All characters © Amano Akira

Summary: Reborn informs Nana that he will be tutoring Sawada Tsunayoshi, set during chapter 1 of the manga. The Sawada family is one that's never as it seems, and that includes Nana.

Domestic Prevarications

"I've heard quite a bit about you, mostly from that guy," Reborn said as he bowed, as was the custom here in Japan, and stacked some books onto the chair so that he would be able to see over the edge of the table. He climbed to the top of the stack and made himself comfortable, locking his fingers together. "Sawada Nana."

"Oh, you don't have to be so formal with me, Reborn-kun!" Nana exclaimed, tucking a short strand of hair behind her ear bashfully. "Just call me Nana or Mom, alright? You'll be a part of this family now, so honorifics aren't necesary." She beamed sunnily. "Would you like some tea or coffee?"

"That would be lovely. Espresso, if you have it," Reborn nodded.

"How is Iemitsu?" Nana asked as she bustled about the sunny kitchen, feeling a blush powder her cheekbones as it often did when she talked about "that guy."

"As chipper as ever. He wanted me to tell you that he'll be back to 'warm the bed for you' soon." Reborn said this without any inflection, but his shiny black doll's eyes twinkled. Nana shook her head and giggled with a look that said "same old darling" as she went to calm the boiling water on the stove. She set a freshly brewed pot of coffee next to Reborn, and saw him smile as the steam curled around his pudgy face.

"Well, we don't have to worry about it stunting your growth!" Nana laughed as his tiny hands closed around the mug.

"Hn. So you've heard about my real age," Reborn replied matter-of-factly. He sipped the coffee, finding it to his liking. It was warm and rich, laced with caffeine the way all coffee should be, in his humble opinion.

Nana nodded. He really made an adorable kid, she noted, even if he wasn't one at heart. With a suit and hat like that and looking as if you were three years old, you could get away with just about anything. And you could charm the ladies all at the same time.

"Where's Tsunayoshi?"

"School," Nana replied, snapping out of her meandering thoughts with a blink, "And call him Tsuna; everyone does! He sometimes comes home around now...he likes to skip his math class," she admitted.

"Hmm," Reborn muttered, fingering the little curlicues of hair that fell down by his ears, "that'll have to change."

"Tsu-kun doesn't really care about anything anymore," Nana told him sadly. "I don't know if that's a result of bad parenting on our behalf or of something else entirely. Will you help him, Reborn-kun?"

"You can say that fixing hopeless cases is a specialty of mine," Reborn assured her. "I have no interest in people who are already flawless. You've heard from the Ninth already, the plans for him?"

"The Ninth and Iemitsu," she corrected.

"And Tsuna has no idea?"

"I didn't tell him yet." Nana giggled, and held a hand to her mouth. "Whoops!"

Reborn peered curiously over the rim of his espresso mug, reading her expressions. His bead-black eyes held double smiles. "You wanted me to hit him hard with it," he concluded. It wasn't a question. In response, Nana straightened her apron and smiled some more.

"As expected of the Sawadas," Reborn mused, quite humored by her demeanor, "never as you seem. I'm surprised Tsuna hasn't figured it out after all these years."

"Well he's never been a bright boy..."

"Neither was Iemitsu, at first. Tell me, Tsuna never once questioned the fact that construction workers don't usually go on extended business trips?"

Nana shrugged. "He was never taught otherwise."

"What about the fact that you three go on family vacations to Naples every few years?" Reborn continued, "or the fact that you have a pair of M9's in your purse, and bullet caches around the house? You make it exceedingly obvious, Nana."

A light shrug. "Tsu-kun lives in a world where he thinks everything is simple and things are straightforward, like they're supposed to be."

"Unlike you, of course," Reborn set his gaze on Nana. "From one look at you I can tell you're a professional assassin, despite your prevarications."

"Oh, that's so cold!" Nana exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Was a professional assassin is more like it," she corrected, after Reborn gave her a wry, knowing grin. "Now I cook pork buns!"

Reborn looked into his espresso, seeing his own face distorted in the dark liquid. "That airhead ruse is certainly effective. If I wasn't a people person I would have been completely fooled, though I must say you definitely outshine Iemitsu's skill at it."

Nana smiled, and in that instant it was a different kind of smile. Her eyes twinkled, but they were sharp around the edges, cooler like the moon on a December night. "All it takes is practice, Reborn-kun," she said. "Obfuscating lethality is the most effective ploy."

"Ah, I couldn't agree more," Reborn said, his somberness only veiled by pudgy, infantile cheeks and doll-like eyes. His gaze lingered for a moment more on his tiny body, aware of the Beretta m1951 in the coat pocket of his custom-made Zanieri suit.

He gave another one of his half-chuckles, those little hn's, and said, "Now that's the assassin Nana I've heard so much about. Iemitsu used to tell me stories of how you took out the entire Bertrolli family in less than a day."

She folded her napkin, receding once more into her motherly mode. "Please, you flatter me!" she remarked, flapping her hand in a dismissive gesture. "I'm just a housewife now!"

Reborn snorted quietly in the back of his throat, guzzled the rest of his coffee, and decided to direct the subject matter into more current waters. "I shall begin my tutoring this afternoon, Nana."

Nana stopped flapping her hand in the air and gave him an endearing smile. "Wonderful," she replied. "I'm excited; the Cavallone family still talks about you! Though," she broke off, looking thoughtful, "I wonder how Tsu-kun will react to being told that he's next in line for the mafia crime syndicate...hmm..."

"Based on Iemitsu's information, not well." Reborn sighed. "Nana. Considering what I know of Tsuna, I may have to employ some rather...spartan methods. Are you alright with that, as his mother?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Nana replied happily. "Just don't kill him, okay?"

Reborn tipped the brim of his orange-lined fedora in a nod. "Agreed. He's a shogun after all (1), so he should be fine. And what will you do, Nana?"

Nana blinked at him owlishly, holding a hand to her cheek. "Why, what do you mean, Reborn-kun? I'm just his mother!"

"For now," Reborn concluded, hopping down from his stack of books, "though I like the other Sawada Nana better. And when the time comes for you to be that—" he let one of his impish smiles surface—"I'd like to see Tsuna's face."

Nana let some teeth show in her smile and laughed brightly. The sound was like tinkling splinters of miniature bells; insidious in that it was a beautiful sound, yet one that could easily cut you if you weren't careful.

"It still marvels me how your entire family is never as it seems," Reborn said, giving her a respectable bow. He straightened out his tie with thoughts on what was to come. "Perhaps Tsuna will be the same way."

end.

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(1) In the Edo period, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.