The Golden Road Trip

Standard Disclaimers Apply

Summary: AU. College students, Mukuro and Squalo decide to get away on a Christmas vacation road trip. Aside from problematic boyfriends tagging along, it seems this isn't going to be a nice, ordinary road trip, especially when they wind up in Hibarin's castle. BL, yaoi, vampirism.

Pairing: Byakuran/Mukuro, XANXUS/Squalo (Probably more in later chapters)

Rating: T (PG-13); contains content not suitable for children (Rating may change in the future)

Warning: This fanfiction contains boy love/yaoi as well as supernatural (vampirism) contents. If you find said contents disturbing, I suggest you leave this page immediately. Unfortunately, this fic is also un-beta-ed.

Note: Since this is an AU fanfiction, the characters aren't in anyway related with the mafia. Mukuro and Squalo are best buddies (kind of – don't ask me how). Byakuran and XANXUS are their (problematic) boyfriends, respectively. The four are 22 year-old college students. And, FYI, despite Mukuro and XANXUS being able to civilly talk to each other, unsurprisingly, XANXUS hates Byakuran's guts.

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Chapter I: Nothing Escaped

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Frosty wind whistled loudly - it seemed to be louder and louder – as the man ascended each step. Long silver hair whipped against his own face in quite an annoying fashion. He had long stopped trying to fix it back in place, though. The maple-red stone steps he remembered were now covered in white – his footprints were pretty vivid on the covering snow. And of course, they were slippery.

There was no doubt this year was going to have a White Christmas. It had been snowing for the past whole week!

To put it simply, it was difficult as hell having to climb all the way up here.

Superbi Squalo gritted his teeth, trying to stop them from chattering. He felt like really killing the main cause of this suffering. But Rokudou Mukuro would be knowing and evil enough to easily trip him down this stupid spiral slider of staircases. So he would refrain from that thought for now.

"Voiiiiii! So you're here!"

The silver-haired man barked; actually feeling a bit relieved that he didn't have to search anywhere else for his evil friend. Sitting oh-so-elegantly with a book in his lap under the now deserted yet roofed corridor – the highest one in this college, Rokudou Mukuro only raised an eyebrow as if that statement was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of all the places, you just have to choose the most difficult to get to!" Squalo huffed, finally getting away from the seemingly endless slippery steps.

"Kufufu." And then, came Mukuro's trademark evil laugh; his strange mismatched eyes twinkling with amusement. "Challenge is what makes things more interesting, you know."

"Try saying that to Byakuran." Squalo snorted. He then tried to dust the flakes of snow off his silver head.

"Why do you think I always choose the most difficult place?" Mukuro smiled, putting a strayed lock of blue tresses behind his ear before flipping his book to the next page.

"What," The silver-haired man scowled, glaring more at the book – and definitely its title – in his friend's lap than at the person, "are you doing up here? Surely you aren't here to read that trash of a book."

"Kufufu. Who knows. Perhaps, I'll love it more if my boyfriend sparkles in the sunlight. Besides…" The blue-haired one closed his book – a certain vampire teen novel. "I enjoy the view here." One sky-blue and one strange red – the exact color of blood – eye gazed upon the hazy whiteness:

Somewhere among the white obscurity, leafless branches of trees penetrated the sea of mist. And on some of those branches, there perched several ravens. Those ravens had the blackest of black for feathers and the reddest of red for the eyes. They perched silently, only occasionally making any sound. Their black color was the stark contrast to the snowy world.

The smile on the blue-haired man's lips widened.

"Don't you think ravens are lovely creatures? Not only are they beautiful, they are also a symbol of death as they wait to prey on the corpses."

Now Superbi Squalo knew his friend was weird. Despite being dangerously – for dangerous was the right word – beautiful, Rokudou Mukuro was a bit off in the head. He seemed to be obsessive with dark, negative things – stuff that disturbed ordinary people. Whether it was out of his true nature or Mukuro was just doing that on purpose, Squalo couldn't really fathom.

No. It was more like he didn't really feel the need to investigate.

Maybe it was both. But Mukuro being Mukuro could have all the reasons in the world to be weird and he wouldn't raise a single question. For asking that was like asking about Mukuro's strange red eye, of which Mukuro himself hated to speak of. The eye was anything but normal – probably caused from abnormality in the genes. And despite knowing people refraining from speaking of it, the blue-haired man knew the sight of his one red eye could still be frightening.

It was odd, though, that no one questioned XANXUS' red eyes. Probably because they came in a pair – unlike Mukuro's mismatched ones – or that XANXUS was a terrifying presence…in the sense that was completely different from Mukuro's eeriness.

"And that's what you want to say for Christmas! Quit the crap already!" The silver-haired man immediately snapped.

"Oya oya, are you afraid?"

"Like hell I would!" Still glaring hard at the book, he quickly changed the conversation topic. "Care to explain the reason your things are still unpacked in the dorm?"

Well, it was the reason he was looking for Mukuro in the first place anyway. The examination was over and now the college would be closed for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Since most students stayed in the dormitories, this was another time of the year to get a chance to return home.

Instead of replying, the blue-haired one smiled back knowingly. "And what about yours?"

"…" On hearing that, Squalo quieted down a bit. Surely, everyone was looking forward to this Christmas holidays and the fact that someone might have to stay behind in the seemingly deserted college sounded…disheartening. But the fact was the fact. And it was not like going back to find an empty house was an attractive choice.

"Well," began Squalo, folding his arms across his chest, "my parents are currently enjoying their second Honeymoon. And it's not like I couldn't enjoy the holidays by myself. What about you?"

"My cute little sister, Chrome, has chicken pox. It seems my dog, Ken, spread it. So my mother called me yesterday, telling me to better stay away and be safe, body and soul."

"WHAT! YOUR DOG!"

"He's not really a dog."

"…"

"Anyway," Mukuro finally looked up, closing his book, "how do you suggest we spend our holidays together?"

Squalo involuntarily shuddered at the emphasis. Still, he acted as if he didn't catch that emphasis at all.

"What about Byakuran?"

A secretive smile now adored the blue-haired beauty's lips as he got up from his seat, slender gloved fingers catching his best friend's arm. "The same reason you didn't tell XANXUS."

Squalo frowned. Even as realization dawned on him and he knew Mukuro only loved to do it for teasing, the blue-haired beauty's seductive ways always got on his nerves. It kind of perturbed him. And no, it had nothing to do with Byakuran being a possessive bastard with excessive sexual appetite – no doubt Mukuro brought the worst (deemed best) out of him. It was something else. Let's just say it gave him a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

It always happened.

Still, the cause that they both kept this sad fact a secret was understandable.

Their boyfriends were…problematic.

"There's no way I'm letting myself stuck in the friggin' dorm."

And sad fact or not, this was the only chance for a peaceful – as peaceful as it could get – break.

"Kufufu. That's why…" Mukuro's smile widened. "I've already planned for a road trip."

Because Rokudou Mukuro knew Superbi Squalo couldn't say no to a lovely trip with no hair yanking.

The chilling wind crooned again noisily. And before it got too cold the two friends left for a cozier place, descending down flights of snow-covered steps – one of them still grumbling about the slippery snow.

Yet, without being aware of, everything was being watched. Every step the two friends took, every word they spoke and every action…everything…was all reflected in the silent ravens' red, red eyes.

The eyes with the same color of blood.

There was nothing escaped…

…Including the vampire teen novel book that was left in solitary behind.

…

It was not long before they were back in their dorm room. Squalo was surprised to see that Mukuro had already packed his necessary things in a separate small baggage. It turned out that…the stuffs he had seen unpacked were just there to drive him up those snowy flights of stairs and admitted to Mukuro that he was to be stuck behind so that the blue-haired man could propose his golden road trip plan.

Yeah, right. Nothing escaped the mastermind's perfect calculation.

And he had already mentioned that Rokudou Mukuro was evil.

The said evil person was now lying on his stomach in his bed with a pen between his lips and a map spreading in front of him. He seemed to be in an oh-so-good mood that if his ponytail had really been a tail, it would have wagged up and down oh-so-happily. And now the Shark was feeling like gnawing on the mischievous Pussycat right then and there if the Pussycat hadn't uttered an attractive 'meow'.

"So…what do you say we drive to Toscana?"

And that was really, really, a very attractive 'meow'.

For Superbi Squalo always had a thing for Italian Renaissance.

"You always want to visit Firenze, don't you?" The blue-haired man said, tipping his pen down to mark the route here and there. "And perhaps you could buy back some good wines for XANXUS, if you want, that is."

Shit. There was no escape.

Even no reason to refuse.

So when the evil Pussycat asked if the Shark would drive, Superbi Squalo found himself already saying yes. The rest he needed was to pack his things.

…

Now if Rokudou Mukuro was a mastermind, then his beloved boyfriend, Byakuran was a magnificent bastard. He knew Mukuro was up to something yet he played ignorant of it. He would wait until the fox – well, in this case, the cat – his Pussycat – showed its lovely tail before he made a move. So what he was doing now was observing things from his tower of ivory, munching on his favorite snacks, and waiting.

Surely, Mukuro was a very careful person. He would, of course, at least be cautious not to leak any information that would trigger Byakuran's interest. But…

The white-haired man smiled, squeezing the soft, squishy marshmallow between his thumb and index finger.

The more Mukuro was careful not to leak anything, the more aware of it Byakuran was. And seeing Superbi Squalo dragging himself up to the topmost college corridor on a chilling day proved his assumption to be correct. Especially, when he knew his beloved Pussycat always loved to choose the most difficult place to be.

Ah, well, he would wait and see what Mukuro-kun had to deliver. For now he would wait nicely with the aura of an innocent.

The man hummed a happy tune as he popped the marshmallow in his mouth and flipped his novel book to the next page.

Perhaps Mukuro-kun might want a sparkling boyfriend for Christmas.

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TBC

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It has been long since I have written any active English multi-chaptered fic. And frankly, I'm quite happy to finally start writing one. This idea for this one has spawned from an MSN conversation with my friend, Itakoaya, and was originally more cracktastic. Turned out not to be as cracky but I've tried to add some humors here. For this road trip should be indeed golden, given the people to be on such trip.

Anyway, Mr. Scars aka XANXUS will show up in the next chapter. Stay tuned!

And last but not least, review and get a sparkling boyfriend! Or…wait, perhaps you don't want one. Anyway, I'd be really, really happy if you review. :D

–Chesiere Cat aka Hiyuura