turned to stare to at him. Spanner sat with a pressure sensor in hand, aligning wires with tweezers with the unvarying pace that meant he didn't remember to eat for days. "He's just a kid!" Shoichi said. "How can you even talk like this?"
"I was still supposed to take a gun."
All in that one tone of voice, like the topic barely got through to him. Spanner sounded so stupid and honest if you didn't know him.
"Yeah, well, it didn't make a difference, did it?" he snapped. "I knew it was a good bet you'd prefer to see how Tsunayoshi-kun worked, after basing a whole line of Mosca around the data we had on him. And I know you, you don't listen to anything once you've got one idea in your head. All right?"
Spanner chose that point to look up. He grinned, his eyebrows raised. "Shoichi! You're mad I didn't follow orders and try to kill the Vongola!"
Shoichi got to his feet, pushing up against his worktable so it scraped across the ground. He stomped over to their makeshift pantry, swearing non-stop under his breath. He'd forgotten to eat today too.
"I'm glad everything worked out!" he yelled into the solar-powered fridge they'd rigged up, flailing an arm back in Spanner's general direction. "You did what I expected! Tsunayoshi-kun and the other kids are safe, even Reborn-san trusts us..."
He trudged back with an armload of the fruit, packaged snacks, and neatly stored leftovers and dumped it on the ground beside Spanner's worktable. He sank into a cross-legged crouch, elbows resting on the sparse open space on the tabletop and hands digging into his hair.
Shoichi drew in a deep breath, and tried to ignore the way it shook. "So don't go telling anyone I'm pissed about how no one ever just follows my orders."
"No ramen," Spanner said to this raw confession, eyeing the pile of food.
"No! No fucking instant ramen! No lollipops! You only recovered from scurvy a couple of months ago, eat some real food! Do you know how the base doctors whined to me about someone getting scurvy in this day and age?"
"Temper," said Spanner, good natured, and then tentatively patted Shoichi on the head like you would a dog. It was probably his best guess at social interaction.
"Gerrof." Shoichi took deep breaths, vaguely trying to remember relaxation techniques from his sister's meditation tapes. He lifted his head from his hands after hearing the fresh crack of a bite taken from some fruit. "I had to convince people all the time. Do what I say, because I'm a little geek who'd never dare betray the mighty Byakuran-sama..." He waved a hand dismissively, but felt guilt pull his expression out of what he would have liked to show. Byakuran-san, he amended in his mind, and his gut went tight.
"Do what I say, because this has to work and I would kill you to make it happen." Shoichi stared bleakly at Spanner chewing a mouthful of pear. If Spanner wasn't much good at talking, he did a lot better at listening, like he kept the top of his head open and sifted steadily over whatever got poured in. "Sometimes it felt like there wasn't much difference in working for the Vongola or for the Millefiore, when it got to the details."
Spanner took a Tupperware container from the floor and put it between Shoichi's elbows. Shoichi opened it, took one of the forks scattered around the worktable, and started eating slowly. Cold curry, mm. Like being back in university.
"It does look a lot alike, down here in the details," said Spanner, and on his palm was the pressure sensor he'd been working on. The idea was that Vongola kids could slap it on their skin and feel the weight of unexpected footsteps behind them, making it harder to sneak up on them once they got off Giannini's bikes - if the sensors were finished in time. Spanner contemplated the little machine and heaved a sigh, glancing over his shoulder at the back of the cave where the tiling trailed into the half-collapsed hole left by Melone Base. "I'll miss the Millefiore funding, though."
"Spanner!"
"I'm definitely Vongola now," said Spanner quickly.
"And you were Millefiore a couple of days ago!" Shoichi slammed the table with an open palm. "You act like it's easy!" He wanted to hit something again, but he'd already made delicate equipment jump and rattle. He pushed up his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose hard.
"I'm Vongola now," said Spanner. There was finality in his voice.
Shoichi glared at him, and then shook his head and looked away. "What does that mean?" he muttered sarcastically.
"The Vongola Tenth." Shoichi looked up at the tone, incredulous, and saw that Spanner was smiling. "He said I shouldn't shoot anyone at all. 'Killing is bad no matter how you do it.' As if he was in a position to make demands." He snorted a laugh. "Nice kid." Then he looked at Shoichi, and suddenly his expression was serious. "You were a much tougher boss."
"An act," said Shoichi. "I ... well, probably. Mostly," he said, decided.
Spanner shrugged. He rooted out another fork from a tangle of wires, wiped it on his overalls, and leaned over to pick up a container from the floor. They ate in silence.
"You find it that simple? I still can't believe it." Shoichi shook his head.
"It's easier." Spanner's gaze drifted upwards, philosophical. "Vongola would give easier orders to take."
He frowned, and the steady ticking over of thoughts made his head turn down now. "I could have fulfilled your orders if it only needed the Strau Mosca. It was the gun that made it harder. Too close."
His face was given deep shadows by the sharp lights on their worktables. He actually looked anxious for once, his frown deep in his skin. It looked like something had finally got past Spanner's highly specialised priorities.
"Yeah. Well, now you know better." Shoichi could have flinched at how the words didn't sound anything like comforting. He was tired. "It's easy to believe that kind of thing is okay if you don't have anything directly to do with it ... it's not right, but it's easy." That sounded better, and he smiled. "Just don't tell Tsunayoshi-kun, huh?"
Spanner smiled back. "Don't worry. He already knows."
It was quiet up in their hillside hole, but now Namimori's distant urban hum droned in Shoichi's ears.
"He knows you would have just killed him?"
"I told him. Back when I captured him." Spanner's fork hung from his smile like a lollipop usually would. "He really is a nice kid."
And Shoichi had to laugh. "I guess I should have known."
Spanner eyed him speculatively. "How much did you get to learn about him? You had to have some time to plan with him and the Vongola cloud guardian."
"There wasn't much time for getting to know each other," Shoichi said, grinning. "But Tsunayoshi-kun said he'd be dumb ten years earlier."
"We never could talk about the boss like that before," Spanner said. He raised his eyebrows, and Shoichi burst out laughing.
They made a silent toast, bumping two yoghurt snack packs in the air, and sipped them as they looked at the sunset colours of Namimori town. Then, with the countdown closer by a half-day, the generator in the cave kicked in and the sharper lights for night came on overhead, and they went back to work.