Hello there! I know I usually promise to update Strings then ENOIS then Strings again, but recently I haven't been able to get time to sit down and read the Manga and as previously stated, I spend about 90% of the time writing ENOIS quoting the Manga and setting out the format of the chapter….it's time consuming, and I apologize.

Also this chapter is going to be a lot shorter than usual simply because I have very little time and just wanted to update something for all of you. Also I lost the plot slightly so I am trying to rewrite it in my head.

So please enjoy regardless, I am sorry.

WARNING: I believe I swore a heck of a lot more than usual in this chapter. I apologize, I'm writing The Differences at the same time, and well, the Varia aren't quite right without swearing. It if Bothers anyone I am sorry, but please don't read.

Beta'd by the wonderfully patient and hard working Pure Red Cane.

The Knots that Tie and the Strings that Bind.

What is our Fate?

The sky battle was to be intense and filled with a regretful amount of taint. Tsuna hadn't slept much that night. He had dozed in and out of consciousness with fitful dreams of failure and pain. He saw Xanxus' eyes burning holes into his back and watched those furious flames eat him and his family, torturing them into oblivion.

But when Tsuna awoke, he was well rested. Tranquillity washed over him as if he were already in hyper dying will mode. It unsettled his stomach to think about that. His intuition was egging him on, trying to tell him something and he couldn't see what it was.

"Bossu." Chrome appeared in a waft of indigo strings. Tsuna couldn't help but smile.

"Good morning, how are you feeling?"

Chrome regarded her boss with a raised eyebrow. She could see the calmness in his strings, and could see the soothing affect it was having, even on the irate cloud, who was biting at pretty much anything after his humiliating battle two days prior.

"I'm fine, Bossu. I slept well last night. Are you alright?" Chrome was concerned, to go from anxiety to serenity so quickly seemed unnatural. Last night, both she and Mukuro had been too exhausted to slide into their shared mindscape so she couldn't tell if his mind had finally shut down.

Tsuna blinked, taking a deep breath and letting the calm dissipate. Even to him it was somewhat unnerving to suddenly be awash with calm.

"I'm fine. Really, Chrome, I am." Chrome sighed. The strings almost vibrated with his anxiety, but at least now she knew that he wasn't going to exhaust himself by keeping that calm front up before his battle.

All she wanted was for all this to be done and they could all have a semblance of peace.

"Don't worry too much about him." Reborn chuckled, though his eyes flashed with curiosity.

Chrome looked unconvinced, but she nodded and walked to the kitchen, leaving Tsuna and Reborn standing in the stairwell, eye to eye with that electricity they seemed to create between each other. Tsuna could feel Reborn's curiosity in his string, and the worry that lay underneath everything else. Tsuna still couldn't really believe that after everything Reborn did to them in the beginning, the hitman had become a core member of their famiglia, and in such a way that he knew would never change.

"How are you feeling, Tsuna?"

Tsuna looked into the face of his tutor, feeling the strings around him constrict with anxiety. Reborn was worried, his string hissing at the contact of others that were not from his immediate family. Reborn was worried –about what, Tsuna didn't know exactly– but he was also trying to hide it vainly.

Tsuna wrapped Reborn's string around his finger subtly, allowing his fear, his anxiety, his anger flood the string, but also his calm and confidence –his will.

"I'm not. I'm scared. I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose anyone. I have a bad feeling about tonight, Reborn," Tsuna admitted, his smile a little watery and shaky, "But I will be fine. I have you and everyone else."

Reborn looked proud. His little smile was enough to tell Tsuna that. But the string in Tsuna's hand was still writhing and when Reborn walked away, it fell from his hand. Well, Tsuna felt like something awful would happen, though not tonight.

The rest of the day was spent in tense conversations and quiet meals. The only excitement caused more anxiety; go figure, it was Kyouya's fault.

The cloud was jumpy and temperamental after his failure in the previous battle. After all, he was the only guardian that didn't really pull his weight. He didn't get a chance to spread his wings. He didn't even get to prove to Tsuna that showing him the strings was worth the stress.

So, it didn't take much for him to have Hayato up against the wall, tonfa to the throat, and growling like he was possessed.

"Kyouya!" Tsuna was on his feet, trying to pry his cloud and storm apart. He was reminded of Reborn's lesson, about the bonds between guardians that stem from their position in the sky.

After all, clouds bolstered storms.

"What the fuck did you say to me, you mongrel?" Kyouya hissed low and feral, his eyes glinting.

"I didn't say anything, you fucking psycho!" Hayato struggled, but it was undoubtable that when Kyouya was angered, he was a monster that only Tsuna could tame.

Tsuna felt the strain between Hayato and Kyouya more than he saw it, though Hayato starting to turn blue as the pressure increased. In a rough movement, he had Kyouya on the floor and Hayato across the room. The sternness on his face even had Reborn's hackles up.

"Out."

"Like hell I'll listen to an herb-"

Except Tsuna had his hand around Kyouya's collar, his eyes bore into Kyouya's in a way that was intense, intimate and terrifying.

"Get outside, Kyouya."

The boy complied, and even before the command, the rest of the gathered guardians –all of whom were gathered, except Lambo– were outside as well, keeping as much distance between themselves and Kyouya as possible.

The next instant had Kyouya and Tsuna duking it out in the most intense way. And Kyouya was losing.

Tsuna stopped then, gripping Kyouya's collar –but refusing to beat the boy into submission like he wanted– before he turned to his friends.

"I'm going to be fine." he said, voice a balm to the strings. Each and every guardian felt a hitch in their breath as they watched the steam billow from Tsuna. It ghosted along the strings and made them visible for an unbelievable moment. He looked ethereal. Like some kind of guardian sent to protect from the demon in his hands.

"I'm going to be fine, and we're all going to go home later."

Tsuna's words worked, of course, because the boys and Chrome walked away, going to calm their nerves before the finale. Tsuna knew Ryohei was off to the hospital and Takeshi to his father's house. The others would find their own balm, since Tsuna had a cloud to bring back together.

Kyouya had stretched himself a little too thin this time. He was never meant to be a wisp in the sky, but a cataclysm of grey that could smother even the fire in Tsuna's core because he was the shield and the bolsterer of almost all of the most destructive elements.

Tsuna let Kyouya drop to his knees, certain that Mukuro would shield them. He knew that despite their hate for each other, both Kyouya and Mukuro would do what had to be done for each other. Right now, they were Tsuna's support.

Tsuna pressed his forehead to Kyouya's, the man's eyes were closed with a furrow, and Tsuna puffed out a breath, which ghosted against Kyouya's cheeks.

"We're going to be alright, Kyouya. I'm going to win. I'm going to come home safely." Tsuna smiled sadly. "I'm scared too."

Kyouya laughed a breathless laugh as he used Tsuna's shoulder to stand, leaning their heads together. "You have a lot to learn if you think I'm scared, herbivore." But there was no humor in Kyouya's voice, only the lie of a carnivore when his prey was at risk. "Now stop being so weak and fight me."

Tsuna jumped away and lit his flames. He was already exhausted, but he needed to put his elements, his guardians, his family first. "Of course, Kyouya. Don't go easy on me."

"Never."

The rush of thanks that hit Tsuna square in the chest was overwhelming, especially since Kyouya was usually so quiet about his thanks. Even to Tsuna.

Tsuna was surprised, as they walked to the final battle, when all his guardians stopped him under the cherry-blossom trees, eyes burning with resolve, and they spoke as one person.

"You'd better come home safely."

Tsuna smiled all the way to the center of the school-yard, not a shake in his limbs or nervousness in his lungs as he stalked to what was his final confrontation for these stupid rings.

Tsuna and Xanxus stood across from each other, their eyes meeting and their strings bowing out and touching. Tsuna felt the tremors in his flames as the strings tried and failed to make a knot. As he thought, his fate would be tied to Xanxus in a way vastly different from others, but as unmoveable as with his guardians. After tonight, he would know what all this tension between the rings was about.

But for now, he had a fight to win.

Reborn and Basil had been herded into a box-like contraption, and the guardians herded back towards the arenas they had fought in not weeks ago. Everyone was tense. Reborn was especially so when he was informed that if he stepped out of this 'box,' his wards would be disqualified.

When everyone was settled, Cervello stepped up to Xanxus and Tsuna to announce the fight, but for the most part, they were ignored by the men.

"You learned anything yet, boy?" Xanxus was looking down at Tsuna with eyes that wanted something. He had expectations for this fight.

Tsuna watched the man and the way the strings draped around his body. He had many of them. Some were dull and dead while others pumped like live blood. Tsuna saw Squalo's string and a burn set in his eyes. He saw the way it braided around Xanxus. The second-in-command had made quite the impact on Xanxus' life.

"I never stop learning." Tsuna replied. The way Xanxus grinned told the boy that he had said the right thing.

"There will be a change in this battle." one Cervello continued, trying not to let the frustration of being ignored bleed into her tone.

"The fuck there will!" Xanxus spun on the woman, rage in his eyes. Had his father set yet another plan up?

"As you know, your guardians have returned to their battle grounds, and currently, the bracelet they have been asked to wear is administering a toxin that will kill them by sunrise."

"You fucking bitches!"

Tsuna almost didn't want to fight Xanxus. There was kinship here, in Xanxus' eyes, in the way their chests moved, in the way their strings touched, and their eyes met.

But in that moment, as rage billowed out both Tsuna's and Xanxus' flames, the brunet never felt so connected to another person. Here were two bosses, whose flames were resonating at a level higher than any guardian could ever obtain.

Here were two bosses who were scorned.

For an instant, Xanxus and Tsuna forgot about the rings. Right now, their famiglia was under threat and that was all they saw.

"The only way to heal them is to take their rings and click it into their wrists." one Cervello explained, a smile trying to form.

"The only way to get the rings is to defeat each other."

And it was really as simple as that. Tsuna didn't want to fight Xanxus. Something was wrong here. But his friends were in danger and the enemy was right here.

Tsuna knew that even with his speed, he could never get to his guardians while Xanxus was still chasing him for the same reason.

"Prepare yourself, trash. I'll show you that you aren't worthy to be the Boss."

"You'll eat your words. I'll protect what's mine."

And that single-minded purpose created a vortex of strings as both Xanxus and Tsuna's flames began to bubble and burn at their command.

"How could you even do this to our family, Xanxus?!" Tsuna screeched as he dodged and parried blows. The zero-point breakthrough still wasn't working. It wasn't quite right yet, but his scorched clothes and his dwindling stamina made up for that.

Tsuna wasn't even sure what 'this' was. There were a hundred things Xanxus had done. He had pushed the battle, he had made Tsuna's friends become hitmen, all their guardians were writhing on the floor, dying, and he expected all these things of Tsuna. He had kept those eyes that begged Tsuna to realise something, but gave Tsuna no hints through all these battles.

When Xanxus and the Varia had become his family, Tsuna didn't know. He would never realise that it was Takeshi's battle and his willingness to save Squalo that made Tsuna's mind up for him.

But Xanxus was still roaring, still demanding that Tsuna learn, that he realize. Tsuna thought Xanxus meant he would never be Decimo.

"What the fuck do you know about our family?" Xanxus scoffed, firing rounds at the boy, trying to bring him down once and for all. "What would you know about what we have to go through?!"

"I don't!" Tsuna flew in fast, a knee in Xanxus' ribs that had the man faltering. "And I won't know if you don't tell me!" Tsuna was angry. He could see his friends succumbing to the venom and he wasn't there to help them. Tsuna needed to end this so he could get to his guardians.

The battle in the sky became nothing but flashing lights and the smell of flames. Reborn could only stare at the sky, with Basil at his side, hoping that the training was enough to see his boys and girl through.

But Fuck. He hadn't expected this low-down trick from the Cervello. Apparently, Xanxus hadn't either.

"Something's not right here." Reborn grunted.

"I would have to agree, Reborn."

Dino appeared, but instead of his carefree smile and his sloppy way of walking, he had a grim face. Beside him, with an equally grim-face, was Squalo. He was worse-for-wear, but alive.

"Well, I don't fucking believe it."

When Cervello noticed the new members, they too were carted into the box, and perhaps a sick and twisted part of themselves made the big screen around the battle that played and replayed images of the downed guardians to the two battling bosses reveal the shark's face.

"S-Squalo!"

Xanxus faltered. Tsuna could feel the sudden tightness in the strings and the punch to the gut that he got from Xanxus as they fought. The other candidate's hesitation gave Tsuna enough time to spin away, panting, and rest.

He was exhausted. Xanxus was like nothing else. He was powerful, but he was also smart. He could read Tsuna as if they had sparred since childhood. He could touch the strings and freeze Tsuna. He could guide and hide behind them. He fought like the strings were his only sight. It was unnerving. It was exhausting. It was a major disadvantage for Tsuna. He was so sensitive to the strings that it unbalanced him to be in the presence of someone who seemed so much more capable of controlling them than himself.

But despite this exhaustion, Tsuna was thrilled because here was someone –more so than Dino– who understood Tsuna's sight and ability to a level far more intimately than the average seer.

He wanted to hear what was happening. He knew it would change everything.

"How dost you survive, Squalo-dono?"

"I'm like a roach apparently." Squalo didn't sound amused. "I have a duty to my boss, and since the pony-boy here can't let me fucking die, I have to come back."

"A duty?" Reborn sounded doubtful.

"Ah, to tell the truth. Boss likes looking like the bad guy, but he really isn't."

Reborn and Basil switched their eyes from Dino to Squalo. Dino gave nothing away, but if Reborn knew his ex-student at all, whatever Squalo had told Dino wasn't good and wouldn't have them shitting rainbows anytime soon.

"What's happened within the walls?" Reborn had his fedora down. He had been out of the loop for a year now, and even before then. He was just a hired gun; trusted, but hired.

"The old man lost his fucking mind." Squalo wasn't one for pleasantries. "His sons were dead, his adopted son was out of the question and Vongola was dying."

"But Tsuna-sama?" Basil tried, already over his shock.

"The fucking shrimp boss is fighting? We didn't know he existed. Nono kept it under wraps."

"Then why all this, why was Xanxus frozen for so long?" Reborn tried, angry that this was coming out now. He already had an inclination as to where this was going, and if he was right, these battles could have been avoided and his ward wouldn't have had to crumble for two straight weeks.

"The Cradle affair? Bullcrap is what that was. Xanxus went after the old man, asking him what was wrong, where the family was going, why he wasn't an heir, even just for now." Squalo was growing more and more furious at the entire ordeal as he spoke again. "Old man lost it."

"How do you know?" Reborn added, needing to know more.

"I was there. Boss thought I was off keeping the place private for him and his old man, but I couldn't leave him alone when the old man was so unstable." Squalo huffed. He knew he would get an earful when this was all over. The Boss would not like that he was giving away all these secrets. "Nono didn't react too well to Xanxus pointing out how unstable he had been since the brothers' deaths."

Reborn realised what Squalo meant before Basil did, and now, he understood the grim line of Dino's mouth.

"The old man put him under ice because Xanxus realised he wasn't in his right mind? Because he thought Xanxus of all people would blab about it?" Even Reborn couldn't believe it.

"You can believe whatever the fuck you want. I know what I saw." Squalo kept talking, explaining this and that and what the Varia did during the time that Xanxus was out for the count, but Tsuna wasn't listening.

It finally made sense to Tsuna, why Xanxus looked so lost, why he needed Tsuna to understand, why he expected Tsuna to understand. Nono had completely changed Xanxus by freezing him in the Dying Will ice. He had given Xanxus a sudden sight, and also changed Vongola's fate completely.

Xanxus was suddenly aware that he wasn't the heir and that Vongola was in a very delicate place. Nono was in no state to lead and his decisions would all be called into question. Add that to the fact that an outsider was being brought in as next boss, and delicate didn't even cover Vongola's situation.

Xanxus obviously knew he was adopted. He obviously knew he could never be the boss. But this was his famiglia and he was willing to be called a traitor, willing to have his name slandered and be called a selfish-brat to protect it. Nono changed Xanxus and Vongola's fate by giving him awareness. And with this awareness, Xanxus took Vongola's fate into his own hands. He didn't have Vongola blood or ability, but Xanxus was still forcing the fate strings by making sure the new heir was ready and worthy.

Better Vongola burn with an illegitimate boss like Xanxus, than burn by the hand of an outsider.

Tsuna wanted to fight the man even less now. But he had done all this and expected Tsuna to know. The man hadn't taken him aside, but at least now Tsuna realised that the man was walking a thin line and probably couldn't pull Tsuna aside and explain.

Squalo's voice echoed across the school. As his tale wove on and memories started to flash in Tsuna's mind, making his strings tighten and hum. Xanxus seemed to notice this as his firing grew weak. His chest felt like it was being torn apart. Tsuna looked around, ready to pass out as the strings constricted.

Fuuta's ranking about the Varia and Xanxus didn't make sense after Squalo's 'death,' it was the opposite in fact. But Xanxus' questions throughout the whole ring battle, his insistent gaze, the honour and duty there.

They shouldn't be in the eyes of a man who put his own father into a machine that drained him of power.

Xanxus shouldn't look so strangled as his past was put out for all to see.

He should feel right, he should feel free.

Yet here Xanxus was, growing angry with the lull in battle, and his flames of wrath grew stronger.

Suddenly, as the string around Tsuna knotted, his intuition sparked. Nono's flame seemed so strangled and forced. It felt dark and the strings around the man felt ancient and tired.

Tsuna's memories of the man were strings so bright and full of life that they called out to his own. Now Nono's strings had lost that brilliance and light.

Suddenly, Xanxus' desperation, his need for these battles to end, for people to find out that Nono was in the machine, they all made sense.

"Xanxus!" Tsuna called, dodging and whipping between fired shots, "We can stop now! We need to save our guardians!"

Whether it was Squalo's reappearance or Xanxus' past being laid out on the table for all to see, Tsuna didn't know, but suddenly Xanxus' attacks seemed to intensify. The barrage scorched the air and terror started to fill Tsuna as he barely dodged them. His clothes grew charred and his stamina dwindled. The single minded purpose both Tsuna and Xanxus entered with into this battle seemed to pull the man into his fury. Xanxus roared, too far into his exhaustion and his fury to hear Tsuna's realisation. If he had he may have been able to rest, he may have stopped his attacks.

Which was why, even though Tsuna knew that there was something else behind Xanxus' rage, he had to stand the attack.

So, with his last bit of intuition flowing, he made his stance, but instead of the triangle Reborn and Basil had been training him to create. Tsuna had to ignore the cutting of the strings on his chest as his friends –drugged, but fighting because Tsuna knew that Kyouya wasn't down anymore– witnessed and realised his intention.

Tsuna's hands formed a square and he waited as the fire approached him.

Finally, he had it right. He knew that what Reborn and Basil were training him wasn't right. The strings on his hands always tightened painfully when he formed the triangular shape to absorb flames. This felt soothing and finally let the strings settle protectively. A triangle was stronger than a square, but there was more area for absorption in a square formation.

Absorbing pure wrath wasn't easy. It was painful, draining, and it fired along Tsuna's nerves like venom on his tongue. He could feel the searing, agonising flash of rage being metabolised into his own flame. He received no damage for the technique, his body was fine, but the sheer rush and poison of the flames fired through him as if they were physical.

The technique was brilliant. Tsuna knew he would have no chance against Xanxus without the ability to metabolise the flames, but it was so painful at the same time.

Accepting the flames, the rage and emotion, that was easiest.

Converting pure rage into something chaste and tranquil, that was difficult and set a blaze, scorching through Tsuna.

Receiving the burst was excruciating. Maybe not outwardly, but the way his arms were thrown out, the way the strings constricted around his chest, legs, throat, and exploded with energy, it tore at Tsuna inwardly.

He was grateful for the power the technique gave him. But if the strings were any more physical, Tsuna knew that he would be torn to shreds right now.

Instead, his speed increased and he was suddenly in Xanxus' face, flames starting to flicker as he tried to ignore the strangled look on Xanxus' face and the absolute screeching coming from his strings.

If Zero Point Breakthrough was all Tsuna could resort to, then so be it. He had enough of all this.

Tsuna wanted to end it all. He wanted to wrap Xanxus in another block of ice so thick that not even Primo's guardians would be able to melt it. This man had caused him and his guardians so much emotional and physical strain that it wasn't even worth mentioning.

No one besides Xanxus had gotten Tsuna's bloodlust so fired up.

But as soon as Xanxus' flames of wrath had been converted by Tsuna, as soon as he had recharged, there was a sudden change. The orange string that connected Tsuna and Xanxus together, the one that was so tentative before, suddenly flexed and writhed. It touched Tsuna and tied a knot around his hand so tight that, for a moment, it was sharp.

Tsuna thought that by now, with Dino's tutelage and his own eighteen years, he would know everything about the strings. But he knew when Xanxus' strings locked in that scent of book pages and cinnamoned gunpowder that he had much to learn.

The scent blasted from their cores and it seemed to lull them both. Tsuna's flames dulled even as his energy rocketed while Xanxus' scars slowed across his face.

The string around Tsuna's right hand, locking around his wrist and ring, meant that he and Xanxus had a fate much more complex than he would be able to tell through the fickle sight of blood-lust and hate.

Tsuna took a deep breath, centering himself. He locked eyes with Xanxus, the men almost chest to chest as they hovered in the air. Tsuna let all the pain and confusion wash over his eyes so that Xanxus could see it. If he had trusted the strings this far, Tsuna wasn't about to take back his trust.

Xanxus flinched before he let his smirk and anger fall away to a small smile, his chest huffing and his flames softening until they were simply there to make him hover. The smile was barely there to Tsuna from his distance, but Xanxus flashed Tsuna his own right hand, showing a similar locking knot around his own wrist and ring finger, a mirror of Tsuna's own, proof that Tsuna's trust wasn't unfounded.

Xanxus would teach Tsuna about the strings, and would show him that fate knew those infuriating secrets that not even their owner knew.

Tsuna and Xanxus nodded. Together, in a twisted mess of flames and strings, they descended, hoping that their rag-tag guardians, poisoned and weakened, had not yet killed each other.

It would be inconvenient and awkward to have to explain something only skies and seers could understand.

When Tsuna and Xanxus approached the ground, they spotted their guardians, leaning against each other and every available structure, exhausted. Lambo was in Hayato's arms, snoring, but thank fucking god he wasalive. When they saw their bosses descending, Tsuna's guardians tried to run them, but when they felt the rush of flames, something kept them still.

Tsuna, Xanxus, and Dino could see the wall of strings keeping them in place until Bosses were done with their duties.

Xanxus stepped forward when he and Tsuna landed as the flames of wrath cooled and coiled around him, sinking into his skin and soothing the freezing, cutting scars as they thrashed. As he stepped before the brunet, appraising what he had first called a runt, Xanxus found himself pleased because in those eyes were laden with knowledge and power he didn't want. Xanxus knew that Tsuna was more of a man than others knew. Smirking, Xanxus cackled, and was pleased to see Tsuna unfazed.

"You better be worth this, brat." Xanxus exclaimed in his deep timbre. His aged voice left Tsuna feeling safe, despite the evil and death that followed the man's movement.

Tsuna took hold of the other half of the ring, slowly allowing his flames to simmer so the ice that crashed just under his skin was reabsorbed by his flames. Tsuna was glad that he didn't have to use it on a man that felt as tied to him by the orange string as his other family did by their respective colours. Tsuna was so lost in thought that he almost didn't catch the murmured, worried, excited tone in Xanxus' next, hushed sentence.

"Besides, with all those knots, I knew this ring was never for me."

Tsuna couldn't help but smirk. This man was smart, too smart. Tsuna watched the gaping, confused expressions of everyone around him as Xanxus handed over the ring with a smirk, except maybe Reborn because that man was too good. Xanxus was grinning internally, hysterical laughter in his eyes. The man knew he had everyone fooled and Tsuna had the feeling that that was exactly how Xanxus liked it.

And so we have our first proper confrontation with Xanxus!

I bet you didn't see that ending coming though, did you? ;)

Please don't worry though, in a few chapters time (maybe sooner) this ending will be mostly- if not fully- explained and maybe you'll understand the strings and the way they work a little more.

Thank you for your support. My more mature Xanxus and I thank you for any review and for all the favs and follows. He promises not to torch anyone who doesn't review- much.

Thank you again!

~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3