Title: Old Soul
Summary: Reborn is an old man who hadn't even glanced sideways at Japanese culture before he bought a one-way plane ticket over. Tsuna thinks this might almost be more stressful than the Mafia thing.
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"I'm home!" Tsuna calls out, trotting into his house after a day out with Hayato and Takeshi – thankfully Reborn free.
"Your mum and Bianchi went out," Reborn says from the couch, looking up from his newspaper to send a flat expression at Tsuna. "Take the kids away before I stab one of them."
I-Pin, Lambo and Fuuta are lying on the floor in front of Reborn with crayons and coloured pencils scattered around them like a unicorn threw up a rainbow everywhere. All three have their clothes wrinkled like Reborn was carrying them around by their collars, each also have an ankle connected to a ten kilogram weight to stop them from running around, and they're scribbling so madly that the books have torn out pages.
Tsuna's eyes go wide and he dives forward. "What the hell! Why'd you tell them to draw on my stuff?" He snatches away the manga the children were destroying.
The kids make mutinous noises but a day with Reborn has taught them to behave. (They are going to immediately shake off their indoctrination as soon as Nana gets home.)
"The kids were annoying me," Reborn says carelessly, folding up the newspaper and laying it beside him. "I just gave them one of your colouring books."
"These are manga!"
Reborn stares up at Tsuna with big black eyes, not a hint of understanding sparking in them. "Manga?"
"What part of that sentence is confusing for you?" Tsuna cries, incredulous.
Reborn frowns. "I started learning Japanese literally a month before I knocked on your door. Give me a couple of free passes please."
Tsuna huffs and looks down at his manga. "It's - it's...avengers? Superman. Batman. DC and Marvel."
"A manga is a comic book?"
"Yes!" Tsuna says but then becomes a little confused. "No? Sort of. A - a graphic novel."
"They're all picture books at heart," Reborn deadpans.
Tsuna splutters. "That's like saying … that you can drink all liquids."
"You can," Reborn points out simply. "I mean the bleach might not go down smooth but if you try really hard-"
"You know what I mean," Tsuna whines. "There's a difference."
"Calm down," Reborn hums in amusement. "Either way, I hope you got those books cheap because the coloured ink didn't print."
"It's meant to be black and white."
"... so you can colour it in?"
"No!" Tsuna shouts and huffs in outrage as he storms off for his room, clutching the manga to his chest defensively. "Ugh, stupid foreigner."
Reborn watches him go with a raised eyebrow. Reborn has kicked that teenager around daily and this is what sets Tsuna off? That boy needs to get his priorities straight.
"Reborn?" Fuuta calls out.
The kids are sitting up and staring at the hitman expectantly now that their entertainment was stolen by Tsuna.
"So who wants to play Russian Roulette?"
"Hey, Tsuna?" Reborn calls out as he sits up in his hammock holding the manga he's reading. They're not so bad, as it turns out.
"Hn?"
Reborn hops onto the floor and walks over to the bed where the teen was reading manga. He flips his own book around before pointing at a speech bubble. "What does this word mean?"
Tsuna glances over it. It's some gag manga. He doesn't really remember buying it so it might be one he borrowed from Takeshi. Tsuna's eyes land on the word Reborn is pointing at.
Tsuna snaps upright, grabs the book and hurls it through the window.
Reborn blinks.
Tsuna purses his lips. "We … should get started on my maths homework."
"You don't have any."
"Great," Tsuna forces out. "We can get a head start on studying for next week's topic then."
"What does the word mean?" Reborn demands again.
"I – I'll tell you when you're older," Tsuna promises.
Reborn is starting to get annoyed. "I could be your grandfather."
"Yeah, well, come back when you can be my great grandfather," Tsuna fires back.
"I could just look it up."
"It's really racist," Tsuna lies through his fucking teeth.
"Oh," Reborn muses. "To who?"
"To Japanese," Tsuna continues. "I'm actually surprised it got printed. I guess it just slipped past?"
Reborn hums but he quickly loses interest in something so boring, moving to the table and sitting on one of the cushions. "What are you waiting for? Get your maths textbook out."
Tsuna doesn't even care that he has to do more work because oh thank fuck he doesn't have to explain to Reborn what bukkake means.
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A/N: Reborn is like a sixty-something year old man, right? Now imagine Tsuna explaining memes.
