A/N: Heh. Sorry. This'll be the second time I do something like this. But if they don't go here, they won't get another chance, so I present to you another collection of random unmentioned moments.
Thank you to Kanako Arichi for the sympathy for my heart. Though it's kinda ironic. ^^". Thank you to Furionknight as always. Thank you to lastwinter42 for the theorising- it's interesting to see what people think. Thank you to p. ageha for the sympathy for my life TT-TT. Thank you to Chibi-Onee-chan for more motivation (the real chapter's coming, I swear ). xXxMentalPancakes- I actually think that a heart-shaped pipe may be the best birthday present I could ever reseive. ^_^.
These moments can be taken as relavent to the plot as the reader-samas' decide.
Night before Tsuna and company returning to Japan
As Aoshima finished his last song, he breathed a sigh. Shutting the lid carefully, he swung around on the piano bench to find Xanxus staring at him.
"…What?"
"You've improved."
The silver-head chuckled. "Of course."
He walked around to sit on the floor near Xanxus's seat, then proceeding to lie down and stare at the ceiling.
"…Sticking around, are we?"
"Mhm."
They didn't talk after that, Xanxus just continuing to curse occasionally as he did his paperwork.
"Brat. If you're going to stay and annoy me then at least do something productive." The Varia boss dropped a large stack of paper and a spare pen on Aoshima's form with barely a glance, making the latter exclaim in surprise.
"…Still the same, huh, boss? I feel like you haven't aged a day."
Xanxus gave Aoshima a sharp look, telling him to drop whatever subject he was about to get onto, and turned back to his paperwork.
Silence.
"Hey boss, you remember when I was little and I liked to cling onto your leg a lot?"
A twitch of Xanxus's left eye confirmed that yes; he did remember walking around with a midget Superbia attached to his leg, on several occasions even accompanying him out on missions like that. It gave him a clue as to why the kid's arms were so strong- he must have really built some muscle with clinging so tightly twenty-four seven.
"Yeah, why?"
Aoshima's voice softened as he reminisced. "I remember I felt really safe there, under your cloak."
The boss furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at the silver-headed boy sitting on the carpet, going through his paperwork with ridiculous efficiency.
The boy didn't stop doing paperwork as he continued, voice much meeker and more hesitant than it had been a few minutes ago."I just wanted you to know that I've never felt the same anywhere else. So… thank you. For not kicking me out of the Varia mansion the moment you saw me."
Xanxus didn't hesitate to snort. "I regret that decision up to today. I should have never even let you enter in the first place. Now I'm stuck with you as an unofficial member forever."
Aoshima smiled slowly, tilting his chin down and slowing in his work.
The boss was saying that he was always welcome in the Varia.
Out of nowhere, Xanxus found the teenage version of the Superbia brat clinging to his leg, holding on so tightly that for a brief moment the former wondered if the boy was trying to take off his leg from the knee.
"What the- Get off me! You're fully grown!"
Very quietly, the Superbia brat looked up at him and said, in a mouse's voice, "Thank you."
Night before Tenth Generation's return to Japan, later in the night
"Never have I ever accidentally blown up my own war base."
"Hibari! That was one practice mission! ONE!" Gokudera glared after a quick shot of sake.
Tsuna barely needed to react when all of the Varia drank.
He had left Lambo out of the farewell party because he knew it would get crazy, but this was ridiculous. The party had been intended for the Guardians and the Varia to have some final 'bonding' time while they could before the Tenth generation left for Namimori. But it had gotten quite… out of hand.
Squalo and Yamamoto were having a one-sided argument in one corner, both able to hold their liquor quite well. Ryohei and Levi were passed out beside them because their ability to handle liquor was the exact opposite.
Lussuria was forcing Belphegor to do an awkward parody of the waltz with him, to music only the mother hen could hear, with Mukuro and Hibari watching, amused, nearby, both with flushed faces from a surprising disagreement with alcohol that both had, which was ironic for Mukuro being the one who had suggested drinking games in the first place.
Chrome had gotten out of drinking sake because Tsuna didn't think it was safe for her to get drunk among so many men, but also because with Mukuro fuzzy she had to hold most of her internal organs in place with her own focus. Out of the two, one of them had to stay sober to keep her alive, and she didn't complain when Tsuna suggested it.
Tsuna had his hands full with an amorous Gokudera, the light flush on the Italian's face showing almost nothing of how much he had drunk that night. Tsuna suspected that he had consumed the most sake out of them all. Tsuna himself had a surprisingly good grip on himself even when intoxicated, but still it was only his Hyper Intuition that let him figure out that Yamamoto must have gotten the wrong bottle of 'non-alcoholic beverage' when he saw Xanxus having a conversation with Fran about unicorns.
The brunet suddenly realized why Aoshima and Suzume had both kept out of the way of the party.
"Right! It's my turn! Never have I ever kissed Jyuudaime!"
"Uh… Gokudera-kun, you have. About fifteen seconds ago."
"Oh. Then… Never have I ever… uh… damn, what haven't I done… Tried to kill the Jyuudaime!"
Tsuna sweat-dropped. "Actually, Gokudera-kun, you've done that as well."
"Oh. That's awkward. Never have I ever… Kissed Mukuro!"
Tsuna's sweat-drop reappeared. "Who would have?"
With a smirk, the flushed Mukuro tipped a shot of sake into his mouth, and then kissed the equally flushed Hibari on the lips, forcing the alcohol down his throat. The carnivore growled and lunged at the illusionist with his tonfas.
Only to fall asleep in his enemy's lap.
"Aww, the little skylark drank himself under the table."
"What table? I thought Squalo destroyed the table an hour back," Xanxus said gruffly, nodding to the remains of said table out the window.
Mukuro giggled. He giggled. "Well, either way, he's in my lap, and looking absolutely, adorably hammered."
Tsuna shivered. In his inebriated state, he was saying more of the things he usually kept in his head out loud. "I swear every time you laugh, Mukuro, a puppy cries."
"I'll be your puppy, Jyuudaime!"
"Hush, Gokudera-kun. You've had too much," the Decimo said kindly, calming the silver-headed bomber back onto his lap.
"Call me Hayato. Ha-ya-to, goshujin-sama."
"Haha, he's so drunk he's starting to make up new nicknames for Tsuna," Yamamoto laughed.
"Urusai, Ta-ke-shi. I can call the Jyuudaime anything he wants me to." But his face was substantially redder.
"Shishishi… Whose idea was it to drink again?" Belphegor said as he finally managed to pry Lussuria off him.
"Mine," Mukuro said in a sing-song voice. "Aren't I just a genius, failed-prince-kun?"
Belphegor's fingers twitched and he instantly had four knives in each hand. But then he thought of a better idea.
"Never have I ever kissed Sawada Tsunayoshi."
Chrome went scarlet and sipped at her orange juice quietly. Gokudera sat up and downed another shot with glee only to land right back in Tsuna's lap afterward.
Though since Tsuna had officially accepted the position of Vongola the Tenth, all of the highest-ranking Vongola had kissed his hand or cheek before, Belphegor only happening to have been sick the week of the unofficial celebration. So everyone in the room save Belphegor and Tsuna himself had to drink.
"Voii, Belphegor… Never have I ever caused enough damage to a building for the report to use the phrase 'blown to kingdom come'."
Belphegor frowned- no, almost pouted as he took his shot. Unsurprisingly, Lussuria, Ryohei, Gokudera and Xanxus all had to drink as well.
"How any of this a good seeing-off?" Gokudera said in a moment of lucidity. "All we're doing is drinking while underage and passing out. Is there any real benefit from this?"
"Look at it like this. The closer you become to your comrades, the easier you'll be able to predict the kind of decisions they'll make and plans they think of. In battle, this kind of understanding of each other can come in very handy. Trust me."
"Aa… WAIT! DINO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
The Cavallone smirked. "What tutor would miss out on the opportunity to see his pupil drunk? Though you, Tsuna, actually hold your liquor relatively well, which is a shame."
"…So you've just been watching us make fools of ourselves for the last two hours for your own amusement?"
"Maa, na."
"Well? Are we on the right track?"
"To teenage alcoholism? Absolutely."
"You know what I mean! Building bonds! ...And stuff."
"Maa, you have the right idea, but try to incorporate less inebriation next time."
"…YES! We finally did something right for a change!"
When Hibari burnt the hot chocolate
"I don't... understand. How did you get it to light on fire?"
Hibari looked down at his shoes and shrugged. "I tried?..."
Suzume sighed. She set the saucepan in the sink and filled it with water, before turning on all the range hoods to get the smell out, muttering the whole time that Hibari's cooking denied the laws of physics. "Please, just sit over there for a while."
To her surprise, he complied.
That would have to take getting used to.
"By the way, who taught you to cook?"
Hibari gave her a soft glare. Knowing his story now, she should have realised that was a cruel question to ask.
"...Sorry."
A moment of silence between the two passed as Suzume cooked.
"So, how do you like your eggs?"
After a moment, he relented, and answered. "Over easy."
More of Seiji and Reborn's reminiscing
"England! London! The third time in London! That was hilarious!" Seiji laughed, forehead in his hand, elbow on the table.
"You were the one so bored that you decided to mess with the guards," Reborn shook his head, smiling nonetheless. "But what about France? We've had so many escapades in France."
"You mean the whole vegetable knife thing in Paris?"
"Working at a street stall for a week undercover?"
"The old lady in Lyon?"
"What about the time you froze over a beach in Marseilles?"
"That was on purpose!"
"Nonetheless, it was amusing," Reborn finished.
Seiji suddenly thought of something. "Madrid, Spain. The bullfight."
Reborn groaned and put a hand to his face. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that again!"
"But you made such a dashing matador!"
Aoshima's late birthday party
The cake was frosted to resemble fire, which probably wasn't appropriate considering recent events, but Seiji insisted. The white candy bird was identified to be an egret, taking off from the centre of the cake, surrounded by licks of fire. The bird had been painted with sugar, with grey streaks and decorated with clumps of sugar resembling ash. When Aoshima saw it, he stopped for a full minute before thanking Seiji.
Suzume had figured that the decorations had meaning when her father had insisted on it, and it turned out she was right. She assumed it had something to do with Kiyoshi's parents- his mother had been known as the White Egret, wasn't it?
When Aoshima had seen the image, Seiji's implications were clear. The chef had obviously discovered that he had lit his flames, and had only one message for him-
'Rise from their ashes.'