I will admit that this chapter accidentally inspired Coping Mechanisms. I couldn't resist when the idea came into my head. XD
"Is this your doing Reborn?" asked Tsuna exasperated.
Reborn smirked.
The Alognov Talent Show had a decently high prize for civilians, enough to tempt a good chunk of the city.
And no, Tsuna wasn't fooled in the least by the fact that the name Vongola had been spelled backwards.
Also, his participation was mandatory.
"Just out of curiosity how many people can enter?"
Reborn's eyes gleamed, already seeing where Tsuna was heading without having to ask.
"Yes, you can drag the others down with you."
"Good. If I have to suffer through the idiots then they're damn well going to suffer with me," said Tsuna flatly. "On an unrelated note, can we do costumes?"
"I can get you in touch with the girl coordinating any potential costumes," agreed Reborn.
Miura Haru would probably love a challenge. Especially since Tsuna clearly wanted to drag Hibari down with him.
Putting him in something threatening might amuse him enough that he wouldn't bite Tsuna to death for dragging him into this. He had gotten good enough to keep up the pace Tsuna usually kept, since everyone else had a tendency to follow his lead first.
"No."
"You'll be in costume and kept well above the herbivores. If need be we can put you high enough that no one will actually see who's playing the drums," said Tsuna.
"I will not participate in such a herbivore activity."
Tsuna kept himself from scowling.
"It's either participate and avoid the majority of the crowding, or get stuck dealing with unruly idiots who will use it as an opportunity to get drunk. I have it on good authority that Reborn will be supplying booze for the idiots who think they can sing."
Hibari scowled.
"Give me a better reason."
"Do it and I'll fight you after. No holds barred and full contact."
Hibari blinked, before a slow smirk came upon his face.
"You have a deal. I expect you to hold up your end, omnivore."
"Oh, and if anyone tries to mess with the instruments you have my full blessing to bite them to death," said Tsuna.
Hibari's smirk was not for the faint of heart.
An hour later...
"He's soooo cute!" gushed Haru.
"Hard to believe he's a grown man suffering from dwarfism," said Tsuna with a straight face.
"Dwarfism?" repeated Haru.
"A genetic condition that effects the body. I believe the popular slang is 'midget', though I find that rather degrading," replied Tsuna. "His mind is that of an adult, but because of his condition he looks like a child."
Reborn blinked...before kicking himself. Why had he never thought of using that excuse around civilians?!
"Let me guess, it's easier to pretend you're a kid than explain you're an adult?" said Haru with sympathy.
"That and I get better views," admitted Reborn.
At least she wouldn't be calling him Reborn-chan anymore...though it didn't stop them from exchanging costume ideas.
"Anyway about the one on the drums... it has to be something bird themed or at least an alpha predator. Or if need be you can turn him into a hedgehog or something."
Because Hibari would murder him otherwise.
"I can do a lion costume for you!" she chirped.
Tsuna grimaced. He knew what Iemitsu's nickname was and did not want to be compared to that man. Ever. He still liked lions, but he didn't want anything to do with a lion costume.
"I could care less if you turned me into the white rabbit, or the Cheshire cat himself. No lions though. Tigers, on the other hand..." mused Tsuna. He could live with a tiger.
Haru's eyes gleamed.
"How many in your group?"
"At least four, but no more than five. And I will say that there is no way in hell you're getting us into any sentai costumes," said Tsuna immediately. "For one thing the helmets will make it very difficult for two members to actually perform."
"Let's see... oh, you're a classical music band performing certain songs right? Yeah, I could see that being a problem. Who's the leader of this group and which instruments?"
"I'm the unofficial leader, and the instruments are violin, keyboard, Japanese drum, flute and trumpet," said Tsuna with ease.
"Let's see... any preferences to costumes?"
"Not really, so long as it doesn't interfere with us playing," said Tsuna immediately.
"Well let's see what we have to work with. ...This is your band?" said Haru.
"Is something the matter?"
"Nothing~" she said.
Except that every member of his group was full of bishies, even the lone wolf who played the drum. Just looking at the drummer gave her ideas...
"Oh, just a little warning. Kyouya has a thing for his uniform and he likes to wear the jacket off his shoulders. He'll probably wear the armband regardless of what you have to say."
"Got it. I can work with this. What about the one with the scar?"
"Ryohei is a boxer. He's used to running around in shorts and gloves."
"I keep thinking kangaroo for some reason with him... Yeah, I think I have a solid idea of what to use. You don't mind animals right?"
"Anything but lion for me. It's not that I hate them, just that I don't want to give a certain idiot ideas," said Tsuna. "Also, if you could hide or partially obscure my face that would be great."
Haru was already jotting down design ideas. Tsuna was wonderfully easy to work with. Besides...she was being allowed to dress up bishies. Who would say no to that?
"...You're a cat."
"A leopard, to be precise," said Reborn with glee. Who knew Tsuna had a hidden love for cosplay?
Then again... dressing up meant hiding who he was from his bullies. But still, the kid had successfully cross dressed as a girl just to practice his violin.
Reborn was going to have fun honing that trick.
Tsuna made a ridiculously cute girl. So much so that Reborn had openly called him jail bait...right before using him in a prank on Shamal.
It was worth every moment of having to go through the ordeal with Haru using him as a dress up dummy just to see the look on Shamal's face when he found out the "girl" he was hitting on was a cross dressing Tsuna.
He had copies of the blackmail photos Reborn took. The fake baby was still snickering at some of them.
"Ready for your debute?" asked Reborn.
"Shōichi has his camera ready, if only so we can prove we're not making this up," said Tsuna.
"What?"
"Nothing... Fon mentioned someone he knew and said we should have a video tape for proof."
Meaning he was going to approach Mammon for a new source of a lot of money, and he needed to prove the boys could actually play like they claimed.
Odds were the miser would jump at the chance, since the boy didn't really care about the money so long as they could play. Oh, they'd argue for Shōichi (he was planning to use it to fund his research after all), but for the most part they really didn't care.
After all, Tsuna was stuck being groomed as the Decimo Vongola, who were beyond rich. This was more of a hobby for him.
"So what exactly did you go with?" asked Tsuna, before he stared. "Are you serious?"
Haru's eyes gleamed.
"You said I had free reign on the costumes so long as it didn't interfere with playing," she reminded him.
"What the hell are those?" asked Reborn, baffled.
As one, the teens turned to Look at him with something akin to disbelief and pity.
Haru was the first to speak.
"Okay, now I completely believe you when you said he was actually an adult who suffers from a genetic condition and not an actual infant."
"Told you," said Tsuna, almost smug.
In his hands was a mask that looked almost identical to an Arcanine, except the red was more predominant than normal. That belong to Hayato's outfit.
Tsuna had one as well, though his made him look like a Shiny Celebi, since the coloring was in shades of orange.
Ryohei's costume looked a lot like a Kangaskhan, while Takashi had an Articuno costume.
And Hibari? Well he got a Houndoom outfit. It was either that or a Murkrow.
"You didn't answer my question," said Reborn.
"Seriously, how do you not know what a Gen One Pokémon looks like?" asked Tsuna.
Pikachu might be one of the unofficial "mascot" of the series, but the fact Reborn didn't recognize any of them despite being slightly modified spoke volumes about the fact he was old.
Tsuna had a sudden thought, and sent a text to Fon. Tsuna grinned.
"Tsuna, who are you texting?" asked Reborn dangerously.
Then he heard the sound of someone laughing, hard, and the two turned.
Apparently Fon had come to watch the show and visit I-Pin.
Fon managed to contain his chuckles long enough to see the costumes for himself.
Calling Reborn an "old codger" behind his back was a brave move... and the irony was that he couldn't deny it because Reborn was the oldest out of them before the curse hit!
"Very nicely done. I take it Kyouya is the Houndoom?" asked Fon amused.
"It was either that or a Murkrow," confirmed Haru.
"He likely wouldn't have minded being a Murkrow," said Fon. "You could have also gotten away with the black Mega Charizard or even a Mega Tyranitar... though I think the Mega Gyarados was poorly done."
The two teens nodded in complete agreement. Reborn looked beyond confused as to what they were talking about.
"I'm lost."
Fon grinned at him, and he had the distinct feeling he was the butt of some unknown joke. It made him want to pull out a gun and shoot the Storm.
"It's alright if you don't understand, Reborn. After all, it can't be expected for an old man to keep up with modern entertainment," said Fon with perfect sincerity.
Which only set Tsuna off laughing.
Reborn growled.
"What are you talking about?" asked Hayato, who came in when he heard the laughter. Then he saw the costumes and grinned. "Nice. Which one's mine?"
"You're Arcanine. Takeshi's Articuno, Ryohei's Kangaskhan, and I'm Celebi."
"Hibari's Houndoom then?"
Tsuna nodded.
Hayato grinned.
"I think the others are going to get a kick out of this," he said snickering.
"Reborn has no idea what we're talking about either. I wonder if Bianchi knows her 'lover' is much older than she originally assumed," Tsuna added with open glee.
Hayato guffawed and was immediately sharing that news with his sister. He always found her 'obsession' with Reborn more than a bit disturbing.
(The sight of Bianchi trying to explain what Pokémon was to Reborn later that night had most of the kids watching the very confused Sun with a mixture of pity and trying not to laugh. Either way, the second Viper heard what was going on they got a very good laugh out of it on top of agreeing to act as the boy's manager for the entertainment alone.)
They went up, wearing their costumes (much to the amusement of everyone watching...) and Tsuna was just glad Haru had given him a proper mask. He recognized some of the jerks from his class out there.
He had to wonder... why Celebi? Not that he had anything against the little fairy Pokémon, but he was curious as to Haru's reasoning for making him the time traveling forest sprite.
Imagine his surprise when there was a clear cry for an encore. Hibari was not very amused, but the others were all for it.
Tsuna had no idea what to play... they hadn't anticipated that the crowd would like them enough to demand a fourth song on top of the three they had to play throughout the competition to win.
As he put the bow to the strings, he decided to wing it. It wasn't something he did often because of how weird it felt. It always felt like something caged inside him was surging, demanding to be set free from the confines of his body and damn what he had to say about it. A fire that seemed to come from the depths of his very soul.
It almost scared him.
He decided to focus on each of his Guardians individually, unaware of the fact his eyes were starting to glow amber from within.
Hayato was first. The boy was a raging Storm, but under all his gruff exterior and almost Tsundere nature (he long suspected Hayato had a thing for Takeshi but was too "manly" to admit it, even to himself...it would explain so much) was the beating and loyal heart of someone who had been abused and kicked to the curb far too often by those who didn't deserve his trust. Someone who could wax on and on about something silly with open enthusiasm and far too much jargon, and who looked deliriously happy when someone took his words seriously, rather than dismiss him like everyone else.
There was a pulse of red and a few slivers of other colors that seemed to mix with the amber-orange Tsuna had around him.
He focused on Takeshi next.
The teen was like the calming waves that could turn deadly in an instant. There was so much depth to his soul that only needed someone brave enough to take a leap of faith and see it for what it was. There was a darkness, yes, but it could hold something beautiful if you were willing to risk it. The crushing depths that would destroy anything that harmed those he cared about, hidden by the almost gentle waves above.
Blue and a hint of indigo mixed into the amber now.
Ryohei was next.
He was a fiery passion that hid a genuine exterior that loved and adored his family and close friends. He didn't care how 'extreme' he was, he was the roaring heat that burned all enemies to a crisp and the gentle sunlight that healed over the wounds of his allies. A true fighter who understood what honor really meant.
A bright golden color took it's place among the amber.
Hibari... Hibari was both easy and difficult at the same time.
Wild and free and uncontrolled, he was the untamed beast that you could only pet if he deemed you worthy and allowed you the honor. One that would defend his people and his territory with the ferocity of a tiger or a dragon and leave nothing but absolute devastation in his wake. But if he deemed you worthy of his loyalty... there wasn't a stronger ally you could possibly have. Even if it risked being bitten to death when he was in one of his moods.
Strong violet purple and almost vibrant indigo collided with the amber, briefly trying to dominate the color, only to coil around it like a contented cat.
Tsuna had been so preoccupied with just playing he missed the looks on the faces of his friends, or the fact they naturally fell in line with him without even noticing. The entire crowd listened with baited breath while the Arcobaleno were exchanging covert glances with each other.
There was no way they could mistake that feeling. Tsuna's violin music was allowing him to harmonize with his Guardians properly in spite of the seal on him. It was quite beautiful to watch, even if the boy had absolutely no clue what was happening.
And when he opened his eyes, Reborn had to hold in a gasp.
Where brown eyes had been was the clearest amber color, almost as if Tsuna was tapped into his Dying Will state without a bullet.
One thing was clear though... he would have to get Tsuna to play his violin more without a set song piece, if letting his feeling flow freely could cause something like this to happen.
Well, they did say a proper band or orchestra sounded best when in "harmony" with each other...