"Kyoko, I need to talk to you."

Tsuna swallowed down his nervousness at talking to a girl who was still a bit of his crush. Seeing her young again, in Namimori again, brought him somewhat back to that time and mentality of his life. And being so close to helpless… he felt so much like the Tsuna he used to be, the Tsuna that was now in his world.

"Oh, Tsuna, how are you doing?" She smiled at him, still walking forward a bit as she left the school for the day. They had to keep moving, or Hibari might get after them. Although… Tsuna looked around and realized he hadn't seen Hibari this morning, and certainly saw no sign of him now either. Tsuna had a feeling he knew what Hibari might be up to, though, as he also hadn't seen Dino around either.

"Uh, okay, but listen, I need to talk to you." Tsuna insisted. Kyoko looked around, bitting her lip just a bit.

"Well, I was going to wait for Ryohei. He's been a little… off, all day."

"I would say that's an understatement, but your brother's always pretty weird." Hana, ever the loyal friend, was of course also with Kyoko, "And if you have something you want to tell Kyoko, you have to tell me too, we're a package deal." She folded her arms and border-line glared at Tsuna, regarding him with suspicion. But it was the amount she gave all men she saw, so Tsuna wasn't offended. In fact, he was almost glad that Hana clearly caught on that he wasn't as soft and vulnerable as others still thought he was.

"Of course, you should know too. It's… well, it's actually about Ryohei. And some other stuff. Uh, we should sit down somewhere. It's a lot to take in, all at once." Tsuna explained somewhat. Kyoko's brow pinched in worry and Hana's pinched in confusion and suspicion.

They followed him until they found a bench to sit down on, because Tsuna really wasn't budging on the whole 'sitting down' thing. He knew he was going against Ryohei's wishes, but if things went similar enough to how it'd gone in his world, then he was going to make sure they were as prepared as they could be to what the future would hold. The two of them deserved better than to just be dragged around and have the truth dumped on them in the worst of circumstances.

And Tsuna knew that Ryohei wasn't going anywhere. One way or another, as Ieyasu's guardian or his own, Ryohei was here to stay. And whether he wanted to or not, he'd bring Kyoko with him, and Hana would follow Kyoko into the depths of hell to keep her best friend safe.

"You both know Ieyasu, right? And how Ryohei's been hanging out with him more?" Tsuna asked and Hana rolled her eyes.

"Yes, of course we know your twin. And I'm absolutely not thrilled about that development." Hana said and Kyoko tugged on her sleeve.

"Well, you can't be sure that there's not some good in Ieyasu. You know, I can just see it. There's something-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, there's 'something good in him' and if you just stick around maybe you can bring it out, whatever." Hana rolled her eyes again.

"You should know that tonight… he's going to a match. He's going to fight on the behalf of Ieyasu. Because Ieyasu," And Tsuna had every intention of saying 'mafia', of saying that 'Vongola' and explaining what that meant, but the words stuck in his throat when he saw the disappointed, sad, horrified face of Kyoko staring back at him. He couldn't do it. Not today at last. Baby steps, he'd work in baby steps, "Got in a bit of trouble and Ryohei is such a good guy he offered to help him out."

"B-but, Ryohei promised," Kyoko said, sounding a little lost and confused, "He promised me he wouldn't get into fights anymore."

"Well, that's a boy for you." Hana scoffed and Tsuna felt his blood boil just a bit in defense of 'his' guardian.

"Hey, Ryohei is a great guy and he's helping my brother out. And… I just think you should be there tonight. He needs to know you're okay, and he isn't fighting for himself. He's fighting for a good reason." Tsuna promised.

"Is there such a thing as a good reason to fight?" Hana shot back and Tsuna jumped to his feet, hands clenched into fists.

"When it's for the ones you care about, when it's for your family, when it's to keep them safe? There are good reasons to fight!" Tsuna insisted. Both Hana and Kyoko looked surprised by how much ferocity had been in his statement. He refused to back down, though. "I know it's hard to hear, but Ryohei is doing this, but he needs your support. And maybe you don't get it right now… but this is important to him." Tsuna practically begged them. They shared a look.

"I'll… I'll come. For by brother." Kyoko finally said.

"Kyoko. Thank you." Tsuna sighed with relief.

"And… thank you for telling me." Kyoko added. She reached forward and hugged Tsuna. "I don't want my brother fighting, but I think that I'd rather know than be left in the dark."

"He's trying to do what he thinks would make you happiest. And maybe he's a bit wrong, but he really does care about you." Tsuna assured her, and Kyoko gave her a radiant smile.

"I know. That's my nii-san for you!"

Hana was staring at Tsuna, clearly not won over, but she didn't say anything.

"I, uh, I guess I'll be going now." Tsuna said, suddenly awkward all over again and unsure how to end the conversation.

"Thank you for telling me." Kyoko repeated. "I guess I should be getting home too, I'll have to pick up some bandages or something for Ryohei. Where did you say the fight was going to be again?"

"At Namimori middle." Tsuna replied.

"Kyoko, why don't you go to get ready? I think I'm going to hang back for a second." Hana told Kyoko, eyes still locked on Tsuna, and Tsuna felt himself shift on his feet, not knowing what to do. In the future he'd fought Byakuran in, Hana and Ryohei had been married, but as far as Tsuna could see in his current world and timeline that was a ways off, with the two of them just writing letters to each other. He didn't know Hana very well. She was an unknown variable in all of this that he was just realizing he hadn't factored in.

Kyoko left readily enough, not seeming ot notice the tension building between Hana and himself as the girl stood up, placing her hands on her hips, and glaring at him.

"Alright, what's your deal?" She asked bluntly.

"Well, like I said, Ryohei-" Tsuna started again.

"Cut the crap, Sawada, I mean your whole deal. First you're a useless no-good, now you're doing decent in everything, and now there's something going on with Ryohei not even Kyoko knew about? Did you orchestrate that whole thing? Are you trying to make a move on Kyoko? God, you're just like all the other boys." Hana said bitterly.

"No, it's not like that, I just think that-" Tsuna once again attempted to speak but Hana went on.

"I spend day after day fending off boys like you from Kyoko, I have a hard enough time keeping that brother of yours at arm's length, so you better back off, okay? I've seen this song and dance before and I'm not letting you-"

"Just want Kyoko to be happy!" Tsuna shouted, this time turning the tables and cutting Hana off. She actually did stop talking, looking taken aback by his outburst. "I… I just think that Kyoko is an amazing girl, and she deserves the best and to be happy. I don't care… if it's with me." Tsuna said, and realized he meant it, not just for this Kyoko but for the one he still thought about, still waved to nervously when she visited her brother in Italy. "And I care about Ryohei too, and Yamamoto, and Gokudera… and maybe it's too late to get their perfect happy ending, but I can still make things a little better… or at least, I'd like to think that. So I'm not going to stop talking to Kyoko! I'm going to try and get things not just as good, but better than wh-"

Tsuna slapped his hand over his mouth when he realized he was rambling. He'd only told Dino so far that he was from an alternate world, and he really wasn't on that level of trust with Hana yet. She had folded her arms at some point during his speech, and one of her eyebrows was raised. There was an awkward silence between them.

Then, finally, Hana sighed.

"I guess that's what I want for her too. A happy ending to all this." Hana put out her hand, "And it looks like you have a better idea of what going on here. So - and I can't believe I'm saying his - how about a truce. You work with me, and I'll work with you to keep Kyoko happy and safe."

Tsuna wasn't sure what they were calling a 'truce' to, but he nodded nonetheless and reached forward, grabbing the girl's hand in his own.

And for a second, for a moment, for a heartbeat, their wills burned as one, on the same wavelength.

The cloud ring on Tsuna's hand sparkled with the smallest of flames.

A/N: I would like to start with thanking everybody who's ever reviewed this fic. 2013 was seven years ago. I was 13 when I started writnig this. And here we are, 2020, and I'm 20, and I bet you can guess where this might be going.

Discontinued sounds so... final. And I won't say that I won't ever post a new chapter to this fic. But it has a lot of old writing in it, and there are problems with it and things I'd almost like to start all over. Like, for instance, I kind of wished I had reru in Tsuna's body from the very beginning.

If you have any questions about plot-points or where this was going, go ahead and message me and I'll fill you in on what I did (and also what I didn't) know about how I wanted the fic to go. I also have another, more recent (though also unfished) khr x mp100 fic if you want to check that out.

If you like my writing style, consider checking me out on . I have the same username and post fics a lot more frequently there these days. I also have a tumblr by the same name, and an art tumblr by the name of artful-browniebites if you ever wondered what my art looked like lol.

Again, thank you so much to people who reviewed, favorited, and followed this fic. This was some of the beginning of my writing, this fic means a lot to me, this fandom means a lot to me. And with that, so long for now, perhaps I'll comeback and update some day.