Mostly I Write Reader Inserts

Originally posted by yakumocchi

Summary: If this is to be your fate, you’ve seen it turn out much, much worse.

Rating/Warnings/Tags: All (Set during Curse of the Rainbow arc; no honorifics; not canon compliant; mafia!Reader; Millifiore!Reader; Reader’s flame unspecified; heavy exposition)

Challenge:  “160 Collective Drabbles” challenge by BobaPop on Lunaescence Archives.

Tag List: @imaginesfire​

Stay

Your life certainly wasn’t taking the path you had expected. Once a normal high school student with aspirations of going to college and making something of yourself, everything had come to a grinding halt when you’d woke up one morning with bizarre visions of the future. At first, you were quite content to pass them off as dreams. You, work for the mafia? You, dress in that ridiculous uniform? You, the sole romantic companion of that insane, white-haired man? Your subconscious must have been working overtime.

Or so you thought…until that same man–a boy now, really; no older than yourself–appeared flying next to your window at home. By the time Byakuran had convinced you to let him in, and then finished telling his story, you really had no option of writing him off as a hallucination, though several times later you wished you could have.

This strange introduction was what began something you could only describe as a downward spiral. Soon you were spending your afternoons after school with a crowd of rainbow-haired delinquents, and spending your time in school trying to keep Byakuran from getting you in trouble. Somehow you couldn’t believe this easy-going, hyperactive youth was the same boy that grew up to be the brutal, sadistic mafia leader that you’d seen. It was you keeping him line more often not nowadays.

Still, everything might have turned out alright had he not decided, out of the blue, to drag you to Japan.

“Japan? Are you kidding me? What are we supposed to do there?” you demanded after he’d announced his little edict to you on one of your nightly rooftop meetings.

“We’ve got a tournament to enter! We’ll be fighting…well, you won’t, I guess. You haven’t learned how yet, have you, [Name]?” His Cheshire grin made it plain you were meant to feel some insult.

Instead, you rolled your eyes. “I can’t just go off to Japan, Byakuran. I have school.”

“So quit,” he’d said, and did one of his little flips. Give a teenage boy a pair of wings and apparently he wouldn’t stop using them. “It’s not like you need a job anymore. You’re in the Millifiore.”

“I am not.”

He only flashed you another smile. “Besides, you’ll like Yuni. I’m sure of it.”

Whatever you said to the contrary, you really were a part of his little family. Your parents, when they finally found out their daughter was a member of the mafia, were going to be so proud. But that would have to wait, because you were soon on your way to a foreign country, meeting Byakuran’s old enemies–who seemed oddly content to forgive him for past-future faults–and watching your group get pounded in the name of a young girl–who, more oddly, looked exactly the same as she had in your visions.

But the final nail in the coffin of future Byakuran’s badassery was the idiotic stunt he and some of the other teams put together for the last round. Sure, they won, thanks entirely to Tsuna, but Byakuran didn’t come out of it with all his limbs intact. By all counts, he should have died. Yet there he lay in the bed, entirely whole, pouting up at you. All you could think of was the madman spurting blood from his back and savaging a fourteen-year-old boy. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

“What’s that look for, [Name]?” he asked. “Feeling pity for your beloved boss?”

“Actually, I was thinking about how pathetic you are.”

“I’ve had worse,” Byakuran purred. “You know that. Don’t be so cold.”

“Seriously. What the hell?”

“You are worried! Don’t, [Name]. I’ll be better soon.”

“In that case,” you turned away, “I’ll just be leaving.”

“Wait.” His hand brushed against your wrist, though he did nothing further to restrain you. A brief but violent debate raged in your head until, at last, you spun back around to look at him. “Don’t go. Stay.”

“Why should I? You’ve been nothing but trouble since you showed up, and now you’re making me concerned for you.”

“Eh? Trouble?” For once, his violet eyes opened wide. They slid shut again a second later in another grin. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to cause you any trouble, [Name].”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s not, though! I like you, [Name]. I like you, and I think I have a chance to do things right this time.”

“Right?” you echoed.

He nodded. “I wasn’t very nice to you in the future. I want to make it up to you!”

With a long grumble of a sigh, you sank onto the chair next to Byakuran’s bed. “You want to make it up to me by interrupting me at school and dragging me along to dangerous fighting exhibitions with your team of misfits?”

“But you’re part of my team of misfits,” he said with a shrug. “And I just want to spend more time with you.“

You answered with silence. Defeat was a thing you knew when you saw it. Still, you frowned at him until he lifted his hand again and placed it on top of the one you had resting on his blanket.

“Please don’t leave me, [Name]. Stay.”

You stared a moment longer. Byakuran’s smile softened at the edges. Slowly, you turned your hand over to hold his more properly. 

Maybe you’d been fighting this for too long. Clearly, the you from the future had had feelings for Byakuran even when he’d been a monster. It was nearly impossible to prevent yourself feeling those same things toward Byakuran when he treated you affectionately at every turn.

“You’re so annoying,” you murmured as you rested your arms and chin on his bed.

With the widest smile yet, Byakuran got himself more comfortable. “Love you, too, [Name].”

At least the prevented you having to speak the words yourself. It was late. You let your eyes drift shut. Right before you fell asleep, you thought you might have felt him playing with your hair.