When Renato caught the scent of something absolutely heavenly coming from the house despite the fact that there shouldn't be anyone in the small manor Luce insisted they stay in together, he surprised them all by walking in a brisk manner with a look of eager anticipation on his face.
Seeing him happily hug a slightly smaller man with wild light caramel colored hair, warm eyes and wearing an apron was even more surprising.
"How did you find me?" he asked.
"I followed the sound of a grumpy bear," deadpanned the other man with a slight accent.
Renato looked at the man with some fondness and amusement.
"Let me guess, the idiots were coming by and harassing you again?"
The expression the other man had on his face said volumes.
"Renato, who is this?" asked Luce.
"My name is Sora Sinclair. I'm this idiot's brother," said the stranger.
The others looked between Sora and Renato.
"You look nothing alike," said Lal.
"Not a drop between us," agreed Sora. "However I'm sure a soldier such as yourself is familiar with the concept of 'brothers in arms'. I've been taking care of this idiot since we were both teenagers."
"And by taking care of, you mean...?" asked Fon.
"He's a house husband," deadpanned Renato. "He cooks, he cleans, he does laundry, he patches me up until my flames finish the job without complaint."
"He cooks?" said Skull with interest.
"I finished making dinner, and there's some rice in the cooker," said Sora with a smirk. "I've also finished doing the laundry and I've left them folded just inside your rooms."
That sent shivers of alarm down the more paranoid of their lot.
"How do you know who's room belongs to who?" asked Viper.
"Your flame signature," replied Sora. "Cleaning them just removes the dust and grime, not the flames that have seeped into them. I didn't do more than leave the clothes inside, so don't worry."
Renato easily walked up to where the stove was, took out a plate and doled out some of the stew and the rice, before taking a bite.
"Thank god... none of them can cook, and the limited amount Fon can is all far too spicy for anyone but him to handle."
Sora raised an eyebrow.
"What do you expect from a career military woman and a Sky from an established bloodline?" drawled Sora.
Seeing Renato eating without a second thought, most of them took some...and almost melted.
"Oh god... this tastes way better than your attempts!" said Skull.
"It's better than anything any of us could make," said Viper.
Luce eyed Sora with interest.
"Could you stay if we paid you?" she asked.
"Renato chase off the original staff again?" asked Sora with sympathy. She nodded with a wince. "Well since I was planning to stick around until he was free to chase off the idiots trying to blackmail me into their famiglia I don't see why not."
Renato growled at that.
"Who was it this time?"
"Some morons from the Esterneo again," said Sora dismissively. "Considering I put up with you, their thugs barely rate a 'meh' when it comes to intimidation."
Skull snickered at that.
Any complaints about Sora's presence died upon realizing he would do all the chores no one wanted, along with all the cooking so long as someone else did the dishes.
Viper was just happy because his presence meant they could cut back on eating out. It was starting to become ridiculously expensive.
Sora took one look at the grumpy Renato who looked ready to 'train' Skull, which mostly consisted of him taking his bad mood out on the poor Cloud until he got bored, and put his hand on his hip. He just knew Renato was having one of those days because he deliberately bumped into the table where Viper was attempting to balance the budget, which made the coins scatter all over the floor. Viper scowled at with a dark expression.
"Renato, sit."
Renato glared at him.
"Sit," said Sora, pointing firmly at the couch.
The sun grumbled, but sat down, uncaring of the fact everyone was watching the exchange. Especially Skull, who had already learned to sense Renato's foul moods which resulted in a lot of pain for him.
Renato stayed where he was as Sora pulled a chair and sat in front of him. He then took his hands and began to rubbing Renato's head in a particular tempo. Fon seemed to figure out what Sora was doing first, because he watched with close interest.
Renato's frame was tense at first, but slowly began to melt under Sora's ministrations until he relaxed completely.
"I keep telling you to drink more water, rather than drinking all that coffee. You wouldn't be so crabby," said Sora.
"Water is for horses and the boring," scowled Renato.
"Your precious coffee is made of water and ground up beans," deadpanned Sora flatly. "Most drinks have water in them."
Renato scowled at him, but his eyes began to slowly close.
"Take a nap, you overgrown bear," said Sora.
To the disbelief of everyone there, and the relief of Skull, Renato laid down and started snoring lightly.
"HOW?" said Skull with intense interest.
"Renato gets tension headaches. His mood tends to get worse the stronger it is...and he keeps getting them because he refuses to drink anything save for those highly-caffeinated espressos all the time," explained Sora. "Once I figured out the problem, I went and looked for methods to deal with it without resorting to medication."
"Can you teach me?" asked Skull, almost pleading.
"Sure," said Sora with sympathy. "Gods only know Renato was a complete troll until I figured the trick to dealing with him. The pressure point trick was something I had to learn through trial and error though. You would be better off asking Fon for help there."
"How did you earn Renato's trust to the point he would listen to you like that?" asked Fon.
"I fed him, and let him crash on my couch," said Sora. "Once he figured out I had no intentions of using him beyond as an intimidation factor to idiots who can't seem to get the memo that flame active does not mean that I want to join a famiglia and that yes, I am perfectly happy being a 'house husband' and helping at a mafia-run bar, we ended up bonding. Or it could have been the fact I saved him after a particularly nasty hit where some jackass don attempted to set him up in order to trick him into joining."
"It was mostly the fact you shot those thugs who were planning to drag me to their don while I was close to bleeding out and the fact you put up with me being a complete asshole...without trying to poison me," said a voice from the couch. "And the coffee. Can't forget the coffee."
"Go back to sleep your highness. I am not dealing with you when you have a headache that bad," said Sora without turning around.
Lal snickered at that.
Fon looked at Sora speculatively.
"How good are you with hand to hand?"
"A sloppy intermediate. I'm decent enough to avoid being called a complete novice, but I've never had any formal training...just the bar room stuff Renato's helped me to figure out. I'm a decent shot mostly because there was no way Renato would ever let his brother be incompetent with guns," said Sora.
"Would you like to learn?"
It was clear Fon found Renato's brother fascinating, and not because of the ease the young man had at handling the prickly Sun in a foul mood.
Seeing the open interest in his eyes Fon smiled. He had realized fairly early on that Sora had Asian roots, mostly because of the little quirks he had. It hadn't taken much to narrow down that Sora had likely been raised in Japan.
At least it meant he wouldn't have to suffer through the Italians idea of rice. The so-called Chinese restaurants were more inclined to used instant rice, or could never get the texture quite right.
Sora then turned to a visibly irritated Viper. He went and got a broom and dustpan to make it easier to collect the coins. Once he had gotten all of them, he presented the pan to an irritated Viper.
"Thanks."
"I may not be very good at budgeting, but isn't it a little ridiculous to keep everything on paper?" he asked.
"It's not like I have anything more secure to keep the records on," said Viper.
Sora rubbed the back of his head, before an idea occurred to him.
"I may have something that could help immensely, though I'll definitely have to give one to Verde later so he doesn't try to steal it from you."
Seeing the curious expression on Viper's face, Sora grinned.
"Besides... I'm still trying to train that idiot scientist into leaving his cave regularly."
"Who are you calling an idiot scientist?" said Verde irate, having caught that part.
"You," said Sora, without any hesitation. Skull snickered at the pissed off look on Verde's face. "Because you're the type of genius that can come up with the most amazing of inventions, yet fails to take into account something as basic as sleep, food and staying clean for the sake of getting a project done quicker."
Dead silence. Viper was the first to smirk.
"He's not wrong."
Verde looked annoyed.
"And what was that comment about 'training' me?" he snapped.
"I meant I want to drill it into your head that you need to actually take care of yourself, rather than disregard the basic necessities your body needs for the sake of science. You have no idea how important sleep actually is, and if you agree to my terms and conditions I have two things that will catch your full interest as well as present an interesting challenge."
"Please, what could possibly be worth my time and having to listen to your demands?"
Sora smirked darkly.
"Oh ye of little faith," he said. At that moment, it was easy to see how he was related to Renato, even if it wasn't by blood.
Sora reached into his pocket, and pulled out an odd rectangular machine.
"What is that?" asked Skull, as he was closet.
"This little device is capable of taking pictures, recording blackmail, playing music...and acting as a flashlight."
"Bullshit," said Verde.
Sora pressed a small button on the side, before he swiped and tapped something on the device. Without any warning, the sound of music could be heard from it.
"What song is that?" asked Viper.
Fon tilted his head.
"Is that Japanese?" he asked.
Sora grinned at him.
"Well I am half-Japanese after all. Drives Renato nuts because he usually needs me to translate it," said Sora smugly, before he swiped his hand again. This time he got Fon to blink, before he was smiling a little wider.
Mainly because the song he was playing now was in Chinese.
Verde wasn't the only one staring at the tiny rectangle in Sora's hand.
A few more taps, and they could clearly see a section of the device lighting up as well as a mid-powered flashlight. He also aimed it at a gobsmacked Lal and Verde's direction, and they heard a shutter click. Another tap, and he easily held it in a way that revealed the picture he had just taken.
Viper's eyes gleamed under their hood.
"You said it can record blackmail, correct?"
Sora's grin was positively evil.
A few more swipes and a tap...and they clearly saw a moving picture of Renato attempting to cook, complete with sound.
"I thought I told you to destroy that!" said Renato, his head popping out from over the couch with an annoyed expression.
"Like hell am I deleting evidence that you suck when it comes to the kitchen," said Sora. He smirked at the expression Viper had on their face. "I have something a bit bigger than this that would help you with keeping records, and it can save your work without having to keep paper everywhere. It can also do the math for you, if you set it up right."
Viper was definitely interested in what Sora had that he was willing to loan them.
Sora then looked at Verde.
"Of course I could also give you one as well, though it's going to come with some compromises on your part."
"What sort of compromises?"
"Things like actually taking a shower or a bath once every three days, regardless of whatever you're working on and eating at least one meal with everyone, as well as actually sleeping...even if it's something as simple as taking a nap for a couple of hours," said Sora bluntly.
Verde blinked.
"That's it?" said Verde.
"I could care less what you're working on in that dungeon of yours, so long as it doesn't bring the Vindice down on our ass," said Sora. "However I do care that you're at least doing the bare minimum of taking care of yourself. Especially since our resident Sky clearly doesn't have a clue what's she's doing in regards to proper team dynamics."
"What does that mean?" said Lal.
Luce looked almost hurt hearing that.
Sora looked at her without any remorse or sympathy.
"Being pregnant is not an excuse to let someone like Renato openly bully Skull simply because he's in a bad mood. You shoved everyone in a house without regards to their personality at all, and seem to have fallen into the same trap every other Italian I've met had regarding flames and their 'personality'. I honestly don't know why people insist on claiming Skies make great leaders when their only real skill seems to be playing peace keeper and diplomat between the various flame types. Just because they have no outward combat-related trait and act as a spiritual glue doesn't make them leader material."
Dead silence.
"Actually, he has a point. It is rather annoying that I automatically get labeled untrustworthy because I'm a Mist," said Viper.
"And everyone expects me to act as a meat shield who insists on drawing attention to myself simply due to the fact I'm a Lightning," agreed Verde.
Sora looked smug.
"If that's true, then what's your flame?" asked Luce.
Without a word, Sora's right hand light up with vibrant if slightly weak, purple flames.
"I wouldn't have pegged you as a Cloud...unless the kitchen is your territory," said Viper.
"Actually it's my secondary. But most people take one look at purple flames and back off once I make it clear they're starting to annoy me," admitted Sora. "But if you really want to know what my primary is, you could always ask Renato. I'd be more surprised if he hasn't figured it out already, despite the fact I've never actually shown it to him."
He looked at Lal.
"To be honest, I'm more surprised Rain is your primary. You always felt like a Cloud and Mist more than a Rain."
"Seriously?" said Lal.
"She could have it as her secondaries," commented Fon.