Title: Together with you

Summary: Tsuna knew that he was clumsy, but to trip and fall over a ball during PE and send a loose shoe flying straight towards a certain prefect napping under a tree, what more could happen? Love...perhaps?/1827/

Chapter 21

"Okay, whatever it is, we stick to the plan," Anastasio said while the whole team was running and everyone nodded.

"Okay, check; our goal?" Anastasio asked and the whole team said, "Distract the enemy, buy time for Vongola to find their Decimo and capture Alfonso alive," Anastasio nodded.

"That's good, and where are we headed to now?" He asked again and everyone just said, "Throne room." They all stopped when some guards walked past and kept silent.

"Kay, road's clear, let's go," Anastasio said gesturing to the left and the whole team followed him behind, all fast and light on their feet.

"Thirty more feet before we rest, I know a place where we can hide," Anastasio said and Costanzo hollered out from behind, "Got it, Captain!"

They continued running till they reached a dead end, and Anastasio knocked on the wall in front of them before it turned a hundred and eighty degrees to reveal a small dark room behind and the whole team rushed to get in before the wall made its full turn and closed in on them.

Anastasio reached out to on the lights and the other three leaned against the wall tiredly.

"Wow, that's some cool mechanics at work," Crescenzo commented lightly as he pushed up his hair that was wet with perspiration from his eyes, inhaling deeply.

"Of course it is," Demetrio said, "Bernardo's parents were the one to build this whole castle after all." He informed.

"Demetrio's right," Anastasio said as he too now leaned against the wall, mimicking his team mates' posture, "This castle was built for Bernardo and Alfonso by their parents as a gift. It's where the two of them when they were younger played together games such as hide-and-seek, pretend king, catching, and all sorts of stuff. No wonder Bernardo had managed to guess that this was his brother's hideout for now, and also where the Vongola Decimo was also held captive."

Anastasio then noticed that Costanzo was staring at him and asked plainly, "What?"

"Oh no, nothing," The light haired said, "You know the plan where the illusionist made us look like the Vongola guardians and them, us? As in I now look like Gokudera and Crescenzo like Yamamoto and Demetrio's Hibari, and you, Mukuro? Well, for some reason I can't seem to get use to your hairstyle," Costanzo admitted and when his twin snorted at the answer everything just seemed so much funnier and Costanzo started laughing, "but seriously, no matter how I look at it it's still a pineapple!"

"You should say for yourself," Crescenzo said, "Yours look like an octopus," and Costanzo continued laughing, "Haha, stop! You're actually indirectly insulting Gokudera's hairstyle," he said, and then with a hand covering his mouth he soon stopped laughing.

"Oh yeah, Captain. You mentioned that Bernardo and Alfonso used to play games in here. What was their favourite?" Costanzo asked, and Anastasio closed his eyes trying to remember. "It should be symbols reading, where they use letters or try creating new doodling and shapes to represent a meaning. Then one of them would write a whole sentence using symbols while the other tries to decipher it. Much like the codes Bernardo taught us, like 'X' means death and 'O' means careful and 'Z' meaning distraction. It was all from the game, actually."

"You mean even the complicated 'jQio990& ' which meant you are a bastard for stealing my pie that Bernardo forced us to learn?" Crescenzo questioned and Anastasio nodded, "Yes, even that."

"Wow, I never knew that had history," Crescenzo said excitedly before placing a hand on his heart, "Okay, so I promise now to learn and memorize all the codes Bernardo want us to learn, even if it's a complete waste of time." He managed to duck when Demetrio attempted to whack him, "It's not a waste of time, you moron, it's helpful in missions."

"Haha, okay, relax," Crescenzo laughed.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the castle…

"Oi, why is Hibari leading us? He doesn't even know where the Tenth is!" Gokudera said, and Mukuro just did his creepy laugh thing again and asked, "Why don't you let him do it his way for once? He seems to know the Decimo best after all."

"Yeah, but I want to at least know where exactly we're heading to!" The silverette said and Mukuro smirked, "Kufufufu, then wouldn't it be to the Decimo?" And Yamamoto laughed too.

"Relax, Hayato, I know we can trust Hibari. After all, it is Tsuna whom we're all searching for," Yamamoto said, "Hibari wouldn't make a mistake. You can trust him," Yamamoto assured and Gokudera just grudgingly said, "I hope you're right." They continued running.

Mukuro gave a mock sigh, "Well, if you really want to know then I suppose I shall tell you. We're headed towards the basement, where your Decimo is kept though I have no idea how Hibari knows it too, since he isn't an illusionist like me."

Gokudera was about to say something to Mukuro when the wall on their left exploded, the impact slamming him hardly against the opposite wall and he winced in pain, shit, what the hell?

"Ah, Marcellino, you thought that we wouldn't know that you're here?" A man asked as a group of about fifteen men standing beside him handled a couple of explosives. "His guards have arrived," another men took out his walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

Gokudera glanced to his right and noticed Mukuro mouthing something; it isn't broken yet, and understanding that Mukuro was referring to the illusion making them look like their Marcellino's allies he nodded, quickly pushing himself up and taking out his dynamites, saying, "I'll handle them," he gave a curt nod at the others and preparing himself to fight, he made sure Yamamoto and the other two were gone and had disappeared deeper into the corridor before narrowly dodging an explosive being thrown at him by the enemy in front of him.

He whistled, threw his own dynamites at them and said confidently, "You're all going down."

"Whoa, was that an explosion?" Crescenzo asked worriedly, "That sounded a lot like it happened in the basement or something!"

Anastasio said calmly, "The others should be able to hold up. What we need to do now is to find Alfonso. And then the whole thing will end once the enemy realise that their leader is captured."

"Well then let's hurry," Costanzo said, and pushing himself off the wall he was about to go out the way he'd came in the small room earlier when Demetrio grabbed his shoulders and spun him around. "There," he pointed at Anastasio who'd just opened another secret passageway at the back of the room, "Shortcut to the throne room," he said.

"Oh," Costanzo dumbly replied, and the whole team moved out of the room. "Don't we need to off the lights or something?" He asked and Demetrio threw him a look like you think? and when he didn't get it Crescenzo helped to explain, "Ah no, it switches off automatically," he said and lightly pushed his brother out.

"Oh," Costanzo repeated, and Anastasio up in front called out, "Come, let's run guys! The sooner we catch Alfonso the better!" His voice bounced against the sound-proof walls of the passageway and the whole team broke into a run.

Once they reached the throne room they immediately burst in, expecting guns or weapons to be pointing at them but strangely the whole room was empty, not even Alfonso sitting on the throne.

"What? There's no one here?" Costanzo said as the four of them started inspecting the room for anything.

"No," Anastasio said, climbing up the platform towards the throne and ripping a paper pasted on the armrest of it before examining it. "Shit," Anastasio said and everyone looked at him and the paper he had in his hands curiously, never having heard their captain curse before.

"What is it?" Crescenzo questioned, and Anastasio showed his team mates the two photographs printed on the paper. It was the Marcellino head's and Vongola Decimo's face on the paper, and under both picture was scrawled an X and Z respectively.

"Guys, I think Alfonso's original target was never Vongola in the first place. It was Bernardo."

"Che Cazzo!"

They were all running in their own separate ways now—Yamamoto, Mukuro and Hibari ever since Gokudera had stayed behind to fend off their first attackers.

Yamamoto, because he'd wanted to lead the second group of attackers away from Mukuro and Hibari.

Mukuro, because he needed to find a place where he could better concentrate on his illusions and probably play some nasty tricks on the enemy along the way.

And Hibari, his only goal to find Tsunayoshi as quick as possible following the tug in his heart to somehow guide him. Tsunayoshi couldn't hold out much longer, and the dizziness in his head, dryness of his throat and aching of his whole body proved that. Mukuro had somehow earlier sensed his discomfort and offered to find Tsunayoshi in his place, but that meant dispelling the illusion since it took a lot of work and being the first one Tsuayoshi saw when he was saved and Hibari didn't want that. He was stubborn, and he also wanted to be able to see with his own eyes that Tsunayoshi was alright.

He would've jumped down the stairs to the basement if that didn't mean breaking his legs and not being able to carry Tsunayoshi out later so he just rushed down as fast as he could, whipping out his tonfas lest there were any sudden attacks. Then he saw Tsunayoshi laying in a cold, dark cell and rushed to break the lock, slamming the tips of his tonfas on it a few times before it finally broke and almost ripped open the door from its hinges to run to the brunette.

"Tsunayoshi, Tsunayoshi," Hibari was slightly panting as his heart harden at the sight of Tsunayoshi being conscious, but the colour of his face was just so wrong. If that was case, the prefect would rather Tsunayoshi unconscious so that he wouldn't be able to feel any pain but he wasn't, he was exposed and aware of even the slightest touch on him and Hibari felt slightly hurt when he saw Tsunayoshi shrink away first time when Hibari tried to gently pull him up.

"It's okay," he said but Tsunayoshi didn't listened, and since having not the energy to struggle against Hibari the brunette turned his head away, and Hibari frowned a little before piggybacking Tsunayoshi up.

The brunette was still wearing the same clothes as he had been wearing the time he got abducted, and Hibari could feel Tsunayoshi shivering on his back though the warmth from the prefect had calmed him down a little. Hibari noticed that Tsunayoshi's eyes were unclear but that was alright, he knew that it was the real person this time.

He climbed up the stairs again, noting that no one was guarding the cell at all and there was Gokudera and Yamamoto and Mukuro waiting for him.

"You found the Decimo, huh? Good job," Mukuro said and Gokudera and Yamamoto crowded around saying, "Tenth!", "Tsuna!"

"Don't come near," he gritted his teeth but surprisingly Gokudera and Yamamoto had took a step back, the silverette saying gruffly, "Just wanted to make sure that Tsuna was alright."

Mukuro spotted the real Marcellino back-up team running towards them and smirked, "Oh look, they found us."

Anastasio, who was now looking as Mukuro said, "It's no good, we've got to go back, fast. I think somehow Alfonso had already known that we knew Nezario was a fake and would immediately come to save the real Decimo. His true intention is to get Bernardo, his brother, the Marcellino Famiglia. Capturing the Decimo was only a plot for Bernardo to send away his most trusted guards to rescue Vongola Decimo, while Alfonso would go find his brother now. Shoot, we should have known, our Famiglia was known to play on our opponents' mind and this time, Alfonso managed to outsmart us." He said it all in one breath urgently.

Mukuro snapped his fingers to break the illusion and said, "There isn't anything to worry about. In fact, if I'm not wrong, Alfonso would have already been the one captured by now."

And Demetrio asked, "But how do you know?" And the twins cut in, "You mean that there's another plan within a plan?"

Mukuro looked at everyone before continuing, "Ah yes, you guys wouldn't know, but the reason why Reborn hadn't joined you all for this trip was because he needed to discuss something with the Ninth and Iemitsu. Marcellino's head Bernardo was also part of the discussion, and it seemed that Bernardo himself beforehand had already discovered the true aim of Alfonso when he first realised their hiding place. But they needed to make sure that Alfonso could confirm that you guys were here before setting out to attack his younger brother. Of course, he just walked right into our hands," Mukuro said breezily, and then said, "Well, they'll be coming to pick us up soon. Reborn just called to ask what dinner you would like?" Someone's stomach grumbled and everyone's answer was immediate.

"Beef."

"Chicken."

"I'll have a steak."

"Chicken too."

"Um, sushi?" Gokudera said as he tried to look for the invisible phone of Mukuro but couldn't find it.

"Sushi too," Yamamoto laughed and Mukuro turned to look expectantly at Hibari for his answer.

"Beef burger. And some homemade food," he said, making sure to add Tsuna list of favourite food in too and Mukuro smiled a smile that was both pleasant and eerie at the same time at everyone before clapping his hand in satisfaction, "Then we'll hold a feast at the Vongola mansion tonight. To celebrate."

Haha, finally done. Had a headache when I wrote this because everything was just so messy and complicated like it'd just been dumped into one chapter but yeah, I look forward to writing the next chapter on the feast, probably to get on to some lighter stuff for awhile.

And in case if anybody's wondering why even though when Tsuna was conscious he'd tried to move away from Hibari, that was because Hibari was still under the illusion as Demetrio, and Tsuna didn't know who Demetrio was.

It's kind of thick skinned of me to say this, but hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

And if there's any lose ends in the story, I'm sorry!