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"Mukuro?" Ryohei called out as he looked underneath a coffee table. A second later, he jumped onto the nearby red couch and peeked his head over the edge. "Lambo?"
Then he turned his face towards Chrome and shook his head, an anxious glint in his usually extremely bright gray eyes. Chrome, feeling more and more anxious by the minute, bit her lip.
Elena was just putting the finishing touches on her hair when they heard Knuckle yell something unintelligible which was followed by a loud noise. A noise that sounded very familiar to Chrome's ears.
Afraid that she was right, Chrome immediately got off the chair while throwing off the hair cover. She then raced out of the room, with Ryohei right behind her. Elena had called for them to wait for her but for once, Chrome didn't listen, she couldn't. She had to get there, to see if her suspicions were correct or not.
And they were. Chrome knew as soon as she and Ryohei had turned the corner to see Knuckle and Lampo on the ground, that Mukuro had used a lava geyser against them.
Thankfully, Knuckle and Lampo were completely unharmed. However, that was where the good news ended. Because according to Knuckle and Lampo, they just happened to be walking by when they found Mukuro was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. They weren't sure how or why it happened, but they immediately tried to get him to calm down and breathe. When he didn't react at all to them being in such close proximity to him, Lampo then tried to take Lambo (who had then just started to bawl) out of Mukuro's arms. He had been afraid that Mukuro was going to end up accidently dropping him.
But then suddenly, Mukuro's eyes started focusing again and before they knew it, Knuckle had to push Lampo out of the way from a lava geyser. When the attack was over, they looked for Mukuro but he and Lambo had already vanished.
That was when Daemon, who had arrived sometime during their explanation, asked if Knuckle and Lampo had been talking about something before they found the two boys, and if so what. Then Knuckle, with wide eyes, answered by saying that they had been talking about giving Lambo his vaccines.
And just like that, both Chrome and Ryohei had understood what had happened to Mukuro. While he had never outright said it, it was common knowledge to everyone in their family that Mukuro had an intense fear and hatred of shots. To him, shots were synonymous to torture. So if he really had overheard Knuckle and Lampo talking about vaccines...
Then it was no wonder that he had attacked them and ran off with Lambo. He was trying to protect their baby brother.
Though this was the first time Mukuro had ever gotten a panic attack. Had Mukuro had panic attacks before and this was just the first time Chrome had been aware of it? Or was overhearing Knuckle and Lampo's conservation just the last straw after the last few weeks?
"I don't think they're in here," Ryohei told her unusually quietly, a testament of how worried he was. Chrome nodded.
"Where could they be? Wouldn't he have tried to find us if he thought that they were going to hurt us?" Chrome asked as she nervously scanned the room, as if Mukuro and Lambo would suddenly appear with just one more look.
"He is definitely trying to extremely find us," Ryohei explained. "But this is a big mansion and we all are separated right now, so he is probably having trouble. And if Knuckle is right about panic attacks not making your mind work that well...
"Then he is really having trouble, I know," Chrome interrupted with a sigh as she placed her face in her hands. "It's just...we were right around the corner..."
"I know," Ryohei said simply as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"We could have told him that it was gonna be okay..."
"I know."
"That Lambo wasn't in any danger and that we wouldn't let him be in any danger either..."
"I know."
"That we wouldn't force him to stay here with the mafia and that we would all leave together if that was what he really wanted..."
"And we still can," Ryohei told her firmly. "We just have to find him first. We just have to keep looking to the extreme. Alright?"
Chrome nodded as she exhaled deeply. Ryohei was right, Mukuro needed them, and standing around just worrying about him wasn't going to help. Knuckle, Lampo, Elena, and Daemon were looking for her missing brothers, they had to do their part too.
She was about to tell her brother as such when she heard someone a familiar voice yell out in the hall.
"Mukuro! Lambo! Where are you?!" Chrome's purple eye widened as she swiftly turned around.
"Tsuna!" Ryohei cried before he raced out of the room, Chrome not far behind him. As soon as she entered the hallway, she saw Kyoya several feet away from them, with Hayato on his back and Tsuna by his side.
"Ryohei! Chrome!" Tsuna cried as soon as his brown eyes landed on them, a relieved look dampening the anxious expression on his face as he ran towards them.
"Kyoya! Hayato! You're extremely looking for Mukuro and Lambo too?!" Ryohei exclaimed as he raced to close the distance between them. Chrome was only a few seconds behind him.
"Of course we are, why else would we be calling out their names?!" Hayato snapped at him, though Chrome didn't detect any real malice in his voice, just concern and worry.
"Tsuna woke up saying that we needed to find Mukuro," Kyoya explained while Tsuna nodded in confirmation. "So we left the room and ended up running into Knuckle who told us what happened."
"He also wanted me and Tsuna to stay in our room but there was no way we were gonna do that, not when Mukuro is in danger," Hayato added in a tone that suggested that he was offended that Knuckle had thought otherwise.
"Is a panic attack really that bad?" Ryohei asked with wide gray eyes.
"I'm not an expert but...I think it can be," Hayato answered with a frown. Chrome bit her lip. She definitely wasn't an expert on panic attacks either, she only knew that they were bad and that she wanted to find Mukuro so she could help him.
But if panic attacks really are dangerous...then Chrome didn't want to think about what might happen if they didn't find Mukuro in time.
"We've found no sign of him or Lambo, and Tsuna's intuition hasn't told him anything else," Kyoya continued as Tsuna shook his head in solemn confirmation. "I'm assuming that you two haven't found any signs of them either?"
"No," Chrome all but moaned with a shake of her head.
Where were her brothers?
"Wait, what about your mental connection?" Tsuna piped up. "Have you tried talking to him through that?"
Chrome felt her frown get deeper as she remembered what Daemon told her before he raced off to find Mukuro and Lambo.
"Daemon told me not to," Chrome answered softly. "He said that it might make Mukuro-sama's condition even worse."
"Wait, Daemon knows that you two have a mental connection?" Kyoya asked with wide gray eyes. "How?"
"I think he just guessed," Chrome replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Mukuro-sama did say that I told him that I overheard Giotto, G, and Alaude the night you all came to rescue us."
"Oh yeah, he did tell them," Hayato mused out loud.
"Though even if Daemon didn't say that, I don't think I could reach him anyway," Chrome admitted as she hung her head. "Our connection is still there but the last time I checked it was...weak. Blurry, fuzzy. It's like a bad internet connection or a radio station full of static."
Chrome then felt a hand on top of hers, making the eight-year-old look up to see Tsuna looking at her with a worried, yet determined expression.
"It's not your fault," Tsuna told her softly, yet firmly. "We'll find them. We'll have to."
Chrome nodded, knowing that Tsuna was right.
There was no other option.
"You're right little brother, so let's keep searching to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed with his fists clenched in burning resolve.
"Unless he and Mukuro were super quiet and didn't respond to us, they're not over there," Hayato informed them as he jutted his thumb over his shoulder.
"And we-"
"Wait, the adults are looking for them too right?!" Tsuna suddenly exclaimed, effectively interrupting Ryohei. "How do we know that they haven't found them yet?"
"Good point," Kyoya mused as he shifted Hayato a bit on his back. "We don't have a way to communicate with them so for all we know, Mukuro might be better already."
"In that case, then our mental connection should be cleared up!" Chrome exclaimed, feeling hope rise within her chest. Then, without any further prompting, she closed her eyes and reached for her mental connection with Mukuro.
C'mon, let it not be weak and fuzzy...
Then Chrome gasped.
Their mental connection was clear!
"What is it Chrome?" Tsuna asked, his tone a mixture between hopeful and concerned. Chrome opened her mouth to reply only for someone else to beat her to the punch.
"There you guys are!" Both Chrome's frown and spirit lifted as she quickly turned around along with Ryohei.
Mukuro was standing at the end of the hallway, smiling warmly with Lambo in his arms.
"I looked-"
"MU-" both Ryohei and Tsuna started to cry as they started to race towards their brothers, interrupting whatever Mukuro was about to say. However, Mukuro then interrupted them with a loud shush as he nervously pointed at Lambo.
Lambo who despite stirring at Tsuna's and Ryohei's loud voices, still had his eyes closed.
Ryohei's eyes widened as he stopped in his tracks while Tsuna slammed his hand over his mouth as he skidded to a stop. They all waited silently for Lambo to stop stirring in Mukuro's arms, and then a few seconds more after he stopped moving, just in case.
When they were all sure that Lambo was really still fast asleep, they tried again.
"Mukuro-sama!" Chrome cried softly as she ran towards her previously missing brothers.
"Mukuro!" Tsuna and Ryohei both cried in harsh whispers as they ran beside her, with Kyoya and Hayato right behind them. Before she knew it, both Mukuro and Lambo were in the middle of a group hug (Kyoya set Hayato down before they both joined in).
"I guess you found out about...uh, what happened between me and Knuckle and Lampo huh?" Mukuro asked a bit nervously, though the warm smile was still on his face and there was a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Uh huh," Tsuna confirmed with a nod, unshed tears in his brown eyes. "My intuition woke me up saying that you were in trouble so we went to find you but we couldn't find you and...and-"
"I wanted to mentally contact you but our connection was fuzzy!" Chrome added as she dug her face into Mukuro's shoulder, strong emotion building within her now that they had finally found him and Lambo. "That and Daemon told me that I shouldn't because it might have made you worse!"
"Wait, he knows that we have a mental connection?" Mukuro asked with wide heterochromatic eyes.
"We think he guessed because of what you said the night you guys came here to rescue us," Hayato explained quickly. Chrome undug her face from her brother's shoulder, wondering exactly how he was going to react to that.
"...Oh," Mukuro realized calmly to Chrome's surprise. She thought he would have been frustrated at the very least to learn that a mafioso had learned their secret.
"You seemed to be extremely okay, you don't feel like you're dying do you?" Ryohei asked with concern in his hushed voice.
"Kufufu, yeah I'm okay," Mukuro said softly as his warm smile became a little tender as well. "Daemon found me and...managed to calm me down."
"Really?" Kyoya asked with a raised eyebrow. "And...you're okay with that?"
To Chrome's even greater surprise, Mukuro just shrugged.
"He...he made some good points. About vaccines anyway," Mukuro explained as he turned to Lambo, who was still sleeping contently in his arms. "I admit I'm...not totally sold on the idea that Lambo needs them but...I figured that we should at least all decide together."
Chrome's eye widened at the calm expression on her older brother's face. Just earlier that day, Mukuro had been dead set against the idea that the Vongola were good people. But now, not only was he okay with the fact that Daemon knew about their mental connection, but he was also admitting that a mafioso had made some good points. Good points about shots of all things.
What...exactly happened between him and Daemon?
And also, did this mean that Mukuro might be open to the idea of them staying here?
"Like there was any other option," Kyoya scoffed as he stepped out of the hug. Then, looking completely serious, Mukuro straight in the eye. "We are all in this together, meaning that all of our votes and opinions matter. We are either all in, or all out. Understand?"
Everyone nodded in complete understanding, though Chrome saw out of the corner of her eye that Mukuro's eyes had widened a bit before he did so. Chrome also didn't fail to see Mukuro's smile grow just a little more tender and genuinely happy.
Chrome smiled as a result. She had noticed back in the hair salon that Mukuro had seemed more tense than usual but she hadn't known what to say to make him less tense so she didn't say anything. She just assured him that she would keep him mentally updated while he changed Lambo's diaper, knowing full well that he was probably going to check on Takeshi after he did so. Chrome would also admit that she had hoped that Elena might have been able to get through to Mukuro (at least a little bit anyway) but it seemed that Daemon and now Kyoya had done so instead.
Thank goodness.
"Yeah, and that includes whether we leave here or not!" Tsuna exclaimed vehemently, causing Hayato to nod several times in agreement. "Even if you happened to be the only one who still wants to leave, we will still all leave! Together!"
"Tsuna..." Mukuro said softly. "That's...nice of you to say but...what about Takeshi? He has his cousin now..."
"What about me and my cousin?" Chrome gasped slightly as she turned her head to see Takeshi and Asari standing only a few feet away from them.
"Oh my...how long have you been standing there?!" Hayato exclaimed with a hand over his heart.
"A few seconds," Takeshi replied as he closed the distance between them. "And also, what in the world did I miss?"
"Yeah, did something happen?" Asari asked in concern while he stayed where he was. Chrome and the others glanced at each other.
Who was going to tell them?
Then suddenly, Daemon appeared right behind Asari in a bright flash of indigo flames.
"You're needed elsewhere," stated Daemon as he placed his hand on Asari's shoulder.
"Daemon, what-" Before Asari could finish his startled exclamation, there was another flash of indigo flames and before Chrome knew it, both of them were gone. It was like they were never there in the first place.
"...Daemon's powerful," Takeshi simply said after a few seconds of silence.
"And sneaky," Mukuro added as he glanced behind him towards the nearest corner of the hallway. Chrome followed his gaze and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, though she didn't expect to.
How long had Daemon been listening to them?
"Anyway, what did happen? Something happened right?" Takeshi asked them as he turned his attention back to them, a somewhat concerned expression on his face. "Or did you guys just decide to have a spontaneous group hug?"
"I got this," Kyoya said as he stepped forward and clapped a hand on Takeshi's shoulder.
Kyoya then gave Takeshi a brief but accurate summary of what had happened in the last half-hour or so. Takeshi, whether it was because of Kyoya's hand on his shoulder or because he was just speechless, stayed quiet. His brown eyes did go wide however and he made several glances at Mukuro during the summary.
"And there you have it," Kyoya said when he was done. "It's all over now, and Mukuro is okay and Lambo is peacefully sleeping."
"Yeah, I can see that," Takeshi finally said quietly as he looked back over at them. "But what I don't get is why didn't you guys come get me?"
"A time issue I guess," Hayato admitted as he turned so that he was facing Takeshi (the group hug had more or less been completely disbanded at this point). "We also didn't know where you were."
"We could have made more of an effort to tell you though, I'm sorry," Tsuna apologized as he stepped forward so that he was by Hayato's side, looking guilty as he did so.
"It's okay," Takeshi forgave with his usual warm smile. "I get it, Mukuro was in trouble and you were desperately searching for him and Lambo. If you had happened to find me along the way, I knew you would have told me."
"You got that extremely right!" Ryohei exclaimed with a firm nod and clenched fists. Takeshi beamed at him before turning to Mukuro.
"You're okay?" Takeshi asked softly, his smile still there but now much softer.
"Yeah, just maybe a bit embarrassed that I lost control like that," Mukuro admitted, the faint blush on his cheeks a clear sign that what he said wasn't a lie.
"We all have our moments," Takeshi said simply as he walked towards him and Lambo. "I know I do."
"Kufufu, I guess," Mukuro chuckled before he pursed his lips as he glanced slightly at the ground. Then, before Chrome could ask what was wrong, he picked his head up to face Takeshi, who had come to a stop a few feet away by this point. "Did you have fun with your cousin?"
"I did," Takeshi replied with a wide smile and a firm nod before his brown eyes became serious. "But just so you know, as much fun I was having with Asari-"
Then suddenly, Takeshi closed the short distance between them and enveloped Mukuro and Lambo in a hug.
"I would have left to go find you and Lambo had I known. Asari may be my cousin, but you two are my brothers. Okay?"
Mukuro looked like someone had shot him through the heart but somehow, not in a bad way. Then his face crumpled a bit as a small smile appeared before he closed his heterochromatic eyes and dug his face into his younger brother's shoulder.
"Okay," Mukuro replied as he wrapped an arm tightly around Takeshi. Even though Chrome had a feeling that she was missing something, she smiled at the heartwarming scene. Mukuro was okay, they were all okay.
And she knew now that whether they stayed here or not, they would continue to be okay.
They had each other after all.
And that should be a wrap for that arc! :D But don't worry it's not the end of the story. Though that is coming close...kind of. I'll explain when we get there.
I forgot to say this in the last chapter, but I have posted a prequel of this story called 'Holding on Together.' Two chapters are up already (and hopefully the third one will by up by the end of next week) so go check it out when you have the chance!
So what did you all think about this chapter? Please leave your thoughts in a review and I will update by the end of the month. Till then, stay safe, and have a good day or night! See ya!