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

Fratellanza

"Yo," I greeted the people in the clinic with a wave.

"Oh my God, what happened to you!?" Dino almost yelled, seeing my black eye and bruise on my cheek. I waved him off and sat in one of the chairs there were next to Takeshi.

"Nothing, I just...gave the Cloud Ring."

"Wai...wait, Hibari-san!?" Tsunayoshi cried out and I nodded. "Hibari-san has a ring too!?" Takeshi laughed.

"It's a good thing though, isn't it?"

"Is it?" Tsunayoshi mumbled before giving me a questioning look. "Do you have a ring too?" I scoffed.

"Hell no, I turned it down." Hayato was in front of me right after.

"How can you just turn down the Tenth!?"

"Shut up Gokudera, Bakana was Federico's Cloud Guardian." The three teenagers were surprised and looked at me.

"I've dealt with enough shit as it is when I was your age, I wasn't about to become a Guardian once again." I sighed. "If anything, I was tasked with finding potential Guardians when I arrived in Namimori in March of last year. The only ones I had no input for were the Storm and Lightning ones."

"Anyway, the Sun Guardian should be here shortly." I smirked when Reborn changed into that Pao Pao guy.

I listened quietly to them, smiled at Reborn and Colonnello 'greeting' each other and then Dino pulled me on my feet.

"We've got some work to do too!" I blinked at him. "You're helping training my student!"

"Can I...not?" He dragged me with him.

"You're not fighting with us Dino-san!?" My brother gave an apologetic look over his shoulder to Tsunayoshi.

"I can't, I'm in an allied Family, and the guy I'm training is not an easy one." I paled, like Tsunayoshi, and craned my neck to look at my brother.

"Wait, you're training Kyoya!?"

"Yup!" He stopped a step from the door. "But go get fixed before. I'll leave first." He let me go.

Obviously, I didn't go to school after. Instead, I went to visit Basil. Iemitsu was already there.

"You can walk already?" Basil nodded with a confident smile.

"Yes, Master just gave me some herbs."

"You'll be good to fight tomorrow Basil!" Iemitsu told him with a grin. "You'll help Tsuna with his Dying Will, from what Reborn told me he needs it."

"Makes sense..." I muttered before looking at my Boss. "By the way, I received a text from Arro saying you were a tyrant." He pointed at himself.

"Me? I just put him to use! He can't fight for now but he can keep his eyes open on who enters Namimori!" His eyes became more serious. "With Alaric gone for some time, some people with bad intentions tried to enter the town. I'm just making sure it doesn't happen until the VARIA threat is gone." My mouth made an 'o'.

"But the tyrant part then?"

"I just told him I could tell a lot of things to his Boss!" I sweat dropped at his happy grin.

He was evil in the end.

Although, the next day, I watched in awe Tsunayoshi climbing a cliff.

Not gonna lie, with all of them training, life was boring. Shamal was training Hayato, Takeshi went back to his father to learn...whatever he still needed to learn, Ryohei was with Colonnello and Kyoya and Dino...urgh, I was so gonna bury my brother soon.

I plopped down on a chair in a small cabin outside of Namimori. Arro was eating a bento. Basically, as people entering this town were controlled when they came from the underground, there was a checkpoint, pretty much like at a frontier between two country. They had to state what they were doing in town, for how long and blah blah blah.

"Thinking about it, how did Superbi enter Namimori?"

"Iemitsu told Basil to go a certain way and made sure Alaric would let things slide. Making it known Namimori is guarded would 'ruin the surprise the moment they arrive'."

"Alaric loves playing with people's sense of direction," Arro muttered, eating some rice.

"He loves it." I looked around. "Where's Li?"

"He said that because he had to work more hours, he was on a break until you collapse." I sweat dropped. "It seems like he had to patrol and be at the checkpoint. Basically, even if Reborn helped too, Fon managed to get some people from his Triad contacts to help here."

Li was a little bit older than us, Chinese, with short black hair and black eyes so slanted it looked like they were closed. Although, I was pretty sure they were most of the time. He was also one of Fon's old student from before me.

That douche bag...kept beating me in hand-to-hand combat. He mastered more styles than me anyway.

"Hello young people!" I turned my head to the door when a loud 'thump' reached my ears. There were two people at Iemitsu's feet. "Would you look at what tried to kill my son!"

"It's green," I commented, seeing their suit. "How come Alaric didn't send them here?" Arro sighed deeply.

"Don't tell me it's Verde..."

"Reborn said it was Verde," Iemitsu told him and he banged his head against the table.

"Of course it's him..." I got up and went to them.

"Any injuries?"

"None, it's just annoying to know they went to my house. The suits made it so only small children could see them." I twitched.

"Reborn saw them right away then."

"He did." I sighed.

"We send them back or kill them?" He took his chin between two fingers.

"I don't know...I don't want to deal with the paperwork that comes with it." The two men shivered between us.

"But maybe using their corpses would make the VARIA run away?"

"Va...VARIA!?" they screamed in sync. A small blade landed between them.

"Shut up, will you?" Arro droned behind me.

"So?" Iemitsu hummed in thoughts and crouched behind them.

"We'll drop them off. I'm sure they won't try to attack Reborn's student anytime soon, right?" They were sweating profusely.

"Of course!"

The next day was more interesting though.

"What...how did we get there!?" Levi wondered out loud as instead of the town, they were now in the woods.

"Mammon's gone," Belphegor noticed, not seeing the flying baby. "Ushishi, Squalo how did you get into town last time?"

"Voooiii shut up Bel!" he replied angrily. "Boss, do you think we're trapped in an illusion?" He got a glare.

"Seriously though," a male voice, "you've always been so loud." A silver-haired teenager appeared in front of them, azure eyes looking at all of them. He stopped for a solid second on Xanxus, who was frowning at him.

"Vooiiii the fuck are you doing here!?"

"Ma, isn't he just adorable? Someone you know Squ-chan?"

"'Squ-chan'?" Arro repeated with a raised eyebrow. One look at his cousin and he was laughing, holding his stomach! "It's...it's...and you let him call you like that Superbi!?"

"VOOIII STOP LAUGHING ARRO!"

"Someone you know then!" Lussuria exclaimed. Squalo sighed.

"He's my younger cousin." All eyes were on the teenager, who was waving at them with a big grin.

"Absolutely not nice to meet you!" He dodged knives. "And Superbi, you suck."

"What!?"

"Lulu kicked your ass and broke your sword! Dino had the rings from the very beginning and you totally believed Lulu was trying to beat you when she wanted you to leave with the fake ones! You were tricked by sixteen-year-old teenage girl!" Squalo made a step forward but one glare from his Boss made him stop.

"Trash, you lost so shut the fuck up." Then, he set his crimson gaze on the teenager. "Where's that girl?"

"Hum? Oh, she's taking care of the Mist Arcobaleno. You know, Arcobalenos are a big deal."

"How did he..."

"Hey Arro, what the fuck is going on?" Squalo asked him more seriously.

"You didn't notice before because we let you in, but Namimori isn't a place the Mafia can enter as they wish. It's CEDEF and Triads territory." He sighed at the surprised looks. "I'm not explaining this. You, you're the Boss, Xanxus right? Lulu told me about you." Arro didn't notice how his cousin reacted at that, like Xanxus. "I have to see with you to let you all in, so please follow me." He did and found himself in a small living-room in a cabin.

"Who are you?" he asked Arro, who casually sat down in a brown couch, his wrist still in a cast.

"My name is Arroganza De Luca, nice to meet you Luciana's big brother." Xanxus' fingers twitched unconsciously. "Don't worry, your secret is safe. Not for you though, but I know Lulu wouldn't like so much attention out of sudden. I'm her best friend." He showed the other couch with his valid hand, on which Xanxus sat down. "So, I need to check the authenticity of the half ring you have. Don't worry, I won't make the same mistake that my cousin."

"Tch, keep your family issues to yourself," Xanxus replied, throwing him the ring. Arro caught it with ease and without a word, inspected it. The older's eyes noticed the rings on his fingers. A red stone and a blue stone.

"It's the real deal, it feels the same than Sawada's." Arro threw it back and stared at Xanxus for a few seconds. "Heh...Lulu's eyes are darker than yours I think." He leaned a little bit closer. "Yep, hers are totally ruby red and not yours."

"Stop making comments trash."

"And you are Viper, the Mist Arcobaleno," I told the floating baby as the rest of his team was taking a different road. The baby looked around them.

"It's Mammon and there will be additional fees for more information." I chuckled.

"There's a chance you'll have to pay to enter the town and get the rings," I said, re-adjusting my sunglasses on my nose, perfectly hiding my red eyes. "You wouldn't know though, of course, as we tricked Superbi into thinking you guys had the upper hand."

"'Superbi'?" they repeated, floating in front of my face. "Oh, I remember you. Federico's Cloud Guardian, right? You've known Squalo for a long time."

"Nine years." I put my hands in the pockets of my black fake leather jacket, the strap of my bag across my chest. It was filled with food because I had not eaten yet. "I'd say I'm sorry for turning the second-in-command in ridicule like that, but it seems a particular side of him hasn't grown yet and I was pissed."

"He pisses off a lot of people. Why this welcome?"

"Namimori is CEDEF and Triads property, you can't go inside without being controlled. Although, you're an Arcobaleno and I want to see the proof." They looked back.

"And who put me in this illusion?" I smirked.

"Shouldn't you have guessed already?" I leaned toward them. "I have to give it to you: you didn't train some talent-less brats. Although, the oldest keeps being a pain in the ass." They remained silent and then smirked slightly.

"You've improved Alaric." Mist appeared next to me and Alaric was there. "And you grew up a lot." I looked at him from the corner of my eyes. There was a small, flattered smile and something akin to pride in his eyes, like a child complimented by his father.

It was new, but not unwelcomed. Alaric was always the adult in every situations, even if he himself was still young, so it was probably hard sometimes.

"I am twenty-six Master."

"And Nikolaus?" I rolled my eyes.

"It's complicated." Mammon didn't try to know more and showed us their pacifier. I nodded, seeing it was the real deal, and it was back under their cloak.

"Your deal in town is only as a VARIA?" I asked him more sternly. He nodded. "Every actions you will take will be in the VARIA interests and on order of your Boss, right?" He nodded once again. "It means if you suddenly have other business, like Arcobaleno business, you will have to come to us again." I grabbed an apple lollipop from my bag and unwrapped it as I gestured to Mammon to follow me.

When we arrived, I had my lollipop in my mouth, Mammon now knowing Alaric and I had known each other for more than a decade and a giant with a weird haircut was in my face.

"Who are you!?" I took a step back and looked at him up and down.

"Don't you look just plain stupid?" A vein bulged on his temple and I looked around. "Damn a bunch of weirdos." I pointed at Superbi. "You suck, I tricked you and you didn't see it coming!"

"You little..." the giant started, running to me with...umbrellas? I heard the door of the cabin opening but I had my arms around one of his, kicked his ankles and turned his limited stability due to his running to nothing and threw him over my shoulder and in a tree. He was knocked out.

"I thought you had something called VARIA Quality or some shit like that? It's disappointing." I took my lollipop out of my mouth and pointed it at the guy. "The guy didn't even know what to do of his limbs, what a sham..." I stopped talking because of the oppressing presence in my back. Slowly putting the candy back in my mouth, I turned around and mechanically raised my head.

I gulped. I felt very, very small. Xanxus was staring down at me, impassively, and looked at his subordinate.

"Two." He looked at the rest of his team above his shoulder. "It's the second one to be beaten by her. Did you become a bunch of weaklings trash?" 'Trash'? We had the same vocabulary?

"Ma, Boss, she's obviously an experienced martial artist!" a man with flamboyant hair said.

"Vooooiii Levi was down in less than a second!" Superbi retorted.

"Ushishi, I can skin her in less than ten~." I snorted. As if.

"Anyway, I'm sure Arro already went through the...most important steps but I have some questions so..." He nodded, grabbed my wrist and dragged me in the cabin. I blinked at his hand on my wrist and caught Arro's surprised eyes.

I had no reaction whatsoever. I ignored how the flamboyant guy seemed worried Xanxus was about to kill me and watched him close the door behind him. I was about the say something that he spun around and almost torn my precious glasses off my face.

And we stared in utter silence. His eyes...were more vibrant than mine. Ever so slowly, he grabbed my face between big, warm, calloused hands and started moving it on the sides. From the focused look on his face, he was probably just trying to see what...changed.

Then, when his fingers stopped on my pulse and I heard the small sigh of relief, I came back to my senses.

"Thank you...for helping me out last time." His eyes were back on my face and whatever thoughts were going through his head disappeared because he frowned and removed his hands to cross his arms.

"Why were you in Vendicare?"

"I...helped a friend of mine to escape and they caught us afterward." His frown deepened and I found myself waving frantically in front of me. "I had a debt and I paid it back! That's all! I learned my lesson!" He wouldn't stop staring. "Okay, I had other charges but I left jail!"

"Didn't it cross your mind I could use these information against you later?" I froze. "We're not on the same side after all." I bit the inside of my cheek, ignoring how his words stung me.

"I...it's just...you're my big brother?" No response.

"Didn't you see how Lussuria seemed scared I try to hurt you?"

"I did but...I didn't react to you touching my wrist so I...I'm not worried about you being a threat to me..." I frowned at him. "Are you scared of me?"

"Repeat that?" he replied with a raised brow. I cleared my throat.

"I mean...you seem like the confident kind of guy, who crushes people if they don't agree with him yet...I don't know, you look like you don't know how to talk to me normally." A small, and wasn't it sadness in his eyes, smile appeared on his lips.

"Do you remember me?" I was taken back and shook my head.

"Sorry...I was too young." He put his hand on my head.

"You were, weren't you?" he whispered to himself.

I couldn't help but think...or more like hear how sad he seemed to be I didn't remember him.

But I couldn't change it, could I? He was a stranger to me but...he remembered me when I was a baby and toddler and from Mom's state...he took care of me.

"Hum...it won't come to you as a shock but...it's better if we keep huh...our relationship a secret." He half closed his eyes.

"Obviously." I nodded, rocking back and forth on my feet. I stopped when he touched my necklace. "I'm not mistaken if I say you live in town, am I?"

"No."

"I'll find you then." Just like that, my glasses were back on my nose and he exited the cabin, the VARIA following him as his jacket was basically now a cape flying in his back.

His Boss composure was back and I just stared at them leaving.

He...the Xanxus I had spent a few minutes with...was completely different.

"Lulu? You're okay?"

"Yeah, just...it was incredibly awkward." Arro shot the spot they had been in a look for a second.

"It's normal. It's been fourteen years Lulu, you don't know each other, you don't remember him but he does. Didn't Federico say he thought you dead too?"

"Disappeared, but after a certain amount of time..." I sighed and ruffled my hair. "You think we'll get along?" He looked at the sky.

"For now, with the rings thing? It's better to wait for it to end and...depending on the results...siblings are supposed to grow up together, you've got a whole relationship to build."

"That's troublesome." He nodded and took his phone. "You're calling Iemitsu?"

"Yeah." On my side, I dialed Romario's number, knowing Dino wouldn't answer.

"Is everything alright Princess?"

"The VARIA has arrived."

"I see, I will tell the Boss as soon as possible."

"Romario, be honest, how much is left of poor Dino?"

"...too much to your friend's liking." After another few words, I hung up.

Dino was still alive, that was good.

"Wait, Lambo!?" I almost screeched. Iemitsu covered one of his ears. "Lambo has a ring!?"

"He has potential!"

"But right now he's five and can't fight!" Iemitsu made an annoyed face and I felt like strangling him with the orange sleeves of his overalls, but he slipped his arms inside and basically made himself presentable.

"It's gonna be fine!" I wrinkled my nose and put my sunglasses back on. "By the way, you look like you're straight out of a biker gang." Basil chuckled.

"My fashion sense fits my personality."

I heard voices, and caught a glimpse of light before Iemitsu stepped in front of us, in the open we finally reached, and threw his pickax at Xanxus' feet. A part of me wanted to yell at him, because I had just officially met my brother and would like him to stay in one piece thank you very much, but another part of me was reminding me he would have killed Tsunayoshi and his friends in the blink of an eye.

Probably, for the short second I felt his Flame of Wrath, I realized it...was nothing like mine. At least I thought so.

"Wait a minute Xanxus, that's enough," Iemitsu stated, Basil and I on each of his sides. "I'll take it from here." And now we were the center of attention.

"Dad!?"

"The Tenth's dad!?" Hayato repeated in shock.

"Iemitsu," Xanxus 'greeted' coldly with a glare.

"What are you doing here!?" Superbi screamed at him, sword ready.

"Xanxus, is one of your subordinate aiming his weapon at the External Advisor?" I shot Tsunayoshi a look. He knew his dad was important, but had he grasped everything?

"Don't stick your nose in that business now, Iemitsu! All you know to do is running away like a coward!" I frowned and grabbed my gun, ready to shoot a warning bullet at the idiot's feet as Basil replied angrily.

However, Iemitsu stretched out his arm in front of Basil, who had his boomerang in his hand, and put his hand on my gun to lower it.

"Now, hold on you two." Then, he turned his head to look at the VARIA. "I wasn't running away. I was waiting on a response from the Ninth." As he explained everything, I looked more closely at the group down there. Arro was with them.

Wait, did we really take that long to arrive?

I accepted the paper Iemitsu gave me and seeing Basil's going down to give it to Tsunayoshi, I internally rolled my eyes when I realized I was supposed to give it to Xanxus. I jumped on their side and handed my brother the paper, who was incredibly good at pretending I was nothing to him.

I was doing the same though.

I went back next to Iemitsu as the papers were opened, a Dying Will Flame on said papers appearing. I noticed everyone on Tsunayoshi's side staring at it in awe, Arro even inching closer to whistle quietly at it.

However, I slightly wanted to bang my head against a tree when Iemitsu announced the Ring Tournaments. It wouldn't be a Battle Royal, sure but…

Still…

I trusted Mukuro and Kyoya. Mukuro had found a vessel in a random girl and accepted to fight, so he better be good.

And damn was it obvious there was something just wrong about all this when two pink-haired chicks appeared out of nowhere saying they would be the neutral judges of this and Iemitsu had never heard of them and Xanxus seemed...I was torn between thoughtful and wary of them.

Alright...I had to look for information about the Cervellos.

I had a bad feeling about all this.

"Bakana," Reborn told me once everybody was leaving.

"Hum?"

"The scars." I blinked behind my glasses and sighed.

"Yeah, I'm aware." He pursed his lips. "I...I don't know Reborn it's...I also knew he would send Superbi." He frowned as I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. "It wasn't a dream though, more like a very strong feeling it was plain obvious."

"And it's not as if you could control it either, right?" I shook my head. "We can only hope if you ever have other dreams it won't have the same effect. It seems like you...somehow awakened something."

"So the exhaustion last time would have been because it was the first time?" He nodded. "But what exactly..."

"I can't say for sure." He walked away.

As I left to go tell Dino the tournament would be held in Namimori Middle School, I couldn't shake the feeling this all thing was a bad omen and that Reborn knew more than he was letting on.

Fratellanza

Thanks for reading this chapter! Thanks to Guest and AutumnBee124 for their reviews!