A/N: Here's chapter two and Kyouya's first appearance! This happens roughly a few days after the last chapter, so Nuvola is still fifteen and Cielo is still ten. Not a major time skip but I hope you'll enjoy it all the same.

Kyouya Sawada-Hibari wasn't what one would call a "team player". Sure he might bring himself to work with other people when it was necessary and when he was likely to indulge in the whim, but he was still pretty much a loner, preferring to do things his way and no one else's. Even now, when he was a father to two children, married to the most powerful mafia boss in the world, and Guardian to said mafia boss, he still pretty much came and went as he pleased.

Still, despite his lone wolf ways, he always made time for his kids. Like right now, when he was supposedly on a mission for the Foundation, he was actually making his way towards his children's rooms in the Vongola Manor, making some mental plans for the training he was going to force them into participating. He hasn't made any time for training his children, being busy with mafia things and kicking herbivore ass, but right now he was personally going to make sure that his kids were keeping in shape and not degrading themselves from their rightful carnivore rank.

He soon arrived at a pair of oak doors that was carved with a large tree with multiple ravens sitting on its branches and a majestic stag standing in front of the trunk. He allowed himself a small smirk at the image before pushing through the doors and stepping into a sitting room with large windows that let sunlight through the panes, illuminating the room. The furniture was all Italian made and rustic in style, though elegant. And despite the obvious Italian theme, there were hints of Japanese culture in the room as well; there was a pair of foldable painted fusuma screens flanking a side table holding bonsai trees that sat in front of the windows, various Japanese oil paintings hung from the walls and vases of ikebana sat on every available flat surface. Some might say that the added Japanese touches would clash with the overall Italian theme, but Kyouya thought that it worked quite well and he was proud that his children did not forget their Asian heritage in the midst of living in a European country.

After getting an eyeful of the sitting room, Kyouya turned left and strode towards another pair of double doors, though they were smaller in size than the ones in the sitting room and had a generic pattern carved into it instead. He rapped his knuckles sharply on the wood before letting himself inside the room without permission.

The room behind the doors was a rather generic ten-year-old boy's room. There was a large bed covered in Power Rangers sheets, posters of popular cartoons and TV shows hung on the blue walls along with shelves of books and action figures, and the carpeted floor was littered with clothes and random pieces of trash. At the side of the room, under the window, was a large desk that held the latest computer model, some more actions figures, some school textbooks, and in the chair sat Kyouya's son, Cielo, who was chewing on the end of his pencil, blue oval glasses perched upon his nose and brown eyes squinting in concentration at the workbook in front of him.

For a moment, Kyouya drank in the sight of his son struggling with whatever problems were on the workbook. He could feel his chest swell with love, something that was rare in his younger days and that still surprises him today when he feels it. But he couldn't bring himself to disregard the feeling. It was a good feeling, it was a nice feeling, and he would never admit it out loud. To anyone. Ever.

Cielo looked up from his workbook just a second after his door opened and admitted his father. At the sight of the imposing man, Cielo's eyes went wide and he dropped his pencil on his desk, not noticing it roll off the edge and onto the floor.

"Ch-Chichiue!" he exclaimed, scrabbling to stand from his chair and nearly tripping over his feet doing so.

Despite the love for his son, Kyouya still can't help but think of Tsuna when he looked at Cielo. "Chewing your pencil is a disgusting habit Cielo. I don't want you to have habits like that," he said, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

His face flushing, Cielo lowered his eyes to the floor and replied, "Yes Chichiue, I'll try not to do it again."

Kyouya nodded at his son's words and then approached the ten-year-old to give him a light, slightly awkward hug. Cielo stiffened just a smidgen at the gesture, but relaxed not a second later and returned the hug with a little smile on his face.

"I'm glad you're back Chichiue," he mumbled into his father's suit jacket.

The stoic Cloud Guardian grunted a reply, but Cielo understood him perfectly, hearing the silent agreement in the single sound. His father might be a scary disciplinarian, but he loved the man all the same and wouldn't trade him for anyone else.

"What are you doing back so early anyway?" Cielo asked once Kyouya released him from their hug.

"I finished my mission early," Kyouya answered, minutely adjusting his cuffs. "Now we're going to train. I want to see how much stronger you've become in my absence."

Cielo paled a little and felt his heartbeat quicken at the sentence. The truth was he hasn't really been training much in the past few weeks, focusing more on his summer homework and being lazy since it was vacation. He was more than apprehensive about what his father would do when the older man finds out his skills have obviously not improved.

"Go to the training rooms now. I'll fetch your sister."

Nodding and accepting his fate, Cielo opened a drawer in his desk and took out a glinting ring with an orange gem set into it and an orange box. He had gotten those when he was about five, just like his sister, but he hadn't been able to use them since the first time he did. He was told that he first had to learn how to summon his dying will flames and maintain them before he was able to open the box again.

Cielo followed his father out of his room and left the suite altogether at Kyouya's watchful gaze. Once the double doors had swung shut, Kyouya went to the other set of double doors opposite of Cielo's. He also knocked and entered without permission.

This room was different than his son's. The walls were painted a dusky red, almost pink, color but were nearly covered in posters of various bands, anime shows, and movies. Two bookshelves filled with books, movies, and somewhat creepy handmade dolls framed the closet door. Set against the wall opposite the doors was a desk just like Cielo's, only it seemed to be covered in a variety of stickers and instead of a computer, there sat a sleek black laptop with a tablet and external hard drive. The bed, a four poster one with purple sheets and curtains, sat in front of the window, only partially allowing sunlight into the room. And sitting on the bed was Nuvola herself, headphones blaring music into her ears and a half-finished zombie bunny doll in her hands. At the sight of her door opening and her father stepping in, Nuvola smiled and paused her music, pulling off her headphones at the same time.

"Chichiue!" she chirped, almost looking like her birth father as she trotted over to Kyouya to hug him. "Welcome back!"

Kyouya grunted in reply, wrapping an arm around his daughter's shoulders. He noticed that Nuvola had gotten taller again, the top of her head nearly reaching his lips. Had he really been gone that long? Last he remembered Nuvola only reached his chin. Children really grow up fast.

"Get your weapons," he said once Nuvola stepped back from their embrace. "We're going to train."

Nuvola's eyes – so much like Kyouya's yet not – widened at the sentence. But then she grinned and nodded excitingly. She always loved to train and spar with her father, unlike her little brother. She might lose most of the time, but with every fight she knew she got stronger and she loved the feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins and the ache of bones and muscles afterwards. It made her feel alive like nothing else.

Kyouya waited as his daughter fetched her own ring and box (both purple) and he led the way out of the suite, strides swift and confident while it seemed that Nuvola was skipping after him. Sometimes he didn't understand his daughter at all. She could be as ruthless and bloodthirsty as he was and yet still kind and understanding like Tsuna (though not as much as Cielo was). And even then she was largely her own person with her own little quirks like her hobby of making strange little dolls (the strangest in Kyouya's opinion was probably the large eyeball that looked very real) and her fondness for the macabre. Still, he loved her and despite her rather odd ways he wouldn't change her for the world.

The two finally arrived at the underground training room (having taken an elevator) and they found that Cielo was already starting on his training regime. He was working with his sai, his preferred weapon, and was going through his kata. Everyone knew that Cielo was very much like his birth father but when he had his weapons in his hands he was a formidable opponent (probably thanks to his Hibari genes).

"Warm up battle first, then we'll work on your flames," Kyouya ordered, a hand reaching up to straighten his tie.

Cielo stopped doing his kata and gulped as he faced his grinning sister. He had sparred with his sister many times before but he had always lost. Nuvola had more experience in fighting real battles despite their birth father's protests at not wanting her to be involved with the mafia at such a young age. Cielo himself had never fought a battle outside the training room and a tiny part of him made him feel inadequate because of it.

"All right little brother, let's start this," Nuvola said, taking out her surujin from the depths of her clothes. Where she put the weapon was a mystery since she was only wearing a black tank top and cycling shorts. Must be the Hibari in her.

With a nod, Cielo took a fighting stance and held his weapons at the ready. Across him Nuvola started swinging her surujin in circles, bending her knees and keeping her eyes on Cielo's form. They eyed each other for a moment, waiting and watching, until they shot at each other at the same time, weapons held aloft to attack.

Leaning against one wall of the training room, Kyouya watched his children spar with each other, eyes calculating and committing their movements to memory for later evaluation. He noticed that Cielo had gotten a bit slower, probably having neglected training again that lazy brat, but he was regaining his usual reflexes the longer he fought against his sister. Nuvola was obviously going easy on her brother but as he was learning through the fight she got just a little tougher to challenge the younger boy. If it had been Kyouya Cielo was fighting he wouldn't hold back so much.

When he deemed that the fight had gone on long enough, Kyouya sent his children to work on their flames. Nuvola had already mastered control of her flames years before, so she worked on fighting with them and her box animal. Kyouya himself worked with Cielo, trying to give him pointers on summoning his flame.

Both Nuvola and Cielo could use both sky and cloud flames (which is a very rare feat) but they can only use one as a dominate flame while the other can only be used sparingly. Naturally Cielo was mainly a sky flame user while Nuvola used cloud flames. It was in their names after all.

"I can't do it Chichiue!" Cielo cried out in frustration after only getting a flicker of his flame from his ring. "It's too hard!"

"Don't complain, it's not becoming," Kyouya snapped, making his son flinch at his tone. "Try again. Summon your flame, think of your resolution."

Biting back a sigh, Cielo closed his eyes and focused on his ring again, willing his flame to appear. He didn't think it would work though. He didn't really have a strong resolution, not like his sister's or both his father's (though he was told that his father didn't use resolution, but irritation, which was strange). He didn't really think highly of himself when it came to summoning his dying will flames.

"Hey stupid, remember when we were kids and was kidnapped by that rival family?" His sister's voice broke through his haze of concentration. Other than scowling Cielo gave no hint that he heard. He just kept his eyes closed and kept on concentrating.

"Remember when those guys were beating me up?" Nuvola continued. Her words sounded a little breathy and there were minute pauses between them, implying that she was still training as she talked. "You were crying so hard, screaming at them to stop hurting me. Of course they didn't listen, they just kept on beating me and they probably would have done much worse if what you did next didn't happen."

Cielo's heart started to race a little. He could barely remember what happened when they were kidnapped, since he had been young, only five, and he had been terrified through the whole experience. But he could remember his sister's screams of pain as the small group of thugs took turns kicking and punching her, laughing all the while as if it was the best entertainment in the world. He had been scared and terrified, not for himself, but for his sister. He had been scared that his sister was getting hurt while he just sat there watching. He remembered that after the fiasco that was their kidnapping he refused to sleep alone for months, only wanting to be by his sister's side all the time. It was probably the clingiest he had ever been.

"You remember that you had the ring and box that Ojiichan gave you for your birthday? You were really attached to them and always had it with you. Our kidnappers were naïve enough to let you keep them the whole while, thinking that you wouldn't be able to use them anyway."

He remembered that too. He really loved his ring and box when he first got them and never went anywhere without them. He was now kind of embarrassed about his behavior back them, but it was understandable seeing that he had only been five when he got them.

"I didn't really see what you did Cielo, but you were able to summon your flames and open your box with the minimum of effort. If you want to summon them now, then you have to remember what you were feeling back then, right back at the moment you took that ring and placed it on your box."

Remember what he had been feeling huh? Well, that was easy. Despite his fear of everything that had been happening around him, he had wanted to protect his sister, he had wanted to stop those bad people from hurting her. It was probably on instinct that he lit up his ring and shoved it into his box, summoning his animal that had beat those thugs into submission and allowing the two Vongola children to escape. But how could he bring up those feelings now? There was no danger at the moment, nothing to urge him into that frightful situation.

But he could at least try. Who did he want to protect? His family of course, that was a give in. He knew, even in his young age, that his family was involved in many very dangerous things. He didn't like it, even his birth father didn't like it, but he was still in the business because it was only the way to keep his family protected. Without the power of the Vongola name, his family would have been left vulnerable.

So, in order to protect his family he had to get stronger right? And he can't do any protecting without his flames. He needed the flames to be stronger, to protect his family when they needed the help. He didn't want to be useless…

A warmth flared in his hand and in his chest and Cielo started. He opened his eyes and looked down at his hand, quite surprised to see sky flames flickering from the gem in his ring. He had only ever seen his birth father use these orange flames, mostly in training, and he was sure that his own flames weren't as majestic as Tsuna's pure sky flames. But he was amazed all the same. He thought he'd never get this flame summoning business right.

Cielo looked up at his father, eyes widening even further at the pride shining in those familiar blue-grey eyes. He looked over at his sister, who was grinning at him proudly through her heavy breathing.

"Good job son," Kyouya said sincerely. And he really was proud of his son, who was so much like Tsuna in so many ways.

"Yeah moron, good job," Nuvola chipped in, spinning her surujin lazily. "Took you long enough!"

"Then why didn't you tell me those things earlier?" Cielo shot back, scowling at his sister. "It would've saved a lot of trouble!"

Nuvola shrugged unrepentantly. "The idea only occurred to me now. Besides, you really had to find your own resolve. It doesn't work if you were basing it off of others."

That made sense, but Cielo was still a little irked that his sister only really helped him now. Before she would do outrageous things to him just to see if it would result into something. He wondered if she had been taking lessons from Reborn in that spectrum.

"Enough," Kyouya said with narrowed eyes, putting a little emphasis on the word. "Continue with your training you two."

"Yes Chichiue!"

He watched his children continue their training, Nuvola trying some new moves while Cielo worked on stabilizing his flames. He could feel his pride for his children grow in his chest and felt somewhat saddened that they were growing up so fast. He could remember like it was yesterday…

"Argh! Cielo, watch where you're aiming!"

"S-Sorry Onesan!"

On second thought… maybe they weren't growing fast enough…

A/N:I liked describing the kids' suite room (pun intended XD). Especially Nuvolo's because it's probably my dream room. And even though it's obvious they have different interests, Cielo and Nuvolo largely like the same things. Nuvolo actually influenced Cielo a lot interest-wise, just like I did with my brother, though Gokudera was the one who influenced her style and "darker" interests. Cielo doesn't have a style yet because I think he's still too young. I know my style at ten years old was different then my style now.

If any of you are wondering what the kids' box animals are, don't ask me. I already gave you two big hints and it's not my fault you didn't spot it.

*Fusuma - are vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors. Historically they were painted usually with scenes from nature.

*Bonsai Trees - Literally "plantings in a tray". It is a Japanese art form using miniature trees in a container.

*Ikebana - the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

*Chichiue – I think it's literally "most honorable father" or something of that regard. Basically it's a very formal way to address one's father. When they were younger the kids probably called Kyouya Papa or Otousan, but when they got to the right age Kyouya would insist that they call him Chichiue instead. He's just that kind of formal guy. LOL

*Sai – An Okinawan weapon that is like a three-pronged dagger except that it's blunt. Think Raphael of Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles or Elektra of the Marvel universe.

*Kata - Literally "form". A Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs.

*Ojiichan - Grandfather, with the more affectionate -chan honorific.