From Mafioso to Pirate

Chapter 2: Shells Town

XXX

Gokudera had silently led Lambo to the door of their boss' office. Once they were there, the silver-haired man gave the younger boy a glare, snarled out "Don't trouble Juudaime, you stupid cow," and left.

After he left, Lambo just stood there, fidgeting. Why would Tsuna want to see him? Tsuna usually never called him to his office. The only time he had that Lambo could remember was that incident when he tried to steal some weapons. Was he in trouble for something? He didn't remember doing anything that would warrant this...

Finally, deciding that it was useless to just stand there and speculate, he took a deep breath and put both hands on the double doors, gently pushing them open.

Walking into the room, he immediately gained the attention of Tsuna, who looked up from his paperwork and smiled at him. "Ah, Lambo, perfect timing."

"Hey there, Decimo," Lambo greeted, trying to be his usual nonchalant self as his mind shot out theory after theory about why he was called.

The worry seemed to show anyway, as Tsuna quickly said, "Don't worry, Lambo, you're not in trouble or anything like that."

Lambo mentally heaved a sigh of relief. Outwardly, he said, "Really? Yare, yare, don't scare me like that, Decimo..."

Tsuna gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, I should have told Gokudera-kun to make that clear when he went to get you..." He said as he stood up and walked towards him. "And you don't have to call me 'Decimo' right now. This is a personal meeting."

Lambo blinked in surprise. "Eh?"

His boss' face became troubled as he stopped in front of him. "You've seemed...different these past few weeks, Lambo. Sadder, quieter... Is something bothering you?"

Lambo fought to keep his expression neutral. 'I've been like this for more than just a few weeks,' he thought to himself bitterly. 'You're only noticing now?'

A sudden thought hit him. Why was Tsuna noticing this now? He'd be like this for years without anyone really noticing, so why would they now? Just as he was about to question him, though, Tsuna spoke again.

"So, I've decided to give you a three-week vacation."

Whatever Lambo had been expecting Tsuna to say, it wasn't that. He had been expecting something more along the lines of "Do you want to talk about it?" or "Is there anything I can do?" This seemed very un-Tsuna-like.

"Why?" Lambo asked, narrowing his eyes slightly in suspicion.

"E-Eh?" Tsuna asked, looking like he was not expecting that question at all.

Okay, now Lambo was really suspicious. Tsuna's stutter had almost disappeared over the years (courtesy of Reborn) and only really came back when he was genuinely nervous about something. There was something wrong here.

"Why do you want me to go on vacation all of a sudden?" The green-eyed boy continued to question.

"Wh-Why are you asking so many questions about this, Lambo?" Even though he stuttered, there was genuine confusion in his face at his Lightning Guardian's reaction.

Before the younger male could say anything else, though, another voice spoke up that sent chills down his spine.

"Just thank your boss for his kindness, Stupid Cow."

"R-Reborn," Lambo muttered as he and Tsuna both looked at the hitman, who was leaning against the door, a cold expression on his face.

"Lambo," Tsuna said, drawing his attention back to him. The brunette gave him a soft smile. "I really am worried about you. You've seemed so depressed these past few days. I have a feeling this will help. Trust me, alright?"

Lambo went silent for a moment before sighing. He really did trust Tsuna. If his boss believed that this vacation would help him, then it most likely would. Hyper Intuition was almost never wrong, after all.

"...Fine, I'll go," the younger of the three sighed. He would find more information about this "vacation" later. "So where will I be going, anyway?"

Tsuna let out a barely audible sigh of relief. "Fuuta will take you to the port tomorrow. He'll give you all the details then, alright?"

"...Right," the cow-clad boy sighed before turning and exiting the room, careful to avoid Reborn, who hadn't moved from his place near the door.

Even though Tsuna seemed to really be worried about him, this whole thing seemed suspicious. So, the very next day, when Lambo overheard his name being said as he passed by the door of his boss' office, he stopped.

He was most definitely not eavesdropping. He just happened to hear it when he pressed his ear against the door. He was not eavesdropping at all.

Realizing that the door was slightly open (very sloppy of them), he peeked inside to see that there were five people there. Looking closer, he recognized them as Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei, and Reborn. He frowned. Why would the four of them be talking about him?

"Oh, so Lambo agreed? That's great!" Yamamoto said with his usual carefree grin.

"Now we don't have to worry about that stupid cow messing up another meeting," Gokudera said happily. "This was a great idea, Juudaime!"

'Meeting?' Lambo thought, becoming more confused by the minute. 'What are they talking about?'

Luckily for him, Ryohei seemed just as confused as he was. "What meeting? I'm confused, to the extreme..."

"Oh, that's right," Tsuna said, realization in his tone. "You were on a job at the time. Well, a few days ago, we were having a very important meeting with one of our allies, and..."

"The idiot cow decided that that was the perfect time to get switched out by the Ten-Year-Bazooka," Reborn interrupted, glaring out the window.

"Oh? So he's started switching out?" Yamamoto asked, laughing good naturedly. "I was starting to wonder when that would start happening!"

"This isn't a good thing, you idiot!" Gokudera shouted at him angrily. "That stupid cow almost ruined the negotiations! We were just lucky that their boss was understanding!"

"We're having a meeting with another family soon to discuss a peace treaty," Tsuna continued. "We've been fighting against them for a while, and the situation is...fragile, so we can't have anything happening that could ruin negotiations."

"Oh, I get it now, to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed, nodding.

"Couldn't you just keep him in another part of the mansion, though?" Yamamoto asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Last time he was on the other side of the mansion," Reborn said, almost groaning at the memory.

"Really?" Ryohei asked, eyes wide. "How did he extremely get to the other side in less than five minutes?"

"Fuuta was with him at the time," Tsuna said. "According to him, Five-Year-Old-Lambo accidentally sent himself flying with one of his own grenades."

"And the idiot landed right in the middle of the room during negotiations!" Gokudera finished for him. "Seriously, just when I thought that he couldn't get any more annoying..."

"So I'm sending him on vacation so that something like that won't happen again," Tsuna informed Ryohei.

"The stupid cow doesn't know about this, though, so don't mention anything to him," Reborn added in.

"Knowing Lambo, he'd probably throw a tantrum and start crying again," Tsuna sighed. "This is easier than having to deal with that."

'Ah, so that's it,' Lambo thought bitterly as he silently moved away from the door and started walking down the hall. 'Figures... I haven't even thrown any tantrums in years now...' He quickly shoved away his bitter thoughts, though, and moved on to thinking about his old Ten-Year-Bazooka. 'Well...at least they have a somewhat good reason this time. But still, three whole weeks? That's a bit much. If they wanted to get rid of me for a while, they could at least say it to my face...'

Sighing (he felt like he was doing that a lot lately), he continued to trudge down the hall.

If he had stayed, he would have heard the rest of the conversation.

"By the way, how long are you sending him away for, Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked curiously.

"Three weeks," his boss responded, causing the Rain and Sun Guardians' eyes to widen in surprise.

"Eh? Three whole weeks? Is the meeting really going to take that long?"

"Don't question Juudaime's decision, Baseball Idiot! It's obviously so that we won't have to deal with him for a while! Right, Juudaime?" Gokudera asked, his expression turning from angry to puppy-like as he turned to his boss.

"Uh, no, not exactly," Tsuna said, sweatdropping.

"You have another reason?" Reborn asked, sounding almost surprised.

Tsuna nodded, his expression turning troubled. "I only noticed it after Lambo got switched out by the Bazooka, but... I don't know, It just seems like Lambo's acting differently than his child self."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I only noticed it when I compared the two, but our Lambo seems...quieter, and maybe a bit depressed. I thought this vacation would help him out."

"Couldn't you have talked to him about it instead?" The hitman pressed on.

"I want to, but...I just don't know how to..." Tsuna sighed. "Every time I think about asking him what's wrong, I have no idea how to start! It just seems...awkward. It's like I barely know him anymore... I don't know what could have possibly made him act like this..."

"He's probably just trying to get attention! You shouldn't trouble yourself with him, Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted, not wanting his boss to get stressed out over the dumb cow.

"Now, now, Gokudera, calm down," Yamamoto said, causing the Storm Guardian to glare at him. He expertly ignored said glare and looked at Tsuna. "When he comes back, we can all talk to him about it together, right?"

Their boss smiled in relief. "That sounds great. Thank you, Yamamoto."

"Right!" Ryohei shouted, punching an arm up into the air. "We'll be sure to have an extreme talk with Lambo after he comes back from..." He trailed off. "...Where is he going again?"

"Shells Town," Tsuna informed him, causing his guardians to look at him with wide eyes.

"Shells Town? Isn't that a Marine base town? Is it really a good idea to send Lambo there?"

"Don't worry about that," Reborn said. "Marines deal with pirates, not the Mafia. He should be okay there."

"Still, it seems risky," Yamamoto continued, a rare frown on his face.

Tsuna nodded. "I thought so too, but... Something tells me that sending him there will be good for him."

"That's probably your Hyper Intuition," Reborn supplied. "If you think that sending the stupid cow to Shells Town is the right decision, then you're most likely right."

Tsuna smiled and nodded, relieved that his choice had been the right one.

"So, this is the place, huh?" Lambo asked as he got off the ship and looked around the town. "Doesn't really seem that interesting." He muttered as he watched the various civilians coming in and out of ships.

Fuuta walked up to stand next to him and nodded. "Yep, this is Shells Town." He then took out a rather large bag and handed it to the cow-clad boy, who looked at it in confusion. "That's five weeks worth of money."

"Five?" Lambo asked, arching an eyebrow. "I thought I was only staying for three."

"You are," the other boy answered, giving him a reassuring smile. "Tsuna-nii was just afraid that you would blow through it too fast and gave you some more just in case."

"Is that right?" Lambo sighed (he really had to stop doing that) and stuffed the bag in one of his pockets.

"Oh, and if you want to get in contact with us for any reason, you can send a letter at this address," he added, handing the younger male a piece of paper.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Fuuta nodded before his expression grew concerned. "Really though, if you get in trouble with the Marines here then send us word immediately. We'll come get you as soon as we can."

The Lightning Guardian rolled his eyes. "Come on, Fuuta, what could I possibly do that would get me the Marine's attention?"

Fuuta laughed slightly at that. "I guess you're right. See you in three weeks, Lambo."

"See you," Lambo said, waving as the man went back into the ship, which then began to slowly leave the port.

Once the ship was a considerable distance away, he turned back to the town and frowned.

"Might as well look around, I guess. What a boring vacation this will be..."

TO BE CONTINUED