Diclaimer: I don't own the characters or the series. Amano Akira does. I'm just playing with them for a bit.

A/N: This one is "first serious injury."

Dangers, Acceptance Of

"This is my fault." It was the umpteenth time Dino said this, pacing around the hospital waiting room. "It's all because of me that this happened."

"No, it isn't." Let it never be said that Romario was easily rattled. Anyone else would have been sick and tired of his self-deprecation, after all. "You didn't pull the trigger."

"I could just as well have!" Dino spun on his heels, turning towards his right-hand man. They'd gone through this argument several times, too. "He wouldn't have been there without me!"

"Calm down, boss." Romario stepped forward, stopping his pacing with a calming hand on his shoulder. "What do you think Hibari would think if he heard you talking like that?" As Dino failed to answer, looking aside, Romario added, "He would tell you to take care of your own business and not pretend you have any form of control over his life and decisions."

"...I know." Dino sighed. "That just makes it worse."

"How so?" Romario shrugged. "You blame yourself because you recommended him for the mission. Yes, that's true. However, he accepted the mission himself. Chances are he would have accepted it even if you had been doing your best to keep him away. You can't control him, and I don't think you should."

"He was shot at, Romario," Dino said, unable to hide the pained tone of his voice. "Should I just sit back and accept that? Am I wrong for wanting to keep him safe?"

"No, Boss. You're not wrong for wishing your lover was safe." A few of the men standing guard winced, but none dared say anything. "However, thinking that you can do anything to control him – that you should do anything – is where you are wrong. Hibari is a grown man, and capable of his own decisions. Is there any other operative his age that you would go so far to keep out of danger?"

"No." He hated to admit it, but it was true. He just couldn't even think about letting Kyouya come to danger.

"Is there, in all honesty, any other operative as capable of keeping himself alive no matter what?"

"No." He knew that. Of course he knew that. Kyouya wasn't that easy to kill, after all. But no matter good he was at surviving, he obviously wasn't good enough.

"If it were anyone else, would you even dream of interfering in the decisions of a member of another family?"

"No, of course not!" Dino threw his hands in the air. "I know I'm not acting according to the standard here. But this isn't about standard, Roma! He's not just another hitman from an allied family. He's Kyouya! He's my student, my –" He choked on the words, unable to even finish his sentence. "He's mine," he managed to say at last, his voice very quiet.

"To an extent, yes. But you should know better than well that he would never let you possess him in any way. He decided to go on the mission, independent of your recommendations. If he gets injured, it's his responsibility, not yours."

"That's not true." Dino looked to the direction of the operation room. To think of Kyouya there, surrounded by all those people working to keep him alive... Kyouya would have hated such crowding if he'd been conscious to protest. "You said it yourself, Romario. He's not a family member. The only reason he was involved in this mission is because I asked for his participation. He may have made the call himself, but without me, he wouldn't have been there."

"And? He's been on missions before. He's faced guns before. Just because he had bad luck in this task doesn't mean you are the only one who has ever put him in peril."

Dino winced at the thought. "That's different," he argued, still, running a tired hand through his hair. "He wasn't hurt then."

"So, what? All those times he was shot at were not actually dangerous since he got away with little more than scrapes?" Romario shook his head. "It doesn't work that way and you know it, Boss. He's been in danger before, and he will be in danger again. You cannot change that."

"But I want to," Dino replied. "I want to keep him safe and make sure nothing ever hurts him." Because anything, anything would be better than the sight of a pale, bloodied Kyouya hurried off to an operation.

"But then he wouldn't be your beloved Kyouya anymore, would he?"

To that, Dino didn't find any response, shaking his head in place of anything to say.

Whatever Romario said, he would still blame himself.

Romario sighed, perhaps realizing he wasn't getting through. "I'm going to go out for a smoke," he announced. "When I get back, I'll bring you some coffee to clear your head. In the meantime, sit down. Tiring yourself in such a pointless manner isn't going to help him one bit."

"I can't just sit down and do nothing, Roma."

"You're fretting enough to make it physical activity already. Besides, it's not like your pacing is going to help him any." A gentle nudge on his shoulder towards the seats by the wall. "Sit down, boss. Gather yourself. You need to be rational when the Vongola burst in and ask for details. Given the time they were informed and the distance to their headquarters, it shouldn't be long until one of them shows up, anymore."

"Great," murmured Dino even as he staggered to the seats and flopped down on one. "Now I get to tell Tsuna that I got one of his guardians killed, too."

"Nobody's dead yet, Boss," Romario reminded him. "And knowing how stubborn he can be, nobody is going to die anytime soon, either. Even if he did, you know Tsunayoshi wouldn't blame you." He paused. "I'd be more worried about Kusakabe if I were you."

"Thanks. Just what I needed, more worries." Dino covered his face with his hands. He didn't even notice Romario's hand patting his shoulder before the older man headed outside.

Dino didn't notice the passage of time per se, his imagination was too busy running images of terror and woe through his mind, but he had to conclude some time had to have passed as Romario came back with a steaming cup of hot coffee. It was far from the best he'd ever had, making him wince at the bitter taste, but it did help him focus. Not much, granted, but enough that when Gokudera ran in, torn between panic and rage, he had taken full control of the situation before Yamamoto even managed to walk in at his heels.

It was for the better, Dino concluded, listening to his own voice talking as though from far away. With the frantic Vongola Guardians, his leader instincts stepped forth, tearing him away from his own concerns in favour of taking care of others. Even the things he hadn't managed to get straight in his own mind seemed clear as he spoke them aloud, dissecting the situation as though it hadn't held any personal impact for him. Yes, Kyouya had been shot, yes, he was being operated on at the moment, it was serious but this was Kyouya so he would pull through, those responsible were taken care of, no there's nothing we can do except sit down and wait for news. It was almost laughable, how he told others to do what he had been unable to just moments before, but he supposed it was better than the panicked wreck he'd been before.

Then, however, he made the mistake of asking if there was any next of kin to notify about Kyouya's hospitalization. Gokudera gave him a weird glance and told him the only emergency contact Hibari had on file in Vongola's records was Dino himself.

Not even Romario could get him to stop crying.