Dioscuri

An LLS Production

9: Sfumato

Later, they would say that Kokuyo Land fell in a freak fire. Squatters, people would say, illegal aliens. Barely any investigator would find out beyond the dead end presented by a completely charred piece of land, the only remnant of which was a blackened stump that had been the foundation stone. The fire had taken everything. Or, their search took them to Namimori, where Hibari put a different sort of end to their search.

Only one account could have been reliably used, and Mukuro was in no way a normal criminal. His description was in no way normal, and some would have accused the illusionist of shrouding his own mind into his own illusions of fiery vengeance descended onto him. His description of the fiery angel that hit him through a building had thus been lost into the Vongola archives.

Some things, like these, are perhaps for the best. After all, who would doubt that Reborn's newest student was anything but a human being?

"Idiot-Ie, get us out faster," Reborn ordered.

"Shut up," Ietsuna snapped at the baby tutor, leaping out of the giant hole in the wall that had definitely not been there a moment before to land on his feet crouching. The wall, and half the remaining façade of Kokuyo Land, had unfortunately shattered in the punch his twin had used to send Mukuro flying through it.

"This is your mess," Reborn snapped.

"I had him on the ropes," Ietsuna shot back. "I had a plan of escape."

"I noticed," Reborn sarcastically commented. "You're still an idiot, Ietsuna. And now your brother is paying the price."

"If you're trying to guilt me, it's not working," Ietsuna coughed as he checked the soles of his shoes in the dim glow of the burning Kokuyo. "What do you know, these things are really durable. Which way?"

"Follow the fire." If Reborn was worried or scanning for any form of Flame usage, he didn't show it. There was too much fire already.

A column of orange flame licked the night sky then, almost a literal pillar in Kokuyo Land.

"The Dying Will Flames," Reborn commented from his perch on Ietsuna's shoulder during the jog. "Tsuna has a lot of them. It's in his blood, in his heart, and he's suited to use them and fight as a descendant of the First. A child with such a dangerous power... A single temper tantrum could burn down half of Namimori. You stopped them from sealing the Flames off, Ietsuna. The Ninth refused to come to Japan at that sign, believing it to be Lorenzo's curse."

"Lorenzo?" Ietsuna coughed, stumbling slightly on the uneven dirt.

"The late Sawada Ietsuna was the first of the Ninth's Guardians, the Lightning," Reborn explained. "He resigned the Mafia and left under mysterious circumstances, burying himself so deeply no one could track him until his son joined the Family. Timoteo made a home visit. Imagine his surprise to see his old friend as the father of his newest operative."

Ietsuna sighed, leaning against a tree as the next Flame erupted, amber eyes melting into satisfaction as Mukuro flew out of the dimness and impacted the tree trunk they were leaning on, punted there by another fiery punch. It was looming then; a conflagration personified.

"...he's beautiful, isn't he?" was the twin's comment once his breath recovered. "My twin."

It was not hard to tell where Ietsuna was coming from, between the blazing figure of flame and the cold night. His own amber eyes might well have been transplanted where caramel might be expected; those narrowed, calm pools of amber that could harden and burn with a furrowed brow, were staring out of what should have been the nice Sawada twin. A flame flickered on his forehead, and Tsuna's hair seemed dark than ever before against the skin that Nana had jokingly said was softer than her own. The female uniform and red armband paired with sneakers completed the look, combined with the metal-studded leather gloves that had formed on his hands, and which were on fire along with his head.

"Always one more, isn't there?" Mukuro purred. "What power..."

Yes, he was beautiful, in the way that stars about to go supernova might be expected to be.

"So that's the legendary Dying Will Flame," Mukuro taunted, barely noticing the steps behind him. "Your twin managed to nearly kill me without the Flame. I wonder how you would fare."

"In painting, we call orange a complementary colour to blue," Ietsuna wrapped an arm around Mukuro's throat and his other arm around the chest, deceptively calm as the laughter cut off. "Standing next to each other, blue and orange contrast the most. The contrast of blue and orange in Monet's Impression, Sunrise sparked the nineteenth-century Impressionist movement."

"Y- You! Let go...!" Mukuro hissed as frost started to form over him once more, struggling to back-kick with socked feet and scrambling to break Ietsuna's fingers, but his eyes never left the brightest thing in the open air. Tsuna's walking speed was picking up. Orange spheres on his hands nearly solidifying into mini-stars, which gave off intense heat.

"I'm quite partial to ultramarine myself," Ietsuna tightened his choke, "but Windsor blue suits you, Tsuna."

The eyes widened, and Tsuna stopped advancing. The saffron flames outlined a heart-shaped face set with amber eyes, brow furrowed. The stars were still held suspended over his hand.

"That's right," Ietsuna spoke, almost like talking to a spooked foal. "Tsuna, you can hear me, yes?"

"You should stop," Reborn admonished the other twin. "You've done enough."

"I'm stopping him," Ietsuna hissed, amber eyes wide. "If this guy does something stupid-"

Mukuro gripped and threw aside the other twin with surprising strength. Ietsuna wheezed as he hit the ground. "Sacre-"

The stars fell down.

They burst into a firestorm that consumed the stunned illusionist, the witnesses, two trees, and a lot of debris and dirt. The light blanked out everything. Animals fled the scene, birds shrieked like the flock of Apollo risen to the night. Clouds began to form in the sky above it to shroud the starlit skies. The conflagration and the flashes of heated air consumed the locale, the birth of a star on a field attracting the attention of Gokudera, Yamamoto, the children, and the assassins hidden in the shadow.

The assassins slunk back into the shadows. There were less painful ways towards certain death.

Reborn, on the other hand, regarded the fire whirl with the sort of awe reserved for natural disasters, stuck in a bubble of cold as the other twin intervened, throwing himself between the two and his sibling. Sure, Dying Will Flames were condensed energy, but enough Flames to produce heat enough to effect local weather changes was, to borrow a word from one of the prospective Tenth Generation Guardians, extreme. Especially since it was the manifestation of life; life and resolve enough to command the world was terrifying, and required efforts so far beyond humanity as to be called divine wrath.

"...that's Japan's third mushroom cloud1," Ietsuna commented, panting and clambering to his feet, in wake of the silence that had fallen over the newly opened ground. A wall of ice had formed, the only shield between them and a fiery death. The part of the building behind them was now a melted pile of charred slop. "What is wrong with you, Tsuna?"

"I- Ie..." Tsuna stuttered, almost as if snapping out of a dream. The Flame blew out. "You're alright?"

Mukuro had fainted behind the wall of ice. Both of them ignored him.

"This is not the first assault the Disciplinary Committee has done," Ietsuna spoke calmly. "What changed?"

"I... I was terrified," Tsuna whispered. "There's only Kaa-san and you at home, and Tou-san is never around. I- If anything happened to you, I- I don't know what to do. I- If Ie died... and you! Why did you pull Lambo and I-Pin along?!"

"They wanted to come along!" Ietsuna defended. His face then softened, looking towards the flaming building. "Is this really about me?"

Tsuna sniffed as he was suddenly hugged.

"Sorry, Tsuna," Ietsuna tersely muttered. "I forgot. Grandpa died in a fire."

"Ie..." Tsuna buried his face into his twin's shoulder, soot streaking the pristine white as orange chains of Flame twirled around the joined hands. "I- I don't want to imagine a world without Ie!"

"I'm not going anywhere," Ietsuna huffed quietly. "This bond binds us, right? As long as you live, I'll always be there."

Snow began to fall around them, flakes crusting into hair as the cold of January bit down. The amber light of the orange Flame flaked into rainbow frost, before dissolving to thin air. Steam puffed, and Ietsuna sighed, casting his eyes to the heavens.

"Castor and Pollux are out again," he commented.

"What?" Tsuna lifted his head, wiping his eyes.

"That," Ietsuna pointed to two stars in the skies. "Those two points are the stars Castor and Pollux, named after the heroic twins in Greek mythology. Pollux was the son of Zeus, while Castor was the son of a mortal. When Castor died, because he was mortal, Pollux begged his father Zeus to give Castor immortality, and he did, by uniting them together in the heavens."

"...how can you find the time to stargaze after this?" Tsuna stared at him, aghast.

"Well," Ietsuna shrugged. "I'm alive, you're alive, everyone precious to us made it out alive, and Rokudo Mukuro's out for the count. Isn't that a good thing?"

"...you're still going to get scolded later, Ie!" Tsuna then collapsed. "Ow! My entire body hurts!"

"Intense Flame manipulation does that," Reborn commented, ignored by the panicking twins and the approaching paramedics and helpers. "I'm more surprised that your body hasn't been torn apart under Hyper Dying Will Mode."

"I came to visit you, Tsuna," Dino spoke sotto vace within the hospital ward that Tsuna had been lying inside for a week with only regular visits – and homework, and paperwork – to pass the time. "My cute junior getting hurt this early in his training to capture Rokudo Mukuro is such news, that I rushed over from Italy as soon as I could."

"I'm so glad for your visit, Dino-sempai," Tsuna agreed. "But, why are you whispering? And, why are your subordinates forming a wall around you?"

"Tsuna, don't you feel scared?" Dino hissed, jabbing a thumb towards the second bed. "You're sharing a room with him!"

"Boss! There's another one!"

Dino whirled around as a few of his men flew out, collapsed in pain, or simply fainted. "What? An enemy attack?!"

"Crowding will be punished by biting to death," Rubber squeaked as a foot was set back from performing a back leg sweep.

Dino and Tsuna stared.

The severe expression relaxed. "Oh, Tsu-chan. When did you end up here?"

"Alouette-san," Tsuna greeted. "It's just flesh wounds, I'll be out soon. Are you here to see Hibari-san?"

"I'm here to change the flowers," Alouette complained, showing a bouquet of carnations and waving towards the general direction of a certain sleeping young skylark. "Boys need their space, but they shouldn't need to share it with mosquitoes. Who's this? Your... friend? I think I saw him with Ie-kun."

"Ah, this is Dino-sempai," Tsuna introduced. "Dino-sempai is a former student under my home tutor, so it's like we're... brothers? I think Ie might object to that word... Dino-sempai, this is Alouette-san, Hibari-san's grandmother."

"Anyone can tell with one look." Dino honestly replied. "...wait. Grandmother?"

The smile dropped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I- I mean, you're a beautiful lady, even if you're old-" Dino wisely shut his mouth after that and searched for a change of subject. "AAHHH!"

"Dino-sempai!" Tsuna entreated, side-eyeing Hibari. "Hibari-san will wake up!"

"Tsu-chan is so attentive of my grandson," Alouette cooed. "I wish you were old enough to be adopted into the household2."

To their dread, the older woman turned to the sleeping Hibari. "Oi, idiot grandson. When are you going to make another Hibari?"

"...shut up, old carnivore," Eyelashes flew up to reveal grey eyes set in an irritated expression. "Why are you still here?"

"What, and I even came all the way here, chick," Alouette teased. "Sorry, Tsu-chan, he's a boorish caveman now but soon he'll be cultured just like my Papi."

"H- Hibari-san should choose his own wife- I mean, mate," Tsuna uneasily fidgeted. "Alouette-san might want great-grandchildren, but I'm sure Hibari-san would find someone on his own time. The world is also full of mother-in-laws..."

Dino paled, trying to imagine the Hibari matriarch, if such a thing existed or if Hibari had gnawed his way out of the womb like sharks did at birth. A bullied Tsuna in a kimono may or may not be involved in that hypothetical scenario. He crashed like a bad computer programme.

"Boss!" Romario shouted. "Please pull yourself together! This is not the time to fall to an unsettling gender reveal!"

"TENTH!" The door slammed open. "I brought you white roses! Are you alright, Tenth?!"

"Ask yourself that question first!" Tsuna freaked at Gokudera's beat-up state. "What happened, Gokudera-kun?! And why are the roses red?!"

"I got ran over a few times on my way here!" Gokudera declared before falling over.

"Yo, Tsuna," Yamamoto strolled in with a full platter of sushi. "Sorry, Gokudera ran ahead of me. I'll be taking him to A&E now."

"Thank you very much, Yamamoto-kun," Tsuna struggled from his position half-in and half-out of bed.

Impatiently, Hibari pulled himself out with surprising grace and pushed him back in. "Little animals should be resting more because of their delicate constitutions."

"B- But-"

"Oh, you're declining?" Hibari loomed. "And I even helped you into bed. You've got some guts there..."

"Hibari-san, why am I being threatened?!" Tsuna squeaked.

He was silence with a pat on the head. "Just accept a person's kindness."

"I'm surprised..." Dino mumbled on the sidelines, awakening from getting the metaphorical bridge dropped onto him. "...that kind of bastard can have a soft side to him."

Dino was then very firmly yanked out by one ear. "Shut up, all of you," Alouette ordered, peeping on the very quickly emptied ward. "I'm really looking forward."

"Huh?" Dino blinked.

Alouette regarded him as one would a very dim lemming. "Where else do you think I'm going to find a beautiful virgin who's close in age and can tolerate Kyoya, great at housework, and love taking care of people in this day and age?"

And down came another bridge.

"Boss! Please pull yourself together!" Romario shook the comatose Dino once again.

"What, I thought there was an enemy attack or something," Ietsuna strolled up, a boy in cow-prints hot on his heels. "It's just Dino-sempai and Maître."

"Lambo-san was a great help!" Lambo kept cheering. "Lambo gave the weapon that kept Ie-nii safe! Lambo-sama is the best!"

"You look busy," Alouette commented.

"Yeah," Ietsuna agreed. "Hibari finally got around to the gender-equality proposal, just in time for our latest trouble to hit. And so soon after the attacks..."

"You mean, those molestation cases near the outlying districts?" Alouette questioned. "I've heard of it. An old man, was it?"

"If it's for the peace of Namimori, the fangs of the Disciplinary Committee will recognise neither age nor gender nor money," Ietsuna stoutly replied.

"I'm not talking about you, you cold-hearted disciple, or Kyoya," Alouette retorted, pointing. "I mean them."

Kusakabe, and a few more DC members trailing behind him, gave her a salute at Kusakabe's lead. "We're very glad for Baa-sama to worry for us," Kusakabe stoutly replied. "But, these cases might soon escalate to assault cases. The necessity of our actions surpass the need for our personal safety."

"That's nice," Alouette's smile was filled with barbs. "I still remember the banchou3 who used to come by the gym. How long has it been?"

"It's been a while, Baa-sama," Kusakabe smiled. "I can still feel the sole of your shoe on my skull."

There was a collective backing away, and more than one member shot a look at her savate shoes. They looked like they would hurt a lot.

"As long as you recall, that's fine, Tetsu-kun," Alouette chuckled. "So, let's leave Kyoya and Tsu-chan to their private time."

"My brother is alone with that fetish pervert-" Ietsuna's flailing was interrupted by one leg lashing out and arms locking his own back. "Tsuna! I'm coming to save you!"

"Don't worry," Alouette continued smiling. "The Sawada line will continue even if Tsu-chan becomes a Hibari. In fact, this is a way for a teacher and student to build bonds."

"You and I have nothing to do with Tsuna's marriage prospects!" Ietsuna shouted.

"But I do," Alouette sighed, smiling. Perhaps, in another light, there were tears in her eyes.

Dino, finally awake, was there when he spotted Ietsuna stuck in a head-lock. "Oh, Ietsuna! And your Maître, right?"

"So," and here Ietsuna was let go of, "what business do the horse herbivores have in Namimori?"

"I see retirement hasn't put a dent in the skills of the Mauviette," Dino complimented. "You see, Ietsuna here and his brother are heirs to the Vongola. I think you know it too, since your family line has been involved with the Vongola since its inception."

"Family line?" Ietsuna broke out of the lock. "Maître?"

Alouette relented after a long staring match. "You're not the only one with a troublesome ancestor."

Ietsuna's eyes took on a measure of respect. "You were dragged into this too, Maître?"

"...in a way," Alouette reflected, almost daydreaming. "In a way. There's always one more thing, though, that keeps us there."

Then Alouette brightened. "So, about the pervert attacks. What are you doing now? Two officers are currently in the hospital."

If Ietsuna detected the subject change, he didn't notice it. "Well... we got ourselves some part-timers."

Omake: Burletta

Dedicated to Chibi no Curse for the 100th favourite.

Dedicated to atwistedconundrum for the 100th alert.

"It's a spell," Ietsuna insisted. "Boys with weak bodies who wear girls' kimono will grow up strong!"

In the mess of pink, a pair of tiny hands flailed. "I- Ie, c- can't breathe..."

Nana, fitted in her own kimono, giggled quietly. "Na-kun, don't make your older brother wear girls' kimono if he doesn't want to."

"As the big brother, I have to strengthen my younger brother!" Ietsuna proclaimed, tiny fists clenched up like a five-year-old superhero. "So, Tsuna, wear the kimono."

"Ie, we're twins," Tsuna complained, struggling out of the cherry-pink kimono. "D- Don't change your family position when you feel like it!"

"Isn't that fine?" Ietsuna pouted. "I can take the responsibility of the older brother, and then play like the younger brother."

"Children will be children," Nana smiled towards the proprietor of the kimono shop. "Today, Mama will be going to a flower-viewing party, so Alouette-san will be your babysitters. Any questions?"

"Why do sakura petals turn pink?" Ietsuna asked. "Is it because there's a corpse buried under the tree?"

"Ie! That's scary!" Tsuna shuddered.

"Let's go home!" Cue studious ignoring of the question.

"Mama! You forgot Tsuna's kimono!" Ietsuna complained, and kept at it until Nana got the kimono.

"Ie, I don't want to dress like a girl," Tsuna complained.

"This is a lucky charm, Tsuna!" Ietsuna scolded him, cheeks puffed out.

The saleswomen and Nana were giggling, discreetly taking pictures with a film camera as Ietsuna fiddled with the shop's overused rouges and makeup. Tsuna squirmed a bit in the formal wear and the cherry-pink furisode with purple obi and orange collar, unused to the focused expression that his twin was wearing as sticky fingers used the eye-shadow. Ietsuna remained entertained by the living canvas he was painting on.

Nana had been expecting something resembling a clown in a kimono, and the apology to the saleswomen had been hovering on her lips all the while. Though, she hadn't expected the wig. Or Ietsuna's surprisingly skilful, though budding, art skills. Or Tsuna's large caramel orbs.

"Mama...?"

"So cute!" the youngest saleswoman squealed.

"Really cute!" Nana agreed. "This morning glory knot4 really suits him!"

"Erm, madam, isn't that for girls...?"

"Tsu-kun is too cute!" Nana squealed.

"I- I-" Tsuna sniffed.

"Make-up is a type of battle armour," Ietsuna stated. "This is war-paint! When you're heading into battle, make sure to wear it. If you do, you'll never cry."

"R- Really?!" Tsuna looked suitably impressed for an eight-year-old.

"If you cry, your make-up will fall apart, and the result would be disgraceful," Ietsuna scrunched up his face. "So regardless of how difficult things are, Tsuna absolutely will not cry!"

"Kyoya~"

"Do not even try, old carnivore," the ten-year-old menace snapped. The old blonde woman ignored him in favour of dragging him along to the kimono shop. "I will not."

"It's traditional attire, chéri," Alouette snapped back down. "You wear black and white and that armband all the time, a yukata is exactly the thing needed to introduce some colour."

"I don't need-"

"Let's go, children!" a brown-haired herbivore and her herbivorous children were marching out.

One was draped in dark blue, and the other was in cherry-pink, painted in reds and whites and blushes, stiff and nervous but set out to do battle. The bright cherry colouring stood out, and perhaps that was when Hibari's eyes narrowed on the latter of the two mirror-herbivores. Wearing such bright colours in defiance of everything drab and dull, perhaps even challenging the world itself to outshine the- the...

"Armour..." Hibari Kyoya breathed. Sharp grey eyes that matched her grandson automatically latched onto the laughing and marching twins chasing after their mother, noting the young Hibari's attention on the brighter colours.

Whatever obsession with cross-dressing boys that her grandson got, Alouette pounced. "Yes. This is a warrior's costume, suited for carnivores. Now let's get you fitted out."

And pick out a suitable white kimono, she did not add verbally. Even if the skylark spent too much time eyeing the display swords and then the fully traditional display and the white kimono.

Now, please review!

Also, to repeat, Dioscuri has its own Tumblr at http(colon)(double-slash) .com(slash)!

1 A pyrocumulus cloud is produced by the intense heating of the air from the surface. The intense heat induces convection, which causes the air mass to rise to a point of stability, usually in the presence of moisture. Phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and occasionally industrial activities can induce formation of this cloud. The detonation of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere will also produce a pyrocumulus, in the form of a mushroom cloud, which is made by the same mechanism.

2 Japanese adult adoption is the practice in Japan of legally and socially accepting a non-consanguineal adult into an offspring role of a family. The centuries-old practice was developed as a mechanism for families to extend their family name, estate and ancestry without an unwieldy reliance on blood lines. The adoption of one individual by another in Japan is commonly used as an alternative to same-sex marriage, which does not exist in Japan. By the elder party adopting the younger (as stipulated by the rules of adoption), the estate of either party can then be inherited or absorbed by the other without the payment of the prohibitive gift tax that would otherwise apply.

3 In Japan in the 20th century, the term refers to a leader of juvenile delinquents in middle and high schools. The term became a title of honour for people with leadership personalities, and who stood against tough elements, and in turn, the negative connotation of the word diminished. It also became a scornful term for people who had a great deal of bravado.

4 Asagao musubi (朝顔, あさがお, "morning glory") is a knot suitable for yukata. As its name suggests, it resembles the Japanese morning glory. The knot requires a great length of obi so it can be usually only be made for little girls.