SkyGem: Hello all! Okay so I really dislike long authors notes at the beginning of chapters, but I'll have to make one this time. First of all, to all those who are confused, "trans man" refers to a female-to-male transsexual, one who was born female/assigned female at birth, but sees themselves as male, and that is what Tsuna is.
And to those who think that the first chapter was rushed, you are absolutely right, and the only thing I have to say to that is that I'm sorry. I was originally planning on making this a one-shot, and I didn't want that scene to drag on too long, which is why I took some liberties. But I eventually realized that I had way too many ideas for this verse and decided to just expand it into a vignette series. I'll eventually go back and edit the first chapter to make it a bit more realistic. Sorry for that!
Anyways, this is getting a bit too long so I'll start the chapter now, but I do have replies to the anonymous reviewers Kinda Disappoint and A happy guy at the end of the chapter!
After Tsuna had resigned himself to the fact that he would be stuck with Reborn for the next four years (if he even survived that long), the student and his tutor had a rather long discussion which mostly consisted of Reborn asking increasingly invasive questions and Tsuna trying his very best not to give in to the temptation to scream.
Finally, after an hour of this, Tsuna was saved by his mother's call to dinner.
Looking at the hitman hopefully, Tsuna jumped for joy when the infant gave a short nod of the head and said, "We'll leave it at this for now. After dinner we will think of something to do with about your grades."
Despite the shiver of fear that crawled up his spine at those words, Tsuna nodded and ran out of the room, thankful that he was finally free of the never ending questions.
Dinner at the Sawada household was usually a quiet affair, both mother and son having found out years ago that normal dinner time conversation never really ended well with them, with Nana stubbornly referring to her son by his birth name and Tsuna correcting her whenever he could and trying not to lose his temper with one of the perhaps two people in the entire world that he truly cared for.
On this day, dinner was even quieter than usual, a palpable tension hanging in the air between Nana and Reborn, with poor Tsuna caught in the middle.
What little conversation there was was stilted and as soon as they had all finished eating, Nana said, "Masako-chan, can you please clear the table?"
"Hai, okaa-san," replied Tsuna quietly, getting up to follow her orders.
Nana then turned to Reborn, who was still sitting at the table.
"Reborn-san, I've been re-considering your offer for the past few hours, and I'm sorry to inform you but I don't think this arrangement will work out."
When he heard this, Tsuna stopped mid-step, his eyes going wide at his mother's words. He hadn't realized just how strongly his mother felt on the subject of his gender.
Reborn, however, wasn't the type to give up so easily, saying, "I'm very sorry you feel that way, Nana-san, but the contract has already been signed. I will be Tsunayoshi's tutor for the next four years, and there is nothing you or I can do about it."
Her brows furrowing in confusion, Nana replied, "I don't remember signing any contracts."
"You didn't," replied Reborn, his gaze steady. "Your husband did."
Nana's eyes widened in shock when she heard this, but before she could say anything, the two of them were interrupted by a loud crash from the direction of the kitchen.
Tsuna had dropped the plates he'd been holding, and his eyes were wide and confused.
"Dad's alive?" he asked, looking between his mom, who was wearing a guilty expression, and Reborn, who had narrowed his eyes.
"Of course," replied the hitman, whose impression of his student's parents just kept dropping. He'd never really cared what excuse Iemitsu had told his family about where he always was, but the fact that his son thought he was dead showed that it was a terrible one. "Now clean up that mess, then meet me in your room. It seems we have even more to talk about than I thought."
Tsuna looked as if he were about to argue, but one glare from Reborn convinced him to do as he was told.
"How do you know my husband?" asked Nana, starting to sound suspicious.
"We work for the same man," replied Reborn shortly, and Nana's expression grew even more suspicious.
"My husband is in charge of traffic at construction sites. Why on Earth would he have the same boss as you?"
Reborn was silent for a moment, incredulous at the stupid cover story Iemitsu had come up with before replying, "The man that owns the construction sites your husband works at is a very successful businessman who has many kinds of people working under him."
Nana's expression cleared a bit, obviously believing what Reborn had said, but she became no more friendly.
"If you have any problems with me, I suggest you take them up with your husband," said Reborn, and before she had the chance to reply, he'd already gotten out of his seat and was on his way up to Tsuna's room.
On the way, he passed Tsuna, who was using a wet mop to pick up the last few shards of the plate he'd broken and who had been listening closely to the conversation Nana and Reborn had been having.
Judging by his dumbfounded expression, he had probably already worked out that his father hadn't been entirely truthful with his mother when he'd told her what he did for a living.
Hurrying to finish cleaning up, Tsuna ran some water over the mop to get the shards out before putting it away and hurrying to follow Reborn back to his bedroom.
Once the bedroom door had closed behind him, Tsuna let out a long, slightly shaky breath, and threw himself onto his bed, wrapping his blanket around him.
Reborn watched him silently for a moment, feeling almost sorry for the teen – he'd had a long day, what with finding out that he was the heir to a mafia family and that, not only was his father not dead, he was a part of the same mafia family he'd just inherited.
"Why does the world hate me, Reborn?" asked the young Decimo, his voice muffled by the blanket he had cocooned himself in.
Reborn didn't reply, and without even waiting for a response, Tsuna continued.
"Why did I have to be born in a female body? Why do my classmates have to bully me? Why can't my mom understand that I never have been and never will be the little girl she'd always wanted? Why didn't my dad love us enough to tell us the truth or to visit us more often? Why...?"
The brunet trailed off, running out of questions to ask, and Reborn let out a sigh as he took a seat on the edge of his student's bed, his legs dangling over the edge, unable to reach the floor, a reminder of the curse that hung over him.
"The world hates everyone, Dame-Tsuna. Or hadn't you figured that out already? Humans are messed up and disgusting and pick on anyone weaker than themselves. They fear and despise whatever is different from them without even making an attempt to first understand. And the only way to survive in a world like that is to get stronger. And in order to make others take you seriously, you first have to learn how to be comfortable in your own skin."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" asked Tsuna, popping his head out of his cocoon, his brows furrowed.
"By doing what I tell you," replied Reborn with a smirk.
Rolling his eyes, Tsuna let his head fall back onto his pillow and turned onto his back so that he could stare at the ceiling.
The silence stretched out between them for almost two minutes, each of them thinking on different things, before finally, Tsuna said, "Ne, Reborn?"
"Yes, Dame-Tsuna?"
"How did you know to address me as Tsuna instead of Masako?"
Tsuna had propped himself up on his elbow and was now staring at Reborn curiously.
"Your father," was the short reply, but when the younger male kept looking at his tutor curiously, he elaborated. "Before coming to Japan to teach you, I researched everything I could about you, of course. A hitman never goes into a situation uninformed. Your father was my first...source. Not that he was any good, of course. Everything he knew about you was secondhand information he learned from your mother."
"And we all know how accurate that is," replied Tsuna with an eye-roll.
"Exactly," said Reborn. "He warned me that you were going through a 'phase' and that you had even picked out a male name for yourself, in order to 'be more like daddy'."
Reborn's face twisted into a grimace as he quoted his air headed colleague, as if he detested having to say the word 'daddy'."
Tsuna also grimaced because, apparently, his father hadn't changed a bit since they'd last seen each other. He still seemed to be under the delusion that Tsuna looked up to him – as if there was anything to look up to in the first place. Tsuna barely knew anything about the man.
"Of course, even just listening to him, it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about," continued Reborn. "Nobody would be as thorough as you were in picking a name if they didn't plan to use that name for a long time afterwards."
Tsuna ducked his head shyly as he realized that Reborn actually seemed...kind of impressed. Despite having only known the infant for a few hours, Tsuna knew that was something that didn't happen very often.
Shrugging, Tsuna said, "Well, it seemed like a pretty obvious choice. I mean, dad and grandpa Ietsuna were both named after Tokugawa Shoguns, and even I was named after Tokugawa Iemitsu's sister. It only made sense to name myself Tsunayoshi, after Tokugawa Iemitsu's son."
Reborn nodded in approval. "Names carry power, Dame-Tsuna. You did well in choosing one that actually meant something."
Feeling a blush spread across his cheeks and neck, Tsuna pulled his blanket back over his head to hide just how pleased he was about the compliment.
"Thanks."
Later that night, when both Tsuna and Nana were asleep, Reborn received a phone call.
When the call came, Reborn was not at all surprised.
He'd been expecting it since dinner.
So as Iemitsu ranted and raved at him for taking advantage of his daughter's silly little phase by trying to coax her into something that she would one day regret, the infant sat quietly through it all, formulating his response.
And as soon as Iemitsu was done his rant, Reborn said, in a voice colder than ice, "I am not coaxing Tsunayoshi into anything. I am merely treating him like a human being. And tomorrow I am going to take him to a doctor who will give him all the information he needs to make a responsible decision regarding his body. Which is more than some of us have done."
Iemitsu spluttered indignantly at this, saying, "You will absolutely NOT be taking my daughter to that perverted doctor!"
"That "perverted doctor" is one of the best in the world and Tsuna will be seeing him for a check-up that is long overdue. My job is to turn Tsunayoshi into someone who is able to command the respect of thousands of hardened mafioso, and in order to do that, he must first learn how to feel comfortable in his own skin – something which can not be done if he is still confined to the mold you and your wife have created for him. I have not once failed a job given to me by Nono, and I do not intend on starting now, Iemitsu. So be warned that if you try and interfere again, you will certainly not like the consequences."
SkyGem: Ta-da! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! As a lot of my regular readers will know, I really do not like Iemitsu at all so any day when I can put him in his place in one of my fics is a good day for me XD Anyways, please do leave a review and let me know what you thought! Now, the review replies:
Kinda Disappoint: I'm sorry I didn't give an OOC warning at the beginning, love, but I just kinda assumed that everyone would realize that, given this is an AU, there would be OOCness. One's character develops based on the experiences they've had in their lives and, considering that this is a story about a transgender Tsuna, it should be kind of obvious that he would be different. The canon Tsuna was bullied, yes, but I doubt it was to the extent that a trans!Tsuna would have been bullied. My understanding of Reborn's character is that, in the manga, he took the tough love approach because he knew that nothing else would work on his carefree, lazy, unmotivated student. In this fic, Reborn (being the amazing tutor that he is) has realized that he will get more results from Tsuna if he gives him the respect he wants and that is why I have portrayed him differently. Got it?
A happy guy: I'm so glad you're enjoying my fic! Like I said in my AN at the beginning of this chapter, I know that the first chapter was pretty rushed and that was originally due to the fact that this was supposed to be a one-shot and I didn't want the scene to drag on too long. I will definitely go back and fix it a bit later and will keep your suggestions in mind! As for Tsuna being a bit more closed off, that is true, but if you think about it, it would make sense for him to be a bit more willing to accept Reborn's flaws and be more open with him because yeah, Reborn is a total jerk, but he is also the first person to actually address Tsuna by his preferred name and to use the right pronouns for him (as far as you all know), and I feel like that would be a really big deal for a kid whose own parents don't even do that for him. As the story progresses though, you will see that Tsuna is indeed more closed off with others.
