After moving in with his uncle, Ryohei fit in with his other siblings right away. As the days of the funeral and wake slowly came closer, then passed, he slowly felt it easier and easier to deal with the loss of his parents. Of course, he still missed them, and it hurt whenever he remembered he would never see them again (it was especially hard for him to see their bodies lowered into the cold earth), but he was slowly learning to deal with that pain.
Soon after the funeral had passed, though, he found out that it was time for the other children, his new brothers and sister, to return to Italy; to return to school. Now, he had two choices: go to Italy with Tsuna and the others, or stay in Japan with his uncle until Kyoko woke up. He very much wanted to go to Italy becuase he knew it would be lonely without the others, but he didn't want to leave Kyoko here alone.
In the end, the others convinced to go to Italy with the promise that he would be able to visit his sister whenever they had time off from school.
And so, the wait began as Ryohei slowly became used to Italian society; making new friends and becoming closer to his new siblings.
Before he knew it, almost three months had passed, and Kyoko still hadn't woken up. Each day, he became more and more worried; what if she never woke up? He couldn't lose his sister, too.
Then, on the eighth week, he got the phone call he'd been waiting for. He had been in the courtyard, playing with Takeshi, when he heard someone call his name. Turning around, he saw his uncle Giotto.
Smiling, the man held his cell phone out to him. "It's Knuckle! He said that Kyoko's awake!'
Eyes widening, Ryohei ran up to the blond with Takeshi following close after.
Taking the cell phone from a smiling Giotto, Ryohei said, "Hello?"
"Hey," came Knuckle's voice from the other side.
"Is it true?" he asked. "Did she really wake up?"
Ryohei could almost hear the smile on his uncle's faced as the man said, "That's right! She actually started responding to us about a week ago, but she couldn't speak or move much yet, so we decided to wait a while before calling you."
"And how is she now?" asked Ryohei nervously.
"She can move her fingers and toes a little, and she's also able to speak a little," he said. Then, with a chuckle, he added, "The first thing she said was your name."
Ryohei's eyes widened, and he felt tears threatening to take over. "Really?" he asked.
"That's right. I'm actually with her right now. Do you want to talk to her?"
Without hesitation, he said, "Hai!"
There was a moment of silence before a small voice came on the phone, saying, "Hello?"
"Kyoko!" he gasped in relief the moment he heard her voice.
"Hey, onii-chan!" she said in what seemed to be her normal cheery voice, albeit a little quieter than was normal. Ryohei, though, knowing her as well as he did, could hear the fear, anxiety, and pain in it; all emotions he had felt after he had learned of his parents' death.
"How are you doing?" he asked.
"Okay," she said quietly. "I can't move too well yet; but the doctors said that in a week or two, I'll be back to normal."
"That's great," he said in a relieved voice. "Has uncle told you what happened?"
"Hai," she said in a sad voice. "Onii-san . . . I . . . I don't want to leave Japan."
Ryohei's eyes widened when he heard this. "N-nani?" he asked.
"I don't want to leave. I like living in Namimori."
Ryohei was quiet for a moment, not knowing what to say; he had never considered the possiblity that Kyoko wouldn't want to come to Italy. Normally, he would have agreed with her right away, and given her whatever it was she wanted, but this time, he couldn't bring it in himself to do it. Over the past three months, Milan had become his home; he had become used to life here, and he had become used to life with his new family; he didn't want to give that up.
"But Kyoko," he protested, trying to make her see reason. "Uncle Knuckle is the only one out of all our relatives that can take care of us. We can't live in Namimori on our own."
There was a short silence before she said, "I know. At first, I thought that if I had to, I would go to Italy, but then Hana-chan told me I could live with her family. I tried to refuse, onii-chan, but she kept asking and asking, and even her parents said that they really wanted me there."
"But Kyoko. . ." said Ryohei, trailing off. He didn't know what to say; if she'd found a place for the two of them to live in Namimori, where they would be welcomed with open arms, then what kind of brother would he be if he forced her to come to Italy just because he wanted to continue living there?
There was a melancholic sigh on the other side, then Kyoko began speaking again. "You should stay there, onii-chan," she said quietly.
"Nani?" he asked. "Stay here?"
"That's right," she confirmed. "Onii-chan, I already know that you've probably fallen in love with that place. If you don't want to leave, then you don't have to."
"But, what about you? Don't you want me there?" asked Ryohei, not knowing what to do. When she had told him that he should stay, he had felt a sense of relief, yet at the same time, he'd been sad, thinking that his sister didn't want him there."
"Of course I do!" she said a little fiercely. "More than you know; but onii-chan, what's the point if it's going to make you miserable?"
Ryohei was completely speechless; his little sister, who used to depend on him all the time, was taking the reins in this conversation, and she had actually almost convinced him.
Before long, he was snapped out of his thoughts when Knuckle's voice came back on the line. "She'll be alright," he said. "Ryohei, you know that she'll be well taken care of at her friend's house, and you know that you can come visit her any time you want, and we can come stay during the entire summer, and there's winter break and spring break, too."
Ryohei hesitated for a second more, then he smiled a shy smile, one that his uncle couldn't see, but which he could still hear in the young boy's voice. "Okay," he finally consented. "When can I go see her?"
"Well, there are only two weeks left until winter break, right? Why don't we all come down then? Even Giotto and the others can come too. We'll all celebrate Christmas and New Years together."
Ryohei nodded enthusiastically before remembering that his uncle couldn't see him. "That sounds great!" he said.
"Great," he said. "We'll talk more about it when I come home next week, okay? Anyways, I have to go now. Visiting hours are up."
"Hai!" said Ryohei. "Thank you so much, uncle."
"No problem," he said. Then, both he and Kyoko said in unison, "Bye Ryohei!"
Laughing at their antics, the seven year old said, "Bye!"
After hanging up the cell phone, he handed it back to his uncle who was looking at him curiously.
"Kyoko decided to stay in Japan," he said.
Giotto nodded in understanding. "So, will you be leaving us too?" When Ryohei shook his head 'no', a wide smile stretched across the man's face. "That's good," he said. "We all would have missed you too much if you left, you know?"
It had been a few days since she'd been discharged from the hospital, and Kyoko now had almost perfect control over her ody again. Currently, she was at the airport with her best friend, Kurokawa Hana and her parents; they were waiting for her brother and uncle, who were supposed to be arriving in Japan today.
"Where are they?" grumbled Hana.
"Now, now, sweetie, don't be impatient," said her mother. "Their flight only just landed; it'll take a while before they get here."
"There they are!" Kyoko exclaimed, and everybody turned to see where she was pointing.
When Hana saw them, her mouth dropped open in shock. Coming towards them was a huge group of foreigners. There were eight (beautiful) adults, and seven children who all looked almost like carbon copies of their fathers; even Ryohei, whom she'd met before on many an occasion, looked more like his uncle than he'd ever looked like his father.
"Kyoko!" shouted Ryohei when he noticed her, running up and capturing her in a hug. "I've missed yo uto the EXTREME!"
Giggling, Kyoko returned her brother's hug. "It's good to see you too, onii-chan."
Hana's attention, though, was fixated on the other children, all walking along obediently beside their parent(s). Only the teenager with green hair looked like he was neither father nor child.
When the rest of the group finally reached them, it was the blond man in front that spoke.
"Hello, Kurokawa-san," he said in slightly accented Japanese. "My name is Taru Giotto. Thank you so much for offering to take care of Kyoko and for meeting us at the airport."
"Oh, it's no problem at all," said Hana's mother.
As the adults were talking, the boy that was holding onto Giotto's hand, his son most likely, stared at Kyoko and Ryohei and then turned his eyes to Hana. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and looked a great deal like his father. When his eyes met Hana's, he smiled an innocent smile and waved at her with his free hand.
His smile was somehow contagious, because Hana found herself smiling back.
At that moment, Ryohei grabbed her arm and pulled her (along with Kyoko) to where the other children were standing.
There was a long round of introductions in which Hana found out that the brunette's name was Tsuna, and that he was the 'baby' of the group (which wasn't all that surprising).
Meanwhile, Kyoko was starting to see why her brother had wanted to stay in Italy so much. The other kids all seemed really nice; especially the boy named Tsuna.
After the adults were done talking, Kyoko soon found herself sitting in a sleek black limo with the other kids while the adults were in another limo following closely after.
Later that night, at dinner, Kyoko felt almost out of place.
She watched as Takeshi and Hayato argued playfully, their fathers doing almost the same thing; Mukuro and Chrome were quietly eating dinner, their movements almost completely synchronized, and there was a kind of intimacy; even the normally stoic Kyoya was smiling a little as he wiped a bit of spaghettie sauce off of Tsuna's cheek while Giotto seemed to be lecturing both Daemon and Alaude.
Even though they weren't related by blood, these people were a true family, and Ryohei seemed to fit in so easily. While Kyoko was happy that he'd found someone to rely on and to care for other than herself, she also felt kind of lonely; as if she were being left behind.
"Is there something wrong, Kyoko?" asked Knuckle as he looked down at said girl.
Shaking her head, the six-year-old smiled. "You guys seem to really love each other."
AT her words, Knuckle turned to look at his family, and a fond smile stretched across his lips. "Of course," he said. "You know, about six years ago, none of us even knew of the existance of any of these children, but now, I don't think any of us could imagine life without them. They've become such an important part of our family." Looking down at Kyoko, he smiled even wider. "But it's not only them. You're now an irreplaceable part of this family too, and no matter what, that will never change."
SkyGem: The end was quite fluffy…so, what did you all think of this chapter? Did you like it? Please do leave a review and tell me what you thought!
P.S. I'm like super mega ultra happy right now! So many amazing things happened to me today o. First, I got to go see that movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes which I've been dying to see for weeks now; then I found out that my dad bought me a brand new laptop; then, I checked my user stats for the first time in I don't know how long and found out that I'm on the favorites list of over 200 members (when the hell did that happen?); and finally, this fic has reached a hundred reviews! I never thought it would do so well! You guys are all so awesome! I love you all and thank you so much for supporting this story until now!...oh, and you should probably know that I only have the very basic outline for this story planned out, and that I'm coming up with everything as I go along, so I'm discovering all this as I go along, just like you guys, which is part of the reason I love writing this fic so much! Well…bye for now! And see you all tomorrow, ne?