A/N: This is a pre-prequel told from Gokudera's point of view that mostly focuses on his transition from his relationship with Haru to his relationship with Yamamoto.

It all started when were nineteen and still weren't quite used to running the Vongola Famiglia.

"Hayato-san," Boss called out to me, running down the hallway of the relatively small headquarters. The urgency made me go into alert mode. He leaned over with his hands on his knees, panting.

"What is it, tenth?" I asked, gritting my teeth, ready to be told to take action, to fight!

He then stood straight up and looked me dead in the eyes. This was important.

"Hayato-san," He said. "I promised Haru that I would go shopping with her today in order to celebrate her birthday which is in on Saturday this week. I can't go because the Acrobaleno want me in Italy as soon as possible. I asked if I could just do this for Haru, then leave, but they said no. It sounds like this must be a very pressing matter."

"Do you want me to go with you to Italia, tenth?" I asked eagerly, repeating 'Please say yes!' over and over in my head.

"No." He stated, deflating my hopes. "I was just wondering if you could take my place and shop with Haru today, please, Hayato-san!" He bowed his head politely.

I covered my face with my hands, humiliated for the boss. Subordinates were staring at us. "Stop it, tenth. You can drop the '-san' and you need to stop asking me for favors. These are orders now."

Boss quickly straightened up then gulped nervously. "Uh…" He stuttered. "Go shopping with Haru… Hayato."

"I'm on it, tenth!" I exclaimed proudly. It sounded like a torturous task and I hated the idea, but I was just glad that the boss was trying to get used to being, well, boss.

So, off to Shibuya it was. Haru complained the whole way there about how she wanted Boss to come and not me. It was so annoying I almost wanted to crash my Pagani Zonda C12 F into a building and just end it all, but I withstood it until we got to Omotesando.

"All right." I said, getting out the car and locking all the doors with a beep. "Here we are. Freakin' Shibuya. There's Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada—"

"Haru wants to go to Kiddyland!" The yappy woman shouted.

"The toy store?" I retorted, utterly shocked. Here I am, a rich mafia member, right-hand man to the strongest Famiglia with a silly girl dragging me by my arm to a toy store. I wanted to chew at my shoulder blade until I was free and dart off in the other direction, leaving my arm to fend for itself. For some reason, I decided not to do this.

"Look at all the pretty Hello Kitty dolls!" Haru squealed as soon as we stepped in. "They're all dressed up in the most adorable costumes!" She dashed over to the cell phone trinkets, yelling at every memorable character she saw. "Haru so wants this Doraemon cell phone strap! Too lovely! He's dressed as a little daikon! Way charming!"

I could only produce the fiercest, manliest look possible when standing next to her. How else was I going to make up for my diminishing masculinity when seen in a place like that? There were more cute things in there than deadly things in our artillery room (obviously, over the years we would grow and the room would become even deadlier)!

We eventually walked out of the store with many bags of things soft and pink. Being the man, I was told to carry them, which made my cheeks tint the color of things inside the bags.

We stopped by a café for a quick break before going into more appropriate, adult stores.

"Do you even know how much useless stuff is in here, Haru?" I asked before taking a small sip of my cappuccino.

She poked at her cake with her fork while staring at me intensely.

"What?" I barked, annoyed by her eyes being fixed on mine. It was uncomfortable.

"Thank you." She said meekly.

I was stunned. It was so out of character for her. Within that moment, I couldn't help but to think she was really cute. "N-No problem." I spluttered, trying to recover from her sudden attack of attractiveness.

"Haru knows Tsuna made you come in his place and she totally wishes that he would've been here with her instead, but you're not as bad as Haru expected you to be, Hayato-kun." She took a dainty bite of her sweet. "Though, you did scare a lot of children back in Kiddyland."

I smirked. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

"Don't be so proud!"

"But it's not like Mafioso and kids mix or something!"

"True… Do you think if Haru married Tsuna, he'd want children?"

"Gah! Don't ask weird questions!

"How's that weird?"

"H-how should I know the answer?" I said quickly before crossing my arms and turning away as though in some sort of tantrum.

"You are Tsuna's right hand man, aren't you?" She asked slyly. Damn, she could be clever when she wanted.

"Yeah, but—"

"Then what does Hayato-kun think?"

"I mean, I guess… I guess, he would…"

"Interesting. What if Haru married Takeshi-chan?" She questioned nonchalantly.

I raised an eyebrow. "You're not being serious, are you?"

"Answer the question!" She commanded in a huff, taking another bite of her cake.

"Probably! Yamamoto would probably want kids." I replied on edge.

"And you?"

"Huh?"

"If I married you, Hayato-kun, would you want to have kids with me?" She smiled innocently enough for my heart to race and her eyes shined enough to make me want to say yes.

"Hell no! Are you crazy, stupid girl? I hate kids and I would never marry you! What a dumb thing to ask!" I shouted, crossing my legs and taking a swallow from my cappuccino, trying to distract myself from the nervousness. What a mortifying interrogation!

It was the weekend. My apartment was filled with weaponry and empty wine bottles. A few filthy magazines scattered the floor, I thought about throwing them away in case of a visitor, but it felt like no visitors would come. It was a lazy weekend when everyone was busy excluding me. And Haru.

The first knock and my eyes shot open. I had been laying asleep on the couch, previously watching a drama on TV. My first reaction was to turn the channel to sports before letting a single soul in. Then I had to get rid of each magazine, I did this by the third knock. When the fourth rolled around, I felt ready to open the door.

I grinned as I swung it open, hoping it was Boss or maybe even Takeshi or Lawn Head, but it was just Haru.

"Hey…" I moaned as she walked in uninvited. "What are you doing here?"

"Haru was bored, so I came to see you." She said, taking a seat on the couch. "Sports, huh? Lame! Let's watch Anpanman!"

"It's not your decision! That my television! Stop it! Hey!"

"Quit whining! We'll check NHK and maybe we'll catch Domo-kun!"

"Wouldn't you be lucky to just so happen to turn it to that station when a Domo short is on? There's no way that—"

"There he is! He's so charming!"

I grabbed the remote from her and turned it off. "Just stop that, alright?"

"Aw," She cooed. "Are you jealous, Hayato-kun?"

I couldn't find the right phrase to reply to her. All the comebacks in my head didn't sound either cool or fully true.

"If it makes you feel any better," She stood, walked to me, and kissed me on the cheek. I could've fainted. Thankfully, I didn't. "Haru thinks you're charming, too, Hayato-kun."

That's the moment when it registered in my mind that most likely, Haru and I were going to get together. Something within that second made that definitive. There was no avoiding it. Our relationship had become imminent.

A year passed by pleasantly. It was comforting knowing that there was someone who I knew I could call when I felt lonely or sad. It was a warm feeling to wake up to a familiar face whenever I slept over at her place or when she spent the night at mine. It was a secure feeling. I smiled every time I was reminded that there was a person who I knew loved me, who I believed loved me, who believed she loved me.

Around this period, we were talking about living into together. Would I move into her apartment or did she want to move into mine? Should we buy a whole new place? Did we really want to do this?

There was only one person I thought I could go to.

"Tenth!" I griped, beer can in one hand. Me, Takeshi, and Boss rarely drank unrefined beverages like beer, but it had been one of our twentieth birthdays recently (I was too incessantly drunk to remember whose) and so we tried everything alcoholic that we could get our hands on. "What should I do?"

Boss didn't exactly like drinking at all and couldn't really hold his liquor anyway, so he was no where nearly as wasted as Takeshi and I.

"I think it sounds like a wonderful idea for you and Haru to buy a place together. You two seem really happy. It's a great step to take." He said soberly.

"Don't do it." Takeshi said warningly, drunkenly wagging a finger. It was actually really frightening. His voice dropped two tones and his eyes read bloody murder. "Think of how much freedom you'll lose."

"But I might as well, right?" I slurred. Takeshi was starting to look like blur, though my eyes were wide open and staring right at him. "Haru's… Haru is… Haru… she is… something. I forget."

I remember Boss laughed at me for that. Taking his advice, I ultimately came to the conclusion that Haru and I would buy our own home. That night, after a nap and a bit more reflection, I called Haru up while still buzzed and told her my choice. Boy, did she become giddy when she heard that. When we made the announcement to the rest of the Vongola, they got really excited. My sister wanted to help us decorate, but I didn't want skulls and pictures of Reborn everywhere. Some told me that we should start considering marriage too, but just hearing the term made me feel uneasy.

So a year and a half into our relationship, we had a house. We bought one that was a bit above average when it came to size. It also had a balcony and pool and patio. It was a very nice home, but I wanted a genkan. Since it was a western-style place, there wasn't one. I had one added on not too much longer after the purchase, but that's me getting ahead of myself.

Before adding the genkan on, we brought a few things over from our old apartments, then threw away, handed down, or sold the rest. Most of the furnishings for the house, we bought new.

Some of Haru's preferences for furniture were a bit immature or silly (like , so I asked Takeshi to help me choose stuff out. Originally I wanted the Boss to help me, but he declined on account that he had too much to do.

"I want something modern, I think." I said, sitting Indian style on a pink egg chair from Haru's. Once we bought the new stuff, that chair was going to go. "But it has to be elegant too." My hair was pulled back into a ponytail and my glasses rested on the bridge of my nose. Takeshi was leaning over me, both of us staring at the laptop screen as I clicked on different links and pictures of tables and advertisements and whatnot.

"Are you looking in a certain price range?" Takeshi asked, pointing to an expensive coffee table. It's frame was dark and stylish. I liked it.

I chuckled. "Hell no." Immediately, I ordered the table. "Oh!" I exclaimed suddenly. "I want a pool table too."

"I know a good store to buy stuff like that from. We can go together later." Takeshi said keenly.

"Awesome! Let's search for some dressers now, oh, wait! Haru picked out some beds, she wanted me to choose one."

"Show me." A few clicks later: "Those are all unusually hideous."

"I know, but Haru wants one of those and I am picking everything else…"

"Yeah, but the bed is one of the most important parts."

"It is?"

"It is."

I spent a minute brooding over this. Then I looked up to Takeshi almost helplessly. "Then what should I do? I don't want Haru to be mad, but I don't want an ugly bed either..."

"Get something you know you both will like. I'm thinking… a canopy bed."

"A canopy? Isn't that a bit strange?"

"For newlyweds? I think it'd be pretty romantic." He leaned in a bit more so that his breath on the word 'romantic,' tickled my ear.

My whole body rapidly became hot. It felt like I was burning. This sudden sensation made me falter and I nearly dropped the laptop. When I recovered, I screamed, "What the hell? Haru and I aren't newlyweds and what was that?"

"What was what?" He asked naively as though he hadn't done anything. I brushed the event off as me being paranoid over nothing.

"Forget it." I mumbled tautly.

I pushed my hair out of my face as we cruised the countryside in Takeshi's Porsche Carrera GT.

"It's kind of a weird thing to ask." I said, thinking back to why I was in this situation.

"What do you mean?" Takeshi replied. It was then that I realized he had one hand on the wheel and the other was on the back of my seat. The position felt too intimate for me to be relaxed.

"If someone says, 'Thank you for showing me where to get this pool table. How can I repay you?' most people wouldn't say back, 'Your welcome. Come for a joyride in my Porsche.' It's weird." I uttered mockingly.

Takeshi merely let out a bellow of laughter and increased his pressure on the accelerator. The wind certainly was refreshing.

"You know, Hayato," He said and, God, did I hate the way he said it. His deep voice pronounced my name as though it was the sweetest sound he could articulate. "If you think about it, most people don't have a Porsche like this."

The sun fell on Takeshi's face just right. He was half in the light and half in the dark with a determined expression looking straight ahead. I couldn't imagine how he could manage to ever look any cooler than how he looked then.

From that point on, I was caught of the middle of something and I wish I had someone to blame. Someone other than me, Haru, or Takeshi. But those were the only ones at fault. Especially me.

"You'll live with Haru and me from now on, Lambo." I said, picking up some of Lambo's many bags. "Geez, how much stuff do you need?"

"This'll be fun. By the way," Haru said, beaming like crazy. Lambo blushed when she asked, "What would you like for dinner tonight, Lambo-chan?"

"Tagliatelle alla bolognese!" The little tyke cried out, assuming Haru knew what he meant. Idiot!

I whacked him upside the head. "Retard! Haru doesn't know how to make that! Just ask for a Japanese dish instead!"

Lambo shivered while rubbing his injured head. "Meanie! I want a meal from Italia!"

"Stop being stupid! We're in Japan so you'll have Japanese food, got it?"

"Maman made me whatever I wanted no matter the nationality! You're being racist, Stupidera!"

"What? Idiot cow! Where did you even learn that word?"

After that, Lambo became my focus. Takeshi and Haru faded into the background. Every morning, I made sure he was dressed and ready for the day. I lectured him when he picked on other students at school and assured that nobody picked on him.

One night when everything was calm, I looked to Haru who was two feet away while we both lay in our canopy bed. I wanted to say something to her, maybe to ask her to come closer or for her to speak to me. Anything. We just felt too far away for our relationship to have meant to go on. She either came closer or I knew this was winding to its end.

"Haru…" I whispered.

"Yes?" She said back quietly.

"Do you love me?"

"Say that again." She yawned. "I'm tired… so it's hard to… pay attention."

"Do you—"

A soft rap at our door disrupting my sentence. I heard Lambo's muffled voice coming from outside, in the hallway.

Without a word, Haru slid out of bed, opened the door, and came back into bed with Lambo in her arms. His body felt as though he closed the distance between Haru and me.

"Hey, hey," I groaned. "What's he doing here?"

"He had a bad dream, Hayato-chan." Haru told me, snuggling Lambo tightly. "But it's okay now, Lambo-chan."

He nuzzled closer to her and rudely asked, "Ew, why do you sleep in the same bed as Stupidera?"

Her and I blushed. With only that slight pause, I angrily answered, "Shut up, idiot cow! You know it's because Haru's my girlfriend!"

I could tell my words sounded hollow. I wanted there to be silence now, but Lambo went on,

"Are you guys in love?"

My eyes fell on Haru whose look was desperate and reaching and I wasn't sure if I wanted to grab her. Scared to tell a lie, I feigned slumber. I didn't actually sleep that night.

Not too long after that, Haru and I had a quarrel about whether or not I still felt the same way I did a year or two ago. She kept telling me that love can die. I didn't want to believe her. I was such a pussy, I couldn't even talk to her about it. I was tired of hearing her truths. I didn't want to acknowledge what I already knew. The next morning, Takeshi came over to watch a movie I rented with me. I guess we got too close or something because Haru got mad about it later. She walked in and just started yelling. Takeshi left and after a few interactions, Haru and I made up in the bedroom. Though… I couldn't get over that she saw Takeshi as threat. I thought it was wild.

One day, I felt spiritless while I had the day off and Haru was spending a day with some of her friends and Lambo was at school. There was such an insane amount of nothing to do that I could have cried. I thought of calling Boss, but he was probably preoccupied. I then was considering begging Boss to give me work to do.

It was sometime near then when Takeshi rung the doorbell.

"Hey," He said joyfully, when I opened the door. Due to lack of thought, I leapt up and wrapped my arms around Takeshi's neck in a fierce hug.

"Oh thank god!" I hollered. "I was so bored!"

I am now aware of how happy and sad Takeshi must have been at that moment. Happy that I was holding him, but sad to know that it would end and when I would let go, I would belong to Haru again.

"How do you get bored in this huge place?" He laughed, walking to the bar counter in the kitchen after I released him. We sat at the stools after I fetched us some drinks.

"It's Brunello." I informed him as he stared at the red wine in his glass. "From Montalcino. They say it goes best with a Tuscany dish, I couldn't agree more." I took a delicate sip and watched him move the glass in circles so that the liquid inside swashed around. "Is something up?" I asked, freaked out by his behavior.

"Are you in love with Haru?" He threw the inquiry at me so suddenly that my counter sounded doubtful.

"W-What kind of question is that?"

"Just say it. Are you or aren't you?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Then there was me. And Takeshi. And that day. And that kiss.

It felt like it took an eternity for his lips to tear from mine, and when they did, I instantly wanted them back.

"Hayato, I can undeniably say that I am in love with you." He said my name that way again, that incontestably sexy way that I could only swoon over. I hated it.

"But…" I stammered. "B-But Haru…"

Takeshi scoffed and kissed me again. So many emotions ran through me, my head ached, my stomach turned, but my heart fluttered like it had been freed. It was clear that he was trying to make us both forget that Haru even existed and it worked…

Until we noticed her standing in the doorway, mouth open, and tears streaming down her cheeks.

That's when I knew everything was going to hell.

Since that time, Lambo and I have become closer, good friends. Like real brothers, I'd say. Haru left. We talk now and then, trying to restore our friendship as hard as that is. Boss is trying his best, too, to help our family and to patch stuff up between me and Haru. Takeshi has been expressing an interest in moving in, but I'm not sure if Lambo would be okay with that, though I do certainly enjoy the idea. Oh, and my love for Takeshi has never been stronger.

Next up is a pre-sequel told from Yamamoto's point of view.