Nico: I'm back! Sorry for not updating last Wednesday, I was busy with appointments.

Anyways, please enjoy!

I STILL DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN!

The Calm After the Storm

"Turning and Churning."

"Squalo...?"

I blinked. He blinked back.

"Keith," I finally spoke. "I...I..."

"What's wrong, Keith?" A woman's voice came. Then a woman walked up from behind Keith. She had strange green hair, which was neatly cut to rest on her shoulders. Her irises were a dazzling green, so much that her pupil almost seemed out of place.

"Oh." She noticed me. "Are you a friend of Keith? Squalo was it?"

"Yes..." I said.

"Would you like to come in, it's raining rather hard tonight," the woman smiled. I nodded and walked in. The house was lit with candles all around. It was a small house, smaller than the mine.

"We were about to have a quick snack together, would you care to join us?" the woman asked. She had a very kind voice, and was very polite. I simply nodded. She smiled in response then turned to Keith with the same smile. "Keith, why don't you go introduce your friend to the others? I'm sure it would brighten up the mood."

"Mm! Okay!" Keith took my hand and tugged me away. Then he looked back at me. "You sure surprised me, Squalo! I didn't know you knew where I lived."

"I...yeah, I didn't," Squalo said. "Lucky guess. But...is this really your foster home...?"

"What were you expecting, stone walls and iron bars?" Keith joked.

"Voi, yeah, something like that," I pulled off a smile. Keith giggled than he opened a door to a bedroom. There were three beds, all carefully made. By the beds playing cards were two other boys. Both were younger than us, and both seemed to be the same age. One wore a medical mask and a beanie over his head. The other was covered with bandages. Both had auburn hair, although the one with the beanie seemed to be of a darker hue. The one with bandages had irises that matched his eyes, while as the one with the beanie had eyes as cold as the knife I used.

"Vsevolod, Xerxes, this is my friend Squalo, he's going to be staying with us tonight," Keith smiled. Then he turned to face me. "Vsevolod is the boy with the beanie. He's really smart, but gets sick often."

"Last card," Vsevolod spoke, his voice was slightly muffled by the medical mask. Then the other boy, Xerxes, grabbed eight cards from the deck and placed them into his hand. Vsevolod seemed to ignore my presence.

"And this is Xerxes, he's really quiet and gets bullied often," Keith patted Xerxes' head. Xerxes looked up at me, his eyes were deep and seemed to cry out "I'm scared."

"Boys! It's time for a snack before bed!" the woman's voice called. The four of us walked to the room before, me being the last to enter. The snack was small, but since it was before sleep, it was understandable.

"Uh..." I tried break the ice. "Are you two...brothers?" I had to ask. There was something about the Vsevolod and Xerxes that wasn't right. One was physically weak, and the other was a weakling. One was just plain freaky, and the other looked like a beaten up dog on the side of the road. They seemed like complete opposites, but then again, Avarice and I were too.

"So you've noticed," Vsevolod smirked, he had taken off his mask to eat. "We're fraternal twins." One would think it would be nice to be noticed finally, but the expression on his face made me wish I had not spoken at all. His hair was long and covered the left side of his face, his beanie covered the upper half of his right face, but not his right eye. With the smirk on his face one would think he was dead and had just come back alive, finding the perfect prey to devour.

"Xerxes is older though," he finally said. I almost choked. If anything, I thought Vsevolod would be older. Xerxes had a sad expression. Something that screamed "Please don't hurt me...I'll give you my lunch money..." His head was always lowered so that the lower half of his face was covered by his jacket. His eyebrows were arched downwards in discomfort. His hands stayed in the jacket sleeves, only his finger tips poked out to hold his cup.

"Voi...you're serious?" I asked. Vsevolod and Xerxes nodded, at the same time...that was freaky.

After the snack we all returned to the bedroom. I had learned that the woman was named Celeste, and that she had recently gotten engaged. The foster home they lived in was this "new housing plan"(1) for the orphans. The plan was for three to four orphans to live in the same house together, with one or two guardians to take care of them. This way, all the orphans receive equal nurturing and care from their guardian or guardians, and they eventually learn to be a bit more independent in their own home. Celeste takes care of the house, along with the three boys, and often her fiance comes around to play with the boys. Vsevolod and Xerxes are both five years old, their mother died giving birth to them, and their father is in a mental hospital. Keith's parents have apparently disappeared from the face of the earth.

"And me, I've killed my father and have run away from home," I said. I was in the washroom, looking into the mirror and talking to Esther.

"You don't have to sound so pessimistic," Esther said. Everyone else had fallen asleep, but I couldn't. Too much had happened this day, and I couldn't close my eyes for a second without seeing the blood. "I mean sure, it's a lot to take in, and yes it is not a good thing to do, but...what's done is done."

"Why did you take me here? Did you know that this was Keith's house?" I asked. It was sort of awkward talking to Esther. I couldn't see her, unless I looked into a reflective surface. When I did see her, I saw myself too, like I was talking to my twin and her.

"I took you here because I have a bad feeling," Esther said. "You father worked under the ninth Vongola, once they find out he's dead, the Vongola are going to search high and low. Luckily, you didn't leave a trace of evidence. Except, you left the body."

"What do you want me to do? Dump him into the ocean? Bury him in sand?"

"Well you can't go back out there anyway," Esther interrupted me. "The Vongola are going to search your house and when they find out you're missing, they're going to look for you too."

"So you're saying...I should run from village to village, living under some crack name like Fred McBobbert(2)?"

"No..." I heard Esther chuckle. "What I'm saying is, you'll have to prepare an escape route. Your mother and sister might know of your friendship with Keith, and they'll target the orphanages then. They'll find Keith in the database, find his house, and you. You have to be prepared to run before they discover this, if not, Keith and the entire household will suffer."

I didn't want to cause Keith trouble. He was my only friend. I looked into the mirror, at me, at Esther. "So all I have to do is run?"

"Yeah, the sooner the better," Esther said. "You'll...probably never see Keith again, either way."

I cringed at her words. Did she have to make them sound so cold? "Where do I run to now then?"

"I'm not even sure," Esther said.

"You're my guardian aren't you?" I asked.

"I am your guardian, but that doesn't make me a being of infinite knowledge," Esther said. "I'm just a soul who has made past mistakes, and to repent I have to guide one living soul."

"So...you're dead?"

"Technically yes, but I'm not allowed to completely go until I've guided you," Esther said. "But enough about me, we need to think up of a plan. Personally, if it were me, would turn myself in but you...you're still young, and there are great things ahead of you in life."

"Yeah? Like what?" I scoffed.

"That's for you to discover," Esther said. "And if you're anything but your little sister, you'd best get up and keep walking towards them. I've watched over you for ten years, Squalo, and I've come to know you're not one to rely on others like your sister. That's why I want you to keep walking Squalo. Just because there are bumps on the road, and you fall, do you stand there and cry like some wuss?"

I stared at her. She was awaiting my answer. "Of course not."

"Exactly! You're stronger than that! You don't need to wait for someone to come by and pick you back up. You don't need to sit there and cry. You fall down, you get yourself back up and walk! Because that's the kind of prideful ten-year old you are!"

"Esther..."

"But you're not alone," Esther said. "You have Keith and me. Even if you'll have to run and leave Keith, you'll be together in spirit, and in heart."

The guardian in the mirror was smiling, and I knew that her smile was real.

I knew, that I could trust her.

"Turning and Churning."

"When everything's burning,"

"I think I might be crazy,"

"Everything's going hazy..."

Nico: Sorry again for skipping last week, I posted this one early to make it up.

Plus, today is my birthday, so I really rushed the passed two days to finish this chapter. I'm really happy there are people reading this story, not many people have read my work, and it's really nice to have so many readers! Thank you! I will continue to work hard!

A couple notes:

1. The new housing plan was actually based off this new housing plan for special needs kids. In my life I spend a lot of time around special needs children and one day I found out about this new housing plan. Its a plan for special needs kids when their parents have grown too old to take care of them, I thought it might work for orphans too.

2. Fred McBobbert is not exactly my OC, it's my friend's. Fred McBobbert was a name he made up as an alias for himself, all of my friends found it funny. One day he came over to my house and we played Sims 2 on the gamecube, he created a sim with a purple mohawk under the name Aff, which was another alias for my friend. Every time I think of Fred McBobbert I think of the purple mohawk sim.

This chapter was a lot more happier than the previous one. Vsevolod, Xerxes, and Celeste are my OCs, however Celeste is a character that is related to a Reborn! character, can anyone guess who?

On the side note, did anyone hear the new Katekyo Hitman Reborn songs? They were awesome! I loved Squalo's BREAK OUT, although I still like the Chinkonka no Ame~ Kikyo's was good too. And Fran's was so good! Belphegor's fitted him, personality-wise. I liked Xanxus' much better than his old one. And Shoichi and Spanner's SIMULATION (hehe...kashi~)

And did anyone see the OVA? I found Squalo's hidden talent amusing. Oh! Did anyone notice that in the battle for the Vongola rings, Lussuria lost, Levi won, Belphegor won, Squalo lost, and Xanxus lost. And in the OVA battle for the dinner, Lussira lost, Levi won, Belphegor won, Squalo lost, and Xanxus lost... My mind was blown...Squalo deserves to win at least once!

Well I've rambled for long enough.

Please Read and Review!