"Wait, wait... Somebody's going to see. Should wait... Okay."

Even Tsuna's protests were wrong. Nothing like 'What do you think you're doing, and why do you think it won't get you exiled to Italy?' His only instructions were to wait. For later? For more? Then he bowed his head and rested it on Gokudera's chest.

Like he didn't get a thing about how this was ridiculous and the thin school shirt let through all the warmth of his skin into Gokudera's, and like it was a good idea for Gokudera to be able to catch his scent and think about putting a hand up to his heartbeat.

"We'd better go, I guess." Tsuna hadn't got his breath back yet, and his voice shook on the verge of laughter. "I'm so glad we finally..."

A lunatic urge to apologise blazed through Gokudera. My desires are so rampant that they influenced you through time and space, shooting back from the moment I realised I love you to infect you at an earlier point in the timeline! Please kill me instead of allowing me to ruin you with science!

Then all he wanted was to know what Tsuna meant by 'finally'. Something of this magnitude - could he have wanted that for some time?

"Do you want to keep going?" Gokudera pleaded, before he passed out on the spot. He remembered Tsuna jumping away from him a few thousand years ago/this morning before school, and he empathised sharply all of a sudden. "Just walking. Someone might come by, like you said!"

Tsuna looked around quickly. There were distant sounds, thudding and clacking like people messing with heavy furniture, and the occasional lifted voice. However distant the sounds were, though, it was obvious that the mansion was teeming with people.

"Yeah. You're right, yeah. Gokudera?"

Gokudera peeled himself off the wall. He promised himself dynamite practice and playing really dramatic Beethoven when he got home, the ultimate in stress relief, if only he could go and stand relatively near Tsuna right now. "Yes, Tenth?"

Tsuna gave him that nervous, hopeful look while limping over to put an arm around his waist for support. There was nothing worrying about it at all, it turned out. Instead of walking, they probably floated, Gokudera thought.

"Thank you," Tsuna whispered. "For everything."

"Yes! Okay!" He'd accepted the gratitude. Surely that counted for something. He could work on graciousness later.

"It's actually pretty quiet up here, huh?"

"Oh! Yes!" Tsuna was incredible. He appeared to be trying to make conversation.

"M-maybe the show started."

"Yeah! The show!" Gokudera still wasn't thinking about what had happened. About what had been said. About anything much beyond holding Tsuna, here and now, and the way Tsuna's grin wavered between nervousness and exhilaration and his grip never wavered at all.

Tsuna picked the next door to check out, cautiously turning the knob. "Maybe you should get that dynamite out, in case there's anything dangerous..."

There was a bed.

"Hey, a window seat," Tsuna said, and walked in. While Gokudera was supporting him! Necessitating that he also enter this bedroom, a room with a bed in it, with the Tenth, whom he'd kissed!

The bed stood high on richly polished legs, soft and wide, dominating the room and looking ... empty.

Empty in a way that was uninviting! Absolutely uninvitingly soft and empty, and Gokudera yanked himself away from Tsuna and marched to the window ahead of him. "Look at this view," he demanded for the sake of his sanity. "It's great, Tenth! Now we should inspect some other area, since it seems that the private rooms look fine!" Because they were probably in a whole wing of bedrooms, of beds.

"I'd like to sit a little more," Tsuna said. "I can tell how my ankle is going to be sore in the morning. I'll have to ice it tonight... Hey, it really is a nice view."

Gokudera scurried away to stand by the door and looked at the bed, because he couldn't help it, and told himself he realised why it looked empty. The answer was simple. "There aren't any pillows! The staff slacked off! We really should shoot them, in the kneecaps, I mean, nothing serious—"

"Could you come sit too?"

The ultimate challenge.

Gokudera shook his head and shuffled partially behind the door frame.

"Um... It's just that I should, um, probably say that..." Blushing fit to make his ears tinge purple around the rims, Tsuna looked away from him, staring at the floor. "About why I was picking a fight earlier. It wasn't fair to you..."

"So you weren't serious? About not wanting to be the boss?"

Tsuna's eyes squeezed shut. When he spoke, Gokudera found the worry churning in his voice was no longer frightening or a shock; it made sense. However tough Tsuna was, he had always had an incredible share of sweetness, and his former, normal life would make this hard for him. In retrospect, it was easy to get.

"Gokudera... All that stuff is true. But I can't fight it anymore... I know that. I really don't like it." Those strong hands of his tightened around each other, knuckles paling. God - couldn't Gokudera hold them now?

"This life is scary and I'm stuck in it, and there's always more dangerous stuff happening to all of us. There's supposed to be some kind of big ceremony - and the Ninth talked about a trial I'm supposed to do, and Reborn says I can probably get through it. What does that mean? I am good at - bribing? Fighting? Stealing and, and giving orders to people like the Varia? If I'm not that kind of person, everyone could get hurt, and I—"

"Won't let that happen," Gokudera finished. He came into the room - halfway to the window seat, nothing inappropriate. "You're going to be a good boss. In every sense of the word, Tenth, you're going to be good, because I know about total bastards. I wouldn't be here if you were like the others."

"I know." Tsuna's voice broke with shame. "And that's still not what I was really worried about."

Gokudera felt like he was falling again and would never get a chance to stop. How could they keep being so different?

"Then what?"

"It should be. I don't want to be a total bastard." His lopsided smile dropped quickly. "But I'll ... really be the Tenth Generation Boss, soon. You're one of the only people I can talk to about that stuff, whenever it gets hard to bear, and these last few weeks—you've been ... amazing."

"This is crazy," Gokudera said, because that, he was sure of. "Tenth, you don't talk about it. You get quiet. I wanted to help but you never said how I could, and I thought that when you protested about being boss before, it was merely passing doubts. You just kept letting me hug you!" he accused.

Tsuna blushed. "Hey, you were the one that started it! I thought that I was going to have a heart attack about it that first time... You never do stuff like that, so it felt like such a big deal." He chuckled shyly. "It was a big distraction from what I worried about. It turned out it was always nice. Having you there... Did you know you've also been getting quiet? I guess that's why we never talked about all this stuff properly. I liked being with you like that. Being able to breathe again. Being peaceful."

He grinned, his tone changing to something teasing. "It's a big change with the two of us." Words that could have felt like censure were unbelievably gentle.

"I'm going to be the boss, and you'll be with me, and... For the rest of our lives, Gokudera." Tsuna's breath gave in, and he waited before he could continue. "It got unavoidable once we were supposed to come and see this house. I didn't know what it would be like, or how we could be or should be, or anything. You never seemed to think twice about it, and I was terrified. I'm sorry..."

"You said—" Gokudera's brain processed too fast for his mouth to keep up. "When we were on the stairs, you said not that bad, Tenth, for the rest of your life - that's what you said."

"Gokudera..." He couldn't name the things trembling in Tsuna's voice, and wondered frantically at the way its low timbre was something he could feel in his skin. They weren't close to touching.

Why weren't they touching?

He strode to join Tsuna on the window seat. The bed caught his eye again, inevitably, and the thought Honeymoon fired through his mind.

Gokudera stopped feeling his legs in time to collapse onto Tsuna. That was fine. The Tenth had wanted him close, closer than he could have guessed, for weeks. He'd barely got used to the ease with which Tsuna fit the curve of his arm. Sometimes they'd held hands, and he'd needed to pretend it wasn't really happening not to react. Damn it, but a lot of things he'd done in the las while started looking indefensible from a platonic perspective.

This couldn't be possible - it was ridiculous, too much. That he'd never understood Tsuna and Tsuna had never understood him, and that he could still kiss the best accident that had ever happened to him.

Tsuna laughed against his lips and then into his mouth. The sound was high, wild, like he might still be running off adrenaline, and then softened into a sigh of contentment. Tsuna's body felt bony under his and then in places, surprisingly soft.

"I can't," Gokudera said, and Tsuna said, "Oh?" sounding terrified and not quite there. His interest was in his eyes, darting over Gokudera's neck and open collar.

"What is it?"

Gokudera put his face in his hands, digging his fingertips into his hair. "It's too good."

"Yeah," Tsuna breathed. And his hands became unspeakably brave. Gokudera bunched the curtains behind Tsuna in his fists as fingers got beneath his blazer, skittering up his sides so that his nerves lit up despite the shirt in the way and then settling, spreading - dipping over the top of his trousers. Not far down, but - deliberate, and one thumb slightly tentative about stroking over his hip. No way, no way could he do that to Tsuna in turn, no way, and he bent his head to suck hard on Tsuna's neck, imagining the mark he needed to leave.

That was as bad, he'd admit. Possibly worse. The second they stopped, compared notes, compiled data, listed ideas and did any necessary research, he would apologise for taking that step. But it was - it seemed like it might be - not so bad, it was okay, "Is that okay? Tenth..."

"How dare you!"

Worst nightmare.

Only until Tsuna's arms clamped around his waist, one leg kicked out in a frantic flail and the other tried to follow, and Tsuna yelped at the movement of his sore ankle.

Gokudera grabbed Tsuna's shoulders. "Are you hurt?" Tsuna batted at his hands and then grabbed hold of one arm like he needed the stability, breathing fast and staring behind Gokudera.

"Necking at a time like this!" said a feminine voice, the same voice that had spoken, Gokudera realised. "When we have to get ready for the party!"

A member of the staff was in the room. Ordinary staff, with the grey uniform as opposed to the flashy circus-type uniforms, so feral animals were unlikely to follow - that was good.

"Pillow," he said intelligently. "Wondered where that was."

The woman clasped pillows of several sizes, suitably fluffy looking, in pillowcases decorated with a matching pattern as the bedclothes. "Vongola Tenth," she said on seeing their faces, equally as intelligently as Gokudera. "Storm Guardian. I - I'll put - these—" She took a step towards the bed as if to begin arranging the pillows, and then both she and the Tenth kind of screamed little choked noises.

"Leave! I'll leave!" She plunged her face into her armfuls of pillows and fled.

Gokudera looked at Tsuna's hand on his arm and so did Tsuna, and then they sprang apart. "Let's go, come on, what if she—" Tsuna put a hand over his face, already by the door. "Shit."

"I don't think you have to worry about her coming back, Tenth."

"Damn it!" Tsuna moaned, and grabbed Gokudera's hand as they hurried out. "And here I had nightmares it would be Mom."

"Tenth," Gokudera said, and squeezed his hand. He'd thought about it so much he had dreamed about the two of them! Tsuna squeezed back without pause, stopped his half-hopping run, and hugged him.

"Let's get out of here," Tsuna muttered against his shoulder, so warm. "I don't care about the stupid show. I bet that lady's going to be there!"

They retraced their steps as quickly as possible, not familiar enough with the layout to try for a shorter route. They were in the garage before Gokudera said, "Tenth ... the whole show ... it's for you. The staff will expect..."

Tsuna stopped walking, squeezing his eyes shut, and then opened them with a sigh. "At least Reborn said the rest of us will be attending," he said. "This is going to be so weird. Can I borrow your cellphone again?"

He was very nervous as he spoke to the head butler, completely flustered by the fluctuating signal as they went up the stairs from the underground garage. Gokudera watched him blush and shout as politely as possible on the bad connection, asking if it was possible to get all available staff in the front foyer.

"You should just tell him," he said gently as Tsuna gave back the phone. "It's his job to follow your orders."

"I'm the boss," Tsuna agreed, sounding lost. "But giving out orders isn't one of the things that make it worthwhile." He sighed. "Anyway, I'm about to be a big jerk to everybody. Might as well be nice before that."

The staff was a minor army in the foyer. Tsuna's limp suddenly got worse and Gokudera made a path for him, through the mass of people and towards the outside door.

"Unfortunately," Tsuna said at a volume audible only to Gokudera and maybe specially trained dogs, and cleared his throat to speak louder. "Unfortunately, I - we, th-the Storm Guardian and I have to go, because of other business that has suddenly come up at home. So we have to - but the other Vongola guardians ... and associates, they will still attend the show! Before we go, I want to say thank you. Thank you to everybody who did so much—"

He faltered, and Gokudera followed his gaze. He'd spotted that maid.

"The house looks great! We're really grateful, and I would love to stay, because the entertainment programme sounded really diverse, and the people we met were amazing— Uh. Could someone help that woman before she suffocates?"

The maid still had the pillows pressed to her face. Gokudera thought she might have had a chance to say what she'd seen, though; some of the people standing near her couldn't seem to look at the Tenth directly, while others stared and stared.

"Uh," Tsuna said again as the maid was convinced to leave a breathing gap, and his eyes strayed over the rest of the crowd. "Thank you again."

"We'll be leaving now!" Gokudera barked. "Scatter!" The staff members dashed away in the satisfying way that he remembered those of his childhood doing. He turned and swept Tsuna up in his arms, staggered, and beamed.

"Gokudera! Put me down!"

"It's too far for you to walk, Tenth." "Don't carry me like this!"

"Oh," Gokudera said, surprised. "Then on my back again?"

"No! And jeez, your back doesn't hurt from doing that before? You did it for so long." While Gokudera was high on the hint of admiration in his voice, Tsuna held up the walking stick they'd picked up on retracing their steps. "I can use this and bring it back later..."

"On it, Tenth! I'll let the butler know. I'll call another cab, too," Gokudera added as he typed on his phone.

Tsuna stopped looking at the walking stick and said, "Um."

"Tenth?"

"I'm wondering ... is there any chance... Do you know how to drive?"

To be perfectly honest, Gokudera would never have ever pegged the Tenth as a motorbike guy. (And there were three Lamborghinis RIGHT THERE.) But apparently he'd always thought that motorbikes were cool.

When they reached home and Tsuna took the helmet off he looked exhilarated, in spite of the way his arms had clenched around Gokudera's waist on several corners. (The arms-around-the-waist part was where Gokudera had decided: To hell with Lamborghinis.)

"We should ask Reborn-san to give you driving lessons, Tenth!"

"Yeah! Or you could give me some."

Gokudera's imagination provided vivid images of the two of them, a motorbike, and quiet stretches of road. He scrambled to put the real bike between them. "That might be - an idea!" he said, not sure if he should qualify that with 'good', 'bad', or 'most incredible ever'.

"It would be fun."

He was pretty sure Tsuna knew how much fun he had in mind, and that Tsuna had similar ideas and didn't care and actually liked that he had them - and it was too much to take. "I should go."

"See you tomorrow?" Tsuna said, a little nervous.

"Of course. Absolutely. We can go to school on the motorbike!"

Tsuna shook his head. "That's going to attract too much attention. Bye, Gokudera. See you tomorrow."

And then.

Tsuna kissed him, right there in the street, in front of God and everybody. Even if it was quiet out.

Three minutes later, Gokudera managed to form words. "Tenth - you - what—" Not sensible ones, but it was enough that Tsuna stopped rubbing circles on his back.

"You were carrying me!" Tsuna said, indignant.

"But - publicly - y-you can't—"

"Sorry if it's too much..." Tsuna glanced around, the way he hadn't done at all before leaning in for the kiss. "I didn't think it was something you'd mind. I thought you'd like it," he mumbled. "It was a peck..."

Gokudera stared at him in astonishment. "Don't you mind?"

"My neighbourhood has seen a lot more than ... just that, Gokudera. And it's not like we're being the way we were in that room—" He gave a groan of embarrassment, and then shook his head. "But I'm sorry! I didn't think you'd mind!"

"No, Tenth. It's not that I mind. It's..." The full meaning of it broke through the happy haze.

"They know about us. Back at the mansion. If anyone lets this slip, that's it. Everybody in the family will know." He watched Tsuna carefully. "Don't you care?"

"Dad might be pissed off," Tsuna said, with a shade of a frown, and then shrugged. "This ... it's not anybody's business but ours. It's got nothing to do with the Vongola."

"We've got everything to do with the Vongola." He pulled Tsuna closer, an arm around him over the bike. "It doesn't matter what we do now - anything we do, they're going to be talking about you and me, and Tenth, they're not going to say one fucking good thing about it."

Tsuna grabbed his arm. "Please don't kill anyone!"

"I can't make promises!"

"Gokudera..."

He took a deep, deep breath and dialled down the fury on his face, and Tsuna took the concession and kept speaking. "We'll still get to do those things we were talking about. And ... it'll be together. That's all that needs to be 'good'."

"I wish you knew what you were giving up. But you don't even want to be boss." Tsuna looked uncertain, and Gokudera kept his grip tight so he wouldn't think that this was another argument. "I get it now. Why it's tough for you, having a real family and having a Mafia family. But Tenth, we'll have no kind of reputation. I don't know what we'll do. It's going to be—"

"Better," Tsuna said. "I still believe you about that."

A history fell down in Gokudera's heart, an age at the end of which his name was still a legend and proved everything he had always hoped it could, to everyone he'd ever wanted to shame.

"I don't have a clue what to do. And you'll help me do it!"

He wasn't sure he'd heard Tsuna laugh as hard as he did at that triumphant conclusion before, but that was probably because he hadn't had the opportunity before to feel what it was like to have the Tenth pressed against him when he laughed. "Th-that's pretty much wh-what you do for me," Tsuna managed. "So it's only fair!"

Hayato Gokudera dived into the future.