A/N: Okay people, I know I have been doing bad lately and the main reason for that is I have a job right now and I can't monitor my stories that well. And I am supposed to submit this last May 27! Plus, I had a major conflict with my ideas on chapter 5 so I have to revise them so many times. Oh well, more messages later. Thanks for waiting. By the way, more messages after the story. Thanks.
THE AMIABLE FLAME
© Danielle Luna Soulhart
April 2012
FIFTH FLICKER: Acceptance
"Is it…really okay to leave them alone?" G asked slowly, worry evident in his voice.
Giotto did not respond, let alone even face G and the other guardians. His hands were shaking out of anxiety, paranoid that something might happen to the kids, especially to Tsuna. His intuition told him that a horrible event will take place upon his absence and it frustrated him because he and his guardians will be away for two days all together for the first time. He and his guardians were all needed to attend a meeting with the Suono Famiglia, one of the strongest families in Italy and perhaps in the world. They have no any other choice but all to attend. He sighed.
He was actually inches away from his family while they were waiting for the early train. He felt sorry for Tsuna because the tyke won't be seeing his father and uncles for roughly two days. The meeting will happen in those days, as agreed, and it won't be a good idea if he left for too long. Even though he has complete trust in his oldest butler, Mr. Francesco, he can't bear the thought that the children will be left alone, much worse, they're kids. They can cause ruckus. And ruckus was equivalent to headache. To shorten things up, Mr. Francesco has a quick temper and he can send the kids to the moon with his mist flame. But still, he put everything into God that the kids were going to behave. They were carrying the name of the Vongola and Hayato, Takeshi, and Ryohei were having basic lessons of how to be proper. He just silently prayed that nothing will happen and when they come back, everything was still in one piece.
G can't help but silently curse behind Giotto's back. He knew too well how Giotto could be a worrywart when it came to Tsuna, especially now that they were on this troublesome two-day meeting. Somehow, he can't deny that he was feeling suspicious of this wherein, normally, an alliance meeting only consisted of famiglia representatives and the head of the famiglia who was the host. It was very unusual for some family to ask for the presence of the entire family. He looked around. The train has still not arrived. And they have been waiting for almost twenty minutes already. He discreetly sent a glare at Alaude's back, clearly blaming him for the misinformation of the arrival of the train. He grunted. As for Alaude, he knew perfectly well the schedule of the train's arrival (he's the one who booked them anyway), and knowing that there were slowpokes in the house, he decided to use a little scheme to lure them out. And here they were.
All of a sudden, G felt something poking him, ahem, someone was poking him. It was Asari with his eyebrows creased.
"Aren't we supposed to be 7 today?" Asari asked.
G gave a hard look, "Why are you counting? WE'RE 7, alright?" He was a bit confused of why Asari would ask that. All of them left the house altogether.
Except…
G took a quick scan at everyone. Okay, there's Giotto, himself, Asari, Knuckle, Alaude, Lampo, and…G's eyebrow twitched heavily and mumbled all curses he can say in five different languages. Why does Daemon have to choose this day to be perfectly absent?
"GIOTTO!" G exclaimed and practically (and unguardedly) spun Giotto around so the Primo could face him dumbfoundedly, "Why is Daemon not around?"
Giotto sighed. Finally, someone noticed. "You weren't listening yesterday, hm, G?" Then he received a glare from G, "Fine. Daemon was requested by someone to take a mission. He'll be returning this evening and I doubt that he'll be able to catch up with us."
"Then why didn't you fucking tell us?" G exclaimed some more, bringing the attention of the other passengers waiting for the early train.
"I told you, G, you're not listening." Then Giotto motioned to look for the other four guardians who were looking calm despite G's outrage.
G seethed. He was in the same room yesterday when Giotto called them for the meeting. But what he can't understand was how on earth he was unable to gather that such piece of information? So what now? They're missing a guardian, and the requirement was for all of them to attend that damned meeting. PLUS! If Daemon would return home tonight, then, he'll be the one left for the kids!
Please, don't exempt his double – Mukuro. No one knew what the brat can do…yet.
G (kinda) feared for the life of the kids.
Soon enough, the train arrived at the station. Hordes of people rushed inside the coach and it's only a proof that whenever riding a coach, there were no superior and inferior. If one cannot aboard the train, then it's too bad. Better luck next time, then. Amidst the crowd, Giotto just silently prayed that everything will be all right.
…:[]:…
Daemon was beyond pissed. For one thing, he hated stupid missions, and apparently he landed on one. There was this one family in the nearby village that asked for their help in exchange of three sacks of rice. Well, that could be very useful since they don't have to buy rice anymore for the next couple of months. He agreed of course. The stupid thing was that the child was tangled in a bush with lots of snakes in it. Correction, toy snakes. Later, he found out that the child was only playing pranks on his parents and witnessed their scolding. In the end, he was given the original reward, with the additional sacks of wheat and vegetables, and five boxes of milk. He had to carry all of those by himself since HE volunteered TO DO the mission ALONE. The parents even apologized for the inconvenience.
And here he was, back at the mansion, releasing his genjutsu and put the gifts in front of the door. With a long frown, he knocked at the door.
Mr. Francesco opened the door, with creased eyebrows (almost forming a line) that mirrored Daemon's. The mist guardian had to match it up with an annoyed, questioning raised eyebrow, simply not taking the fact that the butler creased his eyebrows at him.
If he only knew…
"Why are you looking like that, old man?" Daemon asked. Trust him to be this disrespectful when pissed.
Mr. Francesco's eye twitched. "You never want to know, young master." The stress on the title made Daemon's curiosity and blood spike. He wondered what happened.
Daemon made no further comment and just gave his coat to Mr. Francesco who in turn put the coat on the rack. The mist guardian proceeded inside with the same creased eyebrows and looked around. There seemed no ruckus, so why the head butler got his briefs into a knot? Just then, he heard a loud explosion.
A patch of silver was seen in the hallway and Mr. Francesco appeared next to him.
"I believe young master should listen to whatever I have said earlier." The butler calmly said but his tone of voice was coated with irritation and in any moment, he could jump and kill. Daemon simply ignored the butler and continued watching the silver monster.
Then a loud exclamation was heard altogether with another round of explosion.
"Hayato!" Takeshi called out as he rushed towards his friend. For some reason, upon his little tour inside the mansion, he had always the impression that the room near his G-niisan's room was too eerie and his older brother Asari told him to never get near that room if he valued his life. Good thing, he listened.
Not for Hayato, though.
He should have told Hayato earlier.
He sighed.
Hayato, on the other hand, was so amused with his new found toy – an abominable thing called dynamite. For a 4-year old kid like him, it's quite a surprise that he knew about these explosives. And really dangerous. But, coming from a mafia family was no news. Every child who can already speak and understand could learn dangerous things at an early age, and Hayato being a natural born genius in the family was very exceptional.
And bombs became his ultimate interest.
Anyway, it's not really his fault if he found those dynamites. He was instructed by G to get his scarf just before the whole family went out for the meeting. When the lad was in the room, he noticed another door inside ajar. Inquisitive, he took a small peek inside and his eyes widen in delight. He hurried in delivering the scarf to his cousin and back at the room once he made sure that everyone left. He rummaged through that slightly opened door and voila! He found a stock of dynamites inside.
My, my, dynamites shouldn't be a toy for a four-year old. But what? He's a child of mafia world.
And everything followed.
So now, Takeshi was trying his very best in preventing Hayato from "trying" out all the dynamites he saw from the box, telling the silver haired to return all the explosives because G will know if they were taken. Smart, but not close. Hayato just ignored and continued lighting those things and dropping it to the ground, creating a very nice music in his ears. Problem was, it left a trail of holes into the mansion's floor, and definitely it wouldn't be desirable once the family went back. He was determined to catch Hayato and scold him for doing this, until he found four pairs of eyes looking dangerously at them.
It made him put to a stop.
He looked at them then to Hayato's moving body and shouted, "HAYATO! Please, stop!"
This time Hayato answered cheekily, "Why should I? They're all gone! And these things are waaaay too cool!" Then he lit another dynamite and threw it across the hallway. "Oh yeah!" Hayato happily exclaimed.
Takeshi ran towards Hayato as he looked at the menacing glares of Mr. Francesco and Daemon. "Hayato, please. We've got to stop or else Giotto-nii will scold us when they get back. Plus…" then he slowed his run to stop.
This made the silverette slowed his pace as well. He looked at Takeshi at a distance and said, "What's your problem? They left! We have the place! And it's not our fault if my cousin left his door open."
Takeshi looked at him with determined but sad eyes. "It's because we're already in trouble."
When Hayato turned around, he saw Daemon's scary eyes once again, followed by an irate Mr. Francesco and was already holding a frightened Takeshi.
"Oh no…"
…:[]:…
"I'm glad you made it safe, Primo." Said the messenger of the head of the Suono famiglia as he spotted the Vongola walking towards the entrance.
Giotto smiled and offered a nod of appreciation, "Thank you very much. Now, where is your don?"
"He's actually waiting for you at his study." The messenger motioned a hand for them to enter as the door opened, "This way please."
With an inward sigh, Giotto and company went inside. He was just hoping that things would be alright…
…:[]:…
…Or not.
Hayato was still out cold in the couch while Takeshi was struggling with the rope that was binded into him by Mr. Francesco. Surely, the elderly has no mercy for pesky little children that tried to destroy his perfectly peaceful day. On Hayato's case, Daemon practically used his illusion to knock the kid out and ordered the poor irate butler to watch for the kids while he check the damage that was planted within the hallways of the estate.
And Daemon didn't find it nice.
The whole of second floor hallway was filled with large holes. It's a good thing that the dynamites that Hayato saw were not that strong enough to blow the entire floor. Valuable vases and paintings were also damaged. Even though the mist guardian was not fond of vases and paintings, he knew how valuable these things were. His eyebrows were twitching, thinking of Giotto's reaction once he saw this, and it wouldn't be just a day that he'll be hearing Giotto's voice filling the air saying different orders of repair and replacement.
Oh no. He's definitely not making that happen. Not in this life time.
He jumped a floor down and went to the phone, dialed a number and shortly, there were 15-20 men that went inside the estate. As soon as they saw Daemon, they straightened to a two column file and waited for his orders.
"I want everything in second floor perfectly fixed and furnished in two days. If not, I'm going to make sure all of you will see hell." Daemon said irritably.
In fear, all of his subjects nodded and echoed a "yes" to the aristocrat.
This was going to be a long day.
…:[]:…
Tsuna was sitting on his crib, staring wildly at the door that was ajar. He was awakened by the last explosion made by Hayato earlier and was now extremely curious of what was going on. His eyes kept on being glued to the door, until it tired him out and finally decided to tear his gaze away and looked at his crib bars instead. The little one was actually thinking how he would be able to climb down, not when he just learned walking a few days ago. He stood as he held onto the bars and made a noise, wanting to be heard.
And it was answered.
Ryohei was just finished from his so-called "training" and walked towards his room, when he heard baby Tsuna making a loud noise, thanks to the slightly opened door. Doing his job as the eldest among the kids in the house, he went in and attended to Tsuna's side. He smiled when he saw that bright smile coming from the tyke, washing away all of the fatigue that he felt from his exercise and so, he grabbed him by the armpits and set him down the floor.
"What's wrong, Tsuna?" Ryohei asked.
"Baa, baa, boo~" Tsuna responded, however sending a confused thought towards Ryohei. The only thing the silver-haired understood was the fact Tsuna was pointing towards the door.
"Oh! You want to get out?"
"Paa, Daa, Daa!"
Ryohei chuckled. Tsuna was just so adorable to look at. And so, he held onto the child and knowing that Tsuna can walk by himself already, he carefully led the baby out of the room. They walked together towards Ryohei's bedroom to get changed, and later, headed downstairs. Ryohei decided to carry Tsuna as they go down, but a walking stranger inside their house made him alarmed.
'Who are you?" He asked aloud, startling the poor worker down to his butt.
"We're not thieves! We're decent!" The worker exclaimed. Beneath him were different tiles and a bucket of cement that was spilled on the floor. Before Ryohei could even ask again, he heard a familiar exclamation from the stairs.
"HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO STAY THERE? WORK, WORK, WORK!"
"Uncle Daemon?" Ryohei called.
"HM!" Daemon jerked his head towards the caller and replied, "Oh. Knuckle's brat. What are you doing here, ah?"
Ryohei frowned a little, annoyed that this man, a colleague of his father's, would call him a brat. Nevertheless, he let it slide this time, "I took Tsuna out because he wanted to. What happened here?"
The sudden change of topic made Daemon's blood boil a degree higher, "Tch. You're fellow brat blasted of the hallway. I hope you do know what will happen next."
Ryohei didn't respond but nodded. He'd rather stay away from Daemon's wrath.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of things to do." With that, Daemon left.
Ryohei stared at the Daemon's retreating back. Looks like two days without their elders would be a heck of a hell. He even wondered why Daemon was at home. Oh well, he should just look for the missing kids namely Takeshi and Hayato.
Tsuna was just staring at Ryohei's face the entire time.
…:[]:…
"Are you sure about this, Kier?" The Suono famiglia's storm guardian, Theodore, asked. His hands were tightly clenched on his pants as their meeting with the Vongola went on.
Kieren Franciel von Suono, the boss of Suono famiglia, nodded grimly. He was just a year or two older than Giotto, but his features held responsibility, pride and dignity that was loved and respected by his subordinates. "Yes, I am afraid. I saw that from Leander's report yesterday. That's why I called on Vongola to make an alliance with them since they are the only ones I know who can be allied with us regarding this issue."
"I have no problems with the alliance, Mr. Kier." Giotto calmly said, "But what I can't understand is our possible involvement with this case of yours. As far as my intelligence group is concerned, your family is really dependable, resourceful and powerful. I can't see why you need our help."
"This is not only a problem of one famiglia, Primo." Kieren said, controlling his emotions as tight as possible. "This will be a problem to each and every famiglia present within Italy. Probably even in neighboring countries. As I told you, there are babies, much less women who hasn't underwent labor, were kidnapped and experimented by Esquilo Famiglia. Worse, they are being assisted by the Estraneo Famiglia This has been spread all throughout Italy already and has been reaching France and England."
"So, what do you want us to do?" G asked who was getting impatient at the moment.
"Like I said, help us defeat them. It's for the safety of all the children and the mothers out there. If we aren't able to defeat them, kids around your territory might be the next."
All could Giotto do was to hum in thoughts.
…:[]:…
"Stupid!"
"Jerk!"
"Turf-top!"
"Octopus Head!"
Hayato scrunched his eyebrows in disgust. How the hell his head did become an octopus? Ryohei was sure a stupid one. Takeshi, on the other hand, was chuckling at the crazy antics of the two while holding onto Tsuna who was giggling as well. It seemed that the little sky was entertained seeing his older brothers being crazy at each other. And it only meant that there was this bond between them. By the way, his bonds were taken off by Ryohei.
But the fun was cut short.
Mr. Francesco came into the living room with a very undesirable face.
"Master Takeshi and Master Hayato, what are you cheering for? And why can I see bonds cut off?"
Takeshi and Hayato squirmed in their own places, avoiding those scary glares coming from the head butler. They can't speak outright because they knew that they have done something so bad. They just found themselves surprised that Ryohei was standing in front of them and replied,
"I undid everything. Why?" He asked innocently. Oh well, the silverette doesn't know what happened anyway, so he's off the list.
Nevertheless, Mr. Francesco was not very considerate of it, "You undid the rope, Master Ryohei?" Ryohei eagerly nodded. "Do you know what these two did?" Ryohei shook his head. Mr. Francesco sighed. Seriously, this kid could be a blockhead at times. "Master Ryohei, your little mischievous friends here just made holes on the second floor hallways." 'Oh, so that's why…' Ryohei trailed a thought, although he can't still see why they need to be tied. "It was their punishment to be like in the state you saw them with."
"But…it's hurtful, right?"
"Yes, indeed. But what they did is more hurtful. It's hurtful on cash."
"Ha?" Ryohei can't understand. Mr. Francesco was actually talking about financing the damages! Oh well, who can blame him? He's a kid, for pete's sakes.
Mr. Francesco really wanted to smack the child now. He was getting impatient. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Master Ryohei, I'm going to put your friends back to their punishment."
"Well, isn't enough that they had it?" Ryohei inquired innocently. "It's not as if they knew the effects of those." Well, he's right anyway. It's not Takeshi and Hayato's entire fault. Kids can be so curious at their age, and anything left without supervision will be the object of their desire. Tch, Ryohei seemed to be in his 'older brother' mode.
As for Mr. Francesco, he's growing a tick already. The boy needed to get away if he wanted to see the lights shining tomorrow, "I believe you do understand, Master Ryohei, that destroying property is not very extremely manly like, is it?"
"Of course not! Destroying property is bad, duh?" Ryohei replied.
"And so, your little friends here did a very bad thing. They destroyed family property."
"Did you ask them why they did it?"
Silence.
Takeshi and Hayato were finding hope in the materialized form of Ryohei, and they couldn't find any more happiness (though Hayato was still denying it) that it was fun to have an older brother. Ryohei may not realize it, but he's actually saving their butts! Oh joy!
Mr. Francesco, on the other hand, can feel his tick going to explode already. Seriously, kids were so handful to manage, life threatening and source of waste of time. He even managed to survive looking out for the 7 official members of the Vongola. If it wasn't for Giotto, he would have long resigned. Seeing the determined face of Ryohei, the pleading eyes of the culprits and especially to what he thought a childish glare (albeit stronger and sharper than Giotto's) from Tsuna, he gave a resigned sigh and turned away. But even before he could walk far, he heard Tsuna giggle and saw an agreeing thumbs-up. Oh well, it's impossible that the child could know what that meant. He walked away.
"That's so amazing, Ryohei!" Takeshi praised the silver haired. Hayato was in tow, with his usual grumpy look and cross-armed stance, but was grateful that the turf-top was there.
"Hn, you're just lucky." Said Hayato.
"Ahaha, now, now, Hayato. Be kind to Ryohei." Takeshi lightly reprimanded.
Ryohei blushed actually. It was actually his first time to defend someone, moreover an entirely stranger to his blood relations. But somehow, he felt really good, just like the way he felt when he saw Tsuna. "Well, I know you guys didn't do it on purpose."
"Duh! It's not even my fault that I saw those dynamites on G's room!" Hayato said, further tightening his crossed arms.
"What?" Ryohei screamed. "There's dynamite in this house?"
"Stop asking, turf-top!"
Takeshi sighed. Looks like the energy bawlers were back in action. It's a good thing Tsuna was with him instead, clapping his hands as if entertained by the two boys.
Amidst all the happenings, the four kids didn't notice someone was limply watching them.
Or so as what the stranger thought.
…:[]:…
"What should we do about it, Giotto?" G asked, troubled at what they have learned in the meeting. They still have another round of it tomorrow, of course, for the contract signing that Giotto, as the head of Vongola, agreed to be allies with Kieren, the head of Suono. Giotto hummed in the process, before replying.
"The Estraneo family has been causing a lot of problems lately." Giotto said. Even though the said family was an ally, he couldn't afford risking the lives of children and women. Especially nowadays those experiments were really that famous. "I think we should reconsider."
"Giotto's right." Asari said. "We can never be too sure when the Esquilo will kidnap another child." Then he tightened his hold onto his yukata sleeve and said, "I don't want any of the children in our mansion gets involved with this."
"So, what are we going to do, Primo?" Lampo asked. He admittedly told himself and was known to the others that he hated brats, but this matter was entirely different and bothering. And he wasn't that heartless either. Giotto looked at him with a smile.
"We're going to do the best thing to do." Giotto said then turned to Alaude, "I think you know what I'm thinking, Alaude."
"Hn." Was all the cloud guardian replied before taking off.
…:[]:…
Daemon cursed beneath his breathing. Even though he's an awesome illusionist, and an aristocrat to point, there was no way that the holes in the hallways could be patched up in two days. He was not that merciless (yet) to bring forth death to the workers he just hired 2 and half hours ago. However, he was thankful that the workers managed to cover half of the hallways properly and the only missing pieces were the valuable things that was displayed and hanged in it. He sighed. This was definitely a nightmare to him.
He decided to take a break for the moment. And by break meant coffee.
Everyone in the house was a coffee-holic. Meaning, they cannot go through the day without drinking at least 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day. And a cup is as tall as a regular soup bowl for appetizers in a meal course. Many people would say 'caffeine is bad for the body when taken too much' but for the Vongola members, bad was as good as popping candy in their mouths. Who wouldn't need candies – er, coffee – in their system when all of them have heavy loads to take care of?
As soon as the mist guardian took a sharp turn away from the staircase, his eyebrows knotted like a pretzel. Well, of course not literally. He could feel his veins attempting to pop in their places and all the blood was rushing into his head. Why? Simple.
He saw a very undesirable person within his periphery.
It's none other than Mukuro.
"Oi, brat." Daemon called. He wasn't merciless, mind you. "What are you doing out of the infirmary?"
Mukuro flinched before turning towards Daemon, "I want to get water for myself but I got lost." He said truthfully. Sure, anyone would get lost if their new to the house. The Vongola Mansion was freakingly huge, even for 20 people!
Daemon laughed sadistically. "What a pitiful child! You can't even get water for yourself."
Yep, not yet merciless.
And Mukuro was still kind enough to accept those insults coming from his own father.
…Which he made a wrong move, "Father, I—,"
"DON'T YOU CALL ME THAT, BRAT!" Daemon seethed while holding Mukuro at the base of his collar, "I don't have a wife, let alone a son as disgusting as you do!" Then, he harshly pushed Mukuro out of his way and went to the kitchen.
Because of that, Mukuro was left sliding down at the wall that could be easily seen in the living room. The ruckus had caused the four young residents of the holed Vongola Mansion to redirect their attention from themselves towards the new voice. And that was the time when little Tsuna had his eyes on his new subject, best his arms as well. Takeshi has no choice but to clamber down the chair and walk towards the dejected guy.
"Hey, I haven't seen you around." Takeshi said, trying his very best not to drop the struggling Tsuna in his grip.
Mukuro looked at him with angry eyes, "What's it to you?"
"What's that bad attitude, hn?" Hayato said aloud, standing behind Takeshi with his hands both on his hips. "Takeshi was only asking, and you're mad at him?"
"What? You're also going to throw me away like he did? I didn't do anything wrong!"
That absolutely shocked the two kids. Now, Ryohei has come into the scene, crouched down to Mukuro's level and talked to him man-on-man. "We're just being friendly here. Besides, we didn't know what happened here so you can't accuse us of anything."
"I don't need your pity! Go away!"
Ryohei looked up and was met with two shaking heads. However, Ryohei noticed the continuous struggling of Tsuna and he interpreted it as wanting to be put down in the floor. Because of that, he pulled Takeshi's trousers to attract attention and pointed at Tsuna. Finally giving up, Takeshi put Tsuna down.
And what do you know. Tsuna made his way towards Mukuro.
Mukuro was beyond shocked when something so unfamiliar yet gentle and welcoming touched his knee, and when he looked up, he saw the brightest and most vibrant shade of brown in those huge eyes that was staring at him as if reading him whole. Tsuna looked at him further and made an experimental crawl in between Mukuro's leg and sooner, he was there, sitting and further looking up to Mukuro's eyes.
And it surprised them.
Tsuna was chuckling all the way, with his hands clapping altogether before launching himself to Mukuro's waist. The said boy was too shocked to move and even touched the baby's head without thinking. It felt nice actually. On the other hand, Takeshi, Hayato and Ryohei were kind of worried that Tsuna might get hurt in the process because they could feel a little hostility towards Mukuro. Not only because of the anger he displayed earlier, but because of the different aura he project towards them. And certainly, Tsuna was beginning to attract the newcomer as well.
Seconds later, all of them found Tsuna fast asleep in Mukuro's arms.
Takeshi snickered. "Looks like Tsuna got you too."
Mukuro raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't know." Takeshi replied and chuckled, "All we know is that Tsuna is so charming."
"Oi! Don't get so familiar with him!" Hayato exclaimed only to receive a playful punch from Ryohei.
"Don't be so loud, octopus head!" Ryohei added.
"What did you say?"
"You heard me!" And thus started another brawl from the two hot-heads.
"Maa, maa, Tsuna is sleeping right now and you don't want to wake him up, do you?" Takeshi said cheerfully. And when the two doesn't still make it up, He turned his attention to Mukuro, "Well, I guess Tsuna gets to stay with you for the meantime."
Mukuro was still left gaping at them.
Well, duh.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! We haven't introduced each other," Takeshi said with a smile. Gesturing a hand he introduced the brawling kids first, "The one with the spiky hair is Ryohei. He's older than us four. Then the other guy who was wearing a necklace is Hayato." Then pointing at himself, he said, "I'm Takeshi! It's so nice to see you, uhm…what should I call you?"
Mukuro had a flush of red in his face right now. With the baby on his lap, a smiling Takeshi and two brawling idiots in front of him, he simply can't avert his eyes on them. He kept on looking at them, then not, then again; it's like a repetitive process. But what can he do? He was already caught, no matter how he not wanted to. Besides, his only purpose was the sole acceptance from his not-so-estranged father.
He sighed. He decided that this may be an easy way to get through. And he's not afraid to use anything, more like anyone to his advantage.
But, he has to admit, this is freaking warm and comfortable.
Adjusting the baby to his hold, he looked at Takeshi's awaiting eyes and answered, "Mukuro." Although it's a bit soft to hear.
Takeshi's eyebrows crossed at that, "Huh?"
"I said my name is Mukuro."
Takeshi chuckled and took Mukuro's free hand between his, "Welcome!" he said and chuckled as he saw Mukuro's flushed expression before yanking his hands away.
"Don't touch me so familiarly!" Mukuro shouted. With that, he stood and unknowingly taking baby Tsuna with him.
"Have fun with Tsuna!" After that, he resumed stopping the two guys at his side.
…:[]:…
Alaude was strolling down the large garden, bypassing the huge maze that was situated in front of the large house. It was actually his relatives' house and anytime, he can go back there. Anyway, he was there to meet his cousin whom he asked to get the things he and the rest of the famiglia needed. It was of course ordered by Giotto, and even though he didn't want to get any connection with the said Primo, he can't help but be sucked into that gentleness. Alaude always loved feeling that mix of power and gentleness radiating from the Primo's body and even thrilled whenever he was granted with a fight.
His thoughts were easily broken when he felt a familiar aura walking towards him. Apparently that guy just threw a very sharp dagger towards him and smoothly, the cloud guardian caught it between his fingers.
"Never failed in catching, eh, Alaude?" the man clad in an expensive white suit said with a smile. Behind him were his assistant and butler who both bowed down before Alaude's presence.
"Hector," Alaude said before throwing back the dagger to Hector who actually caught it with ease, "I didn't come here to play games."
"Of course you don't." Then he gestured a hand for him to come inside, "Come on in. Alyanna was waiting for you too."
"Hn."
Once inside, Alaude saw approximately six, tall men standing in a double file, creating an aisle, while holding several briefcases. He was forced to stop at the middle and waited for Hector to speak, but most likely, he knew what the briefcases contain. Moments later, he heard a familiar girly shriek coming down from the mahogany spiral staircase. It was his younger cousin, Alyanna.
"Alaude!" Alyanna screamed and leaped her herself towards the expressionless man. Needless to say, but Alaude caught her in time.
"You shouldn't do that." Alaude said, "You could get hurt."
"Ha! As if you really look after my welfare." She joked.
"Not that to the extent, for your information."
"I know. Hector would be most delighted seeing me tripping down the stairs and rolling out the house." Alyanna said in a playful irritated tone, "You guys always like the gory stuff."
"Don't equate me to that crazy brother of yours. I have an organization to straighten every day."
Because of that, Alyanna chuckled. She thought that her brother and Alaude were almost the same, just minus the emotions that Hector has. Alaude has chosen the right time to completely ignore the female cousin and focused back on Hector. The said guy was still engrossed with six different suitcases until he picked the third one. The suitcase has Hector's family's crest – the Sognare Famiglia crest. Like any other coat of arms, the Sognare crest is like shield, with two rifles sitting at the top of an elegant fleur-de-lis and a dream catcher circle at the middle. Underneath was the name Sognare in Old English writing.
"What's taking you so long?" Alaude irritatingly asked. "I didn't come here for my time to be wasted in admiring your family crest."
Hector stopped smoothing his hands at the edges of the crest and looked up to his younger cousin with a smirk, "What's gotten your panties in a twist, Alaude?" Then earning a glare, Hector chuckled, "Okay, okay." He motioned his subordinate to open the chosen briefcase, and it revealed a filed stack of papers and a gun. Alaude raised an eyebrow to that, which Hector easily caught. "The gun's actually for you, cousin. The pile of papers you can see are the different profiles of the Esquilo Famiglia, although we can't get information about their boss and his right-hand man. And of course, this," The older Sognare held up a small cube device. "This is a recorder. As the name gives, it records all conversations done. I think this might come in handy so I asked Innocenti to make one for you."
Alaude didn't comment, instead took the briefcase and examined everything in it. He inwardly smirked. Everything was indeed going to what he planned. Closing the briefcase, he turned his heel and walked away from them. Hector was of course to stop him at point. "Hold on, mister. Aren't there any heartfelt gratitude to be given?"
Alaude raised an eyebrow.
Hector sighed, "Geez. Couldn't you be any colder?" But when he saw Alaude's unusual calm gazes, he shut his streams down and looked away, "Fine. Get out of my sight now. Just don't return here bloodied and all or else I'm going to bury you alive."
"As if you can." Then Alaude went back to the car and drove towards the Vongola Mansion.
Hector was pleased, when Alyanna was not. Good luck… he thought.
…:[]:…
Mukuro was staring. Yes, he was staring - staring down at the bundle that was currently sleeping in his arms. He was staring down at the little movements that this little human being do that made him almost to admit that he's cute. But most of all, he was staring down at this child whom he unknowingly carried to what-part-of-the-house-I-am place.
He sighed. So he was going to play as a babysitter today, hm? He needed to get back to Chrome—
Oh no! Chrome was…
With such speed, even though still recuperating, Mukuro made his way towards the infirmary. He was lucky that he has brains and has a good sense of direction. He ignored all the stares from the disgusted maidservants and menservants (which were probably all Daemon's fault) and just made his way there. Once he was there, he saw a nurse whose eyebrows were creased, almost touching the nose bridge, and hands that hesitated to touch the little girl's body. His blood raged and pushed the nurse away.
"Get away from her!" he growled.
Getting up from the push, the nurse looked at Mukuro with angry eyes and crossed her arms, "You think you can do it all by yourself? Fine. Then heal her instead. I'm sure Master Daemon doesn't want anything to do with her anyway."
And because he came from the streets, it's not surprising that Mukuro learned a few 'words', "Curse you!" he said and threw the nearest flower vase to the nurse that sent alarm to the others. "Why are you all treating us like these? We didn't do anything to you!"
Thankfully, the vase was evaded by the nurse. The other nurses came inside and held Mukuro in place, "The mere fact you were born and brought pain to Master Daemon is what matters."
"LET GO OF ME!"
The nurses, not wanting to be "infected" by Mukuro's curse, immediately and disgustingly released Mukuro and left. The poor boy was left on the ground until he heard a few grunts coming from the bed.
"Mu-Mukuro…B-b-big br-br-brother…" Chrome said.
"Chrome!" Mukuro exclaimed and held her hand. "How are you?"
"I'm okay. But I heard people talking about you." Chrome said in a raspy, soft voice.
Mukuro shook his head, "Don't worry about it, okay?"
Chrome just nodded.
…:[]:…
Tsuna stared at the space provided for him. No one has even noticed that a two-year old was sitting near the bar and watching all the employees of the house walked around in circles and chatted with each other. Apparently, the kid was beyond curious now of how a normal human being worked every day - like walking, talking, eating, singing and the likes in his language – and he wanted to do that himself. But, he was bored. And he wanted that boy with a weird hairdo play with him.
Without guidance or anything, Tsuna made his own way on finding that boy. Miraculously, he was able to evade the taller humans silently. He was acting like a ninja in the 16th century. No one knew actually yet, but Tsuna has a sharp sense of feeling auras that he knew. Well, babies have strong abilities of feeling, but not as strong as Tsuna's. It was as if he knew which part of the house you're in once you and the tyke got in contact.
Oh well.
Minutes later (or almost an hour?), Tsuna slumped into the floor with tears threatening to flow down his cheeks. His eyes were looking at the infirmary door that was about 5 feet away from him. He wanted to go inside, but he can't because he felt so tired already. His knees gave up on him and with the cold floor hugging him, he fell asleep.
…:[]:…
Mukuro decided to leave his little sister first and look for his father. He can't really understand why his father, Daemon, doesn't want to acknowledge him and his sister as his children, with the evidence that he saw his father with his mother, Elena, talking to each other few days ago before getting ambushed by unknown people two days ago. Did his mother do something to be hated by his father? Or did they do something? What? He doesn't know. He can never know because no one would tell him. No one knew what he saw and heard. And he can't trust anybody but himself, Chrome and his own father regarding on this matter.
He sighed.
Walking outside the infirmary, he saw something lying almost lifelessly on the ground on his stomach. His insides churned when he caught sight of that massive brown hair and cream-soft baby skin that he held just a while ago. And it clicked on him.
It was the baby – the baby named Tsuna.
He hesitantly took small steps at first, but when he saw no movement from the baby, he took a leap from his position and went to the baby's side, gently holding him and lifting him to his chest. To his (secret) worry, he looked sideward and when he knew the coast was clear, he put his ear on the baby's chest to see if he's breathing. And it was. Bothered, he gave another good look on the baby, only to find out that Tsuna was fast asleep.
Mukuro snorted. The baby was probably lost into his own little world of rainbows right now.
He pushed some stray bangs behind Tsuna's ear and took a good picture of his form. Admittedly, he was entranced by Tsuna in a mysterious way, especially the eyes. The moment he saw those eyes of brown pools, he knew that there was something in Tsuna that kept him calm and giddy at the same time. He doesn't know, but he can feel it. Yes, Tsuna was a baby and definitely babies were cute, fun to cuddle, and mysterious; but this Tsuna (and redundantly speaking) was a whole different level. He was something. And Mukuro was eager to find it.
Suddenly, he felt a tug on his shirt and saw Tsuna's face contorting into a grim expression. The grip was getting tighter and the baby started to squirm under his hold. He didn't know what to do and he knew that if he tried to ask, no one would help him or better yet snatch away the baby from him. At first he thought of that; he wouldn't have any problems anymore. He would not have babysitting moments and worry about the baby, but there was something inside him that doesn't want to let go of Tsuna as of the moment.
Call it a brotherly care.
Since he has a little sister, Mukuro exactly knew how to take care of a child, since his mother was getting so sickly already. Though he and Chrome were twins, Mukuro was taking care of Chrome and even took care of a baby from their neighbor. And so, with a slow rocking pace, Mukuro hummed an unfamiliar song to Tsuna and ran a hand on the baby's scalp to keep him calm. He pushed Tsuna against his chest closer, conveying that he was there for him to send the booboos away from him. And after thirty minutes or so, Tsuna was finally calm with a smile on his face, but his grip on Mukuro's shirt was still there.
Mukuro can't help but smile.
Looks like this was one thing that he was waiting for: acceptance from someone.
With that, he slowly stood, firmly gripped on the baby's fragile body and went to the nearest couch in the hallway.
And there, they slept together.
A/N: WHEW! I THOUGHT I WILL NEVER FINISH THIS ONE! . Anyway, time for messages.
First of all, I want to thank one of my reviewers that pointed out about the baby stages. I pretty knew that much as well since I've been doing diaper change, feeding, and observing my youngest little brother when I was seven. But still, I thank you WinterGuardianAngel24-san for telling me all those things. :) But to tell you the truth, I really made Tsuna like that because I have plans for him.
As for Mukuro's little character this chapter, I know it's a little off-the-cliff because we do know that ROKUDO MUKURO is not EMOTIONAL. But he's a kid, and being a kid involves too many possibilities away from the original story and I could lead it to that. :) Just so you want dear readers.
Lastly, my mind is a little rusty at the moment due to the fact that my ideas have been diverted to a more destructive idea. And my mind has been eaten by kids. So, chapter six might not be updated soon too, but I have it written. It's for editing purposes.
Also, chapters one to four might get revised too. ^_^
By the way, I'm also looking for Betas since one suggested for me to find one, and I am convinced, not because of poor grammar, but to beautify my masterpiece. :)
I'll see you soon! :D Ciao~