Title: Into the Fire
Theme: Deception
Pairing/Character: Chrome centric, HibariChrome –flashes of Mukuro-Chrome
For: Frost190
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: TYL ages (but the kiddos all grown up not the FutureNamimori adults). "There's no need to be alarmed. I'm not going to kill you" Chrome said gently, soothingly, only to unleash unspeakable horrors on the man with her next breath.
She was as fine as strands of silk, if left alone the woman snapped under pressure. Thus, Chrome Dokuro seemed out of place among the infamous names making up Vongola's inner circle.
While not a Hollywood starlet beauty and the eye patch subtracted pleasing symmetry from her face, the woman had a gentle quality about her. There was something soft and delicate about her which drew attention if only because of how sharply she contrasted against the men.
So soft spoken were her words of warning that she lacked sharpness and seemed utterly defenseless. Wrapped in a satin dress, with one turn on her heels and a hand clasped with a gentleman's grip, Dokuro lead the way against the noise and activity.
Chrome Dokuro didn't promise sex, but she left a myriad of options open by saying nothing at all, leading those who followed her to believe the woman would give them all they desired. If only they'd follow. Follow…and not look back. And don't mind the cobwebs or the miniscule flash of someone eles' gaze inside her own.
Obfuscating simplicity, Chrome Dokuro led the target into another room. Bolted the door and put aside the vapid exterior.
He was pushed into the chair, eyes wide because the woman shoved him around with much more strength than such a slender body should hold. Dried lips moistened by a tongue tip as dark eyes observed how she looked around the room. Gone was her wide and lost look, replacing her uncertain expression was self-assurance and a spark of something dangerous.
An uneasy smile graced his mouth, a hand offered for her to sit on his lap, because even with the sudden change in her disposition from sweet to sharp wasn't enough to turn off the inherent charm of a polished gem.
Her lips twitch into something resembling displeasure, invoking ire. How dare she…she was the one who insisted they get away because the crowd and ingested alcohol made her head swim.
Before he could protest fully, the woman leaned forward, hands resting on the armrests of the chair so that he's looking at the slight plunge to her dress and hue of painted lips.
"Mr. Verti, you really are a fool" she began, her voice kept barely above a whisper and as gentle as possible, "did you think we wouldn't notice?"
He blinked. Notice? Notice what? Something itched along the back of his brain, primal instincts screaming at him to get away. The balance of power had taken a sudden shift and it wasn't in his favor.
Yet human thought over powers animal impulses. The man casually loosens his tie and crooks a finger forward, trailing along a slender neck and tucked under her chin. There's that look again. That hint of steel, then it's gone again. Just who was looking at him…
Chrome sank to knees, hands still on the chair the young woman tilted her head, as if clueless how she enticing it was to see her tucked between trouser-covered knees.
"We not only incapacitated those assassins you sent after Boss, we tracked you down as the money source." Chrome said, as causally as if suggesting it would rain tomorrow.
Mr. Verti stiffened; he pushed the woman's face and knocked her back. The chair fell to the floor as he scrambled to get away. The bolt to the door was easy to maneuver, yet horror came upon the man as he realized it was locked from the outside.
A masculine chuckle tickled his ears, followed by whispers the woman gave to the person who laughed.
"It's my turn this time. …please let me do this on my own, Mukuro-sama."
Like the laughter, Mr. Verti heard a third voice. It had to be another human, but at the same time wasn't because the sound enveloped the room and transcended the sense of hearing by going directly to the brain and invoked involuntary shivers down his spine.
"Very well my dear Chrome. He's all yours, have fun."
"There isn't anything fun or amusing about this" the woman replied, still talking to both herself and a third being Mr. Verti couldn't see but could 'feel' lingering around.
Terrified of a ghost, he turned around to see Chrome Dokuro sitting calmly on the carpet while fixing the eye patch he displaced in the rush to escape. Verti thought he saw a hint of a red and misshapen pupil to her right eye, but it was quickly covered by black cloth.
A three pronged trident materialized out of thin air. The woman paused to delicately remove her high heeled shoes, muttering that she didn't want to get them dirty.
Then she approached on silent stocking-covered feet. His back went flat against the door, sweaty palms trying to twist the doorknob this way and that.
"There's no need to be alarmed. I'm not going to kill you" Chrome said gently, soothingly, only to unleash unspeakable horrors on the man with her next breath.
He stared at the wall, counting the minutes in his head before stifling a bored yawn. Then, the silence was shattered by a scream of a man being tortured.
Kyoya Hibari heard frantic scratching, pounding and sobbing against the door. The frame rattled with the force of a human body throwing itself against the barrier over, over and over again.
This went on for ten minutes, enough time for him to become annoyed because now she was just playing around rather than extracting anything useful.
At last, a short series of knocks came from the other side of the abandoned office. Producing the key, Kyoya first looked to the woman –her bare feet second. Next, gray eyes traveled to the mafia boss huddled by the doorway.
Mr. Verti was curled against the wall, sobbing and gasping for air. His hands pink, raw looking and blistered from second-degree burns; yet the fireplace was empty of ash and no smoky smell lingered in the room. Though, oddly enough; there was the stench of burnt human flesh.
"Well?" Kyoya pressed. Chrome killed precious times by putting her shoes back on, then spoke up at last. "He was the one who paid for the attacks, but said the Rosario Family contacted him to do it."
Fair enough. The Rosario family was already highlighted as one of the families unfriendly to Vongola. He'd have to go over Boss's head to attack them, most likely the infant would have to give Kyoya the green light to swoop in and make every single one of them regret hiring hit men. How he hated red-tape…
His thought process stalled long enough to watch Dokuro observe the man who was still writhing in agony, looking utterly pathetic. His hands were most likely going to scar over if they weren't treated soon, but neither he nor Chrome were in a rush to call an ambulance.
"You should have just killed him. It would have saved us a lot of time."
"Boss doesn't like it when we kill people" was Chrome's simple reply. Her statement invoked a miniscule annoyed twitch in Hibari. It was either Mukuro or Sawada's word which was law to her, so Chrome never took his advice as how to conduct business.
"He'll remember your face and won't hesitate to get revenge." Kyoya stated from experience. He rarely left witnesses behind when a job was finished, so having Dokuro abandon a task incomplete and leaving a loose end behind irked the Cloud Guardian.
"No. He didn't see a thing." Chrome said before brushing past Kyoya Hibari. Perplexed by her assurance, he stepped inside the room. Mr. Verti jerked as he was kicked then rolled over.
At first, gray eyes blinked then it dawned on Kyoya as to what he was looking at. Skin charred beyond recognition along the man's face, flesh pink and white blisters coupled with purple blotches where flames licked deeper than the burns on his hands, right where eyelids should be.
Dokuro had sealed the man's eyes shut with fire.
…would have been easier to kill him, still Kyoya had to acknowledge a streak of cruel ingenuity when he observed it.
Perhaps, having her as an assignment partner wasn't such a waste of time after all. Yet, Kyoya Hibari resigned himself to withhold passing final judgment on both Dokuro and the infant's 'brilliant' idea of making them team up.
He'd wait until her first kill then see how Dokuro carried on after that before deciding if she was worthy or not.
Notes: Maybe this is a 'slight' stretch into OOC territory with both Hibari and Chrome, but I really want to believe Chrome would use her ability- even if it's powered borrowed from Mukuro- to do other things for the Vongola family besides fight. Cause let's face it, the girl can make flashy yet ineffective attacks. So, I like to see her being more useful as a spy for the Vongola or an informant somehow or even just 'creative' uses of her illusions rather than charging into battle only to be shoved aside by the 'boys'. Anyway, tl;dr explanation, so just ignore this.
Thanks for reading.