Author: The Plot Bunny Whisperer
Title: Colorire
Rating: T (Cuz, like… Reborn.)
Genre: Gen, Family
Summary: (Soulmate!AU; Gen) Everyone in the world is born colorblind, destined to only see color once they've met the eyes of their soulmate. Tsuna meets his soulmates one by one, and gains the ability to see a new color with each first meeting.
Pairing(s): None. Zip. Nada. You see Romance as a genre?
Warnings: Random swearing. Violence, maybe? Dunno. Can't write fight scenes to save my life.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't care, don't sue.
AN: Sorry, I'm kind of pushing it but I had family over and they're exhausting. It's still technically the 11th for, like, another hour where I am, so it's not late yet. :)
Updates for FFN will be on the 1st and 11th and 21st of the month, unless I'm less than four chapters ahead or sick or something. My tumblr (plunniewhisperer) updates first, usually weekly, followed by AO3 within 24-48 hrs if you don't want to wait. (Note: except for right now, because part 6 isn't finished.)
So, enjoy!
Colorire
Part 5. Azzurro
"A vacation?" Tsuna glances at his calendar and shoots a look of confusion at his Sun. "…but it's October."
"The perfect time to go."
"You've been training hard, lately, and after that minor incident we decided you could use some time to unwind." Tsuna's mouth quirks in amusement at Fon's serenely spoken understatement.
The 'minor incident' of his capturing the escaped Vendicare prisoners still rankles his first three Guardians, he knows. The state of Tsuna's Flame depletion had left him achy and exhausted for several days, and they weren't happy Tsuna had decided to go to school and continue training despite it.
(It wasn't enough that he had won. Not nearly. Mukuro was only the beginning and he had survived through sheer dumb luck and Leon's assistance in the form of gloves he hasn't removed for anything less than bathing since. He is supposed to be the Boss of the strongest group of Flame users the Mafia world can produce. He can't be that if he is only surviving what that world throws at him by the skin of his teeth.
He is their soulmate, above all else, so dealings with a little exhaustion is worth strengthening the weakest link that he is amongst them.)
They had also been most displeased by the message the Ninth had sent Reborn. What it amounted to was that Nono was satisfied with how well Tsuna had completed the task although disappointed with how long it had taken. Tsuna hadn't minded any of that, though he had felt annoyed that Nono had also mentioned his 'coup' of securing the loyalty of the Ranking Prince.
Tsuna hadn't helped Fuuta because it would better the Famiglia, he had done it because Fuuta deserved to feel safe and not used. The look in Fuuta's eyes when Tsuna turned down his offer to make rankings for him and promising that any rankings he made would be because Fuuta himself wanted to make them had Tsuna wishing he could smash Mukuro's face into the floor all over again – which was saying something, as Tsuna didn't consider himself a violent or vengeful person. For Nono to suggest he might have done it for any other reason than Fuuta's own happiness had Tsuna's already low estimation of the man decrease another notch.
(Nono's appraisal of Tsuna's current efficiency hadn't been the only thing to upset his soulmates. The letter had ended with a private message to Reborn expressing the Ninth's disappointment and subtle recrimination that Tsuna had yet to pull any Guardians to him – as far as he was aware. Reborn had taken that particular bit as a personal slight. Perhaps it hadn't helped that Viper had chosen to point out that Reborn had been the one to decide not to mention Tsuna's primary status as the Sky Arcobaleno, however.
Tsuna had despaired over the state of his backyard afterwards, although Mama had been pleased with her new garden plot.)
"We leave on Friday and will return Sunday evening. A cruise ship will take us to our destination."
"I get seasi–"
"It will be an excellent chance to learn how to overcome that," Reborn says over him. "A Boss must learn how to overcome his weaknesses."
"But I've already missed so much school, and–"
"You're well caught up with your schoolwork," Verde interrupts from the corner of the room. Tsuna eyes the beaker in his hand warily, a little nervous about the smoke pouring from the top. "Because of the compensations I made due to your training schedule, you're even slightly ahead."
"But Hibari-s–"
"Has been informed that you will not be in school that day." Tsuna blanches, wondering exactly how much Reborn had annoyed the irascible prefect; by the smirk on his face, he could only assume the answer was 'a lot'. Reborn found far too much amusement in riling up Hibari-san, usually to Tsuna's detriment.
"Viper–"
"The tickets were free." Viper doesn't look up from their calculator, uninterested in the conversation.
"But–"
"Mama is coming too."
"But–"
"The brats will have to come with us, of course."
"What?! But–!"
"They have promised to be on their best behavior during the trip." The 'or I'll throw them overboard' went unsaid.
"I–"
"It will be very relaxing."
Tsuna tosses a candy at him from the pile on the table, huffing when Reborn catches it in his mouth with a pleased expression.
"Stop interrupting me!"
"I will when you stop trying to give me stupid excuses."
"You do not wish to take a trip with us?" Fon asks, adopting a sad moue. Tsuna cringes at the look, even knowing that Fon was teasing (read: manipulating) him. He sighs in defeat.
"Of course I do."
"Wonderful!" Fon smiles cheerfully.
Tsuna jumps, startled at the loud cheering from outside his door. It flies open suddenly, three little bodies tumbling inside. Undaunted, Lambo and I-pin get up again, running around the table in happy circles while singing about vacations, boats, islands, and candy, Fuuta joining in a moment later.
Tsuna looks at his calendar again, biting his lip. A vacation with everyone sounded nice, actually, even if it was in the middle of the school year. His only reservation really had been that Friday would be the twelfth, making Sunday the fourteenth…. Meaning they would be spending his birthday tired from traveling instead of how he had wanted to spend it: home, with his friends and family, watching movies and enjoying his mom's special recipe strawberry chocolate caramel cake.
I suppose I don't mind, he thinks, smiling softly as he watches the younger kids laughing as they start an impromptu game of tag. They seem really excited, and it does sound fun. Besides, Mama deserves some time to relax too.
Cheered, Tsuna allows the kids to pull him into the game, chasing after the happily shrieking trio as they stampede out of the room.
Behind him, unseen, four cursed infants grin smugly.
—
"Move it, you maggots! What do you think this is, a tea party?!"
From his perch high above them in a tree, Colonnello scowls deeply at the small group of Mafioso on the ground below. Next to him, his animal partner screeches in agreement, making the already scrambling men panic even more. He sighs when one of them sets off one of the various traps scattered across the training ground, the small explosive device catapulting the unfortunate man into a tree.
"They just don't make them like they used to," he mutters, shaking his head in disappointment.
Falco twitters, sharp yellow eyes following the path of a second man, who trips over a hidden wire and ends up suspended ten feet from the ground in a net. Two others go to the trapped man's aid, only for one to be knocked flat by a flying log and the other to be caught in a second net trap. The last man in the group looks at his fallen and trapped comrades, whimpers, and runs screaming from the clearing. Falcons twitters again, this time clearly in laughter.
Colonnello groans and slaps a hand over his eyes.
"Pathetic." Scowling ferociously, the small instructor of Mafia Land's training grounds jumps down to the clearing and eyes four men in disgust. "If this is seriously the best your Famiglia can send me, I gotta start wondering how the hell you idiots have survived this long."
Angrily, the first trapped man, the one who had been chosen to lead this group, draws himself up as dignified as he can whilst being suspended upside down from a branch. The pained moaning of the man who had set off the explosive from below him and the cursing next to him as the other grunt manages to tangle himself more and more in the net as he struggled made the group leader deflate like a popped balloon and look away in embarrassment.
"Ugh. I can't deal with any more stupid today. We'll continue tomorrow morning. Gather the other maggots and return here at seven hundred sharp," he orders.
"Uh… how do we get down… sir?" the man asks shakily, sweat dripping down his cheek.
Colonnello withdraws a pocket knife, the combination of the gleam in his eyes and the sound of the blade popping open causing the man to gulp in fear and regret asking. He whistles for Falco, tossing the knife in the Mafioso's direction as his partner lifts him into the air. Without having to look, he knows he hit his target by the loud thump, yelping, and additional pained noises rising from the ground.
"Bright an early, maggots!" he yells down to them. "Then we'll have some real fun!" He allows himself a sadistic chuckle at the whimpers that answer him.
To be extra certain that the men he was hired to give supplemental training would actually show up, he instructs the hotel to give them an early wakeup call and make sure they were 'escorted' to the train. (It wouldn't be the first time someone had tried to do a runner; better to head it off at the start.) He wouldn't bother, normally; it will only shame and cause problems for their Famiglia if they run away without causing any detriment to himself, but he feels especially annoyed today for whatever reason. As the cause of some of that annoyance (and for the crime of being so stupid), he was going to train those men until they were less pathetic or kill them trying.
To get rid of some steam, he hijacks one of the training sessions for island security and spends a couple of hours making their lives miserable. While it cheers him up some, he still feels twitchy and somewhat off balance. He may not have a Sky's vaunted intuition, but he has always trusted his gut – and his gut is telling him that there is a storm of sorts approaching.
He gazes into the clear bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight, fingers wrapped loosely around the phone in his pocket. He has a sudden urge to call Lal, to hear her voice and let her cool logic soothe away the itchiness in his mind. If anyone could talk away his paranoia it would be her. She would tell him he was being stupid and threaten to put him through training again and… yell at him for breaking their promise over something so silly.
He releases the phone with a grimace, tearing his eyes away from the sky. Yeah, she would definitely yell at him. It was probably wasn't something he needed to be worried about anyway.
And if it was… well, then he'll just cross that bridge when it comes.
Back in his rooms at Mafia Land HQ, he sighs, slumping into his favorite armchair with a glass of wine and that week's paperwork stacked on the table next to it. He makes a face at the pile, debating the merits of ignoring it or getting it done and out of the way. Paperwork was certainly his least favorite part of his job, necessary evil or no.
With a grumble, he grabs the top folder on the pile and spends the rest of his evening getting it done and ignoring the ice creeping up his spine and the weight of his phone in his pocket.