Chapter Ten

Tsuna sat up and watched as Reborn jumped up to her bed, "What is it, Reborn?"

Reborn seemed to be still deciding what he wanted to say. Indecisive was not in Reborn's vocabulary and it made Tsuna even more worried. Her soul-flames scanning him automatically encase of an injury Tsuna knew wasn't there without her conscience thought on the matter.

Finally, he came to a decision and said, "What's wrong with Nana?"

Tsuna tensed automatically before relaxing, reminding herself that it was only Reborn and he deserved to know given his involvement in her life. Still… "What makes you say that?"

Reborn scowled, his fedora soon shadowing the expression, his flames curling dangerously at the supposed mocking when he was serious so she sent her soul-flames to soothe his own, ensuring him that wasn't her intention and her question was genuine. Slowly, his flames relaxed along with his body, "We talked about Vongola right in front of her, inferring to the mafia multiple times and she didn't even blink. She ignores gunshots, explosions and my other training methods with ease, never even commenting on them, and yet from what I've gathered phoenixes are supposed to be over-protective of their family. And her flame, it's…"

Tsuna sighed, it figured Reborn that pick up on that with how much time he spent around her. She did tend to use her flames a lot, even for expressing myself, so it made sense that Reborn had gotten better than most at sensing them. Tsuna reached for Reborn and pulled him into her arms, seeking some from of comfort, shifting subconsciously to her half phoenix form, "My mother wasn't always like this. When I was younger, she was sadder, true, but more in touch with reality. That changed, however, when the ninth and my sperm donor came to visit when I was five." Reborn's flames hesitantly seeked her own out and wrapped around them, not harmonising, but there all the same. It was something Tsunahime welcomed, "To understand how my mother was affected, you'll need some backstory. Phoenixes are sensitive to bonds, we rely on them to keep us grounded and safe. They are stories of some phoenixes going insane or simply fading due to the loss of bonds. Its one of the reason why we're so protective of them. Our greatest strength can also be our greatest weakness. When my mother fell in love with Iemitsu, she sealed her phoenix side away, believing him to be her Mate-"

"Mate?" Reborn interrupted, "As in…?"

Tsunahime smiled in weak amusement, "Yes, phoenixes can only take one Mate in their lifetime regardless of the other's lifespan. When my mother and Iemitsu got married, she swore herself to him in not only words but soul. She sealed her phoenix side away so she would die with him because phoenixes love deeply and my mother thought Iemitsu loved her the same way and she wouldn't be able to survive his death when she did outlive him. It was okay, at first, from what I've been able to gather but Iemitsu's 'work' pulled him away often and for a long time. Eventually, he stopped coming back at all. Mother, well she… she tried to hide it but I could see the effect it was having on her. She was slowly breaking. She tried her hardest to take care of me but Iemitsu's absence was affecting me as well."

Reborn's soul-flame flared in worry and Tsuna tighten her arms around his small form, "As a child, phoenixes usually have two bonds, one for the mother and the other for the father but Iemitsu wasn't there and so I never had a bond with him. It caused all sorts of problems when I was younger. I'd trip on my own feet or even the air, trying subconsciously to search for the bond. It even affected my learning ability."

"Are you okay now?" asked Reborn, soul-flames curling closer to her as his body did the same. Tsuna wondered if he was aware of what he was doing or not.

"Yes, I've gotten enough bonds to stabilise myself now." Tsuna shook her head, reminding herself what this conversation was about, "Anyway back to my mother. She was overjoyed when Iemitsu came back, if a little confused why he brought his boss. She was so happy, mother was literally bouncing for the entire day." Tsuna smiled in remembrance, "Until, at least, Iemitsu asked his boss to seal my soul-flames. I fell out of the tree due to my clumsiness and I used my soul-flames instinctively, like normal. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time because my soul-flames are like a leg or an arm to me and while mother told me to be careful around strangers, Iemitsu was family." Tsuna laughed bitterly at both the word and her stupidity, "And the old man, I would come to know as the ninth, told me to call him grandpa. Apparently, accordingly to Iemitsu it was too dangerous for me to keep my soul-flames despite the fact I've had them my entire life and the ninth attempted to seal me without even caring about the consequences that would have on my life if I was a normal human like they thought."

Tsuna went silent for a while, thinking on the past event before continuing on once more, "Luckily, depending on how you view it, they attempted to seal me like a human and not like a phoenix so I was able to break it but the damage was already done. Mother saw what they attempted to do from the window. What her Mate attempted to do to their child. Phoenixes are beings of fire… to attempt to seal their soul-flames away… it's unthinkable to us and can kill us as easily as lack of oxygen can to a human. It threw mother's flames into discord I think."

"Was Nana trying to harmonise with Iemitsu's sky?" asked Reborn after a moment, processing what he had been told, knowing that harmonisation was the only way that flames could be thrown into discord. Discord only happened if either a sky or element rejected their bond for some reason (in this case it would be because of a betrayal) or an element tried to bond with a sky too strong without the sky's consent. Iemitsu's sky was too weak, however, for Nana to go into discord from the latter reason.

Tsunahime, however, shook her head, "I think that what happened to me translated into a betrayal to mother's Mate bond with Iemitsu and that's what did it. I'm not sure, to be honest. It's entirely possible she was trying to harmonise but I think Iemitsu's sky is too weak to hold a phoenix of any strength. I haven't been able to ask her. The discord threw out mother's sense of reality. She's just going through the motions now, not registering anything that doesn't fit within it. Even if Iemitsu was to come home now and stay with her till they both died I don't think mother will ever be the same again. She might get better but she'll never be 'fixed'. It's been too long."

Reborn sat, nestled within Tsuna's embrace as he processed what he had been told. Iemitsu, that idiota! And for that matter, the ninth as well! Any respect he had of the old mafia boss was gone. How could someone screw up that badly? Even if Nana was pretty much the same as a civilian now, surely Iemitsu or even Timoteo could have sensed her flames go into discord and done something about it! "I'm sorry." Why was he apologizing? It wasn't even anything to do with him but Reborn felt like he had to say something.

Tsuna was expected to lead the family whose head was partly responsible for the current situation Nana, her own mother, was in. It was a miracle she didn't have a violent reaction to Reborn when he first showed up. He underestimated just how calm and level-headed Tsunahime could be in situations. At least Reborn found the reason why her files said she was timid and clumsy when he first came here. Obviously Iemitsu figured she'd be exactly the same as when she was five years old for some reason and didn't bother doing reconnaissance to confirm it. Reborn didn't think his opinion of Iemitsu could get any lower.

He was, apparently, wrong.

The bambina shook her head, laying back down on her bed, bringing him with her, "It's not your fault besides I think I feel better now that I've talked about it." Her breathing soon evened out, and she fell asleep, exhausted both mentally and physically.

Well, Reborn thought to himself, he might as well sleep here with Tsuna's warm arms wrapped so securely around him. He won't be able to leave without waking her back up (he probably could if he wanted to up the effort in to do so, Reborn ignored the voice telling him that). It had nothing to do with the fact that he quite liked this position (despite being used as a glorified teddy bear) nor had it anything to do with the fact that his flames were wrapped within Tsuna's, almost cocooned really. And it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Reborn was trying to reassure himself that Tsuna was fine and her beautiful, strong, pure flames weren't sealed and therefore she wasn't in any danger of dying...

Reborn wasn't very good at lying to himself.

Tsuna stretched as she stepped out of her house only to stop when she came across Dino's men once again outside her house… And this time they had guns out. In fact they were cleaning them. Tsuna thought the Mafia was supposed to be sneaky. She was wrong, it seemed, "Why are you guys here?" Dino asked, behind her, eyes still half-lidded with sleep, "I didn't ask you to pick me up."

The men stopped in place looking at each other for a moment before stating, "No one's here to pick you up boss. We were just taking a stroll and ended to here." Well, there was no denying that Dino was loved by his men, strange clumsiness when they weren't there aside.

"Good morning, Juudaime!" Hayato shouted as he ran up to her, "I woke up too early so I was wondering around and ended up here." Tsuna smiled at her storm, eyes softening, he was saying exactly the same thing as Dino's men. "Anyway…" Hayato turned serious, a dangerous glint mixed with protectiveness in his eye, "Who are these guys?"

"Hey, smokin' bomb brat. It's our first time meeting, right?" interrupted Dino. This man really needed to learn some manners. Surely he could still pull off looking cool in front of his men if he still used them.

Hayato glanced at Dino's tattoo before tensing, retraining his need to push his sky behind him, recognising the mark, "Bucking Horse Dino…"

"Hey, Tsuna, Hayato!" came Takeshi voice as he wrapped his arms around both Hayato and Tsuna securely. The sword wielder smiled, closing his eyes, masterfully hiding his dangerously sharp gaze his eyes gained as he took in the unknown armed men around his sky and fellow element, "What are you doing? We're going to be late!" Takeshi easily laughed and pulled the two away, not wanting the unknowns any closer to his family if possible. He didn't bother saying hello to the blonde man on his way.

Reborn watched all of this, hiding his smirk. That Takeshi was a good actor. If he didn't know better, Reborn would have him figured as a mere airhead, which was a testament to his skills. "That's Tsuna's family… A bunch of children…" Dino muttered beside him. Oh, how wrong he was.

"You sound concerned."

"Of course. After all, That is the family of my sworn sister…"

"What do you think about them? Usable?" asked Reborn despite knowing every single family member of Tsuna's were more than simply usable. It'd be good to see Dino's shocked expression. A mafia boss never stopped learning.

"Maybe. The most important thing in a family is trust. As long as I don't see that then I won't approve of them."

Reborn smirked, sensing Chaos, "Then why don't you test them?"

Tsunahime was walking to school, listening to Hayato tell them what he knew of Dino's Famiglia and his belief of not trusting anyone who was older than him (which was a lot of people given their kinds extended life spans) as a black car zoomed past her, grabbing her. Rushing past her elements on its way.

"Juudaime!"

"Tsuna!"

"They're the Yakuza called Momoyokai that controls the area around here." Reborn started, suddenly appearing behind them, "Yakuza is japanese mafia, you middle schoolers won't stand a chance. Leave it to the police." Both Takeshi and Hayato were about to refuse and rush off to save their sky until…

"Baby." growled Kyoya on the nearby roof. Everyone blinked, apart from Reborn, and looked up as Kyoya jumped down, landing smoothly on the pavement below, "Those herbivores don't control this area. Alpha does."

Hayato and Takeshi looked at each other in confusion. While Hibari seemed cold on the outside, it was clear to them that Kyoya cared a great deal about their sky. If he wasn't worried, and he'd been with Tsuna the longest then… Both boys looked into the direction the car raced off and blinked in surprise when they saw Tsuna dragging two men with her.

Reborn smirked, it seemed he was right when he thought that Tsuna won't let herself be bait without a fight. Tsuna huffed in annoyance when she was in hearing distance of the group, "Honestly, I know they didn't expect me to fight back but the openings they left were ridiculous." She dropped the two men. It also seemed he might have to tor-train Dino again if Tsuna was left with that impression. A mafia boss should never let his guard down and Dino should know that. Well, Reborn wouldn't mind giving that lesson again... He was kind when he wanted to be, after all...

"I… er… Wasn't expecting that…" Dino said lamely as he fell from her grip and got up. Tsuna desperately wanted to roll her eyes.

"Really?" she replied sarcastically instead, "You're lucky that I know that Yakuza group. They wouldn't dare attack my Own if Hayato and Takeshi did run off." Tsuna looked at Kyoya and smiled. The wolf blinked and tried to not look affected by it. He did not blush! A Hibari does not blush! "Thank you for taking care of them."

"Hn." the wolf acknowledged. Pack looked after pack.

"W-wait! I thought Reborn made that up?!" Dino shouted out in shock, Kyoya scowled at the blonde herbivore in annoyance.

This time Tsuna did roll her eyes, "And I thought you knew Reborn. If there's a chance to make Chaos, he'll do it."

"Reborn!" Dino whined, sounding like he had done it a thousand times before. Knowing Reborn, he probably did.

Reborn jumped and smacked Tsuna on the head as he landed on her shoulder, "You've ruined my fun." he stated with a smirk in his former student's direction.

Tsuna smiled, "I'll make it up to you."

After Dino apologised for nearly putting her Own in harm's way, he left. He should be glad that he didn't know what he was doing at the time or Tsuna would be more annoyed with him.

So what do you think? How was the situation with Nana? When I was first planning this story I first went with the idea of Nana dying from an assassin due to Iemitsu not setting up protection but thought against it later. I felt it was the 'easy' way to explain Tsuna less than kind attitude to Iemitsu rather than plain indifference due to not knowing the man or simple anger for attempting to seal her. If only Tsuna was affected I don't feel like she would hold as much as a grudge and she wasn't really affected (because the seal failed) apart from having her trust broken.

Using the idea that Nana had seen Iemitsu isn't an uncommon idea (as I discovered after planning that part...) but it also gave me an opportunity to introduce some more phoenix culture. I also felt that the bonding Tsuna and Reborn went through in that conversation was essential. True, they only really talked about Nana but Tsuna opened up to Reborn about her private past. Tsuna could have just mentioned it was too personal to share but she didn't. For Reborn, it was realising that Tsuna was pretty strong emotionally (to be able to deal with that pretty much everyday for a decade would make anyone strong, add on to the fact that it was caused by her own father? Yeah, Tsuna needs a medal or something). It also makes Reborn realise that Tsuna could have died before he even had the chance to meet her.

Reborn is a stubborn, prideful man. It'd take a lot for him on even let himself be comforted but realising something like that, when he had just began to realise that he may care for Tsuna in a different way than a student, pushed him to reassure himself. And you know what people say about the first step sometimes being the hardest...

So, yes, not to much character progression but I felt like I'd have rushed the story too much if I didn't have chapters like this.

Plus I felt that Tsuna's elements -Hayato especially- needed to see Tsuna take care of herself. Hence, why I edited out the scene with the Yakuza, which wouldn't have made much sense if I did keep it in there. I have already mentioned that everyone knows that Tsuna is 'under Hibari's' protection in the very first chapter. The Yakuza -while not supernatural- would have heard of the 'Demon of Namimori' as Kyoya wouldn't let anyone disturb the peace. Including Yakuza, so they'd make sure that they'd stay under the radar and not do anything to gain the ire of a Hibari. Like kidnapping someone declared under their protection.

Anyway, thanks for reading and make sure to review! I love reading all your comments!