Trigger: N/A

Warnings: N/A


Enough

The Sawada Household was abuzz. It was clear to Reborn that every single one of Tsuna's friends had found out what happened yesterday and was determined to stop in (and not leave) until they were reassured that Tsuna was alright and fine and -"Guys I need to breath!"

It was chaotic and lively and Reborn couldn't help but smile at it.

There was another subtle shift too, in how they treated him.

An extra dose of caution and wariness as if they had known that the situation from yesterday was his fault, but at the same time, they easily relaxed in his presence, as if they knew that Reborn had chosen Tsuna, had chosen to erase the incident from Ienari's mind. That he was now their ally in protecting Tsuna. Reborn mentally snorted at that. While true, it was annoying that the kids readily accepted him.

All of them were in the living room, curled up on the couch watching a game show involving water, mazes and bubble machines play on the TV. Yamamoto laid sprawled on Tsuna's lap, Ryohei was leaning against the Tsuna's shoulder. Kyoko was in the kitchen helping Nana cook up a storm, and Hana claimed the brown chair next to the couch. Hibari took the seat furthest away from everyone and appeared to be napping.

There was something warm about the scene, one that tugged at Reborn's heartstrings.

There were still plenty of things to do, questions to be asked. Reborn knew how deep Ienari's hatred ran, but not the reason why. He understood that Giotto was one of the five unseen occupants of the household, but that still left four more unknowns and that white plate! Namimori was still a weird place and Ienari's hatred may be unexplained (but it was at least a probable possibility) but it didn't explain why the rest of the town was walking around like Tsuna had killed their best friend. He needed to find out about the group called Yousei, needed to talk to Ienari and explain about Dying Will Flames but without mentioning the real reason why his student was in the hospital.

So much to do. So many things to figure out.

But for now, for now what Reborn knew was enough.


Wait Patiently

Ayame took a sip of her green tea, eyes fixed on the newspaper in front of her.

Kinga Corporation first 100 Trillion Yen company in the world!

International company Kinga Corporation is well known for making everything from toys to cars to doing everything from charity work to medical research. The company can proudly boast being the first company in the world to produce a revenue of over 100 trillion Yen! Owner and CEO of the Company Ayumu-kaichou had this to sa-

Ayame scoffed at the article. What a bunch of useless empty words. Why on earth was this the headline article on the first page when last night there had been an earthquake on the coast of Chile killing thousands? That was far more important. People and their priorities.

Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted a certain hitman walking down the street, headed to the hospital to visit his student. She took another sip of her tea and didn't draw attention to herself. There was no point. Tsuna would bring Reborn to meet her soon enough.

Until then, she could play in the shadows.


Wake Up

"Wake up Dame-Ienari."

Ienari groaned. "Five more minutes Reborn."

Reborn lifted his eyebrows. Perhaps Reborn should reconsider the break he was going to give his student. He let Leon shift into his hammer form and waved it threateningly in the air.

As if sensing his impending doom, Ienari's brown eyes snapped open. "Don't hit me, Reborn!" he yelped.

Reborn scoffed and let Leon transform back. Revenge for Tsuna or not, he would let it slide this time. Besides Tsuna had more or less enacted his own revenge. There wasn't really any need for Reborn to seek vengeance. On top of the broken arm and concussion, there was also a hairline fracture on Ienari's femur, a wide colorful arrangement of bruises as a result of being slammed into the wall and a torn ligament in his ankle. All of which Ienari would recover from, eventually.

(Reborn silently marveled at the sheer strength that Tsuna had to cause this much damage. If the boy was this strong why did he always cower from Ienari?)

"You're lucky you're already so badly injured that I won't cause any more additional pain, Dame-Ienari," Reborn said. "No sense putting you further behind schedule."

Ienari surveyed his surroundings and his own body. "What happened Reborn?" his student asked.

"Training accident."

"What sort of training were we doing that I ended up like this?!" Ienari asked in disbelief.

"Well, you ran straight into the wall," Reborn remarked calmly. Good Ienari didn't remember what happened. "But not before you tried to kill someone and splattered her brains over the sidewalk. You're lucky I was able to convince her it was all a giant prank."

"I tried to kill someone?" Ienari asked, horrified.

Reborn wondered what Ienari's expression would look like if he had known it was Tsuna he nearly killed. It was strange how, like flipping a switch, Ienari would be concerned about a complete stranger, but the minute his brother was mentioned, he would go cold and angry. What had happened to the twins that caused them to be like this?

"Since you're going to be stuck in the hospital for the foreseeable future until you're healed, we'll have to modify your training schedule," Reborn continued forward. "In the mean time…" Reborn dropped a large stack of papers onto Ienari's stomach.

"Omph! What is this Reborn?" Ienari demanded.

"Personality test!" Reborn said cheerfully. "I want to know exactly why you lost control in the training exercise. We can't have it repeated after all. So you're going to fill in every single one of these." There were over 200 different questions and scenarios listed. Reborn may have promised not to notify Nono about Tsuna's flames, but if Reborn found a single piece of evidence that Ienari was as unhinged as he feared, there was no way in all seven hells that he was going to let his student inherit the world's strongest mafia family if there was even a slight possibility of Ienari burning the world to ash.

Even if it meant tainting Tsuna's beautiful soul.


Puppy Pile

Everyone had fallen asleep.

Tsuna's lips twitched in an amused smile. He looked around at his slumbering friends and felt warmth flooded his heart. It always made him ridiculously happy that they always came to check up on him. It made him loved, worth something. They were overprotective mother-hens, but they were his friends.

Kyoko and Hana were curled together in the corner, holding each other up with a blue blanket wrapped around them both. Ryohei had taken the middle of the living room floor. Takeshi never moved from Tsuna's lap and Kyoya had come to take Ryohei's previous place next to Tsuna.

If Tsuna tilted his head back, he could catch a glimpse into the kitchen where his mother, Ayame and Giotto were all talking over tea. They were speaking too softly to make out any words, but their light, whimsical chatter made for a soothing rocky lullaby.

Ienari was in the hospital and despite the close call Tsuna had, he didn't feel any fear or backlash from it. In fact, knowing his brother was far, far away from home filled Tsuna with safety.

Home. Tsuna let out a comfortable sigh and relaxed.

This was Home.


Lack of Information

There was practically nothing on a group called Yousei. That was… frustrating. Reborn paused. Frustrating. He had been using that word a lot lately. But of course, absolutely nothing made sense in Namimori so why couldn't there be a group with no information running around? It would have been too easy, too normal, if Reborn had found information on Yousei.

Unless they were new?

If they were a new group being established that would make sense that there would be no information about them. If they made no major threats, didn't draw any attention from the existing groups, and were smart, they could gather in the shadows and hide until they were ready to present.

It didn't explain the rumors Tsuna heard. The most Reborn could piece together from the information Tsuna had given him was there had been a spike of kidnappings in the neighboring areas. Mostly homeless kids, kids people wouldn't miss or even notice they were missing. Because they were homeless, there weren't any police reports. So far there, it had been an estimate of fifteen potential victims over the last two weeks. Though how many of the missing fifteen kids were actually kidnapped, it was too hard to say. Homeless kids were too hard to keep track of and many would disappear for other reasons other than a malicious group.

So where had Tsuna heard about Yousei?


Movies

Kyoya had no idea why he was here.

Or how the herbivores had convinced him to join them. (Kyoya suspected the baby omnivore had asked when Kyoya had still been half asleep. And those brown eyes.) For all that he didn't like crowding, the skylark found himself trailing behind his herd as they chattered about the movie they were going to see.

Really, he should be biting them to death for skipping school again so soon.

"You don't have to come with us if you don't want to, Kyoya-sempai," the baby omnivore said quietly, falling into place next to Kyoya. Concern reflected in his brown eyes.

Kyoya surveyed those brown eyes carefully, searching for the darkness that often lingered after every run with the stupid wolf carnivore. It was there, like always, but the resolve that burned bright in Tsunayoshi's eyes hadn't dimmed. Good, that meant the baby omnivore was in a better place than he was three weeks ago.

He looked forward to where the rest of his herd were waiting for them to catch up. Kyoya let out of a huff. "Hn, I go where I want, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna beamed brightly.

Kyoya was already indulging the baby omnivore. Might as well go the extra step and spoil him rotten.


Love me (Don't leave)

"Nari-kun, I brought you dinner for the day!" Nana sang as she entered the hospital room.

Ienari brightened at the presence of his mother. "Thanks, kaasan."

Nana placed container after container on the table, all were filled with Ienari's favorite foods. "How are you feeling dear?"

"Can't feel much, they still have me on pain meds," Ienari said honestly. "So nothing hurts at all."

Nana nodded. "Good, good. The doctors said they didn't feel comfortable releasing you for at least a month, but no more than three. They're concerned about that head injury of yours and unless you want to be in a wheelchair, you'll have to stay until that torn ligament is healed anyways. Once that's healed the doctor said you can be on crutches while that fracture heals. But don't worry kaasan will bring you lots of yummy food every day! And Reborn-kun has offered to keep you on track with your studies!"

'See! She loves you more than Tsuna. She's here after all taking care of you instead of cooking dinner for Tsuna. She's spending time with you,' a dark voice hissed in his head.

Ienari smiled at his mother. There was an edge of bitterness in it as a different, smaller, younger voice, one that sounded too much like his dame-brother, rang in his head.

'So why does it always feel like she's going to leave me behind?'


Bedmate

Tsuna walked back into his room to find Ayame fast asleep on his bed. It wasn't such an unusual sight; before Reborn's arrival it was fairly common to find her in his bed. In fact, when Sawada household was unavailable (which was never but Ayame had strange thoughts about boundaries) it wasn't uncommon to find her crashing in any one of Tsuna's friends' houses. Kyoko and Ryohei's couch, Takeshi's closet, under Hana's kitchen table and somewhere in Kyoya's house (Tsuna never worked up the courage to ask where Ayame frequently slept) were all her favorite places to sleep.

Lately, though, she had been so busy (not to mention she seemed to be playing some sort of strange keep-away game with Reborn) that he hadn't seen her in his bed since she came back from her business trip.

He supposed if she was risking to show up in Tsuna's bed, Reborn's presence or not, it spoke of how deeply she had been affected by Tsuna's run in with Ienari.

Also, her showing up in his bed, show how bad her insomnia must be as well. Strange favorite sleeping places aside, Ayame didn't start crashing at people's houses until she started having trouble sleeping. Tsuna suspected since finding about Ienari's attack on him, Ayame hadn't slept since then. Thankfully, before the incident, Ryohei and Kyoko had managed to get her to sleep a few hours, but it had been another two days since that disastrous morning. 'She's pushing herself too hard,' Tsuna grumbled mentally.

"Scoot over, neesan," Tsuna whispered, nudging her gently.

Ayame rolled over, allowing Tsuna to slide into the empty slot she had left behind. By tomorrow morning, Ayame will undoubtedly be gone before Reborn could find her, but for now Tsuna was going to bask in the safety he found in her presence.


Trouble

Reborn scowled as he read through the questions his student had answered. Truly, the boy was fairly well adjusted; certainly not going to go crazy at the drop of a pin. He was arrogant and manipulative, but no one was without their flaws. The original profile still held mostly true; Ienari was still a kind boy who would and he quoted, 'Of course I would help someone pick up their stuff if I ran into them, Reborn. Yes, I would help old ladies across the street, Reborn'. Really, he was exactly as expected of a (proud, cruel, but normal) teenager of his age, if a little smarter.

However, Ienari was also more manipulative than Reborn had expected. It was like Ienari mixed up the intent of his actions somewhere along the way. He would do things out of the kindness of his heart (Ienari's morals apparently did exist) and he acknowledged that it was the right thing to do, but he would follow up the response with things like 'now they owe me' or 'it makes it easier to get closer to them', as if he was stringing along people with his words, moving them to places where he wanted them to be. It was almost subconscious too. Ienari didn't know what he was doing, or why (normal) people would consider it to be wrong.

But overall, Reborn hadn't found any lies in Ienari's answers.

So what was it about Tsuna that set Ienari off like that?

He glanced down at one of the questions he had slipped into personality test.

"Dame-Ienari, if you had to save your kaasan or your niisan which one you save?"

"That's easy Reborn. Kaasan of course."

"Why not Tsuna?"

"Because Dame-Tsuna is nothing but trouble."

There was something in the intonation of word 'trouble'. Like, Ienari had meant a different word, but couldn't or wouldn't place it, settling for something that implied trouble, but in context would mean completely different if it was substituted with the correct word.

Reborn growled. The mystery of the Sawada twins better make sense soon or he might end up killing someone.


Return to School

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

Tsuna let out a squeak as Gokudera slammed his hands down on the brunet's desk. He saw worry amidst the irritation in those brilliant sea gray eyes. His intuition hummed in satisfaction at Gokudera's concern.

"S-sick?" Tsuna stammered out.

"All of you?" Gokudera snarled. "Because I checked, both Sasagawa siblings, the baseball idiot and Kurokawa, even Hibari were missing along with you." His eyes narrowed. "Did something happen? Did someone get kidnapped?"

"N-no," Tsuna rushed to reassure Gokudera. "Just a small accident and everyone was just worried."

"Who got hurt?" Gokudera hissed. "Because no small accident cause all of you to miss school for the last two days!"

Tsuna had to give him that. The only time the entire group missed school was when Tsuna had run-ins with Ienari and came out a little… worse for wear. Everyone would drop what they were doing and immediately rushed over to Tsuna's side, something he loved them for. Though he would prefer it that they wouldn't worry so much about him. Their lives were equally important as his and they really shouldn't make Tsuna the center of their universe, but well, Tsuna didn't deny he enjoyed their attention.

"Tsuna had a small run-in with Ienari," Takeshi said, joining the conversation.

"What?" Gokudera's voice was dark and full of the promise to hurt someone.

Tsuna let out a soft, "Hiiiieeeee," and shrunk into his desk.

"You're scaring Tsuna," Takeshi pointed out.

"Next time this happens, I want to know," Gokudera demanded. He slapped down a piece of paper on Tsuna's desk with his cellphone number.

Takeshi laughed, swinging his arm around Gokudera's shoulder. "You do care about us, Gokudera-san!"

"Let go of me, you baseball idiot!"

Tsuna let out a small meep as Gokudera and Takeshi started fighting again. Oil and water those two were! "Guys," he weakly protested, trying to break up their bickering.

"Hiieee! Gokudera-san please put away that dynamite!"


Increase by Two

Kyoko and Ryohei were leisurely walking home. School was done for the day and Kyoko had stayed behind to cheer Ryohei on during his boxing practice. The sun hung low in the sky, painting the normally blue sky a beautiful shade of orange.

"So Gokudera-san seems to be pretty attached to Tsuna-kun," Kyoko said calmly.

"Octopus-head hasn't proved himself to be extremely trustworthy yet," Ryohei said. "But it has been nice that while Ienari was in school, he still came to hang out with us. That is extreme of him."

"Reborn-san picked Tsuna-kun over Ienari too," Kyoko said, humming.

"Do we trust both of them?" Ryohei asked, voicing the question that was on both of their minds.

Kyoko bit her lip. "Well, Tsuna-kun's intuition is never wrong," she said, full of faith. Her eyes narrowed, growing sharper. "I suppose we'll never really know until Gokudera-san chooses and Reborn-san stops being Ienari's tutor." She then relaxed, letting the tension roll away before smiling brightly. "But in the meantime that means our group has increased by two, ne Oniisan?"

Ryohei laughed. "I extremely agree!"


Kakusu Hideki

"Hmm, so the rumors are true. You are in the hospital."

Ienari scowled at his newest visitor. Kakusu Hideki was once upon a time the beloved student council president of Namimori Middle. His movement up to the high school division was highlighted by the fact that Hibari Kyoya had established his Disciplinary Committee in Namimori Middle around the same time.

How exactly these two met was something neither ever commented upon, but if there was someone Ienari looked up to, Hideki-sempai was probably the person.

Hideki pushed his red rimmed glasses further up his nose. "Pray tell, what did you do to get yourself into this predicament?"

"None of your damn business!" Ienari snapped out.

"Tsk tsk," Hideki said. "I thought I taught you that you draw more bees with honey than vinegar."

He took a seat at Ienari's bedside and crossed his legs, leaning back. Sunlight glinting off his glasses, as a smile spread across his face. "Now tell me everything."


Ring

Reborn hopped onto Tsuna's bed, ready to wake up the boy for school. It read 4:45 in the morning, but Reborn had found that Tsuna really did rise with the sun and if Reborn wanted any fun in waking up Tsuna, he had to start even earlier.

Before he could swing his Leon Hammer, he noticed the thin silver chain with a golden ring around Tsuna's neck. Curious. Reborn hadn't know that Tsuna had own such a piece of jewelry. It didn't match him as Tsuna seemed to favor comfort and durability over fashion and accessories. He leaned closer to examine it just as Tsuna's hand reached out to swipe at him. Reborn jumped back, Leon shifted into his gun form and Reborn fired. Tsuna rolled out of bed, dodging the bullet and slipping into a readied stance. Sleep melting away as Tsuna recognized that it was just Reborn; it had the brunet look at the hitman with wary concern. "Reborn?"

There was a burst of pride in Reborn. For all that Ienari was Captain of the Karate Club, he didn't have the same ingrained reflexes that Tsuna clearly displayed. Reborn was starting to suspect the only reason why Tsuna continued to trip and stumble over everything was because the brunet kept overthinking. When Tsuna let himself move without thought, he was surprisingly graceful.

"Time to get up Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said.

Tsuna looked at the clock, relaxing his stance. "It's nearly five in the morning, Reborn," Tsuna dryly remarked. Then in a softer voice he mumbled, "I was wondering why my Hyper Intuition didn't react earlier. It's just Reborn."

What did that mean? Did that mean that despite the rude awakening Reborn had planned, it didn't recognize Reborn as a potential threat? Perhaps because Reborn hadn't come in with the intent to seriously hurt him? But Hyper Intuition could actually distinguish that? Reborn wasn't sure to be irritated or pleased at that fact. He was leaning toward irritated. Then he thought about it and gleefully realized that if he was fast enough, he could have his fun waking up Tsuna and Tsuna would never see it coming.

"I didn't know you wore a ring," Reborn pointed to the necklace, shifting the conversation.

"Hm?" Tsuna said, making his bed. "Oh. It was a birthday gift from Neesan."

Who was Neesan? As far Reborn knew, there wasn't anyone Tsuna referred to as Neesan in his group of friends. Another mystery Reborn was going to have to solve. Tsuna was confusing. It was annoying.

"Good morning Tsuna!"

Reborn peered out the window to see Ryohei standing out in the street.

"Ah, Oniisan is early today too," Tsuna remarked. "It was a good thing you woke me up Reborn." He quickly changed out of his pajamas and into a shirt and some sweatpants.

Reborn hopped onto Tsuna's fluffy hair. He wanted to know more about Tsuna did in the morning. What better way than to tag along and see for himself. "Do you always run in the morning? With Ryohei?"

Tsuna nodded, pulling on his shoes. "Well, not every morning. But most mornings. It's good exercise."

Fascinating.


Crow

There was a crow that was following them. Reborn was sure it was paranoia getting to him, but he could have swore he had seen that exact crow as they had left the Sawada household and again ten minutes later on Tsuna and Ryohei's run. This was the third time and they were down by the river.

If it showed up a fourth time, Reborn was going to shoot it.


Broken Fairy Wing

"Why on earth are you guys up so early?"

Ryohei and Tsuna slowed their jog to a stop as Gokudera stepped out of a shady looking shop and onto the empty street. "Good morning, Gokudera-san," Tsuna greeted. What were the chances they were going to run into Gokudera on their run. It was shaping up to be a good morning. Tsuna even had a question he had been pondering about lately to ask Gokudera later.

"Octopus head!"

"Don't call me that turf-top head! Good morning, Tsuna-san."

"Gokudera," Reborn said.

Gokudera took a step back in surprise as he noticed that Reborn was sitting on Tsuna's head. "Reborn-san!"

"Ah," Tsuna said. "You do know Reborn." Tsuna had always known that, but it was nice to confirm it and not just what Hyper Intuition rang true.

Ryohei looked at Gokudera, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "So does that mean he's here to play with Ienari the mafia game?" He took a subtle step forward to push Tsuna behind him.

Overprotective Oniisan!

"Shut up, turf-top head!" Gokudera snapped. Tsuna could practically see Gokudera's hackles raised. "Just because I know Reborn-san doesn't mean anything! I haven't decided if I want to follow Jyuudaime or not! And why do you and that baseball idiot keep referring to it as a game?"

Ryohei looked at Tsuna with a confused expression.

Reborn decided to jump in. "Gokudera has been giving it some serious thought about becoming Tsuna's bodyguard instead."

Tsuna frowned. Bodyguard? "I don't need a bodyguard." He already had a full set, thank you very much. Any more overprotective mother hens and Tsuna won't be able to breath. It didn't matter how justified it was! "Can't we just be friends, Gokudera-san?"

Gokudera simply turned a bright red, buried his face in his hand and looked away.

"Extreme, octopus-head!" Ryohei exclaimed. "My apologies! I misjudged you! You can join the Protect Tsuna at All Cost Club! My otouto gets into a lot of trouble."

"Oh? How interesting," Reborn remarked.

Oh god, they still kept that name? How embarrassing. "I'm not that bad, Oniisan!" Tsuna protested.

"Kyoto Spring Trip," Ryohei said.

Tsuna immediately shut up. Mentally, he wailed inside of his head. How long were they going to hold that against him? It wasn't his fault!

Hyper Intuition rang a warning in his head. Tsuna immediately looked around, spotting three large burly men creeping in the shadows in the alleyway just a few feet away from them. Embroidered over their heart was the symbol of a broken fairy wing. A chill ran down Tsuna's spine.

"What happened on the Kyoto Spring Trip?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuna didn't answer him, instead grabbing Gokudera's hand and pulling him into a run. Ryohei quickly followed after him, already calling Kyoya no doubt.

"Tsuna?" Reborn asked from his perch on Tsuna's head.

"Broken fairy wing emblem," Tsuna mumbled. "Not taking any chances."

"What?" Gokudera said.

"I'll treat you to breakfast at my house," Tsuna said. "I got something I gotta ask you too. Oniisan, go help Kyoya-sempai."

"But," Ryohei said.

"I have Reborn and Gokudera with me," Tsuna said. "And home is just around the corner. But knowing Kyoya-sempai, he won't have any backup and I'm not taking any chances with this." If Neesan was worried enough about the group to personally warn them about it, it wasn't a group to be taken lightly.

Ryohei nodded. "Alright. I'm entrusting Tsuna to you two," Ryohei said. "Keep him safe and don't let him wander off by himself."

"What is going on?" Gokudera asked as Ryohei turned back around.

"Broken fairy wing emblem," Tsuna repeated. "What does Yousei translate to?"

"Bewitching spirit," Reborn said. "Or fairy."

"Yes," Tsuna said. The Sawada house came into view. "It may be nothing, but Kyoya-sempai and Oniisan will look into it." He ushered Gokudera into the house and followed in, locking the door. Reborn jumped off his head and to the ground.

Tsuna blinked. The kitchen was not empty as he had expected. Oh sure, his mother was cooking breakfast like away, but there was an additional guest in the kitchen. 'Ah well, looks like the game is over.'

"Good morning, Neesan."

It wasn't often Tsuna got to see a rare stunned look on Ayame's face.


Pooling Information

This was Tsuna's Neesan? Why hadn't Reborn heard of her? Or recognize her for that matter. It had been over a month since his arrival in Namimori and today was the first time he met her. No, wait, the cake shop the other day. He had seen her then.

She was probably just Tsuna's Neesan, given Ienari hadn't mentioned her at all. By this point Reborn knew all of Ienari's friends and acquaintances and which of them he would be likely to pick as his guardians. (Not that they were bad choices, but compared to Reborn's preferred choices -all who have chosen Tsuna instead- they were just so small. None held a candle to the potential of Tsuna's friends).

Now why did she look so surprised to see them?

"You're back early," she commented.

"Is Ryohei-kun joining us for breakfast, Tsu-kun?" Nana asked. Her plate, a yellow striped plate and the white plate with blue moons were already drying on the dish rack.

Tsuna shook his head. "No. He went to meet up with Kyoya-sempai. But I brought back someone else. This is Gokudera Hayato. He's from Italy. He transferred to my school a few weeks back."

"Good morning, Ma'am!" Gokudera said with a bow. "Good morning Ayame-san. I didn't know you came to the Sawada house for breakfast."

Reborn eyed the young woman with suspicion. Ayame huh? When had Gokudera met her?

"I come whenever I can. Which isn't often enough," Ayame said. She cradled the blue cup with a stylish K logo on it.

"That isn't your usual cup, Neesan," Tsuna remarked, guiding a very lost looking Gokudera into an empty seat.

Reborn hopped into his own seat. Nana handed Tsuna his own plate and placed one in front of Reborn.

"Ne, Gokudera-kun. What do you want to eat for breakfast?" Nana asked.

"I couldn't," Gokudera replied.

"I insist Gokudera-kun!" The growling emitted from Gokudera's stomach did nothing but fuel Nana on.

Reborn tuned that conversation out as Ayame took a sip of her tea. There was a far more interesting character at the breakfast table today to pay attention to.

"It isn't my usual cup because my usual cup broke. Again," Ayame sighed. She gave Tsuna a look that clearly read to Reborn, 'Stop getting into trouble, Tsuna.'

Reborn blinked. What did that mean? What did Tsuna getting into trouble have to do with a broken cup? Ah, there was the superstition about broken cups being bad omens. Did stuff like that actually happen?

"Sorry, Neesan," Tsuna said, holding up his hands in surrender.

She let out a small huff, but let the conversation lie. "Why is Ryohei meeting Kyoya anyways?" Ayame asked. "It isn't often those two hang out and Kyoya never asks for help."

"We saw some guys wearing a broken fairy wing emblem over their chest," Tsuna said.

Ayame choked. "What?!" She reached across the table. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tsuna reassured her. "I had Gokudera-san and Reborn with me. I sent Oniisan back to help Kyoya-sempai. You were worried about the group and I didn't want Kyoya-sempai to go on alone."

"You know about that group too?" Reborn asked, cutting into the conversation.

Golden eyes zeroed in on Reborn. He got the feeling that he was being judged under their stare. Reborn stood firm, staring back.

It broke as Tsuna said, "Neesan was the one who told me about Yousei, Reborn."

This was the source of Tsuna's (and probably Hibari's) intel? But how did she get said intel? Reborn hadn't found anything after all. He may not be an information broker like Viper, but it wasn't like he was unskilled. But this girl was skilled enough to find the name of a group that for all intentions did not yet exist?

"How did you hear about them?" Reborn asked.

Ayame waved her hand. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with Reborn-chan."

Reborn felt a wave of irritation washed over him. If there was something good about the weirdness of Namimori, it was the oddest people seemed to be aware he wasn't a small child despite his appearance. Reborn wasn't sure what Tsuna had told his friends, but they all seemed to treat him with respect of an adult. Reborn hadn't told Nana, and she knew (and he still hadn't discovered how she had figured out about Iemitsu and the mafia in general). Yet here was someone who knew Tsuna and was treating him like a child?

Tsuna frowned. "Neesan. That wasn't very nice. You should apologize to Reborn."

Ayame merely pouted.

"Neesan," Tsuna said.

Ayame huffed and turned back to Reborn. "My apologizes, Reborn-san. I'm only teasing. But that doesn't mean I'm going to answer your question."

Reborn felt his muscles twitch and Leon was already switching into his gun mode. He would have shot if Tsuna hadn't reached over to place a hand over Leon.

"Reborn," Tsuna warned in the same tone he had just scolded Ayame with.

Leon transformed back and crawled back to his spot on Reborn's hat while Reborn scowled. "I don't like you," Reborn told Ayame.

Ayame merely smiled, but Reborn could read the wickedness hidden behind it. "I assure you, Reborn-san, it's completely mutual."

Tsuna groaned. "I'm going to regret introducing you two to each other, aren't I?"

"Yes."


Arrival

A pink haired woman stepped out airport, pulling along her luggage behind her. She put on a pair of sunglasses and looked up at the sunlit blue sky. With a loving sigh, she said, "Reborn darling, I've come to take you home."

Poison Scorpion Bianchi had arrived in Japan.


The Calm Before the Storm

A small Chinese girl was thrown into a tiny steel cage, unconscious. She had been badly beaten; her body covered in black and blue bruises.

"Why the hell were you so rough with her?! That's precious merchandise!"

"Feisty brat knew how to fight. Threw some gyoza all over the place. A damn pain in the ass."

"Fuck. Well get some restraints on her. Once she's all healed, we'll start cutting her up."

"She better be worth a fortune for all the trouble she was getting."


Burning Question

Tsuna bit his lip as he steadily worked through the math problem in front of him. After dinner was finished, Reborn had dragged him off for more homework tutoring while Nana headed to the hospital to visit Ienari with dinner.

That left Tsuna alone in the house with Reborn. Tsuna didn't mind it. Reborn was… well Tsuna didn't have a word to really describe it, but he did like spending time with Reborn. There was something deep inside him, not his intuition, but something else, that purred in contentment at spending time with Reborn. He was aware enough that he enjoyed Reborn's sole attention, though he could do without the bullets and explosions. (Said bullets and explosions made Tsuna pity Ienari just a little for having to live with it constantly. At least Tsuna only had to deal with it for a few mornings and only during tutoring.)

Reborn really was an excellent tutor, questionable tutoring methods aside. He explained it a clear and concise manner, making the often confusing math and science subjects that Tsuna always struggled with easy to understand.

"Done!" Tsuna said proudly, handing Reborn the sheet.

"Not bad," the hitman said. "You're getting faster."

Tsuna preened from the slight compliment. That was when Hyper Intuition crackled a warning at him. It wasn't the usual danger warnings that Tsuna got, but rather the signal of something unpleasant (but not life-threatening or even dangerous or necessarily bad) was going to happen. Tsuna usually got this feeling before receiving bad news like a parent teacher conference or when his classmates were going to play a particular nasty prank on him. Tsuna looked at Reborn who had his fedora tugged down, hiding his face from view. "Reborn?" Tsuna asked hesitantly.

Reborn looked at him, staring straight into his eyes. "Tsuna, I held off for a week to ask, but will you tell me now what happened between you and Ienari?"

Tsuna froze; a chill running down his spine. Of course it would have been too much to hope that Reborn would have left the sleeping lion lie. Nausea rolled in his stomach as the memories bubbled to the surface. He could change the subject or even lie, anything to avoid discussing this.

Reborn, no doubt reading his mind, reached out and placed his tiny hand on Tsuna's knee. "Tsuna, please," Reborn asked seriously.

Tsuna flinched, as the urge to run away shriveled up and faded away. He was terrible at denying requests and Reborn was asking and Tsuna supposed Reborn should know, if only to understand Ienari a little bit better. Tsuna just hated talking about it, hated remembering far Ienari had pushed and pushed and pushed.

Reborn had asked.

Tsuna could try.

"Okay."

Outside a crow landed on the balcony rail.


Ahaha. So Reborn and Ayame finally meet, a look into Ienari's head, Yousei is a growing threat and Reborn finally asked the question that has everyone wondering. We're finally progressing!

Guest Review Response

kiba-chan

Yush. We will.