Chapter Text
When Diavolo had found out about Trish, he had had a simple plan. He’d pick her up from the group home, dump her off on Melone until the paternity test came back negative, then set her up with a nice family within the familia. It was a foolproof plan, a simple bump in the road that he’d be able to quickly smooth out with his connections.
Why he bothered to even pick the girl up from the group home was a bit more complex of an issue, though. While he was most certainly a ruthless mafia boss, like everyone, he had a history.
And that history hadn’t exactly been a happy one. While he had been taken away from their mother at fifteen years old, his little brother Doppio had only been two years old at the time. Right around Trish’s age. They had had to stay in a group home just like Trish, and it had been an awful experience. When they had separated them by sending Doppio to a foster home, Diavolo had set the group home on fire and spent the rest of his teenage years in a juvenile detention center, where he’d eventually joined the familia and managed to save enough money to be able to take Doppio out of foster care.
He could live with murder, with selling drugs and causing political corruption. What he couldn’t stand was leaving a child that was the same age as Doppio had been in the system. He’d make sure Trish didn’t have to suffer the way Doppio had and send her to a good home, even if her mom had tried to accuse him of being the father. They’d only had a one night stand, it was highly unlikely he was the little girl’s biological father.
He’d had Risotto drive him to the group home to pick Trish up. “Why bother to come here if you know she isn’t yours?”
“Just shut up and drive. I don’t pay you to ask questions.”
Risotto’s jaw tightened. “In that case, I’ll start charging you for every booty call too, then.”
Diavolo shot his hitman a glare. “Doppio grew up in foster care and group homes. I don’t like the idea of any kid having to spend time there. I’ll pull her out, prove she isn’t mine and then dump her on one of my underlings.”
Risotto smiled a bit at the knowledge that he’d gotten under his boss’s skin. Diavolo wanted to punch his stupid pretty face. “I see. So you can feel a modicum of empathy. Interesting.”
Diavolo groaned. “Shut up!”
He heard the dark rumble of Risotto chuckling as he glared out the window. After a moment, the other man spoke again. “What will you do if the paternity test comes back positive?”
“It won’t,” Diavolo promised.
“You can’t be sure of that, there’s always a chance.”
Diavolo rolled his eyes. “Donatella was probably lying because she didn’t want the brat to end up in a group home. I know for a fact I used a condom when we hooked up.”
“Condoms break.”
Diavolo grit his teeth. “God, will you shut the fuck up?”
Risotto sighed. “Fine, but if she does end up being yours, if you need any help…I’m willing to chip in.”
Diavolo didn’t bother to respond to the offer. He wouldn’t need it. This was obviously not his kid. He’d used a condom and it was only one time, there was no way this girl was his daughter.
He kept telling himself that as they arrived at the group home and he met the social worker. She was a short, chattery woman whom he found incredibly annoying. While he had had plenty of flings with women, he far preferred the company of men. Maybe it was a result of spending his formative years in hypermasculine settings such as prison or the mafia. Either way, her presence only made him want this whole problem to end faster.
“She’s in our play room, I had her stay back while the other kids are outside so that you guys could spend some time together before you take her home. Just to get acquainted, y’know?” The woman smiled. “I must say, she is the spitting image of you!”
Yeah, right. She was probably just saying that to further convince him to take the runt off her hands. Whatever. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could drop her off with Melone and go home to enjoy the weird relationship he and Risotto had developed. He only nodded in response.
The lady pursed her lips and led him to the play room. “Alright, Patrizia, there’s someone very special we’d like you to meet. He’s going to be taking you home today, are you excited?”
Diavolo’s eyes wandered around the room full of outdated, broken toys until they fell on the only child playing with some Barbies who had missing limbs. “No. Mama calls me Trish.”
Holy shit.
He wasn’t going to need a paternity test. Trish was his spitting image. The hair and eyes were unmistakably his. This was his kid. He was her biological father. He had seen gore and carnage that would have made even the most avid horror fan puke, and right now he wanted to run screaming out of the building.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. He was a father. An actual father.
“...I’ll leave you two to it then!” The social worker said, leaving Diavolo to stare down at the toddler in wide-eyed horror. Whether she was aware of his current appearance, she did not let on. She was probably just happy to have a child taken off of her exhaustive list of case files.
Trish stared up at him. “Hello.”
Diavolo gulped. “Hi. I’m uh…I’m your um…” He couldn’t will himself to physically say the words. He felt like his body was blocking him from admitting he’d been wrong. Terribly, stupidly wrong. “I’m your…your dad.”
“Mama says I don’t have a dad.” Trish looks back down at the Barbies, as if dismissing their meeting based off of the information given by her late mother. The way she spoke…she didn’t seem to realize her mother wasn’t among those in the present tense. She was far too little to understand what death even was.
Diavolo sat down. “Your mom didn’t tell me about you, so…I guess that was true until recently. But I’m your…father. So…I’m gonna take you home.” What would he even do with a child?! He was a mafia boss! He’d have to hide the armory’s worth of weapons he had laying around his house!
He took out his phone to text Risotto. Get rid of all the weapons in my house. And any drugs or other dangerous stuff.
“Stranger danger.” Trish replied, scowling at her dolls.
I’m gonna take a wild guess that the kid is yours? Risotto replied after a moment.
Shut the fuck up and make sure my house is child friendly. I’ll make it up to you later. Take whatever and whoever you need. He cursed the tiny shred of morality he managed to cling to. He could still dump her on Melone and walk away from all of this. He wasn’t a father. He’d never known his own father. By the time he’d finally been able to rescue Doppio, the kid had been nine years old. That was far different than taking care of someone as little as Trish.
Give me two hours. You owe me big time.
Diavolo heaved a long sigh at Risotto’s reply. Fair enough. I’ll take the kid to get clothing and toys to kill time. Convert my office into her bedroom.
“That’s a good thing to remember, however I’m your dad and you’ll be coming home with me tonight.”
Trish scowled at him. “No, I’m going home with mama.”
He grit his teeth and clenched his fists. “No, your mom isn’t around anymore, so you’ll be staying with me from now on.”
Instead of providing a retort, Trish stood up, blew a raspberry at him, then proceeded to make her great escape. She ran out of the room.
Diavolo growled and pushed himself to his feet, chasing after the little shit. Nobody talked back to him like that! Not if they wanted to keep all their appendages! Who did this little pissant think she was?!
He ran through the halls of the group home, oblivious to the children and social workers as he chased after his newfound spawn. This was probably why that social worker had been so eager to dump the little girl on him. She was stubborn and arrogant.
Wonder where she got that from.
He finally caught up to the toddler and hoisted her up to keep her little legs from running anywhere. Unfortunately, that did not deter her from still moving them. In fact, it made her move them even more as she began to kick and scream bloody murder.
“Sir, I am so sorry, she gets like this sometimes. If you need to go and come back later-”
“Is everything ready paperwork-wise?” Diavolo growled at the social worker, glaring at them.
“Oh, uh, yes.”
“Great. I’ll be leaving now.” He assumed Risotto had left the car for him to use at his discretion. He hoisted the squirming creature over his shoulder and began carrying her out of the group home. It was a good thing that he had fired a gun enough times that his hearing wasn’t damaged from Trish screaming directly into his ear.
---
Dio hated the idea of dropping Giorno off to spend the night in the home of that criminal. Worse yet was the prospect of having to have dinner with the punk and his brat daughter. His dread grew exponentially as he showered after coming home from work.
Maybe if he pretended to still be showering Jonathan wouldn’t make him go. He could just hide in the bathroom all night. He’d probably be able to get out of it if he stayed in here until morning. So what if he ended up becoming a giant raisin from soaking under the hot water all night? Sure, Jonathan would be pissed off and Giorno would be disappointed…shit. Giorno would be disappointed. He could vividly imagine that sad, puppy-eyed look Giorno got when he was upset that made Dio want to strangle whoever caused Giorno sadness. The little thing had been so excited at the prospect of spending the night playing with Trish, he couldn’t rip that away from the boy. Not when Giorno struggled to make friends and socialize.
He groaned and turned the water off, then stepped out and began getting dressed. The things he did for his adorable son. The hits to his pride he had to take. Giorno was lucky he loved the little bastard so much.
Dio heard the bathroom door open and Jonathan’s head peeked through. “We’re going to be late, what took so long?” He scowled.
“I had to find my desire to interact with that punk.” Dio looked around. “Still can’t find it.”
Jonathan growled at him. “Will you stop being an overdramatic baby? There are far more important things to be concerned about!”
It was rare that Jonathan got angry and snapped like this. Was…was he stressed about this too? Dio pulled on his boxers. “Jojo, are you worried about Giorno being gone for the night?”
Jonathan pursed his lips. “A bit. This is his first sleepover, after all. This’ll be his first time not sleeping in the same place as us…”
Dio smiled a bit as he buttoned his pants. “He’s only going to be in the house next door. Even if he’s staying with that incompetent dickhead, it’s hardly far enough to warrant concern.”
“Don’t tell me whether to be concerned or not! You’re the one who pouted in the shower for a half an hour!” Jonathan hissed, then slammed the bathroom door shut. Oh boy. He was really wound up.
Dio sighed as he pulled on his shirt and approached the door. “You know…maybe having a night to ourselves won’t be so bad.” He purred. As much as he hated Diavolo and hated the idea of Giorno staying with that asinine cur, he hated Jonathan being upset more. “Giorno can have fun with his new friend, and we can have some fun of our own.”
“How can you be horny at a time like this?!”
Dio grinned and opened the door to Jonathan glaring hotly at him. “Oh Jojo, I can always get worked up thinking about you.”
Jonathan rolled his eyes. “Fine. We can distract ourselves from worrying by fooling around after dinner, but I’m still going to be worried. It’ll be good to stay up later anyway in case Giorno gets homesick.”
“That’s the spirit.” Dio mumbled and walked past Jonathan. “Dessert’s ready?”
“Just took it out of the oven to cool.”
Dio kissed Jonathan’s cheek. “Giorno’s ready?”
Jonathan smiled a bit. “He’s been ready since after lunch time. After we ate he sat at the stairs with his overnight bag for a solid twenty minutes trying to wait for the sleepover.”
Goddamn his son being adorable, Dio couldn’t help but chuckle at the image of Giorno being so excited to see his new friend.
Speak of the devil, the little guy peeked his head into their room. “Are we going now?”
“In a little while.” Jonathan smiled.
Giorno frowned. “Dad’s not in the shower. You said we go when he gets out.”
Dio went over and scooped the boy into his arms. “We’ll make it there, don’t worry. Jonathan just needs to make sure the pie is cooled and then we can go.”
Giorno pouted at him for a moment before hesitantly nodding. “Okay.”
Jonathan’s earlier unease seemed to melt at seeing their son, and he kissed Giorno’s cheek. “I’ll go downstairs and get the pie ready while dad puts on his shoes.”
Giorno nodded, then began to squirm for Dio to put him down. Once his father did so, the little boy ran to their closet and grabbed Dio’s shoes and ran back to his father. “Here.”
Dio chuckled and took the shoes. “Thank you, Giorno.” He went over to the bed and sat down, his son following him over and staring at him intently as he began putting them on. It seemed he fully intended to police Dio to make sure he was putting his shoes on quickly enough so they could go soon.
Giorno followed him attentively, like a duckling following its mother, until he had finally gone downstairs to meet Jonathan at the front door. “Ready?” Jonathan asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Dio groaned.
Giorno smiled and picked up his overnight bag and ladybug stuffed animal, his blue eyes shining with excitement. He certainly had the most pep out of the three of them as they left the house to walk to their neighbor’s house.
Dio’s optimism about this whole affair went out the window when a complete stranger answered Diavolo’s door. He had that asshole’s garish pink hair, however he had hazel eyes and a much less intense air about him. “Hiya!” He chirruped. “Sorry, Diavolo and Risotto are finishing up dinner. I’m Doppio!” He held out his hand to shake.
Dio scowled down at the hand. “Right…and you are?”
Doppio blinked. “Oh! Where are my manners? I’m Diavolo’s younger brother, I’ve been staying here during spring break.” He stepped aside for them to enter.
“You’re in college?” Jonathan said with a slight frown as he walked into the house’s foyer. It seemed he didn’t like the prospect of this extra person joining them either. He was barely okay with Giorno spending the night with people he already knew.
Doppio nodded. “Yep! I’m a communications and electrical engineering major.”
Jonathan nodded. “I see, I hope you don’t mind some young children getting in the way of you uh…having fun during break.”
“Are you kidding? I love Trish!” Doppio smiled and knelt down to Giorno, who was currently hiding behind Jonathan’s legs. “And you must be Giorno! Trish has been talking about you all week.”
“But you’re in college, shouldn’t you be out partying and enjoying your freedom?” Dio caught on to Jonathan’s statement, he wasn’t concerned for Doppio’s social life. He wanted to make sure this guy wasn’t going to do anything crazy or stupid while Giorno slept over.
Doppio looked up. “I can do that when I’m not on break, I like to spend my time off with my brother and his daughter. It’s the least I could do after all Diavolo’s sacrificed for me.” He began leading them down the hall.
“Can you tell me where the kitchen is? I’d like to drop off this pie,” Jonathan asked.
“Sure thing, it’s down that hall to the left.” Doppio pointed to his right. Jonathan promptly abandoned Dio to be alone with this weird kid.
“So…communications and electrical engineering?” Dio raised a brow.
Doppio leaned forward and looked down the hall where Jonathan had left them, waiting until the man was out of earshot. “You’re Diavolo’s new lawyer, right?”
Oh, so this was a mafia thing. “Yes.” Dio mumbled through gritted teeth.
Doppio smiled. “Once I graduate, I’ll be handling communications within the familia. Burner phones, encryption, all of it. The cops will never be able to pin down my big bro’s operations once I join!”
“You’re willing to get into…that… for your older brother?” He didn’t want to say “organized crime” in front of Giorno in case the kid knew what that meant. It was already risky enough talking about this with him around.
Doppio’s expression became solemn again. “Big bro’s sacrificed everything for me, and now he’s paying for my private college education, it’s the least I could do to make it up to him.” God, Diavolo really was a piece of shit. Guilt tripping his own baby brother into joining the mafia and pulling him into that violent life. He made a note to be even bitchier to his rival from now on.
They walked down the hall until they got to a room full to the brim with various toys and stuffed animals. Just as he’d suspected, Trish was a spoiled brat. The little demon was sitting on the floor in front of a toy phone.
Doppio jogged over to his niece and sat on the floor. “Oh, are we waiting for an important call?”
Trish looked up, eyes sparkling with childish adoration for her uncle. “Mhm!”
Doppio nodded. “Great. I’ll wait with you.” After a moment of them sitting in silence, Doppio began making a sound that made Dio want to slam his head into one of the windows in this room.
“Tuuurururururu!”
Trish giggled, delighted at the abhorrently irritating noise. She looked up at her uncle with no intention of picking up the play phone.
Doppio grinned and made the noise again. “Tuuuuuururururururu!” He chuckled. “You better answer it, it’s an important call!”
Trish nodded. “Okay.” She picked the phone up, pretending to listen intently. After a moment, she held the phone out to Doppio. “It’s for you.”
Doppio took the phone and began listening intently. “Hello, this is Doppio! Yes, I see…okay, sure…right…” He seemed to be an excellent actor as he pretended to respond to the nonexistent person on the other end of the line. He then looked over at Dio and Giorno and held the phone out. “They wanna talk to you, Giorno.”
Giorno, who had been wide-eyed since meeting this new person, slowly pulled himself away from hugging Dio’s legs. He approached them, blue eyes wide. Finally, he hesitantly took the phone from Doppio’s hand. “H…hello?” He listened for a moment. “Hellooo?” He frowned at the phone. “Nobody’s there.”
Giorno’s playing pretend skills weren’t great, Dio had to admit.
Doppio smiled, seemingly unbothered by Giorno’s lack of understanding. “Darn, they must’ve hung up by accident. Maybe they’ll call back later.”
Giorno nodded and handed the phone back to him. Dio felt an arm around his waist and looked for its source, finding that Jonathan had caught up with them after taking the pie to the kitchen.
“Giorno, you’re supposed to pretend somebody’s there.” Trish mumbled, pouting. “Haven’t you ever played pretend before?”
Giorno blinked. “Oh. Okay.” He looked around. “You have a lot of toys.”
Trish continued pouting. “Yeah. I can show them to you.” She pushed herself to her feet.
“We shouldn’t get too into anything, guys, dinner’s probably almost ready,” Doppio said.
As Trish began to show Giorno around the playroom and Doppio provided commentary, Jonathan leaned towards Dio to whisper to him. “Does he seem like a decent person to hang around Giorno?”
Dio scowled at the group on the other side of the room. He seemed incredibly annoying, and part of him was tempted to say no. If Giorno came home making that god awful noise, his week would be ruined. But…the boy seemed to be having fun with Trish, and he had been so excited to come here. “He seems fine. A bit odd, but good with children.”
Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. “Good,” He mumbled under his breath, then spoke loud enough for the children and Doppio to hear. “Dinner’s ready, time to head to the kitchen!” Wonderful. Dio couldn’t wait to have an awkward dinner with the man he despised.