AUTHOR'S NOTES: I had intended to get this out yesterday, but there's been a lot of real life things throwing me for a loop, but at least I got it out around the time I said I would ^_^

This chapter slows it down just a little bit before we go tumbling headlong down a hill to the stunning finale (okay that may sound far more grand than it actually would be *laughs*)

It's Camp Nanowrimo this month and so it's eaten into my buffer, but the next chapter will be up around July 22 ^_^

As always, Reborn doesn't belong to me it belongs to Amano-sensei, but the story lines, original characters, etc. are products of my overactive imagination.

Please enjoy the chapter.

*tips an imaginary hat*

Thank you for taking the time to read (and for those of you can review and do) my little story.

Please stay with me to the end ^_^

~ Yuki

Target 12-02: Sunlit Clouds

"They moved their operation from the house that we originally had them pegged at," Gokudera announced as he settled down at the table at Take Sushi the Monday after they'd lost the Rain Ring. "I went there yesterday…"

"Without backup?" Tsuna scowled at his right hand man, he knew Haru hadn't gone with Gokudera because she and Kyoko had been helping his mother at the house because Nana was sick.

"There wasn't anyone there to see me, so what does it matter?" Gokudera asked, it still pissed him off that he'd allowed the enemy to take him out and take his ring and the Sistema CAI.

"You could have been caught again and we wouldn't have known it until you didn't show up tomorrow, Gokudera," Haru frowned at him.

"Like you have room to talk?" Gokudera inquired, scowling slightly. "I found you over at that dry cleaning place on Fourth the day before yesterday without any kind of back up."

"For your information, I was meeting someone who could help us," Haru stated and took a deep breath. "I was going to wait a little bit, but it was someone with information according to Nakayama-san…"

"What the hell are you doing meeting them on your own?" Gokudera exclaimed.

"Maa, maa..." Yamamoto said, coming between the two for the first time in a little while.

Since the rescue, the two had fallen back into their old contrariness when dealing with each other and no one could figure out why. They still worked together, but any time they weren't working on something specific to their mission, they either avoided each other or spent the entire time arguing.

"I'm easier to get a hold of than you are, Gokudera," Haru said sweetly, her fingers clenched around the papers she was getting ready to pull out from her bag.

The night after they'd rescued Gokudera and Lambo, Haru had been visited by nonstop nightmares of the silver-haired demolitionist being killed, Lambo being hurt, and more death caused by her hand and it left her very anxious. She tried to put her fingers on what exactly set her off, but her brain got as far as Gokudera being killed and stopped. The resulting sleeplessness had resulted in a childish argument between her and Gokudera that she hadn't apologized for yet—not that he didn't bear some responsibility for it as well.

She pulled the papers out and handed a copy over to Reborn first before focusing on them. "Nakayama-san's contacts have narrowed down four locations that they could have moved to. One of them was the dry cleaner's on Fourth, there's something shady going on there, but we're starting to think it's not related to the Trabuchet at all. All three other locations are located just outside of Namimori."

Haru took out three photographs and placed them onto the map with colored pins. "One's an old summer home of one of Namimori's Elite that they haven't visited in years. The second is a system of caves near Survival Mountain, and the third…the third is Emri's family's holdings."

"What happened with Emri?" Tsuna asked, Haru hadn't mentioned the girl since the abductions.

"She transferred out of Midori Middle two days after Gokudera was attacked," Haru said, proud she managed to keep her voice from shaking when she said the last words, though her fingers still clenched hard at the mention of it. "I haven't seen her since."

"So of the three are you inclined to think it's her property?" Reborn asked.

"That's where I'm leaning, but I need to investigate it more," Haru said. "I'm working with some other people to get some information from all the locations and I should hopefully have something more concrete in the next couple days."

"What about the Sun Ring and the others?" Gokudera asked.

"Big brother is out of town for another boxing tournament, when he left he had it with him," Tsuna said. "And I don't want to know how many bodies we'd find if they went after the Cloud or Mist rings. My ring is here."

He touched a hand to his chest; he'd taken to wearing the rings on a necklace again to keep them out of sight—not that they would be stupid enough to take the Vongola Boss's ring by force. Chances were when they went after the Sky Ring; it was going to be through a different method.

They discussed the plans for a little while longer and then got up to leave. Haru was the last out the door as she had the most stuff to gather up and as soon as she stepped outside her arm was caught by a familiar strong grip. She turned her head and glared up at Gokudera. "What do you want?"

Gokudera's face clouded and Haru could almost see the scathing retort gathering to be flung at her and she prepared to yank her arm out of his grip. His grip loosened, but he didn't completely release her arm for fear she'd simply run off again and he took a deep breath. "To talk," he finally said.

"About what?" Haru asked. "Don't you have some right hand man stuff to take care of for Judaime?"

"No, right now I have a stupid woman to talk to and find out why the hell she's suddenly turning on me," Gokudera stated.

Haru's breath caught. "I'm not turning on you!"

"You aren't?" Gokudera asked. "What did you call that conversation a week ago when you flung accusations at my head that I'd purposely gotten myself caught?"

Haru's eyes dropped to the sidewalk. "I—" she hesitated. "I didn't mean that."

"Then what did you mean, Haru?" Gokudera said. "You've been avoiding me except for Famiglia business for the past week."

"And you haven't been avoiding me?" Haru asked, her eyes snapping up to his.

Gokudera hesitated an instant before his other hand came up to cup Haru's cheek. "You have a point," he finally said, his callused thumb lightly running along her cheekbone. "But my reasons for avoiding you are likely very different from yours about avoiding me."

"You could've been killed going back to that house yesterday," Haru finally stated flatly. "You should've at least told me and I would have gone with you. It's my fault they got the Rain Ring, I should have ditched Chrome and Yamamoto and come for you myself."

Gokudera's grip tightened on her arm again. "If you'd done that, you probably would have been killed or at least captured the way I was," he stated. "I didn't want you at the house with me yesterday because you could have been hurt if my hunch wasn't correct."

"Why are you suddenly acting all protective over me?" Haru asked crankily. "Isn't there enough of that with Judaime?"

"Maybe," Gokudera said, "but I have a different reason for protecting you than Judaime."

Both hands dropped and he took a half-step away from Haru before he did something stupid like kiss her and earn a slap that set his ears ringing and completely lost any chance of them continuing to make their partnership work.

Haru felt a little disappointed when Gokudera stepped back, but decided that she'd think about it later, for now. "I met Nakayama-san on my own because he met me at Dr. Tanpopo's santuario before he gave me the information for the informant near that dry cleaner—after that I was informed I needed to meet the guy immediately. Dr. Tanpopo asked me when I was actually going to bring you to see it too so that you could use the resource as well."

"Santuario?" Gokudera repeated the word. "I didn't even know one of those existed here."

"Do you want to go get some tea or something?" Haru finally asked. "Maybe I can show you where the clinic is after?"

Silently, she admitted to herself she missed not arguing with Gokudera every minute of the day they spent together. "Sure," Gokudera responded.

She caught his hand and tugged him after her. "Let's go to Hanaki Café, I hear they have good coffee too."

Gokudera remembered belatedly that Haru and he had been supposed to meet Madame Cho there the day that Haru first had a gun pointed at her. He let his hand wrap loosely around Haru's as they made their way to the café and was surprised when she allowed her hand to stay in his, but he wasn't going to object. The ring she wore and the one he wore clicked together as her hand tightened around his as they moved across the street. He and Yamamoto had been given rings by Iemitsu to use in lieu of their Vongola rings until they managed to recover them.

He spotted the sign for the café ahead and gave Haru's hand a light tug, drawing an inquiring look from her. "Are you that worried that we'll get separated?" he asked.

Haru's hand tightened in his and she glanced away, a blush on her cheeks. "I like knowing you're right behind me, it makes the nightmares seem further away," she finally admitted and made to release his hand. "I'm sorry, I—"

"What nightmares, Haru?" he asked, not letting her hand go.

Haru's eyes moved up to meet his and he saw several emotions run across her expressive face that he'd never seen before. "Of you getting killed by the Trabuchet or someone else," Haru said. "I was scared to death when Judaime told me you never made it to school that day."

"And now you know how I felt the day you ditched school without letting anyone know," Gokudera said.

"I don't want to lose you," Haru said softly. "I don't want to lose anyone."

Gokudera felt a flare of disappointment when Haru added the second part of the statement, but he realized it was the same with him. Judaime went without saying, but no matter how annoying the baseball idiot and the stupid cow were or how loud and obnoxious turftop was, he didn't want to find himself without the Famiglia, but more than anything else, he didn't want to wake up one day and find out Haru was gone.

He pulled their hands apart and shoved his into his pockets and looked down at her for a long moment. "I'm the same," he said finally.

An awkward silence fell and Haru's eyes dropped to the ground again and then back up to meet his. "So, coffee?" Haru asked.

"Yeah," he said.

They made their way to the café and Gokudera's hand slipped out of his pocket and caught Haru's again, her only response was to squeeze his hand gently back.

After coffee, Haru led the way into an area of town Gokudera hadn't gone into that often and they were chatting quietly about the various things that Nakayama had informed her of and hammering out the best way to go about getting this over. They only had about two more weeks of the rainy season if the reports on the television were anything to go by.