Chapter 27: The New Norm
"Fuck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Teresa?"
-Heathers (1988)
"Thanks again for running with me, Takeshi," I said, the words coming out as a pleasant sigh. He grinned, looking at me brightly, barely shiny from the sweat on his face.
"No problem! It'll be nice to get a light run in before practice," he said, rolling his head slightly. He then glanced back over at me, "Tell me again, why you couldn't run with Sempai this morning?"
"Because I got in too late from work to meet up with him, and Ryohei has practice right after school," I explained, holding back a yawn. Takeshi's expression flickered with worry.
"You didn't sleep last night, and have been at school all day?"
"Listen, I don't even have a sleeping schedule," I complained, holding up a hand to make mock quotation marks, "And – Oh my god."
"What?"
"I'm turning into Squalo," I realized quietly, taking my free hand and running it down my face. He laughed loudly at this, but I slowed before I could return with any witty banter, coming to a stop as we rounded the corner. Stopping completely, I turned my head to a nearby commotion, and narrowed my eyes when I saw two familiar, dark jackets.
"Those are Disciplinary Committee Members," Takeshi noted as well, a frown forming on his face.
"Beating the shit out of someone," I tutted before going forward, Takeshi reaching a hand out and barely missing me. "Oi! What's going on?"
The two turned towards me, easily looking down on me as I approached, leaving their victim sniffling and shivering, curled up on the ground. The two shared a look, then turned their eyes back to me, clearly unimpressed. Takeshi stood back, unsure whether he should interfere or not, but well aware I could easily handle both of them.
"Stay out of this. This is official disciplinary business," the left one said, ready to turn back to the boy on the ground.
"Well good fucking luck for you, I'm in the Disciplinary Committee too," I spat, growing angrier, seeing the boy was even more injured than I previously thought, "The fuck did he do anyway? You guys are only supposed to lightly haze, yeah? That sure looks like serious injuries to me, and I should fucking know."
"Look," the other said, growing annoyed, "it's our job to keep the piece, and some little bitch isn't going to stop us from- " his hand went forward to push my shoulder back, but I easily grabbed his wrist, seeing the surprise in his eyes when he realized how strong my hold was.
"I've seen you guys do some stuff like this," I admitted, recalling, "but it's never been this bad before."
"And what," he hissed, ripping his hand away from me (and I let go, allowing him to do this), "Are you going to do about it, huh?"
I heard Takeshi sigh behind me, knowing what would happen next.
Silver eyes narrowed immediately upon coming into the reception room, going to the two unconscious and very bruised bodies before snapping to Nikita. Her eyes met his fiercely, defiantly, but he had come to expect this of her at this point.
"You," she said before he could get a word out, "need to get your fucking men in line."
"What," he hissed out, his hand barley twitching to reach under his jacket. Kusakabe sighed, putting fingers to his temples and turning slightly away, fully expecting a fight to break out.
"I find these two motherfuckers," Nikita continued, gestured harshly with her head to the two unconscious bodies, "beating the shit out of a kid. And for what? For being a minute late to his last class of the day because someone else tripped him in the hallway. For basically nothing," she reaffirmed.
Hibari clicked his tongue, before walking further into the room. He noted the barely-there purple under her eyes, and briefly wondered how much sleep she had been getting, and guessed that this had affected her mood.
"You gonna do anything?" she snapped at him, confirming his theory, "Or do I have to?"
"And what," he said, reaching the window and leaning against it. He turned to look back at her, "Are you going to do about it, exactly?"
"If you're not going to do anything, even though they're your men," she reminded him hotly, crossing her arms and allowing herself to plop back into the couch, still irritated.
"I don't deal with lower level members," he said coolly then nodded to his second in command, "That's Tetsu's job."
Kusakabe stiffened, seeing angry green eyes snap to him.
"I had no idea this was going on," he said quickly, defending himself, "Those are recent members, and probably haven't learned to fully respect what we do."
"They're fucking wanna be gangsters with no tact or talent," Nikita harshly stated, "And you guys shouldn't just let any thug with muscles to be in the committee. You can't just depend on Kyoya's name and expect that to work. Loyalty can be faked long enough for them to escape Kyoya's eye, especially if you don't even take the time to know your men," she said, causing his eye to barely twitch in irritation.
"So if you two aren't going to do anything about it," Nikita finished, pushing herself up and throwing both the injured men over her shoulders, "Then I'll teach them some fucking respect, and more."
The two watched in slight surprise as she left, then Kusakabe looked to his leader.
"Should we…?" he asked, trailing off. He was surprised however, when Hibari hummed in slight amusement.
"Let's see how far she gets," he muttered before stalking out the door as well, coat billowing in his wake.
I threw the last committee member out on the roof before stepping out myself. The boy scowled, looking back up at me, but grew silent upon seeing Kyoya walk out from behind me. Quickly, he scurried up to join the rest of the group, who all looked at me with mixed feelings.
Kyoya simply reviewed them before going to lean on the gate, content in watching how things will fold out.
A few grumbled and stepped towards the door of the roof, but I flicked my hand, flames flickering from my ring and then forming a bamboo pole, snapping at the ground and stopping the boy in his tracks. The others looked at me in shock before stiffening.
"Line the fuck up," I snapped, still annoyed from my lack of sleep despite it being a few days later. I looked back at the group, then reaffirmed, lacing a small amount of killing intent in my voice, "Now."
They quickly scrambled to comply. Putting my pole on my shoulders and resting my arms on it, I walked towards them, looking over them carefully.
"They're really pathetic, you know?" I said, softening and looking back over at Kyoya. He shrugged in response before yawning. No doubt, he would soon jump up on a higher level to take a nap. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tetsu walk through the door before closing it, confirming that I had gathered everyone.
"Okay," I began, "I'm only going to say this once, because I'm pissed and tired of seeing how you guys work. When you fight, you fuckers go too far, and when it's serious, you guys get too injured. None of you are actually fighters, and I'm guessing you've only gotten this far because you have a measly amount of muscles and a wide set of shoulders. At least Tetsu has some tactic in him," I said, gesturing with my head, and he looked away awkwardly not enjoying the fact that I called him out, "but I doubt any of you have even that much, or you would have made more ripples, yeah?"
I heard some faint grumbles, and I guessed that none of them appreciated me calling them out.
"I see that my words aren't appreciated, but you're gonna appreciate me a fuck ton when this is over. Well," I said with a small shrug, "if you guys make it."
"Make what?" one brave soul dared to ask, "Who even are you?"
"I'm sure some of you have seen me around," I said looking over them once more, "But I'm Nikita Cavallone, and I've here to straighten this committee out. Because someone," I sent a look to Kyoya, who rolled his eyes in response, "is too lazy to do it himself."
"Just consider this a high end training simulation," I said with a shrug, allowing Jian to burst from his ring, causing a few of the members to step back. The panda sat lazily on the ground, and even cutely yawned.
"This," I said, ignoring their confused looks, "is Jian, and he'll be your opponent."
"You're not even going to fight, and instead let this…" the boy trailed off, gesturing to Jian, "thing do it instead?"
"Giant Panda, technically," I said, retracting my bamboo pole and motioning for Jian to stand to his full height, "and I wouldn't underestimate him. He may be cute and fluffy, but that's a lot of pure muscle who's been taught how to fight as well."
"And besides," I finished coldly, catching a few of them shiver involuntarily as they met my eyes, "You guys are far below me. It wouldn't even be a light exercise."
I clapped my hands together suddenly, smiling and closing my eyes in content, knowing that this would defiantly lighten my mood.
"So, let's get started!"
"A few of them have even been able to spar with me," I said happily, looking from Chrome and then back to the street we were walking down, "I mean, they didn't last long at all, but it's definitely improvement from a few weeks ago. Reborn's even thrown Tsuna into the mix a few times, with the usual complaints from Tuna-fish, of course."
"That's great, Nikita," Chrome said, barely blushing as we made our way up the stairs to our apartment, "But, I was wondering," she started shyly, "Since you've been working with the committee….." she trailed off however, seeing how I had stopped, staring at our door.
"Goddammit," I muttered, reaching down and retrieving a large knife out of my boot (a gift from Zhanna for my birthday), spinning it once before stepping forward. Carefully, I inspected the broken lock, half-hazardlessly put back over the door in a lame attempt to thwart suspicion. I turned to Chrome, seeing that she had just completed assembling her trident.
I held up four fingers, signaling to Chrome how many people I sensed in the apartment. Another nod, and a look for confirmation, and I burst through the door, immediately apprehending the man ready to attack on the other side, and throwing my knife at another, pinning his wrist against the wall.
He cried out in pain, immediately attempting to separate the knife from his wrist and the wall. After easily knocking out the first man, I turned slightly to the side, seeing the other two with a glassy look over their eyes, and knew that Chrome had easily caught them in an illusion. Dropping the unconscious body callously, I stepped forward towards the only man left conscious.
"Don't you know," I said, easily ripping the knife form his wrist, and watching listlessly as he sunk to the floor, holding his gushing wrist, "that it's rude to come over without an invitation? I mean, really, you could have just called beforehand," I said with a smile.
The man looked up at me, scowling, but quickly changed his expression; in a swift movement, I kicked his wounded arm up again, sending the knife back through both his wrist and the wall, but pumping sun flames through the knife as well, healing the skin around the knife and sealing it once more. I stepped back, ignoring his scream of pain, and went to my previously discarded bag.
Chrome looked at me from where she was sitting at the kitchen table, only slightly surprised at my cruelty. But we were both well aware that this had been norm ever since I started working more for Chhaya. That, and I was slightly annoyed (and amused?) by the fact that these men thought they could ambush us in our own home. If anything happened to Chrome….
"Yo, Tetsu," I said once I had retrieved my phone, "Yeah, we have some surprise visitors."
Hibari Kyoya raised a slender eyebrow, looking to the four men tied up outside of the doors to the apartments, before turning his gaze on Nikita herself, who stepped out of the entry next door, laughing and holding a cup of tea.
"Thanks Nagamine, for everything!" she said, Chrome Dokuro following in suit, also with a small smile on her face.
"You didn't tell me," Nikita addressed him with an amused gleam in her eye, "that your grandmother and our landlady used to be friends."
"It wasn't relevant," Hibari huffed before nodding to Kusakabe, who went forward to inspect the men. With another look to Nikita, she sighed in almost disappointment before diving into an explanation.
"Apparently some enemies of yours thought they could ambush me, and I say me, because I doubt that they were after Chrome. I assume this has to do with the committee?" she said sending a questioning look to Kusakabe, who nodded in confirmation.
"These are members of a gang we had been slowly hunting down," he said, moving back one of their collars to reveal a tattoo, "They must have been trying to get leverage over the president."
"And so we apprehended them, rather easily I might add," Nikita continued casually, before sending an almost disappointed look to Hibari, "But Tetsu said to leave the interrogation to you guys. So, here we are."
"This is a disciplinary committee issue, and it's unfortunate that they targeted you," Kusakabe said, turning to look at the one conscious and gagged man, narrowing his eyes when he saw a knife that appeared to be embedded into his hand, but without any obvious bleeding.
"Do you recall that I'm in the committee as well?" Nikita reminded him with a bland look, before watching Hibari stoop down, harshly ripping the gag from him. The man scowled and opened his mouth, but immediately withered and closed it after meeting Hibari's eyes.
"Why did you attack them?" he asked simply, barely gesturing his head towards the two girls.
"Our boss sent us to get your woman," the man answered wisely, "but we didn't know that the bitch would be such a problem."
"I'm known for that," Nikita said with an easy grin before her expression went blank, fully comprehending his words, "Wait, back the fuck up, did you just refer to me as Kyoya's woman? We're just friends!"
"Workplace proximity acquaintances," Hibari immediately corrected before his eyes snapped back to the man, "Explain, herbivore."
"We noticed that a girl was in the committee and around you a lot, and it was the first sign of a possible weakness since you started beating us down," the man said, leaning back from Hibari's fierce gaze, "and so after some surveillance, our boss decided to try to kidnap your bitch."
"Bitch?" Nikita said, glaring down at him, "Fuck you buddy, I'll show you how much of a bitch I can be!"
Kusakabe went forward immediately and had trouble picking up the girl and holding her back. After a soft touch on the shoulder from Chrome, Nikita grumbled, but ceased, simply huffing and settling at glaring at the man.
"Weak," Hibari stating simply, eyes glinting as he stood and bared his tonfas, "Herbivores like you should be bitten to death."
Nikita blinked however, a thought entering her head. She moved forward, putting a gentle hand on Hibari's shoulder before he could attack the defenseless man.
"Wait, Kyoya," she said, not even wincing at the harsh look he gave her, "We should let them go. Yeah?"
Anger flashed in his eyes, but quelled, understanding her look. A grumble, and he stepped back, still emitting a rather dark intent.
"You better have a plan, and it better involve me biting them to death," he muttered darkly, minutes later as they watched the four men run from them.
"Don't worry, Kyoya," Nikita said placidly, holding a still dripping knife and then lifting her hand, yellow flames glittering on one of her rings, "I'll put someone on that right away."
The air between us was a pleasant hum as we walked back to the school, our earlier killing intent easily sedated by the almost massacre we were walking away from. Kashi had easily followed the men to their boss, and from there, it was almost fun watching Kyoya completely destroy them. The only fact I was surprised about was that Kyoya had let me fight alongside him instead of taking all of them for himself. Just as I was getting a bad feeling from this fact, Kyoya confirmed it.
"What are your other credentials?"
"My what?" I asked flatly, looking over at him.
"Your weekend job. What do you do?" he asked again, barely narrowing his eyes. I swallowed once, not enjoying the look in his eyes.
"Mostly infiltration, sometimes interrogation," I barely hesitated, continuing, "assassination. Why?"
"So that means you'll have no problem taking on similar responsibilities with the Disciplinary Committee."
"What," I said again, stopping and allowing him to walk ahead of me.
"Tetsu will give you a list of your new assignments tomorrow. And we'll beginning sparring at least once a week," Kyoya confirmed, not even bothering to turn back and look at me. I blinked, expression blank as I watched him go.
"Did... Did I just get promoted?"
"What the fuck Byakuran," I muttered after opening the door, immediately seeing a smile and the light crinkling of his tattoo, "It's Saturday and I'm off this weekend, and I need my sleep because Kyoya's been lumping me with more committee work, and - Why do you have a child on your back?"
Innocent, round eyes blinked innocently at me from just behind Byakuran's shoulder. Gently, he allowed the little girl to slip off from his back. She smiled brightly at me, lightly curtseying before holding out a hand.
"I'm Uni, and it's so nice to meet you," she said with far more grace than someone her age should have, "Byakuran's told me so much about you, Nikita."
Sparing a glance at Byakuran, I warily shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you too," I said, sending a gentle smile down at her.
"Great!" Byakuran clapped his hands together, simultaneously sprouting small wings, "So you guys are good then, right?"
"Wait, you're leaving?" I accused.
"Yeah," he drew out, looking to the side almost awkwardly, "See, I wanted Uni to meet you, and I was tired of waiting, so I just swung by and got her, you know?"
"Byakuran neglected to let Gamma know, however," Uni said, with slight, but amused disappointment, "But he's turned it into more of a game."
"Because why not make it fun!" Byakuran agreed with a smile, "So while you watch and bond with Uni, I'll keep Gamma occupied."
"You mean," I corrected, "You'll keep hiding from Gamma."
"So perceptive, Cloud!" Byakuran congratulated before jumping back and over the railing, "Be back later!"
I stared at the spot where he used to be, a sour look overtaking my features.
"I'm going to kill him," I decided simply, only looking down when I heard soft giggling.
"He means well," Uni said softly. She then barely leaned to the side, looking past me. "May I come in? I would love to see where you and Chrome live."
"Chrome's at work right now," I told her after nodding, allowing her to enter first, "But she should be back later this evening - Fucking shit!" I snapped, grabbing Uni and immediately putting her behind me before bringing out a knife and pointing it at the two small figures that were now in the apartment.
"Shura, Sasha?" I asked, staring incredulously at the two twins who immediately perked up when I entered, "What are you two doing here?"
"I don't know, Nikita," one said as they jumped repeatedly on the couch, while the other politely closed the window they entered through. They stopped their bouncing, looking up at the ceiling with an expression of inquiry and wonder, "I mean, what are we all doing here, you know?"
"What is life even?" the other quipped, looking up and mirroring their twin's expression as well. I sighed, bringing my hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose, while Uni laughed, clearing finding the twins amusing already.
"Do your parents know you're here?" I asked instead, trying a different approach.
"Nikita," one said, giving me an almost disappointed look, "let's be serious, our father knows nothing about what we do."
"But we left our mother a note," the other supplied helpfully, joining their sibling on the couch and presuming their jumping.
"Sounds right," I muttered before asking, "And have we gone over why you're here?"
"Because we wanted to visit you Nikita!"
"Does there have to be a reason?"
I opened my mouth to retort, but looked down at the light sound of laughter.
"They seem fun, Nikita," Uni said brightly, looking up at me with nearly-sparkling eyes, "You have such interesting acquaintances, just like Byakuran said!" She then went forward, stopping in front of the twins to politely curtsey, introducing herself.
"I'm Uni, and it's a pleasure to meet you two."
"Shura!" the first introduced, jumping off the couch and landing in front of Uni.
"Sasha," the other completed, making the same notions, "Please use the pronouns 'they' and 'them' when referring to us."
"Gladly," Uni responded, taking both hands the twins offered with both of her own. I hesitated leaving them to their own devices when the conversation quickly turned into talking about Uni's face tattoo, and the twins wondering if they should get their own, when there was a knock at the door.
I opened the door to find green eyes and an equally green head of hair. I blinked, staring down at Fran.
"Master says that you're babysitting me today, unless you want him to skewer me and make me into a frog shish kabob. His words, not mine."
And with that, he simply walked past me, joining the small huddle of children that suddenly were my charges for the day.
I blinked once, opened my mouth, and then closed it, bringing out my phone and skimming through my contacts.
"I'm going to need some backup..."
"Why am I here again?" Tsuna asked incredulously as he watched Shura teach Uni how to play five finger fillet while Fran and Sasha discussed the most gruesome and terrifying imagery they could think of (and I assumed, Fran created those images via illusions, if Tsuna's expression was anything to go by).
"Extra sanity," I answered simply.
"I'm honored, actually," Tsuna said, softening and looking over at me.
"And Takeshi has baseball all day."
"Less honored."
"Look," I said, souring, "It's not my fault that a bunch of kids are attached to me today, so I figured I'd get the second best kid-friendly person I know to help me, because I'm not exactly the best with kids."
"You think I'm kid-friendly?" Tsuna asked, surprised.
"Don't get a big head about it, Tuna."
"But Cloud," he said, letting my comment slide, "You don't think you're good with kids? Why?" I shrugged, rather uselessly.
"I mean..." I trailed off, thinking, "I've never really had a reason to think I was? I've only really been around Ipin, yeah?"
Tsuna's expression deadpanned, morphing into an almost disappointed look.
"Cloud," he said seriously, "Not only does Ipin love you, but Lambo does too, and I've literally seen you take care of both them and Futa when you've been around and Mom's been busy. Plus, aren't you kind of raising Fran right now? Well, I guess with Mukuro and Dayita, was it? I still don't know exactly how that works –"
"Tsuna, shut up."
"Cloud, seriously," he said, even putting a hand on my shoulder, "You might not think so, but these kids probably look up to you, and that may be a big responsibility, but it's one I know you can – "
"No seriously, Tsuna," I said, reaching over to turn his face towards the now empty kitchen table, "They're gone."
"What."
We approached the table, picking up the sole note left behind. I recognized Fran's handwriting immediately:
Got bored, Uni thought it would be fun to play hide and seek. From you guys. Good luck.
"Literally," I said, scowling and crumpling the note in my hand after giving Tsuna a chance to read it, "We have lost four children."
"We?"
"Yes, Tsuna, because as we've been over, and you should know better than any one," I said, looking over at him and taking his face between my hands, squeezing his cheeks slightly, "we're fucking family, and whether you like it or not, we're in this together."
"... is that just another way of saying that you're going to force me to help you no matter what."
"... let's just start looking for them."
"Ah, Tsuna! And Cloud!" Kyoko's demeanor practically sparkled as she made their way toward the two, moving away from the window display her and Hana were observing. "It's nice to see you two outside of school! And Cloud, we've actually been meaning to ask you something."
Hana nodded a hello, simply raising an eyebrow at the Tsuna's obviously nervous demeanor, straightening like a stick immediately once Kyoko called out to them. Nikita, on the opposite end of this spectrum, simply turned already observant eyes towards the two girls, but Hana somehow felt the girl was on edge, or at least slightly stressed about something.
"What are you two up to?" Hana asked suspiciously.
"Lost kids, what?" Tsuna choked out, already a blubbering mess and easily stricken with panic under Hana's slight accusation.
"What?" Hana asked, taking his words in. Kyoko barely frowned.
"Nothing," Nikita smoothed other quickly, stepping in front of Tsuna and even pushing him slightly behind her. She put on a dazzling smile, causing Kyoko to slightly blush and Hana to direct suspicious eyes completely on the Italian.
"Did you say you needed to ask me something?" Nikita asked instead, easily keeping a calm and bright persona.
"If you guys are busy right now," Kyoko said, gentle and waving a light have dismissively, "then we can ask you at school. What are you two doing?"
Tsuna nearly shrieked, and Hana could have sworn she had witnessed Nikita barely move her foot before Tsuna clutched it from pain, disabling him from answering (as he was about to do, stupidly).
"We're playing a game with the kids and Takeshi!" Nikita said, clapping her hands together, "Have you seen them? They're hiding, under Takeshi's supervision, of course," she then turned slicing eyes to Tsuna and switching to another language (Italian, Hana guessed?)," because it would be idiotic to tell people that we let kids roam around a town unsupervised, and it would make us look bad, and while your reputation is shitty, I'd like to keep mine as pristine as possible, Tsunayoshi."
"You know I only caught like half of that, right?" Tsuna said, gently releasing his slightly injured foot, "I mean, Reborn's been teaching me Italian, but I'm not the best at it?"
"Anyway," Nikita clipped, sending Tsuna a blank (unimpressed) look before turning back to the girls, "Have you seen Fran? He should be with three other kids. One sweet looking little girl with dark blue hair, and then two twins, dark haired and Korean looking? Technically, they're Russian-Korean, but Russia is a big place, you know?"
"Fran's the green haired boy that I see with you and Chrome sometimes, yes?" Kyoko asked thoughtfully, "Because I think I saw him with a group like that a few minutes ago."
"They were that loud group of brats at the cake shop, weren't they?" Hana asked, an irritated look crossing her features.
"That would be them," Nikita said, grabbing Tsuna's hand, then leaning forward to kiss Kyoko a small thanks on the cheek before going past them, "The usual shop right? Thanks guys!"
Kyoko, slightly blushing and holding her cheek, giggled as they watched the two leave, Nikita skillfully weaving through the crowd of the shopping center, and Tsuna barely keeping up with her.
"We never got to ask her about training," Hana reminded her friend, watching them go with a slightly unimpressed expression. Kyoko shrugged happily, turning to look back at another window display.
"We can always ask her later at school. Besides, I think Chrome should be the one to ask her, don't you?" Kyoko said with a knowing smile. Hana sighed, and rolled her eyes.
"I swear, Kyoko, you've got to stop it with this matchmaking stuff. Next thing you know, you're going to try to set me up with your brother."
"I've been trained by the best in the world," I said, laying my head back to look up at the sky, Tsuna slumped on the same bench beside me, "I'm a lethal assassin and infiltrator, I've grown up beside and crossed weapons countless times with the best assassination squad in the world, and yet?"
"We can't even find a group of kids," Tsuna finished lamely for me. We sighed in unison, and allowed a moment to take in the serenity of the park.
"Well," I said, changing my mood completely and pushing myself off the bench and to my feet, "Let's go back to the apartment and play some Mario Cart."
Tsuna shot up, and stared at me incredulously.
"Wait, you mean you're giving up?"
"No, I just realized two out of four of them are literally deadly assassins, and another's an illusionist, so what could really happen? Also, I just realized that I'm not even getting paid for this, so why should I care?"
Tsuna opened his mouth. And then closed it, before sighing and slumping.
"Fine, but no Rainbow Road."
"Nikita, where have you been!" Shura barely looked up at me as Tsuna and I stood in the doorway, openly gaping at the four children sprawled in front of the TV with controllers in their hands.
"We've been worried sick!" their twin finished.
"You know what," I said with another sigh, "I'm not even going to ask."
"Wells since you asked," Fran started in his usual monotone.
"I did not," I reminded, going to sit on the couch, and accepting the flower crown Uni offered me (noticing that all the children were wearing similar ones). None the less, Fran continued.
"We had fun playing hide and seek for a while, but then got bored of it pretty fast? So after going to the park after Uni's request –"
"Her flower crown making skills are absolute," one twin chirped, causing Uni to slightly blush and say small thanks.
"We came back here because we remembered that you had a gaming system. And then you guys came – oh," he stopped suddenly, frowning, "I just got blue shelled."
"I win," Uni said simply, giving a far too pure smile.
"Right," I said before looking back at Tsuna (who was still standing awkwardly in the doorway), "See Tsuna? Maybe it was good parenting and or care taking instinct to just give up on finding the kids, right?"
"Cloud, I highly doubt that…."
"Nikita," Uni got my attention, "I just wanted to let you know, I enjoyed spending time with Fran, Shura, and Sasha today greatly. And although I didn't get to spend much time with you personally, all of them told me great things about you. And it made me want to get to know you even more."
I blushed slightly, not knowing how to take her words, but recovered. I grinned, then reached down to slightly ruffle her hair.
"You can come over anytime when I'm not busy," I promised, "and we can get to know each other then. But you heathens," I said, dropping my grin and looking a the other three, "You little shits need to call beforehand. I can't handle all of you in one day."
"We didn't even handle them today, technically" Tsuna corrected, dejected and still disbelieving of the entire day and the ultimately useless goose chase we've been on for a majority of it.
"Ah, but Tsunayoshi," Byakuran said, appearing suddenly behind the don in the open doorway (only looking slightly charred and smoky, no doubt just having escaped from Gamma), "it seems like you guys still had fun today!"
And Tsuna screamed.
"You guys sure you want this?" I asked, extremely wary, and looking over the group of girls in front of me. I leaned back comfortably on the fence of the roof, where the girls had brought me to discuss this topic. Chrome nodded, determined, but my eyes wandered to the civilian girls next to her, surprised to see almost the same amount of determination from them.
"You've been whipping the committee into shape, right?" Hana asked, seeming the most bored out of the group (but still, there was fire, resolve in her voice, her stance; even without knowing her well, I picked up on this easily). "So," she continued, "Why not train us too?"
"We can't just leave everything to the boys!" Haru said, leaning forward and grabbing my hands suddenly, an action I allowed her, "We want to be able to defend ourselves too!"
"We know it's peaceful now," Kyoko said seriously, "but we also know that that peace could change. We know that they won't tell us either, so we have to be prepared!"
"Is this why you came to me with this?" I said, feeling a spark of annoyance, but also knowing for a fact that the boys wouldn't approve of this (but didn't that just want to do this more?).
"They've shown resolve," Chrome said, confident, "And I agree; they need to be able to hold their own at least, and I need to work on my hand to hand. I can't always rely on illusions, after all," she said with a small blush (embarrassment?), looking down at her abdomen.
"I may not know all the details," Hana stepped forward, and all the other girls looked away in guilt, "but I know that those guys are too incompetent to always be there for Kyoko. And besides," she said, crossing her arms, "I don't think it would hurt to know how to defend myself anyways, and I want Kyoko and Haru to know how to hold their own."
"You're strong Cloud, and we know it," Kyoko said earnestly, and Haru added another squeeze, still holding my hands, "and we want you, and only you, to help us get stronger."
I slipped my hands from Haru's, and stepped back, carefully evaluating them once again.
"The only reason I asked," I began, my expression and tone serious, "if you were sure, is because this training won't be light. It will be fucking gruesome, because that's how I was trained, and so that's how will I trained. Ask Gokudera, ask the committee; it's Hell, but with the resolve I'm seeing from all of you?"
"It's achievable. So let's kick some ass, ladies."
AN:
Whoo! Finally on Spring break, so I can update! Kind of a chill chapter, but it's literally just establishing the norm for Nikita's school life (hence the chapter title). Next chapter will def be more intense, but needed to give you guys an idea of what would be normal for their school life before things are shaken up. Whoo!
Hoped you guys enjoy and be sure to leave review so I'll be inspired to update faster! Since I'm on break right (and not dying from studios, someone kill me), I may be able to update again this week.
Also (I should mention this now before I forgot lmao) if you guys enjoy my writing and work in general, I do have a ko fi page where you can buy me coffee (i.e. donate a few dollars) to support me, so if you guys are willing to and/or able to do so, that would really help me out, since I am supporting myself and going through college at the moment. But if you guys don't want to or can't, but reading and reviewing works too~ You can find the on both my fanfiction profile and tumblr.
Also, I have a redbubble store (link on tumblr as well)! As of now, I only have one KHR related item (it's our darling Chrome too, and makes a lovely sticker), but you could find something else of interest there too!
Review Response:
Cee: Dude, I feel like if I was reading and not writing this, Enma and Cloud would be one of my hard core ships. But we;ll just have to see how Nikita's relationships with others pan out... (wink wink). But I wll say that there will be focus on Enma next chapter for sure, so you should be happy. But I do see your point on how Enma and Cloud's personalities compliment each other. Thanks for all the love and for the review!
Lucy: What? Me hard core ship Cloud and Chrome? What? Ahem. See the problem with Nikita/Cloud in general is that she's a bisexual mess, and I can see her having a good relationship WITH SO MANY PEOPLE. But you bring up valid points with Chrome that are actually brought up in future chapters. And I agree/disagree with you on the Kyoya/Cloud pairing? Like, I definitely wouldn't say that she completely bends to his will (as seen in this chapter) but there are plenty times where she just goes "fuck it, it's easier to just let him so what he wants and it's too troublesome to sop him over minimal things" which I guess can technically be seen as that, so that point is very valid. Also, with Enma, Adel's actions will be brought up next chapter ;) So it's fun that you bring that up now. But, in conclusion (I'm writing a fucking essay here, lmao it's great), Bel and Takeshi are definitely high up on my personal list of people I see Cloud actually being with. Thanks for the wonderful review!
Guest: Glad you like the revamp! Dude, I'm loving it to, it makes me feel better and prouder of this story in general (not like before, where I cringed every time I thought about it). Mukuro and Bel ships are sailing strong, and have many passengers, so you're not alone. Thanks for the review!
As always, thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites!
-Evenly