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bakerstreet2015-04-25 06:01 pm
buckingham) wrote in bakerstreet2015-04-25 06:01 pm
I have died every day waiting for you.
 I have loved you for a thousand years... Some say that if a pair of lovers die together in tragedy, they will get another chance when they are reborn. Even if the two of you keep losing each other, you'll get to meet again. This meme is that meeting. For the first time? For the hundredth time? That much isn't clear. What is clear is that on this, your seeming first meeting - Everything rushes back to you. Memories, emotion, and all the comes with it...including the memory of how you two died. Overwhelming, isn't it? Some people find it hard to accept, for good reason. What will you do? You can't just bring it up, they'll think you're crazy! Maybe you don't want to bring it up, as you refuse to believe it yourself. And even if you do believe it, that doesn't mean you have to embrace it. You're your own person, after all. You refuse to love someone merely because of who you were in the past. Or maybe you can't help but let these feelings rise to the surface because they're too strong. No matter what, you can't repress it. In fact, the more you two meet and spend time together, the more you find yourself falling back into the old roles...and making the old mistakes. That isn't good, though; there's one more thing. One of you, when you first met, had a vision about how the two of you would die this time. You can't let that happen. Not again.
...I'll love you for a thousand more. |
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He doesn't understand why her touch throws him off and it's a distraction he cannot afford right now. But unlike anyone else who might have lost their mind enough to dare to touch him, he doesn't lash out at her. He just looks down at her. Looms and frowns deeply. Reaches out in spite of himself to place a hand upon her shoulder. His palm heavy and warm and capable of such destruction, held upon her frail shoulder with such gentle regard.}
Perhaps, Haru, you should be going to tell them that. The Varia does not fail. {Except for those times against the Vongola, but damn it, those don't count. It's not like he has defences against the Zero Breakthrough. But even then, he had still walked away from it all somehow. Maybe eight years too late in one instance and significant blood loss in the other, but that's not the point. The point is that he is confident and she needn't worry herself. Because he doesn't like to see that expression on her face. She should be smiling.
His palm gives the smallest of squeezes and he's turning from her again and any gentleness he might have shown her is gone from him, replaced with that heavy murderous aura that generally follows him around along with the smell of fire and ashes and blood. His considers his own box, heavy in his pocket. He might feel better knowing that Bester would be at the woman's side but he does not know how the lion will react to her. Plus he might need the cat himself, though he doesn't think Haru or the Vongola 10th would be happy with him if his Pistole Imperatore Animale obliterated the entire shipping yard. And while he didn't give a flying fuck if Sawada was annoyed with him, there was a strange part of himself that wanted to keep in this woman's good graces.}
Stay behind me now. {Because who needs a Sky Lion when they had Xanxus himself to guard them.
His steps are still cautious as he heads towards their final destination and he's already on edge. He doesn't like the way the dock warehouses loom and funnel them. If it were him, he'd place a sniper there... and knifemen there... the growing paranoia brings that unearthly glow to his guns.
It's too easy. Far too quiet though it's not for the lack of Squalo, and he considers that whoever it is is waiting for the medicine to be unloaded. One less thing to have to do. That's when he'd attack after all. Once it was off the ships and everyone thought things were free and clear.}
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Ooc: Replying from my phone at work. Sorry for errors!
{Logic dictates she should be fearful when he turns to her frowning and standing twice her size, thousands of times more powerful, in front of her, but when his hand lands so gently on her shoulder she feels immediately safe. It is a gesture that makes her feel as though he is taking her protection seriously not just for the Family or Reborn's request, but that he sees her as a person in her own right and maybe he likes who he is looking at. He radiates warmth enough to make her regret her sweater and the fact that the thin material just barely keeps her skin from his. She leans into the touch without shame though her thoughts are spinning out of control with memories of hot calloused hands holding her far differently and more intimately.
The small delighted shiver that goes through her is only compounded by his use of her first name so informally. She had assumed since they had been speaking Japanese he would add the honorific himself like everyone at home. In retrospect, it wasn't right to make that assumption of anyone and it would be rude to take back the permission now, not that she wants to. Her name has more weight in his voice than it has in anyone else's. She smiles, feeling more reassured than she ought to as he squeezes her shoulder and pulls his power around him.}
If I knew who they were I would have sent them my condolences in advance. A nice funeral wreath maybe.
{Haru's middle school self would be surprised at her vindictiveness, but often the transporters and captains were people she had recruited personally by poaching them from the yakuza or forgiving some small debt to the Vongola in exchange for their service. They were her people and she would see whoever was harming them six feet under. Tsuna didn't understand he was more worried about finding out who and why to prevent a war, and she knew his duty was to the Vongola as a whole, but she would rather stop the current attackers in their tracks.
She walks beside home until he directs her behind. She doesn't have the combat experience he does, but the transporters to help the crew unload the ship should have been there already. Sanada-san, the ship's captain, looked down at them from the deck. A quick conversation let her explain the situation and the Varia Commander's presence, though Haru thought Sanada was more scared of Xanxus than he should be. It takes her a minute more on her phone to find that the transport truck was delayed by the bad luck of a flat tire, not an attack and their headlights appear at the end of the wharf.
Haru doesn't buy the excuse for a moment, especially not when the voice on the other end of the phone doesn't respond to her pass phrase correctly by using Japanese instead of Italian. It always offended her when people believed because she was a Japanese woman she didn't have the same kind of intelligence and business savvy the rest of the Family did.}
Xanxus-san, those are not my people driving the trucks. I would prefer Sanada's ship and the medical supplies remain intact, but I understand there is more at stake than this shipment and I would rather see whoever is hurting our Family pay for their crimes.
{An email to Gokudera while she was waiting for her escort had confirmed if worst came to worst they had the money to legally purchase the medical supplies Gokudera and Haru thought were in the shipment. They had no clue about Reborn and Tsuna's secrets.}
That said your experience is far greater than mine, so I will put myself and this transaction in your capable hands.
{She bows slightly to him before taking the thunder ring off its chain around her neck and putting it on her finger, waiting for his orders.}
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It's a strange thing really. The dark thought that he would kill anyone who dared to touch her. Not just in terms of danger, but in other ways. It's not a thought he's had for others before. But it still hangs about him like the dark clouds of an oncoming storm. While he was here, no one and nothing was going to harm her.
He doesn't quite loom while she conducts her business with the captain. Xanxus is impressed at how perfectly she handles things. She has the delicate touch and the shrewd sensibilities that would make her a model wife some day. He wonders why no one has seen that and there is a surge of jealousy that he can't explain. Once more, he feels like those emotions aren't truly his own but something of an echo from a time and place he's only barely touched.
His eyes narrow at her words and he nods once.}
You will stay with the supplies. I will meet our truck and get it back for you. If you want, I'll leave one alive, mostly. For questioning later.
{Because he is not Sawada. He doesn't shy away from the darker side of the mafia. He is already stained in blood so things like torture and revenge aren't things he even blink at. Whatever is necessary. Whatever it takes to make and keep the family strong. Just like then. Just like now.}
I'll be back soon enough. Hold tight. That trash shouldn't take me too long.
{He sweeps away from her towards the truck. His long leather coat billowing behind him as he goes. Almost an echo of a long dark pony tail. He doesn't seem to even be bothered when bullets did start flying. He's already decided. They aren't getting the supplies and they were not touching his woman... though that thought was almost distracting.}
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{The decision is one she makes on the spot, but one she could justify with logic to Tsuna and Reborn when they asked. Yes, she was filled with responsibility and the desire for revenge for her subordinate driving the truck who would likely never return to his children, but asking the Varia to perform the information extraction was also good business sense. They would get the information faster, even if Tsuna didn't approve of their methods, he couldn't object in time from Japan if she didn't tell him.
And that was a dangerous thought to have. Not disloyal, exactly, but certainly questioning of Tsuna's methods. She hadn't questioned them this morning, or even a few hours ago. Then again she also couldn't remember a parlor blown to pieces and looking at the barrel of a Tomaso gun before Ricardo's punch took his head off a few hours ago. The strange other memories certainly put a new take on the Vongola and the things Tsuna had always been trying to shield her and Kyoko from. The mafia wasn't a game. She thought she had learned that, but the heart stopping terror, not for herself, but for Ricardo brought things to different understanding.
Perhaps the Varia would even be able to wipe out the threat before Tsuna could think over the consequences of all his actions and finally make a decision. She smiles and folds her hands in front of her after signaling to the captain that he can finally ready his crew for unloading.}
I'll be waiting, then.
{Haru does not look away from the fight. She did not request him, but she certainly didn't ask for leniency, even voicing her desire for those lives to be destroyed. It's by no means Chiara Vongola's first hand in death, or even her most direct one, but it's Miura Haru's, and she feels the need to understand the consequences of her actions.
His broads shoulders and the beautiful light of his flames are familiar grounding sights before her eyes. She had been so stupid to fall for Tsuna's middle school heroics. She couldn't say she regretted it because her friendships mean the world to her, and she will never be a disloyal person, but this man before her, if he would reach out to take her loyalty, to take everything she would give him, Tsuna would not be able to stop her from leaving.
She scared herself with the intensity of the emotion rooted in her heart.}
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Not because he wanted to protect her like Tsuna did. He was not so soft. No. A strange whisper in the blackness of his heart just doesn't want this woman to see him as what he truly is. He's a monster. An unrepentant killer. And while Xanxus revels in others fearing him, for some reason, he doesn't want to see that look of fear in her eyes.
He doesn't want to see it, but in the face of gunfire and a van bearing down on him at full speed, that concern isn't as pressing as his promise to be right back. She's waiting for him.
He levels his guns and there's a flash of memory. She's always waited for him. Always at the front door of the Iron Fortress when he came back from business trips smelling of smoke and ash and blood. She would always welcome him home with that breathtaking smile of hers.
He wonders idly, as he pulls the trigger, if the woman watching would ever smile at him like that. It's the last distracting thought he allowed.
It's almost too quick. Too easy. He's the Boss of the Varia for a reason and not just because Squalo had given it to him. He doesn't hesitate, doesn't second guess. Doesn't flinch at the sight of his flames as they incinerate without prejudice. Because unlike Tsuna, who seems unwilling to use his power until he absolutely has to, Xanxus embraces his power. Revels in the overwhelming strength of his Wrath.
It's over too soon. Far too soon and though he doesn't have the Vongola Hyper Intuition, he has something else that was attributed to The Second; a sort of battle sense. The ability to read a fight. And it tells him that if he had been planning this, he would have placed a spy on the ship itself, just in case.
Panic. He's never panicked before in his entire life, but his heart drops into his stomach. He's turning from the smoking remains at a near desperate run.}
CHIARA! GET AWAY FROM THE SHIP! {It's the wrong name and he doesn't even realize it}
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On the other hand, the simplicity of this fight against his skill means he's more likely to be in a good mood and willing to let her cook for him. She rocks on her feet, getting a little excited about the thought. The residence she's staying in is fully stocked with both Italian and Japanese ingredients. She's been practicing her Western dishes, so maybe she could try out something whole and filling after he's expended the energy to protect her endeavors. She plans it out in her mind already envisioning him sitting across from her casually with his suit coat off and sleeves rolled up, discussing what their next steps against these attackers would be, but that's getting ahead of herself. She still has to convince him to eat with her.
She's sure the battle's coming to an end, if it's not already over when he turns and starts running straight for her. There's an expression on his face that sends her heart racing and terror coursing through her veins.Ricardo had only looked that way a handful of times, all of them when their enemies had broken the Mafia laws and tried to attack her directly.
Haru's moving, summoning her thunder flame and plugging it into the box from her pocket even as he calls out her name. Not her current name, but her old one. She wants to address that, will need to before too long, but tables it for the moment as her enormous butterfly takes shape beneath her and lifts her up. There's a stinging pain on her arm and she barely catches the sight of a Rain coated knife flying past her, turning around to fall back towards one of Sanada's crew members.
It pissed her off because this was a really cute sweater and she's never going to be able to get the blood out of it's tiny tight weave, let alone repair the hole to look as good as new. She takes higher into the air as he throws again, three blades this time. The electricity of the butterfly deflects two of them, but she has to lean almost off her transport entirely and the third still catches the skin of her cheek.
Haru cries out slipping and cursing in two languages before climbing back between the segmented parts of the insect's body. She's angry now, and there's no one still moving at the first site, so she yells.}
Take that one alive! He owes me a new sweater!
{Because even after a decade in the mafia, and the sudden revelation of a past life, she's still Haru.}
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The proof of his outrage spreads across his face in the form of scars. The wounds of his captivity coming to life under the living flame of his Will. There is an unholy light in his eyes. Eyes focused upon the spy that dared to attack her. That dared to draw her blood.
His XGuns clatter to the ground. If he used them now, the dock, the ship, the supplies, everything might be lost. But Xanxus is never unarmed. His hands flare with that twisted combination of sky and storm. His birthright. The echo of a man he used to be. His voice is a yell of pure rage that would have made Squalo bulk for all it's loudness.
He hits hard and the spy goes flying across the dock. The man's impact makes a crater. It's like when he hit Sawada in the Ring Battle all those years ago. Only now he's older and stronger and far angrier than he had been back then.
There's no time for the man to get back on his feet. Xanxus is on him in an instant, burning fists pounding fragile flesh. He's on a rampage and there's no one here that can stop him... only that's a lie because there is. There has always been one woman capable of catching his hand. Of telling him to stop before he went to far. And right now that woman is above him, safely on her butterfly.}
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{Haru gasped watching as Xanxus's whole appearance changed. The scars she had assumed were leftover from long ago injuries advance across his skin crawling in such a similar pattern to the flames turning into an inferno around his hands. She watches the guns clatter to the dock and something cold grips her heart.
The first punch takes her breath with the bird's eye view and she knows something is terribly wrong. She knows instinctively that Xanxus doesn't fight with his fists, Ricardo might have, but not like this. There's no form to his body, no discipline, just mindless rage. He follows through and drops into the crater of the man's landing continuing his attack.
Haru reacts without thinking, diving and dispelling her box animal. She drops to the ground and scoops up the Xguns, carefully turning the safeties on before she shoots herself on accident. She half climbs half slides into the bottom of the crater. At this rate she will be lucky if the body is identifiable, let alone if she gets any information out if the man, but that's no longer her primary concern.
She takes a deep breath and says a stupid meaningless prayer for luck before throwing herself at Xanxus's side. If it was Ricardo she knew she could just touch him and he would blink at her, listen to her voice, but she doesn't know Xanxus in that way. So, a full on side tackle is what she chooses.}
Xanxus! It's fine! I'm fine and he's dead already! At least probably dead! So you can stop! Please!
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The horrific, demonic burning rage in his eyes dies. His scars remain, dark and painful across his face and down past the lapels of his Varia Uniform. He feels suddenly sick to his stomach. Sick because she's seen it. She's seen the one thing he never wanted her to see. She's seen him for the monster he truly is.
His hand loosens on the broken spy and the man drops.
His breathing slowly returns to normal and hands covered in blood reach up towards the cut on her face. He doesn't even register that he's got throwing knives buried in his flesh. His health is not his concern. When he realizes how stained his hand is, he drops it before he touches her.}
He hurt you. He deserved so much worse. [He couldn't keep that man alive. He hadn't been in his right mind to even remotely hold back, but he can't apologize for not following her wishes. Her blood had set him off and her warmth had brought him back.] I left one in the truck mostly alive...
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She keeps her hand wrapped around his fingers, and reaches the other to cup his face. Her thumb brushes lightly over the scars there, and she wants to feel that difference in texture with her lips, to kiss him gently as a balm to whatever caused them to last so vividly for so long, but now's not exactly the time when he's bleeding on her. So instead she just holds his jaw and hand gently and looks up into his face.}
He won't be able to hurt me again. You made sure of that, and I'm grateful, but really I'm fine. I won't even need stitches, so you don't have to worry. It's you that's going to need medical treatment. Do you still have your phone? I can call your Sun Guardian.
{She squeezes his hand and sweeps her eyes over him. There didn't seem to be any bullet holes in his clothing or any stray trace of flame that would cause side effects from the first fight. It was just handful of the small blades the traitor had been throwing about. She was leery of trying to remove them yet, though. She didn't want to increase his bleeding before he could get treatment.}
We'll get someone to transport the living bastard, too.
{Logistics and recovery post battle were something she was equipped to handle. She just needed to get Xanxus responding properly and thinking like the Commander he was rather than being stuck in the leftovers of his own Wrath. She still couldn't believe he'd summoned it on her behalf, but calling her the name from that past life might explain it.}
You're going to get treated, and I'm going to be bandaged, and we'll go back to the house I'm staying in. I'll make dinner for you and we'll have a nice quiet night in and talk about why you called me Chiara, and why I'm pretty sure I knew you in a past life.
{Haru was babbling at this point. Shock having set in more quickly than she would have hoped, but maybe if she lost it a little, too, it would put them on more even ground.}
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He sees her concern but still doesn't register that he's hurt. It's just how it is. So long as he's working, he won't let it bother him. It was like that before. He almost remembers this woman scolding him after coming home injured, for not getting treated when he should have. Reminding him that there is no time for that is no excuse.]
In my pocket. Lussuria is number 3 on speed dial. Though I don't really need it. I'll be fine. It can wait until we have everything here settled. I would go with 1 and hold it well away from your ear. Squalo can go with the shipment. To make certain it gets to where it needs to go.
[Because it's either his right hand man or himself on that transport and she doesn't sound like she's going to accept no for an answer. He's surprised that he was even allowing it. Normally, he would laugh in the face of anyone who dared to try and tell him what to do.
Instead of laughing, he frowned a little more. He hadn't meant to call that name. It had been in the heat of the moment, drawn from him in panic and that alone. He didn't even know where it came from. But he had to agree that it did feel that he did know her as more than just who she was now.]
You win. Call whoever you need. [He takes his heavy Varia coat off, not caring about the knives clattering to the ground as he does. He uses it to drape around her frail shoulders as if to protect her all the more.]
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After a handful of seconds cringing against the noise Squalo makes Haru cuts through him, and efficiently explains the situation, Xanxus's injuries, and that Lussuria-san was expected to accompany them for their boss's sake whether he thought he needed medical treatment or not. Then she hangs up on the swordsman before he can scream any questions or counter demands at her.}
There. That's settled. I know you don't think you need a medic, but you're still bleeding and it will make me feel better to know nothing vital was nicked.
{The Varia would undoubtedly be there quickly, but until then Haru was left sitting in a crater with a man who might have been her husband in another life. This was almost as strange as that trip to the future in middle school. She pulls the coat tighter around her shoulders leaning into what she was hopefully sure, was his less injured side. Without even thinking she takes his hand back in hers and threads her slim fingers between his.}
I think--I think our names were Ricardo and Chiara Vongola, and we were married.
{It's not the best time, but she can't hold her tongue any longer. Her skull was crawling with her own and someone else's memories, and they just blended together. She couldn't be sure if her favorite desert was that Red Velvet cake from the shop by her father's house, or if it was the tiramisu first served at her wedding and then shared by them together on every anniversary without fail.
She can't say the rest of it. That they ruled and expanded the family, that they made the Vongola the terror it is today.}
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All there is left to do is wait. Wait and surprise himself by how easily he tangles his bloody hand with hers. Watch her out of the corner of his eye, as if to make certain that she isn't more hurt. Because once his people are here, he's going to insist, very very violently if he has to, that she get tended to first. It feels like it has always been that way.
And then she says that and he frowns a little.]
I know a lot about Ricardo Vongola. When I was young and not yet in the Family, I would have these dreams... My mother said it was because I was destined to take my father's place as the Tenth. [It's extremely rare for Xanxus to revisit his past, to his time in the slums. He likes to keep himself distant from that. From the lies of an insane woman he had grown up believing and the lies a far too kind man had continued. Probably trying to protect him from the truth. That he wasn't family. That he was just some stranger, taken in on a whim. Though one merely had to have eyes in their heads to see the deep resemblances between himself and the second of ten portraits on the wall of the main house.]
I was sort of obsessed with him as a kid... Because they said I had his flames. He and I are the only ones to not need a bullet or a weapon or a ring. [He raises his other hand to just look at it. As a child, he had thought he was special because of it. Because of his Flames. The older he got the more he realized that the fact that he didn't need some medium to draw out the power of his will made him dangerous. Unlike the others, he could leave all his weapons and even the Varia Ring behind and he would still always be armed. A bitter part of him wondered if the 9th had also taken him in to keep a potential time-bomb from destroying the family from the outside.]
At the main home, I know there are journals and pictures. Perhaps you can get them and get your answers. [He refuses to go back there unless he absolutely has to. Why willingly go back to the place that had been his prison.] But I can tell you that I keep seeing those dreams I had as a child. I keep thinking I know you in ways I really don't. And I know that the Vongola of the past have come back... [Tsuna's family is the second coming. He knows about the Vongola gear and he heard about the trails and the spirits in the rings. He had met them himself, when he had tried to take the Sky Ring during the Ring Battles, before it had tried to kill him.] However, he's not me...though
[He sort of glances at her again] He must have been a damn lucky bastard to land a woman like you.
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I hardly dream at all. Everything just---appeared in my head when you walked in the door today. All at once, like I'd always been two people. {She wonders if it's because of the difference in heritage? She can remember feeling beautiful and looking at gowns in mirrors, but her face is a bit of a blur. She doesn't know if she looks as much like Chiara as he looks like Ricardo. It seems a little impossible because she knows Chiara was Italian, but she's seen Tsuna standing next to paintings of Giotto and that should be pretty impossible, too.
She hums when he keeps going because she knows about this part intimately. How Ricardo would alternately revel in the power of his hands as a Boss, and hesitate in the beginning to lay them on her because of the power in them.} It makes you powerful, and feared, but it costs you, too. {She squeezes the hand in hers.} A lot of people, particularly in this world, can't trust when someone's armed all the time, whether they chose to be or not. {She plows through her statements, making them matter-of-factly and unflinchingly from her place pressed against his side and moves on, hoping she hasn't made him uncomfortable.}
Mmm, I don't go there too often. Kyoko-chan often gets people to go to her in Japan rather than using the big house, but I'll ask around and look next time. {It was strange enough holding the tiny kernel of jealousy in her heart for Kyoko's position as the Boss's wife before these memories. Now Haru doesn't even want to imagine her reaction if she meets Kyoko in the rooms, in the home, that used to be her palace.
To chase that away, too, she looks up at him and then in what she hopes is a nice flirtatious manner, she smiles. She wants to say something coy like We'll have to revisit exactly what ways we might think we know each other, but he keeps speaking and she's a bit astounded to hear words that on anyone else she might have pegged as being hesitant. Of course, then he distracts her entirely by complimenting her and instead of managing to flirt and look cute, she can feel her whole face ignite with how pleased she is. It takes her a moment to stop her internal twittering and respond.}
Thank you for saying so, but I'm not her either. I might not be able to tell if I'm thinking in aged Italian or Japanese right now, but I can see differences between us and them, like old film pieces one on top of the other.{She sighs. Chiara was born and bred in the mafia world to be a Boss or Right Hand's wife. She knew from a tender age that she would never leave that bloody world. The whole thing for Haru was an accident she had fallen into because of a boy in her neighborhood. The perspectives butted against each other, almost enough to make her head hurt.}
My life revolves around my work and the Family no doubting that, but Chiara---it was like the sun, moon, and stars revolved around Ricardo. She didn't know anything else. It hadn't occurred to her to be anything, except a boss's wife. She spent a lot of time waiting for him. {The position is different now. Haru knows Kyoko has her fingers in almost as many pies as a guardian, and definitely keeps herself informed even when Tsuna's trying to protect her, but still sitting with Xanxus, she's the happiest she's ever been that she's not Tsuna's wife.}
I think I'm the lucky one to get to meet you and know you again, with our differences.
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Her words are surprising though. They make him feel that maybe yes, she would listen to him. Because she already seems to understand that with the extreme power of his Will, there is also the price he pays. She has seen one of those prices. When he lets the rage control him instead of the other way around. She seems to understand that. To not be afraid of him when she should be. The part of him that is not him recalls how she never feared him back then either.
He wants to lift her hand to his lips and kiss her knuckles but that's going too far. Even if she was blushing like that. He hadn't meant to be so forward but unlike his former self, Xanxus wasn't as diplomatic. He said it how he saw it.]
Your work is top notch. You do your Family well. I hope that we'll get to work again in the future. I don't mind being at the beck and call of the Vongola if it means getting to see you work. I've never seen such efficiency outside of the Varia. If I'm here...
{Well, she's seen how safe she is and how screwed anyone who dares to hurt her is. And he thinks that maybe, if they work together more often, he can figure out where he stops and Ricardo's memories start.
He's about to say more when the moment is interrupted by an ear splitting VOOOOOOIIII. Like he said. Efficient. He is reluctant to let her go but does with a soft promise.]
I'll have things settled and then I'm looking forward to your cooking. I'm starving.
[He climbs out of the hole he made to have a brief discussion (read screaming on Squalo's part) on what needs to be done about the shipment and the living prisoner. Belphegor is going to have a lot of fun with that one. When he's dealing with a fluttering okama as he gets Lussuria to take care of Hru first. So it took a gun in Lussuria's face, but Xanxus has his priorities. Only after that does he allow himself to be healed. However, he keeps glancing back to her, as if to make sure she's still there.}
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Even with the way the compliment through her off, she was still plotting based on what he was offering. It was essentially, to put himself not exactly at her beck and call but definitely volunteering for anything she might be involved in. It was the perfect opportunity.}
Actually, your presence and approval could solve a problem I've been having. I'm looking to move my center of operations to Italy to better handle our international trade rather than being on the far side of it in Japan. If you're willing to lend the support of the Varia, through allowing me to live in your territory, Tsuna-san can't protest me moving away from all of the Guardians.
{She laughs quietly to herself. She's been dealing with the constraints of international travel and jet lag for years because Tsuna was determined to run things from Japan, and while it was all fine and good for the Boss to move everything to himself, the actual process of trading and selling goods wasn't as flexible.
The added bonus, of course, would be getting a chance to see each other often, and maybe figure more of this out.
She huffs and rolls her eyes at him when he pulls a gun on his Sun guardian to make sure she's treated first. It's a bit of a shell shock dealing with the combined blur of energy, muscles, and color that is Lussuria while trying to keep from dropping or shedding Xanxus's coat, but Haru manages it. She then promptly shoos Lussuria back up to Xanxus, ignoring the incredulous looks the man was passing between his leader and herself.
It takes her a couple of minutes to climb out of the crater by herself, but she manages without any further injury. After only a couple moments of consideration about her place in this situation and what she should be doing, she takes a quick selfie and sends it to Gokudera-kun as proof of life, safety, and just to annoy him. She stops Squalo-san when her phone number and is only slightly more deaf by the time they've arranged for information to go to her first rather than the main Family in Japan.
Eventually, she feels that she's done everything she can to be sure their dinner won't be interrupted by idiots wanting confirmation of her safety, or other business, so she takes to hovering just outside of Lussuria's work range and watching as the sun flames knit Xanxus's skin back together.]
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Instead, he puts up and shuts up and will deal with the hair growth that came from the after effects, even if until he could deal with it, it made him look even more like his past self, that dark tail spilling down his back.
He sees his people off and makes his way to the girl still left behind. Without thinking, he offers an arm in order to escort her away. Surely the car they came in has been hidden somewhere. If the driver is gone, he'll be happy to drive her.]
You would love Tuscany. The Varia's front yard is Florence. Our headquarters is at your disposal until you find a place suited to your needs. I'll make sure you're given noise canceling headphones.
[And he'll beat the hell out of any of his underlings that have a problem with that.
He gives her the smallest smile and once they found the car in, he once more opens the door to her. There is another awkward smile and he nods for her to get back in.] Haru.
So when I take too long, just talk about Ricardo???
For your hair. I can cut it for you when we get back to where I'm staying.
{She'd comb her fingers through it and remember playing with it in such a length from days long, long, ago, but then she'd cut it off for him, because they aren't those people that they were.}
For all my traveling and trading, I've missed out on a lot of beautiful parts of Italy, I feel like. My tour consists of docks and warehouses. I'll start making the move as soon as I can.
{She chuckles as she slides into the car.}
I think I'll only need the headphones to sleep. Otherwise, it will just mean the workplace is lively.
Re: So when I take too long, just talk about Ricardo???
I promise you I'll fix that problem for you. I'll show you so much of Italy, you'll be sick of it.
{And not just the Varia territory, but the rest of the country. No one would be stupid enough to attack them unless they were like those he just fight. He would be happy to punch their one way ticket to hell. But he doubted it would happen often and Haru would get to enjoy an extended vacation.}
You haven't heard Squalo sing in the shower. I even soundproofed that shit and you can still hear him.
{He busies himself with pulling back his hair in just the fashion as his former self might have before settling again] I'll be certain the guest room is ready for you.
{He'll call Bel the second they arrive at Haru's temporary home. He'll get bitched at by the lazy prince but eventually, Bel will do as asked. And strangely, he actually is looking forward to having Haru in his home, if even for a little while.}
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I think it will be very hard to get sick of it. Especially in your company.
{She loves Japan and always will, from the cute of her favorite desserts, and the deceiving simplicity of their traditions and architecture, but there was something about Italy, about the light contrasting with the hidden dark, the glamour versus the dirt, she can't resist it.}
Squalo-san's lungs must be incredibly strong indeed.
{She watches him do up his hair and has to blink and look out the window for a moment to clear the strange past after images from her eyes. It really wouldn't be good for her to reach up and run her fingers through it. }
Thank you for your hospitality. I'm sure I will enjoy my stay.
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He does. It's terrible. But if he's too loud, I give you blanket permission to throw things at him.
{Not that he thought she would, but just talking about this, about having her in his home, even for a short time, makes him feel a bit warmer. Makes him make such flippant comments about his right hand man and their working relationship.}
And I should probably thank you for yours. If you're still willing to feed me, that is. You've had a hard day of it and you should just relax. I'm sure I can arrange something to be brought to where you're staying and it can be ready when we arrive.
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{Then again, Squalo probably was used to Yamamoto's arm. Xanxus himself was sorely mistaken if he thought Haru wouldn't actually throw things if she had permission. She had definitely gotten things stuck in Lambo's hair more than once, and that was when she was being kind.}
Nuh-uh. No takeout. Not tonight. I don't want to see any more strangers near either of us tonight.
{Reflexively, without thought she presses harder against his side thinking about ghost memories of Spade and unfamiliar people parading in and out of their home.}
I'm more than happy to cook. I already know what I'm going to make. If you really want to though, you can get me lunch tomorrow.
{She pauses then realizing--}
Well, I mean, if you aren't needed back early in the morning.
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{He lets her press against him. He keeps telling himself that they're not those people anymore, but the feel of her right there is too nostalgic to ignore and also too nice. If he was in any less control of his own faculties, he might have pulled her between his legs to rest his chin on her head. But he has far more control than that.}
Then I'll get you lunch tomorrow before I need to head back. It's not like I don't set my own schedule when I feel like it. It wouldn't be the first time I decided to do whatever the hell I wanted just because I felt like it.
{And this is the one key difference between them. He can remember his schedule once ruling his life. Everything down to the smallest detail was accounted for. He was Boss of the Family during a time of war. He didn't have time for playing around. Spade had him busy almost constantly. Only she managed to ever get him to rearrange things. Because his Chiara always came first.}
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{Nothing about her words are a complaint, just the simple truth of how they'd grown up doing everything for themselves in middle school and high school and it had just continued that way once they graduated despite their greater responsibilities in the actual Family.}
You know your work the best. I'm not going to shoo you away as long as you feel you can stay.
{She'll have to leave eventually, to supervise the move of her main stock, and the few people she does have to Italy, but for a little while, she definitely wants to stay with him.}
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He resists until they are almost at her safehouse, but by the time they arrive, he does have his arm over her shoulder in a way that's far too familiar.]
I suppose this is our stop.
[Of course he'll get out first to make certain it's secure.]