Chapter 9

Tsuyuki was being stalked. Or, well… she was being watched over.

Subtly. And intensely.

Somehow, some way, Reborn had suddenly turned into an overbearing mother hen. Well… as much as a mother hen he was capable of being as an emotionally impaired hitman. Tsuyuki really didn't want to know what triggered this kind of reaction. He was worse than Takeshi when she and Tsuna had first taken him in. In a very subtle way.

Nana was beyond smug and she made sure that Tsuyuki knew every time they were alone together. Nana said that Tsuyuki had finally Bonded with someone.

She didn't remember that ever happening, but that probably explained why Reborn's Flames were wrapped around her in a chokehold of sorts. It was getting uncomfortable and Tsuyuki had half a mind to throw the baby hitman into the river just so he'd chill out.

Tsuyuki honestly didn't understand how Tsuna could deal with his two overprotective Guardians. Their Flames were practically stifling, yet Tsuna looked completely unaffected.

Tsuyuki thanked the gods that Reborn didn't try to change anything. In fact, whenever the hitman realized his Flames were swarming Tsuyuki, he would immediately reign it in as if it had done it without his knowledge. There were always lingering Flames that would continuously latch onto her, but that Tsuyuki could deal with.

She had tried asking Reborn what had happened on the night she had (recklessly, to Nana's extreme disapproval) used her Flames in combat for the first time. The damn baby wouldn't say a thing and acted as if nothing had happened. Tsuyuki wanted to strangle his tiny infantile neck.

But back to the matter at hand.

Tsuyuki was being stalked and it wasn't just Reborn this time. He brought a friend along and there was no way in hell that she was going near them. Reborn's pacifier was glowing for crying out loud and if she took the chain off of her neck, the orange pacifier would be glowing too.

Tsuyuki wasn't stupid. That baby next to Reborn had a pacifier and Tsuyuki was hellbent on avoiding them. She had no idea how she ended up Bonding with Reborn, but she wasn't taking any chances this time. She had no intentions on joining the Baby Pacifier Club, thank you very much.

The guy in the mask never specified whether or not she had to actually keep it for an extended period of time. Maybe she'd track down the previous owner and return it to them once whatever compromised them was taken care of. Until then, she could avoid the babies like her life depended on it.

And then an exploding time bomb of a five year old came into the picture and that plan was thrown out the window and into an erupting volcano. Reborn. Had. Let. It. Latch. On. To. Him. Everything in Tsuyuki screamed when Reborn had allowed the kid to hold onto him with only five seconds left on the girl's forehead before detonation.

Before she had even realized what she was doing, Tsuyuki appeared halfway across the roof and roughly tore the girl away from her sunhersunHerSunhowdareshehurtHERSUN- With her Sun cradled protectively in one arm, Tsuyuki had lifted the girl up with her other hand and threw her off the roof without hesitation. The little girl exploded, but Tsuyuki didn't care (letherrotinhellsuffershedeservesdeath). Her Sun wasn't going to die and that was all that mattered.

And then Tsuyuki snapped out of it and realized she had just tossed a kid off to her death.

If Reborn hadn't reassured her that his friend (Fon, Reborn had let the name lip past when the others weren't near) had caught the girl, Tsuyuki wouldn't have known what to do. Tsuna ended up being the one that kept her grounded, as always.

He took her away from the group and guided her down a familiar path towards the park. The two didn't speak, but that was normal. Instead, Tsuyuki just buried herself in the cloud of orange Flames that pushed Reborn's presence to the side and embraced her with warmth and comfort. Physically, Tsuna held tightly onto Tsuyuki's hand, a set expression on his face.

"Something changed." Tsuna said once they were seated at a bench with ice creams in hand. Tsuyuki didn't answer, but Tsuna wasn't expecting her to. The young Sky sighed and looked up at the clouds, "I felt it, you know. Your Fire."

Tsuyuki sent him a questioning glance. Tsuna furrowed his brows without looking at his twin, "You and Kaa-san… you guys always suppressed your presences. I could never do it, but the two of you did it without even thinking about it. But this time…"

"This time?" Tsuyuki prompted when Tsuna trailed into silence.

"This time… it was like it all came out at once. Your Fire rushed out of you like a tsunami."

Tsuna turned his head to look at her straight in the eyes, "And it went straight to Reborn."

Tsuyuki blinked. She didn't recall doing something like that. To be very honest, she couldn't recall anything other than cursing Reborn out for intentionally putting himself in danger.

"Something changed." Tsuna repeated, his eyes boring into her, "Will you tell me?"

Tsuyuki looked at her melting ice cream, "... Okaa-san says I Bonded."

"With him." Tsuna stated with certainty.

She nodded.

"How?"

Tsuyuki shrugged, "I don't know. One minute I'm not and the next, I suddenly am."

Tsuna frowned, "That's not how Kaa-san said it would happen."

"Reborn won't tell me anything." Tsuyuki said. Though she had a sneaking suspicion that he did it while she was dead to the world because of Flame exhaustion. She was completely vulnerable to anything at that point, something she'd repeatedly beat herself up for. It was stupid of her to try something like that without her mother supervising.

"If I didn't already know that he could beat me with his hands tied behind his back…" Tsuna sighed wistfully. Tsuyuki raised an amused eyebrow, "You'd what? Scold him to death?"

Tsuna pouted, "No… I'd just… ugh."

Tsuyuki smiled as her brother muttered under his breath. After a moment, Tsuna straightened and looked questioningly at Tsuyuki, "He's family now?"

"No." Tsuyuki quickly shot down before pausing in thought, "... Just… Family…?"

Like Hayato or Lambo or Bianchi. The twins would risk their lives to protect them, but they wouldn't entrust their lives to the people. These people who suddenly came into their lives were Family, but not family. There were only three people the Sawadas saw as part of their family and one of them was dead. Should the time ever arrive, the Sawada family knew the Yamamotos would fight to the death for them and vice versa.

Tsuna breathed in obvious relief, "Okay… I can… I can handle that."

Tsuyuki rolled her eyes and got up, "He's not one of us… not yet anyway."

"You know, Yuki-chan…" Tsuna mused as they walked home, "A Bonding goes both ways."

Tsuyuki frowned, but did not admit to anything.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

~.~.~

Tsuyuki was being stalked.

Again.

It was getting really old.

At least Reborn wasn't involved this time. No, the spartan tutor was currently training her brother in the forests surrounding Namimori. Instead, it was just Reborn's friend. The one he called Fon.

Fon, Tsuyuki soon found out, was very skilled at tailing someone. She'd spent the last hour trying to lose him, but he held fast. The persistent baby dressed in odd clothing followed the blonde all around Namimori. North to South, East to West. It seemed that he wouldn't stop until Tsuyuki talked to him.

So Tsuyuki decided to take desperate measures.

Which was why she had just vaulted over the wall of Hibari's home. The moment her feet touched the ground, Tsuyuki shot off like a bullet towards the garden. She didn't need to turn around to know that she was followed, the soft pattering of feet trailing after her.

Not even a second later, the shoji door slammed open and Hibari came barreling into the baby. Tsuyuki didn't even pause and immediately jumped over the wall once more, making her escape while the two were busy.

Hibari was going to retaliate sooner or later, but he was better than dealing with strange babies that didn't act like one. Tsuyuki was so done with this not-baby-pacifier-club business.

Spontaneously, she decided that doing a job would blow off some steam, so she took a trip to Nagoya with Nana's expressed permission. While not as exciting as the human-trafficking gig she did with her 'Squad', it was therapeutic in a way. She walked into a gang fight with a cheap fox mask cover her face and proceeded to beat the living shit out of everyone, pretending they were Reborn.

It was such a nice experience that she called Nana to tell her that she'd be staying at Nagoya for a few more days. After answering quite a few questions, Nana gave an affirmative and Tsuyuki found herself sleeping in an inn owned by one of Nana's 'acquaintances'.

For days, Tsuyuki went around picking fights with every gang she could find. During the periods of rest to deal with her accumulating injuries, Tsuyuki trained with her Flames. While Nana had taught her a great deal about what was known about Snow Flames, Tsuyuki wasn't good at controlling it.

Her 'ice prisons' could last for a minute at best and she'd immediately be exhausted right after. Nana had been concerned that Tsuyuki wasn't able to use her Flames correctly because apparently the ice was supposed to last without her help. If done right, the ice could trap something for years without having to be maintained.

Unfortunately, Tsuyuki couldn't do that, but she wasn't worried. Nana didn't know why her Flames were like that, but Tsuyuki did. She was constantly running on half of her Flame capacity. The other half was sucked up by the orange pacifier hanging on her neck like a noose.

Tsuyuki just didn't have enough to supply the amount of Flames needed to maintain her big creations for minutes, let alone years. While Nana could create three story houses and towering masses that could last until she or a powerful Flame user took it down, Tsuyuki's attempts were pitiful.

Anything bigger than her own size would tire her or knock her out completely depending on the situation. But Tsuyuki was resourceful. She didn't need large ice sculptures to win a fight. Just one well aimed shard could kill any opponent, and so that's what she focused on.

She worked on refining hand sized shards into thin, lethal knives that couldn't break and were sharp enough to go through a skull. They required less Flame input and could be created by the dozens, something that matched Tsuyuki's fighting style perfectly.

Tsuyuki worked with throwing knives, wire, and her sai. She wouldn't use her Flames unless truly necessary, but it was nice to know that she could just make her weapons if she were to ever lose them. She wouldn't even need wires to control her knives, she could just guide them with her mind like homing missiles.

Of course, techniques like that needed practice for it to be efficient, and the gangs Tsuyuki hunted down were her unwilling test subjects. With her battered fox mask and icy blue flames writhing around her form, Tsuyuki easily made a new name for herself.

The Fox Demon.

It was a better name than back in Namimori if she was being completely honest. Alas, she was already pushing her luck with Hibari's patience and Tsuna's separation issues. That and Reborn had somehow found her and requested (politely demanded) that she returned home.

She knew better than to test the baby hitman. After all, she had been avoiding him a week prior to her spontaneous trip. She figured she'd let the Sun Flames wrap itself around her like a straight jacket without complaint just this once to make it up to him.

Then again, she had assumed that he would reign it in within a few minutes like usual, but nope. He just sat next to her on the train, glaring out the window with his Flames out and free to subtly strangle her with.

Tsuyuki really wanted to throw him off the train.

Unfortunately, Reborn remained perfectly unharmed when they returned home where Tsuyuki then proceeded to pin a blonde stranger to the wall of her shared room with her knives. The man had flailed on the wall for a minute before looking pleadingly at Reborn who completely ignored the situation.

The blonde's assumed subordinate had moved to intercept, but was easily pinned down to the floor with a flick of Tsuyuki's hand. After a moment of silence, Reborn flicked his fedora upwards with a smirk.

"Maah, mah." He said as he observed the scene in amusement, "That's not how you treat your guests, Tsuyuki."

"It's how I treat intruders." Tsuyuki replied flatly, "Who are they?"

"Dino Cavallone, the Cavallone Don, and his Rain Guardian, Romario." Reborn answered, his black orbs still dancing in amusement.

"Hi…" Dino chuckled sheepishly from his position on the wall, "This wasn't how I was planning on meeting you guys…"

Tsuyuki's frown deepened as she ignored the blonde and stared at Reborn, "Letting a Sky come here is unwise, especially a dominant one. Lambo will-"

"He's Bonded already." Reborn cut in with a shrug, "My useless ex-student won't unintentionally pressure the menace into another Bond."

Tsuyuki's brows furrowed, "To who?"

Reborn's smirk widened, "Who else?"

Tsuyuki glanced contemplatively at the Don, "My brother will be paranoid for awhile until the Bond settles. Cavallone's presence will only agitate him."

"That's the plan."

Tsuyuki's expression smoothed into a blank canvas, "I see."

"U-Umm." Dino coughed awkwardly, "Do you think you can get us down?"

Tsuyuki eyed the Mafia Don before turning away, "If you or your Guardian can't get out of that, then you're not fit for your positions. The only reason you're not dead is because Reborn didn't react to you upon arrival."

With that, Tsuyuki walked out of the room and went downstairs to see her mother. Nana was making snacks when Tsuyuki came in.

"How was it?" Nana hummed. Tsuyuki pulled out her battered fox mask in lieu of answering and placed it on the counter. Nana took a good look at the object before sighing, "I was wondering about the rumors spreading. Twelve gang fights in four days? You're hardly being inconspicuous, dear."

"I was venting." Tsuyuki answered. Nana didn't say anything and instead, held out her arms. Tsuyuki willingly walked into them and wrapped hers around Nana in a hug. Nana hummed as she ran her fingers through Tsuyuki's hair, "You need to be more careful, sweetie. You won't always end up lucky."

"I know." Tsuyuki said before pulling away. Nana stared with a look in her eye, "Going somewhere?"

Tsuyuki breathed through her nose, "Hibari."

A look of understanding came across her face, "Ah, have fun!"

Tsuyuki inwardly grimaced. Oh she was going to have fun alright. Have fun fighting a homicidal skylark ready to rip her in two for skipping classes. Oh joy.