So. This is yet another Kensuke-centric fic. So sue me. I adore my version of him, and I'm feeling more-ish so please don't be too upset. I am actually working on a few other updates (DoF, Mafia Wife survival guide, ENOIS etc.) So please be patient!

And enjoy!

UNBETA'D. It's probably a mess. But it NEEDED out.

I Made My Choice.

Summary: Mochida is actually the first one to get the invite, and slowly so do the rest of the guardians. While they'd heard of it being done elsewhere in the world, Tsuna and his Guardians never imagined that Namimori would have a 10Yr reunion. And both Tsuna and Kensuke know that they need to go, and that it isn't going to be pleasant. Proposition universe. Family!Mochida.

Life was good for Kensuke. There were veiled death threats for him every morning, and he had to deal with mafia men coming after him and his own, but life was good. Life could have been so so much worse for the high school Kendo champ.

Still living in Namimori meant that Mochida saw the best and worst of his graduating class, and the classes below him. It near enough ten years since he had graduated, a year behind where he should have been but that had long ceased bothering him.

Yeah, Kensuke had been held back a year, yeah he graduated a year later than his 'peers' but he had ended up graduating the same year as his Sky. Kensuke had been able to protect his sky's back. It was more than worth it.

Even though, at the time, Kensuke didn't know how much he would grow to love Tsuna and his family, not exactly what a sky was.

He knew now though, and suddenly the brown-haired man understood why he was so unbalanced for so much of his life. Kensuke would never forget how important and how wonderful his sky was.

In fact, he was on his way home for a two week vacation. Imagine that, home for Mochida was not the stingy little town he once thought he ruled. No, home was with Tsunayoshi and his guardians. Home was in Italy right now, but could have easily been in the underground base of Namimori when his sky was there.

Yeah, Kensuke wasn't going just for fun. He had paperwork, and training. He would be making the selection for his branch of squad members, and would be joining Chrome for some interrogations. It wasn't all fun and games. But Kensuke didn't care.

He was going home, to laughter, and torment, and a family he still (some seven or eight years later) still wondered about.

They were fucking bat shit crazy. But so was he.

As he was stepping out, locking up his dojo for the night, he grabbed the mail. Kensuke wouldn't be coming back for a few weeks, no. However, his little brothers would be coming to pick up the lessons and keep the place running while he was a way.

They weren't mafia, knew very little about theirs brother's less legal activities, but they were strong, and damn good teachers.

As per usual, even with Kensuke's insistence at taking a bus –it wasn't like he ever brought any clothes with him to Italy –the matte black SUV that Tsuna sent to take him to the airport pulled up in the streets.

"God damnit, Tsuna really does baby us." But the voice wasn't angry, or ashamed. Instead, Kensuke felt an overwhelming amount of appreciation. Before Tsuna, the only love and care Kensuke received were jabs in the gut with broken beer bottles from his father, and rough treatment for previously inflicted wounds from his mother.

So no, Kensuke definitely was not going to complain about being mothered by the flame-filled boss.

"Huh." As the car drove off, Kensuke looked through the mail. Might as well get any bills paid before he boarded his plan. "I didn't these things were actually real."

"Kensuke!" Takeshi met him at the door, pulling him in to a tight hug. And by tight, Kensuke wasn't joking, the man squeezed hard, because any flinches were a weakness. "Good flight I hope?"

Takeshi loathed when his precious ones got injured. Especially fellow guardians and swordsman. Their skill was such an intimate one in that way.

Even Squalo had gotten over the boy's weirdly painful intimacy.

"How could it not be, Tsuna sent the private jet." And they laughed together as they walked.

Tsuna had obviously missed Kensuke a lot if he wanted the man to take the private jet. In the words of their boss: 'we're not spoilt brats, we don't need to fly on a private jet unless we're all together. So don't ask for it.'

Fair to say that when Kensuke had walked into the family room he was under a pile of children (who were fifteen and nineteen at this point) and of course Tsuna.

It had been almost four months since Kensuke had been home, so even Ryohei has missed him. "Welcome home!"

Trying not to look too comfortable, Kensuke nodded. Only to be thumped on the head. "Only herbivores ignore their feelings, idiot."

And that was why Kensuke loved being in Italy. Loved being surrounded by the Vongola guardians. Because who else would ever understand the sheer terror, and relief, and absolute intoxication he felt when someone like Kyouya bonked you on the head affectionately.

"You've missed your spars. I'll see you after dinner to be sure you didn't get weak, herbivore."

Even if he was making plans to slam Kensuke into the ground in the next breath.

After all had been calmed down, and Kensuke had settled into his room again, the family was laid across the living room with a family moving playing in the background. This was also a reason Mochida liked coming home. He never had this, and even as his brothers were growing up, they were too worried about next month's rent to have quiet and comfortable evenings.

"So, did all of you get yours?" Kensuke asked a few hours into the evening. He pulled out the card he received that morning, and was happy to see recognition in the eyes of his fellows.

It would have been really awkward if they hadn't received their invites yet. Or if Kensuke had received it by accident.

"Oh yeah." Ryohei hummed, having already had his ten year reunion a few years ago "It's about that time of year. I think Kyoko mentioned it last I spoke to her, Hana had seemed unimpressed."

Kensuke hummed. Apparently most of the Guardians got theirs. Chrome and Mukuro had transferred into Tsuna's high school once everything had settled down, and with a few strings pulled they'd ended up in Tsuna's class and year, so they had theirs. If Kyoko and Hana had theirs, then Takeshi probably had his (since they had ended up in the same class).

"Oh yeah, mine was sent straight to Bianci. I left my Japanese address as my contact address. For safety."

So at least it wasn't a joke.

"I wonder how many people will show up?" Takeshi chuckled, listing off some of his teammates.

"We don't care about those idiots, you sword freak." Hayato hissed, but Ryohei butted in, screaming about his own underclassmen who might turn up.

However, as the others chatted about the invitations in hushed voices, Mochida thought about the plane ride over. His own invitation had felt like a stone against his chest, and it had been much colder than the guns Kensuke carried against his skin.

Something felt wrong about the entire thing. It felt like something would happen, that this was not going to be a pleasant trip to see exactly how far they had come. Yes, Kensuke knew that they will have grown much more than their peers, even mothers and fathers amongst their classmates can't touch the number of lives sitting even on Kensuke's shoulders (the lowest rung on the Guardian's pecking order) never mind Tsuna (who held nations in his hands).

But, Mochida could have been overreacting. After all they were the mob. Worse still, the Vongola were an enemy of the mob.

Then again, as Kensuke met Tsuna's eyes, and Hayato's, and Kyouya's he realised that they all felt it.

"Tsuna-nii," Lambo started, his mind whirring in only the way that an ever growing fifteen year old's mind could. "Did you get an invite?"

Tsuna had an odd look on his face. It wasn't cold or angry, but it was a look that none of his family had seen on his face in a very long time. It was acceptance of the saddest matter.

"They probably forgot about Dame-Tsuna."

Silence fell where questions and curiosities had once sat. And the room turned icy. Which was a feat in and of itself with Tsuna and his constant stream of dying will flames.

"Did they now?" Kensuke growled, and while no one else spoke for a second, Tsuna knew that echo in the man's tone. It wasn't Kensuke's voice echoing, it was Takeshi and Hayato, Chrome and Mukuro, even Kyouya and Ryohei all growling in time with Mochida.

It never failed to burn something deep and private in Tsuna. Knowing they cared so much. Knowing they honoured him, and saw it right that Tsuna be respected.

"Dame-Tsuna." Reborn appeared form the shadows, and Kensuke turned angry eyes on the tutor. He had long since gotten over the man's abusive ways of affection. But it hurt Kensuke a lot to know that someone, anyone, still called Tsuna by his detestable nickname.

"It's alright Reborn." Tsuna stood up and stretched, "Come on, Hayato we have paperwork to do."

Hayato knew what was happening, always three steps ahead of the other Guardians, "That so, Boss?"

And Tsuna chuckled, all orange eyes and confidence. "Yes, we need to prepare for our trip to Japan. We can't have Namimori forgetting who I am. Not when I've come so far."

Mochida ducked into the room first. He had been nervous all day, and from the way Tsuna's legs were jumping, so was he. Something was not going to be pleasant here, and Mochida would much rather take a bullet than allow anyone else take one. Besides, Kensuke had won the rock paper scissors.

Fair to say though, that not one guardian was taking this reunion as a threat, or else there would be no games about who goes in first.

They were meeting in the school's gymnasium, so all of the classes from their graduating year were there, and when his eyes met with his former classmates there was silence. He scanned the area, watching people, cataloguing various lumps and bumps on people's [persons, and noting every bag and window.

A couple of stuffed bras here, some stuffed crotches too.

A bad of fake documents, and a full emergency kit there.

But nothing dangerous.

Kensuke Mochida was relieved, and knew that there was nothing here right now that could bring harm to his inner echelon. There was certainly nothing here that he and the few guardians here couldn't protect their sky from. So he stepped out fully and stood tall, brushing his suit flat once more.

He kept his eyes peeled, and he noticed the way people looked at him.

"Come on, Boss. It's fine." Mochida grew calm and a smile burst across his face. Gasps sprinted across the room, because Mochida ("wasn't he a bully.", "I thought he ran his own dojo.", "I thought he died in a ditch after middle school.") was bowing to someone; Mochida was smiling; Mochida looked whole.

And he had changed. Mochida was no longer the stress-skinny boy he had been at graduation. Yes he had been strong (strong enough to take his kendo-team extremely close to finals) but he had been stressed out about money, and beaten into yakuza-trash. Now though, he was filled out. He had healthy hair, and bright eyes. Kensuke's cheeks were no longer hollowed, and he didn't skulk when he walked.

No, instead, Mochida stood in a custom suit pressed perfectly, and an air of confidence that threatened to take the breath out of any who looked at him with less than grudging respect.

And then another man, dressed in finery and confidence stepped beside Mochida. Eyes cold, and burning like some demon. He looked uninterested, but strong, and he swept the room as if he were a god, and these were not even his people.

And the air grew tense, and confused, and angry. Because a stranger walked in. Even spouses hadn't been allowed until last minute, but this was strictly a classmates of Namimori reunion. So it was fair to say that no one was happy. (Kensuke was very upset to see that people here still assumed that everyone was straight. What it Tsuna had been Kensuke's spouse?)

The organisers, (three of the six class president's form that year) came right up to Mochida with fury on their tongues.

"Mochida…Kensuke right? We're glad you got here alright. But did you get confused? There were to be no guests to this reunion."

Then, directly behind Tsuna, the rest of their family walked out.

Chrome may look delicate and effeminate in her skirt and blouse, the way she and Mukuro walked in together showed exactly where her strength laid, and that time had not changed their intimacy. He didn't hold her like a trophy, and everyone knew it. "Well, our school certainly hasn't changed, hmm Mukuro?" Her blushing cheeks framed her laughing smile as she chattered with Takeshi over her shoulder. However, there was an edge to her walk, she knew how to crush skulls with her thighs and castrate with kicks.

Takeshi was laughing, and no one could forget who he was. He had taken both the baseball team and the weapon-martial arts team higher than the school had ever achieved (or had since achieved). But he was changed too. "Maa maa, you're not having any problems are you Kensuke?" Takeshi didn't dress like an athlete anymore, and instead matched the others with a fitted suit and hidden holsters, and gone were the last dregs of baby-fat that clung to his face. In its place, Takeshi bore scars with pride. Takeshi's presence sedated the room, and his sharp grin told all the Guardians and Tsuna that that was exactly how he liked it.

"Kufufu, no it hasn't. Which is a shame. It was so pitiful before, I had hoped it had improved with age." Mukuro was cold where Chrome was warm, but the way he walked with pride, stepped confidently in his boots and foreign style told enough that his grin didn't. He winked and strutted in and everyone knew he would woo you with a word if he wanted to. However, his sneers when women tried it on told him exactly how precious the one on his arm was. He wasn't a fickle man, and he would sooner trash you (and by dismissing you that's exactly what he was doing) than even breathe near you.

"Calm down, baseball-idiot. Kensuke will sort it out, and if he can't I will. No one here has any right to question Juudaime." Hayato was probably the most changed, and the whispers around them told Kensuke that no one else could see it. Yes, after middle-school Tsuna had just about eliminated the self-doubt, self-hate from Hayato, and by the time they had all graduated from high-school Hayato was an amazing right-hand. Now though, he was nothing but confident. And not just because Tsuna trusted him, but because Hayato trusted himself. He no longer needed to stand out, he didn't need to command attention with his rings and belts. No, Hayato didn't need to, he just did. He lead calmly, and the guardians trusted him to know what was right, and if he didn't he would figure it out, and if he couldn't, he would do everything he could to fix his mistake. Hayato was ruthless where Tsuna could not be, and was soft where Tsuna could not afford to be.

One of the other organisers listed off the men and woman as they entered, smiling and directing them to punch and snacks. However, when they all stuck around Tsuna (gravitated in a way that was more like a singular being than satellite colonies) she grew tense.

"Then who the fuck are you?" The woman was rancid. Her voice was high with authority, but her skirts didn't fit right, and she obviously took advantage of this power in place of what she didn't get in her work life.

A chill flooded the room. It was a hit chill, the kind you got when you were really sick.

Mochida had fought against ZPB:K. Mochida had scars from the ice, all the guardians did, Tsuna did. But Kensuke didn't know that Tsuna could bring the ice into the world without bringing it out. But that's what the room suddenly felt like. It suddenly felt like the whole room –the entire fucking gymnasium –suddenly felt stilled by ZPB ice.

Kensuke flexed his hands out of habit.

Hayato knew that his wasn't the only dry mouth in the room. He would have called anyone a liar if they said they didn't feel a rush at the show of power that Tsuna was laying out. Even the idiots that were supposedly their classmates should have felt this power display.

No one should feel –at this point –any kind of ignorance about exactly who this man is.

"Sawada, Tsunayoshi. I assume I am allowed to be here. You'd think one of your top graduates would get an invitation, hmm?"

And suddenly dry mouths turned into whispers that thundered around the room.

Because Tsuna was gorgeous man. Always had been, but it was hidden and sullied by too many years of self-deprecation and bullying.

Standing tall, as tall as Hayato, Tsuna was a commanding presence. Even without his mantle and fanfare, Tsuna had this power over a room. He could chill it or warm it. Tsuna could make you very aware of not being in his arms. He could make it very obvious that you were expendable to him. His eyes were rarely brown anymore, and he liked it that way. He enjoyed dressing in finery –spoilt by Reborn and Xanxus, of that the entirety of the Vongola was sure –and knew how to pull it off. But then Tsuna had this smile, this soft beautiful smile that turned enemies into mewling pups. He had this smile that could tell you everything you needed to know, terrifying in a way that made people all around him do all they could to bring the warmth back.

"I…You…How. There's no way you're Dame-Tsuna, you-."

But Tsuna just lifted a hand and silenced the man, eyes taking in everyone. He growled slightly, in his gut so that only those close could hear. "I don't care. If you want to prove yourselves as good alumni of our wonderful town it would do to be a little more professional. I am ashamed."

And there was a quiet kind of chaos as the organisers tried to bid for Tsuna's forgiveness. Mukuro has this happy little gleam in his eyes, and so did Tsuna. Both of them (and the rest of the guardians) were really enjoying this.("That's Dame-Tsuna?", "Didn't he leave?", "I thought he died", "I bet Dame-Tsuna hired someone to act like him.", "It must be him, Gokudera followed him around like pig-shit.")

Though, Kensuke couldn't blame them. The mind games that Vongola played were very rarely so innocent. It was nice to play with innocents when there was no threat to your own if you lost.

While his boss was distracted by grovelling men Kensuke surveyed the room again. He kept an ear out of course, any sign of danger he would fell quickly. Even a few brave souls drew near Tsuna to talk to him about his life until now. However, as much as Hayato's glee and Mukuro's pleasure were beautiful sounds (because anyone grovelling and marveling at Tsuna seemed very right) Kensuke had other…matters…to attend to.

"Yo mochida!" the voice was low and pleasant. "What happened to you man?"

Oh, Kensuke remembered this man. He remembered the fists in his gut, he remembered the drugs he came close to using. Kensuke remembered bowing to this man, needing to prove himself. Kensuke remembered beating this man into the ground when he wouldn't let Kensuke leave.

Kensuke also knew that this boy never graduated high school.

"I could ask the same of you, Kurou." Shoulder's squared, and chin high. Mochida was proud of himself, he let the world know this. "What are you even doing here?"

Masaru Kurou smiled. It was a delirious, sleazy smile. It had always been a delirious and sleazy smile. It didn't matter whether he had been forcing girls to fuck him behind the middle school (and then using his family name to brush away the rape charges), or was trying to sell kids some half-cracked drugs behind the high school. Masaru Kurou was a sleazy man, and Kensuke felt disgusting having ever been near the man, let alone feeling like he needed approval from Kurou.

"Married that little bitch over there." The man smiled, and Kensuke thought he saw something that could have been love in a man with even an ounce more fidelity than Kurou. Kensuke noted that it was the shy little girl from his high school class.

"And Kyouya?"

Hayato chuckled when silence came over the group. Kyouya was not nearly as scary as these morons thought, but it was still nice to say the name and call a silence across an entire town. Especially if you were confident and righteous in using his first name.

"The Hibari's can't control me."

Now that was curious. Kensuke was sure that he could smell the stress sweat from the man. Filthy.

"I will be sure to tell that to Kyouya when I see him this evening." Kyouya loathed the Masaru family. They were a filthy family that cared little for how they got their money, or what kind of problems they caused for local businesses through their dealings.

It was just before entering high school that Kyouya wiped Korou's father out of Namimori. Apparently the genes were still running.

"As if." Kurou scoffed. "A bully like you has no power here. You're knees are knocking even mentioning the Hibari monster's name."

Kensuke sucked a breath in just as his famiglia did. And he felt a growl in his gut. "You will shut you're filthy mouth if you know what's good for you."

Kurou's eyes narrowed and he squared himself with Kensuke. Or he tried to. Kurou was trying to intimidate with vile intentions, Kensuke was squared with love and family and true strength, so the attempt was poor at best. "And why should I listen to a snivelling whore of a druggie, eh? Last I remembered you were sucking walls for a hit."

And there was no way that Kensuke was going to let that stand. "You didn't give me much of a choice. As I remember it you were the one to force my face against that wall. You were the one who tried to whore me out because you lost on one of those ridiculous deals of yours."

But Kurou only grew angrier at Kensuke's words. He wasn't used to this man. He wasn't used to Kensuke standing up for himself. Even when the boy broke free from him, Kensuke just hid away. He scratched like an animal, but he never had a backbone.

"You weren't so high and mighty when I gave you a purpose you cunt. You chose to work for me." Kurou sneered. "You made your decision."

Mochida felt more than saw the shoulders and spines of the guardians around him stiffen and straighten. No one in their famiglia took well to their own threatened. Kensuke knew what was happening, Kurou was trying to break him. He was trying to make Kensuke remember his low days, but Kensuke was over them. He had better things to look forward to.

Mochida Kensuke wouldn't break in front of this poor excuse of a man. He would break later, surrounded by his sky and his family where he was safe.

"We both made our decisions. We both had a chance to make new ones." Mochida hissed. "Some just made better decisions than others."

The man snickered, too high to see the fury he was building. Too ignorant and haughty to realise that he had guns trained on him should Mochida show even an ounce of distress. "Some choice you made there. Your boss is Dame-Tsuna, how pathetic. I mean look, you even bowed to him. You must be delusional, should have taken that shot when you had the chance."

It was curious, the sudden buzzing in the air. Kensuke couldn't even hear what his old friend was saying anymore. Conversations seemed to have dulled when Kensuke and Korou grew closer and closer to blows and blood. Everyone was staring at Kensuke, waiting for him to break the boy like he would have in the past. But Kensuke felt Tsuna's eyes on him, felt the trust and faith. Something unwound in Kensuke, something let him break free, finally from this vile human being who had tried to make Kensuke much worse than he should have been.

Kensuke had broken away from this toxic friendship when he was just fifteen, battling himself and a realisation that he could be better if he just let go of the toxins in his life and tried. At almost twenty nine, with a family who cared for him and wouldn't abandon him at one mistake, it took very little for Kensuke to make his own resolve known.

"I made my choice." Kensuke's voice carried across the room, and his eyes burned with red and green and his flames came close to the surface. "And believe me, it was the best decision I have ever made, and one none of you will ever understand."

And there you have it. My own version of the reunion fic. I know this trope is long dine, but I got inspiration, and of course a more-ish feeling for some of my version of Kensuke.

So I hope you enjoyed this abrupt, probably not very good fic.

Please review, much love to you all!

~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3