A/N: I'm sorry to inform you good people that I have not regained any motivation towards uploading this, I don't know the exact cause and it is making me less than happy.
I was super happy reading all the comments I got, you have no idea just how happy it made me, I'm usually not a very expressive person when it comes to things like that but let me tell ya, I was giggling like a school girl I was so happy.
Anyway, I won't keep you from this any longer, you've waited two weeks for it, so here you go.
Please,
Enjoy.
Scene 37:
Lighting Fires
The woman had taken to pacing around the room.
She'd been at it for the past couple of minutes, constantly walking in a circle. She had been going at it for so long that Tsuna could even see a visible circle in the ground created from the absence of the dust she had kicked out of the way as her legs kept moving.
Tsuna was legitimately worrying about those heels she was wearing.
The woman had her perfectly manicured hand pressed over her mouth, her index finger twitching against her cheek.
During this entire time, Tsuna just sat there in silence, watching as the woman walked turn, after turn, after turn, after turn.
She could practically see the wheels turning in her head.
She must have ruined something for the woman by revealing that she knew her brother.
Not just knowing him, close to him.
The woman ruffled her hair for what must have been the twentieth time in the last ten minutes, growing all the more irritated as the time passed on.
There was something she couldn't decide on… but what was it?
Suddenly the door crashed open, making the two women inside jump in surprise.
They had been so caught up in their own thoughts that they hadn't even heard the jiggling of keys before the door had opened.
The red-haired man from before burst inside, this time empty-handed.
Having been startled out of her thoughts, the woman turned towards the red-head.
"Tony… what are you-" she didn't get to finish her sentence as… Tony? Had obviously forgotten everything about her presence.
He stormed into the room, shoving the woman aside when she approached him, marching right up to Tsuna.
The woman crashed painfully to the ground, groaning as she turned towards the man that had just sparked her anger.
She turned just in time to see Tony pause in front of Tsuna, panting as he looked down at her before his hand shot out, fingers clenching around her messy tendrils of hair. She watched as the girl's face, caked in dried blood and splattered with bruised, contorted in semi-concealed pain as Tony gave the back of her head a short pull.
He quickly followed the pull with a violent yank, forcing the girl to her shaky, unstable feet.
Drugs and legs that had long since fallen asleep will do that to you.
The chains rattled as Tsuna brought up her hands to clutch at Tony's wrists, using her own muscles to lighten the force of which he used to pull her up.
The man crouched slightly, bringing his face on level with Tsuna's pain-ridden one.
Their eyes came inches away from one another.
His eyes spoke of absolute murder.
The man gave Tsuna a violent shake, causing her to no longer be able to control the sounds of pain locked up in her throat.
They escaped her as she was repeatedly smashed up against the concrete wall.
Finally, he brought her battered face back towards him.
"What is your Guild planning?" he asked, his voice bearing a tone of absolute fury as he stared down at her.
A confused expression managed to form through Tsuna's obvious pain.
What are you talking about?"
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" He suddenly screamed, shaking her once again.
Behind them, the woman slowly pulled herself off of the ground, eyes never once leaving Tony's back as her expression morphed into a frown.
The man grabbed hold of Tsuna's upper arms tightly, brutally shoving her up against the wall a few inches off of the ground, making her legs dangle in the air as she let out yet another pained whimper, keeping her eyes firmly closed.
"YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME!?" He screamed again, pulling Tsuna back from the wall only to slam her against it once again, this time making the back of her head crash into the concrete. Her sight turned slightly blurry. "DO YOU!?" He pushed his face close to hers, his breath hitting her nose.
She probably would have gotten terribly sick at the smell of it, but she was in way too much pain for her to even properly register the smell.
Tony lowered his voice into a slight whisper.
"Let me tell you something." he breathed, making sure that the two of them were almost nose-to-nose. "You're in no position to do so."
That was the final straw for the woman.
"Tony!" she called out, her voice filled with the amount of annoyance she was feeling at the moment.
Thankfully, the red-head responded to her call.
He turned to look at the woman from over his shoulder.
The woman let out a long sigh, ruffling her hair.
"The girl knows nothing," she said, putting her hands on her hips as she stared intently at the man in front of her, her face clear of any form of deception. "Apparently, her tutor had chosen to keep everything sans the nature and theory of Anima a secret from her." her eyes fell pointedly on Tsuna as she was still pressed up against the wall. "She knows nothing."
Shocked, the man's grip on Tsuna loosened, allowing her to fall back to the ground, though she remained standing, pressing herself up as close to the concrete as possible.
For a moment, the man just stared at the woman in open shock, then, slowly, he turned his attention back to Tsuna, allowing his eyes to roam over her trembling frame.
Suddenly, he burst out laughing. A high, borderline maniacal laugh. He even threw his head back, allowing himself to laugh at the full capacity of his lungs.
Tsuna wouldn't be surprised if the whole building heard him.
Finally, he calmed down enough to once again grab her by the forearms, pushing her up against the wall. Thankfully, this time he allowed her to keep her feet on the ground.
"Is it nice to be ignorant?" he asked after a moment of silence.
"It most definitely isn't," Tsuna answered quickly, almost under her breath.
A smirk played on the man's lips.
"Pity," he said, brushing a thumb just under Tsuna's lower lip.
For a short, frightening moment, Tsuna was legitimately afraid that he was going to kiss her, but he let her go completely, stepping away from her with an almost cocky air to the way he walked, turning so that he may look at both woman.
"Well, it's been a pleasure ladies," he said before swiftly exiting the room, closing the heavy door behind him. The woman waited for the tell-tale sound of the door locking before she let out a loud groan, fishing a small mirror out of her pocket to look over any potential damage done from her tumble to the floor.
"And he's gone." she breathed, obviously annoyed as she adjusted her hair in her reflection.
Sliding down to the ground, Tsuna stared at the door, blinking.
"Why did he come here in the first place?" she found herself asking.
The woman threw a disgusted look towards the door, putting the mirror back into her pocket, picking back up on her pacing.
"They're probably having trouble establishing a link," she answered, a nonchalant demeanor surrounding her frame, it didn't really work.
"What do you mean by that?" Tsuna asked slowly.
The woman turned back to her.
"We were paid to kidnap you." Tsuna's eyes widened. She had been told those words before, but there was just something about the way the woman said them that made it sound all the more serious. Then again. She had just been thrown into a wall, hadn't she?" "We were told to keep you locked up until we made contact with the man the execution would take place in front of."
Tsuna couldn't help but frown.
She couldn't for the life of her think of the one person who would care about her life enough that they would care if she was publicly executed over camera.
Aside from her father of course, but why would they target her to get to her father?
"Who were you trying to contact?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.
The woman froze in her pacing, looking at Tsuna as she slowly allowed her arms to fall back to her sides.
"Vongola Nono, Warden Timoteo DiLeone."
At the sound of the name, Tsuna felt herself fill up with a sense of warmth, even though the title given to the name made no sense to her, not to mention that the name in and of itself didn't ring any form of bell.
Okay, that was a lie.
The name rang with familiarity in her ears, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where she had heard it before.
But a DiLeone… a relative of hers?
Had she met him sometime in her earlier years?
A couple of more questions were added to the pile inside of her head.
"How long do you think you can keep this up?" Reborn asked, watching the group of men furiously typing away at the multitude of computers set up inside the cabin, feeling just the tiniest bit better at the knowledge that this would at the very least buy them some truly valuable time.
"For as long as you need," Dino answered.
Reborn turned towards his old student, opening his mouth to speak again.
"I know." Dino cut him off, raising a hand in the air between them, a serious look on his face. "As soon as there is a change, I'll call you," he promises, meeting the twin pools of black that were Reborn's eyes.
Letting out a long breath Reborn nodded.
"Good," he said, turning around to face the three teenage boys waiting for him by the door, all practically radiating restless energy, wanting to set off already. "Okay boys, let's go," he said, adjusting the brim of his hat as he stalked over to them.
Walking out of the cabin, the three teenagers followed swiftly after him.
Reborn had just opened the door of his car when he saw his old student rushing out of the cabin, grabbing Hibari by the wrist, turning him around towards him.
The black-haired boy violently yanked himself out of the grip, glaring up at the blonde.
Dino was most definitely not deterred.
"Try not to injure that pretty face of yours now," he said sweetly, tapping once on the tip of the prefect's nose.
Oh…
Why oh why did Dino have to pick NOW to make his attraction known?
Reborn had fully expected the prefect to glare at his former student or full-on attacking him depending on the level of irritation he felt at the comment.
Much to his surprise, a light flush flashed over the eighteen-year-old's cheeks for a split second, barely noticeable, before his eyes narrowed.
"I'll bite you to death..." he growled lowly, glaring up at the man.
Dino leaned even closer to Hibari, a teasing smirk playing on his lips.
"I'll look forward to it..."
That was when the blow Reborn had expected came, sending Dino staggering away from the shorter, younger male. But it wasn't a blow that came from a place of irritation or anger, it was a blow spawning from embarrassment. The reaction of someone that had never been flirted with before and had no idea how to react to it.
Dino just chuckled, rubbing at his aching jaw as he walked back towards the cabin.
Not before he threw a wink to the prefect.
For a short moment, Hibari just stood there, staring in what could only be described as shock before he shoved himself out of that state, turning back towards the car and stalking over to it with quick steps.
He glanced at Reborn from the corner of his eye once he was close enough.
"Your ex-student..." he started slowly, quickly turning away. "He's-?"
"Bisexual." Reborn finished the teenager's sentience swiftly, opening the door for the prefect. "And very flaunting of said sexuality." seeing that Hibari's head was close to short-circuiting, Reborn gave the eighteen-year-old a shove between his shoulder-blades towards the door.
That seemed to do the trick.
Within a few seconds, everyone was inside the car and speeding away from the cabin.
Tsuna stared at the woman again.
She'd long since stopped pacing and had taken to constantly picking up her gem from the table, fiddle with it before putting it back down without doing anything.
She was getting dizzy just looking at her.
"When was the last time you saw Gokudera-kun?" she found herself asking, the silence getting too heavy for even her socially stunted mind, shifting where she sat to try and get the feeling back in her sleeping limbs.
The woman startled, head snapping towards Tsuna.
She just looked at her for what felt like ages
Finally, she sighed.
"He was eleven." she leaned back into the chair, picking up the gem again, restlessly fiddling with it as he scanned the cracks in the concrete wall behind Tsuna. "I had just returned back from a lesson with a local herb expert when Hayato ran into my room." she grimaced as though the memory was physically painful for her. "He was hysterical." she slammed the gem down on the table again, optioning to nervously fiddle with her fingers instead.
When was the last time she talked about this?
"He went to grab me but as I was, at the time, covered in substances that weren't that good and would have hurt him, I pushed him away." her voice broke. Shutting her eyes, she shook her head, her face lowering to the ground. "The last I saw of him was his hurt face before he ran out of the room."
She was trying not to cry.
"Have you looked for him?" Tsuna asked softly.
The woman threw a quick look at her.
"I have," she admitted, letting out a long sigh. "It's just too bad that he's so intelligent." despite the words the used, she sounded proud. "He knows how to cover his tracks."
Tsuna couldn't help but smile at the woman's voice.
"You love him."
For a long moment, they just looked at each other, at ease for once.
"He may only be my half-brother." the woman breathed, leaning her head back to peer up at the ceiling. "But he is my only brother." a light smile spread across her lips, a dreamy kind of expression in her eyes. "And I have loved him from the moment Father brought him home."
A car sped through the old, deserted, forgotten part of Namimori.
Motor having silencers built into it, the car made absolutely no sound apart from the cracking of wheels on gravel as it pulled in to a stop in the shadow of a building to a large, weathered, half-collapsed abandoned old brewery sporting large windows higher up on the walls and a roof that had gigantic holes spread out over various areas.
It was a terribly unstable looking location that no one would dare to go inside.
Which is why it would be the perfect location to hide a victim of kidnapping.
Swiftly, Reborn killed the engine.
"This is the place?" Gokudera asked, looking at the building barely noticeable around the corner.
"According to Dino, it is," Reborn answered, eyes narrowing as he reached in under the dashboard, unlatching a specially crafted gun he had strapped underneath.
An annoyed sigh could be heard behind them as Reborn looked through the several magazines of bullets he was packing on him.
"How can we even trust that blonde?" the eighteen-year-old asked, his voice asked, voice practically dripping with the underlying annoyance he held for Reborn's former student, not even bothering to try and hide it.
Reborn turning his eyes from the bullets.
Hibari had developed a strong dislike towards Dino the second he had laid eyes on him, for reasons that none of the others could even begin to imagine. Dino's last stunt before they left hadn't exactly served to endear him to the eighteen-year-old. Dino on the other hand… he had behaved as though Hibari's obvious hatred was little more than a newborn baby's screaming.
It's unfortunate and all that a baby would cry, but as it is a newborn, the only emotion you can feel through the screams is absolute joy at its very existence.
Reborn let out a sigh.
Dino had always been attracted to those others would deem unapproachable.
Reborn glanced over his shoulder at the gray-eyed boy.
"Dino and his men are currently working their asses off back at the cabin," he explained, sounding as though he had already repeated the same phrase a hundred times, and who was to say he hadn't said a similar sentence in similar situations before. "They are stopping the enemy from making contact with the Vongola Warden." eyes ac cold as steel, Reborn jammed the magazine in place, releasing the safety on his gun.
Behind him, the teenagers stiffened.
"They were probably the only one's keeping Tsuna alive right now." he peered at the prefect in the review mirror. "Don't let your confused hormones get the better of you." if it was possible, Hibari looked even angrier.
A light groan in irritation sounded from behind him, letting him know that Reborn had won the argument.
As per usual.
Hiding his victorious smirk, Reborn turned around to face the teenagers.
"You boys remember the plan?" he asked, his one eyebrow raised as it daring the teenagers to contradict him.
With another groan and an eye roll, Hibari threw the door open.
Before he could walk out however, Yamamoto latched onto his elbow forcing him into a stop.
It could have been their imagination, but they could have sworn the air got colder.
Slowly, Hibari turned around to face the athlete.
"Are you sure you should be doing this?" Yamamoto found himself asking despite the look of absolute contempt the prefect was throwing him.
Reborn however… could see the faintest trace of pink along Hibari's cheeks.
Hibari ripped his arm away, narrowing his eyes at the athlete.
"Keep your hands to yourself, and your priorities straight." he jumped out of the car, not breaking eye-contact with Yamamoto. "I don't know about you." he jerked his head towards the factory courtyard. "I have a rabbit to save." and with that, he turned around and walked away.
Reborn's hand landed on Yamamoto's shoulder.
"Listen to the prefect Yamamoto." his voice was steady as he peered after the retreating form.
It always surprised him just how tiny the boy actually was.
"At least he put his vest on." the man stated with a small, pleased smirk on his face. He turned back towards the others boys, dark eyes taking in one annoyed and one worried expression.
They had only been in the same room for a little over a half-hour before their plan had been completed, the two boys had already become completely used to Hibari's lone-wolf attitude, Gokudera had become quite annoyed by it and Yamamoto probably would have been too had the situation not been so dire.
Gokudera's eyes narrowed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a strange… three-barrel gun that way WAY too big to have fit in his jeans.
"If anyone had hurt Juudaime..." he opened the magazine compartment, running through quick, short inspections to make sure it was safe to use before snapping everything back in place. He sent the other male's an absolutely murderous expression. "I will kill them."
Breaking his eyes away from the half-Italian, Reborn turned back around.
"Time to go," he said, getting out of the car, closely followed by the boys.
Hibari stalked towards the factory's main entrance with long, determined strides, tonfas already drawn and ready at his sides, just waiting to be raised against his opponents.
Looking up at the factory, steel-gray eyes caught onto the shadows moving in the large windows.
His eyes narrowed as the sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps reached his ears.
The men filled out in front of him just as he reached a wide-open area in front of the factory, the area for the trucks to load up whatever it had been that the workers had been making in this large building. Hibari really couldn't care less that the annoying Italian blonde had said what it had been, he hadn't listened to that man.
By the smell of things… it was most likely that the building was an old brewery.
At the sight of the black-dressed, bullet-proof vest-wearing men, Hibari allowed himself to let out a long, carnivorous growl.
Some of the men pulled out guns, sniper rifles, and a few of them even readied what looked like grenades and other explosives.
Hibari was not impressed.
"If you knew what was best for you..." he spoke slowly, keeping his voice low but his tone still echoes across the weathered walls surrounding them, allowing the men to head his every word. "You will return the Little Rabbit to her family."
Some of the men actually raised their eyebrows at these words.
Obviously, they had no idea what he meant by "Little Rabbit".
Idiotic herbivores.
Eyebrow twitching, Hibari laughed at the men.
Immediately, the sounds of gunfire filled the air.
The cell door opened and there Tony was again, though a lot calmer than he had been when he'd last entered the room.
"Ladies," he called back, a smirk on his face. "I'm back."
"Why are you here?" the woman asked as the man stalked inside, leaving the door wide open.
"I'm just checking in on my favorite woman." he threw a flirty look to her before his attention turned squarely towards Tsuna, his tongue jutting out to slightly lick his lips.
Her blood ran cold.
Before she knew it, the red-head was once again in her personal space, his hands on her arms, his breathing heavier than Tsuna liked.
She turned her head away.
Slowly, the man allowed his eyes to wanted over her body.
He laughed again, this time only slightly.
"I don't believe it," he muttered, his hands tightening on her arms. "You're so tiny."
He looked her right in the eyes.
"A fairy-like you, with a position like yours..." he sounded as though he was pondering on something. "It almost doesn't make any sense."
His eyes fell on the zipper of her sweatshirt. She had lowered it slightly in the warm stuffy air in the room from the lantern. Now she seriously regretted that choice as she watched the man's eyes slowly darken with desire.
She could feel her blood running even colder at the expression.
Slowly, he moved his one hand from where he had it wrapped around her arm, running his fingertips over her shoulder before moving his head to meet her eyes again as his fingers closed around the key to her zipper.
Slowly, he began pulling it down, eyes once again moving down to his hand, he didn't notice how she was growing paler and paler with each centimeter of her undershirt he revealed.
"You're too innocent for this life." he muttered, almost to himself, eyes still following the flow, gradual journey of the zipper. "Untouched by everything."
With what little control Tsuna still had over her own mind, Tsuna mentally scoffed at his words. There was no way she could be considered "untouched" in the state she was in right now, covered in cuts, blood and bruises that she was sure would plague her for days.
Desperately, she wished the zipper would jam.
It didn't.
"I like them like that." Tony almost hissed against her ear.
Tsuna felt the slight tug as the zipper reached its end.
She felt the fabric part from around her, the sudden shift from the thicker fabric to her thin undershirt causing a light chill to her torso as the cold air from the open-air hit her, it sent a shiver running down her spine.
Behind them, the woman clenched her hands into tight fists, her nails almost diffing into the palm of her hand.
She did not like what she was currently witnessing.
Tsuna's breaths started to come out quick and heavy, not really giving it the time to circulate her body as the man let go of her, taking a step backward to properly study her.
Tsuna cursed the tight-fitting tank-top to the high heavens. It was clinging to her figure like a second skin, leaving little of her up to the imagination.
She watched as the man licked his lips in obvious anticipation, and before she knew it, she had his hands running up and down the sides of her torso, making her skin itch something terrible from the contact.
The woman's eyebrows drew together into a frown.
"What are young doing?" she asked, voice demanding.
Tony paused in his actions, turning his head to look at the woman from over his shoulder.
"They won't hold it against me." he laughed. "She's too appealing to leave alone for too long." he turned his head back to Tsuna, his sneer intense, his dark eyes narrowed.
"The girl is supposed to be unharmed!" the woman growled, her own eyes narrowed, only in anger instead of intent.
The man chuckled at her words, looking back at her.
"A tumble can hardly be harmful."
The woman's expression darkened in infuriated disagreement, arms crossing over her chest as Tony turned his attention back to Tsuna.
Still grinning, the man grabbed hold of the hem of Tsuna's tank-top, starting to slowly move it upwards to show off her pale skin, continuing upwards to expose more of her abdomen until he suddenly stopped, eyebrows contracting into a small frown.
"What do we have here?" he asked, moving his hand over a spot on her stomach, his fingers closing around a flesh-colored square and peeled it away, revealing a certain small, roughly circular, bulky part on her skin. His eyes widened slightly. "Did someone try to get to you before we did?" he asked in a teasing voice, prying his gaze away from the marred skin to look her in the eye as he let his cold thumb run over the scar.
The feel of him touching that scar, caused something to snap inside of Tsuna.
Suddenly, violently, she began to thrash around in his hold, yanking herself out of his hands, kicking and punching against whatever part of his body she could reach.
If only she wasn't chained to the wall, then she would have been able to get out of there.
A pair of hands landing on her shoulders slammed her painfully against the wall yet again.
She didn't stop moving.
She couldn't.
"Stop struggling," Tony demanded, moving his face in closer to hers.
Of course she didn't stop.
Who ever actually stops struggling when your attacker tells you to?
She started kicking again, and this time, since the idiot was standing with his legs slightly parted to get a better balance in order to hold her down, not to mention be able to lower himself down enough to be on level with her face, she was able to land one solid blow in that particular, sensitive spot on the male anatomy.
With a surprisingly high squeak, the man fell to his knees in front of her, hands clutching at his crushed crotch.
Making good use of the situation, Tsuna put one foot on the man's shoulder before raising her arms over her head, the chains jiggling as she did, before violently bringing down the metal-clad wrists over the man's vulnerable head.
Before he had the chance to fell to the ground, she kicked him away from her, sending him crashing to the floor a few feet away from her.
She didn't know how it was possible, but the red-head was still awake.
Grumbling loudly, he heaved himself into a sitting position, shaking himself before viciously turning back around towards Tsuna, practically seething in anger.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, making Tsuna briefly wonder why no one was running in their direction at the sound, the door was still open after all.
The man breathed heavily, taking a staggering step towards the chained girl.
"You just made your biggest mistake!"
His hands were back on her, pressing her even further up against the wall, his panting face hovering inches away from hers. "This could have been enjoyable for both of us," he whispered, bringing his face closer to her neck. "But now..." he let out a humorless chuckle. "You're gonna get it."
Tsuna had thought she'd been prepared mentally for this happening.
She hadn't reacted that violently to when Gokudera had forced that kiss on her so long ago.
But that had been different.
That had been Gokudera, who had remained gentle despite the situation and had stopped the second she pushed him away. This guy… this guy was nothing like her best friend.
Trembling, she closed her eyes, trying not to think about what was about to happen.
A manicured hand landed on his shoulder.
Spinning around, Tony faced the woman who had crept up behind him.
"WHAT!?" He screamed right in her face. The next second however, it looked as though all the air went out of him.
The woman was looking at him with the most seductive half-lidded eyes she'd ever seen and she'd seen quite a few, many girls had attempted to use that same technique on Gokudera only for him to quickly shoot them down.
No wonder he wasn't affected by them.
Growing up with someone like this woman… not to mention the years he was on his own after that… just how many seduction techniques had he become immune to?
She doubted the woman would have turned those eyes on her brother but she didn't doubt that Gokudera-kun had seen his sister use those eyes on someone else.
As she watched, the woman raised her other hand, gently placing it on Tony's cheek, slowly stroking her thumb over his cheekbone as she gave him a slow, seductive smile, her dark red lips curling in a positively inviting manner.
Tsuna wasn't attracted to females…
But this woman could turn her if she really went for it.
"Come now..." she purred. "Do you really think a little girl would be able to satisfy you?" the woman moved her hand to the back of Tony's head to intertwine her long fingers with his bright red locks, her voice carrying a sensual note to it that only served to make the man seem to sag into her, his hands latching onto her hips as her other hand moved over his shoulder to wrap around his neck, bringing them even closer.
Tsuna's eyes flashed to the woman's mouth as she pulled her lower lip between her lips, blinking slowly up at Tony as she locked eyes with him.
"Don't you think..." the woman lowered her voice, keeping that purring nature to it. "I would be able to satisfy your needs on a much greater level?"
Tsuna couldn't help but to frown at the woman.
What was she doing?
There was no way a woman that acts the way the woman in front of her would someone like That attractive. Tsuna didn't even think Tony was all that attractive and she was the one incapable of truly finding anyone ugly on an artistic level.
And yet… the woman…
Tsuna really didn't like being left out of something.
Having completely forgotten that Tsuna was even there, Tony's eyes darkened to almost black as the woman moved even closer, pressing her ample body up against his chest as she gave his hair a short yank.
He groaned in pleasure at the sensation.
The woman was almost as tall as Tony in her feels, beating him with just about two inches, but Tony didn't seem to mind this, he was far too preoccupied in his own mind.
"Now that you mention it..." he breathed, clearly out of it.
Finally, the woman pressed her blood-red lips against Tony's in what Tsuna now could clearly tell was fake anticipation, making her even more confused as to what exactly was going on.
What would the woman achieve by doing this?
Before Tsuna knew what was going on, the two young adults in front of her had engaged in a full-blown make-out session, lips battling furiously, the distinct sloppy sound of tongues intertwining filling the room to the point where Tsuna felt the blood rush to her face.
Quickly, she turned her head away from the scene, her hands covering her ears as she tried to block out what the two adults were doing.
The woman glanced at Tsuna from around the side of Tony's head.
The red-head wrapped his arms around the woman, his one arm around her thin waist, the other reaching up to entangle his fingers into her long locks, furiously closing a large wad of hair into a tight fist as he slowly sank deeper and deeper into his lust.
Without the man knowing, the woman allowed her one hand to slide down from behind his neck, running her palm down the front of his chest before she allowed her fingers to slide down into her own back pocket, the man obviously too lost in the feel of her lips pressed up against his to notice that she was doing anything.
Slowly, the woman pulled out a thin cylinder the length of a syringe.
Seeing the glass glimmer in the light of the open door, Tsuna turned her attention back towards the kissing "couple".
Silently, expertly, the woman swiftly removed the cap on the cylinder, revealing a long, thin, needle, the tip dripping a deep purple liquid onto the concrete floor.
Eyes wide open and eyebrows furrowed in the most murderous look Tsuna had ever seen, the woman raised her arm, allowed her wrist to sensually brush over Tony's arm until she reached his neck.
Violently, she jammed the needle into his jugular vein.
Tony let out a sharp scream, yanking himself away from the woman, stumbling backward as he stared at her with a heated glare.
He yanked the syringe out of his neck, but by then it was already too late.
Groaning, the man clutched at the opening in his neck, his veins already slowly starting to turn a dark purple, almost black.
Finally, he collapsed to the ground, his limbs twitching, his mouth frothing for a long moment before he lost all movement. One couldn't even tell if he was breathing.
Silence fell over the room as Tsuna stared down at the man in absolute horror.
Calm as ever, the woman walked straight up to the man, the clicking from her heels echoing through the room as she crouched down next to the downed man's body.
With no wasted movements, she fished out a key-chain from his pockets.
She turned to the door, marching right over and silently closing it, forcing the room to once again rely on nothing but the light of the lantern.
She didn't lock it though.
Turning back from the door, the woman focused on the key-chain.
Quickly, she began flicking through the different keys.
"Door… Door… Car… Door… Locker… Safe… Door… Diary?" the last one was said with a mix of bewilderment and confusion.
The keys to the shackles were not among them.
Angrily, the woman threw the keys into the corner of the room, the rattling echoing across the walls as they bounced over the floor.
Still horrified, Tsuna kept her eyes pinned on the man.
Finally, she turned towards the woman.
"What did you do to him?" there was a small quiver in her voice.
"He's just knocked out." the woman answered with a nonchalant air to her words, pulling the pocket mirror from her pocket, frowning as she picked at her lipstick, which had smeared slightly from the make-out session.
Tsuna's eyes turned to the man on the ground.
Grumbling, the woman picked up her gem from where she'd left it on the table, furiously pressing and swiping at the screen to look something up, growling even more once she finally got it up.
A second later, the gem had disappeared into her pocket.
She turned towards Tsuna with a mix of desperation and irritation in her eyes.
"I need to get you out of here," she stated, moving towards the younger female.
Tsuna frowned in confusion.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, following the other as she moved closer to her.
The woman settled down in front of her, her hand reaching down to her belt to unhook one of the many hairpins she'd kept pinned there in case of emergencies.
This was not one emergency she'd imagines she'd need them for however.
Quickly, she plucked the girl's wrist from her lap.
With hairpin in hand, she turned the girl's wrist around, carefully studying the shackles until her eyes finally locked onto the keyhole. Furrowing her eyebrows in concentration, she inserted the pin into the lock, moving it around carefully, creating small noises as the metal clicked against one another.
After a short while, she glanced up at Tsuna, her eyes glittering with emotion.
"Whatever happened to my brother..." she trailed off a little before forcing herself to continue, turning her attention back to the lock. "That something completely ruined his ability to trust other people, if the stories I've heard about him are anything to go by." she must be having some sort of problem with the keyhole going by the frown forming on her beautiful face. "His heart broke." Tsuna could have sworn she heard the woman's smooth voice hitch a little.
She felt her heart crack at the sound.
This woman…
The older female removed the pin from the keyhole, frowning at it. Growling again, she put the pin back where she had taken it, and by the time she brought her hands back, there was another pin in her hand, this time of a different shape than the other had been.
Returning to the lock, the woman let out a long, sad sigh.
"He definitely doesn't trust me anymore."
Tsuna looked at the woman for a long moment, watching her concentrating on the work at hand, but Tsuna could see the sadness clear in her eyes.
As the woman had spoken, several questions were answered for Tsuna.
Questions she hadn't even known she had.
Gokudera had been very distant from everyone around for as long as she had known of his existence, looking at everyone with distrust and sometimes even screaming at the girls coming onto him because they were too forward.
He had only started to trust her because she'd remained consistent.
She didn't change for anyone.
She was honest.
He'd thought she was acting, thought her nature was impossible, but she'd proven it wasn't.
She hadn't had any ulterior motive when she was around her, and he'd slowly come to trust her because she didn't want anything from him.
The woman growled in frustration, snapping Tsuna out of her spiraling thoughts.
Looking at the shackle, she found that the pin had somehow gotten stuck in the lock.
The woman sighed, looking up into Tsuna's eyes.
"I love my brother," she said with great determination. "I don't care if he thinks that I don't but I'm not going to take you away from him when I can do something about it." she reached out, placing a gentle hand to Tsuna's cheek in a form of affection that Tsuna suspected the woman had been keeping bottled up inside of her. Saving it for her brother. "You are, after all. The first person in ages he obviously trusts."
The woman gave a violent yank to the rope she had expertly tied around the unconscious body of the man she had so "delightfully" declared to really be named Tony.
Tsuna really didn't want to know how the woman seemed to know exactly how to position the body and how to tie the rope in order to ensure that the man wouldn't be able to either talk or move by the time he woke up.
Where had she gotten the robe?
No, she didn't need to know that right now…
Where had the gotten the ball-gag?
NO! No… no, no not, that she didn't WANT to know.
Having finished tying the man up, the woman propped the man up against the wall, letting him lean against it in a much more restrained manner than the one in which they had forced Tsuna into when they had first put her in the room.
Deeming her work to be done, the woman got off of the ground, brushing off her hands from the dirt she was sure had gotten on them during her work.
Now, onto the real problem.
Crossing her arms, the woman turned around towards the girl, her face contorted into a look of frustration as her gaze moved down to the shackles.
They were still there, still tightly clasped around the girl's almost impossibly thin wrists, only this time with the extra decoration of a hairpin lodged in the keyhole of one of them.
Now this was a pickle.
She couldn't leave the room and go to her other partners when the Cornell had told her to guard the girl, they would immediately know something was up, and with Tony being nowhere in sight…
No, absolutely no way.
She couldn't help the groan from leaving her throat.
"What's wrong?" Tsuna asked, finding the silence between the two of them to be uncomfortable.
Suddenly, a thought hit the woman.
The girl was a DiLeone.
DiLeone had a natural affinity for the hottest flames know to their kind, and metal most definitely was not resistant to heat. In fact, it absorbs it.
Maybe she could get the girl out after all.
"What is your Medior?" the woman asked, her voice striking into the previous silence with the ferocity of a striking scorpion.
However, this did not bring forth the desired reaction from the girl in front of her.
She frowned.
Not in suspicion, but in confusion.
"Handkerchief, water canteen, or knitted arm guards." the woman spoke up again, obviously impatient. "Which one of them is your Medior?
She'd hoped this would make the girl understand her, but no, she just looked even more confused.
Of course, Tsuna knew what those items were.
She'd kept the handkerchief in her back pocket in care she would need to wipe off sweat, the canteen had been a thin, soft plastic thing she'd kept in the inner pocket of her sweater to cool herself down when training. Only she had quickly realized that that wasn't going to work so she had stopped filling it, and the last one had been a part of the training outfit that she had chosen to leave off because anything around her wrists made her antsy, though she'd kept them in the outer pocket of her sweater.
Why would the woman bring those things up?
She had no use for them.
Obviously, Tsuna was only making the woman all the more irritated, which actually served to make her look all the more like Gokudera when he was looking at any other human being than her.
So that was what it looked like when it was directed to you?
She'd forgotten…
The woman growled again.
"What do you need to light your flames!?" she almost screamed right in Tsuna's face.
Immediately, a light of understanding lit up inside Tsuna's mind.
"None of those." the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. "They would make for terrible weaponry don't you think?" her head tilted as she looked at the woman.
As predicted, the woman did not appreciate her comment.
"Don't tell me that you left your Medior back at the cabin!?" she was about a few comments away from screeching at the petite girl.
"No." Tsuna answered quickly, trying to force her mind to work right.
Not only did she not understand what the woman had meant, but she now fully understood that their whole group really had kidnapped her without fully knowing what she was capable of. They were aware of Anima but they weren't aware of her Class.
Idiots.
Without really having to spend all that much time, Tsuna reached inside herself heading straight towards her core, having long since memorized exactly where she could find it. She grasped it gently as released a steady flow of fire into her veins, dividing her mind to ensure that a part of her kept up the release of the floor.
Sure enough, like always, she felt herself grow calm at the feel of the fires.
"Then what is it!?" she heard the woman exclaim in front of her, her voice almost muffled as it registered in her brain.
As Tsuna kept pumping the fires into her blood, the groggy feeling that had been hanging over her for what felt like hours gradually burned away in her flames.
So it could serve to get rid of foreign substances in her blood?
That's… actually really good to know…
Why hadn't she tried this before again?
Oh, yes… drugged…
Feeling the fire rushing through her body, Tsuna looked up at the woman.
"I don't need a… Medior."
For a split second, the woman appeared to be taken aback at Tsuna's response.
A split second, before the irritation returned.
Ruffling her hair, the woman let out a loud irritated growl.
"Of course you need a Medior," she exclaimed, looking every bit like her brother at that moment. "Everyone needs a Medior." she looked down at the girl slumped against the wall, a superior expression on her face, obviously thinking that she knew much more than she did.
And from what she knew, the woman was perfectly right.
Tsuna still had no idea what many of the terminology the woman had used through their hours locked up in the same room together meant, but there was one thing Tsuna knew for sure she knew better than the woman.
And that was her flames.
"Not everyone," she answered calmly, guiding the flames into her wrists, just under where the shackles were tightly wrapped around her skin.
She would have to go through with Reborn's training.
The one she had failed to go through just before she had been kidnapped.
Even more, annoyed before, the woman turned away from the girl, her hands on her hips as she growled, bringing up a hand to put her fingernails between her teeth.
She didn't bite on them, she just kept them there.
She's an ex nail-biter?
"Of course." the woman agreed, though she kept up the irritation in her voice as she suddenly fell into a tangent. "But you don't have any scarring, so you're not a Salamander. You definitely don't have any cyborg transplants as you kind of have to be a part of a guild to have one of those so you're not a Chimera. You've stated yourself that you're still being trained so there's no way you could have gained enough power and control to ignite the flames inches from the skin, so Dragon is out of the question." she suddenly spun around towards Tsuna gain, pointing an accusing finger towards her. "That leaves Ifrit and Ifrits. Need. A. Medior!"
Her words were interesting, but Tsuna couldn't allow herself to fully think about them at the moment.
The pressure was building within Tsuna's wrists, and so did her fear.
This time, however, she brutally shoved that fear down. This wasn't like during the training where she was surrounded by very flammable trees and there was no real need for Tsuna to activate her flames. Now, she was shackled in a concrete room, and she needed to get out.
She encouraged the pressure in her wrists to build, waiting for longer than Reborn had told her body, waiting until the internal hearing was becoming unbearable.
The DiLeone was actually beginning to feel the beginnings of a burning sensation underneath her skin.
"There is one more..." she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the woman to hear. "One you haven't accounted for."
Now was the time.
Taking a deep breath, but keeping her eyes open, Tsuna slowly allowed the barriers containing the flames within her skin to thin out, until, finally, there was nothing holding them back.
The flames gradually seeped out from her skin, slipping out from under the shackles.
At first, they were barely more than just a couple of flickers, but eventually, the flames grew stronger, larger, the seeping fires becoming a constant flow, resembling more like the fire on a gas stove only the color of the flame being a bright orange, a brightness that only grew once the metal surrounding her wrists began to slowly glow along with it.
The more Tsuna focused on the fires, the larger they grew, the further they spread. Soon, her entire hands were covered in the large flickering fires, throwing the room in an eerie light much stronger than the lantern could ever hope to be.
Tsuna watched will a small sense of satisfaction as the heat of the flames slowly grew hotted and hotter, studying the bright red glow that slowly spread across the shackles.
Just what kind of metal were they made of, to begin with?
Tsuna stared at the flames, unable to keep her fascination at bay anymore. They were just too beautiful to look at. Flickering with the familiar shape and speed or a gentle, controlled, campfire, but even brighter than that.
It was strange to know that, the first time she had seen them, she had been terribly afraid of them. But now, she couldn't help but look at them as though they were a part of her.
Because they were.
She had called them.
They were hers.
The metal was glowing bright hot, and not for the first time, Tsuna was glad that she couldn't actually feel the heat emanating from them.
The woman must have had her eyes closed because it took a surprisingly long time before she noticed the drastic change in illumination in the room, which it being bright enough that she could practically see each individual crack in the concrete.
Slowly, she turned around, not even completely daring to see the source of the light.
However, she did look, her eyes widened to the point it looked as though her eyes were going to fall out of her skull.
There she was.
The absolutely tiny idiot girl shackled to the wall, her bare hands completely engulfed in bright orange fire.
She could tell it was real too, she could feel the heat all the way from where she was standing.
"That… that's not possible..." the woman whispered in absolute shock.
Tsuna glanced at the woman over the glow of the fire, her eyes sarcastically begging her to try and prove that what she was currently witnessing wasn't real.
The woman kind of sunk into her chair, her legs unable to maintain her weight.
"… The Phoenix..." she breathed.
A/N: I really like cliffhangers apparently…
I swear I don't go into a chapter with the intention of making a cliffhanger, they happen because of the word count most of the time, I promise. Too many cliffhangers will just take the novelty away from them so I really strive not to make them a regular thing.
I'll see how it goes in the sequel.
Please tell me what you think and the next chapter will be up in two weeks, there are only a couple of chapters left of this thing, we're almost at the end!
Until next time.
This has been:
A message from Her Ladyship.