"Welcome home!" Sawada Nana calls out from within the house as Tsuna steps in, and Reborn's shoulders relax a hair. He'd heard that she'd come back, but she'd been so focused . . .
He tilts the brim of his fedora up slightly to look at Tsuna's expression. He's frozen again, but he doesn't look like he had when he heard Iemitsu.
"Mama?" he asks after a moment, leaning down to take off his outdoor shoes. "I thought Reborn said you were going to away for a while longer."
"Yes, well," Sawada-san says as she appears in the doorway, wiping her hands on her apron. "Reborn-kun told me what role he was training you for last night." Her eyes go a little distant. "I was planning to go to Italy to give your father a good talking to. He promised me that even if the inheritance dropped to his line, you would be safe, otherwise . . ." She shakes her head and smiles at Tsuna. "Hibari-sensei caught up to me and reminded me why I was so mad. I'm here for you Tsuna. If you need any help, you can come to me."
Reborn watches Tsuna's free hand clench as he looks down to put on his indoor shoes. Then he smiles at his mother.
"Okay. Thank you Mama."
Sawada-san smiles at him and turns to go back into the house. "I'll bring up the snacks. And when you're done with your homework, come down. Reborn said something about new friends besides Sasagawa-kun and Yamamoto-kun, I want to know all about them."
"Of course Mama," Tsuna says, tapping his toe against the threshold to settle his shoe before he steps up into the house.
()
It takes Hayato a long moment to hear the sound of his phone over the humming of his CPAP machine. He sits up and quickly fumbles for the switch as he reaches for his phone.
"Ciao," he says, only remembering that mask when it bumps against his phone and his words come out muffled. He fumbles to pull the mask off and tries again. "Ciao?"
"Hayato," Sawada says warmly, making Hayato's spine snap straight. It's still so weird hear him say that - the name Gokudera Hayato doesn't quite register as his yet, but even then, Tsuna's use of his personal name sends shivers up Hayato's spine. They barely know each other and Hayato introduced himself with a declaration that he was going to kill Tsuna before doing his level best to make good of it, and yet . . .
Using personal names was supposed to be an even bigger deal in Japanese culture that it is in Italy.
Every time Sawada says his name, it reminds Hayato of everything he'd offered.
Hayato licks his chapped lips. "Sawada. Is there something I can do for you?"
"You live with Lambo, right? Have the two of you had dinner yet?"
Hayato casts a guilty look at his CPAP machine. Lambo had both breakfast and lunch, and it's only Monday night so he hadn't felt all to compelled to eat dinner too. And without someone he trusted to make food Hayato had returned to his habits from the streets and ate a tasteless protein bar before turning in for the night to sleep off the last of his jet lag.
"Ah, no," Hayato says.
"Would you two like to come over for dinner at my place then?" Sawada asks. "My mother's back from her cruise, and she wanted to meet my new friends."
Hayato glances up to find Lambo standing in the doorway of the bedroom, watching him.
"Ah, let me ask Lambo," he says, then lowers the phone and covers the microphone. "Sawada's mother would like up to come over for dinner so she can meet us." He doesn't make it a question.
Lambo nods and turns around silently.
Hayato lifts the phone up. "We can be there in-" he glances down at his sleepwear and revises his count up a little "-fifteen minutes."
It doesn't take Hayato long to change, but he trusts Reborn and Lambo enough that it's longer than it has been since he was still living with his father. Still, sliding his suit jacket back on and letting the familiar weight settle on his shoulders as he pulls on his bracelets is nice.
"You got your inhaler?" Lambo asks as Hayato nears the door.
Hayato rolls his eyes, but obligingly slips his inhaler out of the pocket he'd sewn for it in the inner lining of his jacket, next to his bombs and the vials of poison that had attracted the attention of the Varia. He waits for Lambo's nod of acknowledgement before he slips it back into his pocket.
()
"Hey," says Sawada as he pulls the door open. "Good to see you two. The table's going to be a little bit crowded because Reborn has some doctor friend of his over, but Mama was happy to hear that you two were coming over. She got an Italian cookbook on the cruise and she want to see how her attempt holds up for real Italians."
"That sounds interesting," Lambo offers, stepping in after Sawada and sitting down to change his shoes.
"It is," Sawada says, hovering in the entry way as he wait for them. "She tries this every once in a while, not just with Italian cookbooks, but ones from all over the world. She's got them all on display in the kitchen."
"Yeah?" Hayato asks. "I think I remember those from when you last had us over."
He does remember them - he'd seen a few that he'd been looking for. Most of his poisons are meant to be digested and while he doesn't like cooking for himself, he's always trying to work out better ways to disguise what he's slipping into people's food.
"Do you think your mother would mind if I borrowed a couple?" he asks Sawada as they walk through the house.
"She would probably like that," Sawada says as they step into the kitchen.
"I would like what, Tsuna-kun?" the woman at the stove asks over the sound of Reborn talking as turns around. The sound of her spoon hitting the ground stops all other noise.
"Mama?" Sawada asks, taking a step forwards.
"Nico?" Sawada Nana asks faintly, staring at Hayato. Then she shakes her head. She leans down to pick up her spoon from the ground and put it in the sink. Sawada moves forwards to help her, taking the sponge from her hand and leaning down to wipe up the sauce that had splattered on the floor.
"Sawada-san, are you alright?" Reborn asks from the table.
"Ah, yes, no need to worry Reborn-kun. I just . . . wasn't expecting to see Nico," Sawada Nana says, glancing at Hayato again. She frowns a little, muttering, "I would have expected my husband to warn me first."
Hayato starts frantically flipping through his cousins, trying to remember if he has any named Nico. The only one he can remember is Nicodemo, but Nicodemo is two years younger, and doesn't really look all that similar besides their shared Superbi-silver hair.
"Sawada-san, if I may," and Hayato glances over to find that Reborn's doctor friend is, of course, Trident Shamal, "this is Gokudera Hayato, or Superbi Alessandro. I can assure you, having met with Nico and Cristiana before my departure, that this is not him."
It takes the mention of Cristiana for Hayato to realize who Sawada Nana had mistaken him for, and even then he doesn't quite believe it.
Nico Sawada is near legendary. Everyone had heard of him of course, the son of Vongola's Young Lion, and Cristiana's brother, with is a qualification in it's own right. He'd come into his flames so young that no one knew what he truly looked like anymore, and Sawada Nana had pegged Hayato for Nico on sight and without hesitation.
"Oh. Thank you Shamal-sensei," Sawada Nana says. She turns and smiles at Hayato. "It is nice to meet you Hayato-kun." Then she turns to Lambo. "And then you must be Bovino Lambo, nice to meed you as well."
"Sawada-san," Lambo says with a bow, kicking Hayato's leg directly so that he remembers to follow.
"Come on in, you two, sit, sit. I'll have the pasta done soon, and until then you can talk with Tsuna-kun. Tsuna-kun, you were saying?"
"Right," Sawada sets the sponge back into the sink. "Mama, Hayato was saying that he would like to borrow some of your cookbooks if you don't mind."
"Oh! Are you interested in cooking Hayato-kun?"
"Yes," Hayato says as he takes the seat next to Lambo. "I had some allergies to common foods for a while-" after my body learned to associate pasta with magic poison -"so it was safer for me to cook my own food for a while. I was able to get therapy and reintroduce the foods, so I haven't had the opportunity to cook in a while."
Soon the food is served. Hayato eyes Lambo in between bites of the pasta. He's been surprisingly silent all night. He eats well enough, and answers Sawada Nana's questions when she turns her attentions on him between talking with Hayato about cooking, but for the most part he's just . . . silent.
Hayato reaches out as Sawasa Nana says something to her son.
"You alright?" he asks quietly.
"Yesh," Lambo says. "It's just, been a while since someone cooked for me. Even with Massimo . . ."
Hayato watches him trail off, then trows an arm over his shoulders. "I'll make you dinner tomorrow. No skipping out on me, alright?"
Lambo looks up, green eyes wide with shock, before a smile steals across his face. "Yeah. Alright."
Hayato turns back to the conversation in time to catch Reborn's eye. Reborn gives him a nod, then turns back to Shamal.