The café didn't open until eight, so there was still an hour to go. Plenty of time to embrace the warm Sicilian sunshine, feel the cool breeze on his skin, listen to the skylarks chirping, enjoy the quiet, peaceful morning…

"Listen up, maggots!"

… Or not.

"Merda," Turmeric groaned. "Lal's pissed." Basil wondered how he could tell. Lal was always pissed. He'd heard rumours that she'd been a drill sergeant before settling down to work at COMSUBIN Café, as CEDEF had been called back then. Most of these rumours stemmed from Colonnello, a regular who used to work at COMSUBIN before transferring to a Mafia-themed amusement park. His cousin Reborn had never let him hear the end of it.

The owner of COMSUBIN, Anette Vindice, had sold off the café with Lal in it for an obscenely high price. Basil hadn't been working there then; he'd been hired by the new boss, Iemitsu Sawada, just a couple of months ago.

Basil liked Iemitsu; he was a family friend, even if he did have a penchant for awful jokes. They'd known each other for years, Basil having lived with Iemitsu when he was two and his parents had gone on a year-long business trip to London. Iemitsu had taken the opportunity to teach him to speak, and by the time his parents had returned, the damage was irreversible. Even extensive speech therapy hadn't managed to save him, and Basil's parents wept for what could have been.

"Iemitsu's just dumped a newbie on us," Lal announced. "Apparently his family's just moved here and his son needs job experience before university." Here she aimed a pointed look at Basil.

"New kid starts today. In fact, he should've been here half an hour ago. Don't look at me like that, Iemitsu's only just told me." Privately Basil wondered who would dare to look at Lal weirdly. Clearly, they'd never been on the receiving end of the Steel-Toed Ball Crusher. It was a wonder Colonnello still had a libido after all she'd put him through.

Basil's thoughts drifted to Tsuna. It had been a while since he'd seen his friend. Iemitsu lived in Italy and visited home once every other year at most. His family lived in Japan and while Tsuna visited sometimes, Nana always stayed behind. Things were probably different now that Tsuna was going to university, though.

Basil sometimes wondered how a family man like Iemitsu could live so far from his wife and son. He knew Iemitsu worked here, but as what, he really couldn't say. All he knew was that Iemitsu answered to a higher being named Timoteo Vongola.

Basil's musings were interrupted by a loud crash, a thud and a high-pitched "Hiiiiiiiiiie!" Huzzah! Tsuna was here! Oh no. Tsuna was here.

Basil turned to catch Lal staring in utter disbelief at an orange-and-white heap on the polished floor. Poor Tsuna. He hadn't stood a chance from the beginning. Quickly, before Lal could recover, he hurried over to help Tsuna to his feet.

"Good morning, Tsuna," he said cheerfully.

"Ah, Basil, good morning," Tsuna blushed as he dusted himself off. This was not how he'd wanted to make a good first impression.

Lal quickly recovered and headed over to lift Tsuna by his jacket collar. "You're Iemitsu's son?" Tsuna blanched in terror.

"Y-Yes, ma'am."

"Hm." Lal gave him a hard stare and dropped him. "I'll be having a word with Iemitsu later. Go with Basil, he'll show you the ropes." She stormed into her office and the door banged shut.

The atmosphere visibly relaxed. "She let thee off easy," Basil commented. Tsuna whimpered.

"I resign."

"No."

After introducing Tsuna to Oregano and Turmeric, Basil instructed him as to which dishes were currently unavailable, handed him an apron, and proceeded to catch up on old times.

"Haru's gone into fashion designing," Tsuna informed Basil. "And Kyoko-chan's working at Namimori kindergarten."

"What of that Hibari-san thou dost always speak of?"

"He's still in middle school."

"..."

"Shut up, maggots!" Lal roared. "It's ten to eight, get to your stations!"

Basil stifled a giggle as Tsuna automatically snapped a salute. Lal looked at him as though she thought Iemitsu had dropped him on his head as a baby. Basil wouldn't have been surprised.

Basil and Tsuna stood near the kitchen entrance where Luce was putting the finishing touches to her cookies. Oregano took her place at the salad bar while Turmeric positioned himself at the coffee machine. The mornings were for businessmen and -women. Afternoons were for everyone else. As the tinkling of the bell heralded their first catch of the day, Tsuna resigned himself to his fate.

"T'was not bad for thy first day," Basil soothed. "Thou only broke four plates."

"Lal's going to kill me," Tsuna moaned in despair. "Dad'll never let me quit, and she can't fire me - so she's going to kill me."

"Lal isn't that bad," Basil said reassuringly. "Thou wilt become accustomed with time."

The next morning

"VOOOOOOOOOOII!"

"You were saying?"

Basil studiously ignored him as he handed signor Superbia his cappuccino.

Two months later

"Morning, Basil!"

"Good morning, Oregano, Turmeric."

"Bad news, kid." Lal poked her head out of her office. "Sawada's called in sick, so you're gonna have to cover his tables today."

"Is he alright?"

"He said something about a dog attacking him."

"Oh."

"Morning, hey!" A familiar blond dressed in blue and green strode into the café, entirely ignoring the Closed sign. Poor little sign, it just wanted to be friends.

The staff melted away into the kitchens. Luce glanced up from where she was icing a sponge cake. "What is it this time?"

"Colonnello's here."

"Oh, dear."

"What are you doing here, idiot? Can't you read?" Lal was obviously in a huff.

"Aw, don't be like that, hey. It's my day off, so I came straight here to see you."

Lal spluttered.

"You're still a tomboy? You really need to work on that, hey."

"ARSEHOLE!"

"So are you free tonight?"

CRASH.

"I'll take that as a yes."

BIGGER CRASH.

"Excellent! See you tonight, hey!" Colonnello ran for his life. Basil couldn't tell if he was a genius or just suicidal. They waited for the office door to shut before exiting the kitchen, munching Luce's surplus cookies. Thank heavens for Luce.

Basil got back from his lunch break in time for a fresh batch of cookies. With ten minutes left, he called Tsuna, wondering why dogs hated him. Tactfully, of course. "Tsuna, why doth dogs hate thee?"

"I don't know. I swear it was that damn Chihuahua from next door. Back home. That thing is stalking me."

"Tsuna, I doth not think it possible for a Chihuahua to follow thee from Namimori to Sicily."

"Tell that to the Chihuahua."

With a sigh, Basil promised to come speak to the Chihuahua, why good afternoon Mrs Sawada, how art thou, verily, it hath been a while.

"Mom, don't snatch the phone!" "But it's been so long since we've heard from Basil-kun..." "He came to dinner last night!" Basil hung up.

Oregano tossed him his apron and he caught it with practiced ease, deftly knotting the strings round his waist and retrieving his notepad from its precarious position in Lal's office.

Oregano nudged him. "Table 2. Go." Basil nodded. Tsuna had the first ten tables, while his were on the other side of the café. He was getting a lot of exercise today, rushing back and forth across the shop front. Still, at least he wouldn't feel so guilty for eating all those cookies.

Sitting at table 2 was a teenage boy with sandy hair and an enormous book thicker than his head. He was probably a high school student, although what student would willingly lug such a book around was beyond Basil.

The boy glanced up from his book as Basil approached. He looked a little confused when he saw Basil. "Is Tsuna here today?"

"He was set upon by dogs."

"Oh." For those who knew Tsuna, that was all that needed to be said. Basil took the boy's order and sloped off to the kitchens, idly noting that the book boy's eyes were the same colour as the latte he'd ordered.

"Tsuna, thou doth knowest the boy at table 2?"

"The one with the scarf and the huge-ass book? Yeah, why?"

"Just curious."

"His name's Fuuta. He comes in every Thursday for a latte. Just sits and writes in his diary thing most of the time."

"Dost thou knoweth what he writes?"

"I asked once. He says he's 'ranking' stuff. I don't even know."

It was a week before Basil saw him again. He'd been to Tsuna's house the night before to speak to the Chihuahua next door and had found it extremely non-threatening, though he acknowledged that it bore an uncanny resemblance to the one from Namimori.

"That's because animals like you," Tsuna sulked.

"I'm not afraid of them. They can smell fear."

"Smells like chicken."

"That's Luce's meat pie."

Fuuta left the café while Basil was taking a snack break with a slice of pie. Basil's breath caught in his throat as Fuuta met his eyes and smiled at him. He supposed he had choked on a bit of gristle. Luce looked insulted.

"Godammit, Colonnello!" Lal seethed. "You can't drop in here at all hours!" Colonnello gave her a cheeky grin.

"Why not, hey?"

"You-"

Crash.

"Tsuna!"

"I'm okay… Hiiiiiiiiiie!" Colonnello was momentarily forgotten as Lal advanced on the clumsy brunette with great sadistic purpose and maximum collateral damage.

"He's getting tougher," Oregano observed.

"Yeah, normally he takes around twenty slaps to the face before he passes out," Turmeric agreed.

"That's my girl, hey!" Colonnello cheered.

Basil just smiled, his soft pale lips flecked with the remnants of his recently acquired latte habit.