Tsuna still isn't sure why he's here on a Varia mission.
He knows why, his intuition had screamed when Squalo had handed him the paperwork, but that doesn't explain it. That doesn't explain why he's standing in the driveway of a painfully ordinary house on a painfully ordinary street.
The targets are a middle class couple with no training and no connections. Varia quality is overkill for this. They'd been hired in the first place by the man's colleagues (something about a botched business deal? Not like it really mattered anyways.) The pair had a child but he'd had made sure the boy would end up with a relative and not in foster care.
It's supposed to be an easy job, in and out and hopefully his intuition would stop screaming in the back of his mind.
It is an easy job at first. The woman goes down silently with one slice against her skinny neck, the man has his brain splattered against the wall courtesy of a gun fitted with a custom silencer.
Tsuna motions the trainees with him to search the house, jumping down from the second floor to see if whatever called him here is on the first.
There's a noise-so quiet no one should hear it. But Tsuna is Varia quality and Vongola trained, he can hear what sounds suspiciously like a sob.
His intuition is screaming too, a rush of white noise urging him towards the cupboard under the stairs. He frowns as he notices the lock (what could such an ordinary couple have to hide?) before breaking it with a careful application of flames.
It's a shame the couple are already dead, because when Tsuna sees the sight before him he wants to make them burn.
There's a child huddled in a corner of the cupboard, too big clothes draped on a body that's clearly malnourished. Bright green eyes filled with terror stare up at him from underneath a mop of tangled black hair, purple bruises stand out on his pallid skin.
But what makes Tsuna pause, what makes his intuition purr, is the feel of flames. The boy is a sky and a strong one-at least as strong as Xanxus, maybe even as strong as Tsuna. Tsuna sucks in a breath at the feel of the boys flames, at the feeling of hunger, of fear, of rage.
"You killed them," the boy finally speaks up.
"I did."
"Are you going to kill me too?" The boy doesn't seem afraid, just resigned, and flames burst from Tsuna's hand at the sight. He should have made them suffer, he should have cut the husband open and made his wife watch.
"No, I'm not," he tells the boy, careful to keep his voice gentle. Tsuna cracks a smile as the boy's eyes go wide at the sight of flames, his smile growing wider as, just for a moment, those green eyes flash orange.
"I am Tsuna di Vongola," he starts in a voice tinged with the promise of an oath made in flames, "and I want you to be my son."
Tsuna holds out his hand, waiting patiently as the boy stares, before a shaking hand reaches out and grabs hold of his. Tsuna smiles as the boy gasps at the feel of an oath sworn, at the feel of flames and warmth draped around them like a cloak.
He leads the boy out, pulling him up and letting him nestle against his shoulder when the boy's legs buckle.
"Come, bambino," Tsuna whispers, stroking his black hair, "let's go home."