I own neither Eyeshield 21 nor Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Sorry, but this chapter is darker, and a little more angsty... it was hard to write.


Sena hefted Tsuna higher up his back with a labored grunt. His little brother was tiny; however, to Sena's embarrassment, he wasn't that much bigger. He was following the baby… Home tutor? Was that true? Sena didn't know what to believe anymore. Watching your little brother die and resurrect himself to protect you could flip your sense of reality.

The baby lead them though the twists and turns of the back alleys, the shadows twisting and dancing in the headlights of passing vehicles. Sena felt twitchy, jumpy; but decided he was justified seeing as he was jumped in one of these alleys not that long ago.

"Reborn-kun?" He called out, huffing a little. His kidney ached, and his brother got heavier and heavier with every step.

The toddler turned around, highlighted in the backwash of ruddy neon lights, and studied Sena before turning back the direction he'd been heading without a word.

"A-Ah, Reborn-kun!" Sena carefully juggled his brother to reach out to the young… child… ignoring him entirely. "Reborn-kun…" He rushed to catch up with the now swiftly moving infant.

"I-I don't think I can…" Sena pitched forward and caught himself on the alley wall, careful not to jostle his brother too much. He coughed harshly into his hand and when he pulled back, he saw blood. 'I didn't get hit in the ribs; I shouldn't be coughing up blood.' He limped forward, trying to catch up with the canting child, only seeing the edge of his coat tails.

He absently tested the inner surfaces of his cheeks for the cut, as he worried about losing his escort. 'There.' He located the cut with a wince, but couldn't stop himself from worrying it. Maybe it would keep him from worrying about the boy on his back.

Sena huffed and wheezed. This was one of the most demanding days of his life. The football game this afternoon seemed like ages ago, and the wear and tear on his body made his every move cause each muscle and tendon scream in a moment of unending agony.

His heart thudded dully in his chest, and he clutched his precious family to him. He moved in a sort of dull haze. Each step was like moving though a thick liquid; he was making progress but at a price. He kept moving forward, working to keep his eyes on the home tutor. Sena didn't know why he was following him anymore; he just knew on some level that the boy would lead him to safety.

He was jolted out of his haze by a shoulder high wall. More specifically, by running into said wall.

Sena looked up and around like a sleepwalker roused. He'd lost all grasp of time, but it seemed far too early to have ended up in such a quiet, unassuming middle-class neighborhood.

His eyes drifted from the wall to the two story, Western-style house. It was difficult to tell, even in the better lighting of the well-to-do neighborhood, but the house seemed to be a bland powder-blue.

Dismissing the house out of hand, he looked around for his illusive guide. They boy was several yards away, standing on the top of the wall surrounding the house. Reborn stayed still only long enough to establish eye contact with the footballer before calmly strolling around the perimeter of the wall to the open gate.

Sena, as usual, followed.

Sena leaned on the brick wall as he drug himself around to the front gate where Reborn was watching and waiting, as alert as any cat. The worn running back groped in the semi-darkness for the handle of the small gate. His eyes were blurring and his back was breaking, but let it not be said that Kobayakawa Sena was not a well mannered boy.

"Is this alright? Are you friends with the owner?" Sena croaked out, voice dry with fatigue and from calling out to the other all night.

Reborn, as expected, barely graced Sena with a glance before launching himself off the wall and onto a dark, shadowy figure.

Sena's heart lurched in his chest before beating uncontrollably. He couldn't take anyone on in this condition! And Tsuna was still out cold! He jerked backwards, knowing that as he did so, he was in condition to neither fight nor flee. He froze in panic, wondering just what he could do to defend himself and his brother.

His eyes snapped unexpectedly into focus and Sena let out a quiet breath of a sigh. The figures that had appeared so looming and threatening in the shadows cast by the bright streetlights were, in reality, life-sized stone angels flanking the concrete path, marking the end and beginning of the small porch. With his newly adjusted night vision, he watched Reborn-kun scamper around the shoulder of a dark-winged angel holding a spear and disappear from sight.

Sena started to worry in earnest now. Before he'd been worried for his brother, sure, but he'd trusted Reborn-kun to lead them to a safe place to rest. Now that the boy was out of sight, Sena reached through the gate and started fumbling for the latch. His eyes refused to leave the dark warrior angel, despite the heavy burden of Tsuna, or the damned lock refused to come undone!

Sena pressed forward to both relieve the pressure on his back and attempt to see what he was doing when the gate swung open. He stumbled in, narrowly avoiding the cold pavement rising to greet him. The running back looked around wildly, trying to find the cause of his sudden lack of equilibrium, and found himself staring down at the sadistic smirk of the child he'd been following.

"Thank you for opening the gate, Reborn-kun. Sorry about being so clumsy." Sena offered in slight bewilderment. How had that child managed to get away from the warrior angel and to the gate in the time it'd taken Sena to examine the gate?

Reborn scoffed at the running back's manners, and climbed up the second angel. This one was of lighter stone and held its hands open in welcome.

"Reborn-kun, should you be up there?" Sena asked, worried.

"Watch closely, initiate. The warrior protects the gate. The greeter admits you entrance. This is important; we'll have a test over it next week." Reborn drawled.

"Reborn-kun, I don't understand." Sena admitted humbly.

Reborn sighed. "It can't be helped. Come around behind me onto the porch."

Sena hurried to obey. He laid his brother down to rest on the smooth, cool wood nearest the house, and moved to see the home tutor more clearly.

"Back here. In the angel's wings." Was all the advice the harsh instructor would give him. "You'd better hurry, I'm sure 'Tsu-kun' would prefer to be warm and comfortable after protecting you.'

Sena frowned. He probably deserved the jab for letting his brother fight his battle, but that seemed too cruel. While the unkind words would usually dishearten him, he found in this instance, that they fanned the flames of his determination. Determination to prove Reborn-kun wrong. Determination to prove that he was not stupid and weak. Determination to take care of his little brother in return for his brother taking care of him.

He studied the back of the angels closely; wishing, for all his bravado, that Reborn would have given him a slightly clearer hint. As Sena studied the wings carefully, he wondered what he was looking for. Reborn's advice rang in his head. 'The greeter admits you entrance'? What did that even mean?

The statues were of unparalleled excellence, finely carved down to the least detail. Each feather looked insubstantial, as if they'd float off the angel's back in the slightest breeze. Sena ran his fingers over them in awe at the craftsmanship. To be honest, he was a little surprised when his fingers met cold stone rather than downy feathers. He absently felt along the hard, cold spine of a stone feather, and wondered how the statue could welcome him.

The statue did have its hands out stretched in greeting, but Reborn-kun told him to look at the angel's back… 'I'm no good with riddles.' Sena smiled wanly as he kept running his fingers along the wings, 'I guess in this situation, I only have luck.'

As if the universe had been waiting with bated breath for the short high schooler to admit his reliance, Sena moved his hand to caress a particularly tempting patch of feathers, and one of his fingers caught the stone at an awkward angle. He felt, with no little alarm, the sharp materials slice through the pad of his index finger easily. He jerked his finger back with a hiss, pulling it to his mouth in a childish attempt to stem the flow of blood, when he saw it. The area that he'd just cut his finger seemed to have swayed a little. The motion was so brief, so fleeting that Sena couldn't have been sure that he did see anything. 'But,' He decided, 'I did say I'm trusting my luck…'

Despite his boldness, Sena was hesitant to pull his injured finger out of his mouth and test the carving again. He scrunched his eyes shut and promised himself he'd test the treacherous seraph in 3… 2… 1… Ok, in 5… 4…

Sena heaved a sigh of exasperation. With all the scrapes and bruises he'd gotten today, why should he be so frightened of a carved feather off a stone angel? Maybe he'd been around Hiruma-san too long…

The brunet reached out his cut finger resolutely, determined to puzzle out this mysterious, blood-thirsty riddle. He carefully skirted the area where his blood still stained the light stone and tested for movement in the feathers. He felt a little foolish, trying to move stone feathers, but that only lasted long enough for him to find the section of movable, sharp feathers.

He pulled back quickly in shock and pain, cradling his injured fingers. Sena wiped away the blood welling up from the small, almost paper-cut-esq slices, but his attention was more on the still swaying razor-sharp feathers. There was something behind them. An alcove.

"Reborn-kun! Reborn-kun!" Sena couldn't help but get a little excited that he'd found something despite his pain. "Reborn-kun! Did you know there's a –mfff!–"

"Shut up, idiot!" Reborn hissed, while covering Sena's mouth with both of his tiny hands. Sena looked up at the child perched on his head with, wide, confused eyes. "Do you want all our enemies to know how to get in?"

Sena's eyes widened in glee as his mind connected the dots. "That alcove has the house key?!" Sena stage-whispered as he maneuvered around the small hands covering his mouth. "There has to be some trick to it, otherwise everyone'd slice up their hands, like I did. Do you know? What's the trick, Reborn-kun?" Sena chattered, excited at his achievement.

Reborn sighed, "So useless without me. I'm just too kind." He reached into the headband of his fedora, and held out a small, triangular bit of metal. "The warrior protects the gate." He said, a little sulkily.

"But… The… Oh!" Sena paused as the clues clicked together. He accepted the metal form the warrior's spear-point and held it up to the razor-sharp feathers. They parted easily, drawn by the magnetic force of the spear-head. "It protects this gate too, right?" Sena confirmed with a blinding grin, from having puzzled it out.

Reborn let out a long-suffering sigh, but under the brim of his hat shading his face, he smiled fondly. Sena really was a good kid, for all the hitman's torture.

Sena reached into the alcove behind the feathers, and pulled out a key. He laughed with unabashed delight. "Warrior-Angel-san was guarding the gateway into the house too! And Greeter-Angel-san really is admitting us entrance! Reborn-kun, Reborn-kun! That was really clever!" He gushed.

Still hidden under the brim of his fedora, Reborn basked in the praise while tormenting Sena more. "Shouldn't you get 'Tsu-kun' inside, or don't you care if your precious little brother catches a cold?"

He snatched the key and scurried to the extravagantly carved doorway. The short footballer looked indecisively between the over-sized doorway and his little brother resting on the porch. He started shifting from foot to foot in anxiety. He should open the door first, so that he wouldn't fumble and endanger Tsu-kun, but he really did want to get Tsu-kun off the cool wood…

Sena slumped in frustration. This day would just would not get any easier, would it? He straitened resolutely and walked firmly to the door. He loved his little brother with all his heart, but it would do no good to get him off the ground, just to have to set him back down to unlock the door.

The key entered the lock smoothly, allaying one secret fear of Sena's, and twisted easily too. The door, once unlocked, swung open silently to a dark and empty foyer. Sena clung to the door jam and leaned over so he could poke his head in the doorway to look around uncertainly. "Hello?" He called out, still unsure that this would be alright, to just break into someone's house. Reborn, however, had no such qualms and, ignoring the high school American football star, meandered in as if he were the owner.

Sena stared after the child blankly for a moment then set his lips into a trembling line of half-determination (that he usually reserved for plays that he was kinda-sure would work) and walked back to his childhood friend. Sena draped Tsuna over his back again with a grunt and a stagger. It shouldn't come as a surprise that he could barely lift the marginally smaller boy; the surprise should have been that Sena was even standing.

"Come on Tsu-kun," Sena muttered more to himself than his brother-figure, "Reborn-kun found us a place to stay tonight. I'm not really sure what's going on, but I think this'll be fine." Sena's voice seemed to fade in and out as he pulled himself into the house and sat Tsuna down on the hardwood floor. The running back pulled the door shut and locked it behind him, just in case, before pulling his and his brother's shoes off. He arranged them neatly near the little half-step that Tsuna was sitting on before lifting his brother again.

"Sorry for intruding!" Sena called into the empty house. He stepped into the hallway and looked around for the diminutive home tutor. To his right was a lavish living room, fit to receive heads of states, and to his left was an elegant dining room, large enough to seat the hypothetical dignitaries. Sena caught sight of the baby turning a corner up ahead of him and sighed. For a moment, he dazedly wondered if the house was going to take as long to navigate as the alley ways leading to it. Shaking off the ridiculous thought, Sena drug his socked feet along the smooth hard-wood floors, looking for Reborn.

Sena followed the hallway to the staircase on his right. He glanced up, and saw the home tutor waiting for him at the head of the stairs. Sena's jaw dropped. "I can barely walk, and you want me to climb a flight of stairs?!"

"Stop being such a whiner," Reborn called back, undeterred.

Sena knees shook at the mere thought, but squared his shoulders and lifted himself and his baby brother up the first step.

"Good job," Reborn drawled, "Only nineteen left to go."

Sena turned red, but tried his best to ignore the taunting and focused all his attention on the tricky staircase. He rose one step at a time, while his knees screamed that this was worse than three Hell's Towers. Sena lifted his leg again, poised to take the next stair, when he realized there were no more to climb. He looked around in confusion, wondering when he got to the top of the staircase without even noticing and looked for the home tutor.

The kid was standing at the far end of the hall, waiting for them. Having established eye contact with the exhausted running back, Reborn slipped into the room without so much as a backwards glance.

Sena shuffled forward, confident the end was finally within sight, and almost laughed in delight when he pushed the door open and was proven right. The room was obviously the master bedroom, and was very well furnished. Sena dragged himself and his brother across the plush carpeting, and more-or-less collapsed on the huge, luxurious bed.

"We're here, Tsu-kun." Sena murmured to himself sleepily, as he watched Reborn come out of what must have been the master bath, dressed in polka-dotted pajamas and a weird sleeping cap. Sena turned away from the surreality of the baby, and concentrated on dragging his brother and himself into a marginally more comfortable position on the mammoth bed.

"Don't fall asleep yet, initiate." Reborn warned, "We still have so much to talk about." He finished with his sadistic home tutor grin.

"'s no good," Sena slurred while arranging his brother with the care of a mother cat arranging her kitten. "'dun think I can stay awake…" He trailed off before hugging his brother closely and dropping off to sleep.

"Well, there's no helping it, I guess." Reborn surveyed the two boys almost fondly. "But tomorrow…" He trailed off, and his affectionate quirk of a smile turned feral and heartless. He propped himself up in an overstuffed chair and watched the boys' breathing patterns until he drifted off to sleep himself.

[]o[]O[]o[]

Reborn jolted awake (not that an outside observer could tell, the child still had his eyes wide open and a bubble expanding and contracting with his breathing hanging from his nose) at the sound of Tsuna's breathing pattern changing. He listened cautiously, wondering for a moment if he was getting worse, or just waking up. The pained groan coming from the boy settled things as Tsuna gingerly sat up, rubbing at his over-stressed back and shoulder muscles.

"Ciaossu."

Tsuna jumped at the disembodied voice floating out of the darkness. The bed that he'd found himself on when he'd woken up was stripped with white light shining though the wooden slats of the venetian blinds from the nearby streetlamps, but that was the only source of light in the room. His eyes gradually adjusted he spotted the baby in the corner of the room.

Reborn was sitting upright with one leg crossed over the other professionally. His head was raised proudly, as if he wasn't just awoken in the middle of the night while wearing polka-dot pajamas. In short, he looked every bit the proud hit man he was.

"Reborn!" Tsuna called out in surprise, "What time is it? Where are we?"

Reborn let out an evil little chuckle. "Just like you, no good Tsuna, to ask the useless question first. We'll have to have a little observational training when we get home."

"Hiiie! I retract my first question!" Tsuna pulled himself up so he was sitting with his legs crossed and knees apart on the bed, then waved his arms as if to ward off the potential training. "Where are we?" He reeled back for a moment as if shocked, "Where's Sena-nii?" He demanded, voice tinged with hysteria.

"You're a hundred years too early to be demanding answers from me, no-good Tsuna," Reborn informed darkly.

Tsuna's face blanched, but he stood his ground, terrified for his brother. His last memory was being surrounded by thugs, and Reborn's bullet. Now, he was in a strange place and with a distinct lack of older brother.

Reborn sighed. "I guess there's no helping it. He's on your left."

Tsuna cautiously patted the covers around him, looking for his brother while trying to avoid hitting him in the face. He let out a long breath he didn't know he'd been holding when he made contact with his brother's warm form. He left his hand where it'd landed - somewhere on the upper arm - and addressed Reborn in a much more quiet voice. "It's a wonder that he didn't wake up." He stared down at his brother, or what he could see in the half-light.

"We're in a Vongola safe house." Reborn ignored Tsuna's affectionate concern and concentrated on teaching his charge.

"Safe house?" Tsuna looked up, confused.

"It's a house where you're safe, you idiot. It's someplace the family can run to in the event a mission goes bad, or if we need to house some out-family visitors. Idiot. Who doesn't know what a safe house is?" Reborn grumbled.

Tsuna backed up against the headboard, as far as he could go, hoping to avoid the reach of the diminutive hit man. "B-but why is Sena-nii here? Isn't it too dangerous for him?"

"Then just induct him into your famiglia, then." Reborn instructed mercilessly.

"What?! NO!" Tsuna shot upright from his previous weary slump at Reborn's suggestion. "It's bad enough he had to see me in Dying Will mode, but to drag him into this too!?" Tsuna argued heatedly, having forgotten that Sena was only feet away and still asleep. His forgetfulness didn't last long, though. He was forcibly reminded of his sibling's presence by the older boy shifting in agitation at the loud noise. Tsuna watched his brother with bated breath, praying for Sena to go back to sleep.

It seemed like luck was on his side, this time, because Sena settled down, back into an uneasy sleep. Tsuna silently vowed not to let himself get carried away again.

"Tsuna. You need to tell him." Reborn told him, eyes fixed not on the tenth Vongola boss, but on the Tenth's older brother figure. Reborn matched Sena's frown. "He knows too much for his own safety."

"He doesn't know anything!" Tsuna denied in a heated whisper.

"He knows those Yakuza thugs reacted when he raised his wristband with the Vongola crest. He knows Gokudera addresses you with a title rather than by name. He knows his little brother, who he was defending because he was helpless, got shot and then Reborn out of his old body. What would you think?" Reborn asked solemnly. "Plus, with his speed and weapon handling…" Reborn trailed off with a devious smirk.

"No." Tsuna refused flatly.

Reborn ignored him. "Even if you don't invite him – which will effectively be signing his death warrant – you at least should tell him about your involvement. You owe him that much." That having been said, Reborn hopped off the comfy chair and headed out the door.

"Reborn! Where are you going?!" Tsuna called after him desperately, reaching out.

"What am I supposed to do?" He whispered to himself, dropping his arm slowly, as if it were gradually increasing in weight and too heavy to hold up anymore.

"Wha's wrong, Tsu-kun?"

Tsuna jumped at the sleepy slur of his brother. He'd already forgotten his resolve not to wake him. Useless. He looked down at his friend he'd been so close with in childhood, and who'd welcomed him back into his life without hesitation, even though Sena-nii was a superstar now. Tsuna's eyes took in the beaten and exhausted form of his loving big brother, the brother that took on a crowd of thugs and risked serious injury, injury that may have destroyed his sports career, just to protect him. He should have protected Sena-nii. It was his turn, damn it! This time, he was stronger.

He was jolted from his self-loathing by a pair of warm arms wrapping around him tightly.

"It wasn't your fault."

Tsuna froze.

"Those thugs could have chosen anyone to pick on, you didn't antagonize them! They're just assholes!" Sena whispered urgently, and held his brother tightly.

Tsuna felt worse.

"Sena-nii, I think I have something to tell you." Tsuna pulled back from his brother's embrace and sat knee-to-knee with his best friend. "I'm the tenth-generation boss of the Vongola family of Italy." Tsuna hesitated, and glanced at his brother's face from under his bangs. "It's a mafia family…" He added lamely.

Sena sat frozen as his mind put the puzzle pieces together for him. The wrist band, number 90's attack. "…Oh." Was all his brain cells could manage. He visibly gathered himself though, instinctively knowing that he couldn't pull back from his brother without hurting him either mentally or physically.

"I think you'd better start from the beginning." He finally said, with a wan smile.

Tsuna let out an almost sob-almost sigh of relief, and launched into what his brother had missed in his absence.

From the other side of the doorway, Reborn also let out what any would recognize as a sigh of relief.


A/N: It's been a while, yeah? This chapter was going to be longer, but that was just such a great stopping point in my opinion... So anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and please review!