A/N: So, I was hoping to hold off on posting this 1) because it's harder to overlook errors when editing after you've gained a little space, and 2) because I wanted to post it with the next chapter of Excuses, which I've finally been making progress on… then the motherboard of my computer fried, I had to buy a whole new computer (which took a week to get here), and then I had to find out how to salvage the hard drive from my old comp to get all of my old files back. Needless to say, after thinking that I'd almost lost this, I'd feel better putting it up now. This is sorta a song-fic (yeah, I know, but I tried to keep the lyrics to a minimum…) so listen to Nancy Sinatra's song 'Bang, bang' while reading to set the mood since it fits these two so well.
Warnings: The usual: genderswitch, kinda sad but w/ a happy ending.
Pairing: Rfem!27
Disclaimer: Reborn! Does not belong to me in any way.
Bang, Bang
He wore black and I wore white,
He would always win the fight.
Bang, bang, he shot me down.
Bang, bang, I hit the ground.
Bang, bang- that awful sound.
Bang, bang, my baby shot me down.
The moment Reborn waltzed into her life, Tsuna wasn't prepared for the amount of trouble she would go through just to live, let alone have a normal life.
But, perhaps that was for the best.
She'd thought her life was satisfactory, though her grades were terrible, her school-life sucked, and she had no real friends to speak of- she had a roof over her head, and was kept clothed and fed, and if in need of companionship, she had her mother.
Then Reborn put that first Dying Will bullet through her brain and the resulting series of occurrences, one right after the other, left her realizing just how... boring her life was before she met the baby hitman. Though she constantly had to fight for them, she had friends who she could talk to and hang out with for the first time in her life and she was happy.
And it was all thanks to Reborn- who mocked and ridiculed her, riddling her self-esteem with as many figurative bullet holes as he did her body, all in an effort to rebuild her confidence and will to stand up for herself.
And he always hit his mark; whether in breaking her down or building her up again, he was always right.
Tsuna never could win against him.
Seasons came and changed the time,
When I grew up, I called him mine.
Sometimes, it was almost a shock to walk into her office and find a fully grown Reborn lounging in her chair, hat pulled low over his eyes as he napped (or whatever it was he did with his eyes wide open...).
Growing up nearly simultaneously with her tutor had been an awkward experience to say the least for Tsuna- he grew much faster than her, and by her late teens, they were physically the same age. By that point, she had discovered that she found the man attractive, and still now years later, she couldn't help but pause and admire him if she saw him from a distance, though never from up close.
Her silly infatuation made Tsuna feel transparent to his discerning eyes.
Even now, as she wallowed in misery under the trellised gazebo in the center of the hedge maze, she couldn't help but remember the expression on his sharp features whenever she caught him off guard. She let out a low sigh, and then made a quick dodge to the right as a knife embedded itself into the table where her head had just been, glancing behind her to see the Devil himself standing there.
"Baka-Tsuna, what are you doing here, moping about?"
Tsuna gave a shaky laugh and pulled on one of her curls in nervousness. "Nothing, Reborn."
His unreadable dark eyes bored into her, as if to say, "Don't lie to me." Thankfully, however, he seemed to let it go as he turned to walk away. "Then don't waste my time, Tsuna. The guests are about to arrive for the party, and you need to be there to greet them."
"Yes, Reborn," she replied, somewhat self-mockingly at the way those words had become like a mantra since she'd stopped resisting (it finally sunk in that she'd never win...), and got up to follow him inside.
"Oh, and Tsuna..." He stopped so quickly she almost ran into him. Reborn turned and grasped her by the shoulders, pushing her back against the trellis beam; the scent of the morning glories perfumed the air, mixing with the spicy scent of Reborn's cologne. "Stop staring at me like an idiot," he said, before planting a searing kiss on her mouth and striding off into the hedge maze.
He would always laugh and say,
Remember when we used to play...
Bang, bang, I shot you down...
"You always used to whine too much," Reborn mused as they sat at breakfast one morning, sipping tea and coffee while munching on the elegant pastries laid out in a service.
Tsuna sighed, but the little curl of her lips betrayed her amusement. "That's because I was pretty stupid back then."
Sharp black eyes darted over to her from where they were reading the paper, and she froze in bringing a scone topped with clotted cream to her open mouth; Reborn snorted at the imbecilic look on her face and replied, "You still are."
"Reborn!" Tsuna cried, nearly choking on flaky crust.
"Though I suppose the height of your stupidity was when you were running around Namimori in nothing but your underwear..." He said, going back to the paper.
"That was your fault!"
"Hmph..." Then he looked at her again, his gaze much sharper than before, "Well, if you try that now, you're going to face a punishment game."
"As if I would! It wasn't my plan in the first place, possessive jerk..." Tsuna grumbled with a blush on her face.
Music played and people sang,
Just for me, the church bells rang...
Tsuna felt a little faint as her father led her down the aisle to a live orchestra, subtly patting his arm in reassurance as he sniffled quietly next to her.
She herself felt less emotional and more terrified, with each and every step she took; she was willingly tying herself to the most ruthless and sadistic person she'd ever met, a man who'd taken great pleasure in tormenting her all the way through puberty and into adulthood. As she took the final steps up to the pulpit, in front of hundreds and maybe even thousands of people, the enormity of the thought that she was doing this happily struck her like one of Ryohei's Maximum Cannons to the stomach, and she gripped her father's arm tighter to keep from swooning right there in the aisle.
Reborn would never let her live it down if she did.
Part of her was glad she was wearing a veil, so that no one could see the grimace on her face at the small existential crisis she was having on her wedding day. Tsuna supposed that she was still shocked because Reborn had been the one to propose, and he was actually standing next to the minister rather than the mechanical puppet some part of her had been expecting, having ditched her to run off to Tahiti with Boromini's beautiful daughter.
(Memories of Bianchi's wedding fiasco had been haunting her dreams all throughout the planning stages, and it would have broken her if he'd pulled the same stunt again...)
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they reached the pulpit, and as the orchestra and whispers settled down, so did the turbulence in Tsuna's heart. As she took Reborn's hands, tears finally began to well in her eyes.
Her smile was tremulous when he lifted the veil, and he shushed her softly when she sniffed as he leaned in for the kiss.
Now he's gone, I don't know why,
And 'til this day, sometimes I cry...
He didn't even say goodbye,
He didn't take the time to lie...
Tsuna sat in the dark, fingering the silk band on the fedora, spent from the fresh wave of tears she'd shed. Her eyes felt hot and her whole body ached, but still she felt no relief from the grief plaguing her heart.
"Why? Why did you go?" she asked the molded black felt, voice hoarse in the darkness as her hands trembled as anger slowly bubbled up again. She suddenly stood up, throwing the hat onto a nearby couch and kicking over a side table, and screamed, "You were sick, you idiot! Weak! How could- how could you go there, knowing how easily they'd be able to kill you?"
Tsuna collapsed back into the chair, chest heaving with the effort, and slowly the ringing in her ears faded, the ticking of the grandfather clock the only sound in the room aside from her gasping breaths.
The door opened without a knock, and Tsuna barely glanced up at the imposing form of her cloud guardian. "Yes, Hibari-san?"
Hibari always strode with a purpose, but he seemed doubly determined as he walked into the room and dropped a thick file on the coffee table in front of her. "Read," he ordered, sitting back and watching her expectantly.
She wasn't in the mood, but Tsuna still picked up the manila envelope, clicking on a reading lamp on the side table that was still standing. Her listless skimming grew more fervent as she read on, turning the pages with enough carelessness that she gained several paper cuts.
When she was done, she dropped the papers carelessly back on the table and looked at Hibari.
"Bring me this Irie Shouichi," she said.
Tsuna was so distracted with this new hope, that she didn't see her cloud guardian smirk as he left.
Bang, bang, he shot me down,
Bang, bang, I hit the ground.
The specially made bullets Irie had designed stung as they hit, and she could feel as the world around her slowly darken as she fell, but she was willing to take the chance for just one more chance.
Tsuna would have to trust her younger self on this one.
Bang, bang- that awful sound.
Bang, bang, my baby shot me down...
"You know Tsuna..." Reborn began nonchalantly, hiding a devilish smirk behind his coffee cup.
"What, Reborn?" the woman asked distractedly, as she looked over the paperwork for the newly acquired assets in Italy.
"You remember the trip to the future?" The hitman received an absent-minded nod. "Well, nobody told you, but our future selves were married."
"Oh, that's nice... wait," Tsuna froze. "What!"
"Hmph, stupid Tsuna..." Reborn murmured, and Tsuna was too shocked to react as he leaned over the table to steal a kiss.