ok guys don't fight over who gets to kill me

WHY DIDN'T I POST THIS EARLIER? Fkalksdalajf this chapter was just waiting to get written, but I never got sufficient inspiration _ So I started exercising my brain a little and started writing little oneshots/ficlets (that's what Savoir Faire was for, which btw, I will get to since the weekend looms close!). That helped push me along, and then I read this amazing manga and then after that a novel and I was so inspired and yeah I'm sorry I took so long.

I'm excited to write the next chapter, but it might have to wait until I post chapter 4 of my class reunion fic (yes, that fic is alive, I'm working on it!)

Thank you everyone for all of your support and encouragement :)

Note: 7/9/12 - beta'd by Coryza Cor, my awesome & speedy (seriously, when she sets her mind on it, it's like bam, done) beta n_n!

It felt like all the blood remaining in his body had rushed to his cheeks. M-Meal? Did he mean about the dinner earlier or...he couldn't help it, it was hard to wrap his head around sexual innuendo! "U-Um..." And Hibari was actually making a move to get away with an erection that was...Tsuna swallowed dryly. Ignoring his state of dress and the need for a shower, he lunged for Hibari—a general maneuver to stop the Skylark from leaving but as a curse (or blessing) from fate nearly ended up as sexual harassment. Tsuna blushed as his hand landed on top of Hibari's arousal, improvising on the spot to prevent things from going awkward. He stroked it cautiously, feeling a tinge of smug satisfaction when the movement elicited a low moan from Hibari.

Hibari's jaw clenched. He never knew that the herbivore possessed such audacity. "Tsunayo—" he had to cut off his sentence to prevent himself from making an unnecessary, herbivorous noise.

Tsuna refused to meet Hibari's eyes as he started a rhythm with his stroking. The situation they were in was too embarrassing to warrant a face-to-face discussion. This really was hard though (pun intended). Tsuna knew that Hibari's preferences would be different from his own, but it was really hard to tell when this was his first time. Experimentally, he gripped a little tighter, assuming that the sharp intake of breath that followed was a negative response.

"Ah, sorry I didn't mean to—"

"Don't stop," Hibari bit out. Tsuna glanced up, surprised. So he had liked—

He realized that this was an awkward move about half a second later—Hibari's face was way too sexy for him to handle. Tsuna prayed that he wouldn't get hard again from watching Hibari's face alone—now that would just be completely mortifying. But he found it hard to tear his gaze away, and Hibari wasn't making a move to glance away either. Tsuna flicked his wrist a little further out, Hibari's ragged breathing fueling his efforts. Finding that his left hand was getting tired, he made a move to swap his hands around Hibari only to have the Skylark swat it away. He looked up questioningly, only to have his vision blinded by Hibari's hand.

"Don't. Ask." Tsuna nodded, terribly confused but obeying the Skylark's orders. A few seconds later, Tsuna heard Hibari exhale a shaky breath. Realization dawned on Tsuna right before Hibari unbarred his vision.

"I'mgoingtowashupfirstHibari-san!" Tsuna discreetly tucked himself in and made a mad dash for the bathroom (later, wondering how he had managed to pull it off). Hibari blinked before going through the necessary mechanical motions to clean up. He exhaled a long sigh. Shit.

Tsuna pressed his forehead against the cool tiled walls of the shower. Was he going too far? Wasn't that act reserved for a more...intimate relationship? Yes, he liked Hibari but... Wasn't this the wrong way to go about it? Not even a week ago Hibari was just a stranger. But there was something about Hibari, something irresistible, something that was untenable. Every time he was near Hibari, he was struck with an uncharacteristic urge to just reach out and touch him. Being with him felt safe, felt...right. He wasn't sure how to explain the feeling, but it was like Hibari was a desire, sanctuary, and dream all wrapped up in one.

No. He was overthinking it, wasn't he? Right. They were just friends who helped each other every once in a while.

Friends. Just friends. Hibari Kyouya was out of his league.

"Hibari-san, you can use the bathroom now," Tsuna said, pink cheeks giving away his composure. He shielded his face with his towel as Hibari walked past, releasing his breath in relief when he finally heard the door click shut. He threw himself on his bed with a sigh. What was he thinking? Giotto was going to kill him—

"Tsuna! Hey Tsuna, open up! That son of a bitch better not have done anything to you or I swear I'll have his head!" Speak of the devil, Tsuna thought with a groan. Giotto's shouting was punctuated by his fist beating against the door with enough force that it was probably rattling the door frame.

"I'm okay, Giotto-nii!" Tsuna yelled from his post on the bed. He rolled once before tumbling over the side of the bed and landing on the carpeted floor in a heap. This carpet feels really soft, Tsuna thought absentmindedly before thanking his lucky stars that nobody saw his fumble. He righted himself before unlocking the door with caution.

Giotto immediately bulldozed over him, his rage nearly palpable as he scoured the room for Hibari.

"Where'sthatsonofabitch—" Alaude wordlessly helped Tsuna up before striding over to Giotto. The ash blond calmly placed a hand over Giotto's shoulder. Tsuna's eyes widened at the almost instant change. That was the first time he'd seen someone apart from Dino capable of accomplishing such a dramatic mood change. His brother relaxed, sheepishly running a hand through his hair as he muttered some words that he couldn't hear.

"Alouette, gentille alouette..."

Tsuna narrowed his eyes when the tune abruptly came back, flitting around the ragged edges of his conscious as he concentrated on remembering.

"Alouette,..te plu...rai..."

"What's wrong Tsuna?" Giotto asked as he ran his thumb over Tsuna's brow in an attempt to smooth it back out.

"Oh, sorry." Tsuna jolted out of his trance. "I was trying to remember something, but it's gone again."

"It'll come to you later," Giotto said as he affectionately ruffled his hair. Then, apparently having remembered that he was a man on a mission, cracked his knuckles. "Are you sure Hibari didn't do anything to you? Did he hit you? Did he punch you? Did he touch you? Did he breathe the same air—"

Alaude clamped a hand Giotto's mouth. "You're getting ridiculous."

Tsuna could feel his cheeks heating up as he fished for the right response. He didn't want to lie—Giotto was his confidant after all, plus he always had ways of finding out—but he also didn't want to admit to breaking Giotto's ridiculous laws after barely a few hours from when he'd administered them.

"It wasn't anything that I didn't want," he mumbled as he tugged on his fringe nervously.

Horror flashed across Giotto's face. "Oh my god, did that bastard deflower you? I swear I'll string his balls across the laundry line—"

Again, Alaude shut him up.

"S-Stop being so extreme, Giotto-nii!" Tsuna blurted as he waved his hands. "Besides, I was more...innocent before I started working," he added as an afterthought, yelping when Giotto clutched him by the shoulders before embracing him tightly.

"I'm sorry! I've failed you as an older brother, it's all my fault!" Giotto wailed.

"Giotto-nii." Upon hearing Tsuna's tone, he disentangled himself and glanced at his little brother in curiosity. Apart from this afternoon's show of fighting ability, it had been a while since his brother displayed a hint of his more mature side.

He could confirm one fact now. Tsuna's eyes did change colors, sometimes not just in accordance to his mood. The first time he witnessed it happening was during when Tsuna first stood up to one of his bullies in high school. The air was eerily calm that day, Giotto recalled. In the end, Tsuna hadn't used his fist because he was against violence, even in self-defense. Giotto frowned a bit. He hoped that wasn't abnormal. He missed out on most of Tsuna's development due to his private tutoring that was necessary to cultivate the skills he needed to become the CEO of his grandfather's company. He was trying to make up for all of the lost time now, but he wasn't home for the more earth shattering events that changed Tsuna...

Like Fuuta's accident.

Those dreams that plagued Tsuna from time to time... He hoped that they wouldn't make any reappearances. In fact, he was going to ask Luce or Uni for remedies. They would know how to prevent the nightmares.

He didn't care about Fuuta at the magnitude Tsuna cared for him. Their relationship was somewhat akin to him and Tsuna. He loved Fuuta, yes, but not as much as he did Tsuna. It might have been because he only met the child a number of times that could be counted with just two hands, or maybe because Fuuta didn't take to him as much as he did Tsuna.

Fuuta was Tsuna's full-blooded brother. Giotto and Dino were only half from Iemitsu's earlier marriage that ended in a mutual divorce. It was a clean separation with no bad feelings. It was an easy break. Correction: it was supposed to be an easy break.

Angelica—that was his birth mother's name—wasn't supposed to die. But that unfortunate accident had led to Iemitsu falling in love with Nana who worked as an ER nurse at the hospital Angelica passed away in.

He had just barely turned three when that happened, and Dino, eight. Iemitsu's and Nana's wedding was swift—both had claimed to have fallen in love at first sight—and Tsuna was born soon after. Soon he couldn't even remember Angelica anymore, and Nana took over as the maternal figure. She was a lot better at it too, Dino had admitted when he was old enough to understand.

In his own way, Giotto had loved Tsuna on sight. The squirming bundle in Nana's arms didn't look that appealing to him initially, but when Tsuna grabbed his finger and made those unintelligible sounds that every baby made, a lasting bond was forged. Giotto felt a deep love form for his sibling at that moment.

When Tsuna grew older, it was clear who he liked best—Dino was a close second but second nevertheless. Tsuna picked his habits up from Giotto, but he did occasionally follow Dino around seeing that the oldest sibling spoiled him to death with affection. Tsuna cried whenever he was separated from Giotto for too long. He looked up to him as a role model. He would always sleep in Giotto's room, and he occupied it when it was empty. Tsuna followed after him like a duckling after its mother.

Fuuta was born when Tsuna was nine, close to Dino's age when he had witnessed Tsuna being born. Giotto was able to tell from the sparkle in Tsuna's eyes that he was enchanted with Fuuta in the way that he himself had been enchanted with Tsuna when he was born.

Tsuna doted on Fuuta almost more than Nana did—and his accident had been most crushing to him. Tsuna was the one that had changed the most. Tsuna—his sweet little innocent brother who was always so clumsy, so incapable, so inept in everything that he did that it was cute in a way—grew up abruptly in the few heartbeats it took to pull open the mangled door of the car.

Tsuna was the only one holding on now. Only he believed that Fuuta would wake from his coma, which now stacked up to four years. The doctors had confided to Iemitsu and Nana that the chance of Fuuta waking up was next to impossible, and when he did—which was a date on the calendar that existed between when hell freezes over and maybe in a million years—it was almost guaranteed that he would have to relearn everything starting from when he was a baby. He would have to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to tie his shoes, how to eat—all over again. Giotto and Dino were the first ones to give up after a year. Iemitsu followed the year after and Nana a few days after Iemitsu. Tsuna had held steadfast, supplying the funds to the bill (and coercing Dino to help him) when Iemitsu stopped paying for the expensive hospital bills. There had been a slight souring in Iemitsu's relationship with Tsuna when the father had confessed he wanted to pull the plug.

"Tsuna, you don't understand. This hurts me as well, so much—that my little boy isn't out alive like everyone else, playing ball or going to sleepovers or—" Iemitsu choked on a sob. "I don't want him in the goddamn hospital; I want him outside playing with his friends. But seeing him there like that, like a lifeless doll, that's not the way to live," Iemitsu continued, furiously wiping the tears off with his sleeve. "The doctors said there's no hope for him. What's the point in fooling ourselves into thinking that a miracle will happen? Tsuna, I think it's time to give up..."

"No!" Iemitsu, shell shocked and already trembling from grief, collapsed down on a chair when Tsuna yelled. Tsuna never put his foot down, had never stood up for anything. "Papa, as long as there's a chance—" Tears spilled much more easily from Tsuna's eyes, but the brunet made no move to wipe them as he continued— "I'm not giving up Fuuta. I'm not! You can stop believing, the whole world can stop believing, but I'm not. If I am the only one, that's alright—but please don't kill Fuuta without giving him another chance," Tsuna ended with a whisper.

Iemitsu had been swayed by Tsuna in the end. Despite Iemitsu telling Tsuna that he would pay the hospital bill—the amount of money was not too hefty, considering the fact that he worked only a step below the owner of the Vongola Company; Tsuna had taken up a job at a nearby restaurant to help pay for the bills. Iemitsu, wanting to expand on Tsuna's new-found strength, asked for Reborn to tutor his son in the same year. Somewhere in that time frame was when Tsuna probably started developing the calm, confident maturity that always threw everyone off when he displayed it.

"...Giotto-nii?" A tentative hand clasped in his was all it took to startle him out of his reverie.

"Oh, sorry," he said absentmindedly, noticing how ironic the situation was now. Tsuna had done the very same thing earlier.

Alaude sighed. The two really were alike.

"Giotto-nii? What are you doing with my lamp?" Tsuna asked fearfully when his brother spun it around in lethal arcs (never mind that it Dino sent it to him so it could double as a weapon in case a robber should ever dare to step foot in his living areas, which Tsuna thought was quite ridiculous given that Giotto was alive).

"Nothing, just testing how many hits it would take to deeply wound Hibari," Giotto said nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather.

Tsuna facepalmed. Back to square one.

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened. Tsuna saw the malicious gleam in his brother's eyes as he tightened his grip around the handle of the lamp. Acting on instinct, he propelled himself forward when Hibari stepped into view. As predicted, Giotto threw his lamp—Tsuna sorely wished he had his leather gloves on when he stopped the trajectory of the speeding furniture.

"Please don't, Giotto-nii, Dino-nii sent this to me and it's really expensive," Tsuna pleaded.

Hibari blinked. Was his life just in danger? And did Tsuna value the lamp over his life? Did he only launch himself inhumanely to save a lamp, because it was of monetary value, while managing to coincidentally save him from taking a face-full of metal? His mouth twitched with irritation. This herbivore had the weirdest priorities.

His eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Alaude. Well, maybe he should thank him for buying him time.

It wasn't long before Tsuna ushered Giotto out with promises that his virginity would stay intact. Alaude gave Hibari a congratulatory smirk behind Giotto's back.

"Sorry about that," Tsuna said hastily when his eyes met Hibari's.

"Hn."

Sawada Tsunayoshi was...very intriguing.

It was ten when Tsuna was roused from his sleep (he slept early, exhausted from the day's events). He wouldn't be nearly as worried if Hibari was not looking as ticked off as he did and if he didn't see the wide grin on Mukuro's face who was standing near the door. Giotto was smiling from ear to ear.

"We're going to karaoke. Get dressed."

Yup, Fuuta is going to be important...

So yeah, I'm so sorry if you have to go back and reread if something doesn't make sense. I know I had to do finalize some details OTL As always, feel free to ask me questions and correct any mistakes in my writing!

Yup, I know my chapters have been steadily 4K, but I didn't want to postpone an update any longer, especially since the next scene I want to write would probably push the word count over 4K. Please be pacified with my little peace offering until then ;w;