Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or any of the characters, but I do own my OCs.

Chapter 12: Introducing the Pineapples

"Mukuro-sama, we've tried everything! It's not coming off!"

"There has to be something that will get it off Chrome…"

"We've tried soap, metal cutters, every single illusion we know, we even tried saying 'please'! Nothing is going to get this ring off my finger!" Chrome yelled. Now, don't misunderstand, Chrome was not usually a loud person, she was just at the end of her rope. She glared at the indigo Vongola ring that twinkled innocently on her finger. Ever since the fair, she and Mukuro had done everything they could to get the ring off so they would not be involved in the mafia again.

After being released from Vendice prison a year ago, Mukuro and Chrome swore never to go back there again and had been trying to live a normal life ever since. It was just that stupid ring's fault. They wanted to live a normal life, but noooooo. The Vongola mist ring just HAD to choose them as the guardians. How was that even possible to have two guardians for one element?

No matter the specifics, they could not pry it off. Chrome sighed as she sat down on the couch to their apartment. Mukuro had gone out to get groceries. 'Maybe a walk will clear my head' she thought. She rose to her feet and walked out the door to the woods behind their apartment.

The woods were lovely this time of year, what with the birds singing and leaves crunching beneath her boots. 'If only it could stay like this and we could lead normal lives' she thought. 'If only…if only.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash back time!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mukuro Rokudo." The Vendicare guards called. Mukuro walked through the door to the interregation room. Their eyes fell blankly on him. "You have been accused of a wide scale massacre of the Estraneo family. How do you plead?"

Mukuro chuckled. "Can you deny the evidence? I would plead innocent, but I don't believe that would hold up." The Vendicare guards muttered to each other in hushed voices. Mukuro could only catch snippets of it.

"...so young."

"Well it was self defense..."

"...Saved other children..."

"Inhuman experiments."

The guards turned back to Mukuro and said, "Open the doors." In walked Chrome, Ken and Chikusa. All of them stood behind Mukuro and glared at the guards in defiance. The guards said, "As you are all minors and we have determined that you acted in self defense, your punishment has been lessened. 10 years Mukuro. Your friends are free to go."

Ken looked angrily at the guards. "You said it yourselves, byon! He acted in self defense! He shouldn't be punished at all, byon!" Chikusa seemed to nod in agreement with Ken's words.

"If you want punishment, I will stay here in Mukuro's place." Chrome said quietly, but her voice did not waver.

"All of you stop!" Mukuro told his friends. They didn't listen.

After many protests on Mukuro's part, Ken and Chikusa organized it so they would both serve four years each while Chrome and Mukuro would only serve one each. Mukuro strongly protested, as did Chrome. Ken and Chikusa just smiled, saying that this was their way of repaying him.

The Vendicare guards oversaw this, impassive as ever.

Mukuro and Chrome were released from Vendicare prison one year later.

"M-Mukuro-sama." Chrome said quietly. "We have to wait for them." she said, referring to Ken and Chikusa.

"Of course, dear Chrome. We will wait as long as it takes." Mukuro replied, eyes flashing.

They managed to rent an apartment and waited. Waited for their friends while there was an unspoken agreement to never get involved with any mafia family again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback over~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tsuna had gone walking through the woods that day with Josh. They both decided that they needed to get out of the house after Lambo had brought Fuuta and I-pin over. Lambo had proceeded to attack Reborn while Fuuta went into "ranking mode" (Tsuna-nii is the 2nd most clumsy boss out of 175,972 candidates. Josh-nii is the 1st most likely to fall asleep anywhere out of 729,374 candidates…) and I-pin had begun to fight with Lambo resulting in unparalleled chaos.

They had not been walking for 10 minutes when they ran into a girl. She looked timidly up at them. She was wearing what appeared to be a school uniform that was a little on the short side, black boots with buckles and an eye patch. However, the eye patch was not the thing that surprised them the most. It was that her hair was a purple color and vaguely resembled a pineapple.

The girl bowed quickly to the boys and was about to run off, when Tsuna grabbed her elbow. For some reason, he felt the need to stop the girl. The girl slowly turned around. "I apologize for bumping into you…"

"Tsuna. My name is Tsuna" he supplied. "and this is my friend, Josh" he said, gesturing towards Josh. Josh waved at Chrome.

"Ah…my name is Chrome. I was walking through the woods to clear my head when I ran into you. I live right over there." Chrome said quietly, pointing to her apartment complex.

"Well Josh and I were walking through the woods so we could talk. It's very noisy where I live right now, so we reasoned that the woods would be a good place to escape to." Tsuna said with a smile. Chrome, Tsuna and Josh continued to make pleasant conversation for quite some time. Suddenly, a voice was heard.

"Oya, oya Chrome-chan. Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" the voice said. Tsuna and Josh whirled around to see a teenage boy, about 19 years old, leaning against a tree. He was tall and also seemed to be wearing a school uniform. His eyes were mismatched colors, one a fiery red and the other a cool blue. He had a smirk on his face, but oddly his hair was done up in the same pineapple fashion that Chrome had hers in.

"Ah… Mukuro-sama… this is Tsuna-san and Josh-san… I met them while I was walking in the woods." Chrome said pointing to Tsuna and Josh respectively.

Mukuro leaned forward to shake hands with the boys who befriended Chrome, when he saw the rings on their fingers. His eyes hardened and he stood in front of Chrome protectively. "I don't know what you boys want," Mukuro hissed, "But you will not take Chrome. Don't come back around here ever." And in a whirl of leaves, Chrome and Mukuro seemed to vanish, leaving the Rain guardian and Vongola boss very confused.

A/N: Erm...yeah so Pineapples #1 and 2 are now introduced... If you don't understand their past, I'll try to explain it here. Murkuro killed all the scientists that were doing human experiments and when Vendice intervened, they took all the children into custody. Mukuro was tried, but the guards lessened his sentence as he was a child and he acted in self defense. Ken and Chikusa each decided to take 4 of Mukuro's years, so then Chrome and Mukuro only had to serve one year each. When they were released, they decided to wait for Chikus and Ken's sentences to end, 3 years from where the story currently is. They don't want to get involved in the mafia as that might lead to them going back to prison. Is that better? I'm sorry if I confused anyone... I'm pretty crappy at past explanations.

So I get it if you think Mukuro's a little OOC in this chapter... it just kinda ended up that way. I'll try to make him more in character in the next few chapters, but I'm not extremely familiar with his character... Please bear with it.

I bet you already know what's going to be here... PLEASE REVIEW! I'm so grateful for all the views I've already received and I want to hear what everyone else thinks! Thanks!