This took much longer than it should've. I'd like to say it's because I've been busy (and I have), but in reality there were just a couple scenes in here that were really difficult to write. Namely, the one involving the Varia. And actually, any of Shouichi's narratives, simply because of the whole stupid timey-wimey stuff going on.

EDIT: That art piece I said I was going to do for this fic. It's finished. Just delete the spaces in the link to go to it. http:/ neon-hikari. deviantart .com /art/ Tatta-Latta-Meets-Suckerpunch- 216477364

Ahhh, you don't wanna listen to me rant. Enjoy chapter 3.

Chapter 3; in which Squalo is Outsmarted by a Little Girl and Shouichi Really Fucks Things Up.

It was decided that since Chrome could actually fight and Haru at least did gymnastics, the real problem was Kyoko learning to fire a gun correctly. Without the ability to do some kind of damage at least, she'd be killed in seconds in the event of a real fight.

The main problem with this, as it turned out, wasn't that Kyoko couldn't aim; it was that she wouldn't.

"I've seen too many action movies with my brother," she admitted to Haru and Chrome as they sat down for snack at a café. "Whenever someone gets shot in one of those, I can't watch. It freaks me out and there's so much blood and they almost always die. I don't want to kill people."

"Kyoko, this entire thing was your idea!" Haru sighed.

"Also," Chrome added softly, "it's not like an enemy is going to let you live if they have the chance to do otherwise."

"I know," Kyoko mumbled dejectedly. "It's just that… well, bullets are scary. Imagining a bit of burning metal going through my body just scares the heck out of me. I mean, if I could fire something else, that'd be different. I don't know what else I could fire, but… bullets just seem too… you know, right? They seem so permanent."

The trio lapsed into silence and watched the people go by on the streets of Namimori. It was a Sunday, so everyone was out in the sun and enjoying the remainder of the weekend. Kyoko sighed inwardly and wished she could still be a part of that normal life, living in blissful ignorance of the fact that her own classmates and friends were in the mafia, and danger could come bursting out of any dark alley, from around any corner, even appearing randomly on the streets in a cloud of pink smoke, transported from another time period.

"There's a way," Chrome said suddenly.

"A way to what?" Kyoko and Haru asked.

"To fire something other than a bullet. You could fire Dying Will flames from your gun," she explained quietly. "Boss fought that Varia boss guy who did that."

"Varia…" Haru mused. "Aren't they that assassin group that works for Tsuna-san's mafia?" Chrome nodded. "Hahi… real assassins… I don't know, Kyoko-chan. If legit assassin guys use that kind of power, maybe it's worth a shot! It could be really powerful if you could get it to work!"

"If I could get it to work," she emphasized.

"You could always call and ask them to teach you," Chrome mumbled, taking a bite of her cake.

Kyoko and Haru stared at her for a moment. Eventually, it was the ever-energetic Haru who broke the silence with: "You think they'd be in the phone book?"

"I'm not about to just casually telephone the mafia, Haru-chan," Kyoko interrupted. "They wouldn't be in the phone book; we'd probably have to steal their number from Reborn-chan or something!"

"Or you could ask Boss's blond friend," Chrome mentioned quietly, continuing to eat her cake.

"Blond friend?" Kyoko and Haru asked.

"He's visiting," Chrome explained vaguely. "You met the future one of him. Blond. Wears a green jacket with fuzz around the collar. He had that horse Box Weapon."

"Oh, him!" Haru exclaimed. "I remember that guy. What was his name?"

"It was something not-Japanese, wasn't it? He was from Italy."

"Right."

"He's at Boss's house for the week if you want to talk to him," Chrome said.

"We could go do that," Haru agreed. "Come in, pretending we want to see Tsuna-san or something, or to play with Lambo-chan and I-Pin-chan, and then one of us can chat this guy up and the other will steal his address book and get the phone number for… what's this group called again?"

"Varia," Chrome mumbled through her cake.

"Right. Phone number for the Varia," Haru finished. "And you can call and ask how to do it!"

The trio looked at each other for a moment. Kyoko's face was blank. Haru was grinning. Chrome was chewing the last bite of her food. She swallowed, took a quick drink of water, and then burst into silent laughter.

"Right, you do that," she giggled. "It sounds easier than it'll be. I promised Mukuro-sama I'd be home for dinner, so I should head back and catch the bus."

"Oh, okay," Kyoko nodded. "Can we see you tomorrow? I mean, we have school for one more week, but we can see you after school hours, maybe."

"I guess," she mumbled. "Keep practicing with the gun, Kyoko-san. And Haru-san, how are you going to fight-"

"Don't worry!" Haru insisted. "I've got things figured out."

"We'll see you later, Chrome!" Kyoko called as the younger girl left. "Say hi to Mukuro-san for us, okay?" Chrome nodded and turned the corner, vanishing from sight.

"She's totally got a thing for him," Haru said, smiling surely.

"I don't think so, actually," Kyoko countered. "I think she might like one of the other Kokuyo Middle boys that she hangs out with."

"Hahi! Really? Which one? The tall skinny one with the hat or the spiky-haired mean one?"

Kyoko giggled. "You know how when kids are little, boys will pull the hair of the girls they like just to get their attention?"

"Yeah…"

"It's the same with Chrome-chan and the boy with the spiky hair. Except instead of pulling her hair, he just antagonizes her all the time. But since I think she likes him back, I think she can tell that he doesn't mean it."

"Woah… you've really thought that through, huh…"

"I guess."

The girls headed off in the direction of Tsuna's house, talking about all manner of random things ("What do you think Hibari-san will say about seeing us at that store?"/ "Do you think Bianchi-san will still be mad at us for this morning?"/ "Did you know Hana has a boyfriend? I wonder who it is…"). The conversation eventually reached a point where both girls were wondering which of the Vongola boys they were fighting for. Not just on the whole, as a thank-you, but which boy they each had in mind.

"Because I know you have one, Kyoko-chan. This isn't just about thanking Tsuna-san and protecting your brother."

"Haru-chan, what are you talking about?"

"Which of them is it?"

"Huh?"

"Which one do you like?" Haru grinned. "Of the Vongola boys, that is."

"Oh."

"Is it Tsuna-san?" Haru asked, a silly grin on her face. "Because you can have him. If I'm going to marry a Mafioso, it's going to be one who's strong and cool and dangerous, and Tsuna-san's a great friend, but he just doesn't fit the dangerous bit, you know?"

"Haru-chan…"

"You do like him, don't you?" Kyoko turned a violent shade of red and looked away, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets. "Hahi! I knew it! You totally like him!"

"Haru-chan, his house is right here. Let's not talk about this here, okay?"

Haru nodded, gave Kyoko a thumbs-up, and promptly rang the doorbell.

...

Hibari was in an absolutely hideous mood. Someone had been in his bedroom recently without his permission. He hadn't noticed, and whoever it was had left no clues behind as to who they were, and on top of that, they'd stolen from him.

Whoever they were, they either didn't know who he was, or they had a serious death wish.

Hibari doubted it was the former, because if they hadn't known who he was, they wouldn't have stolen what they did: one of his Cloud rings. True, it was a nondescript, vaguely feminine one that he really wasn't going to miss that much. But it was simply the fact that some foolish herbivore had thought they had the balls to steal from him that really got him mad.

So far, the only person he could see doing it was Mukuro, simply for the purpose of pissing him off. Mukuro seemed to enjoy doing that, and under all the circumstances, Hibari couldn't fathom why. Mukuro had much better people to bother and much better reasons to bother someone else instead. Most people would expect that bothering Hibari Kyouya would lead to a very painful and extended trip to the hospital.

Aside from that, Mukuro wouldn't have stolen something that Hibari might not have noticed; he'd have stolen something that would've really annoyed Hibari. Like his tonfas. Or his armband. Or-

Well, anyway, it probably wasn't Mukuro.

Hibari thought back to the girl that'd rung his doorbell the day before. Sasagawa Ryohei's little sister, if he remembered correctly. Some first name that sounded similar to his, but feminine in nature. She'd been wearing one of her brother's Sun rings on her right hand. Hibari hadn't thought anything of it at the time, but… then he'd seen her and that girl from Midori Junior High and Dokuro coming out of the shady weapons dealership downtown, and he'd decided that maybe it wasn't a coincidence after all. Maybe the foolish girl who'd run across pretty jewelry in her brother's room and decided to try it on wasn't so foolish after all. Maybe something was going on.

Hibari growled and sat down at his desk, fiddling with the remaining rings that hadn't been stolen. Had Sasagawa's sister stolen from him, perhaps? He hadn't seen a Cloud ring on her finger earlier that day, nor on Dokuro's hands (only Mist rings there), or the other girl… what was her name. Miura something. She'd been wearing a ring too, but it was green-

-which was lightning. Dokuro was with them, and it couldn't possibly be a coincidence. Sasagawa's sister and Miura and Dokuro. Rings. Weapon shop (how had they even found that place was beyond him).

Those girls were up to something. And as one of them was a student of Namimori Middle, it was technically up to Hibari to make sure that Sasagawa was at least safe.

Be as that may, he wasn't about to put in any house calls to the Sasagawa family. The second Ryohei heard it was him on the phone, he'd assume Hibari had rethought his offer of joining the boxing club and he'd come after him relentlessly again about it. He didn't know Miura's phone number. He supposed he could get it from Sawada, but that would entail either calling the pathetic herbivore or else actually being in his presence and speaking to him, and Hibari wasn't in the mood for that.

The only remaining option that presented itself would be to inform Rokudo Mukuro and have him pester Dokuro about it.

Hibari played with the pros and cons of this third option for a moment. On the up side, he would find out what the girls were up to and potentially keep a Namimori student from getting herself in danger (the paperwork if she died would be such a pain in the ass, after all). On the down side, he'd have to ask Mukuro for a favor, and that would just be humiliating. Up side, Mukuro would owe him if he managed to keep Chrome safe. Down side, asking Mukuro for a favor would mean that Mukuro could in return ask Hibari for one, and in all probability… well, Hibari could already imagine Mukuro's trademark sadistic smirk creeping onto his face.

But he had to know if those girls had managed to break into his house and steal from him. That, above all else, was priority.

With that as his resolve (Hibari had yet to work out that this kind of resolve worked in the place of irritation to light his Cloud flames), Hibari sighed exasperatedly and dialed Mukuro's phone number.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Hello, this is Rokudo Mukuro's cell phone. I'm not here right now, so leave a message, and if I deem you worthy of my very valuable time, I just might decide it's beneficial to call you back. If it's Tsunayoshi-kun on the other line, don't leave a message unless you're ready to submit and let me take control of your mind. Ciao!"

Beep.

Hibari sighed again. "It's Hibari. I have a job for you to do for me. Dokuro, Sasagawa's sister, and Sawada's annoying female friend from Midori Middle are up to something weird. If you could ask Dokuro if the three of them happen to be in possession of one of my Cloud rings, I'd appreciate it very much." And then, with a sigh and the notion that this would be a severe headache for him later, Hibari added, "Because I know you'll need motivation to do anything at all for anyone, I'll just say this: I don't like owing people things, so I'll make it up to you. Find out if they have one of my rings, and if they do, find out why."

Hibari hung up defiantly without so much as a goodbye, and hoped Mukuro would assist him in this venture without much complaint.

...

After brief introductions had occurred, Kyoko and Haru got talking to Dino while Tsuna attempted to finish his homework. Bianchi conspicuously avoided the girls, deigning to stay in the backyard with Lambo, I-Pin and Fuuta. Dino, however, was eager to make friends with the girls. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be eager to do literally everything, despite the fact that he seemed to trip over everything possible to trip over and even some things impossible to trip over.

Eventually, after much tripping and much giggling, the trio made it to the kitchen table, where Haru and Dino took it upon themselves to discuss the various merits and failings of all the stuff in Tsuna's fridge and what they could eat for snack. Kyoko excused herself to the bathroom.

Again, she didn't go to the bathroom. Instead, she snuck out into the front hallway and yanked Dino's fuzzy jacket down off the coat hooks. She dug through his pockets until she found his cell phone, which she turned on and then covered up so the startup noises wouldn't be overheard. Once it was on, Kyoko pulled out her own phone and opened up both phones' contact list. Dino's was harder to find, since everything in his phone was written in Italian, but eventually she located it and began scrolling through the names.

Let's see… "Varia" starts with a V, so I'll start from the bottom and scroll up, she thought, proceeding to do just that.

And there it was; close to the bottom, in the midst of a bunch of Italian names like Vincento and other things Kyoko couldn't pronounce were the words Varia Independent Assassination Squad (home number). Kyoko poked at her own phone and pressed the button to create a new contact, after which she copied in the number from Dino's phone. She finished, stuck her phone back in her pocket, turned Dino's off, and returned it to his jacket before returning to the kitchen.

"You're back!" Dino smiled.

"I'm back," Kyoko replied, feeling terrible about all the lies, but knowing that if they told the truth, it'd only be so much worse.

...

"I'll see you tomorrow, Kyoko-chan," Haru called as she jogged off down the street toward her house. Kyoko smiled at her as she went, and as she turned the other direction, texted her brother that she'd be home late that night. She walked on her own to the park and smiled at the sun setting over the flowers she'd accidentally grown the day before, but smiled bigger at the lack of people; all the children had gone home for dinner by that point.

She sat down on a park bench, took a deep breath, and flipped her phone open. She bit her lip, dialed the number for the Varia, and held the phone up to her ear. The phone on the other end rang three times before Kyoko was greeted with a voice so loud she had to tear the phone away from her ear.

"VOOOOOOI! Who the fuck is it?" shouted the very irritable, very loud voice on the other side.

Kyoko cringed and steeled her nerves. "My name is Sasagawa Kyoko and I need to speak to the Varia's boss, please."

"Who the hell are you? You're either friends with that Cavallone bastard or part of the Vongola if you have this number. Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"Um-"

"Are you working for that Sawada brat?"

"No," Kyoko said, surprised by her forwardness. "He doesn't know I'm making this call."

"Oh?" Something in the tone of the otherwise very angry voice caught Kyoko's attention. These Varia guys weren't big fans of Tsuna's, were they? They didn't like him much. He'd defeated them, after all, hadn't he? Stopped them from being the Vongola Guardians or something. Tsuna had explained it all very quickly.

"Yeah, I'm kinda going behind his back to talk to you," Kyoko informed the angry person on the other line, despite the fact that it wasn't exactly true. "He wouldn't be happy if he knew I was contacting the Varia."

"Why the hell not?"

Kyoko grinned to herself. Well, she thought, I've lied to the people I care about, and I've lied to friends I've just made. I shouldn't have any qualms at all about lying to someone I'll likely never speak to again.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi doesn't want me to be able to fight. He thinks I'll interfere with the Vongola famiglia," she explained off the top of her head. "That's why I wanted to talk to your boss; the only weapon I've been able to teach myself to use well in secret is a gun, and I wanted to know if it was possible for him to teach me how to fire Dying Will flames from it."

There was a pause on the other end.

"And you want this power so you can take down Sawada, is that it?" asked the voice hopefully.

"You got it," Kyoko lied.

"Kay, hang on," the voice conceded, and then shouted into the background on his end of the line, "VOOOOOOI, shitty boss! There's someone on the phone for you that wants to kill Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

Kyoko resisted the urge to giggle uncontrollably at the fact that she'd just lied to and manipulated a skilled Mafioso.

"He's on his way," announced the voice. "Voi, Sasagawa, right? Where've I heard that name before? Isn't that one of Sawada's Guardians' last names?"

Kyoko bit her lip. "Is it?" she faked. "It must be a coincidence. It's not that uncommon of a last name in Japan."

"Oh. Huh." There was a long and awkward pause as Kyoko tried to decide if it was worth making small talk with the very angry man on the other end of the phone line. She didn't have to though, because a few seconds later the man announced, "Here's the boss. Watch yourself, brat."

There was a shuffling sound of a phone being passed between two people, and then a deep and intimidating voice asked, "Well? What're you wasting my time over, trash?"

Kyoko exhaled nervously. "I'm Sasagawa Kyoko and I need to learn how to fire Dying Will flames from a gun in order to assist in my venture of becoming strong enough to defeat Sawada Tsunayoshi."

The bigger the lie, the harder they would fall for it, Kyoko figured. Besides, the angry guy had seemed to enjoy this idea. His boss must hate Tsuna even more than the subordinates, huh?

"You want to kill that little brat?"

"I want to be stronger than him. He's trying to keep me weak and on the sidelines." This lie was beginning to get a little bit out of control… "He knows I can be stronger than him, and so he's taken away all my opportunities to get stronger. He doesn't know I'm making this call." Which was true. Tsuna had no idea that Kyoko was on the phone with the Varia. He'd probably have a heart attack if he did.

"Hn." There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. "Stupid trash, you really couldn't figure it out for yourself? You must not be that capable of being strong."

"Sawada's stopped me from figuring it out!" Kyoko lied. "Every time I try to teach myself, he or his Guardians get in the way! You were my last resort; make this worth my time, so I'm not wasting yours."

"Hn." And then, "You gotta put your ring on your trigger finger, first. That makes it stronger." Kyoko's eyes widened. She'd done it. "After that, it's the bullets."

"Huh?"

"The bullets, trash. You gotta use Dying Will bullets."

"Oh, okay. I think I can manage that."

"That's it."

"That's it? That's all there is to it?"

"I'm hanging up now, bitch."

And so he did.

...

"Ah, Chrome. You're back." Mukuro gave Chrome a smile as she appeared shyly from around the corner. "Just in time for dinner, like you said." Chrome nodded and sat down at the coffee table where they always ate. Ken and Chikusa were notably absent, however, and Chrome asked about that fact almost immediately.

"Where are Ken and Chikusa?" she mumbled softly.

"They ate already," Mukuro explained. He'd insisted that they eat before Chrome returned, because he needed to have a talk with her in private.

According to Hibari, she and Tsunayoshi's female friends were up to something not-so-innocent. He hadn't left details, but apparently one of his rings was missing and he'd seen these girls wearing rings of their own that looked suspiciously like ones that belonged, respectively, to the Sun and Lightning Guardians.

Mukuro had his own theories about what was going on, but he couldn't deny that something was indeed happening under their noses, because those same two girls that Hibari had mentioned had shown up looking for Chrome and the one hyper girl had revealed herself to possess lightning flames.

It wasn't entirely his place to bother Chrome about everything she did, but, well… Hibari had asked, and he'd promised to make up for it, so Mukuro wasn't about to turn down the offer.

"So where did you go today, Chrome? You were gone for a long time."

Chrome fiddled with the hems of her shirt sleeves. "Um, I went shopping in Namimori with Kyoko-san and Haru-san."

"You didn't buy anything," Mukuro noted.

"Didn't see anything I wanted to buy."

"What were you guys talking about earlier before you left? It looked important," Mukuro mused. Chrome flinched.

"You were listening?"

"Just watching."

"Oh."

"Was it important? Something I shouldn't hear? You can tell me anything, Chrome," Mukuro insisted, flashing her a smile that would've looked innocent on anyone else.

"Oh," Chrome mumbled, taking a bite of tonight's dinner (mochi and cheesy potato chips, because that's what Ken and Chikusa had decided on). "Girl stuff," she replied vaguely.

"What kind of girl stuff?"

"Girl girl stuff."

"Like boys?"

"Girlier than that." Chrome blushed. Mukuro stopped asking. They ate in silence (save for the crunch of potato chips) for a while before either of them spoke again.

"So I got a call from Kyouya-kun today," Mukuro mentioned offhandedly. "I was surprised; he never calls me. Unfortunately, I was busy at the time and he had to leave a message. Do you know what he called about, Chrome?"

"No, Mukuro-sama. I can imagine it involved your death," she answered, taking an educated guess while she was at it.

"In fact it did not," Mukuro laughed. "One of his Cloud rings is missing." Chrome flinched. "He thinks someone may have stolen it." Mukuro raised an eyebrow speculatively. Chrome tried desperately to become even smaller than she already was. "You wouldn't know anything about this, would you?"

"Why would I have Hibari-san's ring?" Chrome mumbled awkwardly.

Mukuro paused. "I never accused you of taking it," he said slowly. Chrome's eye widened. "You didn't do it, did you?"

"Of course not, Mukuro-sama!"

"Do you know who did?"

"No!"

"Are you lying to me, Chrome?"

"I couldn't possibly lie to you, Mukuro-sama!" she gasped, shaking her head violently.

"You're being rather dramatic. Are you sure you aren't trying to hide something from me? You and those other two girls? I didn't know either of them were capable of using flames." Chrome bit her lip, possibly remembering that Mukuro had seen the one girl use Lightning flames earlier too.

"Mukuro-sama…"

"Chrome, please just answer me this: You're not doing anything reckless, right?"

"Mukuro-sama, I'm a Vongola Guardian too, aren't I?" she asked.

"Of course you are. We share that title."

"Reckless is part of the job," she mumbled shyly. Mukuro laughed.

"Indeed it is. Except this time, by 'reckless' I mean something that Tsunayoshi-kun or I would not approve of you doing. And please, answer me honestly."

Chrome didn't answer at all.

"Chrome, answer me."

"No, Mukuro-sama," she said. "I haven't done anything."

Mukuro hoped that the silent, lingering 'yet' at the end of Chrome's sentence was only his imagination.

...

At around one in the morning, when Kyoko climbed out the window of her bedroom with a flashlight and a cotton sack and ran off down the streets of Namimori, she began to wonder if she was getting herself in over her head. All the lying and stealing was eventually going to come back and get her in the form of some really bad karma, she knew. But it's necessary in order to protect the boys! she convinced herself.

Sawada Tsunayoshi's house was dark at this time of night; everyone was asleep. Kyoko had memorized which room belonged to the newly-appointed Vongola boss, and as she crept through the front gate, closing it softly behind her, she stared up at Tsuna's window and deeply regretted what she was about to have to do. Kyoko stuck the flashlight into the waistband of her pants and held the cotton sack in her teeth, and as carefully and quietly as she could, started climbing up the bushes along the side of the house. It was nearly summer, and Kyoko was dead thankful that Tsuna slept with the window open, because it saved her the trouble of trying to pick the lock open from the outside.

She slipped silently into his room and tiptoed across the floor, doing her best to make sure not to wake him, but even more so not to wake Reborn. His wrath would be far worse than Tsuna's mere surprise.

Kyoko slid Tsuna's closet open as inaudibly as she could and pulled out a cardboard box. This one had words inked on it reading crappy test scores. She moved this box to the side and pulled out another, this one reading clothes that don't fit anymore. She placed this one gently on top of the first one and slid out the third one. This one read extra dw bullets, and Kyoko smiled to herself and thanked the person (his name escaped her at the moment) who'd given Tsuna the Dying Will pills to use instead, because now there were all these leftover bullets and Kyoko could take as many as she needed from the nearly-full box.

Kyoko opened up the cotton sack that she'd brought and started carefully sliding bullets into it, placing them in the bag one by one so they wouldn't clatter together and wake anyone up. She didn't dare take the entire box, because that would be easily noticeable, and despite the fact that Tsuna wouldn't dare suspect her, she wasn't taking her chances.

Kyoko replaced the boxes back exactly where they'd been in Tsuna's closet and slid the door shut again. She tied the sack of bullets shut and held onto it tightly as she balanced herself on the window, swung down and hung by one arm, and then let herself drop lightly to the grass below.

She picked herself up, shouldered the sack, and ran home through the streets of Namimori, feeling terribly guilty, terribly nervous, and at the same time… so, so thrilled.

...

Irie Shouichi was mildly displeased to see his bedroom from ten years earlier. Mostly because it was a complete wreck, and also he'd sent Spanner over first, so Spanner had already seen the mess.

However, he couldn't be entirely unhappy, because scientific progress had gone boink and landed him exactly where he wanted to be: ten years in the past. Or so.

Great, he thought. Now I have to figure out how to sabotage Byakuran's plans before he gets sent back here to carry them out.

There wasn't a ton he could do about it, when death threats as creative as Byakuran's were being hurled in his direction (the most recent one had involved something along the lines of sandpapering Shouichi's skin off), and so Shouichi, under duress, had invented the ten-year-backwards bazooka.

Shouichi had sent himself back in time nine years and eight months (he thought. He wasn't positive he'd set the time coordinates correctly, but then again, time coordinates were hard to set correctly). In his rightful time period, it was a month before the Vongola Guardians from the past would show up and obliterate their boss.

Over the next seventy-two hours, the Cervello would send the entire militia assigned to Melone base back in time (and if Shouichi's calculations were right, they could be able to send Melone base itself, too). In a week, once the Vongola Guardians were good and captured, they'd send Byakuran and he'd see to killing the lot of them himself. He'd insisted on killing them himself.

Shouichi sighed resignedly, stood up, and said, "Spanner, help me clean my room, or I'll never get anything done-"

At about that point in time, Shouichi realized that Spanner had switched places with his past self. At the moment, he was somewhere in Britain in the middle of the night, and very, very confused.

Shouichi sighed and made his way over to his younger self's desk, where he sat down. Underneath it was the box from the Bovino famiglia that he'd been sent all those years ago, the very reason he was able to stand where and when he currently was.

The younger me must be so confused right now, being stuck inside that big white device…

Shouichi turned on his younger self's computer and logged on.

And fell off his chair.

According to the calendar on his desktop, he'd arrived six months later than he'd calculated he ought to have. The Vongola had already been to the future. Been to Shouichi's future. Not the future that Shouichi had come from, but even further in the future than that.

And horrific realization was just beginning to dawn on Shouichi: all his time travel devices were in the future. And he himself, the only one who knew how to work them, was in the past. He couldn't get back to the future and fix things even if he wanted to. The entire Millefiore was going to be sent to the wrong point in time.

Shouichi must've been swearing angrily to himself, because just then he heard a voice call down the hall from his sister's room, "Go to sleep, you little geek! Quit making so much noise!"

In the best imitation of his fifteen-year-old self, Shouichi replied, "Sorry, sis! I was just-"

"I don't care what you're doing! Go the hell to sleep!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Shouichi flopped over on his younger self's bed and wondered briefly if he should leave before his mother came in the next morning to wake him up, only to find that he'd grown ten years and several inches overnight.

Pfff ahaha Shouichi. I don't know why I don't love his character more; he's really awesome.

Ughhh I feel like Mukuro and Xanxus were both kinda OOC here _ Xanxus more so, though. He's the reason this chapter took so long to write, and he was only in one scene *dies*

Euh. Review if you like. Still trying to figure out if I'm gonna include 8086 or 5986 (if I do 5986, then I can do 8096 too). Feedback on that might be helpful.