To the Sky That Binds Us Together Chapter 4: A Future Departure, a katekyo hitman reborn! fanfic

"I want to go home," was the first time he said the moment he woke up to his brothers' worried faces. "I don't want to go to this school anymore please." Not when in this school, the voice in his head keeps on pounding and screaming and his chest hurts every time he sees someone that makes the voice scream.

"Please, I'll stay indoors and I won't try to go out anymore," he can't live like this. He can't, when everywhere he goes to he gets that same pitying and comparing looks for the hospital and from his brothers.

Tsuna clutched the blanket covering him, his body visibly shaking and everything hurts. The scent of green tea and disinfectant only reminded him of the time he stayed in the hospital, so many years ago after the accident.

The smell of burning bodies and blood lingering in his nose despite it has been years since he was rescued from the Ruins by the Contractors. He couldn't remember it clearly, not when the only thing he could recall was his mama's voice screaming for him to run and the heat and warmth of his papa's Flames, burning orange in the darkness. He couldn't talk, he couldn't cry, he couldn't bear the touch of anyone and he couldn't hear. It was just the smell of disinfectant and oranges in the air. It was just darkness, pain, and the over looming shadows of the Ruins.

That was until a week or so after he was rescued, that his brothers came into his room. Two males, one was wearing an old European suit with hair as gold as the chain hanging off his pocket, and the other, the much younger one in a black yukata, hair as brown as his own and Tsuna at that time thought how much they look like his parents, like him.

Two men, sharing the same orange eyes between them, were accompanied by the nurses that have been taking care of him. The man, the one that looks more like his father, knelt by his side and took his hand into his own gloved ones. "Tsuna," he started, voice as gentle and low as if he was speaking to a feral cub than a ten-year-old child. "Hello, my name is Giotto."

Giotto, the man introduced himself with such a small and sweet smile that Tsuna wanted to ask him on how can he smile when everything is falling apart and everyone is dying. "And this is Natsu," the man began before caressing his hand softly. "We're what's left of your family."

"Your older brothers."

Tsuna could remember it vividly on how his older brothers, his new brothers, brothers he never ever heard about, brought him to his new home, a huge mansion with his own room and bathroom and everything. It took some time for him to be able to open up to them, lights remained open every night because of his nightmares, Natsu's body pressed against him most of the days when the guilt and pain became too much, Giotto singing him whenever he cried and broke stuff. It was a miracle that they still kept him and sat beside him every time he couldn't breathe and survive, phantom pains wrecking his body every day.

He grew up from that child who cannot stand the darkness and the smell of gasoline but the smell of disinfectant and medicine makes him think of Ruins, death and terror begins coursing through his veins. The flashbacks and the screaming of his mama still echoing in his mind every passing moment and all he wanted was for it to stop. To stop and make the voice disappear.

"Please nii-chan ."

He could see the guilt in Giotto's eyes, a little more push, and Giotto will pull him out if he hasn't already. Giotto, between his brothers, cares for him the most in a way that Tsuna knows would rather shelter him from the world and hide him from all danger. It was his idea after all after they first got him not to let him go out, saying that it's to help him but Tsuna knows better, he overheard his brothers talk during his first week with them. How Tsuna will be in danger if he goes out, how they cannot fail again and Tsuna isn't a saint to not use that to his advantage.

"I just wanna go home," and Giotto already opened his mouth to say something when someone interrupted him.

"And thousands of people would die if you do," it was him again. Reborn, this time only in his vest and dress shirt, fedora dropped by the table near the window as he smoked. Gone was the anger radiating from him the last time Tsuna saw him but grief and regrets remained, letting him know by the way he looks at the gradually fading sky. Somber and for a moment there, Tsuna thought he was lonely. "Millions will die because of you."

Millions? Tsuna blinked, thoughts racing through his head and he didn't know what was the feeling pooling in his stomach. Dread? Anger? Fear? He didn't know but the thought of him being the reason for so many deaths doesn't make sense. What could he do? Trip all of them to death?

"Enough! He doesn't need to kn-" his brother was interrupted by a glare, golden eyes sharper and glowing, the smell of tobacco filling the room, an infirmary Tsuna noticed by looking around. His eyes being attracted to the small chameleon on the man's, Reborn's shoulder slowly blinking at him.

"12 years ago," Tsuna froze, sitting up abruptly to stare at the man. "80 people were attacked by S-class Ruins and yet only one managed to live, found days later in the Ruins' nest."

"2 months ago, an A-class Ruin has shown an unusual behavior when it was not found devouring a human by the seconds it was curled around them," Tsuna glance at Reborn, eyes wide and hands shaking, watching the man finish off his cigarette, the smell spreading around the room despite the open window.

"How odd isn't it? That is on both occasions Sawada Tsunayoshi was there and it was only to him that the Ruins showed that behavior?" It was everything came crashing down at him, the words laying down facts in front of him that Tsuna has been desperately trying to hide away from these past few weeks.

His brother looks pissed, Natsu standing up and Tsuna hurriedly took his hand, hoping to soothe his anger. "What are you trying to say?" His anger, unlike Giotto's flames, flames that were always there, embers and cinders waiting for a spark, feels like a storm coming from the horizon, winds growing stronger gradually until the sky darkens and heavy rain begins to flood the land.

Reborn stood up, easily towering over his brother despite his brother's tall frame. The smell of smoke and ashes filling up his nose, making him sneeze. "What I am trying to say that your brother will cause so many deaths, Empe-"

Tsuna watched as time slowed down, his usual calm brother covering the man's mouth in a tight grip as his other hand punched him, flames of orange sunsets, of Skies coating his hand. Just before the fist connected to Reborn's cheek, a barrier made out of Sky flame appeared, absorbing the flames his brother was emitting and Tsuna felt something tugging deep in his core, the voice stirring up sluggishly, singing an empty but familiar tune as the barrier sang along with it.

"Enough! The two of you!" Giotto yelled, squeezing his hand tighter when Tsuna wondered how much is his brothers hiding from him. Sky flames? He would understand, he kinda already knows about it, the way their eyes would glow every time they would get riled up. He knows that his brothers weren't human either, not when Natsu has instincts beyond a human can have and Giotto with his supernatural intuition. But what else are they hiding from him?

"Count your lucky stars and thank the Gods for their protection," Natsu snarled, extinguishing his flames and dropping down to sit by Tsuna's side, curling a hand around his waist and holding him tightly. "That you still have her protection , even if you don't deserve it."

The man didn't say anything but fetched his fedora and coat, heading out to leave the infirmary, and Tsuna was tempted to pull him back and tell him that everything will be alright and nothing is his fault. He held himself back, watching the man close the door with a loud bang.

The voice, the entity in him wailing in sadness and pain only to grow quiet when Giotto decided to join him and Natsu on the bed, crowding them in the narrow bed. Warm gloved hands lifting his legs and putting them down on top of his brother's while Natsu slid in the bed, burrowing his face by Tsuna's neck.

It reminds him of home, of those days where they would sleep together even when Tsuna grew up and nightmares haunt him less often. Natsu curled up by his side, his arm possessively thrown atop his stomach while he buried his face deeper in Tsuna's neck. Giotto on his other side, his legs atop both of them hazardly, curling around both of them and covering them with his body. Days where Tsuna didn't have to worry that he's going to kill someone just because he goes outside and none of this even happened.

"Tsuna," Giotto whispered, pulling him, and by extension Natsu, down on the bed. Mint quickly replacing the smell of lingering tobacco. "I'm sorry."

Sorry for what? He wanted to ask but the tears falling onto his hair made him stop. He could only hold his brother's hand tighter and bring it up to his chest. His brother, his Giotto, the person who would smile at him every time he would accidentally break plates when everything became too much. His brother who would hold him in his arms and let him stay there when all he could remember is blood and screaming and his mama getting eaten.

"Nii-chan can't," his brother took a deep breath, tears turning to soft sobs, "nii-chan can't protect you anymore."

It wasn't long before Natsu began crying, his two brothers who saved him from the Ruins, from the life of being an orphan crying.

"Nii-chan can't bring you home anymore, we can't go out anymore or else you'll get hurt Tsuna," Natsu whispered, his voice soft and gentle but steady, unlike Giotto who began to hiccup from crying. "Tsuna, I know you don't like the Academy."

"But Tsuna, this Academy is the only place that can protect you now," his brother explained, "we don't know why the Ruins are targeting you specifically but until we do, Tsuna please stay here."

He was saying it as if he was leaving and that scared Tsuna even more. "Are you leaving me?" He asked, worry and fear amplifying at that very thought of being alone without his brothers. "Are you seriously going to leave me?"

Ever since he was saved by them, they have always been together. Never once did they separate even during grocery runs and holidays, they would go together. Where Tsuna can be found, Giotto and Natsu won't be far away. It was always like that.

"We have to," Giotto whispered, seemingly afraid that others might hear what he was about to say. "Ruins are getting out of hand and we think we know where they came from," Tsuna's eyes widened at what his brother revealed.

Ruins have no known origins, no knowledge about them at all except for three things that have been thought to people at a young age;

Ruins bring nothing but destruction in the world. Destruction and death follow them like how thunder follows lightning. Nothing will be left in its path, no bones, no cities, no lives. Ruins, like any other living being, have Flames. Flames tainted with black. Corrupted Flames but Flames nonetheless. With ten times more destructive power of the original Flames, Ruins are on top of the food chain. Run, if one saw a Ruin, drop everything and run. Ruins will not wait for Contractors, will not wait for soldiers. It will devour and devour anything that is in front of their path, be it human or spirit, it does not discriminate.

Those are the three rules of the Ruins and yet two were broken when Tsuna was involved. Twice, that day those years ago and two months ago. He is the only documented survivor of close encounters with Ruins and Giotto knows that the government is having some ideas on why. Ideas that might bring harm to him.

"No, not think. We know," Natsu corrected him, raising his face from Tsuna's neck. Holding Tsuna's face in his hands. Orange worried eyes meeting his own, a frown on his brother's lips and Tsuna wants to cry. "And Tsuna, we just want you to be safe."

"But do you have to go? Why can't the Arcobalenos do anything about it? The headmistress?" He just can't understand that why does it have to be his brothers, his brothers who know everything and at the same nothing about the world. His brothers whose curiosity would brighten their eyes when Tsuna introduce them to gadgets that any other person would know how to use it.

"You promised me! You promised!" Tsuna can feel himself shaking, shaking, and crying and everything just seems to fall apart at this point. He could hear Giotto shushing him, tightening his embrace around him. "You promised."

Tsuna met the sorrowful eyes of his big brother before breaking apart. "Tsu, I'm so sorry but it's either us or Luce and Luce can't leave the academy," his brother tried explaining and Tsuna can't understand, he won't understand. "Luce's Flames are powering the barriers here and Tsuna please listen to me."

Natsu held his face tightly, dragging his face nearer to his own, his eyes searching for something in Tsuna's eyes before he sighed. "We love you," he said, pressing their foreheads together. "And we're only doing this is for you."

"Everything we do will always be for you."

And despite everything, something in Tsuna told him to believe his words. The voice in his head telling him to believe. And so Tsuna did, he believed in the words of his brothers because what can he say? He loves them.

"We don't care about anyone else Tsu and this world, we didn't really care about it," Giotto shared, burying his face in Tsuna's hair. "And we found you and all this time we thought the world can leave you be," Giotto nuzzled him softly and Tsuna has so many questions but now he knows he has so little time. "But what happened 2 months ago and what Luce discussed with us."

Luce, the headmistress, everything came down to her. Yuni, Luce, Reborn, Luce, Giotto, Luce, Natsu, Luce, Arcobaleno, Vongola, Mare, Sora. And Tsuna doesn't know how everything went down the moment he decided to save Yuni but if he was given the chance to go back to that time, he would still choose to save her. It's better for him who has to die than anyone else.

"Tsuna, it's either you dying or the Ruins and we will gladly go through hell and back for you, so please Tsuna, don't cry," Giotto whispered, a gloved hand touching his cheek to wipe the tears following from there.

Don't cry he says? How can he stop crying when everything is falling apart and he can't stop it from falling apart. "You're not abandoning me?"

"No, wait for us Tsuna," Natsu assured him. "Just a few months and we'll be back by your side. And we will never leave again."

'Just a few months,' Tsuna's mind reminded him. 'Just a few months and everything will be back to normal and we can return home." And that thought reassured him, laying his worries to rest but something in him was screaming that something bad will happen and the moment his brothers will leave, everything will change."I want to go home," was the first time he said the moment he woke up to his brothers' worried faces. "I don't want to go to this school anymore please." Not when in this school, the voice in his head keeps on pounding and screaming and his chest hurts every time he sees someone that makes the voice scream.