haha bepi

One of the doctors at the hospital Giorno was bought to after the Incident walks in and begins trying to explain what’s up, saying that “I’m not sure how, but somehow, she appears to be stable, and-” 

Leone cuts her off, saying “*he*, actually.” 

The doctor is confused for a moment, and opens her mouth to try and push the matter further, but catches sight of the very pointed look Leone is giving her and gets a general idea of what’s what here. All she says instead is “Oh, yes, you’re right. My mistake. I apologize; I just got done talking to the parents of another young patient, and I suppose my brain’s still stuck on that a bit. Now, as I was saying; *he* appears to be stable, and-” 

That same doctor is the one who works with Giorno throughout most of his stay there, and she’s always careful to refer to him as “young man” or “your son” (that gets Leone’s heart to skip a few beats, for sure), without making a big deal of it. She even calmly corrects a nurse who reads off Giorno’s chart, causing the boy in question to visibly perk up a bit. 

He absolutely would. He’s always liked to color, even if he’s really bad at it (as the other kids at school who snatched his drawing away would always make sure to inform him), so he’s ecstatic when Leone (then still Mr Abbacchio) brings home a box of crayons and a notebook, muttering something about kids needing something to do. 

He draws the usual: flowers, ladybugs, his imaginary friend with the strange eyes. What definitely isn’t usual- and what surprises even him- is the drawing he makes of Mr Abbacchio and himself. 

It isn’t a *good* drawing. The people look all lumpy and the box didn’t have the right color for Mr Abbacchio’s hair so he just made it grey, but he feels a tentative smile on his face nonetheless. It’s with several furtive glances around the room and an anxiously pounding heart that he scrawls the words “Me and Padre” at the bottom in purple crayon, adding a little smiley face at the end for punctuation. 

He hides it, of course. Mr Abbacchio has already done so much for him, and he can’t go getting presumptuous and risk frightening the man off now. Mr Abbacchio doesn’t owe him anything, and he’s not about to try and holster *that* whole thing onto the man’s shoulders. He doesn’t want to make him uncomfortable. 

Leone finds it a few days later. The flat they’ve been renting is small- there aren’t many places to hide things- and he finds the folded up sheet of paper buried beneath a pile of other papers in the junk drawer whilst digging around for a check he seems to have misplaced. He’s utterly stunned. Giorno, who’d been sitting nearby and gone stock still once he noticed what the adult held in hand, is prepared for yelling, or at the very least a tense conversation, but he gets neither. 

Definitely. Giorno already had pretty massive separation anxiety, he just forcefully suppressed it because he was used to having to do that. 

In the aftermath of the Incident, anxiety runs *high*. Bruno and Leone refuse to let the kids out of their sight, and the kids aren’t too keen on being left alone either. It helps that Polpo died so recently, making Bruno Capo, because that means he has a whole lot more control over his and Leone’s schedules. At least one of them has an eye on the kids at all times, bathrooms being the only exception. Even Fugo, who usually prefers to spend time by himself, has begun hanging around the others nigh constantly, refusing to go off on his own. 

The first night they’re all back home, Bruno and Leone head to bed (they’re sleeping in the same bed at this point, for sure), both unable to sleep, when the door to their room creaks open. It’s Narancia, wearing his favorite pajamas and quietly asking if he can stay with them tonight. Before long, the rest of the kids come shuffling in too, and they end up spending the night in one giant cuddle pile. Thankfully, the bed Bruno had insisted upon buying was plenty large enough for the five of them. This becomes fairly common afterwards. Sure, they don’t spend every night all in the same room, but it becomes exceedingly rare for any one of them to spend the night entirely alone. 

A day or two after, Leone is sitting on the couch, idly flipping through the channels on television to find something to distract him for a while, when a blanket wrapped Giorno comes shambling over and tucks himself into Leone’s side, sleepily muttering something about being tired, but not wanting to be alone. Leone’s heart skips several beats. The kid’s always been really timid, so for him to just walk right up and initiate cuddles like this indicates he’s come a *long* way. There are the beginnings of tears forming in Leone’s eyes, but for once, it’s not because he’s upset. He reaches over and grabs one of the blankets they keep on the couch, pulling it over his own shoulders and tucking Giorno into him, getting a happy little hum from the kid in question. 

The first to see his new stand (beyond Giorno, whose been seeing his “imaginary friend” every now and again for a little while now), is Fugo, but he doesn’t quite realize it. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, several days after the events of that fateful night, there’s a monster standing at the foot of his bed. Its eyes are glowing yellow, the hands grabbing at his blankets tipped with cracked and jagged claws, and there are thick black stitches sealing its mouth shut. Its breathing sounds labored and sick, and it’s making wheezing, pained noises. Fugo does not scream, because he’s not afraid. The monster is hideous, and ought to be frightening, but somehow he knows that it’s just... sad. It’s sad, and hurt, and Fugo is disgusted by it. He does his best to ignore his monster, passing it off as nothing more than a nightmare, even as its pitiful whimpers make his stomach turn uncomfortably. 

When Narancia goes out for a run around the park (with Bruno nearby, watching vigilantly), he notices a toy airplane flying through the sky above him, and he laughs. He can’t see the person controlling it, but he spreads his arms wide and makes little “nyoom” noises as he runs down the path, the toy plane flipping and spinning gracefully in the air in a manner that could only be described as joyful. 

I mean, Polpo isn’t getting ahold of jack shit for himself, let’s be real. Even if he *wasn’t* in prison, he isn’t fucking going anywhere. In spite of that, though, he’d probably find a way. (Violence warning for what follows)

He pays somebody off to deliver the lighter to the unsuspecting babysitter Bruno and Leone had hired for the night. He’d already ensured that the two of them wouldn’t get back until after midnight (after all, he *is* the one in charge of sending them on certain jobs), and that should be more than long enough for him to get what he wants. 

The babysitter is confused, obviously, and quickly blows the lighter out, not wanting to have an open flame near four rambunctious children. 

When Bruno and Leone get home that night, they walk in on a scene straight out of a nightmare. 

They could hear the kids crying from outside the house.The babysitter is dead, her body laying perfectly intact yet entirely lifeless on the kitchen floor, face still twisted in terror. There’s blood everywhere. The kids are all huddled in one big pile near the dead babysitter, whose got bloody handprints on her face and neck from where they’d been trying to wake her up. 

The blood’s only got one source. Narancia, Fugo, and Mista all have little scars that weren’t there before, but they have no open wounds. In a frantic, sobbing Mista’s lap lays Giorno, who has a brand new gaping hole in his head. Somehow, in spite of that, though, he’s still conscious, and the sight makes Bruno’s stomach lurch more violently than it ever has before. 

Giorno survives. The doctors can’t explain it, and Bruno can’t either, but Giorno *survives*. He’s a bit... off, in the aftermath- always bundled up in blankets and flinching away from intense stimuli as if physically hurt by them- but he’s somehow *alive*. 

(Honestly, what *didn’t* that piece of shit beat him for?) 

Giorno has never really understood it. Sometimes, when he’s lonely, upset, scared, or even just daydreaming, certain... things appear. When his mother would leave him for hours on end as a baby, flowers would grow around the edges of his crib for him to play with, their bright colors adding a splash of life to the otherwise gloomy room. When a thunderstorm struck, the thunder shaking the walls of the house around him and the lightning searing his eyes with its brilliance, a trio of tree frogs hopped around his room, their bright red eyes and sticky hands making him giggle in spite of his fear. When he slipped and broke a handful of dishes he’d been trying to carry, and his stepfather had beaten him so badly he could barely move, there was a cat in his room, which curled up by his side and let him pet its soft fur, purring sweetly and helping to take his mind off the pain. 

He’s never understood it, but he’s grateful for it nonetheless. However, just like with all good things, it had a downside. His stepfather was always *furious* if he caught sight of any of these gifts. He’d scream his lungs out at Giorno for “dragging the entire outdoors into my goddam house you little-” and follow up his screaming with the usual cruelty. It wasn’t long before even the gifts themselves frightened Giorno. 

It was about a month into his time living with Mr Abbacchio that he finally got caught with one of these gifts. The flowers that’d popped up inexplicably in the alleyways were one thing, but it was a whole lot harder to play off having a crow sitting on his shoulder, gently rustling up his hair with its beak as he sat at the kitchen table. He froze, and so did Mr Abbacchio, staring at him with wide eyes from where he’d just walked in the front door. 

“I-I’m sorry!” Giorno squeaked, frantically trying to brush the crow (gently, still, because no matter how much trouble they may have gotten him in, he never wanted to *hurt* one of his animals) off of his shoulder. The stubborn thing stayed put though, cawing over at Mr Abbacchio and nuzzling its bird face against the side of Giorno’s head. 

“Is that... a crow?” Mr Abbacchio asked, taking a few very slow, very cautious steps forward. Giorno could feel himself begin to shake, but tried not to let it show for fear of egging on the aggressor. His stepfather had been large, but Mr Abbacchio was even larger, and it would be *really* bad news to provoke Mr Abbacchio any further. On his shoulder, the crow cawed again, and resumed its grooming of him with a vigor, its pitch black feathers puffing up a bit. 

“...yes,” Giorno said quietly, because trying to lie wouldn’t help him. And even if it would, it wasn’t exactly an option right now, because there was no denying the corvid on his shoulder. 

“...Alright,” Mr Abbacchio says after a moment, slowly sidling past them to get to the kitchen proper, all while still side-eyeing the bird. “Does your, er, friend there have a name?” 

“Um, I don’t know?” Giorno replied, deeply confused. This is definitely not how he was expecting this interaction to go, and while he’s certainly more than thankful for the fact that he doesn’t have any new bruises yet, this is uncharted territory, and he’s not exactly sure how to handle it. He turns his head slightly toward the bird, careful to keep an eye on Mr Abbacchio anyways as he asks “Do you... have a name?” 

The crow squawks, fluffing its wings out proudly, before going right back to mussing up Giorno’s hair. 

“Maybe... that’s her name?” Giorno tries, still not sure what’s happening right now. 

“Works for me,” Mr Abbacchio says, shrugging nonchalantly as he opens up their largely empty refrigerator. “I’m guessing eggs are gonna have to be off the menu for tonight. Does Squawk,” he flapped his arms listlessly, imitating the bird’s wing flap, “have any particular feelings on red sauce and pasta?” 

Not all that smoothly, to be honest. He’s probably more than a little out of it when Giorno finds him, and it takes him a moment to connect this scrawny, frightened little kid with the scrawny, frightened even littler kid that he’d saved three years ago. Even once he does connect the dots, he’s still extremely confused. Like, “okay?? Why the fu- freak are you *here* though?” 

Giorno’s just like “I don’t know. I don’t know where else to go.” 

Leone’s response: “Bitch, me too, the fuck? Wait, shi- er, shucks, uh-” 

“It’s okay, mister. I’ve heard curse words before.” 

Leone doesn’t really have anywhere to stay, which was a problem before, but it’s a *real* problem now. He doesn’t have any fucking idea what to do with this kid, but like *hell* is he about to just ditch him. He’s seen what happens to kids in Giorno’s position when abandoned, and he may be a terrible person, but he’s *not* about to let that shit happen to this poor kid. He learned a long time ago that he can’t save them all- he couldn’t even save his partner- but... he’s not quite ready to give up entirely. Not yet. Not when he has another chance to at least try and do right by somebody. 

Things are rough for the first little while. The things Leone’s been doing to get a bit of cash every now and then are... not at all suitable for a kid to be around. He’s got to figure something else out, and quick. They spend a lot of time on the streets, and Leone feels horrible about it, but Giorno doesn’t seem all that bothered, and somehow that’s even worse. 

Against all odds, Leone finds a job. It isn’t much, just a late shift serving drinks and cleaning at a dive bar that finally got desperate enough to hire the big grouchy homeless guy. One night, he breaks up a drunken fight by literally tossing the aggressor out of the bar like a fucking rag doll, and that gets him promoted to a sort of security position. Word gets around about this massive security guard, and a higher class club offers to hire him as a bouncer. He takes the offer gratefully, and now he and Giorno are doing actually pretty well. The flat they’re renting is an absolute shithole, and food is mostly cheap, convenience store garbage, but it’s *worlds* better than before. 

Word travels pretty fast in the seedier parts of town. Bruno Buccellati has been looking for an enforcer for a while- hardly much of a bodyguard *team* if it’s only him. He’s good in a fight, but he isn’t all that powerful in terms of raw strength, and he needs someone who is. He’s at a club one night, people-watching, when he spots this huge, snarly (very attractive) bouncer pick a man up by the scruff of his neck and toss him off the premises. Needless to say, he’s (aroused) intrigued. 

He approaches the (hunky) bouncer later that night with a proposition, turning the charm up to 11. Guy seems pretty receptive, too, but throws a massive curveball when he asks if his kid can come too. Bruno definitely hadn't pegged the guy (Leone, he says) as being anywhere near old enough to have the nine year old he’s describing. Leone explains that the kid isn’t technically his, but that he’s not doing shit without the “little bastard”, and Bruno smiles. Sure, throwing a kid into the mix could be a bit... risky, given their line of work, but Leone was exactly the guy he’d been looking for, and the house he’d been staying in was *more* than big enough for two more. 

Oh absolutely. It especially doesn’t help that there’s a whole lot of conflicting vampire lore out there, and they aren’t sure what’s true and what isn’t. Leone freaks the fuck out for a bit after he realizes just how much garlic he puts in pretty much everything he cooks, but after a minute or two he realizes that if garlic were an issue, they definitely would’ve noticed by now. 

There weren’t really any religious artifacts in the house in the first place, since none of them are religious, but Leone did have some cross jewelry (purchased for the Aesthetic) that he quickly ditched. Anything silver was also tossed out, just to be safe. 

As far as sunlight goes, Bruno and Leone are hesitant to just keep the kid locked inside all the time, and they know that sunlight doesn’t just insta kill Giorno or anything, so they end up working out a system of long sleeves, long pants, sunglasses (Giorno’s eyes are especially light sensitive), umbrellas, etc. 

There were some things they’d already been handling even before they knew Giorno was a vampire. After his nails got long, they kept getting raggedy and catching on everything, so they got him a bunch of nail files which seemed to do the trick, and after his fangs grew in, he got a bit bitey (not with the team, obviously, never with the team, but he did chew on pencils, furniture, etc), so they got him some chew stims and the like. 

When the SPW figures out that DIO has a kid, they of course try to track him down, and are less than pleased to discover that the kid has vanished entirely. The mother says he ran away when he was 9, and she hasn’t seen him since. 

That’s bad news. The kid would be 15 now, (assuming of course he wasn’t dead), and who knew what the fuck DIO’s spawn could get up to in six years without supervision? 

Eventually, *somehow*, they manage to find him, and it’s not looking good. The kid’s hair is just as blond as his father’s, and his fangs are just as sharp. Vampire. They had no idea for how long, but the kid was a fucking vampire. 

Weirdly, though, even in spite of his definitely vampiric nature, none of it seems to be reflected in his behavior. The odd little foster family(?) he’s living with is all still human- no zombies- and seem to be in perfect health, not at all intimidated by the monster among them. 

They try to inform the foster family of the danger they’re in, but the two adults just laugh it off. Bruno and Leone, as they introduce themselves, seem awful interested in the SPW’s vampire knowledge, though. A whole lot of questions about whether silver was actually dangerous and if garlic could be harmful in high enough concentrations because there was this new chicken dish they wanted to try making but they didn’t want to risk it if-

Jotaro, who’d gotten sent out on the front lines of this one because of his DIO knowledge, does not really know how to handle this. Giorno’s actually a real sweetheart, and seems happy to see him, having been just as curious about his vampiric nature as his foster fathers were.