Mafia row

3

Chapter 3: It's the second step
Chapter 3

It's the second step

Luce sniffs, "That's so sad. The poor child."

The baby reaches up for her, as if wanting to wipe the tears away. Luce looks down at the cutest face she has seen in years and her mood immediately brightens. "Gah! He's so cute," and presses him against her bosom.

"Luce, you're suffocating the poor child." Warns Verde before taking the child out of her hands.

The baby looks up and stares right into his eyes. He tilts his head as if thinking, before a bright smile lights up his face. Verde seems stunned by this, and just continues to stare at the child. It yawns once again, before reaching his arms towards Verde. Complying with the wish of the child (he doesn't know why but he feels compelled to) he brings the child to his chest, holding him in the crook of an elbow like Reborn was doing earlier. But the baby continues to reach out, seemingly for the opposite shoulder. So Verde changes the position of his hands, and holds the baby so it can rest it's head on his shoulder. The baby gurgles happily, before yawning again and falling asleep. Verde's lips twitch slightly, and a small smile finds its way onto the scientist's mouth.

The others all look at this child in wonder. It had made Reborn and Verde smile. And not in the confident way they do when something goes right and their prowess is on display for all to see, but a genuine smile.

"So what are we going to do with him?" asks Viper. "Babies cost money you know." She looks at the others, who have considering looks on their faces.

"Viper, I highly doubt that money is a problem. We are I Presceltei Sette- the Chosen Seven- and are known as the strongest people in our chosen fields. As such, we get the highest paying jobs, whether that be like Reborn does, or whether that be from patents on experiments like Verde does, or money from appearing on stage like Skull does, we all bring in rather large sums of money. In fact, we could all rather comfortably live just on what money Reborn brings in alone." Fon explains.

Viper huffs. One can never have enough money. What if something goes wrong? What if there is an unexpected surprise... just like this child. They say money makes the world go round for a reason.

"What's his name kora?" Eyes open wide as the Arcobaleno look at each other, all wondering the exact same thing: What is his name? Even though it's a simple question, it's one that should have been asked long ago. It felt weird referring to the baby as him all the time. Eyes redirect themselves from Colonnello to Reborn.

"Hn, Tsunayoshi." Reborn states.

"What?" They all ask.

Reborn rolls his eyes. "It was on the blanket he was wrapped in. His mother named him that, not me."

"It'll do," comments Lal. She personally can't see the interest the others have in this child. "Come on Colonnello, you've still got training to do. I'd bet that even Skull could infiltrate a forest soundlessly better than you can."

"Yeah right. You need to get those perfect eyes of yours checked. Maybe you can't see through their sparkling very well." Teases Colonnello.

"How many times do I have to tell you?!" she shouts, giving Colonnello a good punch to the gut. He doubles over slightly. "Don't flirt with your teacher. Shall I make you run another thousand laps?" She grabs his ear and proceeds to drag him out of the room, their argument becoming louder and louder. Finally they leave, with Lal slamming the door behind her in her anger towards her pathetic excuse of a student.

Tsunayoshi wakes up at the slam and immediately starts to cry, scared of the loud noise. Verde visibly recoils and holds the baby out infront of him, looking at it in horror. It's not like he knows what to do with it. Science doesn't exactly teach you that.

"Oh for heaven's sake, give him here," growls Viper, gently removing the baby from his grasp. "You owe me for this." She glares. Verde just dumbly nods. She brings the crying child closer to her, before bouncing him slightly and making shushing noises. After a few moments the baby quietens. "There. It's not hard." She looks sidewards at Verde, a gleam in her eyes. "I could teach you, for a fee of course."

Verde scoffs and waves the offer off. However, Tsunayoshi still isn't entirely happy. Still scared, he snuggles closer to the warmth of Viper, grabbing her robe. Feeling the tug she looks down, and holds the baby even closer.

Skull tip-toes over and peers down at the baby in Viper's arms. The baby moves his head from against Viper's chest to look at this new person. Again, there is a rather analytical stare, before the baby smiles. Skull brings up one of his wrists and turns it from side to side. The bracelets he has on jangle, creating a chiming sound. No longer scared, Tsunayoshi's face lights up, and a happy cheer escapes his throat, accompanied by clapping hands.

Deciding to see what all the noise is about, and why his Mistress's heart beat has sped up, Fantasma crawls up and out of the robe and down her neck to sit on Tsunayoshi's stomach. Red eyes evaluate the new threat for his Mistress's attention. A red tongue flicks out and touches the baby's cheek. Viper taps Fantasma on the head. "Be nice to him." The frog couldn't care less and climbs back up her neck and back into her robe, settling into his usual place.

Luce looks around at the people she lives with and notices how happy they all look. Most of them are rather solemn people, and it's rare to see them acting like this. Determining that this is for the best, she announces her decision:

"We're keeping him."