Vineyard in Italy

Artist: DearCat 

Pairing: Toni Stark/Xanxus

Tags/Warnings/Rating: T

Prompt: Day 2 [Scars]

Summary: Scars tell stories on her skin, Xanxus hadn’t realized that before.

Story

In all the years they’ve been together, Xanxus has found thousands of reasons to complain. Mostly because Xanxus likes to be spoiled and Toni enjoys spoiling him, enjoys having someone whose reaction to her grand gestures is not exasperation but not so well hidden delight. 

There had been actual, honest fights amongst the pretended ones, too. Especially after Afghanistan. Because Xanxus had just gotten her back and now he might lose her to this superhero business. He didn’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D. one bit. 

But they’d managed somehow. The mafia assassin, the Varia Boss and Iron Woman, the face of Stark Industries and the engineer behind its success. 

It sounds like a bad joke. Pair of alcoholics with daddy issues and fear of abandonment. They made it work, between engineering binges and mind-blowing sex. They pretend the conversations never happened, they’re both allergic to mushy shit. 

Extremis was never a fight. 

Xanxus had been desperate and Toni had been dying. She’d been in no position to make a choice so Xanxus made it for both of them. Toni, she hadn’t been the happiest, but she hadn’t resented him for it. They both know she would have made the same choice.

To be absolutely honest, Xanxus doesn’t regret it. Not even for a second. Xanxus is a selfish asshole, he won’t lose his woman to heroics, no matter how many laws he has to break in the process.

He’s mafia already, civilian laws mean nothing to him.

So no, Xanxus doesn’t regret it. He’s just surprised. He splays his hand open over her naked chest, fingers brushing the arc reactor, casting shadows on the walls. The glow of the damn thing mocks him.

Varia assassins can be vain, Xanxus isn’t. Toni is, he knows. She used to hate her scars. Xanxus hated them too, for entirely different reasons. Those scars had been proof of his failures. They’re gone now, extremis saw to that. 

And yet, Xanxus finds himself surprised at missing them. The proof that his woman is as tough as nails. That there’s much that’s tried to keep her from him and nothing that accomplished it.

The other ones are gone, too. The ones he’d loved from the beginning. The signs of wear on her hands, the little burns on her fingers, the slashed x on her forearm from an explosion gone wrong. Xanxus loved those. The ones that came simply from Toni being Toni. 

Toni stirs under him, hands coming up to trace circles on his back, smooth fingers caressing his own scars idly. “Come on,” she pulls him down, climbing atop of him and resting her forehead against his shoulder. “I’ve got a meeting tomorrow." 

With the Accords Council, Xanxus knows. And Xanxus knows he’s asked for too much already but haven’t they given enough? Toni to the world and Xanxus to Vongola. Not all scars are skin deep. 

"Maybe not,” Xanxus says before he can stop himself. “Maybe,” he continues, because the words are out now and he might as well. “Maybe we can find a cabin somewhere in Italy, with vineyards. The two of us.” Start a family, he doesn’t say. Little brats with Toni’s hair and genius and Xanxus’s eyes and temper. An interesting thought.

His people will come, Xanxus doesn’t deny it. Her people, too.

Toni straddles him, eyes curious and cautious but not judging and Xanxus turns his head, kisses her wrist where a burn scar used to be and waits.

“Italy?" 

Her lips peck his and Xanxus concentrates on the amusement in her voice, the fond exasperation. He nods. "Italy, the food’s better." 

"Can’t deny you that,” Toni kisses him once and stands up, pulling him along. “FRIDAY?”

“I’ll let Miss Potts and Colonel man know." 

She picks up her sweatpants and his shirt, drops her phone on the night table. Xanxus ignores the strange lack of scars on her skin and follows suit in dressing himself. "Tell the shitty shark for me,” Xanxus leaves his uniform on the floor, puts on jeans and an old shirt he left behind long ago. 

Xanxus doesn’t quite believe that they’re doing it until they’re in the quinjet, stealth mode with FRIDAY taking them who knows where. He’s sitting on the co-pilot spot, Toni caging him in, both their lips red and shiny. 

He pulls her closer, lets one of his hands rest on her belly and kisses the tip of her fingers.

“There will be more scars, you know?” But for all that she’s rolling her eyes, Toni’s eyes are soft and Xanxus bows his head, lets her cradle him closer. She’s always been far too good at reading him. 

Not that Xanxus wants to linger on this line of thought, on the terrifying reminder of how close he came to losing her. “The shitty shark will find us soon enough.” Maybe six months in, at most.

“Oh, please,” Toni rubs circles on his back, not at all fooled by the change of topic. “My Rhodey-Bear will be first.”

True. But Rhodes and Xanxus are, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the same page when it comes to Toni. He’ll come to visit but he won’t tell a soul. Squalo is as subtle as a grenade to the face. Then again, the mini-boss isn’t the old man and Xanxus is willing to fight for this. He’s given Vongola enough, far more than they deserved. 

Perhaps now the next scar he’ll earn will be something stupid, like a mistake chopping vegetables or, knowing his luck, he’ll inadvertently sit on one of Toni’s tools. She keeps forgetting them on the strangest of places.

Bastardology

Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Event: KHR Rare Pair Week 2020

Pairing: Naruto Uzumaki/Xanxus

Summary: Naruto eats Xanxus out of house and home and casually talks no jutsus him. (Not that she realizes, there are more important things to think about, like ramen.)

Story:

“Seriously?” Nobody answers her but Naruto hadn’t been hoping for a reply anyway. Kurama’s mocking snickers were more than enough, thank you. “Can’t a girl have 15 minutes to eat some ramen?" 

That question, too, was rhetoric but it receives an answer regardless. "Hmm, sure?” The guy is a brunette, small and adorable and with a head full of fluffy hair that she has a hard time resisting. The urge to pet him is almost too strong. 

Beside him sits a white-haired man, eating marshmallows leisurely. Naruto recognizes another pranking spirit on sight. “Ooh? And who would you be?" 

"Uzumaki Naruto,” and she’s too damn hungry to complete the usual introduction. “Where’s the nearest ramen stand?” She can deal with the weird interdimensional jump later. Their blank faces are answer enough. Naruto shrugs, she’ll find it herself and jumps down the table. “Oh yeah, sorry about your forest." 

So she had been a tiny bit startled when they’d pulled her from Ichiraku. And maybe, just maybe, Naruto might be a little Rasengan happy these days. It’s hardly Naruto’s fault.

As if on queue, a part of the wall crumbles, the forest after it flattened to the ground, and Naruto blushes, gesturing vaguely towards the door before she leaves, long blonde hair swaying behind her.

One of the guys falls into step with her. Dark hair, are those feathers? Red eyes, scars all over him and angst oozing out of every pore. Great, this one is a Bastard 2.0, Naruto can already tell. She’s also a master of Bastard-Speak and the leading expert in the field of "how to socialize your bastard." 

She needs a better name for it. Bastardology? 

Better than anything her father would ever come up with, that’s for sure. "Come on,” Naruto herds him to where her nose is guiding her. “You’re paying for my ramen.” This one, at least, doesn’t know better yet. 

Bastard 2.0 snorts, not even faltering. 

Naruto rolls her eyes right back. “Of course you will, you guys dragged me here. Take responsibility!”

All he answers her with is a one-eyed glare. 

But as mentioned before, Naruto is an expert in bastardology. “Save it, I’m not one of the fangirls.” Bastards always have hoards of them. “They’re your friends, believe it." 

To that, Bastard 2.0 grunts incredulously.

"Oh, get over it,” Naruto pokes him on the stomach. Bastards need physical and verbal affection, it helps them with their regretful bastardy. That said, nobody needs to know that Naruto is purposefully annoying with it. 

This bastard, though, seems to be more in the lines of Sasuke after the invasion instead of Sasuke after the Fourth War. He pulls out something from his belt and Naruto reacts on instinct, she tanks the attack to keep the civilians behind her safe and barely manages to redirect the Rasengan she was about to ram into his gut. 

“Oh man,” she slips his weapon into her pouch and looks despairingly at the crumbling building behind him. This universe is so breakable. So damn breakable. This one was even just a normal Rasengan. “All I want is some damn ramen, you bastard.”

That did scorch her a little, though. Which contrary to popular belief, given Naruto’s well… Narutoness, is actually pretty impressive. Of course, Kurama is already dealing with it. Speaking off, the energy… it felt like Kurama on a pissy day. 

Nowhere near Kurama’s old levels of rage but like a human version of it. You know, instead of a centuries-old chakra monster. 

Bastard 2.0 is looking at her, eyes slightly widened and mouth parted. Damn him, really, are all bastards this pretty? Naruto props her hand on her hip and glares him down, doing her best Ino impression. She’s dealt with Kurama when he was the King of Angst, he can deal with Feathered Murder over here. “Well?" 

The guy grunts, sending a pointed look towards her weapons pouch. Naruto, just as pointedly, ignores it. She rolls her eyes, snags him by the wrist and drags him behind her. "Now, you’re absolutely paying for my ramen, believe it.” She was going to be nice, too. Eat maybe three bowls. Now she’s going to empty his wallet.

Not only does she empty his wallet, she pulverizes it. It’s no like she set out to be mean about it, alright? She’s just been helping with well… pretty much everything. Being a one-woman army has its downfalls. Between working and working and meetings and more working, Naruto hadn’t honestly noticed how damned hungry she was. Just that she was.

Which, it turns out, is far too damn hungry. The place is no Ichiraku but the ramen is still good and the cook had no problem sending people out to buy more ingredients as soon as Naruto gave him Feathered Murder’s wallet. 

The guy’s surprise at Naruto handing it over had been hilarious. She can sort of see why Jiraya did it.

Still, she eats mostly the day away but once she’s done, Feathered Murder’s wallet back in her hands, she snags him again and decides against wandering. 

They find a nice rooftop with a view of the ocean. Or maybe, it’s more accurate to say that Naruto finds it and drags Bastard 2.0 with her but he hasn’t left. So there’s that. “So… why are you so angry anyway?" 

"What is it to you, trash?" 

Naruto ignores the bite in the tone, ignores the insult. She’s been called far worse, there’s been more venom in the voices of people that now greet her with a smile of admiration. This is nothing to her. "Nothing, really. I just figured I’m as unbiased as you’ll ever get, bastard.” She is, after all from another dimension.

Bastard 2.0 watches her in silence for a moment and then drops down to sit by her side, close enough that Naruto can feel his heat. Unlike Sasuke, who ranted his fury at her, screamed it between punches, Xanxus tells her in quite even tones that sound of resignation.

For all that she loves them, Naruto thinks Xanxus would understand her better than Sakura or Kakashi. Though maybe not Sasuke. But they’re both up there. But the more he talks, the less Naruto finds herself comparing the two bastards. They are both bastards, of course. 

But Sasuke is her rival, Gaara her best friend. Xanxus? She thinks that if she let out all those dark thoughts Naruto has long kept inside her, Xanxus would understand them quite well.

“You deserved to be Decimo,” she tells him, frankly. Because he did. Would he have been a good one? That Naruto doesn’t know but if the title was given to the sons of the current leader, adopted or not, Xanxus qualified. “But why did you want to be?”

Or did he ever? Because to Naruto, it sounds more like Xanxus was hurt that it was denied to him in the first place.

Xanxus makes a surprised sound in the back of his throat, something a little disbelieving. And Naruto wishes she could point him to the direction of the swordsman who has been following them since the beginning, discrete as he thought himself to be. But she asked and Xanxus answered so she grabs a hold of his hand instead.

“Growing up,” she tells him, staring at the same landscape he’s pretending to watch, “the villagers hated me. The demon brat. They would always look at me with those eyes and I hated it, you know?" 

Naruto drags her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. "The old man used to visit me at the orphanage. The one person who liked me in the entire village. The Hokage. The Third. But for me, he was the old man. Closest thing to family I had." 

"I love him still, and I forgive him,” she ignores Kurama listening quietly as well. “But I’m not an idiot. My parents had friends, a student, but none of them approached me. Not once. To protect me, they said. I know now. He was the old man to me but he was always the Third as well.”

There’s resentment there that she refused to acknowledge to anybody else, “my father sealed the nine-tailed demon inside of me when I was born and since then, I was a container first and his adopted granddaughter second. For the rest of them, I was a weapon, something dangerous, to be wary of." 

Kurama feels worried and she smiles, sending him affection back. "I didn’t know, of course. For a long time, I didn’t know I was a container. The old man only told me when a traitor spilt the secret and I’ll never know if he planned to tell me about my parents. He died before, you know?" 

"But even before I knew, I wanted to be Hokage. I wanted them to acknowledge me, I thought that it’ll show them I’m worthy of them. I know now the old man told me that to keep me loyal, I’m not an idiot.” No matter what people like to tell her. “But I want to be Hokage still. Just for a different reason." 

Xanxus is full in looking at her now, not even pretending otherwise. "Why? They’re shitty people." 

A part of Naruto thinks: I know. "There are people in the village who used to spit at me and now won’t stop smiling my way,” Naruto tells him, somehow darkly amused. “I don’t think I’ll ever trust it. But the Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village and I need to be strong. If I am not, how will I protect the friends I finally managed to make along the way?”

And then, impulsively, she sends a smile his way. “I’ve decided you’re my friend, too.” Naruto points a finger to his face and watches him go cross-eyed as he leans back. “I’ll protect you too, believe it. And kick your ass if you’re being too much of a bastard!”

The fist closing on her shirt makes her smile gains teeth. She’s expecting Xanxus to throw a punch, she’s expecting a somewhat exasperated spar that will leave them both satisfied and her message received. So Naruto lets him drag her to her feet, lets him pull her close. 

What she’s not expecting are chapped lips against hers, a hand cradling her cheek. Naruto makes a surprised sound and ignores Kurama’s facepalm and mutterings about her tendencies to reform assholes everywhere. She presses closer, going up on her tiptoes to deepens the kiss.