A/N: Heeeeey guys! I finally got to post this, yay! I know a few of you were looking quite forward to more of FM¸so I try to post as soon as possible. Been very busy the last few months with cosplay stuffs though, making outfits for other people as well.

Thanks to don'ttellmewhattodo, Plexi Pink, Whimsical, Doll with No Brain, MwChiiLi, Hitsugaya Hibari Nico Robin, Chrysoberyl-sama, ghostsmile96, , Rafel666, Akabane Karma and Iluvhamster for all the favourites, follows and reviews as well as PMs :D I love all you guys sooo much, thank you for the support.

MewChiiLi: Haha I'm glad you liked it! I was hoping to convey the pain effectively so that people could get a better feel of what Arica goes through and why she is the way she is etc. When I read it again myself, it didn't seem all that well-written though... but as long as the fans enjoy it, it's good enough for me.

Akabane Karma: Aaaaaah, so glad to have such a big fan! Happy you like it, dear. I try to do some funny here and there to lighten the mood haha not always sure I succeed XD. Here is the next chapter, hope it was worth the wait!

Chapter 15

It was already lunch and the herbivore hadn't brought the clothes she had borrowed back to him yet. As far as he knew, she wasn't even at school that day. He hadn't seen her with Sawada Tsunayoshi's crowd that morning, anyway. And he, the mighty carnivore, wasn't about to go out and look for the puppy.

Hibari leaned back in his chair and stared out the window at the clear blue sky; the previous day's weather had just been passing through apparently. He was absentmindedly stroking Hibird's head as the yellow fluff ball snuggled into his neck, chirping softly. It could sense its owner's mood and was trying to soothe it however little he could.

The prefect's eyes drifted to an object lying to one side of his desk before he scowled and glanced away. Should he? It would definitely be strange and out of character…but there was just something about the girl that intrigued him. She was strong and, from what he could gather, pretty smart. Her fearlessness was what confused him the most, however. And the bruises decorating her body was…concerning, though he would never even admit that to himself.

There was something pulling his interest towards her and he was frustrated because he didn't know what it was. But he was intended to find out. Pale fingers reached for the cell phone that had previously caught his interest and he opened his contacts list – which consisted of only a handful of numbers. It was worth a try.

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Tsuna frowned for the millionth time that day as his thoughts had once more strayed to his two friends' absence. Was it a coincidence? After what had happened the previous day when Gokudera had snapped at her and Arica had run away, it was almost impossible for it to be by chance. He really hoped nothing too serious had happened to either of them.

"Don't worry so much, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn spoke up right next to him, making the boy jump at his sudden appearance from out of nowhere. The brunet glanced at him and he tipped his fedora as he continued. "Arica probably didn't want to face any of you today because of what happened yesterday."

"You're probably right…" Tsuna agreed reluctantly. "But what about Gokudera-kun, then?"

The arcobaleno shrugged. "Who knows with that one?"

Tsuna's frown deepened as he stared at the back of the baby's head when he turned away to answer a question Yamamoto had asked – about what had happened with Arica. Reborn was hiding something and he could tell by the hitman's answer; whenever he answered with 'who knows' there was usually something about to happen. He didn't press it, however, as he knew he would never get his sadistic tutor to spill the beans, plus he'd probably get the crap beaten out of him to boot.

He bit his lip and decided that maybe he'll try calling them once he got home after school just to make sure they were alright. He really hoped so, but his hyper intuition stirred uncomfortably, telling him that his hopes were for nothing.

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Everything was black. There was no light, no hint of there going to be any anytime soon either, and also no sound or smell. Just solid darkness everywhere he looked. Or was he staring at the same spot all this time and was even unable to move his eyes? He wouldn't know since he had no feeling in his body either. Wait, where was his body? Where was he and why was it so dark? What had happened? He couldn't remember anything! All he could do now was lay there and wait for something to happen. If something was going to happen.

He couldn't open his eyes, his couldn't move a single muscle in his body, or so it seemed. He couldn't even go to sleep to pass the time…or was he already asleep? Suddenly, there was a spark in the darkness and he could recall what had happened before he had become aware of this darkness. There was rain and his precious Juudaime. He saw himself breathing hard as Arica took off down the street, away from them all and it had been all his fault. He remembered leaving not soon after and wandering around town until he ended up at Shamal's place…then everything was blurry.

A dull throbbing started deep within the darkness and he didn't try to remember anything else as it seemed to give him a headache. He continued to wait and wait for what seemed like hours on end, the throbbing ever-present and gradually growing stronger but he did his best to ignore it. After a while longer, the darkness seemed to slowly fade into a dark grey and he started to hear a muffled hum. He tried to strain his ears to hear, glad that maybe he would finally be able to find out where he was. The more he tried to hear, the more prominent the pain became, but he ignored it still as it allowed the voices and words to become clearer.

"Put her…quickly!" he heard a voice say, definitely male. It sounded like the person was yelling down a long tunnel and thus he only caught a few words, but at least it was something other than deafening silence. Gokudera faintly felt the surface he was resting on dip and figured that someone else was placed beside him on what was most likely a bed. "What the…who did…"

"I don't know, sir…ground…no one…" another voice drifted to his half sleeping ears, this one a lot younger and more frantic. Who were those people? He didn't recognize them at all. Maybe they were enemies who had knocked him out somehow, and that was why he couldn't remember anything? But who could the enemy be? He hadn't been aware of any unnatural activity within Namimori or around the Tenth's house recently and honestly couldn't think of anyone who would target them now.

Mentally shaking his head, Gokudera tried harder to listen and was glad to be hearing almost everything spoken. "Maybe she did it herself," the younger one said hesitantly, sounding unsure of his own words.

"…ridiculous, Druitt!" the other scolded, his tone sharp and hard and the bomber could just imagine the younger one flinching in fear. "The Boss would never…matter how hard things …ashamed of yourself. I'll…wounds and…happened."

Gokudera's skull throbbed painfully and he decided to stop trying to listen to their conversation since it was only making his head hurt and he didn't really find out anything worth the pain. Now he had time to think about what he had heard and maybe put some pieces together as to where he was and who the people around him were. Unfortunately, he came up with more questions and confusion than actual answers.

'Boss'?Were those people from the mafia after all or were they just employees speaking of their employer? If the second was true, what was he doing with them, and if it was the first scenario, what were they planning to do with him and the rest of the Vongola? If they captured him, they were obviously an enemy family, but…why didn't he feel any menace from the people in the room or in the air in general? Not even their 'Boss' as she apparently lay right next to him on the bed.

That's another thing: a female boss. That fact alone decided that there was less than a 5% chance that it was a mafia boss. Women weren't held in high regard within the underworld ranks and thus didn't become leaders very often, if ever. Gokudera had only known of less than a handful of women who had actually taken command of a family, but the only one he paid any real attention to was Vongola Ottavo, Daniela. He knew of no other family who currently had a woman as their leader. Maybe it was an ordinary employer after all…

Suddenly, pain flared in his head and promptly spread through his body. Gokudera gritted his teeth to keep himself from screaming and was sort of glad that the two men were still in the room and saw him tense up and writhe in pain. "Quickly, get the painkillers!" the older one called to the other and he faintly heard the shuffling footsteps as they hurried to get the needed medicine. The only indication the bomber got that he had been given the anaesthetic was when his body started feeling numb and his brain went fuzzy. "He should be waking up completely in two days at most, by the looks of it, along with the boss. It's surprising how fast they heal…" he heard them say before the voices faded away and he was pulled back into the darkness from before.

The next time he came to, Gokudera was growing tired of not being able to see anything. Gathering what little strength he had regained, he tried to open his eyes but could only manage slits. Not that there was much to see since, to his slight relief as well as disappointment, it was apparently in the middle of the night. The only source of light he could see came in through the partly drawn curtains, the source being the moon that hung high in the sky. It took a while for his tired and painful eyes to adjust to his surroundings, but when they did he could distinguish the outline of a desk opposite the bed and a closet as well, but that was about all the furniture there was.

Then the bomber's eyes drifted to the other side of the bed and confirmed that it was indeed the silhouette of a woman – or more accurately, a girl, if the length of her body was anything to go by. She lay on her back, completely still except for her chest heaving with every deep breath she took. So that was those men's 'boss'? She looked pretty useless to him at that moment, but garneringfrom the amount of respect he had detected in their speech, she surely wasn't that weak. Gokudera wondered what had happened to her to cause so much distress among the others and for her to be unconscious for two days – like the man had said.

His head started to hurt from all the thinking and draining his strength by forcefully keeping his eyes open and staying awake when sleep was once again trying to drag him under. The more he resisted, the more his head hurt and his body started to do the same. The Storm finally gave up and let the darkness take over.

As he slept, a strange dream came to him…though he wasn't really sure if it was a dream since it seemed so real and familiar. There were no pictures, jut blurred lights and colours everywhere, and the voices sounded like they were on fast forward, making no sense at all. However, somehow he could sort of figure out what was happening anyway; like memories he didn't know he had surfacing, acknowledged by his subconscious but not by his active mind.

What he could figure out was that the blurred spots were two children and they were arguing. What about, he couldn't tell, but it seemed that they did it frequently and over the stupidest of things. No matter how much the blurry boy tried, though, he just couldn't seem to win against the spirited girl. Gokudera had a strange feeling that the boy didn't really mind all that much.

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Arica woke up to the blinding light of the sun filtering in through her window. Her eyes felt puffy as she blinked her blurry vision into clarity and tried to move her arm to rub the sleep from her eyes, only to find that it hurt like hell. She gritted her teeth at the ache of the stiffness in her muscles from lack of use for two days. It wasn't that bad that she couldn't move at all, but it still caused her limbs to feel uncomfortably numb and heavy. She tried to sit up but gave up as soon as a sharp stab of pain shot through her arm at the pressure she put on it. There was no other choice but to lay still and wait for someone to help her up.

As the minutes passed, the stiffness and throbbing pain dispersed gradually, though it felt like hours before she was confident enough to try and stand up again so she could find someone to tell her what had happened. Just as she moved, the bedroom door cracked open and a familiar head poked inside, the man's brown eyes widening in relief as he fully stepped into the room.

"Boss, you're finally awake!" he exclaimed quietly, careful not to disturb the unconscious boy on the other side of the bed. He moved over to her quickly, helping her sit up and keeping a hand on her bicep should she perhaps fall over.

Arica grasped his hand on her arm and gave him a large grin. "Andrew! It's so good to see you back; how long have you been here?" she questioned, not really knowing for how long she had been out. The last time she had released the blades it had been five days before she woke up.

Giving her a reassuring smile, the right-hand man answered, "Only about a day. I arrived here yesterday just after noon – the flight was delayed for a few hours – and came home to see Druitt nearly pulling his hair out in worry."

"Druitt?" she chuckled lightly. She could only imagine too well what the boy had looked like in his distress.

"Yes, apparently he was the one who found you in the training room. The poor boy could have given himself a coronary at the sight of his precious boss in a puddle of her own blood, unconscious," Andrew explained with a frown, his eyes straying from her face to the bandages over her arms. "At least he found you quickly and you didn't lose a critical amount of blood. You were only out for about two days this time at least."

Arica nodded slowly as her eyes drifted down to her wounds as well. There were red spots visible as blood still seeped into the fabric little by little every few minutes, especially after she started moving again. One good thing came out of it, though: now she didn't have to go through that pain again and she would be able to use the weapons soon if she needed it. She hoped she didn't, though.

As the girl looked up to address Andrew, she stopped short. Her eyes roamed the walls and the familiar furniture, and she realized that she was in her own room. Which meant… Arica's head turned slowly to the side and she nearly jumped right out of bed when she saw she had been lying next to the silver haired boy that entire time without even noticing. Blue-green orbs snapping towards Andrew, she snapped in a low voice, "Why am I sleeping next to him?"

The man shrugged and glanced over at Gokudera and the IV that stood next to the bed along with a few bottles of medicine and medical instruments. "Maybe because all of the medical equipment was already gathered here and also because they didn't want to waste time to transport it while your life was possibly on the line," he gave his opinion smoothly and confidently, making Arica glare at him half-heartedly.

"You like to sound smart, don't you?" she grumbled jokingly at him and the older man laughed lightly. Sighing, Arica shook her head and started swinging her legs over the side of the bed, to which Andrew stiffened immediately and rushed to help her. She waved him off though. "It's okay, it's just my arms that really still hurt a little and they're improving as we speak. I just want to go take a nice long, hot shower."

Hesitantly, Andrew nodded and backed away, but as she moved slowly over to the closet, his body just seemed to gravitate with her, following closely just to appease his own mind. When the girl reached the bathroom however and closed the door in his face, the man was forced to stay away. He turned to walk away before pausing to listen as her voice shouted from within the bathroom, "Would you mind going to see if the kitchen staff would make me something to eat? I'm starving."

"Right away, boss," he called back and hurried out towards the kitchen.

Inside the bathroom, Arica was unwrapping her wounds to take a good look at them herself. All she could remember was getting angry at everything that had happened around her recently, at Ricardo for being such an asshole and then the pain. Even the thought of it made her tremble in fear and discomfort, her stomach turning and the nausea rising. The last thing she had seen were the beautiful, silver weapons covered in red, protruding from her sliced the darkness.

The bloody bandages came off and Arica stared at the fresh, red wounds that took the place of the faint white lines that had been there two days ago. They weren't bleeding heavily anymore, but a few drops would surface every now and then. Even though, normally, cuts like those should definitely get stitches, she was glad they didn't give her any. Maybe they had called Andrew and he had told them to leave it like that? Either way she was glad because that meant the wounds would take a lot longer to heal and that meant less pain for her when she needed to use them since the 'path' was now clear and open for them to come through. The stitches would've closed the flesh up and then the blades would have to have sliced through anew.

She flexed her fingers to confirm they were still in working order even though the muscle, nerves and sinew had been sliced apart. She didn't know the exact reason for this but the only thing that came to her mind was that the bone structure in her arms had been either replaced or enforced with the same metal as the blades and connected to her hands and fingers to help them function without the use of actual flesh and blood. The muscles still did their work when they healed, though, and wasn't completely useless, but when the blades needed to be used they were mere obstacles and a hindrance. The lack of blood was also probably a part of the package installed in her arm, maybe something that sealed everything up on the inside…? It was all too confusing and something she didn't understand at all herself.

Arica stepped under the warm water pelting down upon her, careful not to let too much water come into contact with her wound although she had to clean it a little. As she washed herself and paid careful attention to her wounds, she thought of Gokudera still lying unconscious just beyond that door. A wave of guilt washed over her once more, the same guilt she felt the night she had found him and when she had realized that it had to have been connected to her somehow. When would he wake up so she could hear his side of the story just so she could either apologize or appease herself?

Then there was the case of him being Vongola – along with Hibari. How was she going to find out? Maybe she could ask Donald and Timothy where they put his belongings and go through them? No, that was an invasion of privacy and she would never stoop to that. Well, maybe if it involved Ricardo or one of his men…but that was different. She didn't hate Gokudera – or anyone, for that matter – as much as she hated those Mariani bastards. And her father, of course, but that piece of trash was in a league of his own. Now she couldn't help but wonder what had happened back in Italy to make Ricardo rush over there so quickly…

Arica got out of the shower and dried herself quickly before finding some fresh, clean bandages to dress her wounds with. Surprisingly they didn't hurt all that much for large, open wounds. When she moved her arms, she only felt a dull, aching throb, but not immense pain. She made quick work of the bandaging and threw on a pair of faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt before stepping out of the bathroom. She didn't even look over at the bomber on the bed as she picked up her phone on her desk right next to the bathroom door. She didn't want to feel that need to protect and worry about him like that all over again.

When the screen lit up, Arica nearly choked on her breath as she saw that there were twenty missed calls on her phone. Opening the call log she counted five from Tsuna, nine from Ricardo and five from Andrew – when she didn't answer Ricardo he probably asked Andrew to try or Andrew just grew too worried as he waited at the airport. The remaining caller ID surprised her to no end and the brunette actually blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things as a side effect from her blood loss. Just one single call from one Hibari Kyoya.

Sighing, Arica turned around to lean on the desk, about to press the call button on Tsuna's name to let him know that she was alright, only to have her body freeze in place, a startled shiver running up her spine as her eyes came into contact with wide, surprised green. Arica nearly dropped her phone as she stared at the silver haired teen and he stared back in equal surprise.Well that was unexpected…

"Uh, hi?" It came out as more of a question than she had meant it to.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice a little raspy from lack of use for nearly four days.

Arica felt the urge to roll her eyes, but kept it at bay, deciding that it wasn't his fault for asking stupid questions since they probably weren't that stupid to him. "I think I'm allowed to be here since this is my house after all."

Gokudera frowned, looking her over carefully. He had woken up only five minutes prior to the girl appearing and had taken in his surroundings. He could see a lot better since it was daytime and because his eyes didn't try to kill him via major headaches. The room was pretty bare except for the furniture he had recognized in the dark previously. It didn't look like he thought a normal girl or woman's room would look like and he was well aware of the person who those men had called their 'boss' being missing next to him, so he wasn't expecting her to show up again, at least not so soon. What he expected even less was the fact that that person was none other than Arica D'Angelo, of all people.

"What the hell am I doing in your house?" he growled out, glaring at her in suspicion. He still hadn't been sure what to think of the whole 'boss' thing, and was now even less sure.

"I found you passed out in an alley and saved your life. A little gratitude would be nice…"Arica explained shortly, waiting for Gokudera to inform her on just what the hell he was thinking getting drunk off his ass, beaten to a literal bloody pulp and then laying down to die in a dirty alleyway.

The bomber frowned, his eyes leaving the girl's form to stare at a random spot on the bed while he tried to remember. When she had run off after he had snapped – for reasons still mostly unknown – he had excused himself from the Tenth's presence and made his way to Shamal's house. The man hadn't questioned him upon seeing the boy's scowl and offered him something to drink. Soon, one glass of sake had turned to two, then three, and before they knew it, three empty bottles littered the room.

He had gone to a nearby pub to get some more, something stronger since he was still a bit too sober to have forgotten the day's events. He snapped, however, when the bartender wouldn't let him have any since he was still underage and he tried to attack the man. His moves were sluggish due to his intoxicated mind and he didn't manage to land a hit. The securityguy came in and quickly took care of him with a few of his buddies and that's all Gokudera could remember before everything went black.

Seeing as the bomber wasn't going to speak anytime soon, Arica sighed and put down her cell phone. "Stay there. I'll get someone to check on you and you must be starving." The brunet made her way out of the room and down towards the kitchen to find something for them both to eat and get Andrew or Donald or Timothy to go check up on him.

A/N: And there you have it folks, chapter 15. I hope you all enjoyed and that it was worth the wait. I think there are more questions now than answers, yes? Good! That's the plan, Mwahahaha! See you all again hopefully soon with Chapter 16. Until then, ciao ciao~