This prompt is for Dman4869 and for Yu-qis. I hope you two like it!
I don't own KHR.
Takeshi hummd a little as he looked around, though he stopped when he saw how Tsuna was bouncing slightly on his heels while they stood in line.
"You're excited Tsuna?" Takeshi asked with a knowing smile. Tsuna kept on bouncing as he turned his head to look at him.
"We're gonna see real live lions," Tsuna answered, grinning like it was Christmas day.
"So of course he's excited!" Hayato exclaimed defensively beside them, his face contorted in a small scowl like he couldn't believe Takeshi had just asked such a stupid question. Takeshi just laughed good-naturally as he turned his attention towards the front of the line.
"Good, because I am too," Takeshi commented honestly. Shortly after breakfast that morning, their guardians suddenly told them that they were all going out. When Kyoya asked where they were going, they just said it was a surprise.
And was it a surprise for them all when they arrived at the front gates of a zoo. Ryohei instantly declared that he wanted to box a bear, to which Knuckle quickly told him that it wasn't possible for a number of reasons. The white-haired boy didn't protest but one look at Ryohei's face told Takeshi that he hadn't given up yet.
Everyone else was also pretty excited and pleased with the surprise, Takeshi included. Even Kyoya and Mukuro, while they weren't the most vocal about it, were definitely intrigued.
"You think that being a part of Vongola will ensure that we wouldn't have to wait in long lines ever again," Lampo grumbled behind them.
"Tell me about it," G muttered, who was currently standing beside Lampo. "My feet are going to die before we even enter the place at this rate."
"Oh stop complaining," Elena chided them without looking back as she stood in front of Takeshi, Hayato, and Tsuna. She then shifted Lambo a bit in her arms, who was currently playing with her long blonde hair. "We're almost at the front."
"There's a lot of people here already, and it's not even noon yet," Takeshi heard Kyoya say somewhere behind G and Lampo.
"I know, but as long as they follow the rules, they have every right to be here," Alaude replied behind them, probably still standing next to Kyoya.
"What if they're breaking the rules? Then can I bite them to death?"
Takeshi turned around just in time to see Alaude seriously ponder on the question as he stood next to Kyoya.
"...Within reason."
"Oh my gosh Alaude, no!" G exclaimed as he turned around himself. "We're here to relax and see some animals, not to cause trouble for Primo!"
"But-"
"Hey, we're moving forward!" Takeshi heard Mukuro cry out somewhere in front of them. Takeshi turned back around and saw that the group of people in front of their family was now gone, leaving Giotto and Asari at the ticket booth.
"Oh thank goodness," Lampo sighed in relief as they all walked forward until there was no more space. Then he patted his stomach. "Don't worry stomach, soon you will have some delicious candy sticks in there, I promise."
"Forget candy sticks, I want a flippin' bench," G grumbled as he stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Your feet really are tired already?" Hayato asked as he turned around to face G. "I mean, you're not that old yet...are you?"
G's cheeks insantly flushed somewhat red, but before he could react with words, Takeshi heard Giotto call out to them.
"Alright gang, we got the passes, so let's go!" Takeshi looked up and saw the blond Don facing all of them while waving a bunch of colored paper wristbands in his left hand.
"Finally!" Lampo exclaimed as they all began to walk past the ticket booth.
"We're gonna see some lions, we're gonna see some lions!" Tsuna chanted as they walked. Then he turned his head to look at Takeshi. "What animal do you most want to see Takeshi?"
"Animal I most want to see...hmm..." Takeshi pondered, because honestly, he was just happy to be here with his family, there wasn't any particular animal that he wanted to see. "Monkeys maybe? They're funny."
"Of course you would give that answer," Hayato replied with a small scoff as they finally got past the ticket booth.
"Then what about you Hayato?" Tsuna asked as he turned to face their silver-haired brother. "What animal do you want to see?"
"Oh, I'm perfectly happy to see the lions with you Tsuna!" Hayato declared as they all stopped as a big group near the Zoo entrance.
"So there isn't anything else you want to see?" Tsuna asked with a tilt of his head.
"Oh...well...maybe some leopards and tigers too, or just anything we don't have a chance to see on a daily basis," Hayato admitted with light blush on his cheeks. "Thanks for thinking of me Tsuna!"
Before Tsuna could react to that, someone else spoke up.
"Okay, everyone here? Good," Giotto said as he looked around the group before nodding in satisfaction. Then he held up the paper wristbands again, which were either blue or green. "Alright kids, you get the green ones and us adults get the blue ones."
Then he gave Asari half of the wristbands and started to give them out.
"Hey Giotto, I thought you said that kids get the green wristbands," Daemon teased with a smirk after Giotto handed Lampo a blue wristband.
"Oh hardy har har," Lampo replied, not sounding amused at all as he wrapped the blue wristband around his wrist.
"Here you go Takeshi." Takeshi turned his attention away from the two adults to see Asari holding out a green wristband towards him.
"Thanks Asari!" Takeshi exclaimed with a smile as he grabbed the paper wristband and took off the covering off the sticky part. Asari just smiled and lightly ruffled Takeshi's hair before moving on to Chrome, who was standing not far away from Takeshi.
Takeshi smiled wrapped the wristband around his right wrist and carefully placed the sticky part down on the green part, and not on his wrist.
Not for the first time, Takeshi really was glad that he and his family had decided to stay with his cousin and the rest of the Vongola.
"Uh...Takeshi can you help me?" Takeshi turned his head and saw Chrome had her own green wristband hanging over her wrist.
"It keeps slipping off," Chrome admitted sheepishly.
"Sure, I got ya!" Takeshi accepted happily as he went over to his only sister and in no time at all, wrapped the wristband securely around the wrist with no chance of falling off (but not too tightly that it would hurt her).
"Thanks!" Chrome said gratefully with a sparkle in her purple eye and a wide smile.
"No problem," Takeshi lightly chuckled with a wide smile of his own before he looked around just in case anyone else needed help with their wristbands. A seconds of searching told him that Tsuna was also having trouble but Hayato was already helping him. Everyone else was good.
Wait, he didn't see Elena and Lambo-
"I got some maps!" Takeshi turned his head and saw Elena walking towards them with a bunch of papers in hand while holding a happy Lambo in her free arm.
"That's my dearest love!" Daemon declared proudly as Elena reached them and promptly gave the baby to him. Then after pecking Daemon on the cheek, she handed a map to Giotto, who gave her a blue wristband in return.
"Oh, and there were sheets with questions about the animals so I grabbed a lot of those too!" Elena exclaimed as she spilt the pile of papers in her hands in half to reveal a bunch of white papers with black words on it had been under the brightly colored maps.
"Questions? What happened to relaxing and seeing some animals in peace?" Lampo asked, his face contorted in disgust.
"Well, it's kind of like a scavenger hunt so I thought it would be fun for the kids, as well educational," Elena explained as she gave out the maps and the white papers to the rest of the group. When she handed one of the scavenger hunt papers to Takeshi, the young child looked at the questions and noted how there were sets of questions under headings like 'The Rainforest,' or 'The Savannah.'
What interested Takeshi the most was that after each question, there was a number (1, 3, or 5) in parentheses. Which meant that the numbers were actually points assigned to the questions and the more questions one answered, the more points they got. In other words, this was a game.
And Takeshi loved playing games.
"This could be fun," Takeshi chuckled with a wide grin as he quickly glanced over the questions. They seemed to pretty standard for the most part, it shouldn't be too hard to find the answers. Takeshi already knew the answers to some of them, though they were just the one point questions. "Are we playing by ourselves or are we supposed to play in teams?"
"I would like to play in teams!" Tsuna exclaimed as he raised his hand.
"I want to be in Tsuna's team!" Hayato immediately declared.
"If we do teams, how many should we extremely have?" Ryohei asked as he turned over his own white paper, probably trying to see if there were any questions on the back (there weren't).
"I'll say there should be two," Mukuro suggested, a very sly smirk gracing his features. Then he gave a sideways glance at the adults. "Us kids on one team, and the adults on the other."
"Oh? Are you challenging us?" Daemon asked with his own sly smirk while Lambo fiddled with his blue and red suit. "Mufufu, are you kids sure you want to do that?"
"Because we will definitely kick your butts," Lampo taunted as he slightly leaned on Daemon by placing his elbow on the taller man.
"Mufufu, what do you mean by we Lampo? You're on the kid team," Daemon teased non-chalantly while still wearing his sly smirk as he glanced at the green-haired man.
"Why you..."
"Kids vs adults? That sounds very extreme!" Ryohei all but yelled as his hands clenched into fists, crumbing up the paper in his hand as he did so.
"Yeah, it ultimately does, doesn't it?" Knuckle commented as he scratched his chin.
"I agree, it sounds fun!" Asari agreed.
"Yes, it will be fun to bite all of you to death," Kyoya said sincerely with a blood-thirsty grin.
"You're still too young and inexperienced to make that claim," stated Alaude in his low voice, though Takeshi caught a glimmer of a similar bloodlust in his blue eyes.
"So we're doing this huh?" Giotto sighed, sounding somewhat resigned.
"Yea!" Lambo cried with one hand raised, his green eyes finally gazing on them and not on the gold buttons on Daemon's suit.
"Looks like it," Elena confirmed as she patted Giotto's shoulder while Daemon gave Lambo a high five, causing the baby to giggle.
"Oh well, I was looking forward to seeing the animals with all of you but honestly, I bet we would have all split up for some reason or another," Giotto sighed once more before smiling sincerely. "And honestly, this really does sound like fun."
"Yeah, and besides," Tsuna replied as he walked over to Giotto and grabbed his hand. "We don't have to play the game for the whole day. I don't think it will take that long anyway."
"He's right, there's not that many questions on here, not to mention a lot of them, if not all, don't seem to be that hard," G agreed as he looked at the scavenger hunt in his right hand while Giotto smiled as he closed his hand around Tsuna's tiny one. "I can imagine we will be done by lunchtime."
"So...okay," Giotto nodded as he looked up at the blue sky, clearly thinking something over. Then his attention got pulled away from the sky and back onto them. "The rules are pretty basic: as long as you don't look at the cheat sheet, break any of the zoo rules like running, and annoy or hurt any of the other people visiting here, you can get your answers in any way you wish. We will split up here and meet back up here at 12:00 exactly. Get here even a minute later will result in the team receiving a negative five point penatly."
"Oh come on!" Lampo protested angrily. "That's just-"
"The penalty is there to discourage cheating by getting any remaining questions answered after 12:00," Giotto continued like Lampo had never spoken. "The team with the most points or the one who gets here first with all the questions answered wins. Does everyone understand?"
Takeshi nodded with a smile as everyone else either nodded or gave some kind of verbal response that they understood. While Giotto wasn't lying when he said that the rules were pretty basic, that didn't mean this wasn't going to a whole lot of fun.
"Here, let me take Lambo," Hayato requested as he walked over to Daemon with his arms stretched out. "He's on our team."
"Which reminds me," Giotto said as Daemon wordlessly complied with a smile. "I know that you are a full-grown adult Lampo but someone should watch over the kids..."
"Oh no!" Lampo protested vehemently as Lambo cooed his version of Hayato's name while lightly tugging on Hayato's hair. "The last time I stepped in to personally watch over the kids, my back got a giant bruise from a stupid tonfa! If you're so worried, why don't you watch over the kids?"
"Because I need to watch over Daemon and Alaude to make sure they don't fight each other and get us all kicked out," Giotto answered easily while Kyoya snickered.
"Hey!" Daemon exclaimed, clearly offended as he crossed his arms.
"Are you saying I don't know how to control myself?" Alaude asked, his eyebrow raised and his voice cool.
"Yes."
"We don't need anyone to watch over us, we'll be fine," Tsuna suddenly interceded before a potential fight could break out between Giotto, Alaude, and Daemon (and possibly G too, since he cackled right after Giotto's answer.
"Yeah, Tsuna's right, we did just fine taking care of ourselves before we ran into you guys," Mukuro supported. "We can handle being alone for an hour or so. Especially since we don't have anyone hunting any of us down anymore."
"I am twelve, and both Mukuro and Ryohei are eleven, we can keep an eye on the others. We don't need to be supervised every second of the day," Kyoya added with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, like he was daring Giotto to say otherwise.
"I'm sure they'll be fine Primo," G assured him. "This zoo isn't that gigantic, we will probably run into each other from time to time anyway."
"That is probably true...and it will only be until lunchtime anyway...alright," Giotto granted with a sigh. "You kids can be by yourselves."
"Woo-hoo!" Takeshi exclaimed happily, though he honestly wouldn't have minded too much if Lampo had been forced to watch over them. Though after years of fending for themselves, it did feel weird to have a discussion on whether they needed adult supervision or not.
Takeshi just assumed it just one of things that came along with getting adopted.
"Now, we have wasted enough time so the competition starts..." Giotto began as he raised his arm up high. Then he brought it down fast. "Now!"
And with that, they all rushed past the gift store and into the zoo itself. Takeshi was really tempted to run but since running wasn't allowed, he didn't. And judging by the look on some of his siblings' faces and how Tsuna was holding onto Ryohei's back, he wasn't the only one having trouble with the tempation.
But it didn't take long for him and his siblings to run past the big welcome sign and to take the right path on the first fork in the road (the adults took the left) so it was all good.
"Alright marine life," Mukuro said as they stopped by the big sign that literally read Marine Life. And judging by all the enclosed fences that looked out into small bodies of water, the sign was telling the truth.
"What questions do we have for this section?" Mukuro continued.
"Oh um..." Takeshi replied as he held up his piece of game paper. "Otters are in what subfamily?"
"Subfamily?" Ryohei asked.
"Yeah, like wolves are a part of the canine family," Hayato explained almost absentmindedly as he looked around.
"Ah, extremely interesting..."
"I found them! The ottters are over there!" Chrome exclaimed as she pointed towards a tall black gate that overlooked a small body of water that was edged with a grassy strip of land. And sure enough, Takeshi saw an otter swimming.
"That's my Chrome!" Mukuro exclaimed as they all but ran towards the otter exhibit. When they got there, Takeshi saw clearly that there was another another otter who was floating on her back with her baby on her stomach.
"Awww..." both Chrome and Tsuna cooed. Takeshi smiled because the otters really were pretty cute.
"Baby!" Lambo cried as he pointed at the baby otter with a wide smile.
"That's right, good job Lambo," Hayato praised him as ruffled Lambo's hair, making the very proud-looking baby giggle.
"What an extreme mother," Ryohei nodded in approval.
"Lutrinae! The answer is Lutrinae!" Kyoya exclaimed as he read the sign in front of the exhibit.
"Sweet...wait, does anyone have a pen or a pencil?" Mukuro asked as Kyoya continued to read the sign.
"Huh, they have a strong bite and they are purely carnivorous..." Kyoya muttered as Takeshi patted his pockets.
"Nope!" Takeshi answered with a laugh. "And I don't think Elena passed any out..."
"And they're cute," Kyoya continued muttering to himself.
"She didn't," Tsuna as he tore his gaze away from the otters, as a negative realization dawned on his face. "Oh no, how are we supposed to write the answers down?!"
"Hey, Chrome, Mukuro, can't you two conquer up a pen or something?" Hayato asked their two illusionist siblings as Lambo tugged on his silver hair while looking at the otters.
"...I approve," Kyoya nodded before finally tearing his attention away from the sign and started to pat down his pockets.
"I-"
"Wait, I got one," Kyoya interrupted as he brought out a black pen out of the right pocket in his right shorts.
"Sweet, you're the man Kyoya!" Takeshi praised his oldest brother as he caught the pen that Kyoya threw him. Then, using Ryohei's back as a substitute for a desk, he wrote the answer down. "Why do you have a pen anyway?"
"...I don't know."
"No matter, let's keep going!" Mukuro exclaimed. "What's the next question?"
"What does an extreme red-eared slider extremely eat?" Ryohei responded as he looked at his own piece of paper. "And the bonus question is what is an extreme terrapin?"
"Alright, let's look for the turtles and keep on going!" Kyoya ordered before they all quickly left the otter exhibit. As they rushed to find the turtle exhibit without losing sight of each other and without bumping the other visitors (much easier said then done), Takeshi wondered if the rest of the game would go this smoothly.
Later in the Artic section...
"800 kg! Polar bears can weigh up to 800 kg!" Chrome exclaimed as she read the sign to the polar bear exhibit.
"Wow..." Tsuna reacted in awe with Lambo in his arms (he took the baby away from Hayato not that long ago) as the polar bear walked towards them on the giant patch of ice. "...That is big..."
"Okay, I've written it down!" Takeshi declared as he took both pen and paper off of Ryohei's back. "The next question is..."
"Extremely wait a minute Takeshi," Ryohei suddenly interrupted him as he walked towards the giant pane of glass separating them and the polar bear. The animal in question was now only a few feet away from them.
"What is it Ryohei?" Mukuro asked, sounding a bit bewildered. Ryohei stopped right in front of the glass and didn't reply until the bear had stopped right in front of Tsuna and Lambo.
"The polar bear is an extreme animal. I'm gonna fight it to the extreme."
"Ryohei no!" Chrome protested as she grabbed Ryohei's arm with both hands. "Remember the rules!"
"Chrome's right, we got to keep going," Kyoya told him as Lambo placed his tiny hand on the clear glass. "The sooner we get the questions answered, the better chance we have of winning."
Before Ryohei could react to that, the bear suddenly slammed his paw against the glass, causing a very loud bang to vibrate through the area and the glass to tremble a bit.
"Hiee!" Tsuna cried as he stumbled backwards before he lost his balance and started to fall towards the ground. But before Tsuna's buttom could have a harsh collision with the ground, both Hayato and Takeshi raced forward and caught him and Lambo successfully.
"You're okay Tsuna?" Hayato asked him as they got their younger brother back to his feet.
"Yeah," Tsuna nodded as Lambo's face started to crumple. "I just wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah, it was kind of-" Takeshi started to say before Lambo let out a loud wail full of fear.
"Oh buddy, it's okay," Takeshi quickly assured their crying baby brother as he rubbed his fingers through Lambo's dark curls.
"Yeah, we're safe, the polar bear won't get us," Tsuna added as he pecked the baby's forehead.
"You're okay Lambo, you're okay," Chrome said in a calm voice as she rubbed the baby's back. Despite their efforts however, Lambo still continued to cry as he buried his face into Tsuna's shirt.
"...Ryohei," Kyoya suddenly said as he eyed the polar bear, who was now walking away from them.
"Yeah?" Ryohei replied.
"As soon as I break the glass, bite the polar bear to death."
"Kyoya no!"
Later in the Savannah section...
"Lions!" Tsuna all but screamed as he raced forward and grabbed the black fence with both hands while digging his face in between the metal bars. "Finally! We're here!"
Takeshi laughed as they all quickly followed their brother, while dodging the other visitors. Tsuna could be so funny and cute sometimes.
"Oh, look at that one Tsuna!" Hayato cried out after he reached Tsuna's side, pointing at a lion with a black mane. Despite the fact that his head was in betweem two of the metal bars, Tsuna managed to turn his head slightly at the lion and gasped.
"Just like Scar..." Tsuna said in awe and delight.
"Who's Scar?" Mukuro asked.
"Oh you know, the evil lion in The Lion King," Ryohei answered with Lambo sitting on his shoulders (the baby was now back to his happy self and playing with Ryohei's white hair) as he looked at the sign in front of the lion exhibit.
"...The Lion King?" Mukuro asked with a tilt of his head, looking and sounding just as confused as before. Takeshi quickly shared a look with the rest of his siblings (Tsuna had dug his face out of the fence). In happy, carefree times like these, it was somehow easy to forget that Mukuro had never grew up in a house that had Disney movies easily accessible to watch at any time.
At least, not until now.
"Don't worry Mukuro," Tsuna assured him as he tore himself away from the fence and placed his hand on Mukuro's arm. "We will watch that on next movie night."
"Ooh," Mukuro responded in realization. "...Okay. Is it a good movie?"
"Yes Mukuro-sama, it's really good. The cartoon one is anyway, I don't think the live-action version did that well," Chrome answered as Tsuna went back to digging his face in between the metal bars of the fence.
"Wait, there's a cartoon version and a live-action version?" Mukuro asked, sounding just as confused as before.
"Yeah, and they were both made by Disney too," Chrome told him. "I overheard G and Daemon talking about it."
"...Why?"
"No one knows." Takeshi's back immediately went stiff as he quickly turned his head to the side to reveal that the person who spoke was none other than Lampo.
"No one knows," Lampo repeated with a shake of his head.
"Hey Lampo, you're not here to look at our answers now are you?" Takeshi asked with a chuckle as he clutched the game paper (which was nearly full of answers) closer to his chest.
"Because if you are, we won't go easy on you," Kyoya warned as he placed a hand on Takeshi's shoulder.
"No, why would I need to do that? We only have a few questions left," Lampo replied. Takeshi's eyes widened as his gut told him that Lampo was telling the truth.
"Shoot, Takeshi, how many do we have left?" Hayato asked as he turned to face Takeshi, a slight nervousness in his green eyes. Takeshi looked down at the paper and quickly counted that they had five left in total.
...That was a bit more than a few.
"Lampo!" Takeshi looked up and saw Asari running towards them.
"We found the answer, we need to move on, we don't have that much time left," Asari called out as he reached Lampo's side. Then his gaze landed on the kids. "Oh hi kids, are you all doing okay?"
"Yeah, we're good, a polar bear made Lambo cry but Ryohei didn't beat up the polar bear for it," Takeshi responded honestly.
It had been close though. Honestly, if Tsuna hadn't gave Mukuro the puppy-dog eyes, there would be shattered glass all over the floor in the Artic section as well as a polar bear with a giant lump on its head.
"Oh, well that's good. Well, we gotta go, see you kids later!" And with that, Asari grabbed Lampo's arm and ran away while pulling Lampo behind him. Takeshi then looked down on the game paper and recounted the remaining questions, just in case.
"We have five left," Takeshi said with a slight sinking feeling. The adults only had a few, now possibly a couple left. While Takeshi liked competing against high odds, this was going to be cutting it close.
Especially since they really didn't have that much time left anyway.
"Okay guys, no more dillydallying, we gotta get these questions answered pronto! Takeshi, what was the next question again?" Mukuro responded, quickly taking charge of the situation.
"Uh, who does the hunting in a pride of lions?" Takeshi replied.
"The females! The females do the hunting to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed as he read the sign in front of the lion exhibit.
"Okay!" Takeshi cried as he wrote down the answer (Hayato's back was the writing desk this time). "And that's the last question for the Savannah!"
"Then that means we only have the Rainforest area left, everyone move out!" Kyoya ordered as he quickly led the way out of the Savannah area, while the rest of them quickly followed (Chrome did end up having to pry Tsuna away from the lions).
A few minutes later, they were in the Rainforest section, where there was a lot of green foilage and where the sound of tropical birds talking to each other filled the air.
"What's the next question?" Kyoya asked as he faced Takeshi, his gray eyes full of focused determination.
"What key role does the black spider monkey play in the tropical rainforest ecosystem?" Takeshi quickly replied. He didn't need to see a mirror to know that his game face was on.
The adults may be ahead, but they hadn't won yet.
"Oh, that's seed dispersal." Takeshi looked up to see a middle-aged man smiling at them while sitting on a bench a few feet away from them.
"Oh really? Thanks!" Tsuna exclaimed gratefully as Takeshi and the rest of them exchanged looks with each other.
Giotto did just say that they couldn't annoy or hurt the other visitors. He didn't say anything about asking another visitor for help.
"No problem," the helpful man said with a chuckle. "I just helped my little grandaughter out with that question sheet, she's out there with my wife exploring while I rest my feet and back a bit. So I'm free to help you kids out if you need it."
Especially when the visitor was already enlisting his services.
"Yes, yes we do!" Takeshi accepted very graciously and happily as he went straight for the older man, the others not far behind him. After he wrote the first answer down, they questioned the man (whose name was Baldassarr. What a cool name) for the other answers. He answered them quite promptly and easily, because not only was he friendly and helpful, but he also had a good memory.
Takeshi kept a close eye on the older man for any sign that they were bothering him but Takeshi found no such sign. If anything, Baldassarr seemed more amused than anything.
Then finally, the last question was answered.
"Alright, that's it! Thank you!" Mukuro exclaimed gratefully as he grabbed Chrome's hand and began to pull her away from the older man.
"Yes really, thank you," Kyoya added as he bowed all the way down to his waist.
"Why aren't you formal," Baldassarr chuckled. "And you guys are welcome. I hope you guys win!"
"Us too!" Takeshi replied good-naturally with a wide grin as he waved at the older man, already a few feet away from their savior.
"Bye bye!" Lambo cried as he also waved at the man. And with that, they were off. They rushed through the rest of the Rainforest section, since according to the map Chrome had, the end of this area would bring them back to the front of the zoo.
Takeshi, despite knowing that running was against the rules, ended up instinctively running as they passed the tiger exhibit but luckily Tsuna stopped him by grabbing onto his wrist.
Then Tsuna reached over to stop Ryohei from running by grabbing onto the back of his shirt so at least Takeshi wasn't the only one.
"Mufufu...what did you just say?" Takeshi and the others stopped over as they looked to their left and saw Daemon and Alaude facing each other, neither of them looking too happy.
"That your head looks like something that he would eat," Alaude said simply as he tilted his head towards a toucan who was perched on a tree.
The toucan then opened its beak and croaked as if it agreed.
Takeshi barely managed to hold back a laugh.
"Why-" Daemon started as he took a step forward so that his nose was only a few inches away from Alaude's.
"That's enough!" Giotto exclaimed as he pushed them away from each other and stepped forward so that he was in the middle. "We've only got only one question left, can we please hold off any mean comments and bloodthirsty desires until then, or preferably until we are back home?"
"Huh, I guess Giotto really did need to keep an eye on them," Hayato commented as Daemon and Alaude avoided eye contact with each other and Giotto.
Right at that moment, Giotto looked right in their direction.
"Oh hey kids!" Giotto called out with a wave and a big smile. "Are you guys having fun?! How are you guys doing with your question sheet?!"
"Uh...pretty good!" Hayato replied, his green eyes shifting to the side. "But we're not done yet!"
"Exactly, so we need to keep moving so we can beat you guys, bye!" Mukuro exclaimed as he quickly walked away, still pulling Chrome behind him.
"Bye bye!" Lambo called out cheerifully with a wave as Takeshi and the others followed Mukuro and Chrome, all of them trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
"We did it guys! We extremely fooled them!" Ryohei exclaimed victoriously in a harsh whisper.
"Oh crap, they're done!" Takeshi heard G yell in the distance.
"And you just had to say something," Hayato sniped at Ryohei.
"Everyone, we need to bite them to death. So power-walk like you've never power-walked before!" Kyoya ordered. And with that, Takeshi and his siblings booked it as fast as they could without actually running. Takeshi didn't think they actually power-walked though.
"Look! We're almost at the gift store!" Tsuna cried as he pointed at a big arrow sign that was directing them towards the gift store.
"And that's right by the tables, c'mon guys, we're almost there!" Mukuro encouraged them as they kept on passing the other visitors as fast as they could.
"And they're not following us yet!" Chrome exclaimed as she looked backwards, which made her trip over her feet and stumble. Luckily, Mukuro was able to pull their sister back up before she could fall to the ground with hardly any trouble.
"Good," Kyoya commented as they passed the sign and continued down the path that would lead them to the gift store. Then, before he knew it, Takeshi saw a familiar-looking building with familiar benches in front of it.
They were almost there, and the adults were still behind them! They were going to win!
Then suddenly, Takeshi recalled how Elena had teleported, or shifted, behind that thug who had held a concussed Tsuna hostaged. What if she or Daemon shifted themselves to the benches right before they could get there? Giotto didn't say that they couldn't do that...
This just made Takeshi push himself to go even faster, even to the point of practically running. But they were right there, they couldn't lose now, not after that nice old man helped them with their answers, and not when they were so close.
They were only a few feet away...
Takeshi found himself both hopeful that they really were going to make it, and praying that they would.
And then...they had arrived at the tables.
And they were still the only ones there.
"We did it...we won to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed loudly as he pumped both fists towards the sky.
"We did! We really did!" Takeshi laughed victoriously as he reached out to give Ryohei a double high-five, which the older boy happily accepted. "Woohoo!"
"We all did a good job in biting them to death," Kyoya praised them with a wide smile.
"Yay," Tsuna cheered breathlessly as he promptly laid face-first onto the metal bench that was connected to the metal table.
"Hmm, I thought they would have caught up to us by now," Mukuro mused as Hayato sat right down by Tsuna's head and started patting Tsuna's hair.
Right as he said that, there was a shimmer of indigo flame hovering right by the metal tables before it was quickly replaced with Daemon wielding his sceptor.
"Oh darn it!" Daemon exclaimed as he hit some imaginary object with his sceptor. "I knew I should have shifted earlier but Giotto was all like nooo, that's mean!"
"So you already knew that you couldn't beat us without your abilities huh?" Mukuro teased with a smirk. "And here I thought you were going to be a challenge..."
While Daemon raised his eyebrow at that, Takeshi just laughed as he began to hear voices in the distance that he knew belonged to the adult members of his family.
They had won. Sure, it wouldn't have been the end of the world if they lost, but...
It was still nice to have the sweet taste of victory.
And after lunch, they all went to a monkey show the Zoo was having, as a prize for the kids winning.
So what did you all think? Please leave me your thoughts and feelings in a review and I will update with the next prompt shortly. Until then, have a great and safe day or night! See ya!