Ichigo here~ Sorry for the ridiculously long wait, as a sort of peace offering I made this chapter especially long.
When reading 'Wings of freedom' please ensure that your room is brightly lit, your face is of adequate distance away from the computer and you do not hate Fem! Tsuna in any way or I humbly suggest you stop reading and go back~ ^^
Enjoy, and KHR does not belong to me since it'll be in chaos if it was.
Time stopped for a moment for the two brothers, their brains barely processing the dreadful words that Reborn uttered. When it finally did however, all hell broke loose. Quite literally. The sheer darkness and over-protectiveness emitted from the boys could be sensed even by the most oblivious person on Earth (A certain brunette let out a soft sneeze. Waving off the concerns of her friends, she wondered idly if she was catching a cold.), and Reborn sighed in exasperation.
The sister complex thing was cute the first few times but it now grew annoying. With that in mind, the world's greatest hitman willed Leon to transform into a hammer as he slammed it harshly on his ex-students. Relishing in their pained yelps, Reborn huffed before resuming his previous conversation.
"Since that 'incident' has spurred some... changes to your sister, however, I am to gauge her abilities before passing the final verdict as to who would participate in the Ring Battles." Both brothers perked up at this new information, Reborn continued as if they did nothing. "Should she show the right qualities an heiress should exude, I will immediately oversee to her training to make sure she comes out from the Ring Battles victorious and alive."
Tsunayoshi and Giotto swallow the thick lumps in their throats at the thought of their precious baby sister getting hurt. Not again, no, not when she just barely survived from that 'incident'. The kitchen was silent until Nana steps in with a basket of fresh laundry in hand. "Ara? Am I interrupting something?" The older brunette hums, her boys immediately scrambling to take the load off of her hands. She smiles gratefully at her sons before turning to the handsome stranger in her kitchen.
"I've just dusted the guestroom, and made the bed. Would you like to rest before some lunch, Reborn-san?" Nana chirps, smiling so brightly that Reborn was almost blinded but he kept calm and even managed to smile back.
"Yes, that would be lovely Nana-san." Reborn smiles as he tilts his fedora lightly in thanks to the older brunette who giggled and waved off his thanks cheerily.
"Call me Maman, since we'll all be living under the same roof for a while. Besides, Nana-san sounds really old." The older brunette insists, Reborn smiling his agreement.
"That can be arranged, Maman." Nana squeals in happiness before excusing herself to get an early start on lunch.
Tsubasa was in her element. Her safe haven. Arts class.
Being an art student meant being subjected to different forms of art, be it painting or the visual arts, you name it, they'll cover it in their syllabus. While her classmates mocked her for being virtually useless in terms of academic studies, art students still needed to take Math and science of course, they could not deny that the brunette was exceptionally talented in this particular class.
Today they were exploring the arts of food designing, which included a brief lecture on the elements they would use to apply to their dishes to make them esthetically pleasing and a practical. The other students groaned at the prospect of having to slave over the hot stove but to Tsubasa, there was no greater thing she'd rather be doing. (excluding singing, dancing, playing soccer, composing and drawing of course)
The girl was halfway through seasoning her piece of poultry and baking potatoes when the door to the home economics room was slammed open. Looking up from where her gravy was simmering in it's saucepan, Tsubasa blinked as her eyes caught a familiar shade of green atop a fedora.
The lizard in question seemed to have noticed her staring for it crawled briskly down the man's body before scuttling across the room, earning a few shrieks of disgust from the females of the class. It finally reached the last row to the left and Tsubasa kneeled down, after turning off the heat, to allow the reptile into her soft hands before bringing the animal to eye-level. Her brown eyes stared into Leon's bright yellow ones before the lizard flicked out a tongue to give the girl's cheek a light pat before returning into the moist cavern of Leon's mouth.
Tsubasa allowed herself a light giggle before placing the creature back to the ground and urging it to return to its master, giving it a light push in the man's direction. Speaking of, the brunette lifted her head to properly look at the newcomer. He was dressed formally in a black suit, with an orange undershirt that matched the orange ribbon around the man's black fedora. What really caught Tsubasa's eyes were the man's curly sideburns, really, on anyone else's face those would have looked ridiculous, however the man made it look naturally gorgeous.
"Ahem, so to continue where I've been rudely ignored by a certain no-good student," Tsubasa's face coloured at this, Nezu-sensei was brutal as usual. The tall suit-clad man raised an eyebrow at the man's degrading term but made no comment. "This is sir Reboyama, he will be your homeroom, physical education and academics teacher for this semester." The raven tilted his fedora at the class nonchalantly, earning a few flirtatious glances and giggles from the females save Tsubasa and a long-suffering groan from the males.
"Chaos." Reboyama greets, Leon finally reaching its master's side once more and crawling almost reluctantly back onto it's perch on Reboyama's fedora. Tsubasa blinks at this before her eyes cleared in understanding.
Their homeroom teacher had suffered from a severe case of food poisoning, Physical education teacher was on his honeymoon and Academics teacher had long since quit due to the constant flirting and hounding from the hormone-crazy girls of their class.
From the beneath the cover of her bangs, Tsubasa spied a strange glint in the new teacher's eyes and she flinched a little, knowing that glint meant trouble if her two months of horror was anything to go by. At least things won't be so boring the rest of the semester.
Tsubasa returns home with heavy steps, even her (begrudgingly) good grade for the practical was not enough to bring a smile to her face. The look on her new teacher's face, while she knew the man was not going to harm her like those scientists did, brought one too many memories to her mind, all crystal clear and so vividly that it was almost as if time had scarcely passed since the horrible horrible two months that she spent being held captive.
The brunette rubs her arms as if to soothe the goosebumps that appeared, and she was slightly dismayed to find that her hands were trembling as well. How long... how long more does she have to endure this torture? The girl was pulled out of her musings when a soft sniffle was heard, followed closely by something that sounded suspiciously like a whimper.
Tsubasa immediately hunted for the source and her eyes fell on the entrance to a dark alley, a puff of familiar black hair peeking from behind the wall. 'Isn't that one of Tsuna nii-san's friends...?' Tsubasa blinks confusedly before she decides to find out the problem.
Kneeling quietly next to the whimpering child that sported a few scratches and bruises, Tsubasa reached out to lay a gentle hand upon the boy's shoulder. The afro-styled hair child dressed like a cute cow, flinched violently at the touch but relaxed when he somewhat recognized the person who touched him.
"Y-You're T-Tsuna nii's s-sister..." The cow child sniffled and hiccupped, Tsubasa's heart went out to the boy and she nods at his statement. She gestures to his ruffled state and was almost alarmed when fresh tears filled the child's eyes again. "B-Big m-meanie b-bullies came a-and b-beat up Lambo-san a-and took a-all his c-candy, e-everywhere h-hurts!" The child babbled, tears streaming down his face as he rubbed at it furiously.
Tsubasa immediately picks up the wailing child, uncaring as to whether her uniform was soaked with salty tears and snot. All that mattered at the moment, for Tsubasa was the fact she had a crying child in her hands that suffered from the hands of bullies and she had to do whatever she could to make him feel better. Lambo was surprised at the sudden carry but nonetheless continued his crying. In his defense, he was hurt badly for a child and he was really really scared.
Tsubasa hums softly, her voice a little hoarse since she never really used it much. In truth, Tsubasa could speak, but she just chose not to waster her time on meaningless things such as mere words when actions showed so much more. Lambo's crying calmed down into mere sniffles and the girl gave him a small smile.
Tsubasa begun walking home once more, this time with a little more energy in her steps. She had a child to heal. And heaven forbid, she be denied that right.
Upon arriving home, the brunette immediately deposited the sobbing child into the soothing arms of her mother. Nana's maternal instincts immediately kicked in and she rocked the child while patting him soothingly on the back. Lambo slowly fell asleep and Nana, who finally noticed the child's bruises, begun tending to them gently.
Meanwhile, Tsubasa was bustling about in the kitchen, pulling ingredients from were they sat in the refrigerator and the shelves. In less than fifteen minutes flat, the girl had whipped up the filling and crust of her famous apple pie and was just placing the finished pastry into the oven when her brothers appeared at the doorway, looking rather disheveled. She blinks at their entrance, wiping her slightly oily hands on a towel.
'Welcome home, Tsuna nii-san and Giotto nii-san. How was your day?' Tsubasa signs out as her brothers collapse on the dining room table.
"We've had better. We went to register ourselves and our guardians for school and then this horde of fangirls came out of nowhere and kept asking for our addresses and stuff. It was really scary." Giotto whined as he laid his head on the cool surface of the dining room table. Tsubasa winced and pats her older brother on the head sympathetically, doing the same to Tsunayoshi when he whined about favouritism and demanded attention from their beloved baby sister.
This continued for about an hour and a heavenly aroma enveloped the kitchen. Tsubasa retrieved the baking pastry from the oven and set to dividing the pie into eight equal parts. Setting the table for four and a child, Tsubasa served up her baked pastry. Her brothers both perked up at having to taste her cooking for the first time since they returned, digging in eagerly as soon as a plate was placed before them.
Tsubasa had just placed a large helping at Lambo's seat when the aforementioned child toddled in from his nap, looking slightly refreshed from his light nap and Nana's care. He sniffed the air tentatively and his mouth instantly watered at the delicious scent. He was picked up by the warm brunette and a plate of the most delicious looking pie was set before him, still steaming a little from being fresh out of the oven.
Lambo hesitantly places a forkful of pastry in his mouth and gave a sigh of contentment. He turned to the brunette (Whom he now will call 'Tsuba nee-chan'), smiling wide, showing all of his baby teeth, and giving her a gleeful 'Thank you'. Tsubasa giggles and pats the toddler on the head, a soft smile upon her lips. Tsubasa's brothers watched this exchange with a fond smile, Tsunayoshi flashes his brother a knowing look and Giotto nods his affirmation.
Their baby little sister should have no qualms befriending the rest of the guardians if she tamed Lambo, the most rambunctious of the bunch, so easily.
