The Cradle and the Sword

Squalo woke up, listening carefully. Someone was walking in the corridor. He took the sword he always kept with him, ignoring his parents' lectures about how it wasn't proper for an eight year old to carry a sword at all times, and quietly came out of his room. He saw someone enter the room next to his, recognized his mother and decided to take a look. He wondered why his mother would bother waking up but he then remembered that Tanaka was ill. Flat against the wall like a ninja, he leaned a little to look in the room. His mother was bent over the cradle where the sobbing was coming from, speaking in a tired and angry voice.

"Shut up now! Enough! If you don't stop, your father will wake up! Shut up, Gioia! I said, SHUT UP!"

The sudden change of tone seemed to silence the baby. Knowing his mother would come out of the room any moment, Squalo stealthily returned to his room, taking care not to make any noise with his sword. He heard his mother going back to her room and waited a few minutes before coming out again. He entered the baby's room on tiptoe and closed the door. He then walked up to the cradle and bent over to observe the baby with curiosity.

His little sister was not sobbing anymore but big tears kept rolling in silence on her cheeks. She looked up at his older brother, her big grey eyes reflecting the surprise and curiosity he was feeling himself. The two children stared at each other for some time, without moving. Finally, the little girl held out her arms toward her brother, moaning. Squalo panicked. If she made too much noise, their mother would come back and she would not be happy to see that both her children were awake. The little girl kept holding out her arms to reach for her brother. She was already a few months old but Squalo had never carried his younger sister. And he would certainly not try it in the middle of the night when she was about to cry. She let out a sob, her arms still trying to reach her brother. In a panic, Squalo put in the cradle next to his sister the first thing he found, that is the sword he was holding the whole time.

Squalo panicked even more when he realised what he had done. Giving a sword to a baby… Could he have been more stupid? What was he thinking? The blade was protected by the case but it still was a sword! He had to take it back now! Before she could get hurt with it! He had to…

Squalo looked at the baby with astonishment. After observing the unknown object with curiosity, the little girl had put a tiny hand on the sword's handle and had closed her eyes. The tears had stopped rolling on her cheeks and she was now breathing regularly. Squalo was amazed at how fast her sister had fallen asleep. Was it possible to fall asleep that fast? And was all she needed to stop crying a sword? Squalo looked at his sister for a few minutes. He didn't really understand why his parents didn't like her but he thought his sister was cute, cute being only a synonym for little sister in his dictionary, and he decided that he would take care of his sister from now on.

Tanaka, the butler who was taking care of Gioia Gandor, was feeling better after a good night sleep. Like every morning, he went to the little girl's room to wake her up and feed her but he stopped when he opened the door. On the floor, near the cradle was a messy pile of blankets. He went closer and let out a soft cry of surprise as he recognized Squalo buried in the blankets. A faint smile tinged with relief appeared on his wrinkle-lined face.

Until he discovered with horror the little Gioia was sleeping while holding a sword…

Note:

So that's it for the first chapter! I'd like to explain a few things about this fic. It actually is like a side story of another fic I started writing a while ago. Gioia was my main character and she arrived in Japan just before the Varia arc in KHR. Then, as I was writing, some ideas kept coming about her childhood with Squalo and the rest of the Varia. So I decided to write about her past OTL

I don't know if I'll publish the main fic one day but I thought this one would be a mini series with short chapters and well yeah... maybe easier to read and less boring? ^^"

Reviews are more than welcome ;~;

And big thanks to PsychedelicFlame for being an awesome beta