Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011).

As Dino's birthday was generally within a week or two of Carnevale, the Cavallone heir would annually beg, bribe or blackmail his father into letting him attend one of the parades, markets or masquerades that were traditionally held in every town and village in Italy. Dino never asked for too much, always picking a town under Vongola or Cavallone protection, so his request was humoured and he was permitted a day off from his gruelling training with Reborn, his teachers were sent a note informing them of his absence and the young heir would spend the whole day with his 'cuginetta Elena', wandering around a gorgeous town decked out for celebration and generally having fun. This year Elena's parents had come along as well, bringing her little brother Titus with them. Dino liked 'Tito', as he called the boy, seeing in the eleven-year-old a lot of how he himself had been as a child. As a result of this fondness –which was compounded by the little boy's utter adorableness– this year Dino had escorted both Elena and Tito around, trying his hand at various games, buying food from street vendors and applauding acrobats, magicians and other street performers in parks and little squares.

The Cavallone heir loved Carnevale; he always had. That it fell near his birthday gave him a perfect excuse to attend and meant that he was invariably humoured by his father, who seemed to enjoy the various schemes and ploys Dino had cooked up over the years. In return Dino was always well behaved for his actual birthday party, which was always a large affair with other mafia kids his age. Elena had never attended the party –her father had explained to Dino when the blond was just thirteen that he did not want his daughter exposed to members of the Mafia in such an unstructured environment– but always showed up at his house after breakfast to give him a present. Dino was still amazed and humbled that Vicount Marshall had allowed his friendship with Elena to continue and that he had agreed to let her go with Dino to that first Carnevale celebration when she was just twelve. Sensible of the responsibility of being entrusted with his little cousin's wellbeing for the day, the Cavallone heir had been terribly nervous and horribly clumsy all day, but it had all paid off when he handed Elena back to her father in the evening, tired but without a scratch on her. The man's approving smile had been his best birthday present that year.

However the only thing going through Dino's head as he ran for his life through the panicking crowd, Tito clutched to his chest with one arm and dragging Elena along behind him, was Dear God, let none of us die!

Then Elena shoved him violently forward and screamed. Dino lost his balance, staggered a few steps and tumbled to the ground, twisting so as not to crush the terrified child in his arms. Looking back, he was horrified to see Elena pinned to the ground by some kind of metal spike, swathed in green lightning and writhing in agony, still shrieking . He did not however have time to do anything as the green arcs tore through her clothes and skin then expanded outwards.

Dino screamed at the burning pain that hit his leg and back and screwed up his eyes as the ground shook, the blast of an explosion filling his ears and shaking his bones. Then the whole world went quiet, white, still and blessedly, blissfully cold.

When Dino came to the world was still quiet and still, but less white and cold. The air around him resisted movement and was full of white ripples, like he was underwater. Dino however knew better: as part of his training Reborn had made him fight other Dying Will Flame users and recognised that the cocoon protecting him and Tito was made of Rain Flames, the Tranquillity aspect protecting them both from harm. The colour however was an anomaly, as was the cold, so he glanced around, trying to get his bearings.

Looking down at the unconscious child in his arms, Dino winced at the frost-covered arc burns twined around Tito's arms from elbow to fingertip: no wonder he hadn't woken up yet. The frost had clearly numbed the pain, otherwise the little boy would be awake and still screaming; Dino had never seen Rain Flames used that way before, hadn't even considered it might be possible.

Slowly pushing himself up onto one elbow Dino looked over himself –he too had frosted-over arc burns up his legs and could feel a long numb line crossing his back– then around. He was in a clear sphere surrounded by what looked like a blizzard, white flurries whirling around the bubble in confusing patterns. Pushing himself further up, Dino finally saw Elena and gasped, horror and amazement choking off his voice.

She was half-floating just above the ground, held in place by what he now realised was an umbrella that had impaled her right knee, sinking deep into the road beneath as if it was butter. Her clothes were shredded and her body was covered in second-degree arc burns, all of which were covered by a thick layer of frost. They coiled around her legs and torso, wrapped around her arms and branched into thinner lines that crisscrossed her hands and slashed across her face and up past her hairline. It was her eyes however that held Dino's attention: they were half-lidded and blazing, blinding white. The Flames that had protected him from what he now realised had been certain death belonged to his little cousin. His Elena had pushed him out of the way of that umbrella then shielded him from the blast. He'd nearly died.

Dino took deep breaths and firmly pushed away the budding hysteria. This wasn't supposed to have happened! He was supposed to protect Elena, not the other way around! This was all his fault! If only he had never involved Elena in the mafia–

His mobile phone rang. The Cavallone heir fumbled for it against the resistance of the Tranquillity around him and raised it to his ear:

"Pronto?"

"Dino! Grazie a Dio!" came the strained voice of Romario in his ear. "Are you well? Where are you?"

"I'm in a bubble of white Dying Will Flames with a strong Tranquillity factor, surrounded by what looks like snow," Dino said, concentrating on the procedure that had been ingrained in him at an early age. "I have a few electric arc burns but am otherwise unharmed. Tito and Elena are in here as well: both are more badly injured than I am, unconscious and will definitely need an ambulance. At least, I think Elena is unconscious," he added uncertainly.

"Why the uncertainty?" Romario asked, the sound of shouting and moaning in the background.

"She is the one who conjured the bubble protecting us," Dino explained. "She saved our lives; without her I would most certainly be dead. And she is very badly injured." He paused. "We were hit by green lightning; it was definitely someone's Dying Will Flames. Who was it trying to kill us?"

"So far as I am aware, an assassin was carrying out a hit in the square and miscalculated the collateral damage," Romario said grimly. "There are small fires everywhere, a great many people have been killed or injured and every Mafioso within fifty kilometres has been called in to help." There was a pause on the line. "However people are talking about a cold blast that put out a lot of fires before they could spread and it is actually snowing a bit despite there not being a cloud in the sky. I can see where you are now; at least I assume you are inside the miniature snow hurricane?"

Dino chuckled weakly. "Probably," he admitted. "I'll try and get Elena to take the barrier down now we're safe." Putting the phone down carefully on the ground nearby, the nineteen-year-old slowly pushed himself to his feet and winced at how it made his back ache. He definitely had a burn there from the unpleasant pulling sensation and tingling numbness he could feel. Forcing himself over to his seventeen-year-old best friend he knelt in front of her.

"Elena?" he murmured gently, fingers of his left hand twining with hers in a habitual gesture as he stroked her face with his other hand. "We're safe now Elena. Tito's safe." He repeated himself in Japanese, then in English before reverting to Italian. "You can take the barrier down; Tito needs to go to hospital."

That got a response: Elena's eyelids flickered and her eyes opened fully even as they faded from blinding white to piercing ice-blue, a sharp contrast to her usual soft indigo irises. More interestingly, her iced-over wounds faded from sight.

"Safe?" she whispered, blinking at him.

"I promise," Dino said firmly. "You can let go; I'll look after us now." Her debilitating burns were still there; he could feel the frosted second-degree burns under his fingers. She just looked unharmed.

With a sigh his little cousin slumped forwards to rest her head against his chest as the snow around the bubble cleared to reveal at least a dozen extremely worried members of the Cavallone Famiglia. As the Tranquillity bubble shrunk back into Elena's skin Dino felt her sobbing silently against his chest and carefully wrapped his arms around her. From here he could now see the broken bodies of less fortunate people splayed around them, clearly blasted back by the Flames. Some were burnt; others were frozen solid. His precious Elena had likely killed some of them even as she saved his life and that of her brother.

Feeling tears well up in his own eyes Dino swore to himself that he would do absolutely everything in his power to help his beloved cousin through this.

The Carnevale Massacre. I bet by readers can guess whose fault that was...