Yeow!~ (A slight variation of 'Yo')

Once again, a suggestion from myself. I do hope that you will take pleasure in reading Chapter 15 (Goodness, it's Chapter 15 already?). I give my gratitude to all dear readers and reviewers^^ Thank you so much for your support.

And also, this chapter has not been beta-edited, so please tell me if I have made any errors:D

A Green apple to get you started~

…a Fruit-picker

ITALY

Thud.

The audible sound of a peach being placed roughly in a basket was heard, as Xanxus reluctantly continued to pick peaches off the tree. He placed another three into the basket and stepped down from the rickety ladder that was supporting his weight. As if right on cue, the manager came towards Xanxus gleefully.

"Ah, Xanxus! Very good, very good!" Mr Cozartoi cried, clapping his hands together in delight, "Now that you have finished the peaches, the pineapples are waiting for you patiently just around the corner."

Seeing his employee nod slowly, he continued.

"Here, please follow me, Xanxus! Oh and give the baskets of peaches to that man, and he will take them to the store-room ready for inspection. Now here we are…"

A long row of pineapple plants awaited the Mafia boss.

Curse this.

It was surely too damn hot and humid to work under the scorching sun. Xanxus did not want to wear a 'lame-looking' hat, and a pair of old sun-glasses, so sun-screen was the only option. However, the effects of the sun-screen had already worn off a few hours ago, and now he was left to simmer under the rays.

With the annoying bastard Mr Cozartoi gone, Xanxus sluggishly got to work.

-XXXX-

Pineapples weren't exactly the best fruit to pick when one was exceptionally irritated and frustrated, and especially not a day like this. The spikes on the outside of the fruit pissed Xanxus off more than the sun.

"Freaking hell. Why pineapples of all the retarded fruits? That asshole…I'll get him for this," he growled, "He's just too damn lazy to pick the fruits on his own, that bastard."

Meanwhile…

"M-Mister Cozartoi, are you sure we should let M-Mister Xanxus pick all the fruits like that? I mean-"

"Shut it, Trevoli," the manager snarled menacingly. He slammed his cup down on the table and as a result, a crack started to form along one side of the ceramic. "It is unusual for us to get an employer like this…so just let the man do all of the hard labour."

Mr Cozartoi glared at his employee and added with a toothy grin, "Besides, it looks like he's enjoying it, so why not let him do all of it?"

And an evil cackle was heard throughout the warehouse, sending shivers down the spines of anyone nearby.

-XXXX-

Xanxus swore he just heard a mad flow of laughter in the direction of the warehouse.

"Must be that old, stupid bastard…" he muttered with distaste, as he stepped back to examine his work. He stared hard at the bucket of pineapples to his right and frowned.

The Varia boss strode over to the third pineapple plant and positioned the bucket closer towards it. Then, Xanxus began prying the fruit off its branch hastily. He threw the fruit down into the large, black plastic bucket and heard a disturbing squelching sound.

Xanxus instantly stopped his work, scowled and got off the ladder to peer into the bucket impatiently. He took away a few pineapples from the bucket and placed them onto the rich soil below to see what was at the bottom of the bucket that had caused such a disturbing sound.

"What the hell was that…it sounded like some rotting old frui- SHIT!"

…

It was blueberries.

Squashed blueberries.

And what were blueberries doing at the bottom of the bucket? Well, let's go 'Back in Time' [1].

-XXXX-

Flash-back

"Ah Xanxus, here we are at the pineapple section of our lovely farm! Ok, I assume you know how to pluck those beautiful creatures off its plant, right?" questioned the manager beaming widely, "Would you like me to show you, Xanxus?"

"No."

"Right…do you want Mr. Trevoli here to help you?"

"No."

Xanxus absolutely did not want another annoying bastard working alongside him – he had enough of the stupid idiots back at Varia HQ already.

He already had enough of Squalo complaining about his recent hair loss, Bel's dilemma concerning a change in hair style, Lussuria forever considering growing out his hair (or Mohawk), Levi's a million alarm clocks, and Fran's option about getting voice box surgery.

Life at headquarters was already hell, and Xanxus was adamant about not letting his job contribute to his"Life's Long List of Hell".

"Uhm, ok then…" replied Mr Cozartoi awkwardly, twiddling his thumbs, "Use this bucket to put the pineapples in."

Xanxus gazed at the big bucket before him and mentally sighed. The bucket was thrice the size of the straw-woven baskets he had before, and the colour black did not lighten his mood – with black being the colour that absorbed most of the sun's intense rays. The manager was at least smart enough to give Xanxus an orange coloured uniform to wear.

"Ok, I shall explain this to you, Xanxus," Mr Cozartoi said, gesturing towards the bucket, "This magnificent bucket has many layers, hence its size. There are three layers, and I would like you to fill up each section with a different type of fruit. Just gather as many fruit as you can into one layer – that is all I will be expecting from you today, alright? I don't want any of my precious fruit damaged as well, ok?"

Xanxus just shrugged indifferently.

Mr Cozartoi smiled eerily and stalked off, and only Mr Trevoli remained.

And just before he was about to leave, Mr Trevoli walked up to Xanxus and whispered:

"I'd be careful if I were you, sir…that bucket has a problem."

End of Flash-back

-XXXX-

A problem indeed.

The Mafia Boss had not expected blueberries to be at the bottom of the bucket. Actually, Xanxus did not know that the very first share of the bucket was already filled with fruit. He groaned exasperatedly and tipped the squashed blueberries out of the bucket.

It sure did make a mess on the floor.

But that was not the problem.

He did not think that the layer separating the pineapples from the blueberries would be broken so easily, and he also did not expect the bottom of the stupid bucket to be layered with…white cloth.

The white cloth was majority blue from the staining of the blueberries, and only a small portion of the cloth remained white.

"Shit," Xanxus hissed angrily and took out the cloth, glaring daggers at it. What the hell was he going to do with the cloth? Since the cloth was stained mostly blue, the manager would be sure to know that Xanxus had screwed up and all his blueberries were squashed.

Xanxus observed his surroundings carefully – the field he was in were full of pineapple plants, which lined both sides of the rocky cement, that was used to drive any vehicles through. The next field, Xanxus saw, contained strawberries, boysenberries and a variety of other berries. And the field to his left-

Wait, rewind.

Berries?

"Blueberries," Xanxus murmured softly and rose from his crouched position. An idea formed in his mind as he neared the berries field, and he instantly mentally face palmed. Why didn't I think of this before, he thought in aggravation. He scanned the fields for blueberries while striding down the rocky road of the berries field.

And alas, there were not any to be found.

And out of Xanxus's mouth came a string of vile utterances.

Nevertheless, Xanxus, being quite the cunning person, grabbed a few handfuls of boysenberries instead.

He quickly and silently set to work.

He positioned the stained cloth back at the bottom of the bucket and placed the boysenberries on top. Since the first layer of the bucket was broken so easily, Xanxus wasn't going to risk putting the pineapples on top of another layer, so he hastily snatched some strawberries from his left and threw them inside the bucket.

"This blasted thing better work…" he said, reaching out to seize more strawberries, "Strawberries are pretty light…so it should work somehow-"

Riiing, riiiinngg~

Xanxus was so concentrated on his work that it took him a while to comprehend the source of the sound. It was his mobile.

Click.

"Xanxus! How are you doing? I'm going to walk over to the pineapple field right now, to see what you have done so far. Expect me there in about 1-2 minutes."

Click.

"Shit."

1-2 minutes.

"The bastard is going to be here in about 1-2 minutes," Xanxus growled in disbelief. And the situation he was in…

Not good.

He picked up the bucket and raced back over to the pineapple field. He could already hear Mr Cozartoi chatting away to another man in a nearby field.

"Damn this…damn!"

He needed three fruits, and he only had two at the moment in the bucket. He stared at the pineapples on the ground and grimaced.

It was the only option.

Regardless of what might happen to the berries inside…

Xanxus swiftly tossed 5 pineapples into the bucket and immediately heard the disturbing squelching sounds once again. He couldn't care less anymore.

Why hadn't the stupid old man given me a job in a juice production factory…? It would certainly be much more entertaining, he thought sardonically.

He was in the middle of putting the lid of the bucket on, when the manager came. Just in time.

"Ah, Xanxus! Lovely! I can see that you are already finished and ready. Brilliant!" exclaimed Mr Cozartoi, "You are sure one of the best employers we have ever had."

Xanxus twitched and nodded slowly.

If only he knew…if only he knew…

"X-Xanxus is surely a wonderful, hard-working man, wasn't he, manager?" questioned Mr Trevoli, smiling slightly and walked towards his manager with a warm cup of soup. "I guess the bucket was nice to him…" he added in a whisper.

"Yes, very good, very good! Better than the rest of you brats anyway," Mr Cozartoi replied, emphasising his last line dramatically. Mr Cozartoi turned to the bucket and began taking off the lid with his free hand, because he was holding onto his cup of soup with his other, "Now let's see what we have he-"

…

The cup in Mr Cozartoi's hands smashed onto the cold, concrete floor, with the warm soup slowly flowing and discolouring the concrete, greedily claiming as much territory on the concrete as it flowed.

"M-Mister Cozar-"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, XANXUS?" the manager screeched furiously, turning a shade of beet red.

And sure enough the bucket contained 5 pineapples floating on top of a purple-red substance – strawberry and boysenberry juice. A sweet scent filled the air as the bucket was tipped over in rage.

"WE ARE NOT A JUICE-MAKING FACTORY!"

NAME: Xanxus

OCCUPATION: Fruit-picker

STATUS: FIRED.

[1] 'Back in Time' is a new song by Pitbull, and since it is one of my all time favourites, I just had to include that! Ahahaha~

Extra Segment:

"Just gather as many fruit as you can into one layer – that is all I will be expecting from you today, alright?"

There was no tomorrow.

(Hehe, don't know if that extra segment was to anyone's liking, but at the time when I was writing the chapter, I really cracked up at the thought=D)

Thank you so very much for reading. I shall give you a Green sushi as a token of my appreciation^^

Hmm, this chapter is quite long...I must have been carried away, hehe^^

Please stay tuned for the next update!~ Please send me some feedback^^ (It's a shame the review button is not Green-.-)

-TUGB