Hi.
Okay, first off, I'd like to say that camping for a week leads to a severe case of bug bites that I still have NOT gotten rid of yet. Anyways, if you guys didn't check my tumblr or my profile, then SURPRISE! I'm back! And yes, it IS a double update! Chapter 12 is right around the corner and will be posted later tonight! Anyways, I did push the training back a chapter because I figured you guys needed chapter before we get to the heavy stuff. So, yeah. Here it is!
Thank you to all the reviews, follows, and favorites! You guys are the best!
It was only after Reborn came back from his trip to Italy did he notice something was off.
The house was bustling, as usual. Nana was in the kitchen, humming as she stirred the simmering soup. Lambo and I-pin were noisily making a mess in the kitchen while Fuuta read a book at the table. Bianchi wasn't anywhere to be seen, but that was probably because she was still making the return trip from stalking Reborn in Italy.
The only one missing was Tsuna, but Reborn had a pretty clear idea of where his student was, especially since it was a Thursday night. Gokudera was restocking his weapons and Yamamoto had baseball practice. Neither would be occupying Tsuna's time.
Hopping up the stairs, Reborn quickly made his way to Tsuna's room and pushed the door open.
"I'm back," he called.
Tsuna didn't look up from the open textbook he was scanning. The boy was leaning back against his headboard studying the book more avidly than Reborn could have ever hoped to get him to with threats of explosives, electrocution, or other possibly deadly tactics.
"What are you reading?"
"The next chapter for history."
"Instead of playing video games?" Reborn asked, taking the liberty to jump up onto his student's desk to diminish the height difference between them. If possible, Reborn liked to be looking down at others. "Don't you usually take any chance you get to slack off when I'm gone?"
Tsuna grimaced, finally glancing up at the hitman. He shifted a bit, like he was uncomfortable, and Reborn's curiosity was officially peaked. Tsuna didn't do homework just to do homework. There had to be a reason behind this.
"This is different."
"How so?"
"Kyoko-chan wants to discuss this chapter tomorrow before school so we can prepare for the test. I figured that I might as well try to understand it on my own since I didn't know what time you would be back."
Reborn almost snorted. That and Tsuna didn't want to be subjected to Reborn's tutoring tactics.
The hitman turned Tsuna's words over in his mind after a moment, testing them. There was something almost odd about his student's response, now that he thought about it. It didn't surprise Reborn that Tsuna was willingly doing something he hated for his crush, but, he sounded too…flat. Like he was dreading something. And it didn't seem like it was the actual homework. No, it was something else.
"Shouldn't you be a little more excited?" Reborn asked. "You're usually all starry-eyed whenever Kyoko asks you to hang out together."
Tsuna shrugged, shutting his textbook with unusual gentleness before setting it aside. The boy averted his eyes, his mouth morphing into a small, almost wistful smile.
"I guess I should be, but, I mean, ever since we made it back from the future, I feel like I'm too old to be stuck in a place where everything's the same as when I was younger and inexperienced."
Reborn hummed. The future was often their topic of conversation nowadays. Everyone was still adjusting to the past and Reborn, who was pretty adaptable and hadn't had that much of a hard time, was doing his best to help Tsuna through anything that cropped up.
Like this.
This was a tricky one, though. Maturing and growing up in a different time, under different circumstances than your used to and then being thrown back into a world that hadn't moved forward and being forced to interact with people who don't know you've changed; it had to be more than difficult. Tsuna had told him so more than a few times.
"You sound like an old man looking back on his life," Reborn teased before sobering up. Tsuna was his student, after all. "But Kyoko has been with you since the beginning of all this. You know that she won't have noticed your differences as much. It won't be some big dramatic change to her. She already knows you, so why don't you seem excited to see her?" Reborn asked again.
Tsuna twitched at his tutor's words and then stilled completely, an odd habit he seemed to have picked up in the future. When Reborn had commented on this, Tsuna had told him he had a hard time moving if he was thinking about something too deeply, past his Intuition. Honestly, it had Reborn more than baffled.
Tsuna narrowed his eyes slightly then, and Reborn knew he had finished thinking about his situation.
"Yeah, I guess she does know me better," Tsuna relented, but not without a heavy sigh. "I love talking to her. And I think if it were anywhere else, I'd be totally willing to hang out with her, even if we were just studying. But right now…right now, school isn't exactly the place I'm itching to be."
"You never want to go to school," Reborn chided.
Tsuna shook his head, his expression softening ever so slightly. "That's not all true. Sure, I hate studying, but before, my friends were there so I was fine. I could keep going and have a great time with them, even if I had to put up with all of the craziness, and not to mention the bullies."
"But now?"
"Now it just feels kind of pointless," Tsuna sighed, snatching up his textbook and flipping it open to the correct page. "Like the…Kamakura period."
The boy went back to his reading anyways.
Reborn sighed lightly. He hadn't known anything about Tsuna having trouble going back to school, but he supposed having been back less than three weeks and spending half of that time in Italy, it wasn't surprising that he hadn't picked up on it. He'd have to look into it more tomorrow, when he could observe his student in the actual setting. For now, he would let the conversation drop. If Tsuna didn't want to talk, Reborn wouldn't force him.
"Mama said she'll have dinner ready any minute," Reborn said, deciding to switch gears. Tsuna would talk when he was ready.
The boy looked up at his tutor and then at the clock. He turned to the window with a raised eyebrow, eyeing the position of the sun.
"Really?" Tsuna asked, sounding doubtful. "I just barely got home from school an hour ago. Why so early?"
"Your father still isn't quite used to the time difference," Reborn said, a small smirk on his face. "It's still morning in Italy. He called ahead and Mama knew to make food so it would be ready about the time we got here."
Tsuna's eyes slid closed as he groaned pathetically, closing the textbook a second time. "You've got to be kidding me," the boy complained. "Why did he have to come now?"
Reborn shrugged, his smirk falling away. "After the meeting with the Ninth, he said he wanted some time off to come see you and Mama."
"Was the meeting important?" Tsuna asked. "Anything that would make him want to hide from work?"
Reborn shook his head. "We just discussed the memories from the future. Nono and Iemitsu are trying to plan ahead, figure out what their next move is going to be."
"Did they decide?"
"There were ideas tossed around," Reborn said vaguely, "but nothing set in stone. The Ninth probably wanted some more time to think things over. I think that's why Iemitsu's here, so he won't hound the Ninth over Vongola's future. We'll probably be called back soon enough."
Tsuna did nothing more than groan and let his head hit the headboard with a loud thump at that information. Reborn wasn't surprised, knowing how much the boy resented Iemitsu sometimes. Tsuna was quick to get annoyed by the overbearing father, and Reborn knew that this was going to be a long week.
"This is exactly what I didn't need," Tsuna mumbled.
The hitman smirked. Sometimes the boy set himself up, making it too easy for Reborn to take advantage of the opportunity.
"What you do need is to finish that chapter before I string you up by your feet and make you recite the birth place and date of every single leader in Japanese history.
"This chapter is about the Kamakura period, Reborn," Tsuna reminded him.
Reborn shrugged. "Not my problem. You don't want to recite it, then you finish the chapter. And I will be quizzing you on what you read afterwards. You get something wrong and you can kiss your eyebrows goodbye."
Tsuna, probably getting too used to life with the greatest hitman in the world, looked more exasperated than threatened. He just waved a hand in the air and opened his textbook.
"Don't do anything weird to me, Reborn. I was going to finish it anyways."
Yeah, exasperated Tsuna wasn't as amusing as terrified Tsuna, but Reborn had already experienced this with Dino once before. Tsuna was growing up, and although he could be quite a sadist, the satisfaction of seeing a student learn and grow far outweighed the satisfaction of seeing his student wet his pants in terror, no matter how amusing the latter was.
Tsuna was looking at him strangely now that Reborn had gone silent. "What's with the creepy look?"
Reborn smirked again as he pulled his fedora down to shadow his eyes, going for a sort of dramatic affect. Jumping over to where Tsuna sat on the bed, the hitman hurled a foot at the boy, catching his jaw and sending him back into the headboard with a yelp.
"Dame-Tsuna. I already told you what would happen if you slacked off."
The boy raised a fist, the other hand holding his bruised jaw carefully, and Reborn thought that maybe, just maybe, he might have gone a little too hard on his student. Being away from Tsuna for a week had caused him to forget about holding back his strength, unfortunately. Italy wasn't a place for weaklings, and Reborn's body hadn't really gotten the message that he was in teacher mode right now, not in assassin mode. He'd have to be more careful from now on.
"Reborn!" Tsuna cried, looking like he wanted to either punch his tutor or sob his eyes out. "What the hell was that?!"
Reborn's smirk grew to hide his unease. "If you were studying like you were supposed to be doing, that wouldn't have happened."
Tsuna grumbled but said nothing more on the matter, turning his attention back to his history book. He was still holding his bruised jaw, and while Reborn almost felt bad for him, he didn't do anything, not exactly sure how.
And besides, if Reborn stepped up now, Tsuna would think there was something wrong with his teacher and then they would be back to getting Tsuna to continue his studies and avoid getting distracted.
Reborn almost sighed then, as he watched Tsuna from the corner of his eye. His assassination instincts couldn't get in the way of his instruction anymore. Hopefully, being in the noisy Sawada household would relax him a bit.
Deciding to create some space between him and his student, Reborn left Tsuna's room and made his way down to the kitchen.
Nana smiled at the infant hitman when he entered, three kids running around her legs in a frenzy. Reborn nodded back to his student's mother before sniffing the air, finding that the enticing aroma of warm chicken soup did wonders to relax and calm him. Reborn hoped eating it would help him relax even more.
The doorbell rang then, but neither Reborn nor Nana moved to get it. Instead, Nana pursed her lips, glancing between the soup and the door to the hall indecisively.
"If you want, I would be happy to get it, Mama," Reborn suggested softly.
Nana smiled. "No, no, it's fine, Reborn-kun. I'll get it."
She cut off the heat under the pot of soup and shed herself of her apron, putting the ladle down on the counter before leaving the room. Reborn followed her, curious as to who it was ringing the doorbell. As far as Reborn knew, Tsuna's friends were all busy today, so they wouldn't be coming over unless it was an emergency. And Reborn didn't have any surprises planned.
Nana opened up the door to an Italian man dressed in a finely tailored suit. He had sharp features and his jet black hair was slicked back. At first glance, he looked imposing, but his ruffled appearance gave Reborn pause. It almost seemed like the man hadn't had any sleep in the past few days, what with the slight shadows under his eyes and the wrinkles in his expensive suit.
Even Nana must have felt wary of this man. Her smile faltered as she took in the man's figure, putting things together faster than Reborn would have credited her. She must have had experience from before Iemitsu was careful with his travels.
"Can I help you?" Nana asked, her voice neutral.
The man nodded tersely. "Is this Sawada Tsunayoshi's house, by any chance?"
"Who's asking?" Nana's tone turned icy immediately, a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face.
"My name is Argine Gavino, a business associate of Tsunayoshi's father, as well as Timoteo. Our companies are allies."
"Why are you here?"
"I just wanted to see the man Timoteo wanted to choose as his associate. Speak with him about the future of the companies."
This man was smart. He was telling half-truths, convincing Nana that he was safe by giving her facts that no one knew besides those in the know had knowledge of. He was trying to lull her into a false sense of security. And it was working.
"Mom?"
Reborn, Nana, and the man turned to find Tsuna at the top of the stairs, gazing down at the three curiously. The boy slowly stepped down, making his way to the bottom floor slowly, warily, probably recognizing that this wasn't a regular house call.
"What's going?" Tsuna asked, eyeing the man. "And where's dad?"
Nana's smile warmed up as she turned her gaze to her son. "He's in a conference call," Nana reassured him. "He's in my bedroom, on the phone, so he probably just ignored the door."
Tsuna didn't look too impressed by his father's actions, especially with a potential Mafioso at the door, but knew better than to press the issue. Even if this man was just a business associate of the Vongola, the less he knew about the Sawada household the better.
"Are you Tsunayoshi?" the man asked, coughing into his fist lightly.
Tsuna nodded hesitantly. In that instant, Tsuna's wide, pleading eyes found Reborn, and the hitman held back a sigh. This was a delicate situation that Tsuna needed to learn how to handle, but Reborn was the boy's teacher. If Tsuna asked for help, Reborn would teach the boy to the best of his abilities, even if it meant showing him how to manage things like this.
"Mama," Reborn called out, startling the man into looking down at him. "Could you please give us some time with Iemitsu's associate? Why don't you go tell Iemitsu about what's going on?"
Nana was frozen in place for about half a second before she started towards her bedroom. "Yes, I'll do that," Nana said, sounding relieved and concerned at the same time. "Thank you, Reborn-kun. You three talk in the living room and I'll send in Iemitsu in a moment. After that, I'll fix dinner."
Nana left them alone and for a moment, nobody moved. Then, Tsuna unfroze, frowning at the man and leading him into the living room.
"So you work with my dad?" Tsuna asked, caution about his every step. They settled at the low table. Tsuna on one side with Reborn seated at his right and the man across from the young Decimo.
The man nodded. "Of a sorts. I'm an ally of the Vongola."
Tsuna's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You are? From what Family?"
"I'm the boss of the Argine Family," the man said. "My Family is young, though, so we don't have much of a reputation, unlike the Vongola."
Reborn's eyes narrowed as he stared down the visitor. He had never even heard of the Argine Family before, let alone it being an ally of the Vongola. There was something going on here, and Reborn didn't like it one bit. But he couldn't pounce on it just yet, no matter how much he wanted to. This man could be dangerous, for not just him and Tsuna, but for the entire Vongola Family, as well. One glance at Tsuna told Reborn that the boy was thinking along the same lines as he was.
"Oh. So what are you here for?" Tsuna asked.
The Argine boss looked hesitant. "You are the Vongola's new heir, is that correct?"
Tsuna nodded slowly, a cautious look in his eye. "Yeah, why?"
"Then I was hoping that since we will be working together in the future, we could settle a sort of problem that the Vongola caused. The earthquake."
A moment of hush fell over the room, as the two bosses stared each other down. Finally, Reborn took it upon himself to intervene, unable to keep himself from stepping back and letting Tsuna handle this.
"And how do you suppose the Vongola was responsible for an earthquake that affected the whole world?" the hitman asked.
"I have friends in the Vongola who know about the Decimo's impromptu trip to the distant future," the man said stiffly. "And the means of his return."
Reborn's tone was icy. "That's supposed to be classified to anyone not in the Tenth's immediate family or guardians, besides myself, Iemitsu, Basil, and the Ninth himself. How do you know anything about it?"
"As I said earlier, I'm an ally of the Vongola Family." The man's eyes flashed dangerously as he turned back to Tsuna's shocked form. Reborn wanted to growl. "Well, Decimo? Do you not deny it?"
"I-" Tsuna's eyes found Reborn's in an instant. His brown orbs were wide and panicky, and his mouth was opening and closing shut as he struggled for words. "I don't-"
"What's going on here?"
All eyes turned to the entryway to the living room, where an imposing figure stood looking down at the room's occupants. The figure was blond, with facial hair, and was wearing an orange jumpsuit, which left no question about who it was.
Iemitsu.
Iemitsu's nostrils flared as he took one look at the situation. His son across from a strange man with a cold glare pushing his problems onto the boy. Tsuna at a loss for words.
"Well?" the blond man asked. "Tsunayoshi?"
"Dad-"
"He's the heir to the Vongola," the man stated blandly. "He needs to help clean up the mess he made."
"He's a child," Iemitsu countered. "He's still in training and you can't expect him to fix everyone's problems."
"I don't expect him to fix everyone's problems," the man growled. He stood up so that he was at a better height advantage. "I expect him to fix his own. Decimo and his friends were the ones who caused the earthquake and in the process, Arbela died. I expect nothing less than an apology."
"Get out of my house." Iemitsu's tone was venomous, leaving no room for argument.
"I'll be back," the man scowled. "It's your fault, Sawada Tsunayoshi, so I expect you to compensate me for your actions."
With that, the man stalked out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Tsuna, Reborn, and Iemitsu sat in a sort of shocked silence or a moment more before Iemitsu huffed and sat down in the sea the man vacated.
"Bastard thinks he can come in my house and demand things…."
Iemitsu kept rambling, but Reborn was hardly paying attention to the Sawada patriarch. His attention focused on his student, staring down at the table with a thoughtful expression on his face. The boy looked like his mind was racing a million miles a minute.
"Tsuna?"
The boy looked up at him, face distraught but eyes confident. "I want to help that man."
"Tsunayoshi!" Iemitsu protested.
Reborn just smiled. "Well, Decimo, what do you have in mind?"
Reborn lifted his head off of his desk. He blinked absently at the papers laying around him, on the desk and floor, confused as to where he was. It took the hitman a moment to realize what was going on.
He had fallen asleep.
And what he had been dreaming about was the day he and Tsuna had first met the boss of the Argine Family. The day that started this full scale war, even if none of them had known it at the time.
Still, the thing that had gotten to him about that memory was his relationship with Tsuna. It had been so relaxed, free of tension. They could talk to each other with ease. They had known each other inside and out.
Now, though, things were different. The Inheritance Ceremony disaster had affected both of them, Tsuna more than anybody. The boy had fallen into some sort of emotionless depression. He hardly talked unless he had to. He never really initiated conversation, but he would keep it going. He took over the Family, but at some point, it felt like Reborn and the Guardians had lost Tsuna in the process.
After the war started, it had only gotten worse. He was a strong leader, compassionate and able to rally the Family behind him. The only thing was, he barely let himself feel. Sure, he had gotten better at talking, opening up a bit to his closer friends and family, and it almost seemed like he was functioning like a normal human being, but there were times where Tsuna even terrified Reborn. He would just cut off his emotions and stare blankly at whoever was talking. It was like speaking to a robot, only controlled, emotionless responses coming out.
That was the price that was paid after the Inheritance Ceremony, and Reborn blamed himself.
He missed the way Tsuna had used to act. Shy, compassionate, maybe a little overdramatic, but he was Tsuna. And while Tsuna was still Tsuna now, Reborn was just hoping he could help coax the boy back into the direction of opening up to his family. To becoming someone who he used to almost be drawn to.
Reborn sighed, stacking the papers scattered around him into a neat pile.
He didn't get it. He was supposed to, but he didn't. Ever since then, it felt like the world had turned itself upside down.
He was a tutor. He was Tsuna's teacher, no matter what time the boy was from, and Reborn had thought he had accepted that.
Why was he pushing this boy from the past away when he was all that Reborn hoped Tsuna would be?
But maybe that was it. This Tsuna may be everything Reborn remembered, but Reborn's problem wasn't actually fixed. No, his problem had been sent to the past and left a younger, kinder, more open version in his place.
And that's what Reborn hated. He couldn't fix this if his student wasn't here. He couldn't help, he couldn't be his student's teacher if he wasn't there to teach. So now he needed to figure out how to fix this problem. He needed to figure out how to win this war and get his students back to their correct times.
Because Reborn didn't tolerate failure. Especially not his own.
So Reborn leaned back in his chair and stared at the desk. He had a lot of thinking to do.
Tsuna's return to consciousness wasn't jolting, but it wasn't a slow waking, either. It was something in between, where one minute, he was dreaming an odd, strange sort of dream, and the next he was opening his eyes to stare half-lidded at the ceiling.
At least, he expected it to be the ceiling.
What he had not expected was to see a pineapple-haired illusionist smirking down at him as he blinked into awareness. Tsuna, not comprehending exactly what was happening yet, lied there for a couple of seconds, just staring with his jaw slack.
Then it hit him.
"Mukuro?!" Tsuna sat up quickly, forcing the illusionist to push himself back lest he be hit. "What the hell?! Why were you watching me sleep?!"
"Kufufu. Sawada Tsunayoshi, dreams can be fickle things," Rokudo Mukuro said, smirk never leaving his face. "Sometimes, we discover more about ourselves than we care to know."
Tsuna struggled for words. That was an odd reply. Even for Mukuro.
"That…I don't…what?" Tsuna asked, rubbing his arms nervously.
While he had gotten somewhat used to Mukuro's presence over the months he'd known him, Tsuna was still less than comfortable talking to the man one on one, with no one else in the room. The illusionist was a little creepy sometimes and was always talking about wanting to take over Tsuna's body. Plus, whenever Mukuro was around, he'd get some odd tingling sensation in his head and he'd start to get light-headed.
"You were dreaming about a man," Mukuro explained.
"I…was dreaming about a man," Tsuna echoed in disbelief. In truth, he didn't remember much of his dream beside the odd, almost déjà vu feeling that lingered behind. Like he had dreamed the dream before but couldn't remember it. "How would you even know that?"
Mukuro's smirk grew wider. "I have my ways."
Tsuna rubbed his temples, feeling exasperated. And he hadn't even gotten up for the day yet.
"Where's Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked instead of addressing the dream issue. That could wait until later. "And where am I?"
"In the swordsman's bedroom," Mukuro replied.
"Why?"
Mukuro shrugged. "I'm sure there's a reason."
"And if I'm in Yamamoto's bedroom, then where's Yamamoto?"
Mukuro said nothing, getting to his feet before reaching out and dragging Tsuna up, as well. Tsuna, incensed and already wide awake, did nothing to stop the illusionist. Mukuro was someone Tsuna feared he'd never be able to ever understand.
The door creaked open then, and Tsuna couldn't help the wave of relief at the person who walked into the bedroom. Yamamoto's eyes were bright and his smile was cheery. Propped on his shoulder he carried a practice sword, looking ready for the day, unlike Tsuna.
"Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked, noting the tension in the boy's shoulders. "You okay? Sleep alright?"
The brunet shrugged. "I'm fine. I was just talking to…."
Tsuna trailed off as he looked back to Mukuro. Or rather, to where Mukuro had been standing not moments before. Now, though, the illusionist was nowhere to be found, leaving Tsuna wondering if he had just been imagining the whole conversation with the Mist Guardian or not.
"Talking to who?" Yamamoto settled himself to lean against the wall near Tsuna, a curious look on his bright face.
"I swear Mukuro was just here," Tsuna murmured softly. "I was just talking to him, I think."
Yamamoto just laughed. "He does that sometimes," the baseball player waved Tsuna's doubts off. "As much as he hates to admit it, he's got more in common with Hibari than you'd think. He's not all that gung-ho about hanging around anyone in the Vongola but you."
"Me?" Tsuna asked incredulously. "Why me?"
"You'll find out."
Yamamoto smiled knowingly and Tsuna couldn't help but flash a small smile back at him. It was just something else to look forward to, he told himself, finding that it was getting easier to accept that than it had been the day before.
Clapping his hands, Yamamoto stood up again, this time dragging Tsuna up with him. "Alright," the baseball player said cheerfully. "Time for some breakfast and then I'm supposed to take you to training with Hibari. And after that, I have a little surprise for you."
Tsuna blinked. "A surprise?"
Yamamoto nodded. "Yep! But first, breakfast and training!"
"Alright. Let's get this beat down over with," Tsuna said, steeling himself for the day. After yesterday, he felt better, stronger. The darkness that had been dragging him down before seemed miniscule now that he knew his friends were behind him and trying their best to support him.
He didn't feel as alone, and he definitely liked it that way.
Breakfast went by quickly. It had just been Tsuna, Yamamoto, Ryohei, and Lambo, but the small gathering was more than enough to lift his spirits even higher. He was feeling more confident and prepared than he had yesterday.
After the meal, Yamamoto had led Tsuna to the training room on the seventeenth floor where he would be starting his training with Hibari and Reborn.
Only, Reborn hadn't shown up.
So, that left him with just Hibari while Yamamoto half-supervised, half-trained on the other side of the giant training room. Tsuna and the skylark had sparred for a couple of hours while Hibari had called out bits of advice after Tsuna had ended up face planting into a wall. And once Tsuna held up his hands in defeat, sore and tired and on the verge of collapsing, Hibari had narrowed his eyes, grabbed the extended wrist, and twisted it. Hard.
Yamamoto ended up intervening and they had called off training for the rest of the day. Hibari, after hearing the fight was over, left the room without another word.
Tsuna could hardly get himself to care as he collapsed onto the floor, Yamamoto looking sheepishly down at him.
"Sorry, Tsuna," Yamamoto said. "I wasn't paying attention to you guys."
Tsuna just waved the baseball player's apology off, too exhausted to really argue over something that stupid. It wasn't Yamamoto's job to oversee Tsuna's training, so it wasn't his fault. Reborn should have been the one here, but he was god knows where.
"Don't worry about it. It's over now," Tsuna managed to murmur.
"So," Yamamoto said, scratching the back of his head and placing his practice sword down, "how about that surprise?"
"How about I sleep for an hour?" Tsuna suggested groggily. "I feel like I just got run over by a bus."
Yamamoto just laughed. "Come on, Tsuna! I promise it will be super fun! You'll be able to take your mind off things."
"Yeah?" Tsuna asked, feeling a little curious as to what Yamamoto was hiding and what this surprise could possibly be. "What is it?"
The baseball payer just laughed, dragging Tsuna up by the arm and onto his own two feet. Once Tsuna was steady enough, he lead the brunet out of the training room and into the elevator, cheerful smile never once leaving his face as he pushed the button for floor B2.
Tsuna glanced at the button nervously. "Isn't that the floor Shoichi's lab is on?"
Yamamoto shook his head. "Nah, that's the B4. B2 is the rec room, where a lot of trainees spend their time."
"I thought I wasn't supposed to show my face to the trainees," Tsuna said, puzzled. "That's what Reborn said."
"And if Reborn really cared, he would have stopped me from planning this before now." Yamamoto shrugged, pulling Tsuna out into a brightly lit hallway when the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. "I've given him plenty of chances since yesterday."
Tsuna sighed, nervously shuffling his feet as Yamamoto dragged him along. Tsuna saw many doorways—most of which were open—and plenty of people. Some of them waved, a few smiled—to which Tsuna gave them a tentative smile back—but most nodded and went back to doing whatever they had been before Tsuna and Yamamoto came along.
Eventually, Yamamoto dropped his arm, and when they passed a bright, colorful room full of pool tables and laughing trainees, Tsuna couldn't help but peek inside. There were men and women of all ages and Tsuna found himself gaping at all of the people standing around a pool table laughing hysterically.
"Tsuna?"
The brunet looked back to Yamamoto sheepishly, taking in the baseball player's raised eyebrow and curious look. Yamamoto walked back to him and peered into the room Tsuna had been looking in.
"What's going on? See someone?"
Tsuna was about to open his mouth to respond when he heard a voice calling his name. Looking back into the room, Tsuna saw someone that had him feeling both relieved and nervous all at once. What was Basil doing down here in the rec room?
Tsuna almost slapped himself on the forehead. That was one of the dumbest questions he had ever asked. Basil may have been part of the External Advisor's team, but that didn't mean anything when they were in Italy fighting a war. And while living in the base, Basil was allowed to do whatever it was he wanted. It wasn't any of Tsuna's business.
"Decimo!"
Tsuna flinched away when twenty other sets of eyes landed heavily on him, the laughter dying away instantly. A heavy silence settled over the trainees, only broken by Basil himself, running forward and only stopping when he was directly in front of Tsuna.
"Decimo!" Basil cried, looking mildly surprised, but not unpleasantly. "Che ci fai qui? Non dovresti essere con gli altri guardiani pianificazione per il prossimo attacco? Questo è quello che il mio padrone mi ha detto."
Tsuna stared at Basil wordlessly, looking the other boy—who had somehow grown more than half a head taller than him—up and down in a struggle to make sense of the Italian that had just been spewed at him in a rush. Unable to make heads or tails of the language, Tsuna looked to Yamamoto for help. In the back of his head, he wondered how he had managed to learn such a language as Italian. Even with his lessons with his Reborn and Gokudera, he had hardly gotten anywhere with it.
Yamamoto just shrugged and whispered, "Out of everyone, Ryohei and I are the worst at speaking Italian. All I got out of it was something about planning and guardians."
Tsuna sighed and turned back Basil, who was looking at the two oddly. Behind him, the trainees' gazes were sharp and picking up everything from movement to words exchanged.
"Decimo?" Basil prodded.
"Um, Basil," Tsuna said, stopping a moment to clear his throat, very aware of all of eyes on him at that moment. He gave the other boy a small, uneasy smile. "Do you…Do you mind if we switch to Japanese?"
Basil looked puzzled but didn't argue. "Of course, Decimo."
"So, do you want to repeat what you said, Basil?" Yamamoto laughed sheepishly, "You know, for those who aren't too fluent in Italian?"
Basil nodded sagely. "Of course, Yamamoto-dono! I was wondering what you were doing down here. I mean, shouldn't you be with the other guardians planning for the next attack? That's what my master told me you were doing this week."
"Right," Tsuna said, sighing. "I forgot that you call my dad that."
"Tsuna's taking a break," Yamamoto answered, humming slightly in thought. "Ryohei and I set up a surprise for him. Do you want to join in?"
Basil nodded eagerly. "I'd love to join you, Yamamoto-dono!"
And so that's how Tsuna ended up walking between Yamamoto and Basil, having absolutely no clue where he was heading. Basil hummed happily to himself, not looking the least bit suspicious of Tsuna's behavior, which Tsuna was all too grateful for. He didn't want to focus on his predicament right now. Yamamoto said this would be fun.
Finally, the trio turned into a dead end, stopping at a door.
"Is this it?" Tsuna asked, eyeing the entrance.
Nodding, Yamamoto led them through the door, an excited bounce in his step. Tsuna and Basil hurried to follow the baseball player in, gasping in awe at what surrounded them.
Tsuna knew that he wasn't outside, he knew that, but it definitely felt like he was. Because the springy green under his feet definitely felt like grass, and the expansive blue over his head definitely looked like the sky, with clouds drifting lazily overhead. Tsuna looked around in awe at the field that couldn't possibly be there. They were inside!
And yet, here it was. An impossibility made possible with the Vongola's power and influence.
A warm breeze ruffled Tsuna's hair, and the brunet instantly relaxed and closed his eyes, feeling all of his earlier tension and exhaustion fade away. A grin broke out of his face and before he knew it, Tsuna found himself laughing.
Opening his eyes, Tsuna looked over at Yamamoto's highly amused face. "What is this place? How is this possible?"
Yamamoto just shrugged. "You and Hayato set it up a while back, when we were first building the base. No one else knows about this place but you and your guardians. Not even your dad."
Tsuna's jovial smile grew at those words. "So it's like a safe haven," Tsuna breathed out, looking all around again. The only way he knew he wasn't outside was the walls that imprisoned the field within the barriers.
"Is this the surprise?" Basil asked, also gazing at the room's contents in wonder. "I've never been here before."
Yamamoto nodded. "Tsuna and Hayato kept it a secret from everybody for a few months. The first time I was here was two weeks ago."
"I'm surprised that the Decimo managed to keep it a secret for so long without anybody finding out," Basil said.
Tsuna smiled back at Yamamoto, feeling close to tears. "Thank you so much, Yamamoto!" the brunet exclaimed, jumping forward to wrap his arms around the baseball player's torso. Tsuna let out another peal of laughter, a loose feeling in his chest. "Thank you so, so much! This is amazing!"
Yamamoto ruffled his spiky hair affectionately. "No problem, Tsuna. I was thinking the three of us could hang out here for a couple more hours. You know, avoid any duties that we have in favor of having fun? And Ryohei said he could come later, too."
"Let's do it!" Tsuna nodded eagerly.
And that's how Tsuna spent the rest of his day. Together with his friends, laughing and having fun. And the funny thing was, he didn't even remotely feel like an outsider once the whole time. He felt needed, wanted, accepted.
To tofldh - Reborn's situation is sort of explained, I guess. I have most of it written, but it's not going to be addressed completely for a couple more chapters. And yes! Vongola Gear! I actually hinted to it back in chapter two but I don't think a lot of people noticed. This is actually the chapter I started to write before I started chapter one. And yes, that does mean Simon will show up. (: We're getting there!
To UserKR8027 - Thank you so much! That really made my day! I'm glad you think it's good and I update weekly for the most part. And yes, despite picking up, this fic will have fluff. This chapter was the least dramatic chapter I've ever done, but I'm trying my best. Tsuna's feelings have settled but he's still in the middle of a war. He's going to see things he hasn't ever seen before. And thank you for concerning yourself with my dad. He's fine and recovering. Thanks for your review!
To general zargon – See! Better! Tsuna's happy! For how much longer, well, that's a different story. I'm glad you liked Dino. He's pretty darn fun to write. And hopefully a look into Reborn's thoughts changed your smacking urge. I'm glad you liked the chapter. Hopefully you liked this one as well! Thanks for your review!
To lovleydragonfly – I'm glad you thought it was sweet. I made this chapter happy, too! Thanks for your review!
To Hells Tenshi – I'm glad you're on board now. Yes, Gokudera's and Reborn's reactions are very…unusual, but they have their own chapters coming up where those issues are addressed (and maybe resolved). Hoped you liked the interaction between Yamamoto and Tsuna in this story as well! Thanks for the review!
To riana rox – I'm glad you think it's well written. I feel like I struggle with the fact that I don't feel my writing is adequate enough on a daily basis. You don't know how happy that makes me for you to say that. What's coming next, though, may shake you a bit. I hope you liked this chapter and thank you so much for your amazing review!
To Guest – Yep! Any time! I'm glad you liked it and thank you for your review!
To Tatanka – Thank you for your long review! You are absolutely right, and I'd just like to stress that the attitude most of those from 2!YL, especially Reborn and Gokudera, isn't correct. But things happen and sometimes it's hard to change your line of thinking, even if you are in the wrong. And that's exactly what is happening in this story. But, my main reason for writing this story is to explore everyone's feelings if a situation like this happened. In the series, they sort of showed stuff like this in the beginning of the future arc, but then I feel like the situation was accepted too easily. And that's why I wrote this.
I'm glad you liked my story and I hoped you liked this chapter. I appreciated your review! (And don't worry, I didn't even notice that English wasn't your first language!)
Thanks again for your guys' reviews! And yes, Chapter 12 will be posted later tonight! So keep an eye out!
