2/2

"He's not… someone I like very much, so I don't put effort into trying to remember." The purple colored stuntman admitted casually with a shrug. "With luck, might never have to deal with him again so why bother?"

"…because he's my friend? I think…" At what point could she call the hitman a friend?

Hadn't they reached that point yet?

"You… don't sound too sure of that, Sonya." He pointed out a little needlessly, kicking his duffle bag back more squarely under the bench they had monopolized for the ferry trip out to Mafia Land. "Why? Haven't you two gotten to the point of stalking each other?"

"He stalks me, doesn't that count?"

"Wait… what?"

"Renato can show up in the strangest of places, sometimes not too long after I reach either Mafia Land or in the middle of nowhere." She elaborated blandly, pulling her pack of cigarettes out. "It has gotten to the point I am no longer surprised. I think that does count."

"Sonya… stalking someone is not a sign of friendship." Her fellow Cloud informed her slowly, wide-eyed. "I know that was how we became friends… but that's not really socially acceptable behavior."

"…I thought it was?" The thief managed around the filter of her cigarette, frowning as she really thought about it. "I wanted to spend time with you, because you were interesting and not quite the same as everyone else I knew of. Since you were not exactly predictable in your daily habits, I had to find some other way to do so if my own schedule did not allow for convenient times to meet. Is not following someone to gain an understanding of their preferred locations stalking? Do not friends who wish to spend time together find a place they both like in order to do so stalk one another for such a place?"

The stuntman considered her, frowning thoughtfully as he mulled over her words. "Well… while interesting and somewhat informative to know in terms of how your head works, and yes it is and sure why not, this Renato dude does have a meeting point with you. I'm pretty sure you've told me that. A café on this island we're visiting? Since there is one, anything outside of that is odd and not really healthy behavior."

"Maybe it is mafia friendship behavior?" Sonya wondered, because Tatiana would've said something.

Right?

"Besides, 'outside of that' would also include anything that would change a relationship from 'casual acquaintances' to 'friends'."

"If it is? That explains sooo much." Cherep muttered with a slightly strangled sounding laugh, planting his hand on his forehead then raking it back through his newly cut short and spiky purple hair. "I don't think you're really able to see this that clearly, Sonya. He started popping up when we were in Austria, which is weird no matter how you look at it."

"Renato was chasing down the damage to his contact network, which I was part of." Defended the thief, confused over what she had thought to be a fairly good relationship with the hitman and not appreciating the corrections. "So, no, Cherep. That one is explainable."

"When we were in Italy?"

"He is from there and likely does have a very good network that would inform him of anything new."

"Okay… you know what? I'm going to talk to both Lisa and Tatiana about this and see what they say. Agree to abide by what they decide?"

"Sure," Sonya agreed, scrapping plans to ask their foster mother herself, "as long as if they say it is not strange you drop it."

"I'm mentioning this to Arseniy." Cherep muttered, grabbing the strap of his bag as Mafia Land's docks appeared on the horizon.

"Why?"

The stuntman gave her a sideways look as she flicked her cigarette over the side of the ferry. "Just trust me on this one, Sonya. Arseniy needs to know."

She frowned, wondering if she had missed informing the vor of something majorly important. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No." He gave her a brief sideways hug, letting go just as quickly out of respect of her intolerance for extended contact with others. Her brother's way of trying to reassure her using his preference for tactile touch while not upsetting her own sensibilities. "No, you haven't done anything wrong. You're just kind of dense sometimes."

"Hey…"

"So, this kid," the stuntman continued in an obvious change of subject before she could protest the slight on her social awareness, "Shamal. He's kind of like my nephew now, right?"

Letting the change go, because arguing about that was already old, the thief considered the new question. "No? I mean, I am not his mother or anything. Shamal is just… a kid I know."

"And actually like." Cherep tacked on for her, shooting her a grin over his shoulder as they made their way to the middle of the deck where they could disembark the ferry from. "From what you've told me of him, he's an orphan. Right?"

"…yes?"

"And this R-dude only told you about the death of the kid's dad before he got him?"

"Renato, and…?"

"So, you're pretty much likely the only mother-figure he knows of." The stuntman finished, finding them a place next to a wall because she got itchy when people lingered behind her too long. "Or at least the only female-influence he's got that he likes very much. Shamal sounds like a brat, you know."

"He is a brat." Sonya confirmed a bit wryly, thinking back to the dare the hitman had still been glaring at her for when she left Vongola's Iron Fort. "Do you have a point, Cherep?"

"Wouldn't all that make you, by default mind you, this Shamal brat's mom even if he doesn't call you that?"

"…um." Was her oh-so intelligent answer, wondering the same thing now. "…I do not know."

"You might wish to inform Lisa she may have a grandkid… before she learns of some other way."

"…then by that reasoning would Bjǫrn not count too?" She countered, trying to find some way that didn't leave her a teenage mother.

That was bad, at least she was pretty sure teen-moms were not good things. Didn't Rachel's lifetime have a lot of bad versions of those mom-types?

"Nope! Bjǫrn's mom sounded completely awesome, but the point of fact there is the kid can recall his mother and doesn't need an older female role-model in his life to supply a mom-like feel for his childhood." Cherep explained cheerfully, now full out grinning at her.

Sonya glared back, well aware he was exaggerating something if not able to divine what.

Damn it all, he was doing it on purpose too.

(ooo000ooo)

(Monday the 1st of January, 1968 continued. Saint Julian's Hospital, Mafia Land.)

She might have neglected to inform their foster brother that Lisa was on bedrest in the hospital.

"Don't start." The older woman told Cherep with a pleasant little smile, patting him on the arm and motioning for him to set himself down on one of the chairs that had migrated into her room. "So, how's life been for you since last year?"

"Okay," the stuntman fumbled, making his little sister wince and his elder smirk, "broke my old bike, and then got a new one."

Their now heavily pregnant foster mother exasperatedly sighed, smoothing her hands down over her very big baby bump covered by her thin green hospital blanket. "What is with you and little Sonya? I want to know about you, Cherep, not your work."

"Oh." He inanely responded, but then actually managed to pull a cheerful smile out of somewhere for her. "Alright, really. It's been a bit weird since Sonya left the circus, and I keep getting questions from her friends about how she is doing every month, but other than that it's going fine."

"Friends, as in plural? She only told me about the one, the elderly Crina lady."

"Crina's one of them." Cherep, the total traitor, admitted with a smirk and a nod. "There's also Jaq, he's the African native strongman she went drinking with a couple times a month. And Jaq's friend the Egyptian native Faris, who taught her to breath fire and juggle really hot or really big pointy things. And then there's Jiayi, from China, who's the coordinator for the trapeze acts."

Lisa slanted an expectant look at the youngest of the foster siblings, who could only sheepishly shrug. "Sorry Lisa, I didn't know they cared that much."

"You and I need to discuss what terms 'being friends' covers then." The older Russian dictated neutrally, pointing a finger from herself to the thief and back again. "That is a bit more than just an oversight, sweetie."

"Yes, yes you two do." Chipped in the stuntman, sprawling out his long limbs as he got as comfortable as possible in a hospital waiting room chair. "Ask her about this Renato character's so-called 'friendly' habits while you're at it."

"Oh?"

"We're not having this discussion now." Sonya refused flatly, crossing her arms over her chest and shooting him a dark glare. "Lisa? In other news, Cherep seems to think I may have made you a grandmother."

"WHAT?" Tatiana almost slammed her forehead on the cupboard shelf, pulling her head free in the nick of time and almost spilling the tea leaves she had gotten up to fetch all over the floor. "You're not pregnant or something too, right?"

"Would it be a 'seem' if I was?" The thief snapped irritably, disgruntled at the automatic assumption. "No, it's this kid I know he's convinced I'm the default 'mom' for."

"How is someone a 'default' mom?" The nurse questioned curiously as she checked the teapot to ensure it was clean.

"By being the only womanly influence in his life, from all accounts." Cherep informed her over the blonde's head, ignoring the flick of nails she hit his ribs with. He turned back to their highly amused foster mother with a grin. "I am right, right? If she's the older female in the relationship, it's being this kid's mom by another name."

"He's pulling your leg, sweetie." Lisa clarified for the scowling young thief, giving the stuntman a light backhanded smack to his shoulder. "Unless this child's other parent asks you to be, or the kid does himself, you're not his mother. You could be the older sister figure, or maybe an aunt instead."

"I like aunt, can we go with that?"

"Only you, Sonya." Tatiana gave her two kopeks, leaning up against the counter as the teakettle started to boil. "Only you could somehow acquire a kid without dealing with the fun, messy hormone-involved activities that usually goes into baby production."

The door to Lisa's hospital room had opened while the redhead gave her opinion, and Arseniy blinked a few times trying to sort out why that was the current subject of discussion. "…I'm going to come back later."

"Bye Arseniy!" Cheerfully called out the Sun user as the door closed.

Cherep buried his face in Lisa's bed, near their mother's hip. His shaking shoulders nearly rocked the pregnant woman's entire body as he tried not to let his laughter out.

Sonya looked at the older brunette. "I don't get it."

"Fathers don't particularly like to hear about their daughter's sex-life or contemplating if they have one at all." The ever helpful Mafiya woman tried to clarify for her. "You should have seen what Arseniy did to Nikolai, just before Tats left home."

"No, I got that part." The young blonde clarified, waving a hand to dismiss it and privately thinking it wasn't that funny. "But why did he leave again? He just got here."

"Sonya… did you know I was seeing Nikolai?" Tatiana questioned curiously.

"Everyone knew, Tats."

Cherep nodded a few times in agreement as he sat back up straight, smoothing a hand down his slightly red face. "We did, sorry Tatiana. It wasn't much of a secret."

The redhead pulled a pout at all of them, sniffing and pulling the kettle off the hotplate to make the tea Lisa had asked for.

The woman herself shook her head with a smirk. "To answer your question, Sonya? Arseniy left for two reasons. The first was to adjust to the idea that the youngest girl is really a young woman now, without glaring a hole in the wall and making any of us uncomfortable as he does so. The second was to escape any further uncomfortable realizations before he had to deal with it."

"So… Arseniy is hiding?" She tried to clarify. "Why is that funny?"

"It loses a lot of the humor when you have to explain it." Cherep informed her brightly anyways. "But Arseniy's a big guy, right?"

"…right."

"You wouldn't think anything normal or mundane would stump or intimidate him, yeah?"

"…sure?"

The stuntman nodded again. "So, we can agree he's a masculine man, not particularly the type to get stymied or scared of anything. Yet he fled pretty damn fast when he overheard a comment about the possible dating life of his youngest, and forgive me but, very feminine daughter. Slim and tiny Sonya making big bad Arseniy flee for his sanity. It's funny."

"But how would he know we would continue to talk about it?" Sonya protested in exasperation, as that was the part she was confused on.

"There are three girls in this room." Pointed out her fellow Cloud dryly. "Why wouldn't you keep on talking about it?"

"Girl talk." Tatiana labeled with a smirk, handing the first teacup to Lisa.

"What does that make Cherep then?"

"A necessary sacrifice." He answered for himself, slinking down in his seat. "He's abandoned me here… the bastard."

"Do you want some tea too, Cherep?" The nurse asked brightly, giving Sonya the next cup. "For this little tea party going on?"

"Hell, why not? Let's go all out." Accepting the cup she passed to him, he saluted their foster mother. "Well what do you know, Lisa? You've got three daughters all of a sudden."

"Are you gay?" The youngest thief in the room asked him, completely seriously, making Cherep spit his first sip of tea out on the floor.

Tatiana was overcome with a fit of giggles that made it too hard for her to manage the teakettle, it made a hasty stop on the counter as she tried to recover.

Lisa coughed a couple times, blinking rapidly. "Sonya, sweetie… were you joking or being serious just now?"

She took a sip of her tea before answering. "Joking, I know Cherep's not gay. I've seen him flirt with girls before."

"Oh my god." The Sun using nurse breathed out, the occasional snicker escaping her. "That was epic, Sonya. I love you so much right now."

"That… was a low blow." Accused her brother in the next second, coughing slightly to get the tea he accidently inhaled out of his lungs. "I will get you back for this. Tatiana! You've corrupted Sonya, this means war."

"What are you talking about?" She denied, peering over her shoulder at them. "Sonya's just more human now."

"What is with people and thinking I'm a robot or something?" The thief herself questioned aloud, looking into the bottom of her teacup and absently reading the leaves drifting in it. Omen of death, omen of death, omen of love, omen of money… or was that one 'harvest'? "Lisa, make them stop."

With a sigh, the older Russian woman put a hand to her temple as her foster children started to squabble. "You want to clarify on that 'seeing your brother flirt' comment, Sonya?"

"He flirts with some of the girls in the circus, which was the other half of the reason I didn't associate with the trapeze girls very often." She readily admitted with a shrug. "Other than the fact they were all a bit too flighty and gossipy for my tastes. I didn't want to know if he slept with one or two while we were both there."

Cherep made a wheezing noise, dropping himself back into his seat and clutching his cooling tea. "Damn it Sonya, you're not supposed to tell her that."

"Why not? Personal things, Lisa told me she wanted to hear personal news out of us and I do believe that qualifies."

"So, Cherep, now that you can no longer try to distract us with Sonya's ongoing social problems…?" Lisa gave the stuntman a sharp grin. "Care to fill us in on the rest of how your life is going? Is there a serious girl you're seeing maybe?"

"This is where you got it." He accused the thief, pointing at their foster mother. "That inability to be shaken off whatever subject."

"That's nice." Sonya patted his knee absently, letting Tatiana refill her teacup. "You should probably answer her."

"Yes, yes you should."

Cherep gulped as Lisa beamed at him with maybe too many teeth showing.

(Tuesday the 2nd of January, 1968. Zolotov Condo, Mafia Land.)

Sonya eyed her foster sister warily in the early morning light the next day. "Tats… are you losing weight for a reason or just because?"

"It's stress." The redheaded nurse supplied, rubbing at her face tiredly. "Lisa said no for the C-section, not unless things go really bad, so the doctors want one of the Sun active nurses on her all the time just in case. Given that there are two of us, and it's Lisa?"

"And where, exactly, are you getting the time to study in that?" Cherep asked absently, gnawing on a bagel as he pulled his head out of the fridge. "I thought you wanted to be a doctor?"

"I am going to be one." Tatiana all but snapped irritably, snatching the other bagel from the stuntman's hand and biting into it viciously.

Frowning as she tried to understand the reason why she couldn't be, the thief shot a confused look to their foster brother from her spot at the Zolotov's condo guest room kitchenette table.

"Tatiana? Is there something wrong?" Asked the stuntman instead of addressing her confusion, which probably meant he had no idea either.

"…there are some sexist assholes in the hospital, and I just so happen have the luck to be assigned to work a floor with a couple of them stationed there." Clarified the redhead through her bread grimly, sighing and rolling her neck to loosen stiff muscles. "Don't worry about it, I'll live. And show those utter asses that I can do more than just look pretty."

"Erm… okay?"

Tatiana glanced over at Sonya, then rolled her eyes with a huff. "Don't worry about it, being able to light my hands on fire pretty much guarantees me protection from most of the shit like that. It's just… aggravating sometimes."

"That does not address the weight loss." The younger thief clarified hesitantly, eyeing her sister's much reduced frame from what she recalled from two years ago. "Tats, this doesn't look like a recent problem. More an ongoing issue."

"Sonya, it's just the medic's courses." She tried to reassure the both of them tiredly. "Your friend Renato wasn't kidding when he called them hellish. I crammed what amounts to four years of formal education and learning basic hospital duties all into one year, then this year is the basics of pharmaceuticals and biology lessons after work with a side order of medical emergencies and maybe a dash or two of weekly difficult patients."

"…hellish indeed." Cherep managed after a moment of blatant staring. "Why are you doing that to yourself?"

"Universities might be a lot less intensive, but I don't have the records for that or the inclination to take five to six years to do it." Their elder sister raked a hand through her long red hair, wincing when her fingers snagged on a few stubborn tangles. "This will take three, four if I'm unlucky. A couple more years to build up experience aside, it's quicker and a lot less questions will be asked over why I don't know some things or what I'm going to do with it."

"So… you're cramming a few years of leisurely study into a shorter term of working study?"

"This is also a place I won't have to take the Hippocratic Oath." She agreed with the stuntman, giving him a dry smile. "You'd be surprised how many assassins come out of the hospital's study-work course."

"No, no I don't think I would be." Cherep muttered, giving them a backhanded wave as he left them to get dressed for the day.

Tatiana looked back to Sonya, who was back to nibbling on her toast. "Any other concerns?"

"I thought you were becoming a nurse first?" The younger Russian posed after swallowing, glancing at the clock to see if she could go visit Lisa yet or not. "Then a doctor?"

"I am a nurse, Sun Flames cheating all over that."

"So why not stay a nurse a year, then start in on learning to be a doctor?" She asked, because that weight-loss wasn't just ten or so pounds.

It was more like thirty and then some.

"I might be able to become a nurse faster with Flames making me all the more special, but I do have to work up the knowledge base I skipped formally learning sometime." Answered the redhead wryly, stretching out her arms over her head to loosen up the muscles of her back and shoulders. "So right now, I'm making that up. Learning the basic first-year stuff any hospital intern needs to know and taking the courses I'll need to start in on a doctor's license. Well… a mafia one anyways."

The phone on the wall started ringing, distracting them before Sonya could pose her next question to her elder sister.

Tatiana sniffed, glanced up at the clock, and then frowned. "Who the hell calls at this hour?"

As the redhead got up to answer it, because in order for their suite's phone to ring the number had to be specifically dialed in order to not get the main suite's phone instead, the Storm-Cloud drained her teacup and wondered what to do today.

The nurse had to work, Cherep would likely hide out in his room, and she didn't really feel like going out and about herself.

Maybe a book?

"Lisa's gone into labor." The Sun shot over her shoulder, hanging up the phone and darting for her room. Likely to get dress so she could run to the hospital and relieve or assist that other Sun nurse. "I'll see you there, but you may want to wait an hour or two!"

The thief blinked, a little worried. "Why?"

"It's probably going to take a few hours!" Tatiana practically fell over herself coming out of her room, shoving her sweater down with an irritated motion and scooping up a random pair of shoes to wear. "Spend some time elsewhere, instead of pacing a hole through the waiting room."

Sonya was pretty sure those were Cherep's, actually. "Erm… Tats?"

"No time! Baby sibling to help bring into the world!"

…she should probably bring her a pair of her own shoes.

Sonya looked down at her empty teacup and plate, then at the dishes piled in the sink from the nurse's own breakfast. Lastly, she glanced at her fellow Cloud's temporary bedroom door.

Which was actually her room he was living in while the sisters shared one to accommodate him.

Wait a few hours Tatiana said. Doing what, exactly?

All she really wanted to do was head to the hospital too.

(ooo000ooo)

(Tuesday the 2nd of January, 1968 continued. Zolotov Condo, Mafia Land.)

Cherep winced as Lisa's scream petered off. "Well… this is…"

Sonya gritted her teeth as the next shout nearly made her rip through the book she couldn't muster the interest to read.

"…really unnerving." The stuntman finished, hunching his shoulders uncomfortably. "Are you getting the same urge to bust into there and maybe murder the doctors too? As if that would help Lisa?"

Exhaling through her nose slowly, the thief put her book down before she destroyed it. "Yes."

"I'm pretty sure that's-" They both winced again as Lisa shouted something intelligible at Arseniy in a very loud, pained voice. "-not quite normal."

"It is not." A new voice interjected.

She snapped the arms off of the chair she had planted herself in, dropping them to the floor and glaring over at the newcomer. "…Fong…"

"Miss Sonya." The Chinese man returned evenly, arms behind his back and bouncing slightly on his toes. "I must admit, I did not expect to see you here."

"This is a very bad time, Fong." The thief informed him needlessly. "Leave, before my restraint snaps."

"To be frank, I am a little surprised it had not already." Fong informed her warily, still keeping the bulk of the room between him and both Clouds. "The hospital has called in any Flame actives currently on the island, however. In case two snap, is what they informed me before I came here. I do believe you two are unnerving them."

"…both of us?" Cherep questioned him, looking both highly suspicious and a little green.

He inclined his head only low enough to confer agreement without breaking eye contact with the younger Cloud. "Both. You both have very purple eye coloring at this moment."

The stuntman managed a huff of laughter, a very dry one. "My eye coloring is always purple. And?"

"Well… I suppose that may not have a point with you, other than very suspicious shining being apparent. Miss Sonya, on the other hand…?"

"Is starting to get pissed off." The younger of the two Clouds in the room answered for herself, remaining in her broken seat by sheer will alone. "Go away, Fong."

The Chinese man did back away slightly, closer to the doors he likely entered the waiting room by. "I will, as long as you promise me a moment of your time later."

"…fine. Leave."

Fong swiftly did so while telling someone, was likely a hospital coordinator lingering out in the hallway, not to allow anyone else into the waiting room if he did not want deaths to occur. In rapid fire Chinese, actually.

The two Clouds sat in silence for a long moment.

"So… the screaming stopped, at least?" Cherep tried, with a sickly looking smile.

Sonya heaved a sigh, looking up at the bland tiled ceiling. "You wanted to know about Shanghai? That was one of the men that tried cornering me there."

"Oh… why…?"

"I broke someone's hand, then I dumped him and two others into the sea by shattering the docks."

The stuntman gave her a sideways look. "That doesn't explain why he wants to talk to you."

"I never found out why, Cherep." She tiredly admitted, rubbing at her forehead. "He tried cornering me, I did not appreciate it."

"Well… at least you can ask now?" He tried, shrugging when she glared at him. "What? He seems to be the type to be annoying about it if you try dodging him. Actually, all the men you know in the mafia seem like that… wonder why?"

They both snapped their heads around to the doors to the operating theater when Tatiana shoved it open to poke her head out and give them both a tired grin. "Hey, we've got a little brother."

"Is Lisa okay?" Her brother asked before Sonya could.

"She's lost a lot of blood, but other than that?" The Sun nurse shrugged wearily as she stepped out into the waiting room with them. "Touch and go for a bit there, but you won't believe it."

The stuntman frowned at her, puzzled. "Won't believe what?"

"Lisa broke Arseniy's arm in three places." Tatiana answered, a crooked smirk on her face. "That's why I'm so tired, healing him while she kept breaking him was kind of tricky."

"And thus why Lisa scares me sometimes, worse than Arseniy occasionally."

"Sonya? What happened to your chair?"

The thief glanced down, at the broken arms that were now lying on the floor. "…I will pay for that."

"Doesn't really answer the question, little sister."

(Friday the 5th of January, 1968. Saint Julian's Hospital, Mafia Land.)

Primakov Valerian Arsenevich was born mid-morning on January 2nd, 1968. Lisa was still on bedrest three days later.

"Everyone's going to forget Sonya's birthday now," Tatiana offered to the weary looking Lisa with a bright smirk, "we'll be too focused on little Lera's and completely forget her."

The new-mother did not look impressed as she shifted her baby closer to her neck instead of cradle him across her chest. "Did you wish your little sister happy birthday last year, Tats?"

"No, no one besides you two did." Sonya informed her with a shrug. "Then again, it's a little hard to remember it's my own birthday on the road, so…"

The thief was kind of concerned how pale Lisa still was, but the nurse in the room insisted everything was fine and the pallor would fade given enough time.

Cherep suddenly bodily tackled her, being careful not to jostle the hospital bed their foster mother and new baby brother were on. "Happy seventeenth birthday, Sonya!"

"Put me down or lose something important."

"No rough housing around the baby, until he can move himself anyway." Lisa informed all of them stridently, rubbing said baby on the back to keep him asleep while his siblings shuffled around.

Arseniy, who had situated himself carefully to be just out of reach in case his lover decided to break his arm again, pulled the redhead back to her feet by the hold he had taken on her sweater and finished her command with a threat. "Or I get to finish it."

"I thought you were eighteen now?" Asked her elder sister as they vacated their foster mother's room, so she could get into the wheelchair the hospital supplied to get her home in.

"My paperwork says eighteen. In reality? Seventeen." Sonya answered with a shrug, checking around to ensure a Chinese man she didn't want to see again wasn't lurking about. "I would greatly just appreciate finally finishing growing into myself, because I'm tired of looking coltish."

She might be dodging him out of spite but knew perfectly well she would have to talk to Fong sometime soon. If only to finally get the man off her back.

"Don't think you're going to get much bigger, or broader." Tatiana informed her, running a skeptic eye down her form. "You do look fully grown, if slim. You could use more chest, though."

"Well," Cherep interjected dryly, staring at the ceiling, "this just got awkward."

Lisa looked incredibly happy, and a tiny bit better, when she wheeled herself out of her hospital room. "Oh, thank heavens. I thought I was never going to get out of there."

The vor, who looked a bit irked to be the one carrying both baby and the baby bag the siblings had assembled for their foster mother since she was on bedrest, ambled out after her. "Worth it."

"Even me breaking your arm?" Lisa asked self-deprecatingly, more than a little sheepish over both what she had apparently threatened him with and the actual breakage itself. "Three times?"

Her lover and now father of her baby shrugged, depositing Valerian on his mom's lap and tossing the bright pastel baby bag at Cherep's head. "I've had worse, don't worry about it."

"This was a very, very bad idea." The stuntman muttered to Sonya, having barely caught the pack of baby supplies wrapped in garishly pink shades and gesturing to it so she knew he was talking about their choice in baby fashions.

"We didn't know the gender, consider it revenge." She glanced at both him and the bag in turn. "That may have backfired… on you at least."

(Saturday the 6th of January, 1968. The Iron Fort, Italian Republic.)

"Jesus-oh-fuck!"

A yelp and an oath, and it was a very girly yelp, distracted Renato from some of the last bits of paperwork he would ever have to do for the famiglia he had obtained before a new Don took over.

Curious over what was bothering one of the ladies of the house and one of Nono's men, the hitman gleefully abandoned the half-finished papers and strode out of the study Timoteo had graciously loaned him for the time being.

He wasn't the only one attracted by the now identified Lightning Guardian's raised voice, there was a gathering of a couple other Vongola servants as well as Tyr and Coyote Nougat.

Ganauche had a hand fisted over his chest, right over his heart actually. He was gawking in the direction of a distinctly familiar image. "Miss Nikishina! I… uh, didn't know you were still here."

"Idiot." The Storm leveled a disgusted look at his fellow Guardian. "Miss Nikishina left a week ago, that's not her."

There was a very tiny exhale of relief from the gathered watchers.

With a derisive snort, Renato inspected the two victims of this little prank. "Shamal, what are you doing?"

"She was being mean, and Miss Sonya said to make her quit in disgust." From under one of the fainting couches, set up in various halls for the occasions one or two of the maids became a little overwhelmed by audacious criminal behavior, popped up the named baby Mist.

Shamal dusted off his pants and completely forgot his slightly wavy brown-now-grey-streaked hair, edging around until he was standing before his guardian and not in arm's reach of any of the other bystanders come to gawk.

"Nothing else worked! Not spiders in her hair or bugs in her clothes but she was scared of Miss Sonya, so I tried using her instead."

Eyeing the brat and noting he did have one of the turquoise figurines he got from Sonya for Christmas clutched in a fist, the hitman hummed as he turned to inspect the Mist Flame image of that particular thief. "Not bad, brat."

A footman was trying to rouse the nursemaid Daphne, who had likely fainted again when she came face-to-face with a glaring Russian Storm-Cloud that had frequently dismissed her as inconsequential and repeatedly forgot her name if not her face during her visit. Sonya had made it pointedly clear she didn't like the weaker Mist at all, while simultaneously spoiling the baby Mist almost without thought at the same time.

The duality had completely baffled the bulk of Vongola's housekeeping staff.

They were educated on Dying Will Flames even if they couldn't use them in order to anticipate or avoid triggering any errant traits that might make their jobs harder, so they had thought they had known how to deal with users of the various Flame types.

While a Cloud disliking a Mist on sight was pretty much par for the course, that same Cloud heeding the whims of an entirely different Mist willingly enough didn't mesh with that prior knowledge base.

"I think Sonya would be a little irritated to know you used a half-dressed version of her, though." Renato tacked on when Shamal had his moment to preen at the praise, waving a hand to the outfit of the shirt the thief stole from him and the drawstring pants she had been wearing Christmas morning. "Why did you pick that?"

"So it'd be extra scary, 'cause Miss Sonya's always grumpy in the mornings." Baby Mist brat reminded him with a pout. "And specially until she really wakes up. How can someone 'really' wake up if they're already awake?"

"The word is especially, and the answer is caffeine." The hitman corrected then informed his ward blandly, having to agree with the kid about the Russian's early morning temperament. She had nearly kicked him in the face when he grabbed her leg to heal her foot. "Pronounce your words fully."

It really wasn't a bad Mist-likeness of her, although the features were tilted a little off because normally Shamal was looking up at the thief and not straight at her.

"You need more practice with faces. Work on that."

"Okay…" Shamal agreed, then kicked his little shoe against the carpet runner. "Does this mean I don't have to go back to class?"

"What's being taught today?" If it was math, he could handle that. Probably better than the tutor teaching the various younger children of Mafiosi and the Vongola servants.

"World history."

He could handle that one as well. "You know, Sonya likes history too? She likes to read, and lately it's all been history books with her."

Tyr leaned forward a bit, imposing enough that the slight action was more than enough to center attention squarely on him. "Young Shamal, could you unmake your illusion before Miss Daphne wakes? I think-"

An entirely different scream, not matching the tone of the yelp that accompanied the Lightning Guardian's invoking of Jesus, rang out and the nursemaid fainted again.

Shamal unraveled his Mist Construction a bit sheepishly, a little too late to not scare the woman again.

Speculative attention turned to Ganauche, who flushed beet red under the disbelieving scrutiny as the onlookers put the earlier girly yelp with him as the cause. "What? It surprised me. She's fucking scary, okay?"

"You're only saying that because she nearly chopped your foot in half with a battle ax." Coyote scoffed, turning on his heel to stalk off to wherever he had been heading before the Lighting loudly swore.

"You'd think so too if you were the one she pulled an ax out of nowhere to threaten you with!"

"It wasn't out of nowhere, Ganauche." Renato reminded the man derisively, flicking his ward in the head and jerking a thumb in the direction of his temporary study to get the brat moving. "The damn things were in her hands when you just had to needle her into actually showing she could defend herself with them."

"Hey! I was doing my job, making a threat focus on me." He defended himself. "And you didn't know she could do that either!"

"I wasn't stupid enough to try mocking them… especially to her face."

Sonya had a nasty habit of being surprising, after all. Bringing a battle ax or seven to a mafia ball, sneaking them and another set of weapons in under everyone's nose by accident?

…heh.

Seeing he was getting no help from either the hitman or the assassin, or the tetchy brat now glaring at him behind his guardian's leg for the news of how he may have treated the Russian he adored, the Lighting huffed irritably and crossed his arms defensively. "A little solidarity between men would be appreciated."

"With that little girly scream of yours?" Renato mocked over one shoulder, nudging his unwilling ward to start moving. "Are we sure you're a man?"

"Hey…" Ganauche scowled at the man's back, then frowned harder as something else occurred to him. "Hey, Sinclair! You didn't tell your brat not to do it again!"

"Not going to! Live with it!"

(ooo000ooo)

(Saturday the 6th of January, 1968 continued. The Iron Fort, Italian Republic.)

"The… fuck man." Running a hand through his short curly hair, the Lighting turned to the assassin still observing the ongoing events. "What? You've got something to say too?"

Tyr leveled a flat look at Ganauche. "You should have disarmed Miss Sonya, then asked how she could utilize a miniaturized armory of jewelry in her defense."

"Fucking… yeah, Timoteo read me the riot act too." Edging away from the assassin slightly, he rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. "I heard it, okay? No insulting armed guests, especially if they're guests we want good relations with."

"Especially when she might be able to save us a fortune in the cost of Flame rings in the near future, if we no longer have to go through Talbot and can manage our own supply organically." The Sword Emperor tacked on dryly, narrowing his gaze on the cringing Lightning. "Or may eventually agree to follow our Don or have children with her unique Cloud-Storm Flame mix who might do the same."

"Isn't Master Sinclair and Miss Nikishina in a relationship already?" One of the maids asked of another, a puzzled expression on her face. "They seemed to get along really well at the Ball."

"I think they're hiding it." That maid confided to her quietly. "For young master Shamal, so he won't lose another set of parents if either ends up in more trouble than they can handle alone. Like what drove Master Sinclair to request Don Vongola to help him last year. They do seem to share custody of him since neither had to clear what they were doing with him to the other, and they tend to bend to the young master's whims."

The footman, who had given up trying to rouse Daphne again and merely moved her to the fainting couch, gave the two of them a chiding look. "Stop gossiping about Don Vongola's guests. If they are or are not in a relationship is entirely their business. Particularly if it's to protect their joint-ward."

One maid defended herself as merely sharing news, because Miss Nikishina had been wearing Master Sinclair's shirt Christmas morning.

Ganauche slanted a confused look to the Head of the Varia. "I thought Miss Nikishina told Timoteo they weren't dating?"

Tyr raised his eyes to the ceiling for a long moment, then stalked off with one word of explanation. "Gossip."

"Well… yeah but… is it true gossip or not?" The Lighting Guardian muttered, scratching at the back of his head.

Sinclair had punched him in the face at the end of that night. Was it because he had inadvertently said he wanted a kiss from his girlfriend?

Was Nikishina more his female friend and technically his ward's mom-figure than an actual girlfriend?

Was that why he got punched in the face?

Utterly confused, Ganauche started off for Timoteo's office to report back in after his diplomatic trip to another famiglia. His Sky probably knew he was back, and what happened in the hallway.

Coyote left in that direction.

Damn it, he was never going to live that high-pitched yelp down.