Uprising

After Chrome returns from the lovely (but very loud) Sasagawa home, she finds her bed stuffed with rocks. She wonders if it's a threat.

Mukuro tunes in then and blinks out at the world through soft indigo eyes. He catches sight of the quilt cover that has been pushed off to reveal a mountain of stones in all shapes and colours. "Oh, that's sweet, he gave you rocks," Mukuro coos.

'Is it a… boy thing?' Chrome asks hesitantly.

Mukuro shrugs Chrome's shoulders. "At first I thought it was a threat, but this is probably the least terrifying thing he's done to you."

'Oh,' Chrome murmurs in understanding and then smiles happily in the back of their shared mind. 'That's so cute. He gave me rocks.'

Potassium Chlorides are very adaptable people.

Mukuro moves forward and starts shifting the pile off the bed and onto the floor, but pauses when he gets a bit deeper into the mountain of stones. The two of them peer down through the same eyes at a faint hint of silver glinting under the ceiling lights.

Mukuro starts moving the rocks again, more cautiously this time, and slowly reveals yet another pile on the bed. This time it's made up of knives –most of them covered in blood- and a couple of brass knuckles, plus one police-issued gun.

'We might need an adult,' Chrome suggests in a small voice.

Mukuro scoffs with derision and simply starts moving the weapons off as well.

Hidden inside the weapons is a beautiful kimono set, which makes the most sense out of everything here, but then wrapped in the silky material is a rectangular glass terrarium filled with sand and a black scorpion – who is lying in purple glitter.

Mukuro blinks and takes a moment to find the proper words. "Okay, so… I'm trying to find a pattern…"

'Have we definitely dismissed the "threat" idea?' Chrome offers up.

"He would have told us," Mukuro reassures Chrome, but that thought isn't exactly reassuring. "We're keeping the scorpion, right?" he adds on.

"So you like the girl things?"

Mukuro whirls around and stares at Kyouya standing in the doorway. "Did you just say…" he cuts himself off turns back to the pile on the bed. "Oh, now I'm seeing the pattern."

'Wait,' Chrome interrupts. 'No, sorry, I'm still really confused.'

"Girls love weapons," Mukuro states. "And the rocks are actually kind of pretty. I shouldn't have to explain this, Chrome, it should be instinctive for you."

Chrome slumps. 'Whatever you say, Mukuro.'

Kyouya watches the girl talk to herself, rather curious as to where the second half of the conversation is happening.

Either way, he considers his pet-keeping methods a success.

.

The next day, Chrome is woken up by Romuku tapping on the glass enclosure around the scorpion. She climbs out of bed, wincing at the pain in her back because she can't seem to get rid of all the rocks from the bed, and then goes to feed the black scorpion that Mukuro named.

Kyouya had insisted yesterday that the glitter was edible and so it was perfectly acceptable food for the creature. Chrome didn't bother arguing, because Kyouya's logic was infectious, and simply snuck out to the pet shop herself.

She wanders downstairs with Romuku on her head and encounters Kyouya in a light blue primary school uniform. There's another neatly folded pile of clothes in his arms, a second uniform, which he then shoves at Chrome.

"You're late," Kyouya says. "Eat and get dressed, we need to go to school."

.

Kyouya drops off Kcl with the not-sister and the other not-friend before rounding the building to where he instructed his glow sticks to wait for him.

They turn at his approach and wait quietly like the wonderfully obedient incendiary grenades that they are. Kyouya has been recruiting with a very special goal in mind and has accumulate dozens more since finding his purple girl.

He stops in front of them and they glow with different colours in greeting – first the reds, then the one orange, then yellows, and so on - all the way down the rainbow. Unfortunately, the colour scheme is interrupted by the loss of his purple and he has yet to find a blue, but it shouldn't take too long to complete the set.

Kyouya smirks.

.

The teacher blinks at the mass of kids who toddle in, with the troublesome boy who tends to leave mid-class leading the pack. He moves to a stool at the front of the classroom and tries to clamber up but it's just too tall. He hooks a leg on the seat but seems to be having difficulty.

A taller boy with a pompadour hairstyle moves forward and helps push him up. When the smaller kid gets to his feet on top of the stool, he reaches out and grabs the taller one's hand as an anchor to keep himself balanced.

The teacher presses a hand to their mouth, trying to keep in a coo at the adorableness.

The boy straightens and turns to the crowd of children accumulated in the room. "Today," the child begins. "We rise."

The teacher freezes as the children roar, throwing up tiny fists that are clutching red armbands.

...

Omake – Memories

"It's like an Asian Xanxus," Levi blurts out.

Lussuria lets out a relieved sigh. "I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that."

"It's kind of nostalgic," Bel snickers.

"Now wait a second," Xanxus cuts in. "I was never that bad."

"I think you're remembering wrong," Squalo drawls.