I thank you all for your Reviews, the following and favouring of this Story. It makes me really happy that so many People liked it.
With this chapter "Struggling" will end. It is really short and maybe a Little too rushed ... and I'm sure after you have finished reading it you will have a few questions.
But those questions will be answered during the new arc - "Living and Loving". You can see this Little chapter as a teaser or something like that.
The first chapter of "Living and Loving" will be uploaded by the 8th of June at the latest, because I want to have two chapter ready before uploading one. That gives me a Little head start in case something unexpected happens (like writers block or a broken PC).

For now enjoy the last chapter, we read each other in "Living an Loving"

Birthday and Bazooka

It was October the fourteenth, his birthday. Today he turned eighteen and in a few month his High school time would end. Normally people looked forward to getting out of school, but not him. He feared for the worst, because after his graduation he had to leave Japan to learn more about being the boss of Vongola. A few days ago Reborn had told him, that the Ninth wanted for him to take care of the North American branch before he will take over the title of the Tenth. What had scared him the most about that was the fact that Reborn wasn't allowed to accompany him, he got the order to train his guardians for their upcoming duties. But Reborn had convinced the Ninth that it was for the best that Tsuna will take Gokudera with him. He had his reasons for that – the first was that his student would die of loneliness, because he isn't capable of making new friends easily and the second was that Hayato was good at administration and knew different languages and she was raised in their world and knew how it worked – alas there was no need for her to be further educated. Tsuna had been glad about that, because he couldn't see himself living alone in a foreign country. But the downside was that he needed to learn English and Reborns teaching methods left him most of the time half dead. But luckily Hayato had developed the most pleasurable and efficient method for him to learn this language.

But back to the topic – today was his birthday and he didn't look forward to the party his mother had planned. The reason was that she had invited his father, who really did show up, and Haru, who still tried to make him fall for her. He had given up on convincing her to let that be and Hayato made it a point to just ignore her advances. The two girls never talked to each other, there were no glares or mean words – the both of them refused to acknowledge the others existence. And he didn't even try to be the middleman who made them forgive each other. Even the others refused to meddle with their cold war, they were just glad that they didn't go for each others throat every time the both of them were in the same room. He guessed that some time in the future there will be another conflict between those two, but for now it was quite.

Kyoko, Haru and Chrome helped his mother with the preparations for the party, he had offered his help, but they refused him, because it was his big day. His father had taken that chance to pull him to the side.
"So how is it going?" he smelled like Sake.
"What do you mean?" Tsuna shoved him a little out of the way, because this man just smelled bad.
"Things between you and your girlfriend." his father had a perverted grin.
"Good." was his only answer to that and every other question about his love and sex life was ignored. The only thing was – Iemitsu thought that Haru was still his sons girlfriend. And other than the tenth generation and the Japanese branch nobody from Vongola knew that Gokudera Hayato was a girl and the lover of the future boss.
That party was going to be fun...

For some strange reason Yamamoto was the first to arrive at the so called party, he brought Sushi with him – a present from his father and him. Of course Tsuna was happy to get it – he loved their Takesushi! His father was the first to taste it, he couldn't even wait until all guests arrived. But that wasn't really necessary because one after the other showed up and brought some kind of gift for him. Mukuro gave him condoms and a sly smile ...
In the living room his father was giving out drinks to the boys behind Nanas back.
The last one to arrive was Hayato and one look at her and he knew why she was late.

Of course she was dressed nice and perfect every day, but today she had put more effort to it than ever. Her legs were clad in black over knee socks and the seam of her fluttery skirt hovered a few inches over them, giving him a nice view of her white skin. He guessed there wasn't much space between the end of the skirt and her nice little ass. It was the shortest skirt she had ever worn. The light orange, almost yellow colour of it made her skin glow in an healthy shade of cream. To the skirt she wore a black blouse. It was skin tight. The sleeves of it ended wide and were frilly like the skirt, it looked a little like something a Goth Lolita would wear.
But the most amazing thing was her hair and the eye shadow.
He didn't have a clue how she made her Vongola Gear holding up her hair, but it did. Somehow she had put at the side of her head and her long silver tresses flowed all around it, like it was the most natural thing to do. He had to resist the urge to touch it.
Her eye shadow was in different shades of orange it looked natural, but also like she was fresh out of some kind of fantasy world, needless to say that her green eyes had a amazing effect because of her make up.
"... You look stunningly beautiful." was what he said after he had finished his observation.
"Just for you Juudaime." she blushed, kissed his cheek: "Happy birthday" and gave him a present, which he took with glee. Loud laughing was coming out of the living room and the both of them looked in the direction.
"Seems like they are getting rowdy already." Hayato said and put off her shoes to got to the living room together with Tsuna.

Iemitsu was talking to Yamamoto and Ryouhei, the both of them were blushing like crazy, because this old man gave them the talk about safe sex and that one should be more considerate of the needs of the women than of his own. Nana had heard some things about that an gave her own opinion on the matter to the girls, who weren't blushing as much as the boys. Maybe it had something to do with the choice of words or the fact that Iemitsu was more of a stranger to all of them and Nana was like their second mother. Even Tsuna had to confess that he would feel uncomfortable to have a talk like that with the father he didn't really know. Yamamoto saw Tsuna and Hayato standing in the door and was relieved to have a way to get out of this situation: "Yo Gokudera you're late!" That resulted in all eyes on Hayato who wanted nothing more than to strangle Yamamoto, she didn't really like to be the centre of attention – even if she put a lot of effort to her appearance.
Iemistu looked confused and Tsuna was wondering about that, but than he remembered that his father knew Hayato just as a boy – something Tsuna forgot almost all the time, because he was used to her like that.
But than the seemingly drunk man just laughed: " I didn't know Gokudera had another sister besides the Poison Scorpion." Tsuna wanted to sigh relieved and let that matter be until a better time.
"Hahi! Sawada-san, this isn't his sister but he himself. He dresses like a girl to seduce Tsuna-san." Damn Haru. She used a concerned voice and sounded really convincing. Now his father had lost his smile and looked at Hayato with a stern face. Everybody had gone really quite and looked at the situation at hand. The silence was almost deafening. The first to say something was his mother.
"Haru-chan, that's not nice. Hayato is a girl." she smiled like the forgiving mother she was, but Tsuna had the feeling that there was more behind her smile, something threatening.
Truth be told, Nana had taken a huge liking to Hayato and even gave her lessons in cooking, because she wanted that her daughter-in-law will be able to cook his most favourite meals. And Hayato had taken every lesson as serious as a battle strategy. He forgot how many time his mother had told him about gay sex and the risks about that, she even had informed herself about the surgeries Hayato had to undergo and talked with him about all that. She supported the both of them and that made them happy, even if sometimes she was a little nosy about their sex life. Haru looked like she wanted to say something about that, but than she just smiled and nodded reluctant. There was just no way she would argue with Nana, because she needed to be on her good side if she wanted to get closer to Tsuna.
Iemitsu suddenly laughed.
"Is that so? And here I thought you were a boy!" with that everyone started laughing and Tsuna felt like a bomb had just been defused and one look at Hayato showed him that she was feeling the same. Nana smiled encouragingly at the both of them and the party got started for real.

The boys were drinking Sake together with Iemitsu, not minding one bit that they were still minors. Nana and the Girls, played with Lambo and I-Pin. Fuuta was sitting in a corner pouting, because he wasn't allowed to drink together with the rest of them. He was fifteen and wanted to try it too, but Tsuna was totally against that and won the argument (with the help of his mother).
Hayato had gone into the kitchen to bring some refreshments and snacks. And guess who used this opportunity to cling to Tsuna – Haru had used her chance and sat down where Hayato had been sitting at. She had drank some Sake and was now really courageous.
"Nee, Tsuna-san. I saw that Mukuro-san gave you a little present. Maybe you want to use it tonight?" she whispered in his ear and thought that he was drunk enough to go upstairs together with her.
"No, I want to wait for Hayato to be ready for it." he was calm and collected and didn't comment on her close proximity. It annoyed him but he didn't want to make a scene at his own birthday party.
Hayato came out of the kitchen and saw how Haru clung to him, her eyebrow twitched in annoyance, but she did say nothing and made it a point to ignore Haru, who had a smug smile plastered on her face.
But than Tsuna was pulled to the side by Ryouhei, who wanted to have an arm wrestling competition with all of the guys, because men should do something like that from time to time. Laughing he agreed and came over to the table, where Reborn sat and played referee. Iemitsu thought it was a great idea and took part in it. Nana smiled fondly at his attempt to impress the boys and watched him play with them. Haru used this opportunity to go over to Hayato.

"And where did you buy those cheap clothes?" She made it a point to look her once over, truth be told she liked those clothes, but she wanted to agitate Hayato. It would be to her advantage if Hayato attacked her and showed that he was just an asshole.
"Nowhere, those are an original Kururo Saruko design. She made them just for me." at first Hayato had wanted to ignore Haru, but she needed to defend her friends design. "Never heard of her." Haru sipped on her drink.
"You will in the future, I'm sure of it." and Hayato did the same.
"Don't you think that this skirt is too short? What if suddenly your thing is showing out of it?" she really sounded concerned. Hayato took a deep breath to calm down.
"It won't."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Than they glared at each other, waiting for some kind of retort from the other, for some insult or anything that would result in some kind of scene. Something Haru wanted and Hayato liked to avoid.
"You know that he will fall in love with me someday." Haru smiled.
"And when will that happen? I'm the one who will go to New York with him. And you will be in Italy to fulfil your duties as a newbie subordinate." Hayato smiled.

Iemitsu looked over to the both of them.
"It's good to see that your girlfriend is getting along well with your subordinates." he slapped Tsunas shoulder and made him look. Tsuna saw the both of them smiling at each other, for every normal person it would really seem like they were two friends talking about fun things, but he saw the daggers and heard the storm approaching. He considered going between them, but somehow he was curious.
"Normally they just ignore each other." he told his father.
"Hahaha That's no good, your subordinates need to learn how to adore your future wife." Iemitus laughed carefree and gulped some more alcohol down. Tsuna blushed at the prospect to call Hayato his future wife. It made him giddy.
"I hope that will happen, because she is the most beautiful girl I know." he confessed.
"Every man thinks that about the woman he loves. But I have to confess that she is really cute, not as cute as your mother though." Tsuna was really impressed that his father was so accepting, his opinion on him changed a little because of that, he felt some kind of respect towards that man. Maybe he had underestimated him all the time.
Little did he know that Iemitsu talked about Haru, because he didn't know that Hayato was his girlfriend and Haru the subordinate. And how could he know that? He never was there to witness the changes in his sons life.

Ryouhei sat in one corner pouting, because once again he had lost against Tsuna, Kyoko did her best to comfort her brother but it was useless. Just when Yamamoto said something it cheered him up. And whatever he had said it resulted in the both of them taking off their shirts and singing loudly their schools anthem. Reborn recorded that and forced Tsuna to take part in it, because he needed to bond with his Family. Luckily he was drunk enough not to be embarrassed about that. (Later on Reborn will send the video file to Hibari, who than decides that he needs to teach them to sing the song in the right melody.)
Than Tsuna had a great idea, if he had to sing and dance, than his girlfriend had to do it with him. He didn't hesitate to pull Hayato close and dragging her with him to their friends, just to sing together. After their fifth time of singing he laughed and gave her a chaste kiss, someone whistled at that and demanded them to kiss some more, because it was his birthday and he had to use this opportunity to get more touchy feely with his girl.
Hayato wanted to flip, to whoever it was, the finger, but Tsuna in his drunken state did what they wanted to see and pulled her closer to give her a deep and passionate kiss. And then there was the sound of glass breaking.
Iemitsu had shattered the glass he was holding with his bare hand. Nana wanted to take a look at his hand, but he shoved her a little to the side and punched Tsunas face. He fell down and looked at his father dumbfounded.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked the man in front of him. Hayato knelt down to look at his face, but it didn't seem like there was any damage.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you – kissing your perverted storm guardian like that, when you have a cute girlfriend like Haru?" Iemitsus face showed exactly how angry he was. Tsuna got up to face his father, he didn't like it when people looked down on him.
"Haru isn't my girlfriend – Hayato is. And she is not a pervert." he glared at his father.
"Of course he is – a man dressing up like a woman is and will be a pervert wherever you go." he was down right furious, he could have tolerated the silly lie that Gokudera was a girl, but he would never accept that he was kissing his son: "And what do you even mean when you say that he is your girlfriend? What about Haru?"
"Iemitsu ..." Nana wanted to interfere, but they just ignored her.
"Haru never was and never will be my girlfriend." Tsuna had raised his voice and glared at his father. Hayato stood a little behind him and didn't know what to do. And it didn't help that their friends looked as helpless as she felt.
The only one who looked like she enjoyed the show was Haru, even if she had looked sad at Tsunas words.
Lambo was near tears and looked frightened, because Iemitsu had began to shout at Tsuna and what he said was really mean, especially towards his Hayato-nee. Than Iemitsu wanted to punch his big brother and he did the most logical thing a nine year old with a lot of weapons could come up with, he pulled out his bazooka and fired.
Just as Iemitsus fist came flying towards Tsuna he was engulfed in pink smoke, but he could hinder the fist from connecting with his face. But the one who had caught the punch was his self ten years later.
As the smoke cleared everybody looked at the twenty eight year old Tsuna. He held Iemitsus fist in his hand and there was a disturbingly loud sound of breaking bones, the blonde man made a face.
"Oops sorry about that, it's an habit." Tsuna said smoothly and put his hand down. Than he looked around and recognized where he was at.
"I see I was hit with the bazooka." he smiled and moved around to face Hayato, who stood behind him. She blushed because he was even more handsome than she remembered. His white suit was spotless and looked like it was tailored just for him. The Vongola insignia was sewed on the breast pocket and all in all he looked like he was about to go to some important meeting.
Suddenly he took her face in both of his hands: "You look really cute in that outfit." and he leaned down to kiss her lips, seems like they were still together ten years later, not that she didn't knew, because she had met him two years ago. She blushed and looked into his eyes.
"Juudaime, what's wrong with your right eye?" she asked concerned.
"Why should there be something wrong with it?" he asked and smiled all the while caressing her hair, a habit he couldn't get rid off.
"Somehow the colour is off." she looked sceptical at his eye and frowned.
"You're just imagining things." he laughed and looked at his friends, than his eyes met his fathers and turned cold. But he didn't say anything.
"I never thought you would grow up like that." Reborn broke the silence and hopped up to Tsunas shoulder, who laughed and it was contagious, because his friend began laughing with him.
But three people didn't laugh – Nana, because she needed to take care of Iemitsus hand whilst scolding him, Iemitsu, because his wife did scold him and he still was furious about this development, Haru because she had seen TYL Tsuna interact with Hayato like he really cherished her.

Meanwhile Tsuna found himself in a large bedroom. It felt cozy and warm, but what made him feel hot was the sight before him. He had seen her one time before and had fainted because of his nosebleed. But now he could look at her without bleeding to death. Ten years later Hayato was really hot, even if she was almost thirty.
"Why is it that every time I see you, you are wearing some kinky thing?" he said and looked at her amused face.
"It's not kinky, this is just underwear. And you are the one who bought it for me." she said and her voice sounded nothing like before, it was soft and did no longer have this rough undertone to it. He looked at the orange and red underwear she wore. It was almost just lace and looked really expensive. His eyes wandered over her bosom down her stomach and rested on her neither regions. There was no bulge that she normally had down there, it could just mean that her surgery had been done sometime in the last (or coming) ten years.
"You're really beautiful." he whispered.
"All because of you." she stood a little on her toes and gave him a soft kiss: "Happy Birthday." Than there was a really loud wailing and he looked confused in the direction of the open door, where the noise came from. He wanted to ask what that was, but he was engulfed by pink smoke again and changed with his TYL self.
The time was up.

He sat on the sofa and his friends looked at him. His mother and father were nowhere to bee seen.
"You broke your fathers hand. Your mother has taken him to the hospital." He looked at Hayato who told him about what had happened. He was not able to fight the blush that crept up all the way to the tip of his ears. The rush of blood to his head resulted in him fainting on the spot.
He just heard the shout of "Juudaime!" before he passed out.
That had been the best birthday ever!
He was so looking froward to the future.

Ten years later Tsuna was back in his bedroom and looked around, only to find the door to the neighbouring room open. He leaned against it's frame and watched his wife. She walked around in her underwear and carried a small bundle, that was nibbling on a baby bottle and looked quite content doing so. He looked at the other occupant of the room and counted to three. There was a soft cry of discomfort and he walked over to the crib and softly raised the little human out of it. Almost instantly the little thing opened its mouth to show exactly what it wanted. He took the bottle, which was ready for him to take and gave the child its evening meal. He felt like he was the happiest man alive.

The end!