The flight passes in a blur of Fon ferrying around sleepy people in his arms and Viper hunting down a better ticket price with manic fervour. They meet Luce at the airport in Italy where she waits for them – with two cars curtesy of the Giglio Nero famiglia in fact, so Lal gives her a big hug, because Lal really can't stand these people anymore.
"I need to pee," Skull says from the backseat, ten minutes in.
"I told you to go at the airport," Fon says, glancing over his shoulder into the back row.
"I didn't need to pee then, I need to pee now," Skull argues.
Colonnello sighs from the driver's seat and Lal pretends to still be sleeping next to Skull.
Reborn chooses this moment to call Skull from the car in front so the stuntman puts him on speaker.
"I need a coffee."
"You just had a coffee," Lal snaps.
Luce giggles from the background of the phone call because she still thinks the boys are cute because she didn't just spend days in a confined space with these idiots.
The car in front pulls over so Colonnello follows. He's actually a little hungry too.
It's a bit chaotic when they pour into the convenience store attached to the petrol station but they manage to manoeuvre around the shelves without starting a fight with each other so really it could have been worse.
Colonnello steps out through the automatic doors, the first one to finish, and bites into his croissant. He slips the paper wrapping off the end and throws it into the nearby bin.
Reborn slides up and munches on the other end hanging from Colonnello's mouth, takeaway coffee in one hand. The blond snarls, face contorting in rage. Reborn growls back, tugging on the pastry.
"Be careful," Luce says from inside the store, watching them through the glass. "It's going to fall on the ground and you're both going to be sad."
Reborn jerks his head to the side and the croissant rips, most of it going with Reborn. The hitman's eyes curve up with a smug smile and he quickly escapes back to the car.
Colonnello lazily chews his part, lying in wait. Skull bounces through the doors with a warm cheese and relish toastie in hand (because he can't have ham when he's pescatarian and yes Reborn gave him shit for it), which Colonnello snatches away and holds above the Cloud's head when Skull jumps for it.
"You already have a thing!" Skull cries.
Colonnello takes the biggest bite he can fit into his mouth before dumping the rest back in Skull's hands.
Reborn makes a distressed sound from the car, left in the closest parking spot to the store. Colonnello and Skull turn to watch as Reborn crams himself into the small space above the trunk, behind the backseats. Despite sitting in the passenger seat, Verde's long arm is still able to wrestle the coffee away.
Fon leaves the store next. He scans the situation and then finishes his lemon and poppy seed muffin in several too quick mouthfuls. He coughs.
"Ha," Viper says, abruptly appearing beside Skull. "Dumb bitch."
Fon takes their strawberry milk to drink, forcing them back easily with one hand gripping the front of their cloak.
Lal strolls out next with a frown and a coffee as black as her soul. "We're leaving in five minutes. I want to hear no complaints about being hungry or thirsty or needing the bathroom until we get back."
Skull stuffs his toastie into his mouth and runs off into the toilets behind the store because he just remembered that he needed to pee.
They finally get back to the manor only to find ants everywhere. Reborn tries to talk them into leaving with his bullshit insect translation powers but gets upset when the ants start heckling him for not having antennas.
"I will find your queens and I will burn them with a fucking magnifying glass-"
"Okay!" Colonnello cries, pulling Reborn back. "Okay, I think we're just going to do this normally. Reborn, go with Skull, get some ant poison and sealant."
Skull drives off with the still fuming hitman, Lal takes a hose and goes around outside flooding anthills while Luce scours the place looking for how the ants got in.
Everyone else works on cleaning the ants up. Even Leon, who stayed at the house instead of following his human, turns into a tiny anteater and goes around eating everything.
"Leon!" Reborn complains after returning with far more poison than necessary. "No, bad lizard! You're going to spoil your appetite for dinner!"
Leon zooms off on tiny wheels and Reborn chases him.
Luce huffs, frowning at the kitchen's backdoor. "I think it might be up high?" The ants are everywhere instead of forming a proper line so she can't track where the hole is.
Verde passes behind her with a vacuum. "You're still looking? It's on the top of the windowsill."
Luce stares up at him. "What?"
"I can see it from here," Verde says casually and then moves off.
Luce has to drag over a chair to climb on so she can find it. She's been searching for half an hour and Verde decides to only tell her now?
Lal offers up a lightbulb. "The one in the living room is out."
Verde walks over and simply starts unscrewing the one already in.
Viper frowns as they watch from a couch. "Gargantuan freak."
Verde frowns right back. "You can float, you can do this too."
"It's not about the stupid light," Viper grumbles.
"Verde," Fon greets happily, standing in the kitchen with all the cupboard doors open. "Can you see where my tea is from up there?"
"Did Reborn hide it again?" Verde moves forward and grabs a box of tea from the shelf above the stove.
"Who else?" Fon sighs in exasperation. "Thank you," he says as Verde passes it down.
"What did you do to piss him off?"
Fon blinks and tilts his head with a ditzy expression. "What do you mean?"
"I can see his bag of coffee beans tucked in the back corner near the window."
Fon squints with how wide he smiles.
Verde slides a sideways glance at Colonnello. "What are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing." Colonnello acts like he isn't up on his toes, trying to pretend he's as tall as Verde.
"You've stopped growing," Verde points out.
"You don't know that!" Colonnello cries. "I'm getting there, damnit."
"Just ask Reborn for some of his high heels. He might even have platform shoes-"
"Fuck off," Colonnello snaps. He drops back down onto his flat feet and then storms away.
"Verde," Reborn says, standing in the kitchen with all the cupboard doors open.
Verde points and Reborn climbs onto the counter to reach in.
"Um." Skull taps his pointer fingers together. "We kicked my soccer ball into the big tree."
"Climb up and get it," Verde deadpans.
"It's up the top," Skull insists. "It's wedged in there and I can't get that high without my weight breaking the branches."
Skull does look particularly scratched up like he fell out of a tree not long ago.
Verde sighs. "I am tall but I'm not a giraffe."
"I meant can you get your cute drone to pick it up for me?"
Verde opens his mouth then closes it. "Oh. Yes."
