Proficiency
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Hyacinth tackles learning guns the same way she deals with life: whole-heartedly and with exuberance.
Colonnello watches as Reborn teaches her, eyes shining with curiosity, wonder and absolutely no fear.
Most people, the blonde had realized a year into teaching in training camps, had fears when holding a weapon. They were pretty stupid fears, like a fear of hurting other people, or a fear of abusing the power a gun gave you.
But the sweet, soft-looking civilian woman was looking at the gun like it was supposed to be viewed: a tool made to serve the purposes of the wielder. She didn't view it as a toy, or a killing machine.
Colonnello liked her already.
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"Relax your shoulder," Reborn instructs softly. "Don't tense up. Compensate for the recoil."
Hyacinth twitches, shoulders loosening. "Like that?" she asks.
Reborn touches her shoulders and she does a valiant job of not blushing. He squeezes it and gives an approving hum. "Don't fill your lungs with air. That won't help with the recoil. Calm down. It's easier than baking cookies."
At that, her concentration breaks and she is giggling, completely ruining the stance that he had painstakingly coached her on. Reborn rolls his eyes and patiently pokes her back into position.
When she finally fires a shot, the men sit up and turn still because it is a bulls-eye.
Either it was a fluke or she had a natural talent for it.
The blonde sniper blinks several more times when all the next shots are on target.
He gives Reborn a mystified look. It is with an effort that Reborn doesn't return it.
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Hyacinth smiles. "That was fun!" she cries cheerfully.
The handgun Reborn had given her had reminded her of one of the potion-guns that the twins had invented for some pranking in her fourth year. It had been a great way to reduce stress, to see those Slytherin's looking so mortified when all their hair turned green.
"Have you ever shot a gun before?" Reborn asks her. He sounded strange to her ears. There was a note in his voice she had never heard before.
"Hmm," she starts. "I only ever borrowed my cousins water-guns before, and the twins once invented something like it, except it held that mixture that turns hair green. Those certainly weren't as heavy as this."
Her nose wrinkles in distaste and the men chuckle at her expression.
"You're a natural, kora!" the blonde man says with alarming happiness. "You can be a sniper, kora! I teach a class in the summer about surviving in the wild, along with shooting lessons. You can sign up, kora!"
Hyacinth tries not to show how startled she is at the offer. Reborn, beside her, is suddenly looking violently angry. He places a hand around her waist and she stiffens at the touch.
"Wha – " she starts to say but is interrupted by Reborn's growl.
"No," he says softly. "She's busy in the summer. We have plans, Colonnello."
Her eyebrows go up. "We do?" He looks at her then and she saw a desperate sort of light in his eyes. She didn't know why, since she usually detested people making plans for her, but she just nodded. "Oh, alright. I guess we do."
Colonnello watches and tries to become adept at becoming furniture then and there.
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After coming back from the shooting range, Reborn is more intimate, more prone into giving sudden hugs and was liable to suddenly wake her up by watching her sleep.
The latter irritates her a lot. Hyacinth is a light sleeper by habit. It comes with the territory, especially after being Undesirable Number One for a year. She especially feels it if someone is watching her sleep.
So when she wakes up in the middle of the night to Reborn watching her, she makes a humongous effort not to curse him and instead just asks him what's bothering him. Most nights, he just shakes his head and she turns over. Other nights, he smooths her hair and hums her back to sleep.
But it is on one particular night that Hyacinth is woken by a nightmare of Hermione being tortured while Hyacinth dangles inside a cage above her, watching as her sister in all but blood screams her sanity away.
She wakes up, gasping and suddenly, the dark eyes that watch her is no longer annoying but comforting.
Hyacinth goes to him, already knowing by experience that he had a chair by her door.
She sits on the carpeted floor and rests her head on his lap.
It is the first night since the war that she manages to go back to sleep after a nightmare.
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Reborn startles when he wakes up to find Hyacinth with her head on his lap.
It must have been an uncomfortable position, with her neck at that awkward angle, but she looked as though it was the most comfortable thing in the world. Being a gentleman, he scoops her up and settles her back on the bed.
Her hands cling to his suit and he sighs, complying with the request and settles beside her.
Hyacinth murmurs his name as she snuggles closer and something warm settles on his chest.
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Colonnello must have been a glutton for punishment, or for Hyacinth's baking.
He kept coming back, with different guns for her to try out, all with the same results. That somehow, however strange it is, the art student with the propensity to bake and feed all people who dropped by her house, had a natural talent for shooting.
Reborn also kept growling at Colonnello, looking like it is only Hyacinth's presence that stops the promise of violence.
Hyacinth doesn't really mind. She knows that Colonnello truly is Reborn's close friend.
Colonnello and Reborn both looks horrified when she says that out loud.
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You know, I find it strange that despite the fact that I never really label any of my fanfics as humor, I get a lot of comments that state that it is funny.
But when I try to write something funny, it doesn't end well.
I'm not really sure about this chapter. Please hurry and reassure me.
R & R.
~Hallen
