Mukuro heard the news perhaps two minutes after it happened, the cry going through Millefiore like a howl to the gods

Mukuro After Tsuna's death

Mukuro heard the news perhaps two minutes after it happened, the cry going through Millefiore like a howl to the gods.

The Vongola is dead!

Leonard Lippi laughs at this with the friends he's made since his arrival. He whoops along with everyone else when some smartass hoists himself up on a table and pantomimes the slow-mo version of Sawada's death, riddled with bullets. He voices grandiose plans and praises the name of Byakuran to that person's smiling face.

Mukuro's mind whirls wildly through what this means for him. There has to be a new boss coming up, some one to marshal the remaining Vongola and families against the Millefiore. Gokudera would be key, but Gokudera will be in no state to take command. Will it be Xanxus? The Varia have kept their own counsel, but one long-ago meeting was more than enough to convince Mukuro that the man's a fool. Mukuro can- can- can what?

The Vongola is dead. Tsunayoshi is gone, the stupid little fool, and that means that the guardians will fall apart like flowers in the wind. It means that Hibari will abandon his searches and hole himself up in his beloved Namimori to wait until Byakuran simply exorts a nuclear weapon from any government under his thumb and nukes the whole place as deadweight loss. It means that Gokudera and Yamamoto will follow their dead men to fulfill their death wishes that much sooner. It means that Sasagawa and Bovino will cut their losses and take who they can save far, far underground and leave the rest to rot, running for the rest of their lives.

It means that Glo Xinia will catch his Chrome. She's gone to Japan looking for protection long gone.

It means that Mukuro is here, risking- well, not much- in the heart of the Millefiore for shits and giggles. Mukuro wants to be back in Vongola headquarters, want to seize bloody Gokudera with Chrome's skinny (unbroken) arms and punch him across the face a few times, pick him up and shout at him, mock his goddamn loyalty.

What good is all the talk about loving your family? Where was Tsunayoshi's precious family when he fell?

Leonard cries off the celebrations with a headache. Mukuro drops to his knees in his room and pounds the mattress in frustration.

Tsunayoshi is dead.

Mukuro is matchless once again, beholden to no stupid boy with the brains creation had given a plant. And not a very smart plant.

On his (well, Guido's) knees, head bowed, Mukuro plans. There go his plans to at some point 'die' flamboyantly in Tsunayoshi's defense, the several to posses his body, one to marry him off to Chrome. How dare he? How dare he die? How can he die?

Mukuro plans. If there is a space in his plans for clear eyes and a clearer smile, Mukuro is too busy imagining that smiling bastard's one being smashed into shards to notice.

("No party for you last night, Leo-kun? You were very boring, just going back to pray by your bed." Smile. Laugh. Again with the damn marshmallows.

Leonard Lippi is a good catholic boy. "By-Byakuran-sama, I just-I just hope we will be as successful in all our ventures as these.")