CHAPTER 7: Favor

Giotto.

Who is that?

Giotto, open your eyes.

I don't want to…

Someone was calling him, and he figured that he should have answered out of politeness. But in truth, he was really too comfortable to open his eyes. The gentle breeze combing through his hair felt heavenly, and the earthy scent of wood and fresh flower was also contributing in lulling him deeper to sleep.

Wake up, or you won't be able to return, Giotto.

Return?

Giotto then jolted up from his sleep, and all his drowsiness was gone in a poof upon him realizing the place he was at was nowhere familiar.

He was lying on a flower field of a beautiful clearing surrounded by endless forest. The sky above his head was a clear beautiful blue color, the light breeze ruffled his blond locks gently and birds tweeting merrily upon the branches. Everything around him was the perfect picture of harmony and peace, it should have relaxed his mind and body, save for one tiny detail: he knew for a fact that Southern Italy did not have this kind of forest.

How did he teleport himself to another country without his knowing?

He tried to recall how he got here, and came up with nothing. He could not even remember the last thing he did.

Giotto was legitly starting to panic when he heard something from behind him: the sound of leaves crushed under someone's shoes, and the light rustling of clothes.

Turning his head back fast enough to give himself whiplash, Giotto readily fell into a fighting stand. And soon enough he came face to face with a… silhouette?

"Huh?"

The silhouette had a half-mask made completely of Flame that rendered his face unrecognizable, his form shrouded in shadow and the only distinguishing feature on his person was the gravity defying hair swaying with the breeze.

"This must be a dream!" Giotto concluded.

Close. This is… the place where all dreams connect. A dream with no end, or more precisely, 'The N-zone'.

"'The N-zone'…" Giotto echoed in a daze, his brain had yet been able to process this very new and baffling information.

If you get lost here, you will never be able to return to the land of living. So keep vigilant, Giotto.

"Why am I here, then? Did I… die?"

Your body is very much alive, but I can only appear in front of you in a dead-or-alive situation, so I took the privilege to pull you here, thus leaving you really close to Death itself. For that, I… apologize.

"What's the reason for all of this? And who are you anyway?" Giotto took a step back from the silhouette that was standing too close to him to his liking. He didn't sense any maliciousness from the… thing in front of him but being a mafia boss for over a decade taught him a thing or two about it was better being careful than sorry.

You know who I am, Giotto. Think carefully, and you will understand.

Giotto did, he thought hard and realization dawned on him like a tidal wave coming down from over his head. The familiar voice that sounded identical to his own, the familiar feel of his own Flame and the way his Intuition just… gave way for the other man to speak, everything clicked into places like two pieces of puzzle fit together.

"You are… me."

The wind suddenly picked up, a particularly strong gush blew over him and the other and almost threw him off balance. Giotto closed his eyes tightly, braced him at the sudden onslaught of moving air. When he could open his eyes again, his heart gave a stutter beating upon the mirror image of himself donning his favorite pin-striped suit and an elaborate cape came into view.

The Flame of the Sky flickering on his forehead, glowing orange eyes and the calm humming and warmth of Sky Flame itself was the glaring evidence of who he was, and Giotto accepted them readily. Even the strongest Illusionist had trouble recreating an image accurate down to such details.

"How?"

The Vongola Ring's Miracles. The other man's lips moved but Giotto realized he did not actually make any sound at all. Instead, the words were delivered directly into his head.

"So that is what Signora Sepira meant when she said those Rings had extraordinary qualities."

Precisely. Due to the Ring's Miracles, the wielder was able to leave an Impression of their own soul inside the Rings- a gift to the younger Generations who would soon inherit it. A Clam that passes down its shape to its descendant.

"Then for what reason did you appear in front of me now, and not any of my successors."

To ask.. for a favor.

"A favor." Giotto once again echoed numbly.

The man- the other Giotto- stepped to the side gracefully, cape fluttered and rustled softly with the movement, revealing a long shaped wooden box lying on the grass. Its shiny and velvety black surface made it stand out starkly against the green of grass and vivid colors of flowers surrounding it. There was nothing decorated on the lid of the box save for a lone letter 'X'- the Roman equivalent of 'Tenth'.

"A coffin?"

Vongola soon strays from its original purpose from the second generation onward. Giotto flinched hard at the other man's revelation. In his heart, he had always known that outcome was inevitable, but it did not mean it did not hurt hearing it spoken out loud. However, many years from now, a young one who finally inherits our will and ideals shall appear. He is strong- in both terms of power and will- but also kind and accepting. And he vowed to bring Vongola to the way it was or he'd rather raze it to the ground. I had… a lot of hopes.

The despondency in the other man's glowing orange orbs hinted to Giotto that the next thing he heard wasn't going to be pleasant.

But too much had happened. And I was helpless, watching him destroy himself for the sake of the others. It reached a point that he was dangling too closely between the edge of living and death, between lucidity and total madness.

After suffering too long in silence, he was at long last crying out for help. That was when I was finally able to appear before him.

"And… the favor?" Giotto was almost scared of what the man was going to ask of him.

Please, take care of him.

Giotto was… speechless, and petrified, too. He watched as the man crouched down beside the closed-lid coffin, the hands ran close but never touching the lid. He directed at the coffin with a soft and sad look.

Still too young, yet already considered himself a lost cause. The mind worked in a wondrous way, Giotto. And in this place, where one's mind takes the form of exactly what we thought ourselves to be, he just goes and closes himself in a coffin.

"Why on Earth would one do that?"

Because he believed himself to have died at the age of 21.

Giotto shuddered, could not bring himself to imagine the life one led that resulted in such a mindscape.

I want to change it, to help him realize that no, he is still a living breathing human and thus needs to live like one. But what am I? A mere spirit living inside a ring. I am completely helpless.

"What could I possibly do for him, then?"

Open the coffin, Giotto.

"That's all I need to do?"

The man chuckled humorlessly from where he was, a gloved hand hovering just above the shiny surface of the wooden coffin.

Open it, Giotto. He's waiting.

Giotto kneeled by the other him's side, two bare hands grabbed the edge of the lid. As soon as his skin touched the surface of the coffin, a strong scent of flowers, nauseatingly sweet that it felt like they were rotting, assaulted his nose. Giotto hesitated, and he knew he could hide from the other him the fact that he was afraid of what he would find inside. He wasn't trying to, anyway. But what eventually gave him the will to open the lid completely was the near begging, sorrowful eyes of the other him. He felt it more than actually seeing it himself, and that made everything feel much more real and urgent.

He closed his eyes, heaved a breath and just pushed, the lid gave off easily enough and suddenly the solidity of the lid turned into thin air. Giotto opened his eyes wide, bracing himself for whatever was inside the coffin, only to come eye-to-eye with… G?

G was evidently panicking and shaking Giotto like a mad man. Feeling how tight his chest was, Giotto gasped, taking in a deep breath of sweet precious air, couldn't even remember when he had started to hold his breath.

Relieved, G promptly let go of Giotto's shoulder and flopped down on the chair next to his desk, completely spent. Giotto realized that he was still in his office, and not on a clearing surrounded by forest. He was in the middle of doing his paperwork, and G, G must have been in here to check on him.

"G? What happened?"

"WHAT HAPPENED? YOU ARE ASKING ME WHAT HAPPENED? YOU HAPPENED! I came in to check on you only to find that you've stopped breathing? What the hell is wrong with you, GIOTTO?"

And Giotto only blinked at his friend, while G was still hyperventilating and gaping at him like a fish.

None of what happened was a dream. He mused and watched G's face turning an angry shade of red, drowning his own hair in the process. I was close to dead because the spirit inside the Vongola Ring pulled my soul into that place- the N-zone. That's why I stopped breathing in my sleep.

But he couldn't just tell G that, could he? G would lock him up in an asylum immediately.

"I was probably too tired from all the paperwork." Was what he told G instead. "You can't blame me, though. Paperwork is hell. But I'm fine now."

"You- Are you- Do you need a break, Giotto?" G asked in worry and almost tentatively, and Giotto was surprised that the usual slave driver actually wanted him to take a break? He must have really scared G, then.

"Rest now and let these multiply tenfold? No thanks. I'll just go to bed extra early tonight. Don't worry, G, I don't die that easily."

Despite reassuring his friend that everything was fine, Giotto could not do the same to himself, remembering what had transpired in his not dream. What did he get himself into? What was he going to do next? He had been pondering those thoughts for days up until the day he went into town and met Tsunayoshi.

Now the cause of his newest headache was standing in front of him, in his office, looking slightly nervous but not overly so.

Giotto's eyes swept over the younger's person carefully, pleased to find that after a week of strictly bedrest and a lot of food, the brunet was looking much better physically, at least: his skin had regained some healthy color, his previously gaunt-looking cheeks had filled out a little, the bags had receded from under his eyes. Donning a simple pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt, the man looked positively a new person compared to a week ago. Now, if only Giotto could bring some light back into those dead-looking brown eyes of his, that would be ideal.

"I'm glad to see you looking much better, Tsunayoshi!" Giotto started, sharing with a younger man a sincere smile that the brunet couldn't help but returned. "How do you feel? How is everything going for you so far?"

"It has been wonderful, Giotto! Everyone in the Mansion has been nothing but nice to me. I felt safe and got a lot of rest. Most of my wounds are healed. It was… one eighty different compared to what I've experienced before!"

"I'm glad to hear that. But I see something is troubling you, still." Giotto mused, his chin casually rested on his laced hands, his gold eyes focused on the brunet whose nervous tics and the subtle signs of restlessness was barely visible to any lesser man that was not Giotto.

"No! No, I wasn't ungrateful or dissatisfied or anything. I- I just… it feels almost too good to be true, being here and treated so kindly while I've been practically useless and nothing but a bother to you. I- Ugh… I'm sorry." The last two words, the brunet mumbled under the breath so low that Giotto had to strain hard to be able to hear.

"Tsunayoshi, you don't need to do anything just to be treated right. Anyone has the equal right to kindness and shouldn't have to be useful just to be treated like a human." Giotto said sternly, and the younger man flinched hard from the words. "And what's more, don't ever think of yourself as a bother, ever again."

"I… understand."

Giotto sighed, shaking his head. He probably still had a very long way until he was able to convince the younger man that he worthed more than what he was apparently thinking of himself to be.

"You are probably itching to be able to do something, aren't you?" Giotto asked, gently as if he was afraid to hurt the other man with his words.

"Ah, that's quite right. I've been cleared by Father Knuckles and I figure it's about time I should work to earn my keep, anyway. That's why I came to see you today, to ask if you have any work for me to do."

Giotto sighed for the second time in the short span of a few minutes, this time the disappointment was actually aimed at the mountain of paperwork on his desk and around him in general.

"I guess you need to wait until I finish all of this first so I can find something for you to do. Or I guess I can have G arrange something for you. Oh wait, G is swamped too, goddamnit. I'm sorry, Tsunayoshi, how about you just enjoy your free time a little bit longer. I swear I'll get to it as soon as I can? I'm already too far behind and work will pile up even more if I delay them any longer."

"..." The brunet had yet to answer and Giotto took that silence as a yes and dived back into his work again, skimming and signing furiously. When he looked up a few moments later, he was surprised to find the brunet staring intensely at him then the piles of paper and file around the room. "What's wrong, Tsunayoshi?"

"...I've got an idea." Tsuna told him, "How about you let me help you with your paperwork?"

"Huh, really?" Giotto was taken aback that someone was willing to tackle paperwork of all things. "Sure, I guess you can try, but don't say I didn't warn you first, okay? These papers are a menace to deal with."

"I know, but from what I've seen so far, you shouldn't have to deal with them completely on your own. That's a recipe for nightmares."

"Well, I have G's help sometimes but it's still a lot. And G is drowning in work himself anyway."

"It was because you're dealing with them the wrong way. Here, let me show you." And with practice ease, the younger man expertly divided the nearest stack into neatly smaller ones by their categories after skimming the contents quickly, and even made little notes of each file's main points, then the brunet painstakingly marked the place where Giotto have to sign and write down his own opinion in each files. All Giotto needed to do was to read Tsuna's notes and write down his feedback and responses accordingly, then sign it instead of having to read the several-page-long documents of each folder by himself. And if Giotto needed to cross check the information from other files, they were readily within the same stack that he took it from, he no longer needed to turn his whole office upside down to look for them anymore. Giotto was pleasantly surprised that with the brunet's methodical help, he was able to go through the stacks of files several times faster then how he normally did. The both of them working together was even much quicker than when he had G tackled half of the files for him.

By lunch, both of them had finished the majority of the work, had them ready to be delivered to and double checked by G.

"Wow! I can't believe I might get to have lunch on time for once. Thank you, Tsunayoshi."

The brunet blushed and gave him a smile, then went back to his work. Only a small stack of files was left in front of him. Giotto rejoiced mentally at the fact that this was the first time he finished his work so early in the day, and was left with much free time in the afternoon that G couldn't take away from him.

"How about this afternoon, I take you for a proper tour around the Mansion and introduce you officially to my subordinates for once. You've been here for like a week and I've been swamp with those cursed paper. Some introductions are long overdue by now."

"That sounds wonderful, Giotto." The man replied brightly. And just when he was about to say something more, the door was wrenched open forcefully interrupting his words.

"G, please knock before you enter. Even Knuckles knows better!" Giotto exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Hush! It's an emergency!" G scowled, his eyes flitted to the brunet who occupied the desk G usually did when he helped his boss with his paperwork. "Tsunayoshi? So that's where you've been all morning? You'd better not distract Giotto from his work! He's already slacking enough as it is."

G's tone was a little harsh and accusing, and it made the youngest shift uncomfortably in his seat, eyes downcast.

Glaring at his friend, Giotto said, "Actually, he has been helping me with the paperwork all morning. Look! I've been able to finish them all in one go for the first time, all thanks to him!"

"You finished them all?" The incredulity on G's face was a sweet cherry on top of the satisfaction of having finished all his work and finally having some hard earned break. "You aren't pulling my legs, right? Everything?"

"See for yourself!"

G indeed went over and checked on all the neatly stacked paperworks on the floor behind the brothers.

"Heavens, you really finished all of them! And it has just been, what, half a day?"

Then he turned to Tsuna. Feeling incredibly awkward about how he had jumped into conclusion earlier, he said, "I'm sorry, Tsunayoshi. Great work! On behalf of Giotto and his tendency to avoid work at all cost, I thank you!"

"Hey!"

"Please help me whip him into shape from now on, Tsunayoshi!" Ignoring his friend's cry of protest, G continued.

"Tsuna."

"Huh, what?"

"Please, call me Tsuna." Tsuna blushed under the combined weight of two pairs of eyes staring intensely at him. "It feels more like… me."

The older pair shared a look and grinned. G said "I never would have thought for one who looks like a complete wimp, you would turn out quite decent, Tsuna. If only Giotto was about as good at his job as half of you!"

"You flattered me, Giotto isn't all that bad. He merely needs a push in the right direction." Chuckled Tsuna good naturally, who didn't even react to the 'wimp' comment, as though bad mouthing his supposed brother together with said brother's friends was a normal occurrence of his life.

"Enough about how incompetent I am, tell me, G; what the emergency you spoke about earlier."

"Oh, right. I actually wanted to talk to you about that damn Chinese Triad group's proposals. It's like the proposal they sent us was to fucking spite me or something. I only know some basic Mandarin and they sent me two books worth of hand written seal script. How the hell am I going to read that?"

"Don't we have a translator guy? Roberto something?"

"Took the week off, family emergency!""

"Is Alaude here? I happen to remember that that guy's Mandarin is flawless."

"Where do you think my shiner comes from? He said it's beneath him to do such a lowly job."

Giotto sweatdropped mentally, raised both hands in the universal gesture of giving up. "You would probably have better luck with Ugetsu at this point. I saw him practice his calligraphy all the time. Seal script will probably be child play to him."

"He has gone on that… music writing trip of his for like a week, remember?"

"Damn, what ill-timing."

"What am I supposed to do? I need to get this done by tomorrow, the messenger's scheduled to leave in the evening."

"Don't look at me, I haven't touched a character of Kanji for ages now. The best I could do now is write down my own name."

"Actually," Tsuna raised his hand timidly after seeing Giotto and G shoot back and forth for ages without being able to come up with a single solution. "I might be of help."

"What? You really can read these seal script shit?"

"Yes, it's quite fun once you get the basis of it. I still need some Kanji dictionaries though. You do happen to own a library, right? I can start this afternoon after I'm done helping Giotto with his paperwork."

"You are a true lifesaver, Tsuna! The library is on the West wing's second floor!"

"Japanese, Italian, and now Chinese. You do speak English and French, too, isn't it? I have quite a few stacks in those but you didn't seem to have any trouble with them." Giotto listed down on his fingers, his expression grew more and more impressed by each finger he straightened out to mark a language that the brunet knew.

Tsuna just nodded.

"Just how many languages do you speak, kid?"

"I know about… thirteen? Fourteen, if Latin counts. But only eight of them I can say I speak fluently." The man answered after like half a minute of counting in his head.

Giotto whistled, and G was speechless with a comical jaw drop. Even Alaude, the most well-versed man they knew, only spoke about six languages.

"Well, it's decided. You're gonna be Giotto's personal assistant from today onward!"

"Wait, what?" Both Giotto and Tsuna recoiled back from G's sudden announcement.

"It's a perfect arrangement, isn't it? Tsuna wanted something to do, and Giotto clearly wanted to keep his eyes on his younger brother. It's about time we retire our translator guy, anyway. He sucks at his job. And if Tsuna can help you work more efficiently, I don't see a reason that you will deny this."

"I guess you may have a point?" Giotto did see the reason behind his friend's work. Working in close proximity would certainly help him assess the brunet better. "What do you think, Tsuna?"

"I'm just glad I can be of help. I guess that settled then." Tsuna shrugged, not caring the least bit about the amount of work he had to face in the future . He stood up, exchanged the last stack of paperwork on his desk for the dreaded documents in G's hands and prepared to leave.

"Where are you going, Tsuna?" Giotto asked incredulously as the youngest made to open the door.

"To the library? You need it done by tomorrow, don't you?"

"Not before you have lunch, you workaholic!" G grabbed him back by the scruff of his shirt before he could escape the room and promptly forget about lunch. "You need to eat to keep your strength up. Didn't Knuckles strictly instruct you to not skip any meal?"

"Oh, right. I completely forgot."

After lunch, Tsuna proceeded to hole himself up in the library for the whole afternoon to work on translating the Mandarin document given by G. In fact, both G and Giotto saw neither hair nor tail of the younger man from lunch until early next morning when he dropped off the files on Giotto's desk. G was ecstatic at first, looking at the papers filled with Tsuna's neat writing in Italian, but the brunet's less than healthy state did not escape his eyes either.

"Tsuna, you looked horrible!" Giotto beated him to voice his concern though. "Did you stay up the whole night to work?"

"It's only one night. And G needs time to go over this before delivering them to the messenger so I tried to finish translating them as soon as possible." However, the man swayed where he stood, his eyes bloodshot and glazed over in exhaustion.

"Goddamnit, sit down before you keel over! Did you even have dinner last night?" G asked, hands shooting out to steady the younger man, then dropping him instead on the nearest couch to Giotto's desk. Then G did not waste any time calling for the nearest maid to bring the brunet some food and a glass of warm milk.

"… I'm fine, normally I can… go even longer than this without rest or food."

"You're just recovered for god's sake, Tsuna. You shouldn't have pushed yourself like this. Gosh, Knuckles would kill me regardless of his no-killing-oath if he knew I let you pull an all-nighter right after you were cleared to leave your bed!"

"Please don't make a big deal out of it! See, I'm c-completely f-fine…" and the man promptly passed out where he laid on Giotto's chair.

Giotto half wanted to tear his hair out at the brunet's to-the-last-minute stubbornness, but refrained himself. He then came to gently pick up the man from the couch in a bridal carry, turned to G and said. "I'm taking him to his room. After you've done dealing with the files can you please notify Knuckles to check on him later?"

"Sure, sure, just go take care of him already." G waved his hands dismissively. "Such a handful though, that 'brother' of yours."

"Trust me, G. He's worth it."

And from the bottom of his heart, Giotto believed it.

However, two weeks later, Giotto started to doubt his own life choice, or retracted his comment earlier about taking the brunet in was worth it.

In the span of two short weeks, the brunet had collapsed from overworking himself thrice! Three times in two weeks! He kept forgetting to eat and sleep once he was engrossed in doing something, and in this case- Giotto's goddamn paperwork. And now, the younger brunet had gone and contracted some kind of super virus that left him bedridden for days already.

Looking pitiful from the bed with flushed cheeks on ghastly pale skin, the brunet spoke hoarsely between the fits of coughing.

"I'm sorry, Giotto… I don't know why I'm-" cough cough "-like this- I really don't want to trouble-" cough cough "-anyone…"

Giotto winced in sympathy at the harsh coughings the brunet made. He ran his hand gently through the younger's sweat matted locks of brown hair and could not help the pang in his chest having to see the brunet suffer from his sickness. Tsuna sighed contently as the coolness of Giotto's hand soothed his burning head and snuggled closer to the hand unconsciously. Both Giotto and Knuckles, his friend and at the same time- his brother's physician smiled at the effortlessly adorable picture of a freaking grown up man.

The show of cuteness, however, could not save them from Knuckles' wrath. The dark haired priest thundered while rummaging through the medical box the priest was always carrying around on his person. "Don't EXTREMELY apologize to Giotto but to your own body for leaving it in a state like this, Tsunayoshi! Giotto should know better than allowing you to overexert yourself to this extent!"

"It's not… Giotto's fault!" The brunet replied meekly. "I only want to help…"

"Granted, look how it ends for you!" Knuckles told him sternly "From now on, you are only allowed to work for half a day at a time, absolutely no skipping meals, no overnights. I'll EXTREMELY check on you! And don't you dare leave this bed UNTIL you've fully recovered!"

Then he turned to Giotto, who was cowering in fear under Knuckles' stern gaze. "And you, I know you are swamped in work but you are the older sibling here, are you not? You should learn to deal with your paperwork properly for once, and not have to EXTREMELY rely on your brother's help all the time. Didn't you bring Tsunayoshi here to take care of him, not the other way around?"

"I'm sorry, Knuckles! Please don't be mad! I promise I will try to be a better boss, and better brother, too!" Giotto begged his priest friend, who would become EXTREMELY frightening if his patient foolishly refused to listen to his instructions. Giotto had become the victim of his friend's tendency one too many times to know that if he did not try to appease the man soon, there would be hell to pay.

Relatively satisfied with Giotto's promise to look after his brother, Knuckles then left for his church, grumbling all the while about the stubborn brothers who never knew how to take care of himself. Giotto sweatdropped mentally, secretly glad that his sleep was saved from being interrupted very rudely by the priest's yells of EXTREMEs every morning at the crack of dawn for training.

Giotto flopped unceremoniously on the seat next to the brunet's bed. He gave the younger man a small smile and patted him on his head.

"Knuckles seems to have let us off the hook for now." Giotto scratched his head. "Well, let's not do that again. Knuckles is the last person on Earth I want to cross. His revenge can be very… ear-rupturing."

"I can certainly see that." Tsuna chuckled lightly, only to break into coughs again. Giotto was quick to offer the brunet some water to lessen the pain of his aching cough, and some more medicines prepared by Knuckles.

"Thank you…" The brunet said weakly.

"Knuckles is right, though. I should have taken better care of you. I'm your older brother after all!"

"But I'm not, am I? Your younger brother?" Tsuna said, with a sad expression. "Despite you saying otherwise, I know I'm not."

"Is that why you've been working yourself to the bones? You're afraid that I'll abandon you once the truth is out?" Giotto didn't feel the need to lie to the brunet anymore. The younger man could see through it as easily as breathing anyway. But sometimes, he wished that both of them didn't possess such an ability, so that they could entertain the luxury of some little white lies.

"..."

"Do you ever know the notion of a chosen family, Tsuna?"

"..."

"My mother died early. My father, well, he loved me I think, but his family clearly didn't and they forced his hand to get rid of me. My mother's family was also disgusted by me. They may have grudgingly adopted me back recently but it was only due to the fact that my Famiglia's influence and power would benefit them greatly." Giotto started with a grim smile. "In short, I have none. But it does not mean I can't ever have one."

"Those you met at dinner on the first night, I chose them to be my Family regardless of their backgrounds and their shortcomings, as long as they chose me, too."

"The same applies to you too, Tsuna. I chose you to be my brother, and already think of you as my brother regardless of our blood relation. Now if only you would do the same too."

"So for the last time, Tsuna, please do not misunderstand that I'm taking you in merely to exploit your usefulness and that I will discard you eventually. Even if you turned out to be completely no good, I still gladly take care of you like I will to any actual blood-related sibling."

"…I-I see."

"I will leave you to rest, and to think properly about what I said, okay?" After a moment of silence, Giotto broke it by tousling the younger man's silky brown lock like he would a kid, earning himself an indignant cry from the younger boy. "I'll be back for lunch and some refreshment."

The brunet nodded with a small shaky smile.

Giotto stood up and prepared to leave, only to be pulled back by one of his sleeves.

Giotto looked back at the brunet in surprise, only to find that the younger man was as bewildered as himself about his own clingy behavior.

"Yes, Tsuna?"

The younger man blushed hard under his brother's scrutiny but braced himself and asked in a hesitant tone.

"Could you please stay for a while? I don't… I don't want to be alone. I-I mean, if you're free, of course! I don't want to interfere with your work."

To say the request threw Giotto off guard was an understatement. It had been a month since Tsuna came to live with them in the Mansion, and never had the brunet's guard been dropped once. He had been closed off and overly polite the whole time. It seemed like both his weakened state and their newest conversation had managed to break the ice enough for the paranoia brunet to make such a request.

"It's more than okay, thanks to your help I have plenty of free time anyway! I don't mind keeping you company at all." Giotto grinned and the brunet answered with a small grateful smile. Giotto dared to say that the younger man actually felt relieved. "We can finally have some quality bonding time together for once instead of hunching over piles of paperwork!"

And Giotto was pleased to find that the younger man made such pleasant company. He didn't speak as much as Giotto did, but he knew how to keep a conversation light and interesting with easy charms and sassy humor. The man himself was quite knowledgeable in many fields as he was able to go neck to neck with Giotto no matter what topic they spoke of, but he was also very humbled, making it very hard for Giotto or anyone to dislike him.

And during this conversation, Giotto was able to discover many things about the brunet. Some facts were rather concerning like how Tsuna kept hearing voices when he was alone or being too idle. That was why he preferred keeping himself busy and his mind occupied. He was already dreaded about Knuckles' order not to work at all in the afternoon. He was afraid that if he had too much free time at hand, his mind would be plagued nonstop by the disembodied voices, then he would go out of his mind. Giotto too was really anxious about Tsuna's revelations, and wondered if the voices and his less than sorry state of health were the results of his impromptu trip from wherever he had been before to here. He really needed to get to the bottom of this fast if he wanted the brunet to recover from whatever he had been through before properly.

Tsuna also revealed to him how fond he was of children and Giotto came up with a brilliant idea.

"Knuckles runs an orphanage inside his church, you know? And he could always use a helping hand or two. If you have free time in the afternoon maybe you can check it out?"

"That sounds… marvelous, actually! But is Knuckles gonna be okay with this?"

"Why not? Knuckles is dying for someone he could trust to help take care of the children and the Sisters there always have their hand full. I think he might even jump around in joy!"

That and he can help Giotto keep an eye on the brunet. At the church within Vongola's territory Tsuna would be safe, and most importantly if his frail health acted up any time, Knuckles would be close by to take care of him. Also the brunet would not be too bored being cooped up inside the Mansion around the clock. This arrangement was really killing three, or even four birds with one stone. He doubted Tsuna would be able to hear any voice past the crowd of children he was going to have to deal with.

"You… really trust me that much?" The younger man asked quietly.

"If I don't, I would never have taken you in, Tsuna." Giotto gave the younger man a gentle smile, his gold eyes bored into chocolate ones. He mustered all the most earnest emotions he could have and poured into his words, hoping the younger's Intuition would tell him just how much trust he put in the brunet.

Much to Giotto's relief, Tsuna returned with a small but sincere smile of his own, and his own Intuition hummed contently from the back of his head.

Good job, Giotto.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Present, Palermo.

"Renato!" Someone was banging on the door to his rented apartment and yelling on top of his lungs. "Get the fuck up, Renato! We've got a job."

The man whose name was called scowled in his drowsy half-dreaming state, his hand already reaching the trusted gun under his pillow, very much tempted to blast away the source of the annoying shouts along with the door.

"Renato!"

"Shut your fucking mouth! I heard you already since the first time."

Not blasting the door open like his original intention, the man whose name was Renato pushed the door open straight to the one at the door's face. He was tall and very handsome, with spiky jet black hair and even darker eyes. He was wearing a simple pair of slacks and a wrinkled orange dress shirt, as though he only just woke up and threw on his body whatever was nearest to him.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"What did I tell you about bothering me before coffee, Antonio?"

"N-not to…! But this is urgent, Renato!" The other man with a freckled face and mousy brown hair cried out, clearly panicked at the dangerous tone Renato took. "I wouldn't even dream of bothering you at this hour otherwise!"

"Nothing is fucking more urgent than coffee." Renato slammed the door behind him, heedless of the fact that the other man had yet to enter. The mousy hair guy, now dubbed as Antonio, scrambled to keep the door open to get in since he did not want to be locked out by the automatic lock. The dark-haired man's apartment was quite a luxurious and spacious one with an automated door and cutting edge voice-activated inhouse systems. The mousy haired could not help but envy the older man for being able to afford such an apartment while he had to huddle in a moldy studio nearby.

Renato grumbled while treading into his overly expensive kitchenette to make himself a hot cup of coffee on his traditional Moka Pot. The sound and strong aroma of the coffee brewing had managed to wake up another occupant of the apartment. From inside of Renato's bedroom, a woman with a killer body stepped out with only a seer nightdress covering her body. She yawned in an overly lewd way, coupled with her very see-through outfit, it had Antonio averted his eyes in embarrassment.

"What's the ruckus so early in the morning, Renato?" The woman asked. "Oh! Hi, Antonio dear!"

She draped herself over Renato's shoulder, greeting the mousy hair man cheerfully, only to be pushed away by the man in favor of his much needed cup of heavenly espresso. In contrast to his sumptuous apartment and most everything else in it, the cup Renato used was made of some cheap porcelain, chipped and even cracked in some parts. Clearly it was well loved by the man since the silly-looking decorative calligraphy along the line of 'World's great hitman' or something on the front was too faded from overuse to actually tell what it read.

"What's the job that you woke me up from my much needed sleep for?"

"Busy night, huh Renato?" Eyes flitting over the scantily clad woman with several suspicious-looking marks on her neck, Antonio quipped with a grin, only to recoil from Renato's piercing glare.

"Go straight to the point, Antonio."

"R-right! Well, Vongola Decimo was rumored to have gone missing. And the bossman wants us to- "

CRASH!

"Shit!" The cup of espresso suddenly fell off Renato's hand and crashed to the floor with a loud noise and broke into thousands of pieces. Renato cursed, his hand was burnt from the scalding hot liquid but he paid it no mind. He was more occupied with the words spoken from Antonio's mouth.

Renato grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and growled. "What did you just say?"

"The bossman want us to-"

"No! Before that you idiot."

"V-Vongola Decimo has gone missing?"

For the whole three years he had known Renato, Antonio had never seen the older man make an expression like this. He had seen Renato happy, angry or even sad, but never caught him off guard. The expression on his face now was a combination of shell shock, anger and something akin to, god-forbidden if someone could put Renato in the same sentence with this word, scare.

Renato let go of his shirt, which was wrinkled badly from the force of the older man's hand. Antonio stumbled back. He watched as Reborn stared hard at the broken shards of porcelain on the floor.

"Re-Renato?" Antonio asked carefully. "What's wrong?"

Renato never gets to answer, because right at that moment, the phone that he threw on the island of his kitchen went off with a blaring ringtone.

He moved fast to where the phone was but clearly hesitant to pick it up. From where Antonio was, he was still able to make out the caller was an unknown one, the phone number was all blurred except for the last two numbers- 59.

Antonio didn't know what that meant, but judging from Renato's serious expression, he probably knew who the caller was.

"Get out!" Renato grunted to both Antonio and his female companion.

"What? You kick me out now? I haven't even had breakfast yet!" The woman protested, but got cut off by Renato's glare.

"Get out! Or I will make you."

And that was enough a cue for both of them to scramble to pick up their stuff and see themself off.

But the glimpse of Renato's anguish when he was listening to his phone was a sight Antonio would never forget.

End of chapter~

Now that's a long chapter, please tell me what you think! Love you all!