Disclaimer: KHR belongs to Akira Amano, this is made to satiate my hunger for world building and I get no money from it.
-/-/-
Untouchable Sky
"You should confess already." Said Reborn over the rim of his coffee cup as he heard Tsuna sigh about Kyoko-chan for the 10th time that day.
"Yeah, confess, like that time with the bullet you mean? The time when she ran away crying? What do you even know? Someone as heartless as you probably doesn't even know what an unrequited crush feels like… hiii!" he gasped as Reborn casually slammed the 1 ton mallet on his stomach.
"I'm tired of your whining dame-Tsuna, it's time for another run." Said Reborn as Leon took a gun shape and he pointed it at Tsuna.
"HIIIEEEE!"
Reborn smirked as his student went out at a run to avoid being shot with the gun, that boy was too easy to predict sometimes.
"That I don't know what a crush feels like, please." Had Tsuna stayed around he would have seen Reborn's expression soften for a second before the baby tilted his fedora to hide his face, then stalked out of the room to make sure his no-good student was doing as he was told.
-/-
…Sicily, 50 years before…
To be perfectly honest, had Renato not been short on funds, he would have been as far away from Sicily as he could manage.
The fall of the DiNozzo family had left a power vacuum that had a bunch of Families scrambling over each other for control of their former territory, which meant there was a lot of violence, a lot of blood and a lot of death. For people like Renato, who was only starting his work as an assassin for hire, it was the perfect opportunity to score a job or ten, that is, if they didn't get caught in the crossfire between the Families.
So, with a lack of funds and a turf war about to begin, Renato, 15 years old, was now in Sicily, with a shot of whiskey sitting untouched in front of him, inside a rather expensive bar in the fancy part of town and waiting for his informant to appear.
He wouldn't normally come to this sort of place, but the bar was Vongola owned, and they were known for being intolerant of people messing up with their more "legal" businesses, which meant this was possibly one of the safest places in the entire island for a young hitman to hang out.
What he hadn't expected was for the fancy double doors to suddenly swing open and reveal a middle-aged suit-clad woman that walked in like she owned the place. Then again, with her entourage of suit-clad bodyguards, male and female, and the manager hastily approaching and bowing in deference, it didn't take long for Renato to realize that she did, in fact, own the place.
It was Daniela Vongola, the eight head of the family and, by all accounts, a woman not to trifle with.
Renato watched, tensed as a coiled spring, until the woman and her entourage walked towards the backroom. Only once they had all disappeared did he relax and let his eyes wander to the grandfather clock on the far wall, his contact was not late yet, but he would soon be.
Five minutes later, a young blond man with windswept hair entered the bar, Renato discretely lifted his hand and the man grinned widely in his direction before quickly coming to his table, sitting with a loud sigh and ordering a shot of Gin.
"Vittorio." He greeted his informant.
"Renato, been a while eh? How have you been?" he asked after taking a sip of his drink.
"Been better, heard there was a commotion around here so I came to look." He answered nonchalantly only for Vittorio to snort.
"You mean you came to see if the scraps from the big families' tables would suit your tastes." Renato frowned and growled on the back of his throat which made Vittorio lift both of his hands in a placating manner. "Easy there, it was just a joke. Man, you're just as stiff as usual. Now, as for work…"
His next words remained in his throat as a bunch of Mafiosi entered the bar and opened fire with their submachine guns.
Renato snapped to action as they opened fire, pushing Vittorio out of the line of fire, receiving a shot on his shoulder and pushing the table on to its side to use as a barricade, all in a single, nearly seamless, movement.
"Rena…"
"Shut up!" snapped Renato as he took his gun and a small hand mirror which he used to watch what was happening on the other side of the table. The men finally stopped firing and, with a sign from the ringleader, started going table by table and finishing off those who hadn't died yet.
Renato gritted his teeth against the throbbing pain in his shoulder and almost cursed when he saw that one of them was approaching their table. He eyed his companion, who was looking at him with wide eyes and his hands covering his ears. Renato grinned sharply at his contact and with a quick movement he rose over the table and shot the approaching man between the eyes.
He shot two others before the ringleader ordered to open fire again and Renato had to fall behind cover again.
Suddenly, a horrible heat surged forwards and Vittorio pushed Renato further down. The hitman could swear the hair in the back of his neck was scorched from the heat alone. An explosion followed the heat, and then there was a pause before another wave of heat filled the room, then another and another, all in all, there were seven such waves before a cold, cold voice filed the room.
"Get me the others, alive."
Followed by a scramble of feet as some of her subordinates went outside. Vittorio took that moment to slowly rise up.
"Don Vongola." He called softly, carefully. Renato hissed at him to get back down, but was ignored.
"Vittorio! Bambino!(1) What are you doing here?" her previously cold voice was replaced by a warm contralto that surprised Renato, she even sounded nice.
"Just business Don, my friend here needs medical assistance…" he trailed off and the woman snapped an order to get them a medic.
Soon Renato found himself sitting on one of the few more or less intact chairs, his eyes alternating between watching incredulously as Vittorio chatted up with the head of the Vongola and staring at the charred bodies that had once been their attackers.
Then his head snapped up as the scorched door opened and three Vongola members appeared pushing an older man and two young men into the room and forcing them into their knees.
"Ah, Brachio, should've known."
"Piss off Vongola." The woman, greying at the temples despite her relative youth, laughed humorlessly at the man's words and started talking in a sickly sweet voice.
"You know, I wasn't actually going to get involved into this little… scuffle of yours with the Conzuelo, but then you hurt my people." She added with a hiss and the room temperature suddenly rose until Renato thought that he was standing under the midday sun in the middle of a dessert. "So I will take everything you love. Beginning with your precious sons." She added, and her right fist was suddenly on fire.
The younger man's screams echoed inside the room, his father and brother begging for Daniela Vongola to stop, but she was deaf to their pleas and blind to their suffering, by the time she let go of the young man's head, it was nothing but a blackened skull.
The process was repeated again and by the end, Don Brachio was staring at her in abject fear.
"You… you strega, figlia del Diavolo.(1)" He muttered under his breath, absolute terror the only emotion visible in his face.
"Oh, you have no idea Brachio." She said while smirking sharply and holding his forehead in her hand. He died screaming, just as his sons had done before him.
Renato was… impressed, impressed and utterly in awe of the sheer power emanating from the only female to ever lead the Vongola famiglia.
"Woah." He muttered and it sounded very loud in the suddenly silent room.
Daniela Vongola turned and gave Vittorio a look before her sunset-colored eyes settled on Renato.
"And who are you?"
"Renato ma'am." He answered as he looked back onto those intense eyes, they were rather… amazing.
"Renato who?" she said, her eyes narrowing in thought. The young hitman shrugged and flinched when the movement pulled at his sluggishly bleeding wound.
"Just Renato." he answered easily and kept the eye contact, he would probably be killed just for that, but those eyes were fascinating to watch, especially after such a show.
"Boss." Called a subordinate that had spent the time examining the bodies, of both clients and enemies, and she turned in his direction. Renato followed suit and grimaced when he saw they were examining the ones he had killed.
"He saved my life Don." Explained Vittorio as they watched Daniela study the bullet wounds, one in between the eyes, another one in the throat and the last one on the left eye. Her subordinate whispered something and Daniela nodded before walking back to where Renato was sitting.
"Before or after he got shot?" she asked, her eyes slowly turning a warm coffee color and her expression indecipherable. Vittorio shrugged.
"Before, pushed me out of the way, got shot, turned the table over and shot back, in that order." Daniela hummed thoughtfully and looked at Renato.
She watched him for several seconds before nodding firmly and settling a hand on his head. He didn't even have time to tense up before she ruffled his hair affectionately.
"Not bad at all kid, not bad at all. Would you like to work for me?" she asked softly and Renato felt his heart start to race under her earnest look.
"Y… yes, I… I would like that very much ma'am." He stuttered out, feeling his cheeks warm up.
"Welcome to the family, Renato."
Then she smiled.
And Renato was in love.
-/-/-
(1) Bambino: boy/child
(2) strega, figlia del Diavolo:witch, daughter of the Devil.
Just a little AU where Reborn is more or less the same age as Timoteo and when he was just starting as a hitman (teenage years) he meets Vongola Ottava and has a total hard-on for her sheer badassery. She's old enough to be his mother but he's completely in awe of her and admires her and her skills a lot. Thus he enters the service of the Vongola.
This is only a one-shot, but I also had an idea of Timoteo meeting Renato and being kinda jealous of him because Renato, for all of his youth, is really talented and Daniela is rather fond/proud of him, I probably won't write it out, but if you want to, knock yourself out.
