Merry Merry Vongola
Episode: Airport Mischief
Arienna Natalitha
Disclaimer: Reborn series belong to Akira Amano :)
It was weird how his bed felt like goose feather and smelled like dry cleaning. Like, the beds at the hotels, you know. It smells like white and it feels like nothing his bed ever was.
When Tsuna woke up to the unfamiliar scent, he was further thrown into a whirlwind when he realizes that he wakes up on totally unfamiliar surroundings. What is this, a movie-like European rest house of the mafia, or something?
He scratched his eyes, trying to rid of the daze from sleep, and stared blankly at the ocean carving dome. Eyes half-opened, he frowned at all the too-good-to-be-true furniture scattered all over the room.
Just when the thought that Reborn, his infamous tutor (or someone up there who was as sadistic as him), was playing a trick on him again, he screamed the bejesus out of himself. He felt something from under the white linen sheet moves, and it was not his legs, either.
When he saw a flop of black hair popped out followed by a sound of indistinct grunt, Tsuna could feel a figurative shovel shoved him further down the unbecoming abyss of confusion. A feeling of utter shock and total disbelief—with a tinge of fear—was what can only describe his girlish scream that follows.
That person, half-asleep half-awake, mumbles something, fingered his hair, and scrunched his eyebrows before slowly letting open a pair of terrifying crimson eyes. He rubbed his temple and kicked the sheet away, revealing a tanned bare-chest—much to Tsuna's horror.
Wha – what is this! He just woke up in a scarily godly place with a guy who had no shirt on! And to make matters worse than it already is, Tsuna knows that person. And how the hell he could end up in this situation together with him, Tsuna would never know, and would rather not like to find out. He knew his world was turned upside down when a baby claims to be a hitman appeared on his door and told him that he would train him to become a mafia boss, but never in that time, would he think that it would descend to this level of crazy.
When the muscles on that face curved into a smirk, Tsuna knew something's gonna happen. But he was given no time to make his skinny legs escape, when a strong hand gripped his elbow and pulled him in.
And now Tsuna was stuck with Xanxus pinning him down the mattress, hugging and gripping the life and air out of him, while muttering something indistinct on his ear. Tsuna was like, as red as the ripest of strawberry. The heap of flesh above him went up and down steadily, confirming his horror that Xanxus has, again, doze off to sleep, with Tsuna as his bolster.
Right before he was suddenly poofed off by a wave of pink smoke, Tsuna saw the door opened, revealing a face that strangely resembles Gokudera from ten years later, already wearing full suits this early in the morning, looking alert and vigilant. When their eyes meet each other, those emerald eyes widened, eyebrows raised in pure astonishment.
And then the pink smoke drowned him.
There was a poof of pink smoke and all of the sudden, a scrawny teenage boy with disheveled spiky hair popped out, replacing the previous lean man spread on the bed. Near the end of the bed lies a boy in cow-printed pajamas and an afro, a purple bazooka laid unharmed beside him as he continue to drool off. The teenage boy shot up like a bullet, face still as red as a cooked lobster, heartbeat still going 135/minute. When his eyes trailed to Lambo and his bazooka, to the source of his sort-of-nightmare, he then blush a deeper shade of red and screamed all of his disbelief into his pillow.
"I think I better go. Putting the Ninth aside, the rest of us really have nothing in common with their group. In fact, if you still insist, the only thing that we did have in common, is our hatred towards each other. Don't you think we should go back before someone gets hurt, Reborn?" walking back and forth, back and forth like a hot iron, teenager Tsunayoshi Sawada rubbed his arms with his mitten-covered palm. The gesture was to give warmth to himself, as well to try and shake all this ridiculous fear coating him from head to toe.
But, as always, Tsuna's protest and reason went deaf ear on Reborn. The baby tutor, who fancied a seat on the railing on one of the pillar, continues grooming his weapon instead, "Being a Boss means being a home to your subordinates. The place where the Boss is located is the place where they can seek refugees and make themselves at home. And Tsuna, it's December, and Christmas is just around the corner. The Ninth only wants his successor get along with his families." Reborn cast off the last invisible speck of dust on his black revolver with a quick blow, "and so, your job is to be a good host and welcome them with a warm hand."
Tsuna glared at his tutor, "That's what I keep telling you. I'm not going to be a mafia bo – ow!"
There was a red print of what seems to be a baseball ball on Tsuna's right jaw. Tsuna hissed in pain and rubbed his sore jaw, "Ow – ow – ow, it huuurts – what!"
"Oh! Did I got you? Sorry, Tsuna! I was originally trying to play catch with Lambo, but then I got too serious I forgot to control my powers. Did it hurt? I'm really sorry!" Yamamoto apologetically said, clasping both his hands in front of his face as he bowed to Tsuna for forgiveness.
"You… you stupid baseball-freak! Look what you've done to the Tenth! Can't you at least bottle up your stupidity for one second and not have your moronic baseball slip-up in every goddamn minute? Who the hell plays catch in a goddamn airport, anyway! Now look what you did – LOOK WHAT YOU DID, IDIOT!" Gokudera fumes at the taller boy with overflowing rage, not really caring that he attracted more curious onlookers to their group.
"I – I thought I was going to die…" Lambo wobbly approached the pillar where I-Pin laughs and pointing her finger at him.
Another teen boy, a bleached-haired wearing a sweatshirt and a band aid on his nose, approached the two quarreling Yamamoto and Gokudera, "As usual, you showed yourself worthy of something, Yamamoto. That was one EXTREME throw, I must say! With that much power, I'm sure you can take the whole team in one deadly punch! You should join our boxing club, Yamamoto!" and that was Ryohei, the overzealous captain of the boxing club who was always forcefully trying to grab as many people possible to join his team. And was all rejected, of course, but he never seems to learn his lesson.
"Look how lively they are, Tsuna. We can't just go if your friends are so enthusiastic about seeing them again, can we? They'll be disappointed," Reborn whistles and caress his chameleon pet which settled on his fedora, Leon. "Beside, you're the one who invited them to tag along."
"That's…! It's not like I invited them or anything! They just found out about it and decided to invite themselves. It's kind of suspicious isn't it, them suddenly knowing about this even though I haven't tell anyone ever since you told me the Varia were coming. I bet YOU have everything to do with it!" Tsuna pouted and continue rubbing his cheek. Reborn always does that, giving out orders under Tsuna's name or threatening people to do his biddings. But his tutor just feigns innocence, as usual, by whistling nonchalantly.
Anyway, the swell hurts. It aches so badly. Yamamoto sure takes no joke on his status of Nami-chuu's 'Ace' baseball player.
After assuring Yamamoto that he was okay and the whole thing was just an accident that could happen to anyone, the energetic atmosphere continues. This time, Yamamoto played his game with someone as equally formidable and as equally passionate in sport as he is. There was a whirlwind of dust as Lambo and I-Pin stared wide-eyed on the sideline, in where Yamamoto passed the ball to Ryohei, and another dash of wind as Ryohei passed it back to Yamamoto. With a grin plastered on their faces, both of them let this fast-paced inhumane game of catch go on, attracting quite a number of bemused spectators. Gokudera scoffed and mumbled something about 'stupid sports men and their muscles' under his breath.
"Jyuudaime, let's go get you some ice. That Yamamoto is an idiot, but that idiot sure can hit hard. If you leave it like that, the pain would last longer," Gokudera said to Tsuna, who was now crouching on the wall, resenting the hot painful throb on his cheek.
"I couldn't think of anything else better. Let's go. Reborn, I…" Tsuna winced to Reborn, not-so-subtly suggesting that he really could use some ice to ease his pain. "I'll be right back."
There seem to be a stampede of a horde of zoo animals that managed to escape airport security. There were only little that Gokudera could do when a group of people which originally was supposed to stay in the background, came bursting out and shout many warnings and orders to cease. Just after Gokudera got to the drink stall to ask for some ice cube, a door very near their spot shot open and in came a mass of rowdy heap of flesh covered in black suits, charging straight ahead and knocking/stepping/throwing and dragging a lot of people – which by pure misfortune – happens to stand in the way of these unruly bunches.
One of the victims was Tsuna, whose eyes went extreme wide and an undignified 'hiii!' escaped his mouth, when he and his Celeron processing brain digested the image of the very first person who popped out of the gate from hell as the person he had been waiting for. Unfortunately, by the time he realizes this, he was already being unwillingly dragged along by the strong wave of people.
"Hiiiiiiiieeee! Squalo! What are you doing?" Tsuna could care less about manners and how he was nervous before. He was being dragged along in a sea of running people, with Squalo – and Belphegor and Lussuria – as the lead.
"What the – VVOOOOOIIIII! What do you think you're doing, wimp! Scoot off!"
"Shishishi, the Kid wants to join the tag too, isn't that obvious, Vice-Captain?"
"What the fuck, get out of my track, fucktard! You're blocking my way!"
"Hiiiiiiiiiii! I can't! Even if I wanted to, I can't!"
"Vvooooiiiiii! Whatever, don't come crying later when you ended up bruised and battered!"
And that was how Tsuna was involved in the cat-mouse chase between the Varia and the airport security, without having much choice.
There was a big scary man tapping his shoes irritatedly to the floor, a blue airport security uniform adorning his scarily tight-packed figure. He holds a baseball ball on his hand, folded in front of his chest. Without his hat covering his head, there is a conspicuous bump protruding on the left side of his hair. He switches his iron-melting glare from one boy to another, veins popping out of his forehead.
Yamamoto grimaced and fingered his hair, tried his best to show the man his innocent 'I didn't know I did anything wrong' look he could muster. It fell a little too flat on his nose for his dislike, and so he consented with constantly fingering and scratching his head.
"There wasn't supposed to be a cart moving there when I throw that ball," standing beside him, Ryohei voiced his protest bravely, as if saying that it was the cart's fault for suddenly be there and got in the way of his toss towards Yamamoto. Totally disregarding all fact that he throws it at an insane force, no one except a fellow insanely powerful person could receive it without getting hurt.
"Playing any stunt that could cause inconvenience to surrounding civilians inside a public building is prohibited," the man said, stressing as many words as he can to show how displease he is. Though, even without having to do that, he had shown his displeasure fine enough.
"We were doing nothing that could cause such things! We got it under control before that stupid airport car suddenly pops out!" Ryohei elbowed Yamamoto, "Isn't that right? We got it all under control, right?"
Yamamoto deepened his grimace, not because of the pain from the gesture, but more to the fact that the security guard's veins twitched dangerously and the chilling tentacles of aura emitted from the guy's back widened and wriggled at him as if promising that there will be more and more pain for him.
But Ryohei – being Ryohei – doesn't seem to realize this and only make matters worse as he initialized a staring contest between him and the Guard.
Oh, man. This will not end peacefully at all, Yamamoto inwardly thought with a sour look.
There was a sharp U-turn maneuver and a few jumping stunts the crowds did, in which Tsuna failed majestically in one of them and was thrown aside from the lively crowds as flashy as he entered. Rubbing the back of his head from the impact, he winced his eyes as he saw the group of people still moving on, drawing every attention to them on every turn. Finally, after Tsuna could only see the trail of dust they left behind in their chase, he got up from the side line and rubbed his sore arms and legs.
He looked around and saw unfamiliar people staring back at him.
He gulped and randomly walks straight, hoping that he'd bump into someone he knew.
In all those endeavors he had been through, Tsuna matured in his thinking and actions every time. He had learned to identify what's real and what's not better from his experience with Mukuro, honed his reflexes and instinct faster thanks to the Ring Battle, and estimate the after effects of his every action and decision more carefully because what he do now contributes to the change of the future.
Even so, as mature as one can get, Tsuna is still Tsuna and therefore, couldn't help but to trip on his own shoelace when he was absent-mindedly trying to spot someone. For some unfathomable reason, the information booth missed his mind and the fact that he is carrying a cell phone missed too, just like that.
Anyway, he unceremoniously landed head-first to the floor, inadvertedly adding one more injury to the growing list. He cringed in pain as the throbbing ache from Yamamoto's throw still lingers – not to mention the additional sore muscles and sore elbows from all that running and hard collision and all that. He tried getting up, but he couldn't seem to gather the strength to do it. His arms and knees feel all wobbly and he kind of like it down here. It felt somewhat comfortable, the floor being cool on his skin.
Just as he was filling his lungs with a deep resigned breath, Tsuna felt the collar of his jacket being tugged. The next thing he knew, he was already lifted off the floor, eyes bulging out at the sudden rise his body is taking. What else struck him after a dash of grown-ups stampede?
"Uwaaaaa, put me down – "
"Get the hell out of my way unless you want to be my personal 'welcome' mat," there was a husky voice coming from something – or someone – who yanked on his jacket and throwing him off balance. Tsuna jerked his head around and collided with a wall of muscles. He rubbed his nose (for the umpteenth time that day) and had to tilt his neck up to see the owner of the buff chest he bumped to. From the texture of his face, the man was definitely a foreigner, all the more conspicuous with the sunglasses he was wearing. But no matter how wide that sunglasses cover his eyes, it cannot hide the scar stretching from the left side of his forehead, down to his cheek and jaw line.
For a moment, Tsuna was dazzled from the effect of lens flare. But after a while, the scar on that man, the funny fuzzy animal tail that served as a hair ornament, his voice, and the whole businessman appearance one of the two men wears (there were two of them, Tsuna realized. One who yanked him and one whom he bumped into), dawns him like a tissue paper absorbs water.
"Yo, shithead. Long time no see," the man casually removes his sunglasses and tugs his lip upwards into a smirk. Tsuna's eyes widened, his mouth agape in surprise. On the back of his head, the thing that has been nagging on him since he wake up this morning, it did a Wanda dance and sing-sang 'Told you so! Told you so! I told 'ya he's coming too! Ha-ha-ha!'
That man has never "grace his presence" at places that have direct link with Tsuna's own. Birthdays, family's important meetings, and hey he didn't even bother coming on Tsuna's inheritance ceremony. So why did Xanxus had a sudden change of heart and decided to finally show his face after all this time?
While his search for his Tenth left him with no result, he managed to stumble on both Lambo and I-Pin who have stranded their way in on the wide airport without any adults' supervision. Truthfully, he could have cared less. The baseball idiot and turf head was the last person who was with them, thus they were bestowed the responsibility of keeping them in sight. But he would hate to see his Tenth's flustered face when he came back and found that both the children were kidnapped because there was no one to take care of them. He then snorted. Not that anyone he knows would be stupid enough to kidnap the dumb cow…but there are always freaks around the world, roaming as free as a bird.
But really, he wouldn't mind sticking his dynamites on that dumb cow's face every once in a while though. He was really testing Gokudera's patience by opening his mouth every five seconds, rambling and getting distracted by the most random and inane things he saw.
"Oi, Stupidera! Lambo-san wants that!" Lambo pulled on Gokudera's pants, while his small finger pointed vigorously at a flashy pink ice cream stall.
Gokudera, distracted, ignored Lambo's whining and pressed some buttons on his cell. "Come one… come on, pick up, Tenth." But it was still the same busy tone as he had tried before. He slapped his flip-flop phone close and cursed. "Dammit!"
Out of option, he opened his cell again and searched for Yamamoto's number on his phonebook. While waiting, he felt another tug of his pants, followed by another of Lambo's wailing, "Stupideraaa…Lambo-san wants ice cream. Can I? Can I? Can I? Stupideraaaa…."
Gokudera mildly shoved his legs. "Go away, I'm busy."
After tapping his foot impatiently for what he felt like forever, finally the baseball idiot picked up. "Hello? What's up!" came a screaming from across the line. Gokudera twitched a little.
"Hey, baseball idiot! I lost Tenth. Has he returned to the assembly hall yet?"
"Well…I wouldn't know about that, I'm not exactly there at the moment. Haha, I'm now currently involved in some sort of predicament, actually… Wah, senpai be careful not to hit the civilian—senpai, let me drive—LET ME DRIVE!"
For some reason, Gokudera could hear someone whose voice eerily similar to that of turf head's shout on the background: 'I got this to the extreme!'. Which brings a frown on Gokudera's facial feature. "What the fuck? Where are you now?"
"Ah, sorry Gokudera, but I have to take this. Good luck finding Tsuna!" click, just like that, the line was cut off.
Gokudera was already cussing a long trail of dirty words both in Japanese and Italian, when he felt yet another tug to his pants. Losing his patience, he gave quite a solid shove at the kid. "I said to go away, you goddamn piece of shi—"
Instead of a small boy in a cow-printed costume and an afro as big as Jupiter, what expects him was a small Chinese girl with single braided hair, teary-eyed and fingers trembling in shock. Apparently, she has taken interest on the ice cream stall too. And because of Lambo's lack of success in convincing Gokudera to buy them one, she decided to take action. But that action backfires on her…
"Ah… sorry, I-pin. I thought you're the dumb cow… wait, I-Pin! Don't go!" he extended his hand in futile as he saw the little girl ran at an extreme speed, tears welling up on her eyes as she goes. With such a dramatic exit, Gokudera felt like he was the bad guy in some cheap soap opera show his landlord constantly watch. He was an ass, sure, and he'd made a lot of girls cry every time he came to reject their confessions. But this… takes thing on a whole new level. "Shit! Shit! Fuck this!"
"Hoohoo... I saw it, I saw it!" Lambo, who was still there when the whole thing took place, made this chance to gloat. "Lambo-san will report this to Tsuna, and I will be laughing down on your disembodied corpse. Stupidera made I-Pin cry…! Stupidera made I-Pin cry… mugyaa!"
"This is all your fault, idiotic cow!" Gokudera forcefully picked Lambo's back collar and started to drag him along to give chase to I-Pin. Dammit. How is it that he always having troubles with women, regardless of age?
This was so surreal, just like how his dreams had felt this morning. But at least when he was inside one, he didn't feel like the world was out of place. Only when he woke up then he felt how weird it was.
Now this, well. Having morning coffee (more like, dragged) with a man who had previously led a coup de tat on his own father, then flown all the way here to Japan to annihilate the successor for said father. And incidentally, Tsuna was the supposed next in line on that whole ordeal two years ago.
"I… trust you have a nice flight?" fidgeting, Tsuna blurted out the first sensible sentence that whirled around his head. As a result, Xanxus avert his glance from the triple shot in his hand to Tsuna's, and Levi did the same.
At first, Tsuna thought Xanxus was trying to drill a hole on his face through his glance as a result of his attempt to make polite, but mundane conversation. But he was half surprised and half relieved when he got a proper answer instead from the man. "It was on the thin line between acceptable and barely there."
Absent mindedly, Tsuna picked his cinnamon into tiny bits and hesitantly chew it. "So… I guess it's safe to assume that it went okay?"
"Barely," Xanxus breathed.
Tsuna chuckled, but it came out more awkward than he anticipated. "Well, if you're still not satisfied with the service given, I think I can try and ask Reborn to find other airlines that suit to your liking. But hey, seeing that you're here and no one died, it must not be that bad of a flight."
At this, Xanxus and Levi paused a bit at what they're doing. "…barely." He muttered, and then proceeds to take a bite at his croissant.
Tsuna decided that it might be best not to elaborate further, lest the detail was too much for him to handle.
And then, came the tense silence again.
God, where was the distraction when you need it?
"I-Pin…! Look, it's dangerous, so let's get off of there, okay?"
I-Pin cast a sideway glance at Gokudera, but soon threw her face away. She puffed her cheek in anger, and hopped away on other suitcases that are being distributed. There were disapproval grunts here and there, but she kept on going. As such, Gokudera was the one who has to receive complaints. Not that he himself gave a damn about it…
"Gokuderaaaa, Lambo-san wants to be on that revolving pad, too!" below him, Lambo was trying to be freed from Gokudera's grapple lock. "Lemme go, lemme go!"
Gokudera merely slapped the boy's head. "Idiot cow! Stop struggling! That's not a plaything!" He turned his attention back towards I-Pin, walking the opposite direction where the revolver goes. "Aaargh, God. I-Pin, enough already! Get down before anyone's in trouble. You're causing everyone a problem!"
"&$^#*%(!" I-Pin hopped off the opposite direction, now going the same way the revolver goes. This move made Gokudera had to fasten his walk.
In the middle of Gokudera's pursuit to encourage I-Pin to get off the track (though in vain), the inevitable happens. Some guard spotted the ruckus they made and very strictly ordered Gokudera and I-Pin not to play around on the revolving tracks since it's not a public recreation. Gokudera merely gave the guard his mafia-glare, and the skinny sentinel cowered like a puppy and nervously retreated. Most people on the luggage claim area become strictly silenced and got back to their smartphones and other trinkets to distract themselves.
Gokudera had finally got ahold of I-Pin's hand after constantly going back and fro, chasing the impertinent brat who was constantly hopping here and there like a hyperactive rabbit on drugs. She was about to zoom off behind those curtains at the back of the wall, and Gokudera pulled her by force just in time.
What he didn't realize yet was, that move just now? It's going to cost him a lot. Since that mean he was letting Lambo go to wander off freely without adult supervisions…
"Yuhuuu~! Stupidera, I-Pin, look at mee! Ooh, I'm gliding. Whee!" both Gokudera and I-Pin, arms still wrestling against each other, stared in horror as Lambo's figure was slowly being dragged further and further on top of the moving trek. It seems like, despite everyone's appalled disposition, nobody was actually engaged in any action to stop the boy.
"LAMBO!", "STUPID COW!", "EXTREME MANOUVER!" were simultaneously thrown at the air, followed by a whiz of wind as one airport car zoomed right past them at an incredible speed. Mere milliseconds after, another car zoomed past them with speed going as insane as the previous.
And then, just like Gokudera and I-Pin were afraid of, Lambo was gone.
"Are you all a bunch of fucking kindergartens?"
"I'm sorry…" the line up teenage boys and kids (plus one I-Pin) said in chorus as their head bent deeper to the floor. Reborn, however, was menacing enough even though he had no guns on his hand.
"But it wasn't our fault!" Ryohei loudly exclaimed, as a form of self defense. "We were going fine when there's suddenly this horde of human running straight into our vehicle. We would've gotten away fine!"
Reborn punched Ryohei's head, giving him a throbbing swell.
"And what do you have to say in this, hm?" Reborn switched to Yamamoto, who was beside Ryohei but with a vomit bag on his hand and a very pale complexion.
"…I think I'd prefer trains as my long-distance transport means from now on…" the baseball ace colored before taking a dip inside the brown paper bag his shaky hand is holding.
Both Ryohei and Yamamoto, as everyone has already guessed, were involved in airport traffic police chase. But unfortunately for them, they came across a mass of humans previously led by a bored out of their skull Squalo and Belphegor—Lussuria tagged along because most of the people that got involved were "youthful men in tight uniforms". The clash resulted in a mild car crash, and soon after the foray barely got time to recover, they were all apprehended by the scary officer who has been intent on chasing these two troublemakers to the depth of hell.
And using that momentum, the three Varia men were also apprehended. But that was only because they let themselves got caught, seeing that they got bored of this neverending chisels. Probably, they will continue their fun back on the police station, scaring every officer and teasing them with their weapons… or something. Let's just say that they're "very itchy" from the long tiring flight from Italy to Japan.
"Stupid student," at this, Tsuna, who was giving Yamamoto a pat on the back to ease his discomfort, stopped at his track and hesitantly stared back at the baby with the curly sideburn, "explain to me how; just how on God's green earth did you manage to forgot that little communication device and got all of your subordinates either out of control or lost their fucking way behind the baggage compartment?"
Lambo, who managed to roam across the place of his original departure, was found and brought to the information booth by a security. This was when Tsuna, who was holding ice packs on both of his cheek, and who was joined by Mammon who had just returned from converting Italian money on Japanese Yen, heard the announcement. He almost let his spontaneous outburst of delight known to the three Varia members sitting on the same table. Xanxus has, for some unfathomable reasons (or maybe it was just because he's a jerk), made cheeky and downright insulting remarks about unimportant facts that serves no purpose to be brought up on any occasion at all.
One of the many things, about Tsuna's height. Tsuna kept chanting a mantra for himself in order to stay strong at this trial of patience, while Levi and Mammon just laughed and fueled their boss' biting words. Others, about Tsuna's apparent lacking of basic coordination and general luck, since the teen had managed to land himself on yet another misfortune—proven by how he crashed on them and the red swell on both of his cheek.
But one of the perks of being the descendant of the great great Vongola's first boss, Giotto, who was known for his sanctity and all that greatness (and probably the fact that Tsuna himself is surrounded by a bunch of lunatics), is patience. Yes, having to endure that sink-or-swim type of tutor, living together with Lambo, and constantly having to deal with a short-tempered mafia-freak for a friend—not mentioning all the assassins sent to kill him—patience of a saint is something that Tsuna proudly (and forcefully, too) instills inside him.
Or else, he'd be long out by now.
But his annoyance has been rocketing ever since the Varia leader has began blabbering nonsense about the nonexistent growth spur a teenage boy like him should have. To condensed and soften what atrocity Xanxus was telling on Tsuna's ear, one could say that Xanxus was "expecting Tsuna to be taller and manlier" by this time of the year.
Even though Tsuna knew that these three were probably watching and waiting in glee for the moment his cordial limit would snap, he could not resist the temptation of smashing his ice pack into smithereens, and then move on with their coffees and breads, then get on with wringing their foul mouths with his bare hands.
That's why, when he heard the announcement, he was instantly cheering in joy. This way, he could alleviate his almost-like-women-in-menstruation-cycle-hormones into something else. One target in mind: Lambo.
Xanxus, Levi, and Mammon were—as expected—refusing Tsuna's half-hearted attempt at asking them to join because later, they all can regroup with the rest of the party and Reborn will direct Bianchi and Fuuta to guide the Varia to their staying place in Japan. Xanxus snorted and said that Tsuna could mingle with the rest of his "family of trash" alone and that the Varia is well capable of finding their own way without any assistance from Tsuna. Or as he liked to call him: "little fish boy".
Tsuna tried his best not to let his irk show—nor his still too apparent fear for the Varia boss show—as he practically run to wherever the information booth was. To pick up Lambo, of course, since others would probably gone off somewhere by themselves to do… their own thing.
There, he was reunited with Gokudera and I-Pin, and was confused at all the commotion happening. Apparently, the centre of that commotion has got something to do with Ryohei and Yamamoto… Tsuna immediately paled at this.
And that was more or less how we got to the earlier scene with Reborn lecturing the group of children and teenagers.
While trying to endure Reborn's speech and constant glare, Tsuna noticed a limo pulled just outside the entryway. He could see Xanxus and Levi getting on it (Mammon probably went off to bail the rest of the three idiots out), and for a split second, he swear he could saw Xanxus leered on his way. Tsuna's reaction to this diversion earns him a slap from Reborn, though.
Unfortunately for him, he would still have to deal with that bunch as long as they're staying under the same city. Since, as Reborn put it, "it's the boss' responsibility to take care of his minions".
Graaaaaah.
To be continued
AN: You guys know AKB48? I am now addicted to them. I know it has nothing relevant to the story, but seriously. I can't stop listening to River and Beginner. Btw, I seemed to have depicted Reborn slightly off somehow... or maybe it was just me. Either way... I'm sorry if it was as weird as I felt it was. Idk, Reborn's greatness is sometimes just too hard to handle. OTL. Originally, this was one of my alternate endings for my other X27 fic, 100 Days of Tango. And then I got too picky and decided to continue this as another different idea... though still retaining some X27 part. It might change, yet it might not on the next chapter. Who knows... heheheh.