The meeting room was chaos.
Elene watched it unfold the way one watched a poorly rehearsed play. Sawada Tsunayoshi stuttered through half-formed apologies, hands flailing uselessly as his so-called guardians talked over him, ignored him, or outright argued among themselves. He couldn’t even finish a sentence without being interrupted.
He can’t command them, she noted calmly.
Gokudera snapped at Yamamoto. Yamamoto laughed it off. Little Lambo Bovino was on the table again, screaming about sweets snd food. Hibari Kyoya hadn’t shown up at all.
Nono have been trying to manipulate and subtle threaten her for the last month, a Sawada still haven't done nothing, for all he claimed to be 'good'.
Elene lifted her teacup and took a measured sip.
Tsuna tried again. “I-I’m really sorry, um—p-please, could we—”
No one listened.
Pathetic, she thought, not cruelly, but with a distant sort of pity. A boss who cannot contain his subordinates is not a boss. He’s a display piece.
Her gaze lingered on Tsuna for a moment longer. Small. Anxious. Surrounded by people who claimed loyalty yet treated him like a toy to be pushed, shouted at, or “trained.”
A puppet, she concluded. Strings everywhere.
If he wanted to play house with his abusers and call it family, that was his choice. If he mistook noise for loyalty and chaos for affection, so be it. Elene had long learned not to rescue those who refused to see their cage.
Like the boy's own crazy mother, lets her drown and die in her own delusions.
She set her cup down gently.
“Enough,” she said, voice level, precise. Sky Flames flaring.
The room froze.
Her eyes met Tsuna’s—not unkind, but unyielding.
“You invited me here for business,” she continued. “If this is theater or a child playgroud, inform me now so I may leave.”
A pause.
Then, coolly:
“And if you are their boss, boy, I suggest you start acting like one.”
She leaned back, fingers resting lightly against porcelain.
“Otherwise,” Elene added, “I have no interest in negotiating with incompetent loud children.”
They fell silent. Tsuna swallowed.
