SkyGem: Hey guys! So sorry for not updating this yesterday, but I was busy in the morning, and by the time I got back from Wonderland, it was like almost one in the morning, and I was damn tired, so instead of rushing this chapter and having it make barely any sense, I decided to just update it today. I hope you guys like, ne? And extra long (and fluffy) chapter, just for you!

"Hello there, Kyoko. Miss me?" asked her older brother, that contagious smile on his face, his eyes showing love.

When she saw that smile, she just couldn't take it anymore. Kyoko had spent the past eight years believing that she would never see her brother smile at her like that again. Now that he was, though, she couldn't stop herself from rushing over to throw her arms around him, tears streaming down her face.

"Onii-san," she sobbed, "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Kyoko," he said quietly, returning the hug.

They stayed like that for quite a while, Kyoko enjoying the safety she felt in her brother's arms, Ryohei happy for the moment that he'd gotten to see his beloved younger sister again.

When they finally pulled apart, Kyoko wiped the tears out of her eyes, and asked in a stuttering voice, "What are you doing here?"

"He's here to make sure you don't try and run off with me again before otou-san can come to take me home," said her son, and Kyoko whipped her head around to stare at him.

"…nani?" she asked in a quiet voice, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Tsunayoshi sent me here to help Shunpei leave the Momokyokai clan and to watch over him until he can come here and reclaim custody of his son."

Kyoko had to choke back a sob when she heard this; she'd known it would happen. She'd known from the moment she began planning this, that one day, he would find her, that one day, her little Shunpei would be taken away from her. But she didn't regret what she'd done. Kyoko knew that she would never have been able to survive the past eight years without Shunpei by her side.

Suddenly, though, Kyoko was snapped out of her grief by the feeling of her son's arms wrapping around her.

"I love you okaa-san," he said, "I love you so, so much, and I'll never stop loving you. But I can't stay anymore. Okaa-san, you haven't realized it yet, have you? That day that you took me from Italy, you didn't only take me away from the only home I'd ever known. You took away my whole family. I didn't only lose my father, but also my uncles and aunts. I lost the chance to grow up with Isa and Mira! I lost the big brother figures that Haruta and Aoi would have been! I almost lost my heritage! I love you, okaa-san, but I can't trust you anymore."

And when she heard this, Kyoko cried even harder than she had been, because she knew it was true. Even though Kyoko didn't like her ex-husband's involvement in the mafia, she couldn't deny the fact that he and his guardians really were like one large, loving family. A large, loving family that she had been a part of, and could have still been a part of if she'd had a stronger heart. But she couldn't stand it; she couldn't stand the terrifying thought that every time Tsuna had stepped out that door, there was a huge chance that when he came back, it wouldn't be on his own two feet, but rather lying in a coffin.

And when she'd imagined Shunpei in his position, she hadn't been able to stand it anymore.

It took a long time to get Kyoko to calm down, and when she finally did, she went about setting the table and getting ready for dinner as if her whole world hadn't been torn apart.

Shun watched his mother worriedly, wondering if he'd gone too far, but one look at his uncle told him that he'd done the right thing, that she'd needed that in order to be able to get on with her life.

Dinner that night was a quiet affair, and when Shun laid down for sleep that night, he found that he was still wide awake. His mind was buzzing with thoughts and expectations; tomorrow, for the first time in almost a decade, he would be seeing his father again.

When Shun had first regained his memories about what his mother had done, and about his life before he had been cruelly ripped from it, he'd gone into shock. There was no way his mother could have done that.

And when he had finally accepted it, he'd been in a dilemma. What should he do? His uncle was telling him that his father wanted him to move back to Italy with them, but how could he do that? How could he just leave behind his mother and his home in Namimori and how could he ever abandon Kukai like that?

But the more he thought about it, the more tempting the offer had seemed. He could go back to that happy place in his memories; he could see the girls and everyone else again.

Ryohei had explained to him about the Vongola, of course, but he'd also explained that his father would never force him to take over. If Shun wanted to, he didn't have to have anything to do with the mafia.

And somewhere in the middle of thinking all this, Shun fell asleep, and the next time he opened his eyes, it was morning, and it was time for him to get ready for school.

When Kukai saw Shunpei at school that day, he was surprised at the huge grin that was currently gracing his friend's features – okay, so it was really just an upward tilt of his mouth, but that was a Shunpei equivalent of a huge grin.

The reason Kukai was so surprised was that usually, after a meeting, Shun would mope around for a while.

They didn't get a chance to talk before classes started, but the moment the bell rang for lunch, Kukai went over and plopped down in the seat in front of Shun's.

"What's up?" asked the bubbly teen, grinning from ear to ear as usual.

When Shun looked at him, though, Kukai thought he saw just a flicker of sadness in his friend's eyes before he was able to hide it away.

His smile seemed just a little forced as he said, "I found out that Tsuna-san was my father and that he's coming to Japan today to see me."

There was a moment of silence as Kukai just stared at his friend in complete incomprehension, then he burst out laughing.

"T-that's a good one, S-Shun! How did y-you come up with it?" he gasped out when he was finally able to get his laughter under control.

When his friend just stared back at him with a serious expression, Kukai's eyes widened. "Wait…you're telling the truth?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Shun nodded glumly.

"But that's great! You get to see your father! Isn't that what you've always wanted?" asked Kukai, worried at his friend's seeming lack of excitement.

"But he wants me to go live with him in Italy, Kukai!" exclaimed Shun.

Kukai's mouth made a small 'o' shape as he finally realized what that meant.

"I really want to go back home, you know? I want to see my childhood friends and the rest of my family, but I don't want to leave you!"

Seeing his friend's distress, Kukai swallowed his despair and smiled brightly. Knocking playfully on Shun's forehead, he said, "Hello? Is there anybody in there? Because if there were, it wouldn't take even a second to decide which was the right choice. You need to go, Shun. This is your family we're talking about."

And suddenly, Shunpei's expression was stern. "Kukai," he said warningly, "What have I said about forcing smiles? You know I don't like it when you do that!"

Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, Kukai let his cheery countenance fall away and be replaced by a sad, lonely smile. "I hate how you can always see right through me," he said quietly, trying to blink back tears. The thought of going back to the lonely days before he and Shun became friends terrified Kukai.

"Of course I can, baka," said Shun, a hidden affection in his eyes. "We're best friends, remember?"

Kukai nodded slowly. "Which is why I can't let you stay here in Nami-chuu," he said, determination in his eyes.

Shun looked as if he wanted to argue, but after knowing Kukai for more than half a decade, he knew that his friend wouldn't budge.

Deciding to take up the issue later, Shun spent the rest of lunch filling Kukai in on the events of the previous day.

Gokudera Hayato leaned against the wall by Nami-chuu's entrance gate grumbling quietly to himself.

The moment everyone had found out that Shunpei had been found, the trip had turned into a family event, and there had been a huge rush in the Vongola HQ before they had left as everyone had rushed to pack for the next few days. The kids had even convinced their parents to let them miss a few days of school.

Because they didn't have a Japan base, they'd had to rent out a bunch of suites for all the guardians and their families in the nearest five-star hotel they could find. Almost immediately after they had arrived, everyone had dispersed.

Since they couldn't convince Hayato to let them come with him, three of the teens – Isa, Haruta, and Aoi – had immediately made their way to the pool, with Giotto and Suzume (Haruta's four-year-old sister and Kyoya's daughter) tagging along behind them.

After warning the kids to look after their younger siblings, the women had decided to have a girls' day out and do some shopping. Chrome, though, two months pregnant with her and Mukuro's second son (Aoi's younger brother), had decided to stay at home, with Mukuro keeping her company.

Takeshi and his daughter, Mira, had decided to take a visit to TakeSushi to see Tsuyoshi.

Lambo had gone to some jewelry store to find an engagement ring for his soon-to-be fiancée.

Kyoya had tagged along with Hayato just so he could check out his precious school.

And Tsuna had apparently gone to some orphanage on the edge of town to sign adoption papers.

And now, almost three hours later, Hayato was left waiting for the damn school bell to ring so that he could see Shunpei again and bring him to the hotel he and the rest were staying at.

As Hayato was thinking all this, though, the bell finally rang, and the silveret thanked the good Lord that his wait was finally over.

Only minutes later, students began to file out of the building; some of them seemed to be terrified of something, and Hayato was quite perplexed until he remembered the demon ex-prefect that was terrorizing the hallways.

Chuckling quietly to himself, the bomber continued to scan the crowd for his charge, and was absolutely ecstatic when he caught sight of a head of fluffy brown hair that he would recognize anywhere.

"SHUNPEI!" he shouted excitedly, and all heads in a half-mile radius turned to look in his direction.

Even at the age of thirty-eight, the bomber was good-looking enough to have all the female students swooning at the mere sight of him.

When Shunpei saw him, at first, the teen couldn't believe his eyes; was that really who he thought it was?

Taking in the neat ponytail of pretty silver hair, the bright green eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses, and the long-sleeved shirt and heavy pants that the man was wearing, Shunpei let an exasperated smile grace his face.

Pulling Kukai along behind him, he pretty much ran up to the explosives expert and threw his arms around the man in a hug.

"Long time no see, Hayato-ji-san. Still carrying enough explosives to sink the country of Japan?" he asked cheekily.

Hayato hugged him back, placing a kiss on the boy's forehead and saying matter-of-factly, "Actually, it's been upgraded to Australia now."

Kukai, watching quietly from a few paces away, was scared to realize that he wasn't even really sure whether or not they were joking.

Shunpei, though, just let out a laugh and pulled away, saying, "I see. Oh, and this is my best friend, Kaoru Kukai!"

Hayato took in the boy's relatively short stature, cheerful grey eyes, and his short, extremely messy, dark brown hair. In a few ways, he kind of reminded Hayato of his best friend when he was younger, even if there weren't that many similarities in appearance between him and Tsuna.

"So this is my new nephew…" he mumbled quietly to himself.

"Nani?" asked Shun, confused. He'd heard the end of the statement, but couldn't figure out what that had to do with the situation in hand.

"Hm?" asked Hayato, seemingly distracted for a moment before saying, "Don't worry, it's nothing important. Anyways, why don't we go back to the hotel and see the rest of the family, ne? Tsuna had some last minute business to take care of, but we'll see him in about an hour."

"T-the rest of the family?" asked Shunpei. Even though it looked like he was taking things in stride, the teen was actually quite flustered. Knowing Hayato ever since he was born had been the reason that it had been so easy for Shun to just go up to the man and hug him, but he was starting to get really nervous now.

"That's right," said Hayato, looking a little frustrated. "When they found out that you were in Japan, everyone made a huge deal about it. The guardians immediately dropped whatever they were doing to come, my wife and the others weren't too busy so they easily cleared their schedules as well, and the kids, somehow or another, were able to convince their moms to let them come."

Kukai stared at Hayato in amazement, not quite able to believe that all these people were so willing to go out of their way to come and see Shunpei; his best friend was so lucky. It made Kukai wonder how his family would have reacted if he were in that situation and they were still alive.

He was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts, though, when his cell phone began ringing and he quickly picked it up.

When he was done talking, Shun was staring at him curiously, and he offered an apologetic smile.

"That was the director of the orphanage. She wants to talk to me about something important."

When Kukai arrived in the director's office, the first thing he noticed was that there was already a man in there.

The first thought to come into his mind was that he was in some kind of trouble, but he didn't remember doing anything bad lately, and his marks were relatively good, so that couldn't be the reason.

The second thought was that maybe he was getting adopted. That thought was also quickly pushed away because he was already fourteen, and there were few people that wanted to adopt teenagers; most went for children instead.

"Oh, there you are, Kukai-kun!" said the director, and the man perked up.

As he turned around, Kukai was shocked speechless when he saw the man's face; he looked like Shun!

When their eyes met, the corners of the man's mouth tipped upwards into a kind smile and he said, "Ohayou, Kukai-kun. My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi and I'm-"

"Shun's father…" whispered Kukai, and the director perked up this time; obviously, she hadn't known this particular piece of information.

Sawada-san just nodded, the smile still on his face.

"But…what are you doing here? Shun-kun went to the hotel with-"

"I know," said Sawada-san quickly. "I'm actually here for you, Kukai-kun."

"For…me?" asked Kukai, his brain swimming with confusion. "…why?"

"I assume Shunpei told you about the Vongola?" asked Sawada-san, seemingly changing the topic, and Kukai nodded in response to the question; Shun had told him everything during lunch. "I see," said Sawada-san in that mysterious way that adults spoke in sometimes, as if he knew more than even Kukai did. "And what do you think?"

Now this confused Kukai even more; what did he care what Kukai thought about the way he ran his family?

Nevertheless, Kukai responded honestly, saying, "I think you're the best father Shun could have ever hoped for and I'm glad he'll be going to Italy with you."

When he said this, the smile on Sawada-san's face grew even wider. Kukai remembered comparing his best friend's smile to his mothers before, but now he saw that that wasn't completely accurate. It was now obvious who he'd gotten it from.

"Then I have just one more question to ask you," said Sawada-san, and Kukai felt his stomach twisting itself into knots.

"H-hai?" asked the teenager expectantly, somehow knowing that his answer to this next question could possibly be the most important one he gave in his entire life.

"How would you feel about joining our family as my adopted son?"

Shun stared up at the magnificent hotel with wide eyes; he remembered that their family had always been rich, but this was completely unbelievable.

"Come on," said Hayato, walking past him. "The kids should have gotten bored with the pool right about now. They'll be ecstatic to see you."

And true to his words, the moment the two had stepped onto the floor that the family was staying on, there was a shout of, "THERE THEY ARE!"

Startled, Shun turned to look in the direction of the shout but was immediately tackled to the ground by two little balls of energy.

Rubbing his head where he had hit it on the ground, he tried to sit up, and that was when he got a good look at the cute little three-year-old that was lying on his chest, stars visible in the innocent brown eyes staring excitedly up at him.

The kid's messy blond hair, and the colour of his eyes (the exact shade of Shun's) left no doubt in the boy's mind on who this was.

"H-hey," he stuttered out, trying to get air back in his lungs. "You're Giotto, aren't you?"

The little blond looked so happy that Shun had recognized him that he looked about ready to explode as he frantically nodded his head in greatly exaggerated motions.

When he didn't say anything, Shun was a little worried, but his attention was immediately claimed by the other fluffy little thing that had crashed into him.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about him! He's always that quiet!" said a girl with slightly chubby, pomegranate red cheeks, stormy grey eyes, and waist length hair tied up in pigtails. "I'm Suzume, by the way, and I just turned four!"

"You're pretty articulate for a four-year-old," observed Shun.

Suzume just giggled at this, saying in a proud voice, "I'm Hibari Kyoya's daughter!"

"Ah," said Shunpei, "Haruta's little sister. That explains so much."

Suddenly, hysteric giggling started up a few feet away from them, and Shun looked up to see four teens about his age standing there. The ones that were giggling were a tall, tomboy-ish looking girl with short, messy black hair in a pixie cut and warm brown eyes, and a thirteen-year-old girl with waist-length silver hair tied in a neat braid down her back and pretty green eyes.

Standing beside these two girls was a boy that was even taller than the black haired girl and who also had black hair, except that his eyes were steel grey, just like his father's…in fact, he was an almost exact clone of his father, except he apparently had the ability to show emotion, if his expression of annoyance was anything to go by. Another rather tall boy was just chuckling quietly to himself. This boy had purplish-blue hair styled in a way reminiscent of a pineapple and he had beautiful, deep blue eyes that made you think of the ocean.

"Thanks a lot, Shun," said the annoyed-looking boy, Haruta.

Shun, finding it easier than he thought to fall back into habit, smiled cheekily, saying, "I try my best."

This only cause the girls to laugh even harder, and the other boy's, Aoi's, chuckling morphed into full-on laughter.

Haruta just glared at them, but it was obvious his heart wasn't in it.

After the laughter had died away, there was a somewhat awkward silence before the two girls broke it by tackling Shun in a hug that was just as enthusiastic, if not even more so than the kids'.

"We missed you so much, Shunpei!" wailed Isa, clinging tightly to his torso, which Giotto had vacated just moments before she had attacked Shun.

"It's so good to have you back," agreed Mira, her arms wrapped around Shun's neck, cradling his head gently against her relatively flat chest. The gesture was almost motherly, but Shun supposed he shouldn't really be all that surprised; Mira had always been the most mature of all of them, even if the boys were both at least three years older than her.

"I'm glad to see that you didn't remain as short as you had been," teased Aoi, ruffling Shun's hair patronizingly.

"Looks like our family can be complete again," said Haruta, a blush on his cheeks as he looked anywhere but at Shun, who had a soft smile on his face.

Right about now, the teen was feeling immensely relieved. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but the fact that the others really hadn't changed all that much really took a load off his shoulders; they were still the same people he had known since he was younger; they were still his beloved siblings.

"Oi, guys, let's hurry up and get in one of the suits," ordered Hayato, whose presence Shun was embarrassed to realize that he'd forgotten.

Judging from Isa's shocked expression, though, he wasn't the only one.

Feeling a small hand tugging at his own, he looked down to see Giotto, who looked to be trying his hardest to pull him up to his feet.

"Up!" he said the moment he saw Shun's gaze on him, and Shun smiled indulgently, deciding to play along for the moment.

When Tsuna arrived at the hotel almost an hour later, he had a suddenly very shy Kukai trailing quietly after him, his gaze cast downward to try and hide the redness that was still in his cheeks. The teen still couldn't believe that he wasn't dreaming and expected to open his eyes any minute now and find that he had fallen asleep in class or something.

Who in their wildest dreams could ever have imagined that he, Kukai, would actually be adopted! And by Shun's father no less! It was a dream come true!

Kukai was so caught up in staring at his shoes that he didn't even notice that his new f-father (it was still hard for him to even think the word) had stopped a few steps into the lobby until he had almost bumped into the kind brunet.

"Saw- I-I mean, o-otou-san?" stuttered out Kukai, confused.

Tsuna, though, seemed not to have heard him; he was staring at something.

Following his gaze, Kukai immediately understood as he saw a bunch of kids lounging on some of the sofas that were decorating the lobby. Tsuna's eyes were focused on one in particular; Shunpei.

It didn't take long for one of the kids to notice them; a small blond that looked a lot like both Shunpei and Tsuna smiled toothily when he saw them enter and jumped up from where he had been sitting on his brother's lap.

"Daddy!" he shrieked in an overjoyed voice as he tackled Tsuna's legs, smiling happily up at him.

"Hello, bambino," said Tsuna in a loving voice, bending down to place a peck on his youngest son's cheek and give him a quick hug.

"Otou…san?" said an unsure voice, cutting the adorable scene short, and Tsuna slowly looked up and into the eyes of the son he hadn't seen in such a long, long time.

He felt a small pang of sadness at how much his little Shunpei had grown since he'd last seen him, but that sadness was completely overpowered by the pride he felt at what a magnificent boy Shunpei had become and the unbelievable joy of seeing him again.

Gently unwrapping Giotto's arms from around his legs, Tsuna took two powerful steps forward to where his son was now standing and enveloped him in a fiercely protective hug.

"Shunpei," he choked out, feeling tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, not able to say anything more as he buried his face in his son's hair.

It didn't matter, though, that he didn't say anything else, because Shunpei had gotten the message loud and clear.

"I missed you too, dad," he said, returning the hug just as fiercely. It felt good to have his father's powerful arms around him again; it gave him a sense of safety he really hadn't felt in years.

They stayed in that position for quite a while without anyone daring to interrupt them before Tsuna finally pulled away, a gentle smile on his face.

"You've really grown a lot, Shunpei," said Tsuna with pride obvious in his voice.

"And you still look like a twenty-five-year-old," said Shun with a laugh. "Way too young to have a son in junior high."

"You mean sons," corrected his father immediately, and Shunpei looked at him in confusion.

A second later, though, his eyes had widened and his jaw fell to the floor (metaphorically) as his best friend stepped up to him with a shy grin on his face.

"My name is Sawada Kukai," he said in a barely audible voice, holding his hand out to shake. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

The End

SkyGem: And cut! That's it for this story! Please do leave one more review and tell me what you thought, ne? Oh, and a lot of you have been asking who [Insert guardian's name here]'s wife is. Well, I'm just gonna leave that up to your imagination, because that's not a really important element to the story, and I know I have many different shippers among my readers, so I'm not going to get in the middle of this. The only named pairing I have in here is 6996 and that's just because I really can't see it going any other way, what with their past and all. Other than that, you guys choose who you want them to have ended up with. Anyways, I really appreciate all the reviews, favourites and alerts this story has gotten and I look forward to your continued support! If you haven't already, please do check out some of my other stories if you have the time!

P.S. I almost forgot. Some of you will be confused/curious who is whose kid, who is blood related, or who's pregnant, so here's a list to help it all make sense:

-Tsuna's son Shunpei (14) is from his first marriage, and his second son Giotto (3) is from his second marriage. Kukai (14) is his adopted son.
-Ryohei's wife is pregnant for the first time with a pair of twins, both male.
-Lambo isn't a father yet, but he's about to propose to his girlfriend.
-Mukuro and Chrome are married and have a teenage son, Aoi (17), and Chrome is two months pregnant with her second son.
-Hayato's daughter is Isa (13).
-Takeshi's daughter is Mira (14).
-Kyoya's son is Haruta (17) and his daughter is Suzume (4).