Note from the author: Hide's name is pronounced 'HEE-deh' not like Hyde, the city in Pennsylvania, USA

~8~

"GYAAAAH!" Hide screamed, where ever he stepped another explosion was awaiting him.

He felt as if he was on a mine field at the moment, it was dangerous to move as it was but if he stayed still than he would just be a sitting duck for Hanabi's exploding cards. Not only that but to add to it, he was also in a narrow alley in between two of the school buildings. His shoes kicked up dirt as he ran away from the crazy woman that was chasing him with exploding playing cards.

"Hahahah! This is more fun than I expected it to be!" Hanabi laughed as she threw some more cards, one of them landed next to Hide's shoe and he quickly tried to run away from it before it exploded.

"Reborn, aren't you supposed to help me!?" the boy screamed at the infant.

Reborn pondered this for a while, which didn't help Hide at all, until he finally shrugged and said, "Alright, I'll give you a hint: Hanabi's cards are made of a chemical compound that takes five seconds to ignite and explode, the compound activates when it hits something too."

"Hey, that's cheating!" she argued.

"Might I suggest that you kill him faster then?"

"REBORN!"

"Oh! That's not such a half-bad idea, Reborn-san!" she said brightly and took out a couple more decks of playing cards from seemingly no where.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Hide grumbled to himself as he ran away from the girl, he kept on running down the alley until he had hit a dead end, "Shit!"

"Now I have you," said Hanabi, she held one card in her hand and smiled, "I'll beat you with only this card."

"Geh…" Hide backed away, only to back up into the wall that was behind him, "C-Can't we just talk about this?"

"Mafia don't talk!" she stated and threw the card.

"AAAH!" Hide screamed and held out his arms to shield himself, nothing happened. He opened one eye and noticed that there weren't bits and pieces of him all over the place. Then, he realized that he was holding the playing card that Hanabi just threw.

"H-He caught it?" she gaped; she quickly regained her composure and took out a few more cards, "Just a fluke! I'll hit you this time!"

"Hide, I suggest you run now," said Reborn, he stood on a tree that had yet to be effected by Hanabi's cards.

"Right!" Hide nodded and quickly ran away.

"Hey you!" she growled and gave chase.

Now Hide was not the fastest person in the world, he always came last whenever there was a race. Even with adrenaline rushing through his veins, he speed had only increased a little. And now you, the reader, are probably expecting something ironic like Hanabi being known throughout the Mafia World as being the slowest person ever. But you're wrong; at her old Mafia school she was the fastest in her class and won every race.

"Got you!" she yelled as she ran right behind him, "Now die!"

Right at that moment, an unsuspecting Morita was walking around the corner of the building and saw Hide running towards him.

"Hey Hide!" he waved cheerfully, not yet realizing the situation of things yet.

"You should face things like a man," said Reborn, he was now sitting on a tree branch with a gun in his hand.

"Morita-kun!?" Hide saw Morita and then felt something hit the back of his head, making him fall to the ground.

No...Hide thought as he hit the ground, his head was filled with thoughts of regret, I wasn't able to run away from Gokudera-san, not only that but Morita-kun is probably going to get hit by one of Gokudera-san's cards...if he does, he'll die too! If only I caught some of those cards...

"REBORN!!" Hide roared, his underwear was green with yellow stars, "I'LL CATCH ALL THE CARDS WITH MY DYING WILL!!"

"Huh?" Morita raised an eyebrow at this but just went with it as a joke, "Hahah, what a funny joke Hide!"

"Wh-what's going on?" Hanabi looked around; due to the amount of cards she had already thrown, she was surrounded by smoke and dirt that was in the air and had lost sight of Hide when he fell to the ground. But this didn't refrain her from throwing even more cards.

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!" he yelled as he caught each card in mid-air.

"I can still hear his voice, so he must still be alive!" Hanabi concluded, thus she doubled the amount of her cards, "Take this!"

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!"

"He's still at it? Then I'll triple the amount!" she declared, and as luck would have it right at that moment a gust of wind came through and cleared all the smoke and dust away. And the first thing that Hanabi had laid eyes on was a half-naked Hide with a ton of explosive playing cards in his arms. Hanabi, herself, was cradling a much larger amount and when she saw Hide she instinctively did what any other girl would have done in that situation.

"KYAAA! My innocence!" she screamed and dropped all the cards so that she would have hands to cover her eyes with; but by the time she realized what she did the cards were out of her hands, time seemed to slow down for as she watched the cards float gently in the air right about to hit the barren ground.

So…this is the end of me…? she thought.

A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed one of the cards. "CATCH!"

"W-Wha…?"

"CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH! CATCH!" Hide continued to catch each and every card, not one landing on the ground.

"Th-this guy…" Hanabi began in amazement.

The flame on Hide's forehead died out and he wiped his head with relief, saying, "Whew! Thank goodness I made it!"

"Please forgive me!" he turned around and saw that the silver-haired girl was on her knees, bowing down to him, "You are truly the one fit to be Boss! Please Twelfth, will you do me the honor of taking me as your bride?"

"WHAT!?" he yelped and quickly shook his head while waving his arms, "N-No! You don't have to do that!"

"Eh?" she asked slightly dejected and perked up, "Then what about as your follower? Please Twelfth! Just command me to do anything, and I'll do it!"

"Can't we just be friends first?"

"No way," she said in a deadly serious tone.

I'm too afraid to refuse...Hide whimpered.

"Isn't that great Hide? You've gained a new family member," said Reborn nonchalantly, "Now you won't have to go through the punishment."

"What are you talking about!? Weren't you just trying to kill me?" Hide asked, he switched from Reborn to Hanabi and then back again.

"Well, about that…" the bomber began sheepishly, "The truth is, I don't really want to be a Boss; but when I heard that there was someone that's Japanese and is the same age as me was the next candidate for Vongola Boss, I just had to test out his strength. Reborn-san said that if I won against you, I would become a candidate for successor. I thought it was such a great deal too, like an expensive handbag that comes with a free wallet!"

She really is a girl...Hide thought and then heard Morita laughing at them.

"You're such a funny guy Hide!" he laughed while holding onto his sides, "And you found a pretty funny girl too!"

He thinks this is all just a joke! Hide gawked.

"What are you laughing at giant?" Hanabi glared at the boy making him quickly shut up.

"Oh yeah, Hide the reason I came here was to give you this," said Reborn, he tossed Hide the lunch and then quickly left.

"Aren't you going to give me some clothes too?" Hide called after.

"Don't worry about it Twelfth! You can always borrow mine!" said Hanabi energetically.

"Um, I don't think a girl's uniform will fit me Gokudera-san…"

"You can always borrow a gym uniform from the Boxing Room," Morita suggested.

Hide quickly agreed to this just as the bell rang and realized that he spent his entire lunch period half-naked and trying not to be blown up, not only that but he didn't even get to eat his lunch. He looked from his lunch, to the playing cards that Hanabi was taking great care to put away where ever she had gotten them, and then to his underwear. Frustration built up and Hide yelled:

"Why can't my life just be normal!"

That day, Hide acquired his second family member; Gokudera Hanabi.