Belphegor stared down at the younger boy whom he had stopped from cracking his head on the floor. What the hell was little Tsuna doing here? And since when was he able to go into hyper dying will mode?

Heaving a deep sigh, the young prince turned to the entrance of the abandoned warehouse they were in and shouted, "Levi! Get in here and help me with him!"

Now normally, he would have died rather than ask for help, but right now, what was important wasn't his own pride, but Tsuna's safety. He may be one of the top assassins in the world, and he may be a part of the Vongola's feared independent assassination squad, the Varia, but that didn't change the fact that he was still only ten years old, and there was no way he could carry someone only three years younger than him back to the limo, helicopter, or whatever vehicle that would be taking them back to the base.

There was a chuckle as Levi came in, saying, "What, can't the bloodthirsty little prince beat up a few henchmen?" He stopped short, though, when he saw Tsuna in Bel's arms. After what he had seen finally sunk in, he rushed forward and swept the boy into his arms, holding him gently, as if he would break into pieces with the slightest pressure. "Why is Tsuna here?" asked the teenager.

Bel shrugged. "When I came in, he had already defeated those guys" -here he gestured to the three that were unconscious- "in HDW mode."

Levi's eyes widened. Then, with a smirk, he said, "The kid's even more talented than his father."

Bel shrugged, then, before they could get distracted, he said, "Now let's get him back to the base! His father and the guardians have probably torn up half of Italy looking for him by now."


Xanxus stared at the sight in front of him. Then, in a relatively quiet voice (for him, at least), he said, "I thought I told you to bring the sky box, not my cousin's son."

Bel and Levi were the only ones that had gone on the mission (Mammon and Squalo had mysteriously disappeared), and the only ones who knew that Tsuna was currently at the Varia base, which was the reason the other Varia guardians hadn't yet gone to destroy the Dragone Famiglia.

Bel shrugged. "He was holding tightly to the box when we arrived at the scene. From what we've guessed, he'd picked it up from where Mammon had dropped it, and the kidnappers chose that moment, when he was separated from whoever was with him, to kidnap him."

Xanxus, growling at the back of his throat, got up and took the little boy from Levi's arms, holding him almost tenderly. "It must have been that trash Giotto calls a lightning guardian that was watching him. The others sure as hell wouldn't have let him out of their sight." Looking down at his little cousin, he swept aside a lock of messy brown hair, then looked back up at his subordinates. "Well? What happened to the scum that fucking did this to him?"

For the first time since the beginning of the meeting, Bel let out his signature laugh. "Ushishishishi. We didn't do a thing."

"WHAT?" shouted Xanxus, looking about ready to tear his head off.

Bel just laughed again, but this time it was Levi who said it. "Tsuna went into HDW mode and beat them himself."

For a second, Xanxus just looked at them as if they had lost their minds, then looked back down at Tsuna, and a smirk grew on his face. After a moment of silence, he took out his cell phone and dialled in a familiar number.

The phone rang for a long time, then finally, Xanxus's older cousin came on the phone. "Yeah?" he asked, sounding distracted.

"The little brat is with us," he said nonchalantly.

"Ah, that's nice. . ." said Giotto, not seeming to have heard what I said. Then, after a moment of silence, he shouted, "WHAT?"

"You really should pay closer attention to him. The kid's all bruised and beaten, it's a good thing Bel arrived on the scene when he did," continued Xanxus.

When he spoke again, Giotto's voice was a strange mix of relief and fury. "I'll be right there," he said quickly, then hung up.

Cursing under his breath, the young man ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket.

After a second, he suddenly felt a small hand clutch the front of his shirt and looked down to see Tsuna's eyes flutter open. When the little brunette caught sight of his older cousin, his mouth stretched into a relieved smile and he buried his face into the man's chest. "Xanxus," he said quietly.

The corner of Xanxus's mouth quirked up a little into the ghost of a smile and he stroked the kids head gently. "Your father is on his way over," he said. "Everything is fine now."

At those words, all of the stress and fear that Tsuna had been holding back earlier just took over, and he suddenly found tears running down his face. He cried for a long time, and Xanxus just held onto him, not saying anything, protecting him.

"I-I was so scared!" he sobbed.

Xanxus didn't say anything . . . not that it mattered because, at that moment, the door burst open and in came Lussuria, Viper, and Squalo.

"VOOOI! Why didn't anyone tell us the brat was here?" shouted Squalo, walking forward to greet Tsuna.

The brunette quickly wiped away his tears and smiled brightly at the newcomers. Jumping out of Xanxus's arms, he went over and threw himself at the silver-haired teenager. "Long time no see, Squalo!"

Returning the hug, Squalo ran a finger over the cut on Tsuna's face that had been made by Vittore's ring. "Who did this to you?" he asked in a dangerous voice.

"A guy named Vittore from the Dragone Famiglia," said Tsuna without hesitation.

At this point, Lussuria grabbed the little brunette into a bone-crushing embrace, saying, "How dare they do that to my little Tsu-tsu? Big brother Lussuria will make sure they get the beating of a life time!"

"Ushishishishi!" Bell laughed. "You're too late for that. Tsuna already beat them all up by himself."

"By himself?" asked Viper in surprise, looking over at Tsuna.

The young Vongola just nodded a little bashfully, saying, "I just did what daddy always does in his fights!"

Everyone in the room suddenly looked at the little brunette; for various reasons.

"You've seen your father fight?" asked Levi. "I thought you and the other kids always have to stay at home?"

Tsuna shrugged. "I bugged uncle G's suit with one of those tiny cameras! I figured that since he's the right-arm, then he would stay next to papa during most of the fight, and I was right! Before the camera was accidentally destroyed, I saw daddy fighting, and he looked really different! His eyes were orange, and he had a fire on his forehead!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" interrupted Squalo. "Are you saying that you can go into HDW mode?"

"HDW mode?" asked Tsuna, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Hyper dying will," supplied Levi, placing a hand on the kid's head. "That's what it's called when you have that flame on your forehead."

"Oh. . ." said the boy, nodding in understanding. "Yeah! That's what I did!" he said in an enthusiastic voice.

There was complete and utter silence in the room after his declaration.

A burst of laughter from Squalo was what broke it. "So that brat can do it too, huh? It looks like there's no need to worry about the Vongola after Primo retires."


The half hour it took Giotto to get from the Vongola HQ to the Varia base seemed to drag on forever; he just couldn't sit still. Even though he knew that Tsuna would be safe with Xanxus and the other members of the Varia (who, like pretty much everyone else, were wrapped around his pretty little finger), he was anxious to see his son again.

Xanxus had said that he was "bruised and beaten," and that knowledge was eating him from the inside out. What Family would be stupid enough to oppose the Vongola?

When the car finally came to a stop in front of the Varia manor, Giotto jumped out of it with a hasty "thank you" to the driver and ran straight to through the front door, which had been opened for him in advance by a butler.

Making his way through the twisty halls of the manor was quite easy (they were nothing, compared to the Vongola HQ), he could, before long, see the door to Xanxus's "throne room."

Throwing the door open, he stepped in to see Tsuna sitting on the floor, playing happily with Squalo's hair, while the aforementioned shark talked to Bel about something.

When he saw the state his son was in, his heart broke. There was a long, thin scratch on Tsuna's cheek, and other small scrapes all over his face, hands, and knees; not to mention the bruises that were already starting to turn a ripe purple.

When he burst into the room, everyone's eyes turned to him, and Tsuna shouted delightedly, "Daddy!"

Running up to his son, Giotto swept him into his arms and held him close. "Oh, Tsuna, you have no idea how worried I was. I almost had a heart-attack when Lampo told me that you had wandered off. Now tell me, what happened."

Slowly, Tsuna shared the story of how he had ended up being kidnapped, and when he got to the part where he had lost consciousness, Bel stepped in, taking over.

When the whole tale was done, Giotto stared at Tsuna in much the same way the others had, shocked to find out that his son had apparently harnessed his dying will flames; and at the tender age of seven at that.

Cuddling him like a puppy, Giotto cooed, "I'm so proud of you, Tsuna! You're so strong! When we get home, daddy will teach you all about the flames, so that, if you're ever in trouble again, you know how to activate them! But don't you ever wander off like that again, okay? Poor Lampo is currently being tortured by Daemon, Alaude, and their sons."

Shuddering at the thought, Tsuna prayed for his uncle's safety. Even though he loved the four of them to death, he knew that his uncles and big brothers could all get very scary when they were angry; not that that anger was ever directed at him.


When Giovanni Chiavarone got the call from Giotto that they had found Tsuna, he was almost as relieved as if Dino had been missing.

"So?" he said into the phone. "Which Family are we going to be 'talking' to?"

"Dragone."


SkyGem: And done! Haha, I had lots of fun writing this chapter. Writing the Varia is so much fun XD. Anyways, please leave a review and tell me what you all thought, ne? Arigatou gozaimasu!