"I'm home!" Tsuna shouted into the house, hastily toeing off his shoes.

"Welcome home, Tsu-kun! Oh and Enma-kun is here too!" His mother came to great them, smiling warmly at the redhead. "Come, make yourself at home! Tsu-kun, bring up snacks and something to drink!"

Tsuna sighed a bit and smiled nervously at Enma. "You can go ahead, you know the way," he then followed his mother into the kitchen.

"Okay…" Enma nodded awkwardly, shuffling upstairs to Tsuna's room.

It's been only a few days since their battle on the holy island of the Shimon family, and even though they reconciled and fought together against Spade, it was weird how quickly things went back to normal. It was strange how everyone welcomed them back, not even the Ninth punished the Shimon after hearing about the happenings from Tsuna. And here was Nana – would she still welcome him with a warm smile if she knew he wanted to kill her son? Enma shuddered at the thought – it was mere luck that he didn't do something terrible.

He arrived at Tsuna's door; pushing it in hesitantly he was greeted by the familiar messiness of his friend's room. Judging by the crumpled candy wrapper and other trash littering the carpet it wasn't cleaned since a while and as he took a careful step inside he almost tripped over a pink hand grenade. The thing wasn't dangerous enough to kill someone, but its explosion had still a strong impact and honestly, he didn't want to fly into the wall so he tried to avoid it, only to slip on a sheet of paper – one of Tsuna's tests. With small difficulty he managed to get to the small table, when the door opened.

"Sorry for the wait!" Tsuna held a tray in his hands and smiled sheepishly.

"Ah, be careful, Tsuna-kun, Lambo left a grenade there!" Enma warned, because he knew that Tsuna was just as clumsy as he.

"Whoa, where?" Tsuna lifted up one foot to avoid stepping on the weapon, the glasses on the tray dangerously shaking. "Geez, that Lambo, always leaving his stuff lie around!" Tsuna grumbled as he carefully shoved the grenade from the way with his foot. "I don't know why his family even sends him such dangerous things, he is still a child…!" He went on, as he made his way to where Enma stood, putting down the tray on the table. He then looked at the redhead. "You can sit down anywhere, Enma-kun! Ah…" he let out a nervous little noise when he noticed there wasn't even space for his friend to sit down. "I'm sorry, I'll clean up right away!"

He started to pick up the trash from the floor hastily, creating some space and Enma sat down awkwardly. As soon as he settled down Nattsu was rubbing its head to his thighs while purring softly. Enma smiled and hooked a finger under its chin, gently scratching the small lion. The flames from its mane licked his fingers softly, never hurting, never burning his skin. In fact, they were the gentlest, warmest and purest flames he ever saw and felt, but they were strong nonetheless. Just like its owner's.

Looking up he noticed Tsuna standing a few steps away with a pile of dirty laundry in his hands and watching them, a smile spreading on his round face when their eyes met.

"Nattsu sure likes you a lot," Tsuna mused, his smile softening. "He was very sad and worried about you, you know. So I'm glad that everything got solved in the end!"

Enma didn't know what to say but Tsuna didn't seem to mind it, since he went back to his "clean-up". The guilt and the shame that have been nagging him were back, and he knew, fighting together and defeating the enemy wasn't nearly enough to make up for his mistakes.

"I'm sorry…" he bowed his head down, unable to look at the 10th Vongola boss.

"I've told you, it's okay! It wasn't your fault!" Tsuna's tone was soft but chiding, sounding like he is tired of saying the same things over and over.

Enma peeked up from behind his bangs and saw his friend looking at him with the same expression he made at the castle on the island – gentle and forgiving. The redhead's throat closed up – he was forgiven so easily again… He averted his eyes, the other's gaze was too intense for him. Nattsu pawed his hand softly, blinking up at him far too worried for an animal. He patted the small lion comfortingly.

"I know that," he mumbled, still not looking up, "but… we've done bad things to you and your family. I even wanted to kill you…" He shuddered as the words left his mouth.

The silence that followed was heavy, unpleasant memories of their battles, of this whole misunderstanding coming to surface again. Tsuna let out a loud exhale after a few minutes.

"You did," he said, his voice calm despite of what he agreed with. It made Enma raise his head and look up at his friend. A slight frown marred the brown haired teen's face, an expression Enma saw on his face many times during their confrontation but always ignored. "But it was because Daemon Spade manipulated you all. Everyone knows that and no one's angry at you. So please, forget about it!" When he finished, Tsuna was smiling again, though his smile was weary. It said: I want to forget about it too. It was obvious that the happenings affected him just as much as Enma.

All Enma could do was to nod in silence, his throat feeling tight again. Tsuna returned his nod and went back to his previous activity, collecting the manga books that lay around into a neat stack and pushing it under his bed.

"Adelheid gets super scary when I do that," Enma noted and fought back a shiver.

Tsuna just looked at him in confusion, seemingly not understanding to what Enma was referring to, but when it dawned on him he stiffened and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

"I don't even want to imagine that…" he mumbled and shivered too. "She is really scary… though Reborn is worse…"

Right after saying this he let out a horrified gasp while covering his mouth as if he could make his opinion unsaid. He then looked around frantically to check if they were really alone and Reborn didn't hear him just now. The sight was quite comical, to think that an infant could terrorise a mafia boss candidate to this extent… though Enma couldn't blame his friend. He saw (and experienced as well) what that home tutor was capable of, and was almost amazed that Tsuna was alive and doing well.

Mostly.

Before he knew, he let out a small chuckle, Tsuna joining him shortly afterwards, his nervousness fading gradually. Enma let out a long sigh, thinking through the happenings of the past weeks for one last time. They all came to sabotage the inheritance ceremony and take down the Vongola, because they thought Vongola Primo betrayed Shimon Cozart. He wanted to kill Tsuna because he was told it was Tsuna's father, Iemitsu, who killed his family. Neither of this was true, it was all Spade's doing, and they let themselves to be fooled by him. He almost lost to his own power, being consumed by his own hatred, but Tsuna came to rescue him, stating his pride was at stake. They fought together and defeated the enemy, and even though this didn't negate the past events, everything turned out okay in the end. He knew he could trust Tsuna, he was right, when he told Adel, that he didn't think Tsuna could be a bad person.

But then, it came back to him.

A letter to Tsuna saying that he was in danger and asked for help. He remembered waiting for the young Vongola to show up, he waited for so long, hoping that Tsuna would come, but never did. He placed the letter on Tsuna's desk to a visible place, it was impossible for Tsuna to miss it. Recalling this made him uneasy and confused again – he saw that Tsuna rushed to his aid, so why didn't he come that time? Peeking up to the desk he saw nothing resembling his letter on the desktop meaning Tsuna must have picked it up, right?

"Enma-kun, are you okay?" Tsuna asked with a concerned look, having stopped with his rummaging after sensing the redhead's distress.

It was silly to fret over it now, Enma knew, but it really bothered him. He had to know, even if it would be bothersome to bring it up now.

"Why didn't you come to help me?" He posed the question, hoping he wouldn't have to explain.

"Huh?" Tsuna raised both eyebrows, shaking his head in disbelief. "I did! I went to save you…"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Enma cut the other off. It looked like Tsuna didn't know what he was talking about and it was baffling him. "I wrote you a letter, that I was threatened by those who wanted to sabotage the inheritance ceremony, and I was going to face them. I asked for your help."

"You were attacked?" Tsuna's tone rose with worry, a panicked expression in his face.

"I wasn't," Enma shook his head, his cheeks heating with shame. "I lied. I just wanted to know if you're really as bad I was told. I wanted to test you. So I wrote a letter and placed it on your desk. Didn't you read it?"

"I never saw it!" Tsuna ran over to said furniture, looking around, searching for the letter. "Where could it be? Maybe Lambo stole it? Or mom threw it away because she thought it was trash?" Driven by that idea he grabbed the bin by the desk and rummaged in it. After a moment he stopped, going completely stiff and pale as he took out a slightly crumpled envelope – Enma's letter. "What was doing this in a place like that?" He uttered in a small voice, then looked over at the redhead. "I haven't seen this at all."

"It doesn't matter now…" Enma mumbled feeling ten times worse as before.

"No way…" Tsuna whispered, tugging at his hair harshly, his eyes unfocused.

"Tsuna-kun?" Enma started to become worried, he didn't think his action would affect his friend so much. "I'm sorry, I know it wasn't…"

"No!" Tsuna interrupted him. "You wrote me a letter and asked for my help… and yet… what was I doing? I didn't know anything and sat around while you were in danger…"

"But I wasn't!" Enma tried to calm the other, but he didn't listen.

"You could have been!" Tsuna really looked like he was about to cry and Enma was rendered speechless. "It could have been the truth, and I'd have never known… You could have been in danger…!" He couldn't go on, his emotions becoming too much.

"Tsuna-kun," Enma tried again and this time he got the other's attention. "If you would have read that letter, you would have come… right?" Maybe it wasn't the best timing, but he needed to confirm (though Tsuna's panicked state should have been enough confirmation).

Another storm of emotions passed on Tsuna's face, but this was something Enma was familiar with (but tried to ignore it, like anything else that could prove Tsuna's innocence). His eyebrows knitted together, mouth settling into a tight line and his gaze was frightened. Just like always, the thought that he'll have to fight seemed to scare him, but slowly he clenched his fists and took a deep breath.

"Yes," his voice wasn't more than a whisper but it was honest. The look in his eyes changed too, a small spark of resolution glinting in them. "Yes, of course!" He repeated sounding surer this time. "I wouldn't be able to handle the thought of a friend being in trouble!"

Enma let out a relieved sigh, feeling like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. He knew he should say something, try to apologize again, reassure Tsuna in a way or anything, but nothing came out. How should he say it? What should he say?

Before he could muster anything the door swung open, revealing Lambo in the doorway. The boy wore his usual goofy grin, laughing loudly before marching into the room.

"Lambo-san is here!" He exclaimed as if they didn't see him. "Rauji isn't here, so you'll be my new subordinates! Play with me, come on!" He chanted, ignoring the tension completely.

"We don't want to!" Tsuna found his voice first, snapping at his youngest guardian. "Go and play with someone else, geez!"

The scolding made the five-year-old flush, angry tears brimming in the corner of his eyes. "Tsuna, you're mean! Take that!" He grabbed a pink grenade from his hair and threw it at them, then left the room screaming for Tsuna's mom for comfort.

They didn't have time to react, the impact of the explosion sending both of them flying. After the smoke and dust settled a bit Tsuna coughed and rolled over to his back.

"Ow… give me a break…" he moaned, sounding completely tired of Lambo's childish acts.

Enma just lay there. He couldn't get used to this, the liveliness in this house always taking him by surprise. If someone would have told him, that one day he'll get blown away by a five-years-old's grenade he would have believed it since he knew himself well, but that it would actually happen… and there lie Tsuna not so far from him being totally worn out from having to deal with this almost every day – it was kind of absurd. It was so absurd that he started laughing – before he knew both of them were clutching their sides from laughter.

With Lambo's interruption the tension between them ebbed, if not fading away completely. Enma let out a long exhale, trying to calm his giggles, and sat up. They smiled at each other when their eyes met, and Enma knew everything was okay. Well, maybe not everything, but things started to change for the better, he saw that now clearly. He made mistakes, they all made mistakes, but even so, they were able to laugh together like this and this was the only thing that counted.

He now knew, he could trust this boy next to him just like he trusted his own family. He knew, Tsuna would never betray him. They shared a strong bond, just like Primo and the first Shimon.

Who cares about an unread letter that was a lie anyway? He wasn't, that's for sure.

A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you liked this fic! It's my first one in the KHR fandom! (And typically that case, when something sounded better in my head than the actual fic ORZ)

I got this idea long ago, but I couldn't write it bc inspiration striked at the most impossible time OF COURSE, and when I got the opportunity to write my muse was nowhere to be found...