December 27th

Alaude felt quite sympathetic towards Tsuna sometimes. He had the heart –or lack of it –to say 'no' to Giotto. Tsuna, however, didn't.

"Alaude, you have to support me in this!" the blond wailed, tugging at his arm. Tsuna looked helplessly at him, begging to keep quiet.

"It's none of our business" he answered nonchalantly, keeping his gaze glued to his book, knowing Tsuna would thank him later. Giotto mustered a glare towards him behind Tsuna's back –a rather scary one –and turned back to his brother with a pout on his face once again. Did anyone else know how manipulative Giotto could be? Alaude was sure it was a trait inherited from his mother.

"Please, Giotto-nii, don't insist…" the brunette pleaded, Giotto's heart clenching at the sight of tears in the corners of his brother's blue eyes.

Tsuna sighed heavily, something he did only when he was truly upset. Giotto's fake tears disappeared to be replaced with a fond look. He sat next to Tsuna on the couch, flicking the television off. Alaude sat next to him, wrapping his arm around his shoulders.

For Hibari Shin and Hiyori, both their younger sons had gotten into their respective relationships one day after the other, but the truth was Alaude and Giotto had been going out for five years prior to their meeting, when they were fifteen. Who could blame them? Giotto loved and trusted his parents, but he still had his insecurities about his relationship; they were young and he wasn't sure about Alaude's feelings towards him –what if he was just toying with him? What if everything was false?

Two months? It had taken Alaude more than a year to make his way through his wall of insecurities.

As for Alaude, their parents were strict and extremely traditional. He had had to prove his worth as a son even before dating another man, what would his stiff, close-minded parents say when they discovered he was dating Giotto?

There had been tough timers between Alaude and him due to both their fears, times when they had almost split apart.

It had been in a fight, two years into their relationship and in the middle of one of their toughest arguments, that he had completely understood the depth of their affection. Giotto had been surrounded by enemies, weakened and practically defeated, when Alaude had appeared to his rescue. When he had sent Tsunayoshi to that fight against the Yakuza, it hadn't been out of a foolish impulse –he was the boss of one of the strongest vigilante group in Japan, some said the strongest person, after all. He had assumed Hibari and Tsuna would somewhat realize their feelings just by looking into each other's eyes for a second, just like it had happened with Alaude and him. But he could have never guessed they'd be that hard headed.

The reason why they had made their relationship public, or at least one of the reasons, was so he didn't have to send Tsuna off into a fight that'd hurt him, so he and Hibari would gain the courage to confess despite the adversities, but, then again, he could have never guessed they were so hard-headed.

But in the end, they had realized, they were together, and they loved each other, and they knew Tsuna already had the Hibari clan's approval, and vice versa. So neither Giotto not Alaude understood why the youngest Hibari didn't want his boyfriend to meet his family. Well, maybe Alaude had a clue.

"Tsuna-chan" Giotto began softly. "Why won't he let you meet his parents?"

The brunette sighed again, scratching the back of his head.

"Hibari-san is… I just have to be patient" he said. Giotto frowned at the answer.

Big mistake. The biggest mistake one could take with a Hibari was to give them their time to get things straight, because they'd always arrive to the wrong conclusions. The Hibari was a species which specimens acted based on pride, anger, instinct or jealousy, but rarely on their feelings, because they considered them to be a weakness.

The Sawada Giotto, fortunately, was a species that could easily draw those feelings out, although it was more prone to have feelings of insecurity than its brother species, the Sawada Tsunayoshi. The Sawada Tsunayoshi, however, relied way too much on its partner's sincerity, which, in the case of the Hibari, could not be so good, especially at the beginning of a relationship.

Giotto didn't know what the problem was, but he knew as well as Alaude did that whatever was wrong with Hibari, it would end up in an inevitable fight that might derive into a break up, thus giving two broken-hearted fools as a result.

Apparently, the Sawada Giotto would have to teach the Sawada Tsunayoshi to be a little more forceful.

And for that, he had performed a foolproof master plan. He smirked.

Tsuna shuddered.

December 28th

To say Hibari hated December was an understatement. He doubted there was even a world that could quite describe the passion with which he hated it, how much he despised it, the anger and… and… ugh. Only when describing December did Hibari feel at loss of words.

First of all, the town's herbivores. Did they actually think he'd be more tolerant with them for the all the moronic celebrations that took place in the month? Did they think just for Christmas and New Year he'd understand they wanted to litter Namimori with their fireworks and gift wrappings and decorations? Did they think it was an excuse to get drunk and make childish pranks and give him more work?

Apparently, they did.

Then, it was the festivities. The Christmas carols, people being unusually –and annoyingly –nice to him, the bright, shiny, mismatching decorations that hung all over the town. Shiny reds, hideous greens and browns, flickering lights –every year he tried to prevent Kusakabe from allowing the neighborhood ladies to pull out their nineteenth century's overcharged knick-knacks, but he never seemed to have the heart to do so.

And last but not least, his family (he was starting to realize they were the source of most his complications).

One would think the Hibari clan was anti-social, all of it, and one would think right. They loved peace, silence, taking naps at unlikely hours and such. The problem was his family tended to interact with people who didn't notice that, be it for their lack of intelligence or their lack of care.

His sister's boyfriend, –a happy-go-lucky, insufferable blond who had a fetish for camouflage clothing and put the word 'Kora!' at the end of every sentence –for example. Someone had convinced him of the idea his parents liked to have company, since Lal didn't live in the household anymore and both their sons were brats, so every year for the last three years he had been bringing his old college gang with him. Amongst that gang was his cousin Fon, with whom he got along fairly well, for a change.

One of Colonello's friends, Aria, had a daughter, Yuni, who thankfully was rather quiet and didn't run around the house, very unlike the friends she brought so she wouldn't feel alone. Byakuran was one of them, but he trusted the albino's survival instinct not to show up in his house after the little incident they had had.

But wait, there was more. Viper, a freak friend of his sister too, brought along his own group of friends. Another six brainless fools with diverse personality complexes and violent tendencies. The worst part was that they always brought a green-haired, lunatic kid who wore an apple in the head with them. The one with multi-colored hair who continuously tried to hit on him was the one he liked the best, and he hated the guy a lot.

A sensei from another town, Dino Cavallone, who used to have a crush on him –cue shudder –and had taught him only one thing or two about fighting, was invited by his mother, and since he couldn't take two steps without ending up face-planted on the floor, he had to bring his assistant Romario along.

Hibari hated his life, his family, the herbivores…

All these thoughts flew out of the window when he felt a soft caress on his cheek that brought him back to reality. He looked down at the boy on his lap, who was watching him with curious eyes.

"Were you thinking in something unpleasant, Hibari-san? You were frowning all this time" Tsuna said, concerned. Hibari simply buried his head in the crook of the other's neck, since Hibird had taken a liking to snuggling into Tsuna's messy locks.

"Nothing at all" was the answer. Tsuna knew better than to question further.

They stayed like that for a while, Tsuna's slow breath and steady heartbeat lulling Hibari into sleep. He thanked the Sawada household was, for once, in silence…

"TSUNA!" someone yelled from outside.

Hibari snapped an eye open.

"I'll bite that herbivore to death" he said getting up, lifting Tsuna with one arm and holding a tonfa with the other.

"Hieee! H-Hibari-san!" the brunette squeaked. Ignoring his protests, he threw Tsuna over his shoulder and made strides towards the door. He kicked it open, revealing two of Tsuna's herbivore friends, Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato.

Making out.

Passionately.

Why had they called if they were so busy in the first place?

"Herbivores…" Hibari growled dangerously, making them snap apart. Gokudera turned beet red and started stuttering incoherencies, while Yamamoto smiled and waved as if nothing had happened, despite the rather obvious hickey he exhibited in his neck.

After a moment of awkward greetings between Gokudera and Tsuna, who had caught them going at it more than once and was almost used to it, and after the latter had prevented his own boyfriend from biting Yamamoto to death, since the other one had made a suggestive comment about how the other had put his hand rather near to the brunet's lower back, they got into the house.

Displayed on the kitchen's table were colorful envelopes, glitter, markers and glue, which miraculously Lambo hadn't managed to eat. Nana was busy next to the kitchen, getting ahead schedule with New Year's dinner and paying no attention to them –they practically lived there, after all.

No more than a few minutes later, Haru, Kyouko and Ryohei arrived. Until then the house had been silent –since the only people in there were sucking their respective lover's face and Nana had had the delicacy to go shopping with the children –but then the chatting, laughter and noise in general ensued. Hibari retreated to a corner, somewhat annoyed one of the few chances he had to spend with his brunet was spoiled by his annoying friends. Again. And people wondered why he was always in a bad mood…

Kyouko and Haru had organized a little New Year Cards Crafting session. It had begun in the Sasagawa household, but, as always, too many people had showed up, so, as always, Gokudera had blown everything up and the cards were burned. The present meeting was a Top Tight Secret, as Haru had called it.

Of course, it just had to be the same day Hibari had planned to keep Tsuna to himself. Tch…

While he tried his best to console his raven, the brunet couldn't help but stare at Gokudera and Yamamoto. The silverette seemed to be brushing the raven's hand too many times for it to be accidental, and their space bubbles seemed to have diminished their size, since they were so close. Yamamoto seemed happier yet quieter and calmer than usual –Tsuna didn't know how he managed. He wasn't as overly friendly with Gokudera as he usually was, but gentler… more like a gentleman.

Giotto's plan had worked wonderfully, it seemed. Tsuna smiled softly.