I wrote this a heck of a while ago, when the future arc ended, because it left so many questions as to how TYL!Tsuna was like. Looking back at it, I wonder why I wasn't happy with it. Anyway, all I did today was just add some new parts, cut out some parts, deleted only a few and voila. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that TYL!Yamamoto is in it and he makes everything better for me, conversation-wise, but not prose-wise. Why is that?

...though seriously, if you squint, in the story, you see hints at some pairings. I didn't intend for it to be, but apparently, TYL!Yamamoto makes everything a pairing because he's too touchy-feeling and being an adult means he can't get away with it. Pairing asides though, I honestly think that best guy friends actually have those moments, so humour me here and consider it Gen, and wonder along with me why TYL!Tsuna seems so cool up until the bonuses.

Post Evigilation

Byakuran smiled at him. "Goodnight, Tsunayoshi-kun." A gun in his hands; Tsuna should have been surprised.

Everything became dizzy and disoriented after that. Then black.

When Tsuna awoke, there was an immediate sense of disbelief and relief once he got his bearings straight. He slowly sat up, taking in the surroundings. Trees, grass, and one Irie Shouichi. Tsuna couldn't help but suppress the smile on his face.

So they'd done it. Good.

It'd been a risk and a bet that Tsuna had been willing to take, but now that it was all over, he couldn't help but feel delighted he'd taken the chance.

A past that changed the future…

He let out a laugh, as he nodded amiably to Shouichi, and then to Lal. "Was it tiring?" he asked. Obviously it'd been, considering how ragged and tired they both looked. In fact, Tsuna almost felt a bit guilty. Almost.

Shouichi sighed, seeming to catch onto it. The man who had developed the machine was most certainly still tired, almost shaken. But there was no doubt that behind that façade, Shouichi was more or less still in disarray about the fact that Byakuran was gone. The man Shouichi had always met in another world, a man who had taken it personally to take Shouichi along wherever. A lighter atmosphere surrounded him, but Tsuna chose not to read too much into it.

"More than you know." Shouichi grumbled, looking pointedly at him. "You were asleep the whole time."

Tsuna didn't rise to the bait, but his smile grew wider. "And how was my past self?"

"A runt." Lal responded, eying him as Tsuna stood up and climbed out of the machine. "Hard to imagine he became someone like this."

Tsuna had forgotten how demanding Lal had been.

"My apologies." Tsuna's amusement grew, but the expression soon became vacant. "…is it still there? The coffin?"

"Back through there." Lal jabbed a thumb. Tsuna nodded slightly, and started walking. He raised an eyebrow at a new face – ah, someone of the ex-Millefiore, no doubt. There was little to no reason why a man such as this would be here.

"Spanner." The man introduced, hand stroking his chin as Tsuna came past, lollipop in his mouth. He looked Tsuna up and down, before nodding as though satisfied. "…X-burner. You'll want upgrades?"

"I'd love to, but not right now, I'm afraid." Tsuna glanced over at the area were the coffin was. "Do you think you could help Shouichi-san with the arrangements of waking everyone up?"

"Sure." In solemn response, Spanner inclined his head. "I'll leave you to your business."

"Thank you." Tsuna called, before striding forward. Between the natural overgrowth of the area, and the trees that stuck up at awkward angles from the upturned earth, Tsuna maneuvered his way through.

If he looked closed enough, he could see signs of battles. The scuffed and cleared areas indicated that something had happened in this particular clearing, and if Tsuna looked carefully at some tree leaves, he could see light dew drops.

It didn't take him long for him to find the coffin. Tsuna pushed the lid half off, eyes narrowing slightly at the sight of the dead flowers, before rummaging through them. His fingers soon found a small book. As soon as he pulled it out from where it had stayed sleeping along with him for what was probably some time, Tsuna closed the coffin.

Flipping the book open to the last page Tsuna had ever written before his encounter with Byakuran, he placed it onto the coffin lid.

The diary entry Tsuna had written had faded before his own eyes, a testimony that it was all finally over. He was quiet, still watching it. So this had been the coffin to embrace him into sleep. This had been the coffin where his younger self had come out of. This was where it had all ended and began. And this was where he was now.

Tsuna wondered if his past self had been scared. Most probably. But the boy would've grown especially through this development, stronger than Tsuna was now, and most probably with a lot more potential. It was strange, thinking of yourself as another person who could do better, and it had been even stranger to put everything into the hands of a child that Tsuna knew had been himself – insecure.

He lifted his hand and his eyes turned to the finger where the ring had been a long time ago; there was nothing on it. The Vongola rings he had destroyed to keep the family safe had come back to do just the same thing. Upon leaving the area where Shouichi, Lal and Spanner had been, Tsuna had noted the collection of box weapons and everything there. All except…

The smile that came on his lips was sad, but endeared. Well, it wasn't like Nuts not to grow attached, and with no Vongola ring here, it made sense that the box animal had decided to follow the Tsuna with it. Nuts' memories of the Tsuna here and now were hazy after being left alone for so long, hazy and unreal; so it was probably for the best.

He didn't touch the coffin, eyes trailing over it again and again. It seemed surreal, but now it was over. The fight was won, and business would resume as usual. They would need to remake Vongola, as it was. It had lost influence and, since Gokudera hadn't taken over as was decreed by the rights of a right-hand man, respect as well. Vongola would need to do many things before it became as powerful as it had been – even more so.

He hummed a little, thinking about it.

A rustle and the sounds of walking on the grass made him look up.

As Yamamoto neared, Tsuna couldn't help but smile. His old friend had one hand in one pocket and the other up in the familiar wave. "Yo, Tsuna!" He greeted.

"Yamamoto," Tsuna greeted back, once Yamamoto settled himself beside him, sitting on the coffin. Tsuna noted the second glance Yamamoto gave it, before turning back to him at his question. "So how is everyone?" If Yamamoto was awake, then it was pretty much a guarantee that everyone else was as well.

Yamamoto stretched as if to demonstrate. "Pretty good, actually." He sighed, flexing his arms behind his back before moving them forward and shaking his hands at the wrists. "Just wish you'd given me a heads up, you know, about the whole 'I'm going to be killed but not really' thing? Working hard is part of the job, but too much and you'll end up killing me." Yamamoto glanced sideways at him. "What happened to trust?"

He was only teasing, but Tsuna knew the man's mind was filled with questions. It was only sheer politeness and respect that Yamamoto didn't ask further. Tsuna was grateful beyond words.

"That was the most important thing that I couldn't do, Yamamoto. I trusted you all, but there were certain factors that I couldn't be absolutely certain of." Tsuna pointed out, smiling. Inwardly though, he was grimacing at how clichéd his words was; even if it was the truth. "Everyone needed to be in the dark for it to have worked."

If it was corny in any way, Yamamoto only laughed slightly before looking contemplative.

"Hibari was pretty good, wasn't he?"

It was Yamamoto not really putting to light that Tsuna had chosen Hibari out of all of them, but Yamamoto asking if Tsuna felt it was a good reliability to have used.

"Yes." Tsuna nodded, once in confirmation. "He was."

Yamamoto raised an eyebrow and laughed, reaching out and whacking Tsuna lightly on the shoulder. "I'm afraid to touch you now, seeing as you might just keel over and die again and this is just a figment of my imagination."

"If I broke that easily, Reborn would've had my body dug into earth ages ago."

"Or thrown off a cliff, or various other methods I'm sure a hitman is capable of, not a Don with bad imagination skills."

Tsuna grinned in response, elbowing Yamamoto back. The tall man didn't budge so much, but that one move was enough that he felt reassured enough to do what he always did: put an arm on Tsuna's shoulder and leaned. There was a small sigh that escaped Yamamoto, before the man rested his chin on the arm on Tsuna's shoulder.

"Oh man, I did the exact same thing with your younger self." Yamamoto commented, looking fondly at some of the twigs on the ground. "And you were shorter, Tsuna. I could stand and then I could actually just lean onto your head."

"Why my head feels empty and thoroughly neglected, I now know why." Tsuna snickered, but the comforting atmosphere soon swept between them. They stayed like that in a bit of silence, listening to several interactions off in the distance. If anything, it seemed that everyone was getting reacquainted – especially with Spanner. Yamamoto spoke up after a while.

"We missed you. Gokudera visited every day." No indication about how long anyone else visited, but Tsuna supposed it was because Yamamoto was close enough to Gokudera that it was a right that Tsuna be told of this. That, and Yamamoto was one of the few of Tsuna's guardians who really knew about how people felt. He was a strange person that way.

"What about everyone else?"

Yamamoto hummed, as though trying to juggle answers in his head. He finally decided on, "Well, Reborn came back and I was pretty thrilled."

The expression in Tsuna's eyes was immediate. "And was he – "

"Got him to the base in time," Yamamoto nodded, "And then came back out several times after he said your younger self would probably show up. I missed giving him rides on my shoulder – pity he didn't feel like it."

Tsuna lamented with him, sighing like it was the worst thing in the world. There was no way of hiding, however, the fact that Tsuna found this all to be very funny. "It might just be men in their twenties, with broad shoulders are not Reborn's choice sitting places. Such a pity, yes."

"Cruel." Yamamoto grumbled good-heartedly, raising a hand and rapping his knuckles on the side of Tsuna's head. "I think we both know what happens to your head now. Hollow, that's what it is."

"Yes, especially as you know how to make it rain." Granted, it had nothing to do with whether or not Tsuna's head was hollow – which it was, as were all human heads, but that was beside the point –Tsuna just wanted to especially poke fun at it. He'd been meaning to every since Yamamoto discovery of that, but circumstances had called for Tsuna's 'elimination' by Byakuran's hands a lot faster than Tsuna himself could've predicted.

"It's not that bad of a thing, saying I'm a rain master. Kind of like a Pokémon, only better." Yamamoto struck a serious face. "I'd go all, 'let's plaaaaayyyy baaaallll', for my pokemon call. And then all my moves would be, 'bam', 'roar', 'home run' and 'strike, you're out', 'Shigure Kintoki and the Rain Dance company'. Which would involve me and my sword, dancing in the rain."

"You'd be the water type then," Tsuna said, trying to smother his laughter.

"Okay, okay, cut it out." Yamamoto complained. "Now you're bringing me back to my childhood and I am morally obligated to give you a type."

"So what Pokemon type am I?"

"You, I'd say…flying type, I guess? Being Sky and all. You're actually pretty hard to figure." As though annoyed but not really, Yamamoto grappled Tsuna. He wound his arm around Tsuna's neck and gave him a noogie. "Why are you so hard, seriously? You should be easy! I've known you for ten years!"

"Hey, ow! Stop! Stop! Don't blame me for your shortcomings!" Still, Tsuna was laughing even when Yamamoto finally relented and let go of him. He wiped a tear from his eye, a smile on his lips and a still shaking stomach from his attempts to gather himself. "What about Gokudera? Fire?"

"Definitely. Give him a Charizard any day."

"No, something with bombs."

"Pokémon don't throw bombs, Tsuna."

"Self-destruct, then?"

"No, that'd be I-Pin."

"Lambo might just be an electric type…" Just thinking about that made Tsuna remember the fact that the Lambo ten years ago had been five years old.

…he had sent a five year old to fight a man that had 'killed' him.

"Ahh, really?" Yamamoto laughed, before pulling off Tsuna. Evidently, he'd sensed a bit of sudden turmoil surrounding his friend. "You think?"

"I'm not sure." Tsuna sighed, and then he placed his chin in his hands, leaning forward on his knees. "I don't really know. But it's over, isn't it? Byakuran." The conversation had jumped from serious to slightly neutral back to serious again. It wasn't a startling agreement, but it was okay.

Yamamoto leaned back, hands going flat against the smooth lid of the coffin. He was silent for a few moments, staring at something that wasn't visible, before he commented.

"…yeah. Kind of anti-climatic, seeing as we really didn't do much. Those kids did a good job. Makes me wish I'd been there to see all of it, but I think Ryohei was the last one to go."

"…feel a little reminiscent?"

"Hell yeah. Who wouldn't be?" Yamamoto shot him an incredulous look. "I saw you tiny size and I saw Gokudera tiny size. It says a bit about a person, when you look at their past self and you think, 'wow, were they really that small'? Or hot-tempered?" He touched his cheek. "Did you know, Gokudera of the past and Gokudera of the present punched me in the exact same place? Crazy obsessed occult aside, I feel sorry for my past self. Ten years of abuse. We could be married and I wouldn't even know."

Tsuna laughed again, before pressing his fingertips together. A brief pause happened before he stood up again. "Well, I think we should go."

"Yup, but no rush." Yamamoto stood up, tugging his tie loose as he walked side by side with Tsuna. "I told them to give you some time."

"Is that why you came?"

"Of course." Yamamoto had the decency to look slightly insulted. "But you know, Tsuna, they'd have come anyway. They care about you a lot, you know." He paused, pushing aside some of the branches in the way to let Tsuna through.

"…Do you think everyone will be upset at me the moment I get back?" Tsuna asked finally. "For not telling them?"

Yamamoto gave him a strange look for a few minutes, before shaking his head. "I thought you'd have already considered this."

"Yamamoto?"

"Yeah?"

Tsuna looked him back in the eye, noting how Yamamoto's gaze did not shy away. He felt a bit pleased and squeamish at this – ten years had not been enough to stamp out all that had been Dame-Tsuna. It was funny though, how Tsuna could take on a fake death and sleeping for the possibility of forever had Byakuran won the stakes, but how the notion of confronting his family once more was a bit nerve-wracking. In a way, he was glad only Yamamoto had come to see him first.

"I…" Tsuna didn't know what to say, but Yamamoto understood.

"Look…we're mature enough, Tsuna, to know what we feel. You know what, though?" Yamamoto stopped and Tsuna whipped around, confused at the sudden hard tone. The look on Yamamoto's face though, was one that read 'you deserve this', before it morphed into a goofy grin. "We're pissed as hell."

Before Tsuna could do anything, Yamamoto shoved him playfully forward. Vongola Decimo was immediately enwrapped into a familial embrace consisting of practically all of Vongola, one that startled him. The warmness, the close proximity, knowing that each and every one of them were there because they thought of him as family as well.

Tsuna laughed and hugged them all back, even though it was hard to hug so many people around him, back as best he could. He was swept into whirlwinds of conversation, head spinning in trying to keep up. He broke up fights and reassured some others, got physically manhandled by those who found it hard to express their words through actually words, and conversed.

Later on, his throat would feel raw, his body tired and his mind pounding with stress, but he would feel it worth everything.

They'd fought for it, after all.

end.

Bonus:

Three Deleted scenes that couldn't fit anywhere, but I didn't want to get rid of:

One: In which Yamamoto and Gokudera wake up and interact.

When Yamamoto got up, it was kind of like a dream.

Gokudera's greeting came short-tempered as always. "Fuck, get your leg away from me! It's long enough as it is without jabbing into my shin."

"Ow! Hey." Yamamoto complained, rubbing his face where Gokudera had seen fit to punch at it as soon as he woke up with Yamamoto's leg pinning his own down. For a guy who had spent time sleeping in a big round circular machine which wasn't the best place to take a nap, Gokudera still had his undeniably sharp aim. "I just woke up and this is how you greet me?"

The Italian leaned forward with a groan and a hand clutching his forehead. It seemed that all things aside, disorientation had been one thing Gokudera wasn't that used to. Yamamoto, who'd been playing sports all his life, was probably a bit better off, but not really.

Gokudera gave him a glare that was worth a thousand words.

"Sorry, sorry." Yamamoto grinned, despite the fact that he felt sluggish. He offered his fellow guardian a hand up.

Gokudera gave him a look that read, 'did you falling asleep in the machine make you retarded or something', to which Yamamoto responded with another cheesy grin.

"I'm dizzy, not handicapped, you moron." Gokudera snapped. But he took Yamamoto's hand up anyway.

Two: Yamamoto pokes slight fun at Tsuna on the topic of Chrome, and Gokudera plays the obsessive loyal role before Ryohei arrives.

"You're safe, boss." Chrome whispered quietly.

"Yeah." Tsuna smiled. The response he received was a shy nod accompanied by a flicker of a smile, before she slipped away. Gone like the mist.

"Geez, I don't think she spoke to any of us. Hey, Tsuna, seeing as you've got so much attention as a playboy—" Yamamoto began, but Tsuna was quickly whisked away by one Gokudera Hayato. Who was now pulling him away from Yamamoto's reach, with every step or movement Yamamoto tried to make.

"Hey, heyyyyy. What's with this monopolizing?"

"You had all the fucking time in the world back there – and besides, who said you could push him? He's delicate, you idiot!" Gokudera yelled at Yamamoto, before frantically turning his attention to Tsuna, from straightening the lapels of his jacket to brushing off the leaves in his hair. And the dirt on his clothes. "Juudaime, are you alright? You didn't faint or anything back there, right?"

"Delicate?" Yamamoto repeated, appalled. "He's not a kid! Tsuna's a strong guy, he can handle a little roughhousing. Right, Tsuna?"

Before Tsuna could respond, Gokudera replied with the fury of a thousand Ryoheis.

"Roughhousing, my ass!" Gokudera scowled. "That was deliberate! When people wake up, their senses aren't –"

"He's twenty-five, mother hen." Yamamoto grinned cheekily, kicking an irate Gokudera lightly on the shin. His action was promptly rewarded with a broken foot. "Shit! I need that foot!" His outburst was accompanied by a period of prolonged silence before he spoke again, the wheels of his mind turning. "…say, Gokudera, if you get to break my foot, I have to break yours. I've got a competitive nature going on here and if I don't do it now, I'm going to regret it forever."

"Did someone say competitive and regret?" Ryohei roared from his slumbers, breaking the machine. Shouichi stared at what was left of it and sat down abruptly, allowing Spanner to just stare open mouthed, lollipop on his tongue, as the Vongola Sun guardian burned with dying will. "I've slept forever! I'm ready for a fight anytime!"

Gokudera was the first to recover. "You fucking lawn head, nobody was talking to you!"

"Eei, I was under the assumption that someone who resembled an octopus could only eat dirt!"

"What did you say—"

"Octopi eat stuff from the sea, actually." Yamamoto supplied rather helpfully, as Ryohei and Gokudera grabbed the front of each other's shirts and proceeded to beat the crap out of each other with their fists, as men did. He caught Tsuna staring at him in disbelief, and elaborated. "Like crab, fish, lobsters, shrimp…but you know, there was this one time an octopus ate a shark! Sharks usually eat octopi, though, so, kind of like a mouse eating a cat, right?"

…Tsuna didn't know how to respond to that, and thus settled for a neutral answer that was a suitable answer for everything.

"…sure."

As he watched the circumstances unfold, Tsuna didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or just leave them be. Especially not when the people gathered started to place bets, and one way or another, it led to them talking about his underwear.

Wait, what?

Three: How the bets probably came to happen.

"H-hey, Nii-san, Gokudera, could you guys - ?"

"...looks like they're not listening to you, Tsuna-nii. But I wonder who would win?"

"Oh, Haru bets Gokudera will win!"

"Haru, Onii-san's too stubborn. He'll win or he'll die trying, I think, so I don't think Gokudera stands a chance."

"But Kyoko! Gokudera's stupid and hot-headed, and he hits girls! What do you think, Bianchi-san?"

"Both of them will die. And then I need to make sure Hayato eats his vitamins."

"Err...Bianchi, isn't that a bit much...? Eh? Fuuta, what are you-?"

"Tsuna-nii, Gokudera-nii and Ryohei-nii both rank number one in their respected categories, so they'll die if you don't do something."

"Hey, what?"

"Say, that's a good idea, Fuuta! -yo, Tsuna, get in there and stop them, okay? I'm betting on you."

"What?"

"Ha-hi! No fair, Yamamoto! Haru wants to bet on Tsuna too!"

"…I think Tsu-kun would win too, actually. You don't mind if I change my vote to you, do you, Tsu-kun?"

"I'm flattered, w-wait, what? What's going on? Why are you throwing my name around like that?"

"I should build a gundam to commemorate this occasion."

"No way, you build gundams too, Spanner?"

"Listen...I really don't think I should intrude between Nii-san and Gokudera's-"

"Quit the crap, Sawada. Get your ass there and fight like a man."

"Hiiieeeee!"

"See, even your scream is girly! Hasn't changed in ten years."

"I can't help it when you have a gun pointed at my butt."

"Sitting is for losers! Get going."

"H-hey, don't pu-"

Rip.

"...Haru just saw your underwear, Tsuna! Hahiiiiiii, so scandalously shameful! Now Haru will never be married!"

"Don't look, don't look!"

"Tsu-kun, that's really cute...but could you pull your pants back up...?"

"Hahaha, look, ducks!"

"WHOA! Those are some pretty EXTREME ducks! They're an extreme yellow! Very hip, Boss!"

"Don't worry, Tsuna, I wear underwear with baseball on it."

"Damn bastard, don't you make fun of Juudaime's underwear like that! His is a thousand times cooler than yours!"

"True, true. Where does Tsuna buy them?"

"Can we not talk about my underwear?"