Chapter Four – The First Step Forward
It was easy to see that Tsuna would be special when he was older. By the age of three, he had imaginary friends, as one would expect. But by the time he turned four, he asked about Trantique, the demon Iemitsu had stayed contracted with for several years and suddenly, Tsuna's imaginary friends seemed much more ominous.
When asked about them, Tsuna would simply smile brightly, hold a pudgy finger up to his lips and say 'it's a secret!'
It was unheard of for such a young child to be aware enough to see demons. It meant his Aether had developed early, without the help of a Flame, and it made Iemitsu, who kept it a secret from his wife, nervous.
When Tsuna turned five, he was shuttled off to the Academy of Especially Gifted Young Students, both for his heritage as a Sawada, and because he was a particularly smart boy for his age.
Iemitsu had almost hoped he would be ignored, lost in the masses, and never learn to summon so long as he lived.
However, the Sawada parents didn't live long enough to see if their only child had been chosen for training as a Summoner or not.
Reborn was finding it disconcertingly hard to concentrate when the boy kept projecting negative emotions, like he would suddenly lose the ability to feel if he didn't. It was distracting enough that he was embarrassed to clear his throat and ask, voice low, "Could you repeat that?"
The Chairman, who he was walking with, shot him a knowing and amused look, before turning back to the hallway.
"I asked if there was any more trouble from your…ilk. Judging from your distant look, I presume Tsuna doesn't understand exactly how much of his emotions transfer over to you."
Reborn grunted in agreement, adjusting his hat slightly. "He keeps switching between one and then another. Verde visited the other day, I'm not sure if he activated the wards, but he was here for nearly an hour, talking to Tsuna. He also offered to take part in the contract process with him. Colonello is…he's going to be even more difficult. I'm going to do my best to keep the others away from Tsuna. Was there anything else you needed, Timoteo?"
His previous Master hummed in thought, adjusting his grip on his cane. Reborn automatically moved to support him with a touch on his elbow and Timoteo's current contract snarled wordlessly at him.
Reborn shot it a childish expression in return, causing Timoteo to chuckle.
"How long ago did you decide you wanted to be with Tsuna? I know this thing isn't a power trip, Reborn. You received enough Aether from me. My Flame is similar, more refined, is it not?"
Reborn stumbled, hand shooting out to press against the wall to keep him upright. It was clear he hadn't heard the question right. He was about to ask when Tsuna's negative emotions, fluttering at the back of his mind, suddenly settled down into a fiery mess of pain.
Reborn didn't realise he lost control of his instincts until he was halfway down the corridor, Timoteo's worried call falling short just behind him. He had more important matters to tend to. And with that thought, he took one step forward and smoothly moved to the Summoning Room by the time his foot hit the floor.
He barely took note of the scattered mess of slick blood and heavy limbs, ignoring the bodies strewn about the room.
The roar that left him was nothing short of a terrifying noise of white hot fury. To see his Tsuna, shoulder and arm clamped in the jaws of a lowly beast, made his blood boil, made the pacifier around his neck crackle, and he had already ripped the creature off of his Summoner –his– before he even registered that he moved.
As soon as the Dervish was off, his attention was on Tsuna, hands gently curling around him. He put him in the most comfortable position on the floor as he shrugged his jacket off to press it against the wound. Tsuna whimpered in pain at the pressure and the anger ignited anew inside Reborn.
It had been decades since he last let go of his inner demon, and for a reason that seemed more severe than a bite from a lesser being. But right now, as the haze filled his mind and vision, nothing seemed to take priority over destroying this thing that had dared hurt what was his, his, HIS!
The pacifier crackled again, warningly, and even the Dervish seemed to understand it had stirred the wrong hornet's nest.
It made a dart for the window, for safety, but Reborn was there in an instant, breaking its legs in a callous move so it would be low enough for him to take a hold of its neck, fingers crushingly tight.
The thing keened, scrabbling weakly at his hand, the tips of its claws digging in as if to beg Reborn not to hurt it because it knew what he was, who he was. Reborn sneered. He wouldn't be showing this disgusting, stupid creature any mercy. Not for what it had done to Tsuna.
He would have played with it. He would have taken it apart piece by piece, almost lovingly, and he would have spent all day to do it. But Tsuna's pain still throbbed in the back of his mind, weaker this time, barely there. He couldn't afford to waste time.
The Dervish was dead by the time Reborn turned away, throat torn out. Reborn eyed his fingertips, wondering when he had fallen so far that his claws had shown. A hand sweeping over his head told him he had lost his hat to the sharp, jagged horns now settled above and behind his ears. They were made of bone, and still bloody.
So caught in his anger, he didn't feel them break free.
His canines were already elongated, pointed, and he was a step away from plunging right into Tsuna's neck. He might have done it, feeling so light headed and powerful as he did. Tsuna's Aether was doing wonders for him. But that was when he remembered, angry his thoughts had turned away, that Tsuna needed him.
Stalking across the room and ignoring the surviving students cowering in the far corner, Reborn made his way back to Tsuna. Crouching over the boy's body and reaching out to draw him close, Reborn cradled the small and suddenly so fragile body in his arms.
Between one heartbeat and the next, he had stepped into the hospital ward attached to the Summoning half of the Academy. Ignoring the startled people around him, demons floating silently and nervously, he stepped forward –causing those present to take a step back– and settled Tsuna onto an empty bed. He then proceeded to stand menacingly by the cot, and, even though the rational, human part of his mind told him these people could help, he still bristled and snarled, scaring them away when they tried to creep close.
It didn't take long for the demon part of him to demand closeness and then he scrambled onto the bed by Tsuna, extremely careful to avoid jostling. He settled himself next to and slightly on top of Tsuna (keeping weight away from his injured side).
The anger was still bubbling away and something deep inside of him, wanted to get rid of everyone in the room. They were a danger. They would take his Tsuna away, his Summoner, his everything. They still tried to get close, saying something that he couldn't understand through the sound of rushing blood in his ears, adrenaline still high.
He managed to be extremely threatening to them, even while lying down. When a nurse got close enough to reach a hand towards Tsuna, Reborn snapped his teeth and bristled, pacifier lighting up with a crackle that sent her scurrying back as the tiles she had once been under were cleaved in half by an invisible force. The carved out spot was a few inches wide and at least a foot deep.
When he was completely certain they wouldn't try to get close, Reborn ducked his head, face pressed to Tsuna's neck as he took in the scent of his Summoner, soft from the soap he used, rough from where he had sweated in fear, broken from the blood that still dribbled steadily from his arm and shoulder.
He smelled close to death and this angered Reborn further, worry and fear building within him. With a sharp 'snap,' a nearby assisting demon was destroyed from the rise of power in the room, the others scurrying back once again.
From the middle of the room came a shimmer, about two meters high, and half a metre wide, floating a foot from the floor.
Someone calmly stepped through with the ease of practice.
Even though he can't remember it, Tsuna met Reborn when he was seven years old. Reborn, being a demon, wouldn't appear to normal humans that weren't part of the Summoning Academy. He could if he chose to, being as powerful as he was, he decided it wasn't worth his time.
He was more than a little surprised when one day, while running an errand for his Master, Timoteo, he was stopped by a tug on his jacket and was met with wide, brown eyes.
At a loss for words, he simply stared at the small child gazing almost dreamily up at him. There was an absent smile dancing on his small mouth, cheeks still chubby.
"You're like the others," Tsuna finally mumbled, fingers still holding Reborn's jacket. "Like daddy's TT." TT was a nickname for Trantique, a name Tsuna couldn't yet pronounce.
"TT?" Reborn asked before he could catch himself, startled by this tiny human who could see him.
"Mmhmm. He's not of this world, you know. And neither are you." Tsuna's smile widened, his eyes still dreamy, and declared, "I think your horns are cool. The claws too." He mimicked the claws with his free hand.
Reborn felt his body twitch, fairly certain his guise was still in place. The boy, a baby, had seen through him. It was unheard of, impossible,for any human to see through a guise. A human mind was easily tricked, even that of a Summoner's.
"You know what I am then?" Reborn asked, his voice flat as he drew himself off, trying to intimidate the strange child so he would leave.
"'Not of this earth,'" the boy parroted as if he was copying someone else, "But I find that awful. You're here, right?" His smile turned cheerful as he tugged on Reborn's jacket. "You look like you belong here just as much as everyone else. You must get picked on a lot with your horns, right? Bet its nice being here where everyone likes you…From what I've seen, everyone not from here is liked!"
Reborn swallowed slowly and asked, "Where are you supposed to be?"
"Hmm?" Tsuna blinked slowly. "They were teaching us numbers. The teacher sent me away for not answering. I don't like talking in front of crowds." He squirmed. "They don't like me very much and say I don't know much. Can I stay with you?"
"I'm busy." Reborn's retort was cold. He didn't need a chid trailing after him, no matter how different from the masses he was.
"Doing all your-" Tsuna was cut off as a door opened.
"Tsunayoshi Sawada!" A frail, stick thin woman screeched from the open doorway. "Get back here right now! What are you doing over there?"
"Talking to this man not from here!" Tsuna replied cheerfully. He didn't seem to understand that her tone was angry. "What's your name?"
"Reborn…"
"His name's Reborn!" Tsuna turned to the teacher happily, who then started talk-shouting at him that it was inappropriate of a child his age to have imaginary friends and that if he applied himself more to his work than to daydream, he would actually achieve something worthwhile.
Reborn didn't know what compelled him, but he let go of that fine concentration that kept him invisible from humans. Tsuna, watching his feet dejectedly, didn't see how his teacher turned a stark white in mere seconds at catching the sight of Reborn.
Muttering a forlorn goodbye, Tsuna waved half-heartedly and trudged back into the class. His teacher was still staring in horror at Reborn, who gave her a smile of nothing but teeth.
Fon was, to put it mildly, worried, as he felt Reborn's rising anger over the bond that connected all of them as Arcobaleno. While Reborn was known to get exasperated and annoyed at times, he never fell prey to his emotions unless something exceptionally bad had happened.
Fon wasn't sure if it was possible to elicit such a response from Reborn anymore, who had such a tight control of his feelings and inner demon; he was practically the most human of all of them.
It was decided before they even spoke of it, that when it passed a line they all had drawn years ago, that Fon would be the one to step over the planes and face Reborn, to talk him out of committing an act of disastrous proportions.
Seeing Reborn hunched up over a small body on a bed wasn't something Fon had been expecting to see. It was clear from the iron smell of blood clogging the room that the person underneath him was hurt.
It was strange to see Reborn so emotional over a human of all things. But now was not the time or place to worry about the actions of his friend, but to stop him from doing anything worse than he already had.
Judging by one pale face in the crowd of health officials, hand pressed to his shoulder where the old contract had been, Reborn had already taken out someone's demon.
"Reborn…" he called out softly, stepping forward. The face that snapped towards him held little recognition, but what recognition was there had been abruptly shoved to the side and was replaced with anger.
Fon tried to make himself as non-threatening as possible, raising his hands to show empty palms, a small smile on his face as he said, "Come on now, Reborn. Is there really any point in acting like this?" He took another step forward and Reborn's hackles rose.
"Whoa, it's okay. I'm not going to take him away from you. I'm not going to hurt him. But he needs help, right? Is he your Summoner?"
There was less anger this time, more worry. When Reborn flicked his gaze to the body on the bed, Fon took a few steps closer, knowing Reborn could warn him off if he wanted to.
"Just take a few deep breaths and calm down. And then maybe the fine people of this establishment can help him." Fon's eyes drifted to the assorted people, watching one of them frantically press a button, which was probably a silent call for security.
Reborn looked back to Fon, and the other demon watched, relieved, as Reborn's inner eyelid slid back up and his pupils began to expand again. Slowly, Reborn leaned back and didn't stop moving until he was standing next to the bed.
Fon wasn't expecting the extensive damage on the boy, but seeing how lopsided his arm was, how the blood gushed even now, he could almost believe Reborn could lose his cool over this, especially if it were a Summoner he was attached to.
Stepping forward and stopping by Reborn's side, Fon had to hold his breath –something he didn't need anyway– at the overwhelming scent of blood. With the lift of a hand, he quietly signalled the healers over and ushered an extremely reluctant Reborn away.
"Who is he?" Fon asked calmly, kindly. "Your new Summoner, he's young."
Reborn sucked in a sharp breath, keeping himself situated so he could always see Tsuna but also face Fon.
"His name is Tsunayoshi. He lets me call him Tsuna. Eighteen. You probably know enough from Verde and Colonello."
"I want to know from you," Fon replied softly. "Colonello exaggerates and Verde gives the barest of facts."
"He's different." Reborn twitched when someone's demon hovered over Tsuna, but Fon's hand on his shoulder steadied him.
"Different how?"
"He treats us as human. As if we aren't monsters. As if we matter. He saw me, when he was younger, when he was seven," Reborn added offhandedly, breaking Fon's calm composure with a lifted eyebrow of surprise.
"He did?"
Reborn nodded. Their conversation was cut short when Tsuna gasped awake, arching from the bed and eyes darting around, wild.
A ragged breath left his chest and his whispered "Reborn" had his demon darting across the room, making his way to stand by the bed, hand reaching down to press against Tsuna's.
Tsuna looked at him, not quite seeing, and his hand twitched under his. His mouth opened again, but Reborn shushed him, moving his hand so they could tangle fingers. Tsuna's hand tightened weakly around his before falling slack.
The monitoring equipment they had attached while Fon and Reborn were beginning to wail as the body they were connected to decided it was too weak to hang on to life.
Reborn moved before Tsuna's hand fell, pressing down on the symbol on his clothed chest, and shoved everything he could into the frail brunet beneath him. He was determined not to lose this Summoner, his Summoner. Not this one.
Ever since he could see demons, a feat no other children his age could admit to, Tsuna had gone into the Academy Library and looked at everything he could pertaining to those strange creatures, starting at the tender age of nine.
Of course, the normal side of the academy had no more than myths and fairytales, but Tsuna read them from page to page, absorbing the words like a sponge, and committing them to memory.
Occasionally, when he was spectacularly lucky, a demon, mostly small ones, none like the man before, would be floating around and he could convince them into conversations they were glad to have.
He gleaned all of the information he could. His first friend at the academy was a bird-like creature called Osiel. Instead of feathers, she was covered in an off white, tar like substance that curiously didn't drip and functioned as her skin. She often perched on Tsuna's shoulder or leg when they chatted and when the boy sat down. Her feet were dark red bone. Her head was dark red bone as well, no eyes and sunken sockets. Her beak was curled to a cruel point.
She was surprised when he had approached her, asking, quite politely and seriously for a boy his age, if they could talk, but only if she wasn't busy.
Osiel, quite charmed by his shy glances and curious eyes, agreed and was pleasantly surprised when he asked for a name and which pronoun she liked to be called. While demons had more fluid genders than humans, she herself was female and told him so, along with her name.
"I'm Tsunayoshi Sawada," he offered in return with a small smile, a gap showing a lost tooth. "You can call me Tsuna if you like. Can we go somewhere quiet to talk?"
Osiel had taken the proffered arm, perching on it delicately so she wouldn't break the young skin, which her talons were so often used for. He had taken them to the library, a secluded corner hidden by the towering bookcases. Then he gushed over her.
They spoke for hours, well into the evening, and Osiel had never been happier with a human. Despite his young age, he was knowledgeable, and she corrected his wrong and often stereotypical assumptions.
Upon their departure from each other, he thanked her profusely and, shy once again, asked if perhaps they could meet again some time? Oh, but only if it's possible!
Osiel, delighted with this boy, his manners and attitude towards her, agreed. With just a pinprick of blood caused by her claw, she assured him she could find him with that when she could.
Their meetings carried on again and again, lasting for months, transgressing into a year before Osiel was killed by another demon under contract.
Tsuna never understood why his pleasant bird-like friend had stopped visiting, and despaired of her loss for many weeks. He wasn't quite the same afterwards.
"–born! Reborn, it's okay. He's back, you brought him back." Reborn blinked past the black spots in his vision, aware of a hand on his shoulder, a body against his back, a hand tight on his wrist hovering over Tsuna.
Tsuna.
Reborn felt his equivalent of a heart lurch, his eyes darting over every inch of Tsuna. He was glad to notice the flutter of eyelashes, the rise and fall of his chest, the faintly heard but strong heartbeat of a cadence almost similar to his own.
"It's okay," Fon soothed again, pulling him back and letting healers take his place. "He's alive. He's staying alive. You've done all you can."
Reborn lifted his free hand, pressing to his ribs. He was glad, immensely so, to feel the burn of the crest still there, still on him, still his.
Tsuna wasn't going anywhere. Not now, not ever. Not if Reborn could help it.
"You're serious about this one." Fon sounded surprised at this. His hand faltered on Reborn's wrist before his arms fell away entirely. "Why?"
"Because he's different," Reborn replied, his voice throaty.
Fon's expression softened, just slightly. An unreadable emotion in his eyes appeared as he looked at Tsuna's body, swaddled in blankets on the bed, his injured side was long wrapped up and on its way to healing.
"He is kind, isn't he?"
Twisting to look at his companion suspiciously, Reborn started, voice sharp as he asked, "And how would you know?"
"While you were concentrating, he came back. You didn't see him, or at least I don't think. But he reached to touch your face. I've never seen such a worried and thankful expression on a Summoner's face before. The reaction was so strong, too. Even I could feel it in the air, the result of his Aether meeting yours. He's special, Reborn."
He's mine, was Reborn's first thought, but then he remembered Colonello and Verde. His expression turned sour as he muttered, "He doesn't need to be special. He doesn't need any attention."
"You can't be jealous, Reborn," Fon admonished quietly. "With the Flame he has, he has the power to encompass all. He isn't restricted to Aether, to Flame. Others will scurry to contract with him."
"And I will strike them down."
Fon's hand was back on his shoulder, a solid weight as the other murmured, "Yet what if they were of your own kin?"
Reborn swallowed, but couldn't get rid of the lump in his throat or the bitterness in his mouth. Eventually he replied, "That is of no matter."
"Reborn," Fon sounded disappointed, almost scolding. "Restricting a Summoner is unfair to his ability. He'll seek others when he realises what he is capable of. He will need more."
"I will be everything he needs," Reborn snapped back, startling Fon into stepping away as if he were afraid of being hit.
"What makes you so determined to be his only contract, to keep him to yourself?"
Reborn couldn't stop the snarl that bubbled up from his throat, voice guttural as he shot back, "He's mine."
Fon's expression twisted slightly, to curiosity, to an expression of confusion and then settled on hesitant acceptance.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Reborn."
Reborn stared at him, before turning his attention to his soft, weak little Summoner, trapped in a bed due to Reborn's own inadequacies as a partner.
"I'm doing what I have to," he murmured, one hand scraping through his hair and catching a horn he was forced to break off before his guise could replace itself, treatment that the opposite horn was given.
"Then I hope that, to achieve your goal, you may need help. Demons will be attracted to him for his Aether. You may not be able to protect him by yourself."
"Are you saying I'm not suitable?" Reborn lifted his lip into an angry sneer, glaring at Fon and letting the bone fragments in his hands turn to dust.
"I'm saying you might need help. When he awakens, I wouldn't be against you advising him to accept a contract with Verde."
When Reborn went to retort, Fon lifted a hand to silence him, which was reluctantly accepted.
"Only because of what has happened today, Reborn. You slipped so far I thought I wouldn't be able to pull you back. With Verde, one of you will be able to reach him if the other is busy. You can avoid such an incident from happening again."
Reborn grinded his teeth angrily, a growl rumbling in his chest. But he did not argue. He simply crossed his arms and stared at Tsuna's bed. One by one, the multitude of healers were drifting away.
None of them would speak of the contract between him and his Summoner, under oath as they were. Their secret was safe. Verde was an unknown.
Fon offered a small smile, but it tight, almost unsure. "If not Verde, Colonello is eager to-"
"No." Reborn's voice was a hiss, and Fon's smile tightened.
"I'll come by later. But it would be very helpful for his future health to have more than one demon to summon to his side in times of need, even if it means drawing a circle and summoning a lesser one. Though, I doubt you'd agree to anything much weaker than yourself. This makes Verde the best bet. I'm not trying to give you an obstacle for whatever you want or need from the boy, but it will prevent his life being put at risk."
"I get it," Reborn spat out and ignored Fon's smile that softened at his acceptance. Reborn continued, "I'll get Tsuna to call that damned thing as soon as he gets better."
Fon patted his shoulder and disappeared, which was Reborn's cue to trail, silently and quickly, to his Summoner's side. He brushed the brown hair from a pale, sweaty face, and rubbed his fingertips contemplatively to the pulse in Tsuna's neck.
His fingertips came back flaked in blood. His anger bubbled in his stomach along with reluctant acceptance that Tsuna would need more than just him.
But that was for another time. For when Tsuna was better, when Reborn could apologise, stay close and not worry about him and staggeringly bring across the notion of another contract.
Reborn sat on the edge of the bed and, as before but in more control of his actions, curled himself around Tsuna, his Tsuna, until he would wake up.
For now, he was enough to keep him safe.
When Tsuna was twenty eight, when he had been free of the Academy for several years, when he still had Reborn by his side, even after a decade, there were lines of worry in his too young face, and too many scars for his small body.
Looking back, he and Reborn would concur that the agreement of having Tsuna complete more than one contract was the one action that would have caused the ball to roll.
And the one action that would cause everything to change.
Thanks to Pure Red Crane for doing the beta work on this chapter! I feel slightly guilty about posting this instead of updating other stories but…
Here you go anyway!
