Yaaay~ First story. I've never written any fanfiction that anyone has read before... so here goes nothing~ :)
Also, I'm not really a fan of the KHR fandom, but I guess I joined it! Oh, well. Maybe you can tell from the intro (255 characters... that was so hard! Lesson in being concise, I guess XD) that this really has more to do with Dino and the Cavallone family than the Vongola. *rant rant*
Of course, KHR (c) Amano Akira and... story is not really copyrighted, but it's mine :) (evidence = it sucks XD)
Neeways~ enjoy and please forgive the typos! *Teh Queen of Typos AKA Teh Queen of Not Proofreading*
Chapter 1: Big Brother Is Watching You
Azalya suppressed a shudder of distaste as the Elvis Presley wannabe glowered down at her. His squinty eyes were narrowed to menacing slits, his greasy hair less than a centimeter from her nose. She could smell his cheap hair gel.
"Cavallone," he rumbled, sounding more like a grown man than a junior high school senior. "You missed third period science this morning, didn't you?" He cracked his knuckles threateningly.
Azalya backed as far away from him as she could, more out of disgust than anything else, and felt her back thump against the cold plaster wall. She pressed her schoolbooks to her chest. "Yeah. So what?"
"You didn't have a legal excuse, did you?"
"No." She felt the first niggles of panic and swallowed. She tasted lead and ashes and knew she had to have cigarette breath. "So what?"
"You are aware that skipping class is in violation of the school rules, aren't you?"
She was tempted to provoke the prefect with yet another "So what?", but no one would be pleased if she started trouble at school. Skipping and attracting the Disciplinary Committee's attention was already in violation of her low-profile rule. "Um..." Azalya mumbled instead, glancing around the corridor for help.
Her Humanities teacher, the one with the complicated name she could never remember, walked by without a sideways glance. Three of her classmates met her searching eyes with nervous smiles and waves before continuing on their way. Other students, on their way home or to after school activities, filtered past and barely acknowledged the scene before them. They all acted as though the public interrogation of a relatively innocent student was entirely normal. Which, at Namimori Junior High School, it was.
The Disciplinary Committee member leaned over her. He raised a hand as if to strike her, but only wagged his fat finger in her face. Hibari Kyouya's prefects weren't averse to beatings—although violence, too, was against the school rules—but Azalya had managed to avoid most physical confrontations simply by being a girl. "Go to class when you're supposed to," he said, turning and walking away. "Or else." He didn't have to complete the sentence. They both knew it wasn't an empty threat.
Hibari is watching you... She chuckled and shook her head. It sounded so foreboding that it was almost silly. Big brother is watching you, more like.
"Asa-chan!"
She turned at the too-loud voice and saw her best friend, Seiko, rushing down the hall. The other girl had a huge smile on her face, one that was much too bright for a school day, to contrast Azalya's deadpan expression. Her dark black hair was short, as was her stature. When she stopped in front of Azalya, Seiko's head reached her shoulder. "Where were you third period?" she asked with a concerned frown.
Where were you when Breadhead was terrorizing me? Azalya thought at her friend, but she only shrugged callously and started walking down that hall toward the lockers. "Ditched. I needed to catch a smoke."
"Smoking!" Seiko declared in a melodramatically scandalized voice. Several people turned to stare, and Azalya motioned for her to keep quiet. "I thought you quit," she continued reprovingly at a more reasonably volume.
"Yeah, well. You know what they say about bad habits."
Seiko shook her head. "I know smoking causes cancer."
"Que sera, sera."
The black-haired girl squinted at Azalya's large blue eyes. "Was it cigarettes or are you high, too?"
"Stop staring at my pupils. I'm not high," she said, annoyed and quickening her pace.
"Azalya-san," Seiko sang, (mis)pronouncing the name like ah-sah-ri-a. "Wait for me." Seiko caught up to Azalya, her shorter stride making her look like a silly little puppy. "If you need help... there's a phone number you can call."
"I'm not addicted," Azalya replied automatically.
Seiko gave her a dubious look, but she didn't press the matter. "So... What did Kusakabe-senpai say?"
"Who?" she asked blankly.
"Kusakabe-senpai. The one talking to you."
"Oh, Breadhead?" Azalya laughed. "Don't ditch, don't make trouble—same old, same old. As if Kyouya cares."
"Hibari-senpai," Seiko corrected, glancing around quickly to make sure no one had heard Azalya call him by his given name. "That's rude, you know."
Azalya half-listened to her friend's lecture on respect as they changed shoes and walked out of the school. As soon as they were outside, Azalya slipped a cigarette into her mouth and lit it.
"You're still on school grounds, Cavallone!" Mawabi Kugayara, their homeroom and Literature teacher, called from the school.
Azalya hopped off the curb and waved jauntily. "Not anymore," she said, taking a long drag and blowing smoke in the school's direction. "See you tomorrow, Sensei." Before she could turn back to the street, someone plucked the cigarette from her lips. She whirled angrily, sure it was Seiko, and froze.
"Hey, Cuz," the blond apparition said with a grin, putting her cigarette in his mouth and puffing contentedly. "Don't you know there's a smoking age?"
"Dino!" Azalya said in disbelief, failing to keep from squealing in excitement. "What are you doing here?" She stared at her older cousin, who looked for all the world like a walking advertisement for how cool smoking could look.
He was dressed simply in a collarless black shirt and cargo pants, but the casual clothing accentuated his good looks rather than detracting from them. He'd rolled up the left sleeve to show off his intricately designed tattoo. "Checking up on you, Cuz. Didja miss me?"
"No," Azalya lied. "More importantly, where are your guar—" She broke off and glanced sideways at her friend. "Where are the others?"
Dino waved his right hand dismissively. "At the hotel. I'm a big boy; I don't need babysitters." He winked and directed his attention to Seiko. "And speaking of babysitters, are you Aza's?"
Seiko giggled. "No, silly. I'm her friend. Iwao Seiko."
Dino smiled, all charm. "Excuse us, would you? We have some family business to deal with."
"Sure." Azalya watched her friend struggle and fail to find something more interesting to say. "Well," she said finally to Azalya, "see you tomorrow, Asa-chan."
Dino dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his foot, clad in glossy black leather boots. He rested his arm on her shoulder as they started walking down the street. "My little armrest," Dino teased, patting her on the head. "How are you today?"
"Annoyed. You?"
He laughed and shifted so his arm was draped around her shoulders. It was almost an embracing gesture. "Glad to know I still have that effect on you."
She made a face at him. "Not you. It's that Kyouya and his Breadhead gang. It's like the frickin' Gestapo." Thinking about them made her blood pressure rise. She lit another cigarette, ignoring Dino's disapproving frown.
"You'll get suspended. You can't do whatever you like here."
She grinned past the smoke encircling her face. "Are you telling me not to smoke?"
He stopped walking and crossed his arms over his chest, looking down on her. If it were anyone other than Dino, she might have been intimidated. "I told you to quit."
She fidgeted under his serious blue eyes and twirled a lock of wavy brown hair around her finger. "You smoke, too," she pointed out sulkily. I only started because of you. I thought you looked sooooo cool. She looked away, sure he would read the accusation in her eyes.
After a moment of silence, Dino grinned. "All right. I'll quit, too. Let's call it a family bonding experience."
"Fine," Azalya said grudgingly. She flicked the still-burning cigarette into road and threw the half-empty box after it. "That cost me two thousand yen," she said, watching a tire roll over the package.
"I'll make it up to you, Aza," Dino promised, giving her a little shove toward the hotel building. "Come on."
The spotless glass doors slid open automatically without so much as a hiss when they walked in. The hotel receptionist didn't look up from her desk. She was focused on the computer and tapping the keys with the speed, fervor, and singular concentration of someone that had to be playing Tetris instead of working.
They waited about a second to be acknowledged, and then Dino tapped the call bell. The receptionist must have resented the interruption, for she looked up with a scowl. When she saw them standing there, she fixed her face into a smile that was almost sincere. "Can I help you?"
"We'll need some refreshments in room 513."
The receptionist nodded and jotted it down on a sticky note. "All right, just a minute." She turned back to her computer, and Azayla saw the QQ homepage flash up.
"I'm allergic to tree nuts," Azalya said when she saw the receptionist wasn't going to ask.
"All right." She sounded annoyed. "We'll see what else we have."
They exchanged a look while going up the stairs; the elevator was out of order. "They have great service here," Azalya said blandly. "We should bring the whole family here next summer. Hey, I've got a great idea: We can introduce Chiara to Kyouya. If we're lucky, they'll finish each other off."
He laughed as he unlocked and opened the door to his room. It was a nice room, as far as hotel rooms went, neat and spacious. The air had the faintly acrid scent of oranges, like Febreeze but better.
"Sit down," Dino offered as he dropped into the office chair and propped his boots up on the coffee table.
Azalya ignored this and made her way around the room slowly, checking every nook and cranny thoroughly.
"You don't need to do that. Come sit with me."
She made a face at him. "You're way too relaxed for a boss."
Dino gave her a smile that was a part child-like innocence and part Mafia cunning but didn't answer.
"Okay," Azalya said. "Let's talk business. First off, where are your guards? You're lucky you didn't get run over on your way to school."
Dino winced. "I'm not that clumsy," he objected.
"Are," she countered. "I've seen you trip over dust. Anyways—"
"You want to know why I'm in Japan. Right?"
"Trouble's brewing," Azalya guessed. "It's Chiara, isn't it?"
Picking at the fraying leather armrest, he pouted at her. "There you go, again. You're always stealing my thunder. How'd you guess?"
"Ahh, that'd be my superior female intuition," she said with a wink that was much too lighthearted for the occasion. She sobered quickly. "Anything I need to deal with?"
"Maybe." He poked a finger through the leather and pulled out a piece of fluff. "Vongola IX has had a change of heart regarding his successor. He's drafted an official statement declaring Xanxus as his heir. The Outside Advisor still wants Tsuna to inherit the family, though. Better change that 'maybe' to 'almost certainly.'"
Azalya shuddered. She'd never met Xanxus—never wanted to—but she'd heard stories aplenty and seen the scars to prove them. She knew enough about him to know that, if he wanted to be boss, he'd slice No Good Tsuna into sashimi without breaking a sweat. "Well, Sawada Tsunayoshi's dead meat," she said resignedly.
"Don't say it like that. Tsuna can do it." I hope, his eyes added.
Yeah, sure. Tsuna has as much chance of beating Xanxus as canned tuna. And that's no chance at all unless he's allergic. Instead of saying what she thought, Azalya asked, "Which do we support?"
Dino sighed; he looked incredibly exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his skin was too pale. Azalya marveled that she hadn't noticed it earlier, how tired Dino had to be. Some cousin she was. "We can't take a side," Dino was saying, "not until there's a clear winner; it's not our family..." he trailed off, looking weary and annoyed.
Azalya sighed, too. "Why am I sensing a 'but' in there somewhere?"
"But Chiara came out today in support of Xanxus," he completed.
Azalya swore. "If they team up, we'll be in serious trouble. I don't know why you came to Japan, but you can't be all buddy-buddy with Tsuna. It'll be the perfect opportunity for Chiara to question your judgment. Who wants a boss like No Good Tsuna for the Vongola?"
"Azalya!"
"It's true!" she protested. "You should have seen him yesterday in Chemistry—he spilled HCl all over the floor. And then he slipped in it. He almost burned out Seiko's eyes. I know you like him, but he's not any more fit to be a boss than a baby. And if Reborn—"
There was a loud crack like a canon blast, and the door was flung open. Azalya and Dino leapt to their feet. As she instinctively stepped in front of him, she saw him pull out his whip from the corner of her eye. They both relaxed when they saw the petite figure standing in the doorway: She was little over a foot tall, dressed in a maid's uniform, carrying a large platter and looking about as menacing as a cupcake.
"Ciaossu."
Azalya gaped at the little girl. There was only one person she knew that used that greeting. But the last she'd checked, he'd been a baby hitman not a maid, and he definitely hadn't been female. "Room service?" she asked Dino, puzzled. "Do they employ little kids, too?"
Dino was hurriedly tucking the black leather whip out of sight. "Great timing. I'm famished."
Azalya sighed, wondering how, in the middle of a family crisis, Dino could think about his stomach. "It doesn't have nuts, does it?" she asked the maid cautiously.
"None at all."
Looking at the tray of steaming cookies—they looked like oatmeal chocolate chip, her favorite—Azalya found she was, despite everything, starving. She took one hungrily, trying not to cram the whole thing into her mouth after the first bite. It was delicious. "Mmm," she mumbled appreciatively.
"Good?" Dino asked, reaching for a cookie.
The little girl dropped the tray, spilling cookies and crumbs all over the floor. She hadn't moved or tripped at all that Azalya could see, but had simply let the tray fall out of her hands. "Whoops."
Laughing sympathetically, she knelt down to help clean up, but lost her balance and nearly fell. Dino caught her by the arm. "Are you okay?" he demanded.
She tried to say, "I'm fine. Just dizzy," but her voice came out garbled and unclear, even to her. Her throat felt parched. She tried to swallow and found she couldn't. She saw Dino stand and approach the maid-that-wasn't, saw his mouth moving, but she couldn't hear anything. Her vision was skewed, too, like she was looking through a kaleidoscope or a shattered mirror. Brilliant fireworks went off behind her eyeballs, and then everything went black.
Azalya opened her eyes. She was lying flat on her back on the worn hotel carpet. Dino knelt over her, looking half-worried and half-annoyed. She couldn't see anyone around him, but that didn't mean danger wasn't present. "That girl," she croaked, trying to warn him. "Look out."
Dino shook his head. "No, that was—"
"Me."
And there was Reborn, stepping around Dino, holding a gun half his size like it was nothing.
"Yikes," she said, but without much energy because she was incredibly tired. "Reborn...san. Hello, Reborn-san." Azalya sat up. Her vision spun.
"Bianchi's cooking skills are regressing," Reborn commented idly, inclining his head toward the cookies strewn on the carpet. The chameleon sitting on his hat wobbled dangerously. "This batch was weaker than the last."
Lucky for me it was, or I'd be dead. The thought didn't really upset Azalya. She'd been around long enough to know when assassinations attempts were premeditated and when they were accidents. Sure, the notion that Reborn could kill someone by mistake was laughable, but it was better than believing someone—the Vongola boss being the most likely choice—wanted to bump her off.
Azalya knew about Bianchi, too, and she was pretty sure one taste of her food would have her either dead as a doorknob or puking her guts out on the floor. And now that she thought about it... She bolted for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before she threw up.
She'd never before been so grateful for the little bottles of mouthwash in hotel bathrooms.
"So, Reborn-san," she rasped as she emerged from the bathroom, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. She noticed that Dino was gone. "What can I do for you?"
"You can stop insulting my student." Reborn lifted his gun and pointed it at her.
Azalya thought he looked absurd, a trigger-happy little baby. She didn't comment but couldn't help raising an eyebrow dubiously.
"As his tutor," Reborn was saying, "that right lies with me." He cocked the gun and fired.