AN: Long time no see - in terms of this fic at least - but there is the long awaited update. Hope you will like it.

Arc I, Target VII: Dad and a invitation.

"And he was like "whoosh!" and "wham!" Tsuna mimicked fight moves as he told the story. He and Asari had just come back from the walk and were telling others what happened at the park in his room. "He dealt with bullies in seconds, he was that strong!"

"Is that so?" Giotto asked curiously.

Asari nodded. "Yes. He was so strong for his age that he reminded me of Alaude a bit."

"I see," Giotto said thoughtfully before turning to his grandson. "Well, anyway, I'm proud that you stood up to these bullies."

Tsuna perked up. "Really?"

"Really," it was G who answered. "You did well for the first time."

Tsuna brightened at the praise before saying:

"Do you think I'll meet him again? That boy, I mean?"

"Who knows," Giotto said. Privately, he thought they would be seeing the boy again, and his Intuition was confirming it, but he held that to himself for now. "Do you want to?"

"Yeah. He seems scary, but he saved me from the bullies and was nice, so I would like to meet him again," Tsuna said. His eyes shined at the possibility of the new friend.

Primo smiled at that. "Then I'm sure you will."

Tsuna smiled in return, and the rest of the day progressed as normal.

Giotto and his Intuition turned out to be right as usual. They met the kid again a few days later. Not in person, per se. He lurked at the edge, watching Tsuna from a distance. So far, Tsunayoshi hadn't felt the boy's presence with his own Hyper Intuition, or if he did, he hadn't brought up with them.

As for the First Generation themselves, they watched the boy in turn and were currently discussing him while Tsuna was playing with his mother on the playground.

"Geez, what a creepy kid," Lampo said with a shudder at the kid's deathly calm expression. "Asari wasn't kidding when he said he reminded him of Alaude. Hey, Alaude," Lampo addressed their strongest Guardian, "is he your descendant by any chance?"

"No, I would have known otherwise," Alaude said with a shake of his head. Though, he understood why his family thought such a thing: save for the color of his hair and eyes, the boy was his spitting image. "But like me, he has Cloud Flames, powerful ones at that…" the First External Advisor grimaced a little at his next words, "and a bit of Mist apparently."

"That explains it," G said. "Clouds never approach first, unless itching for a fight, or if someone catches their interest. But why would that Cloud be interested in Tsuna?"

"He probably subconsciously knows that Tsunayoshi is a Sky, but isn't aware of that yet, since he's young," Primo said. The boy couldn't be that much older than his grandson. Two years, at most. "In any case, he doesn't intend to harm. Let him approach at his own pace."

"If you say so, Boss," his Guardians agreed in an uneven chorus.

"Nii-san, you do realize what you're doing is called stalking, right?" Takashi asked his twin once he found him where he expected his brother to be besides training or doing patrol - near one Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Ever since his brother met this little boy on patrol, he changed. He started shadowing this boy, watching him from afar, and even patrolling Sawada's neighborhood. Takashi couldn't understand what was so interesting about Sawada Tsunayoshi. He asked their parents why someone so… bland could draw Kyoya's attention. Their parents smiled and said Takashi would understand it with time.

He still didn't understand, but decided to trust his brother. For all his bloodthirsty ways, Kyoya had great instincts. They were the reason he found Kusakabe Tetsuya, who already had the potential of becoming Kyoya's second-in-command.

Still, stalking? Really?

"I don't care," his twin's cold voice snapped Takashi from his thoughts, causing him to look at Kyoya. "Small animals need protection. Plus," the older twin said with a smirk, " he's interesting. He'll show himself more, I'm sure."

Takashi just sighed exasperatedly in reply.

Just another day in his life of being related to Hibari Kyoya, really.

A few more days passed. Primo and his Guardians hadn't seen the mysterious kid for a couple of days. Currently, they are continuing their bike lessons - since the last was interrupted by bullies.

"Hands on the handles, feet on the pedals, yeah like that," Giotto said softly as he helped his grandson adjust for a better balance. "Now, try to push the pedals a little."

"But what if I fall?" Tsuna asked as his voice shook.

"You won't," Primo assured the six-year-old with a smile as he placed his hand on the brunet's tiny shoulder. "I believe in you."

"And even if you fall," Asari added. "We'll catch you."

Tsuna gulped nervously. He looked at the faces of Giotto-san and others: they meant every word they said. They really would catch him if he fell. Then, Tsuna's eyes flashed amber as determination filled him, and he gripped handles tighter. Giotto-san and others believed in him. He could do this.

So he took a deep breath and made a tentative push. Then another and another, and soon he was riding. Tsuna laughed in joy.

He truly did it! He did something right!

"Look, Dad, I'm riding!" he called out to Giotto-san, not noticing what he called Primo in his happiness. The First Generation, however, noticed that and shared a shocked look.

"Did he just call you dad even if it wasn't on purpose?" Lampo asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, he did," The blonde agreed with a proud smile at Tsunayoshi's accomplishment as they watched the boy ride his bicycle happily.

Tsuna called him dad. Dad. Not on purpose, but he did it nonetheless. His entire being filled with warmth. He was happy and touched that Tsuna trusted and cared about him that much to call him dad even if it wasn't on purpose.

A loud "Ouch!" drew Primo out of his musings. All of them looked towards the sound to see Tsunayoshi on the ground next to the bicycle, rubbing a sore spot.

"You okay, kiddo?" Knuckle asked once they all reached his side. "Sorry we didn't catch you; got distracted a little."

Tsuna gave them a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I'm fine, and it's okay, it doesn'. I just hadn't noticed a bump in my excitement and fell. Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for," Giotto said. "See? I knew you could do it. I'm proud of you. "

Tsuna beamed at them. As they helped him to get to his feet and brushed the dirt off his clothes, the sounds of an argument reached their ears, and they turned towards the noise. They saw a girl around Tsuna's age with black hair and brown eyes surrounded by three boys twice her size.

"Not to sound arrogant, but you are so done," the girl was saying. "Because my brothers will be very angry if you don't leave me this instant."

"Ha! Yeah, right!" one of the boys snorted in disbelief.

"We are so scared!" another added, and all three burst out laughing. The girl looked at them with an expression that said "God, they are so stupid."

Finally, Tsuna had enough of this. "Hey!" he called out to the trio, drawing their attention."She told you to leave her alone, so do so!"

The boys snorted in reply. "Hey, look who decided to play the knight in shining armor! Too bad he looks weak to do the protecting!" They taunted.

Tsuna does his best to ignore them. He never liked conflict, and Giotto-san said fighting should be the last resort with people like this. So he just offered his hand to the girl to get her away from here as he approached her. She took it after a second, and they started walking away.

Of course, bullies wouldn't be themselves if they gave up this easily.

"Hey!" one of them yelled. "We aren't done here!"

"I believe we are done here," the girl said with a dismissive tone of the princess. "Have a good day."

"Why, you little-!" the bully went to grab the girl's arm.

Something exploded inside Tsuna just then. The familiar warmth of his inner fire rushed through his body. His whole being and that voice inside him sang, protect, protect, protect.

So that's what he did. In a great show of speed, he grabbed the boy's arm mere inches from the girl's own. All the people present were startled by the sudden display of reflexes.

"What the hell?" the bully murmured from shock.

"I believe she told you we are done," Tsuna said. His face was the mask of the utter calm as he spoke these words. "Leave."

Scared witless by Tsuna's eerily blank expression and his blazing eyes and his aura that screamed danger, the bullies run away, leaving dust in their wake. At the exact same moment, his inner fire retreated back inside him, leaving him dizzy. Thankfully, the girl kept him steady.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Y-yeah," Tsuna stuttered a bit as he blushed from shyness. "Just dizzy. You're okay?"

The girl was about to answer when someone whistled:

"Woah, small animal. I knew you were interesting, but never expected you to chase herbivores with a single look."

Small animal… That sounded familiar. Both he and the girl turned towards the voice.

To Tsuna's surprise, it's the boy that saved him from bullies a few days ago. Beside him stood another boy with the same face. He could hear Lampo-san exclaim "There's two of them?!" before one of them spoke up:

"Are you alright, Mei?"

"I'm okay, Takashi-nii," Mei said. "Thanks to him. Hey, that's your name?" she asked Tsuna.

"S-sawada Tsunayoshi."

"I'm Hibari Mei, and that's my older brothers Takashi and Kyoya," she gestured to each of the twins as she gave their names.

So that's the brothers she talked about earlier. For their age, they looked very intimidating, but Tsuna already got that from his previous encounter with one of the twins.

"It's very nice to meet you," the brunet said politely.

"Same," Takashi said. "You have our thanks for standing up for our sister."

"It was no problem," Tsuna said shyly. "I don't like when bullies bother someone."

The older boy nodded, accepting the answer, then looked at Mei. "It's time to go home, Mei."

"Sure, Takashi-nii," Mei said. "Hey, can Tsunayoshi-kun come over tomorrow?"

Takashi looked at him, and Tsuna tried his best not to flinch and shrink into himself under that cool gray gaze. He succeeded. "And why do you want a complete stranger to come over?"

"Well, he helped to scare these idiots that bothered me, and I want to thank him properly," Mei said matter-of-factly. "Besides, he isn't afraid of us, and maybe he will be my friend. So, can he come?"

"Only if his parents won't mind."

"I'll ask," Tsuna spoke up timidly. He could barely believe it - someone wanted to be his friend and even invited him to come over. Of course, he told Giotto-san and others that he wanted to meet the mysterious boy again and possibly become his friend, but he never expected it to happen this way.

"Good," the boy said. "Now come on, Mei. Mother is waiting for us for lunch."

"Coming!" Mei took her brother's hand and turned towards Tsuna to say goodbye. "See you, Sawada-kun."

"See you," Tsuna returned before blushing again and rushing back to where Giotto-san and others were.

Hibari smirked at his twin as he and his siblings watched small animal go. "See? I told you he would show himself more one way or another and he did this by saving our imouto."

Takashi scowled at Kyoya's smug expression. He hated when his twin acted like this. So, he was wrong about Sawada Tsunayoshi being bland. Was there a necessity to rub it in? Apparently, in Kyoya's opinion, there was. God, his brother was a menace."Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, Mr. Carnivore. Let's just go home and tell Mother and Father about this."

Kyoya just smirked wider in response as three of them left the park. He was proven right - the small animal was worth his interest, Mei would have a friend, and his twin's sour expression was a bonus.

Tomorrow will be a good day.

AN: And that's a wrap for now. Yeah, Hibari also has a sister besides a twin. I'll do my best with them. Anyway, see you until the next time!