FairyQueen72: Haha, why thank you. :)
I don't own KHR.
Tsuna was...calm. Which was definitely abnormal considering that the man who had tried to kill him about two weeks ago was standing right in front of him. Not to mention, Reborn also had Takeshi trapped against his side. There was also the fact that Kyoya and the others had yet to return from the Vongola mansion, leaving it up to him to protect Takeshi and Lambo.
But despite all of this, Tsuna was calm, as well as cool and collected. Not only that, Tsuna felt more determined than he has ever has felt before.
And he focused all of that determination onto Reborn.
Who was currently looking at him with an expression that looked like a mixture of surprise, amazement, and excitement. Earlier, Tsuna might have felt nervous seeing such an expression on Reborn, but not now.
He found that he didn't even care.
What did piqued his interest though, was Takeshi's expression. His mouth was hanging open, and the glint in his brown eyes was slowing changing from terrified to hope and wonder. Before Tsuna could wonder why that was, he heard Lambo make a soft coo sound. Lambo who had been sniffing and crying ever since Reborn showed himself.
Tsuna glanced down to find that Lambo was lightly touching orange flames.
Orange flames that covered his, no, both of his hands.
Despite how much they danced though, the strange flames were not hurting him. And judging by how Lambo was now lunging both of his little hands into the flames, they were not hurting him either.
Now that he thought about it, the middle of his forehead felt hotter than normal.
Huh. Okay.
"Interesting...very interesting," Reborn finally said. "Do you by chance have any Italian relatives?"
"My grandfather was, I'd never met him though," Tsuna replied truthfully. "He died before I was born."
"Hmm...okay," Reborn said with a nod. He didn't explain why he asked that question, and once again, Tsuna didn't care. Instead, he turned to his side and carefully sat Lambo down in front of a tree. Lambo whimpered when Tsuna let go of him and immediately held his hands out to him.
"Tsu," Lambo whined when his hands couldn't reach Tsuna. Although Tsuna often indulged Lambo when it came to hugs and cuddles, he knew that he couldn't grant Lambo's request this time.
He needed both hands if he wanted to rescue Takeshi.
So instead, Tsuna placed the handle of Takeshi's sword (which had turned back into a bamboo sword while Tsuna was focusing all of his attention on Reborn) into Lambo's hands. Lambo slowly stopped whimpering as he looked at the sword in interest. Hopefully Takeshi wouldn't mind too much that Tsuna gave his sword to Lambo, who was still teething. Deciding to deal with that later, Tsuna gave Lambo's curls one last pat and moved to stand in front of his baby brother.
"You're ready now?" Reborn asked, his hold on Takeshi still strong and secure.
"Yes." And with no other warning, Tsuna attacked. Using his fiery hands to propel him upwards, Tsuna jumped the whole distance quite easily, as well as quickly. When he was in front of Reborn's face, Tsuna raised one of his fists and aimed right for the nose.
And he was still in the air. He was practically flying.
Any other time, Tsuna would have been amazed at his new powers, as well as how quickly he was adapting to them. Instead, the only thing he was concerned about was that Takeshi was in danger.
Hopefully this punch will get him out of it.
Unfortunately, just when there was only a quarter of an inch between Reborn's nose and Tsuna's fist, there was a hand around his wrist. Reborn then flung him backwards, and for a moment, Tsuna wasn't in control.
"Tsuna!"
His determination instantly rose as Tsuna gritted his teeth and quickly threw his arms behind him and concentrated on his flames. The flames immediately flared up, causing Tsuna's downfall to come to a complete stop.
And good thing too, because a glance behind him told him that he was seconds away from slamming backfirst, perhaps even headfirst into a thick, burly tree.
Tsuna didn't waste any time thinking about what could have been as he turned his attention back to Reborn, who was currently giving him what looked like a pleased smirk. Not caring at all, Tsuna just propelled himself forwards again for another shot.
He's going to shoot at you.
That...that felt an awful like his...
There was suddenly a familiar green flash of light on the palm of Reborn's hand.
Intuition!
Without wasting another precious second, Tsuna dropped altitude just as Reborn raised his hand and pulled the trigger on the green gun he wasn't holding a second ago. Although the resulting bang was loud enough to hurt Tsuna's ears somewhat, Tsuna just kept on going.
And he will keep on going until Takeshi was free again. Until both he and Lambo were safe and sound.
Reborn, whose smirk was even bigger now, quickly aimed his gun at Tsuna again. But Tsuna rapidly flared up his flames to propel himself slantly upwards just enough to escape the next gunshot. By this time, Tsuna had reached Reborn again.
Not wasting any time, Tsuna swung his leg right at the arm that was still pinning his brother against Reborn's side.
And this time...he made contact.
Reborn didn't make a sound to signal that he was in pain, but Tsuna didn't pay any attention to that.
His eyes were solely on Takeshi's quick descent from Reborn's grasp.
Tsuna quickly flew downwards and caught Takeshi by the back of his shirt before he could collide facefirst with the ground. He then flew right towards Lambo, with the intent to drop Takeshi off safely beside him.
Don't fight him anymore. Fly away.
His intuiton had never led him wrong before.
So instead, Tsuna landed right in front of his baby brother, and threw Takeshi over his shoulder, who definitely made a surprised oof. Then before Reborn could take another shot at them, Tsuna grabbed Lambo and the bamboo sword with one arm. And while clutching them against his chest as well as make sure Takeshi wasn't going to fall off, Tsuna took off.
It wasn't till they were several feet away that Tsuna realized that Reborn hadn't shot at them again. It was suspicious, but Tsuna didn't have much of a choice but to not look this gift horse in the mouth.
He had to get Takeshi and Lambo as far away from Reborn as possible.
"Tsuna?" Takeshi called out after quite a few minutes of them flying past the trees. "I'll think we're far enough away now. You can put me down now."
Tsuna didn't respond right away, thinking it over. It was true that there hasn't been a third gunshot cracking across the air, or any other signs that he was pursuing them. His intuition wasn't telling him to keep on flying either. It was probably safe to presume that they really were far enough away for a quick pit stop.
And besides, Takeshi's weight was starting to make his shoulder really uncomfortable. Not that Tsuna blamed him.
"Okay." Tsuna then flew slowly to the ground and once his feet touched ground, the flames on his hands evaporated. The middle of his forehead quickly stopped feeling hot as well. Letting out a sound that was half a groan and half a sigh, Tsuna collasped to his knees. When Takeshi rapidly got off his shoulder, Tsuna could have sighed in relief.
Wait...he did.
Did he?
"Wow..." he heard Takeshi gasp in pure wonder. Wait, heard? Realizing that his vision was dark, Tsuna opened his eyes to see Takeshi kneeling in front of him with that wonderful, happy smile of his.
When did he close his eyes?
"That...that was that most amazing and coolest thing I have ever seen!" Takeshi exclaimed happily with a wide outstretch of his arms as Tsuna's own limbs felt unnaturally heavy.
But Tsuna didn't care about that.
Takeshi was free and not struggling or on the verge of crying. Lambo was safe, tucked against his chest and not crying as well. In fact, Tsuna's increasingly foggy mind recalled how much Lambo giggled and laughed during their flight.
His brothers were safe. And that was all Tsuna cared about.
"Though...how did you do that?" Takeshi asked him. And even though Takeshi was right in front of him, Tsuna had to really strain his ears in order to comprehend his words.
It didn't help that Tsuna's sight was becoming unusally blurry as well.
"I...don't...know," Tsuna managed to say, his voice soft as he vaguely felt his body wavering.
Then he knew no more.
KHR
Hayato's heart danced with anticipation as he looked through his binoculars at the lake below. Before he knew it, there were ripples on the surface of the water. Hayato grinned as he fought to stay still.
"Oh please, please let it be Nessie! Please-"
"Hayato wake up!"
"Ah!" Hayato exclaimed as he opened his green eyes aruptly. A few blinks later, he realized that he wasn't on the cliffside near Loch Ness. Instead he was lying in bed in one of the rooms of the Vongola mansion, with Chrome looking down at him.
Man, he was just about to see Nessie too-wait. Why was Chrome afraid?
"What's wrong?" Hayato asked. Chrome bit her lip before exhaling.
"I was sneaking around the mansion to get a better layout of the place when I overheard them. They...they know. Vongola knows your real identity!"
Hayato's eyes widened as his heart quickened. He gulped as he tried to calm his anxiety down to a managable level. Being overcome with that negative emotion would not help him and his sister. Though how...how did they find out?
"What...what are they going to do about it?" he asked quietly. He recalled how Giotto got him through his panic attack and how G was considerate of him as well how angry he got when Hayato told him about Bianchi's death. Maybe...just maybe, they wouldn't send him back to Martina.
But the look on Chrome's face told him otherwise.
"Giotto...he said that they were going to take care of you," Chrome whispered. Wait...that doesn't sound...
"And his voice was really cold when he said it," Chrome added.
Oh. That kind of 'take care of you.'
Hayato closed his eyes and sighed. Darn it. Just...darn it. While he careful by not trusting them, a part of him did hope that maybe for mafioso, they were actually alright people. That they really did care about the welfare of children, regardless of where they came from.
It's good thing that Hayato didn't trust them. Because if he had, then his heart would be hurting a lot more right now.
"How much time do we have?" Hayato asked when he opened his eyes again.
"I don't know, I left as soon as I could," Chrome informed him. "But I contacted Mukuro right away and he told me that they were already on their way. I just had to get back to you and find a safe place to hide with you."
"Oh, okay, then let's-"
"But I couldn't get back to you right away because Daemon was at the door," Chrome interrupted him, guilt and worry becoming really apparent on her young face. "So I had to hide but it turns out he was just waiting for me to come out the whole time! Luckily I was able to trick him that I had fallen asleep but during that time Mukuro told me that they were here. When I was finally able to reply back, Mukuro cut himself off during a middle of a sentence and he still hasn't contacted me back!"
Hayato had to go over Chrome's words in his head once or twice as Chrome caught her breath after speaking so quickly. But when he finally did fully understand, Hayato felt a seed of dread grow in his gut.
Mukuro would never break Chrome off like that. Which meant that Mukuro and the others were in trouble.
Hayato sucked in a breath as he pushed away the mental images of his siblings at the mercy of the Vongola. His sister, no, his family needed him, he really couldn't afford to panic right now.
"So...c'mon, let's...let's go find a safe hiding spot," Chrome suggested shakily as she placed an arm under Hayato's back, obviously intent on saving him and desperately trusting Mukuro and the others to be okay.
And while Hayato did trust Mukuro and the others, he also knew that the Vongola wouldn't be called the strongest famiglia in the world without a good reason.
"Wait," Hayato said, determination strong in his voice as he grabbed Chrome's shoulder. "Let's go to them."
"What?!" Chrome cried, very much alarmed. "But that's..."
"I know it's dangerous," Hayato interrupted her. "But they're definitely in danger too, and they will be in even more danger if we don't go to them right now. We can't have them fight their way to us Chrome, we have to meet them halfway. They...they may not make it otherwise."
Hayato hadn't want to admit it, but it was true. And judging by the look on Chrome's face, she knew it too.
"But Hayato...what if...we just make things worse?" she whispered.
"We won't," Hayato answered passionately, despite him being afraid of the exact same thing. But he pushed that fear down and continued talking.
"We have to get out of here as soon as possible Chrome, while we all still have a chance. Before the whole darn famiglia realizes there are intruders and decides they need to engage too."
The only reason Hayato knew that the whole famiglia wasn't aware of his siblings yet was because there currently was no ruckus or marching footsteps outside the door. Of course, they could have successfully stopped his siblings quietly and...
Hayato shook his head in order to stop himself from going any further that road. They were alright, they were just in some kind of trouble. They were alive.
They had to be.
"Okay," Chrome finally conceded with a nod. "But, I don't know where they are."
"Do you know where the nearest exit is?" Hayato asked.
"Yeah, it's not too far from here."
"Then let's start there. Hopefully that's where they came in and are somewhere near there. If not...we'll keep on searching."
They will find them, his family will be whole again. Hayato refused to accept any other alternative.
"Alright," Chrome agreed. She then pried Hayato's nasal prongs off his nose and helped him to sit up. Instantly Hayato felt a small but tight pain in his chest, making him grunt. This in turn caused Chrome to look worried but Hayato just shook his head and swung his legs over the edge of his bed.
There was no way he was going to let his gunshot wound slow them down.
He did, however, have to let Chrome help him stand up, as well as help him walk to the door. While Hayato was frustrated with himself for not being able to do something so simple by himself, he didn't protest when Chrome threw his arm over his shoulder.
Time was of the essence.
Luckily, it didn't take long at all for them to reach the door. Hayato pressed his ear to the door and when he heard only silence, he nodded to Chrome. Chrome responded in kind and Hayato turned the doorknob slowly and creaked open the door.
Right as he heard the thundering sound of running feet.
Oh Tsuna and Hayato...you two are maturing so well. Hopefully things will end well so you two can continue to mature.
So what did you think? Was Reborn in character, how was the fight scene, did the Nessie dream make you laugh, etc? Please feel free to leave any comments/review on what you thought and I will update later this month.
Till then, have a great day/night!