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“Buccellati! Buccellati!”
Bruno Buccellati looked up from his vanilla chai and smiled at the younger boy who was currently running towards him at full speed. “Yes, Narancia?”
“I need your help! Badly!” The younger boy struggled to catch his breath as he set a pile of papers on the table. He turned his wide amethyst eyes to his capo, adding, “Please?”
“What’s the matter, Narancia?” He turned to look at him straight-on, closing the book that he had been in the middle of reading. Warily eyeing the stack of whatever was now on the table, he added, “Does this have to do with your schooling?”
Narancia’s expression quickly turned to something of surprise. “How did you guess!” Not waiting for an answer, he pulled up the chair beside Bruno, pulling out a thick book near the bottom of the pile. “It’s English.”
Buccellati was confused. “I’d love to help, but why not go to Fugo? Isn’t he fluent?”
“I have a test tomorrow, and Fugo won’t help me this late. I think he knows I haven’t been studying so he’s currently, as he calls it, ‘off the clock’.” His expression was downcast, and his lips pulled into a pout. “Mista knows jack about English and Giorno barely knows any either. And Abbacchio..is....well. Abbacchio.”
Just hearing the tall goth’s name sent Bruno’s heart doing cartwheels, and he tried to force himself to calm down. Here he was - a ruthless capo in the Italian mafia, yet still acted like a damn teenager with a crush whenever someone mentioned said man’s name. He took a short sip of his cooling drink in hopes of calming down. “Of course, Narancia. What is your test on tomorrow?”
Upon hearing Buccellati’s words, Narancia seemed to buzz with excitement. “It’s on dialogue. I’m having some trouble with certain words and phrases.”
Nodding, Bruno replied, “That can be pretty hard. What do you know as of now?”
“Hello. My name is Narancia,” Narancia exclaimed proudly, in English. “How was that?”
“That was great!” Bruno felt a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “And I’m Bruno. It’s nice to meet you,” he answered, also in English.
“It’s nice to meet you too. I…” Narancia faltered, suddenly flipping through his notes. “I like ice cream.”
The capo almost didn’t catch the laugh that threatened to bubble out of his throat. “Do you normally introduce yourself like that?” he asked, switching back to Italian.
Narancia’s face turned a bright red as he sputtered and flipped through his textbook. “No! But it was one of the only lines that I knew correctly.”
This time, Bruno couldn’t stop a soft laugh from coming out. He quickly glanced at his watch, then turned his attention back to the younger boy in front of him. “Well, we’ve got nothing but time. What do you want to work on first?”
~
“So you’ve got greetings down, what do you want to move onto next?” Bruno took another sip of his now cold vanilla chai and set the mug down.
“Hmmm,” Narancia tapped his pencil against his paper a few times before continuing. “I know this is a weird topic, but can we work on.... Compliments?”
“As in.. Complementing... A person?”
“Yeah, that’s the current chapter I’m on right now. And I need to make up a compliment of my own; do you have any compliments off the top of your head that I can use?”
“A compliment for someone? Hmm....” Bruno pondered this for a moment, and a terrible thought popped into his head. Complimenting someone and no one understanding a word of it? It was worth a shot. “How about....your long, silver hair always looks perfect?” he finished, in English. Normally such an idea wouldn’t sound so tempting to the capo, but it was somewhat late in the night, and with every passing moment, he could feel himself growing tired and his tongue loosening.
Judging by the completely perplexed look on Narancia’s face, Bruno’s theory had been correct - he had absolutely no idea what he was actually saying. A very intelligent, “huh?” was all that came out of Narancia.
Overjoyed with the fact that he could actually gush about his right-hand man (and no one would actually know) gave Bruno a rush. “Or you could say, ‘Only a few men could pull off a goth look at the age of twenty-one, and you do it perfectly’.”
Narancia scratched at the back of his head. “I don’t think Fugo taught me anything that long. But could you repeat that? A bit slower so I can write that down?”
“If you’re looking for a shorter compliment, how about you use, ‘I could grate cheese on those rock hard goth abs’.”
Oh, this was just too much fun. The younger boy shrugged, writing down what Buccellati had said. The capo knew Fugo probably wouldn’t appreciate what Bruno was teaching Narancia; he would have to apologize to him tomorrow.
“Do you have any others? In case Fugo wants another example?” the shorter noirette piped up after a moment.
It was just too tempting, and Bruno couldn’t help making one more comment. He let out a soft giggle (oh, he was that tired), and answered, “There’s always, ‘Do you know how torturous it is to stare at those massive pecs of yours all day long?’”
“Oh please. Do tell.” A deep unamused voice, in perfect English, answered him, and the capo froze. Bruno snapped awake in a moment, turning in the slowest of movements.
Leone Abbacchio stood in the doorway, arms crossed and a glowering expression upon his handsome face.
Narancia gasped beside him. “I didn’t know you knew English, Abbacchio!”
“I picked it up while on the force,” the man answered as he crossed the room to stand before the two noirettes, and Bruno could feel himself overheating in both embarrassment and fear. “It’s late. You two should get some sleep.”
The idea seemed pretty great to Narancia, who gave a quick thank you to Bruno, then scooped up his paperwork and bounded up the stairs. The capo quickly got up to make a run for it as well but Abbacchio caught his arm.
“Not you. We need to talk.”
Bruno knew Abbacchio wasn’t an idiot, so he didn’t bother asking what they needed to talk about. “You heard everything, didn’t you.”
Letting go of Bruno’s arm, Abbacchio answered, “I came in when you were mentioning how well I pull off that goth look.”
“Oh, God.” Bruno turned his gaze to the floor and wanted nothing more than to cover his face and go to sleep. And after this, maybe not wake up. “I sincerely apologize. I know this doesn’t make what I did right, but I had no idea that you even spoke English.”
“...I didn’t say that I necessarily disliked it.” The goth’s voice was a bit hesitant, and Bruno chanced a glance towards him. “Your English was near-perfect. But not completely.”
The dark haired man had no idea where this conversation was going. Part of him was still baffled that Abbacchio was okay with what he said earlier. “Near-perfect? I took English for years, I know what I said was perfectly fluent.”
“It wasn’t. For example, if you really wanted to compliment someone, you would say something like this,” Bruno stilled when Abbacchio placed his hands on his shoulders, and the goth caught his gaze. “I’m always getting lost in your irresistible eyes,” he said, again, in perfect English.
Confused as hell, Bruno quirked his head to the side. “And?” Proving to the older man that he did know the language (as well as make their conversation impossible to understand), he too spoke the foreign language. “What’s your point?”
Abbacchio narrowed his eyes and tried again. “How about, ‘Buccellati, I feel the safest when I’m around you’.”
Bruno would’ve loved hearing those words under any other circumstances. However, in this moment, he only felt anger begin to bubble within his chest. “You aren’t being serious, are you?” he asked as he shoved Abbacchio’s hands off of his shoulders. “If you’re just going to ridicule me and poke fun at my feelings from earlier, I’m leaving.”
As he turned to leave, the silver haired man stopped him, this time by grabbing him by the hand. “Buccellati...Bruno. Please.” Both seemed to realize the position they were in, and Abbacchio quickly dropped his hand. The two caught each other’s gaze; Abbacchio’s eyes were sincere and honest. “I told you before, I didn’t dislike what you were saying about me. There was a reason why I let you continue your terrible compliments.”
“They were not terrible! And can you please stop bringing that up?”
“Bruno.” The taller man’s voice was low and earnest. “I’m not poking fun at you. I…” Suddenly, Abbacchio seemed to be having trouble getting words out. “What I said earlier…I was being serious.”
Time seemed to stop for Bruno. He blinked once, twice, and could only get out a simple, “...really?”
“...yeah.”
“Then, what you said earlier…” Bruno couldn’t believe it. “You really meant that?”
“I do.” Abbacchio turned his head to the side. “Is it really that hard for you to believe?”
“Somewhat.” Suddenly, Bruno was the one who found it hard to form words. “I just can’t believe you feel the same as I do.”
Abbacchio offered a rare smile at the other, stepping a bit closer. “Why wouldn’t I? I can’t help but smile around you.”
This time, Bruno really did hide his face in his hands. “Again with those cheesy pick-up lines from before?” He exclaimed as he felt his face heat up.
“W-Why not?” The albino’s voice was high and embarrassed, something Bruno heard seldom. “It can’t compare to what you were saying before, anyway.”
Bruno uncovered his face and looked Abbacchio straight in the eye. “Oh really?” He felt a corner of his mouth lift into a smirk.
The goth’s face was also beginning to turn red. “And…” his hands tightened into fists at his sides. “And it’s not like I don’t mean them.”
This time, Bruno did have the chance to cherish those words. He smiled, “You know...I meant my words from earlier too.” Before Abbacchio could tell him how terrible his compliments from earlier were, he added, “But maybe I give you a better one now.”
In response, Abbacchio only quirked his head to the side.
“Abbacchio,” Bruno swallowed, and grabbed the other’s hand again, “You’re really something special to me.”
There was a shaky exhale above him, and the grip tightened around his hand. “Bruno, I. I’m at a loss for words.”
“I am too.”
“No, like. I can’t believe we literally just confessed to each other by saying some cheesy compliments to each other.” There was a deep chuckle above him, and Bruno, realizing the hilariousness of the situation, joined in.
The two laughed for a moment until the shorter of them broke the silence. “So, how do we do this? We both like one another. Where do we go from here?”
Abbacchio’s expression could only explain as deadpanned. “Really?”
“I’ve never done this before,” Bruno smiled a little. “Generally, what would happen now?”
Abbacchio grinned. “Normally the two would go on a date. Talk about a few things about themselves. See what to do from there.”
Abbacchio liked Bruno back and wanted to go out on a date with him? The capo felt his heart turn somersaults within his chest. “Well, Leone. Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow evening?”
Leone brought the capo’s hand to his mouth and pressed his painted lips to his knuckles. “My dear, I would love nothing more.”