Alas! The Last Chapter~!

100 Days of Tango

-The Closing of The Curtain-

From: Katekyo Hitman Reborn (copyright to Amano Akira)

by Arienna

Vicecaptain Squalo pings BBtakeshi80

Vicecaptain Squalo pings BBtakeshi80

Vicecaptain Squalo pings BBtakeshi80

Vicecaptain Squalo bastard! Pick up the phone already!

BBtakeshi80 oh, sorry I was watching Opera. What's up?

Vicecaptain Squalo you were watching Opera? After a whole week going off to another continent the first thing you do when you got back is to watch Opera? What's this joke I hear about your natural predator instinct, brat! And WITH WHOM? Why aren't I informed of this!

BBtakeshi80 Haru had one extra ticket left, and she was supposed to be going with Gokudera. But he couldn't make it, last minute business. I was free at that time, so I decided to go along with it.

Vicecaptain Squalo I still can't believe you would go with THAT girl first before coming to me. OF ALL PEOPLE. I pinged you three times. Three bloody times.

BBtakeshi80 yes, I saw that. And awwww are you being jealous? That's so cute of you. Well, what more excuses I can offer? Actually, there is! I forgot to activate my phone until a moment ago. Haha!

Vicecaptain Squalo WHAT! FUCK NO!

Vicecaptain Squalo I AM NOT JEALOUS OF ANYONE AND WHAT THE HELL? CUTE? WHAT VOCABULARY IS THAT! HONESTLY, YOU AND YOUR BASEBALL BRAIN!

BBtakeshi80 haha, thanks. You forgot to let go of the caps lock again.

Vicecaptain Squalo NO, I FUCKING NOT FORGETTING TO UN-PRESS THE CAPS LOCK AGAIN.

BBtakeshi80 err, okay then. Hahaha, don't be mad, Squalo.

Vicecaptain Squalo I'll spare you only because you have the item I asked you to buy. Did you get it?

BBtakeshi80 huh? What item?

Vicecaptain Squalo THAT item I asked you to get for me before you depart to China… the only reason I'm contacting you at all.

Vicecaptain Squalo tell me that you're just playing a game where you pretended to forget to get it for me and then when I'm feeling down and ready to feed you off to my shark pet, you'll laugh it off and say that you were only joking and you had only wanted to tease me to see how I'll react.

BBtakeshi80 errrrrr….

BBtakeshi80 sorry to say this, but I'm really, really at lost as to what item we're talking about…. Relive me of my memory, will you?

BBtakeshi80 Squalo?

BBtakeshi80 Squalo? You're still there?

Vicecaptain Squalo Takeshi Yamamoto.

BBtakeshi80 yes?

Vicecaptain Squalo DON'T JUST 'YES?' ME, IDIOT!

Vicecaptain Squalo HOW DARE YOU FORGET MY REQUEST! IT WAS THE ONLY REQUEST I HAD EVER ASKED OF YOU AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN DELIVER IT RIGHT! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MANY DAYS I'VE BEEN WAITING TO HAVE IT WITHIN MY GRASP? DON'T YOU KNOW HOW SLOW THE DAYS WENT BY, WAITING FOR YOU TO GET BACK FROM THAT DAMN BUSINESS TRIP ONLY TO FIND THAT WHEN YOU DID, THE FIRST THING YOU DO WAS TO WATCH OPERA WITH SOME DUMB GIRL WITHOUT EVEN BOTHERING TO CALL OR TEXT ME THAT YOU'RE BACK?

Vicecaptain Squalo that's it. I'M GOING OVER TO PERSONALLY WHACK THAT SMALL BRAIN OUT OF YOU. And while I'm at it, I might feed it off to my pet sharks. Not the best snack in the world, but they'll have to satisfy themselves with it for the time being.

Vicecaptain Squalo WAIT LIKE A GOOD BOY FOR ME. Or, no, wait, you can run. Whatever you choose, I'll find you anyway. So, it's not like it matters. Vvooooiiii!

BBtakeshi80 Haha, Squalo. You speak so funny sometimes. So I take it that you're going to visit me here? Okay, I'll be waiting for you.

Prince The Ripper pings Way Too Awesome Fran

Way Too Awesome Fran What is it this time, Senpai?

Prince The Ripper Is there any particular reason why our mansion is filled with flowers? Or is this some kind of practical joke you're pulling with your illusions, Froggy? Boss wouldn't be pleased, you know… you better prepare yourself for a painful dissection… ushishishi

Way Too Awesome Fran Come on, is that the best you could do, Senpai? 'Dissecting' me? There are way better vocabularies out there and you resort to choose that one. And for the records, about the flowers… my hands are clean in this one. Everything was already like this when I got back. Maybe this has got something to do with Levi's antics in pleasing the Boss again? That creep seems capable and befitting of doing some silly stunts like this. Though why flowers of all things… I have no idea.

Prince The Ripper This twerp really fancies testing the Prince's patience… one of these days, it'll break and went directly to sew your dirty mouth for good, you know. Or, if it hasn't already, my knives would be the ones to scalp your thick skin and stitch up your skinny bones and made a winter jacket out of it… for my Minx.

Way Too Awesome Fran Yeah, 'one of these days' doesn't seem anytime near to me, Senpai. So keep trying.

Prince The Ripper Oh, believe me, Froggy, I do.

Prince The Ripper And while I'm at it, nice display name. NOT. Is that your idea of being creative or what? Because it fails miserably. I haven't seen anything lousier than THAT.

Way Too Awesome Fran Nothing compared to yours though, senpai.

Prince The Ripper Ushishishi… this midget… Normally, I wouldn't let slide your insults, but because the Prince is generous, I'll let that slide for now. What I want to know is, how the fuck are we supposed to move around here? There's only flowers everywhere I look. From the Pink ones, Blue, Reds, Yellow, and so forth…I'm getting all itchy just by looking it.

Prince The Ripper And Levi couldn't be the one doing this. Even how much of an ass-kisser that Old Man could get in getting Boss' attention, he wouldn't go that far as to decorate the whole mansion with flowers, because Boss HATES flowers.

Way Too Awesome Fran At this point in life where I'm working with Boss, I'd be utterly surprised if he doesn't turns out to hate everything in life.

Prince The Ripper Tch. You're not the least bit helpful at all. I'm going to contact Squalo instead. Maybe he would know something.

Way Too Awesome Fran Well, I could only say: 'Good riddance'.

Prince The Ripper Fucking asshole.

Prince The Ripper An idea just struck me. Maybe it's Lussuria's doing after all? Maybe he decided for good to contaminate all of us with his gayness, starting with redecorating the mansion with flowers? And who knows, he might be starting to redecorate our closet and braid all of our hairs and make us wear that silly feathery-thingy he wears. I better contact him and demand to know what this is about.

Way Too Awesome Fran Didn't you say that you'd ask Commander Squalo? And for the record, just by braiding one's hair doesn't mean that he's managed to contaminate his gayness or anything.

Prince The Ripper Oh, that's right. I forgot that he had braided your hair. Ha, speak for yourself, Kid. Are you sure he hasn't infected you yet? You might wanna do a double check on that. Ushishishishi~

Way Too Awesome Fran Fuck you, Senpai.

Way Too Awesome Fran Commander, this is me. A serious situation has come up and we were wondering whether you have been informed of this. I repeat, this is a Level 4 situation.

Way Too Awesome Fran Commander? Do you copy?

Way Too Awesome Fran Hello…?

Way Too Awesome Fran pings Vicecaptain Squalo

Way Too Awesome Fran Senpai, have you got ahold of Commander? I can't seem to reach his phone…

Prince The Ripper I tried. Twice.

Way Too Awesome Fran And?

Prince The Ripper That idiot must be still busy fucking the ass of Yamamoto to notice me calling him.

Prince The Ripper That stupid Commander.

Way Too Awesome Fran What… Commander and Yamamoto… when did this… I don't even…

Prince The Ripper My sentiments exactly. At this important situation, that loud-mouthed bastard…

Way Too Awesome Fran …who's Yamamoto again?

Prince The Ripper Isn't that pretty fucking funny.

Vicecaptain Squalo Fuck, Bell. You and that little shithole are flooding my phone with your messages/BBM/calls. What's your problem?

Prince The Ripper While you're busy pounding the ass of Decimo's Rain Guardian, we got a situation at base that goes beyond Level 4 emergencies.

Prince The Ripper But oh, you're just too lost in the sea of sinful love to notice the warning flag everyone tried giving you.

Vicecaptain Squalo Just what is your fucking problem, you goddamn priss? What I do with anyone is none of your business. If it were that important, you'd go ahead and tell me right away instead of bitching about my (nonexistent) affairs.

Prince The Ripper Fine, respectable Commander. Fine. The Prince shall not say anything more about your current (or lack thereof, if you insist) sexual life. I hereby shall tell you the heart of the matter. The mansion is flooded with flowers. And they are real wilting flowers, not some cheap eye-tricks any particular frog or weird eyebrows pulled, either.

Vicecaptain Squalo The hell?

Prince The Ripper Here, I'll send you a picture.

Vicecaptain Squalo Holy mother of fuck. You ain't shittin' me!

Prince The Ripper Didn't I tell ya. Lots of them. Bazillions of them. I could only see flowers everywhere I look. Wherever I walk, there's flower. Whenever I open a door, there's yet another flower. It's starting to drive my mind fucking out of sanity, and the line was not very far off to begin with. Do you, by any chance, have anything to do with this?

Vicecaptain Squalo Voooooooooiiiiiii! Do you think this is the response of someone who has the least bit idea about this! Was it Lussuria? Or maybe it was that stuck up Levi! But then Levi…

Prince The Ripper Sadly, that's where our trail of information ended.

Prince The Ripper You know, Commander, if you haven't gone to Yamamoto's place first thing after everyone else took off, maybe you would've seen who did all of this. You were the only person left on the mansion before this happen, after all.

Vicecaptain Squalo Voi. Are you trying to say that I'm the one to blame?

Prince The Ripper Hn, you mean directly? No, I I'm not. Indirectly? Heh, who knows? Do you feel like your ass is itching in guilt?

Vicecaptain Squalo Hi, sorry to interrupt. How you doin' Bel? This is me, Yamamoto. I couldn't help but to hear Squalo and I had to wrestle his phone to say this to you. I think you shouldn't worry too much about the flowers. Its purpose was not to coax anyone's ire, I'm sure. It's just a couple of harmless flowers, after all.

Prince The Ripper A couple?

Prince The Ripper Harmless?

Prince The Ripper Are you sure Squalo didn't accidentally ram your head with his blunt sword somewhere when you were… doing whatever it is you're doing? Where on earth did you not understand the point of what I'm saying?

Vicecaptain Squalo Hahaha, last time I checked, I'm pretty much sure he didn't. As I was saying, you don't need to worry about the flowers. Trust me!

Prince The Ripper That's where our problem stands. The Prince doesn't trust you. And it seems to me that you're hiding some vital information. Aha! That's it, isn't it? You knew who turn our mansion into a house for Barbies! This is an order from the Prince: I demand you to spill your beans at this moment!

Prince The Ripper Hey, peasant.

Prince The Ripper You have guts, defying Prince's order like this…

Leviathunder wtf happens to this guys are going to be so dead if boss finds out.

Way Too Awesome Fran And when that happens, you will also be one of the carcass that Boss had always want to make you to be. And I'm the only one who will be flying to another country, looking down to my ex fellow Varia lot from a comfortable airplane while sipping marmalade juice.

Leviathunder just try and we'll is there all these ppl loitering around the hallway?

Way Too Awesome Fran I – huh? People? What people? And could you please type normal? It's an eyesore.

Leviathunder i'll type the way i are lots of strangers going in and out… and woah whats with the airplanes?

Way Too Awesome Fran What…

Luss-oneesama Waaaai~ I don't know what happened, but I like this! Thumbs up for anyone who made my fantasy come true!

BBtakeshi80 Told 'ya so ;) there was no need for you or your friends to worry about it too much.

Vicecaptain Squalo Oh, shut up, Yamamoto. Just… shutup.

BBtakeshi80 And sorry again, about the bamboo brush. I kind of forgot once I got to Beijing. But I'll be sure to write down your request next time!

Vicecaptain Squalo HAH. Don't be so sure that there's going to be a next time, brat!

Vicecaptain Squalo joins The Prince and His Subject conference.

Vicecaptain Squalo Why the hell am I supposed to join this useless thing? It's freakin USELESS.

Way Too Awesome Fran Yet, you joined anyway.

Luss-oneesama Aaawwwww, did you guys see that? It's so cute I couldn't stop awwwing!

Prince The Ripper For the umpteenth time.

Way Too Awesome Fran And we still can hear you 'aww'-ing, even when we're two rooms and one floor apart.

Prince The Ripper Speaking of which, have they caught you yet?

Luss-oneesama Oh, don't worry, I'm using my super-spy ninja techniques I learned some time ago. And they wouldn't notice me anyway, what with all the sexual tension going on. I swear on my grave, Boss couldn't take his eyes off him for a second and it sends my heart beat like a running horse on fire! Aiieeeeeee I could meeeelt!

Vicecaptain Squalo You stupid bunch really have no life. Don't you have something else better to do than spying boss or his love life!

Prince The Ripper Denial, denial. Squalo, if we're a 'stupid bunch' who has no life, what does that makes you? Ah, the commander of the stupid bunch! Shishishi, and don't even try to fool us. I know you're just as interested in boss' love life as we do. At least it got SOMETHING going on, as opposed to YOURS, whats with it being nonexistent and all. Ushishishi, I can't get enough of that.

Vicecaptain Squalo Fuck, Bel, would you just drop it already! When will you stop your obsession with this!

Prince The Ripper Shishishishishishishi, not in the near future, I'm afraid.

Vicecaptain Squalo Fuck. Double fuck for you, you Shitty Princess from Prissy shitland. Just go die jumping off a cliff after sticking your unmanly trash of a tiara on a blender.

Way Too Awesome Fran At least you got a better vocabulary at cursing than Bel-senpai is, Commander.

Prince The Ripper Squalo, you're on my top three must-kill list after this little froggy here.

Luss-oneesama Oh oh, I saw Boss and Tsuna-chan toasting their glass! I think they've finished eating now! I wish Levi could be here with us in this conference! Where is he anyway? You invited him right, Bel?

Way Too Awesome Fran That old pervert would just make a good piece of electronic invention go to waste.

Prince The Ripper Not to mention, adding more non-degradable trash to this world that would further worsen global warming.

Way Too Awesome Fran The Tenth Boss would weep in despair when he found out that the communication device he sent us fell completely useless in Levi's hands.

Prince The Ripper I bet he just doesn't know how to accept the conference invitations. BLEH!

Luss-oneesama Wow, really? I never guessed that Levi is not really a technology person…

Prince The Ripper I once snuck around on his phone and saw that he hadn't been using it much more than to make phone calls and messages and emails. And even then, he doesn't really uses it much either. He's even suckier than Squalo. I mean, hadn't he heard about surfing the internet or something? And whats the point of having Location Finder and Face and Voice Recognition Software on his phone then?

Way Too Awesome Fran Really a waste, I say.

Vicecaptain Squalo Hey, I'm still here.

Prince The Ripper Yeah, I know.

Prince The Ripper And speaking of which, could you move a little to the left? The curtain is in the way.

Way Too Awesome Fran And please stop moving around too much and try get a little closer. I can barely see the two of them.

Luss-oneesama Just so you know guys, trying to record something while typing at the same time is NOT an easy task. Not to mention, I have to climb up the BALCONY and have to keep myself HIDDEN from view.

Way Too Awesome Fran Yeah, we know.

Prince The Ripper And the Prince appreciate it, you know… if only you could get a closer look at them, I would appreciate it even MORE.

Way Too Awesome Fran What he said.

Luss-oneesama Argh! Okay, FINE. I am the one who volunteered to do this. At least I'm going to do it right! I'm going to stop conference-ing you guys. Let's just use phone conference, ok?

Way Too Awesome Fran That's actually a good idea… I wonder why didn't we think of that from the start. How is that you came up with chat conference instead huh, senpai? While you knew phone-conference would be so much easier…

Prince The Ripper Shaddap.

On 21st of March, Don Vongola got married with Xanxus of the Varia.

It was a small and simple wedding at the back garden of Cavallone's country-side mansion, only attended by private relatives and in-house comrades. Nevertheless, the reception was blanketed with a warm, homey complexion, with lilac color spread all over the place.

The ribbons, laces, drapes, table cloth. All dressed in soft purple with some streak of white and silver here and there.

And the flowers. Anemones, Asters, and Daffodils. All carefully chosen by Gokudera Hayato and Miura Haru, who argues about it as much as they do with every little detail for the rest of the wedding.

The Ninth couldn't even begin to express how touched he felt when he saw the two figure of his son and Iemitsu's son – whom he had treated like his own son as well – standing next to each other.

There was a shed of tears on Iemitsu's cheek whereas Nana Sawada was beaming in happiness for her son and had Lambo and I-Pin documented all of the reception.

When both men stood before the altar, broken-white suits adorning their bodies in perfect fit and their disheveled hair trimmed, each tied into a ponytail, they sneak a quick glance towards each other.

Tsuna responded with a smile. Xanxus merely stared back and got his sight back forward a couple of seconds later.

There were a roar of applause when they had exchanged rings to each other's sweet finger and kissed lightly on the lips. There were many tears of joy as well as tears of weep on the audiences' face. But there were only girlish squeals when Tsunayoshi and Xanxus later proceed to throw their pocket-flower decoration (combined together as a bouquet after the ceremony with other kinds of flowers by Kyouko Sasagawa). There were even some men in it and a few others who were too proud to blatantly go up to join those noisy bunches.

The receiver of the boquet was Hayato Gokudera and Haru Miura, but that's for another story.

Even though Tsunayoshi and his partner seemed to be enjoying the time (in their own way), there was a significant amount of uneasiness emitted from the both of them.

Can they make this work somehow?

"We can never guess what would happen then, can we? The truth is, I still don't know what will happen from now on. I'd like to think that I've found something… however small that is. I want to treasure this feeling and enjoy it while it lasts. Who knows whether I would still have it after I went pass this time…?"

"Don't think. You don't have to think about the future all the time. Nobody knows what will happen in the future. Just go with the flow, like me. When something unexpected happen, just wing it all you like, the way I do."

There was a soft chuckle from the other party, "Yeah. Just like you, act first and think later. I'm not particularly fond of it, but I don't really dislike the whole idea," Tsuna smiled and took out a disc from the pile he has been browsing, "Ah, found it. I know this is a really popular song and everyone seems to like it and, well, some people tend to stop liking things after it became too common. But I still like this song after all."

A mellow guitar melody played through the sound effect, serving as the opening of the song. Tsuna grabbed Xanxus' arm from the cushion, urging him to stand. "Come on. We should have had this on our First Dance. I really had no idea why Poker Face was played instead. Maybe someone's idea of a practical joke?"

"Humph. The DJ couldn't remember who was it that made the last-minute change… but it must have something to do with one of your shitty Guardians."

"Hey, stop accusing them every time something happen, okay? I happen to like my 'shitty' Guardians, mind you. They wouldn't do such thing… even if it's Gokudera-kun. He even helped with the preparation you know! I don't think he would go as far as to ruin it, after all the amount of arguing with Haru."

"Would you say the same to that Mukuro and Hibari bastards, though?" while moving along with the song, Xanxus made a snicker.

"Eh…" at this, there was a pause from Tsuna's part. He gulped down a lump and answered, "well… Hibari-san is not the type of person who would go all the trouble to do that, though. And if it's him, I'm sure the DJ would have remembered. Hibari-san is not really someone you'll easily forget after all… and as for Mukuro… erhm…"

"You can't deny that one."

"True. I can't deny the fact…heheheh."

And then there was silence. Only the sweet melody from the CD player and the movement of their body, moving along with the rhythm. There was something oddly calming when Tsuna heard Xanxus' heartbeat. It resonates with him and its tempo made him feel at ease.

"Sorry, I had no idea that you're allergic to flowers. I promise everything will be just the way it was tomorrow. And you were sneezing so much… I kind of felt bad."

"Well. Normally, it wouldn't have gotten that bad. But you got the whole mansion covered in them…"

"Yeah, I know. Sorry. I kind of went overboard with it. I want to give you a surprise, but I had no idea what I should prepare."

"I like the airplane show, though. All of this are way too cliché, whats with the flowers and dinners and the furniture music. But I can still tolerate that particular one, the airplane show. I kind of liked it, indeed. And it can't be helped if you didn't know about my allergy. We really haven't had the time to talk about each other before after all."

"Yeah… but we'll do it from now on, 'kay? I want to know your likes and dislikes, what other allergies you have aside from flowers, the place you like to visit, the kind of music you like…"

"One at a time, Darling Tsunayoshi. I won't go anywhere."

There was a slight blush on Tsunayoshi's face when Xanxus said his name with such affection. "Yeah… we have all the time we need to know each other. One hundred or one thousand days, we got all the time we need…"

Xanxus stopped his movement and grabbed Tsunayoshi's chin from his shoulder and face it upward. He smiled affectionately and caress his hair, before leaning in and slowly closed the distance, "Yep, we do." But then, when they were just one breath away, something caught Xanxus' eyes and he stopped.

"Eh? What's wrong…?" Tsunayoshi asked dazedly, a bit disappointed.

"Those wretched shit…" he murmured somewhat angrily "Don't move. Wait just a second." Xanxus walked over to the balcony. After doing something on the rear side, he casually strolls back inside, closed the window and closed the curtain for good. "Now, where were we?"

Tsunayoshi chuckled and played with his hair teasingly, unaware of the distant cry of someone falling just outside the window (or even if he did realized it, he decided to ignore it, for the best). Xanxus slowly approach him, eyes half-slatted as he took his partner's waist and nudge his chin playfully at Tsunayoshi's chin, before finally closing the distance for good and kissed him.

They were originally bound together not in a normal wedded-couple fashion. They were previously enemies, and after ten or so years passed, they were expected to live and spend their lives together. But what's done is done, and with hope that they would not be living in hell with each other for the rest of their lives, how many days or weeks or years it take, they'll learn to love each other for who they are, and go on with lives, so that they can still enjoy it despite their circumstances. They will keep going on, just like eternal tango.

Fin

#BGM: The Only Exception - Paramore

Omake

"Can't believe I lost. Again. To YOU, of all people! I know I should have hold on to five minutes!" Squalo slapped a wad of Italian cash on the table, clearly irritated.

"Sigh. It's such a waste to give this beautiful currency to someone like you, senpai. Can I not give it to you?"

"No way. Pay up, pay up. A bet you lose, your wallets' gone loose. Squalo, you still owe me another sheet."

"Well, fuck if I care. You didn't exactly specify how many sheets I owe you, dammit."

Just when Bel was about to give another cheeky riposte, the door of the newly repaired recreation room slammed open and Levi stood at the doorway, "Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late. I just figured out how to accept the conference… hm? Where's Lussuria?"

"Speaking of which," ignoring Levi, Fran turned to face Bel and Squalo, "shouldn't we help Gay Man or something? I think I heard his distress plea somewhere… but I could be wrong and it could only be some wolves howling somewhere outside…"

"Nah, I think he's good by himself," Bel dismissed it and demanded again at Squalo to fill the deal.

AN: I had three version for the final chapter of this story, and I only got myself to finish this one because, well, I liked exchanging mails, chatting with strangers or friends on YM and other chatrooms, and I felt this intense urge to just finish it already, goddamit, and stop stalling around for Reborn's sake. So I did, kinda force myself a bit, and voila!

Okay, let's talk a bit, shall we? About the BBm chats. 'm not sure if Blackberry has a conference… but my hyper intuition tells me they don't. So, maybe… I kinda force that feature a bit, 'coz I want all of them conferencing together just like in a chatroom, y'know? After seeing all my friends uses BB and messenging each other… it just got to me. I wanted to write a chat-fic where Squalo pings Yamamoto on his Blackberry Messenger several times. *snicker* and how was it?

I can only say, thank you me, for finishing, and for everyone too, if you're still reading this story until its last chapter! I hope your patience paid off! And I'm multi-writing other fics too, so I hope to see you again on my next fic! (when it gets published)