Katekyo Hitman Reborn
My Fate is Certainly Uncertain
Chapter 10: Dino
Overall Warnings: Violence, swearing, blood and Oc-ness.
[Written to: B1A4 - Good Night Baby]
~o0o~
Never in my almost adult life have I ever met a bigger klutz than that of Dino. Nor in my short life span have I met a completely graceful person, so if Reborn is what you would consider 'perfect', don't tell him I thought that; he would definitely be at the other end of the walking spectrum. According to Reborn, he apparently had improved slightly in that area. That still surprised me in the fact that he still sucked at carrying himself and that Reborn had just given him a sort of compliment, even if it wasn't one that was admitted directly to Dino's face. From what I've gathered from the blonde's brain, Reborn had been training him for a good number of years. That his father wasn't in the best of health and that he found Reborn cool and frightening at the same time.
Reborn had briefly discussed the idea of sparring with him on the three minute message he left me. I was a bit hesitant as I've said before, people and me don't mix. Like, at all.
Which led him to the conclusion that I would be perfectly fine with him.
Bastard.
"W-What?" Dino asked, his hand shaking slightly. "Reborn!"
Al jumped to the ground and sat at my feet. "Aw, he's as awkward as a guy speaking with flashcards! How utterly adorable! And pitiful. And laughable. And -"
To get him to stop, I kicked him lightly with my foot.
"This is my decision, Pipsqueak Dino. I've noticed your performance dropping, so I called someone to help me. You two losers will do just fine."
"That someone is standing right here, Reborn." I said slowly, lacing sarcasm everywhere till it turned into a sargassum. "And I don't appreciate you randomly asking me to do something before you've talked it over with me."
He shrugged, not really caring. "You would have said no if I did that."
"Hell yeah I would have." I nodded and Dino sighed, looking at the ground while rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't really want a strange girl around, nor all of this yelling. He was hungry. "With good reason too."
"A sucky reason." He countered. "Don't worry, your awkwardness will fit in with his klutziness."
"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Dino protested. He stamped his foot and I looked at it in disbelief. This was a guy that was meant to be the head of a rather wealthy and famous mafia family and he had the inclination that it was okay to act like a toddler? "And anyway, what use would she be, I can't hit a girl?! And I don't need a sparring partner, I thought you told me I was almost ready!"
Can't hit a girl? What is he, a wimp?
Once hearing that complaint, Reborn stepped back and without a qualm, waved a hand in Dino's direction; freely adding in his mind that certainly he wouldn't hold back from kicking him to Mars.
I grinned widely and stepped quickly, automatically sending a flying kick his way while he was still comparing on his morals. Quicker than I had anticipated him to, he ducked and reached for my leg. I stepped off on my other foot and threw my kicking foot down, hitting his shoulder.
As I turned on that foot, I slinked behind his body and wrapped my arms around his waist, my left hand grabbing onto my right wrist.
Dino groaned, panicking. His hands went to my arms, and with his weight, he tried to lean forward. "L-Let me go!"
At this rate, if I tried to lean back, I would be outweighed. So, in light of the situation, I let my grip go and watched him fall.
And I would have laughed happily at his defeat, if he had let go of my arms. The momentum was so quick that I didn't react quick enough. My voice made a terrible heaving release when I landed on his back. He squeaked, his hands letting go.
As I sat on his back, recovering, I heard Al chuckle happily.
"Way to make it with the men, Philly. You're a real casanova."
"Oh shut up Al." I said after frowning, and then, noticed the tattoos spiraling up Dino's arm. "Hey, nice ink."
"You're getting too wound up Phillipa." Reborn said, smirking. "Letting yourself be taken down that easily."
My eyebrow raised and I begun to get the sinking feeling that Reborn had planned for me to get some training as well and not only Dino. But I didn't get the chance to ask him, as Dino turned his head to the left, wiping his blonde mane away from his eyes.
"Ah…"
I sniffed, and then realised what he wanted. "Oh. Oh! Sorry!"
Quickly, I got up and Al walked to his place by my side. Dino stumbled back to his feet and sighed heavily.
He patter the dirt off his pants and decided to at least introduce himself, to find out who I really was. "My name is Dino Cavallone, next head."
I gulped at his outstretched hand and stole a passing glance at Reborn, who nodded, thinking about Dino's actions.
My hand met his and I smiled cheekily. "Please to meet ya' Dino. I'm Phillipa Marsh, Daughter of Reborn."
I didn't even have to read his mind to know that he wasn't exactly happy to meet me. Rather shocked more than anything but he tried his best to hide it.
And while I shook his hand, I felt the pulse in his fingertips.
That gulp earlier wasn't out of nervousness.
That was the first time I felt the oppressive guilt of my consciousness.
~o0o~
I didn't know what to classify myself as. I couldn't exactly say that I was a student anymore, because I was already seventeen and a half and already out of school. Nor could I say that being 'free as a flying bird' from studies acquainted itself distastefully to the amount of the 'free flying fucks' I gave about the subject. It had been a recurring daydream of mine to study optometry. Not the most classy job option, I know, but I liked observing eyes.
So I guess, the daydream and my yearning for studying led me to enjoy the time that I spent sorting out the piles upon piles of files that Iemitsu and his team hoarded.
And oh boy, did they hoard themselves happy.
The process took a while to get through and along with filing them in the correct section, starting from the earliest date and what it was called, I had to look through them to see if any papers were misfiled.
"What the heck is all this junk?" I asked, the first time Iemitsu introduced me to the Den.
The Den was what they referred to as the information basement of the CEDEF headquarters, to which it served to provide vital information when either the main server was down, or when they have to shutdown the system due to a breach. I'm sure there were many other reasons for why they kept this much paper, but they could've been better about it. There was more paper here than the school gym and this was no small joke. I bet Iemitsu's pretty chuffed with himself, finding his very own gofer.
"This is the Den, m'pride n' joy!" He yelled, slapping my back hard, to which I yelped and rubbed the sore area. He had a laughable way to things and when he wasn't shooting people up or deciding to stuff his face with cake and whatnot, he'd often coo around his office, staring at a picture of what I assumed was his family.
I spent days on end there, switching between being a librarian of sorts, training with Dino, helping Lal on certain situations, studying languages with Basil when I had the time and trying to find any intel on the black suits. I spent at least a year there since breaking in, discovering a new pathway. Al helped out too sometimes but my rascal kitty sometimes went off on his own to explore the city. Couldn't blame him. No normal person would want to stay here.
My favourite section hadn't been decided yet. The files ranged from drunk incidents from former, executed employees of CEDEF to illegal scientific experiments that had been shut down successfully. I didn't take much interest in looking at the experiments, since most of the files provided photos to which made my lunch seem unattractive, much to Basil's delight. (The kid eats a lot.) The favourite at the moment were the assassination brief papers. They weren't gorey and no bullets were piercing through anybody's skull.
~o0o~
"Run faster Dino!"
I could hear the loud clomping of his feet on the ground and while I was running just a bit faster, my breathing pattern wasn't stable. Of course, all I really wanted to do in life was read a good book with a hot cup of tea and lie on a porch with a massive pair of sunglasses. However, I think the large Leon-Ball of spikes that was chasing us through the Cavallone estate was a good enough incentive.
"Turn left!," He called from behind, pointing at a wall. "It's a thin space!"
"Idiot, Leon will fit in there!"
"DO YOU WANT TO KEEP RUNNING?!"
"NO BUT IF WE STOP WE'LL BE A PANCAKE!"
"Fuck this," He muttered, spinning on one foot and grabbing his whip, something that he always carried on his body, even when we stopped at the supermarket. The momentum of running made his sneakers skid on the dirt ground, and I threw a look backwards, watching how his whip wrapped around Leon's wide form. Dino groaned in struggle as he used his free hand to hold on further up the whip. "C-Come on!"
Leon went flying into the forest, making a massive crash that caused the earth to rumble. I stopped running away and jogged back to Dino, who was winding up his whip. Reborn made his entrance, while Al jumped from the first floor roof and almost would have landed on Reborn, if Reborn hadn't jumped onto Dino's shoulder, then his head.
That was a good move, Reborn mused, and while I raised my eyebrow at his statement, Dino thought I was looking at him for a statement on our performance.
"Average." Reborn finally said, which Dino loudly objected to.
My hand rested on my belly. "Well, that's your fault then since you didn't even let us have lunch!"
"Yeah!" Dino nodded, his own hand on his stomach, head looking upwards. If this were a cartoon, he'd have fake tears streaming down both sides of his cheeks.
Reborn's snappy way of mind was about to bare its teeth, until his own stomach did the talking, emitting a very loud grumble. He smirked, his facial expression never changing and looked at me with beady black eyes.
"Make me an espresso!"
"Rude much? You didn't even say please!" I stomped my foot and Al stretched out his kitty legs, wondering about a tuna sandwich. "But now that you mention it, I could go for some cafe food."
"Oo! What about some Gateaux?!" Dino exclaimed, his face lighting up like a ferris wheel.
"I was thinking more of a meat-pie sort of thing and a cola, but sure, cake sounds nice!"
Reborn smiled, and not a twitch in his face was present. "So predictable Phillipa. You would go for anything that could be eaten."
"That's not true."
"He's right on the bullseye with that one Phillipa."
I shook my head. "I'm not fond of coffee."
Dino's eyes widened and he covered my mouth with his hand. "Are you crazy! That's like a taboo thing around Reborn!"
"No, I know that." Reborn replied, shrugging. "She's a hot chocolate girl."
I smiled widely and heard Dino's formal name being called out from inside the house. Dino's head-honcho body guard and companion, Romario, jogged out of the house, towards us just as Leon found his own way back onto Reborn's fedora.
As soon as he started speaking, I frowned.
"Master Dino, I think you should come inside now. Your father wishes to see you."
Dino nodded without hesitation and waved goodbye to us. Romario followed after him, but not before bowing his head to us.
"I suggest you head on back to CEDEF headquarters, Miss Marsh." He said politely, in his gruff, ageing voice.
I nodded, knowing that I didn't really have a choice.
This didn't end well.
~o0o~
I found myself with a full belly, spending the remainder of the weekend sitting in the Den. But since I found myself sitting on piles, surrounded by piles, almost enveloped in an avalanche of paper, I made base camp near the front door, since that was the only place where I could step without unintentionally committing suicide. So, I had a box of recently purchased risotto and was filing a pile in the corner. Murders, assassinations and suicides to the left, thievery, cover-ups and mishaps on the right.
Allemande, I realised that weekend, not due to his obscene, non-stop talking, but through his moments of sleep that he had a soft spot for comics, such brands from both DC and Marvel. There were images of them burned very clearly in his mind and I had a feeling that they were from Basil's trunk that he kept locked at the end of his bed.
Everything was going okay too. I'd just finished going through a murder that had involved a hitman that went rogue after falling in love with his hit. The details showed the guy now dead along with the hitman and apparently, they were conversing together and brainstorming against the Vongola. Three hours after the hit was issued, they were dead. And I'd folded all of the containing files neatly and placed it to the left, when I came across a folder that should not have been here at all.
A folder, with a big stamp across it that screamed 'TOP PRIORITY', in a tone that I could've mistaken for like in a James Bond movie. The folder was had a good thickness, about the size of the fifth Harry Potter book from my old school library. Turning my head to Al, I heard his snores, his nose wiggling and thoughts lying around guy fawkes day and fireworks, but nothing to suggest his brain waves could hear me turn through pages and pages of vague experiments, both successful and failed, outdated information and incidents by a man named Verde; an arcobaleno I had yet to encounter.
Oh, but I knew his reputation by name. For the total of one entire day, Reborn sat me on my butt and taught me what he knew of the Mafia world. Not entirely all of it, and now that I had time to think about it, not terribly a lot, but a few trivial things.
Like never to trust a man named Verde.
The file, I assumed, should be sent to Iemitsu for checking but instead, I climbed across the room and hid it in a pile that was about my height. Then, I stepped lightly on my feet back to where I'd gotten up.
No need to tell him just yet.
~o0o~
Hey guys, what's crackalacking? Nothing, just skimming through fanfictions while under a blanket and/or on the couch? Cool, sounds fun! I'm so pleased this week. I don't really know why, but I'm just happy. :D
Thanks for reading, once again.
Replies:
Basically, yes to everything.
Yes to Dino.
:D
Verdigurl out~