-I'm a bastard this way, see. I have no excuses other than a big 'I WARNED YOU' on the first chapter. Seriously. I'm more of a reader than an author, guys. Sorry :c But don't worry, this isn't abandoned, and I doubt will ever be abandoned. I am just a freakin' huge lazybum and I'm stuck on writer's block (SO MANY PROMPTS DAMMIT) and that is likely why I read more than attempt to write sucky attempts at fics. Let us just enjoy this fail attempt at a chapter, and the fic as a whole which you strangely enjoy.

Summary: Tsuna's family neglects him. His twin abuses him, both verbally and physically away from public's eye. The public itself avoids Tsuna. He would've fallen into depression, had Byakuran and Yuni not decide it would be a fun idea to kick down the Sawada's front door and freeload. ... Wait, what?

Warning: AU, OOC (both intentional and unintentional), some people's ages may be tweaked, un-Beta'd

Pairings: None

Inspired by Triple Layered Sky and Achromatic Sky

Chapter 8

The Deceiving Mist, Part One

As Tsuna and Takeshi left school grounds towards their two waiting companions, Tsuna collapsed.

"T-Tsuna!" Takeshi caught him in time. Byakuran and Yuni ran towards them.

"Tsuna-nii!" Yuni called frantically, shaking him. Byakuran sighed.

"I think he overexerted during that fight with Sasagawa-kun," the albino stated factually, complete with a smile.

"O-overexerted? And how'd you know he fought with Sasagawa-senpai?!"

"Me and Byaku-nii were watching from afar!" said Yuni.

Takeshi twitched. "E-eh?"

Byakuran grinned. "We were spying on you, that's what she's saying."

Takeshi blinked. Then he laughed. "Ahahaha! You did?"

"Yep, but back to the matter at hand." Byakuran bent down and put Tsuna on his back. "I'll be carrying Tsunayoshi-kun horseback."

"Alright," Takeshi grinned. "But what do you mean by he overexerted himself?"

"While it's amazing that he managed to defeat someone who's fought for years like Sasagawa-kun, especially when it's his first time fighting, his body's not used to the actions he did earlier," said Byakuran. "He strained his muscles too much."

"Sou ka?" the raven-haired boy nodded.

"You shouldn't overexert yourself in baseball too," Byakuran warned.

Takeshi tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"Practice is good, but if you practice too much you'll end up like Tsunayoshi-kun here and might not be able to play another match for a little while," the albino explained.

Takeshi blinked. It was clear to Byakuran that Takeshi didn't completely understand, but the boy nodded anyway.

Byakuran mentally sighed, but he plastered a smile on his face. "Let's go, ne!"

"Alright!" the boy smiled.

He hoped that the younger boy doesn't end up doing something to hurt himself...

Hibari had to admit, he was surprised.

He did not expect that out of the brunet herbivore.

The clumsy herbivore had dodged all of Sasagawa Ryohei's punches, gracefully.

The prefect smirked. The herbivore has more potential than I thought.

He saw, out of the corner of his eye, the herbivore had collapsed.

Hibari sighed. He could tell that the brunet had pushed himself over his limits. He had to give it to him for not fainting until then, though.

The skylark smirked.

He looks forward to the boy's progression.

"Oyasumi, Byakuran-san, Yuni."

"Oyasumi!"

"Alright, oyasumi, you two."

"Byaku-nii, aren't you going to sleep?" asked Yuni.

"Not just yet," answered Byakuran. "I'm just going to make a call to an aquaintance of mine."

"I-Is that so?" Tsunayoshi muttered. "Alright..." The brunet nodded off.

Yuni cuddled by Tsunayoshi and fell asleep as well.

Byakuran smiled a little, then tapped the number he had memorized in his head.

Putting the phone to his ear, he heard it beep before the sound that signified the man had picked up the phone rung.

"Ciao, Byakuran," a deep, baritone voice greeted in Italian.

"Ciao," the teen greeted back, and the man on the receiving end of the line could just see his trademark smile.

"What brings you to call me?" the man questioned.

"Well," he started. "I was wondering if you could send Mukuro here..."

"B-Byakuran-san, w-why a-are we going t-t-t-to the a-airport?" Tsuna stuttered as he and the albino walked to the aforementioned location. Takeshi and Yuni were elsewhere; apparently they wanted to go to the zoo. They wanted Tsuna and Byakuran to come as well, but Byakuran declined, stating that he wants to bring Tsuna to the airport for something.

Byakuran only smiled cheerfully in response.

"D-Does it h-h-have something t-to d-d-do w-with t-the c-c-call y-you m-made last M-M-Monday?" the brunet prodded.

"Spot on, Tsunayoshi-kun!" Byakuran agreed.

"W-wait, d-does that m-m-mean w-we're going t-to m-m-meet someone a-at the a-a-airport?" asked Tsuna.

"Yup!" the teen grinned.

Who could it be? he thought. Could he be like Byakuran?

"S-someone like Byakuran?" Tsuna muttered when he thought that up. While Byakuran is nice and one of the first to not think of him as useless, the marshmallow lover's still downright creepy and Tsuna doesn't know if he can handle someone just like him.

"Yes?" Tsuna was pulled out of his thoughts.

"N-Nothing," said Tsuna.

"Okay!" the albino said cheerfully. "Come on, let's go!"

Byakuran suddenly grabbed Tsuna's wrist and started running.

"S-Slow down!" the brunet exclaimed as he ran faster to keep up with his friend.

A few minutes later, Tsuna found himself slumping at the entrance of the airport, taking deep breaths.

"B-Byakuran-san... Y-You didn't h-h-have t-to run t-that fast..." Tsuna panted weakly.

The albino blatantly ignored him, instead choosing to look at his watch.

"Hm..." The teen observed the time thoughtfully. "C'mon, they'll arrive soon!"

"E-Eh?" Tsuna was pulled onto his feet.

"Let's hurry!" Byakuran whined.

"H-hai..." said Tsuna as he was pulled into the airport-

And the next thing he knew, the brunet had crashed smack into someone. The brunet fell, rubbing his head.

"Ite..." Tsuna groaned. He looked up to see a boy with indigo-colored hair in a pineapple spike.

"G-Gomen," he apologized as he got back up.

"Ah, hello!" Byakuran greeted the boy.

"Byakuran-san," the boy greeted curtly.

Tsuna blinked. "A-Ano, Byakuran-s-san, d-do you know this person?"

"Hai," Byakuran affirmed.

"Oh?" A man with tan skin and spiked-out slick black hair raised an eyebrow. "Who may this be, Byakuran?"

Tsuna blinked. The man had spoken in a different language, so Tsuna didn't understand what he said.

"This is my friend and surrogate brother, Tsunayoshi Sawada," said Byakuran, gesturing to Tsuna. The brunet blinked.

Tsuna gazed at the people before him. "U-Um..."

"Well, Tsuna," Byakuran chirped cheerfully. "These two are acquaintances of mine from Italy."

The boy with the pineapple hairstyle smirked.

"Meet Rokudo Mukuro and Draghi Lancia. They'll be staying in Namimori for a while."

Tsuna blinked.

E-EEEEEEHHHH?!

"Oh, and over there's my favorite restaurant- Waiter-san is a nice man, really -and that's-"

Mukuro nodded as he looked around, wondering why he agreed to this in the first place.

Oh, right.

Because he was wondering why in the six hells is Byakuran in Japan of all places and why exactly does he want him there.

The illusionist was curious, so he went along with it and left Ken and Chikusa in Italy. He'll come back later- as manipulative as he is, he actually does care about them as much as he'd like to deny it- but he wanted to quench his curiosity and, because eleven year olds can't go on public airplanes by themselves, went with Lancia.

He was quite surprised when he found that the albino was hanging around with a brunet with large, doe-like caramel brown eyes and the fluffiest hair he had ever felt.

... He just had to touch it, alright?

Moving on (R-Rokudo-san, w-w-why are you ruffling my hair?""Kufufufu... No reason in particular."), he's not sure why Byakuran is hanging around with a child who trips on his own two feet and stutters all the time. There was absolutely nothing impressive about him at all.

"-where Takeshi-kun lives. Mukuro-kun, are you listening?"

Mukuro blinked as Byakuran started to wave a hand in front of his face. He slapped it away.

"There's no need to wave a hand in front of my face, Byakuran-san," stated Mukuro politely. "I was just... Daydreaming."

The albino blinked. "Oh. Alright then, let's move-"

He was promptly interrupted.

"Yo, Byakuran!" A boy with raven black hair called out, running towards him along with a little girl with green hair. As they got closer, Mukuro realized the girl was Yuni, Byakuran's current charge.

"Ah, Takeshi-kun!" Sawada smiled.

"Ara." Byakuran smiled cheerfully. "Takeshi-kun, I thought you and Yuni-chan were at the zoo?"

"We were," said Yuni. "But it got too boring without you and Tsuna-nii!"

Sawada blushes, scratching the back of his head as Byakuran laughs.

"Sou ka? Then come with us, both of you," he suggested. "Mukuro-kun, Lancia-san, this is Yamamoto Takeshi, and I believe that I have introduced you both to Yuni before."

"Nice to meet you, Yamamoto-kun," said Lancia, crouching down to meet Yamamoto's eyes. "It's been a while, Yuni."

"I think you should speak in Japanese, Lancia-san." Yuni twiddled her fingers. "Tsuna-nii and Takeshi-nii don't know Italian, and Byaku-nii and I always talk in Japanese, even before this!"

"If you insist," Lancia chuckled. Mukuro blinked, and turned to Byakuran. "You and Yuni speak in Japanese with each other?" he asked incredulously.

"I encourage it," answered Byakuran, amusement clearly evident in his voice. "You should really speak in Japanese here too, Mukuro-kun!"

Mukuro rolled his eyes.

"Hey, that's not very nice~" said Byakuran, a mixture of singsong and mock offence in his tone.

"A-ano..." Sawada interrupted. "Shouldn't w-we m-m-move o-on now?"

"True," Lancia agreed. "Come on, Mukuro."

"Hai, Lancia-sempai," he agreed as they all walked along-

Groan~

-only to be stopped by a rather loud noise.

"... Ahaha," Yamamoto laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "That was me... I guess all that running around made me hungry!"

"Oh, really?" Byakuran raised an eyebrow. "Now that I think about it, I'm rather hungry myself. Why don't we go to that restaurant again?"

A faint grumbling sound came from Yuni. She blushed.

"... I guess," she agreed.

"I-I guess we could go there," Sawada mumbled. "It's nearing lunch time..."

"Then come on!" the albino promptly hoisted the boy over his shoulder.

"E-Eh?!" the brunet squeaked.

Mukuro couldn't help but burst out laughing as Byakuran walked over to the restaurant, carrying Sawada as he helplessly dangled from over the albino's shoulder.

It's more shorter than I would have liked, but I decided that I put you off. Anyway, that's part one for you, so...

I'm just going to warn you, since Chapter One wasn't really much of a warning, I'm more of a reader than a writer. Don't worry, I'll still update it, but I'm going to admit head-on; The Deceiving Mist is a wild card. I don't exactly know how to do a few scenes, and the way the layout is right now is sort of hard to direct where to go, what to ask, and such. I should just post that my update for this story- along with any others that I might have- are all erratic. Maybe I'll go on update streak like the previous seven chapters or maybe it'll take me one, two, who-knows-how-many months to update.

Also, another reason why I decided to cut it short is because school is starting tomorrow. Yeah... :x I'm anticipating tomorrow, and yet I feel 'meh'. ... What is wrong with me?

Anywho, some parts were written very slowly, bit by bit, but today I somehow got the same rush I did for the other seven chapters and wrote by whim. It didn't last long though when I tried to imagine how the restaurant scene would work out. Where was this rush the entire holiday?!

I want to do a Waiter-san omake sooooooo baaaaad, but I can't because I haven't reached the restaurant yet :x

Also, I had an amazing plot bunny a little while back. A crossover, and I'm so shocked no one thought of it before it's been on my mind for I-don't-even-know-how-long. I planned on adding it to the plot bunny heap, but the idea's so awesome I can't help but want to claim it for myself. It's original, it's unique, and most importantly it's not even a twist on a cliché like this one. I'd love to spoil the entire plot, dears, but that isn't really fair game now is it? xD

I think someone had offered me help in a review. I'm going to check on that after this.

Last but not least, look out for Yoake, Yugure which I can't confirm which fandom it'll be in just yet!