A/N: My exams have just finished, so here's a little something to make up for my sort of hiatus. Remissio will be updated as usual next Friday, so sit tight! :)

Cadendo Dentro Te - Falling Into You

[1]

"Uncle," the black haired boy says slowly, tugging on the older man's white pants. "When is Father and Mother coming back?"

The older man laughs, eyes crinkling into half moons. "Soon. They're busy, you know? Busy, so that they can protect you."

He settles down on the porch, legs folding beneath him and the boy reaches up to tug on his black braid. "Hey, that hurts."

"I'll bite you."

"To death? You forgot the the last part."

"... I'll bite you to death."

"Okay," the older man laughs, voice tinkling like a wind charm. "I'll be here forever for you to bite me to death."

[2]

Fon doesn't take care of kids often. He's a killer, an assassin, a martial artist, but he's an uncle at the same time.

So when his younger brother requests for him to oversee his nephew, Fon agrees rather hesitantly.

But then his younger brother just ups and leaves, and Fon is left with a quiet child that looks like a carbon copy of him, just without the braid. A quiet child that doesn't tell anyone when he needs help. A quiet child that refuses help. A quiet child that has a catch phrase of "I'll bite you to death" but cannot even say it properly. A quiet child that is more violent that the disciples that Fon's colleagues take on.

A quiet child that longs for his parents' return.

Fon sees himself in the child. Not very prominent, but lying just beneath the surface, bubbling under the skin. The image of a lonely black haired boy with his younger brother clutching at him.

He smiles, and he learns.

[3]

Kyouya is a cute child.

But one thing that he does not understand is discipline. Fon doesn't know how his younger brother has taught the child, but the child seems to have a skewed idea of the word. Kyouya thinks that discipline can only be enforced with violence.

Whatever happened to peace?

Fon is a Storm, and is strangely calmer than most. He knows how to use his words to solve fights, stop spars, and he can control his face mask better than most. But Fon knows how to play to his points.

He doesn't use violence or force to discipline Kyouya, or to even assert dominance.

He just smiles, sits, and ignores Kyouya until the child acknowledges his faults. And sometimes, when Kyouya's done something really horrible, Fon displays this disappointed look on his face, and Kyouya stutters and stammers out an apology almost immediately.

In just a few months, Kyouya is far more attuned to body language than anything else. Any move that Fon makes is closely monitored by the child, and when the child does something wrong (and his classic Hibari pride refuses to let him apologise immediately), his eyes dart over to Fon, and Fon knows that Kyouya can see the minute furrow of his brows and the slight sagging of disappointment.

Fon knows that Kyouya tenses up when he sees this, and it only takes half a day until Kyouya is stuttering out a muffled apology into his clothes.

And when Fon fights with Kyouya, tiny spars in which Fon lowers himself down to Kyouya's level, he knows that Kyouya can read his body, how it moves, where it is going to move, what it is going to do.

See, Fon thinks as he ducks a kick to his head. See, younger brother. Violence is not needed to discipline children. And your son now has a better grasp of reading body language. Isn't it for the best?

And sometimes, on a starry night, Fon sits outside and wonders when his younger brother and his sister-in-law will return for Kyouya.

He feels a bit selfish when he realizes that he wants to keep Kyouya all for himself.

[4]

Sometimes, Fon is clearly reminded of how old Kyouya really is. One of this times is when Kyouya hovers outside his room like a ghost, a hand on his open door.

"Uncle," Kyouya whispers quietly into the night. He doesn't say anything else.

But Fon understands, because he used to be exactly like Kyouya. Hibaris are startlingly similar, after all.

"Kyouya," Fon replies. "Would you like to accompany me in bed? I fear that it might rain tonight, and I am marginally afraid of the storm."

He catches the way Kyouya brightens up, and the tenseness rolls off his shoulders.

"Of course, Uncle."

Kyouya climbs into his bed with shaking hands.

He's had a nightmare. Fon knows that. He also knows that Kyouya knows that he knows.

He also knows that Kyouya knows that Fon is not afraid of the storm.

But nothing else will satisfy Kyouya's childish pride, and so Fon lets this small white lie pass by. Kyouya lets it drift by, too.

"Goodnight, Uncle."

"Good night Kyouya."

Kyouya is all of five years old, and he is already something like an orphan. The child's parents have not returned in two years.

Fon knows that Kyouya knows that.

[5]

"Kyouya," Fon says. "Why did you attack your classmate?"

"He ate in class."

"And so?"

"He broke the rules."

"Kyouya," Fon repeats, and the small disappointed look appears on his face. "He's a civilian."

"He broke the rules," Kyoya repeats, voice small and shaky, hands fisted by his side. "He broke the rules so I punished him."

"You landed him in the hospital."

"He broke the rules."

"Kyouya."

Kyouya trembles, and he looks down, for a heartbeat, two, and then he darts off into his room.

"Oh no," Fon whispers under his breath, turning to look in the direction that his runaway nephew had escaped in. "Kyouya, I didn't mean…"

There is a door between them, and worlds and worlds of unspoken words that no one receives.

[6]

It takes them half a day to make up.

[7]

Sometimes, they have huge fights. Gigantic, immobilizing fights that results in the younger one running away.

Fon will have to teach Kyouya to stop running away from his emotions.

But after every fight, every fight in which they do not forgive each other immediately, it is a painful waiting of one of them to give in. Fon may be calm, he may be patient, but he still has the Hibari pride, and he doesn't like giving in so easily.

Sometimes it's Kyouya who apologizes first. Sometimes it's Fon. More often than not, Fon leaves small notes around the house asking for forgiveness, and sometimes because of them, Kyouya swallows his pride first and says 'I'm sorry' verbally. Sometimes Fon knows when he's really messed it up and he is the one who whispers it into the night as he wraps his arms around the curled up form of Kyouya.

They fight. But they make up. Because families are messy things, and Hibaris are both prideful and volatile, so Hibari families are messy, prideful and volatile things, and they fight like the world will end tomorrow.

But the loyalty that is formed between Hibaris is something that will never be broken, no matter how many fights that take place, or how many times they feel like turning their backs on each other.

Hibaris are a messy family. Messier than most.

Which makes apologies so much more important.

[8]

Fon teaches Kyouya many things. He teaches the child about peace, about violence, about discipline, about rules.

His younger brother had wanted Kyouya to know how to protect the place, and so Fon teaches Kyouya about Namimori as well.

Teaches the quiet boy about the yakuza and the mafia. Teaches the quiet boy about guns and tonfas and fighting. Teaches the quiet boy about killing only when it is necessary.

Kyouya understands.

Hibaris have always walked along the fine line of law and justice, and the underground world. Tripping over the tightrope, one foot firmly planted on either side. Hibaris have the best of both worlds, and the worst as well. Hibaris need something to keep their fixature on, so that they don't go off path.

Fon knows this. Kyouya knows this. Every Hibari knows this.

And so Kyouya learns about Namimori. Learns about the sushi shop past the corner that has a former swordsman as the owner, learns about the Vongola CEDEF's wife living just down the street, learns about the husband and wife pair of ex-hitmen that has settled down in Namimori for a quiet life.

Kyouya learns and learns and learns and then he protects.

It is impossibly simple to protect. For there are rules, and rules are meant to be followed. Anyone who fails to adhere to the rules will hence be punished. Effectively simple. Kyouya trains with his tonfas daily, having minor spars with Fon and he patrols Namimori with Fon after his afternoon nap.

Sometimes Kyouya beats up stray thugs that he sees, people who dare to attempt and sully the beautiful pristine image of his prefecture. There are lines that one simply does not cross. But thugs are thugs, creatures with beefy arms and broad shoulders with brains the size of walnuts and Kyouya supposes that he can't very well judge the rest of the human race based off them.

And occasionally, Kyouya meets some gangsters that he isn't capable of defeating. Oh, he tries, until all ten of the lanky teenagers are panting and bleeding and eight of them are already down, but two of them are still standing, whereas Kyouya is tired and slightly beat up and after all, he's just six. A six-year-old against ten teens aged fifteen to eighteen.

It is then, that Fon will step in. And Kyouya will watch as Fon dances around the two teenagers with all the patience of an oncoming storm, slow and steady, flitting and light. Kyouya watches as Fon brings them to their knees to two simple, swift moves, without either of them landing a hit on him, and once Fon is done, the older man walks over to pick the six-year-old up.

I'm old enough, Kyouya insists into Fon's clothes. Old enough to walk home by myself.

Old enough, yes, Fon acquises, but I want to do this.

Kyouya stays silent on the trip home, the rain brushing away the dirt on his face.

[9]

When Kyouya is eight, Fon knows that it is time to leave. The summons have been released, and the seven strongest humans have been called. Fon has a faint recollection of the other people that have been called, two beautiful and powerful women, personalities nothing alike, a scientist that can work in cold blood, a stunt man that is a sort-of-crybaby, an androgynous money-lover, and a man with a fedora and curly sideburns that rings deeply in Fon's mind.

It is time to leave, but Fon really doesn't want to leave. Not when he can stay and watch Kyouya grow up under his tutelage to be the best that the world will ever see. Not when Kyouya has warmed up to him, greets him with a half-smile every morning and sheepishly looks up at Fon from under his bangs. Fon doesn't want to give this life up, not now, not ever.

But no one refuses summons. Not when they're from this person called Checkerface. Everyone in the underworld knows that one doesn't mess with Checkerface and get out alive. And if the seven strongest humans have been called together, something is going to happen. Something important and powerful and Fon can't (it's honestly not a choice) miss it.

Fon admits to being a dreamy person. A romantic kind of guy when need be, a dreamy person who prefers peace over war. So when he leaves, he leaves in the middle of the night, flitting through the window of Kyouya's room, with the imprint of his lips lingering on Kyouya's forehead. It's a thank you, goodbye, and I'll miss you all roped into one, and Fon isn't surprised when Kyouya doesn't wake. Fon isn't one of the seven strongest humans for nothing, after all, and his touch is like a feather glancing off the snow covered floor. Sweepingly silent, tenderly soft.

Fon doesn't leave a note. He doesn't leave a message, doesn't leave anything behind to inform Kyouya of his leaving. But neither does he touch the objects that are proof of him having lived in this house, lived with Kyouya. Fon leaves them there to tell Kyouya I'll be back, but even as he flies across rooftops with cloudy red flames dancing at his feet, Fon wonders if Kyouya will get the message.

Because the boy has been nothing but dense when it comes to emotions and relationships.

[10]

When his flames come whispering to him in the middle of night, talking to the grown man in the form of a baby with a glowing red pacifer dangling from his neck, Fon hears that Kyouya has stripped his house of Fon's possessions.

Fon just smiles, slow, sad and nostalgic, and slowly coaxes his flames to simmer away.

Kyouya didn't understand.

Hibaris are a messy family, messier than most. It was why apologies were so much more important in their minds.

But Fon is too far away, trapped in a body that isn't his, and he can't apologise.

Maybe when he sees the boy again, Fon will apologise.

[11]

The next time Fon meets Kyouya, is when the Vongola's Decimo's roots have already taken hold of the boy. The boy is as volatile as ever, hunting down rule-breakers and thirsting for a fair fight, but even he mildly acknowledges the one he dubs as omnivore.

But the flame in his eyes turn from blood thirstiness to anger, rejection, and a slight bit of fear when those cold eyes flash up to meet Fon's, and all Fon can do is give a weak smile in return.

It doesn't help that Fon now has a disciple, a young girl that doesn't look quite here nor there, and he knows that Kyouya sees her as having replaced his position by Fon's side.

"Kyouya," he starts. "It is nice to see you again. You have grown well."

"You," Kyouya hisses at him, the quiet, sheepish boy of five to eight is now replaced by an angry teenager of sixteen. A lot can happen in eight years. Fon is painfully aware of that.

He tries to hide how he recoils from the underlying hatred in the boy's vicious tone.

"I'll bite you to death," Kyouya snarls, hands up and tonfas ready for battle as he flies at the man he refuses to call Uncle.

Oh, Fon thinks, as he slips into a semblance of what used to be, with spars every other afternoon. I didn't know I had missed these this much.

But it is far too late to further regret anything.

[12]

Fon thinks that he understands, marginally. Kyouya has been abandoned by his parents, only to latch on to the kind uncle known as Fon, but then Fon left as well, floating away with the wind that has stolen many a precious things from him.

And Fon, the great powerful uncle that Kyouya has always looked up to, has returned as a baby.

Kyouya is disgusted by this. The other baby, the one with the curly sideburns and fedora and gun, he doesn't count, because that baby is a carnivore through and through, while his… while that man is now just a lowly herbivore. A man trapped in a baby's form, how appalling.

Kyouya thinks that Fon is an embarrassment to the Hibari name, but he can't stop nor quell the incredulous rage when he sees that creature prance around his uncle. The one with the braid and strange outfit, the one with the name I-pin.

Because, even after Fon's betrayal and absence and turning into a baby, some part of Kyouya's subconscious still recognises the man as his.

When his parents left, Kyouya's fixature turned to Namimori. When Fon came, the fixature turned to him. When Fon left, the fixature went back to Namimori.

But it somehow stayed with Fon, lingered on him, resonated within him, and Kyouya can't stop his eyes from darting to his side to ensure that his uncle is still by his side, and isn't leaving this time around.

Fon still leaves, but he leaves I-pin behind.

Kyouya briefly wonders if Fon is the one who doesn't know how to cope with feelings and emotions and relationships and is just trying to run away from all of them.

[13]

Fon visits. The visits are usually every three months, but Kyouya takes extreme pride in how Fon always comes to visit him first, to check up on him, and not that I-pin atrociousity. It's not that he hates I-pin, he just sees her as a severe competitor for Fon's acknowledgement and time.

Then the time between the visits miraculously shorten, from three months to two months to once a month, until Fon is visiting every other fortnight and Kyouya has his schedule memorized.

And then Fon approaches Kyouya, asking him to fight in some Arcobaleno battle.

"No," Kyouya says. "Why should I?" He hastily tacks that on, sounding very much like a petulant child.

Yes, his mind thinks. Anything for you. What do you need?

"You can fight some very strong people," Fon wheedles, and Kyouya registers that even after all these years, that man still knows Kyouya like the back of his hand, and knows very well how to work him.

"Hn," Kyouya replies. "Hn."

Fon smiles, and it makes Kyouya breathless. He hasn't seen that proud smile in so, so long. Too long.

But when Fon sits him down and tells him the truth about the Arcobaleno curse, Kyouya wants to hunt that Checkerface idiot down and kill him, skipping past the biting and straight to the death. Anyone who did that do a person (much less his uncle!) deserved to be annihilated.

Two weeks later, the fight begins.

[14]

When Kyouya fights the Varia, he takes out two (or was it three?) of them, but by then he is swaying on his feet and he is fairly certain that the liquid dripping down his forehead is not sweat but blood.

"Kyouya," Fon says slowly.

That girl (boy?) decides that it was time to undergo some magical transformation, and presses her watch, attaining her original form. Kyouya watches through half-lidded eyes as Fon does the same.

"Kyouya," Fon repeats as he catches the swaying boy, all muscular limbs and hard chest and broad shoulders, just the way Kyouya remembers him from his eight-year-old memories. "Are you okay?"

"Don't be a herbivore," Kyouya says, straightening himself, because it is the only thing that he can force out of his mouth as he sees the original form of Fon, of his uncle. "I will fight."

"Okay," Fon tells him, shooting him a soft, easy-going grin that makes Kyouya weak at the knees. It's his uncle, Kyouya keeps chanting in his mind, His uncle is back.

The two of them proceed to wreck havoc, fighting against what is left of the Varia, and as Kyouya lunges into battle with spinning limbs and flames dancing at his fingertips, he feels a strange sort of exhilaration.

Probably because it is the first time he is fighting next to his uncle. His uncle. Kyouya carefully files this memory somewhere deep in his mind.

[15]

The curse is somehow lifted. Kyouya doesn't want to brag or anything, but he feels that he's always known that that omnivore had a brain hidden somewhere beneath all the layers of that hair that clearly went against school regulations.

Fon is still a baby, but he is growing. And he will grow until he becomes exactly as he was before. That baby with the green pacifier (Vern? Fern? Ferde? Something like that.) was already working on some sort of growth serum to hurry along their growth, and help them attain their original bodies once more. (Apparently, the omnivore had been the one to ask the green baby to do it, as "repayment" for him helping them release the curse, but Kyouya knows that the omnivore was bluffing, there was no way someone like him could ever attempt to blackmail someone.)

Fon would come back. Back to his home, back to Kyouya's home, back to their home.

And when Fon, in all his two year old baby glory, steps into the Hibari estate, his eyes widen as he sees. Everything that was once Fon's is still there, immaculate and in the place he had left it in, in pristine condition, and Kyouya gives a soft half-smile from where is standing at the door.

Kyouya was dense, had been dense, is still, admittedly, a bit dense, but he still got the message.

"Wel," Kyouya starts, and the words die in his throat as Fon turns towards him. He's said these two words countless times when he was five, six, seven, and eight, but it's been eight years since them, and Kyouya isn't even sure if his voice box is still capable of saying those words after all this time.

"Welcome home," he stutters out. It slips out of his mouth like it's been waiting on his tongue all these eight years.

Fon smiles, soft and accepting and beautiful and happy. "I'm home."