A/N: I'M BACK! Okay, not really. But I thought I ought to give you guys a Christmas present. Happy holidays! Sorry it's so short.
It was nearly midnight when Kyoya woke up.
Not that that made a difference... Tsuna hadn't gotten much sleep waiting for Kyoya to wake up.
"...Omnivore?" Though his voice was cool, Tsuna could see the confusion flicker over Kyoya's features for a second. Coughing slightly, Kyoya sat up and pressed his fingers against the place where he had been shot. "What..." Kyoya shook his head, closing his eyes only for a second before his features hardened into cool apathy. "Report what happened."
"You were hit with a time bullet." Tsuna shrugged. "I think that it was something the Bovino were working on..." His eyes flickered over to where Kyoya had been shot, at the perfect circle in the shirt but the smooth, uninjured skin, and looked away. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get you tangled up in... all this."
"Don't waste time being sorry." Kyoya replied sharply. "Did the others come back with us?"
Tsuna offered him a slow, but hesitant nod. "I think so," He replied, "But I don't really know. I went into town a couple of times, but I didn't see them. There are rumors, though... I heard about someone who was picking fights with people, demanding to know if there was someone who looked like me. I think that's Hayato. They say that there are two others with him, one of them's a girl, and the other one talks more than fights. That's Chrome and either Lambo or Ryohei, I think."
"You think." Kyoya scoffed. "Are you ever sure of anything?"
Tsuna offered Kyoya a wry smile. "Isn't that what i have you for?"
Kyoya pressed his lips together, but didn't respond. "Do you know what time period we're in?" He asked.
Tsuna bit his lip nervously. "...roughly 400 years ago." He replied quietly, glancing away. "When... when Vongola first formed. We're pretty close to the mansion. I've been lying low, because I know that I look similar to Primo, but I don't know..."
Kyoya narrowed his eyes. "Have you done anything, omnivore?" He hissed.
"No." Tsuna shook his head quickly. "I didn't. Not yet. I mean... I won't. Probably."
Kyoya raised an eyebrow.
Tsuna sighed. "I want to just... to get rid of him. It would be so easy, to just kill him, to stop Vongola from ever forming, to stop the darkness..."
"You can't!" Kyoya flinched at the panicked shout that escaped him. "You'll destroy your existence, you'll never have been born, you'll..."
"I know." Tsuna bowed his head and nodded. "I also know that it won't do anything. The mafia will just be led by someone else. You can't stop the darkness from forming. This is like the monkey's paw, no matter what I do, something worse may befall the world."
Kyoya scowled. "That's right. So you're not going to do anything, right?"
Tsuna bit his lower lip, but at Kyoya's raised eyebrow, he admitted. "I've thought about it. I want to stop him, to stop this..."
"You can't!" Kyoya couldn't help the panicked shout that escaped him. "...Omnivore, if you kill him, you'll have never existed."
Tsuna offered Kyoya a wry smile, "Sometimes..." He replied quietly, "I think that it might be worth it."
"It could never be worth it." Kyoya hissed. "If you left, who would help out your Guardians?"
Tsuna flinched. "They're not my guardians." He replied quickly. "That's Vongola's traditions, not mines. And they'll be fine without me. Most of them hate me, anyways. Lambo hates me for taking away Hayato, Takeshi hates me because I'm blackmailing him, Chrome is a wary ally at best, and Ryohei..." He bit his lower lip. "...Ryohei wasn't supposed to get caught up in this darkness. Involving him... I shouldn't have done that."
"You changed them." Kyoya argued, "I don't know how, or when, but they're loyal to you. They care about you."
"No," Tsuna shook his head, eyes lowered. "I can't."
"It doesn't matter," Kyoya pressed his lips together. "They're your famaglia."
"I can't have a famaglia," Tsuna snapped, "And you know it."
Kyoya raised an eyebrow. "I hate the mafia." He finally said. "And I hate crowding. But you... you have a pack." He stood up and turned away. "Don't lie to me, I know that you're going to go find them."
Tsuna was silent, before he finally admitted, "Yeah. I'm going to find them."
"Why?" Kyoya pressed. "Admit it, they're famaglia."
Tsuna shrugged. "They have their own lives." He replied. "I'm still practically a stranger to them."
But he went to try and find them anyways.
Lambo missed his big brothers.
Hayato, and Tsuna (though he would never admit it), and everyone else.
Back at home, he'd dream of them leaving... of the mafia catching them, of being forced back into that cold, apathetic world and he imagined Tsuna screaming for help as Hayato desperately tried to claw his way to him, he imagined screaming to stop but nobody heard him, because nobody ever heard him...
But when he woke up, Stupidera was there, quietly reminding him that he didn't need to keep it in, and Tsu-nii would be there with a warm smile and holding Lambo's hand, promising that Lambo would never ever be alone, and Sushi-nii would laugh and say that he'd beat up all the bad guys.
Ryohei, saying that he was too extreme to be caught, Chrome, creating illusions of a place with princes and blue skies and freedom as she lulled him to sleep, listening to the cloud man on the phone 'tch' and saying that he could be the mafia with his eyes closed.
Gentle reassurances that made it so that Lambo didn't feel as scared anymore and chased away the nightmares.
Except now, they were gone.
Sent to the past by a bullet that his family conceived.
Chased down by the strongest hitman in the world, all promises that he wouldn't be alone turning into lies, cold dark lies that he had always hated, that had given him hope, that had...
"...Lambo? Are you okay?"
It was Sushi-nii, the door open a little as he stuck his head in. "...Sushi-nii?" Lambo choked out, rubbing at his eyes. (He hadn't realized that he'd been crying...) "Lambo-sama is just fine. You're dismissed."
The edges of Sushi-nii's lips turned upwards in a humorless smile, and he replied, "Well, I'm feeling a bit down. Do you mind if I spend the night with you?"
"If you insist." Lambo replied as coolly as he could manage with tears dripping down his cheeks, trying to avoid looking at Sushi-nii. "...What's wrong?"
Sushi-nii's shoulders lifted in a shrug as he closed the door quietly behind him. "Just... just miss the others, I guess." He laughed bitterly. "I hated Tsuna. Hated all he stood for, hated him and Hayato and Chrome and all the others. But now that they're gone..." He shook his head. "Guess it's true, what they say about not truly realizing what you have until you lose it."
"You didn't lose them." Lambo snapped roughly. "We're going to find them. We're going to get them back. We're going to..." His voice cracked, and any word that tried to escape came out as a choked sob. "We're going to find our famaglia."
Sushi-nii's eyes widened. "...Famaglia?" He echoed blankly. "We're... a famaglia?"
Lambo froze as he realized what he had just said. "I... I mean..." His voice wasn't working, his words stuttered as his breathing became shallow and panicked.
No, they weren't a famaglia, they couldn't be, because they weren't mafia, they hated the mafia, would they hate him now that he had said that, would they throw him away, would...
"What is famaglia anyways?" Sushi-nii asked quietly. He had found his way to Lambo's side, a hand rubbing gently against Lambo's back and the other hand offering Lambo a tissue.
"Father always said that famaglia was home." Lambo replied quietly.
"Then what is home?" Sushi-nii pressed.
"I... I don't know." Lambo lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "You don't know? Baka-sushi."
Sushi-nii offered Lambo a gentle smile, and replied, "Home is where you can be as broken as you want, and the people there will still love all the pieces."
"Then are you home?" Lambo asked quietly.
A conflicted expression crossed Sushi-nii's features, and he admitted, "I don't know yet. I feel like it's wrong, but... when I'm with Tsuna, and you guys, I feel like I don't have to worry. Like I'm... I'm someone special, and no matter what, you'll never judge me."
Lambo smiled brightly, and climbed onto Sushi-nii's lap. "Sushi-nii is very special." He agreed, "And I'll always love you."
Sushi-nii ran his fingers through Lambo's hair. "Thanks, little bro." He replied, a warm smile spreading over his features. "I love you, too."
"I didn't say it to hear it back." Lambo replied, oddly, since when he said it he had never meant it before. He had always said it so that someone would say it back, but now... "I said it so that you would know before it was too late."
Sushi-nii pulled Lambo into a hug, burying his face in Lambo's hair as he replied fiercely, "It will never be too late. I'll always be here for you."
And though he knew of all the darkness of the world, and all the sins of the mafia, Lambo couldn't help but believe it.
