Title: Party Games
Characters/Pairings:
Yamamoto/Hibari
Summary:
Yamamoto is obliging, right up until the part where he makes up his mind about something. Then he can't be budged.
Notes:
For khrfest, prompt: Yamamoto/Hibari - "He bends to your every whim, but you can't make him bend." In my head, this goes along with Festivity, but you don't have to have read that one to get this one. Slightly cracked fluff. 1426 words.


Party Games

Kyouya had never quite managed to reconcile himself to the awful necessity of the social requirements that came along with being Sawada's Cloud Guardian. Being the Cloud, and himself, managed to excuse him from most of the Vongola's social expectations, but some obligations could not be escaped, and so Kyouya sometimes found himself attending various parties, not as a bodyguard but as a guest.

He did so ungraciously, and generally paced the perimeters of the gatherings with enough of a scowl to keep most of the insipid people attending away from him, passing the time by baring his teeth at the bodyguards and contemplating the most efficient ways to take them, and their charges, down. Sometimes there was other entertainment to be had, since anything that could force Kyouya into attendance generally required Xanxus' presence as well, and he could generally be counted on for a fight. These days Sawada's woman had given up on trying to keep them from it, and only asked that they confine themselves to the south lawn. (Kyouya privately suspected her of detesting the landscaping there, and thought she was hoping that between the two of them, they'd give her the excuse to redo it. Sawada Kyouko could be devious, in her own way.)

And sometimes, Kyouya entertained himself by stalking Yamamoto instead.

There was a perception among the other Families that Sawada's Rain as the approachable, easy one. Gokudera was fiercely, rabidly loyal to Sawada, and Sasagawa wasn't anything like subtle. Lambo was too young, and Chrome was too much like Mukuro, and of course everyone knew better than to waste Kyouya's own time with inanities. But Yamamoto... he was always cheerful, and obliging, and perfectly willing to put up with the most appalling impositions on his good nature with a smile. The other Families knew this and were perfectly willing to abuse that knowledge.

Which made it all the more entertaining to watch them come up against the granite will that lay underneath that smile. It was their own fault, of course, for thinking that they could turn Yamamoto to their own ends, just because he was willing to be obliging during the small talk of a social affair.

This iteration was turning out to be particularly entertaining.

The many mothers of the mafia world still hadn't tired of trying to snag the most eligible bachelor among Sawada's Guardians for their daughters. This time it was the Nori, who'd just had a daughter come out. For a girl who was just barely old enough to be putting her hair up, she was remarkably tenacious, and had managed to attach herself to Yamamoto's arm early in the evening. She'd rebuffed every attempt to dislodge her, either from the other young women or by other potential partners, and Yamamoto had allowed her to do it with a smile and more patience than Kyouya would have had himself.

But then, Yamamoto had an evil sense of humor; Kyouya had no doubt that he was enjoying the sour looks on the faces of all the other mafia mothers while the Nori woman practically preened.

Silly of her, really, to assume her daughter had managed to do what the other little mafia lambs hadn't been able to.

Sawada fetched up at Kyouya's side towards the middle of the evening, during one of his rounds, as Kyouya watched Yamamoto spin the Nori girl around the dance floor and studiously avoided Xanxus' attempts to catch his eye. "Doesn't he ever get tired of this?" Sawada asked, standing at Kyouya's side and watching the dancing with him.

Kyouya glanced at him. "Why are you asking me?"

Sawada merely gave him a trenchant look, one that Kyouya suspected he'd learned from his wife. "He doesn't have to."

"It's a useful tool," Kyouya said, since sometimes Sawada needed to be reminded of practical matters. "As long as the other Families see him as a possible avenue to your attention, they'll try to exploit it." And then the Vongola would exploit them, but that went without saying.

But Sawada shook his head. "He doesn't have to," he said again, more firmly this time.

Kyouya reflected on the special emphases Sawada had put on that, and snorted. "You're being a sheep."

"Perhaps I'm just tired of people seeing something that isn't really there," Sawada said, lightly.

"Sheep," Kyouya told him again.

Sawada just laughed and drifted along to speak to the Cizeta.

Across the way, Yamamoto glanced after him and then at Kyouya, head tilted just so, asking what that had been about. Kyouya shrugged at him, shot a pointed look at the girl, and then rolled his eyes at Sawada's retreating back.

Yamamoto got it almost immediately, and his mouth quirked. He looked down at the girl, who was oblivious to the byplay, and Kyouya could see him actively considering it before he lifted an eyebrow at Kyouya.

He snorted. As if he cared, when it was Yamamoto's business what party games he played. Kyouya rolled his eyes again, washing his hands of the matter, and turned away from the dancing. First he would see whether there was anything fit to eat on those long buffet tables, and then he'd see about destroying some more of the south lawn with Xanxus.

He was investigating the canapés--all distressingly Western, much to his displeasure--and trying to decide how he felt about shrimp on toast when Yamamoto insinuated himself at Kyouya's elbow. "The little wonton thingies are pretty good," he said, unannounced.

"Nn," Kyouya said, eyeing them, but one of Yamamoto's good points was a discriminating palate, so he added one to his plate before glancing at Yamamoto. "What happened to the girl?"

"Oh, Isabella?" Yamamoto shrugged, and leaned over to add a couple more wontons to Kyouya's plate, along with a couple of the anonymous croquettes. "I thought that I'd probably monopolized enough of her time for the evening, and besides, I was tired of the Orsini boy trying to kill me with the power of his mind." He studied the buffet and then added a couple more items to Kyouya's plate, small folded bundles of pastry and a little tart of some kind. "You want something to drink?"

That was when Kyouya realized what he was doing, and it was only his disbelief at Yamamoto's unmitigated gall that kept him from reaching for his box weapon on the spot. "And next I suppose you'll ask me to dance?" he said, from between his teeth.

Yamamoto grinned at him. "Wasn't planning on it. Do you even know how to dance?" He didn't actually wait for Kyouya to answer that one, and went on, thoughtful. "But that would really get the point across, wouldn't it?"

"That you're a dead man walking?" Kyouya asked, fingers itching for his box, or his tonfa, or maybe just to curl into a fist.

Yamamoto just grinned at him. "Naw. That I'm just not interested, and I have a reason not to be." He helped himself to one of the wontons from Kyouya's plate and popped into his mouth as Kyouya considered strangling him with his own tie. When he'd finished it, he added, "And also, Gokudera looks like he's about to have a heart attack, so, you know, it's fun for the whole Family."

The point about Gokudera was entirely true; the man looked like he wanted to either explode or sink into the floor, or possibly both. The rest of those who'd noticed Yamamoto's abandonment of the Nori girl to dance attendance on Kyouya simply looked shocked, and perhaps a little impressed by his temerity.

When he caught Kyouya looking, Sawada just smiled. Kyouya glared at him, but it didn't do any good; Sawada just looked pleased with the whole idiotic situation.

There was no helping it now, in any case; Yamamoto was obliging, but only until he'd made up his mind about something, like he clearly had about this. "I am going to bite you to death for this," Kyouya told him, as Yamamoto filched one of the croquettes from his plate.

"Like I said. Fun times all around," Yamamoto said, serenely, and popped the croquette into his mouth.

"Idiot," Kyouya told him, and tried one of the wontons, which were rather good after all. "Just as long as we're clear on that."

Yamamoto's smile was sunny. "Like crystal," he said, as Kyouya looked at the mamas who were practically gnawing on their own livers out of matchmaking frustration.

"Yes," he said, and nibbled at another wonton, "I suppose we are, at that."

end

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