Author's note at the end of the chapter. See you there ;)

Namimori, Sawada Household

The day after the battle, Tsuna woke up to loud voices coming from downstairs. After a quick glance at the clock which told him it was already past noon, he jumped out of his bed and made his way down the stairs. He was quick to recognize one of the voices as his father's. The other, much quieter was more difficult to discern. It was only when he was halfway down the stairs and the voices had returned to a normal volume that he recognized the second voice. Heart beating fast, he took a deep breath, stopping at the foot of the staircase right next to the sitting room from which the voices emerged.

"Have you patched with him?" was asking Reborn's voice, a tenseness indicating that he was trying to be civil.

A silence ensued.

"Not yet." murmured the much lighter voice. "I haven't…"

The conversation came to an abrupt stop and the sound of quick footsteps was heard. A moment later, a hooded woman stepped out of the room stopping short when her eyes found Tsuna. The two stared at each other frozen as they gazed at their long lost family member.

"Maman." Tsuna finally whispered breaking the spell.

The woman took a hesitant step slowly raising her trembling arms. In one swift movement she dropped to her knees and enveloped the boy in a warm embrace.

"Caelum." she murmured in his ear. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

He shakily returned the hug, smiling despite the lump of emotion that had settled in his throat.

"It's good to see you Maman." he offered feebly after a while.

She did not answer but pressed him closer to her.

Raising his gaze Tsuna caught sight of Reborn silently watching them and he gave the man a watery smile. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes relishing in the rare show of tenderness from the one he considered to be his mother.

The woman he had first known as Viper wasn't exactly one for affectionate gestures or feelings. In the first place, she never did anything unless she was paid for it. Which was one of the reasons why reborn disliked her so. Unfortunately for the hitman, he had had many occasions to work with her in the past, even more so after he had agreed to become an Arcobaleno. It was after one such job that Viper had found out about Reborn's son. It had been a bit hard to hide it from her considering Caelum had been kidnapped, thus making his rescue an inherent part of the job.

Tsuna still had no idea why, but Viper had become a somewhat regular visitor after that. It had been a long time before Tsuna learned that she and Reborn had grown up in the same mafia orphanage and had formed the hypothesis that Viper had been trying to rekindle old sibling bonds with the man. By the time he acquired this knowledge she had already become his mother figure. The one who taught him the importance of money and the best ways to get discounts. The one who sang nursery rhymes for him when he couldn't sleep while Reborn made quips at her intelligence and singing skills.

She was family. She was Maman.

He opened his eyes as he felt the woman draw back. He smiled at her and under the hood, the woman's lips quirked into a smile.

"Well this is all very touching but Viper has something to do. Don't you Viper? So off you go now."

"Papa!"

Namimori Middle School, After school

A few days after his reunion with his mother, Tsuna was walking out of school surrounded by his friends and chatting merrily when he caught sight of an all-too-familiar man with black spiky hair. He met the man's hardened gaze and smiled slightly.

"Guys." he said turning to his friends. "I have someone to see, so go one ahead without me."

He then made his way to the man patiently waiting.

"Lancia." he greeted, stopping in front of the man. "How have you been?"

The man smiled lightly at the beaming boy.

"I've been well thank you." he answered. "I heard about the fight you were involved in and initially came here to help but it seems it wasn't needed."

"I appreciate it, Lancia." said Tsuna softly.

The man smiled uncertainly.

"I also…" he paused looking around them. "Perhaps we should take this somewhere else." he sighed eventually.

Tsuna nodded and they made their way to a nearby park which was conveniently empty, exchanging small talk as they walked.

"What did you want to talk about?" asked Tsuna when they reached their destination and had taken place on a bench facing the swings.

The man cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"It's about…my previous family." he started. "When we fought you started saying something about them and I…well, I think I have an idea what you were about to say." he glanced at Tsuna. "I think I always knew somewhere in my heart, but I didn't want to see it."

The man took in a harsh breath.

"They were involved in the human experimentation weren't they?"

Tsuna gazed at him in silence for a moment, a wave of sympathy rushing over him as he looked upon the distraught man.

"Yes. To be precise, they were in charge of kidnapping children to supply the laboratories." he said softly.

There was a long pause during which Lancia just stared at his hand unseeingly.

"That's why Mukuro Rokudo went after them then?" he questioned at last.

Tsuna nodded silently.

"I always had an inkling you see." started Lancia with a hint of desperation. "Sometimes my boss would have me participate in protecting the crates. I never thought about what could be inside. I didn't want to I think. They saved my life, I wanted to believe they were good people."

"Maybe they were." said Tsuna. "Sometimes good people do bad things and sometimes bad people do good things. You and I should know that very well."

They exchanged a smile.

"The world isn't black and white. Sometimes we find ourselves in-between, so it's fine for you to keep them in your memory as good people. Simply, they had a darker side which eventually led to their death." Tsuna paused thoughtfully. "I probably don't have any right to ask that of you but please don't hate Mukuro. I think he knew you weren't involved in the child trafficking which is why he chose to manipulate you rather than kill you. In his odd messed up way, he was trying to spare you."

With these words he got to his feet.

"It's time for me to go now but it was nice seeing you again Lancia." he said. "Be well and please think about what I told you."

The man got his feet as well and nodded.

"I will. Thank you."

With a last smile and a wave of farewell, the boy turned away. As he dug his hands into his pockets he looked up at the sky overhead. Sometimes good people do bad things. He had been one of those. In the future, I'll definitely strive to be a good person who does good things, he thought to himself, smiling at his new resolve.

Namimori

In the week that followed, Tsuna was caught up in trying to spend time with just about everyone. His friends had become somewhat needy and were always asking him to spend times with them, usually splitting into two separate groups revolving around Hayato and Hana. Though he did his best to please all of them, the constant conflict was rather exhausting, especially when the kids – mainly Lambo – got involved as a third party.

In the midst of all this, Nana got her divorce and banned Iemitsu from the household. Initially he had meant to forbid him the access to the house unless it was to see Ienari, but the boy had coldly declared that his father could see him in the CEDEF and had no need to come to the house. Iemitsu had had no choice but to accept those choices, head lowered, in order to salvage what little he had left. This had made Tsuna somewhat glad, though he was quick to feel ashamed of himself for it. Though Reborn assured him that it was only right and that Iemitsu had had it coming, he couldn't help a feeling of guilt at the thought that he had destroyed a family. Nari and Nana were however quick to put those worries at rest by deciding that they didn't know enough about Tsuna which resulted in quite a lot of 'family bonding' time as Nana enthusiastically put it.

In this storm of events Tsuna did not see his Maman for approximately two weeks and was starting to worry that she had disappeared once again when she showed up at the doorstep one Saturday morning, with one purple haired man in tow. When Tsuna's gaze had landed on Skull's sheepish grin his face had broken into a huge smile and he had jumped on his self-proclaimed 'fun big brother'. As it turned out the two had planned an outing with Reborn in order to give Tsuna his long-awaited family reunion and to announce they had decided to get married. The day was mostly spent with Viper and reborn arguing about everything while Skull collapsed in laughter and Tsuna watched the scene helplessly. But when all was said and done, the boy felt blessed. This was family as he had always known it and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Seven years later, Vongola Mansion, Italy

The Vongola Decimo was gazing out of his office's window, a satisfied smile on his face. He showed no surprise when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in." he called out, walking to stand by his desk and the door opened and a young man with short blond hair walked in.

"Decimo, you called for me?"

"Ienari, I wanted to congratulate you on your appointment as Chief of the CEDEF." said the Boss with a warm smile directed at his twin brother.

The man smiled and bowed his head in thanks.

"Thank you Tsuna."

A flash of mischief in his brother's eyes warned him that the meeting wasn't just a congratulatory one.

"What did you do now?" he asked with a huff of muck annoyance.

The brunet chuckled.

"I'm about to give you your first task as Chief Advisor." announced the man eyes twinkling with delight.

Nari's gaze became curious as he waited for his brother to elaborate.

"I'd like you to accompany me to Vindicare to pick up an old friend."

Nari's jaw slackened in shock.

"The negotiations were successful?" he asked eyes widening in surprise.

"Yep." chirped the man said to be the strongest mafia boss in the world. "They finally agreed to release Mukuro Rokudo. They said the investigation gave satisfying results, though I think Lancia's testimony in Mukuro's favour is what really tipped the scale."

"Good thing he decided to get involved." noted Nari thoughtfully.

"Yes." murmured Tsuna with a mysterious smile.

It was true that without the man's help the negotiations with Vindice might have gone for another seven years. Sometimes people who've done bad things do good things, uh? His smile widened at the thought and he grinned joyfully as he threw his dark mantle on his shoulders.

"Shall we go then, Chief Advisor?" he asked lightly as he started walking out, a spring in his step.

Behind him the man chuckled softly.

"Yes, yes, let's go and get your Mist Guardian, Vongola Decimo."

Wow. How to describe my feelings as I come to the end of my first multi-chaptered story to be completed? Most of you are probably completely fed up with me by now and I really apologize for stalling for so long but well, I didn't want to end this fic on a bad chapter (I hope I didn't ^^') and I know I'm always using this as an excuse but well…I'm a crap author so there!

But more seriously, thank you all for the endless support you've given this past year. Every author on this planet probably shares my feelings on this matter so I'll say this again: reviews are what keeps me going! Reading them and knowing people actually like what I write makes me extremely happy and has always motivated me to write more. So a big THANK YOU to all of you who've been putting up with me since chapter one (back when I still updated regularly *^*) and to you all who didn't give up on me even after waiting for three months for a chapter (I'm not sure it was ever that long but knowing me it's possible).

Now, I know people have been wondering about it so let me answer this existential question: will there be a sequel? No I do not think so. Why? Because I'm simply not motivated anymore. I've loved writing this and I think it is possible one of my best works so far. I really like starting with a cliché and doing different from everyone else (or at least I think I have). I adore Papa Reborn, Nice Nari, Maman Mammon and just about everyone else. But I can't see myself writing any more than this. I started this story a little over a year ago and I can say I've turned that page now, which is partly why it took so long to conclude. I'm sorry for disappointing those who were looking forward to a sequel but as of now I have no plans to write one.

However, if there's someone out there who'd like to take the basic plot and do a future arc, or a spin-off or whatnot, I'm completely open to the idea. Just send me PM to let me know of your plans and I'll be glad to go and see what you've written!

Finally, for those who are interested I will soon be on AO3 (Archive of Our Own) and intend to start publishing Come Back to Me there in the near future.

And with that I will conclude this novel I'm calling an Author's note by thanking you all once again and urging you to check my other stories so that I can hear from you all again (what a selfish and a shameless author!). Don't hesitate to PM me for whatever reason you can come up with, I'd be delighted to hear from you! Take care, be good, don't forget about me T_T

This is getting ridiculous, so I'll stop now x)

Thanks again to all of you and I hope to hear from you all again soon,

Insanity