noun: commitment; loyalty

The Ten Years Bazooka felt like a split-second sudden pull, dizzying if it didn't happen so fast. Irie's machine feels like falling, is like falling, Tsuna losing his footing and landing in his living room.

The sliding door's open on the front yard, the sun pouring inside, and he flinches at the sudden, bright light. He breathes in the floral scent from the laundry hanging to dry, their mom's favorite he didn't get to smell on his clothes for months, and he releases the breath he's been holding.

Their mom turns around, carrying clothes in her arms, while Fuuta lowers the shirt he was about to hang to look at them too.

"Tsuna, everyone," their mom says in surprise. "What are you doing here? I thought you were all in your room."

"Where did you even come from?" Fuuta asks.

Intense happiness wells up inside Tsuna, intense relief, and he feels himself beams. "Mom…! Fuuta…!"

"Mama!" His siblings shout, running, then throw themselves in their mom's arms.

Their mom drops the clothes to catch them, surprise flickering across her face. His siblings burst out crying, and she smiles, holding them tighter, her voice soothing even with the hint of worry in it. "What's wrong, Lambo-kun, I-Pin-chan? Does something hurt?"

"Always the slowest," Reborn says, and Tsuna just laughs, relishing in the normalcy of it all.

He's home at long last, and it only feels right.

Tsuna runs out in the front yard too, falling on his knees in front of Fuuta, then pulls him in his arms.

Fuuta startles, then laughs, wrapping his arms around his back. "Tsuna-nii, you scared me! What is it?"

"Thank God…" Tsuna holds Fuuta as tight as he can, cupping the back of his head, resting his head in the crook of his neck. "Thank you… thank you…"

"Tsuna-nii?" Fuuta hugs him back tighter even as he sounds unsure, his hands meeting in the middle of his back. Their siblings are still crying, their mom's soothing words now positively worried. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

Tsuna laughs, and it's wet with tears. "I'm okay, sorry, you don't have to worry about a thing." He blinks the tears out of his eyes, happy tears, so happy, but there's some hurt too, grief, the same way he hears it in their siblings' voice too. "I just missed you." He kisses his temple, then the top of his head, then cups his face, taking it in. "I just missed you a lot, that's all."

"Okay," Fuuta says, evidently confused, frowning. He glances up at their mom, then back at him, and grins. He wraps his hands around his wrists. "Well, I'm right here now, so you don't have to miss me anymore."

Tsuna grins back, laughing, tears welling up in his eyes again. He leans his forehead against his. "Yeah, you are."

"Tsu-kun." Tsuna pulls away, sliding his hands along Fuuta's shoulders then down his arms, and holds onto one of his hand. Their mom kneels next to them, and gently settles their siblings on her lap. She runs her hand in his hair, then cups his face, brushing her thumb across his cheek to wipe away his tears.

"I just missed all of you," he breathes out again, leaning in her touch.

"Okay," their mom says, not confused like Fuuta had been, but considering, soothing. She looks down at their siblings, still crying but less than before, and pets their hair. She glances to the side at Reborn, then meets his eye again. "But you're okay, aren't you? All of you? It isn't the earthquake, is it?"

It makes him think of future Haru, the way she looks at him. Like she's looking at a face she knows by heart, and yet finds herself noticing things she never did before. Tsuna knows she has no idea about the future, can see it in her eyes the way he could in Fuuta's. Maybe mothers can just tell these type of things. He nods. "We are. We're okay."

"Okay," she says again, then she smiles, warm and loving, and she looks like home, home, home. "Then there's nothing to cry about." She dries his eyes, then puts her hands on top of Lambo's and I-Pin's head. "Did you hear Mama, Lambo-kun, I-Pin-chan? Fuuta-kun said it best, Mama's right here now, so you don't have to miss me anymore."

"Fuuta's right here too, you know," Fuuta says teasingly. "Even if I don't know what's going on."

They laugh, their siblings too, their laughter mixing with their sniffles. I-Pin actually lets go of their mom to throw herself in Fuuta's arms, and Tsuna lets go of his hand so he can give her a proper hug.

"Bianchi?" Tsuna asks.

"She's doing groceries," their mom says, "she should be back soon. I wanted to make hamburger patties tonight, but we're out of ketchup."

"Mama's hamburger patties?" Lambo asks with a small voice, peaking up at her.

Their mom nods, smiling. "That's right, Mama's hamburger patties. Would you like that, Lambo-kun?"

Lambo tears up, looks about to burst into tears all over again, and Tsuna feels much the same. Lambo doesn't, beaming instead, and then bursts out laughing. "Mama's hamburger patties!" he cheers. "I-Pin, Mama's hamburger patties!" He jumps from their mom's lap, then jumps again, grabs on I-Pin's leg, pulling her down with him.

"Lambo!" Fuuta cries out in surprise, I-Pin being snatched right out of his arms.

"Lambo-sama will eat all of it and will leave you nothing!"

"I won't let you!" I-Pin screams, and then they're running in circle around their mom and him, I-Pin running after Lambo, and Fuuta after the both of them.

Tsuna bursts out laughing, turning his head back and forth to keep his eyes on them, drinking in their sight, drinking in Lambo's laughter, and I-Pin's annoyed face, and Fuuta's fond, exasperated enabling, delighting in the dearly missed bickering and chaos. He sobs, feeling immediately guilty when his siblings still, but he can't stop. His sobs spill out of his mouth one by one, his tears blurring his sight and rolling down his cheeks.

Their mom pulls him into her arms without a word, and it feels the way it used to when he was little, when he believed wholeheartedly their mom's arms were all she needed to shield him against the world.

He still believes it in a way, wrapping his arms around her, so relieved to be able to be in his safest place in the world again.

"Welcome home, Tsuna," she says like she does every day, and Tsuna finds he wouldn't have borne to hear it any other way. "Welcome home to you too, Lambo-kun, I-Pin-chan."

"Lambo-sama's back!" Lambo says, a second before I-Pin.

"I'm back. Thank you, Mama."

"Welcome home, Reborn-kun."

Reborn misses a beat, so unlike him, and the mood shifts. "Thank you, Mama," he says, carefully not letting anything else but his genuineness slips in his voice.

"Welcome home, Tsuna-nii, Lambo, I-Pin-chan, Reborn-san!" Fuuta says cheerfully, turning the mood light again.

Tsuna laughs through his tears, happy tears, with some hurt and grief, but so happy most of all, and suddenly he doesn't feel like crying anymore, doesn't feel the need to.

He pulls away from their mom's arms, and dries his tears with his sleeve, sniffling. He makes sure he sees their mom's face properly before saying it, makes sure she won't doubt his smile for even a second. "I'm back. Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Fuuta," he says, looking at him, and Fuuta grins.

Their mom cups his face again, then dries his eyes again for good measure. She smiles, but like she's putting up a strong front. For him or her, Tsuna doesn't know. "You need something else, don't you?"

Tsuna's grief flares, but he doesn't shy away from it, doesn't shy away from their mom, or from what they both need to go through. Mothers must really be able to tell these type of things, for better or worse. "We need to talk," he says softly, reassuringly. For him or her, he doesn't know. "About… about what I—we, Lambo and I-Pin-chan too—, about what we just went through. About what Reborn really came to our home to do. About Dad."

Their mom's smile doesn't falter, and he hates to see it, hates to know it won't falter even when Tsuna will be telling her everything, that she won't give him the opportunity to be there for her as she wraps her head around it all.

Her smile could falter if his dad was the one telling her, because then she wouldn't feel the need to be strong for him, to make it as easy on him as she could. But if his dad has ever planned to have that talk with her, he would have done it by now, and she needs to know, has every right to.

Tsuna needs to tell her before she learns it in a way that'll take her away from both his dad and them forever.

"Tsuna, you don't have to look at me like that." She strokes his cheeks, then pulls her hands away to hold his hands instead. "You see this smile? Do you hear my voice? They're both genuine."

Tsuna nods, smiling, even if it feels sad. "I know."

"Good. Because if they are, it's because you're always going to be my little Tsu-kun, you know that, don't you?" She squeezes his hands, then laughs. "It's a mothers' thing, so you don't have to worry about a thing. It's my job to shoulder everything I can that weighs too heavily down on you." She cups his cheek again, brushing a tear away before it can fall. "We'll be okay."

Tsuna breathes in deeply, swallowing back his tears. He puts his hand on top of hers, leaning in her touch, and smiles back. "Yeah, we will."

A/N: Arguably (or more like straight-up lol) Nana is OOC here, but it's my fic and I can do what I want.

And it's a wrap of the future arc! I loved writing it so much, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I'm also super proud of how it turned out, I honestly couldn't choose my favorite chapter. (Though if I absolutely HAD to, it'd be the previous one, because of how Tsuna & Mukuro dynamic turned out.) What about you guys? Your thoughts about the arc?

Next chapter we're starting the Inheritance Arc, and I feel a bit timid about it ngl haha. It would be my first time writing within that arc, as well as some of the dynamics in it, so please be kind with me.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Any and all review are appreciated.

Thank you for reading!

- Hope