Word count: 2, 510
Date published: December 25, 2014
Date started: December 14, 2014
Date finished: December 25, 2014
From Varia with Love
October 11 (Sunday)
"Now, Tsu-kun, there's food in the fridge for you, Reborn, and Dino-san. Otoo-san and I are sorry for not being here on your birthday but it's not everyday you win an all-expense-paid trip for two to France. We wanted to have our honeymoon again and who knows? We might give you a baby brother or sister when we come back."
"Ugh. Okaa-san, do you really have to talk about that?" The Vongola boss-in-the-making groaned. "I'll be fine. You and otoo-san should go now or you'll miss your flight,"
"The boy's right, Nana. Tsuna is turning sixteen now. You shouldn't baby him anymore," the blond man grinned at his wife, swinging an arm across her shoulder.
"Yes, yes but I miss having a baby in the house, dear."
"We can make another one while in France. Then we'll name him Ietsuna or Natsuki if she's a girl."
"Or we can have bo-"
Tsuna groaned once again, "Otoo-san, okaa-san, the flight?"
"We're going to be late! Take care, Tsu-kun. We love you and we'll miss you. Bye!" The couple ushered in to the taxi waiting for them, their luggages already packed in the trunk of the car.
"Enjoy your trip!" The fifteen year old waved at the departing automobile. Once it was out of his line of vision, he went back to the small house they lived in. He made way his way to the living room where he knew the two other occupants of the house were in, "Reborn? Dino-nii?"
Indeed, he found them sitting on the couch, Reborn (still young but older now since the curse was broken) sipped his coffee and Dino, with a grim face, talked on his phone.
"Yes, I'll be booking the next flight. Until I return, stay put," the Cavalleone said into the receiver. He turned to face Tsuna and announce, "I'm sorry Tsuna but there has been some internal warfare in my family that needs my attention ASAP so I wouldn't be able to stay the whole week just as planned. I'll just give you my gift and be on my way."
"Eh? You'll be missing my birthday too, Dino-nii?" First, it was his parents. Now, it was his older brother of some sorts?
"It seems so. Here," the blonde Italian handed him a package messily wrapped in orange-colored paper. "I made it myself! It's a mug! But don't open it yet though!" A bead of comical sweat appeared on Tsuna's temple. Why tell me not to open it when he already told what's inside? "Well, I'll be going now. Advance happy birthday Tsuna!"
The tenth Cavalleone boss sauntered out of the house, a sling bag across his torso and a suitcase in tow. He waved and boarded his red car parked just outside the suburban Japanese home.
"I guess it's just you and me, huh, Reborn?" Tsuna sat beside the now-aging sun Arcobaleno.
"Actually, Aria and Nono called me and the others for a meeting in Italy. I don't know when I'll be back, but I'm leaving tonight," the hitman-tutor broke the news to his student.
"You're leaving too?!"
"Don't be whiny, Tsuna. You still have your guradians to celebrate with," he kicked him in the face. Trust the poor victim... er student that Reborn's kicks started to hurt more now that he's growing back to his older body. "Now go heat up dinner. I'm hungry."
"Fine, fine" the spiky-haired Sky walked to the kitchen, muttering 'slavedriver' under his breath.
"What was that Tsuna?"
"Hieeee! Nothing, Reborn. You heard nothing."
October 12 (Monday)
The bell rang and the young Vongola Decimo ran towards the school premises. He was surprised when a lot of students were wearing accessories that are against the rules! They're already late and they all seemed at ease too!
Tsuna approached a classmate of his walking near him, Angel, he thinks her name is. He tapped her shoulder, "Why is everyone so chill? Where's Hibari-san and the prefects?"
Angel, being quite "angelic" as her name implies, smiled gently at her messy-haired classmate, "Oh, hello, Tsuna-san. Happy birthday, by the way. It's today right?" Tsuna gave her a nod. "Hibari-san took a vacation with his family and the prefects came to join him. Can you believe that he has one? You should have seen him yesterday at the market! A little girl, most likely his sister told him off for disciplining, as Hibari-san likes to put it, a freshman." The unimportant character in this fanfiction continued to blabber on. Soon, the pair reached their room and took their proper seats.
The desks on either side of Tsuna's, as well as the two in front, were empty. Strange. Normally, Gokudera would be apologizing for not picking him up or hero-worshipping him again. Yamamoto would be slumped over his table, tired from his morning training. Haru, who transferred recently, and Kyoko would greet him enthusiastically and ask him if slept well the previous night.
He sighed in disappointment when their homeroom teacher arrived. The hours dragged on and soon classes were over. Not a sign of his storm and rain guardian was seen. Ryohei-onii-san and the girls were missing too. It's his birthday and all of his friends and love ones were missing: Yamamoto, Gokudera, Haru, Kyoko, onii-san, Reborn, Dino, otoo-san and okaa-san. Hell, even his mist and cloud guardian were MIA, not that he was close with the psychopathic boys. Bianchi, Fuuta, Lambo and I-pin went to China to visit the latter's family.
Before leaving the class, he asked his half-Filipino classmate once again, "Hey, Angel-san." She hummed in reply. "Do you know why Haru, Kyoko, Yamamoto and Gokudera are absent today?"
"From what I've heard Haru-chan and Kyoko-chan got food poisoning from eating a rotten cake. Takeshi-kun is in a trip to Tokyo for a baseball seminar thing. And according to his Facebook status, Hayato-kun going to America for a mission."
Tsuna gaped at the raven-haired teen in front of him, "Who are you and why do you know all of this? Why are you on first-name basis with my friends?"
"Did I forgot to tell you? Vongola Nono sent me from the Philippine headquarters so that I can act as informant to you when you need it," Angel tilted her head to side a serene curve of lips showed on her tan-skinned face. This bothered Tsuna. He was confident that no one was eavesdropping or spying on them so he wasn't worried about the mafia business. If there was he would sense it with his hyper intuition. No, what he was worried about was how creepily nice and sweet Angel was, Tsuna swears he can see wings and a halo on the girl. "I'm basically a useless being sent by the author of this oneshot to give you reasons why your guardians are missing."
"What?"
"Nothing, Tsuna-san. I should get going now. Happy birthday!" With that, the two parted way; Angel to heaven or whatever plane she lives in and Tsuna back to his small house within Namimori.
Chaos. Chaos is what the universe decided to give to the young Vongola on his birthday.
Tsuna walked the path from the school to his house, nothing unusual but upon arrival, with eyes bulging and jaw dropped, he screamed, "Hieeeeee! What the hell are you doing here?!"
All of the Varia guardians were either lounging in the living room or destroying the Sawadas' property, except Levi. No one cares about Levi. Xanxus slept upon his throne set on top of the coffee table, with a glass of what Tsuna identifies as the only kind of alcoholic drink they have in his hand. Belphegor throwing knives everywhere like they were darts. Lussuria was watching America's Next Top Model on the TV, a pillow in his hand was pulled apart from excitement. Superbi Squalo was in the shower, Tsuna could tell from the muffled shouts of "Voii!", along with the sound of water raining against the tiled floor. Two children were also drawing on the walls, one indigo-haired with a black cap and the other green-haired, For some unknown reason, there too was a Gola-Mosca plushie sitting innocently on the shelf. At least one guardian had manners. Well, there's Levi standing behind his boss but then again, no one cares about him.
"Ushishishi~" the Varia storm laughed. "The prince decided to bless your birthday with his presence."
Lussuria slapped him on the back of the neck, "Happy birthday, Tsuna-chan! Boss wanted to visit you for your special day and we tagged along!"
"And is your definition of visit is to destroy my property?" He whispered.
"What was that?" The flamboyant man asked.
"Nothing. Wait, why is Mammon here? I thought the Arcobaleno have a meeting and why are you drawing on the walls? We have paper for that," the young Sky said as he sat on the only chair unoccupied.
"Muu~ Verde and Fon skipped so I didn't attend and besides Boss is paying me to come and Fran can't be left alone so we had to bring him," a four year old Mammon said, her eyes hooded by the cap and wavy hair cascading down to her waist. "As for why we're coloring the walls, a.) we can't find paper, b.) it's fun that way, and c.) we're kids. What do you expect? Pay me and I will stop." A 10-euro bill was handed. "Pay me and I'll stop Fran." And another. "Pay me and we'll draw on paper instead." Another bill was handed but this time it was 500-yen bill. "What? No more euros?"
"Take it or leave it."
"Fine," the young girl pocketed the money and made an illusionary sketch pad to draw on.
In his mind, Tsuna began to cry. He lost nearly 3500 yen he could have used to buy three meals just to stop the children to stop drawing on the wall when they could have easily made paper themselves. Then, another thought occured to him.
"Why is Squalo taking a shower?"
"Ushishishi~ He and the boss played the Eggroulette Challenge*. Naturally, the Boss won and the captain got all the raw eggs. Oh, and he has vodka in his hair."
"Well that explains a lot."
Insert here a few awkward minutes of Squalo's off-tune singing, Lussuria's occasional squeals while he watches ANTM, Xanxus' snores, and the whispering of the Mist-flame users while they compare their drawings one of which was a picture of Mukuro set on fire and the other was some sort of frog hybrid.
"For an illusionist, you can't draw very well, Mammy-chan."
"Shut up, Fran. Yours doesn't even look like Mukuro except for the pineapple hair."
A few more minutes then...
"Vrooiiiiiii! Why are you all so quiet?!" In came Squalo in only a towel.
An eye opened. "Shut up, scum." And another glass of Vodka was thrown. The end. Just kidding.
"My! You should dress like that more, Squalo," Lussuria said his eyes surveyed the body of his fellow guardian. The poor rain felt scandalized!
I think Levi said something but who cares? No one.
"Bah! Will you cover up? You're ruining the prince's vision!"
"I agree. Squalo, please show some discretion."
"Oh, hi, Tsuna! Happy birthday!"
"Squalo, clothes?"
"Yes-yes!" The swordsman shouted before returning to the bathroom to dress.
"Honestly, guys. Why are you all here?"
Now fully awake, Xanxus responded, "Because you have no one else. Your guardians, friends and family are away."
Tsuna felt insulted by the last remark. Is he implying that my family doesn't care? "Well, geez. Thank you," he said sarcastically.
The Varia Sky rose from his throne and climbed down the table. "What's with the attitude, brat?"
Time stopped for the other occupants of room. They sensed a mythical storm brewing between the two. Levi, Lussuria and Belphegor huddled in the corner of the room trying to distance them selves from the Sky-flame users. Crayons and paper dissipated as the young illusionists ran to hide behind Squalo who just stood on the doorway. He was supposed to enter but decided against it when he felt the tension in the air.
"I'm just saying that I prefer celebrating my birthday on my own than with your company."
"Can't you just appreciate that we took time to visit you when others couldn't?"
"How could I? You all just created a bit mess for me to clean up. There is popcorn of the couch, knife scratches everywhere, drawings on the wall, and that so-called throne of yours will mostly leave a mark on the coffee table. There might even be a silver hair ball in the bathroom when I use it later."
"We're Varia. What do you expect?"
"I expect manners if that's not obvious enough."
"Well, it's not like we actually care. We were paid by Pops."
That struck a nerve.
"Then why the hell are you even here?! If you don't want to be here, then leave!"
"Watch what you-"
"No! Get out of my house! If you're gonna stay, then stay because you want to! Not because your paid to! Life doesn't revolve around money!"
"Actually, it does..." Someone whispered.
"Shush. Now's not the time, Mammon." Squalo silenced the Mist Arcobaleno.
"Your so called 'life' does not exist in the mafia. Unless you're rich, you're powerless and without that power, you're dead."
"I never chose to be the heir in the first place! My life was perfectly fine before mafia decided to rule it over!"
"That's exactly the fucking point!"
"What?" Tsuna was taken aback. He did not expect that kind of response.
"We are all either born into mafia or joined it at an early age. You should be thankful that you didn't experience what we did! Haven't you noticed that basically everyone babying you? You can hurt people, sure. But killing them? You'd be dead before that thought comes to mind!"
Not a sound was heard.
Facedown, the young Vongola commanded them, "Leave."
The Varia exited quietly. Not another word was said. Xanxus, first. Then Levi and Lussuria followed by Belphegor and Fran. Mammon stayed behind.
"Tsuna," she whispered as she tugged on his pants to get his attention. "It may not seem much, but Xanxus cares about you, like an older brother would. We came here because we wanted to keep you innocent for as long as we can. You can'the anyone like you in the mafia. Try to understand that." And with that she literally vanished into thin air leaving the sixteen year old alone in the center of the room.
The rest of the day was spent on vacantly staring at the wall, the T.V. noise playing at the background. Seconds ticked on. Then, minutes. Then, Hours. Tsuna finally fell asleep at 2 o'clock.
The next day was a Saturday so there were no classes. The Sky stirred from his slumber and proceeded to go to the kitchen for breakfast. When he arrived, food was already prepared and Reborn sat at the head table reading the day's newspaper.
"How was your birthday, Tsuna?"
And he broke down.
Lol. I have no idea what I just did but I hope you liked it Nakamura Rio-san. Merry Christmas!
4th wall-breakings: If you haven't noticed, I like breaking the 4th wall.
Angel: OC. Just someone I created to inform Tsuna.
Arcobaleno's ages: I wasn't able to finish the manga or the anime so I had to rely on Reborn Wiki and on leoinyuka's Truth of the Sky (It's a great fanfic on Yuni. If you have time, please read it.) The curse was broken when Tsuna was fourteen and the Arcobalenos were two so add two (since in this fic, it has been two years since the series) and that would equal to four, making the Arcobalenos four years old.
OOC: Same reason as above.
Eggroulette: I actually don't know what it is until I watched it in Nerdy Nummies on YouTube. I suggest you watch it but I can tell you that involves cracking eggs on your heads.
Merry Christmas!
Criticisms, comments and reviews are warmly welcome!