Tsuna skidded to a halt when he heard a sharp cry from a familiar voice behind him, he turned from where the others were still running to see Amila on the ground. She had tripped and skinned both her knees badly. Her bright green eyes were filled with tears and her hand was stretched out towards him.

"Tsuna!"

Tsuna looked behind him at the others who were getting farther and farther away from them and back to Amila (and Xanxus' men who had been chasing them all), "Tsuna, please !" She screamed out terrified.

With an explosive growl he ran back towards where Amila was on the ground, he grabbed her hand and the back of her dirty dress hauling her up with all his strength. Even before she got completely to her feet Tsuna was already turning around dragging her with him.

"Gotcha"

Large, rough hands grabbed him under the armpits and forced him up into the air. He swung his legs back and forth to try to mule kick the body behind him, "Amila, run!" He howled out, his body twisting and turning desperately.

"Come on little brother, can it. You're already caught. " A familiar voice said steadily behind him, "Now. Look at your little, turncoat friend. She seems pretty alright to me."

Tsuna growled and tried to head butt behind him but all he got for that was a brusque shake of his entire body. "Go on, look." Physical hands, ones that couldn't be from the person holding him stable in the air forcibly turned his head to look at where Amila had been. He struggled but it was useless. He wasn't strong enough.

Amila was standing where she'd been when Tsuna had ran back for her, but instead of struggling like Tsuna was, she was on her own feet and wiping down her dress from the dirt it'd acquired when she fell.

Only, Tsuna realized with a sinking feeling, she hadn't fallen. She hadn't tripped. He bit his lip as hard as he could and his struggles slowed down enough until he stopped entirely, but he couldn't stop the way his eyes traced Squalo as he moved over to the small girl who wasn't even half his size. Amila looked up with a sweet smile when Squalo stopped beside her and waited patiently.

"Boss?" Squalo asked distastefully. He didn't look at the girl beside him, or the child his boss basically had in a headlock.

"Go ahead." The voice said in his ear and hauled him up slightly higher.

Squalo sighed and ran a hand down his hair in annoyance but reached into his jacket anyways. He pulled out a bag clinking with coins. He passed it to the girl almost unwillingly but let her snatch it from his hand when it got close enough to her. Amila turned away from everyone and counted out the coins and notes that had been in the bag.

Tsuna swallowed harshly, and Xanxus huffed un-amusedly beside his ear.

Amila turned with a hundred watt smile, her dirty face shown with her happiness. It would have been adorable if that look didn't make him physically sick to his stomach. Squalo grimaced and Xanxus growled, pulling him slightly farther away from her. It was strange how everything had been flipped. Before he'd been trying to protect her from these two men, but now it was like they were trying to protect him from her.

She was looking straight at him.

"Thanks so much, Tsuna!" She grinned at him, "If you hadn't told me The Varia were looking for you I'd never, ever been able to get off the streets!" She tried to skip forward towards him, but Squalo grabbed her before he could even get half a step, Tsuna flinched back into Xanxus' hold, and the man in question pulled him back even farther. Amila looked confused but she didn't struggle against the hold, "I just wanted to thank him.."

Squalo glared down at her and jerked her back, "Are you stupid or what?" He jerked his head backwards and spoke directly to Xanxus. "We done with her Boss or what? I'm getting sick of the smell of greedy coward."

"Hey!" The girl protested indigently.

Xanxus made some motion that Tsuna couldn't see and Squalo nodded. He dragged the girl away none to gently and she waved at Tsuna cheerfully as she went. "Bye, Tsuna!"

Tsuna watched her go. Soon, not even moments after Squalo had started moving her, the girl he'd spent the last two months with was pulled around a corner ally and out of his sight.

Xanxus sighed explosively when Tsuna slumped down in his arms, a completely dead weight. "Come on, kid. Let's get to the car." He started to haul Tsuna's limp body around and towards a back alley road where Tsuna could see a black car idling. This really had all been planned. Right down to where Amila would 'trip' and Tsuna would come to help her.

Tsuna let himself be carried towards the car like a kitten being picked up and moved by its mother, he never said a word. Just kept reliving that moment when he'd decided to turn back for her. Why had he done that? He could have just kept going, he should have just kept going. But he hadn't and this is where he'd ended up.

When they got to the car door, another man opened it. He was plain looking, the normal Mafia guy you'd expect to see in a movie. Nothing like the circus that'd been chasing Tsuna for the better part of two years. Xanxus tossed him in and instantly slid in after him, blocking the door from that side. Tsuna had a half second thought of trying the other side but Squalo angrily jerked the door open, clambered in and shut behind him.

Xanxus rapped on the divider and the car lurched forward smoothly. Xanxus relaxed back into his seat behind Tsuna, his arm coming up to drape across the back of the seat and one hand coming down to clamp onto the nape of his neck. He spoke over Tsuna's head as the fourteen year old scowled down at the immaculate floor. He scuffed his dirty shoe agnst it, just to mess it up a little.

"The little harpy run?"

Squalo crossed a leg over his knee and also relaxed significantly more than he'd been outside the car. "The second we were outta sight she slithered outta my hold like some type of eel and took off down the street." He said, "There wasn't much of a point chasing after her since we got what we came for, so I let her go."

Xanxus grunted but didn't sound to displeased. More annoyed than anything. "I can't stand trash like her. Little cretin would sell her own mother out if it meant more money."

Squalo rolled his eyes and actually looked at Tsuna for the first time since he'd gotten in the car, "What do you think about that, baby boss? Still think you can trust people like her?" Squalo mocked him, with the words he'd said almost two years ago," 'I don't need your stupid Family! I'm perfectly fine with my family right here!' " Squalo pushed him with his shoulder playfully, like a leopard engaging a kitten. Tsuna's eyes burned with tears but he refused to look up and give them the satisfaction of it.

Xanxus laughed and pulled Tsuna closer to him in what could be called a hug if it wasn't so violent. His other hand also came up to Tsuna's chin to force his head up gently (for him anyways.) Tsuna meet red eyes like the devil with a glare on his face and Xanxus laughed even louder.

"You knew we were gonna catch you at some point, little brother." He grinned a proud, bloodthirsty grin, " I'm just impressed you lasted so long against us all. It was impressive for someone not yet Quality."

Tsuna's eyes narrowed, "You only caught me because you tricked me. You never would have otherwise. It was a dirty trick because you all weren't good enough."

Xanxus' grin sharpened, "A dirty trick still got us you, I'd wager that's a good enough reason as any to use them more often."

Tsuna tried to jerk away from Xanxus hold but the man just clamped on tighter, letting Tsuna roll around between him and Squalo as he tried to escape. The two watched amusedly as he almost made it to the floor before Xanxus' jerked him back up.

Tsuna screamed in frustration, "I'm not apart of your Family! Lemme go!" He scratched at Xanxus' wrist and snapped his teeth at Squalo when the man went to force him to sit in the seat properly.

"If you wanna stay on the ground then fine." Xanxus said, still amused. With the hand wrapped around the kids nape he let him drop but not move. He was on his knees, between Xanxus' own and glaring up at the bigger man. "But kid, no matter what you say or what you do, your part of the Family. " His eyes trailed curiously from Tsuna's wild hair to his familiar face. One Xanxus' had seen on the Manor walls so many times, he'd had to do a double take when he'd first caught a glimpse of Tsuna. "Looks like that don't lie."

Xanxus' smiled down at the little rage kitten below him, if it wasn't for those golden eyes and that delicate face it would have been like looking into a mirror with the hate that was pouring off of him, "And you'll find, little brother," Tsuna snarled at him, "Family's the only thing you can ever really trust."