"I'll tell you what you can do, Giovanni! You can pull yourself together, act like a man! Is this how we Montana act now, crying all the home like some, I don't know,woman?! Oh...no offence, Orenichi."
It had only been a couple of hours since the attack by the unknown, masked vigilante, and Giovanni, Angelo and Orenichi had been right not to expect any sympathy from Don; if there was one thing their leader knew how to do perfectly, it was how to rub too much salt into freshly opened wounds. If you failed, you'd failed and the whole street knew about it.
"None taken, buta," was the disturbingly chirpy reply, soon interrupted by a sharp elbow in her side by the young male stood beside her; in Angelo's books, no one called his papa a pig, no matter what language they used.
"Was there any reason to slap me though, boss?" Giovanni asked, rubbing his cheek as if he could magically make the pain go away.
"Well, no respectful man in his right mind would slap a woman and Angelo's just a little kid," Don began to explain, gently ruffling his son's messy, blonde hair. "So it kinda had to be you, and I apologise for that. Wait a minute...no, I don't. You deserve it for letting that nacho grease-monkey making me look foolish."
"How did you look foolish, exactly? You weren't even there!"
"Your results are a reflection of myself, Giovanni. You screw up and it makes me look weak."
"You know, we'd have never had this problem if you'd just let Tino come with us," was the rather daring response.
"You damn well know why he couldn't come with you, idiota! It'll be a cold day in hell before I let my older son walk around in the state he's in. Doesn't help Enzo's probably faking it to get some attention. Still, would have been interesting to see how our little vigilante would have coped against chronic influen-"
Don trailed off, as if he could sense another presence in the doorway; upon turning around, his suspicions came true in the form of a familiar, Japanese face.
"Aniki, please," he said, sounding rather annoyed. "Could this wait until I've finished?"
"No it cannot," he replied, arms folded as he leant against the door-frame. "I just heard what happened and I needed to make sure-"
Noticing Orenichi's somewhat bruised state, Aniki's stance switched from cheeky to concerned, and seeming as if he was trying to stop himself shaking with slight rage at the situation.
"What happened to you?"
"Just a run-in with an unknown," she replied, managing a smile for his sake. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
Approaching her, Aniki couldn't help shaking his head and sighing at the fresh, darkish patches on the female's skin; his shaking then becoming more and more intense as he struggling to contain his growing anger. In a sense, he could somewhat empathise with the intense feelings that the likes of Miho and the Berzerk had to deal with on a daily basis.
"How dare they do this to the mother of my unborn child!" He suddenly snarled, grabbing Orenichi close and hugging her as if he couldn't bear to let go; letting go then actually proving to be necessary when, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a familiar and forlorn face at the entrance of the office.
"Fabs!"
"Oooooh, bad timing," Giovanni remarked, wincing a little due to a mixture of awkwardness and then being the victim of Angelo's next elbow jab.
"Fabs, I can explain...we can explain."
"How dare they do this to the mother of my unborn child...WHAT."
His repetition was met with silence as not a single person in the room, especially the two Orientals, couldn't even continue to make eye contact with him; Orenichi nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and Aniki distracting himself with the floor.
"We were drunk. Like, really, really drunk."
"Likely story," Fabs retorted, almost spitting the words out in disgust as he could barely make eye contact with Aniki.
"We had to have been. He reminds me too much of Hiro to have been comfortable in a sober relationship with him," Orenichi explained, slowly trailing off into a rather thoughtful manner. "Can we call him Hiro?"
"No one is calling anyone anything!"
At that moment, it was clear that Don had had enough.
"May I remind you all this is serious. This nacho grease-monkey is strutting around like some peacock and dragging all our names down, we are still at war with the Uppers, Griezzo's only gone and gotten that frickin' beach hippy pregnant, I should now be upstairs making sure that Tino isn't dying so that his fat bitch of a girlfriend doesn't give me grief and Fabio...you're getting upset of all things that I was right and this sham of a marriage is failing to hold? Pull yourself together and stopped getting worked up like some woman!"
It wasn't often that Don let himself explode like that, if only for the sake of his heart, and the reaction from the other Montana was nothing surprising; silence falling over the room as if they were all scared that speaking would cost them their lives, the only audible sounds was Don's heavy breathing as he tried to calm himself down.
"You...you really don't approve of anyone's relationships...do you, boss?" Giovanni then asked, daring enough to break the silence first.
"You can shut up and all!" Don snapped, looking as if another slap was in store but then deciding against it, shaking his head in frustration. Looking up and muttering what seemed like 'dio, give me strength', he began to make his way out of the room without another word; a sentiment not shared by the likes of Giovanni if his breaking the silence first again meant anything.
"I...I don't see any wedding ring on that finger, Aniki. Proving the Don right to stay in his good books?"
Shooting Giovanni a dark yet playful glance, the Japanese male simply pointed to his ear; sure enough, where his earring usually hung, his wedding ring seemed to be happily taking it's place.
"See it and believe it, Giovanni. I had the wedding ring customised so it could be a constant reminder to listen to my husbando."
"Awwww," Fabio cooed, seemingly genuinely touched before realising what had happened and immediately dismissing his public display of approval. "Huh. That's kinda sweet, I guess, but I'm still really pissed off at you. Fuck you Aniki, and fuck you Orenichi. Oh, and fuck you, Giovanni. Angelo, we're still cool."
Turning to leave the room, he felt himself smiling genuinely when he heard the blonde's response of 'heh, thanks Fabio'. But the icing on the cake was hearing Giovanni's constant and increasingly worried remarks and burning questions.
"What?! What did I do?! Fabio? FABIO! WHAT THE CAZZO DID I DO?!"