Tsuna

'You are aware your father is alive right?' Reborn springs this question on me just as I settle down to do my homework. The pencil in my hand snaps as I turn my attention to him.

'Is that so?' I grit out, keeping my anger in check. So that useless old man is still alive.

He nods 'He's the one who gave me information about you. Granted it was completely useless.'

'Information, huh?' I can use this, I smirk 'What did he say exactly?'

Reborn is looking forward to what I'm planning, and readily volunteers the information. 'You were completely useless at academics and sports, clumsy, timid and had no friends.'

'And they still wanted you to make me the boss?' I asked confused. With that kind of description, I would sooner drive the family to the ground.

'You were the only option. They may also have thought that they would be able to control you since you were a naive civilian.' He looks offended by the very thought. I have to agree, like I would let anyone have that level of control over me again.

'Really, I assume that he is going to show up at some point?'

'Not anytime soon. What are you planning?'

'Well, since he didn't bother to actually gather accurate information on me, I might as well act how he thinks I should.' I smile, this is going to be fun.

'Haha,' Reborn chuckles 'They'll be completely unprepared when they realize they have absolutely no way of controlling you.'

'That's not my fault.' I shrug 'he should have kept better track of his family.' I'm sure if someone were to come in at this moment, they would see two demons smiling while planning someone's downfall. Not that that is far from the truth. Ahh~ their face will be priceless once they realize I'm not someone they can impose their will on.

After planning out how to screw with my father and Nono, we return to our normal routine of me completing my homework and Reborn correcting the few mistakes I've made. Movement outside the window catches my attention, and I see a little kid trying to pull himself up onto the branch of the tree.

'Reborn, there's a kid outside my window.'

'Ignore it'

He finally manages to pull himself up onto the branch and begins to yell something I can't make out through the window while pointing at Reborn.

'I think he knows you.'

'This is incorrect' Reborn just continues to check over my homework.

Angry that no one is paying attention to him, he rummages around in his afro and pulls out a pink grenade. Before I can react, he has already chucked it through the window. Reborn casually deflects it back towards the kid, but I create a gust of wind that pushes it away before it hits the kid.

'Gyahahahah! Reborn! The great Lambo has come for you!' Reborn continues to ignore him, so he jumps through the window.

'Lambo?' I call out, trying to diffuse the situation before it becomes out of control.

'Who are you?' he looks at me confused. He probably didn't even notice I was in the room.

'I'm Tsuna' I glance around suspiciously before whispering 'Do you want to know a secret?'

Lambo is completely distracted by this and runs over to me 'tell me tell me!' he shouts.

'Shhh! You don't want Reborn to know do you?' He looks over at Reborn with fearful look on his face and is relieved when he sees that Reborn doesn't look like he's paying attention. I lean down and cup my hand around his ear and whisper. 'If you go down stairs, and ask Mama really nicely, she might give you some candy.'

He lights up in excitement at the mention of candy and is about to yell again before covering his mouth with his hands and nods. He runs out of the room and I can hear him talking to mama soon after.

What a cute kid. I get the feeling that he will stick around, which is fine Mama will enjoy having him around.

Reborn

'Your rather good with children' I comment, he was able to easily distract Lambo and get him out of our hair.

'Honestly, I'm not. I've got no idea how children his age actually act. I was just basing it off of Tsuna's memories.' He admits. 'What is he 5?'

'Around there.' I confirm. It seems I was correct in thinking he didn't have a childhood.

'5 huh?' He leans back and stares at the ceiling with a weary expression. 'Things had already gone to hell by that point.' He mumbles to himself.

Tsuna has slowly been opening up about his time as Rei. Bits and pieces here and there. Usually as casual remarks to himself. There are things that now make more sense than they did before. His constant awareness, his dislike of being touch by people he doesn't know. He was abused, and from a young age from the sounds of it.

'Let's go for a walk.' He pushes himself up, abandoning his unfinished homework. I'm not worried about him finishing it, so I let him take a break. We're a few blocks from the house with me riding on his shoulder. 'You can ask you know. I may not have an answer, but you can always ask.'

'Who was your first contract with?' A relatively safe question—I think.

'I made my first contract when I was 5? 6? Sorry, I don't clearly remember. It was with Novus, the spirit who governed over fire.'

'That's rather young, is it common to make a contract that young?'

'No, but it wasn't unheard of. The ones who do make them that young, usually have extenuating circumstances. In my case, that was the first time I lost control, I ended up unconsciously making a contract.'

So, no, it wasn't a safe question. Seeing that he hasn't become catatonic, it's at least not the worst question I could ask. Is there anything I can ask that doesn't somehow end up like this? Luckily, Tsuna doesn't seem to be too stressed, I shouldn't push my luck any further though.

'Apparently,' He smirks a little, 'I lit myself on fire for like three days. I have no recollection of doing this, but I was told later that no one could put me out. The flames didn't hurt me, but it's a little funny now that they were basically powerless against a 5-year-old. They had to wait until my body just gave out.' He laughs.

I smile, but I can't find the humor in the situation. Someone pushed a child to the breaking point, and everyone was just hopeless to just watch him protect himself with fire until his body couldn't keep it up anymore. I suppose he finds the situation somewhat humorous as he is the one that was usually powerless. To have that situation reversed, I can understand why he thinks it's funny. It doesn't change my feelings about it though.

Tsuna suddenly stops and tilts his head like he's listening to something.

'Tsuna?' I call worried that he may be having a flash back.

'Hm? Oh sorry, my intuition's acting up.' He starts walking again turning a couple of corners like he knows exactly where he needs to go.

'Is something wrong?'

'Its nothing dangerous,' he pauses 'well, at least for us. But I need be there.' We come up the source three delinquents cornering two girls from his class.

'What's going on here?' Tsuna calls out, making the delinquent's focus their attention on him.

'Tch, it's got nothin to do with you. Leave, or you'll regret getting involved.' The leader threatens. Or at least attempts to.

Ignoring the threat, he turns his attention to the girls. 'Sasagawa-san, Kurokawa-san, are you two all right?'

'Yeah, these monkeys won't leave us alone though.'

'Didn't you hear me? Get out of here!' He tries to intimidate Tsuna again. It obviously doesn't work.

'Hm? Sorry did you say something? I don't understand idiots.' The delinquents go red with anger. Tsuna certainly has a way of pissing people of.

'I was tryin ta be nice, but I changed my mind. We'll send you to the hospital.'

Tsuna frowns. 'I just said I don't understand you. Why do you keep talking?' He makes a face like he's just realized something. 'Ah! Sorry, I didn't realize you couldn't understand me either.'

'GET HIM!' This causes the leader loses his temper. I jump off his shoulder and head towards his classmates. They rush Tsuna at the same time, but none of them are able to land a hit on him. Not because he's dodging, but their punches are off by a large margin, it's like they can't accurately judge the distance. They are literally swinging at nothing and then losing their balance and stubling around like a new born calf. Tsuna did something, I'm not quite sure what. I'll have to ask him later, it seems to be a very useful skill in making fools of your opponents. Maybe I could figure out a way to do it?

'Is Tsuna going to be alright?' Sasagawa asks worriedly interrupting my train of thought.

'He'll be fine. They are too weak to actually do anything to him.' That doesn't seem to soothe her worries, but she doesn't ask again.

'He follows Hibari around, I'm sure he can take care of himself.' Kurokawa tries to assure her. 'Who are you anyways? Sawada-san's kid brother?'

'His tutor' she doesn't believe it, but she also doesn't push the issue and goes back to watching the fight. The delinquents still haven't been able to land a hit on Tsuna and are panting in exertion. The leader scowls before reaching into his poking and pulling out a switch blade. Sasagawa gasps in fright, but Tsuna just stares at it.

'What? Afraid?' Thinking that he's finally intimidated Tsuna. He's wrong of course. Tsuna really likes playing with his victims, while useful, I'll have to make sure to have him understand when it's appropriate.

'What? Why?' He asks tilting his head with an incredulous expression on his face. 'If you couldn't hit me before, what's a knife going to change?'

This just makes them angrier, but it seems Tsuna's had enough playing around and swiftly knocks them out with a hit to the neck. It seems like I was worried for nothing, he fully understood the situation.

'That was anticlimactic.' Kurokawa dryly comments.

Tsuna sends a text, probably to Tetsuya for cleanup.

'Tsuna-kun! Are you alright!?' She runs over and goes to touch him, but he quickly backs away. She frowns but doesn't try again. Smart girl.

'Yeah, they didn't even touch me.' He tries to play his reaction off, it doesn't work. They watch as he squirms under their thoughtful looks. 'Anyways, I'll walk you home, there might be others lurking around.' He changes the topic as I leap back onto his shoulder.

'Thank you for helping us!'

'Don't worry about it.'

'I was worried though, it was dangerous! You shouldn't just jump into those kinds of situations!' She scolds.

'Perhaps for you it was dangerous. You have to remember, I've been friends with Kyouya since I was 6. He regularly would just appear to beat me up.' He laughs fondly.

'That's horrible! Why are you friends with someone like that?' Well, she's apparently not smart enough to not push that button. Skies like Tsuna don't react well to their guardians being insulted. Especially when the one insulted is the only one they've had for years and has harmonized. She may not know that, but she must have known at least some of their relationship. Neither Tsuna or Hibari are people who do things by halves. Kurokawa, on the other hand looks like she's realized the landmine Sasagawa's stepped on and makes a face like she regrets everything.

'Because I needed him.' Tsuna snaps. 'He may be violent, and always looking for a fight, but he has never once broken his promise to me. That's more than I can say about most people. I don't appreciate you insulting my friend.' It's a rather tame response, but Tsuna has very tight control over his emotions, and hasn't really encountered the mafias way of doing things yet, so not unexpected. Though, he would most likely completely ignore that anyways. Perhaps, I should call Dino sooner than later, it may be a good way to start to integrate him into the mafia. Dino would serve as a better role model for how to maintain your morals. They are certainly one of the tamer Families.

'I'm sorry.' She weakly apologizes properly cowed by the intensity of Tsuna's glare.

Tsuna sighs rubbing his face, dropping the matter, but not forgiving her. 'Let's just go. It's getting late, I don't know where you live, so I'll just follow you.'

The walk to their houses is filled with an awkward silence that neither side seems to be willing to break. Kurokawa is dropped off first, and then Sasagawa. She pauses at the gate of her house.

'I'm sorry that I insulted Hibari-sempai. But he forced you to fight! Fighting isn't good, you could get hurt!' She tries again to make Tsuna see things her way. How…innocent, it's almost offensive that she thinks she can make Tsuna do anything. She doesn't understand who he is, or how he got to this point. She's just selfishly improvising her beliefs onto him.

'Sasagawa-san. Even if I wasn't friends with Kyouya, I would still have no choice but to fight. That's just the way my life has always worked.' He tells her with a tired expression.

'But—!'

'If I didn't fight, I would be dead. Or worse.' He cuts her off. 'You may be able to get away with never having to fight, but that was never an option for me. So even though I don't like to fight, I like the other options less.'

'That's…' She has a horrified expression on her face but can't find a way to retort. Because sadly it's the truth. Tsuna never had a choice, it was either fight, die or with his appearance, become some rich guys toy.

'Goodnight, Sasagawa-san.' He walks away, leaving her just staring blankly at him at the gate. Tsuna forced her to see the reality she's been ignorant to, and she doesn't know how to react to that. There're only two options. Either she'll continue the way she was or come to terms that the world isn't the nice and happy place she wanted it to be, and accept that sometimes, violence is the only solution. It doesn't matter which one she chooses.

Tsuna is fuming as we walk back his hands clench and unclenches overall, he's tense. She really got under his skin. 'She's too naive' He finally spits out once we are out of sight.

'She's never been forced to choose like you did. Because of that she can say such ridiculous things.'

'I know that but—Ahh!' Frustrated he rubs his head and sighs. 'I think I'm just jealous.'

'That she is able to see the world like that?'

'Yeah.' His shoulders slump underneath me in defeat. 'I don't think there was ever a time that I would survive with that kind of belief.'

'That's not a viable option for a lot of people.' I point out.

'I know.' He agrees sounding resigned. 'It doesn't stop me from wishing that the world was different place.'