Ryuuichi groaned at the heat. It was too hot. Why was it so hot? He moved his feet slightly and realized that there was something on top of his body. With a small grunt of annoyance, he kicked it off. Sighing in relief at the cold air against his skin, he went back to slumber. He nuzzled his face into his pillow, relaxing into the mattress.

"Ryuu." He ignored that, snuggling deeper. "Ryuu, wake up." 

Kei huffed and leaned back, his son completely went back to sleep. He had been trying to wake him up to no avail, seeing that it was almost noon with Ryuuichi sleeping in. Sure, he was still recovering and all, but Kei was sure that sleeping so much is not really that good. 

"Looks like I got no choice.." He gathered the duvet that Ryuuichi kicked off and spread it open. He looked at Ryuuichi and dived. 

"Uwa?!" Ryuuichi struggled at the sudden weight and the change of temperature. "Wake up, Ryuu. It's almost noon." He whined and struggled, trying to get out of the heat and his father's embrace. Too bad for him, Kei was strong and he was very sleepy. "Uggghh!"

He stopped and finally opened his eyes. "Hot..." He groaned out loud, albeit muffled against the duvet. "Too hot- Father. I'm up. It's too hot. Please---" Kei chuckled at that and finally got off of Ryuuichi, sitting beside him. "Finally awake?" Ryuuichi pushed the duvet off his face and sighed. "Yeah." 

Shaking his head, Kei ked Ryuuichi's head, hair tussled and there was a thin layer of sweat. "It's a wonder how you're able to sweat in this kind of cold weather." He smiled softly and took his hand away as Ryuuichi stretched, bones popping. Ryuuichi stopped and winced when his ribs protested. "Ouch. Not a good idea there.." He relaxed back and looked up at Kei.

"I think my fever broke last night? And then boom. Heat wave." He said stoically, to which Kei laughed. "Yeah. It did. Go take a warm shower and wash up."

He stood up and walked out of Ryuuichi's room at the dragged 'yes' when Ryuuichi was suddenly behind him and leaned all his weight on Kei. "Offt!" Kei stood still and held onto the wall to support the extra weight on his back, arms around his neck. "Ryuu?" 

"Papa." His eyes widen at that. He hadn't heard that for a long time now. As Ryuuichi and Yuuichi grew older, they've stopped calling him by 'Papa', sadly. It was really nostalgic to hear it again after so long. He smiled. "Yes?" He felt the grip around his neck tighten momentarily, but not to enough to accidentally choke him, before it slacken.

Ryuuichi let go and moved back a little, a calculating look on his face as Kei turned around to look at him. ".. Nope! Nothing! Just feel like it." Kei raised an eyebrow at that but pried no further. "Really, now. Well, just go now, a shower. Warm one. Don't want to catch another cold now, do you?"

As Ryuuichi grunted, Kei closed the door and walked downstairs slowly. 

"Wait. He shouldn't be able to remember, should he?"

-------------------------------------------------------

Ryuuichi turned the tap and let the warm water fall on him, soaking in it slightly. He placed a hand on the wall, the tiles cold against his palm as he looked at the water flowing into the drainer, his hair stuck onto his face. (He blatantly ignored the thing hanging down there, no point dwelling about that.)

There was a numb throbbing on his head, which he managed to ignore it but he doubt that it would go away unless he takes the painkillers or something else. (He made a mental note to take one, or two.) He had a dream. A dream that would fade into nothing in his mind, but he held onto it the moment he was aware of it, replaying again and again to remember.

He dreamed of a child, no, two actually. Two children laughing, calling out for their parents as they ran around the, zoo? There was cages, with animals, yeah. A zoo. They looked excited, really excited as they pulled their parents along, one holding the father's hand while the other holding the mother's. 

"Papa. That's a golden eagle, right?" The man smiled down at the kid, a kid with longer hair. "Yep. It is a golden eagle." "They're sooo rare though.." Chuckling slightly, the man lifted the child up and carried him. "They're beautiful, no?" The child nodded, looking a bit bristled at the sudden change of height and the thought of getting carried, but looked really happy.

'That.. Was me wasn't it?' He didn't dare to confirm it, not confident. It was blurry, and Ryuuichi's imagination is really weird. Sometimes, he would thought that he remembered a memory, but it was nothing but his imagination. Not now, not really. He didn't know, but it often happened in the past. He couldn't control his imagination most of the time, which probably explained why he could connect something with another thing out of nowhere. He could see a lot of scenarios with just a sound or a movement.

Not really a good thing, nor is it bad. Just wild. Really really wild. And occasionally a pain in the back.

When he called Kei by 'Papa', he felt the familiarity, and warm. It was really warm. Not exactly the type of warm he felt under the duvet, no. It was like, warm as in warm in his heart. 

That sounded like something that came out from a cheesy, romance novel. Or just one of those plain disturbing crack fictions he had read over the internet. 

Anyways, from the way how the word rolled off his tongue, he could tell that he had used it before, but he couldn't remember. Other than the sudden memory from his dream anyway. (He hoped that it was a memory.) He wanted to remember though. So badly, but he couldn't. 

Damn frustrating. 

He sighed and closed his eyes, lifting his head up. He felt the water falling on his face, tapping and pushed his hair back, bangs stuck on top of his head with the water. He reached over to where the soap was.

'Might as well not waste anymore water.'

------------------------------------------------------

"Yuu."

Yuuichi hummed in a questioning tone as he blew dry Ryuuichi's hair with the hair dryer. Then he realized that Ryuuichi probably didn't hear him over the loud noise the hair dryer made. "Yeah?"

"Did we went to a zoo when we're younger?"

And the blowing stopped. Ryuuichi blinked and tilted his head up to look at Yuuichi, still leaning against the bed. "I'm sorry, but did you just asked that if we went to a zoo when we're younger?" He raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Um, yeah. I just asked that."

Yuuichi's eyes were wide as saucers and Ryuuichi thought that they would just, fall out from the sockets. He didn't want that. That would be disturbing and disgusting. It didn't helped much that he could still remember the one show he watched before where one of the characters ate someone's eye. No thanks.

"Y-you remembered?" He frowned.

"I'm not sure if it's real, which is why I-" Yuuichi suddenly hugged him, the hair dryer placed aside. "Of course it's real! You remembered!"

"Um, not exactly. I just dreamed of it last night. And only that." The younger twin didn't stop smiling, however, excited. "That doesn't matter! You remembered!"

Ryuuichi felt a smile tugged on his lips at how excited his brother was.

-----------------------------------------------------

It was during the evening that Ryuuichi realized that it was Christmas eve. "Woah wait, what?" Yuuichi gave him a strange look from where he was standing by the Christmas tree, as tall as he was, holding a golden, plastic ball. "It's Christmas eve?" Ryuuichi asked, lounging on the sofa with Dino since they wouldn't let him do anything at all, laptop on his, well, lap.

Dino, who he was leaning against hummed, sipping on the hot chocolate while typing away on his laptop. Not Ryuuichi's, his. "Yep. By the way, there'll be a party here tomorrow."

Ryuuichi turned to Dino, looking at the blonde with a scandalized look. "Hah?"

Dino smiled sheepishly and put away the cup, eyes never leaving the screen. "Reborn's idea since you're injured. Everyone's invited, apparently."

"Everyone as in, Namimori everyone or everyone everyone?"

He snorted at that. "Namimori everyone. Mukuro and Enma would be coming, so it seems. Not sure about Enma's guardians, however."

Ryuuichi turned to his mother, who just walked in with a small box of trinkets. "You allowed it?"

"Yep~ You're injured after all. Can't let you move around that much." He groaned, putting more pressure down on his weight against Dino. "Mother," He drawled out in exasperation. "I'm injured, not crippled."

"That's the second time I heard that from you." His head flopped onto Dino's lap with a raised an eyebrow, missing the laptop completely. "I said that before?" 

"Oh you did. When you fell off the cliff." He grimaced. "Okay. So I take that as I've participated in that forest sheit?" Dino looked very amused at how he placed his words together. "Yep~" He said cheerily. Somewhere during his and Ryuuichi's, who had lost his memories, interaction, they became closer with how unreserved Ryuuichi was now. 

Actually, he is still reserved. And he just recovered from a cold. Yeah.

"So how long are you going to stay here?" 

"Are you driving me out, Ryuuichi?" 

The said teen gave him a scowl. "No. Why would I? And mind you, you have work." 

"Not really. It's Christmas. Annual break during Christmas eve to sometime after New Year." Dino huffed and closed his laptop, finally finished his work. "... So free, huh." Ryuuichi pulled his laptop off his lap and onto his stomach. "Oh well. I'll have a portable wall to lean against." 

"Hey. Said portable wall has feelings too you know."

He nodded. "I'll have a portable wall with feelings to lean against and play said feelings." Dino rapped his knuckles on Ryuuichi's forehead gently. Kei and Yuuichi laughed as they continued to decorate the tree, Sakura heading over to help. Ryuuichi glanced at them for a moment before turning back onto his laptop.

"Did you guys know that the northern leopard frog swallows its prey with its eyes?" 

"... What exactly are you reading?"

-----------------------------------------------------

It was barely six in the morning when an infant jumped onto his stomach while he was asleep, sprawled on the bed, and sat there tapping. He kept on tapping Ryuuichi's stomach like it was a drum, tap tap tap tap tap tap. 

"Whatttttt.." Ryuuichi moved his arms, one on his head over his eyes and another over his chest, and grabbed Reborn's hands. He blearily noted that they were larger than before, signifying that Reborn was growing. No wonder he weighted. Good.

He opened his eyes slowly to see a Reborn in Santa costume smirking down at him. "Ho ho ho!" He stared at Reborn a little longer.

"Morning?" He glanced at the digital clock and groaned. "It's not even six. How the hell did you get in anyway? No. Nevermind. Don't answer." If possible, Reborn's smirk grew wider than usual. Ryuuichi yawned, pulling Reborn onto his chest and rolled to his side. 

Reborn blinked in slight surprised at that as his back hit the soft mattress, arms around him. He twitched, looking at Ryuuichi who already went back to sleep. It was surprisingly warm. Not too hot, nor too cold. Just nice. Ryuuichi's body temperature is nice as well. Pleasantly nice.

However, Reborn wasn't going to go with the younger's plan. He shifted so he was facing Ryuuichi, not bothering to use his usual method on waking one up since, electrocuting Ryuuichi wasn't exactly a good plan. His current state and all. He placed his hands on top of Ryuuichi's face and started tapping again, watching how his face twitched at that.

It was amusing, enough said. Reborn had once found out that Ryuuichi gets annoyed if anyone constantly tapped him on the same spot over and over again when he's asleep. The hitman wondered what the reaction he would get if he tapped on Ryuuichi's weak spots.

He grinned gleefully at that thought.

"Hell. What is it?" Ryuuichi grumbled under his breath, trying to move away from the presistant hands and fingers, which obviously he failed. "It's morning."

"I know. I just said that." Ryuuichi placed his hands above Reborn's, but that did not stop the tapping from the fingers. Damn it.

"It's Christmas. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas as well. So?"

"So, wake up and celebrate." Reborn grabbed the cheeks and pulled them apart, very amused at how the other tried to pull his hands away. "Okay! I get it! Let me go!" Reborn, feeling mischievous, pulled more before releasing. The flesh slapped back onto its rightful place, red. 

Ryuuichi pouted at the hitman and rolled onto his back, letting Reborn to slip out of his arms. He yawned again, not having the decency to cover . When he was sure that he wouldn't accidentally slap the hitman, he rolled again and this time, off the bed, landing on his two feet and sat up.

"Did it snow again last night?"

Reborn watched Ryuuichi making a beeline to the wardrobe and pulled out a grey, sweater, quite large to be honest, and a pair of black trousers, and a pair of boxer. "Yep."

"No wonder your hands are so cold." Reborn smirked again. "You like it, don't you?" 

"Yeah. But I was sleeping. Thank you very much." He chuckled at that sarcasm and followed Ryuuichi out of his room. "Oh, right. Do be careful. There are traps all around the house." Ryuuichi gave him a bewildered look at the glint in his eyes as he leaped away, downstairs where Sakura and Kei were already awake. 

Ryuuichi tried to process that and immediately looked around. He slapped himself on the forehead and sighed, warily made his way to the toilet. "Right. The party. Of course."

"I think I'm going to die today." 

-----------------------------------------------------

Sometime after breakfast did the group started to arrive one by one, with Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto being the first. (Reborn arrived early, to prepare for the party with Sakura and Kei, who both were excited as well. Honestly though, who would be excited to with a party that has anything to do with Vongola's tradition? Not Tsuna nor Ryuuichi. They knew as much even if Reborn didn't say anything about it.)

Ryuuichi was again, lounging by the coach, pouting as Dino invited them in while wearing a reindeer costume. (He lost to Reborn in a bet, he said. He looked very comfortable in it though.) It irritated Ryuuichi. Honestly, they didn't allow him to do anything at all, other than laughing at Dino. He wanted to do something.

Then again, Reborn said that there were traps. He rather not risk it. 

But still, it was irritating. Not being able to do anything. 

He smiled and greeted the trio, ushering them to seat down on the sofa, he himself taking up the recliner. "Merry Christmas, guys." 

"Merry Christmas as well, Ryuuichi." Tsuna grinned, before it faltered as he took in how Ryuuichi was seating. "Umm.." The teen was sprawled on the sofa, upper half of his body on the seat and the other half hanging off from the armrest. His laptop was on his stomach as he watched some sort of video and his baggy sweater was riding up on his back, showing the pale skin under it.

"Oh." Ryuuichi blinked. "Sorry. They wouldn't let me do anything and I was bored to death." He closed his laptop and tried to get up, to find that his ribs were protesting. "Help?" He looked helplessly at Yamamoto, who looked somewhere between wanting to laugh hysterically at how casual he was and worry. Yamamoto did laughed, but it was short as he carefully pulled Ryuuichi up.

Ryuuichi thanked him as he sat up and hurried back to his room to keep his laptop, limping. Yamamoto, Gokudera and Tsuna exchanged a look. "He doesn't look as though he had amnesia, honestly."

Gokudera then mumbled some possibilities and all, to which Yamamoto merely said, "Muscles memories, probably. And heart memories." Tsuna and Gokudera raised an eyebrow at him. 

"I don't think that has anything to do with muscles or heart memories." Dino said, sitting on where Ryuuichi was sitting before. "His laid-back personality should be something he has ever since his past life. To go with that, his instinct probably let him know that he could trust all of us and be this relaxed in front of us. Not really with another subordinate of mine. He changed instantly when that subordinate of mine came over to send something."

"And, he's slowly remembering things." Yuuichi added, wearing a red Santa hat as he walked into the living room with a tray of hot cocoa. He placed it on the coffee table which was pushed to the side, as how all the rest of the furniture were pushed to the side to leave a huge space in the middle. He passed the drinks to the three, kneeling on the ground.

All of them looked surprised at that. "Really?" Yuuichi nodded. "Yeah. He asked me if we went to the zoo before when we were younger." 

"That's great!" Ryuuichi came in right on time, and managed to slammed into the wall. He yelped and back away, only to bump into someone.

Wincing as he rubbed his forehead, he turned to the person and bowed. "Sorry." And a pair of hands pulled his away from his forehead. "Stop rubbing. Let me see." He blinked, Hibari right in front of him and looking at the red spot on his forehead. He stopped the blush split second and tried to lean away.

"U-um. I'm fine, thank you.." Hibari raised an eyebrow at that. He let go of Ryuuichi's hands and rubbed the sore spot in a hard manner before walking into the living room. Ryuuichi yelped in pain and growled at the prefect as he walked to a corner that looked as though it was specially reserved for him, ignoring the rest of the occupants. 

The others watched their interaction with amusement. (Tsuna realized that there was still some difference with the current Ryuuichi at that point.) Reborn then popped by out of nowhere. "Yo, Hibari."

"Infant. I hope you keep your promise." 

"Don't worry. You'll get to spar with Tsuna for a week." The said brunette's eyes widen as he almost fell out of the sofa. "W-w-what?!"

And then a verbal fight happened since somewhere along the conversation, Gokudera jumped in and, everything went down. Ryuuichi rolled his eyes and walked over to Dino, squinting his eyes at the blonde before shrugging and flopped down onto his lap.

"R-ryuuichi?!" Hibari's glare shifted from Gokudera and Tsuna to Dino.

"You took up my seat." Ryuuichi ignored the spluttering mess Dino turned into and made himself comfortable, didn't notice the glare at all. He turned to Tsuna, who looked a bit red. "Is your mother and the kids coming? Because I might need to keep some things out of reach."

Tsuna almost asked what were the said things but resisted. "No. Dad came back. He and mom are going for a date. Lambo, Fuuta and I-Pin are coming with the girls later though. Bianchi went out searching for ingredients and Onii-san is coming as well."

Ryuuichi nodded thoughtfully before moving out of Dino's lap again and walked off. Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto looked confused, Dino finally calmed down and Hibari still haven't stop glaring at the poor blonde. Yuuichi was exasperated as he moved to join his brother in keeping said things away.

----------------------------------------------------

Reborn gleefully watched the video from the surveillance cameras he had temporarily put up, with the house's owner's permission, of course. He had set a lot of traps here and there around the house, the toilet being off limits since, Reborn wasn't a peervert. However, he did placed a trap in the toilet downstairs, the camera just outside to see if the poor victims of his fell into them and promptly run out.

(He couldn't place any in the toilet upstairs since Kei said not to, something about Ryuuichi and Yuuichi didn't like anyone do anything with the things in that toilet. They couldn't care less about the other one.)

True to his expectation, when Ryuuichi went into the toilet again to put away some stuffs, as he had said, he screamed and ran out. Or more appropriate, limped out in a very fast pace, shouting. "Reborn!! You goddamn arse!" The said hitman cackled.

It was a rather old Santa doll hanging by the door, popping down whenever the door open. It wasn't really scary, but it was so old and tattered and dirty. Reborn wouldn't be surprised if it was cursed or anything. (No, it wasn't. He made sure of it.)

Looking at the other video, showing the living room, Hibari had practically leaped up a moment at Ryuuichi's scream only to stay put at the shouted words. Dino looked exasperated, however, being the very first victim to that. 

Reborn smirked. Oh he was going to have soooo much fun.

----------------------------------------------------

The party finally started when everyone arrived, including Amemori. All of them decided to seat on the ground and proceed with things.

And chaos.

Like, Ryuuichi couldn't comprehend what was happening. First was the usual thing, all of them try to impress Reborn with whatever they have. And then there's punishments, obviously. (He managed to not get punished, fortunately.) And then came truth or dare. He couldn't understand why would they play truth or dare for a Christmas party anyway, but went along since it was hilarious.

"Truth or dare, Ryuuichi?"

He leaned back at that glint in Reborn's eyes. "... Truth." Reborn softly clicked his tongue but fished out a question from the box with the word 'Truth' plastered on. "Among everyone in this room, who would you date? You cannot choose your blood family." 

Ryuuichi glared at Reborn. He had wanted to say either Yuuichi since, well, they're twins. He looked over at everyone who seemed interested somehow and paused. A smirk appeared on his face. "You."

Reborn raised an amused eyebrow, clearly heard the mischief in the tone. "Oh?" Ryuuichi, couldn't really take it anymore, threw his head back and laughed. "Who knows~"

(Two certain teens wasn't exactly amused, however.)

"Lambo-san knows!" Lambo suddenly interfered, running up to Ryuuichi from Kyoko and Haru. "You're going to date me!" Ryuuichi smiled, choking back a laughter. "Really?"

Lambo haughtily nodded. "Yep!" And he was sent flying onto Ryuuichi's lap from the boxing glove that shot out of Reborn's gun. "Shut up, stupid-cow."

Ryuuichi jolted. 'I did not see that coming. Wait I did. But not onto my lap.'

Lambo, as expected, cried. He tried to hold it in, but he couldn't endure it. Among the gibberish of Lambo's wails, he pulled the bazooka out of his hair, much to everyone's chagrin.

"Lambo- no!" Before anyone could stop the child, the bazooka went off. Pink smoke obscured their sight as the wailing along with everyone's chatter stopped. They waited for the smoke to disperse when a low voice surprised them. "Umm.."

The pink smoke finally gone, and their eyes all widen, Chrome immediately covered both I-Pin and Fuuta's eyes. "This is really a bad timing.." An older Ryuuichi with tussled, untied hair and a barely buttoned up and crumpled white button down shirt sat in place of their current Ryuuichi. He was cradling a sleeping Lambo, who somehow managed to fall asleep the minute he accidentally shot Ryuuichi.

He smiled in exasperation at the child and handed him back to Kyoko. "Here. You better hold him." The girl nodded, blushing and stunned. Ryuuichi then realized that all of their eyes were on him and flushed slightly. He quickly buttoned up his shirt and brushed his hair down. "Sorry." He laughed nervously.

He scanned everyone in the living room, taking in their stunned face before his eyes widen when his sight fell on Amemori. Amemori frowned at how badly the man tensed up upon seeing him. He wondered why he looked so damn shocked and sad. Dino snapped out of his shock and frowned in concern. "Ryuuichi?"

As though as he was in a trance, Ryuuichi managed to compose himself by Dino's voice and turned to the blonde, taking his eyes off from the teen. "Are you alright?" "A-ah. Yeah." He looked absolutely shaken, given how his hands curled up into a tight fist. He bit his lower lips and pushed all of his emotions down. "BakaRyuu." He blinked at Reborn, who suddenly jumped onto his shoulder.

"Were you making out?" (Most turned red at that, Reborn noted. Kids.)

Ryuuichi's face heated up. He quickly swatted Reborn's hand away from a particular red spot on his neck and covered it up. He growled at the grin Reborn had. "It isn't what you think it is." The glint in those dark black orbs irked him, so he decided to get a small revenge. 

"Well, your older self isn't that bad." He whispered lowly in Italian into the hitman's ears as he gave him a feral grin. Reborn gave him a blank look when his mental countdown almost ended. "Well, see you." He gave one last fleeting glance at Amemori before disappearing, the present Ryuuichi taking his place, looking absolutely flustered.

"That was unexpected." Yamamoto said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N= Uhum. This is kind of like, the first part? The Christmas party. It'll continue in the next chapter, but it'll be short. Somehow.

I noticed that my writing style changed somewhere in the middle before it changed back. That was when I realized what I read can influence my writing style. How weird.

Fun Fact= The twins did went to the zoo with their parents when they were younger. About the age of 4/5?

I realized, half way while typing this chapter, that Ryuuichi's character went back to the usual Ryuuichi despite being Past!Ryuuichi. But it was fun.

Fun Fact= That red spot on TYL!Ryuuichi is actually caused by the round tip of a pencil stabbed on his neck for too long. *smirks* Whatever you guys are thinking will come next, not really, but *chuckles evilly*

Ehhhh, right. About Reborn and Ryuuichi, it's some kind of a joke. Though, any more development or anything at all, it'll probably be in another arc. 

I didn't miss anything, did I?

[I apologize for any grammar, spelling, etc. etc. mistakes]