Namimori Japan, Vongola underground base, same day

It was just after dawn when he dragged himself out of bed and towards his shower. He wouldn't have bothered, not this week, but he had been given specific instructions by the Tenth to guard a small group of guest that where coming to the festivities. As he stood under the warm waters flow, he tried to calm his raging emotions down, emotions that where already on edge due to the time of the year, but now that the Tenth and lady K had decided to host an even on that day… he leaned his head agents the wall and let the hot water roll over his back as he tried to remember that they did it out of love.

"But she's not dead." He repeated to himself, much as he did every morning, in order to stay sane. As he finished his shower and walked into his room looking for something clean to wear, he sighed as he looked around at the mess he had let pile up. His room in the base was relatively small, he had a personal bathroom, he had requested that personally, a large desk and small work area, he even fit a sitting area in front of his large queen sized bed. You couldn't see much of the desk though, for it was covered in maps and papers, old missing person's reports and an old picture of a young smiling girl holding a small yellow and red kitten. The now large cat lay at the foot of the bed sleeping again after having woken up when he got out of bed. He pet the large cats head as he picked up a shirt from near the foot of the bed, determining that it was still clean and it as it seemed to least wrinkled, he deemed it good enough to wear to go meet the small group of people he had to pick up from the air-port.

Just as he finished putting on his suit jacket there was a knock on the door and almost before he finished knocking, a young man in a cow print shirt, now about 15, with large black wavy hair strolled carrying a tray with a glass of water, some fruit, and a large mug of coffee, black and no sugar. "Gokudera-san, Kyoko-hime sent me to wake you up," the boy said as he gracefully avoided the piles of papers that were stacked near the doorway as he made his way towards the man who was like an older brother to him. After the disappearance of his Haru-ni, Gokudera had been the only one to understand that she couldn't be gone forever. Over the years, he began to understand that although they both held on to the belief that she was still out there, Gokudera's belief came from a different kind of love. At first he was shocked, then a little jealous, of both of them for caring more about each other than him, but after a while, he under stood that those feeling where no less important than his own.

Gokudera for his part had grown attached to the little brat out of pure spite. Yamamoto, his so called best friend, had told him that he could not care about anyone if he let his search for Haru run his life, so Gokudera had set out to prove him wrong by becoming a sort of segregate father/older –brother to the little cow boy who was only about nine at the time. To everyone's surprise, especially the two involved, the relationship turned out grate. Gokudera was now in charge of training Lambo and making sure he stayed out of trouble, something that was getting increasingly more difficult now that he had started to show interest in girls. As Lambo approached his adopted Ni-san with a smile and a hot cup of coffee, Gokudera tried hard not to think about how Yamamoto would always comment about Gokudera's inability to stay mad at Lambo long enough to actually discipline him. "Stupid Base-ball freak" he mumbled under his breath as he excepted the coffee and took big gulps ignoring the burning sensation.

"You know Ni-san, it's not nice to call people names, and drinking it like that will only burn you." Lambo said as he placed the tray on a small stack of papers near the bed and began to pick up after his, in his opinion, irresponsible guardian.

"Yeah, yeah, you brat, I get it" Gokudera said as he sat back down at the foot of his bed, letting Uri lay his head on his lap so that he could pet him. He smiled as her remembered a time when he couldn't even get close to the cat without him scratching his face off, but like with the brat in front of him who was mumbling about how much of a mess his room was in, he and large cat had developed a better relationship after Haru had left him. Even him and his sister where on better terms, especially after that first year, she seemed to be the only one who could bring him back from the edge, he had even gotten over his sickness of seeing her face as they spent more and more time together those first few years. He smiled into his coffee sadly as Uri placed a paw on the hand on his head, seeming to have sensed the changed in his maters mood.

"You're thinking about her aren't you?" Lambo asked as he put some of the close he had fixed away, making Gokudera jerk his head towards him with a far off look in his eyes. "I can always tell when something reminds you of her, you always get this far off look in your eyes, just like now, or you smile a bit, but sadly so, as if you feel like you should smile because she's not here to smile with you" he finished with a sad smile of his own, mirroring the one Gokudera had just had as he handed him the bowl of fruits and sat next to him on the foot of his bed. Although he was only fifteen, he was tall for his age, and yet sitting next to the man he respected, more so even than his own boss, he felt like the child he had been when he first came to Gokudera for support over the loss of his Ne-chan. "Do…do you think we'll ever find her…?" he asked quietly. He hadn't asked if Gokudera thought she was still out there, for he knew in his heart she was, no what he wanted to know, what he wanted to be reassured of was that she would come back to them. Most didn't believe she had survived, more believed that what he and Gokudera where doing was unhealthy, but they didn't care. All they needed was to believe, in her and in each other. But in times like these, when Lambo was reminded of just how much of an impact she had and still did have on his life, he needed to be reassured.

Gokudera was quiet for a long time, staring at the bowl now in his hands at Lambo stared at the opposite end of the wall. From the corner of his eye, Lambo saw Gokudera feed a small piece of melon to Uri before he turned to him and smiled, a true smile that only he and Bianchi ever saw come from him. "Of course we'll find her, how could we not? We have to tell her how much we've changed, won't she be happy that we get along now? And she won't believe how big Reborn-san is. Or Uri!" He ruffled the boy's hair as he stood up, leaving his untouched fruit for his cat to eat and placing the empty coffee mug on the tray before downing the glass of water. He gave himself a second to breath deeply before he turned to his young charge again, his hands in his pockets in an attempt to hid his clenched fist We have to find her…no I have to find her, for both of our sakes.

Lambo looks up at his role model, grateful for his words, but he knows there is more hidden behind his guardian's straining smile than he wishes to let on, but for now he lets it go and smiles back. "Ok Ni-san"

Gokudera lets out a small sigh as Lambo picks up the tray and begins to leave his room, heading towards the kitchen. "Hay, go get ready, we have a mission, or rather I have a mission, but you're coming along, its been a while since you've been in the field." He said tossing Lambo a small notebook with the mission details and watched as the boy practically jumped for joy as he ran down the hall to put the tray away and get ready in time to meet in the garage. Gokudera smiled again as he watched the boy stumble but catch himself as he ran at full speed to the kitchen. He himself slowly turned towards the garage, going over the mission details he had memorized the night before. It was a simple guarding mission, which started with picking a small group up from the airport. Form what he remembered, only one was a representative of a family, the other's where hired guards.

It struck him as weird that a family would hire five people to go with one man, but to each his own, all his job was to make sure he got in and out of the Vongola base without harm, he could be killed on their door step of all he cared. If he recalled correctly, they were distantly related on his father side, not that it mattered he had not connection to that part of his line other than his sister, and although she had taken over after their father's death, they still didn't talk much about it. As he made his way into the subfloor parking garage and found the keys to the car he would be taking with him, a sudden feeling of urgency filled him, as if he needed to get to the air port now, so that he could get his distant cousin, Vincent he though his name was, into the base. But more so he had a driving need to speed up the clock, so that the celebration would start now rather than in a few day. And although he did his best to suppress the emotions, as Lambo got into the car, he couldn't help but notice the grin fighting its way onto his Ni-san's face, and Gokudera couldn't shake the feeling that he was driving in a direction that would lead him towards a path he had been waiting to take for a long time. And as he griped the steering wheel and flew out toward the airport, poor Lambo gripping his seat and praying to the gods they didn't crash, Gokudera couldn't help but laugh at the underline sense of excitement that was building in his gut.

Ok, so not a long chapter at all, in fact I think this is my shortest chapter, sorry .'' But! I am getting to the all important reunion! DUNT DUNT DAAAAHHH! Yes, my dearies, Gokudera and S.S will finally meet! But will he recognize her? Will she remember him? What about Lambo? The Tenth? Is she going to WANT to remember them!? All of these questions and more will be answered as soon and I answer them my self -_-'' hehheh... well anyway I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into what Gokudera's life has ben like over the past six years. Remember guys, it's been six years since the crash but ten years since the monga ended o sooooo... yeah hope you liked it, I'll be back soon ish I hope. Good night my wonderful readers, talk to you all next time ^-^