Title: Blood Song

Author: sllebswap

Beta'd by: MelissaRose85

Characters/Pairing: Miura Haru and Belphegor

Type: Continuous (InComplete)

Genre: Romance/General/Humor

Word Count: 4813

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira-san.

Summary: AU. He's a temperamental, self-indulgent assassin Prince. She's a feisty, righteous half bred Vampiress with a heart of gold. When it turns out that his blood is something that she could not live without, the dynamics of their relationship quickly changes into something very…interesting.

Chapter Last Revised on: 31/05/13

Chapter Two

Belphegor was irritated.

He had just been checked over and cleared by the small medical team that was kept in the Vongola's underground base, and prior to that, had endured having his personal space violated by the aforementioned medics as they examined and treated his more minor injuries; the serious ones had already healed thanks to the special abilities of that girl – Miura Haru, that was her name – who had sprung him from the dungeons of the enemy Famiglia and as such, he was actually feeling better than before, not that it had improved his mood any. To further add insult to injury, he had also been debriefed by his Storm Guardian counterpart, and it turned out that the mission he had been forced to abort had been successfully completed by his rescuer – apparently, she had managed to achieve the mission objective and get him out at the same time, and that damn Gokudera's amusement had made him twitch something fierce.

Picking up on the Varia Commander's less than gregarious demeanor, the Vongola Guardian had the good sense to excuse himself and leave the blonde to fume in peace in the sanctuary of his assigned suite. Belphegor had proceeded to make use of his host's hospitality to do just that, and he stewed for a while before reluctantly coming to the inevitable conclusion that he had been ignoring from the very beginning.

Damn it.

It was time to face the music. The blonde muttered expletives under his breath as he left the guestroom and stalked off to look for the woman whom he now owed a debt to. Several debts, in fact. Just thinking of it made him scowl, and he stormed (no pun intended) around the Vongola underground base until it abruptly occurred to him that he had no idea where to find the woman, who had most inconsiderately shunted him off to the Decimo's girlfriend and her team of medics the moment they arrived at the base before disappearing to god-knew-where. His temper grew even shorter, and then he went off to look for someone who would know her whereabouts. After some legitimate enquiries (read: terrorizing), he was finally led to the Tenth himself, in the training area where the latter was sparring with two of his Guardians even as a third watched them. All four stopped and turned to look at him when he appeared, and Hayato raised a brow when he spotted the Varia's ferocious scowl.

"Still sulking?" the silver-haired male enquired archly.

"Depends," Belphegor snapped back, in no mood to be courteous. "Are you still a lackey?"

Hayato frowned at the insult, and Yamamoto calmly stepped in before the situation could escalate. "Belphegor-san, is there anything that you need from us?"

Beside him, the Vongola Decimo said nothing, preferring to wait it out and see what the blonde wanted. Leaning idly against the wall on the side, Hibari Kyoya watched the scene with seemingly sleepy eyes, appearing to be perfectly relaxed and completely unbothered.

Belphegor ignored all of them and focused on Sawada Tsunayoshi. "Vongola Decimo," he acknowledged tersely. "I need to find that woman. Where is she?"

Hayato's eyebrow rose. He had a very good guess just which woman the irritable blonde was referring to and exchanged a brief glance with his boss, shrugging slightly in reply to the Tenth's unasked curiosity. That stupid Prince was unusually agitated though, and like any good, responsible rival, the Storm Guardian had every intention to milk every ounce of enjoyment out of the situation possible.

What were frenemies for, right?

Hayato's eyes glinted. Ten years down, he still hadn't forgiven the Varia punk for stealing his win during the Guardian Trials. It was going to take a long time before he finally would.

"What woman are you talking about, Belphegor?" The Storm Guardian enquired almost innocuously even though he had a very good idea of the person whom the blonde was searching for. After all, his Storm counterpart had been quite aggravated earlier when he had mentioned Haru during the mission debrief. "We have a fair number of female members, you know. You will need to be more specific."

The damned chain-smoking idiot was yanking his chain, judging by his cocky demeanor and the hint of amusement on his face. Belphegor felt his brow twitch.

"Miura Haru," he all but spat out stiffly. "Where the hell is she? I have unfinished business with her."

All the men, with the exception of the Cloud Guardian (who looked like he was so bored that he was in danger of falling asleep there and then), expressed mild surprise at his reply.

"Unfinished business?" Hayato echoed in a dubious manner. "What unfinished business could you have with Haru? She completed her mission; saving your ass and then bringing you back to safety. As far as you are concerned, she has nothing to do with you anymore."

Belphegor did not relish that sore reminder whatsoever. Still, it was the truth, and he could only glare and fume.

"Don't waste my time," he snapped. "I can just tear this base apart to find her instead."

At that, the Cloud Guardian seemed to finally come awake, his heavy, lidded gaze hardening dangerously. "Is that a threat?" He spoke for the first time since the Storm Varia announced his presence, his silky baritone laden with warning. Like always, the Cloud Flame wielder was viciously protective of his territory and did not appreciate any threat to thrash the domain he guarded. The powerful fighter pushed himself off the wall with a fluid, lazy grace, straightening to his full height as he fell in beside his brother-in-arms. Sensing the intent of the battle ready male and honed by years of combat experience, his fellow Guardians automatically reacted to the change in the air, their stances deceptively loose and open, ready for any conflict that might arise.

Before Belphegor could react to the barely veiled display of hostility, their Boss finally intervened.

"Why are you looking for Haru, Belphegor-san?" the Tenth asked calmly, seemingly unperturbed and unaffected by the heavy tension. His mild tone seemed to act as an unspoken order for his Guardians to stand down, and almost immediately, Yamamoto and Gokudera backed off and retreated to the training area, resuming their sparring match without another word. Hibari continued to stand slightly behind his Boss, his gaze coolly watchful, but he, too, held his silence. For now.

They were at an impasse, and Belphegor was smart enough to understand that he would not be getting anywhere with this group unless he revealed his intentions. He scowled, not appreciating the fact that his hand was being forced in this matter, but he gave in all the same.

"I have some debts to settle with her," the royal assassin growled. "Now, tell me what I want to know or just get out of my way."

For a brief moment, Sawada Tsunayoshi just stared at the Storm Prince with his hyper intuitive, amber-gold eyes. Belphegor glowered harder, not backing down whatsoever from the younger leader of their Family and his ridiculously perceptive regard. The Sky Flame user looked at him and smiled slightly.

"Haru is in the suite beside yours, Belphegor-san," the Decimo answered at last. "I'm passing on this information to you purely in good faith. Kindly refrain from attacking the leader of my Rescue and Retrieval team; whereas I have every confidence that Haru can defend herself against you, Kyoya here will not appreciate any damage caused to the base as a result."

The aforementioned Cloud Guardian still did not speak, but he seemed to have regressed to his earlier bored, could-not-be-bothered demeanor, and had returned his attention to his sparring fellow Guardians instead.

Belphegor visibly twitched. Damn it, the woman had been in the room right beside his the entire while and he had wasted time and a sizeable chunk of his pride for nothing. Without another word, he turned and stormed out of the training area, a veritable thunder cloud over his head.

The current Vongola patriarch watched him go with a mildly bemused – and amused – look on his face. It was apparent that the Storm Unit Commander had struck up some sort of connection with the in-charge of his Rescue and Retrieval division, even if neither of them seemed too pleased about it. The Tenth could still recall the image of an unusually nervous, almost jumpy Haru when she burst into his office earlier and demanded to be put as far away from the Storm Prince as possible. Then, two hours later, she had crept back to him with a defeated, fatalistic air around her as she dejectedly asked to be placed in a room right next to the blonde Varia. Truly, Tsuna still had no idea what that was all about, but since Haru was not completely adverse to the Varia Prince (by way of her unusual request), and said Varia Prince seemed unlikely to attack her (even though he looked quite irritated and high strung), the Vongola Boss saw no reason to withhold Haru's location from the temperamental man.

"Well, that was interesting," he spoke slowly after a while, seemingly to no one in particular. "I don't think I have ever seen Belphegor-san this agitated before." He paused briefly, and then continued. "Hopefully, Haru won't be too mad at me for directing him to her doorstep, though."

Hayato snorted in the midst of blocking a strike from Takeshi with the bow of his G's Archery. "I wouldn't blame him too much, Boss. His pride probably got quite dented when he had his ass saved by a woman; I'm actually surprised he didn't have an aneurysm there and then."

The transfused blood simply could not cut it any longer.

Haru had known even before she had tried to sate the demands of her preternatural side with the packet of chilled, prepared blood that had been specially acquired for her. The usually palatable form of liquid diet bought from the local blood bank that she had always depended on when her senses hungered for a hemoglobin supply now seemed utterly bland and tasteless, and her entire body balked at the notion of consuming that when—

When her Source was so nearby, and her instincts were screaming at her to attach herself to his neck and never let go. Haru moaned miserably and allowed her head to fall onto the surface of the dresser with a loud thunk. Then, she lifted her head and did it again, just to distract herself from the ever present thirst that occupied her mind with unrelenting persistence. Her body simply did not understand why it was being denied the sustenance that was, for all means and purposes, made solely for her, and it constantly plagued the increasingly distressed brunette with demands to feed from her Source.

Much to Haru's dismay, her initial gambit to stay as far away from Belphegor had failed miserably, as she quickly found out that the further she pulled away from the Storm Varia, the worse the cravings got. Proximity played a role in this instinctual bid to remain as close to her newly discovered Source as possible. The further she was away from the blonde assassin, the worse off she felt, until it got to the point where it was almost physically painful. Placing herself nearer to the man seemed to lessen the discomfort significantly, but her hunger still called out to her insistently and Haru did not know how much more she could take before she lost control of herself. The distance issue was going to be a huge problem when the Storm Flame wielder returned to the Varia command headquarters in Italy – good Lord, was she going to have to stalk him for the rest of her life?

The notion was horrifying enough to give Haru pause, and feeling utterly miserable, the young woman thwacked her forehead against the table once more, this time staying there as she gloomily bemoaned her fate. Sometimes she wished her mother would give her adequate warning on such matters instead of just letting them spring up on her unexpected like this. Unfortunately, the Miura matriarch was quite the firm believer of leaving one's offspring to fend for themselves, and so Haru was left to blunder through this entirely stressful situation on her own.

Okaa-san had most definitely not told her what to do in such a situation – no wait, she had. Once, her dear mother had chuckled in a somewhat ominous manner and told her then impressionable ten year old self to never let go of her Source and to drink him dry. Haru, who had then been just a young, thoroughly confused Halfling on the verge of developing vampiric needs and urges, had too many things on her plate to concentrate on what else her mother had told her – though she was definitely regretting her inattention now.

Haru was valiantly resisting her natural urge to attack the Varia Prince like a rabid animal. She had always been unwilling to see humans as a steady supply of sustenance, even though her inhuman genetic makeup as well as the razor sharp instincts passed down to her by her supernatural ancestors often pointed out that their kind had regarded homo sapiens as an invaluable food source for as long as Time immemorial. Being a half breed, she had not always craved blood and had experienced a relatively normal childhood like any other child until she approached her preadolescence years and the vampiric traits granted to her by her full blooded mother started to surface. Those first few years of transition had not been easy, and it had been hard for her to accept her sudden thirst for human blood. There was no getting around this specific nutritional requirement of her changing body, but Haru had tried her best to circumvent the humanity issue (and keep herself away from the possibility of seeing her friends as potential food) by only consuming blood bought from the local blood bank. It was a good trade off; she was still taking in hemoglobin, but without the unnecessary conundrum of having to get it directly from a living, breathing source. That had always been good enough for her – until now.

Haru wanted to cry. What was she going to do?

The poor brunette was not given the opportunity to wallow in her misery for long. The sudden loud banging at her door quickly made her jump with alarm. Startled, Haru pulled herself together and hurried over to undo the latches and open the door. The primal, instinctual side of her started to strain towards the source of the noise as she neared it, and her every sense sprang to alertness with…anticipation. Haru was struck by the strangeness of her own reaction, and when she touched the doorknob and pulled open the door, her wary foreboding changed to outright shock and dismay when she saw the person on the other side.

Oh. God.

It was him.

Belphegor.

He was the last person she wanted to see right now and she was immediately overwhelmed by his abrupt proximity. Much to her distress, her senses took in everything about him greedily, and the hunger in her grew even more. Her pupils dilated and Haru quickly slapped a hand over her mouth when her fangs slammed out of her gums just in mere reaction to his sudden presence. The alarmed Halfling took a step back, and then two, the look in her eyes one of extreme wariness and panic.

What was he doing at her door?!

The woman's negative reaction to him was certainly something that Belphegor had never experienced from any other female before. He twitched visibly at her unhappy expression and felt more insulted than ever. Who did she think he was? He was a royal Prince; she ought to be flattered that he was going out of his way to search her out like this! Without a word, the golden-haired male muscled his way into her room, slammed the door close behind him and locked it for good measure so that they would not be disturbed. When he turned back, the woman was somehow on the other side of the suite, looking at him with wide, accusing eyes, as if he was some psychopath who liked to strangle puppies.

It was extremely unflattering.

"What do you want, Belphegor-san?" she asked guardedly at last, her voice muffled by her hand that she was using to cover her mouth. She appeared queasy and uneasy, and he thought she looked as if she was going to be sick very soon. Was his presence so repulsive to her?

Belphegor felt his eyebrow tick with irritation.

"I'm here to repay my debts," he told her with gritted teeth, his patience wearing thin. It had already cost him a significant amount of pride to look for her, and he sure as hell was not relishing the position that he was in right now. "For the mission."

"You don't owe me anything," she was quick to inform him, hand still clapped over her mouth. To add insult to injury, her other hand came up to make shooing motions at him. "If there is nothing else, you may leave."

He was instantly outraged by the way she tried to dismiss him. Beyond irritated now, he stalked towards her, only stopping a few steps away when he noticed her increasingly panicked expression.

"I'm not leaving until I repay this debt," he snapped. "You are not holding this over my head for god knows how long." Her skittish reaction was also adding to his aggravation, and he growled. "What the hell's wrong with you?" he demanded. "Do you have a problem with me?"

Haru's eyes widened, and then she quickly shook her head. "Please; you don't understand. Your presence is making me very uncomfortable."

His brow shot right up at that. His presence made her uncomfortable? The blonde eyed the young woman closely, finally paying attention to her unspoken body signals and the anxious air that she was projecting. His earlier irritation lessened, and he started to smile slowly.

"You are afraid of me." He sounded quite pleased by his discovery, and for a moment, her wary gaze flashed with anger.

"I'm not afraid of you," she snapped back at him, momentarily regaining some of her spunk. "You just make me feel very uncomfortable," she repeated firmly. "Go away."

Belphegor crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a look. "I'm not going anywhere until I pay my debts. Now, tell me what you want."

"I want you to go away," she told him quickly, even as her instincts were blaring a different answer. "Leave before I do something I regret."

She was commanding him towards the end, but since he took orders from no one, she was promptly ignored. "I'm quite curious about you, you know," he spoke then, almost as if she had not said anything at all. "You utilize your powers without the usage of any Flame whatsoever, and your physical abilities are far above that of an average human's. Your talents are quite strange as well…hmm."

She flinched slightly at his comments, but chose to say nothing. He drew closer to her, and her senses relished in his proximity. Her mouth watered. She froze, afraid to move. He looked at her intently.

"What are you?"

Haru snapped.

One moment, he clearly had her cornered and trapped, and the next, he suddenly found himself flat on the bed behind them, pinned down by the same nervous female whom he was trying to get her secrets from, only this time, she had the advantage, straddling his hips and holding him down with her unnatural strength. He was also surprised by her speed, and then he paused altogether when he saw the sharp little fangs that poked out of her mouth. So, he hadn't been delusional when they were in the dungeons.

"I told you to go away; I can't control myself around you." She sounded desperate and almost pleading, the expression on her surprisingly delicate features one of distress. He wasted no time exploiting her moment of weakness, in the blink of an eye reversing their positions before she could even think to resist it, and then she was the one held under him, the tables turned on her, and he leaned down to still her when she started to struggle.

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking the opportunity to observe her. She was unexpectedly pretty in a quiet, understated manner, her large eyes and clear complexion lending her a fresh, youthful appeal. She would have looked almost girlishly innocent, if not for the sharp little canines peeking out from behind her lips.

Her eyes fell onto the side of his exposed neck then, and she stared at it in a transfixed manner. The sheer hunger reflected in her eyes for the briefest of moments surprised him. Belphegor frowned inwardly at his own unexpected reaction – excitement – at her stare. Before he could analyze it further, the moment was gone as quickly as it had appeared. The brunette shook her head and forced herself to look away. "Your blood," she gritted out at last. "It calls out to me. Please, let me go. I…cannot…cannot concentrate with you so near."

Realization of her nature finally occurred to him then.

"You are a vampire," he stated. He did not seem particularly surprised by that fact, despite having never met one before prior to her. He also did not seem particularly fearful or terrified of her, but then again, considering that most of the Flame users were also quite powerful beings in their own right; his lack of fear was not surprising. She did not deny his conjecture, and so, he continued. "How amazing. The Decimo has even vampires working for him now. Is there anyone that he cannot influence?"

Haru was taken aback by his lack of reaction – usually she had to face her share of dramatics and fearful discrimination from people when it came to the thorny issue of her race – but she recovered quickly enough from her surprise to give him a withering stare. "Now that you have satisfied your curiosity," she bit out, "kindly get off of me and leave."

He merely looked at her archly, well aware that he now had the upper hand. "Tsk. You ought to be nicer to me, you know. I have something you need, after all."

Still, he moved off of her but did not leave the bed entirely, shamelessly lounging against the headboard in a thoroughly relaxed manner as if he had every right to be there. Haru quickly scrabbled to sit up the moment he let her up, looking at him warily. They stared at each other for a moment, and then he rolled his eyes.

"You know, you have completely ruined my impression of vampires. Blew it right out of the water, set fire to it, and then kicked it around in the dirt for good measure." He told her almost conversationally, much to her suspicious bewilderment. What on earth was he up to? She kept waiting for him to start freaking out but he seemed oddly sanguine about the entire affair (pun unintended). "I thought that your kind would be flashier, and look a hell of a lot more impressive," he continued in an infuriatingly blasé manner. "And then I met you. Meh."

What the hell was 'meh?'

Haru was very sure that she had just been insulted. She started to frown at him, suddenly recalling the man's extremely 'charming' personality. For some reason or another, he was also significantly less agitated than when he had first appeared at her door, all puffed up and irritated about some self-perceived owed debt to her or another. It was as if he now knew that he was in an…advantageous position.

"Sorry to ruin your image of my kind," she told him stiffly, grabbing onto her growing irritation as a much needed distraction from her other, more pressing problem. "Now, will you please get out?"

He arched an eyebrow at her, not that she could see it. "I already told you; I'm not leaving until your favor has been dispensed with. This is the third time I've said this; you are not very bright, are you? And here I thought that vampires were smart, devious creatures. I hope you are the exception to the rule, else it'd explain why your kind is so rare nowadays."

Oh, this man was starting to get on her nerves. In fact, he was all but gleefully stomping on them. Haru quickly forgot about her need to keep away from the Storm assassin and wasted no time scrambling right up to him, bristling with anger. Much to her rising agitation, he remained perfectly unperturbed and unthreatened even when she grabbed him by his shirt collar and hauled him right up to her own face. "Don't make me break your nose," she hissed. "I can and will very gladly do it."

He didn't even bother to put up a fight, and just continued to look at her in a skeptically challenging manner. Haru's urge to punch something, most preferably that insufferably smug face of his, grew exponentially.

"So, about that favor," he drawled at last, as if he didn't have her right on top of him and holding him still in a rather threatening manner. Haru fought the urge to groan, her anger dissipating rapidly like hot air from a weather balloon. "What's with you and your one track mind?!" she demanded at last. "For the last time, I don't want your favor!"

"And what about my blood? Do you want that?" he asked almost casually then, and she froze.

It was only for a moment, but she quickly recovered herself, especially when she suddenly realized how close they were right now. Eyes widening, she pushed away from the blonde only for his hand to lash out suddenly to grab hold of her arm, effectively stilling her movement.

"You don't know what you are talking about," Haru snapped. "And let go of me!" It finally occurred to the flustered brunette just how inappropriate the situation was. They were alone in a bedroom, on a bed, and in her anger, she had gotten so close to him that she was practically sitting on his lap. Haru just knew that she would never live it down if one of the Famiglia walked in now and saw her compromising position with the Varia executive.

He ignored her struggles, and now that he had regained his energy, his Flame ability was more than enough to counter her strength. Of course, she also wasn't putting in her full effort to get away from him – no matter how annoying he was, he was still an ally, and also her Source.

"You should be honored, you know," he told her. "This is a rare, one-time deal that I have never offered to anyone else before. I will relinquish my royal blood-"

She glared at him. "Are you stupid?" she interrupted him harshly before he could finish. "This cannot be a one-time deal! You are my chosen Source, I will have to feed from you regularly the moment I take your blood!" Haru's head pounded as she finally gave in to her impulses to yell at the man. Then, just as quickly, she deflated. "Just…go, okay? I will take care of this by myself."

She sounded so weary and defeated, not even struggling to get away from him now. He looked at her.

"How regularly is 'regularly?'" he asked then, and stunned, she quickly lifted her head to stare at him. When she took too long to answer, he tch-ed and demanded quite rudely. "Are you hard of hearing?"

Haru blinked dazedly, and then automatically answered. "I need to consume human blood every month or so," she replied.

"And what do you mean that I'm your 'Source?'"

This time, Haru did not hesitate in her answer. She felt too tired and drained to resist. "It means exactly what I said. My body recognizes you as my Source. Your very being is the optimal for my needs. I will gain more nourishment from your blood than from any other person, and once I have a taste of you, no other will do. I will not be able to live without you."

The last was said in a small whisper, and it was obvious that she did not like this situation that she had been forced into. The blonde did not say anything for a long while. However, when he finally spoke, Haru was in for another shock.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked sardonically then. "I'm already in your unholy clutches. Do I need to bleed myself to feed you?"

::tsuzuku::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

And so starts the symbiotic relationship between these two. Hope you folks enjoyed this installment!

xXxXxXxXxX

As you can see, Belphegor is agreeing to feed Haru as a means to pay off his debt to her – and, of course, to have something to hold over her head as well, as per his usual modus operandi. He may seem pretty tame and obliging right now, but don't be fooled!

xXxXxXxXxX

I feel that the plot so far might be a bit rushed, but don't worry, things will settle down after we get through this initial hurdle. I'm still not used to writing this sort of plot (will definitely have to improve more in the future), so please bear with me for a while, and even better, if possible, tell me what you feel is strange or off about the chapters. I will be forever grateful!

xXxXxXxXxX

Since 'Of Sparrows and Princes' was based mostly in the Varia Headquarters, I thought that it will be a nice change of pace for 'Blood Song' to be centered around Namimori, the home ground of the Japanese Vongola Main Family. So, do look forward to more interactions with Tsuna and his Guardians! At least I will enjoy writing them, that's for sure!

xXxXxXxXxX

That's all for now, thanks for reading, you guys!

xXxXxXxXxX

Your reviews make me update faster; so please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-sllebswap