Strength
In the years that Neville had been employed as the Head Gardener of the Vongola Estate, he had had many opportunities to examine his Boss, and his Boss's Guardians. Mr Sawada was calm and kind, with an incredibly soothing presence. Something about him reminded Neville of Harry, although their temperaments were incredibly different. Harry was the archetypal Gryffindor, where Mr Sawada was a Hufflepuff through and through.
The most interesting person, however, was not Mr Sawada but Miss Dokuro. The Mist Guardian enjoyed wandering the gardens when she had free time, so Neville had naturally got to know her better than her comrades. She was quiet, almost shy, despite her provocative way of dressing. Neville, used to the conservatives fashions of Wizarding England, had almost had a heart attack when she came up to him to ask about the flowers, dressed in a skirt that hardly covered anything and a shirt that exposed her stomach.
Chrome, as Miss Dokuro insisted he call her, reminded him so much of Luna that it hurt. They were both quiet, and slightly out of step with the world. They didn't fit in, they didn't quite have a place. Neville saw how the other Guardians kept a seemingly unconscious distance from her, with only Mr Sawada embracing her fully. Neville thought it was a shame that the people she called friends, when their conversations moved from flowers and landscaping to more personal areas, couldn't see her properly. They distrusted her, because her loyalty was not only to Mr Sawada, but to someone else as well.
Neville remembered how Luna had been quiet, and distant, when he saw in the corridors before they had become friends. She had been a washed-out pencil drawing, compared to the vibrant painting she had become. Chrome was like that. When she had friends, when she had people to be loyal to, she was strong. Like Luna, her physical fragility concealed an incredible strength, and a truly terrifying amount of power. Neville hoped that Chrome's fellow Guardians would realise soon how much she had to give her family, if only they were willing to accept it.
So this is the first in my 'Random' series! I generate a random word, and two random characters, and write a fic. Because I'm choosing characters from multiple fandoms, these ficlets will be posted separately.
