Whew! Long time, no see! For those of you that don't visit my forum, and you really should, the art contest is ON! It started Dec. 15th and it will end on January 31st at midnight. The contest is a Fan-art contest for Fan Fiction, where you make fan-art for the various KHR-related fanfics! The judges are me, Echan1263, and Nehszriah, and the winner of each category that enters will get a choice of prizes between a drawing-commission by me or an attractive wallpaper by Nehszriah!

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you enter and have fun with the art contest! :D

~8~

"Hide-kun, I heard you moved into a new house!" Hide's face paled and he slowly looked up to see Megumi leaning on his desk and smiling cheerfully at him, she added questioningly in a bright manner, "But I'm wondering why you moved out of your old house, it was a very pretty home when I saw it."

"It's probably best not to wonder," he muttered to himself quietly, unfortunately his crush was still able to hear what he said.

"Why not?" she asked innocently.

The bell rang for school to start and Hide quickly admitted, "O-Oh look, you should get to your seat or Kurokawa-sensei will get blamed again for not being in control of the students."

"That's right!" she nodded and quickly went to her seat in time before the first period teacher came in. Kurokawa was eventually scolded anyways for being late to class.

While he was being scolded by the first period teacher, Megumi couldn't help but notice that Hide gave a tired sigh as soon as she got to her seat. That was when she realized that whenever she actually asked something personal about Hide, the question would either be ignored or the subject would quickly be changed.

"Could Hide-kun be hiding something…?" she mumbled thoughtfully while searching through her text book.

~8~

Megumi resolved to confront Hide on the matter when lunch came along, but as soon as the bell had rung Kurokawa had grabbed him and rushed him out of the classroom while claiming that there was something extremely urgent that Hide was needed for and would probably be absent for the rest of the day.

"How strange…" Megumi said thoughtfully, "I wonder what it could be?"

"Probably something crazy," Hanabi said unhappily, "Now I don't have anyone to eat lunch with."

"I'll eat lunch with you, Gokudera!" Suzuki volunteered from a seat away from her.

"Who the hell would want to eat lunch with you?" she grumbled and noticed the large sack he was lifting up to his desk, "What's that for?"

"This?" he gestured towards it and answered, "These are just the lunches I got today, haha!"

"Who would want to give a lunch to you?" the bomber asked with vague disbelief.

"Lots of people give me lunches!" he said brightly, "All the girls in this class are so nice, they give me lunches everyday!"

"Well isn't that good for you," she rolled her eyes in a sarcastic manner and looked over to Megumi, "Megumi, do you want to have lunch together today?"

"Okay, Hanabi-chan!" the red-head agreed, "Let's ask Anna-chan to each lunch too!"

"Ugh, okay," the silver haired girl reluctantly agreed, "Where's the blondie?"

After finding Anna, whose brother was rather unwilling to have her leave, the girls walked to the courtyard to begin eating lunch. On their way to the courtyard, Megumi saw out of the corner of her eye a yellow puff of smoke coming from the gym and watched silently as both Kurokawa and Hide ran out gym screaming.

"What are they doing?" she wondered while watching the two run over the doors and press them closed with their bodies.

"What the hell happened in there!" Hide screamed at Kurokawa.

"I don't know, but I'm sure that thing had tentacles!" the assistant teacher yelled back, something pounded on the doors that almost made them fall back.

"It's nothing important!" Hanabi said with urgency, she took the red-head's shoulders and began steering her away from the direction of the gym, "L-Let's hurry and go to the courtyard, it's best not to get mixed up in these kinds of things."

"Maybe…" Megumi said with a hint of doubt.

~8~

They finally made their way to the courtyard, where the yellow smoke was almost completely out of sight, and began they began to eat their lunch. Megumi's mind couldn't help but wander back to what happened over at the gym, especially when Hide jumped over the hedge they were sitting next to with almost ten buckets in his arms and dressed in nothing but his underwear.

"GRAB WATER FROM THE RIVER WITH MY DYING WILL!" he hollered at the top of his lungs and ran off before anyone could ask anything.

"W-What was that about?" Megumi stammered in surprise.

"He was grabbing water from the river," Anna replied and, as an afterthought, added, "with his dying will."

"I've been meaning to ask this," the red-head began, "But what's up with this whole 'dying will'-thing? He's always yelling about that when he's in his underwear."

"Who knows," Hanabi shrugged while poking around her lunchbox curiously, she then looked up as if she remembered something and said quickly, "but doesn't the Twelfth always seem to look cooler when he's in his underwear."

"Uh, I guess?" she said in a confused tone.

"Or at least he does cool things when he's in his underwear," said Anna, she took a bite of a roll of bread that was in her hand and continued in a joking manner, "Maybe all of his super powers become unleashed when he's in his boxers?"

Of course, Anna knew the real reason why Hide would yell and run around doing really impulsive things in his underwear. Heck, Hanabi knew why also. But the two had both been sworn/scolded by Hide to not tell Megumi a thing about the Mafia or the reason why he runs around his underwear at in the middle of the day.

"Isn't it kind of weird though?" Megumi questioned, "I mean, it was cool when he first ran around the whole town naked and all, and it was pretty cool when he helped bring in new members for the Boxing Team that second time; but whenever I see him running around the town naked and yelling something about getting groceries from the store or getting dust out of his house, it makes me wonder if he's actually doing it on purpose or if someone or thing is making him do it."

The other two girls were completely silent for a few minutes before Hanabi said slowly, "That's…a bit observant for you, isn't it?"

"I guess," the red-head shrugged and smiled innocently, "This is only a theory, but I think that Hide-kun might be hiding some big secret from everyone; this secret might even be why he had to move a few days ago!"

"Is that so?" Hanabi couldn't help but have her gaze fall on Anna, who was distractedly looking into her newly emptied wallet, the silver-haired bomber turned back to Megumi and asked, "Are you sure? I think that if the Twelfth ever had a problem or was in trouble, he would tell us."

"Now that I've been thinking about it," the red-head began thoughtfully, "Why do you guys call Hide-kun things like 'Twelfth' and 'Boss'?"

The two fell silent again until Anna shot straight up and said, "Oh, well if you'll look at that! The lunch bell just rang!"

"No it didn't…"

"Oh yeah," she muttered, she pressed a button on a remote that was hidden behind her back and the sound of a bell resonated throughout the school, "Well if you'll at that! The lunch bell just rang!"

"Wai-what?"

"We better hurry or else we'll get scolded by the teacher!" Hanabi said hurriedly and immediately left with Anna right behind her.

"What?" Megumi's brow furrowed in confusion and she checked her cell phone for the time, "But my phone says that we have ten more minutes…"

Something was up, she later concluded, and both Anna and Hanabi were in on whatever it was that was up.

~8~

When Hide had come home from school, the Namimori Middle School uniform he wore was partly soaked and completely tattered, he nearly fell to the ground in exhaustion the moment he came to the steps of his door.

"I'm never going to think of that gym the same way ever again…" he muttered.

"Get up," something kicked his head, he guessed it was Reborn, "You wouldn't guess who's here."

"I don't care," he grumbled tiredly.

"Hide-kun!" a voice, whom he guessed was his mother, said cheerfully.

"What is it, mom?"

"Oh my, you never told me you had such a cute girl as a friend!" she said bashfully.

"What?" he lifted his head and looked at his mom, "What and who are you talking about?"

"Oh my, you know who I'm talking about!" she continued in the same manner, "That girl who came by to drop off your homework!"

"Homework…?" he recalled missing classes because Kurokawa had called him out for help earlier that day, "Oh yeah, I probably have homework."

"Hide-kun?" he turned his head and saw Megumi standing in front of him.

Hide's face paled and he immediately got to his feet and ran upstairs to his room.

"Mom! Why didn't you tell me that Megumi was here!" he yelled while he quickly got changed from his torn and shredded up clothes.

"Oh my, I thought you would be happy," she yelled back to him and winked at Megumi.

"Why would I be? This is embarrassing!"

"He gets so shy so easily," the mother giggled.

"I'm sorry if I came at a bad time," the red-head said apologetically.

"Oh my, no need to feel sorry, nothing is ever going on around here," she said cheerfully and then added as an afterthought, "Or at least not when I'm around."

"Mom!" Hide came stumbling down the stairs as soon as his mom finished speaking, he had changed from his shredded up school uniform to a teal-blue hoodie with that had white, unrecognizable lettering on it.

"Oh my, hello Hide-kun! You changed quickly!"

"Mom, you didn't tell Megumi-san something that I may come to regret later, did you?" he asked warily.

"Oh my, of course not!" she said cheerfully and winked at Megumi.

"Wait, what was that?"

"What was what?"

"You just winked at her!"

"Oh my, no I didn't."

"Yes! You did!"

After a few moments of bickering between the two, Hide's mom had to leave and go to the grocery store to buy dinner for them. This left Hide and Megumi alone in the living room.

"You and your mom seem to get along well," the red-head said cheerfully.

"Y-Yeah, I guess we do," he stammered and blushed crazily, "But she teases me a lot."

"Haha, I'm sure that's just her way of showing she loves you," she giggled reassuringly.

It took a few seconds for Hide to recover from his smitten-ness before he asked, "Um, what did you come here for again, Megumi-san?"

"Oh yeah, I brought you your homework!" she said sweetly and handed him the paper bag she was holding that was filled with assignments, "If you need any help on anything, just ask!"

"Thanks!" he said gratefully, he began looking through the bag and asked rhetorically, "I wonder why there's this much homework after missing only one day of school…?"

"Um," Megumi began, Hide looked at her and observed that she seemed like she had something she wanted to ask.

"Is there something else?" he asked.

"Uh, well…" she hesitated before looking up at him with a desperate look in her eyes and asking, "Hide-kun, is there something you're hiding from me?"

The bag of homework fell to the ground with a sound thud, "W-What?" he asked nervously, "What brought this up?"

"Well," she hesitated again before exclaiming, "I don't know why, but it always seems like you and everyone else are lying to me!"

"Huh?"

"Whenever I ask you about something, you always quickly change the subject; it's the same with Hanabi-chan and Anna-chan also! And when I start to think back to that time you guys got seriously injured during the summer, I don't think you ever gave me a real explanation for what happened then!"

Hide was stunned into silence by the sudden outburst she gave, he had never seen Megumi truly angry before; annoyed, confused, and suspicious, but never angry.

"Please," she said with a pleading look on her face, "Just tell me the truth…"

"Um…" Hide gulped and looked around, he didn't see Reborn in any of his camouflaged-glory around to distract Megumi and he thought miserably, The one time I need him here to interrupt something!

"Just tell me already, Hide-kun!" she said desperately, "I don't want to be the only one left out."

"I-I," his voice faltered, "I don't think I can tell you…"

"Why?" she asked, "Are you being bullied or something?"

"Er," he began uncertainly and thought to himself, A little like that… but out loud he said, "No, it's not like that."

"Then why can't you tell me? I'm beginning to think you guys are doing dangerous things!"

Hide shut his eyes tightly and breathed in through his nostrils before staring into Megumi's green eyes and saying solidly, "We aren't doing anything dangerous."

She looked at him doubtfully for a second before shrugging and saying, "I believe you."

"Thank you," he said in the same solid tone.

"How about we just drop this subject," she continued sadly, "But in exchange, you have to promise me that you won't get hurt doing whatever it is that you're doing."

Hide was silent for a few moments before answering with a cheerful smile, "It's a promise."

"Good," she nodded and began heading out the door, "If you have any questions on that homework, tell me okay?"

"Yeah, sure," he waved goodbye to her and waited for the door to shut before running up to his room and screaming, "Dammit! I can't believe I lied to Megumi-chan!"

"Neither could I," said Reborn, who was sitting in what was a leather, reclining chair that was on Hide's desk.

Hide glared at his tutor and said accusingly, "It'asall your fault I had to lie to her, why did you stay up here and not help me down there!"

"Because before you left, you told me 'Megumi-chan's here, no matter what I do not want you to leave this room, got it?' I was only listening to what you told me."

"When have you ever listened to what I said!"

"What was that?"

"GAAAH!" he screamed and did some more yelling into the pillow on his bed.

"It was quite a surprise that you lied to her though," Reborn said, "For a second there, I thought you were going to tell her everything about the Mafia."

"Well, I almost did," the boy mumbled sadly, "But I don't want Megumi-chan to get caught up in something as dangerous as the Mafia. This will be the only time I'll lie to her."

The infant-hitman stood up from his chair and jumped onto the floor of his student's bedroom, "You do realize that you cannot keep that promise you made to her."

"I know, but I can try," Hide sighed and ran a hand through his spiky, blonde hair, "I don't want her to be sad, I don't want to lie to her…in the end, it looks like I'm going to have do things I don't like. It's a good thing that I told Gokudera-san and Anna to keep Megumi-san away from this sort of thing."

"Hm," Reborn smirked and said, "You're beginning to think like a real Mafia Boss."

"I told you for the eightieth time! I don't want to be a Mafia Boss!" he yelled despite knowing that it was a lost cause when it came to Reborn.

~8~

I hope you all liked this chapter! And remember to go onto my forum, Just another Forum, and enter the fan-art contest!