Considering the two had been there for almost three straight weeks, it was amazing it took so long for the Vongola to figure out where the two were.
Xanxus was not impressed, especially since even Lal Mirch had guessed where the two had disappeared to from simple common sense.
She had opted to take her sweet time returning, if only because she refused to be part of Iemitsu sealing two little boys. Especially if one was a strong Sky like Tsuna was.
It had nothing to do with the way the two eagerly called her Auntie and actually followed her orders like proper soldiers, making her reminisce about her time in COMSUBIN, nope, nothing at all.
(Mammon had already made a very decent sum of money sending pictures of Lal's expression when the boys called her Auntie to Colonello, who eagerly paid for them when he realized what he was looking at. She made even more when she sold pictures of Lal interacting like a favored aunt to the brats when they did what she told them without complaint.)
Xanxus was not happy having his "brother" in Varia headquarters, especially with a good portion of his Guardians.
The fact he automatically assumed that Xanxus was keeping the children against their wills really pissed him off though.
"Leave Xanxus-nii alone, you old geezer! Or do you want me to take out your other knee too!" shouted Tsuna. He was proudly wearing his new toy, which was a retractable blade on his right arm. Even if he did have an odd habit of clapping his hands before hitting the release mechanism on the blade, the boy was surprisingly adept at fighting with a blade on his arm. Enough so that Squalo actually had a fight on his hands when the brat used it.
"Xanxus-nii didn't do anything wrong! He kept that coward from hurting us!" said Haruto defiantly, hugging Xanxus' leg without hesitation.
"Dear god, they have Stockholm Syndrome," muttered Enrico.
Tsuna glared at him, and his hands flared with Sky flames.
"What was that, you creep?" he snarled, ready to rip Enrico a new one. If the shock of that wasn't enough, then seeing Haruto finally awaken his own Flames in response to Tsuna's ire at the accusation would have given them a reason to back off.
The yellow and blue flames burned brightly on Haruto, as he glared at the old man.
"At least Xanxus-nii didn't drug us, like that coward did," growled Haruto. He was pissed off.
"What do you mean, drug you?" demanded Enrico sharply.
"That coward drugged the juice boxes in the car when he had us picked up. Haruto passed out halfway through that big house and I wasn't about to leave him behind in enemy territory. We were lucky Xanxus-nii decided to get us out of there until the drugs wore off," said Tsuna flatly.
Enrico looked at his youngest brother and asked "Is this true, Xanxus?"
"The brats stumbled into the maze when we were there, and the Sky brat was carrying the other one like a sack of potatoes. Lussuria confirmed he had been dosed with a strong concentration of sleeping pills."
Enrico looked pissed. No one had informed him that one of the boys had been drugged. No wonder the kids attached themselves to Xanxus... he wasn't exactly inclined to agree with anything Father or Iemitsu demanded!
"Why haven't you brought them back to the mansion? Their mother is worried sick!"
So much so that Iemitsu finally caved and asked the older Vongola for help.
"Like we'd go back to be sealed! We're not stupid!" said Tsuna.
"What."
"Iemitsu wants his son's sealed, especially Tsuna," said Xanxus. "Considering what an idiot he is, I could believe him having them sealed just because the trash didn't want to bother training them."
Tsuna openly rolled his eyes.
"Teacher said that he thought his opinion of the coward couldn't go any lower, finding out that the idiot would openly consider sealing a five year old instead of training them," said Tsuna.
"Teacher?"
"Storm Arcobaleno. We're not keeping the brats here, they just refuse to go anywhere near Iemitsu or Nono, for damn good reason," said Xanxus flatly. That, and the brats had grown on them by this point.
Enrico sighed. This was a mess and a half.
"You can't keep them here, Xanxus. Their mother is worried sick about them."
"Then send them home to Japan. Not my problem if Iemitsu can't be bothered to see his family," deadpanned Xanxus.
No way was Iemitsu risking bringing his sons and wife to Italy twice. Especially once Xanxus made it known he would be keeping an eye for anyone fitting the boy's description being brought to Italy now that he knew exactly what Iemitsu planned to do with them.
Hell, Massimo and Frederico might very well help once he told them. No way would they go along with sealing a baby Sky, especially since Fon had decided to train Tsuna in how to control his Flames. The kid made it clear he was planning to enter the military, which meant they could simply bring him into the mafia when he was older.
Preferably the Varia, if Xanxus has any say in the matter. The kid was almost Quality, and just needed a bit of training before he made the cut.
Well, it was better than explaining to their father that Xanxus had felt protective enough of the little Sky to abduct him and his brother from Iemitsu's idiot plan... besides, Enrico would have to contact the Storm to see how much he wanted to keep training the boys. Better to have a known neutral party train them then deal with Iemitsu's whining.
Nana was beyond happy to have her boys with her again. Apparently they had quite the adventure while they were in Italy, and she thanked Xanxus profusely for keeping them safe.
The older teen had lightly blushed, embarrassed at the honest praise, before patting the boys on the head. Seeing little Haruto, who was always so shy around unknown people, hug the older boy around the leg Nana chuckled.
Even if she didn't notice the new "toys" that her sons had acquired from their new favorite big brother. They would quite happily keep her oblivious to what they could really do.
Most mothers didn't like it finding out their sons were fighting.
Kyouya, when he found out about Tsuna's new weapon, smirked and went on the offensive. The smaller carnivore finally had a proper set of fangs, and that made things more interesting. And the younger carnivore had picked up a pair of proper claws, and was now even more dangerous.
Fon was bemused, but rather pleased with this development. Even if it meant having to add blade training on top of the martial arts and flame lessons he gave them.
Viper (Mammon) had been kind enough to forward the video of the two beating up an entire room of rookie Varia members with the skills he taught them.
And Lal Mirch had become absolutely smitten with the two within a matter of days. Colonello would almost certainly make his way to the town once he heard about them from the woman.
Tsuna, age 10, Haruto, age 9
Tsuna was observing his classmates, a practice his Teacher and big brother (he had reluctantly conceded the title of "big brother" to Xanxus, mostly because they shared the same views on family) had encouraged him to keep up.
Which was why, the day Takeshi Yamamoto broke his dominant arm in an accident involving a batting machine, his Hyper Intuition (Xanxus had finally given him a name for the nudges he got from his instincts) practically screamed at him to keep an eye on the boy.
He wasn't the only one, Haruto was looking at the boy with a frown.
As the days progressed, Yamamoto fell deeper into depression. He hid it well enough to fool most, but anyone who actually looked could see he was miserable.
Tsuna and Haruto took to stalking the boy after school, instead of "playing" (read: sparring) with Kyouya.
Yamamoto looked over the bridge down to the river with an odd expression on his face. It was almost like he had lost the reason for living, and had no real desire to move on.
The taller boy would forever be in shock when a pair of bodies promptly tackled him to the ground without giving a damn about his broken arm the second he was seriously beginning to contemplate going over the railings to jump.
"Idiot! Are you really that careless with your own life that you'd be willing to jump off just from something as Stupid as a broken arm?!" shouted Tsuna, slapping him on the head, hard.
Takeshi winced, partly because Haruto was on his right arm, but also because that slap hurt.
"What do you care?" he said right back, his voice hollow.
"So what if you can't play for a while? You've still got two strong legs! You should keep walking forward until a new path opens up for you!" said Tsuna sternly.
Takeshi blinked. That was the first time he heard something like that. Most of the people around him were upset because he wasn't allowed to play baseball for a while and were losing interest in him altogether.
But Tsuna didn't care that he lost his arm. He was telling him to keep going until something better came along. Hell, he cared enough to follow him to the bridge and stop him.
"What if I can't? What if this is all I'll ever be?" said Takeshi miserably.
Tsuna glared at him, and it felt like he was staring into the depths of Takeshi's soul.
"We're ten. Kids heal faster than adults, and I seriously doubt that our futures are really set in stone at this age anyway," deadpanned Tsuna. "Instead of complaining that you're never going to play baseball again, find something new to focus on until your arm heals up and we'll play baseball with you, even if everyone else won't. I might not look it, but I got a pretty decent pitching arm."
"He does, but Kyouya hates playing with us," said Haruto. He was off Takeshi arm, but there was a weird warmth where his hand was. "And most of the other kids are too scared of him because he can fight with Kyouya and not get bitten to death for it."
"So are you going to keep being stupid, or should we drag your butt to your dad and have him yell at you?" said Tsuna.
"Ahaha... I'm fine now, really," said Takeshi with one of his smiles. He was immediately given another painful headslap for it.
"If you're miserable, then you should let people know. You don't need to fake a smile if you're in pain or sad," scolded Tsuna.
Takeshi looked, and really looked at the hotheaded boy. Tsuna had a temper, but he was a very protective big brother. The first time someone tried to bully him, he had glared and they backed off in fear. But the second they tried it with his little brother, who was in the same class... well, he responded much like Hibari would in the presence of people crowding him.
He bit them to death, and they learned very quickly you do not mess with Haruto. Tsuna would track you down and would not hesitate to end you, even if adults were present.
He took his duties of protecting his younger brother seriously.
And right now, Tsuna was looking at him with those wide eyes that were almost golden in color...and he saw Takeshi. Not the baseball prodigy, or the popular boy in class, but the miserable boy who had no idea what he was going to do with his life without being able to play baseball.
It made a weird feeling in his chest spark. Having someone who really saw him, and not the mask he wore. Especially when they made a point to walk him home.
Considering how hard they had tackled him, his father dragged him back to the clinic to have his arm checked. His dad had a weird look in his eye when he mentioned the weird warmth where Haruto had touched him, or the feeling he got in his chest around Tsuna.
What really made him curious was the fact that according to the x-ray his arm was already halfway to being healed, when it should have been a clean break throughout. The doctor couldn't explain it, even when comparing the previous scan of his arm.
Tsuyoshi however knew exactly what was going on. People didn't heal from broken arms like that unless Flames were involved. Especially Sun Flames.
From what little his son could tell him, it sounded like Tsuna Sawada was a Sky who had taken an interest in his little Takeshi, which he knew damn well was a Rain Latent.
Well, he wouldn't deny his son a chance to become a Guardian. Especially since it meant Takeshi would never fall into the same trap he had when he was still a teen. But he would rather confirm that this child was worthy of his boy, even if he had saved Takeshi's life from his own stupidity.
So when Takeshi brought the brothers to the shop, Tsuyoshi discreetly interrogated the two.
While young Tsuna was a bit of a hot tempered brat (one with a nasty right hook, from what he had found out) and was best friends with the most vicious Cloud in Namimori, he was very loyal to those who earned it. He treated family very seriously, to the point he'd jump into danger to keep them safe.
He was also a genius, though he didn't really bother to display it much. His grades were roughly in the middle of the class because he found the lessons so boring he often fell asleep, but he always got perfect scores on the tests.
Haruto was a little shy, but rather bright and friendly. He trusted his older brother completely and followed him everywhere, but not to a creepy extent. For one thing, he had his own hobbies like gardening and taking care of the stray cats in their neighborhood.
He was also an Active Sunny Rain. Which meant he was the reason why Takeshi's arm was halfway healed.
Seeing his son hit with Sky Attraction, Tsuyoshi observed their interaction carefully. Tsuna apparently had an idea of what was happening, but he wasn't annoyed by the way Takeshi seemed to lean on him for support.
Takeshi needed someone to anchor him in reality, and Tsuna didn't seem to care one way or another if he was that anchor. Though the fact he offered to help tutor Takeshi in math was amusing, considering his son hated the subject.
But what really proved the boy was worthy of being his son's sky was the conviction in Takeshi's eyes when he asked to learn how to use a sword.
Apparently Tsuna had gotten it through to him that just because he was unable to play baseball for now didn't mean that something better wouldn't come along soon enough. They were still children... they healed faster than adults and he still had two good legs to carry him wherever he wanted to go.
He should use them to find his own path.