KHR!Secret Santa done for DarkIceAngelFlare

Pairing: R27

Summary: The effort that the Decimo will put into finding presents for those close puts even the most caring of people to shame. But when it comes to Reborn, Tsuna doesn't look for a present, he has to hunt it down. And in the process, he discovers what Reborn had really wanted the whole time.

Hunter

Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Ryohei would be happy with whatever they received from Tsuna, even it was just a pair of socks. Mukuro and Chrome would as well, to a certain extent (even ten years knowing him, Mukuro would always be mildly surprised at even receiving a present for Tsuna). Hibari and Lambo were much more picky (getting them the wrong things would probably result in a forced sparring session from Hibari and a sigh and slew of complaints from Lambo) but the most picky of them all had to be Reborn.

Five years ago, he'd tried to give the Arcobaleno-turned-man some of the most expensive, rare coffee beans to be found (Tsuna sometimes winced at the memory of the pains he had gone through). However, upon receiving it, Reborn had scoffed and launched a kick at him.

Christmas four years ago, Tsuna had gotten Talbot to create a specialized gun set that would channel Sun Flames with little effort from Reborn, who, on Christmas, used them to shoot at him random times during the day, a downwards angle to his mouth that wasn't quite a frown, but Tsuna still felt the disappointment.

A year after that incident, Tsuna took Reborn with him on a drive to where he had found Luce's had been buried, according to the Giglio Nero. From what he had heard from the other former Arcobaleno, Reborn had never contacted Luce a year or two after becoming an Arcobaleno. And when she had died, Reborn had been unable to make the funeral.

So for that Christmas, Tsuna had given him the gift of closure.

Reborn's reaction when realizing this gift had been a frown, like the two years before, but this one was of sadness, for Luche. And it had turned to a flat, blank expression when he got back in the car.

Not a word had passed between them until the next day, when Reborn kicked down his door to shoot at Tsuna to wake up and finish his paperwork.

The next year, due to a tip from Lal, Tsuna had taken Reborn to lunch at a small, rundown restaurant on the edge of the slums of Naples. Reborn, who had been curious and downright irritating during the trip, had blinked twice in surprise at the sight, and for a moment, the Mafia frost had melted off his face as the aged chef stepped from the back of the kitchen and greeted Reborn with nostalgia and melancholy.

The chef, apparently, had cared for Reborn when he was a real child and ran around in those slums.

"You know," Reborn had said after a rather good lunch, "You're getting better with guessing what I want for Christmas, Dame-Tsuna." There was not indignant reaction at the nickname, as it had simply become Reborn's form of address, a name that always reminded Tsuna of what he had been, once upon a time.

"Finding what will resonate with you on an emotional level is much harder than trying to persuade Talbot to make something for me to give to you or trying to get high-quality coffee beans for your morning ritual," Tsuna admitted. "But seeing your expression after it is much more satisfying."

The hitman had remained silent for a moment as he chewed a piece of steak. "There is something that will touch me more than digging up my roots and eating with me in a place familiar to my childhood, you know."

The Decimo nodded. "I do know. But I'm still looking for it."

Reborn hadn't replied after that, but his lips had twitched upwards in the faintest of smiles.

Last year, the Vongola Headquarters in Milano had been assaulted by four enemy Famiglias, two of them being the Estraneo and the Carcassa. They had been unwise to try to attack the Vongola on Christmas Day of all days, as the Vongola Decimo had been unforgiving in lashing out with Flame-covered gauntlets.

To make up to those whose presents had either been destroyed in the explosion or lost in the fight, Tsuna took them out to dinner at his favourite restaurant during the week after.

Reborn, surprisingly, had been one of them. There was also Dino, who had lost his presents when he tripped on the staircase, but Tsuna's gift of an item-tracker had been smashed, Chrome, whose gloves and scarf he had painstakingly gotten Nana to help him make got ruined beyond repair, and Hibari, who hadn't picked up his presents yet.

"Even though this dinner is a conciliatory gift for the one ruined on Christmas," Reborn had commented, "It's not too bad of a gift."

Tsuna had smiled. "That's good to hear, especially from you, Reborn. Unfortunately, it probably isn't as emotionally connecting to you as the last two," he murmured.

Dark eyes had glanced at him, tinted with an emotion that Tsuna couldn't quite classify. "I wouldn't say that so quickly," Reborn had whispered in French.

French was one of the languages Tsuna was still working on, so he hadn't fully quite understood the words at the time.

And now it was December 23rd, and due to a forced sparring session with Hibari earlier that week, Tsuna had only finally finished his paperwork and was available to present hunting.

Which wasn't good, as it usually took him a good two weeks to so much think of something appropriate to give everyone. Everyone being his Guardians, the Varia, Dino and Romario, Byakuran and his Funeral Wreaths, some of the CEDEF personnel like Basil, Yuni and Gamma, and the Arcobaleno that weren't in any of the aforementioned groups.

Chrome was the easiest - earlier in the year, Nana had helped her son re-make the gloves and scarf Tsuna had intended for the previous Christmas, as well as pair of boots that he had ordered from Chrome's favourite shoemaker to go with them.

Tsuna would never admit that making the gloves and scarf under the tutelage of his mother had been more terrifying than facing Byakuran those ten long years ago. Or that he was probably the only male Mafia Boss alive that knew how to knit and crochet.

Takeshi - Tsuna could clear his schedule and grab tickets to a Chunichi Dragons vs. Hanshin Tigers baseball game, and go watch it with him.

Hayato was a bit trickier. Tsuna had to try hard every year to find something unrelated to Mafia life that Hayato would desire. Perhaps...

As the twenty-five year-old walked from his office to the front doors of the Vongola HQ (a good ten-minute walk, considering that he took the stairs to make the trip longer, and the long corridors) his Hyper Intuition sparked a bit, making what was normally two weeks of deliberating over everyone's presents into those ten minutes. But the trickiest people of his list still were undecided, Reborn being one of them.

"Hello, Alfonzo," Tsuna greeted distractedly to the servant which had hurriedly opened the door. "How are the preparations for the Christmas Ball going?"

The man bowed briefly before answering. "All is going well, Decimo. Would you like to hear the current status of the event preparations?"

Tsuna winced. "I would ask you to inform me, but I have to step out in order to figure out Christmas presents for some people. I really don't like getting anyone unsuited for them, even if the reason I couldn't was because I was working."

Alfonzo nodded. "Good luck, Decimo."

"Have a good day."

Wandering the gardens (doing so always helped Tsuna think) he debated aloud, "What should I get for Reborn, now?"

Reborn... simply put, Reborn was difficult. There was only so much that could emotionally resonate with him, and it always took awhile to find and plan those kinds of presents precisely. He only had today and tomorrow to come up with something and make the appropriate arrangements - but what?

His salvation came in the form of a buzz. No, not a bee buzz, but that of his phone vibrating in his pocket. Tsuna barely glanced at the number before picking up. "Hello there, Yuni. Is something wrong? You normally don't call."

The woman's laugh tinkled like soft wind-chimes in his ear. "Hello, Tsunayoshi. No, nothing's wrong."

Tsuna relaxed lightly, as he had been ready to contact his Guardians about any kind of emergency the former Sky Arcobaleno was in. "That's good," he paused, "We will be seeing you at the Ball this year, right?"

Yuni laughed again. "Absolutely nothing is wrong, Tsunayoshi. Don't worry, Gamma and I will definitely be coming, as well as Nosaru and Tazaru." Her voice's humour died down a bit, becoming slightly more serious, but nothing worrisome. "You're thinking about what to get Reborn for Christmas right now, aren't you?"

"Eh? Did you- have a vision?" I'm saved! Tsuna exclaimed mentally.

"So I was right!" Yuni smiled on the other side, clapping her hands happily (it was habit she had picked up when she was much younger, and one that she had never tried to get rid of), "Unfortunately, I can't tell you what I saw, Tsunayoshi. That would be spoiling it all."

Tsuna sighed dejectedly. "All well. But since you saw something that had to do with my present for Reborn, I'm assuming that I'll come up with something in the..." he glanced at his watch, "thirty-five hours I have."

There was more humour than the beginning of call in her voice now, as well as a hint of mischief (which was very, very worrying) "Well, I'll give you a hint, at least, Tsunayoshi!"

"Have you been hanging out with Byakuran again?" Tsuna blurted first.

More mischief. Tsuna grimaced. "Maybe, maybe not. But anyways, if you want to come up with something fitting, there's something in common about your presents over the last three years other than the fact that Uncle Reborn connects with them on an emotional level. Bye-bye!"

"Wait, what?" No use, the Giglio Nero Donna has already hung up. Scratching the back of his neck, Tsuna turned off his phone screen, slipping it back into his pockets. "Something in common...?"

There was only one thing that his Hyper Intuition supplied. "I was together with him all three times?"

At least, Tsuna thought as he sprinted through the estate, at least it didn't take something drastic like me nearly dying to figure this out. "Reborn?" he called, knocking on his advisor's office door. "You in?"

No answer. "Reborn?" Tsuna didn't even consider trying to go into the office himself - even ten years later, curse-free, Reborn was a sadistic Mafioso that probably had booby-trapped the room with

some of his nastiest ideas.

Raising his hand to knock again, Tsuna's ears barely picked up the sound of Reborn's gait coming towards him. "You're loud, Dame-Tsuna. I heard you even from down the hall. What are you knocking on my door about now?"

Tsuna turned around to face him. "How long, Reborn?"

The hitman's eyes sharpened. "What do you mean by that?"

"How long have you felt like this, Reborn?" Tsuna stressed. "You- you know what I'm talking about."

Something clawed at Reborn's throat, choking him, screeching to be released and wrap around the the man in front of him. But Reborn was superior to any emotions that he could feel and stomped on it hard, stifling its cries and shoving it back down, down into his heart. "Why? Would you have done anything, if you knew?"

"Even still - it would have explained some things," Tsuna protested.

Reborn looked at him disdainfully. "I am not fond of admitting such things, Tsuna. I..." Reborn growled in frustration slamming his fist against the wall. "I wouldn't reveal anything that I don't want to lose." Changing tactics, "So now that you know, what are you going to do?"

"I..." Tsuna was at a loss for words, something that hadn't happened in a long time. "I- Reborn, for Christmas, would you like to go for a late dinner after the ball?"

"What do you mean?"

Tsuna sighed. "I'm not entirely sure how I feel. So I suppose that a... date with you would help me work things out."

"That's your intended Christmas present?" Reborn's voice had dipped half an octave lower in calculated surprise.

His former student smiled, stepping away from the office door and turning to face Reborn fully. "It is something that affects you emotionally, right?"

And this is how I fell in love with this fool, I suppose. Reborn sighed to himself.

The ending is ambiguous, but I think you can see the R27 *flails* right? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmases, and that they enjoyed this fic too!

Review?