Realizations

The two of them grew up together. When they were only five, the two of them were always in the same room. Lambo was such a rowdy kid and he seemed to enjoy annoying everyone. I-pin was incredibly shy, but even at such a young age, she knew that someone had to be responsible to keep Lambo in place. Really, she tried. Lambo teased her a lot, and I-pin ran after him and the two of them would scream and wrestle. It would get on Tsuna's nerves so much that he would burry a pillow around his head and try to drown out the sounds.

"They won't be able to do this in couple of years." Kyoko whispered to Tsuna, and Tsuna saw the amused smile on her face as she tucked the two babies in. I-pin would be angry once she woke up, because she had a lollipop stuck on the back of her shirt. Still, neither Tsuna nor Kyoko had ever seen Lambo looking so peaceful, and this was because he was holding on to I-pin's arm unconsciously as he slept.

"It must be nice… they're so sweet." Kyoko told Tsuna later on.

Tsuna looked confused. "They do nothing but argue," he said. He wondered why Kyoko gave him a soft but knowing smile.

…

When they were seven, Lambo was sent back to Italy. He stayed there for months, and Haru commented that I-pin looked so bored and upset. That day, she asked I-pin if she wanted to go shopping. Instead of buying her usual Chinese dumplings, the young girl brought home a bag of candies and set some aside for "the brocolli monster, once he comes back".

Because of this, Haru realized that I-pin was attached to Lambo, much more than she would admit. A few days later, I-pin went back to China with her master.

On the fourth month, Lambo came back to Japan. Tsuna ducked for cover when the grenades came, but the smoke subsided after a while and Lambo demanded to know where I-pin was. Haru told him that she went to China, and Lambo looked upset. He stormed around the house and found the bag of candy under Tsuna's bed, laughed loudly and finished it up in a few bites.

"Hehe! She's going to be so angry once she gets back!" He proclaimed.

"But she got those for you!" Haru told him, and he got confused and blinked. It wasn't her answer that confused him, it was more of the incoherent giggling that follow.

He later heard Tsuna stutter and say, "H-Haru, they're just kids", and he wondered what Haru confided in Tsuna. I-pin returned a few days later and when she couldn't find the candies under the bed, she accused Lambo of stealing ("Hahi? You said those were his!") and Lambo allowed I-pin to chase him around as he laughed loudly, just for old time's sake.

…

Nine. That was how old both of them were when the Mafia business was getting more serious, and Lambo was sent back to Italy. Something must have happened to him, because even though he was starting to simmer down from the noisy boy he had been, he hadn't spoken a word when he got back to Japan. At all.

Fuuta was the one who was looking after the both of them at this point, and he pat Lambo on the back and said that it would be okay. I-pin wondered why Gokudera had spoken to Lambo in Italian in such a morose tone, and Haru had hit him when he offered Lambo a cigarette.

"What happened?" I-pin inquired. She finally mustered up the courage to ask.

Lambo chewed off his lollipop. "Nothing." He replied and she didn't ask any more questions, and the young boy suddenly broke down and I-pin held him tightly. He never told her what happened, and she didn't really see the need to ask. Lambo had and will always be the crybaby, but I-pin knew that this particular situation was actually worth crying for, and she consoled him the best way a nine-year old bestfriend could. It was all hugs and childish assurances, but it worked, and Fuuta saw that I-pin was the only one who could speak to the young Bovino in such a way.

…

They were both around eleven when Tsuna started to have the underground base built, but it was just designs and plans by then. It did confirm that things were about to get more serious now, and this was also around the same time when I-pin decided to leave behind the life of an assassin and concentrate on her studies.

She asked and begged Lambo to train, because he was a guardian and that mattered, but Lambo shook his head and ignored her. Upset, she said, "I'm not going to cry over you grave," and Lambo laughed, knew that she was joking around.

…

At thirteen, Tsuna suggested that Lambo go to Namimori Middle. Lambo had been going back and forth to Italy by then and studied with home tutors that the Bovino family acquired for him. I-pin, on the other hand, had been in Namimori Middle for a while. The day Lambo entered her classroom and introduced himself, she frowned at the giggles her girl classmates gave.

"You don't think he's cute, I-pin?" They asked her, and she shrugged and looked away, and the guys of the room were pleased because most of them had a crush on I-pin. When the teacher asked Lambo where he wanted to sit and Lambo picked the desk beside I-pin, the guys were surprised because he seemed so forward. It took them a while to realize that the two had known eachother since they were five.

They were at a class trip when some girls took I-pin aside and asked her to set them up with Lambo. I-pin said that was insane, and the girls asked her, quite frankly, if she had a crush on Lamb. When I-pin stated that they were acting absurd, they then laughed and said she seemed jealous.

Later that night, being the childish teenagers they were, the class settled for a game of Truth or Dare. I-pin said she wanted to sleep, Lambo said the same thing, but they were both forced in the end. When the bottle pointed at I-pin and she chose Truth, the girl blushed profusely when people asked her who her crush was. Lambo was thankful that her Bomb no longer set off.

Everyone thought she was thinking of Lambo, so they all turned to Lambo and asked, "You should know, you're her best friend. Who does I-pin like?"

Lambo, who was not paying attention, answered with the first thing that came to his mind. "Huh? I don't know. Hibari-san, I think?"

They all watched as I-pin flung the bottle at Lambo.

They got a new bottle, one that wasn't cracked. After a few spins, it pointed towards Lambo who chose Dare. "Kiss the prettiest girl," they stated. Lambo shrugged, reached forward, and gave I-pin a peck on the cheek like a friend would. I-pin huffed, didn't really care much about kiss, and told him that he wasn't going to be forgiven that easily.

After the class trip, nobody tried to ask Lambo or I-pin out anymore. Even though they both insisted they were just friends, everyone else was a lot smarter.

…

On the night that Lambo turned fourteen, I-pin kissed him, and he was surprised. "Huh." He said as he watched the blush that crawled over her face. He wasn't all that surprised about it, because the two of them had been hinting that they wanted more. They were both just too scared to make a move, too scared that it would be a mistake. "I thought you liked Hibari-san." He blurted it out with a goofy grin.

"You," Gokudera said in Italian, later that night, as he stared at the black eye on Lambo's face. "You are stupid."

Lambo smiled, replied in Italian, "I know."

…

When they were both fourteen, they watched their surroundings dissolve into nothing but ruins. Their classmates wondered why they never went to class anymore. A certain female classmate saw I-pin and Lambo running on the streets once with a worried expresion. This girl waved to say hello and to ask them what was going on.

They were with a suit-clad man with silver hair who was yelling in Italian, and I-pin wasn't really listening to him because she couldn't understand the language. They were being chased by a group of men, and Lambo was lagging behind. The silver-haired man grabbed something from his pockets and threw it towards the direction of their pursuers. I-pin screamed, "Gokudera-kun, Lambo's still there!" and Gokudera said, "Fuck, he's old enough."

The girl stood there, like everyone else, and watched with huge eyes as a huge explosion went off. Lambo, coughing, came running out of the smoke and paused for a while when he saw their classmate. He smiled and calmy told her to get away before running off, and their classmate saw the scowl I-pin gave him.

"I was warning her, I-pin."

"And you had to smile?"

Gokudera rolled his eyes.

…

The day they were sent to look for Haru and Kyoko was the day they were sent back to the past. It was strange, seeing such peaceful streets. So strange to sleep on the old and comfortable bed of Tsuna, their boss who was no longer there—The Tsuna who was from their time, that was.

They both fell asleep on Tsuna's bed like old times, and Lambo hugged I-pin and told her it would be alright. He kissed her and told her to believe in the Vongola. Kyoko smiled to herself when she found them asleep on Tsuna's bed, arms around eachother, and she remembered that day when she told Tsuna that they wouldn't be able to do this when they were older. Strange, how they proved her wrong.

End.