KitsuneFreak: Excuse me, but Imma cry because it's been so long since my last update. Fanfiction has changed quite a bit! (well, at least the manage document settings have)

I apologize profusely but I had a number of RL issues to deal with, mostly college and getting back into the writing mojo because it's really hard to come back to the original mindset of a story when you've left it for a while. Before anyone panics, I fully intend to complete both this story and my other KHR comedy-sitcom-like-slice-of-life-thing. I'm still working on what that's supposed to be.

I know that a consistent writing error of mine is verb tense and please bear with me on that one. I'm trying to make it all flow now after a reviewer pointed it out to me. If you still catch some, please tell me!

Disclaimer: Uhh, I take Italian now? I don't know if that helps in procuring rights…

{Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Mushroom, Mushroom…}

"Alright, I'm going to need another three bottles of alcohol before I believe that story."

"G, can you please be a little more obliging?" Giotto sighed, exasperated.

"It is a bit outlandish, ne?" Asari agreed.

Tsuna let out a great sigh and ran both of his hands through his hair. It was getting ridiculous. He'd probably explained the situation at least five times already, and this was just counting the time taken to eat dinner.

"Look, I'd really like to help you understand us, believe in us, but you need to know that I can't put this any other way. The only thing I can offer is to ask you to put yourselves in our shoes. If you were picked up randomly, in a time of battle, and transported into the past, what would you say?"

"He has a point, you know," Knuckle agreed out loud.

"I know he does, it's just that the threats are putting all of us on edge," Giotto twirled his fork absent-mindedly in the spaghetti. "How's everyone else taking this?"

"Che, pathetic."

"I suppose if they're not a threat, I can't say I exactly mind," Asari murmured thoughtfully.

"Lampo? What about you?"

"Your call, boss."

"G?" Giotto looked to his right-hand man.

"Like he said, your call." G sighed resignedly.

Giotto took a final look over all of his Guardians, and then the newcomers.

'My call, huh? That's not a comforting thought. I've always seemed a bad judge of character. G's reprimanded me a few times on being too kind. But… please don't prove me wrong. I want to still believe that there are still good people in the world'

"Well, then." Giotto cleared his throat. "It is my decision that we take you in as our friends, as our family, treat you hospitably. We may aid each other in times of need and hold a steadfast faith in each other. While it may not be much, I offer you all, my trust. Let me not regret this decision."

The entire room, it seemed, let out a massive sigh of relief. A weight seemed to be lifted of everyone's shoulders.

"Haha! Well that settles it!" Yamamoto laughed jovially.

"Extremely good news!"

"Yes," Tsuna smiled as he looked gratefully at the first boss, "thank you."

"Sorry to break into the festivities, but we are still Vongola," G interrupted matter-of-factly. "While I can accept taking everyone in with open arms, be warned I still carry a gun."

"G-san is right. With impending attack at our doorstep, we can't sit around."

"May we ask for your help, Tsunayoshi?" Giotto looked towards the brunette.

"Definitely, and maybe it'll help us get back home too."

The rest of dinner seemed to pass relatively uneventfully. Asari and Yamamoto almost immediately got together to talk about Japan. Alaude and Hibari spent most of dinner glaring at each other much to the discomfort of Lampo who attempted to flirt with Chrome who was too busy attending to Lambo (the young teen ate almost as messily as Dino at times). Not to be outdone, Ryohei got into a verbal brawl with Gokudera and somehow managed to insult G at the same time. G, not being one to be insulted, drew his handgun on two occasions when he finally learned that 'tako' meant octopus, and Giotto was forced to confiscate said weapon before someone got hurt. Tsuna and Knuckle found camaraderie in the fact that both just prayed for peace and quiet.

Needless to say, it was chaos as usual.

..8.9.

"So that makes what now? All of the members of Vongola family?" Shoichi dropped his head on the table with a painfully loud 'thunk'.

"There's still Mukuro?" Fuuta offered helpfully.

"Yes, who is currently unconscious for unknown reasons in the infirmary. That makes the situation so much better."

"Sorry."

Shoichi sighed into the table before turning his head to look at Fuuta. The cool table felt so nice against his ear and the redhead debated whether or not he should just nap his worries away. Then again, that was unhelpful.

"No, I should be the one to apologize. Right now, we need to figure out what's going on. Put the facts together, or strategize, or something."

"What about the fighting? They're retreating now, but we won't know how long that'll last," Kusakabe asked, not turning away from the monitors.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't Reborn be here? I mean, I know he's got his hitman business to attend to but seriously this is getting ridiculous."

A silence hung over the room as the redheaded technician mulled over the possibilities.

"Are you thinking of calling them?" Kusakabe asked, looking over at the pensive man.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Them?" Giannini asked perplexed, "Who's 'them'?"

"Oh no," Fuuta's light bulb blinked as he registered who they were talking about. "No, no, no. That's the worst plan ever."

"They're good fighters."

"I don't care! They're the worst to depend on!"

"I admit that they're questionable but technically they still see the Vongola as the only family."

"Yeah, given that they've got three countries worth of canon fodder, steak, and alcohol."

"Now, now Fuuta…"

"Wait, who are we talking about!"

"The Varia."

..8.9.

Chrome barely stifled a yawn. She was most certainly tired. After dinner the older Guardians said that they had a few matters to attend to before turning in for the night. Tsuna's group, with the helpful guidance of the maid, Annalisa, made their way back to their guest rooms.

After reaching her room and closing the door behind her, she gave a small sigh of relief. The day had been more taxing than it seemed.

"Thank god everything's settled," she murmured to herself. Smiling slightly, she gave a little stretch when something caught here eye. It was a familiar little metal case on her dresser.

"Odd. I don't think Bossu ever came into my room-?"

A sudden cool draft blew from seemingly out of nowhere and Chrome shivered at the eerie light mist that crept in from under the door.

"Mukuro-sama? Is that you?" Chrome called out tentatively. Was it another one of his unexpected tricks? Maybe to keep her on her toes?

A ghostly chuckle echoed throughout the room, "I don't think so."

Chrome tensed immediately as the first Mist Guardian suddenly appeared to her left. What startled her was the fact that he put his face right next to hers in a way that was clearly invasive to her personal bubble space.

Stepping back quickly, she asked "Wh—what do you want?"

But he was gone. Chrome blinked and turned around, only to find Daemon Spade directly in front of her. His tall form towered over her and she had to look up slightly to actually meet his eyes.

"Good job noticing my gaffe."

Chrome couldn't help but back away slowly. Unfortunately, there was only so much distance before she found herself backed to the wall. Once there, ice seemed to freeze from the ground, up to her waist and rendered most of her body immobile so she could not get away. He roughly grabbed her chin, tipped her face upwards and turned it to the left, and to the right.

"More than the average girl, I presume?"

Chrome shrunk back into the wall in terror.

"You're quite an interesting thing to look at," Daemon smirked at the fact that this girl feared him, "Missing eye, a pronged weapon for a friend, what else? Maybe an illusionist?"

He noticed Chrome's widening eye that conveyed her surprise as well as confusion.

"You wonder how I know this? I had been watching from the doorway of the dining room and, well, I noticed that out of all your… little friends… you were the only one back there in the dining room that displayed the mist flames from your ring. Now, where did you learn it?"

Chrome closed her eye tightly and managed to jerk away, thus releasing herself from his grip and shattering the ice around her. Daemon was amused at her antics but opted to watch her reaction. She was strong and had experience with medium level illusions – no average person could have released themselves from his illusory ice. It puzzled him when a strange calmness seemed to take over her body almost immediately. A different kind of mist began to engulf her. It started to swirl around her feet and rose with each circular motion. The first Mist Guardian pulled back quickly – he knew that the mist was not of his own creation. Illusions, as with most things, tend to leave some kind of identification marker and this one was most definitely not his own.

"Oya, oya. I don't really like other people messing around with my things."

A man's voice?

Daemon tensed and willed for the mist to dissipate and show him this new development. Providence was kind to him and soon a young man stood before him. Although he was quite similar to the girl in appearance, a noticeable difference was that instead of an eye patch, his right eye was a luminous red with what appeared to be a symbol of a rudimentary star in the center.

"What new illusion is this?" the older man asked.

"Oh, it's no illusion, I can assure you that I'm very much here."

"Are you the source of her power?"

Mukuro gave a wry smile, "No."

A trident materialized in the younger man's hand and he charged at Daemon who blocked the collision with his cane. With their noses almost touching Mukuro grinned again.

"Kufufu, shouldn't you be somewhere else?"

Now it was Daemon's turn to be on the verbal defensive.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you clearly were present at dinner."

"So?"

"You must know about the truce."

"Look who's attacking."

"I'm merely defending what is mine."

"And so am I."

"Seems we have something in common then."

Mukuro backed up and rested the trident on his shoulder while Daemon took the opportunity to get some distance as well.

"Point taken," Daemon commented, "there was a truce, wasn't there?"

"Indeed."

"Well then, I'll leave you to your own devices."

Turning to the door, he quickly jerked it open.

"Daemon Spade, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Mukuro Rokudo, and the pleasure is all mine."

And the door slammed shut.

'Mukuro-sama? What was that all about?'

"Hush Chrome," Mukuro said aloud, "I think he may be useful to us later. After all, a Vongola Mist Guardian must have some skills worth his rank."

..8.9.

"Where is that damn illusionist!" G snapped angrily, lighting a cigarette.

"Do it at the window," Giotto responded, not even bothering to look up from his paperwork.

As G dutifully grumbled over to the open window behind Giotto, the rest of the Guardians sat in pairs on the two couches. Lampo crossed his legs on the coffee table next to Knuckle while Asari took his seat next to Alaude.

"Yes, but knowing him," Lampo muttered with a frown, "he already knows what we know if not more."

"I do know him, which is why I want us all here to collaborate on what we have learned," Giotto calmly responded.

"How do you even know he will be here?" Knuckle asked worriedly. "He may have just gone somewhere else or perhaps to bed."

"Knuckle, you and I both know that Daemon is not one to do that and…" Giotto grinned a bit as he looked up, "have a little faith in him. He's not that bad."

A short silence hung about the room and almost, as if on cue, the doors opened and slammed shut, bringing in a very disgruntled looking Mist Guardian.

"Daemon, glad you could join us," Giotto smiled.

"Good call Giotto-san!" Asari laughed. Alaude rolled his eyes before glaring pointedly at the newcomer.

"Well, any news?" Alaude asked impatiently.

"The girl's got some kind of other visage or person."

"He's made his appearance again?" Asari asked worriedly. "Didn't Tsunayoshi-san call him Muka or something?"

"His name is apparently Mukuro Rokudo," Daemon responded flatly, taking a seat next to Lampo.

"Well, I haven't seen this fellow, but it sounds like he only shows up whenever Chrome does," Lampo mused.

"Aye," Knuckle agreed, giving a sidelong glance at the green-haired man, "He also appeared to us when Chrome was present."

"If we count them separately, that makes eight little brats," G flicked ash out the window.

"That's amazing G," Lampo commented, "I finally feel complimented, you usually call me the brat even though it's just a 3 year difference between us."

"Shut up, you're still the brat. Your temporary title is older brat."

Lampo just rolled his eyes.

"Focus, please," Alaude muttered in irritated tone.

"Still, what are we going to do with these kids?" Knuckle asked.

"It's much too early for them to help us out with the Cavallone problem," Asari added

"I agree," Giotto mused. "But they'd be idle; wouldn't it be best to ease them into it? They, if what they say is true, know nothing of our era. Not of the squabbles nor of who is good or bad. It's dangerous to let them to their own devices. I worry for them."

"Then teach them," Daemon broke the silence. "Give them what they need to be useful."

"Let me remind you Daemon that they're still people, not tools."

Daemon sighed at his boss' disdain, "I mean, let them prove their worth, how's that re-phrasal?"

"I hate to agree but that would be the best solution right now," Alaude readjusted himself comfortably and crossed his arms.

"So what?" G asked. "Show up bright and early at their doors tomorrow?"

"That would be the best case," Knuckle considered.

"It would be better if we took charge over the younger one that matches our element," Asari added.

"That's absolutely wonderful." Lampo groaned sarcastically. "I get paired up with the teenager. He's really just a child. What am I going to do to guide him?" He then slammed his palm to his forehead in a most dramatic manner.

"That's what you get for being born last," G responded with a smug on his face.

"At least I'm not stuck with hot-tempered number two. Make sure you don't kill him before nightfall."

""Why you—."

"Still," Lampo continued, "I'm rather jealous of Daemon."

"Why me?"

"You get the cute one."

"I suppose…."

"Well, I liked Takeshi-san. Cheerful fellow."

"My charge seems to like extreme things—"

"I'm getting a headache from nonsensical talk. I'm leaving." Alaude snapped. Standing abruptly, he brushed off invisible specks of dust and made for the door.

"Ahem," Giotto cleared his throat loudly in annoyance. Alaude paused for only a second. "Just remember to take care of your new charge in the morning. Same goes for the rest of you."

"Hai, hai."

"God willing, tomorrow will go well."

"This will be hell."

"She'll be interesting."

"I think I'll just sleep in."

Giotto shook his head at al his Guardians' responses. No matter what they said, he knew that they would still be responsible enough to get the job done. How they get it done is another matter altogether, but tomorrow will be interesting indeed. He cleaned up the papers on his desk into piles of completed and incomplete. Giving a final once over of his office, he left and locked the door behind him.

"I wonder what Tsunayoshi is like?"

..8.9.

Sunlight streamed in through the curtains and fell over the eyes of the young Vongola boss and prompted him to stir. Years with Reborn as his tutor had made him painfully sensitive to sunlight on his face after a good night's sleep – well, not sunlight per se, but more of Reborn's merciless kicks to the head to awaken him. Even after leaving the hit man's tutelage, Tsuna could not help but wince at the conditions. He preferred waking up to an alarm clock in a darkened room.

"But Reborn's not here, right?" Tsuna thought to himself as he turned on his side.

He yawned.

He stretched.

And tossed.

And turned.

Before he tumbled straight out of bed.

And onto the floor.

"Gah, this is getting ridiculous! Reborn's not even here, why can't I enjoy a morning sleep-in?" Tsuna reached up and felt around before he pulled a pillow down from the bed in order to curl up with it some more.

"Haven't felt this out of place in a while," Tsuna mused to himself. The incident in the alternate future timeline where the Millefiore wreaked destruction almost seemed like a distant dream.

But this.

This was very real.

Giving the pillow in front of him one last longing look, he threw it onto the bed and heaved himself up. He tried to stretch his arms behind him as he made his way for the bathroom but the sudden jerk of pain made him think twice about persisting.

"Ow, ow, ow, okay okay. Bad idea. Really bad idea. Ow."

Tsuna sighed and mentally told himself that he should check up with the Sun Guardian later to see if he could do anything about the injuries he had sustained from the night before. In the meantime, he was careful not to make any wide movements that would have prompted more pain. Washing and dressing himself took twice as long as usual but in the end he managed to come out of the bathroom and walk-in closet relatively unscathed – well, at one point he nearly slipped on the tile but he managed to avoid falling. He took a quick look at himself in the full-body mirror. Informal grey pants and a simple white button up shirt. Tsuna eyed at a pair of braces wrapped neatly in a bundle. He decided to forgo the braces for the sake of his own dignity and instead opted to roll up his sleeved midway up his forearm to make himself seem more casual.

Feeling that he was aptly dressed to re-explore his own Vongola mansion – or it will be his, ten generations down the line – he made his way toward the door.

"I should probably check up on everyone else as well. They'd probably be up too. "

He was confident in the opening of the door, as well as sure of stepping out into the hallway. Unfortunately, the only thing he didn't count on was coming face to face and colliding in a heap on his own kin.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," Tsuna apologized, panic driving his voice higher on the octave scale.

Giotto, though stunned, managed to chuckle despite the sudden dearth of air. "Not to worry, although I would appreciate it if you were to get off of me first."

However, before Tsuna could push himself off of the blonde, he felt an all-too-familiar tug on his collar. The force from the yank threw him back into the doorway that he previously exited. Well, that was quite unfortunate.

"Off the boss, you heard the man."

"It's alright G, he just failed to see me that's all."

"How can you possibly fail to see an entire body?"

"I suppose it happens."

Giotto picked himself up off the ground and brushed off any possible specks of dust. Then, he offered a hand to the younger man still gawking from the doorway.

"You alright there?"

"Uh, yeah… Yeah."

Tsuna took the hand and pushed himself up, also mimicking Giotto's brushing motion. He noticed a small distance away, Yamamoto trailing Asari.

"Yo! Tsuna!"

"Morning Yamamoto-kun!"

"I'm dressed already, so shut up!"

"Gokudera-kun!"

"Oh, good morning Jyuudaime!"

"Bossu? Did you knock?"

Chrome peeked her head out of her room. Daemon was casually leaning against the wall next to the door and observed the entire incident with an amused look on his face.

"It was I who knocked, carina."

The subtle look that fell on Chrome's face when she saw the owner of the voice almost caused Tsuna to snort to himself. She clearly looked like she'd rather slam the door shut – preferably in the older illusionists face.

"Giotto, hot tempered number one isn't in his room, so I'll just resume my normal duties," came a voice from further down the hallway.

"Just make sure you find him eventually, Alaude."

"Hn."

"OWW!"

Everyone who was currently circled around the two Vongola bosses turned towards the source of the yell in alarm. They were met with a curious sight.

Lampo was walking Lambo over to where they were by means of dragging the teenager by the ear. The older bore the expression of utter boredom while the younger was near the point of tears.

"Next time, just get up kid."

"That's such an EXTREME way to wake up in the morning!"

"Onii-san!"

"That also seems painful. Lampo, do keep in mind that the next time you shirk training, I can use the same method of punishment."

"But Knuckle—!"

"Do unto others… if you kept that in mind, you wouldn't have this predicament." Knuckle responded, his eyes glinting in amusement.

"Well," Giotto started eyeing his increased posse, "today you'd be following the other Guardian of your element. We'll try the best we can to inform you of the current situations so that you would have some background. We'd likely meet later on today for dinner but until then every pair is relatively off on his or her own. So play nice."

G snorted and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Alright kid, you and me, we'll be circling the mansion. Might as well finish last night's job." G paused for a second to look at Giotto. "Any objections?"

"None at all. Go ahead."

At this point, Knuckle was already leading an extremely excited Ryohei down the halls and Asari was asking if Yamamoto wanted to practice sparring with him to warm up for the day. Lampo still dragged a crying Lambo off muttering to himself about "chess". Chrome warily followed a smug-looking Daemon while Alaude had long wandered off to 'resume his duties', whatever that may have been.

"Tsunayoshi?"

"Hmm?" Tsuna perked up at the Primo's use of his full first name. "Call me Tsuna. Tsunayoshi's way too formal for me."

"Alright then Tsuna." Giotto paused a moment to let the nickname sink in. "You and I will have a nice stack of office-work to look forward to."

"Great," Tsuna sighed quietly in defeat as he followed after the older boss.

Giotto couldn't help but grin and feel a little more satisfied that at least someone was going to be sharing in his paper-related misery. It was a bit of a cruel sentiment, but it felt nicely refreshing. That and the fact that G wouldn't be hovering over his desk with a gun pointed at him was also another bonus.

G really did have some strange methods of terrifying the boss into paperwork.

..8.9.

"I don't get it!" Dino grumbled. Reborn sat on the table next to him and calmly sipped his coffee.

"You clearly haven't told Tsuna about the situation," Reborn said calmly.

"Of course not!"

"If word gets out that they fly a flag that's under the wing of the Cavallone Famiglia, all the alliances will get very tense – especially because the Cavallone and the Vongola have the best relations. Who knows what the less amiable alliances will come to?"

"I know, but they're not my guys. Reborn, I'm being really honest when I say that even I'm not really sure what's going on."

"That is a problem."

"All I know is that they call themselves the Cavalieri Famiglia. Here, look at this letter signed in their crest – which according to them is an early version of ours."

Dino chose to, at that point, pull a letter from one of the drawers of his desk and handed it to Reborn. Upon the front of the letter a black stallion with its forelegs high in the air framed in lobelia flowers. The stoic hit man wasted no time in opening the letter and reading its contents.

"Have you checked up the crests?"

"I went through our family's archives. It seemed to be one of the rejected designs from way back; it was only mentioned once as a description in passing. The biggest clue-in was the lobelias. It's an unusual flower to use in any crest design. If it weren't for those, I would have come up with a blank. Either someone has access to detailed records and is cruelly pulling our leg or they're really Cavallone."

"What did that record say when it mentioned this crest?"

Dino put a finger to his lip as his face scrunched up in order to recall what he had read. "Lobelias would be an unsightly use for a crest for we love mercy not malevolence. Unfortunately, Bonaro's plan must be discarded."

Reborn went silent for a moment as he continued perusing the letter's contents. "So they say that they were a division of the Cavallone and broke off when they found it going towards the wrong path."

"Have you read up to the part of the 'immortal enemies, the Vongola' part?" Dino sarcastically commented with rolled eyes.

"Hmm, yes."

"Wonderful sense of wit, they seem to have."

"What's more interesting is this part: We, of the Cavalieri, wish for you to give us your blessings on our crusade against the Vongola. We wait in earnest and hope that you not make the wrong choice like your predecessor before you. The time to strike is now, when we have them in our grasp. Finally we can achieve our dream and construct a new family from the ashes of our enemies."

"Yeah, and you wonder why I don't like to reply to these kinds of letters. No return address either."

"It's signed by a Bonaro."

Dino paused and looked over Reborn's shoulder and frowned, "Can't be the same guy. It's been at least ten generations going by that record."

"They also mention your predecessor."

"But the old man said nothing of the Cavalieri, this is the first time I've heard of them. Reborn?"

"There's something different about this generation. Something causing them to go on the attack."

"Tsuna's a good boss. I don't see a problem yet… He's steering the Vongola on the right path."

"He may be too good of a boss in the eyes of these… Cavalieri. You said ten generations?"

"Yeah."

"That sets the original source of this problem during the Primo's time."

"I should send some of my men over to the Vongola mansion then, to help them in case of an attack."

"You can't, you don't even know if your men are in on it."

"But—"

"You need to first weed out the Cavalieri."

Dino knew that Reborn was right. Sending men over to the Vongola mansion could very well be a go-ahead for these Cavalieri and he didn't want to set off an attack if it could be avoided. At this point, any move that they made would be a blind one and Dino wasn't intent on stumbling straight into trouble.

..8.9.

The first two hours of the morning had gone by relatively uneventfully for Tsuna and Giotto. They split the pile of paperwork between them and Tsuna's temporary workspace was the couch and coffee table. A quick and short demo was all that it took for Tsuna to get into the paperwork. Surprisingly, the official procedure of desk work changed little over the course of several hundred years. It wasn't until one of the names on the reports caught his eye that he decided pitch in a question.

"Uh, Giotto?"

There was a sudden pause to the constant scritch-scratching of a quill on parchment.

"Yes? Did you need any help?"

"No, but I'm just wondering about the contents of the report. It's on alliances."

Giotto sighed as he put the quill down. "I suppose you would want to know about the Vongola's current relations."

"Yeah, about that. This report says that we've made three attempts at an alliance with the Cavallone?"

'Not bad, he said "we" when referring to the Vongola' Giotto thought in passing.

"Yes, unfortunately, the Cavallone are not seeing eye to eye with us and consistently reject the offer. It tends to be violent as well. There have been a number of injuries just resulting from meetings."

"Injuries from meetings?" Tsuna quirked an eyebrow at the older boss.

In particular, they wish to crush us and take control of all the families."

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute," Tsuna asked suddenly. "We're not friends yet?"

Tsuna clamped his mouth shut and swore at himself in all the languages he knew for letting that one word slip. He recalled reading books and watching movies where if someone so much as breathed the wrong way then he was capable of changing the entire future. After having saving the worlds once, he wasn't planning on doing it again because he created an early apocalypse by means of one word. He just hoped Giotto didn't catch onto his little slip-up.

Giotto looked incredulously and the brunette, "Of course not! Goodness, if we were friends that would have solved most of our problems now. They've been our rival family for almost the past decade."

"We're talking about the Cavallone Famiglia, right?"

"There is only one family under that name. Although…" Giotto looked up in thought, "the fanatics that hate us the most call themselves the cavalieri."

"Right," Tsuna nodded to himself. It appears as though the blonde missed his slip up. "I guess I need to keep that in mind."

"Please do, we don't need any more casualties. They're onto members of the Vongola like hounds to a fox. It's really disheartening."

"So…" Tsuna started, "any plans to get together with them? Successfully, I mean?"

"Well, this rivalry has been going on for quite some time between up now. It seems that some of the Cavallone, particularly the non-fanatics, are growing weary."

"So that's why you have a record of the three attempts at an alliance."

"Exactly. But so far, it seems like we may just have to wait longer. The cavalieri hold most of the assets the family has and they don't look like they're going to release it any time soon. They'd rather use it to create war on the other families."

{Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Mushroom, Mushroom…}

KitsuneFreak: That's a wrap for this chapter! Apologies if it's not on par with the other chapters, I'm still getting back into the groove. Not as traumatic of a cliffhanger either, but I just wanted to get this chapter out and rolling. EDIT: I have proofread and wow, I really was half asleep at some parts. And a nice reviewer has informed me of my consistent name-spelling error. I have actually gone back through all the chapters to fix Knuckle. Not Knuckles.

Fun story tidbit of the day comes from the fact that I'm going to smudge a little bit on wording since I know Italian and the fanatical group name that I put up is just really another variation of the name cavallone (which, in this case does not mean breaker, although that is a hilarious to note). The word cavallone itself, likely comes from il cavallaro if not i cavalieri — both of which mean horse dealer and knights respectively.

EDIT: A few people have asked what carina was as I had failed to define it earlier. Normally, it means sweet/nice/pretty. Italians often use it as a nickname in cases where boyfriends use this to address their girlfriends, parents to children, or adults to children. How Daemon intends it completely depends on your interpretation of Daemon's character.

In other news, I have a Tumblr under the same nickname and feel free to follow me if you'd like. I'd actually guarantee a response if you were to ask me a question there than through a review. It's also a good way to get your headcanons in if you really want me to try and write up a silly scene or oneshot. Be advised I don't do romance of any kind. PMs are good too, it's just that FF has such a tedious method of replying and I don't want to take up actual story-posting space to respond. EDIT: surprisingly, I'm liking FF's new modifications, replying is much easier now.