Next chapter is up. Thank you very much for the support on this story. It is supposed to be hilarious (repetition) and I hope I am building up to it haha!
After a minute or more, Tsuna who consciously tried not to move too much when Gokudera came to put his arms around him, now wriggled out his hands and patted Gokudera on the head. Perhaps it had been something in his young mind that alarmed him that the man for some reason was so very sad. Maybe, Tsuna thought, he might had been quite hurt.
"P-ain. P-ain, fly!" He said the words very earnestly, although he slurred over them. Following that, he waved his arms in the air as he gave the man a toothy grin. "Gone?"
The Storm was a little appalled, not understanding what the boy just did. He turned to look at Yamamoto, who was the nearest to him, in which the Rain Guardian just gave an apologetic face and a weak shrug of his shoulders.
"Yes, yes, Dame-Tsuna. The pain is gone. Can't you see that this idiota looks much better now?" Reborn then casually replied. Upon seeing the Elements' puzzled faces whom they reminded him of lost chickens. he had to bite his lip to hide an ungracious chuckle from within.
"He was asking if the pain is gone."
"Pain?" Gokudera fumbled his hands around to check his body. "I am not hurt- oh."
He then smiled at the child as Hibird fluttered about in his hair. "Thank you, Jyuudaime. The pain is gone."
Yamamoto and Ryohei grinned widely. Lambo managed a lazy smile. Hibari scoffed, but a small upward curl of his lips could be seen. Reborn stood watching, small smile also evident. Chrome chuckled at the scene, then turned to look at Mukuro.
He was no longer there.
The Mist drummed his fingers impatiently across the table top, unsure of what was actually the spiralling mess inside of him. Five hours it had been since the encounter and he refused to interact with the Guardians (or anyone for the matter) since then. He thought about the past; thought that he had never been one to register emotions, until Sawada Tsunayoshi came along.
They were then connected, their minds, always a part of each other- something he had always cherished, relished and took great pride in.
Yet he felt no connection from the child at all.
If the child was Sawada Tsunayoshi, shouldn't there be a re-kindle of their bonds?
"One hundred percent Sawada Tsunayoshi? He came back? To life?" He laughed coldly and moved a hand towards his cursed eye. The real Sawada Tsunayoshi laid in the box buried six feet deep. Dead people don't just come back to life. He must be mad like them to even believe whatever Reborn or Verde was sprouting, ex-Acrobaleno, wise and experienced, brilliant beyond measures or not.
Though he also knew both were never the type to lie anyway, though that deep trench that existed between him and child now said otherwise.
It was horrendous, no one knew the agony of the sudden wave of cold emptiness that rushed to his core when Tsunayoshi took his last breath. An irreplaceable gaping hole that man left and he had no idea what to do with it.
No one could ever understand that. They did not, never had it- that something precious from interconnected souls.
The monotonic drone from the laptop played on. He shuffled the papers, and re-shuffled them again, for the umpteen time.
He would kill and torture. He would laugh and toy with people like puppets. He would destroy the Vongola from within. If all these actions brought him the relief that he lost.
They wouldn't though, he secretly admitted. There was zero pleasure in anything anymore.
The buzz from his cell interrupted his thoughts and he saw that it was Chrome.
"What is it?" He muttered, slightly agitated. It better be something urgent. It better be something crucial. It better be nothing about that carbon copy of-
"We can't find Bossu. We brought him out to the mansion's gardens to play a little and now we don't know where he went." She panted and then abruptly paused (he could hear the chaos on the other end, Gokudera screaming how he should die) as if suddenly unsure of what to say. Mukuro remained silent, waiting for her to continue. "Please do help."
"There's Reborn." He replied blandly.
"He just disappeared..." Chrome protested. "He might be trapped in one of our illusions traps. You know some of them are rather elaborate since we have one of our secret bases here-"
"One has to recognise the presence of Mist flames before even getting trapped in our illusions. That. That is just a child. He may conjure some of Decimo's technique, but he certainly wouldn't be able to distinguish flames." He added coolly. "And don't call me anymore, I am very busy with the mission reports."
"…We finished them all yesterday, Mukuro-sama. Ken-kun, Chikusa-kun, M.M-chan, everyone helped."
His mouth parted mid-way, thinking of a reply. Then he finally said. "You know Mafia scum, making their workers like dogs."
"Only if we accept the missions in the first place." Chrome sounded angry with him, the second time. He long forgotten about the first. "Stop running away, Mukuro-sama."
She had said that to him before. There was also Tsunayoshi there. They were all sixteen years old. Bleeding, dying, hated, brandished traitor laying pathetic and weak on the floor, Tsunayoshi had picked him up again. Just like from the water prison and the Vindice, Tsunayoshi chose to pick him up again.
Mafia scum are really lost in the head.
Sorry about that, it is a nutty job. Maybe that is even why I still ended up becoming Vongola Decimo eventually.
I am not talking about you. You are just Tsunayoshi to me.
"Chrome Dokuro." Shut up. He bellowed and turned off the call. He stared at the papers laid before him, then finally sucking in a breath and throwing the cell onto the floor. Metal and screen bits littered over.
That child.
He stormed out the stairs. There were pockets of Russian Mafia Group spies in the vicinity. Vongola Decimo's passing had been in secrecy and there were only rumours of it. Mukuro needed to make sure they catch nothing of the trail.
Is not.
He would torture them slowly, let them bleed out from their necks and wrists and as they writhed in agony, spitting out information and pain, he would laugh at that pitiable sight. He's always like that.
Sawada Tsunayoshi.
And maybe the Decimo would come at him with that ever beautiful frown and clear, strong eyes. He would not say anything about the crime- they had passed that a long time ago. Instead, he would say. "I am here now. You can tell me what's going on."
I am here. Is there anything wrong? That was what he always said.
He chuckled bitterly and headed out, looking at worn out buildings and a grey sky. The first of the Italian Kokuyo bases located itself beneath a ruined site not far from the Vongola headquarters. He didn't look at the building and turned the other way.
"Hic…"
Mukuro swerved around, pulling out a trident.
"Kufufu… Come out. I know you're there." He grinned, despite feeling very on edge. Had someone seen the base? He must kill them. Law of survival.
There was a rustle and something small rolled out. He widened his eyes.
"Hiccup."
The child looked at him curiously and then giggled, before hiccupping again.
"You..." He started.
How in the world did that boy,a mere child navigate through his extensive and complicated illusions to this hidden base? Not to mention, he did not trigger a single warning trap. The only ones that were able to find their ways without bodily harm were only Chrome, Fran and the Vongola Decimo.
Maybe Reborn, but he still had to first force his way through an artillery fest of real illusions.
Mukuro paused in his thoughts for a moment, red and blue orbs focused on the boy for a moment.
"Tsunayoshi." He said at last, and the boy with brown hair and caramel eyes laughed.
His laughter was as warm as Tsunayoshi's.
Mukuro's hands trembled a little. There…was warmth like fire blooming in and across his chest. And the boy came to him and grabbed his leg.
Why...are you here?
"I must have grown so soft to believe in fantasies like this. My past self will certainly mock me." Mukuro mused solemnly, as he picked the child up whilst repeating his name. It'd feel better this way though.
"Tsunayoshi."
"Tsunayoshi."
"Tsunayoshi."
Each time the child laughed in reply.
The heart no longer forlorn, the mist cleared to reveal the sky.
"So apparently Tsuna went to look for you." Reborn nodded and raised his eyebrow at the child sitting comfortably (too comfortably in some of the Guardians' opinion) in the arms of the Mist.
"The creep of all people." Gokudera muttered sullenly, glaring at the man. Part of him did not want to admit some form of jealously.
Mukuro laughed as he always did, it's his trademark. "Kufufufu… Well I happened to be quite desirable."
Suddenly, there was a loud growl from his side and everyone blinked in shock, other than Reborn, of course.
"Wasn't me." Mukuro narrowed his eyes in annoyance as everyone turned to his direction and spat the words with such venom to emphasise the fact.
Tsuna then chose this moment to chew on Mukuro's suit, or his tie more specifically.
It was after a minute of silence- a minute to make sure that Mukuro wasn't going to spear the boy or anyone else, before Lambo decided to speak up.
"Uh… to the kitchen… I guess?"