Dioscuri

A/N: It would be much easier not to post my review replies up here, but some dear readers are wither unable or unwilling to enable the PM function on their accounts, non-existent or otherwise.

Yonaka Takai: This is the first time that someone told me that they love the footnotes, thanks!

nora43: Thank you for the high compliment, despite the numerous grammar and some spelling mistakes present within this story. I am writing this completely without a beta. My last beta fell out of touch with me... With regards to writing, though, I believe that you can pound out your own unique story! There are resources on my profile should you need them.

Guest: Yeah, I heard that story too. No matter the variations, the Roman founding myth with the divine twins still ends with fratricide, which is still used as a justification for a history of internecine political strife and bloodshed. The sad bit lies in the lengths the Mafia world would go to prevent another succession crisis.

– LLS

13: Carnation

Usually, the general affairs manager of a student-formed committee was the designated gopher. They ran for drinks, they stocked the rooms, they did the heavy lifting. Yet, none of them faced as many hazards as the general affairs manager of the Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee. Apparently, general affairs managers in the Namimori Middle School Disciplinary Committee were required to take some form of combat training – which should really tell you everything about the committee. In ten minutes, Reborn was marginally impressed by Tsuna's performance. Even if most of said combat performance was dodging all the blows from Colonello and himself.

"I really can't afford to get injured now," Tsuna ducks under a flying kick from Reborn, and rolled on the ground to avoid Colonello's pistol-whip and clamber back onto his feet.

"Injuries are part and parcel of training, idiot," Reborn scolded. He would have used Leon, but the chameleon was being fickle at the moment.

"I really can't afford to be injured," Tsuna repeated. "Ie would flip out. Also, this was supposed to be our family trip."

"Yeah, this is a trip with your Family," Reborn pointed out. "Gokudera and Yamamoto are part of the Family as well."

Tsuna sighed, missing the running jump that Colonello was taking behind him. The blond baby was kicked away by his own twin's dynamic entry. The noise caused Tsuna to turn around.

"I told you, Tsuna," Ietsuna spoke through gritted teeth, already having landed on his feet as Colonello was still sailing into a coconut palm. Gokudera and Yamamoto flanked him, the trio having taken the rail to locate Tsuna from the main amusement park, only to find Tsuna getting bullied by the two baby hitmen. "This is Mafia Land. Reborn's face is printed on a balloon. There is absolutely no way this was meant as a relaxing holiday for us."

"Sorry, Ie," Tsuna sniffed, shivering. "It's my fault. If I didn't ask you to come along, none of this would have happened..."

"Tenth!" Gokudera dashed towards him. "I'm so glad we managed to locate you! I was so worried when you went missing from the reception room while Ietsuna-sama was distracted, I nearly threw up!"

"Er, Gokudera-kun, I was just registering..."

"Oh, what's this? An event game?" Yamamoto chuckled. "It looks fun! Who's the other baby?"

"Who cares!" Ietsuna shot back. "I saw a Caravaggio! Do you know how rare that chance was?!"

"What are you saying?" Reborn chided Tsuna. "You now have some good memories of this place. This is the special case I told you about earlier, Colonello."

"He looks like he's worth training, hey," the blond baby in military camouflage grinned at Ietsuna, before jumping and lashing out with a kick to Ietsuna's face. A palette knife was brought up in time, drawing blood.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ietsuna growled.

Colonello considered the gash in his trousers. "You've done it now, hey!"

"It's your fault for getting injured, Colonello," Reborn unapologetically replied with a smirk.

"Do you know about thermal expansion, Reborn?" Ietsuna spoke through clenched teeth.

The smirk faded somewhat, wiped away like steam from the boiling tea that Reborn had gotten a faceful of during his last fateful trip in the ventilation system of Namimori Middle. The third-degree burn had not been fun, especially since Reborn had been sneaking around in the school's vents, and someone had poured the tea down from the roof, knowing that the vents would expand due to the high heat and attract the assassin's attention. It was Reborn's first major mistake, and the hitman now knew that Ietsuna had been putting the pressure on him with this low-chance but low-key assassination attempt. Ietsuna was now playing at the most dangerous game, and Reborn was the target.

"I'm sorry, Ie," Tsuna pleaded with his twin. "I failed the Mafioso examination, since we didn't have a nomination or invitation... please don't ask Kaa-san..."

"Did you use his name at the reception counter?" Ietsuna pointed down at Reborn.

"N- No..." Tsuna shrank slightly, tears forming in his eyes. "It should've been obvious, I'm sorry! It's my fault. Our family vacation is ruined..."

"Oi, hey!" Colonello snapped. "Are you done ignoring us?!"

Ietsuna whirled around, but his reply was interrupted by the start of a continuous whine of sirens, scattered across the surprisingly varied landscape of Mafia Land. "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Everyone, please evacuate to the shelters!"

"Enemy attack?" Tsuna echoed in shock. "What is going on?"

"Is an event about to start?" Yamamoto asked. "How fun! Where is it?"

"It must be the Carcassa Familgia," Reborn commented as his pacifier started glowing yellow in tune with Colonello's blue pacifier. "The only one stupid enough to do this is Skull."

"This is one of those Arcobaleno things, right?" Ietsuna demanded as the boom of cannons and associated panicked screams could be heard.

"This isn't good, hey," Colonello commented, regarding the view over the cliffs. "The family responsible for security today is at home because it's the anniversary of their boss's death. There's not enough military force on the island right now."

"Then it's all over!" Tsuna shrieked. "Now what?!"

"As long as I'm here, I won't let them take the island," Colonello stated. "But... it's nap time now... zzz..."

"Leave him," Reborn instructed as the boys stared at the snot-bubbles forming from Colonello's – and his bird's – nostrils. "I'm more worried about Mama and the others. Let's take the subway... zzz..."

"He fell asleep too..." Ietsuna's deadpan delivery understated the current situation. "Right, let's take them and go find the others."

"But, Ie," Tsuna gestured. "This is an island, right?"

"Well, they're attacking by ship-" Ietsuna's teeth clicked together as a helicopter dipped overhead. "Aw, no."

"If that lands, the island's natural defences would become a wall," Gokudera hissed. "This is bad."

"Eh? Why?" Yamamoto asked.

"Look, baseball idiot!" Gokudera yelled. "In tactical strategy, these cliffs would provide the perfect cover for our backs in the main amusement park, under normal circumstances. The copter means that they can deploy men to shoot at our backs. It's a battle on two fronts!"

Yamamoto looked at them. "I don't understand."

"The enemy has the bases loaded," Ietsuna explained. "It's the ninth inning, we haven't scored, the other's got three points, and we're two outs in."

"Oh!" Yamamoto nodded eagerly in comprehension, and then frowned. "That's... going to be hard."

"The problem is the copter," Ietsuna grimaced as the helicopter deployed a Gatling gun at them. "Down."

All four boys – along with the slumbering baby hitmen carried somehow; Reborn under Yamamoto's arm, and Colonello carried by Tsuna – ducked down behind a random nearby boulder as a hail of bullets rained down on their previous position.

"This is kinda fun!" Yamamoto cheered. "Toys are so real nowadays."

"What do we do, Tenth?" Gokudera sounded eager amidst the noise, like some hunting mastiff downwind of prey.

"Ah..." Tsuna's breath quickened. "If this copter lands... what will happen?"

"A helicopter can only hold a limited number of people," Ietsuna calculated. "That Gatling gun is the real problem. If the fighters get sandwiched in, we lose. Everyone on the ground could get killed. But, there's not enough space for a landing, so either they deploy from mid-air, or use the copter itself to cover this point. If it's the latter... if we could get Gokudera's dynamite up there, we could take it down. Gokudera, how far up can you throw the dynamite?"

"...not far enough," Gokudera lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Tenth! Because of my incompetence, we're stuck!"

"It's not your fault, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna disagreed. "If Gokudera-kun can't throw it, what about Yamamoto-kun?"

"This isn't just a home-run at stake," Ietsuna pointed out. "It's his life. That copter is simply too high up now. Even assuming that it lowers, he'll have to throw two bombs; one to hide him, the other to bring down the copter, and he'll have to throw it past the rotors. A stick of dynamite is more likely to be interrupted by the rotors before it detonates. Plus, Reborn and Colonello are out of action..."

"Yes?" Tsuna was slowly backing away under his twin's stare to Colonello's rifle. "Ie, you're thinking... I don't like what you're thinking."

"... I should have made Lambo pack the M20."

"You shouldn't encourage minors to carry heavy artillery in the first place," Tsuna rebutted, calming slightly. "But that means that you have a plan."

Ietsuna nodded. "Tsuna, you take Reborn and Colonello to the main part of the island. Find Kaa-san and the others. Gokudera, Yamamoto, you stay here. We're going to guard Tsuna's back."

Tsuna swallowed. "I... I don't want to leave-"

"You get the babies out, or we're going to die," Ietsuna pointed out. "Tsuna, you're the only one who can get them out. Gokudera and Yamamoto can't communicate with each other worth shit, and I can't mix explosives."

"Yes!" Gokudera chipped in. "Tenth, you're the only one who can protect Reborn-san! Don't worry, we'll watch your back!"

Slowly, reluctantly, Tsuna nodded. "I trust all of you to come back alive."

Then he ran, ducking under the palm trees that lined the cliffs towards the rail tunnels with a baby hitman tucked under each arm.

"Gokudera, give Yamamoto a lit dynamite," Ietsuna stated, all business now. "Yamamoto, toss that dynamite into a parabola arc down towards the rotors. Everyone prepared to vacate to the next boulder."

"Here," Gokudera sourly handed over the lit stick.

"Sounds fun!" Yamamoto's smile was too strained to mean anything but the opposite as he tossed the lethal weapon, watching the copter veer off course by the mid-air explosion and the Gatling gun aim towards them. The boys ducked for another boulder.

"Three-second burst, ten-second cool-down," Ietsuna nodded after the burst that tore at their eardrums and kicked up dust and collapsed part of the cliff, fiddling with his cellphone while lying on the ground. "Yamamoto, prepare to compensate, wind direction south-east."

"Not enough," Yamamoto shook his head. "Ietsuna. Prepare to kick."

"What?" Ietsuna shook his head at the mental imagery. "I'm not Sanji1! ...Fine! Gokudera-"

"Bunch dynamite, five-second fuse." Gokudera handed over the larger bundled sticks to Yamamoto. "Last bat."

Ietsuna nodded as Yamamoto prepared to fling it. "Now!"

The word Dunamis glittered in the dim sunlight as the sticks flew up, flung by the force of a natural-born hitman's arm towards Ietsuna. One leg outstretched, the other anchored, Ietsuna's roundhouse kick sent the weighted dynamite up. It was buffeted by the breeze coming in from the sea, turning in mid-air, and then curving down, to explode on the rotors of the helicopter. Like the birth of a star, the smoke in broad daylight detracted from what seemed to be a really large explosion of flame. The burst of gunfire gave out as the helicopter made an almighty crash against the cliffs of Mafia Land, metal creaking and people shouting.

"We did it!" Yamamoto grinned at Gokudera as they shook hands in the midst of excitement.

"We did it! We did-" Gokudera recovered himself, stopping the high-five. "Of course we did it! Don't underestimate the Vongola, baseball idiot! Ietsuna-sama, we did it!"

"Not yet," Ietsuna was staring as giant pink tentacles erupted from the flaming wreckage, and a giant armoured octopus burst out from within. "Are giant animals a thing?"

Tsuna was panting once he ran out of the tunnel and found his mother, Bianchi, Haru and the three children planning out a fancy dinner. It was, sadly, not the weirdest sight he'd seen on Mafia Land.

"Kaa-san, they're asleep," Tsuna set Reborn and Colonello into Bianchi's eager embrace, nearly slipping on the cobbled stone ground before the false castle. "I'm going back to find Ie now."

"Be safe!" Nana waved as Tsuna did an about-face and ran. "Ah, they're such good kids..."

"Lambo! Stay back!" Tsuna panted, shaking out his right leg upon which Lambo was clinging to.

"Ie-nii is fighting, right?!" Lambo sniffed but clung on tightly. "Then he needs his weapons! I need to give him the weapons!"

"Oi, wait, Lambo!" Tsuna shouted as Lambo hopped off his leg and ran for the tunnel anyway. "Lambo!"

It was a while of stumbling in the dark, looking for the crybaby – who had suddenly found some courage until Tsuna found the literal end of the tunnel. It opened out a bit, where Tsuna found the sole rail car still in the middle of Colonello's training ground, and then turned left decisively. There, on the far end by the cliffs, was the smoking wreckage of a helicopter; and- were those giant octopus arms erupting from it?

"It's so hard to choose," Tsuna found his twin and Lambo nearby, leaning against a boulder with what looked like the contents of a military arms locker, or perhaps an arms shop in America. "Lambo, you really outdid yourself."

"Ie-nii needs them!" Lambo grinned at the praise. "Lambo-san is good at getting weapons!"

"Thanks."

"Oi! Tsuna! Ietsuna!" Yamamoto called from the middle of pitching javelins. "The octopus's arm movements match that baby's fingers! It's awesome!"

"This isn't the time to admire him, baseball idiot!" Gokudera skidded to a stop. "Tenth!"

"Gah, Ahodera-shi," Lambo chuckled.

"Shut up, stupid cow!" Gokudera hollered back. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I brought weapons for Ie-nii~!" Lambo stuck his tongue out.

"Ie!" Tsuna yelled. "You aren't supposed to encourage minors to become arms dealers!"

"I didn't," Ietsuna rebutted, selecting a medium-sized mallet and a giant chisel. "You know, octopus meat is supposed to be low in fat and high in zinc and vitamin B."

"You're going to eat it?!" Tsuna screamed.

"Who said that?" Ietsuna scoffed, pointing to Lambo. "The two of you are. You're mostly skin and bones."

"W- We're twins!" Tsuna retorted. "Anyway, is this the time to talk about takoyaki2?!"

"You're right. We should cut it first." Then Ietsuna dashed towards it.

"What?" A helmed head stared at the boy running towards him with a mallet and chisel. "Oodako!"

"Ie!" Tsuna yelled as his twin was caught by one arm.

"The arm of an octopus is a muscular hydrostat," Ietsuna grinned as the octopus freaked and panicked, its arm having frozen over.

"W- Who are you?" Skull screamed as Ietsuna chiselled through the point where frozen became unfrozen flesh, to drop to the ground.

"Sawada Ietsuna."

He tackled Skull. A scream of air suddenly condensed into liquid, and an explosion of frost and fog centred upon the pair. The air became a solid fog bank, and for several seconds there was silence. A thud resounded, and the fog was blown away by a sea breeze. It left Ietsuna, walking towards them.

Ietsuna dropped a solid lump of ice onto the ground as Mafia men ran through, led by Colonello and Reborn. The other two Arcobaleno fixated onto Skull, staring at the improvised baby icicle.

"Well," Colonello stated, no longer smirking or smiling. "At least he's quiet."

There was a party at Mafia Castle to celebrate the victory over the Carcassa. Vongola threw the most outlandish parties, certainly, and most days took nearly any excuse to celebrate being alive while smashing the faces of their enemies into the dirt.

One solid reminder, however, stood out; Skull was still a frozen counter-piece, a horrific reminder of the Vongola's power that Ietsuna had unwittingly created. To say nothing of poor Oodako, who had fled into the waters around Mafia Land after the fate of its master.

It was sunset when Ietsuna had finally fled the castle – and from the fawning of several Mafia admirers – for the night garden when he saw the old man again.

"Buonosera, Ietsuna-kun. Did you come out for the air?"

"More or less," Ietsuna nodded towards a stone bench. They made a strange sight, an old man and a barely-teenage boy perched on either end of the bench.

"I knew your grandfather," the old man started.

"...Oh," Ietsuna sighed.

"I'm not here to kill you," Timoteo corrected. "Although that is a telling response. You do not seem very surprised."

"When you open with a line like that, people get ideas. It was better than my first assumption that you were a paedophile, Timoteo-san," Ietsuna commented. His eyes were watching Timoteo's eye-line, towards the bright sun that hung in an orange sky. "Are we continuing the conversation, Jii-san?"

"Perhaps," Timoteo admitted. "Are you Lorenzo?"

Ietsuna cocked his head. "What?"

"I see," Timoteo reflected, still looking at the fiery chariot that was leaving the world to the dark, if only a while. "Lorenzo is in the undiscovered country... I was wrong."

"Is this a thing, this... not being able to spit it out?" Ietsuna breathed in through his nose, huffing out a breath through his lips. "This... what are you trying, Timoteo-san?"

"I... am sorry," the old man admitted quietly. "Lorenzo was my dear friend. I... I never got to say goodbye."

"To Grandpa?" Ietsuna questioned.

"Yes," The Ninth pondered for a bit. "We met on the streets of Paris. C'est un rendez-vous avec la destinée. The first thing he asked me was... 'what kind of idiot are you'? I was then personally acquainted with an Italian copy of The Great Gatsby he happened to be carrying."

The Ninth smiled, still looking at the setting sun. "We were together from Paris to Palermo, and that bloody book remained his faithful lethal weapon each time. Each time, though, every time I saw him in the mornings, like a homing pigeon, he would be facing the rising sun. He had a dream, he told me, of his island home of Japan. His family was there. Now, the Mafia did not treat those not of the blood too well. It was a difficult time, especially after the war3. I failed to enforce our protection of the immigrants into our land, and he could not accept this. Our time together was cut short by fate; he would not bring his family to a land without the assured protection from those who would harm them, and I could not help him as my mother's heir. I met him again at the wedding of his son, who by happy chance was my employee. He denied all knowledge to my face, but I knew why, and I could not blame him."

"He was your friend, right?" Ietsuna demanded. "And he told you that he didn't know you."

"Le bête noire, the black beast... it followed us to him," Timoteo shook his head. "He had unborn grandchildren to protect. And he was right. He died because we brought it to him."

"...I don't understand," Ietsuna replied, having figured it out. "Why are you telling me this, Vongola Ninth? Is it because of my twin brother? Or that father of ours?"

"Both, and neither," Timoteo replied. "Both, because your father and I had great reason to hide our family away from the underworld we live in. Neither, because it is an old man's reminiscences."

"Or," Ietsuna retorted, "you could just say that you're a lonely old man and ask for intelligent company. Oh wait, that makes you sound too much like a creepy old man."

"You are truly Lorenzo's grandson," Timoteo pondered. "So that was where all the flippant disrespect comes from. It must run in the family, although we share a distant blood relation."

"Different parts of the same family."

They laughed together.

"Do you know Monet?" Timoteo snorted, as twilight had swept in along with the large searchlights installed around Mafia Land. "His sunsets, I find, capture this scene just fine."

In the distance in the ocean, something bobbed. Perhaps Skull, the black leather-clad drifter on the sea who just staged his escape, would find his way here or elsewhere. Were he here, he would see the old and the young laughing together at the rise and fall of life.

"Now?" Ietsuna paused. "I think, for the sunsets, Rembrandt would be better."

Timoteo's eyes sparkled. "I have a bad habit of commissioning art thefts on your family milestones. Rembrandt's only seascape4 must be somewhere inside the castle."

Ietsuna made a face. "You are a terrible old man. Why?"

"It was..." Timoteo murmured. "Someone magnificent told me to create an island of peace. This island, which faces the east, was what he looked towards. In a way... I wanted to see what he saw, what enchanted object he pursued so passionately."

"Mmm," Ietsuna hummed, eyeing the castle now. "Lead on, then. Show me."

Timoteo smiled. "Aren't you getting uppity now, young man?"

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Skull laid on the head of Oodako, tracing his adult-sized hand where the purple pacifier hung. He peered up at the night sky, helmet-less for once. The next day, Colonello and Reborn would wonder which adult rescued him, and ponder about the adult-sized footprint on the windowsill. No one would ever have though about the implications of the Zero Point Breakthrough.

"Sawada Ietsuna," Skull repeated the name.

Omake: Due corde

Dedicated to IReadFanficsOnly for the 200th favourite!

"Nao-kun~!"

"Yes?" Both twins peered up.

"Oh no," Nana sighed. "Tsu-kun, you can't respond when I'm calling for Na-kun!"

"Why?" one of them piped up.

"Because the two of you look so alike, Mama can't tell you apart!" Nana complained. "Mama can't even tell which is which, Tsu-kun! You're entering elementary school soon!"

"Hibari can manage it," the twin that spoke continued, eyes narrowing. "So can Kozato. Kaa-san needs glasses."

"Ie!" the other spoke up, reproach present in his voice. "You don't have to say it like that!"

"Oh," Nana shook her head. "I'll have to request that you two get sorted into separate classes, then."

"No!" Ietsuna spoke up. "As long as this bond exist, we won't be separated. Big brothers are supposed to protect their younger siblings!"

"Don't change your age when you feel like it!" Tsuna exclaimed. "I'm the big brother!"

"..."

Both of them turned to her. "MAMA!"

"Mama doesn't know either..." Nana sighed as the two pre-elementary twins started arguing about seniority.

"Tsuna will protect Ie!" Tsuna exclaimed, pouting.

"...then, if you fail, I'll kick them!" Ietsuna rebutted with more wisdom, and perhaps a touch of common sense, the lack of which so plagued the Sawada family. "If I fail, Tsuna can take over."

"Why if you fail?" came the complaint.

"Because Ma-" Ietsuna paused, tracing the simpler pronunciation first, "Maî- Ma- Hibari's grandma said so."

"That's rude, Ie," Tsuna sighed. "OK. Then, what about Kaa-san?"

"Isn't that obvious!?" Ietsuna said with the confidence of the young who thought himself as immortal. "We will! We always will! Because we'll always be together!"

"Yes!" Tsuna smiled, ignorant of the undercurrent of Flame that kept the twin bound into this world. "Always together, as long as this bond exists!"

Nana sighed, in bliss and partly in exasperation. Ietsuna had been a surprise; welcome, but nevertheless unexpected. Ietsuna's maturity, intelligence, strength and charm came together to form the tough protector, where Tsuna formed the softer, though no less deadly, complement.

If only he would show affection to anyone other than Tsuna, then Nana might regard him as less of her father-in-law reincarnate, and more of her son. Well, she reflected, the old man was a hero, having jumped to certain death with her babies clutched into his embrace to save them from the burning hospital.

Still... it was no wonder Iemitsu spent so much time at work...

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Please review!

1 The One Piece character, famous for his strong and intensely accurate kicks.

2 Takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼?) is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (tako), tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. Takoyaki are brushed with takoyaki sauce, similar to Worcestershire sauce, and mayonnaise. The takoyaki is then sprinkled with green laver (aonori) and shavings of dried bonito (katsuobushi). There are many variations to the takoyaki recipe, for example, ponzu (soy sauce with dashi and citrus vinegar), goma-dare (sesame-and-vinegar sauce) or vinegared dashi.

3 I personally hold that Vongola Settimo (Fabio AKA the Seventh Boss) immigrated to America until he was called back, and I approximate Timoteo to be born around 1939. So, while not serving in the war itself, Timoteo is still pretty old (~65-66).

4 The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a painting from 1633 by Rembrandt van Rijn. It was in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, prior to being stolen in 1990. The painting depicts the miracle of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. It is Rembrandt's only seascape. In 2013, the FBI announced they knew who was responsible for the crime. Criminal analysis has suggested that the heist was committed by an organized crime group. There have been no conclusions made public as the investigation is ongoing. Needless to say, in real life no one has found the painting.