Title: Instances
Author: Pain au Chocolat
Language: English.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters used in this fiction. Everything belongs to Akira Amano.
Rating & Warnings: T. AU - happens after the Varia arc, before the TYL arc, OOC, shonen ai, cursing, kissing, implied onesided feelings. NOTE: this product might be radioactive and cause allergic reactions for sensitive eyes. No men were hurt while writing this fic.
Summary: Belphegor realizes his neglected, princely duties. Someone should thank God for making him such a responsible young man, who wishes to fix that fact immediately.
Pairing: Belphegor x Tsuna
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INSTANCES
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Discovery.
Between the whole ring-battle mess, watching his boss’s freezing and then helping with the de-freezing, getting arrested and charged for treason again, not to mention the most shocking sight of all - witnessing his boss getting his ass kicked for fuck’s sake by that girly, wimpy, good-for-nothing fake, Belphegor has been really busy.
So busy, that he momentarily forgot his royal duties.
Such as, you know, finding a princess.
Naturally, when he pointed that out aloud, Squalo was the first to tell him that he was delusional, completely gone batshit and that he had apparently read too many fairytales. Lussuria argued that it was sweet, Levi looked like he had digestive problems, Marmon said that there wasn’t a woman who’d be up to Bel’s standards and willing to date a Mafioso. And Boss just sneered.
Belphegor took it all as signs of approval.
“How are you going to find her?” Squalo asked with disbelief and disgust.
“I’ll find her because I’m a prince.”
“VOOOI! What the fuck is wrong with your logic!?”
“Nothing,” the blond said, grinning widely. Lussuria joined the two, with a loud sigh.
“What are your standards, Bel-kun?” the flamboyant man asked, and the blond leaned back in his chair. “Is she dark or light? Cute or sexy? Italian? Knows how to cook? Can she protect herself or do you want to protect her? Just describe her, and I’ll draw a portrait according to it.”
“I’m not listening to this crap,” Squalo muttered, and left the two. Bel bit his lip, thinking. Lussuria’s idea could turn out really beneficial for him - if anything, he knew how to draw.
“Light brown hair,” the prince finally drawled.
“A nice, neutral colour,” Lussuria hummed. “Length? Smooth or spiky?”
“Short, and preferably spiky.”
“Eyes? Nose? Does she have freckles? Natural expression?”
“Wide and brown eyes,” Belphegor decided. “No freckles… and I want her to smile.”
“Sounds cute,” Lussuria cooed, sketching with a happy expression. Suddenly the man halted, blinked, and let go of the pen. Belphegor raised an eyebrow.
“What?” he asked. “Did you mess up?”
“Er…” Lussuria’s voice was weak and hesitant, when he handed the sketch to the blond prince. There, on the paper, was the face of Vongola’s heir - Sawada Tsunayoshi.
Denial.
“I said a girl!” Was the first thing Levi heard when he entered the kitchen. It took him a moment to realize that it was actually Belphegor who had shouted, not Lussuria. Those two being the only occupants of the room. To see the Prince so pissed off was a rare sight - he was usually grinning and irritating people, not caring of what was said to him.
Apparently Lussuria - whatever he had said - struck a nerve.
“It’s not my fault!” the man shrieked, trying to avoid the knives that were being thrown at him. “I just drew according to your description!”
“Like hell, you sick fuck!” Levi took a step back. If Bel was cursing, things were really serious. Just what had Lussuria done?
“It’s not my fault! It’s your subconscious desire!”
“Shut up you homo!”
“Takes one to know one!”
“Die, you fucking pest!” Oh, now Belphegor was starting to sound like Squalo. Levi hadn’t even heard the blond cursing before. This behaviour seemed to be totally out of his character, which puzzled the tall man to no end. He finally spotted a paper on the floor, in the midst of all the chaos, and lifts it.
The perfectly sketched portrait of Sawada Tsunayoshi beamed down at him, making his lips twitch. Brown eyes glanced at the two fighting. Was this the reason of the argument?
“Hey,” Levi started, stepping back towards the doorway - just in case they tried to attack him or something. Having an escape route wasn’t so bad, after all. “What are you fighting about?”
“Nothing that has anything to do with you,” Belphegor hissed, before spotting the paper in his hand. Levi A Than could see murder in his eyes, as the blond let go of Lussuria’s throat, and took several steps towards him.
“Does it have anything to do with this?” Levi asked hesitantly, and didn’t quite understand Lussuria’s shooing gestures. “It’s that Sawada brat, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Belphegor said in a weird voice, taking out several knives. Levi’s eyes widened with realization.
“Hey, wait! Aaaugh! AAAAAHH - “
Jealousy.
Xanxus doesn’t like being disturbed. At all. So when he hears a loud scream, and the noise of footsteps running past his door, waking him from his much-needed nap, he’s anything but pleased. Actually, one could say he’s pretty damn pissed off. And so he grabs his gun - and a bottle of his favourite wine to soothe his nerves - and set out to teach his men a lesson about what to do and when.
He entered the training-hall, where Belphegor seemed to have gone crazy on Levi -in a totally mad axe-murderer kind of way. So Xanxus leaned against the wall, drank a bit of his wine, and watched with a raised eyebrow as the Varia’s very own prince tried to kill the older man.
“Ah, boss~” a whiney voice said, and the dark-haired man grimaced.
“Lussuria. What happened?” he asked, and the flamboyant man reeled back nervously.
“Eh… I… well… you see…”
“Spit it out,” Xanxus snapped impatiently. He really hated stuttering people. “What made him snap?”
“Well, we were talking,” Lussuria began evasively, but an irritated sound from his boss made the man sigh, and decided to just explain the embarrassing events. “Bel-kun wants a princess. So he described one and I drew, and well….” With another sigh, he handed Xanxus a paper. Red eyes widened, realizing whose roughly sketched portrait it was.
Well, no wonder he had flipped.
Then again, Xanxus - from an outsider’s point of view - found it also damn hilarious. And since Belphegor was the one responsible for disturbing his nap, Xanxus was in mood for some mind-fuckery. If only to see the prince’s reaction.
“Belphegor has no chance,” he announced, and the other three who were present blinked.
“You know something, boss?” Levi chocked, eyeing warily the prince who seemed to be focusing on Xanxus for now - it was damn hard to know where he was looking with that stupid fringe of his.
“The ninth mentioned it,” Xanxus said with a smirk, and the corners of Belphegor’s mouth tilted downwards. It seemed that only his pride - and the futile attempt of proving Lussuria wrong - kept him from asking the details. Lussuria, however, had no such restrictions.
“He’s having an affair already?” the flamboyant man asked curiously.
“Apparently his Mist, Cloud and Storm Guardians aim to guard him a bit too privately too,” the adopted son of the ninth said, giving the blond prince a calculative look. “I heard that he’s considering.” There was no need for more, as Belphegor whizzed past him.
“Heyy~” Lussuria called after the insane kin-slayer. “Where are you going!?”
“Japan!” was the response that made Levi faint, Xanxus laugh - at least until he realized that he had probably played a matchmaker, thus doing something nice, which put him in a bad mood again - and Lussuria swoon.
Such was love, the green-haired man knew. No boundaries whatsoever.
Acceptance.
Bel didn’t know what had happened. At the words of his boss - who couldn’t be joking, Xanxus didn’t joke - the prince felt a piercing… something. It was a strange emotion to him, and the coldness that washed over him when he heard that Tsunayoshi was being pursued by those three… he didn’t like it.
But why did he care!?
There was no way in hell that Belphegor would admit that Lussuria was right. Because he wanted a princess, and Tsunayoshi was anything but. Fine, he got the looks Bel would have wanted for his perfect wife to have, but… but… that wasn’t everything! And even if his personality, the contrast between his kind self - the cowardly one - and the one he showed while fighting against Xanxus, was plainly put a goddamned turn on for the prince, it didn’t mean anything either.
And his subconscious desires - as Lussuria had called them - could go to hell. Or a freezer, for all he cared.
So, why was he going to Japan again? Oh yeah, to see what the fuck was going on with Tsunayoshi and his guardians. Were they all homos over there or something? Nah, the prince didn’t think so. And so he had to steal a bottle of wine from Xanxus’s private stash to calm down, and relax a bit.
So, Tsunayoshi.
What a troubled little guy.
Why - oh why - were all the guys around the runt turning gay? And why did it affect Bel too!? The blond had hardly talked with the kid! No, actually he hadn’t directly talked to him even once! All he had done during the fight for the Sky Rings had been… well, his duties. And he really, really, really hadn’t ogled that pretty little ass at all.
Well, okay fine. Maybe a little bit.
But who wouldn’t!? Belphegor had been a perfectly straight… hm, well, perfectly asexual young man with healthy hobbies (killing, maiming, murdering, poisoning people for fun…), and then he sees something so cute and people expect him to not react!? So fine, he had been in a goddamned sea of denial for ages - but now he knew. It was all thanks to boss’s wine. A magical drink, it was. Bel would need to take some to Tsunayoshi.
Anyway.
So now he would need a plan to convince the boy of the fact that it didn’t matter that he was a boy, yes Bel was apparently Tsunasexual, and Tsuna was supposed to be, in turn and naturally, Belsexual, they belonged to each other, and they better practice sex to keep peace in the house. Also, Bel knew that he’d have to point out that a pineapple was a fruit, not a human, and therefore unfit for relationships. Not to mention that that creep who had tried to fight him during the sky-battle would probably end up biting Tsuna to death during sex. And the third… well, Bel could think up something on his way to Japan.
However, he’d need backup for this. Going alone to the midst of those hot-headed freaks to get his wife would be unwise. Wide grin back in its place, Bel slammed a pair of doors open.
“Marmon,” he declared. “Go pack. We’re going to Japan.”
Persuasion.
Marmon felt sick. And it wasn’t just because Reborn was smirking with various degrees of smugness.
“…and that’s why I’m here,” Belphegor finished his explanation to the pale - the boy seemed like a trembling ghost - Tsunayoshi, who stared at the prince with wide, scared eyes.
“How romantic,” Poison Scorpion Bianchi sighed, blushing faintly. Personally, Marmon didn’t see anything romantic in this. Waste of time, the whole thing. And damn embarrassing. And Reborn was still smirking. It seemed that out of the five occupants of the room the only one who agreed with Marmon regarding the ridiculousness of the situation was the target himself, who was anything but the joyful bride Belphegor had seemed to expect finding.
“Sounds good,” Reborn said. “It will strengthen the ties between the Varia and the Vongola. Well done, Tsuna.” The boy in question choked something that nobody quite understood, but Belphegor translated it as ‘why, thank you, I’m very happy of the outcome too’, even though Marmon kept shaking his head and muttering something horribly rude and indecent under his breath.
So, Bel hauled Tsuna over his shoulder, and headed for the door. That seemed to snap the boy out of his stupor, since he started struggling.
“Wait! Let go! What is the meaning of this!?”
“I told you already,” Bel said with a grin. “You’re my bride. Do you want a crown or a ring?”
“Neither! Let go o-“
“A kiss, then?”
“NO! Definitely not!”
“What about sex?”
“What about letting me go!?” The boy’s tone was getting a hysterical undertone, which made Belphegor snicker with amusement. He was really, really glad that he had finally accepted his feelings - maybe he should thank Lussuria after this? Nah, no need. Bel’s hand was comfortably on Tsuna’s bottom, as the blond made his way towards his current lodging - a hotel, Vongola’s property and at Xanxus’s expense, naturally.
Tsuna was red with embarrassment, and finally had realized that trying to escape the prince’s grip was pointless. The brunet covered his face in shame, as the Varia assassin made his way towards his room, not giving a damn about the weird stares they got on their way. When they finally reached the room, Bel threw Tsuna on the bed, and observed him through his fringe for a few moments. The Vongola heir was stuttering something, and Bel had no intention of listening. Instead he saw the blush, the lips, the wide, innocent eyes and the grin morphed into a satisfied smirk.
Tsunayoshi was his. Screw what the others wanted, Bel wanted this boy.
Sure, he knew that Tsuna didn’t love him now, but with the Arcobaleno’s support, Bel knew that acceptance was just a matter of time. And from acceptance, it really wasn’t a long road to love.
“Ushishishishi… Mission success,” the blond muttered quietly, throwing his jacket and shirt aside, and climbing on the bed to get down to business with his bride.
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BACKDOOR - ESCAPE - END OF ONESHOT
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NOTES:
The wine Xanxus drinks in this oneshot: 2001 Shafer Hillside Select Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
Outstanding. One of California's most sought-after wines, and priced accordingly (175€). It offers exotic, wild blackberry and black cherry fruit, creamy vanilla and toasty oak, plus a hint of cedar. The tannins are plush tannins, the finish long.
The wine Belphegor drinks in this oneshot: 1999 Roederer L'Ermitage Anderson Valley Brut ($45) Lively lychee, nut, lemon, apricot and baked apple aromas lead to tart apple and lemon curd flavours. Has a complex, yeasty quality.