I don't own KHR.

Chrome's heart just about jumped to her throat as she clasped her hands over her mouth in order to keep her gasp within her. Not that it seemed to matter, since Daemon knew she was under the table. How long did he know? Was he really not fooled by Chrome's trick when he peeked into the room?

Or perhaps he was just bluffing?

"You won't be in trouble," Daemon continued as he turned his head slightly to look at her hiding place. "Just come on out okay?"

Yeah, he probably wasn't bluffing.

Oh what is she going to do? There was no telling what he would do if she just gave herself up. Oh what should she do?!

Mukuro...Mukuro would know what to do!

Right after she thought that, Daemon took a step towards her. And another. Feeling quite panicked now, Chrome was about to reach out to Mukuro when she realized that it was too late. By the time she contacted him and he responded back, Daemon would have already reached her.

She was on her own.

"It really is alright Chrome," Daemon said when he was only a step or two away from her. "Even I have trouble sleeping once in awhile."

Wait, that's it!

Chrome quickly slumped against the single table leg and closed her eye. The next thing she knew, she heard the tablecloth being lifted.

"I'm not...oh." For a moment, nothing happened. Chrome struggled not to fidget as the silence pressed on.

"You're asleep." Chrome fought hard not to smile.

It worked! It actually worked!

"How long have you been sleeping here?" she heard Daemon mumble before she felt an arm placed itself underneath her back. "I can't imagine this being too comfortable."

Then another arm curled up under her knees and before she knew it, Chrome was being held bridal style as Daemon walked away from the table. Chrome, her body limp but her spirit ready for anything Daemon might try, particularly noticed how gently he was carrying her, as well as close to his chest she was.

He was carrying her just like he did before...but he thought she was asleep this time...

If Chrome dared to move, she would have shook her head. No! The Vongola are evil, they plan to kill Hayato, they are not kind, Daemon is not kind!

Then they suddenly stopped and Chrome heard the door quietly opened. Her heart pounded as they took a few steps forward. Her spirit became tense with anticipation when they stopped once again only to continue when she heard door close with a soft click.

She was finally in the same room as Hayato!

"It was plenty clever," Daemon said quietly as they walked forward. "To pile your clothes under your sheets like that. It might have worked on me if I wasn't a master of illusions."

Master of illusions? Wait...is it possible that he is like Mu-

"Well," Daemon continued as he stopped once again though this time, he shifted Chrome gently so that he was carrying her in one arm. Then she heard some shuffling that Chrome assumed were him lifting the blanket off the bed a bit so he could move the clothes out of the way.

"I'd better give you an official tour of the mansion tomorrow, since I doubt that you got much of a tour tonight. And Lucien too...if Knuckle lets me."

Wait...she got caught out of bed and Daemon was going to reward her with an official tour? And he wants Hayato to join in? What...

"Well, here you go," Daemon whispered in a very gentle and...caring voice as he laid her down on the soft bed. Then Chrome felt him pull the cozy blanket over her and...was she really hearing him tucking her in?

"Sweet dreams little one," Daemon wished. Then out of the blue, she felt a soft peck on her forehead.

Did...did he just...

"Goodnight." A few moments later, Chrome heard the door open and shut. When she heard nothing else, Chrome opened her eye just a smidgen.

It took a bit for her eye to get used to the darkness, but when it did, Daemon was not there.

Her eye fully opened now, Chrome wasted no time in sitting up. Chrome happened to look over and saw that Hayato was still sleeping peacefully, which a bit relieving. She then touched her forehead with two of her fingers, her mind and heart still whirling from what just happened.

Daemon...Daemon kissed her forehead...he kissed her goodnight...isn't...isn't that what fathers do for their daughters? Then why...

Chrome quickly shook her head. She didn't have time for this! She was finally with Hayato and while they definitely weren't in a good hiding place yet, she still had to contact Mukuro. It's been ages since he told her he was here, he must be so worried by now.

Chrome then closed her eye and concentrated.

"Mukuro-sama, I'm with him! I'm sorry that it took so long, but I'm finally with him!"

She waited patiently for him to respond. She didn't have to wait long.

"Oh thank goodness, I was-"

Chrome's eye widened when Mukuro suddenly cut off his sentence, without any sort of warning whatsoever.

He...he has never done this before.

"Mukuro-sama?"

She waited for him to respond again.

He didn't.

KHR

Kyoya's eyes widened as he inwardly cursed their bad luck, his incompetence.

Why did he just assumed that there was no one under the blanket?!

The green-haired man then closed his eyes and shook his head violently before opening them again. However, before the adult reopened them, Mukuro dashed to Ryohei, grabbed his arm, and made the two of them invisible.

"Wait...what...?" muttered the mafioso as he scratched the back of his head, right as Kyoya dropped to his knees as quietly as he could. "So...was I still dreaming?"

Kyoya's fingers twitched as he stayed quiet and hidden from the man's sight.

Though if the man just turned his head the right way, he would see Kyoya as clear as day.

Should he just go ahead and attack the mafioso while he still has the chance? Before he decides that he wasn't dreaming after all?

Then something that felt like a hand grasped his wrist and Kyoya didn't have to look to know that the hand belonged to Mukuro. Knowing that he was now invisible to the mafioso but still visible to his younger brothers, Kyoya turned his face and saw Mukuro's determined face and Ryohei's guilty one. Kyoya was instantly reminded of the plan.

The plan to get Hayato and Chrome out as quickly and quietly as possible. And unfortunately, biting any Vongola mafioso to death that they came across would diverge from the path.

"I really didn't see a little Knuckle clone?" the green-haired man continued to mutter.

Especially if they really did believe that they hadn't seen Ryohei after all.

"Huh, must be more tired than I thought," the mafioso added on with a giant yawn and a great stretch of his arms. Then the adult stood up from the couch, prompting Kyoya and his siblings to quietly scramble out of the way of the door.

Kyoya forced himself to be eerily still as the green-haired man walked towards the door, using one of his hands to politely cover another yawn, despite there being no one else around.

Well, to the mafioso's knowledge anyway.

The man then opened the door and for a moment, Kyoya was tempted to sneak out behind him. Unfortunately, the mafioso was closing it right behind him, not leaving much room for Kyoya to sneak out without alerting him.

Let alone him and his two brothers.

So Kyoya stayed where he was as the door closed with a soft click. Kyoya waited a few seconds though before tearing himself away from Mukuro's grip and going over and placing his ear on the door.

"He's gone," Kyoya told them with a sigh after a few more seconds of straining his ears.

"Oh thank goodness," Ryohei sighed with relief as he hung his head. Mukuro sighed as well as he dropped his illusion for a little break. Then Ryohei picked up his head again, fiddling the green box filled with fudge in his hands.

"I'm sorry," Ryohei whispered as he looked at both of them head-on, despite the shame and guilt in his gray eyes. "I..if I knew..."

"None of us knew," Mukuro cut in softly as he closed the green box (it was the kind of box where the lid was attached to it) with a soft click. "Besides, you weren't the one who woke him up anyway, he heard all of us. Your voice just happened to be the one he responded to."

"I...I guess that's true," Ryohei muttered as his fiddling with the green box only decreased slightly. "But..."

"We all messed up," Kyoya interrupted truthfully. "Luckily, the man wasn't a carnivore and was plenty gullible so we were able to get by pretty easily but...we can't afford to make the same mistake again."

This seemed to do the trick as Ryohei instantly stopped fiddling with the box and his shame got replaced with determination. When both Ryohei and Mukuro nodded, Kyoya nodded too before placing his ear on the door again. After a few seconds of blissful silence, Kyoya opened the door as quietly as he could. He cautiously poked his head out, and when he felt satisfied that the coast was indeed clear, he motioned for the others to follow him.

They then walked down the long and very elaborate hallway, Kyoya's eyes and ears on high alert and his fingers ready to grab his tonfas if need be.

So when a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder, Kyoya grabbed his tonfas on reflex as he turned around.

Luckily, before he could fully draw them out, he saw that it was only Mukuro and not some Vongola mafioso.

Though a part of him wanted to bite Mukuro to death for star...for daring to place his hand on his shoulder in an intense situation. Maybe later, when they were all reunited and had left this mansion far behind them.

"Chrome just contacted me," Mukuro whispered quickly, a complicated mixture of relief and worry written all over his face.

Ryohei sighed in relief as Kyoya let some relief spread throughout his soul. Sure, his sister and brother were still in danger, but at least they will now know that Hayato and Chrome were finally together and hidden. As well as where in this mansion they were.

Right?

"Are she and Hayato ok-"

"Look Alaude, it was just a dream!"

Kyoya and the others instantly backed up to the nearest wall right as Mukuro made it so that the three of them were invisible to the rest of the world.

"Or perhaps you just thought it was a dream," said a different, unfamiliar, and very stern voice. Kyoya's fingers twitch for his tonfas again but he forced himself to remain calm.

Remember the plan, remember Hayato and Chrome, you have to get to them as quickly as possible...

Then the owners of the two voices walked into the hall. Or rather, one of them was walking while pulling the other one behind him. The one being pulled was the green-haired man but it was the other man that caused Kyoya's eyes to widen and his heart to dance excitedly. Kyoya's hands immediately grabbed his tonfas and it took every bit of his self control to not bite the person in front of them to death.

When Chrome told them (via Mukuro) that he also had an older doppelganger, Kyoya at first didn't know what to think. Then after he thought about it some, he decided that he didn't care if someone looked just like him, except with a few minor differences.

He had a father, and he definitely didn't belong to the Vongola famiglia. And he also definitely wasn't the type to capture two children for his own personal gain.

But now Kyoya has seen this doppelganger, this person named Alaude, for himself. And now it seemed like every natural instinct of his was telling Kyoya to attack him. To see if he really was strong as he seemed, to see if Alaude really was the carnivore that his aura proclaimed him to be.

However...Kyoya turned his head slightly and saw his brothers standing beside him, both looking more or less tense. If he wasn't afraid that the two mafioso would have heard the sound, Kyoya would have sighed.

His second family, his pack, came first. Another time, when the lives of his siblings didn't hang in the balance.

"Either way, can't I just go to bed-oof!" the green-haired man's complaint was cut off when Alaude suddenly stopped, causing the herbivore to crash onto his back.

"Hey, what gives?" the herbivore complained. Alaude didn't reply back. Instead, he just trained his icy blue eyes at the wall.

Or rather, right at them.

Kyoya had a feeling that he was going to have to fight his doppelganger after all.

KHR

Tsuna shifted his sleeping baby brother slightly in his arms as he strained his ears. But tried as he might, he didn't hear another suspicious noise.

"I think it was just a squirrel," Takeshi whispered. As soon as Tsuna and Takeshi had heard that startling sound, they had hid behind the nearest, thickest bush and waited with abated breath. But that had been several minutes ago.

And considering that they had yet to see a Vongola mafioso, Takeshi was probably right.

Tsuna hoped so anyway.

Despite his slight trepidation though, Tsuna let himself sigh out loud in relief.

"Stupid squirrel," Tsuna grumbled, not happy with the little animal at the moment. "Wait a minute...squirrels are daytime animals...I've seen them...they're nocturnal too?!"

"In rare cases yes. Though it is more likely that you heard a rat or a mouse rather than a squirrel."

Tsuna gulped as he felt his heart skip a beat.

He didn't know that voice.

Dread and fear threatening to consume him, Tsuna slowly turned his head up till he saw a familiar face towering right above him.

How...when did he get behind-

"Chaos," the man greeted them with a smirk as he tilted his fedora down at them with his finger and thumb. "My name is Reborn, what might be the names of you three?"

Well...I would say that chaos really starting to boil now, what about you? I'm sorry that this was a bit late but there was a time I couldn't get any writing done because I got really busy...but I think things are slowing down now (knocks on wood).

So what do you think? Were there any parts of the chapter that you couldn't understand, were there any parts that made you laugh, did the characters' actions make sense to you?

Please leave a review and I will update later this month. Till then, see ya and have a good day/night!