Chapter 15: I say 'yes, daddy, I do'.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life gives you pineapples? Miura Haru had spent the rest of her vacation avoiding everyone she knew, trying to figure out what choice to make, or more accurately, if it was even necessary to make any choice at all. This was like when some random boy asks you out in high school and, regardless of what you want to answer him, you're haunted by the crippling fear that he's only asking you out as a joke. In that scenario, any answer is the wrong answer.

He didn't make jokes. That was given. But something had begun to change lately. Since the Vinnie incident, the cloud guardian had started to develop something remotely similar to what one could call a 'sense of humor'. Meanwhile, Haru was progressively becoming less and less tolerant of other people's jokes. She had never particularly enjoyed Mukuro's sense of humor, but that man was going too far.

How he found out? She sure as hell didn't know. Hibari didn't tell him, so we can cross out that option. All she knew was that one morning she woke up covered in onion rings.

"Well, what are you going to tell him?" Chrome asked her friend as she helped crawl out from underneath the mountain of food Mukuro had dropped on her. Both girls could still hear his laugh from across the house, and several hours had passed.

"I don't know… nothing." The brunette shrugged. "Say, why don't you just use an illusion to fight back Mukuro's illusion and get rid of all this stuff in one go?"

"Because the onion rings are real."

"Hahi?"

"He used illusionary money to buy them, but they're real." She sighed. Putting up with Mukuro's bullshit stressed her out so much she was sure she would die a premature death. "You can eat them if you want."

"…No thanks."

Both girls sat in silence for the longest time. Chrome ate slowly, and Haru stared at the ceiling, unable to get rid of the lump in her throat. She couldn't stop thinking about that night, about all her previous failed relationships, her parent's unusual marriage, all the dreams she had ever thought of chasing only to give them all up for Tsuna. Worth it. She kept thinking about that night, about her future, the names she would like to give to her hypothetical children, her white fence, him. Of course she thought about him. All she ever thought about was him. He had clouded all her thoughts (pun intended).

After lunch, Kyoko decided to show up and have an improvised girls meeting.

"I heard Hibari proposed to you." She giggled.

"Yeah, you and the entire family." Haru sighed and covered her head with her sheets. She had no intentions of getting out of bed that day.

"You should say yes."

Haru sat up abruptly. Kyoko's bluntness always caught her off guard, and for a girl who generally had good ideas, she had just said something straight up preposterous. Even Chrome raised her eyebrows and lifted her eyepatch to look at the other girl in the eye, as if she was attempting to let her know via telepathy that she was out of her mind.

"You're kidding, right?" Haru didn't even know what kind of expression she should make.

"Think about it." Kyoko sat down on the bed next to Chrome. "You like him."

"She's right." Chrome shrugged. "You do. But Kyoko," she turned to face the other way. Sitting in the middle was always an inconvenience. "they're not even dating. They can't jump straight to marriage. How will she know things are going to work if they don't spend at least some months being together?"

"Exactly!" Haru leaned forward. "You gotta try the milk before you buy the cow!"

Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Don't you see? You've been together for a lot longer than 'some months'. You live together, Haru. We ALL live together."

"A relationship is entirely different." Chrome tried to calm Kyoko down. "And marriage is a very important choice."

Haru kept nodding at every word Chrome said, but then Kyoko started describing how beautiful her children would look if Hibari was the father, and she actually began to consider accepting the proposal. Listening to those two was like having an angel and a demon standing on her shoulders, making an extensive list of the pros and cons, although they were only making her feel more confused and conflicted.

"And besides," Kyoko's melodic voice took over the room. "He's not the kind of person who would propose as a joke. If you ask me, he sounds like someone who would take very seriously the whole 'until death do us apart' thing."

"Of course he would." Chrome nodded, and for a moment Haru thought a decision had been made, but the girl kept talking. "This is the mafia. He might die tomorrow for all we know."

"Then that settles it." Kyoko smiled brightly. "We don't know how long we're gonna last so we might as well enjoy things while we can! Marry him! Fuck social norms! Cinco de Mayo!"

"Cinco de Mayo?" Haru tilted her head. She was lost now.

"Oh, you know, it's that thing in latin… Gokudera was trying to teach us, remember? It means seize the day!"

"No… That's… That's not how you say it…" Chrome was starting to get stressed again.

"Chrome's right." Haru grinned, and the younger girl gave a sigh of relief. "It's Cirque du Soleil!"

Chrome was starting to prolapse.

Just like everything else, summer must come to an end and welcome fall. The wind gets chilly, the leaves fall off the trees and clumsy boys fall down the stairs. It really can't be helped. During autumn, Tsuna fell down 4 times more often than during the rest of the year. No one knew why, but this was a checked fact (checked by Lambo, at least, but it was probably true).

"Maybe he thinks he can avoid it this way." Bianchi was sitting on the kitchen table, eating all the grapes and ignoring Gokudera's screams in the distance. "I can't think of another explanation."

"Yeah, but Dino-san is with him." Haru was desperately trying to retrieve the bowl of grapes.

"Are you kidding me? He's much clumsier than Tsuna. It makes perfect sense! They're just trying to avoid their destiny."

The moment the family returned from their vacation, the young boss headed to his office and locked the door. No one had seen him since. Only Kyoko was allowed to go near his office in order to pass him food through Uri's cat door. On September 9, he wished Gokudera a happy birthday via text message (and it was really troublesome to decipher due to the autocorrect). Nobody knew what he was doing and immediately, everybody started to worry. After the first week, the mansion was a caos. Gokudera's desk was buried under piles and piles of paperwork. In fact, the work had tripled for everybody else as well, except they weren't really doing it. Lambo wasn't going to school and, when Kyoko thought she could somehow handle the mess her boyfriend had left behind, the allies started to show up.

Dino was the first to drop by. He knocked on Tsuna's door like an excited child who couldn't wait to show off his new toy (or his new car, in his case). It all happened so fast. Even the people who witnessed it are unable to properly explained what happened. The door opened slightly with a loud creak, and from within the darkness inside the room, a pale hand crept out. It moved around, as if it was searching for something, and suddenly it got a hold of the blond man's wrist. A strong gripped followed by a loud sound, and suddenly the door was closed and Dino was never seen again.

Well, he came out to have lunch with everybody else, but every time someone asked him what he and Tsuna were doing, he just looked away and said nothing. Now, with the presence of Dino's subordinates, the caos had spread, but people kept arriving: Bianchi, Fuuta, and by the time the Varia decided to pay a visit, the mansion was on the verge of a breakdown. Still, Tsuna wouldn't come out.

"How about June?"

"June?"

"June next year. She seems like that kind of girl, after all."

"Ok, but consider December."

"What about it?"

"Underneath the snow."

"Damn."

After three weeks, Tsuna left his office for the first time and joined his guardians at the breakfast table. Silence took over and all the eyes were on him.

"What's wrong guys? You look like you've seen a ghost." He smiled and grabbed a slice of bred from the counter.

"For a moment we all forgot you existed." Kyoko pouted and reluctantly poured some coffee in Tsuna's mug.

"Oh, come on. I was doing things!" He hugged the girl from behind.

"Tsunayoshi Sawada." Oh shit. "I haven't seen your face in a month. Those things you were doing better be important."

"They are… I just can't tell you about it…"

"Then I don't believe you."

"It's really important but it needs to be kept a secret."

"I see. So you don't trust me."

"That's not it, Kyoko-chan…" Tsuna let out a sigh. She won every argument and this one wasn't going to be any different. "Babe…"

"Don't you 'babe' me. I am not your daughter."

"Tenth!" Gokudera stormed through the kitchen door, unaware of the quarrel he was interrupting. "That gross guy from the morgue is here."

"What? He's early…" Tsuna swallowed the coffee in one go.

"Why is he here? Did we kill someone?" Kyoko asked.

"No… I don't think so." Gokudera scratched the back of his head. "He brought flowers."

"Flowers?"

"Yeah. Flowers." said Tsuna. "But he's early… I told him to ship them over on December 17th."

"Actually…" A small chubby man approached the young boss and removed his hat. "I was ordered to bring them before December 17th… I thought it was urgent…"

"What happens on December 17th?" Yamamoto came out of the bathroom, wiping shaving cream off his face.

"I can't say." Tsuna replied.

"HERE WE GO!" Kyoko started making weird arm gestures. "YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY, TSU-KUN!"

"HEY! WOMAN!" Gokudera jumped in on the shouting. "DON'T YELL IN FRONT OF THE TENTH!"

"YOU'RE ALSO YELLING! AND WE WERE TALKING UNTIL YOU CAME!" After all these years together, Kyoko had learnt to rule the boys with an iron fist.

"GUYS, STOP FIGHTING!" Yelled Tsuna.

"HE STARTED IT!" Kyoko yelled back.

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WAS BEING DISRESPECTFUL!"

"I RAN OUT OF CHEWING GUM!" Yamamoto joined in, and immediately all the screaming stopped. "See? I got you guys to stop fighting." He left with a grin and Gokudera had never been so in love before.

"What was all that screaming for!?" Haru ran up the stairs, worried that there was a fight going on, and behind her was Hibari, with his tonfas ready in case it was necessary.

"Oh! You two are together!" Tsuna smiled like a child.

"Yeah…" Haru looked down.

They were, indeed, together. They had been spending time together lately, as usual. She was ready to deal with tension between them but, much to her surprise, the cloud guardian treated her like nothing had happened. They were friends, as usual. Well, maybe not exactly friends but they were more than acquaintances. Even so, that lump in her throat was always there. Her heartbeat increased and her stomach hurt when he was around. All she could do was also act like nothing had ever happened and hope that feeling would go away eventually.

"Don't make plans for December 17th!" The tenth spoke to both.

"Why? Is something happening?" Haru asked.

"That's what I'd like to know." Kyoko was still visibly upset and Tsuna had no other choice but to be frank.

"I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of organizing your wedding for you."

There was a long silence.

"Everything is prepared. All you need to do is get a wedding dress but Dino said he'd take care of that."

The silence was becoming overwhelming. Nobody knew how to react, and Haru was too scared to even think about the expression on Hibari's face.

"Just one question, Haru-chan… Do you want strippers?"

Haru was starting to make sounds. She still couldn't articulate them into words but she soon found out she didn't need to. Hibari Kyoya gave a step ahead. He looked much calmer than you would expect him to be in that situation. Kyoko covered her eyes. No matter how angry she was or how much he deserved it, she still didn't want to see her boyfriend receiving a punch to the face. Though the punch never came. Hibari simply picked up Tsuna and carried him like a princess to the kitchen. And then he slam dunked him inside the trash can.

"Ok… Maybe I deserved that." Tsuna sighed and watched his cloud guardian walk away.

"Tsuna-san, at least try to get out of there." Haru lent him a hand and helped him out of the trash can.

"Thanks…" He wiped the banana peels off himself. "Are you mad at me?"

"Was it you who told everyone I know?"

"…."

"Of course you were."

"Sorry."

"Couldn't you have at least asked me if I was going to accept?"

"Well, are you?"

"… I don't know if he even meant it."

"I'm sure he did. This is Hibari we're talking about, he never makes jokes."

"We haven't mentioned it since we came back… Maybe it's best if we all just forget about it."

"What!? No! Why? I already have the flowers!"

"Tsu-kun. Stop." Kyoko put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ok. Fine." Tsuna sighed yet again. "Haru… What do you want to do, then?"

The brunette looked around. People had gathered and they all stared at her in expectation. But she wasn't looking back at any of them. She had her eyes fixed on the hall. That damn hall that lead straight to his room.

"I want…" Deep breath. "I need…" Him. She needed him.

"Go ahead…" said Tsuna.

Haru smiled headed towards the entrance door. She grabbed her coat and put on her shoes, and then she turned around to look at Tsuna one more time.

"I need a one night stand."

Here's the update! Yaaaay! Idk not much to add here. I hope you have enjoyed this mess! And if you write reviews or add to favorites I'll die happy 3

So until next time~