Chapter 12

Guest, Meet Inhospitality.


"Visitors always bring pleasure—if not the arrival, then the departure."

-Portuguese Proverb


I'm awoken by yelling and panicked shuffling. There's a thump and a drawn out silence before I hear a chain of thumps ending with a grand crash at the base of the stairs. But it doesn't end there. There's a frightened scream and more thudding footsteps before an indignant Tsuna shouts, "Lambo! You ate my sandwich!"

To which the mafia child replies snootily, "Lambo-san didn't!"

"Don't lie!"

"Lambo-san hates egg salad!" is the kid's muffled retort.

There's sound of a scuffle and yelling before I the front door slams. Then there's the marked pitter-pat that signifies a person's light, deliberate, confident footsteps—

I sit bolt right, throwing the sheets at the door as it opens, while backing up against the wall. My hand reaches beneath the pillow, but I can't locate my wakizashis. The blankets billow out and land in a soft pile on the carpet, revealing none other than Reborn.

I frown at him. "What."

"Hurry up or you'll be late for school. Tsuna's already left."

I throw a glance at the clock across the room from me. He's right! If I don't get a move on I'll be—!

"Wait a minute..." I stop in the doorframe. "It's summer."

Reborn smirks. "You follow your own instincts despite what superiors tell you. That's very good, as well as very bad. Go find Tsuna."

My eyes narrow. I just woke up. No way in hell am I gonna'—

"Your alternative is to babysit Lambo for a day," he says before sauntering out of the room. "You might need these."

I catch my wakizashis when he throws them at me and slam the door closed behind him. I get back into bed, sliding my short swords beneath my pillow again. Dammit. I'm between a bitter piece of rock candy and a soft place—namely, the bed. But the latter won't remain a very nice alternative for long if I decide to stay—Reborn will make sure of that, no doubt.

"Oh..." I hear Reborn's smirking voice through the door. "And if anything happens to Tsuna...well, it's all on your head..."

Without another thought, I leap out of bed.


What's with this weather? The temperatures have been up and down lately, and today it's cool again, almost like it's going to storm today. At least I'm able to wear my sweater without seeming too suspicious...It's the one with the crappy holsters crudely sewed in by me a few years ago.

As I run through town, I'm reminded of the first day of school. Passing the same convenience store, the same crooked stop sign, the same faded crosswalk, and rounding the same corners.

But what really stands out is the feeling of anxiety—then it was tardiness, now it's the fear for my life (as well as for someone else's). Maybe I'm exaggerating and blowing things way out of proportion, but I don't want to take any chances...Because really, my life depends on Decimo's life. If he dies, I'm pretty much guaranteed to die along with him...by the Vongola's own hand.

I cut through the shopping district which is almost devoid of people, save for middle-aged women out to try to catch a few early morning deals at the supermarket.

I skirt around a purple-haired girl who steps out of a brand name clothing store. Her bags fall out of her hands, spilling clothes everywhere. She picks them up carefully, and I see that they're all in sizes that are clearly too big for her. Not thinking too much of it, I slow down to pick up her open wallet. "Ah, sorry," I mumble quickly.

Eh? I glance at it when I feel its next-to-nothing weight. It's empty...

She snatches it from my hand and bows slightly in apology. I shrug, rushing past her, continuing on my way. I have more important things to concern myself with right now.

I catch up to Tsuna, who's just managed to make it to the school. He pants and gasps for breath as he holds onto the wall for support.

"I can't believe Reborn tricked me like that!" he complains to himself.

"I can't believe you fell for it..." I almost did too...

"Kariya-san!" he cries, running towards me. "I'm sorry I didn't wait for you..."

"Why? There's no school today anyway."

"True..." he says quietly.

"What do we do now?" I enquire.

"Why don't we go home first?" he suggests.

Home? Surprised, I nod.

We walk in flat silence for a while, but the atmosphere isn't as tense anymore...though not quite amiable either. I guess it's just...peaceful(?) in a sense.

...If not for my brooding, that is.

I just make sure that Tsuna's still beside me, and I release my mind, letting it float up into the blue sky like a kite pulled along by the wind until it disappears from sight, shielded from prying eyes by the whimsical layers of clouds.

"Eh?" Tsuna exclaims.

I look up sharply. "Yamamoto?" I recognize the bright smile immediately.

"Yo," he greets as he walks towards us. "Sorry I can't hang out today, Tsuna, Kari-chan. I've got practice and then I gotta' help out my old man," he says with an apologetic smile. "How about I meet you guys at the school tomorrow?"

"Alright!" Tsuna agrees.

Yamamoto ruffles my hair before walking past us. He waves as he disappears around the corner, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

And we continue on. As we turn onto Tsuna's street we notice the pedestrians hurrying on their way, brushing past us at a brusque pace. The adults have the same uniform, tight-lipped expression, hurriedly towing their kids along behind them. The kids on the other hand keep glancing back down the street, wowing and generally being the annoying, curious creatures that they are.

Both Tsuna and I glance around warily and with a growing sense of dread at the black vehicles lining the sides of the street. A lot of men in black suits are loitering around them; they, too, regard us with a suspicious eye, muttering amongst themselves.

One of them, still about ten paces away, begins approaching us. I don't think Tsuna has noticed him yet—he's too preoccupied with shying away from the neighbour's Chihuahua. I tense, looking around. This isn't a good situation—with the way the cars are positioned we're easily boxed in, not to mention greatly outnumbered.

The man arrives in front of us. My hand clamps down on Tsuna's hand, and I pull him with me as I back away. Tsuna yelps in surprise and the men all spring into an alert position.

"Who are you? What do you want with Decimo?" I growl. My hands itch to pull my wakizashis out, but I know that that'd be detrimental, all things considered. I mean, they don't look like they want a fight, though if I draw a weapon on them, I'm sure that will all change in an instant.

"Decimo?"

"That's the Decimo?"

"Vongola Decimo, you're sure?"

"He matches the description."

"So young."

"Yes. Are you sure it's him?"

"And who's that girl with him?"

"We weren't told."

"No. But that's Decimo for sure."

That fact only makes them whisper all the more.

Crap! Did they not know that he was the Decimo? Damn! And I just freely released that fact! If not, then he could've escaped unharmed. Dammit! Stupid Riri!

"Welcome home, Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi," he says.

I freeze. What did he just say? So he's not hostile?

"A-Aah. Um, thank you..." Tsuna rushes inside. I'm dragged forward a couple of steps before my grip on his wrist fails and he slips through the gates, leaving me behind.

I give the men an apprehensive glance before turning to follow Tsuna inside. I find that my path is blocked by the black-haired man who'd greeted Tsuna.

"We were told to see Sawada Tsunayoshi inside, but we were told nothing about you. I'm sorry but you're not cleared to pass."

"Come again?" I say in a low voice.

The man shakes his head gravely. "Our boss wishes to speak with Sawada Tsunayoshi undisturbed, and we'll make sure that that happens. I assure you that we do not wish to harm him."

"What the hell!" I snarl. But I take in the information. 'Boss'. He said 'boss'. That means that Tsuna might be in danger despite what they say!

"I apologize once again, miss," the man says, "but orders are orders. I cannot permit you to pass. You'll have to stay out here until we receive further instructions."

I fix a steely glare on him, but resign myself to pacing at the front gates of the Sawada household. Sooner or later Tsuna will come to let me in—he won't forget about me...right? If he does, then Nana-san might come out, and hopefully she'll be able to convince them. I'm not really counting on Reborn—he's probably getting a kick out of this.

I study the man before me, who's not 'permitting me to enter the premises'. He looks to be middle-aged, with spiky black hair and a bushy moustache. His glasses glint in the sunlight at a certain angle, and throw the beams into my eyes. I growl slightly, quickly growing very irritated.

Suddenly there's screaming and yelling and a pink projectile is thrown from the window. It takes half a second for my brain to register the shouts, another half-second for my vision to focus on the—"oh shit"—and for me to recognize the shape and realize that it's a—("You guys! Get down!")—pink grenade—

And then there's a blond idiot who takes a flying leap out of the window, brandishing a bullwhip which wraps tightly around the explosive. With a dextrous flick of his wrist, he sends it spinning high into the sky.

I'm too busy looking up at the destination of the deadly grenade to respond or react to the fact that everyone else has ducked for cover, using their black cars with tinted glass as protection. I'm knocked over, flattened against the ground by a blur of green and fur and blond and black and white and black and white and black and white and black and white as the grenade detonates. Fragments of the shrapnel rain down, but I'm too busy suffocating to notice that.

My vision returns to me as 'black and white' and 'black and white' get up off of the impromptu dog-pile, helping 'black and white' and 'black and white up' and I identify the monochromatic colours as the suited men. 'Green and fur and blond' is undoubtedly the idiot blond who jumped from the window.

The black-haired man from before helps the blond up.

"Aah. Thanks, Romario," he says. Then he turns to me. "Are you okay?" the blond idiot (which is really redundant), asks me with concerned hazel eyes. He offers a hand to me, which I ignore. I nod in answer, brushing myself off. As much as I try to brush off the incident offhandedly, a little bubble of respect for this man wells up within me.

"Is everyone alright?" he calls, addressing the rest of the men.

"Yeah."

"We're good."

"Ha! Boss went and did it again!"

"Showing off for the ladies, eh, boss?"

"Guys...!" he protests, but he smiles when he sees that they're unharmed.

'Boss'? So he's the boss? Of which Famiglia? I study him closely. I don't know much of any other mafia families, and at the most, I know names but I can't connect them to faces.

"Dino-san! Kariya-san!" Tsuna runs out of the house, Reborn perched on his shoulder.

"Yo, so you didn't forget about me," I say, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"Kariya?" the blond—Dino—raises an eyebrow at me. He turns to Reborn, who just nods in reply to his silent question.

Reborn addresses everyone in general, "I wish to speak with these two alone."

The men nod, and Romario says, "We'll be back for you later, boss."

"Alright, then," he replies.

"Do try and be careful!" one of his men calls.

"Hey!" he whines.

"I feel a lot better knowing that Reborn-san will be with you!"

The rest chortle as they pile into the important looking cars with the tinted windows.

We head back inside, walking right into Tsuna's room and settling down, ignoring the boy's objections. Reborn kicks the door closed behind him, shutting Tsuna out.

"Dino, this is Asunake Kariya," Reborn introduces.

"Pleasure to meet you," he says amiably...at least, it's meant to be amiable. His friendly tone only succeeds in making me narrow my eyes and back away.

"Speaking of which," Reborn changes the subject without introducing the man to me. Though I now know his name, without knowing the man's title, I'm left with an antsy, chary feeling. "I called for you more than a month ago."

So this is the person that Reborn had called here to get information on me. My suspicions are fuelled by this new revelation despite the man's warm and open disposition.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was really busy!"

"That's no excuse," Reborn cuts him off.

Dino only bursts out into more flustered apologies, looking all the more like Tsuna trying to escape from the evil clutches of the baby hitman. The bubble of respect that had grown within me begins to deflate, air hissing out rapidly.

"I told you to bring her along too. Where is she?" Reborn asks.

"Eh?" he interjects, stopping his rushed explanations. "I thought she was already here with you," the blond man replies, scratching his head in a somewhat confused manner. "Well, when I received your message, she was in Rome—"

"—Rome?" Reborn raises an eyebrow at this.

I observe the exchange in silence.

"Rome," he confirms. "She told me that she'd be visiting the Varia first, and then that she would be off on her own errands. I told her that I'd be here today, and she told me that she'd meet me here."

"Where is she now?"

Dino replies honestly, "I don't know." And then he promptly resumes his frantic apologies at Reborn's glower.

I turn away. The bubble pops with this wave of sharp cries. I think I've lost all respect for this man.

"You're one of my former students, Dino; act like it. Kariya here has already lost her respect for you."

We look over at the other, sizing one another up. So he's one of Reborn's students...

I speak first. "You know you've lost one of your socks, right?"

"Hunh?" he says. Then he looks down at his feet and hops and spins, glancing around for his MIA sock. "Gah! Where'd it go?"

I shake my head. Nope, he's a dumb blond alright.


I find out, much to my displeasure, that Dino will be staying with us for a while. Even more to my distaste, I grudgingly admit that he's a natural mafia boss—easily one of those smooth talking crime lords if he tries. He just exudes charisma—while stationary, that is. He gives Nana-san easy compliments that are (well, seem) genuine and are well-balanced; they're never too weak, nor do they seem forced or fake.

I find out from Tsuna that he's the tenth generation Cavallone boss and that he was Reborn's previous student, like he'd mentioned before. No wonder. I guess Reborn's speciality is the hopeless ones. Though, in my opinion, Reborn left Dino a little too soon.

Said man sits across from me at the dinner table, and I give him an unimpressed look as he spills some more of his rice. He looks to be unaware of the fact that most of his food is ending up on the table around him rather than in his mouth, yet he continues to chat happily with everyone at the table—including me.

"So Kariya, how are you enjoying Mama's cooking?"

I glance at him, looking at the rice on his cheek and a smear of sauce on his lip and turn back to my bowl of rice.

He continues on, unperturbed. If anything, my disregard for him has made him all the more determined to 'get through to me'...or if anything else, make up for his so-called 'manly pride'—because he doesn't look like one to get snubbed frequently by girls, or just people in general.

"I think Mama's cooking is very good! Especially the rice! What kind of rice do you use?"

Nana-san laughs lightly and hurries off into the pantry to search for the brand name.

I snort in derision. What would you know about how the rice tastes? I doubt you've gotten even a decent mouthful of it.

Sawada shoots me a panicked look.

I lean across the table, chopsticks brandished to try and pick up some of the tofu. When it doesn't work out, I ball up my fist to stab the chopsticks down on the offending object.

The knife seems to appear from nowhere, and by the time I notice it, it's already embedded in the wooden table, right between the third and fourth fingers of my left hand.

For a moment, nobody moves. We peer around in shocked silence. I'm the first to move, jerking back in a hasty movement, knocking the chair over behind me.

Dino gets up as well. "Kariya! Are you alright?"

I reach into my sleeve threateningly, eyes darting around, trying to pinpoint it—that feeling, it's back again. "Stay away from me," I warn. Something about Cavallone is...off-putting.

He's brought that sinister aura with him. So, my conclusion? It must be him, somehow, that's at the root of all this. He's the perpetrator. He must be the one who stole the documents, the one that was in the hospital, the one who orderedthose guys to attack me—therefore, he's dangerous.

"Stay away from me," I repeat, enunciating each and every word heavily, just in case he didn't get it the first time that I'm dead serious.

He stops in place, nodding slowly. Good.

"Dino," Reborn says, leaping onto his shoulder.

"Aah."

They seem to have something going here, and I'm not in on it. That fact makes me all the more nervous. My fingers itch to unsheathe my blades, just for something to hold out in front of me, to distance myself from them.

Reborn holds the knife up, and I flinch back, fight or flight instinct flaring up.

"Kariya." Reborn's voice cuts through my panic and somehow forces me to lift my head again. "Kariya," he repeats. "Dino is not responsible for this. You can trust him, if not all of us."

"He's allied with the Vongola!" I growl.

"The Vongola which you're now a part of," Reborn says coolly. "Stand down."

The man's earnest hazel eyes have a certain honest quality to them, like Sawada, yet they're a lot calmer and more mature. I straighten up from my stance, but keep a sharp eye on him. "If it's not him, then who is it?" I ask Reborn, not letting my gaze leave Cavallone even for a moment.

"All I can say is that it isn't him. You're not cleared for any more information beyond that," Reborn replies simply, twirling the oddly shaped knife in his hand. It has strange ridges in it, not quite serrated, but enough for me to find it unusual and wonder about it aerodynamics and how its trajectory is affected by its peculiar shape. What really piques my curiosity is the fact that it seems to have jewels on the blade itself. Who has that kind of time and money?

"That doesn't answer anything!" I scowl.

Dino takes the knife from Reborn and studies it for a moment before he speaks quietly. "I'll be heading back tomorrow."

"Aah. That would be best," Reborn agrees.

Dino casts a glance around the room, and smiles towards the genkan, at the front door, before turning to me. He walks over, patting my head. I flinch at his touch, but otherwise remain stock-still.

"I don't think you're any danger, Kariya. I trust you, and think you'll be good as part of Tsuna's family. I just hope you can learn to trust us as well," he says amiably. "C'mon let's go and finish dinner."

His arm wraps around my shoulders and he leads me back to the kitchen.

I shoot a quick glance over my shoulder and face forward again, but spin around fully, out of Cavallone's grasp. The first time, I hadn't been expecting to see anything, but it was there! It was! There was someone standing there in the doorway. They were spinning another one of those knives in their hand, and their eyes gleamed a vivid shade of—

"Kariya? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I shoot back in a tart voice. Then I turn slowly, reiterating in a softer tone, "I'm okay."

"Aieee!"

We all turn to the shriek.

"Nana-san!" I cry, and we all run towards the noise.

Dino trips over his foot and falls flat on his face, I spare him a half-second glance over my shoulder, never stopping for him. What happened to Nana-san?

"Gah!" I hear Tsuna yell as well, "There's a giant turtle in the bathroom! It's—Hiieee! It's eating the bathtub!"

"How the hell did that get there!" I shout.


...Kushishishishishi~


A/N:

Haha~ No offense to blond(e)s out there. Kariya's views are not my own. I personally think that blond(e) hair is really pretty. If I could change my hair colour, it'd probably be to dirty blonde... But that's enough about me!

The next chapter should be up in a bit! In the meantime, review and vote~