"Who is that-"
"-the woman Hibari-san listened to-"
"-called him Kyoya-chan-"
"-heard someone call her Hibari-sensei-"
"-oh shit, move, she's coming this way!"
Hibari Taka ignores the whispering as she moves through the crowd of middle schoolers. One poor idiot jumps into a trash can to get out of her way, and she spares him a quick prayer that he'll manage to change before Kyoya-chan finds him, but otherwise ignores him on her warpath.
She slams open the door of the repurposed janitor's closet and closes it behind her so the has a solid surface to shove Reborn back against, his little feet dangling high above the floor as he watches her with a nonchalant expression.
"Did you want something?"
"Why was I not summoned last night?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Reborn says.
"I am a certified medical professional and Tsuna's personal therapist. I am on call twenty four seven in case he has an emergency and needs to talk. I didn't say anything about the first bullet - I've seen the scientific work and those are as regulated as they can be and you didn't have any expectation that anything would go wrong. Any trauma could be talked about in our regular therapy sessions, though I might have needed to increase the amount we have per week to account for the extra subject matter. But last night? After that first time?" Taka scoffs.
"What did you expect?" Reborn asks calmly, his eyes focussed past her on the array of monitors. "It was private Vongola Family business."
"Like my family didn't already know," Taka says, pushing against his shoulders slightly with both hands. "We've kept your Vongola Family business safe for over two hundered years, even though they settled here before the Meiji restoration, even though their family magic made them so troublesome. How did you think Sawada Iemistu knew who his family was? It certainly wasn't because Vongola came looking for him!"
Reborn's eyes go intense as he focuses on her. "Your family knows about flames?"
"For fucks sake," Taka says. "Yes, we know about your little thing. What did you think would happen when the first head of your stupid organization moved here? What did you think would happen when the head of your advisory group came from here? In addition to all of the records we kept, once Sawada Iemitsu left, we maintained contact. Why did you think Vongola had such good contracts for Japanese imports and Japanese became the third most in demand language in Vongola- no wait." Taka sighs and droops a little. "It's because of World War Two. It's always World War Two."
"Are you-"
"The Hibari Family is an official ally of Vongola through the CEDEF, with specifically negotiated rights to information pertaining to flames," Taka says over the end of Reborn's question. "So not only do I know about your private Vongola Business, it's specifically under my purview as Tsuna's medical provider and as a part of the contract my family signed with Vongola. And you can ask Christiana about that."
Not breaking eye contact, Reborn silently reaches up for the chameleon sitting on his hat.
Taka scoffs again and drops him, turning around to look at the monitor bank. "Go ahead," she says, sitting down on the kid-sized chair and scooting it forwards to she can reach the keyboard, ignoring the way the table digs into her thighs because it was definitely not made for an adult. "It's not like she's going to tell you any different."
She messes with the cameras a little, looking for Tsuna, and once she finds him, she settles into just keeping an eye on him as he lingers with the rest of his group in the hallway before the stairs up to the next floor so that Ryohei can get to his class on time once the bell rings. She has to suppress a smile when she catches a glimpse of her baby cousin lingering at the landing of the stairs going down, glaring at students as they pass him.
"Ciao, Christiana, sono io," Reborn says.
Taka doesn't catch most of the conversation. It hadn't been her job to keep up the contact with the CEDEF, so she'd chosen English as her second language for wider access to medical literature, given that it had become the 'language of business' or some nonsense. Tsuna's group parts on the cameras before the bell actually rings, making their way to their own classrooms. Once he's shadowed Tsuna to class, Kyoya-chan heads back to the room he'd taken over as his office to start on his schoolwork. The bell rings. Classes start.
"Here," Reborn says, moving to stand next to her and holding the phone out for her to take. "Christiana wants to talk to you."
"Moshi moshi," Taka says automatically as she raises the phone to her ear, and there's a little breath of laugher on the other side.
"Moshi moshi, this is Sawada Christiana."
"Reborn said you wanted to talk to me," Taka says, pushing the chair back delicately and squeezing out from under the desk so Reborn can go back to watching Tsuna on the camera.
"Yes, I wanted to apologize for the confusion. My father . . . we try to keep attention away from that aspect of the contract. I cleared up what you're allowed to know. I also wanted to offer something - if you would be willing to sign on as a consultant, I can offer you the papers my father did not."
"I can see multiple issues with that. The first of which is - on whose authority? Your father only came back to negotiate once he was in a position to do so. The Vongola family holds the secrets of it magic close."
"I can do this on my own authority," Christiana says calmly. "As my father's named and decided heir to the CEDEF, I have the authority to negotiate our contracts."
"And you would just allow me this information?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I need my brother to be as not fucked up as it is possible for him to get." There's silence on the line for a long moment. "There's a lot of lives riding him taking the position and at the very least being able to keep Vongola afloat. Out only other option is two right now, and while there's someone we could maybe prop up until she's ready, there's a good chance it won't work."
". . . Look. I can't negotiate this on my own. Contact my family."
"I will."
"And Sawada?"
"Yes?"
"Which brother?"
". . . Personally, I would prefer all three of them to be sane. But for the purposes of the family, I do need Tsuna, especially to be making good decisions. Goodbye Hibari-san."
"Goodbye, Sawada."
Taka hangs up and tosses the phone at Reborn, who catches it without looking.
"Well?" she asks.
Reborn holds out a folded slip of paper, letting Leon crawl back onto the brim of his hat with this other hand. "This is the apartment Doctor Shamal and Master Craftsman Giannichi are currently staying at. You can consult with Shamal on the examinations that have already taken place." He turns to face her. "It would be helpful if you could give information on the state he was in immediately after waking up after collapsing from Hyper Dying Will Mode."
Taka's lips thin as she remembers that lonely figure, looking washed out and thin in his white hospital gown in the weeks after he'd been sent to the hospital. His mother had been his only visitor, but although she tried, she didn't really seem to know what to do.
("He's been a quiet child for a while now. I was a little worried that he only rarely had friends over and that his grades were never the best, but he was doing better," she'd told Taka. "I thought he was alright."
Then she'd smiled wryly. "But then, isn't that what they alway say?")
She remembers coming into Tsuna's room at noon. Remembers seeing him laying there, still on his bed. Remembers the utter relief she'd felt when she found him still breathing.
He'd blinked at her, his eyes utterly without emotion, his voice flat.
The Sawada family was small, and while they'd reported to the Hibaris over the years, they were very self contained. And after Iemitsu left, there hadn't been any incidents of Sawada magic in Namimori for almost twenty years. There hadn't actually been a reason for her to go over the files on flames that Iemitsu had sold them. No one had known what do do about Tsuna.
"Alright," Taka says, pocketing the paper. "Oh and Reborn? Tsuna's not allowed at school after an episode. I'll be pulling him out to keep watch on him today. Could you send his friends over when school lets out?"
"You say that like they won't all immediately skip the moment they know he's not coming back," Reborn says darkly as Taka sets her hand on the door handle of the janitor's closet.
"Yes, well. They're not my responsibility. And they'll be good for Tsuna," Taka says. Then she pulls the door open and leaves, letting the heavy door swing shut behind her.