Title: Comfort

Summary: Lambo has to face the fact: I-Pin can't be strong all the time.

A.N.: Not beta-read, so I apologize for the (hopefully not too horrible) mistakes. I just wanted to bring some angst in between those two, seeing how things turned out. As for the when, I would say they are 15-17 in an AU universe where the problems with other mafia families have gotten worse.

Hope you enjoy reading :3~

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Blood was soaked in her clothes, splattered on her arms, her delicate small hands and even in her hair.

With a rush Lambo was next to her, unsure if he could grip her for examination because he didn't know which of the red liquid belonged to her and which didn't.

Gokudera beat him to it, pushing him aside and handing her paper towels to clean herself up.

"How was it?," was his first question.

No worry or anxiety laid in his voice, and although he had a grim look, he carefully helped I-Pin to soak paper after paper until only a soft red film was left on her form.

Instead of asking if she was okay (which had been Lambo's stuck up question all along), he only patted her reassuringly on the head, which made I-Pin lift her head to really look at them both for the first time since she had entered the room.

To Lambo it seemed as if she had woken from a long, deep dream, one of those where you didn't know if it was a nightmare or only nonsense.

She sent them both a serious gaze before her features melted into a small smile.

"Ah, nothing to worry about."

She smiled softly at them, especially at Lambo, who just couldn't banish that concerned look from his face.

Gokudera grinned at her (something he did rarely these days) and took the bloody paper towels with him, as he probably went to inform Tsuna about I-Pin's successful return.

Leaving Lambo and I-Pin all alone by themselves in a weird, unusual silence.

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"So…You're okay?," Lambo finally asked with uncertainty in his voice.

I-Pin sent him the same small smile like before, which didn't quite reach her eyes nor looked as if she really meant it.

"Sure," was her only statement before she turned her back to him, beginning to open her red Chinese jacket with a haste Lambo didn't think she possessed judging by the calmness she showed them earlier.

Her fingers were still slippery from blood just as the knobs on her costume were covered in it, and soon she was struggling with the last remaining ones.

Although she didn't utter a single word, Lambo sensed how her despair grew to get out of the blood soaked dress as fast as possible.

With caution, he turned her softly around to him, taking her hands away.

Damn, were they cold! Lambo winced slightly. Only then, with her clammy fingers secured in his big, warm hands, did he feel her shaking.

With surprise he looked from her hands up to her face, registering her widened eyes and the disgust which was written all over her face. Her eyes seemed to look through him at something he wasn't sure he wanted to know about.

Lambo dropped her hands immediately. His attention focused on her knobs, opening the last ones with more swiftness he thought he did have, feeling himself near to panic.

He pulled at her sleeves with urgency, but didn't have to say anything because I-Pin struggled out of the jacket as if it would explode any moment soon.

Lambo dropped it without care on the floor and pointing at I-Pin's undershirt and her protection gear while looking in her eyes with definiteness.

She understood right away and started to open the things which helped protecting her on missions as he switched his focus to her shoes and the long – now dark violet, thanks to the blood - pants.

Had somebody told him before, that there would be a day he would be kneeling in front of I-Pin while she took her clothes of, he would have judged that as a bad joke.

But now he squatted down in front of her, putting a hand softly on one of her shoes and lifted it slowly until she noticed what he had in plan to balance herself with one hand on his shoulder.

He did the same on the other side throwing the metallic smelling shoes far away from them.

At the same time, I-Pin let the protection gear drop with a loud 'Thong' on the floor.

She was still shivering, but Lambo noticed with some satisfaction that it had slowed down gradually.

Before he could stop her, she tugged her pants down, leaving her standing in front of him in her underwear and thankfully a lose shirt over her upper parts which she hadn't removed yet.

Lambo gulped as heat rose unexpectedly to his cheeks.

To prevent her from doing something she would later definitely regret if she remembered it, he shrugged his casual cow print shirt of and draped it over her hunched shoulders.

"C'mon, let us get you to the bathroom so you can take care of the rest."

He grasped her arm as if she could brake under his touch and led her away to the shower rooms for the girls.

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With worry, Lambo paced back and forth in front of the changing rooms, never taking his gaze off of the exit. After I-Pin had finished showering, she had looked almost normal again, sending him a shy smile while she took the clothes he had offered her.

The white bath robe she wore, made Lambo think of hospitals and sickness and dying, so that a feeling of nausea made him scan her form for wounds he didn't see earlier because of the blood.

All he could see (well, the parts which weren't hidden anyway) was the pale milky skin of her legs and underarms - now red from her washing it with force - , her dark, big eyes still wandering of - probably to horrible memories – and her altogether delicate figure which made him want to hide her from the world and never let her out again to recieve her dangerous missions.

When she went back to put the clothes on, he could have possibly left her alone, to sort out her feelings, to let her switch gradually back to normal, but something in him nearly screamed at him to stay, to make sure everything was alright.

Whatever she had done the past six hours she had been away, it definitely topped the work she did otherwise. Which made him worry even more, knowing fully well for what she was still used under Tsuna's leadership. The closing of a door brought his dark thoughts to a stop.

Lambo practically froze on the spot, only to see I-Pin in the dark blue trainings outfit he had handed her because walking to their quarters to get something more neutral had not been an issue to him as he didn't want to leave her in her current state for even a minute.

I-Pin sighed softly, sending him an apologetic look.

"..Sorry, for making you worry so much," she whispered, clutching the clothes she was dressed in now protectively around herself.

Lambo couldn't answer her right back, as the sight of seeing her – I-Pin, who could handle everything if she wanted to, who was smart, strong and clever, who never was afraid of anything since the broccoli monster-days in her life – so unsure and fragile, so nearly broken inside from today, made his heart ache in a desperate way.

Pulling her against him and burying her in his arms was the only thing he could think of doing right now. Which he did soon after.

I-Pin first stiffened because of the sudden proximity so that he thought she would beat him up, but then she surprisingly melted against his body, wrapping her arms frantically around his waist, choking the air out of his lungs.

And then she started crying, as if a river had been finally broken.

Although she didn't sob loudly, the hot wetness he could feel spreading over his bare chest through his shirt was unmistakable.

Lambo stroked her hair like Mrs. Sawada had always done when one of them was sad or had a nightmare, back in the old days.

He started to rub her back gently, muttering words of comfort even though he knew that they were lies, would become lies, sooner or later.

But that didn't matter, because only the present was important, here and now she needed the lying safety he could provide with his words, his arms, his being there.

So Lambo kept going on, until she had at last calmed down.

How long they stood like that, Lambo later couldn't say, but he never forgot the helplessness in her eyes he had seen clearly for the first time since he knew her.

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