Storming Skies

It was just a silly high-school girls' love ritual. Nothing was supposed to happen. Nothing would have happened, had Gokudera's mother not been a Squib. Now he's caught in another country, and in the middle of a deadly tournament. Gokudera/Harry.

000

Chapter Ten
Namimori

000

Haru squeaked as the air in the room cracked, all the smoke suddenly sucking away into nothing.

Without a single sign of Hayato.

Bianchi went white, Tsuna gaped, Ryohei's plate slipped from nerveless fingers, and then Haru screamed.

The house exploded into chaos.

000

There was no sign of Hayato in Namimori. His house was empty, his dynamite packed away neatly in the cupboards. Thankfully he never went anywhere without Uri, so that was of some reassurance that at least he wasn't defenceless. Reborn had already began discreet investigation with his contacts as to whether or not he had been abducted – it never even crossed anyone's minds that he had turned tail and betrayed them. Hayato? No. They had been through too much for that to happen, no one was more loyal to Tsuna than him.

Haru was miserable and utterly beside herself with tears. Kyoko was doing everything she could to try and sooth her but she was just as shaken and uncertain of what was going on as the rest of them. Bianchi had just stopped speaking to anyone at all. All she could do was cradle his abandoned jacket and stare sightlessly at the space where he had vanished.

Twenty eight hours after his disappearance, Tsuna woke up to a Missed Call on his mobile from an unknown number, and an e-mail from his Right Hand Man.

Gokudera, Hayato
To: Tsun4y0sh1 –at–
November 26 at 11:48pm

Juudaime,
I'm terribly sorry for vanishing during last night's celebrations! Please pass my apologies to Kaoru-kun! I will find a way of making this up to him. I'm fine, I'm in England and you won't believe what I'm about to tell you!
Magic is real!
That dumbass ritual the woman tricked me into worked! I mean, it wouldn't have worked for anyone else, but it worked for me because my mother was something called a Squib, that's a non-magical person born to a magical family. They disowned her because she couldn't do magic, so she took her mother's maiden name and was forced to find her own way in life. So it wouldn't have worked for the Harpy or anyone else, but it worked for me and it took me to the person I requested!
The only downside is that I'm stuck for a year and a day here as this person is still in school and currently involved with a magic tournament, they can't leave as if they don't take part something bad'll happen to them. The school doesn't allow electronics though, so I can't send another e-mail, they gave us permission to come to London today in order to get me some supplies and clothes and to contact everyone. But I will stay in contact!
My Soul Mate has a pet owl called Hedwig, she's a courier bird, so don't be surprised if a snowy owl appears with a letter from me. I'll explain more in there as I don't have much time in the internet café here.

Hayato
P.S. my belt buckle keeps scratching me. It's driving me insane.

Tsuna stared at the e-mail and sighed in relief. The comment about the beltbuckle at the end was a code for the Vongola tenth Generation only. He was referring to the fact that Uri was with him and comfortable enough with the situation to make a nuisance of herself as usual instead of being combat ready. Driving him insane meant that he was actually in a position to be irritated with her behaviour instead of being angry or scared or hurt enough to just ignore it and try to return.

There was the other thing as well. He very noticeably didn't refer to this 'Soul Mate' by name. Or gender.

Which meant this person was probably a boy and Hayato was a little unsure of how everyone would react when they found out he liked both genders. Never mind Haru's reaction, she had been expecting to hook up with Hayato and now... Well... Tsuna printed the e-mail out in order to show the others. She shouldn't have been expecting it when Hayato had been borderline contemptuous of her since they first met.

Showing the e-mail first to Reborn he read through it with an odd gleam to his eyes, "Magic, hm? We will have to report this. The Main House already know about his disappearance, this will hopefully set their minds at ease. Perhaps Grandfather Talbot will know something of magic," he suggested, handing the paper back.

Tsuna nodded, "Okay, please do that. I'll go reassure Bianchi."

Reborn snorted darkly, "Better you than me," he muttered before vanishing out of the window to place a call. Tsuna decided not to comment as he made his way down the stairs. Bianchi's smothering talk of 'love' had been getting on Reborn's nerves of late, Tsuna didn't give it long before he was politely suggesting the woman leave and go back to Italy. Or just stop bothering him. Tsuna didn't want to be around when that conversation happened, his house would be turned into a Poison Gingerbread Cottage. Currently, the Sawada household had become their default homebase, as it almost always did, with the girls having not yet left, Takeshi and the others were still combing the town in search of Hayato, they had even gone into the ruins of Kokuyo land against the protests of Ken and Chigusa – not that they could stop them with Chrome and Mukurou himself opening the doors for them.

Dialling Yamamoto's number he quickly informed him to come back home as he just got an e-mail from Hayato and then went into the living room to talk to the girls.

Bianchi nearly tore the letter from his hands but he let her take it, her eyes widening in disbelief and then confusion and then narrowing in suspicion and confusion before softening in relief as she came to the closing Post Script. She pressed it to her chest gently, her eyes sliding shut as her whole body slumped in relief.

"Thank god," she breathed tearfully. "Thank god..."

000

With the reassurance of Hayato's good health and relaxed circumstances, the search parties were called off, a bullshit excuse fed to the school administration about a family emergency back home in Italy, and the group waited, with baited breath, for his letter. Haru checking in after school every day, still ignorant to the whole 'Soul Mate' matter of things as Tsuna had been unable to bring himself to tell her. Or let her read the e-mail. He didn't know how she would handle the whole Soul Mate issue after he knocked her back, or the fact that there was a very good chance that said Soul Mate was, in fact, male.

So far, only Takeshi and Reborn had noticed that discrepancy in the letter. Chrome might have, but she was definitely keeping her mouth shut and scanning the sky just as hard as the rest of them, her brows knitted in concern. Takeshi shrugged a shoulder and grinned in his typically accepting manner and pointed out that Hayato rarely tolerated girls so it wasn't all that surprising. Reborn said nothing on the matter beyond Shamal being disappointed and returned to probing the Noveno's generation for information – he definitely got the feeling that someone knew something about this magical community.

Then, one evening, eight days after Hayato's disappearance, there was a tapping at Tsuna's bedroom window. Not the kind of steady controlled tapping of a fingertip on glass, but something more akin to that of a bird pecking at something.

With Reborn leaning down from his hammock to get a better view, Tsuna pulled the curtains opened and blinked in surprise as the tapping stopped. A beautiful snow-white owl, lightly decorated with black flecks, eyed him seriously with eyes the colour of Sky Flame before hooting imperiously and ruffling up seriously. It pecked the glass again, this time in front of the window latch and then glared at him meaningfully.

When Hayato said to expect an owl... Tsuna hadn't really though he would be serious. Yes, he knew the Noveno has messenger hawks but an owl?

He quickly scrambled to unlock the window and pulled it open, the beautiful owl gracefully stepping in, a thick, heavy parchment envelope dangling from its leg. It hopped to the back of his desk chair and lifted its leg where the letter was fastened with a low hoot. Tsuna twitched, eyeing those long black talons that were curled oh-so-politely away from the letter fastening. Would it attack him if he tried to take the letter?

"He's saturated with Sky Flame, Dame-Tsuna, take the damn letter, I don't think he'll hurt you," Reborn told him with a flying kick to the head. Squeaking at the unhappy bark of the white creature and the insistent shake of its, his, leg, he stepped forward and awkwardly fumbled with untying the missive. Retreating a pace with the letter held to his chest, the owl turned his burning Sky Orange gaze onto Reborn and fluffed up in offence with an angry bark, making him blink warily.

"I think you upset him," Tsuna murmured only to jump and 'HIEEE' when the owl barked at him as well.

He suddenly went sleek and straightened up, flicking his tail-feathers pointedly he turned his back and hopped out of the window and flew to the near-by tree where he settled down on a high-branch and tucked his head under a wing. No doubt going to sleep after a long journey.

Mouth dry, Tsuna quickly snapped the window shut and drew the curtains again.

He then sat on his bed with the letter, staring at the familiar hand-writing on the front, the neat somewhat jagged hiragana and kanji that his Right Hand wrote.

He opened the envelope and emptied it out over his bed, two separate pieces of paper falling onto the sheets. One was several sheets folded together, the other, was a just the one. Tsuna picked that one up first out of curiosity. It was written in English and it took a little bit to labour through it, but the handwriting was neat, a little spiky, but easily enough to understand with his rudimentary understanding of the language.

To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Harry Potter, I'm the person Hayato is currently staying with. I'm really sorry but I'm the reason he can't come home just yet, there have been some severe complications at school and I'm not allowed to leave. Unfortunately, electronics don't work here either, so Hayato can't send e-mails or phone calls as much as either of us would like.
Hedwig kindly offered her services as a courier, she's my owl. Could you please see to it that she doesn't fly off immediately after delivering this? The distance between England and Italy is pretty big, I don't want her getting hurt or overtired. She's a pretty good hunter so you don't have to worry about feeding her, but a bowl of water, and maybe a bit of bacon will go a long way to earning her friendship.
Again, I'm really sorry to keep your friend away. I'm told that there's no way of breaking this ritual bond, but as soon as I've cleared up the complications here I'm free to wait out the end of the ritual on whatever terms work best for him – I don't want him to lose his job because of me, he sounds very proud of it and it wouldn't be fair.
Best regards,
Harry

PS: Just send your reply back with Hedwig once she's had a bit of a rest. She knows where to find us.

Tsuna winced a little, that explained why the owl had been so displeased with them, they had assumed it was a boy.

Reading over his shoulder, Reborn hummed, "She has all the markings of a male owl. Perhaps magical creatures are different? She was saturated with Sky Flame," he mused as he took the letter from Tsuna, analysing the handwriting. Native English speaker and writer, introverted, male (the name could have been an alias as far as they knew), well educated, not very artistic though judging by the use of the quill, but well used to the implement. Young, judging by the school comment and how concerned he was about Hayato losing his job, unaware of the mafia clearly, or he would have been more concerned, and not throw words like 'fair' around when speaking to the head of said family. Hayato had stuck to the law of Omerta, and not told him, not even of their location if he was thinking they were in Italy, nor was the boy aware of the fact they had already been informed of the existence of magic and was very carefully not addressing the subject in a way that would have gone unnoticed if they were not already aware. Clever.

He turned his attention up as Tsuna unfolded the letter with a look of amused dismay at the sheer length of it, Hayato had gone all out on his report it seemed.

Juudaime,

I'm sorry about my short e-mail last time. I can now report on the situation properly!
Okay, the situation is this:

I am bound, for a year and a day, to my Soul Mate. I am unable to step beyond the radius of 9 feet from their side, before I am teleported back in front of them, face to face – regardless of which direction I am facing. There is no emotional coercion in the ritual, we're just tethered to one another.
Hence, I am requesting to reveal the truth of the Vongola and the Mafia to them. To break Omerta.

The magical world, from what I have observed, is significantly outdated in comparison to the modern world, or muggle as they call it. There is a very strong class divide based on blood purity and magic. It was explained to me that some several hundred years ago, the magicals went into hiding due to persecution. During the resulting years, those who could trace their ancestry up an unbroken magical line became known as Purebloods, and stood at the top of the Class ladder with great fortunes, vast estates, and large amounts of political power. However, much like nobility, in order to maintain those pure-lines, inbreeding became common. And as a result, individuals like my mother were born. Non-magicals, known as Squibs, born into Pureblood families, and then abandoned and disowned, if not outright killed, when their lack of heritage was revealed.
My mother was identified as a Squib on her eleventh birthday and she was cast out onto the streets of Italy to make a living under her Mother's maiden name, Gokudera. She became a pianist and the rest is known. The illness she suffered from I am theorising could be a genetic disorder brought about by Pureblood inbreeding.
Never the less, I have magic, but I am not a fully realised Wizard. We went to see a Wand Maker earlier today who informed me that I was a 'Hedge Wizard', one who cannot use a wand, but is capable of a variety of other magical disciplines that do not use such a tool. Hence why the Ritual worked for me and brought me to my Soul Mate. I was somewhat emotional at the time, and according to the Professors, that is an essential component to the Ritual. Had I not been so worked up, I likely would have faced some kind of magical backlash.
I am currently in a school for Witches and Wizards aged eleven to seventeen in Scotland, there aren't many students, less than half of Namimori Middle's numbers. However, there is a very prestigious tournament currently taking place this year, with foreign schools participating. Hogwarts, the school I am staying at, is hosting this time. I can confirm there is a presence of magical people in both France and Bulgaria, and Russia if I am hearing things in the corridors correctly. My Russian is a little rusty.
The Tournament is called the 'Triwizard Tournament'. There are three champions, one from each school, and they must take part in three tasks, the Champions are given a score at the end of the first and second task and that dictates how they begin the third task. Whoever wins the third task, wins the whole tournament and gains a great deal of recognition and a great deal of money – they use a different currency, but from what I was able to calculate, the prize money would equal 10,286,580 yen.
My Soul Mate is one of the Champions. They were entered against their will, being several years too young for the Tournament, however, the device which selects the Champions chooses the one who is best suited for the tournament not the oldest or anything like that. So they must compete as it is a binding contract, if they do not, I am told the results are very messy, unpleasant, and given the age and power of the device which selected and bound (there was a thick scribble here, Hayato had written a gender there and quickly blotted it out) them to compete, potentially lethal.
Which brings me to my arrival.

The first task was a Dragon.

They have dragons.

Real ones.

Fire breathing, flying, giant, angry, dragons.

It was at that point that Tsuna lowered the letter and rubbed his eyes. That was -

He folded the letter over carefully and got to his feet, Reborn watching curiously as he left the bedroom and made his way down stairs. The tiny hitman trotting along in his single minded wake before he reached the kitchen, set the folded letter carefully on the table and dug into one of the cupboards. Inside, he withdrew his father's secret stash of alcohol. Sake, rum, whiskey, and wine. He eyed the bottles carefully before pushing several aside and getting a pan out in which he poured some water and set to boil – a water bath, Reborn realised. Tsuna was going to warm the Sake up gently in the water bath.

He really wanted to read that letter now. But he would wait.

Tsuna gently poured half of the sake bottle into a porcelain jug which he then placed into the waterbath, and returned the bottle to the cupboard along with the rum and the whiskey.

He unscrewed the wine and took a healthy swig before setting it down on the table. Reborn eyed the bottle, Plum Wine. He had never seen Tsuna drink before. Could his student hold his liquor? Did he even have to?

Well, he didn't want to show up to class drunk tomorrow, Hibari would have his guts for garters.

But the fact remained, as Tsuna took the now nicely warmed sweet-sake from the waterbath and turned the stove off, he sat down at the kitchen table, poured himself a dish, knocked it back like a pro, and continued to read.

(There was a blotch of a half-erased name)ry told me that the goal of the First Task was to collect a golden egg from a Nesting Mother Dragon. There were four dragons, a Swedish Shortsnout, supposedly it has a flame capable of reducing bone to ash in under a second, a Welsh Green, the most docile of the lot, a Chinese Fireball, supposedly the smartest and yes, it really does look like the Chinese depict their dragons, only this one has proper wings! And a Hungarian Horntail, the most aggressive, possessing a spiked tail and the longest flame range of all the dragons, capable of spitting fire up to forty feet in a three minute long sustained roar.
We had to face the Hungarian Horntail.
(The name was erased again) was amazing! They outflew the Horntail on a broomstick! A BROOMSTICK! They really do fly on Broomsticks! I landed on them mid-task while they were trying to grab the egg – we were already flying and I had to hold on pretty tight.
We dove down and grabbed the egg and flew off – but the dragon broke her chain and chased us, thinking we had one of her eggs! Juudaime she was beautiful! I will send you a drawing with my next letter!

My Soul Mate got hurt shielding me. (Tsuna took another dish of Sake down the hatch) I nearly got hit by the dragon's tail but they shielded me with their own body. Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, healed it up, but they have scars now. Big ones. I owe them my life, hence my request to break Omerta. I owe it to them. And, I don't even know where to begin describing them to you! I have no words that could do them justice!

(There were large splotches of fallen ink here, as if he had the nib of his quill poised over the paper for too long. Tsuna could see him sat there over the parchment chewing his lip in indecision, terrified to write the next section. He wondered what had happened in the past to make him so reluctant to reveal that he might not be one-hundred percent heterosexual.

Because by now, any and all suspicion otherwise had died a messy and awkward death as Tsuna kept catching out all the they/them/their/they're-s. At this point, Tsuna was considering making it a drinking game, take a shot whenever Hayato obviously tries to deflect the gender and name of his Soul Mate. More than likely, Tsuna was guessing that Harry Potter, the boy who owned the owl and apologised for Hayato being forced to stay with him, was said Soul Mate.)

His name is Harry Potter.
He's only fourteen, but he's a lot more mature than almost everyone else at Namimori!
Juudaime, he's amazing! He's the most selfless, kind, brave, fantastic person ever! I had to explain the Dying Will Flame and Uri, and he just accepted it and the fact that I couldn't tell him everything! Uri adores him too, I don't know if that's a comment on her or him though. He was prepared to sleep on the floor the first night I arrived because there weren't enough beds in the dormitory and there was no space anywhere else – but I couldn't let him do that! He's too small and thin, what if he caught a cold and got sick? We shared the bed the first night and when we got back today another bed had been added to the dormitory, I'm writing to you from my bed now.
The magic school has four houses, Gryffindor, for the Brave and Noble, Ravenclaw, for the intelligent and witty, Hufflepuff, for the loyal and hard working, and Slytherin, for the cunning and ambitious. Harry is a Gryffindor, so I'm staying in Gryffindor Tower. There's a lot of red and gold, they're represented by a Lion. I'm certain that if Juudaime were to attend you would be a Gryffindor! I'm sharing with Harry and four other boys, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Ronald Weasley – whom I have decided isn't even good enough to lick the bottom of Tesoro's shoes!

Tsuna turned to Reborn, "What does Tesoro mean? It's written in Romanji..." he trailed off as a speculative glint entered the hitman's eye.

"It's Italian for darling. Or more literally, Treasure."

"Oh," Tsuna murmured, and then took another dish of sake before returning to the letter. Hayato was... well, Tsuna knew he made his mind up quickly and had a habit of sticking obsessively to his guns but he didn't think he would have already been declaring his, err, affection, for a complete stranger so quickly.

That two faced waste of space turned his back on Harry when he was selected for the Triwizard tournament! His own very best friend! He didn't deserve Harry in the first place! And he seemed to think he would be just welcomed back with open arms after Harry almost died facing that dragon just because he admitted that he might just be right about someone putting his name in for the tournament to kill him! I should have made him swallow his teeth! Harry told me that the year before Ron had stood up on a broken leg between him and a murderer and told him that he'd have to go through him first if he wanted to kill Harry. I would have shaken his hand for that alone if he hadn't just turned his back on Tesoro for no reason! How could he be so blind as to not see how precious Harry's affection is? How could he just spit on so many years of friendship without reason? I don't understand! He's so kind and sweet and honest! I don't deserve him, no one here does either! He's too good for them! He's too good for me! I know my temper, what if I hurt him? I don't want to, but I might! I don't know what to do. What SHOULD I do Juudaime?

Tsuna blinked down at the letter, Hayato was asking him for advice on his lovelife? What? He grabbed the sake bottle and took a hit, ignoring the dish in favour of swallowing it straight. Reborn felt his eyebrow climb to his hairline in both surprise and intrigue. Not only was that letter down right tantalising with Tsuna's reactions, but so was his student's ability to down alcohol at such rates and with such ease. It was like -

Like Iemitsu had been giving it to him from a young age. That idiot!

He's just – There was a splotch of ink as the quill hovered once more – he is too kind. If I did hurt him, I don't think he would let me know. I think he would hide it from me. Earlier today, some asshole shop-assistant brought up his parents murder, he ACTUALLY asked him if he could remember it! Harry just kind of – another pause of dripping ink – he just grabbed our books, and very shortly told him that he could remember and left. If I had dynamite there was a violent ink splotch there, as if the quill had splintered and snapped in his hands, even the parchment had a small hole right through it. It really upset Harry, even though he didn't let it show in the shop – I should have punched him – I tried to punch him – but Harry moved too far away and I ended up popping up in front of him before I could. He wouldn't let me go back either, he's too nice for his own good.
Far too nice, he paid for everything you know? Because I didn't have anything but my clothes and cigarettes he paid for all my clothes and books and equipment and even cigarettes and supplies to make dynamite. We even got new glasses (They're really cool, impossible to break, they have a sticking spell on them so they don't fall off, and another one that speeds up your reading and comprehension so you can read a three hundred page text and understand it in twenty minutes! Magic is amazing!). He lost his protecting me from the dragon. It was so cute, I caught him rooting through a bargain bin when we were choosing frames, I'm sure he would have looked good in anything but they were really hideous! All he had to say was that

Tsuna went onto the next page and had to pause when he realised this one had a picture inked onto it, the line work was clumsy and a bit blotchy but it was unmistakably a boy. He had a thin, sharp, face with high cheekbones and large almond shaped eyes. Thin lips twitched into a hesitant smile, oval glasses perched on the end of a small nose and slightly arched eyebrows on his forehead. Thick, wild dark hair curling sweetly around his cheeks and ears and sticking up almost comically akin to that of Mukurou at the back of his head. On his forehead was a thin, lightning bolt shaped scar.

they were the cheapest! I couldn't let him run around in anything substandard, so I chose his glasses and they look very nice on him if I do say so myself!

I tried my best but I just couldn't do him justice, Juudaime, I'm sorry! I would write more about him and his situation with these people but a lot of it is very personal, mostly relating to his parents murder and how it ties in with their civil war. I would like his permission before writing about it to you. I'm sure he'll give it, I just wish I could introduce you two, I know you'd like each other!

Please stay safe Juudaime! Don't let the baseball idiot drag you to his dumb games, and don't let him do anything stupid – Kami-sama knows he would brain himself with one of those bats by accident if someone didn't tell him what to do! And don't let that greedy Cow Brat have too many sweets! He'll bankrupt Maman and ruin his teeth and you'll never be able to get him to shut up and calm down! Give I-pin, Chrome-san, and Kyoko-san my best. Tell my sister I'm fine, better than fine actually, the nurse has ordered some specialist medicine to fix my bad stomach lining, no more ulcers! I'll send a package with my next letter for Kaoru-san as soon as I can figure out how to get it to you. Hedwig is smart and Harry assures me very strong but I don't want to overtax her flying to Japan with a heavy package!

H.G

Tsuna sighed, shoving the letter to Reborn and finishing his jug of sake, staring down at the table dully.

He then started to chuckle.

Only Hayato could go looking for his true love and stumble onto a hidden civilisation at the same time, completely by accident, because he lost his temper at a party. The Vongola Sky had to lean back in his chair and over his eyes with a forearm and just laugh helplessly.

Reborn waited until he finished laughing, letter read and folded carefully on the table between them.

"Will you let him?" he asked curiously.

Tsuna snorted, knowing he was referring to Omerta. "Yes. If that mess with Byakuran taught me anything it was that it's safer to tell those who are going to be directly involved. And Hayato will bring Harry home. Even if he has to carry him." Tsuna knew what his Second Hand was like. He was positively head over heels. It was easy to see just in how he fretted and gushed and growled over Harry in his letter. He half pitied, half envied the boy who he had never met. Hayato would be loyal to him until the day they parted, and while he was high-maintenance, he was worth it. To find your soul mate... and have them be someone as incredible Hayato... it was hard not to be envious in all honesty.

The Sky set aside the alcohol back where it came from and cleaned up after himself, taking the letter.

"I'll write a reply tomorrow. See if I can't bribe Hedwig-chan into forgiving me," he muttered as he sleepily allowed Reborn to hop onto his shoulder and head upstairs. In his room, he set the letter down on the table and gave idle thought to allowing Hedwig to sleep inside, but remembering how big of a madhouse his home could get, figured she would prefer to rest undisturbed outside in the cool.

000

And thus endeth chapter ten and the Namimori special interlude. XDDD