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The Light Between Worlds
Chapter IV: The Light Between the Umbrella and the Gate
Muri die viento
Walls of wind
Notte è scesa
Night has fallen.
— "Figlio Perduto" by Sara Brightman
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Reborn was the first to be called. He had just finished an assignment and was on his way to his favorite café when it happened.
A call from Iemitsu was unexpected, though not unusual. Unable to leave the Famiglia long enough to visit his actual family, Iemitsu occasionally called to ask Reborn how they were doing. Reborn despised those calls. They were usually filled with Iemitsu's posturing— feeble attempts at asserting authority over what was no longer truly his. "Oh yes, how is MY son doing?"
Sighing in irritation, Reborn almost considered ignoring the call for his own peace of mind, but eventually decided that the short-term benefits wouldn't outweigh the future irritation Iemitsu would no doubt prove to be if he didn't pick up.
Later he would think on the almost and shiver. He would promise himself that no matter how annoying the man, Iemitsu's phone calls were never to be ignored.
The call was short. The shortest one they had ever shared. Only four words spoken through the entire thing.
"There's been a leak."
Reborn was on a private flight to Japan within half an hour.
.
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Tsuna loved the day after rain. When the puddles hadn't evaporated yet, and every place he walked was scattered with fallen shards of the sky.
The roof of the Namimori Elementary had disappeared under one long, unending puddle. It didn't look like a rooftop anymore. It looked like an extension of the heavens, pinned to earth.
Seeing the rooftop covered in water, Kyo had left with an unhappy click of his tongue and a growly "Stay here, baby carnivore."
Tsuna had already waited an entire 2.7 seconds. He could resist no longer. He flung his bag down by the door to the rooftop and rolled up his uniform pants. He looked down at his SuperBot themed sneakers and wished he could be at home with his huge orange rain boots that Mama sometimes called galooshies when she was feeling whimsical.
Tsuna liked that word. Galooshies. It sounded like the splash of rain and the gloop of mud all at once. Galooshies.
Sighing in regret, he yanked off his nice shoes and socks.
It would be like walking on the sky, he thought giddily, wiggling his toes in happiness.
His toe nails were orange. Mama had painted them for him when he had stumbled upon her painting her fingers. Tsuna had originally wanted to use the little jars of paint on his lion drawing, but mama said no because the paints were just for nails (the kind on hands).
Since Mama didn't finger paint, nail painting must be the grown up version of it.
Tsuna wondered if Kyo or Reborn painted their toe nails.
Probably, he decided.
Lugging the heavy rooftop door open, Tsuna glanced around to make sure he was alone before taking a tentative step into the puddle. It barely stirred the sky. Regaining his initial excitement, Tsuna kicked his right foot up, displacing an arc of water droplets. They sparkled like small crystals before falling back with the tiniest of plunks, like a caress of harp strings. Laughing, he jumped. A crest of ripples lapped against his feet and broke across the rooftop sky.
Something in Tsuna just sighed. It felt like one of Kyo's piggyback rides home. Like Reborn sweeping his hand through Tsuna's auburn locks in absent affection. Like Mama's hot, soothing cooking on a terribly cold day.
The constant burning in Tsuna quelled— the rush of details and information that sometimes seemed unending and overwhelming silenced. It was peaceful and quiet in his head for once.
He imagined he was sitting in an airplane, surrounded and embraced by something warm and his.
Hush, the sky whispered to him. No one can touch you when you're home with me.
The lines were blurring.
"Baby carnivore."
He was evaporating. Dissipating like a cloud of light and sound and thought.
"Small animal."
Just another fallen shard of the sky.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi." His full name from Kyo's lips finally pierced through the haze. Before he could get his bearings, he was being hoisted up and slung over Kyo's hip.
It was raining again. Tsuna was drenched to the bone. Soaked past layers of skin and muscle and blood.
He sneezed.
Kyo huffed, readjusting his grip on Tsuna, before smoothly turning around and walking back to the rooftop door.
"Explain," Kyo ordered, stepping back inside.
Tsuna's words had disappeared. It was like he had forgotten how to speak. Maybe he had tried to be a part of the sky for too long. The atmosphere had no voice, so maybe it had stolen his. Closing his eyes, Tsuna burrowed into Kyo's shoulder.
Emptiness bored a hole inside him. Something was breathing under his skin. It was hot and cold, like a pain patch. It pulsated back and forth in time with his heart beat. Being next to Kyo had only made it grow more intense. It felt like he was being thrown into a boiling pot of water in the middle of an arctic winter storm.
Something in him was reaching and coming up short.
He wanted to be taken back outside again.
He had a feeling Kyo wouldn't agree.
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When Hibari had returned from emptying a teacher's lounge to eat in, he crushed the odd fluttery feeling that rose when he didn't see the baby carnivore.
He saw the shoes and the bag and thought for a moment that some unfortunate herbivores were going to die today. Then, he realized that the baby carnivore had, in an unacceptably herbivorous move, decided to go barefoot on to the rooftop. It was raining. He sheathed his tonfas and dragged the door open, striding across the wet concrete towards the stupid small animal.
He swallowed down another butterfly. The baby carnivore seemed as though he was fading, growing paler by the second. He was surrounded in a faint halo of orange.
Forbidden. No children were allowed to disappear on Namimori grounds. Especially not the baby carnivore.
Kyoya called twice before losing his patience. He yanked Tsuna up onto his hip, quickly taking the small animal away from the roof where it was pouring. Streaks of rain pounded into him and the baby carnivore, as if the sky was irate.
Tsunayoshi didn't speak, just buried his face into the place where Hibari's neck met his shoulder.
The baby carnivore was too cold. Hibari brought him to the teacher's lounge before returning for the small animal's sneakers and school books.
Hibari demanded an explanation, but he supposed he could make sure the small animal wouldn't get sick first. Sickness put carnivores in a position of weakness which was completely inadmissible. He passed the baby carnivore one of his extra uniforms and ordered him to change. Tsuna obediently took the uniform to the bathroom and started peeling off his wet clothes. Hibari found a blanket in the closet.
The uniform was too big for the baby carnivore, but it would do. Grabbing a towel from his sports bag, Hibari rubbed at the small animal's damp hair, making sure it was restored to a suitable amount of fluff. Then, Hibari swaddled his baby carnivore in the soft blanket.
"Explain. Now," he ordered.
Tsuna's voice came out in a whisper. "I saw the puddle, and it looked like a huge piece of the sky, so I wanted to walk on it."
Hibari glanced at the small animal's dry shoes and gave him a meaningful glance.
"These are my SuperBot sneakers, Kyo. I couldn't get them wet and messy. And besides, I wanted to touch the sky with my toes." Tsuna smiled, as if his strange desire completely validated his ridiculous behavior.
Hibari clicked his tongue and glared.
"I didn't see the rain," Tsuna promised, shivering. "It was just so pretty." The small animal's eyes grew starry again. "It was like I was on an airplane!"
Hibari frowned. That didn't explain the orange glow he had seen. The small animal's eyes sometimes glowed orange when they sparred, but Hibari thought that was the extent of it.
"But then, when I was standing there, it felt… allucinante. Like I belonged. Like I was the sky's," Tsuna explained, moving his hands in wondrous, wild gestures.
Kyoya snorted, unimpressed. The small animal was a part of Namimori, making him Hibari's. As if he could belong to something like the sky.
The baby carnivore sneezed again, and really, the sound shouldn't be so cute.
The small animal looked up with his big, dark, doleful eyes. His long eyelashes were still damp and lustrous from the rain. His irises were back to their usual dusky mocha and chocolate, but they looked empty. The little animal cast a wistful glance to the sky outside the window.
What was he thinking about to look so far away?
Hibari would have almost felt guilty for dragging him in, but guilt was a herbivorous feeling and Hibari was a carnivore.
Tsuna turned his lucent autumn eyes on him. "Are you mad at me, Kyo?" he asked, soft and apologetic.
Hibari didn't reply. Instead he moved to the spot by the baby carnivore, grabbing a school book.
"Sleep," he ordered, tucking the baby carnivore closer. The small animal stifled a yawn, resting his tousled head on Hibari's lap. Hibari didn't say anything, absently tangling his fingers into the baby carnivore's fluffy plumage. He got a sleepy smile for his efforts and something in Hibari melted. He tugged the small animal closer feeling a wave of possessiveness wash over him.
Carnivores were allowed to be possessive, he relented. Only, they couldn't be possessed by anyone else.
Tsunayoshi looked serene in the flickering bars of butterscotch sunlight that appeared and disappeared with the passage of the rain clouds across the sun. The yawning emptiness in his eyes had been replaced with fondness and affection. The baby carnivore looked content.
He was glowing orange again, Hibari noted smugly.
The effect wasn't limited to being surrounded by the sky then. Hibari was enough.
In surprise, Kyoya noticed that he himself was glowing purple. That had never happened before. He didn't know what it meant.
It probably marked him and Tsunayoshi as carnivores. Purple marked him as the apex predator, since purple was the best color.
Content with this explanation, Hibari turned back to his book.
"What are you reading?" Tsuna asked sleepily.
"Sleep."
"That doesn't sound like a very good book."
"Sleep."
"I'm not tired," Tsuna mumbled.
Kyoya gave him a pointed look. Tsuna hadn't really outgrown his nap yet, much as he liked to pretend he had. The Namimori Lower Elementary didn't have a nap time, but Tsuna usually slept during their lunch period.
"Baby carnivore."
"Galooshies."
"Sleep," Hibari replied.
After a few more giggling fits, the baby carnivore's eyes were finally sliding shut. Soon, his breaths evened out.
Hibari continued reading his book, pulling the purple bento Tsunayoshi's mother had packed for him closer. He ate absently, wondering if the baby carnivore would be able to patrol today, or if it was best avoided. Hibird would be happy with all the worms out today. They didn't need to feed him, though Tsunayoshi would most likely insist that they leave at least a few seeds out.
Hibari yawned.
Classes would be resuming in 22 minutes. It was more than enough for a quick catnap. He was still glowing purple. His purple and Tsunayoshi's orange coalesced together in the air, interlacing and swirling into interesting patterns. It was quite beautiful actually, like silent fire flowers spinning and blooming in the space between them.
Kyoya made sure his tonfas were within reach before stretching out beside Tsunayoshi, instinctively taking the outside half of the couch. He pulled at the blanket until they were both under it.
Tsunayoshi instantly curled closer in his sleep, mumbling something incoherent.
The sunlight was warm and languid, inducing a dizzying lethargy that was uncommon in its sheer force.
Kyoya felt himself drop off, though not before he wrapped a protective arm around the baby carnivore.
He hated putting both of them in a vulnerable position. It was unbecoming for a grown carnivore. Usually, they'd take turns napping, but he felt inexplicably exhausted, like he had just finished a double patrol alone.
If anything disturbed their slumber, he would take care of it personally.
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Tsuna woke with a start, his head jumbled.
Something was wrongwrongwrong.
Waves of agitation was rolling from Kyo and Tsuna reached out instinctively to comfort and dispel. Some of the tension dropped from Kyoya's frame, though he didn't lose his fighting stance.
Kyo had his tonfas out. The sun was drowning in its own bloody sunset. Classes had ended a while ago. They had never overslept like this before. It was a horrible feeling, like something cottony was in his mouth. Luckily, the Namimori Lower Elementary didn't assign homework over the weekend. Kyo, however, would have to check for all his assignments online when they got back to Tsuna's house. Kyo was staying the night since it was Friday.
Tsuna groaned, massaging his head with one hand. It was like he had rolled on a bed of legos. His head was pounding and throbbing, screaming at him.
Something is wrong, it whispered to him.
But they were at school. What could happen to them there?
As soon as the feeling came, it left. Kyo relaxed minutely.
Tsuna convinced himself that he had just imagined it. He had seen Kyo get tensed and had panicked himself.
But his head was still pounding.
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
"Hn."
Let's go, Tsuna read in the furrow of Kyo's brow.
"Okay, but can we stop by the roof really quickly?" Tsuna pleaded.
Hibari frowned at him.
"It'll only take a second. I promise."
"Hn," Hibari reluctantly agreed.
Tsuna scampered across the third floor to the roof. His path was lined in streaks of gold, guiding him to the right place.
Sunset cast splashes and streaks of pink and orange across the scattered pools on the rooftop. The large puddle had shrunk into several smaller puddles.
Tsuna took a step outside.
"Tsunayoshi."
Hibari's hand was on his arm, pulling him back.
"One minute, Kyo! I need to see something."
Kyo raised a reluctant eyebrow before nodding and following him.
Tsuna's feet led him to the place. Past where the puddle was to a spot where the roof was dry. Imprinted clearly on the ground in mud was a fresh print of a shoe. A large, adult male. Tsuna's brain supplied. It wasn't the kind of shoes teachers or students wore. It was the kind for hiking and long walks.
It shouldn't be here.
Tsuna looked at Kyoya, who was staring at the print darkly.
"Small animal. I am taking you home. Now," Kyo growled.
They silently ran down the three flights of stairs, quickly leaving the school grounds.
"Do you think there was a stranger at the school?" Tsuna huffed, already out of breath.
Kyo didn't reply, but Tsuna didn't expect him to.
The wind suddenly picked up, ripping across the empty street, wet and chilly. Tsuna's headache was in full force.
A stream of lightning hemorrhaged across the dark sky. The roar of thunder followed almost immediately.
The streets were muddy and flooded. Over the speakers, the inclement weather warning sounded. They had already missed the 5 o'clock song.
The last sliver of sun sunk below the horizon.
Tsuna tripped, scraping his hands and knees on the rough, uneven asphalt. Kyo was there immediately, pulling him up and dragging him forward.
His sneakers were caked in mud. Mama was going to be so mad at him.
Tsuna shivered as gusts of wind bit into them. The road ahead was blocked. There had been a car accident. Bits of glass and metal still littered the street, embedded in the mud. Car accidents were rare in Namimori.
"This way," Hibari ordered, tugging Tsuna towards the alley. They would have to take the longer way home through the back alleys of Namimori. It was so dark already, Tsuna mourned. No one had remembered them, tucked away on the third floor teacher lounge. How long had they been alone at school for? And when was that print made? The mud looked fresh. Could the person who had stepped there have been at the school when he and Kyo were dozing defenselessly on the couch?
Something in Tsuna with hackles and claws growled at the thought. Another part of him was completely and utterly terrified.
In the corner of his eye, Tsuna saw a black vehicle stop at the roadblock.
It felt like a brush of shadow on the back of his eyelids. A tiny seeping rivulet of fear, staining through his mind and smearing in the rain.
He froze, his head bursting from the force of his terrible imagination.
"Stop dawdling and come!"
He tumbled forward, his arm nearly ripped out of its socket by the force of Kyo's pull.
Someone had gotten down from the vehicle. Tsuna caught a glimpse of a hiking boot before Kyo had dragged him enough the get him moving.
Blind panic. Tsuna resisted the urge to sprint, knowing he would soon run out of energy if he did. The way home was too long to go for it now.
He followed Kyo's brisk pace, doing his best not to slip in the coagulating mud or breathe too loudly. The rain hurt, as if it was dissolving the world in its wake.
There were footsteps behind them. Slow and measured. It should be impossible to hear anything over the storm, but each step was stabbing itself into his ears.
Tsuna pushed himself to move faster. He was holding back Kyo.
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They were at the narrowest part of the pathway when it happened. A tall chain-link gate, usually left open, had been locked. It stood, a wall of rusted iron and slippery links, destroying their path forward.
The rain was relentlessly drowning all of their hopes for an easy escape.
.
Vanno avanti…
In questa grande oscurità.
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Kyo grappled with the tarnished lock, probably considering how easy it would be to break. Frowning, he released it with an irritated glare.
"We'll have to go over?" Tsuna asked nervously.
Kyo nodded.
Tsuna already knew they wouldn't make it. They were both drenched, their soggy clothes sticking uncomfortably to their rain-kissed skin. Their slick hands were barely able to cling together without slipping. The fence would be impossible. The storm was too fierce, too relentless. They would have to either confront or—
The footsteps in the back of Tsuna's head stopped.
He whirled around, instinctively backing up towards Kyoya.
A man was standing there, underneath a black umbrella, four feet away, smiling brightly at them. It was a chilling thing, all teeth.
Tsuna shuddered, wilting like a flower.
Kyo instantly stepped forward with a snarl, shielding Tsuna behind him. He reached for his tonfas.
The man was wearing beige hiking boots and jeans. The sleeves of his gray, nondescript shirt was turning black in the rain. He reminded Tsuna of that character from Alice in Wonderland. The one that had given him nightmares. The Cheshire cat.
All of Tsuna's instincts and pinched nerves were screaming at him to grab Kyoya and run.
Gazing down at him past Kyo, the man spoke in soft, crooning Italian that carried itself over the storm.
"Don't you want to come with me, little one? I'll get you out of this terrible rain."
Hibari rocked on his heels, momentarily taken back by the change in language.
Peeking from behind Kyo's shoulder, Tsuna mustered up the courage to respond.
"No! I definitely don't want to go with you. Ever!"
The man laughed, as if Tsuna had personally amused him. "I didn't know you could speak our tongue. That makes things much easier."
Tsuna didn't dare ask what exactly would be made easier.
"Listen to me, bambino. If you don't come away with me now, I am going to have to take you with me by force."
The man cast a cold, ominous glance towards Kyo, and Tsuna's heart frosted over in bleak despair.
The look was enough of a cue for Kyo, who charged, tonfas whirling like silver tongues of fire in the darkness.
The man laughed, easily blocking the fierce strikes like rain sluicing off his umbrella.
Tsuna shivered, and quelled the urge to scream. There was nobody for them here.
A powerful pressure was building inside him. It was like everything was focusing inwards to the fallen star trapped under his skin. He didn't know what to do with it.
All he knew was that he had to help Kyoya somehow.
He looked around the alley desperately, hoping his mind would show him the way out as it had done so many times in the past. His eyes scanned the alley for a flash of gold.
The scene was illuminated by a single lantern, embedded in the wall by the fence. It cast a shallow pool of pale grey light. It sparkled and reflected off the droplets of tumbling rain, like the sky was pouring down a surge of light instead of water.
There was no path lined in gold. Only grey walls and concrete and a gate that was rusted and locked and hopelessly unusable.
Tsuna drew a blank. There was no way out his mind could see.
The man with the umbrella seemed diverted by Kyo's assault until Kyo landed a hit on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
His eyes darkened like a purpling bruise.
He folded his umbrella away, batting away Kyo's furious strikes like they were mayflies on a summer evening.
Then, in one quick motion, he wrenched one of Kyo's tonfas away and slammed the boy against the concrete wall. The snatched tonfa clattered to the ground.
Kyo hissed like a feral cat, clawing and scratching at whatever was closest to him.
The man muttered a dark curse in response. He squeezed at Kyo's wrist until there was a crack and the other tonfa was slipping out of a numb grip.
A wave of pain flared in Tsuna's own wrist and he yelped, clapping a hand over his mouth. He had been stealing closer to the first tonfa the man had wrenched away, in hope he could do something with it to save them.
At the sound of his tiny yelp, the man stilled, not turning around to look back at Tsuna from where he stood.
"Stay in one place for me, piccolino."
"No," Tsuna mumbled.
"What was that?" the man asked, dangerously soft.
"No! Leave us alone!"
The man flung Kyo across the alley. He slammed into the chain link fence, crumpling to the muddy ground like a wad of used tissue paper. Tsuna felt the pain as if it were his own.
He barely had time to scream before the man was kneeling in front of him, his thumbs digging into Tsuna's cheeks forcing his head to tilt up.
Their eyes met. The man's eyes were glacial and blue. They were frozen; the humanity and warmth inside of them killed long ago. They looked at him with cold fascination, though there was the tiniest hint of covetousness.
"You are ethereal. Did you know that? Such a fragile and lovely child, like an innocent, little fawn. Your eyes have that wide-eyed expression, you know. Don't make me kill you, cerbiatto. Capisce?"
Tsuna trembled. He couldn't respond. He felt like a nebula, a combusting cloud of stardust. His eyes were flickering amber and gold again. They looked like two bright flares in the night.
The man gaped in surprise at the color change. "No. Don't tell me. No way. You have flames. You're a sky—" The man expelled a giddy laugh— "And they're so close to the surface too. The Estraneo would pay a bloody wedding to have you. You're turning out to be quite the investment, aren't you? I thought you'd already be taken by the time I got here, but it looks like I'm the first."
A molten tear streaked down Tsuna's cheek, like a comet. The man traced the streak down his face with a thumb, seemingly mesmerized.
Help…
"I'll bite you to death!"
Like an avenging god, Hibari struck with eyes of purple fire.
The man tilted his head to avoid the blow before clamping a hand around Hibari's other wrist. His grip on Tsuna shifted slightly and Tsuna took the opportunity to bite down on one of the man's fingers as hard as he could.
With a wounded groan, the man stood up and ripped his hand free from Tsuna's teeth.
"Oh, Piccolino, you shouldn't have done that. Now I'll have to punish you."
Tsuna trembled apprehensively, but the man moved to fight Kyo. While his back was turned, Tsuna reached for the other tonfa Hibari had dropped.
He had just grasped it in his tiny hands when he heard a gasp behind him.
He whirled around in pure panic.
The man had lifted Kyoya up.
Tsuna watched, unable to look away.
The Cheshire man snapped Kyo's back across his knee in one fell swoop, as if he was just cracking a large twig.
The sight sprayed itself into Tsuna's eyes and he stared in a daze, trying to understand what he was seeing.
Kyo crumbled to the cold, wet ground
like a bird with a broken wing falling out of the sky.
The tonfa slipped out of Tsuna's hand and clattered into the puddle below him. Pain and distress flooded into him. His heart exploded and the shrapnel embedded itself into his lungs, rendering breathing impossible.
"Kyo! Kyo! KYO!" He screamed and wept and pleaded for some response. Kyo shouldn't— wouldn't— couldn't— die.
He sobbed and it was a terrible sound, like the cries of a dying, wounded animal.
The man was whispering something. It was the last verse of an Italian song Reborn had played the recording of before, "Figlio Perduto."
"And the boy, his eyes closed, doesn't move. He's already lost."
Tsuna shattered. He set the world on fire with his agony.
Everything was melting in the heat.
"Get away from him!" Tsuna screamed, eyes blazing pure gold.
The man reached to touch him with his left hand, and the incandescent, translucent flames that swirled from Tsuna greedily devoured the appendage, burning it to a crisp.
The man howled in pain, snatching his blackened limb back.
Tsuna rushed around him to reach Kyo.
Kyoya was unconscious, his heartbeat faint. No. Tsuna's flames immediately overflowed, spilling from him to Kyo. Take the pain away. Sustain. Comfort. Protect.
A hazy blanket of sunset wrapped around Kyo, encasing him in amber. The burning in Tsuna quelled and temporarily disappeared.
What was happening? What were those flames? What was wrong with him?
.
.
Reborn had never known the meaning of the word panic before he had met Tsuna.
Iemitsu had approached him 6 years ago, cashing in a favor from a time before.
"The Family needs me now more than ever. I can't stay with Nana. I'm putting her in danger too."
Reborn said nothing.
"Just until the baby is born. Can you keep an eye on her?"
It was a big request. The kind only the Stupid Lion of the Vongola would feel no hesitation in requesting from Reborn of all people. He was the World's Greatest Hitman, not a babysitter.
At the time, Reborn couldn't possibly comprehend how much Iemitsu's request would change his life; change him. Only years later would it start becoming clear to him.
"Why don't you just assign her a security detail?"
"No one knows about her except you, Nono, and a few of mine at the CEDEF. I'd like to keep it that way. And, Namimori is a small town. Too many foreigners stand out."
Reborn sighed.
"What are you planning after the kid's born?"
"I haven't thought that far yet. Nono and the famiglia need my support now more than ever."
"You're an idiot, Iemitsu," Reborn said, giving in. He would need to reassign his work to Japan for a few months. He sighed. At least he wouldn't owe a favor to the Stupid Lion of the Vongola anymore.
Precisely 6 months later, Reborn was a godfather and no longer harbored any desire to leave Japan. However, work called and he knew that if he stayed too long, it would start drawing unwanted attention.
Nana understood, though he hadn't informed her of all the particulars. That, unfortunately, was Iemitsu's job.
He visited regularly after that, drawn by the allure of the home and family that he now belonged to. He was determined to be there for all of Tsuna's milestones: his first step, first word, first tooth. After all, he was the one who had driven Nana to the hospital when her water broke.
He was also the first one (after Nana) who had gotten to hold Tsuna on that day in October, still swaddled in the fluffy orange blanket the doctors had placed him in.
He had first known it then. The truth that seemed undeniable now.
Tsuna would be the last sky he ever pledged his loyalty too.
His little godson was the only pure thing Reborn had ever known that was actually pure. He was innocent-hearted, with a lucent soul and starry, all-knowing eyes. Too trusting, too affectionate, too naive, and altogether too good to belong to the bitter broken place he knew the world to be.
Tsuna had him wrapped tight around all of his sticky, little fingers. Reborn was terribly, hopelessly, inconveniently attached, and there was no going back.
The landing had been precarious in the storm. The pilot hadn't wanted to make it, but Reborn had provided… adequate persuasion.
He rushed through Namimori, reaching for the connection he harbored with his godson. An inferno of terror and grief vortexed into him from Tsuna's side.
His godson had awakened to his birthright, without any form of aid. At the tender age of 5, his body wasn't ready to handle the strain of flames. And there was really only one way for flames to awaken without bullets or pills…
Reborn knew 13 languages. He cursed in all of them simultaneously.
.
.
Tsuna froze, eyes wide in fear. He was like a deer in the headlights of a car that would never swerve. Never grant even that scrap of mercy to him.
The Cheshire man breathed in his flames like they were the aromatic air from a wax candle or a stick of incense.
"Bellissimo," he whispered, still moving towards Tsuna.
Reaching down, the man dragged a hand through his hair, yanking up painfully so he was tilting Tsuna's head back again. Tsuna reacted to the touch with a luminous flare. The flames slid off the man's gloves like they were water droplets on a pane of glass. The Cheshire man leaned down and gave Tsuna a mocking smile.
"Are you going to listen to me now, cerbiatto?"
In response, Tsuna reached with his scorching hand and touched the man's face. Angry red blisters immediately bloomed across the skin, bursting like tiny explosions on the man's face. Shrieking in shock and pain, the Cheshire man stumbled back, clutching at his burning skin.
Tsuna was paralyzed.
It hit him in that moment.
He had done that.
He had hurt another person.
He nearly hurled from the scent of burning flesh. He tried to breathe through his mouth, but his lungs felt like they were constricting. Kyo…
The Cheshire man raged and cursed. His glacial eyes were suddenly furious, blazing with hellfire. He stalked forward, eyes pinning Tsuna in place.
Tsuna screamed.
The man backhanded him across the face with his good hand, before violently throwing him onto the ground. Tsuna wailed in pain, curling up into a little ball on the wet concrete.
Reaching into his back pocket, the man with the umbrella pulled out a sleek gun.
"I didn't want to do this, but I'll still be fetching a pretty penny from your death. You've hurt me grievously, cerbiatto. Unforgivably so, in fact."
Tsuna struggled to sit up, the rain mixing with his tears and blood and broken hopes.
He would dream of this exact moment for the rest of his life. A man standing above him in the shadows, a pistol aimed at his head. The rain, cold and sharp, stabbing into their figures. The wet concrete beneath him. The blood from his scrapes numbed by the cold. And Kyo, broken and crumpled behind him, dying.
Tsuna was insensate. The man reached for his head, tilting it up. "Look at me, cerbiatto," he whispered sadistically. "I want to be looking into your pretty eyes as you die."
Tsuna felt an abnormal sense of calm rush through him despite his impending death.
Is this it?
Tsuna pleaded to whoever was listening. I don't care what happens to me. Just don't let Kyo die, okay? No matter what you have to take away from me, Kyo has to stay alive. You can't have his life. It doesn't belong to you.
The man above him raised his hand until the gun was level. Tsuna closed his eyes, accepting his fate. His plea had been heard. It must have.
Thunder.
And then the man fired.
Two gunshots one after the other.
There was a crash. Something had fallen. Tsuna opened his eyes and lifted one of his hands up. It was covered in something red and slick, diluted by the rain water. There was no gun shoved in his face, but his leg was on fire. It was burning worse than anything he had experienced in his life. He floated into a black haze of pain.
Suddenly, he was wrapped up in something warm. It felt like a kiss from the sun, and vaguely reminded Tsuna of coffee.
"Close your eyes, Dame-Tsuna. I'm here now."
.
.
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Hi... First off: I know what I'm doing, I promise! I'm sorry for the mood whiplash in this chapter, but it needed to happen, and I promise we'll be back in no time to fluff-land.
Also, I took some time to edit the previous chapters a little bit. The only major change you should know about is that Tsuna started his first year of first grade instead of his last year of kindergarten. On another note, please don't expect this to be completely accurate. I do some research, but definitely not as extensively as I maybe should...
I'm sorry for the big gap in updates. It's just, things are really hard and stressful for me right now for a multitude of reasons and I am doing the best I can.
Cerbiatto means fawn. Piccolino is little one. The random Italian when Kyoya and Tsuna are running is lines from Figlio Perduto. Something like: "They proceed through this intense darkness."
Was it too sudden? Too much whiplash? Are you wondering what the heck I'm doing? Tell me in the comments.
Future turns will have more foreshadowing. This was a sudden and traumatic event, and it was unexpected to everyone. I promise, it is all related and this plane will take off eventually. There's just some background and world-building stuff I want to do first to set up the second act which will take place... in the future.
Thank you for all the comments and favorites and follows! I appreciate it so so much. It keeps me going through the bad days. I know I'm really behind on replying to comments, but I promise I will get to them (and to you KV- I'm really sorry) when I get a chance.
Special thanks to team1225, OperaEagle IcelynLacelett, and Kain Vixenheim.
Once again: I do not own KHR! That honors belongs to the lovely Akira Amano.
EDIT 2/10/2018: I fixed a mild continuity error.
Thank you so much,
- Mmrose9