AN: Still astonished by how much support this gets! Really guys, thank you so much for reading and reviewing and all that, it really makes my heart happy.

Tsuna had a dilemma.

This was nothing new; his life had been nothing but dilemmas since the introduction of a certain hitman to it, but somehow, the stress of it all never changed.

The current dilemma was thus: mysterious men in black suits were seemingly trawling the streets of Namimori, searching for Tsuna. It had not been a coincidence that they accosted Haru; she'd told him that they called her by name without her ever having mentioned it.

(Unrelated to the Dilemma, but this was something that Tsuna had been worrying about for awhile now. His friends had targets on their backs, painted there by their association with him. The amount of nights he had spent laying awake, guilt gnawing at the pit of his stomach was more than he could count).

Continuing with the Dilemma, Tsuna had to contend with the – presumably mafia – men who were looking for him, while also allaying the suspicions of cousin Tetsuya and his friend. There was absolutely no way Tsuna was dragging those two into this mess, no matter what Reborn had to say about it.

Unfortunately, Tsuna was a terrible liar.

Unfortunately, both Tetsuya and Momoi-san had abnormally sharp eyes.

Unfortunately, the Dilemma wasn't a very subtle one, and Tsuna's friends could never be called so either.

The group of teenagers had hastily made their way back to Tsuna's house (somehow minus Reborn, who'd gone missing on the way), where Haru and Yamamoto caught Gokudera-kun up to speed. Tsuna, to his horror, had found himself wishing Hibari-san had stuck around; there was no way he would abide having those strangers running around Namimori, making a mess of things. As it was, Gokudera-kun's face had rapidly turned grim, his hands dropping to his pockets to fiddle with the dynamite that Tsuna knew he kept there.

"Jūdaime, what do you want to do?"

Having those green eyes trained on him so seriously was decidedly unnerving. No matter what Reborn kept saying, Tsuna really didn't know if he had it in him to be any kind of leader. The way his friends looked to him whenever they got caught up in some mafia mess terrified Tsuna down to his bones; what if his words ended up being the reason one them got hurt?

Acutely aware of the two outsiders' presence and the lack of his tutor's, Tsuna decided to just bite the bullet. There was no way to make this seem normal, and his biggest priority was making sure that everybody was safe.

"I, uh, I guess we should call everybody and warn them?" He paused, thinking. "Including Kyoko-chan and Hana. If those guys knew Haru, they probably know the others too."

"Right." Gokudera-kun nodded sharply. "I can do that. Hibari will probably start hunting them down on his own though, Jūdaime. Do you want me to…?"

A soft "Hiieee!" escaped before he could stop it.

"No! Don't try to stop him, Gokudera-kun. Just ask him to please be careful, and if he would wait before he does anything drastic?"

He didn't hold out much hope that Hibari would actually comply, but there shouldn't be any harm in asking. Probably.

The relief on his Storm's face told Tsuna that he'd made the right choice.

"I'll get right on it, Jūdaime. Please leave it to me."

Pulling out his phone, Gokudera-kun made his way out into the backyard. It was strange; Tsuna could still remember the days when his only feelings about the foreign delinquent in his class were confused terror. Now, all he could feel was grateful.

(Any thoughts Tsuna may have had about his reliable right hand man, well. He wouldn't be voicing them anywhere Reborn could hear them. It wouldn't do to let him think Tsuna was any less firm on his anti-mafia stance).

That handled, Tsuna ushered everybody else upstairs. He didn't want his mother overhearing anything weird (well, weirder than usual), and hopefully he could keep the kids out of it this time too. Maybe he would ask Bianchi if she could keep them occupied (and safe)?

Once they were all ensconced in his room, Tsuna turned to his cousin. Tetsuya… still wasn't emoting. Tsuna couldn't read him at all. He was surely confused though; god only knew that Tsuna would've been, in his shoes.

Momoi, on the other hand, had an entirely alarming gleam in her eyes.

"Ne, Tsunayoshi-kun," she smiled at him. It was almost as unnerving as a smile from Reborn, which was saying something considering he was Reborn. "Does this all have anything to do with your Dad's job?"

He choked.

Coughing and spluttering, waving away Haru's concerned hands, Tsuna wondered if the heart attack he was surely having would be a good enough excuse not to take part in the upcoming mess. How lovely would it be, if he could just pass out, and find out upon waking that Hibari-san had taken care of everything?

"My apologies, Tsunayoshi-kun," Momoi's smile had gentled a little, even though Tsuna could tell she was still laughing at him. "I didn't mean to startle you."

You bloody well did, Tsuna carefully did not say. He leaned against the wall instead, rubbing his chest. That little coughing fit had hurt.

"What made you ask about my dad, Momoi-san?" He asked, cautious. Reborn's words about the omerta echoed in his head like a gong.

"Mm, just a hunch," she replied. "It's okay if you don't want to tell us."

"Momoi-san is correct."

"Uwah!" Heart jumping again, Tsuna met his cousin's steady gaze. How the hell did he keep doing that?! It was only the fact that Yamamoto and Haru had both jumped too that stopped him from melting into a puddle of embarrassment.

Yamamoto laughed sheepishly, hand coming up to ruffle the back of his hair. "Wow, that ability of yours sure is something, huh, Kuroko-san?"

Tetsuya, seated beside Momoi on Tsuna's bed, nodded. "It is quite handy."

Handy though it may've been, Tsuna was feeling kinda bad; that made the third or so time he'd completely forgotten his cousin's presence. Tetsuya seemed used to it, but it couldn't be nice to always fall under the radar.

Slumping to the floor, elbows braced on his knees and chin propped in the heels of his hands, Tsuna shot Tetsuya an apologetic smile. Those unwavering blue eyes filled with warmth, and Tsuna heard the unspoken 'It's okay' loud and clear. His smile widened.

And then it dimmed again, because even if Tetsuya and Momoi had given him permission to just skate right on over the reason for what was happening, it didn't change the fact that something was happening. He exchanged a glance with Yamamoto, who'd slid down the wall beside him.

As usual, his friend didn't look too worried. Tsuna fought the urge to duck his head; Yamamoto's dark eyes were full of confidence and something that Tsuna really, really didn't want to call faith because that was just too terrifying to think about.

Hid bedroom door clicking open and closed again saved Tsuna from finding something to say. Gokudera-kun nodded at him, settling in the space on the floor to Tsuna's right that Yamamoto had left conspicuously open.

"I've warned everybody, Jūdaime," Gokudera-kun said. "That idiot Sasagawa wanted to go out and fight right away, but his sister and Kurokawa said they'll keep an eye on him. Chrome's on her way here; she didn't want to be too far away to help if shit is going down. She said she'll be careful, but she shouldn't be too long."

Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief. None of that was surprising at all; of course Ryohei wanted to fight, even though they didn't even know who they were fighting yet. He felt better knowing that Chrome was coming as well. His shy Mist was getting stronger by the day, helped along by the phantom criminal in her head.

(Vaguely, Tsuna wondered what he was gonna do once Mukuro got out of Vendicare).

"And, uh, Hibari-san?" He asked hesitantly. The demon prefect was a lot less scary over the phone, but that wasn't really saying much. Hibari Kyouya was really scary.

Gokudera-kun scowled. "That disrespectful-! Jūdaime, he says you've got two hours to figure something out, or he's going to hunt them down on his own and deal with it."

That… was better than he'd expected.

He said as much out loud, and Gokudera-kun huffed. "It was initially only an hour, but I managed to negotiate a little more. I'm sorry, Jūdaime, it was the best I could do."

Big green eyes begged him for forgiveness.

Tsuna shook his head. "I'm impressed you managed to change his mind at all," he said truthfully. "Thank you, Gokudera-kun."

Those green eyes turned starry in an instant, and Tsuna could only sigh, exasperated fondness crashing over him like a tsunami.

Of course, that was when a tiny shadow appeared on the windowsill, shattering any pretence of relaxation.

"And now that that's sorted," it said, bright green gun cocked at Tsuna's face. "What are you going to do now, Dame-Tsuna?"

AN: I don't really have much to say except drop a review if you're feeling generous! Please and thank you~ And now onto the recs!

First: Vivi memor leti by sunnycalendargirl, plus the five accompanying fics. So so sooooo good, I cannot emphasise this enough. Second up is Scorched by RenegadeWarrior, which is already hella popular, BUT anyone new to KHR fics should definitely check it out.

Anyways, hope you're all still doing well out there. Be safe!

- Kelly