"TSUNAAAA!"

"HIIIEEE!"

"LAWN-HEAD, GET THE FUCK OFF TENTH!"

"Hah hah! Everyone's so lively today!"

"I will bite you all to death if you do not stop crowding on school grounds."

An awkward silence fell.

Ryohei was lying on Tsuna, who he had tackled to the ground only a few seconds ago. Gokudera was trying to muscle Ryohei off of the brunette, mostly only managing in getting himself dragged down into the dog pile. At the sidelines, Yamamoto had been laughing, but now turned to look at the annoyed prefect glaring at them.

"HIBARIII!" Ryohei shoved a finger in the skylark's direction. "YOU! PARTY! TSUNA'S HOUSE!"

"HIIIEE! Wha- !"

"TONIGHT AT 9! BE THERE!"

Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Tsuna shared a look of horror. Tsuna's house? A party?

His mother was going to destroy him.

Hibari's glare intensified. "Are you trying to bribe me?"

"Lawn-head! There's no party at Tenth's house tonight, what the hell are you talking about?"

Ryohei grunted as he sat up – still on top of Tsuna. The brunette let out a dying gasp. "My mama is taking Tsuna's mama out on the town to the EXTREME! So Tsuna's gonna be alone till they get back."

"… When are they getting back?" Yamamoto asked.

"NEXT WEEK!"

Tsuna gaped at Ryohei. "How do you… know this?" He wheezed, having difficulty speaking.

"Kyoko told me!"

"O-oh…"

"Still! You can't decide by yourself to have a party at Tenth's house!" Gokudera snapped. "And get the fuck off of Tenth!"

"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?"

"I'm gonna fuckin' kick your ass!"

"Try it, octopus-head!"

"What'd you call me, lawn-head?"

"LET'S SETTLE THIS LIKE MEN!" Ryohei shot to his feet, hands clenched in front of him. "WITH OUR FISTS!"

"Mah mah, let's not fight here, guys." Yamamoto ran off after the two fighting souls, laughing at their energy. "C'mon, we got more important things to do then fight!"

Soon, Tsuna was all alone… with a pissed off Hibari.

He gulped as he looked up at the prefect. "H-hi, Hibari… Uuuhh… sooo… H-how's your day been going?"

His attempt at small talk ended with him waking up in the nurse's office five hours later.

~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~

"HIIIEEE! Don't break that - !" Too late.

"LIGHTEN UP, TSUNAAAA! It's a party TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei roared directly in his face before trouncing off back to his buddies.

"Yeah, Tsuna! The whole gang's here!" Yamamoto laughed from the couch.

Tsuna grimaced; he knew that, and he was happy about it… but he felt nervous and maybe a little scared.

Everyone was there… Kyoko, Haru, Basil, Yamamoto, Yamamoto's baseball team, Gokudera, Ryohei, Ryohei's club members, Dino (Ryohei had somehow gotten a hold of him), Shoichi (a kid he hardly even knew and looked about as awkward as he felt), and Spanner (another person he just barely knew).

Hell had long since gotten loose. So far, the damage to his house had been… beyond terrifying to him. If his mother came home and saw this, it would be another thing she would add to her list of why she hated him.

The boxing club had settled in the kitchen (surrounded by glass, of course) where they sparred with each other to the loud beat of heart-thumping music (Tsuna had no clue where it was coming from). The baseball team had taken the living room, watching a game on the TV. The girls had retreated to Tsuna's room, dragging Basil with them, and Gokudera had been dragged into watching the game with Yamamoto. Shoichi and Spanner (meeting for the first time, apparently) were discussing mechanics and such at the bottom of the staircase, the mousy Shoichi seeming to open up with excitement the more they talked and icy blue eyes (Spanner's) warming gradually as the conversation dragged on.

That left only one person unaccounted for…

An arm was thrown over his shoulders. "Hey there! How's my cute lil brother doing?" Dino held him tightly to his chest.

"D-Dino!" They weren't actually related, but Dino had considered them brothers since they had first met some years ago under the tutorials of Reborn. "What were you doing?"

"Why would I have to have been doing something?" He sounded sickeningly innocent.

"You were raiding the fridge, weren't you?"

"Now, lil brother! Why ever would you think I would do such a thing… "

"There's sauce on your cheek."

"Damn it."

They laughed together, the tension slowly leaking from Tsuna's shoulders.

"Hey, you look pretty beat up." Dino randomly pointed out.

Tsuna rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I got caught by Hibari today…"

"Nah, that wasn't what I meant…" Dino traced a fingertip along the bags beneath Tsuna's eyes. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Uuuh…" Seven nights ago, the last night he spent his dreams with Mukuro. Apparently, after repotting him and then setting him in the window, they couldn't communicate… that, or Mukuro was ignoring him for some reason. Either way, ever since they stopped spending time together, Tsuna hadn't been able to sleep so well. "… Last night…?"

"You're a horrible liar, lil brother." Dino huffed. Tsuna stared at the ground in shame. "Hey, how's the family life?" Tsuna flinched. "I thought so." Dino clasped his shoulder and tilted his chin up. He grinned and ruffled Tsuna's hair. "One more year and then you're free, okay?"

"… Yeah… I know…" Except what was he going to do after he was free? How depressing…

"When you're free, you can come and stay with me!"

He looked up at Dino with newfound hope. "Really?"

"Yep! I'd love to have my lil brother living with me!"

"That would be… nice…" And it would be… except… would he ever see his friends again if he lived in Italy?

Before he could open his mouth to ask, someone screamed from upstairs.

Abruptly, the party ended. Everyone was running upstairs at the screech of horror, Ryohei leading them. "KYOKOOO!" Tsuna's door was regrettably ripped off its hinges as the boxer stormed his bedroom. "Are you okay?"

Tsuna looked over Ryohei's shoulder. His eyes widened with horror as his mouth gaped open. Gokudera looked over his head. "T-Tenth… your room…"

Yamamoto stood behind them, copper eyes startled. "Mah mah… what happened here?"

Kyoko and Haru were curled around each other on the bed, Basil standing protectively in front of them.

"Tsuna!" Basil called out. "Thy plant lashed at us!"

"I-I'm sorry, Tsuna!" Haru cried out. "I thought it could use some watering, but…"

His table had been broken cleanly in half, the glass of his window had been shattered, his closet doors had been ripped from the wall, and long groves had been marked into the walls. Only the bed seemed unharmed.

For some reason, he thought he knew why.

"KYOKO! WHAT HAPPENED?" Ryohei grabbed his sister and held her protectively to his chest. The boxing club was quick to form a barrier around them; after all, one's little sister became everyone's little sister. A chorus of 'are you okay?' and 'who did this?' broke out.

Tsuna went to Haru while Dino went to Basil.

Haru grabbed him and held on for dear life. "I-it was horrible, Tsuna! I was just trying to water your plant a-and something happened! The room – the thing… something! I was so scared…"

Tsuna looked over his shoulder at the lotus – at Mukuro. His roots had broken out of his container and had crawled steadily down the wall, up the wall, and towards both sides until it appeared as if it were a mass of vines instead of roots. An hour ago, just minutes before the party, Mukuro had not looked at all like that.

"I-it did that after I w-watered it…" Haru sniffled into his chest. "I th-thought I saw something forming in the r-roots…"

"… What did you see?"

Haru looked up at him, pale and haunted. "Eyes… Th-they glared at me… O-one red, one b-blue…" She sobbed. "Th-they saw me, Tsuna! They s-saw me and they wanted to h-hurt me!"

He stared at Mukuro – was that true?

~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~

The partiers left without much reluctance, Ryohei running out with his sister while the rest of his club trailed after him and with Dino and Basil accompanying Haru back home. Shoichi and Spanner left together, the redhead looking troubled and Spanner inquisitive. Yamamoto's team had been the last to leave, trying to offer a helping hand much like their star player; however, after some reassurances, they left.

Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto tried unsuccessfully to clean the wreck that was officially his room. The silence enveloping them was thick and heavy, weighing on Tsuna's shoulders like another guilt trip. He should have told them about the flower…

Everyone knew that Gokudera was smart – his grades proved it, he was street smart, and it was rare to come across anyone more logical (or superstitious, but that's a different story). Contrary to popular belief, Yamamoto was also really clever; he didn't lack a brain, only the motivation to use it. Of course they would add up the plant in the cup, the familiarly burnt box and note (that Tsuna had kept in his closet, but his closet was now missing its doors and beholding the objects to their view), and remember the package.

Gokudera carried the air of betrayal as he picked up shards of wood and glass off the floor with trembling hands, jaw clenched tightly. Yamamoto wouldn't look at Tsuna, making futile attempts to stand the shattered table up again and tape it back together.

He stared at the plant whose roots were now hiding one section of his wall. Why? It was the only question on his mind. Why did Mukuro do that? Or was that simply the way he was supposed to grow? The girls and Basil had been terrified, sure – but they had been unharmed. The bed had been untouched and that had been where they had been cowering. Maybe Mukuro hadn't meant it…

Haru's description of eyes drove doubt into him. But maybe she was wrong too… or maybe he was being far too hopeful.

Gokudera's rage, already so visible and boiling over, exploded without a word from anyone. "I'll kill that fuckin' plant!" He ran at the wall, fingers forming claws as he ripped into the roots and threw them to the ground.

"Gokudera, no!" Tsuna ran up behind him and grabbed him, trying to pull him away. "Gokudera, please! I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I was raising him earlier, but you can't hurt him!"

Both Gokudera and Yamamoto looked at Tsuna, eyes unreadable. It took another moment for Tsuna's words to catch up to him.

"Him?" Yamamoto piped up, walking to his side. "Mah mah, Tsuna… Why a him?"

"Uuuhh… Ummm… 'Cause I just thought that…" He paused; both of them were gazing at him with expressions that said 'don't lie to me'. He sighed. "If… If I tell you the true story… Promise not to be –" no, that wouldn't be fair. They had all the rights in the world to be angry with him; he should have told them sooner… "freaked out?"

Yamamoto looked to Gokudera who looked questionably at Tsuna. Yamamoto nodded at the brunette. "Sure!"

"O-okay… You guys might want to, uh, sit down for this…"

It took him about 15 minutes to summarize his experience with the 'white lotus stamen', otherwise known to be Mukuro. He read the note to them and then he finished with the small message at the bottom, supposedly written by his dead baby brother.

He stole a deep breath when they continued to stare at him, Yamamoto uncertain and thoughtful while Gokudera muttered prayers to Buddha beneath his breath. Gokudera had always been quick to believe the supernatural; Yamamoto was actually much more realistic in that aspect, so Tsuna understood that he was having difficulty wrapping his mind around his words.

"But he's not bad!" Tsuna was quick to add on when he saw Gokudera rise to his feet and stalk back towards the roots with fiery vengeance in his eyes. "He's a little weird – maybe creepy – but he promised me that he wouldn't hurt anyone!" Tsuna decided not to clarify that Mukuro had practically said that he would hurt anyone he felt was threatening him. "I think… I think Lambo sent him to me…"

"Why?" Yamamoto asked, tilting his head curiously. "Why would your baby brother send you a bloodthirsty lotus?" He didn't sound judgmental – truly, he was only curious.

Tsuna winced anyway. It was one of the only things he had never gotten answered. "I… I don't know…"

"I'll tell you why!" Gokudera snarled. "It's because your baby brother never sent you a bloodthirsty lotus! Don't you see, Tenth? It's a trick! It's a parasite! Living off your blood, your dreams, your very thoughts! It's going to drain you dry just so it can live, nothing more and nothing less!" He went back to ripping roots off of the wall. "I'll get rid of it for good this time, Tenth! Don't worry about it! I'll kill it a hundred and one times if I have to!"

"Gokudera, no!" He grabbed the silverette's arm and managed to pull him somewhat away from the lotus. "That isn't true! Mukuro isn't here for that!"

"Mah mah, Tsuna, I'll have to agree with Gokudera on this one."

"What?" Tsuna stared at Yamamoto, eyes widened in pain as the baseball player began tearing down roots just out of arm's reach. "Yamamoto!"

"I'm not sure if I believe everything you say – but I guess most of it has to be true, 'cause I know you weren't lying and it having grown over half of your room just while you were talking is pretty hard to ignore. But I don't trust it, Tsuna. We're doing this for your own safety."

"No!" Tsuna went to release Gokudera and run after the other teen, but he was held sternly in place. His shocked gaze met the serious eyes of his other best friend. "G-Gokudera? What are you doing?"

"We're taking it down, Tenth… I'm sorry. Don't worry! We'll go to the flower shop and get you another plant later! But this one… it's evil." He spat the word. "I don't want it hurting you!"

"Neither of us do, Tsuna." Yamamoto managed to clear a small part of the wall, finally. Behind him, the shorn roots bled cobalt blue and indigo liquids before shriveling into nothing but smoke. "We've got to do this."

"No! Yamamoto! Gokudera, let me go!" He fought – he really fought as hard as he could. But Gokudera held him tightly, his martial arts by far greater than Tsuna's as he expertly contained him.

"Forgive me, Tenth…"

"NO! Mukuro!" He felt it… the tears welled up, but they didn't fall. He fought, he kicked, he hit, and he even tried to bite Gokudera – but, no matter what he did, he couldn't get free. "Mukuro!"

Yamamoto could finally get his hands on the small, broken container holding the seed.

Something… cracked. Literally.

What was left of the roots were pulling themselves off of the wall, tangling and knotting together as they formed a shapeless shield between Yamamoto and the pot. But then it stopped being shapeless… slowly, but surely, a form was made from the earthy fingers, first a body about the size of a teenager's and then the thinner roots creating what might have been hair if not for the odd, pointy design. In the region of the face, two thick roots horizontal of each other rose and revealed duo-colored eyes.

"What the fuck?" Gokudera growled, body now moving to stand protectively in front of a horrified Tsuna; he took careful steps retreating towards the door, trying to push Tsuna out of it. Yamamoto jerked backwards away from the mass, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "What the fuck are you?" The silverette snarled.

The roots – Mukuro – turned his head towards Gokudera, and then inevitably towards Tsuna. His gaze focused on the brunette; another mound of roots in the general area of his face moved (like lips, Tsuna realized numbly; they looked like lips). They quivered wordlessly, determination solid in his eyes as if he was honestly trying to say something.

The fear was overthrown by rage; Gokudera stopped his subtle retreat and snapped furious green eyes upon Mukuro. "Don't look at Tenth like you have the right, you monster!"

Something stabbed Tsuna's heart. "Life after life, they treated me like I was a monster!" "Gokudera, stop that!"

"But, Tenth – "

"He's my friend as much as you two are!" Ah, crap; a tear slipped down his cheek, soon followed by others. Yamamoto and Gokudera stared, eyes wide and jaws slack. "Just because he's not human, that makes him a monster? That isn't fair! What about you? And you, Yamamoto? You two are so different, you might as well be two different species! You can't kill him just because you're scared!"

"B-but, Tenth, your room and the stupid girls – "

"I don't think he meant to hurt anyone, Gokudera…" His voice was softer now – still as serious and firm, but gentler and more tired. His eyes continued to water. "I think he was just scared… I'm the only person ever in my room, so I think he got nervous…" He looked to the duo-colored gaze focused on him. "Right?" He almost sounded like he was pleading.

Mukuro, after a small moment, looked away; it wasn't the evasion that openly stated guilt, but one that revealed hurt pride – an ashamed agreement.

Tsuna managed to break loose from Gokudera's loose grasp and go Mukuro's side; true, the appearance was… creepy. Really, really creepy. It reminded him of that first dream he had with him, of how his body had been made of roots. Nonetheless, his eyes were different; they were not cold and aloof. They were, perhaps, a bit angry and sad at the same time, maybe really happy or somewhat pained, but they were not the eyes of that child who had asked Tsuna if he would abandon him.

"There you go, growing again… You either grow too fast or you don't grow at all; what's with that?" He laughed a little nervously. "You were really little just about a week ago…"

"T-Tenth…" Gokudera went to intercept the two, but a hand on his wrist retained him. Yamamoto had come to his side and shook his head when Gokudera threw a glare back at him.

He smiled sappily and leaned close to the silverette's ear. "You want him to be happy, don't you?"

Gokudera jerked and then sulked. "Yeah, but that thing is only going to end up killing him!"

Yamamoto shook his head. "I don't think it – he – wants to kill Tsuna… I think he wants to maybe protect him." When Gokudera looked at him as if he was eating shit, Yamamoto gestured to the root-man's expression, though there wasn't much of one to begin with. "Don't you think he looks like he likes Tsuna?"

"That's even worse!" Gokudera choked on his whisper. "I don't want that thing tainting the Tenth's innocence!"

"I think Tsuna likes him too."

The argument ended there; how could Gokudera deny that?

He watched with disdain sizzling in his heart as the small brunette lifted a hand and rested it on the creature's head, smiling up at him and still cooing sheepishly about his supposed growth spurt.

"… I hate that thing." He spat.

"I know. But he must be a pretty decent guy – err, plant – don't you think?"

"Huh?"

"I've never seen Tsuna like a person who didn't turn out being good in the end." Yamamoto airily explained.

He was right too.

Which could explain his change of heart. To go from defending Gokudera to holding him back…

"Gokudera? Yamamoto?" Tsuna's voice pulled them back into the current moment, out of their private conversation. "Are you… are you guys mad at me? I mean, I'll understand if you are, but – "

"Hah hah! Nothing to worry about, Tsuna! I'd try to hide it too if I was growing something so strange." Yamamoto smiled down at the brunette. He then directed his gaze at the thing. "Er, sorry for trying to rip you off the wall, I guess. No hard feelings?"

If it was possible, the thing glared at him.

"I could never be mad at you, Tenth!" Gokudera gushed. "But that thing…" His mood changed entirely, seething. "If you hurt Tenth, I'll dip you in fuckin' weed repellent!"

The thing glared even harder at him, and yet there was cruel, maniacal laughter in his scarlet and cobalt gaze. Gokudera shivered with disgust.

"Thanks, guys!" Tsuna smiled brightly at them. "I really don't deserve you two…"

"Nonsense, Tenth! We don't deserve you!"

"Hah hah! I'm happy being your friend!"

"Now…" Tsuna rubbed the back of his sheepishly. "The directions said to put him in a dark place till he called my name after his roots broke from the pot, but, ummm… I don't think I can carry him myself…" He looked pleadingly at them.

Gokudera growled and crossed his arms petulantly over his chest. He would repair Tsuna's room, dust particle by dust particle; he would do his homework for the rest of their school years, bow to his every whim throughout the rest of their lives, and do virtually anything Tsuna wanted him to do… but he was not touching that thing, no matter what Tsuna said! Even though it hurt him a little to admit that he would deny his beloved friend a single thing…

"Sure, Tsuna!" Yamamoto grinned and moved forward.

Roots whipped out and Mukuro's eyes narrowed even more.

"Eeehhh… I don't think he wants me to help… hah hah, sorry." Yamamoto wearily eyed the incoming roots, taking a few careful steps back.

"Mukuro…" Tsuna whined, looking exhausted already. "Well, unless you can drag yourself into a dark place, I don't see how I'm going to – hiiieee!"

Apparently, Mukuro could drag himself into a dark place and proceeded to do so, shrinking and reforming until he was squeezed beneath Tsuna's bed without leaving a sign behind of his existence. Well, except for the destruction of Tsuna's room…

There was an uncertain silence.

"… Hah hah! Well, if there were any monsters beneath your bed, they're gone now!" Yamamoto pointed out lightly, referring to their childhood when Tsuna used to think that the boogeyman lived beneath his bed.

"Idiot! Don't make fun of the Tenth like that!" Gokudera growled only half-heartedly; in reality, he could not help but wonder… how was his beloved friend going to sleep knowing that there was that thing beneath his mattress?

Looking to Tsuna, he blinked owlishly at the relieved look on the brunette's face; for some reason, he felt as if he was seeing the answer to his question: very well.

~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~ ~ ::: ~

"Thanks for helping me clean up, guys." Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Gokudera were at the front door, the brunette leaning tiredly against the jamb while his two friends looked just as bushed. "Are you two sure you don't want to stay the night? You guys look pretty exhausted…"

Gokudera opened his mouth, about to say 'yes' because he had no plan of letting his friend stay alone with that thing, but was stopped when a hand was placed over his lips. He almost snarled at Yamamoto, but paused at the meaningful look in his eyes, as if he was trying to tell him something through eye contact. Looking from Yamamoto to Tsuna, he saw the reluctant light in the brunette's eyes that proclaimed that he hoped they wouldn't accept his offer, no matter how adamantly he proposed.

"Don't worry about it, Tsuna." Yamamoto grinned. "We'll be just fine! It's not that late!" It was 3 in the morning; they had spent a lot of time trying to fix the things that had been trashed in Tsuna's room and then tidying up the rest of the house.

Gokudera shoved Yamamoto's hand aside and gazed worriedly at his friend. "I'll be back tomorrow to check up on you, kay? I know you can't cook for yourself and with the old hag gone…" He trailed off, not sure if he went too far or not.

Tsuna laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess that's true… but, Gokudera, you're not that good at cooking either…"

"Hah hah! I'll come too! I'm sure my old man won't mind if I bring down some food for us!"

"Idiot… who asked if you could come?"

"Hah hah! You're just grumpy because it's so late~"

"Shut up!"

"'Night, Tsuna!" Yamamoto waved as he left, a fuming silverette at his side.

"Good night, Tenth!" Gokudera waved more vigorously back at him, a large grin splitting his cheeks.

"Night, Gokudera; Yamamoto!" Tsuna watched them leave until they were out of sight. Drained of energy, he slowly shut the door behind him and all but literally dragged himself back up to his room. He dropped himself onto his bed, deadweight.

Moaning lightly, he pulled himself fully onto the bed, eyelids drooping before he could even halfheartedly get undressed.

When he opened his eyes again, a teenager with iris blue hair pulled back into a spiky bun with bangs reaching down his cheeks stared at him with a duo-colored gaze of scarlet red and cobalt blue.

"Mukuro…?" Tsuna sat up and rubbed a hand over his eyes, eyeballing the man. "Wow… you really did grow…"

The teen reluctantly chuckled. "Imagine what I will look like when I call your name~"

Tsuna's eyes bugged. "I never thought about that…"

"Kufufufu~ of course not."

There was a small silence, almost awkward and slowly becoming more so.

"Mukuro, why did you – "

"I wasn't trying to hurt anyone." Mukuro knew before he was even done asking what his question was; then again, with what had happened earlier, it must have been pretty obvious. "I was defending myself."

"But Haru said all she was trying to do was water you."

"Haru isn't you."

"Hiiee?" Tsuna was startled by the focused glower he was given. "W-what does that have to do with anything?" He had a feeling he already knew, though. He had defended Mukuro earlier using about the same reasoning.

Yet it felt different listening to his words coming from Mukuro… as if it was no longer an excuse, but a solid, irrefutable reason.

"How am I supposed to react when someone I have never seen before, knowing that you never have guests over, is trying to throw some liquid on me?" He sounded… defensive.

The brunette vaguely remembered – more like the memory hit him like a brick to the head – that Mukuro had already lived six lives. His intuition told him that that tidbit was vital to the problem he was currently facing. He asked the first question that came to mind. "Were you poisoned before?" Could that question have been any more random?

Mentally berating himself, he was surprised when Mukuro twitched, eyes cast bitterly to the side. "Oya, and if I have been?"

Tsuna paled. "Y-you have?"

"Kufufufu~ my fourth life, I had a bud – a beautiful little pistil with vibrant purple hair and magenta eyes who adored me with all her being; one of my own genus decided that she was too beautiful to be my bud, and so poisoned me with tainted water. When I died, they took my bud and then, though they treated her kindly, neglected her. Have you ever seen a bud that is given all the nutrients needed but no love? They begin to rot from the inside and droop without. Soon, they find reasons why not to bloom and so my bud nearly lost her life. Do not look so sad; she was well the last time I saw her. She has found a new genus – though they both try to play at not caring for her."

No matter his words, Tsuna was still sad; Mukuro was murdered just so his own family could take his - … what did Mukuro mean by bud? His child or his sibling? Either way, his heart felt heavy.

Lambo's smile popped into his mind, wide and confident. "Gya hah hah! Tsuna's crying! Tsuna's such a crybaby!" And when no one was looking, he would procure a tissue from his afro and hand it to him, telling him not to tell anyone or else that might make him 'look bad' in front of Reborn, because caring when someone else cried wasn't tough.

"Oya, you have such a warm heart, worrying over matters that don't concern you…" Mukuro sighed, stalking onto the bed and plopping down with his head on Tsuna's lap. "As for your friends~" he was smiling, but he might as well had fangs for how comforting it was.

"They were just trying to protect me!" Tsuna was quick to defend them. "Just like you weren't sure what to make of Haru, they weren't sure what to make of you. I mean… well… umm… well, you're not something anyone sees everyday. We have flowers, but we don't… have flowers that grow into…" whatever you are. But he wasn't completely sure how to say that without sounding insulting…

"Your species would consider me an alien." Mukuro supplied for him. "Oya, I suppose I can… maybe let this slide…" His eyes were narrowed in the promise of giving out punishment later.

Tsuna wasn't as shocked as he should have been by the term; hadn't he already thought it before? "I hope so." Tsuna sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to comfort Kyoko, Haru, and Basil, though… Big brother – " he was referring to Ryohei "is pretty… well, extreme. If the girls tell him that you attacked them, he is going to try and kill you and I'm not really strong enough to fend him off…" Though that one time when his tutor had held Lambo at gunpoint and told him to win the boxing match Ryohei had forced him into, he had beaten the boxer up pretty hard…

The memory of how Lambo had been so oblivious to the gun Reborn had held at his temple (Tsuna wasn't completely sure, nor did he care to know, why his tutor had had a gun to begin with) while he had cheered him on made his heart clench. "Gya hah hah! Big brother's gonna kick your big brother's ass!" He had said so naively to Kyoko with a shit-eating grin.

"I can defend myself." Mukuro shut his eyes and burrowed his nose into Tsuna's belly. "Can you read fairy tales to me?"

He blinked and then sighed. He smiled happily. "Yeah, I can do that… but the book is all the way over there." It was on the poorly repaired writing table. "And you're too heavy to bring with me, so you either have to move or get it yourself."

Mukuro appeared to consider both options and then cooed as he sat up. "In that case~" He pushed Tsuna into the bed, making the brunette yelp in surprise. "I'll use a different noise to lull me to sleep, kufufufufu~"

Tsuna, not actually much of a pervert, could not help but feel that the other teen was making a very lecherous expression as he said that.

Mukuro ducked his head, face so near to Tsuna's that he could feel his sweet breath whisper over his face – surprisingly sweet, actually… alluring even. His eyes drooped as Mukuro came even closer, his mind becoming fuzzy. In the next moment, he blinked, Mukuro's breathing no longer interrupting his thoughts as the blue-haired man settled with his head over his heart. "Hiiee?"

"Oya, this is very comforting~" He nestled into Tsuna's chest. "Where I come from, no one has a heartbeat. Kufufufu~ no one has a heart, actually."

"I-is that so?" What an embarrassing moment for him! Had Mukuro noticed? He waited to see if the other teen would taunt him for it, but all that followed was the other's slow and even breathing. "M-Mukuro?" No reply. Tilting his head so he could try and see the other's expression, the other was… sleeping. "… Good night, Mukuro…"

Author's Note: MWA HAH HAH! Here's the long chapter I've been promising but never giving! Beautiful, isn't it?

Yeah, you guys thought Mukuro was going to try something naughty towards the end, didn't you? Didn't you? Heh heh~