Title: Buon Compleanno
Summary: It's Giotto's birthday and a celebration is in order.
Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano
Pairing: Parental!G27
Warning: Fluff! Also, least creative title ever.
Unbeta'd.
Buono Compleanno
"Uncle G! Uncle G!"
The man in question, one Vongola Storm Guardian and Right-Hand man of Don Vongola Primo paused in his steps and turned around, ruby orbs peering at the tiny figure running (or rather, more precisely, 'tumbling' towards him).
Sawada Tsunayoshi, or now officially 'Sawada Tsunayoshi di Vongola', was a rather small-sized brunet (even for his age of four) and a not-quite recent addition to the family.
Approximately seven months ago, Giotto and G had found the scrawny child shivering beside a puddle of muddy rainwater on the sidewalk while they were out on a business errand. The tiny brunet was practically all skins and bones, and was covered in numerous cuts and bruises. In fact, the poor thing was curled up into himself, shivering from not only the cold of the twin, but the dangerously high fever he was running from the infected wounds. Neither man could bring themselves to live the child to die there in the streets—not even G, who was dangerously suspicious of anything and everything—and so they had cut their trip short to bring the child back to the Vongola estate with them. It had taken Tsunayoshi three weeks to recover from the infection and fever. It had taken another whole month for him to recover from the malnutrition. It had taken another one week (making it a grand total of two months) before the child spoke for the first time in a year (or so he said, after his voice healed from the disuse).
It took less than two days for Giotto to decide to adopt the young brunet.
As they later found out, Tsunayoshi had been abandoned by his birth father—the child was very insistent that it was his father, not his mother, that dumped him in the streets—almost a year ago. He had since been "surviving" on the streets, as well as he could—which was to say, not very well. He was scrawny and weak, making him an excellent target for muggers and street thugs. In fact, it was safe to say it was a bloody miracle the kid survived for so long to begin with. Despite having grown up on the streets themselves, both Giotto and G couldn't imagine how the brunet lived, given that he was alone while they were together.
The revelation only served to cement their decision to adopt Tsunayoshi more firmly (well, Giotto's decision to adopt and G's decision to approve).
"Uncle G…"
The soft whine finally pulled the redhead out of his thoughts. Focusing his attention now, G put on his best stern look (who effectiveness is something eighty-nine percent of the estate would testify to) and stared down at the child. "Tsunayoshi. What did I say about running in the hallways?"
Tsunayoshi winced. Then, in a sheepish tone, he mumbled, "That I shouldn't do it?"
"And why is that?"
"Because there are lots of people around carrying not-so-good stuff and I could get hurt." Tsunayoshi recited. Seeing the huge, disapproving frown on G's face, the brunet looked down at the ground guiltily and spoke quietly, "I'm sorry, Uncle G… I just wanted to give you this…"
With that, Tsunayoshi held out what he had been hiding behind his back―a folded piece of orange card. G quirked an eyebrow at the sight, but took the card at the brunet's urging. Without anymore prompts, he flipped open the card, and just barely managed bite down the smile threatening to take over his face.
Dear Uncle G,
You are (something blackened out) invited to (a roughly struckout 'Daddy') Giotto's birthday party on 25th January, 1xxx.
(More black scribble) Place: First Dining Room
Time: (struckout 'dinnertime') 7.00p.m.
Be very sure to show up! See you there!
―Sawada Tsunayoshi di Vongola
The effort was enough to make even Alaude's lips twitch, and by the end of it, G could no longer help back the smile. He knelt down on one knee so that he was at the child's eye-level. "You organized a birthday party all by yourself?" Tsunayoshi nodded proudly. "And you're sure you have everything you need?" Tsunayoshi nodded again. "Good job." G smiled, ruffling the fluffy brown locks. Chuckling at the pout Tsunayoshi was shooting him, G continued, "I'll definitely show up. Have you given out all your invitations yet?"
"Umm… I gave Uncle Lampo, Uncle Alaude and Uncle Daemon theirs…" Tsunayoshi replied, counting off his fingers. "Uncle Asari and Uncle Knuckle will be back later… Oh!" The brunet stopped suddenly, staring at G with wide, pleading eyes. "Uncle G! I haven't given Uncle Cozart his! But I don't know where to find him…"
G laughed. "Do you have his invitation? I can pass it to him for you."
"Really?" Tsunayoshi's eyes lit up in genuine delight as G nodded in confirmation. "Yay! Thank you, Uncle G! I love you!"
"I love you too, kiddo." G replied.
Tsunayoshi had given out the invitations three days before the 'party' (which was, technically, really just a glorified dinner) and so the day of the party quickly came.
Much to G's surprise, Alaude and Daemon both showed up as invited and were actually on 'civil' terms. (The Storm Guardian would bet his life that the infamous shiny wide-eyed gaze of one Sawada Tsunayoshi di Vongola had everything to do with it.) Cozart showed up as well, of course, but seeing that the bosses of Vongola and Shimon were best friends, it wasn't unusual at all for him to drop in on dinner, so everything was perfectly normal.
And speaking of normal, dinner was so perfectly 'normal'―in Vongola standards, anyway―that G was starting to question what, exactly, did Tsunayoshi plan, if at all. The only difference G could tell was in the dishes―everything was basically Giotto's favourite―but even that wasn't particularly special, seeing as Alfonso, the Head Chef, do favor his employer from time-to-time.
It was the fact that Tsunayoshi excused himself after finishing dinner that told G (and everyone else) that the child did have something planned. After all, five minutes later, the lights went out and seconds later (G was fairly impressed at the speed), candles lit up beside Giotto.
"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"
And with that, the dining room burst into the birthday song,
Giotto's smile was face-splittingly wide when the song ended and the lights returned. Golden orbs flickered down to see Tsunayoshi holding up the cake with the helf of Alfonso behind him and that the child's smile was as wide as the one on his own face. The cake was relatively simply decorated; it was covered with white vanilla cream, while rows of sliced strawberries lined the sides. It was obvious that the cake decoration (and likely the baking itself) was all Alfonso's work, but the words written on the cake with colourful icing was all Tsunayoshi's.
Giotto stepped out of his seat, kneeling down to pull his son into a tight hug. "Thank you, Tsunayoshi. Thank you."
"Do you like it, Daddy?" Tsunayoshi asked, trying (but failing) to hide the expectant look on his face.
"Of course, Tsunayoshi." Giotto smiled. "You must have put in a lot of work for all of these. I'm so proud of you." He hugged Tsunayoshi close again, gently and lovingly ruffling his son's hair as he pressed a kiss to his temple. "Thank you, Tsunayoshi." Giotto murmured again. "I love you."
"I love you too, Daddy." Tsunayoshi replied, kissing the tip of Giotto's nose. "Quick, Daddy! You have to make a wish and blow out the candles! And then we can have cake! It's Daddy's favorite strawberry cake!"
Giotto chuckled and was quick to follow. His wish was simple.
To be able to celebrate his birthday with his family every single year for the rest of his life, however short.
And his wish came true.
Omake.
"Happy Birthday, Primo!"
It was strange, but the Vongola Famiglia was holding a private party for the birthday for none other than Giotto, founder and first boss of Vongola.
The Tri-ni-Sette had joined forces to grant the First Generation Vongola Guardians a corporeal body for twenty-four hours, and even managed to summon the spirit of the first Don of Shimon, Cozart. It was a relatively small party, attended by the Ninth and Tenth Generation Vongola Guardians themselves (though Hibari had long since disappeared), the Tenth Generation Shimon Guardians, as well as the leader of the Arcobaleno.
It was a small party, planned and hosted by Tsuna (partially under threat by Reborn and his tortu―training) but, as with any Vongola parties (even the small, private ones) went spiraling down the wild end rather quickly, especially with all the alcohol involved. Tsuna was sure he will get a gigantic headache the next day―not from a hangover, but rather, the aftermath of the party itself―but the smile blooming on his predecessor's face as he chatted with his two best friends made the Vongola Decimo certain that everything that went into this party was worth it.
Smiling just below the rim of his shot glass, Tsuna murmured softly, "Happy Birthday, Daddy."
And if Giotto's smile widened just a tad more as if the words reached him, well, he'd never tell.
A/N: This was extremely rushed (because procrastination) but to be honest, I hadn't actually planned this out properly. All in all, this was a terrible job. According to Reborn Wikia, Giotto's birthday was listed as January 25th, so… birthday fic!
Thank you all for reading this rather crappy work. Ciao Ciao~