Feed the Fire

kisskisskill

I don't own Reborn, or anything else. Enjoy!

Warning: violence, blood and character death. Canon!rape imminent, and future yaoi.

"Mama! I'm home!"

Tsuna was ten. It was late afternoon and he'd just left school, having gotten stuck doing the majority of his class' clean up duty. Part of him wondered if it was fair that he always got stuck with the tedious job, but he rationalized that maybe if he did it enough, his friends would let up on calling him Dame-Tsuna so much. "Sorry I'm late Mama... Kenshiro asked me if I could take his cleaning duty today because the soccer team has an important game coming and he was needed at practice..." Tsuna grinned as he thought of the athletic boy, remembering how he'd promised Tsuna one of his mother's cinnamon pastries the next time she made them. He toed off his street shoes and dropped his bag next to them, padding down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Mama?"

No reply.

Spying a note on the counter, he picked it up, sighing as he read the instructions his mother had left.

'Tsu-kun, I've gone to the market. I left curry in the fridge for your snack. Don't forget to start your homework after!'

"Yare yare..." Smiling at the chibi of herself that she always signed her notes to him with, he set the paper down and headed around the front of the counter towards the fridge, stomach growling at the thought of his mother's curry rice. He had one hand on the door handle when something inside him started urging that there was something wrong. Pausing for a second, he shrugged when nothing unusual happened and pulled the door open, easily spotting the plate with his meal on the top shelf. Picking it up, he turned to take it to the living room to eat, remembering that his favourite show should be on soon.

The plate hit the floor, clattering out of his suddenly nerveless fingers, spilling curry and rice all over the tiles. Tsuna didn't notice; too busy staring at what had been hidden behind the long counter the entire time. "M-Mama..? Mama! Mama!" Lurching as his foot slid in the cold mess on the floor he stumbled and fell to his knees a few steps away, hands trembling as he stared as the still form of his mother sprawled out behind the counter. "Mama... s-stop it. This isn't funny." He reached out to shake her gently, nausea roiling in his gut as her head slid sideways, hiding his mama's beloved face. Without it to keep his attention, he couldn't help but stare at the bloody hole in the center of her chest, one that was as large as his balled up fist.

She'd been wearing her favourite blouse when he'd left for school this morning, the pink one with flower buttons that his often absent father had helped him buy last time he'd come home. The delicate cotton was ruined now, a huge slash across her chest ripping it open and soaked with blood, buttons scattered in the pool of crimson that was even now seeping into the knees of his uniform pants. "Why... Mama, why?"

A loud bang outside cut through his daze and suddenly everything caught up to him as his stomach heaved. He turned to the side as he retched everything he'd eaten, instinctively not wanting to soil his mama anymore than she already had been. Taking one last look, he reached over her to where he'd spotted the cell phone his father had insisted she have, trying desperately to ignore the blood now soaking into the front of his shirt. A yell from outside send him bolting out of the kitchen and up the stairs, skidding into his closet where he collapsed in a huddle in the corner once the door was firmly shut. Shaking violently as he tried to stay calm, images of Mama's laughing, smiling, dead face at the front of his mind, Tsuna shakily punched in the number he'd been told to memorize, biting his lip so hard he could taste blood as he waiting for the other end to pickup.

"Ciao?"

Tsuna nearly sobbed in relief when his father answered the line, sounding harried. "T-Tousan..." he swallowed heavily, hysterical sobs trying to claw their way out of his throat.

"Tsuna-kun? You never call me... Is something wrong? Where's your mother?" Iemitsu's voice brightened when he realized who it was that was calling, but darkened as he remembered that the line Tsuna was using was Nana's emergency cell phone.

Tsuna stilled as his young mind finally realized that his father didn't, couldn't know about what happened. Not from so far away. Teeth chattering as he held back sobs by force of will alone, he answered, "M-Mama... Mama's hurt. She's hurt really bad Tousan! I came home from school and she wasn't there a-and when I turned around I-I-I saw her and sh-she... th-there's bl-bl-blood a-all o-over!" His voice broke piteously as the sobs finally broke through his hold on them. "T-Tous-san, what sh-should I d-do?"

All the way in Italy, Iemitsu's heart was shattering. His darling Nana was dead and his tiny, innocent son had been the one to find her. Listening to Tsuna cry brokenly on the other phone, Iemitsu made a quick decision, silently cursing himself and the fate that made him fall in love with the sunny woman he'd left behind in Japan. "Tsuna, listen to Tousan. I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me? I want you to go and get the box that's in the top drawer of Mama's bedside table. This is going to be very hard for you, but you have to keep that box with you at all times, okay?" Iemitsu paused, deliberating. It was getting hard to speak past the hard lump of grief that was lodging in his throat. "There's... there's going to be something else in that drawer too, Tsunayoshi. You need to be very careful with this, because if you don't it could hurt you very badly. Do you remember when Tousan took you to the firing range last year before your birthday?" Iemitsu closed his eyes, damning himself for what he was going to say as he paced the length of his office.

"Yes."

The whispered answer was like a knife in Iemitsu's chest. His son should never sound that scared, that broken. Cursing under his breath, he plunged on, consequences be damned. He hadn't wanted Tsuna exposed to danger, but the Family's enemies had forced his hand. "You remember what I taught you back then, don't you, Tsuna? Can you tell Tousan what you remember?"

"Uhm..." There was a pause as Tsuna sighed shakily into the receiver. In his mind, Iemitsu could see the small boy raking a hand through that ridiculous mop of hair he seemed to have inherited directly from his far ancestor, and smiled sadly despite himself. "A-ano... always make sure the safety's on, don't point it at anyone I trust if there's bullets in it, and if I have to pull the trigger, make it count."

Iemitsu chuckled, remembering himself rattling off those three exact rules to his son only a few months ago when he'd managed to sneak Tsuna out from under Nana's overprotective eyes. The thought of his wife made Iemitsu's heart clench painfully, but he had to stay strong for his son. Tsuna was all he had left now. "Good boy. Now I want you to go and get that box and the gun that's in the same drawer, and then get back to your hiding place. You are hiding, right?"

"I... Yes. In the closet. There was a noise and someone was yelling outside and I was scared—"Iemitsu cut through his son's hysterical dialogue, needing to make Tsuna understand just how dangerous his situation was at that moment.

"Tsuna, go now. This isn't a game. I need you to get to Mama's room as quickly and as quietly as you can, and then get back, okay? Put the phone in your pocket, but don't close it."

There was a hiccup from his son, before he heard rustling fabric and the creak of the flimsy closet doors opening. Iemitsu could hardly breathe, half of him expecting to hear the worst at any moment. Unable to stand it, cell phone still pressed almost desperately to his ear as he waited for his son to say the task was done, he hurried to the door of his office, yanking it open and letting the weight of the heavy oak slam it against the wall; if the situation wasn't so grim, he would have laughed as the crash startled Turmeric so badly he nearly fell out of his chair behind the desk outside.

"Boss?" The Italian man stared at Iemitsu, unused to seeing the other man so upset, especially since he'd been laughing uproariously when he entered the private office half an hour ago. He wasn't stupid though. Eyeing the cellphone that was clutched in his superior's hand, Turmeric was on full alert. "Situation?"

Iemitsu didn't bother to mince words, taking to pacing the floor of the outside office as he curtly brought his assistant up to date. "Contact Timeoto. My wife is dead and Tsunayoshi will follow her if we don't move fast. I don't care if he argues. I want to know who is stationed in Japan right now, and how soon they can retrieve my son."

Eyes wide as the full gravity of the situation sunk in, Turmeric was already halfway through dialling the only line that would get straight through to the Ninth when the last detail registered. "Your son is one of the candidates to be Decimo?" He stuttered, staring at the agitated man that was prowling back and forth in front of his desk like a caged lion. Iemitsu was head of CEDEF; if it got out that his son was one of the five candidates to become the next head of the family... Turmeric didn't dare to finish the thought.

"Yes, yes, it doesn't matter right now; just get Timeoto on the line!" Iemitsu snapped back, beginning to panic as the seconds, then minutes ticked by as he waited for Tsuna to say something to let him know he was safe. Time stretched on agonizingly slow before he heard the telltale rustle of fabric and his son's quiet breath near the speaker. Blocking out the sound of Turmeric's low, urgent voice, he focused completely on the cellphone in his hand. "Tsuna?"

"Tou..." A gasp, as the boy caught his breath. "Tousan, there's a man in the house... I don't recognize him from the neighbourhood. Tousan, I'm scared!" Tsuna's voice was beginning to hitch again, a sure sign that there was another fit of crying on its way. Iemitsu swore quietly, spinning around to stare urgently at his assistant while speaking calmly but firmly to his panicking son.

"Tsuna, in that box should be a black container with bullets in it. Do you see it? Good. You remember when I showed you how to load the gun before we played target practice, right? Mama's gun is very similar. I need you to make sure that the gun is loaded." Nana hadn't understood the reason why her husband forced her to keep the gun in the house, and had refused to keep it loaded; A smart decision, until it cost her her life. He heard metal scrape against metal, and a distinct click that as a member of the mafia, Iemitsu recognized all too well as that of a gun being loaded. "Good boy. This is important now Tsuna. You have my permission to take the safety off. Be very careful after this, okay?"

"Papa..." Tsuna's voice was very small and quiet now, barely a whisper. Iemitsu's fingers tightened on the cell phone; his son hadn't called him that since he'd stopped needing a nightlight to sleep at night. "Papa, I'm scared. The man is at the stairs and he's very angry Papa. H-He's got a gun and he's yelling that something's not here and he-he-he s-says he-he's gonna t-teach you a-a lesson. Papa, where a-are you?"

If Iemitsu was crying now, he didn't notice, and Turmeric didn't say a word, carefully avoiding his boss's gaze as he worked as fast as he could. "I'm right here Tsuna. You're very brave, you know that? You're going to be okay Tsuna, Papa will be coming to get you soon, okay?" His phone beeped in his ear, the battery nearly dead. "Tsuna, Papa loves you, alright? No matter what, Papa loves you, and I'll be there soon. Be brave for Papa okay?"

"Papa hurry ple-" Another beep, then silence. Iemitsu snarled and hurled the phone against the wall, screaming out in grief and impotent rage.

"Tsuna!"

Theme: Fuel – Halos of the Sun

Just so you know, second chapter has been prewritten, I'm just waiting for my betas to get back to me on possible changes. I'm hoping I can keep this updated on a weekly basis.