Tsukiyo only had to hear the words "Iemitsu is coming home for a visit" before she promptly bundled up her younger brother and took him straight to TakeSushi.
Tsuyoshi and Takeshi only had to hear the same before they agreed to play "keep away" with the happy kid who saw Takeshi as an older brother. Considering some of the things they heard about Iemitsu's behavior (and quite a bit of it was privately confirmed by Fon via Lal and Viper) there was no way in hell he was going near the kids. It was already abundantly clear there was something wrong with Nana, since her general apathy towards her own children got worse the second she heard Iemitsu was coming.
It was as if he had her under thrall or something.
Tsukiyo had considered hiding in the past, but she had been told by G that Ieyasu and Alaude had taken her advice and were currently courting a pair of nice young women who were very discreet and more than happy to keep their silence about Alaude and Ieyasu's relationship.
They had absolutely no problem with bearing their heirs in exchange for the security of having a 'husband' during a time when bastards were heavily frowned upon. Even better, they had the peace of mind knowing that their new 'husbands' would care for their children as if they were their own, no questions asked.
It was a better deal than they could have gotten being single mothers in feudal Japan.
Which meant she was more or less being politely asked to stay away to avoid any potential problems, at least for now.
Kyouya solved that particular dilemma with a very simple solution.
He kidnapped her and brought her to the Hibari manor where an overly amused Fon was already waiting.
"Want to spend a week learning advanced martial arts?" asked Fon chuckling at his grandson's behavior. "Of course you'll have to put up with my apprentice."
The little girl bowed politely to Tsukiyo who smiled at her...before promptly cuddling with her once Fon gave a slight nod.
"Am I cleared for a week of no school?" asked Tsukiyo to Kyouya.
"Keep him away and I'll write it off as an excused absence... provided you spar with me when I deliver your homework."
"Deal."
Kyouya looked rather pleased. Not only would Fon be staying far, far away from him, but the fierce Omnivore that killed his boredom by 'playing' with him and didn't bitch about the bruises after would get even stronger. All for the price of excused absence until the fake carnivore left his territory and protection of her litter mate.
"However..."
Kyouya looked at the Omnivore with confusion.
"You have to let me hug you after and no complaining."
Fon's amusement doubled at the blush on Kyouya's cheeks.
Whenever Tsukiyo managed to trick Kyouya into what could only be called a 'cuddle session', Kyouya always ended up with his head in her lap with her hands running through his hair laced with traces of Sky Flames. And he would purr, or something very close to it. It was not only adorable, it gave Fon ideas.
Kyouya tried very, very hard to strangle Fon the last time his grandfather left books...among other things...in his apartment that made it clear what he thought of their behavior. Fon clearly hoped for great grandchildren in the near future from the two.
Though it was nothing compared to how annoyed Kyouya was when he found Fon stretched out like a cat in his Sky's lap, happily basking in her Flames while napping.
They hadn't quite harmonized, but Fon would admit to a potential bond if asked. It was closer than the bond he had with Luce, at any rate.
(Fon had high hopes that prolonged exposure to Tsukiyo when Flames were involved might allow a bond to snap naturally into place. She was the first Sky he could openly admit to respecting in a very long time...never mind have the potential to match his power levels.)
Third POV
Iemitsu came 'home' to Namimori...only to find himself persona non grata when it came to his children.
Tatsuya openly bolted towards an almost Active Rain the second he saw his father, and the older teen had a baseball bat within easy reach. One look at the teen's eyes said volumes of what he would do if Iemitsu tried to come near his son.
Those were eyes he was all too familiar with, which really begged the question of why the hell Tatsuya felt safe with a natural born hit man. The fact his son then greeted the sushi chef and former hit man as if the man were his father and not Iemitsu rankled. The older teen was treated like an older brother as if it only natural.
Iemitsu had a bad feeling that this tied in to why his eldest was missing. He had yet to see any sign of Tsu-kun since his arrival and Nana had blithely informed him of a 'camping trip' with one of "Tsu-kun's new friends'!
The second he heard who one of them was, he began to fear that the seal had somehow either failed or was beginning to crack, because he recognized the name Hibari Kyouya as a particularly violent Cloud. One who was highly territorial and not likely to 'crowd' with someone like his eldest.
Unless of course the seal somehow failed and Tsu-kun had managed to snag the vicious Cloud as their Guardian. Which meant they would be a magnet for all sorts of trouble from the underworld once it got out.
Iemitsu fully planned to track down his eldest to make sure the seal still held...only to be distracted by his wife.
"Look out!"
Tsukiyo augmented her natural speed and tackled another girl out of the road after she realized the other female didn't see the truck speeding towards the intersection.
It was a very near miss, and she was halfway to scolding the other girl for not looking first...except she realized that the smaller girl was almost certainly abused.
Tsukiyo knew better than anyone what those bruises were. The fact the girl was much skinnier and barely looked twelve meant she wasn't eating enough and her timid nature was all too familiar.
She didn't give the other girl a chance to protest... she dragged her straight to her house and pulled out a very well used first aid kit.
The timid girl calmly stayed still as Tsukiyo treated her injuries without a word.
"What's your name?"
"N-N-Nagi," she said quietly, stumbling over her name. No one had ever been this kind to her before or so gentle.
"My name is Tsukiyo Sawada, but my friends occasionally call me Kiyo. Or Tsuna, if we're out in public."
Tsukiyo's eyes glowed amber as she calmly and deliberately pulled the younger girl into a hug. She could feel her Sky charisma kick in, because Nagi quietly cried in her arms with relief.
"Do you want to stay here?" she asked gently.
"C-can I?" asked Nagi with hope.
"Mama won't care and Tatsuya likes it when I bring friends. Having another big sister would make his day, I think," said Tsukiyo firmly. Then her face turned slightly sheepish. "Besides, it would be nice to have a female friend around to share things with. Don't get me wrong, Takeshi and Kyouya are nice and all..."
"But they wouldn't handle girl talk," said Nagi, shyly.
"You should have seen Ieyasu-nii's reaction when I busted him and his friend Alaude making out!" giggled Tsukiyo. "Ieyasu-nii was horrified and tried to explain what they were doing, only to look at me with disbelief when I came back a month later with books to help them out in their relationship. Apparently he was really thrown by the fact I didn't care that he likes guys as much as girls."
Nagi giggled.
"Then he started whining about how his 'innocent little Kiyo-chan' has been corrupted. You should have seen the look on his face when I calmly told him that girls are just as perverted as boys, we just hide it better."
Nagi's smile was warm and her laughter was very pleasant to hear.
Nagi couldn't remember the last time she laughed so much.
She never wanted this to end.
Then, much to her shock (and the fact Tsukiyo was not letting her return to a clearly abusive home) it didn't.
She didn't really mind ditching her old name behind, or cheerfully getting a new hair style. It wasn't like her mother would recognize the smiling, somewhat happy girl with the timid and meek Nagi after all.
She rather liked the name Chrome Dokuro.
Green eyes stared in shocked disbelief at amber colored ones.
"What on earth?!"
"You must be Lampo, right?" she asked cheerfully.
"A female Giotto... I would swear that jerk Daemon is messing with me..." muttered Lampo in Italian.
She tilted her head before evilly asking in the same language "Isn't Daemon the one who's hair looks like a melon?"
Lampo looked at her in shock, before grinning.
"Well that proves you're not one of his at least!" he said laughing.
Daemon hated it whenever someone compared his hair style to a melon. He'd never make an illusion who'd ask that question.
Lampo then looked sheepish.
"Um... do you know where Giotto and the others are?"
"If you mean Ieyasu-nii, I can take you to the house. Did you get lost by accident from the port?"
He nodded.
He followed her without a second thought, and was relieved when he spotted Knuckle.
Knuckle took one look at him and beamed widely.
Lampo almost broke down in relief.
A short time later...
Giotto looked upset hearing that Lampo had to flee Italy and leave his son with his second cousins just to protect him. His wife had been killed by people attempting to force Lampo to tell them where Giotto and the others were, so he had gone to the only place he could think of where he had allies.
Unfortunately his Japanese was really rusty and thus he ended up horribly lost once he left the docks.
It took Lampo several moments to realize that he was being hugged by the female Giotto copy.
"I'm sorry you had to give up your son to protect him," she said honestly. "At least you had a very good reason to do it...better for him to be alive and never see you again than dead."
Lampo stared at her for several moments, before it really sank in he'd never see his son again. Once it hit him, it hit hard and he started crying. It wasn't the freaked out tears he was used to...it was one of loss.
Tsukiyo hugged him to her and rubbed his back while he let it all out.
Once he did, he felt slightly better. It would take several days with his Sky before he would even begin to feel whole.
"So who is she? I thought Giotto's parents died when he was a kid?" asked Lampo.
Tsukiyo grinned.
"I'm Ieyasu's great great great-grandchild. But we prefer sister because it's easier to explain," she said cheerfully.
"Grandchild?!"
Giotto rubbed his neck.
"You know that well she found you at?"
Lampo nodded.
"Asari's grandfather had it dug and told him it would prove useful for later, even if it had no water. Turns out that the wood they used to build the sides at the top has some special properties that allow those with the right affinity to travel through time. And well... it seems that Kiyo-chan is one of them."
"Actually it seems I'm not the only one who can do it. Is your wife's maiden name Higurashi by any chance?" asked Tsukiyo. Giotto nodded. "Well it seems at some point the two bloodlines merged into one, because I have a few cousins in Tokyo who have an 'Ieyasu Sawada' in their bloodline."
She had spent the better part of a week researching her grandmother, only to find out she had a few cousins. She planned to visit the Higurashi shrine at some point to say hi and scare the other girl who was time traveling.
"So when did you get married?" asked Lampo to Giotto, who rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Well you know how Alaude and I are closer than the others?"
Lampo nodded. It wasn't that big a secret that Alaude and Giotto liked each other as more than brothers. It just wasn't talked about since they were discreet.
"Well Kiyo-chan made a rather useful suggestion about how to hide it better without drawing suspicion."
"I told him to find a girl already in the family way willing to keep her silence about the fact he's in love with Alaude in exchange for the security of having a 'father' for her child. It allows her to save face while at the same time providing a strong cover for them and means he'll have someone to produce his heirs with," deadpanned Tsukiyo. Lampo choked. "Considering the Japanese community is a bit more unfriendly to unwed mothers who didn't protect their virtue as well as they should have than the Catholics... no offense Knuckle... it was a better deal than most could have hoped for."
"She's rather blunt isn't she?" asked Lampo.
"You're talking to the girl who gave Ieyasu and Alaude plenty of 'new' material to work with when it comes to the bedroom between two guys. I have pictures of Ieyasu and Knuckle's expressions when they realized what they were looking at, since G was too busy laughing his ass off and Alaude was reading it."
Lampo stared at her before an evil grin came onto his face. It was official. Daemon would have loved her for that stunt alone. He was always poking fun at their relationship when he could get away with it.
He gave her puppy dog eyes and grinned at the pictures she promptly shared.
