Chapter 17: To My Dear Tsuna

When you look at the world through your naïve eyes, it looks more colorful than it should be.

But hold on to your beliefs.

For when you look at the world through hardened eyes, it will look darker than it really is.

Mukuro calmly sipped his beverage, still contemplating that bowl of soup. Tapping his feet on the ground to the beat of the new song, he mentally cursed himself. No, he was not part of their stupid band on his own jurisdiction. He would do it, do anything – just anything to free Chrome.

Vongola. He hated them, he did so much. What choice did he have though? They bound him to their projects using Chrome. Chrome, pure, sweet, Chrome. The thought annoyed him, thus he felt the need to get up and walk about – to walk off his annoyance. It was not as easy as it sounded; he had been feeling like that for quite some time now.

Mukuro paused mid-step, body tensing up.

Tap, tap, tap.

Slow footsteps.

Tap, tap, tap.

"Yo, Mukuro-chan."

The next thing that annoyed him as much as the Vongola did.

"Good morning, Byakuran. Here to pay a visit to your sick, twisted mind? Not that rehabilitation would work," Mukuro said in reply.

"Oh no, no, no. Not that today, no. I'm here on business," Byakuran said. Mukuro could hear the ruffle of a bag behind him, and then the smacking sound of lips.

"Mmm, delicious marshmallows. Care to have one?"

"I would rather not," Mukuro promptly answered, turning his head partially to look at the other man. "Please leave to attend your business already."

"I cannot do that either, Mukuro-chan," Byakuran said as he finished off another sweet marshmallow. Mukuro's eyes widened upon hearing that, and Byakuran had caught on to it. His smile grew wider, more nauseating. Mukuro already had the urge to impale his face.

"My business is here. Or more specifically, with you," he smiled. "You see, I can make a deal with you."

"I refuse."

"Don't be so hasty! Listen to what I have to say," Byakuran now made slow steps right next to Mukuro, peering up at his face closely.

"Then do learn what 'personal space' means."

"Ah, sorry about that. But this deal involves Chrome, you see."

Mukuro turned around, giving Byakuran a vicious stare.

"Don't you dare…!"

"Oh, no. I don't mean to endanger her life. I mean to save it. To wake her up. It's all within my power – all within the Millefiore's power to do it. What do you say?"

A tempting offer. It was just like Byakuran to make a deal like this. He was the devil who hung treats in front of potential victims, disguising as an angel to lure them in. Oh no, Mukuro was not a victim. He would be the victimizer. Mukuro smiled as he thought this.

"Your deals are never so simple. What do you require in exchange?"

"Ah, that girl. Tsuna Sawada. The frail one, with the loser face. You know, she could be pretty cute if she tried…"

"You digress. So, you want me to kidnap this girl in exchange for curing Chrome?"

"Mukuro-chan, you should know better than to expect free lunches. I know it'd be easier to just take her by force, and it'd be more convenient for me as well. But you see, I believe in making the process fun. I want you to befriend her, seduce her… enrapture her. Whichever way you prefer, Mukuro. I'll let you choose. I am sure that pretty face can do more than just smile sarcastically. So, do we have a deal?"

So, I would either stick to my original plan of using her to coerce Reborn, or capturing her for Byakuran. Mukuro contemplated silently as he looked at Byakuran's gleeful eyes.

"Wait. How would I know if you'd stick to the deal? I don't trust you."

Byakuran took a step back, his smile growing much wider.

"This. I will pass it to you," he held a small chip between his thumb and forefinger.

"This is the key to waking your precious Chrome up. I will give it to you first – and it will, well, give you a trial to the data. You'll be able to access half of it. As for the other half… when you gift wrap the girl to me for Christmas, I will give you the password. On top of that, I will help you to administer the cure. It's not cheap. I must warn you though…"

His voice turned. It was now more sinister, more terrifying.

"If you try to hack it, all the data will erase itself. This is a unique chip. I hold no backups. If you pull anything like that, then your Chrome will never wake up again."

Mukuro smiled.

"Sounds interesting."

Tsuna, somehow, did not know how she found herself sitting in the same furisode she was forced into that morning. To make things worse, she was sitting in a private room of the same posh club she had gone to on Friday.

When Mukuro had found her, she was whisked off to Haru's quaint little shop. Haru herself had claimed to recover after taking a very long nap, but she still sniffled and coughed from time to time. Next, she had taken it upon herself to doll Tsuna up again, this time with Mukuro watching contentedly at the sidelines.

Apparently, Mukuro had bumped into Haru before he met with Tsuna, and Haru, being the blabbermouth that she was, started to boast about the excellent job she had done with the former the very morning. He found himself bemusedly staring at the photos Haru took of Tsuna, much to her embarrassment.

Mukuro then remembered of the little get together the Vongola Company's director had arranged. He had wanted to skip the meeting at first, but an idea shot through his mind, although the idea was not made known to anyone.

Tsuna sighed. Her beet red blush could be seen behind all of Haru's think make-up. Of all things, she was thanking the gods that she did not need to appear in public in the furisode. Yet, she ended up being sandwiched in between Mukuro and Haru, who both seemed to be arguing about something. Tsuna did not know, she lost track of the conversation after awhile.

After awhile, the room's automatic door slid open, a cheerful Yamamoto walking in with a sulky Gokudera in tow. They too, were arguing about things. Tsuna turned to attention, catching bits and pieces of their conversation.

"You..! Where the hell…"

"Well, well, calm down!"

"But! I!"

The pair seemed to have seen Tsuna. She offered a shaky smile and waved her hand as daintily as she could. It of course meant that she failed.

Yamamoto gave off a low whistle.

"You did a good job on her, Haru-san!" He said, giving a thumbs up.

"Hmph," Gokudera crossed his arms. Haru looked at him and blushed a bit, though Tsuna did not catch it. Mukuro did, and grinned slyly at Haru.

The two men plopped down in seats opposite of Tsuna and Haru. They both seemed to be dressed quite formally as well, a far cry to the coat that Mukuro insisted on wearing indoors.

"Uh, uh…so, what's so special today? Uhm, tonight." Tsuna said before anyone could begin another argument.

"Ha-hi! I forgot to tell you! In lieu of missing the ceremony today, we're celebrating here. It was good you didn't go today anyway. Too few people went, so you wouldn't have been able to show off this beautiful furisode…"

"Haru-san, what are you talking about?"

"Well, what she means is that this is our "coming of age ceremony". Private, Vongola style, since Gokudera and I had to work in the morning. Though I was just expecting Ryohei and Sawada-san to be coming. By the way, Sawada-san is Sawada Iemitsu. He's the vice president of the Vongola Company. Oh, and, thanks for inviting more people, Mukuro!" Yamamoto said as he trailed off, hopping sporadically from topic to topic.

"Heeeeeeeh? Isn't he like, a really important guy?" Tsuna said in amazement.

"Ah! That's right! Sawada-san shares the same surname as you! What a coincidence, huh!" he piped up again, ignoring Tsuna's statement. Gokudera promptly planted his face in his palm.

"Though he looks nothing like you. He's sort of really buff, with blonde hair and stuff. Otherwise, I'd think that you both were related!" and then, he started to laugh to himself.

In that period of time, Mukuro had gone to fetch himself a drink, and was now sipping the alcoholic beverage quietly. Haru did not seem to chatter off as much, fiddling with her thumbs. Gokudera was… well, Gokudera.

The odd group was finally joined by the last two to arrive at the party – Sasagawa and Sawada-san.

"PARTY! TO THE EXTREME!" Sasagawa pumped his fists into the air.

True to Yamamoto's words, Sawada-san was indeed quite well-built. He had a head of blonde hair and a rather genial smile. He looked like the typical family man. Or not so typical in the end, Tsuna decided.

Did he just…

"Oh my beauti - …" he clamped his mouth shut as Tsuna looked at him, puzzled. He cleared his throat and took a seat by Haru.

"Thanks for the invite, Sawada-san!" Yamamoto told him enthusiastically. He was the only one who did. Ryohei was too busy being excited and Mukuro remained silent, although Tsuna thought that he was trying to maintain a calm composure. It was then she finally realized Haru was fidgeting about, and had not spoken since Yamamoto and Gokudera arrived.

"Tonight, we eat and drink to our heart's content! But remember to turn up for work tomorrow," Sawada-san commented cheerfully.

"Che, " Gokudera turned himself away.

Soon enough, Tsuna found herself with some very delicious food (no matter how skimpy) and wine put in front of her.

"Uh…"

She looked around the table. Ryohei and Sawada-san were now downing bottles of wine, competing to see who would finish their bottle faster. Yamamoto was talking animatedly to Gokudera, with the latter chewing his food silently. Haru was still in her dream land, and Mukuro offered her a smile, though his eyes looked distant.

Tsuna stared at the red liquid placed in front of her. She had not taken the opportunity to try alcohol past her 20th birthday, so this would be the first time she would be drinking it. She was an adult now right? That was the point of the ceremony (no matter how unqualified this gathering was to be called a ceremony in the first place). She raised the glass to her lips and took a tentative sip.

Three hours later, Sasagawa and Sawada-san were both singing songs arm in arm. Yamamoto went on to converse with Haru, trying to snap her out of her daze. Mukuro, amazingly, was able to hold his own, still silently drinking next to Tsuna. His presence was hardly known. That left Gokudera, who lit up a cigarette.

Tsuna, unfortunately, was slumped over the table, hiccupping every ten seconds or so. As soon as she took the first sip, Sasagawa gave a loud shout that stunned her half to death, making her swallow the rest of her glass. She (quite predictably so) could not hold her liquor, leading to her current state.

"Ahh, I can see the light…" she muttered to herself. "Oh, actually there's a shadow blocking…"

She clawed at Mukuro, who gave her his own weird stare.

"Ge…get outta my light…"

"Oya, midget is drunk."

Tsuna ceaselessly clawed at his coat, weakly muttering the same words. Mukuro bent down, looking at Tsuna mischievously.

"Alcohol sure is good, right?"

Much to his surprise, Tsuna smiled. She raised two fingers in a victory pose, and then bent them horizontally towards Mukuro's eyes.

"What are y -…"

"Poke!"

Moments later, when Mukuro stopped rubbing his eyes, Sawada-san stood up. His face was impossibly red. He waddled his way over to Mukuro, tugging at his coat and forcefully removing the man from the room., though Tsuna, being intoxicated, did not care much. Haru had finally stopped fidgeting, making feeble attempts at getting back into her active girl persona. She saw Tsuna sprawled over the table, which sent her into alarm.

"Ha-hi! Tsuna!"

Now that Sasagawa lost his drinking buddy, he challenged Yamamoto to a arm-wrestling match, while Gokudera decidedly went to the washroom.

Mukuro leaned against the wall, cross armed. Iemitsu was scowling – a far cry from his mood just a while ago.

"What is your purpose of bringing her here?"

"Oya, purpose? What purpose? Is she someone important, Sawada-san?" Mukuro tilted his head to the side as he smiled.

"You…if anything happens, I will not…"

"Forgive me? Well then, she must be rather special to Sawada-san. Hmm, I don't know. The midget is turning out to be more and more wanted by people today. I wonder what secrets she holds."

Iemitsu's frown grew bigger, while Mukuro stood back up, making his way back to the private room.

"It's getting rather late. Maybe I'll have a few more drinks before I go."

"You're going to get drunk. Drive off a bridge, will you?"

Mukuro stopped, turning around to give the seething Iemitsu a smirk that would send chills up anybody's spine.

"Oh, but I can't. I am no longer…human."

A/N: Gonna be more frequent with updates now. Well, maybe. Exams are over.

Also, it takes a lot of self-restraint to keep myself from deleting the what, first 18 chapters of this. I'm still thinking to myself. What the hell was I doing back in February?