A/N: Oh dear, this chapter was going to be barely 1K, but then the plot became clearer and run off from me. Enjoy!

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Chapter 7
We face the light...as our shadows lengthens behind

Xanxus stares at him with an unreadable expression, "You don't look like you're dying."

"Hey that's a rude thing to say!" Lambo snaps, only to squeak at the death glare he gets in response.

Tsuna quickly grabs Lambo and casually takes his markers.

"What do you want?!" Hayato snaps at the Varia boss. Ryohei eyes them warily, ready to jump in at any time.

Tsuna barely holds his scream at their protectiveness. Then again the Varia boss seems calm, although Tsuna fears maybe his fever is back because Xanxus actually looks amused.

Then Levi burst out laughing, "What is that on your face?! You look more stupider than usual!"

"Eh?"

Poor Hayato, he still wasn't aware of the graffiti on his face. Tsuna isn't sure if he should put him out of his misery or not. Sometimes his best friend can be unpredictable.

"This really is a security breach," his father mutters to himself before directing the question to the Varia boss, "What are you doing here, Xanxus?"

"Checking if the Decimo position is open yet," he smirks when Iemitsu and the rest of his friends panicked.

The brown haired Vongola heir groans into his hands, only to stop at the sight of the cloaked person passed out by his feet.

Leaning over his bed, he stares, "Is that Mammon?"

(For some reason, Reborn's friend slaps himself and his father shots an amused look before glaring at the Varia boss with suspicion).

"Hm," Xanxus picks the person up over his shoulder and looks at Reborn's friend, "Where can I put this thing?"

Tsuna didn't hear his response when he felt a sudden drain. He curls up to the nearest person, which by the dirty blond hair at the corner of his eyes, must be Basil.

"Master, I beg thee to lower thy voices," Basil barely vibrating from his whispers as Tsuna began to fall asleep. His eyes fluttered, barely catching another weird look from Xanxus, but he was too tired to decipher it.

"Xanxus…make…yourself at…home," Tsuna mumbles before he drifts off to sleep.


"Ha, ha, ha, ha," huffed Fran gaining annoyed looks, "What? That was a joke."

"K-ching," Bel throws a couple of knives at him, which once more were not dodge, instead it went through him, "Try again, froggy!"

With a swirl of mist flames, Fran appears next to the Varia storm, "Fine, be boring."

Fran looks back at his audience, "I seen this before with my parents you see. They mentioned

something about my fairy powers making them be funny and one day they were gone.

You know I think I was invited to a party afterwards, but no one was having fun. Lots of crying, and lots of black clothes. Weird."

The Varia mist in training blinks at the horrified and pitying looks of everyone in the room.

"What?"

"Shishishi, you went to a fun—ack!" Squalo slaps his sword over Bel's head.

"Alright then, that explains nothing much," Squalo grumbles and slightly speaking louder, but not enough to be heard outside asks, "Explain what is going on, Lal!"

Fran frowns at the obvious topic change. He catches the pensive look of Verde and teleports next to him.

"So what's the plan Weird green plant?" Verde in response jumped and narrows his eyes at the unfazed bored look of Fran.

He sighs, "Nothing much, just need to gather some old research."

"Always working so hard, sweetie?" Lussuria clasps his hand together and tutted.

"I'm older than you," Verde deadpans, "Do something productive and nag the new temporary CEDEF boss."

"Oh~! That reminds me, its cleaning day at the mansion. Best to call them up," Lussuria reaches for his phone, but stops at a realization.

"You~hoo! Lal dear!"

Lal looks up from her search of papers to show the Varia, "What?!"

"Can I make a quick call and activate the Varia shutdown? Its cleaning day and it has been postponed too long," Lussuria pouts.

"Agh! Fine, just make it quick," Lal signals Colonnello to temporary deactivate the high security shield for only Lussuria's phone.

Fran joins Lussuria and watches how the Varia sun enters the Varia network and pulls up the intercom app.

"Oi! Dearies! Its springtime cleaning~"

Through the view screen, in hi-def showed everyone screaming in terror and running for the nearest exits.

"So excited today," Lussuria giggles. Lussuria points the hidden button to Fran. The mist apprentice excitedly taps on it, activating the Mansion shutdown. Lussuria nods to himself and prepares to sign out when someone showed up in all of the security feeds of the Mansion mainframe.

"Mamma?" This catches everyone's attention.

"WHAT IS THAT, KORA?!"

A faint ripple of Nana Sawada took over the mansion cameras, unseen by the cleaning frenzy of the Varia subordinates. Her face was full of regret and blood dripping from her mouth.

"My son, my poor son…what have we done to our poor boy…"

Just as sudden, the footage clear up and shows only the subordinates.

"Yeah, that's my cue," Verde taps the floor, exposing a hidden panel.

"Verde you son of a—"

"Relax, its just one of my inventions, which I am not selling," Verde straightens his white lab coat, "I am heading to get some research and theories done. I'll call or whatever when its concrete."

Verde waits for his partner to jump in before letting himself. Just as the panel closed, Verde shouts, echoing strangely from all around, "You know where to call me for any updates and get Iemitsu to call me."

They stare how the panel disappears. Fran walks on it and jumps, "There is nothing under there."

"Obviously, k-ching, this is the top floor and we would have heard screaming from the floor below us."

"Great, so there goes the cut and dry theory of Nana Sawada abandoning her child in his moment of most need which she would have easily made it easier."

"Mamma left the Vongola-nii?" Fran asks, but a hint of distress.

Bel grabs the youngest in a chokehold, "My little frog, did I ever told you about the time I killed my brother with a spoon?"

Fran stares at the older boy then at the others who were grouping together to talk about something. Curiosity won over, "How many times did you kill your undead brother?"

"K-ching! It was one of my personal favorite. I might do a demonstration later with you playing my brother."

Fran wrinkles his nose, "How about I play the stupid fake prince and you play the undead idiot wannabe king?"

Bel once more lets out a creepy laughter, but has yet to let go of the tight hold. Normally he could easily escape his grip, but Fran felt funny.

Either I'm felling some twist form of brotherly bond or I'm hungry, Fran pokes his stomach.

"What are you doing?"

"I think I'm hungry. We were suppose to have lunch by now," he ignores the fact he already ate before returning the mansion.

"VOI!" Squalo shouted getting the two youngest Varia members to turn to the secretive group.

"We are going to eat lunch then figure out where the boss went!"

Lussuria pats his tear covered cheeks, "Then we help a family heal and come together again!"

"What are you—" Fran begin only to stop, tilting his head, "You think Weird green plant will know if Mamma's mist flames travel through phones?"

"Fran," Lal looks at him like she is wondering if he's making a joke, "What are you talking about?"

The lights flickered then everything shutdown. Cue curses and crying around the building.

"Oh sweet merciful clam! I didn't save this week's report!"

"I'm stuck in the elevator!"

"Where's the bathroom?!"

"Wimps," Lal mutters.

"Or we can stay here," Lussuria puts in.

Suddenly the lights turn on.

"DunDun-Duun! The poltergeist agrees! What else does she want? Until the next episode, the Varia Undead, the best supernatural beings show their superiority."

"Froggy who are you talking to?" Bel eyes at him with something close to worryingly.

Fran pats his arm comfortably, "Worry not fake prince, its best for you not to know."

Just as Bel ready to jump Fran, someone knocks the door.

"Lal, we have alarming reports you should see," a male voice spoke from the other side of the door.

Lal sighs, "You may come in, Turmeric. We just finished anyways."

"VOI! ALSO BRING FOOD, WE HAVE KIDS WHO WILL WHINE IF THEY DON'T EAT!"

"Don't forget the fruit snack too~!" Lussuria outs in. Lal groans to herself with Colonnello patting her back.

At this Fran narrows his eyes, How amusing, they do care.

Fran sighs and walks toward Squalo with Bel joining them.

Still, I wonder why Mamma would do that?


"Has there been any changes or explanation why the baby boss is like this?" Xanxus broke the silence in the dining room.

Iemitsu glares in suspicion, but cried out. The Young lion of Vongola rubs his foot and looks at Reborn in contempt.

"Not as of yet," Reborn puts down his coffee mug, "I just sent a message to Verde, since the hospital results were inconsistent."

Xanxus snorts and waves his wine glass, provided by Levi, "You seriously didn't start of getting the brat the best of what Vongola offers?"

At this Reborn narrows his eyes, "You probably would have not noticed by your transportation, but all other transportation to and out of Japan have stalled."

"What?!" Mammon gasps from the stairs.

"Greetings Viper," Reborn lifts up his mug to his lips, "Had a nice nap?"

"Shut it," the Varia's Main mist guardians grumbles, floating carefully to the table to sit down.

"Chairs, don't know if I missed them or not," Reborn nods at Mammon's words.

"Explain baby?"

"Are you making a move, Xanxus?" Reborn tilts his head and smirks.

Xanxus stands up and summons his pistols, only for Mammon hiss, "Do you seriously want to wake up the kid, let alone have Mam—" Mammon frowns and stares at the two men.

"Can you explain to me what the heck is Mamma in Italy?"

At their shock looks, the former Arcobaleno mist sighs, "I'm guessing even you were not aware of her latent Mist flames?"

Reborn eyes at him curiously, "How do you know it wasn't someone playing with her image or—"

"Or possession? My student actually pointed it out she always had them, even used them constantly," Mammon stares at the ceiling, "He said she wasn't aware she was doing it, stating she was using them against herself."

A silence fall over them as they process this.

Reborn takes another sip of his coffee. Once he puts it down, Leon, his chameleon wraps around his wrist.

"And if she lost control of them…" Reborn began.

"…it was because she couldn't cope with the reality and self destructed," Iemitsu sighs and rubs his face.

Xanxus rolls his eyes and drops his wine glass by his side to Levi's awaiting hands.

"What's done is done, my Rain and the rest of your trashy group will figure out," Xanxus stands up and goes to the door.

"Where are you going?"

Xanxus sits down on the entrance and takes off his boots, "Baby boss told me to stay."

"Well, I say you leave," Iemitsu points at Xanxus then out the door, "and say there."

Xanxus gives him a dead pan look.

"Reborn," Iemitsu turns at the hitman and hissed something close to a whine, "we cannot have him stay here."

"Technically you're the one trying to be in Tsuna's good graces, who also the man of the house."

"Can I have that in writing?" Someone rasps out.

The three men look up at Tsuna who leaned on the banister with Basil hovering. It seemed the other guardians left for the day or in Lambo's case, sleeping now since its bedtime for the latter.

"What are you doing up, trash?" Xanxus growls.

Tsuna only grins knowingly before shrugging.

"Had a weird dream," he frowns, "Then Mukuro hijack it and fill it up with pineapples and chocolate before Chrome dragged him off."

Xanxus knows how that goes, that Fran child does it all the time and its no wonder with who is one of his masters. How dare that kid fruit hat child tease him the best wines and alcohol only to never get to taste it.

His pondering gets interrupted by the giant idiot's apprentice.

"Tsunayoshi-sama could no longer slumber. I recommend a story from Master to assistance."

Tsuna turns red, "I didn't said that!"

Unfortunately that irritated his already raspy voice into a nonstop coughing fit. Basil quickly pulls him away from the stairs and worryingly takes out a handkerchief.

Pushing past the panicking men, Xanxus stomps up the stairs. By the time he reaches the top step, Tsuna was trying to catch his breath, cleaning up some blood he coughed up.

Basil blinks at the sudden loss of weight in his arms and looks up at Xanxus carrying Tsuna.

"You heard your apprentice. Story time," he glares at Reborn who had a green camera with a smirk.

Yet he did nothing, afraid to disturb the feeble, but unrelenting clutching hand of the baby boss. Red eyes met fevered glowing fire eyes. Xanxus stands tall despite the heavy trust placed to him. Part of himself hates how the other part is already making plans of being part of the rooster to watch him.

Its only right he is returning the favor in not only getting his mist back, as well as his hands from their last fight with Vindice.

"Fine, I'll be going up," Iemitsu raises his hands in exasperation before turning to Reborn, "Check the other kids and where Shamal is at currently."

He grumbles something about a late doctor, but Xanxus pays no heed. He nods at his lightning and mist as a bid of goodnight and walks careful with the precious cargo in his arms.

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A/N: Once again merci for all your support for this story. I'll try to post a chapter for each story I already have in the works. Until next time, LaniAhava out!