A lot of you were asking for me to continue this fanfiction and I'm a people pleaser, so...here it is. Ta-daa! *insert fanfare music*
To Misha: Yes, that is what I am doing. It Will be harder to write as I continue but as of the moment my goal is to go more than five chapters, which would break a sort of writing curse of mine.
To Guest: Iemitsu loved his wife. Like, A LOT. And from what I can tell more than our Tuna-fish. The reason why he doesn't want Tsuna any more may be explored the next chapter.
To all foreign reviewers: I LOVE YOU. Even if I do need to use Google Translate a lot. I know you all know English since you have read an English story.
Enjoy!
Niwa Florists was about half an hours walk from Namimori Middle, so every day after school Yamamoto would go and pick up a bouquet before heading to the hospital. That day he browsed for a bit before deciding that irises were the way to go and bought a couple of those along with some lavender and headed to the hospital. He smiled at the nurses and waved to some of the patients before heading to Tsuna's room, where the brunet was timidly taking in a spoon of porridge.
"Tsuna!" Yamamoto cried and ran towards him happily. He stopped when the nurse gave him a stink eye worthy of the gods and slowed down to a walk, planting the flowers into the vase and tossing his schoolbag away.
"Y-Yamamoto-san?" Tsuna cried, and tried to stand for a bow. The nurse kept him on the bed and Yamamoto scratched the back of his head nervously. He forgot about their social gap; for the past three weeks he was convinced they were friends and Tsuna suddenly seemed so much more important.
"Ah, just call me Takeshi," he grinned. "You're awake?"
"Just a little while ago-"
"So Sawada's awake?"
Two pairs of eyes turned towards the door which Gokudera was leaning upon, a deep frown upon his Italian features and mouth set into a snarl. His green eyes focused on Tsuna, who 'hiie'd and instinctively hid under his covers. Yamamoto laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, ignoring Gokudera's twitching.
"Yup!" He said merrily. "So you're here too, huh? Gonna play some tunes to celebrate?"
"Fuck no." Tsuna squeaked again. "I'm only here because Reborn-san told me to."
"Um, G-Gekidou-san?" Tsuna whispered, "S-sorry for b-bothering you."
"It's Gokudera, asshole."
"S-sorry!"
"Move, Tsuna."
"H-HIIIEEE! Wha-where-"
"Behind you, stupid."
His pillow suddenly transformed into a baby with curly sideburns and a fedora and said baby promptly kicked Tsuna in the face. Gokudera respectfully bowed and even Yamamoto gave a small wave. Reborn nodded acknowledgingly at the two before settling on Tsuna's lap, who was beating his head on an imaginary wall for being so goddamn stupid. How in the world had he not noticed?!
"Ciao, Tsuna. My name is Reborn. I will be your katekyoushi from now on. Nice to meet you."
"Home Tutor?" Tsuna frowned. "I don't r-remember asking for one."
Reborn lowered his head and let a shadow fall over his eyes. Gokudera shooed the nurse out and sat at his piano, frown replaced by a grimace. Yamamoto's smile suddenly seemed pained and Tsuna suddenly felt the atmosphere in the room change.
"You probably don't," Reborn said slowly, "That is because Sawada Nana did, but didn't have the chance to tell you before she died." Which was such beautiful bullshit, Reborn silently prayed for forgiveness from Nana's soul for using her like that.
Tsuna's face was the perfect picture of a hurt animal.
"S-she did?" He choked out from under unshed tears. "I can't blame her, I-I mean, my grades were horrible and she want-wanted to me to b-be hap-happy. I-I'm so useless, I'm s-so sorry Kaa-san, I-I'm so s-s-sorry…I p-promised I would protect you, I'm s-sorry…"
Tsuna hid back under his covers and curled up into a little ball, figure trembling pitifully under the pristine white sheets. No voice came as Tsuna had not dared to cry in front of two strangers, opting to bite down on his arm instead to stop himself from screaming in anguish as Nana's body fell down in front of his eyes once more.
The three stayed still, not daring to make a move until the tremors stopped and the ball of flesh underneath expanded in time with his breath as he cried himself to sleep. Gokudera shook his head and flipped through his book of Mozart while Yamamoto excused himself to go home for dinner. Reborn simply sat there, Leon curled up on the rim of his fedora while Tsuna found his way in the world of dreams.
He was in a garden, the scent of freshly cut grass and moist soil right after rain floating around. He sat on an ivory white chair, with an equally white table in front of him covered in what seemed to be European pastries and tea. But for some reason he wasn't hungry as the treats all looked deliciously mouth-watering.
Seated across from him was a man with soft, hazel hair, a handsomely cut face and gentle, honey-gold eyes. He looked eerily familiar for some reason, Tsuna thought as he sipped at his tea. The man took a sip at the exact time. He spoke, his voice a smooth baritone, yet not a single word found its way into Tsuna's ears. Instead his brain focused on the taste of the tea.
Metallic.
Tsuna glanced down at his tea in horror; it was thick and a gruesome brown-black-red. The garden was suddenly withered and the table on his side looked aged and dying. The man's eyes widened and reached across in a desperate attempt to snap Tsuna's attention back to him and away from whatever horrors plagued Tsuna, but Tsuna wasn't paying attention.
He looked down at the table.
On the other side the table was exactly the way it was, white, glowing with sunshine and the garden still thriving with life and colour. The man's eyes were pained and filled with sorrow, and a look in his teacup said his tea was a light jade green.
Tsuna focused back on his side of the table. More importantly, at the pastries.
They were meat, and definitely not a kind of meat he had ever eaten. The one at the top of a small pile had his mother's wedding ring embedded in it. He screamed.
The world erupted into flames and the garden was gone.
Tsuna woke in the middle of the night.
The nightmare still haunted him, and the desperate look in the man's eyes were still fresh, along with the taste of blood. He then realised he had been biting the inside of his cheek the whole time and it was indeed bleeding. A mug of something hot was shoved into his face.
"Drink," said the baby -Reborn, his mind supplied. "It will calm you down." Tsuna drank. It was sugared milk, and the warmth of the liquid washed through his body and cured it of the nightmare tremors.
"Bad dream?" Tsuna nodded. "Can you go back to sleep?" Shake. No.
The two sat together till morning.
Progress was slow. No, not slow. More like non-existent.
Every night, (not morning, as Tsuna's sleep cycle has officially died horribly) Tsuna would wake up screaming for his mother and cry for a couple minutes. Dark circles have appeared under his eyes as he refused to go back to sleep afterwards and Reborn had to sit with him until morning when the sun was visible once more and Tsuna dropped off again, but fortunately after his mandatory bowl of porridge and some pickles.
Something had to be done. Like, now. And all the trusted psychiatrists were with civilians trying to reverse the damage done by some of the more aggressive Mafiosi. There weren't even that many of them in the first place; mafia men weren't really known for their sanity. Just look at the Varia.
So Reborn brought Shamal in.
"If he continues like this I'll never get to teach anything and that's my goddamn job," Reborn griped. "Cure him in ten. Nine-"
"I know I know," Shamal griped back, "I owe you a favour and all but I'm a doctor, not a freaking psychiatrist. I'm not doing this because I can't, not because he has a Y chromosome. Get someone else."
Fuck. His schedule was officially ruined.
After a few days Tsuna's sleep cycle was regular again through some physical rehab (courtesy of Reborn. There were a lot of push-ups involved.) Which was great, since he was actually awake to see his visitors come and leave. He discovered that Yamamoto was a lot of fun to hang out with and Gokudera, whilst a ticking time bomb that could detonate at any given second, had a wonderful sense of music and his hands danced on piano keys like a ballerina. One weekend they were playing cards on Tsuna's bed and Gokudera was getting bored from winning all the time.
"So," he grumbled, "Your mum's dead." Ignoring Tsuna's visible twitch, he pressed on. "So is mine. And apparently so is the sword freak's."
Tsuna's eyes widened.
"You don't really have the right to wallow in your self-pity when there are others like you. Look at yourself, you look like a little snail curled up in its shell that doesn't come out. You either come out or starve, so get a spine and get over it."
"Gokudera," scolded Yamamoto, "That's harsh."
"It's the truth," Gokudera spat, "So shut up. Are you going to take my queen or not?"
"No, but you're right Gokudera." Yamamoto looked at Tsuna. "Kind of. It'll hurt a lot, but you'll be fine. You have us, after all. We can go through it together."
Tsuna gave a weak smile. Gokudera resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The three started a new game in an awkward silence till Tsuna decided to break it.
"I-I loved her," he began slowly. "She was the only person I had, and I was the only person she had. T-Tou-san was never home, so it was the two of us. She was a wonderful person, putting up with someone like me. She cooked and cleaned and did everything she could just to keep me happy." He put his hand away. "I couldn't do anything. Those men just came and went. She protected me and I couldn't do anything."
Silence.
"Neither could I," said Yamamoto. "Mine had cancer. It took her three years to notice and another to finally pass away." He put his cards away too. "Dad was heartbroken. So was I."
Gokudera sighed.
"Mine taught me the piano," he said. "She and my father had me in an affair. She was already ill, but she died when my father's wife sabotaged her car and went off a cliff. I was only allowed to see her three times a year, and I never knew she was my mother till I was eight."
Yamamoto put the cards back in their packet. "I guess our lives were all kind of terrible, weren't they?" He let out a weak laugh. "At least we have something in common."
"Suppose," said Gokudera. Yamamoto suddenly clapped his hands.
"Why don't we ask each other questions?" He suggested. "We should know more about each other! We're friends, right?"
Gokudera raised an eyebrow as if to say 'are you a fucking retard', which Yamamoto took as a yes. Tsuna hesitatingly nodded.
"I'll start," said Yamamoto. "Um, Tsuna, what's your favourite colour?"
"O-orange I guess," Tsuna replied. "Yamamoto-san, what's yours?"
"Ha-ha-ha, just call me Takeshi Tsuna, but mine is blue! Gokudera, what's yours?"
Gokudera glared, but muttered 'red' under his breath. "Sawada. Favourite weapon."
"H-HIEEEE?! W-weapon! I-I don't know any weapons!"
"He means from video games and stuff, right?" Yamamoto chuckled. "I like swords, like from Final Fantasy. Sephiroth's sword is like totally awesome! It's taller than himself! Ha-ha!"
"Wasn't asking you, idiot."
"O-Oh, from games? U-um, er…I guess I like swords too…?"
"Your turn to ask a question, Tsuna."
And so it went on till once again visiting hours were over to let Tsuna mull over the new information from his friends. He now knew that Yamamoto liked sushi and Gokudera favourite genre of books were science fiction. He also had a brief overview of their backgrounds and their phone numbers, their best and worst school subjects, places they would like to visit, life goal (Gokudera's was a little odd, 'to become the right-hand man of a respected Famiglia, not sure what that was) and their preferences in girls. Tsuna stumbled in the last bit and accidently leaked Kyoko's name, but they both swore on their lives not to tell. At least Yamamoto did, Gokudera just gave a shrug and an angry mutter.
After the Twenty Questions were over he suddenly felt a lot closer to the two. Perhaps one day when Tsuna wasn't so useless, he could ask them to be his friends? But for now he drifted off to sleep, and this time in his dreamscape howling winds and thunder rumbled as a light drizzle fell upon the garden. The sky was an angry black, the sun nowhere to be seen. A crash sounded and the wind, harsh and strong, flew around them as if they were in the eye of a storm. The rain slowly filled the teacup, overflowing the snow china rim and washing the red liquid out. A sudden gale blew everything on the table away into the sky.
The man smiled from across him and Tsuna never had that dream again. As Tsuna finally received the calm of peaceful dreams, two corridors down someone was wide awake, her mind tumbling with disjointed thoughts.
"Chrome Dokuro," She whispered to herself.
It had been a week since she heard that soft whisper in her mind, probing her memories and giving her a chance to feel needed again. Her parents gave her up right after her operation as they refused to pay. She felt she shouldn't be so happy about that fact.
But then, what would happen to the boy? She needed to know he was okay.
'He will be fine, my sweet Nagi,' the voice whispered. 'He has the Vongola behind him, after all.'
'The Vongola,' Nagi thought. 'Tha-that's a Mafia family?'
'Yes, my dear.'
'S-So what do you want from me, Mukuro-sama?'
'Not much. I simply wish to have access to the outside world through your mind. Do not fret, you will not be harmed. I will make sure of that.'
'H-how? M-my mind?'
'Yes. You see, I have some quite extraordinary powers that allow me to search the minds of others; like a psychic, if you will. While I am inside you, your mind will remain dormant till mine separates from your body. It is quite complicated, but I am quite sure a bright girl such as you would have no trouble grasping the concept.'
'Y-yes, I think I understand. What will you do, Mukuro-sama?'
'For now to simply observe,' Mukuro replied. 'However, something so wretched as a Mafia Family must be eliminated no matter what cost. I will need time to set up the pieces.'
'Mukuro-sama…'
'Yes, Nagi?'
'I-if you must destroy the Vongola,' Nagi asked, 'could you please not hurt Sawada-san?' She shrank into herself, afraid she had angered her new friend. 'T-the Vongola did help me out, after all…'
Mukuro did not say a word for a long time, and it was quite clear he took long lengths choosing his words when he did.
'I cannot make any promises,' he finally said. 'He is after all well acquainted with one of the most dangerous hit men in the underworld. But should things boil down to the worst, you have my word I will do my best to spare the lives of him and his associates.'
'O-Okay.'
'Well Nagi? Would you like to take me up on my offer? To be born a new person?'
'Y-yes! I will, Mukuro-sama.'
'Very good.' There was an audible smile in his words. 'Welcome to the Kokuyo Gang, Chrome. I'm sure the others will be quite pleased to meet you. I will send Ken and Chikusa tomorrow to pick you up at 2 pm sharp. Be prepared. Kufufufu…'
An explosion set off in the east wing at 13:57 while Tsuna was asleep after his physical rehab (seventy squats and fifty press-ups, Tsuna fainted half-way). Reborn's ears immediately pricked up and Leon transformed into a long-range sniper rifle. "Gokudera, Yamamoto," He commanded, "Guard Tsuna. Don't let anyone get into the medward." Two grim nods were his answer, Gokudera whipping out his dynamite and cigarettes and falling into a battle stance, already eying any and every escape route. Yamamoto had his hand over the bamboo handle of the Shigure Kintoki, ready to move at any second. Reborn headed out on to the roof to scope from above.
Footsteps pattered outside and Gokudera immediately set off the dynamite left in the hallway. A yelp of surprise and a grunt affirmed two people.
Needles flew and a man-beast crashed against Yamamoto in blinding speed. The teen cried out in pain, the grip on his sword lost as he struggled to detach huge feline claws from his neck. Gokudera flung sticks of dynamite at the two of them, but the beast had leapt away before they could detonate and the dynamite exploded beside Yamamoto instead, knocking him out cold.
Reborn's bullets embedded themselves into the beast's arms and shoulders, but before he could land a fatal shot more needles were hurled his way and he had to dodge. They were obviously a well-oiled team.
"Guard Tsuna!" He said to Gokudera. The bomber hesitantly nodded, headed into the brunet's room and locked the door. He could hear the yells and screams of various nurses and doctors and he didn't want a wimpy, scrawny loser panicking in front of him; way too much stress.
Another pair of footsteps were heard and the two intruders immediately halted their barrage. "It's the girl, kakipi!" The beast growled, "Let's get outta here. My arms are killing me!"
It was Nagi, her little chest heaving with exhaustion. The beast grabbed her arms roughly, ignored the squeak of pain from the tiny female and leapt away from Reborn. With them the tiny hit man saw a young man with glasses donning a beanie hat and holding two yoyos, face emotionless as he leapt over Yamamoto. The three were out of the building in seconds.
"The fuck?" Gokudera supplied as the clean-up crew came and went. "Who the hell were they? Wait, scratch that. Who was that girl?"
"Maybe they were her relatives?" Yamamoto tried. "Ow, those fireworks were really powerful! You shouldn't fling those things round a hospital, someone could get hurt real bad!"
"Those were dynamite, stupid!"
Reborn suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He found him doing that a lot recently.
"That doesn't matter," Reborn said. "What matters is that we might run into those two again. Their efficiency and experience in espionage tells me they had a Mafia background or at least formal training."
"Mafia? Woah, that is some serious role-play!"
"It's real, godammit!"
"Back to the situation at hand," Reborn said, "If we ever do run into them we will have to subdue them, and we can't do that with the abysmal performance today. Yamamoto, you underestimated the fire-power and range on your own side and was caught in the backlash. Gokudera, you had no qualms hurting allies to reach the end result, and even that failed. The two of you will have to learn to work together, or else you will be annihilated."
"Reborn-san, why would I have to team up with Blade-Bonehead over there? He's not even going to join the family!"
"Hey, who said I wasn't? This whole Mafia thing seems pretty neat! Is Tsuna playing too?"
"Yes."
"Oh, he didn't mention anything about it though."
"He hasn't joined yet, it's a surprise for when he's better."
"Oh, okay."
"You can't join, dammit!"
"Why not? Everyone can play games, right?"
"See Gokudera? Yamamoto wants to join."
"Great! So how do you play?"
"We are members of the strongest family, the Vongola. To stay the strongest we have to defeat rival families, assassins and whatnot. Tsuna's the future boss and we're finding his Guardians for the time he can ascend to the title of the Vongola Decimo."
"Woo, that's awesome. Can I be a Guardian?"
"You already are. Gokudera is one too."
"Sweet!"
"Fuck it!"
"Enough." Reborn leapt on to Yamamoto's shoulder. It was lean and muscular and quite comfortable to sit on. "For your training, you will be under the care of one of the most deadly assassins of the underworld. In fact, she's already here; come on in."
Gokudera immediately collapsed into a heap on the ground.
The remainder of the day compromised of the former baseball star dragging a comatose pianist across fields of extremely sharp kitchen utensils and obstacles in the form of toxic foodstuffs varying in degrees of lethality. As great an athlete Yamamoto was, even he had limits and half an hour in he had fallen victim to a magenta-coloured stew catapulted in the face and the two were knocked out together. Rinse and repeat after an hour or so in between, till finally after dinner time Bianchi thought they had a sufficient poison resistance training for the day and let them go home. The next day Yamamoto came in with Gokudera unconscious on his back, his own face a shade of light green. Tsuna scooted over and let the two sit (or in Gokudera's case, lie) on his bed. "Are you two okay?"
"We'll be fine," Yamamoto answered in a strained voice. "Gokudera's sister just came over to visit and she made dinner, but the ingredients weren't fresh and we all got food poisoning. Sorry I forgot to bring you flowers."
"It's okay!" Tsuna squeaked. "It doesn't matter so long as you're okay! Um, what's Gokudera's sister like?"
Reborn hopped on the railing of the bed. "She is a lovely, charming young lady from a sophisticated background. You should meet her Tsuna, she is quite pretty. Her cooking skills are unparalleled." Just not in your conventional way. She was also my fourth lover."
"Oh, I s-LOVER?! I-you-whu-HIEE?! Y-you're like a baby!"
"I'm older than I look, Tsuna."
"Um…ok…so uh, where is she now?"
"Bianchi is currently sorting out your house. She will be 'looking after' Gokudera and Yamamoto and she needs somewhere to stay."
"Oh." Pause. Rewind. "Wait a minute, how did she get into my house?"
"Baka-Tsuna, your neighbour's keys. I assume she can stay?"
"O-of course. Not like there's anybody else there anyway…" Tsuna sighed. It was going to be hard to adjust by himself. Who will pay the rent? Will he have to be adopted or will his dad come back to collect him-oh. "What about Otou-san? I-Is he okay? Do you know?"
Reborn's expression darkened and killer instinct leaked into the room. Tsuna thought he was imagining things, but he could have sworn the sky turned black and thunder was rumbling in the distance.
"Don't even mention that bastardo in front of me again. Ever."
"What happened, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked groggily from his position. "What happened to the External Advisor?"
"Nothing," Reborn ground out. "He was just being his asshole-ish self."
"But that doesn't make any sense!" Tsuna reasoned. "Please, Reborn! Tell me what happened to Otou-san!"
"No."
"Please! I beg of you!" Tsuna tumbled out of the bed, stumbled, fell over, accidently kicked Gokudera in the leg but finally managed to prostate himself on the ground. "No matter how bad or ignorant he had been, he was still my father! He's the only family I have! Please tell me, Reborn-san! How did you know him? Is he okay? Does he know about o-o-Okaa-san?"
Silence. Reborn sighed.
"Get up and take off the honorific, Tsuna." Reborn sighed again and stroked Leon gently. "I'll tell you what happened. But first get me some coffee, my patience is fucking fried."
"Of course, Reborn-san." Gokudera pushed himself off the bed. "I will make you some post-haste."
"No need Hayato. I will."
Tsuna turned. The newcomer was a European lady with long red hair, a tall dazzling figure and a secretive smile. "Y-you must be Gokudera-kun's sister," he greeted shyly. "Y-you two look very alike. My name is S-Sawada Tsunayoshi...um, n-nice to meet you?"
The lady smiled. "How lovely to meet one of dear Hayato's friends", she replied. "You may call me Bianchi. It is a pleasure. And how is my little brother doing?"
Said brother was writhing on the floor, making funny choking sounds and foaming at the mouth. Reborn clicked his tongue and Yamamoto paled slightly.
"Hi there, Bianchi-san. Erm, you don't have to, I'll do it. It must have been tiring tidying up the place."
"No no, it is quite all right. And how are you, my precious Reborn?"
"As good as good can be, Bianchi," Reborn answered while Yamamoto picked Gokudera back up. "If you would just bring a coffee machine in here that would be lovely. I feel like we need all the energy we can get."
"Of course dear, right away."
As soon as Bianchi walked out of the room Gokudera seemed to gather his breath. "Da-damn it, Aneki…I was doing fine till she came along…"
"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna asked, "Are you okay? What happened? Why did you suddenly faint?"
"Gokudera had a bad case of food poisoning when Bianchi made him something," Reborn supplied, "So whenever he sees her face his stomach over-reacts."
"I can see why," Yamamoto commented hesitantly. "Her cooking really messes up the stomach. Maybe Pops can teach her how to make sushi?"
Bianchi came in, sat the coffee machine on the table, plugged it in and waited for it to heat up. She grinded the coffee beans, laid them on the side and set the timer for the water to boil. Reborn leapt into her arms and the two sat together in an armchair while the kettle whistled in the background.
"Now that we're all nice and settled," said Reborn, "I will start explaining. But first Bianchi, please put something over your face. We need Gokudera conscious."
I would love to hear what you think about this chapter. Awesome and exiting? Mediocre and needs some working? Complete waste of time? Tell me, and I will respond.
Also, what do you think will happen? How long will Tsuna take to recover? Will he recover at all? Will he become a Mafia Boss? Remember, as we all know from the Future Arc, history can be changed! Let me know what you think by clicking on the little text-box below.
Fever
