I don't own KHR.

"We seem to be in the clear my lady," the leering mafioso said after a quick look-around.

"Good," Martina nodded with a grim smile. Hayato sighed, though whether it was to steel himself or it was simply a resigned reaction to what Martina's thug said, he wasn't sure. All he was sure of was that he, Martina, and Martina's thugs were currently in an empty alleyway.

And that he was minutes, if not seconds, away from dying.

"Piero, lead him to that pile of trash over there," Martina continued as she pointed to a bunch of full, black trashbags leaning against the brick wall slightly across from them. "I want the bastard to fall on that when I shoot him."

"Yes, my lady," the blond mafioso accepted as he pushed Hayato towards the trashbags. Hayato gritted his teeth as he stumbled, somehow managing to not fall despite the way his chest screamed at him in agony. Even though Hayato would have loved to stop and rest, especially with his family, he just stiffly straightened himself back up again and walked to the trashbags silently.

And he kept silent, even when Piero decided he wasn't going fast enough and grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt and practically pulled him to the pile of trashbags. Despite the feeling that his stitches were close to tearing open and the fact that the last thing Hayato wanted was to be pushed around by one of Martina's thugs, he couldn't afford to fight back.

Gabriele was still with Tsuna.

"Iacopo, keep an eye on the entrance would you dear? I know we're deep enough into this lovely alleyway that we should be safe from any curious eyes of passerbys on the street but at the same time it doesn't hurt to be careful," Martina requested when Piero and Hayato had finally reached the trashbags.

"No it doesn't my lady," the leering mafioso, or Iacopo, agreed before he turned around to face the entry of the alleyway. Despite himself, Hayato clenched his fist in annoyance and indignance.

Why do they keep calling her that? She is not a lady!

"Now Hayato," Martina began as she took out a gun out from under the right side of her leather jacket and pointed it at Hayato. Then she cocked it. "Any last words? Anything you wanted to know before you go peacefully to the other side?"

The first thought that entered Hayato's mind as Piero took his hand away from his back to grip Hayato's shoulder tightly instead, was how surprised he was that Martina was willing to grant him this one last request. Then he decided that she probably just wanted to rub his impending death in his face a little bit more and moved on.

Hayato briefly debated about just telling Martina something along the lines of 'piss off' but then he thought of something. Something that he truly wanted the answer to for about two years now.

"Why did you kill her?" Hayato asked, his voice soft yet every word he uttered had a sharp edge of cool icy rage.

"I'm sorry, can you please specify? I've killed more than one woman, both directly and indirectly," Martina requested.

"You know who I'm talking about!" Hayato cried, unable to keep it in anymore. "I get why you want to kill me, I'm a reminder that Dad cheated on you. But Bianchi? Your own daughter? Didn't you love her at all?!"

"Of course I did!" Martina nearly screamed, her green eyes full of rage and suprisingly, pure anguish. "She was my little angel, someone that I thought would always be on my side, someone that would always loved me unconditionally! When she was born, I honestly felt like my prayers had finally been answered, that after so many years of people tossing me aside, ignoring me, h-hurting me...I finally found someone I could count on. Not even your father in our early married days made me feel like that."

"But then..." Martina continued as she placed her free hand over her right eye and part of her forehead, making her look like she was seconds away from completely losing it. "She chose to keep on loving her father, even after she found out the truth. At first I was just going to let that go, she was still a child after all. I know firsthand how hard it is for a child to hate their parent, even when it is clear how horrible they really are. But then..."

Martina, who had been looking down on the ground for the last few seconds, then refocused her gaze back on Hayato. Even though he knew without a doubt that Martina hated him, Hayato was still taken aback at the pure hatred, no, abhorrence in her green eyes (that were the same shade as Bianchi's).

"Bianchi chose to save you. She could have just stayed in bed and stayed out of it but no, she had to get up, she had to help you escape, she had to say that she would gladly do it again, even if it meant that she had to die! At that point, I was so hurt, so angry, so...betrayed that my own daughter would chose you over me that...I obliged. I shot her right then and there. And while I didn't want to do it, and I still to this day wished there had been another way...I don't regret it."

"You...don't...regret it?" Hayato spoke slowly, as his mind whirled with this revelation. Because while Hayato knew that his sister died the night he escaped, he didn't know how it happened. He especially didn't know that it was Martina herself who killed his sister, and that the horrible sin wasn't done in cold-heartedness but in...a reaction to feeling betrayed. That Bianchi helping him to escape was the last straw in Martina's lifelong journey of pain.

Hayato didn't know how to describe he was feeling right now except that...he definitely wasn't calm.

Not at all.

"No," Martina said coolly, as she brought her hand down from her head, looking and acting much more calm and collected now. "She made her choice to love you over me, even though you were the living proof that the man I married broke his vow to be ever faithful to me, and only me. I had to send her to the other side, for her own good as well as mine."

Then Martina, who had lowered her gun sometime during her long answer, brought it up to point it at Hayato again.

"Well, now you know. And now...you die."

As Martina began squeezed the trigger, Hayato's first instinct was to close his eyes and wait for the inevitable. But just when he was about to fully close his eyes, Hayato changed his mind.

He...didn't want to die like this. Granted, he didn't want to die period, but he especially didn't want to just meekly die in front of Martina like he was only a scared little boy. Not that he wasn't scared but he didn't want her to know that.

Because that was what she wanted, and Martina deserved nothing, implied horrible childhood or not.

So Hayato opened up his eyes and stared right back at Martina and as he did so, his lips curved upwards into a small smile. When Martina reacted by grimacing, Hayato's smile got even bigger.

Yes, if he had to die, let it be like this, with him staring and smiling at death right in the face while doing his best to protect Tsuna, his dear brother. After everything, from Bianchi sacrificing herself for him to him being accepted into a family that loved him deeply and unconditionally, dying like this wouldn't be so bad.

He only hoped that Martina would keep her word about sparing Tsuna's life, and that Bianchi wouldn't be mad at him for only managing to live for another two years.

But at least, on the whole, they were a good two years.

So good that Hayato doesn't regret running away that fateful night anymore.

Then Hayato noticed that Martina's finger was a second away from firing her gun, prompting him to inhale and exhale deeply, while still smiling with his eyes wide open.

He was as ready as he'll ever be.

Then Hayato heard Iacopo gasp.

"My-"

Before he could utter another word, there was a bright flash of red light accompanied by a loud swish sound.

"Agh!" Iacopo coughed as blood spilled from both his mouth and his back at the same time that Martina screamed.

"What the?!" Martina cried painfully and angrily as she clutched her bloody hand that had held the gun, the weapon now lying uselessly on the ground. "What just happened?!"

"Maybe if you look over this way, you'll find out."

His ears recognizing the voice, Hayato turned his attention to the alleyway entrance and what he saw made hope and relief dance in his chest.

G was standing there, his chest slightly heaving as he held a red-and-white bow in mid-air, with bright red flames coating the taunt bowstring.

And he was pissed.

Let this be a lesson to you kids: Just because you may have had a hard life doesn't give you an excuse to give others a hard life. So be kind or else karma might collect your debt by having an arrow go through your hand. For starters.

So, how do you guys feel about the chapter? I wanted to make Martina somewhat relatable but still hateable or at least try not make her so one-note. How did I succeed? Please leave your thoughts in a review and I will update next month (or about two weeks).

Till then, see ya and have a good day/night!

P.S. Also, I have currently changed the rating to T because I realized that some of the scenes may not be so...child-friendly. I don't know, I know I'm not that graphic but still. Better safe than sorry I guess. My, has this story changed! I totally forgot that I had the rating for K+!