Disclaimer: Do you seriously think this would sell? I don't own shit.

Chapter 7

Embarrassing Beyond Time and Space

Saturday morning Mikami was rudely awakened before her usual early-afternoon weekend wake up time by a call from Reborn, practically ordering her to drag her lazy ass out of bed and go over to Tsuna's for a group study session. By his words, doing homework together would teach them to rely on each other in the future, strengthening the bonds in the Family and their joint-problem-solving skills. All of which was a load of crap Mikami barely listened to in her sleepy bedridden state, not to mention that she had no desire to partake in any of it, yet had no choice, since—as Reborn helpfully reminded her—she still had much to lose if she defied orders.

That was why thirty minutes later she found herself in front of her scrawny classmate's humble home, bags under her eyes from the usual late night of online gaming with her best friend Hikaru. She had mistakenly felt the need to relay her brief unnaturally normal interaction with a certain silver-headed bomber to Hikaru, just to have to spend the rest of the night being made fun of for paying suspiciously too much attention to a guy, somehow automatically meaning she had a thing for him. After Hikaru refused to listen to reason when she explained exactly why it was expected of her to be on her toes around a walking human firework, he kept teasing her about being afraid of admitting having feelings so Mikami decided to shut him up by logging off and leaving his game character stranded on an island swarmed by gigantic reptilians, unable to fend them off all by himself.

"Here goes nothing." Taking a deep breath to brace herself for another episode of dealing with mafia psychos, Mikami ventured forth into Sawada's porch, expecting the worst.

"Hahi! Mikami-san! What are you doing here?"

Hand hovering over the doorbell, Mikami turned to meet Miura Haru's innocent questioning gaze with her dull sleepy eyes. Once a pillar of light in the surrounding darkness of the impending dangers of the criminal underworld, this girl, who also knew the truth about their mafia acquaintances, was supposed to be her potential ally, yet sadly fell for the nonexistent Super Saiyan charms of the future tenth-generation boss, forever shattering Mikami's dreams of their joint coalition against the Mafia's evil ways.

"Following Satan's bidding. He wishes me to fraternize with his budding demon army," Mikami supplied in a raspy monotone, earning a raised eyebrow out of the clueless Miura.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mikami was about to give her another taste of her sleep-deprived Saturday morning sarcasm, but Haru was quick to jump to a conclusion of her own, "Don't tell me you're here to snatch away Haru's Tsuna-san! Haru just knew it!"

Staring dumbly at Haru's finger pointing at her in accusation as the girl still spoke in that unnerving third-person way of speaking, Mikami struggled to search her memory for any kind of reason that Haru would have to be jealous of her, when Namimori Middle's flowery idol Kyoko was the real threat here, what with all her boundless blinding innocence and the unwavering fact that Tsuna himself was obviously, undoubtedly, pathetically, fruitlessly crushing over her.

A beat of silence passed and all Mikami could voice was an intelligent, "Huh?"

"For what other reason would you be weaseling yourself into coming over to Tsuna-san's for the second time now? You've already made it pretty obvious that you're against the Mafia, yet you suspiciously persist hanging around Tsuna-san. Haru's guess is that you've become obsessed!" While Haru might have sounded logical in some clichéd drama, the kind that Rin might get into obsessing over, Mikami couldn't begin to understand her one bit, her mouth hanging slightly open like that of a lifeless fish.

"Said the pot to the kettle."

"Pot?" Haru paused for a moment as her bright academic mind recognized the English saying, struggling to decipher how it related to their situation. Her face lit up with surprise when understanding donned upon her. "No! No! It's not like that at all! Haru was talking about how Mikami-san is so intent on following Tsuna-san's every step, waiting for a good chance to catch him on the spot, to find some incriminating information to use against him so you can prove his attachments to the Mafia and finally get him arrested! And Haru can't let you do that because if Tsuna-san goes to prison, then Haru can't marry him, since Haru can't marry a criminal or Dad won't be able to take it!" Haru looked sincerely worried about that, judging by how she held Mikami's deadpan eyes with unfaltering determination.

Truthfully, Mikami was glad Haru wasn't as petty a person as she initially thought she was when she mistakenly assumed Haru was being jealous—although she could've worded that better if she didn't want people getting the wrong idea—but after listening to Haru's true issue, Mikami couldn't think of where to begin with pointing out how illogically pointless it was, so she settled with, "You do realize that if he really does manage to become the boss, Tsuna's going to be labeled a criminal by default. Being sent to prison doesn't make you a bad person, what you do to warrant such a measure does. And you'd only be getting yourself involved as well if you keep defending him like that."

Haru seemed deeply offended. "Tsuna-san is no criminal! And of course Haru would defend him! It's Haru's duty as Tsuna-san's future wife, Haru will always do that!"

"What if he gets stuck with murder?" Mikami's offhanded example seemed to take Haru aback as she nervously looked away, searching for an answer.

"Tsuna-san would never do that," deflated, she spoke quietly, as if convincing herself, "Tsuna-san is not like that."

"You're right. He's not," Mikami was sure of that and she let herself smile a little at how entirely self-sacrificing and harmless Tsuna really was. "But that doesn't mean he won't be forced to make a hard decision and take the blame for someone else."

Haru refused to meet Mikami's eyes, not out of shame, but out of fear that it would be the thing to send her daydreams about becoming Tsuna's mafia wife come crashing down. She knew exactly what Mikami meant, she had just purposefully avoided diving into those dangerous thoughts, because she was sure her fairytale love would become less appealing and more bittersweet. Romantic in concept, yet dangerous in reality, falling for the future boss of an Italian Mafia family wasn't supposed to be all moonlight and roses like in the movies. Haru knew she had to take some time to gather her thoughts, but it wasn't like she purposefully planned on ending up in that situation, so she didn't deserve being judged about it.

As Haru's uncharacteristically timid silence stretched to an uncomfortable length, Mikami opted to rid the girl of the worries she'd induced. "Anyway, you don't need to get worked up about me snitching to my dad, since Reborn considerately forced me into joining Tsuna's family. So if I say anything, not only would I be incriminating myself and ruining my father's reputation as the oh-so-respectable Police Chief, but I'd also be placing my relatives' lives in danger of being dutifully erased by the Mafia because of my betrayal to my mafia family. Isn't it convenient? To sum it up, Reborn's got me whipped." The cheerful way that Mikami relayed that information slightly bothered Haru but what she gathered from that helped alleviate some of the unrest she was feeling regarding Mikami's lately constant hovering presence in Tsuna's immediate surroundings.

"Wait." Haru blinked several times as the gears in her head finally started moving. "Mikami-san's father is the Police Chief?!"

"Not this again..." Mikami groaned loudly in frustration. "Why are people always so surprised by that when I'm not even actually trying to hide it?!"

They heard a child's annoying screeching from the second floor of Tsuna's house, accompanied by several thumps and a yell along the lines of "Stinking cow!" followed by casual laughter, all of which sounded completely familiar. Mikami looked at Haru, expecting to exchange knowing glances with her, only to see her disappearing inside the house uninvited. Mikami sweatdropped, following suit at a slower pace, not bothering to wait for someone to let her in, since the act had already been rendered meaningless.

Ascending the steps to Tsuna's room, she took position safely behind Haru's shoulder by the door, using her as a protective barrier between herself and the lunatics inside, since she noticed the fearsome Gokudera, seemingly in the middle of strangling the life out of little cow kid Lambo, while Yamamoto stood to the side, completely okay with the situation, judging by his usual cheerful demeanor. To be truthful, Lambo was a hitman, an annoying one at that, so he probably did something to tick the bomber off, meaning that he most likely deserved everything that was happening to him right then, even though suffocation was still a bit too much. But Mikami would be caught dead for running her mouth off at the explosives maniac again after the last time she was threatened with a fist to her face, which was why Mikami didn't say anything and let Haru take charge of the situation instead.

"What do you think you're doing, Gokudera-san?!" Haru berated in the tone of a strict pre-school teacher, causing the silverhead to pause his assault and move his angry expression from Lambo's breathless face of dread towards the two girls by the door. "Bullying a little kid like that! You're the worst!"

Hayato's expression just changed into a different state of annoyance as he muttered to himself, "And here comes another one that won't shut up..." He knew that if he didn't comply, the girl wouldn't give him any rest, so having lost all enjoyment from giving the little shit of a cow kid what he deserved, he opened up his palms, letting an exhausted Lambo fall limply to the floor with a soft thud. Mikami briefly noted that, since he was up at this time of day, all showered and with a fresh batch of clothes right after his night shift at the store, Gokudera was probably too tired to deal with anything troublesome and loud to the ears that he wasn't allowed to strangle. Being one to cherish sleep in general, Mikami pitied him a little. It was commendable how much of his precious sleep time he sacrificed to stand idly by his boss' side for the meaningless things Reborn came up with on a daily basis. But it was also borderline obsessive, in Mikami's opinion.

"Haru! Mikami! What are you doing here?" Tsuna seemed evidently bothered by how casual the two girls were about entering people's houses without even bothering to pretend to knock.

"I came to hang out!" Haru immediately reverted back to her usually cheerful self by the call of her beloved.

Tsuna's dull look of suspicion switched over to Mikami.

"Reborn called me over. Miura-san just barged right in when we heard the racket and there was no more point in me standing around waiting by the door," was her monotone reply, making it obvious she was there half-against her will.

Just then, Haru noticed an unfamiliar addition to the group. "Ah! There's another cute kid here!"

Mikami's eyes widened as she quickly scanned the room from behind Haru. Her gaze locked onto an egghead with tiny eyes and a little braid in Chinese clothing. She let out a gasp, grabbing hold of Haru's shoulders, surprising her as Mikami hid further behind her back. "Tsuna! Why is the explosive dumpling kid here at your house?!"

"He said he had no job and that he wanted to stay and train in Japan, so now he apparently lives with us," Tsuna answered immediately with a lifeless expression.

Confused, Mikami blinked emptily in his direction. "How does that explain anything?!"

"How should I know?! He probably just decided on his own that it was fine to crash here and Mom's somehow completely okay with it!" Now Tsuna looked like he was having a nervous breakdown with the way he suddenly burst into whiny yelling and hair-ruffling. It made Mikami feel bad for bringing it up. She wouldn't be able to take it if it was her in his place, living in a house full of mafia psychos. Tsuna had it rough and probably no one bothered to notice.

Dropping a hand over his shoulder, Mikami tried to convey the amount of sympathy she felt for him at that moment, "My condolences. But your life's turned into a gag manga."

"Why does it have to be a gag manga?! And why are you talking like I'm lucky to be alive at this point?" Tsuna half-whined as he cried animatedly.

Inspecting the newcomers with curiosity in the few minutes that Tsuna conversed with them, I-Pin suddenly raised a finger to point at Haru. "Shumai monster," the kid spoke the words in his funny-sounding high-pitched Japanese, rendering his audience speechless as they couldn't even begin to understand how exactly he made that kind of connection when he was supposed to be near-sighted, not delusional. Moving his finger towards Mikami's direction, he spoke again, "2D Girl."

Gaping a mouth in a similar way Haru did a few seconds before, Mikami's brain seized up as she and the others continued staring at the Chinese kid in disbelief. How did I-Pin know she was obsessed with the 2D world?! Everyone looked at her, just noticing that under her open short-sleeved zip-up hoodie she had put on a t-shirt with a weird looking blue-haired anime girl printed on it – Konata from Lucky Star.

A snort was heard from somewhere to the side and Mikami unfroze to snap her head to the side in the direction of the amused bomber. "What are you laughing at?! He's just some brain-damaged foreign kid! He knows no better! Don't laugh!" But as Mikami's protests grew and her face betrayed her embarrassment, Hayato just outright burst out laughing, followed by Takeshi's usual guffaws and Tsuna and Haru's snickering as they couldn't hold it in any longer.

Confused about what they were laughing about, I-Pin looked at the ground mutely, retracting her small arm and frowned to herself. She had the feeling that she might have ridiculed herself and that there was some kind of insult about her thrown there somewhere, but she wasn't so sure, since the geeky girl was talking too fast for her to make out the words. Trying her hardest to hold it in, she kept her head down and face scrunched up, struggling to compose herself, ending up looking like she was constipated.

"It's your stupid shirt, you lame geek! The pipsqueak must have been focusing on that and thought it looked like you." Hayato was happy to humiliate Mikami even further, judging by the repulsed look on his face that reminded Mikami of the bullies she used to have in elementary school because of which she was labeled an otaku and was forced to start toning down all talk of her anime obsession. "Who in their right mind would wear something so embarrassing at this age?! Are you stupid?!" He laughed once again, making her want to shrink in on herself and disappear right then and there.

Knowing that she couldn't even dream of yelling at him if she ever wanted to come out of it alive, Mikami decided it would be safer to direct her anger at the little kid that started the entire name-calling. "What's so wrong with my shirt?! I won this from an online fanart contest with a lot of hard work, I like it and I can wear it wherever I want! Like I care what I look like! You've got no right to judge me when you're practically a lame Sub Zero dumpling gas version miniature!"

While she was being yelled at, cold sweat began dripping down I-Pin's large forehead and she shook terribly, making all effort to restrain herself from giving in to her uneasiness.

"Mikami! That's enough!" Tsuna jumped right in, figuring out what might happen if he let things continue. "You'll trigger the Time Bomb!"

"Time Bomb?!" Mikami raised an eyebrow. How could a few words cause something as a Time Bomb to explode, it didn't make sense.

Then, at the worst possible moment, Lambo chose to resurrect from the strangled dead and rose dizzily from the floor, immediately deciding it was a good idea to jump in and make additional fun of the struggling I-Pin. "Gyahahahaha! Lame! Lame! 2D Girl called you lame!" For which he was knocked with a Gyouza Fist into the wall without so much as a warning, reducing him to a mess of snot and tears on top of Tsuna's bed. "Hold... it... in..." he told himself, sniffing back the pain of being easily overpowered by another kid his age that he considered himself superior to. "Lambo-san...! Bushy-haired Lambo-san won't lose to some weird egghead like you!"

"Hey, Lambo! Watch it!" Tsuna turned to him, afraid that the situation was getting out of hand.

"You're just a tail-head! A tail-head!" Lambo repeated like a huge brat as I-Pin's embarrassment rose to the point of no return and nine pins appeared on his forehead.

"It's the countdown!" Tsuna cried.

"You mean that countdown?!" Mikami's face blanched, forgetting all about her previous state of humiliation. "This is how it's triggered?!" She couldn't believe that she helped cause this horrifying situation. They were going to get blown up in the confined space of Tsuna's room all because she and Lambo couldn't just shut their hole traps and stop making fun of the little Chinese bomb kid. Which partially also meant that she had been acting just as stupidly as the snot-nosed cow kid and that infantile behavior would become the cause of their abrupt end. "I can't believe this!" But it wasn't time to feel depressed about being equally as childish as Lambo. It was the time to panic.

"Shit!" Even Gokudera's face showed fear for what was about to come.

"We're playing that dangerous game again?" Takeshi spoke with such cheer in his voice that it made Mikami want to hit him upside the head.

"Open your eyes, you monstrous airhead, it's definitely not a game! We'll be blown to bits!" She couldn't help herself as she snapped at him.

Sticking onto Tsuna's leg, the dots on I-Pin's head had already gone down to four, making Tsuna cry out in horror and kick his leg around awkwardly, trying to throw the kid off of him. "No! Don't! This is bad!"

"Let go right this instant!" Hayato jumped to his rescue, pulling on I-Pin with all the strength he possessed, but the kid was glued tight to Tsuna's leg and time was running out as the pins were down to only three now.

"Don't be so rough with such a small child!" Haru called out to them, outraged by the way they were treating I-Pin.

"Not now!" Hayato growled while struggling to pry the kid off his boss's leg.

"Don't just stand there, Miura! Your precious Tsuna is seriously going to get blown up along with the rest of us!" Though she wasn't one to side with Italian terrorists, Mikami yelled at the oblivious girl and joined in to help against her own better judgment. She grabbed Tsuna by the leg that I-Pin hung on and began pulling back the other way Hayato was, in an attempt to separate Tsuna from his impending doom.

"Ah! What do I do!? What do I do!?" As all their efforts seemed fruitless, Tsuna was starting to panic that there might be no way to prevent the oncoming explosion, then he noticed the snot-covered crying Lambo, looking suspiciously like he was rummaging his hair for something he definitely shouldn't be taking out of there. "What are you doing, Lambo?!" While still struggling amid the small tug-war that Mikami and Gokudera were having with I-Pin and his leg, Tsuna tried to remind Lambo that he shouldn't be using his bazooka, but the whiny snot-face didn't seem to want to listen to him at all. Just then, the countdown dropped to two and the situation was so out of hand that all Tsuna could do was cry out defenselessly, "There's no time! We have to do something!"

"I'm starting to hope your evil home tutor was here so he could shoot you in the head and make you at least a little bit more useful!" Mikami said in-between all the pulling they were doing, making Tsuna cry out in frustration.

As if summoned from the shadows, Reborn somehow appeared behind Lambo while the kid was still in the middle of pulling out his Ten Year Bazooka. "How about we do this," Reborn supplied, perfectly calm and composed as he kicked Lambo behind the head, sending the purple bazooka straight for I-Pin right before they ran out of pins. The bazooka landed somewhere between Tsuna and Hayato, engulfing everything in pink smoke that obscured their vision.

"You used the Ten Year Bazooka on I-Pin?" Tsuna was baffled by how easily Reborn solved their little problem.

"This way the explosion was taken to the future." Reborn looked pleased with himself.

"Then, the person who's left here is..."

Tsuna held a breath as e tried to make out the dark silhouette that loomed among the pink clouds of smoke. As they receded, a wide-eyed twin-braided girl in a white uniform and bandana with a ramen take-out box stood there with everyone staring at her.

"What gives? I was in the middle of a delivery and somehow ended up here." The girl spoke fluent Japanese and looked around in wonder, completely unaware of the huge ruckus that was happening just a minute ago.

"No way! I-Pin is a girl?!" Tsuna exclaimed, having to make a double take, since they had all been under the wrong assumption that the little Chinese kid was a boy until that very moment.

"I don't believe it..." Hayato was in a similar state of shock on the ground where he remained after being knocked down.

"We must have been sent back to the past, I-Pin," a woman with lazily half-lidded dark brown eyes and a sleek ponytail reaching down to her waist placed a hand over Older I-Pin's shoulder. She wore a straight black necktie over a crisp white dress shirt wound up at the sleeves and tucked into a tailor-made black pencil skirt, looking all business-like. The way she spoke resembled a bit of a drawled-out monotone. "This is the world ten years before. Sure brings back memories."

Silence filled the room once again as they noticed the additional person next to Older I-Pin and stared at the woman in confusion.

"Who are those two? People we know?" Takeshi was the only one unafraid to voice out, completely missing out on what had actually transpired.

"A cute girl and an office lady appeared!" Haru supplied, observing them curiously.

Still half-lying on the ground, Hayato pointed an accusatory finger at the adult woman. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?! How did you manage to get inside the tenth's house unnoticed?!"

As if she wasn't being yelled at by a jumpy bomber, the woman calmly turned her head towards him, long ponytail swaying with the movement, and amusement flickered across her face, like she instantly recognized him. "Hayato. It's been a while since I've seen you like this."

The mention of his first name almost blew the wind out of his sails as Hayato's composure briefly faltered in the face of an older woman in formal attire referring to him with such familiarity. There was even pink dusting his cheeks, to Tsuna's complete shock.

"Wha—?! You—! I—!" Sputtering and fuming like a boiling kettle, Hayato struggled to form coherent sentences until he abruptly stood up and simply blew up in her face, "What gives you the right?! Who do you think you are, ya' hag?!"

The insult caused a throbbing vein to swell on the woman's forehead, threatening to burst. "Why you little..." she seethed between teeth and yelled, completely ruining her elegant businesslike image as—if it wasn't weird enough—she seemed to mirror his speaking pattern, "I've forgotten what a rude brat you were at this age, you insufferable bastard! Call me a hag one more time, I dare ya', and see what happens!" Pulling him up to her eye level by his shirt collar, which made him stand on his tiptoes, the woman glared him straight in the eye with zero fear for her life and complete disregard for him being a kid almost half her age.

But that kid happened to be the Hurricane Bomb and he only roared louder. "Is that a threat, ya' stinking hag!" Rising up to the challenge, Hayato fisted her necktie roughly to pull her down to his size, not giving a rat's ass if she was a full-grown woman several inches taller than him. This caused their foreheads to crash together as the shorter boy bellowed right in her face, "Anyone older than me is an enemy! I'm gonna' blow ya' sky high, ya' got that!" There was already a fistful of dynamite ready in his free hand.

"Gokudera! What are you doing! Not here!" Tsuna struggled to be heard, afraid for his house being reduced to smithereens, but his words fell on deaf adrenaline-filled ears.

"We'll see about that, ya' lousy brat!"

The woman smirked wickedly and swiftly pulled up her pencil skirt to mid-thigh to the shock and embarrassment of all the underage kids around her. In one fluid movement, she drew a black gun with green lines along the sides of the slide from a strap around her thigh, which had somehow been obscured before in the tight confinement between the skirt and her legs, and stuck the cold metal of the muzzle right against the underside of Hayato's jaw like it wasn't going to blow his brains out if she put just a little bit more pressure on the trigger.

"I can carve a gigantic gaping hole running through your entire head, way before you actually manage to so much as touch the lighter in your front right-hand pocket," she chuckled evilly, like it was some kind of sick game where they were supposed to outclass each other to find out who was the bigger trigger-happy psycho.

Hayato's frown deepened at her suspiciously accurate observation about where he held his lighter. But he couldn't just let her intimidate him like that. There was no way in hell he was backing out from this fight. "Bring it on! You don't have the guts to try me!"

Whether Hayato was being brave or stupid, Tsuna didn't care. This woman spoke and moved like she was definitely someone dangerous. She reeked of mafia. The red alarm light in Tsuna's head started flashing like no tomorrow and he had to intervene.

"Stop it! This is getting too far!" Tsuna half-cried half-screamed at them and made an attempt to separate the two as they were glaring daggers, almost glued to each other's throats. "There's no need to resort to violence other over something so stupid!"

"Sorry, Tenth/Tsuna," the two reluctantly separated at the same time, each begrudgingly pocketing their own weapon, and accidentally spoke at the same time, throwing a mean look at one another for it.

Looking at the two in thought to who could this woman be and why was she acting like she knew him and Gokudera and called them both so informally, Tsuna hummed under his breath, gaining a raised eyebrow out of the woman. After a brief moment of silence passed and the homicidal tension seemed to have been successfully contained, Tsuna finally noticed the absence of a certain key individual from their little makeshift time bomb prevention squad.

"Hey, wait... Where's Mikami?" he was afraid to ask. "Don't tell me..."

Everyone eyed the crazy woman from the future up and down once again as understanding seemed to dawn upon their faces. But this couldn't possibly be the short tomboyish geek. Her body structure and clothing style looked mature and almost ladylike, her face wasn't that of a child anymore, having the sharp characteristics of a strict business lady, aside from the soft cheeks and the lazily half-lidded eyes. But the obvious lacking in the chest area, the snarky voice, off-handed insults, reckless behavior and her impulsive tendencies completely gave it away.

"You figured it out just now?" Older Mikami deadpanned, looking a bit disappointed, "Hasn't chibi-me joined the Family yet? I couldn't have changed that much."

"So you're still in the Mafia even ten years in the future..." Tsuna trailed off with a bit of pity in his voice. He thought that Mikami would leave the Mafia first chance she got, but never would have he imagined that she would end up so well-integrated in the criminal world that she'd dress the part and voluntarily carry a personalized gun, randomly sticking it in people's faces like the rest of the mafia lunatics. He was beginning to think that the Mafia must have really ruined her chance of a normal life, as she'd said it would happen, because what stood before him was Reborn's every hope for the girl. Regretfully.

"No fucking way!" Hayato backed up a little, as if he might get assaulted in some repulsive way if he continued to stand in such close proximity to the older version of the otaku. "You can't be that lame geek! You're a fraud!"

"Who are you calling a lame geek, ya' albino alien-lover, when you're the one who's a closet UMA enthusiast!" Adult Mikami retaliated, but Hayato was in such a shock from the realization that the one to call him by his first name was not some random stranger but actually the annoying geek girl, that he couldn't even register the insult to his hobby and the fact that she wasn't supposed to have even the slightest knowledge about it.

"I can't keep up with what this is all about, but please don't start another fight," Tsuna tried the polite approach. "Wait." He took a moment to look at Future I-Pin who had been in the middle of her delivery, back to Adult Mikami, who'd also replaced her younger counterpart. "So if you're here in the past and you've gone even deeper into this mafia business, then Mikami has been sent to the future in your place!" Tsuna look became worried. "Please tell me you're not in the middle of something life-threatening or around any dangerous criminals! She has no idea about the Ten Year Bazooka! And she's completely defenseless!"

Older Mikami blinked twice in his direction and burst into heartfelt laughter as she patted his head like he was some kind of house pet. "No need to get your panties in a bunch, Chibi-boss! It actually so happens, that I was looking for a place to slack off from a meeting I was supposed to attend, so this was a good time to be summoned to the past." As Tsuna swetdropped at her still geekish wording despite her having grown up, she laughed like it wasn't such a big responsibility and she wasn't ditching an important meeting with world-class criminals that could have her existence erased with a flick of a hand. "She'll be fine," Adult Mikami waved it off, but then paused in thought and added, "I hope."

"Don't say that!" Tsuna yelled. "It's not okay to joke about things like this! Don't you care about your past self!? Won't you disappear if she gets herself killed?! You should be seriously concerned!"

"Alright, alright." She patted his head again, as if calming a barking Chihuahua. "Thanks for worrying about Chibi-me though, Chibi-boss." She winked uncharacteristically, causing Tsuna to feel like backing away the same way Hayato had as an uncomfortable chill ran down his spine.

Adult Mikami acted so playfully and with such familiarity towards them that it was disturbing to think that this was the same Mikami that seemed like she hated their guts, wanted to have nothing to do with them and always argued, always made a scene, acting like she was with them against her will and would never admit any kind of gratitude or friendly affection openly, without it being pried out of her forcibly by Reborn putting her through some kind of nerve-wrecking experience. It was unnatural to see her with the exact opposite attitude now, almost like she'd opened up to them, like they were all buddy-buddy in the future. Tsuna shuddered at the creepiness of the thought.

Then, he remembered her words and who she had become. "Wait a second... Where exactly is this meeting you spoke of?!"

"Italy, of course." Adult Mikami looked at him with the happily oblivious face of a person who faced trouble so often that it had completely changed her views about what was normally safe and what was not.

"This can't be good," Tsuna groaned, afraid for the Mikami they knew to stick her nose everywhere and make a fuss about the tiniest of things. "She's gonna get herself killed for sure!"

- xxx -

When she moved, something clattered and fell to the ground, making an awful lot of noise.

"Where am I?" Mikami asked out loud with a tremble of the voice. Last she remembered, the light of Tsuna's room vanished into pink smoke, the world turned dark and walls seemed to be confining her from all sides. Her feet were shaking from the abrupt change of surroundings and it seemed like she was in a tight uncomfortable place, filled with clattering objects and so much dust that it made her nose itch. "What's going on?" Silence followed and her panic escalated. She was all alone in some small dark space. "Does anyone hear me?! Is anybody there?!" she yelled louder, fear overwhelming her when no answer came.

What if the explosion killed her and this was the afterworld? Was it really so small, dark and suffocating, one's personal fortress of solitude?

Her head spun and she leaned her back against one of the walls, sliding down to sit on the ground as she hugged her knees to herself. She was probably hyperventilating, she could feel her uneven breathing and the quickened pulse. She had to calm down. Why did she still have a body anyway? Or was it just a fiction of her own imagination? What were these clattering objects around her when she moved? Were they, too, just in her head, to mess with her perception of reality? Why was it so dark? Was it genuinely dark or was she actually blind in reality? Did she even still have sight at all?

As she delved into these musings of mind and matter, Mikami's breathing normalized and she noticed that her vision was getting used to the darkness. She could make out a thin layer of light protruding from the corner between the floor and one of the walls in front of her, dust particles dancing around in the light as she reached for it. But just as she was busy marveling the phenomenon and what it might mean for her, a door opened and blinding light overwhelmed her so suddenly that she had to shield herself from it. As her eyes struggled to recover, a dark shadow loomed over her crouched form and as what caused it remained at the door, as if observing her.

Looking up, Mikami saw a handsome man in his twenties, wearing expensive-looking black suit pants with a red dress shirt and a black necktie, looking so fancy that he might have come out of one of those shoujo manga about rich people. As she stared up slack-jawed at his vibrant pale olive green eyes, she noticed his short silver locks that immediately reminded her of a certain short-fused Italian and if it wasn't for the mature face and pierced ears, she could have sworn they were one and the same. They could be related, for all she knew.

Before she could say anything, he made a displeased face, eye twitching, and abruptly closed back the door, leaving her in the dark to slowly realize that she had somehow been transported to some kind of broom closet and that the man didn't seem to want to deal with whatever her troublesome case was.

Her anger soaring, she burst out of the closet and yelled after the man's retreating form, "What the hell's your problem, leaving a frightened girl like that, without saying anything?! Aren't you curious about who I am and why I was in there?!"

The man turned back reluctantly, looking at her with those unnervingly green eyes like he considered her a nuisance and simply stared her down until she stopped approaching. "Not in the least. I'm supposed to be looking for a pest, but found something even more annoying and now I've lost the motivation to continue."

"Wha—?! You—! I—!" Mikami sputtered, totally unprepared for such an answer from a complete stranger as her face reddened in embarrassment. "Well, I want to know!" she yelled instead, "Where are we?!"

"Vongola Headquarters, Italy," he supplied simply, like it wasn't that big of a deal. "And a kid like you should really not be here. If someone else had found you, you would've been dealt with on the spot, you know." It sounded like a joke to him with the way he said it.

Vongola sounded exactly the same as the fancy Italian name of the Family that Reborn claimed Tsuna was supposed succeed. Mikami's face drained of color as she spun her head around frantically. They were in the middle of an extravagant large hallway, like the ones they had at western-looking mansions in dramas about ridiculously rich people, with rare paintings and tapestries with random velvety curtains hung over tall walls, an endless needlessly expensive carpet along the stretch of marble flooring, heavy potted plants, pricey vases and ancient sculptures lined near the walls of the hallway like they were very cheap to obtain and it was okay to leave them carelessly lying around in plain sight where someone could steal them or break them accidentally, which spoke a lot about how guarded the place was.

Suddenly feeling like she found herself in one of the hallways of the fictional Ouran High School, only worse, since it was probably filled with trained bloodthirsty criminals lurking about, Mikami straightened her back, mindful of all the expensive luxuries surrounding her cheap peasant self, and allowed herself to scream inwardly in mute despair. Her wide eyes slowly moved back to the man in the expensive suit in front of her as a small trail of cold sweat trickled along the side of her face. If this was the Vongola mansion, then did that mean this man was also part of...?

He sighed heavily, as he noticed her panicking. If she made a scene, they were going to hold him responsible for disturbing the meeting. This was starting to grate on his nerves. "Look, just get back in your closet and you'll be fine as long as you don't make any noise. And don't get any ideas about following me around, either. I really don't wanna babysit some kid."

He turned his back to her just as her face lit up with anger at being referred to as just some kid. The man simply continued his stride down the hallway, feeling a headache forming. He was just supposed to get the pest back in that meeting room and end this entire circus act. He didn't expect to find her younger by ten years, shaking like a newborn lamb. Taking care of brats had long been out of his job description and he intended to keep it that way.

The man stopped mid-step and Mikami crashed into his back, falling down on her butt inelegantly.

"What part of don't follow was too difficult to understand?"

He looked mad, but Mikami really had no other choice. "Well, uh..." She stood up and gathered her courage. "If I try to escape I might be found by someone dangerous. You're the only one fluent in Japanese that I know so far and you didn't attack me, so I figured... I figured you could help me get back home somehow." She faced him with hope and determination in her eyes.

Crap. He should have feigned ignorance and pretended he didn't understand her the first time she spoke out to him. She had no idea who he was anyway. But now he blew that chance and truthfully it was better for her and his sanity if she didn't go walking around the mansion without supervision. Running a hand over his face, the man groaned inaudibly and continued on his way, saying nothing about her falling in step with him again. Mikami took that as a sign to follow and refrained from voicing the numerous questions about her being here that bounced in her head, since she might lose whatever little sympathies she had with the seemingly well-inclined grumpy stranger that was her only hope of surviving this place.

He led her to an antique-looking room that resembled a study or an old-fashioned office with walls hidden by shelves and shelves of books and files. A couple of comfy leather chairs and a small coffee table stood in the middle over an expensive rug. There was a heavy wooden desk behind the chairs, stacked with papers, files and various knick-knacks like a couple of frames the pictures of which Mikami couldn't see as their backs were turned to them. The desk had a tall swiveling chair with leather cushioning that was back-lit by a large window with tinted tiles and thick dark curtains, creating a low-lit atmosphere.

"Is this your office? Do you work here?" Mikami accidentally voiced in wonderment, to the annoyance of the man.

"No." He seemed to deliberate over something. "It doesn't matter, it's just an office. The important thing is that no one will come here so if you stay put and keep quiet, you won't get in trouble." He made an attempt to leave her there and rid himself of the responsibility, but the little nuisance caught him by the back of his shirt before he could make haste for the door.

"No, wait!" she called with urgency in her voice and he turned an expectant look towards her, waiting for what she had to say this time. But nothing came, since Mikami just stared down at the ground in embarrassment for sounding so needy, yet she still refused to let go of the smooth cotton fabric of his shirt.

"Out with it. I don't have all day. I have somewhere to be right now," the man's patience ran thin and he chided her for taking so long to say what was on her mind.

"P-please don't leave me alone," Mikami squeaked in an uncharacteristically shaky voice and deliberately hid her face by looking any other way than the man's general direction, so he wouldn't see how red from embarrassment it was. She didn't want to be left alone in such a dangerous place. She had no idea how she got there and how to get back home. Who knows what would have happened to her if someone else than this secretly good-natured man had found her. He was probably part of the Mafia and had the typical cold attitude of a criminal, but he was being nice to her in his own way right now when she needed it the most. "You're the only one who can help me get home."

In the uncomfortable silence that followed, she felt like she could die of embarrassment, but the man before her was the only solid thing she could grab and hold on to just so she wouldn't simply come apart from the fear of being all by herself in a dangerous foreign place where she didn't know the language and could lose her life at the first hastily turned corner.

Mikami heard a heavy sigh escape the man as he unattached her trembling fingers from his shirt with a strangely careful push of his hand and faced her. She thought he was going to mock her, yell at her, hit her even for overstepping her boundaries, so she flinched and closed her eyes shut when she saw him lift his hand, but instead of any kind of impact, she felt something land softly on the top of her head and pet her awkwardly. Mikami looked up and saw the man with a strange pained expression on his face as he struggled to make the gesture of comforting a scared little girl seem at least a little bit natural, but ultimately failing at it. It was almost as if he was both annoyed by her acting this way and at himself for being unable to handle the situation properly. He looked so uncomfortable in carrying out that one simple task that Mikami couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the weak attempt of a grown-ass man to comfort a scared kid almost half his age. It was kind of endearing in a weird sort of way, since he was practically some random stranger.

"What are you laughing at?" He frowned at her smiling face as she brushed away the moisture that she didn't notice had gathered in her eyes when she had been pleading him to stay. "This is only because you looked so pathetic just now that it was annoying to look at! Don't get any stupid ideas, I'm warning you!" He looked away and if Mikami knew him better, she could have noticed he was a tiny bit embarrassed. "You're always so lame, making me have to save your loser dweeb ass. Tch. What a pest."

"Wait." Mikami's smile froze at his wording and she subconsciously took a step back. "W-why did you say it like that? Do you know me or something?!"

The green-eyed man looked at her like she was stupid beyond help and tried to control his annoyance. "It doesn't look like you know about the Ten Year Bazooka so this is probably your first time in the future. Argh, I don't wanna be stuck taking care of some kid! Why does it have to be me?! You should just stay put and you'll be automatically sent back in your time!"

Her legs felt week again as Mikami deliberated whether the man was joking. A brief memory of a purple contraption falling towards her resurfaced. "Bazooka?! What do you mean "the future"?!" she half-screamed but was silenced by a ringed hand that both chilled and heated up her face.

"Shh!" he shushed her with an angrily shaking a finger in front of his face. "The tenth is holding an important meeting with all the CEDEF and Varia hot-shots and your future lazy-ass of all people is missing from it! I'm supposed to get you to show up, yet I find your useless little geek version instead, so please don't make this any harder on me by making more noise than you already have. Got it, brat?"

Taking a moment to register all that information and understand exactly what the man was saying, instead of trying to remember all those confusing organization names, Mikami ended up concentrating on the familiar words with which he derisively addressed her. And did he mention something about a person called "the tenth"?! When she finally connected the dots with his appearance, the attitude and the compulsive name-calling, Mikami's eyes widened, her face turned bright red and a muffled scream was heard behind the man's hand as this time she allowed herself to genuinely freak out. Desperately trying to get as further away as possible from the suspicious man, Mikami bit his fingers, clawed at his hand and pushed him away with an unwarranted knee to the stomach, so he had to let go, cussing under his breath something about annoying brats as he clutched his mid-section.

Crawling backwards behind one of the comfy leather chairs and holding onto the armrest for dear life, Mikami stared at the man in horror, now fully comprehending who he actually was, despite how difficult it was for her to believe the surrounding possibilities of such an encounter. She didn't know which was scarier and more ridiculous – that she had just toyed with the space-time continuum thanks to some weird purple Bazooka or that Future Gokudera Hayato found her balled up in a closet and had just patted her head in a weak attempt to comfort her after she allowed herself to look so pathetic in front of him of all people. She completely regretted speaking such embarrassing lines like "Wait!" and "Please don't leave me alone!" after clutching his shirt and generally sounding like a lame little helpless damsel in distress. She would've rather said that to a complete stranger, than to Gokudera himself. It was beyond humiliating even if he strangely didn't make fun of her that much for sounding so stupid. Even weirder was the fact that he hadn't mentioned blowing her up or yelled at her as much, no matter how needy and annoying she was being. It was almost like he was showing a slither of sympathy, like their future selves were on the verge of getting along.

Mikami shuddered at the notion of fraternizing with a suicide bomber and cleared her mind of such possibilities. Future Gokudera was weird and she didn't know what to expect of him. He could be internalizing all his anger and maiming her slowly in his mind for being an infuriating pest, for all she knew. The Gokudera of her time was more predictable, which made him easier to handle. She reluctantly had to admit he was better to deal with than this stoically annoyed man before her, whose mature sharp green eyes made her feel uncomfortable to look at him straight in the face.

"What's that look for?" Future Gokudera demanded, hands stuffed into the pockets of his expensive suit pants. "Don't tell me you just realized who I am, you stinkin' brat!" He looked kind of pissed, with the way he took slow measured steps towards her, staring her down from above with a grave look. "I can't believe you gathered the guts to bite me." A vein was throbbing on his forehead and Mikami backed further away behind the leather chair in fear of what was about to befall her courageous stupidity. "Kicking me even! Who do you think you are?!" His deep voice was calm but she recognized the frightfully threatening undertone and began to shiver uncontrollably, shutting her eyes and instinctively getting ready for him to whip out his explosives.

"Ow!" But all she got was a flick on the forehead that made her even more confused over Adult Gokudera's behavior.

"Stop shaking like a leaf. I was just playing with you." He looked a bit annoyed that she had been so scared of him and she stared at him in guarded disbelief while he stood in front of the chair she was hiding behind.

That was weird. He was supposed to explode on her in some way or another, wasn't he?

"T-that was cruel," she concealed her nervousness and tried to sound like one of those cute pouting children, testing him.

His eyebrow twitched a little at how immature she was acting. "Yeah, yeah, sorry about that. I can't seem to imagine how intimidating I must look to a kid like you." His albeit sarcastic answer took her aback. She couldn't believe how easy-going Future Gokudera had become, she'd never imagined him to be so accommodating. It was almost surreal, even more than getting used to the fact that she was currently in the future.

"And stop treating me like a kid," she tried again, more sure of herself this time, daring to overstep her boundaries of what was usually allowed in a normal conversation with Normal Gokudera.

He exhaled a deep breath, looking like he needed a smoke, badly. "Fine, fine, as long as you stop making noise."

It was suspicious how compliant Future Gokudera was being to her even if it was for the sake of her not making a scene and disturbing his important mafia meeting. It must be really bad for her to do that then, but why would he warn her like he cared if she got caught. Unless...

"If they find some little kid distracting you from the meeting you're supposed to attend, you're gonna get in trouble," Mikami thought out-loud and grinned ear to ear when Adult Gokudera just stared at her in warning and didn't say anything to deny her statement.

She'd finally figured him out, his hidden motive about why he was so uncharacteristically nice to her. She could sigh in relief now.

"So that's what it was! I'm so glad! You've been acting so nice to me that I almost started thinking that you and my future self were in a hidden relationship or something ridiculous like that! Hah! Impossible, right?! Like that would ever happen! So stupid!" The fake laughter died in her throat when she noticed Future Gokudera's bangs casting a shadow over his eyes as he seemed to be shaking.

Was he about to cry or just getting ready to shout at her?! Was it true then?! Was it really that hard to handle keeping the secret?! Was it really that difficult for him to admit it?! What was it?!

Whatever it was, it made her stomach drop with the bare implications of it. It made her regret that, just when she'd finally calmed down, something so stupid just had to pop out of her mouth and ruin everything. How could something so horrifyingly far-fetched actually turn out to be reality. Did that mean she would start to like him in the future?! Yeah, he looks like he grew up to be handsome enough to rival a shoujo manga pretty boy but was her taste in men really that superficial that she'd choose to ignore his terrible attitude and fall for him?! The mad bomberhead?! And her?! Together?! Never in a million years!

Mikami suddenly began to feel deathly ill as she called out to Future Gokudera in a shaky voice, "H-hey? Why did you suddenly get so quiet?! Please say something! It can't be true! Gokudera!"

"AARGH!" Adult Gokudera yelled like a maddened dog just as she reached to shake him by the sleeve so she pulled back and froze in fright. "Why does everyone keep insinuating things like that?! I'm sick of all this bullshit!" His face and ears were blazing red in both anger and embarrassment as he raged. "We have a strictly business relationship! Just because we're working together more often lately doesn't mean that we're getting it on!"

The lewdness behind that offhanded comment made Mikami's face also flare bright scarlet.

"I'd freakin' appreciate it if people stopped jumping to conclusions! It's none of their fucking business! We barely manage to get along without ripping each other's throats off! I have to practice my restraint and feign composure whenever she does something glaringly stupid that ends up with me having to get our asses out of trouble! I can't stand any second of it for fuck's sake!" He was still shaking in anger after he was done.

This was it. She had managed to insult him beyond repair, just when he was making the effort of being nice to her for probably the first time in his life. This was a grave mistake. She hadn't seen neither Normal Gokudera nor his till this time presumably calmer future self so enraged before. The sheer force of his anger left her speechless that he'd been holding so much in for who knows how long. She was glad that it turned out to be a fluke but she almost vowed to remember to never test Gokudera ever again, not in the past nor the future.

"Anyway, this doesn't concern you one bit." He looked away and said with a bit of lingering annoyance when his anger receded. "Forget everything you've heard and don't mention it to anyone. Especially in the past!" Relentless mean green eyes locked into hers and she nodded shakily in fright, even though it was probably impossible for her to erase the image of maddened Adult Gokudera for the rest of her life.

Looking over how much he'd scared her, Hayato exhaled the rest of his anger in a huff and sat down on the chair behind the side of which Mikami had ducked when he'd exploded at her and now only her eyes and the top of her head ware visible. Throwing all caution to the wind, Hayato reached over the armrest and ruffled her hair, more roughly this time.

"H-hey, what gives!" she protested, trying to rid herself from his treating her like a little kid, only to notice how he refused to meet her eyes, looking at a locked point in the other direction, the tips of his ears evidently red, this time from sheer embarrassment that he was resorting to such a childish tactic of reassuring her that he didn't mean to scare her without saying it out-loud. And this time he had no clear reason to be nice to her, other than being genuinely sorry for taking it out on her, and she let him ruin her hair in favor of staring at the adult man in disbelief that it looked like he was somehow willing to stay with her.

Future Gokudera had really grown in all sorts of ways and yet he was so awkward when faced with situations like this. That was a funny thought that accidentally etched itself into her mind, making her unable to stop mutely gawking at the admittedly handsome man.

Next thing she knew, there was a change of air, a tingle over the skin and a barely noticeable pull. Everything was shrouded from her vision by pink smoke and Future Gokudera's hand disappeared from the top of her head. Instead, she was out on Tsuna's bright sunbathed lawn in Present Day Namimori, surrounded by the disheveled forms of Tsuna and everyone else of her time sprawled over charred ground, moaning and groaning, as only little I-Pin seemed equally as disoriented as she was.

Figuring out what might have happened, Mikami realized she had no desire to wait around for them to regain consciousness and start asking her questions about the future. Accidentally glancing over at the same-old teen-aged Gokudera twitching on the ground lamely while covered in a thin layer of soot, Mikami realized she was still embarrassed as hell and fled, walking in a brisk pace away from Tsuna's house. Along the way, she frantically brushed fingers through her messy hair to straighten it, since she could practically still feel the tingling weight of his adult hand ruffling her locks almost affectionately, fondly even. The memory was already starting to warp in her head into something even more ridiculous, so she slapped her cheeks a couple of times to get a hold of herself. Mikami intended to walk straight home and bury herself in her blankets in an attempt to cool off, then stay there the rest of the weekend. She ultimately decided to keep the details of her trip to the future a secret, especially from her tease of a best friend Hikaru, to protect the others' sanity, as well as her own.

- Omake -

Narrator: Monday morning.

Mikami: Gokudera, what's with that weird red spot under your jaw? Is that a hickey?! *makes a face at the unbelievable repulsive thought*

Hayato: EXCUSE ME?! *absolutely abhorred*

Takeshi: Hahaha! It really looks like one!

Hayato: NOBODY TELL HER! *looks pointedly at Takeshi* OR YOU'RE DEAD!

Mikami: What? Why?! Did I actually get it right? *disgusted* Eww. I don't want to know.

Tsuna: *gets depressed* You're really better off not knowing.

Mikami: Why are you getting all sad about it? What happened? *gasps* Don't tell me! Was it Kyoko?! *stares into space with a horrified look on her face*

Tsuna: WHAT?! NO! A MILLION TIMES NO!

Takeshi: Hahahaha! That's funny, Hatsuka! But it's just from that smart-dressed onee-san who popped up the other day when you ran off somewhere. She and Gokudera seemed really close! You totally missed it!

Mikami: WHAT?! *gapes in disbelief* You mean... *face goes purple* Oh no, anything but that...

Taskeshi: Now that I think about it, she kind of looked liked you. Maybe she was some relative?

Hayato: SHUT UP BASEBALL FREAK OR I'M GONNA CAVE YOUR FACE IN!

Mikami: I can't believe it... This is the worst... This can't be happening...

Tsuna: Wait, Mikami, it's really not like that! You're getting the wrong idea again!

Takeshi: I can understand why you feel so bad about missing out, Hatsuka. That onee-san sure was a good actor, threatening to sprinkle Gokudera with a toy gun! I had no idea we knew such an interesting person! You should have been there to see her in action! She was so cool! Hahaha!

Mikami: What?! You mean to say my future self is so deep into the mafia business that she even carries a gun around just like the rest of the criminals?! *also gets depressed* This isn't better than a hickey! My life really is ruined! *sobs*

Hayato: Quit complaining! You're not the one who was mentally-damaged by that shameless monstrosity of a woman!

Mikami: *mutters* Yeah, like you're one to talk...

Hayato: WHAT WAS THAT?! *angry*

Tsuna: Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask you what happened when you got sent to the future! You didn't get in some kind of trouble did you?!

Mikami: *remembers Adult Gokudera's weird kindness and unparalleled anger* *gets depressed again* The future is scary... I never want to go back there again...

Tsuna: Was it really that bad?!

- A/N -

I'm not sure if it was a good idea to write this. Well, I hope it gave you a laugh at the least? :D

Feed my gaping maw with delicious reviews!