Author's Note: Perhaps I'll pace out this story at a terribly slow pace... What has it been? A year! I have no idea. -u- I have the initial beginning, middle, and end already planned out. Now comes the process where it sits in my mind and grows more precise. Updates are rather few and far in between, as you can see, but I'd really love to finish this. My apologies for how drawn out and utterly full of forced writing this chapter is!
"Um, Ermanno-san..." Tsuna stirred from his impromtu nap against the sling of the seatbelt and rubbed his eyes. The world zooming by him on the outside had changed from the rugged forest to a drastic splash of cityscape and speeding highway cars. His mouth dabbled open, but no words came out as he intended. Quickly, he cast a look at Gokudera with inquiring eyes. His friend shrugged, making the act of being bored and looking alert one of ease. "Where are we?"
The musical hum that Ermanno always made was unrepressed this time, as if he took joy in answering Tsuna. "We're heading to the school." He grinned widely, albeit cheaply, and did not look perturbed by Gokudera's scowl.
"What the hell! Why wasn't the meeting closer to Namimori? We've been driving for at least an hour!" Gokudera boxed his shoulders and unknowingly pulled out a few sticks of dynamite strapped to his leg. "Bastard, did you lie to us?" He was about to press on in his rage and ask why they were already heading for the school, but a sound akin to a sputtering engine curtailed his rage. The car swerved violently to the left, Gokudera supporting himself so he would not crush Tsuna. Ermanno, though, anticipated the action and was leaning the opposite way to balance the violent tug. "Tenth! Are you okay?" After looking over Tsuna and seeing no signs of immediate injury, he stood up in his seat - crouched because of the car's ceiling - and knocked rapidly with his knuckles against the limo's partitioning screen. "Oi, driver!"
Immediately the driver pulled off to the side of the road. He lowered the partition, anxiously sweating as he apologized profusely to a Gokudera who looked very unforgiving. "My apologies, good sir! There seems to be a problem with the engine." The portly limo driver stepped out of the car before Gokudera could retort with a smart remark.
Instead, Gokudera opted to getting out of the car along with everyone else. "Great, now were stuck on the side of a freakin' highway." He shot a menacing glare to the driver before looking over to Tsuna and Ermanno walking over to the hood of the car. "You okay, Tenth?"
Tsuna nodded timidly, not even bothering to remind Gokudera he had just asked that a few minutes ago.
"What the hell happened?" Gokudera growled, taking his place next to Tsuna to see the car hood being lifted. A plume of smoke instantly bellowed upward. The driver coughed and tried to wave the smoke away. "Step away from the car," Gokudera gently pushed Tsuna back, placing him behind his own body. He cared little of what Ermanno would do, but saw the man take a few steps back himself. Gokudera wondered how calm Ermanno could be when he cheerfully warned the driver to move as well.
The driver removed his chauffer hat, dabbing at his forehead with a cloth. "I can't tell what happened until the smoke clears." He looked over apologetically to the three, receiving forgiving looks from everyone but Gokudera.
Raising a gloved hand, the chauffer was about to speak, but a dulled crack of a gun going off behind him made him duck. "Everybody get down!" he yelled. Another dull crack punctured the thick smoke billowing from the car, a bullet nearly lodging in Tsuna's foot. "Hii!"
"Tenth!"
"Interesting~!" The jovial pitch hastily thrown in the end by Ermanno could not agitate Gokudera anymore than the gun shots had.
Gokudera was at the ready, sticks of dynamite poised between his fingers. Even though the attempt was futile (a sniper would have kept his distance, and Gokudera knew this) he wanted to show whoever did this that he would take his life if need be. "Bitch, I'm going to kill you!" He did not let his anxiety show in his confident stance, and as his eyes quickly darted to and fro, Gokudera did a fine job keeping Tsuna behind him. "You stupid bastard!" He directed this comment towards Ermanno. "Aren't you supposed to help or something!"
Ermanno had rested his head lazily on his crossed arms. "Shouldn't you get down or something?" To emphasize his point he rolled over to Tsuna, who was also on the ground, propped up his arms and kicked back his feet. The stupid grin that he purposely put on to mock Gokudera went unnoticed.
"I'll do whatever I want!" Gokudera expected another shot to go off. He really expected this person to try their hardest to complete this deadly task; it would have made his courage more honorable than reckless. The car continued to smoke on, and no more shots were fired. From previous tales he had heard of snipers and their work, he found it odd the person did not use a silencer at such a close distance. He found it insulting, even. "Che, how are we supposed to get to that school now?"
One would have deemed it unsafe to stand up again, one would also have a pounding heart and sweat beading their forehead, wondering if they would live or not, but one was not Ermanno. In a deep Italian he stated, "Go on foot. Signore Marco, call forensics." Ermanno's tone became more authoritative, not at all clashing with his care free look. "I want a confirmation on those bullet. Have the ballistics team run through bullets belonging to the Lomazzo family. This reeks of their style." He cut off his remark with a smirk. He returned to his accented Japanese and offered a hand to Tsuna. "We'll be going on foot."
Tsuna stared blankly at Ermanno, nervously taking his hand and using it as leverage to help himself up. The sniper had left him shaken. He tried desperately to stop the shakes, putting on a not-yet-steady face of determination on. "Ermanno-san..." Tsuna's voice gave away his current state, quavering in all the right places. "Who are the Lomazzos?"
There was a quick turn of the head at the question, from both Ermanno and Gokudera.
"You'll learn that soon enough." Ermanno answered briskly.
"The Lomazzo family is a bunch of spineless cowards is what he meant to say," Gokudera scoffed, still warily looking around. "How far is the school?"
The Cavallone mafioso gave no sign that he had heard Gokudera's explanation of the Lomazzo family, but he gave heed to the question asked of him. "From here, a twenty to thirty minute walk to the general vicinity." Ermanno pulled out a silver pocket watch connected to a small chain from his open jacket and peered at it with a stoic look. "Let's be quick." He gave a quick salute to the chauffer before turning on his heel and starting off on a merry pace down the highway.
Gokudera glowered at Ermanno's casualness. He helped Tsuna up and made sure to have Tsuna walk ahead of him as he guarded his back. The attempts he made to be prepared for anything were reduced as Ermanno told him to put away his sticks of dynamite.
"We're walking down a highway, don't cause a bomb scare~"
The silver haired teen huffed under his breath and instead kept to a surveying the building infested area with his sharp eyes.
Umehito Nekozawa was currently shrieking at the light the newcomer had let into his dark hole of a room. "The light! It burns!" He quickly scurried into a corner of the room that had retained its darkness.
"This room is mine now. Get out, herbivore." Hibari icily disregarded the other members of the Black Magic club and snuffed out the candles that were lit. "Don't light a fire within the school." His dark eyes cut over to the rest of the Black Magic club, and it was enough to send them fleeing out of the room.
"Hey, hey, what's your name? Hibari-san? You know they don't give up without a fight," Kaoru started, watching from the door to the clubroom.
Hikaru found his spot next to Kaoru and chimed in, "You should be careful, they'll curse you." He didn't sound particularly worried about it, his tone implying more that he wanted to see what this Hibari Kyouya's reaction would be.
The prefect smirked and quickly produced one of his tonfa out from under his Namimori cloak. "Then let them fight me."
Hikaru and Kaoru quickly retreated back to the rest of the group as quickly as possible. "Do commoners always carry weapons like that, Mom?" the twins whispered.
Not even showing he had heard the question, Kyouya continued to clack away at his laptop while sitting at his lonely table to the side. "That's not a nice generalization to make, you two. Be nice," his look of deadpan became serious with only a slightly tightened jaw as he typed out a slow, thoughtful line. "These are the people protecting us." Kyouya regained his cool once again, but nobody gave signs they had notice him lose it in the first place.
"Welcome Namimori commoners," Tamaki quickly appeared within the center of the seating area, a rose in hand to use as his accent piece. Before he could get past his rather insulting yet unintentional naming of the status of their bodyguards, Kyouya closed his laptop and fetched Tamaki by pulling his ear. "Ow! Hey, hey! Kyou-ya~!" The blonde quickly reverted into a less suave state, almost crying for his ear back.
"I know you don't find anything wrong with your statements, but they're actually very insulting," Kyouya said. He quickly let go of the whining Tamaki and gently guided him to sit next to the other host members. "Hikaru, Kaoru, don't let your father embarrass himself."
With a perfect salute the twins answered, "Yes, mother!"
Hibari had already begun to toss out Nekozawa's clubroom items, only keeping the furniture to reorganize later. Besides the prefect, everyone else was seated with the host club members.
Reborn had already taken notice of the faux family aura that the group emitted, but he could tell it was not a fake front to simply gain more customers. His eyes caught onto the family game the host club played and he smirked at the fact; now only if the Vongola could be more like that, but he digressed.
Dino paced the perimeter of the third music room and with a gracefulness that could only be bought on when his subordinates were around. Either way, the Cavallone boss was musing over something that consumed his mind in an unpleasant manner.
"Is something wrong, Dino~?" The door had opened just as Dino passed it, revealing Ermanno to be the speaker.
"Are you all okay? I heard about the accident." Dino's serious facade gave way to a sigh of relief when Ermanno answered positively.
"We walked, believe it or not. Hayato played bodyguard for Tsuna!"
"Hey, Tsuna, Gokudera!" Yamamoto waved to the two, possibly the happiest person in the room. Ryohei offered his greeting in an extreme fashion, Reborn hitching a ride on his shoulder when he bounded up to the group.
"You're looking at the boxing captain of Namimori AND Ouran!" A show of exuberant air punches made Tsuna smile nervously and Gokudera growl at Ryohei to stop pestering the Tenth.
As the Namimori students crowded together, save Hibari, Ermanno pulled Dino out into the corridor. Dino let Ermanno lead him to an unused room. Even then Ermanno locked the room's door and ushered Dino to a small room within the larger room for their conversation.
"What's the matter?" Dino asked. His clumsy demeanor had left him at the door, now dominated by his more serious side.
"Trouble is already starting to brew. It may be wise to let the stubborn one go undercover as well. He may seem all talk, but his stubbornness is a strong point of his that keeps the nervous one calm," Ermanno related in one of his rare, longer lines.
Dino waited patiently for Ermanno to continue his talk after seeing his eyes squint in narrowed thought.
"Although it seems a bit too early to let Hayato onto the team. He seems to know something about the Lomazzo and that could prove useful later. Allow me to take him away from his group for a while, Dino."
It was a pleasantly made request and Dino did not see any reason why he should object it. Ermanno was trustworthy, despite his aloofness."Whenever you feel he's ready to join the rest, Ermanno."
They dipped their heads at the same time in consideration of the current situation. They knew little about the family they were up against, but it was obvious this mafia family were not playing. It was a serious threat, no matter how many lighthearted commentaries the children made.
Gokudera waited idly by the music room's doors. He had been planning exactly what he would say to Ermanno to convince him to let him do the undercover job along side Tsuna; the sniper had really given him a shock at what could happen to the Tenth. As collected as he seemed with his arms indignantly crossed over his chest, the moment Dino and Ermanno returned Gokudera began his barking mad plea to stay with the group."No can do, Hayato~" Ermanno smiled.
The Cavallone looked Gokudera squarely in the eye and gave a slight nod from beside Ermanno. It was out of Dino's hands whether or not Gokudera could stay or not. If Ermanno was supported by his boss, then Gokudera's arguments would fall on deaf ears.
"So, is everyone settled in?" Dino looked tired when he smiled at the chattering the amount of time Dino and Ermanno had been gone, the kids had introduce themselves and began to build up relationships. The most successful seemed to be Yamamoto, who was currently talking to Mori and Hunny animatedly about his beloved baseball. Ryohei had hit it off, strangely enough, with Tamaki. Their burning passions matched each other in fervor and really lent itself into their conversations, ignoring the mismatch of boxing and hospitality. Tsuna found a friend in Haruhi, both sitting quietly on the couch and sharing the odd tales each of their 'families' had to offer. Reborn sat at a table with Kyouya, looking more like he was doing business than fraternizing, and Hibari was locked away in his newly created Disciplinary Committee head quarters where the former home of the Black Magic club used to be.
The bodyguards that had rounded up their respective persons left after the new body guards had arrived, also leaving them in the supervision of Romario. The addition of Dino and Ermanno would have probably assured them even more.
"The game is set… it's time to play…" Ermanno sighed, turned on his heel, and left the music room, leaving Dino to ponder the melancholy in his tone.