"The next year, I married Nana. I tried to run away from the Mafia. But I failed and I became the new CEDEF leader."

"You...tried to run away? You didn't want it, like I did?" Tsuna questioned. To him, his dad had always seemed happy with his mafia life.

"You just refused for a bit. I tried to fake my death but was found out by Nono," Iemitsu answered with a shake of his head. He was bitter about the last part, his attempt, but only Nana and Reborn could tell he was.

XXX

Japan

Iemitsu took a breath and proposed the riskiest idea he ever had. "Do you want to get married?" The ring in his hand was two bright twisted bands of Italian gold and Japanese silver.

Nana's hands covered her mouth as she gasped. Her eyes were wide and her heart had sped up. "Yes," she immediately agreed. "Absolutely yes."

Iemitsu grinned and slid the ring on his fiance's hand.

Nana beamed back a bright smile of her own and hugged him.

XXX

Iemitsu had found a small Christian church. He had booked an appointment for April 27th.

The mountain air was crisp, far cleaner than Tokyo. The lighting came from creamy white lightbulbs in ornate lamps. The smell of pine wafted in from the windows.

The pastor was a man who's eyes seemed stuck in a perpetual squint. He repeatedly had to push his glasses up to keep them on his nose throughout the marriage vows.

After Iemitsu and Nana completed the, "I do"s, the pastor gave a warm crooked smile. "Would you like a piece of advice?"

The couple exchanged a quick glance. Iemitsu nodded. "Any advice is welcome."

"Stay strong and stay together. Admit to each other you are flawed. And know that God is God. Do all that, you two should do just fine."

XXX

Namimori, Japan

Iemitsu grinned. The gun barrel was aimed at his head, about a foot from his nose. "Hello Hibari. It's been a few months since I've stared down the barrel of your Smith Wesson .460," he chirped.

Hibari sighed. He kept his gun aimed at Iemitsu's head. If the man got too annoying he could just claim his finger slipped, Vongolamight let Iemitsu's death slide. "What do you want?"

"I heard your clan owns this area. I'm looking for a safe place for my wife to stay."

"You have a wife?" Hibari asked, the doubt clear in his voice. What was Iemitsu playing at?

"Yes, we actually just finished our honeymoon yesterday," Iemitsu affirmed. His grin grew even goofier than usual, a sign which Hibari took to mean that Iemitsu wasn't kidding.

XXX

Italy

Unlike the funerals in the movies, where the gloomy atmosphere was evident due to the downpour and everyone had black umbrellas, today was sunny. Everyone wore black, as was traditional for mourning, but few had tears in their eyes. Or any real sort of emotion present on their face at all.

For today was the funeral of the recently decreased Jared Heath, the leader of CEDEF and Vongola's Outside Advisor. He was not a kind man. But neither was Heath cruel. He was fair and pragmatic, and those are rare traits.

Iemitsu started the eulogies. "Hello, I am Comfrey. I knew Mr. Heath for two years, during which..."

"We are gathered here today, to give credit to a man who will be sorely missed from all of our lives..."

"Mr. Jared Heath, God rest his soul, was a sharp man..."

"I am Dill, a CEDEF instructor. Mr. Jared Heath always looked out for his subordinates..."

Even as the speeches and anecdotes were given, the thoughts of the successor ran through the minds of the Mafioso there. Of course the political maneuvering would start before the body was even lowered into the ground, and for many they had already begun. The body of Jared Heath had barely grown cold before someone had gotten the idea of taking over into his head.

In the after banquet,Iemitsu met many people and talked for over two hours. Post the amount of time to pass his attendance as notable, he excused himself from a group he was chatting with and went to the parking lot.

Iemitsu pushed his keys into his door and twisted. He was just about to pull his keys out, when someone showed up.

"So, you were just going to disappear," a voice said. It was a man's voice, and he was standing berhind Iemitsu.

Iemitsu tensed up. He forced a smile onto his face and turned around. "What are you talking about?"

Nono stood a few feet away, leaning on his cane. He wore a coal black suit and his hair was slicked back."You were going to disappear," he repeated. "Right after the funeral service where everyone saw you. Leave everyone to believe you were dead. Slip out of the position of CEDEF Head. And returned to your wife, Nana in Namimori. And there you could live out the rest of your lives under the Hibari clan's protection. It does sound perfect." He sighed and gave Iemitsu a sympathetic smile.

Iemitsu narrowed his eyes. Nono's smile looked sympathetic, but it was anything except overflowing with heartfelt kindness.

"But, unfortunately, life is not perfect," Nono murmured. "Ifyou leave, you will be declared a traitor. With the highest priority due to your former, ah, excuse me, current, status. You and your wife will be hunted down and killed. Your plan has been found out, what will you do now?"

"Well," Iemitsu smiled, a razor sharp smile. "I do appear to have several options The first is kill you and fake my death now, the second is to wait for a later date, and the third is to give up on leaving entirely." His tone was light, the breeze on a late summer's day.

"Yes," Nono agreed. "However, killing me will bring a lot of attention and you might be found out by someone else before I die."

"True. Yet, someone killing you and then me, the presumptive successor to the CEDEF vanishing soon after? That doesn't smack of treachery or cowardice, with my reputation. Everyone would presume an enemy Famiglia killed both of us."

"A fair point. But we both know the fight will be a hard struggle for either of us to win. Unless you would want to risk your wife's future on ill placed cockiness."

Iemitsu's eyes gained a cold hard glint. "Two or three then.What will it cost me?"

The 'it', was Nono's silence. And to purchase that, Nono would get what he wanted from this encounter.He gave a small unrepentant smile."Your time and leadership."

Iemitsu chuckled, humourlessly. "How long have you wished to trap me into being the leader of the CEDEF?"

"Ever since I found out you had the blood of Vongola Primo," Nono calmly revealed.

"Ah," Iemitsu muttered. Apparently, he hadn't destroyed the results of his Flame tests well enough. "Well, this has been interesting. Unfortunately, I have plenty of paperwork to sort through since Mr. Heath is gone. I'll see you around, Nono." He opened his car door.

"I'll see you soon, I'm sure," Nono replied. 'It will be interesting to see, Mr. Iemitsu Sawada, whether you chose 2 or 3,' he mused as Iemitsu drove away.

XXX

"Hello, Marjoram," Iemitsu greeted. He opened the communal fridge, where he had stashed a bottle of chocolate milk a few days ago.

"Ah, Comfrey," Marjoram muttered. He grabbed another cookie from his plate. "How are you doing?"

Iemitsu turned around and put the milk jug back in the communal fridge. "I'm doing fine." To the observant, Iemitsu's smile was strained. He took a sip of his milk and sat down at the nearby kitchen bar, next to his old handler.

"That's good. It's a real shame Comfrey. You got so far in then almost made it out." Marjoram gave a bitter smile.

Iemitsu felt the audible pulses of his heart skipping the initial beat and speeding up. "You knew?"

"Of course," Marjoram blandly replied. "But good job, not many figured it out. You kept your cards pretty close to your chest," he remarked.

"Did you tell him?" Iemitsu asked. His tongue felt like sandpaper as he scratched out the question.

The older man stared at Iemitsu. "Who?"

"Did you tell Nono?" Iemitsu asked, his tone sharp.

"No. I didn't tell him," Marjoram casually rejected. He took another bite of his cookie.

And the sad thing was, Iemitsu didn't know whether Marjoram was lying or telling the truth. His gut feeling was leading him in both directions. But...at this point, did it really matter?

XXX

Nono stood and raised a glass of wine.

"A toast to the new head of the CEDEF, Iemitsu Sawada." He smiled and jokingly added, "May he be wise and be a pain to our enemies."

A majority of the room laughed and clicked glasses with those beside them. They all drank.

Iemitsu smiled, lightly knocked his glass with Marjoram, and took a few sips. The wine was light and sweet. It tasted faintly of honey.

Oregano, Turmeric, and Cilantro were keeping an eye on things. Iemitsu could rest easy from the assurance that physical threats were not a danger.

Iemitsu's urge to shoot Nono, or at least subtly insult him, were hard to restrain. He hid the bitterness behind a bright grin and a few clever words and took another sip of the wine.

A/N

J: Same. A large part of why I'm writing this is because the fandom seems to hate him and ignore any of his redeeming traits. There will be ten chapters total.

-Silver