Fanfics where new characters are just dropped into the middle of the canon story have always interested me, so I decided to write one. Here goes...

KHR does not belong to me, regrettably.

Chapter One: The Bovino Technophile

"Look here, Lucrezia, it's your little nephew!" A young woman with dark brown hair and bright green eyes gestured to her younger sister to hold the little boy.

Lucrezia, only nine and dressed in her private school uniform, surveyed the small child with an air of obvious dislike. "Right. And what was that stupid name you and Luigi decided on?"

With a scandalized gasp, Stella pulled her son away, "His name is Lambo! Lambo is a cute name!"

"…Lambo…? How irritating…"

It was only to be a promise for the years to come.

Five years later, the glow of a computer screen etched shadows into Lucrezia's face as she watched her download progress bar. Outside of her room, her mother was screaming Italian profanities into the phone. Instead of bothering to translate it, the girl simply readjusted her glasses (ignoring the light 'click' of the frames tapping against her nose piercing) and waited for it all to end.

Her bedroom door opened a crack. "'Crezia?" Jeff, her step-father, asked worriedly, "What's she saying?"

"Don't know, don't care, but I know she's talking to Nonno Bovino, if that helps."

"Not really, it actually makes me more concerned." He shut the door behind him as he left to go calm his fiery wife.

Bella Morrison, formerly Bella James, Bella Richardson, Bella Primo and Bella Bovino, was an ex-model who'd once had a habit of going after men with money and divorcing them within a year. Her first marriage to Mario Primo ended in a two year court battle for custody of her first daughter Stella. The third one to Brandon James, owner of a chain of grocery stores in the states, resulted in Lucrezia, though the girl rarely saw her father. Jeff was the fourth and the longest lasting – their twelfth anniversary was coming up.

Stella had taught Lucrezia how to talk. The girl had learned to walk from Bella (and it was a catwalk walk too, a habit she'd had to train herself out of). But it was Jeff who had given Lucrezia her passion. As the CEO of a small-time gaming company, he had always brought home bits of software and platforms for his younger step-daughter to play with. As Lucrezia got older, she demanded new things – cell phones, video game platforms, mp3 players and whatever the latest computer was. Every interesting program she could find was downloaded and played with before being disposed of for a newer, shinier version. All in all, she was a technophile.

At the moment, she was waiting for her Firefly episodes to finish downloading while texting her friend Jasmine about their homework and plans for Summer Break. Both of them had gone to the same snooty private school and had quickly become friends when they had realized both hated the place and loved the same kind of tech and anime. Jasmine was intending to spend the break in England bothering her cousin (whom she had said was named Spanner, though Lucrezia had suspected it was a nickname. After all, who would name their kid after a wrench?) while Lucrezia was going to simply chill and work on her latest project, a do-it-yourself robot kit.

Sadly, things do not always work out as planned.

"Lucrezia Allegra James! Come down here RIGHT NOW!" Apparently her mother was finished screaming into the phone at her father in Italy and had decided to turn her wrath on her daughter.

Groaning, Lucrezia pushed away from her desk and meandered down the stairs, pausing by a mirror in the hallway to fluff up her short strawberry blonde hair while tucking some of it behind heavily pierced ears. Though everyone else in her family was tanned and black haired with the bright green Bovino eyes, Lucrezia took after her father, sharing his fair skin, brown eyes and hair colouring. She even had his shortness, to her annoyance. Once again readjusting her glasses, she skipped down the main stairway into her living room.

One look told her that she should've stayed upstairs. Bella was pacing the room, an obviously pissed off look on her face. On the couch was Jeff, his head in his hands. "Mama?" asked Lucrezia cautiously, "What's wrong?"

Whipping around to glare at her daughter, Bella hissed out, "Your grandfather sent Lambo off to his doom."

"Good," answered Lucrezia, "I hated the kid." Lambo was her sister's son and she couldn't stand him. As a joke, she had once made him a cow print onesie in a Home Ec. class she'd been forced into and since then he'd refused to wear anything that didn't have a cow print on it. Stella had never forgiven her.

"Lucrezia! He was sent to kill Reborn!"

Reborn. Reborn, Reborn, Reborn. Now, why was that name familiar? Thinking back, Lucrezia tried to remember. She, like her mother, mostly tried to ignore the family business, but kept up on the important things, like names to run away from really fast. Ah! That was where she knew the name from! Oh, wait.

"So, he sent my nephew after the greatest hitman there was ever known to be?"

"Yes!"

"Well, he's Mario's responsibility, right? We can leave it up to him."

She tried to escape from her horrible fate. She really did. She was almost out of the room when her mother's handed landed on her shoulder.

"Lucrezia, sweetheart," it was a scary, loving voice that usually meant that bad things were going to happen to her, "You like that Japanese cartoon stuff, right?"

"Yes…"

"Enough that you've been taking Japanese classes at school, correct?"

"…Mama, what're you suggesting-?"

Instantly, a cellphone was whipped out and Bella was dialing a number, "We can send you to Japan to watch over Lambo!"

What?

"NO, MAMA, NO!"

And all of Lucrezia's plans dissipated into the air.

Apparently, Reborn had been sent to Japan to tutor a young boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada so that Tsuna would grow up and be the awesome tenth boss of the Vongola family. Lambo had been sent there to kill Reborn so that he could become the boss of the Bovino mafia family despite the fact that he was only five. For some strange reason, Lambo now lived with Reborn, Tsuna, Tsuna's mother and Bianchi, another assassin who was in love with Reborn and poisoned people.

Lucrezia was informed of this by Reborn, whom she was now sitting across from at the dining room table, one week after her mother had made that horrible, dreadful decision to send her to Japan. Japan was nice enough – though she was long past her days of squealing over every new episode-chapter-whatever of Naruto (an obsession that had left her with a poorly thought out chicken butt haircut that never grew out properly and therefore remained ever present on her head), there were still plenty of awesome animes airing every morning for her to watch. The food was good, Nana Sawada was a kind woman, Tsuna was at least a good-hearted loser and though Bianchi had some issues, after Lucrezia swore that she had no interest in Reborn the woman was more than happy to accept the girl.

No, the main problem with Japan was what was currently clutching to her leg and dancing.

"Zia 'Crezia is here! Lambo-san's Zia 'Crezia is here! Bwa ha ha ha!" Shouted Lambo as loudly as possible. Twitching, Lucrezia tried to shake him off.

"Shut up, you stupid wannabe cow! Just be quiet and sit in the corner! I'm sending you back to Nonno and then heading home myself so that my holiday isn't a complete waste!" Lucrezia shouted back, equally as loud.

"No."

"Eh?" Both Bovinos looked up at the toddler hitman who was smiling benignly, "What do you mean, 'No'?"

Sipping the tea, he answered, "We have plans for this idiot. And since you have to take care of him, you're staying here too."

Lucrezia just looked at him in shock. "No way! I refuse to get involved in any mafia business! Lambo and I are leaving and that's it!"

"Why don't you call your grandfather and see what he says?"

Pulling out her cellphone, the girl furiously struck the keypad with her Nonno's number, "Don't think I won't!" The phone on the other side rang until the Bovino boss's voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Nonno!" Cried Lucrezia, "I've got Lambo, you want him back, like, now, right?"

There was a pause on the other end. "But, 'Crezia," her grandfather protested, "He had so wanted this opportunity, and when Signore Iemitsu suggested it, how could I resist treating my adorable little great-grandson?"

Normally Lucrezia would've snorted at the mention of Lambo's adorableness but something else had caught her attention, "Opportunity? Iemitsu?" She asked suspiciously, "What's going on here, Nonno?"

"Err, ah, whatever could you mean, my lovely little 'Crezia? Ah, I think I had gotten off track with our conversation, just looking at some files here, must've read some words off of them, heh heh…" Twitching, the technophile gripped her phone tightly, hearing the lie in her grandfather's words, "Anyway, since you're there to take of him, it should be alright."

"But Nonno-!"

"I'm sure it would be what Stella would've wanted."

The old man always had a way with making Lucrezia do what he wanted. It was with treats when she was little. It was by mentioning her sister now. "…Only for the summer, Nonno," she whispered softly, "I want to be back in time for school."

"Alright, dear," He said warmly, "Take care."

"You too."

The line went dead.

Reborn just kept on smiling, "Welcome to the family." Lambo shrieked like a crazed monkey and climbed onto her lap, screaming with joy about how his auntie was going to stay with him.

…

Fuck. What've I gotten myself into?

Despite the fact that she was basically being forced to stay there through her grandfather's guilt-tripping, and also that she had to take care of her idiot nephew, Lucrezia found herself slowly beginning to enjoy Japan. Even if Tsuna was skeptical when he first heard about the new member of the household.

"What?" The boy had shrieked, "We can't fit anymore people here!"

Bianchi just smiled at the boy smugly, "There's plenty of room for the two of us and Lambo in the traditional room," she told him.

"I don't want to be here," snapped Lucrezia, "I just have to watch over this idiot." Jabbing her chopsticks at her nephew, she quickly remembered her manners, "Though I do thank you for your kindness in letting me stay here."

"Mom!" Tsuna turned to his mother for support, "Can we really afford to feed another person?"

Happily passing out food, Nana smiled at her son, "Of course! Her family has said they would send money as long as she and Lambo were here."

"But-! But-!"

Sighing, the technophile just shook her head. The rest of dinner was just regular idle chatter, though Tsuna still looked unhappy when he stood up to go do homework for his remedial classes. Reborn was going with him as his 'tutor'.

Lucrezia figured that it would be better to get along with him than to have him sulk about her presence for however long she was to be there.

"Hey, Tsuna. What's your homework on?"

"Mathematics," he sighed pitifully.

With a maniacal grin, Lucrezia swung her arm onto his shoulder, "Luckily for you, I happen to be one of the top students at my private school in Math!"

"R-really?" Suddenly his eyes were shining and he clutched her shirt desperately, "You'll help me?"

She couldn't resist and patted him on his spiky hair, "Yes, yes, I'll help you."

Five minutes later, she sat completely stupefied in front of his homework. It wasn't that the homework was exceedingly advanced or unbelievably easy. It was just that all of it was in kanji. Despite three years of Japanese lessons, she had never caught on to the Japanese alphabet past hiragana and katakana and had therefore proceeded to ignore its existence. That was, until it reared its ugly head and stared her in the face. She pushed it back to the future Vongola boss. "Translate it to English, and then I'll help you."

"Y-you can't read numbers?" He asked her nervously. Her bitter glare was answer enough. "What am I going to do?" He shrieked, "I'll fail the remedial classes and get kicked out of school!"

"Don't worry; I thought this might happen, so I called over some people to help." Said Reborn with that damn evil smile that never. Ever. Leaves.

The door to the room slammed open, revealing two teenage boys, one with silver hair and green eyes (also a foreigner, she noted) and a Japanese guy with spiky hair and an idiotic grin. "I heard that the Tenth needed help!" The first one cried out before noticing the girl. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"Maa, you should be nicer to girls, Gokudera-kun," the Japanese boy scolded.

"G-Gokudera-kun! Yamamoto!" Tsuna smiled a bit, though he did look worried, "This is, uh, Lambo's aunt, Lucrezia. She'll be staying here for the summer…"

With an evil glare, Gokudera surveyed her, "Ch, that stupid cow's aunt? That would make you part of that Bovino family, right? The one nobody gives a damn about 'cause their boss can't seem to do anything worthwhile?"

In an instant, the girl had flown up from her seat and slammed the taller boy into the wall with her whole body, shocking the rest of the room's occupants. "Shut your filthy mouth and never talk that way about my grandfather again," growled Lucrezia, eyes flashing with anger, "He tries, okay? It's not his fault that there are just too many people for him to compete against in the Mafia!"

"Hey, now, let's not fight," pacified Yamamoto, coming between the two, "Tsuna and me need help with our homework, so let's work on that."

"Th-thanks, Yamamoto-kun…" Tsuna tried but was interrupted by Gokudera's shocked reminder that he had been called there to help his beloved boss pass remedial classes. The sound of his voice, unfortunately summoned the bane of their lives.

"Bwa-ha-ha! Lambo-san is here!" The small boy ran into the room happily, "Prepare yourself, Reborn!" Out of his afro the child pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it, landing it in Tsuna's hands.

The people in the room began to spaz out immediately, tossing the grenade around like a hot potato.

"THAT'S NOT A TOY!"

"TEEEENTH~! WATCH OUT~!"

"What kind of game is this…?"

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"

Quickly grabbing it out of the air, Tsuna managed to toss it out the window, resulting in a large 'BANG!' in the backyard. Sighing, he turned around with a tired look on his face, "It's okay now…"

With stars in his eyes, Gokudera leapt over and grasped Tsuna's hands, "Tenth! You were so amazing and cool!"

Grinning, Yamamoto leaned over and ruffled the smaller boy's hair, "Yeah, good job Tsuna!"

"Yeah, yeah, good job, YOU LITTLE SNOT, WHY ARE CARRYING GRENADES AROUND IN YOUR HAIR?" Screamed out Lucrezia, holding her nephew by the collar of his bodysuit, "WHAT ELSE DO YOU HAVE IN THERE? MACHETES? NUKES? IS YOUR HAIR WHERE ALL MY CELLPHONES GO?"

"Wuh-wuh-" Lambo began to sniffle, "Waaaah! Zia 'Crezia is being mean to me!"

Smiling happily, Nana peeked into the room carrying a tray with tea on it, "Is everything alright up here?"

Lucrezia held up Lambo, a dark cloud looming over her head, "Nana-san… please take him away… I can't take it anymore…"

"O-oh," putting the tea tray down, Nana picked up Lambo, "Well, then, why don't we leave the big kids be and take a bath?"

"I don't wanna bath!" Wailed the child as he was carried downstairs. With a breath of relief, Lucrezia turned around and smiled eerily at the boys behind her.

"So, should we get back to that math homework…? Heh heh…"

Tsuna dreaded what the rest of the summer would bring.

What the rest of the summer would bring turned out to be less of a problem than what the news of no internet would to the small girl with some dependancy issues. When she first heard Tsuna point the fact out, Lucrezia's heart stopped. Could it really be possible? Were there truly such dark places in the world that didn't have the internet?

After panicking and finding out that what Tsuna said was horrifyingly true, the strawberry blonde started to feel the dreaded pull of withdrawal that she usually only felt when the principal of her school took away her cellphones, palm pilots, mp3 players and such. By now, she could tell the symptoms right off.

First came the chills. Following that was hyperventilation, nausea, headaches, and within five minutes she was curled up in a ball shaking and sobbing. Tsuna had run out to fetch Nana in hopes that she could do something to ease the girl's suffering.

But it wasn't Nana who ended up saving Lucrezia's sanity. Rather, it was a few text messages from a girl with white-blonde hair on the other side of the world.

Hullo, luv! Enjoying the Japanese telly? Tell if you see anything brill!

Staring at the small screen of her cellphone with bleary eyes, Lucrezia quickly snapped a message back.

dam it jasmine talk lk that n ill talk lk this. no internet hr. im goin to die!

FINE, DENY ME MY NEWLY ACQUIRED BRITSH-NESS, YOU WANKER. Have you tried hacking into someone's wireless?

Lucrezia bolted up so fast that she ended up spending a moment completely overwhelmed by dizziness. Why hadn't she thought of that? Surely someone must have internet nearby…

…Hush you. Go drink tea and eat Haggis, or something.

Clicking it off, Lucrezia dived over to her laptop and clicked up her wireless settings, shuting her eyes and praying to whatever god might watch over technology to give her at least one wireless network. She opened an eye and peeked out.

There was one.

"SCORE!" Happily clicking on it and pulling up a hacking program Jasmine and her had developed, she ran it through and picked up the owner's username and password, both written in katakana. She peered closer at it and read them both:

Username: namimoriskylark

Password: kamikorosu

Entering them in, the girl sighed happily and brought up Google. All was now well.

In a dark, traditionally styled room, a young man glowered as his internet began to lag.

Someone would be bitten to death for it.

Soooo... review?