Chapter 45:

Birthday special

The Mafia Row committee apologises for the change in the scheduled programming. Please enjoy!

The halls were dark, curtains drawn against the mid-day sun. Their Master was always moody when he first woke up, not that he wasn't always in a mood in general. A Lion prowls down the hallway in search of something meaty. Yeah, steak would do. A nice steak and a glass of vintage wine. What better breakfast?

He walks into the dining hall and stalks down to his chair at the end of the table, his back towards the offensive light. How dare it be so bright and hurt his eyes. His team members pause in the habitual morning fights to watch their Boss enter the room. It was a good thing that their Boss hadn't awoken this morning until the afternoon. This was technically lunch for them.

One of them immediately breaks away from his seat and fills the Lion's glass with his favourite brand of wine. Nothing was to be spared today of all days. Not that he'd spare the most important person in his life anything, but still, everyone else decided to bring out the good stuff for today. He'd even brought out the larger glasses for this special occasion.

"Hap-" starts the wine pourer as he finishes.

"Ushishishi~ The Prince shall go first as is his Princely right!" The Prince shouts out over the speech of the other one. He jumps out of his seat before skipping over to his Boss. Sitting on the gigantic arm rest, he gives off one of his crazy smiles. "The Prince wishes you a happy, non-peasant-ish Birthday!" He places a Box on the Lion's lap. "The Prince gives permission for you to open the box infront of him." The smirk gets wider. The Lion reaches down and picks up the box. "You should be happy that the Prince even remembered and got you something." The lion grunts, brushing off the words.

The box is opened revealing a chain meant to be worn on a belt. The Lion takes the chain out of the box. Along it were various glittering charms made out of titanium and other precious metals. So far there were only three charms. One, right in the centre, was a crown. The other two were guns, set either side of the crown. The Lion returns the chain to the box before chucking it down the table. The Prince gauges the distance it was thrown before smiling. "Ushishishi~ Beat that Peasants!" He jumps off of the arm rest of the throne before skipping back to his seat and finishing his lunch.

"Boss you shall be most pleased with my gif-"

"MOU~ Bossu. Happy Birthday!" Sings the Bird, cutting the umbrella toting male off. The Bird flies down to the other end of the room in large graceful jumps before coming to a perfect stop by the throne. The Bird leans over the back of the throne and his Boss' shoulder before singing, "I got you a little something!"

Wiggling his hips in a strange manor, the Bird reaches into his jacket before pulling out a box wrapped in black and red wrapping paper. The paper is shredded in an instant revealing yet another box. The Lion growls at the inconvenience before ripping that box off too. Just get to the point already. He had some steak to eat you know. Inside that box was a rather, especially for this guy's fashion sense, tasteful red and black tie that suited their Boss perfectly. The tie goes back in it's box before following the earlier present down the table, landing slightly infront of the Prince's offering. The Prince isn't happy with this and pouts, throwing a knife at the Bird as he flies past.

"Now is the perfect time-!"

"VROIII! You lazy ass Boss, take this." The shark throws something from his place at the table with full force. The Lion holds his hand out and catches the gift. "It's from the Old Man." The Shark adds.

Almost immediately the gift is thrown down the hall with all the force the Lion could muster, crashing straight through the wooden door, across the hallway, out the window and into the garden beyond. The Lion hadn't even looked at it. The Shark nods in approval before throwing something else to his Boss. "Don't break this one, I ain't getting your ass another one."

The Lion opens his hand to reveal the unboxed and unwrapped present. It was totally bare, getting straight to the point, the Lion liked that. In his hand was a pristine knife, glinting in the sunlight. He throws it back at the Shark, watching as it removes a few strands of hair before thunking into the wall. It was a good quality knife. He'd keep it. "Fetch." The Lion barks. The subordinate/servant runs quickly across the room before removing the knife from the wall and placing it reverently before his Boss.

"VROIII! You idiot. You blind or what?" The Lion ignores the Shark, placing the knife in the belt sheath the Shark had thrown across earlier before chucking that too down the table. It landed considerably closer to him than the other presents had.

"BOSS! May I present my present to your excellent self," says the last one in the room, finally uninterrupted. He quickly runs out of the room before dragging a carcass into the room. "I went out this morning and used all of my power to kill and cook this magnificent beast for you! The Lightning gives it an extra flavour suitable for your defined pallet."

The Lion ignored the jabbering of the nutcase, too busy deciding what piece to try fist. Finally deciding he rips a hunk of meat off before trying it. It was horrible, far too over cooked for his taste. There was a reason no one used Lightning to cook with. He grabs the fanatical man by the shirt before flinging him down the table. The man skids a short distance before falling off the end of the table.

"Thank you Boss!" shouts the man in pure joy. "You loved my gift so much that you forgot to gauge your strength!" He couldn't be more wrong, but instead the Lion was interested in the new thing that had entered the room.

A giant box was being wheeled into the room by two maids, with a certain Illusionist sitting on the top, getting a free ride.

"Here. This is my gift." She says in a monotone voice, jumping down and sitting on a chair at the table. The box is placed by the side of the throne before the two maids leave the room. The Lion looks suspiciously to his tamed Illusionist but she makes no motions other than a hurry it up one. There was a ribbon with an 'open here' sign, so he pulled on it. The sides of the box fall down revealing a tall cake. But suddenly the cake explodes.

"Happy Birthday Xanxus!" Sings Tsunayoshi standing up out of the cake.

Xanxus looks back over to Mammon but she waves a hand in the air. "Like I said, there's your present." Xanxus would like it and it was free, especially since the cake was an illusion anyway. So it was a win win situation for both parties.

Xanxus leans over the arm rest before picking the boy up and placing him on his lap.

"Ushishishi~ He's not even on the table. Minus Points! Mammon loses!" Belphegor sings, sticking his tongue out at Mammon.

"Hmm, actually, that end of the table is the minus end." Points put Lussuria, pointing to where Levi currently was. Then he gasps. "That means that Tsu-chan is over 100 points! Mammon wins this time!"

Xanxus hears this and growls slightly. He places Tsunayoshi on the shiny table surface before giving him a light push. Tsunayoshi slides down the table, about a metre away, which was still miles closer than the other presents had gotten.

The Varia were Vongola after all, so the Traditional Scoring system was used. Xanxus, being Xanxus, decided to mess things up. Instead of a board showing the scale of the scores, he did it by chucking things down the table. The closer to him, the more he liked it. Hence why Nono's gift had ended up outside in the garden. He didn't want gifts from his father. Gifts were meaningless anyway.

"I got you a present!" sings Tsunayoshi, crawling down the table and back into Xanxus' lap. He starts to pat his pockets down, searching for the box. When he suddenly realises that he doesn't have it, tears form in his eyes. "I-I…I…"

Xanxus grunts before lifting the hood of Tsunayoshi's lion hoodie, pulling it down to cover the little boy's eyes. "You don't cry infront of me, got it." He places a large hand on top of the hoodie, totally ignoring the fluff and the lion ears. Xanxus wasn't going to let the others see Tsunayoshi's moment of weakness either.

Viper sighs before walking over and dropping a box into the boy's hoodie pocket. Feeling the new weight, Tsunayoshi reaches into the pocket and pulls out the box. "You were so excited to get here that you left it on the counter." Viper explains before returning to her seat. She was quickly attacked by Belphegor, who decided to change seats to sit next to her and pull on her cheeks as punishment for bringing a gift that beat the Prince's.

Tsunayoshi smiles happily at Xanxus, eyes bright from the tears. Xanxus blushes at the cuteness of the little boy before deciding to leave the hood up. The others weren't going to see that either, he decides. Tsunayoshi opens the little box before bringing out a clump of feathers. "I worked on this for ages!" Tsunayoshi says proudly before leaning up and over to Xanxus' shoulder. Xanxus stays still, embarrassed since this was the closest to a hug he'd ever gotten before. He feels Tsunayoshi fiddle with the fox charm sat on his shoulder before the brat pulls back. Tsunayoshi smiles at him, admiring his work. "It looks great!" he decides, proud of himself.

Viper sees the look of confusion and interest in Xanxus' eyes, so she illusions up a mirror in Xanxus' sight. He takes the mirror and looks into it, looking at the feathered addition Tsunayoshi had provided.

"They are supposed to keep you safe Xanxus." Tsunayoshi provides, stroking the fox tail.

The Varia watch on speechless. First of all, the brat was sat on Xanxus's lap. Not forced there, not being held in a strangling grip. Just comfortably sitting there as safe as can be. Secondly was the fact that he was still sitting there and hadn't been chucked off a second time. Thirdly was the fact that Xanxus had hidden the boy's tears and has said something sincere in the softest voice anyone had ever heard from him. And now… now he'd let someone else touch the charm on his shoulder. No one touched that charm unless they wanted to die a quick and painful death.

And finally, finally, those feathers hadn't been removed. Nor did it look like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

That boy was seriously fearless.

Xanxus doesn't say thank you. There was no need to. Gifts were useless anyway as was celebrating something as stupid as the day someone was born. Really what was the point?

He picks Tsunayoshi up by the scruff of the hoodie and slings him down the polished table in Viper's direction.

The fact Tsunayoshi was alive and unharmed was thanks enough.

Surprise parties were not something that worked on Reborn since he always managed to find out about them somehow. So whenever the lights went up and everyone shouted out surprise, Reborn didn't jump, he just looked smug. Sometimes he wasn't at the newly opened doors, surprising everyone else when they got used to the lights again. Instead he'd already be at the seat of honour. So they didn't do that this year.

Various presents had already been left in a pile outside the Arcobaleno house. Gifts from Families who wished to gain Reborn's favour or be in his good books, buttering him up for later. Not that it ever worked; Reborn was impartial like that. There was a particularly huge cake waiting outside too, a small pink haired girl curled up asleep next to it. Bianchi had wanted to be the first one to wish Reborn a happy birthday, so she had camped outside all night.

When she woke up in the morning, she found herself back in her bed at home. However there was a note next to her bedside table.

"Thank you. The cake was killer. I enjoyed it very much. R."

Both of those sentences were true. The cake really did kill people, he'd save some for his next assignment. He had enjoyed the cake too… well enjoyed watching Skull moan and wreath in pain after he had eaten a piece, but it was still entertaining.

Luce had a tradition in the Arcobaleno house. In an attempt to make these unsociable people more human she insisted that everyone get presents for the other's birthdays. Viper was not a happy bunny when she heard that. It meant spending money after all. But do it she did.

So after a special dinner, Luce's finest work, everyone sat around the living room and gave their presents to the hitman.

Viper went first, remaining seated since she had nothing physical to give. "One piece. I'll give you one piece of information out of my Information Locker for free. See me later once you know who you want the dirt on." Reborn nods to her, pleased with her offering. Again it suited the both of them, being free yet useful.

Verde nods to a box on the table. "In there is a vial of yellow mixture. It's a poison I recently created. Just shake the vial until it changes colour and then throw it at your target. It works just as well on one or a group of people. It slowly paralyses and then shuts down the nervous system ending in termination." Reborn takes the box off the table and places it inside his jacket.

"Verde, you know what I say about poisons." Says Luce with a warning tone in her voice.

Verde rolls his eyes before waving a hand in her direction. "Already done. I'll administer the counter agent to everyone later tonight. I've even made a smaller stronger dose for Tsunayoshi. None of the Arcobaleno will be affected by it ever." Luce nods satisfied.

"This one's from me and Lal." Comments Colonnello, handing a suitcase over to Reborn. The hitman lays the case on the coffee table before pulling the latches and opening it. Inside was a group of individual parts along with a stock of bullets. "I know you don't like the conventional guns so we thought you'd prefer the parts to modify your own."

"Those blue bullets in the corner are Vongola ones." Comments Lal. She'd gotten them through her CEDEF connections. Vongola were always making high quality experimental bullets which Reborn loved to play with.

Reborn closes the suitcase and places it against the side of the sofa, smirking in their direction. It was his pleased 'someone's–in-for-hell' smile, which was a good sign. He liked them then.

Bermuda walks over next, dangling a key on a piece of string infront of Reborn's face. Carefully, Reborn raises an eyebrow at the Mafia Jailer, wondering what the significance of an antique key was. He didn't collect trinkets.

"This key is for a room in the Vendicare. You can do with it as you wish: Hold prisoners there, do interrogations, torture, executions, hide there. Whatever you want. Show this key at the door and even if I'm not available, one of the others will let you in." Bermuda explains slowly swinging the key back and forth.

Reborn's smirk gets broader. These guys knew how to give presents that was for sure.

Fon stands up next, walking over to where Reborn was situated. He places a bright red bag on the table. Everyone can already guess what's in there. Only one thing gave off this smell.

"The special stuff you like so much." Fon smiles, giving a half bow in presentation of the bag. Reborn pulls his fedora down low, hiding the soft smile and glittering eyes he had. This particular coffee bean was very hard to get hold of. So much so that Reborn only drank it for special occasions. That Fon had managed to find some was nearly a miracle. Well timed too, Reborn had almost been running out of his supply.

Skull strides to the middle of the carpet, already making a spectacle of himself. "Prepare yourselves for I have found the ultimate gift!" Skull boldly declares. Reborn smirks, highly unbelieving. Skull parades into the kitchen, bringing out an iced cake. "Who doesn't like cake on their birthday?"

As he's bringing the cake across, Skull trips on the edge of the carpet, falling forwards. Right in the direction of Reborn in his immaculate suit. But Reborn remains calm. He simply kicks the empty coffee table, making it lean upwards and into Skull. The cake gets crushed between the table and Skull with a loud splat sound. As the table falls back into it's original position, it is revealed that Skull has a cake mud mask on. The icing slowly drips off, slipping down to the floor.

Skull sniffs before bursting out into tears. "Ahh, my gift was ruined. Now what will I do?"

Reborn leans forwards, placing an elbow on his knee and propping his head up on it. "It's alright Skull. I know how you can redeem yourself."

Skull's eyes light up. "Really?!"

Reborn nods. "Yes, really." Skull waits in anticipation for Reborn to speak once more. "You can just continue to be my lackey for the year. Just do everything I tell you and you'll be fine. It'll be the 'Ultimate gift'."

The rest burst out into laughter over such a Reborn-like remark. Skull though, looks terrified and quickly retreats to his seat. Tsunayoshi leans up and gathers some of the cake and icing in his hand before eating it. "Yum. Skull this was really good." Skull smiles at Tsunayoshi, glad someone had liked it.

Luce passes a bag over to Reborn, who was sat next to her. "Happy Birthday Reborn. I hope you had a good one." She says, smiling that bright Luce smile of hers. "I borrowed the Muira Tailor's workshop for a little while. Everything is specially made; there's reinforcements in the collar against knife attacks and bullets aiming for your neck. Each of the cuff-links is a flash bomb. And the tie completes the outfit." Luce had gotten Reborn a shirt-tie combo with a pair of cuff-links to complete the picture. Reborn liked to be sharply dressed after all. And to Reborn's utter relief, there wasn't a patch of fur, glitter or feathers in sight.

Finally Tsunayoshi comes over, icing all around his face. He squeezes in-between Luce and Reborn on the sofa before handing him over a brightly wrapped present. Reborn carefully undid the bow and peeled back the paper, revealing a box. Opening the box, Reborn took a peek inside before pulling the item out. The others smile over what Tsunayoshi had gotten the hitman for his birthday.

It was a coffee mug painted with pictures of Reborn, Tsunayoshi and Leon. Reborn carefully places it back in the box for safe keeping before gently smiling at Tsunayoshi, hidden by his fedora as he was.

As Tsunayoshi lay dozing that night next to Reborn, he swears that the hitman squeezes him tighter than he normally did. Reborn only showed affection when they were alone after all.

Tsunayoshi wondered where they were going. The morning had been excellent so far. He'd had a breakfast filled with all of his favourites, no one had been arguing or shouting or causing a dangerous fight or anything like that. And he'd gotten a really good night sleep last night. He was surprised however, when, after breakfast, the Arcobaleno had directed him outside.

Standing in front of the gate, they suddenly slam open at an invisible force. He blinks when the sunlight hits his eyes and he's attacked by sound from every angle.

"Happy Birthday Tsunayoshi!"

He'd never heard something so loud before. He had to take a step backwards at the force of it. He looks infront of him awed by the sight. It was truly a rare one.

It seemed like a street party was taking place at Mafia Row. Lines of tables ran down the middle of the street all piled high with food and balloons, streamers and everything else a party demanded. The food was from every region of the world, all created by the army of chefs that Mr Yamamoto had at his disposal. Everything seemed endless; there were just so many people packed onto the small street, it was amazing that anyone could move at all. In fact it was amazing that there were seats for everybody. Everybody from Mafia Row had come, from the Giegue to the Bovino, from the Shimon to the Gate Keepers.

Excitable as they are, those children that can walk, run over to Tsunayoshi and jump on him. And there were a whole lot of children living on Mafia Row. Okay, so maybe a few had the decency not to jump on him, Hibari since he didn't do that, and Gokudera since it would be disrespectful to Tsunayoshi-sama. Julie and Adel stayed out of the pile too but were quickly pulled in by their Shimon brothers and sister against their will. Tsunayoshi starts laughing somewhere at the bottom of the pile and soon every child there is laughing their heads off.

Eventually order is restored and Tsunayoshi can finally stand up again. Lanchia comes over holding the hand of a very unsteady Fuuta. He had grown so much since Tsunayoshi had last seen him. To save Fuuta from walking any further, Tsunayoshi runs over and hugs the pair of them, accepting their birthday wishes. Lambo and I-pin are brought over too, I-pin already walking whereas Lambo has to be carried. Tsunayoshi smiles at them before hugging them too. Byakuran also bring Bluebell over. Tsunayoshi has a chance to say 'hello' before Bluebell glomps him, almost bringing him to the floor once more.

"Tsunayoshi-sama!" shouts Gokudera, bowing before Tsunayoshi. "May I wish you very happy birthday!" Tsunayoshi smiles gently at Gokudera before pulling him into a hug. Gokudera's attitude always made him laugh.

"Kufufu~ Indeed. I wish you all the joys the Path of Heaven can provide." Mukuro smiles, ruffling Tsunayoshi's hair. He then tugs on the hand he's holding and Chrome stumbles forwards.

"H-happy b-birthday." She whispers, blushing from embarrassment.

"EXTREME BIRTHDAY!" Ryohei roars, fire burning behind him. Gokudera quickly shouts at him for being too loud.

"Haha, have a good birthday Tsunayoshi." Yamamoto laughs. "I hope the next year is filled with lots of home runs!" Home runs were a good thing right? Tsunayoshi couldn't remember.

"Hn, you survived another year Herbivore. Well done." Supplies Hibari as he walks past, trying to find the best position to watch from. Kusakabe bows and provides a more traditional birthday greeting before following after Hibari.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder Tsunayoshi turns around to find Enma there. "T-t-tsunayoshi, happy birthday." Emna mumbles, barely audible over the noise of everyone else.

"Thanks Enma!" smiles Tsunayoshi, truly happy that Enma had looked for him. But then he gasps as he notices a trickle of blood on Enma's face. "Are you alright? You ended up on the bottom too didn't you?" It was just their luck to be at the bottom of the huge dogpile from earlier. Enma nods sheepishly, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

Giotto walks over and smiles at Tsunayoshi. The small boy kneels to the floor, some ingrained instinct acting for him rather than conscious thought. Primo shakes his head but the smile doesn't leave his lips. He continues to walk over and picks Tsunayoshi up. "We can't start until you're in place you know. You're holding everything up." There was laughter in Giotto's voice, he wasn't actually mad. He plops the boy down in the huge seat at the start of the line of tables.

Everyone else sits down too. Primo raises his glass of wine and says in a voice used to shouting over crowds, "Here's to Tsunayoshi!"

"Cheers!"

Everything from then on passed by in a blur. All Tsunayoshi could remember was hundreds of presents, lots and lots of food and hundreds of people talking to him. He played some party games with the other children, often getting the adults to join in too (they couldn't say no to him on a normal day, let alone today). The pile of presents is ten times taller than himself; it may as well have been a mountain. Slowly Tsunayoshi works his way through, making sure to thank each Family individually for their gifts.

But eventually, he gets to the last one, right at the very bottom. It's rather plain and ordinary, not fancily decorated with ribbons and bows like some of the other ones were. Tsunayoshi looks at the note curiously. It simply said:

To Me. Happy Birthday. From You and Them.

Since when had he given himself a present? He didn't remember buying one. He opens the box to see what's inside. Carefully laid on some white tissue paper is a small fabric bag. It's almost flat, bright blue and smaller than a credit card. Credit cards, Viper's holy grail he was sure- He wasn't even allowed to touch one in case he broke it. On it was some writing in what seemed to be Japanese, along with a fish. It seemed familiar. He knew that it was important, that it meant something and that he should keep it on him. Knowing that Haru was good with Japanese stuff, he goes and finds her.

"Oh, it's a good luck charm desu!" she screams, carefully picking it up to admire it. "Such amazing work. I'm so jealous desu!"

Why would he give himself a Japanese Good Luck charm?

He really didn't know.

Sorry about the change, but it was Tsunayoshi's birthday today. And it was Xanxus's on the 10th. I love him too much to miss it. I did Reborn's for two reasons. One was since I couldn't miss him out if I was going to do Xanxus' as well and the second reason will appear next chapter.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 14 October 2012