Tenth Year Reunion

The Gathering

A/n: Hah! It's finally done. I am really bad at fight scenes so forgive me. I don't know when the next update will be, but I won't discontinue this story. I hope you enjoy!

________________________________________________________________________________

Vongola Mansion was in a frenzy of activity. They were preparing for the Annual gathering of that year. The butlers were gliding, for good butlers never walk, they glide. The maids were frantically tidying everything up. Everything had to be perfect for the most esteemed Mafia families of all time.

The gathering was circulated between those famiglias' mansions. Last year the gathering was at Cavallone Mansion and it was pleasant except for that escapade with Dino falling down the stairs by accident. As much as the maids and butlers were busy gliding and tidying, they didn't dare venture into their boss's room. They expected it to be an even bigger mess than the exterior. And they were right, as the maids frequently were. The subject of their gossip, who just happened to be their one and only boss, was currently tearing out his hair by the fistfuls, while he sat at his desk. Reborn had taken no mercy and had saddled him with all the usual paperwork with the additional load of writing out invitations. The whole torturous activity was under the guise of 'training' because, as Reborn put it,

"Good bosses should be able to put up with a little paperwork, or perhaps you want me to double your usual paperwork?" Tsuna had no additional complaints after that.

And if Tsuna hadn't experienced enough aggravations in his short life to last a couple hundred lives, Gokudera burst into his room. Now, as past experience dictates, the storm guardian mostly knocked respectfully on the door to his boss's study. He had only burst in twice in since Tsuna had officially inherited the title of Vongola Decimo; both of those times had ended in disaster. But those stories are classified and will be saved for another time.

"Juudaime" he almost screeched

"I may have accidentally told Mochida about the party! I shall now commit suicide to atone for my sins!" Tsuna had found that in these sorts of situations it was best to keep a level head. And so he asked:

"Even if you did, which I don't believe, by the way, what makes you think he'll come?" Gokudera pulled his hair into a ponytail and cleared his throat which was a combination Tsuna dreaded, for he called it the lecture mode, also called nap time by a certain lightning guardian.

In the meantime, Gokudera had started talking again. Something about how Namimori's dojo had a retired agent who had ties to Hibari and told him that Mochida had taken up kendo again.

"He may be preparing to fight us". The sentence rung in Tsuna's ears. Although the past ten years had strengthened him and he had no doubt that he could defeat the amateur who he had defeated when he was still in middle school, he fervently disliked conflict. In that respect, nothing had changed. He didn't want to fight a former schoolmate even if he had bullied Tsuna in the past. But, he had resolved to wait for events to unfold and that was exactly what he would do.

For the time being, there was enough paperwork to last him a lifetime. And so, while Tsuna was painstakingly signing every single pile of documents lying on his desk, the sun set and rose again.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Reborn took mercy on our poor mafia boss and sent him off to bed with an excuse of having to look good in preparation for the party, because Reborn would never admit that he was the tiniest bit worried for his student and all the pressure that was resting on his shoulders and weighing on his mind.

The hysterical lightning guardian by his bed was what woke him the next morning. The sun was already high up in the sky when Lambo had decided that it was a good idea to sneak into Mukuro's room to see if the Mist guardian snored. Needless to say, Mukuro was not happy. Additionally, Mukuro was not a morning person.

After bribing Mukuro with a fight with Byakuran, Tsuna headed down to the kitchen to eat. The noise that ten cooks and twenty helpers were able to make while preparing a feast for a couple hundred Mafioso was impressive. Especially considering that the cooks were trained to be silent as a consequence of them being former Mafioso themselves. As they had no time for him, being too busy making dinner for tonight.

He started to make himself an omelet only to fail miserably. The pan had caught on fire. At last, he had managed to put the fire out, succeeding only in drenching both himself and the failure of the omelet in the process. Finally, he was so miserable he had to call Yamamoto to help him. They ended up eating together and it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal. It felt like he hadn't experienced so much peace and quiet in a decade.

While Tsuna was resting, Mochida was hard at work. He slashed another dummy, straw stuffing flying every which way. He ducked under an enemy's imaginary attack and stabbed a corresponding dummy. He stopped for a few minutes, regaining his breath, before diving back into his stressful regimen.

Unknown to him a shadow was creeping up against the wall behind him. Then, suddenly, Mochida realized that the attack he had just dodged wasn't imaginary. He stumbled, but regained his footing and whirled around in surprise, just in time to stop another blow directed at him. The person he was fighting against was a giant of a man.

He knew that due to him not practicing for more than five years, he wouldn't be able to win this fight, but hell if he wasn't going to try. The delinquents he often bumped into were so much weaker than this man fighting him and for the first time since he had returned to train, he appreciated how out of practice he was. He had no more time for additional thoughts for the giant lunged at him.

This time his opponent overbalanced and Mochida shifted his center of gravity lower and lashed out in a roundhouse kick. At that moment he saw a shadowy figure previously hidden behind the giant. His opponent took advantage of his moment of inattention and packed all of his considerable strength into one roundhouse punch to the side of Mochida's head. As the sides of Mochida's went black, he only had time to think: 'How humiliating'.