Title: Devil In Disguise
Author: me obviously
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: Chrome-centric fanfic featuring Xanxus, Squalo, Dino, Tsuna and some of his guardians.
Warnings: het, crack-pairings, a lot of TYL!Chrome :)
Summary: The inheritance ceremony was disturbed by a sudden bang and the only thing left for everyone to see was just a cloud of pink smoke enveloping 13 year-old Chrome Dokuro.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR nor the characters.

Enjoy :) (and i'd strongly suggest to read the afterword ;3)

DEVIL IN DISGUISE

It happened without a single trace of warning, the only thing left for everyone to see was just a cloud of pink smoke enveloping 13 year-old Chrome Dokuro. Tsuna was too late to catch Lambo who had been running around with his 10-later-Bazooka all the time, and this was what came out from that. Reborn, who was silently standing in one corner of the room almost face-palmed at the complete lack of capability the future Vongola boss should have developed by now.

The room was beautifully decorated for today's event namely the inheritance ceremony and the most infamous mafia families around the globe came to take part. One more reason for Tsuna and his guardians to be nervous.

By now almost every pair of eyes was fixed upon the spot where a certain pineapple headed mist guardian had been standing a few seconds ago.

Tsuna was watching the scene nervously while holding tightly onto Lambo (who was struggling due to the lack of oxygen already), when Dino came up behind him and patted him on the shoulder.
"That's alright Tsuna. I've always wanted to know what adult Chrome-chan looks like anyway."

That said, the pink smoke slowly began to fade and revealed a fully grown-up woman that could only be described as beautiful. Her skin looked pale and soft, a contrast to her long dark-purple hair and black eye-patch. The trademark pineapple hairstyle that once matched her master's was gone and instead dark silky locks fell freely around her shoulder blades. Her one visible eye still had the same kind and innocent look but there was something else deep inside that she didn't let anyone see. Though Tsuna with his extraordinary intuition felt it the moment he laid his eyes on her.
Chrome was wearing a chic black dress that fitted her form perfectly and was just short enough to show some leg. The slit up the side revealed a small black gun strapped around her upper thigh. The word sexy came to a whole new meaning.

And that was most likely the thing that came up in everyone's minds as they watched the woman's chest raise and fall heavily whilst her left arm shot straight down to her gun.
Even the Varia (who didn't want to be there in the first place) fell silent.

The first thought that ran through Chrome's mind was 'what happened?' closely followed by 'where am I and who are these people?'. Until she saw the familiar faces of her Boss, Reborn, the other guardians and the Varia. Then her eye fell on the lightning kid holding his Bazooka and she understood. Forcing herself into a more relaxed stance she smiled hesitantly at her boss who looked downright shocked and she wondered if he saw her reaching for the gun earlier. It wasn't as if she did it on purpose, it was more like a reflex she got from years of hard training.
Chrome turned in her fellow guardian's direction and where Tsuna stood and walked up to them. When she reached her Boss she lay a small hand on his cheek, bending down to place a whisper of a kiss on the other.

"Boss. It's been long."

Her voice was still the same, soft and monotone, almost non-existent but they could hear it clearly nonetheless. But now there was something to it that made them pause, that made them want to take a closer look at her. Something more complex then any words could describe. It was absurd because it was just Chrome. Only Chrome.
The kind and polite girl they knew and loved.

Then Tsuna realized.
He couldn't feel him. In front of them was only standing Chrome, without her usually always-present counterpart. She was all alone and that made the difference. As if she saw right through his thinking her face lit up with the most sincere smile he had ever seen and she wrapped her arms around his small figure whispering something into his ear only for him to hear.

"Don't worry Boss. We are fine."

With these words she turned to the guardians.

"I almost forgot how cute you guys were back then."

When Gokudera sneered at that she ran her fingers through his hair like a mother would do it with her child and let out a bell's laughter when he blushed fiercely and shook her hand off muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'Che. Women'.

For Dino she spared an extra warm smile telling him not to go too hard on Kyouya or else he'll try to get even with him in the future and she didn't want to see another dear person ending up in hospital because of the cloud guardian's temperament. Dino made a mental note not to anger Hibari without a good reason from now on.

"Please take care of yourselves everyone."

And it sounded as if she truly meant it. When Chrome turned around to look for a special someone she was met with an extremely loud voice and immediately knew who it belonged to.

"VOOOIIII...what's everyone crowding here for? Oi," ,he said pinning Chrome down with his intense stare. "if you're really the damn mist guardian of Vongola then stop messing with the ceremony, woman!"

"Please refrain from screaming at me, Squ-alo-kun."

Tsuna and Dino sharply inhaled probably thinking the exact same thing.
Though Chrome seemed to be even more relaxed than a few moments ago, now that she was standing face to face (well face to shoulder to be exact) to Superbia Squalo.

The silver haired man was about to open his mouth once again to shout something but was stopped by a finger placed on his lips to silent him.

"You should grow your bangs. It'll suit you."

Squalo stood dumbfounded and as still as a statue even after she left him standing there amongst the Vongola guardians, incapable of saying anything else.

Chrome was not stupid. She wasn't crazy, either. She knew he'd probably call her trash and try to kill her or at least scare her with his flames enough for everyone else to go hide in fear.
She wasn't the young naive girl she used to be anymore. Mukuro had raised her different from that and she was more than willing to demonstrate the effect he had had on her.

The man was young. Younger than she'd had imagined and his scars were still in place, adorning his face in a dangerous way, though she knew some of them would fade away within the long span of ten years. It was a pity because she actually liked them. His stare couldn't be any more intense and she couldn't help but wonder if maybe it would have been less painful had he shot her down the second he saw her.
She approached him, slowly, hand hovering only inches above her gun (just in case) but Xanxus did not make a move to harm her in any way. He didn't even twitch when her hand came to rest upon his arm. He was in a sitting position as always, which made it harder for her to look him in the eyes directly, so she had to bend down for her next words to reach him.

When her lips lightly touched the edge of his ear and his body moved as quick as a cat's, a bang could be heard and once again a pink cloud embraced 23 year-old Chrome.

A murmur ran through the crowd almost as if everyone had been anticipating more to happen between the man and the woman who had looked so familiar with each other the other second. Tsuna had almost fainted at the sight that was presented to him while Squalo kind of seemed to be in a state of shock.

Then, 13 year-old Chrome Dokuro was back again and had to suppress a high-pitched scream when she realized the situation she was in. Spread half across the Varia boss's legs with the muzzle of his gun aimed at her forehead, an odd looking expression on the man's face.

Well, that was indeed to much for the poor girl to handle.

The end.

I hope you enjoyed reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
I've always wanted to know what would or could happen if an adult Chrome showed up and what the situation would be like or her behavior towards everyone. And i hope she isn't too ooc...but then again...YAY for parallel worlds! :D This fact almost makes it impossible to write TYL-characters ooc.
Uhhhh there were so many ways to write TYL-Chrome SO MANY! X3 Maybe i'll write some more of these fics.

Oh and as for some story facts (before you ask):

It kinda hurt me to separate her from Mukuro but that's my picture of adult Chrome. A confident and no longer dependent woman who goes her own ways. But of course she's still part of Vongola. After all she loves her family.
Mukuro and Chrome aren't the same person anymore but they still play alongside one another.
Maybe even as lovers...in a different parallel world.

Yes I do love non-canon crack pairings and i love pairing Chrome up with pretty anyone (except for the real creepy guys * shivers *). I mean c'mon! She matches every single hot guy in Reborn so why not? XD
(Oh and i SO wanted to include Hibari/Chrome cuz i LOVE the pairing but somehow it didn't work out T_T) btw 5996 is one of my secret favs as well * hides *

As for the end...i've been totally in Xanxus/Chrome mood lately but it would have been a pain in the ass to write a story only featuring them and not make it sound...creepy and ooc in some ways.
And i'm not sure if our young! cute little Chrome could handle an asshole such as him. In TYL-verse on the other hand...

And Squalo/Chrome is just soooooooo adorable, ain't it x3

Yes the title is taken from an Elvis Presley song ;)

As a last word: please review and tell me whether the story sucked or you actually liked it so that i know i'm not the only creeper out there! ;D