Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of its characters. That honor belongs to Akira Amano.
Surprises
Xanxus hated surprises.
Surprises caught him off-guard, they made him feel unprepared, and that in turn made him feel weak. The Boss of the Varia was many things, but he most certainly was not weak. Every time, they seemed to shake the very foundation that he stood on, the platform he had so firmly created beneath himself, the awareness of his strength, the knowledge that he was in control.
Xanxus loathed surprises.
It came as a surprise when he had found that he was not the true son of the Vongola IX, but just a rat that the old man had picked up off of the streets out of pity. In his fury, Xanxus had attempted a coup d'état to take the Vongola with force, but his plans had been foiled by the senile old fool. As the ice from the Zero Point Breakthrough slowly froze his entire body, again he was surprised. Surprised that he had failed, that he had been beaten by a seventy year old man, that even now, that old man still thought of him as his son. When he had gone to take the Vongola Rings from that brat in Japan, he had been surprised yet again when he had been defeated by a mere middle-school boy who could barely control his Dying Will Flame. On top of that, the brat had somehow managed to master the Zero Point Breakthrough technique, effectively trapping Xanxus in his icy prison once again.
The brat always surprised him, and that was why Xanxus detested him so. He was such a weak little shrimp, yet he somehow found the strength to shoulder the burden of the Vongola. It was unthinkable. After the brat had officially accepted his position as Vongola X, Xanxus didn't think he would last a month, what with the backstabbing politics and the bloody underworld business that came with the Vongola name. Instead, he had stubbornly held on, and had even steered the Famiglia away from its dark dealings and down a more honest, hardworking path. Xanxus would have thought it impossible, but the brat had managed to pull it off. Sawada Tsunayoshi always seemed to surprise him.
It also came as an unwelcome surprise late one afternoon when Squalo burst into his office, unannounced as usual, with a grim look on his face. "VOOOIII! Boss, we just got contacted by one of the shitty brat's Guardians. The meeting between the brat and the Millefiore was a trap! The bastards outnumbered him ten-to-one. They said the brat got half of 'em before they gunned him down." The silver-haired swordsman stopped, grinding his teeth together. "It was too late by the time his Guardians got there."
Xanxus took the news in stride. Things like this wouldn't unnerve him. In fact, they only made his resolve stronger. He was, after all, the head of the Varia. However, being the head of the Varia meant that he had certain obligations to carry out, and that included pounding into oblivion whoever dared attack the Vongola, much less its boss. That was why Xanxus hated Sawada Tsunayoshi; the brat always surprised him.
Xanxus stood, his Varia coat flapping behind him. His crimson eyes burned steadily with a barely contained fury. "Let's go." He ordered his second-in-command. There would be Millefiore blood spilled for this. They would show the world the power of the Vongola Famiglia, even if that brat could not.
Xanxus really hated surprises.
FIN