[fic] Fireworks, sequel to Firecracker
Another mafioso was sent to the Vongola special hospital due to EXTREME nervous breakdown. One thing was for sure, the dozens of Mafiosi who were sent there by couple of ambulances, were under the Vongola Right Hand Man’s supervision.
Usually, said right hand man would be irritated and send all the poor men back to their posts. But unusually, today, Gokudera Hayato wasn’t thinking about his lack of subordinates.
Unbeknownst to him, he was the very cause of why his men were having nervous breakdowns. He was unusually happy today. Really happy. Their boss were smiling every minute that day, how could the mafiosi not have a nervous breakdown?
The ever so moody and irritated capo bastone was being kind to everyone ever since morning. His smile usually never reached his eyes. If he smiled, that meant he was really irritated. The mafiosi under his supervision were all afraid that he was going to punish them for something they didn’t know about.
The truth was, that day was his daughter’s first birthday. And because it was an odd year birthday, she would receive the special and legendary Vongola Birthday Party. The Tenth (and Reborn) would prepared everything for the infant’s first birthday party.
Almost every single family members and allying Families were invited. It was the Vongola Right Hand Man’s daughter’s birthday. Even though they’ve just celebrated the young heir of Vongola, Mitsuyoshi’s birthday ten months ago, all the invited guests was happy to be there.
Among the guests were: The Tenth Cavallone Boss, Dino, his wife, Danielle and six years old daughter, Elena, The Eighth Tomasso Boss with his newest girlfriend, few of Varia’s core members including the leader, Xanxus, along with Superbia Squalo and Belphegor, Basil and Oregano from the CEDEF, and many more. Of course the main members of the Vongola were also there.
The birthday baby’s father, almost didn’t have to do anything at all because the party was organized by Vongola’s top hit man, Reborn, who was known to the entire Mafia world as the best man for scheming things …er…making parties more enjoyable.
His daughter was currently in her mother’s care in the west wing of the Vongola mansion where they were staying for the occasion. He was just going to check the main hall where the party would be held after sending the thirty-sixth Mafioso to the ambulance.
“Yo! Octopus-head!”
Even Ryohei’s loud voice couldn’t make his smile disappear.
“Yo, lawn-head!” He replied happily.
Ryohei frowned at his unusual cheery mood. “You’re EXTREMELY strange today, octopus-head,” he told him. “Is your daughter’s birthday really such an EXTREMELY happy occasion for you?”
He smiled wider and continued on checking the stage where the guests were to perform for the birthday baby. After making sure nothing was wrong, he waved to Ryohei and Lambo (who were checking on the food laid out on the tables) and disappeared off to where his wife and daughter were.
He knocked on the door and opened it. Haru was zipping up her new v-necked emerald green satin dress while his daughter was playing with the small piano toy on the bed.
“Hayato!” Haru called when she noticed him. “Could you help me with this?” She pointed at the zip on her back. “I can’t reach it.”
He stepped closer to her back but instead of zipping the dress up, he zipped it down and slipped his hands into her body, wrapping his arms around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and started to waltz around the room.
“Don’t be so naughty!” Haru told him shyly. She slapped his hands. “The party’s going to start soon.”
He kissed her shoulder and moved his hands upwards to her cleavage. She giggled at his touch. The soft kisses on her neck made her giggle more.
“Stop it!” she stopped his hands’ movement when her dress started to fall off her shoulders. She turned her head around to face him with a scowl. “Hanabi’s here, Hayato!” she warned him.
He smirked and let her go. “You’re so beautiful today,” he said as he zipped her dress up. He turned her around and eyed her from head to toe. “You make me want to…”
“That’s enough!” she interjected. “Why don’t you get ready while I give Hanabi her formula milk. She hasn’t drunk any yet. I think she’ll get hungry if I don’t.”
As soon as she said that, Hanabi started to cry and some small purple-smoked chocolate pralines popped into of her small hands.
Gokudera’s face paled and he felt his stomach churned when he saw the pralines. “Quick, Haru! She’s getting upset!”
Haru scooped Hanabi to her arms and walked over to where the milk bottle was. “There there, Hanabi. Don’t cry. Mama is going to give you your milk.”
Gokudera let out a relieved sigh. He looked at his daughter with sad eyes. Over the past year, every time Hanabi got upset or felt uncomfortable, or hungry, he had to suffer some light nausea. It was killing him but he had to keep strong for her.
--
The guests’ chatters were heard even before they reached the hall. A black suited Mafioso opened the door to the hall for them.
The first group of people they met was the Varia. Xanxus was drinking the cocktail served by one of the waiters for the adult guests. Belphegor was playing with his knife collection. Squalo was trying to untangle his hair from Belphegor’s strings.
“What the hell is this shit?” Xanxus growled. Haru immediately covered Hanabi’s ears as he cursed and scolded the poor waiter.
“Ushishishishi! Hello there, Smoking Bomb,” Belphegor greeted them. Haru eyed the knife and made sure Hanabi’s hands were out of range. “Wait for the Prince’s performance, it will be the best. Shishishishi!”
“HEEEEEYYY!!! DON”T MOVE AROUND SO MUCH, STUPID PRINCE!!!” Squalo’s voice made Hanabi cry loudly. She threw a small lollipop to Squalo’s hair and it dissolved the silver hair almost immediately.
“HEEEEEYYYY!!! MY HAIR!”
“Shut up, fucking sword-freak!” Gokudera shouted at Squalo. “You’re making her more upset!”
“Hayato! You can’t use that kind of words near Hanabi!”
Haru was confused between covering her precious daughter ears and stopping her from damaging Squalo’s hair more. Gokudera immediately scooped Hanabi from her arms and calmed her although his face was pale.
“Tch! You’re getting soft, Smoking Bomb!” Xanxus growled at Gokudera.
“Shut up!”
The three of them walked away from the Varia to meet Kurokawa Hana and her boyfriend. She waved at them.
“Hana-chan!” Haru hugged her. “It’s been such a long time since I saw you!”
“Yeah. It’s kind of hard when you living here in Italy, you know,” she replied. “How’s the birthday girl doing? Is she having fun?” She approached Gokudera who held already calm Hanabi in his arms. She cuddled Hanabi’s thin lips and gave a light kiss on her chubby cheeks.
“She’s so cute!” Hana exclaimed as she tried to pinch her cheeks. Gokudera stepped back quickly.
“You don’t want to do that, Kurokawa,” Gokudera warned her. “The last person tried that ended up having some poisonous cream puffs shoved into their mouth.”
Hana looked at Haru questioningly. “She’s easily upset. She has the same quirk as Bianchi-san,” Haru explained to her. Hearing that, Hana hesitantly stepped away from Hanabi who was tugging on her father’s necktie.
“Yo Goku-chan!”
They turned to find Naito Longchamp, the Eighth Tomasso Boss approaching them with a dangerously creepy girl. Hana gave Haru a small wave and took her boyfriend away.
“I see you have another new girlfriend, Tomasso Eighth,” Gokudera greeted Naito formally. “It’s a pleasure having the Tomasso as our guests.”
“Ah! Goku-chan! Don’t be so formal! This isn’t some boring business meeting, is it! Have more fun!” Naito laughed enthusiastically.
Gokudera was trying his best to smile but only managed to twitch his mouth a little. He did not want to waste too much time with the two of them and quickly pushed Haru to the center of the hall.
“Kyaaah!!” Hanabi suddenly squealed and pointed at some guests to their left. Gokudera and Haru stopped in their tracks and found that the Cavallones walking towards them.
“Hanabiiii!!” The young Elena Cavallone ran towards Hayato and Hanabi. Hanabi looked happy as she reached down to Elena. She always liked the blonde girl.
“Hello, Uncle Hayato!” Elena greeted him before reaching up to cuddle Hanabi.
“Hello, Elena,” he replied. “Bon soir, Madame Danielle,” he nodded at Danielle. Haru greeted the French woman and chatted with her.
“Yo! Gokudera!” Dino waved at Gokudera and shook his hand. “Big party, huh?”
“Reborn-san’s the one who prepared this.”
Dino looked at him with disbelief. “You let Reborn do this? Are you out of your mind?!”
“Well… he’s insisting that every Vongola member who are celebrating an odd year birthday have to receive the Vongola Birthday Party. It’s tradition.”
Dino shook his head and scratched the base of his short hair. “You better prepare for the best then,” Dino said, putting heavy emphasis on the word best. “I see Yamamoto waving at you from the stage,” he continued in a different tone. “Elena! Let Hanabi go.”
Elena reluctantly let her hands go from Hanabi and she pouted when her father take her away along with her mother. Gokudera could hear her whining to her father.
Gokudera gave Hanabi to Haru when they reached the table full of presents from the guests. “Where’s the Boss?” he asked Yamamoto.
“He’s at the main table with Kyoko and Mitsuyoshi,” Yamamoto replied. “All the guests have arrived I think. I guess we can begin the party?”
Gokudera nodded and took his family to the main table where the Tenth’s family sat.
--
“Kyaaaahhh!!” The loud squeal was followed by the buzzing sound of the electronic scoreboard. It revealed the number 90 and small picture of Belphegor’s head.
Everyone present clapped loudly. Not just because they were amazed by the score (the highest at the moment) but also because they were afraid of the knife formation still hanging above their head.
“Ninety points for Belphegor of the Varia, ladies and gentlemen!” said Fuuta who acted as the MC for the party. “And I’ll recap the score and the rank for now! Takeshi-nii with his sushi ranked the lowest with thirty-five points. Ryohei-nii with his shadow-boxing show ranked the second lowest with fifty-five points. Squalo-san was next with his amazing swordsmanship scored only sixty-points. Bianchi-nee ranked second highest with her amazing display of Poison Cooking. Her score is eighty-five!”
Gokudera sighed quietly when he saw the scoreboard. He didn’t understand why the hell his sister’s and the creepy Prince’s performance ranked highest. His daughter really had a weird sense of enjoyable entertainment.
“Are you okay, Gokudera-kun?” Tsuna asked him when he heard his sighing.
Gokudera tried to smile at his Boss but seeing his sister produce that much Poison Cooking really drained up his strength.
“I’m alright, Boss,” he answered.
Tsuna looked like he didn’t believe it but he shrugged it off when Belphegor get off the stage to be replaced by Lambo.
“I wonder what Lambo is up to?” Tsuna said, eyeing Lambo who was dragging a medium-sized piano to the front of the stage. “Does he even know how to play piano?”
Gokudera sighed again. Of course Lambo knew how to play piano. He had been teaching him ever since the Thunder Guardian was twelve! It took a lot of patience, efforts, and liters of Lambo’s tears. No one really knew about the secret piano lessons because Gokudera didn’t want people know that he had been teaching Lambo.
He didn’t know that Lambo was going to play the piano for his daughter’s birthday, though. Lambo had been postponing their weekly lessons for two whole months. He thought that Lambo had finally admitted that he couldn’t play the instrument as good as his tutor. Gokudera just waited for the bizarre piano playing Lambo always did.
Lambo sat on the piano bench and placed his hands above the black and white ivory keys. When the first movement of Igor Stravinsky’s Three Movements of Petrouchka, the Russian Dance, started, Gokudera (and many of the guests) couldn’t help but feel awed. After the playful song, Lambo continued his performance with another playful piece. This time it was Joseph-Maurice Ravel’s ‘Mirroirs Alborada del Gracioso’.
“Hayato… is that… really Lambo-chan playing the piano?” Haru asked him. He couldn’t answer her question because he himself wasn’t so sure.
Lambo couldn’t help but smirk when he heard the silent murmurs of amazement coming from the guests. Finally all his efforts for the past two months of secretly learning the two difficult but playful pieces would be paid. If Hanabi liked his performance (she liked piano just like his father), Lambo would get the highest score.
Lambo had almost finished his performance when suddenly a small puff of pink smoke covering Hanabi in the center of the stage made him stop.
Gokudera sat still on his seat while Haru gripped his arms tight. Everyone held their breath. When the smoke cleared a bit, it revealed a small girl. The small girl coughed and fanned the smoke away.
“I swear you’ll pay for that, Mitsu-kun! Lambo-nii said that you shouldn’t touch the Reverse Ten Year Bazooka!” shouted the small girl. “I’ll tell Daddy and Uncle Tsuna how you’ve been playing with Lambo-nii’s weapon storage room!”
Haru immediately ran towards the stage to see what exactly had happened to her daughter.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Boss?” Gokudera muttered to Tsuna. He didn’t dare let his eyes off from the little girl on the stage.
“Could it be the Ten Year Bazooka?” Tsuna said. “And did I hear she mention Mitsuyoshi’s name?
“And it’s my birthday too!” the girl continued. “If you want to waste your time here, then do so! I have a party to attend!”
“Hanabi?” Haru called the little girl.
The little girl whipped around and blinked many times when she realized no one had responded to her scoldings.
“Hahi? Where am I?” said the little girl. “Where’s Mitsu-kun?”
Gokudera joined Haru in front of the stage to take a look at the little girl. She had a waist-length dark hair. Her emerald green eyes were filled with confusion. And the small purple-smoked Strawberry Shortcake in her hand was dangerously filling with worms and insects.
“Hahi?” The little girl tilted her head when she saw the two persons standing in front of her. “Mommy? Why are you here? Aren’t you in Italy with Aunt Kyoko?”
“It really is because of Ten Year Bazooka, Gokudera-kun!” Tsuna exclaimed when he joined Gokudera and Haru. “She’s ten years later Hanabi-chan! But why did she come here instead?”
The older Hanabi noticed Tsuna and she quickly walked towards him.
“Uncle Tsuna! Thank God, you’re back from New York! Mitsu-kun has been very naughty since you left!” She said while tugging on Tsuna’s jacket sleeve. “He played in Lambo-nii’s weapon storage room again! I can’t find Uncle Fuuta so I’m the one who had to stopped him!”
“Hanabi…” Gokudera approached his daughter’s older self.
Hanabi turned to him. She tilted her head to one side when she looked at him. Then, suddenly, she threw the Strawberry Shortcake in his direction.
If it wasn’t because of Lambo’s good reflexes (due to extensive ‘training’ when he was being chased by Bianchi because she thought he was Romeo), the cake would have been landed on Gokudera’s face instead.
“Why are YOU here, Daddy?!” she screamed. She produced another cakes and threw it. “Did you FINALLY remember that TODAY is my birthday?!” And another cake was thrown… “You should just go back to America or Britain or Antarctica or Alaska or Canada and LEAVE me to celebrate my birthday ALONE!!!” … and another cake flew away.
“Hanabi! Stop it!” Haru stopped Hanabi from throwing a large poisonous birthday cake to his father’s stunned face. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
Hanabi pouted and started crying. “Mommy!!!!” She latched herself onto Haru’s waist and wailed. “Daddy forgot my birthday! And I heard it’s going to be another fireworks display for the party’s opening show! How many times do I have to tell Lambo-nii, I hate explosions?!!”
Haru frowned at her husband and Lambo. Both were just too shocked at seeing so much Poison Cooking scattered all around them to notice her glare.
A couple of minutes were used in calming Hanabi and convincing her that his father would never forget her birthday and there’ll be no explosions for her birthday party.
Gokudera was too stunned to react to all the commotion on the stage. He couldn’t believe his eyes. His daughter eleven years old’s self really amazed him. She looked so much like her mother for the exception of her eyes. And his daughter had perfected the Poison Cooking ability just like his sister!
When she calmed down, Hanabi turned to her father. Gokudera cringed when he saw she held a small poisonous candy. “Daddy… do you promise you’ll never forget my birthday?”
Gokudera nodded quickly and braced himself to pat her head. “Don’t worry, Hanabi. Daddy will never forget.”
After he said that, Hanabi hugged him and sniffled on his shoulder. “I will not forgive you if you forget again, Daddy,” she muttered before she was covered in pink smoke and switched back to her younger self. The one year old Hanabi giggled when she saw her father. She tugged on his neck-tie and snuggled up his neck. Everyone smiled, feeling relieved when she didn’t cry or produce more dangerous items. The party resumed after the stage was cleaned.
But nobody realized that Gokudera had already lost his consciousness courtesy of all the Poison Cooking that had been shoved in his face from his future ‘Fireworks’ to enjoy the rest of the party.
Author’s Note:
Oh, crap! This is not how I want it to be. But... I really don’t know what to do with the story and ending anymore. Sniff… Blame my lack of ideas (writer’s block?). I think this is my worse one-shot so far. The prequel was so much better…sniff… T-T .
Extreme Nervous Breakdown: Gokudera never smiles to his subordinates. That explains a lot, right?
Danielle and Elena Cavallone: The original characters I made up for Dino. Danielle is a pretty French woman he met in Paris when he was vacationing there. She is the daughter of a famous Mafia Boss in France. He was twenty-four when he met her, twenty-six when he married her and twenty-seven when Elena was born. That made him thirty-three in this fic. Gah! You’re getting old Dino!
Don Vongola the Eleventh (heir) Sawada Mitsuyoshi: Another original character. He’s Tsuna and Kyoko’s son. He was mentioned in Firecracker but I didn’t give him a name just yet. I made the name up while observing Tsuna’s family tree in Vongola 77 Character Book. It was kind of mixing all the names of his predecessors to come up with a decent name.
The Vongola Special Birthday Scoreboard: Hanabi inherited her father’s dislike to Yamamoto (in this case her aunt’s too), Ryohei and Squalo. But apparently she likes the things her father hated the most, his sister’s Poison Cooking and the creepy Prince’s strings and knives.
Lambo the Piano Prodigy?: Hark! This one is purely coincidental! I noticed that there’s one fanfic I’ve been reading, mentioned the same song Lambo had played in this one (Stravinsky’s Petrouchka). I love this playful song so I added this and the Ravel’s Mirroirs Alborada del Gracioso. Gokudera started to teach Lambo piano because he wanted him to learn something useful other than annoying every other person he encountered.
Reverse Ten Year Bazooka: Has the opposite effect from Ten Year Bazooka. It would not send you to the future but send you back to the past instead. It’s a very dangerous weapon developed by future Bovino Famiglia (at least, I thought they’d be). Imagine if you shoot a nine year old kid with it. What would happen to her/him? According to the theories stated in ‘The World Ten Years Ago Chapter 6’, they’d disappear because they’re trapped in time paradox. That’s why future Lambo kept it in his weapon storage room. Bad Mitsu-kun! You almost made our cute Hanabi disappeared!
Hanabi, Ten Years Later: She had her mother’s appearance and quirks (Hahi?). But she had her father’s eyes and rude mouth. Thankfully her language was not as ‘colorful’ as her father’s… yet...DX. Unlike her father, she hates explosions 8D. And to her father’s dismay, she had her aunt’s ability and perfected all of it even before she reached the age of ten.
Geez… So many things I didn’t explain in the story. I’m crazy…The Author’s Note itself could become a short chapter!
I deeply apologize if the sequel wasn’t good enough for all of you who had been waiting for it. My brain was scattered all over the place! But my beta-reader said that this was good… Hmm… Maybe I think too much. (-_-;)
Don’t forget to review. It’s okay if you want to scold or be angry with me. Just tell me what you think on this one.