Odd-Job Tsuna

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Tsuna had gone up to water the garden when he found him.

The only reason they had a garden rather than just a greenhouse on the roof of the shopping complex was because Shōichi and Spanner went through a whole phase involving botany.

Tsuna had no idea how but within a week, there were so many plants that they didn't fit in the greenhouse. Some had managed to take root outside, scattering flowers everywhere. Not all of them were normal either; at Lambo's demand, there was several grapevines with pink coloured grapes that tasted of grape flavoured creaming soda. Ryohei had surprisingly asked for tulips for his sister which was why they were absolutely everywhere in all sorts of colours. I-pin had asked to see the cherryblossoms so Shōichi made some strange pink plant that grew in hanging pots and scattered petals constantly, all year 'round. Takeshi had asked for a baseball plant and the inventors, with some difficulty, managed to get flowering baseballs. Which was ridiculous in Tsuna's opinion.

At least Takeshi wouldn't be running out of balls any time soon from all those home runs he hit.

The more... Dangerous plants were kept underground in one of the labs with yellow tape and warnings stuck all over the door. This would be the first of many labs labelled as such.

Tsuna hadn't asked for anything. But his mother had, which was why there were hydrangea scattered all over the place too. And it was among those that he found older boy napping in.

Hibari lay among the flowers, looking for all the world, relaxed and asleep.

Tsuna must have stood there, holding up a leaking hose, for ages before deciding to just ignore him and water the other plants. There was no way he would risk being bitten to death just for disturbing Hibari's nap. Even if it was on the property he technically owned.

A few hours later, Hibari woke up. The boy sat up and stared at the covered meal that was next to him. Lifting the cover, the boy's nose wiggled at the scent of still warm hamburger steak. Sensing no one in the vicinity aside from a few birds, he picked up the chopsticks and dug in. His eyes widened at the taste, but continued to calmly consume his meal.

Later, Tsuna came up to find the meal finished and smiled before sweat dropping at Hibird who stood perched on top of the cover chirping, "Stupid fox! Stupid fox! Thank you for the meal!" It then flew away, message delivered.

There was still a few minutes before school would let out. Bored, Lambo and I-pin had snuck into the brunet's room. They stopped when they got to the door to peer around with wide eyes.

The room had been widened since Spanner's arrival years ago, with two single beds placed on either side of the room, a long work desk facing the window with chairs under it, and a low table in the centre. One half of the room was obviously Spanner's; the bed, floor and half the table riddled with wires, bolts, gears and silicon chips and half built robots like the one downstairs in the kitchen. The other half of the room was also a mess, some of Spanner's mess evidently seeping across into it, the bed was a lump of blankets, an old T-shirt and shorts that Tsuna wore to bed thrown over it along with a pair of Spanner's green overalls. It still looked like a tornado had ripped through it, with papers scattered like a storm everywhere, some containing sketches, others, like the one Lambo picked up, containing musical scores written with a rushed hand.

The two children crept in. Lambo, not one for subtlety, dashed up to the shiny white guitar sitting atop the low table. "Lambo-san knows what this is!" The boy shouted eagerly to I-pin. "The Bovino has one! When you play it, it breaks all the windows!"

I-pin's brow scrunched up. She was pretty sure it was an instrument that made music, not to break things. Seeing Lambo jump up to the table and start fiddling with the strings, she started to scold in her broken Japanese, "Lambo no touch! Tsuna-gege will be mad!" Not that they'd really seen the older boy angry before.