Thanks to Sky Veneziano for betaing this for me, you were a great help.
It's been a week since they met the flute playing swordsman, Asari. However, nothing has really changed, as they continue to face members of different mafia famiglias. Over the past week the three of them have become close friends. Well, that's the way Giotto and Asari see it. G, on the other hand, spends most of his time giving the Asian death glares or taking part in one sided arguments.
G drops the knife in his hand that he was using to butter the bread that one of the woman in town had given them the day before. "What was that?"
"I said that I'm sure we'll meet someone interesting today." replies Giotto, taking a bite of his bread.
"What crap are you spewing?"
"Come now G, it's always fun to make friends." states Asari.
"Be quiet, I wasn't talking to you." G turns back to the blond who is busy munching away on his bread slice "I highly doubt that we will."
"Oh…Shall we make a bet then?"
"What are we wagering?"
"Loser cooks dinner."
"Sounds good to me."
Later that evening, the three of them are walking back to a small abandoned house that Giotto and G found during a downpour a short time after they met; which has now become the base which also doubles as their home. They're about halfway there when they spot a young man with curly light green hair that appears to be arguing with someone.
"I keep telling you that I don't know what you're talking about."
"You stole from Lampo-sama."
"I didn't steal anything."
"Yes, you did. I saw you take it."
G and the others stand there and watch the two argue for a few minutes, and to G, those few minutes felt like an eternity. The entire time he kept clenching and unclenching his fist. He didn't know why, but he had this feeling of walking over and smacking the boy with light green hair. G easily came to the conclusion that he was a kid that went through some crazy growth spurts to reach his height; it's not that he was tall, hell, he was a foot shorter than him and Giotto. It's the fact that he's acting like that of a young child, and to G, there's only one word that can describe the boy: 'Brat.'
"Tch… Let's just go."
"Is something wrong, G?" asks Giotto
"Besides the fact that it's going to rain soon and we're still standing outside a good distance away from home.? What could be wrong?" G replies a bit more sarcastically than what he was intending.
"Now, now, G, it's the right thing to do in case the young man needs our assistance." states Asari with a smile
G grumbles, it's not a few minutes later that it starts raining, which only makes G even more annoyed, as now not only is he standing here watching the brat arguing with some random guy who clearly doesn't know what the brat is ranting about, but also getting soaked to the bone. "Someone is going to pay for this." he whispers to himself, which doesn't go unheard by Giotto who glances at his friend before turning quickly at the sound of a scream.
Not really to G's surprise, the 'brat' is being held by his collar, or at least by his shirt; they couldn't be sure with the distance between them. One thing that all three of them could be sure of was that he was shaking with a mix of fear and chill from the rain soaking through his clothes. Giotto was the first to run to the aid of the young boy, Asari was close behind him; G considered standing back and letting Giotto and Asari handle the altercation that was going on between the other two, until he saw the revolver. "Shit"
G didn't waste any time running at the man who's holding the gun, knocking him to the ground just as he's about to pull the trigger, only for him to pull it anyway. Luckily, the bullet hit the outer wall of a nearby building instead of someone, not that G had time to relax, as now he had to wrestle and fight the man on the ground so that he would release the revolver from his grasp. After a couple minutes the gun was released from the man's hand and was now lying on the ground out of his reach, the man scrambled and fought to get back on his feet, not that it mattered as G wasn't going to let him go.
Giotto and Asari at first contemplated whether or not they should give G a hand, but after seeing how he had everything under control more or less, they thought it best to not get in his way and focus on the young boy. Lampo is standing there watching in complete shock from the moment the blond and Asian came running to his aid, and then watching as the redhead managed to get the gun out of his assailants' hands. "Is it just me or is G being more brutal than normal?" asks Asari.
"Yeah, I noticed that too. I wonder if there's something wrong." Giotto replies, with his voice full of worry over his friend's antics.
The man pulls out a knife and swings his arm towards G, as he completely forgot the original target of his annoyance. G just barely dodged the edge of the knife as the blade cuts of a few strands of his hair. "Tch…" This guy is really getting on his nerves, to the point that G has this sudden urge to teach this guy a real good lesson, and he knew exactly how to do it. The man swings his arm at him once again, reminding G a little bit of the way a drunkard swings a broken bottle around. G quickly bends down and picks up the gun from the ground.
G pulls the hammer of the gun back at the same time as he points the barrel at the other man who was going in for another attack, only to stop dead in his tracks when he sees the scowl on the red head's face combined with the gun in his hand. G pulls the trigger, releasing one of the bullets that goes flying past the man leaving a very clear bullet hole in the neck of his shirt that is folded down similar to G's own shirt. "That's a warning shot, next time I'll aim at your head."
The man doesn't stick around as he goes running in the other direction, getting away as fast and as far as he can from the redhead and the other three spectators.
G turns around to look at the astonished faces of his two friends. (Well, friend. He's still not all that sure of Asari.) G walks closer to the group, "You okay, Giotto?" he asks before looking at the brat.
"Yup, we're all fine." Giotto answers while still being in total astonishment.
"Speak for yourself, that guy stole from the great Lampo-sama."
"Come to think of it, what did that guy steal?" asks Asari
"Lampo-sama's candy."
As soon as they heard him say that, they stared at him for a moment as if he had grown a second head. G, of course, was the first to reply to that. G smacks the top of his head really hard. "You stupid brat, what the hell were you thinking? The guy tried to kill you just for annoying the shit out of him, and the reason for it was over some stupid candy that you said he stole."
"Calm down, G. Everything is okay now, and that's all that matters." states Asari as he tries to calm his red headed friend down.
"How is everything okay? This brat was actually willing to die over some missing stupid candy. Does that sound okay to you, idiot?" G yells back.
"Lampo-sama isn't a brat."
"G, that's enough. Let's get going. Lampo, why don't you come with us to get out of this rain." says Giotto
"Lampo-sama doesn't need go anywhere with strangers."
"It's alright, we're all friends here." says Asari
"When have I ever said that I was your friend?" Asari starts laughing towards the red head's strange way of bonding with him. G turns his attention away from the laughing foreign idiot "Brat, I've yet to hear any kind of thank you for saving your life."
"Lampo-sama doesn't remember asking for your help, so why should Lampo-sama thank you?"
Giotto was almost certain that he saw a vein on G's forehead twitch.
"Then do you want us to walk you home?"
"Lampo-sama is perfectly capable to get home on his own."
"Then go on home, you brat." G says, watching Lampo walk away.
"G, I didn't know you knew how to use that." states Giotto, pointing down at the object in his friend's hand.
G looks down, noticing that he's still holding the revolver "Yeah, it's something I learnt before I met you."
Giotto could hear a change in his friend's voice. He wasn't sure if it was sadness, grief, anger or some kind of mix; but he wasn't going to pry into his friend's past. He was sure that he would tell him eventually. "Why don't you keep it, G? I'm sure the past owner won't be coming back for it anytime soon."
"You sure?"
"I am. You never know when it'll come in handy." Giotto watches as G pockets the item into the pocket of his pants. "Shall we go?"
"Good idea." states Asari.
"Yeah." G replies.
"G, do you remember the bet we made this morning?" Giotto asks.
"Of course."
"Good, then I don't need to tell you that you have to make dinner tonight."
"Crap." G runs his hand through his hair, "This rain sucks."
Just then, the rain begins to fall harder, soaking them even more than they already were.
"Shit, make a run for it."
That they did, all the way back to their home.