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

Fratellanza

I was hugging my knees to my chest under the bed sheets. I could hear the water running from the bathroom. It was still early, only 8:30 a.m. but I had not slept a lot the previous night. Xanxus took me to his room and put me in bed. In the middle of the night, he woke me up from a nightmare. I was sweating buckets and mumbling in my sleep. I couldn't go back to sleep after that, and I knew very well Xanxus didn't either. He was too tensed next to me to be sleeping.

The nightmare though…

Byakuran was accusing me to have killed him. I didn't know the guy yet I couldn't stop that guilt in my stomach that made me want to puke. It was way too easy to think of him as the big bad guy who did everything he did for his own enjoyment but…

The little glimpse I had of a parallel world gave me enough power to infiltrate the castle of the most infamous assassins in Italy, if not the entire Mafia, and I stood up to Xanxus during the Sky Battle without fearing for my life because I knew they were done for.

What if Byakuran just...what if he was just too consumed by all of this? What if after seeing so much, he thought his actions would...really…

I grabbed a fistful of my hair, my head buried in my knees. Was I seriously finding the guy excuses just because one or several of my parallel selves were friends with him? Sure, he found a way to cure me, and maybe I was not on his target list but…

He was dead. Romain and I burned his body.

He wouldn't…

I widened my eyes.

He was dead in the Future but...in our time, was he…

I needed to ask Iemitsu, he would know.

"Hungry?" I raised my head to Xanxus, who was buttoning his shirt.

"Not really." Yet, my stomach made itself known.

"You've been in a lot of fights in a short amount of time, you need to regain your strengths. I can get a maid to bring something here if you don't want to deal with the trash." I blinked at him in confusion.

"Oh right, you don't live alone..."

"Even if I wish to sometimes," he mumbled with a roll of the eyes. "Go take a shower."

Although, once it was done and in front of Xanxus, he raised a brow at me. I had my jeans on, but one of his sweater as well, a gray hoodie, and it reached my knees.

"You're short." I felt my brow twitching.

"I'm 1.70 meter tall you giant."

He didn't miss the opportunity to ruffle my hair when he got up from his bed and I glared at him through my locks. I put my combat boots and glasses on and followed him.

The hallways were richly decorated but the choice of colors was making everything pretty dark. It was not dark enough to have the lights on when the sun was shining brightly outside, but still. Even when we reached the dining-room, still empty, it was pretty dark. The curtains were almost all closed. At least my eyes wouldn't be hurt by the light but still…

A maid came almost as soon as Xanxus was in his chair, clearly shaking in her shoes. Her eyes were scared, even if Xanxus was pretty calm right now.

"The usual," he ordered before showing me with his chin. The maid turned to me, widening her eyes in shock at my face.

It was probably the eyes.

"I...if possible an Earl Grey tea with toasts and strawberry jam please." She blinked in confusion. There was a big contrast between Xanxus' behavior and mine. I was raised alongside Dino after all, and Dad and him always told me to treat the staff with respect because they were taking care of us all day long.

"Trash." She jumped.

"Right away Xanxus-sama!" I watched her basically running away to the kitchen.

"Are they all scared of you like that?" He snorted in disdain.

"At least it makes them stay in their place." Sure… "How long have you been living in Japan?"

"Hum? Well...in March before I turned fifteen, so...a year and a half I guess. Arro's been there since you guys showed up." He frowned. "Maybe I don't look like it from the state I appeared in your office yesterday, but I can take of myself. Before I left Italy, our chef wrote a bunch of easy recipes because I would have fed on candy otherwise."

"If taking care of yourself was just about cooking it would be nice," he replied dryly and I looked down as two women came with our breakfasts. I stared at the surface of my fuming tea. "But I guess Italy was too suffocating."

"Incredibly suffocating," I agreed.

"VOOOIIII THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT TRASH!?" I turned my head to the doorway, where the entire VARIA was staring at us in shock. Superbi appeared shortly after. He opened his mouth but froze at my sight.

"Stop staring scums," Xanxus told them in a threatening tone. He was at the end of the table and I was on his left, and from the look on the Lightning guy's face, it was his seat. "You've already fucking seen her."

"Not all of us have interacted with her before Boss!" the Sun one whined, taking big steps toward me. I started to be uncomfortable the closer he was to me.

Funny enough, Superbi was quick to stop him.

"What is it Squ-chan?" Superbi shot me a knowing look before looking at his colleague.

"I know you, you were going to try to hug her or something. I'm doing you a favor, trust me."

"What are you talking about?"

"I have haphephobia, it's less severe now than when I was a child but I could react badly if someone I don't know well or am not too comfortable with have a physical interaction with me," I said flatly.

"Oh...I see..." the guy, Lussuria if I remembered well, trailed off. Superbi let go of him, a thoughtful look on his face. Weird.

Mammon sat down next to me though, and quickly they all sat down. Umbrella dude sat down next to Mammon, whereas in front of me was Superbi, Belphegor next to him and then Lussuria.

They started to talk among themselves as I was quietly eating my breakfast.

"My price didn't change," Mammon whispered to me. I smirked down at them.

"Attracting Fon's wrath is not something I really want." I dodged the knife and removed it from the chair. I raised a brow at Belpehgor.

"Ushishi~, sorry but I wanted to check. You've succeeded to that Iemitsu in the Future, I wanted to see if you were really strong or not." I tore my gaze from him to look at my brother.

"You're overreacting," I told him blandly. His hand released the coffee mug he was holding so tightly. "And I know I do not necessarily look like much."

"The Boss' sister being the External Advisor could be beneficial in the future," Levi commented. Right, that was his name, Leviathan. Levi for short.

"Her future self must have proved herself!" Lussuria added.

"Not really, I've known I'm considered as such for months now," I informed them.

It was strange. On one hand they were Xanxus' men and if they tried to harm me in any way, they would suffer his wrath. The way his mood suddenly shifted when Belphegor threw his knife at me was enough to tell me this. On the other hand, they were a bunch of assassins who most likely chose this lifestyle. I didn't know their past so I couldn't really judge them after all but…

If it wasn't for Xanxus and Superbi being in the room and knowing them on a personal level, I would really feel anxious like when I was a kid clinging onto Alaric's pants in the poor streets of Milan. I mean, I was being very reserved and quiet right now.

"Well she is the Boss' sister!" Levi claimed loudly, praising Xanxus more than me.

Well, it was the same thought that brought the Ninth to his decision about my life.

Once breakfast was over, with me pretty much never giving a clear answer to any questions I received, I followed Xanxus to his office. I sat down in the couch.

"You're not much about socializing, are you?" I shrugged.

"I find social interactions quickly draining depending on the context and the people." He scoffed.

"Scums will be scums Ann'." As if I didn't know already.

"I'm sorry for coming without telling you first," I blurted out and he slouched in the couch next to me.

"You didn't cause a ruckus this time at least." I averted my eyes to the side.

"Still mad about this?"

"I'm not mad, I'm just pointing it out." I mimicked him, much like I would sometimes do with Dino when he was being patronizing. "Finally, they were really freaking you out I guess."

"Sorry about that, I just...it made me feel a little bit anxious."

"Something to do with your haphephobia?" He was not looking directly at me, trying to make it sound as if he didn't care that much about it.

"I don't want to talk about it Xanxus." I wouldn't be able to say why, but my answer made him want to touch my hair. "What, you're a hairstylist now?" I swore, the moment he started to braid my hair I thought he was making fun of me. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"You think Mom was the one to style your hair?"

The venom in his voice shut me up. When it came to our mother, I would never be able to deny anything. I...didn't know her.

However, Xanxus, the big bad Boss of the VARIA, was braiding my hair. I wondered how people would react to this.

As if he could read my thoughts, he pulled on my hair.

"But why!?" I whined like a brat.

"You're thinking of something bad." Then, he proceeded to slip his arm around my neck and pulled me against him, pretending to choke me.

Dino did say I had found my match in Xanxus when it came to sibling bickering.

I flailed my legs around.

"I give! I give!" He released me and I took the braid. It wasn't attached as he didn't have a hairband, and I had to admit it was well done.

I had a lot of split ends though, and my hair was dry.

"Hey, can you take me to a hairdresser and pay for it?" His hand grabbed my head and I instinctively grabbed his hand with my own.

"You're extorting money from me now?"

"I'm your one and only baby sister and I need a haircut please pretty please!" I begged with no shame whatsoever.

"So needy..." he growled before getting up. "Go get changed before." He accepted.

Was it possible that...underneath the appearances, Xanxus was a big teddy bear?

Well, with me of course.

Two hours later, I was admiring my new haircut in the mirror of his black Maserati. My hair now reached my shoulders instead of falling just above my waist. My old bangs were now long enough to be with the rest of my hair, even if it tended to hide my right eye. My glasses were doing a good job at keeping it away.

"Stop admiring yourself."

"I'm not!" I replied, almost offended. "I just don't know if..."

"I'm not driving you back so that they glue your hair back." I closed the mirror and looked through the window. "We're going to Japan in two days, we can drop you off if you want to."

"You're that eager to see me off? I'm hurt. But yes, please."

He nodded stiffly.

I didn't move when I woke up. We were on the VARIA private plane, and whereas the officers were in the plane, Xanxus had his own...cabin? I was allowed inside. I was sleeping on the couch, my feet on his legs as he was reading a magazine about cars.

I discovered in the couple of days I spent with him he had quite the collection.

However, my tattooed ankle was exposed. A finger ran across it and I resisted the urge to kick my brother.

I knew Future Xanxus knew about the Estraneos, and that they all got their memories but...this particular one...and he probably knew a lot more too...

He put my sock back over my ankle and I thought hearing a sigh.

...would he feel guilty about what happened to me after he left?

I waited a few more minutes before opening my eyes. I sat up and stretched out my arms and back with a yawn.

"We're going to land soon," Xanxus announced.

"Okay." Even if his eyes were stuck to the page of his magazine, he clearly was not reading it. "Xanxus?"

"When are you coming back in Italy permanently?"

"Well...as of now, until Reborn's done training Tsunayoshi." He frowned deeply at the mention of Tsunayoshi, so I slid closer to him on the couch. "Unless my Boss decides otherwise." He scowled.

"Iemitsu?" I nodded. "You really respect that moron?" I shrugged.

"You can think what you want about him, but he was the one to make sure I wouldn't be used just for my Flame of Wrath. He saw I was smart right away and made me work on that, it made me feel like more than just a soldier who follows orders blindly." He turned serious eyes to me.

"Ann', did the old fart make you join the CEDEF?" I blinked in confusion. "You didn't seem eager to be the External Advisor." I looked down, my fists clenched on my pants.

"Let's just say that...I have my own problems with the Ninth, and not all of them concern you." He didn't push any further.

He gave me a brief hug once the plane landed, I told the others a quick 'goodbye' and I was back on Japanese ground. The airport was small so I was quickly outside.

"Lulu!" I blinked and dropped my bag when I had a babbling Arro hugging me and basically choking me. I tapped him in the back, he hugged me tighter. I stretched out a desperate hand to Rick who was coming toward us, he pretended not to see me.

"I'm sorry please let me breath." He released me and pulled on my cheeks.

"Okay, I get now why you couldn't tell us anything so I forgive you. But don't get involved in that kind of shit ever again."

"Roger Captain." Rick was deadpanning very hard. He grabbed my bag. "Rick? You're pissed about you and the VARIA?"

"Just don't talk about it. I turned down Tyr and twenty years later..." He was clearly disgusted and turned around to go to his car, Arro snickering.

"He couldn't believe it for a couple of days," my best friend whispered to me. Somehow, Rick heard it and glared at us above his shoulder.

With golden eyes it was pretty terrifying.

"And I'm getting the three of us Boxes Weapons," Arro added once we started walking. "You've got Cloud in your ring, but not your Mist raven."

"Oh, thanks." Rick got into his car. "I'm calling the front seat!" I ran away toward the car.

"Hey not fair!" Arro screamed behind me.

I still got the front seat, Arro saying I cheated behind us.

"By the way, the Vongolas, Kyoya included, all left on a Vongola School Trip or something from what Reborn told me."

"I'm so happy I didn't land in Namimori." From his seat, Arro took a strand of my hair.

"It's a big change, but looks good."

"You look more mature," Alaric said.

"Thanks?" I replied, not knowing what to say to that.

"Hey, what are you going to do about the rings now Lulu?" I pursed my lips.

"I don't know yet. Now I'm sure the Cervello or someone will come to me saying I'm the only potential wielder but..."

"You don't have to use it Miss, but just get it to get your dreams under control. Shamal won't always be here to take care of your health each time it happens."

"I'm aware...I just don't want to fall in the trap Byakuran may have fallen into. Too much knowledge and..."

They didn't reply to that.

It was a possibility.

Alaric stayed for dinner and made some German dish.

"Repeat?"

"Wienerschnitzel," he said automatically with his perfect German accent. Well, he was German.

"Wie...what?"

"Wienerschnitzel," Arro pipped up. "But he's using pork and not veal, and it's Austrian and not German. It's Viennese."

"Don't butcher German Miss, I'd feel personally attacked." I rolled my eyes.

I was better at Asian and Roman languages anyway.

"Hey...are you going to go look for that guy?" Arro asked me as we were watching TV.

"Hum? Romain?" He nodded. "No, I told his future self I'd wait for him to come and fight me. Knowing you all got your memories, he knows exactly where to find me. I'm still not really in the best fighting shape anyway."

"You're going to the hospital tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." I raised a brow at Alaric, still busy with his cooking. I was basically looking at his back.

"Huh? Why?"

"Katryna gave Reborn a report about your...injuries. Shamal wants you to do all tests possible." I threw my head back with a sigh. "And I'll make sure you're going."

"But Alaric-sensei, don't you have classes to teach!?"

His glare made me shut up.

"Yeah, she's your future student. Or was, who knows about now," I told him. Shamal kept his eyes to the papers.

"So...you used the serum you asked me to test, got shot in the heart, a fatal injury, but woke up with nothing?"

"I'm pretty sure me blacking out was me dying for a few seconds to be honest."

"I'll get the tests done faster." He gave me a check-up, where everything seemed to be fine. Then, instead of having physical exercise to see if my asthma got worse, one of his mosquito bit me.

My asthma was there right away, clearly more violent than before.

"Asthma got worst. I'm going to get you an eye appointment tomorrow, as well as a hearing one. As for the other exams, it will be like when you were younger: from top to bottom." I rolled my eyes, knowing I would visit the hospital a lot. "You won't be stuck in the hospital all of the time, you'll go to school in-between. Be sure to eat healthy and do physical exercise as well, and refrain yourself from using flames. I already know the way you used them in the future affected you and I can't say how much damage it did."

"Can I get a doctor note saying I can't work at the Disciplinary Committee?"

"Honestly, with what these delinquents do I'll write it. Also, look out for anythings out of ordinary like troubles sleeping, loss of appetite or these kind of things. You can't feel pain, although it can be useful in a fight or in some cases, it also means some abnormal pain with a deeper meaning can go unnoticed."

I never thought about it this way. It was useful when the dentist pulled out two of my baby teeth, eaten away by cavities because of my sugar abuse but…

"I'll be careful."

"Good. Just for good measure, I'll tell Schlang the same thing."

"Oh come on!"

Who knew how long these exams would take.

Life...went back to how it was before. When they got back, I had successfully gone in class unnoticed so Ryohei almost screamed when he saw me at my desk. It was how I discovered what their new rings looked like, that their Animal Box Weapons were now rings, gift from the Arcobalenos.

However, it felt good to be back in school.

At lunch, I went to the Committee room. Kyoya was working on some paperwork and almost threw his tonfa at me without even looking up. It landed in the window of the hallway, broke it and I was pretty sure someone screamed in pain outside.

"Oh come on! I didn't choose to land in Italy!"

"Hn." He frowned at me when he raised his eyes. "You're not wearing your armband."

"Yep, I have a note from my doctor actually." I gave it to him. "I won't even be here every day, I'll spend half of my time in the hospital. Arro said he would get our lectures for me."

"Why do you have to have so many exams?" he asked me quietly, obvious confusion behind the apparent coldness in his eyes.

"Well you know, Estraneo shit, Shamal wants to make sure using so much flames in such a short amount of time didn't do anything bad."

"You said you only had asthma and a tattoo," he reminded me coldly, narrowing his eyes at me. I paled. Right, I never told him I would die young and fighting like I did in the future could shorten it even more…

"There's no wrong in making sure nothing changed, right?" I said with a shrug. I would have new glasses and contact lenses already, hopefully apart from that and my asthma worst than before nothing had changed. He seemed suspicious though. "So huh...my teacher said there would be a new student in my class?"

"Seven transfers from Shimon Middle School." Never heard of it. "They're coming tomorrow."

"I see. Was your trip good by the way?"

"They were loud."

"You went anyway."

"Nobody saw me until the onsen." I snickered.

"What are you, a ninja?" He smirked smugly. "Anyway, do you have a lunch with you? I'm not really hungry so there would be more than half left." He stretched out his hand. "It's in class, I'm eating with Arro and Ryohei."

"Why?"

"Because I told Arro I would make it up to him. See you later." I didn't let him respond I was out of the room.

I ate lunch quietly with the two boys. Thinking about it, Basil did say he wanted to talk to me and then was sent to the future, I should give him a call.

"Ryohei, do you know how Tsunayoshi is doing?"

"Sawada? Same as usual, why?"

"Just to know." There was no way he was fine after killing Byakuran.

I had not really talked to him before we went back to the present, so hopefully Reborn had a talk with him but…

The first kill was never easy.

I gave the rest of my lunch to Kyoya right before Alaric's class started.

I wasn't that much hungry at dinner though. I barely ate half of my meal before wanting to puke. I called Basil to ask him what he wanted to tell me before he was sent to the future as well. Basically, it seemed like a bigger version of Mafia School was in construction. I didn't know all of the details, except they wanted it to be neutral and that the government was aware of it.

Honestly, our dear Italian President was a corrupted piece of shit, but was not a big fan of the Mafia. It made me wonder why he would accept. I mean...the Mafia gave a lot of money for his presidential campaign that he didn't want to pay back. One assassinated sibling later he started paying. Said like that it was quite ruthless but...it was what happened.

The next day though, Arro went down to get the mail. I was at my third pancake when he came hurtling in the room, two envelops in his hand.

"Shit Lulu! Look at that!" He gave me one envelop.

The Vongola emblem was on it.

I didn't like that. My face lost all of its color when I saw it was an official invitation to the Inheritance Ceremony which would make Tsunayoshi the new Boss, the Vongola Decimo. It would be...official.

"The fuck did Timoteo smoke this time?" I muttered under my breath.

"I dunno but...Sawada's not ready for that. Not at all. Can't he wait until he's eighteen or something?"

"That selfish bastard wants to retire asap, it's all there is to understand." I dropped the paper on my table. "

The Inheritance Ceremony…

I had a bad feeling about this.

Fratellanza

Thanks for reading this chapter! Thanks to Alpha wolf ML, tenimyuohtori, and GodMenu for their reviews!

Bye!