Disclaimer: I don't own KHR

Chapter 7: Lightning Strikes

"Young Master Bovino!" one of the maids yelled. "Please stop running around! You could break something and hurt yourself!"

"Lambo-sama wants Tsuna-nii! Waaaahh!" Lambo yelled as he ran in circles around the Vongola mansion. He had been staying there with the other kids ever since Tsuna's death and driving the butlers and maids crazy demanding his big brother.

Of course, Lambo wasn't stupid, contrary to popular belief. He'd been old enough to realize Tsuna wasn't coming back, but so young that he couldn't control his emotions. The first day he'd been uncharacteristically quiet and refused to talk to anyone, even Fuuta and I-pin, but after that he'd been crying pretty much nonstop.

~~~~~Where Tsuna is~~~~~

"Jack!" Tsuna yelled, glancing around for the bad tempered grim reaper.

"I hate you." Tsuna whirled around to see the blonde glaring holes into him. "I don't have any free time anymore because I have to be 24/7 in the travel area so I can legalize your trips to God knows where. I could be reading manga, but nooooo. Instead I'm teleporting your butt around the world!"

"Er, I'm sorry?"

"You should be." Jack rolled his eyes. "Where to this time?"

"I want to see my lighting guardian… I think the kids would all be in one place."

"Your intuition is right. Shocking." Jack sighed. "Okay, now… To Italy!" he snapped his fingers and the world flipped in circles.

Tsuna landed on the ground hard. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that," he said as he stumbled and attempted to gather his thoughts. "Hm, the Vongola mansion, huh? I guess that makes sense." Tsuna headed for the tall iron gates of the estate.

~~~~~Flashback~~~~~

Lambo had been enjoying a large grape lollipop while Fuuta messed around in his ranking book and I-pin practiced her martial arts moves. They were all waiting for Tsuna's return from school at his house. 'Gyahahaha!' Lambo thought. 'When Tsuna-nii gets home I'll throw my new toy (read: grenade) at him! Maybe I'll finally beat that jerk Reborn and the stupid octopus head too!'

Suddenly, the phone rang and Nana stopped fixing an afternoon snack to answer it. She gave the children a bright smile, which they returned, and picked up the phone while continuing to whisk batter.

"Hello?" Not a minute later the bowl dropped from Nana's hands to the floor. The sound of shattering dishes caused all the children to look up. "Oh my God… I'll be there as soon as I can!" Nana said before hurriedly hanging the phone up. She turned to the children. "Everyone get to the car!" She said, using a tone that none of the children had ever heard before. It was commanding, but also full of fear. Lambo could see the worry in her eyes.

"Mama, what's wrong?" Lambo asked as Nana buckled him in.

"It's Tsuna." Was the only explanation he got before the car screeched out of the driveway to the hospital.

Once there, the kids clambered out and Lambo wrinkled his sensitive nose at the smell of the hospital. Nana frantically talked to one of the nurses who pointed them in the direction of the elevators. On the 27th floor, they all but ran out, even the children sensed the matter was serious.

In the hospital room, Tsuna lay on the bed with a bunch of tubes running out of him and monitors everywhere beeping. Gokudera sat on a chair, shell-shocked, while Yamamoto stared out the window, his eyes not really seeing anything. Soon the other guardians arrived.

The last thing Lambo remembered about that day was being dragged out of the room by Fuuta, crying for his brother to get up while Nana continued to wait in one of the chairs. She offered Lambo a shaky smile, as if to say it would all be okay, but it wasn't. Lambo had a gut wrenching feeling in his stomach that it would be the last time he ever saw Tsuna.

~~~~~After that~~~~~

The next few days after that were rough. He, I-pin and Fuuta were shuffled around as they couldn't stay at Tsuna's place any longer now that he wasn't there to protect them. Other families would target the children because of their powerful abilities, so they had to keep moving to avoid being kidnapped. Eventually, the Vongola decided the safest place would be the Vongola mansion and the Shimon family would stay in a nearby town in case anything were to happen.

Occasionally Enma or one of his guardians would come up to visit, but all the kids seemed to have forgotten how to smile. Fuuta seemed to have his head in the clouds even more than usual and I-pin was constantly in the training room, determined to get so strong that no one around her would ever be hurt again. She only stopped to sleep after one of the maids saw her collapse from exhaustion.

Bad news came that, since the Decimo was no longer in charge, no one could look after the children. Nana would've gladly taken them in, but she couldn't protect them from rival families and the only reason they were safe before because other families feared the Decimo, his guardians and all their allies annihilating them. Now that the Vongola were in a state of chaos without a Boss, their enemies were getting bolder in their attacks. Since the Decimo had not made clear what would happen to the children should he die, the Vongola had no legal right to hold on to the kids. The only way they could protect them was if the Decimo had given his personal permission to allow them to continue living in the mansion.

There were talks of hiding the children in CEDEF or even asking one of the Arcobaleno to protect them, but all of the ideas had some kind of flaw. The Bovino family had determined that, without the Decimo, they were free to reclaim Lambo, thus tearing him from the only real family he'd ever had.

~~~~~Flashback over~~~~~

"Wow…" Tsuna said as he walked through the maze of a mansion. "This place is bigger than I remember." His ears suddenly perked up when he heard an unusual sound.

"WAAAAHHHH!"

"Yup," he muttered. "That's definitely Lambo. I wonder what happened…" Tsuna ran towards the source of the crying noise. He finally arrived at an office room where Lambo was crying and rolling on the floor while I-pin and Fuuta stood protectively in front of him. They glared down two men in black suits who looked really confused.

"Come on, kid," the first one said. "There's no need to cry… we're just taking you back to the family."

"Lambo-sama doesn't want to go back!" Lambo bawled. "I want Mama! Waaahhh!"

"You'll get to see everyone at the Bovino mansion again though." The second one attempted to persuade Lambo. "We'll even give you some grape candy."

"I only want candy from Tsuna-nii!" The men sighed.

"You heard him!" Fuuta yelled. "Go away! We're his family!" I-pin nodded, still in her martial arts stance.

'I really don't understand what's going on…' Tsuna said as he observed the scene. 'But I have to do something… Think. What could be going wrong…' Then he realized it. 'Oh right… I never gave the word for what should happen to the kids if I'm not here…' he facepalmed his own stupidity. 'Okay…' he looked around frantically. 'I need paper and a pen…'

The men were pretty fed up at this point and were just about to shove past the two kids when a huge blast of orange dying will flames flung the men backwards. They were flung out the door of the mansion and landed on the stone walkway while the mansion's doors locked them out. The kids froze, even Lambo stopped his tirade on the ground. The flames looked so much like their nii-san's but…

Suddenly, a single piece of paper floated to the ground bearing a dying will seal that burned a bright orange. Fuuta picked it up and read it out loud.

I, Sawada Tsunayoshi, as the Vongola Decimo hereby give permission to Fuuta, I-pin and Lambo Bovino to stay in the Vongola mansion as long as they wish. Furthermore, said persons are under complete Vongola family protection and any attack on them is an attack on the entire Family.

Lambo stared at the paper. "Tsuna-nii…" he said as he remembered the kind brunette who never seemed to get mad or fed up with him. "Stupid Tsuna-nii… Lambo-sama doesn't need your help…" he said before bursting out in tears all over again. Fuuta smiled, on the verge of tears himself while I-pin was sobbing alongside him.

"Come on, Lambo!" he said brightly. "Let's go tell Enma-nii the good news."

Tsuna smiled as he watched the kids walk out of the room together. "They'll be okay," He said to himself.

A/N: Uh... yeah... I haven't been updating and I suck... I know. *cries* B-But I had exams and a bunch of other stuff and I have like 4 other incomplete fanfics and... okay I know, no excuse. I just suck. But thanks for hanging in there! You are all awesome.

So the next guardian I'll be writing for is Ryohei TO THE EXTREME! :D He's one of my favorite characters...

So I'll ask you to review! That'd be awesome! :D