This was longer than I intended it to be. Whoops! As per usual, I had a little bit of fun developing their reincarnated-selves and their little quirks. Anyhow I hope you enjoy! This chapter focuses on Rus :D

LEGEND:

"Dialogue" - as of right now, they are speaking in Italian sans Dia's Kufufufu

'Thought'

Squalo thought dialogue - depending on the context, it can be directed to someone (to be interpreted if possible) or to no one in particular.

- Sign Language -

A/N: Rus just doesn't care while Dino definitely does.


"Geez, you guys. I think both of you have already hit your beating quota for the day. No, for the whole month. I don't think your parents would be happy seeing you both nearly dead." Rus sighed.

"At least birdy is closer to death than I am. That means I won." Dia said from her spot on the floor as she was being tended to by her uncle.

"Like hell you won, pineapple insect. I'm not the one who's immobile on the floor." retorted Calen on the other side of the gym. He slightly winced as he finished disinfecting the last of his wounds. With his teeth, he tugged on the bandage roll to wrap around his arm.

"Oh no you didn't. You did not just demote me from a herbivore to an insect."

"... Invertebrate."

"Kufufu… You want spineless, you slug?"

"That's enough, both of you." Rus said sternly and the two promptly shut up. The Dino part of him grinned in victory. Having been their caretaker and uncle since birth has given him some power over the two young Riccios which meant some power over Mukuro and Kyoya. He always wondered what it was like to have the two most dangerous Guardians in the mafia world listen to you. If this was what Tsuna felt like when he got them to listen, then Tsuna was very lucky!

(Dino knew how childish the two could be when they fought. However, he wondered if they were always this childish. Name-calling through taxonomy? He supposed it was their current age.)

Calen finished the last of his bandages and got up slowly. At the same time, Rus finished tending to Dia and helped her up by keeping a firm arm around her shoulders.

"Watch where you're touching Cavallone."

"Mukuro, I'm helping you up. Don't make it weird!"

"... I want to find Tsunayoshi." Calen said. Rus and Dia turned to him questioningly.

"What do you mean by that Calen?" asked Rus.

"It means what it means. I want to find Tsunayoshi."

"Wait, wait, wait. It's not that simple! Tsuna could be a girl, any age, any race and anywhere. There's over 10 billion people alive right now. It's practically impossible!" His uncle exclaimed. When Calen shrugged, he continued, "It's not like you have anything that belonged to Tsuna either don't you? Sky items are already so rare nowadays. Not to mention, ones specifically belonging to Tsuna."

"Care to elaborate on that, uncle?" asked Dia. Rus only sighed. They made their way upstairs to the Riccio home and into the living room. Dia plopped onto one couch with Calen across from her on the other while Rus took the single seat sofa nearby.

"From what I can remember when I've confronted Uncle Talbot, we attain our memories of our past lives from coming into contact with our old belongings. I'm sure that it was the case with you. Calen, you have your tonfas and Dia, you have the Mist Ring from what you've told me. I have my whip. Our weapons and that Mist ring has remnants of our old flames because we've repeatedly injected our dying will flames onto them mostly in battle.

Hence, it's not just any kind of thing that we used to own that can trigger memories. They have to be items that have our flame signature on it. That flame signature is what activates our memories because it matches with our current flame signatures like a fingerprint. For example, Kyoya Hibari's flame signature is the same as Calen Riccio's flame signature." Rus explained.

"So we go to that old man's creepy store."

"If it's only it's as easy as buying from Uncle Talbot, Calen. Not everything is in his store. It's been centuries. Our items could be destroyed, lost, or heck, at the bottom of the ocean in the stomach of a shark!"

"... I'll bite it to death. I want to find Tsunayoshi."

"Argh! Cal- Kyoya, you're not liste-"

"Kufufufu… Don't waste your breath, Cavallone. You know this mollusk is not going to change his mind. That being said, I want to find Tsunayoshi as well."

Calen resisted the urge to try and kill his sister for the third time that night. Instead, he kept his attention on Rus.

"Do you know anybody like us?" He asked.

"Like us? Oh you mean… Yeah. Two others. I found Squalo. You probably don't know him but he's the head chef in that restaurant that we all go to every Wednesday night."

"La Mer?"

"How did you find him?"

Rus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well… He found me first when I had recently gotten my memories back. Er-r, he tried to kill me when we met..."


2 YEARS AGO

"... It's such a pity. June was a nice boy however he doesn't quite meet my standards." 12 year old Dia said with a flip of her hair. The adults repressed an exasperated sigh while Calen remained quiet as usual. However, Rus saw him roll his eyes unseen by his sister sitting beside him.

Rus found himself zoning out for the umpteenth time that month. Who would have thought that the old whip he found in the anthropology building at the local university would be Dino's weapon? In other words, his old weapon? When the surge of memories started sweeping through his mind, Rus fell to the ground sporting a slight headache for about 3 minutes. Thank goodness that he didn't end up tripping and breaking something in the lab he found it in. Dino never did get over his ability of being clumsy when not being around his men during his lifetime. Rus fortunately, had no such tendencies. He did grow up learning self-defence with Mr. Riccio.

(On the other hand, while he was confident that he wasn't going to let Dino's clumsiness affect him, Rus had been extra careful to not trip on air, on the stairs and such. It took a lot more mental energy than he thought he would. Call it paranoia if you will but his pride as a well-seasoned self-defence coach (albeit part-time) would never allow any form of clumsiness - let alone Dino-level clumsiness. But I digress)

He couldn't be the only one. There should be others who were like him. Then again, if it took him 35 years to even get his memories back, who's to say someone wouldn't get theirs at 90?

"... go?"

Rus could try and find the others. It would be a little lonely if he was the only one like this. He would love to find Romario, his family, Tsuna, Kyoya and Reborn.

"... Rus?"

His eyes watered. He could never forget that image. That image of Tsuna on his deathbed. Smiling softly with his family and his friends - at least what was left of them - all around him. He remembered Checkerface by his side as he slowly drained away his flames at Tsuna's request or better put, at his command. He remembered everyone's expressions which were all a mixture of hurt, relief, anger, sadness, among many other things. Surprisingly, Kyoya and Mukuro were most outraged when they first heard about Tsuna's decision. Even more than Takeshi, Hayato and Enma who were Tsuna's closest friends. However, it was not missed by anyone; the pain and their desperation reflected in the two strongest Guardians' eyes.

"Rus!"

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?" Rus blinked to see the whole Riccio family staring at him with Mr. Riccio wearing an obviously concerned expression. Anyone who didn't know any better looking at Mrs. Riccio and her children would assume that they couldn't care less for the uncle but Rus knew better. Mrs. Riccio and Calen kept their gaze on Rus, scanning for any abnormalities while Dia actually expressed concern to some extent with a slight furrow in her brow accompanied by a frown.

Rus at the moment, forgot his previous worries and felt happy to be around a nice(-ish. They were weird at best) family. He smiled reassuringly.

"... I've just had my mind busy with work at the university. It's the usual stuff. Don't worry."

Mr. Riccio nodded, "If you say so. Since we're done eating, are you sure you want to pay for tonight? I can cover for family night this week if you want."

"Oh no, it's totally fine! I have some stuff left to do here downtown so why don't you go on ahead? The kids have school and you both have a meeting early tomorrow right?"

"Right but are you sure?"

"Yeah, yeah! Go on now."

Rus watched as they got ready to leave. Mrs. Riccio took out her car keys from her purse and gave it a little twirl to hear it clang against each other before handing it over to her husband. Mr. Riccio went ahead to start up the car while Dia and Calen followed suit. The young girl took one last glance at her uncle before Calen spoke, nudging her gently.

"Dia. You're blocking the way."

"Alright, alright! Geez."

Calen and Mrs. Riccio exchanged glances as the two teens stepped out of the restaurant to follow after their father. Rus' sister-in-law approached him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't push yourself, little brother. While you're paying the bill, give our compliments to the chef. The shark dish was really well done." She patted the table before heading out.

Rus smiled as he stood up to pay at the counter. A few bills at the table grabbed his attention and he inwardly sighed. Mrs. Riccio left some money to contribute to the bill. Ah he supposed he could use it as a tip. It didn't take long to pay for their food since the restaurant was about to close up anyway.

He stepped out into the cold night. It was chillier than usual for a spring night. He should have brought an extra jacket with him. Taking one step forward, he completely missed the first step on the stairs that he started falling. In his descent, a man came into view.

'Oh no, I'm going to hit him!' he thought.

True enough, Rus crashed into him and both fell to the ground painfully. He groaned.

"I'm so sorry!"

Rus quickly got up and patted down his clothes. He held out a hand towards the poor man to offer him up however, he wondered if ever crashing into him was the best idea - not that he intended to. The man inaudibly growled and glared at Rus as if to say, Watch where you're fucking going.

"I'm really sorry, sir! I didn't mean to crash into you!" Rus once again apologized.

He completely ignored the offered hand and stood up himself. With a quick adjustment of his clothes, the man was ready to leave without another word until something caught his eye. Raising a brow, he knelt down and picked up something from the ground.

Rus' eyes widened. Some of his belongings had fallen out and separated from his pants, including his whip. He quickly scrambled to pick up his phone, and wallet but ended up slipping again to fall face first onto the moist pavement.

The man eyed him carefully and inspected the whip in his hand. At the hilt, there was a faint engraving that read: Cavallone.

"O-Ow… Great. Damn it, why was I such a klutz back then?" Rus hissed to no one in particular.

Putting two and two together, the man smirked and took out a small pocket knife. Flipping it open, he swung it downward.

If Rus wasn't paying attention, his forehead would have been gushing out blood. However, his instincts kicked in and he rolled out of the way. 'What the hell?!' Rus thought as he stared wide-eyed at the man fearfully. The expression on his face that somehow reminded him of someone but he couldn't pinpoint as to who. His smirk wasn't close to a grin however it showed enough teeth to see his fangs.

The man unravelled his whip and threw it towards Rus who grabbed it. He stared back and forth between his weapon and his opponent, wondering what to do. The man seemed to roll his eyes before he launched himself towards Rus.

Rus gritted his teeth and readied himself for a battle, being extra careful to not let the Dino-side of himself to mess up and possibly get killed in the process. They exchanged blows one after another. They were at a draw for the most part however Rus could see the man's movements were rather stiff and his energy slipping quickly.

Before he could have some more time to think, the man ran towards him once more with his pocket knife raised. Grabbing a hold of another section of his whip with his other hand, in addition to the hilt, he stretched them stiff to block from the man's knife. His whip was made from the strongest flexible material - credits to Leon and reinforcement from Verde - so Rus wasn't worried about the knife slicing through his weapon.

However, he found himself unable to move. He was paralyzed. His eyes widened. He recognized this technique. Now he knew who used to smirk like that. No wonder, their little spar felt so familiar.

"Attaco di Squalo…" Rus whispered as he stared at the man who was very pleased to have him realize who he finally was.

The man stepped back and put away his knife. Not too long afterwards was Rus able to move once again. Rus puffed his cheeks.

"Squalo! You know you could have just told me who you were, not attempt to kill me!"

The man shrugged and gave him an uninterested look.

It's too boring to do it that way.

Rus raised a brow. One of the perks of being trained by Reborn was having the ability to read body gestures. Now that he realized that the man was Squalo, he wondered why he wasn't shouting obscenities left and right.

"No it isn't! How hard is it to tell me, 'VOI! It's me Squalo!'? What's your name anyway?"

The man rolled his eyes and raised his arms that Rus thought he was going to have to fight him again. But instead, what he did next surprised Rus.

- It's Arias. I'm the head chef of this restaurant. - The newly named Arias, signed. Now, Rus didn't know sign language however Dino did. Once again, it was one of the things Reborn taught and Rus assumed that Arias was aware of the fact. But...

"Y-You're m-mute?"

- Isn't it obvious, Cavallone? God, I thought you were an idiot but not to this extent.-

Something bubbled inside Rus. Squalo was mute. The Superbi Squalo was mute. The noise pollution that Squalo alone emitted was enough to motivate some higher being to have him reincarnated as a mute.

Now that…

"NOW THAT'S HILARIOUS! PFFT HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rus didn't care for the slight twitch in Arias' brow, the shift in the atmosphere, nor the very obvious threatening glint in his eyes.

But Dino definitely did.

"SOMEBODY FINALLY GOT YOU TO SHUT UP. YOU- Ah, wait, wait. Squalo! W-Why d-don't w-we celebrate our reunion like old times? Oh shit, I'm sorry! Wa-"


PRESENT TIME:

"... Can you believe that guys? Squalo and I have been friends since we were in school and that's how he treats me?"

"You don't deserve any sympathy." Calen remarked.

"You clearly deserved what you got." Dia added.

"Both of you are so mean!"

"So? Who's the other one?" Calen crossed his arms, "You mentioned meeting two. One was the shark omnivore. Who was the other?"

"Oh… Well, even back then I didn't know him personally. For obvious reasons, neither did any of you really." Rus replied.

"Kufufu… So this person is irrelevant."

"Erm, not exactly. I initially thought he was Lambo. - "

"In other words, irrelevant." Calen said.

"- But it wasn't."

"I find it difficult to mistake anyone with the annoying cow." Dia said.

"Well… He said that he was Lampo. The first generation Lightning Guardian."

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"So in other words, irrelevant." both siblings deadpanned.

"Both of you, have some respect for your elders, especially the first generation!"

Hehehe I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :) Thanks to acertainpasserby, BoyishBlue, and kawaiiecho312 for reviewing as well as everyone else who favourited and followed! Love you all! By the way, while I do have a couple of ideas for some of the characters, let me know if you have some ideas of your own ;)