There's always a point in time when you feel like life is going too fast.
Sawada Tsunayoshi is 18 when he becomes the tenth boss of the Vongola family. He is universally celebrated.
Sawada Tsunayoshi is 20 when he is told he will be a father. There is even more celebration.
Sawada Kyoko is 20 when she is told she can't make Tsuna a father. There is silence.
"You're simply too small," Shamal tells her. "Your pelvis is extremely narrow, too narrow for a natural birth. You could not possibly sustain enough food or nutrients to keep the fetus healthy, and you have severe anemia, so a cesarean is out of the question. In summary, the baby is trapped."
Sawada Kyoko is 20 when she is taken into everyone's arms, and is ready to cry for an eternity.
"I'm sorry," he tells her, as if it will make her feel better. "I would recommend an abortion before it dies in the womb. That would lead to an even worse situation."
The mist guardian watches from the hospital ward doorway. He frowns. The cloud guardian stands beside him, as far from the crowd of his heartbroken family as possible.
"Tsunayoshi should have known this would happen," he says quietly, watching his young boss bury his face into the summer orange hair of his melancholy bride. "They were unwilling to face the facts."
The mist guardian remains silent. He is thoughtful.
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when he decides to help.
Hibari Kyoya is at an unknown age, on that Monday in April, when he laughs.
Mukuro walks toward the huddle of comfort, gently prying arms out of his way until he is at the center, until he has reached poor Sawada Kyoko.
"I'll give you your baby," he tells her. She has pints of tears soaking her face and hands, shivering as she looks at him with big orange caramel eyes. She wants a baby. So she takes his hand. Tsunayoshi gives him a suspicious and confused face.
"Please," she begs, skinny little fingers grasping his desperately. "Please save it."
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when he saves the heir to the Vongola throne from certain death.
He helps her to her feet. She is unsure if she even has legs, much less if she can stand on them. She breaks down into his cold strong arms, and everyone in the family (that always excludes the cloud guardian) stands tall and attentive. But the mist guardian looks to them with assurance, leading Kyoko slowly out of the hospital ward to privacy.
They wait. No one grew uninterested, no one grew restless. This was an issue beyond anything they had yet to face: death of a child. And not any child: the child of their beloved boss.
Tsunayoshi was the next to be coddled and comforted. But he had grown up. He didn't need to be soothed. He might have been the only one who truly trusted his mist guardian anyway. He had to be focused.
Hours, it seemed. But then they returned.
Sawada Kyoko is 20 when she is given the chance to be a mother again.
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when he is also given the chance to be a mother.
It doesn't take a lot of convincing, not when the Vongola family had been raised on impossible and/or dangerous situations. It's explained, and everyone understands.
However, it's Tsunayoshi of all people who is the most confused.
He isn't angry, no. He could never be angry at being given the chance to save his unborn child. He is just conflicted.
Kyoko runs to her husband with her arms outstretched, her face bright, and tears of joy and relief streaming down her happy pink cheeks. He embraces her so tightly, he is afraid he could break her in half.
"We can still be parents!" she sobs. But Tsunayoshi has yet to stop staring at his blasé mist guardian, still standing alone in the doorway, smirking.
No one asks why he wanted to save the baby. No one wants to question the mysterious and unpredictable reasoning of the mist guardian, lest he change his mind. Not even Hibari bothers the illusionist, yet stays nearly trained to his side, ironically. No one else is brave enough to talk to Mukuro.
Tsunayoshi remains extremely distant. He gives Mukuro the guest room closest to his room, and the authority over his entire maid service. He treats him like a God, yet he stays as far away as he can. Mukuro is upset, but shows indifference.
Kyoko is his new best friend. She follows him anywhere he goes, like a puppy. She does everything she can for him, even though he's got hundreds of maids and attendants at his bidding. She wants to do it herself. It bothers him.
"Are you doing this because you're afraid I won't take care of it properly?" he asks her one day, in the middle of a game of old maid Kyoko had wanted to play with him. He can't move his arms correctly in his cross-legged position on the floor, the bulge in the way of his elbows. She just looks at him incredulously.
"Are you kidding? You saved my baby," she says, her voice pulsing with emotion. Mukuro sees the beginning of tears, and regrets being irritated at her. However, she smiles the kind of smile that brings men to their knees. "I will always be in your debt. Always."
The card game quickly becomes awkward. Kyoko lets the tears fall, and Mukuro closes his big dumb mouth. But she sits up and leans over, curling her arms around his neck and embracing him tightly. Mukuro drops his cards; the old maid falls to the plush carpet.
"Thank you," she whispers, "Thank you so much."
"Think nothing of it."
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when he finally feels compassion.
"The pregnancy is going along fine," Shamal tells him. Mukuro feels uncomfortable, lying on that cold metal table, his shirt up to his neck, and his stomach lathered in cold gel that smells of antiseptic mint. The doctor pokes and prods and uses his ultrasound, displaying a black and white throbbing image on the screen. Kyoko is there to hold his hand, even though he wishes she wouldn't think him so helpless and pathetic. Hibari stands near his head, a silent comfort. Mukuro appreciates it.
"See, Kyoko-chan," the perverted doctor says to her, pointing out a fuzzy moving circle, "There's the head."
Mukuro is a bit disgusted. Childbearing was creepier than he thought it would be. Fetuses were not cute, and newborn children were downright gross. But Kyoko's chocolate eyes light up and sparkle, gripping Mukuro's hand tight against her bosom.
"That's my baby?" she squeaks, emotion showing in her voice again. Mukuro hates when she does that. But he squeezes her hand too, making her look down at him and smile so bright, she could stop anyone in their tracks. Mukuro smiles right back.
"That's your baby," Mukuro tells her. She lets out a sob of happiness and presses Mukuro's hand to her lips, kissing it as she cries.
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when he feels different.
He doesn't like the way it feels to be pregnant. It's annoying.
So he's cooped up in his temporary room with nothing to do. Kyoko's off with her friend Haru doing girl things like shopping and doing each other's hair, he supposes. Hibari is tending to some paperwork from his disciplinary committee, and Mukuro is terribly bored.
The door clicks. But Mukuro is too tired and irritable to turn over and see who it is. He stares out the window silently.
"Why are you doing this?"
Mukuro smiles.
"Because I wasn't the one you chose."
"Then shouldn't you be angry or jealous or something? You shouldn't be so caring."
"So you don't want me to, then?" he says quietly, like his voice is just a whistle of wind. He turns his head to face the ceiling, but Tsunayoshi is leaning over his fainting sofa. His eyebrows are knit together, and his mouth is a thin white line. It makes Mukuro's smile wide.
"I didn't say that," his boss mutters. Mukuro strokes a hand over his large stomach.
"Then why must you bring it up?"
Tsunayoshi doesn't answer. This is the first time he's spoken to the mist guardian in months. Mukuro continues to smile that knowing smile he hates.
"You don't trust me?"
Tsunayoshi is frustrated, but he remains calm. He doesn't know what to say to him.
"If you want to say thank you, don't. I hear that from your wife too much as it is."
Tsunayoshi wants to smile, but he just can't.
"You've been avoiding me."
And there it was: the truth.
"...I..." he starts, gripping the side of the couch tightly, "...I just couldn't believe you'd do that for me..."
Now it's Mukuro's turn to be silent.
"Even though," he whispers, "even though I thought you hated me, because I married Kyoko. I thought you'd...you'd..."
"I'd do something bad to the baby?"
Tsunayoshi nods lightly, and Mukuro turns back to the window.
"You think so little of me, Tsunayoshi-kun. As if I would hurt an innocent unborn child."
It is almost comical how untrue that could have been, years earlier, had Tsunayoshi not been there to change his mist guardian.
"I was dumb to think that," Tsunayoshi admits. "For you to take the baby in the first place should have been a big enough sign."
Mukuro sighs, but says nothing. He is just glad Tsunayoshi is talking to him at all.
But then he leans over the couch and kisses his mist guardian, with soft tender lips Mukuro had forgotten about. He hasn't been given this kind of attention from Tsunayoshi in years. He loves it.
His hands reach up to twine themselves in his soft brown hair, arching. Tsunayoshi's hand caresses his bulging stomach with ghost-like fingers, and Mukuro moans, breaking away with a pop.
"Wouldn't want your wife thinking I replaced her," he whispers against glistening wet lips. He smiles as Tsunayoshi's eyes twitch.
"You...You sneaky bastard." But he finally smiles, for the first time in months. And he kisses him again.
Life could be going fast or slow, but neither of them really minded.
Rokudo Mukuro is 21 when his boss doesn't forget him.
Sawada Tsunayoshi is 20 when he is given not only one bride, but two.