Dino crossed his feet on his desk and stared out the window. "Hmm."<\/p>\n
"Boss?" Romario looked in the door. "Anything you need?"<\/p>\n
Dino waved a hand "No, no, just thinking." <\/p>\n
Romario smiled behind his mustache. "Ah." He came in and sorted briefly through Dino’s papers, gathering the finished letters and notes to go out. "Tsuna-kun or Hibari?" he asked casually.<\/p>\n
Dino laughed, rueful. "You know me too well."<\/p>\n
"You don’t puzzle over our own family," Romario murmured. "You act."<\/p>\n
Dino’s mouth quirked wryly. "Just like Hibari, hm?" He stretched, sighing. "He really would do well among us. It’s too bad he doesn’t know anything about our history, I think he’d actually approve."<\/p>\n
Romario made sympathetic sounds.<\/p>\n
"Of course, damned if I can get him to listen," Dino added, rather disgruntled. "Ignores me all the time in favor of his…" He stopped, eyes widening. "Books." For a moment he just sat, staring at nothing. Slowly he began to smile.<\/p>\n
"Romario."<\/p>\n
"Sir?"<\/p>\n
"I think I’m going to want some memoirs. And some blank books." <\/p>\n
Kyouya looked up, with a certain jaundiced expectation, as the door of his lounge was flung cheerily open and Cavallone breezed in. No one else intruded on him here. "Back again?"<\/p>\n
Cavallone smiled in a way that made Kyouya shift, warily; that was Cavallone’s "I have a plan" smile, and Kyouya was somewhat annoyed to realize he recognized it at once.<\/p>\n
"Well, you know, I was cleaning out the library and found some things I thought you might like." He waved a few slim books in one hand. "Seeing how much you seem to enjoy history."<\/p>\n
Kyouya glanced down at the book currently open in his hands. "You take the baby’s ‘home tutor’ nonsense a little too seriously."<\/p>\n
"You’ll like this. I promise. Just take a look." Cavallone laid the books down on the couch beside him, flashed another smile, and took himself back out.<\/p>\n
Kyouya sniffed. The least the man could have done was offer him a decent fight, while he was here.<\/p>\n
He picked up the book on top and paged through it, brow lifting. It seemed to be a personal journal. Cavallone had brought it, it had to be about the mafia. But it was in Japanese and the sentences he scanned sounded… familiar.<\/p>\n
He turned back to the beginning, frowning, and read more slowly. An idea here, a sentence there, slipped through his mind easy and familiar as koi in their own pool.<\/p>\n
"…as true men always have, we must look after our own honor and never leave it to an outsider…"<\/em><\/p>\n "…only law is the law of blood, we will never forget…" <\/em><\/p>\n "…our true strength has nothing to do with the foolish softness of rules made in cities far away…"<\/em><\/p>\n After an hour or two, Kyouya reached for the second book. <\/p>\n Two days later, Kyouya flung open the door to Cavallone’s ex-hospital office without bothering to knock and strolled over to drop the books on a table. "You know, you could have just said from the start that the mafia has proper traditions."<\/p>\n "How was I supposed to get you to hold still long enough?" Cavallone asked, dryly. <\/p>\n Kyouya didn’t bother answering that. "It’s a suitable kind of thing," he pronounced.<\/p>\n Cavallone downright grinned and Kyouya gave him a narrow look; he didn’t see any reason for Cavallone to look so pleased. <\/p>\n "Good."<\/p>\n Kyouya flicked his fingers at the covers. "I still say herding together is weak."<\/p>\n Cavallone’s grin quirked. "You’re the Cloud. No one will ask you to." <\/p>\n "All right, then." Kyouya crossed his arms. "So?"<\/p>\n Cavallone raised his brows. "So… what?"<\/p>\n "Are we going to fight or not?"<\/p>\n Cavallone leaned back and laughed.<\/p>\n End <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This came out of me wondering how Hibari could have been convinced to identify himself with the mafia. Dino finally figures out a way to get through to him.
\n