That Which Obscures The Sky
Summary: When Reborn comes to Namimori on Vongola Nono's request, he was NOT expecting to find a Sky all for himself. This was not in his job description and the hauntingly familiar face wasn't helping him any. The question now is, what will he do?
A/N: This is the second part of my double update for Hibari's birthday! I wanted to post one chapter yesterday and a seperate oneshot story especially for his birthday, but life got in the way and I wasn't able to do so, so instead I'm doing this! And worry not for that seperate birthday fic! I'll still post it as soon as it's done!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
R&R!
In all the years that he's been secretly serving as Hibari Kyoya-dono's Rain Guardian, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi had known the identity and thought he was ready for the inevitable moment when Kyoya-dono's Sun Guardian finally comes into their lives. It was indeed a matter of when, not if, because truly compatible Elements always end up meeting their Sky sooner or later and Tsuyoshi had known for as long as he'd known about Kyoya-dono's tertiary Flames that the Sun was a perfect match.
How?
Well, Fon-san and Kyoya-dono were a perfect match, the Arcobaleno's Storm one hundred percent compatible with his nephew's Sky and Cloud, even almost completely compatible with his Mist, too.
And, well, Fon-san knew he was one hundred percent compatible with a certain Sun since even before they got bound to the Pacifiers, which meant they will almost certainly share a Sky and other Elements as well. Only that particular Sun user just so happens to be the world's greatest, strongest, number one hitman, Reborn.
Tsuyoshi had known this, had prepared for it mentally and emotionally, had thought he was ready for the day the hitman bonds with Kyoya-dono.
Apparently, he was dead wrong. He wasn't ready at all.
And that Tetsuya-kun had oh so kindly run off before he could drag the teenager into helping him deal with the now sharply focused eyes of the fedora wearing 'baby' that studied him and tried to figure out just why he'd had such a violent reaction to that little revelation. The kids, thankfully - even Smoking Bomb Hayato - seemed ignorant to the actual meaning of the words Reborn had uttered, which was definitely a relief. Kyoya-dono's status as a tertiary Sky - and the fact that he was Flame Active at all - was to be kept strictly secret. It had been Enmu's wish, it was Fon-san's wish and it is Kyoya-dono's wish and Tsuyoshi would be damned if the secret is revealed under his watch, in his restaurant.
Perhaps it is best that Reborn finds out now who Kyoya-dono's Rain is, his second oldest Guardian, so they can have a proper talk. The hitman will no doubt want some information, answers to the questions that must be buzzing in his mind. Tetsuya-kun wouldn't know the answers the Italian would be seeking, but Tsuyshi does. He's been there to see it all. Only Fon-san knows more than him, but the Storm is still in southern France, guarding old man Talbot as he works, though he will supposedly be coming back to Namimori soon enough with the answer to the Arcobaleno curse.
Reborn will just have to settle for what Tsuyoshi knows and then maybe beg Fon-san to be decent enough with him and tell him more. Fon-san has been kind of ghosting the Sun for years now. With good reason, given their breakup, but Tsuyoshi won't go deeper into their personal business.
For now, he meets Reborn's eyes square on and says in clear Mandarin. "Come tonight after I close shop and we may talk about the skylarks."
He knows Reborn must understand what he's saying. He's the world's best hitman because he got jobs all over the planet, which often requires the knowledge of a lot of different languages if he doesn't want to get duped at every corner. His certainty is confirmed when the hitman simply tips his fedora in acknowledgement before going back to his old self and torturing the teens under his care under the guise of teaching them about life. Though, he actually does teach them a lot of important life lessons through his crazy methods. Takeshi often talks about Tsunayoshi-kun's strange little baby friend.
He decides not to interfere with Reborn's work unless Takeshi's life gets put into danger.
Reborn won't involve Kyoya-dono because of the bond, so there's no worries there.
Not to mention that Kyoya-dono does actually know how to take care of himself.
Closing hour seems to come a bit too soon to his liking. He waves Takeshi off to bed, citing he had school and a test in the morning, so he sets about cleaning up the restaurant but leaving some sushi and drinks out. Not half an hour after he'd closed shop and was just mopping the floor, he felt Reborn's presence, his honed instincts screaming danger louder than they have ever before. Then again, this was the strongest hitman, the strongest Arcobaleno. Tsuyoshi's heard vague numbers that are supposed to be his kill count. Not even Akai Ame would survive an encounter with him should Reborn want to end his life.
"You are the Rain Guardian, I presume," Reborn states, not asks, as the 'infant' easily jumps into the high bar stool and takes a seat. Tsuyoshi would lie if he said he wasn't at all unnerved by the unblinking stare. Though the chameleon blinked, as if trying to make itself seem harmless. Well, too bad. Tsuyoshi knows that the shapeshifting lizard is actually Reborn's strongest weapon and his beloved animal partner.
"That is correct, yes," the swordsman confirms, stopping his chore and walking over to stand behind the counter. He sets out the sushi he'd left out and offers his companion a drink. He's not surprised the other asks for espresso. Fon-san had talked a great deal about his former lover. "I take it you, though, are Kyoya-dono's Sun."
The hitman just nods. "He seems adamant to be on informal terms with his Guardians, insists even that we should call him by his first name. Why use such a honorific, though?"
"I am a swordsman. I use a katana. He is my Sky, whom I had thought I would never find. He accepts me wholly for me, doesn't ask for anything I wouldn't be willing to give. He may be young, but I respect him." He pauses, warring with himself, before he decides to tell him everything. "He is my best friend's son and my close friend's nephew, but he is also the last Hibari and Namimori belongs to the Hibari. I used to serve the clan before the massacre. Before I got married and had a kid."
Reborn seems to stiffen. He doesn't reach for either food or drink. Full business mode, it would seem. "Tell me everything from the start."
"Hibari Fon and Hibari Enmu were identical twins," he begins and Reborn gets even more tense at the martial arts master's name. "Their father, the last Clan Head of the Hibari, wanted them both to be neck deep in the underworld's business and dealings, despite the Hibari dabbling on both sides of the law, in some way or form. Fon-san decided to spare his younger brother and became a Triads assassin at a very young age. Many years later, Enmu married and had a son. When Kyoya-dono was about four, Fon-san became an Arcobaleno and Enmu was declared Clan Heir, Kyoya-dono to be his successor in turn. Then, at the cusps of the tender age of five, Kyoya-dono became Flame Active and we found out he has tertiary Flames, all three the three rarest Flame Types of the Sky. It was a bad time for a Hibari to become Active, because a Tokyo yakuza had declared war on them and Kyoya-dnon's grandfather had returned the declaration. They had no choice but to fight or else their entire clan would be wiped out. Neither Enmu nor Fon-san wanted Kyoya-dono to be in that fight, and he would be should anyone learn he is Flame Active, especially as a primary Cloud. They told no one, because they could trust no one, that the boy was Active."
"No one but you," the Sun commented and he nodded.
"Yes. As I said, Enmu was my best friend. Even better, I'd withdrawn from the underworld completely, even if I do still keep my sword on hand. Just because I'm retired doesn't mean my enemies are." Reborn nodded in understanding so Tsuyoshi went back to the story. "It was a battle not even the Hibari could win, not in the condition they were at the time, even with Fon-san actually fighting with them. Both Enmu and I knew that, knew that the chances of Kyoya-dono ever seeing his parents or most of his other relatives ever again were slim to none. Enmu entrusted me with his son's safety and begged that I look after him until the boy was ready to look after himself if no one comes back to pick him up. Fon-san was the only one to return. Together, we raised Kyoya-dono to the best of our abilities. Kawahira-san helped later on-"
"Kawahira?" Reborn questioned and Yamamoto paused, frowning in confusion.
"Kyoya-dono didn't tell you about the secondary Mist he acquired? He's not actually a Guardian, since Kyoya-dono's Sky is bonded to his own secondary Mist, even if there is enough compatibility between them for a secondary bond."
"He mentioned him, but not by name. And while we're on the topic, Kyoya seemed rather accurately aware of the exact percentage he's compatible to someone. Why is that?"
Tsuyoshi stared at the Italian for a moment. "You really never heard of the Skylarks before?" Yes, they weren't as 'in your face' powerful as Vongola, but they held a different kind of power in the underworld, simply because they had access to both it and its opposite. "About the Hibari? Their connections? Well, I guess you wouldn't. They prefer Asia, I believe."
"Is this relevant to my question?"
Tsuyoshi laughed at the hitman's impatience. Reborn was probably not used to people not tripping over themselves to please him. Well, this was Namimori. The only one worthy of tripping over yourself to please was Hibari Kyoya, here. "Actually, yes. Because of their immense and wide-spread connections, the Hibari had access to technology almost unheard of. It's things that have yet to reach the European black market, though I do believe America has some of the products the Hibari have been using for years as of recently. One piece of such technology is a device that measures compatibility between Flame users. Practically every Hibari had one on their person. Fon-san passed his own down to Kyoya-dono, though Kyoya-dono doesn't seem to really need it. All of his Guardians are practically one hundred percent compatible with him."
"Practically?"
Tsuyoshi shrugged. "I am 99.9% compatible with Kyoya-dono. The secondary compatibility of 0.1% is between him and Takeshi."
Reborn cocked an eyebrow. "Hibari Kyoya is compatible, even if it's below the levels needed for a bond, with Yamamoto Takeshi?" He pauses, considering. "Huh. I can actually see that, sort of. Your son is currently Tsuna's strongest Guardian candidate. I had hoped Hibari would be a good Cloud for him, before I knew. Now the idea just ... "
"Sickens you? It can happen." No Element would want their Sky to be taken by someone else, even if they knew it was impossible. Kyoya-dono might be a primary Cloud, but he was his own Sky. The compatibility between his tertiary and primary Flames was perfect. "Any particular questions you want to ask?" He'd already covered the basic backstory, how he'd become Kyoya-dono's Guardian and even some of the Hibari Clan's influence, though it was no longer what it used to be these days, which was a right shame. Kyoya-dono will probably find a way to fix that, one day. The teen was scarily competent. It was only a matter of time.
"Do you know anything about how he plans on breaking the Arcobaleno curse?"
"Some," admits the swordsman turned sushi chef. "It's taken years of collaboration with Kawahira-san and Talbot - an old man, blacksmith and craftsman that's actually as old as Vongola Primo, if you'd believe it - but a solution is finally under work. Fon-san is currently guarding Talbot in southern France while he manufactures the 'cure', so to speak. It is some sort of device? Or a container? I didn't quite get it when Kawahira-san explained it some months ago. The purpose is to remove the need for Arcobaleno to feed Flames into the Pacifiers. I'm not sure whether the Pacifiers will be removed or not, because Kawahira insists they must be protected-"
"Wait, why is this Kawahira so involved?" The Arcobaleno asks suspiciously. Tsuyoshi wonders if he should answer that question or not, but then Reborn's lizard turns into a gun and he finds himself staring down the barrel. He can't say for sure whether the hitman will actually shoot him or not. He won't kill him, because that would leave a mental and emotional scar on their Sky, but Reborn is the strongest Sun in the world. There's a likely chance he can play Tsuyoshi's body as he pleases, almost kill him and heal him over and over again until he's satisfied. And Tsuyoshi would really rather not clean up his own blood out of these floors if he can help it.
"From what I understand, he is the administrator of something called the Trinisette, which the Pacifiers are a part of," he replied a bit reluctantly and watched in something akin to fascination as the Arcobaleno's face shuttered. He had thought the hitman had a good poker face before but now he was completely unreadable. Except for the killing intent that starts gushing out of the gunman. That's rather telling of what the hitman is feeling.
"Checkerface," Reborn said with such venom in his voice that Tsuyoshi instinctively leaned back, as though afraid it might burn him. "Why would Kyoya work with the man that cursed his beloved uncle? And why would Checkerface decide to help remove the curse when he had been the one to place it on us in the first place?"
"I'm not all that familiar with Kawahira-san," Yamamoto had to admit. "He's a recluse, supposedly runs a realtor's shop down in the market near the abandoned industrial area but has up a suggestive illusion to keep the people away. I think that's how Kyoya-dono discovered him in the first place. What I do know, however, is that he apparently never wanted to sacrifice generations upon generations of Arcobaleno but it had been necessary. The Trinisette apparently, supposedly, keeps the world in balance and allows it to prosper?" He tries to quote what the white haired man had said when Kyoya-dono had first introduced his Guardians to his 'secondary Mist'. "And the Pacifiers are the centerpiece of it all. They must keep glowing. For however long he's been doing this, there had been no other solution."
"And now there is? How?" The hitman sounded even more suspicious and skeptical than the first time he'd asked the first time. "Why now?"
"Kyoya-dono," replied the swordsman. "I told you the Hibari have connections all over the place. Due to Vongola Primo's Cloud Guardian marrying into the clan when he followed Primo to Japan, the Hibari got a way to contact Talbot. He's never answered a request before, but Kawahira-san's and Fon-san's presence when Kawahira-san brought them to his workshop. Kyoya-dono managed to intrigue him and also had the resources to pay him. Fon-san had to spend months at a time with him so that he could study his Pacifier in order to get the data necessary for developing a solution. Things got complicated when the Vindice tried to arrest(?) Kawahira-san during a consultation session so Kyoya-dono kind of had to claim Kawahira-san as his Element and then started the negotiations over who has the custody of the Trinisette-"
"Wait, what!?" Reborn interrupted, his killing intent actually vanishing in the face of his incredulity. "Kyoya's faced the Vindice before!? Negotiations!? Custody of the Trinisette!?"
Tsuyoshi just smiled sympathetically at the hitman. "Reborn-san, you bonded the boy and are his perfect match as his Sun. You should get used to a life of earth shattering adventures and world shifting revelations. And a whole lot of stressful worrying. Kyoya-dono is a Cloud first, on top of being a fighting enthusiast, so he throws himself into these battles headfirst. All us his Guardians can do is follow and hope to keep him safe, because we sure as hell won't try to stop him. That's only more likely to make him go out on such battles on his own, which makes it more likely he'll get injured. Kyoya-dono is strong and he has actual battle experience, but he's still young and he is our Sky. We don't want him hurt. Even old man Talbot likes him and Bermuda-san actually comes over for tea and biscuits every two months or so. It's better to follow his lead and keep him safe from a distance than not be there at all in the case he might actually need us. As I said, we can only hope to keep him safe."
The Sun Arcobaleno's mouth tugs down a bit at that. "I'm not going to hope. I'm going to succeed in keeping him safe."
Tsuyoshi let out a startled but delighted laugh at that. That was a good answer, a great response, the best Reborn-san could have possibly given! Kyoya-dono really was a bit on the reckless side when he gets excited by a good fight. He's still young, still impassioned by his youth and his emotions. He's a great fighter but Tsuyoshi always feels better when he knows the boy has someone competent watching his back. Tsuyoshi has been left with Kyoya-dono's care by two of his closest friends and though Fon-san is coming back, Tsuyoshi has to keep his eternal promise with Enmu-baka that he'll keep his precious, cute, little son safe.
To know that the world's greatest hitman will now be a part of the Hibari Kyoya Protection Squad ... Well, it had him reaching down for his best sake and filling up a cup for both himself and Reborn-san because a toast is in order.
"Welcome to the family, Reborn-san."