A/N: Whelps! How long was I out? Thanks for hanging in there with me! Hahaha omg... anyway! Here's the update after a while! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR

Warning: age/plot twists from the cannon, writing

Hopeful

"A bit of adulation, a bit of courage. A bit of fear and a bit of curiosity. That's how I feel about you."
- anonymous

Previously…

The world seemed to stay still for one, two seconds, waiting for what's going to happen next. Even the boss of the robbers and Primo either, waited. To their shock, the group of men was sent flying instead, and there stood Tsuna—with his eyes unwavering and the flame on his forehead flickered strongly. His fists clenched, "Come."

The blue eyes widened for a quick second before it turned amused. A smile spread on his face, as he once again prepare for an attack, "Let's do it then."

As soon as the words registered in their minds, adrenaline took over and action quickly set in. The thugs did not bother to wait, as they suddenly have knives and hard, thick, sticks on their hands. And the brunette that looked weak and squeaky seconds ago has turned into someone completely reliable and looked like just appeared from some manga.

Tsuna avoided a direct speedy punch from one of the guys with the sharp eyes. He ducked and the gloved hand whizzed above his head. There's a serious frown on his face, as he thought about avoiding some spots on the opponents, not wanting them to be killed or something. He didn't have a brief second to see anything besides what's in front of his eyes, but in one split certain second, he caught a glimpse of the blonde, who's strangling another man's neck—the blonde didn't look too happy either, but his blue eyes had met with Tsuna's gaze too, and for a moment, he thought that the blonde's finding it exciting.

Well, it is exciting.

Tsuna almost smirked. Not that he liked to hurt people, regardless of what they've done, but fighting with someone you respected—and knew that they're much stronger and reliable than him—was certainly a new sensation to him. Of course, Xanxus, Enma, Byakuran, and some others he had ever teamed up with, but Giotto was different. Like, when he fought alongside with Reborn, there's a funny feeling that make what he's doing is exciting, even if it's fighting.

"Ngh!" Tsuna grunted when he landed a clean punch in his opponent's chest, knowing it's a bad place to strike. The battle wasn't as long as it's described—it's only a short two, maybe three, minutes, with the police standing dumbfounded on the sides, the ladies covering their mouth with their hands, the man shook their heads bewilderedly, while the kids showed the same expression as if they're watching a superhero movie at Sunday mornings.

Tsuna looked at his right and saw Giotto knocked the man down into the ground, erupting some painful moans. He also turned at Tsuna, and nodded with a smile. Tsuna wanted to nod too, with a smile, if not interrupted by a girl's cry.

"Tsuna-kun!" the orange-head girl immediately lunged herself towards the brunette, whose flames just died down. Now it's his cheeks that were heating up with the color of red.

"K-Kyoko-chan!" Tsuna gulped, but his hormones immediately came to an abrupt stop, when he heard the soft sob by his ears. And he thought that the sound of Reborn's gun was the worst that had ever come by. He looked over her shoulders and saw Ryohei who smiled and stood on his feet firmly. Kyoko's white jacket was wrapped around his arm as if it's a thick bandage, and Tsuna just realized how distracted he was with the fight that he didn't notice Kyoko tending Ryohei just now. His eyes spotted the blue on her arm. "A-are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine," Kyoko said as she released her hold. She smiled and it lit her teary eyes, "Thank you, Tsuna-kun. It's all thanks to you."

"Umm, ah-" he looked around. "It's all thanks to Giotto-san! He's the one who jumped in and saved me, too."

Somewhere in the crowd, Reborn shook his head, marveling how stupid his disciple can be. Giotto's blue eyes widened, before it calmed again the next second; too quick for Tsuna to even realize they're changing. There's a friendly smile on his face as he shook his head, "It's fine. I'm glad that I could help at all. You seem fine doing things on your own."

The brunette gulped. He was fascinated by the way Giotto spoke, now that he paid attention (he didn't know if Giotto was true Japanese or was an Italian, but his accent was not as awkward as he imagined to be. It was a bit foreign-ish, but was still fluent and quite normal) but he was more preoccupied with Giotto's compliment just now.

"Well… I would've been beaten to pulp if you hadn't jumped in," Tsuna said politely. He was in clouds to be praised by someone he respected so much, but right now he's in a difficult position and was too distracted.

"I highly doubt that," Giotto smiled almost meaningfully. The sound of polices running around to chain down the thieves were blending into the background. Neither he nor the blonde look bothered by the attention the crowds paying them.

"Juudaime!" by the time Tsuna realized the speaker, two firm hands already appeared and gripped his arms as if intending to squeeze it like a sauce bottle. The silverette, Gokudera, enough to define the word 'worry' by his eyes alone. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Damn those punks for doing that to you! But that was such a good fight, Juudaime!"

There's a mix of concern and happiness on his face that's equally strong that Tsuna didn't know which is true. Tsuna, first, calmly (but almost failing) trying to pry the hands from his slowly-hurting arms—but wasn't aware that Giotto's watching them with a sense of caution. "I-I'm fine, Gokudera-kun, thank you."

"You sure?" now it's Yamamoto who asked. Tsuna nodded as an answer. It took a less of effort than to convince the baseball-star than the silverette that he's way out of harm.

"Baka-Tsuna, you could've done it faster," Reborn merely commented and Tsuna sighed. 'Well, thanks,' he mentally answered, but just shrugged. Reborn took full notice of Giotto's slow change of expression, and the fact that now he's starting to look worried didn't escape the hitman. But that only added his amusement. His black eyes glinted with mischief. "Thank you for helping my idiot student."

Giotto looked startled, maybe by the fact that Reborn's a magically-fluent-talking baby? Or by the fact that the baby just claimed that he's a teacher? Or by the chance that the boy who fought like a professional just now was taught by a baby? Maybe, all of them were correct. Still, Giotto nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Your welcome," he said.

Reborn smirked. "This is my student, Sawada Tsunayoshi, by the way, but you can just call him 'dame-Tsuna'."

"H-hey!"

"And they are Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi," Reborn tilted his head toward the two teens, who also befallen by awkwardness. "And that is Sasagawa Ryohei and his sister, Sasagawa Kyoko."

"Nice to meet you," Giotto bowed slightly. All the names mentioned glanced at each other, then responded with a slow bow too.

"N-nice to meet you too…"

Tsuna swore he saw the cat-like smirk on Reborn's face widened, and immediately shivered. "You look pretty surprised; did our appearance remind you of someone?"

'HE SAID IT!' the four teen boys screamed out in their mind. There's a look of surprise on Giotto's face, yes, which sent Tsuna panic and mad at Reborn at the same time. Why the hell did he said that?

Surprisingly, what Tsuna heard was Giotto's chuckle. "Well, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto-kun, and Sasagawa-kun actually looked like a few of my friends." He explained, shrugging. "But judging from their names, it doesn't seem like they're related."

Gulp. Maybe.

There's puzzle on his face when he saw the twitching smile on the blonde's face. "… My name is Giotto, by the way. But it seemed like you don't need me to tell you huh?"

Tsuna's facial expression remained completely blank for a few seconds before it contorted to a horror-stricken one. His hands spontaneously jolted in realization, 'Ah...!' now he's literally sweating. 'I unconsciously said his name during the fight~!'

"I-I… umm..." Tsuna's brown orbs look around to find a good excuse, but unfortunately, he's not exactly the master, plus in panic, it created a senseless effort. They could almost saw spirals in his eyes, literally. Gokudera shot an encouraging look; Yamamoto just smiled nervously at his friend, while Ryohei bit his lips with clenched fists. Kyoko stood still but apprehensive, knowing that her friends weren't acting like they used to.

And of course, who's going to save the day? Sparta Reborn.

A swift kick landed on Tsuna's face, a normal thing for him really, which sent him off to the ground with a yelp. Reborn dusted himself professionally, ignoring the befuddled gazes from every direction. He snorted, "Baka-Tsuna, you shouldn't act so disgraceful in front of your senior."

'Senior?!' the boys gaped.

"Senior?" Kyoko gasped lightly.

"…?" Giotto raised an eyebrow.

"Reborn!" Tsuna tried to look as if he's furious—but even if he's furious, it's obviously failing. What was that kick for—and most importantly, why did he gave useless hints to the first Vongola boss?! Shouldn't they keep it a secret like they vowed to minutes ago?

"What?" Reborn shot a look as if provoking his pupil to say otherwise. Tsuna gulped but his eyes showed a rare stubborness of annoyance and frustration, but he knew better. He knew that he got that look, it's almost he'll end up in a peculiar situation. So, Tsuna shut his lips, already picking up the fact that the infant had something on his sleeves and that he had better not know about until the right time.

"Well, if that's true, I must apologize for not remembering your name," Giotto said in a very casual tone and surprisingly offer a hand towards Tsuna, who was still sitting on the ground. The brunette looked more than surprised—and confused, but he took the offer out of politeness.

"T-thank you."

"Excuse me fellows," an adult's voice, belonging to a fat, middle-aged cop, spoke. He was not there minutes ago, Tsuna thought. He has a thick mustache but a kind smile as he lifted his hat politely, "I'm sorry to interrupt your chat, but can the three of you come with me for a second?"

The black eyes were directed toward Kyoko, Giotto, and Tsuna himself. The hair on his body stood when those curious eyes landed on him. The only thing that made him jumped to the eventful incident was because of Kyoko-chan. He certainly didn't want to be involved with police or criminals. Kyoko also looked nervous; he saw her stood behind Ryohei.

"If you need information for what happened, I can tell you all about it in details sir."

Giotto's calm voice pierced the atmosphere. Pairs of eyes looked his way but he's not even budging. Tsuna could feel his pupils widened in an unknown feeling—was it respect or admiration or gratefulness? Maybe all three. He watched Giotto and the cop walked somewhere a bit far from them, where they couldn't hear the conversation.

A pang of guilt and shame immediately ate him alive. What was he doing? He should've gone, or at least accompany Giotto, but he didn't. In fact he shoved this whole matter to Giotto when the latter just happened to help him. Damn, was it really alright for him to be Giotto's successor?

"He could take care of himself, even without you worrying him," Reborn, on Yamamoto's shoulder, said with a smirk.

Tsuna bit his lips nervously, but then sighed and nodded. He didn't even have the will to complain about the infant reading his mind again. "I know."

"More importantly, baka-Tsuna, you did very poorly just now; what if Giotto finds out the truth because of your stupidity?" Tsuna honestly thought he heard something snapped within him.

"You're the one who almost blew our cover, Reborn!" Tsuna almost shouted, but it came in a harsh whisper. "Why do you have to deliberately point out our similarities? And why did you say that he's my senior? That was totally ridiculous—only an idiot would get fooled!"

"Maa, maa, calm down Tsuna," Yamamoto laughed sheepishly. "It's not that bad right? Looks like Giotto-san haven't figured it out yet, either."

"Hmph, as if, baseball-idiot," Gokudera crossed his arms. "That Vongola Primo isn't dumb."

"Well…" Yamamoto scratched the back of his head.

"Oi, here he comes!" Ryohei warned when he saw Giotto nodded to the cops and bowed slightly. Their poker face resurfaced and Tsuna hoped that his annoyance wasn't left behind in his face. They watched him about to go over to their place again, when just then, a too-familiar voice called out a too-familiar name.

"Oi, Giotto!" two males quickly approached at the scene. "Tch, where the hell have you been?"

"Ahaha, we've thought that you'll be involved with such a big commotion," the other said with a light laugh.

There's a big smile on Giotto's face—

While Tsuna and the other froze in their place.

Oh no. Just no.

Time skip

"Hmph, I've figured such a thing happened," the pink-haired grumbled. Giotto laughed weakly at the response.

"Ahaha, looks like you always find a way to get into trouble, Giotto," the other, with clean and proper Japanese dress said. "Well then, we'll have to thank you for helping our friend here."

"I-it's… no, G-Giotto-san was the one who helped us," Tsuna pointed out a bit shakily when mentioning the name Giotto. Yamamoto nodded nervously. Gokudera chose to stay silent.

"Oh I see," there's a smile on his face, as if he understood the whole situation already. "By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves have we? I'm Asari Ugetsu, and this is G."

G nodded his head, almost catching the younger teens in surprise. Wow, and the last time they saw him, he was not the type to be so nice.

"We…" Tsuna cleared his throat. "I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"… Gokudera Hayato."

"I'm Yamamoto Takeshi."

"Sasagawa Ryohei!"

"Nice to meet you," Ugetsu bowed, unlike the rest of them earlier, deeply. They just followed suit awkwardly, and judging from their reactions, even the trio knew that they're hiding something. Hm. Well, not that it matters. "Anyway, we're sorry, but we're gonna have to snatch Giotto with us now."

"Where are you going?" Yamamoto, the one who always adapt faster than the others do, asked. Asari smiled and shrugged lightly.

"Well, we'll just look around for the moment."

"D-do you have a place to stay for the night?" this time, the timid Tsuna asked. At this, the three older figures looked at him and shot him a questioning look. Tsuna didn't even realize that he shouldn't know about their home or situation...

"Hm, we'll figure something out; it's not like it's the first time that we came to a foreign country, so it's okay," Giotto explained a bit awkwardly, wondering if they looked as foreign and clueless as a lost tourist did until a stranger had known they hadn't have a place to stay for the day. On the other hand, a sense of worry has been relieved from his caramel eyes, but Tsuna wanted to say otherwise—oh, if only Giotto could come to his house and have a talk! There are mountains that he wanted to tell his senior—from his relationship with Cozart Shimon, about Daemon, the Vongola nowadays, and Vongola in the past.

If Tsuna wasn't so distracted, he would've noticed the smirk grew on his tutor's face.

"Hn, you don't need to go into such trouble, you know," Reborn said with that annoying (in Tsuna's honest opinion) tone. "You can stay at our houses."

Tsuna blinked. "Eh?"

"What!" Gokudera shrieked in both dismay and surprise. G, too, almost twitched, not liking the idea either. Especially when his friend, Asari Ugetsu, kept nudging him in the elbow, sprouting some supposedly-interesting stuff about their appearances. He tried to be not bothered by it—some people can look pretty similar with complete strangers sometimes—but the fact that he's meeting his own copy was still strange.

"How is it? Not a bad idea isn't it? You can save money from renting a room, too," Reborn promoted. Giotto looked unsure, and so did G, but Asari looked more than ready to accept the offer—the happy-go-lucky guy can be serious sometimes, but most of the times, well, he's just go with the flow. Besides, the people in front of him looked friendly and somehow familiar. Although the one called 'Yamamoto Takeshi' really was quite similar with him…

"Well, it's certainly true…" Asari smiled, but was more like directed towards Yamamoto than Reborn. Yamamoto, likewise, also smiled at him with genuine curiosity and friendship. There's something inside him that told him they're gonna match easily—duh.

"… Are you sure we're not intruding?" Giotto asked, glancing at G, too, who shrugged.

"It's not a bother at all—our house has as much as freeloaders anyone can have already," Reborn said matter of fact, which brought Tsuna to sweat-drop, 'And whose fault is that?'

"But I think it's still a bit inappropriate for us to suddenly stay in your house," Giotto smiled politely. A normal behavior of a stranger, but to Tsuna, the man in front of him was not a stranger.

"It's fine, Giotto-san!" Tsuna half-exclaimed. "My mother doesn't mind and she always prefers the house to be crowded anyway."

"My place also has quite a big free space, so my house is okay too," Yamamoto laughed. Both Giotto and Asari looked as if they have begun to consider the idea, but not G and Gokudera.

"M-my place is an apartment," Gokudera explained a bit timidly and G snorted.

"I don't have any intention to stay at your place anyway," he scoffed. Gokudera looked a bit flushed but there's an obvious irritation in the way he's sending a glare at G as well. Anyone who saw them would've thought that they're brothers. Although G did look a lot more mature than Gokudera. Tsuna was a bit terrified by the way things are evolving between the two supposedly storm guardians and backed a little. G turned to Giotto, "Then I'll find a place to stay for tonight."

"Are you sure, G?" Giotto asked. His tone thick with guilt and worry.

"Yeah, you know who I am," G smirked reassuringly. "Me aside, what about Knuckle and Daemon? And that Alaude?"

"Ah, now that you mentioned it I haven't met them yet since hours ago," Giotto said and received a sigh.

"Well we did encounter them earlier," G shrugged. "And to answer your concerns, it seems like they don't need our help to find a place to stay."

"Ahaha, naturally," Asari commented. Both Tsuna and Yamamoto also share a silent laugh at each other, finding how similar they were. Which make him marveled the fact that his generation and Primo's were actually much more alike than he used to think. On the other part of the group, Ryohei's eyebrows furrowed slightly. It was palpable that he's disappointed that he couldn't meet Knuckle.

"Hn, then shall we go?" asked Reborn.

"Why? It's still so early," Tsuna turned and look at his tutor, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, we'll need to inform Mama and the others right?"

"Oh, I see," Tsuna nodded. A strange little part of him thought that Reborn's only coming up with lies. But he had long learnt not to argue with Reborn.

"We better get going soon too," Yamamoto said, nodding at Gokudera, who threw his gaze away. Asari nodded and chuckled lightly, nudging G once again, which erupted a grunt.

"Then… see you later."

With Tsuna and Giotto…

Tsuna thought that he would be in an awkward walk to his house, with nothing to talk about with the blonde whom he has great respect for, and in fact…

He is.

Tsuna was walking with his head bowed down slightly, as to distract himself by looking at the stones and pebbles underneath his feet. Beside him was Giotto, who was walking just as quiet as him as well. In fact, the only sign that showed his presence was the sound of his shoes stepping on the hard ground firmly. Even Reborn didn't utter a single word. But judging from Reborn's attitude, he was guessing that the infant was urging him to start the conversation all on his own without any help.

Tsuna sighed. Actually there were so many things he wanted to ask. Especially about Daemon and Cozart. He wanted to tell his ancestor that he really respected his friendship with the Shimon-boss and was very sad to know that their relationship has to be separated by his own guardian. But then, he, too, had already forgiven the first-mist-guardian. He couldn't promise to react normally when he meet the actual person though.

"N-nee, Giotto-san…" Tsuna muttered absentmindedly. Giotto 'hmm'-ed, and Tsuna could feel the older teen's eyes turned at him. "U-umm, I'm sorry that I dragged you into trouble just now."

"What? Oh, that?" Giotto laughed a little. "You're still mauling over that? It's perfectly fine. All's well that ends well."

Tsuna smiled. He did say that earlier, but when he personally say it to him… he didn't know why, but he feel so reassured. Every problem now was in the back of his mind. "Giotto-san, do you have a sibling?"

The blonde shook his head. "You?"

"No," he said. "But I have some people that can relate to that term, so I guess it's just the same with having one. Or two."

Giotto chuckled and Tsuna thought he heard Reborn scoffed beside his ear. "Well, I also have some people who are like brothers to me, so it's not that I don't understand that feeling."

"Oh…" Tsuna hoped that he did not gulp. "Y-you mean G-san?" And Shimon Cozart, as well.

Giotto nodded. "Yeah, is it that obvious?"

Tsuna smiled warily. "I… I got a hunch."

"You've got a good intuition I assume?" Giotto teased—but it only sent shivers on his back. If he didn't know better, Giotto seemed to try prying him to say something wrong. Tsuna tried to muster a laugh, but could only let a weak laugh out of his mouth.

"Yeah… I get that a lot," Tsuna said. And he's not lying. But he didn't need to tell Giotto that he actually inherited the hyper intuition from the blonde. "U-um, Giotto-san, how long will you be staying in Japan?"

"Oh, we're here for a while, maybe a month the longest," Giotto answered. "We came here for a little thingy. But then something came up and we decided to hold it off first."

"O-oh…"

"And by the way, don't call me with '-san', Tsunayoshi," his lips pursed into a smile. "It makes me sound old."

"…!" Tsuna's eyes widened. Something he's always been curious about resurfaced with full-force. "How old are you?"

"I just turned sixteen," Giotto beamed. There was a thud inside of Tsuna's chest. It was his hyper intuition and it didn't feel nice. Like there was something that itched but he didn't know what. Nonetheless, he too, plastered a smile on his face when Giotto smiled. "You?"

"I'm fifteen."

A friendly laugh erupted from the blond. "Then that practically make us the same."

"By the way Giotto," Reborn turned his eyes toward the said person. "Although I mentioned earlier that there are a lot of guests (ahem, freeloaders) in our house, but apparently they're not home at the moment."

"Oh, really?" Tsuna was anxious when he heard the uneasiness on Giotto's voice.

"B-but my mom is always fine with having people stay at our house Giotto…" Tsuna trailed off. "Umm, Giotto… -kun?"

Tsuna watched warily at the unchanging smile on the blonde's face. The word sounded strange even to him and the fact that he prefered to call Giotto with a more polite suffix didn't help things.

"Well, that did not sound as natural as I imagined," Giotto said before laughing. The brunette's lips twitched and a laugh erupted from him too. He was caught by surprise when he felt the bigger hand pat the top of his head. "I have an odd request but how about calling me Giotto-nii instead? You know, I always wanted to be a big brother but G always snatch that role and I'm an only child."

"E-eh? Then…" Tsuna pursed his lips. "G-Giotto-nii?"

Said blonde laughed again. "That'll do."

The hand retrieved from his brown locks and immediately missed the warmth. Tsuna stared at Giotto, who walked a bit ahead of him. He couldn't suppress the smile on his face; he's always curious about having an older sibling—only that he'd always been the big brother for the others instead.

Maybe it's wrong of him to say it, but he's really happy that Giotto's here.

A/N: First off, I'm sooooo sorry for my lack of activity. Meh, daiya no ace took my heart and keep me busy hahahahaha. Anyway! It's not that I have completely forgotten about my obligation and my love in KHR fandom, and I do try to keep up and remember my passion but lately... well, I just feel it slips off my fingers even more TT-TT I'll try not to discontinue my stories- wait, who am I kidding, I WILL NOT discontinue my stories though the plots will change because I might have forgotten about it.

This chapter's actually been finished a few months ago, but I always feel something's off and I always postponed to reread and correct it again. But after a while, I decided to publish this update to motivate and help me remember things. Soooo yeah. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR BEING SO PATIENT! OMG PLEASE BEAR WITH MEEEEEEE!