Sawada Tsunayoshi stared absently out the window he was sitting next to, watching his little island country rush by underneath, and trying to sort out how he was suppose to feel.

Was he supposed to be sad that he was leaving his parents behind?

Lonely because he was going to a completely foreign country where he barely knew anyone?

Angry that he had been forced out of the only home he had ever known by bullies?

He supposed there were a lot of thing he should have been feeling – but in the end, the only thing he could feel was relief.

Relief that he would finally be free from all the people that had been holding him back, and relief that he would be able to start over with a blank slate.

After the incident a few weeks ago with that bunch of upperclassmen, his parents had decided that, for his safety, it would be better if he went abroad to live with his grandfather for a few years.

"Tsuna? Are you alright?"

Startled out of his thoughts, Tsuna turned to his companion.

"I'm fine, Hayato," he replied, trying to smile reassuringly at him. "Just thinking."

The older boy didn't seem very convinced, but he didn't say anything else, leaving Tsuna to his thoughts.

Hayato's mother worked at Tsuna's grandfather's house.

She really was a jack of all trades – she had begun babysitting Timoteo's boys when she was just 17-years-old, and eight-year-old Enrico had just completely fallen in love with her. At 19, she had begun teaching them piano, and at 25, she had officially become head housekeeper at the Vongola HQ.

Now, at 42, she had long cemented her position as Vongola's mother, and as her son, Hayato had been the obvious choice to help Tsuna become accustomed to life in Italy.

It had been entirely his idea to go to Japan to help Tsuna pack and get ready for his move.

And truth be told, he had been so ready to hate everything about Tsuna.

But then one thing had led to another, and now, the two of them were basically joined at the hip.

He was already a large part of why Tsuna didn't feel more uncomfortable than he did about moving to Italy.

He was guaranteed to have at least one friendly face constantly around, and that was more than he'd ever had back in Namimori.

Of course, he was sad to be leaving his parents.

And Mukuro.

But he would be returning in a few years for high school.

And that thought would have to be enough for him.

At twelve-years-old, Mukuro decided that he would not attend junior high in Kokuyo.

There were a lot of factors in his decision.

The main one being that Kokuyo Chuu was a shit school.

There simply was no way around it.

Not only was it mostly populated by delinquents, the teachers were also shit at their jobs.

There was also the fact that Nami Chuu was a lot closer to Mukuro's house, and he was no longer so desperate to attend the same school as his friends.

Because in the end, they would still spend nearly all their time outside of school together, and that was more than enough.

Not that his thoughts on it mattered, because in the end, Nagi, Ken, and Chikusa all ended up attending Nami Chuu as well.

The group of friends clashed time and again with the leader of the disciplinary committee, an upperclassman in the year above them, and they ended up getting in a lot more fights than they had in Kokuyo, but Mukuro didn't ever find himself regretting his decision.

And in a quiet little corner of his mind, he hid one more reason for why he had wanted to attend Nami Chuu – the reason that had been the spark for everything else.

Sawada Tsunayoshi's parents had not moved to Italy with him.

And Mukuro hoped beyond hope that this meant that Tsuna was planning on returning to Namimori eventually.

And when he did return, maybe Mukuro would have the courage to say the one word he hadn't been able to in all the years they'd known each other.

Hello.

At fourteen, Sawada Tsunayoshi was completely unrecognizable from the timid, uncertain boy that had arrived at the Vongola just four years prior.

He had grown startlingly under the careful attention of his best friend's mother, Lavina, who had become something of a second mother to him.

And he had learned some important lessons about self-confidence from Timoteo's four sons – his uncles who had adopted him as a younger brother.

Tsuna contemplated all of this as he, once again, checked to make sure that he had packed everything he needed.

Then, a knock on his open bedroom door.

"Tsuna? You need any help, sweetie?" asked Lavina, poking her head inside.

"Not really," admitted Tsuna with a chuckle, but held out his arms. "But I could use a hug."

Laughing sweetly, Lavina entered and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

In the years he had been in Italy, Tsuna had learned a rather surprising fact about himself – he was an extremely tactile person. He enjoyed physical affection, thrived on it. And in Italy, where people were generally more affectionate, there was nothing wrong with this.

But soon, he would be returning to Japan, where physical affection was rare even between family members.

"You'll be alright, sweetheart," assured Lavina, as if she had read his mind. "And my Hayato will be right there with you to give you all the hugs that I can't, alright?"

Tsuna chuckled in reply, and nodded.

He would miss Lavina. And his grandfather. And his uncles/brothers. And a hundred other people as well.

He almost found himself wishing that he could stay.

And he knew that he only had to say the word, and everyone would scramble to make it all possible.

But he was also looking forward to returning to Japan, to being surrounded by other Japanese people, and to hear his mother tongue once more.

He was looking forward to being back in the neighbourhood he had grown up in.

And he was looking forward to seeing his post-it friend.

It was the beginning Mukuro's last year at Nami Chuu, and he was already expecting a somewhat boring year.

The tonfa idiot, leader of the disciplinary committee, had graduated the previous year, and had moved on to torment Nami Koukou, which meant he had no one to tease and spar with.

Well, there was Ken, who was always looking to start fights with others, but Mukuro didn't think he could bring himself to pick a fight with any of his best friends.

They were all always arguing with each other of course, and calling each other names, but they never did go as far as to brawl, the way Mukuro did with Hibari.

Part of it was because they knew Nagi would hate it.

But the bigger reason was that they had all already face so much abuse from people they were supposed to trust and love, why add to that number?

So as Mukuro and his three little ducklings sat through their boring first day of school, they certainly weren't expecting anything particularly interesting to happen.

But then, when lunch had rolled around, they heard the rumours.

Rumours that everybody in school seemed to have heard about.

Dame-Tsuna was back.

And he was different.

Mukuro and Nagi were on their way to the cafeteria when they heard the first rumours.

And immediately, Nagi grabbed Mukuro's arm, looking at him with excitement in her eyes.

"Isn't that him?" she asked. "The boy you used to exchange notes with all the time when you were younger?"

But Mukuro didn't reply.

Because at just that very moment, two boys had rounded the corner up ahead of them.

One had shoulder-length silver hair and stormy grey-green eyes. The boy that had been with Tsuna on the day Mukuro had last seen him.

And the other was a tall, confident brunet with spiky brown hair and eyes of the same shade.

He carried himself differently, and seemed less worried about what others thought of him.

But it was definitely him.

And Mukuro knew he had also been recognized, because a wide grin spread across the other boy's face, and he reached into his back pocket.

Stepping forward, Mukuro spoke before the other boy could pull out his post-it notes.

"I don't want to do that any more," he told Tsuna, and soft brown eyes widened in dismay.

Before he or his friend could misunderstand though, Mukuro continued.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun, why don't we be friends?"

And dumbfounded stare was his reply.

And then, a slow, relieved smile.

And finally, and enthusiastic nod of the head.

"I would love to be friends with you, Rokudo Mukuro-kun!"

The End

SkyGem: Well, that was fun! I hope you all enjoyed, and please do leave one last review letting me know what you all thought! Ciao!