It was lovely day. Clouds floated unhindered in the sky, letting the winds push them wherever they wanted to. The sun's warmth was pleasant and soothing, a far cry from the choking humidity it had been at the peak of summer. It also signalled the end of the season, and with it, the start of school's second term.

Not yet though, thankfully. First, I was going on a trip to Italy with Yamamoto and Dino.

Yesterday, while Gokudera had been hovering around Tsuna hoping to be asked to do something, Reborn had asked me if I wanted to go to Italy.

"Nee-tan." Reborn appeared on top of the couch I was moving for Nana so that she could vacuum the area underneath it. The mishap with Gokudera smashing Tsuna's face into the wall had left neither of them in any condition to do manual labour; Gokudera was too distraught and Tsuna was too busy consoling him. "Would you like to go to Italy?"

"Huh?" I finished moving the couch and straightened up to look at him fully.

"I said, would you like to go to Italy?" he said over the sound of the vacuum cleaner at work.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, and yes, I would, but-"

"It's settled then. Go to the airport tomorrow morning with the things you'll need for one week. Dino will meet you there. Don't be late." Reborn hopped off the back and disappeared off to who knows where.

I blinked, shrugged, and picked up a pen that had previously been under the just-moved couch. Well, I had always wanted to go to Italy.

"Yamamoto-kun, wake up; we're here." I told Yamamoto, who had been sleeping against the window of the bus.

"Uwawah?" He sat up groggily and wiped the drool off his face. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced outside and straightened up. "Hey, we are! Whoa, this place is huge!"

Yamamoto pressed his face to the window, gaping at the airport before us.

"Never gone overseas before?"

"Nope! Have you?"

"Well, no..." Not in this life, anyway. People began to stand up and retrieve their bags from the overhead compartments. "Oh, we're getting off."

I stood up to grab our small bags and threw Yamamoto's to him. He pulled the strap of the red sling backpack over his shoulder and fastened the clasp. He had chosen to wear a light blue V-neck with a pair of grey tracksuit pants today. I brushed off the seat of my jeans out of habit and straightened out my black muscle shirt.

We filed off the bus, and grabbed our larger suitcases from the driver, who was hauling them out from compartment underneath. When we entered the airport, the air-conditioning and sound of chatter and luggage wheels rolling on the stone floor reached us. Yamamoto let out an impressed whistle at the sheer size of the airport, and I had to agree.

We'd come all the way to the Tokyo International Airport, and the size of it definitely fit the bustling city it was supposed to cater for.

"C'mon, let's go find Dino."

There was a large and rather conspicuous group of black suited men, and we headed towards them. One of Dino's subordinates spotted us approaching and notified Dino. The mafia boss turned around, a little startled. Yamamoto waved.

"Hey! I heard you were going to bring us on a trip to Italy?"

Dino greeted us and after looking around, asked, "What happened to Gokudera?"

"He can't come, for reasons not given to us," I answered.

"Is that right?" Dino smiled, relieved. Then he stiffened up slightly.

Oh, has he finally noticed?.

The blond looked at me cautiously.

"That's an interesting shirt design you have there," he casually - which meant that it wasn't casual at all - commented. "Where'd you get it?"

I looked down at the golden design. A winged clam, which had a bullet on a shield engraved on it, rested on two crossed rifles and a pile of feathers. It was basically a remix of the Vongola crest.

"I drew the design myself, and paid someone to put it on a shirt for me." I smiled. I had created it a year prior, waiting for the perfect chance to wear it and screw with people.

"You did?"

"Yep!" Reborn appeared on the seats behind Dino. Time for stage two. "I made it based on something I saw in a dream."

"A dream...?"

"Yeah, a dream. It was a weird dream, though. There was this blond guy with a hairstyle like Tsuna's and a flaming forehead. He was wearing this pretty cool cape and gloves. His hands and gloves were also on fire, by the way. He was wearing a suit under his cape - oh, his cape had chains connecting it - and was sitting down, legs crossed. He really looked like Tsuna. Like really, really, really looked like Tsuna. Like a cool, blond, grown-up, parts-of-his-body-on-fire Tsuna."

All of that was a lie, by the way. A lie about seeing Giotto in a dream to induce the mildly horrified and bewildered face Dino was currently making.

"And then he kind of burned out and in his place appeared this strange crest. I didn't get a really good look at it, but it looked pretty cool so I just drew what I thought I saw and mixed it around a little. Then I contacted a friend and had sixty of these shirts made, sold most of them on Etsy, kept one for myself and gave the rest away."

The second part, which wasn't a lie, elevated Dino's expression from mildly horrified to a suppressed, spiralling-into-hell kind of horrified.

It was amusing, to say the least.

"Speaking of which, I made this for you." I rummaged through my bag. Dino's face paled even further, probably breaking the world record for most blood drained from one's face without dying. I could practically hear his thoughts, which mostly consisted of panicked screaming. He thought I was going to give him my special brand of 'fiery riceballs of hell' again. That was perfectly valid train of thought.

I found the container and pulled it out of my bag. As I did, however, The Book caught on its clasp and tumbled out of my bag, landing on the floor with its pages open and exposed for all to read.

Shit!

But before I could stuff it back into my bag, Reborn hopped off the seats and picked it up. To my horror, he began flipping through it.

Shitshitshitshitshit

"You always carry this book around with you, Nee-tan," he said, continuing to turn the pages. "So I thought it was either your diary or a really good book."

He looked up at me. I looked back at him.

"Why's it blank?"

Blank...? I took the book back and flipped through it. Nope, everything was still there, so why...?

The answer suddenly struck me. Person finds themselves in fictional world, and finds book or whatever of the series which, incidentally, no one else can read. Incredibly convenient fanfic tropes were at play here.

"It's blank because I always intend to put something in it, but never actually get around to doing that," I smoothly lied. Reborn looked at me for a while longer, but seemed to let it go, not questioning how I flipped through the pages first before answering. I turned back to Dino, putting The Book away.

"Here," I smiled, holding the orange plastic container out to him. "Please enjoy these."

Dino broke out into a cold sweat but accepted the box, attempting to smile. His men watched from around us, sending looks of pity at their boss. Romario patted him on the back sympathetically. The blond opened the box with much trepidation, and at my expectant smile, took a bite out of a riceball.

I could see him steeling himself for the expected rush of spiciness.

His look of absolute astonishment and relief with disbelief when it did not come was priceless.

"How do you like it?" I asked hopefully. "I tried a new recipe in that one, so I don't know if it's as good as the others."

Dino had been shocked stupid at the not spicy in the least riceball. He shook off his extreme surprise to answer me.

"It's great!" He beamed at me. I almost flinched at the sparkles that suddenly appeared around him and beamed back with a little difficulty, resisting the urge to squint against the light.

"Really? I'm so happy you liked it!"

Dino happily finished off the first riceball and reached for the second.

"Ah, about the other one though-" I started as he took a bite out of the triangular seaweed-wrapped cluster of rice.

There was a pause, then his face rapidly turned red with heat when the flavour inevitably reached his tongue. His eyes began watering. His men looked on with concern. Romario sighed and Reborn smirked at how his previous student had let his guard down. Yamamoto was laughing again.

"-it's the same recipe as the ones I gave you last time," I finished, pretending not to notice the suppressed look of agony on Dino's face.

I internally cackled when the Cavallone family boss quickly gulped down the rest and chugged the bottle of milk an internally face-palming and I-knew-this-would-happen Romario handed him.

how does I write funny

creative license was taken with the airport size and etc.

a thank you to all the people who reviewed and answered my question, but it won't be for the purpose you think it is

nanayoung: Really? Thanks! I'm glad I'm not completely failing at this then.

Winter's Folly: That, my friend, is a brilliant idea which I am considering using. Don't hold your breath though, for I am a lazy asshole who says they'll do things but never actually do it.

Review?