There was one room in Reborn's house that he always kept locked, with the key around his neck. Nobody knew what was in the room, only him. But he was always alone, with the occasional lover coming through the house asking questions. Nobody got a clear answer though, always "just some old relic from the previous owner."
But in that room, it was completely white with no furniture. There wasn't a window, only a small radiator for heat and air conditioning when it got hot or cold. Reborn made sure that nothing would disturb the pictures covering every space on the wall he could manage.
Some of the pictures were taken with cameras; some were sketched by Reborn himself since it was before cameras.
How was it before cameras, you ask? It's because Reborn's an immortal, not a special animal like a vampire or something fancy like a shape shifter. Just a mortal that was graced with immortality by a freak accident with a witch cursing him. He never liked going back through the memories because the memories always held people he loved.
Reborn remembered when he was first cursed. Most of his family didn't believe him when he told them about the curse, but his brother believed him. He nodded because yes, it made sense. The county was a dark place in the mid 1700s. Witches weren't uncommon, even if some of them were fake witches. But the family started believing him when, even after 50 years, Reborn had no age lines at all and he still looked like the 25 year old like when he was cursed.
Some, when they learn about his curse or have heard the legends of the Reborn, the immortal around for centuries, thought it was a good thing that he could never age. But Reborn would always shake his head. It wasn't fun, watching everybody you love die around you while you're not even ageing. Nobody but other immortals get it, really. So Reborn learned to stop saying anything. He just shrugged and said he was a little older than he looked when asked his age.
But Reborn was the only immortal that he knew of that kept a room locked with pictures of lost loved ones.
The house used to be in the family, but since he never died or had kids in fear that they would pass down his curse, he's had the house for the last few centuries. So he kept a room in the exact middle of the house locked, painted white, and with the walls filled with pictures.
The room started as sketched pictures that Reborn had done when he was younger of his family. That was all one picture in the very middle of the back wall, so he could see it whenever he walked into the room. Next it was the woman he was going to marry, since both his and the woman's family set them up together. She was nice, but he never loved her as anything but something like a sister. His family didn't get it so he gave up resisting and just left in the middle of the night. He made sure that he had the sketch he did of her so he wouldn't forget her face. She may not be a love interest, but she was still family to him.
Next, he added a man named Raoul in Germany. That was the first man that he dated, even if it was in secret, and lost. Raoul was drowned when he tried to save a young boy, saving the boy but getting himself killed in the process. Everybody thought Reborn was a friend, only one person knowing about their actual relationship, so nobody thought to console him. Reborn left Germany for 100 years after that, going back to Italy to stay for a year in his house. Raoul was the third picture on the wall.
Then the rest were a blur. Some people he loved, but it didn't last long because they fell out of love with him. But he had always had a lot of feelings for everybody around him. Some stuck out more than the others, but only one person did Reborn remember. Even after all of this time.
It had been 1942. The middle of World War II. Germany was close to taking over the world, France and Belgium gone to the Axis' Power. Reborn had been in the town where he met Raoul, at the market getting some food for the month when he was swept into a drafting line. He was nowhere near the line since he was a good three metres from it but an officer had come and pushed him into the line when he was walking away.
Most people didn't notice him, even though the spiky black hair and slanted eyes, slightly tanned skin, and tall stature would make you think that he would be noticed. The officer had looked up at him from the chair, looked him up and down, and asked his age.
"25", was what Reborn said since that was the age he usually looked to people and it was when he was cursed.
The officer had nodded, jotted something down, and handed him a piece of paper. "Sign that, give it to Sargent Frank, and fall in line."
Reborn scoffed under his breath, quickly writing out what he needed, and handed the appointed officer the paper. Boy, was it such a good idea to sign that paper.
Reborn was taken to a German training camp, trained for a year, and swept into the front line as a foot soldier. He had later worked his way up but he wasn't interested in the war going on.
He was in a group of mixed up soldiers. Some were from Italy, some were from Japan, and some were from Germany. They were paired together to share bunks, sometimes beds, if there weren't going to be enough sleeping bags, and he was a paired with a Japanese man that was always quiet and always followed orders, with the surname of Sawada.
His first name was Tsunayoshi, but you had to go by last names in the military. Reborn didn't have one so he just said Reborn was his name and he wasn't giving them another name to call him by. But anyway, Tsunayoshi was sweet and never loud unless he was startled. It was three months until they finally were talking to each other like friends.
Reborn was one of the few people that knew how to speak Japanese well enough to have a full on conversation in their rank. Tsuna was surprised to figure that out and happily started speaking more to Reborn after that when they weren't moving and didn't need to be silent.
One of the conversations they had was one of Reborn's favourites that he had had with anybody he had met. It had started out when Reborn asked Tsuna about family.
"I only have my two parents. My mom and dad had a miscarriage when we got caught in a house fire and they never tried again. So I'm their only next of kin they know." Tsuna's eyes looked at the ground, the brown becoming darker and making Tsuna look older than 22.
"I have no family either; they all died a long time ago." Reborn commented. Tsuna's lip twitched.
"At least you have nothing to lose. When I get back, I'm going to have to marry a woman I don't even love like I should. My parents are so set to marry me off and see me happy, I don't think I want to go back sometimes." Tsuna had an air of melancholy around him, his shoulder slumping down a little.
Reborn patted Tsuna's hair, running his hands briefly through them before retracting his hands and resting them back onto his lap again. "I know how you feel. I had to run away from my home town in Italy so I didn't have to marry a woman I didn't love like a partner too."
Tsuna smiled, nodding. When no one was looking at them, focusing on gathering their gear or cleaning the clothes or dishes ordered to them, Tsuna took Reborn's hand in his and gave it a small squeeze. "Do you miss your family sometimes?" Tsuna asked softly.
"Yes, I miss them everyday, and everybody that I have lost since then."
"How many have you lost?"
"I lost count." Tsuna's hand tightened in Reborn's hearing that, which made Reborn look over in surprise.
"I'm so sorry, Reborn." Tsuna paused for a second, looking like he was thinking over what he was going to say next. "Hopefully I won't become a statistic."
Reborn didn't know what to say after that so he just opted to smiling a little, squeezing Tsuna's hand back. That was one of the things Reborn didn't share easily, how many people he has lost over the years. He hadn't told anybody really, only Raoul.
Soon they were ordered to start moving again by their officers and they were off. But since it was close to winter, a lot of people were holding hands with their neighbours to keep their hands warm as a pre-tense, a lot of them were just imagining that it was their significant other back home.
Later on, when Nazi's Germany's reign of terror was starting to waver and crumble under the Allies, Reborn and Tsuna were let off on sick leave when they were caught in a bomb raid from London. Reborn almost lost an eye, shrapnel getting buried extremely close to his left eye, while Tsuna got shrapnel stuck in his lower leg and shoulder, along with countless other places that got stuck with smaller pieces of glass or metal from the surroundings.
A lot of people had lost interest for fighting on the German lines, Reborn and Tsuna being one of them. Reborn had seen the concentration camps that the Jewish people were being put in, and almost got sick from the sight of it. He was glad he used to be a guard there because he snuck in food for some of the children and elderly, along with some people sick with flu, so their day was at least a little better. It was such a great thing to be moved back to the front lines again, where he met up with Tsuna again who was moved in the same platoon from another concentration camp.
Tsuna and Reborn were tired of the war, not getting why they were fighting anymore. Tsuna had talked to Reborn about going to one of the enemy camps with a small white flag and surrendering. But they were going to be treated for treason if they ever went back. Reborn had offered that they just stick to the back of the line so they wouldn't have to fight anybody unless absolutely necessary, but the lieutenant caught on and made Reborn go up front while Tsuna went into the middle where the mortar rounds were being fired.
But there was a bomb raid on their camp one night, taking everybody by surprise since they were in a city, Reborn couldn't remember and didn't care at this point to remember, and a lot of the soldiers died because of it. But Reborn managed to get Tsuna to a safe spot underneath a park bench that they were walking by.
Reborn knew the sounds of bombs falling since his ears were keener than most were, and he pulled Tsuna under the bench so the blast wouldn't hit Tsuna as much. Since Reborn was immortal, it wouldn't kill him. But it would still hurt him.
Anyway, the bombs rained down, Reborn counted 10, maybe more, who knows for sure. But Reborn didn't care, all he was worried about was that Tsuna was safe, tucked against his chest. Then the bench they were hiding under was blown away from another rain, pushing Tsuna and Reborn with the bench.
There was another rain before it finally stopped, Reborn crumpled against a tree with multiple rocks, pieces of metal, glass, and wood stuck in his legs and back. He lifted his head up, looking around at the damage and saw Tsuna a few metres away from him, a gash running down the length of Tsuna's back.
He was not having Tsuna die on him.
Reborn heaved himself up, his leg screaming in protest since there was a large amount of glass in his thigh, but he ignored it. Tsuna was his main prospect right now. He had to save him; Tsuna was not dying on him. This bumbling, brown-haired idiot was not dying on him when they had only known each other for only about a year.
Reborn reached Tsuna and saw that he was barely conscious. Reborn reacted quickly, ripping off his jacket, feeling a little better since there was a lot of glass stuck in the back of his jacket, and pressed it against the gash in Tsuna's back. He may have been pressing a little too hard because Tsuna gasped, clawing at his arm. At least Reborn knew that Tsuna was awake and kicking.
"Tsuna, you have to stay with me. Can you move your hands, your legs?" He got a barely got a nod in return because Tsuna was barely seeing through the pain, moving his hands a little at the wrist and wiggling the toes of his boots.
Reborn started working on staunching the blood flow and trying to see if there was anyway that somebody could help him. But there were a lot of civilians hurt in the bomb raid so he would have to make do with his jacket and the first aid kit that he had on him.
People were running, trying to find loved ones in the debris, or officers were running trying to find their soldiers. He saw his commanding officer and waved him over to brief him on what happened to him and Tsuna.
"An ambulance will be on their way soon, son. Just keep pressure on that wound so we don't lose him." The officer said, clapping Reborn on the soldier before he jogged off to find somebody that could escort Tsuna to the medical hospital being set up.
"R-Reborn, I-I don't think you should worry about me." Tsuna mumbled; his voice barely above a whisper. "Go help your officer gather the wounded so they can be helped quicker. I'll be fine."
"I'm not leaving you, dumbass. My commanding officer told me to keep you alive anyway, so I'm not giving up." Reborn ground out, pressing a little harder on the wound, making Tsuna gasp a little, clawing at the ground underneath him from the sudden flair of pain.
"N-Not so hard, jackass. Are you trying to kill me?" Tsuna groaned out. Reborn laughed a little before he placed another layer on, a civilian's jacket that he had been given. The civilian had said that Tsuna needed it more than he did.
"I am not trying to kill you; pressure helps the bleeding to stop. You should know this, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said as he lifted a corner of the jacket up to see if it was still bleeding. It had temporarily stopped.
"Yet too much pressure hurts the patient. And don't call me that." Tsuna mumbled, suddenly feeling sleepy.
"Don't go to sleep on me just yet Tsuna. Your bitch-ass would probably die on me."
"Watch your mouth, Reborn. There are probably children around here." Tsuna sounded like a concerned mother.
"Yeah, like they just happen to know Japanese. And we're in the military; our filter automatically goes to the wind on the battlefield. You should know that since you also have quite the mouth on you."
"Oh shut up. Maybe they do know Japanese because they had to migrate there from America? This is a Nazi-Germany occupied city so they would be quite welcomed here."
Reborn had chuckled a little before he pulled the first aid kit over to him, pulling out what he would need. Thankfully he was the medic in their unit so he had a full kit to use on Tsuna. But he made sure to use as little as possible so he could get to other people and help them too when he was done with Tsuna.
More people were running around them now, a lot having blood running down their faces from the small scratches on their faces. Reborn watched a couple reunite with each other before the woman collapsed, the man starting to shout for help in Dutch. Reborn ducked his head and started spreading some of the disinfectant around Tsuna's wound, bandaging it again when he was finished his treatment.
"I'll be back, Tsuna." Reborn said as he took his kit and ran over to the couple, quickly reassuring the man that he was there to help rather than harm.
"I am the medic in my unit. Please let me help if you want your partner to make it." Reborn said in fluent Dutch, the man faltering from his accusations at Reborn and thinking.
"Please help her. She's all I've got left, sir." The man said in Dutch, in a broken voice. Reborn nodded readily as went to work.
She had only fainted from a hit to her head though so he was able to work on her quite quickly by rousing her with an ammonia pill. She was awake and walking to a shelter in a matter of a few minutes. While Reborn was waiting for her to wake up though, he looked and saw a child half buried under a tent of cement that was slowly but surely making his way out from underneath the debris. That would be his next patient.
The man thanked him profusely, shaking his hand up and down. Reborn just kept his straight face, nodding curtly before he tore off, going to the little boy almost out of the rubble.
The boy looked up, terrified when he saw a soldier was blocking out the sun. He scuttled back a little before Reborn gave a soft smile that was completely and utterly foreign on Reborn's face but fit perfectly. The boy seemed to calm down a little, letting Reborn reach forward and grab him around the waist.
"I'm not going to hurt you, boy." Reborn muttered in English, the boy smiling a little.
"Thank you, mister." The boy was German from the accent Reborn heard.
"What's your name?" Reborn asked in German this time, making the boy smile happily since he could speak his mother tongue.
"My name is Adalard, my papa says that if I work hard enough, that I'll be able to become a strong soldier like you, Mister!" The boy, Adalard, chatted happily. Reborn's smile was still in place as he set the boy down.
"You're papa's right. But you need to work hard, study hard, and most of all, be a gentleman to other people that you come in contact with. Even if they're mean to you, you treat them with respect. Especially if you end up marrying them." Reborn lectured, seeing the boy nod along with what he was saying.
As Reborn was talking, he was checking the boy over for injuries or wounds. He had a gash on his arm, a few deep bruises on his legs and random places, but other than a broken arm there was nothing serious.
"I promise, Mister!" Adalard said happily, smiling happily when Reborn ruffled the hair on his temple.
"Good, but now I'm going to have to have you sit down so I can take care of you. I'm the medic in my unit so I know what I'm doing, but that doesn't mean it'll be painless. So I'm going to have to have you promise me that you'll be strong for me. Can you do that?" Reborn asked, gently starting to straighten out the arm that was broken.
Adalard nodded, his small face scrunching up, his blue eyes tearing up from the pain. But he didn't utter a word; just small whimpers like someone normally would do in this situation. Reborn smiled at him, his face starting to hurt since he didn't smile, and made Adalard as comfortable as possible on the ground as he worked.
"Adalard, how old are you?" Reborn asked as he was fixing a sling onto the arm.
"I'm five!" He said happily, putting up five fingers to show Reborn.
"Oh? I thought you were 10 from how mature you were. Tell me, do you have any lady friends in your school?" Reborn finished tying the knot to the sling and moved onto cleaning out and bandaging the gash on the opposite arm.
Adalard scrunched up his face, shaking his head. "No, girls are icky. Is it bad that I like boys how I should like girls?"
"No, even if you're told it is, it's not." Reborn said, looking straight into Adalard's face. "Love is never something to be ashamed of. Promise me you'll remember that, will you?"
"I promise, Mister."
"Please, call me Reborn should we ever meet again."
"Sure, Mister Reborn! Thank you for the help!" Adalard rushed forward and hugged Reborn as best as he could with a sling. Reborn didn't expect the hug from Adalard, but he hugged back nonetheless.
"Run along to the hospital being set up now. You have to get that arm set. Maybe you'll meet up with your mother, hm?"
Adalard was out of sight before Reborn moved again; looking around the small park they were in to find any other survivors he could treat. A teenager that looked about 15 was unconscious with severe burns on her back and face, but Reborn hefted her up nonetheless and, when he saw more soldiers coming, placed her in a soldier's arms so she could get treatment. Reborn saw an elderly woman by the small woods collapsed on the ground, and he ran over to her to see if there was anything he could do. She was too far gone though so he just closed her eyes for her and ran off to what he presumed to be her husband, who had varying minor to severe burns all over his body. He treated as much as he could before he waved over a soldier to bring him away to the field hospital.
As the day wore on, Reborn had gone through three packs of first aid kits from that he got from dead soldiers and extra supplies from the store across from the park that was a general store. In the middle of the day, a soldier ran up to him, a new Japanese recruit by the looks of it, and gave him a breathless report. Apparently he had been elected the leader in the middle of chaos from how well he handled the situation.
"What about the Japanese soldier, Sawada, which was with me? How is he?" Reborn asked when the soldier was done his report.
"He's stable, sir. But he's been asking for you since he believes that there might be another raid later on today. We've been trying to get him to sleep but he won't settle down long enough for the drug to work." The soldier said.
"Tell him I'll be there. Also, his instincts haven't been wrong before. I would've been dead ten times over if it weren't for him pulling me out of the way. So tell the sergeant that I agree with him if it will help everybody prep." Reborn said and bowed to the soldier before the soldier ran off to relay Reborn's message.
Reborn sighed, taking off his helmet and rubbing his hair, making the spikes stick up everywhere despite the fact Reborn hadn't had a shower in a few days. He grimaced as he felt the grease in his hair, not liking the grimy feeling. Reborn shook it off though as he started jogging to the field hospital.
Tsuna was in one of the last beds when you entered the tent. He was twirling a knife around on its tip against the ground, where Tsuna got the knife was beyond Reborn. As he came closer, Tsuna spotted him, flipping the knife up into his hand, and heaving himself up off of his stomach.
"Whoa there, cowboy. I'm gonna have to have you calm down, Sawada. You have two scrapes all the way down your back." Reborn said, pushing Tsuna back down onto his stomach.
"Bite me, Reborn. There's going to be another raid. I have to tell me sergeant before it's too late." Tsuna grumbled, trying to pry Reborn's hands off of his shoulders.
"How do you know there's going to be another raid?" Reborn asked, pulling up the extra chair beside Tsuna's bedside to sit in.
"I just know", Tsuna said harshly. But when Reborn just raised an eyebrow in question, Tsuna sighed irritably before clarifying softly, "I know because of this feeling. I was born with it, I can't explain it either, I just know that something's going to happen. And it's not something good like the war ends today."
Reborn didn't know what to say because that was an ability that Reborn had, but it was because he was cursed. His curse, he didn't exactly know how it worked, but it allowed him to see the outcome of dangerous situations and what could have happened. The only other people he knew about that had this gift was a shaman by the name of Luce that he met 50 years earlier.
"Tsuna, what do you feel when this premonition happens?" Reborn asked carefully.
"What? Why does it matter?" Tsuna snapped.
"It matters because I knew a woman that was born with the same gift that you proclaim to have. I just want to make sure that what I'm hearing is true."
"Ugh, fine. My head starts to feel like it'll break for a few minutes before it leaves, then my entire body feels like it's engulfed in a small heat."
That was what Luce had described the feeling of getting a premonition was like. Luce was also cursed by the same witch that cursed him. That made Reborn's eyebrow's raise in suspicion.
"I see..." Reborn paused, watching the way Tsuna hunched a little on the bed, like he was ready to be ridiculed. "They might need me on the field again. I'm going to go out again with another medic unit. I'll try and suggest to the sergeant that there's going to be another strike. I'll make something up if I have too."
Reborn got up, ruffling Tsuna's hair at the base of Tsuna's neck, and left after checking with the head doctor where he needed to go. Tsuna groaned a little, but looked around and made sure that the two people within earshot of the bed where still unconscious.
They were thankfully.
Six years. It took about six years for the world to get their shit together and stop the war. Hitler was dead, Italy had surrendered a few months before, and Japan was still reeling from America's attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Reborn didn't care about the war anymore. He was just ready to go back to his small house in Italy and put up the two pictures he had. One was the sketch of Adalard that he had done the night they met, and the other was a picture of him and Tsuna.
Tsuna had to go to Namimori, his home town where he was enlisted from, and try to get away from the forced engagement. If he couldn't, Tsuna would run away in the middle of the night and hop on a train to Italy where he was going to meet Reborn. Of course, Reborn was going to get a letter and meet Tsuna in the designated place.
So Reborn was back to sitting in his colourless room staring up at the picture of Tsuna that he had put in the dead centre of his ceiling. Adalard was over by the clump of pictures he kept for people that he met briefly but had been fantastic to Reborn.
He had been lounging, his hands propping his head up, and his knee holding his other leg up. This was what he usually did when he was alone in his house, having nobody in the village to talk to since some still had a picture of him with his families. It had taken almost six hours for that picture to be taken since cameras were still using the set up of the 1600s. Luckily he was 20 and was used to standing still for long periods of time. Of course, he was only used to it since he was a scarecrow a couple of times during harvest to keep pests away from the crops.
Anyway, he couldn't go into town because some of the people there looked at their family tree regularly and would recognize him as an ancestor from them, when it was really that he was their ancestor, he just chose not to say anything since he would be carted off to the insane asylum.
But people still came into the woods he lived in since there were a lot of small animals that people could hunt. Sometimes, if there was a hunting accident, people would bang on his doors for help. Maybe he could help them since he was trained to be a medic in the military. Twice.
A knock on his door pulled him out of his reprieve, making him jerk up into a defensive stance. He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair to calm himself. Looks like going into both World Wars had affected him by making him wary of any sound that he didn't expect.
Reborn walked out, closing his door so it was only open a crack, and went down the hall, turning left then right to get to his front door through his living room.
A person, maybe 30 in age, was standing there, from what he could tell the person was male, blond hair, blue eyes, and as tall as Reborn was. He had no idea why somebody was knocking on his door since nobody usually came out here.
"How may I help you?" Reborn asked coolly in Italian, opening the door only enough that he was seen but none of his house was in view.
"Hello, I was wondering if you would like to sign this form stating that you are a citizen of this country." The man replied in Italian, lifting up the pen and paper in his hands for emphasis.
Reborn regarded him before reaching to take the pen and paper being held out to him. "Why do I have to sign this?" Reborn asked, the pen poised over the page.
"Oh, it's just to see how many people are in the country right now, how many houses are occupied, that kind of thing the Italian government needs to know." The guy was smiling too easily for Reborn's taste.
"Alright..." Reborn said, signing his name from before he was Reborn.
"Were you in the war that just went down?" The guy asked, making Reborn tense a little, not enough to be seen though.
"Yes, I was. I was a medic with a platoon of Japanese, German, and Italian troops." Reborn said curtly, handing the pen and paper back to the guy. "Have a good one, sir."
"Alright, you too." The guy waved, smiling too easily again as Reborn shut the door. Weird.
Reborn walked back through his house, turning left when he walked back into the hall so he could go to his kitchen to make himself some coffee. But he was running low. He was going to have to make a quick trip to the next town over and get some food for the month. Maybe he'll be signed up for another war while he was there, like last time? But last time he was only in town since he had deemed it was safe since it was Sunday morning. A lot of people were in church on Sunday mornings so not very many people would be in the market.
Civilian life. How strange after being in a battle field for three years. He didn't care much for the war in the first place but he was forced to sign up since it was a duty for every body that was able. He was pretty sure he would've been sent to a concentration camp if he didn't go to the front line. Hitler was crazy enough. But he wasn't sure if he would be used to the civilian life since everything was usually quiet. Maybe there would be a few bangs from shipments coming into the harbour, but that would be about all the unusual noise since the people running the stands were always yelling.
Reborn sighed, leaving his kitchen, and putting on his shoes, suit jacket, and trench coat. His hand hesitated over his fedora before he stuffed it onto his head. Tsuna had given the fedora to him, saying it was a present he needed to hold until they met up again.
It was getting colder than when it usually did in the middle of October. Reborn sighed; he would have to buy another scarf since a lot of his wool had been taken in the first three years of the war. He had managed to hide his metal in his picture room since he claimed he didn't have the key for the room when soldiers came up to ask for his metal. But he did loose a lot of his pots and pans. He kept his kettle and a couple pans in with his other family heirlooms. He wasn't a complete scum that he wouldn't give soldiers metal when they needed it for a war.
Walking down the familiar path to the town was strange. He didn't come out of his house a lot anymore than he needed too now, he was more secluded than he was before going to war.
Maybe it was because of Tsuna.
He had realized a year after they had met that he loved Tsuna. But it wasn't like the other relationships he has had before. It was something else that made him feel like he was going to go mad if Tsuna left him for somebody else, whether it is for Death or it is a woman, or even another man. He just loved Tsuna with his entire being and he wasn't going to let anybody get in the way of that. Even if it was frowned upon in the society he lived in, he didn't care. He was going to tell Tsuna his feelings the next time they met so it was out of the way and that Tsuna knew. Even if he was pushed away and ostracised by Tsuna.
It has been a year. Reborn has heard nothing from Tsuna and it's been a year since they parted at the train station. It's now been four years since they met and Reborn's love was still going strong, even if it's been a year since they even spoke.
But Reborn wasn't going to give up hope that they would meet someday since Tsuna had promised. If you couldn't keep a promise, you weren't even worth the time of day in Reborn's eyes. But maybe that was just the side his mother had beaten into his skull day in and day out to keep his promises.
So Reborn went through life, reading some books he found in stores and enjoying his leisurely life. Sometimes he would take up odd jobs to pay for his housing and food that paid well enough for him to live off of that one pay for almost a month. Or he was just good at the jobs since they were usually within his talent (a cab driver.)
One day he was sitting by the entrance to an airport waiting for somebody to get in. He didn't usually look back since most of the time he got couples getting a little handsy together in the backseat, and he didn't want to see two people kissing, nor did he care that much to be honest. So he only looked back when he heard an accented Italian request to go to the base of the woods he lived in.
"Are you sure you want to go there?" Reborn asked in Italian, looking in the rearview mirror to see who was behind him. "There's nothing there for kilometres, son."
"I'm sure, sir. How much will it be for the trip?" Reborn couldn't get a good look at the man's face since he was looking out of the window with his head ducked.
"It'll be about 5 Euros for the trip and gas. It'll be a long ride since that's all the way across town." Reborn turned onto the road as he talked, manoeuvring his way through traffic as quickly as possible. It was also the end of his shift soon so this would be his last drive for the day.
They rode in silence, the man breaking it by humming something. Reborn didn't care to ask what it was since it was 5 o'clock and rush hour. He was busy trying to manoeuvre through without getting hit.
When they arrived at the base of the small hill, the man got out with his suit case, walked up to the window, and froze as he finally saw who was driving.
"I should've known it was you, Reborn." Tsuna said with a dry smile as he handed Reborn the money.
"Took you long enough, Dame-Tsuna. I thought you got smarter during the war." Reborn said in disdain, earning him a scoff and a light tap to his temple.
"I was a little pre-occupied in hoping I got the right address. You weren't exactly clear as to where you lived. Now I can see why." Tsuna gazed around him, curiously taking in the country side that was what Reborn knew for almost 50 years before he left for Germany.
"Well, it's not exactly a place you live in any more since, after the Great Depression, a lot of people moved to the city with their families. I have to go return the car to the lot and get paid so just stay here until I get back. I should only take about an hour at the most."
"Drive safe then. That was some hectic driving."
"I have to deal with it everyday sometimes if I'm running low on money."
Tsuna laughed, making Reborn have to look away to the trees behind Tsuna, before he waved him off. "Have fun with that then. I'll be making my way up to your house since I'm not exactly good at climbing."
"It isn't as hard as it looks, you know. Once you're used to it."
"Used to it I am not." Tsuna waved over his shoulder as he started off, heaving his messenger bag back onto his shoulder.
Reborn laughed a little before he drove off, putting the car back in the lot and walking back to his house in record time. He was way too eager to talk with Tsuna apparently.
Walking into his house, he took all of his outdoor wear off, hanging them on the peg in the hallway. Reborn didn't bother taking his shoes off since he would rather not step in water if there was a leak anywhere, considering how old his house was, he didn't want to take any chances. But he forgot he had his hat on so he didn't take it off when he walked through his house, trying to find where Tsuna was in his house.
There was a thump behind him, making him look back and see Tsuna rushing out of his picture room, something being tucked into Tsuna's back pocket.
"Why were you in there?" Reborn said, his words coming out more defensive than he intended. He blinked, took a breath, and pushed Tsuna away from the door. "Please don't go in there, Tsuna. Nobody but me goes in there."
"I-I'm sorry, I was just looking around the house while you were gone and this door was open and I got curious because I saw my great-great grandfather in there and so..." Tsuna stuttered, his voice fading out from Reborn's glare.
"Who was your grandfather?" Reborn asked after a beat. He pushed Tsuna's shoulder a little to direct him to where Reborn had set up a sitting room, Tsuna shrinking a little since Reborn never really was angry with him
"Giotto di Vongola. He ran a vigilante group in Italy but migrated to Japan because of a coup d'etat that his cousin, Ricardo, planned." Tsuna listed off like it had been drilled into his skull.
"He ran Vongola, the biggest Mafia syndicate ever known." Reborn said, nodding. Giotto was another one of his past lovers, Giotto fleeing a year later to Japan like Tsuna said. Reborn knew everything and had been employed by Ricardo for a time so there were eyes on him, just in case Reborn did something.
"Yeah, he did. But only when he left did it become a Mafia syndicate. How did you know that?" Tsuna sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to him when Reborn moved to go to the chair across from it.
"I was in the Mafia for a time. They wanted me to learn everything I could about their history."
Tsuna laughed, not believing him. "Okay, sure. You sound like you knew my grandfather."
"I did know your grandfather."
Tsuna started laughing again, not believing him until he saw Reborn's face. "...Oh my god, you're serious."
Reborn smirked, getting up again to walk to his picture room. He plucked the picture of Giotto and him off of the wall and came back with it. He set the picture on the table in front of Tsuna, laying it flat; since it was so old it tended to curl if you didn't have anything like tape on it.
"How come I didn't see you in the photo?" Tsuna asked as he studied the picture. It was grainy, yes, but the picture was well kept so it was easy to see what was in it if you looked hard enough.
"Because I hide myself in the picture. I keep all of my past lovers on that wall, the people I consider family on the opposite wall, and people that I consider both go anywhere I want." Reborn explained as he relaxed back against the couch cushions, feeling the springs sink with him.
Tsuna's mouth made a little 'o', Reborn refused to say anything about how it was adorable, and he studied the picture over again. They were silent for a long while, Tsuna mulling over what Reborn was trying to tell him without saying anything at all, before he gave up.
"Alright, what are you hinting at? Spit it out already." Tsuna demanded, twenty minutes after he started mulling over things.
Twenty minutes was enough for Reborn's nerves to be worked up that he could lean forward and kiss Tsuna. Reborn felt Tsuna tense, not expecting to be kissed and the hands on his upper-arms to push him away. Reborn pulled away before Tsuna could, smiling softly at Tsuna before he got up again, and went to the kitchen.
"Want any coffee?" Reborn called behind him as he walked to the kitchen.
"No you don't get to do that." Tsuna said huffily as he followed Reborn.
"Do what?"
"Kiss me and act like it was no big deal. Like you would do it again in a heart beat."
"I would and I just did. Now would you like coffee, there's no tea since it's gross."
Reborn ignored Tsuna's insistence for the moment as he figured out what to do next. Should he just let Tsuna forget about it or should he say something about why he did it, should Tsuna ask?
"Listen to me, damnit!" Tsuna finally snapped, pulling Reborn around so they were face to face. Reborn didn't seem affected by the outburst, his eyes and face guarded from everybody looking in. "If you think I'm going to ridicule you, you're wrong. If you think I came here to just get away from my ex-fiancée, you're also wrong. I came here because I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and I was going to tell you my feelings whether you liked it or not. So don't you dare think for a minute that I am just going to brush off what you just did without talking it through."
Reborn regarded Tsuna for a moment before he let out a foreign smile. "Good to know. We can discuss it if you want, but not right now. Your confusion's adorable."
Tsuna puffed out a cheek, pulling Reborn down to his level before kissing Reborn. They pulled back, Tsuna blushing with a snide comment of, "Adorable my ass, you just want me to leave as soon as possible."
"Yes, I tried my hardest to convey my feelings to you then kick you out because you want to talk to me." Reborn rolled his eyes to the ceiling in mock annoyance. Tsuna pinched his cheeks since they were still on the same level, making Reborn stifle a snicker. "And that's not the only thing I wanted to tell you."
"What's the other thing you wanted to tell me then?" Tsuna asked, cocking his head a little to the right.
"I'm not telling you until you talk to me about why you have an ex-fiancée now."
Tsuna scrunched up his face a little, sighing through his nose. "Well, I think it would be better if we sat down. It's kind of a long story."
Reborn raised an eyebrow, not knowing what to expect. But he was a little curious so he sat down on the couch, not expecting Tsuna to trip and land in his lap. Reborn didn't miss a beat in saying, "Well, Tsuna, is it just me or are you falling for me?"
"Now is not the time for puns, Reborn." Tsuna mumbled bashfully as he adjusted himself against Reborn, making himself comfortable sprawled on Reborn's lap.
"You really have no shame, do you, Tsuna?" Reborn asked as he hugged Tsuna around his waist.
"No, I don't. War usually does that to you." Tsuna grinned cheekily up at Reborn before he sobered up and sighed, leaning his cheek against Reborn's chest. "Kyoko, the girl I was supposed to marry, couldn't deal with how shell-shocked I was. She left on her own, and since my parents thought that she was wonderful and could do no wrong, they forgave her and scolded me for not being a good enough husband-to-be."
"...I'm sorry that your parents don't understand what war does to a person." Reborn murmured, starting to play with Tsuna's hair absently.
"My dad was in the first Word War, he was fighting on the Italian side by the way, so I thought he would understand. But he just told me to stop being such a wuss and to get over myself. I couldn't handle it so I decided that I would rather spend my days here with a friend and possibly more, than with an ignorant family and half the town hating me."
"Why would half the town hate you because you fought a war for their freedom?"
"Because I threw away perfect wife-material that Kyoko had. She's amazing at being a house wife, but I would rather not have her looking over my shoulder at what I'm writing to you. That's why I didn't contact you. Whenever I sat down to write you a letter, she would come over and read what I had read so far."
"You sound quite vexed at that, Tsuna."
"Well I would like to have some privacy. My parents forced us to move in together since it would be easier to learn how to get along and things of the like. My parents don't know but we barely talked to each other since we have nothing in common and have no idea what common ground we could use to communicate and at least try to start a relationship. But she tries to find things I'm doing to talk about, like if I know how to cook very well, and do I like to cook when I do? Or who I'm writing the letter for in this case."
Reborn nodded a little, shifting so he could fall sideways onto the couch so both of them were laying down. Tsuna let out a squawk of surprise, making Reborn laugh a little, before Tsuna settled against Reborn.
"Now that I told you why I'm here, you have to tell me what the second thing you wanted to tell me was." Tsuna demanded, wiggling a little so they were eye to eye.
"...Do you believe in curses?" Reborn asked after a beat, taking Tsuna aback.
"Curses as in what witches and warlocks do to people?" Tsuna asked for clarification. Reborn gave tight nod, making Tsuna confused. "I've never seen one happen and all that, but I can't say I don't believe in it."
"Well, when I was 25 I was cursed by a witch because my family owed money to her and when she came to collect it, me being the only one on the farm at the time since everybody else was at church, she cursed me when I couldn't give her anything to pay off our debt." Reborn said, watching Tsuna's face carefully.
Tsuna's eyebrows furrowed, making Tsuna's eyes narrow. "How long ago were you on the farm?"
"195 years exactly tomorrow." Reborn answered quietly.
As he expect, Tsuna shot up from his position against Reborn, staring down at him wide-eyed. Reborn just calmly shifted so he was a little bit more comfortable, plopping his hat on the back of the chair when he felt it on his head for the first time since he had gotten home, and stared back at Tsuna.
"Come on, say that you don't believe me and we can move on." Reborn said after Tsuna and him had a five minute long staring competition.
"...I believe you." Tsuna said, laying back down.
"Most people leave me when they hear that."
"I'm not most people. And how come you didn't go to church is my first question."
"Because I was sick and people were still scared of the Black Death that happened only a couple hundred years before. So my parents made me stay home."
"Do you still go to church?"
"Sometimes, when everything I knew crumbled again or I just lost somebody that I had fallen in love with that had been killed, and I need to be reminded of where I came from. I'll go when everything feels hopeless and maybe, just maybe, a God or Goddess out there might take pity on me, smite me, and end my misery."
Another five years passed with Tsuna staying with Reborn, their relationship evolving and gaining dynamic into a mixture of romance and a camaraderie that Reborn had never had before. It was refreshing than what his relationships were usually like so he made sure that Tsuna knew how much he loved him, no matter if they were in the middle of a fight, or if it was just a lazy day between the two.
Today was a day that Tsuna and Reborn were in the middle of a fight. It was really quite stupid, but Tsuna stuck to it that he wasn't going back to Japan and Reborn was trying to urge him to go. His mother had fallen ill and Tsuna had just gotten a letter from his father stating that he needed to come back so he could say goodbye. They didn't expect her to last more than a few months.
When Reborn woke up that morning, he saw that Tsuna was still asleep on the couch. He made his coffee the way he liked it and another the way he knew Tsuna liked it, with a lot of sugar and milk. He placed Tsuna's cup on the table in front of the couch before he left to make some eggs to eat. Reborn had to work since one of the cab driver's wife had just given birth and he was needed there so Reborn was asked to fill in.
Reborn left with Tsuna still on the couch, but this time he was reading one of the books Reborn had bought, it was a Hardy Boys' book. Reborn refused to leave without a goodbye hug though, since Tsuna always needed a hug when he was mad, which Reborn learned the hard way.
But Tsuna was home alone and Reborn was making his rounds through the small town, quickly turning into a small city, looking for anybody that needed a cab.
By the time 3 o'clock rolled around, the end of Reborn's shift, Reborn was more than ready to go home and make up with Tsuna. So he parked his car and all but sprinted home to make it up to Tsuna. But he made sure that he was sprinting if he saw people coming around the corner or looked like they were street. He didn't want to be stopped because that happened sometimes.
When he made it the base of the woods he lived in, stopping to catch his as before he ran up the remainder of the way to his house, he felt like something was off. Where he knew a tree used to be growing, there was only a pile of dirt with roots being almost a metre away from where it originally was. He made sure that nobody touched the plants in this forest so he knew something was wrong. Reborn sprinted as hard as he could up to his house then, not even noticing the footprints that was a little bit off of the path as he passed.
Tsuna wasn't in the living room or kitchen when Reborn looked. Reborn checked every possible room that Tsuna could be in but he wasn't in any of them. He sighed, going into his picture room. His picture room was where he did his best thinking so maybe he could calm down in there.
He sucked in a breath, closing his eyes as he walked through the doorway, and shot his eyes open when he smelt the familiar smell of copper.
Tsuna was in his picture room, yeah. The one place that Reborn told him to not go in since Reborn needed that room and it was precious to him, but Tsuna wasn't alive. He was dead, not suicide because there were too many stab wounds, and it was definitely not accidental because the wounds were too precise and measured. Tsuna had been tortured when he was gone, and Reborn knew exactly who did it because he had seen the signature kill before, when he was in the Mafia and there was a soldier killer at large.
Reborn didn't care right now about who killed Tsuna though. All he could do was fall to his knees and cry. Just once will he cry over Tsuna, maybe a couple other times if he was missing Tsuna, but he would not show emotion anymore than necessary. So he cried into his hands as Tsuna stared lifelessly back at him.
Reborn had managed to send the letter to Tsuna's parents about his passing, stating that it was a tragic bear mauling when Tsuna and he had gone on a walk in the words. Of course that was a flat out lie since Reborn was pretty sure that there weren't any bears near Florence. Hopefully Tsuna's parents didn't know that.
But Reborn didn't care anymore.
Reborn shot up from his bed, his heart beating faster than it should've been. That nightmare again, huh?
63 years and he was still dreaming about a man that he met in the second world war and had given him the best 6 years of his cursed life. Reborn laughed bitterly, knowing that this was his punishment for not pursuing Tsuna's killer, even when he was threatened with prosecution.
Looking over, Reborn noticed that he still had another three hours until he had to get up for his work. He worked in a law firm, finding law to be a comfort to him, even after all of these years. Nobody suspected he was the same person since he changed his name and moved from country to country every 10 years. People tend to get suspicious if you don't age a day.
Reborn wasn't going to be able to get anymore sleep today though. It was the anniversary of Tsuna's death; April 15th. Reborn sighed, he was going to have to leave work early again so he could get to Tsuna's grave stone before people started arriving at the graveyard. Awkward conversation usually happened pertaining around who they lost and Reborn was not in the mood for that this time.
So Reborn took the hat he still had, that he was supposed to give to Tsuna all those years ago, and put on his jacket and trench coat over his suit so he could go to the graveyard and them go directly to work.
He was in Japan today, Namimori to be exact, since he had been hired to tutor a new law firm employee, show her the ropes and all of that. He was not looking forward to it but he liked being a teacher since some of his students had an interesting background.
The graveyard was empty when Reborn got there, his presence only noted by the fence that creak when you touched the metal, the lonely willow trees that looked like they would collapse on you any minute, and the gravestones of the lost loved ones that were probably silently judging you since you came to talk to a slab of rock.
Reborn spent two of the hours he had left before his work just sitting there, talking about his last year to the grave Tsuna was in. Reborn had buried his body in Italy, saying that Tsuna had fallen off a small cliff running from the bear when he managed to escape.
After the two hours, he heard a car pull up, signalling for him to leave. No awkward small talk for him.
He picked himself up, dusting himself off as he walked, and nodded politely to the woman getting out of the car. She nodded back before they ignored each other. That was fine with him
Reborn looked around the city, marvelling in how modernized it had gotten in just 50 years. It was astounding what the human race could do, really. The small boy from the mid-1700s was going crazy since all of this seemed impossible then.
He was so distracted that he didn't feel somebody run into him until it was too late, being bowled over by what looked like a 23 year old girl, university student that was late for school probably. She went to the Namimori university from the insignia on the bag she was using, and Reborn resisted the urge to hug her since he mistook her for Tsuna. But Tsuna was dead, he wasn't coming back.
"I'm sorry, mister!" The girl's voice was screechy, like she was used to being yelled at for running into somebody.
"It's fine, I'm not mad." Reborn said, making his voice sound flat instead of sharp like it would usually be. She seemed relieved of that fact and smiled.
"How wonderful! Have a nice day, mister!" She ran off, her student ID falling out of her pocket as she ran.
Reborn picked it up, the name Sawada Tsurara. Interesting. His new student was her mother.
He made it his mission to get to know Sawada Tsurara, even if it killed him in the process.
Oh god, it's been too long since I've uploaded a new story. I decided to do a one-shot after a writing prompt I found. I dunno how well it came out but I guess you guys will tell me what you liked about it or disliked about it in a review. I don't know how much I'll be updating my other stories to the people that read them, especially because the only ship I avidly love in KHR anymore is R27, so I'll try but the other ship stories might not happen for a very long time.
Leave a review on the way out, if you like, to tell me what you thought and have a wonderful day!
-Gate