Title: Contract

By: Metamorcy

Rating: T, might go up higher later on

Pairing: Arcobaleno27, main R27

Disclaimer: Seriously? Don't own, just the idea

A/N: I know you guys have a lot of questions and things, but they will be answered eventually through this story. I like slowly building up relationships because those make it more real and more fun.

Beta'ed by 'AmbiguousThoughts.'

Edited: 6/13/13


Chapter 2

Then, a dark voice broke through his thoughts, sounding like a mist of darkness brushing against him. "So, you're a Capturer."

Tsuna jumped at that, searching the forest for anything, but all he could see were trees and more trees. Shadows decorated the area, giving the forest plenty of areas to hide in, and one's imagination could easily go wild at the sight. The brunet tried to calm himself down and managed to pull together enough to recognize that the voice was deep, a male, and it sounded a bit husky if he thought more about it.

The voice spoke again, "Not much of one though. Couldn't even fight off those weaker ones."

Tsuna flushed at that and stared down at his feet as if they were the most interesting things in the world. He felt compelled to answer the other, but not to defend himself since he knew better than anyone else that it was the complete truth. He wasn't really fit for this type of stuff, he knew that. "I'm not really a Capturer. Well, I'm supposed to be, but I'm not much of one. If you're looking for a fight, I can bring you to someone who might be more worth the battle."

There was a pause and as Tsuna waited for something, anything, the wind blew by, rustling the leaves gently. His bangs shifted at the force, a few strands hitting his cheeks, and he twitched at the soft touches. More petals from the flowers at his feet flew up, dancing around with its multiple colors. Finally, the Meraviglian answered, "I'm not here for a fight."

"O-Oh…" Tilting his head, the brunet bit his bottom lip. "Then what are you here for?"

There was no response to that and Tsuna sighed. What was he supposed to say to someone who didn't seem to talk much? Well, he'd never really had anyone talk to him like this before. It was odd and unfamiliar. He honestly didn't know how to converse with someone different from him without feeling inferior, years of being ridiculed and bullied had affect him greatly. Still, Tsuna quickly realized that this person must have been the one who saved him. He didn't sense any threat from the other, despite the darkness that was radiating from the voice and the fact that the person was hiding in the woods.

"Um…It was probably you who saved me, right? T-Thank you."

There an amused noise in response, it was as if the person had snorted. "Aren't you courteous? Saying something to a person who could very well kill you."

That made the brunet pause. "Oh…"

"Didn't think much on that, did you?"

"N-No."

There was a silence and Tsuna went back to sitting on the rock. He could hear the wind blowing by and the leaves rustling again. Tsuna immediately wrapped his arms around his body, shivering at the sudden coldness, and then it was gone. The temperature was back to normal, just like that. He didn't think much on it since it was considered normal in this world. During the conversation, he managed to pinpoint exactly where the voice was coming from, it wasn't hard when they kept talking like this.

Regardless, that didn't help his situation very much. "Are you…going to kill me?"

"Who knows? Probably not worth it."

'Well, this is awkward…,' Tsuna thought, scratching the side of his face. What was he supposed to do next? Leave? But he still had a lot of time left in this world. Shifting down to the bottom of the rock, he leaned against the hard surface to stare at the sky. A single bird flew across the heavens, looking almost like a tiny dot, but he knew from the distance that its real size was bigger than his own body. Closing his eyes, he felt like sleeping, except it was a bit tough when his mind was ringing with danger. "Are you still there?"

"Of course, idiot."

"Are you going to stand there the entire time?"

"Sure, why not?"

Tsuna grumbled, pouting at the answer. Looked like he wouldn't be left alone anytime soon, not that it bothered him. He was curious about his savior, perhaps the Meraviglian wanted something from him? The brunet automatically shook his head at that, what would anyone want from him?

Shifting his position again so that he was more comfortable against the rock, Tsuna decided that if the person was going to remain there, they might as well talk. "Well, are you going to come out? I mean, it'll be easier to talk face to face than face to…whoever or whatever you are." He raised his hands up to place them onto his lap, wondering how the Meraviglian looked like. It was at that passing thought that he suddenly remembered about something. Not all the residents here were friendly-looking after all, some of them were hideous monsters while others didn't even have a form at all. He had seen a few whenever his classmates called upon their Assurers and he would always cower at the sight of some of them, hiding far behind so that he couldn't see them all that well. "Unless you're really hideous and will scare the living crap out of me, p-please don't come out!"

There was a deep chuckle, in amusement, Tsuna noted. "I highly doubt I'm anywhere near hideous. Instead, I get a lot of complaints on my good looks. There's at times a line of people just waiting to get a good eyeful of me."

"Are you sure that's not your imagination talking? Cause I've heard that line spoken many times." Tsuna smiled softly, unable to help himself from making small jokes and using sarcasm. It just felt right, like he was meant to talk like this. It was a feeling he didn't have very often, no, it was rare since he was always so afraid of someone beating him up or the trouble he would get into by the professors for doing something wrong. It was really nice and he enjoyed it. "Anyway, I'm Tsuna, short for Tsunayoshi."

The resident of this world huffed at his greeting and stepped out from the shadows, entering the light of the sky and sun. The brunet's eyes widened at the sight, taking in the extremely good looks the other had. The creature, no, person before him was exceptionally handsome and had a strongly dangerous aura radiating off of him. Glancing from top to bottom, Tsuna took note of the black and yellow-striped fedora on top of a mass of spiky black hair that was peeking out from underneath. Dark stone-hard eyes bore at the brunet and next to them were curly sideburns that bounced slightly as the person stepped closer into the opening of the field. The features were sharp and clean, the suit the man wore was flat without a single wrinkle in sight. He was dressed classily as if coming out of a movie or something and Tsuna could almost feel his mouth dropping. The man was terribly attractive! And he definitely knew it, too! No wonder the person could say those words so confidently about people lining up just to see him. Tsuna could definitely see it happening. The Meraviglian smirked at the reaction he gained at his mere presence and flicked his fedora upwards before speaking a small greeting, "Chaos."

"I take that back," Raising his hands up in defeat, Tsuna smiled softly. "I guess you had some backing to that."

The man chuckled, his eyes narrowing just slightly when he did that, and crossed his arms against his chest. He tilted his head slightly to the right, shifting his position in return. "But of course. The name's Reborn."

"It's nice to meet you."

Reborn took a few more steps until he was in front of the brunet and stared down. His dark eyes observed the young man, watching for any strange movement. But he saw nothing, just a defenseless person whose weak smiles were completely emotionless. There wasn't a single emotion flowing through the brunet. He kneeled down in front of the other, reaching out towards him. "Let me see your right arm."

Before giving the chance for the other to reply or even react, the dark-haired man snatched the said arm. Tsuna squeaked as he felt his poor limb getting yanked forward, but didn't resist the movement, letting Reborn do whatever he wanted. He knew exactly why the other wanted to see it, normally whenever a pact was made, a symbol would appear on the right arm, almost looking like a tattoo. Each person's was different depending on the Capturer's personality and preferences. He had seen a few in his classes whenever he caught a glimpse of his classmates' markings. There were skulls, Chinese symbols, flowers, and many more. Some were combined together, others by itself. Reborn rolled the school uniform's sleeve up and examined the pale skin, nothing was on it, and no tattoo meant no contract.

Generally, when a pact was made between two, whatever symbol was on the Capturer's arm would appear at the same place on the Assurer. It was to prove that they were in a contract and that the Assurer would only answer to the other. It was an odd relationship between the two, Tsuna would many times think.

"So what's a Capturer doing here all by himself without a single pact with him?" The older man released his grasp on the fragile-looking arm, watching as the brunet rolled down the sleeve. The warm and careful touch of Reborn's fingers on his bare skin seemed to burn, but it wasn't terrible…just uncomfortable.

"I have some classmates here, too…but they left without me like usual," Tsuna answered truthfully, not bothering to lie. He had a strong gut feeling that trying to lie to the other would be pointless. By the way those dark calculating eyes would stare at him, it wasn't hard to notice. Still, even though Reborn looked dangerous, Tsuna felt like no harm would be done to him. He didn't know why, but the whispers in his head that echoed in his mind kept concluding that.

"And the ones that were chasing you before?"

"They're Assurers contracted by three of my classmates."

Reborn raised an eyebrow at that.

The brunet automatically answered, already knowing the question that was running through the other man's head. It didn't take much to tell. "I don't really get along with any of my classmates. They kinda…don't like me."

"I can tell. And why are you so stupid enough to come here without any protection?"

Tsuna looked away from the eyes, not feeling comfortable at the way they seemed to bore into his soul. He stared down at the ground and then settled further back against the rock. "Well, I've never really bothered with the whole thing. I don't like to force people into pacts. It's just I don't have much of a choice but to come here and do what I'm told," Tsuna gave a small smile at his little admittance, looking up at the other for a moment. "I'm pretty useless so you don't have much to worry about from me."

"I realized that," Reborn shifted his position a bit and pointed at Tsuna's right arm. "You don't have the pact mark on your arm, which means no pact. And at the same time, you obviously have nothing to protect yourself. I'm quite surprised that you've managed to survive this long without getting killed." He had noted the bruised skin on the brunet, hidden underneath the white uniform, with some of that discoloration that managed to peek through the fabric. They were definitely not self-inflicted and many looked way too impossible to be done by a hand. Some looked recent like they had been done yesterday, others days ago. 'Bullied, huh? Should have suspected that after what happened earlier today.' Mentally shrugging his shoulders, he didn't bother going any deeper. It was probably best to change the subject now. It wasn't as if he was going to see this person again and so, there was no point in doing so. "If I remember correctly, whenever a pact is made, the Assurer will show the same marking as the Capturer. But for the later, the edges of it shift at each new additional pact, correct?"

Tsuna nodded his head, glad that the other had changed subjects, he didn't exactly feel all that comfortable with how things were going. "Yeah. You can have almost an unlimited number of Assurers connected. Though the most I've ever seen is six. But I don't know how you guys from this world stand for it."

Reborn tilted his head at the wording. He might as well continue talking with this weakling. "Well, most do it for their benefits or even for friendship."

Tsuna blinked his eyes, looking back up at the taller man. "Benefits? Really? You mean both parties gain something?"

"Of course," Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to sit next to the brunet, he stood up to move over. His joints cracked from being in the same position for so long, but it felt good though. It was more comfortable then kneeling. "For example, if a person likes to fight then he'll join for the future battles. Or if the person is looking for something and in turn, let's say the Capturer wants to head out into the world to explore, those two can easily benefit each other, it's things like that."

"Ohh…Well, when you say it like that, it doesn't sound too bad," Tsuna smiled delicately, looking down at his fingers. "I guess it would be nice to have one, but I'm too weak. I can't really do anything right and I'm really useless." He pulled his legs against his body and hugged them tightly. Slumping his shoulders downwards, the brunet tilted his head back to stare straight into the blue sky, noticing that the sun was starting to set in the distance. Time for him to head back to the rest of his class was getting closer, but he wasn't sure if he really wanted to leave or stay. Tsuna smiled once more. "I mean, I can't really fight and I don't want to. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Reborn didn't answer that and shook his head, pulling his fedora downward. He couldn't help but snort quietly at that. It was obvious that the person had no confidence in himself, no bravery, no pride, no nothing. All in all, Tsuna was just a pathetic weakling.

When a little beeping sound went off, the brunet jumped, flicking his head upwards. Reborn sat in the same spot silently, watching everything the younger man did. He observed as the brunet took out a device and clicked it off, stopping the sounds, and immediately understood from that that it was time for the other to leave the moment Tsuna looked at him. Pocketing the pager into his pocket, the younger man stood up and peered down at Reborn, who was staring at him curiously, still in the same spot. There was a flicker of emotion in those honey-colored eyes, but the man said nothing. "Well, I'd better get going. It was, um…nice talking to you, Reborn. Thanks again for saving me. Well…Um…g-goodbye." Bowing to Reborn one last time, Tsuna ran off into the forest, making his way back to the meeting place for his class where he would head back to his world with everyone else.

He'd probably never see that person again. Why would anyone want anything from him? Tsuna sighed at that. No one would. He was useless and always messed everything up. Smiling sadly at that confession, he vanished into the darkness of the woods.

Still, it had been nice to talk to someone normally…however short it was. He only wished that one day he would be able to get someone that would remain by his side despite his shortcomings.


Please note that all information about the story, about the worlds, the technology, etc, will be given slowly and in pieces. I'm doing this mainly because I don't want anyone to be overloaded with terms and then start forgetting them along the way.