Can We Try?

By: Kerosama

Summary: "Daddy?" He looked up, to see her there… "Do I have a mommy?" Silence was the only answer that was given to her… Xfem27. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except this story plot and my Oc's.

Alodia looked at her clock on the wall, it read seven-thirty. It meant her daddy would be home soon… She hurried to finish with the remaining homework on her writing desk. Once every while, glancing at the clock… Five minutes to eight, she heard the familiar sound of the gates opening…

She hurriedly jumped out of her seat, to look out the window… She saw her daddy's car coming in their home. Alodia watched as the car entered the gate and parked in front of the doors. She saw the driver coming out and opening the door for her daddy came out and looked as intimidating as always… He wordlessly walked to the door and went inside the house. Alodia; then hurriedly went out of her room and ran downstairs. She saw him going in his study, where he would probably be staying till ten…

She quietly made her way to the study, but she stopped when she reached the door. She knew she wasn't supposed to disturb him when he was working but today was different. She had a question she could only ask him…

She braced herself and knocked on the door. She knocked thrice and waited. After a brief moment which felt like an eternity to her, a gruff voice said: "Enter."

She gave a sigh of relief, he didn't sound too mad and she took the door handle and opened the door. The door opened and revealed the study room; in it was her daddy, on a mahogany desk, writing something on a piece of paper. He glanced at her direction to see who was knocking. When he saw it was her, he raised an eyebrow in question. But he went back to his work.

The girl closed the door quietly and went closer to the desk. She glanced at her daddy, who continued to write. She closed her eyes to calm herself, and when she opened them she began.

"Daddy?"

He looked up to see his daughter with a face that looked anxious. He didn't say anything and went back to writing…

Alodia took this as her cue to continue…

"Daddy, do I have a mommy?"

At her words, he stopped writing and seriously looked at her. The girl didn't have the same anxiousness on her face; instead she had a familiar determined expression on her face…

But even then he didn't answer her.

"Boss!"

The shout brought him out of his thoughts and back to the present. He turned to his side and scowled at his subordinate.

"Shut-up, Squalo. I heard you the first time." He said before grabbing the papers that the other male were holding.

"So?" Squalo asked.

He stopped writing, but he continued after a few seconds and said: "So- what?"

His subordinate gave a sigh. "So what did you tell her?"

"Nothing." He answered.

"You told her nothing?" His subordinate asked- more of shouted, shocked at his boss' action.

"What is there to tell her, Squalo?" He asked though the way he said it, it was like he meant it as: there's nothing to tell…

Squalo gave a sigh at his boss' and childhood friend's stubbornness. "Xanxus, you knew this was bound to happen… Alodia is growing up, what is she three?"

"Five." Xanxus corrected him.

"See? Of course it's only natural she's curious, as to why she doesn't have a mother…"

"…"

"You could always remarry boss, you own the Varia Company and your still in your twenties and you don't look that bad. You could marry a nice girl to give Alodia a mother."

"…"

"Of course I forgot, you're too hung up with Alodia's mother to even try…"

At his words, Xanxus stared or began to glare at Squalo who was smirking. He continued to glare at him though he didn't try to rebuke him or deny his words.

After a minute of glaring, Xanxus went back to his work and Squalo got a couple of papers on Xanxus' desk and began walking to the door.

"Xanxus…" Squalo said.

Xanxus didn't even look up, but he was listening.

"At least tell her something… Even when she's usually behaved, when she really wants something she won't stop until she gets it… She definitely got that quality from you…" Squalo said before leaving the room, chuckling at the last part.

There was a knock on the door and the butler quickly delivered the message to his mistress.

"Young miss, your father requests your presence in the dining room…"

This startled her; but she quickly got out of her room and headed downstairs with the butler in tow. If anything, her daddy detests waiting the most… Not wanting to anger him even more she quickly entered the dining room.

When she entered the room; she expected to see him angry. But what she saw was he had a look on his face she never saw before… He turned to face them and waved his hand to dismiss the butler, when the butler got out of the room he turned to look at her.

When she saw his gaze was on her, she began to feel nervous.

"Alodia, come here." He said calmly.

She didn't hesitate and went to where he was. He suddenly moved his hand toward her head. She thought she was going to get hit, but all she got was soft pats on the head. She looked up to see her daddy with the softest expression she remembered ever seeing on his face.

Xanxus got her and put the girl on his lap. The girl looked curiously at him with those familiar toffee colored eyes…

He began to feel melancholy staring at those eyes… But there was something he needed to for her and he doubted that if he didn't do this now, he wasn't going to do this… Not in a long time, at least… He got an old dusty box from the table. He held it in his hands carefully. He then opened the box and carefully got the contents from the box. When he got the contents he placed something in his pocket and returned the empty box on the dining table.

Alodia's eyes were on what was in her daddy's hands, she was examining at what it was… He was holding a book, it was still in good condition but it looked old. He was looking at it with an expression of nostalgia. He then turned to face her. "Do you know why I called you here?"

She shook her head, but then she remembered her entering the study and asking that question… She thought she was here to get a punishment or to face the consequences of her actions… Yet, she thought of how he didn't seem mad…

She was taken out from her thoughts when her daddy spoke to her. "Alodia, do you want to see what your mother looks like?"

At his words she snapped in attention to him. Xanxus chuckled inwardly; she was just like her mother…

He then placed the book in front of her and opened it. The insides were pictures though, which showed that it wasn't a book, but an album. Alodia looked at the people in the pictures, she recognized some of them, her grandpa, her grandma, her uncles, uncle Squalo, her daddy when he was younger and other people who she either didn't know or was familiar…

Then her eyes stopped to one picture, it was a picture of her father wearing a tuxedo, next to him was a female wearing a toffee colored dress. They were both smiling…

Xanxus noticed this and said: "This is your mom. Her name is Sawada Tsunako… This picture was taken in a New Year's party in your uncle's apartment…"

The girl stopped paying attention to him the moment she heard him say the girl was her mother…

She stared at the woman; she had toffee colored hair, unlike her own black hair and the same eyes as her… She was beautiful and she was smiling so sweetly.

"She's pretty isn't she?" Her father asked.

She could only nod, and after a while she turned to face her father. "Where is she now?"

"…"

"Daddy?"

"She left, the reason was because of an argument we had and it was really petty-but we didn't give in and it lead to a divorce. Worst part, is I ironically don't even remember what we fought about… " He answered chuckling bitterly.

Alodia stared at him. She couldn't understand him. "If you have an argument then why can't you just make up with mommy, daddy?"

"It complicated…" Xanxus answered trying to hide the bitterness in his tone…

"No it's not, when people get in an argument they say sorry and make up. Didn't you tell me that daddy?" She asked with her toffee eyes looking at him innocently.

"This isn't something that a simple sorry can fix, Alodia…" He answered trying to avoid her gaze.

"Then, if sorry is not enough- uncle Squalo told me that people kiss and make up. He said his mommy and daddy did that a lot when he was younger and it always fixed their problems." Alodia said fiercely, fearlessly meeting his gaze with her eyes.

At that point, Xanxus felt like an idiot. He couldn't rebuke her child-like logic, just like he could never rebuke another's unusual logic…

He sat on his desk contemplating what to do when a knock interrupted him. He gave a grunt to signify they could come in… The person opened the door from the outside and went inside… He then handed a folder of papers which had been sent by a private investigator he hired in Japan…

After he got the folder, he dismissed his subordinate. He then stared at the folder, then after a brief moment he braced himself and opened it…

Here he was in the bar again… He was having a drink with his childhood friend and vice-president, Squalo.

"Why are we here again?" Squalo asked trying to focus; he had just drunk three glasses of scotch and was now tipsy...

"I need to blow off steam…" Xanxus answered.

Squalo gave a grunt and tried to steady himself on the bar's counter and on his seat. "Did you tell Alodia?"

Xanxus gave a grunt which Squalo understood as a yes.

"How much did you tell her?" Squalo questioned, eyeing him carefully.

"Everything…" At his answer, Squalo instantly faced him with a look of surprise, ignoring his body's semi-lucidness.

"How did she take it?"

"Well." Xanxus answered, yet he did so in a tone which Squalo recognized as the same tone Xanxus used when they were talking about his wife after the divorce. This meant this topic was going to be off-limits for tonight.

Squalo then thought of others things to talk about. "It's been a long time since we got a couple of drinks in this bar… You stopped drinking here when Tsuna got pregnant. Even after the divorce you only drunk at home…"

"I had a child to take care of, what do you expect?" Xanxus answered, sipping what was his forth glass of brandy that night.

"I remember when we were younger the three of us, you, me and Tsuna used to drink here… You seated there, Tsuna in our middle and me next to her… Now that I mention it, you've always liked her ever since before… Yet she never noticed your feelings until you kissed her." Squalo said reminiscing the past.

"Hmm…"

"Hey, now that I think about it it's been five years since you know…" Squalo commented, he continued when his companion didn't respond…

"It would be nice if all three of us went drinking again; too bad one of us is in Japan."

Xanxus looked at him and Squalo went on.

"I heard you hired a private investigator to find her in Japan..."

Xanxus didn't say anything but kept listening…

"Are you-"

Squalo asked but was interrupted when Xanxus cut him off. "I'm going to try… I want to try again… I don't want to regret not trying one day…"

Squalo stared at his boss to see determined eyes. He hadn't seen those eyes in a long time… He gave a small sigh and gave a look to his childhood friend.

"I see, but that's not what I was going to ask… I was going to ask if you already told Alodia?" Squalo said, smiling knowingly…

"…"

"I thought so." He said before straightening in his seat and ordering a celebratory drink.

"Oh and boss…" He began. "I was right Alodia did get that quality from you…"

In one of Xanxus' hand was a phone in his other was a small band, it was a simple white gold ring with a stone on it. It was the ring his wife had given back to him after the divorce. He stared at both of them and took a deep breath. He then dialed numbers. All that was left to do was to wait…

Seven years later…

"Craynne!"

A shout was heard all over the manor. The inhabitants of the manor merely sighed, it seemed like only yesterday the manor was quiet and peaceful… Now it was chaos, pure chaos… Though no one minded, actually it had been a welcome change…

Though, they sometimes wished that the young miss grew up more like her mother…

In the courtyard, there were tables and chairs set up. The table was a table filled with cakes and pastries. There were also tea and a beautiful centerpiece on the table. Around the table were people around their thirties or older. They were all seated around the table. The people had different reactions to the shout though…

An elderly couples in their fifties laughed at the shout. Saying something about being lively and energetic early in the morning… The elderly couple was talking animatedly about the weather and a long silver haired man next to them just gave a sigh and looked at the woman to his side. "Don't they ever get tired of it?"

"No… They never do, Craynne always finds new ways to pull pranks on Alodia." She answered, giving him a smile.

"Those two are always at it; I can never get a moment's rest with them… I told you it was a bad idea to let your best friend take care of him… You should've let Squalo take care of him." A man wearing a suit said to the woman while pointed to the silver haired man.

"Don't blame Mukuro for this one, Xanxus… He had nothing to do with this… Craynne's always been a prankster and besides you're the one always spoiling them." She answered back.

Squalo gave her a look, which meant he didn't believe her words.

"Yeah right Tsuna, is it also a coincidence that Craynne's pranks became more intricate the day after he babysat?" Xanxus asked.

"Yes." She answered simply, smiling.

Both males just looked at her incredously.

"Why did you let Mukuro babysit anyways? There were a lot of people you could've asked." Squalo asked.

"Isn't it only logical to? Mukuro is Craynne's Godfather." She said.

"Don't remind me…" Xanxus grumbled as he began to massage his temples.

Tsuna laughed at him and Xanxus gave her a look, she didn't stop laughing though… Squalo pitied him a bit and decided to help his friend out. He tried changing the topic to something safer than their current topic.

"How about you're other children? How did you choose their Godparent?"

"Huh? Oh I decided to get them according to similarities… Like Feliciana to Hibari because they both didn't like to be in crowds…" She answered shocking them.

"That's the reason you choose Hibari?" Xanxus said feeling a vein throb in annoyance and anger.

"Well because we're best friends and because of that, yes…" She said, looking at the pie and tart for a moment before picking the pie and putting it in her plate.

"I will never get your logic." Squalo said. He was on the verge of face palming because of his friend.

"For once, I agree with him…" Xanxus said, clearly annoyed.

"But you can't rebuke me." She stated smirking, before turning to face her in-laws and have an animated chat with them concerning their grandchildren.

Squalo glanced at his boss, whose eyebrow was twitching in annoyance.

"It's a good thing you decided to try." Squalo said.

Xanxus looked at him before answering. "I should be thanking my daughter for this… If it wasn't for her and her logic, I probably would have never tried…"

"Then she's like her mother, always pushing you around but it usually leads to something good in the end…" Squalo said to him while smiling knowingly.

"Shut up, Squalo." He said glaring at him. The two were quiet after that and the only sounds they could hear were nature and three people talking… There was peace and quiet in the surroundings…

The silence was broken though when an enraged shout pierced through the air.

"Craynne!"

The shout was much louder than the previous one and could rival Squalo's. They heard footsteps running to where they were. The doors burst open to reveal a boy with black hair and brown eyes about seven; he had an amused look on his face and was laughing as he ran across the yard. He was being chased by an older girl with similar features, who looked enraged probably because of her hair being covered in gunk.

The elderly couple just smiled and chuckled as their grandchildren played their usual game of killer and prankster in the yard.

"Alodia and Craynne look well… Oh! How are the triplets?" Squalo asked casually.

"They're fine. Feliciana, Jacques and Marcus are all in Japan right this moment to visit their grandparents." Tsuna answered just as casually.

Tsuna and Squalo then began to animatedly talk about Squalo's children, his twins Arelia and Cornelia. They choose to ignore the screams of bloody murder and amused laughter going on behind them.

Xanxus just stared at his dysfunctional family and came to two realizations. One was that he really was spoiling his children while the second was the fact that he couldn't imagine life any other way…

Arelia: Thank you for reading.

Craynne: Hope you enjoyed.

Cornelia: Please review.