I don't own KHR.

Asari looked around the cemetery but had yet to find any signs of an ambush or the man they were hunting for that matter. He and Alaude were currently hunting a serial killer that people called Unum (Latin for the one and only) that had started to leave victims in their city, their home. From what Vongola had managed to figure out so far, Unum was very quick, deadly, and sadistic. Giotto, as merciful as he was, put out the order that Unum had to die. And as much as Asari valued life, he could not blame him. He had found one of Unum's victims and...it had not been pretty. He had seen plenty of horrible things as the Rain Guardian of Vongola but that poor man's body was immediately placed in the top five.

Luckily, they had gotten a tip recently that Unum had started his killing spree in a small town not far away from their home. Asari and Alaude had been sent to investigate and whether it was due to divine intervention or just pure, dumb luck, they came across Unum just about to make the first mark on his next victim. Apparently, he had heard about Vongola searching for him and decided to go back to his hometown for the time being.

Unum, quickly realizing who they were, immediately ran off causing Alaude to instantly give chase. After quickly making sure that the almost victim was okay, Asari followed them. When he finally caught up to Alaude in the middle of the cemetery, Unum was nowhere in sight.

Asari was honestly surprised and alarmed that someone had managed to outrun Alaude.

"Do you think he's long gone?" Asari finally asked as he glanced at Alaude.

"No, I have a feeling he's still somewhere in here," Alaude answered with a shake of his head as he took a few steps away from Asari, his eyes steeled with fiery determination.

"You think he wants to pick us off one by one? If so, why here? There isn't a lot of places to take cover here," Asari quietly questioned as he took a few steps in the opposite direction from Alaude. When he came to a stop, he glanced at his left, his eyes picking up a name on a tombstone as a result.

"Who knows, maybe because he sent a lot of people here he feels...Asari?" Asari didn't answer, his legs as still as stone as he stared at the tombstone in terror. He vaguely heard Alaude walk to him and stop at his side.

"Tsuyoshi Yamamoto," Alaude read out loud calmly. "Isn't that the name of your cousin? The one who saved your life during the typhoon?"

Asari nodded, his eyes still on the tombstone. It couldn't be...this...this grave couldn't be his cousin's grave! Sure, he hadn't been in touch with Tsuyoshi in a long time, but surely Tsuyoshi would have made sure to tell him that he was going to be in Italy. He would have...right?

"It's probably not him...Yamamoto is a common last name in Japan, so there are probably a lot of people with the name Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, I mean Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, out there. This...probably just belonged to some unlucky tourist or something. I...I would have been contacted otherwise…especially since he has a young son..."

Then Asari felt a strong yet surprisingly gentle hand on his shoulder. Asari looked to the side and found Alaude looking at him dead in the eye.

"Even though the death date suggests that he died before Unum started killing people, perhaps Unum knows about this. This is his hometown after all," Alaude told him calmly. "And if he doesn't, I will look more into it."

Asari looked at the determined glint in his friend's eyes before he sighed.

"Thank you Alaude," Asari said gratefully, already feeling a bit better than before. Alaude, knowing that his promise had been both heard and accepted, nodded before leaving to search the place. Asari couldn't help one more wary glance at the tombstone before he followed Alaude, hoping that the informant would just tell him that the grave really did belong to an unlucky tourist.

KHR

Much to their frustration, they did not find Unum in the cemetery. It had been a few days since then, and Alaude had yet to tell him anything. Whether it was because the information was hard to come by or he had been too busy handling the Unum situation, Asari wasn't sure. Not that he wouldn't blame Alaude if it was the latter, the Unum situation had honestly made them all stressed out.

Though as Asari looked down at the flute in his hands, he couldn't help but feel anxiously impatient. He had managed to find the time to send a letter to his cousin but it would take time before he would get a reply.

He just wanted to know for sure that his cousin was still alive already…

Then Asari heard mumbled voices and nearly quiet footsteps outside of his room. Asari, who had been kneeling, then stood up and looked at his door right as he heard a soft knock. Before Asari could answer, however, the door cracked open.

"Asari?" Giotto greeted as he poked his head around the door, with an expression that was eerily familiar on his friend's face but for the life of him Asari couldn't remember why. All he knew was that he didn't like it.

"Oh hi, Giotto, what is it? Did we find news of Unum's whereabouts?" Asari asked as he felt a cloud of dread spread and grow inside his chest when Giotto walked in the closed the door behind him. He had definitely heard someone else with Giotto, and he hadn't heard a pair of footsteps continue down the hallway, so why weren't they coming in too?

"No," Giotto answered as he shook his head, with a look in his eyes that suggested that he would rather be doing anything else. "But...Alaude did find out who that grave you two found belonged to."

"He did?" Asari replied hopefully despite the small voice in his head telling him how the fact that there wasn't even a trace of a smile on Giotto's face meant that this wasn't meant to be good news.

"Yes. And the reason he came to me and not you is that...he didn't know how to break it to you."

And just like that, Asari recalled where Giotto had worn that expression before.

Giotto wore it when he had informed the mother of one of their members that her son had died.

As Asari's desperate hope and relief completely died, he absentmindedly dropped his precious flute to the floor while he let his hands drop to his sides.

"It was a mafia family that was just starting up, they went by the name of the Colombo famiglia," Giotto continued with a look in his eyes that made Asari's heartbreak even more. "They wanted protection money from Tsuyoshi, who himself had just opened up a sushi restaurant. But Tsuyoshi refused to bow down to them so they attacked him. While Tsuyoshi fought valiantly to the point that he became the main reason why the Colombo famiglia isn't around today...he did die doing so. I'm sorry."

Asari couldn't speak. There was too much pressure building up in his throat that he was afraid that if he even tried, some sound other than words would come out. Asari could only stand there, his vision starting to blur as he desperately tried to fight off the dark, overwhelming feeling of despair that threatened to consume him. He...he couldn't lose control, not yet-

"I'm so sorry," Giotto repeated, his voice cracking at the last word. Then before Asari could react, Giotto quickly closed the distance between them and hugged him tightly.

And any semblance of control that Asari had was almost immediately shattered. A gurgled sob escaped his lips as his trembling hands hovered above Giotto's back before he finally gave in and hugged his friend for dear life.

Asari wailed as he dug his face into Giotto's shoulder, tears falling so quickly out of his eyes that he soaked Giotto's suit in moments. But instead of complaining, Giotto placed his hand behind Asari's head and held it gently yet tightly. This only made Asari cried harder, his body heaving with every sob.

Memories of his time together with Tsuyoshi flitted through his mind, from the time of their very first sword fight to the time Asari last saw him in Japan. When before these memories were happy or at the very least bittersweet, they were now full of pain. Because…

Because Asari wanted to make more memories. And now that was impossible.

"W-Why...why didn't I write to him more? Why d-didn't I make more of an effort?" Asari sobbed even though he didn't expect Giotto to know the answer. "If I had then m-maybe...maybe I would have known about his new r-restaurant...maybe I could have been there when...I...I c-could have help…"

"Don't go down that road Asari," Giotto warned him with a quavering voice. "Please believe me when I say that it isn't your fault. You were not the one who attacked Tsuyoshi, that was the Colombo famiglia. You may have stopped contacting Tsuyoshi but you were not the one who killed him. His death was not your fault."

Asari wasn't comforted, he couldn't be, he wouldn't let himself be comforted. All he wanted was to go back in time and actually make time to write a letter. Or call him, despite the high price of international calls. Tsuyoshi was his cousin, his family, why did he just believe that it wasn't necessary to keep in touch with him? That it was just one of those things? He...he could have been in Tsuyoshi's life more...he could have welcomed Tsuyoshi to Italy...he could have known Takeshi better-

"Takeshi!" Asari cried with realization as he picked his head up from Giotto's shoulder and looked straight into Giotto's bloodshot eyes. "Takeshi...Tsuyoshi's son...is he-"

"He's alive," Giotto quickly answered him. "He survived without so much as a scratch and he is currently in an orphanage just outside that town's districts. We're ready to go get him whenever you are. And there's no need to thank us, we know you would have done the same for us."

Asari was so overwhelmed with gratitude and his friend's love that for a moment he couldn't speak. So he took a deep breath and after he let it out, he found that not only did he have the strength to talk, he wasn't so overwhelmed with despair anymore.

"Give me five minutes."

KHR

"What do you mean he's gone?!" G yelled as he stood up so suddenly that the chair he was sitting on crashed to the ground. As a result, Lampo wrapped both arms around Asari and hugged him. Asari wasn't sure though if it was because Lampo had gotten frightened or because Lampo had thought he had gotten frightened. Perhaps both.

When Asari had left his room after pulling himself more or less together, Lampo, Elena, and Knuckle had all but jumped on him with teary eyes and promises that it was going to be okay and that he wasn't alone. Asari had of course thanked them graciously but instead of backing off to give him some space, they more or less formed a protective huddle around Asari except for Elena (she said that she was going to stay behind to get ready for their new family member). Even G and Daemon had joined in on the protective huddle, while Alaude stayed right outside of it with a watchful eye on Asari.

In any other situation, Asari would have found this a bit overly excessive but now he found that their presence soothed the pain of his raw and emotional heart. He was especially grateful for Lampo, who had either kept a comforting hand on his back or shoulder ever since Asari left his room.

Because if Lampo hadn't decided to hold him right after the Head had said those awful words, Asari didn't know how he would have stayed grounded otherwise.

"It's exactly like I said, he's not here anymore," the Head of the orphanage explained somewhat calmly despite violently flinching not even a few seconds ago. "He ran away a few months ago."

"A few months ago?" Giotto asked deceptively calmly while Asari reached up to squeeze one of Lampo's wrists. "Have you gotten any closer to finding him?"

"Uh…" the Head replied as he glanced nervously at his side, where one of his employees silently stood.

"You haven't even tried to find him, have you?" Giotto asked, this time not bothering to smother the ice behind his words.

"Uh...they were gone when we woke up and we had no idea where they could have gone," the Head explained as he began to sweat.

"Wait, they?!" G exclaimed as his hands became fists of pure, unadulterated anger. "How many kids ran away?"

"Um...seven I think? Eight if you count the baby…"

"Wait, you think?!" G cried before he walked to the desk the Head was sitting behind and slammed his hands down on it. "So you mean to tell me that not only did you not even attempt to find eight missing children, but you're not even sure on how many of the kids went missing?!"

"I-I's not our fault!" the Head pleaded as beads of sweat really started to run down his face. "We tried our best to make Takeshi feel as welcomed as possible-"

"Really? Then why are the food portions you're giving out to the kids right now ultimately mediocre?"

Asari looked up and saw Knuckle, Daemon, and Alaude standing in the doorway. While he, Lampo, Giotto, and G had entered the office along with the Head, they stayed behind to look around.

And judging by their expressions, their exploration didn't go so well.

"Yeah, and that's not the only problem we saw either. No wonder Takeshi and the other kids ran away," Daemon commented somewhat menacingly as he folded his arms. "If I were them, I would have probably done the same."

The Rain Guardian recalled what little he saw of the orphans and the building itself and found himself sympathetic with what Takeshi and his friends had done. Especially since there was a good chance that Takeshi didn't even know Asari was even in the picture, an option to depend on.

Asari just wished...he could've gotten here earlier to prove to Takeshi that he still had a family...

"B-But...those food portions are perfectly adequate!" the Head defended with a small squeak as beads of sweat fell down his face like they were tiny streams as soon as he laid his dark eyes on Alaude. "Their stomachs are small, they can't handle that much! And-"

"Are you serious?! Kids grow, you idiot!" G yelled as his face slowly became red. "They need the nutrition!"

"I-Idiot?!" the employee suddenly exclaimed in protest, a sense of anger overtaking his features as he obviously decided he didn't want to be silent anymore. "Who do you think you are, thinking that you have the right to be rude to our Head like that! He-"

"I don't care! I just heard one of my best friends cry his freaking heart out, so excuse me for wanting to take my anger out on this careless numbskull!"

No one talked for a moment after that, not even the employee or the Head dared to talk as G's body trembled with both breathlessness and anger.

G...

"Well, as much as I didn't want to leave here empty-handed, it has become apparent that there is nothing else to be gained by sitting around here," Giotto eventually stated as he stood up. "C'mon, let's go."

Lampo looked like he was about to protest but one look at Giotto's stern face made him stay silent as he glanced at Asari. Asari didn't know what Lampo found in his features but whatever it was made Lampo sighed as he stood up and offered a hand to help Asari up.

Asari accepted the offer without a word, too swarmed with guilt, grief, and despair to be anything but silent. He couldn't even grin in appreciation when Lampo put his arm around his shoulders as soon as Asari had gotten to his feet.

"G," Giotto firmly called out to their pink-haired friend, who was still glaring daggers at the fearful Head. G didn't answer, choosing to only scoff and give both the older man and employee one last hateful glare but he turned on his heel and followed them out.

"Alaude," Giotto said quietly as soon as they left the office. "Dig up everything you possibly can on this establishment. I want him to be held accountable."

"He and his accomplices will be arrested before the month is out," Alaude promised as a strong fire billowed about in his eyes. Asari knew that he should be at least grateful and glad that this orphanage run by careless adults was going to be shut down soon but...he couldn't. He wanted to know where his cousin's son was, or even better, he wanted to walk out of here with Takeshi.

Or even better than that, he wanted Tsuyoshi to still be alive.

"Don't worry, we'll find him," Lampo muttered quietly as he tightened his grip on Asari's shoulders. Then Asari felt another hand squeeze his shoulder and turned his head to find that the hand belonged to G. The Storm Guardian gave him a firm nod and while Asari nodded back, it was only out of polite instinct.

Because when and how were they going to find Takeshi?

Or worse...what if it was already too late?

KHR

A few days had passed since then and so far there had been no news of where Takeshi was or what had happened to him. While worrying for Takeshi and grieving for Tsuyoshi was almost more than Asari could bear, there were two consolations. One was his friends, who were so compassionate and understanding that Asari honestly didn't know what he would have done without them.

The second one was that they finally had a major breakthrough concerning Unum. Not only did they find out where his hideout was, but they found out that he was one of few survivors of the Colombo famiglia. Despite knowing that there was a good chance that Unum hadn't even been one of the mafioso to attack Tsuyoshi, Asari still requested Giotto to put him on the mission to hunt him down.

And while Asari did catch some reluctance in Giotto's eyes, his boss did accept his request.

Now here he was, sitting in a chair in the serial killer's very own living room waiting for him to come home on the off chance that Unum managed to slip by Alaude, G, and Daemon. Which was actually pretty likely if the glances his fellow guardians gave him were anything to go by.

Then suddenly, Asari heard the door open and close.

Asari inhaled deeply before letting it all out as he gripped the handle of his sword. A few seconds later, a lanky man with a scarred, sleazy face walked into the room. Unum's smile quickly disappeared when he laid his eyes on Asari sitting on his chair.

"Wha-"

"Hello Unum, my name is Ugetsu Asari and I have a question for you," Asari said evenly, feeling strangely calm as he stood up and looked straight into Unum's blue eyes. "Were you one of the men who attacked Yamamoto Tsuyoshi?"

"You mean that sushi shop owner that killed most of my famiglia? No," Unum answered with a confused brow as he took on a defensive stance. "But that bastard definitely got what he deserved-"

Slash.

KHR

As the days turned into weeks and those weeks turned into months, the pain of losing Tsuyoshi and the anxiety for Takeshi's welfare didn't exactly go away. Instead, Asari found that he had gotten better at handling it. He was even able to smile again, like really smile and not the sad, appreciative grins he had given his family in the first few days.

But then all that went flying through the window when Reborn informed him and Giotto that he came across Takeshi. Right by their property.

Asari did somehow manage to keep some semblance of calm while they searched for Takeshi, another boy, and a baby. As they searched, Asari couldn't help but hope Takeshi wouldn't run away at the sight of him, that their first meeting after so many years would at least run somewhat smoothly.

But now as Asari looked at his little cousin in his arms, who he had put to sleep himself with his flames because Takeshi was about to hyperventilate, Asari realized that he had hoped for too much.

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look up. Giotto was kneeling in front of him, with a passed-out Tsuna safely tucked against his chest with one arm as he looked straight into Asari's eyes.

"While this really could have gone better, at least we finally found him. And as a bonus, we even found his friends too."

"Speak for yourself," Reborn muttered as he held out the crying baby, or Lambo, as far away from him as possible.

Asari decided to ignore Reborn for the time being as he looked down at his sleeping cousin and nodded in agreement. Giotto was right, because while Asari probably could have not resorted to forcing his little cousin to sleep, at least he was safe now, along with Takeshi's friends. Asari would have another chance to make a good impression.

He just hoped it would be enough to make Takeshi want to trust him.

KHR

During the next few days after that, Asari realized that he had forgotten one little detail.

He forgot that he had to tell Takeshi about his failure to protect Tsuyoshi.

At first, Asari told himself that while Takeshi seemed friendly enough despite what had happened in the forest, some of his brothers were waiting for an excuse to leave the Vongola mansion. If Takeshi became upset when he learned the truth about their relationship, all the kids would see that as Giotto breaking his promise to them and promptly leave. And since some of Takeshi's family members were injured, that would not be a good idea.

But when Takeshi finally came to him and asked him if he knew his father, Asari realized that he had just been afraid that Takeshi would get angry at him and hate him. And despite the guilt he felt for not keeping in better contact with Tsuyoshi, he honestly did not want that.

Nevertheless, he still told Takeshi because he had every right to know.

"Asari, there you are!" Asari, who had been walking down the hall, stopped and turned just in time to see Takeshi running straight for him.

"Happy birthday!" Takeshi cried as he jumped forward to wrap his arms tightly around Asari's middle. Asari couldn't help but chuckle in glee as he returned Takeshi's hug.

"Thank you, Takeshi," Asari said gratefully as he once again felt happy that Takeshi and his little family had decided to live with him and the rest of Vongola. Then Takeshi ended the hug and held out a somewhat clumsily wrapped present to him.

"I was told you guys give out presents throughout the day so here you go!"

"Aw, thank you, did you wrap this yourself?" Asari asked as he accepted Takeshi's gift and began to tear through the many pieces of tape.

"Yep!" Takeshi confirmed proudly as he watched Asari open the present while bouncing on the balls of his feet. Asari couldn't help but chuckle at seeing his little cousin's excitement. A few seconds later, the wrapping paper was on the floor and Asari was holding a beautiful wooden flute in his hands.

"The guy at the market said he carved it himself," Takeshi explained. "Do you like it?"

Asari looked at Takeshi and remembered how instead of getting upset or angry, Takeshi instantly forgave him and washed his guilt away with a few simple words.

"I love it," Asari said truthfully as he pulled Takeshi into a tight hug. While he still missed Tsuyoshi, he was alright now, thanks to Takeshi and the rest of their family. No, not alright, he was truly happy again.

It had just taken a while.

In case it wasn't clear enough, Alaude had come to Giotto for advice on how to break the news to Asari himself. Giotto just offered to do it instead because not only was he Asari's boss and friend, he was/is a bit of a self-sacrificing type. And Alaude, despite feeling the responsibility to do it himself, agreed because he didn't want to risk hurting Asari even more with poor delivery.

Heck yeah, I'm back! I had this idea for a while actually but I wasn't sure when I would be able to or if I should put it at the end of Little Children or not. In the end, I decided to make it its very own one-shot/story. I hope you like and before you go, please leave a review!

Till I write another story, have a good day/night!