Hmmm, I don't really like how some parts of this chapter came out…oh well! As I mentioned in the last chapter, this one will be all about the beach and the group's time at it! And as an extra bonus, I included an extra for this chapter!
So without further ado, bring on the skin cancer!
~8~
Suzuki liked water, it was very calming. There were more reasons why he liked water, but the main reason was that it was just calming. Plus, everyone was always happy around water.
"What's that you're humming, Suzuki?" asked Hide from next to him, they were riding in Hide's gramps' old van, the same van that he normally took for fishing; Hide and Suzuki were at the front next to Hide's gramps (who was driving of course), Hanabi, Megumi and Morita were in the second row of seats, and Adam, Anna and Nagi were all in the back fast asleep.
"It's this song from a movie I watched with my mom when I was a kid," the baseball player answered cheerfully, "When ever I see the sea, I think of that song."
"Is that that movie that you were obsessed with when we were kids?" Hide asked, "The one with the goldfish that had a face and became a girl*?"
"Yeah! You remember it?" he asked excitedly, "We should see it when we get back then!"
"I'd rather not, Suzuki …" the other boy grimaced as he remembered having to watch that movie over and over and over again when he was a child.
"Thanks again, Mr. Yamamoto for taking us to the beach!" Megumi said from the seat behind them.
"No problem! This is something Hide and Kouhei** do every year anyways!" Yamamoto grinned and said, "I remember when I went to the beach with my friends when I was younger."
"Wow! I didn't know you guys did this every year," Megumi smiled sweetly at the two boys in the front seat.
"Y-Yeah!" Hide quickly nodded.
"Okay, we're here!" Yamamoto announced as he put the van in 'Park'.
The doors slid open and every piled out. The guys were already wearing their bathing suits so it was agreed that the girls would change in the van while they helped set up a good spot to be in.
"This spot looks pretty fine," said Suzuki as he set down the umbrella, "I'm glad we got to the beach early!"
"It's eight in the morning," Adam yawned, "That's way to early for me…"
"Don't you get up at five in the morning to make me go running with Reborn?" Hide pointed out.
"Yeah, but then I sleep," he yawned again and outstretched his arms, "It's pretty chilly too…"
"It'll get warm pretty fast," Suzuki said helpfully, "It is the beach after all."
"Morita-kun, can you help me with this cooler?" Hide asked, he was standing next to a large, red and white cooler that was filled with ice and drinks for them.
"Okay," the boxer nodded and helped pick up the cooler and put it by the umbrella where Adam and Suzuki were setting out blankets.
Once they were done with getting everything set out, they decided to take off their shirts and wait out for the girls to come back.
"Where did your gramps go, Hide?" asked Morita.
"He's over by the van with Nagi-san making sure no one peeks on the girls," the boy answered and then shot up when he remembered a certain someone, "Does anyone know where Reborn is?"
"Uh, no," they all shook their heads, "He wasn't on the van with us."
"Oh no," he moaned, "He's probably going to appear out of the sky or from the sea or from under a rock in some ridiculous way!"
They were all silent for a few seconds, waiting to see if Reborn would really appear out of no where and do that. But nothing happened.
"Hide, maybe Reborn stayed at your house today?" Suzuki suggested.
"No, I refuse to believe that," the boy said with fear.
"I wonder what's making those girls take so long," Adam said out loud as he was laying down in the morning sun on the barely warm sand.
"You take longer in the bathroom, don't you?" his sister asked as she sat down next to him.
"No I don't!"
"Yes you do," Hide agreed and looked around as the girls started to arrive with Yamamoto and Nagi behind them. He immediately brightened when he saw Megumi in a blue bikini with a white flower print on it.
"What kind of girl wears a sweater at the beach anyways?" Adam pointed out the large white sweater that Anna had over her bathing suit.
"I don't wanna swim," she answered, "I'm going to stay here on land."
"I know!" he smirked and began to asked, "You're going through your pe-"
Anna then stepped on her brother's face and said, "Oh, Adam, I didn't see you there. You shouldn't lay on the beach especially with your blonde hair, people won't notice you and probably step on you more."
"Ha-ha," he fake-laughed as he pulled his sister's foot away, "An accident then?"
"Yes," she replied, "An accident."
"I see," he got up and brushed himself, he then eyed his sister with a smile on his face, "An accident?"
"An accident," she said.
"Accident," he stated.
"Accident."
Hide could feel the tension in the air between the twins and decided not to get caught in the middle of a sibling rivalry between two assassins.
"So guys," he began while ignoring the two, "Why don't we all go to the beach?"
"Finally!" Morita stretched and turned around, "I'll race you guys!"
"It's on!" Suzuki grinned competitively and looked at Hanabi, "I bet you can't catch up to us, Gokudera!"
"Shut up!" she yelled and started running after them, she grabbed her brother along the way and yelled, "Come on, Nagi! We're going to beat them!"
"Okay," he said peacefully.
"W-Wait for me, you guys!" Megumi stumbled as she tried to catch up.
"Me too!" Hide called after them.
"Oh yeah, Hide, a friend of mine should be meeting us here," said Yamamoto right before his grandson went off to go play in the ocean with his friends, "If you see a guy dressed in camouflage then come get me, that should be him!"
"Okay gramps!" Hide waved dismissevly and ran off into the ocean.
Yamamoto sighed and shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder if that boy listens to me…"
~8~
The beach was beginning to get crowded around noon and the group had to move out of the ocean since kids were beginning to get caught up in the game. They were all fine with it though since they had already gotten super tan and pruny from being in the ocean.
Suzuki whistled at his dark skin and said, "I wonder if I'll have a tan-line after this…"
"Wow, my hands are all wrinkled now too!" Megumi giggled as she examined her hands.
"Y-Yeah!" Hide agreed as he looked at his hands, "Mine too!"
"I'm glad we got out then," Morita sighed, "But I kinda wish we could have stayed a little longer."
"Gramps should have lunch ready by now though," Hide noted as they started walking towards where they had set their stuff earlier.
The boy then yelped and pulled his foot away, "Ow, ow!"
"What is it Hide?" Suzuki asked, startled by the sudden outburst.
"I-I just stepped on something really pointy!" the boy yelped as he jumped around with his foot in the air.
Megumi looked down at what he stepped on and found a large seashell with spikes on it, "It's a sea shell, Hide-kun! How lucky!"
She bent down and picked the shell up, carefully wrapping her fingers around the parts that weren't spiked, "Wow, what a pretty shell."
"Ciaossu!" Reborn popped out of the hole in the shell causing Megumi to scream as she dropped the shell and ran behind Morita.
"R-Reborn-chan!" she said shakily from behind the boxer, "Goodness, you scared me!"
"You get scared too easily, Megumi," Morita sighed.
"You would be too if Reborn-chan suddenly came out of the shell you were holding!" she gulped and then said to Reborn, "I'm sorry for dropping you Reborn-chan, you just startled me!"
Reborn was in a hermit crab costume, the sea shell being part of the costume, "It's okay, Megumi," he said, "I didn't really expect for you to pick me up, I was expecting Hide to do it."
"So you were planning on pranking me!" Hide yelled and then realized something, "Reborn, how did you get to the beach anyways?"
"An old acquaintance got me here," he answered as he took off his costume, the yellow pacifier on his neck started to glow, "Oh, it seems he's still nearby."
"Huh?" Hide questioned but then Reborn was kicked in the back of the head by an infant with blonde hair, blue eyes, and dressed head-to-toe in camouflage, "What!" the boy gawked.
"Got you, Reborn! Hey!" the newcomer said triumphantly, a blue pacifier that was glowing was around his neck.
What the-! Hide's mouth hung open.
"Colonello," Reborn said while standing up, he brushed his fallen hat off and put it back on, once he was done he glared at the camouflaged infant and said darkly, "Now you've done it."
"What are you going to do? Hey!" he asked as he shot an equally threatening glare at Reborn.
"Hmph, nothing," he smirked and answered, "I don't waste my time on weaklings."
"Weak? Hey!" the blonde-haired infant questioned, "If I was weak, I wouldn't have been able to kick you, right? Hey!"
"Only a coward would attack from behind," Reborn walked up to the other and head-butted him, "And cowards are weak."
"Really? Hey! Because I remember you falling down into the sand, hey!" the newcomer said and head-butted the other back, "If anything, you are weaker than me, hey!"
"Yeah? Well you're just a bug in my eyes," Reborn replied and head-butted him again.
"You're just a piece of mold in mine. Hey!" the newcomer said and did the same.
"A bacteria," the tutor stated as he repeated his action.
"Protozoa, hey!" the camouflaged infant said.
"Cell."
"Atom. Hey!"
"W-Wait!" Hide interrupted their argument and looked at Reborn who had smoke coming from his forehead from all the head-butts, "Reborn, do you know this crazy guy?"
"Hey!" the 'crazy guy' called to the boy, "You're Reborn's newest student, right? Hey!"
"Um, yes?" he nodded, the infant then jumped up and head-butted Hide. The impact was surprisingly more powerful than Hide had expected and the boy went flying back into the ocean.
"H-Hide?" Suzuki and Morita's mouths fell open.
"Twelfth!" Hanabi yelped and ran off to save her beloved Twelfth.
"Was that acting?" Megumi smiled peacefully and clapped at Hide's 'performance'.
"Hey! That kid has a good head, Reborn," the infant stated as he rubbed his head, "It was very hard, hey! He wouldn't happen to be that guy's grandson or son, right? Hey!"
"Grandson, actually," Reborn answered.
"Does that mean he's here?" the camouflaged infant brightened.
"Colonello!" Hide looked up as Hanabi helped drag him to the beach and saw his gramps talking peacefully with the blonde-haired infant.
"G-Gramps?" he questioned.
"Colonello! Long time no see!" Yamamoto grinned at the infant.
The newcomer said nothing and jumped up and head-butted Yamamoto, the elderly man didn't really react to this as he remained perfectly still and laughed.
"Still doing that head-butting thing, Colonello?" he laughed.
"A hard head as always, Yamamoto Takeshi. Hey!" the newcomer and held out a hand for him to shake.
"Thanks, I guess?" he laughed and shook the tiny hand.
"Gramps, do you know this guy?" Hide asked as he came back up to them.
"Hide! This is the old friend I was talking about!" Yamamoto quickly introduced, "His name is Colonello, we were buddies back in the day!"
"He's your old friend?" the boy asked while pointing at Colonello.
"Yup! Didn't I just tell you that?" he grinned.
"He just head-butted me into the ocean!" his grandson yelled.
"Oh yeah, he does that," Yamamoto nodded, "It's sort of like a greeting for him."
What kind of greeting is that! Hide's mouth fell open.
"I could tell he was your grandson, Yamamoto Takeshi, hey!" Colonello nodded, "He has a very hard head, just like yours. Hey!"
"Really? Most people can't even tell we're related because of the hair color!" Yamamoto grinned.
What a weirdo, Hide sighed and looked at his gramps, But he's Gramps' friend, so he can't be all bad.
"How do you know Reborn-chan, Colonello-kun?" asked Megumi.
"We used to work together," Reborn answered.
He was Gramps' friend from his Mafia days! Hide's mouth fell open again.
"Aw, how cute!" she said cheerfully.
"And you guys must be Hide's Family? Hey!" Colonello asked as he looked at Suzuki, Morita, and Hanabi.
"Well, we're not actually related to him," said Suzuki.
"I'm the Twelfth's right-hand man!" Hanabi stated and the quickly added, "Well, woman, to be more specific."
"Oh, this is part of the online game, right?" Morita asked.
"I see, so you are," Colonello nodded.
How could you tell from just those statements! Hide gawked.
Colonello then went on a head-butting spree on the three of them, they all fell back except for Morita who seemed unaffected by the head-butt.
"I see, you all have soft heads except for the giant-guy," the infant said, "That means that the only person with true talent for being a hitman is that guy."
What kind of criteria is that? Hide wondered.
"Huh?" Morita questioned.
"Haha, this is part of the game, right?" Suzuki laughed.
"W-What! How could I lose to the giant-freak!" Hanabi yelled.
"Oh, I thought you were serious for a second there," the boxer sighed with relief, "If this is just part of that Mafia-game…"
"Of course he would be joking, Morita!" Megumi scolded, "He's a child, how could he know how to measure talent for being a hitman!"
"I guess you're right, Megumi," he shrugged.
"Wait," Hide asked, "You said I had a hard head, like gramps, does that mean…?"
"Yeah, hey! You have the natural talent for being a hitman, hey!" the infant stated.
Has my life really been ruined from the start…? the boy wondered
"Then that means you are extremely wrong, Colonello," said Reborn, "Hide's a good-for-nothing plain kid who can't even do a push-up."
"Such harsh words," Hide muttered and then looked at his gramps, "Gramps, is this guy seriously an 'old friend' of yours?"
"Hm? Oh yes! Yes he is!" Yamamoto nodded, "He helped the Family out a lot in the old days!"
"The 'Family' as in…" the boy grimaced.
"The Vongola? Yup!" his grandfather said cheerfully and added, "Sometimes I miss those days, it was fun all the time back then!"
Gramps, I've underestimated your easy-goingness once again…Hide grimaced as the picture of a younger version of his gramps holding a gun in the midst of a heated battle appeared in his mind.
"My relatives…was I just born and bred to become a part of the Mafia…?" the boy said to himself in despair.
"Yes," Reborn answered immediately, Hide's gramps hadn't heard him as he was too busy chatting with Colonello to notice.
"Oh yeah, Hide, lunch is ready over by where we set our stuff up," Yamamoto said cheerfully, "You guys go on, I'm gonna chat with Colonello a bit more.
"Okay, Gramps," Hide nodded and looked back at his friends, "Let's go guys!"
They all went to eat their lunch, which was made up of some sandwiches and sushi which was kept in the cooler.
"Wow! You're grandfather makes such good sushi, Hide-kun!" Megumi complimented after they were all done.
"Heh, he's the best after all!" Hide blushed and grinned.
"Yeah, Hide! This stuff is really good!" said Morita with a mouthful of sushi.
"That's disgusting! Food is coming out of your mouth when you talk!" Hanabi frowned, Suzuki on the other hand was just laughing at this.
~8~
Adam and Anna had stayed on the beach the entire time the others were swimming, it looked like they were still fighting with each other too. It also looked like they hadn't taken the special pill that kept them from getting stung by bugs and getting sun-burnt, so now their skin was all red against their blonde hair and there were tiny dots where the bugs had bitten them.
"Why didn't you take the SAIR pill?" Morita asked after he gulped the rest of his food, SAIR meaning Sun and Insect Repellant.
"Have you ever actually looked at what that pill is made of?" Anna asked.
"Why would I?" he questioned, "It works all the same, doesn't it?"
She opened and closed her mouth, speechless, before muttering, "It's filled with a bunch of gross stuff…"
"Yeah, but it still works doesn't it?" he pointed out.
Anna remained silent at this and Adam said out loud, "I didn't use it because I forgot, maybe if I did I would be as red as you, sis."
The twin then took her silent revenge by slapping Adam on his dark red arm.
"OW!" he yelped and hit her back.
"That hurt…" she muttered and slapped him on the back.
"You don't think that hurt either!" he yelled and slapped her on the leg.
They then started a slapping war with each other that lasted almost all day.
"What weirdos," Hide sighed while shaking his head.
"Really? I think they're acting pretty normal for a brother and sister," Suzuki noted.
"Yes, normal is totally when a brother and sister start beating each other up for no reason," the boy said sarcastically.
"Hide, you're an only child," Morita pointed out, "You probably don't get sibling-stuff like this."
"And you do?" he asked skeptically while taking a sip from the water bottle.
"Well yeah, I have younger brothers after all," the boxer shrugged.
Water spewed out of Hide's mouth and he quickly gawked at Morita, "You have brothers!"
"Um, yeah?" he said, "Two of them, one's eight and the other's five, they do this sort of thing to each other all the time when they refuse to take their SAIR pills."
I wonder why this hasn't come up sooner? Hide wondered, he felt strangely guilty about this for some reason.
"They're pretty cute kids though, Hide-kun," Megumi smiled cheerfully, "You should meet them some time."
Megumi-chan is so cute when she's smiling like that! the boy sighed happily at this.
"Wow," Hide heard someone mutter, it was then that he noticed that pretty much the whole beach was staring at them.
"Look at those girls, are they models or something?" he overheard someone murmur.
"They're so cute!"
"Let's go over and talk to them!"
"Twelfth, what are you staring at?" Hanabi asked, completely oblivious to the comments that were made in her direction.
"Damn, they're with guys," he could hear them say as they gave up.
"Twelfth?" Hanabi asked again.
"N-Nothing, Gokudera-san," he quickly said and thought, Wow, for some reason this sort of makes me proud…
"Hide's thinking of perverted thoughts," Reborn stated after coming out of the sand, both Hanabi and Megumi went red at this.
"H-Hide-kun! I didn't know you were like that!" said the red-head.
"Twelfth!" the bomber gasped and then quickly shook her head, "N-No, nothing…"
You were obviously thinking something! Hide gawked and turned around to Reborn to yell, "Reborn! I wasn't ever thinking that!"
"You don't have to deny it, Pervert-Hide," the infant said innocently.
"Don't even try to get out of this one!" his student snapped.
"Hey guys, have any of you seen Mr. Yamamoto?" asked Nagi as he was searching through their cooler, "We're all out of drinks and he has the keys to the van."
"I think he's still talking to Colonello-kun," Megumi said helpfully.
"It's been an hour, how long could that conversation take?" Morita asked.
"I'll go look, you guys stay here!" said Hide.
"I'll come with you, Hide!" Suzuki volunteered.
"Not without me you're not, baseball-freak!" Hanabi stated and went after him.
~8~
As it turned out, Yamamoto and Colonello were in the exact same spot as they were when the group had left them. They were still chatting happily by the looks of it; or at least Yamamoto was, Colonello had a nearly straight poker face on.
"Oh! Hide! Kouhei!" Yamamoto waved when he noticed his grandson and friends coming up to them, "And Hanabi-chan too! Oops! I guess we kinda lost track of time since we last saw you, huh? Sorry guys, me and Colonello here had a ton to talk about!"
"I didn't know that a baby and an old geezer had so much in common," Hanabi grumbled, she had passed the 'chan' honorific and given up on it when it came to Hide's gramps.
"Hide, guess what!" the elderly man said excitedly, "Colonello just told me that he was the owner of this beach!"
"Yes, hey!" Colonello nodded.
How can an infant be the owner of a beach! Hide gawked.
"Wow! That's so cool!" Suzuki said in awe to Colonello, "Are you like, super rich or something?"
"No, hey!" the infant shook his head, "This used to be a marine base, hey! But it's been abandoned ever since the country signed that peace-treaty twenty years ago, hey!"
"So you know people who would give you this base?" the baseball player asked, "That's pretty cool."
"Nope. Hey!"
"Then isn't it kind of illegal to do that sort of thing?" Hanabi asked.
Colonello then smirked and stated, "I deal with illegal everyday, hey!"
That sounds exactly like something Reborn would say! Hide gawked.
"Haha! Colonello's so funny!" his gramps laughed.
I don't think he's joking, gramps…the grandson grimaced and then looked around, for some reason all the faces in the crowd began to look scarier and more threatening, Now that I think about it…there's an awful lot of huge guys with scars and suspicious things around them…
"Colonello turned this marine base into a Mafia Resort," said Reborn, who was relaxing on a miniature towel and beach chair with a tiny parasol shading him, "It's now a place where only top members of the Mafia go and spend their vacation."
What the heck! Hide gawked.
"That's right, hey!" Colonello nodded, "We're proud to say that we've gone two days without anyone getting killed, hey!"
A horrible scream occurred right after the camouflaged infant said that, but nobody else around them seemed to pay attention to it.
"Make that five minutes," the infant corrected himself.
Both Hide's and Hanabi's mouths hung open, but Suzuki was just laughing to himself.
"Haha! That's a great joke, Colonello!" he laughed.
No, Suzuki, it's not a joke…Hide grimaced, I don't think any of this is a joke…
"Hide, your gramps has some pretty interesting friends," Suzuki said cheerfully.
"Don't I know it," the boy sighed and then looked at his gramps, "Gramps, Nagi-san sent us here to say that we're out of drinks and you're the one with the keys to the van."
"Oh yeah, Colonello, why don't you hang out with my grandson and his friends?," Yamamoto suggested, "Since I'll have to go and get drinks. They wouldn't mind, would they?"
"Not really," Hide shrugged.
"The more the merrier!" Suzuki grinned cheerfully.
"You sound like an old man," Hanabi pointed out.
"Okay then, hey! If you want me to baby-sit them, I will," Colonello shrugged, "Hey!"
That sounds like the opposite of what gramps asked me to do!
"Hide, hey!" Colonello began as the group had resumed to playing in the ocean, the camouflaged infant was sitting in a light blue inner tube as it floated gently in the water, "Did Yamamoto tell you about the giant jellyfish that lives in this part of the ocean? Hey!"
"A giant jellyfish?" Hide rolled his eyes, "Yeah right."
"Colonello is telling the truth, Hide," said Reborn as he floated by on a similar looking inner tube, "There is a giant man-eating jellyfish that sneaks around here."
"Th-There is?" said Megumi shakily, who had overheard the conversation, "How scary!"
"Don't listen to them, Megumi-san, it's probably just a bunch of lies," Hide said quickly.
"The story goes," Reborn ignored Hide and went on with his fun, "There was a Mafia gang that trained and bred a giant jellyfish that eat people, but the jellyfish ended up eating them and it escaped into the sea. Now it still lurks in this part of the ocean, looking for tasty Mafiosi to eat…"
"Wha-What's a 'Mafiosi'?" the red-head asked nervously.
"A person in the mafia," Reborn explained and then added, "Of course it looks for others too."
Megumi shivered a little and quickly said, "I-I think I just felt something move past my feet!"
Hide looked down and saw nothing, he then thought, Wait, is Megumi-chan scared easily? I don't see Morita-kun around, she'll probably run to me since I'm closest if something happens!
A scene showed up in Hide's head where Megumi ran into the arms of Hide and clung on to him for comfort.
"Kya~! Hide-kun, save me!" she yelped.
"Don't worry, Megumi-chan, I'll always be here for you," he would say suavely.
"Oh Hide-kun," she would blush…and then the romantic sunset would occur, even though it was two in the afternoon, and they would kiss in the ocean…
Of course all of this was in Hide's head, the boy immediately shook the blush off his face and said, "Don't worry Megumi-san, I'll be here!"
But she was already getting out of the ocean and muttering, "I-I think I'll just wait with Anna-chan and Adam-kun on the beach…"
She didn't even hear me…Hide sighed disappointedly.
"Don't worry, Hide," said Reborn, "You can probably still get eaten by the giant man-eating jellyfish."
That's not even what I was thinking! the boy gawked.
He then felt something slimy grab his leg and he jumped up, "It's the giant man-eating jellyfish!" he screamed and clung onto the closest person that was around, which happened to be Suzuki.
"Huh? What's wrong, Hide?" the baseball player asked, "I thought you could swim just fine."
"S-Suzuki!" Hide paled, "Um, this is-uh…"
"You were right, Reborn, hey!" said Colonello as he rose up from the sea, Hide hadn't noticed that the infant was gone, "He does scream like a little girl when he's scared. Hey!"
"See, didn't I tell you?" the tutor nodded.
"R-Reborn!" Hide gawked, "I do not scream like a girl!"
"Um, Hide…" Suzuki began, the boy looked down and saw that his arms were still wrapped around Suzuki's waist and he quickly let go, the baseball player grinned sheepishly and said, "You don't have to be embarrassed, Hide, you do sound like a girl when you scream sometimes."
"Not you too!" Hide grimaced.
~8~
"Boss!" Adam brightened as he was playing in the sand, "How was the ocean? I heard there was a giant man-eating jellyfish there!"
"No, that's a lie," Hide quickly dismissed it, him, Suzuki, Reborn, and Colonello had decided to go back on land they had both lost track of Morita and Hanabi.
"What are you doing with the sand?" asked Suzuki, he pointed at the red bucket that Adam was holding.
"This? Anna told me to get it," he answered.
When they got to where they set up their stuff, Anna was sitting on the ground piling sand on top of something while Megumi was sitting besides her watching.
"She's been doing this for a while, apparently," Megumi explained, "I don't even know what she's doing."
"I'm done," the blonde haired girl announced, before her was an intricate design of buildings and forts and a small moat all made out of sand.
"Wow!" Megumi clasped her hands together and said in awe, "A sandcastle!"
"Yup," Anna smiled to herself, "I haven't made these in a while, so I'm a bit rusty."
"Liar, you worked on this thing for an hour and even planned the whole thing out ahead of time," said Adam.
Anna didn't say anything but she did quietly glare at him and reached over to slap his sun-burnt skin. In response to this, Adam did the same and once more their slapping war resumed.
"Have you guys seen Morita?" Megumi asked, "I think I lost track of him and Hanabi-chan when we were playing in the ocean."
"Maybe they got eaten by the giant man-eating jellyfish," suggested Reborn.
Megumi paled and gulped, "W-what?"
"Quit saying stuff like that!" Hide scolded, "There's no such thing as a giant man-eating jellyfish!"
"There isn't?" the red-head asked with a pleading look in her eyes.
This made Hide blush and he quickly looked away and said,"B-Besides, I won't let anything hurt you, Megumi-san…"
He glanced back to her and saw her with her mouth hanging open, he felt a shadow fall upon him and turned around to be face-to-face with a jellyfish.
"Agh!" he yelled and fell to the ground.
"Hey! He didn't sound like a girl this time! Hey!" said Colonello, an eagle was holding onto his shirt collar and helping him fly at about Hide's height and Reborn was being held up by Colonello and holding a Leon-jellyfish in his hands.
"No, a shame though, isn't it?" Reborn sighed.
"Quit scaring me like that!" Hide yelled and glanced around until she found Megumi, she was frozen with fear at the sight of the jellyfish.
"J-J-Jellyfish…" she quaked.
"Hey guys!" Morita waved at them as both he and Hanabi came walking up to them.
"Twelfth!" Hanabi immediately ran over to the fallen Hide and asked worriedly, "Are you alright! I'm sorry I left your side, Twelfth! I just turned around for a second and found myself lost in the huge crowd of people!"
"Yeah, and then I had to get her out," Morita snickered and stopped when he noticed Megumi, "Yo Megumi! What's up with her?"
"Giant man-eating jellyfish," Hide muttered.
"Jellyfish?" he questioned and saw Reborn holding the Leon-jellyfish at hand, "Sorry, little guy, but could you put that jellyfish away? Megumi's been scared of those things ever since she was little."
"She has?" Hide asked.
"Yup," the boxer nodded, "I don't know why, but for some reason she immediately freezes up whenever she sees a jellyfish."
So after Reborn had turned Leon back into his chameleon form, Megumi fell to her knees and sighed heavily.
"S-So scary!" she whimpered, "I never want to see another jellyfish again…"
"Megumi, why are you so scared of jellyfish?" asked Morita.
"Are you kidding?" she glanced up at him and shivered, "They're so slimy and they had these tentacle-things that sting you! It's so creepy!"
Note to self, Megumi-chan is scared of jellyfish, Hide memorized in his head and turned back to Reborn and Colonello to scold them some more, but the two infants were asleep.
"Those guys are just way too much like each other," he muttered and turned around only to get kicked in the back of the head by both.
"We're nothing like each other," they both stated and fell back to sleep again.
They both just fell back to sleep! Hide gawked.
"Has anyone seen Nagi?" Hanabi asked, "I thought he was here but I guess not…"
"He went with Mr. Yamamoto to get drinks," said Megumi, as she recovered from the jellyfish-shock, "They also said they were going to get dinner too."
"I wonder what they're going to get us," Morita said thoughtfully.
"It's probably hotdogs," said Suzuki, "Hotdogs and chips are usually what Hide's gramps gets every year."
"Yeah, there's a good chance it's going to be that," Hide nodded and looked back at the sleeping Colonello and Reborn, "They were having those hold-your-breathe underwater competitions and a swimming competitions…they're probably super tired."
"Wow, kids have so much energy," Suzuki grinned.
"You're talking like some old man again," Hanabi pointed out.
~8~
Pretty soon the van drove up to the parking lot and they could see Nagi and Yamamoto waving for them to come and help unload some of the stuff.
"Oh, there you are Hanabi! I thought you were kidnapped again!" said Nagi upon seeing his sister when she and the others had arrived to help them.
"Shut up and help, Nagi," she muttered and tossed a giant bag of chips his way.
"Kouhei, Morita, take the grill and be careful with it alright?" Hide's gramps cautioned, "It's pretty heavy, Adam can you take the charcoal and lighter?"
"Okay," the boys said in unison
"Hide, help me with the cooler okay?" his gramps asked and looked at the girls, "You girls take whatever is left in there, alright?"
"Yes sir!" all three nodded.
As they got the grill set up and the charcoal burning, Yamamoto took some hotdogs out of the cooler and put them on the grill.
"Wow! It smells so good!" said Megumi.
"It's not bad," Hanabi muttered.
"Heh, glad you girls like them!" the elderly man grinned and then asked, "Oh wait, none of you are vegetarians or something like that, right? I probably should gotten some lettuce too…"
"No, it's alright," Megumi shook her head, "None of us are vegetarians!"
"That's good," Yamamoto sighed with relief and turned over some of the hotdogs, "Okay, who wants the first ones?"
They all clamored over the hotdogs and chips and they all ate until their stomachs were full. The sky was beginning to turn red around them and everybody was beginning to get sleepy so they all decided to leave for the day.
Everybody piled into the van except for Colonello and Yamamoto, who decided to stay and say their goodbyes to each other before leaving.
"See you, Colonello," Yamamoto shook hands with the camouflaged infant, "It was good seeing you again."
"Come back again, soon, hey!" said Colonello, he then added, "And bring watermelon, Reborn and I can both try a watermelon-smashing competition next time. Hey!"
"Why don't you come down to Namimori during the winter? Not a whole lot of people would come down to the beach by then," the elderly man suggested.
"Maybe, maybe, hey!" the infant said thoughtfully, "Have a safe trip, hey!"
"Yeah, thanks!" he nodded and went to the van.
~8~
Yamamoto smiled as the group was all fast asleep in the van, the beach-trip generally ended like this every year with everyone extremely exhausted and sun-bathed from playing by the ocean all day. The old man climbed into the driver's seat with Hide right next to him and Reborn sleeping soundly in his grandson's lap.
"We had a lot more people this year," he mused and started the car.
As Yamamoto was driving in the night, something must have woken Hide up as the boy started to stir and rub his eyes sleepily.
"Gramps?" he yawned and looked around, everyone else was still fast asleep.
"Hey there, buddy!" the elderly man grinned at his grandson, he took one quick hand off the steering wheel and ruffled the boy's hair, "How's it going? If you're so tired, you should go back to sleep!"
"No, it's okay," Hide shook his head, "I kinda want to ask you some stuff, gramps, while everyone else is asleep."
"Questions? Fire away, buddy!" he grinned, "Is this for your summer homework?"
"No, Reborn made me do that at the beginning of summer vacation," the boy sighed, "No, it's about the Mafia and what exactly happened at the underground base."
Hide could tell that his gramps stiffened up a little after hearing that, he didn't know exactly how since nothing seemed to change on the outside but it was like his gramps suddenly became a whole different person on the inside for just a second.
"Mafia, huh?" he said solemnly in a voice that Hide had never heard from his gramps before, Yamamoto then brightened and said, "Like I said, fire away, buddy!"
"Um, alright," he nodded, he hadn't really been expecting that answer and he actually didn't know where to start with all the questions he had, "So, how exactly do you know about the, uh, God Boxes? And where exactly do you stand in the Mafia world?"
"Straight to the point, eh?" he grinned, "Well I'll tell you this, because you're my beloved grandson. I first met your grandfather when I was in middle school, just like you."
"You did?" Hide asked, he had always suspected the two have either never met or only met when Hide's mom and dad got married.
"Yup, me and him became really good friends," his gramps nodded reminiscently, "Of course, one thing led to another and I ended up working for him and the Vongola Family!"
You say that as if it's common…the boy thought to himself.
"And the God Boxes…well," the elderly man began thoughtfully, "Well, they were invented around forty years ago, probably a little more, I was one of the first people to get them since I was good friends with the scientist who made them. They were really powerful back then, but your grandfather didn't like them, he said that they were too real and resembled humans too much. So they were abolished and hidden somewhere, nobody actually knew where but I guess a few were hidden here in Namimori."
"So…that's why you know so much about them?" he asked, "Because you were friends with the scientist and you were one of the first people to get them?"
"Yup!" Yamamoto nodded cheerfully and looked at his rear view mirror, he could see the sun-burnt Grandhart twins sleeping soundly in the back and he adjusted the mirror so that it was just looking at the back window.
"Hide," he began, "Those twins, do you know much about their family?"
"Hm? Uh, no actually, I don't think so," Hide said thoughtfully.
"Really? Strange," his gramps stated while keeping his hazel colored eyes on the road, "Because I remember that scientist who made the God Boxes very well, he sort of looked like those two. Blonde hair, blue eyes, of course he wore glasses, but they're almost like exact copies."
"It's probably just a coincidence, Gramps," Hide quickly dismissed it, "Anna and Adam said that there were a lot of people in America with blonde hair and blue eyes."
"Yes, that may be so," he nodded and then added, "But his name was Daniel Grandhart."
Hide froze, lights flashed by as the van sped through the night-lit road. He couldn't help but want to look back at Adam and Anna, they were both still sound asleep. The boy sunk back in the chair, Reborn was still asleep in his lap as well, and he looked up at his gramps.
The man was still driving along as if nothing had just happened.
"School's starting tomorrow," he said, "You should really get some rest, Hide."
~8~
*PONYO, PONYO, PONYO!
**Kouhei is Suzuki's given name, Suzuki is Suzuki's family name.
~8~
Wooooow, I just realized I made Yamamoto-oji out to be super creepy in the last part, I'm sorry Yamamoto-fans! Colonello was probably a little OoC too, but I don't really know Colonello's personality too well other than the fact that he has a long-standing rivalry with Reborn.
And last of all, KHR does not belong to me, it is a property of Amano Akira; however all of the OCs belong to me! :)
Extra!
~8~
"Hide, you know how to swim, right?" Reborn asked after he had been watching Hide play around in the ocean with his friends.
"Huh? What kind of question is that? Of course I know how to swim," his student said with a hint of suspicion, "I've known how to swim since I was a little kid."
"Oh really? I'm only asking this because all of my students before you didn't," Reborn said in his own defense and then asked, "If you know how to swim, do you mind explaining your method?"
"What? Um…" Hide scratched his cheek thoughtfully and shrugged, "Sure, I guess. I don't see how that could cause me pain in any way…"
He went to a deeper part of the ocean with Reborn following him in an inner tube, and stopped and looked back at his tutor.
"Okay…" he said slowly and began, "First, I take a deep breathe in and then I go into the water and move my arms around like this and go 'mm-pah! mm-pah! Guh! Guh!' while also…" at this point Hide started moving his arms to where it somewhat resembled a swimming motion, "…and then I just keep swimming forwards. You know?"
"Not really," said Morita, who happened to be watching, "What was up with all of that 'go deeper while moving my arms like this' stuff?"
"Well, um, you know, just go deeper while moving your arms like this…" he said slightly uncertainly and then Hide wondered if he had been swimming the right way all his life or not.
"No, I don't know, the way your explaining it is so abstract," the boxer shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh? Really?" he said with mild surprise, "This is how I learned from my Gramps!"
That day, Reborn came to the conclusion that of all the things that Hide could have inherited genetically from Yamamoto it was his knack for trusting his instincts and learning things by doing them…of course this only made things harder for Hide's training and punishment.