Sorry for the late update. My grandpa has fallen seriously ill, so I've been really down and spending a lot of time with him. Please don't ask what he has, it's personal and I haven't quite accepted it yet. I hope you can understand.
But thank you SasoLOVE111, mad31lina, tazdevil, Stalker Of Reactions, Silvereyedfreak, InK4bLoOd, Ayz283, J. Shizzle, Kichou, Once-upon-a-saturday, Marhaya, and dream-of-silent-death for your wonderful reviews. They really kept me going and gave the the motivation and courage to keep writing.
I can't promise that I'll be updating as often, but I'll get them out as soon as I can and I promise not to put this story on hold. Thank you all for your support and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 12 Discreet to a Fault
Tsuna had long since learned that waking up from a fainting spell was unpleasant and would usually be followed soon after by a headache (the severity depending on how much strain her mind or body took before she passed out) and the aches of wherever or whatever she hit when she collapsed. This time was no different. So when the brunette slowly clawed her way back to consciousness, before she even had time to remember who had caused her this soreness, she wasn't surprised by the amount of pain that registered in her brain.
To her, the biggest problem this time lay in the situation waiting for her after she should open her eyes. Normally, Tsuna would end up in the nurse's office or the care of one of her older brother figures, which ensured her safety and the amount of privacy that she desired. However, the foreboding presence hanging around the bed told her that Reborn was waiting to continue his interrogation the moment she woke up.
She had two choices right now. One) Pretend to be asleep until she actually manages to fall unconscious again. Or Two) Wake up and face the music. With option one, Reborn would no doubt figure out that she was not actually unconscious. On the other hand, option two meant giving up giving up a piece of herself to someone who was only a little more than a stranger. Then again, option one would most likely end with her getting more bruises since Reborn would probably beat her or something along the lines for trying to trick the likes of him. But~, option two had her revealing a weakness that she had hidden from the others and she wasn't entirely sure she was emotionally ready to disclose that secret quite yet.
…
Maybe she could just make a break for it…
WHAP!
"Hiiie! I'm up!" Tsuna shouted as she bolted out of the bed, only to trip over the covers and land flat on her face on the unforgiving hardwood below. She groaned and rubbed her nose as she looked around. To her shock and utter amusement, the brunette turned around to see that Reborn had been on the receiving end of Luce's scolding, and that the older woman had just whacked the raven haired boy atop the head with a rolled up magazine. "Heh. You just got owned, Reborn."
The teenage boy retaliated by firing paintballs at the brunette with a Leon gun.
"Itai!" Tsuna shouted as she sprang to her feet. "Itai! Itai! Itai! Knock it off you demon!"
"Reborn, I thought we just discussed about not straining Tsuna-chan," Luce warned.
The hitman clicked his tongue, but allowed his partner to return to his normal form. "About time you got up, Dame-Tsuna. I was getting tired of you pretending to be asleep."
The brunette twitched. So she had been caught after all. That would explain the demonic and utterly sadistic gleam in the male's eyes that promised her a lot of pain once the other woman left his dorm. So she did what any normal sane person would do in her position; She jumped out the window and ran for her life.
Or, at least she tried. Leon transformed into a rope and lasso, and pulled the girl in before she could so much make it a foot away from the window.
"Oh no you don't," Reborn said firmly as he reeled the brunette back in.
Luce sighed. "Reborn, if you didn't give her that look, then poor Tsuna-chan wouldn't have felt the need to run away. And what did I say about being gentle with her?"
Reborn just turned away.
Luce sighed and shook her head with a small smile before turning back to Tsuna, who was hiding behind the far side of her desk. "Tsuna-chan, I actually came here to invite you to a party we'll be holding in a couple of weeks."
Tsuna raised her head a little higher so that she had a better view of the older girl. "Party?"
"Yes! Reborn's birthday is coming up and all of the Arcobaleno are going to celebrate together," Luce said cheerfully.
"Luce-senpai, I'm not a part of your committee," Tsuna deadpanned.
The older girl giggled. "Yea, I know. But you're Reborn's special buddy and the rest of us consider you our friends."
"I don't think that me going would be a good idea though," Tsuna persisted.
"Hmm? Why?" Luce tilted her head a little.
"Because the only gift I could think of to give this guy is something along the lines of a bomb in attempt to get rid of him," Tsuna pointed out.
Luce giggled again. "Oh, you're so silly Tsuna-chan. And you don't have to worry about that. Colonello, Skull, and Viper do that every year too!"
"And they haven't succeeded?" Tsuna questioned incredulously. "Damn." The brunette dropped down in time to avoid another round of paintballs.
Luce raised a warning eyebrow at the raven haired male before returning her attention to the brunette. "I also heard that your birthday is coming up as well!"
Tsuna, who had been sticking her tongue and pulling down her lower eyelid at Reborn, froze and blew a raspberry. "That's a lie."
"I'm pretty sure I heard it was the day after Reborn's," Luce pressed on.
"Nope. I don't know anything about a birthday," Tsuna argued.
"I think it was Ieyasu-kun who told me," Luce continued, acting as if the younger female hadn's said anything.
Tsuna shook her head. "I'm telling you, you heard wrong. My birthday isn't anywhere near wherever you may think it is."
"Then when is it?" Luce asked sweetly.
"Guess and I may tell you." Tsuna leaned on the desk.
"Well then, is it in January?"
"No."
"February?"
"No."
"March?"
"No."
"April, May, June, or July?"
"Nopety, nope, nope, and nope."
"How about August or September?
"Nope."
"October?"
"N.O."
"Then could it be in November?"
"Nada."
"So it's December!"
"Nuh-uh." Tsuna shook her head for the last time.
"That's all the months there is you nitwit," Reborn disputed.
Tsuna crossed her arms defiantly. "I know you idiot."
"Then when could your birthday possibly fall on?" Luce asked.
"Never. I have no birthday," Tsuna huffed, only to fall back when Reborn shot her square between her eyes.
"Then we'll set the party up so that we can celebrate for both of you," Luce informed the duo, before waving and leaving the room. She had decided to let her friend's abuse slide this one time.
Tsuna groaned and sat up. As she looked around the room, she noticed the lack of another female presence. "Eep!"
Reborn smirked. He was finally allowed to continue his interrogation now and by the squeak the younger student had just emitted, Tsuna had realized this as well. He fired and lodged a bullet next to the window where the brunette had been eyeing with the clear intention of trying to escape. "Don't even think about it."
"Hiiiiie!" Tsuna backpedaled away from the smoking hole as fast as she could, resulting in her hitting her head on the closet. "It-t-t-t-t."
"Start speaking," Reborn commanded.
Tsuna looked up and sighed. "Could you at least wait till I make a cup of tea or something?"
Reborn pondered a bit before finally giving the girl a short nod and allowing Leon to change back into his original form.
Tsuna muttered incoherently as she walked back over to her kitchen and started making tea, but some words like 'stupid Reborn' and 'lack of privacy' came through more than once. Finally she placed a cup in front of the boy and sat down across from him with her own mug of tea.
"Since I'm not really sure where to start, why don't you ask me a few questions, and then I'll answer them the best I can," Tsuna paused to take a sip of her beverage. "And to make this a little more fair for me, I'm going to limit the number of questions to five per day, and they can't be too general."
Reborn smirked. "Fine. I'll play your game for now."
"Alright, then shoot." The brunette folded her hands in front of her as she waited for the male to form his first question.
Reborn studied the girl, trying to figure out what he wanted to know first. "I know that you were kidnapped seven years ago, but apparently the others don't know by whom or why."
"That counts as two questions," Tsuna informed the boy.
Reborn gave her a nod. "I am aware."
Tsuna pursed her lips before answering. "I was kidnapped because of my parents' affiliation with the mafia. I think the offending famiglia was a surviving strain of the Estraneo Famiglia, whom had taken a friend of mine a year earlier."
Reborn's eyes narrowed. "Your parents are in the mafia."
"Yeah, my mom was an assassin and my dad works as the head of an outside organization to some famiglia. That's your third question, by the way."
"That was a statement. I wasn't asking you to clarify anything," Reborn argued.
"Nuh-uh! You were totally asking a question!" The brunette disputed.
"Was not."
"Were too!"
Leon transformed into a gun, which Reborn pointed at the other's head.
"That's cheating!" Tsuna shouted, staring at the gun wearily.
Reborn smirked. "I'm a hitman."
"How is that an explanation?" Tsuna shouted indignantly.
But Reborn just smirked. "Now for my third question," the raven haired boy clicked off the safety when Tsuna opened her mouth to argue, "I can assume that they tortured you, maybe even experimented you and whatnot. So how did you manage to escape?"
Tsuna's eyes darkened. "I used my dying will flames and killed everyone there."
Reborn didn't blink. He was undeterred by such events, seeing as he was the best hitman in the world. Killing came with the job, but something bugged him about the darkness in her eyes. "How old were you?"
"I was kidnapped at the age of seven, but returned when I was eight."
Reborn's eyes narrowed the slightest bit. For a normal person, using their dying will flames at that age could turn into a disastrous event, especially without any previous training or if enraged. Killing wasn't really recommended for that particular age range either, though he had made his first kill at the age of five. "You were in their hands for a year?"
Tsuna shook her head. "Three weeks. And that, Stupid Reborn, was you`re fifth and final question for the day." She smiled a little and got up.
Reborn clicked his tongue in annoyance, but didn't argue. Instead he leaned back in his chair and continued to observe the girl in front of him for a little longer.
Tsuna placed her cup gently on the table again when she finally noticed the other teenager's eyes trying to bore holes through her. "What?"
"I'm hungry."
Tsuna deadpanned a little. 'So that intense gaze was for nothing.' She sighed before answering. "Hi hungry, I'm Tsuna."
Reborn flicked the girl's forehead, with a satisfied smirk when she gave a shout, and continued like she hadn't said anything. "Make a big lunch for me, Dame-Tsuna."
"Why should I?" Tsuna picked up her cup again and took a nice long sip.
"One) because you promised when you were staying with me for that week while your friends were here, and two) because I didn't get to eat a nice breakfast since you were out cold from fainting."
"How was that my fault?" Tsuna protested. "You're the one who made me faint."
"You should be expecting the unexpected when you're with me Dame-Tsuna, and someone like you should always have their guard up anyways." Reborn said this pleasantly, like he was just talking about the weather.
"Bull crap! Other than that incident seven years ago, I have no reason to be extra suspicious of the world," Tsuna continued to argue. She couldn't really deny that she just needed to expect everything, when it dealt with Reborn.
"Well possibly not after that kidnapping seven years ago, but perhaps from the bullying incident nearly two years ago that sent you into a waking coma, or maybe because you're a hit woman for the school." Reborn fixed an intense gaze at the girl once again, so as to prevent her from looking away or lying. Shock flickered across the brunette's eyes for the shortest of seconds before her face shut down all emotions.
"If Giotto told you about the kidnapping thing, then I'm not surprised that you know of the bullying incident either. But what on earth makes you think that I would be an assassin for an academy of all things?"
Reborn didn't look away from the younger teen as he reached into his pocket and retrieved the small corner of the black envelope he found several nights ago. "This might have tipped me off."
Tsuna raised her eyebrow a little (though it was barely visible). "Pardon if I'm supposed to know what your hiding, but I'm not sure what a little piece of paper could possibly tell you."
"Well, considering I found this in my room that one night you didn't stay over during the week you were hiding out in my dorm, and the fact that his is the corner of an envelope that is usually delivering a hit order from the headmaster… I think it would tell me quite a lot, don't you?"
Tsuna smirked. "Haven't you heard Reborn? Colored envelopes are all the rage with students. The color is absolutely meaningless."
"Then, would you care to explain why it was burned?"
The brunette shrugged. "Maybe someone tried to burn their letter and it just so happened to fly through the ventilation system till is somehow got caught in the vent of your room."
"How do you know if I found it in the vent?"
"It was just an educated guess Reborn. For all I know, you could have found it in or near the window or maybe the doorway."
"But you were correct."
Tsuna clapped sarcastically. "Goody for me." She placed her hands on the table and stood up with a huff. "Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to go make something for us to eat before either you shoot me or my stomach eats me alive."
Reborn let the girl go. He would continue this conversation another time. He could force it out of her whenever he wanted, but it would be more amusing to wait and see how long she could hold out against his casual interrogation.
'He almost found out! He almost found out! He almost found out!' Tsuna shrieked inside her head as she walked over to the kitchen, trying her best to keep her blank face in place for when she turned back around. Tsuna really hadn't been expecting the other teen to be so perceptive and intruding. Sure he bugged her and forced her to do stuff for him, but she had always thought that he was some shallow popular kid looking for someone to push around without really caring what their target's life is like. To make things worse, she hadn't ensured that the letter and envelope had burned all the way before she left to fulfill her joint mission.
She pulled the ingredients she needed out of her refrigerator with a heavy sigh, only to pause when she felt movement on top of her head. She reached up and felt a small rough body nestling on top of her head. Using the side of a nearby pot, Tsuna was able to see that it was just Reborn's little magical green lizard.
"Hey there little guy." Tsuna rubbed the small creature's head and was pleased to feel it hum a little.
"Leon seems to have taken a liking to you," Reborn mused, almost like he didn't mean to talk out loud. He stroked one of his curly sideburns in thought as he watched the two interact.
Tsuna smiled a little. For some reason, she felt like that was a big accomplishment. She opened a drawer and started digging through the content, eventually pulling out a cute little apron. "Now where's my headband," she muttered as she glanced around the kitchen.
Leon shifted around a little and transformed into a green headband, pulling back the brunette's long hair, leaving only her bangs behind.
Though a little shocked at first, Tsuna smiled and stroked the transformed reptilian again. "Thanks, Leon!"
"Well that's a new one," Reborn muttered, the rare bit of shock still lingering on his features. "Leon has never transformed for anyone other than me."
Tsuna smiled. "Then Leon must think that I'm someone special."
Reborn locked gazes with the girl and it was like something in the air shifted, or perhaps inside of them. "Yeah…Maybe you are…"
I'll leave you with something to squeal a little about. There is still a lot more to come though.
Reviews are loved! Till next time!
