Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Chapter 11:

"These are pomegranate seeds," he offered the open fruit to Tsuna, "and you eat them like this," so saying he took one of the scarlet gems and popped it into his mouth. The strangely sweet taste with that sour tart tinge at the end burst into his mouth. He spit it into his other hand. And dropped it onto the ground.

And so it was that Hades abducted Persephone in the grip of maddening love. Hades, the Unseen One, Lord of Death and all of the Underworld, brought to his knees by a single beating heart.

Tsuna extended a wary hand and Gokudera stripped a few more seeds from the pale flesh of the fruit and gave them to him.

And he took her down into his dark domain and kept her prisoner.

His small hands cupped the red glassy seeds and he looked them over, in doubt and disbelief. They looked expensive.

And even the world felt Demeter's pain and grief for the loss of her daughter, Persephone. Hades' love had destroyed the mortal world. So much so, that even Zeus, God of all gods, moved to intervene. But before Persephone left Hades' world…

He put them in his mouth and chewed on them and that strange flavor of sadness and despair and hope dripped into his mouth.

He gave her pomegranate seeds to eat.

He spit the seeds out and Gokudera gestured for him to throw them onto the ground. He smiled at the older boy, "…T-they're good." Afternoon light spilled from the vivid green leaves over their heads onto the tiled ground, a pattern of shadows and sun.

And she would be forever tied to him and his world…

Gokudera gave him a tender smile, "I'm glad."

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Dr. Shamal lovingly poured the metallic powder down one his capsules. One of his home-made creations, his particular favorite, V-43, it was the pinnacle of his career. It would clot blood so fast that the blood vessels would plug themselves in an instant and the heart would strain, strain so hard, it would die. He'd been told before it had tasted like rotten tomatoes. Then that person had died in front of him.

He didn't jerk in surprise, even when Reborn sat down across him and his lab table.

This was delicate work.

"Xanxus-sama has heard. He's moving." Reborn, ever so loquacious.

He grunted. Just a few more…

There. "Of course. This Angel Affair has not died down. Known Mafia trainee being saved by an angel? It's attracting too much unwanted attention to his Famiglia."

"Is there anything on the Code that'll protect Gokudera…?" said Reborn.

"No. Your little protégé should kill the damn kid as soon as possible. It's the most merciful thing we can do," he said while he held the capsule up and inspected it. It would do. He placed it on a tray of various little pills and capsules.

Reborn clicked his tongue in disappointment, "What exactly are the rumors?"

"Too much useless gossip and speculations going around."

Reborn handed him a tiny bottle of clear green liquid. He snorted, a bribe?

"…Cone snail toxin? That's very illegal." Wonder and excitement colored his voice.

Reborn merely cocked his fedora hat at him.

"Hmph. The kid's becoming some sort of an urban legend. Cult idol, too. You should see the surge in sales of fake wings," disdained the doctor.

"…The witnesses?" questioned Reborn.

"Most of the witnesses were students. Stressed out high school students. It gets even better. No one actually got a clear shot of the kid with his wings. Not their cells, nor the school cameras. Too damn fast in a direction people normally don't look at. It's a hotly debated argument, on what actually happened. Drugs, stress, or an honest to god miracle," and Dr. Shamal chuckled at the gullibility of some people. The kid was no angel. Even with the mutations.

"Can our PR hush the whole thing…?" said Reborn.

"Hmm…Doubt it. Not unless something else came up. Something very big. Like this piece I heard three days ago from our little rival famiglias. Talk of a possible kidnap, you know?"

Reborn sighed, "Our little angel is becoming quite an annoyance."

He hummed in agreement and reached for another empty capsule, "It's not a big surprise. The minute he came into the scene, people have started to latch onto him and the idea he represents to them. Hope. Salvation, that sort of thing. That kind of influence he has on the masses…well, any Mafia family would practically be sitting up drooling."

The A-ranked assassin's curly sideburns twitched in amusement. Then in startled revelation, "…You've forgotten a loophole, though."

"Oh? In the Code?" Doctor Shamal's eyebrow raised up.

Reborn began laughing, deep bellows of it, "—enough of a loophole that you won't even need to use V-43 on Tsuna to protect Gokudera."

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They looked like pills full of blood, these pomegranate seeds. He took eight more seeds and put them into his mouth. Gokudera had left to see his sister off to another mission.

She'd been intimidating.

"Don't be stupid."

He'd jerked at her cold voice. He'd been hiding again, in the sun-lit solarium.

"…E-excuse me?"

She'd rolled her eyes at him, "I know what you're thinking. Mafia. Greedy assholes, who get what they want, get what they need, and with no regard for others," and she glared at him, "Gokudera's not like that."

"I know t-that! I know…"

She tucked in her long curling hair against an ear, "…you're wondering why he took you."

He blushed.

She snorted and looked up towards the glass dome of the solarium, up at the young silver moon that struggled with the mighty sun, "Idiot. He took you because he's a simple guy. He took you because he wanted to protect you. From the world. From the mafia. From yourself and your loneliness. And that's it." And she thought to herself, because he's a child. Because he has such fantastic devotion to fairytales, that he utterly believes that when you saved him, for that one shining instant, you had felt for him, understood him and his heartbeat, a complete stranger. And life should be that simple, that the knight who saves the princess loves her and she loves him in return. It should have been that easy, that simple. And she knew, knew from experience, it was never like that.

And Tsuna wondered at her heartbroken face as he chewed on more pomegranate seeds.