Happy Birthday to Ryohei.
Meeting the Vongola: Part 3
As the limousine drove through the town council of Hatfield, Tsuna pondered whether he could keep his family and their abilities secret from someone living with them. Then he recalled the past weekend and scrapped that idea. With a tired smile Tsuna addressed Sirius, "I have a request for you before we arrive Sirius. Honestly I'm probably bending a few rules saying this but it's better than outright breaking them I suppose. You are a Pureblood so I assume you know about the Vongola."
"Well I know that the Vongola are outside the law and related to the muggle underworld. For some reason although the Vongola connections to the underworld is known, you still are respected and carry influence over the regular governments worldwide including magical governments." Sirius replied, "Vongola also tends towards being neutral rather than light or dark oriented and the Family seems to care little about blood status."
"All that is true. I have been trying to move my Family towards our roots which was a vigilante group rather than the kings of the underworld we have been known as for the past few centuries. The thing is many in our society, or the underworld, like wizards have special abilities. It is kept secret by a code of silence much like your Statute of Secrecy. Since you will be living with us, you will likely see some of my family use their abilities." The brunet grimaced, "My family is anything but discrete. Most of our enemies are aware of our abilities but the general public is ignorant of them. I would like you to give me your word that you will not speak of any of these abilities to anyone outside of those you will meet while staying with my family. It is both for your safety and theirs. Usually anyone who breaks the omerta is punished harshly or killed."
Sirius gulped as Tsuna gave off an aura of deadly gravity. "If this is so serious then why expose Harry to this?"
"We have found that Harry has these abilities inherited from his mother's side of the family. Anyone if put under the right conditions can develop these abilities, but the strength of the ability varies and those that inherit it have an easier time accessing it. No matter what happens with Harry he will need to have the ability either trained or sealed much like magic. Harry is a child so should he reveal anything about our abilities it would be brushed off as a child's imagination, but your godson also knows instinctively what he can and cannot talk about." Tsuna justified.
"And only you or your family can train him?"
"Others in the mafia have these abilities, but Vongola and it's allies are known to be the strongest. Outside the mafia and other underworld organizations like the yakuza and triads (and honestly even within them), knowledge of these abilities are highly restricted. Even knowing of the ability and having it does not mean you can use it effectively."
"What would happen if this ability was sealed?"
Tsuna bit his lips, "Harry would grow up with a part of himself missing. It might stunt his growth mentally and physically. He might be slower to learn things and be less coordinated and slower. I probably wouldn't be much different than if Harry lost his magic."
"And if it wasn't sealed and he wasn't taught how to control it?"
"Best case and most likely scenario, nothing happens. He grows up like a normal little boy. Worst case scenario he gets emotional, loses control of it, and kills either himself or others. "
Sirius sucked in a shocked breath and nodded grimly. "I, Sirius Orion Black, do so swear never to discuss with anyone about the abilities of those associated with Tsunayoshi Sawada-Vongola without his express permission." Sirius swore as soon as he knew it affected Harry's safety.
"Thank you, Sirius." Tsuna said before he launched into a brief explanation of Dying Will Flames and then explained the magic cloaking devices surrounding the property and the amulets. "If you think there are any magicals you want to contact you might want to set up a wizard post box of some sort because owls will not find you or this place or you while you wear that amulet." The Vongola suggested as they began to pull into the drive.
Standing at the entrance to the manor was a scared looking Harry and a worried looking Fuuta. Suddenly Tsuna had a sinking feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with his Hyper-Intuition and everything to do with his fear of paperwork. Getting out of the limo he could hear the clang of metal on metal and saw Reborn give him a sadistic smirk.
"Tsuna-nii! You're back!" Fuuta exclaimed happily and seemingly relieved.
"Do I even want to know?" Tsuna asked.
Fuuta smiled nervously when the door literally burst open and Lambo came flying out to be caught by Tsuna. "Wah! Tsuna-nii! Save me!" Lambo wailed in the Sky's ears as he clung to him.
"Lambo? What..." Was all that he managed before Gokudera came flying out as well. Tsuna, with Lambo still clinging to him, ran to stop the bomber's momentum.
Gokudera, sporting several cuts and bruises, smiled up at him, "Thank you for saving me Juudaime. I'm sorry I couldn't stop them." Then he passed out, presumably concussed judging by the large bump on his head that Tsuna had come to recognize as coming from Hibari's tonfa. Idly Tsuna wondered if it was normal to be able to recognize what injuries had been caused by his family members' weapons with one glance.
Tsuna set his right hand man down and turned to Reborn saying, "Take care of him for me please. I'll carry him to his room after I deal with them." He winced as he heard the sound of something shattering inside the house. The paperwork would be killer. Tsuna then carefully pried a sniffling Lambo off of him and got up.
Sirius watched with his mouth gaping as the mild-mannered young man he knew suddenly transformed. A fire sprang to life on his forehead and flames grazed his hands. The honey-brown eyes turned sunset orange and a regal air of command enveloped him. The gentle eyes were replaced with narrowed, cold, calculating ones. The boss-like manner the young man had before was nothing to this. The blond teenager standing next to the boy that Sirius knew at a glance was his godson seemed to sag in relief.
"Er...Mr. Reborn...Tsuna's on fire. Shouldn't you know...put him out?" Sirius asked.
"Tsuna's fine. He catches fire whenever he fights seriously. Come on. We should be able to watch safely from the door." Reborn said after he checked the silver-haired young man over. "Gokudera will be fine for now. I'll heal him later."
Harry looked at Reborn incredulously. He had seen the type of damage that Hibari and Mukuro were doing. Reborn smirked at him and grabbed his shoulder and pushed him forward. They moved cautiously to the door and Reborn kept a firm grip on Harry's shoulder, "Watch carefully Harry. You too Black. You need to know what you are dealing with. I have told you that Tsuna is strong. It's time you see that for yourself."
And watch they did. The display of speed, power, and agility before them was stunning. All they could see of them were blurs as they darted around the entrance hall. Occasionally they stopped moving long enough for them to get a brief glimpse of the combatants as they pressed against each other in a three-way contest of strength. Then a weapon would be swung or a kick lashed out necessitating the target to dodge and they were back to being blurs as they weaved around each other in a deadly fast paced dance. Whenever a hit missed and hit furniture, walls, floors, or ceiling, large craters appeared and sent bits of wood, plaster, or stone flying. Throughout it all, Tsuna's voice could be heard yelling at them to stop.
Finally, Tsuna had had enough when a large chunk of wood that had previously been a desk was sent flying towards the group watching at the door. The brunet intercepted the debris and burned it to ash. The flames on Tsuna's head started to flicker and fluctuate wildly causing both Mukuro's and Hibari's eyes to widen. Before either could escape, Tsuna had already transformed his gloves and gotten into his stance. Reborn hurriedly ushered the spectators out of the entrance-way as the hall became encased with ice that froze both unruly guardians.
"Reborn could you please?" Tsuna asked pleasantly.
"Of course Tsuna." Reborn consented as he moved to stand behind Fuuta. Alarm bells began ringing in Harry's head at Reborn's easy compliance. Even in the short time he had been living with them, Harry knew Reborn never made things easy on Tsuna.
"Tsuna-nii! Fuuta and I are old enough to hear this!" Lambo protested.
"Oh?" Tsuna replied with a placid smile on his face as he stared at Lambo.
Lambo gulped and began fidgeting nervously under his brother's not so benign stare that completely belied his pleasant tone and smile. "Maybe you're right after all." Lambo finally declared as he grabbed his cousin's shirt and scurried to stand in front of Fuuta. Reborn then covered Fuuta's ears as the ranking Prince covered Lambo's, and Lambo covered Harry's.
Sirius watched this comical sight with confusion and some amusement, happy to note that his godson seemed just as mystified by the Vongolas' behavior. Then Tsuna began cursing. In many different languages. The bits that Sirius could understand (he didn't know many languages but he had gotten a kick in his younger years learning how to curse in many languages) had him flushing red and going pale alternately. Even the stoic Hibari and sadistic Mukuro went pale a few times. Tsuna loved his family too much to ever truly insult them, but he was not above cursing their reckless actions that caused him more paperwork and describing in excruciating detail the types of tortures he wanted to inflict on them (and would if pushed too far) for causing the bane of his existence to propagate. Turns out a stressed and tired Tsuna could be very creative and bloodthirsty. When the Vongola boss finally ran out of steam he gave Reborn another pleasant smile and nodded his head indicating it was safe for children's ears again.
Reborn released Fuuta's ears causing the chain reaction of Fuuta releasing Lambo and Lambo releasing Harry, in time to hear Tsuna asking, "May I ask why you two were destroying the manor?"
Both guardians stayed silent. Tsuna frowned at them with disappointment before he began lecturing them, "I don't know what was going on, but you both could have hurt a lot of innocent people. Half of the staff here are not Vongola. They are not trained to deal with this level of destruction and violence. You could have seriously injured them. You both also scared poor Harry and worried Fuuta. Also you gave Hayato a concussion and could have hurt Lambo. What would Chrome think if you hurt Lambo! What were you thinking? I had Shoichi-kun bring the training building for a reason. You couldn't make it the few hundred yards there before you two started trying to kill each other? I don't know where Chrome is but, don't you think she'd be very disappointed in you for this? Kyoya, you promised that you would not destroy anything while we were here. Same with you Mukuro."
"The birdie started it." Mukuro answered petulantly. "And the cow child and your puppy shouldn't have gotten in between us."
Hibari glared at Mukuro and Tsuna for a moment before saying in his usual indifferent tone although Tsuna vaguely heard a note of something else (hurt?) in his tone, "Why did you send the pineapple herbivore to punish the small animal's disgusting herbivore relatives? You said you would punish them yourself." Left unspoken was, You would not let me punish them in your stead.
Tsuna sighed, "I know and I am using everything you find to punish them. I'll take away the image they have tried so hard to maintain of the normal wonderful family, but it's not enough. They need to feel what Harry went through. Mukuro is the best for taking care of them without leaving any physical trace. It's not that I trust him any more than I do you Kyoya, it's just that he is better suited to this mission. You are both my family and I trust you both and everyone else in our family with my life and the lives of those most precious to me and you two are two of those most precious to me. Now could you both stop fighting?"
The two frozen men glared at each other a moment before finally giving Tsuna terse nods.
"Great. I'll release you now. Mukuro please go handle your assignment and be aware they will be changing residency soon. Kyoya please wait for me in my office and I'll have a mission for you since you seem to be feeling restless." Tsuna gave a snap and the ice shattered and disappeared. He gave them both the pleasant smile that he had been using earlier and declared, "Oh yes, the repairs will be coming out of your divisions' budgets and you two get to fill out the damage reports and it better be in your hand and not your subordinates when it reaches my desk or we'll be having another chat."
Both older men gave mechanical nods knowing that they had pushed their sweet boss past the limits of his patience and to go any further would cause him to actually try to implement the tortures he had described earlier. To be fair Tsuna had only slept about three or four hours a day for the past week.
Harry and Sirius were stunned by the obedience of the formerly violent men. Fuuta seeing their awed looks explained, "Tsuna-nii is usually the kindest, gentlest, most patient person around, but when he finally snaps, usually when he's had too little sleep for too long, he tends to be become a bit...well...violent, foul-mouthed, and erratic. It's usually best to just do as he says when he adopts that tone and smile because they are sure signs that he's snapped. Since Tsuna-nii is one of the most powerful people in the world upsetting him usually leaves unpleasant consequences. Fortunately, he rarely snaps and his temper doesn't last long."
"Just tell them Tsuna's don't touch buttons Fuuta. They should probably know." Reborn ordered.
"Tsuna-nii especially doesn't like innocent or defenseless people getting hurt. The biggest rule is NEVER hurt Tsuna-nii's friends or family. That's worse than suicide. If it had been anyone outside the family that had knocked out Hayato-nii then they'd be in big trouble."
Lambo added with a snicker, "Also don't add to his paperwork. That's like one of the few things that Tsuna-nii will get mad at the family for."
Tsuna turned to the group that had been watching and discussing him and his smile turned from the scarily pleasant but dangerous one he had been wearing for the past few minutes into his normal sweet one. "Let me introduce you guys. Sirius as I'm sure you can guess the little one is Harry Potter, your godson. The blond one is Fuuta and the one that looks kind of like Harry is Lambo. They're my little brothers and Lambo is also Lily's cousin. Everyone this is Sirius Black. Harry, Sirius here is your godfather."
"What's a godfather?" Harry asked looking at the man curiously though he had sidled up to Tsuna and was holding his hand.
"It means your parents asked for me to take care of you and make sure you grow up into a good person if anything ever happened to them." Sirius answered.
"Oh." Harry said quietly as he gripped Tsuna's hand tighter. "Then why didn't you?"
"Because I did something stupid and got myself locked away, but I do care for you Harry and I want to make it up to you. Will you let me?"
"Are you going to take me away from Tsuna-nii?" Harry slowly edge closer to his brother figure. Lambo sensing and understanding his cousin's fears grabbed his other hand earning a shy smile from Harry.
"We haven't decided what will happen yet. There are other things we need to find out first and then we'll all talk about what will happen. I promised you that I would be there for you as long as you need me." Tsuna answered.
"And Tsuna-nii always tries his hardest to keep his promises to family!" Lambo declared.
"You will get to help decide when the time comes. For now why don't you and Sirius get to know each other if you're done with your lessons." Tsuna suggested.
"Gokudera was supposed to handle his lessons today but he's obviously out. I would normally pick up the slack but I'll give him a pass for today. He can get to know his godfather. Family is important." Reborn answered.
"You'll be fine." Tsuna assured the timid child. "I'll be in my office like usual. You can come find me if you need me. Sirius knew both your parents for many years. He grew up with them so I'm sure he has lots of stories he can tell you about them. Don't you want to know more about your family?"
Harry looked at all the people he had come to think of as family in the past few weeks and the encouraging looks they gave him and finally took a step towards Sirius and declared, "It's nice to meet you Mr. Black. Could you please tell me about my parents?"
Sirius smiled and replied, "Sure kiddo but call me Sirius or Padfoot, Mr. Black makes me feel like you're talking to my father. Why don't you lead me to some place we can talk?"
"Padfoot?" Harry asked confused. Sirius gave a sly smile before transforming into a large black dog. Harry's eyes grew wide in astonishment before a bright grin split his face. "That's so cool! How do you do that? Can I do that? Will you teach me?"
Sirius changed back and laughed at Harry's enthusiasm. "How about I answer all your questions while I tell you about your parents. I was your father's best friend and we learned how to do this together." Harry nodded eagerly and led the animagus to his room.
Sirius and Harry spent several hours tentatively getting to know each other and talking about Lily and James. While Harry did not fully trust Sirius yet, he could still tell the man loved his parents and cared deeply for him. For Sirius it was enough for now to just be given a chance to fix his mistakes.
It was mid afternoon and Tsuna was in his makeshift office laying on a couch with an arm thrown over his face, shielding his eyes from the mountains of paperwork that had consumed his desk. He couldn't bear to look at them, certain that if he did he would burst into unabashed tears.
"Three piles of paperwork!" He lamented into the lap he was using as a pillow. A slightly glowing hand that belonged to the blond-haired man whose lap the Decimo was laying on, threaded soothingly through his fluffy locks. "Chrome and I-pin had only been gone twenty minutes before I came back and they caused three piles of paperwork worth of damages!"
"Gao." The lion cub laying on Tsuna's chest responded as it licked his hand trying to comfort his partner. Tsuna smiled at the adorable sky lion and scratched him behind his ear.
"Look on the bright side Tsunayoshi-kun. At least you came back when you did. Imagine if you had come an hour later. The house might not be standing anymore." The blond man pointed out cheerfully.
"Did anyone ever tell you you're horrible at consoling people, Giotto-san?" Tsuna asked glowering at his ancestor with a pout.
Giotto gave a warm laugh, tempted to pinch his adorable many-times grandson's cheeks. He was about to reply when the door to the office swung open and Sirius dragging Harry behind him barged in.
"Tsuna! Can I take Harry out this...af...ter...Tsuna are you being haunted by your twin brother? I didn't know you had a twin brother." Sirius questioned seeing Tsuna laying on the lap of a golden-haired, amber-eyed man that looked exactly like him save the different coloring. Sirius assumed the man was a ghost by the ethereal glow of his form although he was much more vivid and solid looking than the silvery specters that Sirius was used to seeing at Hogwarts.
"Tsuna-nii, is that a lion cub?" Harry exclaimed.
Tsuna groaned then turned accusing eyes on his ancestor. "You knew they were coming didn't you?"
Giotto smiled mischievously saying, "I thought it was time that I met your new ward. Natsu agreed. Besides you should have been able to tell yourself if you weren't so distracted. Your intuition is as good as mine."
Tsuna turned his eyes to the lion cub, "Et tu Natsu."
"Gao." Natsu whimpered turning his eyes away from Tsuna guiltily.
Tsuna groaned and sat up letting Natsu hop from his chest to his favorite perch on his shoulder. "Since they have decided they wanted to meet you. I should introduce you. Sirius, Harry, the blond man is Giotto di Vongola, the founder of the Vongola Famiglia and my too-many-times-to-try-to-count-grandfather. On my shoulder is my partner, Natsu."
"Partner?" Harry asked confused. He chose to ignore the ghost for now. The lion was much cooler.
"Ah. Natsu is my combat partner. He helps me fight but he's also my friend." Tsuna replied. "Giotto-san, Natsu this is my new little brother, Harry, and his godfather, Sirius."
"Gao."
"It's wonderful to meet you Harry. Sirius."
"Nice to meet you too." Sirius replied automatically before asking, "Wait, you're Tsuna's ancestor? Creepy resemblance. Aren't you supposed to be dead? Because you look really good for a dead guy. Are you haunting Tsuna?"
"Yes. I think Tsunayoshi is much cuter than I am. Yes. Thank you. Sort of but not really." Giotto replied before turning to Tsuna and asking, "Did I get everything?"
"I think so." Tsuna replied shrugging. "Giotto isn't really haunting me. He's not really a ghost, more a manifestation of Giotto's will. It's really complicated and involves stuff that I'm not allowed to tell you since you're not part of the family officially. Technically Giotto and the previous heads of the Vongola only appear in times of great crisis or to initiate the newest boss. Giotto for some reason just appears to me whenever he's bored."
"Does my darling Tsunayoshi-kun not want his grandpa around?" Giotto whimpered giving Tsuna dejected puppy-dog eyes.
"Of course not Giotto-san. I appreciate your company and your advice." Tsuna reassured. When Giotto continued to sulk Tsuna rolled his eyes saying, "I love having you and your guardians around Grandpa."
The blond pounced and started squeezing the life out of Tsuna. Natsu wisely chose to jump off his shoulder and went to Harry who happily sat down to play with the lion cub ignoring the ghost suffocating his big brother.
"Hiiee!" The poor brunet screamed as he tried in vain to escape from his enthusiastic ancestor's grasp. Luckily for him Gokudera who had been treated by Reborn happened to walk in carrying a stack of paperwork (Tsuna chose to ignore his nemesis in favor of possible rescue), "Hayato! G! Save me!"
"Juudaime!" Gokudera cried. "Primo, please let Juudaime go. He needs to be able to breathe."
A new form of a man with reddish-pinkish hair appeared behind Giotto and slapped the blond boss upside his head. "Stop strangling Decimo with you hugs."
Giotto pouted before perking up again, "G! G! My adorable Tsunayoshi-kun called me Grandpa! I'm so happy!"
G gave a long suffering sigh at his hyper boss and turned to Tsuna, admonishing him, "I told you to stop letting him eat sweets."
Tsuna rubbed his head guiltily but gave the First Storm Guardian a sheepish smile. "I was having tea and cakes and it would have been rude not to invite Giotto-san to join me."
"You can eat?" Sirius asked amazed and somewhat confused. It was hard to think of these people as the famous First Generation of the Vongola Family. They were supposed to be strong and cool. Giotto was nice enough but definitely not what he had imagined. Also how did they keep popping up and why did they look so much like Tsuna and his family? "I thought living with Muggles would be boring considering you guys can't do magic, but I'm starting to reevaluate that. Is this a normal day for you?"
Unbeknownst to Sirius, Harry was thinking the same thing about Giotto and G. Reborn had taught him a bit about Vongola's history. The stories of the First Generation were great, and the little boy was starting to admire them and their heroic sounding deeds. He still thought his Tsuna-nii was better, but Giotto sounded cool as well. He was having a hard time connecting this hyper ghost with the legendary Vongola Primo who looked so serious and dignified in all his paintings that Reborn had shown him.
"We can eat if we want to." G answered for his boss. "Also get used to it. Decimo's family hardly qualifies as normal or boring. EVER. This is pretty tame by their standards. No one's time traveled yet today or saved the world."
"Saved the world?" Sirius repeated looking both impressed and confused hoping for an explanation. None would be forthcoming anytime soon.
"Thank you for the help G-san. Sirius, Harry this is G, Giotto's Storm Guardian. G, they are Harry and Sirius. Now Sirius you wanted to ask me something?" Tsuna inquired ignoring Sirius's questioning tone.
"We'll be going now, Decimo. Good luck!" That said G grabbed Giotto and both turned into their respective flames and returned to the rings.
"Er...yes. I was going to ask if it would be okay for me to take Harry out for a bit this afternoon?"
Tsuna's face turned stern, "Where do you want to take Harry?"
"To Godric's Hollow. Neither of us have ever visited Lily and James's graves since they died."
"I see." Tsuna replied somberly, "Did you want to go alone or would it be alright for one of us to go with you? I would prefer if someone went with you. It's not that I don't trust you with Harry, but even with those amulets, I don't think it would be safe with just the two of you."
"I understand but I can only side-along apparate one person."
"That won't be a problem. If you don't mind I'd like to come along as well and Kyoya can transport himself and I. I think he'd like to investigate the place himself."
"That sounds like a plan then."
"Let me call him back from his mission. He should be about finished anyway. Meanwhile let's go visit Shoichi-kun, he should be able to provide us with some flowers to take with us. It would be rude to visit for the first time without something. Thank you for letting me come along."
Harry noticing the adults had finished talking put Natsu down and went to Tsuna, climbing into his lap. "Thank you for coming with me Tsuna-nii."
Sirius watched the two slightly pained. He wished it was him that Harry went to for comfort. Even more than that he wished Harry's parents were alive so that the trip nor the comfort was necessary. But wishes couldn't bring back the dead and he had failed Harry. They were both lucky that Harry had found someone powerful but kind enough to care for the child and provide for Harry the love and protection Sirius, Lily, and James could not.
A.N. Sorry this has taken so long but a combination of little motivation to write combined with very little time alone to write has hampered me. Next chapter will likely take as long or possibly longer, but I will post something for Reborn/Tsuna's birthdays. I'll be enjoying myself at Anime Weekend Atlanta in late September and likely be busy with social activities during much of September .
I have no clue how Tsuna releases people from his Zero Point Breakthrough ice and I can't write action so you'll usually see me gloss over it.
Sirius and Harry meeting Giotto and Natsu in this chapter was unplanned but those two double teamed me and I really can't deny Natsu pretty much anything because he's too darned cute.
Please leave a comment/review.