Title: An Auspicious Beginning

Author: sllebswap

Beta'd by: MelissaRose85

Characters/Pairing: Miura Haru and Belphegor

Type: One-Shot (Complete)

Genre: Romance/General/Humor

Word Count: 7751

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira-san.

Summary: TYL ficlet. The mission hadn't even begun, and already they were at each other's throats.

Chapter Last Revised on: 03/02/13

An Auspicious Beginning

"-your objectives for this mission are clear cut; aid in the retrieval of the artifact in any way necessary, guard said artifact during the process of relocation, and due to the fact that the target is technically a distant ally of the Famiglia, absolute discretion is necessary, so do not engage unless you have no other choice. Do you understand, Belphegor?"

Superbia Squalo, the Rain Unit Commander of the Varia Assassination Squad as well as the second-in-command, glanced at his fellow colleague only to scowl when he noticed that the blonde dunderhead wasn't even paying him a lick of attention.

"Voi! Are you listening to me, you overgrown brat!" the tall, silver-haired swordsman thundered with irritation, glowering irritably at the seemingly frivolous and self-centered young man. In response, the golden-haired young man in question merely continued to lounge unaffectedly on the armchair in the study, idly swirling his glass of scotch in one hand and lazily flipping his incensed coworker the bird with the other.

"I heard you loud and clear, you longwinded geezer," Belphegor drawled in a deliberately blasé manner that was sure to agitate Squalo further. "Not all of us here are getting so advanced in age that we require hearing aids, you know."

Sure enough, a long string of expletives spoken in fluent Italian was promptly directed his way, courtesy of his esteemed and hot-tempered second-in-command. Belphegor just smirked in that incredibly annoying manner he was known for and saluted the high strung Rain Flame wielder with his shot glass. More curses and creative swearwords quickly followed, this time in five other different languages, and at long last, Squalo had to forcibly fall back upon the deep breathing techniques that he had been forced to learn in anger management classes to keep from pulling out a sword and maiming that pain-in-the-backside Belphegor.

And here Xanxus always wondered why he could not seem to control his temper effectively. That was really rich, coming from the same person who regularly destroyed buildings and saw nothing wrong with causing massive property damage whenever he was in the middle of one of his rage-induced episodes. His teammates were really going to be the death of him one day, thought the irritable Squalo. Understandably not in a good mood (not that he often was in a good mood, but that was beside the point), the Rain Varia snapped at the blonde.

"Just get ready to move out; the Main Family representative has already arrived and is waiting for you outside. You will need to liaise with her and come up with a proper operation plan that you both can agree on-"

"Her?" Belphegor interrupted then, pausing mid-sip of his alcoholic beverage.

Squalo rolled his eyes impatiently. "Yes, her. As in a reference to a female person. Do you have a problem with that, Belphegor?"

Now, it was the blonde's turn to appear slightly irritated. "Very witty, old man," the Storm Varia rebutted. "I assumed that I'd be working with either Gokudera or Yamamato as usual. So it's Rokudo Mukoro's double this time? The eye patch woman?"

It made sense, since she was the only female Guardian in the Decimo's Famiglia. Imagine Belphegor's surprise when Squalo shook his head in negative affirmation. "Neither of the Guardians nor the Tenth must be seen anywhere near the vicinity of the target area when the artifact goes missing, so they will not be participating directly in this mission. Instead, they have assigned a secondary member to take over."

Belphegor scowled, obviously displeased with the news. He looked at the older male accusingly. "You didn't tell me that I was going to have to babysit as well."

"I didn't tell you because there was nothing to tell," Squalo retorted. "I was told that that the Main Family representative is more than capable of pulling her own weight in this assignment, and she is about just as happy to partner with you as you are with her, by the way."

"Great; then we can just save each other the trouble and complete the mission separately," Belphegor rebutted.

"No. You will get this done together with the woman even if it kills you," Squalo answered bluntly. "The condition is stated very explicitly on the mission file; one of you will be in charge of the actual heist whereas the other has to be on guard at all times to prevent detection. Since you are drafted for the latter role, I assume that she will take responsibility for the former. This artifact supposedly possesses some special qualities that the higher ups would like to examine further, so retrieve it by hook or by crook, and for heaven's sake, make sure that the theft will not be linked back to us."

Belphegor was most definitely not impressed with his role in the grand scheme of things. "Oh sure," the blonde muttered sarcastically. "All the rep has to do is hold on to the artifact and run while I take care of all the hard work. 'More than capable of pulling her own weight,' indeed. I'm sure anyone with an IQ of over fifty can do the same as well."

Squalo was tired of hearing the younger man whine, though. "Just get the damn job done. You can moan about it all you want to someone who actually cares when you get back. I'm calling the representative in right now; try not to antagonize her until I'm no longer around to be obligated to clean up your messes."

Belphegor's response was to simply chuck one of his scalpels blade-first at the Rain Varia, who didn't even look as he effortlessly deflected the weapon with his prosthetic arm. The man did leave the room shaking his head in disgruntlement though, muttering under his breath about ridiculously juvenile colleagues who desperately needed some maturity. Said juvenile colleague ignored him, of course; Squalo was known to be pissy twenty days out of thirty every month and this time was obviously no different.

Instead, the assassin Prince turned his thoughts to his reluctantly acquired new partner. God, he hated working with women. They either loved him or hated him, and most of the time it was the former, due to his unashamedly professed good looks and wealthy background. Unfortunately for those star-struck females, picky bastard that he was, he seldom if ever chose to acknowledge their idiotic feelings of affection, thereby quickly incurring their indignant wrath and fury. It was hardly his fault that they weren't good enough to meet his lofty expectations, and it sure as hell wasn't his fault since they were the ones who chose to throw themselves at him in first place but of course those females never saw it that way. This time was probably not going to be any different, and just thinking about it quickly made Belphegor feel even more annoyed than he already was.

The blonde moodily downed his glass of scotch in a single swallow. Sprawled on his armchair in the darkened corner of the study, he was scowling most disagreeably at the bright, crackling fire in the fireplace when he heard the door open, as well as Squalo's voice as he led the newcomer in.

"Miura Haru, you will find your partner for the mission in here." As usual, the Rain Varia was brisk and no-nonsense as always, and his short, crisp tone hinted heavily of his military background. Belphegor turned his head slightly to study the two silhouettes under the doorframe, the confident approach of Squalo's tall, broad-shouldered form preceding that of a lithe, much smaller figure, who was moving quite cautiously and gingerly, clearly not comfortable with the new environment.

The obvious skittishness of the woman rubbed Belphegor the wrong way; even without the formal introduction, he could already see that she behaved like a greenhorn amateur—was definitely a greenhorn amateur—stark proof that he was indeed stuck with babysitting duty after all and that pissed him off like nothing else. This was going to be a terrible mission as it was, so perhaps he should just save himself the trouble and get rid of half the problem right now. The blonde idly calculated the proper trajectory that his knives would need to be launched at as well as the speed they would need to achieve impact to prevent from being deflected by Squalo, all within the blink of an eye. His blades materialized between his long, narrow fingers silently and swiftly, and taking advantage of the fact that he was completely hidden in shadows, he quickly dispatched the deadly weapons in the direction of the small form, pushing a quick burst of Storm Flames behind his throw so as to further expedite the flight of the blades.

Squalo, true to form as the formidable second-in-command of the Varia, immediately swore when he realized what happened a heartbeat later. By then, he was too late to interfere; the knives were already too near, he was unable to intercept them in time, and they both knew it. The silver-haired swordsman didn't even have the opportunity to call out a warning; Belphegor's specialty attacks relied on speed and the latter always made sure that they were so blindingly fast that they could not be evaded—and this time was no different-

—Except for the rather glaring fact that he had never tried to kill one Miura Haru before, who quickly turned out to not be so easy to 'do in' as he had first assumed.

The woman either possessed the best or the worst luck ever, for before his blades could bury themselves into their targets, she managed to trip clumsily over her own feet, losing her balance spectacularly and falling backwards onto the ground with a completely ungainly sprawl and a heavy thump, hitting the back of her head against the floor with a sharp crack loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room even as his usually accurate attack sailed harmlessly over her.

For a brief moment, no one spoke.

Then, Belphegor broke the silence, swearing irritably. "Damn. I missed."

To be completely technical though, he hadn't. Not really. His blades would have sunk deep into her vital organs if she had remained exactly where she was, but it seemed that her sense of self-preservation was so acute that it had forced her body to react long before her conscious mind was aware of the danger. Of course, the execution of the feint itself was less than impressive and the woman was still lying there in shock like a piece of soggy lettuce, but perhaps this assignment wouldn't be as complete an annoyance as he had originally assumed.

After all, if all else failed, then at least it would be entertaining to watch his 'partner' attempt to evade the attacks of their enemies.

But first, there was an extremely annoyed colleague to see to.

Squalo turned to scowl at the unrepentant idiot lurking in the semi-darkness of the study, his eyelid ticking from the force of his displeasure. He quickly checked on the main Family representative, and thankfully enough, she was just dazed from her fall and not badly injured like he had assumed.

"Voi! You fucking moron! What have I told you? If you want to murder allies, don't do it in front of me!"

Twenty-four year old Miura Haru frowned subtly at the partner whom she had been made to work with for this mission. They were inside the darkened interior of a vehicle, finally commuting towards the target destination after barely resolving the awkwardness of their initial encounter.

Or rather, Squalo had merely picked up her stunned and unresisting form from the ground, carried her out of the building with all the delicacy and care of an angry rhinoceros, and then pushed her unceremoniously into the waiting car, all the while yelling at the golden-haired man who was currently sitting across from her and who hadn't stopped smiling that disconcertingly vague smile since the moment she first set eyes on him. He hadn't spoken to her at all either, just kept playing with those lethal-looking scalpels in his hand, twirling and spinning the gleaming, metallic blades between his fingers so gracefully and effortlessly that Haru was extremely uncomfortable with the picture of subtle threat that he presented.

"I'm aware that I'm a very attractive individual, woman, but there's no need to keep gaping at me like a halfwit."

Haru was so surprised by the silky drawl that she only managed to stare at the source in what appeared to be a rather startled manner for a moment or so. Then, she finally processed his words and stiffened with indignation and disbelief. The arrogance of the man was simply astounding, and Haru was briefly at a loss for words.

"I wasn't gaping at you!" she denied hotly at last. The brunette scowled fiercely and continued. "And you are also not attractive at all! In fact, I find you appallingly rude and unappealing! You could have killed me just now; why on earth would I find you attractive?"

At her angry outburst, the blonde finally took his attention off the scenery outside to look at the disgruntled female. His dexterous fingers paused briefly in their agile manipulation of the scalpel blades as he studied her flushed and worked up features, and then he tilted his head ever so slightly and smirked.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," the cocky Varia Commander remarked, merely quirking a brow at her comically outraged expression. "And besides, you are still alive, aren't you? No harm, no foul."

He even shrugged casually to emphasize his point, much to Haru's increasing agitation. There and then, the infuriated woman wondered if it would reflect badly on her maturity as an adult if she reached over and tried to strangle the stupid man at that moment. Something in the assassin's taunting little grin told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking though, and that he was actively goading her to put her thoughts into action. Thankfully, that was enough to convince her to restrain herself, not to mention the sliver glints of extremely sharp metal also served as a significantly powerful deterrent to her more homicidal inclinations.

Something told her that this man, who reminded her most strangely of a sly Cheshire cat, would not hesitate to retaliate in kind if she chose to approach him with violence. And of course, just to make matters even more uncomfortable, they hadn't even begun the mission proper yet.

Already, Haru could tell that this was going to be one of those days where she wished she had never left her bed in the first place. Forcing herself to retain her calm, Haru took a deep breath and tried her best to approach the situation like a rational adult.

"Belphegor-san, I know that we started off on the wrong foot; neither of us wish to work together, but since there's no going around it, I think we should make do and just get the assignment done. After all, the sooner we complete this, the sooner we can return to our individual lives, so please work with me for now."

Haru felt that she was being rather logical and matter-of-fact as she pointed out their inevitable circumstances, but the Storm Varia just looked at her with a sardonically amused air.

"So, you are willing to work with me even when you claim to dislike me? How pathetic," he commented with a small, dismissive scoff.

Haru reddened slightly but chose not to react to his remark. Her pride was stung, but she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders stubbornly, not backing down from the blonde whatsoever.

"Sometimes, you just have to put up with the people you don't like in order to get the job done," Haru replied pointedly. "It's the adult thing to do."

Belphegor eyed the determined expression on the brunette's face with what looked like idle boredom. "How very mature of you," he drawled in a completely deadpan, unimpressed manner, and Haru frowned at him.

"Are you always like this?" she asked. "Sarcastic and unfriendly?"

The golden-haired male chuckled at that, but there was a distinctly mocking undertone to be detected in his laughter. Then, he stopped abruptly and looked at her. "Perhaps I only act this way with individuals who get in the way of my work."

He was being about as subtle as slap to the face. Still, Haru stubbornly persevered.

"I'm not here to hinder you, Belphegor-san. I'm here to do my part as well," she insisted.

"And I'm pretty certain that I do not need your help whatsoever," Belphegor retorted smoothly. "I know! Why don't you just stay in the car later and knit something instead? That'd be very helpful."

The Varia's demeaning remark quickly proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Haru just stared at the man in disbelief before she shook her head and shot him a disgusted look. "You are awful, and if you are going to insist on being this way, then I won't have anything to do with you whatsoever, Belphegor-san."

Still smiling faintly, Belphegor shrugged once more and replied. "Suits me just fine. I'm not here to be best buddies with you, commoner. I don't really care what you do, but just stay out of my way later."

The callous reply was extremely hurtful to someone who thrived on positive interactions with people, and Haru flinched back slightly before she got angry.

"Fine! I don't need your help either, you- you nefarious nincompoop! Odious oaf! Dastardly degenerate!" the brunette berated crossly. She would have yelled out even more bewildering phrases if not for the fact that Belphegor had obviously grown tired of all her bellowing, and in usual Belphegor fashion, he swiftly put an end to it.

Haru yelped and reared back frantically when she sensed rather than saw the blonde's abrupt movement. Ducking instinctively and curling into herself in a manner not unlike that of an alarmed turtle, the young woman barely missed the single sharp blade that came flying at her and flinched when the sleek weapon embedded itself deeply into the leather upholstery of the car seat mere inches away from her ear instead. She stared at the still quivering knife in shock before turning to look at the man in disbelief, though the surprise was quickly wearing off and anger was swiftly taking over.

"Hey! You just tried to kill me again!" she protested with significant displeasure, a cantankerous scowl growing on her face. "That's the second time today!"

He was completely unaffected by her outrage. Still wearing that small, careless smile on his face, he replied unflappably. "There will be a third time soon if you don't keep quiet right now, woman, and you know what they say; third time's the charm and all."

Haru was so upset with his flippant reply that she narrowed her eyes and actually growled at him. Much to her dismay, he merely canted his head slightly to the side in response, his lips stretching slightly to form an undeniable smirk. "Oh? The little kitty cat wants to roar? Are you going to try to use those itty bitty little claws on me next?"

His taunt did nothing to lessen her rising temper, and fuming, Haru bit the insides of her cheek to keep herself from retaliating. Glaring fruitlessly at the lightly chuckling male for a long moment, she at last looked away and just plucked the blade from its impromptu sheathe amongst the upholstery instead. Then, she scowled at him once more, feeling unimaginable indignant over the man's impossibly unpleasant attitude and rude disregard for everything that unconcerned him.

"Look at what you have done!" Haru demanded, outraged. "There was absolutely no need for you to throw that stupid knife of yours all over the place; now the entire upholstery will have to be replaced! Do you even think before you go ahead and do these irresponsible things?!"

Considering her near death experience just mere moments ago, it was surprising that she still possessed the gall to berate him, of all things. The fact that she was actually more concerned about bringing him to task over the stupid seat covers was nothing short of amazing.

It bordered on ridiculous, really.

Belphegor started to wonder if the woman seriously lacked a much needed sense of self-preservation or was just plain stupid.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?!" She was shaking his scalpel at him by then, and that irritated him enough to reach over suddenly and snatch it from her grasp. Their fingers briefly touched and Haru was so disconcerted by the accidental contact that she swiftly pulled back her hand.

She continued to scowl fiercely at him though, simply unwilling to back down.

Belphegor casually re-sheathed his blade, the sleek, metallic weapon disappearing discreetly under his jacket cuff. He sneered slightly with annoyance. Tch, it was becoming pretty obvious that the woman wasn't just going to docilely keep quiet for the rest of the journey. It was really too bad that he had been explicitly warned not to kill his allies. Hmm, perhaps he could just cut off her tongue instead…?

"If you still insist on squawking so, I won't be held accountable for my next action."

His menacing threat did not have the exact effect he predicted; if anything, the strength of the brunette's glower increased, though she did keep her silence. After all, it wasn't as if anything she said was going to change the arrogant jackass who happened to be her mission partner. Huffing with disapproval at last, she sat back on her seat and crossed her arms over her chest defensively, pointedly looking out of the window and ignoring the stuck up, self-centered male.

Which, of course, suited Belphegor just fine, at least until he got bored with the silence some half an hour later and promptly decided that some conversation would be adequate.

"What is your Flame type?"

Somehow, it wasn't very surprising when Haru failed to answer him. Belphegor, being hardly the easily discouraged type, merely raised an eyebrow and continued undauntedly.

"At least, I'm assuming that you have one, of course," the blonde deliberately goaded with a Jester's smile. "Or are you one of those disgustingly useless charity cases that your Decimo likes to take in and get in the way of others' work?"

The last silkily delivered barb quickly did the trick, and bristling slightly, the woman finally turned her head to give him an irritated, insulted stare.

"Nobody is useless in our Famiglia," Haru defended with a sharp frown at the annoying man. "We all pull our own weight in one way or another." She was getting all puffed up like an offended ground squirrel and giving him the stink eye while she was at it but of course he didn't give a whit.

"So you keep saying," he responded in a deliberately blasé manner that was designed to annoy the woman further, and sure enough, she did not disappoint. The brunette was so ridiculously expressive that setting her off was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. It was also strangely amusing to the Storm Varia, mainly because there weren't many outside of his fellow Commanders who would dare mouth off to him, especially those who were aware of his deliberately cultivated reputation of reckless, erratic, maliciousness and sleekly murderous cunning—both of which she was quickly getting quite well acquainted with but yet here she still was, brashly berating him for his less than acceptable conduct or something else altogether; he could not be bothered to pay attention.

Her gutsy (and foolhardy) bravado must be the reason why he was still bemusedly entertaining himself at her outraged expense, and really, she ought to be thankful that he was currently feeling so mellow and laid back, for he could have easily chosen a bloodier alternative method to deal with her.

He did quickly grow tired of her fishwife-like screeching though, and so he interrupted her mid-lecture to repeat his original query. "You still haven't answered my question; what's your Flame type?" the Storm Unit Commander paused deliberately for a beat before tipping his head slightly to the side and taunting lightly. "…Do you not understand my simple question…Or perhaps you just have no Flame whatsoever to speak of?"

He was just trying to needle a response out of her more than anything else; weak abilities aside, there was simply no way that the main Famiglia would send someone completely useless to assist in an assignment which they had a significantly vested interest in.

Imagine his surprise when the woman actually stiffened slightly at his deliberate remark, obviously reacting to what was a rather sore topic, before setting her jaw and jutting her chin out defensively. "So what if I have no Flame whatsoever to speak of?" the brunette shot back with a rather belligerent glower. "I can still get the job done just fine."

Belphegor stared at her, his initial amusement dying an abrupt death. Irritation quickly set in and he started to scowl. That was it; he had been tricked! "You have got to be fucking kidding me," he growled. "Those shitheads sent in a civilian for support?" He sneered at the woman. "If you really want to die so badly, then just say so and I will gladly accommodate your wish right now. If you mess up my game later, I swear there will not be enough pieces of you left over to mail back to your Famiglia."

He was being generously prolific with his threats, as usual, but somehow, the usually reliable tactic of intimidation failed to work on the daft woman. If anything, his silkily venomous words just flew right over her head. The brunette was also looking quite cross herself, and for good reason too.

This was why she hated telling others about her lack of a Flame. People whom she had never worked with before tended to react with caution and outright skepticism before they finally witnessed for themselves that she was indeed capable of pulling her own weight during missions, and then, of course, there were those like Prince Swear-a-Lot here, Royal Highness of all things violent and bloodthirsty, and Haru had learned from past experience that there was really only one way to get people like him to shut up.

In his immense aggravation, he had whipped out one of his scalpels and was playing restlessly with it—she was quickly beginning to notice a correlation between his volatile moods and the sleek blades that he wielded so expertly—and Haru briefly narrowed her eyes at the sharp weapon.

"I'm not entirely a civilian," Haru corrected in a somewhat peevish tone. "If you really want to be technical about it, I'm a specialist. I'm also not supposed to be your support; it's the other way around. You are my support."

In response to her rather…insulting remark, he could only stare at her absolute gall with something akin to disbelief in his gaze. Then, the swear words came pouring out of his potty mouth, and Haru grimaced inwardly as he proceeded to abuse the beautiful-sounding Italian language with a slew of uncouth words.

"You think that I, a royal prince, will just simply submit to your request like that?" he asked, and luckily for the female, he still seemed more incredulous than furious at her insult, though perhaps quite irritated as well.

It quickly turned out that the woman was really asking for trouble, and she proved it by brazenly nodding her head in affirmation of his sharp, sarcastic question.

"I don't just think," she boasted with obstinate bravado. "I know."

He continued to stare at her for a moment or so, and then, without warning, he reacted.

Haru wasn't entirely surprised anymore when his arm suddenly moved and he launched the blade he had been agitatedly fiddling with right at her head. Good lord, she thought exasperatedly, not again.

This time, despite the fact that he had actually put some serious killing intent behind his attack, she still managed to dodge it—and unexpectedly, that wasn't all she did.

Haru was understandably growing rather impatient with her partner's petulant antics, never mind that he was supposed to be two years older than her and really should know better, she thought crossly. Unfortunately, the recruitment requirements of the Varia were more focused towards the skill sets of the individual applicants than on their mental maturity or lack thereof, and therefore Haru would just have to make do with what she was stuck with, or rather, who.

Frowning slightly, Haru reached out abruptly and snatched the blade mid-flight, her unexpected precision revealed in the way she had nimbly plucked the weapon by its narrow hilt with deceptive ease—all the while still glowering disapprovingly at him.

"Stop doing that!" she demanded, shaking his scalpel at him once again in a displeased manner. "Aren't you a bit too old to still be throwing temper tantrums – eeek!"

Haru squawked in shock when the golden-haired assassin moved, one moment reclining against the seats like a sleek, lazy feline, the next rearing up with a swift, fluid motion, long, narrow fingers snapping out to encircle her wrist in a steely grip tight enough to squeeze an involuntary gasp of pain out of her and force her to drop the weapon. Then, with a strength that belied his lean, lanky appearance, he took advantage of her momentary disorientation and jerked her bodily towards him until she was kneeling awkwardly between his legs on the floor of the car.

Belatedly, Haru realized just why her partner was appointed a Commander of the Varia troops; not even accounting for his other skills, the speed in which he had moved had been shockingly inhuman and she was stunned. Still holding her in place, the Storm Prince leaned over her slightly and brought his face close to hers. He paused there and she recovered enough from her initial surprise to stiffen in alarm, trying futilely to jerk away from his firm hold but to no avail. If anything, the blonde increased the pressure on her wrist until she could almost feel the bruises blossoming on her skin.

Haru struggled fruitlessly to escape him only to screech softly when he further tightened his grip on her, so much so that the delicate bones of her ulna and radius were beginning to grind together. Involuntary tears of pain gathered at the corners of her doe-like eyes but she did not allow a single drop to fall. Instead, she scowled ferociously at him despite her obvious discomfort.

In the semi-darkness of the vehicle interior, he studied her obstinate features as she glared angrily at him, color riding high on her cheeks from her physical exertions and growing agitation. "What are you doing?" she whispered angrily. Despite her less than ideal position, he could not help but notice that there was a distinct lack of fear in her demeanor, never mind that she very well should have been feeling afraid and threatened right now. Instead, she seemed more irked by his unreasonable conduct than anything else, and judging by the ire flaring in her eyes, he would not be surprised if she started lecturing him about it soon.

Interesting.

"Heh." Without another word of warning, he released her abruptly and pushed her away, eliciting a startled yelp from her as she fell back and landed awkwardly on her backside. The hair-raising intensity that saturated the air earlier disappeared without a trace as he casually retrieved his fallen scalpel from the floor of the vehicle before returning to rest amongst the seats, resuming his earlier act of ignoring her completely as he observed the passing scenery outside.

Haru was not about to let herself be ignored. Her pride and wrist (as well as bottom) stung from the encounter with the clearly lunatic male, and once she recovered from the shock, she clambered onto the seat opposite his and pointed accusingly at him, scowling ferociously the entire while. "You!" she yelled, seething. "What was that for? That hurt, and you could have broken my arm!"

In response to her pointing out the obvious, he barely paid her any attention, much to her indignant outrage. The blonde, who was quickly turning out to be extraordinarily adept at provoking her usually sedate temper, spared her a bored, disinterested glance that made her blood pressure shoot through the roof. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed."

Belatedly, Haru realized that she wasn't exactly surprised that the man's sarcasm was as effortlessly sharp as the scalpels he wielded with such ease. Unfortunately, that didn't make her urge to reach over and throttle the arrogant ass dwindle.

He had gone back to ignoring her once again after his rather 'enlightening' comment, and Haru twitched visibly with agitation. Whereas the brunette usually didn't prefer to be the center of attention, she was quickly realizing how much she disliked the condescending, dismissive attitude of her Varia partner even more.

"You can't just do something like that and then go off and pretend like nothing happened!" Haru demanded hotly, and like an obstinate bulldog worrying at a meaty bone, even went as far as to lean forward to get in the assassin's personal space, though she didn't appear to be actively aware of it. She was also shaking her fist at him in a genuinely displeased manner, and he eyed her flushed, fuming features with something akin to idle interest. The woman was comically easy to rile, and surprisingly enough, he found that he was more entertained by her tenacious, plucky attitude than actively irritated as he logically should be in the situation, though that could change very quickly if she continued to yell brashly in his face like a crazy banshee.

Overall, interaction with the woman so far could still be considered refreshing, and her strangely fluctuating power level—he had never before met anyone whose potential was rocketing off-the-charts one moment and then practically non-existent the next—proved to be intriguing enough to capture his infamously short attention span.

For now, at least.

Belphegor shrugged nonchalantly at her. "Don't get your panties in a twist," he drawled casually. "I was just checking for your Flame type; you'd be surprised by how quickly a body will react to the stimulus of pain."

Haru was hardly satisfied by his answer. "I already told you earlier that I have no Flame abilities to speak of!"

Her irritable retort made him smirk slightly.

"Why, yes. I know that now, having confirmed it myself."

His silky rejoinder all but made steam pour out of her ears. She could not believe that this man was so—!

"You-!"

Once again, she seemed to have forgotten herself completely, so hopping mad that she was all but invading his personal bubble and up in his face. He was very aware of her position even if she was not; after all, it wasn't often that people would dare do what she was doing right now, unless they were prepared to have at least one of his blades shoved into their eye sockets. Luckily for her, he was currently in a curious, indulgent mood and was more bemused with her random flailing about than anything else.

Belphegor put up with her squawks and sputters for a while before he grew tired of watching her exert that much energy on something completely non-productive—and they hadn't even started the mission proper. His hand reached out suddenly and grabbed her by the lapels of her shirt, pulling her towards him and tipping her off balance. He did not permit her to fall on him, though; instead, with a flick of his wrist, he flipped her onto her back beside him before pinning her down and leaning almost leisurely over her stunned form.

It took Haru a second or so to recover from the shock of the landing, and then she stiffened quickly when she finally realized her own proximity to the assassin Prince. He was so near that her startled exhalation ruffled his burnished gold fringe, and alarmed, Haru tried to draw back from the male only to splay herself flat against the surface of the backseats.

"Are you quite done?" he asked in a deceptively even tone that utterly belied the casual strength he was employing to hold her down. There and then, Haru was abruptly reminded that even though the Storm Varia was not as robustly built as some of his larger colleagues, he was still male, and at the same time, a lot more powerful than his sleek form would suggest.

Actually, now that he was practically on top of her, the stunned brunette came to the rather astonishing conclusion that the royal born Varia was really nowhere near as scrawny as she had originally perceived him to be.

Haru turned red, not used to being in such close contact with men whom she was hardly acquainted with.

A yelp of dismay escaped her as her womanly modest suddenly decided that now was a good time to reveal its near mythical existence, and she shoved at the Storm Varia in an attempt to put some distance between them. "Get off of me!"

Once again, he sensed the curious surge of power from her just a bare moment before she pushed hard at his chest, and not expecting her exponential increase in strength, he was unceremoniously flung back with sheer brute force, enough that he would have impacted against the car door in a significantly uncomfortable fashion had he not caught himself at the very last moment. Meanwhile, Haru took advantage of his momentary distraction to scramble away, then proceeded to plaster herself to the furthest end of the vehicle from him in a comically flustered manner.

"Don't come near me again!" She wasted no time snapping defensively at her assassin partner, though the effect was somewhat ruined by her mortified and ruffled features. For a moment, the two just stared at each other, one inwardly incredulous, the other looking very much like a startled doe. Then, Belphegor languidly righted himself and proceeded to do something that greatly alarmed Haru.

He smiled.

It wasn't the usual cocky smirk that she constantly saw him sporting—no, this one was more deliberate, a slow, wicked curve of his lips that made her focus on the shape of his mouth, and when she realized just exactly what her mesmerized gaze was so fixated on (not to mention that completely inappropriate line of thoughts that had briefly fleeted through her overly imaginative mind as a result), Haru quickly sputtered and turned an even brighter shade of crimson. If not for the car door pressed against her back, the flustered brunette would have fallen backwards in astonishment at the outlandish notions that her treacherous, unruly mind had just planted into her head.

Haru stared wide eyed at Belphegor in a shocked and appalled manner. Okay, what on earth was that about, brain? Now she was going to feel even more awkward just being in his vicinity, and that was surely going to go well with somebody who was as egotistical as he was—note the sarcasm.

Fortunately, the male in question hadn't seemed to have caught on yet to her bewildering 'awareness' of him and figured that she was just displaying yet another aspect of her peculiar behavior. She hadn't responded to him as people normally would, even at the beginning of their acquaintance, therefore it was easy to chalk up her current reaction as yet another one of her unpredictable outbursts.

"Well, well, well. So you aren't as boring as I first thought," he remarked in that lightly taunting manner that he had perfected over the years. It was just the right amount of annoying, with a generous dollop of nonchalant arrogance thrown in for good measure.

Haru quickly recovered from her shock to glower at the outrageous man. Everything about this person was rubbing her the wrong way and right now, she was feeling extra defensive and prickly thanks to the disconcerting thoughts she had just had of him. Still, her modest Japanese upbringing promptly ensured that she was unable to say anything too hurtful to anyone—hurtful by her standards, that was.

"You are awful," she chided disapprovingly at last. The insult, if it could even be called that, was so lukewarm and altogether unimpressive that he was quite disappointed by her woeful lack of a backbone and conviction to maintain her anger. However, before he could remark on it, she continued with a disdainful sniff.

"And if I was being boring, then it was most definitely due to the uninspiring company that I'm made to put up with." She was staring pointedly at him as she commented rather sharply, just in case he had no idea who she was irritably referring to.

Belphegor's eyebrow rose slightly at her hostility; he was rather entertained by her fiery remark than anything else—the woman was clearly more engaging when she was like this, compared to when she was trying to be all diplomatic and cordial and altogether dull.

The Storm Varia chuckled, a quiet, yet undeniably masculine sound of amusement that made Haru stare at him in surprise and slight bafflement.

"Is that so?" he purred in a sly manner that reminded Haru of a sleek, dangerously playful feline. Much to her bewilderment and mortification, the brunette felt her heart rate quicken just from the sound of his silken tenor. "I can be much more entertaining, just for you."

If not for the subtle threat lingering behind his words, one would almost think that he was flirting with her—which was utterly ridiculous, of course. Haru bit her lip and fought the urge to look away from his maliciously playful, predatory gaze, her cheeks flaring high with color. A nervous, disconcerted air briefly overtook her momentarily wavering countenance before her ever present bravado set in firmly once more. He was beginning to see a definitive pattern in her reactions; the stubbornly persistent manner in which she speedily recovered from everything that he had thrown at her so far, the disagreeable scowl marring her brow, the disgruntlement in her expressive brown eyes, her mouth opening to fire out a censorious retort to further express her discontentment with the situation. She appeared quite defensive; her demeanor bringing to mind a miniature, puffed up hedgehog that was trying to bluster its way out of an unsavory situation.

It was all rather amusing to Belphegor; the woman clearly knew that she was outclassed and that he was apparently someone to be wary of, but yet here she was, unwilling to back down and doing everything she could to mulishly defend whatever ground left that she hadn't lost to him—yet.

That plucky, obstinate attitude was surprisingly attractive.

His hand snapped out suddenly to catch her by the chin, his long, narrow fingers gripping her jaw firmly to hold her still but barely enough to hurt, neatly evading another shrill lecture session from the irritated brunette. Haru froze momentarily at the contact, the fine hair at her nape standing straight up with acute awareness of his touch and proximity, her flashing brown eyes widening with alarm.

He did not seem bothered by her sudden lack of animation, though, instead taking advantage of her shock to arrogantly tilt her face up towards him, slowly and deliberately running his gaze over her at his leisure. The Storm Prince was inwardly surprised to find that she was not as plain looking at he had at first dismissively assumed her to be, having neither the interest nor the inclination to study her closely earlier.

He was beginning to realize his oversight, though.

Her features, though nothing exceptionally striking or unique, were delicate and well-formed, long, dense lashes framing large, expressive eyes that carried no sign of guile whatsoever, only reflecting twin pools of refreshing honesty, artlessly revealing to him every single emotion that ran through her mind. He saw the spark of fire in them that hinted at her spirited, sassy nature, the unmistakable light of intelligence when she boldly matched her wits with his, the glint of sheer stubbornness and unwillingness to back down so that he would not get away with his impossibly high handed manners.

There was really nothing about her physical appearance that stood out enough to attract his attention; her wholesome, fresh-faced features were impish in that youthful, girlish way—it was highly unlikely that she would ever be anything more than merely pretty—but he could not deny that there was something in her feisty demeanor that caught his eye.

Of course, there was also the rather interesting fact that she was obviously more affected by his presence than she was willing to admit. Their short acquaintance so far was already enough for him to tell that the woman was absolutely rubbish at concealing her emotions, the intriguing mystery of her power notwithstanding. Not to mention, she was all flustered and having quite a bit of trouble meeting his gaze, and the more he stared at her, the more fidgety and squirmy she got.

It was actually quite amusing, and as far as Belphegor was concerned, he was more than willing to take whatever form of entertainment he could get right now.

She was slowly turning bright red as she remained perfectly still in his hold, not unlike a startled opossum playing dead in the hopes of avoiding the attention of a predator.

Too late, little commoner, he wanted to tell her with a smirk, but before he could taunt her lightly, she recovered from her momentary stupor and started to frown at him instead.

"What do you think you are doing?" she asked as sharply as she could, somehow still channeling a decent amount of disapproval and outrage despite her current awkward position. His brow rose slowly at her display of bravado, and this time he really did chuckle. She was going stiff with displeasure, and amused by her reaction, he slowly released her. Unsurprisingly, she scurried off to the opposite end of the vehicle farthest from him the moment she was able to, warily staring at him the entire while.

His smile widened, much to her growing alarm and fretfulness.

Yes; this mission might just turn out to be quite enjoyable after all.

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Nothing much to say here, other than this is yet another random BelHaru one-shot that I have written for the hell of it. I can't seem to get enough of this pair for some reason, ahaha.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed reading this!

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Your reviews make me update faster; so please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-sllebswap