Mafia row

9

Chapter 9: You'll look back and see
Chapter 9

You'll look back and see.

It was the sun coming through her windows, along with the Sun coming through her door, that woke Luce up the next morning.

"You know the punishment."

She sits up and sighs. This happened every time she disappeared on them without warning. It wasn't too common an occurrence, but it was common enough to be noted and have a punishment created. Trying not to be obvious, she looks at her windows- damn, they're shut and locked. The door? No, too late, Reborn's already coming straight at her. Without a care for the baby, Reborn grabs Luce and hefts her over his shoulder. Luce smiles down at the baby, who had woken upon Reborn's arrival, and sadly waved to him. Looking confused, the baby shook his arm in an attempt of a wave back. Reborn exits the room and carries her downstairs.

Peeking his head around the corner, Fon shakes his head at the way the baby has been ignored. Picking the baby up, he carries it downstairs too, before making it a bottle of milk.

Tsunayoshi looks around the room, clearly not having a clue what's going on, nor how he should react. In fact, Tsunayoshi wondered if Luce was going to sleep again since they had 'wrapped' her up. Whenever they got covered, the people around him fell asleep. Whenever someone placed a cover on him, they expected him to sleep too. Tsunayoshi didn't mind since the cover was soft and comfortable, but Mamma Luce didn't look like she wanted to go to sleep; they'd only just woken up.

Tsunayoshi looks up as Reborn approaches, keeping a tight hold on Cosmo. Giving the squirrel over to Tsunayoshi, he gives the baby a stern look and says, "Keep hold of it until tell you to let go." The baby doesn't understand, but is more than willing to hold onto the animal. It's soft and fluffy after all.

The rest of the Arcobaleno do nothing to help their Boss. Instead they just wonder at the smirk Reborn gives Luce. It seems as if Reborn was going to enjoy this. Reborn kneels down next to Fon, getting on the same level as Tsunayoshi. Putting a large hand on the small shoulder, Tsunayoshi looks away from the squirrel to the Hitman. "See Luce?" Reborn asks, pointing to the woman. "Luce's been very bad." Tsunayoshi looks at the woman, tiny mouth open in shock. Even if he didn't understand the words, he knew the tone and atmosphere. Mamma Luce was in trouble. "She's been very very bad, so we need to punish her."

Luce couldn't stand to look at Tsunayoshi as he slowly tears up and starts to cry. She would turn away if she could, but Reborn had made sure that she couldn't. This was certainly the harshest punishment yet, and maybe the most unusual too. Now the other Arcobaleno understand Reborn's smirk from earlier, and the Hitman was indeed enjoying the look of anguish appearing on his Boss's face.

But what was even worse was that Tsunayoshi was holding Cosmo. And the squirrel looked upset too! Two of her most important (and cutest) people were crying. She couldn't bear to see that anymore.

When Reborn deemed that she had been punished enough, he stood, taking back custody of the squirrel. He looked at the other Arcobaleno around him, then at Luce. She didn't like the look on his face, it promised that more evil was to come. What did he have planned?

He walks to the door, opening it, and leans against the door frame. "Continue as usual," he says to them, before smiling that evil smile of his and leaving. Luce's eyes widen in shock. Not the usual punishment on top! Wasn't making her watch a crying baby enough?

The usual punishment consisted of Luce being tied to a chair- which she was already- and being fed food she didn't like. After that, she was ignored the whole day. No one was allowed to talk to her. She wouldn't get any visitors, no phone calls outside, nothing. And being the social person she was, it was very hard for her to be ignored. She had also found out that if she decided to talk to the others, or even herself since she was her only company, then Reborn would come in and gag her to shut her up. The silence was horrible to Luce. They tied her to a chair for two reasons. Firstly was so that she couldn't escape the punishment. Second was so that she couldn't move around and help the others. It made her happy to make breakfast for the others, to help them if they needed it, or to help any of the other residents of Mafia Row. Yet tied to the chair she couldn't. She couldn't lift one finger to help anyone. And doing nothing was boring. She wasn't one to sit around doing nothing.