Written March 30 2016

Edited January 8 2020

The hitman lowered his fedora at the brunette's words.

'Child experimentation... How can Tsuna act so nonchalant about it as if he hadn't just escaped from such a fate...'

The hitman took in the brunette's tired, yet calm expression.

'Maybe he's so calm because to him ,this may be a somewhat normal occurrence... This isn't good...'

"Ah!"

The hitman raised a brow at the brunette's sudden exclamation.

"What?"

"You still have my knife! I was worried that you may have tossed it or handed it over to Vongola for testing!"

The brunette replied as he looked towards the knife that was still in the hitman's hands.

'I guess it's a good thing that I decided not to hand away his knife...'

"It's interesting, where did you get it?"

'I've never seen anything like it before...'

Reborn inquired as he handed the brunette back the knife, honey eyes were gleaming as the teen weighed the knife back and forth in the palms of his hands.

"It was a gift from someone very special to me, that's all I can say Reborn"

The brunette replied as he pocketed the knife, the hitman noted that the boy's faded injuries were now completely gone.

'Someone special... Maybe he'll tell me eventually when I gain more of his trust'

"Tsuna, why did you toss me your knife if it was so special to you? You could have freed yourself with it"

The brunette smiled sadly at the hitman's words.

"You would have been stuck there until I freed you if I didn't toss you my knife, I didn't need to free myself because I allowed myself to be caught on purpose"

'On purpose?... He could have been killed!'

"Why?"

The brunette shrugged before coughing, he winced slightly.

"I wanted to deal with that group, they had been bothering me for a while and I was getting annoyed, so I figured, why not?"

The brunette's voice was beginning to become hoarse from the continuous talking.

'That's a very dangerous mindset...'

"It's been hours... I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't stay somewhere like that willingly"

The brunette cringed at the hitman's words, confirming his suspicions.

"What did they do to you?"

Honey eyes flashed with dread as the brunette bit his lip and looked away.

"I'd rather not talk about it... The sacrifices were necessary for me to get rid of those people... They would have gone after Ie-San eventually..."

The hitman clenched his fists and lowered his fedora at the brunette's words.

'Why the hell does he keep saying his pain is necessary?! He's just a teen, yet he claims that its normal for him to suffer in order for Baka-Ie to be happy! He shouldn't have to suffer so much!'

The hitman felt uneasy, he didn't like how the boy who, despite his mysterious tendencies, was a sky pure enough to make his flames cry out for him, disregarded himself.

"Dame-Tsuna, it matters. There is no reason for you to just accept pain"

The hitman stated through clenched teeth, he wanted to smack the boy silly for his idiotic thoughts, however he doubted that doing so would do any good.

The brunette froze with a look of complete shock before a breathtaking smile graced his lips as he picked up the tiny hitman and hugged him, startling Reborn in the process.

"Thank you Reborn..."

Tsuna whispered softly, the hitman allowed himself to relax into the brunette's chest as he felt soft unseen sky flames wrap around him.

'He truly is a worthy sky for Vongola if he's able to unconsciously utilize the harmonizing factor of his flames to such an extent'

After a few moments, the hitman hopped out of the brunette's arms and stood on the boy's knee.

'He's an emotional person it seems, however he hides those emotions in front of a lot of people...'

"Don't thank me Dame-Tsuna, you're just being an idiot for having messed up priorities"

The brunette blushed lightly in embarrassment.

'I wonder why Tsuna was attacked...'

Takeshi was running around randomly, for he didn't have any information to work off of except for the fact that his new friend had been taken.

He paused before crossing a street when he spotted a certain skylark.

"The baby carnivore is safe, proceed to your house"

The baseball fan tilted his head to the side in confusion.

'Mah, Hibari is awesome, he knows everything!'

"What the hell are you doing here bastard?!"

The bomber growled as soon as Hibari hopped down from the top of a streetlight.

"The infant told me that the baby-carnivore is safe, return home"

Without another word, the skylark took off into the shadows leaving a dumbfounded Gokudera.

'What if that bastard is lying?!...But he said that Reborn told him...'

Reborn put away his Leon phone after he finished calling the skylark, hoping that the demonic perfect might stir up some trouble with the hot headed bomber.

"We should head home"

'He needs to rest if he's to show me some of his skills tomorrow'

The hitman stated as he noted the brunette's obvious fatigue.

The teen nodded in agreement as he planted his hands back against the wall behind him and used it as leverage to stand up.

"Yeah, mom is probably worried..."

Tsuna breathed softly, the hitman raised a brow.

'He's worried about worrying his mother? Nana seemed to be quite reluctant to worry about him though...'

The brunette caught Reborn's curious gaze and smiled softly.

"Mom cares about me, she just needs to pay more attention to Ie-San to keep him happy"

The hitman nodded in understanding.

'Sibling jealousy is a truly disgusting thing...'

"After seeing your very strange healing properties, I understand why mama doesn't freak out or call your stupid father whenever you get hurt"

'Eventually weird instances become normal if they happen often enough...'

The brunette nodded as he tried to stifle a soft chuckle.

"Yeah... In the beginning mom used to freak out and become completely panicked"