Warnings: Um. Soooo I don't know exactly how this happened, but people say 'fuck' a lot? Not in a sexy way.

Disclaimer: please stop

Chapter 2

The world comes back to him in bits and pieces.

Sensation comes first - the icy gravel under his cheek and the beginning frostbite in his bare fingers. There's something unbearably cold on his right wrist… which are tied together behind his back with a rough rope.

Sound comes next. Someone's talking and it sounds like… a woman?

And then the memories come flooding back.

He remembers the two men – three, counting the guy on the roof – and the lady with the sword. Someone must've knocked him out when he wanted to check on Tsuna.

Oh, god.

Tsuna.

Is he dead? He probably is, there is no way Tsuna could stand up to them even if he wasn't drugged.

Mochida almost groans thinking what an enormous idiot he is. Overconfident in his abilities he ran to help and what happened? A person got killed! What an amazing way to help someone!

His stomach drops like a stone when he thinks about having to confront Tsuna's mother. What would he even say? That he saw her son dying and couldn't prevent it because he had fighting skills but no common sense? That he was too stupid to do anything about the small and defenceless Tsuna being killed?

Wait. Would he even get to confront her about it? Wouldn't they just kill him, too? Mochida has seen their faces. There was no way they would let him live.

He feels someone leaning over him and he forces his breathing to be normal, staying very still.

"Just as I thought. No reaction. This guy doesn't have active flames. What about the kid? You find out who he is?" It's the sword lady, probably crouching beside him.

"Nah. No wallet, no phone. Only a pair of mittens and… some kind of medicine? He's got strong flames, but I don't… Huh? Hey, wait a minute… This ring has an engraving… Shit. Guys? Guys! I think we captured a Vongola!"

"Eh? Vongola? This pipsqueak? Don't fuck with me."

"Just look at the ring!"

Mochida hears Sword Lady leaving his side, her boots crunching against frozen gravel. He opens one eye just a sliver and sees the three of them hovering over Tsuna and… he doesn't look dead! He's on the ground and not moving and looks uncomfortable with one arm bent awkwardly under him, but he is definitely not dead and Mochida has to physically force himself to stay still. Trying to either fight or escape would just make things worse. Best he can do in this situation is to gather information. So he listens.

Sword Lady whistles. "Well fuck me with a fucking cheese grater. That looks fucked up enough to be a Vongola ring alright."

"You know, it's unsightly for a woman to talk like that." The man with the red hat says. Mochida decides to call him Red. The other man is turned sideways towards him and he sees a large scar running from his cheekbone to chin. He'll call that one Scar.

"Yeah? Go cry me a fucking river. Maybe it's a farce?"

"With that massive amount of flames? No way."

"Well then what the fuck is a Vongola doing in goddamn Japan?"

"He's so young, too," Scar says. "You think he's one of Decimo's Guardians?"

"He just as well might be. Damn, I kinda wanna check what his flames are now. I bet he's a cloud."

Scar punches Red's shoulder. "Don't you know anything? Hibari's cloud. You know, the 'Bite you to death' guy. Shit, if this guy was Hibari, we'd be dead by now – flames or not. This one's gotta be a storm, you saw how fast he moved."

"Both of you are idiots," Sword Lady says, kicking frozen pebbles at them. "He stayed so calm through this whole thing. He's a rain. No doubt about it."

"Should we… should we check?"

"Tempting, but… better not. If he really is a Guardian, he'll burn us like failed fucking gingerbread the moment the bracelet comes off and he's awake enough to show us his flames. Even if he looks like a wimp, we can't underestimate a fucking Vongola."

Scar nods. "I agree. They say all of them are batshit crazy and Decimo himself once blew up half an island and fought and won against the Vindice. He was like fifteen then. And they say that half his Guardians are even worse."

"Honestly not that hard to believe. You know that Decimo was tutored by fucking Reborn himself? I bet he had his tiny baby fingers in with all the Guardians' training, though."

"Fucking Reborn."

"Yeah. Fuck Reborn."

"So what do we do with him?" Red asks. "Kill him? Grab him? Just leave him?"

"I'd rather just leave him here. We don't get paid enough to deal with fucking Vongola. Or Reborn. Or Hibari. But I'll call Boss first, see if he wants to give us a raise."

Sword Lady steps away, messing with her phone. Red starts tying Tsuna's wrists together while Scar comes to check him. Mochida knows he's busted the moment he grins so he doesn't try to hide.

"Oh, good, you're awake. Was worried there for a moment that we caused you permanent brain damage. That'd be shitty. For you, I mean."

Mochida just glares.

"Hey, the kid called you senpai. You Vongola too?" Scar presses his boot against Mochida's head, pushing his cheek hard against the ground. "Hey, answer me."

"I don't even know what that is," he spits out reluctantly. They'd mentioned Hibari like they were afraid of him. Maybe he could use that. "Don't you know that if you mess with Namimori, you mess with Hibari?"

"You're so full of shit. You say you don't know Vongola, but you sure know a lot about Hibari," he says.

"Everyone knows Hibari in Namimori, idiot. Hard not to know him when he practically rules the town." He nods towards Tsuna. "Worse, that guy is his friend. You hurt him and you're dead."

"That guy's a friend of Hibari's, you say? Damn, so he really is a Vongola. Thanks for confirming at least that for me. Man though, should've known already that the cute ones are always traps."

Scar looks like he wants to ask more, but Sword Lady comes back then.

"So Boss said to take him. He wants to interrogate him, find out what's Vongola doing in Japan and if they're gonna hinder with our business."

"That's dumb," Red says.

"Yep. But, well, he promised a bonus and it's not like we follow him for his academic achievements, right?"

A pebble hits the ground and they look up to the roof where the fourth guy is. He signals something with one hand, then disappears.

"Someone's coming. Let's go."

"What about this one? He says he's not Vongola." Scar kicks his side not very hard. It still hurts.

"I don't care. We'll take him too. Just because he hasn't activated his flames doesn't mean he's not associated to Vongola. Maybe he's an accountant or some shit, I don't know."

Mochida is ushered up with a gun to the back of his neck and Red throws Tsuna over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The alley is as abandoned as it ever was in less than a minute.

-x-

Mochida isn't sure how much time has passed, but it must be well over an hour as the little patch of sky he can see from the barred window begins to darken.

During that time he has been stuffed to the back of a van with no windows, blindfolded, shoved and pushed around, unkindly led to a room, tied to an unbelievably uncomfortable metal chair, and told that his host will be with him shortly. Then they left him alone.

Well, not completely alone.

Tsuna is tied up on a similar chair a few meters away. He still hasn't so much as twitched and Mochida sort of envies him. He would like to be unconscious too so he wouldn't have to deal with all this fear and uncertainty, thank you very much. But since he unfortunately can't knock himself out, he makes a list instead.

One, they're in some kind of warehouse. Two, the handcuffs on his wrists go around a metal pipe, so he can't move his hands much at all. Three, his right arm feels extremely cold for some reason. The cold sensation started from the wrist and has climbed all the way up to his shoulder by now. He can still move his fingers just fine, so it can't be broken. Four, no one has checked on them. He has heard voices sometimes, some yelling once, but not one person has stepped into the room since Sword Lady pulled the blindfold off, flicked his forehead and left. Five, the chair he's sitting on is criminally uncomfortable, and the flimsy leather cover is doing nothing to cushion him.

The best plan he's come up so far with is 'wait and see', since he can't figure out how to deal with the handcuffs. There's not much he can do unless Tsuna wakes up, anyway.

He glances at Tsuna again and sucks in a breath as he sees his head loll.

"Tsuna!" he dares to call out. He groans and slumps further down on the chair.

"Five more minutes, Reborn. I don't feel too good…"

"Oi, wake up!"

Tsuna flinches again and finally lifts his head. He blinks dazedly and looks so tired that Mochida has to fight the urge to tell him to go back to sleep. But he holds his tongue behind his teeth, waiting for him to get his bearings back.

"Great. Reborn's going to disintegrate me," he finally drawls and his speech still slurs together a little. He straightens up, his movements sluggish. "Are you hurt, senpai?"

"Me? No, I'm fine. But you look like shit."

"I'm okay, just a little dizzy. It should pass soon enough," he shrugs. He looks around, eyes oddly unfocused. "Vision's still a bit blurry, though. Can you see any cameras, senpai?"

Mochida hadn't thought to check that before. He quickly scans the room, paying special attention to the ceiling. "I don't see any."

"Huh… I guess they weren't prepared for this. Do you know where we are?"

"Looks like some kind of warehouse. There were no windows in the van, so I'm not sure where we are, but the drive wasn't too long. I think we're still in Namimori. They just dumped us here and left."

"They haven't come back?" Mochida shakes his head and Tsuna hums thoughtfully.

"These guys called you, um… what was it… a Vongola?"

"They did? They must've recognised the ring, then. Did they say anything else? Any names?"

"Just Hibari and… a Reborn? You mentioned him too. Who's Reborn? And what's Vongola?"

"Hm? Reborn? He's my tutor. Vongola…" Tsuna bites his lip. "Ah, whatever, to hell with Omertà, I'll deal with Bermuda later. I hope you won't need this information, but it's best to be careful.

"Vongola is a Mafia syndicate based in Italy, known in the underworld as one of the oldest and most powerful Famiglias. They started out as a vigilante group some four hundred years ago, but turned to crime and violence at some point. Timoteo, the Ninth Generation Boss of Vongola is in power right now with his six Guardians, but Tenth Generation is currently being trained to take up their position. That's as much as most of the underworld knows."

"And you are a part of that?"

"Haha, well, yeah, in a way. I'm not Mafia, though. No matter what they say. The Tenth Generation is trying to steer the Famiglia back to its vigilante roots. Oh, Hibari-san is a part of Vongola, too, but I wouldn't mention that in front of him unless you want to lose all your teeth…" He stops. "Senpai? Are you okay?"

Mochida realises he's been staring for a while now, his mouth hanging open. He shuts it with a click. There's way too much information to deal with. He more or less gets the whole mafia thing. After all, they had just been kidnapped by gun-wielding, sword-waving criminals who are most likely also yakuza. Or Mafioso. Or something. And it's not like his father is completely innocent, even if he keeps trying to convince rest of the family that he is, so he has heard of some… things. What he doesn't get, is how Dame-Tsuna fits into that equation.

"I just… I kind of get Hibari, he has that attitude thing. But I never thought that you of all people would be associated with organised crime."

"It's not organised crime! Not anymore," Tsuna protests.

"Whatever. It's just. You're small, you know."

"Eh? I'm not… Okay, that's fair enough," he sighs. "In any case, I'm really sorry you got caught up in this mess, but you don't have to worry. Just wait for it. I'll definitely get you out of here somehow. My tutor would destroy me if I got this wrong and I do not want to piss him off any more."

Mochida doesn't really want to trust him, but he discovers that he does, just a little.

He watches Tsuna shift and stretch on the chair, especially rolling his right shoulder. He looks… calm. In all the years Mochida went to same school with him, he's never seen Tsuna so calm. He was always skittish and nervous and afraid of everything. Even back when they had that match, Tsuna fled with his tail between his legs when he was first brought into the dojo. But all Mochida had to do was to wait a few minutes and Tsuna came back with firm resolve in his eyes and beat Mochida into the ground.

"How do you do this?" he asks before he can stop himself.

"Do what?"

"How are you so calm?"

Tsuna laughs quietly. "Nah, I'm actually terrified. But can't really afford to freak out right now, can I? I'll do that later, when Reborn's after my head."

And there it is. There's that resolve burning bright in his eyes and Mochida can't look away. Tsuna will get them out.

Suddenly Tsuna perks up and looks intently at the single door in the room.

"Listen carefully, senpai," Tsuna's voice is low, but confident. "I forgot my wallet home so there's a good chance they only know I'm Vongola, but haven't figured out who I am. If it's so, then please do not tell them my name. Even if they succumb to torture, do not tell. It will be much worse if they know. You can tell them that you know me from middle school, and my name's, um… Let's say my name is Irie Shou- No, you just know me as Irie. But if possible, don't talk at all."

"What happens if they know already?" Mochida asks, panic making his voice tremble.

"Then… well, I'll figure something out. I promise that will not let them hurt you, but you have to just… play along, okay?"

Mochida has a bad feeling about those words, but he can't quite put a finger on it. There's no time to think, anyway.

The door squeaks as it opens. A tall man steps in. His hair and eyes are dark, skin tanned. He's playing with a throwing knife with one hand, the other is holding a small plastic card. He doesn't pay the prisoners any attention until he stops right in front of them. Then he looks up, spares a passing glance at Tsuna and fixes his gaze on Mochida. He looks almost bored.

"Mochida Kensuke," he says with a deep, smooth voice and not even his high school math teacher had managed to scare him that much just by saying his name. "Twenty years old, lives in Japan, Namimori. All vital information, but rather trivial in this situation, I'm afraid. After all, what this handy little document doesn't tell me… is that you are a member of the Vongola Famiglia."

-x-

The alley is deceptively empty.

Sharp eyes note the signs of a struggle on the frozen ground, the trashcan kicked over. There's a broken shinai near the wall. A colourful dart rests on top of a pile of trash. A single woollen mitten catches his eye. He picks it up.

A/N: Oh no. Seems they got it a bit wrong. That's why communication problems are so troublesome.

Anyway, I've always wondered what'd people think of Tsuna based solely on rumours and stories. I mean he literally blew up half the Shimon Island, killed an omnipotent god, won a battle of wills against fucking Reborn and defeated Vindice. That's pretty damn hardass. Tsuna's hardass.

Thank you all so, so much for the favs and follows and especially the reviews! (Except that one person who only said "ya what happens next?" and nothing else. Learn some manners.) It makes me super happy that there are so many people enjoying this fun little piece. Please do keep reviewing, it's the best source of inspiration for me.

P.S I'm also on Twitter and Tumblr as ThaBlueSheep