Word Count: 3,364


Xanxus snarled his teeth to the air as he snapped his gaze around the room, the place empty of the Sun and his copper shine, space as much of a void as the skies above were. The paper in his hand crumpled and wheezed as it fell to fire, curling in on itself. Turning on his heel, the Sky barged from the room, his coat billowing in the wind he created with feral speed. HIs eyes cut into everyone in his vision, people flinching away from the raging Boss as he stormed past.

"Where is he?" Xanxus growled, bursting into the main living room.

Squalo looked up from his sword, the thing all but cradled in his hands as he polished it lovingly. He raised a silvery eyebrow at his Sky, bearing down on the urge to roll his eyes at him.

"You're looking for that fucking pretty boy? He's down in the library." He huffed, waving off the papers chucked at his head, all too used to his behaviour and constant askance of the rogue Sun.

Xanxus nodded with begrudged thanks before heading for the library, his anger simmering with fresh tinder, new reason for his disgruntled nature to bloom forth. He made it to the great room in good time, having met no obstacles along the way, Varia low ranks having plastered themselves like insects against the walls. With a mighty boom, the doors were forced open, making way for the wrathful Sky to glare down isles of knowledge and parchment.

"Shishishishishi!"

Wine eyes narrowed as his belly boiled with a sour slosh, jaw locking as the wrathful sky took in the scene. Belphegor was balanced atop a small step ladder, hands perched on his seat as his knees bent in the small space, his grin as wide and mocking as usual as he watched the rogue Sun finger the spines of books, a small pile building on his left forearm. The illusive baker's son seemed not in the least ill at ease with the snickering Storm lurking behind him, focus drawn to pulling out and then replacing texts with a concentrated glaze in his eye.

"You're locked in a building with some of the most dangerous men in the world, Ottone, and yet you're still studying?" The little blond Storm giggled, being very amused by the man before him.

"You may have kidnapped me, but I'm still in exam season. I have essays to study for." Daiki answered simply, reaching higher to grasp another thick text before placing it on his stack.

Belphegor cackled as the Sun brushed past him to find a table, placing down his chosen texts and taking a bunch of loose sheets from a Varia hand who stumbled away as if confused. Daiki took the top book off the tower and read through it whilst scrawling across the lines, not so much as glancing away as the Storm pranced over to sit on the desk next to him, looming over his shoulder to read the sharp, cursive writing.

"Are you coming? Or are you just going to continue standing there." He called out whilst turning the page, his finger guiding his eyes. "Either way, please choose quickly, you're vaguely distracting."

Xanxus thinned his lips in a scowl before thudding his way over, footsteps echoing in the large room and labyrinth huffed as he came to a stop beside the rogue, brow furrowed in a default grim. He crossed his arms beneath his draped jacket and towered ominously over the two Flames, Belphegor still grinning, but shrinking away as time went on, feeling the friction that went between the two older men before him.

"You left without my permission." Xanxus grunted.

"I told you I would, so you have no reason to be upset." Daiki responded.

The words were exchanged without missing a beat, rehearsed and remembered from years before, the dust brushed of with the reuse. The Sky growled a low note, though not one of hostility, and rounded the table, thunking down on the chair across from the Sun and rocking back on the hind legs, kicking his feet up to slam his heels just short of the pristine writing paper.

"Why's the brat calling you 'Ottone'?" He asked, sending a sideways glance to the grinning prince.

"Ottone, as in brass." Was the simple answer provided by the Sun.

"His brass knuckles, of course!" Came the cackling, the little Storm reaching over to raise the simple white dress shirt, showing a pair of handheld weaponry chained to the belt loops of the baker's pants. "And his brass forearms guards!"

"I'm honestly surprised you found them," Daiki hummed, letting the prince fiddle and tap the curls of metal hugging his wrist.

Xanxus narrowed his eyes, imagining the bite that those would bring to skin, the teeth-rattling grind that it would do to bone.

"When did you get that?"

"A couple years after."

After.

There was a long stretch of silence, only filled with the continuous scratching of pencil on paper and the flipping of pages both loose and printed. Belphegor shuffled until he was on his stomach, legs kicking behind him as he laid his head near the ever scrawling hand, hidden eyes watching the way bones shifted beneath copper-bronze skin in a lazy fascination.

"You and Squalo, you're both in school, right?" Daiki spoke suddenly, almost making the Storm jump.

"What about it?" Xanxus scowled, cracking his eyes open.

"Shouldn't you have homework then?"

When there was a beat of stubborn silence, Daiki looked up, pinning the Sky with molten gold that dripped with the faintest whirl of amusement, but easily hidden beneath a layer of dispassionate oil.

"What homework do you have?" He asked, hiding the slight twitch of his lip well.

"...History. English." The Wrathful boy muttered, looking to the side. "Maths."

The Sun raised an eyebrow before glancing to Belphegor who was snickering to himself.

"And what about you?"

"The prince is a genius, I don't do homework, Ottone." He scoffed.

"That doesn't mean you don't have it." Daiki hummed, placing down his pen and creating a bridge for his chin to settle on. "Go and get it Bel."

The Storm huffed but got up and pranced out of the room, leaving behind a gritting Sky and a dismissive Sun. Not the best combination.

"Since when did you call the little shit 'Bel'?" Xanxus bit out, grinding his glare into Daiki's cranium.

"Since I decided his name was too long to say repetitively comfortably." Was the answer he received, the gold-encrusted amber still evading boiling ruby.

The wrathful Mafia scowled at the baker across from him, hating the air of ease that bubbled viciously around the settled Sun, irritated by the calm. Where was his rage? Where was his loathing?

Wine eyes dropped to the hands that bridged under his chin, seeing the strong structure, kissed by sunshine and work.

"Well? Why haven't you left?" He asked suddenly, snapping the Sky from his thoughts.

"What?" Xanxus hissed, his body bristling at the idea of being dismissed.

"Your homework." Daiki breathed, completely unfazed by the threat before him. "Why haven't you gone to get your homework. Is your attention span really that limited?"

He took up his pen again and proceeded with his work, scrawling fine lines of blue ink into the page, ending the conversation on his terms. Xanxus scowled and got to his feet.

"Remember to bring that Squalo with you as well."

"X equals four point seven-three." Xanxus huffed, leaning back as he felt the molten heat of Daiki's body radiating onto his right side, having sat closer to the Sun.

"Hm," He hummed, jaw in his palm as he gazed at the Sky with lazy eyes. "So you're not dumb."

"Of course he's not." Squalo scowled, over on the other side of the copper-skinned form.

"You never know when it comes to him." Daiki shrugged, tapping the desk with blunt nails.

Lussuria giggled from across the table, Bel by his side as he helped him create a paper mache diorama for his assignment, Leviathan grumbling at the glue that had been tossed into his hair.

"That looks nothing like the Bank of Italy." Mammon tisked, floating above the mushy mess with distaste.

"It's been blown up!" Belphegor snickered, waving his sticky hands up at the rogue Arcobaleno.

Daiki didn't seem bothered by the young Storm's macabre creation, still very engrossed in own work, the pile of books he had claimed slowly being whittled away. His back was straight, and amber encrusted gold were alight with focus from behind panels of framed glass, his pen pressed to his lips in thought, drawing Xanxus' attention to the vermillion flesh.

He huffed and slumped against the side of the Sun, feeling the warmth seep into his side. Daiki paused his scripting, but didn't shove him off in a disgruntled manner like he expected, nor did he welcome him. Daiki just left him to do as he wished, neither accommodating nor rejecting. Just being.

"What exam are you studying for, Daiki?" Lussuria asked, holding up the crumbling structure for the grinning child.

"Economics." He hummed, looking pointedly to Mammon. "I was hoping that I could get some help on this. It's never truly been my strong point."

"Hm, my labours do not come free. You'll have to pay me for tutoring." The Mist huffed, regarding the other out of the corner of their eye.

"I thought so," Daiki sighed, before tilting his head to focus on the script before him. "I've been uprooted, I have nothing of any worth."

"Well then." Mammon grimaced at him, a screw up of the lips and the caving in of a cheek before they floated over to hover above the shoulder of the baker's son. "Since you're new, I'll give you the first one off. But you'll have to owe me a favour, instead."

"I can bake for you, it costs less than buying it." He offered, raising an eyebrow up at the being.

"I believe we have a deal." Was the response, interest just barely evident.

"Wonderful, now, do you mind explaining this to me again? I was absent for this lesson and the textbook is lacklustre in its examples."

Xanxus huffed before crossing his arms and closing his eyes, head coming to fall on the broad shoulder of his stolen companion as he relaxed in the familiar atmosphere, the usual chaos a welcome pain in his ears. Caramel and sunshine filled his nose as he inhaled a settling breath, wood smoke and sugar following in undertones as the bronze form shifted for another wave. His nose tingled at the old smell, like having opened a forgotten book, nostalgic words woven into bodily perfumes.

There was weight suddenly, a warm heavy on the rise of his skyward temple. He felt his hair shift with a steady breeze, as Daiki exhaled a low note of absence. He relaxed his tension, but his lips remained thinned in a kind of stress, blood singing in a different manner than he was used to. Xanxus huffed at the ridiculous nature of human reaction before closing his eyes again, ignoring the coy smile Lussuria sent between the two, preferring to bask in the sunshine.

"Oh, what's this?"

Glass shattered. The twisting, malformed peace that they had accomplished was stuck against a wall and the fragility of it realised as the old, grating voice rung out. Daiki shifted to sit up, cold seeping into the Sky's bones and chilling him to the core like bare feet in snow sludge, biting at his skin and gnawing at his mind.

"Vongola Ninth!" Squalo shouted, greeting the man for them as Timoteo walked up, his cane clacking against the floor in an agitating 'click' 'click' 'click'.

"This guy..." Daiki breathed, their closeness allowing him to hear the tapered comment.

"Old man." He huffed, not bothering to remove himself from his lazy position.

"Do my eyes deceive me? My Xanxus, doing homework? My, should I prepare for an early snowfall tomorrow?"

"Boss got talked into it by Ottone here!" Belphegor snickered, peeling PVA glue from his hands in skin-like strips.

"Ottone?" Timoteo repeated, searching the Family, before landing warm brown eyes on the alien Sun. "I don't think I've met you before! I'm Xanxus' father, Timoteo de Vongola."

"Don't think you had much of a chance, sir. Your son had me kidnapped from my exam hall." Daiki responded scathingly, yet somehow civilly.

"Kidnapped, you say?" The Vongola Ninth hummed, glancing down at the stubbornly resisting Sky.

"Guess he never got out of that habit." Daiki hummed, shoving the lazing wrath off and causing him to topple to the floor. "He used to do the same when I was in Elementary school."

"You didn't cause such a fucking fuss back then." Xanxus spat, sitting up and glaring mightily at him.

"Because you didn't steal me from my home as well, I always made it back by night." Was the huffed response, the pen meeting his paper again in dismissal.

Timoteo glanced between them in a moment of slow cognition, before his eyes widened and he straightened.

"Could...Could you be Daiki?"

Xanus paused when gold plated suspicion and surprise fell on him for a moment, before they turned back on the Vongola Sky, head of cobalt inclining slightly.

"Yes, I'm Daiki Yamaguchi." He answered, ignoring how the wrathful Varia Boss set himself back down at his side as if he wasn't just pushed off the seat.

The old Vongola smiled then, a warm, fatherly thing as he came closer and stood behind the careful Sun, both hands on his cane as he looked down at the two.

"So you're the one Xanxus used to throw tantrums about." He laughed gently, "He used to scream about you all the time."

Daiki pursed his lips in a moment of consideration, glancing down at the huffing Wrath who refused to be budged.

"Did he now..."

"Mhm," Timoteo nodded, "Though he never told us your name, refused to actually. But he grumbled it a lot, it was so cute."

The baker raised an eyebrow at that, before looking at the sour expression that marred Xanxus' face. His arms were crossed in an almost childish manner as he glared off at the far wall in a huff.

"Cute and this one...Never could make that connection." Daiki hummed, making the Sky sit up and turn his glare on him instead.

"You're not that easy on the eyes easier, fucker." He spat, though there was no true bite to his words.

"Tell that to my partners."

Xanxus scoffed and returned to his previous position, laying heavily on the other to prove that getting rid of him was only counterproductive. Daiki rolled his eyes and rammed his elbow into his side, making him jolt and snap his teeth at the copper-tan being.

"I bet I've had more people in my bed than you." He snipped at him as he fought the urge to nurse his side.

"Oh no, have you really just been restricting yourself to a bed?"

Lussuria whooped loudly and Squalo released a shrieking laughter, his hand coming down on the desk to cause loud bangs that resounded in the room. Xanxus scowled at having his words turned on his so easily, mentally bashing himself over the head for forgetting how easily Daiki was able to twist sentences like they were physical strings in his hands. Timoteo coughed to hide his laughter, hand cupping over his mouth in an attempt to keep his illusion of maturity, but everyone knew the humour bubbling in his throat.

Xanxus scowled at the Sun who continued to work, not once having raised his eyes nor stopped his scrawling during the exchange, mind neither derailed nor distracted by the happenings around him.

"Asshole." He spat.

"One you'll never get to." Was the hum of response.

The Wrathful Sky paused, before he let his lips curl, immediately seeing the way Daiki reacted, tension coming to life in his shoulders as he engaged for scenario after scenario. Xanxus reached out and hooked his arm around the board set of shoulders, hands coming to grasp cobalt hair in a tight grip and yank the Sun's ear to his lips.

"We'll see about that, Daiki."

There was a moment of registration, dark gold eyes still looking at the desk in a passive understanding, before a sharp elbow rammed into the Sky's jaw and knocked him off the stools, his head cracking against the polished marble as his teeth clacked a spangle of white fire stars.

"Shut up Xanxus."

Mammon floated about the kitchen, watching the baker's son find his way about the large space, three low ranked Varia grunts at his disposal but yet to be used. The Arcobaleno hummed a noise as their fellow rogue Flame took quantities of ingredients and kneaded them to a large mass of completion, before separating it into a dozen equal parts in practised movements.

"What are you making?" They asked, coming down to shoulder height, mentally gauging the costs of each quantity taken so far for later comparison.

"Just some basic breads, a tester to see if you all actually even like my way of baking." Daiki responded, placing the parts of dough on a tray and shoving the lot into a preheated oven. "Now, you all of you help me clean this up please."

The three who had been standing like mannequins in the corner suddenly creaked to life, stepping out to gather up bowls, spoons and bags of ingredients to take away and clean as the Sun wiped down the counter surface of any stray flour.

"How long will this take?"

"Roughly 30 minutes."

The Arcobaleno huffed and came down to hover just before the baker's son, eyeing him critically from beneath their hood.

"Yes?" He hummed looking up from towelling off his hands, leaning back against the counter. "Is there something wrong?"

"You seem very at ease with your situation." Mammon said plainly, never one to hide his intentions truly. "Despite it being a very precarious one, indeed."

Daiki huffed a laugh before tossing the towel off onto the tabletop, his hands grasping the edge of the marble slab lazily.

"I think you've misread this, Mammon." He breathed, "There is nothing precarious about the situation, I can leave whenever I want, and Xanxus knows that."

The Arcobaleno stared through the shadowed void at the easy boy before him, lip twitching in consideration of his words.

"Then why haven't you?"

The Sun hummed in thought, pushing off the counter to check the oven, bending slightly at the waist to peer into it.

"You could consider it a respect to an old friend, or as something of a more personal benefit." He answered, smirk reflecting in the glass.

Mammon watched him as he nodded at the bread, before floating off, deciding to leave the teen to his devices, knowing they'd gain nothing more from this Sun.

Daiki huffed to himself as he felt the room become vacated save himself, wondering since when he let this part of himself slip through, but already knowing exactly when his porcelain had cracked, the name 'Xanxus' all over it in furious clawings.

Time passed before he removed the bread from the oven, placing it down to set and cool on a little rack he had found in the far corners of the kitchen. He turned his back to close and turn off the oven, fanning it for a moment to cool the interior, before returning to the counter and pausing.

Closing his eyes, Daiki took deep, settling breaths, his brow twitching an old echo as he tried to ignore the two, mysteriously vanished loaves of bread. Despite it, he couldn't hold down the curl of his lips, and the slow, methodical cracking of his knuckles. Under the familiar ticking in the back of his mind, he couldn't deny the nostalgia, almost fond huff that escaped him. He inhaled and puffed his chest, shoulders raising to improve capacity before he roared in a manner he thought he had long forgotten.

"Xanxus!"