Chapter Text
Floor 3, Room 308
Giorno sat on the floor of his room with his cousin Josuke. Josuke was constantly at this apartment complex, although he didn’t live there. He visited Giorno quite a bit, since his friends who lived in his apartment complex had left for the summer, and he had no one else to see.
He enjoyed Giorno’s company. Giorno had a way with words that made it sound like everything he said was pure truth.
This made Josuke wonder if Giorno had ever lied before, but he kept that thought to himself.
“Josuke,” Giorno put down the magazine he was reading, “it is dreadfully hot in here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…” Josuke admitted, cursing the poor air conditioning of Giorno’s low maintenance apartment.
“What do you say we go get some ice cream to cool down?”
Josuke smiled. “That sounds like a great idea. You got cash?”
“I was thinking I could ask my father for some cash…” Giorno contemplated.
“Erm, which father…?” Josuke felt the need to ask, since Giorno currently was living with his mother, birth father, and step-father. Josuke never probed Giorno about it, but he thought it was odd that Giorno had to live with both fathers, yet one mother.
Josuke liked Jonathan, his step-dad, but his birth dad Dio always made him feel… weird. He was oddly terrifying, in a way, and Josuke’s dad Joseph had made it clear to him that he should probably not get on Dio’s bad side. A given.
“Jonathan,” Giorno answered as he stood up, “I doubt Dio has any loose change that he’d be willing to spend on us…”
Josuke nodded as he stood with Giorno, and he followed his blonde cousin out of his room, to where Dio sat watching football on the television.
Looking at Dio was already enough to frighten Josuke. He was an obviously attractive man with rippling muscles that went well with his menacing aura, and his blonde hair always seemed to fall perfectly, much like Giorno’s.
His eyes were trained on the screen and Josuke would’ve assumed he hadn’t noticed them, until his eyes glanced up to Giorno.
“Giorno, son,” Dio’s face shifted to what Josuke thought was his version of a smile. “What do you need?”
“Father… I’m looking for Jonathan, actually,” Giorno admitted, casting looks around the apartment.
“For what reason?”
Giorno smiled charmingly. “Josuke and I would like to get some ice cream together.”
Dio’s face hardened. “What a pathetic way to waste money.”
Josuke almost choked on his own breath. Did he always talk to Giorno like this?
“Exactly why I am looking for Jonathan and not you,” Giorno replied without missing a beat, impressing Josuke.
As if on cue, the door was unlocked and in came Jonathan, with Giorno’s mother, Erina.
“Giorno!” Jonathan greeted happily. “I see you’re spending time with your cousin! I love seeing our family bond like this.” He walked over to the kitchen and set two bags of groceries on the counter, while Erina hurried over to Giorno.
“Giorno, sweetie,” She kissed her son on the forehead, “would you be a dear and start preparing dinner?”
“Actually, mother, I was hoping Josuke and I could go out for some ice cream,” Giorno replied, “but if you would prefer that I stay and make dinner…”
“Oh Giorno, forget about making dinner, ice cream sounds like a lovely idea!” Erina’s face brightened. “It is very hot out, so take some money out of my wallet over there.” She gestured to her purse that she had set down by the coat rack.
“Thank you mother,” Giorno said as he happily approached her purse.
Josuke followed, and waited for Giorno to take out some money. When Giorno didn’t, he peaked over Giorno’s shoulder to see he had paused with the wallet open.
There was only a ten dollar bill left.
Josuke tried to read Giorno’s expression, but as usual, Giorno was masking whatever he was thinking and continued to stare at the bill.
“Mom…” Giorno called, “why do you only have one bill left?”
Erina paused from unloading the groceries, and Jonathan put a hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, Giorno… the groceries were just a bit costly, that’s all. I’ll take out some more money from the bank tomorrow.”
“You say that every time, but you never do,” Giorno pointed out. He hesitated before asking his next question. “Mother… are we running low on cash again?”
His words hung in the air, the only sound for the moment being the football game Dio was watching.
Erina bit her lip and looked at Jonathan, who sighed.
“We’ll talk about this later, Giorno. For now, take the bill and go bond with your cousin.”
Giorno nodded, but didn’t take the bill. He closed the wallet and returned it to the purse, and took Josuke’s arm.
“Giorno…” Josuke felt bad
for his cousin, but said nothing else as they left the apartment and headed for the elevator.
-
Floor 2, Room 202
“I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIMES YOU CAN COUNT TO TEN, I JUST NEED YOU TO LEARN YOUR TIMES TABLES!” Fugo roared at Narancia as he threw a chair.
Narancia was cowering under the table, clutching a notepad full of scribbled out numbers.
“I’m trying my best, Fugo!”
“WELL YOUR BEST SEEMS TO BE TAKING A DAY OFF TODAY BECAUSE THIS IS PATHETIC WORK!”
“Boys!” Bruno barked as he walked in through the apartment entrance.
“What is going on here?” Abbacchio hissed, setting a bag of groceries down.
Narancia squealed and scurried out from under the table. “Fugo’s going to kill me!” He exclaimed as he tackled Bruno in a hug.
Bruno held Narancia close. “Fugo, why does Narancia think you’re going to kill him this time?”
Fugo was practically steaming with anger. “He won’t LISTEN TO ME.”
“Because you’re the worst teacher ever!” Narancia stuck his tongue out at the blonde boy, but then buried his face back into Bruno when Fugo raised his fist at him threateningly.
“Fugo, you can’t just abuse Narancia and expect him to learn.” Abbachio folded his arms.
“I don’t— I wouldn’t actually—“ Fugo stuttered.
“We all know it’s going to happen one day,” Abbachio continued, “One day you’re going to snap real hard and actually hurt someone, whether that be Narancia or Mista or anyone else.”
“Hm, someone say my name?” Mista yawned as he groggily sat up from his nap on the couch.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“What?”
“Mista, don’t tell me you just slept through all that,” Fugo sighed.
“What, did you guys fight again?” Mista stretched and got up from the couch, noticing the bag of groceries. “Oohhh, you guys went shopping? What’d you get?”
Everyone sighed in unison.
-
Floor 4, room 410
“Illuso…” Melone was rolled out on the floor like a cat, flexing his slim muscles as he stretched.
“Yeah Melone?” Illuso was smoking a cigarette on the couch beside Melone, his legs crossed as he blew out his clouds.
Beside him sat Risotto, who hardly glanced in their direction when they opened their mouths. His dark eyes were trained on his lighter, in which he kept switching on and off, seeming to not care how much lighter fuel he used.
“Did you know that Fugo lives in the same apartment complex as us?” Melone asked Illuso, rolling to face the finely sculpted and tanned brunette.
Illuso’s cigarette seemed to burn faster at the mention of Fugo’s name. “No, Melone. Since when did he decide to live in the same building as me?”
“You mean us,” Risotto’s deep voice growled, “you wouldn’t be here if we didn’t so graciously offer your broke ass a place to crash for the summer.”
Melone smiled, “but don’t worry Illuso, we still love you.”
“But god do I hate Fugo…” Illuso muttered, uncrossing his legs angrily.
“He’s actually rooming on floor 2 with Narancia, Bruno, Abbacchio, and Mista.” Melone purred.
“The rest of the guys aren’t gonna be too happy to hear that. Especially Formaggio. He hates Narancia down to his bones,” Illuso spat.
“Mmm, even my old enemy Giorno is living here, on floor 3.”
Risotto stood up suddenly, in obvious frustration. “There’s no way you clowns are still salty over things that happened back in school.”
“Risotto, I think you forget that we’re all still in school,” Melone reminded the man. “You may be old enough to take care of us, along with Prosciutto and Pesci, but you need to remember we’re all still kids. High school feuds aren’t just a thing of the past for us.”
Risotto glared at Melone as the pink-haired boy tucked his long one-sided locks behind his ear, showing his other eye for once. He smiled cheekily up at the dark eyed man, who merely sat back down in a rush of anger.
“So I assume Bruno and Abbachio are still looking after those rambunctious punks,” Illuso murmured.
Melone nodded, “Yeah, except Giorno. He’s living with his parents on floor 3, and I heard Dio moved back in with them.”
The three went silent at the mention of Dio.
Dio was a well known name to them; he has wreaked havoc upon families like theirs way back. He was a feared gang lord until his fall when his group was found out and taken down by Jotaro and his brothers, then corrupted, and monopolized by other gangs. He was tossed out onto the streets by his landlord when his identity got out.
Melone only assumed he was just trying to make ends meet by persuading Giorno to come back to live with them, and was probably just mooching off Giorno’s stepfather Jonathan and mother Erina so he had somewhere to stay.
It was pathetic, really, but alas, Melone didn’t want to get on someone like Dio’s bad side, even if he did have a history with his kid.
“What about Diavolo? Isn’t this his complex too?” Illuso wondered out loud to his two friends.
“Yeah, he’s on the second floor as well,” Risotto spat, “him and his brat kids.”
“Doppio and Trish?”
“Mhm,” Melone smiled, “remember back in grade 10 when Trish ran away from home and lived with Bruno and all those guys?”
“Yeah, that was around the same time Bruno took in Giorno,” Illuso replied, “Man, Bruno and Abbachio must be one crazy duo to have the patience to take care of five high school kids at once.”
“At least it’s only three now.”
“That’s true, that’s true,” Illuso glared at the floor in front of Melone, “but you remember Fugo. He’s insane. God knows what he is capable of when he gets angry.”
“And Narancia is a handful on his own.”
“But that Mista seems pretty easy going, don’t you think?”
“Oh Illuso, you never had a class with him, did you?”
-
Elevator, Floor 3
Giorno pushed the ground level button. “Josuke, were you aware that Risotto and his kids were living in this apartment complex?” he asked his cousin as he leaned against the wall.
“Yeah, why?” Josuke cocked his head to the side, “is that a problem or something?”
Giorno sighed, “no, not unless it’s a problem for them.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, really.”
Josuke smirked, “I bet you have some history with them. Did they bully you or something?”
“Well, no, not exactly…” Giorno wondered how to explain it to his cousin. “I—“
“Giorno?”
The two cousins turned to see the elevator has stopped at floor 2, and opened to reveal Mista and Fugo.
“Mista, Fugo… you guys live here?” Giorno gapped.
Mista attacked Giorno in a hug. “Hell yeah! Oh buddy am I glad to see you. I was scared I was going to have to spend the whole summer with Fugo and Narancia.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Fugo retorted as he stepped into the elevator.
“Well yeah, when you’re not angry I guess you’re fine.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Fugo, we’re literally only here because I had to remove you from our apartment before you blew up the place.”
Fugo glared at him, but blushed in embarrassment, saying nothing else.
“Anyways, who’s this?” Mista gestured to Josuke.
“Oh, um, this is my cousin, Josuke.” Giorno introduced awkwardly.
Josuke held a hand out to shake. “I guess you’re Mista?”
“The one and only,” Mista smirked and shook his hand firmly. “Giorno, you’ve got an attractive cousin,” Mista added, smiling cheekily, “I bet you wish you were as good looking as him.”
“Oh… Um, I guess so…” Giorno stammered, shuffling his feet a bit.
“Relax Giorno, I’m only joking,” Mista laughed and clapped Giorno on the back, “You’re both smoking hot.”
“Geez Mista, you’re embarrassing them,” Fugo rolled his eyes.
“What? It’s true!”
“Whatever,” Josuke revealed twenty dollars from his own pocket, and the elevator opened on the ground. Giorno’s eyes widened as he gazed at the bill, and Josuke gave him a sympathetic smile. “I brought my own cash anyway, Giorno. I’ll treat you all to some ice cream.”
Mista pumped his fist. “I’m starting to like this Josuke guy already!”