Mission

Mammon let out a tired sigh as he collapsed on his bed. Xanxus now had the information he wanted so Mammon knew he could finally rest. Relieved, he buried his face in his pillow, ready to spend the next twelve hours in his bed. But he had forgotten to take something into account.

The door banged open and Lussuria entered the room, carrying a girl in his arms. Mammon cursed. Of course, Xanxus would leave him alone but the others were another problem…

"Mammoooon!" squealed Lussuria. "I want to go shopping; can you give me some money, please?"

Mammon sighed and got out of bed. Lussuria had those sparkling eyes that meant he would never leave the Arcobaleno alone if he didn't get what he wanted.

"Mu, you got your salary last week, Lussuria…" Irritation tainted his voice. "Don't tell me you already spent all of it…?"

Lussuria started wriggling and mumbling something about sales, golden opportunities and bags. Mammon was too tired to reason with him so he decided to give him one of his credit cards, hoping Lussuria would leave him alone after that. He was handing out the card when the door banged open once again, revealing a furious Squalo.

"VOIIIII! WHAT THE FUCK, LUSSURIA! LET GO OF HER NOW OR I'LL KILL YOU!" he roared.

"Squ-chaaan!" pleaded Lussuria. "Stop shouting like this! And just come shopping with us, okay?"

Mammon shook his head, desperate, before he noticed Squalo was now staring at him with plaintive eyes.

"So… why am I here?" Mammon asked, looking at the huge mall swarming with people.

"I-I just can't go shopping with Lussuria alone" mumbled Squalo who seemed almost scared.

"Mu, I guess you owe me something now. That's not a bad thing."

Squalo glared at the Arcobaleno before returning his attention Lussuria who was entering a shop with his sister scurrying along.

"Why does he need to buy new clothes anyway?" he snarled.

"Weren't you complaining about the fact your sister didn't have a feminine presence around her?" Mammon pointed out, remembering the information he had gathered about Squalo's sister. "Lussuria could have a good effect on her."

"Yeah… you're probably ri- WAIT WHAT? Lussuria is NOT a fucking woman! And how the hell do you know about that?"

"Mu, you care too much about details."

Squalo was about to say something when Lussuria came up to them, dragging Gioia behind him.

"Squ-chan!" he pouted. "Just come with us. My baby won't try anything if you don't approve it…"

"Of course she won't!" Squalo looked down at his sister, proud.

"But I'm her mom! I should be the one choosing her clothes; that's not fair!" protested Lussuria.

"Her… mom…?" stuttered Squalo, shocked.

"Yes! She said I could be her mom!" Lussuria happily shouted.

"Sorry…" whispered Gioia, with an apologetic smile.

"No way you're her mom! I'm her family! I won't let you have her!" growled Squalo.

"Squ-chan! I promise I'll be a good mom! And I'm definitely better than you to deal with such a cute girl!"

Mammon was surprised to see Lussuria's words had apparently hurt the swordsman.

"Really?" he said, with a twisted smile. "Let's see then! Come back here in thirty minutes! We'll both buy something for her and we'll see which one she prefers!"

Without adding anything, Squalo disappeared into the crowd; Lussuria smiled at the child before leaving too. The Arcobaleno sighed and sat down on a bench, taking out a notebook. He definitely needed to remember the girl was a good mean of pressure on the swordsman. That could be useful in the future.

"What are you writing?"

"Useful information" he simply said before looking at the girl who was sitting next to him. "Your brother really cares about you, right? He would do anything for you, don't you think?"

She stared at him without saying anything. Her grey eyes seemed to pierce him as if they were looking right at his mind. Confronted by her insistent look, Mammon felt quite happy that his eyes were hidden behind his hood, the thin layer of fabric somehow protecting him. Something in her eyes just made him uncomfortable.

Finally, a spark of understanding illuminated her eyes before she laughed.

"Mu, why are you laughing? Did I say something funny?"

"Yes, Nii-chan cares about me but I'm sorry, I'm not his weakness" she said with a knowing smile.

Mammon silently cursed. This kid had just outsmarted him. He had been wrong to think she was a simple-minded girl. She looked so innocent at first sight. But he should have known that the sister of someone like Squalo would not be some stupid brat.

Mammon was still brooding over his failure when Squalo and Lussuria came back. Gioia welcomed them with a wide smile, holding out her arms to receive the presents. With a confident smile, Lussuria gave a large bag to the girl. They all waited as she opened it, revealing a cute pink dress and a box containing pretty shoes. Lussuria giggled, seeing the girl gaping at the dress, her eyes sparkling.

"Mu, I think you lost your sister" Mammon snorted.

Squalo said nothing and gave a small box to his sister. She carefully opened it and froze. She then looked at her brother, her face lit up by an expression of pure happiness. Squalo smiled at Gioia, taking the box from her hands. He then put the silver chain around her neck and Mammon saw a small dinosaur-shaped pendant.

So she was a kid that could be bought in some way after all, Mammon mentally noted.

"Thank you, Nii-chan! It's so cool!" Gioia gave a quick hug to her brother.

"You're welcome, brat" he said, patting her head. "You're my sister after all, so I'm the one who knows you the best."

Squalo turned and smirked at Lussuria before taking Gioia's hand and heading out of the mall. Mammon sighed and followed Squalo, dragging a sobbing Lussuria behind him.

Mammon sat heavily on his chair, laying his head on his accounts notebooks. He would make sure that Squalo and Lussuria would pay him for having wasted his day. Feeling slightly better at that idea, Mammon opened the drawer where he kept all his precious calculators and took his favorite one to evaluate how much they would have to pay.

"Whoa, you have a lot of calculators!"

Mammon jumped on his seat and turned to discover Gioia standing next to him and poring over his collection of calculators.

"Mu, since when did you get here, kid?" Mammon hadn't even felt her presence.

"Hm? I followed you when we came back" She tilted her head, surprised. "Why do you need all those calculators? You don't know how to count? I can teach you if you want! I know the numbers up to twenty! And Nii-chan taught me addition and subtraction!"

"Stop… talking, kid" Mammon hissed.

"Don't be upset. I can teach you. For example, you're facing six enemies, okay? Then, you kill four of them! How many enemies are left? TWO! And that's how you do subtraction! It's easy, right?" She smiled at him, happy to share her knowledge.

"I know my numbers, kid… That's one of my jobs!" Mammon frowned at her. "But I'm curious. How did you manage to follow me?"

"What do you mean? I just walked behind you…"

"Mu, stop stating the obvious… I mean that I didn't realize you followed me until you spoke!"

"Oh, that…" She stared at the calculators, pensively. "When I was a baby, Nii-chan forbade me to follow him when he was training. Because he said he could hurt me while practicing with a real sword. But I was really curious so every day, I would follow him. At the beginning, he always caught me. But with time, I learned how to be really quiet. I think he still thinks I had stopped following him. And that's how I hide from Father too…"

"Wait, you mean… even Squalo can't detect your presence?" The girl's words had sparked Mammon's interest.

"I think so… Why?"

Mammon was thinking very fast. As the person in charge of intelligence gathering, he knew that the kid's talent was nothing short of priceless. She was very young but smart enough and with training, she could become very useful.

"Mu, that would be very useful indeed… You like dinosaurs, right?"

Gioia nodded, curious.

"Would you like some dinosaur toys or things like that?"

"Yes!" Gioia clapped her hands with excitement. "You'll buy me some?"

"Only if you agree to carry out a few missions for me."

With a wide smile, Gioia saluted the Arcobaleno.

Note:

Whoa, that chapter was a tough one. I thought Xanxus would be the most difficult character to write about but Mammon was a real challenge OH MY GOD. And the chapter ended being REALLY long. I hope you don't mind.

Thank you for the reviews, the alerts and the favorites ;~; I didn't think I would seriously work on a fic one day and you guys just make me so happy ;A; Thank you so much!

khrVariaLover: Hahaha your question seriously caught me off guard XD Is it really surprising? I mean, Xanxus isn't really the perfect guy who would follow rules so I can easily imagine him drinking alcohol at 15. But it's just my opinion ^^"

anonymous: No problem! I tend to think like you, actually ^^

Have a nice day and see you next chapter!