uploaded on July 5, 2015

Thanks again for the lovely reviews, follows and favorites! Of course a big thank you too to those silently reading this silly story.

I must apologize in advance for this chapter. You'll see . . .

Please enjoy anyway!


Red


The train ride from Namimori to Kawamoku was thirty minutes long.

The bus ride from Kawamoku station to the Varia CEO's estate was fifteen minutes long.

Too fast, Tsuna thought as he arrived at the huge mansion gates that were not far from what he imagined.

The amount of suit-wearing bodyguards was far from his imagination though. Was it normal to have a hundred bodyguards loitering around the courtyard? One of them approached him with a menacing aura.

"Name and purpose," the man demanded after mumbling something in his headset.

"T-Tsuna, I'm here to deliver a cake to Xanxus Vongola." He held up the box.

All eyes were immediately on him. It was one of those times where he felt like crawling somewhere and hide for the next five days.

The man frantically mumbled something again in his headset — was that Italian? He knew how it sounded like from Basil — while the other men around him were panicking for some mysterious reason. The man also kept glancing at him while he muttered in the mic, maybe he's providing a physical description to whoever he's talking to? Tsuna had seen that sort of stuff in movies.

"You may enter," the man finally turned his attention to him, and the rest parted ways to give him a path. Tsuna waited nervously while they let him in through the gate.

"Ushishishi~ the kitten arrives!"

"Bel-senpai, I thought he's a puppy?"

"Do you want to die, Fran?"

Tsuna stared at the two weirdos who appeared out of nowhere. The blond guy with hair covering his eyes and the teenager with a silly-looking hat.

Too fast!

"The Prince is here to accompany you, little kitten," Bel stalked towards him, arms wide open.

"T-thanks?" Tsuna flinched away on instinct while hugging the box.

Fran's face was blank. "Ahh, don't mind him. 'The prince' is socially inept."

Tsuna reckoned all of Varia were socially inept.

Pens flew out of nowhere. Tsuna immediately learned that nowhere was from Bel and those freaking pens were really good for stabbing things. Said freaking stabby pens were lodged at Fran's back.

"I'd rather not have pens sticking out of my back, Bel-senpai," he sighed, pulling out the pens one by one.

"Are you human?!" Tsuna screamed, backing away.

"Unfortunately," Fran sighed.

"Fortunately," Bel grinned, teeth showing. "That means you can die, bastard."

"Astounding conclusion. Shall I call you a genius now, Bel-senpai?"

"Of course. I'm the Prince, after all."

Tsuna's head was spinning. He had no idea what the heck was happening.

"Please," Tsuna mumbled, already feeling weak from the weirdness of everything, "No flying pens in my presence."

Bel pulled out a pen and spun it with his fingers. "How about spinning pens?"

"No pens please!"

"Now you've done it, Bel-senpai," Fran rushed towards Tsuna's side. "Tsuna-kun's mad!"

Tsuna's brown eyes widened in an instant. "I'm not mad!" Oh man. He still wanted to live despite his no-good life. If this continued maybe this crazy Bel-senpai would throw the pens at him. He wouldn't survive it like Fran did!

The man who approached Tsuna earlier spoke up. "Sir Belphegor, Sir Fran, the Boss is . . . impatient."

And as if to emphasize his point, a voice sounded from somewhere, "VOOOOOIIIII! What the hell are you idiots doing?! The boss needs his cake!" Tsuna noticed everyone around him had taken out their ear receivers and held it at arm's length.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," Bel giggled, gesturing to the mansion. "Shall we go, little kitten?"

"I'm not a kitten," Tsuna pouted, but he followed them anyway. As if he had any other choice.


Tsuna didn't like this mansion. It was too big, too eerie, too dark and filled with weirdos. Said weirdos liked to do weird things to him, like Bel who kept giggling and running his finger on Tsuna's nape, or Fran who made antagonistic offhanded remarks about him.

"Do you always look scared, Tsuna-kun?"

"Are you in middle school? You look like you're in middle school."

"I can't believe I'm taller than someone my age."

"Don't glare at me like that, Tsuna-kun!"

"You look cuter when you pout, did you know that?"

Tsuna gave up.


They arrived to wherever Xanxus Vongola wanted his cake.

Apparently, it was in his private quarters.

And apparently, somebody did care about his lack of scarf.

"What the hell is that?" Xanxus, who was seated on his best chair, pointed at Tsuna's neck.

Tsuna's hand shot up by habit before he realized what this man was referring to. A slight feeling of panic began to well inside him; he looked around and he found the rest of the Varia watching him. He had a brief imagination of a rabbit surrounded by wolves before he gulped.

"Err, it's a bruise from a fight," he explained, remembering the more specific reason and Hibari's smug look of satisfaction. He couldn't help but feel humiliated, finding his cheeks getting warmer.

"Oh my god," Fran yelled, "He's blushing!"

"I-I'm not!" Tsuna yelped as he hid his face in his palms, turning around. Getting stabbed by pens didn't seem so bad right now. He was only here to deliver a cake goddamit, why was he being questioned like this?

He found his courage almost instantly when this realization hit him. He was only here to deliver a cake! He shouldn't let them get to him!

He faced them again. "Your cake is delivered," he gestured at the desk with the box of cake on it. "One Fiery Storm cake. The payment is deducted from the previous transaction." He took out his phone for his notes. "Adding the previous order of one slice of Heavenly Sky cake, you still have seven thousand, nine hundred and ninety Yen as credit." He looked back at them, but more specifically to Xanxus. "Would you like to receive the change now or would you like to continue with the weekly order of cake? You can have approximately four cakes with your credit."

Xanxus growled, piercing daggers with his glare. "Trash, did I ever tell you to stop?"

"Great!" Tsuna smiled and pocketed his phone. "See you next week! I'll be leaving now!"

"We should make him angry more often," Fran muttered, turning to the loud, long-haired guy next to him. "Did you see that?"

"Everyone saw it, idiot," Bel replied instead, grumbling.

"I'm calling dibs!" the effeminate man raised his hand and all eyes (except Tsuna's) were suddenly glaring at him.

Tsuna had no idea what they're talking about and knowing them, he didn't want to know. While they're busy glaring at the effeminate man, Tsuna took his chance and slowly backed up towards the door.

Just a few more steps and —

Ringggg!

All eyes were back on him.

I should have put my phone on silent.

Tsuna smiled weakly and took out his phone, glancing at the caller's name. "Gotta take this call. Please, continue what you were doing," he mumbled before turning around and answering the call.

"Tsuna!" a familiar, cheerful voice greeted him.

"Takeshi!" he greeted back, feeling guilty. "I'll talk to you later. I'm in the middle of my delivery."

"You're still there? I thought you're on the way home by now."

"I thought so too. Anyway, call you later?"

"Sure. I'm free the whole day. Wait — why don't I visit you instead?"

"Takeshi . . ."

"Haha! Just kidding, Tsuna! Later!"

Tsuna sighed as he ended the call. He knew Takeshi was only joking, thanks to the mysterious feeling inside him, but sometimes he still felt anxious when it came to him. Takeshi could be a rather impulsive person despite his normally calm behavior.

When he turned back around, they were still watching him.

"Okay . . ." Tsuna gestured to the door. "I should be leaving now."

Xanxus stood up from his chair.

Tsuna felt a huge weight sinking in his stomach. Leave, get away, run, hide! his insides told him, but his body was not very cooperative.

Xanxus stomped towards him.

Tsuna's body finally decided to move, backpedalling the hell away until his back hit the door and Xanxus was looming over him.

Xanxus slammed both hands on the door and trapped Tsuna between his arms. "You're not allowed to do that," he snarled.

Tsuna looked up at him warily with widened, brown eyes. "I'm not allowed to leave?"

"Maybe I should put one on the right to shut you up," Xanxus effectively ignored his question with a random, ambiguous answer that sent Tsuna's instinct on a frenzy, setting off all sorts of alarms. It was maddening!

Leave now.

"Sorry, I really have to go," he mumbled as he shrinked back further to the door — if that was even possible — with Xanxus moving in closer and closer —

A pen suddenly lodged itself at the door, mere centimeters away from Tsuna's head. He held back his breath. Xanxus froze.

"Oops, my hand slipped~" Tsuna could hear Bel giggle from afar. He had very limited view since Xanxus blocked everything around him.

"VOOOOIII! Do you have a death wish?!" Tsuna swore he saw a meter stick being flailed around from his limited view. What's up with these weirdoes and their office supplies?! Were they really businessmen?!

"Squalo-senpai, you have to admit Boss is greedy to keep Tsuna-kun all to himself."

Tsuna heard umbrellas being opened. "The Boss can do whatever he wants, kid!"

"Aiyah, Levi, your umbrella is pointed at Xanxus-sama!"

Tsuna saw Xanxus's face contort to rage from the usual disinterest, twisting his body around to face his lackeys, but his arms were still pinned on Tsuna's sides. "Shut the hell up, you worthless trash!"

"Bel-senpai, you made Boss mad."

"Shishishi, he's always mad, you idiot."

"Come now~ Xanxus-sama just wanted to have a little fun with Tsuna-chan."

"Lussuria, you sure have guts to say that out loud!"

Xanxus finally moved away, reluctantly Tsuna's mind supplied, and began walking towards the rest of the Varia. "You're all goddamned noisy!" he growled and Tsuna saw him take out two freaking staple guns. STAPLE GUNS! Was he going to use it to shoot his own people?!

Staple guns hurt.

Tsuna decided he really didn't want to know. He managed to slip out just before the chaos ensued. At the corridor he could still hear the screams . . .


"I'm on the way home now."

"Oh? How was the delivery?" Takeshi asked from the other end of the phone line.

Tsuna sighed, running a hand through his hair. He couldn't even begin to describe what it was. Crazy? Insane? Just plain out of this world? Suit-wearing businessmen yielding office supplies as weapons wasn't on the normal side of things! But how the heck could he explain that to Takeshi? It might also make him worry too when Tsuna turned out okay.

"It was . . . a new experience."

"I wish I could've gone with you so I'd know the kind of people they are. You are delivering cakes to them weekly." Tsuna could practically hear Takeshi's grin pour through his voice, the kind of grin that had underlying tones of overprotectiveness and mild annoyance. Takeshi's caring nature was one of the things Tsuna liked about him, after all.

Tsuna relaxed against the seat and closed his eyes. "Thank you Takeshi. But I'd prefer you to focus on your studies, like I keep telling you."

"Even only once? Just so I'd know their faces, their names and their habits?"

"That sounds ominous. . ."

"I'm curious, Tsuna! I'd like to know everyone who befriends you."

Tsuna thought it was kind of silly to think he had "befriended" the Varia.

He heard a sigh. "I already miss hanging around with you."

Tsuna blushed in an instant, eyes flying open. "I-it's only been two weeks, Takeshi!"

"Doesn't change the fact that I miss you."

"C'mon, you're embarrassing me!" Tsuna could already feel the heat from his face reaching his arms.

"Haha, it's only the two of us though? I bet you're really red right now!"

Tsuna knew he was being illogical as he tried to hide his red face from no one in particular. Illogical in a way that, yes, Takeshi was only talking to him through the phone, but he still managed to make him blush!

"Stop messing with me," he grumbled, ignoring the strange looks he received from the other passengers waiting for the train.

"I'm being honest. I do miss you."

Tsuna sighed, accepting the fact his whole body was now a bit too red than he would've liked. "Sometimes I don't understand how you can be so straightforward, Takeshi." If Takeshi could do that then why did he always hide his emotions from others? The fake smile, acting oblivious to everything, just to name a few.

Takeshi's cheery and gentle laugh was music to Tsuna's ears. "I already told you before, right? Only to you, Tsuna."

Was Tsuna selfish for thinking he actually liked that?