Chapter 6 tells of the eerie calmness right before an awful storm arrives

"It was all just a stupid little hoax!" G groaned while he smashed his fist against the counter in anger. "I swear that if I find the bastards who started the rumors, I'll skin them alive and boil their bones!"

Several minutes after dawn, news about a nearby riot arrived and G was roughly roused from his sleep and forced to go to the 'crime scene' to check up on the situation immediately. It was around then that G found out that it was nothing more than a stupid lie circulated to scare the people.

"There there, calm down, G. It's not like it's that much of a big deal," Asari replied, attempting to calm the furious teenager down while listening to the whole string of rantings even though none of them made sense to him. However, this simple action only served to fuel G's anger.

"Why don't you try to run all around town to find evidence of the riot only to have some kid laughing at you and telling you that everything was actually a joke? Do you know how stupid, how silly the whole situation made me look like? Every single person who could hear me was laughing!" G thundered, not bothering to keep his voice down since most of the inhabitants of the inn were already out working already – and it wasn't like G was considerate enough to care either way.

Asari scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "But isn't that your job?"

"Job? If that is my job, then what is that guy's job?" G scoffed, gesturing behind him. At that exact same moment, the door to the lounge in the inn where the trio were in, slammed open and creaked dangerously – announcing the poor condition of the hinges. "All he did for the whole of yesterday was to hole himself up in a small room in fear of the officials coming after his neck!

Knuckle, who was standing in the doorway, pointed a finger directly at G's back. "You are wrong TO THE EXTREME! I wasn't hiding from anyone! I was merely having some EXTREME thoughts yesterday!"

G twitched at the high noise level. "And exactly what conclusion did you come to? That you should move out of this inn already? That you should just drop dead and rot out in the streets instead? That you should commit suicide by deep-frying that annoying and totally useless lump of fats you call a brain?"

"No! I have decided that I will pay for my sins in an EXTREMELY UN-EXTREME method! I will become a PRIEST and serve God for the rest of my life and never use my fists anymore!"

"That's a good goal," Asari gave Knuckle a thumbs up to show his support.

G did a mental facepalm. "Don't encourage him, idiotic flute freak. There's no way that a church would ever accept a wanted criminal as a priest!"

"No! You are wrong TO THE EXTREME!" Knuckle announced as he pulled out the object that he was holding behind himself all this time. "The church has even given me these robes to prove that I'm officially accepted! I can wear them and proudly proclaim that I am one of the few priests in this town!"

Even Asari's jaw dropped at this sentence, although he was the only one who attempted to encourage Knuckle before – he couldn't believe that it was actually this easy for Knuckle to get over this hurdle and become a priest – he had expected many challenges and pleas and explanations.

G groaned.

o0o0o

"Giotto?" Tsuna sighed and poked the blond gently in the ribs. "Can you move?"

Tsuna had been trying to wake Giotto up for almost an hour now, but all that Giotto did, was snuggle up closer to him and needless to say, Tsuna was beginning to feel increasingly uncomfortable – as in, he needed to get to a more open space right now! He hated to be trapped against the wall and with no way to escape. Besides, if Giotto wouldn't move soon, Tsuna feared that he might...

"Jeez, stop sleeping already and get off me!" Tsuna screamed, finally snapping and against his better judgment, decided to kick Giotto off the bed with one single kick.

Yes, just like this...

Wait... WHAT? Tsuna screamed at himself in his mind, slapping both of his palms to his cheek in shock. He had no idea what he should do next. Help Giotto up? Apologise? Or maybe...?

"Ow, what the hell was that for?" Giotto complained as he pushed himself up from the ground and rubbed the swell on the back of his head. "Heck, why is the floor so freaking cold..."

"I-I'm sorry for-" Tsuna mumbled, but trailed off and watched as Giotto's eyes closed and the blond fell back onto the ground and went back into sleep.

Tsuna's eyes twitched in annoyance and shock. Even after knowing Reborn and especially Colonello – who practically falls asleep most of the time, regardless of what situation and condition he himself was in – how could it be possible for one guy to be able to actually be able to sleep this much?

o0o0o

Reborn took off his fedora hat, combing his hair back before jumping up onto the table so that he was currently appearing to be taller than Giannini. "I heard that you have finally figured out the time frame that Tsuna was sent to. Which is it and I want you to bring that idiot back immediately."

"T...That's why I have been telling you that it is impossible..." Giannini replied quickly without thinking, making the mistake of not obeying Reborn – which earned him a dark glare. "The only piece of information that I acquired from the ten year bazooka is that he was sent very far into the past... about 400 years ago..."

"400 years ago? Isn't that the Primo's era? Did dame-Tsuna meet with Giotto?" Reborn interrupted. "If that's really the case, then it isn't good. That idiot might have said anything unnecessary to Giotto to create a time paradox."

Nervous from the dark and threatening aura that Reborn was emanating, Giannini taking huge and frequent gulps of air. "P-Personally, I don't think that the Boss would do something that silly. And it's not the first time for Boss to travel between different time frames, he should know better than to tell Primo of such things."

"That idiot always does unexpected things so we can never be sure what that idiot will do next. So the best thing that you can accomplish now is to secure a way for Tsuna to return to this time frame as quickly and safely as possible!"

"That's why I-I've been saying that I need more time to bring Boss back since the ten year bazooka is impossible to be used to bring Boss back. I need to create a time machine from scratch and this will require time – much more time than what is needed to research on the ten year bazooka that the Bovino familgia invented!"

Reborn put his fedora hat back on and pulled it lower so that it shielded his eyes. "A week."

Giannini's eyes looked like they were on the verge of popping out. "What? That's impossible! I-If I don't do the time machine properly, Boss might be trapped between the time frames when we are doing the procedures to bring him back to this era. Then... Then..."

Reborn sighed mentally. Why didn't Giannini understand what he meant? If they try to put this off for too long, Tsuna would get into trouble, the typical kinds that only he would be able to get into – like making bonds with the people in the time frame that he wasn't supposed to be in and because this was the type of person Tsuna was. "Don't worry. If you fail to meet the deadline, all I will do is to blast your head open."

o0o0o

Tsuna sat at the dining table, in the seat across Giotto. It has only been approximately three days since Tsuna arrived here, but everyone already trusted him as if they knew him for a rather long time – and this was probably due to Giotto friendly personality. Also, Tsuna noticed many patterns and habits that the people have. Well, that only applied to the people who were closer to him.

For example, G preferred to eat his meals alone since he usually choose a table at the far corner of the inn. He wouldn't speak to anyone and would even ignore anyone who tries to speak to him. For G, eating seemed to be one of his relaxation time whereby he could stay in his own world.

On the other hand, Asari chose to observe others. He would always stand behind the counter, grinning happily. Tsuna could understand this. Since Asari was the cook, it made sense for him to be overjoyed when he see others enjoying the food that he put his heart into cooking.

Giotto was more sociable when he was eating. He appeared to Tsuna like the blond made it a point for himself to speak more and laugh more when he was eating. Especially during dinner, when all the inhabitants of the inn were back, Giotto was more lively as usual and would never fail to speak to every single person. Plus, if there was something that Tsuna knew as well, it was that Giotto really treasured his friends and would always try to protect all of them, like what he was doing now. Giotto is really...

"-na... Hey, Tsuna... Are you listening to me?"

"HIEEEE?" Tsuna exclaimed when he returned back to reality. "Y-Yes?"

Giotto smirked. "I'm wondering... What were you thinking about? You were staring at me so intently that I thought there was something on my face."

Blushing profusely, Tsuna immediately shot up from his sitting position. "EHHH? S-Staring? I wasn't doing anything of the sort!"

The smirk on Giotto's face softened into a smile – a sly and knowing one. "Oh really?"

"O-Of course!" Tsuna protested, quickly denying any other possible ideas and reasons that Giotto might have formulated in his head. There was no way that he would ever admit anything anyway!

Giotto lifted his right hand up towards Tsuna and paused momentarily, watching as confusion and hesitance flickered across Tsuna's eyes before flicking the brunet on the forehead. "Don't make such a face, idiot."

"Ow!" Tsuna rubbed at the reddening spot on his forehead. "What was that for?"

"That was for kicking me off the bed this morning," Giotto replied, but even so he didn't withdraw his hand and instead, he opened his fist up and allowed a necklace to dangle from his finger. "And this is a present as an apology for hitting you."

Tsuna took the present over and looked at the heart shaped pendant twice before he managed to open his mouth to ask an extremely dumb question. "Is this love?"

The entire inn fell silent and the sound of cutlery clattering to the ground happened all at once.

"L-Love? Oh my god!"

"Haha! Giotto, giving him a gift was a bad move! Now the kid thinks that you like him!"

Hearing that, Tsuna quickly tried to redeem himself. "EHH? NO! I didn't mean it that way!"

"So you mean that it's the other way round? You like Giotto?"

"Oh yes! I smell a secret love blooming! Sniff sniff!"

"Hey... Hey!" Giotto laughed, giving the person beside him a friendly punch in the arm. "What's with all the assumptions? Since when did my gift become a love confession item?"

The people crowding around Giotto nodded to each other and replied together in a loud voice. "Since we said so!"

Tsuna watched as Giotto laughed and joked around with the others – having fun. It was then that he realised how fun it was for him to be here? In this time frame, no one ever looked down at him and he was accepted almost instantly. They were now... all his friends... right?

"Phew. It was hell trying to get out of that," Giotto gestured to the mop behind him where everyone was still trying to squeeze 'Giotto' without knowing that the man had already escaped. "So? Do you like the necklace?"

Tsuna blinked. "Y-Yeah. It's pretty."

"Great. I was afraid that you wouldn't like things like... Crap!" Giotto sighed when the entire room suddenly fell silent and quickly scooped Tsuna up and started sprinting up the stairs. "They found out!"

Footsteps echoed behind them while the people behind them shouted weird war cries.

"E-EHHH? P-Put me down!" Tsuna protested and tried to struggle to get out of Giotto's arms.

"S-Stop struggling! I'm going to fall!" Giotto replied, leaning precariously to his left when he made a sharp turn.

o0o0o

"Safe..." Giotto grinned after he locked the door behind them and placed Tsuna down on the ground. "And it sounds like they have given up already... So, it means that I've escaped once again, yes!"

Tsuna laughed a little at the look on Giotto's face which showed that he was clearly having fun. "You look like you are very happy."

"That's because I'm really having fun! The people here are really nice!"

"I know," the brunet answered and fingered the pendant before smiling up at Giotto. "Thanks for the gift."

Giotto flopped down on the bed and stretched. "No problem. I just saw this at a store when we went shopping with Cozart the last time. And it's my only first present to you anyway."

Still smiling a little, Tsuna crawled up onto the bed and got into a comfortable position. "Only the first present? Does this mean that I can kick you off the bed tomorrow too?"

Author's notes: Sorry for the late update. To clarify about the ending... well, Tsuna was saying that if he kick Giotto off the bed, Giotto would 'hit' him and give him a present too. And Giotto referred to the gift as the first one only, Tsuna was using that as a loophole.

And, before more people ask me about this – 'Catapulted Into Love' IS shounen-ai or BL or whatever else you want to call it. And if you are thinking why didn't I make it clear from the start, please refer back to Chapter 1. Before I even started the story, I made it clear that this was going to be a G27 fic – Parings: Giotto x Tsuna (G27) – so please don't ask me about this again.