Word Count: 3016


Suzuki Mao was a charming girl. Beautiful in appearance, skilled in both music and arts, delicate in motion and a voice lined with lilacs and perfume. Her hair was a deep mahogany and her skin was the shade of polished porcelain, detailed with petal pink lips and blushing cheeks. Her eyes were a kind of near-blue, so pitch that the sight seemed to force colour into the spectrum.

Suzuki Mao was a charming girl.

Watanabe-Yamaguchi Daiki sat across from her at a tea table, watching her pour them portions silently. He wondered just where his grandfather, Himura, got off arranging him partners.

"Are you opposed to this decision?" he asked, their isolation allowing for freedom of the tongue. He had been too obedient today, it had grated on his nerves.

Suzuki placed down the pot without so much as a clatter and drew her hands back to her lap, eyes lowered delicately.

"I don't think my opinion will amount to much, my Lord Watanabe."

Then she's as unhappy as he is with this. Daiki sighed and took up a cup, tasting it carefully, trying to discern if there were any foreign elements within the brew. Nothing.

"Well, I'm asking for it," he grunted, getting another wave of her light perfume when she moved. "If you're going to be my wife, we're going to have to rely on one another. Not being transparent can lead to trouble."

She smiled a bit, a pained little tilt of the lips that could have fooled someone less than them. Her thumb stroked the rim of her cup as she gazed into it, a strand of her tar hair falling from its bun and hanging down her cheek.

"...I just wish I could have married for love, rather than politics," Suzuki looked to him then, a kind of resignation in her eyes. "But that's just not how the world works sometimes, I suppose."

The room they were in had been refurbished after the rage of the Watanabe women had razed it to the ground, gone were vases and tapestries, and in their place were collections of mosaics and linens depicting the Watanabe's twin dragons accompanying lions and tigers. The wall which was once dominated by the 15th Oyabun's likeness was still empty, however. Daiki was unsure what he was going to place upon the centre.

"Marrying for love," he breathed, "Is difficult for people like us."

"Yes," she agreed gently.

"But do you want to?" Daiki asked, putting down his cup and focusing on the girl across from him. "If I could offer that route, would you take it?"

Suzuki blinked, trying to understand.

"How, my Lord?"

"I," he began, leaning forward slightly, "Will not marry you until we love one another."

The girl was floored, eyes wide and unsure.

"But we are engaged," she uttered carefully.

"Engaged, yes, but not married," Daiki explained, "Our bond is sealed, but the date has not yet been defined. So long as we work together for it, I believe we can delay the wedding until it suits us. Until we can love, or at least, enjoy one another's company."

Suzuki bit her lip and thought about it; a delay would cause confusion and suspicion in the Families and would no doubt irk their elders, but if they played their cards right...It could turn out for the better. The anger of their elders, or the joy of their own?

"I believe I could...learn to love you, my Lord."

Daiki smiled, perhaps the first time since their meeting, and she felt herself relax a little at the sight. He was proving to be an agreeable man, it seemed.

"We are in agreement then," the young Oyabun chuckled, taking up his cup and offering an impromptu toast. "To our hearts."

"To our hearts," Suzuki joined before they drank and smiled at each other from over the brims of their drinks.


Dear sister Lussuria,

My wedding had been delayed, so there's no reason for the Varia to rush. I understand that the Vongola has put a leisure travel-ban on you recently and that it will be hard for you to move about freely for an indefinite amount of time. Do tell Levi that I am sorry and that I hope he feels better soon; the letter he sent me was rather scathing.

Mao is settling down nicely and has taken the reality of my sex quite well, she is loyal. She seems to understand that the deal we have going on is rather ideal and unlikely to be found elsewhere. We are getting along well and I have taken aboard your suggestions of requesting her to bring possessions of attachment to the Watanabe and it seemed to have worked just as you said it would.

Nami, Ame and Aika would like you to write them another story soon - especially Ame, who seems to have become rather a fanatic towards Squalo's tales of sword fighting.

We've recently welcomed three more girls into our family as well, triplets by the names of Kana, Mana and Yama. However, with their birth, their mother Seiko has passed. A shame, for she was truly the only one of my aunts I could genuinely tolerate.

I'm sorry that I didn't make it last year, but I've already made plans and have begun blocking out time to travel to visit you all. I can't do it too immediately, however, as it may distress Mao to be alone so suddenly after the transition. I would bring her with me to speed it up, but I don't think she would be welcome and as a result, will defeat the purpose.

I hope you are all doing well, and wishing Mammon a happy birthday,

Your brother Daiki.


They...They didn't take this into account.

"They want us to fuck? Already?" Daiki blurted, making Mao flinch and redden.

"Yes...It seems that since we've been pushing the wedding back, they want us to join in an alternative way," she breathed, playing with the string of her light kimono, Summer crickets chirping outside. "There are...There are people nearby who will be trying to validate whether or not we have taken the step."

"Shit," he sighed, walking over to join her by their bed and lower his voice. "Guess that means I'm not getting undressed then."

"Yes, there would be a bit of trouble if you did, Daiki-sama."

They sat beside one another for a little while, the tentative friendship they had forged straining under the weight of intimate relations. They had managed to kiss already, if only to satiate their predecessors, and were sleeping in the same bed, but seductive touch had not been thought on much.

"I think I can do it," Mao admitted, rubbing her arm. "With you, I can."

Daiki rubbed his nape and looked to her, seeing the golden glow of lamplight halo her dark hair and lather her skin in honey radiance. He sighed and reached out carefully, hand skimming her cheek and causing her to jump.

"You say that, but you're still scared," he said, laying on his back with his hands cushioning his head. "If you're not ready, we just won't."

"What about you?" she asked, trying to shove the focus off of her.

Daiki stared at the ceiling and tried to imagine them coiled around one another, fingers and tongues used to full effect to arch backs and roll back eyes. He saw pale skin flushed with arousal and hair black as the pit tangled in his fingers, short and soft in his grasp as he tugged and reigned back vermillion eyes which glared with volcanic rage at being interrupted.

The rogue Sun quickly blinked his eyes to break the spell and looked to the girl who was waiting beside him, seemingly patient but holding her breath.

"Yeah," he breathed out, "I could lay with you," his hand reached up and grasped her cheek gently, rough skin against her smooth flesh as he ran his thumb along the apple of her cheek. "I like you, Mao-sama. I think I could learn to love you too, in time."

She gained a hue in her flesh as she listened to him, tilting her head into the touch of his hand and enjoying being caressed.

Daiki flinched then, recoiling from her and getting to his feet with a huff of aggravation.

"My Lord?" Mao called, wondering why he stalked away so quickly.

"I'm going out for a while. I'll be back before night," he grunted and fled with his jacket fisted in his hands.

Daiki didn't know where he was going, his feet taking him aimlessly through the streets of Namimori, Goto left in the car some ways away in a nameless street. He needed to clear his head, the place clouded by vermillion and heat haze.

The rogue Sun sighed and dragged his nails through his hair, glasses perched on his nose as a half-hearted excuse of a disguise.

"Excuse me," a voice started, making the man pause. "Are you okay? You've been sighing your soul out!"

Daiki blinked and turned to the woman who had addressed him, brow pinching in confusion as just to why a random stranger would interrupt someone's personal woes. But as he looked at her, he realised just why this person would interject. Sawada's were known for their unabashed nosiness.

"Just some...issues have arisen, lately," Daiki admitted, finding himself sat at a cafe with Nana, mother of Tsunayoshi and wife of Iemitsu.

"Oh, do you want to talk about it?" she asked, stirring her coffee gently.

The Oyabun pursed his lips before shrugging and taking a sip of his milkshake, finding no damage would come with finding some solace or wisdom in the older woman.

"I'm engaged to be married," he began, getting a wide-eyed blink at his age, but no interruption. "But, I guess to put it simply, I still think about someone else. It's making things difficult and severing the engagement isn't the preferred choice."

"Your marriage," Nana tapered off, suggesting she wanted more insight.

"Is an arranged one, yes. But we've agreed to delay as much as we can and attempt to make it work between us. This issue I have, however, is making it a bit challenging on my end to meet in the middle."

"Ah yes, this is a tricky situation!" she hummed, taking a pull from her cup before cupping her own cheek in thought. "About this other person, why did you break up? Is there some unresolved tensions?"

Unresolved tensions?

The image of Xanxus encased in ice seared his mind's eye. The warmth of the bed before a five ante meridiem flight churned his bones. The gentle trust of a promised return whipped his back with a snake-skin lash.

"It wasn't the traditional break-up, I'd say," he murmured into his shake, "I don't think we ever actually broke up, now that I think about it. We just kind of...put it on ice and haven't had the chance to contact one another since."

"Well, if they had the 'chance'," Nana dropped another sugar into her cup. "Do you think they would have spoken to you by now?"

If he wasn't trapped. If he was free to burn and ravage and run loose like a wildfire, would he have come for Daiki?

"...Yes. If the cards had fallen in a different way, I don't doubt he would have tried to contact me."

Or drag him back across the sea, biting and scratching each other like rabid dogs until one bed or another had been stripped for their rutting. He'd be furious, the Wrath, temper boiling strong beneath his flesh and he'd make Daiki sure of it with every sink of teeth and every filling snap of hips.

Nana blinked at the 'he', seemingly stunned for a moment before she quickly accepted and moved on.

"You two seem to still care for one another. Why did you leave?"

"I had to. I had responsibilities elsewhere and he had some family issues come to light. Our priorities clashed and so I left without telling him. He wouldn't have let me go easily otherwise."

'Left without telling him.' 'He wouldn't have let me go easily.' When was it ever easy to leave? That didn't change the face that Daiki always told him that he would leave, always gave him forewarning, always gave him time.

Everyone had moments in life which they reflect upon with a grimace deep within their hearts; the moment where he had whispered "I just need to do something. I'll be back." was one of Daiki's and his hand twitched to his chest when the dark scene of carding fingers of copper through soot hair sprung upon him.

"If you had the choice, would you go back to him?"

"I don't think I should answer that," Daiki decided.

Nana smiled sadly, getting all she needed to know from the response.

"What about you, Sawada-san?" he asked, taking a good gulp of his chocolate milkshake, licking his lips happily. "You seem to carry a weight with you too if you don't mind my saying."

It started small, but soon Nana was spilling herself for him and he understood that this woman didn't have many others to turn to. She explained her trials and tribulations, single-handedly raising a now ten-year-old son and near no sign of the father in the past fifteen months.

"I just...don't know, really, Watanabe-kun," she sighed, looking into her empty cup. "Do you think he still loves me...or…"

"I believe that he loves you, from what you're telling me there's no doubt of that," Daiki breathed, twirling his straw absently. "However, I don't think he respects you."

"Respects me?" Nana echoed, her eyes searching for a better understanding.

"Your husband loves you and will support you economically. He'll put a roof over your head and food on the table, but he only does so much of an inconvenience to himself. In other words, his work is more important than his family to him."

Nana was stumped. She could hear the truth and see how it was reflecting in her life, how it was reflecting in her son's life. But she didn't know what to do with the information. Her dissatisfaction with the situation went unsolved.

"Then...what should I do?"

Daiki bit his lip.

"That's the hard part, Sawada-san. You could continue as you are, aware of the rift but living safely with both you and child. You could address your opinion to your husband and try to find an equal ground; and if that doesn't work then...Other steps can be taken."

The woman played with an empty sugar packet, busying her hands as she thought through the new information.

Daiki didn't rush her and simply ordered her more coffee and himself another fill of milkshake, humming in thanks as it arrived, his company still weighing her options.

"I just don't want to rock the boat," she admitted after a while, her coffee cooling.

"Go ahead and rock it, if he's so ready to abandon ship then you've learnt he's a man of weak moral."

"But what about my Tsu-kun?" she continued, frowning as she took a drink of luke-warm coffee. "My husband is the only source of income. If he leaves then we'll have to give up so much."

"Yeah, that's a part that sucks, and it's difficult to decide. Is it worth the risk?" he agreed, looking up as a streetlight buzzed to life. "Well, you don't need to make your mind up just yet. There's no rush, and these things can't be rushed. Take your time, sleep on it."

"Mhm," she nodded, looking up as Daiki began to stand. "Oh, you have to go now?"

"Yeah, I left in some things in a bit of a mess and should get back to it. Thank you, Sawada-san, for the talk. I haven't really had someone to speak face-to-face so candidly for...a while."

"No problem, Watanabe-san," Nana giggled, before pausing the man. "Would you like to meet up again soon? Perhaps, next week?"

Daiki blinked and gazed at the woman for a moment, seeing how her hands were clenched in her lap and her smile was tense.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed with a smile, "Meet you here at, say, Wednesday, three post meridiem?"

"Post meridiem?" Nana echoed with a laugh, "What a weird way to say it! Okay, Wednesday at three!"

Daiki rubbed his nape at the habit and quickly paid for both their drinks, disappearing before the woman had realised what he had done. He let out a breath as he got back in the car and scratched his scalp, Goto not so much as asking where he had been and silently drove back to the Compound.

"Thanks, Goto-san," the Oyabun hummed, getting a nod before he strode into the Main House, intent on the chambers he had fled from before.

Mao was still in the room, sitting on their low balcony with some kind of embroidery in her hands. She usually would have gone to bed by now or would have at least gotten ready, but she was still clad in the same kimono he had left her in.

Daiki sighed and dropped his jacket before joining her on the deck, curling an arm around her shoulders and urging her to lay her head against his chest.

"I'm sorry I ran off," he apologised gently, rubbing circles into her bicep as she relaxed.

"It's okay," Mao murmured, putting her hand on his arm. "We both needed time to clear our minds. This isn't something to be done on a whim."

"Mm," he agreed, planting a kiss on her black crown. "Do you still want to?"

She turned her head to look up at him and seemed to gauge his sincerity, before sighing out a breath and taking his copper hand.

Daiki stood an led the woman into the chamber before proceeding to lick her raw and withing, feeling more arms than his partner had to offer wrap around him.