HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank GOD 2020 is over with!

Xanxus stared Harry down, fully prepared to fight his way out if need be. He might not get far, but he'd be damned if he didn't make the older boy work for it.

Right as he let his guard down, Harry had apparently picked up on something Xanxus had been trying to keep quiet. Mainly the fact he was much older than he looked, and was actually trapped in his child body.

Admittedly, his childhood was sucked far less than it had before, but talking about time travel wasn't something most adults were willing to accept without a lot of proof.

"So...how old are you really?" asked Harry.

"You're taking the fact your friend said I'm too old for this body rather calmly," said Xanxus almost conversationally. He wasn't dropping his guard.

Harry snorted.

"Hermione once used a rare magical artifact that can turn back time by an hour just to take more classes...when she was thirteen," said Harry bluntly. "It's rare, but not unheard of for temporal accidents like this to occur, but normally there's a focus or catalyst malfunction that causes it."

Xanxus blinked. Twice.

"Why in the name of god would a thirteen year old want to take more classes?" he asked in disbelief.

"Hermione was very driven. The only reason she stopped was because it was taking too much of a toll on her body and she realized that two of the classes were pointless for her," deadpanned Harry. "So how old were you when it happened?"

"...27," he said finally. "A trio of scientists were messing around with a device called the Ten Year Bazooka which switches anyone hit with it with their ten years older self. It exploded and I was in the blast radius. It's only supposed to last for five minutes."

"I'm guessing things didn't go this way before, otherwise you wouldn't have been so surprised to learn about the fact you have magic."

"Last time my Ma found out I had a certain ability and believed I was the illegitimate son of a powerful Mafia Don. I didn't even learn I wasn't his kid until I was sixteen, and he treated me like a feral brat he was trying to turn into a pampered idiot like his own sons," said Xanxus bluntly.

Xanxus and Harry had come to an unspoken understanding. Both had come to an agreement that they would not lie to each other. If they didn't want to talk about something, they said so outright. It was rather refreshing, considering the lies he had to put up with before.

Harry looked Xanxus in the eye.

"What do you want to do now? If you want, we can see if it's possible to return you to your original time. I can't guarantee we'll succeed, but we can try if you like."

Xanxus honestly thought the offer over. If this had happened earlier, he might have considered it. It would have felt like ripping a band aid off, considering he had been able to see his Ma again, but he would have gotten over it eventually.

Now though...he honestly didn't know if he wanted to change things.

He actually liked this timeline better, and with his knowledge he could alter things so that it didn't turn out the complete mess it was before. Harry was keeping his word and allowing him to get training that would let him reclaim his position as Varia Boss earlier than he could have expected otherwise. And to be honest, he had started to genuinely hate being in the Vongola.

"I...I don't know," admitted Xanxus.

Harry looked sympathetic. Then again, from what he had found out about his cousin's past, Harry likely knew exactly what he was probably going though.

"You're not going to tell my Ma, are you?"

"Not unless you want to. Honestly I'm just glad that George's ridiculous theory of you being some sort of wonky clone of Voldemort isn't real," admitted Harry.

Xanxus came to Harry a week later. He had taken his time to think about things and come to the conclusion that he didn't want to live in the world he had come from. Everything had gone to shit and he refused to live through that spineless coward Tsunayoshi's term as Decimo.

Besides...he rather liked the way things were going now, and to be honest he really didn't want to deal with the Ninth's bullshit or Iemitsu's stupidity directly anymore.

He wanted to see exactly what it was like to have actual family that he didn't want to murder brutally in their sleep.

Harry gave him an understanding smile, and said nothing.

Xanxus stared at the rather large and impressive collection of alcohol from across the ages, then at Harry.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"One, I wouldn't know what the good stuff is if you cracked me over the head with the bottle. Two, I want to make a deal with you."

"I'm listening," said Xanxus, suddenly all ears.

"I'll let you have access to some of the bottles in the collection if you agree to tone down the swearing and insults...at least around the kids and their mums," said Harry.

"Some?"

"Would your palate really appreciate the finer aspects of the bottles at your current age?"

"...Point. So you just want me to tone down my language?"

"Or use one they don't understand, like ancient Greek. Let's be honest, the first thing anyone really learns in another language usually tends to be swear words, and at least that way it'll encourage them to study new languages so Hermione can't bitch me out too much."

Xanxus smirked.

"I can work with that."

"Just remember, we don't tell your mother or the other women about this, you keep your drinking habits away from Teddy and anyone who will tell me off, and you keep your grades up."

"Deal," said Xanxus with glee. And here he thought he'd have to wait until he was eleven to get even a shot of firewhiskey.

Harry made sure they were alone and Teddy was sleeping before he broke out a bottle of his better vintages of firewhiskey. Xanxus poured a generous glass once he had the measure of how strong the alcohol content was. Considering he had never had it before and he had a much lower body mass, he wasn't about to get blindsided.

Nono had restricted him to two glasses of weak ass wine at this age, and that was only during certain events. He had also constantly bitched him out about the swearing and a thousand other little things no one bothered to teach him about until after someone had said something. He expected Xanxus to know the same rules and etiquette despite being a slum rat and never had the patience to teach him anything, relying on prejudicial tutors who hated him and made the feeling mutual after a single class.

As Xanxus savored the first real taste of booze in this timeline, he settled down and relaxed completely.

His estimation of Harry was almost to the point he wouldn't refer to the man as trash, because the green eyed wizard just got it.

He didn't try to make overnight changes of his ward, he didn't tell him off for his language, and he treated him like an actual thinking person as opposed to a prized pet to be shown off.

Though he had laughed himself almost sick when Xanxus took great offense to what Draco had said about his Ma and broke the prick's nose without any hesitation. Yeah, she might have been a whore until Harry found her, but he wasn't going to take any of that pomped up nancy boy's bullshit about it.

He took it as a good sign that Narcissa had hidden an unladylike snort over the matter when Draco went to hex him for the broken nose, only to find Harry's wand pointed at his temple already sparking in warning.

Draco had been extra snide and refused to let his son Scorpius near the 'uncouth feral brat' Harry had named the Black heir.

Xanxus couldn't resist the snide comment he had given back about how Scorpius was a stupid ass name, and that he must hate his kid to inflict something as dumb as that on him.

(Harry had raised Xanxus' allowance and had a proper forge built for him to play with after that incident, once Xanxus expressed an interest in blacksmithing.)

Four months later...

Harry had a very bemused expression on his face.

"What happened and why are you smiling like that?"

"Remember that important meeting I had to deal with, despite how ridiculous the other party sounded?" he asked.

"Yes? You didn't explain what it was about since I said I didn't want to go."

"Apparently your suggestion about George having a side business in the underworld has come back to bite us. The Tomaso family are interested in buying some of his products and since I apparently know about flames they thought I was part of an until now low-key famiglia."

Xanxus spat out his drink of water.

"They what?"

"The don even offered to get me tickets to a place called 'mafia land' as a show of good faith, since I was such a good sport," said Harry, snickering at Xanxus' expression. "I think he's trying to butter me up for a better deal later."

Xanxus stared at him in disbelief.

"You just went in for a meeting. How the fuck did you get tickets to Mafia Land?"

"So you've heard of it?"

"It's a neutral amusement park built on a moving island. It's a place only the more well off famiglia can relax and have fun, though only the more well to do ones bother to go because it can get expensive," said Xanxus.

"So...do you want to go?"

"How many tickets did he give you?"

"Only three," said Harry. "I mentioned my 'two sons' and no wife, so he likely didn't want to seem too eager to earn my favor."

"Let's bring Teddy, he'd probably enjoy it. Wait...sons?" said Xanxus, catching on to the wording at the last second.

Timoteo had always paraded him about as his 'son' but he had never really shown any real affection.

Harry had an awkward look on his face.

"Well I did formally adopt you in both worlds before your mother died, and it would be awkward to refer to you as my cousin when I named you my heir after all..." said Harry. "I know that technically you're reaching your thirties by now, but I had hoped you wouldn't be too angry at the presumptuousness of me calling you that."

Xanxus bit back the familiar stab of pain at that memory. Last time he only had a vague knowledge when she had died. This time she had passed peacefully in her sleep from a potions complication. She hadn't even known she was in trouble before her spirit was gone.

Harry, rather than shield Xanxus from the whole matter, had deliberately brought him in as a consultant so he could grieve in his own way. It had been a private ceremony, but his Ma had been buried with honor and had a very nice headstone to mark her grave. Harry made sure it had fresh flowers that she favored regularly...he could afford it and magic kept the flowers fresh much longer.

Compared to the pauper's grave she had (that took him three years to track down the first time) originally, the difference was night and day.

Xanxus might only be ten now, but it still hurt like hell.

"Xanxus?" asked Harry.

Red eyes met green.

"I don't have a problem with you claiming me as your son," he said quietly.

And honestly, he didn't. There was a strange sense of pride, that Harry had given a shit enough to actually adopt him as his full son like he had Teddy. From what he had found out last time, Timoteo didn't even bother to do that much.

Sure, Xanxus had been labeled as his 'ward' by legal standards, but there were no actual adoption papers. As if he needed another reason to hate that lying bastard.

Harry bent down a bit, to be eye level with Xanxus. It was another thing he appreciated about the slightly older male.

"If you don't want to go to the amusement park, I understand."

Xanxus shook his head.

"I do want to go. Its a good place to get information at least, and it'll give me an idea on what would allow us to properly branch out as a proper famiglia without having to rely on anyone else."

Xanxus didn't want anything to do with the Vongola. Too many bad memories...but he did want to rejoin the Varia, or at least collect a few people from it that were competent.

And the best way to do that was to either challenge Tyr or create an entirely new famiglia.

Harry didn't care about the whole mafia thing. So long as Xanxus was happy, healthy and wasn't causing whole-sale genocide or indiscriminate murder of innocents, what he did was his own business. He'd still support him, but he wouldn't try to dictate what his son did with his life.

"I'll leave the details to you then, since you know more about this culture than I do."

Xanxus didn't know what made him do it. Perhaps it was a remnant or a result of the childish body he was in now, but before Harry could turn to leave the room, the ten year old hugged him.

Harry stiffened for a split second, before hugging him back. Xanxus knew he was bad with physical affection...Harry had a rough childhood and Xanxus wasn't exactly the most 'affectionate' person around. But the fact his reaction time took less than three seconds made him happy, because it meant Harry didn't register him as a threat.

Just because he was trapped in his younger body didn't mean he was immune to childish acts. Like the day his Ma died...Harry kept quiet about the fact Xanxus had used him as his own personal teddy bear until three days after the ceremony where she was laid to rest.

If he had to call someone dad in this new timeline, he was glad it was Harry.