Summary: Omake for Raising a Family. It's Tsuna's tenth birthday, and the family decides to celebrate it by going to the amusement park! What starts as a fun family outing soon morphs into a competition to uncover the various amusement park related fears the guardians harbor, some of which are beyond bizarre.
SkyGem: Waah! I'm so sorry I took so long to post this! I just have a lot of work lately DX. Anyways, I know you guys have been looking forward to the next chapter of RaF, but the whole Future Arc is just such a bitch to write (pardon my French XD). I'm taking some time to go over the future arc to make sure I don't make any (noticeable) mistakes, and I actually have to plan everything out...so the updates might be a bit slow for this arc.
Dedication: I don't usually do this, but this fic is dedicated to Illusionist Owl for giving me my 500th review on RaF! If you want to request an RaF omake, then good luck getting 1000th review XD (Oh jeez, aren't I just SO modest? *cue sarcasm*) XD
Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.
P.S. This happens when Takeshi, Hayato, and Tsuna are ten, Ryohei is eleven, and the twins and Kyoya are twelve (they haven't started school in Japan yet). And if I'm not mistaken, Lambo would be about…5 months?
Tsuna was fast asleep in his bed, dreaming of whatever it is that Tsuna's dream of, when he was suddenly and rudely awoken by none other than the bright October sunlight streaming in through his bedroom window and dancing across his face.
Groggily opening his eyes, the brunette looked over at the digital clock on his bedside table, and when he saw that it was already ten o'clock, he quickly hopped out of bed with a smile on his face.
After taking a quick shower, brushing his teeth and hair, and slipping on his bunny slippers, Tsuna made his way down to the dining room where.
Upon arriving at his destination, he threw open the doors and (as he expected,) his family shouted, "Surprise!" and he was showered in confetti.
Giotto walked forward and swept the brunette up into his arms, placing a kiss on his forehead. "Happy birthday, Tsuna!"
Tsuna, more than a little embarrassed at the action, squirmed in his father's arms, cursing his body for being so much smaller than others his age. "Dad!" he said in exasperation. "I'm ten years old already! Can you please put me down?"
Laughing good-naturedly, Giotto released his grasp on his son and, the moment his feet touched the floor, Tsuna was attacked by his siblings.
"Happy tenth birthday, Nidaime! I wish you a long and prosperous life!" shouted Hayato enthusiastically, shyly hugging his younger brother.
"Maa, looks like you're finally ten years old, Tsuna," laughed Takeshi, hugging Tsuna as well.
"Kufufu, my dear Tsunayoshi is so big now! I'm so proud!" said Mukuro, ruffling his brother's hair patronizingly.
"H-happy birthday, Tsuna," said Chrome, placing a kiss on his cheek.
"Happy EXTREME birthday, Tsuna! I hope to spar with you some time in the coming years!"
"Happy birthday, herbivore," said Kyoya, showing one of his beautiful, rare smiles as he leaned in to hug his younger brother.
After the children were done, all the adults went up to congratulate Tsuna too.
Giotto watched from the sidelines with a wide smile on his face, scarcely believing that it had already been ten years since his son was born. The blond honestly didn't know how he had survived before Tsuna had come into his life.
When all the greetings and congratulations were done, everyone sat down to eat.
"So, is there anywhere special you want to go today?" asked Giotto of his son. "It's been a while since we've had a family outing."
Tsuna's face lit up at his father's question. Even though it was a tradition that everyone have breakfast and dinner together when it was any of the children's birthdays, it was quite a rare occasion for the family to be able to spend the day together. Oftentimes, Tsuna's uncles were busy, and would have to leave soon after breakfast was done.
"Let's go to the amusement park!" he suggested, and like that, everything was settled. As everyone excitedly started to get ready for their day out, the adults failed to realize one thing. In the past, whenever the children were taken to the amusement park, only two or three of the adults would go with them, so they would easily be able to avoid certain rides. Now that everyone was going, though, a few secrets were bound to be spilled.
About one hour later, the family had arrived at the amusement park in four inconspicuous family cars instead of the usual limo, preferring not to draw so much attention to themselves.
Hopping out of the cars, Tsuna and his siblings looked around excitedly at all the rides.
G, not knowing what was in store for him, asked the kids, "Where do you guys want to go first?"
"Let's go on the 'Anchors Away' ride!" Tsuna immediately supplied, pointing towards the large Viking ship ride.
The storm guardian's face suddenly paled at the suggestion but, being the doting uncle he was, there was absolutely no way he would deny Tsuna anything on his birthday. "S-sure," he said, trying not to stutter as some of the other guardians looked at him with pity.
Even though today was a weekend, the park wasn't too crowded, so they didn't have to wait too long for their turn on the ride.
As everyone took their seats, G tried to get away with taking care of baby Lampo, but that plan was soon foiled as the five-month-old started crying and Sylvana excused herself so that she could go to the ladies' room and feed him.
"Oi! Old man! Hurry up and get on!" shouted Hayato, gesturing to the empty seat behind him.
"I'm coming!" snapped G, though it had less fire in it than usual. Hayato noticed this, but ignored it, thinking it was because his father was in an especially good mood today.
Walking slowly to his seat, G sat down and waited for the ride to start, whispering to himself over and over, "It's okay. This isn't a real ship. I won't get sick. It's okay…" etc.
Soon, as the ship started slowly moving back and forth, gaining momentum, G found that he felt fine and started to hope that maybe he wasn't going to get sick after all.
As the ship started moving faster and higher, though, certain unpleasant memories started to tug at his mind.
Looking from side to side uneasily, G saw only empty sky on either side for a second, and suddenly, he was back on the ship from thirteen years ago.
"Kufufufu, what's wrong, mister right-arm?" asked an eighteen year old Daemon. "The reliable right-arm wouldn't happen to be sea-sick, would he?"
"S-shut up," replied G, his head and arms hanging over the side of the boat; his skin had a decidedly green tint to it that clashed immensely with his hair (AN: he hadn't gotten his tattoo by this time).
"You shouldn't tease him like that unc- I mean, mister Daemon," said the voice of a man with black hair and shockingly familiar brown eyes.
"Kufufu, and you should know your place, you freeloading stowaway. Just because Giotto was too nice to throw you and your friends overboard, don't think that I will be the same."
For a second, shock crossed the other man's features, but before the scene could go on, G's eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring up at the sky.
From somewhere beside him came a barely audible grumble, and the storm guardian jerked up into a sitting position to see the kids staring at him with expressions varying from embarrassed, to worried, to amused.
"Are you okay, uncle G?" asked Tsuna worriedly; staring at him with his huge, brown eyes that were the exact duplicate of the eyes of the man in G's memory. G's eyes narrowed when he made the connection, trying to figure out why there was another man in the world with his nephew's eyes.
"Uncle G?" repeated Tsuna, looking even more worried.
"Huh?" said the redhead dumbly, snapping out of his thoughts. "Oh, I'm fine! Sorry for worrying you!"
"Geez, dad, if you were scared, you should have just said something!" grumbled Hayato, looking embarrassed, yet a little worried at the same time.
"I wasn't scared!" shouted G indignantly.
"Kufufu, you looked pretty scared to me," supplied Mukuro, looking quite amused.
"B-brother," said Chrome, looking embarrassed for her brother's rudeness. "Don't tease uncle G like that!"
"There's no need to be so worried of his feelings, my dear Chrome," said Daemon to his daughter. Smirking at his friend, he said, "It's true that he was scared. There's actually quite an interesting story behind that."
Suddenly, all the kids' heads snapped towards the mist guardian, eyes glinting with curiosity.
"What happened?" asked Takeshi.
"Don't you dare tell them," hissed G, but Daemon ignored him, smiling delightedly at the children.
"Well," he said. "It all started thirteen years ago. See, we had just created the Vongola, and we had been invited to mafia land. Anyways, we were on the ferry, and we had been out on the sea for not even twenty minutes when G became violently seasick, and he even accidentally threw up on the Don of the Neve Famiglia." Here, Daemon chuckled, as if recalling a fond memory. "After that, he was almost sliced to pieces by the man's bodyguards. The only reason he's even alive today is because Giotto was able to convince the man that he wasn't even worth the energy. Ever since then, he's been deathly afraid of boats."
Tsuna cocked his head to the side, confused. "But the ride didn't feel anything like being on a boat!" he said, recalling the one time he had been on a ferry when he was younger.
Knuckle let out a bellow laugh here. "Apparently, it doesn't even have to feel like being on a boat. As long as it's moving, and looks even remotely like a ship, then he'll pass out."
By now, G's face was the same colour of his hair, and he was about to start yelling at the mist guardian. When he saw Tsuna laughing, though, his anger was pacified a little bit. If the birthday boy was having so much fun, then he guessed it wasn't so bad.
"Well, if you're all quite done laughing at G, let's get to the next ride!" suggested Asari.
And with that, the issue was all but forgotten as the kids rushed their parents over to the teacup rides.
Giggling, Tsuna stepped off the teacup ride, swaying a little as he walked.
"Dizzy?" asked Giotto, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Kinda," admitted the boy.
"Well then, what ride should we go on next?" he asked.
"Let's go on the bumper cars!" suggested Takeshi. "We didn't get to go last time!"
Asari's face suddenly paled a little at this, and he placed a hand on the boy's face. "U-umm, Takeshi, the line for the bumper cars is probably going to be pretty long, why don't we go on another ride, ne?" he asked hopefully.
"Eh?" said Knuckle in confusion. "We just passed by it to the EXTREME! And the line is EXTREMELY short!"
"Let's go, then! Please?" asked Tsuna with puppy-dog eyes and yet another of the adults fell victim to his charm.
"If you insist…"
"Yatta!" shouted Takeshi, pulling his father over by the hand. "I get to drive!"
Not too much later, all the kids and their fathers had gotten into bumper cars except for Hayato, Chrome, and Kyoya (and of course Lambo).
As the gates shut, and everyone slowly started to bump around, Takeshi smiled mischievously and drove straight for Tsuna and his father, crashing into them with enough forced to push them back a little.
Laughing, Tsuna turned his wheel this way and that, trying to get the car to listen to him.
While the two of them were busy with their little battle, Mukuro and Ryohei drove into them simultaneously, letting out yells of triumph when they accomplished their goals of forcing their brothers back a few paces.
"Kufufu, we should cooperate more often," laughed Daemon. "We make quite the team."
"AMEN to that!" laughed Knuckle as their sons slapped each other high fives.
While all this was going on, Tsuna and Takeshi had quickly negotiated a truce, and before they knew what had hit them, the two younger males had exacted their revenge on their older brothers by crashing into them.
"Ha! Take that!" shouted Giotto childishly, standing up from his seat and laughing triumphantly.
While all this was going on, no one bothered to pay attention to poor Asari, who was shuddering like a leaf on a windy day and praying for this to be over soon.
His prayers, however, were not answered as the next five minutes slowly dragged by with him cringing in his seat and screwing his eyes shut as tightly as he could.
Finally, though, the cars slowed to a stop and the Japanese man slowly opened his eyes, sighing in relief when he saw everyone getting out and making way for the next people in line.
Opening the door to their car, Asari stepped out and the moment his feet touched the floor, he collapsed on his knees.
"Dad!" exclaimed Takeshi running up to his father and dropping onto his knees to look him in the eye. "Is there something wrong?"
Laughing, Giotto came up and helped his best friend stand up, saying to Takeshi, "Don't worry. This guy just has a fear of bumper cars.
Takeshi's only reaction when he heard this was to blink once. "…Bumper cars?" he asked, as if to clarify.
Giotto nodded.
After a moment of silence, the boy let out a chuckle. "Maa, if you didn't want to go, dad, you should have just said so! I could have just gone with mom, you know?"
Asari just smiled weakly at his son. "I-It's fine, really. I wanted to go with you."
Takeshi blinked again at this, then his face softened into a smile. "Sorry, dad, but you really can be an idiot sometimes, you know?"
Asari chuckled softly at this as the eight of them walked back to the rest of their family. "I know," he said.
"But really," started Mukuro when they got back to the others. "Do all of you have some kind of amusement park related fear or something?"
His statement was met only with silence as the adults all looked away awkwardly, not meeting his eyes, even his father.
"No way…" he said quietly. "I…was right?"
When his statement (question) was again met with silence, the young illusionist burst out laughing.
Tsuna just stared at his father with wide eyes.
"…I wonder what dad's fear is…" he said suddenly.
"Sorry, kid," said Giotto, ruffling the boy's hair patronizingly. "There's no way I'm telling you."
Tsuna pouted. "Fine, then I'll just find out by myself."
Giotto's eyebrow started to twitch at this. "Why, you little brat," he said to his son. "There's no way I'm letting you find out."
"Want to make a bet?" Hayato suddenly interrupted, and everyone looked over at the silverette, who was smiling mischievously.
"A bet?" asked Lampo.
"That's right!" said Hayato. "Of the seven of you, we've already figured out dad's and uncle Asari's fears, right? Then why don't we have a bet that, if we find out everyone else's too before the day is over, we get…..extra dessert for a week!"
"And if you don't find out?" asked Knuckle curiously.
Hayato thought for a moment, then said confidently, "We'll all help the maids with the chores around the house!"
Giotto smirked when he heard the terms. "Deal!" he said without thinking, confident in his abilities to hide and/or avoid his fears.
The moment he said the word, there seemed to be a division in the ranks. The children all grouped together with Tsuna at their head, and the adults mirrored them exactly with each guardian facing his son (or in Daemon's case, his son and daughter). The women, naturally, took the kids' side.
Lampo and Daemon looked betrayed when they saw their wives join the other side.
Elena giggled when she saw her husband's expression. "Sorry, sweetie. I really want to know what your fear is. Anyways, you guys are all adults, it wouldn't be fair if the children had to face you by themselves."
Daemon crossed his arms and looked away with a pout on his face, grumbling quietly to himself.
"Oh, you know you'll forgive me eventually," cooed Sylvana to her green-haired spouse, placing a kiss on his cheek, just below the small lightning tattoo.
"Yeah, whatever," grumbled the lightning guardian, looking away.
"So, where to next?" chirped Bianca happily.
"The drop tower!" suggested Tsuna, pointing towards the huge tower. He really wanted to go on it, and as an added bonus, he was almost certain that one of the adults would be scared of it.
When he heard this, Giotto inwardly cringed; had Tsuna realized…?
"Great idea, boss!" said Chrome with more conviction in her words than he had ever heard.
"B-boss?" asked the younger male, blushing profusely.
"Of course!" Hayato answered for her. "It would only make sense for Nidaime to be our boss!"
"You're the birthday boy, after all!" said Takeshi.
"Kufufu, and not to mention the fact that you are the best suited for the job, Tsunayoshi dear."
Nodding a little uncertainly, Tsuna smiled up at his father. "Let's go!"
Trying not to let his emotions show on his face, Giotto nodded gravely.
As they all stood in line, it was determined that each of the kids would survey their own father, and Hayato and Takeshi would watch Alaude and Lampo respectively. Lampo, because his own son was too young to participate, and Alaude because the guy barely ever showed any emotion and they would be more likely to catch any small reactions he might have.
As Tsuna sat in his seat, he was actually quite excited.
Contrary to what most would expect, Tsuna was actually quite a fan of thrill rides, a trait which he most definitely had not inherited from his father, who was already at his limit, trying to suppress his sudden growing urge to throw up.
Finally, all the safety devices were in place, and Giotto slowly felt himself rising upwards.
Tsuna, who was sitting beside him, smiled a Cheshire grin at his father. "I hope you enjoy the rid, papa."
Giotto would have replied to this, except that before he could open his mouth, he realized that they had arrived at the top. For a second, they just hovered where they were, and he looked out over the whole park.
The next second, they were rushing down towards the ground, and the blond clamped his mouth shut to prevent a scream from escaping his lips.
From beside him, his son was shrieking in delight, and Tsuna had just enough presence of mind to wonder how in all hells his son could be enjoying this.
By the time the ride was over, Tsuna was having so much fun, he had almost forgotten about the bet. As he stepped onto the ground with legs of jello, though, he automatically looked over at his father, who was holding onto his stomach as if he were going to throw up.
Grabbing onto his hand, Tsuna led him down the steps with everyone else following. When they arrived at where the others were standing, Giotto ran to the nearest garbage can and immediately threw up.
After about a minute or two of retching, the young Don walked back to his family, wiping his mouth on a handkerchief he took out of his pocket.
Accepting the water bottle Sylvana held out to him, the man rinsed his mouth once, spit out the water, then took a long drink.
When the taste had been washed out of his mouth, and his thirst had been abated, the man screwed on the lid of the bottle and handed it back to Sylvana.
Feeling a hand on his arm, Giotto looked down and saw his son staring at him with what he mistakenly assumed to be concern.
Opening his mouth, Tsuna said the last thing Giotto had expected him to say.
"Three down, four to go."
"Wha-?" Giotto said stupidly in reply.
Smirking, Tsuna skipped away towards his brothers, leaving his father wondering what on Earth had happened to the sweet little boy that used to be his son.
Tsuna was sitting with his siblings at a table of one of the many restaurants of the park, waiting for their parents to get the food they had ordered.
"So we've got dad, uncle Asari, and uncle G," said Tsuna, ticking them off on his fingers. "Now, we only have two hours left to find out what uncles Alaude, Knuckle, Daemon, and Lampo are scared of."
Kyoya kept quiet through this, but the way he watched his brother showed that he was listening.
Before anyone could reply to this, they were interrupted by an unfamiliar laugh.
Turning his head to the right, Takeshi smiled when he saw the troupe of clowns that was making their way past them, stopping every now and then to pat a kid on the head, or slip on a banana peel.
As they were passing Tsuna and his siblings, one of them, a short man wearing a fluffy purple afro of a wig came over, his big red shoes making squeaking noises with every step he took and a wide smile on his white painted face.
"My, my, what a big group!" he said in that normal, cheery voice that was typical of clowns. "Is there something special going on today?"
"Haha, it's our little brother's tenth birthday!" supplied Takeshi.
"Birthday?" asked the clown seeming excited. "Well then, it's a good thing I stopped by! Which one of you is the birthday boy?"
"That would be me," said Tsuna with a smile. "I'm Tsuna. A pleasure to meet you!"
"A pleasure to meet you too, young Tsuna. You can call me Marius!" said the clown. Then, turning to the other four clowns that had been accompanying him, he waved them over.
The next second, the five clowns were belching out the happy birthday song. When they were done, they bowed low, but somehow messed up and ended up in a pile on the floor.
Their antics were followed by raucous laughter, and after bowing once more (this time without falling), they resumed their quest to wherever it is they were headed.
Tsuna and his siblings watched them leave with smiles on their faces and their stomachs aching from all the laughing they had done (even the normally stoic Kyoya had let out a chuckle).
Their attention was soon brought back to the table, however, by Alaude banging their tray of food onto the table with a glare on his face as he watched the clowns retreat.
Kyoya looked carefully at his father, and was surprised to see just the faintest traces of fear in the man's eyes.
A small smirk forming on the younger skylark's face, he blurted out, "Clowns." As his siblings stared at him in confusion, and his father with barely concealed fear, Kyoya revealed, "Dad is afraid of clowns."
Everyone's eyes widened as they looked up at the older skylark, and after a second of tense silence, Mukuro burst out laughing.
"Uncle Alaude is afraid of clowns?"
"Shut up," hissed Alaude, glaring fiercely. This only caused Mukuro to laugh even harder. "At least my fear isn't as stupid as a certain pineapple head's."
Mukuro stopped laughing when he heard this, looking at his uncle with curiosity. "Oh? And what ridiculous thing is dad afraid of that is even more stupid than a fear of clowns?"
Alaude looked as if he dearly wanted to spill the secret, but kept quiet, turning his head to the side to signal that he would say nothing more on the subject.
After eating lunch, the kids resumed their quest to find the remaining guardians' weaknesses. After several failed attempts on 'the Frisbee', the Ferris wheel, and the rollercoaster, they finally caught a lead.
"The 'Spider'!" shouted Ryohei. "Uncle Knuckle is EXTREMELY afraid of the 'Spider'!"
"Wha-? How did you know?" asked Knuckle in confusion. "We didn't even go on it!"
"Because Uncle is afraid of bugs and insects to the EXTREME!"
Everyone stared at Ryohei in wonder. When had the boxer gotten so…observant?
Clapping his hands together once, Tsuna said happily, "Only two more to go!"
Gritting his teeth together, Giotto tried to convince himself that they weren't going to find out the last two…well, maybe Lampo's but definitely not Daemon's.
It turned out that, the blond was right for the most part. The kids easily found Lampo's fear soon enough in the haunted house (it was pretty obvious, really, what with Lampo being the coward he is), but by the time it was almost time to go home, the kids still hadn't found Daemon's fear yet.
"Only one more ride before we go home," said the mist guardian, smirking smugly.
The smirk was wiped off his face the next second when Elena suddenly smiled widely and let out an exclamation of "Aha!"
The kids immediately turned to their aunt, their eyes shining hopefully.
"The house of mirrors!" she said. "Let's go to the house of mirrors!"
"The…house of mirrors?" asked Tsuna, sounding a little disappointed. There was no way his uncle Daemon would be afraid of the house of mirrors.
"Just trust me on this!" said Elena, pushing the kids ahead.
Dropping back, the guardians huddled together, whispering furiously.
"Is there something wrong back there, boys?" asked Bianca with a smirk on her face.
"Nothing at all!" replied Asari with a strained smile on his face, and Bianca's smirk widened.
Arriving at the house of mirrors, Daemon took a deep breath and stepped in, trying his best to focus only on the back of Elena's head and not take notice of the mirrors surrounding him.
Unfortunately, though, he was so busy focusing on the back of her head that he didn't realize that she had stopped walking until he was just inches away from bumping into her.
Suddenly whipping around with a smile on her face, Elena gestured for him to come closer.
Confused, Daemon obeyed her.
Taking his face in her hand, Elena made as if to kiss him, then suddenly turned his face towards a mirror on the left.
Daemon's eyes widened when he saw the image of himself, distorted so that his body was round as a pumpkin, and his head was tiny as a pea, and he fell back in a dead faint; that image would forever be burned into his mind.
The next time the pineapple haired man opened his eyes, he was sitting in a car being driven by a very somber looking G.
When the storm attribute saw that he was awake, he grimaced and said, "The kids won the bet."
Daemon was quiet for a while when he heard this, then he let out a small laugh.
"Kufufu, looks like we're raising them right after all."
Later that night, when everyone was fast asleep in their beds, Tsuna hugged his father goodnight.
"Did you have fun today?" asked Giotto, and Tsuna smiled widely.
"More than you could imagine."
"That's good," said Giotto, ruffling his eternally messy locks of brown. After a moment of silence, he confessed something to his son that had always weighed heavily on his mind. "You know, Tsuna, since the moment I first laid eyes on you, you were my pride and joy, but sometimes I wonder, do I have what it takes to raise you by myself? Am I able to raise you with all the love you deserve? I don't want you to miss out on anything just because you don't have a mother."
By the time he finished talking, Giotto was staring downwards, for some reason feeling embarrassed to meet his son's eyes after his confession.
Suddenly, he heard Tsuna chuckle lightly, then wrap his arms around him in a tight embrace. "Geez, dad. Talk about cheesy," said the brunette in a soft voice. Then, after a slight pause, "Don't be silly, dad; you don't have to raise me alone. You know uncle G and the others are always there to help you out. And anyways, you alone can give me more love than I know what to do with."
Giotto chuckle when he heard this. "Who's being cheesy now?"
Laughing, Tsuna withdrew his arms and placed a kiss on his father's cheek.
"Good night, dad. I love you."
"I love you too, Tsuna. And happy birthday."
SkyGem: Haha, the end was pure, shameless, fluff XD I died at least three times while writing it due to extreme fluffiness. And it took me forever to be able to word it just right. Anyways, please do leave a review and tell me what you thought, ne? Ciao~
P.S. Haha, I just realized that this is my longest one-shot yet! More than 5000 words! Yay for me!
