Usual warning apply: abuse, suicide, manipulation, Giotto
The wind pushed at his coat, inching him closer to the crash of the waves as he clenched his fists. His skin was mottled purple, straight lines and round bruises lacing his skin, stuck thin to his bones. He should have fallen, it was already a miracle he hadn't collapsed within himself. Dark eyes stared at the white sea foam. He closed his eyes, and let himself fall.
The roar of the waves was deafening, overlapping with the scream of his name.
"TSUNA!"
I hated you.
Reborn sniffed, the weight of his gun heavy where it was safely hidden in his coat. He was led through the winding hallways of the station, his guards watching him carefully from under their hilariously stereotypical sunglasses. It was almost ironic, he thought. Years ago, in a darker time, he would have done anything to avoid this type of thing, and he supposed it showed in the caution of his escorts. They didn't trust him, not when he was willingly here.
They shifted as they let him enter the office, and he was almost taken aback by the similarity.
He smirked.
So that was how it was.
"Mr Reboyama, please, sit down."
Sawada Ieyatsu smiled almost charmingly, his words barely accented, but Reborn knew better than anyone that the most charming were also the most dangerous. Reborn sat down, and returned the smile equally as charming.
The blond, 'Superintendent Giotto' the guards had called him, waved the other officers away, and they left hesitantly. Sawada dropped the smile as soon as they left, and turned to Reborn with sobering eyes. It's almost startling how different they were, this man and the boy from the corner of his ebbing memory, even with their appearance.
Sawada slid a file over, and Reborn could barely hid the way he stiffened.
He knew that face, and unlike the moment before when he met Sawada, there was no doubt.
His throat tightened, and for a second, he's reminded of her.
Frail body, dead eyes, long hair spread apart, a dark halo, a body, his failure-
"Mr Reboyama, you know him."
It's not a question, but it draws him from his memories. He nods anyway. "He was a customer."
"Only once, I believe." The superintendent gives a thin smile. "He was with a man. His…" The man grit his teeth, and Reborn sees the fire in his eyes, the pure fury. "Husband," he spits.
Reborn remembers the other one vaguely, only remembers cold eyes and the fact that the boy never appeared again.
Reborn lets his eyes close on the anger. "I don't judge."
The blond shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean. I need your help."
Reborn raised an eyebrow. The superintendent smiles angelically.
"I want to find him. I want to tell him my brother's last words."
And yet, I loved you.
The man shook beneath them, his eyes reddened at the rims with the notions of drugs and the stench of wine. He's screaming intelligibly, possessed and petrified. Reborn presses harder onto him, holding his arms down.
Sawada bends down, a grin on his face as the man stares up at him in abject horror.
"You're under arrest, Monsieur Joslin, or maybe you would rather me call you Kawahira-sensei."
The man slumps within himself, and cries.
You were the one who made me see a world reborn.
He's twitching, and shaking.
Sawada goes through the usual protocol. Slides the photo to him, watches with glee at the flinch.
It isn't the first time that Reborn wonders about the sanity of the man, but he doesn't question it.
Kawahira had, for all it's worth, stabilised. He closed into himself, the mask falling over him with ease. He wonders vaguely if the man had woken in the middle of the night, screaming the name of the boy he had killed.
20 years old, Sawada was already older than that – he had told Reborn one of the nights they stayed at the office to find this man. He had been looking for nearly ten years now, for a brother he would never see again, for the man who had made that the reality.
Reborn let his eyes wander away from the picture.
You were the one who changed my life.
The sky was dark, with the night about to fall. The smell of rain loomed over him, but he didn't move.
Sawada was still there when Reborn returned.
"My parents never came." He starts, and Reborn pressed his lips together in stiff silence. "They forgot about him."
The stone was well-kept, its words still etched clearly despite its age.
"I promised that I would never leave him. But,"
There were roses, so deeply red they almost looked black.
"He left, and I didn't run to get him because of my stupid pride and jealousy."
The night was falling.
"I left him all alone."
The colour of the world changes, that's what my mom had told me once before I stopped believing.
"And for all it's worth, I forgive you."
Kawahira was silent, before he snorted.
"Such an idiot. Was always a fool."
Reborn stood a bit closer to Sawada, if only to stop the man from rampaging. Kawahira continued, rambling aimlessly.
"Never made any sense, his languages were terrible."
But anyone with a pair of eyes could see his shoulders shake.
A single man traced the edges of the stone carefully, his eyes shaded with grief. His white hair fell long over his coat.
He rested a lily upon the foot of the gravestone by the roses, his voice quiet.
"A pity, Tsunayoshi-kun, that we could never meet." He sighed with a deep mourning that came from a loved one. "I wish I could have known you earlier."
He stood, and he left.
The rain fell.
So this was a thing. Also if you didn't already realise I may have fallen for Les Miserables, lots of references everywhere. Yes, this is the happy end. Yes, Tsuna dies. Yes, Kawahira is thrown in jail, not killed. Yes, the whole thing doesn't make much sense. Heh, for all you know the 'suicide letter' was planted by Giotto. Y'all will never know.
In any case, I'm done with this AU for a while. Heck, probably done with fanfiction for a while too. Don't expect many updates (maybe one day I'll write a Grantaire and Enjolras fic) but yeah.
Hate it if you want, it's always nice to know that I have people reading this.