True to his word, Yamamoto decided to figure the best way for Philomena to defend herself at breakfast. She was sitting at the table beside him of course, still wearing his t-shirt and a pair of her jeans, hair in a messy bun as she listened to the conversation at the table. It was like she wasn't even there. She simply sipped her tea.

"Ok so, Philly should learn something to defend herself. I mean, the Varia are friendly, and that's still a problem. Ryohei, you're good at things like this, what do you think?" Yamamoto explained while he ate. Ryohei Sasagawa grinned as he set his fork down.

"I think that's an extremely great idea! I taught Kyoko to box since we were kids. Maybe…"

"No boxing." Yamamoto said, cutting him off.

"I don't know…" Gokudera said, setting his coffee down. "Hand to hand is always a good thing to learn. Maybe to supplement something else."

"What would Philly be more comfortable with?" Tsuna asked, looking over at her. She simply shrugged.

"Her small stature should account for something. Hand to hand might be a good idea, but she wouldn't have much reach." Reborn chimed in, walking into the room. "Maybe some sort of weapon? Fire arms or sword or knives or something."

"But you just said she didn't have reach…" Tsuna said, sighing.

"Have you learned nothing?" Reborn asked, smacking his student upside the head. "Knives can be thrown also, giving you range. And like firearms would be easy to conceal."

"That might be a good idea" Yamamoto said thoughtfully. "Sadly, I can't really teach her. I mean, I can use one, but it's a last resort."

"There are plenty of instructors here. Also, it's a good idea for Ryohei to teach her hand to hand." Reborn said with finality. "We'll schedule it around her English classes" With that, he finished his coffee and set the cup down, heading out of the room. Philomena blinked a few times, not too sure what just happened.

"Extreme! You ready for this Philly!" She didn't know what to think.

"I…don't know…" She said into her teacup. Yamamoto put an arm around her shoulders, kissing her cheek.

"Don't worry. He's a great teacher." She was still unsure, but didn't seem like she had a choice. She simply nodded and gave everyone a smile.

So that's how it started. Later that day, during her class with Tsuna, Reborn brought a paper with her schedule printed out on it. It seemed right after this, she had training with Ryohei, and after her class with Yamamoto later she had knife training. She set the paper down and looked at Tsuna, of course speaking in English. It was the rule for the classroom.

"Why is this so important?" She leaned against her desk, crossing her arms. "I know I have to defend myself, but isn't this excessive?"

"Ah…" Tsuna fumbled, obviously gathering his thoughts, translating in his mind and all that. "Well…. we all care about you. One day…you…maybe alone and trouble might ….eh…" He sighed and switched to Japanese. "Sorry Philly….it was making my head hurt. Ehehehehe….. Anyway, you're important to us. And I was waiting to see what you wanted to do after, but after seeing how close you and Yamamoto are once again…" He frowned, crossing his arms. "We want you to stay…as a part of the Famiglia. You'd continue to teach English to those who need to learn it, but as my personal assistant. I need someone to help out with phone calls, errands, keeping my appointments straight. And if I can't get this down, to translate for me." He held up his hand as she went to say something. "See, I don't have anyone yet, because I need someone I can trust with my life as it were. Everyone that has that sort of trust already have their parts. Your danger would be minimal, and you would never have to be that far apart from Yamamoto for that long ever again."

"Ah Tsuna…I…" She stopped, biting her lip and thought about it. She was much happier there than she was at any point and time. On top of that, everything she told Yamamoto was true. She just wouldn't be happy not being with him, and knowing he came back safely each time he was sent out on a mission. Her eyes widened as she came to the obvious conclusion here. She knew she loved him of course, but now she was sure he was The One. She turned her gaze to Tsuna, who gave her a smile and a knowing look. "I'll do it." She said with determination. "But it's going have to be after the classes are done. I have no time…seriously…Reborn is a slave driver." She said, handing Tsuna the schedule.

"I could have told you that." He muttered then blinked a few times. "Are you going to sleep…?"

"Very little…" She muttered, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

The next morning, Philomena was woken up by a very energetic Ryohei bursting into her room. She nearly fell out of bed, and checked the time on her phone. It was four in the morning.

"Good morning Philly!" He yelled, jogging into place. She groaned, getting on her feet.

"I didn't know this early in the morning existed." She complained as she went to grab some clothes. "Lemme just change." Something landed on her head. She pulled it off and looked at it. It was workout clothes, a tank top, yoga pants, sneakers, and a hoodie. Everything was black, except the hoodie which was blue.

"Reborn said you'd need these." He said, turning to the door. "Hurry up, the quicker we start, the quicker we're done." When he closed the door, she yawned then changed into the new clothes.

She finally got some tea and breakfast after running two miles. Right after breakfast, she had class with Ryohei, then Chrome. After that was lunch, then hand to hand with Ryohei. After that class was Lambo then Gokudera's English classes. By dinner, Philomena felt ready to fall asleep in her food. She couldn't just yet, after dinner, she had knife training. After that, she had to sit down with Reborn and the ever illusive inventors to go over something they had for her.

Philomena had just finished her knife training, her instructor telling her she was a natural. She still managed to cut herself on her leg somehow. She was heading for where Reborn instructed her to go. It was a basement level and started looking more and more industrial like. She came up to a door, and took a deep breath. She was dead tired and just wanted a shower then bed. Yawning, she knocked on the door. After a moment a very round man in a suit answered. He gave her a smile and moved so she could step inside.

"You must be Philomena. I'm Giannini, inventor and weapons builder for Vongola Decimo. Pleasure to meet you. Please sit. Everyone else will be here shortly." She blinked a few minutes and sat in a chair he had motioned to. It looked like a conference room, but there were monitors everywhere, computers all over the table, and a few tablets scattered everywhere.

"Call me Philly please Giannini." She said, giving him a tired smile.

"Of course." He motioned to her hand. "That ring. Yamamoto had asked us to make that years ago. Have you had a chance to use it?"

"Thankfully no." She said quietly, then made a face when she saw his disappointment. "But Kojiro does like to sit there when Takeshi has him out." She added, hoping it'd make him feel better. What a peculiar little man….

"Oh! That's wonderful! We weren't sure if you'd have an affinity for rain flames, or if it was even needed for that particular piece." He said, a questioning tone to his voice.

"Oh…um…I don't know…" She said quietly. "I just learned about that when Takeshi explained it…"

"I see." He checked the time then sighed. "They are always late…" At that another door opened and Reborn came in dragging two very familiar men.

"They were ignoring the time…" He said, tossing them into chairs. "When we say a meeting at a certain time, we mean it. I have other things I need to be doing. And Miss Johns probably needs some sleep. I'm sure Ryohei had her up before dawn."

"S-sorry…" Shoichi stammered, then looked at Philomena, giving her a smile. "Long time no see!"

"I was working on something for Vongola… He had asked me…" Spanner trailed off and looked over, blinking a few times. "Philly…when did you get here?"

"She's been with us for a month or so." Reborn said, taking a seat, arms crossed. "If you didn't live in your own little world you would have realized that sooner."

"Oh! So you're the one teaching them English?"

"Yes Spanner….I am…" She said tiredly. She was beat and just wanted to get through this. "So, what is this about?" She asked, looking at Reborn, who was less likely to get sidetracked.

"These guys have made you a tablet. It runs a program to learn Italian, has information on most of the Famiglia's we'd deal with and a program to help with Decimo's assistant's needs." He replied, then looked to Giannini.

"Exactly right. It'll have alerts if you double schedule, reminders, and it's very easy to use. The Italian teaching program is quite easy. It should help you learn it quickly." Giannini added.

"And since Philly has an affinity for languages, it'll be that much easier for her." Spanner added, picking up a tablet, and playing around with it. "If you can give me a few hours with it, I can actually personalize it to fit her better."

"And, you can add all your personal things to it as well Philly. Basically it's an assistant's assistant." Shoichi added with a smile. "I'm sure there'll be more once Spanner is done with it."

Philomena just nodded, taking it all in. She looked at everyone around the table. She knew she should say something, but what? She felt like they were all looking at her expectantly. She bit her lip gently, then gave them all a tired smile.

"I appreciate all of your hard work. I'm sure this will be a lot of help to me when I take the role of Decimo's assistant." She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You haven't had to have to use that ring, have you Philly?" Spanner asked, concern in his voice. She shook her head.

"No thankfully." She replied, looking at it. She caught Reborn smirk out of the corner of her eye, then heard a familiar click of a gun."Ah…" She said nervously, turning to face where the sound came from.

"What the hell are you doing?" Spanner asked, standing.

"Don't worry." Reborn said quietly, leveling the gun at Philly, and pulling the trigger. She felt the bullet fly by, grazing her cheek. Her eye widened. "The next one won't miss." She heard another click, but couldn't move. After that, everything happened quickly. Philomena raised her hands in a defensive move as Reborn pulled the trigger. Her ring heated up for a moment to an almost unbearable temperature. Her eyes widened as the bullet was suspended in front of her in blue flames, Yamamoto's sparrow circling her. At the same time, she felt a calmness come over her.

"Well…thank God it worked…." Spanner said in a flat tone. Shoichi and Giannini looked quite pale as they stared at the scene.

"I knew it would." Reborn said, pleased with himself. Philomena raised her hand, letting Kojiro land on her ring. She looked at everyone and let out a shaky breath.

"I thought I was going to die." She whispered, then looked to the sparrow. "Thank you." And took her other hand, running a finger over it's head before it disappeared.

"We're done here." Reborn announced, standing. "Spanner, get that to Philly tomorrow once you're done with it."

After two weeks of nothing but classes and training, Philomena was exhausted. She ended up only getting a couple of hours of sleep a night, and waking up before dawn to run with Ryohei. After a few days, Yamamoto started running with them. He insisted that it was because he was slacking and getting out of shape, she secretly hoped it was because he wanted to spend some time with her.

Everyone realized how much work she had been putting in when at dinner one night, she nearly fell asleep in her plate. The only thing that stopped her from getting a face full of lasagna was Yamamoto's quick reflexes. She opened her eyes what felt like seconds later to find herself in his lap, head resting on his shoulder. Lifting her head, Philomena saw everyone staring at her, concern evident on their faces.

"I'm taking her to bed" Yamamoto said, standing up, carrying her bridal style.

"But…Philly should really eat something." Tsuna said, worry filling his voice.

"She can't eat it if she's sleeping." Yamamoto stated, then looked around the table. "She's getting worked too hard. When's the last time you caught any of us sleeping over our food?" He held her closer in a protective manner.

"Ah….."Tsuna mumbled, poking at his food.

"Middle school…." Gokudera muttered, frowning a bit. "Millifore…."

"Exactly. We're not in that kind of danger." He turned and headed out of the room, carrying her.

"I can get myself to my room." Philomena mumbled, snuggling up to him as she yawned.

"I know." He smiled down at her. "I'm taking you to mine. You are taking the day off tomorrow and resting. Ryohei won't think of looking for you in there."

"Oh…" She mumbled blushing faintly. That made sense.

"But first, you're going to take a nice relaxing bath. You'll probably sleep like the dead until lunch time tomorrow." He said, moving a bit so he could open his door. The tone of his voice let her know there was no room for argument, so she just let him take care of her for the night.