Tsuna chuckled as he stepped into his house and slipped off his shoes. Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto were forever engaged in a one-sided argument. It used to bother him, but now he realized it was just part of Gokudera's nature. It had nothing to do with deep rooted hate or anger.

Besides, the regular arguing made today feel more normal. He'd woken up with a bad feeling in his stomach and, though he tried to ignore, it wouldn't go away. He hoped and prayed it wasn't his hyper intuition. Maybe he'd just eaten something spoiled. But of course, that was impossible, since he only ate what his mother made him, and she would never make something bad.

"Kaa-san," the brunet called out, searching for his mother. He moved towards the kitchen, where he heard movement. It made sense that his mother would be in there. It seemed like she was always cooking.

He did not, however, expect the bowls, trays, piles and slabs of food that seemed to cover every flat surface in the room. His mother was humming along to some love song so old it was no longer played on the radio. She stood mixing some sort of batter for even more food.

"Welcome home, Tsu-kun!" she greeted him, not seeming to realize she was doing something unusual.

"What's all this for? Is Dad coming home again?" he questioned, recalling the last time his father had come home and his mother had made a similar feast. As the Decimo considered it, he felt more and more certain that was the cause of all this extravagance.

"Nope," the brunette's mother replied, stumping him. His brow furrowed in thought, as he tried to think of another suitable excuse. He failed, and only managed to get the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach squirming.

"Then… why?" he asked, slightly worried.

"Because, Tsu-kun! The most wonderful thing has happened!" At her words the squirming stopped. Suddenly it felt like a huge rock had been dropped in his stomach.

"Oh yeah?" he prompted, though he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew what was so great for his mother and so bad for him. A slow kind of suffocating panic was beginning to spread.

"Your big brother is coming home!" The fact that he'd been expecting it didn't lighten the blow. It still felt like he'd been hit by a truck, unable to jump out of the way fast enough. "Aren't you so excited?" she asked him, finally turning around to see his reaction to their conversation.

"O-of course," he muttered, forcing his face into a fake smile. "I'm overjoyed. I just can't believe it."

His mother giggled, not seeming to notice her younger son going to pieces behind her. "Well, it's true!" she exclaimed gleefully. "He'll be here sometime this weekend!" Suddenly her eyes seemed to go misty as she reminisced. "When I first had Bya-kun I never expected to have a large family. But now look at us! With you, and Lambo, Ipin, and Fuuta this house is always so full." She paused to giggle again. "In fact, it's so full we've run out of rooms. You and your brother will have to share again, just like old times. Isn't that great!" she exclaimed, spinning around again to view her youngest son.

She blinked in confusion as she realized Tsuna was no longer there. In fact, he had left a long time ago. The spatula she'd been holding had been raised up in excitement, but now it dropped to her side. A sad smile took control of her features.

"Tsu-kun," she whispered to the air. "I know you two didn't get along that great, but please… give it a chance."

Upstairs in his room Tsuna, sat with his head between his knees, hyperventilating in panic. Byakuran would be there, at the latest by Sunday. That gave him less than four days to prepare himself.

He'd known this day would come. He and Reborn had discussed it, and he had been assigned a mission from the Ninth. He was to act as if nothing had changed since he had last seen his older brother, as if he was still the same old Dame-Tsuna*, that had no choice but to do everything his nii-sama said.

The Ninth's theory was that if Tsuna made his brother feel like he had power and was still the favorite of the family, then he wouldn't resort to any more extreme methods of gaining power. Tsuna would be able to prevent the scuffle with the Millefiore in the future and in that way protect his family better than anyone else could.

However, in order to do that, it would mean going back to the hell that used to be his life. The day his father realized that something was amiss with his step son and 'recommended' he attend a faraway boarding school had been the happiest day in his miserable life. Once he was gone, Tsuna had been elated that he could live the normal life of a teenager with no secrets.

When Reborn came, he had been even happier. He had made friends and learned to defend himself. Thoughhe was no longer normal and he'd resumed keeping secrets, he was happier than he'd ever remembered being. He'd never imagined he'd returned to his old life, andyet, there he was, preparing himself for Byakuran's arrival.

No, he corrected himself. Byakuran-sama's arrival.

Reborn suddenly appeared out of nowhere, eyeing his student with something akin to disgust.

"Pull yourself together. You agreed to this."

"It's for the family," Tsuna replied. "I'm doing this for my friends." He tried to convince himself that it was worth it. He would save so much pain if he could change the future completely. He could do this. After all, it's not like it could be much worse than what he used to live through. And how long would Byakuran stay anyway? Probably not very long.

Tsuna tried to calm himself down with statements like these, and slowly but surely his breathing began to even out and his heart rate slowed.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell them?" Reborn asked yet again.

Tsuna looked up sharply, his eyes piercing into Reborn's. He'd been asked this again and again. Reborn continually tried to convince him to confide in his family. But he wouldn't force him, because this was something that truly needed to be Tsuna's decision.

"Of course I'm sure," he hissed, repeating what he'd told Reborn in when they were trapped ten years in the future . "I'd rather die than admit I'm related to that monster." And it was the truth, because that was what Tsuna viewed that man as. He was a cold blooded, heartless monster. And Tsuna had the misfortune of being his half-brother.

*Dame-Tsuna~ Tsuna's nickname. It means No-good Tsuna.

Okay, so, new project here.

So a couple things I want to say:

1. Let's have a big round of applause for my awesome beta reader: Mari Ferolla!

by my close personal friend:XxSecretStoriesxX

So this is... going to be a sad-ish story, where I'm going to try my damn best not to make anyone ooc, but who knows?

Also this'll be updated weekly hopefully.

Last thing: Of course I enjoy reading reviews just like any other author.