A/N: Hey guys! SushiBomb here with the next chapter of Phases of Accidia! I feel really awful. I realized right after I posted the last chapter that I forgot to comment on the epic review left to me by my fellow Team Sleep fan, Lemming Queen. Ryohei would be beside himself with your EXTREMELY EXTREME USE OF THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON!
L.Q., I gotta say, I was having such a crappy day, I had just gotten into a huge argument with one of my friends, and was in a shittastic mood that night and when I got home and read that awesome review you wrote, I was actually in tears. It really made my night. Thanks a lot, and thanks to everyone else who reviewed as well.
Ahem, pardon my angst-fest…So chapter 8… I think my theme for November is music, because a) chapter 6: based on a song, b)my other story, Dancing in the Dark, also based on a couple of songs, and music will be a major part later, and c) this chapter, is all about Bel's taste in, you guessed it, music!
Warnings: Shonen ai kind of…Bel x Xanxus (What! It's an interesting pairing!), OOC Xanxus, because admittedly, he is like the most impossible character to write.( You'd have a hard time too with a character who's face always looks like this =( ) And… um, that's basically it.
So, on with P.O.A.!
Disclaimer: SushiBomb does not own jackshit, don't make fun of her.
VIII. Rock out with the Prince
Xanxus cursed under his breath for what had to be the seventieth time that hour. Wet towel and windex in hand, the sky guardian stood on a step ladder in the middle of the hallway that led to his room and personal lounge, wiping off the pictures and mirrors that hung from the walls. Out of all of his assigned chores for the day, this had to be his least favorite. Not because it was difficult, on the contrary, it was the simplest of his appointed tasks. It just took forever, and it was incredibly boring.
After almost an hour of wiping each of the several dozen frames, mirrors, etc. that dotted the absurdly long hall, if Xanxus did say so himself, and he did, the Varia boss moodily chucked the now dust-covered towel back into the bucket he had dragged along with him. Stretching languidly, he yawned as he picked up the bucket to move on to the next hallway over.
Saturdays at the Varia headquarters were labeled as 'cleaning day.' Of course, they had staff to do things like that on the weekdays, but when the maids and butlers went home on the weekends to visit family or run errands or whatever they did with their free time, the officers of the elite organization were left alone to fend for themselves. Lussuria had said it would be their 'bonding time,' to which of course everyone either 'booed' or rolled their eyes.
Aside from cleaning their bedrooms top to bottom, they each had a list of assigned duties for the day. As a lover of cooking, Lussuria naturally took the job of maintaining the kitchen, and also did the laundry. Levi, as the physically strongest of the group, handled the outside chores, such as mowing the grass, and maintaining the gardens.
Squalo swept the floors, and vacuumed the rooms that had carpets. The swordsman would make sure to complain (loudly, mind you) every single week about how they really needed to get tiled floors in the larger rooms. Belphegor would always argue with him on that point, because it was his job to mop the floors, and therefore requested that there not be more tiled rooms. The prince was also responsible for dusting off the multitudes of vases, art work, and various other knick-knacks around the base.
As the (literal) baby of the group, Mammon was not able to provide much assistance in the way of physical labor. Instead, the infantile illusionist was appointed the task of managing the family's finances. The avaricious mist guardian was unparalleled in his understanding of financial processes, and thus was given the task of making sure the bills were paid on time, as well as periodically reviewing financial documents and tax forms.
Mammon was also in charge of making sure the Vongola's money was put to good use. The baby handled the various investments made by the famiglia, and whether it be stocks or mutual funds, Mammon always made sure to turn a nice profit for the Vongola.
Xanxus, suprisingly, even did his fair share, despite being the boss, and thus being allowed to say 'fuck off, I ain't doing it' if he really wanted to. The others chalked it up to the fact that Xanxus was a proud man, and refused to be seen as a freeloader. Plus, he didn't let anyone in his room.
"One down, three to go." Xanxus groaned to himself as he stood at the mouth of the southern wing of the castle, spraying a new towel with windex, and prepping his arms for another round of repetitive circular wiping.
He was making his way over to the first window, resigned to this fate when he heard someone singing, quite loudly, down the hall. It sounded very familiar. Dropping his bucket on the floor, Xanxus walked down the hall to see who it was, and tell them to shut the hell up, because his head was hurting.
A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend with weed is better,
A friend with breasts and all the rest,
A friend who's dressed in leather
The singing got louder as he got closer. The sky guardian finally made it to the room at the end of the hall and peaked his head in. Xanxus wasn't sure whether to laugh, or to pinch his nose to prevent a nosebleed. In the middle of the room, the resident genius of the Varia was mopping the floor. Ear buds plugged into his ears, Xanxus could hear whatever he was listening to blaring in the younger man's ears all the way from where he was standing.
A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend who'll tease is better ,
Our thoughts compressed,
Which makes us blessed,
And makes for stormy weather,
Belphegor was dancing rather provocatively, wrapping his slim leg around the mop, grinding his hips against the pole, belting out lyircs.
He actually has a pretty good voice. Xanxus thought to himself, deciding he wouldn't intrude on the storm guardian's fun. Instead, he settled for leaning against the border of the open doorway, arms crossed, and enjoying the little show his subordinate was unwittingly putting on for him.
The blonde soon stopped dancing, pulling his iPod out of his back pocket. He was facing away from Xanxus, intently searching for another song. The Varia boss was surprised that the younger assassin hadn't even felt his presence yet. A sudden noise told the Varia boss that the prince had already made his selection, and from the rhythmic thumping, it sounded like some kind of electronic or techno song.
Bit by bit my heart breaks
Your voice repeats, and I can't take it anymore
Don't compromise
Save yourself, I'll always be here
The prince leaned the mop up against the wall, apparently finished, still gyrating his narrow hips seductively, as he pulled out a rag that was hanging from his back pocket and began wiping off one of the vases. Xanxus found himself being hypnotized by the sway of the boy's hips and he suddenly felt like the temperature had raised a couple of degrees, and loosened his tie a bit.
Belphegor, still oblivious to the older man's presence, continued dancing and singing around the room, stopping every so often to wipe something off. Clad in only baggy beige cargo pants, a black wife beater that showed off his lean physique and black socks, the storm guardian looked pretty hot twirling that wet rag around his bandana-covered head like a lasso.
Xanxus decided that he had better leave, lest the storm guardian turn around and catch him perving on him.
Over the next month or so, Xanxus had begun to make a habit out of watching the blonde prince. He had never noticed before, but Belphegor was quite the music lover. It wasn't just on cleaning days, he soon realized, but all the time that the eighteen year old was singing or humming some tune to himself. When they all went to the gym or had training together, the prince always had his iPod handy, and would sometimes start belting out lyrics randomly. Squalo, of course, would always be ready to tell him to put a sock in it.
At dinner, Xanxus often heard Bel talking to Lussuria about this new song he heard or that song he loved; the two seemed to share the same general tastes in music. He even sang in the shower, as Xanxus had recalled one time he happened to walk by the prince's room and heard some rather erotic lyrics coming from inside. Needless to say, the sky guardian walked a little faster, and for a fleeting moment, wondered if Bel liked to dance in the shower too.
Xanxus also noted, that out of anyone he had ever met, Belphegor had what was quite possibly the most eclectic taste in music he had ever heard. The sky guardian was certain that every time he crossed paths with the younger hitman, he was listening to a different genre of music. He easily switched from rock, to techno, to jazz, to a plethera of others, and seemed to enjoy them all the same.
The prince especially seemed to have an affinity for foreign music. So far, in that one month period, he had heard the man singing in of course italian, but also in english, japanese, german, swedish, russian, and probably more that Xanxus hadn't even heard yet.
One Saturday afternoon, as the group tackled their weekly cleaning duties, Xanxus had once again stumbled upon the royal hitman jamming to himself as he mopped the main foyer.
Je rigole à souhaits
Et je me dirige au bar, une vodka une téquila, et voilà, et voilà.
L'histoire qui finit, tant pis, la musique elle me sourit et je ferme les yeux,
L'hôtesse se barre, j'm en balance, la musique…
Electronique, électronique, électronique…
The blonde sang, in flawless french, Xanxus realized, as he wrung excess water out of the mop before slapping it back onto the floor, shaking his derriere in time with the lyrics, sliding the mop to and fro across the floor. Xanxus once again found himself entranced by the younger man. It had become something of a past time for him, and he always made sure no one else was around before engaging in his new favorite activity. By now, the prince had switched from french electronica to an american song…the genre he couldn't really be sure of. Bel swayed his hips side to side slowly as he sang along.
With her high heel against the wall
Kind of dancing, though not at all
She had stockings running up to her thighs
Snaps her fingers to keep the time
From the back of the room I saw her there
I said she wants to be alone and I shouldn't dare
But then she noticed me glance at her
I had no choice but to dance with her
The prince bobbed his head lightly, lifting the mop back into the bucket, still singing when he turned and saw none other than his boss standing in the doorway, blantantly staring at the prince's undulating hips.
Belphegor smirked to himself.
If there was anyone who saw the opportunity to have some fun and a laugh at someone else's expense, it was most certainly the blonde assassin.
"Hey boss, shishi~, enjoying the show?" He asked playfully, running his pale hand through his golden locks, dancing up to the sky guardian. Xanxus looked uncharacteristically mortified. He was so entranced by the boy that he had been caught staring!
Quickly putting on his most menacing face, Xanxus scoffed.
"What the hell are you talking about, scum?" He grunted out. The prince saw right through the façade, however. He wrapped his arms around the Varia leader's neck, pouting.
"Aww, you don't like my dancing? You're always watching me, so I thought you did. So I made sure to be sexy for boss. Ushishi~!" The prince giggled as he twirled a lock of dark, unruly hair around his pointer finger.
Xanxus was effectively scandalized. He knew? This whole time? For one of the few times in his young life, the sky guardian was actually embarrassed. And all that time, he thought he was being stealthy, but really, the prince was just an attention whore, and therefore pretended not to notice his boss watching him all the time.
Belphegor could tell by the rapidly changing expressions on the man's face that he had come to that realization, and laughed lightly. The song he was listening to changed to a slower, more sensual song. The prince sang along lowly in Xanxus's ear, leaning his blonde head on his shoulder.
"Dance with me, boss." The younger assassin whispered, before pressing much closer to the older man, grinding his hips against Xanxus's, singing along to the low, husky tone of the song.
Turn around it's criminal
When you see me tremble
Oh you're on a mission inside the situation
And you're looking at the pieces
Shiver Xing
Shiver Shiver Xing
Shiver shiver X
Really got to break through
Shiver Xing
Really got to come around
When are you going to learn
When are you going to see
When are you going to be
Xanxus had never felt so awkward in his life. He just stood there like a board as the young prince danced with him, or on him, to be more accurate. The sky guardian was having an extremely difficult time in keeping his composure as it was, and Belphegor's less than innocent grinding wasn't making it any easier.
The prince hummed the rest of the song, while lazily playing with feather hair accessory Xanxus was so fond of. The older man was stiff in Bel's half-embrace. When the song finished, he released him, smiling his usual trademark grin. But something in his smile, to Xanxus, seemed a bit more predatory than usual. The prince's hidden gaze trailed down Xanxus's lean body, until it rested on his…
The Varia boss realized then that he was hard. He looked back up at Belphegor in rarely seen alarm, sputtering quite comically.
"I…uh…it's not…um…" As much as he struggled, there was nothing he could say that would make this situation any less awkward. Not that it mattered, as the prince hadn't even been paying attention. The blonde's lips curled impishly. He all but stalked over to his boss, still staring at the prominent tent in the older man's pants with something akin to…pride?
"The prince wouldn't expect anything less. I'm a very good dancer, after all. Ushishi~!" Belphegor whispered huskily, before doing the unthinkable. As he walked by, he leaned over and gave the bulge a good squeeze, earning a surprised gasp from his boss, and then just sauntered off, completely blasé, to finish the rest of his chores.
Xanxus tried desperately to calm his frazzled nerves, among other things. His face felt unfamiliarly hot. Looking in the mirror, he realized, with absolute horror, that he was blushing.
His mind still reeling from the intense sensation of having his arousal groped so unabashedly, Xanxus smiled to himself. He had a feeling that just now, Belphegor was talking about another kind of dancing. He discovered something else about the blonde prince that day.
Belphegor was a tease. And he loved it.
Jesus, I fail so hard at endings it isn't even funny. But you know, I just love writing Bel like that, all seductive and come hither lmao … anyway as a bonus, I present to you now…
Ta-Dah! Bel's Royal Playlist! (Yes, I DO have a playlist just for this chapter, and that is what it is titled on my iPod, cuz I'm so cool lol NOT)
1. Pure Morning- Placebo
2. 1000 Transmissions- Ayria
3. La Musique- Riot in Belgium
4. Out of Control- She wants Revenge
5. Shiver X- The Secret Meeting
So you know what to do, well aside from illegally downloading Bel's Royal Playlist, of course. Review silly! Or Bel will grind on you! Well in that case, don't review, because I'm sure you wouldn't mind that at all. I certainly woudn't complain. *winkwink*