Heh, surprise! FM2's computer's going bust, so I decided to write this chapter. Expect updates to be extremely very sparse and rare.

Thank you so much to last chapter's reviewers, and for Midnight Freesia for sending in some constructive criticism. (It was appreciated, we would see how to make things not as similar next time, though I believe that last chapter was actually slightly intentional.)

Anyway, thanks for understanding, you folks are amazing, I hope you enjoy!

M.M tugged at the silk dress, her skin itching beneath the cloth. She felt overdressed, even in the luxurious limousine that rolled through the Italian streets. The girl, who she had earlier learnt was called Lisa, had pushed her into the room and in a flurry of activity, had thrown out a million dresses and held them up to M.M's build. Each dress had a slightly deviating look of disapproval, and it took hours for Lisa to "find the right one too fit Signore Decimo". In all honesty, M.M really disliked the dress (since for how expensive it was, it really was quite itchy. She wouldn't have used that particular thread for that particular cloth) and how feminine it felt (she had always preferred something darker, more menacing, preferably by a French designer but that was a personal bias), but couldn't find the bitterness to tell that to Lisa.

She was really losing her touch.

Hence, now she was waiting in the car, if one could call it that, and was waiting to finally get out of it. Money was a touch sensitive subject to her. She would much rather hoard it in a basement in the form of a pool of gold coins. She felt like she was betraying herself, and her ideals by riding in a vehicle with her most hated insignia emblazoned on its hood, and frankly, wouldn't mind just walking to wherever Tsuna had decided to meet her.

She groaned as she felt a sprig of warmth in her chest at the thought of Tsuna. This was getting really weird for her, and she didn't like the feeling. It was almost reminiscent on how she felt about Mukuro, and would very much like to not touch that can of worms just yet. So instead of dwelling on the twitching feeling in her chest, she decided to sink into the seat, and just wait.

When they (finally) got there, she stared up at the restaurant, feeling quite jarred. Whatever she was expecting, this wasn't it. The Ristorante (how imaginative) was a quaint little traditionally Italian restaurant, with aged brick walls and a nice ambience. She was immediately led to a less populated part of the restaurant (but really, that isn't hard to find, the shop was practically empty), and she couldn't help but catch sight of the dozen candles littering the walkway she was being led to. The lights were dimmed, with the flickering flame painting the place into a warm amber. When she saw him, she couldn't help but scoff.

"Tsuna?"

Tsuna was dressed in a suit. The image was so bizarre, she found herself gaping at him for a while. For all the times she saw him in a simple jacket and jeans, to see him so immaculately dressed was a bit of a surprise. She almost thought he looked…cute. She quashed down that thought before it rooted herself in her head. There was already too much in there and she didn't need any more conflicting ideas.

The brunet gave an embarrassed smile, scratching his cheek lightly as he laughed a nervous chuckle. The two sat down, suddenly awkward. "Yeah, I know, it doesn't suit me." She almost gave a smile at the pun, but instead shook her head, mockingly disappointed in him.

"Really? You want to start with that." He snorted, before gesturing for her to sit. Almost like clockwork the food came in. For all her reservations about the place, it was nice. Despite that, they fell into an awkward silence, the only noise being the clinks of their tableware that rang across the restaurant. Days of not meeting aside, their last conversation was… She twitched in her seat, looking away from him, yet finding her eyes flicking back all the same.

It was strange, the guy in front of her seemed to be the same. He was still a bundle of nerves, and still seemed to be the same old Tsuna, but he felt different, as if those few days in Italy had changed him. Or maybe it was their relationship. Somehow, somewhere, their dynamic had changed. Maybe it had changed the moment she told him about her plan, or the moment he walked out her hospital room. She felt the tension in her body, so stiff that every twitch of her fingers felt like a jerk.

Tsuna looked around distractedly, before saying a bit too loudly in the empty restaurant, "Are you okay? Is the food alright?"

M.M held back the flinch. It was the first thing he had said in the hour.

"The food's fine." She said carefully, examining him. Did he forget what she had said before? She tried to kill him. What was he doing meeting her all alone in a restaurant, and asking her whether the food was fine? Tsuna seemed to stutter back into silence. He took on a more demure stance, looking down and away from her. She wondered if he realised how much he was emulating his tutor in the way he was hiding what he was thinking. She exhaled through her nose, a huff of relent as she realised what he was doing. She had to make the first move.

"What?" His head snapped up, eyes wide, before he relaxed and quirked his head questioningly. She scowled at him, before elaborating. "You don't have to beat around the bush Tsuna. What's all this about?" She waved vacantly at the restaurant. Tsuna opened his mouth, struggling to find the words. Finally he took a deep breath, and sat a little straighter. He hesitated, just for a fraction of a second, but continued, tipping his head to look her straight in the eye.

"I need to ask you something."

Tsuna's nerves were shutting down everything around him. He could feel the wheels turning in his head, but kept drawing up a blank. How was he supposed to phrase this? M.M watched him with her probing eyes. He fidgeted under her critical glare, and forced the words out. He watched her reaction warily as he slowly let it out.

"It's about the Vongola." Her eyes darkened in the way it did whenever the Famiglia was brought up. He pulled back his shoulders, and sat a bit straighter, the way that Reborn instructed him to in one of their latest lessons. "I'm…going to change it. Change it into what the Primo wanted. I want the Vongola to return to how it was before, when it was just a vigilante group." He felt the flame inside him igniting as he forced his determination into his words, growing with every syllable. He wanted her to know just how much he needed this to happen, and how he wanted it because of her as well.

She looked at him carefully, studying him with a poker face. He gave a smile, tried to make it as warm as possible so they could fall back to an easy atmosphere. It didn't work. He dropped the smile.

"I asked Reborn to help me discuss this with the heads of the Vongola. They told me that I could do anything I wanted with the Vongola. They only needed one condition. I had to find a partner, someone for the female members to see as an example, and someone who could help me in pushing the Vongola forward into what it was meant to be from the beginning."

The idea seemed to be catching on to her. Tsuna let it sink in further, before he prayed that this would work.

"M.M, I want you to be my partner."

Please review if possible.

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any predictions on where this fic is going, feel free to share it with us via that little button at the bottom. Anyway, I'm gonna just disappear now into my little hole so I can go to sleep. (it's like, 11.40 pm now) Hope to see you guys soon (although I predict we'll take a month to update)

Buh-bai!

(Wow, turns out lack of sleep is a natural energiser)