This fic was a request that I got from the KHR romance challenge forum. Basically, you can challenge the person who posted last to write a story with a pairing of your choice and you can even describe what it will be about. It's interesting :)

Pairing: 6927 with lots of miscommunication requested by I'm Doxophobic

Disclaimer: I do not own KHR

The Prince in the Illusionary Shining Armor

It all started a few weeks after Mukuro finally managed to escape from the Vendicare. Mukuro had immediately stepped up beside Chrome as one of the Vongola's Mist Guardians. In fact, he was very different from how Tsuna remembered him. His hair was a lot longer for one. However, maybe it was the 180 degree turn in his attitude towards Tsuna that was the most surprising.

Instead of his, 'I want to take over your body' attitude, Mukuro had started having an 'indifferent' attitude, or even a 'slightly caring' attitude towards Tsuna. Because of this, Tsuna avoided him for the next few weeks. It was just too plain creepy to see Mukuro like that.

The game of hide and seek eventually ended with Reborn as the victor, even though he didn't join in until the last minute. The surefire way of winning hide and seek is to force everyone else into the open, and that's what Reborn did. Basically, he told Tsuna to man up and stop hiding from Mukuro. His exact words were 'The future boss of Vongola shouldn't be afraid of his own Mist Guardian, idiot student'. Reborn did have to repeat this a few times, and had to use hammer Leon to get the lesson through Tsuna's thick skull though.

The next day (the day it all started) Mukuro approached Tsuna after school had ended. Instead of following his usual trend of late, that is, running away and calling it a 'strategic retreat', Tsuna instead focused on the boy in front of him.

Mukuro, having finally succeeded in approaching Tsuna, smirked. Tsuna, observing this, felt a chill run down his spine. It wasn't that his intuition was acting up; it was just that sadistic a smirk. In all reality though, this was just Mukuro's attempt at a normal smile, he just doesn't have enough practice, so it came out wrong.

Mukuro casually greeted Tsuna, "Tsunayoshi-kun. I was wondering if we could get something to eat together."

Tsuna's eyes widened and he stepped back in fear. Mukuro was probably planning to cast an illusion to make his trident look like a fork and then *accidently* stab him with it! At least that's what he thought at first, but then after his intuition didn't activate, he threw out that possibility.

Tsuna stammered out his response, "Ano, Mukuro-san…" Briefly, Tsuna wondered what would happen to him if he doesn't accept…, "I'll be delighted to accompany you out to eat."

The two headed off towards the Yamamoto's sushi shop, Tsuna leading the way. After all, Tsuna thought, he'd feel a lot more comfortable with the added presence of his Rain Guardian. It took Tsuna half the walk to realize something strange. Mukuro had called him Tsunayoshi-kun. Usually, Mukuro would call him Sawada, or Tsunayoshi, but he had never added on any suffixes before. Mukuro was even using a suffix that conveyed affection towards him! Mukuro was acting funny, and Tsuna just had to wonder if he bumped his head somewhere. It would certainly explain his unusual behavior.

Regardless of the cause of his unusual behavior, Mukuro was here now, and thinking about it further would do Tsuna no good. Especially when thinking about it means accidentally ignoring the person right next to you. This was happening… right now.

"Tsunayoshi-kun, Tsunayoshi-kun," Mukuro called, 'Hellooo~~, earth to Tsunayoshi-kun." Eventually, Mukuro waved his hand in front of Tsuna's face, and got no reaction. He then snapped, and Tsuna snapped back to focus, as if a spell had been broken.

Mukuro found Tsuna's resulting blush adorable, although he didn't voice this reaction. The brunet hesitantly stammered, "H-hai, Mukuro-san?"

Mukuro waved the question off and said, "Hmm, it's nothing. I'd prefer it if you'd call me Mukuro-kun, though. You use that suffix for Gokudera and Yamamoto after all."

"Oh, right…. Mukuro-kun," was Tsuna's delayed response.

By now, they were right in front of the restaurant, so they went inside. Mukuro went up to Yamamoto's dad, and asked for a table for two, as well as whispered something in his ear. For some reason, Yamamoto-san gave Mukuro a knowing wink in return.

Yamamoto-san then led them to one of the corner tables, and told them to make themselves comfortable. He returned a minute later with a plain white candle, placed it in the center of the table, and lit it. He also gave them some menus and then made himself scarce.

Tsuna's eye twitched as he looked at the candle. A candle was something to have on a date, not on a casual luncheon between two friends… if they could even be called that. One day, Tsuna wishes that they could. The Sky accepts all after all, even people that once tried to kill them.

Mukuro's voice broke Tsuna out of his wishful musings, "I've never been here before Tsunayoshi-kun, what do you suggest?"

The topic neutral, Tsuna felt it was safe to answer immediately, "They're all great! I usually get the salmon though."

Soon, Yamamoto-san returned to take their order. Tsuna ordered salmon, and Mukuro asked for shark. Before he left, Yamamoto-san called out, "By the way, Tsunayoshi-kun, Takeshi is currently practicing at the moment. That's why he's not helping out right now. You were looking for him, weren't you?"

Sure enough, Tsuna had been searching for Takeshi among the rabble of customers occupying the restaurant. Tsuna nodded.

Mukuro's eyes narrowed as this piece of information came to light. Why would his Tsunayoshi-kun want to talk to that idiot Yamamoto? Is it possible that Tsunayoshi prefers hanging out with 'Yamamoto-kun' more than himself? No, it couldn't be, after all, Tsunayoshi had said that he would be delighted to come eat with him. In the end, Mukuro decided that Tsunayoshi just wanted to say hello as a courtesy to his friend. It was nothing more, or so Mukuro hoped.

A light tap on the shoulder from Tsuna, and Mukuro was broken out of his thoughts. Mukuro stared at Tsuna, not getting whatever message had just been said. After all he had a great view.

Tsuna started to blush at the staring and muttered, "Ano, Mukuro-kun, our food has arrived."

Mukuro looked down, and noticed that Tsuna was right. A few delicious looking and smelling pieces of shark sushi, along with a glass of water, were placed in front of him. Before he began eating though, he took a look at the paper note beneath his plate, it said: It's free of charge; you're both friends of Takeshi :) Also, good luck Mukuro-kun.

For a moment, Mukuro wondered why the elder Yamamoto knew his name. Then again, he thought, 'Takeshi' must have told his dad about the Vongola's Guardians, at least a little bit.

Mukuro looked back up to see Tsuna obviously enjoying himself. The boy had a wide smile on after all. Mukuro smiled in return, and dug in, finding out that the food was indeed great.

After the food was all done, Tsuna got up to leave. However, before he could get out the door, he was stopped by Mukuro. Mukuro took Tsuna's hand and put something inside it, and left.

Curious, Tsuna looked to see what Mukuro had given him. It was a red rose, with all of its thorns removed. Tsuna's heart did a little ba-bump. Could this be what he thought it was? A red rose symbolizes…

Death and destruction, right? Or at the very least, that was what Tsuna's dad had told him all those years ago when he asked. He also mentioned something along the lines of 'I don't want my little Tsuna-chan to get stolen' but Tsuna didn't think that part was important. Tsuna also vaguely remembered his mother telling him that it represented love, but that couldn't be right, as his dad's explanation made more sense. Red is the color of blood after all, not love.

Therefore, Tsuna came to the conclusion that Mukuro wanted him dead. He shivered. It was odd though, that his intuition didn't act up about this. Oh well, he thought, he'd ask Mukuro about it tomorrow. Right now, he needed to get home and do his homework. Speaking of homework, where was Reborn all this time?

The next day after school, Tsuna decided to go visit Kokuyo Land, in the hopes of finding Mukuro and talking to him, alone. This meant ditching the ever present Gokudera-kun. Thankfully, Lambo did his job for him, by distracting Gokudera and allowing him to get away.

Once Tsuna was near Kokuyo Land, he started to hear voices. He was able to because his ears had gotten sharper at picking up sounds after Reborn's training started. It seemed that Mukuro and Chrome were talking.

A voice that seemed to be Mukuro's drifted by, "But what do I do, Chrome? He isn't reciprocating my feelings."

Briefly, Tsuna wondered who 'He' is.

Chrome was now talking, "Maybe he doesn't realize you have feelings for him, Mukuro-sama. Boss can be a little dense at times."

Huh? Boss? Tsuna thought, are they talking about me?

Mukuro replied, "That didn't occur to me. He does have Hyper Intuition after all. I guess I'll need to tell him straight out. That…"

Tsuna sweat dropped. They were talking about him. Either that or Mukuro has feelings for Giotto or something. Now that would be weird.

Mukuro continued, "That, I like him."

Tsuna was very surprised at this revelation, and quickly backed away, running away *strategic retreating* from Kokuyo Land. Mukuro liked him? Tsuna thought that Mukuro hated him. All in all, Tsuna really shouldn't believe anything from the guy who does construction work with penguins. A red rose does mean love after all, and his mom was right this entire time.

When, Tsuna returned home, he was a bit distracted by this new revelation. He went immediately to his bedroom. He wanted to talk to someone. In hindsight though, it probably wasn't the best idea to talk to his tutor about this, but oh well.

After Tsuna had finished telling his story, Reborn smirked as if he had known this all along. Tsuna then had a strong inkling that Reborn had been spying on him. In actuality, as Tsuna would find out later, Mukuro had actually asked Reborn for permission to woo Tsuna. Reborn is the man of the house after all.

Reborn told Tsuna this advice after hearing his story: "Accept his feelings. If you don't, you'll be alienating your Mist Guardian and you family will fall apart." Reborn also threatened to shoot Tsuna if he didn't accept Mukuro's feelings.

An hour later, the doorbell rang and Tsuna went to answer it. Standing in the doorway, Mukuro was a comic sight. For some reason, he was wearing what appeared to be a suit of armor. Of course, Tsuna thought, it was likely an illusion.

As Tsuna did his best not to giggle, Mukuro asked, "Tsunayoshi–kun," Mukuro managed to produce a bouquet of flowers and offered them to Tsuna, "Will you do me the great honor of allowing me to be your prince in illusionary shining armor?"

It was then that Tsuna broke out laughing, and he simply replied, "Hai, Mukuro-kun." It would be hard to believe that Tsuna was blushing madly at that line, unless you had seen it yourself.

End

Luckily, Reborn has pictures, and can show you for a price. I wish.