After the fight with Hibari, Gokudera Hayato limped home to the apartment several blocks from the Sawada home (and, for those interested, nowhere near the Irie residence), gratefully surprised to discover his door was unlocked.

It would only be unlocked if one person was waiting inside. The super had been bribed to leave him alone unless the boss came calling, and only she had a key. Sofia Bellamy, his lover, best friend and occasional mission partner, was reclined on his bed, naked. She roused herself the moment she heard him stumble in the doorway. Instead of crying out his name as she clearly wanted to, worried brown eyes scanned his body as she got up, delicate gunman's hands reaching for him. Hayato fell into her arms with a groan.

Sofia murmured to him, panic held at bay as she shuffled him to the couch. His protest when she walked away was cut off by a low intonation of his name, a warning to heed her as she rummaged for the first aid kit. Shamal-approved, it had served well through similar crises.

Once Sofia had stripped his clothes and inspected the rest of him, she pursed her lips and decided

"Bath. Then food and sleep." He wanted to protest again, that they only had so much time together before she had to leave, but the dull pain in his chest overrode his desires.

It didn't take long to get cleaned, rewrapped, fed and tucked into bed. Sofia crawled in to spoon him from behind, and Hayato felt like he could finally rest.

Groaning as he rose the next morning, he was surprised and pleased that she'd remained with him. Normally, Sofia was gone before he woke, the duties of the Vongola's sole Bellona many and varied. She smiled softly at him, reaching up to tuck his hair behind his ears and cup his cheek. His voice was gruff when he spoke

"You're still here." Sofia hummed, eyes dancing as she whispered

"The Ninth reassigned me to Sawada's retinue when my sister and our aunt made a stink about not knowing the Master I would serve for most of my life. That you're here is secondary- so says Aunt Carmen." Chuckling, Hayato slid over top of her. Dipping his head to blow on her ear, he whispered

"Remind me to thank your Aunt Carmen, then." Sofia arched beneath him, laugh throaty as she replied

"Oh, I already did." Her arms link around his neck and her leg comes up, swinging over at the knee to curl around his back. He has school today, she has to register for classes, but Hayato doesn't give a damn.

"Condom?" He breathes the question against her neck, hissing when he jars his battered ribs, groaning in pleasure when she pants back smugly

"I-IUD, no need for o-one." Pinning her wrists, he grinds out

"Get ready, baby girl." Her eyes flash with arousal, and she almost chokes as she ruts against him, the way his hands retreat to lift her hips making it even easier. Sofia's breaths are short and quick, both legs coiled around his hips, arms braced on the bed.

He slides into her sheath as easy as breathing. She moans his name as he leans over, lowering their joined bodies as he takes his turn to rut against her hips. Distantly, he hears a knock on the door, ignores it. He doesn't care about anything except banging the girl on his cock.

And that is how Sawada Tsunayoshi met his chief Assassin-for-hire. He walked in and froze in the bedroom doorway as the Italian girl's eyes rolled back and she moaned

"Ah, ah, Hay-ah-ah-to!" Given he hadn't made a sound when he walked through the unlocked door, Tsuna wasn't heard as his self-proclaimed right hand shouted victoriously through his own orgasm. Tsuna very wisely walked back out and met Sofia at school when Gokudera introduced them.

The next person to catch Gokudera-kun and 'Bellona-hime' en flagrante delicto is Haru. Who is at first unsure what she's seeing when Bad Boy Gokudera tugs Good Girl Vongola Bellona to a secluded alley near Namimori Middle and pushes her against the wall and kisses her roughly.

"Hey! Get off her!" Haru tries to interfere, striking Gokudera's head to get him off Tsuna-kun's friend. Or she would have, except Vongola-san's left hand had snapped out to take her wrist in a crushing grip. Furious brown eyes glared at her over a rangy shoulder. Haru blinked, cringing when Vongola-san snarled venomously

"Try to hit Hayato again and they won't know where to look for your corpse!" Green eyes glinted as Gokudera glanced over his shoulder at Haru, smirking at her before turning to hoist Sofia against the wall by the ass. Her grip on Haru's wrist goes slack, and Hayato chuckles to himself as he starts fingering her, laughing when she drops Haru's wrist as she goes limp in his grasp. Haru squeaks when Sofia adjusts her legs around Hayato and moans when he hits her G-Spot.

Tsuna meets Haru's eyes knowingly when she scurries back to him. The others don't understand, but the way it's going, they will. Oh boy, they will.

Yamamoto Takeshi is one of the several people who catch Vongola-san blowing Gokudera-kun. While the guys are looking on enviously and the girls are fainting, Takeshi is the only one noting that neither of them cares that they were caught. Considering they chose a secluded part of the park, it's actually surprising they got caught. But it's more surprising that the kneeling girl is ignoring them in favour of sucking on Gokudera's cock, though maybe she's slurping more noisily than before for a reason.

Kyoko and Hana don't actually catch them being totally indecent. When Kyoko invites Bellona to a slumber party, Gokudera walks her over to the Sasagawa house, sweeping her into a passionate goodbye kiss before leaving. When Hana raises a brow and Kyoko blushes, Bellona yawns and says simply

"We were raised in Italy, everything is more passionately expressed over there." Shooting a smirk at a trembling Haru as she glides into the house, Bellona yawns again before lounging on the floor. When Kyoko curiously asks her how she's so 'mature' and Hana reluctantly nods in agreement, Haru's own head bob silent, Bellona answers lazily

"You all are kittens to my lion cub. Deal with it."

It's not that Sofia is a bitch. She's genuinely nice unless you threaten Hayato or Tsuna, and if you even think of trying anything on Sawada Nana, she'll get downright unpleasant. Sofia's issue is that her father tried to sell her to the Ninth as a concubine, either for him or his sons, as he'd done with her older sister Maria. When he'd known full well she'd already promised herself to Hayato.

Maria, like their Aunt Carmen, was first the concubine, and then the wife of a Cavallone man. Thankfully, Erik had sold Maria to Dino's father, who had taken one look at the fierce little boxer and remembered the girl his son had befriended. Timoteo had already known about Sofia's predicament, courtesy of Hayato. Purchasing her had won him Hayato's gratitude, making her free but for the contracts he needed to be fulfilled had won him both their loyalty.

If not for those chances of fate, Sofia knows, the chances of her ending up in the bed of an asshole were much higher. Even Carmen marrying Romario is likely a fluke.

So she's protective of Hayato and the Vongola, and it makes her vicious.

These girls might end up being the mothers of a good deal of the next generation of Vongola, and it kind of disgusts Sofia. She's a sniper, trained and tested with a high success rate, capable enough in close combat to fend off most opponents. Hayato is an explosives expert and a certified genius. Mob and or criminal legacies spanning at least a few generations, any offspring they produce is likely to be just as proficient as they are in the art of killing.

Lying on Sasagawa Kyoko's floor, Sofia has a realization.

Yes, the fact that none of these girls are combat capable irritates her.

However, she has three choices:

Whine and do nothing (doesn't interest her, it's not in her nature to lament).

Shut up and let it go (the riskiest option, considering the lifestyle she's involved in).

Or.

Or she could whip their asses into shape.

She knows how to teach combat, knows how to convince them. Kyoko will be the easiest, with a touch of tough love. But the question remains- should she? Sofia can rationalize this decision easy, no problem, can even force them to keep it a secret.

But should she do this? They don't know how to defend themselves and this might be an oversight, or it could be Reborn's thoughts all along, tricking her into doing what needs to be done. Chewing her lip, Sofia decided

At the very least, I can make sure they can run away, and that they know when to. And I will do this. The pen is mightier than the sword, but my will is stronger still. I don't care about them beyond that the Boss cares about preserving life where possible. I'm not that good, I've never cared about anyone beyond the Alliance since Timoteo paid for my release.

This won't make up for the lives I've taken. I'm still going to Hell. But maybe I protect the Juudaime's heart by teaching them to protect themselves. Maybe.

"Alright, up and at 'em, Maggots!" She barked, rolling to her feet and marching out the door, snickering when the three little morons followed her. When they had combat skill, she wouldn't call them morons. Maybe.

Dropping into a stretch on the sidewalk, she glanced at the dumbfounded trio and explained tersely

"I'm going to teach you how to fight." She shot down the inevitable protests by mentioning coolly

"Ryohei could use backup sometimes, Lambo-san finds power attractive (not a lie, she knows, having been swapped with the ten-year bazooka in time to hear him ramble over the subject) and Tsuna also needs backup on occasion." Stifling a chuckle at their newfound eagerness, Sofia starts them on a month of running and callisthenics. She could be cruel about their training, she knows, and that will come later, after yoga and weight lifting and routine workouts have done their job. Unlike Reborn, she has the luxury of easing her students into this.

It's kind of fun, teaching them to plan and cook healthy, easy meals that can be transferred just as easily to a bento box. When she starts them on actual sparring, Sofia drags them to an older dojo and blasts rock music as she throws them onto the hardwood floor. Instead of the boxing pose learned from watching Ryohei fight, Sofia forces Kyoko to adopt a bladed open hand ready stance. Hana learns the drop crouch Sofia herself and her sister Maria favour, while Haru quickly adapts to the odd cat stances of the martial art Sofia had learned from Aunt Carmen. All three apply themselves after that first rush of power from a properly executed throw or spinning kick or elbow.

At first, Sofia hadn't intended for her students to fight if they didn't have to, though sparring, they admit, is a great stress reliever. Sofia never mentions that she spars with others regularly, because it would have crushed their fledgeling confidence.

But then someone tries to flirt with and touch Kyoko four months after she started learning to fight, and six after she started working out. With an unearthly- and frankly, uncharacteristic snarl- she slams her elbow into his nose before kicking him in the gut. Kyoko grins when Sofia slides over, reefing the assailants' wrists behind his back, jerking her knee into his back and muttering in his ear

"I don't think you want to mess with the tiger cub, do you, hot shot?" He gulps, shakes his head, and pales when Hana, examining her nails, adds

"This Panther doesn't like people picking on her best friend." Haru bows cutely, bearing her teeth in a hunters' promise and says perkily

"A Leopardess doesn't change her spots, you know?" would-be assailant sputters, looking absurdly grateful when Gokudera hums and asks silkily

"Isn't that enough, Lioness?" Sofia shoves the idiot away from her and purrs

"Ah, Lion, are you asking me to behave?" while the would-be flirt scrambles away, Gokudera regards his lover with a mix of passion and wry humour that catches his friends by surprise and her students off guard. Tilting her head with a huff, Sofia blows him a kiss and says breezily

"I'll catch you at home, hmm? I've got teaching to do." He nods, smiling when Haru, Hana and Kyoko exchange grins.

The boys, of course, high tail after them, Ryohei caught between pride and confusion. Watching the sparring session sparks something in Tsuna. That something blazes into flame when he overhears Sofia lecturing the girls on 'finding the best domestic partner'. It must, she insists, be someone of equal strength, be it the heart, the mind, or the body. Someone worthy of standing with them.

It takes exactly seven months to break Kurokawa Hana's infatuation with Bovino Lambo. She realizes, the moment she sees Bellona-sensei whirl around the dojo floor to the piano music spilling from the radio in the arms of Gokudera Hayato, that Lambo is not enough. Handsome and flirty and 'mature' when he's here, yes, but Sofia has taught her to fight, has shown her that she's willing to scream and bleed for what matters to her.

So when her best friends' brother asks for a dance, almost shyly fiddling with the wrapping on his hands, she accepts, happily surprised when he guides her into the same style of dance as Gokudera and Bellona.

Kyoko and Haru want their happy endings too, of course. But Yamamoto is yet oblivious and Tsuna has accepted he's got work to do if he's to be 'acceptable. The only ones without clear prospects of any kind are Chrome and Kyoya, but even that is no open and shut case, Sofia knows.

Chrome will probably end up in bed with Rokudo Mukuro's men, one or both, at least once. It's the natural order of things, considering hormones. As for Hibari and I-pin, an age gap of ten years, though rocky in the time, and for several years hence, is not untenable, if, say, they can wait fifteen years.

A flight of fancy, maybe. But Sofia knows that reality is not what is; oh no, reality is seeing what could be and choosing to act, to believe.

Her reality has always been Hayato. Loving him and being loved by him, since before it was romantic, before bastard children, concubines and sex itself entered their little world, it's always been Hayato. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten out of what her father tried to do. But Nono chose to do what would help her, and now, her reality is the reality she shares with Hayato: they are the loyal servants of the Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi.

A/N: Please email me with prompts! The address is on my profile if you'd rather not pm. All fandoms I write for (or, challenge me to enter a new one). Also, check out the fan blog on my profile, if you please.