Vongola's mansion had all the comforts everyone needed and maybe more. Tsuna, because of the strange obligation he always felt towards his friends who had accompanied and gave him their support all those years, had made great expenses in order to provide them with the best amenities. Even the guest rooms were decorated and furnished with care so anyone could feel at home. Akira couldn't help but feel amazed when she entered hers. Apart of the beautiful paintings and the classy furniture, her room had an incredible view. However, she would prefer to stay at home, it's been years since she had last set foot on her country and she had missed her very own room which was filled with memories of her childhood.

But, knowing that there was no point complaining about that, she settled in the guest room they had provided her. Her mattress was kind of stiff, sign that no one had slept on that bed for a while, but she could get used to it. She was still holding the cowboy hat when she laid on it; the spoil she got after a strange ride. She smiled softly while looking at it. Her heart had skipped a bit when he offered to take her home. Memories of the past had flowed inside her, nice memories of her childhood and adolescent days.

Suddenly her smile disappeared and she let the hat next to her with a deep sigh, "I'm not a child any more. There is no point to get my hopes up because of something like that. Still... he really hasn't changed all that much. He still knows how to create awkward moments."

She stood up, let the hat on a nearby chair and changed into her pajamas. She should enjoy her stay as much as she could; that was what she had decided. Her night sleep was cushy as she had expected, her country's climate was indeed the best.

"Akira... Akira, wake up!" someone called, shaking her softly

Someone had come to interrupt that beautiful sleep and he was no other than the boss of the Cavallone familia. She opened her eyes slowly and looked at the clock. It was 6 o'clock in the morning, what could he possibly want at a time like that if it wasn't something important?

"What? What happened?" she asked sitting up while rubbing her eyes.

"I convinced Tsuna to organize a morning ride. They are preparing the horses now, come and accompany me!" he said happily.

"Dino, are you sure that walking into a woman's room without permission at a time like this, for a reason like this, is the proper thing to do? You are a grown up man... and where do you think you are going still in your pajamas?" she scolded him.

He looked at his reflection in the nearby mirror slightly surprised and smiled nervously, "I was going to change later. And what's wrong with me entering your room? Stop being so uptight all the time, noone is going to pay any mind to something like this," he said messing her hair while laughing.

"Say the same thing to my brother. Maybe I should have locked the door after all," she said punching him on his stomach.

"Come on," he complained. "You're no fun sometimes."
"You'd be no fun if someone interrupted your sleep for something like that..." she yawned. "Anyway, I'll come. Just give me sometime to wash my face and change into my clothes."
"Alright!" he said and made himself comfortable on the bed.

"...You' don' t expect me to get changed while you're still in the room, do you? Not to mention that you have to get changed yourself," she said throwing a pillow right in his face.
"Sorry!" he cried and stoop up quickly. "Meet us at 6:30 in front of the stable."

Dino exited the room still excited for the upcoming ride with his friends when he noticed the young storm guardian of the Vongola who passing by carrying a pile of documents in his hands. He closed the door behind him quietly and called out to him. Gokudera looked at him indifferently at first and it seemed that he was about to move on but then he stopped abruptly, like he had frozen. The way he turned his face towards him again was rather creepy, like a scene out of a horror movie.

"I see you are the morning type. You should take some rest, Tsuna is also worried about you," Dino commented upon Gokudera's workaholic nature and patted him on his back. "I hope you'll come with us for a ride later."
"Hu-uh..."

The blond mafioso smiled nervously. Maybe Tsuna was right after all, Gokudera's behavior was weird in many ways. Of course that was because he didn't know what was happening inside the storm guardian's head at that moment. Leaving Dino behind him, Gokudera walked slowly to his office, more like he was hypnotized by something than walking like a normal human being. He didn't even notice Yamamoto who called out to him.

"So that's it... That's how it is," he mumbled leaving the documents on his desk. "Of course. I should have expected that... I mean. Yeah, I should have expected that..."

"Hey, Gokudera, did you turn into a zombie?" Yamamoto asked entering the office without knocking.

"Why do you care? You have no brains, so you shouldn't worry about something like that," Gokudera hissed.

"You were in such a good mood earlier, so what happened and Mr. Grumpy is back grumpier than before? I saw you talking to Dino few minutes ago. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, everything is ok. Everything is perfect," Gokudera replied fast.
"Let me try again. So, is everything ok? Now you try to tell me what happened. Come on, I know you can do it," Yamamoto encouraged him.
"Don't talk to me like I'm five years old!" Gokudera snapped.
"Then try to tell me what happened like the proper adult you are!"
"Ok..."

Gokudera pouted and folded his arms. He took out one of his cigarettes, much to Yamamoto's displease, and sat on his office. He took a puff first, enjoyed it for a moment, shuffled his hair feeling uneasy, and then he started explaining the situation.

"I saw Dino exiting Akira's room a few minutes ago."
"So?"
"So? So? I man exited a woman's room in such an hour in his pajamas, clearly excited and that's all you can ask?"
"...Pretty much."
"Come on! Isn't it obvious? They are in a thing."
"No. You are the one jumping into conclusions. There are many other explanations. Why do you always try to see the dark side of everything? And you really have a dirty mind…." Yamamoto was annoyed by his friends reaction.
"Wha- Hey! I'm a man! You are a man! It's normal to think something like that!" Gokudera defended himself. "I'm not as naïve as you."

"I'll go ask Dino."
"Wait! Wait! No! That's a private matter, we have no right to pry into things," Gokudera run and blocked the door. "Are you crazy? With what excuse?"
"With no excuse? Look, if they were really in a thing, why would they hide it anyway? I'm going to ask him," Yamamoto asked blinking.
"No."
"You can't stop me as easy as you think," Yamamoto said taking a few steps back.

Seeing the baseball player ready for an attack, Gokudera prepared himself mentally to take the damage as a man. There was no way he could stop Yamamoto easily but to his surprise Yamamoto just turned his back to him and seconds later he was typing something fast on his cell phone.

"Oh, hello, Dino... Yes, I know it's weird... I was just wondering you if I can accompany you to your ride. Gokudera will come with me... That's great, see you there. Tell Tsuna that we are both so excited about this ride...Ok. Bye."

"No, you didn't!" he hissed.

Yamamoto smiled victoriously and shook his cell phone in front of Gokudera's face. The young man got the message his friend sent him. It was not just an appointment with Dino, it was also a promise to his boss, therefore there was no way out. He should accept his utter defeat, recognize Yamamoto's clever attack and follow him even though he didn't want to. The pile of documents on his office were already calling for him and he had to go horse riding?

"I'm going anyway," Yamamoto said.
"I'll go too," Gokudera mumbled.
"What? I didn't hear you."
"I said, I'll go too!"
"That's great! I'm so glad you're so enthusiastic about this!"
"Sneaky bastard," Gokudera murmured and followed him outside.

And that's how he ended up riding a horse early in the morning, instead of being in his office, doing what he knew to do best; working. He was frustrated, that damned baseball idiot, not only had he forced him into that mess, but he also dared to ignore him completely and engage into a conversation with Haru instead. So much for a friend!

Horse riding was never his thing, that made his mood even worse. He would really prefer to ride his motorbike for a change of pace. That always made him relax. Even the thought that he was depending on a animal made him nervous; that should be obvious to the rest of the party by the way the storm guardian was holding the reins. His horse suddenly stopped and shook his mane. Gokudera waited for a couple of minutes but the horse showed no intention to move again.

"What's with you, stupid horse?" he asked leaning forward. "Oh, come on! Move... What's with you?"

The others had already left him behind. He sighed deeply and decided to get down and walk on foot. However, his horse seemed to have other plans. It started to move again with no warning and surprised as he was, he lost his balance. He was lucky that he was still holding the reins, not that it was helping much in that situation. His foot had tangled up in the saddle's stirrups and he was screaming out loud with his face only a few centimeters above the ground. His horse passed the rest of the company running loudly.

"Nice acrobatics!" Yamamoto laughed.

"Hayato... animals clearly hate you, don't they?" Tsuna smiled nervously.

"Tenth, don't worry! I'm fine!" the young guardian yelled from afar.

"It doesn't seem that way to me," Tsuna commented.

"It seems that he is already creating a bond with his horse. I didn't expect that he would go to that extreme. Look how much he enjoys it," Dino smiled brightly. "Don't you think so, Akira?"

"No, he doesn't enjoys it at all," Tsuna thought.

"Huh...uh..."

Tsuna raised an eyebrow. It was obvious that the young woman didn't enjoy it at all either. She wasn't moving at all, her hands were clinging tightly to the reins and her eyes were fixated on a tree in front of her. She was really nervous! Anybody could see that, well at least Tsuna could.

"I didn't know that you had it in you, Gokudera! Ride the horse upside-down to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted out loud completely excited and mimicked Gokudera's stance.

"No, big brother, that's... nevermind..." Tsuna knew that any attempt to stop him would be pointless.

Not long after, Ryohei's horse threw him off his back causing him to crash into Gokudera. Gokudera panicked for a moment, but his good luck helped him. The saddle's came loose and they both fell hard on the ground while his horse continued his rally. The storm guardian grimaced from the pain. His right foot was hurting. He could withstand pain of course, that was nothing before the pain he had experienced during his battles.

"Moron!" he shouted.
"That was extreme! Let's do it again!" Ryohei, ignoring him completely, he was all fired up.
"Who would like to do that twice?" Gokudera mumbled and tried to stand up.

But, he wasn't able to. In fact, surprised that he could hardly feel his right leg, he didn't manage to hold onto something and loosing his balance he fall on the ground again, this time face down. Embarrassed by his weakness and the scene he let them see, plus the fact that Yamamoto was laughing shamelessly, he could not find the courage to try to stand up again afraid that his next attempt would also fail. With his fists balled, he lift up his head and slightly grunted.

"What's so funny, baseball mutt?"

"Nah... Well... That was... don't mind me," Yamamoto couldn't stop laughing.

"Are you alright, Gokudera?" Tsuna asked worried and got down from his horse checking his friend leg. "I guess its sprained."

Dino followed his example and they both helped him to stand up despite his protests. His face had turned red. Inside him he was feeling a great need to swear and he was barely keeping himself from doing it. He should never have gone horse riding in the first place. Yamamoto and his great ideas were always causing him trouble; he should keep that in mind for the next time and learn from his mishaps.

"I'm not sure if we should let him ride the horse in his condition," Tsuna said.

"I think it'll be alright. I can hold the reins in order to prevent similar accidents," Dino reassured him.

"I'm not getting on that horse ever again! He tried to kill me!"
"Ness is not that bad!" Dino protested.
"He tried to kill me!"

"Don't even try, Dino," Tsuna smiled nervously. "There is no way he'll change his mind."

"He can ride with me then," Dino offered.

"Why don't you let him ride with Akira? Her horse looks so calm, I think that would put Hayato at easy too," he suggested pointing at the young woman.

"That could work too," Tsuna said and looked at Dino for approval.

"If they don't mind," Dino replied.

"What are you doing, Yamamoto?" the young storm guardian looked at his friend with his eyes rolled. "What am I supposed to do in this kind of situation?"

"Akira!" Dino called.

"Lucky you," Yamamoto laughed and Tsuna gave him a weird look.

"I swear, I'll kill you one day," Gokudera mumbled.

It's been a really long time. I wonder if I should call my lazyness "writer's block". It is a fact that that I'm not really pleased with the outcome though. I should try harder next time.

Thanks for keeping up with this story and sorry for my grammar and spelling.