A Note to the Readers: Did I say I was sick? Was I sick? Was I sick? Turns out, ginger tea does its tricks. (ﾉ･_-)
I had a day off from school so I pretty much made this, and wow did this take a fraction of my day.
My thanks to: Devil's Blade for your continued support. WhiteDogwood for your kind words and Marie Yoshina for your enthusiasm!
EthnaG. Thanks for your medical knowledge. You are awesome.
I love writing this fic. I finally have something to think about when I commute to school.
Warnings! There are some deaths in this chapter and plenty of violence! I mean it's freaking Mukuro we're talking about. The man is a criminal.
Canon Recap: Also, for those who have forgotten about the Kokuyo Arc. Mukuro pretty much wants to take over Tsunayoshi's body to destroy the mafia (he's a good guy?) so he comes up with a convoluted plan to beat up Namimori students following Fuuta's ranking book, starting from the weakest. (he's a bad guy) He ends up beating the juice out of Kyoya and manages to trick everyone that he's Lancia so that Reborn wastes his dying will bullet on Tsunayoshi. It ends canonically with Tsunayoshi beating the juice out of him after Leon transforms him some fashionable gloves. (I'm saying this because I needed to reread that arc before I could start anything)
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rokudo Mukuro
The phone call comes an hour after Gokudera Hayato is pronounced hospitalized. Poison needles, hundreds around his shoulders, neck and the back of his head. He's alive, if barely, and the news brings Tsuna to his knees wheezing a cry of desperation Rosetta hopes she'll never hear out of her lips. Yamamoto Takeshi is hospitalized too, an animal attack apparently–no relation to the attack on Namimori. She's not fooled, nobody is.
Kyoya's number flashes before her eyes. She counts one and catches the dangerous flash of Reborn's eyes. She looks away. She counts two, her sight roaming around the equipment scattered in the living room. She shuts her eyes, breathes in, counts to three as she picks the phone up. They've been waiting for this. After Kyoya hunted after the criminals, they haven't received news of him.
"Hello darling," the man on the phone says. He sounds smug.
"Who is this?"
He doesn't take the bait. "I'm the man who has your husband," he says, casually, voice silky smooth and confident. Rosetta nods visibly to Tetsuya who kneels by a large black box that's connected to her phone, tracing the call.
"Can I please speak to him?" The politeness comes out of nowhere, she wants to punch herself.
"I'm afraid he's busy."
"I want to hear his voice," she says.
"I said he's busy."
"I'm not talking until I hear him, alive." She persists, sitting down on a chair Reborn pushes to her. Good timing, her knees are weakening.
"Do you want him to die?"
Rosetta shuts her eyes. It hurts her to say this: "if he dies then you lose your bargaining chip. Let me hear him."
She hears a scrape on the floor, metal against concrete. Footsteps. Five, ten, twenty. Harder footfalls, stairs perhaps, twelve steps. The screech of a collapsible metal door. Now there are distant voices. Rosetta looks at Reborn again who's listening in. They hear a boy chattering about the humidity. Someone, a girl, is singing Alouette in perfect French –a song about stripping a lark off its feathers.
She sucks in a breath, clings to that shred of hope.
Three thumps, like somebody punches a pillow.
Alouette stops. The French girl complains about the state of her hair.
"Your wife wants to speak to you." The voice is far away, like an afterthought. She's about to open her mouth when she realizes that the man is talking to Kyoya.
Another thump.
"Kyoya-san, you have to say something," Rosetta says.
Another thump. The man is probably kicking him. She bites back a curse.
"Kyoya-san, say something," She tries again, louder.
Another kick.
"Kyoya-san!"
"Fuck off."
Never did she think she'd be happy to hear him curse. She smiles for a fraction of a second. Tetsuya shuts his eyes and fails to hide his stifled groan of relief.
"He's pretty much alive," the voice hums. "Do you know why I'm calling?"
"You want money," Rosetta says, hoping it to be true.
"Now you're just being rude. I want the Vongola tenth."
Her fingers squeeze the phone, the plastic creaks against the weight of her grip. She takes a breath in, avoids Tsuna's horrified face and meets Reborn's eyes.
Do it, Reborn signs.
Rosetta breathes out.
"When?"
"So obedient. You're so different from your husband, darling. Let me guess, he talks and you follow don't you?"
"When?" she presses on.
"I'll meet him at Kokuyo Land tonight, alone. If he brings anyone, I'll kill this brat."
"No," Rosetta says. "Someone needs to confirm his identity."
"You talked to him. Do you want him to scream for you? Do you want him to–"
"This isn't how a tradeoff works," although her voice is low, it is strung with adrenaline. Tetsuya is giving her a wide-eyed look, hands around his earphones. He doesn't like where this is going.
"Someone needs to be there to confirm that he is who you say he is. That he is in one piece."
She hears a thump, someone hacks, vomits. It's Kyoya. She hopes the man can't hear her heartbeat, because by now it's all that she hears.
"No."
"Please," she croaks. Polite again, fuck.
Another thump. Rosetta shuts her eyes.
"Then our deal is off."
"Goodbye." She's supposed to hang-up, but she finds that she can't. She's pressing the phone to her ear, desperate to hear Kyoya again. She hears someone whisper over the phone, a new voice, but it's too quiet to discern words.
"It has to be you," the voice croons, changes gear. "Deliver the Vongola tenth to me."
Her stomach drops. She can't. She can't put her life at risk, not like this. Ryuusei will skin her. He'll cut off her legs to prove a point.
"Kyoya-san has retainers. I can't–"
The line dies, cuts off.
"Call him again," Rosetta stammers, when she speaks again, it's louder. She's in panic. "Tetsuya-san! Call him again!"
"Calm down," Reborn takes the receiver from her hand. "He's bluffing."
The phone rings once, twice, every second unanswered taken by her heart like the sound of a bomb ticking down to zero.
The music that greets them is a scream that shakes her to her bones. Namimori's king dragged from his throne. She wants to crawl through the phone and kill the man behind it.
"Do you know how hard it was to make him scream? Poor little man." The man chuckles. "Humans are like bags of blood, poke them too much and they'll drain like–"
"Enough," Reborn says.
"Giving the phone to someone else? I won't talk to anyone else. Rosetta-chan? Darling. Sweetheart, are you there?"
"I'm here," Rosetta says, she the phone back to her hand.
"I want you to visit me. I want to see the face behind that lovely voice."
Her words clog in her throat.
"Of course. I will. I'll come."
"Your men will stay in Namimori. I'll know if they'll follow to my territory. I'll know it."
"Of course."
The man in the phone chuckles, she can almost feel the vibrations in his chest.
"Remember, Kokuyo land, just before the sun's down."
"Please," her voice wobbles, it almost sounds too real to be counterfeit. She has to try something, appeal to the kidnapper's superiority even, if it gives her a better chance of seeing Kyoya whole again. She's seen the work of abductors. She's seen the work of Ryuusei. "Don't hurt him. He's my life."
It's partly true. Ryuusei will inflict horrors upon her. She's seen the quality of handiwork for cheaper trespasses.
The man laughs earnestly. "You have my word. Ken, stop twisting his arm."
She presses her knuckles against her lips, muffles a shaky breath.
"He's safe as a baby now. I'll see you tonight."
The phone clicks. Rosetta's arm falls limp before she screams and throws the receiver on the marble floor.
Rosetta is leaning against the toilet, vomiting her breakfast. Rita is holding her hair up, making soothing bird noises, face stuck in a helpful expression. When her stomach has nothing else to spare, she drowns a glass of water and repeats the entire process again. She wipes her sweat with the back of her hand. She feels disgusting, smells disgusting.
The bathroom door opens, and she sees Tsuna, standing awkwardly by the frame, casting a worried glance at her.
She gestures for him to get out with a wave of her hand. Irrationally, some part of her is angry at him. It wasn't Byakuran they had to watch out for anyway. It was the Vongola and their damn blood feuds.
Tsuna doesn't move.
"Give me some privacy, will you?" She throws a roll of tissue at him to Rita's displeasure. "I'll come out. Just give me a minute."
Rosetta's done the rational thing and called the boss immediately after the exchange has been set. Ryuusei was calm about the entire ordeal, but that was never an indicator of what he thought.
One thing struck her.
"My dear, I appreciate you calling me, but please, don't be lazy, you know what to do," he said. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
You know what to do.
What is right, what is logical, what is correct. Hand Tsuna over and then destroy them when Kyoya is safe. Let the boss deal with the political aftermath. She likes Tsuna, almost wishes they were friends.
The man on the phone might hand her a corpse for a friend though. The man on the phone might do what he promises and she can bring her husband home. But that means handing Tsuna over. Not that Reborn would allow her. Or would he? He signed to her. Willing to give his pupil over.
The roll of tissue slams into Tsuna's torso, then it rolls down, unfurling itself. But he remains, looking at her with a sorry expression that makes her want to hit him. His hands are shaking.
"Rita, fetch me water, please. Sawada-san, come here."
"Hibari-san…"
"Don't call me–" she puts a hand over her hair. "Come here, you oaf, and close that damn door."
Tsuna sits beside her on the cold tiles as she kicks the flush, leaning against the pristine tiles behind her.
"I lied to you," she says, voice softening, rubbing her eyes in frustration. The confession feels heavy in her tongue. "I lied to you. Yesterday, you asked if I killed anybody."
Tsuna's brown eyes widen. "It doesn't matter," he says, but he sounds uncertain.
"I said it because I wanted you to like me better," she continues on, shaken. "I wanted to have friends, someone who won't betray me eventually, like Tetsuya-san. Someone who's not a civilian, like Kurokawa-san, Sasagawa-san or that Miura girl they keep trying to introduce to me. You were convenient and I don't want to give you away because –because shit!" She kicks the empty trashcan beside the toilet, it clatters like thunder. She curses again and then heaves before she folds her legs against her torso.
"But you're already my friend," Tsuna mumbles. He takes a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to her. She pushes it away vehemently. It would be easier if Tsuna is like her. There are many people like Rosetta, but not enough like Tsuna.
"I know you think I am," she admits. "That's why it's so infuriating to be around you."
Tsuna leaves the handkerchief perched above her knee. He mirrors her position. If he looks up, he can see a window leading to the outside where the sun is at its brightest. "I also want to save Hibari-san."
"Are you asking me to hand you away? Are you really that obtuse?"
Tsuna is silent. "I–"
"Don't answer that," Rosetta murmurs, face still buried on the crook of her arm. "I don't want to give you away. I'm not the boss. I'm not my husband."
"That's good," Reborn's voice echoes in the bathroom. Rosetta's head snaps up as Tsuna lets out a squeal of terror. The hitman is by the small window. Leon is oddly missing from his fedora. "I received a call from the ninth. He heard about everything. You don't have to drag Tsuna there."
"Oh," Tsuna sags against the tiles, relieved.
"He's coming willingly." There is a curl on Reborn's lip. "This is an order from the ninth, Tsuna. Your mission is to defeat the ringmaster and you're doing it alone."
"How is Pasquale?" Rosetta is on the backseat of a Maserati, leaning heavily against the door. There's a folder on her lap, pictures of Mukuro Rokudo, Ken Joshima, Chikusa Kakimoto spread before her. More photos under the initial pile, M.M., Birds, a pair of scarred twins. Criminals. Jail escapees from Vendicare. M.M. is a parole runaway, caught by the whirlwind of Mukuro's charm.
Ryuusei will have a field day when he finds out.
The retainer beside her gives her an odd look. She doesn't know his name although she knows he's good friends with Fusanosuke.
"You're–" Fusanosuke stiffens, his hands white on the steering wheel, "you're worried about that?"
"I asked you a question," Rosetta takes the photo of Mukuro and memorizes his features. Black hair, tanned skin, darker eyes. There are two marks on his left cheek, claw marks or bad tattoos.
"He's losing it. The men have put him under complete darkness," says the retainer. She remembers his name, Benjiro.
"Give him light, ten seconds. Just enough for him to see the infection," she says. Pasquale didn't have enough imagination for her to use. She pities him.
Rosetta puts a hand to her ear, pressing on the concealed earpiece. She hears Tsuna's distant voice. He's on another vehicle.
"Sawada-san, are you there?"
"Y-yeah."
She observes the photos once more. "Tell me a story, will you?" She asks Tsuna.
"A story? What kind?"
"Something nice. Something I don't know."
"Have you heard of Momotarō?" Tsuna asks after a while. Rosetta can hear his driver's snort from afar. She has heard of that story a few times already, translated it even when she tried to learn Japanese.
"Who the heck is Momotarō?" She asks, grinning.
Tsuna sighs. "Okay, so… there's this woodsman, right? He has a wife that wanted kids but–"
She fiddles with the earpiece, making it so that she can hear Tsuna, but he can't hear her.
Fusanosuke drives further to the outskirts of Namimori. There's a small rocky ledge on the left of the road, wide enough for their convoy. He turns the Maserati, frowning as small loose rocks thrash on the underside of the car. Rosetta takes a map from the glove compartment as they park by a copse of trees. The car slows into a stop. The engine dies to a low hum.
"This is the nearest we can go to Kokuyo, any further and we'll trespass," Fusanosuke explains. Outside she sees the other cars lining up. Tsuna's hair is visible from two vehicles in front of her.
When Rosetta doesn't answer, Fusanosuke sighs, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "May I speak plainly, ma'am?"
"If it's important."
"I don't think this is the best plan."
She smiles wryly. She went through many possible scenarios with Reborn. This is the best plan.
"Why?" She asks.
"We're putting Rita in danger. You said this Rokudo Mukuro is powerful enough to know if we trespass to Kokuyo–"
"He is a powerful mist user," she cuts in.
"I still don't understand that part," Fusanosuke says. Rosetta's polite smile is glued to her face. If he doesn't understand what a mist user is, he should shut his mouth. "I think he'll figure out that Rita isn't you and–"
"He won't," Rosetta says. "Rita volunteered to take my place. The caller doesn't know my face. He said so."
"Ma'am–"
"If you have nothing else to say, please, shut up."
Tsuna is now mumbling about Momotarō's political successes. She's not sure if that's part of the story.
"Stay in the car," Rosetta orders as she opens the door and climbs out of the car to Benjiro's surprise.
They can't hear this one. She takes her phone and pretends to call Ryuusei as the same hand fiddles with her earpiece until she hears Reborn's slight humming.
"Are you in position?" Rosetta asks, idly scanning the greenery. Most of the men are out now, cataloging gun inventory. A few salutes to her.
"One point seven miles from the park," Reborn says. "I'm in position."
"And Tetsuya-san?"
She hears a muffled complaint and the sound of the radio being passed over. Tetsuya sounds overtired. "I can see Kokuyo Land with my binoculars," he murmurs.
"Can you see me?" Rosetta puts a hand up and pretends to stretch.
"That waving target? Yes." Tetsuya confirms. "You're as small as an ant."
Rosetta sweeps her eyes over to the Maserati, where Fusanosuke and Benjiro are in deep conversation, to the craggy hill on the other side of the highway. The vegetation above is windswept and twisted from malnutrition. Tetsuya and Reborn are huddled together, the hitman wielding a sniper rifle with his single dying will bullet in his arsenal. They have one bullet left. They only have one shot. Reborn hid this information from her men, he doesn't trust them enough. They think Tetsuya is up there, alone in the bushes as their lookout.
"Hey, what if Sawada-san enters a building?" She asks. "What if you can't get a clear sight of him?"
Reborn is quiet for a second. "I'm the best hitman in Italy," he hisses, annoyed. "Put your concerns where it matters, Hibari-chan."
"That's Sawada-san versus eight assassins."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, besides, Leon is coming with them."
She doesn't know how Leon can help, now that the lizard has lost its morphing abilities, but she keeps her mouth shut.
The plan is simple. Once Rita secures Kyoya, Reborn will shoot Tsuna with the bullet and he should be able to stall the enemies before the stationed men can arrive to secure the area. Rita's job is to ensure Kyoya's survival, even at the cost of her own life.
Rosetta shuts her eyes.
"Reborn-san, this is only for your ears, is there any way to shut Tetsuya-san out?" She asks, hearing Tetsuya's indignant scoff at the request. But she hears rustling anyway as if the man has crawled away for their privacy.
"He's gone," Reborn says.
"Listen," Rosetta begins, pressing her lips against her knuckles, "If things go wrong… If Kyoya-san dies... Please, please, please run away with Sawada-san." If it sounds like begging, she doesn't care. "And you have to take Tetsuya-san with you. Convince him to run. He's good at a lot of things and he can be loyal. The boss –Hibari-san will kill him."
Reborn says nothing at first. Distantly, she hears the wavering disembodied voice of Tsuna reaching the conclusion of the story. Momotarō returns to his hometown after freeing the prisoners. They defeat the devils. They plunder their treasures. The townspeople celebrate their return, hail him as their hero.
Her nails bite into her palm, deep enough to be painful. It's stupid to have asked….
"All right," Reborn concedes. "But I'll doubt he'll listen."
"Oh, God. Thank you." When Rosetta says this, it occurs to Reborn that he has never heard her speak so honestly.
"I wish you were half as afraid as I am," Tsuna tells her after she finds him curled up in the backseat of a Mercedes. He is right, but there's so much steel holding her upright. Being Kyoya's wife should shy her away from that kind of weakness. She tries not to think about the fact that he might already be dead. Fusanosuke stands persistently at her side, scouring the mountains for imagined snipers. He leaped out of the car when it became evident that she isn't planning to stay in one place.
"What good would that do?" Rosetta says, not unkind. She looks up. The sky is darkening, the soft orange of the sun leeching into the horizon. "The sun is setting. It's a fifteen-minute walk. Come on up, Sawada-san."
She slots their fingers so Tsuna would follow. He has no choice. Reborn informed him he'll be shot if he runs. It's a bluff, but Tsuna trusts the assassin enough to take him seriously.
Tsuna is visibly trembling when Rita drifts to them. She's wearing one of Rosetta's dresses, mint green that clashes with her hair.
"Ma'am," Rita says, and it sounds like a goodbye.
"Don't die, Rita," Rosetta swallows. She wants to drag her close into a hug, but she cannot. If Rita dies because of loyalty, then the Hibari clan will repay her family for generations. The Hibari takes cares for its own. There is no guarantee that Ryuusei will take action if the maid perishes for something as fickle as affection. Loyalty is the grease that makes the Yakuza work.
Rita bows deeply.
Tsuna though, she can afford to embrace Tsuna. She fists a hand around the back of Tsuna's dress shirt and feels the shaking curvature of his spine. Her other hand she clamps on the back of his head, pushing him closer to her.
"It will be fine," she whispers to his ear as a promise. "It will be okay."
Tsuna and Rita are barely through the gates of Kokuyo Land, having gone there by foot when Fusanosuke turns to Rosetta and points a gun at her head.
"Fusanosuke, what the fu–"
Benjiro slams his hand against the side of her face. She screams. He presses the bulk of his weight against her so she's flat on the backseat. He handcuffs her as she tries to reach for the door. He takes her phone. Smashes it with his foot as his large fingers dig out her earpiece.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Fusanosuke says when Rosetta is hauled by her hair to sit. She tries to kick Benjiro, but he catches her ankle and punches her face. Something snaps. Her nose, most likely.
"Please stop struggling," Fusanosuke starts the engine. The Maserati hums.
"Where are you taking me?" Rosetta tilts her chin up and swallows blood. She curses, pressing her back against the leather. Benjiro is pointing a gun at her neck.
"Kokuyo Land, ma'am."
"You're going to honor a kidnapper's demands?" Blood drips down on her white blouse. The car drives out of the parked convoy, a few confused retainers chase after them, but Benjiro halts their efforts with a few words on her earpiece. They'll kill her if they interfere. Well. Fuck.
"I'm sorry, I really am," Fusanosuke says. "They took Keito this morning. They'll return him safe with your exchange."
Keito, the love of his life.
"Your fuckbuddy?" Rosetta raises her eyebrows, but he doesn't take the bait. The car speeds up, greenery rushes pass them.
"It's going to be fine ma'am. Rokudo Mukuro wants you alive–"
"So he can hand me over to the Gesso. They're likely paying him by the millions." Rosetta's fingers reach the hem of her sleeve. She finds the hidden lock pick, almost by habit. "It's okay." She quiets down, staring at Fusanosuke with wide honest eyes through the mirror. "You don't have to justify yourself. I'm willing to sacrifice a friend for my husband. I have no right to judge you."
Fusanosuke's eyes are large from the rearview mirror.
Rosetta sneers. "You thought I'd actually say that? Fuck you. You won't get away with this. You should have said something! I would have helped you, Fusanosuke!"
"Should I shut her up?" Benjiro asks. Rosetta rolls her eyes. She gets another punch for that, her teeth clatter. She bites the inside of her cheek.
Fusanosuke's knuckles whiten against the steering wheel.
"I don't believe you ma'am."
"What?" She peers at him, dizzy.
"I don't believe you'll help me."
She looks down, feigning the loss of defiance. Or at least she thinks she is. Bitterness coils inside the pit of her stomach like an angry serpent. She nearly let go of the pick from the last punch. She doesn't want to risk it again.
It's a short drive to Kokuyo Land. She can see the derelict buildings from here, old white, jutting out from the forest like pillars of an old god. Fusanosuke's attention is divvied between the road and her bleeding face. He takes a call from a phone she doesn't recognize.
"Yes," he says, "thirty armed men stationed outside and one on the hill. Yes. He's not a fighter, not really. Unarmed–"
The world slows down.
Fusanosuke is still speaking but Rosetta stops listening, working on the lock. Benjiro is staring intently at her face. She shuts her eyes, concentrates, swishes the cocktail of blood and spit under her tongue. She swallows. The drive is short. She hears the car slow to a stop. The front door opens, then the one she's leaning on. Fusanosuke drags her up by the arm and frogmarches her forward. It's hard with her eyes closed. Her feet scrape against the rubble, pebbles stick between her shoes and her socks.
She opens her eyes, sees Tsuna's horrified face looking at her. Rita is beside him, clutching at his hand. Leon is nowhere to be seen. She looks away, sees Rokudo Mukuro emerge from the front of a glass dome, overgrown with moss and vines. She knows it's him because of the scars on the side of his face, lit aglow with the dying sun. He's clapping. Fucking bastard.
Benjiro raises his gun and shoots Rita twice in the stomach. She drops to the rubble, tears her finger from Tsuna's grasp.
"Sawada-san, look at me!" Rosetta yells. Her voice echo in the empty buildings, just like the gunshots. "Look at me!"
Tsuna rips his empty gaze from Rita's body and meets her eyes, alight with fury.
"It's not your fault!" She says. Fusanosuke is dragging her forward. She's not putting much power in her struggles. "It's not your fault."
"This is adorable," Mukuro is grinning, approaching them. He's holding a weapon, a large metal ball suspended from a chain wrapped around his wrists.
Tsuna looks away, to Mukuro, and the world tilts as he collapses, as the dying-will-bullet embeds to his skull, forcing a chain reaction of flames and rage.
Fusanosuke loosens his grip, eyes up to the metallic flash in the mountains.
"There's a sniper in the–"
He doesn't finish his sentence because Rosetta barrels headfirst to his ribs. He stumbles back and falls to the floor, balance gone. She rips the handcuffs off, conjures a gun with her flames and points to Fusanosuke. She hesitates. Bullets whiz past her. Rosetta does a textbook roll and shoots the Benjiro thrice before Tsuna crashes into her.
"What the fuck!" She screams as they drag across the debris. Her palms split open. Broken cola bottles.
Mukuro is stalking towards them, swinging his weapon as they grasp their bearings.
"Run!" Tsuna barks, leaving a trail of dust as he leaps towards Mukuro, his forehead on fire. Rosetta summons her gun, wet with blood and shoots Fusanosuke before he has time to aim, a bullet in the stomach. Two down. She tries to shoot Mukuro and gives up immediately. Moving target. She might shoot Tsuna. She's not practiced enough.
She makes a run to Benjiro's squirming body and rips his earpiece off, shooting his face when he makes a grab for her.
"I'm safe! I need reinforcements!"
She hears an explosion through the earpiece. A screech, like a clarinet, screaming. A howl? An animal? They're busy. "Ma'am, we're under fire!–"
Rosetta takes cover behind an upturned water tank, fiddling with the earpiece.
"Reborn-san!" She grits out.
"We'll be there in ten!" It's Tetsuya who replies. Rosetta clutches her gun, warm with her blood. A lot can happen in ten minutes. A lot can–
She sees movement. Someone's climbing the glass observatory directly where Mukuro was. She has no misconceptions about her fighting ability. She's as good as a civilian and by this point, she's already bleeding, slowed down by pain and terror. "There's –there's someone climbing the glass building," she says. Her hands are shaking.
"Stay put. Find somewhere safe and hide." Tetsuya hisses.
"He's gonna help Mukuro," Rosetta says. "I have to stop him."
"Do you want to get killed? Stay down!"
Tsuna screams over the distance between them. He's in pain.
"I'm sorry, Tetsuya-san," she says, leaping over the water tower. Tetsuya curses, but she keeps the earpiece on. The enemy can't spot her from where she is, hidden behind the pile of white tiles beneath the back entrance. Most of the dome's metal frames are exposed. Skeletal remains, eaten by time. She grips one, feels wetness in her palms and climbs up, ready to conjure a gun before she reaches the top.
"Are you trying to prove something?" Tetsuya says after he's done cursing. She doesn't reply. But he's right. This is about differing from Ryuusei who wouldn't give a damn if his life was in danger. It's about apologizing to Tsuna because he's her goddamn friend. It's about hurting Mukuro because he has the gall to use Kyoya, her husband, as leverage.
Rosetta remembers the first time she shot a gun, a hunting rifle at nine years old, against a flock of doves freed by her father's servants. She shot two that day and stayed awake for the entire evening, wondering what it will feel like to kill a human being.
The rifle materializes out of her flames as she emerges from the lip of the dome. The man on the building seizes when he hears her load the gun. He slowly puts up his hands, abandoning his own rifle. He's short and old, wearing a bucket hat and round spectacles. Two yellow canaries are perched on his shoulder.
"Where is my husband?" Rosetta snarls, possessive.
The man, Birds, smiles an oily smile. "I wouldn't–"
She aims her gun down and shoots. The canaries flee. He falls to his back, clutching a leg, breathing hard on his lips. She approaches him warily. Most of the glass panels lining the floor are broken. A fall would be deadly.
"Where is he?" she asks again. Tetsuya curses in her ears.
"Bowling area!" He hisses. "There's a backdoor. He's tied up–"
Rosetta doesn't show how relieved she is. The bowling area is connected to the dome. She can easily reach him… and then… and then what?
"How many are you in here?"
Birds curses. He takes a knife from his belt and tries to slash her legs when she stands near enough. Rosetta's not stupid. She puts a bullet on his other thigh.
He cries and folds like a piece of paper, clutching at the holes on his legs. His face is reddening.
"How many are you in here?"
"Mukuro-sama, me, the twins… the others have already killed your peopl–"
He folds back flat when she puts a bullet through his head. The canaries, now unafraid, fly to his body and tuck themselves inside the pockets of his vest. She carefully makes her way to Bird's mounted rifle. Tsuna is still fighting, but he looks like he's losing. She dismisses her own gun and kneels heavily on the glass. Maybe she can shoot Mukuro this way. But they're moving quickly, like tiny bolts of lightning. Rosetta wipes the sweat from her brow and looks through the scope, her finger on the trigger.
Tsuna is bleeding heavily from a head injury, but his flame is strong. Mukuro swings his weapon. The metal ball nearly crushes Tsuna, but he flips in time, swinging a punch. It doesn't connect. Tsuna crashes through a window.
It's her time.
Rosetta sweeps the scope to Mukuro's direction. In doing so, she passes by Benjiro's body, Rita's prone form and the blood smear where Fusanosuke is supposed to be.
"Ma'am, let go of the rifle."
Rosetta stiffens.
Fusanosuke, bleeding heavily in the stomach, is standing where she killed Birds. He points the gun up the darkening sky and shoots a warning shot. Rosetta doesn't flinch. She stands slowly, puts her hands above her head and turns to him, trying to mind where she's standing. He gestures to the weapon by her feet. She kicks it off the ledge.
She keeps on finding herself in poetic situations.
"We're there in two minutes, ma'am," a voice says in her ear. "We've disposed of the enemy."
He points his gun at her face.
"I'm unarmed, Fusanosuke," she says, calmly.
"Are you?" He asks, dizzy with pain, his face blue from blood loss. "How the fuck… I guess –God the rumors are true. You make shit appear from thin air. You monsters… I just want Keito back."
Oh no, she thinks, he's going to shoot me. He will shoot me.
"I want Kyoya-san back too. We're the exact same people. We're willing to do anything for our loved ones. We can talk this out."
"Loved ones," he laughs. "He doesn't love you. I've seen how he treats you."
"That may be so," she says, patiently. "But I care for him. You've been with me every morning, Fusa. Please, we can talk. Put the gun down."
"So you conjure another pistol and shoot me again?" The gun trembles in his hand. "They said I could kill you, that they'll protect us. But I didn't fucking want to. You're actually nice, you know? But then you–God." He doesn't look away. The trembling stops. The last light of the sun flickers out.
"Ma'am I'm so sorry."
Rosetta throws herself to the panels below her. It gives out. She falls. The world shakes her with shattered glass. She crashes arm first on a stack of potted plants, dead from exposure. Glass rains down and slices her cheek, her arms and her legs. Pain travels in bright pins, across her ribs. She screams. Curses. Tetsuya is saying something in her ear. She can't hear it. The pain so blinding that she wishes for oblivion.
But fuck, she's alive.
She looks up. Impossibly high is Fusanosuke looking down at her, head bathed in the cheap light outside. He's yelling something, but she can't parse the words. He aims his gun and shakily shoots twice, thrice. No bullets hit her. Lucky. She's actually lucky. Rosetta laughs at him, her mouth full of blood. If she survives this…. If she survives….
Fusanosuke leaves, perhaps to find another way in.
Breathing hurts, doing anything hurts. But she needs to buy time. She needs to move, she needs to run. There is no dignity in dying. Rosetta rolls to her knees, on all fours. She plucks away the piece of glass jutting between her knuckles and laughs again, delirious with pain. Fuck. Bowling room. Kyoya-san. She needs to get there. Now.
There's a lot of glass and the worst ones seem to be under her feet. Her heart is beating so fast it might burst. It's cold. She doesn't really know where her feet take her. The pain is overwhelming. She's going to die. She's going to die alone.
"What are you doing here?" Kyoya is standing by an open door. He's angry. His uniform is askew and his hair is matted with dried blood. Bruises bloom like flowers around his chin, his neck.
"Kyoya-san," she breathes, waking up. She reaches out to him, makes a grab for his shirt. She stains it red. She swallows, there's a lump her throat. It stings. Tears blur her vision.
Kyoya fists the collar of her shirt and forces her to sit behind a slab of marble. The glass beneath her skin shifts painfully at the impact.
"Stop crying," he orders, curling his injured hand against her cheek, smearing off tears, opening a cut beneath her eye. His palm is rough, adds to the multitude of stinging in her body. The hand disappears, his knuckles lift her chin. "Why are you here?" He sounds annoyed to have asked again. Despite the tears, she cracks a grin. It's so genuinely him.
"Fusanosuke is working for the Gesso," she croaks. Her ribs feel like they're on fire. "He took me. Reinforcements are coming. I –uh. Sawada-san is fighting Mukuro."
The last phrase lights something in his eyes, she wishes she can do that. Make him light up with something, anything aside from the glow of his low thrumming irritation.
"Stay here," he orders, looking away, to the exit. There's the sound of a man walking towards them, kicking the broken pottery.
A strangled whimper tears its way from her throat. He just told her to stop crying. But tears fill her eyes again despite that. "You can't. Fusa has a gun. Mukuro is–" she feels stupid saying this. Seeing him, at home under all that blood and hurt, he's in his element. He isn't going to listen to her.
Kyoya looks at her oddly.
"Guns never stopped me," he says.
The noise again. Fusanosuke is calling her name.
Kyoya stands. He takes a step as if leaving and pauses. His school jacket is drenched with blood, but it's all he has. He shrugs it off and throws it at Rosetta who doesn't quite catch it and leaves.
Rosetta sighs. She takes the uniform with stiff fingers, pulls it over her body. An unwelcome chill has settled in her marrow. Persistent. She's sweating somehow, despite the weather. She doesn't think she's lost a lot of blood. But it's cold anyway. The jacket doesn't smell like Kyoya –mud and iron sewn between the thread. Not unpleasant. Just odd. It's not like she knows what he smells like.
"Ma'am, where are you?"
"Rosetta-san, we're here! Where are you?"
She murmurs. A gunshot echoes. A scream. Not Kyoya. Good. She can't open her eyes anymore.
"Rosetta-san! Your location, please… Rosetta-san!"
Rosetta doesn't wake up with a jolt. Her senses come to her slowly, her hearing, her smell, her sight and last, her sense of touch. Breathing out is agony. It's too bright, so she shuts her eyes. She wriggles her toes. All ten present. She fidgets her fingers. All ten present. She's under a warm blanket, thick and smelling rich of the fabric softener Rita likes to complain about.
She opens her eyes eventually. She's on a different room at the household, one with a larger window. It's dark outside; a maple branch extends to the glass as if waving. She sees other beds, empty aside from the one farthest to her. Occupied by a grunt who has his face blown off, he's attached to a heart monitor.
Rosetta thinks about the men she's killed. And Rita, poor Rita. She should have been nicer. She should have been… Rosetta sobs dryly until the house doctor, Iwasaki-sensei, flits to her bedside.
"It's okay, dear. It's okay," Iwasaki sings, brushing a hand through Rosetta's clean hair.
"What day is it?" Rosetta asks, her throat is achingly dry. Iwasaki props her up quickly and places a small glass of water by her lips, allows her to drink slowly.
"It's been a few hours," Iwasaki's voice is annoying gentle. Rosetta wants to ask so many questions. But she's so tired. She can see Kyoya's school jacket on the foot of her bed, folded neatly.
"Sawada-san is…"
"Alive," Iwasaki assures her. "They're all alive. Rita is at the hospital though, but she stabilized an hour ago."
The relief nearly brings tears to her eyes. Tsuna won. Tsuna won! And Rita isn't dead. Iwasaki laughs at her face.
"I've never seen you so emotional." The doctor admits.
"Hopefully, you won't see it again," Rosetta hiccups, but she's grinning.
"It's not such a bad thing. We should be more honest about ourselves."
"How about Kyoya-san, how is he?"
Iwasaki smiles indulgently. "It was terribly romantic," she swoons in the way she does when she talks about her romance novels. She sways dreamily. "After they defeated Mukuro, Hibari-san went out of his way to retrieve you, you were unconscious."
"He did?"
"Yes! It nearly took an hour."
Rosetta blinks.
That's… wrong. The oddity of it sinks down the pit of her stomach. Kyoya would know where she is…
"He looked for me?" Rosetta repeats. Her relief transmutes to worry.
"Mmhm," Iwasaki says. "I was there," she taps her dimpled chin with a clean finger, eyes twinkling. "After the battle, he looked for you everywhere and carried you out of the glasshouse. Kusakabe-san was speechless." The doctor makes a grand show of carrying someone with her arms. "We also found another hostage, a little boy. He's at the hospital too."
Rosetta rips the blanket off her torso, swinging her legs out of the bed. It rips something in her waist. Sure enough, dampness blooms around her stomach.
"What's wrong?" Iwasaki puts gentle hands on Rosetta's shoulders as the girl tries to stand. Rosetta pushes her off and tries again. She gets it on the fourth try. The soles of her feet hurt upon pressure. Glass must have gotten in there too. She takes a step, two steps, five, until she's sure she can run.
"Where's Kyoya-san?" Rosetta leans heavily on a side table filled with medical paraphernalia. "Where is he?"
She needs to call the boss. She needs to do something…
Iwasaki purses her lips, shifts her glasses so Rosetta doesn't see her eyes.
"Hibari-san," she berates Rosetta. "You're my patient. You should stay in bed–"
"I'm your superior," Rosetta leans in, voice a slow hiss. "Bring me to my husband or I'll have you fired." She knows Iwasaki needs her job. The doctor's parents are both hospitalized, and the fees are enormous. Iwasaki is barely scraping by.
"It's my duty as your doctor to–"
"I'll find someone else to help me!"
"Okay! Okay! I will!"
"Bring your gun." Rosetta looks visibly pained as Iwasaki hands her a crutch.
"I don't have a gun," Iwasaki says quickly.
Rosetta rolls her eyes. God, her face hurts. "Don't lie. You have grenades in this." She shakes the bedside table. "I need a gun."
"Can't you create one? The men said you're like the boss. You can–"
Rosetta doesn't have a lot of patience when there's pain involved. Plus, Iwasaki is reminding her of Fusanosuke.
"Do you trust me, Iwasaki-sensei?"
Iwasaki doesn't pause.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Don't call me that," Rosetta blinks. Too much like Fusanosuke. "Call me Hibari-san."
She brings the men outside the infirmary with her, along with Iwasaki, the doctor's gun tucked heavily in the hem of her pants. She's frowning when the men lead her to the dining room. Kyoya is there, leaning against the wall. Tsuna is cocooned around a blanket, a butterfly stitch on his forehead to close the gash, he's half asleep. Tetsuya is kneeling beside Tsuna, a tea set in front of him, reporting committee business to Kyoya
The worst part of the picture is Leon. He's on the table, morphing his shape uncontrollably. Reborn is beside the lizard, taking notes.
'Leon only turns like this when my students are about to face something life-changing.' Reborn said this yesterday, under the warmth of the sun, in between Tsuna's hysterics.
Kyoya peels out of the wall, arms folded around his torso. Tetsuya sits up, but Rosetta stops him with a wave of her hand. He leans back, annoyed.
"What are you doing? You should be in bed," Kyoya says, cold. Nothing seems to be off.
Rosetta smiles despite herself. "I just wanted to see if you're all right."
Iwasaki sends her strange looks.
"I'm fine," Kyoya snaps. She doesn't really realize he's scowling now that it's gone. But she can't point fingers yet.
He was barely standing straight when she saw him at Kokuyo Land, although that might have been her imagination. Right now, Kyoya is nearly immaculate.
"I'm convinced." Rosetta shrugs, looking away. "I'm sorry. I panicked. I was just worried, you know," then she smiles, all teeth, she even squints. She's practiced this smile. It's the sweetest one in her arsenal. "Have you eaten yet?"
"No," Kyoya says, waving her off with a hand. "Go back to sleep."
"But I cooked something for you. It should be in the fridge."
Kyoya's face remains impassive before the corner of his lip lifts into a smile that sends her stomach plummeting.
"If you insist, I'll have someone send it in my room."
The crutch falls as Rosetta takes the gun from her back and points it at his face. The retainers freeze, unsure of what to do. Tetsuya is up, yelling at her. Tsuna is on his feet too.
"Kyoya-san hates my cooking," Rosetta snarls, voice loud against the commotion. "He doesn't eat anything I make him."
Kyoya's face pinches in annoyance. She knows that look. For a second she's afraid she's made a grave mistake. That her anxiety is merely a manifestation of what happened in Kokuyo Land. That she has gone nuts. That he actually wants to eat her cooking. Tetsuya wrestles the gun out of her grip and unloads it. Bullets fall.
Kyoya's face splits into a smile.
"What a shame," he says. His right eye glows red. "I couldn't take over Tsunayoshi because of that damn Arcobaleno. You'd notice, would you? That dying-will-bullet was a big surprise, just like your involvement." He refers to Reborn who frowns. "So I took this one instead. Friendless and heartless… alone in this cruel world."
Rokudo Mukuro meets her eyes. "I didn't think you'd call me out so soon, darling." He purrs.
A Note to the Readers: ... *runs off*＼\٩( 'ω' )و /／
I think Kyoya is going to steal the spotlight on the next chapter.
See you all in a handful of days. I hoped you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you have comments or suggestions you can always leave a message below!