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Canon: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Summary: Lancia gets introduced to a certain bitty.
Warnings: CEEB issues, some mild references to child experimentation/abuse.
He'd dozed off during the trip, and woke up on a large couch in a decent sized, carpetted room lined with bookshelves; completely different from the lab environs, and while here was a memory that there'd been rooms like this elsewhere in the compound, he hadn't been paying attention before.
The ropes around his wrists were gone; there were no signs of any restraints, nor was there anyone waiting or hovering - it looked like he was alone in the room. That was more than enough to raise mental alarms; he sat up still, curling up into the padded arm of the ornate couch, pulling a cushioned pillow over as if half-heartedly hiding under it. It had to be some kind of test, but what did they want? There wasn't any clear sign of anything he was supposed to be paying attention to. Was it a puzzle to get out, was there something in the room he was supposed to find, or were they testing if he'd stay put and wait for directions? Did they have someone waiting outside the door? It couldn't just be something where they would let him walk out, there had to be security he didn't see, and he wasn't sure he could get past it until he saw it - which meant biding his time and playing along -
But what was he playing along with, and what would the punishment be if he guessed wrong?
He scrunched further between the pillow and the couch, mind running in circles trying to find some direction to hold onto.
By the time the door opened, he'd buried himself into the red fabric as much as he could, the various possible problems blurring into a locked up morass; the click of the latch and the sound of footsteps snapped focus - he hadn't figured out what he was supposed to do, and he was pretty sure "freeze up" wasn't it; he was going to end up in some kind of trouble, and he stayed frozen under the pillow to wait.
He'd wadded up enough that there was a moment where the Boss almost didn't see him, a brief panic moment of wondering where he might be and what he'd gotten into, but it was only a beat before he and Lancia both spotted the out of place pillow with a small shape wedged between it and the couch.
There was no pause between that and Lancia walking over to kneel next to the couch, voice quiet and gentle, carefully calm. "Hey - it's okay; nobody's going to hurt you here."
69 peered around the pillow; he'd heard things like that before, and it'd always really meant "we want you quiet and cooperating", or "there's a break now until shift change or someone in charge walks in". A half glance found that the Boss was, in fact, in the back of the room watching, and he pulled back under the pillow; it wasn't much of an act of protest, but he didn't get away from the Estraneo just to completely rag doll for someone else, even if he wasn't sure what to do just yet.
Lancia glanced over his shoulder enough to look from the Boss to the door; the Boss frowned, unsure, then nodded and walked out - as dangerous as the kid was, he didn't seem hostile right now, and if anyone could get through it was Lancia; better to trust his adopted son's judgment than hover and risk scaring the kid worse.
There was another cautious peek out at the sound of the door opening and shutting; the one in charge had left - he wasn't sure what to make of that. Maybe it meant worse, maybe it meant trying to make him think they weren't watching as closely.
Lancia had noticed the surgical stitching around the kid's eye - fresh, still healing; the red eye obviously wasn't his real eye, although it at least seemed to be working okay. He didn't comment, and kept the first reaction quiet for later - a mix of "What the Hell had been done to this kid" and "If there's any of the people responsible still alive, I want a piece of them". Right now the kid was more important, and he'd been through more than enough Hell.
"You're safe now - you can come out whenever you're ready.". He settled from kneeling to sitting cross-legged, to wait, shoulders relaxing, not directly watching. "I came here like this myself - was maybe a little older than you, but not by much.". There was a little movement; he was being watched again. "I kind of remembered getting picked up but it'd been pretty rough, and I wasn't sure where I was when I woke up - I went for under the couch."
It was hitting more "this doesn't really make sense" territory; was this someone that was a project somehow? He didn’t seem like one, he dressed and acted like anyone else here.
“You’ve been out for a while, right?” There was a pause, to see if the boy would answer; when there wasn’t one, he shrugged and went on. “I’m going to get some water from the table here if you’re thirsty; you don’t have to if you don’t want it.” He gave a couple seconds for that to process, then got up to get a glass of water from the pitcher on one of the side tables – then returned to sitting by the couch, holding the glass up in the boy’s reach.
About as he’d expected from that scar, it got a suspicious look and no movement; he took a sip from it himself and held it back out. “Just water, nothing else.” He carefully set it on the couch just in front of the pillow, pulling his hand back to fold both hands in his lap.
There was a long minute of being watched, before the boy pulled the water into his half-there hideaway, curling up around the glass, sipping at it quietly.
“You’ve been through quite a bit, haven’t you.” It was quiet, half out loud; no answer expected and none given. “You won’t go back to anything like that – I’ll make sure of that myself.” Silence, and still watching him with suspicion; it’d take a long time for that to wear off. “If anyone bothers you, let me know – you’re Family now, and it’s my job to keep you safe; I know it might take a while to get used to, and you probably won’t trust me for a while, but nobody has any right to hurt you, and I want to know so I can stop them if they try.” He stayed silent; none of it really made any sense, and Lancia was right, he didn’t trust any of it. “When you’re ready, you can talk if you want to – I don’t mind either way. Though…”
He gave the kid a lopsided smile. “I hear nobody’s got a clue what your name is; it’d be easier than calling you ‘hey you’.”
There was quiet for another minute as he considered it, then a very small answer from under the pillow. “Sixty-nine.”
He managed to cover the moment where his stomach dropped a little; as much as he didn’t know about the kid, that wasn’t something with any kind of good implications. “Well, since you’ve got nothing to do with your old family anymore, do you want a new name?”
There was a curious headtilt at that, with faint confusion, but it didn’t seem like there was any resistance to the suggestion.
“It could be anything, and if you don’t like it, you can always change it later; what do you say?”
The blink at that was still lost, but at least in a direction where it looked like he might have an opening, although the kid was still staying silent.
“Well then, for now… how about Eliseo, until you’ve had some time to decide for yourself?”
He curled up around the water a little more, although less intent on hiding and more just studying Lancia, not sure what he was looking at.
“We can use that for a while, then.” He smiled; it looked like he was relaxing a little, at least… though he did worry at how thin the kid was. “Say, are you hungry? There’s food downstairs, I can take you.”
No answer, but he did show a bit more cautious interest, thinking over the mention of food. Lancia stood, holding out a hand.
He shifted, not sure he trusted it; but for now it did seem like the only option, and at least there weren’t any needles involved. After a bit of thought, he squirmed just out from behind the pillow enough to set the glass of water down and reach over tentatively; when Lancia moved to help him down, there was a startled flinch and almost freeze, but no sudden movements or attempt to pick him up; once he had his feet on the ground, Lancia pulled his hand back, giving him space, and walked over to hold the door open.
Summary: Lancia gets introduced to a certain bitty.
Warnings: CEEB issues, some mild references to child experimentation/abuse.
He'd dozed off during the trip, and woke up on a large couch in a decent sized, carpetted room lined with bookshelves; completely different from the lab environs, and while here was a memory that there'd been rooms like this elsewhere in the compound, he hadn't been paying attention before.
The ropes around his wrists were gone; there were no signs of any restraints, nor was there anyone waiting or hovering - it looked like he was alone in the room. That was more than enough to raise mental alarms; he sat up still, curling up into the padded arm of the ornate couch, pulling a cushioned pillow over as if half-heartedly hiding under it. It had to be some kind of test, but what did they want? There wasn't any clear sign of anything he was supposed to be paying attention to. Was it a puzzle to get out, was there something in the room he was supposed to find, or were they testing if he'd stay put and wait for directions? Did they have someone waiting outside the door? It couldn't just be something where they would let him walk out, there had to be security he didn't see, and he wasn't sure he could get past it until he saw it - which meant biding his time and playing along -
But what was he playing along with, and what would the punishment be if he guessed wrong?
He scrunched further between the pillow and the couch, mind running in circles trying to find some direction to hold onto.
By the time the door opened, he'd buried himself into the red fabric as much as he could, the various possible problems blurring into a locked up morass; the click of the latch and the sound of footsteps snapped focus - he hadn't figured out what he was supposed to do, and he was pretty sure "freeze up" wasn't it; he was going to end up in some kind of trouble, and he stayed frozen under the pillow to wait.
He'd wadded up enough that there was a moment where the Boss almost didn't see him, a brief panic moment of wondering where he might be and what he'd gotten into, but it was only a beat before he and Lancia both spotted the out of place pillow with a small shape wedged between it and the couch.
There was no pause between that and Lancia walking over to kneel next to the couch, voice quiet and gentle, carefully calm. "Hey - it's okay; nobody's going to hurt you here."
69 peered around the pillow; he'd heard things like that before, and it'd always really meant "we want you quiet and cooperating", or "there's a break now until shift change or someone in charge walks in". A half glance found that the Boss was, in fact, in the back of the room watching, and he pulled back under the pillow; it wasn't much of an act of protest, but he didn't get away from the Estraneo just to completely rag doll for someone else, even if he wasn't sure what to do just yet.
Lancia glanced over his shoulder enough to look from the Boss to the door; the Boss frowned, unsure, then nodded and walked out - as dangerous as the kid was, he didn't seem hostile right now, and if anyone could get through it was Lancia; better to trust his adopted son's judgment than hover and risk scaring the kid worse.
There was another cautious peek out at the sound of the door opening and shutting; the one in charge had left - he wasn't sure what to make of that. Maybe it meant worse, maybe it meant trying to make him think they weren't watching as closely.
Lancia had noticed the surgical stitching around the kid's eye - fresh, still healing; the red eye obviously wasn't his real eye, although it at least seemed to be working okay. He didn't comment, and kept the first reaction quiet for later - a mix of "What the Hell had been done to this kid" and "If there's any of the people responsible still alive, I want a piece of them". Right now the kid was more important, and he'd been through more than enough Hell.
"You're safe now - you can come out whenever you're ready.". He settled from kneeling to sitting cross-legged, to wait, shoulders relaxing, not directly watching. "I came here like this myself - was maybe a little older than you, but not by much.". There was a little movement; he was being watched again. "I kind of remembered getting picked up but it'd been pretty rough, and I wasn't sure where I was when I woke up - I went for under the couch."
It was hitting more "this doesn't really make sense" territory; was this someone that was a project somehow? He didn’t seem like one, he dressed and acted like anyone else here.
“You’ve been out for a while, right?” There was a pause, to see if the boy would answer; when there wasn’t one, he shrugged and went on. “I’m going to get some water from the table here if you’re thirsty; you don’t have to if you don’t want it.” He gave a couple seconds for that to process, then got up to get a glass of water from the pitcher on one of the side tables – then returned to sitting by the couch, holding the glass up in the boy’s reach.
About as he’d expected from that scar, it got a suspicious look and no movement; he took a sip from it himself and held it back out. “Just water, nothing else.” He carefully set it on the couch just in front of the pillow, pulling his hand back to fold both hands in his lap.
There was a long minute of being watched, before the boy pulled the water into his half-there hideaway, curling up around the glass, sipping at it quietly.
“You’ve been through quite a bit, haven’t you.” It was quiet, half out loud; no answer expected and none given. “You won’t go back to anything like that – I’ll make sure of that myself.” Silence, and still watching him with suspicion; it’d take a long time for that to wear off. “If anyone bothers you, let me know – you’re Family now, and it’s my job to keep you safe; I know it might take a while to get used to, and you probably won’t trust me for a while, but nobody has any right to hurt you, and I want to know so I can stop them if they try.” He stayed silent; none of it really made any sense, and Lancia was right, he didn’t trust any of it. “When you’re ready, you can talk if you want to – I don’t mind either way. Though…”
He gave the kid a lopsided smile. “I hear nobody’s got a clue what your name is; it’d be easier than calling you ‘hey you’.”
There was quiet for another minute as he considered it, then a very small answer from under the pillow. “Sixty-nine.”
He managed to cover the moment where his stomach dropped a little; as much as he didn’t know about the kid, that wasn’t something with any kind of good implications. “Well, since you’ve got nothing to do with your old family anymore, do you want a new name?”
There was a curious headtilt at that, with faint confusion, but it didn’t seem like there was any resistance to the suggestion.
“It could be anything, and if you don’t like it, you can always change it later; what do you say?”
The blink at that was still lost, but at least in a direction where it looked like he might have an opening, although the kid was still staying silent.
“Well then, for now… how about Eliseo, until you’ve had some time to decide for yourself?”
He curled up around the water a little more, although less intent on hiding and more just studying Lancia, not sure what he was looking at.
“We can use that for a while, then.” He smiled; it looked like he was relaxing a little, at least… though he did worry at how thin the kid was. “Say, are you hungry? There’s food downstairs, I can take you.”
No answer, but he did show a bit more cautious interest, thinking over the mention of food. Lancia stood, holding out a hand.
He shifted, not sure he trusted it; but for now it did seem like the only option, and at least there weren’t any needles involved. After a bit of thought, he squirmed just out from behind the pillow enough to set the glass of water down and reach over tentatively; when Lancia moved to help him down, there was a startled flinch and almost freeze, but no sudden movements or attempt to pick him up; once he had his feet on the ground, Lancia pulled his hand back, giving him space, and walked over to hold the door open.
