Everyone has been so happy with the fluff. So I had to take it away *smiling innocently*
Also I was going well til I got to this chapter, but there does my 1k limit. Right out the god damn window.
You will not tell us what to do.
While Tsuna was spending time with Reborn, learning and growing, the brothers were busy with their father.
"Why do you boys insist on staying in your wing? This is your home." Timoteo was rough. He looked haggard and his flames barely sparked these days. Enrico was sure that if his father still wore the Vongola ring (which he didn't because Enrico had been training with it since he was twenty) he would have been rejected weeks ago.
"You have yet to make it clear that you are sorry for the way you reacted." Federico muttered, face twisted and uncomfortable with this. He loved his father very very much, but this was getting ridiculous, he was twenty two and he knew where the line was.
"Father, you tried to disown our brother because of losing mother." Massimo grunted out, showing his teeth in distaste. "Worse you tried to seal him."
Timoteo stilled, his eyes clouded and he took a fortifying breathe. He then walked to his youngest boy. Xanxus would be turning twelve soon and he was growing fast. He was fed a supplement of good brothers, good flames, and good food, it was unsurprising.
Timoteo really did grieve when he saw the distrust cloud Xanxus' eyes. The boy flinched back into Massimo's form, and the twenty-four year old man wrapped large arms around Xanxus shoulders even as Timoteo took Xanxus' hands.
"I cannot explain how sorry I am, my boy. Losing my dearest wife hurt me more than I thought anything could. Knowing that she was leaving me with you four, and that she did in fact love you four more than she ever loved me hurt at the time. I have no excuse as to how I acted, dearest boy." Timoteo didn't dare move his hands, he knew how his boys would react and he couldn't deal with them leaving again. He was broken already and he knew his flames were dying. He didn't want the last thing he knew of his precious boys to be their backs and their suitcases. "But I lost my wife, and I didn't want to lose you, I had thought it best. You have to understand."
Xanxus just sniffed, eyes flashing red. His rage had been growing while Timoteo was distracted. It had been growing and channeled, all without him. Without needing him. "She was our mother, Timoteo." Xanxus snarled, tears gathering in the sound. "She was your wife, but she's our mother."
And Timoteo dropped the hands in defeat. "I am very sorry boys. I just want us to mend now."
And Enrico nodded. "We would too. But not right now. You know where to find us."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As always, when the boys returned from 'work' they were greeted by Reborn and Tsuna. The younger ran at the brothers and greeted them with kisses. He grew worried though when he felt something sad about the brothers. He kept silent for a moment though when Reborn kissed is forehead.
"You heading off for the day, Reborn." Massimo chuckled. "It's a long drive back to Capitone."
"I'm obviously not driving back to my place. I'm taking the spare room you set aside for me. Tutoring is a 24/7 kind of job, and you know it you ass." Reborn threw the insult over his shoulder and strolled out of the living room.
Federico sank into the couch and pulled Tsuna to his lap. "What's wrong?"
Over the past four months, the boys had stopped being surprised when Tsuna's intuition flared up. It didn't always, but when it did there was no denying it.
"Our father is just being difficult."
Tsuna thought for a moment, "Nonno?"
The boys laughed, thought Xanxus cackled loudly. "No, he's Nono (the ninth)."
Tsuna was shaking his head. "He's your papa, which makes him a Nonno right? Cause I'm your son?"
Massimo was cackling this time and he had to fold over to stop from passing out from laughing to hard. Xanxus was just shocked, staring at Tsuna like he was crazy. "At least his lessons are paying off."
Enrico was chuckling, amused more by Federico's expression (a mix of pride because technically Tsuna was right, and frustration, because again Tsuna was right). It was this that decided it for Enrico though. "I think it's time we introduce him to our son." Enrico muttered from his chair, watching the scene before him with a smile. "It's unfair that Tsuna be cooped up here for much longer."
"But are you ready, bambino?" Massimo asked, round face uncertain and eyebrows pulled together.
Tsuna's eyebrows folded together, he gripped Enrico's collar and the man wrapped him in his cardigan. "I know Italian now, and I know I'm yours. I won't let him make me leave. I don't want to leave."
And that was it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Timoteo was in the greeting hall when Enrico found him. It was a wide space with couches lining the edges, tables and chairs dotted through the room, and a large desk in the back for the room which was where Timoteo sat. His guardians (Coyote, Bown Nie, Visconti, and Croquant at least) were lazing on some of the couches.
The old man looked up as his son entered, and Enrico was a littly guilty about the far-away look in his eyes. The look of sheer desperation and a little misplaced love and anger too. "I have some news to share, father."
Timoteo stood to kiss Enrico's cheeks, and Enrico frowned when he felt the frailness in the hands on his shoulders. He knew it wasn't his brothers leaving that did this, not entirely. Still, it made Enrico's core snarl a little. If his old man was this weak he should be planning to step down. Enrico, at twenty eight, was more than old enough to take over.
"Oh? I do hope its good news. God knows out family could use some, hmm?" Timoteo sat again, using his cane now more for its intended purpose than a ruse as it used to be.
Enrico grinned, it was good news though not for his father perhaps. "I would like you to meet your grandson. If you are up for it."
It took a minute for those words to sink in but Timoteo seemed to almost explode with excitement. His guardians got up to be around him, they too were buzzing. They loved these boys as if they were their own (their own children had all left, though they visited occasionally) to think that little Enrico was old enough to have a child of his own was indeed a shock and a joyous occasion.
"How could you keep that from me, my boy!" The ninth perked up, his eyes alight. He may have asked why Enrico kept his son from him, but Timoteo understood better than anyone that this kind of things need to be kept away until they were safe. In fact, all of the Ninth's boys were hidden away until they were three. "Bring him in, show me the newest Vongola. How old is he?"
Enrico just smiled, and the Ninth was blown away by the look. It was exactly what his mother looked like every time she gazed at her boys. "He turned five just a few months back."
Federico walked in then, he was winged by Xanxus on his right, and Massimo on his left. Federico was talking quietly to a boy in his arms. Though Timoteo couldn't see his face, he certainly had Enrico's dark brown hair.
"Good evening, Father." The boys chimed, and Timoteo felt so much better. All his boys were here and he was happy. And now he had a grandson too.
Except then the boy turned around, and Timoteo recognized those big brown eyes, and then he felt the flames wash over him. First his boys' flames, ones he recognized so well, and then a final new flame. This one was sweet with youth, and clotted with harmony. But it was equally as familiar.
"That is not your son." Timoteo stated. His eyes hardened as he swept over the way Xanxus and Massimo moved to slot in front of Federico and that child that was no son of his son.
Federico, his dear, sweet, childish boy stiffened and his pretty red eyes lit with flames. "No, he is our boy." He seethed, and the Ninth thought for a second that his son had lost it. Then he thought again, Federico had always become a different person when children were involved.
"That is Young Lion's son, Tsunayoshi." The young boy reacted to his name, eyes widening and hands tightening around Federico. Proof that the boy was Tsunayoshi. "That poor man thinks he's dead! What the fuck do you think you're doing with him? Go and apologize. Go give him back! The fuck is wrong with you boys. This is ridiculous." Timoteo was walking towards them then, and his own guardians were stalking forward. One was already calling up Iemitsu, probably to inform the poor man that his son was very much alive.
Then a massive hand rested on Timoteo's shoulder and he was looking into light green eyes. Massimo had a massive frown on his face. "Father, you aint listening. Tsunayoshi is our son."
But the old man was shaking his head. "No, he's Young Lion's. Now you call him and tell him that his son isn't dead."
Enrico smiled, it was a tight smile. Like he was talking to a petulant child. "Oh, Iemitsu knows where Tsunayoshi is. He signed the death certificate once I told him that I was taking his boy."
Brow Nie stepped forward then, scowling, he threw Massimo's hand off of the Ninth and walked him back a few paces. "He's right, Timo, Iemitsu just got off the phone with me. He said 'Tsuna's dead to me now.' There's nothing we can do."
And then a little voice piped up. "Papa, I don't understand?"
And something snapped in Timoteo, because he spun on his sons and his yell was accented by a wave of freezing sky flames. "What the hell have you done to the boy?!"
Xanxus stiffened and his snarl was heard across the hall. He and Massimo, as well as Enrico raised their hands on instinct and a wave of synchronized sky flame washed the room. All that was left of Timoteo's fury were snowflakes that seemed to make Tsuna laugh in wonder. "The fuck are you doing old man?"
And Timoteo didn't know, he stares at his hands and it's Coyote who holds his elbow and leads him backwards.
"I don't like him yelling, Papa." Tsuna cried into Federico's shoulder, he reaches for Xanxus. "Is it because of me, Fratello?"
Xanxus reaches up to Federico's shoulder and ruffles the thick brown hair. "Unfortunately our trashy father is a fucking idiot. Don't worry though, he won't do it anymore."
And Timoteo knew he couldn't. "What are you doing with him, he isn't yours, how could you….?"
"He is sync'd with us, father." Federico sniffs, stepping so he is closer to the wall that is Massimo. His older brother looks miffed. "We are raising him. You don't have to accept him, we have other places to go."
Enrico sighs, hands on his hips. "Fed is right, we want to stay here and live with you. You're our father and with mom gone we want to live the rest of your life with you. But Tsunayoshi is as much a son to us as if he were born from us, so he will stay."
"If you don't like it, trash we'll fucking leave." Xanxus snarls, still jumpy after Timoteo's outburst. "I have a mansion waiting to move into, you won't see us until you're dying if you try this shit again."
Fed slaps his shoulder for the language and Tsuna smiles in the background, but Xanxus is serious. All the boys are.
The old man collapsed into his chair. His eyes were wide and he shook. He shook simply because the will of the boys before him had managed to stop his outburst. He hadn't meant it, and the fear in his youngest son's eyes was enough that he sorely regretted the action. But still, the fact that his boys were now strong enough to subdue him was worrisome.
The fact that they now had a blood-ward was worse. But the Ninth knew when he was not in the winner's circle. So he held up a hand and silenced his guardians.
"It will take some time, but I….I have to accept this since young Tsunayoshi seems settled here, and his father- I mean Iemitsu seems to be aware of the matter."
Enrico bowed his head and smirked like he always knew it would go this way before picking Tsuna up and resting him on a hip. "We're glad you see it that way, father. We will see you at dinner. Come on, Tsuna, let's go for a walk around the mansion."
"We're going to explore? We're allowed to now, daddy?!"
And as one mass movement the brothers left, Tsuna was smiling so open and happy he practically glowed. Timoteo was left staring at the pair of crystal orange eyes that gazed at him over Enrico's shoulders. The ninth was struck by how like his own the boy was, and how like Primo he looked.
If the Ninth had any inclination to when his rein would end it was that night, looking into the face of the next two generations.
So not exactly a happy ending, not for Timoteo anyway. Tsuna could really care less as you can see. Things might improve, but it'll take time. I mean the Ninth loves Iemitsu very much, and to know that his sons stole Iemitsu's son must be a shock, even for a Mafia man.
That his sons are very suddenly 'rebelling' is also something that probably set's Nono's heart a racing.
So no, right now it isn't sunshine and rainbows. The Ninth's doesn't accept his sons' decision, still isn't forgiven for his transgressions, and now he has to deal with this fifth sky that isn't on his side.
It may work out, and if it doesn't be reassured that the brothers will sort something out themselves.
So please review.
~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3
