Mio Famiglia, Mio Scudo

Episode XIX

Naoki had been a lot more quieter than what was usual for him, which may not seem much to many, heck most wouldn't even notice him not talking for weeks, he just generally didn't like to talk. He liked being able to listen carefully what others had to say and only then give out his own opinions. Why? Because if you asked from him, talking meant that people would pay attention to him and being at the centre of attention made him feel uncomfortable. For as Japanese as he was, he showcased a lot more Finnish traits than expected.

Heiji was the one to notice this immediately, but then again he was the one who was most often paying attention to the voice of his boss, completely enamoured by its melody and quiet power. It didn't take long for the rest of his set notice either, and him avoiding the gaze of the Coal Guardian much more than usual told them volumes. Something had happened. Something that involved the oblivious hacker.
But also, there was what they'd witnessed in their sleep of the future and the confirmation of it being true along with the fact that Naoki had been the last one left standing.

Perhaps the visions their boss had seen had been a lot more intense and horrifying than what they'd experienced? The lot was too afraid to ask about it as they observed the now almost adult looking raven.

How Naoki had started to grow faster and just over all take the shape of an adult was astonishing to them, they'd assumed that the eighteen year old would always look like a carbon copy of Sawada, or maybe it was the other way around, but now... Now they were looking at a young adult with narrow golden eyes and more defined looks.

The young lion suddenly looked up from his seat where he'd been reading Criminale Notizie, eyes narrowed into slits. Naoki Oda stood up from the kitchen chair, his feet carrying him to the front door. His porcelain pale hand pulled the door open, revealing the surprised blonde who'd been standing behind it, ready to knock, frozen to his pose in surprise. The raven gave a stern, unpleased, look.

"The answer is no Mister Sawada", he said with cold voice, Xia He could've sworn that the air turned to the freezing degrees when his words fell like icicles, "I already told this to your boss and I will say it to you again, Paravento will join forces with Vongola only if the tenth heir offers his friendship and oversees the drafting of the d'accordo with me, no more, no less. We will not become a pawn in the game that your Famiglia is playing".

Iemitsu Sawada, the hard sky flame without a set, and not as bright as his wife, stared at Naoki with offended look in his eyes, a closed envelope in his hand. This was the sixth time that he'd come over to offer "alliance" to Paravento this week and it was only Thursday.
The fact that he didn't show any concern over his son being missing along with his friends was alarming, but then again somebody probably had already sent the word to the Vongola about the future and what was going on. Too bad that the person didn't return to Iemitsu with a memo about needing to leave Naoki alone.

What made it all worse (if you asked from the at the moment grumpy Fire) was the knowledge of this person being Valentino's cousin. It made sense in a very twisted way, the two cousins did share few traits with one another, but those traits were very few. Naoki slapped the hand that was attempting to slip the envelope into his pocket without him noticing (and failing at it).

"Look, I am not doing this because of not wanting an alliance with the Vongola or anything, I'm just not seeing any profits coming from it for me. And I'm tired, really tired, I've been monitoring your son's doings in the future with my own flames for the last week, gotten traumatised by the shit that's happening in the future, and I'm forced to think about things like heritage of my status. I simply can't be bothered to think about alliances on top of everything else at this moment, I first need to stabilise my own Famiglia and then the region of Syracuse. I'll have a talk with Decimo about this once I have time and energy to do it, but now is not it".