Composición del Sol
Chapter 2: La Boehme- Your Tiny Hand is Frozen, Giacomo Puccini
"Ah! Miss! Miss! Please calm down! I assure you that you are in no harm whatsoever!"
"¡Mierda! ¿Dónde estoy?"
"Miss! ¡Por favore! You are in our master's home. Please do not worry. I assure you that you will be fine!"
The sound of shattering glass echoed through marble hallways.
"¿Quien es tu jefe?"
"Signior Tsunayoshi Sawada, miss."
"¿Tsunyoshi Sawda?"
"Si. Signora, por favore. Calm down."
Language barriers echoed throughout the extravagant halls of the Vongola mansion, disturbing the quiet Italian noon. Considering the fact that it was lunch time, many of the servants and employees of the Vongola household had taken up seats in the worker's dining area; of course this wasn't to say that there were still maids running errands throughout the house. Ever since the Decimo and his guardians had taken up residence four years ago, the villa and its properties had not seen one day without some sort of property damage.
Today was no exception.
When the boss and his guardians had come back from a late night meeting with an unconscious girl covered in dirt and rags, there was much concern to be expressed. A gentle apology in the boss' accented Italian assured them that everything would be okay. And so they prepared a room for her and tended to her properly. Her bag of papers was placed precariously on the rosewood desk on the other side of the room, so that it would be the first thing she would see upon waking up.
Sawada Tsunayoshi had just checked up on her, taking note of the young woman's sleeping form before closing the door as gently as possible, so not as to disturb her slumber. But not too long after reaching the quiet environment of his office, and settling in, a buzzer at his desk went off, the annoying noise and flashing light notifying him that their unexpected guest had woken up.
*~*O*~*
Allene-Isabelle Rodriguez Carriedo del Sol woke up refreshed, clean, and in the most comfortable bed in the world. It took her a few seconds to realize that this was all wrong, and this was not in fact, a dark and mouldy corner of the Sicilian back alley. In fact, this was the complete opposite. The first thing she realized (besides the lavish bed she was in) was the fact that her clothes were in fact, not hers. The soft silk pyjamas were definitely not hers. If anything, she could compare them to the feeling of a Claude Debussy piano piece in cloth form. She continuously admired the clothes, and the softness of the down comforter and bed, falling back onto the goose feather pillows, closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth of the sun that peeked through the curtains.
A few moments passed before her eyes shot open and adrenaline rushed throughout her body, coming to terms with the fact that she was in silk pyjamas in a luxurious bed in an extravagant bedroom in dios knows where.
Allene threw off the covers and fumbled off of the bed, mumbling curses in Spanish as she tried to gather herself and her belongings, going into panic as a maid opened the door.
*~*O*~*
Peer Gynt "Morning", Edvard Grieg
Tsuna bit his lip in hesitation before trying to attempt communication with the panic-stricken girl. Many thoughts went through his mind as he struggled to find the right words to say, that being the most important. The right words. The language barrier between them had been obviously established. He was fluent in his native tongue of Japanese, going through the final steps to perfecting Italian, and just… okay with his English. To his knowledge, she spoke broken Italian and furious Spanish.
So he tried English.
"Young miss," he called to her.
She looked up and opened her mouth to speak before pausing. They made eye contact for a split second before she looked away and gulped, "…y-y-yes?"
"Ah," English it is, "I would first like to know if you are okay."
His accented Ingles was very cute, she noted as she nodded. "S-s-Yes."
The awkard tension between them continued as he tried to make small talk, telling her of the recent night's events. She turned furiously red, and covered her face rambling in Spanish, "I'm so sorry sir I didn't mean to inconvenience you!"
He could tell that she was apologizing, and he put his hands up in defence, "It's okay! We were just very concerned and you don't have to worry about any damages or costs! My friends and I have incidents like this all the time!"
Tsuna neglected to mention the part where their suits would be torn and covered in blood instead of alcohol, but it was probably for the better.
"But if I may ask, what is your name, young miss?"
"Mi llamo es Allene-Isabelle Rodriguez Carriedo del Sol," she answered, "but I simply go by Allene Rodriguez."
He envied the way she spoke, fluently pronouncing the "l's" in her name. The hardest part of overcoming the Japanese-Italian language barrier was the "l-r" difference. He (and for the most part his Japanese-born guardians) all had trouble with it, getting constantly teased by the multilingual ones in his family, namely Lambo. It's not his (or his Japanese-born guardians) fault that they weren't brought up learning Italian, Japanese, and a flurry of other Anglo-European languages.
"Allene Rodriguez-san. It's very nice to meet you. My name is Tsunayoshi Sawada, but you can call me Tsuna."
She looked at him curiously before sighing, "Señor Tsuna, I am very grateful to have been a guest in your home. But I feel as if I have overstayed my welcome. If I may please gather my belongings and my clothes, I would happily be along the way."
He tilted his head and smiled, "Don't worry, Rodriguez-san, it is no problem, but if it's not too much to ask, where would you be off to? And just why were you travelling in rags?"
Confused by the way she was addressed, she still answered the question, gracious and complying to her host, "I'm a musician, travelling across Europa in hopes to fulfil my dream of becoming a composer. I took to the life of an acetic in hopes of finding inspiration in the darker recesses of this continent, but I think I may have over done it." She laughed in embarrassment before continuing, "I've been travelling for about five years… and I don't plan on stopping any time soon."
Tsuna's eyes widened in shock. Five years of wandering the streets. She had been at this longer than he had taken up residence in Italy.
"Young miss, eto, just how old are you?"
"I turn twenty four in July," she smiled. The man's questions were simple, yet when said it herself, that she had been at this for five years, and she was only a fraction complete in her work, she stopped to think. Am I doing this right? Where had the years gone by? She made money by pulling from her bank account in times of desperation, funded by parents who only cared about whether she was alive or not. She spent four of her five birthdays with strangers she met at hostels. Maybe it was time to go home. Maybe it was time to put an end to this five year long life journey, and find a real job.
While Allene was going through a contemplative life crisis, she didn't notice three male figures slip into the room. Of course this wasn't her fault, as eleven years of continuous training as a Vongola guardian gives you quite a stealthy capability.
She looked up to see the men whose suits she had ruined standing next to the man across from her, and almost had an anxiety attack, but before she could apologize for her mishaps, the tallest one spoke up in accented English, "It's good to see that you're healthy and awake, miss!"
She could only blush. Now that they were no longer in a dimly lit tavern (and now that she had had an actual night's rest), she saw that they were all very handsome (even if the silver haired male was giving her the most terrifying glare). She had come across Asian men in her travels, asking her in an accented language and pointing at a map, tourists with their families looking for national landmarks and hotels. But that encounter started the lessen over the years as she looked less like a wanderlust stricken youth and more like a homeless bum.
"Rodriguez-san told me that she's a musician. Isn't that splendid? We were hoping to find one to teach the kids!"
The one sitting across from her suddenly spoke up, as if trying to diffuse the awkward silence. The three men looked at him sceptically, two of them replying in that language again, the one that she couldn't identify.
The one with black hair noticed her confusion and smiled at her, "My friends and I are originally from Japan, it's a natural habit to slip into Japanese often."
She nodded her head in understanding, observing the one seated assure his companions that things would be okay (or so she hoped).
He extended his hand to shake hers, "My name is Takeshi Yamamoto, but please feel free to call me either of those. In Japan, our last names come first, and that's usually how we first address each other."
Of course, what Tsuna said was confusing in itself. She had never come across the idea of teaching music, only making it. Speaking of which, the brunette looked complacently at her, and offered his hand, "Would you be interested in the job, Rodriguez-san?"
She looked at the hand hesitantly, and lifted hers as if to reach out and shake it before holding it to her chest, "I-I… I don't know. I've only just met you after you took me in from the streets. And for you to offer me a job on such notice…"
"I'm not going to force you into doing anything you don't want to. But please do consider it, and I am welcoming you to stay in my home for as long as you'd like. You still look like you need to recover, so please do consider it. And the job I am offering you includes room, board, as well as a salary. There is a small school located on the property for the children of my… family. And we would like to add a music teacher to our faculty to expand the horizons of the students and their interests."
Allene could only nod as she wiped away the tears forming, bowing her head in gratitude. Of course she wanted to leave as soon as possible, not wanting to overstay her welcome. But the opportunity of being given a home and a job based on her passion, in addition to her personal conflict of wanting to go home, gave her hopes and promises of a possibly brighter future.
"Gracias Señor Tsuna, muchas gracias!"
He stood up to escort her out of the room, handing her over to a maid who walked with her back to her room.
Tsuna closed the door softly before turning around and facing his guardians. Gokudera was the first one to speak up in Japanese.
"Tenth! Are you sure this is okay? You can't just take a stranger in from the streets!"
"But Gokudera-kun, she's been wandering for five years! I can't just throw her back out like that…"
"Maa maa, Gokudera. I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad. Besides, you personally went through her belongings and complimented her compositions…"
Gokudera could only scoff at Yamamoto's (true) words. The first few pages were beautiful and if that were to be played by a full orchestra… especially under the Vongola name, their status would rise incredibly in terms of the arts. The Vongola family already had an enormous reputation since its founding, and with Tsuna as the boss things had both taken a turn for the better and the worse. Tsuna's goal was to clean the bloodied slate of the Vongola family, and to create a new and better order in the mafia world. If they were to have a gala, and that composition was completed and performed at it, chances were that it would only give positive reviews of the Vongola as a cultured and respectable family.
Ryohei scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Sawada, it's up to you. Your decision is the one we follow, and I don't get any bad vibes from her. As long as this sort of thing doesn't interfere with our training or anything extreme, then go for it!"
Tsuna thought to himself that maybe it was because they had all just finished a hearty Italian lunch, that his guardians weren't as rambunctious as usual, especially Ryohei, but if they weren't fighting viciously against the idea, then he would go for it.
"Hai hai, we have a new music teacher… I hope…"
*~*O*~*
After being given a fresh set of clothes that were definitely something she couldn't have afforded on her own and the rules and parameters of the Vongola estate, Allene given permission to walk throughout the mansion and the gardens. There's no way that a young man could own all of this…
She found herself wandering through large hallways decorated with paintings and ornamental furniture, before coming across a large set of double doors, one of them left open. Curiosity got the better of her as she fidgeted with her bag, itching to peek inside but still hesitant.
She poked her head in through the crack and her eyes widened in shock at the display before her. Never in her entire life had some across something that would stun her silent for a solid minute. Her mouth and throat felt dry and all she could do was stare at the contents of the room.
*~*~*E N D*~*~*
wow it's only been 4 years since I wrote chapter 1.
edit: fixed name mistake LOL