trailblazers, 10YL, tetsuki+sasagawa sibs, 32) things you said I wouldn’t understand

Trailblazers, 32) things you said I wouldn’t understand

Ryohei doesn’t let himself get distracted for long, despite how fun it is to spar with these strangers. He returns to wait in the hallway outside Tetsuki’s door, patient, if neither silent nor still.

He chatters at the door, exercising all the while–at first shadowboxing on his own, then drills with equipment as the Vongola staff catch on and set up the space for him. While unusual and against the aesthetics of the mansions, they do so without asking. Partially because Ryohei is one of the elite Guardians, but mostly because he is one of the nicest and they are fond of him.

And so Ryohei waits, because while he may not be as stubborn as Tetsuki, he’s equally as skilled at persevering.

Kyoko is the one that seeks out answers, handing the supervision of the medics over to Shamal who complains even though it’s his job. And anyway, the stranger that Tetsuki-nee-chan has sent out–Sakura-san, the healer–is doing an excellent job at showcasing new techniques to keep them busy.

Plus, Tetsuki is both family and Family; there aren’t many who are due as high priority.

She calls Kusakabe-senpai first. Mostly because even if Hibari-senpai had a phone–which she highly doubts–he certainly would never answer a call with it. A few minutes of polite small talk and careful maneuvering around the topic of Tetsuki and she finally gets connected to Hibari-senpai.

“What happened on that mission?” Kyoko demands, steamrolling over Hibari-senpai’s less than pleased greeting, “She won’t leave her room and she’s not letting anyone else in and she keeps… making strangers to send out in her place. As if that’s what we wanted instead of her to be okay!” She finishes in a frustrated shout before immediately shutting her mouth–Hibari-senpai might not be that hard-headed violent teenager anymore, but he certainly wouldn’t appreciate such disrespect.

Her frustration isn’t at him, anyway. Not really at Tetsuki-nee-chan either. Perhaps it’s not frustration at all, just concern.

Silence reigns on the other end of the line and for a moment, Kyoko thinks that perhaps Hibari-senpai has hung up or simply walked away from the phone letting the call run through, until he belatedly answers, “Ask the pineapple.”

Another silence reigns, Kyoko waiting for more, prepared to outlast Hibari-senpai–he Sasagawas can be patient in regards to important matters–when finally, reluctantly, Hibari-senpai asks, “Should I send Tetsu?”

Kyoko can easily imagine the fierce scowl on his face, but the offer to send his second in command away for an unknown length of time only shows how worried he is for Tetsuki-nee-chan as well.

“No, not yet. Kusakabe-senpai can stay with you for now. I’ll call again if–”

The dial tone plays back to her. Kyoko huffs, irritated, but internally acknowledges that probably was the best outcome for this call.

Really the only reason why she tried Hibari-senpai first despite the unlikely odds of it working is because he’s easier to find. Getting in contact with Mukuro is going to be a greater challenge. Alas, such is the way of Mists–never mind she herself partially has that very flame type.

The chain goes as such: Kyoko asks Fuuta-kun–main handler for Vongola’s Guardians–who connects her with Chikusa and Ken, who still act as bodyguards for Chrome, who then consults with Fran and, eventually, somehow sends a message Mukuro.

It’s about a month, all told, for Mukuro to respond, appearing in Vongola Mansion and acting as if he weren’t the most infuriating person Kyoko has ever had to deal with–especially when Tetsuki has yet to come out of room, sending out more and more strangers as the weeks pass.

By the time Mukuro arrives, both of the Sasagawa siblings are chomping at the bit, held back only by the thought that Mukuro might be able to help Tetsuki. So when they ask him what happened, neither of them are in the right headspace to comprehend his answer.

“She died,” he says with an almost careless shrug, eyeing the door where his fellow Guardian hides. “But she’s always had a small flicker of Mist Flames, so I was able to ensure she would come back.”

“You saved her life?” Ryohei asks, hopeful, almost thankful to Mukuro, not understanding. Kyoko stays quiet, because surely there’s more.

“No she definitely died,” Mukuro answers, almost laughing. When he turns to face them properly, his red eye practically glows, the six all the darker for it, “And then I sent her off to die five more times.”

Trailblazers (2018-02-02)

Hana is the third strongest Cloud of Namimori.

Knowing that fact is about as awful a sensation as one might imagine–not that she even cares about the stupid colored fire stuff that all the monkeys keep throwing around… but still.

Being third best at anything is one of the worst feelings ever.

Her manifestation was subtle, a matter of details and quirks in contrast to the full blown phenomenon of Hibari.

She never ran out of pens or spare change or other little items, never tired during gym class for all that she wasn’t one for exercise.

She had one friend–Kyoko–and that was all she needed. More than that, she was confident she was all Kyoko needed, though she would yield to Kaiza-senpai’s stronger, prior claim whenever an overlap arose.

She’d much rather attribute it to her own rational and respectful nature than the bullshit “subconscious deference to a more powerful person” but given magical colored fire does exist… well.

Kaiza-senpai–Tetsuki-san now that they are coworkers and nearly family through the transitive property of convoluted bonds that is being close to the Sasagawas–is technically the second strongest Cloud of Namimori.

A side effect of being primarily Lightning natured: any development in her Cloud abilities were overlaid by Lightning, averting the issue of Cloud territorialism and dominance.

Lucky. Not even Kaiza-senpai would have stood a chance against Hibari.

Hana isn’t particularly keen on learning how to use a gun–she’s a lawyer for god’s sake! Sure, she followed Kyoko to Italy and has resigned herself to a lifetime of dragging the Monkey Boss out of legal problems to keep her best friend happy, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to embrace their, frankly, ludicrous lifestyle.

But that awful not-baby insists, and both of the Sasagawas make sad, worried faces at her–at the idea of her not being prepared, not being protected–and so she gives in.

She’s not the sharpest shooter, but accuracy isn’t all that important when she can just riddle the target with an endless amount of unstoppable bullets.

Hana is the third strongest Cloud of Namimori.

Namimori is known for producing titans of Sky Flames.

Despite herself, Hana is one of them, too.

~

A/N: Just a little thing set in my Trailblazers universe and greatly influenced by the amazing worldbuilding of Vixen_Tail’s Russian Roulette. More specifically the analysis of Flames and how different Flame types interact with each other. Hana Kurokawa as the most reluctant Cloud Flame user! (In comparison to fucking Hibari whose abilities manifested even BEFORE his Flames were activated, it’s no wonder she slipped under the radar.)

Trailblazers (2017-10-03)

She doesn’t remember what the mission had been–unsurprising given how many years-deaths-hours have passed–but she does know it was dangerous. Deadly. Terribly so.

Boss had sent his three most powerful–most lethal–Guardians on this mission, even despite the hostilities between two of them. Despite the high probability that Kyoua-senpai and fucking Mukuro would rather turn on each other than fight beside each other.

She doesn’t think she was sent as a mediating force–if so, then what a poor choice!–but rather as the only one who would survive if it came down to that.

It hadn’t, oddly enough.

But she hadn’t survived the mission, anyway.

///

When Tetsuki returns to Vongola HQ–Hibari departing for Namimori immediately and Mukuro almost literally disappearing into mist–she is quiet.

It’s not so concerning–Tetsuki isn’t one for talking, not in comparison to the Sasagawa siblings–but a week passes and no one can recall speaking to her.

This is only the beginning.

///

The problem is that she would trust any of the Guardians with her life–even Yamamoto (though, perhaps, less than fucking Mukuro as odd as that seems.)

Being Family does not mean friendship, it means blood and trust despite the lack. She can fight alongside any of her fellow Guardians without a second thought because she knows, if they can, they will fight for her life nearly as much as she will fight for theirs.

She trusts them with her life.

She doesn’t trust any of them with her death.

Kyouya-senpai is possessive, Mukuro beyond normal human mores, and at the end she had been voiceless.

She didn’t have a choice.

///

Tetsuki doesn’t open the door. Not for the Boss, not for Kyoko, not even for Ryohei.

Hayato respects her far too much to disintegrate the walls (never mind that the Vongola HQ steward would murder him if he did so) but he’s just cunning enough to slip a mobile phone into her room which rings and rings and rings with everyone trying to check on her.

She zaps it after a day.

But it works, sort of.

The door opens.

///

They mean well, of course they do. They’re just as kind as she remembered them; nostalgia and decades of distance hadn’t changed too much, it seems.

She’s not the same person she was days–lifetimes–ago.

She’s mourning.

She’s scared.

She’s furious.

She’s not ready.

///

The person–people–who leave Tetsuki’s room are not anyone Vongola has ever seen.

Their fashion is strange, their weapons stranger, and they look around HQ with curious, wondrous eyes.

They also close the door behind them and do not let anyone pass.

“She’s not ready yet,” says the blonde man with bright blue eyes. One hand scratches almost nervously at his marked cheek; the other has the fried phone.

Kyoko pockets it to hand over to Haru later–she and her engineering minions will take it as a challenge, no doubt–and decides to roll with the punches. She asks, “Do you know when she’ll be ready?”

This time, a woman with pink hair answers, stepping forward. “No, I’m sorry, but she wanted you all to know that she appreciates your concern and she’d like for us to share our knowledge. For example, I understand you’re a healer? So am I. My name is Sakura Haruno.”

///

There’s a part of her that wonders if it was all in her mind, no new scars or wrinkles on her skin, the same as she was before everything. She was so young then–this is the oldest she’s ever been–she had no idea what a lifetime really meant. What death really means.

She’s not the same person she was before.

She’s far more than that.

~

A/N: After everything, Tetsuki goes back home. But there’s consequences to that, too.

Cross Post: Trailblazers, Bright and Bold, “Epilogue Arc” drabble (2016-01-20)

original here. dated 2013-12-10

[[A/N: As previously stated in this post, this is one in a series of Trailblazers cross posts to make up for my abysmal showing for the past few days.

Trailblazers, Bright and Bold, with it’s slightly different title, is in a way the prototype for the Trailblazers I’ve been writing on this tumblr. So not everything in these cross posts would make the final cut of the hypothetical complete Trailblazers fic.

This one is set approximately… eight-nine years in the future? (as in, the actual future, in which everyone is now late teens/early twenties. Hence “Epilogue Arc”). The reason why I’m unsure is because this is supposed to be the one of the last few scenes of Trailblazers since Tetsuki’s literal deadline is approaching soon.

Like the first of these Trailblazers cross posts, this one is about my bewilderingly strong feels for the TetsukixKusakabe ship. Actually… my very first drabble on this tumblr was Tetsuki trying to buy a wedding ring for him. It’s like I’ve come full circle…]]

~

Their wedding is a beautiful one.

Not perfect, no, not at all, but beautiful nonetheless. It’s the first wedding amongst the tenth Vongola generation so it’s somewhat more political than they’d prefer, being obligated to invite allied Family members, but it helps that most of them are friends anyway.

The number of guests, though, means that the Foundation members not out on missions have to function as security–though Tetsuya has been calling them all ushers, even the ones with sniper rifles positioned on the rooftops of adjacent buildings–but they seem happy with it, glad to be there in person rather than wait for the video to be put together. She still can hardly believe how fond of her they are, calling her Ane-san even though she’s younger than most of them.

It’s a western-style wedding, but it’s held in Namimori. For all that they both work for the Italian mafia, they wouldn’t even consider marrying anywhere else. Kyouya-san wouldn’t let them, even if it does mean many of their guests have to travel halfway around the world. Kyouya-san is paying for the wedding after all.

Well, sort of. The caterer and florist are both Namimori-born; when Kyouya-san was mentioned, they offered their services for free. For different reasons: the caterers know who really runs Namimori and would never dare insult him while, apparently, the florists are huge fans of the Hibari manor gardens.

Her dress was made by Haru, of course, and even though she rejected Spanner’s attempts to mechanize it, Tetsuki’s pretty sure there’s still a layer of Flame reactive armor sewn in. Haru’s gotten better at subtlety, though, or perhaps Kyoko intervened because it’s not overly flashy or frilly or have anything overtly odd like wings. She even made a little bow-tie for Yuzuru, which is most likely also made out of Flame reactive metal.

Lambo’s the ring-bearer, even though he claimed he’s too old–but he was easy enough to trick when Kyoko told him how important the ring was in a wedding. How the ring-bearer is more like a ring-guardian. He’s almost electrocuted three guests already, but even in her flower girl dress, I-pin is just as quick as ever to stop him while Kyoko soothes things over with the almost victims.

With all that she’s been doing behind the scenes, Kyoko probably should have been her maid of honor, but she just smiled and said she liked the first choice better. She’s still a bridesmaid, of course, along with Haru and Chrome, but her best friend has always been Ryohei. He’s her man of honor–it’s not traditional, no, but neither of them really care–and he’s walking her down the aisle.

He cried when she asked him to, and she just huffed at him and asked who else did he think she’d consider; honestly Ryohei, even though he’s the Boss, Tsuna’s still so nervous about the strangest things.

If Kyouya-san hated crowds even a little bit less, he would have been Tetsuya’s best man. She knows he’s watching from somewhere, but she hasn’t actually seen him, just Tsuna’s increasingly twitchy eye that means he is around and possibly challenging guests and allies to fights or he and Mukuro are causing possible structural damage to the church.

As it is, Romario-san is the best man, which is fortunate because he’ll be near the center of attention and that means Chiavarone tripping and breaking something won’t be. Although, they’ve been suspiciously scanning the grounds for what she suspects is a missing Enzio. If that turtle ends up interrupting the wedding she won’t be the only one, or even the first one, in line to strangle Chiavarone.

That dubious honor goes to Fuuta and Bianchi. Who are looking over everything in a meticulous and exceedingly crazed manner–they’re the wedding planners, an odd, somewhat worrying, but surprisingly effective partnership which has made even Kyouya-san concede in a few wedding decisions (she and Tetsuya hadn’t even tried).

They’re both wearing tastefully simple silver domino masks, which means Fuuta’s doing so out of solidarity or they have really been hanging around each other for too long and have fused into some sort of hive-mind. It’s not exactly the weirdest thing to happen in their lives.

It’s all beautiful. Ridiculous and mad, of course, and nothing like perfect, but it’s beautiful.

She can’t do this.

~

[[A/N: Obviously, this drabble is incomplete, seeing as how she does end up married to Kusakabe. But whether that means they both ignore the ceremony and elope, or Tetsuki shakes off the last second doubts and follows through… I kind of forget what I had planned. I do remember Gokudera was supposed to talk to her (after Ryohei, the Guardian she is closest to is meant to be Gokudera… though that’s probably because Hibari is resistant to being close to anyone not under his control. It’s ranked as such: Ryohei, Gokudera, Hibari, Chrome, Yamamoto, Mukuro.

It’s a relationship built out of having similar childhoods (despite him being part of the mafia world) and the resulting mix of caustic distrustfulness and low self-esteem. Also, expository dialogue which Tetsuki would ask for in order to better understand the mafia world.

Also, after me, Hibari is the biggest TetsukixKusakabe shipper. As are the entire Disciplinary Committee, even from the beginning 😀 ]]

The Green Knight, Part Seven (2015-05-20)

The small alliance of three is all she can manage before Merlin enters and all of the recruits stand to face him, more or less at attention. She doesn’t, partially because she’s already met him and he has less leverage over her than he does the rest of the group, mostly because she was never in the military and doesn’t see the point in mimicking the others.

Neither of her allies do either, and while she is pretty sure it’s not because they are following her lead, it gives a nice sense of nonverbal solidarity. Considering how well they seem to be communicating without words, she may just never speak to them.

She writes her alias on the body bag tag in kanji, so simple, only two characters and not even particularly complex ones at that. For next of kin she writes storm instead of lightning. She’s already been guaranteed she won’t die, but just in case, she figures Hayato-kun ought to be the first to know. So Vongola can avenge her properly.

When the recruits are left alone again, this time with no interruptions in sight, some of the herbivores go to pick on one of her allies. She’s had enough experience in being Ryohei’s best friend that she’s about to clamber over the bed between them to stand next to him, regardless of the fact that they would still be outnumbered, but he holds a hand out towards her and their third ally and shakes his head.

She acquiesces. But she seethes all the while as those herbivores insinuate and insult him. As if his class, as if his race, made him less worthy. And yet, he stands there with a skeptical, almost amused expression on his face.

Then she sees what their other ally is doing–not watching the spectacle, but making eye contact with the other neutral recruits. Most of them ignore him, but others nod in acknowledgment, in agreement. By the time the loudest herbivores have finished bellowing at, what she thinks even Kyouya-senpai would consider, an impressively composed carnivore their herd has decreased in number. And herds are only as dangerous as their numbers.

Before lights out her little alliance of three grows to an alliance of five, still entirely nonverbal.

~

A/N: So short. Sorry.

The Green Knight, Part 6 (2015-05-18)

There few things more frightening to a woman than a man with a larger sense of entitlement than manners. The situation is worse when it is a young foreign woman; moreover, when instead of one man it is multiple.

Regardless of her abilities, her hidden gadgets, her experience despite her age… there is still that instinctive fear. Her father hadn’t needed physical violence to strike fear in her heart. It wasn’t Xanxus and Byakuran’s weapons that had made them so monstrous. And even as she stepped away from successful missions, there were always moments when she would pause and wonder–has Reborn finally killed me?

Nervous Japanese girl somehow suckered into the role of mafia assassin; it was an easy mask to wear in front of the Kingsman because it was partially true. And so there was no difficulties in assuming it in the face of the other recruits. Arthur spoke true, she is of a different demographic than the majority of the recruits. And what is different is often misunderstood and reviled.

But she is not the only one. Three of twelve recruits, including herself, are not white. Three of twelve recruits, including herself, are not male. Sure, she is the only overlap, but she is not quite alone.

As the room fills, she is aware of a divide occurring; she automatically on one side without a choice. And so she sits, watches as a bunch of overly entitled men mob together. A herd of herbivores, Kyouya-senpai would scoff, disdainful. But even a herd of wildebeest can kill a lion.

But she is not alone. She meets the eyes of the lanky, curled up man across from her; holds the gaze until he nods and she nods back. Then she looks over at the bed two down from hers, no longer is that man reclining, hood shadowing his face, but he has sat up–feet planted firmly on the ground. As if sensing her, he turns away from the herd and looks at her. When she quirks an eyebrow at him, he smiles, a bright sickle of gleaming teeth.

Perhaps growing up best friends with the most obnoxious boy in town has skewed her interactions with different genders. Because while she finds it easy to nonverbally form an alliance with the two non-white male recruits (and somehow assert dominance over at least one of them while doing so), she can’t draw the courage to do so with the two other female recruits.

It’s true that there are few things more frightening to a woman than a man with a larger sense of entitlement than manners. One of them is another woman whose skills and motivations are unknown.

~

A/N: Slap-dash because I realized it was past midnight 😦

I must admit, it’s because I am watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries which is a FANTASTIC show. HIGHLY RECOMMEND (it’s on Netflix!)

Part Six of The Green Knight series… and I still haven’t gotten to the actual exams yet D:

The Green Knight, Part 4 (2015-05-10)

The taxi which is not a taxi takes them to a tailor shop on Savile Row. The shop turns out to be a front, or rather, a cover to a secret underground tunnel which has a bullet train. She’s impressed by how unnecessarily deep the dressing room elevator goes–considering how ludicrous the Vongola mansion and the Foundation’s Namimori base are, that’s really saying something.

The bullet train brings them to what she can only describe as a giant garage filled with not only a multitude of cars, but several planes, and possibly boats. She lets the awe show on her face, spots in her peripheral vision that Galahad is smirking with good-natured pride beside her.

The Secchione Sezione specialize primarily in personal defense, gadgets more than vehicles, inventions that utilize Flames for an individual’s needs. Except for the occasional trips back to Namimori, most of the famiglia stay in Italy (vice versa for Kyouya-senpai); the aberrations to that rule are the Mist guardians (and Joshima and Kakimoto) and herself. Unsurprising, due to the shared nature of their missions.

The point, though, is that it’s not feasible to have a car, much less a plane, run on Flames. Vongola makes do with buying top of the line vehicles from whichever company Spanner disdains the least, then tweaking it slightly. They don’t have a need for a fleet of vehicles, she knows, but damn if the Kingsman garage isn’t impressive.

“Lucky for you, we ain’t late this time,” Galahad says, guiding her down a hallway, thankfully without any encroachment into her personal space.

She startles when she realizes that Arthur disappeared during her brief distraction by the garage. She hadn’t noticed at all.

Galahad politely does not comment on that, merely continues his own line of thought, “For me, my proposer ended up leavin’ a lot to chance, so of fucking course I was the last one in.”

“Proposer?”

“Well, yeah. Each of the current knights propose a candidate to get tested. We’re a little short on knights, though…”

Which means more spots to fill, but less recruits to choose from. The quality of knights would arguably decrease, at the very least they would be inexperienced. It’s a potential weakness, but if she learned nothing else from her teenaged years it’s that experience doesn’t always mean strength.

The lack of knights seems like a sore point, not one she should ask after. Not that she would need to, it’s obvious why so many agents would need to be replaced in such a short time. While Valentine’s Day triggered mindless aggression in most of the human population, for those whose wave energy had already been activated into Flames (which was most, if not all, of Vongola) it had just switched on their Dying Will Mode. Vongola Mansion spent their time intermittently experiencing extreme focus for no apparent reason–productivity for that day had been a record all time high. (Tsunayoshi-kun had finished enough paperwork to finally see the wood of his desk and actually burst into tears)

“Who is my proposer?” She asks instead, scolding herself for getting lost in her own thoughts.

“Technically, that would be me,” Merlin says, “Though Galahad was the one to think of it; a fine idea don’t you think, Azusa-san?”

Said knight flushes slightly at the praise.

She nods, she’s certainly grateful–because the alternative was to face abject boredom. That would be crass to admit, though, so instead she responds with, “Yes, Tempesta was honored to receive the invitation…”

So it’s a bit of an exaggeration for Hayato-kun. While not honored, he did see it as a good opportunity and was glad that she had agreed to it. As they measured her abilities through the trials, she could see what a Kingsman recruit went through to become a knight.

She herself would be a test in response.

~

A/N: Okay… so, because I’m terribly cliche, I’m thinking of calling this series The Green Knight and having the Kingsman position in question be for Gawain. Because… Lightning flames are greeeeeeeen. And she’s definitely not going to be a Kingsman agent so… mreh?

Ugh, I’m sorry this was greatly uninspired over all.

Continuation of this post. Will now tag everything in this series as The Green Knight. I apologize in advance for dirtying the tag, actual Arthurian fans 😦

The Green Knight, Part 2 (2015-05-06)

In the three days counting down before she’s due in the United Kingdom, her friends begin crawling out of the woodwork. They want to speak to her, give her tips, give her more gadgets, get in some last minute sparring. Tsunayoshi-kun earnestly assures her that she doesn’t have to go, but he appreciates her willingness in improving alliance relations. Kyoko ever so politely requests a full-blown medical before she goes, monitoring her health with her newest legion of Vongola medics. The Secchione Sezione (“R&D! Italian isn’t even your native language!”), once they’ve let go of their grudge, ply her with the newest version of contact lenses, armor, and a less bulky container to store Yuzuru.

Even Kyouya-senpai deigns to visit the Vongola mansion and demand a fight before jetting back to Namimori. Truth be told, she would have preferred to see her fiancé one last time instead, but her and Tetsuya’s engagement has always been one of distance and enduring love. She handles her disappointment with grace.

Ryohei, perhaps getting back at all the times she’s teased him about dating Hana, sends Tetsuya several pictures of her pouting. He sends back a short video of him blowing a kiss–or at least he tries to, his pompadour makes selfies difficult–nonetheless it makes her laugh.

The evening before her flight she asks Spanner, regarding the contact lenses, “How strong is the video feed?”

Haru despairs of her insistence on brown lenses (“Why not green, to match your Flames?”), comprehending but not agreeing with why she would cover her pale grey eyes with such a normal color. Shouichi-kun still tends to develop stomach cramps if she hangs around for too long–a remnant from a mission for which he was her handler that neither of them will comment on. So Spanner, apathetic to the core, is the one that gets to field her questions.

“Pretty strong,” He answers noncommittally, before guessing where she’s trying to go with her question, “We have a few relays set up around Europe, so as long as they don’t whisk you away to a different continent we should be able to receive it here. And, as long as you’re powering it with Flames it’ll last you for months.”

The length of the Kingsman trials… provided she gets to the final round, of course.

“We’ll set your feed up on one of the 24-hour monitors,” He continues, his blasé tone contradicting his words.  

It’s a huge relief; something she didn’t really know she was worried about until he said it. She’s a little touched, too. Vongola only has three 24-hour monitors, manned constantly by rotating teams of handlers and on-call reinforcements. One of them is devoted solely to Tsunayoshi-kun (which used to get him flustered but, by this point, he’s become desensitized to his lack of privacy). The other two’s usage depends on what missions are out there, the more vital or dangerous ones taking precedence. The Kingsman trials are practically a training exercise with their allies, so she’s a little embarrassed that she had any concerns. Much less concerns so overt that her family are pulling out all the stops to reassure her.

“Thanks,” She says honestly, any doubts and hesitation gone. She’s a guardian of the Vongola Famiglia–and her family has her back.

~

A/N: HOW HAVE I STILL NOT GOTTEN TO THE RIGHT COUNTRY YET, MUCH LESS THE ACTUAL TESTS. OH MY GOD.

This is a direct continuation of this post (which is, in and of itself, a distant sequel to this post).

The Green Knight, Part 1 (2015-05-05)

The thing about being a mafia assassin is that, once said mafia famiglia stops being a crime organization and starts being a vigilante group, the need for assassinations decreases significantly. She isn’t exactly out of a job, because technically she’s a Guardian, not just any run-of-the-mill assassin (though it could be argued that any assassin isn’t run-of-the-mill, much less one from Vongola, much less one of the Decimo’s guardians), but she does end up having a lot more free time on her hands.

It’s gotten to the point where even the Secchione Sezione (“We are R&D!”) are getting sick of her hanging around and offering to test out their latest and greatest gadgets. She’s also careful not to push too much of her luck with the Foundation. Though the members remain rather fond of her, Kyouya-senpai is still disdainful of any crowding.

She sighs gustily, sprawled out on Hayato-kun’s office sofa which is positioned so perfectly in sunbeam. Uri who, unsurprisingly, tolerates her more than he does his master, is similarly sprawled over the back of the sofa. Yuzuru, her own box weapon familiar, is coiled up in his smaller form on her stomach. At the ensuing silence, she sighs again. The figure at the desk twitches but says nothing.

“Don’t make me do it again,” She warns lazily, fingers tracing along Yuzuru’s smooth, scaly body. He reciprocates by flicking his tongue  along her wrist in a friendly manner.

“Tch, just because you don’t have any work doesn’t mean the rest of us are similarly blessed,” Hayato-kun half-heartedly grumbles, typing continuously.

“Surely there must be something I can do? I’m beginning to become superfluous. You’re going to have an excess of bored Lightning natureds if this keeps up,” She thinks about Lambo-kun who, though much better than he was seven years ago when they first met, is still a force of mayhem. While she’s not quite at that level, she’ll admit to having some destructive tendencies of her own.

Whether he’s thinking the same thing or not, it makes Hayato-kun pause, shudder, and finally look in her direction, “Haru and Spanner are being productive,” Technically, Haru and Spanner are both dual natured Lightning and Storm. But she gets what he’s trying to say.

“But they’ve always been part of Secchione Sezione–”

“–They prefer to be called R&D–”

“And plus, I’ve already been by to see if they’d like my help. And they just turned me away,” She sighs once more, lolling her head around the sofa. It’s a very nice sofa.

“Well if you’re that bored…” Hayato-kun begins, turning back to his screen and sending a file to her contact lenses. As computers, the contact lenses have minimal memory, more suited to operating the aiming system and relaying video feed to the Vongola network. But within the vicinity of said network, it can be used to share small files for convenience. Or out of laziness.

“The Kingsman?” She wouldn’t say their meeting with the Kingsman was a disaster, necessarily. It had certainly gone better than what she had either hoped or expected. But she was sure they were at the level of civility and courtesy rather than beginning to swap favors. Even though the file–more a missive, really, from the one they called Merlin–is entirely in English, her fourth language of fluency, she thinks she gets the gist of it, “Why do they want one of us to take their tests? Surely they know Vongola is going to take priority over anything from them,”

“It makes sense,” Hayato-kun argues with a shrug, “They don’t actually want us to be one of their agents, they want to see what our abilities are. Seeing how far a member of Vongola, Guardian or not, can get through their tests gives them a good approximation of our relative strength.”

It’s when Hayato-kun talks like this, frankly and freely, that makes her realize how much all of them have grown. Six years ago he would have been crowing about how any Vongola member would breeze through such a test; as if being part of Vongola, being part of Tsunayoshi-kun’s famiglia, somehow made a person invincible by proxy. And while the Hayato-kun of six years ago (then still Gokudera-kun) had been willing to speak of his own personal insecurities to her, he would have rather cut out his own tongue than say anything negative of Tsunayoshi-kun (then still Sawada-kun) or his inheritance.

“Ah, is that so?” She demurs, briefly, “What were you thinking of doing with the…” She pauses, unsure of how to phrase it, “… invite?”

“To be honest, I was going to refuse it. I considered sending one of the more combat focused of Shamal’s subordinates–”

“–Kyoko’s minions–”

“But better to not send anyone than give a poor showing. Or worse, reveal Flames to them. The alliance we have with them is still precarious, we don’t want to give them more than we need to,” He continues, disregarding her interjection.

“It’s for several months though, why not send Mukuro or Chrome? They haven’t been as active recently either,”

Hayato-kun looks at her flatly, almost edging towards disbelief, “Because the alliance we have with them is still precarious,” he repeats, “And we do actually want them to trust us.”

Considering how the Mist guardians’ missions usually end up… yeah. She sees his point.

“Does that mean you trust me?” She smiles teasingly.

“I trust you not to fuck up,” He bites back, though a hint of a blush creeps along his face, “And you’re bored. Prendere due piccioni con una fava,”

“If you say so,” She agrees mildly. Which only causes him to blush more.

“I’ll send a confirmation and have the details sent to you. Now get out of my office!”

Oh, Hayato-kun, still so easily flustered. But she decides not to push him, because he did just give her a reprieve from boredom. So she leaves, gently draping Yuzuru over one shoulder, from which he settles himself around her neck with familiarity. For his sake, she tries not have too much bounce in her step; but she can’t help it–she’s excited.

~

A/N: BECAUSE THIS WOULDN’T LEAVE MY HEAD AND IT WAS BUGGING ME AND I WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE THAT ISN’T SO PAINFULLY DERIVATIVE. AND I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO THE ACTUAL PARTS THAT WERE BUGGING ME. So… I guess expect future installments of this. This post is itself kind of a continuation to this post.

For context: POV character is my OC Lightning Guardian, Tetsuki Kaiza from Trailblazers, a KHR fic I’m maybe not actually writing. She’s a year older than Tsuna/Gokudera/Yamamoto/etc, the same age as Ryohei, and a year younger than Hibari.

Also, “Secchione Sezione” means Nerd Department/Section. The two words sound remarkably similar to me–though I don’t actually speak Italian–so I thought it’d be a teasing/informal way to call Vongola’s R&D. And “Prendere due piccioni con una fava” means “To catch two pigeons with one fava bean,” which is basically the Italian equivalent of “Kill two birds with one stone.”

Word Prompts (N16): Numbers

This exam is a farce. She knows it, Anko-senpai knows it, even the Hokage knows it. But she still has to participate anyway.

Standing amongst the other victors of the preliminaries is so strange. All of them lined up on the arena floor, as if they were all equals. As if she weren’t superior to them.

She’s proud of her chuunin rank, and it grates to be considered a talented genin instead. On the other hand, it’s ridiculously amusing that her two bunshin teammates are also standing in the line. As if they were as human as the rest.

Anko-senpai offers the box full of papers for the final tournament, a sly smile curling on her lips. Normally Tetsuki, the Tetsuki of Konoha, would make a silly face back perhaps stick out her tongue because she is a coworker and a junior and a friend; confident in her place. But here and now she is Tetsuki of Kumo, a genin from an enemy land, whose confidence would be nothing more than bravado when faced with a Konoha jounin.

So Tetsuki bares her teeth. Next to her, her bunshin teammates react accordingly. Hibari-senpai’s stoicism doesn’t waver, but Ryohei’s smile edges just that little bit towards manic.

The papers are altered tags which can change their content however it pleases the holder of the box. In this case, Anko-senpai.

Tetsuki of Konoha trusts her. Anko-senpai wouldn’t make her suffer through this cover for an additional month if it weren’t for a good reason.

But the Tetsuki of Kumo doesn’t know that. She looks at the numbers, at the match-ups, and sees how her two teammates are paired off against each other. All the better to reduce Kumo’s odds of promotion, no doubt. Tetsuki of Konoha knows that it’s really to keep her bunshin’s strength in reserve, but that is not her right now. And so she can only glare balefully at the Konoha jounin around her. Can only turn away from the Konoha genin, especially the one that looks too chillingly like the nightmare fodder of Yellow Flash, and walk away.

~

A/N: I DID NOT KNOW I WAS PAST MIDNIGHT. HAVE THIS TINY-ASS DRABBLE OF EXTERNALITY. And, remember, kids, Externality is a SI!OC from my KHR fic Trailblazers reincarnated into the Naruto universe.