Peace Love and Anime :3

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own KHR. Just havin' some fun with it :)

I-Pin was generally a grounded person. She didn't let much distract her, and she prided herself on her absolute self-control and focus. When she went on missions, there wasn't a single one that left her in a sticky situation. She was what most would consider an ideal warrior.

Which was why when she felt the bullet enter her shoulder, she could do nothing but blink in confusion. She had been fighting, but she was distracted by the situation she had been in. Of course, it was fine to do that when she wanted to daydream, but she was working and it was imperative that she stay alert. Before she had left for the mission, she had spoken to Lambo. It had been an awkward, disjointed conversation, but he had wished her good luck. She had been trying to decipher the looks on his face and attempting to see if all the people were right about Lambo when he looked at her, but she had been largely unsuccessful and couldn't understand what people saw in his gaze.

Of course, by the time she had gotten back on track with the mission, the target had already shot her. The backup that had been there later told her she had passed out and it had been a while before they found her. They had been put off by her silence over the communicators because she always answered and they had ultimately abandoned the mission to find her. With good reason too. By the time they had reached her, she had lost a lot of blood and the wound obviously wasn't closing anytime soon.

Unfortunately, the target had escaped. I-Pin felt like crap. Not only had she lost focus and let her emotions control her mission, she had also botched the mission and now it would take twice as long to find the targets once again, especially since they knew they were the targets and would most likely go into hiding. Tsuna had asked her not to blame herself and told her that Hibari would handle the rest. But he had recognized her inability to perform and had given her a mini-vacation until things in her life cleared up. I-Pin suspected Kyoko had told him about what was going on with Lambo.

Rolling over and trying to get into a more comfortable position, she finally gave up trying to think, staring dully out of the half opened blinds into the face of the rising sun. It was beautiful and a small, loopy smile grew on her face.

I-Pin was planning on getting out of bed when suddenly, the door to her room flew open and banged against the wall. She jumped and her eyes grew wide, knowing she was vulnerable. She looked up and found Lambo in the doorway looking crazed. A nurse, severely out of breath, caught up and tried to grab his arm.

"Visiting hours… don't… begin… until eight!" She looked like she was about to die.

"How could you be so stupid I-Pin?!" Lambo bellowed, his emerald eyes flashing.

She took a deep, angry breath, "...What?"

He pried the nurse's hand off his arm and took quick strides forward until he sat down in the chair next to her bed.

"I-Pin do you know how scared I was when I heard you had gotten shot? I thought you were dead!"

She had no words. Her eyes wide, she blinked. Lambo was… worried? Even after how messed up their relationship became? She took in his appearance. He was wearing a disheveled business suit and his hair was unruly. There was dried blood on his forehead and dust and dirt all over his clothes. He must've come straight from a mission.

"I–"

"You know better than to go on a mission when you're distracted!"

"How did you know I was—"

"I'm your best friend I-Pin, I know everything about you!"

She frowned, "…Not everything…"

He ignored her and stood up, walking over to the nurse whose purple face had finally turned into a healthy shade of pink. "When can she be discharged?"

The nurse frowned, "You are not supposed to be in here young man!"

"I don't care. When can she be discharged?"

Affronted, the nurse grabbed her clipboard and stared at the numbers, "She should be good to go."

"Good." He turned to I-Pin. "You're coming home with me."

Her eyebrows rose, "What? No. I'm not. I live with Kyo—"

"Kyoko is out of town. And there's no way in hell I'm gonna let you live in that apartment by yourself when your arm is unusable, and you're hopped up on pain killers. I'm taking you home."

As if reading his mind, the nurse procured some paper from her stack, all traces of her original disdain gone. In fact, she looked a little awestruck, "Are you a relative?"

"Her family lives in China. I'm her contact."

The nurse nodded and handed him the sheet, which he signed so quickly, the pen was almost a blur. The nurse retrieved the form and left the two of them. He turned back to I-Pin. "Get dressed. Can you walk?"

She rolled her eyes and stepped out of the bed and stood up carefully, so as not to jostle her arm. "Yes, Lambo. I can definitely walk."

He didn't budge and stayed there watching her.

"Hello? I'm not changing with you staring at me, Lambo."

"I'm not leaving this room."

I-Pin was going to get angry, but then she took a look at Lambo's tired, panic-stricken face and her facial muscles relaxed. He really did care about her. He looked exhausted and who knows how difficult his mission had been. Yet, he still came straight to her to make sure she was okay. Slightly wobbly, she walked over to him and placed a hand on his crossed arms, resting her forehead against his chest.

"You big dummy... Lambo, I'm not going to get hurt changing, okay?" she smiled and chuckled lightly, "Relax."

Uncrossing his arms, his stance loosened and his eyes softened. Carefully, so he wouldn't hurt her arm, he pulled her into a tight hug.

"That's the last time I go without speaking to you. I don't know how I could survive without you."

"You're just a big old softy, aren't you?"

Words couldn't even begin to describe the happiness she felt. Lambo was back and it seemed their friendship was on the way to recovery. She wrapped her good arm loosely around his back, returning his embrace.

"Hurry up and get changed. I'll be outside if you need me."

She smiled as he left the room. Maybe they still had issues that needed to be resolved and things that needed to be said, but at least they were talking semi-normally again. Everything was on the right track. But I-Pin wasn't going to sit around anymore and wait for their fighting to happen again. Her resolve had been made. She was going to tell him how she felt as soon as she was better, consequences be damned.

And with that... VOILA. My commitments have begun officially, so updates might come a bit longer in between, but I'm glad I was able to get out at least ten chapters.

19 chapters! WHOOT! Damn. My goal is to reach 25 by the end of this month so I'm WELL ahead of my schedule!

Gears will be shifting back with one more large milestone to hit. And then... maaaaaybe, possibly, this story will end? I'm only 30% convinced on how to end this story. But IDK. My cap might end up being 40 chapters... But if I can't reach that goal fast enough, then I might stay at 30... I'll see in a week or so.

Questions? Concerns? Lemme know :)