Author's note:
The inspiration for this was actually from one of my old fan fics (a Kuroshitsuji/KHR crossover) I know the title's kinda off putting but I'm glad a lot of you liked it!
"I'll double the price— no, triple." Louise held up three fingers to show him how serious she was about this whole matter, thinking about raising another finger to quadruple the pay, maybe then the hitman would finally agree to her terms.
How much did a hitman cost anyway? The question was left unanswered when she pushed it at the back of her mind. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
"Please wait, just hear me out!"
She did make a mistake, flying to Japan without any notice and asking the hitman out of the blue to blast her fiancé's brains off was one. Louise owed him at least an explanation before asking for such request. It was quite surprising though, she expected a seemingly abandoned building or a huge and expensive-looking office as the hitman's hidden quarters, not a simple home with a woman who had a warm smile on her face as she opened the door for her.
Maybe it was a part of his disguise?
"Am I at the right place or..?" Louise muttered to herself as she examined the house standing in front of her.
She made sure that the information she gathered regarding the whereabouts of the infamous hitman 'Reborn' came from a liable source, leading her straight to this small town in Japan called Namimori. Thinking that this whole setting was just the hitman's way of keeping a low profile to prevent any unwanted attention, she ignored the growing feeling of doubt and softly knocked on the door.
"May I help you?"
Inside revealed a young woman with short, brown hair, staring curiously at her with eyes of the same color. Louise immediately composed herself before gracefully bowing her head for an introduction.
"Bonjour(Hello) madam."
The woman was completely dumbfounded at her actions— the way she cocked her head to the side as she smiled in a charming manner, Sawada Nana could only stand there speechless at the girl's rather captivating beauty. Everything about her just screamed royalty, leaving Nana blushing slightly at the title she just used to refer to her.
'Madam.'
"Is there someone named Reborn who lives here?"
Tsuna's mom quickly smiled at her in acknowledgement, realizing that she was probably one of Reborn's friends who came from another foreign country, just like that handsome fellow named Dino. "You know Reborn-kun?"
"Well… sort of. Can I speak to him?"
Nana nodded as she welcomed the girl with open arms into their residence. "He's upstairs, would you like some tea?"
"Yes, thank you." Louise smiled in delight at her generous offer.
She heard that Japanese people were nice, excitement bubbling up inside of her for she would be able to experience their hospitality despite her belief that everything here was merely a stage with actors fulfilling their parts. At least she could finally put her language skills into use. All of her hard work during those spiteful days might actually pay off.
"I'll just bring it in after it's done. He's in Tsuna's room, first one to your left," Nana told her, interrupting Louise from looking around before the young girl assessed her surroundings.
'Nothing's out of the ordinary, this woman plays the 'caring housewife' role perfectly too. It wouldn't probably hurt to go along with it.'
"I hope I'm not intruding."
Nana shook her head at her guest's words. "Not at all, Reborn's friends are always welcome here."
At that moment, Louise almost forgot how well trained this actress was because of that genuine smile of hers.
She didn't know what to expect out of the hitman. Her imagination led her to a mysterious-looking, young man dressed in fine clothes that hides beneath the shadows as he cautiously interacts with his clients. The said hitman is wearing a suit alright, but this..?
"Reborn! Who is she?!" the brown haired boy pointed a finger towards her and Louise only tilted her head to get a closer view of the group.
'Are these his assistants too? They seem so young though. Wait...'
"Sir, please let me explain. I was wrong too," Louise pleaded, her focus going back to Reborn. She came all the way here, miles apart from home, and she wasn't going to let a bunch of boys stray her and the hitman away from the subject.
"Did you just call Reborn sir?" Tsuna couldn't help but screech at her choice of words.
"Yes, is there any problem with that?"
"Isn't that too much for a baby?" Yamamoto's laugh caused the girl to flash him a confused look, it was like he's implying that she said something absurd.
Did she?
Louise frowned. This was obviously a set up right? No way that this child right here is the hitman Reborn. He must have used some kind of technology to have this dummy move and talk like a normal human being, to conduct his business for him. After all, she believed hitmen were careful enough not to expose their true selves.
"You're French?" Gokudera, who was standing quite protectively near his tenth, asked when he finally figured out the language she used earlier. Louise faced him momentarily to nod before turning back to Reborn again.
"I have my reasons why. I couldn't just hire any hitman, you're exceptional from what I've been informed. That's what I need right now, someone who could do the job neatly and precisely."
"You mean killing your fiancé? What is wrong with you?" Tsuna clenched his hair tightly, suddenly having the urge to pull them all out because another weird one appeared in his life, again.
It was like he had this invisible magnet around him that attracted the nut jobs around the world.
"Why would you wanna do that? Don't you love him?" Yamamoto's seemingly innocent question caught her off guard, and an unexplainable expression soon made its way on her face as she averted her gaze.
Love.
Now that she was given a chance to ponder over the thought, Louise realized that she never really had control over her own life. All throughout the course of her daily living, the decisions would always be up to her parents with Louise having little to no say at any matter. A sickening churn was slowly building up in her stomach, it was like… she was actually starting to resent what her parents had chosen for her.
No.
She wouldn't.
She couldn't.
Everything they have done up to now was all for her, because they loved her, and she wholeheartedly returned those feelings. She couldn't act like an ungrateful child now, it wasn't like she hated all those piano lessons and those tight corsets they forced her into, it wasn't like she didn't enjoy those tiring parties that were held every week for the exposure of the Brienne family, it wasn't like she'd rather travel and explore the world instead of settling in with a lunatic Russian man at an early age.
"Yamamoto's right! Why… why would you want to hurt someone you love?" Tsuna could feel his fists balling up.
It didn't make sense to him that she would resort to something... inhumane. He had no experience when it came to these things seeing how he lacked in that department but surely murder wasn't the right answer to a relationship problem.
'... It's not that simple.' She couldn't risk telling anyone the truth especially now that she had no idea who to trust, there could be hundreds of eyes on her for all she knew. Louise bit her lip. Did the hitman really need a reason before he can proceed with his job? And here she was expecting to have a smooth deal with them but instead all she was getting is an accusing stare from the annoying brown-haired boy.
"Tch, looks can be deceiving tenth," Gokudera said when Louise didn't answer.
Yamamoto can be oblivious at times but he knew how to read the atmosphere, and right now it was not getting better anytime soon.
"Gokudera, wait." He placed a hand on his shoulder but Gokudera only brushed it away as he huffed in irritation.
"Don't touch me, this girl needs to go."
As a kid, there were expectations from Louise to act accordingly to status, which meant that she was taught how to calmly and collectively assess a situation before making a move on it. But being judged and talked down by these people who knew nothing about her, combined with the stress from dealing with her said engagement and fiancé, they were enough to make her blood boil and lose her cool.
"You all don't know anything!"
"..."
Still, after that short outburst, the feeling of shame managed to take over her as she quickly gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. 'Stupid octopus man!' Louise cleared her throat afterwards and glanced at the hitman with furrowed eyebrows.
"Sorry for the bother, thank you for your time." She bowed her head before hastily going out of the room, leaving Tsuna and the others— save for Reborn— gaping at the spot where the girl once sat.
"Stupid! How dare he, that..."
"Leaving already?" Nana asked in surprise when she saw Louise descending down the stairs.
Louise sent her an apologetic smile, quite thankful that the young woman missed her ramblings that revolved around a particular silver head. "I'm sorry, I forgot I still have a lot of things to take care of. Thank you very much for your hospitality though," she said as she made her way through the household, eager to leave and get back to her hotel empty handed.
Nana, unaware the girl's foul mood, smiled so sweetly in response. "It's no problem! Come visit any time, you're always welcome here."
Stopping on her tracks, Louise looked back at the woman and carefully studied her face. She wasn't an expert when it came to facial expressions but she couldn't detect any signs of deception, only pure kindness from a woman who was expecting her to come back like she actually has a place in their home. Louise's eyes softened for a moment.
She almost wanted to believe that her words and actions towards her were real.
"I will."
"You're guilty," Reborn pointed out when he noticed his student's lingering stare at the girl's former spot.
"I'm not! It was just..."
"You don't need to feel sorry for that girl, tenth. She could be a hitman too for all we know," Gokudera instantly butted in.
"I–I guess so."
But something deep down was nudging at the young Vongola and his assumptions, that somehow Gokudera might be wrong and that there was something more to the girl's current situation that made her act so desperately.
"You don't know anything!"
The moment those words left her lips, the way he could feel her trembling and the way her face fell for a second when she tried to keep herself together, it was telling that her intentions were not that of a hitman.
At least that's what his gut feeling was telling him.
"You had us worried!" Louise's mother grabbed her by the shoulders before squeezing her in a tight hug once the woman was sure that her daughter is back in one piece with zero scratches.
The sun was already setting when Louise arrived at the mansion, the girl constantly blaming the hotel she was staying in for causing her delayed flight.
She sighed at her mother's fussing, "I'm fine, see?"
Truthfully speaking, her parents' overprotective behaviors were starting to suffocate her, not that it didn't when she was just a child. Of course, she would never admit that to them. Providing them with information such as the hotel's exact location, her room number and what business she had there wasn't exactly enough. Louise even thought that it was a miracle they allowed her to travel by herself.
Luckily, all it took was a tiny bit of persuasion on her end and a lie about wanting to visit another country as some sort of engagement gift.
"It's been a long day, I'm going to rest."
"Alright, do tell us all about Japan tomorrow. Sweet dreams."
After a quick kiss on her mother's cheek and a gentle pat on the head from her father as their usual nightly gestures, Louise entered her room where she immediately hits the covers, enveloping herself in the soft comfort of her large bed. Ignoring the messy state of her remaining luggage and forgetting to have a change of clothes, she finally drifted off into a slumber.
It was in the middle of the night when Louise heard the shouts.
She wasn't a light sleeper, something just tugged at her being, bringing her back into reality and away from her good sleep. At first she thought that everything was a dream as she unconsciously rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes, but the loud banging outside her door indicated that this was all really happening. Louise didn't even have the time to react when the door came crashing down and there stood an old, brawny man with two more guys behind him.
"There she is!"
"W–who are you?!" Louise scrambled towards the other side of the bed and tried to fight off the intruders but to no avail, they were larger and stronger than her.
"Let go!" She shrieked when one of the men wrapped his muscular arms around her neck and waist, trapping her as she was forcefully dragged outside of the room. "Somebody! Help!"
"Shut up!" The man bearing her captive growled as he tightened his clutch on her, making her gasp for air as she clawed at his arms.
"Don't hurt her! Please!"
Her father's pleas and the cries of the other residents in the mansion filled the whole place. Louise swore she could smell something burning but even then, she didn't want to find out.
"Stop!"
A woman's deafening wail pierced through the night before a single gunshot caused it to stop. Dread started consuming Louise as soon as she realized whose voice it belonged to.
"Mother?!"
"I said shut up!" The man roughly yanked her away together with the other two to god knows where and Louise could only kick her legs as she struggled for dear life. She needed to act fast—
"Yeouch!"
Okay, she was obviously not thinking straight and that was the stupidest thing she's ever done but hey, that was a fast way to escape the man's snake-like grip; by biting his arm like she was some crazy cannibal hungry for flesh. She tried to tear the skin apart but that only earned her a hard smack on the face.
"You piece of—"
Everything happened in the blink of an eye; the man striking her in the face twice, the sheer brute of strength caused her to lose her footing and balance before she tumbled down from an open window. She could feel the chilly air against her skin on her way down before her body came in contact with the hard ground.
"Oh shit!"
"Why the hell did you do that?"
"Bitch tried to eat me!"
"You'll get a whole lot worse than that if he finds out what you did."
"Just go get her!"
Louise gazed at the stars in the clear sky as she laid still in her place, her body refusing to move no matter how hard she tried to. She whimpered loudly when she attempted to lift a hand, and her back seemed to hurt so much that she wished she could just be numb all over. Opening her mouth to try and scream for help, only heavy pants and sounds of painful breathing came out, making her choke badly as she rolled to her side with a cry.
"Where the hell is she!"
"Somewhere there! Keep looking!"
The frantic shouts of the men from earlier echoed in the cold evening.
What now? Is this what Luka has been talking about? What the hell was he thinking? They were not even officially engaged yet, no party, no announcement— did he really think he could just casually snatch up whatever he can after getting rid of them?
"W–wrong move..." Louise coughed out, chuckling a bit at her fiancé's little mistake before she stopped due to the twinge in her chest.
No, it was definitely too early, and predictable, and a seemingly careless planning on his part. She knew... that Luka somehow slipped up in moving across the board, he was always an impatient man after all. Indeed, there were times wherein he would win in certain matches against her in chess, but not without Louise knocking out some of his pieces in return. She was an amateur, that she admitted, but she knew how to at least keep up in the game. And that was what she's going to do, try and turn the situation into her advantage.
But how?
Soon enough, Louise caught sight of smoke erupting from the top of the mansion, before it grew into a massive cloud of grey that engulfed the starry sky. The faint smell of burnt wood was getting stronger and Louise could only stare at the ablaze where her home stood as the fiery flames started devouring everything.
"Have you seen her?"
"Not yet, she couldn't have gone that far!"
Louise screamed inside her head to stand up and run but her whole body felt like it was on the verge of shutting down, her heavy lids threatening to completely close before they snapped wide open when the realization hit her.
It wasn't too late. She still had that option and she decided that she'd take her chances with it, no matter how slim they may be. She forced herself to get up on her feet, trying to ignore the intense pain she was experiencing in the process. Legs wobbling a bit, she managed to support herself using the trees and made hushed, steady steps towards a new destination as she deeply clung to that one particular string of hope.
"Come visit any time, you're always welcome here."