The Power of Love

Admittedly Xanxus is never going to be about love and acceptance with all the sparkles, flower crowns, bunnies and power of friendship that seems endemic to the Sawada-brat. Power and fear are more reliable in controlling a famiglia; especially one as bloody as the Vongola is, because the Vongola dealt with so much of it that they created the Varia to specialize in dishing some of it out specifically. What part of 'elite assassin division' did the brat not comprehend?

The Vongola... It's a mafia empire built on corpses. It is too big to do the love and understanding route with all its subordinates; not even pony-boy can do that, with a solid five-thousand men and a lot less blood and sin under him. Bucking Horse can at least fake it with a core of men, and the entire idea of him being so friendly spreads out from there.

The Sawada brat's more power of friendship, which take time, experiences, common ground and so on. It's not a good foundation for ruling a famiglia like the Vongola when he hasn't been raised as part of the famiglia from the cradle. Dons aren't supposed to be friends with everyone they are supposed to rule over and protect.

Neither is using just power and fear as a foundation to rule though; better to be feared than loved though, as the quote goes. Better than friendship though, especially since the Sawada-brat seems so grateful that they tolerate him to make any demands on their behavior. Like actually listening to him. See why ruling the famiglia through friendship and sparkly bunnies doesn't work?

Having that love, the love of your men though?

That's priceless and something that's only starting to build for the brat, last he saw. If he could inspire that much in half the time to a quarter of the famiglia... maybe things won't turn out to be such a disaster in the future for the Vongola. That's the power of love. It's going to be a hard sell though, even eight years of confinement, a lot of the Vongola had loved and supported him first over Nono's other sons and hadn't forgotten it in his absence.

Xanxus knows about having the love of his men.

Xanxus knows all about the power of love and how to make it last. Not the romantic sort, because he's not a romantic man despite his Italian heritage. He's dismissive of that sort of love. That sort of love isn't required in life, but some people seemed to like it, to love that sort of intimate affection. Some people are a lot more dead because of it.

Assassins aren't romantic as a rule, due to the nature of their profession but they can understand love. They can understand that it'll drive a man to drink, a woman too. They understand that love of beauty and conquest that makes people have affairs, seduce the beautiful, the dangerous, the well-connected that fill the upper reaches of society within the underworld and in high society. The love of family, whether to kin, distant relatives or chosen family. That's not the power he's talking about. That's not the right sort of love either.

The type of love he has from his men, is that of a killer, an assassin; the sort of love you want from men living a lifestyle based on the cold bottom lines of business and blood spilled because it is the most convenient or profitable.

An assassin's love is measured in devotion. It's measured in blood spilled, years waited, money made, seconds spent and the length of Squalo's hair. That's the type of love that assassins have and that's the assassins keep. It's loyalty, trust and anticipation of danger, blood, hard work and sleepless nights planning a campaign before an 'ally' becomes an enemy. It's love and so much more.

That's an assassin's type of love and it's dangerous, oh so dangerous because it is powerful. It cuts the lover, it cuts the loved and fear is required to dull it to affection and frustration instead of devotion bordering on insanity. It requires trust and need to sharpen to a deadly edge.

This sort of love isn't easy to see. It's an assassin's love, not a hitman's passion or a man to his mistress. It's easy to see the fear that he uses to rule the Varia. It's much harder to see the love involved. To see how strong it is. How he uses it.

Xanxus understands the power of love. Understands the how of how assassins love, how it's measured and how to use it. He uses it to keep the Varia as his. How he keeps himself a power within the Vongola itself and how he'd be Decimo if it wasn't for the pesky matter of his bloodline ruining that chance. He's loved by the famgilia and the Varia; he appreciates it and knows how he plans to use it.

No one ever said that love was always selfless or that he wasn't a selfish man. Love's powerful and Xanxus understands that. He couldn't rule the Varia without it.

But he wasn't going ever go for the flower crowns or flying cupids; that's just ridiculous.

But blood? He might be persuaded there eventually beyond purely business. No reason to make things easy though.

A/N: There's a number of ways to read into that last line.

Partly based on a response to someone on tumblr from ages ago that Izzy forgot about until she had realized she had kept it on a WIP.