Nekko

We were woken up, well I was woken up, by Kusakabe later that afternoon. Apparently, Kyoya had been awake for the past two and a half hours and didn't feel the need to wake me. If Kusakabe hadn't come in I probably would have slept straight through the night until the next morning.

Mieko was also awake. Now, any normal one-year-old would have made enough noise to wake me, seeing as I was a fairly light sleeper. However, Mieko wasn't ordinary. She was a baby with Hibari Kyoya for a father, and she shared his belief that any unnecessary and overly loud noise should be punished.

Yet, what really irritated me was that fact that Tattoos was also there. She came over on the pretense of resting and maybe talking with me a bit. She also didn't feel the need to wake me up. Instead she was conversing in a low voice with Kyoya and playing quietly with Mieko.

So it came to be that I slept for most of the afternoon, and probably would have continued sleeping if Kusakabe did not burst into the room unexpectedly. Fortunately, Kusakabe did enter the room, slamming the door open and panting noisily, earning disapproving glares from both Kyoya and Mieko. I sat up, startled awake by the sudden noise.

"Kyo-pant-san…" it was obvious he had done a lot of running to get here. "Chrome-san is ill… Reborn-san, Sawada, and Bianchi-san are…" Kusakabe broke off panting again.

Not waiting for Kusakabe to finish telling us what he wanted, Kyoya grabbed my hand and began towing me out of the room. I was really surprised, and recovered my senses just in time to turn around and ask Tattoos to stay with Mieko.

Kyoya walked swiftly, and while I was normally able to keep up, I stumbled more than once in my sleepy state. To my surprise we took a detour that led us to Nikko's room. He entered without knocking, ignoring my reproving look. Nikko looked up from the Shonen manga he was reading.

"Follow herbivore." Kyoya turned on his heel almost before he finished speaking. I shrugged at Nikko's questioning glance, already being pulled along again. A few seconds later I heard the pounding of Nikko's feet as he jogged to catch up with us. He walked beside me silently, occasionally glancing at Hibari.

After a while we stopped in front of a door. To my surprise Kusakabe was already there, waiting for us. He must have run all the way back to beat us there. I was pulled out of my speculations by Kyoya handing me a ring. I stared at it blankly for a moment before realizing it was my ring. I immediately slipped it on my finger.

To my surprise Kyoya turned to speak to us.

"We are about to enter one of the medical rooms of the Vongola base. You are going to-"

"Kyo-san, there's no time. Her condition's worsening." Kyoya glared at Kusakabe for interrupting him, but seemed to take heed of what he said. Instead of finishing his explanation he allowed Kusakabe to usher us inside.

My eyes opened wide at the scene in front of me. Tsuna was holding the hand of a girl in a bed, who seemed to be coughing up blood. Bianchi was shouting about missing organs, and Fedora was standing grimly in the corner.

After a quick glance around, I focused on the sick girl. She had purple pineapple hair and an eye patch over her right eye. She was horribly skinny, so much so that her stomach seemed to cave in and her arms were bone. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She seemed so familiar.

I glanced at Nikko next to me. He didn't show any signs of recognizing her. In fact, he seemed rather confused as to why we were there.

I unconsciously took a step forward. Then, realizing what I'd done, I looked to Kyoya. He nodded. I took slow cautious steps forward. As I neared I heard Tsuna talking to her.

"Chrome, stay here! Hold on!" he was shouting at her. I strained my memory as I stared down at her weak figure. No matter how hard I thought, the name Chrome didn't ring a bell.

"Boss… Mukuro-sama…" she whispered. Her voice triggered the memory. I knew exactly who she was, and I couldn't believe it.

I heard myself gasp, and my hand flew to my mouth. My eyes welled up with tears. Nikko, who had followed me to the bed, looked up surprised.

"N-nagi…" I managed to whisper before I broke down crying.

Ten-Year-Earlier Hibari

I glared at the herbivores in the hallway as I passed. They all stepped out of my way. It pissed me off how well behaved they had been lately. It gave me no one to bite death, and I really wanted to bite someone to death.

They were dead quiet. Everyone was standing by themselves, and couldn't be considered crowding. Everyone was following the dress code, uniforms perfectly aligned, right down to the last straight tie. Everyone also seemed particularly scared of me, which I supposed was due to the fact I had been even more ruthless recently when biting herbivores to death.

I was very irritable lately. Not only had Infant, Kitten, and Kitten's herbivore disappeared, now Sawada and most of his herbivore group was gone as well. It seemed likely they had all disappeared because of that purple bazooka.

I considered returning to the cow herbivore, who had possession of the bazooka, but that would be involving myself with his herbivorous group. That was something I didn't want to do.

I reached my office and sat down at my desk, looking out the window. From there I had a clear view of the students arriving early, and view of the street. I was lost in thought when I noticed a red haired boy being bullied at the front of the school.

I didn't recognize him as a student at Namimori. He was wearing a school uniform I recognized from a different school. The bike that lay next to him gave me the impression he was on his way to school when he was knocked down.

I realize that this would be a chance to bite people to death. I opened my window wide, then, already pulling out my tonfas, jumped out it. I walked quickly towards the front gate. The ruffians, which were facing the school, and saw me coming, panicked and ran away.

I decided I'd bite them to death later. I turned to the red-headed, bespectacled herbivore. He was straightening his glasses, picking up his things. All his pencils, books, paper, etc., littered the ground. I watched silently as he shoved his things back into his bag.

Finally he had cleared up all the school things covering the floor, and I gripped my tonfas tighter, preparing to bite him to death. But the herbivore was doing something rather odd: he was looking around, as if he's misplaced something.

Then, quite suddenly, he lunged, landing several feet to his left. When he sat back up, he was cradling something in his arms. He turned around to walk back to his bag, allowing me to view what he was clutching to his chest. It was a purple bazooka, just like the one that had caused Koneko and her herbivore to vanish.

I smirked at the herbivore, which seemed to have noticed me for the first time. I raised my tonfas. It was going to be fun biting the herbivore to death.

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the weapon on my desk. The herbivore hadn't known what it was. He refused to tell me where he'd gotten it and why he was carrying it around. Before I knew it I'd wacked him with my tonfa out of irritation and he was out cold. He really was an herbivore.

So now I was back in my office, with the bazooka, and no clue as to what to do with it.

The logical thing was to fire it at someone, and watch what happened. However, it would be really idiotic to fire it at myself. Firing it at a random person could cause trouble, more trouble than I could fix easily with my tonfas.

Suddenly, two members of the committee burst into the room, annoyingly noisy. They were talking loudly to each other, about some herbivore they'd bitten to death. They stopped dead when they realized I was in the room. They were stupid herbivores. How could they not expect me to be there; it was my office.

"H-Hibari-sama! W-We didn't see you there," one of them stuttered. They both flinched when I stood up. This was the perfect opportunity. The weapon could be used to discipline them.

"You are disturbing the peace. You must be punished." They trembled in fear as I approached them with the bazooka. When I was a few feet away, I stopped, surprising them by suddenly firing the weapon.

When the pink smoke cleared, I discovered two men in their places. I recognized them immediately as the ones I'd just shot, but they looked oddly older. They were filthy and sweating. Each of them was holding a katana and covered in dirt and blood. The men glanced around, taking in their surroundings.

"We're back in the old reception room…" one of them muttered to the other.

"Yeah… and Hibari-san is here. This is when we were part of the Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee." The other replied, looking me up and down. After that they muttered incoherently to each other some more.

These herbivores were acting very strangely. I readied my tonfas; they might be necessary to extract answers from these old herbivores. As I began approaching there was a sudden poof, and they were replaced by their former selves.

The two middle-schoolers, wide eyed and incoherently jabbering picked themselves up. Suddenly one of them lunged for the bazooka I'd abandoned, now lying on the ground. He looked slightly delirious and utterly horrified. He pointed it at me, obviously not understanding what was going on.

Nekko

"N-Nagi… I thought- I thought you were dead!" I cried, grasping her free hand. Her eyes twitched feebly to my face.

"Nekko…Mukuro…sa...ma…" she whispered, before she lost consciousness, her head lolling to the side.

"NAGI!" I screeched, at the same time Tsuna yelled, "CHROME!"

Suddenly Kyoya was by my side, whispering to me, "Make her draw out the power of her Vongola ring. She has to create illusions for herself or she'll die." I didn't fully comprehend the situation, but I grasped the gist of it.

"Nagi! Stay here, you have to stay here for me, and Nikko, and…Mukuro-sama!" I shouted, clutching at the name she kept repeating. "Use your illusions."

"I…can't. Mukuro-sama is…" she said, regaining consciousness.

"You don't need him! You've got yourself, and me. I'm here for you this time." I lit the mist flame on my ring. Like this Nagi," I showed her, waving the flame in front of her face. "Like this. Just think of what you really want to do and what you're willing to fight for."

"Mukuro-sama…"

Her persistence was starting to irritate me.

"Fine! You want to help Mukuro-whoever, right? Well, you can't do that if you die!" There was no way I was going to lose her again. "Focus all your determination into that ring and make those illusions!"

Suddenly there was a faint glowing around her ring, and her abdomen seemed to be filling in.

"Hnn… that seems to be the best she can do." I turned to find Kyoya speaking. "Her organs haven't completely reformed though." I grasped Nagi's hand hard, pouring my own mist flames into her. Now, not only was her stomach nice and filled out, but there was a decent amount of meat on her bones. Just enough so that she didn't look like a toothpick, but was still enviously thin.

"Nagi?" I gently prodded her with my finger. Hey eyes fluttered open.

"N-Nekko? Where am I? What are you doing here?"

"That's what I should be asking you! Nagi… your mother… she said… you… I heard you died! But, that was months ago, and now we're in the future… and… how do you know Tsuna!"

Nagi appeared confused and distinctly flustered. She wasn't the only one. I was brimming with emotions, questions. She looked around at the sound of Tsuna's name. When she spotted him she called out hesitantly, "B-Boss?"

Tsuna, who was being ushered out be Kusakabe, looked up. "Chrome! I … am…confused." Tsuna looked genuinely worried about Nagi, though he still resolutely called her by that wrong name.

Turning to Kusakabe I said, "Let him stay. I have some questions for him too. In fact, I think I'll start with him." I smiled evilly at Tsuna. He nervously walked over. Bianchi appeared carrying chairs, and we all sat down, with the exception of Kusakabe who went outside to guard the door.

I turned to Nagi and then to Tsuna. "How do you two know each other?" Nagi avoided my eyes, so I stared determinedly at Tsuna until he took a deep breath and began to speak.

He explained about the Vongola ring battles. They hadn't known who the mist guardian was, but they expected a person named Rokudo Mukuro to show up, and had been surprised when Chrome showed up. Then when Chrome started losing, Mukuro showed up in her body and saved the day. He explained what Reborn had told them about not considering them different people.

The whole time he spoke he shot hesitant glances at Nagi, as if unsure whether he was saying too much. When he finished he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "And that's how I came to know Chrome Dokuro. Now she shares the title of Mist Guardian with Rokudo Mukuro."

It was obvious from the look in his eyes he wanted an explanation from me too, but I ignored him for now. I was shocked by what I'd heard from Tsuna, and I wanted to hear the story from Nagi's point of view. I turned to her.

"Nagi, is that true? Why wouldn't you tell me? When that woman called to say you'd died… I couldn't believe it. I was so depressed. All I could think was that you'd lived an unhappy life because I hadn't contacted you often enough. But now Tsuna's telling me you've been running around in the mafia with fake organs and under an alias… I don't know what to think." I couldn't stop a couple of tears from leaking out. "I'm just so happy you're alive!"

Both Tsuna and Nikko looked at me curiously, but when Nagi looked up she seemed ashamed. She took a great deep shuddering breath before speaking.

"N-Nekko… When I got in that accident, mother was going to let me die." I nodded grimly: it didn't come as a surprise. In fact, it was more expected. "But then Mukuro-sama appeared, and he saved my life. So I followed him. I've done what he's asked and stayed where he's told me too. I didn't know where you'd gone, you weren't in America anymore. I just wanted to tell you I was safe; I didn't know what mother had told you. I thought she'd just say I disappeared. I'm sorry, Nekko." Her eye was brimming with tears when she finished her speech.

"Shh… It's alright, I don't blame you. But…" I was about to question her about Mukuro, but I realized this would be a very stupid thing to do. Tsuna had left the impression that Mukuro wasn't a very nice person, but Nagi obviously cared about him. The fact that his illusions disappeared obviously meant something had happened to him, something I didn't want to bring back to Nagi's attention now that she was distracted. I made a mental note to question Kyoya about him later.

"Our parents dumped us in Japan, where we met Tsuna. So we've joined his family, but after a couple months we were somehow sent to the future, which is where we are now. I have no idea how you got here." I wondered if Nikko picked up on the way I used we.

Now that I knew why Nagi was there I turned to Tsuna, daring him to ask. He looked down nervously. To my surprise, Nikko asked instead.

"Umm… Nekko, how do we know uhh… Nagi… Chrome…?" His voice was a whisper, discreet, as if it was something he should've known. I stared at him confused by his question, and then I realized Nikko was too young to remember. I turned my body so I was facing both Tsuna and Nikko.

"Nagi is our cousin on our mother's side." I smiled broadly at the astonished look on Tsuna's face, and the contemplating look on Nikko's. Hibari obviously already knew this, so he was looking completely bored.

"But-but… I thought Chrome was Italian!" Tsuna nearly shouted. I rolled my eyes at him.

"She is. Chrome is half Italian on her father's side. But our mothers were born in America. My father is Japanese. So we," I gestured to Nikko and myself, "are half Japanese half American. Chrome is half Italian half American. Get it?"

Tsuna seemed determined to reject the fact that "Chrome" and I were related. "How come Nikko doesn't know Chrome?"

At this point Nikko looked up; though I was sure he already knew the answer to the question. I smiled sadly.

"He does, he just doesn't remember her. He's only been to Italy once, and he's too young to remember it. I, on the other hand, have met Nagi twice, and I remember both occasions full well. She was just like me, parents who didn't care about her, lonely… but I had Nikko and she didn't. I did my best to keep in touch with her, but it was hard. And then, one day, shortly before we met you, her mother called to say she had died. Got in a car accident and died in the hospital; there was nothing they could do." I stared at Nagi as I spoke, frowning at the memories.

After we convinced Tsuna, we all sat around just chatting. Of course, the only ones talking were Nikko, Tsuna and I. Hibari found speaking below him, Nagi was too shy to speak, and Reborn and Bianchi had disappeared to tell the others Nagi was okay.

When Nagi finally fell asleep we decided to leave so she could rest properly. Kyoya pulled me off my chair, his arm winding its way around my waist. Nikko rolled his eyes but said nothing as he led the way to the door. As we followed him I turned my head to get a last glimpse of Tsuna.

He was standing, staring down at Nagi solemnly. He had been rather cheerful during our conversation, but it wasn't hard to tell he had something on his mind. Now he stood, deep in thought, and I felt a rush of affection for him (sisterly affection of course) along with the urge to comfort him. Suddenly I remembered my promise to myself to give Tsuna a big hug.

I winked at Kyoya as I slipped away from him. I crept up behind the unsuspecting Tsuna, and before he could notice anything, I flung myself on him.

"HIEE!"

Tsuna was frozen stiff as he felt my arms wrap around his thin waist.

"N-n-Nekko-san… what are you doing?"

"Thanking you." I released him and stepped in front of him Thankfully he was still frozen stiff from shock and didn't even think of dodging as I jumped at him to give him a proper hug. He hesitantly, very hesitantly, and awkwardly put his hands on my back. "Thanks, for everything."

Just as I was about to pull away from the hug there was a poof and smoke filled the room. I froze, afraid of moving through the haze. As it began clearing (largely due to the fact Nikko had the good sense to open the door) I peered around to look for the source. As I looked over Tsuna's shoulder, my eyes stopped on a figure near the door. Hibari. He was still there, perfectly unharmed, but he was standing there in all his 15-year-old, middle school glory.

Still gawking in shock, I detached myself from Tsuna and took a step towards him. I found myself hesitant to approach. Kyoya was emitting a deadly, evil, violent aura. While he was showing no outward signs of it, the air around him was heavy with it. There was nothing in his expression to suggest it, but it felt like he was pushing me back.

"Kyoya…" I whimpered. I could barely hear myself. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Kyoya." I took several steps forward, making as if I were to place a hand on his shoulder. I was trying to ignore the harsh atmosphere, pretend it wasn't directed at me, but I was failing.

Just before my hand made contact with him there was a flash of movement. I was forced to jump back to avoid a tonfa driven with enough force to break my hand. I didn't say anything, but I heard Nikko cry out in outrage. I glared at him before he found the words to criticize Hibari and forfeit our right to live.

Before I turned back to Hibari I heard him speak.

"Chi. You've been hiding with herbivores and that illusionist's puppet, have you?" His voice betrayed no emotion. I found so many things wrong with what he said, and the way he said it, I completely forgot I was trying to calm him down.

"Excuse me? They have names. And Nagi is no illusionist's puppet."

"Regardless, she's an illusionist. Illusionists are lying scum who don't deserve names." His voice was ice. It felt like a scorching hot slap in the face though.

"They are, aren't they?" I felt my face morph into a smile even though I was in no way happy. "Of course, if you are following that philosophy, most of the people in this room must be scum to you. Nagi is scum to you. Nikko is scum to you. I'm scum to you." Here I lit my mist flame and waved in his face. The only reaction I got was even more hardening of his already stone face. "Are you sure you want to stick with that?"

"I maintain my view of illusionists." I was positively glaring now. "Everyone you just named is a perfect example of the trash illusionists are." My hand twitched; it wanted to slap him so bad. I lost control of my calmly threateningly sweet voice.

"How can you say that? That's my family! That's your-"I shouted angrily before his voice cut over mine.

"Be quiet. You're disturbing the peace. "

"I don't care! Why are you-"he cut me off yet again.

"If you don't follow orders I'll have to discipline you."

He obviously believed he was in charge here, which he might have been, if I wasn't pissed off.

"I'd like to see you try." I sneered.

A tonfa flew out from nowhere. If I hadn't trained with his older self I'd have been in trouble, but now that tonfa didn't have a chance. I jumped back, and then not even pausing to think as I shoved my ring into my box. My knife leapt into my hand, charged full of lightning's hard flames. I slashed down and half of Kyoya's tonfa clattered to the floor.

He froze.

"This isn't your territory. You don't make the rules and you don't enforce them." Then because I knew it would piss him off I added, "Tsuna does."

I could tell Tsuna was about to interrupt and deny all responsibility, but Nikko shot him a look for me. I would have done it myself but I was too busy glaring at Hibari, who had finally showed some emotion. Shock broke through his mask, quickly disguised with anger.

"Of course. That pathetic herbivore means everything to you doesn't he?" his eyes traveled down to the delicate ring resting on my hand.

That was when I really realized it. The idiot was jealous. He didn't trust me. How could I have been through all that with/and/for him and he still didn't trust me? So that was what he really thought of me.

I'd never doubted him. Not even when he dragged me to see some girl I didn't know. Of course that ended up being more for my benefit then his, but I hadn't known that at the time. I trusted him wholly, because that's what couples are supposed to do. We couldn't be together if we didn't trust each other…He didn't trust me…

"I see you've noticed my ring," I commented, slipping it off my finger, as if to get a better look at it. "Tsuna didn't give it to me, if that's what you're thinking." He blinked and looked away indifferently. "You know," I started, conversationally, "when I first met the guy who gave me this ring, I didn't like him. In fact, I hated him. But, Nikko convinced me to give him a second chance, and I ended up liking him, loving him even. But somehow he ended up in Nikko's bad books."

I looked down at the ring I was twirling in my fingers. I wanted to keep my voice indifferent, as if this story was meaningless. That wasn't going to happen if I saw his face.

"So I had to struggle to keep my family together. I had to, if not for me then for…" I didn't finish that sentence. It hurt too much. I took a breath before restarting. "In the end I convinced Nikko to give him a second chance too, and it all worked out. But it was all for nothing."

Here I glanced up sharply. "Because we were wrong. He's an untrusting, jealous… jerk, and I was right to hate him. First impressions are usually right, aren't they? He's never been especially nice or kind but now he's gone too far. He really believes that I could leave him for another person, regardless of the perfect family I already have, and how clear I've made it I love him." Inhale. "The point is I'm not going to him. I'm not going to try and coax, persuade, or even talk to him. And… I know he's not going to be the one to apologize."

It hurt to say that but I knew it was true. He might overlook some minor things, but for an error as huge as this one, I was sure his pride would interfere.

"So… I guess, this is the end for us, no matter how much it hurts." My mind agonizingly flashed to Mieko, but I forced myself to continue. I looked up, my eyes piercing his. "Good bye, Kyoya." I dropped the ring on the floor, turning away, afraid to see his expression as he put my speech and actions together.

I knew that if he made any move to stop me I would surrender immediately, but I didn't want to. He wasn't right. He didn't trust me. I could never be with someone who doesn't trust me. Someone who considered my feelings for him so insignificant I could just get up and leave

I walked as quickly towards the door, hoping that I'd leave all these horrible feelings behind when I walked through it. This anguish and misery. I was the one leaving him, but I felt as if I were struggling as someone dragged me away, and he was doing nothing to stop it.

I stopped at the door, spinning around bending in the same movement so I was bowing at the room.

"I'll be leaving now. Please get well Nagi." My cousin had woken in all the commotion.

"N-Nekko…"

"When you feel well enough, I'd like you to move into our side of the base." Technically it was Hibari's, but I'd grown accustom to living there, since I'd spent most of my time there. He, on the other hand, had never set foot in there. He couldn't miss what he'd never had.

I turned to Kusakabe, my eyes carefully avoiding Hibari. I desperately wanted to leave the room, but this had to be said first. Kusakabe was glancing between me and Hibari, torn.

"I'd understand," was all I said, before I turned and walked out of the room as quickly as I possibly could.

I was barely out of the room before the tears started flowing. I felt like an idiot. I'd done this to myself.

I'd climbed onto a cloud, hoping it was solid enough to hold my weight as I floated through a beautifully blue, perfect sky. But now I realized it wasn't anything more than thin vapor, pretending to be solid and reliable. I'd fallen through and hit the ground, and it hurt like hell. But it was all my fault.

So, like, how many people were expecting this? I know this is pretty weird, especially the Chrome bit, and I can't find a reason for it to be there, but this is my story so I can't complain.

Before you guys start hating on Nekko, saying she overreacted, please remember she's got abandonment issues she's struggled to overcome. She doesn't want to be the one dumped again.

I know it took a long time for me to the post this. I've had everything written for ages, everything except the ending fight scene. It didn't come out at all like I wanted it to, but I've made you guys wait too long already.

For those of you that haven't noticed, this is almost a thousand words longer than my last chapter. That's roughly 8 times my first chapter(not including A/N) . I know that as the story has progressed I've taken longer and longer to update. But the chapters have gotten longer, so I hope that makes up for it a little.

I'd also like to apologize for typos and mistakes in grammar. I don't really proofread these. Feel free to point anything out and/or criticize.

Thanks for all the reviews I've gotten. As well as all the alerts and favorites. They mean a lot to me. I hope you enjoyed! I'll try and get the next chapter out quicker.

Thanks for reading! R&R please. All flames, criticism, praise, everything is welcome.