Chapter 5 tells of a new friendship found

Tsuna sat up on the bed and rubbed his eyes wearily. When he opened them up, the first thing that came into his view was a small desk and a familiar blond with his head placed on the table, fast asleep.

Tsuna swung his feet over the edge of the bed and winced when he felt the cold air hit him. He hadn't realise how cold the air really was and it made him feel bad for hogging the blanket for the whole night. Making his way over to the blond as quietly as he could, Tsuna draped the piece of cloth around his shoulders.

However he was not cautious enough and brushed his hand over Giotto's shoulder, causing the blond to stir.

"Sorry," Tsuna apologised when he was greeted by a pair of aquamarine eyes which were still hazy from sleep. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Giotto stretched and looked at the timing shown in his pocket watch. 9.58 am. "No. On the contrary, I'll have to thank you for waking me up. G would be coming over soon to collect my work."

As if on cue, the door to the room slammed open and said person stood in the corridor, his eyes flashing with anger and irritance.

"Damn that stupid Asari, making me finish that stupid glass of milk..." He muttered under his breath while complaining internally about his hatred of milk before clearing his throat and glaring darkly across the room. "Giotto! It's 10 already. Did you finish the entire stack of paperwork?"

With an extremely bored expression on his face, the blond simply gestured to the neat stack of papers piled in a corner of the room.

G raised an eyebrow. "All of them?" He asked, suspicious.

"Yeah. Every single piece of it. Although I almost died halfway through the job."

The crimson haired teenager rolled his eyes while he flipped through the stack to make sure Giotto was not lying. "Start getting ready. You have to go to the neighbouring town to have a meeting with the rich nobles in that area at 12 pm and then later at 3, you will then have to–"

"Can't you just cancel all of them," Giotto sighed and slumped against the table. "I'm so tired that I feel like spending the whole day sleeping, and not walking between towns and attending meetings with those useless and snobbish children from rich families..."

Uh-oh, Tsuna gulped when he spotted the dark aura that G was emitting. It was very clear by now that it took a lot of time and effort for him to make arrangements to that extent and detail, and Giotto just said something that he wasn't supposed to.

"You will attend all of them," G insisted, his tone flat and commanding to show that there was no room for any form of discussion. "It's essential if you want to make the vigilante group official."

"But it doesn't have to be official!"

G sighed at Giotto's protests. "Look. If you want to help more people, it would be easier for us to be labelled as a group to help the civilians instead of being treated like some pitiful rebels. And for us to help more people, we will require financial assistance and support to get all the weapons and people needed for every job. So all these meetings and discussions are completely necessary. Now if you get it, stop lazing around and start preparing for the day already!"

Apparently, Giotto was still not very wide awake since he muttered something that caused G to snap and whack him roughly on his head.

"Always being so commanding and telling me what to do... What are you, my father?"

o0o0o

Less than five minutes later, Giotto trudged down the stairs and made his way towards the front door of the inn, all prepared for the long day ahead.

"G is always so mean..." Giotto complained to Tsuna who was walking right next to him. The brunet laughed awkwardly, trying futilely to comfort the other. At least G allowed him to come along.

"M-Maybe it's just because he really cares about you? I have a friend like that too," Tsuna said, remembering how Gokudera was always very concerned about him.

The first generation and tenth generation Storm guardians were really alike, Tsuna mused. Well, with the exception of G being at least a million times scarier than Gokudera. He didn't really want to imagine Gokudera beating him like how G whacked Giotto.

"Sometimes, I wonder who is more interested in creating the vigilante group – him or me," Giotto sighed as he continued to rub the swell on his head.

I think about the same thing too. I wonder who put in more effort to create the Vongola familgia, G-san or you... Tsuna muttered to himself thoughtfully in his head, but the smile remained on his face.

This kind, friendly and seemingly carefree Giotto was so different from the Giotto he met when he was fighting Byakuran. He was more kind and there was this air around him that made him seem more like a seventeen year old teenager rather than a soon-to-be boss of one of the most notorious mafia familgia.

It was difficult for Tsuna to imagine that someone like Giotto who wanted nothing more than to protect the town he grew up in would later go on to form a mafia group and stand firm as their boss, as the Vongola Primo – especially since the ones who wrecked the tone, besides the government, were the bandits and the mafia.

"Say, Tsuna, do you want to go out later tonight? I don't feel like doing more paperwork tonight and I heard that someone opened a new rest–"

Giotto was cut off abruptly when a middle aged man pushed past him roughly, screaming at the top of his lungs and smashing a pot and pan together to create as much noise as he possibly can before he announced the earth-shattering news. "MURDER! MURDER! SOMEONE WAS MURDERED!"

The change of the look in Giotto's eyes happened so fast that Tsuna almost missed it – one moment it was warm and gentle; the next it turned cold and emotionless.

The blond put a hand on the shouting man and pulled him back, hard. "Tell me exactly where did the crime happen?"

"A-At the boxing ring!"

Giotto let go of the man and held on to Tsuna's hand instead, dragging the brunet off towards the building where the boxing fights would take place every day. "Let's go, Tsuna."

Jogging quickly after Giotto to make sure he didn't fall due to the difference between the lengths of their strides, Tsuna didn't bother to tell the blond that they were supposed to be rushing to meet some rich noble in the neighbouring town because he understood that the peacefulness of this town was what Giotto was really concerned about.

o0o0o

"Okay," G growled as he stamped down on what was left of his cigarette, effectively putting out the flame. "I'll ignore your grand idea of skipping the meetings but... Tell me what is this Lost Puppy Number 3 is doing here! Are you organising some secret human adoption program?"

"Lost Puppy... Number three?" Tsuna leaned in and whispered the question to Asari.

Asari chuckled as he whispered his explanation back to Tsuna. "Well, I'm probably the first since I met Giotto right after I set foot in this country and he took me here. I remember that G was pretty angry that time. And you're probably Number 2, which makes that guy Number three."

Giotto grinned at his furious childhood friend. "Hardly. Knuckle merely needs a place to hide from the authorities for a while, since he accidentally killed someone during a boxing match and the victim's families are pressing charges on him."

"Killed? So you mean he is a wanted criminal?" G thundered. "Giotto, are you trying to get me into trouble? Besides, I don't see the need for him to hide from the police anyway. If he killed that guy in a boxing match, the victim's family can't call the police in! Isn't that one of the rules that they sign to before they can even take part in a match?"

Indeed, a flip side of joining in such matches was that even though you would earn a huge amount of money whenever you win a match, the whole contest was illegal – and that meant that no one would be liable for any damages done, even if you lost your life during the match itself.

"His parents bribed the police. So they are searching high and low for Knuckle right now."

G scowled at the dark haired man who had the nerve to be asleep although everyone was discussing about him. "And where on earth is that moron going to be sleeping at? He can't stay downstairs because when the bastards come in to search for him, he will be caught immediately; and all the rooms upstairs are full."

"Um..." Giotto trailed off, deep in thought. "Good point."

G rolled his eyes. "Idiot."

"Ahaha, actually I have a good idea," Asari announced after several seconds of thought. "Why don't you just let Tsuna move into Giotto's room and let Knuckle stay in Tsuna's room? Besides, the room that Tsuna is living in now is at the end of the corridor and we can hide it easily if there's a need to do so."

Everyone stared at Asari like they could not believe that he just proposed such a good plan.

"Great idea!" Giotto approved eagerly.

Tsuna twitched at the thought of sharing a room with his great-great-great-grandfather.

"HIEEEEEEEEEEEE?"

o0o0o

"Good night," Giotto kissed Tsuna on the forehead.

Face turning a slight shade of red, Tsuna raised a hand to his forehead to touch the spot that the blond just kissed. Heck, even his mother never did that before.

"Um... G-Gio..." Tsuna trailed off when he remembered what the other said last night. Gio-nii. Call me that when no one else is around. "Where are you going, Gio-nii?"

Giotto placed the extra pillow and blanket that Asari brought up for him, on the floor. "I'll sleep on the floor tonight."

"B-But this is your bed!" Tsuna protested. "You don't have to sleep on the floor!" I should be the one sleeping on the floor instead!

Why did he always keep imposing on others?

"It's okay," Giotto smiled. "I'll feel bad if I let a kid like you sleep on the floor."

"Kid?" Tsuna's jaw dropped open and against his better judgment, started to protest. "I'm not a kid! I'm already sixteen this year!"

Giotto blinked twice at the brunet's outburst. "Oh... Really?"

Tsuna nodded vigorously – almost angrily. "Yes!"

"Okay..." Giotto trailed off as he picked up the pillow and blanket from the floor and made his way back towards the bed. "I'm regretting my decision now. Move over."

"What?" Tsuna asked, steadily moving away while Giotto walked towards him, so that his back was pressed into the wall.

"Thank you," Giotto grinned at the confused and shocked expression on the brunet's face before lying down on his half of the bed. "And, good night."

Author's notes: Another chapter done! Courtesy of Knuckle's appearance, I have managed to dump Tsuna into Giotto's room. And of course, this is a T so don't worry, there wouldn't be any smut. At. All. The EXTREME extent that I'll write in this fic is just kissing – promise.

I don't know about all of you but I was laughing when I was writing the scene where G mentions about the Lost Puppies and secret human adoption program. Oh, and the last part as well! G really did whack Giotto - he's a million times scarier than Gokudera anyway; and Giotto is a hundred times less cooperative than Tsuna - mix them together and you get G beating Giotto... I guess?

And did anyone realise that Giotto actually started by calling Tsuna Tsunayoshi-kun but switched over to use Tsuna when Cozart started to call Tsuna as Tsuna. Don't worry/Too bad, even though I'm a huge fan of 0027, I won't be writing any CozartxTsuna. I merely like implying silly little things like that!