I should really do these things sooner. Or my homework. Seriously, I have some issues.

I do not own Reborn!. If I did, it would not be finished.

07-In Which the Voice Calls Me Crazy or

All of Your Tiredness

Time passed. I went to preschool, immersed myself in blue, and taught Norina and Alastor about the mafia. I quickly decided that Norina would make a good illusionist, with her rather "colorful" imagination and clear disdain of any kind of self-disclosure. Seriously, it can be impossible to get a straight answer out of the girl, at least one that isn't snarky or sarcastic. As much as I like sarcasm, having to deal with it constantly can be difficult. Not that I'm much better.

Alastor, on the other hand, could have mist flames based on the fact that his potential flame was impossible could figure out. He had personality traits for just about any kind of flame, except maybe sky. I decided the best thing to do was to just get one of every ring and see which he could light. He could try Norina's ring for mist, and I'd just get another for him if it worked.

Until then I tutored the two in mafia history, mafia laws, and big names in the mafia. Admittedly I didn't know everything, but they couldn't tell the difference. Although they may have become suspicious when I told them their homework was to read shonen manga and identify the patterns that the stories tended to take. Or maybe it just added to their list of ways in which I was clearly insane.

One day, as we sat outside during recess, Alastor asked if he could try on my ring. I allowed him to put it on and to try and channel his resolve. He couldn't, naturally, and gave it back. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this mafia thing." He said somewhat sadly.

I smiled. "Nonsense. Not everyone can use every kind of ring. It depends on what flame you have you know, and this sky flame that I have is really pretty rare. Besides, it takes practice. Most people can't light up a ring right away."

"Whatever. I still think you're just covering up the fact that it's a trick." Norina scoffed. I'd noticed she did a lot of that too. And rolling her eyes. I feel like she and Fran would get along well.

"Don't worry, you'll see. I'm already getting rings for you guys, so you'll just have to wait a bit until we get them, alright? Anyway, I think we've done enough on the Vongola for now. I explained the guardian system, right?" They nodded. "Well, the dying will flames correspond to the seven flame elements. The orange is sky…"

The rest of recess was spent explaining the existence, color, and composition of the dying will flames of sky, as well as some of the finer aspects of the sky flame and its harmony factor. By the time we went in, Norina and Alastor's heads were so full of new information it looked like they might burst. It was hard to teach four year olds, and I would probably have to explain half of this stuff again, but they were certainly curious and ready to learn. Not to mention the learning seemed to tire them out, which left me to my own devices during nap time.

Mrs. Pentstemmon hadn't taken too long to realize I just wasn't going to sleep during nap time. Either I wasn't tired, I kept the other kids up, or was missing my "vewy, vewy, favowitest bwue dog". She finally relented and said that I could get up after five minutes as long as I didn't wake the other kids. I usually just ate marshmallows and drank soda and plotted and talked to Robert, occasionally asking Mrs. Pentstemmon about something random that popped into my mind or that Robert asked me about. She answered, though usually with some look that indicated that she thought I was a genius or insane. Or both.

The similarity between the two turned out to be the topic of discussion that day as I stacked blocks to make what I thought was a pretty accurate block replica of Namimori Middle.

"I think you're obsessive." He started off.

I chuckled. Is that so?

"You're making a replica of a place you won't be at for probably ten years. And the teacher obviously thinks you're crazy."

Says the voice in my head. Maybe I'm imagining all of this and you don't even exist. Or maybe I'm just a prodigy.

"What's the difference?"

It all depends on how my plans work out. If I win, I'm a prodigy. If I lose, then I'm crazy. That's the way history is written.

"That's a funny way of putting it."

History is written by the victor, right?

"Which means that you're going to be crazy because Tsuna's going to beat you."

I frowned. There's more than one way to win. Besides, things aren't going to be exactly the same as canon. My presence here is proof enough of that. Technically, you're the one who loses in the canon.

"Don't even start on that."

Whatever. Just let me finish the school.

He didn't seem to want to continue the conversation either, so he retreated to whatever corner of my mind he goes to when we aren't talking. I finished my model (it was beautiful, if I do say so myself) and took it down when nap time was over. Coloring time went by without incident for the most part. And if the brown haired kid at the table next to me thought it would be good to eat the "strawberry" colored crayon, I'm sure it had nothing to do with my musing that it was actually possible for some people to taste color. Even if Mrs. Pentstemmon sent me a withering glare that implied she didn't think so.

During game time we played tag. Probably because Mrs. Pentstemmon thought it would be better than Hide and Seek or Duck Duck Goose or something else that I could probably play better than the other kids. She was probably right, but kids tend to run together while playing tag and I made full use of the time honored and cutthroat method of "throw your companions at the attacker and run faster than them".

What can I say? I'm a future mafia boss. Besides, getting caught builds character.

A bit into the game, at the point where no one wanted to run near me, the principle came outside and talked to Mrs. Pentstemmon for a moment. I was so caught up in my curiosity that I failed to notice the tagger coming up behind me until it was too late. I quickly got my head back in the game. Not noticing stuff can get you killed, after all.

I made short work of finding and capturing my next victim and managed to stay uncaught for the rest of the game. By the time free time rolled around, I was near exhausted. As I began to walk over to the table where Norina, Alastor, and I usually talked, Mrs. Pentstemmon called to me. I walked over somewhat confused and she bent down and smiled at me. "Your Mommy's going to be a bit late to pick you up today, okay? She's still going to come, just a bit later."

I nodded. "Okay." I turned away and went to the table.

"What was that?" Norina asked.

"Just something about my mom being late. No big deal."

Norina looked a bit surprised. "She actually bothered to call?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. It's not a big deal though."

Alastor seemed a bit uneasy, and Norina surprised, but they accepted it. I wondered a bit about their reactions, but didn't bother asking. "Anyway, does anyone remember what the sky flame's effect is?"

The end of the day came and things played out pretty much normally. Norina's mom was one of the first parents to come and picked up her daughter under a minute. Other parents came and talked, either to each other or to Mrs. Pentstemmon, then went on their way. My mom didn't come as the numbers dwindled, but that was to be expected. Considering my mom, she'd probably be about a half-hour late.

What I hadn't expected was that at fifteen after I'd be alone with Mrs. Pentstemmon and Alastor.

I looked at him quizzically. The last of the parents had just wandered out of the room with her child, apologizing over and over to him that she was late again, leaving the three of us there. Mrs. Pentstemmon walked over to us for a minute, but seemed to pick up on the rather dark aura emanating from Alastor and went to make some more tea.

I, however, being the always happy and undeterred Byakuran, was not so easily driven away. "Is your mom late too?"

He gave me a sideways look before turning back to the door and shrugging. "She's not usually here by now anyway."

"Oh? Why not."

He shrugged again, this time not even answering. I continued to ask questions, but he ignored every one with a stubbornness that would make Norina proud.

Thirty minutes after class was done my mom swept into the room looking flustered and rather rushed. She made a beeline for Mrs. Pentstemmon, who was drinking tea at her desk. "I'm very sorry for being late, I had a doctor's appointment and it went long because of something or another, I didn't quite understand the technical talk, but thank you so much for hanging onto Byakuran, I know she can be a handful and…"

I stopped listening because about that moment a lady walked in. She had the same yellow hair as Alastor, cut short, and had piercing blue eyes. She seemed very aloof and rather tanned, and really very beautiful. I could tell she was thin normally, but her stomach was currently rounder than normal with the telltale sign of a baby. I looked at Alastor in surprise. He didn't seem to notice, just got up and walked over to the lady. She gingerly took his hand and they walked out.

I stared at the door for a moment, realizing just how little I knew about my new family members. I had never asked them about their biological families, and I knew I didn't talk about mine much either. I didn't even think I could recognize Norina's mother in a line up, despite the fact that she came in every day to get her daughter. I didn't know if either of them had siblings or cousins or even fathers. I didn't know their birthdays or their ages.

Well. I'm pretty handy with a computer, if I do say so myself. It looks like I've found my afternoon project.

I realized that it may be difficult to figure out Robert!Byakuran and Violet!Byakuran's conversations. The part that's just italics is Violet thinking to him, "and the part that is italics and in quotes is Robert talking to her." I hope that makes things easier for you guys. Also, did anyone manage to catch the quote I used during their conversation? No one's known Mrs. Pentstemmon yet, but this one's from something your a little more likely to have read. I don't own either by the way, the quote or Mrs. Pentstemmon.

Gemini Wonderland: I'm glad you're enjoying it, and I'm glad you reviewed. I hope my reviews make you feel as happy as yours make me feel. And I'm glad you can't find a way to threaten me, I'm not sure how well I'd deal with that. So I won't threaten you, and you won't threaten me, okay?

HimekaYuiko: Yeah, I feel like being a child is really fun when you are one, but rather boring when you know that there's super-interesting-awesomeness coming up eventually. I'm glad that you're still enjoying it though.

chibianimefan18: Yayz! Thanks for reviewing again! Reviews and thank yous do make good presents, don't they? And I did have a nice day. I hope you had a nice day, and that you continue having nice days!

bamafelix: You probably won't see this, but I do understand where you're coming from. I feel like a lot of fem... fics are used as excuses for smut or stuff like that. Maybe that's just me though. That isn't my intention with this fic, but I hope you find something you do like.

GreenDrkness: Heehee, tormenting is fun, isn't it? It seems like it's too hard to have a good tormenting these days. Interestingly, hair dying seems to be a popular method... hmm, maybe later. In the meantime I will, as you say, keep up the writes.

Where's the mayo: Yeah, the e-mail problem is annoying. I think I've almost figured it out though. The kids really are funny (well I think they are). Byakuran especially is like "I know what colors the rainbow has, I've read this manga AND watched the anime, thank you very much!" And the teacher's all like, "Why me?"

Wow! This is the most replies I've ever done in one chapter! Even more than Chapter Three, which had four reviews! Although one of these is technically for Chapter Two... *shrug* There's still five new ones. Maybe we can get even more next time, hint hint?

I'm still working on the e-mail thing, so I'll have to wait until next time for the thank yous, both from last time and this time. I'm very sorry. *bow*

Anyway, thanks for reading and supporting me. Remember, reviews raise that little counter up there in the story description! Ciao!