Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyou Hitman Reborn! Akira Amano does! (I know this is getting repetitive, but still! Bare with it please!)

The Christmas Party is finally here! ^^

It's just too bad that I couldn't get this finished before Christmas (or even before the new year! XD)

Okay, you guys are probably tired of reading this mini rant, on to the story! Hope you enjoy! ^^

Haunted Christmas

A group of five entered a large rectangular ballroom. Lattice windows lined the walls, spaced about ten feet apart from the other and large, round support pillars made of polished orange stone connected the ceiling and the floor. The dance floor, which was comprised of a brown and gold geometric design, was set within the enclosed area of the guarding pillars while the space outside the supporters was shaded by a second floor, which was more or less a balcony that hovered over the edges of the first floor. Depicted on the slightly curved ceiling were little cherubs, children with wings, flying and hiding in the clouds. All the angels were centered around the base of gold with a chain that was linked to several crystals, all shining and reflecting their own version of light.

People—members of the mafia—were dressed in the clothes of the rich and wealthy; the women were wearing long evening gowns, most, glittering under the light of the crystal chandelier and the men wore suits—the majority, Italian—tailored to fit perfectly to their bodies. All held masks, which covered a portion of their face. The group that walked in was no exception to this general dress code.

The party was led by a well-toned, but relatively thin, brown-haired man whose messy hair and amber eyes were unmistakable. Close behind him trailed a silver-haired man with stormy green orbs that peeked through the holes in the masks, scanning the surroundings for threats to his leader. Next to him was a slightly tanned man with black hair and toffee eyes as well as a face that had once glowed with smiles now full of sadness. Following behind was a man with a silver-grey cowlick and a mask-less man with ebony locks and irises as dark as oblivion. His pale hands were hidden by pockets and his face expressed how much displeasure he had for coming to such a gathering.

"Tsuna! Welcome to the party!" a blond-haired man exclaimed as he walked up to the group. In one hand was a glass of champagne and under the arm of the other was a man with silvery long hair.

"Voi!" the man yelled from his position. "Let go of me, Dino! If I wanted to greet the Vongola, I would have done it by myself! Without this humiliating scene!"

"It's only humiliating when you let the world know you're here," Dino smiled, giving a small nodding gesture to a guest behind them.

"Just let go, you idiot!"

"Promise not to run away?"

"I have my pride as a member of the Varia," he spat.

Dino released his arm, "Alright then!"

The long-haired man straightened his posture, dusting at the spot on his arm that was previously grasped by Dino. Then, he turned to the leader of the five. There was a glare of extreme annoyance from the man, but he continued on to a greeting. "On behalf of the Varia," he started, silently adding in his head: and our spoiled Boss, "we'd like to extend our wishes of a wonderful—"

"Christmas and New Years to the Vongola," a high voice interrupted, "It's the same exact thing you always say for special occasions. Isn't it, Squalo?"

Squalo turned around, facing the blond-haired prince. "Voi! No one said you had to come over here! Why don't you just keep your eye on the new guy?"

A frown graced the prince's lips and he clicked his tongue in disgust, "That un-cute subordinate? He's no fun to tease; there's no reaction from him at all. He just stands around taking all my hits emotionlessly. It's very frustrating."

The mask-less man of the five left as Squalo erupted once more. "I'll be outside. Call if you need me," he announced to Tsuna as he quietly walked away from the commotion.

"Then don't bug me, stupid Belphegor! Go bug Marmon or something!" he snapped.

"He's not here," Belphegor muttered.

"What? Why did I pay him then?" Squalo exclaimed.

Bel smirked, even without seeing his eyes one could tell he was thinking: you actually paid Marmon to show up?

"How should I know? All he told me was that something more rewarding than the (stupid) party came up and he left."

"What? Where do his loyalties lie? That stupid Arco—"

Bang!

Squalo stopped mid-sentence and looked at the direction where everyone else was looking towards, hidden weapons coming out into the open.

A soft smile crept onto Tsuna's face, and he closed his eyes. Even without looking he knew who it was that made the shot. At the sight of this, Dino, too, couldn't help but smile.

"How was Paris, Reborn?" Tsuna asked from where he stood, not turning to see his tutor who stood behind him.

Reborn tipped his fedora, completely shading his eyes. "Peaceful."

The eyes of the audience followed Reborn as he walked towards his once hapless pupil. "Balcony," he murmured so low that Tsuna had barely even caught his voice and not even Gokudera, who was beside his boss, could hear what he said. After the short 'exchange', the party resumed after a quick clap from Dino.

"Let's continue this party, shall we?" he smiled to his guests and they continued their previous conversations and activities. Dino turned back to Tsuna, Squalo, and the others. His shook his head from side to side with a smile much softer than the one he had used in his announcement. "Still likes to cause a bit of trouble even now, doesn't he? Well, that's our tutor, right Tsuna?" He hooked an arm around Tsuna's neck.

"Yeah, that's Reborn, alright." He glanced up at the second floor, finding his tutor leaning over the rail on his elbow. "Uh, Dino, if you don't mind…"

"By all means, Tsuna," Dino withdrew his arm, allowing the Vongola boss freedom to move again. "It's been a while since you guys last had a conversation together, right? Go on! Just remember that you need to come back down for your speech."

Tsuna hid the pain that should have come out as laughter with a smile. "I'll try to remember that." Then, he made his way towards the staircase.

Gokudera had only moved a step after him when he was stopped by Yamamoto, who had rested a hand on his shoulder. There was a pained smile on Yamamoto's face as well, though not as pained as Tsuna's. "Let's leave them to their privacy, okay Hayato?"

He sighed, following Tsuna's figure with his eyes until he saw him reach Reborn. Then he started walking headed towards the opposite direction of his boss, shrugging the Rain Guardian's hand off his shoulder. "Fine, but you'll have to keep me distracted so I don't run over to Tenth."

Yamamoto let out a familiar throaty laughter as he followed the Storm Guardian. "Got it, how about some drinks then? I'll buy."

"Stupid, the drinks are free," Gokudera muttered as Yamamoto laughed loudly in response.

"What's wrong with that guy?" Squalo asked aloud, directing the question to one in particular.

"His father recently passed away," the last member of the original party replied.

Squalo didn't take his eyes off the dark-haired guardian and his face didn't morph to show any specific emotion. "Is that all he's sulking over?"

"I didn't know this until now, but that guy is actually suicidal. Back in his first year of middle school, I didn't know him too well. But I heard that he almost killed himself because he couldn't play baseball with a broken arm. Sawa-Boss stopped him before he did anything. Gokudera told me that his tendency didn't break out since then, but his father's death really shook him up and he came really close."

"And I'm guessing that guy stopped him again?" Squalo questioned aloofly, feigning disinterest.

Ryohei nodded, "From what the maids told me, after Sa-Boss got into Yamamoto's room, he started eating regularly again. He left for Japan after he heard what happened to his father, but came back soon after. Yamamoto was supposed to leave again, right after Boss talked him out of suicide, but he decided to stay when he heard that there was going to be a Christmas Party. I think Gokudera talked him into staying until after the holiday."

Dino scratched the back of his head, "The holidays are a dangerous time of the year, especially this year, with all the recent terminations."

Gokudera took a sip from his glass of champagne. He looked out the window, checking for enemies and assassins. It wasn't that he didn't trust the Cavallone defenses, but risking the possibility of an attempted attack on Tsuna due to lack of alertness was not something Gokudera could allow.

"Is there any other reason you had me come to this party other than to guard Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked. He was leaning against a pillar holding a chalice filled with bubbling gold liquid similar to Gokudera's. His attention was open to his surroundings, but his eyes focused on the bubbles that rose to the smooth surface.

The Storm Guardian's cheeks reddened and his eyebrows scrunched together. "Y-Yeah right, idiot! Like I'd try to persuade you to stay here longer than necessary if it weren't for the Tenth! It's not like I was trying to cheer you up a bit or anything!"

Yamamoto chuckled, noticing Gokudera's accidentally revealed truth. He played his role as the idiot Gokudera remembered him to be, "I guess so."

The two stood silently. Yamamoto looked at his glass, spinning the glass in his hand by the stem, and Gokudera watched Yamamoto fiddle with the glassware between his fingers.

"Actually," Gokudera broke the silence, "there is another reason why I asked you to stay. Here and now probably isn't the time and place to say it, but I had to make sure I got your opinion on this matter before you went back to Japan."

"Let me guess: do you think Tsuna is hiding something from us?"

Stun shook Gokudera internally but he managed to stare at Yamamoto with well-hidden bewilderment. Yamamoto looked up at him when there was no reply, a small smile on his face. "I'm not the same idiot from middle school anymore, Hayato." He looked at the moon through the window. "Even I can tell that Tsuna's in more pain than the rest of us, more than he should be in."

Gokudera scoffed and finished off the rest of his champagne, "And here I thought that you were the only thing I could count on for staying the same since those days in middle school."

"We've all changed, Hayato," Yamamoto didn't take his eyes off the large, round, glowing gem in the sky. "And that's mostly thanks to Tsuna."

As Tsuna approached his old home tutor, the people on the balcony slowly cleared away. Reborn's eyes were shaded by his fedora, as usual and a yellow pacifier hung from neck, looking smaller than it had when they first met. The Arcobaleno looked nothing like he had in previous years. He was now a fully grown man, equally as lean as Tsuna.

"How have you been, Tsuna?" Reborn asked as Tsuna came closer, despite hearing only silent footsteps. He kept his gaze fixated on the dancing that commenced beneath them. Reborn was never really one for small talk, and that's what led to Tsuna's worry grow inside of him.

He sighed, "I've been better, but you probably knew that, right?"

Tsuna's sigh resulted in a knock on the forehead by the back of Reborn's hand. However it was light and almost playful, something that Reborn normally never did. "Silly Tsuna, haven't you ever heard? Sighing just makes you lose a bit more of happiness. Now stop acting like you've been shot by the Desolation Bullet."

The Vongola Boss smiled, remembering his second year of middle school when he first met Naito, who was now the eighth boss of the Tomaso Family. "Alright, I'll try not to."

Reborn smirked at his response, "At least that part of you didn't change since you burned the Vongola rings."

Tsuna closed his eyes, leaning over the oak rail as well. "So you heard about that, too."

"Nothing escapes these ears; these are the ears of a hitman," Reborn replied. He cast a sideways glance to Tsuna, "And while you may think you can fool everyone with your smiles, the pain and hollowness always peaks through to the surface. It's just making everyone worry more."

Same old Reborn; he would always be blunt on things like this but cryptic when it came to the many hurdles he had to face in life just to be where he is today. "I know the rings are important to the Vongola's traditions and that the Sky ring especially represents the sins carried down from boss to boss, but they're also reminders of what my friends and I had to go through. Those rings were a link that we all shared, and when I burned them, I really just wanted to put out the fires right away, but it was something I had to do. After they became darkened scraps not even identifiable as rings, I could feel something snap inside me. There was sadness, but there was something else, too. That something else prohibited me from crying—"

Reborn gave Tsuna another whack on the head, this time a bit harder than the last. "Stop being so melodramatic, Tsuna. Those rings are important to Vongola history, probably the most important relics in the world…"

Tsuna glared at Reborn, feeling his guilt level rise.

The tutor tried to ignore the look on Tsuna's face that was so unlike him, but couldn't help but smile. "But, they weren't the only things that connected you and your friends to all the battles you went through. Right now, the fact that you're all still together and can look back at those days is proof that the strongest link still exists. That link, Tsuna, is you, not some old artifacts of the past. Tsuna, you once told me that before your Guardians were Guardians, they were your friends. That's what you told me, and do you remember what I said to you?"

"'Never forget your feelings,'" Tsuna replied.

"So, what does that mean?"

Tsuna thought quietly, looking down at the people all festively dressed for the holidays. Then he saw Gokudera and Yamamoto under the balcony apposing them. They were talking and although he couldn't see their faces, he could tell by their actions that they were worried. A smile befell his face with his revelation, "The safety and feelings of my friends should come before any shoddy piece of metal."

"Wrong!" Reborn hit Tsuna again, this time was the hardest and Tsuna even rubbed his forehead, checking for a lump. He looked at Reborn confusedly and his tutor's face was devoid of his playful smile. "The Vongola Rings are not 'shoddy pieces of metal' under any circumstance!"

The two were silent, Tsuna just staring at Reborn until his tutor smiled again. His tone was softer than when he had yelled at Tsuna, "But you're right about the other part." He looked out over the people again. "Trust your friends, not just as comrades, but as people that you've grown up with. The amount of faith they have in you should be reciprocated in equivalence or even more than that."

Tsuna smiled, "Thanks, Reborn."

"Now that we have that settled, there's something important I wanted to tell you before it was announced to the world."

This time no worry clenched at his insides. He was ready for what Reborn had to say. "What is it?"

Reborn took a quick check of his surroundings before he announced quietly, "Skull is dead."

The color drained from Tsuna's face. That readiness he had before dissolved like ice on a summer street. "H-How?"

Reborn shook his head, "I investigated his death and while doing so, I found out that twelve more families had been wiped out, the rest of the Calcassa included. When they found his body, his pacifier was gone."

Tsuna swallowed the pain that was trying to escape through his throat. "Then, what about Colonello, Verde, Fong, and Marmon?"

"Colonello and Marmon were dispatched to further investigate the recent happenings in the Underworld yesterday and Fong's still on his current mission," Reborn explained.

"And Verde?"

"We haven't been able to contact him or locate the laboratory he has been using to develop the box weapons in," Reborn replied. "Right now, all we can do is hope that he wasn't taken down either."

Tsuna couldn't contain his shock, "Skull, an Arcobaleno, taken out. How unbelievable…If it wasn't you telling me this, I probably wouldn't believe it."

Reborn hid his eyes in the shade made by the rim of his fedora. "Tsuna, your intuition has been telling you something lately, right? That's why you burned the rings, right?"

"Yes," Tsuna half-lied.

"Do you know why the Arcobaleno exist?"

Tsuna shook his head.

"I'm going to tell you why because it has a connection to the Mare Rings as well as the Vongola Rings. I avoided telling you about this before because it had nothing to do with you, but now you need to know about the Arcobaleno and our pacifiers." Tsuna waited to listen to what his tutor had to say, observing every movement his tutor had. For a split second, Tsuna could have sworn he saw the hitman shiver.

"The Arcobaleno were created to protect the balance of a power referred to as the tre-ni-sette. From the strongest, the top seven were chosen. They were the i'prescelti sette—the chosen seven. The i'prescelti sette gathered together one day. They all knew why they were to be gathered, but they had no idea that they would be cursed to live as babies. But, due to the interference of one extra person, eight babies were 'born'. One, however, had been dubbed a 'failure'."

"Was the 'failure' the extra?" Tsuna asked.

"The Arcobaleno that holds the blue pacifier was the extra. He tried to rescue one of us which resulted in the creation of a 'failure'," Reborn answered. "Tsuna, you can't tell anyone about this, not even your friends and Family, understand?"

The brown-haired boss nodded, "I understand."

Reborn stood up straight and patted Tsuna on the shoulder, "Good, then I have two more things to say."

"Yes?"

The tutor headed towards the staircase without looking back, "Buone Natale and Arrivederci, Tsuna."

Tsuna closed his eyes. Deep inside, he knew that this would be the last time he would see Reborn. "Arrivederci…"

"Tsuna!" Dino called from the first floor. Tsuna looked down from the railing, leaning over the edge. "Time for your speech!"

The Vongola boss made his way to the middle of the dance floor, which had been cleared as the stage for his speech. He hid his weariness as well as the multitude of emotions that had erupted after his conversation with Reborn by using a masking smile that was appropriate for the occasion. This smile was his best fake yet; it was perfectly constructed so that even his guardians believed it was real for a second.

Tsuna raised a glass of champagne, turning his head in every direction gesturing a quick nod to the gathered. "Friends, Family, everyone, this year has been full of sadness and loss, but today is not a day for that. Today is the day for happiness and celebration. Tonight we should forget the pains that have come with the falling of comrades and passes of our loved ones." Water began to well in Tsuna's eyes, glazing them over. But Tsuna held them back with his perfect mask. "Tonight is the night we celebrate a holiday with festive feelings. Cheers, everyone!" He lifted his glass in the air and everyone followed suit. As Tsuna pressed his lips against the cold glass, the tears that he had been blocking flooded out silently.

From the shadows of the pillars, four men watched the middle man cry silently, finding themselves hopelessly unable to help their boss—their friend.

Next to the entrance of the ballroom, another man stood against the wall. After seeing the speaker drink his champagne, he tipped his fedora and retreated from the room.

For all the holiday cheer in the air, an undetectable dark cloud haunted over the chandelier-lighted room.

End Chapter Four

Wah! I didn't like this chapter too much, and I had to do a bit of rereading to make sure I spelled Tomaso and Calcassa correctly. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed it! ^^

Oh, and for the story about the Arcobaleno, I assumed it went sort of like that based half off of what Gingerbread had said in chapters 179-181 and what the anime fillers provided. It may not be how things truly went down, so it's not a reliable source for the Arcobaleno's creation.

Some Italian Translations:

i'prescelti sette: "the chosen seven" [referenced from Gingerbread]

tri-ni-sette: 73

Buone Natale: Merry Christmas

Arrivederci: Good Bye

Next chapter will either be a short chapter for things going on in Japan or will be the [longer] second meeting with Shouichi!