Disclaimer: I do not own Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn or any of its characters.

Warnings: Rating is for light violence, and themes that might not be suitable for younger readers. I hold the right to change it when I deem necessary—which it might. This work of fiction is with shounen-ai themes, or boy love. Deal with these warnings accordingly.

Author's Note: Hello, dear readers. I'm humbled to be at your presence. If you're here, I'm going to assume you read through my rather… short prelude. This story is a fruit of the fandom jamming down G27 down my throat—not that I'm complaining—and sleepless nights that never seem to be productive. This marks the first fanfiction I've ever written, so bear with me as I try to get my footing in this. Your comments and feedbacks would be appreciated, I want to grow as I writer and I'd love to have a bunch of wonderful strangers tell me how. Who doesn't? Sorry for taking your time, I'll shut up now and let you read. Thanks for stopping by!

Chapter Two: Giotto

Tsuna smiled warmly, standing by the fork on the road where he and his two friends usually separated. The last of their goodbyes dissolved into the air just moments ago. He was in deep thought as he watched both Gokudera and Yamamoto walk on to their respective streets. It was another peaceful day, one that he was thankful for. Of all the things that had happened with the Ring Conflict, he didn't think that he'd ever find such a peace again. It was something that he took for granted once… this mundane quiet life—but not anymore. He decided that from now on, he was going to live his life to the fullest!

His thoughts were interrupted suddenly with a hit on his head. Being caught unprepared, he fell flat on his face. The brunet looked up and glared at his tutor, dressed in his usual black suite attire. He had to wonder where in the world Reborn was hiding all these strength to knock him around like this in that tiny body. He pouted, sitting up from where he was, "Reborn! Why—what was that for?!"

"What do you think you're going, dame-Tsuna? Hurry up and go home, your homework isn't going to get done by staring into space." Reborn said with a straight face. Where was it normal for a home tutor to use force to teach someone? Oh wait, in his life, it was.

"You didn't have to hit me! You could have just told me!" Tsuna reasoned, rising to his feet gingerly as to not injure or further harm himself. His eyes flew open when Leon climbed down to Reborn's hand, forming a gun. The hit man pointed the weapon at the brunet, as if it was no big deal and he wasn't holding a lethal firearm. Tsuna shrieked and ran off home. The arcobaleno stood where he was then, watching Tsuna like his student had done with his friends a little while back. He still had much to teach that one. Tilting his fedora down to let the chameleon climb back on, a smirk formed on his lips.

"I'm home." Tsuna called as he entered the house. He was greeted with the usual sight of Lambo running up and down the hallway, laughing like a maniac, I-pin and Fuuta hot on his trail. He heard a faint greeting from his mother in the kitchen before he headed up the stairs. It was never like this before. But somehow this lively house had been more home to him than it was in the past when it was just he and Nana. Again that sentimental feeling bubbled up his chest, he smiled to himself before resigning to his room. The brunet threw his bag towards the table close middle of his room, closing the door behind him. With a sigh, he walked over to his desk and pulled out his homework. Living life to the fullest or not, he was still a middle school student with responsibilities. Besides, it would be nice to be initiating this for a change. Reborn would be quite happy when he came home—

"Tsuna." The said brunet jumped out of skin when he heard his name being called. Speak of the devil, the sun arcobaleno appeared on the table from thin air. The teen held his chest, as to hold his heart in place before it beats out. The tutor had a straight face on as he continued, "Don't look so pathetic… something is coming."

"Eh? What? What's going on now, Reborn?!" In response the arcobaleno just stared at where his student was holding his chest. Following his glance, Tsuna pulled his hand down, revealing the ring around his neck's unnatural glow. His eyes went disk-wide if they hadn't already before. He quickly pulled it away from himself, about to begin harassing Reborn for answers when the light began to spread. In panic, Tsuna dropped the ring and stood up faster than he had in his life. He headed for the door, and the last thing he heard was the sound of Reborn's familiar voice telling him cautiously,

"Stay on your toes."

The moment he heard those words, he turned his head slowly towards the middle of the room. Sure enough, there was truth behind the warning—as always. There was a lump in the middle of the light. Looking closer now, he realized that the lump was in a shape of a person. He thought to himself that now would be a good time for Reborn to shoot him, but still nothing came. Even as the person stood up and spoke, in gibberish, "You're not getting away from me!"

Though he had no idea what the hell that meant, he could detect the anger in that tone of speaking enough to know it was time to run. Tsuna turned around quickly reaching for the door. As his palm touched the knob though, he was painfully knocked into the ground. Here he was complaining about the way Reborn treated him, and all of the sudden another random person came into his life… another character that seemed to have a knack in hurting him. Before he could react, the said other person pulled him by the collar of his shirt. Because of that he was now about to see that this person didn't just sound angry, he looked like he was pose to kill. In his fear, all he could do was screech and flail his arms about, "HIEEEEE! SAVE ME!"

That seemed to have done the trick as the grip on him loosened until it was gone. Tsuna blinked in shock, since that had never happened before. Looking up now, he what he saw was enough to make him doubt everything. He was looking at himself. The person who had tried to kill him not only looked like him, but was also wearing the same exact expression as him. He was about his age, with the same unruly hair in a golden shade and wild blue eyes that reminded him of the stormy ocean. The first question that ran his mind was not who this person was, but why he was out to kill him. Tsuna was the first one to move, destroying the mirror illusion that they had going. He fell on his behind, scooting over until his back hit the door and couldn't go any further. Reborn suddenly jumped on his head, making him squeak a bit. Why the arcobaleno of all times that he could have been shot with a dying will bullet, hadn't done so now, he would never know.

He had heard of the legend of doppelgängers before. It wasn't a very happy legend. Story has it that doppelgänger was another 'you', and when they come into your life, they would kill you and take over your life. Then he took a look at his blonde doppelgänger again, same as Reborn did. Tsuna's panic ceased. The person was looking now at the infant in his head with an even more confused expression. From that, he deducted that there must be a big misunderstanding here. This young man wasn't out to kill him to take his place as Tsunayoshi, like a doppelgänger would really do. That and there was an air of… familiarity around this guy. It was strange, but he couldn't explain it. Tsuna offered a relieved smile, and asked warmly, "Uhm… who are you?"

"What in the… what's going on?" Came the response, still gibberish. The blonde sat then, crossing his legs, and stroking his invisible beard thoughtfully. Then he looked up and looked around happily, "I'm not in Ita… oh! I get it! You're an illusion, aren't you? This must be his work—it feels different though, this isn't how he usually… ah, whatever. So, how am I going to break free…?"

Tsuna stared on, lost. The confused aura the young man in front of him had disappeared as quickly as his intimidating one did. Now he was just talking in some foreign tongue… thinking that, it all made sense then. The only other language that could ever be spoken when it involved Reborn was Italian. Was this guy in the mafia, too? What a terrible thought. He craned his neck to look up, "Hey, Reborn… is he speaking Italian? What's he saying?"

"Who knows?" The arcobaleno shrugged, taking Leon from his spot to his hand. Tsuna panicked at first. He was even more afraid when Reborn aimed for the person with the gun. He attempted to move, to push the other away while hoping to knock Reborn from his head, but he wasn't fast enough. The bullet went straight at the young man who fell on his back. Tsuna screamed in horror, scooting closer to the blonde.

"Reborn! What did you do?! Why did you kill him?!" Tsuna peered from where he was, seeing the blonde's eyes were closed. The body was rigid. Tears began to stream down Decimo's face, he would be sent to jail for conspiring in a murder. A murder committed by a baby.

"I didn't." Sure enough, the blonde sat up then, glaring daggers at the arcobaleno. Tsuna was even more confused about the entire thing. What the hell was going on here? What was it now?! After the ordeal with the Varia, he thought that things would be easier. Why him?!

"Oi! What did you just… you shot me? You shot me and I didn't die! Yes! I knew it! So this was an illusion. You can't fool me, you might as well give up now. I can see through your tricks, Dae—" The blonde started but he wasn't able to finish. As he babbled on with Tsuna watching him like a puppy, Reborn took the opportunity to kick Tsuna in the back of the head. It sent the brunet's head forward towards the young man. Convinced that this was still a well-crafted magic compliments of stupid Merlin, the blonde remained where he was, thinking that the other would have gone through him all things considered.

But the dumb brunet never did.

Tsuna tried to stop the momentum but he couldn't. His face went straight towards the other's. It would have been better if he ended up just head butting the guy, at least that could have been made up for, but there was no saving their dignity in what happened. In that instant that they crashed, Tsuna's lips pressed tightly against the blonde's. Chocolate met the sky, they stared at each other with wide eyes. Both were too shocked to even move.

At that moment, did Bianchi decided to open the door. She was checking in on Tsuna about the earlier scream, only to find this. She didn't say anything, but just left the two alone. The sound of the door closing snapped enough sanity back to the lookalikes to pull away violently from each other. Tsuna wiped his mouth vigorously against his uniform sleeve, weeping. "Why do these things always happen to me?! Why can't something good happen to me for once?!"

"Speak for yourself, you girly little…! You stole my first kiss!" The blonde yelled. Both of them, currently wiping their own lips on something to erase what just transpired, stopped. They once again gaped at each other like fishes. From where he was, Reborn smiled, jumping towards the bed.

"Eh?! You can speak Japanese all these time?!" Tsuna exclaimed.

"What?! I do?! How is this… woah. This illusion is really powerful."

"You're both wrong. I shot a special Vongola Bullet called Speech. It makes a person fluent in any language they… absorb." All heads turned towards the one speaking, standing on top of the bed. The blonde mumbled something about 'crazy talking infant, before Reborn turned solely to him. Tsuna thought for a second that he was going to get hurt for that, but surprisingly, Reborn just continued to speak, "As for you… you aren't in an illusion, or whatever you think this is. Who are you?"

"Not an illusion! Hah! Impossible… but of course Daemon would want you to think you're real… but you can't trick me. I mean c'mon, a baby with a gun? Special bullets?" The blonde said stubbornly.

Tsuna stared hard at the boy… did he think he was under someone's illusion? Like how Rokudo Mukuro and Mammon fought? Now that he had thought about it, the blonde was in tatters, he could also see blood seeping through some parts of his ratty clothes. Was he in a fight before all these? The future Decimo spoke then, "Daemon?"

"Yes, Daemon. Daemon Spade. Did I stutter? I was fighting him not too long ago… I defeated him actually and he was the one that did this." He motioned around him to emphasize his last point.

Reborn was profoundly thinking the moment he heard the name. Tsuna could practically hear the gears moving about on the arcobaleno's head. He knew something. But instead of revealing things, he simply asked, "Tell me then, if it isn't reality, what do you think is the point of sending you to such an ordinary illusion?"

"You tell me." He shrugged in reply. Tsuna smiled grimly to himself. How could someone be so carefree despite thinking that they were in one of the enemy's traps? These people were insane.

"How are you going to get out of this illusion then?"

"I don't know… I reckon if I find him, I'll figure it out eventually."

"How are you going to find him?"

"He'll come to me."

"What's the date?"

To that question, the identical teens stared at Reborn. For once they were both in the same page, thinking how out of place that question was. How was it going to help insane blonde over here believe that they weren't illusions? Tsuna sighed in defeat before he finally decided to step up, "Reborn, this is useless. This guy obviously needs help—"

"June tenth, sixteen hundred." The two other occupants of the room turned their head on the blonde. Tsuna's face showed shock with a hint of disbelief. Reborn was rather deadpanned. Seeing the awkward air he had created the blonde again just in case these persistent illusions were deaf, "Today is June the tenth, sixteen hundred."

The silence seemed to have gone for eternity. Tsuna was only able to open his mouth to say something akin to 'no way' but there were no sound that came out. He had lost his voice. Was this guy for real? Reborn on the other hand spoke once more to break the sound barrier that enveloped them in those long minutes it took to process what the blonde had said. "What's your name?"

The blonde young man hesitated for a moment, before he figured that he really had nothing to lose. This boy or the baby didn't seem to have any bad intentions towards him despite being part of Daemon Spade's crazy illusion. He wasn't going to doubt his gut feeling now that it had been right so many times before in the past. Perhaps the bluenet was trying to catch him off guard… but that would never happen. He would go along with this, and see if it would eventually lead him to that man pineapple head. He had a feeling it would. There wasn't a doubt in him that he'd find Spade. With a shrug, he then replied,

"Giotto."