Lions were okay. Gokudera had proven he could deal with them way back when he'd just started living in Namimori. But that had been at a zoo, where they had been a fairly expected quantity - it was different to face one in surroundings like this grand mansion. Gokudera's arms were occupied holding the Tenth, the Tenth was injured, and the lion was only down the hallway and huge.

The voice on the other end of the phone conversation squeaked. Tsuna said, "Ah! A lion-taming show too!" His voice skated up and down the scales of terror and relief. The animal's ears twitched, then its tail. "Oh, thank goodness. That's good, because one of them... Authentic? N-not tame yet?"

The walking stick clattered to the ground. Tsuna's whole body stiffened up against Gokudera's. The lion's tail whipped the air as it padded closer.

Gokudera dived into a corridor that was just ahead of them, putting them fractionally closer to the lion for a horrifying split second and making Tsuna start yelling, and yanked at the doors that lined the corridor - third left was open and he ran in and shoved it with his shoulder to slam it shut. He scoped out the area: a small platform above a stairwell. He hurried down the stairs; there was a thud from behind them that made the door shudder in its frame, and then he practically flew.

"Reborn! That thing nearly - what strip show?" Tsuna shrieked. "Lions and strip - just shut up! I don't care what they do with the python! Reborn, you invited the girls!

"EDUCATIONAL?" He began to shake. "I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU ANYMORE!"

He jammed the phone back into the pocket hard enough to jerk Gokudera off-balance, so it was lucky that they'd reached a closed door. Gokudera let himself fall against it, propping himself on one arm to keep Tsuna's injured leg from hitting the door.

"Sorry," Tsuna said, sounding pale.

"We got away... Don't hear anything..." He got back his grip on Tsuna and tried the door. "But it wouldn't hurt to get another door between us and that animal," he said with relief as the door swung open.

"Reborn is insane. I can't believe him," Tsuna muttered as they stepped into a large room of finished concrete. The air was cool down there, refreshing after the exertion of running and panic. The sound of the door closing and their footsteps echoed slightly, and lights on the walls and ceiling came on as they walked. "Do you think— Oh," Tsuna said. "Wow."

"Ah! The household's garage," said Gokudera. A quick look around at the vehicles it contained, and he decided that this was an excellent room to help distract him after the lion incident.

"What do they need so many cars for?" Tsuna said, not even hiding the impressed tone in his voice. "I wonder if we can hide in one..."

Gokudera trotted deeper into the room, making the lights click on faster. "Maybe there's an armoured car, just in case." There were Lamborghinis! Three of them! He had to work at not slowing down. He'd only got a chance to joyride a Lamborghini once, and if his legs had been long enough to reach the brakes it would have been a dream... Going further, he clicked his tongue. "But what's that old heap in the corner for?"

"Is that ... a Rolls Royce, or something? It looks like it came straight out of a movie," Tsuna said, even more impressed than before.

So that was another way he felt like Gokudera was wrong. He ducked his head and felt like an asshole - and they were only talking about cars, it wasn't even important.

"Hey!"

"What? Where? I've got dynamite!"

"No, it's okay! It's not the lion..." Tsuna sounded embarrassed. "It's ... um, over there." He pointed to a corner of the garage. "I wouldn't have thought a guy like the household head would like motorbikes."

Gokudera sighed in relief. "It's his job to make sure we have what we need - vehicles that suit any terrain and occasion. Everything looks like it's in good condition, too." Almost a pity. He could do with someone else to be pissed at.

"What we need?" Tsuna squeaked, startling him. "They're for us? Wait, are ... all of these for us?"

Gokudera tried to glance up and back to see his face, but couldn't quite. "Of course."

"Are you crazy? What are we supposed to do with this? It's way too much! And..."

Their presence triggered the lights at the furthest end of the garage. Tsuna's voice died away at what was revealed.

"Ha! Amazing!" Gokudera crowed, jogging to the helicopter. It wasn't that big, and when he stretched onto his toes he could make out a seat, maybe two, and an array of controls.

"Reborn said I had a year," Tsuna said, distantly. "Threw a manual about piloting helicopters at me, and said I had a year. I thought he was being a jerk..." He clutched Gokudera's shoulders with each fingertip digging in. "I can't even ride the motorbikes! Sometimes I still fall off normal bikes!"

"That's all right, you have a year to learn!"

"Oh yeah?" His pitch was up a tone. "And for the freaking helicopter?"

"That too!"

"I can't... That's impossible..." Then Tsuna laughed, shaky and startled. Maybe it would be best to distract him from yet another impossible task.

"There's another door over there! We could get out if it's not another section of the garage." Gokudera hefted the Tenth into a more secure position, embracing the weight as impromptu training, and strode across the room.

He felt Tsuna shift around as he looked about - which was pretty unlike him and the way he tried not to cause trouble; Tsuna was the kind of person to be relatively docile while injured and being carried.

"I've never been in one..." Tsuna said in an undertone, like he almost wanted to keep it secret.

"A helicopter?" Gokudera said neutrally.

"Uh-huh."

"We can get a pilot!" Neutrality went out the window. Tsuna was interested! In something about his inheritance - about something that was part of the Mafia! "Remember, Reborn-san said you'd be in charge of the mansion's bank account in the first briefing he gave us. We can hire somebody until we can fly it ourselves!"

"It can't be just for us. I can't believe - no, no way," said Tsuna, but it wasn't true denial. He didn't sound mad, not at all, but surprised and underneath it really interested, and intense relief thickened in Gokudera's throat. He swallowed hard as he turned the doorknob to what he though was an exit.

This door led to a hallway in a lower floor, plain cream-coloured wall on one side and wide windows showing the hillside view on the other side. "Can I see Reborn-san's helicopter manual?" Gokudera asked as he walked.

"No! We should ... I mean, if we do get to use it ... like you said, we can find a pilot. Right? It would be safer."

"Probably," Gokudera said, planning a distraction involving Lambo and grenades so that he could temporarily and with all due respect steal the book from Tsuna's room. "That butler should know! Someone like that ought to know about everything related to the estate, or would find out about it quickly if we asked. Where would you like to go?"

"Oh... I don't even know. But..." There were possibilities in that trailing-off. Tsuna was looking forward to the idea of making that flight; he was making plans. Maybe with the motorbikes and the cars, too.

He could make Tsuna get it. He could help him understand that feeling of possible inevitable greatness, the plans they could make, what they could do, what they would be, what they had to be. That was the key.

He could still help. He could still have Tsuna like him, require him, and even just hug him the fuck back. This whole situation was a temporary setback, and oh, God, soon, please, he'd have their shared silences back, and Tsuna accepting closeness because of wishing to do so instead of due to needing assistance.

He went faster so Tsuna's grip on him would tighten, and burst into the room at the end of the corridor with hope making him grin.

An indoor pool - and the pool was enormous, with a slide at one end. "Wow!" Tsuna said with summer days in his voice, "do you think it's Olympic-sized?"

Then there was a splash at the far end. "Oh fuck, Tenth, now it's tigers—"

"These ones are tame!" called the handler, but they were already slamming another door.

"What the hell! What the hell! Cats aren't even supposed to like water!" Tsuna moaned, clutching at Gokudera's front and just missing bending the glasses in a pocket.

Gokudera tugged his blazer so they were out of reach and said, "Actually, tigers are one member of the feline family that love swimming. Do you see anything else around? There's dynamite in my shoulder holster!"

Tsuna groaned. "Reborn and absolutely all his plans are still nuts, even if those ones were tame." They both took in the surroundings - mercifully empty of carnivores - and then Tsuna let out a shaky laugh. "Hey, let me down. Then I'll be able to help if there's anything else."

"No way! What if we need to make another fast getaway?" And he couldn't let go until he had a chance to make Tsuna see reason. "Where to next, Tenth?"

"Come on, Gokudera..."

"As soon as we can be sure we're safe! I think we still need distance." He cast around for a distraction. They stood in another unfamiliar corridor, which looked like it had been decorated by everybody's grandmother, in pale green and flower patterns and too many ornaments arranged on little, low tables. Some seemed to be miniature portraits of past Vongola bosses, but he didn't look closely. Boring! To the left was a corridor and to the right was a door. A room meant something solid to put between them and danger, so Gokudera went right.

The smell of earth in the greenhouse hit first, and then the pressure of the humid air once the door was shut.

"So many plants..." Tsuna murmured after a moment, probably scanning the large room the same as Gokudera. "I bet Haru would like all those roses," Tsuna said. "Bianchi too. And then she'd probably look through the rest of the place to see if there's anything poisonous..."

"Tenth," Gokudera protested. At least that gave him another jolt of adrenaline to keep going on. "But - even if the worst should come to pass with my sister - isn't it beautiful here!"

Tsuna didn't respond, the quiet falling flatly for a moment, but Gokudera rallied. "Chrome will like it too! Unless it's not wild-looking enough for her, but it is somewhat like those garden illusions she's into. Ugh, and goddamn Mukuro, of course. I bet there are going to be lotus flowers all over the place the minute they step through the door."

Tsuna made a sound between a laugh and a groan as he agreed. It was the light-hearted kind of sound that he'd normally give. They'd miss you too, those inconsistent assholes, even them. And you'd miss them, you know it!

Tsuna had mentioned the safety of the others as a concern, before, and now he was thinking of how they might be pleased with this place. He wasn't abandoning them after all, of course not, not even someone like Haru, who it would be easy to send off into her former, peaceful life! He'd been a normal kid for a long time, hadn't he? His training had started shortly after Federico's death and shortly before Gokudera arrived in Japan. This life wasn't something he'd chosen, and his birth to it had been by way of distant ancestry. Even his father's high status hadn't prepared him for his opportunity at ascension, when he'd thought for years that the man had died or left their family behind...

"Nothing in this house is like what I'm used to," Tsuna said. "It's..."

"It's what?" Gokudera said, startled by how the Tenth's words echoed his own thoughts.

"I don't even know what to think anymore." He sounded torn up with it, almost tearful and yet still with happiness in there. "And we haven't even seen all of it!"

"We can go further. But hey, we ought to come back here for the strawberries sometime," Gokudera muttered, jerking a thumb at the familiar mat of leaves in the section of the greenhouse they were passing, and Tsuna made a small enthusiastic noise. That's the boss I know. I'm getting him back. This is working!

Gokudera wrenched open the first door they came across. It led into a nondescript chamber with a few more doors leading from it marked with layout signs he didn't know (yet), and he barrelled through one at random.

"Another entrance room," Tsuna said as they stood by the window, holding the heavy velvet curtain aside to look over the driveway and parking area outside. "But it's so fancy in here."

"Maybe this one's for guests you have to suck up to," Gokudera said, and added, "You'll have to get your portrait done." The paintings on the walls were clearly the Vongola bosses this time, and were nowhere near miniature. It was weird to see the young Ninth in his painting; he suited his present-day grandpa look really well. "But that's boring!"

"Jeez! Gokudera-" Tsuna yelped as Gokudera turned sharply to run for another door. He burst into a ballroom before slowing down for Tsuna's sake.

Another impressed exclamation from Tsuna echoed off dimmed golden walls. "Hey, look up - there are so many chandeliers. This place is unbelievable! I feel like I should wear a suit just to be allowed in here. It makes me think of the movies even more than that Rolls Royce."

Gokudera spared a long glance for the small stage in the room. "That's where musicians would sit," he said, nodding towards it. "The set-up looks decent - the acoustics are probably good." Was there a baby grand somewhere in the mansion? Hell, why cut corners, there was probably a grand piano.

"You think so? I guess it would be, after how impressive everything else has been. And maybe there's a piano somewhere that you could play, if you ever felt like it..."

"Was just thinking that," Gokudera muttered, heart bouncing off his ribs with the fact that the Tenth was willing to be thoughtful and generous towards him again; that things might really be better between them. "You like it?"

"Well, look at it! This is all amazing," he half-complained. "Everything here is amazing!"

"Where to next, Tenth?" Gokudera took a step, any old way, and stood jigging on the spot.

"Let's just go!" He could hear that Tsuna was grinning. It could be leftover adrenaline, but maybe he was just happy again. "I can't even guess what else is in this place."

Gokudera steeled himself to broach the real issue. "This is what I meant. About having many choices in this lifestyle, about all the stuff I said before." He swallowed hard. "We can go anywhere! We can do anything!"

"Anyway, we can try," said Tsuna, sounding surprised at himself.

"That's right, Tenth! Where do you want to go?"

"Everywhere!"

They laughed harder than the answer deserved as Gokudera began to run. When they went up another staircase Tsuna started saying 'ow' between laughing, and Gokudera slowed. "How are you feeling?"

"Maybe I'm feverish or something," he muttered.

"Tenth! Is your wound infected? I can run - drive! fly!- to the hospital—"

"I was kidding!" One arm loosened its grip, and Tsuna's hand stroked Gokudera's hair in a soothing gesture. He nearly shook the touch off in surprise.

"I just feel..." He took a deep breath. "Everything's going to be okay."

"Better," Gokudera swore.

"I believe you," Tsuna said, deriding himself and awed at once. Gokudera tightened his grip on Tsuna and stopped dead.

"Hey, Gokudera?"

They were friends. He knew it right at this moment, and that he no longer had to entertain doubts that he didn't have the hang of it yet. Now he knew this was the relationship that Tsuna had said he wanted them to have, on that night years ago when Gokudera had almost left Japan on the Ninth's orders. Easy and understanding, the two of them able to fight and to get past it, and to help each other no matter what. It was stupid to want something else all of a sudden. It was stupid to want this closeness to mean something else, to want to be able to have Tsuna whisper to him all the time.

"Are you okay?"

Gokudera swallowed, unable to reply.

"Let's sit down. Sorry! You've carried me such a long way! I meant to get down sooner! It looks like it's safe now, after all." Tsuna shifted and Gokudera hastily began moving so he could help. He ended up with his hands on Tsuna's arms to steady him at the same instant he realised that they'd been all over his thighs, his hips.

Gokudera strangled a screech and jerked his hands up to ear-level - and then he gave up and sank down on a step. He pulled out his cigarette pack and plugged a handful of them in his mouth to keep himself from saying anything.

"Was it really that bad?" Tsuna asked, startled, and sat down right next to him.

"No, Tenth!" Gokudera shook his head, voice muffled through the cigarettes.

"What's wrong?"

"It's not that."

They were silent, and Tsuna pulled a face. He wanted a real answer.

"Sorry," Gokudera said. "Nothing's wrong." He risked a sideways glance at Tsuna and got stuck.

"What? Why are you smiling like that?" Tsuna asked, starting to grin back. No surprise - he must look ridiculous. Something else that was ridiculous was how aware he was that their knees happened to be touching. Tsuna didn't mind him this close; his mood looked like it was good enough that maybe he liked it again, and how much closer would be all right? Gokudera wasn't scared of finding out, and that was beyond stupid.

"Feels like ... I can do anything."

Tsuna nodded. "It's been a weird afternoon."

Their voices were quiet and low, just for each other.

"It's a great place, huh?" Tsuna said, looking down the sweep of the staircase, and drew his uninjured leg close to his chest to rest his arms and chin on it.

"All yours," Gokudera said proudly. He started stubbing out the cigarettes on the box, one by one, and putting them away.

"And yours. The Vongola's. I guess." He frowned even though he kept smiling. "If I have to have it... It's really not all that bad."

Ours, Gokudera thought, and thought of the casual, immediate way Tsuna had made that point. His leg shifted to press a little more against Tsuna's, for a second, a gesture that ought to be all right now that he couldn't hold on to him anymore. Well, maybe they could still... No, probably not. Even though it had helped Tsuna to feel those reassuring touches, it wasn't wise to do it again.

"It's not all bad. Like this," Tsuna said. "For the rest of my life." He made an odd groaning sound and slumped sideways, putting an arm around Gokudera's shoulders and leaning over to rest against him. Because, of course, he didn't know it wasn't okay anymore.

Gokudera's heart rate sped, and then he berated himself because this wasn't out of the ordinary. This had nothing to do with the sudden hollow of wanting inside him that made him feel like holding on. Like he would if they were alone on the roof, so Tsuna was tucked against him closely enough to feel breath and peace. Tsuna was still free to like it even if now it made Gokudera want to run.

"Exactly, Tenth. Not all bad," Gokudera whispered. Good thing they were being quiet, because his throat was too tight to let him speak any louder. He squeezed his eyes shut, then got up as he opened them. "But ... but we should get going."

Tsuna looked hurriedly at him. (Those big, beautiful eyes...) "I think it's all right to sit like this for a while..."

"There's the house-warming party!" Gokudera stood and brushed off his trousers, though the staff had to be excellent because there was no dust. "We'd better get moving."

Tsuna was still, fingers clenched on a step. Cheeks red. It was awful to bear, and yet Gokudera couldn't possibly excuse himself and leave that face behind. "All those people did put in a lot of effort," Tsuna said. "Okay."

Gokudera stepped back and watched him push to his feet. It took a big-eyed look of surprise from Tsuna, and what looked like the start of worry, before Gokudera dragged himself closer to help.

His stomach churned. It was going to be like this from now on - second-guessing himself around Tsuna, trying hard not to be obvious about what he wanted, ruining what he had. He gave a big reassuring grin and backed away once Tsuna was up.

"You don't have to worry," Tsuna said, hobble-hopping up the stairs.

"I'm not worried! I just won't let you fall!" said Gokudera at a respectful distance behind him, but with his arms held out and at the ready to catch.

"Okay." Tsuna looked fixedly downwards. "Are you angry?"

"No!" He had been, and he really wanted to apologise. He ought to. He couldn't. "I was, a little, but that was before! Now you seem ... fine again, so there's no more reason to fight."

"Maybe you should be. Angry at me."

"No." Why were you scared of me? Why wouldn't you listen? Would you really leave? Gokudera took a chance and reached forwards to squeeze Tsuna's shoulder. "Not now." He fell back again; he wouldn't ruin this.

A quick glance over his shoulder and then Tsuna turned back to looking at the ground. "You really don't have to worry," he said. "About me falling..." A deep breath. "Or about anything you're thinking ... about us. You know what I mean, right?" He gave Gokudera a look furtive with embarrassment. Did he know? Of course not, he didn't know what Gokudera had been thinking, he absolutely couldn't. Shit, the Vongola intuition!

"When we were sitting back there," Tsuna said, reddening.

"I wasn't thinking anything!"

"Gokudera..." He glanced back and seemed to surprise himself by smiling. "Don't worry, I mean it."

Then he went quiet. No more clues as to what he'd been talking about, so Gokudera couldn't figure if he really did know, about this feeling so stupid and sudden and always there.

"I'm sorry," Tsuna said, and stopped walking. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, at school. I was picking a fight. That wasn't the way to talk about any of it! I'm sorry."

He felt watery with the relief. Proud too, that his leader and friend could apologise and humble himself with such open sincerity. "It's all right, Tenth. As long as, well, now it's all right!" Gokudera sniffed, swiped a sleeve over his face.

"Gokudera ... I really am sorry, but also..." Tsuna smiled, a little bit. "When we were sitting just now..." He limped over, looking at the stairs as he carefully placed his feet to avoid aggravating his ankle. His eyes continued to be aimed downwards when he stopped in front of Gokudera. Was he embarrassed? Who wouldn't be after finding out something like this - a friend taking his emotions for you too far? Gokudera took a step down to put distance between them, shaky misery rising within him.

The step down put them at equal height to each other. Tsuna met his eyes, and yeah, he was embarrassed, but he was also beaming. "Good idea. Thanks," he whispered awkwardly, and gripped the railing so that he could lean forward and press his mouth to Gokudera's.

With this little happy sound.

Noise roared in Gokudera's ears like there was a tornado coming out of them. He fell back, only dimly suspecting that he was moving as his feet slipped off the step and the ceiling started moving in an arc before his half-seeing eyes.

"Wha-hey no-GOKUDERA!" The Tenth's voice increased in volume at what could well be a neat exponential rate going per word, and he grabbed Gokudera's wrist and hauled him out of making a dive down the long staircase.

They both fell anyway, bumping a few steps down into a heap. "Whoa! Are you okay?" Tsuna looked scared half to death, panting for breath. He waved a hand in front of Gokudera's face, the other closed around his wrist. "Gokudera!"

It was never 'Gokudera-kun' anymore. Huh. Hadn't been for a while.

"Didn't mean to surprise you that much," Tsuna said, and then slowly started looking like he'd realised what he'd said, and what he'd done. He looked pleased even as he turned his head away to hide his face. "It's just that it's been months, so I thought..." He trailed off like the rest of that sentence should be obvious.

"What the hell?" Gokudera asked of the universe at large.

Tsuna was smiling too much to even give him an odd look, despite having a lot of practice with those. "Not exactly that," he said as Gokudera started unfolding out of the heap they made. "It just seemed like it was about time." His breath was starting to come shorter, probably because Gokudera was sitting up and couldn't stop staring at him. "So ... so why not," he said as Gokudera leaned closer to him, and he leaned in too.

There were a lot of reasons why not. Gokudera couldn't begin to care. Tsuna's mouth opened against his.