Hi everybody :]
Well, as promised, I present you all the long awaited for, Xanxus x Tsuna fanfiction.
Summary: Side-story to 'Blanco'. While Gokudera and Yamamoto are held captive, Tsuna and the Family reside in the Vongola underground base. What happens when the situation calls for the Varia's involvement as well?
Disclaimer: 'Katekyo Hitman Reborn!' does not belong to me and neither does the song 'Empires Fall Slowly'.
Warnings: Yaoi, language and there might be some violence. Individual warnings will be added in each chapter if needed.
For those of you who haven't read 'Blanco', some of this might not make any sense. But seeing as I tried to make this story stand for itself, I hope it will be good enough. Though I still warmly recommend reading 'Blanco' first.
This might be 'Blanco's side story, but it's contents are much lighter. The story about Tsuna and the group's stay in the Vongola's future base while Xanxus and the Varia come as reinforcements.
Empires Fall Slowly
Down in the maze of steel walled corridors of the Vongola base, a certain unsuspecting group of people was gathered. As the conclusion of the last series of events, the people involved moved from their different locations to occupy one of the base's many large enough rooms that could easily fit them all in comfortably.
As it seemed, the current head of the Vongola mafia family, Sawada Tsunayoshi, and the rest of the Vongola's tenth generation arrived back at base. Whether it was after finding Kyoko, returning from a lookout out of base or just simply from arriving at a known place during an unknown time like a confused Hibari recently had, all were there.
As the room began to fill, the more quick-witted of the group currently assembling slowly started noticing that something was not quite right. It took longer for even the people on the more than simply naive side to see the rising problem as well. The exact time it took all the inhabitants to fully understand and comprehend the problematic situation that was rapidly forming was precisely the amount of time that took them to realize that no more family members were going to arrive in the already occupied room.
The numbers didn't truly match, seeing as two key members, vital and irreplaceable, were painfully missing from the shortly arranged gathering.
It was the last family member that arrived through the door with a solemn look across his face that closed the door and caught the attention of all the residing members in the room. As Shamal stepped through the room with a heavy atmosphere carrying around him with every step he took, he looked up and raised his right hand at the mouths he could see beginning to open in obvious questions that he was already about to answer, successfully managing to stop the array of interrogating utterances.
"According to a recent intelligence update, I am entitled to make this statement of the situation." the Doctor said, his voice clear and carrying through the room with surprising lightness, "As of 14:23 today, two of the family members, known by the names of Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi, otherwise known as the Vongola's tenth generation's Storm and Rain guardians, went MIA as a result of an encounter with the Millefiore's Black Spell 3rd attack squad, Gamma.
"Considering the inevitable loss that overshadowed a fight to try and stop their capture, none of the men following could do anything but return with the information as soon as possible. Following was not an option without completely exposing themselves, thus resulting in uncovering their disguise and failing to follow the specific orders given to them."
Everyone looked at him, expecting him to keep on talking, but the report was done, no more formal statements were to be told by him so he kept quiet.
It was then that the family's current Outside Adviser stepped forward to add to the situation's factors before anyone could actually manage to process the entire state of happening. "It might take a few days, but it is positively known that we can track their whereabouts." Basil said intently, his eyes burning passionately while faced with the eminent challenge.
His two best friends were missing. They would not be sleeping next room that night. Still not fully grasping the complete disaster that had fallen upon them, Tsuna understood one thing. Together with Reborn's supporting glance, he could understand that rushing forward was not an option at the moment and it was required of them to wait for the information promised to them by Basil. More than that would probably cause for more misfortunes than they are able to currently suffer.
It was the sequence of supporting words coming from Reborn that only he could hear as they were whispered in his ear that made his heart completely accept the unnaturally rational decision. Telling him that had the Millefiore wished for the duo's deaths, they would have already done so without going trough the trouble of capturing them and taking them back to the base while simultaneously risking possible exposure to the Vongola's spies and resources. They were not the most comforting of words, but they definitely did the job of calming the itch he felt in his entire body to break through the ceiling and make a suicidal rush to save his guardians.
"And when we do actually track them, we make peace offers?" Hibari said mockingly, too reluctant to believe in anything at the moment. Tsuna's face focused on the threatening teen as he was brought back from his musings to realize that there was more to the situation than simply waiting in silence.
"We don't negotiate." said Bianchi in a hard voice that left no place for arguments from the teens' opinion on the matter.
"Why not?" Ryohei asked naively, preceding anyone who might have wanted to ask the same question. And there had been some of those in the room, just missing their moment to the perhaps most impulsive one of the group.
"We just don't.'" replied another, and all turned their heads to see who was the one that said it. Surprisingly, it was someone less than recognized among the younger generation, but as they noticed the lack of suspicion from their future Family members, they stood quiet in his speech. He kept talking at the demanding expressions he got. "Boss died in one of these meetings. With all his trust at the good nature of people, he naively allowed himself to be an easy enough target to simply shoot down." The unknown person was looking at anyone and anything as he spoke, his gaze purposely missing just the one person he was talking about. "We can now see that peace talks and negotiations just don't work with these kind of people."
"What do you mean by that. How could you know that for sure?" Tsuna was hanging on a thread to the only gleam of hope he could see. It might be what killed his future self, but he just couldn't see the reason to the inhuman acts of the Millefiore. There had to be a reason, there always was. And under certain conditions, some reasons could be dealt with through peaceful manners.
"You might not understand that now, but you'll see soon enough." Shamal continued from his spot in the room with a pained expression. One that the young ones had yet to associate with him, remembering his usual calm and untouchable aura. "You'll just have to trust us on this one."
Fuuta, who saw the young ones have not been satisfied with the answers they got yet, sighed heavily, drawing attention to himself.
"Look," he said, drawing even more attention while he talked as he looked at the door with a dispassionate, empty and devoid of any thought and feeling expression. Almost as if he wished he wasn't a part of the discussion. "The Millefiore wants to kill us. It's as simple as that. We have something that they want and they won't compromise. They kill our Family and they murder our friends, they take our lovers and torture our brothers. That's just the way that Family works." he hated to be the one who brings the news to the kids, but someone had to be the one do it sooner or later. He preferred it to be sooner.
Fuuta just looked to the side as his voice grew distant the longer his statement drew. Suddenly self conscious and realizing that they have brought up some really unpleasant memories to not only Fuuta but the others from the future as well, the younger generation silently decided to stop their questioning about the subject all at once.
All except one.
"So what are you saying? That there is no way to bring them back?" Hibari asked impatiently, more annoyed by the lack of attempts than anything else. The tone of defeat in the others' voice did not go well with him. Do they just give up? Just like that, two family members would be left behind? Obviously, he was not worried about anything else that the others in the room might have been worried about, but were they that short of means to actually send a rescue party?
"Of course there is." Reborn stated simply, not even bothered by the unexpected question from the normally quiet and uninvolved Hibari. "If they don't understand words, which is what we already know, then they would definitely understand actions."
As the room's every current residents' eyes and attention was solely concentrated on the arcobaleno, he spoke the one last decision that had been made out loud for all to hear and accept.
"Today, the Millefiore took two of our precious and irreplaceable Family members." he tilted his head forward slightly, his fedora hid his soft featured face as he finished his statement with much more than his normal serious tone. "But as soon as we can we'll take them back."
Two words were left unsaid by their obvious placement in the sharply spoken sentence –
'…by force'.
Unbeknownst to the young family from the past, a call had been made to reinforce the need to have the boys rescued as soon as possible. The target of the call who had been so easily trusted with the task of retrieving the family members from their enemies hands was, in it's own way, more than capable of following through with this mission.
At the moment, these were Xanxus and his Varia who were in the middle of realizing the implication of the message they received to arrive at the main underground base, followed by explanations of the recent events and detailed reports with every information they needed to understand what exactly they had been called out of their own base for.
The varied voices all had the aspect of insanity to them as they seemingly raced around themselves with glee at the new and refreshing order. From one's mouth to another person's ear, they managed to explore the state of everything that was happening and fill the blanks without needing many details to work with.
"Two of the brats were kidnapped." one said.
"Brats?" another asked.
"The Tenth's generation, they say." someone's eye twitched violently in the background.
"Which ones?"
"It seems that they were the storm and the rain."
"Oh really?" a cunning voice hoarsely asked. "Those, uh? Who took them?"
"The Black Spell."
"Is there a name?" another with a rational voice asked.
"It was that Gamma." someone supplied, uncaring "They're in for it now, aren't they?"
"Yeah they are, should have been more careful shishishi."
And that was it.
No longer willing to allow idiots to continue wasting his air, the leader of the odd group of people finally spoke, his voice still filled with rage as much as it was ten years prior, and unsurprisingly even more so.
"Shut your traps scum and get going with the packing." he growled into the room, successfully making every mouth close with the order "Well? What are you waiting for, trash? GO!"
Throwing his empty whiskey glass at the closest head he could see did well with the impact of his barked order. No one hesitated to run as quick as their could, each in their own direction.
Away from the madman named Xanxus.
For the first time in what was seemingly a long amount of time, the Vongola family's tenth boss and his six guardians were suffering through the complete separation that tore through their hearts. Well, at least some of them.
After the 'meeting' had come to an end and all the unknown guests had returned the their unknown locations, the rest of the family had also went back to active working, helping or simply waiting. As night crept and most had allowed themselves to retreat to their respected rooms, the atmosphere going through the place was that of restless determination.
The two missing boys were the particular reason for everyone's strong emotions. The thought of them being anywhere that was not even remotely close sent the ones who knew them into fits of unsatisfied anger.
Sawada Tsunayoshi, for example, could not find in himself the most basic ability of falling asleep. This most likely resulted his self torture of blaming himself for his friends' capture. Still, it was happening regardless of his knowledge that there was nothing he could to the neither help nor prevent anything that might or might not be happening at the moment.
And while in every situation like this was a self conscious one, like Tsuna, there was also the one who took on the more oblivious role. Thankfully, as young as Lambo was he really didn't need to be anymore involved in the situation than he already was.
Perhaps being expected to fair as much as the Bovino in this field, Sasagawa Ryohei was showing immensely surprising realization to his surroundings for once as he laid in bed, hoping for the best and promising himself to work twice as hard in the two's absence to fill the gap and allow Tsuna to worry only about finding the others without worrying about the rest of their family's security.
All in all, the quiet tension was known to be broken by an entirely unexpected force in the near enough future.
Xanxus sat at the Varia base in the dark, a bottle of whiskey held tightly in his right hand. Many thoughts about today's request went through his head. It was his opinion on a certain Vongola from the past that he was supposed to be meeting soon that took over his everything, though.
He, of all people, should know how long 10 years could really be.
Ten years, eight years, same difference. He had just the scars to prove the significance. A frozen syncope they had called it, and to wake up to a world that's completely not what you remember it being, everyone got older, had life experiences while you were frozen in time, staying the same. The point being that everything can change in such a long number of years.
Even his opinion of the Vongola's tenth generation boss, Sawada Tsunayoshi.
Who would have thought that after Tsuna died he would get to see him again? One last chance? Wasn't it what he had been waiting for though? What he had been secretly mourning about? All the regrets, the what ifs and looking back with thoughts about all those moments. All those moments he had but hadn't used them because of his damned pride. Or what had been left of it after he submitted to the changes in the family and forcibly gave his consent to the new reign of the tenth generation led by Tsuna, Vongola the tenth himself.
He had tried to fight it, at first, every step of the way. But a few incentives from the 9th, regrettably his father, about how the family won't stand for another coup d'tat made him think over his loyalties. 'Your body might not be able to handle the stasis once again.' was the threat from his so-called father and the truth in that, more than everything had coerced him to close his eyes and bow his head like the rest of the family dogs.
Seeing as he didn't want to be stuck like that again, he learned three important demands that were required of him: To follow and support the family no matter what, to obey the 9th and to accept the 10th.
Under the threats he succumbed and with the demands his fate was sealed.
He was tamed.
Inside the pages of lost times,
people are done with in a single moment.
Empires fall slowly.
Chapter one – done! Now... five more to go :]
So...
Did you like it?