Mia Tempesta
Summary: Reborn never liked being a (secondary) Sky, but he can't deny his nature forever, so one day he starts collecting his Elements. Except now there was a tiny Storm that packs quite a punch that he doesn't know what to do with. Denial leads to trouble, trouble leads to possessiveness, possessiveness leads to ... something else much more tender. Throw in Checkerface and the Arcobaleno Sky into the mix and things get quite complicated.
In the end, the Vindice leave that night with six out of seven Vongola Rings, one Cervello, Timoteo Vongola the Ninth Don and Sawada Iemitsu, his External Adviser. All of the CEDEF agents, save Basil, are knocked out, their memories of the night are erased by Viper and they are sent home, back to Italy, to say that the Ring Conflict is a mere false rumor someone started as a sick joke. The Arcobaleno end up de-freezing Xanxus with their intense Flames, who keeps the fuck away from Reborn, wary eyes always on him if they are within a hundred feet radius of each other.
Squalo survives and starts recovering from seeing the insides of a shark.
Lussuria starts walking again after his knee is fixed up, as well as the bullet wound from the Varia trying to eliminate a weak link in their team.
Belphegor kind of stalks Viper, insisting on calling them Mammon, until Kyoya gets fed up with the 'loud herbivores' enough to reappear from wherever it is he's laying low and kicks them out of Namimori. And even though they're Varia, they don't kick up a fuss and try to challenge him, not in the wake of what happened that night. Kyoya then vanishes again and not even Viper can find them with thoughtography.
Kyoya still goes to school every day, he's just careful to keep out of the Arcobaleno's sight and reach for a whole month before Fon makes hamburger steak and sets up the Go board in their living room. The younger Skylark gives in, having missed his other father enough that he returns home. When no one tries to go after the Ring on his finger, he relaxes and officially introduces Fon to Roll. He's too cute with the hedgehog on his shoulder and canary in his hair and, somehow, they agree to let Kyoya keep the Ring until they find a better solution that does not involve the Trinisette.
They still don't tell him the whole story, but for some reason, he no longer asks. They're all a bit suspicious of that, but he doesn't do anything rash or dangerous, so they let it go. For now, anyway.
Reborn does resume training Tsuna. Xanxus may have become boss, in the end, because dear ol' Timmy was now serving his sentence in Vendicare, but for now, Tsuna is his only heir and he still carries the blood of Vongola Primo. His Flames are potent and pure and definitely ten times stronger than Reborn's Sky, so he needs to be taught how to use them. Most of all, though, Reborn needs to teach Tsuna how to stop himself from 'accidentally' thralling others or courting other Flame Active people. 'Accidentally' because Verde and some other mafia scientists have been speculating that thralling is exclusively a choice, a conscious decision made by the Sky. They still can't prove anything one way or the other, but Reborn doesn't want to risk it, so he teaches Tsuna iron clad control, the ethics and morals of Skylarks and how not to act like the type of Skies he despises.
Training Tsuna requires, more often than not, for him to engage his own Sky Flames, so he notes that they are getting stronger, that it's easier to control them and, most of all, that they seem content. He guesses it might be because he's finally actually kind of accepting them, not just living with them because he can't help it one way or the other.
He also trains Gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei, though Shamal does tend to the Storm's growth more these days and Colonello is still Ryohei's main tutor. Yamamoto seems to have asked Lal for Rain Flames lessons because she's definitely more skilled than his old man, even if she doesn't know any swordsmanship. Squalo takes care of that, anyway, so it's fine. (Yes, Squalo has taken an interest in the first person to ever defeat his sword and the Second Sword Emperor swears he will make Yamamoto Takeshi into a fine swordsman one day.)
Mukuro gets released from Vendicare by the end of the year and Chrome cries all over him. Ken and Chikusa do, too, but they deny it. Mukuro is later escorted to Kokuyo Land, only to find that Kyoya had had the whole theater the others lived in renovated to its former glory, though modified so a group of teenagers can live comfortably there, including food supplies, warm water, plenty of gas to cook though they had an electric oven now, and even cable television. Also, should the Kokuyo gang ever need it, they have arranged transport to take them wherever it is they need to go.
Kyoya, Mukuro and Chrome remain in contact through their Mist Flames link, but it's still incredibly rare to see them hang out. The two boys meet up for spars once every two weeks and Chrome, Ken and Chikusa usually trail along to watch the epic mini-battles, but 'hanging out' the way normal teenagers do is beyond them.
Then again, none of them are normal.
The Arcobaleno easily settle back in Namimori, as though they had never even left. Sure, Colonello, Lal and Skull take a bit of getting used to the fact that they won't be leaving in a week's time, like how they usually did every three months, because that's all they've ever known of the Hibari Compound, but the transition is easy enough. Eventually, the two soldiers finally unpack all of their things and Skull starts piling up his cars and bikes in the many empty driveways of the compound that have almost never seen a car before because Reborn, Fon and Kyoya rarely need to drive somewhere and, because it's almost always been just them, they didn't need to use that much Compound grounds.
It's comforting to hear loud booms from Verde's labs, clinking and clanking from the 'garage' Skull had set up, to see Lal and Colonello enjoying the shooting range Reborn had set up years ago.
Best of all, every morning, Reborn is woken by the smell of freshly brewed espresso and his beloved Tempesta smiling at him lovingly. Kyoya leaves early in the morning, both because he religiously patrols his beloved Namimori and because he does not want to see his parents being all lovey dovey with each other like a pair of lovebirds, but he does return for breakfast on the weekends and school holidays. Roll is as constant a companion to him these days as Hibird is. The Arcobaleno are losing their resolve to one day make him give it up. Verde still has no way of replacing the Vongola Cloud Ring and Boxes can still only be activated with the use of rings.
At least they have the excuse of still not finding nearly enough on the Mare Rings for not handing over the Cloud Vongola Ring to the Vindice. Not that Bermuda cares overly much, for the moment, but he does agree that it's good for Kyoya to have such protection as an unlimited ability to use his Flames to their highest potential.
Speaking of potential, Tsuna learns about what Hibari had done for him and attempts making friends with the Cloud. Kyoya, of course, rebuffs him at every turn but Tsuna is persistent. Reborn was at first worried, because he has seen how addictive Clouds could be to Skies, but he soon relaxes when it becomes obvious Tsuna just wants to grow to be as strong as Hibari. Or at least half as strong, so he can better protect his loved ones. Eventually, Kyoya gives in, in that he starts training Tsuna and his Guardians by arranging simulated combat exercises with them. Roll is terrifying for such a cute creature, Kyoya's handcuffs have much more potential than one might think, the chains from his tonfa are deadly and have so many uses and Kyoya's Flames overwhelm everything the others can come up with together as a united force. As expected, really, because Kyoya's been raised by monsters among the Arcobaleno, but Reborn is pleased to see that the others are taking it as a challenge that Kyoya is so much stronger than them and not something to be discouraged by. They're growing and growing fast.
Also while on the topic of potential, I-Pin turns out to be Fon's first ever student. He'd picked her up while he was destroying branches of the Triads that had been involved in the Hibari Clan Massacre. She had a lot of potential. The Triads had been using her the same way they'd been using Fon, once, only he hadn't entered the organization itself that young. He'd merely started on that path when his father had sent him to train under dubious master(s). He prevented I-Pin from becoming a killer more than once. What she will do with her life from this point on is all up to her. She, as well as Lambo, has been all but adopted by Sawada Nana, so at least she's safe and she's keeping the Sawada household safe in the time that Reborn wasn't over.
I-Pin actually had a half-crush on Kyoya that, hopefully, she will let go because she was way too young for the Cloud. Fon looked half amused, half exasperated about it. Reborn found it to be good training for Tsuna given the little girl tended to explode after seeing Kyoya, so Tsuna had to throw her out of windows and the such to keep people safe from the explosion. It was doing wonders for Tsuna's arm strength.
Tsuna and his Guardians eventually learn how to control their Flames well enough that Verde makes them their own Box Weapons and provides them with rings. They're not as powerful as the Vongola Rings, of course, but they don't need to be if the users are trained right. Kyoya joins in on most of the training regarding rings and Boxes because even he's still a novice at it, no matter how devastating he and Roll are. Lambo, surprisingly, takes to this the easiest, getting his Box Weapon open in one try and commanding it with surprising ease, even if he seems unaware of it. Reborn eventually takes Yamamoto away to train the kid a bit personally because the teenager has true hitman potential and that should be nourished, whether Yamamoto takes up the sword permanently over the bat or not. Chrome and Mukuro only occasionally joined them for Box Weapons training. They preferred getting some illusions training by Viper than just seeing what their owl can do, though Mukuro had tested it out whether he can possess a Box Weapon.
It ended up with Verde all but adopting the 'pineapple carnivore', as Kyoya would call him, because Mukuro gave him so many new ideas to try out and so many new experiments he wanted to run. Verde also took up keeping track of the Kokuyo gang's health as a whole because Chrome had no organs and Ken's DNA structure has been seriously messed with to the point that his body goes through some serious changes when he's using his powers. Neither Mukuro nor Verde can explain away Mukuro's eye, but then Kyoya got involved and brought in a huge file - more like a book, really - of notes and information about Daemon Spade and the three went hunting for clues as to what the Estraneo's scientist might have wanted to do with Mukuro's extremely pure Mist Flames in the first place.
And, also, whether there was any familia connection between the First Generation Vongola Mist Guardian and the 'Tenth' one.
Yes, Xanxus actually expected Tsuna to live long enough to succeed him and be the Neo Vongola Primo. How the fuck the man had come up with that, Rebrn didn't care, but he liked the idea and Tsuna had actually accepted because he had plans to recreate the Vongola as the once vigilante group that it had been. Xanxus was setting down the roadwork for him. In fact, Reborn had this particular feeling that Xanxus expected Tsuna to take over as soon as Reborn deems him ready and then he'd go back to terrifying the world as the Varia leader. It was an unexpected turn of events that mirrored, in a literal sense, the situation with Primo and Secondo, in that it was the complete opposite. Reborn had always known the mafia world to be crazy, but things were only getting more so with each passing day. It was quite chaotic. He loved it.
And while speaking of the Varia, Viper actually kept in touch with them. Or rather, they kept bothering Viper. Belphegor in particular seemed to be very attached to the Mist and, to everyone's shock, Viper didn't outright dismiss him. Several months later, the crazy Prince even managed to get a date out of the Mist! Whether Viper was just humoring the teenager or if it was something serious, no one could tell and no one wanted to get into their business, anyway, even if Bel was a minor and Viper could probably pass off as his parent.
Reborn got a lot of lip from Fon for not minding that relationship when he'd refused to let Fon do just about anything that serious when the Arcobaleno Storm had been older than the Varia Storm.
He made sure to shush Fon with his own lips as often as he could.
Belphegor and Viper weren't the only romantic relationship that happened rather unexpectedly. One day, seemingly out of the blue, Yamamoto asked Gokudera out and the whole Namimori knew about it because Gokudera kept yelling insults at the baseball lover while Tsuna tried to hold him back from killing Yamamoto outright because he'd embarrassed the silverette. It took Yamamoto about twenty tries before the bomber gave in, but Yamamoto's difficulties began only then because Shamal had taken over as the parental figure in Gokudera's life and the doctor had picked up some overprotective tendencies from the only parents that he personally knew. Yamamoto had actually lost his smile and looked scared for the first time since any of them knew the teen because Shamal had explained twenty different ways how he will make sure Yamamoto will never walk straight again, let alone play baseball or swing a sword, should he hurt Gokudera, but his eyes had still held nothing but steely determination and utter sincerity when he replied he wouldn't mind the punishments should he break Gokudera's heart.
Ryohei, inspired by Colonello's love towards Lal, also tried searching for a girlfriend. Somehow, some way that Reborn did not know about, he ended up deciding he liked Kyoko's best friend, Kurokawa Hana. He asked her out. She refused, stating she was in love with a cool older guy she'd seen around (ten years older Lambo, to be precise). Ryohei took the rejection, gave an understanding nod and wished her the best of luck. The day after, he asked her again, only to get the same reaction. And again the day after that, and the day after that and so on for nearly a year before Hana gave in and went on a date with him. She even somehow ended up liking him. Reborn had stared in bewildered shock while Colonello had cried tears of joy, proud of his first ever personal student as Ryohei got kissed for the first time by his girlfriend. Reborn had honestly thought Colonello was one of a kind, maybe some sort of alien. He had not thought another existed like his Rain.
There was also the awkwardly shy love triangle that was Tsuna, Kyoko and Haru. The two girls had approached the brunet one day and asked him to be their boyfriend. Apparently, some time after the whole scramble about the Rings Conflict had started, the two girls had started dating. But Haru still had a crush on Tsuna and, slowly, Kyoko noticed him as something more than a friend, too, when she noticed how much he was changing under Reborn's careful eye. Tsuna had been red in the face for three days straight, nonstop, and even Reborn's punishments for not focusing on his schoolwork could break him out of his daze. Fon had ended up saving Sawada from permanent maiming by distracting Reborn for a week in ways that had Kyoya living in the Reception Room for the next month, just to avoid their mushiness. Tsuna eventually recovered enough and the three started going on dates. It was all so sweet that Reborn honestly feared for his teeth. He could just feel them rot.
Another 'romantic' development was that Bianchi finally learned Reborn was married. To a man. She tried poisoning Fon, but Fon's Flames simply burned through whatever poison cooking she presented the perpetually kind and polite man in an attempt to kill him. Bianchi, to her credit, gave it her all, creating at least ten completely new toxins that had Verde salivating as he studied them, but it was simply never enough.
In the end, she tried outright murder, but Reborn caught wind of it and sent her straight back to Italy, to her father, with a message that stated he'd destroy their entire famiglia if he ever caught sight of her in Japan again.
Needless to say, at least Gokudera's stomach finally got a break.
And the last 'romantic development' of note was that Dino actually had the guts to walk up to Reborn - with Fon sleeping against his shoulder, exhausted from a recent mission in Nepal - and ask for his permission to ask Kyoya out on a date. The killing intent that had started pouring out of the hitman had woken up the master martial artist and that was the only thing that saved Dino's life. Because, in that moment, all of his old urges to kill Dino - or his father - for various reasons had returned tenfold but the reason was different and all the more dangerous for the blond.
Kusakabe, who was always around where Kyoya was, had ran into the room and dragged the Cavallone Don out before Fon could learn just why Reborn wanted to murder his former student and then maybe join in on the fun once he hears their son's chastity was at stake. Dino had been too stricken to react, so he definitely owed Kusakabe his life. And then Kyoya tenfold as much, because Reborn had started hunting him like he would a target until Kyoya got word of it and his son demanded he 'stop acting like a useless herbivore'.
Apparently, yes, Kyoya did know of Cavallone's interest in him and had even gone as far as inviting him to try and attempt being Kyoya's boyfriend, though he had not told the blond why that would be dangerous, all those months ago. Dino had accepted the challenge because he had liked Kyoya enough to believe he'd face any foe or obstacle to be with the Cloud, whom he had at that time dubbed his student until Kyoya had actually shown him how he fought when he was serious the night of the Storm Battle, when he had handed Dino his ass and ran back to Namimori to save his precious school. Once Dino found out who Kyoya's fathers were, he had stepped back to think things through, debating whether the award would be worth the risk. In the meantime, he was forced to go back to Italy and could only now return, but that had given him time to come to a decisive decision and get his family to support him.
Reborn was proud with how well he'd taught Dino to be an honorable gentleman and couldn't help but admire his guts, considering what a wimp he used to be, but he was also still murderously annoyed that the Don had set his sights on his only son. Fon wasn't very fond of that idea, either, but he knew better than to try and get in the way of a Skylark's potential relationship. Seeing as Kyoya hadn't murdered Dino outright and had actually extended an invitation to try and convince the younger Hibari into a lasting, serious relationship, Kyoya liked Dino well enough.
The hitman had given in when his beloved skylarks ganged up on him, but had insisted that the first date must have a chaperone - besides Romario, because Dino was still dame dame without his men around - and had insisted he be the said chaperone. This, unfortunately for the Don - who was planning a romantic dinner to knock Kyoya's socks off - meant Fon had to go, too, in case Dino tried anything 'lecherous' in Reborn's book so he can stop the hitman from ending the Cavallone line then and there. The atmosphere of the first date ended up more familial than romantic but Reborn had at least, by the end of it, felt it was safe to leave Kyoya to his own devices against the blond.
Mostly because Dino did everything to ensure Kyoya was even remotely satisfied and the demon prefect of Namimori had no qualms about hitting the mafia boss with his tonfa if he felt the older male had overstepped.
Eventually, Reborn even stopped spying on their dates. (That was after he had scared the Don out of his wits, to the point that Dino will be the one refusing sex until Kyoya turns eighteen. Fon had been unsure whether or not he was Not Amused as he realized Reborn was going through the same phase as when Fon had not yet been his official and bonded Storm Guardian. Fon was doting and overprotective and wanted their son to be happy and safe. However, he did not appreciate the reminder of the days when Reborn half-treated him as a child just because he was seventeen. As you can imagine, he was very conflicted about it.)
That didn't mean his other Guardians did, though that was half because they had a betting pool going on when Kyoya will get fed up with Dino's hesitations and take the reins himself.
Reborn really hated them sometimes.
All in all, a year passed without any bigger threats or problems coming their way. Everyone was happy, Nana was still ignorant that her husband was in jail, Tsuna still sucked at school but he was doing better, all of his Guardians were home and no one felt like leaving again except for the occasional interesting mission and the investigation and research into the Gesso was moving along better than they'd expected, even if it was still a relatively slow process. But, hey, Rome was not built in a day and they already had two parts of the Trinisette secured, even if they are still waiting for the time when they can ask for Kyoya to give up the Cloud Vongola Ring. Reborn was content. He was happy and peaceful. He practically had everything he could want, except maybe the knowledge of who Kyoya's secret G buddy was, but that wasn't a major issue. He honestly wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life like this.
And then he got a summons to Italy.
By Donna Giglio Nero herself.
Damn it.