Chapter 18: It's All About Timing, Baby

"Nami, how do you feel about becoming the next Sanguigno famiglia boss?"

Let me say, hearing my dad say those words when I was aching all over was not the most opportune, especially when he mentioned that I would need to move to Italy to start my heiress training. I mean, physical movement was the last thing I wanted to do right now. It was also the last thing I wanted to hear when I had just come to terms with my crush on Hibari.

My dad had the worst timing, to say the least.

I pursed my lips. "Dad, I…"

He smiled at me knowingly. "I know, I know. I just witnessed that, after all, whatever that was. You like the boy, don't you?"

"No!" He stared at me. "Okay, yes." I sighed. "It's just... I don't know. It's obvious that he doesn't feel the same way, Dad."

He raised an eyebrow. "Did you ask him that yourself?"

"I'm not crazy! Why would I?!" I spluttered.

He frowned. "Then why are you so certain that it's obvious?"

"Because it is!" was my dumb response.

He smiled. "Is it?"

"Yes!"

He tilted his head at me. "That boy personally brought you home, when he could've easily just left you there. Are you sure he doesn't feel the same way, Nami?"

"I-" I couldn't finish my sentence.

My dad was... right. Hibari's actions towards me didn't make any sense unless he regarded me somewhat differently from other people. After all, it's not like I would've held him accountable or something if he had just left me outside today. And today wasn't the only time he took me home. There were all those times he showed… favoritism, or something along those lines, to me.

But...

But was that really enough reason to get my hopes up?

It seemed I was deep in thought for a long time, as all my dad did was smile at me and place a hand on my shoulder. "Just think about it for me, okay Nami? About the heiress thing, obviously," he chuckled, "You're thinking plenty about Kyoya, I can clearly see."

I flushed, and he went to the kitchen cackling to himself. I sighed, staring at the picture of my mother smiling, looking so carefree. "What do you think, Okaa-san? Should I... go to Italy? What do you want me to do?" Suddenly feeling dumb for talking to a picture, I followed my dad in the kitchen, the thought of Hibari still fresh in my mind.

I was still thinking about Hibari.

No surprise there, I guess. My crush on him was so blatantly obvious considering all my thoughts concerned him.

Which was concerning, I realized. But this time I felt my thoughts were justified. I was contemplating whether or not my crush was one-sided after all, though it still seemed pretty obvious to me that Hibari was not capable of feeling love to anything other than small animals.

And I was anything but a small animal in his eyes, as he literally referred to me daily as a-

"Carnivore."

Ah, there he is.

Having been walking to the Disciplinary Committee club room, Hibari greeted me as I stepped through the door. He was at his desk, dealing with some sort of paperwork, and I was confused as to how he knew I had entered when he didn't even glance up at me.

…Probably some animal instinct or whatever, that was something I didn't want to even try to figure out.

I opened the closet labelled with my name and placed my bag inside, grabbing the Disciplinary Committee blazer to put on. As I was doing so, I realized that he hadn't spoken since greeting me.

"Hey, Hibari."

"Hn."

I closed the closet door loudly, facing him, noting that he had yet to look up at me. "If you don't see me anymore... will you be sad?"

The pen in his hand stopped moving, but he still doesn't glance up at me as he says, "Emotions are for herbivores, carnivore."

I felt all hope I had dissipate in an instant, and I couldn't hold back my bitter smile.

Emotions are for herbivores, he says. And yet he still calls me a carnivore?

My eyebrows furrow as I struggle to say my next statement. I sigh, and then finally ask, "What do you think of me, Hibari? …What am I to you?"

"You're strong," he immediately replies.

…That's it? After all that, that's all he thinks of me. Huh. What did I expect? I was right all along.

"I... I see."

He sets down his pen and finally looks up at me, and he frowns. "Carnivore?"

I ignore how the term seems to rub salt on my wounds and send a smile. "It's nothing. Thanks-" For everything, "-For answering me."

He stares at me some more, before going back to his paperwork. "Hn. Go make your rounds."

"Yes sir."

Feeling defeated, I walked towards the front gate, where I met Tsuna at the gate who looked... equally defeated? I blinked. "Tsuna?"

He looked up at me and smiled a bit strained. "Hey, Kamiya-senpai."

I frowned. "I thought you were calling me Nee-san from now on."

He blinked, and laughed awkwardly. "Oh, right! Sorry about that, I'm a bit out of it because of how chaotic Kaa-san was this morning…" He blinked. "Right. Kaa-san told me to invite you over for dinner today, Nee-san, along with your dad."

Huh? "For what occasion, exactly? I mean, I've been meaning to go visit, but to think she would invite me first is…"

"Ah." He averted his eyes. "My dad is coming home today, so she tends to uh... cook a bit too much food in her excitement." He tilted his head in confusion. "Apparently Okaa-san knows Luca-san? I figured since I never met him myself until now that she hadn't either, I mean I only really remember your mom from my childhood-" He immediately panics. "Ah! I didn't mean to bring her up, I mean, sorry Nee-san I-"

I smiled, ruffling his hair. "Don't worry about it. She passed away two years ago, after all."

Hmm... meeting Tsuna's dad, huh? I do remember bits of him when he randomly visited, but I can't say I was really close with him... And when did Nana-san meet my dad? Maybe they were all close friends or something?

…I need to distract myself from thoughts of Hibari anyway, so why not?

"I'll go, Tsuna. I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind either."

Tsuna nodded. "Okay. I'll let her know."

So... here I was.

"Ah, Mi-chan, Luca-san, come in come in!" Nana-san greeted. She then rushed back to the kitchen.

My dad looked really awkward stepping inside the Sawada residence, so that pretty much disproved him being friends with Tsuna's dad. I saw that he spotted Reborn and went over to him with a silent nod at me. I decided to take my time to take in my surroundings.

It was quite strange being inside the house I had been avoiding since the beginning of this year, despite having visited here so often when I was younger. It definitely felt like my second home, that was for sure.

The front door opened as I was reminiscing about my childhood, and I turned to see a blonde-haired man, who I guessed to be Sawada Iemitsu, Tsuna's dad. My realization took about the same time as Iemitsu's recollection of me as he grinned and spoke first. "You're Nami-chan, aren't you? You've grown up to look just like your mother."

I blinked, and gave a polite smile. "Thank you, Sawada-san."

"Polite like her too, it seems," he commented.

"Who's at the door, Mi-chan?" asked Nana-san from the kitchen.

"I'll go check, Mama," answered Reborn and suddenly intense tension built in the room as soon as my dad and Iemitsu-san made eye contact. The tension was immediately released with Reborn's voice cutting through sternly, "Stop it you two. There are women and children here."

Iemitsu-san's cheery attitude was brought back as if nothing had happened. "I didn't mean to lose my cool there! Sorry you had to see that, Nami-chan."

My dad stayed quiet, so I turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Tou-san?"

He sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry, too." My dad sighed again, and calmly stared at Iemitsu-san, who simply nodded. Some kind of weird telepathic exchange was going on, as Iemitsu went to the kitchen to greet his wife and my dad left for the front yard. Reborn seemed to have been a part of the exchange as well as he followed my dad outside.

…Never mind assassination, I want to learn whatever the heck that was.

As I watched Iemitsu-san leave for the front yard as well, I noticed he left a crack open, a crack just large enough for me to eavesdrop.

…Listen, I didn't want to eavesdrop, but he didn't close the door all the way! What was I supposed to do, with that super weird exchange between the two of them?! It's not like they can't tell if I'm eavesdropping or not, the group of men outside were all skilled members of the mafia! We got the CEDEF boss, Sanguigno boss, and the #1 Hitman outside, they have all the skill sets available to make sure I can't eavesdrop properly if they didn't want me to!

Trapped in my inner monologue I didn't hear the beginning of their conversation, so I started to listen in.

"You Vongola involved my daughter in the mafia! What, am I supposed to just believe that it's some weird coincidence that she learned about the mafia when you're in town, Reborn? She was doing fine before all this mess!"

"You're being selfish as always, Luca! Do you really think she was doing fine? Her mother passed away, she was working a part-time job all the while attending middle school, and her father was completely absent from her life! Don't you think she's doing much better now, with her father back and people to look after her?!"

"People to look after her, huh? What, so you people couldn't look after her without involving her in the mafia? Am I crazy for asking you people to act like Tsuyoshi?!"

I froze. They're fighting... because of me?

"Luca, don't act like you're the only one who didn't want to involve their family in the mafia," Reborn said.

I heard my dad sigh. "I know that. But that doesn't change how I feel about you Vongola. I'm definitely not letting her become the Lightning Guardian."

I blinked. The Lightning Guardian? What is that?

"Luca, she's a natural-born hitman and she hones lightning with the Sanguigno art. She's also already part of Tsuna's famiglia, what makes you think she isn't the perfect candidate?"

"I'm aware that she's already well-adjusted to the mafia lifestyle… that's why I'm planning to make her my heir."

"Luca, you're not thinking clearly! What makes you think that a civilian can become the leader of the Blood Spillers-"

"Whether she's the Sanguigno boss or the Vongola Decimo's Lightning Guardian, she's going to meet the same amount of bloodshed, and you can't say I'm wrong about that."

I tuned the rest of their conversation out.

Tou-san's really set on making me his heir, huh? If I do agree to it, that would mean I would have to follow him to Italy...

Wow, this visit really did distract me from thinking about Hibari. And it seems like Hibari won't really be affected if I leave, since he doesn't feel anything for me anyway... maybe I really did bring my hopes up for nothing.

But it's not like Hibari's the only reason I'd stay in Namimori. There'll be Tsuna, Takesushi, and everyone...

But by the tone of their conversation and the implications from the Mukuro encounter, Namimori will no longer be a peaceful town with weird shenanigans. Is it naive of me to yearn for that time period back? Will the town I once observed from an outside perspective change forever?

…Will it be okay if I… left? Is that selfish?

"Emotions are for herbivores, carnivore."

…Well, since I'm a carnivore, maybe I should just stop caring so much about what others think.

I think I'm going to let myself be selfish.

Though, I guess that in itself is an emotion, huh?

I slid open the door to the front yard, and the three men met my eyes.

Ah. So they had let me eavesdrop. They wanted me to choose.

"Hey, Tou-san. When's the next flight to Italy?"

oof, she's a lengthy one ain't she?

think of this kinda like the end of season one or whatever? I was initially planning to release the rewrite week by week after I rewrote everything, but with the way this story is going as it's getting wayyy longer and detailed than the original, I think I'm just gonna start uploading from here.

maybe by the time I continue to next chapter there won't be a break in between? as of me writing this, I am definitely taking a lil break lolol.

thanks for reading my initial crack fic story if you have, and for tuning in to this one! this isn't the end even though my author's note may seem like it's the end and stuff kekek

hope this shows my improvement in writing? if not, then hope you liked it regardless!

your garbage author,

ally