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.

"So," Reborn said faux conversationally when he brazenly walked into Checkerface's little covert realtor shop, having somehow managed to stop both his Guardians and the Vindice from following to disembowel the ancient man where he stood. Which it turned out to be at a counter of sorts, eating takeout ramen with one hand while he was cleaning up the remnants of a Go game with the other, though his eyes were focused on a report that Reborn just knew was written by Kyoya because he could see his son's neat handwriting from where he was standing. "You broke out of prison, came to the home of the Skylarks of all places - where you should have known you can't hide - to settle down and keep low key, opened a realtor shop and started living on ramen while daring to go behind all of our backs and play Go with our Kyoya? That takes guts, especially given how the last time you messed with one of our own ended."

The - waaaay - older man looks up from the papers in front of him and calmly blinks at the deadliest hitman in the world, finishing the string of noodles he's slurping none too quickly and swallowing before he bothers to speak. "I know you probably won't believe me, Reborn-san, but I truly have no ill intentions towards young Kyo-kun. Rather, I like the boy. I respect him. And you should not concern yourself with my previous ... plans for you and your comrades. I have no reason to cause you harm or ... curse you, not with a far more effective system implanted to keep the world in balance."

Kawahira didn't look a day older, one iota different from the last time the Sun/Sky had seen him. The only thing that had changed was his outfit, really. He wore an olive green, rather plain looking. His hair was still white and short. His eyes were still sharp and such a dark purple, they might actually be black. He was relaxed, his whole body language languid, as if he didn't have a care in the world. As if Reborn wasn't standing in his little hideyhole, still pissed and hateful enough from last time that he would gladly shoot the bastard right there and then, neutral zone and street full of civilians outside or not.

"You're right, I don't believe you," Reborn said, walking closer steadily, Leon turning into a gun and appearing in his hand as his expensive Italian leather shoes click-clacked ominously with each step, as if a countdown before death takes one's soul. Given what Checkerface had done to them seventeen years ago, that might just be the case. "I want you to stay the fuck away from my son."

"Then tell him he shouldn't come here," the Mist retorted and Reborn grit his teeth.

You don't just tell a Cloud like Kyoya to not move as he pleases. That's a recipe for disaster and for that Cloud hating you because you are restraining it. Kyoya's really touchy where restraints are concerned. His babbo or not, Kyoya will hate him if he tries to forbid him from going somewhere, especially after all the long years of not telling the teen just about anything regarding the true secrets of the Trinisette.

And Kawahira, damn him, knew this!

"Why are you hanging around my son so much? Why are you telling him about the Trinisette and your Arcobaleno? Why did you choose Namimori? When did you escape from Vendicare? And why should I not kill you right now, when you've tried to make me and my friends into cursed infants?"

"That's a lot of questions," Kawahira observed, putting his things away but taking the bowl of ramen with him as he moved away from the counter and instead walked over to a small reception area. He sat down on one of the two seater couches and gestured for Reborn to make himself comfortable on the other. "I guess most of them are somewhat connected? The answers, I mean. You see, I escaped from Vendicare seven years ago, give or take a few months. I came to Namimori because it is a neutral zone, where even the Vindice must tread carefully. It is, as you said, the home of Skylarks. That is both its advantage and disadvantage. It was not I who sought out young Kyo-kun. Rather, he learned an escaped Vendicare convict has arrived in his territory and he came to me. Somehow, between green tea, being bitten to death, showing him interesting tricks with Mist Flames and a very intense game of Go, he decided to let me stay. Said I'm a 'wolf in sheep's clothing', hiding my fangs, a carnivore fitting in with herbivores." That ... That sounds a bit too like what Kyoya would say for Reborn's liking. It sounded almost as though Kyoya liked and respected Kawahira. What an uncomfortable thought. "I'm not sure how much he knew about who I was, in the beginning, but he did know I had access to information and resources he could use to help his family, so we kept up a rather frequent and interesting raport. Then, two years ago, he barged into my shop and demanded I tell him about the Trinisette."

"Two years ago? Why would he suddenly ask after five years of knowing you and never saying a word about it?"

"He said you yourselves were the one to tell him I am Checkerface, by name no less. Before you politely asked him to leave the room because it was not a conversation you wanted him to be a part of because you are overprotective." Kawahira sighed, shaking his head. "I can understand being an overprotective parent very well, Reborn-san, but Kyo-kun is not an ordinary child. He comes from a very special family, bloodline wise, he has been brought up in a very special, peculiar way. He is a Skylark brought up by I Prescelti Sette. He is power and competence personified, packed in a teenager. And you were one of the people to make it so. The boy can take care of himself. He only wants to prove himself to be of equal standing with his precious family, he just wants to be a part of your world. No, not the mafia, but the world you've built during your collectively self-appointed mission to create a better system that does not rely on humans to upkeep the Trinisette."

"Don't tell me how to raise my own son!" Snapped the gunman, his Flames flaring in rage, eager to off this man, before he reined them in. "You don't know anything about Kyoya-"

"No?" Kawahira challenged, arching an eyebrow condescendingly even as his eyes flashed in a very dangerous way. A little flare of Mist Flames that indicated a deep seethed irritation in the other man had Reborn's eyes flickering down to his hand holding the chopsticks, where he easily spotted the Hell Ring Viper had been using for seventeen years but had disappeared once they threw it off of their person just hours ago. "Tell me, Reborn-san." The tone was snide this time, which is what made Reborn realize that Kawahira had been unexpectedly respectful since this little encounter started. "Has it been you who was here to help him through the embarrassment he felt when his voice broke? Have you been the one to assist him in fighting off the Trad 6 that had come to overtake Namimori in Vongola's name because Nono recognized Sawada Tsunayoshi of Primo's bloodline might be his only possible choice of successor when Hibari Kyoya was thirteen? Have you been the one to guide his Flames to close up the wound from a scythe that had very nearly cut him in half? Did you guard his precious Namimori while he recovered? Did you or one of yours teach him to use his Flame types at the same time but not together, to use both their properties without mixing them? Did any of you find a solution to his fear of losing his precious hedgehog and go out of your way to ensure it becomes a reality? Did any of you act as his safe haven when he just wants to hide from the world? Or were you the ones to chase him down in your smothering worry because he is 'just a child'? Because I was there, but I don't remember any of you being there for him, too."

Reborn grit his teeth because, no, he wasn't. He hadn't even known that the Trad 6 had tried to invade Namimori and Kyoya's voice had gone from his childish drawl to the one he has now in the span of a few months he was with Dino in Italy. Reborn had teasingly complained about not being there to tease the Cloud every time his voice would crack due to puberty catching up to him, but he had truly felt like he had lost something by missing it. It's exactly the experience Kawahira was cruelly mocking him with: just being there for his son, giving him advice and comfort, reassuring him that there was nothing to be embarrassed by. He's horrified to hear about the scythe wound, though, and couldn't believe he felt gratitude of all things towards Kawahira for actually being there, because Kyoya would be dead otherwise, especially if he'd been unconscious when he had needed to do the patching up.

"Why did you? Why were you there for him all this time?" He asked instead of trying to tear the man apart with words and insults. Fuck the Trinisette and everything, his son's safety and well-being came first.

Kawahira took a breath to calm himself, sighing through his nose. "Because he, despite being close with Vidice, hid me, helped me, even protected me like he would any other citizen of Namimori. You could say he is the first friend I've had since my species all but died out. Because he's the only person alive who knows of me but does not a) fear me, b) hate me or c) worship every word that comes out of my mouth like it is the gospel. I like and respect him. I wish him no ill. I would not let harm befall him."

"He would be hurt, he would be dead, had you gone through with your original plan for us," the hitman coldly pointed out, watching Kawahira's fingers tighten their hold on the chopsticks at the idea of a world with no Kyoya. Reborn had to relax his grip on his gun a little, too, for the same reason. It was impossible to imagine his life without the younger Hibari in it. Fon, for one, would be a completely different person. The Arcobaleno as a whole would be very different people because Kyoya had smoothed their edges without making them any less dangerous.

"I already told you that you have nothing to worry about where that is concerned."

"And why is that? You still haven't answered all of my questions, but this is what I really want to know. Why is it that you are content to just watch us collect all the pieces and seal them away so no one can ever use them again, so that you can never sacrifice another person to the Pacifiers?"

Checkerface, or whatever his true identity and name might be, just watched him passively for a moment before he sighed and looked resigned. "Because I never wanted to create such a cruel system. It was the only solution, the only way, for centuries. I did what I could, but being kind when dooming someone to such a fate turned out to be a greater cruelty than mocking them for it. So I built up the character of Checkerface, a villain of sorts, that can be hated and blamed so as to give the Arcobaleno a target for their misery. It is how Bermuda, eventually, developed the eight Flame Type, the Flames of Night, out of hatred for me. It was an unexpected bonus, because the system Sephira, the first boss of Giglio Nero, created that you today call the mafia was orbiting around the powerful Vongola Rings and the Vindice became almost like protection for them, even if they did not realize. The Mare Rings were kept a secret, which was their own protection. As the only Administrator of the Trinisette, it fell to me to oversee all three of the sets of artifacts when Sephira died. But that is too much for one man."

"So you created the Cervello?" Reborn guessed, finding himself interested a bit in the story. Just a bit, mind. He would still leave a happy man if he could just shoot this guy.

"They've proven to be deficient in recent years," Kawahira said bitterly. "The point is, until Talbot and his amazing talent was born, I had no other option."

"Then why didn't you approach Talbot back in Primo's time and ask him for help like Bermuda and Vindice did?"

"Talbot needed almost two centuries of studying their Pacifiers before he got it right," Kawahira revealed and Reborn arched an eyebrow. Bermuda had never mentioned that tidbit before. "It would be cruel to bring generations upon generations of people to him with the possible hope of releasing them from their curse, only for it to last longer than they can and with them to watch their hope die when I tell them it is time to take away their Pacifiers and pass them on to the next generation."

"That's also something that interests me," the Sun hummed. "You say 'pass on' the Pacifiers, but all of the Vindice have their own that had been turned to stone upon their 'death' and Bermuda has his Clear Pacifier, too. How can you 'pass on' Pacifiers if each Arcobaleno seems to keep theirs?"

"Each former Arcobaleno would usually keep a stone replica created by the extraction of the real Pacifier to identify them as people who had once honorably literally bore the world on their shoulders," the white haired man replied. "That's how it started out. I've used to tell humans what was going to happen. They had thought it an honor to sacrifice their lives so. But then it happened that some people didn't die and instead became disfigured and crippled for the rest of their natural lives. People started calling me a demon, started believing I was feeding their souls to devils and creatures of the pit, whatever those might be in their silly little heads. They started hunting me and I had no choice but to fight back. I did not enjoy hurting those people. That's when the secrecy began, when I changed the rules. But times have also changed and no one was willing to be a sacrifice, whether they knew that they could live a crippled life afterwards or not. The practice stayed so that their loved ones might one day identify them if they choose to leave home as Arcobaleno. It stayed afterwards because it had become a part of the process and the Pacifiers do it themselves. Bermuda's was a bit of an exception, but you can already guess as to why."

"The stone ones are dead. Bermuda's is empty of the Flames of the Sky but he does have his special Flames of Night to light it."

"Exactly," Kawahira says with a nod.

"Why Namimori?" Reborn asked again, because that was one thing the other hadn't answered that really kind of bugged him. Namimori was the most monitored and protected town in the world because it was the headquarters of the Hibari Clan. Kawahira must have known that. Everyone did! The Skylarks used to be infamous, even if their legend had died down a bit after their demise, with only two Hibari remaining in the world to uphold their huge legacy. Then the Arcobaleno moved here, too. Kawahira should have chosen just about any other place on Earth instead of Namimori to hide.

"Namimori is neutral ground, the territory of the Skylarks. Vindice has very little authority here, even if they are friendly with the two remaining Hibari."

"You came to hide here and yet you were found almost immediately. It's not a good place to hide, really."

"I've been hiding here for the two hundred years that the Hibari have ruled this town, Reborn-san," Kawahira informed him and Reborn would have choked on a drink or food if he'd had any. "No one has ever found me, even when they had known whom and what to look for. Even the Hibari. However, Hibari Kyoya found me. Because he was better. I think he might have even sensed me, back then. He had had his Cloud Flames stretched out over all of Namimori and a bit beyond so he can keep watch over everything. I think he was very lonely if he came to seek me out himself."

"Kyoya's a Cloud. He's never been lonely for a day of his life. He's never had need to," the hitman countered, frowning at the sheer hilarity of the thought that his antisocial son can be lonely.

"It was the first time he's been completely alone. He wasn't used to it."

That stopped Reborn's retort in his tracks. He thought back to what Kawahira had said, did some math and glared at the man. "You arrived in Namimori in the months since we all moved out?" Was it coincidence or had Kawahira planned this?

"Weeks, actually. Kyo-kun had been bored and lonely. He used to come almost every day for tea and Go. Later, we started having more serious conversations and meetings. He just left, about half an hour before you came in, actually. I guess that was his goodbye? Or maybe a warning that he's revealed my presence here to you?"

"He gave us a hint. He never outright said anything."

Kawahira nodded at that, a little proud smile flitting over his lips. "He's becoming a bit more Mist-like in his behavior. That will be useful for his plans to start an organization based on his Disciplinary Committee and spread it over the world in honor of his clan's information network and agency. But that might be something you should discuss with him. I have a feeling there might be something else you wish to talk to me about?"

"Can the Gesso Skies seriously see into an alternate world?"

"With the Mare Sky Ring, yes. Do you plan on taking up Aria-chan's little request? Byakuran Gesso is not an easy opponent to fight, whether he has the correct information about you and yours or not. He will have access to all the alternate realities that exist, and they are infinite. Aria-chan's just under the impression that this is the only world that has the Arcobaleno being Arcobaleno without being Arcobaleno, if you understand my meaning." Reborn nodded. "Those worlds are probably few and far in between, admittedly, so he will need time to search for them in the infinite sea until he finds them and learns about them. For that, he'd be in a cocoon, vulnerable because his mind would not be there. And while it would be a perfect time to attack, you should probably not wait for a time when he will try it. If you do not get the right opening, he will learn what he needs and be even harder to defeat. I suggest you deal with him as soon as possible."

Reborn sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose in an effort to stave off the headache. He needs espresso. Preferably with his whole family within sight and Kyoya and Fon in arm's reach. And a nap. Most definitely a nap because he'll then need to explain everything he's learned to his Guardians, possibly train Tsuna and his Guardians some more and have a stern talk with Kyoya in which he will also apologize. Then there's trying to convince the Vindice that they shouldn't hunt down Kawahira because clearly the man truly has no intentions of changing their little system for the Trinisette.

Not once has Reborn detected a single lie while the Mist had spoken. His Sky Flames whispered a bit reluctantly that the man was sincere, that he wanted nothing but redemption, that he planned on watching over Kyoya's precious Namimori each time that the little skylark couldn't. That he only wants to keep the world safe and that now that there's a better way to do it, he is finally ready to rest. Whether that means he'll die soon or if he'll just keep a vigilant eye from afar remains to be seen. For some reason, Reborn would rather not for Kawahira to die. The man must have survived this long on will power alone. Dying Will Flames could keep a person alive, especially someone who has Flames like the not-human before him. His Dying Will had been focused around up-keeping the Trinisette and while there was an effective system in place, it still needs to be watched over until it is certain everyone has forgotten it and will never be able to find it. Kawahira can't die yet. He hoped the man understood that.

Sighing again, Reborn silently, subtly signaled for Leon to transform back into his original form and stood up, walking towards the door without looking back.

"That's it?" Kawahira asked behind him, sounding incredulous. "I was honestly expecting you to kill me, Reborn-san."

He paused. "Will you take away the Pacifiers from Bermuda and use them again? Will you turn Kyoya into an Arcobaleno? Will you come after my students? Will you target anyone from my family again?"

"Of course not! I never wanted to sacrifice people to begin with! I-"

"Then yes, that's it." The hitman looked over his shoulder and tipped his fedora at the man who used to be Checkerface and just walked out. He paused when he felt eyes on him from just a few meters away and turned to look, finding the silver-blue eyes of his son tracking his every movement. Reborn smiled at the teen and tipped his head in invitation to join him, which would also allow Kyoya to walk casually pass the realtor's shop he'd just left and peek subtly in to make sure Kawahira was not dead or dying in there. When his son finally caught up with him, Reborn was surprised when Kyoya actually hugged him around the waist, burying his head into his chest the way the Hibari had not done in years. He was surprised how much he had missed it.

"Let's go home, babbo," the prefect said when they both stepped back.

"Hai, we still have a lot to talk about." Fon should be there, too.

His guardians, too. And Vindice. Possibly Dame-Tsuna and Dame-Dino when they start discussing Byakuran.

Kyoya nodded and, together, they walked back to the Hibari Compound, to home, in companionable silence.