I am still playing in The Difference Between and it is still AU since Natsu hasn't hit this point yet. (I can't help myself.)
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Xanxus had never wanted to kill somebody so much. He was an assassin- the best of the best at it. It was his job to want to kill people, and Xanxus had wanted to kill plenty of people. Iemitsu had stood right there on the top of that list.
Finding out what that man had done to a baby Sky- his own son- and that Sky's Guardians had catapulted him higher. Xanxus hadn't thought he could hate somebody so completely until Iemitsu.
He certainly hadn't thought he could hate Iemitsu anymore completely than he already did anyway.
Every Element, including the Sky, should get more protective when they had a child to look after whether that child was adopted or not. Vongola Skies were especially supposed to be this way- not to say the other Elements weren't as dangerous or protective, but Vongola Skies were meant to lead the pack on the matter- and when the child was a baby Sky it was even worse. Everything Iemitsu had done to his boy and his boy's Guardians went against that instinct.
It was…unfathomable to Xanxus how the bastard had managed it. Xanxus was a man who lived and breathed his instincts. They had saved his life more times than Xanxus knew how to count. It had been his instincts that had identified Iemitsu as a threat to begin with long before Iemitsu had tipped his hand in the matter.
That wasn't to say that Xanxus was feral or that he could not ignore his instincts…Xanxus just knew better than to try. He had honed them around an entire family full of the famous Hyper Intuition. His instincts were damn good.
The idea that a Sky- a Sky of Vongola blood no matter how undeserving the bastard was of it- could so completely go against his instincts that he would abuse and beat on baby Elements and a baby Sky under his protection was sickening.
And enraging.
Once Xanxus had seen he could not un-see it, and even if he could have Xanxus would never have done it.
The point was that Xanxus had found a baby Sky and baby Elements that were as close as he was to his Pride. Except this Pride was wounded and trapped and had gotten close the hard and dirty way that may as well have been a warfront.
It was no wonder why the brats had looked so worn and battle ready during the Ring Battles. No wonder why Xanxus had looked and seen a Cloud with his instincts belly-flopped on, a Sun standing battle-ready in front of an injured brood, Mists prowling so closely to their own, a Storm that had never stopped fighting, a child Lightning who had stepped up to a threat like Levi and been ready to strike him down, and a Rain that was ready to wash away the threats.
It was no wonder he had seen the Elements of Tsunayoshi's Sky stirred and raging.
They had been caged and trapped. They had been caged and trapped and hurt and all the while it had been with one another they had been threatened.
Just the idea of someone trying the same with Xanxus- and the idea that the Sky to try it would start off powerful enough to manage it as had happened with these brats- was enough to get Xanxus' hackles up, and his Wrath bucking under his control in a preemptive strike against the threat.
Fighting the little shits had certainly upped the respect for them a bit. Even when the fucker had gotten the Sky Ring, Xanxus hadn't been as pissed as he could have been since by that point he had been sure the little fuck was nothing like the man to help birth him.
Xanxus hadn't been happy about it exactly, but watching the man come raging in towards his son after the fight, the way the little fuck's Elements had all bristled, the way their Flames had all raged and the way Tsunayoshi's Sky Flames- so bright and large and wide- had retreated into his core instinctively had been an eye-opening experience.
How bad had the abuse been that a Sky as powerful as the little shit, as wide and accepting as Xanxus had been able to feel Tsunayoshi naturally was during their fight, would instinctively draw away and retreat from his own blood?
It had stirred protective instincts in Xanxus to be certain.
The moment Iemitsu had laid hands on the boy in his sight line though, Xanxus had made a choice.
Watching the boy's Elements react on his behalf…how practiced and desperate the motions had been and how Iemitsu had attacked without regard for it, had only solidified his resolve.
Especially when the little fuck had reacted to his Elements' destress and been beaten down for it.
At that point it hadn't mattered that Tsunayoshi was that man's son, that he had technically beaten Xanxus in regards to the Ring his brother's should have had.
All Xanxus had seen- all his Pride had seen- was a trapped and caged Pride of cubs being hurt and abused by the Alpha who should have been watching over them.
It was natural then that Xanxus and his Pride take the cubs into his own until they were strong enough to hunt at his side.
Somewhere inside Xanxus' instincts and intuition purred.
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This one didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I still like it, but this was not where it originally was meant to go. XDDD Natsu I hope I am still doing well here.