A Note to The Readers: Hello! Congratulations to have made it to chapter eight! Thank you so much for staying with me! I hope this doesn't disappoint.

For those of you who expected a bomb ass, abs exposing, muscle clenching, battle posing fight between your homeboy Tsunayoshi vs Mukuro, I'll tell you that I TRIED to write it because I wanted an epic battle as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't really suit the story and it made the chapter unnecessary long. Needless to say, our homeboy Tsunayoshi did do Mukuro a thorough beatdown because the fool just won't stand down.

｜*￣∇￣｜/

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hibari Kyoya

"May I see it?" It isn't really a request to begin with, Ryuusei merely sounds polite. His hand is outstretched to Tsuna who takes a step back.

"I'll give it back," Ryuusei's lips stretch into a thin line.

Tsuna doesn't have a choice. He takes Leon's mittens from his pants pocket and hands it to the man who observes the fabric keenly, stroking a thumb against the grain of cloth. It's not really cotton. More like silk. It feels expensive, something a middle school boy can't afford.

Ryuusei hands it back.

"You defeated an enemy my son could not," Ryuusei says, taps his cane on the damaged floor. He sweeps his eyes on the surrounding destruction. The living room is unrecognizable. The floors above are torn beyond use as if columns of fire emerged from the ground, eating away old wood –the entire wing of the house redesigned by violence into a gaping maw of wood and plaster. It's a sad sight. Reconstructing this section of the house will take months, will be expensive. Ryuusei is happy to forward the bill to Iemitsu.

They ordered Tsuna to fight Mukuro. Ryuusei's house is a mere casualty.

"Where is my Kyoya?" Ryuusei asks Rosetta. She stuck herself to Tsuna's side since Ryuusei dropped to Namimori. Reborn is busy; taking inquiries about the shadowed men who dropped unannounced after Tsuna defeated Mukuro, dragging him along with his men to Vendicare prison. Ryuusei isn't happy about that either. He wants justice in the payment of blood.

Rosetta looks up, meets Ryuusei's blank gaze. Suddenly, Tsuna matters less.

"He's in the hospital, boss. Intensive care," she says honestly. "He shouldn't be out until next week."

Tsuna did fight Mukuro in Kyoya's body. The illusionist only manifested his own shell when Kyoya became too willful to control. It was a bloodbath.

Ryuusei makes a dismissive noise as his lip curls. "He's in luck. I would have taught him a lesson. A shame, losing to someone like Rokudo Mukuro. I thought I taught him well."

"It's not his faul–," Rosetta realizes her mistake after she's opened her mouth. She purses her lips. He is staring at her.

"Of course you would defend him, you're his wife. You don't want to be tied to someone who loses his battles," he says this as if he's teaching her a lesson.

She sucks in a breath, looks up, steeling herself. "I'd still stick with him, even if he loses again." Her ears go red.

Ryuusei blinks twice, which he doesn't do often. "Are you asking to be hit?"

"No, boss," Rosetta smiles wryly. Tsuna squeezes her arm in warning. "I think… I think losing is good for him. I think over time he developed this twisted sense of thinking, he's the biggest fish in Namimori's pond and it has gone to his head. He… I mean… he needs to taste defeat occasionally." She's careful to say only the truth.

"You want him to learn humility?" Ryuusei challenges.

"Yes."

There is silence for a moment, punctuated by the birdsong outside. Ryuusei's cold eyes assess her critically. Then he chuckles, it's a throaty sound without sincerity, but the corners of his eyes betray his mood. "Is that the truth?" he asks.

"It's merely my opinion." Rosetta looks away as Ryuusei's hand lands on top of her head as if petting a dog.

"Sometimes I long for your company," Ryuusei sighs visibly. That could have been believable in his son's funeral. Rosetta resists rolling her eyes. "Takenaka's ingrained obsequiousness grates at times. Is his son the same?" She doesn't notice the bitterness at the end of his sentence, distracted by the sight of Reborn strolling to them. He greets Ryuusei, who bows. Reborn takes Tsuna away, something about an errand. Rosetta tries not to look so relieved when they're out of her sight.

"Tetsuya-san is better," Rosetta sniffs.

She must have said something wrong. Ryuusei sighs, leaning heavily on his cane. He takes her hand and inspects the tiny scar running between her ring finger and her pinky. She's startled by how familial his touch is.

"My dear," he says, solemnly. "You're still young, and you're my family. I know I'm quick to anger with you, so I always try to forgive you. I understand you're fond of Tetsuya, but Rokudo Mukuro stood in front of him for hours and he didn't realize..." Ryuusei looks away. "Tetsuya brought a criminal home without realizing it. Trust me on his fate."

"Oh no," Rosetta mouths. "Oh, no, please no." She goes cold from the inside out. She hasn't seen Tetsuya since the fight. "What have you done? He's blameless. Even Reborn-san didn't know."

"The Arcobaleno didn't watch my son grow up." His grip tightens. "Tetsuya was played like a fool."

"Hibari-san," Takenaka says from behind her, he bows to the boss. "Kyoya-san left the hospital. He just entered the premises."

She snaps her head back, eyes wide with words unsaid.

"Good," Ryuusei says, letting go of her. "Bring him here, bring your son too."

Rosetta swallows down her panic. She wants to say something, but she swallows her words. Not yet, it's too early. Thieves are punished with death. Liars are punished with a beating. Betrayal, unwitting betrayal… she doesn't know. She puts her professional face on. Ryuusei won't listen to her now. It's worse if she's hysterical.

Ryuusei embraces Kyoya when he arrives and punches him in the jaw. Kyoya stands up, defiant. The second blow brings him to his knees. His nose bleeds. Kyoya stands again and Ryuusei continues. There is nothing gained from a person who's willing to be struck. Ryuusei won't teach Kyoya anything this way and Kyoya knows it.

Ryuusei's final punch brushes against his son's teeth, cutting his knuckles open.

"You learn quickly," Ryuusei sounds almost disappointed as if he wished his son would fight back. "That's good. I appreciate that. I'm getting too old to teach you lessons."

"Drop and die, will you?" Kyoya sneers, on his feet.

"You'll have to do more than that," Ryuusei looks lazily at his consigliere. "Rosetta my dear, please call the doctor now."

Rosetta motions to the retainer posted outside and gives away the instruction much to Ryuusei's displeasure. It's a clear dismissal, and she ignored it.

He clicks his tongue.

"Don't test me. This is family business."

"Not again boss," Rosetta smiles with her lips. "You just said I was family. Now you're taking it back."

Takenaka emerges from the garden. He is pushing his son along the pebbled path. Tetsuya looks defeated, his shoulders sagged, his clothes ruined with white lines of dried sweat. He looks pathetic this way. No longer Tetsuya Kusakabe, a man who served the Hibari but a criminal to be punished. Rosetta looks at him hard, burns the memory of his face to her brain. Just in case she never sees him again.

Tetsuya is kneeling on the ground. He's not looking at any of them.

"I've thought long and hard for this–" Ryuusei says to Kyoya who is standing straight, eyes blistering with rage "–what a suitable punishment I can give you. A beating isn't enough. I know it wasn't enough for me. I've been lenient with you. I've given you what I wanted as a child. Freedom."

"This isn't freedom," Kyoya spits back, hands clenching. He doesn't have his weapons. "Don't preach what you don't walk."

"Freedom comes with consequences," Ryuusei isn't even angry, he's trying so hard to be patient. "I thought I'd teach you responsibility, but you've learned nothing. You don't manage yourself. You allow someone to take over your body–" Ryuusei slaps Kyoya. "You don't manage your men."

Ryuusei's clothes are always well tailored in a way that it hides his shoulder holster. They don't expect him to carry other weapons, his cane has always been enough. He takes a pistol from his side and whistles for Takenaka. His right-hand man approaches, kneels and accepts the gun.

"Kill Tetsuya," Ryuusei says.

Time slows down for Rosetta as she watches Takenaka march to his son.

She always thought highly of Ryuusei. In the eyes of the Yakuza, the boss is like a parent, a true father, unlike the watered down terminology the Italians like to use. Wrong as it is for fathers to hurt their children, when she first saw Ryuusei beat his heir, she was struck with the fact that he'd treat his sons like his subordinates. That he thinks of his subordinates as his sons too. Twisted logic, yes. But for his men, equality in their boss' eyes meant the world to them.

Ryuusei wouldn't kill his own sons to teach his men a lesson.

What was she thinking?

"You said he'll be punished!" Rosetta says. Her heart drops at her feet. Why does she sound twelve again? "This isn't punishment, this is death!"

"Tetsuya knows nothing but the way of our life. Freeing him will be a disgrace to his servitude. This is the only way," Ryuusei says, bored. Rosetta turns away from him, vision shaky. She meets Kyoya's eyes. Finds nothing, she rips her gaze from him and rushes out.

"No! –stop. Kusakabe-san, that's your son!" Rosetta screams, bracing for a run. Ryuusei blocks her with his cane. She pushes back. Then he grips her by the shoulders, twists her so her feet are off the ground. Her stitches open, her ribs burst in stabbing pain. She can't overpower the boss, not like this.

"Why won't you do anything?" She yells at Kyoya as a retainer quickly tries to take a hold of her. She kicks the man away, elbowing the boss by accident.

Takenaka flips the safety off, loading the gun with practiced ease. He's nearing Tetsuya. Why won't Tetsuya run?

"You call everyone around you herbivores. You act all high and mighty. But when it comes to your father, you're complacent! You're nothing but a damn dog!"

Kyoya's eyes widen.

Ryuusei's abrupt laughter comes out of nowhere. He lets go. Rosetta dodges the retainer's effort to subdue her. She runs and kneels by Tetsuya, pulling him by his arm. He doesn't budge. She's so furious that she's dizzy with it.

"Tetsuya! Get out of here!"

Tetsuya doesn't move. He looks at her with the eyes of a dead man. She wants to slap him. He doesn't have the right. He can't accept this.

"Don't question my honor," Takenaka says as he pushes her off. He points the gun at Tetsuya's temple, his grip doesn't waver. Rosetta stands and slaps Takenaka so hard that the cuts on her palms reopen. His spectacles fall, shatters against the white pebbles on the ground.

"What honor?" She yells. The gun wavers. "If you do this, you will spend your whole life serving a man who ordered your son's death! How is that honorable?"

"My dear, be careful of what you say next," Ryuusei warns, a grin on his face. She ignores him.

"You have a higher responsibility to your son! You owe him more than this! You owe him for putting him in this world of ours. Stand down, Takenaka!"

"I can't," Takenaka says. Something in Tetsuya wakes up. He looks at his father.

"I–" Takenaka's watery eyes drops to his son, then lifts to his boss. Then he shuts his eyes.

He pulls the trigger.

A non-expanding bullet will go through a human body in a straight line. Linear. Clean. It exits out in a burning hole if not stopped by bone or tissue, often the same size as the entry wound. An expanding bullet, however, shatters upon its entry, crushing bones and tearing tissue.

Tetsuya blinks. He's not dead. The gun on Takenaka's hand is empty. His father just tried to kill him.

"Do you think of me so low to ask my right-hand man to kill his son? I thought I told you to trust me?" Ryuusei is taking the weapon from Takenaka's trembling hand. The retainer's face is red, along with his eyes. But there are no tears. He kneels by his son and undoes his bindings. "A man of ours nearly handed you over to the Gesso because his lover was taken. I won't have that mistake with Takenaka. Now I know for sure."

Rosetta's knees go weak, composure nearly gone. Beside her, she hears Takenaka give in, sobbing to his son who's curled up against him. She should have followed Kyoya who stood unmoving. How did he know the gun was empty? Now she's said all the wrong things and done the stupidest stunt she's done since the wedding speech. Her eyes sting, but she blinks her tears away, refusing to cry. She's been crying like a little girl this week. Not anymore.

"No apologies this time?" Ryuusei asks gently. The sudden change in his tone turns her red with shame. He removes his tie and wraps it around his fist.

"It was my mistake," she says.

"Good, you're not making excuses." Ryuusei's drops his cane. He looks at his son, then to his retainer. "Takenaka, enough sniveling, hold her wrists behind her."

Takenaka's hands are cold when he binds her.

"What are your injuries?" Ryuusei asks.

"Badly bruised ribs, multiple cuts, and lacerations, bruises," Rosetta answers, trying not to look at Kyoya.

Ryuusei nods, "I'll try to make this quick for you, my dear. I have a flight to catch. The Carcassa bids for peace. "

"Thank you, boss."

Ryuusei graces her with a fond smile.

"Clench your teeth."

"You're unhappy," Ryuusei observes, tapping the table with his finger pads as Iwasaki wipes the blood out from his knuckles. It's an annoying quirk he picked up from Rosetta, sitting across her on their long flights. She looked smug about it. Later on, she picked up his small tells –pressing her fist against her mouth. A boyhood habit he's found difficult to abandon, as all habits go.

He's talking to his son, Kyoya, who's not even looking at him.

"You didn't like what I did to her–" Ryuusei continues. The doctor flinches, looks away. She brought Rosetta to the hospital after she collapsed. Fragile girl. The memory brings a smile to his face. "–or… you didn't like what she said."

"My opinions hardly matter to you," Kyoya says.

"Correct, that doesn't mean I don't care to hear them. What's on your mind?"

Kyoya observes the infirmary. Rosetta seems to have taken permanent residence there. He sees several of her coded paperwork stacked on the table piled with the doctor's grenades. Her colorful pens are taking residence inside a recycled pencil case from her home economics class. A picture frame, also from the same class lays face down the table. He's sitting on her bed, apparently.

He takes the frame and flips it up. His forehead crinkles. There's a picture.

It's Rosetta in her classroom, grinning wildly at the camera. He sees two other girls with her. One with short brown hair and large eyes, the other he recognizes, the president of Namimori's archery club, Hana Kurokawa. Brown hair has her tongue stuck out. Archery girl is sneering. Behind he can see Tetsuya looking peeved that he's included in the photo.

"Let me dole out the punishments next time," Kyoya says, putting the picture frame where it belongs, face up. He takes one of her pens –pink with floating glitters. "She's my wife."

Ryuusei hums. "I can always arrange for another one if you're not satisfied. She's useful, yes. But I can take over her family in half a decade. The girl has no loyalty to her famiglia. They know it. I can have her killed once I replace all her generals."

Kyoya stiffens. "I don't want another woman."

"You're already attached?" Ryuusei grins genuinely, presses his uninjured knuckle against his lips. "Kyoya, she's not your type. She probably hates you by now."

"She doesn't hate me."

"She called you a dog," Ryuusei points out to his annoyance. "You'll want someone who follows you without question."

"Just like my mother," Kyoya says. The pen is his hand snaps. He observes it again and sets it back on the table.

"Yes," Ryuusei responds.

"You shot her." Kyoya can vividly recall the memory. He was six years old. They were having dinner. The family complete –or at least all the ones he considered family. His mother, his father, Tetsuya and him. Ryuusei was complaining about the unstable stock market, how big companies got away from taxes with their charities. It was mundane. His mother laughed at Ryuusei's borrowed anecdotes, and then she shared something about her eventful day. Ryuusei stood up and Kyoya's mother was lying on the floor, a bullet between her eyes.

"I've been searching for a mole in our system for two years," Ryuusei leans back. This is an old conversation that he always wins. If Kyoya wants to play again, he's welcome. "Turns out she was feeding family secrets to her friends. She angered me. Cost us millions, cost me years of drawback." He sighs.

Kyoya is silent. Ryuusei is getting bored. Not a good sign.

"Your mother didn't love you, you know?" Ryuusei baits, lifting his eyebrows. Kyoya resists rolling his eyes, he's heard of this before. "She didn't love me either. It was her duty. Her obligation. Our marriage was a business agreement between her father and me. Just like our dear Rosetta is to you."

Kyoya makes a derisive noise. "Mother wouldn't have stood against you to save my lackey." The realization hits him like a bullet. His mother would have watched silently, and she did watch silently as other children took punishments for Kyoya's mistakes. He looks at the picture again. Rosetta looks her age here, wide amused eyes and a symmetrical smile. She doesn't smile like that in his presence.

Rosetta is not like his mother.

Ryuusei coughs, as if embarrassed. He takes the broken pen, frowns as glitter crusts against his skin. He continues, ignorant of the turmoil Kyoya is in "Your mother would never mock the concept of loyalty too. That's why she was perfect, or nearly perfect." He looks at Kyoya, who seems pensive. "I suppose as bad habits go, Rosetta picked the worst from you."

Kyoya's surprise snaps him from his thoughts.

"Ho? Which one?"

"Your annoying tendency to save people who don't want to be saved," Ryuusei looks mildly annoyed now. Pen abandoned, he taps his fingers against the table again and stops himself. The doctor is finished with his knuckles. She doesn't wait for his dismissal. She takes her id, her coat, her novel, and rushes out.

"The disciplinary committee?" Kyoya asks.

"Yes," Ryuusei wipes his fingers absently. "Namimori's crime rate is nearly zero because of you. You smother Namimori's delinquent groups before they form. Namimori is the safest town in Japan." Ryuusei stands straight, hands wrapped over the other atop his cane. He looks menacing this way, impeccable straight lines, the thrum of quiet strength buzzing beneath his expensive suit. His lip curls, a familiar smirk Kyoya has seen in himself on the mirror. "They won't remember it's you. They won't thank you. Civilians have a tendency to remember the pain, never the lesson."

Rosetta spends her fifteenth birthday alone, barely conscious in a dark hospital room. She moves her fingers. All ten are present. She tries to move her toes. She doesn't feel a few. It feels like hours before she pokes her foot through the thin blanket. All fingers present if numb. The panic settles into a halo of discomfort.

Her body feels stuffed with cotton, the dull throb of muscle pain humming within her flesh.

It's four in the morning and she's alone, save from the handful of retainers outside her room. She forgives herself for humming happy birthday and sleeping before she gets halfway through the song.

The pain and the drugs lull her to a dreamless sleep. She hears Iwasaki's jargon through the haze of her slumber, then Takenaka's stupid accent, whispering something Italian in the quiet air. She wants to shut him up. She wants to sleep.

Many hours pass. She smells flowers but knows enough that Namimori General doesn't tolerate live plants. Probably perfume then. Nana Sawada? Kyoko? No, Kyoko doesn't wear perfume. Hana wears men's cologne. It's Nana Sawada.

Tsuna probably visits too because she knows no one stupid enough to accidentally sit on her hand. Plus, she feels something small crawl up her face. Leon. That means Reborn, who is thankfully quiet enough to let her sleep.

She wakes up on the second day, irritable and in dire need of a bath. She sees Tetsuya on the foot of her bed, an icepack over her leg. Ryuusei got her leg too. She wonders how he managed that.

"Your hair," she croaks. Tetsuya jumps. His eyes are red and his eye bags are ditches dug from the earth of his sallow skin. The biggest change is his hair. His ridiculous pompadour is gone. There is a bun above his head. He looks like an entirely different person. "What happened to your hair?"

Her throat feels like sandpaper rubbing against each other. Tetsuya abandons the icepack, helping her up despite her weak protests. He calls Iwasaki from his earpiece –that's new– and waits as she persists questioning him.

Iwasaki appears. There is a book under her armpit. She asks Rosetta questions, who answer quickly after she drinks water. She's fine. Bruises all over. Two broken ribs. Some of her cuts developed an infection, but Iwasaki is nothing if a good doctor. She's hooked into different antibiotics and strong painkillers. One more week at the hospital and she's free to go. No strenuous activities for a month.

"Define strenuous," Rosetta croaks, smiling.

"No pissing off the boss," Iwasaki sniffs.

"He wasn't mad," Rosetta says, yawning. She regrets it. Her entire face hurts. She wonders if it's a giant bruise. She hopes not, or at least she hopes that Kyoya doesn't visit her when she looks like this. "I've seen him mad."

Iwasaki sighs.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were the house doctor," Rosetta asks her.

"It's easier this way," Tetsuya says.

She smiles at him, reaching up in the pace of a snail. "Can I touch your hair?"

Tetsuya chuckles. He looks miserable, looks like he has a lot to say, but he bites it back, kneeling so Rosetta can reach his head.

"Gross, it's full of grease."

"Pomade," he corrects.

Rosetta reaches his face, touches his cheek, tries to jab a finger up his nostril for fun. She wants to sleep again. "I'm happy you're alive. You're my best friend."

"I can't be your best friend," Tetsuya says, defeated, it doesn't suit his voice at all. The man is best described as a pillar –tall, strong and silent. She doesn't want to see him like that again, kneeling in the garden, about to die.

"Because you'll probably betray me someday…. I know that. It doesn't have to be mutual," she says. "God knows it doesn't."

"Who the hell let you in here?" Rosetta moans when she hears Kyoko's distant giggles. She cracks her eyes open and tries to ward off the ladies by clawing at their faces. Bad move. It pulls muscles she never knew existed. Tears spring out of her eyes.

"If I knew you'd be ungrateful, we wouldn't have bothered," Hana is grinning. There is a large teddy bear on the sofa behind her; a gaudy 'get well soon!' embroidered on the giant red heart it embraces. Rosetta will have to burn it down or force Tetsuya to carry it around in public.

"I am grateful," Rosetta croaks. They're wearing their uniforms. Hana's archery set is probably outside, confiscated by the men. "How's school?"

Kyoko's face brightens. "It's been good–"

"Kyoko, please, it sucks," Hana cuts in, glaring at Rosetta who gives her a halfhearted shrug. "Your precious husband is patrolling nonstop, punishing students for every minor infraction. He gave me detention because my ribbon was skewed." Hana pointedly fixes her ribbon, cursing when Rosetta laughs and laughs along when Rosetta wheezes in pain.

Kyoko talks about school as Hana fusses around the small room. There's a small sofa, a plastic plant, an unused heart monitor and a television in front of Rosetta's bed. Hana then examines the various gifts left by strangers. There is a number of plastic flowers on the table, four glittery balloons Rosetta is sure came from Tsuna and Reborn, and various get-well cards from the men. Hana, once satisfied that she brought the largest gift settles on Rosetta's bedside.

According to the two, Rosetta has been absent for a week already, she's missed several quizzes and her grades are on the brink of being comparable with Tsuna's. Hana has been invited to an archery training camp and is on the fence, torn between sports and academics. Kyoko spends an hour skirting around Tsunayoshi Sawada much to Hana's annoyance. Apparently, some students made fun of him when he appeared after a period of unexcused absences, wrapped in bandages. Okada cornered him that lunch, wanting to see if he made his injuries up, wanted to see if Tsuna simply wanted to join the bandwagon. To him, Tsuna was too weak to be targeted by the delinquents. Before Gokudera could put Okada in his place, Kyoya appeared out of nowhere and sent him to the hospital.

The mention of Kyoya tears an undefinable expression from Rosetta's face.

"What's wrong?" Kyoko's tilts her head.

"No, nothing," Rosetta blinks, puts a bandaged hand over Kyoko's warm pair. "It's nothing."

But it's not. Kyoya stood there in silence as her father-in-law broke her ribs. He stood there, staring at her face, choking her spirit with the physical weight of his gaze. Ryuusei wouldn't stop even if his favorite son asked to. She knows that. But did he know it? Did he know that his hands are tied behind his back? Or did he stand there because he truly disliked her? He truly hated her.

"I don't believe you," Kyoko says. Hana asks if they fought and tells her that fighting is normal in a relationship.

Rosetta tries to laugh, but it comes out thin, stretched out. The last of her hope flickers out. She sounds pathetic, feels pathetic. Is she that desperate that this rejection feels like heartbreak? Ryuusei would mock her.

"We've been doing nothing but fight," comes out of her. She's spent more time trying to appeal to Kyoya more than they've spent together.

"Well," Kyoko tries for positivity, "on the bright side…" She trails off, unable to finish her sentence because the door opens and in walks Kyoya himself. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Kyoko stiffens in her seat, chirping a shy hello. Hana straightens up.

"Visitation hours are over," Kyoya says. Hana swipes their bags from under the sofa and ushers Kyoko out.

"See you soon!" Kyoko chirps again before they scurry off, Hana clutching at her arm. The door shuts, very slowly, with a self-conscious click.

Kyoya looks well. There are fading bruises along his neck and his hands. That aside, he presents no signs of going through battle. He observes the room and raises an eyebrow at the ugly teddy bear Hana left.

Rosetta cracks a smile at him, it doesn't reach her eyes. "I think–," she says, emboldened, "I think one day, I'll say something wrong to you and you'd throw me over the balcony as my father did to my mum."

"Will I?" Kyoya asks, walking to the window. He closes the curtain and doesn't speak until Rosetta loses her patience.

"What are you doing here?"

"Fifty-five minutes," Kyoya responds, observing the plastic flowers.

She blinks, for a mere second she feels elated, but even that quickly morphs into disdain. "You don't have to. I give up. You win. You hate me and everything I live for. You don't have to waste your time on me, I won't force you to." She hopes that her expression is not too bitter, that the conversation will end with her dignity intact.

If anything, he is unimpressed. He turns his head to her, his hands tucked neatly behind him. There is a shadow on his face. "I don't hate you."

Rosetta feels the implication more than she hears it.

"And I didn't think you'd be the one to give up," Kyoya continues, of course he does.

A bitter laugh slips out of her before she can stop. She can't believe it. She was resigned a minute ago, now he's baiting her. It makes her angry. She inhales, sucking her tongue to stop herself from saying anything stupid, but it comes out anyway.

"What is this?" She hisses. "Some kind of pity? False hope? I liked that one thing about you and you fuck it up!"

Kyoya's jaw clenches, disapproval burns in his eyes. "It's not pity." He's not sure what he came here for. He tries again.

"You despise me for letting my father beat you," he says.

Rosetta stares at him evenly, her jaw clenched tight.

Kyoya frowns. He tries again.

"What do you think I could have done?" he says. "Do you think I wanted my retainer to die? You should have remained quiet, you had to involve yourself. If I moved an inch, I would have condemned both of you to die."

She blinks. "I don't understand."

Kyoya looks irritated that he has to explain himself. "You're confident that my father can't execute you, but can you say the same in a handful of years? He'd kill you to teach me a lesson."

Her breath hitches, anger draining away. Was that sympathy? She watches him. He stares back with animal eyes. No. She's mistaken. Not sympathy but instinct, reasoning. If she dies along with Tetsuya then he'll lose two pawns instead of one.

The way he looks at the world is frightening. He doesn't care for her.

She thinks of Marco.

"You don't know that."

"I do," he says with so much conviction that the hairs prickle in her arms. There is a history behind it.

"This happened before," she whispers.

"Yes," he says.

Damn Ryuusei to hell. Sometimes she dreams of putting her hands around his neck. "I didn't really think of you as a dog. But we might as well have been. Asks his retainer to kill his son, beats his daughter-in-law in front of her husband, trying to teach us as a lesson? He's doing it for kicks. As if we'd learn anything from that. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Careful," he warns, his mouth relaxing around the corners. "The walls have ears."

"Takenaka wouldn't care," she replies, lifting her chin. The room is likely bugged since he visited. "And it's the truth, isn't it?"

The corners of Kyoya's mouth lifts. It's a strange expression, too small to be called a smile, too genuine to be mocking.

Rosetta smiles back, humorless. She needs some time to think. "Go away, Kyoya-san."

"How are your injuries?"

She freezes, having yet to build a defense against niceties coming from him. Her skin crawls and she tries to focus on that rather than the fact that her heart is thudding through her hospital clothes.

"I don't like this game you're playing," she says, wary.

"I have fifty minutes."

She looks for something to throw at him and finds nothing substantial. Maybe it's for the best.

She exhales. The room is getting warmer, she almost misses the chill. If he wants to stay then he has to speak. She's unwilling to sit in silence in his company for another hour.

"You care about my well-being," she chimes in. She has a feeling that a remark about the weather will set their relationship back to square one. Not that she knows what particular square they're standing on at the present. Square one point five, perhaps?

"You were never sick."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Rosetta says.

Kyoya pauses. "You were never hospitalized."

"You don't want to talk about what happened?"

"What's the purpose of that?"

"Closure?"

"Nobody died," Kyoya says, uninterested. "There is nothing to lament about."

Rosetta breathes in, counts to ten. Now that he's willing to talk, it feels like she's conversing to a machine. "You never wanted to talk before."

"There was nothing important to be said."

"Now there is? This reeks of the boss."

"He didn't send me here."

"You came willingly; you wanted to see me on your own. No motives?"

"Don't be foolish. The world does not spin without purpose."

"Why then?"

Kyoya pauses. "We're married."

"We've been married for years." Rosetta shakes her head, her brain counting to fifty to smother the… what? It's not irritation. It's not exasperation. Not disappointment… Whatever it is, it's churning happily inside her stomach, making her uncomfortable. "If you're here to assuage some guilt for watching me turn into a punching bag, fine. Just… don't pretend it's something else. If you're here because you pity me, forget it. This isn't the worst punishment I received from the boss."

"What?"

She stares at him.

"What?" She repeats.

"You're fond of having me repeat myself," Kyoya says with a barely perceptible sigh. "What do you mean punishments?"

"I already mentioned a few," Rosetta finds herself explaining, astounded. "He put me in one of his torture camps after our marriage. They hospitalized me for a month."

"What else did he do?"

Oh, now he's interested. Rosetta doesn't know if this is a good thing. It's probably a terrible thing.

"You know about the fork…"

"You can't play the piano, yes. What else?"

She doesn't correct him. She lost her skill in the camp, not because the boss drove a fork through her hand.

The memory is unpleasant. She has never told this to anyone, not even to her mother. And yet… it's intoxicating to be the center of Kyoya's attention. Or maybe she's deluding herself. Rosetta hesitates before she reminds herself that she's a Hibari, not some wilting little girl. "He saw me look away once," she begins. "It was a soldato, caught stealing from the pipelines, one among twenty thieves. The boss wanted the others to learn efficiently. He killed the leader and when he saw that I was avoiding the carnage… he gave me a … he gave me his cane and asked me to shoot. I've never–" She scrunches her eyebrows. "He said as his family, I needed to learn. He held my hands. That he won't ask me to stop until I liked it."

"How many died in your hands?" Kyoya approaches her.

"Twelve," she looks up. He is right beside her, watching her with his particular brand of humbling attention. And she realizes what the feeling in her stomach is. It's dread, embarrassment, humiliation. People are creatures of habit. Tomorrow, Kyoya would have forgotten about this. Next week, he'll scowl at her sight again. What then? She knows he's lenient today because of what she did for Tetsuya. Does she have to risk her life for scraps of his attention? Rosetta wants to cry. "He wasn't happy. I, in turn, was relieved I ran out of bullets."

"Lucky you, he usually loads his cane with fifteen."

She blinks, sucks in a breath.

"Did he do it to you too?"

"To all of his sons," he says.

"How many did it take you?"

"One."

"Oh, my… Was the person a thief too?" She feels gouged out. Kyoya is holding something to her, a handkerchief. She takes it and angrily wipes her tears.

"A journalist caught sneaking in the grounds. We kept dogs then, Kusakabe-san fed the woman to the animals."

"Poor girl," she says and then swallows. She can't seem to stop crying and he doesn't seem to be bothered, although she's not sure because she can't see him well. Normally, she wouldn't have the courage to say this, but just now she's reminded yet again that her life is empty. That she can count her friends with one hand. That she doesn't want to lose her odd conversations with her husband. "Will you do this again?"

"Do what?"

"Talk to me like this, give me your handkerchief?" She laughs a little, at herself and how pathetic she sounds. She is used to pain, one of the many joys of being in the mafia. But she's not wearing her armor, barefoot, bruised, and tucked in the hospital bed like a victim of domestic abuse.

He is silent after that. Rosetta is used to staring, but not when it's him.

"Tell me first, how did you know it was me?" Kyoya asks.

"When you were taken over?" She asks, watches as his lip quirks. "You don't eat my meals. He implied that he wanted to. You'd never do that."

He gazes at her. "They were bribes."

"The sole son of a Yakuza boss who doesn't take bribes. Will you try them next time?"

"No."

"It's okay," she says, more to herself. "Will you answer my question now?"

"Do you want me to?" He asks.

She nods.

"Will you cry again?"

She laughs. So it does make him uncomfortable.

He looks away. "It's not a promise," he announces. "But alright."

A Note to the Readers: I tried! Kyoya is such a difficult character to write! But I don't have the right to complain either, because I chose him! Hahaha. The next update will be in a week or so since I'll be busy with school. Kyoya and Rosetta's relationship is going to improve from this point on.

Comments and suggestions are welcome! I'd like to hear what you have to say. （人･ω･)