Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of the characters. Rights go to Akira Amano. I do, however, own me and my genderbend \(^A^)/
A/N: Okay, so most of the stuff in here was from Haya-chan's light novel 'Bakudan Bambino' (check my profile for the link!) that I just discovered last May. You might want to read that for some of this to make sense… On with the story~! Sorry for the slapdash beta'ing!
From Fiction to Real Life
by Shaariin13
Chapter 7: OLD MAN CARLO
~Gokudera's PoV~
"Yo! Tsuna, Gokudera!" I turned around to face the annoying disembodied voice. "Shut up, will you?! I'm trying to think, Baseball Idiot!"
I faced the path to school once more just as the idiot draped his arm over my shoulder, doing the same to the Tenth.
"Maa maa~ Gokudera, what are you thinking about?" he asked, his cheek-splitting, shit-eating grin wider than usual (not that I always notice or anything like that…)
"Che!" I scoffed, taking a deep drag on my cigarette before dropping it to the ground and grind it into the asphalt with the toe of my shoe. "It's none of your fucking business, you fucking moron."
He simply shrugged the insults off and started a conversation with the Tenth.
I wasn't lying when I told him he had no connection to whatever the hell I was thinking of. Last night, I dreamt of Old Man Carlo, a small time pianist with big dreams who finally got his long awaited break when an old powerful Mafia family backed him up. I met him when I was twelve. He saw me in an alleyway when I got beat up by some thugs and took me in for a few days. His six-year old son, Niccolo, had no problem with the arrangement; the brat actually liked it, going as far as to call me 'Big Brother'.
Okay, so back to the matter at hand. In my dream, Old Man Carlo was sitting on his piano like he used to, but he looked frailer, grayer, ill; dying. Niccolo, who looked about nine, was sitting on the bench beside him, not really playing, but watching his old man with sad, pained eyes.
The older was wearing his ever-present smile (pretty similar to the one the idiot always sports), even though it's obvious he doesn't have the strength to do so.
I was pretty peeved when I woke up, and its left me disconcerted the whole day.
After two years, I dreamt that the old coot was sick. Was it true? Is that selfishly selfless man dying? Could this be a sign? Maybe I should go poke around the Vongola grapevine later after school and check on any news on the old man.
Even though lost in thought, I faintly heard Jyuudaime ask Yamamoto. "Ne, Yamamoto, you seem very happy today. Did anything interesting happen yesterday?"
My attention was now completely drawn to their conversation, though I took great care in acting otherwise.
"Oh, ahahaha! Something really interesting did happen to me," the baseball freak beamed even brighter, if that was possible.
"Oh, really?" The way Jyuudaime's lip curled upward wasn't lost to me. After finding out about who he truly was, I was getting suspicious of his (seemingly innocent) smiles. I was also starting to wonder if Reborn-san was starting to rub off on Jyuudaime, or if it was actually the other way around.
"Ciaossu." Speak of the devil (devil baby, in this case) and he will come. The Sun Arcobaleno was wearing a cat costume that suspiciously looks like my Uri. He was standing on one of the shoe cabinets on the school's genkan. Geez, I didn't even noticed we've reached school. That meant I was really distracted by that nightmare.
"Dame-Tsuna, Yamamoto, accompany Gokudera to the unused Third Music Room. Someone is waiting to meet him there," Reborn-san ordered.
"The unused Third Music Room, you say?" Yamamoto sounded interested. "Is it…?" he trailed off. Damn. What does he know that I don't?
The tiny hitman smirked. "You'll see." He did an effortless back tuck and just like that, he was gone.
"Hm. Who could it be?" Jyuudaime's head cocked to the right like a curious bird. "Oh, well. I guess we'll just have to follow Reborn's order and escort Gokudera to the unused Third Music Room." He looked to his left, then his right. "I wonder where that is?"
"I know," Yamamoto smiled. "I'll take you there."
"And how in hell would you know where the fuck that is?" I growled.
He laughed. "Well, I met someone interesting there yesterday. Come on!"
'Someone interesting, huh?' I frowned. Why did the idea that someone else got the Baseball Idiot's attention make my heart clench?
Jyuudaime and I followed Yamamoto to the Music Building, up to the third floor, and onto the last room on the left wing.
"Here we are," he announced, brandishing his left arm in a way that reminded me of a presenter in some cheesy game show (like those models on The Price Is Right).
Before Jyuudaime can open the door, Shaarusu-sensei came out of the unused Third Music Room. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw us.
"Thank goodness you three are already here," he exclaimed. "I thought Reborn was kidding me when he said you were on your way; you were taking so long. Although anyone won't take him seriously considering what he's wearing…"
I drifted off along the second half of his babbling when he said Reborn-san's name. 'What the fuck?!' I thought. 'How in hell did he know the baby hitman?'
What was more baffling was the person sitting on the piano, softly pressing down keys; it was random, but still sounding melodic and constructed. When she turned around, I thought my jaw dropped to the ground in shock.
"Miss Linn?!"
~8059~
"Hayato!" she squealed, and proceeded to launch herself onto me. A compact, fit and very deadly twenty-something woman was going to glomp me, a skinny fifteen year old middle schooler in the state of shock. That was bound to end in disaster.
Thankfully, before the crazy older woman managed to squish me to death, Sensei intervened and caught her mid-air. "Sister, dear, I know you missed him in the year you didn't see him, but we don't want little Tsunayoshi to be a Storm Guardian short now, would we?"
If I was shocked with Miss Linn here in Namimori, I felt my brain shrivel up when I heard what Sensei had to say. 'Sister? That meant…'
"Oh my fucking god, Sensei is Miss Linn's twin brother Charles?!" I gaped.
I wanted to hit myself. Why didn't I see the resemblance? They were near-perfect carbon copies of each other! No wonder I thought Sensei reminded me of someone the first time I saw him.
"Uh, Ross, I think you gave Hayato an aneurysm," Miss Linn frowned, concerned.
I heard Jyuudaime chuckle. "No worries, Sorella, Gokudera-kun will recover. He's gotten like that recently, but he'll snap out of it."
"Jyuudaime, did you just refer to this stinking rich harpy as your sister?" I asked incredulously.
"Mou, Hayato, I thought I told you not to call me that!" she pouted childishly.
"Shut up! I wasn't—You know what? No, please don't bother answering my question, Jyuudaime," I frowned. "After yesterday, I don't think anything can shock me anymore."
"I don't think so, Hayato." I looked at Miss Linn. She had a sad smile on her face. That expression of hers made me feel uneasy. "Aren't you wondering what I'm doing here in Japan?"
I nodded. My throat suddenly gotten desert-dry and I couldn't trust my voice.
"I'm here on an errand in accordance to a tragedy I received," she started.
"T-Tragedy..?" my voice cracked. I started shaking. I was positive this wasn't going to be good news.
"Hayato," Miss Linn called me. I gulped. She looked sorry. "Dear old Carlo has cancer. He's dying."
I felt my knees go weak then buckle. I slumped to the floor. Miss Linn followed me down immediately and held me close.
"I-I knew it," I whispered. I returned her hug. "I knew it. I dreamt about it last night."
"Oh, Hayato," Miss Linn sighed. She was trying not to cry. "I'm sorry." She knew how big an impact the old man had on my life. He treated me like a son more than my own father.
"Vongola Ninth has a favor to ask, Hayato," she told me when I quieted down. By that time, my head cleared and I separated from her, embarrassed at the show of emotions.
"A-Anything," I stuttered.
She smiled. "He's asking you if you can go back to Italy and stay with dear Mr Carlo until his last days. He thought little Niccolo might need the support from his Big Brother."
I nodded without hesitation. "I'll get packing right away."
I'm sorry if it felt rushed, especially at the end. That's all that I could put here at the moment. Not to worry, though! The next one is on the works! Nearly there! Review please~! *heart*
