Chrome knew he didn't like her.
Ken Joshima had made it exceedingly clear from the start. She wasn't the leader he had chosen to follow, and he wasn't interested in following anyone else. Mukuro had saved him and Kakipi, and his gratitude towards him did not extend to her.
A sigh. Chrome was never the most confident of people, naturally a more reserved, shy personallity type. Chrome much prefered Kakipi-Chikusa-the guy with the deadly yo-yos. He didn't seem overly fond of her either, she thought, looking out a dusty window in the small, but two-floored, hideout they lived in at the moment, but he was atleast quiet and put up with her.
She could live with him. But that Ken? He was quite troublesome.
"What's wrong, Chrome?" rang out a deep voice in her mind. The voice had a slight acccent to it, but he was quite comfortable speaking her native tongue, Japanese. She felt a stab of pain as she thought of how bad her Italian was, and wished she could better converse with him in his native tongue. He had assured her on multiple occasions it was fine if they spoke in Japanese, but that wasn't good enough for Chrome. She still felt like she owed Mukuro so much more than she had paid.
Nothing, Mukuro-sama, she thought back to him silently.
A deep sigh let out.
" You know I know that's not the truth."
She sighed back in reply. Sometimes, she didn't like how Mukuro knew everything. It made her feel safe at times, but she couldn't hide anything from him.
Of course, sometimes Chrome wondered if he, with his mighty power, would still know all this if he had his own body.
You do realize how far the deep hatrid for me your subordinates have runs?
It was said without need. He knew she was thinking it, for everything she thought he already saw anyway, or would if he wished to. Maybe he didn't. She was his host, not his puppet. Unlike those he normally possesed, this was not purely his body. No, he did not have full control over Chrome, though he could surely take it any moment he wished. He was merely a gentle hand guiding her from behind, and Chrome was thouroughly grateful for his impact on her life.
Mukuro had also taken action against Ken's actions. He had once come out and told Ken," I see and hear everything Chrome does." And then he retreated, and Ken was a lot more careful of what he said and did to Chrome.
She heard a sigh from deep within her mind.
" Why must you worry yourself with such insignificant matters, my cute little Chrome? You could show them who's boss in an instant, with your power."
Not my power, she thought, your power.
" Kufufu," his signature laugh rang through her head," What's mine is yours, Chrome. We are one."
And Mukuro's statement was true. Chrome and he were one. It was not some silly lovers vow that would be destined to be nothing but unlasting, empty words, it was pure fact. Though born two separate entities, Chrome and Mukuro were now truly one.
No, Chrome protested, possibly a little tongue-tied, so to speak, this power was not mine to begin with. I was born with no such thing, and this power is nothing but taken from yours.
" Just as I have taken your body," he reminded her gravely.
No, Chrome scolded him quietly, I willingly gave you my body. Had I not, I would now be laying underground somewhere in an eternal slumber. You could've taken my body by force at any time and I wouldn't have had a clue.
" Ah, my cute little Chrome...I could never do such a thing to you."
You are far too kind, Mukuro-sama.
" No....never forget, Chrome, I am a very bad man."
Mukuro was ruthless. Manipulative. His abilites of possession and mind control were well-used, and everything he did seemed to serve his own selfish purposes. But to Chrome, Mukuro was the greatest person in the entire world. Mukuro had given her everything she had. Mukuro had stepped in at what would have been her fated end, and they had made their pact.
Who's a man? she mused.
"I may have a mere fifteen years under my belt in this life, but don't forget the others."
"The others." Mukuro often talked of these other "lives", these experiences in the six paths of reincarnation. Chrome never knew if he meant this to be taken literally, or as a metaphor, but the one time she had attempted to weed it out of him, he spoke cryptically and beat around the bush enough she just gave up. He could brag about being to hell and back all he wanted, she didn't ask anymore.
Don't worry, I couldn't.
Mukuro may be a mere fifteen to Chrome's thirteen, but he was leagues beyond her in maturity. As Nagi, Chrome had led a sheltered life, and it wasn't like she was stupid, she was just a lot more naive, and oblivious enough to get hit by a car trying to save a kitten.
Chrome's stomach growled demandingly. It was getting later and she hadn't eaten yet today...
But she'd eat later.
" You haven't eaten today."
I know.
" Why?"
I'm not really all that hungry.
" Chrome, you can't lie to me. I feel what you feel."
I'll eat later.
" Why's it so important to wait?"
Your friends are down there.
" My family?"
Ken and Chikusa weren't much of anything to Chrome. They were Mukuro's friends-no, his family. As a bunch of mafioso-well, they had a certain disdain for the Mafia and did not refer to themselves as such, but they were mafioso at heart-they were a gang. They weren't just friends, they were family. Famiglia. Ken and Chikusa were the only ones other than himself Mukuro had ever cared about before Chrome came into the picture. Mukuro liked to claim he thought of them as toys, tools to get what he wanted, but Chrome knew different. Mukuro had not only protected the two, he had, unbeknownst to them, sacrificed for their sake. Indeed, Mukuro had gotten himself thrown into a worse cell in jail as the direct result of helping them escape. Of course, if it had not been for that, Mukuro would be free, in his own body, and Chrome would probably never have survived being hit by that car. Chrome, in a way, had them to thank for her life as well as Mukuro-sama. But mostly Mukuro-sama. It was also thanks to them she had become Vongola, though she was not close to any of their family, either.
Yes, I'll wait until they leave.
" They're your family too, you know."
No, they aren't.
" Why do you say that?"
They're devoted to you, I am merely a nessecary evil for them to be with you.
" Families don't all get along."
Chrome had no rebuttal. The problem with argueing with Mukuro? It's pretty hard to win, especially when you share the same body.
" I'm sure you'll grow on them, in time. Ken, atleast, Chikusa doesn't show much differece between any emotion."
Chrome disagreed. Another rumble from her stomach.
How can an imaginary stomach rumble?
" It's your illusionary stomach, my dear, you tell me."
You made it.
" That is true, my cute little Chrome."
If you can illusion me a stomach, can't you illusion it full?
A moment of silence passed within her mind. "No."
Why not?
" Because," he stated calmly," I don't want to. Kufufu. Go get something to eat."
Make me.
When most people use the rebuttal "make me", they do not expect the person they are talking to to be capable or willing to do so. But when Chrome defied Mukuro's request she go down to where the boys where and feed herself, she knew he not only had the power to make her do it, but it wouldn't take all that much effort on his part. This was not her trying to make him eat his words, this was a dare. Would he force her? How willing was he?
" You know full well I could arrange that if need be. In fact, I could make you strip-tease for Ken and Chikusa...oh, and pole dance. We mustn't forget the pole dance. Or perhaps a lovely samba...no, nevermind. Samba for me only. Kufufu.
Fine, Chrome mentally grumbled as she got to her feet and began walking down the dirty hallway. They really didn't clean much, and it was a pigsty.
" That's my good little Chrome. Kufufu."
Chrome sighed. Mukuro-sama always got his way. But it was hard to stay mad at the guy who's illusions made it possible for you to live. The guy who happened to have the same body you did. The guy who saw and heard everything from the same eyes and ears, who felt everything you felt.
Chrome turned a corner and absentmindely began to trot down the stairs. Chrome found herself in the air in what seemed like an instant, and in an istant more she had hit the hard floor at the bottom of the stairs. She stung, but it wasn't too bad.
"Are you alright, Chrome?" Mukuro asked without needing to. Mukuro had said when he possessed someone he did not feel any of their pain, and while he didn't nessecarily feel things the way the actual person was, he was well aware of it. And Chrome was different.
I'm fine, Mukuro-sama.
" Did you hear that, Kakipi?" Ken, in a room close by, asked. The bespecticled yo-yoer shook his head. Ken sighed," I'm gonna go check it out...."
Ken walked cautiously to where Chrome was at the base of the stairs, not knowing what to suspect. A break-in, perhaps? The gang was no where near without enemies. They had plenty. The room was dark, but Ken was in Cat Channel. He had night vision.
" Chrome?! What'd you do, fall down the stairs?" his voice was not laced with the contempt she expected, but what seemed to be genuine concern for her well-being.
Chrome sat up and nodded," Yeah...."
Ken put a hand on each shoulder and shook her," Are you alright?!"
" I will be if you stop trying to shake my brains apart," she told him weakly. A bold utterance coming from her. Chrome teasing Ken.
Ken, his face ever so slightly red, let go of her shoulders and threw his arms around her in a tight hug.
" Look after yourself, Chrome," he growled," That's Mukuro's body, too."
Chrome stiffened in suprise, and in the back of her mind, she heard laughter.
Ken loosened his grip as he felt something plastic hit his back. He turned to see Chikusa standing in the threshhold to the room they had just been in, yo-yoing silently. Ken's face grew much redder when he realized what Chikusa had just seen that, and let go of Chrome, instantly checked his back for poison needles. None. Good. Chikusa wouldn't try to kill him but accidents happen. Kakipi was unpredictable.
" Hey, Kakipi! Guess what this dumb bitch here did? Fell down the stairs!" Ken laughed weakly.
Chikusa just stared at him.
Ken stood up, and took out his teeth, grabbing another pair and inserting them into his mouth. Dog Channel.
" I'm going to check around the hideout to make sure nobody's around...you know, like....assassins and stuff."
" Why would anyone-" Chikusa began.
" SHUT UP KAKIPI, WHEN SOMEONE KILLS YOU IN YOUR SLEEP BECAUSE NOBODY BOTHERED ABOUT SAFETY, DON'T COME CRYING TO ME!" he said, beet-red, and with that he left.
Chrome blinked.
" Why a dog?" she asked, thoughtful.
" Guard dog," Chikusa answered, and he walked off with his yoyo.
" Kufufu, I told you you'd grow on him."
Chrome picked herself up and walked over to their make-shift "kitchen". She opened the fridge and surveyed its contents. It was quite full, considering they just stole everything. Chikusa didn't really care either way all that much, but Ken was always eager to put in a set of dentures and go to work. Especially if in any way, even indirectly, for Mukuro's sake. Plus he liked ripping out jugulars. That was always a plus.
Okay, Mukuro-sama, what do you want to eat?
" What do you want, Chrome?"
Hmmmm...she went through all the food and found a can of chunked pineapple, which looked really good right about now.
" Kufufu, good choice, my cute little Chrome."
Chrome grabbed herself a knife and a fork. They had had a can opener around here somewhere before, but nobody had a clue what had happened to the thing. She carefully opened the can by hand, and once the top was finally off, began to devour the preserved pineapple fragments inside. She ate slowly and savored it's flavor, taking a seat at their tiny table.
A few minutes passed, and Chrome had half-emptied her large can of pineapple already. She heard a heavy panting as a sweating and smelly Ken entered the room. Of course, animal-boy Ken was always smelly, but he smelled even worse than usual as of now.
Chrome smiled, still feeling suprisingly bold, she said," Had a good run?"
" W-what's it to you?" he growled with an unconvincing sneer.
" Y-you're such a good doggy!" she said, timidly ruffling up his hair," Mukuro-sama's lucky to have you in his family."
" S-shut up, Vongola bitch! J-just so you know, that hug was meant for Mukuro! I just had to touch YOU to get it to him! Having to put up with his dumb clutzy host always hurting his body! Dammit, be more careful, woman!" he growled, his face tinted red, swiping away her hand," Eating pineapple? How fitting."
Swallowing a pineapple bit, Chrome slammed her fork down on the table. It was time to try to get mean. To fight back.
Could Chrome do that?
Dang, she didn't know what she was doing.
But hell, Chrome was finally brave enough to try it.
Or so she thought.
She shot him what was meant to be a menacing glare, but the result was more intimidated than intimidating.
Mukuro-sama! she creid in her mind, a silent plea.
" Yes, my cute little Chrome?"
Help me!
" No thank you. I'm staying in here. You handle this yourself."
Mukuro-sama!
" You'll never get more confident if I do this for you."
But...I can't...do this...alone! Please, can't you atleast help me look more...fearsome? Instead of...fearful?
" Come on now, Chrome, give it a try on your own. Kufufu."
She sighed and narrowed her eye more.
" What the hell are you doing? You look constipated," Ken said with a snicker, the pink on his face slowly leaving him," And you're a cyclops. Pft."
" S-sh-shut up!" she cried quietly, as her hand flew to the eyepatch that covered the area her right eye should be in," Y-y-you're n-nothing but a m-m-m-mangy m-mutt!"
" Oh, that hurts," he sneered," You're just a Mukuro copy-cat."
Chrome quickly finished her last bit of pineapple and, hurredly grabbing the can, splashed the juicy residue left at the bottom all over the animal boy's face.
" Ew!" he spat, but even as he said that he was smacking his lips in satisfaction as he began to lick it off himself.
With Ken distracted, Chrome decided to make her leave.
....and Ken found himself unable to keep himself from watching her go.
And he knew, wherever he was, Kakipi was laughing his ass off.
Well, how was that, Mukuro-sama?
" Well done, my cute little Chrome. Kufufu."
Chrome decided against attempting any sort of answer.
Chrome was not just a Mukuro copy-cat.
Ken didn't understand.
Mukuro was her everything.
Her reason for life. He gave her the organs her parents would not, he gave her a chance to live on, without a Mukuro, there would be no Chrome to copy him.
So she wore her hair in the same pineappley fashion.....So what? They were both pineapple people, she guessed.
She dressed in the Kokuyo school uniform. So did they.
So she had changed to name to an anagram of his.
She wasn't Nagi anymore. Nagi died in that hospital bed the day that kitten nearly cost her her life, the day her parents decided to just let her life go.
No, that day, for certain, Nagi died. But she had been reborn. Her new life given to her by a pact she made with the illusionist with mis-matched eyes.
She was Chrome now. Chrome Dokuro-written how it's pronounced in her native tonuge, that's Kuromu Dokuro. Mukuro Rokudo. Her last name was just his backwards, in Japanese, the letters were "Do", "Ku", and "Ro".
It wasn't just blantant copying.
It was respect. Adoration.
That Ken. He really was something else.
" My dear Chrome, you must remember, the three of us, we are the products of Estraneo experimentation. Ken has his own way of going about things. And he was never one for hiding his emotions, though he likes to think otherwise."
Had Mukuro read her thoughts or was this merely a guess?
Mukuro could've guessed.
He knew her well enough.
He was smart enough.
Chrome smiled and nodded, looking out a dirty window.
Yes, Mukuro-sama. I'll keep that in mind.......Just as you keep in mind those Vongola have showed us more kindness than we deserve.
Hmpth. Let him think about that one. "Cute Little Chrome" with an attitude.
" Hmpth. Vongola. Mafioso are all brainless, only slightly less so than the bosses they follow."
But Mukuro knew, as did Chrome, that because Chrome was Vongola, that made Mukuro Vongola as well. And he was the one to agree to it, even if for the sake of his own Famiglia.
......
Chrome and Mukuro had an understanding.
Chrome and Mukuro knew each other.
For Chrome and Mukuro, connected by mind and body, had a bond.
Chrome was probably the closest person in Mukuro's life, and Mukuro the only person close to Chrome.
To anyone else, the deep bond these two shared was entirely impossible to understand.
And they probably didn't understand it entirely themselves, either.
AN: So, I put the AN at the end only this time. because I thought it would ruin the feel of the fic to have one at he begining. Yeah, I'm really nit-picky like that. People claim it makes me "artsy" and "poetic". Pfft. More like OCD(no seriously, been diagnosed xD)
Soems(this is not a typo. So-ems xD I'mma weirdo, what do you people want from me?), I dunno. Some of the prose just stuck in my head during school and I actually wrote the begining of this(very simply, just to get the idea down) in my English jounral throughout the day. Wow, my teacher's in for something strange when she collects them. Of course, Vampire Scooby(WHO I POKE AS RIGHT NOW. POKE! Kufufu~!) writes M-preg in there frequently and only got "....Did you just say Pregnant man?"
Soyeah. I felt like doing something with Chrome and Mukuro and I kinda just added the whole Ken thing on the spur of a moment. Shipper's influence, I suppose(I support....KenxChrome, MukuroxChrome/6996, MukuroxKen, KenxChikusa....um....basically everyKokuyoxeveryKokuyo ^^; And if anyone knows if Chikusa and Ken have a ship code, please, do tell. D=)
Uh....yeah.....probably really, really terrible. But so much better than the crap I do have up here...most of it's really old.....I might get a new account and leave that stuff on this one to kinda show I've "shunned" it...but I dun wanna take it down....anyway, probably very awful and OOC. I tried? xP D= I suppose I'd like, move this story somehow xDDD To that one, unless I do this so far in the future I shun this too xD
Um...yeah...if someone actually likes this...I might do another oneshot that doesn't exactly continue this one, butsortanotquite. I had another Chrome and Mukuro thing I wanted to do(Ken is also integral x3)...soyeah. And on a less serious note: "Mukuro sez: SCREW YOU BUDDHA!" A humourous explanation of Mukuro's "other lives". I wanted this to be explained better. Though this one may offend Buddhists even though I actually quite respect their religion...so...dunno......and another Vamp Scoob and Gingey collab(or two): "The Girlscout Mafia Sells Girlscout Cookies"(not the real title xD) and "My Life as Squalo's Pet: Xanxus the Cat."
Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman REBORN! and all it's characters and themes are the property of, first and foremost, Akira Amano, and her publisher, Shonen JUMP, and all that good stuff. If I were Akira Amano, I would probably not be writing fanfiction on my own story in English and so badly. Therefor, I'm pretty sure everyone knows I in no way claim to be her, no matter how awesome it would be if I was her.
If anyone wants to laugh, my work music for this:
Hot N' Cold-Katy Perry(dirty pleasure song -shot-)
Kufufu no Fu
Sakura Addiction-SPLAY
Sakura Addiction-Mukuro and Hibari's seiyus
Sakura Addiction-"Chrome version"
DIVE TO WORLD-CHERRYBLOSSOM(also, random break with this song for JAPANESE DANCE PARTY to piss off my little sister. Lal(Mirch!) xDDDD)
Soyeah!
HEY LOOK NINE MORE WORDS AND THIS IS 4,000! SO LET'S EXTEND THE WORDS LIKE A WORD-COUNT WHORE!
Kufufu no fu~!
