The two then made their way to the next class and the rest of the day passed without any other hitches. That is except…
"I can't believe that we have nearly every class with Emilio!" Dino complained as he walked out of the school gates with Rosetta following close behind him when the day had ended. "Not to mention he hopped at every chance to answer every question the teachers asked!"
"Well maybe if we study up together you can start answering questions faster than him." His friend suggested cheerfully. "Then you two can be even."
"What, and end up a teacher's pet like him?" the young Cavallone said with his arms crossed. "No way!"
He then went on to complain about how hard the classes would end up later in the year, even though they had it easy now. He would have to get his act together, and he believed that his ruthless tutor Reborn had intended it to be this way.
At this moment, they had come out to the road before the gate and found a navy blue limo parked there. Standing in front was a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties or early thirties and was about six feet in height. He had dark brown colored hair that was at a side part and flowed over the right side of his face, nearly concealing one of his indigo colored eyes. He looked very scholarly with his thin rimmed rectangle shaped glasses and he was dressed averagely. He wore a black turtleneck that looked as if it had a blue hint to it under a brown overcoat and grey slacks with shiny black dress shoes. He greeted them with a smile as they approached.
"What are you doing here, Uncle Antonio?" Rosetta asked with genuine curiosity before stopping in front of him.
So this was Rosetta's uncle, which meant he was a Mezzanotte too. But he didn't seem to have the special star in either of his eyes. Why was that?
"I came to pick you and the young Cavallone up and take you back to the mansion." The man named Antonio replied lightly.
"Aww! Today was such a nice day that I wanted to walk." Rosetta stated with a pouty face at her uncle.
"Maybe tomorrow, but I was asked to pick you up today personally." Her uncle replied with a firm voice and a smile as he opened the car door. Already sitting inside was Reborn, who was the person who requested the ride.
"Well I guess if you insist…" his niece stated in reply as she crossed her arms and got into the limo upon seeing the small hitman. Dino followed suit and Antonio got in last.
Once they had all gotten into the car, Dino tried to look a little closer at Antonio to see if he wasn't mistaken in seeing that he didn't have the Mezzanotte star. He found none and thought that was a little odd while having a confused expression on his face.
Rosetta was quick to notice this and said to Dino, "He doesn't have the mark in either of his eyes because he was adopted into the family by my grandfather."
"Hey I was going to tell him that." Her uncle stated in response playfully with a charming smile.
"Sorry Uncle," Rosetta apologized to the older man, returning the smile. "I'll let you tell him why you don't have the star mark."
He then turned back to Dino and continued by starting to tell his story. "I was actually born in China and lived in happiness with my family. They were the best thirteen years of my life, but that soon ended when a couple of mafia men tortured and killed my parents for information. I was then utterly alone. I lived in the streets and lived out of garbage cans. I became furious and did bad things to any kind of mafia man that I came across. I was just so angry at them for taking away the only happiness I had in the world." He smiled in a sad way and Reborn bit his lip with the shadow from his fedora covering his eyes. Antonio stayed like that for a minute or two then he carried on with his story.
"I just lost myself in all the bad things I did that I didn't even know what I was doing anymore. After squeezing out so much information on my parent's killers, I found the family's name and one day, I found out there was a meeting amongst the men in that family. I decided that I'd crash their meeting and get rid of them all. Without thinking, I just ran in recklessly and they laughed at me and started to beat me until I was black and blue.
"Just when I thought I was going to die, a daring man walked through the doorway. He opened his mouth to talk, but I couldn't hear anything. He must have said something because the men around me backed away in fear and let me go. I felt so relieved that I must've lost consciousness but I remember the man smiling at me before I did. When I came to, I was in a bed and a boy my age was sitting at the bedside. He saw me and told me not to move and went to go get the man who had saved me. The man told me everything; that he was a mafia man, but was for peace, that he brought the family I was after to justice and that he had adopted me and brought me to his home. He asked me if I was mad at him for bringing me into a mafia family, and surprisingly, I said no. To this day I live to serve whoever is the boss of the Mezzanotte family, which was Rosetta's grandfather and is now her father."
Once he was done, Dino asked him, "How come you are in the mafia when they are your enemy?"
"I chose to join the Mezzanotte family because their motive is peace," Antonio replied with determination. "That and, as a member, I can stop other mafia families from doing bad things to people like what they did to me."
"Yeah, all the Mezzanotte famiglia support each other and help bring peace." Rosetta added in with a smile. "There are lots of people that are members in the Mezzanotte family that aren't in the inner circle, like Uncle Antonio, so they are branded with a special tattoo that notifies others that they belong in the family."
"How big is the family?" Dino asked out of curiosity.
Antonio and Rosetta looked at each other before facing Dino and answering seriously, "That would be classified information only disclosed to the Mezzanotte famiglia."
"What!?" the young Cavallone asked with disappointment "Why?"
"Sorry Dino, that's just how it is." Rosetta replied, still serious.
Reborn added to this with, "The only way you can know the answer is if you marry a Mezzanotte."
Dino flinched with surprise while blushing profusely. Fortunately for him, Rosetta didn't notice as she watched the scenery rush by out of the car window. Antonio did and flashed him a thumbs up, which made him blush even more.
This was going to be a long school year…
Sorry for the wait. This was actually a version of the original story, but the only text that actually got in with minimal corrections was Antonio's description and back story. Anyway, great stuff! I drew a cover for this story and it'll be there when you click on it from my profile! I wanted to put Dino in it, but I felt that it would be a little more zoned in on the conflict between the Mezzanottes, so no Dino (cross your fingers for Valentine's Day though)! You can see the bigger version of the cover on my deviant (web address on my profile).
Thanks for those of you who have been reading and adding this to your faves and alerts! Reviews are much appreciated too!
