Tsuna woke up happily. They had called off school for at least two weeks until they could get trailers here to be makeshift classrooms. He woke up late and stretched making his way downstairs. He could smell the food and here the typical breakfast noise downstairs.
"Tsuna?" His mom called only to see him on the stairs. "There you are. Come get breakfast." She smiled at him lightly.
"Hai." Tsuna got to the table.
Only Lambo and Ipin where there today. Tsuna shuddered as he suddenly got a bad feeling about today. He glanced about for his tutor and ate as quickly as possible. He was finished before anyone stole his food today. That was good but that also meant something bad was about to happen. The boy slowly and warily made his way to his room. He turned into the doorway.
"Took you long enough." A wad of clothes hit him in the face. "Put these on."
Tsuna held up the old paint splattered shirt and the torn pants. "But these are the clothes I use when Mom needs help painting!"
"So?" Reborn asked. "Put them on."
"Why?"
Reborn held up his gun. "Because Leon says to."
Tsuna jerked back and got the clothes on. "What are these for? Are we training today?"
"No." Reborn said simply. "It's more of a team bonding day since you don't have school. You can expect these every day you don't have lessons."
Tsuna sighed. Team bonding.
"Now let's go. Yamamoto and Gokudera are already outside." The baby jumped up on his shoulder. "Hurry up or you'll be late."
The brown haired boy hurried down the stairs. "Bye mom. I'm going out for the day!"
"Have fun." The woman leaned out the door waving.
"Tenth!" Gokudera greeted cheerfully.
"Yo, Tsuna." Yamamoto said waving.
They were both in old clothes too.
Tsuna glanced around. "Is Lambo coming?"
"No." Reborn answered. "This activity is a bit too sensitive for the stupid cow to accomplish."
"What are we doing anyways?" Gokudera asked.
"You'll see. Let's get going. We'll pick up Ryohei on the way."
They followed the suited baby down the road. They stopped by Kyoko's house and got her older brother who was already prepared to go.
"I'm excited to the extreme!" The buy shouted throwing a few punches. "What are we doing?"
No one was able to answer as Reborn continued to lead the way. They went down the streets in a familiar direction.
"Are we really going to the school?" Tsuna asked exasperated.
"Dame-Tsuna. Of course."
He sighed heavily.
Yamamoto sighed also, but sadly. "It's going to be kind of sad to see the school destroyed. I wonder if they've started working on it."
"Probably." Ryohei said. "It's an extreme waste of time not to."
Reborn just stayed silent. They turned the corner that brought them right to the school's front gate. Everyone squinted. There was movement all around the school. Not large grown up people by all dressed in black with the same hair style.
"The Disciplinary Committee?" Tsuna asked.
Indeed it was. All over the piles of rubble and still standing walls were moving big people with gloves and punch out haircuts. They were picking through all the cement and ashes, laying large chunks into wheelbarrows. Occasionally one of them would pick something up and wipe it with their sleeve. The thing would be laid aside in a cardboard box. Most of them had discarded their actual uniform jackets and were sweating.
"Look there." Yamamoto pointed.
Near the base of everything was someone who hadn't taken off their jacket. It hung loosely over his shoulders. It was burned and frayed over the figure that was shorter and slighter than any other working on the wreck. They guy suddenly whipped out a weapon in his hand and cracked the flat piece of cement in front of him in half. He lifted it into the wheelbarrow with no strain showing on his face.
"Hibari." Ryohei said.
A person appeared next to them. "Hibari-san is not in the mood to deal with Herbivores at the present." The second in command, Kusakabe said. "What is it?"
"Ah-uh." Tsuna stuttered.
"You may go Kusakabe." A voice dismissed him. "I will deal with these ones."
The taller guy looked to the shorter leader. "As you wish."
Hibari stood eyeing them. "Are you crowding around Herbivores? I'll bite you to death." He, for all his threat entailed, did not take an active battle stance or pull out his favored weapons.
The fact that he did neither of these gave Tsuna a pause. He looked at the reclusive Cloud Guardian. The eyes truly were the gate way to the soul. Tsuna's intuition helped too. Behind shallow anger lay a vortex of pain. The fire had hurt Hibari as much as losing a family member would hurt anyone else. He grieved the loss of his school for the school's sake and his own sake. It was a refuge. After Tsuna had found his friends it was a refuge for him to. Just for that second he could feel himself reflect the guardian.
"We came to help." Tsuna heard himself saying.
The grey eyed male blinked then turned away. "Do what you will."
Tsuna was shocked. For just a second another emotion had flash through the other's eyes. He didn't even know what it was but it was something he had never seen and was fairly sure he wouldn't see ever again as long as he lived.
He looked at his tutor. "Is this what you brought us here for?"
Reborn just smirked and kicked the back of his head. "You said you'd do the work, go do it."
"Don't we need like some gloves or something?" Tsuna asked.
A high pitched beeping caught there attention. Not a fire alarm beep but much bigger. A huge dump truck like vehicle. It had a dumping bucket on the front like a garbage truck. Two Disciplinary Committee members were behind it waving the huge truck back. The two directors flashed a hand movement for stop and the truck immediately cut out. The engine went down.
"They were quick to get here." Kusakabe remarked to one of his fellows.
The other nodded. "I was present when Hiabri-san called them. He apparently knows all past Disciplinary Committee member's numbers by memory."
The second in command shook his head. "I'm not surprised."
Two people jumped down from the high cab of the truck. They looked sadly at the ruins of the school and stood exactly three feet apart to speak with Hibari.
"Hibari-san." They greeted.
The older one kept speaking. "The rest of the heavy equipment will be here in an hour and a quarter."
The boy blinked his smoke grey eyes. "Very well."
They turned to return to the huge machine to set down the feet to make it stable for use. A few people started wheeling full wheelbarrows toward the front of the truck. When the older guys were ready they dumped all the rubble into the front bucket.
"Hey Tenth, we found a carriola!" Gokudera said triumphantly.
"A what?" Tsuna asked turning around.
Yamamoto laughed. "I don't what he just said but we got a wheelbarrow."
"You're confusing to the extreme Octopus-head!" Ryohei shouted pushing the one wheeled bucket contraption.
Gokudera shoved his hands in his pockets. "How was I supposed to know what they were called here? It's not like you see a wheelba-bara. Wheelbarrow? It's not like you see one rolling down the street every day!"
"Ma, ma." Yamamoto soothed. "We weren't making fun of you, in fact your word sounds much prettier."
Gokudera squinted trying to see if he was somehow being insulted. Yamamoto was already handing out gloves so the silver headed guy just shrugged it off. Tsuna took a pair. Yamamoto picked up a large slab of concrete and set it in the wheelbarrow.
"Go work Dame-Tsuna." Reborn hit him on the back of the head.
"Hieee! Okay. Okay." The Decimo was distracted watching his cloud guardian's eyes.
Hibari looked hurt with every bit of rock he broke. With each piece of rubble he looked sad. Gloom surrounded him and carried over to his subordinates. Even the rest of the Vongola Guardians were being rather quiet. Tsuna moved smaller parts of the old building. Really it truly had been a good school. Not new by any means but, he glanced at his friends, a home kind of.
"Remember meeting here Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked with a smile.
Tsuna smiled a bit. "Yeah. I did meet you here. Gokudera-kun too."
The silverette flushed. "A-ah, we did at that." He dropped to his knees quickly. "Please forgive me again for attacking you that day! I didn't know who you were! I'm sorry!"
"G-Gokudera-kun. It's really fine." Tsuna stuttered.
"Oiiii!" Ryohei yelled lifting a particularily large piece into the bucket. "This is where I learned or your strength Sawada!"
Tsuna smiled. "I met nearly everyone here."
Then he looked down sadly at his hands. A glint caught his eye on the ground between his hands. He shuffled the other stuff away quickly and looked at his discovery with wide eye.
"What did you find Tenth?" Gokudera asked.
Tsuna picked up the hand sized white sign. He polished it off gently and flinched like it would bite him.
"I-it's the Disciplinary Committee sign?" He gasped.
Hibari turned suddenly at his words. He dropped gracefully from his place on top of the destruction. He was dusty and for the first time in Tsuna's known memory, his hair was in disarray. Tsuna held out the sign like shield. It was taken from his hands with the utmost care. He opened his eyes but Hibari had already turned away.
"Whew, I thought I was going to be bitten to death!" Tsuna sighed heavily holding his knees.
Yamamoto crossed his arms. "He doesn't seem to be in the mood."
Tsuna glanced at the skylark who was gently placing the placard into a box to be saved. No he really doesn't. They worked hard moving the rubble but they didn't really seem to be getting much of anywhere. The committee on the other hand, working at full force, was clearing the havoc and packing box after box of things they found from students and signs from around the school. Hibari had vanished though.
When Tsuna remarked on the topic Gokudera criticized the head of disciplinary immediately. "I bet he went off to take a nap or something. He hasn't even done that much."
One of the people who had been working here first stopped and glared. "Kyo-san was out here before you were and before we were. He arranged the trucks as soon as the fire was cleared." He said proudly. "He's probably just at another part of the building."
"He probably didn't leave the school at since it burned." Reborn remarked.
There was a huge roar and a semi-truck pulled in a flatbed trailer weighed down with twin backhoes. A big dump truck was right behind it. The drivers hopped down and started looking around for the one they honestly reported to. They walked off to find orders. The Vongola members present continued working.
Kusakabe came over a while later. "Have any of you seen Kyo-san return?" He asked them.
"He's not here?" Tsuna asked.
"Tch." The silver haired bombardier said swinging a shovel over his shoulders. "I told you he just left."
The second in command darkened instantly. "He didn't just leave. He … he needed to step away."
The Decimo frowned. "What do you mean?"
The older guy scratched the back of his strangely shaped hair. "Well. To Kyo-san, this school was … Well. Everything. He just had everything burned underneath him. Now he has to clear out all the broken pieces of everything he cared about. Have you ever had a time that was so traumatizing you needed to step back for a second?"
Gokudera sneered.
"As it is …" Kusakabe started.
A voice cut him off. "The other trucks arrived." Hibari stated bluntly.
Kusakabe straightened and turned about. "Yes Kyo-san. The drivers await your orders."
They both turned, headed in the direction of the large equipment.
Tsuna watched them. "I hope Hibari-san is okay. Why doesn't he just go home?"
Yamamoto was thinking hard. "Hibari's losing the school probably feels like when I broken my favorite bat."
"Or when I lost my lucky charm." Ryohei said. "It was sad to the extreme."
Gokudera grabbed his head. "What does burning a school have to do with breaking a bat or losing a charm?" He yelled.
"Or." Tsuna said quietly. "Like you loosing something precious. But to Hibari, more of a someone. Namimori was alive to him."
Gokudera quieted.
As the famglia silenced the yard filled with noise. The big machinery fired up, rolling down ramps with feral snarling engines. The committee members who weren't driving the huge things were moving away from the largest part of the building. Everything had been cleared from the unburned parts of the school but it needed to be knocked down and removed. The wall suddenly toppled as an unseen driver knocked it to pieces and started loading it into the dump truck.
"Cover your mouths!" Someone shouted.
Dust flushed through the school yard. Tsuna's eyes watered painfully. He coughed on the dust and squinted. The disciplinary committee had pieces of cloth tied around their mouths and protective glasses. The yard cleared of dust but filled with noise, beeping, crumbling, yelling. Tsuna spotted a hazy figure escaping the dust slowly. He gripped his chest feeling empathy for the escaping head of the disciplinary committee.
"That's enough for now then." Reborn said dressed up as a construction worker. "Good work. We'll be back here every day until the school in back like it should be."
Tsuna felt this would be a time he would normally complain but he glanced at the empty space where Hibari had disappeared. He simply nodded.
Reborn jumped up onto the wall. "I need to go make a call."
