Two years has passed ever since Vernon met a curious child known as Tsunayoshi.

He was an odd-ball, and the stories of his adventure he told Vernon was proof to that.

Shortly after meeting the boy, Vernon grew attached to him. He has the most curious mind, the way he thought sometimes was too mature for someone his age.

Tsuna still has his innocence of a normal child, but it often lands him to a series of problems. That's one of the reason he'd assigned Jör to guard him for the duration of their stay.

He knew the boy had most likely lands himself into trouble often, but it gave him a peace of mind when he knew that someone was keeping an eye on Tsuna.

But, it doesn't mean they'd have to stay. Vernon had in the middle of being chased by a group of assassins. And so with a heavy heart, they parted ways with means of communication and promise.

For two years, his mind was at ease. Tsuna never called the emergency number, and that was the most important part of it.

For two years, he wasn't too woried about Tsuna's well being.

Until today.

.:iIIi:.

He was busy debriefing his underboss, Vetra, on a shipment they'd need for another week when the cellphone for Tsuna's emergency call rang.

For a second there was confusion, then realization dawned on him as his expression morphed into horror.

He fished for the phone in his pocket and quickly tracked Tsuna's position. The time it took (though only for a couple of minutes) feels like forever as it pin-pointed the source of Tsuna's GPS tracker.

He took note of the coordinate before calling his subordinates closest to Tsuna.

"This is an emergency, I'm sending you the coordinates to the boy's location. I will be redirecting the call from him to yours. Move immediately."

He need not to tell them twice, everyone in the family know who 'the boy' was. He had debriefed them as soon as he touched down in his homebase two years ago.

The reactions were mixed. Some were in disbelief, some were accepting, some were affronted, and there's a certain amount of them that were resigned.

Over the time, as Tsuna's clumsy report reached them every months, they begin to accept the boy as an extention of their family, accepting Vernon's fondness toward the lonely Japanese boy.

They soon understands that Tsuna was important to their boss, and soon, they even began to expect his scheduled reports each month.

He told those closest to him (and those present) that he'd gifted Tsuna one of their communication device, and none of them objected when Vernon told them that they were expected to aid Tsuna shall he be in a mortal danger.

"Emergency?" Vetra called out, worried.

"Yes, this is the only time he did this. Even when he's turned to the police, he's never called me through here," He lifted the phone in question and rubbed his temple with his other hand. "I'm afraid this is a different kind of trouble he's putting himself into. I just hope... whatever it is, won't mess with him badly."

He just hoped that his subordinates arrived in time.

.:iIIi:.

Whatever the outcome from Tsuna's emergency was, Vernon didn't expect them to arrive in front of their headquarters two days later.

Henrik, Trevor, and Ivan was the one closest to Tsuna's location, and so they were the one who answered his call. He had expected a bruise or two, or maybe a gunshot wound, but what he didn't expect was to see Henrik slumped, most of his weight supported by Ivan, and sick.

He was pale, as white as sheet, sweat drenching his body in a way that made Vernon worried that he'd soon dehydrate. He was also shivering minutely, jaw-slack with droll dripping from his mouth, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"My Godness, what happened to him?" Vernon rushed forward, balancing Henrik on his other side as they rushed to the hospital wing.

"The Boy happened. I will report the full length of the mission later, boss, but we need to get Henrik on life support immediately." Ivan grunted out, and together, they brought Henrik's still body to the hospital wing.

Once the nurses and doctors relieved Henrik's weight off of them, they both panted from the strain it took them to support Henrik, and the silence between them was broken when Ivan talked.

"Boss, I don't think you should let anyone with flames near that boy." He began, face grim as he swiped the sweat on his eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

Ivan shuddered, it took him a long time to gather his bearings, but eventually, he began talking.

Vernon held his head as Ivan began talking. It was a tale out of this world.

It started with their mission, Ivan told them how they arrived a few hours after the call, disabling then killing the intruders inside Tsuna's house. How Trevor found Tsuna hiding inside a cupboard, then running away as he remembered his mother. How he found her dead body and blacked out. Trevor brought Tsuna's limp body inside the car and Henrik stayed inside to take pictures. Of the assassins, of the houses, of Tsuna's mother, until he stopped and they began departing with Tsuna's unconcious body.

They stopped at a hotel room to rest, and awoken in the middle of the night to a struggle.

Tsuna apparently had woken up, and he was still in shock as he realized his mother was dead and began struggling from Trevor's grip. No matter how they calmed him, he continued panicking.

Ivan remembered vividly, when Henrik summoned his rain flames to calm the raging child. How Tsuna, despite the struggling, had his full attention on the lit hand.

Just as Henrik's hand touched Tsuna's chest to manipulate his flame to calm him, everything changed.

The flames that flowed out smoothly from his hand brightened, and to Henrik's confusion, grew stronger to the point where it would've hurt. He immediately begin to retract his hand from Tsuna's chest, but to their growing horror, Henrik's flame flew out of him in stronger waves to Tsuna's chest.

They watched it for a few moments of panicked horror, all with a different scenario playing on their head.

Ivan doesn't remember who began to scream, but he had noticed Henrik had slumped forward, unconcious as the last lick of his flame disappeared through Tsuna's chest.

Then everything exploded.

"We didn't know how it happend, for a second it was calm, then an explosion of flames was around us, it destroyed our room. And everything went downhill from there. Tsuna has flames! It oozed out of him like waters! It doesn't look like he has any idea what happened, either. Trevor theorized something... concerning..."

Vernon nodded, he's had his suspicion, too.

"Tsuna unknowingly reacted to Henrik's invading flame, had no control over it, and explodes." Vernon finishes.

Ivan nodded.

"If he's left alone, he could be dangerous."

Verbon contemplates. Tsuna has no one else, his mother was dead, he has no other family nor relatives willing to take care of him.

That left one option. One that he was unwilling to take.

"I can't... he's a civillian." He sighed out. He knew it was just an excuse, Tsuna had been exposed to dangers even before they've met. And yet, he's reluctant on actually involving him.

Because... because...

"'Once you're in, you can never go out'."

Ivan nodded solemnly. "Think about it, boss. A reaction to a non-threatening dying will flame like that is a dangerous weapon. If we let him go... some of the more dangerous family out there could've took him and experiment with him, Estraneo, for example. Would you allow them to torture him for the rest of his life?" Ivan asked gently. "I-- we all knew that you cared for him like your own son... please, boss, give it a chance."

Vernon slumped, this was one of those times that; whatever he did, it would be end as disaster.

And whether he took Tsuna in or not... it would still impact the boy's life more than it already was. Worse than it already is.

"I'll... talk about it with him."

And that was that.

.:iIIi:.

It pained him more that, once he started explaning their situation to Tsuna, the boy was teary eyed. The first emotion he shown outside of tired resignation when he first arrived on Vernon's manor.

He was guilty of what he'd reduce Henrik to, a man attached to machine to support him.

Tsuna was exeedingly, annoyingly, empathetic. He understood the dangers he was in once they discovered his abilities, and though it pained Vernon more, they have to train him control it.

For now, Tsuna have to be distanced from active flame user lest they want an accident like what happened to Henrik to happen once more.

.:iIIi:.

They trained him in secret, the only one who knew about Tsuna's ability was Vernon, Vetra, Ivan, and Trevor.

Through it all, no other accidents happened. Tsuna was once more allowed to interact with active flame users. Jör has been one of the first to immediately approach him, and shockingly, hugged him.

It had been two years since they took him and he'd become Vernon's adopted son and part of his Family.

They sheltered him, homeschooled him on a more important matters than Standard School Curriculum.

They've him trained on self defense, though they'd have to hire a foreigner Chinese freelance (he was safe, Tsuna didn't feel threat from him, and they took his opinion to heart.) to properly train him on how to disable his enemies bare handed.

Vernon had been worried that all of it would taint Tsuna from the childhood he deserves yet never have.

"I've had never had one in the first place, you don't have to worry about me, father." Had been Tsuna's reply.

He was even more... quiet, though the intensity of his eyes never wavered, Vernon suspected Tsuna had gained a reason to life once again.

Had Vernon knew that chaos and destruction was the path Tsuna was slowly taking, he would've stopped Tsuna from learning more of their world.

Sometimes, the most dangerous enemy was the quiet ones.

...

.:iIIi:.

...

Current death tally:

OC died: 0

Canon character died: 0

Characters Disabled: 1

Total victims so far: 4.

An: Double update cuz I love you guys and the fact that I know I'd be busy after this.

NaiOokamiSohma: You're my favorite person, ever. You're right on few of your speculation, shit just rolled down and mafia world will be shaken to its core. *evil cackles* I really can't wait to write more! xD