Never leave firearms around kids.
PAM!
A gunshot echoed throughout the Knolastname house, sending everyone on edge.
Alessio was the first to react; he slipped his pistol out of its sheath, ran to the room the gunshot came from, and kicked the door open.
The room was in total disarray: broken glass from vases scattered all over, knocked down books, and dents on furniture. Jawns was inside, crouching on top of something with his tail wrapped around himself. Alessio saw a fresh, bleeding bullet wound on his tailfin.
"Jawns, what happened?!"
Suddenly, Giulia crawled out of the underboss's protective body and ran towards him. Alessio knelt as she ran straight into his arms. She was trembling.
"Shhh. Everything's alright. Don't be afraid, bambina ."
It wasn't long before Crimson and the rest of the boys showed up, weapons drawn. Sadly, this seemed to scare Giulia further, and she buried her face into the crook of her father's neck.
"Jawns, what the fuck happened to my drawing room?!" Crimson snapped impatiently.
"It was an accident, boss…" was the pained reply as Jawns slowly got up.
Alessio noticed a gun on the floor, a few feet away from Jawns. He noticed Pietro hidden beneath him, looking scared out of his wits. The consigliere 's eyes briefly darted between his son and the pistol as he connected the dots.
"...Jawns, you should go get that checked up," he said, getting to his feet. "Everybody else, leave. I need to talk to my son alone ."
Pietro knew he was in trouble when he heard his father speak in that tone.
He wasn't the only one. Everyone, even Crimson, knew he was being serious and hurriedly left.
Alessio handed Giulia over to DB, asking him to give her a popsicle and calm her down. Jawns patted Pietro's shoulder sympathetically before trudging out of the room, wincing in pain. The door was closed shut.
Father and son were left alone.
Alessio picked up the pistol on the ground, hard eyes fixed on Pietro.
"Where did you get this?" he hissed. Pietro looked down hesitantly. "I'm talking to you, ragazzo ."
"...It was on Mr. Crimson's desk."
"And what were you doing with it?"
Pietro shrank. "G-Giulia and I were playing cops, and we saw it on the desk… Giulia wanted to be the cop this time, so she…"
" You let your sister handle a pistol ?!" Alessio shouted, making Pietro flinch. He rubbed his temple and took a deep breath to calm down. "What happened next?"
"I was under arrest… Jawns came in, but when he saw Giulia with the gun he shouted… Then the gun fired and Jawns pulled us beneath him…"
From Pietro's explanation, Jawns walked in on the children playing with the pistol and tried getting them to put it down. Giulia accidentally pulled the trigger when he startled her. Jawns pulled them beneath him and tried shielding them as much as possible while the loose bullet ran amok throughout the room.
"Pietro, we talked about this before. You are the older brother, and you're responsible for Giulia when I'm not around. You can't do things that put her in danger."
"P-Papa, we were just—"
"Don't interrupt me, ragazzo ." the consigliere warned sternly. He held up the gun. " This is not a toy. It's a firearm. This can kill people. Did you see what happened to Jawns's tail? It could have been much worse had it struck him in a vital organ or in the head . He could have died ! And since your sister shot it, that would have made her a murderer . Killing someone, even by accident, is no walk in the park. Do you know what it'd do to a five-year-old girl?"
The true severity of the situation dawned on Pietro as he began to cry. "I'm sorry, Papa…"
"We'll talk about it when we get home, but you're not out of the woods yet, Pietro." Alessio pointed to the door. "I want you to go back to your room and stay there. I don't want to see you outside until we go home. Understood?"
Pietro didn't dare look at him as he ran out of the room in between sobs. Alessio sighed. He looked down at the pistol before placing it back in the drawer where it belonged. He'd talk to Crimson about putting locks on the drawers where he kept his firearms later. For the time being, he better go check on Giulia. She must still be shaken after the fright.
Alessio went to the kitchen, where Giulia ate a popsicle with DB. His daughter reached out her arms for him.
"How are you, bambina ? Still scared?" Alessio got the answer when she threw herself into his arms. He chuckled. "Everything's okay, my little dolphin. What matters is that you didn't get hurt."
"I think we should add locks to those drawers, Ale," DB said.
"I'll talk to Crimson about it later. Where's Jawns?" A pained yell echoed through the house. "Never mind."
He found Jawns guest bathroom, with Cleo stitching the wound on his tail. Seeing the bloodied bullet and some medical tools on the sink, Alessio didn't step inside. Giulia was nervous enough already without seeing the result of a bullet wound.
"How's his tail?" he asked Cleo.
"Thankfully, it didn't hit any bone. It just got stuck in the tailfin. I would be done with it if Jawns stopped moving."
"I wouldn't be moving so much if you were more careful!"
Alessio rolled his eyes. Typical Jawns. "Stop whining, it's not the first time you've gotten hurt."
At last, Cleo managed to finish with the last stitches despite Jawns's constant complaining. Afterward, the underboss joined Alessio in the living room to take a break. Giulia had fallen asleep in her father's arms.
"Poor girl. I thought she'd piss from the fright."
"Don't joke with that. I'm just glad that she and Pietro didn't get hurt."
"Right. Hey, speaking of Pietro, where is he?"
"Grounded for the time being. I'll have another talk with him when we go home."
"You shouldn't be so hard on him, Ale. He's just a kid."
"That doesn't justify what he did! You were lucky the bullet didn't go through your shoulder or skull! The children were lucky that they didn't—!" Alessio didn't dare finish the sentence as he pulled Giulia closer. "...I can't believe I almost… that bullet could have… They could have gotten hurt… or worse… Bianca would have never forgiven me if that…"
"Yes, but that didn't happen. Stop obsessing about it." Jawns hesitated. "...Look, Alessio, it's okay if you don't want your children to be around guns, but… don't you think that's what caused this whole mess to begin with?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Come on, Ale. You know as well as I that toy guns look identical to real ones. Of course a kid wouldn't be able to tell them apart at first sight! I'm saying that if… If you'd at least shown Pietro the difference, he would have realized that gun was real, and none of this would have happened."
Alessio found himself at a loss for words. He didn't want to admit it, but… Jawns had a good point there. He never let Pietro or Giulia handle firearms, but that didn't mean he shouldn't teach them how to differentiate between a toy gun and a real pistol. It certainly would have saved him a lot of trouble.
"...I'll think about it."
