- Immoral -
by the Symphonic Mess "Vi"
Disclaimer: My first foray into the Reborn! fandom, and I decide to pick such a dynamic relationship. Oh my. Anyway, I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, it's characters or anything like that. I don't profit off of it. Reviews are all appreciated, so please take a moment afterwards if you have it. I'd much appreciate it, especially since I'm really actually quite nervous about how this story will turn out quality wise on my part.
Note: Also, don't ask for things... muses will eat your ability to write if you try to make them work overtime.
Chapter Three: Greed
'Don't ask for things all the time. If you want it, work for it yourself. Or else you won't get anything. Selfish people don't deserve anything.' That's something Tsuna remembered hearing a number of times before. Not like he had to worry about that. Tsuna was all to familiar with his place in the world. He wasn't called 'No Good Tsuna' for nothing. He was given that nickname because everything he tried, ended up in failure.
But he never asked to be any better than what he was. Yet Tsuna didn't try very hard to make himself better anyway. However, since learning what he was supposed to become, like it or not, he realized that there would be times now and in the future that as a mafia boss, he would have to ask for things of himself. Just being 'No Good Tsuna' wasn't going to be enough when you were fighting for your life as a leader of the mafia, and it wouldn't be good enough to protect his family either.
For the second time that day, he thought back to his strange conversation with Chrome last week. Sure he often expected her to say those kinds of things, but he had never really spent a long period of time with the girl before. Until then, he had no idea of how forward she could be. Things like outbursts, hugs and kisses that he remembered experiencing in the past were awkward, but easily put off when he could focus on something else.
It was an hour and a half until he could finally walk away from her this time. Chrome had started off wild as she usually did, but then she became interested in asking him questions about what he saw and what he knew about the relationship between her and the other three that remained by her side. At first it felt like he was reciting facts, and he was, recalling the things that Mukuro's "friends" had told him as they defended Mukuro at the end of their fight.
Then it came to the part where he had to describe what he saw: things like the visions he got from Mukuro and the nightmare. Even though he had a feeling that she was well aware of where Mukuro was and his bad situation, for some reason these words were harder to pull out. Sometimes he couldn't help but feel responsible for causing that torture, and blamed himself for not trying harder to save him then.
Because to save him now would be a lot more difficult.
When Chrome heard Tsuna say that, she brightened up considerably and laughed. "If you never ask for anything Boss, people won't give you anything. People are greedy and they want to keep what they have as long as they can. But in these situations, when people ask for them, you might be able to convince them to let go of it. Otherwise, they'll never feel any need or desire to give or show you anything at all. And you'll be left alone."
He couldn't help but think about it. All his life he heard people saying that you shouldn't ask for things. Then, suddenly, Chrome came out with something like that? It was so different. It was so... appropriate.
Wasn't that what a family in the mafia was about? Nobody can do it all, so people like this are the ones you find that you want to keep close; people you trust will help you if you need it. It's not greedy if you take and give at the same time. That's cooperation. That's right, he told himself. There really isn't any way that a person could successfully go through life without asking for things a couple hundred times. They may be small or they may be large, but if you open yourself up to people who are asking things of you too, and keep it between people you care about, it isn't greed.
That's why, before they parted, he thought to ask her one thing. "What do you want, Chrome?" She showed a few slight signs of shock that quickly disappeared behind her cute smile. For all she said about giving and taking, he had never once heard Chrome ask for anything. Instead, he watched her go to hellish ends again and again to do these kinds of things for others without a sign of ever asking something in return.
"My life right now is an act of kindness. For the sake of Mukuro-sama's giving me the one thing I needed the most at a time when I didn't even have the will of my own mind to ask for it... I am still working hard to pay it back to all of you in return as your Guardian, Boss."
Tsuna had thought about that a lot the past couple of days. He still couldn't believe the seriously happy tone she took on when she said that. Her whole life was a debt she wanted to repay just because she could? If it was Chrome, then that didn't sound too strange at all. But it still didn't seem fair. She'd always be working to pay it off, and she'd never be able to ask for anything again as long as she followed those beliefs.
Luckily she was with people who would do what she absolutely needed them to anyway, but still...
There had to be something that could be done for her. So he decided that he should do what any good Boss should do. He would take half of the burden from her. Chrome could continue to do whatever she must to repay that debt to Mukuro. And the other part of it, Tsuna would take on. That way, no one was being greedy: they were all working together.
So when he saw her on the next day, even though it was craziness as usual and he didn't really have time to be ignoring the problems at hand, he stopped and looked at her seriously. "Chrome, it's okay. I'll bear part of the weight of your debt to Mukuro. After all, I benefit from it too, having you as my Guardian, so it is only fair. No matter what happens, someday I will get him out of that horrible place and prove that it will never be a proper way of punishment."
Chrome smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I knew you would understand, Boss."
And it almost sounded like she planned the whole thing out before-hand. Considering it, Tsuna realized that it was more likely the work of Mukuro's tricky planning. And then he took that train of thought and threw it out as completely useless. Because he wanted Mukuro to know. Because when this was all over, he didn't want Mukuro to just leave the Vongola like he always said he would. That, would require a lot more work...
Though, honestly, Tsuna didn't mind. If it was about the Vongola, he had a lot of other people he could turn to for help.
Don't ask for things. Do it yourself. Or else you won't get anything...
Yeah, right. If that was even possible it would have to be someone who was super-human. Not to mention lonely. He wasn't going to listen to things like that anymore. While avarice is one of the seven deadly sins, you have to consider how far you have to go for it to become deadly. But Tsuna knew his family would never go that far. They would help each other and that was enough. And he would do a lot of good things to help them, and be helped in return...
As soon as he could take care of his obligation to Mukuro, first.
