I realized that not everyone might like yaoi (thanks to a guest reviewer), so I've decided to post a second, only-friendship based fanfic on this account as well. So, if you'd rather not read yaoi, you can switch to that story instead! It's named 'Café Munio: The Friendship Edition' and really, it's probably the least imaginative title I could have possibly come up with. Actually, if people like that title, I might change this Café Munio to 'Café Munio: The Yaoi Edition.' Am I joking? I'm not sure myself.
Anyway, thanks and kudos to the four new reviewers: x3, suzie, Guest and… well, Guest.
Café Munio: Chapter 6
Sunday was a regular, no-sushi day, and Tsuna was finally able to appreciate the calmness of the quaint little café. Thank goodness he didn't work at those really popular restaurants that had a whole butt-load of customers every hour.
Thinking back on it, the Vietnamese restaurant had had a lot of customers, too…
Tsuna was dozing away at the counter when the chimes tinkled and he looked up lazily, blinking at the blurry shape of a blue-haired man came into view.
Actually, it wasn't just a man. There were three people behind him, too—one girl and two boys, all about Tsuna's own age, maybe a bit older. Hibari's age, perhaps?
Tsuna subconsciously compared the man's hairstyle to that of a spiky pineapple, and decided that it did fit him rather well. He was also holding a very shiny, sharp three-pronged… thing.
Surprisingly, the girl with the eye patch had the same hairstyle and the same odd color of hair. Tsuna noticed with a shiver that the man had heterochromatic eyes, one red, and one blue.
The third one had dirty blonde hair and a strange scar or burn across his nose. Tsuna thought he looked rather…. feral.
Even though the creepy-looking guy was pretty scary, this last person unnerved Tsuna the most. He wore glasses that were so thick you couldn't see his eyes, and a beanie. But the thing was, he didn't show any trace of emotion on his face, at all.
He looked like very advanced, realistic human robot.
Tsuna fumbled with the menus and took little baby steps towards their table. "E-er, excuse me," the brunette said hesitantly, "Would you like to order?"
The group appeared not to have heard him as they continued muttering in low voices.
"Check the prison securities," the pineapple was saying, "And Chikusa, you're in charge of planning."
"I want to help, too!" the spiky blonde raged. "It's not fair! That bastard always gets all the credit!"
"It's okay, Ken," the girl said in a soft, almost indecipherable voice. "You get all the credit for actually breaking in," she continued.
"Humph, your opinion doesn't matter anyway!" the blonde said harshly, and Tsuna winced.
"Excuse me," he said again, louder. "Would you like to order?"
The other three jumped as the pineapple smirked, getting up from his chair and pushing it back with a screech. "I don't need anything to eat," he said smoothly. "I'll be leaving now."
"Mukuro-sama!" the girl cried.
Tsuna mentally rolled his eyes, but immediately felt kind of bad as he didn't know anything about of either of them.
He was so absorbed in wondering how to feel about this prison-break group that he almost didn't notice the man fading into mist outside the shop.
Almost being the key word.
The trio seemed gloomy after the man had disappeared (literally), while Tsuna could only stare with his jaw hanging wide open.
This was the second person he'd seen disappear in less than two weeks. Had disappearing people always been this common in Namimori?
There was a kind of purple mist hanging around the area where the man had mysteriously vanished into thin air, but even that was slowly dissipating.
"I don't want to eat anything," the blonde guy—Ken, as the girl had called him—growled, standing up suddenly and sending the chair clattering to the floor.
"I'm not hungry," the boy with the beanie, Chikusa, said in a monotone. "Let's leave, Ken." The two exited the shop without any further disruption and soon, only the girl was left.
"E-excuse me," Tsuna said, approaching her, "Would you like to order…" he asked, but trailed off when she squeaked in surprise and quickly ran out of the shop.
"….anything?" he ended, confused.
Huh. It was the first time Tsuna had ever met anyone who was shyer than he was.
"They didn't order anything, hey?" Colonello asked, coming out from the back room. "That's disappointing."
"I think…" Tsuna shook his head in bewilderment. "I think they said something about a… prison?"
"Oh?" Colonello suddenly looked alert. "Who just came in?"
"A… a pineapple, his younger sister, a man called Ken, and a man called…" Tsuna thought for a bit, finding that he'd already begun to forget their names. "I think his name was Chikusa."
"Oh. Well thanks for telling me that, Tsuna!" Colonello grinned, before turning back to the room and muttering something about 'warning the Vindice.'
That went fairly well, considering that the first customers had actually damaged the floor. Tsuna had been on his guard, intuition buzzing, the second that three-pronged weapon had entered the shop, but the man had left without incident.
For some reason, a majority of the customers who entered all had a rather dangerous aura all around them. That even included Tsuna's co-workers, and the peaceful Fon. They always seemed to be aware of everything, even in the kitchen or when they wiped windows.
Tsuna was fairly sure that there was something he didn't know, but it was probably safer for him if he didn't meddle around in things that didn't concern him.
He leaned against an orange wall, and soon drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
The sun was almost set and stars were beginning to appear in the darkening sky when Tsuna was rudely awoken by the feel of several ice cubes thrown into the back of his shirt.
His eyes snapped open and he pitched forward with a yowl as the ice cubes left a steaming cold trail down his back.
"Get them out! Get them out!" Tsuna howled, and only after thrashing around for a full ten seconds was he able to shake out all three ice cubes.
Tsuna collapsed onto a table as a low chuckling could be heard behind him, and he whipped his head around to glare at the deeply amused man and his equally amused chameleon.
"Reborn!" he whined. "Why did you do that?" The man shrugged, and the setting sun cast a dark shadow against the brim of his fedora so his eyes couldn't be seen.
"You were sleeping," Reborn said simply, "And if you didn't wake up, the café would close and you'd be stuck in here for the whole night."
Then, on purpose, he added, "Who knows? I might lock myself in here with you," raising his eyebrows slightly as Tsuna turned red.
"D-don't do that," Tsuna complained, embarrassed. He checked his watch and found that his shift was over—in fact, it had been over then minutes ago. "Oh no, I have to meet with Yamamoto and Gokudera!"
With that, Tsuna slung his backpack over a shoulder and sprinted down the lane to his house.
Nana had already let both of them in, since they were regular visitors to Tsuna's home. Strangely, they'd even begun to have breakfast there, and now there were four breakfast portions on the table every Monday and Wednesday.
Life had taken a drastic turn for Tsuna, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not.
Both of them had almost finished all their homework when Tsuna set his backpack down and joined them at the little table.
"Ah, this is better," he sighed contentedly. "There were so many weird people at the café today!" Tsuna exclaimed.
"I don't care," Gokudera snorted. Yamamoto, however, showed some interest in the topic.
"Really, Tsuna? What happened?"
"There were four people, and I think they were planning some sort of prison break," Tsuna informed them.
"Prison break?" Yamamoto looked alarmed. "You shouldn't get involved with that kind of people, Tsuna. Plus, if they were convicts," here he frowned, "Why would they be at a café? Anyone could find them there."
This was a good point, and soon the three of them had abandoned homework and were discussing Tsuna's new customers at the café.
It was only two hours later that they managed to finish their homework, so Yamamoto and Gokudera left. Tsuna could hear Yamamoto in the distance, offering to walk Gokudera home, and Gokudera's embarrassed shouts in return and insistent declarations that he could walk home by himself.
The two rounded a corner and Tsuna could no longer see them, so he reentered his house and sat down to try and scribble some answers onto his worksheet.
This task proved impossible, and Tsuna soon gave up, deciding instead to get ready for bed and leave all the homework for tomorrow.
The following Monday did not dawn bright and early at all. In fact, it stayed dark throughout the entire school day, and when Tsuna trudged to work after school, there were faint winds moaning through the trees.
Tsuna's only two friends had come to visit him and were sitting in their usual spot when the winds began to pick up, sending leaves swirling all over the stone pavement.
They were making small talk about nothing much in particular when the sounds of rain tapping against glass could be heard, and a sudden flash of lightning startled Tsuna so much that he jumped right into the (probably waiting) arms of Reborn.
"I think it's a typhoon," Reborn announced in a bored tone. The thunder rumbled ominously just as the chimes tinkled and a wet Hibari staggered into the café, his normally neat and impeccable hair in vicious disarray and sticking out at strange angles.
The human Satan on Namimori strode over to a table and sat down wordlessly, hanging his dripping jacket over the back of the wooden chair.
"Seeking shelter from the storm, I see?" Colonello said, giving Hibari his menu.
Hibari chose not to answer, and ordered his usual: waffles with green tea ice cream, and a cup of black coffee.
Tsuna could feel the tension in the room, and just when he was about to think that it couldn't possibly get any worse, the chimes tinkled again, and in came a sopping wet Squalo.
"Voi!" he shouted in anger. "Just my luck! A typhoon on the day of my mission! Why does no one else get typhoons on their missions?! Huh? Huh?!" he ranted, long white hair whipping around with such ferocity as to actually knock down a potted plant.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Colonello said pleasantly, leading him to a table, "But we have extra towels in the back room. Would anyone like one?" he asked, addressing the entire room. "Oh well, I'll get two just in case."
Tsuna watched in horror as Squalo sat down grumpily in one of the chairs. He unlaced his black boots and unbuttoned a few buttons of his black jacket, showing a white dress shirt.
"Thank heavens this stupid coat is waterproof," the white haired man muttered. "My hair though… my hair…" Squalo moaned at the fate of his soaked and tangled white hair.
It was certainly unique, though.
The chimes sounded for the third time in this horrible evening, and Irie Shoichi stumbled in, bending over a sleek black laptop that was clutched tightly to his chest.
"H-hi, Tsuna," he said, smiling weakly at the brunette.
"Ah, are you okay?" Tsuna asked, hurrying over with one of the towels that Colonello had placed on the counter.
"I should be fine in a bit," the red-haired mechanic answered, sitting down at a table. "I tend to get stomachaches when I'm panicked," he explained, "And being the the rain and storm with my laptop definitely made me panicked. It has all of my inventions on it!"
"Oh, I see," Tsuna said, not really getting it. "Do you need anything to drink?"
"One cup of hot milk tea, please," Irie smiled, sitting up straighter. "Ah, my stomachache is going away already!"
Tsuna hurried to the kitchen and gave Fon the order. He'd just turned and relaxed against the table when the chimes tinkled and another two customers entered.
"VOI!" Squalo roared. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, BRATS? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN GODDAMN TRANSYLVANIA!"
"Fake prince-senpai was worried about you."
"What? I was not! Shut up, stupid froggy! Treat the prince with respect!"
Tsuna prayed with all his might that the typhoon might die down soon.