Chapter Text
Dino Cavallone was, not quite how Hayato remembered him. The Dino he’d known had been clumsy yes, when his men weren’t around, but there had also been a lean strength to him, a resting power that anyone who knew danger could see for what it was. But then, that was Dino Cavallone in his twenties, after years of Reborn’s training and mafia life. This was Dino at twelve years old, clumsy, and unfit, and deeply insecure. He wasn’t fat exactly, you couldn’t even really call him pudgy, but there was a softness to him, to his body and his face, that training and combat and stress had replaced with muscle and tension in his later years.
It wasn’t unexpected, Hayato had known, academically, that pre-Reborn Dino, was kind of a wimp, but still, it was disconcerting to see. Hayato had never known him like this.
Infiltrating had been… probably considerably easier than it should have been. Really what was Mafia security coming to these days, that two random kids could just sneak in and abduct the heir to a major famiglia. Although, to be fair, they were maybe at a slight disadvantage. Not only was Hayato actually an extremely skilled adult flame user who knew the layout of their base, but even at the age of seven Mukuro was a truly terrifying Mist. He could probably have managed the whole mission by himself if necessary, although probably there would have been somewhat more collateral damage involved. As it was they’d managed to get all the way to the heir’s rooms without setting off any alarms at all. Take that Baseball Idiot, he could totally do stealth if he wanted to.
Dino’s reaction to waking up to find Hayato and Mukuro looming over his bedside in what he could, in retrospect admit was probably a fairly intimidating manner, was to go “Eep.” It was at least quieter than Tsuna’s usual high pitched “Hiieee”, but Hayato saw no point in tempting fate and hit him with a quick blast of Rain flames before he could try and raise the alarms. Mukuro actually looked quite disappointed at that, Hayato wasn’t sure if it was because he was looking forward to a fight, or because he’d wanted more time to torment Dino. It didn’t really matter which, Hayato suspected there would be plenty of opportunity for both before this journey was over.
Escaping the compound with a limp Dino hanging over his shoulder had been harder than it might sound. Dino might only be twelve at this point, but Hayato was seven, and considerably less well nourished. In the end he gave in and used Cloud flames to boost his strength as they made their way out. It didn’t help that Mukuro kept on pointing out that he could have just stuck Dino in an illusion and had him walk out under his own power. There were reasons Hayato chose to do it this way, illusions were iffy on Skies, and besides he wasn’t particularly keen to take a chance that Dino’s clumsiness wouldn’t cause some kind of loud and destructive crash and bring the house guards running. It was nothing to do with him not having thought of that idea first.
…
The car… wasn’t all that Hayato had hoped for. He’d hoped for something classy, and discreet, and possibly with a souped up engine for fast getaways. Unfortunately he’d failed to be specific, so Ken and Chikusa had turned up in a beaten up ford transit that made alarming noises when travelling faster than sixty, fitted down fewer than half the streets in most major Italian cities, and had once been painted rainbow. Apparently it had used to belong to a decorating company, certainly it still smelt strongly of paint stripper and plaster. Hayato was not pleased, but given Dino was still slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and the Cavollone guards could notice his absence at any moment, he really wasn’t in a position to complain about the abomination.
Mukuro adored the horrible machine. He named it Princess Persephone. Hayato had a horrible feeling they wouldn’t be ditching it any time soon.
…
Dino had been awake for a few hours, and so far the only thing he’d said was eep. Admittedly, Ken’s driving style was a bit… aggressive, but they were in Italy, Aggressive driving was practically the national sport, it was certainly no reason for Dino to be cowering in the footwell trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t there. Although, thinking about it, had they actually told him why they were kidnapping him? Maybe he thought they were planning to murder him or something. Mukuro’s murder smile probably wasn’t helping with that impression to be honest.
Hayato, wasn’t a particularly comforting person, if he was brutally honest with himself, but he decided he’d probably better try and reassure the mini horse before he had some kind of heart attack.
“Relax, we’re not going to eat you.” He tried, Dino cracked open one eyelid sceptically. “No really, we don’t want to hurt you, we just need you to do a little job for us and then you can go home and forget this ever happened.”
“Because that’s not sinister at all.” Huh, mini Cavallone had a smart mouth, who knew? Still at least he was talking now, with actual words even. He also looked less like he was going to start hyperventilating, so, progress. Of course then Mukuro had to open his mouth.
“Kufufu, this experience will expand your horizons.” And Dino was back to being terrified. On the one hand Hayato could understand why, Mukuro was a very disturbing person, but really, he hadn’t even killed anyone yet in this timeline, Hayato on the other hand had killed at least thirty people in the raid on the Estraneo alone, weren’t Skies meant to be able to pick up on that kind of thing.
“I don’t want my horizons expanded. I just want to go home.” He whined, and Hayato felt a sudden sympathy for Reborn’s tendency to shoot complaining students.
“Well tough. We’re going to Japan, and you’re coming with us. When we get there you’ll do a little favour for us, and then you can go home. So sit up on the seat, pull yourself together, and stop whining or Mukuro here will convince you you’re a my little pony for the duration of the trip.”
“Kufufu what an interesting idea oh great and fearless leader.” Hayato felt a little bad for giving the crazy Mist ideas, but, well, at least it worked, Dino stopped complaining, even if he did look a little like a kicked puppy. He’d get over it, they just needed to give it a few days for the Stockholm syndrome to set in, then he’d be fine.
Now all they needed to do was put some distance between them and the inevitable pursuit. Which was actually going better than expected. The van might be a mobile disaster, but Ken was a very fast, very aggressive driver, who seemed to instinctively know exactly how far he could push it. When they robbed a bank, he was definitely nominating Ken as getaway driver.