Summary: New Years is the one night that there are no parties at the Vongola mansion. No pairings.

It's no secret that the Vongola LOVES their parties.

It seems they host one almost every other week, whether it's a small get together for their closest allies, or a grand gala with the entire world invited to attend.

Holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, you name it, and the Vongola will celebrate it (the Vongola Decimo's birthday party is always the grandest affair of them all).

So it is quite understandably a surprise when one learns that New Year's Eve, arguably one of the biggest excuses for a party out there, is the only night there are never any parties at the Vongola mansion.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

By five in the afternoon, all staff at the Vongola HQ have been sent home.

By six, all of the mansion's residents who are attending parties elsewhere are dressed and out the door.

(And there are Vongola parties held elsewhere, in bars and other businesses operated by the Family.

The Chiavarone Family's annual New Year's Eve party is an especial favourite among the Decimo's guardians and other members of his upper echelon. Though the young Decimo himself is never in attendance.)

By seven, the Vongola mansion goes into lockdown, sealed up tighter than the Vendicare water prison, with several Moscas patrolling the perimeter all night long.

Most years, Tsuna is the only one still left inside by the time the doors are closed, with possibly one or two of his guardians there to keep him company.

Kyoya, Takeshi, and Ryohei usually go back to Japan, to ring in the new year with their families.

Mukuro travels from bar to bar all night long, flirting shamelessly with every attractive person that crosses his path (guy or girl, doesn't matter, he's never been very picky when it comes to what he'll find in someone's pants), and drinking more than should be humanly possible without getting alcohol poisoning.

Chrome and Hayato usually prefer to spend their night with Dino and his people, and often, Fuuta and I-Pin will join them.

(They all place bets, on the way to the party, as to how many people will try and convince them to spill the secret as to why the HQ is all locked up, and why Decimo is nowhere to be seen.

There's no particular reason it has to be a secret, except that it's amusing hearing the theories people come up with - all of which are infinitely more exciting than the truth of it.

"Satanic rituals" seems to be a worryingly popular guess.)

Lambo sometimes attends too, but he always finds himself standing alone in a corner, resolutely ignoring 95% of the people that try to come up and talk to him, and regretting his decision to leave the house. But by that point, it's too late. No one will be allowed back into the mansion until it opens up again, at ten the next morning.

Most years, Lambo stays at home.

He and Tsuna (and sometimes the other kids or guardians, if they decide not to go out) have dinner at seven, forsaking the dining table and hauling a bunch of junk food to the living room, where they put on one of their favourite Christmas movies.

By nine, Tsuna heads back to his room, and Lambo takes to haunting the empty halls of the mansion with a thick black comforter draped across his shoulders like a bulky cape, and a mug of hot chocolate cradled in both hands.

He doesn't start feeling sleepy until about midnight, and until then, he finds countless ways to amuse himself.

Sometimes he just surfs the internet.

Sometimes he reads.

Sometimes he bakes.

(One year he'd decided to try knitting, and the next thing he knew, it was morning, and the mansion was unlocking and he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night because he'd found an awesome scarf pattern and decided to make some for his brothers and sister.

Hayato tried to get him to go to sleep when he got back home, but Lambo had refused, because he'd only finished two of the eight scarves and he wanted to do the rest as well.

He ended up falling asleep halfway through the fourth one.)

But whatever he does, he always makes sure to keep extra quiet, so as not to bother his Tsuna-nii.

His Tsuna-nii who never gets a moment of rest, who spends every waking hour keeping the Vongola in check.

New Years is the only night of the year Tsuna lets himself go to sleep early, and sleep in late.

A good start to each year.

SkyGem: The end! Hope you all liked it! Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought, eh? Putting the mansion in lockdown just so Tsuna can get a good night's sleep probably seems like overkill, but considering who he is, and how many assassination attempts he must have to endure, I'm sure the only way to get his hyper intuition to turn off for a bit and let him sleep and be completely dead to the world, is to lock everything up so tightly the assassins (and by extension everyone else) can't get in.