Act I - Home is where your heart is
Sixth chapter - the Lightning: Underneath the Pretense

"Are you sure you want to come?" Tsuna asked for the thirteenth time.

"Yes", Mukuro snapped. He really appreciated that his Sky worried for them, but it was damn irritating at times! "We have gone this through."

"Okay, okay. I just..:"

"Quit yammering", Kyoya said from where he was doing the homework Reborn had assigned. Kyoya, Takeshi, Ryohei and Chrome were all learning italian, which was the official language of Vongola. "Or I'll bite you to death."

Tsuna made a zipping motion over his mouth and quieted. Mukuro was so grateful he didn't even tease Kyoya for his favourite phrase.

Reborn walked into the room. He had used his contacts to get them passports that showed them as Giglio Nero citizens. Giglio Nero was a neighbour of Gesso, where they were going, and on friendly terms with it. Reborn himself and Mukuro were too notorious to get away with fake passports. They would be smuggled in, along with Ken and Chikusa, just in case.

"Okay", Tsuna breathed. "Time to split up, then?"

"Yep. We'll meet you tomorrow night like planned."

"Okay." He watched as Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa rose and started to follow Reborn out. "Take care!" He called after them.

Kyoya hit him over the head with a book. "Quit worrying. The dog can take care of itself."

The morning had started completely normally for Shoichi. He had gotten up, kicked his roommate up, taken a shower, eaten breakfast and gone to class.

Well, intended to. Byakuran had called him on the way there and asked him to run an errand. You didn't say no to King Byakuran Gesso unless you wanted him to make your life very unpleasant, so Shoichi just sighed and resigned himself.

"What do you want me to do? What? Marshmallows? Fine, not my fault if your teeth rot."

"If my teeth rot, I'll ask you to build me another set! Extra-special teeth even! Maybe mirrors in them - it would be amusing to see others try not to stare at them. Or -"

Shoichi felt sorry he didn't have an ancient phone he could slam the receiver down on as he hung up.

So, marshmallows for breakfast. Not the most bizarre thing he'd seen Byakuran do, but why had he asked Shoichi for this? He had servants for this sort of stuff.

He left the building with two of the bodyguards Byakuran had assigned for him. He seriously doubted there were any candy stores open at this hour, so a big convenience store would have to do. There was one on the way to the skyscraper Byakuran lived in.

He had just exited the store, stuffing marshmallow bags into his schoolbag, when he heard two thumps behind him.

He turned partway to see the bodyguards on the ground and a tall, asian-looking boy. The boy grinned at him, then snatched Shoichis phone from his pocket and threw it away. Then the boy grabbed his arm and started running, dragging Shoichi with him.

"Hey, what -"

"Come on now, Lightning", the boy said. "We shouldn't keep Sky waiting!"

Shoichi gaped and stumbled as he was being dragged along. First he was being kidnapped, then now what?

The boy laughed at the high-pitched squeak Shoichi let out. "Yeah, I was a bit surprised too when Sky found me. He'll explain, come on!"

Shoichi tried to see any sense in this whole business and failed.

They didn't go that far. They skipped in and out of early morning crowds and entered an underground parking lot through a door Shoichi was sure should've been locked. The stairs were dim - a few of the lamps had burned out. Shoichi hesitated a bit until the boy pushed him towards them, gently but insistently.

It occured to Shoichi he wasn't handling this very well. He should've shouted for help on the streets! Tried to resist more! He just had a hard time thinking of the boy as a threat. Must be the grin.

Downstairs there was a group of people he had a much easier time taking seriously. In the center of the group was a small boy with messy brown hair and warm eyes. He didn't look a bit intimidating, even if the people surrounding him did. Even the frail-looking girl was a bit scary with her expressionless face.

The small boy smiled at Shoichi and offered his hand. "Hello Lightning."

"Why do you call me that?" Shoichi demanded.

"Just take his hand", another dark-haired asian boy said and pushed Shoichi forward roughly.

Shoichi did as he was told.

He felt - warm. Like the smile a mother gives her newborn child. Unconditionally happy.

He stumbled backwards. "What the hell was that?"

A silver-haired boy scowled at him and the boy who had brought him here looked slightly worried.

"I'm Sky", the short boy said. "That is Storm, and Rain, Mist, Cloud and Sun. Do you not remember us?"

"Those are the names the imaginary friends I came up with as a child. I do not know how you know of them, but -"

Rain grabbed his hand and Shoichi quieted as a calm washed over him. And why had he called the kid Rain, even inside his head?

"Imaginary?" Storm said. "Really? Then I suppose it is impossible for me to know about how you told me your dream was to become a musician until you won an engineering competition on sixth grade? Or about how your big sister once dyed your hair blue during the night because you dropped a vase her boyfriend had given her as a gift?"

Impossible. It was impossible.

"Shou-chan, you never told me that! How could you!"

Shoichi looked at his shoe, which had said that. In Byakurans voice.

"Byakuran?"

"Well hello to you, Shou-chan. Where are my marshmallows?"

"They're… coming. I just had a detour."

"Oh I know."

There were steps from the entrance they had used.

"I suppose I can forgive you for fraternizing with the enemy." Byakurans voice came now from the stairs. "But not prioritizing my marshmallows is a serious offence."

Shoichi decided to disregard that remark as something struck him. "Byakuran, do you have a tracker on my shoes?"

Byakuran stopped on the foot of the stairs and pouted. Several armed men followed him. "Irrelevant. We were talking about marshmallows, Shou-chan! Marshmallows!"

Shouichi tried not to grimace as threw Byakuran a bag of marshmallows.

"Good", Byakuran said and turned to Sky. "Welcome to Gesso, Tsunayoshi Sawada, heir of the Vongola Empire. Now that I have my marshmallows…" He threw a quick glance at the gaping Shoichi. "Shoot them all."

The parking lot exploded into chaos. Someone grapped Shoichi and threw him aside. The bullet that had been headed for his gut hit him in the arm instead.

He could barely see several figures fighting and Byakurans smiling face before someone shot the last lights down and the world went dark.

"I'm sorry", Sky said while wrapping the wound on Shoichis arm. "It was my fault. We shouldn't have come."

Shoichi fingered the hem of the shirt Sky had loaned him with his free hand. He had had to ditch all his clothes and even his glasses in fear of further trackers.

"It is not in any way your fault, Sky", Storm said. He had several long scrapes, but had escaped any serious wounds. "It was all that bastard Byakuran. Gesso is not at war with us - we couldn't have anticipated this."

Rain nodded. He had a bullet wound at his hip, but it was barely worse than a scrape.

"We didn't expect to be found at all. How did he know?" Mist said. He was uninjured, as were the girl, Sky, Cloud and the man introduced as Reborn. Sun had a wound on his leg, but seemed to barely notice it. Mists friends had several wounds, but nothing life-threatening.

Shoichi still couldn't believe they had gotten out at all, let alone relatively unharmed. He had seen Mist, Cloud and Rain deflecting bullets with their weapons at an amazing speed. Any wounds had been taken right at the beginning, before they got into position to protect the others while they first retreated, then fought their way out.

"It seemed planned", Reborn admitted. "But if it actually was, I think we would be dead. He could've brought far more men than he did, if he had enough warning."

Sky shrugged. "First things first. Do you think our planned way of getting out of the country is secure?"

"I wouldn't risk it", Reborn said. "I'll contact a few people in Vongola and see if we can get a boat or a submarine to pick us up somewhere." He walked to the other end of the empty warehouse while digging his phone out.

"Right", Sky sighed. "Lightning, I think it is obvious you should leave the country with us."

Shoichi nodded numbly. He had trouble believing this was all real.

"I'm so sorry, this wasn't at all how things were supposed to go. Do you… have family they can try to hold hostage, or something?"

"My sister and mother are in Japan, visiting moms relatives", he said dully.

"That is good. Do you think you can talk them into not coming back if we get them on the phone?"

"I have to try, obviously."

"Right you are." Sky got up and looked around him. "Ryohei, get off of that leg. You may need to use it later, so rest it while you can. Ken, Chikusa, are you okay? Have all your wounds been bandaged?"

Shoichi shut his voice out. He always functioned best when there was something to be done, so he started to plan what to tell to his mother. He faintly heard Reborns footsteps echoing as he walked back.

"Tsuna. We need to get back to Vongola. There is trouble brewing there as well."

"What?"

"Xanxus has escaped."