Disclaimer- KHR does not belong to me, it belongs to Akira Amano.
Warning/A/N- Fic coming from a person who 'dropped off the face of the internet' for practically a year.
You know who you are /glares
This fic is also A/U, meaning that it's Alternate Universe... and somewhat TYL.
Summary- Two struggle in a world where love drowns and science dictates.
Lighthearted, drabble-ish.
Monochrome Grey
"I think I'm crazy," you say while spinning on your chair, arms spread out and head leaning back, "I won't know what to do without my Shou-chan~"
"I'm sure you already are, Byakuran," your acquaintance comments, "but Irie-kun belongs in Vongola."
"On the outside, maybe, but on the inside, he's part of Millefiore~" you chuckle a bit before spinning yet another round, kicking off from the leg of your desk.
The person on the sofa quirks up an eyebrow, eying you like you're insane, "You're not overworking him, are you? I hope you're not, because if you are, that's the second time you've done it and we all know what happened the first and Tenth will have your head if you do and," he takes a deep breath, "are you even listening to me?"
"No~"
He gives up on his statement, and puts out his cigarette butt, "He's fine now, right?"
"Of course~ Shou-chan is strong!~"
He huffs, standing up and straightening his jacket. "Enough about Irie-kun; where's Spanner? I need to have him do some repairs."
You pout at the change of topic but you tell him the mechanic's in his room. "Oh, and Gokudera-kun? If you see Shou-chan can you tell him to drop by? I'm lonely~" you spray your hands wide out to indicate your needs, Gokudera simply shakes his head before closing the door softly.
Massaging your neck while crossing your legs on top of your desk, you remember you had some business with Spanner as well. You turn on your laptop and you start searching for the connection to the cameras... ah, here it is.
A lone male sitting just to the right with his head poking out of a machine flickers onto your screen. You consider to wait a while after Gokudera gets his business done before speaking with him. After opening a new marshmallow packet and chewing on a couple, the Storm Guardian stalks into the room on your screen.
"Sorry, Uri's acting up again, I think it's the cow's fault," your voice-com detects. You listen in for another minute or two, before you get bored yet again and plop another marshmallow into your mouth.
~to be human~
"Shou-chan, Shou-chan, Shou-chan~" you repeatedly say his name, bringing the black-haired out of concentration.
"What is it now, Byakuran-san?" he sighs, head dropped over his stack of work.
"I'm bored," you reply, pen perched of the bridge of your nose, balancing it perfectly.
"You're always bored," he counters, not looking up from his project, "If you're bored go do those paperwork. Don't tell me I haven't seen those stacks on your desk. They're just gonna go higher if you keep on spending more time with me, being bored."
You huff out a breath of frustration, grabbing his arm in a tight chest hug in the process, "But it's fun with you!~"
"You know, Byakuran-san," he continues while swapping a part of the machine, "you're very contradictive."
~to be human~
"I'll do this one," he chirps, looking over your shoulder and onto the file that was in your hand.
"What? No, Shou-chan-"
"Irie-kun, it's dangerous though," Tsuna-kun injects, voice already sounding like he's permitted to go, "we've already got capable people going."
"But the technician we had bailed on us. You need a replacement that can hold the communications together; me," You pout a bit before opening your mouth to say something, only to be interrupted again, "Other people are busy with some things Spanner got them to do, and with them working on a project, I'm the only one available in this short amount of time for this anyway, so why not?"
You bite the insides of your lips in thought; if Shou-chan went, then the plans would be slightly different, and since Shou-chan was Shou-chan, then they probably would come back earlier than planned. Then he would have Shou-chan all to himself again! But still...
You slump down on your chair in defeat, waving a half-bitten marshmallow towards their direction, "Fine... go..."
~to be human~
You bit off a corner of your marshmallow, eyes narrowed to slits, "Where is he?"
"He's in the medical department- No, Byakuran, you can't do this to him, he's in critical condition right now, we've had this conversation before-"
You spin around, jerking your head, "It's the only one choice we have, Tsuna. The doctors won't be able to help him, the drugs, the transplants, the surgeries won't be any use... This is the only way to save him, to save Shou-chan. I don't want to do this either, but...
It's... the only way..."
~to be human~
You press the red connection button, linking your room's voice communication with his, "Spanner~ How's the experiment going?"
~to be loved~
Tap tap. Silence.
Tap. "... How long?"
"... I don't know. I really don't approve but... if it works I..."
"It has to work. You're the only other person who knew Shou-chan as much as I did, maybe even more. It has to..."
~to be loved~
The first thing your brown eyes sees and takes in is how dull your surroundings were. You snap your head to the only other presence in your room but you realize that's not your mother nor your father, and that your not required to follow its words.
"Hm? You're awake?" the human speaks but you ignore it, just like every other voice that's not his. The human gives one last lick to his lollipop before chucking the stick away and tearing another wrapper. His voice is muffled because of his candy but you chose not to tell him. "Hello?" he refers to the highly equipped intercom and fixes his goggles, "'m sendin' S2 over, e's got black hair this time."
You blink rapidly at what he's saying, and when the human turns to you and nudges you to the direction of the steel doorway, only then you know your dead cells are black and and you're supposedly 'S2'. You frown upon that name, disliking it instantly.
"Ah," You stop at the sound, curiously placing your attention on the human. "Be'ore 'u go... can you tell me what 'ear it is?"
"2019," confidently said, but your brain tells you somethings wrong and that's not the right answer, "is it not?"
The man hums in secret understanding before he asks you your age, date of birth, and name.
"25, the 3rd of December..." you pause a bit, "I thought my name was S2?"
Your comment makes him close his eyes and sigh, but he quickly covers that up with an 'ok, sorry, just confirming'. You remember what he said before and you hurry over to the room, but not before sheepishly asking for the directions. "It's up the ha'way," he pooped out his lollipop, "go up 8 levels in the elevator on the left, and it's the big door a bit further to the right."
You follow his exact words, and when you're finally in front of the big golden doors a figure glomps you before you could reach the doorknob.
"Shou-chan!~~"
~to be loved~
You had always called Master 'Master'. He had told you to stop with that name but you insisted, telling him you were obliged to call him by that. Only sometimes, the name Byakuran would slip through and your master would be over-the-world happy. It's not that you don't want him to be happy, no, you wanted him to be the happiest guy on earth but you had duties and that was one of them.
You tending to his every needs; every morning at 6 you wake him up with breakfast served, and a small packet of marshmallows afterwards. At meetings you would be present at his side, occasionally contributing to the discussion and making a few new friends. They were quite nice; Tsuna-kun was another boss like master, and his family were always welcome. You related the most with Spanner, because of your similar interests, but only with Tsuna's family you could truly feel at home.
The sky darkens another shade, and when you check your watch your eyes nearly pop out of its sockets. It's later than late and you haven't even made dinner yet. You rush inside straight to the kitchen, grabbing some ingredients to accompany the packet of marshmallows for dinner. Wheeling the trays in, a lump can be seen from the bed, and when you slowly walk towards it, slowly, quietly, as so not to disturb the sleeping figure, a peaceful smile were on his face. You faintly smile back, pulling on the covers that weren't doing its job properly.
"Shou-chan~"
~to be loved~
He laughs, and both his hands slips into his jean pockets and he leans all his weight onto his left foot. He tilts his head a little over to the side and looks at you like he is deciding your worth. You shiver a bit under his intense gaze before you hear a soft chuckle.
"Don't be scared, Shou-chan," he says, but you're not scared, you're really not, "you're safe with me." He's only saying that because he discovered you all alone in the scene, that apparently there were intruders in the house, and that your face was supposedly, pale. You don't question why his clothes are somewhat bloodied, why he has a terrifying gun in his left hand, and why, why, there's people running everywhere with nearly the same state as him-
"Shou-chan, duck!" you duck accordingly, but your name's not Shou-chan nor Irie-kun, it's S2. Why do they on keep getting your name wrong? You squat down bringing your head down to your knees, silently begging that whatever they're firing won't hit you.
Four magazine rounds were fired before the noises died down, but you're still on the floor, wishing to God that whatever happens, you won't get hit, you won't die, he won't get hit, he won't die—
And then you're suddenly hoisted up and embraced in his arms, seizing your shoulders, clamping, clutching, "You're choking me, Byakuran-san," but he fires away his last bullet before releasing you.
"What did you just call me?" He did hear, after all.
"Bya...kuran-san?" and another hug attack was placed on you.
~to be loved~
It was that one time when Master granted you those liquid that comes out of your eyes that you can feel. Feel your emotions, memories, pain seeping through your the nerves of your body. "Stop it," you say, "you're killing me,"
The man in front of you whines 'but, Shou-chan~'.
You grit your teeth and your face distorts into something new, "Please, it hurts and just— let me..." you don't voice what you want, but both of your minds know what was going to be said and what would be affected.
Your head is spinning; it's the numerous pictures that flash inside your head ranging from the least innocent to the most sinful. It's them that gets your head screaming although no voice comes out of your mouth, just tears to the eyes. It's them that gets you confused and betrayed, them that makes you feel broken and scared.
"I won't..." his master breathes out softly. If you weren't what you were you wouldn't of heard it.
You beg once again, but before you can say another despairing please, let me go a jolt of electricity runs through your system and your body shuts down completely.
You wake up the next morning in Spanner's room, all wired up in different parts of your body. You crank up an arm and the lines clinkclink together creating a new-found instrument. "Where's master?" you ask, because that's what comes to your mind first; your Master.
He mumbles something about being in his office and you rip every plug out, ruffle your hair and stalk into the said room.
~to be loved~
To the 2022 plastered up on the wall of the room merely raised a brow of yours. It was a few years off of what you last remembered, but it shouldn't really matter anyway- your master was known to have gimmicks like these.
Like the one time he tried to dangle into your room 4 stories high from the roof just to say goodnight and when he suddenly thought that he could hear that his favorite marshmallows were talking to him, telling him to not eat them and spare them some mercy. He restrained himself for about three days (you reckoned that was pretty awesome feat for him) before claiming that the voices stopped altogether and stuffed all the white marshmallows he could find in the house.
You keep glancing to the calender while handing Byakuran some files. For some unexplainable reason, the numbers irked you. He notices, and asks.
"Oh, no, nothing's wrong... it's just that the calender..." you drift off, staring at the numbers on the wall again.
"The calender? Hm~?"
"It's... wrong? I mean, if my memory serves me right, it should be the year 2019, but..." you stop to really think for a minute, "don't tell me this is another one of your jokes, if you're that bored you can always start by doing your paperwork-"
"It's always been there," It's then when you see the very first sight of Byakuran in conflict. His lips are thinned into a straight line, his brows furrowed, and his fingertips would fiddle with the marshmallows in his hand, not bringing it to his mouth and eating it like he normally would. "Shou-chan..." he says carefully, the syllables cautiously rolling off his tongue, "Listen to me..."
~to be loved~
You had stored it in your memory that he had preferred it better when your hair was messy, and as a off-hand comment, how good you looked with glasses.
You had never worn glasses in your entire life- you didn't even have the reason to need glasses, but there you were, in a spectacles shop and being handled by a few optometrists. You asked them of glasses that fitted you; not too fancy and not too big, but you didn't get the necessity of the specialists poking at your eye when you didn't have poor eyesight.
Your eyes were perfectly fine, except maybe a few degrees off here and there, nothing that would disrupt him of life if he didn't get it treated, but they said that his face frame perfectly suited a pair of glasses of theirs, and that it was free when he showed them his card.
They were even more fussier after that, deeming the 'perfectly suiting' pair not enough. They went through three pairs near the same quality, two of the same brand, and another dozen more of other, more suited ones. You claimed that a normal looking one was fine, but they thought differently.
You ought to have chosen a 2-dollar shop if that was going to happen every time, but the wide smile that appeared on Byakuran's face made it somewhat worthwhile.
~to be loved~
'I love you,'
You vaguely think about the word love. Do you have it? Your master had told you that he loved you, and that you could only feel from the heart, then... didn't that mean you also had a heart? You now knew you weren't... human, but...
'Love you too...'
You experimentally placed your right hand across your left breast, waiting for the thump to indicate that Master wasn't joking and that you weren't really just a mere—
'Love... Shou-chan,'
Clank. Whrrrr.
[Fin.]
A/N- Ack. ... Reborn needs to have more 10051 rabu. or in this case robot!51 rabu. I still can't get Byakuran's character right... or any for that matter... and I think I made them too... idk, mature? ... Eh.
Do you know what would be fantastalastic? If I got this fic more than you did /dead
(If you got confused with the POVs, it's Byakuran's the first half, then Shouichi's. I should've presented this more clearly, shouldn't I? /sigh
I know it jumps around and all, but, it's a drabble, whatyoudexpect?)
Only a few characters made appearances here~ Tee-hee. I only really wanted to focus on the both of them, but Marshmallow-san kept on popping up. :)
Thanks for reading :) Please leave a comment?/criticism/suggestions?