Mio Famiglia, Mio Scudo

Episode X

Naoki hated loud noises more than anything. Mainly because he was scared of loud noises more than anything.

So when he woke up to the sounds of shouting, the fluffy haired teen was awake in an instant, ready to throw down anyone who even dared to burst through the doors. But nothing came up. Yet he heard the screams.

Amber eyes descended to his table, where his phone was resting on. The sound came on once again. Irritated and confused as to why his phone was making such noise, Naoki flipped it open. The new smart phones had started to come on the market just resently, but but the teen hadn't yet bought one to himself.

They were supposed to be more secure and faster than the flip phones.

»Why is it that whenever I try western food, I get diarrhea?

Naoki's brows furrowed in confusion, who was this person? The number slot showed only the letter L. Was this the hacker from earlier?

«Um.. Because you don't get enough fibre...? Or because the food has something you are allergic to?

»K

Naoki looked at the time, his tired eyes widening in disbelief. It was 3 am. Some jokester, probably drunkard, was sending him messages at 3 am! He carefully put the phone down after putting the volume on zero.

His head was about to hit the pillow when his phone left out rather embarrassing sound making the poor teen snap entirely out of his sleepy state.

»What does human meat taste like?

What. How was he supposed to- no. What. Ew.

Tired and annoyed out of his mind Naoki walked downstairs where he came across rather roughened up assassins. The phone made another sound. Getting the attention of the Varia.

The tired young Don looked Xanxus dead in the eye. "I won't ask about your activities and you don't ask about a hacker changing my ring tone."

With this the boy turned towards the fish tank that was void of any life other than the rather colourful spectate that was courtesy of Haruka and Lussuria. With a plumb, the phone fell into the fish tank where it remained giving out its notifications until the light died out. Naoki stared at the phone in dark pleasement and headed to the kitchen, followed after by the Varia, notably missing Lussuria. The teen raised a brow at this change but didn't question it. His quests had their own rules and he had his own. He had no right to question them.

Naoki made himself a cup of coffee, feeling a hand ruffling his hair while the silence that was the Varia became louder. He looked up at Xanxus, who still reminded him of Tetsuya too much to being a coincidence, who was there just staring back at him.

"You're up very early." was this... Concern? Worry? Naoki blinked. "My sleeping schedule has always been a bit odd. My flame control teacher is taking an advantage of this by sometimes telling me to send my flames to her house to test my reach in different states of tiredness", he said as he took a seat and closed his eyes in concentration.

Using the flame projection was always odd. He saw colours more vividly, but he also seemed to be able to see things that just weren't there. Blocks, polls, power concentrations, rooted flames that kept moving, but never seeing him. His own set was more flexible than the others he saw, bouncy like a rubber band, but they had different qualities than his did.

Naoki opened his eyes, now glowing orange while a small flame was flickering on his forehead like a light house. That tiny remain was his mark light so he could find back.

Xanxus stared at what was happening, fascinated by the unfamiliar flame and its properties. He could clearly see that Naoki was still present to some degree, reacting to them, but he was seeing something else. Such clash between senses sounded harsh and dangerous, yet it had its advantages, he was sure of that.