IMPORTANT FOR THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE READ: ITALICS mean that she is speaking in ITALIAN. The reason why I will not write the actual translation is because I do not want to write the wrong one (online translations are not very reliable). The other reason is because I think its annoying to write it in the story, and then have you all scroll down to the bottom of the chapter just to find out what the characters actually said.
And finally, I apologize for not updating in a long time.
And a big hugs to everyone who still follows this story, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Let's just say I was fashionably late.
JOB #3
MAID
I looked at the mirror and squinted.
Was this really me?
I pushed down some of the fly-aways in my blonde hair, avoiding the maid headpiece that sat on the top of my head. My uniform was just like Viviana's; a long-sleeved black dress that went down to the knees with a plain-white apron pressed neatly on my body. I also wore a pair of black tights because I felt weird keeping my legs bare.
Not saying that anyone here is pervert, but I just feel more comfortable wearing the tights.
As for the uniforms, they were actually pretty nice. The fabric of the dress wasn't itchy and the outfit surprisingly didn't look the least bit tacky like the ones on T.V.
I smiled and brushed off the ends of the dress, still looking at the mirror in wonder. I felt like I was cosplaying, which was something I've always wanted to do! I never got the chance to though, I just never had that kind of time. But now that my mom is back on her feet and...you know...how I failed out of college, I guess I have time for myself now.
Wasn't that the reason why I moved here?
To focus on myself and finally have fun with my life?
Okay, well, obviously being a maid and serving a mafia family isn't exactly 'fun', I guess.
Oh god, is that what I'm going to say at my high school reunion? That I'm slaving-it-out in Italy? But, I would say to some extent, It's still better than being a janitor. Wait...I kind of am a janitor...okay, I'll just stop talking now...
"Whitney?"
Holy grass balls! I forgot Viviana was in the bathroom with me!
Two girls going to the bathroom together.
And neither of us had to, ya know, go.
Sounds like high school.
Okay, I'm done.
"Whitney?"
Haha, no, I'm literally dying.
Can the white girl even? No. She can't.
I'm cracking myself up...It's sad.
"Whitney!"
Viviana's beautiful, thick Italian accented voice finally brought me back to reality. She put her hand on my shoulder and placed her other gently against my forehead.
"Are you feeling okay?" She asked, looking at me genuinely worried.
I lightly nodded my head and smiled to relieve her worry. "I'm fine!" I laughed, "I just space out a lot."
The worry that was clearly shown on her features relaxed, and she let out a sigh of relief. "That's good," she said, running a hand through her perfect black hair.
I scratched the back of my head lamely. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you."
Viviana's features brightened up, creating a sweet pink glow on her pale cheeks. "It's alright! I'm just glad that you're okay."
I can barely understand her, but her accent is perfection.
Viviana opened the bathroom door and gestured me out into the hall. "Now then," she paused, looking at me happily with her lovely dark eyes, "Let's go see your room, yes?"
I just nodded dumbly and trailed behind the perfect woman, staring at her form.
This is like the last place you should be if your insecure about yourself. Everyone here is perfect, or at the very least, everyone who I have met so far is. I don't think I'm really ugly or horrible to look at, but I definitely feel like I am next to Viviana. Even the males here are stunning! Yamamoto, Spanner, and dare I say it, Reborn, they're all beautiful! And my boss is hella sexy, and it just sucks how average I am.
It just means I'm gonna have to step it up!
As in, wear heels and make up, shorten dress hem, push up bra, etc.
Nah, just kidding.
I'm not about that life, and thankfully, it didn't choose me.
Or did it? Dun. Dun. Dunnnn.
Am I cool yet?
Viviana stopped in front of a wooden door and turned to me. "This will be your room!"
She turned the golden knob, revealing a rather...interesting looking room.
"Well..." I muttered, taking a few steps into the room, "It's very...white."
No.
Really.
The whole room was white. The walls, the bed, the carpet, all of it was white.
It was like one of those padded rooms you'd find in an asylum!
Except, ya know, without the padded walls...and it actually has furniture in it...and its...not an asylum...
Bad comparison.
Moving on...
Aside from the...color choice, the room was actually quite spacious. A single bed and a dresser were the only things in the room so maybe that was why it seemed so big. But I'm not complaining or anything, it's sure as hell bigger than the apartment I've been sharing with that fatass (my roomie) since I moved here.
Viviana walked up right beside me and laughed. "It's only white because you haven't designed your room!" she exclaimed, grabbing my hand and leading me into the hall again.
Dat accent!
"Wait, Vivia-" I tried to question her but was cut off when she started dragging me to the room next to mine.
Geez. For a skinny, dainty looking woman, Viviana was really strong.
I'll bet you five bucks she can kill me with just her hand.
But, uh, let's not actually ask her to try...
Viviana opened the door to the room and ran in excitedly. "This is my room! Isn't it beautiful?"
Dat Italian!
I walked in slowly after her, ignoring whatever she said in Italian, and looked around the room. The walls were coated in a soft light green, resembling the color of fresh grass. A white bed sat in the middle of the room, and had three green pillows that were identical to the walls in color. On the right side of the bed was a white night stand that had a wooden vase full of casablanca lilies sitting on top of it. Hanging on the wall across from the bed was a huge flat screen T.V. that stared at me almost tauntingly, waiting for me to just knock it over. Of course, I wouldn't actually do that, but with my luck, it's just bound to happen.
Damn, she even has a veranda!
I walked over to the veranda, while Viviana plopped herself on her bed. Peeling back the tan curtains, I was surprised to see a big, lovely garden. The outside walls of the mansion formed a square around the garden, making it the center of Vongola HQ.
"They call it the 'heart'."
I looked confusedly at Viviana over my shoulder.
"The garden," Viviana closed her dark eyes and smiled, "They call it the 'heart' of the mansion."
My eyes trailed back over the wonderful greenery outside. "Why do they call it that?"
Viviana sat up on the bed and scratched the side of her face. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I used to think they called it the 'heart' because it was in the middle of the mansion. But Gloria told me that all of the guardians have different reasons for naming it that."
"Guardians," I accidentally blurted aloud, "What do they do?"
Viviana stared at me, her eyes holding a mix of shock and confusion.
I blinked back at her, waiting patiently for her reply.
Still staring at me, she opened her mouth and closed it again. After a few more moments, she finally spoke.
"Are you a civilian?"
Her question hung in the air heavily as I looked down at my flats, trying to figure out her question.
What did she mean by a civilian?
The black-haired beauty kept her gaze locked on mine. "How exactly did you apply for this job?" she asked.
Her question was indeed, simple. However, this was my second time being interrogated today, so I was starting to get a little nervous.
"Um...craigslist?"
Why did I say that like I was making a guess?
Viviana furrowed her brows at my answer. "Craigslist?"
I nodded my head hesitantly at her. "Someone named Leon made the ad."
"Leon? Who-" Viviana cut her self off in realization and sighed. "Reborn..." she muttered, shaking her head.
Although it was barely audible, I heard her say the dicey man's name and immediately shuttered.
I really hope I don't have to see him again today-
"Chaos."[1]
-Of course.
I'm telling you, the man is a mind reader!
And there he was, in all his glory, leaning against the doorway.
Viviana gave Reborn a look of exasperation. "How many times have I told you to knock?"
"Many," the man said flatly. "But your door was open, so it's justified."
"You're so difficult to be around," Viviana said, rubbing her temple.
Reborn simply smirked in reply.
Ya know, because he's too cool to say anything. Ya know, because he's a MIND READER.
Also, it would be really great if everyone could just speak english...please...
"Come with me," Reborn commanded, finally speaking in my desired language.
Wait, english? Then that means...
I slowly moved my eyes over to the crazy man and realized he was looking at me.
I put my pointer finger to my chest. "Me?"
Say no.
Say no.
Say no.
"Of course," Reborn said, a strange glint appearing in his eyes. "Gloria wanted me to find you because you were supposed to be in the storm wing, cleaning up the library an hour ago."
Viviana jumped in surprise. "Ah! I forgot!" She climbed off the bed and quickly got to her feet. "Let's go whitney-"
"It's too late," Reborn stuck his hands in his pockets, "Gloria wants to talk to you, Viviana."
Viviana cringed, knowing she was going to get an earful from the older woman. "Great..." She mumbled, walking towards the door with her shoulders hunched over, preparing herself for her impending doom known as Gloria.
I raised a brow. After meeting the head maid herself, I knew that she was a very stern woman, just from looking at her. But that didn't stop me from asking the obvious question to Viviana. "Is she really that bad?"
"I wish I could say no..." Viviana said weakly, not even stopping to look back at me.
Reborn stepped into the room and moved out of the doorway so Viviana could get through.
Viviana gave Reborn a meek nod as a thank you and whispered, "We need to talk later," as she passed by him and out of the room.
Reborn stayed completely still, a shadow covering his eyes from his fedora.
I stared at Reborn, noticing that it was just us two, which meant...
"Whitney," Reborn smirked, fixing his fedora so I could see his eyes, "Let's walk together, shall we?"
Did I have a choice?
Of course not.
We both left Viviana's room and started strolling toward the elevator down the hall.
"How was your first day?" Reborn asked, sticking one of his hands in his pockets.
My first day... I blinked, realizing how long and tiring today was. I met Lambo, Yamamoto, Reborn, talked to Mr. Sexy Man, ditched Mr. Sexy Man, met Spanner, Gloria, Viviana and unfortunately, I'm back with Reborn again. Pretty much my day in a nutshell.
"It was good," I said, looking at the strange man out of the corner of my eye.
Upon reaching the elevator, Reborn pushed the 'up' arrow button.
We stood there in silence until the elevator reached our floor, and filed into the empty metal room.
After pushing the button to the fifth floor, the doors closed slowly, making the silence very awkward, very fast (at least for me).
"If you had the chance to become stronger, would you take it?"
I stared at my reflection against the metal doors, wondering why he was asking such a thing.
Nonetheless, I gave him my answer. "Yes."
"Even if it meant putting yourself in danger to protect another?"
Where was he going with this?
"Yes," I answered truthfully, "But these things...I can't do them yet."
After responding to his question, Reborn stared at his own reflection, not even giving me a glance.
"What do you mean?"
"If I had the chance to become stronger, I would take it, even if I put myself in danger to save someone else," I said, staring into my own blue eyes. "But right now, I'm not brave enough to take that chance."
Neither of us moved when the elevator came to a stop.
Reborn shifted his gaze toward me, an unreadable expression on his face. "When you're brave enough, come to me." He then tilted his hat up with one finger, "When you leave the elevator, make a right, and keep walking down the hall until you see an arched wooden double door. It's the library."
I walked out of the elevator. "Thank you," I said, taking one last glance at the man before the doors closed, taking him to another floor.
When I was completely alone, I sighed heavily. For a thirty second elevator ride, that was kind of intense.
I took one last look at the elevator that brought me here, and noticed there were two, tiny red squares on the frame of the metal compartment. Thinking of it as just a decoration, I ignored it, and my feet started to move in the direction Reborn instructed me to.
"Arched wooden double door, arched wooden double door..." I muttered, looking left and right for my destination.
Ah! This must be it!
After a minute or so of walking, I found the big doors Reborn described and opened the entrance.
And I must say, this was one hell of a library.
It was a large circular room with high windows, the light from the sunset hitting against the many bookshelves that towered in the expanse of every bookworm's dream. The floor was covered in a rich red carpet, but was partially hidden due to the vast amount of shelves holding, most likely, very old and valuable books about the Vongola.
I wandered over to the rustic tables that sat in one of the corners of the room and noticed a blue sticky note on one of them.
"Put these back. Dust off shelves. -Gloria"
Her handwriting was a thousand times better than mine. It looked exactly like Times New Roman (everyone's favorite font from school) too!
I glanced at the pile of books she wanted me to put back and gawked at how high some of the shelves were.
This was going to be fun, wasn't it?
Moving my gaze back over to the pile, I grabbed two books from the stack and examined the call numbers on the back.
I turned the books, looking at their titles.
One of the books was titled, "The History of the Flames."
I raised a brow.
That sounded like a rock band from forty years ago.
The other book was, "Fifty Shades of Grey," and well, we all know what that one is about...
Feeling slightly awkward about the "naughty" novel in my hand, I placed the rock band book over the other.
I walked over to the correct shelf and climbed up the ladder at least eight feet up until I heard a suave voice call out to me.
"Do you need help?"
Shit! It was Mr. Sexy Man! And I was on a ladder, wearing a dress!
And as to what came next, let's just say I had a spasm.
I tried to climb down the ladder quickly, but ended up tripping on my own feet. To regain my balance, I dropped the books that were in my hand. I then hugged the ladder, and pushed forward so I could try to straighten myself out by leaning against the shelf. But that failed, and the shelf I was leaning against started to fall forward onto the other behind it.
But before I fell with them, I felt something grab my back, and placed me on the floor.
I wanted to thank my boss for saving me and to comment about how cliche this was, but I was too distracted by the shelves falling like dominos, one by one.
Well, at least I got the dust off of them...
I was so fired.
I promise, I'll update faster! The next chapter will be out next week!
[1] - So, if you haven't read the arc after the anime ends, then you probably won't understand this (I haven't even read it, so even i don't understand). But, without really spoiling anything, Reborn somehow manages to switch to his adult form for a very short period of time in the arc. And instead of his normal 'ciaossu', he says 'chaos'. So...idk if he just says that, or if the whole time in his arcobaleno form he's been saying 'chaos' instead of 'ciaossu'. Or if the translations of the manga aren't accurate anymore. Or if its for a different reason...oh well, I put it in here anyway!
detrametal - I love spanner! I feel like no one ever includes him in their stories :C
blacklightningwolf - Sorry I'm late! And I'm happy you like it :)
dota-chiin - I'm glad you like it! And I'm in love with 10YL!Tsuna! And thank you!
TheParadoxicalOxymoron - Oh crap! I didn't even notice that! Thank you for telling me! And, that's actually a good idea having the fan girls stake out the mansion :) Sorry for making you wait so long!
Gemini Slacker - Honestly, I don't know if I want her to have flames. When I first starting writing this, I thought it would be better if she didn't have them. And I also think it might be more interesting if she faced the Vongola head on without flames, like you said. I can say right now, I most likely won't give her flames. And thank you for the review!
KHRLover1997 - I missed you too! Sorry for taking so long! C:
Paigecat - Haha we'll see what happens! And I hope she isn't/won't turn into a mary-sue :( I wan't her to become more likable and a more relatable character in the story. And thank you for reviewing!
Kimmyluvschu - Hahaha I need to build up her confidence first! :)
SpoonDomination - I'm glad you like it! And I didn't know you couldn't do '3' this on reviews :( it makes me sad
FictionSpark - Well I hope you love it a lot! Haha thanks for the review!
lira - I hope you enjoyed it!