Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“This is going to be a harder operation than what you’re used to,” Bruno reminded Narancia as they walked through the mall. “I know you’re up for it, but do your best to stick to the plan.”

“Yeah, I know.” Narancia was practically skipping next to Bruno, vibrating with excitement. “This is important, I won’t fuck it up.”

Bruno had finally caved. He had lost count of how many times he had deflected Narancia’s request with a “I’ll think about it,” or a “maybe we’ll find time for that next week.” At some point, Mista and Fugo had hopped on board in support of Narancia and Bruno finally decided that he might as well get it out of the way. It would be a good bonding experience, and the result would make everyone happy. What better way to kick off the kids’ summer vacation?

So, today was the day that Bruno finally took Narancia to GameStop to steal a Nintendo Switch.

It was a Wednesday morning and the mall had been open for precisely two minutes. It was dead.

“I’m so exciteeeeeed,” Narancia sang as they rode up the escalator to the third floor. It made Bruno’s chest feel light to see him so joyful, but he wasn’t going to celebrate until they had achieved their goal.

As they approached the GameStop, Bruno instinctively placed his hand on Narancia’s shoulder and spoke quietly. “Don’t make too much of a mess. Ruining a retail worker’s day is not part of the plan.”

Narancia hummed affirmatively and nodded. “I’ll help pick up whatever I knock over.”

“That’s right.” Bruno felt proud that he had been able to instill a proper sense of ethics in his young friend.

Bruno quickly got into character and walked into the store, making a beeline for the white-haired employee standing behind the cash. Narancia began to wander around like an average browsing customer while he checked that there was no one else around.

“Good morning,” Bruno greeted the employee cheerfully, adjusting the large canvas bag hanging from his shoulder. “I’m wondering if you could help me with something?”

“Sure,” the employee said without a shred of enthusiasm. “What do you need?”

Bruno flashed his most charming smile and glanced at the employee’s nametag. “Well, Leone, my niece’s birthday is coming up next week, and I’m not sure what to get her. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Um.” The employee, Leone, seemed exceedingly unimpressed with the question. “How old is she?”

“Thirteen,” Bruno answered without hesitating. He knew everything about his fictional niece.

“Okay… Do you know what she likes?”

“Yes, I’ve heard her talk about this game—maybe you’ve heard of it—Minecraft?”

Leone stared at him.

“…Yeah. I’ve heard of it. There’s a bin in the back with some Minecraft toys and stuff you can look through.”

“Mm…” Bruno nodded thoughtfully. “The thing is, I’m afraid of getting something for her that she already has. Is there anything similar you think she might like?” He leaned in a little, drumming his fingers on the counter to keep the attention on himself.

“I don’t know. Maybe just take a look around and see if you find anything.”

“Right, that’s a good idea,” Bruno said, not moving away from the counter. What was taking Narancia so long? It wasn’t a large store. Did he get distracted by the bin of Minecraft toys? “What about you, though? What would you want?”

“What would I want?”

“Yeah, what would you want as a gift?”

“If I was your niece, you mean?”

“Sure,” Bruno chuckled. “Or if you weren’t. Do you have kids? What would you get them?”

Leone blinked rapidly as he tried to keep up with Bruno's questions.

“I don’t have kids,” he said, finally. “Maybe just a gift card would be good.”

Bruno was prepared to balk at how impersonal a gift card would be for his beloved niece, but he didn’t have to. A loud crash sounded from the other side of the store where Narancia had finally initiated phase two of the plan.

“Whoops!” Narancia cried out from behind the large display of action figures he had pushed over. “My bad!”

Leone looked away from Bruno to see what had happened and his expression shifted from vague confusion to thinly-veiled disgust. He mumbled several curses under his breath and started to step away from the counter.

“I have to go deal with that,” he grumbled.

“Of course! Don’t let me keep you.”

Leone gave Bruno one last weird look before walking past him, and Bruno noticed a jingling ring of keys attached to his belt loop. He would probably need those, but he would try without them first.

Once he heard Narancia start with his over-the-top apologies and promises to help, Bruno snuck around the counter and crouched down to peer through the clear sliding doors of the cabinet underneath. The shelves were lined with games and Bruno was able to spot some of the ones Narancia wanted, but the cabinet was locked. Looked like he would be needing those keys, after all.

Before he snuck back out from behind the counter, Bruno took out his wallet and got several bills ready. He didn’t usually compensate the employees of the stores he shoplifted from, but he also didn’t usually make the employees clean up after Narancia, so he would make an exception this time.

Narancia was happily talking Leone’s ear off as Bruno approached. Between that and the task of gathering up the toppled boxes, Leone was distracted enough that Bruno didn’t even have to pick an object to pretend to trip over.

“Whoa!” Bruno exclaimed as he fell into Leone’s back. Under the guise of steadying himself, one hand grabbed Leone's arm while the other quickly slipped the bills into his pocket and unclipped the carabiner holding the keys. Leone grunted with the collision and nearly dropped the boxes he was holding.

“Jesus—”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Bruno quietly dropped the keys in his bag not half a second before Leone spun around to look at him. “Are you alright? I just lost my balance for a second, there.”

“I’m fine.” Leone sighed heavily, looking ready to quit his job right then and there. “Did you find something? Are you ready to pay?”

“No, no, I’m still looking around. So sorry for bumping into you, completely my fault.”

With that, Narancia continued distracting Leone with whatever long-winded tale he had decided to tell, and Bruno crept back to the cash. There were only three keys on the ring, which made it easy to pick out the one that fit in the cabinet door’s lock. Moving quickly, he pulled out the games he needed, hid them in his bag, and slid the door shut.

All that was left was the console itself, which Bruno figured must be kept in the back room. So, he made his way to the door at the back wall, grateful for the shelves and displays in the store that blocked him from view of the other two.

Picking the right key on the first try, Bruno slipped inside the back room. It wasn’t a very big room, with most of the space taken up by excess inventory. Scanning the piles of boxes, he grabbed the first Switch he saw and tucked it in his bag, arranging it so that everything was hidden beneath an old sweater.

Just before he left the room, he saw a black jacket lying on top of a chair in the corner. It must have been Leone’s—he was the only one there. Still feeling bad about causing so much trouble, Bruno snuck a little more cash into its pocket, then slunk back out into the store.

He casually dropped the keys on the floor by the counter and walked over to where Narancia and Leone were just finishing up with the action figure display.

“And then he told me that I could never win the spelling bee!”

“Hey,” Bruno interrupted Narancia’s story. “Thanks for your help, but I think I’ll just get her a book or something.”

“Yeah, okay.” Leone mumbled, too busy getting the last few boxes in place to pay attention.

Narancia’s eyes widened when he saw Bruno’s bag, which looked significantly heavier than it had before. “And then I won the spelling bee! Okay, bye!” He darted out of the store, followed closely by Bruno. The theft alarm went off instantly, but by the time mall security got to the store, Bruno was already pulling out of the parking lot.

“Wooo!” Narancia cheered in the passenger seat. “That was awesome!”

“You did a great job distracting him,” Bruno said. “What were you even talking about, with the spelling bee?”

“I dunno, it was just some show I saw on TV the other day.”

“Very nice. You know you can never go back to that store now, right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I can get more games somewhere else.”

Bruno tapped his fingers idly against the steering wheel. “I wonder why that guy didn’t try to stop us when we set off the alarm.”

Narancia shrugged.  “We were probably just too fast for him. Masters of the trade. Unstoppable forces. Untouchable partners in crime!”

Bruno laughed as Narancia continued to relish their success. When they got home, Narancia grabbed Bruno’s bag, tore out of the car, and sprinted up the walkway into the house. Still in the car, Bruno could hear the excited shouts coming from inside.

The sight that Bruno saw upon going inside was exactly what he had been expecting: Mista, Fugo, and Narancia were tearing the box open and ripping the plastic off of the game cases. Mista and Fugo gushed praise for a heist well-done and Narancia accepted it all oh so graciously. It was nice.

Halfway through setting up the console though, Fugo paused.

“Wait,” he said. “There are only two Joy-Cons.”

“Huh?” Mista looked through Bruno’s bag again. “You didn’t get extra Joy-Cons?”

“Aw, man,” Narancia complained. “Did I forget to tell you to get extra Joy-Cons?”

Bruno had no idea what they were talking about. “What’s wrong? What’s a Joy-Con?”

“They’re the controllers,” Fugo explained. “The Switch only comes with two of them. That means only two of us can play at a time.”

“Oh. Can’t you just… take turns?” Bruno asked.

“Well, yeah, but that’s not as fun.”

“Can we go back to the store and get some?” Narancia asked. “Pleeeease?”

“No, we can’t go back to the store and get some. I just told you, you can’t go back.”

“We can go to a different store! Pleeeeease?”

Bruno considered the conundrum. He could understand why taking turns would be less fun than everyone playing together, and the whole point of getting this thing was so that everyone could have some good wholesome fun as a family.

“I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” he decided.

Taking care of it tomorrow turned out to be a lot harder than Bruno had hoped it would be.

Every store he went to was either out of stock or had tight enough security that he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off alone, and he didn’t want to get the kids involved again. Narancia getting banned from the GameStop at the mall was already a worse fate than Bruno wanted for him.

After looking in every electronics and gaming store within driving distance, Bruno accepted that he might just have to bite the bullet and go back to the mall. Before he did that though, he would need to stop back at home to pick up a few things.

An hour later, Bruno stepped into GameStop wearing one of Mista’s old hoodies, basketball shorts, a baseball cap, and oversized sunglasses. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but it would have to do. With any luck, the employee from yesterday wouldn’t be there to recognize him.

There was no one behind the counter when Bruno stepped in. He peered around the shelves at the front of the store and there didn’t seem to be anyone at all in the store. Keeping his head down, he began to look around for what he needed. Maybe he really would be lucky this time.

Or not. He heard the click of the back door opening, followed by footsteps muffled by the carpet. Bruno turned to face away from the door and pretended to examine the wall of used DS games he found before him.

The footsteps got closer.

“Did you end up getting something for your niece?” A familiar voice asked from behind him.

Welp.

“I beg your pardon?” Bruno turned his head just enough to acknowledge the person talking to him, but not enough to show his face.

“You know you probably shouldn’t be here, right? My manager just went to the washroom, and he’ll recognize you if you’re still here when he gets back.”

Bruno turned his head a little more, until long white hair entered his periphery. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”

“We have security cameras, you know? You stole a whole Switch and three games, it was a big deal. My manager stared at the footage all morning. You didn’t even try to hide your face yesterday. I mean, I appreciate the effort you put into your, uh, new disguise, but I think he’ll recognize you.”

Bruno turned around and looked the employee up and down. He looked like he had yesterday before Narancia knocked the display over—both perplexed and bored.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Leone continued. “The hat and glasses will protect you from the cameras today. You’re only in trouble if he comes back and gets a good look at you.”

“But… as of right now, I’m not in trouble?”

“No, I don’t give a shit.” He sounded so natural and unaffected that Bruno believed him. “I mostly just want to know why on Earth you would come back today.”

“Ah, right. I need more of those…” Bruno mimed holding the Switch and pressing buttons with his thumbs. “…controller parts.”

“You need Joy-Cons?”

“Yeah, that’s what they called them.”

“Are you gonna pay for them?”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

Leone’s mouth twitched briefly into a small, amused smile. He shot a quick glance to the store’s entrance and lowered his voice.

“I’m closing tonight. Alone. Come back at nine.”

Bruno didn’t say anything.

“Okay, I know that sounds like a trap, but it’s not. I really, truly do not care. Maybe get a wig or something, though.”

Bruno just smiled and left without a word.

He came back at nine with a long red wig, new sunglasses, and a green trench coat, just for the hell of it.

“Sorry, we’re closing,” Leone deadpanned from behind the counter.

“Oh, I just need one thing. Maybe you can help me with it?”

Leone smirked at the wig. “Of course.”

Bruno waited at the counter while Leone went to grab the Joy-Cons.

“You’re lucky the cameras don’t record audio,” he said when he returned. “I’ll deactivate the bit that sets off the alarm, then I’m going to drop my pen, and you’re going to run when I turn away to pick it up.”

Bruno waited patiently as Leone scanned the box’s barcode and set it on the counter.

“Ready?”

“Why are you doing this?” At this point, Bruno wasn’t suspicious about Leone’s motivation for helping him. He was just curious.

“I fucking hate this job.” Leone slid his hand across the counter, knocking a pen onto the floor. “Whoopsie.”

“Whoopsie,” Bruno echoed, smiling. Then, when Leone bent down to retrieve the pen, he grabbed the controllers, said, “Meet me in the parking lot,” and bolted.

The parking lot was mostly empty, the only cars left besides Bruno’s being those that belonged to whatever mall employees were still closing up.

Bruno waited in his car for half an hour before Leone came out. He stood outside the mall doors and looked around a bit, and Bruno flashed his lights a couple times to get his attention. It worked, and soon Leone was standing next to the driver-side door.

“Hey,” Bruno said as he rolled down the window.

“Uh, hey. Why did you want me to meet you?”

“Because I owe you.” Bruno folded his arms in the open window.

Leone laughed. “No, you don’t. You literally already paid me.”

“That was for yesterday. I still owe you for today.”

“You really don’t.”

“Well…” Bruno pulled a business card out from the glove compartment and held it out to Leone, who took it hesitantly. “Call me if you change your mind. Any favour you need.”

“You own a… fishing supplies shop?”

“I do.”

Leone scoffed disbelievingly. “You’re not… worried? About giving me all this information? You trust me not to report you?” He squinted at the card. “Bruno… Buccellati?”

Bruno smiled. “Will you report me?”

“No, but—”

“Then why should I be worried?”

Leone sighed. “Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“Never mind.” He put the card in his pocket. “I would say see you around, but you really should stay away from the store for a while.”

“You could see me around if you wanted to. You have my number.” His shop’s number, but still.

“Right, uh… Okay. Yeah. Maybe. Um, goodnight, I guess.”

“Goodnight.”

Bruno rolled his window back up once Leone had left, disappearing into another car on the other side of the lot. He didn’t know why his heart was suddenly beating way harder than usual. It was probably just from the excitement of a successful theft with an unexpected ally.

The kids treated him like a god when he got home with the Joy-Cons and immediately roped him into playing with them, not that he put up any resistance.

“This game is just racing,” Mista told him. “Just press this button to drive and use this stick to steer.”

“Alright. That doesn’t sound too hard.”

After coming in dead last six games in a row, Bruno’s phone buzzed. Someone had sent a message to the shop’s Instagram. He would have thought it odd if it weren’t for the night’s events, considering he hadn’t posted anything on that account for eight months. He put his controller down and opened the app.

“Who ya texting?” Narancia asked, pulling Bruno’s attention away from his phone.

“No one. Are we playing again?”

“No, you can keep texting your no one,” Mista said. “Let the three of us play one round so I can prove I’m only doing badly because there’s four of us.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Fugo said. “You’re doing badly because you’re bad.”

“Fuck you. If I win the next round you have to do my laundry for a month.”

“Fine, but if I win you have to do my dishes for a month.”

“If I win,” Narancia chimed in, “you both have to buy me ice cream for a month.”

Bruno looked back at his phone.

Bruno smiled at the screen before putting his phone down. He looked up just in time to see Fugo win their game.

“Fuck! Shit! Fuck!” Mista let his frustrations out. “That bet wasn’t serious, right?”

“You wish. I’ll put my dirty dishes in your bed if I have to.”

“Sucker,” Narancia laughed, then turned to Bruno. “Are you done texting no one? Wanna play again?”

“Yeah.” Bruno picked his controller back up. “I want to be the ghost this time.”

“At least now I know I won’t come in last,” Mista said.

“Hey! I’ll get better eventually,” Bruno insisted. “Just you wait.”

“Yeah,” Fugo said. “Then you’ll be doing his dishes, too.”

“Yeah, right.”

Bruno grinned and did his best in the following race. He came in last again.

“It’s okay,” Narancia consoled him. “I’ll teach you how to get good.”

It was a good day. Kind of a weird one, but good overall.

Chapter Text

Fugo let himself into Bruno’s office.

“Hey, could you come out for a minute?” He mumbled. His face was red, which wasn’t unusual in and of itself—Fugo’s face got red at least three times a day. The unusual thing was that Narancia and Mista weren’t around to get him worked up, which was the most frequent cause.

“Sure. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just—There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

Bruno checked his watch. It was only eleven. Was Leone the type to be half an hour early?

He wasn’t, apparently. The person who wanted to talk to Bruno was a stranger—a blond teenager standing in the middle of the shop, looking around casually.

“Hi, can I help you with something?”

The boy looked up when Bruno spoke and held his hand out in a very serious and formal manner.

“Yes. Hello, my name is Giorno Giovanna, and I’d like to apply for a job in your shop.”

“Ah.” Bruno shook Giorno’s hand, a little surprised. Why did that name sound familiar? “Well, in that case, follow me.”

Bruno led Giorno back to his office. Fugo was still there, and he avoided eye contact with both of them before silently slipping out. Bruno made a mental note to check up on him later as he told Giorno to take a seat across from him at his desk.

“Okay, Giorno,” Bruno started, pretty curious about this kid. It wasn’t often he got teenagers asking to work for him out of the blue. “Do you fish?”

“No, I don’t.”

“What drew you to my shop, then?”

“Actually, I know Narancia and Fugo from school. I met them at a rugby game.”

“Oh, you’re—” Bruno realized then why he had recognized Giorno’s name and stopped himself before he could call him ‘the kid that Fugo spilled his drink on at Mista’s rugby game’. Fugo had been upset about that for three days straight. “—You’re their friend.”

“Yeah,” Giorno said with a small smile. He paused and folded his hands in his lap before adding, “They both really enjoy working here. It seems like a nice atmosphere.”

“That’s great—any friend of my staff is a friend of mine. So, do you have any experience?”

“No. I’m a quick learner, though.”

“What’s your availability?”

“Every day. At least, until school starts again.”

“Fantastic. When do you want to start?”

Giorno’s eyes widened and he took a couple seconds to answer. Clearly, he hadn’t thought it would be so easy. “Today, I guess?”

“A real go-getter, I like it. I’ll go grab the paperwork, excuse me for a moment.” Bruno got up from his desk, where the paperwork actually was, and stepped back out into the shop, closing the door behind him.

Fugo was sitting behind the cash, slumped forward with his chin on the counter.

“Hey,” Bruno said quietly. “You don’t have any objections to me hiring Giorno, do you?” The most likely reason as to why Fugo was acting strange was because of Giorno showing up, so it seemed like a good idea to ask.

Fugo turned his head to face Bruno, leaving his cheek pressed against the counter. “You talked to him for thirty seconds and you already want to hire him?”

“Sure,” Bruno shrugged. “He seems like a nice kid.”

“Typical,” Fugo scoffed.

“Am I wrong? Is he not nice?”

“No—he’s nice—just—Ugh.”

Bruno bent down until he was eye-level with Fugo.

“It was just one Pepsi,” he said, trying to be reassuring. “It was an accident.”

“Oh my god.” Fugo turned his face back into the counter.

“It was a month ago, I’m sure he’s not mad.”

“I know he’s not mad.”

“So, is it okay if I hire him?”

“Yeah, I don’t care. Hire him. He’ll be a great asset to the team. Whatever.”

Bruno smiled. He knew Fugo well enough to be able to tell the difference between when he was actually being sarcastic and when he was only pretending to be sarcastic because he didn’t feel like being sincere. “And you can start training him today?”

“What?” Fugo sat upright, his face going red again. “Like, right now? Since when am I in charge of training?”

“Since I’m going out soon and I can trust you with the job.”

Fugo inhaled deeply, held it a couple seconds, and let out a loud sigh. “Okay.”

“That’s my star employee.” Bruno gave him a smile and a pat on the shoulder before returning to his office.

Leone showed up not long after, looking only a little out of place surrounded by fishing gear. He had dressed for a proper job interview, which Bruno found flattering.

After quick introductions with Fugo and Giorno, Bruno grabbed his wallet and headed for the door.

“We’ll be at Silvio’s,” he said over his shoulder to Fugo, Leone following close behind.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“Hm?”

“Where are we going?” Leone asked, squinting against the sun as he stepped outside.

“Oh, sorry—Did you eat already?”

“Uh, no.”

“Then we’re getting lunch. Is that okay?”

Leone paused. “Yeah, I don’t see why not.”

Silvio’s was a small diner just a few doors down from Bruno’s shop. It was a favourite for him and the boys—simple, but delicious. The hostess greeted him happily when they came in, chatting pleasantly as she brought Bruno and Leone to their table.

It was kind of funny, Bruno thought, looking at the two of them. Bruno, in his worn jeans and t-shirt, and Leone, with his tie and tucked-in shirt. They didn’t look like they should be having lunch together.

“So, I guess you’ve met everyone except Mista,” Bruno said after allowing a couple minutes for Leone to browse the menu.

“Really? It’s just you, those two kids and one more?”

“Three kids—you met Narancia the other day.”

Bruno watched as the gears turned in Leone’s head.

“That spelling bee kid is your employee?”

“Yes, technically.”

“You bring your employees shoplifting—Wait, technically?”

Bruno shrugged. “We’re kind of more like a little family than just coworkers. I mean,” he laughed lightly, “until this morning, everyone who worked at the store all lived in the same house.”

“…Until this morning?”

“Yeah. I just hired Giorno twenty minutes ago. He doesn’t live with me.”

“But… the other three? They all do?”

“That’s right.”

Leone frowned, then relaxed his eyebrows, then opened his mouth like he was about to ask a question, then pressed his lips together tightly. He looked back at his menu, but Bruno suspected he was only pretending to read it since his eyes weren’t moving at all.

“Please, don’t hold back if you have questions.”

“So many.” Leone dropped the menu to the table. “So, you’re not actually related to any of them?”

“No.”

“How did you meet them?”

“Luck, mostly. Crossed paths. Fate. Whatever way you like to think of it.” Bruno waved a hand around.

“And they just… moved in with you?”

“They had nowhere better to go.”

“Oh,” Leone said. “Oh,” he repeated, quieter after processing the implications. “So, you happened to come across some down-on-their-luck kids, and took it upon yourself to turn that luck around?”

“Yeah, you could look at it that way.” He shrugged. “I do what I can for them.”

Leone nodded the slowest nod Bruno had ever seen.

“They’re all very sweet, in their own ways,” he continued. “They would like you.” Narancia already liked him, at least.

“…Right. That’s… That’s in—”

“Are you two ready to order?” The server interrupted him, though Bruno would have liked to hear what Leone was going to say. In-what? Interesting? Incredible? Insane? All equally likely possibilities.

“I’ll just have whatever you’re having,” Leone mumbled, handing his forgotten menu to the server.

“Two daily specials, then,” said Bruno.

“Two daily specials,” the server repeated. “Coming right up.”

Leone took a long sip from his water glass, stopping only when the water ran out and the loud slurp of the straw and rattling ice cubes cut him off.

“So, um.” He set the glass aside. “Are you interviewing me?”

“Hm? Oh, right. Sure, I guess we can go ahead and get that out of the way.”

Leone’s eyebrows shot up. Maybe that had been a bit of a flippant thing for Bruno to say, but given their brief history, it would have been silly for Leone to have expected a traditional professional meeting.

Bruno clasped his hands together on the table.

“Do you know anything about fishing?”

Leone adjusted his posture, sitting up a little straighter. “About as much as the average person.”

“That’ll do. Do you have any qualms about dealing with live bait? Worms, minnows, stuff like that.”

“Um…”

“You can use gloves.”

“Alright, then, no, I guess not.”

“Great.” Bruno tapped his knuckles on the table while he tried to think of more questions. “Hm… What else…You obviously have retail experience…”

“…You don’t want to ask me about like, what I think my greatest strength is or anything like that?”

“Oh, sure, if you want to tell me about that.”

There was some kind of very strong emotion in Leone’s eyes, but Bruno couldn’t quite tell what it was, or even whether it was positive or negative.

“Um, well, I have really strong organizational skills—”

“Perfect,” Bruno commented quietly.

“—which is—uh—what?"

“Ah, sorry for interrupting you. It’s just that that’s exactly what I need.”

“Okay… Cool.”

The server came back then, setting down two identical plates of salmon burgers with fries. Bruno told Leone to dig in, then followed suit.

A few bites in, when Leone hadn’t said anything for several minutes, Bruno worried that maybe he was coming on a little too strong. He hadn’t prepared a list of standard interview questions because he already knew that he wanted to hire Leone, but maybe that was making it seem like he wasn’t taking this seriously. He set his burger down and wiped his mouth with his napkin.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“What?”

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“N—No. I’m good.”

“Okay.” He ate a couple fries. “Do you have any more questions? I’m realizing that this may not have been what you were expecting, so if there’s anything that’s bothering you, please let me know.”

Leone sat still for several long seconds. “Okay. I’m… I’m having a hard time understanding all this. I mean, you met me two days ago. The last time you saw me, I was actively betraying my current workplace, and now you want to… recruit me? And I don’t understand why.”

That was sensible enough, Bruno figured. “Well, to be fair, I’ve already made it clear that your betrayal of your current workplace was extremely helpful to me, personally. Besides, why would I pass a moral judgement on you for that when I was the one actually doing the stealing?”

“Um, because you don’t know that I won’t do the same to you?”

“I have no issue with giving some fishing rods away to people who might need them.”

“But—"

“You’re okay with breaking rules at your current job because you hate it, correct?”

“…Yes.”

“Then all I have to do is make sure you don’t hate working for me, maybe even go so far as to make sure you enjoy it. I think I can manage that.” Bruno leaned back in his seat. “You seem like a reasonable person, like you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. And—even better—I think you’re fun to talk to.”

Leone’s eyebrows drew together quizzically. “You’ve spent a grand total of maybe twenty minutes talking to me.”

“And I’ve had fun.”

Leone took a deep breath, not meeting Bruno’s eye. He wiped away some condensation from his glass, then looked up and said, “I don’t think I should work for you.”

Sudden disappointment fell heavy in Bruno’s stomach, but he tried his best not to let it show. “Ah, alright.”

“Because… Because I don’t think it’s really, uh, a great fit for me, and it’s a lot farther from my place than my current job, and, uh…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain yourself.” Bruno smiled. “Thank you for considering it.”

Leone just looked back at him, half-eaten burger going cold.

Several days later, Bruno’s arms were sticking to his counter with sweat.

“You can go if you want to,” he told Mista. “We would have closed hours ago if it weren’t for Mr. Ditelli.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Mista replied from the floor of Bruno’s office. “Your pain is my pain.”

It was a hellishly hot day, and it turned out that keeping the front door propped open with an oscillating fan in the corner was no replacement for air conditioning. On days like these, Bruno would usually cut his losses and close the shop whenever he had had enough, opting instead to go for a swim, or at least go home and take a cold shower. Today though, Mr. Ditelli, a loyal customer since before Bruno was even born, had called to say he would be stopping by to bring a net in for repair, and Bruno had promised to see him. So there he was, sitting in his abysmally stuffy shop, covered with a perpetual layer of sweat, leaving every surface he touched wet.

“Hey, wanna get tacos for dinner?” Mista asked.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, though he couldn’t imagine why Mista would be thinking about eating hot food right now.

Three hopeful glances out to the street later, Bruno got bored and pulled out his phone to look at Leone’s Instagram profile for the sixth time since they had lunch. He hadn’t posted anything new. Bruno scrolled through the last dozen posts anyway.

He heard Mista getting up from the floor.

“Ooh, boss-man’s on his phone! What is the world coming—Who’s that?”

Suddenly Mista was looking over Bruno’s shoulder at Leone’s selfie from a concert five months ago.

“He’s the guy I interviewed the other day.”

“Oh, GameStop guy.” Mista looked at the picture a few seconds longer. “Kinda hot,” he decided.

Bruno refrained from commenting.

Luckily, Mista quickly lost interest and decided to instead put his energy toward draping his upper body over the counter. Bruno locked his phone and tried to imagine it was snowing outside, and that there was a frosty breeze sailing in through the open door.

What actually came in through the open door was just as refreshing.

Bruno did a double-take before jumping off his stool and rushing around the counter to greet his favourite GameStop employee.

Mista lifted his head to seek out what had caused this disturbance. “Oh whoa, it’s him.”

“Hey,” Bruno said, interrupting the weird look Leone was giving Mista. “How are you?”

“I’m good. Uh…” Leone looked around the store awkwardly. “I just—I had the afternoon off, so I thought it might be fun to… y’know… try fishing?”

Bruno tried to rein his smile in and keep himself from looking goofy. He didn’t know if it worked. “Yeah, cool! Have you ever done it before?”

Leone paused. “No.”

“Were you thinking of renting a boat, or…?”

A longer pause. “Um, whatever you think is the easiest way to start.”

So, Bruno gave Leone a fishing rod, told him how to use it, directed him to a good spot on the harbour, and refused to let him pay.

“Mista, could you call Mr. Ditelli and ask if he’s still coming in today?” He asked after Leone had set off.

“He’s getting old,” Mista said as he dialed. “He probably just fell asleep.”

Mr. Ditelli had fallen asleep, and was in the shop shaking Bruno’s hand twenty-five minutes after Mista’s call had woken him up.

“Oh, you know how it is,” he said in his jovial old man tone. “On days as hot as this, you can’t not take a little afternoon nap!”

“Of course,” Bruno said cheerfully. “As long as you’re keeping cool. Now, let’s take a look at this net.” He hummed as he assessed the damage: a single tear running almost half the length of the net. It wasn’t a complicated job, but it probably required a little more dexterity and patience than what Mr. Ditelli had to spend. “Come back in two days, I’ll have it done for you by then,” Bruno told him.

“Good man,” Mr. Ditelli said with a solid pat to Bruno’s arm. “Just like your old man.”

With that taken care of, it was closing time. Mista, as he was instructed, went ahead home while Bruno closed up. He grabbed an unopened water bottle from the fridge, locked the front door, and found Leone sitting on the boardwalk exactly where Bruno had suggested for him to go.

“Having fun?” Bruno asked, offering the water bottle.

“Oh.” Leone looked up and took the bottle. “Thanks.”

Bruno, laughing when Leone didn’t answer the question, sat down next to him, legs dangling over the water.

“It’s okay if you’re not having fun. It’s not for everyone.”

“No, it’s… it’s nice. I haven’t caught anything, though.”

Bruno peered down at the shimmering green lure Leone had picked out. He had just dropped the line straight down, not bothering to actually cast it.

“It’s easier with real bait. There’s also not too many fish hanging around here at this time of day.”

Leone chuckled. “So I’m just fighting an uphill battle, basically.”

“Basically.”

A couple minutes passed quietly while Leone stared into the water and Bruno gently swung his legs back and forth.

“This is a nice spot,” Leone commented quietly. The spot was about a ten-minute walk from the shop where the boardwalk split in two directions. One way continued down the main road, where all the shops and restaurants were, and the other way jutted out seaward, following along the natural curve of a small bay.

“Yeah, it’s a little out of the way, but that just means that it’s quieter.”

“Yeah.” Leone wiggled the rod back and forth a little. “So, um, I wanted to apologize. For being rude the other day.”

“What? When?”

“When I turned you down even after complaining about hating my job.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about it.” Bruno had actually been worried that he had offended Leone somehow, not the other way around.

“I just don’t want you to think that I would somehow hate you more than my current situation. It’s—There are other reasons why I said no.”

“Yeah, it’s totally fine. The offer still stands though, if you ever change your mind.”

“…I appreciate it.”

Bruno nodded. Then, when a promising fish appeared in the water, he pointed and said, “Oh, fish.”

“Wha—Oh, okay. What should I do?”

“Just stay quiet. Don’t move around too much.”

They both watched the fish swim around lazily, ignoring Leone’s lure.

“Okay, try moving it a little bit to get its attention.”

“How much? I don’t want to scare it away.”

“Here—” Bruno leaned in to help guide him. He put one hand over Leone’s on the rod and gently pulled it to one side, giving the lure some semblance of life.

It didn’t work. The fish swam away, uninterested, and disappeared from view. Bruno took his hand back.

“I thought you were supposed to be good at this,” Leone teased.

Bruno laughed, their shoulders brushing together. “Sometimes they just don’t bite.”

Leone hummed and swung the rod back and forth, making the lure thrash around hopelessly.

“Had enough?” Bruno asked.

“Well, I don’t think I’m catching dinner at this rate.”

“Not with that attitude.”

Leone shot him a skeptical look, and Bruno laughed again.

“Alright, I’ll take the stuff back to the shop, then.”

“Oh, I can—I’ll come with you.”

Bruno looked at Leone. With his soft, relaxed expression, Bruno could hardly remember the bored look he had worn the first time they met. That thought then reminded him of another question that had been on his mind since then. Bruno didn’t want to sour the mood, but he thought it was important to ask.

“Did you get in trouble because of me?”

“Hm?” Leone didn’t look away from the line as he reeled it in. “No, not really. My boss was pissed, but he couldn’t tell that it was you both times, and he couldn’t tell that I helped you. Honestly, I’m more likely to get fired for telling a customer to fuck off. You can’t even imagine the kind of people who come in there sometimes.”

“And… the money? Did that come up in the footage?”

“Oh, yeah. He didn’t see that you put it in my pants’ pocket, but the jacket was kind of obvious. He wanted to dock it from my pay, but—”

“Shit—”

“But, he had no way to prove how much it was, so there wasn’t really anything he could do. Legally, at least. I’ll just have to deal with him being passive aggressive for a week or two.”

Bruno sighed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Actually, I have a friend who works at the Hot Topic on the first floor, and he thought the whole thing was hilarious. It kind of is, honestly.”

“Yeah.” Bruno let out an uncertain laugh. “Probably not your average Wednesday, huh?”

“Not at all.”

When they got back to the shop, Leone was puzzled when Bruno had to unlock the door.

“You didn’t have to let me stay out past closing.”

“It’s no big deal. We just closed early today because it was so hot.”

“…I see.”

Bruno took a couple minutes to put the equipment away while Leone waited at the front of the store. He hadn’t said why he was waiting—he could have just dropped the gear off and gone home—but Bruno was glad that he was.

“It’s only five,” Leone said as Bruno locked up for the second time that day. “If, uh… If you wanted to do something.”

“Yes,” Bruno answered right away.

“Yes?”

“Yes. Let’s do something. Do you like tacos?”

Thank goodness for Mr. Ditelli.

Chapter Text

After Leone’s surprise visit to the shop, he and Bruno started to hang out regularly. At least three times a week they would meet up—getting food, going on walks, watching TV, and whatever else they felt like doing on any given day. Sometimes the boys were around, sometimes they weren’t.

It was nice—Bruno wasn’t really used to having a friend his own age. Not that there was a massive generational gap between him and the boys, but Leone was just easy to talk to. He was a bit reserved, but when he had something to say, Bruno always enjoyed listening to him. And the more Bruno listened, the more he wanted to hear. It was easy to get to know someone that way, when you liked listening to them talk.

They mostly worked around Leone’s schedule, since Bruno had the luxury of choosing his own hours. One luxury he didn’t have, however, was not being made fun of by teenagers every time he took off early.

“I’m heading out,” he said to Narancia and Mista one day, a couple weeks into his new friendship. “Call me if you need anything, close whenever you get tired. Or earlier, if it gets late and you’re not tired yet.”

“Where ya going?” Mista asked with a tone of voice that implied he knew exactly where Bruno was going.

“Yeah, where ya goooing?” Narancia said in the same tone.

“Getting coffee,” Bruno answered, already prepared for what was coming.

Mista and Narancia exchanged a look, then turned back to Bruno with awful grins plastered across both their faces.

Mista started. “Skipping out on work for a date with your boyfriend, huh?”

“We’re just friends.”

“Gonna have a nice date with your nice goth boyfriend, huh?” Narancia followed up, ignoring Bruno completely.

“Leaving poor us to tend to the shop, all on our own!”

“Oh, woe!” Narancia put the back of his hand to his forehead and pretended to faint.

“Woe!” Mista repeated, trying and nearly failing to catch Narancia. They both began to break character after that, unable to hold back their laughter any longer.

“Would you like to join us?” Bruno offered calmly.

“Oh no, we couldn’t possibly get in the way of your thrilling summer romance!”

“We’re just friends,” Bruno firmly reminded them, but they were having too much fun to listen to him. So, Bruno just rolled his eyes fondly and left them to their antics.

Something vaguely restless stirred in him as he walked down the street though, because while it was true that he and Leone weren’t romantically involved in any way, it wasn’t for lack of interest on Bruno’s part. He had done his best to test the waters and communicate that interest to Leone (without actually, verbally telling him), but none of his signals were ever returned or even acknowledged, despite the kids obviously picking up on them. If Bruno complimented him, Leone would awkwardly change the subject. If they were walking side by side and their knuckles knocked together, even just accidentally, Leone would put his hands in his pockets. When Bruno invited him over to play the Switch with everyone and sat next to him on the couch, Leone always moved to a different spot after getting up to go to the bathroom.

At some point, Bruno realized that he may have been overanalyzing things. He reminded himself that Leone wasn’t a mind reader, and their interactions didn’t warrant being treated like pieces of evidence.

Besides, he didn’t want to focus too much on what could be and end up missing out on the friendship they already had. Which was why Bruno kept his expectations in check when Leone texted him one night.

Hey would you be mad if I showed up at your place with a bottle of wine

It made Bruno laugh—How could he possibly be mad? He sent back a reply:

no! i would be delighted

Not ten seconds later there was a knock on the door. When Bruno answered it, there Leone was, phone in one hand and wine in the other, both held up in a “here I am” gesture.

“I got fired,” he announced.

“Oh—” Bruno didn’t exactly know how to react. Traditionally, getting fired wasn’t cause for celebration, and he felt a little guilty for the flicker of hope he felt. But if Leone had hated his job and getting fired meant getting the opportunity to move on to something better, whether it was with Bruno or not, wasn’t that a good thing? “Well, come in.”

Leone came in.

“What happened?” Bruno asked.

“Told a customer that if he was going to be a creep he could at least wear deodorant. Which I’ve done like, at least a hundred times, but my manager decided it was actually a problem today. Probably because of, y’know,” he gestured at Bruno, “all the theft.”

“Right,” Bruno said, a bit sheepish. “So, is that drowning-your-sorrows wine or celebration wine?”

Leone grimaced at the bottle and thought about it. “I don’t really know. Both. Doesn’t matter, it’s cheap anyway.”

Bruno nodded, a little perturbed that he couldn’t get a read on how Leone was actually feeling beyond a vague, anxious energy. “I’ll grab some glasses, then.”

In the kitchen, Leone looked around with a confused look on his face.

“It’s quiet,” he observed.

“The boys are out.”

“Ah.” Leone began filling the glasses. “More for us, then.”

They each picked up a glass, clinked them together, and took a sip. Well, Bruno took a sip, then watched as Leone drained half his glass.

“Let’s sit down,” Bruno said, steering Leone towards the living room and leaving the bottle in the kitchen.

Leone flopped down on the couch. Bruno sat next to him.

“Will you be alright?” Bruno asked after a moment.

Leone had to look up at him from his extremely slouched position. “Yeah. I have enough saved up for three months’ rent.” He paused. “And even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t let you pay it for me.”

Bruno offered a small smile, because while he didn’t think he had enough money to go around paying other people’s rent, he had been prepared to offer to help as much as he could. “So, do you think you’re going to—”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Leone cut him off.

“Okay.”

After an awkward moment of silence, Bruno leaned forward to grab the Joy-Cons off the coffee table.

“Want to fight?”

Leone’s eyes moved back and forth a few times between Bruno’s face and his hands.

“Yeah.” He grabbed a controller.

Usually, when Mista, Fugo, and Narancia played Super Smash Bros., it resulted in a cacophony of shouts, despairing and suspenseful and triumphant. It was weird to actually be able to hear the music and sound effects that were in the game.

After a few rounds and a second glass of wine, Bruno’s attempt at de-stressing Leone was starting to pay off. He sat up a bit more on the couch and laughed whenever Bruno accidentally killed his own character by running off-screen. When he started teasing Bruno, it was playful in a way that sounded like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

“Do you actually know what the buttons do, or are you just pushing them at random?” He asked after a particularly easy win.

“Hey!” Bruno laughed. “I know what they do.”

“Okay, well—What does this do?” Leone tapped one of the buttons at the top on the controller.

“…I don’t know. I don’t use those ones,” Bruno answered honestly.

“Oh my god. Okay, well, you can use this one to block hits.”

“What?” The boys had never told him he could block hits. “Since when?”

“Since always.”

“I thought there was only punching and jumping.”

“What did you think was happening when your hits weren’t doing anything to me?”

Bruno shrugged. “I thought it was just because you were better than me.”

“That’s—” Leone laughed and shook his head. “You’re cute.”

Leone was looking straight ahead at the TV, already setting up the next match, but Bruno was still caught up in getting called cute. He looked over and saw that Leone’s cheeks were a little pink. Probably just from the alcohol. Bruno wondered what his own face looked like, if he looked anywhere near as good as Leone did.

The next round was a little easier, now that Bruno sort of knew how to block, but he still didn’t come close to winning. Leone gave him a few more tips about differentiating between types of attacks after that and the next round was even better.

“Maybe I’m not actually that bad at video games,” Bruno said.

“They do tend to be easier when you know how to play them.”

Leone got up to refill his glass and a little spark of excitement lit up in Bruno’s chest when he came back and sat down close enough that the dip he made in the couch tilted Bruno’s weight towards him. It was a silly thing to get excited about, really. A handful of inches, likely created mindlessly and arbitrarily.

They kept playing. It only took a few minutes for both of them to give in to the dip in the cushion and start leaning against one another.

“You’re getting better,” Leone said, voice dangerously close.

Bruno tilted his head and found Leone’s face even closer. He had the conscious thought that he should look away before he did something stupid, but Leone met his gaze before he could act on it.

“Want to play again?” Bruno asked, not thinking about how warm Leone’s arm felt pressed against his own.

Leone didn’t answer. He didn’t move, apart from his eyes slowly travelling across Bruno’s face. Bruno wondered, again, what his face looked like. If his thoughts were somehow written across it for Leone to read.

He tried to read Leone’s thoughts. It didn’t work. But Leone still hadn’t moved or looked away, and Bruno decided that that must mean something.

Before he could put any real thought into it, Bruno leaned forward, chastising his past self for thinking that this action could possibly be stupid, and kissed Leone.

It was quick and chaste, but it left Leone with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging slightly open. In the moment that followed, Bruno realized with a kind of frantic fascination that his heart was pounding in sync with the upbeat fighting music coming from the TV.

After an excruciating couple of seconds, Bruno opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Leone snapped out of his trance and started talking first, sounding almost hectic.

“I didn’t want to work for you because I thought—I thought it would be bad to be attracted to my boss.”

Bruno blinked, not entirely sure what to make of that. “O-Oh. Yeah, that’s a valid concern.” His voice didn’t come out as steady as he hoped it would.

“I didn’t want to accept your job offer in case I decided to ask you out, but then I didn’t want to ask you out in case I decided to take the job offer. So I just… did neither, and we just became friends.”

“Yeah…” Bruno still didn’t know exactly what was happening. “So… Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”

“N-No, I’m glad you did.”

“Okay… Wait—So, you’ve been attracted to me since the interview?”

“Um.” Leone leaned away. “Well.” He fell back into the couch. “Yes.”

“Huh.” Bruno’s mind was just starting to catch up to reality. “So, I guess you have three options, then.”

“…Three options?”

“Yeah.” Bruno took a breath. “You can ask me out, take my job offer, or continue doing neither.”

Leone stared at Bruno like he was speaking gibberish. “No.” He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “No, that sucks.”

“Um—”

“Because there’s a fourth option that you’re ignoring.”

“Oh. Well, yes, we could just cut all ties. If… If that’s what you want—”

“What—No, god. What? I meant I could do both.”

It took Bruno a second to realize what that meant. “No, no—That’s what you just said you didn’t want.”

“Yeah, I know, but…” He held his arms out, gesturing more animatedly the more he spoke. “I made that decision before I really knew… how you operated.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’ll just close the shop for a day if no one feels like working. You actually give a shit about the wellbeing of your workers. You have morals. I don’t think I have to worry about you, like, exploiting our relationship or anything.”

Bruno physically recoiled at the thought. “I would never—”

“I know! That’s my point! I… Okay. I want to do both. Let’s do both.”

Leone sat up straight and tentatively took one of Bruno’s hands in his, waiting for a response.

“…You’ll tell me if you wind up being uncomfortable with the situation,” Bruno said. It wasn’t a question.

Leone nodded. “I will.”

“Okay.” Bruno finally allowed himself to smile. “Let’s do both.”

Leone let out a relieved laugh and leaned in towards Bruno… but he was kept at bay by a hand on his shoulder.

“Just—One more thing,” Bruno said. “I think we should take it slow. On the… dating front.”

“Oh,” Leone breathed, visibly distracted by the proximity of Bruno’s face. “Yeah, okay.”

“Just until you get comfortable with the job… And there’s the issue of the boys, too…”

“…What about them?”

“I can only imagine how they’ll react to this…”

“Should I be… worried?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Christ, what does that mean?”

“Just that they generally have very few boundaries.”

“Okay. Okay, that’s fine. Can I—Can I kiss you now?”

“Please do.”

Bruno Buccellati never gotten the opportunity to live a carefree life. Between his mother leaving and him inheriting the shop when his father passed, he hadn’t exactly had the time nor energy to go out and have fun like the other kids his age did.

It had taken a year for him to both work through his grief and even begin to figure out how the hell he was supposed to run a business on his own when he wasn’t even old enough to vote.

But, he hadn’t given himself any other options. He could have moved away and lived with his mother—she had even asked him to—but he hated the thought of abandoning the shop and there was no way he was just going to sell his father’s legacy. So, he spent the latter half of his teenage years teaching himself the ins and outs of running a business, living off the cheques his mother would occasionally send until he found his footing.

In some ways, it got easier when he started collecting kids. First Fugo, then Narancia a couple months later, and Mista a little while after that. It had done wonders for his mental wellbeing to have people to come home to, friends he could talk to other than the retired men who continuously complained to him about their marriages while he tried to figure out how long they would like to rent his boats.

At the same time though, taking care of them was a whole new challenge. Feeding them, acting as their guardian for school-related matters, and just generally doing everything he could to make them happy took up whatever free time Bruno had gained from their help at the shop. And though he could be pretty lax with his hours of operation, he still had to work enough to be able to support all four of them.

And so, when he found himself making out with Leone in the back of an empty movie theatre one day, he had to stop for a second to process the realization that he was finally catching up on the things he had missed out on.

He was finally allowed to enjoy life at his own pace.

He came into work one afternoon with a bag full of croissants from the bakery down the street. Narancia gasped when he saw it and started smacking his lips together in exaggerated anticipation. Bruno offered him one first.

“Wow, everyone’s here.” He observed. There was no reason for all five of his employees to be at the shop at once, but there also wasn’t really any reason for that to not be the case. He could see Leone sitting in his office while the other four were all hanging around the register.

“Yeah, we got bored at home,” Narancia said. “So Mista and I just came to hang out.”

Fugo, who had actually been scheduled to work with Giorno, looked a little annoyed at that.

“You have a visitor waiting for you in your office,” Mista said, reaching for a croissant.

“Yes, I see that.” Leone was sitting at Bruno’s desk. He was wearing headphones, so he had yet to notice Bruno’s arrival. Bruno took two croissants out of the bag and left the rest on the counter before going to see him.

“Hey,” he said as he kicked the door partially closed. “Croissant?”

Leone looked up and pulled his headphones off. “Yes, please.”

Bruno took a seat across from him. “How’s your day going?”

“Good.” Leone paused to tear a small bite off of his croissant. “There’s something I want to talk to you about, though.”

“Okay.”

Leone spoke slowly, considering each word. “I feel like I should be doing more for you.”

“Ah… Alright.” Bruno assumed he was talking about the job. “What do you mean, exactly?”

“I just feel like I’m barely doing anything to help. Everyone else has a role. Like, Fugo takes care of a lot of the bookkeeping, and Mista with the repairs and boat maintenance. Narancia called himself the head of inventory management yesterday.”

“That’s not a real title, he just likes moving boxes around.”

“Even Giorno was coming up with ideas for how to improve your live bait storage.”

“He’s a smart kid.”

“And it feels like all I ever do is sit around. I barely even help customers because everyone else is always so eager to do that and they beat me to it.”

Bruno smiled. “So you’re bored, basically?”

“It’s not just that. You’re paying me like I’m full-time when I’m hardly even here twenty hours a week. I’m not earning it.”

“That’s not a healthy mindset.” Bruno frowned. “You spent too much time at GameStop.”

Leone shrugged. “Maybe. But I still want to be useful for more than just reaching things off of high shelves.” He leaned in over the desk and lowered his voice. “It… kinda almost feels like you’re my sugar da—"

Bruno choked on his croissant, coughing loudly and immediately turning to look at the door and make sure none of the kids were listening.

“Well,” he managed.

“Sorry.”

“No, I… I hear what you’re saying.” Bruno leaned back in his chair to think it over. Admittedly, he hadn’t put a lot of forethought into hiring Giorno and Leone. He hadn’t been in any great need of more help to begin with, and had figured that the extra hands would just give everyone some more free time, not realizing it was possible for that to become an issue. He sighed. “Well, I’m not about to start paying you less, so we’ll find something for you to do.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Bruno leaned forward again and rested an elbow on the desk, chin in his hand. “Y’know, you look pretty good behind that desk.” Truthfully, it was an unimpressive desk that didn’t do much to complement whoever was sitting at it. Leone just looked good.

Leone’s eyes moved back and forth skeptically. “I thought you said no flirting at work.”

“I said no excessive flirting at work. And, technically, Fugo and Giorno are the only ones working right now.” He leaned further across the desk. “And, I wasn’t flirting. I was just stating a fact.”

Leone rolled his eyes and smiled. “Want to get dinner tonight?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s sooooo hot!” Narancia complained an hour later.

“It wouldn’t be so fucking hot if there weren’t six people in here,” Fugo said.

He was right. It was a pretty warm day, but having so many people in the small space was making the shop hotter than it should have been. Bruno fished some money out of his wallet and held it out to Mista.

“Go get some popsicles.”

“Oh, fuck yeah,” Mista whispered. “Popsicles.”

“There,” Narancia said after Mista left. “Now there’s only five people.”

“Hallelujah,” Fugo groaned.

A customer came in the shop then, and Giorno got up to help him. It only took a couple minutes, all he needed was a new bobber, but Giorno wrinkled his nose distastefully after he left.

“That guy smelled like meat,” he observed.

“Maybe he had some meat in his pockets,” Narancia suggested.

“Maybe.”

“I have an idea,” Leone said from the corner. It startled everyone, because they had all been under the impression that Leone was asleep.

“I thought you were asleep,” Fugo said.

“Too hot to sleep.”

“What’s your idea?” Bruno asked.

“We should have a barbecue.”

“Barbecue…” Narancia repeated dreamily.

“We should have like, a fundraiser barbecue so we can buy an air conditioner for this place.”

“I love it,” Bruno said.

“Really?” Leone asked. “Do you actually think it’s a good idea or are you just trying to make me happy?”

“I think it’s a good idea and I want to make you happy.”

“Gross,” Fugo muttered.

“You’re gross,” Narancia informed him.

Bruno ignored them. “It sounds like fun, and air conditioners are too big and heavy to steal. I’m all in.”

Convinced by Bruno’s sincerity, Leone continued. “I can organize it and spread the word and everything. It’ll give me something to do.”

“Event coordinator,” Bruno said. “That’s your new title.”

Leone laughed. “Event coordinator for the fishing store. Perfect.”

“Barbecuuuuuuue!” Narancia added helpfully.

“I like the idea too,” said Giorno.

“Yeah, well, thank the guy who smelled like meat. That’s what gave me the idea.”

“Thank you, guy who smelled like meat,” said Narancia.

“I hope I don’t smell like meat now,” said Giorno.

“Popsicle delivery, baby!” Mista declared as he came in through the front door with a box of popsicles. He paused. Sniffed. “It smells like meat in here.”

Giorno grimaced. Fugo and Leone both sighed exasperatedly. Narancia announced “barbecue!” again.

Bruno just laughed. He loved all of them.

Chapter Text

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” Leone said to Bruno without looking up from his laptop. “I think maybe this barbecue thing was a bad idea.”

“Don’t say that.” They were at Leone’s apartment, sitting at his kitchen table. Bruno leaned over to peek at his screen and saw it filled with ridiculously dense text, with lots of subsections and randomly bolded phrases. It was the kind of thing that would cause anyone to feel hopeless if they looked at it for too long. “What even is all that?”

“I’m trying to figure out the laws for selling food. We’re gonna have to get permits and shit.”

“Oh, babe, don’t worry about all that.” Bruno grabbed Leone’s hand under that table. “I can forge all the documents we need.”

Leone just looked at him, mildly bewildered. Only mildly, since he knew Bruno well enough by now that this admission didn’t seem totally outlandish.

“Well, okay—I can’t,” Bruno clarified after a second. “But I know a guy.”

“You know a guy,” Leone repeated.

“Yeah. He does great work, trust me.”

“Uh—Yeah, no, I trust you.” Leone frowned, relaxed, then frowned some more. “I’m just trying to feel any kind of objection to having some shady guy make fake permits for us, but I’m coming up empty.”

“He’s not shady,” Bruno said as convincingly as he could. “He’ll give us a good discount, too. And obviously, we’ll still follow all the food safety codes, I just don’t think we need to spend the extra time and energy proving that to the government.”

Leone thought about it for a moment longer, then shrugged. “Yeah, okay. I’m convinced.”

“Good. Anyway, this is work stuff.” Bruno leaned in to Leone’s side and reached out to close his laptop. “It’s late. You shouldn’t be doing work stuff.”

“Yeah, I know.” Leone squeezed Bruno’s hand under the table. “I’m just… I don’t know. I’m excited. I want to get everything together because I think it’ll be fun.”

Bruno smiled against Leone’s shoulder. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” He leaned up to press a kiss to Leone’s cheek, then snuggled back into his side. Then, regretfully, he said, “I should probably get going soon.”

Leone tilted his head down to rest it on top of Bruno’s. “Do you have to?”

“I have three kids.”

“Okay,” he laughed into Bruno’s hair. “Mista’s an adult, though.”

“In theory. Doesn’t mean he can’t burn the house down.”

Leone mumbled an incoherent protest and let go of Bruno’s hand to wrap his arms around his waist.

“Convincing,” Bruno admitted. Leone just hummed in response.

Bruno allowed himself some time to simply enjoy Leone’s embrace and not think about anything else. He closed his eyes, careful to stay present enough that he wouldn’t accidentally fall asleep, though that resolve started to slip a little more with each second that passed.

“Surely they would call you,” Leone said quietly after a couple minutes, “if the house was on fire.”

“I know.” They would, undoubtedly. Bruno sighed. “I don’t know why I feel more at ease leaving them alone at the store than I do leaving them alone at home. Just as much can go wrong at the store. More, debatably. It’s not like they can’t get hurt there.”

“Your reputation isn’t at stake if they fuck around at home.”

“What?”

“They respect you too much to not take their jobs seriously, so they act more responsible at the store. I’m speaking relatively, obviously, but still. That’s why you’re more nervous about leaving them at home.”

“…Oh.” It made sense. It made so much sense that Bruno really had no idea why he hadn’t been able to figure it out himself. “Did you just explain my subconscious to me?”

“No.” Leone pulled Bruno a little closer. “I think I’ve just gotten to know them well enough to be able to see that.”

The realization made Bruno feel warm inside, but maybe that was just a side effect of being hugged for so long. Between being respected by the boys and Leone connecting with them, he felt like—

“Wait, wait.” Bruno straightened up a bit and turned to look at Leone’s face. “Are you saying they don’t respect me enough to not destroy my house?”

Leone kissed him quickly before answering, as if to distract him. “They have to be rowdy somewhere, right?”

About a week after Leone had proposed his barbecue idea, everyone involved gathered at Bruno’s house to discuss logistics and assign roles for the big day.

“Does anyone want to be in charge of music?” Leone asked the room. He was standing at the front by the TV with a clipboard while Bruno and the kids were all squished together on the couch.

Narancia shot up at the question. “Me! Me! Me, oh my god.”

“…Okay.” Leone paused, looked around. “Anyone else?”

Narancia kept his hand held up high and bounced on his toes. Bruno held back a laugh.

“I’ll make a better playlist than any of these knuckleheads could dream of!”

“Alright, fine. Narancia is in charge of music. Your selections have to be approved by me ahead of time, though.”

Narancia pumped his fist victoriously and flopped back down on the couch before pulling out his phone.

“Okay, next thing we need is—”

“I’m gonna invite Sheila over,” Narancia interrupted. “She’s the only one I can trust to help me make a playlist.”

Mista scoffed, offended that his music tastes couldn’t be trusted.

Leone just looked around, confused. “Why? What?” He turned to Bruno for help. “Who’s Sheila?”

“Friend from school,” Bruno explained. He had only met Sheila a couple times, but he was extremely curious to see how Leone would react to her. “She can come over.”

“Sick.” Narancia stopped paying attention as he texted.

“Okay,” Leone said with a heavy exhale. “Great. Fantastic. Next thing we have to figure out is the grill itself. Does anyone have one available, or do we need to get on eBay?”

“My dad would probably let us borrow his,” Giorno said.

“That would be really helpful. Can you ask him?”

Giorno nodded, then got up and stepped out of the room to call his dad. Leone consulted his checklist.

“Bruno’s taking care of all the legal stuff…” He checked off a box. “We need a meat supplier. I was thinking I would just call a few butchers, see if anyone’s interested in striking up some kind of deal. Unless any of you already have connections?”

“I have a cousin,” Mista offered. Leone waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

“That’s great. I also have a cousin,” Leone said, unimpressed. “Can your cousin help us?”

“Yeah, yeah, sheesh. He runs the place down by the big plaza with the fountain. You know where I mean? The meat shop there. It’s where I get all my special salami.”

“I bet,” Leone sighed.

“I’ll give you his number. Drop my name, he’ll give you a good deal.”

“Great. Thanks,” Leone said, sounding more worn out than thankful. Mista often had that effect on people. Leone tapped his pen on the clipboard a couple times. “I guess we can pick a date now.”

“We should do it as soon as possible,” Fugo said. “If we wait too long we won’t even need an air conditioner anymore.”

“That’s true…” Leone thought it over for a second. “I think two weeks should be enough time to get all the supplies in order and get enough people interested. We can…” He trailed off when Giorno came back into the room. “What’d he say?”

“We can use it,” said Giorno. “He also volunteered to cook for us on the day.”

“Oh.” Leone blinked, like he was surprised at how easy that part had been. “Awesome. Thanks. Okay, so, for the date… Two Saturdays from now? Does that work?”

“That works,” Bruno said without consulting any kind of calendar. Leone smiled at him.

“Okay. I think that’s everything for right now, then. I’ll start making—” Leone flinched when a series of loud bangs sounded from the front door.

“Sheila’s here,” Narancia announced before getting up to let her in.

“Alright, then. Meeting adjourned, I guess.” Leone put his clipboard down on the coffee table and stepped around it to perch beside Bruno on the arm of the couch.

Bruno toyed mindlessly with the hem of Leone’s sleeve and peeked past him to get a glimpse of the door. He watched as Narancia let Sheila inside and they launched into their secret handshake—a greeting that Bruno suspected they improvised each time, on account of he always counted a different number of slapping sounds whenever it happened.

Trish, the boys’ other friend, came in behind Sheila and closed the door. Bruno was about to say hi to them, but Leone jumped off the arm of the couch before he could.

“No way,” he said, pointing at Sheila. “I know you.”

“Huh?” Sheila paused mid-handshake and looked down the hall to see Leone. Her eyes shot wide open with recognition right away. “What the fuck!? What is this? What did you do?” She directed the last question at Narancia, who just looked back and forth between Sheila and Leone, confused.

Then, Sheila looked back at Trish, who was wearing a pink backpack.

“Ah fuck, they’re all right there.” She threw herself in front of Trish, arms outstretched like she was protecting her from some imminent threat. “Who ratted me out? I’ll kick your ass!”

“Okay,” Bruno said calmly. He got up and stood next to Leone. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel like there’s been some sort of misunderstanding.”

“Do you guys… know each other?” Fugo asked.

“Yeah, I know her,” Leone said, sounding much more amused than Sheila. “She’s the reason we had to get security cameras installed.”

“Oh,” Trish said, pushing one of Sheila’s arms down to step around her. “Is that the guy from Game—”

“No!” Sheila thrusted her arm back up, blocking Trish. “It wasn’t me. You can’t prove anything!”

“Right,” said Fugo. “Because you’re acting the way an innocent person acts.”

“Fuck you! Traitor!”

“A couple months ago we got these new collectible keychains,” Leone explained, as calm as Sheila was agitated. “They were just little plush dolls of Nintendo characters. The first shipment we got had 60 of them, and the next day she came in and stole half of them, all in one go.”

“What are you,” Sheila spat. “A cop?”

“Oh, you mean these things?” Narancia reached behind Trish and grabbed something Bruno couldn’t see.

“Yeah, those,” said Trish. She shrugged her backpack off and held it up for everyone to see. There were six or seven of the keychains Leone had described hanging off of one of the zippers. Bruno recognized most of the characters from the games he played with the boys. “The rest are on my other bags.”

“They’re cool,” Narancia said before busying himself with squishing each doll’s head, one by one.

Sheila groaned, defeated. She turned around to face Trish and put her hands on her shoulders. “Listen, if we have to run, don’t worry about me. I’ll protect you. Save yourself.”

Trish just smiled. Bruno didn’t know Sheila well enough to tell if she was joking, but he did know her well enough to know that there was a chance she wasn’t.

“God, relax,” said Leone. “You don’t have to run. I didn’t care then, and I don’t even work there anymore.”

“It’s true,” said Bruno.

“Honestly, you’re lucky it was me working that day and not someone else. I literally stood there watching you shove them all into your pockets.”

Sheila narrowed her eyes at Leone and didn’t move. Then Trish laughed and Sheila looked back at her before dropping her defensive stance.

“Right,” she said. “Well. I’m glad we’re all adults here.”

“You’re a dork,” Trish said fondly. She linked their arms together and turned to Narancia. “So, what’s this about a playlist?”

“You two are gonna help me make a playlist.”

“Hey,” Mista shouted from the living room. “I thought Sheila was the only person you trusted.”

“Trish is the second only person I trust!”

“Wow.”

“What’s the theme?” Trish asked, ignoring Mista.

“Unrestrained summer fun.”

“Hell yeah.”

The three of them kept talking and laughing as they disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the others in the living room.

Mista looked around at everyone and shrugged. “Wanna play Smash?”

Fugo and Giorno both grabbed controllers, but Leone declined so he and Bruno left to sit outside.

“You looked cute with that clipboard,” Bruno recalled aloud as they made their way to the front door.

Leone quirked an eyebrow at him as he slipped his shoes on. “I think you’re running out of compliments.”

“Never,” Bruno gasped, feigning offense with a hand pressed to his chest. “I could compliment you all day.”

“I could barf all day,” came Sheila’s voice from the kitchen, followed by a loud Ooooh! from Narancia and the telltale smack of a high-five.

“Try your best not to,” Bruno replied, unphased.

“Is she worse than the others?” Leone whispered. Bruno just smiled and opened the door for him.

Outside, they sat down on the front step. Bruno stretched his legs out into the sun, enjoying the feeling of warmth seeping into his skin. Leone kept his legs bent in the shadow of the house, and while Bruno didn’t necessarily understand his aversion to the sun (surely, he could last a couple minutes without burning… or maybe it was a goth thing?), he would have held a parasol for Leone, had he been asked.

“So, how are you liking the whole event coordinator thing?”

Leone looked up at the sky with a small smile. “I kinda like it, honestly. It feels good to be in control of something.”

Bruno hummed, relieved. Given how quickly Leone had come up with the idea and then committed to carrying it out, Bruno had been a bit worried that he would end up feeling stuck in a role he didn’t enjoy. It was nice to have that worry erased.

“I guess I’ll call Mista’s meat cousin tomorrow morning,” Leone continued. “I hope I won’t be able to tell they’re related.”

Bruno laughed. “Don’t be mean.”

“Sorry,” Leone said unconvincingly. “And tonight I’ll start on the—ready? Don’t laugh—the ad campaign.”

Bruno’s eyebrows shot into orbit.

“The ad campaign, huh?”

“Yeah,” Leone laughed. “I know.”

“Very official. You just might get promoted to CEO if you’re not careful.” He bumped their shoulders together playfully.

“God, stop. I’m just gonna like, make some flyers and get it on social media. Can I have the password for the shop’s Instagram account?”

“Oh, sure. Fish one two three. Capital F.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, that’s my password for everything.”

Leone gaped at him. “Don’t… tell people that.”

“What? You asked!”

“Yeah, for one password.”

“There is only one password. What, are you going to hack my email or something?”

“It’s not hacking if you tell me your password. I could steal your identity, Bruno.”

“You wouldn’t,” Bruno said with certainty.

“I wouldn’t,” Leone agreed.

Bruno smiled, feeling totally content. He leaned into Leone’s side, and Leone’s arm settled around his shoulders. They fit together perfectly.

The next two weeks passed in a flash, and everything on Leone’s checklist got taken care of. Leone got a good deal from Mista’s cousin in return for some advertisement at the event. The playlist passed inspection. The ad campaign, which consisted of some flyers taped to streetlights around the neighbourhood and several Instagram posts with too many hashtags, garnered a decent amount of attention, and a few people even came by the shop to ask about it. Bruno got his illegal legal documents in order. Everyone and everything was ready for some wholesome summer fun.

“The meat will go bad if you keep opening the coolers, idiot,” Fugo said with a smack to Mista’s arm.

“I just like looking at it,” Mista said, defensive. “Am I not allowed to take pride in my cousin’s good work?”

Bruno watched Leone take a long, deep breath.

“Not if it means the meat spoils. Appreciate it after it’s cooked.”

“Fine, fine. Speaking of, looks like our grill master is here.” Mista jerked his chin towards the road where a car had just pulled over with a trailer carrying a sizeable barbecue. Giorno emerged from the passenger-side door and waved. His dad appeared from the other side a few seconds later.

Bruno hadn’t yet met Giorno’s father—Jonathan, Giorno had told them—and on first glance, was a bit taken aback. Jonathan was huge with bulky muscle and towered at least a full foot above Giorno.

“Holy shit,” Leone remarked. “Not what I pictured.”

Bruno silently agreed.

“Hi, everyone!” Jonathan boomed from the car. “Where’s the grill going?”

“Oh, I’ll help you—” Bruno took a few steps to help get the barbecue off the trailer, but before he could even finish his sentence Jonathan had already hopped up and lifted it by himself with no more strain than a quiet hup!. “A—Alright, just over here by the footpath, then,”

Jonathan carried the barbecue to where Bruno had directed him and set it down easily. Oblivious to the awed look on everyone’s faces (except Giorno, who wore the impassive face of someone who was used to this), he dusted his hands off and looked around the park they had chosen as their venue. “Great day for a barbecue, huh?”

“Sure is!” said Narancia, who was laying on his back in the grass. “Can I start the music now?”

“In a bit.” Leone paused. “Stop staring at the sun.”

“I’m not staring at it.”

“Whatever. Why don’t you start running around and get us some customers?”

“Okay!” Narancia hopped up and ran off into the park, just as asked.

Once the grill was set up, it was late enough in the morning that more and more people were walking through the park, and a lot of them were stopping to see what the deal was with the barbecue. Eventually, Leone assigned Giorno the role of explaining the fundraiser to passersby, since he turned out to be the best at convincing people to spend their money. After that, Bruno was given the job making sure Mista, Fugo, and Narancia didn’t accidentally start scaring people away, which mostly just meant keeping them from yelling at each other.

Between the people who had been won over by Leone’s ads ahead of time and the people were just out and happened to be drawn in by any combination of the smell, sound, and small crowd, their fundraising goal was met within an hour.

“We’re going to run out of meat sooner than I expected,” Leone remarked when Bruno pulled him aside.

“It’s because you did such a great job,” Bruno said, taking Leone’s hand and getting up on his toes to kiss his cheek. “I’m proud of you.”

“Well, y’know, uh,” Leone stammered. He was so cute, Bruno thought for the thousandth time. “People love supporting a family business.”

“So humble.”

Leone smiled, then turned to look back at the people lined up at the grill. His whole body tensed up when he did, and Bruno wondered which kid was getting into trouble.

“Oh, Christ—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” An unfamiliar angry voice pulled Bruno’s attention a bit to the left, where a man with greasy slicked back blond hair was approaching them. He didn’t look happy.

“Long time no see,” Leone greeted him.

“Shut up,” the man snapped. “What the hell is this?” He gestured at Bruno and Leone’s joined hands.

Bruno’s mind raced trying to figure out who this guy might be. A jealous ex? An old rival? Just some guy in an improv group?

“Uh, hey, Bruno,” Leone said. “Did I ever tell you that I used to work at GameStop?”

“Oh!” Bruno, catching on quickly, looked up at Leone with his best faux-surprised face. “No, I don’t think you mentioned that.”

“Well, I used to work at GameStop. This is Prosciutto. He was my manager there.”

Oh. Oh.

“I see!” Bruno held a hand out to Prosciutto, playing dumb. “Nice to meet you. I’m—”

“I know who you are.” Prosciutto looked repulsed by the idea of shaking Bruno’s hand. “You didn’t think I’d recognize you?” He turned to Leone. “You didn’t think I’d catch you in your twisted little scheme?”

“Twisted—What the hell are you talking about?” Leone asked.

“Here I was, hoping to have a nice, relaxing stroll through the park. Imagine my surprise when I see you,” he shoved a finger in Leone’s face, “canoodling with this fucking thief.” He removed his finger from Leone’s face to shove it in Bruno’s.

Bruno frowned, pretending to be confused. “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the bullshit. Do you have any idea how much money you owe me?”

“He doesn’t owe you any money,” Leone said, his grip on Bruno’s hand tightening. “He’s never even been to a GameStop.”

“That’s true,” Bruno confirmed. “What do you sell there?”

“Save it. You’re both horrible liars.”

“He’s not the thief,” Leone said. “I would know, since I’m the one who was actually there when it happened, remember?”

“Oh, I remember all right.” Prosciutto pulled a cell phone out of his pants’ pocket. “I’m just going to go ahead and call the police, and then we can settle this.”

Bruno rolled his eyes and noticed in his periphery another strange man walking towards them. Not only did his clothes catch Bruno’s attention—horizontal striped pants and an odd jingling hat—but his height rivaled Jonathan’s.

“Prosciutto,” the new stranger said when he was within hearing range. “You’re here.” He sounded like he hadn’t expected Prosciutto to be there, but he wasn’t surprised by it, either.

Prosciutto whirled around, phone pressed to his ear. “Risotto!?”

“Hey,” said Leone.

“Hey,” Risotto replied, then turned back to Prosciutto. “Why are you on the phone?”

“I’m calling the police because that guy fucked me over.”

Risotto finally looked at Bruno, observing him for a few seconds before his eyes landed on his hand, still in Leone’s.

“How do you know that?”

Prosciutto made an offended, guttural sound. “I know his face from the security footage.”

“You know some indistinguishable face from grainy, black and white footage. Leone actually saw him in person, right? Put your phone away and go get a burger.”

Prosciutto looked at Risotto disbelievingly, not saying anything for several seconds until he finally lowered his phone from his ear. Bruno heard the person on the other end saying Hello?... Hello? before Prosciutto hung up. He took a breath and gave Bruno one last glare before walking off toward the grill.

“Yeah, before I get a fucking restraining order,” Leone called after him. Then, to Risotto, “Thanks, man.”

“No problem. Prosciutto can get worked up pretty easily sometimes, but he’s not too hard to deal with once you know him.”

“Well hopefully I’ll never see him again and won’t have to learn your ways.” Leone turned to Bruno. “Sorry about all that. This is my friend Risotto, from Hot Topic.”

“Oh, of course! Hi.” Bruno smiled at Risotto and Risotto smiled back, breaking the intimidating image he had used against Prosciutto.

“Hey. I hate being introduced as ‘Risotto from Hot Topic’, by the way.”

Leone laughed. “Well, it’s who you are.” He let go of Bruno’s hand. “Hey, I’ll be right back. I’m just going to tell Mista to spit in Prosciutto’s food.”

“Good call,” said Bruno.

“So,” Risotto started after Leone left. “From what I’ve heard, he really likes working for you.”

“Oh, did he say that?” It wasn’t exactly a shocking piece of news, but it still brightened Bruno’s day to hear it.

“Yeah. You’re not still hiring by any chance, are you?”

Bruno laughed. “Maybe if we make enough money today, I’ll be able to afford another employee.”

“Alright, alright,” Risotto laughed and looked around the park. “Oh, shit.” Something caught his attention over by the barbecue, and Bruno tried to figure out what it was. All that was different from when he had last looked was that Trish and Sheila had arrived, and the kids had all taken to goofing around in the park instead of attracting customers. Because of that, Leone was talking to Jonathan instead of Mista. Bruno had no idea how Jonathan would react to being told to spit in someone’s food, but he was excited to find out later.

“What is it?” He asked Risotto.

“I know that girl,” he said. “With the braids.”

“The girl with the braids… You mean Sheila?” Bruno watched as Narancia attempted a handstand and Sheila grabbed his airborne ankles before pushing him to the ground. They both laughed loudly.

“The one who just pushed the little guy over.”

“Yeah, that’s Sheila. How do you know her?”

“She’s always stealing buttons from Hot Topic for her girlfriend.”

Bruno laughed, louder than he meant to, and Risotto echoed him.

It was three in the afternoon when they ran out of food.

“I’d say that was a successful day!” Jonathan said as he cleaned the grill off.

“It was,” Bruno agreed. “Thanks again for all your help.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. I’m always happy to do my part, especially since Giorno is always coming home talking about how great you are!”

“O—Oh, is he?”

“He sure is!” Jonathan shut the lid on the barbecue and slapped his hands on it for good measure. “At first he was just excited about working with his friends, but he really admires you.”

“I…” Bruno didn’t know what to say to that. Giorno was generally quieter than the others, and he didn’t often share how he felt unless he thought it was important. Bruno had no idea that he had such strong feelings towards him. He cleared his throat, trying to keep himself from getting emotional. “I was planning on taking the kids out for dinner tonight, if you’d like to join us.”

“I’d love to,” Jonathan said with a blinding smile.

“Do you need help getting the grill back on your trailer?”

“Oh, no, not at all.”

Bruno had expected that answer, but still figured it was polite to ask.

He joined up with Leone, who was trying to get Narancia to stop daring the others to eat various quantities of grass.

“At least stop daring Sheila, because I think she’ll actually do it.”

“She’s the only one who’s not a wimp,” Narancia agreed. “I’m trying to figure out what it’ll take to crack Mista.”

Bruno came up behind Leone and looped their arms together. “Walk with me? Mista will survive.”

“Yeah,” Narancia said. “Go walk. I’ll take care of Mista.”

“That doesn’t mean anything when you say it,” Leone argued. “If he’s dead when we get back, it’s on you.”

“Okay!” Narancia giggled and ran off, yelling after Mista with a fistful of grass.

Bruno walked with Leone through the park, which got quieter and calmer the farther they got from the kids.

“Oh,” Bruno said, suddenly remembering. “I can’t believe I almost forgot—Did you get Jonathan to spit in Prosciutto’s food?”

“Oh my god, right,” Leone laughed. “No, but only because Prosciutto noticed me pointing him out and didn’t actually get anything.”

“Would he have spit in it?”

“Yeah, he was down.”

“Seriously?” Bruno found it hard to imagine cheery Jonathan doing something like that.

“I mean, he was skeptical at first, said he liked to keep things sanitary. But then I explained to him what a shitty boss Prosciutto was and managed to convince him. I might have… embellished a few stories, but not much.”

Bruno laughed, wishing he had witnessed the exchange. “Oh my god, I love you.”

Leone choked, then coughed, and Bruno realized he hadn’t said that before. He had just let it slip out without thinking, after he had been the one to say they should take things slow.

Did saying “I love you” after a month and a half of dating count as slow? Bruno didn’t actually know.

“Sorry,” he blurted before Leone had a chance to respond. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“…Oh.”

…That didn’t help.

“I mean, um—"

“Uh—You didn’t mean to say it, but…” Bruno watched Leone’s face intently as he worked out what he wanted to say. “Is it true?”

“Yes,” Bruno said, finding his confidence again. “I meant it.”

“Ah.” Leone sounded breathless. They stopped walking.

Bruno waited for Leone to say more—he would have taken anything. When the silent seconds started feeling like eternities, he began to accept that that might be all that was said on the matter for now. He turned to start walking again and give Leone an out, but a hand on his arm kept him in place.

“S—Sorry, I’m just processing.” Leone swallowed, face growing red. “That was unexpected.”

Bruno almost asked how long processing would take, but the last thing he wanted was to pressure Leone.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say it—”

“I love you, too.”

At first Bruno was surprised, just by the interruption. Then the words washed over him, sank in, and soothed all remnants of his nerves. He smiled, wide, because he couldn’t have helped it even if he’d wanted to.

He moved in close to Leone’s side and put an arm around his waist, Leone’s arm finding its place around Bruno’s shoulders.

“Let’s take the long way back,” Bruno suggested.

“Yeah. If Mista’s dead, that’s his problem.”

“Come on,” Bruno laughed. “You’re basically his step-dad now.”

Leone let out a sharp, surprised laugh. “Am I?”

“Sorry, too much?”

Leone pulled Bruno closer and pressed a kiss to his temple.

“Not at all.”

Bruno smiled as they started on their way back towards Jonathan and the kids. The sun shining on his face was hot, but it had nothing on the warmth that was blossoming in his chest.