Disclaimer: I wish I owned Reborn and all the wonderful character but I still do not. How sad.

I stood in the Varia's main meeting room. It was supposedly only used by our high standing officers. I warily gazed around the room. There were no cameras and only one large window. A long table took up the length of the room and the rest of the walls were covered in bookshelves.

At the table's head was our boss, Xanxus. On his right was the man I presumed to be Ottavio. It was my first time meeting him since I had 'joined' the Varia. He looked almost ordinary compared to the other people sitting around the table. He had neat, styled blonde hair and wore glasses over his young face. At most, he was in his twenties. His deep brown eyes were assessing me as I assessed him. Our eyes met and he slowly smiled at me. I felt my cheeks heat up the slightest bit. He reminded me of Dino.

I turned. On Xanxus' right was Ottavio but on the left was Squalo-senpai. He smirked at me but said nothing. I almost felt like he knew that Ottavio would remind me of Dino. It looked like he was waiting to tease me about that one later.

I snorted as I observed the next person who was smiling carelessly at me. He was the only one that talked to me. He waved his hand at me casually and in a very feminine voice he spoke, "Ara~ You must be Kira-chan! You're cuter than I pictured you!"

This was the one Squalo had been telling me about-Lussuria. When describing him, Squalo had used the word "eccentric" and that was this guy down to a T. I rolled my eyes and moved on.

Pausing at the small stature of the next person. He was completely cloaked but it was clear that his body was small-no bigger than a baby. But if he was an officer here then he must be strong. I thought back and recalled my uncle who is also cursed with an eternally small body but displays all the strength of an adult.

I breathed out, "Fon…"

The officer's attention was now fully on me. His tiny mouth curved into a snarl the minute he was actually looking at me, "Fon, you said? You… You remind me of that nagging-"

Each word he spoke was making the room distort slowly and I became fully aware that this child was an extraordinary illusionist. But only the weak of mind are disturbed by illusions.

"Mammon." Xanxus' voice was deep and threatening.

It made the child shudder and return to his peace of mind. He murmured a small apology and returned to counting his money without another word against me.

I made a mental note to ask Fon about this person at a later time. It would be my first time contacting Fon in a long time.

The next person looked much older than me in appearance but I doubted that he was any older than the majority of us. He narrowed his eyes on me in a deadly glare and spat, "The boss has no need for trash like you."

I arched my eyebrow at him. My hand slowly reached back for the gauntlets attached to my belt.

"No need to fight, children." Ottavio's voice was smooth and deep.

It caught me off guard because, unlike the others in this room, it was a very kind and gentle voice. There was not an ounce of malice or ill will in his tone.

Squalo full on chuckled at me this time and my blush became apparent.

"This is why we can't have women among us." The boy who had declared that I was trash just a minute ago spoke up again, "Useless."

I gritted my teeth at the insult.

"If you took a minute to actually think, you would know that she's not useless and that's why we're having this meeting in the first place, Levi." Squalo snapped at him, "So be quiet and listen up!"

The last person at the table had been listening to music the whole time but at the volume of Squalo's voice he finally removed the buds and looked up at me. He assessed me in just one look and smirked.

I felt a shudder run down my spine. Don't ask me how I knew but I knew that the smirk he wore was a dead give away to the terrible thoughts he was having about murdering me in my sleep.

I sneered at him silently.

His deep blue eyes lit up as if he was challenging me.

Ottavio spoke again in a warning tone this time, "Silvio, leave her alone."

Silvio was unmoving but he continued to leer at me as I stood before the officers of the Varia. I wasn't intimidated. In fact, I thought I could beat pretty much everyone at the table. One thing that really got me was that I thought Ottavio was the weakest one but they said he was Xanxus' right hand man and the next in line to be the boss.

I glanced back at Squalo-senpai. I definitely thought Squalo was stronger and a better fit but… Ottavio was definitely good at keeping the rest of them in line for some reason. There must be a different worth to Ottavio than fighting-something crucial for this group to stay alive.

Ottavio was certain that Silvio would not attack me and so he turned a kind smile on me and explained, "We've gathered here today because we've recognized your talents, Kira."

The way he called my name so familiarly sent shivers down my spine. It really reminded me of Dino in more ways than one.

His eyes softened, "But when we heard about you we didn't expect you to be so…"

"Short." Xanxus spat and I was suddenly on edge.

I clenched my fists, tempted to jump on him and potentially bite him to death. Short is the one insult I cannot stand. I can't stand insults in general but being called short is the worst of them because it's not something I can help. It pisses me off that people think my height is a handicap. And I'm not done growing yet so who knows if I'll always be short or not?!

"But we've heard of your feats." Ottavio was quick to notice my dampening mood and picked it up, "There aren't many amongst us that can keep up with Squalo. So we're thinking of taking a vote on whether or not to make you one of our commanding officers. We're always in need of good leaders so-"

"I prefer to work alone. I don't care about being a leader or not as long as I don't have to take orders from herbivores." With those two statements I had drawn the attention of everyone around the table again.

"That's…"

"Fine." Squalo finished for him, "Even if she doesn't lead a squad, she's more than capable of doing the job of a whole squad just by herself. But when push comes to shove and leadership is necessary, she'll be able to give orders more than take orders."

"Very well." Ottavio accepted Squalo's word so easily, "I have no objections if you wish to work alone as long as you don't fail but then why do you want to be an officer so badly?"

"That's Squalo-senpai's doing." I grumbled turning away from the deep brown eyes that were watching me like Dino watched me in the past-earnestly and without judgement, "But I refuse to take orders from herbivores and if this is one way to assure that I won't have to take orders then I'll gladly accept it."

"Is that… all?"

"My reasons for joining the Varia are simple but if you're asking me about my goals here… Then it's because I want to make my strength clear." I was not unnerved by the way the men sitting around the table assessed my small stature and took my gender into consideration.

Silvio was the first to snort back at me, "You're a little girl. What strength do you think you have over-?!"

My hand was at his throat before anyone could even blink. Suddenly, all the officers knocked back their chairs and drew their weapons. All except Xanxus who was simply watching us.

"Let me warn you, Silvio." I spat his name in his face, pleased by the way my fingers dug deep into his flesh and drew blood, "If you call me little one more time, I will bite you to death."

"You're an idiot." He growled, "They'll kill you before you can 'bite me to death' or anything."

"So you want to be protected, you herbivore?" I shoved him back into his seat and pulled away. My fingers were dripping with his blood. The floor tiles were slowly becoming stained beneath me.

"Enough." Ottavio sighed, gesturing for everyone to calm down as he took his own seat once more, "Kira, you've made your strength clear. You're certainly fast. So let me explain how this works. Historically, you become an officer by having your strength recognized so it's just a matter of how you become recognized. For you, the officers wish to personally go out on missions with you to observe your strength first hand. We've already heard so much about you from Squalo and we have high expectations for you."

I mentally cursed at the thought of having to go anywhere with Silvio but they decided the order and Silvio would be one of the last to take me on a mission.

"So I guess tonight, you're with me~" Lussuria cooed at me, standing up to display his full height.

I assessed him again. He was extremely well built. He had long limbs in general but something about the way his weight was distributed bugged me. He was hiding a weapon but Squalo had already told me that this man was a martial arts master. What kind of weapon does a martial arts master use?

"I don't know anything about your skills, Kira-chan." He smiled coyly at me, "I don't know what kind of style you excel at so I'll have you take a look at our objectives for tonight yourself. I already have a plan made. I just need to know where you fall into line."

My eyebrow arched curiously at him, "Fall into line? I just told you. I don't take orders from herbivores."

"Eh?" He was only surprised for one moment, "Herbivores… I see. Then you're well suited for the Varia. Strength is everything here. When you see my strength, you'll have no choice but to submit."

It was my turn to be surprised for a moment but he had just sealed his fate, "So you will submit to me if I'm stronger?"

"Arrogant brat!" He huffed, already starting to grow frustrated with me, "Come. I'll show you our file for the night."

And that was that. We took our leave and I was in the same position as last night. I spread the pages of info across a wide table and analyzed them as Lussuria watched me.

Our mission this time was a chase and detain mission for a trio of burglars who had the gall to steal from the Vongola Family. The object they stole was intangible… meaning it was information. So we were to capture them to be tortured later on to find out if they had sold our info to someone else. The targets had already killed more than a dozen armed mafiosos and they were beginning to amass an army.

"If you've seen the info." Lussuria cleared his throat, "My plan is to invade the warehouse they'll be at tonight. We'll sneak in through the back, capture the three targets while keeping the attention we attract to a minimum. I've heard that you're more than capable of detaining people without killing them and I'm pretty good at that myself so we've got a decent pair. I just need you to hold down one of them while I grab the other two. Does that sound fair?"

"... If they're spreading information, shouldn't we destroy their entire group?" I was not asking. I was actually telling Lussuria that this is what I intended to do but he was flustered by the question enough for me to say, "I'll storm the building from the front."

"Y-You… Do you know how many men we're up against? My squad is two men down from our last mission. In fact, my squad is the smallest second to Squ-chan's that only consists of the two of you."

I arched an eyebrow at him, "So I'm one of Squalo-senpai's squad members…"

"That's the problem?! I'm telling you that we have to stick to my plan. If we return here as failures, the boss will have us both killed."

"If we return here as failures? I refuse to return here until I'm successful." I declared, "Let's move."

"K-Kira-chan?!" He threw up his hands in frustration and hurried after me towards the garage, "You're insane! Don't get cocky. This is a different type of operation than the ones you've been on with Squ-chan!"

"Shut up and get in or I'll do it alone." I ordered.

"Ugh!" He shrieked, anger leaking through slowly but he had no choice but to obey.

The mission went exactly as I planned. Lussuria followed my lead, complaining the whole time but he followed nonetheless. I charged in, incapacitating the two guards with my two bare hands. One man was shoved through the window and the other was wrestled to the ground and bitten to death. I spat the flesh to the floor and turned towards Lussuria, who was gawking at me as if he had never seen someone like me before.

I reached back and donned my armor gauntlets and continued with a small, "Tch, herbivore."

My instincts were telling me so many things. There were certainly a lot of presences around and I've never been in a position where I had to fight this many people before. My nerves were tingling and I suppressed the herbivorous need to escape. This was a new experience for me but I was more than certain that I could do this.

I lifted my arm and a bullet clanged harmless off my armored hands. The vibrations caused by the bullet hitting the metal plates made me shiver at the impact. I glared up at the man who had shot me and I charged blindly towards him. It was all I could do.

My instincts were always sharp. I think it runs in my blood-this sixth sense for fighting, that is. But experience is what sharpens a person's instincts and this is my chance. I felt another bullet coming.

I glanced upwards to my right as I charged at my first attacker and I held up my gauntlet once more. The bullet was easily deflected off my armored hands and I continued my sprint. Bullets rained down behind me as I charged. The second shooter could not properly predict how fast I would be moving and therefore, he could not hit me. It was my first lesson learned tonight.

Reaching up an armored hand to the metal rungs separating me from my first attacker, I pulled my weight up in one jump. I ducked away from the gun focused on me just in time to avoid the shot and I leaned close to my attacker's body. My hands grabbed him and turned. The second attacker's bullet sank deep into the chest of my first attacker for I had used him as a shield.

I felt my heart pounding. Fear was not absent but my reaction to fear has been violence for years and that's how I reacted in this situation in which I experienced a dense amount of constant fear.

My second lesson of the night was that Lussuria was not an officer without reason. When I thought I would have to chase down my second shooter too, I was totally shocked by Lussuria's presence on the opposite side of the room where this second attacker was now struggling to get the upper hand on my comrade.

Moments later, the man's unconscious body fell back down to the first floor and his skull cracked unceremoniously on the tiles below him. Breathing hard, I stared at my companion for a long moment. He looked back at me just the same.

"You're crazy, Kira-chan." He said and I smirked back at him.

"But you're just as crazy for following me."

In this case, we were uncertain about the deeper implication of those words. Was it an insult or a compliment in this case?

I took a flying leap back down to the first floor to plow through the next door where three men holding rifles were waiting for me. They shot at me the minute the door opened but I was ready. My instincts told me to hit the floor and that's just what I did.

The next round of shots went off and I rolled. My eyes caught a glimpse of the rounds rolling against the tiles just in the spot where I was a moment earlier. With a speed I had never reached in just a sparring match or training moment, I sped towards the attackers and they fought to reload. Behind me I heard Lussuria's footsteps coming.

My first victim screamed in horror as I grabbed him. My armored hand flung him against the wall. While he was temporarily stunned, I grabbed the second person by the arm and flipped him over my shoulder against the first man. While I was turned and beating them down, I heard the third person scream behind me and I knew that Lussuria was on him.

The screams drew more men from inside and those men drew more men after that. At one point during our battle into the building, my back was pressed to Lussuria's. I glanced back momentarily in surprise and found that he had done the same. I smirked, looking down at my gauntlets that were now soaked in blood.

"We're being held up too long. They're going to help our targets escape." Lussuria hissed, "I'll stop them here and you-"

"I'll open a path. You cut through." I said, glaring down the hallway towards the back where it was so clear that two men were trying to block the way and buy time for our three targets to escape, "Go."

There was no time to be arguing about this any further.

Lussuria gritted his teeth and followed my lead, leaving me behind the minute I cut open a path for him. He shouted behind him, "Don't you dare die, Kira-chan! I'm starting to like you!"

"Tch. Herbivore." I spat but I was smiling the whole way through as I cut off two men who tried to give chase, "Your opponent is me."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"Voi!" Squalo looked so disgusted as he greeted us at the door connecting our garage to our headquarters. He had apparently been more nervous for me than I had actually been on the mission, "Don't tell me you guys came home as failures!"

Lussuria and I both turned to each other at the same time and shared a small smile. I turned a smirk on Squalo-senpai and then craned my neck to the side where our driver was bringing our prisoners. It was clear then and there Lussuria and I were wearing our bruises and cuts like badges of honor.

I turned back to Lussuria and said, "I still prefer to work alone."

"And I still think you're crazy." He said but smiled, "But you've earned my respect, Kira-chan. Luss-nee will support you if you call."

I hummed and turned to enter the building first. I didn't look back but I didn't have to. I respect Lussuria just the same.

XxXxMuseXxXx : I'm so sorry to hear about your leg. Although, I'm happy to be told my update made your day I hope you never have a shitty day again.

Hallowtide: Such a strong comment. Poor Dino. T_T