Summary: "The Vongola is my life, and Juudaime is my reason for living." Gokudera birthday fic. One-shot. Drabble. 8yl. Mild 5927, could be considered friendship.

SkyGem: Hey y'all! I've just survived my first week of school! Yay~ But you have no idea how terrible it is! We actually got homework on the second day! And a lot of it too! Kami, how I miss summer. Anyways, enough with my whining. I must finish this fic that you all are waiting to read...then I really need to finish writing the next chapter of RaF already. I promise, it'll be updated tomorrow, most likely sometime in the morning (EST). Well, let's move on to the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.

Gokudera was on his way to the store, running an errand for Tsuna, when he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

"Hayato!" called a female voice, just seconds before the silverette was tackled by something small and soft.

"Isabella," he said in a mildly surprised voice, looking down at the girl; she was about half a head shorter than him with long, curly black hair and pale blue eyes.

"Hi!" she said cutely, tilting her head back for a kiss.

The normally prickly storm guardian merely chuckled and dipped his head down to capture her lips for a quick second.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I was on my way to the mall to meet my friends when I saw you, so I decided to come say hi. What are you up to?"

"Running an errand for Decimo," he said with a small smile on his face.

When she heard this, Isabella's face dropped a little bit. It was that smile again; she hated that smile, because it was never meant for her. Isabella truly loved her boyfriend, and it hurt when all he seemed to care about was his boss. It was always Decimo this or Decimo that. Whenever he was talking about the brunette, he always seemed so happy and so completely devoted; it made her feel lonely.

Seeing the change in her expression, Gokudera frowned a little. "Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"I don't get it," she said. "Why do you love the guy so much?"

Instantly, Gokudera went into fanboy mode. "Why shouldn't I? Decimo is perfect! He's strong and kind and he even went out of his way to save the life of someone as unworthy of myself! I will follow him forever!"

"But that's only because he's your boss," said Isabella, trying to reason with her boyfriend. "If he weren't Vongola Decimo, I bet you wouldn't give him a second glance!"

"Of course I would!" said Gokudera with a tight expression. "The fact that he's Vongola Decimo doesn't mean everything. I, and the other guardians, would still follow him to the ends of the earth even if he were penniless and powerless (god forbid). "

"I don't believe you!" said Isabella. Then, after a slight pause, she looked her boyfriend in the eye. "Leave them."

Gokudera was dumbfounded when he heard what she had said. "What?" he asked.

Isabella couldn't take it anymore and broke down crying. "He's the reason that you're always fighting, because of him, your life is constantly in danger, and yet, you still take his side!" she shouted, not caring that she was making a scene. "Why?" she asked. "Why is he the one you're always thinking about when I'm the one that's always beside you? I'm the one that cares about you the most! I'm your girlfriend! Why don't you ever look at me?"

When next he spoke, Gokudera's voice was cold. "We're through," he said curtly.

When she heard this, Isabella looked up in shock. "W-what?" she asked. When she looked into her (ex) boyfriend's eyes, she shuddered; they were so cold.

"Isabella, it's not just because Decimo saved my life that I follow him; it's because he welcomed me not only into his Family, but also family. He gave me a place to belong when before, I had none," said the silverette, an affectionate smile coming onto his face despite his anger. The next second, the smile was gone, and his face was emotionless as he continued. "No matter whom I might fall in love with now, or in the future, Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi, will always be my top priority, and I can't love anyone who doesn't feel the same." And with that, the storm guardian turned and stalked away in the middle of a stark silence.

Those in the crowd who had been watching threw Isabella sympathetic glances, but none made a move to comfort her. They all knew how close the Vongola Family's tenth generation was, and nobody was really shocked at the scene they had just witnessed; Hayato Gokudera was just that kind of man, and it was Isabella's fault for not knowing that.

By the time Gokudera arrived back at the Vongola mansion, he had practically forgotten about the woman who had, until just a few hours ago, been the third most important thing in his life.

Carrying the newly dry-cleaned suit he had been sent to fetch carefully in his arms, the silverette opened the door with one hand, then turned to head to Tsuna's office, where he assumed the brunette would be at this point in time.

As he passed by the doorway to the living room, Gokudera noted, with surprise, that a curtain was spread across the opening, obscuring the room inside from view.

His curiosity getting the better of him, he stepped forward and pulled the curtain aside and-

"SURPRISE!" shouted a room full of people, and Gokudera almost got a heart attack from the shock.

The living room had been decorated with various colourful birthday decorations, but also some black balloons with skulls on them adorning the walls. There were huge banners that said "Happy Birthday" in colours ranging from pink and orange to black and white. In the middle of it all sat a huge, three layered cake that was just as colourful as the rest of the room with tiny, candy dynamites poking out here and there. On the side of the cake, drawn in icing were chibi versions of him and the other seven guardians.

"W-what is all this?" he asked in a confused voice, eyes roving over the occupants of the room, a few of which included all seven other guardians, the Varia, some CEDEF members, Dino and some of his subordinates from the Chiavarone Family, and even Nana and the girls.

Tsuna, who had been standing in the middle, laughed and came up to him, saying, "Hayato, could you have forgotten your own birthday?"

"Birth…day?" asked the silverette in a shocked voice; of course he hadn't forgotten the day he would be turning twenty-two, but he had no idea that the others would have planned him this party. I mean, sure, it happened every year, but it never failed to surprise him that there were people in this world that would actually celebrate his birth.

"You better be grateful to the EXTREME!" shouted Ryohei from where he was standing. "We've been planning this for weeks, squid head!"

"Haha, sempai is right," laughed Yamamoto. "A lot of work went into this!"

"Kufufu, that's right," said Mukuro with his creepy signature laugh. "Even my sweet Chrome helped, so you enjoy yourself, or else."

"Hn," said Hibari, looking away. Gokudera was shocked that the bloodthirsty, crowd-hating prefect hadn't fled the room already.

"You better not make all of Lambo-sama's hard work be in vain," said the lightning guardian, using a Japanese honorific despite the fact that he was speaking Italian.

"Who would be grateful to you?" shouted Gokudera at his fellow guardians (excluding chrome and Tsuna). Despite his loud voice, there was a slight hint of pink on his cheeks, and his eyes sparkled with joy.

After that, there was eating and partying, and by the time midnight rolled around, everyone had practically just fallen asleep right where they were, with Chrome curled up at Mukuro's left side and Chikusa on his right, with Ken's head in the other boy's lap. Yamamoto and Ryohei had fallen asleep beside Ryohei, who had an arm wrapped protectively around his little sister. Even the Varia had collapsed together in a heap with Xanxus in the middle, looking, for once, completely different from the bloodthirsty murderers they were.

Gokudera was the only one still conscious, and he had gone out onto the balcony for a cigarette.

As the silverette rested his chin on his palm, looking up at the moon, there was a peaceful expression on his face.

Suddenly, the man heard the sound of quiet footsteps and slowly turned around to see his best friend and leader standing behind him.

"Hey, Gokudera-kun," said the brunette, ditching the Italian language in favor of his mother tongue.

"Hello, juudaime," said Gokudera, performing a slight bow in the direction of the brunette.

Tsuna was quiet for a moment, his expression calculating. When he opened his mouth to speak, these were the words that came out, "Did you have fun?"

At that moment, he bore witness to a most rare event. Gokudera's mouth stretched into a happy, completely unguarded smile, one that even Tsuna had only rarely seen.

"Of course, juudaime," breathed out the other man.

Tsuna returned a dazzling smile. "That's good," he said. Then, after a slight pause, "I'm sorry…"

This confused Gokudera. "Sorry?" he repeated. "What for?"

Tsuna looked up at him with guilt-stricken eyes. "You and Isabella broke up, didn't you?"

Gokudera was shocked when he heard these words come out of the younger male's mouth; his boss's hyper intuition could be kind of scary at times…

Letting out a sigh, he looked Tsuna straight in the eyes and said in a perfectly serious voice, "I'll tell juudaime the same thing I told her. No matter who I fall in love with, and how much I love them, juudaime will always, always, be most important."

Tsuna looked somewhat relieved when he heard this. "It's the same for me, you know," he said. "You, and everyone else in my family will always be most important to me, and nothing will ever change that."

Gokudera smiled a little shyly, then stepped forward and got on one knee in an overly formal gesture of respect. Taking Tsuna's hand, he kissed his Vongola ring, then looked up at his longtime friend with a smile that was halfway mischievous and halfway serious.

"The Vongola is my life, and juudaime is my reason for living."

SkyGem: Well, I realize that in some places it may already be the tenth of September, but here in Canada, it's still the ninth, so technically, this isn't late XD. Anyways, please do leave a review and tell me what you thought, ne? Haha, and to those who think Gokudera in this fic seems a little too extreme in his dedication to Tsuna, well, I like the close relationship he and Tsuna share, and I don't like to think of any girl trying to come between them; this fic is my way of saying that…and of saying happy birthday to my favorite human bomb XD. Well, please do leave a review and tell me what you thought, ne? Oh, and don't forget, RaF will be updated tomorrow, and I'm still debating whether or not to make Meeting the Varia into a mini-series (as quite a few of you requested). Well, that's it for now. Ciao~

P.S. Lately, I'm constantly being violently attacked by multiple plot bunnies and I have no idea what to do…a lot of them are really interesting, and I want to get started on them like right away, but I can't, since I have too many ongoing fics already...but, I do have an idea. So far, I have seven plots for long term fics, and they seem pretty interesting, so I was wondering; if I were to post one of them on here, as a challenge, would any of you be interested in joining? Like, how it would work would be that I would post the summary and the first chapter on my account, then you can all take it wherever you want to from there (I'd be posting my own version sooner or later, too). How does it sound? 'Cause if no one wants to do it, I won't even bother…