A/N: Thank you to Kanako Arichi for shipping in this fic. (Before writing this I hardly knew that people did that. But it seems we do. And it makes me squee a little.) Otakuzen- I'm making sqeuaking sounds and failing to dogeza at the moment because I made a promise to myself back in chapter... three I think that I wouldn't talk about the plot in my ANs. Sorry... (Squeak.) Thank you to azure1996 for simple, yet oh so flattering words. Thank you to furionknight for more encouragement. Thank you to xXxMentalPancakesxXx for more shipping (Yup, I'm definitely squee-ing.) Thank you to the lovely Lunakatsuma for the TWENTYY-FOURTH kind, kind review in a row. Thank you to EternalSnow (Guest) for awesome glomping. (Yay! My ribcage! Possibly one of the only things around my heart area that isn't trying to kill me.) And thank you to itachiluv18 for yet more flattery. Seriously people. My cardiac health. Look at the size of this paragraph. ACK.
(Go on, reader-samas, before I faint from all the blood to my head.)
Sunday, Palermo
Vongola Mansion, approximately 11PM
Shin seemed to be holding back a smile as he read the note. "That sounds like my father, all right. He's probably halfway to Switzerland by now."
"I hope he has money for warm clothes," Shou fretted slightly, elbow resting on the table, mouth set in a slight frown. "He's going to be spending a lot of time on Russian tracks."
Reborn yanked down his hat irritably, huffing. "You seem to forget who your father is. Back when he was a mercenary, there wasn't a single bank in Switzerland that didn't know him. He'll be fine."
"He was a mercenary?" Shou asked, eyebrows raising.
"Of a sort. A long, long time ago. How do you think we met?"
Shin gave the scrap of paper back to Reborn, who tucked it away. "Well? What do we tell your little sister?"
"It's not like he left out of disgust or anything. We just tell her the truth. What else?"
Shou agreed with his brother. "She has Kiyoshi-kun and the Wardens to rely on. She'll be fine."
The three men lapsed into a comfortable silence, with that matter done with. A fluffy black cat poked its head out of Shin's coat, who cooed at it quietly as another sandy-colored shorthair mewed from a large outer pocket.
"Shinichi… just how many of those animals did you 'rescue' from the Gatti?" Reborn asked warily.
"A few," the redhead dodged. "The tan one is Nyanko and this one up here is Nyanjiro."
Reborn fixed his gaze. "How many, Shinichi?"
"I couldn't leave them there! These ones were rejected for training into weapons and they would've been drowned off if I hadn't taken them."
"Shinichi."
"Eleven! It's not that many!"
Reborn stared at the eldest Yukimura sibling while Shou stared at Reborn in wonder.
"Incredible, Reborn-san! You actually managed to weasel something out of Shin! Not even Shizuka-san can do that."
Shin sulked a little in his seat. "You'd think that with such a clear masculine figure one shouldn't be able to do the 'mommy tone' like that…" he muttered.
"What was that now? You want me to take away your cats?"
"NOOOO! Anything but that, oh great Reborn-sama of manliness!"
Monday, Palermo
Vongola Mansion, approximately 1AM
Mukuro really didn't know what it was with him and getting up in the middle of the night. If asked, he could probably come up with an elaborate speech about himself being the Mist, the Guardian most closely associated with the deep darkness of the Vongola, but if being perfectly honest, he would just have to say that he had sleep issues.
So it wasn't exactly strange for him to be wandering the hallways in the dead of the night, occasionally lingering around windows to take in the silvery view of the valley under the moonlight.
However, it was the first time he encountered someone doing the same.
One glance in his direction, and Mukuro knew who it was. This was probably strange, seeing as they had interacted a total of two times before, but those magenta eyes were unmistakable.
"I cannot understand how you have hidden your identity from the school for so long, Saya-chan."
"Of all the people to run into… I knew I should have stayed in bed."
Mukuro grinned lazily. While other Wardens had been careful to pay the appropriate amount of respect to the Tenth Generation or just avoid interaction with them completely, Sleet seemed to have no problems with defying both mentalities.
Her previous impressions of the Mist Guardian probably had something to do with that, but he had to give her the credit for not being completely traumatized already.
"Kufu… What has you up at this time of night, little girl?"
Sayaka gave him a wary look. She returned her gaze to the shifting trees outside the window. "Suzume-iinchou and Aoshima-fukuiinchou. It is laughable for me to only realize now, but there are a lot of things that we don't know about them- and worse, they are things that they will not tell us."
Mukuro's grin didn't falter, though his voice lowered. "Have you already forgotten what I have told you? You do not belong here. Your dearest chairmen know this."
Sayaka buried her hands lightly in her hair, rested on either side of her head, as she rested her elbows on one of the sills dividing the floor-to-ceiling window into rectangular sections. "We know," she replied in a smaller voice. "We know we don't belong."
"Then be good children and run along back home," Mukuro said, stating the most obvious thing in the world with undisguised glee. "You can't keep forcing yourselves to do something you know you can't just because of some silly kiddy pact."
Sayaka frowned as the hallway fell back into its deep silence.
"If it were just because of the pact, I would have left Suzume-iinchou a long time ago."
"Really now?" Mukuro hummed. Sayaka quietly ignored the fact that the other was treating her troubles as entertainment material.
"I don't do following people. When Suzume-iinchou and the Detention Committee became an exception, that exception became permanent."
Mukuro seemed even more amused at this. "You really are adorable, aren't you? Still have that idea of loyalty and honor floating around in your pretty little noggin?"
"No, it's floating around in what I like to call my heart. Not that you would know anything about that."
Mukuro's grin turned into the smirk he wore when eying a particularly interesting piece of prey. Their eyes locked once again in challenge, Sleet's blazing magenta to Mukuro's mischievous red and blue.
Monday, Palermo
Vongola Mansion, approximately 9AM
Aoshima had managed to wrangle himself away from Squalo and his disturbing protectiveness for long enough to gather up the Wardens after breakfast for some training.
It seemed the Varia would be sticking around for a bit as extra security for the Ninth and as reconnaissance agents when needed. Otherwise, their presence on Vongola property would be strictly secret.
"Today we'll be working on your hand-to hand combat. As usual, Sleet and Breeze will be helping me."
The respective Wardens stepped out of the line, going up to stand beside Aoshima on either side of him.
"Do remember that they are both black belts in their respective fields. They will be careful, but you must listen to them just as carefully to ensure your own safety. Now. Shall we start with our Jujitsu expert?"
Breeze nodded to Aoshima as he and Sleet stepped off to one side. The male Warden was of relatively average height, with neat blond hair and subtle, but defined muscle tone. Despite many of the other male Wardens being taller and broader, there were very few that would willingly take on this particular comrade.
"Uh, hello everyone. We've only been over throwing so far, right fukuiinchou? Yeah... but there are other important parts of jujitsu, and some of them are stance and balance. We've learnt a lot about balance from fukuiinchou when he taught us ninjutsu, but balance in judo is a bit different from that kind of delicate kind… we're not using weapons, so it's more about finding a stable root for your own body…"
Suzume watched from a second story window with a fond smile as Aoshima and Yamasaki Touya taught the other Wardens about stance and control in the context of close combat. Despite her initial shock at Aoshima teaching the Wardens how to fight, she figured she should probably be grateful now that they found themselves in the nest of the trouble-magnet organization of the millennium.
There was the faintest of breathes behind her, and she smirked. "Hibari Kyouya, you're going to have to do better than that to sneak up on the Chairman of the Detention Committee."
The Discipline Chairman frowned and stepped in line with her, peering down at her Committee.
"They were incredibly brave to follow you all the way here, but incredibly stupid to stay."
Suzume grinned a little at that. "I guess you can say I taught them to walk the fine line between bravery and stupidity a little less thoroughly."
Hibari turned his back to the sparring figures below, holding out a tonfa for Hibird to perch on.
During the stay at the Vongola Mansion, Hibari occasionally lapsed into casual clothes during lulls between attacks- such as he had that particular day, in a thin, deep violet sweater and a pair of absurdly tight grey denim jeans borrowed from Gokudera. Suzume politely did not laugh at how he kept tugging his sweater down in an attempt to make up for the low cut, muttering about visiting town soon.
Suzume and Aoshima had a wide variety of clothes between them, Suzume not owning many skirts or dresses, and so making it possible for the two to pool their wardrobe. They were pretty much the same size however, so everything fit fine, unlike the pants the Tenth Cloud Guardian had to pull up every few minutes.
"I'm sorry, but that is really ridiculous. What happened to your own pants?"
"…Which pair, specifically?"
Suzume made a light snorting sound and shook her head. "Nevermind. Do you want me to lend you something? We're about the same height."
Hibari shifted uncomfortably again, this time tugging at the waistband at his back. "If you would."
Monday, Palermo
Vongola Headquarters, approximately 9AM
Timoteo nodded to Coyote. "And now for the report on our recent attempt at infiltrating the Gatti outpost."
Timoteo, his Guardians, Xanxus, and Reborn were sitting together in the main conference room. There was an empty seat next to Reborn that he occasionally gave bitter looks.
"I'm going to get straight to the point. The Gatti revealed to us a shocking secret weapon during our unexpected invasion. It seems that they, and if not already, then soon, the entire Asphodel Alliance, have learnt to use Dying Will Flames."
Bouche Croquant raised an eyebrow. "Now that I did not see coming," he muttered.
"But how? Where could they possibly have learnt to harness them?" Timoteo asked.
"We do not know yet. But the point is that we have lost a fair amount of our only advantage. From here, even if we call on all of our allies and all of them respond, with the level of skill that the Gatti displayed- if we assume that all the Asphodel ex-Famiglia possess that sort of skill- then we would still be at a fearsome disadvantage."
Reborn pulled his fedora down. "Coyote, calm down. You're starting to lose grammatical sense."
"This is no time to calm down! If we don't take some drastic action, the Vongola has a very real chance of being struck down almost effortlessly!"
The room went silent. Xanxus played with a small flame on the end of his thumb like a lighter, flicking the thumb tip with his index finger and then sliding it back under, repeating this in an uneven rhythm.
Reborn watched this, knowing that from his distance, such a small Flame of Wrath looked like a normal sky flame, but was in fact a perfect fusion of Sky and Storm. The thought of the fusion of flames brought his thoughts to Gokudera and his multi-flame abilities, and then onto the man hailed Prince for his abilities to harness multiple flames to the extent of being able to represent for an entire season's sky-staining colors.
As the room eventually silenced completely, even Xanxus having stopped fidgeting, Reborn heaved a sigh and brought everyone's attention to him.
"It's always that son of a bitch, isn't it?"
Monday, Palermo
Vongola Mansion, approximately 9:30AM
Squalo frowned deeply as he stalked along the hallway. First he hadn't been allowed to attend the damn strategic meeting when he was the Strategic Captain of the Varia, and then he had lost track of his seven-years-younger cousin, who had promised him a spar.
He finally found the door labeled 'K. Aoshima & S. Yukimura', muttering something about manliness and sharing a room with a girl, and listened for voices. When he heard them, he flung the door open.
"VOIIII DAMN BASTARD- wha?"
Squalo was greeted with the sight of Hibari Kyouya looking very confused in a dark purple sweater and a black skirt.
Hibari slid his hand down the garment all the way to the hem to confirm that yes, it was indeed a skirt, looked back up at Squalo, and then gave Suzume the mother of all death glares.
"Whoops. I thought that was Kiyoshi's pair of balloon pants. Sorry. He's too skinny…"
"...You thought."
Squalo had another take on the matter. "Kiyoshi owns balloon pants?"
"Well, not really balloon balloon pants, its part of his shinobi shouzoku. He has a spare pair, and other things we've tried have turned out just as uncomfortable as Gokudera's jeans."
Hibari was still fixated on the first part of that sentence. "Why does Aoshima own a ninja uniform?"
Squalo, leaning on the doorframe and making himself comfortable as Hibari stepped out of the skirt and Suzume handed him another pair of pants to try, was the one to explain that one.
"When he was little he had a hard time learning Italian, and at that time the only proper Varia member that spoke fluent Japanese was an expert in ninjutsu. Kiyoshi took to it like a fish to water."
"Ah. That pair fits fine. They're mine, so that saves me explaining to Kiyoshi as well."
Hibari peered down at the pair of track-pants and sighed internally. At least it wasn't as obvious he was wearing women's clothing.
Monday, Palermo
Gatti Outpost, approximately 6PM
"Did you see the looks on their faces, Felice? As if the world had ended the moment another Famiglia uncovered the secrets of this Will Flame." A relatively young girl with deep, dark maroon hair had crystal blue eyes alight with mirth.
The young man standing beside where she was seated at her desk bowed lightly, narrowly dodging a falling piece of the dilapidated ceiling, brushing plaster out of his dark brown hair. "Yes, my lady. It was beautiful."
"And now they shall feel it too, no? They will finally get a taste of their own medicine and know what it is like to feel so, so small."
Felice noticed his mistress's eyes travelling to the framed photo on her desk, the glass long having been shattered and tossed away. It was a photo of a beautiful redheaded woman beside a tall, stately young Don. He had been the fifth Boss- and the last.
The servant gently flipped the portrait face-down onto the desk, and helped his mistress out of her chair. "Come, my lady. We have troops to train."
"Felice."
He obediently stopped and turned to face her.
"I will take glee in their struggle. I will laugh at their desperation. I will be happy as they fall and crumble into even less than we are, as they feel several times over the pain of all those like us, who they have sent wandering into the meaningless fields of Asphodel."
Felice's expression did not change as she walked past him, curls bouncing innocently over her shoulder as she turned her cold, empty eyes away from him.
"Please do not think less of me."
Monday, Palermo
Vongola Mansion, approximately 8PM
Reborn sighed as he stepped into the library, and closed the door after him. Aoshima and Suzume, playing chess exactly where he knew they would be, turned to him in surprise as he sat down in front of the empty fireplace, and beckoned them to come to him.
"Aoshima. Suzume. I have something to ask of you that will not be easy to agree to."
"Oh dear," Suzume said softly, as she sat in an armchair, Kiyoshi leaning against the armrest.
"Long story short, we, the Vongola, are in deep trouble. The Asphodel Alliance has learnt how to use Dying Will Flames, and we've lost our only advantage. Now they undoubtedly overwhelm us. We need to regain that advantage, and fast, because now that we've discovered their secret weapon, they will be trying their hardest to attack before we're ready."
Aoshima took a seat on the ground next to Suzume's feet, sensing this was going to be a long one.
"We've been discussing back and forth what we should do, but one consensus is that we need your father, Suzume, back. He is undoubtedly one of, if not the best of Flame wielders of the century. We intend to try and convince him to teach some fighters how to wield multiple flames and use them in battle."
"If you're asking me to help bring him back, I'm sorry, but I will not do that. My father's choice is his own."
"No, that's not it. I can take care of that later. But one topic of concern that we also discussed is how long it will take someone to learn to wield flames Seiji's way. Older non-flame fighters will have more issues lighting their flames for the first time, and experienced flame users such as the Guardians and their teams will take almost just as much time trying to relearn after years of habit."
Suzume didn't really like where this was going, but she sat through it anyways.
"Of course then there's Tsuna and his guardians, but they're currently busy training their Vongola Gear, which in my opinion they should stick with. So what I wanted to ask you to was…"
"Was?"
Reborn pulled his fedora lower. "Lend us your numbers. When I get Seiji to return, please let him teach your Wardens how to wield multiple flames and train them as our new army."
There was silence.
"They are young, they are fresh, and they obviously have a lot of potential. I am asking you to better your Wardens so they can fight better in this war."
"So they can be used as guinea pig soldiers for the Vongola," Suzume said with no intonation. Reborn knew not to correct her too hastily.
"Suzume…If they are going to stay, they need to be strong. This is the perfect arrangement."
"This will be putting my Wardens in unthinkable danger." The hitman almost visibly blanched at the lilting, hissing tone that was creeping into Suzume's voice. He had feared this.
But he was Reborn, and he always made sure that he got his way.
"We'll do it, iinchou."
Suzume's eyes went back to their normal state in a flash as she whipped around to see her Wardens filing in, White leading them.
"Reborn-san already told us everything we need to know about what Flames are and what we'll be doing. We want to do it. We want to be strong for you… and for Sawada-kaichou's… Famiglia."
Suzume slowly turned back to Reborn. But her irises stayed normal, so he figured he wasn't going to die just yet.
"Well played, Reborn. But do you know the consequences?"
...So close.