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

Fratellanza

"I think he's getting uncomfortable," I told Arro while we were hugging as much as our conditions allowed us to. He looked at Superbi, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.

"No, it's his default face." Superbi glared at him. "Fine!" The hug stopped.

"Don't move so fast you moron!" Arro grinned at his cousin, his wrist and leg in casts.

"You really had your leg sliced?" I nodded, the spoon of my yogurt in my mouth.

"By the way Superbi, you better not use my room as a hiding spot from the VARIA."

"Vooiii it's the only room they won't barge in!"

"Well you're ruining our reunion!" Arro complained.

"You were trying to choke her two seconds ago!"

"It's how I show my suicidal idiot I care about her."

"I'd say something about the nickname but...it's accurate." They both gave me a pointed look. "Okay, you look like each other with that look, stop it." I looked at my best friend. "Can you go see Alaric for me please?" He looked between Superbi and I and nodded.

"Sure, I'll leave."

Needless to say, Superbi couldn't look at me in the eyes.

"Hey, you kissed me without my consent, the least you can do is properly look at me," I told him. He blushed a little, groaned, rolled his eyes, rubbed the back of his neck and finally look at me. "If you have trouble looking at me because I'm ugly, I'll be hurt and tell your Boss."

"Tch, don't start using the Boss to get things."

"Just watch me." I sighed. There was awkwardness between us, so I took a deep breath. "Look, I'm seventeen in a few months and...and I'm in love with som..."

"Yeah, I know you're in love with Hibari." I blushed. "It's your own fault if it happened anyway!"

"Excuse me?"

"I would have kept it to myself if you were not so stubborn about fighting!" I frowned.

"Well I was not the first one to fall if I remember well!"

"And I don't care! If it wasn't for this I'd have waited until you were eighteen or even older!"

"Good to know you have some morals." He nodded. "But what would you have done for the two morons I call my brothers? Especially the one you call 'Boss'?" He remained quiet for a few seconds.

"You're legal next year I would have had the time to come up with something." He pursed his lips. "It's new to me too."

"Arro said it was the Sky Battle." Superbi raised a brow at me. "What was it?" He looked away, embarrassed.

"I don't know, you were not a kid anymore and...standing up to the Boss..." I looked down in thoughts.

Was it all it took?

"I've got to go!"

"Hey, can you give Xanxus a message for me?" He waited at the door for my message. "'I don't want to see your stupid face again asshole and you know why.'" He stared at me, unfazed.

"You want me to tell this to the Boss?"

"Come on, you're the only one in your little group of savages who has the balls to do it."

"Yeah, that's true." He opened the door. "Stay in bed brat."

"Yes~!" He closed the door behind him.

While Shamal was in my room to check everything, Dino came and we watched TV together. There was no sign of Xanxus.

Crap bag.

I woke up in the middle of the night, thirsty. I turned on my lamp and grabbed the glass on my nightstand, gulping it in one go.

"Someone was thirsty." I froze, all of the hairs on my body rising immediately. "Nikolaus, light." Nick?

I slowly turned my eyes to the male in the room once the lights were on. He was sitting in a chair in front of my bed, a black and immaculate expensive suit on him, slick black hair, tan. Sunglasses were on his thigh, his legs crossed.

The red eyes were haunting.

Nick was standing in a corner of the room, silent and stiff.

"You're a gorgeous young woman now!" I watched the man smiling at me. He got up and approached me casually. "There's a little of Dafne in your gaze."

"Father I guess?" I whispered in a hoarse voice.

"Well of course. It seems like none of my subordinates can bring my runaway daughter home, so I had to do it by myself! Hide asked me to go check on his son as well, so two birds one stone." Kyoya was not able to defend himself right now, and neither was I but...I was conscious unlike him.

"I'm not leaving," I said weakly. Nick rolled his eyes.

"When did I say you had the choice?" He sat down on my bed and I moved as close as possible to its edge. "Are you scared of me?"

"Didn't you send me to the Estraneos to be tortured when I was a child?"

"So?" I widened my eyes.

"What do you mean 'so'!? Do you even know what happened in there!?"

"I do, every project in the second lab came from my brain." I shivered of fright. "And I wouldn't let anyone touch my baby girl."

"Stop calling me your daughter."

"But you are my daughter. It's not because I have a peculiar parenting style I'm suddenly not your father anymore."

"You call that a 'parenting style'!?" I cried out, seeing red. "You fucking trash, you put me through torture! You put Romain and I through torture!" He sighed.

"First of all, show your father some respect and don't call me 'trash'. Nikolaus, don't intervene." Indeed, he was baring his teeth at me. "Second of all, do you know how progress is made in medicine and science?" I pursed my lips. "Experimentation. Sometimes, you have to do them on people, that's all."

"But you were supposed to be my father," I whispered. "Romain and I were kids."

"Kids with a still developing metabolism are more likely to adapt to what the Project Immortale was about instead of a fully-grown adult." I hated this.

I hated the fact a part of my brain was finding his reasoning logic out of anything.

"And I had to get that Flame of Wrath out of you! You were too kind and couldn't even kill a bunny! I don't care if you were three, the earlier you start the better! It was to prepare you!" I gaped a little. "I'm sorry to break it to you, but you were born a girl. You'll succeed me one day as the head of the Family and if you had not gone through the worse as a child, then how would you have kept moving with your head high without caring about this sexist Mafia's opinion of you!?"

"There were other ways than turning me into a guinea pig!" He clicked his tongue.

"You really don't want to understand, do you?"

"Why would I!? The only reason I'm here is because Mom didn't want to give Xanxus back to you! You killed your own brother's fiancee!" I choked at the hand around my neck.

"It was what he deserved for helping this whore take my son away from me!" I grabbed his wrist. "She raised him in the slums in poverty and dirt! My son deserved better than this and being lied to for years!"

"Boss, you're strangling her." My father blinked and seemed to get a grip on himself. He released me and pinched my cheek. My whole body contracted in fear.

"Sorry sweetie, I sometime let my anger speak for itself. We all have our triggers." I coughed a little. "Anyway, I came here to see you."

"I thought you wanted to 'take me home'."

"It was the plan, but it changed. I mean, ultimately you will come home. Let's just say now you've got that little ring of yours, I'm even more eager about you coming home just like I'm wary." He pursed his lips. "That and even if I'm confident about my strength and the Venjador Familía, I don't really want to go against the Vongolas and Cavallones at the moment." Well...at least they didn't copy the Vongolas even in the name. They may have copied the Vindice but…

Wait...how did I know what 'Venjador' meant?

"However, I have other ways to convince you to come. You know, accidents happen sometimes." He was threatening me, wasn't he? I couldn't follow him until I quit anyway.

I didn't want to follow him period.

"By the way, how is Alaric doing? Doesn't he have some heart issue?"

"It's none of your business."

"I'm just trying to check on him! You help a subordinate with his condition thanks to some experimentation and somehow, you're the bad guy!" I paled.

What did that mean?

What did Alaric hide from me again!?

I blinked when Nick moved away from the door, a dagger in his hand. My father was grabbed by his collar and pinned to the wall, a shining gun under his chin.

Xanxus was not happy. I watched the scene unfold with shocked, wide eyes.

"I'm glad you're joining our family reunion son."

"Don't approach my sister trash!" Xanxus yelled in reply, the fist on our father's dressed shirt shaking in anger. He raised his hands in innocence.

"I can't talk to my daughter after so many years? It's not fair, you had that chance Alejandro. Or Xanxus, isn't it?"

"We're not your children trash," my brother hissed in disgust. "If you try to just touch one single strand of her hair I'll put a bullet in your twisted brain." Our father grinned.

"What are you waiting for then?" I could see my brother's hesitation by the way his shoulders shuddered. "You failed to kill your adoptive father, you're not about to kill me, boy." He vanished in a cloud of indigo mist and reappeared next to Nick. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I believe we're not really wanted here so we'll take our leaves." They both vanished.

I stared at the floor for a few seconds, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I took a deep breath, swallowed my saliva and looked up at my brother. He was taking deep, quick breaths from the way his shoulders were moving up and down, to calm himself down.

"Xanxus?" I mumbled. My throat tightened when he took a seat next to me on my bed and grabbed his face.

"Damn it," he whispered harshly. I sat in a better position and placed my hand on his shoulder. He was breathing deeply to calm down. After a few seconds, he raised his head and looked at me. "Did he do something?"

"No...Actually, I said something that made him snap and he started strangling me." He frowned and immediately took a closer look at my neck.

"It's going to bruise," he mumbled.

"You knew who he was and that he was dangerous," I replied in a whisper. He looked down in thoughts.

"I did," he admitted quietly.

"The memories of the Future gave you too much information all at once, didn't it?" He stayed quiet and made sure there was space between us. "Xanxus, I know you know about the Estraneos, you were looking at my tattoo on the plane so don't..."

"What do you want me to say Luciana?" he asked me coldly, not looking at me.

"That you're relieved I survived?" His eyes made me shudder.

"Isn't that fucking obvious?" I gulped.

"What do you know exactly?" His gaze was shifty at first, but he cursed under his breath as I kept staring at him.

"Why you can't feel pain anymore, how you met Cavallone and that you're in danger because of that trash who wants to kidnap you." He scowled. "I also know about her, and that she made me meet the old man so that our father could take you in Spain."

"You don't know about Enrique?" He frowned. "My...I mean, our uncle. Him and our father are..."

"Don't call him that."

"That man and him are half-brothers, same dad." I took a deep breath. "I...I can tell you everything I know if you want."

"Aren't you sleepy?" I shook my head.

"I don't think I'd be able to sleep peacefully anyway." I wrapped up myself warmly in my sheets.

He got up and moved the chair our father was sitting in closer to the bed. It was now against the nightstand.

"Okay, so the beginning is very far back. You know Alaude?"

"Primo's Cloud Guardian?" he replied with a confused frown.

"Yeah. Well...he had two childhood friends who were sisters. One of them looked a lot like me but with blond hair and blue eyes. Her sister had an affair with the Secondo." I saw the click in his eyes. "You know, bastards in the Mafia are not well seen, so Alaude helped her to leave Italy and she went to Spain. That baby became our ancestor, so we are...Vongolas in a way, from an illegitimate line." He crossed his arms. "After you guys came in Namimori for the first time, I...I visited Mom." He tensed.

"I see."

"She...she was okay...lucid." He scoffed. "It's true! She's in a psychiatric institute and she...she explained a lot of things to me! Enrique was visiting her and he also told me a lot. Basically...they married and you were born soon after, in Barcelona. But she didn't like the plans that man had for you so she escaped to Italy and Enrique helped her. That man found her a few years later but she refused to give you back to him so...so they thought another child of theirs would...would have the Flame of Wrath as well." He looked to the side for a brief second, inhaling loudly.

"So you were my replacement." I nodded weakly. "Why didn't he take you right when you were born?" I smiled a little.

"I...I don't know why he didn't right away, maybe they wanted you to meet me before but...but eventually you protected me."

"I fail to see how," he hissed in frustration.

"Mom said you named me." He froze at that. "She said that because you were trying so hard to protect me from everything, it was hard for her to separate us to give that man the opportunity to take me. Enrique thought that...because of your Flame the Vongolas would be interested so..."

"She fucking remembered I wasn't his son," he snarled. "She fucking knew! She never believed it for even just a second!"

"After that, him and Enrique came. I was not a good heiress though, I was too kind and didn't have the Flame of Wrath. Enrique got his fiancee pregnant and that man…sent me in an Estraneo lab to...to get the Flame out of me. I escaped after two years and met Mukuro. Romain was the other kid going through the same experiments as me. He's the only reason I never forgot my name was Luciana. As for Enrique...he tried to locate me but...his fiancee, after she gave birth to Zacarias our father killed her, to punish Enrique. Then well...Alaric found me and decided the Cavallones would be a good family to grow up in."

"We have a cousin?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I met him at the institute on the same day. He's three or four years younger than me." I gazed at him warily, waiting for a reaction.

Nothing. He was now completely impassive.

"And that man has tried several times in the past to...make me go home I guess you could say."

"That's why Namimori is CEDEF and Triads property." I nodded once again.

"Are...are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he replied sarcastically. I crisped my hands in the sheets. "Shouldn't you hate me or something?"

"What for?"

"For leaving." I pursed my lips.

Here was the one million dollar question.

"I think that...a small part of me might resent you for leaving for a very long time." He seemed to flinch a little. "But not because of what happened to me after, just because you left without me." I took a deep breath. "Ultimately, I don't. You were ten, it wasn't your job to raise me and care for me like a parent and not just like an older sibling. If you had stayed behind just for me to discover you could have had a much better life, I would have hated myself." I sighed. "At the end of the day, you had a shot at a better life. I would have done the same in your place."

"I could have looked for you."

"It's better this way. I don't...I don't think you'd have had the same approach ten years ago. It's better this way."

I knew he was conflicted just by looking in his eyes. He wasn't trying to hide it. He wasn't looking at me, but he wasn't trying to hide how he was feeling. He felt guilty about leaving with the Ninth and must have felt guilty for years, without never being able to move on.

Federico did say once I was a taboo subject for Xanxus. He also said he'd need me more than he'd allow himself to show.

"The only person who needs to forgive you for leaving is yourself. You almost died twice to protect me, it's enough to make up for the rest."

"Don't serve me that crap." I smile a little.

"I'm your little sister, it's my job to call you out on your bullshit." He clicked his tongue and looked away. "Can I have a hug?"

He stayed still for a moment but he moved from the chair to the bed and embraced me tightly. I buried my face in his chest, hugging him around his chest, enjoying the warmth of his arms. He quickly rested his cheek on my head.

"Do you remember how you called me during the fight?" I blinked in confusion.

"Sorry, it came out of nowh..."

"It didn't," he interrupted me rudely. "Call me like that from now on."

"You mean 'Fratello'?" I felt him nodding. "Okay, if you want to." I suddenly remembered he came in my room uninvited. "What were you going to do in my room anyway?"

"Teach you a lesson about giving shitty messages to the shark trash," he replied casually, hugging me tighter. I tapped him in the back.

"...can't breath…" His hug was even tighter.

"I can't hear you Ann'."

Or he was overprotective or he was trying to kill me.

I kind of liked this dynamic.

"Dino, it's going to be fine."

"How so? Namimori is so well protected that that...that man could have kidnapped you without any of us knowing Ana! If it wasn't for Xanxus then..." He stopped pacing once I was in my wheelchair.

"I know, trust me I know, but what do you want to do about it exactly?" He flailed his arms around.

"Just...anything!" He sighed. "Promise me you won't do anything alone."

"Promised. Now I'd like to see Alaric." As we walked in the hallways, Dino was thoughtful. "Dino?"

"I know you've known him for a long time but...do you think he's really trust worthy?"

"Honestly, I don't know anymore. Mammon was the one to tell me he had a birth defect, but if he benefited from the Estraneos experimentation one way or another to be healthy, I can't blame him for not telling me." When I asked him about his childhood, he had seemed so...off. "But as I said, if I need help I'll ask, until then...I'll handle it." We stopped in front of Alaric's room.

"I'm going to see if there is any improvement with Kyoya." On this note, and after ruffling my hair for a second, he left.

I rolled to his bed. Alaric should wake up at anytime now.

His eyes remained closed though.

"I don't know your backstory," I started, "but if you still refuse to tell me then you better prove me you're trustworthy."

I went outside for a little bit, even if I knew it was cold. It was almost February now, actually Dino would turn twenty-three soon, but with everything that went down recently, I had not had the time to look for a present.

I raised a curious brow when I spotted Tsunayoshi running toward me with Reborn.

"Hey, you okay there? Take a breath." He stopped in front of me and did, panting hard, the air in front of his mouth visible because of the cold.

"Do you know a Zacarias?" Reborn asked him sternly. I froze and stared at him, dumbfounded. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"What..."

"A...a boy was looking for Alaric-san and he seemed to know who Reborn was and..."

"Was he alone?"

"Iemitsu sent a few men in the outskirts of Namimori." What was implied was obvious.

"Where is he now?"

"Home, I thought that...Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun are with him."

"Bring him here, in my room." I looked at Reborn. "He visited me last night, Xanxus intervened but..."

"You're not hurt?" He saw the scarf I had around my neck.

"Xanxus came right on time," I stressed, putting my hands on my wheels to turn around.

I got my brothers to come with me and maybe half an hour later, my cousin was hugging me around the waist, his face in my chest. He didn't have any weird intention, he clearly just wanted comfort.

"Zac," I called him softly. He sniffed loudly and I looked up at the four guys in the room. "So...this is Zacarias, he's my paternal cousin." Tsunayoshi widened his eyes.

I was aware he was the last person Xanxus wanted to know about the shitty mess our blood family was, but I didn't really have a choice.

"Where's your father?" He pulled his head back and wiped away his running nose with his sleeve. "What happened?"

"Dad said his brother was in Japan and got scared, he tried to call Alaric but couldn't get him on the phone so we came but...but a few hours ago we saw him leaving and Dad and him started fighting and..." He sniffed deeply, immediately wiping away the tear in his left eye. Of course, Tsunayoshi was lost at Zac's Italian.

Xanxus turned him around quite roughly, a frown on his face.

"Did he hurt you?" Zac shook his head. "Did he say where he was going?" He shook his head again. Xanxus clicked his tongue and dropped his arm, walking toward the window.

"What's going on?"

"It's just...someone very dangerous was in town up until this morning," Dino explained. Tsunayoshi frowned.

"A foreigner?" I frowned as well. "In a suit with black hair and sunglasses?" It cast a chill and everyone was staring at him. He realized and immediately got to be nervous. "I...I ran into him yesterday, he asked if I had seen his daughter because she ran away from home."

I couldn't help it and burst out laughing, holding my stomach.

Now they were all looking at me. Zac retreated next to Dino.

"Senpai?"

"Tsuna..." Dino trailed off. "How can I say this..." I pointed a shaking finger toward Tsunayoshi, tears prickling my eyes because of how laughable this situation was.

"You...you met my biological father without knowing it!" He paled drastically. "It's...it's...oh God I can't breath!" Xanxus smacked me on the head with a snarl and put my inhaler in my mouth. "I'm crying so hard inside!" I took a breath from my inhaler.

"Long story short, Luciana's father is a Mafia Boss and wants her to inherit, but by force," Reborn summed up for Tsunayoshi.

The two people I could pretty much talk about my father with were both unconscious. Of course Arro would be here to listen, but the less he was involved in my family business, the better it would be for the both of us.

"He came last night to say 'hi'," I added, calming down.

"Trash." Tsunayoshi jumped at the harsh voice of my brother. Xanxus showed our cousin with a movement of his head. "Keep him at your house for now."

"Sure bu..." Xanxus pushed him with his shoulder when he left the room.

"By the way who are you?" my cousin asked my brother. Dino grinned.

"My name is Dino, it's my dad who adopted Luciana almost ten years ago."

Enrique was found in the woods, missing an eyeball. He was unconscious but alive, Zac was relieved, so was I, and Xanxus was not happy.

"You were a grumpy baby," was the first thing my uncle told my brother, "you still are from that face."

"Grumpy or a baby? Because honestly he's both." He pushed me and my wheelchair in the bathroom. "Prick."

"What the hell are you doing in Japan?" my brother asked my uncle gruffly. I went back in the room.

Also, we were speaking in Italian.

"I heard that my brother was spotted in Tokyo and...well, let's just say that if he were in Tokyo he'd come here as well. I tried to warn Alaric but couldn't get a hold of him so I came and found him when he was leaving and well..." He showed us the eye patch on the left side of his face. "He's really bitter."

"Tch, fucking trash," Xanxus muttered against our father. I was glad he didn't ask more about why our father was in Tokyo.

I couldn't tell him how Kyoya's father and ours were...friends.

"Alaric has been in the hospital and unconscious for a few days." Enrique frowned at me. "It's nothing, we broke the Arcobaleno Curse and he was slashed, no big deal." He just stared at me weirdly.

"Huh...sure?"

"I'll see with Dino if he can put you in safety." I looked up at my brother. "Is it okay?" He crossed his arms.

"I don't want the old fart to snoop around."

"It settles it then."

At the end of the day, once I had my dinner, I visited Kyoya. He was unconscious, laying still in the bed. They had to shave his head for surgery and it was still wrapped in white bandages.

At least, he seemed at peace. He wasn't frowning or glaring or anything for once.

I still felt tears forming a lump in my throat. Really, he had seen me in the hospital and unconscious several times now and I bet he never cried so I shouldn't either.

It was Kyoya though, he'd wake up soon enough. Dino told me there was no improvement yet, but it was Kyoya.

He would get better soon and go back to biting people to death. He wasn't going to stay in a coma because I couldn't keep a stupid ring out of my Cloud's hands.

Right?

Fratellanza

Thanks for reading this chapter! Thanks to LyriaHart for the review!

Bye!