Chapter 38

What a Mother Knows.

A little thing to note: As we all know my writing doesn't suit young children, a 4 year old Tsunayoshi seems almost triple that age. I know it, you know it. So instead of giving him ages, I'll just let you decide. Tsunayoshi has grown up a little since the last Arc (a minimum of 6 months), however he is still rather young since he doesn't know much of the world yet and is still unbelievably innocent and trusting in the Arcobaleno, always wanting to see the good side in everyone.

This arc was originally planned to be before we met the rest of Mafia Row. But since everyone wanted to meet the others so badly, I changed things around. This does change the feel of Reborn and Viper's chapters since Tsunayoshi is no longer a baby. But it does mean that Bermuda gets a chapter in this arc. I do have the next 3 arcs planned out too XD

"See you all later!" smiles Tsunayoshi, standing next to the doorway. Breakfast had been served and eaten, and sadly nearly everyone had jobs to go to. It wasn't unusual for most of them to be out at the same time. They were exceptional at their jobs after all, and as such were in high demand.

On their way out, Lal received a hi-five (reluctant on her part), Colonnello a fist bump, Fon a bow in the Chinese manner, Viper a hug and Skull a secret handshake. Tsunayoshi handed over a pen to Verde, placing it in the scientist's lab coat pocket. From Bermuda, Tsunayoshi received a hug via the chains Bermuda wore. And finally, as the last to leave, Reborn patted Tsunayoshi on the head.

So that left him all alone in the house with Luce. They spent a lot of time alone together like this, often with one or two of the others if they had no requisitions that day. He and Luce did everything from watching movies to being taught to read (Verde had started the process last month and Tsunayoshi was learning fast), to simply cuddling up and watching whatever was on the TV.

Now that everyone has gone out for the day, Tsunayoshi climbs up the stairs and into the bathroom. After washing his face and cleaning his teeth he goes into his little used room to find some clothes for today. After placing on some trousers, a shirt and a bunny hoodie, he grabs Natsu and proceeds back down stairs. It's rather quiet without everyone else here. And to be honest, Tsunayoshi doesn't like it. He much prefers the rambunctious atmosphere created when the others was around. Strangely enough the sounds of bullets, crashing vases and shouted arguments was music to his ears. Anything other than those sounds meant something was wrong. This silence, whilst usually perceived as nice, really wasn't. So he goes in search for Luce's company.

But she's not in the kitchen, nor in the living room, nor in the games room. She's not in Verde's lab, in the armoury (they needed one with the amount of ammunition the Arcobaleno used. Plus there were a few bits for Skull in here, some weapons Fon used and a repair kit for Bermuda's chains.), nor in the Garden. She's not asleep in her room either. Holding Natsu tighter, he decides to go around the house once more just incase he missed her.

He finally hears her when he passes into the corridor near the living room.

"Cosmo, pass me the calculator."

He follows the sound of her voice into a room that he'd forgotten to check. The Study. Lots of the Arcobaleno used this room at times, all having some form of paperwork to do. Reborn, Lal and Colonnello, and Fon all had reports to write for their Bosses, Skull used it to keep correspondence for his stage shows. Quite possibly the scariest use of this room was when Viper used it. She'd black out the windows, light (LED, solar charged) candles (they were far cheaper than buying normal candles each time, or buying batteries every few uses) and do some sort of occult research in it. When she wasn't doing that then she was consulting her information network. She had a whole cabinet filled with blackmail material. This cabinet was covered in locks that even Reborn couldn't pick, and the Arcobaleno had to pay a fee if they ever wanted information from that cabinet. For Reborn especially, Viper was a good source of information. It was just annoying that she charged so much for it. Bermuda didn't use the study much since his office was down the other end of the street at the Vendicare. Verde didn't use it much either since he had his whole lab to do paperwork in- however Tsunayoshi's reading lessons were held in here, how he'd forgotten the room, he didn't know.

The whole room was colour coordinated to allow the Arcobaleno to find their own files easier. Books, folders, shelves and filing cabinets were all painted to match a single Arcobaleno or else they'd never be able to separate the paperwork of 9 different people.

Luce looks up as the door opens. She smiles as Natsu's head appears around the door. Tsunayoshi was being cautious since he was often kicked out of this room. The Arcobaleno always seemed to get short tempered and snappy in this room. Apparently handling letters and money was a stressful thing, but Tsunayoshi couldn't say he knew so from experience; he didn't get any letters.

"Natsu, darling, could you hand me that orange book next to your foot?" asks Luce. Tsunayoshi makes Natsu nod before gingerly stepping into the room and grabbing the book that she had requested. He brings it over to the table where she has gone back to looking at a different book. Placing it on the table, Tsunayoshi gives a small "Gao~" for Natsu to let her know he's done what she asked. "Thank you Natsu." Smiles Luce before taking the book and flicking through its pages. When she finds the page she's looking for, she places it down on the desk.

Tsunayoshi blinks at it and climbs onto a chair to get a better look at it. It was a very confusing page filled with blue and red lines and more numbers than he'd even seen before. Needless to say, he got none of it. Luce laughs quietly at the confusion on his face. "This is an account book Tsunayoshi. It helps me to keep track of how much money we have. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to buy food and clothes." Yes, the Arcobaleno were rich, but it never hurt to keep track of everything. Ammunition for guns wasn't cheap after all. Nor was all the chemicals Verde wanted.

Accounting and Finance was a job done by both Viper and herself since Viper was the one obsessed with money to a worrying degree. In general, Luce kept accounts for the small things, the everyday things, that the house needed, such as food and clothes, as well as the utility bills. Viper handled everything else.

"C-can I help?" Tsunayoshi asks quietly, since he was sure the answer was going to be no. People never wanted help when they were in this room, saying that Tsunayoshi would just get in the way.

"How well do you know numbers Tsunayoshi?" Luce asks, a happy smile on her face.

Tsunayoshi brightens up considerably. "Tsunayoshi knows lots of numbers, I can count to 20!" Luce knew that, and boy had it been an experience getting him to learn those numbers. Each of the Arcobaleno had tried, with varying degrees of success.

She hands the boy the calculator Cosmo had given to her earlier and faces it in the boy's direction. "Can you show me the numbers on here?"

Tsunayoshi looks a little hesitant but still tries anyway. When he gets them all correct, he beams brightly at her, very proud of himself. "If Mamma says some numbers can you press them into this for me?" Tsunayoshi nods vigorously before sitting down in the chair. He places Natsu on his lap and reaches around the toy lion to be able to grab the calculator.

Luce knew it was going to take a whole lot longer doing it this way, however she didn't want to leave Tsunayoshi all by himself. Not only would be get bored but he'd get lonely too and she wouldn't want that.

10 minutes, two bouts of tears, three lollipops and a huge glass of gin and tonic later, Luce gets a phone call.

"Heya Kora! I need to enter another date into the notice board, could you do it before I forget? Lal's not coming with me on this one"

Luce holds the phone to her shoulder before grabbing a baby blue PostIt note and a pen. She writes something down before saying goodbye to Colonnello and closing her phone. She passes the blue sticky note over the table to Tsunayoshi. "Can you stick this up there for me?" she asks since Tsunayoshi's chair was next to this wall.

The notice board kept track of all the missions and official outings and meeting the Arcobaleno had. Luce insisted on having it, wanting to know where everyone was at any time. The latest PostIt note contained details of a mission Colonnello would be taking in two weeks' time.

Luce can't help but giggle when she sees what Tsunayoshi is doing. He'd taken the PostIt note and started to doodle an image of Colonnello on it. Once he had finished, he used the blutack to place it on the board before taking down a bright red one. On this one he started to draw Fon on it. Tsunayoshi continued to do this, one PostIt note at a time, placing the notes back in their places before taking the next one down. Luce used this time to take back the calculator and finish totalling the food bills for last month. As lovely as Tsunayoshi's help was, she'd like to get it done. Paperwork was long and boring as it was, she didn't need Tsunayoshi making it last twice as long.

With that done, and Tsunayoshi finished personalising the notice board, She decided a change of scene was in order. With all of the Arcobaleno out of the house, now was the perfect time to clean it. Luce didn't mind cleaning the house, the peace and repetitious nature could be quite relaxing. She gets the hoover out and plugs it in.

"Can I help too?" Tsunayoshi asks once more. Luce couldn't say no to the adorableness that was Tsunayoshi and Natsu, but she knew that she couldn't let him do the hovering, he wouldn't be able to push the hoover. She had images of things being broken if she asked Tsunayoshi to do the dusting. He was too young to wash up, too clumsy to dry the breakfast plates up…

She leads Tsunayoshi into the kitchen and places him in a chair at the table. She places a very heavy vase infront of the boy- one she knew he wouldn't be able to lift, therefore it wasn't going to end up in pieces on the kitchen floor- and a bouquet of flowers. Luce loved having flowers around the house, they smelt nice and gave the place some colour. "I want you to place these flowers into that vase and make them look pretty." She says enthusiastically.

"Yeah! Natsu and I can do that really good, can't we Natsu!" shouts the small child, punching a fist into the air.

"Do that really well Tsunayoshi. It's well, not good." Corrects Luce.

"Yeah Natsu, it's well not good" Tsunayoshi tells the lion as if it was the one who had spoken and not him. Luce hides a smile before leaving Tsunayoshi to his task. She could keep an eye on him through the door connecting the kitchen and the living room.

"Well then Natsu, what should we start with?" Tsunayoshi asks the lion.

"Hmm, you're right, the big bright orange ones should go in the middle!"

"What next? These yellow ones? You're right Natsu, they'd look good."

"Hmm, this petal isn't very yellow, we should take it off."

"And this one… and this one… that one too… euh that one's brown… this one's not very yellow either."

"Natsu, look what you've done, there are no petals left! We need a new yellow flower now."

Luce can't hear any of this over the noise of the hoover, but they are used to Tsunayoshi talking to Natsu. She was sure it was just a phase and he'd stop eventually.

Once she's finished hovering, she walks into the kitchen to check on the boy. She isn't surprised to find flower petals in his hair, leaves in Natsu's mane and a mixture of the two all over the table. Sighing, she grabs the nozzle of the hoover, turns it on and walks towards the boy.

Tsunayoshi can clearly see her intentions as his eyes go wide. With a giggle, he grabs Natsu and runs around the table in the opposite direction of Luce. Putting on a huge grin, Luce steps backwards and stands near the door towards escape and dirty freedom. Tsunayoshi stops when he sees this, his plans thwarted. As she steps forwards, still in between him and the door, Tsunayoshi takes a step backwards. Luce keeps on taking steps forwards until her hips are stopped by the table.

Tsunayoshi, cowering behind the table, his back against the kitchen counters smiles, assuming that Luce can't get to him here. He sticks his tongue out at Luce, before placing Natsu infront of his face and growling for the lion.

When he lowers Natsu down, it's to find the hoover directly in his face.

Jumping into the air at the scare, Tsunayoshi lets out a loud "HEEII!"

What Tsunayoshi had forgotten was the reach of the Hoover. He never used it so didn't realise that it could grow longer and shorter. Luce was leaning over the table, her elbows in the middle to steady herself. With accuracy, she places the hoover near Tsunayoshi's hair and sucks up all of the petals that had gotten stuck there before repeating the process for Natsu. She was sure that whoever's bed Tsunayoshi decided to sleep in would not appreciate leaves and petals joining them.

The day continued in a similar fashion, with Tsunayoshi making a mess of the household chores. Although, Luce thinks afterwards, at least it wasn't as boring as it usually was. After hovering up the mess in the kitchen, they move onto the gardening. Tsunayoshi was very good at pulling up plants... The wrong ones admittedly, meaning Luce had to undo the damage he caused. Tsunayoshi however quickly learnt his lesson and went back to pat and apologise to every plant he had uprooted. Luce found this adorable and squished the life out of the poor boy through a hug. Tsunayoshi spent the next few minutes just simply sitting in the garden, recovering from his ordeal.

Luce could hug the life out of anything.

When the Arcobaleno arrive back at home that night, it's to find a sparkling house and a very dirty Luce and Tsunayoshi.

"I think it's time for a bath, kora." sings Colonnello as he walks up to Tsunayoshi.

The little boy giggles and screams as he's picked up and chucked over Colonnello's shoulder. The screams get quieter as they go up the stairs towards the bathroom.

"LUCE!" Everyone jumps at the sound of Vipers shout. Viper didn't shout all that often.

Said psychic walks, no stomps, into the living room, an accounting book held in her shaking hands.

"What is this blasphemy?" she demands. "Who wrote that 2+2= fish?"

Skull bursts into laughter at the joke.

"No matter what base you are using, whether it be binary or not, it is not mathematically possible for 2 plus 2 to equal a fish." says Verde, looking down at Skull and pushing his glasses up.

"Guys it's a joke, I bet Tsunayoshi wrote it." Skull wipes the tears. He walks over and takes a look at the book. "Yeah, he did. He can only write numbers not letters yet, right."

Viper closes the book, squishing Skull's finger in the process. "Well then mister. You can pay for the corrective fluid to cover that up then since you seem to find it so funny." She turns around and strides out of the room.

Skull is hot on her trail. "Whoa, calm down Viper! You can't expect me to pay for that! Viper… Viper…Vip-"

Fon comes in with a mug of steaming tea. "Worry Not Luce. Patience is a wonderful virtue and one that will be rewarded in the future. It is admirable of you to put his happiness over your productiveness."

"Hn, once I'm done with him, he'll do all of the chores for you Luce, don't worry." comments Lal, cracking her knuckles.

"Lal don't do that. He's only young after all. And we had some fun, so it's not that bad." Calms Luce.

"Viper, you can't do that. Only a demon would!" protests Skull as the pair come back into view, still in the middle of their argument.

"I'm glad you see things my way; finance is no laughing matter. Money makes the world go round not fish!" protests Viper, turning on Skull as she stops in front of the sofa.

"It was just a joke!" Pleads Skull.

"Viper, hunny," Both freeze and slowly turn towards Luce. That tone wasn't good. Skull thinks he can see Viper sweating under her hood. Luce never called Viper hunny or sweetie unless she was in serious trouble. It was like being called by your full name. "Would you like to see what I made for Tsunayoshi today? It's just so cute and adorable, I'm sure that you would love it."

Viper slowly backs away, eyes glancing towards the stairs, wondering whether she can get there and up them in time. She didn't want to be punished, not for this. She couldn't take another meeting with…

The Bag.

Viper takes her chance and runs for it. Luce follows behind her, sewing bag in her hand, a bright pink bow in the other. The others sweatdrop and back away from the two warring woman, Viper shouting profanities and curses. Luce seems unfazed.

"But Viper, I'm sure that Pink would liven up your outfit!"

At dinner, Viper has forgotten all instances of maths and marine animals meeting on a crisp blank page, instead too busy wishing that she could disappear. The others were politely hiding laughs behind their hands over the bright pink bows ans sliver glitter decorating Viper's hood. However, secretly they are all remembering their own meeting with the Demonic Bag. Almost as one they shiver.

No one wanted another meeting with The Bag.

So one of the winners to my competition is Yoshikuni Itoe, who suggested that Luce threatens them all with The Bag, filled with things she makes Tsuna's cosplays out of. I think it's really fun and fits with the themes of Mafia Row at the moment.

However the following people also suggested something I rather like which I think suits Luce's personality- or at least the personality I've given to her- and that's to be able to pull things out of thin air, or use the items around her as weapons. Examples include a Pen, a frying pan, the kitchen knives, and needles from her sewing kit. Some of the weirder examples include Flower Ninja stars and a staff. So thanks to uchiha-sakura193, DMCP, VenomRouge, tora-chan83, AikoYukari, Bleach-ed-Na-tsu, Kildosad, whitemistress, Leonard L. Church. (Sorry if I've missed anyone off).

For those who suggested about Luce's Shaman side being explored more, I may do if we get to some more violent stuff once Tsunayoshi's grown up a little more.

Thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions *bows*

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 21 September 2012

Ps. New thing I'm trying out. I'm gonna put my plan for this chapter down at the bottom. Since I plan sentences all at once, I usually know what I want to do for each chapter. However sometimes what I plan is totally different from what I end up writing. It'll be surprising how different they turn out to be sometimes. I swear that I won't change them to make it look like I've followed my plan when I didn't.

What a Mother Knows: a day with Luce, sorting house accounts, calandars, planning their lives ect.