A/N: Here, have some (short) prompts.
challenge
1. Introduction
Their first meeting was… different.
Eyes bright with flames, Tsuna stared back at the calm onyx gaze directed at him, then to the barrel of the gun pointed between his eyes. Another visitor - the third one this week - but a good one if he could get passed the illusions Chrome set up and the guards trained by both Hibari and Gokudera.
"Who are you?" Tsuna asked, not moving an inch from his seat, hands clasped together on the desk.
The man smirked. "Reborn," he answered easily enough. Tsuna recognized the name; Reborn, one of the Strongest Seven - the strongest of them, according to rumors. He hadn't thought their meeting would turn out like this, not when he was informed that the Arcobaleno were a neutral group with no alliance to anyone but themselves.
"Why are you here?"
"To give my greetings," Reborn said. He tipped his fedora. "Welcome to the mafia, Decimo."
"Thank you," Tsuna said. "I'd appreciate it more if there wasn't a gun pointed at my face."
Reborn chuckled, a quiet, low sound that was faint in Tsuna's ears. "I'm afraid this is how it's done here."
"Then let's change that," Tsuna said. He extinguished the fire burning in his eyes, on his forehead, and looked at the assassin with wide, honey colored eyes filled with a warmth even mafia couldn't change. He carefully stood from his seat and extended a hand to the other man. Intuition told him he wouldn't be a danger even with the gun in his hand. "My name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, Vongola Decimo. Nice to meet you, Reborn."
There was a pause after his greeting where they stared at each other, assessing, waiting, until Reborn lowered the arm holding his gun and fully covered his eyes with the brim of his fedora. He didn't take the offered hand, but he did say, in a voice filled with amusement, "Chaos, Tsunayoshi. It's a pleasure to meet you."
2. Complicated
When Gokudera walked into Tsuna's office to find his boss talking with the deadliest hitman the world had to offer, he knew he couldn't let that stand.
"Tenth, what are you doing?" Gokudera exclaimed, jabbing a finger at the man lounging on Tsuna's desk, mug of coffee in hand, without a care in the world. "Why is he here?"
Tsuna blinked, his previous conversation lost. "Oh, Gokudera, what's wrong? Do you need me to check something?" He seemed unperturbed by the fact that there was a hitman - a stranger, really - sitting on his workplace. Gokudera felt his eye twitch when Reborn sipped at his drink, an infuriating smirk on his lips.
"Tenth, there's a hitman sitting on your desk."
"I know that, Gokudera. It's kind of hard not to notice him."
Gokudera felt like burning something when the hitman let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle - preferably the hitman himself, if he could get him away from Tsuna's very important documents. "Why is he sitting on your desk?"
"Oh, we were just talking."
Gokudera slammed the door behind him, vein pulsing at his temple, when the hitman all but choked on his coffee and laughed.
3. Making History
"He's the first person you warmed up to outside of us."
Reborn glanced over to Fon who sat beside him, nursing a cup of tea in his hands as he stared out into the yard of the Giglio Nero base. Though they weren't part of the Family, Aria, their current Sky, welcomed them to stop by whenever they wanted.
"There's Dino," Reborn reminded.
"You don't stop by the Cavallone base every other day to make small talk with Dino," Fon said. "When was the last time you visited him?"
"A month." At Fon's knowing smile, Reborn added, "It's only because I was on a job."
"Yes, but that same job ended around three weeks ago."
"I was… distracted."
"By Vongola Decimo." Fon smiled, knowing and sly. "We'd best mark this one down into the books. Reborn has a crush on a mafia boss."
"Shut up, Fon."
"I don't hear a no."
"You won't hear anything once I'm done with you."
4. Rivalry
Rivalry wasn't expected in their odd relationship but somehow it ended up settling there anyway. Especially now when Tsuna insisted Reborn should help him shoot a gun.
"I'm no good with firearms," Tsuna admitted to him one day after dragging him down to the shooting alley. He said this as he shot the paper dummy, bullet ripping a hole right between its eyes.
Reborn didn't believe him for a second.
"Someone else could've helped you," Reborn said as he, too, shot the same dummy. The bullet went right through the hole Tsuna made.
"They're all busy," Tsuna said, taking aim. He stayed quiet for a moment, steadied his hand and shot. The bullet strayed slightly to the right, just enough to tear the hole slightly bigger. He frowned. "Gokudera's the best at shooting, but he's so caught up doing other things that I'd feel bad if I asked him to do this."
Reborn clicked his tongue, aimed and fired. It went perfectly through. "And what about me?"
"What about you?"
"I'm a busy man," Reborn said.
"Then you're welcome to leave whenever you want," he said.
When Reborn didn't move, covering his eyes with his fedora, Tsuna smiled.
5. Unbreakable
Reborn pressed the offered towel to his face and wiped off the sweat rolling down his cheeks and dripping from his chin. Dressed down to his dress shirt and a pair of slacks, blazer, tie, and fedora thrown haphazardly to the side of the room, he felt a pleasing coolness against his skin with every press of his sweat dampened clothes.
"Again."
Reborn glanced out of the corner of his eye at Tsuna, clothes soaked and sticking to his body like second skin. He turned his face back into the soft material of the towel. "That was your twelfth loss, Tsuna," he said. "If we continue, someone's bound to get hurt, and I'll tell you now that it won't be me."
Unafraid, Tsuna's eyes flickered orange at the subtle challenge, his lips tilting up into a smile.
"Let's see about that."
6. Obsession
When Reborn started thinking about how he'd fit time with Tsuna in between his jobs, he admitted that he had a very small, very insignificant obsession.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
So why was Colonello staring at him as though he'd done some unmentionable wrong?
"You're obsessed, kora!"
"It's not as grand as you think it is," Reborn said. It really wasn't. Sometimes a thought of what Tsuna was doing would cross his mind during the day, or he'd see something that'd remind him of the brunet and quirk a small, split-second smile - but that was it.
"You probably think about him twenty-four seven!"
Not really. Only a few seconds for each thought. Around fifty thoughts per hour. And every hour he wasn't spending doing a job. No, not twenty-four seven.
"I don't."
"Liar," Colonello scoffed. He pointed a finger at him. "I can see it in your eyes, kora. You're in deep."
Reborn didn't deign that with an answer.
7. Eternity
A week passed.
Tsuna tried not to think about it, but his desk felt too spacious for just his paperwork now even though documents were piled high and spilling over the edges. The smell of coffee that had become a part of his office was fading, lingering in the corners of the room as it was pushed out with time. Tsuna, who didn't even like the drink, often made a cup of it just to keep the smell stronger.
Reborn was a busy man - he said so himself down in the shooting alley - and Tsuna was too. There was work to be done, and Reborn surely had his fair share to finish. If Tsuna was smart, he'd start his work now so that he could finish with time to spare. Gokudera mentioned time and time again that he was falling behind on paperwork, not so subtly contributing it to the fact he spent most of his working hours talking to a certain hitman who wasn't even allied to Vongola.
He really should be working right now. He never let paperwork get this bad, and with Reborn out he'd be able to concentrate a little more.
Except he couldn't.
Groaning, Tsuna pressed the heel of his palms against his eyes. He really shouldn't be this concerned. Reborn was a hitman, the best there was, and he could take care of himself. He was probably on a job thousands of miles away, having the time of his life shooting bullets through people's heads. It didn't matter that he hadn't bothered to tell Tsuna when he'd come back; Tsuna was not his boss or keeper.
With that thought in mind, he delved into the stacks of paper surrounding him, ignoring each tick of the clock that went by without Reborn there.
8. Gateway
Standing before the Vongola base, Reborn could only stare at the wrecked visage before him burnt and broken. The gates to the Vongola manor, which used to stand tall and firm, were melted and pulled apart in some places and utterly destroyed in others. The entire courtyard was deserted, crater-filled, and bare.
What happened?
Wary, he carefully made his way through the barren battlefield on high alert. Leon, who remained his faithful companion for grounds like these, was at the Giglio Nero base where he dropped him off after his job, but he still had a hand gun he kept hidden in his blazer on hand. Pulling his spare weapon out, he pushed open the grand double doors of the Vongola mansion -
- only to duck when a sofa was flung his way. It shattered against the concrete of the walkway behind him, broken wood and torn cushions lying as its remains.
"Reborn?"
Tsuna stood at the base of the stairs, eyes alight with flames, hands burning with clear fire. He looked like he was fighting for his life on the battlefield, dress shirt untucked, blazer and pants ripped and torn, minor scratches decorating what little skin Reborn could see. He looked both relieved and horrified that he was here.
"Tsuna," Reborn said as he glanced around the inside of the mansion. The place was a mess. Furniture was either broken or overturned, some walls were caved in or obliterated altogether, and shattered glass scattered across the carpeted floor. "What happened?"
"I, uh, nothing, really- " An ear-splitting explosion shook their bones. Faint, familiar voices threw taunts and threats down the hall. "I think you should leave now, Reborn. This isn't a very good time."
Reborn smirked. "I disagree."
"Reborn- " Tsuna started, but the hitman had already left, disappearing around one of the corners as he followed the not-so-distant sound of his Guardians duking it out in the west wing.
Not a moment later, Reborn stood supreme, an exhilarated gleam in his eyes as he watched Hibari, his only conscious Guardian left, struggle under the weight of his foot.
Tsuna feared that yet another battle-crazed person had entered his life.
9. Death
Tsuna stared down at the bloody heap of charred flesh and bones around him, feeling the age-old ache behind his eyes and the urge to gag at the horrid stench filling up his bedroom.
This was the second time this week, but the first time anyone had tried a group assault.
When he made his way out, soaked socks squelching a sickening sound as he walked, Tsuna went over to Gokudera's room a few doors down.
"Can you clean up for me?" Tsuna asked right when the door swung open. His Storm wore a pinched expression, but he rubbed the sand out of his eyes and nodded. No further questions asked; by now, this had become a routine.
As Tsuna strode into one of the many guestrooms in the mansion, settling into it as he peeled off his blood-stained clothes, he wondered if this would ever become something normal. He wondered if death would ever become something he'd never feel the need to balk at every time he saw it - every time he was the one to carry it out.
He hoped, one day, it would.
10. Opportunities
Reborn sipped at his morning coffee, staring.
"How rare," he murmured, setting his mug on the coffee table as he stood. Sprawled against the desk, pen still held between limp fingers, Tsuna slept like the dead. Usually, the young boss was particular about his sleeping schedule. He finished work in a semi-orderly fashion, cutting down towers of paperwork even while making small talk with Reborn, and most of the time, their exchanges would end once Tsuna deemed enough work had been done and kicked Reborn out so he could sleep.
He rapped his knuckles against Tsuna's desk, sharp enough in the silence to jar any light-sleeper back into the world of living. "Tsuna, get up." The boss still had several reports to file through, and Reborn was feeling generous enough to wake him up so that he could finish.
When Tsuna didn't stir, not even a twitch of his eyebrow or a half-asleep groan, Reborn narrowed his eyes. He brushed away brown bangs and looked at the slumbering brunet. Upon closer inspection, Reborn could see faint bags beneath Tsuna's eyes, the way his brows were pulled together even in his dreamworld, and the slight paleness of his complexion. He wondered how he didn't notice before, how he didn't see passed the bright smiles Tsuna often wore.
"Tch." How short-sighted of him to forget that Tsuna had his own way of misdirection.
Pressing a thumb against Tsuna's forehead, Reborn brushed it back and forth until furrowed brows smoothed out and ran his fingers through untamed hair to massage Tsuna's head until he let out a quiet sigh. Reborn huffed.
"Idiot," he said with no bite.
He continued to lull Tsuna into a more peaceful rest, idly running his hand through his hair, the silence and warm morning light blanketing them in a moment theirs to share but only Reborn's to remember.
A/N: I was restless and wanted to do something, so I cross-posted this and will probably do more later on. Apologies for any mistakes found and, as always, thank you for reading.