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I GOT MY FIRST PIECE OF FANART. EVER. THE LINK(S) ARE ON MY PROFILE.

CHECK OUT DAE OF THE PAST'S AWESOME ART, MMK?

I AM SO EXCITED.

SO HOW ABOUT A CHAPTER WITH 3K WORDS?

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"So you actually gave in?" Hana stifled a yawn before hefting her bag higher up onto her shoulder. "What made you change your mind about it? I thought you'd be lazy and do nothing for sure."

"You wound me, Hana-chama, really." I clenched my hand and yanked it to my chest, my voice pained. "My heart – an ice cold arrow has pierced it. Tell Enma I always thought his hair was super fluffy and Tsuna that he should buy some patterned boxers, since he's in nothing but them so often. Hurry, the light is fading…"

A smarting slap had me rubbing my right shoulder as Hana scoffed –

"Oh, cut out the dramatics. Just tell me – what made you suddenly join the gymnastics club? Both they and the kendo club have been passively hounding you and you've always denied them."

That was true, and annoying, enough. Apparently clubs rather like recruiting anyone who has had any sort of history with their activity (or in Ryohei's case, anyone he thinks might be a good boxer). At first I had denied them because, well, I didn't know how it would work out in terms of free time – and I had far too much of it right now. If I wasn't with Tsuna and Gokudera I was either with Kyoko and Hana or at home in the dojo going through katas or flipping around; neither of which were really helping much aside from keeping me limber.

"I've been getting bored lately, you know?" White hair streaked across an opening some ways down the road – Ryohei, I'd bet. "Plus, I kind of miss it, you know? It was always pretty fun."

And it had been – flipping around and being able to stretch out was relaxing and just felt free, I suppose. But I kind of wanted to be able to do more than just cartwheels, roundoffs, and back handsprings. My front fulls and double fulls weren't their best anymore either – plus I'd always wanted to learn how to flip around on uneven bars (because, hello, how cool did that look?).

Rythmic gymnastics were also a great interest – because if I could learn how to do throw clubs, then who was to say I couldn't translate that over to throwing around a katana?

"Whatever you say. Kami knows you need to get rid of some of that excess energy somehow." Hana's voice was bland, but also tinged with a bit of disbelief. "I'm still pretty sure you're up to something else though."

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Sender: Takara

Why is it all my friends think I'm up to something?

Am I that untrustworthy?

From: Enma

I wouldn't say that.

You're just prone to doing stupid things.

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Haru, as it turns out, is a really good cook. Though I'm not too sure how she'd feel knowing that the huge bento that she'd made for Tsuna had also been eaten by Gokudera and myself; perhaps she wouldn't mind, so long as Tsuna had his fill and enjoyed it. The probability of her every finding out was fairly miniscule though, as I doubt the bento would come up in conversation between Haru and Gokudera or myself.

"Ah, man – just call me a meat bun, 'cause I'm stuffed."

"You're so lame, Yamamoto." Gokudera stretched his arms out over his head, stifling a yawn as he did. "Those jokes are so tiresome – right, Juudaime?"

"Ehh? Well, some of them aren't too bad, I guess." Tsuna flushed a bit – though whether it was because of my cheery grin or because he was embarrassed, I wasn't sure. "I mean, that one was okay…"

So quietly I almost didn't hear him – 'some others, though….such horrible timing…' And at that I had to hold back a snort; but I was sure he'd eventually get to the point where he just didn't care anymore (Hana and Kyoko were already there, for the most part).

"I mean, the food was really good." Tsuna continued, much to Gokudera's dismay. "Haru's a pretty good cook. And your dad's sushi is really great, Takara."

"Is this all we have to talk about?" Gokudera groused, crossing his arms. "Food? Is there really nothing interesting thing around here?"

"Oh, but there is."

And cue a screech of pain from Tsuna as Reborn repeatedly pegged him with chestnuts. But the best part was actually seeing Reborn in his spiky costume – it was adorable and ridiculous at the same time (which was the best kind of combination, if you asked me).

Gokudera seemed a bit lost upon seeing Reborn in his costume – "A big surprise with a big chestnut?*"

"Ah, no, I'd say it's more likely that Reborn wants to make a point." I raised my hands and shrugged. "He is rather sharp, you know."

"By the way." Reborn rolled back and forth to poke at Tsuna, speaking before Gokudera could retort. "Anyone pricked by these spines gets sent to heaven in thirty seconds."

Which would lead into a rather unpleasant encounter that I kind of wish I had realized was going to happen – because, damn it, I'd avoided a beating from Hibari for this long and I could have had lunch with Kyoko and Hana today. There was no way Reborn (or Gokudera, probably) would let me squirm my way out of this one, as Gokudera was too stubborn and Reborn was too conniving to let his plan turn into a dud.

And, then, Tsuna hit the floor.

"Exactly thirty seconds." Reborn clicked his stopwatch. "How precise."

"J-juudaime!" Gokudera shook Tsuna gently, obviously concerned. "A-Are you okay, Juudaime?!"

Reborn waved him off easily enough –

"He'll wake up in ten minutes, probably. But until then I know a place where he can rest."

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It was a good thing I was on the taller side for a girl – as if I hadn't been about the same height as Gokudera it probably would have been rather hard to lug around Tsuna. On the downside – we were now outside the reception room. A room that was on the second floor, as in a room I couldn't duck out of the window in (then again doing so would be abandoning Tsuna and Gokudera, and that would be a pretty shit thing for me to do) – well, not easily, anyways.

"Ah, here then?" Gokudera slid the door open with his free hand as Reborn made a grunt of affirmation, and as I winced, just a bit.

Once Tsuna was resting on the couch, Gokudera made to look around the room – and it seemed he was rather impressed the school had such a nice room. I, on the other hand, eyed Reborn, who met my eyes unblinkingly with a smile still on his face.

"I know exactly what you're doing." His smile turned a little smugger and a little more smirk-y. "I know exactly where we are."

"But you're still here, aren't you?"

"Well, I can't just abandon these two, even if this would be a rather nice cardboard box to leave 'em in." I eyed the room before shuffling a bit closer to the side where I'd have more room to move. And, to my surprise, I felt rather calm about the whole situation; maybe even a little excited. "Plus, I'm kind of curious…"

There was a full-on smirk on his face now, and he seemed rather pleased, actually. Perhaps it was the fact that I was willingly going into a dangerous situation for the two of them, or maybe it was because he understood that I really was curious about where I stood when it came to a fight between Hibari and myself (I wouldn't be surprised if it was a little of both, really).

"This room really is rather nice." Gokudera meandered a little closer to the couch holding Tsuna. "Doesn't seem like it's used too often."

'Perhaps because Hibari is the owner of this room.' My hand flexed at my side – ready to clench into a proper fist at any time now. 'He probably has one of his committee members clean it twice a day or something.'

"It's in the perfect location to become our family's headquarters, too." Reborn uncrossed his legs before hopping down to the floor.

"Maybe. Seems more like a single to me, though." Because, in a way, this room would belong to our family…ish. The only one in here though? Hibari.

And, at that moment, the doors opened to reveal members of the disciplinary committee. It made my body almost tingle – though I wasn't too sure if it was anticipation or apprehension, as it could honestly be either at this point. Perhaps it was a bit of both, though it was a rather odd idea to me, still, that I actually wanted to do this.

"Eh, who said you could be in here?"

"Huh? What do you want?" Gokudera stepped forward, poised to grab some dynamite. "This is our family's headquarters."

"Are you that cocky? Or just stupid?" One of the pompadour'd boys stepped forward. "This room belongs to us, the Disciplinary Committee."

I'd say the moment everything went up in flames was when one of the committee members kicked the couch Tsuna was on – as Gokudera did not take kindly to any sort of violent actions towards Tsuna. And it went quickly after Gokudera rather kindly told them to 'Get the hell out.' It started with a few punches, then evolved into a guy getting ready to swing a push-broom – which was my cue.

"Brooms are meant for cleaning, you know?" I tightened my grip and twisted the broom as I struck him in the face, yanking the broom free of his hold. "Then again, I guess we're in the process of cleaning up a problem right now, so."

I kicked at the bottom of the broom, managing to quickly twist off the head so I was left with nothing but the wooden handle – a handle that was really rather too long to properly use as a make-shift sword, but what could I really do about that? And, really, I kind of expected the Disciplinary Committee members to be just a tad bit tougher than they were ( though they'd been taken care of easily enough in the anime, hadn't they?). But they'd gone out in the time it took Reborn to make himself a cup of coffee – probably using a machine he had stashed in one of his many hidey-holes within the school.

"That went well."

Gokudera scoffed. "Of course; how could I call myself Juudaime's right hand man if I couldn't deal with that much? Plus, I could have handled that myself."

"Really?" I mused as I accepted a cup of coffee from Reborn. "Cause I think I had a pretty good handle on the situation. Had to clean up what you missed, you know?"

"Tsk, you…"

"Hmm, it seems the watchdogs were useless."

And I could practically hear the tell-tale music that had always played upon Hibari's arrival – and it set me on edge.

"I don't know you, but you…" Hibari eyed Gokudera first before moving to focus on me. "Yamamoto Takara. You dare cross me again?"

"Ehh, are you still angry about the windows I've jumped through?" I steadied my feet, casually setting down my coffee as I prepared to grab my handy-dandy broom handle. "Is that what this is about? Our game of unfinished tag?"

Gokudera scoffed, moving to approach him – my outstretched arm not enough to stop him. "Eh, you're one of this idiot's friends? Another one of these lame guys? This place is the headquarters for the Vongola family now."

And once Gokudera stopped a few feet away from him, in a flash Gokudera's cup was separated from its handle. It was enough to set Gokudera on edge – because how many people could do something like that? Whether it was with a pair of tonfas or something else.

"I hate weak herbivores that crowd around." He lifted his arm holding the tonfa, eyes sharp. "It's enough to make me want to bite them to death."

It happened quickly – so quickly that Gokudera barely had time to light his dynamite. Hibari was on him like a lion got on its prey, and I was left faintly wondering whether or not Gokudera had underestimated him a bit – if he hadn't put his guard all the way up, or if Hibari was just that much better than him. Gokudera would have lost no matter what – I had no doubts on that front – but could he have lasted longer?

"Yamamoto Takara." He lifted his arm, the tonfa glinting. "You are next."

Not a second too soon I ducked away to grab the broom handle – and not a second too soon after that I managed to block a strike of his tonfa with a loud thump. It went quickly – almost as if I was in overdrive – as I parried and exchanged blows with the older boy, but as it went on I could feel the broom handle weakening. The thing was wood where as Hibari's tonfas were metal, after all.

"You really do move rather well." I hissed as his tonfa managed to graze my left cheek. "Dexterity isn't too bad either – but you aren't aggressive enough."

The broom handle snapped, splintered in the middle, and I was forced to let it fall to the floor. Hibari lashed out with a leg after that and I lunged up and back, shaking and pushing the couch as I flipped over to crash into the table between it and the other couch.

"Ow, ow, ow." My tailbone absolutely stung, as did a good portion of my back. "That is going to bruise."

"Oh? Quite ungraceful, that. What a mess." Hibari looked rather smug. "No matter, another herbivore is about to go down for the count."

And Tsuna chose that very moment to wake up, blearily looking around before sighting Gokudera collapsed on the floor – a worried "Gokudera-kun?!" followed – before he looked around to spot me sheepishly smiling from my spot in the table debris –

"T-Takara-chan?! What happened?!"

"Ah, another one."

Tsuna practically seized upon seeing Hibari, but seemed to get over it quickly as he moved to check Gokudera before turning to me –

"T-akara-chan, are you alright?"

"Eh, well, I'm going to have some hellish bruises." I winced as I tried to lift myself up, giving up after a moment. "And it seems I can't really get up. I'm grounded, it seems."

"Now then." Hibari moved forward and Tsuna practically threw himself to the side, and I found myself trying even more to push myself up – because no thank you to being almost tossed out of a window while I'm awake. "Tch. I can't throw you out just yet – it'd be too troublesome with you being awake. Besides, our fight isn't quite done yet."

I winced, in both relief and pain. "When you say this it sounds awfully kinky, you know."

Hibari sent me a dark look from where he had Gokudera hanging half-out of the window and Tsuna scrambled up, surprised and worried –

"You can't just throw him out of the window! Stop!"

Tsuna looked around frantically, sweating a bit upon realizing Reborn was missing, and wincing when he spotted me wincing from where I was stuck.

"If you can, make me."

And as Tsuna's eyes slid shut, fists clenched at his side, Reborn rose from an armchair and shot him. In a burst of clothes, Tsuna burst forward, a sky flame flickering brightly on his forehead.

"Reborn! I'll save them with my dying will!" And suddenly Leon was in Tsuna's hand, a green slipper that Tsuna used to smack a rather surprised and irked Hibari across the head with.

As Tsuna hung half out the window, Gokudera's shirt clenched in his hand, Hibari stepped forward with a new glint in his eyes –

"Oh? Can I bite you to death now?"

Only to be stopped by a coffee bean, thrown by none other than Reborn. It was a bit of an awkward situation, as Hibari was glaring at Reborn, who just so happened to be on top of the couch right next to me – which left me uncomfortably close to their little collision.

"Wow, you're great." Hibari, at this moment, looked truly intrigued.

Reborn was as calm as ever, nonplussed with the situation. "You're really strong."

Hibari lifted his tonfa again. "I want to fight you."

"You'll have to save it for later." And with that Reborn casually lifted up a lit stick of dynamite, and I found myself being yanked out the window just before it blew; and it was all I could do to cling to the bar on the Leon-hang glider.

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Sender: Takara

PSA: I have a bruise on my ass the size of a cantaloupe.

From: Enma

I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THAT.

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"Eh? Takara!" Tou-chan's face was full of concern as I made my way to the stairs – and I was sure he caught the wobble in my step. "Did you get in a fight? You seem to be getting into a lot more trouble nowadays."

I rocked back on my heels and winced – because ow, my tail bone – and tou-chan's eyes narrowed; it was one of those situations I wasn't getting out of, that much I could tell. Though I don't think he'll be too out of sorts with things (or maybe he would be and I was very wrong).

"I kind of flipped myself into a table today?" I pressed a hand to my back, attempting to massage the sore area a bit. "But if I hadn't I would have gotten bitten to death, you know?"

"Bitten to –" Tou-chan sighed, "Does this have something to do with that Hibari again?"

"Ah, well, kind of? I mean, I'm not going to lie – it'll probably get a little worse later, but..."

"Worse?! What have you gotten yourself into, Takara?"

I paused, took a deep breath. "The mafia?"

Silence.

A deep exhale. "Do you have club activities tomorrow?"

"Hai, tou-chan."

"The next day?"

"No, I don't."

A nod. "Come straight home from school then, got it?"

"Hai, tou-chan."

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*Gokudera really does make a pun in the anime; though it only really works in Japanese, I think. As it uses "bikkuri" which means surprising and "big kuri" for big chestnut. xD

Tryin' to steal Takara's punder – tsk, tsk Gokudera.

Prince:Ahaha I'm glad her horrible puns make you laugh. And I'd do the exact same thing if I was you, like -"Get on mylevel, roomie." And yeah, I could see Haru occasionally joining in. xD And Enma will just be like: Takara - I thought this was our thing. and Tsuna...lmao that poor child will drown in puns.

Kat: KnB is a recent obsession of mine that grew exponentially fast. I love it. And I'm so glad you like Guadagnare so much. uwu

Guest:I'm glad you're reading! And that you like Takara! :D

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