veni, vidi, vici: gemstones

[cywscross]

Summary: Mukuro brushing Shion's hair every morning.

A/N: Future potential snapshots in the Veni Vidi Vici 'verse.  Mostly unconnected.  I love this ’verse but the main fic’s been giving me trouble so I decided to play around with possible future scenarios instead.

 

Mukuro loves her hair.  Soft as silk and the colour of what he imagines faerie-spun gold would look like, although it’s rare for there to not be at least a few locks of indigo twined into it on any given day, and – after particularly bloody battles – she doesn’t bother hiding the splatters of crimson in it either.

He loves her hair, but he loves that she lets him comb it even more, lets him slide fingers and brush through the waist-long strands before pulling it up into complicated braids or a simple tail or leaving it as is, free and flowing.

Most of all though, he loves that she trusts him enough to let him so close to her neck.  Even a couple years ago, he would’ve called her foolish for it, but then, a couple years ago, she was still seriously trying to kill him about thirty percent of the time and wouldn’t have let him anywhere near such a vulnerable part of her body, so he supposes that point is moot.

She’s still foolish now, he thinks, on occasion, for trusting him of all people, enough to let him so close, literally and figuratively.  But mostly, hidden away and hard-pressed to admit even to himself is a fragile kind of awe at the fact that he’s managed to gain Shion’s hard-earned trust in the first place.  It’s something he hoards with a possessiveness that would probably scare most people, something he cherishes even more than Tsunayoshi’s ridiculous faith in him, because for all that the twins can be as ruthless and borderline psychotic as each other, Tsunayoshi’s always been quicker to believe in the sincerity in other people – perhaps because of the sheer strength of his Hyper Intuition that he’s known his entire life – than his sister, whereas Shion will see you walk through fire for them first before you even get the chance to truly be one of them.

Mukuro approves.  It’s the sort of paranoia he understands, and Tsunayoshi needs someone like that at his shoulder just as much as the Family needs someone like that at its head.

This morning, Shion sits patiently in front of the vanity that Gokudera carved and put together for her last birthday while Mukuro expertly weaves her hair into an elegant French braid, threaded through with strings of tiny diamonds.  It’s taken practice to get this good at it – they were frustratingly lopsided at the beginning even after a dozen google searches, although Shion never seemed to mind.  She’d broken her arm at the time, and both Sasagawa and Irie were out of the country, so Mukuro – by proxy of sleeping in the same bed and was therefore the closest person to whine at because Shion is very much not a morning person and doesn’t like dealing with anything more difficult than brushing her teeth before her first cup of coffee – was delegated the task of brushing the knots out of her hair and at least gathering it up into a ponytail.

Still, even if combing her hair first fell to him because he was conveniently nearby, he knows Shion would rather cut her hair off than let just anyone touch it.  She nearly stabbed Sawada senior in the hand that one time he dared try petting her in some sort of weird fatherly affection for his ‘Starfishie’, and in all the years Mukuro’s known the crazies he now lives with, he’s only ever seen Tsunayoshi, Nagi, and the twins’ mother lay a hand on her tresses without violent retaliation.  He still doesn’t know what happened to that idiot who tried to get handsy with her at the Christmas ball four years ago, going so far as to reach for a lock of her hair and kiss it, but he’s never seen him again, and Shion never did explain where she disappeared off to for almost fifteen minutes that night, looking inordinately cheerful when she came back.

Shion doesn’t care much for her looks or the way she dresses unless it’s to make a point, doesn’t even care if her locks get tangled and muddied after a fight or a sparring session or a thunderstorm, but before or afterwards or in-between, when she can, she’s always taken just a little extra care with her hair.

Mukuro asked why, once, and she’d shrugged and admitted that there wasn’t any particularly deep or meaningful reason, she just did, and it didn’t hurt that her brother had always wanted her colouring instead of his own brown, so they’d be identical.

It figures that even the issue of her hair would have something to do with Tsunayoshi, but then, it isn’t as if Mukuro has any room to talk – he and Nagi are almost as codependent as the actual twins in the Family.

“Done,” He tells Shion now, tying off the braid and trailing light fingers back up to run a thumb over the back of her neck before letting his hands fall away.  “How is that?”

Clear blue eyes roll before pinning him with a faintly grumpy look through the mirror.  “Don’t fish.  You know it’s perfect.  Now can we go get my coffee?”

Mukuro smirks.  “Of course, love.  Shall we get you three cups today?  I don’t think Tsunayoshi would like it very much if you get too annoyed and end up traumatizing the Abate agents at your meeting with them in two hours.  Again.”

Shion groans at the reminder before standing up in a huff and – still grumbling – storms off towards the door.  “Five cups, I need five!  I hate diplomatic missions!  Especially with those Abate backstabbers!  I don’t know why Tsu-nii keeps giving them to me!”

Mukuro saunters after her, picking up both their coats along the way.  He’s going with her to the meeting after all, and if those ‘backstabbers’ didn’t learn their lesson from the last three times they’ve met, well.

Shion is as lethal as she is beautiful, and Mukuro absolutely adores her when she’s tearing someone apart with her illusions.  But she shouldn’t have to dirty her hands for a bunch of lowlife mafia leeches if they happen to forget their place again so it’s only right for him take out the trash before she has to.

Besides, she looks particularly gorgeous today with her hair done up in a French braid.  It would be a crime for her to walk out of that meeting with even a single strand out of place.

 

Comments

[rowan1025]

Okay, so I finally got the time to read this! I love this verse, Mukuro is absolutely one of my favourites, so I'm glad to see how close he and Shion are! I have to admit to being a bit surprised - given Shion's personality, I almost thought she'd never trust someone as... broken as Mukuro, especially if he kept claiming to only want to take over her brother's body. But the way you set it up, I can kinda see it, though it'd probably take a lot more detail than given in this snippet. Still, really good, I really like how you used the neck being so vulnerable as proof of trust!
Though, Mukuro shared Shion's bed? Do all the guardians sleep in a puppy pile or something? Or were Shion and Mukuro dating? Good luck with the main story!