Lampo watched the night turn to dawn outside his bedroom window. He'd been up all night, unable to sleep because of Knuckle's sniveling in the bed next to him.

The sun guardian had appeared at his door while Lampo had been preoccupied with video games, completely in tears. He had told his younger guardian that he needed a room to stay in, but wouldn't say why. Considering he'd brought all of his belongings, Lampo reasoned that something must've happened between him and Alaude. He avoided the subject, though, and let Knuckle stay. He didn't want to make the ex-priest more upset than he already was.

And so he lay, wide awake, for the second night in a row.

"L-Lampo…?" A tentative voice sounded to his left, causing Lampo to look over in surprise. Knuckle was staring at him, eyes watery and a serious expression on his face. "Do you want me to leave? I don't want to keep you awake…"

Lampo turned onto his side to better look at Knuckle, a frustrated frown on his face. "Knuckle, don't say things like that! Of course I don't want you to leave. I'd just be playing video games anyway."

"Are you sure?" Knuckle looked doubtful. Lampo blinked at him.

"We're all worried about you, man. You won't tell anyone what happened."

Knuckle turned onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. As Lampo continued to stare at him, wondering if he was going to say anything or not, a tear rolled down the sun guardian's cheek.

"It's nothing, Lampo. I just hope God will forgive me for my sins."

"Knuckle, I've always respected your beliefs and everything, but this is ridiculous!" Lampo snapped, feeling a rush of impatience. Perhaps it wasn't the right time to be saying this, when Knuckle was so fragile, but Lampo was sick of it. "How can you love someone, and yet always call it a sin? If I were Alaude, that wouldn't make me feel very loved!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Knuckle hissed, and then immediately seemed to regret it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I tried my hardest to look for a way we could be together, but it was all for nothing. He never loved me anyway."

Lampo swallowed back a reply. He doubted that, but the sun guardian was obviously in no mood to hear what a sleep-deprived teen had to say. Exhaling loudly, Lampo turned onto his back and joined Knuckle in staring at the ceiling.

He had never felt so useless in his entire life. Giotto never let him go out on missions, so he couldn't help keep Italy safe, and now he couldn't help a man who was like a brother to him. Wasn't there anything he could do?! What was the point of being part of the Vongola if all he could do was sit around and play video games? They were better off without him; all he was doing was freeloading…

But then, as he heard Knuckle start sniffling again, he realized that the depressed ex-priest wouldn't have a place to go if Lampo wasn't there.

Maybe he was good for something after all.

Lampo woke up late, after finally falling into a short, troubled sleep. Knuckle's temporary bed was empty, and the lightning guardian struggled to figure out what time it was. Giotto had wanted him to go to the store that day, but, as Lampo fought to keep his eyes open, he wondered if he really wanted to get up and walk down to the supermarket in the freezing cold.

He groaned at his laziness. Maybe this was why Giotto never let him go on any missions.

Forcing himself out of bed, Lampo pulled on his off-white over shirt and leaned down to pull on his boots. His sleepiness made his clumsy, however, and he stood up before he realized that he'd put his shoes on the wrong feet. Sighing dramatically in annoyance, the teen plopped back down on his bed to take his boots off and put them on correctly.

He heard a snort from the doorway, making him look up in mild surprise. G was leaning against the doorframe, his red eyes sparkling in amusement. The action was almost alien to Lampo; the storm guardian had been depressed for so long that Lampo couldn't remember the last time G had teased him about something.

"Having trouble?" G smirked. Despite his efforts, Lampo couldn't stop the smile that came onto his lips. It had been too long since G had been his old self. He reclined lazily, sticking his socked feet up in the air as he whined comically.

"Yesss, G, it's too much effort! Put my boots on for me!"

G scoffed and stalked over, picking up one of Lampo's boots and throwing it at the teen's head.

"Oh, please! Put it on yourself, damn brat!"

Lampo pretended to be knocked out as the boot hit him in the forehead, throwing his head back onto the bed with more force than necessary. Closing his eyes, he lolled his tongue out of his mouth. He could barely contain his laughter as G pretended to be distressed about Lampo's "death" and collapsed over him in a sobbing heap. G snickering on his stomach, however, caused him to completely lose his composure.

"Wait, G, uncle, uncle!" Lampo screeched as G started to tickle him. He couldn't stop laughing as he twitched back and forth. "S-stop, that tickles!"

After what seemed like eternity, G stopped tickling him and stood up from the bed. Trying to catch his breath, Lampo stared up happily at G's amused expression.

It really had been too long.

"Okay, seriously kid, get out of bed. Giotto wanted you to go to the store, but he figured you'd forget something if I didn't come with you." G threw the other shoe at the lightning guardian.

"I wouldn't forget anything!" Lampo complained grumpily, but did what he was told and sat up off the bed. He put his boots on the correct feet that time and stood to follow G out of his bedroom.

They headed down the corridor to get their coats, which were hanging on the family's coatrack (there were so many members that the rack was constantly overloaded, which meant that someone's coat, or two, was certainly cluttering the floor around the rack), when they passed Knuckle. He was stooped to pick up his coat from the ground when they approached.

"You going out, Knuckle?" G sounded surprised. Knuckle looked confused for a moment before he stood and hung his coat back up on the rack.

"N-no, I…" Knuckle stammered, looking around as if he wasn't sure where he even was. "I-I guess I was going over to Alaude's…"

An awkward silence hung over them then. Lampo didn't know if G knew of the drama going on between their sun and cloud guardians but, if he didn't, he smartly kept his mouth shut. Knuckle glanced at them uncertainly before he adverted his gaze, mumbled an apology for some unknown reason, and pushed his way past G and Lampo to head down the corridor they'd just come from.

The lightning and storm guardians collected their coats without a word before heading outside. Snow was falling gently on land already covered in a layer of white. Lampo narrowed his eyes as cold wind slapped his cheeks. It was just as cold as he had worried it would be. But at least he had company.

They were a safe distance from the shack before G spoke up.

"What was that all about? Knuckle seemed like he needed an excuse to go over to Alaude's," G commented thoughtfully. "He's never needed one before."

"Something went on between them," Lampo muttered. He kicked his boot through a pile of snow. "Knuckle moved into my room a few nights ago. He won't tell me what happened."

G said nothing. Lampo could only guess what he was thinking; G was the guardian he knew the best, but even he didn't tell the lightning guardian everything. They hadn't spoken once during his depression, and Lampo had been the last to know when G and Ugetsu got together.

He wondered angrily if it was because he was ten years younger than the others.

"I wish people would tell me things!" Lampo hissed icily, watching as his breath formed a cloud in the air before dispersing. "Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I can't listen!"

G glanced over at him.

"We don't want to worry you, Lampo."

"Like I haven't heard that before!" Lampo snapped. Stopping, he whirled on his heels to confront G. "You guys don't let me do anything! I can't go on missions, I can't watch my favorite shows, and I can't be trusted to be manly enough to take whatever problems you guys have! Why do you guys have to burden everything while I sit in my room twiddling my thumbs?! I'm bored!"

Stopping as well, G turned to face the seething teen. His expression was annoyingly calm, though Lampo recoiled slightly at the fire burning in his eyes.

"Selfish brat. How do you expect us to send you out on missions when you never train? Why should we let you watch shows when that's all you ever do? Have you ever considered that maybe we don't confide in you because you never do anything? It would be like talking to fucking air!" G growled, losing his calm composure as he stalked over to the lightning guardian. He grabbed his collar with his mittened hand. "If you really want to be useful, why don't you get off your lazy ass and do something with your life?! The only reason you're bored is because you refuse to do anything!"

The words stung worse than the chilly breeze. Lampo shook with anger, wanting to retaliate, even though what G said was true. He never did anything. But he refused to believe it was all his fault. He slapped G's hand away and started shuffling towards the store again.

"Every time I try to do something, I'm either ignored or I make things worse," he muttered into the snow, as if it would solve all of his problems.

G's boots crunched on the snow as he caught up to him. The anger in his voice was gone when he spoke again.

"If you're talking about this whole situation with Ricardo, I don't agree with Giotto's decision either. But he must see something in Ricardo that the rest of us can't, so we all just have to accept it. He's the boss, after all." G stopped again and kneeled down to pick up snow in his mitten. "And don't think you're the only little bastard who's made mistakes. You're a real idiot if you choose to stop moving forward because you've made some bad choices."

G trailed off, as if getting lost in some memory. Lampo, stopping a little father ahead, wondered if he was thinking about Ugetsu. He wondered what it would be like to be in love with someone, to have someone that was overjoyed to have you come home every day. It seemed nice, and Lampo wondered with a sudden aching longing if he'd ever have someone who would be happy just to see him.

A ball of freezing snow hit him in the face, causing him to gasp in shock as the scattered flakes fell down his shirt. He whirled to see G sending him an amused smirk as he slapped snow off of his mittens.

"Drop the long face and enjoy being a kid while you can!"

Lampo blinked at him for a moment before he realized that G was right. Maybe it was a good thing that he could hang around and have fun like this. And he truly would be an idiot if he didn't enjoy this time while he could.

A mischievous twinkle developing in the teen's eyes, he leaped on a patch of snow, scooped it up in his glove, and tossed it at G's head.

Lampo woke with a start to the smell of smoke.

After he and G had returned from the supermarket, Lampo had snuck back to his room in hopes that he could catch some shut eye before Knuckle came back from wherever he'd disappeared to. He was still exhausted, despite sleeping all day, and he had fallen asleep as soon as his head had hit the pillow.

Now, however, he was wide awake as he tried to figure out what was burning.

Sitting up, Lampo glanced around. He had to squint through all of the smoke that was clouding the room to see anything, not that there was much to see from his position on the bed. Staggering to his feet, Lampo dashed over to the window and glanced outside. What he saw turned his blood to ice.

Ricardo was standing in the courtyard, watching calmly as red hot flames crept up the side of the house where Giotto kept his office. Daemon was standing next to him, a cold smirk on his lips as he dropped the container of gasoline he had been holding in a gloved hand.

In a moment, Lampo knew exactly what was going on.

"Fire! Everybody out!" He screeched, dashing over to where Knuckle was still dozing. He shook him violently, eyes stretched wide in panic. "Knuckle, wake up, we have to get out of here!"

"Leave me," Knuckle murmured weakly, pushing Lampo away. "This is what I deserve."

"That's ridiculous!" The teen screamed. Knuckle ignored him.

Knowing he had no other option (besides leaving the ex-priest where he was, which Lampo refused to do), Lampo mustered all of his strength and dragged Knuckle out of the bed. Grunting in effort, he pulled on Knuckle's arm until the sun guardian unwillingly began to walk with him. Impatience and panic clouded Lampo's mind as he basically pushed Knuckle into the corridor.

He had to warn the others.

"Go outside and get as far away from the shack as possible!" Lampo commanded, dashing away before Knuckle could reply. He couldn't wait around to make sure the sun guardian did as he asked; he had to make sure the rest of his family was outside.

Flames crackled around Lampo as the corridor began to catch on fire. Lampo realized he only had a few minutes before the whole building would go up in smoke and he would be trapped inside. He ran into G and Ugetsu, who were in the process of advocating.

"Lampo, what-?!"

"No time to explain!" Lampo interrupted. "Just get outside! And make sure Knuckle's out there, I don't know if he went outside like I told him to!"

Without waiting for a reply once again, Lampo dashed in the direction of Giotto's room. He was sure Alaude could take care of himself, since his house wasn't even attached to the building that was on fire, but Giotto's office had been the first area Daemon and Ricardo had set fire to and his room was right next to it. The lightning guardian's panic increased as he turned the corner to be met with a tower of fire. The kitchen was completely charred, anything beyond it gone.

"Giotto!" Lampo screamed, coughing as smoke filled his lungs. Giotto's room was back there.

Something snapped loudly beyond the normal popping of the flames, causing Lampo to jerk around. As he looked toward the ceiling, he saw a beam starting to peel from the foundation, flames crawling along its base. Without stopping to think, Lampo began running back where he had come.

If that beam fell, the teen would be completely trapped.

Everything seemed to slow down as Lampo watched the last of the beam's support burn to a crisp, the piece of wood hesitating for a moment before it began to fall.

Lampo's life flashed behind his eyes. Or, at least, that's what he thought should've happened as he began to slow down. It's what always happened to the characters in his movies. But, unlike Lampo, the characters in the movies always ended up alive and well.

Just as he was about to admit defeat, and wait for the flames to consume him, something knocked into him from behind, propelling him forwards. The teen landed hard on his stomach, his head spinning as he tried to figure out what had just happened. What the hell had knocked into him?

"You silly boy," someone muttered from above him. "You should've just evacuated like the others."

Sitting up, Lampo glanced up to see his boss standing above him. Giotto's clothes were just patches of char and his hair was singed, like he'd just walked through the fire. And perhaps he had.

"Giotto…" Lampo felt tears welling up in his eyes. "You're alive!"

"I am." A small smile graced the sky guardian's lips. "But not for long if we stay in here. Come."

Lampo accepted the hand that was offered to him and let Giotto pull him to his feet. They then began to run through the burning house and back down the corridor to outside. Lampo let his mind shut down and pretended he was a five year old again, when Giotto would always lead him places by the hand. He had always trusted Giotto then, and he trusted him now.

He only knew that they had made it when the cold wind once again stung his cheeks; though it actually stung that time because of his burn-sensitive skin.

"We made it!" He exclaimed loudly.

"And everyone else did, too," Giotto replied, his voice full of relief. Lampo followed Giotto's gaze and saw that he was right as they headed for an open space well away from the shack where the whole family was standing in a clump (except for Alaude, of course, who was standing away from the rest). Lampo was relieved to see that Knuckle was among them. The family was all accounted for.

"All except Daemon," Lampo thought, but refrained from saying it out loud. He'd tell Giotto about what he'd seen outside his window eventually, but not at that moment.

As they started heading for the rest of the group, Giotto turned to Lampo with a smile. "Thanks for coming back for me, Lampo. You were very brave."

Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, Lampo grinned.

"Does this mean I can go on missions?"

Giotto stared at him incredulously, before realizing that the teen was joking. His face instantly relaxed, making him look several years younger, as he laughed outright.

"We'll have to see!"

Lampo's smile grew as they joined up with the rest of the Vongola. Even though the shack was burned down, by that shady Ricardo and their traitor of a mist guardian, Lampo couldn't help but feel utterly happy. They had all made it, and Lampo had proved to everyone (including himself) that he could be reliable in situations of utter crisis.

Despite the bleak looking future, Lampo knew at least one thing for certain: the Vongola was where he belonged, and he wouldn't trade his family for the world.

Lampo trudged alongside Knuckle, making sure the stunned sun guardian kept up with the rest of the group as the Vongola headed towards Cozart's mansion. Giotto had decided that his closest friend was the only person they could depend on in their time of need, though Lampo thought he picked up reluctance from him. The teen couldn't fathom why.

He had never met Cozart, but he'd heard a lot about him. It seemed like Giotto was always talking about him and that the two bosses were very close. Lampo had always made the assumption that if Giotto liked him, then he would like him as well, but after Lampo's differing opinion of Ricardo, he didn't know if it was safe to make that assumption anymore. However, G also seemed to like the man, so Lampo's unease was slightly calmed.

Concerning him the most was Knuckle.

Up ahead, walking a slight distance from the others, was Alaude. The proud cloud guardian had, surprisingly, planned to stay at Cozart's with the rest of the Vongola, despite the fact that his home had not burned to the ground. Lampo guessed that it was partly because of how much he hated Daemon, and therefore didn't want to live all alone with him, but Lampo believed it was also for a much more important reason.

As the teen watched Alaude, the cloud guardian swiveled his head to the side and shot a glance over his shoulder at Knuckle. He would never stare for very long before he turned his attention back to where he was going, but he had looked back so many times that Lampo had lost count. Every time he would do so, Lampo would glance at Knuckle out of the corner of his eye; he hoped that Alaude's continuous glances would convince the depressed sun guardian that Alaude did care about him.

But Knuckle's gaze was fixed firmly on his feet, and he never looked up once.

Sighing, Lampo decided to let his mind go blank for a while. As much as he wanted to help, the lightning guardian knew that Alaude and Knuckle would have to work it out for themselves. Neither of them would listen nor believe anything he said. All he was doing by overanalyzing everything was giving himself a headache.

Before long, however, Lampo was brought out of his thoughts by a group halt. Refocusing, the teen looked in front of him to discover that Giotto had stopped in front of a huge house. Three stories of glorious architecture, spanned over an entire street block, greeted Lampo, who could feel his jaw dropping to the ground. He'd never seen a house so big in his life. It was hard to imagine anyone lived there- it looked like a fancy private school!

Despite Lampo's doubts that they were in the right place, Giotto walked up to the door and knocked.

As Lampo struggled to pick his jaw up off the ground, he could only marvel at what kind of person would live in a house like this. Would he have the most expensive, specially tailored three-piece suit with diamonds on the soles of his shoes? Would his smile show teeth so sparkly white that, when he flashed it his way, Lampo would drop dead from eye cancer? Would he have the most stylish haircut, with every single hair cut to precise perfection? Would he have a whole line of servants, with a butler to answer the door?

"Knuckle, are you seeing this? I mean, are you really seeing this?!" Lampo breathed as he tried not to fall over from his dazzled state. Knuckle rewarded him with a raised eyebrow.

The teen was so amazed that he nearly missed Cozart's not as magnificent as he had expected entrance. There had not been a butler to open the door, inquiring on who was there, nor was the man who did appear anything like how Lampo had imagined. He did have on something of a suit, but it was nowhere near the most expensive, nor was it three-piece. He didn't wear any shoes, and had on bright orange socks that seriously clashed with his non-three-piece suit. He wore a cap that looked like it should've been on top of a paper boy and his hair was a colossal mess.

Compared to Lampo's mental image, the man looked like a hobo. The teen was gravely disappointed.

"Giotto…?" Cozart looked stunned for a moment, his eyes glued to Giotto as if he was afraid that if he looked away the Vongola boss wouldn't be standing there anymore when he looked back.

Giotto shifted uncomfortably, which broke Cozart out of his trance. It was then that he looked behind Giotto and noticed the rest of the family scattered in front of the door. Cozart jumped back, his hand slapping his forehead in shock. Lampo thought drily that the whole ordeal was way overdramatic.

"Woah, it looks like you brought your whole family with you!"

"I did." Giotto stared at his old friend, his gaze unreadable to Lampo. "We… have nowhere else to go. Our home burned down last night, and I didn't know what to do, so I came to you… Please don't hesitate to tell us if it's too much trouble!"

"Hey, that's too bad," Cozart murmured, lowering his eyes in sadness. But then he looked up again, determination pouring off of him in waves. "And of course you can stay here until you can figure out your situation! I allowed all of my guardians to take a vacation to Japan, so it's a little lonely in the house… Er, I mean to say that there's plenty of room for you all!"

Lampo's blood began to boil in excitement. He'd get to live temporarily in a mansion! Yeah, Cozart was a messy weirdo, but the exterior of the house couldn't lie about the interior! He'd have to explore the entire house while he had the chance, but who knew how long that would take. As the Vongola were ushered inside, the teen latched onto Knuckle's arm.

"Knuckle, let's go exploring!" He muttered mischievously as he leaned towards the sun guardian, eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Lampo, Cozart has not even let us formally into his house, we can't just go-!" Knuckle began, but was interrupted as Lampo dragged him away from the others.

"Cozart might not let us explore if we don't sneak away now!" Lampo argued, creeping down a corridor. "Giotto can make our excuses!"

Knuckle sighed, but the teen turned around to see that a small smile had graced his lips. Lampo's hopes soared as they jumped into a room that appeared to be a huge bathroom. The lightning guardian had hoped that taking the ex-priest exploring would help take his mind off of Alaude and put some fun back into his life.

And, as Knuckle began to take the lead and they both ran down the deserted hallway, giggling like teenage school girls, Lampo began to think that his plan was working. Knuckle would be alright after all.

As Lampo lay awake that night, Knuckle snoring next to him (the sun guardian had insisted on getting his own room, but the teen hadn't trusted him to be on his own; Knuckle had seemed better when they had gotten back from exploring, but Lampo didn't know how long it would last), he realized that he'd forgotten to tell Giotto about Daemon. While he guessed it wasn't that urgent, Lampo didn't think he'd be able to get to sleep without getting the information off of his chest. He just hoped Giotto was awake.

Sneaking out of bed, careful not to wake Knuckle, Lampo crept out into the hallway. The Vongola had all been put in rooms along a long corridor on the second floor of the mansion. It was apparently where all of the Shimon guardians slept when they were at home, which made Lampo slightly uncomfortable with being there. He didn't like sleeping in someone else's bed.

As he turned to head towards Giotto's temporary room, he crashed into someone. Yelping, he jumped back and rubbed his nose where it had been hit. He glared up at the silhouette he had smashed into.

"Hey, what's the big idea, sneaking around in the middle of the night?!" Lampo hissed, before moonlight flashed into the window by the corridor and the teen recognized the figure. His blood turned to ice.

"I could ask you the same thing, brat." Alaude's tone sparked with irritation, causing Lampo to swallow in worry. Picking a fight with Alaude was a death wish as it was, let alone asking him what he was doing like it was any of Lampo's business. But, as the teen thought about the man sleeping in his room, he thought that perhaps it was his business.

"Knuckle's sleeping," Lampo stated icily. He didn't know what Alaude was up to, but it sure as heck was creepy with him sneaking into his ex-lover's room at night.

"I'm not here to see Knuckle." The response came too quick and too brash to be true.

"Oh, then I suppose you're here to see me," Lampo snorted sarcastically.

Alaude glared down at him, but said nothing more. The teen was only able to revel in his victory for a moment before the cloud guardian pushed past him and disappeared into the room where Knuckle was sleeping. Lampo thought about stopping him, but then realized that would be even more of a death wish. Besides, maybe Alaude was actually trying to mend whatever had happened between him and the sun guardian.

Lampo decided to be a good person and not eavesdrop as he headed down the corridor to Giotto's room. When he got there, he was disappointed to find that his room was empty. Wondering if he should check the bathrooms, in case Giotto had made a mad dash in the middle of the night, Lampo walked along aimlessly. He would check the bathrooms, if he could remember where they were.

Suddenly voices wafted up from a room just down the hall. A light was shining underneath the door, showing that someone was up late, and Lampo realized that it was Cozart's room.

Sneaking forward quietly, Lampo pressed his ear to the door. Either Cozart was talking to himself, or Lampo had found his boss.

"Please, don't apologize," Giotto was saying, his voice coated with sadness. Lampo only had a fleeting thought about how he'd found his boss before he focused more intently on the conversation going on behind the door. "I didn't give you the proper answer you deserved, and I'm sorry about that. I know my distress caused you a lot of pain."

"I shouldn't have said anything in the first place!" Cozart proclaimed loudly before his voice dropped to a whisper. "… I never wanted you to know…"

There was a brief pause before Giotto answered again.

"It's flattering, honestly. It's just that I… I really don't know how I feel right now. It might be a long time before I can come up with a proper answer for you."

"I understand," Cozart replied immediately. Lampo wondered if he really did, whatever they were talking about. "But please… don't let this cause awkwardness between us. First and foremost, I will always be your friend."

"Thank you, Cozart." Lampo could almost hear the smile in Giotto's voice.

The teen was so caught up in what was going on in the room that he didn't realize the conversation was over and that Giotto was leaving until it was too late. The door opened in his face, causing him to roll over backwards. He lay sprawled on the floor, hoping that if he just stayed still Giotto wouldn't notice.

"Huh? Lampo?" The lightning guardian cursed Giotto's Hyper Intuition. Irritation coated Giotto's voice. "Were you eavesdropping again?"

"N-no…" Lampo propped himself up shakily on his hands. He could feel blood dripping out of his nose. "I-I came to find you to talk about the fire… You see, Daemon-"

"Let's not talk about that now," Giotto sighed, leaning down to help Lampo to his feet. "The fire was a devastating shock, but I'm sure things will look better in the morning."

"But Giotto, I-"

"Come on, we need to clean up that bloody nose of yours," Giotto interrupted once more as he began to lead the injured teen down the hallway.

Lampo sighed in frustration. Obviously Giotto was in no mood to listen to what he said, which wasn't unusual. It seemed like the teen heard and saw everything that went on, but no one would listen to him when he tried to report. He was sure so many problems would've been solved immediately if anyone had bothered to listen to the lightning guardian.

As Giotto put a cloth to the teen's nose and leaned his head back, Lampo yearned for the day when his family would finally listen to what he had to say.