Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
It had been a week since the Xanxus and the office floor incident. She had seen him since then, but he refused to meet her gaze, whether it be over the dinner table, or when he was handing out missions to each of them. It was starting to grate on her nerves. So she made it her personal mission to face up to him and demand an apology.
It was late in the evening when she walked up to his office, barging in she looked around and saw he was not there. Disgruntled she wandered back to her room, as she fumbled with the lock she heard movement in the room next door. Realising that Xanxus was in his room; she turned on her heel and stormed in to his room.
Xanxus turned around when he heard the door slam, seeing that it was Nuvola he grunted out,
"Kasu, what do you want?"
"You owe me an apology…" Nuvola stopped and stared at Xanxus. Seeing that he was only wearing boxers giving her a good view of his muscled body, she must have walked in on him whilst he was getting ready for bed.
"For what scum?"
"For what you said about me last week."
Xanxus walked over to her, pushing her back into the bedroom wall. Here the difference in their height was noticeable. She was just only 5 foot, and he had to at least be 6 foot, if not more. He moved his hand to her chin and pushed her head up so she was looking directly into his eyes.
"I owe you nothing, you do as I tell you, and you get paid and a roof over your head. Understand scum?"
With those words he pulled her towards the door and shoved her outside.
Nuvola was fuming. That was twice now that he had got one up on her. But still she was surprised at how he wasn't as violent towards her as he was to the other members of the Varia, in particular Squalo. She supposed it was because he had discovered that she was a female, and a rather flat-chested one at that, and therefore by Varia logic she was weak and feeble. Nuvola walked into her room, got changed into her PJ's and flopped into bed. Wishing that they still thought she was a guy. Life was simpler then.
She was woken the next morning by Squalo attempting to break her door down only using the power of his loud voice.
"! GET UP AND GET YOUR ASS TO THE LIVING ROOM! WE HAVE SOMETHING WE NEED TO DISCUSS!"
Nuvola rolled out of bed and went to shower as soon as she heard Squalo march off down the corridor. Twenty minutes later found her in the castle living room with all the other members of the Varia except Xanxus.
"Nuvola-chan! You came! We need you to help with the decorations for Xanxus' birthday party!"
"Xanxus is having a party?" Nuvola asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Strictly speaking, no." Fran answered. "Lussuria just likes to call it a party."
"Do we need to get him presents?" Nuvola looked around at all the members of the Varia.
Squalo grumpily replied, "Yes, I didn't bother one year and got hit in the face with an entire unopened bottle of Vodka."
"Anyway! We're holding the party in the great hall, Xanxus birthday is on the 10th October, so you have a week remaining to put up all these decorations!" Lussuria grabbed Nuvola and dragged her into the corridor where there were piles of boxes full of balloons and streamers and canisters of helium. "So you need to get a move on!"
It was a day before Xanxus' birthday. Nuvola had just finished putting up all the decorations. She had assumed that Lussuria had ordered them; there were far too many pink glittery balloons. She had thrown them away; she couldn't imagine Xanxus liking neon pink and glitter. Now all that was left to do was fetch Xanxus presents. She had decided on some expensive imported whiskey which had been delivered today, Xanxus seemed like a borderline alcoholic so hopefully he would like it. The other present was going to be a surprise for him, she hadn't even told the other members of the Varia what it was, and she'd only decided to buy it on a whim, when Fran pointed out that everyone bought Xanxus alcohol. Shutting the doors to the great hall Nuvola headed out of the castle to collect the remaining present.
It was 7pm on October 10th. Xanxus was sat at the head of the table happily chewing away on some beef and for once not complaining about it. Sat on his right was Squalo, who was glaring at another mob boss that had been sat next to Nuvola and was attempting to look down her dress. Nuvola hadn't noticed this as she was engaged in conversation with Dino Cavallone.
"So, Nuvola, what's it like working with Varia?" Dino asked.
"Loud" Nuvola looked over to where Bel was jabbing Fran with his fork, "And violent."
"Aha, you'll get used to that. Has Squalo caused you to get tinnitus yet? Or have you become a victim of Lussuria's obsession with pink?
"Obsession with pink?" Nuvola thought back to the neon glitter pink balloons.
"Considering that you are female I'm surprised he hasn't forced you in to a pink furry Varia uniform, or repainted your room pink and yellow." Dino laughed as Nuvola shuddered.
After dinner Xanxus went to open the small mountain of presents he had received. A majority of them were different types of alcohol, gifted by the lower Varia ranks, which explained why no one ever saw Xanxus shopping for his booze. From Dino he got a set of keys to a Ferrari, (which was parked at the back of the castle), Fran gave him extra add-ons for his X-Guns, Levi's present was a subscription to "Meat Monthly", Xanxus face was torn between a sneer and a smirk when he opened this. Bel's present was his old tiara and a fur lined coat. A throne with removable pink attachments was given by Lussuria, (of which the removable pink attachments were quickly 'removed' by Xanxus by the means of his X-Guns). Squalo's gift included flame storage boxes and bedding for Bester as well as a wide selection of crystal glass tumblers. (Xanxus only had 2 remaining; the rest of them had been thrown at Squalo over the course of the year.) Lastly Xanxus opened Nuvola's present. The whiskey was placed to the side with all the other bottles of alcohol as he tore the paper off the other object.
"Kasu, what the hell is this!"
Many thanks to kenco-coffee for proofreading all these chapters for me. xx