Chapter 10: Three (Unfortunate) Surprises

If there was anything that Conan was embarrassed about it would be because of two things: his mother's public frets and the humiliation of sitting seiza position in front of his friends/company as he receives a lecture. Any other day, he would have said the former; but it seems right now, the latter is more appropriate at this time. Belittling as it was he knew that it would happen sooner or later. It just never occurred to him it would be in this sort of predicament as Ai glared dangerously down at him (looking closely like an angered giant even in her faux-child appearance) with 'Okiya Subaru' not far besides him.

Several minutes ago…

They had arrived at the Kudo house, and entered through the doorway. It was then, that they met face to face with Subaru, Tsuna and Hayato hovering nearby. Conan was surprised to see that the pink haired man still there, but it was not as much as a surprise as it was to the others (excluding Kaito as he seemed to have known, like always).

Heiji and Saguru both blinked, not expecting someone besides the two kids that Conan had described. Ai was weary and very suspicious as she observed her 'test-subject' tense reaction.

Tsuna turned at them with an innocent smile upon seeing them. "I'm glad every one of you decided to come. Now all we need is for my friends to arrive and we can get started."

"I'm going to call and make sure that they didn't forget and still wandering through the mall," Hayato declared to Tsuna, pulling up his cell and wandered down the hall to the kitchen.

"As Hayato does that," the child-boss returned from his worried gaze to his Storm, who was now snapping at the unfortunate person on the other end of the phone ("You freakin'-sword-handling-idiot! What do you mean you lost track of that muscle-headed-idiot!?... You're in the freakin' same department are you not!?... Don't start laughing like this is a joke you bastard! Find him and the others and get to the rendezvous right now!"), "Why don't we have a few things cleared up so that no tension occurs between us."

Conan, understanding what the brunette was inferring, tensed feeling the gaze from the child chemist behind him.

"What do you mean by tension?" Ai coolly asked narrowing eyes tracing from the back of her 'test-subject' to the pinkette who seemed to have followed Conan's example and tried to avoid her gaze. She settled her gaze on her 'test-subject'. "Edogawa-kun…" she pushed dipping the name harshly with the underlying tone of demand.

Kaito, being more informed than he should be (much to the other's displeasure), hunkered down to the chibi-Tantei-kun's height and whispered his agreement, "You lost, Tantei-kun. It's best to spill your guts now before she eats you alive."

"I know that," Conan huffed back his eyes locking with Subaru's for his consent before looking behind him. He winced upon seeing the venomous stare of blue. Swallowing the clogging lump he coughed and explained to her and the other two teen detectives who and why Subaru, or the supposedly dead FBI agent Akai Shuichi, was actually residing in his home and why he didn't say anything about it.

….

Which led to the current predicament: Conan and Subaru/Akai, was seated, seiza position, in front of her, as the others watched the show further back.

And further, further back was Tsuna, trying to calm Hayato down on the other side of the room, still shouting insulting phrases after phrases at the Rain Guardian who was still on the other side of the line laughing them off. Not a single one seemed to stick to the other at all, running down the teen's ears like it was just water, and it was starting piss-off the Storm even more. But they were ignored since they knew nothing other than insults was being thrown with little effect. What was more interesting, were the events that were unfolding in front of them.

"This should be good," Kaito chuckled giddily as he watched his little rival while munching on another packet of popcorn.

"Seriously, Kuroba… where are you stashing all that junk food under?" Saguru asked not interested in the show. "It has barely been 29 minutes and 24 seconds since you ate the first pack."

"What does it matter, just watch 'time-keeper'," Heiji chided grabbing a handful earing a glare from the British teen.

"It was for your own safety Haibara," the child detective explained again, fidgeting under the bystanders and (mostly) Ai's.

"I am considered 'dead' to both the Black Org and the FBI," Akai answered coolly, his olive green dark bagged eyes, looking at her, "And since you refused the protection from Jodie, he…" pointing at Conan, which he glared at since it was placing more tinder under him to enlarge the angered flame already toasting him, "Suggested that I could provide it under a disguise and you unaware of what was going on."

"So," she glared at Conan, tensely looking back, "The whole 'anyone that is a Sherlock's fan can't be bad' comment was the excuse to have my late nee-chan's boyfriend a chance to protect me?"

"Ummm….Yes…?" he timidly answered back.

"If I didn't protect you, how would I face Akemi?" Ai glared at the 'supposed dead' FBI agent for a few minutes before sighing in resignation, not being able to fight back the determined gaze.

"Alright, you win," Conan sighed in relief. "But don't think I will not give you punishment for this, Edogawa-kun."

"Why just me!?" he snapped up.

"You came up with the plan, and did it behind my back, without my consent. So it is reasonable to place all the blame on you."

Conan was about to retort when the bell rang from the front. Hayato already red in the face ran out of the library and went to open the door. Tsuna only sighing and followed (the others trailing after) to make sure Hayato didn't start bombing the arrived company.

"WE ARE EXTREMELY HERE!" a voice bellowed from the first person that entered as everyone but Akai cover their ears. Ryohei's wrapped hands fisted towards the sky in a high cheer with a wide grin on his face.

"Yo, we finally arrived," Takashi greeted nonchalantly putting away the cell to his back pocket and readjusting the bag holding his katana strapped over his shoulder.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Hayato yelled in the same volume as the white headed teen.

"WE ARE EXTREMELY NOT!" the boxer retorted with a frown.

"YES YOU ARE YOU BOXING-IDIOT!" the silverette batted back in his child voice, "I TOLD YOU NO LATER THAN 3 HOURS! IT'S BEEN 3 HOURS AND TEN MINUTES! THAT MEANS YOU ARE LATE!"

"Aww, come on Haya-chan, that's not much…" the swordsman commented.

"AND YOU BASEBALL-IDIOT; DON'T START GIVING ME THE SAME GIRLISH NICKNAME LIKE THAT PINEAPPLE AND FREAKIN' UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR TARDINESS IS BECAUSE YOU LOST THIS IDIOT!" he pointed to the boxer.

"IT WAS AN EXTREME STORE," Ryohei, seeming not to understand what was being said was an insult adding fuel to the firing rage in the bomber.

The detectives, one thief, and scientist looked on at the spectacle not sure what to react. It was strange, even if two of the five members were kid form themselves, to see a child amongst them cursing like no tomorrow and holding his own against two adolescent teens (still Takeshi was laughing it off and Ryohei arguing back in more volume than needed as the child yelled just as much). Kaito seemed to be amused and watched with interest, still munching on popcorn when two other figures appeared at the doorway making him stop immediately.

"Ah, Chrome-san, it is good to see you again!" the thief greeted at the girl as she walked past the ongoing argument and bowed slightly when she was a feet away from the brunette boss.

"I'm sorry boss, I didn't mean to get carried away," she meekly said holding multiple clothing branded stores.

"That's okay, Chrome-chan," Tsuna chirped happily, "You had fun at least right?" She blushed and nodded.

"Tsuna-nii, look at all these sweets!" a nine-year-old boy wearing a cow printed shirt dashed to him, sparkling in delight with just as much bags that were from candy stores and cake shops.

"That's…. quite a lot, Lambo," he eyed the overfilled bags that could probably be from the whole stock in the store, "But remember you can't eat all of them on one day."

"Of course not… Some of it is for you!" Lambo smiled dropping the bags on the floor to retrieve one of them and dangle it in front of the brunette boss, "I even got you your favorite strawberry-short cheesecake!"

At that Tsuna went from cringing to absolutely happiness (everyone sweat-dropped) as he saw the bag containing his sweets, "Eh, really?! Let me-"

"Tsuna! No more sweets!" Ryohei cut in breaking off from his bantering and went straight to gathering all the bags from the boys despite their protest. His extreme and idiotic attitude earlier seemed non-existent, "As a doctor, I am not letting you eat anymore cakes for the rest of the week! Besides you had seven whole cakes before we left!"

"Wow, even I never consume that much before," Kaito, seated on a red armchair, whistled in amazement.

"That much was nothing," Hayato said still a little flustered by the tardiness of his companions as he stood next to the thief. "Two years ago he practically ate three-fifths of our bakery's pastries which is practically the same size as the library in here."

"That's not healthy at all..." Hakuba commented paling, as well as Ai, at the calculated number of sweet confections that could have been placed in a store, let alone a place that matched a warehouse.

"Are ya' kiddin'!" Heiji exclaimed, "Kazuha and nee-chan could never beat that even when we went to that cake buffet. That's a world record!"

"Haha, Tsuna's craving for sugar is probably because of the stress his stacks of paperwork he to constantly read and sign. If I remember correctly," Takashi thought back to the beginning of Tsuna's first term as the boss and recalled the papers overflowing in the office, "Five stacks, consisting of about a thousand each and he had to do it within a day. Every day after, another stack is added to that same amount."

All non-Mafioso's, stared wide eye in shock. That amount of paperwork was crazy. To think that even though it wasn't all legal businesses, the young boss had gone just as much documents as that as a normal corporation would have in two months.

"As I recall, most of those paperwork was bills to multiple cities after someone demolished them to the ground. And might I add that there are more than 10 stacks now?" the brunette commented loudly, somehow hearing over the berating of his Sun Guardian. Many of them flushed, Ryohei silencing after hearing that, and Akai had to shake his head in realizing that the kids he had met hadn't changed one bit.

Smiling at his victory, Tsuna walked towards the detective, plus scientist and magician, "I'm sorry guys but I have two more that need to arrive… so…"

"Kufufufu, there's no need to wait, Tsunayoshi-kun. I am here," a skin crawling presence made it-self known to all as mist accumulated in the corner. Conan almost… note almost… stepped back when he saw the familiar man with blue-ish long hair stepping out of nowhere. Ai blinked, and the others practically jumped upon seeing him and his odd eyes.

"Ah good, you're here Mukuro-kun," the child-boss greeted happily, but turned to see one of the guests had fallen over unconscious. Luckily, or unluckily to him, Hakuba caught the dark skinned teen before he had any major injuries. Ryohei rushed to their side to see if anything else happened, which could be a lot considering anyone can have their hearts stopped if surprised like that. Takashi laughed knowingly, understanding the same reasons. Lambo laughed in hysteria at seeing a grown man, even a detective, faint like a girl. Tsuna sighed, "But next time, try to not scare our guests will you…"

"Oya, oya, if a little illusion is enough to frighten such a man it must mean he isn't that great."

"Can it, pineapple," Hayato said back in argument, "Remember: they are civilians that don't know anything about the dying will flames, or their powers…"

Mukuro was going to comment for the name call but Chrome stepped tapping his arm and shook her head. He chuckled and patted her head, giving her a small kiss on her forehead, "I understand Nagi; But before apologizing… Tsunayoshi-kun." the brunette looked towards him as he pointed at the door with a smile, "I believe Kyoya has arrived… along with… some guests."

And just on cue, the door opened along with three familiar voices making Conan, Akai, Ai, and Kaito snap their heads towards the entrance.

"Alright we finally get to see the inside of the Eto house!"

"Thank you onii-san for letting us in!"

"Umm, don't you think Conan-kun and Haibara-san will get mad at us if they find out we went into this house when they told us not to?"

"So~ as long as they don't hear about it, it's fine!"

"Yeah! Ah, let's go into that room!"

And three pairs of running footsteps, and one slowly paced one came in… and stopped in their tracks.

Conan had to groan after seeing the three detective boys looking at him, Ai, and Tsuna and back again… 'Great, now we are in trouble…'