As Tsuna expected, Byakuran fit like a glove with the rest of Caeruleus. Which means that Kyoya attacked him on a daily basis, Lambo and I-pin shared sweets with him (he had to put a restriction on that : the white-haired teen could do what he wanted, but the two five-year-olds couldn't live on candy), Chikusa ignored him for the most part, Hayato and Ken yelled at him every time they were in the same room, and Mukuro and him seemed to have some sort of competition to see who could rile the others up the most. The brunet believed them to be at a stalemate : Byakuran reminded him of a hyper Mukuro with Lambo's sweet tooth.
Strangely enough, the newcomer got along very well with Shoichi. After a few days of wariness on the Sun's part, they discovered that they both liked chess and strategy games and bonded over that. The inventor was delighted to finally have someone with which to share his complicated ideas and to play with, since none of the other members of Caeruleus really had a mind for tactics.
Byakuran was in and out of the shop with no identifiable pattern, however Tsuna had to admit that he was diligent when he put his mind to it. The brunet had feared that he had only applied for the fun of it and would neglect his job, but the newest member had always completed his chores and never once complained about them. He was paid proportionally to the amount of hours he spent working (on a job or in the Office) and he being there noticeably reduced the workload of all the others.
So after his three weeks of probation and talking about it with all the other members, Tsuna had offered him a permanent part-time job. As expected, Byakuran cheerfully accepted. The problem was that he now had to be told about their connection -however unwilling- to the Mafia and the Flame business.
Tsuna had barely started on the subject when the older teen brushed him off with his customary grin. "Don't worry your little head about that, Tsunayoshi-kun. I have all the time in the world to learn how you are related to Mafia later -and I actually already have some pretty good leads. And I've known about the Flames of the Sky for years now. The couple who adopted me came from a low-level Famiglia and told me all about it. In fact, they only adopted me because they found out I am a Sky, like you if I'm guessing right, but less powerful. Don't look at me like that, Tsunayoshi-kun, I promise I no longer have any real contact with them, they only send me money monthly, I'm no Mafioso! But I am curious to see how much you all know about Flames. I'll go see Shoichi right now to see his research! His lab is in the basement, right? And now that I'm a proper member I can go there too, right? Then I'll go immediately!" He popped some more marshmallows in his mouth -Tsuna still had not found out where he hid them- and skipped towards the stairs with a beatific smile before Tsuna could get a word in edgewise.
After staring blankly at the place Byakuran used to stand in for a while, the brunet just shook his head to clear his thoughts. The teenager's behavior bewildered him, but there didn't seem to be any issue anymore, so he left it at that. Shoichi would explain everything the knew about Flames to the over-excited boy. Better the red-head than him...
()()()()()()
Meanwhile, the construction of a second floor was well underway. The company Byakuran had talked about had actually arrived the day after and had started working on it immediately. Tsuna had not asked them any question about why they owed the white-haired teen a favor and had advised his friends to do the same. He had the strong feeling that it was something unsavory.
The second floor would have 14 bedrooms, three bathrooms (to a total of 22 rooms and seven bathrooms in the house if you counted the two in the basement near the training rooms), another living room and a small balcony. Chikusa and Hayato had expressed their fears that it was too much, but Tsuna had just shaken his head and explained that his Intuition seemed to think that hey would need each and every room. After all, two of these new bedrooms were already booked for I-pin and Byakuran, and given the speed at which their recruited weirdos and abandoned children, they would probably fill the place quickly. Nobody could object with that.
