WARNINGS: Two-Shot. Drabble sequence. Fluff and angst. Canon compliant, at least where it counts. Non-explicit SLASH. Adopted story.

NOTES: Hello! Welcome to the second part of my Soulmate!AU series. Well, it's not actually a series—the works have no relation between themselves except for the fact that Harry is paired up with someone in the KHR universe.

Anyway now is Lambo's turn! This story was actually adopted from Mez'N'Ser's Story Basket. (Thank you darlin' for letting me run away with it! I hope you enjoy how it turned out!)

This one will be rather short, with only two chapters (10 drabbles each). There may be some more extra drabbles depicting scenes that didn't make it to the main story, if I have the inspiration. (Promps are accepted for those!)

Aaaand, that's all. Enjoy!

AS THUNDER ROLLS

Everyone had a soulmate, it was just a fact of life.

.

1 – Love

Everyone had a soulmate, it was just a fact of life. For many, it was reassuring to know they would never be truly alone in the world. This certainty was founded in the fact that it was well known and proved that as long as their soulmate lived, they would be able to hear them in their thoughts.

Of course, the system was not perfect.

Soulmates were not able to hear each other unless both of them had reached the age of five. Scientists theorized that this occurred because it was only at this age that human brains were developed enough to deal with the kind of stress adding another person's consciousness on top of their own was prone to cause.

They were also unable to hear or learn the other person's name until they met face to face for the first time. (The mind subconsciously blocked the information, perhaps to give love a chance to grow naturally, without the added weight of a name.)

The day Harry James Potter turned five, he hadn't been able to sleep.

For about a month, he had been subjected to the endless whining of his cousin, Dudley, who was not the littlest bit happy about the fact that he now had to share his mind with an annoying, icky little girl that was, in his own words, demanding and whiny. (No, Harry did not think his cousin had it wrong and was describing himself instead. He didn't.)

Dudley couldn't care less that the girl in question was his soulmate, someone who would forever be at his side—which completely baffled Harry.

The younger boy had secretly listened to his Aunt as she tried to make Dudley understand that being able to hear his soulmate's voice was a beautiful and precious thing, but the pudgy boy stubbornly refused to change his mind.

Harry, on the other hand, understood all too well what his Aunt was talking about.

Just the idea of having a connection so deep with someone else, someone that would always be there for him no matter what… It made Harry shiver and glow, breathless in the wake of hope he had not dared feel for a very long time.

He had waited for his birthday with belated breath, excited and impatient and so very alive, but then midnight struck and… nothing happened.

Slightly disappointed but not yet willing to give up, Harry waited the whole day, but still nothing happened. Then a week had passed, and as there had not been a single whisper in his mind, that tiny piece of hope Harry had started to harbour in heart was ruthlessly crushed.

The worst part was that his relatives took notice of his depressed mood, quickly worked out the reason behind it, and gleefully started to rub the fact in his face whenever they had the chance. Even Dudley stopped whining and started gloating instead, smug in the knowledge that he had a soulmate while the freak did not.

Harry was miserable, but he slowly learned to live with it.

(Maybe the Dursleys were right. Maybe he simply didn't deserve to be loved.)

2 – A voice in my head

Harry continued to believe he was soulmate-less until he was almost seven years old.

He had been busy dusting the shelves of Dudley's second bedroom, eyeing some abandoned broken toy soldiers longingly and pondering whether snagging one or two and smuggling them into his cupboard was worth the risk, when suddenly there was a loud voice shouting on his ear.

'I will show them!'

Startled, the scrawny little boy almost jumped out of his skin and whirled around, sure that he had been discovered and was about to be punished. An apology was half-way out of his mouth when he noticed that there was no one there. He was alone.

Had he imagined it?

'I'm the great—! —will defeat Reborn, and then everyone will have to bow to him!'

Harry's eyes widened as he realized that the voice was inside his head.

It was impossible! Harry didn't have a soulmate! The Dursleys had been sure that Harry was a soulmate-less freak, born without a destined one because he was unnatural and a disgrace that should have never been born!

(What little Harry didn't know was that everyone had a soulmate, and that there were only two reasons for a person not to be able to hear them: if they were not yet of age, or if they had already passed away. In this last case though, if they hadn't yet met face to face, the part that continued living was gifted with the deceased one's name.

But the Dursleys were petty and hateful people, and they never taught Harry about the bond. The misinformation worked well for them, as they could use it to make the little boy's life even more miserable. They knew it was not going to last, but they were happy to milk it for as long they were able to. As Harry never learned his soulmate's name, he was bound to hear them sooner or later. Had he known that, he would never had believed his relatives' claims, as he would have been safe in the knowledge that his bonded was still very much alive, just young.)

Dubious but nonetheless excited, Harry tentatively projected a thought towards the voice in his head.

'Are—Are you my soulmate?'

There was sudden silence as the other stopped the mad rant mid-word, and Harry worried that it had been just a fluke and nothing else, that he had truly just imagined it and—

A shrill scream pierced his mental eardrums and Harry flinched, reflexively covering his ears with his hands even though he knew it wouldn't be of help at all.

'THERE IS A VOICE IN—'S HEAD! SOMEONE HELP!'

Harry could not understand the younger voice's cries, but the panicked tone was enough to distract him from the building headache and prompt him to try and reassure the younger boy, for the voice sounded male.

'I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm not going to hurt you! Please don't cry!' He begged desperately, but his words didn't seem to be having any kind of effect, if the increasingly distressed crying was anything to go by.

Starting to panic himself, Harry resorted to producing soft cooing and shushing sounds, feeling rather ridiculous as he was standing alone in a room with broken toys and the duster he had been using lying at his feet, forgotten. Little by little, the cries subsided and Harry breathed out a sigh of relief.

It took at least thirty minutes for the other child to calm down completely, but Harry honestly didn't mind.

(How could he, when he had just made a friend who Dudley would never be able to scare away?)

(How could he, when he had just met his soulmate?)

3 – Language barrier

For some reason, Harry had never imagined his soulmate might not speak English. Not even before he started thinking that he didn't have one to begin with.

It was a startling discovery, and one he wasn't really happy with.

And how could he be? He had been longing for his soulmate for so long… It was a little bit disheartening, to suddenly be able to communicate with him but not understand a word of what he said.

After calming down, the voice had asked him something in a rather tame tone—at least compared to his earlier shouting—, and it was then that Harry realized that he had no trouble recognizing the questioning tone, but the words escaped him completely.

His stomach dropped in dread.

'I—I'm sorry. I don't—I—I can't understand what you are saying,' he thought apologetically, ashamed of his inability to understand.

There was a moment of silence, and Harry bit his lip nervously. What if the other was disappointed? What if he didn't talk to Harry ever again?

'Ara—Etto… English?' The other asked tentatively, words heavily accented. 'No Italian? No giapponese?'

Harry's heart leaped inside his chest, hope blooming and growing without inhibition. He—he understood!

'Sorry,' he repeated sheepishly. He had no idea what giapponese was, but he was one hundred percent sure he didn't speak it. 'I only know English.'

'It's… good. —doesn't speak English very good, but he can… he can learn,' his soulmate said with firm determination, and Harry felt so happy he could cry. His soulmate was willing to learn English for him, to be able to communicate with him, to get to know him. And he knew two other languages, too! Harry was amazed, his soulmate was a genius!

'I can learn, too. Italian and—and jiaponise? For you.'

'… You do that for—?' The other asked in the tiniest voice Harry had heard from him yet. It sounded uncertain and small, all the boisterous confidence displayed before evaporating into thin air. As if he couldn't quite understand the notion of someone doing something so big for his sake. Harry narrowed his eyes. He knew intimately how that felt; he lived it every day with his relatives: utter disregard, unless it was to mock him or order him around. He didn't like the implication that his little soulmate was going through something similar.

Harry would not stand for it. He was going to make damn sure that the other had all the attention he needed from him from now on. If nothing else, he would always be there to listen to what the other had to say.

They were going to do this together.

"Yes," he finally stated in a firm voice, both in his mind and aloud.

It felt like a vow. It tasted like a promise.

4 – Thunder and Lightning

Lambo was many things.

He was loud, he was obnoxious and he was five years old and a hitman of the Bovino Famiglia who loved candies and grapes. He was five years old and had been kicked out of his home with the promise that if he killed the Number One Hitman in the World, he would be accepted back.

Lambo was tenacious and determined, even in the face of his continuous losses; he was brash and acted without thinking, which usually ended in him being defeated by his own weapons. He was a crybaby who was easily upset, but who was also easy to calm down with just a bit of candy and some affection.

He was also a genius, even if nobody except his kind beautiful soulmate acknowledged it.

Lambo was only five years old, but he knew how to handle an assorted range of weapons with ease. He couldn't read for the life of him, but he arrived in Japan speaking its language fluently, even though he had only been learning it by ear for about five months.

He was loud and talked big, but he didn't actually believe everything he said. He just knew that if he didn't speak that way, he would be completely ignored.

Lightning understood, and he didn't mind.

He was always there for Lambo, listening to his rants and his plans, his dreams, his fears. Lightning never ignored him, and often made him laugh. He even offered Lambo help with his English! Admittedly, Lambo didn't need the help that much (his English hadn't been that good to begin with but it hadn't been horrible either, and he had mastered it pretty easily after only two months of constant talking with his soulmate), but it was the thought that counted. Moreover, Lightning insisted that he wanted to learn both Italian and Japanese, just for him! Just for Lambo!

(The little boy had never had a person do something so nice for him. He had never had a person to praise him and admire him but also scold him and listen to him. Lightning did all that and more and Lambo was fully convinced that his soulmate had to be the most kindhearted person in the world. Tsuna-nii was second.)

It was two months after they first heard each other that they decided to give each other nicknames.

Lambo decided to call his soulmate Lightning because of how fast the older boy could be, especially when he was running away from his bullies. (The knowledge that some stupid kids liked to bully his soulmate made Lambo want to introduce them to his grenades. Lightning was adamant that he should not harm them though, which irked him a little—but that was just how his soulmate was. Forgiving and oh so very kind.)

In return, Lightning started calling him Thunder. He said it was because of how loud Lambo was, as even in his thoughts the younger boy was always shouting. Lightning assured him that it didn't bother him, though. In fact, he had confessed that he found it adorable. (Lambo had sputtered and blushed madly then, and had proceeded to ferociously deny it. Lightning had only laughed at him. The meany.)

'It's true,' the older boy had thought, still chuckling. 'But there is also the fact that you simply can't have the lightning without the roll of thunder, so it fits.'

Lambo had grumbled for show, but he agreed.

Wholeheartedly.

5 – The Ten Year Bazooka

The first time Harry experienced the effects of the Ten Year Bazooka was a month and a half after his soulmate's fifth birthday and their first meeting.

Luckily, he had been sitting on a swing on the park, working on the pronunciation of the twenty Italian words his soulmate had taught him and trying not to think too much about the fact that said soulmate had just boarded a plane to Japan the day before. Alone.

He could not understand everything the other boy had said when he had tried to explain the why to him, but Harry got the gist of it, and he didn't like it.

Apparently, his 'Famiglia' had kicked him out. And they had told him that to be accepted back he had to kill someone who was great. And for that he had to go to Japan and find that person first.

Now, Harry knew that his soulmate was quite a genius for his age, but he still doubted he would be able to really kill someone. Much less if this 'someone' was great. He was five! Harry had thought the Dursleys were bad, but his soulmate's family sounded even worse. They sent a child to murder someone. A child!

'Yare, yare. Don't worry so much, my Lightning-chan. I'm certain that little me will be just fine.'

Harry let out an embarrassingly loud sound of surprise as he fell out of the swing. He coughed but quickly got to his feet, wildly looking around as he tried to pinpoint where the drawling voice had come from, but to his endless confusion there was nobody there. Not near enough to him, at least. The voice had sounded right behind him, and the only other people Harry could see were at the other end of the park.

"Wha—What?" Harry asked, bewildered.

'Well… I suppose I must sound very different from the five-year-old me,' the voice said thoughtfully and then added in an undertone, 'But that's not really surprising. I was a whiny crybaby back then…'

Harry blinked owlishly as he looked around again, uncomprehendingly. Nope. There was nobody there. Wait a second—The voice was coming from inside his head, but it was not his little soulmate! Who was that? How did this happen?!

'Who are you, and what did you do with my soulmate?!' Harry growled, feeling anger like he had never before. This—this unknown had done something to his soulmate! 'Give him back!'

'Ah. So we have just met, then. You don't even call me by my nickname, that means that you haven't yet decided on them.'

'What?'

'I'm the fifteen-year-old version of your soulmate, prezioso. Little — has just used the Ten Year Bazooka on himself, a device invented by the — Famiglia, which permits the target to switch with their ten years older self. I suppose this is the first time you've heard of it?'

Harry could only nod numbly, amazed by the impossibility. Then he realized that this older version of his soulmate needed a verbal response from him and he just managed to convey his assent by a weak 'huh' sound.

'Don't worry, it only lasts for five minutes before reverting. But I suggest you get accustomed to it, I remember using it many times after arriving at Namimori and meeting Tsuna-nii.'

'Tsuna-nii?' Harry asked, overwhelmed.

'Yeah, he's—'

Harry didn't get to know who this Tsuna-nii was right then, because the calm voice cut off abruptly and was replaced by the content giggling of his younger soulmate.

The almost seven-year-old blinked, completely flabbergasted.

Huh. That had been quite an experience.

6 – Mafia

Apparently, 'Tsuna-nii' was Thunder's adopted older brother.

Well, not actually legally adopted, but that was just a small technicality.

It had taken about a three weeks of trying and failing to assassinate The World's Greatest Hitman (and Harry had been understandably terrified and upset when he understood just who his little soulmate had been ordered to kill. What was his damn family thinking?!), a lot of crying and many uses of the Ten Year Bazooka before Harry could start breathing easily again, as the other boy had taken a liking to Tsuna-nii's mother and decided that he would stop with his assassination attempts and instead accept the invitation to stay at Tsuna-nii's home.

Harry was grateful to the other boy for taking Thunder in, but he really could do without all the weird and dangerous things happening over there!

The Mafia? Escaped convicts abducting middle-school kids? A messed up battle tournament against a trained group of assassins over some silly rings?

Harry was ready to tear his hair out!

He wanted nothing else than to find a way to Japan, even if he didn't know where it really was or have any money to do so, and drag Thunder back with him to England. The older boy was pretty sure he had aged ten years with all the stunts the younger pulled! (Without the use of the Bazooka!)

Worst still was the last stunt.

Seriously, a battle royal against other powerful Famiglias in order to free Reborn (the same person he had been ordered to kill over a year before) from his cursed baby form which ended in Tsuna devising a way to hold some pacifiers and thus the balance of the world intact without having to sacrifice six people every thirty years or so?

Harry was so done.

His only consolation was that Thunder hadn't yet had to fight against some murdering psychopath trying to take over the world, but he'd take what he could.

(If only he knew.)

7 – Family

Lambo hissed under his breath threateningly, gaining a few questioning glances over the dinner table.

He didn't really notice, as he was too worked up having a mental discussion with his soulmate. His relatives had punished the older boy unfairly once again, and Lambo was trying every tactic he could think of to convince Lightning that letting him fly to England and kill them was good idea.

Lambo hated how those people treated Lightning! They made him do all the chores around the house, didn't feed him enough, didn't give him any new clothes, didn't celebrate his birthday! They even made him sleep in the cupboard under the stairs! Lambo hated them!

The young guardian wanted nothing more than to go over to England and introduce his soulmate's family to every single one of his weapons—including the experimental, not yet tested ones.

He hated them, hated them, hated them!

And the worst thing was that Lightning actually defended them!

It infuriated him! His Lightning honestly believed what those disgusting pigs said about him, that he deserved all their punishments. Lambo was trying to make the older boy see sense, to understand that his Aunt and Uncle and cousin were all wrong, that Lightning was not useless or a burden or a freak. He was a beautiful person!

Sadly, he wasn't yet having much success.

It would be easy to kidnap him and bring him home to Japan, away from his relatives, but he knew it wasn't safe for the older boy to come with him just yet. He may be brash and loud and might not think things through most of the time, but Lambo was still a genius from the Bovino Famiglia. With how everything was going it would be a long time before it was safe enough for Lightning to join his new Family. Sure, Tsuna-nii was now the official successor of the Vongola, but he hadn't yet assumed leadership. Until that happened, the world of the Mafia was not safe enough to bring his civilian soulmate into the fray.

Even knowing so, it didn't stop Lambo from grumbling about roasting fat pigs and giraffes with his bazooka.

Reborn heard him and lifted an eyebrow curiously.

"What are you muttering about now?" The man-in-a-boy's body asked.

Lambo looked up in surprise that his 'rival' was actually talking to him voluntarily before huffing, "Lambo wants to kill his soulmate's family."

Tsuna choked on his rice and Gokudera hovered over him worriedly as Yamamoto laughed.

"WHAT?"

"Ah." The now uncursed but still small Arcobaleno looked faintly surprised but very much amused. "Why?" He asked curiously.

Tsuna sent him a scandalized glare but Reborn expertly ignored it.

"Because they are stupid animals, and they hurt Lambo's soulmate," he said factually, eyes narrowed. Then he added petulantly, "And Lightning won't let Lambo put a hit on them."

Reborn hummed thoughtfully and then his eyes brightened with sudden understanding.

"You call them Lightning?"

"Yup. And Lambo is Thunder!" He said proudly, making Tsuna and Gokudera gape at him.

"So whenever you were muttering about thunder and lightning you were referring to yourself and your soulmate?! We thought you were speaking about the weather!" His nii-san cried.

"Dammit, stupid cow! Do you know how many times I carried around an umbrella because I thought it was going to rain?!" Gokudera cursed angrily.

"Broccoli-head has a soulmate?" I-pin asked from her seat, curiously. "How long since you can hear them?"

Lambo blinked uncomprehendingly at them.

"Eh? Lambo hasn't mentioned Lightning to you yet?"

"NO!" Gokudera yelled as the rest, except Reborn, shook their heads in the negative.

"Oh. Well, Lambo has been able to hear him since he turned five! Now it's April so… almost a year?"

"A year?"

"Him?"

"So he's older?"

"And you didn't say anything?"

"Is he a good person?"

"Ahaha! Congratulations, chibi!"

"Did you say his family hurt him?" Nana asked with a soft but cutting voice, immediately silencing the rest of the group. She looked at Lambo with intense eyes, so uncommon for her.

Lambo nodded somberly in response. "They don't treat him well. He doesn't eat enough and he sleeps in the cupboard, but he believes he deserves it," his eyes filled with frustrated tears that he hastily wiped away with the sleeve of his cow onesie. "He doesn't! Lightning is the kindest person in the world!"

Tsuna looked grim, and a dark aura suddenly descended over the rest of the group, thick and dangerous.

"We'll get him out," Tsuna said with the same voice he had declared that he'd tear down Vongola from the inside before inheriting its sins. It was a tone that reassured Lambo like nothing else could, because it was not only his brother speaking, but also his Sky. And he knew that this person always kept his promises. "Once it's safe to bring him here, we'll get him out, Lambo. I promise."

Lambo smiled gratefully before launching himself at his nii-san.

He loved his new Family, there was no doubt about that. Now he only had to complete it.

(And that would only happen when he had his Lightning by his side.)

8 – Devastation

It was on one of the first days of May, almost a year after he first heard Thunder's voice in his head, that Harry almost had a heart attack.

Thunder had decided to play a prank on Reborn and Harry had tried to convince his little soulmate that doing so was not a particularly good idea, but was forced to give up when Thunder stubbornly refused to see sense.

Harry had to bit his tongue hard to refrain from telling him 'told you so' (the physical pain helped even if he did not need to actually say the words) when the prank—which consisted on a handful of grenades, a cup of espresso and a puddle of mud—explosively backfired and ended with Thunder crying indignantly over the bond.

Harry had sighed and was about to tell his soulmate that everything was going to be fine when the other muttered a phrase in Japanese that Harry had long ago learned to recognize.

'Must… stay… calm…'

He sighed and braced himself for the arrival of Older Thunder. It was still disconcerting, even after a year of his first interaction with his soulmate from the future and Harry's numerous encounters with him since then. He sometimes wondered if he hadn't simply gone crazy.

As expected, Little Thunder's loud crying was soon gone from his mind, which indicated that the switch had taken place.

But the customary 'Yare' did not come.

Instead, Harry panicked as his mind was immediately flooded with thousands or millions of thoughts. Spiraling out of control, superposing each other and clashing; completely incoherent, mindless cries that were tinged with desperation and bone-deep horror.

It broke the young boy's heart, because even when he could not understand a word of it, he could literally feel his soulmate's desolation and pain.

Harry felt the need to do something to calm him down, to appease the other's fears. He wanted to reassure him, to tell him that he was fine, that he was going to be okay—but he was not even able to hear his own thoughts over the roar of Thunder's and the constant litany of 'No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!' that seemed to accompany them.

And Harry was crying, desperate tears born from the deep sense of uselessness that arose inside him at being unable to help his soulmate when he needed it, at hearing his soulmate feeling so much pain and not being able to do anything to stop it.

It didn't matter that he was at school or that the teacher was talking to him or that his classmates were laughing and pointing towards him mockingly, Harry was in too much emotional pain to even notice, much less to care.

He desperately clutched at his heart over his shirt, feeling the mad beating of the muscle beneath his fingers while at the same time he tried to force air into his lungs. He felt like he was drowning, like he was going to die—

And then everything stopped, leaving Harry's head ringing and his body trembling, almost heaving as his lungs finally decided to cooperate and fill with oxygen again.

He was on the floor, tears still spilling down his face and his things spilled around him where they had fallen together with the boy, but Harry didn't pay them any mind.

His mind was stuck repeating the only phrase he had caught in the whirlwind of thoughts before Older Thunder's consciousness was replaced with his younger self's.

'What's the thunder without its lightning?'

Harry shivered uncontrollably.

He honestly did not want to know what that could possibly mean.

The sole idea was terrifying.

9 - Magic

Lambo was nine when he learned about magic.

It was a shock for both him and his Lightning, even when it shouldn't have been.

(Lambo was in the Mafia and was the Lightning guardian of Vongola Decimo. He might still be in training, but he had Dying Will Flames, which were something akin superpowers—at least for him and his soulmate.)

He shared Lightning's enthusiasm of discovering the Magical World right up until the moment they learned how did this community see the older boy.

A miracle. A saviour.

A commodity.

Beloved and acclaimed one day, forgotten and rejected the other. It didn't matter what Lightning wanted, the wizards kept forcing their beliefs and they hopes on him, invading his privacy, demanding that he fix their problems one moment, and then turning around and shunning him when Lightning did something that did not fit the image they had constructed of him.

The Philosopher's stone and a possessed professor were just the tip of the iceberg.

Then there was an evil diary, giant spiders and an even larger snake—which was horrible because Lambo's soulmate had almost died that time (he would be always be grateful to Fawkes, the phoenix, for saving him).

Even Tsuna-nii, loving soul that he was, started hating the wizards when the mess with Lightning's godfather was brought to light.

"What kind of shitheads run that crazy world's government?!" He had growled dangerously when Lambo told them that Sirius Black was actually innocent and had never been given a fair trial before being thrown in prison. This caused everyone to jump and look at him with round eyes. Tsuna must have been truly angry, because the twenty-year-old man did not usually swear—it was almost unheard of.

In Lightning's fourth year of magical education, Lambo had been ready to forget about everything and go to England to kidnap his soulmate, wizards be damned. He was twelve years old—Lightning was fourteen—and he felt Lightning's horrified disbelief when he was proclaimed the fourth champion of a deadly tournament. Finally, Lambo understood how the other must have felt back when he was five and had to participate in the Ring Battles against the Varia.

(Competing against older, more knowledgeable wizards and witches with a lot more experience in a tournament that had claimed lives before? Lightning was convinced that it was somehow a ploy of Voldemort to get him killed. Lambo agreed.)

'Sorry, Thun. I'd love to go with you, you know, but there is no way I can get out of this. It's a magical contract after all, forfeiting will end in the loss of my magic, and perhaps even death. And you know that the wizards won't just let me go. They have ways to track me that are unstoppable. If Shoichi finishes that cloaking device that uses Mist Flames that he thinks might be able to block magic from working to localize me, then I'll consider it. But I don't want to lead the wizards to you. I don't want a war starting over me, or be the cause that the magicals learn of the Mafia—which would potentially mean involving the Vindice. It's too risky.'

And Lambo understood.

He had always understood.

(They had after all talked about getting Lightning out of his relative's house way before they learned of the Wizarding World.

It had been vetoed at the beginning because Tsuna was still too young and hadn't yet assumed the reigns of Vongola, and after that it was simply too dangerous to involve civilians until the worst of Underworld was cleaned up and the Tenth Don was firmly established in his position. Then, magic knocked on their metaphorical door and a new level of complication was reached: how to get Lightning away in a way that he couldn't be immediately dragged back?

Shoichi offered to work on a possible solution, but it worked only in theory, as they really didn't have anyone to test it on. Searching for a magical community was not easy either, because they were secretive as fuck and they had to be careful unless they wanted their memories being wiped off. It had happened a couple of times to the men who had been assigned to do so before they realized what was happening, and after that they were not keen on repeating that mistake.)

That didn't mean he had to like it.

Then the fucking Voldiepants spirited Lightning away from the school and used him to complete a sick ritual to regain his body and NOBODY BELIEVED LIGHTNING WHEN HE TOLD!

Fifth year was horrible and expanded his list of 'people who I'll gladly kill when I have the opportunity. Slowly.' (The now adult-looking Reborn had been very amused when he found Lambo's notebook, filled with detailed descriptions on the hits he was planning. Lambo even dared to think the hitman looked proud.)

It really irked him when Lightning started using stupid Occlumency to shade his thoughts from him at the end of fifth year.

At the beginning he hadn't actually given it much importance—there were things Lambo would have also liked to remain completely private. They were teenagers, after all, and some things were just plain embarrassing—, because it was not like the other was shutting him out completely; but when one night at the end of sixth year the wall Lambo hadn't even noticed had formed between them completely shattered, flooding Lambo's mind with Lightning's desperate thoughts, Lambo lashed out.

'Why won't you tell me what's wrong!' He asked harshly when the other teen only put the wall up again after Lambo pointed it out.

'It's to protect you. There are things you don't need to know,' Lightning justified.

'Bullshit,' Lambo snarled angrily. 'We're soulmates. We are in this together. If you have problems, why won't you let me help? Don't you trust me?'

'I do! I do trust you, Thun!'

'Then let me help!'

There was a deep, remorseful silence and then a simple, 'I'm sorry.'

It was the longest fight they ever had.

(They didn't speak again for months, and Lambo would forever regret that decision.)

10 - Goodbye

Lambo was brooding.

He missed talking with Lightning about anything and everything without a care in the world. He was still angry at the other boy for shutting him out, and although Lightning had made an effort to reconnect with him a little while after their fight, he was still adamant about leaving Lambo in the dark.

He hated it. Something was going to happen, he could feel it!

From the little information Lambo got from his soulmate, Lightning was in danger. And not danger like what he had faced at Hogwarts, but something much bigger. He was running. He was running and people were dying and there was something that Lightning had to do, but Lambo couldn't work it out for the life of him.

He was sure that it had to do with Voldemort… it always had something to do with Voldemort.

And Lambo feared for his soulmate's life.

(He was fifteen though, and even if he was a genius, he was still smarting from the other boy's decision. Even though he knew that ignoring his soulmate was not the way to work things out, he felt spiteful and hurt, because Lightning was shutting him out, was leaving him aside. He was telling him he was not trusted, not with the problems he was facing, not as he was now. And damn it, it hurt.)

'Thunder?'

The youngest of the Vongola guardians jolted, surprised. It had been a while since the last time Lightning tried to coax him into talking, and the teen pondered for a second if he should continue with the silent treatment. But then the other continued talking, and Lambo simply couldn't ignore him anymore.

'Thun, I know you are still mad at me. I—I know that I deserve it but—Please. Please, would you talk to me?' The anguish in that beloved voice was too much. Lambo didn't understand what was happening but he was not about to let his soulmate suffer like that.

'Love. Hey, love, what's wrong?'

'Oh, thank Merlin,' the other cried in relief, and Lambo was starting to panic. What was wrong? Lightning never sounded like that! He was steady and strong, sometimes a little insecure but never broken. Always kind. What was happening that made him so emotional? 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!'

'Hey. Hey. Stop that, what—? Lightning, what's happening? Talk to me!' He begged desperately, ignoring the curious glances he was gaining from the guardians sitting closer to him.

There was a long pause as Lambo waited for his Lightning to reply.

(Unknown to him, somewhere in Scotland, Harry Potter was smiling sadly as he greeted the ghosts of his family for the last time. He was walking to his death, was it wrong to want to say goodbye to the people he loved the most?)

'Lightning?' Lambo prompted uneasily.

'I always found it funny, that you nicknamed me after the lightning,' the boy mused, earlier desperation and broken-ness completely gone, as it had never been there to begin with. It did not make sense, it was scaring him.

'I call you that because you are really fast, and because of how intense you can get when you are passionate about something—because it's nearly electric,' Lambo said tentatively as dread crept up his spine.

Something was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG.

(He could feel it. Like a ring, like blaring alarms and flashing red lights inundating his mind and urging him to bolt, to stand up, to do something.)

Lightning hummed. Agreeably, noncommittally.

'Mmm—yes. And it is also the shape of my scar, the one who has defined me for a very long time. But that was not what I was trying to point out. No, the curious thing about the lightning that make this so ironic is that—you know, it appears in a flash before it's gone.'

Lambo had already jumped out of his seat and was running for the door before the other boy could finish.

There were questioning shouts and muttered curses behind him as he brusquely abandoned the meeting, but he could not bring himself to care.

(He couldn't even hear them.)

'Lightning, what are you talking about? What are you—?'

'I just wanted to say I'm sorry. And goodbye. I love you, my Thunder.'

And it was at that moment that Lambo learned his beloved's name.

(The guardians and the others who had followed the teen out of the room were horrified when Lambo suddenly collapsed, crying agonized sobs and desperately calling for 'Harry'. Reborn tilted down his fedora and looked on grimly as green flames sprung and enveloped the grieving boy, crackling around him in desperation to be used. He recognized this image, he had seen it ten years before after a prank gone wrong.

For that reason, he was not surprised when the boy was replaced with his five-year-old self after being enveloped in a pink poof of smoke.

Even so, he lamented the fact that they hadn't managed to prevent this from happening.

He had hoped.)

To be continued...

And this is the end of what Mez'N'Ser had planned. Next will be completely new material. I hope you enjoy!

Thank you for reading! 3

Comments are welcome! And don't forget that you are welcome to come and talk to me on tumblr! (kurosakiami01)