Disclaimer: I own the OCs, the rest is Akira Amano's work.

Fratellanza

Until Reborn was in town, Fon would stay.

Okay, let's go a few steps back.

Fon had claimed this town to keep it out of the Nishimuras' territory. By the way, Kyoya was now on their killing list, Hide had no kid anymore and Kyoya was way too happy about it. Let me tell you, a Kyoya in a good mood is...creepy. The other day, he threw his tonfa at my nose only at the end of the day!

Anyway.

The CEDEF also 'claimed' the town, as in they would be allowed access without much efforts thanks to their help. But apart from them and people Fon 'trusted', people from the underworld had to be assessed and granted access. Let's just say Fon had a lot of dangerous contacts in the Triads and not a lot of mafiosi would go against him.

Kyoya and I were basically in charge to control Namimori streets. It was no different than before, just that now it was official.

Summer vacations were there too. Takeshi, I still gave him English lessons, told me he was relieved Tsunayoshi was cool with him. He wasn't cool with the whole Mafia thing, strangely he wasn't even hard to convince when I told him to pretend he didn't know anything when the shit would get real, Reborn, but was...living with it.

Arro went back to Chicago, after I convinced him I would be with Dino when I'd see my mom and I'd be fine. Kyoya had stared at me, not believing the 'fine' part. I would totally crash at his place like he did so many times at mine.

However, no matter how loud my music was in my ears, I couldn't help the stress from taking over.

"Romario!" I yelled when I spotted him in the crowd. I sped up and smiled back at him.

"You seem to be doing well Princess. The Boss was worried." I waved him off.

"When isn't he?" On the road, I was absorbed in the Italian scenery outside. I missed that.

Italy held a lot of bad memories, but it was home and I would always miss home when I was away.

"ANA!" Dino screamed at the door. I grinned and ran straight to his arms. He hugged me tight and I let the warmth of his arms rock me. "I missed you so much!"

"It's not as if she had not left for long periods of time before." I looked up at Reborn on Dino's shoulder. "Ciaossu Bakana."

"Yo Reborn. Hey Leon." The lizard wiggled his tongue at me in return.

"I know Reborn, but Fon was there in China. Right now she's on her own!"

"There's Kyoya you know." Dino tensed and his face was back in mine. "And Takeshi."

"Why...it's nice you make friends but..." I raised a brow. "Why boys?" I shrugged.

"They're easier to get along with? And I get along with Kyoko anyway." I pursed my lips. "And her brother is in my class." Now I was being choked to death by Dino's embrace.

"Fifteen is too early for that!"

"You're the one thinking about that," I muttered in his shoulder, pushing him away. "Damn, you're twenty-one, act like it!" He took a step back.

"Reborn, she hates me now!" I sighed.

"She realized your stupidity." I grabbed my luggage and went to my room. It had not changed at all. As it was late in the night, thanks time difference, I changed into my pajamas and got into bed. A few minutes later, Dino opened my door and knelt next to my bed. He grinned at the stuffed lion in my arms and ran his hand in my hair. I closed my eyes.

"I missed you Dino." He chuckled softly and kissed me on the head.

"I hope so." Then, lower, he added. "Welcome home Luciana." I smiled.

"I'm home.

I was already deep asleep when he left my room. Even if I was happy to be home, to finally have some time off after weeks of being under the Nishimuras' threat, I couldn't help but having a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue.

I couldn't get over the lies I had told my brother.

But they were white lies, weren't they? He was busy, I was just saying I was fine. I could deal with my own problems on my own. Even if it was my blood family.

Even if I knew Dino would be hurt I kept him in the dark.

They were white lies.

Yet, the bitterness remained.

We were at the hospital where my mother was. However, I...wasn't fully ready yet, so I told Dino I would take a walk in town. I had to convince not to send any men with me, that I was capable of defending myself. Of course, he still sent one with me, but it was better than an army.

"I want ice-cream. Vanilla flavor, with like chocolate and hazelnuts flakes on it. I want it in a carton thingy, whatever it's called. Bring me a vanilla cappucino, a grande."

"But the Boss..." I frowned at Bono.

"Hey, I'm the one in the middle of an identity crisis, I need my sugar!" I sat down on a bench and readjusted my sunglasses on my nose. Before going back to Japan, I needed to get my eyes checked. I...things far away were more and more blurry.

I sat down on a bench as he went to buy my things, now waiting in line of a popular coffee shop. Damn, that was…

Fuck, I was really going to do this, huh?

"The fuck?" I raised my eyes to find two surprised gray ones staring back at me. I groaned and let my head fall back. "Vooiii, can't you at least pretend to be happy to see me!?"

"What for? You'll scream at me for lying to your face." His mouth froze, still opened. I raised a brow behind my glasses and he cursed under his breath, sitting down next to me. And...he was wearing regular clothes. "You and Dino are old now."

"I'm twenty-one brat."

"Older than me, old geezer." I put my hands in my pocket and stretched out my legs in front of me. I snorted when I felt his heavy gaze on me. "What?"

"Nothing!" he replied angrily. There was a long silence between us, silence he decided to break. "So...you still have three years of school left, right? You're entering high-school?" It was my turn to freeze.

Superbi trying to make a conversation starting from that subject was weird.

The weirdest was that him, the current Boss of the VARIA and Xanxus's second in command, one of the few to know I was related to the guy, him I had known for my entire Mafia life…didn't know shit about me.

He didn't know shit about me except I had been Federico's Cloud Guardian. He didn't know I was already done with school, and I was pretty sure he didn't know I was a part of the CEDEF.

"Yeah...that's right." He nodded to himself, his arms crossed on his chest.

"And after? What will you do?" I shrugged.

"Probably try to keep Dino from provoking WWIII." He laughed at that and in that moment, he did look like a twenty-one year-old. After all, at that age, you were legally adult but...still pretty young.

Huh…

The Mafia did love picking young people and shape them into perfect little soldiers, didn't it?

"How is it going at the VARIA?" He stopped laughing immediately. "I just heard things back when Federico was alive, saying that you were a crazy bunch." He scoffed.

"Those trash are fucking stupid." I chuckled.

"Yeah, maybe the real Boss will be back soon." He froze at my words and I tilted my head on my shoulder in fake confusion. "I don't really get why he was sent away though. Important job?" Superbi's face was now in an angry scowl.

"Kind of," he muttered bitterly. "But we're allied Families, the Vongolas and the Cavallones I mean, you'll probably meet him one day." Yeah. He didn't know I was a Vongola without being one.

"Nah, I don't see any reason I would like to meet him." I stared at him from the corner of my eyes.

"You might change your mind." Humph, he was not going to tell me. "Voiii...how...are Arro and you good friends then?" I blinked in confusion, deciding to ignore the embarrassed redness on his face.

"Best friend, I've just spent too much time with him." He clenched his fists on his arms.

"I see." I sighed.

"He won't make the first step, so act like the oldest, got it?" He was about to reply when his phone rang.

"Vooiii what Luss!?" He widened his eyes and I inched closer to hear what was going on. He saw it and stood up, letting me fall on the bench. "Yeah, I'm on my way! Just...just make sure the health is...shit, I'm coming!" He hung up and looked down at me with incredulous eyes. "I...give me your number."

"Wow, pedophile alert."

"Voiiii it's…" I got up when I spotted Bono coming back. "Whatever, I'll get Haneuma to give it to me." He turned around and left, almost whipping my face with his ridiculously long hair.

"Is everything alright?" my brother's man asked me, giving me what I had asked. I only took the gelato and started eating it, a frown marring my face.

That...was weird. Superbi...was panicking.

"Are you ready Princess?" I sighed, my spoon in my mouth.

"I don't think I'll ever really be ready for that but...it has to happen at some point, and Dino's here." He smiled gently at me.

"The Boss wouldn't let you alone in that." I smiled faintly.

"He wouldn't, would he?"

So, when I opened the door of the room, Dino's comforting presence behind me, I managed to face the glassy jade eyes that belonged to my mother. Her brown hair was dull and dry, but I could spot some facial features I had in common with her.

"Mom?"

Cold.

Everything was so...cold. The warmth his flames had always given him were gone, now replaced by a perpetual coldness he wanted to get rid of. With the cold also came the silence. A silence that you would only find among the dead.

Was he dead?

Had the Ninth ended his life with that final attack?

Then, what were the voices?

"Mom?" The boy eyed the package in his mother's arms with cautious. The woman's smile was shaking.

"Honey, meet your baby sister." He blinked and looked down at the baby when his mother knelt in front of him. The baby had thin black hair and was stirring in her sleep. When she opened her eyes, he was surprised to stare back at the same color his own eyes were. There were small nuances in the red color itself, but overall they were the same. He gave his finger to the baby, who grabbed it and clenched her little fist around it, big red eyes staring straight into his own.

"She's...small."

"For now. She's...fragile, and will be for a while Xanxus." He frowned. The world outside was cruel, he knew that much. It was cold, cruel and wouldn't spare her.

"I'll protect her," he murmured, leaning his face toward the baby until their nose touched. "I'll protect you sorellina." She smiled and patted his cheek, babbling happily at her brother. "I'm your big brother now Luciana."

"Luciana?" his mother repeated. He straightened up and nodded.

"Yeah. She's Luciana."

"O...okay...I was thinking of Esperanza?" He wrinkled his nose. It was a good name, but not as good as the one he had found. "But Luciana is beautiful too."

He followed his mother when she put the baby in her crib and left to the kitchen. Xanxus stayed, staring at his little sister who was already falling back asleep. She was so small, so fragile, so innocent...her smile had been bright. It had probably been the brightest thing he had seen in his short life. Poverty took everything from people, but she had no idea about it. She was just a few days old.

Xanxus poked her chubby cheek, but she didn't budge.

She had no idea of the harshness of the world.

If she had, her smile would not be that bright, he wouldn't have thought of the name 'Luciana'.

He would make sure she would not lose that brightness or that smile. He would protect her.

He was her big brother. It was his duty.

He would not lose that light in the darkness of the world for anything.

"We'll always be together Ann', your Fratello will make sure of it."

Why were these memories coming back to haunt him now?

"...hungry Fratello," the toddler mumbled against his shoulder.

"I know Ann'," he replied. He was hungry too. Luciana yawned, her small hands grasping his shirt tightly. She probably was cold too from how much she was shaking in his arms.

Xanxus spotted a bakery across the street. He put his sister down, who blinked in confusion at him. He twisted one of her pigtails around his finger.

"Don't move."

Of course, with the experience he had by now, he easily stole a loaf of bread. He put a finger on his lips to tell his sister to remain quiet, and she imitated him, her 'shush' a lot louder than it should be. He quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the eyes. Then, he pulled the bread from under his shirt, torn it in half and gave one to Luciana, who munched it with hunger. Although, with her baby teeth, she was stuck on the same piece for a while.

Xanxus frowned at his sister. Her clothes, or more like his old clothes, were really not giving her enough warmth. He started to take off his sweater, but she kicked his leg.

"Ann'," he growled but she puffed her cheeks.

"You gonna be cold too Fratello!"

"I'm the oldest, you listen to me." She stuck her tongue at him and grabbed his hands. He raised a brow at the red eyes staring intently at them.

"Hot!" she exclaimed, her hands around his fingers. "Pretty orange is hot!"

"Just say it instead of staring," he mumbled, sitting down against the wall. He ruffled her hair when she grinned at him and her grin turned into a pout, making him smile a little. He barely moved his arms that his sister was sitting between his legs, her back against his chest.

One of his arm circled her tiny waist, his hand rubbing her arm in hope of warming her up. He stretched out his other hand and an orange flame appeared on it. Xanxus felt the warmth going through his body in a comforting shiver as his sister approached her hands. She sighed in relief and he couldn't help but kiss the top of her head.

Even at home they wouldn't get more warmth.

"Mama?"

"I already told you Mom didn't know," he muttered in her ear, "and it's better if she doesn't, we have enough on our plate". Luciana raised her head to look at him with a small frown.

"No Fratello!" She pointed at their right. "Mama!"

Indeed, with some groceries at her feet, their mother was staring at the flame in his hand. He dissipated the flame, Luciana giggling at the sparks in the air.

"That's...the Vongola's flame!" she almost yelled, kneeling in front of her children.

"Vongola?" Luciana was back at eating her bread, leaving Xanxus looking at their mother.

What was the Vongola?

"Yes, it's the most powerful Mafia Family in the country, in the world! There is no doubt about it, you are the child I had with the Ninth!"

"I...am?" he repeated dully, before looking down. "Ann' too then?" Unknown to him, his mother froze.

"No, no her dad is not the Ninth!" Xanxus didn't look further into it. So what if they did not have the same dad? She was still his little sister. Family was everything, and Luciana needed him.

"So?"

"It means you're the only heir!"

Was he?

One week later, when he was in front of the old man, he couldn't let go of his sister's hand. He was dressed up, even if to the man it was probably seen as a poor imitation of people his caliber.

A part of him was telling him something was off with the situation. However, the red scarf the man wrapped around his neck and the promise of not needing anything anymore won.

"Fratello?" He looked down at wide ruby eyes. Luciana raised her arms to him, but he took the necklace off his neck to put it around hers. A steeled 'X'. "Fra...fratello, hug?" Her bottom lip started quivering and he averted his eyes to the old man, his hand in his.

"Let's go now Xanxus." He nodded and went along the man.

His sister screamed for him to stay, but he still climbed in the car. It started to leave and he turned around, watching his baby sister sobbing and her mother holding her by the shoulders to keep her from moving.

"She...she can't stay here either old man." The man, his dad, raised his eyes to him.

"Don't you trust your mother?" It was a tough question. Sometimes he felt like she loved her daughter, sometimes it was as if she only saw her son.

"I don't want her to stay here."

"I'll see what I can do, but if your mother doesn't want to then I doubt there's anything I can do."

Why did he have to remember that?

"Where is she!?" Timoteo looked down at his son, pain in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, she is gone. I...she just vanished." Xanxus widened his eyes, his new brothers exchanging glances.

"Maybe the CEDEF..." Massimo started.

"I already tried. She...she's gone." He couldn't tear his eyes off the heartbroken look in his boy's eyes.

Luciana...his Luciana, his baby sister...was gone?

Vanished?

Was...was she dead?

He felt nauseous out of sudden, the image of his sister as nothing more than a corpse making him want to throw up his lunch.

He already had troubles sleeping as he wouldn't have the warmth her small body curled up against his would give him...now she was...gone?

"No," he mumbled, flames licking the tip of his fingers.

"Xanxus..." Federico tried, but Enrico held him back.

"NO!" The wall was destroyed in an instant.

Was...had she called for him? How alone had she been? How much had she called for her big brother to come and save her from whatever happened? Did she give up on him saving her? He had always been there for her nightmares, now it had became real he had not been…

He groaned in pain. His eyelids were heavy, but he managed to open them. His surroundings...he knew them. It was familiar, yet there was something in the air that was different.

"Boss?" His eyes found his second and blinked in astonishment.

That was Squalo, there was no doubt about it. But his hair was way too long, and he...looked almost ten years older.

"Trash..." he mumbled weakly in a hoarse voice. It broke Squalo out of his stupor and he ran out of the room, coming back a few seconds later with a doctor. Now he was paying more attention, there was an annoying 'beep' next to him, and something in his arm. "Trash," he repeated with more strength.

"Boss..." Squalo was clearly searching for his words. "It's…it's been seven years since the coup. You...you slept until now. You were in ice for seven years." Squalo kept repeating it, almost as if to convince himself it was real.

As for Xanxus, he stared blankly at the ceiling.

Seven years?

He had been frozen for seven fucking years?

So, he listened quietly his second's report on the years he missed.

His brothers were dead.

All of them, just gone. Enrico died in a shooting, Massimo drowned and Federico was reduced to bones. As far as Squalo knew, there was no other candidate for the time being, but all Xanxus could think of was…

"Federico's Cloud Guardian survived." Squalo nodded hesitantly. "What kind of trash survive when they're supposed to die for the Boss?"

"She's young. She was barely fourteen and a half last year when it happened, and was barely conscious when she came back. It's a miracle she came back alive and with the rings." Federico had taken a fucking brat as a Guardian? Why the fuck would he take a teenage girl as the Cloud Guardian? "I don't even know why the brat took on the job..." Xanxus looked at him.

"You know her?" Squalo seemed uncomfortable out of sudden.

"I went to school briefly with her, she's Haneuma's little sister." Under Xanxus' stare, he added. "The Cavallone. He got the nickname of 'Bucking Bronco' not long after he succeeded his father, after the latter passed away. They...now they're the third Family of the Alliance, the wimp did a good job."

"When did that idiot get a sister?"

"She was adopted when she was seven. I don't know where she came from, but she appeared out of nowhere one day." The shark muttered something about hitman reflex, but Xanxus didn't care.

Once he could walk, he'd have a talk with his 'father' and Federico's Cloud Guardian.

He was pissed and would have a target.

I sneezed on my bed.

"Getting sick?" Reborn asked me, standing next to me.

"I hope not, it's summer after all."

"How are you after this afternoon?"

"She fucking screamed when she was convinced it was actually me and they had to sedate her. One could hope for a better reunion," I spat sarcastically. As Reborn kept staring at me, I sighed and put my arm on my eyes. "Fuck, I felt like the Grim Reaper coming to collect a reluctant soul."

"That's an odd comparison."

"I enjoy them a lot." Dino opened my door, phone in his hand and a sheepish grin on his lips. "What now?"

"I asked Shamal to come." I widened my eyes and sat up. "It has been a while since you had a check up and you have been squinting a lot recently." I wrinkled my nose.

"I need glasses, I know that, but a full check up? Really?" My brother shrugged, his lips now in a straight line. He tended to get serious pretty quickly when I disregarded my health.

However, he didn't know Shamal gave me a check up before I came home.

Obviously, I had to go along with it under Dino's glare. They left me alone with my dear doctor as he started to check my eyesight.

"Your arm? Head?"

"It's fine, it was fixed before I left Japan," I replied in a whisper.

"But you're nearsighted and need glasses." I growled. Fuck.

"Hey...medical secrecy is a thing, right?"

"Yeah, and anyway that Iemitsu made sure I wouldn't open my mouth." I smirked.

In the end, things were going at the pace Shamal predicted years ago. My asthma might worsen in the future, and be triggered by stressful situations. My sight...it was caused by the serum and me being glued to a screen pretty often.

Dino was relieved.

Reborn had a weird glint in his eyes when he looked at Shamal and I. I pretended not to see it.

Reborn was way too smart for my own good.

Even if, when I asked him if he had found anything about my birth family on my father's side, he said he had found nothing. If he thought I was hiding something, there was a fifty-percent chance he would or make me talk, or dig on his side and confront me later.

In any case, it was bad, and I was way too relieved once I was on a place for Japan.

Fratellanza

Thanks for reading this chapter!