Chapter 8

But Once that Step is Taken

Squinting, Skull opens his eyes as the sun enters his room through the open curtains. He yawns, and goes to bring his arms up in a stretch, but one arm feels far too heavy. Looking down, he is surprised by the baby hugging his arm in its sleep. Gently detaching the baby, he reluctantly puts Tsunayoshi back down on the bed. He proceeds to get dressed for breakfast and slowly wanders downstairs.

"Morning," he mumbles, sitting down at his seat. Slowly the others arrive, except Viper, who rarely comes out of her room before noon. Breakfast is a quiet affair like usual. Luce was chatting to everyone without really receiving an answer. She was a morning person, as was Fon, Lal and Colonnello. The rest were not. As breakfast was winding to a close, and Tsunayoshi had been taken care of, Skull feels a tug on his shirt. Looking down at the baby on his lap, Tsunayoshi looks at the animals around him. Keiman was under his master's chair, Cosmo was sitting on Luce's hat, Falco was on his perch in the corner, Leon was on Reborn's shoulder and Lichi was on the table, stealing grapes from the fruit bowl. Tsunayoshi looks at them and then at Skull, questioning where Skull's own animal was.

"Oh, you want to see Oodako do you? Let's go then." Picking Tsunayoshi up, he exits the kitchen and the house. In the garden was a large warehouse hidden behind some trees. Entering the warehouse, Tsunayoshi looks around in awe. Over half of the warehouse was taken up with a large pool, the rest contained bikes and ramps and cannons and loads of other equipment. It was hard to miss the large octopus in the pool. Gurgling happily away, Tsunayoshi reaches out, pointing in that direction. Smiling, Skull takes him over and introduces the baby to the animal. Trusting his partner, he holds out the baby and very gently, tentacles wrap around. Tsunayoshi screams in delight, patting whatever he can reach.

Letting Tsunayoshi have his fun, Skull wonders over to the other side and starts to check over his bike. He was going to do some dangerous jumps in a show tomorrow and he wanted to check everything was still in top working order. He gets so engrossed in doing so that he forgets about Tsunayoshi totally until the baby cries. Spinning around, he sees that Oodako is still holding the baby tightly, so he walks over to investigate. As he's doing so he looks over at the time and realises that it's already time for lunch: Tsunayoshi would be hungry.

Saying goodbye to his partner, he walks back through the garden and back into the kitchen, where he met Luce.

"Oh Tsunayoshi hunnie, what's wrong?" In true mother mode she takes the baby and totally ignores Skull; he doesn't mind, knowing that the baby is in the best hands of the house. Satisfied that the baby will have more fun with her, he goes back to his preparations. "Hungry, huh? Give me a moment then," and Tsunayoshi stops crying. A few minutes later and he's happily drinking the bottle of milk Luce holds up for him.

"We're going to have to buy some stuff for you aren't we. I didn't think that the rest would agree to keep you. You'll need a bed, and some more clothes and some toys and a blanket and a baby bath, oh and shampoo and soap and-" The baby stays silent as Luce reeled off a list of things she would need to buy for him. Anyone watching would wonder when she stopped to take a breath. Finally taking a breath, she looks down at the baby. "It's settled then."

She walks upstairs, grabs a few things, as well as her purse, before phoning ahead to Aria. She picks up after a few rings.

"Good Afternoon mother. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine thanks Aria. I need to borrow a few of your men and a van if you've got one spare. I'm going shopping for supplies for Tsunayoshi so there'll be a few large items like the bed and such." Luce replies, getting straight to the point.

A light laugh comes from the phone. "Of course Mother. I'll send Gamma and a few others. They'll meet you at the front gate."

Luce signs in relief. "Thank you! Well, I'd best be going, Ciao~" and she hangs up.

Aria smiles at her mother's attitude before spinning the chair around to look at Gamma. "Well you heard. You'll be escorting my mother on a shopping trip. Take a van with you too, she's doing a lot of shopping." Gamma pales. He'd been made to go on one of their shopping trips before. He never wanted to walk down the street blinded by boxes and bags again. Aria smiles sympathetically "Don't worry, you can take some of the others with you too."

"Of course Boss," says Gamma, keeling before walking out of the room.

Now Mafia Row was in the middle of nowhere. Yep, it was part of the address. Why? It was on its own island. Just like MafiaLand, this island was able to move to wherever the occupants wanted it too. It gave the Bosses protection and privacy, somewhere to relax in, as well as having a good climate most of the time. No one knew where this Island was. As a result, Luce couldn't go online and order whatever she wanted- it would never get to her. Hence the van. She would travel to the nearest city, buy what she wanted and take it back on the boat.

During the trip, the Giglio Nero members wondered what on earth being an Arcobaleno had done to her. Although she didn't exactly have the best housemates in the world. She was still the same person they remembered, but she was different too. She was definitely crazier than before. Maybe not having the burdens or stress of being a Mafia Boss anymore had helped somewhat?

They all jumped out of their skins however, when a serious deathly aura suddenly appeared right behind them. Luce carried on walking as if nothing special was happening. Shifting the baby in her arms, she says, "Reborn, what a nice surprise, grab that bath will you? And then you'll need those towels there. Not those ones, the ones below." Their jaws dropped when all Reborn did was click his tongue before complying with her wishes. Yes, the greatest Hitman in the world was currently holding a baby blue mini bath and bright orange towels.

"Luce," he growls, still picking up whatever items she calls out for, "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving the island?" Ah, that would explain the aura.

"Well, you did find me quite quickly. That shampoo. You always do. If I didn't know better I'd say you had a tracker on me. What flavour soap, vanilla or rose?" She still hadn't turned to look him in the face, treating him like any of her previous subordinates.

"Ask the brat," he says, looking away. Gamma looks confused. Why ask the baby, it couldn't decide. But he's shocked when Luce takes the advice very seriously and brings the soap closer to the baby.

"Which one Tsunayoshi?" she asks gently. Tsunayoshi takes a good look at each one before pointing to the Vanilla one.

Luce giggles at the choice, "He's got your tastes Reborn."

"I don't care. What I do care about is that you just walked out of the house with no protection. I know for a fact that you don't have your gun on you, and I doubt that these so-called Mafioso would be all that useful. I've already had to take care of a sniper, and even one man who was aiming for your purse. Would you at least pay more attention?"

"Pft. Reborn, I knew you were there. You got rid of that sniper before I could say anything about it. Plus I didn't have any visions of dying, so stop worrying. Here take him, I need to pay for this." In a rather business-like manner, she exchanges the bath for the baby and walks straight to the checkout. It's all Gamma and the others can do to catch up with her. They all give side looks to Reborn, who has the baby held in his arm. No one was going to comment on the tight hold he had on the baby, nor how he seemed even more protective now the infant was in his arms. The aura alone would keep anyone and everyone at least 2 metres away.

They don't see Reborn nor the baby for the rest of the trip. In fact the only way they know that Reborn is even still around is when a packet of diapers goes missing. No one had gotten close enough to the bag to steal anything, so it had to be someone of Reborn's level. Luce didn't seem to mind, and if she assumed it was Reborn, then they had no other option than to accept it. Nor do they notice when those diapers return.

Returning home, the first thing she sees is a fuming Viper. "How much money did you spend?" she shouts, looking suspiciously at the van. Luce sighs and hands the receipts over.

"It's all stuff for the baby and I'll pay for it, so don't worry," she explains. Viper seems to be less worried after hearing that. Luce isn't sure what part of her sentence pleased the woman, but at least Luce wasn't being shouted at. Before Luce can even ask, Fon, Skull and Colonnello are unpacking the van and taking the items into the house.

Walking inside she sees Reborn and the baby had made it back safely, not that she had any doubts. So with everything settled and taken care of, she starts humming to herself as she starts on dinner preparations.

As everyone walks upstairs for bed later that day, there is a new addition to the hallway; it looks suspiciously like the cot she had brought earlier, yet this one was on wheels.

"Who made the bed?" she asks, raising one eyebrow at the new additions.

Verde steps forwards, "Well I did of course." Verde was the best at making things, so it shouldn't have taken him long to make it. What amazed her was that she hadn't even told him she had brought it home. She hadn't seen him since this morning. "Since the baby likes to change the sleeping arrangements, I added the wheels to make it easier to move the cot from one room to another." Luce was impressed by his foresight. "Talking of," he mumbles and walks right up to the baby in her arms, "I want to go to sleep, so hurry and decide who you're sleeping with now. I don't want to hear the sound of you crying at all, understand?" Tsunayoshi nods and reaches up to grab her dress.

"Yes!" she shouts, jumping up and down. "It's finally my turn. Oh thank you thank you thank you Tsunayoshi~" And she skips into her room, kicking the cot in with her foot. The door slams shut, quieting the sound of squeals of joy. The Arcobaleno shake their heads and say good night to each other before departing to their own rooms.

And there we go.

Come visit the Arcobaleno House again, ne?

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 27 March 2012

Edited: 27th February 2013