One year later…

Sweat, sour and sticky, hung in the air with a more suffocating effect than the humidity.

Lambo was gasping, muscles in his arms and legs trembling as he fought to match Ryohei's pace, his eyes wild and wide. Flesh met flesh in one continuous beat after another, echoing off of the walls. Their hearts were synchronized in how frantically they ran.

Finally, Ryohei slipped beneath Lambo's guard and landed him in the chest with a right hook, conclusively ending the boxing match.

Lambo wheezed as he landed on his knees, clutching at the suddenly tight-feeling flesh. Ryohei stood over him, a gleaming white avenger with ferocity in his gunmetal eyes and a fulfilled smirk on his lips. Sweat trickled as beads over his bronze skin, spiky hair drenched to his forehead.

He looked just about as good as he did right after sex. Which might explain how Lambo lost that round. He was so damn horny looking at him like that, it was just… well, it should be illegal.

Ryohei's smirk grew into a gravelly laugh. He lent a hand to the teenager, helping him back to his feet. "What's the score TO THE EXTREME?" He slipped out of the ring and grabbed their water bottles, tossing one to Lambo. He dabbed at his face with a formerly pristine white towel.

Lambo took a long swig of the cool liquid. "1 to 3." He felt smug, despite the fact that he was losing.

Ryohei scowled. "THAT TIME DOESN'T COUNT!"

"My oh my, I never took you for a sore loser, Ryohei~" Lambo cooed, leaning over the ropes to grin cockily at the grouchy fellow.

"I'm not a sore loser! I'm a fair fighter!" He jabbed a finger in Lambo's face, adhesive wrap circling his fingers to the last knuckle. "There are rules against going below the belt!"

"Goodness, I didn't go below the belt… I just kind of went beneath it. Besides, you're not wearing a belt."

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" Ryohei's growl turned into an expression of animalistic glee as Lambo snatched his still pointing finger into his mouth and played with the digit using his tongue. "… Aside from the cheating, you're getting EXTREMELY good at this!" He meant boxing. But he still wiggled the captive finger, almost implying another skill. "Most don't make it to a fourth round with me!"

Lambo hid his chuckle. Hah. Ryohei had just made a sexual innuendo without realizing it. Because if they were talking about it that way… well, his youth plus Ryohei's eccentricity added together with Ryohei's stamina equaled a little more than four.

Though Lambo really sometimes wished it didn't. He liked walking. Hell, he liked being able to move. Then again, Ryohei would give him piggy back rides if he couldn't…

"OI, what's with the grin?" Ryohei eyed him wearily, fully aware that there was more to that smirk than just lust.

"Nmphing." Lambo mumbled around his finger, sliding the digit along his tongue.

Ryohei lifted him right out of the ring and into his arms, pressing him to his adrenaline-fueled hard-on. "Makin' fun of me, aren't you?" He cornered Lambo between his rock-hard body and the boxing ring. His eyes promised a tantalizing form of revenge.

Lambo shivered and arched into Ryohei, a teasing leer playing on his lips. "No, no… I would never make fun of you, Ryohei." Just as he thought he would, Ryohei didn't believe him.

"Let's settle this like LOVERS!" Ryohei howled. "With our BODIES!"

At the end of their sweaty activity, their trunks (Lambo's cow-print and Ryohei's orange) somewhere on the ground with the heady scent of heavy and hot sex hanging in the air, Lambo and Ryohei rested as a tangled mass in the middle of the boxing ring.

Lambo ran his fingers through Ryohei's thick white hair, a gracious smile on his peaceful face. Bruises and small cuts littered his body from his sparring with Ryohei, but he felt like one in a million for sure. Ryohei was still hilt deep inside of Lambo, head resting on the teen's chest as he growled in appreciation to the attention he was being given.

"Mmm, I love you so much…" Lambo purred, tugging affectionately at the feathery tufts.

Ryohei grumbled out a laugh. "And I love you… to the EXTREME!"

The door to the gym opened. "Ryohei, you're – "

It was odd, really, how Lambo could stare at those obsidian orbs and feel only embarrassment for the position he was in and not shame for who he was with. It was strange how he felt safe enough to not wilt and frost beneath his former lover's coldly mute expression.

" – needed by Yamamoto." He rambled off directions to the swordsman's whereabouts with no inflection in his voice, not once taking his eyes off of them. There was no embarrassment in those dead eyes, no shock in having found them in such a predicament.

Ryohei, like Reborn, knew no shame and so didn't bother to even blush at being discovered. Then again, to him, it was most likely becoming a habit (them being found in such conditions) that he had come to accept. First, it had been by Gokudera when they had been having a 'late night snack' in the kitchen; then by Spanner when they had decided that the basement was a wonderful place to get down and dirty; Yamamoto being next when they had been helping him rearrange his room and they hadn't made it any further than Takashi's floor. The list went on, including at least one incident with each guardian and family member.

To date, Lambo had found the time Tsuna and Nana had walked in on him giving Ryohei head – in Tsuna's office – to be the most traumatizing. Nana had laughed it off and Tsuna had told them in a spookily calm voice to please move their activities elsewhere before laughing it off… a few days later.

"GOT IT!" Ryohei gave a thumbs up.

Lambo bit back a moan, slapping his hands over his mouth. Was Ryohei talking about what Reborn had just said or his prostate? Because he had gotten that too!

Ryohei didn't seem to take notice, but Reborn most likely did. His fedora tipped over his eyes. "Then get going." And he left, the door left open behind him.

Lambo felt a pang in his heart for the relationship that had never worked out, much less make either Reborn or him happy. For a moment there, he kind of thought that Reborn was… sad to see him with someone else.

Howbeit, this was Reborn he was thinking about. Was Reborn even human enough to be sad?

Ryohei pressed a good, hard kiss to his lips, apparently deciding that he had time for another round as he began thrusting again.

By the time Ryohei left, Lambo was exhausted and left with a white, sticky mess to clean up. Not including the sticky white mess they had made of him.

He dragged Ryohei's towel over himself, washing away the evidence of their actions with a water bottle. And then he did the same with the boxing ring floor, his cow-print trunks hanging loosely on his hips (Ryohei had stretched them pretty badly in his haste to get them off).

He didn't hear the door open, but years of experience told him he wasn't alone. Years of experience also told him who it was that kept him company.

A year ago, he would have shivered and whimpered for sure. A year later, however, he kept his back to the man, unbothered by his half-naked state and the situation he had been caught in earlier.

He could fend for himself. He wasn't so sure of his abilities against Reborn, but he knew that he could at least give him a run for his money. He had been training like crazy for the past year, determined to be Ryohei's equal in a fight.

Minutes of silence went by, growing thicker by the second. The presence wasn't leaving.

Lambo was getting faintly annoyed. "Goodness, is there something you want to say, Reborn?" He sat back on his haunches and looked back at the hitman. Reborn had taken his post by the shelves of dumbbells across the room from him.

There was a moment where he thought that Reborn was going to glare at him with his damned eyes. In the next moment, he saw Reborn's fingers twitch towards his hidden holster and he changed his earlier assumption to he's going to shoot me. He felt a trickle of fear down his spine because – well – Ryohei hadn't taught him how to use his fists to block bullets.

"He's a good man."

The words startled Lambo. "Huh?"

"I will not repeat myself." Reborn snapped.

"Right… Why do you say that?"

"…" The hitman didn't even deem him with answer. The air was hotwired with the unspoken words floating around the hitman.

Looking at his expression, though, trying to read his body language, Lambo couldn't tell at all what he wanted to say. Did he want to break Lambo again? Did he want to apologize? The latter thought was more terrifying than the first.

Was he going to break out into a smirk and demand to test out Lambo's skill for himself? Would he shoot him right where he stood? The possibilities were endless and the ceaseless scenarios flowing through his mind began to dizzy him.

Reborn didn't speak another word. He stood up from the wall, put his hands in his pockets, and stalked out of the gym with his wordless aura following him.

This time, the door shut behind him. Almost as if in closure. Almost like it was saying the end.

"He's a good man." That had been all he had said.

Well, Lambo already knew that.

However, he mulled over the statement a few dozen more times, trying to figure out why it was important that Reborn point that out to him.

Finally, realization dawned in his eyes. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry, to laugh, or to go crazy. But the more he thought about it, the more it sounded like an apology. "He's a good man." Because Reborn hadn't been a good man. And the hitman knew that. "He's a good man." Almost as if he was telling Lambo without outright saying so that he deserved a good man.

"He's a good man." Reborn's finale and then he had left.

Lambo sighed and ran a hand through his lanky locks, smiling softly to himself. No matter what Reborn meant. Whether he was secretly trying to tell Lambo something or not, the teen was happy anyway.

"He's more than a good man." Lambo murmured into the quiet. "He's my good man." His thunder ring flared with resolve. "And I love him more than I thought I could ever love another."

But love was such a weak word… it wasn't strong enough to define his emotions for the boxer.

"'Don't need to explain it!" Lambo recalled Ryohei's wise words in the cab that day a year ago. "You just need to feel it!"

He pressed a hand to his bare chest, just over his heart. He felt it, alright.

He felt it like a fire.

Author's Note: END

How was it? I hope it was great!