10 Year Mishap

10

Bright and early the next morning, Tsuna woke up with a half hope that the previous day had been a dream. When he realized he was in a room and not in an alleyway, he sighed dejectedly and slowly crawled out of the bed. The room was still lock and the window was still closed, so he figured no one had come in during the night. Just in case, though, he made sure nothing had been touched or messed with. Seeing as nothing had, he nodded to himself in satisfaction.

A knock on the door pulled him from whatever thoughts he was having and he unlocked the door to open it and greet whoever was there. "Ciao?"

"Buongiorno, mini capo!" one of the maids greeted, "My name is Alessia." She didn't expect him to remember her name, but she introduced herself nonetheless. It was one of the things she'd been trained to do upon being hired to work in the castle. She held the cloth in her arms out to the little boy in front of her. "Some of the others ran into town earlier this morning to get you some clothes, we'll be going again later today to get some more. We noticed last night that the ones you're wearing are practically scraps."

Tsuna blinked and looked down at himself before blushing and shrinking a bit. He accepted the clothes. "Grazie..."

Alessia's heart practically melted at the sight before her. Smiling brightly at the child she said, "I'll leave you to take a bath and change, then. I'll be back in an hour to get you for breakfast." She wasn't even a few feet away before she turned around in question, having not heard the door close. "Is something the matter?"

Tsuan, still blushing and holding the set of clothes given to him, didn't look up from the ground as he spoke. "Um...what's a bath?" He knew that it was probably common knowledge, but that didn't change the fact that he didn't know what it was. Could he eat it? Probably not. Was it a book? Again, probably not.

None of the staff knew what his situation growing up was, but they were all privy to the information that he was from a parallel world and was not the past version of their boss. That didn't change the effect his words had on her, though. Walking back to the five-year-old, she smiled gently at him and offered her hand for him to hold. "Come with me, I'll help you."

Looking up from the ground, Tsuna took the offered hand hesitantly. He didn't know entirely what was going on, and he knew he wasn't going to stay, but he figured he could make friends with these strange people. It's not like he'd meet them in his own world for a long time.

Alessia led Tsuna into the bathroom. Her smile turned sad at the expression the boy wore. Had he never seen a bathroom before? He was taking in every detail and examining every little thing. She resolved herself to show this child everything in the castle.

She let him wander around the room some more as she got is bath ready. "Come over here for a minute?" she requested. He complied and came to stand beside her. "This," she pointed to the tub, "is a bathtub. I'm going to turn on the water for you. When it's high enough, I'll turn it off. That's when you get in the water, okay?"

"With my clothes on?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"No," she giggled, "You'll have to take your clothes off so that your whole body can get clean."

The brunet nodded in understanding, not at all put off by the fact that he'd have to be naked in front of this lady. He'd grown up in an environment where caring about such trivialities didn't matter, so he hadn't learned to care.

Alessia noticed his non-hesitance, but didn't comment or question it. It wasn't her place, after all. Briefly turning her attention away from the child, she turned on the water. She'd have to sit there and make sure it wasn't too cold or too hot, but she didn't mind. That'd just give her more time to spend with the kid.

When there was about five inches left before the water overflowed from the tub, she turned off the water and called Tsuna over to her. "Tsuna, the bath's ready!"

"K!" he called back and rushed over to her. He'd grown relaxed in the day and night he'd been staying here. He didn't know why it was, but the whisper in his head said that it didn't matter and that he was safe and would be kept safe, so he listened and let himself relax. Hat guy was still his favorite, though, with Alessia coming in a close second.

"I need you to take your clothes off now and get into the water, okay?" Alessia instructed as she turned around to give the boy some privacy. She'd also added some bubbles to the bath to further give the boy privacy. When she heard the water displace and settle, she turned back around to find Tsuna sitting in the tub, absolutely mystified by the bubbles. It was an adorable sight that no one else was privy to. Shaking herself back to her duties, she picked up a bottle of shampoo. "I'm going to rub this into your hair, okay?"

Tsuna looked up at her, then to the bottle, before turning back to play with the bubbles. "Okay." he said.

Smiling fondly, Alessia rolled up her sleeves, poured a dollop of shampoo into her hand, and started to rub it into the boy's hair. At first he stiffened, obviously not used to physical contact like this, but he quickly relaxed again and continued to play with the bubbles.

Now done with the shampoo, Alessia moved on to conditioner after telling him what she was doing. He was still enchanted by the bubbles and, so all she got as acknowledgment was a small noise of affirmation.

Done with his hair, Alessia was saddened by the fact that the colour brown had gone from photo matching with mud to a beautiful caramel brown. It matched his eyes and made him look almost identical to her boss. After putting the two bottles of hair product away, she approached the brunet in the tub with a third bottle and a sponge. "Alright," she said, catching his attention, "We gotta wash that dirt off, so we're gonna use these. I'll wash your arms and torso, but you gotta get everywhere else, okay?" Tsuna nodded and she got to work.

When he was fully clean, she had he get out of the tub and put on the clothes she had brought for him while she drained the tub and clean up. When finished, she sat the child on the counter by the sink and helped him dry his hair, brush his teeth and wash his face. By the time the two were done, the had ten minutes to get to the dining room.

"Well," Alessia smiled down at the boy as he ruffled his damp, fluffy fair, "You ready to go eat breakfast?"

Tsuna smiled up at her, "Yeah!" He took her hand and let her take him to the dining hall. He knew he couldn't stay forever, but this feeling was something he could get used to.