Guess who is back with more angst? Yes, it is I.

I've corrected some spelling mistakes in the previous chapters so the read might be easier. This being said, enjoy the end of the first part of the Maestri arc.

Il Maestro

Third Arc

III

To be quite honest, Tsuna had never had a sound mind. Not since he had taken Kawahira's strawberry candy all those years ago.
Since then, his thoughts had always been tightly woven with speeches, memories and feelings that he was quite sure he'd never lived through. And yet, the then kid and now teenager would never had pushed those memories away.

Because, as he had said so to Kawahira many times before, those memories were full of happiness, even with all the blood and dead haunting his dreams.

Tsuna had often gotten lost in his thoughts during classes, slipping, without even thinking about it, into those hazy memories and dreams that had been brought by that innocent looking candy. And, even if Reborn, that sadistic tutor of his, always brought him back to Earth with a colossal slap on the back of his head, the future Vongola Decimo still did it again and again, wishing to go back and lose himself into those memories so foreign to his actual life.

That other Tsuna's life fascinated him.

Being able to remember, night after night, that other version of himself and all his actions had attracted his curiosity. The teenager often spent his daytime in his head, thinking and remembering those dreams, those memories, and trying to make sense of them. He did his best to tie those dreams together, to make some sort of chronology and fill in the blanks. Oftentimes, his intuition helped. It actually had helped him so much that Tsuna had been shocked still when he had finally deciphered it.

The Other, as Tsuna had quickly nicknamed that future version of himself, had time-travelled into the past to make sure Byakuran wouldn't have been able to be as powerful as he had been in other universes. Then, he had joined the Vongola family and had taken a kid as an apprentice. The Boy.

Tsuna couldn't remember the Boy's name. Nor his appearance. He just knew that the Boy had been an important person in the Other's life and that, when the Other had had to leave with Kawahira (who had been under one of his disguises) to vanish, the Boy had been left broken.

The night Tsuna had remembered the Other's death as well as the Boy's tears, the boy (he'd only been ten years old) had been profoundly chocked. He had stayed in his bed, curled into a tight ball while crying with deep sobs that had wrecked across his childish body.

That day, Tsuna had cursed his hazy memories. He would have sold his soul just to get a hint of the Boy's face, even his name. However, he couldn't do anything about it and the Boy stayed a faceless memory in his dreams.

Until he met the man with the fedora.

The man had appeared in the middle of the Arcobaleno fights. Fight that Tsuna had actually been losing. Fighting against his father had been harder than he had expected, and the teenager had reached the point where even hitting the adult would lead to tremendous harm to his own body.

And then, the man with the fedora had appeared.

It happened suddenly. At one moment, Tsuna had been on the verge of receiving the final blow and pathetically lose against his father. And on the next second, there had been an explosion and he had ended up on the ground, a stranger wearing a familiar hat turning his back on him.

"Chaos" the latter had whispered with a deadly voice that had given shivers to Tsuna.

The latter's eyes widened, and he watched carefully the stranger's straight back and his relaxed stance, the teenager's body relaxing without him even noticing it as he was too focused thinking about this new arrival.

He knew that man.

"It's time to learn, Dame-Tsuna," the man taunted him as he turned his head towards the teen.

Tsuna gulped and tightened his grip in his gloves, he was starting to feel faint and could already hear ghostly voices.

"You need a catchphrase! I mean … A phrase you'd always say whenever you kill someone."
"You want me to say something like 'Sayonara Baby' whenever we end a mission?"

His eyes widened even more and Tsuna felt his heartrate increase dramatically.

"What do you think of Chaos?"

He saw the stranger's face, those dark eyes and pale lips, and felt his heart tighten. Finally, after all those years, he could finally look at the Boy in his eyes.

"That suit, that gun…" Tsuna whispered softly as he avidly looked over the stranger so he could forever remember his face. "Who are you?"

The Boy of his memories, nowadays a man, merely pursed his lips as if that question bothered him and finally answered him.

"It's Chaos, Dame-Tsuna."

The teenager could hear that stranger's voice in his head, talking to the Other, begging him to stay with him, to not abandon him. Tsuna's eyes started tearing up and he kept quiet as his father talked to the man that had always featured heavily in his dreams. The brunet heard, thanks to his silence, that the stranger didn't want him to know his name. it hurt. And that the man with the fedora hat had come to teach him a lesson of dying wills.

Those words hit him hard and Tsuna stayed on the ground, sitting still as the Other's memories flooded his mind.

"Did you know that you can do anything if you use your dying will? Once, my tutor taught me this. When you use the dying will, you must really be ready to die to realize your will. You should have seen him…"

Tsuna shook his head and watched attentively the man fight against his father, trying his best to remember everything the stranger was telling him, and he felt his heart stop when the latter made a shot incredibly powerful and precise.

"Now, it's your turn, Tsuna," the man whispered to him as he jumped away and disappeared behind rocks.

However, Tsuna had had the time to meet the stranger's eyes and had clearly seen the affection and care in those dark pupils. As well as the thin smile he had given him. His head filled with memories of the Boy which now had a face, Tsuna felt his will strengthen itself and he tightened his fists as he invoked his flames.

He didn't have time to dream about the Boy's identity. Reborn needed him. And Tsuna would help him till his last breath.

.

.

Reborn watched with horror the cavern full of drawings of the Arcobaleno's cursed fate, and he closed his eyes tight, refusing to continue hearing Bermuda's sickly-sweet voice tell him the horrible truth he had always known but tried to forget all along.

« "Reborn." »

The voice, definitively male, of his memories echoed in his head and the baby suddenly opened his eyes to peer at his student's worried face. The latter had a pale face, his brown eyes flickering between his tutor and the Vendice who were still standing at guard, visibly waiting for Reborn's answer to Bermuda's proposal. Clearly wishing that he would refuse to join them.

Reborn had never been one to disappoint his student. Not when the latter was that scared and tense, not when he could only feel one thing and that was the wish to hug the teenager and promise him that everything would go well.

"I'll find another way," Tsuna claimed without even blinking against the Vendice's show of strength.

"I've decided, Bermuda," Reborn added as he fought against his slowly rising memories. "I'll follow Tsuna's Will."

The Vendice baby, exactly what the Sun Arcobaleno could have become if he had ever accepted that offer, merely gave a disappointed sigh and they all took their stances for the fight that would surely follow.

However, even if Reborn was securing his grip on his trusted revolver, he didn't feel any fear.

Because Tsuna was by his side.

The baby with the fedora glanced at the brown-haired teenager and softly smiled when he noticed that the latter had the same trusting expression as he did.

Suddenly, Tsuna's eyes narrowed and shifted into his Hyper mode colour. The teenager turned towards Bermuda and Reborn felt his heart shudder as he felt a familiar emotion surround him just as the chains restraining his memories vanished.

"… Tsuna!" he gasped while the Vendice named Jager jumped towards the brunet to kill him.

Luckily, Bermuda seemed on a merciful mood and stopped his goon with a word, just as Reborn put his hand over the rim of his hat, trying his best to contain the waves of powerful emotions that threatened to submerge him. The fight ended at that time and the small hitman was quite thankful for it. He didn't know what he'd have done if Tsuna, innocent, naïve and pure Tsuna, had been killed in front of him.

"Tsuna," he said while they got their watches back. "You don't need to die for the Arcobaleno."

The teenager startled, seemingly shocked and annoyed, and tried to protest, loudly asking why Reborn seemed to have given up the fight. However, the baby couldn't tell him the truth. He couldn't tell him how much the mere idea of Tsuna dying had disturbed him and how much he wanted to protect him now.

Just like he hadn't been able to protect the other.

.

.

The night had fallen and Tsuna couldn't sleep. Too many things were rolling in his mind and he couldn't make sense of them. Usually, Reborn would have given him a slap to get him out of his brooding and the teenager would have told him what bothered him. However, the Arcobaleno wasn't there, he was explaining to the other cursed babies what would befall them at the end of those pointless fights, and Tsuna was alone in his bedroom.

Finally, the teenager stopped going over and over what had happened, and he went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea to calm his frayed nerves. It was just as he poured the hot water in his mug that he saw the noodles leftovers on the kitchen table that he realised that the solution to all his problems had been under his nose all this time.

Tsuna took a deep breath and closed his eyes while fighting against a nervous laughter.

Then, he acted.

That night, Tsuna pushed aside his worries about the Boy's identity and focused on only one thing. He was going to save Reborn. And once he did it, the teenager would ask him who was the Boy and how they were related.

When the sun rose, the brunet opened his dull brown eyes with a tired face and was startled by Kyoko's worried frown. The young girl was standing in front of him and had watched over him for quite some time, possibly trying to understand why he'd slept in that alley during the night.

"Tsuna-kun," Kyoko whispered as her frown deepened and her warm honey coloured eyes darkened with worry. "What is happening?"

The boy blinked and rubbed his eyelids with a harsh hand, trying to push asides his tiredness. Then, he answered the first girl who had ever been kind to him.

"No-Nothing," he stuttered before he got up with a faint grown.

His muscles were screaming for more rest and he had to lean against the wall just to make sure his legs wouldn't fail him. Meanwhile, Kyoko had been watching him silently and pursed her lips.

"Tsuna-kun," she finally said. "Do you still have the good luck charm I gave you?"

The teenager blinked yet another time, his thoughts stopping for a second before he realised what she had said. He then took out the good luck charm and apologised when he noticed how frayed and dirtied it was from all the fights he had been into.

"Tsuna-kun," Kyoko repeated with her sweet and infinitely soft voice. "Let me fix that charm. I have been talking about it with Haru-chan, we both wanted to add more wishes into it so it might protect you more."

However, Tsuna wasn't fooled by her words. Kyoko's eyes were enough to transmit the true message behind her words.

'Let me do something, anything, just to make sure you will stay alive.'

Thus, the teenager accepted and gave her the small and frayed good luck charm, after making sure that Kyoko would give it back before sundown.

Once she left with her new mission, Tsuna sat back against the brick wall and gave a long sigh. It was now time to put everything in motion and Reborn would finally understand that Tsuna wouldn't stop until he saved him.

It was then that the baby appeared by his side, as he always did, just when the teenager needed him the most.

Tsuna watched the small infantile body, clothed with a pristine and unruffled suit, and heard a distant voice, a ghost from his dreams.

"Please, remind me," he said after a long silence during which he observed his student's shivering body in the middle of the snow. "What is the first rule?"
"Always be classy," groaned the teenager.

"Reborn," Tsuna asked as he widened his eyes and felt his heartbeat suddenly accelerate. "You're back from the Arcobaleno's reunion?"

The baby nodded, his face darkening, and told him briefly what had happened with his cursed peers while the teenager felt his head, still fogged by his lingering sleepiness, start to work and analyse his surroundings. His intuition then revealed him something that shocked him still.

The Boy in his memories had curled sideburns.

Long fingers covered by old and pale scars caressed the mat skin before a hoarse voice could be heard. "What do you want with me, child?"
"I'm not a child," the boy retorted with a harsh frown. "I'm..."
"The brat who has just woke me up," the adult cut him as he opened suddenly his eyes that he had kept close till now.

The brown-haired teenager blinked and tried to push aside the new wave of memories surrounding his consciousness, pretty sure that his tutor wouldn't appreciate him daydreaming when he was telling him things that were so important to the cursed baby.

His muscles has been tired by his unending travels (as he had walked without never stopping over the few months he had stayed in that time period) and by the fight that some thieves had dared to give him, he had fallen like a heap of flesh and dirty clothes and also broken the promise he had done to Reborn years ago. Goodbye always acting irreproachably no matter what happened.
He had slowly closed his eyes and had let himself fall in the darkness of unconsciousness with a small satisfaction. He was probably going to die there.
That mere thought angered him, making his inner warrior's instinct come forth. That was also what made him realize that something was approaching him, and he came out of his trance-like state to find himself in front of two dark eyes that he was really familiar with.
His lips slightly opened, and he smothered down a surprised gasp. He knew those black eyes, those two sideburns and that dark hair that had always defied gravity.

The future Decimo's heart tightened and he had to push aside the wish to take the cursed baby in his arms. The latter wouldn't appreciate this kind of affection and the teenager didn't want to die like that. However, his heartrate was still accelerating, and his thoughts went wild as he slowly connected the dots between the Other's memories and what had happened in his lifetime.

Two days later, they got on a ship going to America. During the cruise, Tsuna taught him about disguising himself and hiding from others.
"That will never help me," Reborn protested once when his tutor ordered him to disguise himself as a flowerpot.
"The surprise is primordial in an assassination," the Japanese calmly answered while he ignored his student's vexed face. "Furthermore, it is great during parties and it also helps wooi-"

That habit of always disguising himself, that sadism born from years of suffering and plotting… How couldn't he have realised it sooner?

Tsuna raised his hands and put them on his lover's cheeks, wiping away the tears falling for the misty dark eyes. Reborn looked up and met the brunet's loving gaze.
"Reborn," the latter articulated without ever letting any sound pass his lips.
The young man felt his heart squeeze over the familiar sight.
"I lo-" Tsuna added as his smile widened into the smile that had always made Reborn proud of never leaving his side.

The Boy in his dreams was Reborn.

Tsuna could feel his eyes tearing up and he closed them to make sure no tears would fall, just as the cause for them, the baby who had been a constant in his lives, kept talking. Then, the cursed and hated words left that childish mouth and the brown-haired teen snapped.

"Since I'll die either ways," Reborn said with such a nonchalant face that raised Tsuna's hackles. "Then, let's take this opportunity to end the Arcobaleno's system…"

The teenager clenched his fists and took a deep breath before he took one of Basil's pills. Once he was in Hyper Dying Will mode, he turned towards the cursed baby and met the latter's dark eyes.

"Jump on my shoulder, Reborn," Tsuna told him with a soft voice as he felt something in his chest slightly move under his tutor's black eyes. "I need to talk to you."

The baby followed his words without a peep, and they flew away while Tsuna gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming.

They arrived at the Namimori temple soon after that and Tsuna landed quietly over the front stairs, his amber eyes watching over the quiet city while his tutor sat on the stair.

Then, they talked. A long time.

Tsuna could finally tell him everything that had hounded him and harshly scolded the baby to have even thought of dying during this adventure. Meanwhile, Reborn had kept quiet and listened to the teenager's words with an undecipherable face, even if his dark eyes told the brunet everything he needed to know.

Then, when Tsuna didn't have anything more to add, he sat down next to the Arcobaleno and watched over the city under them, silently appreciating the soft wind ruffling his hair.

"Reborn," the teenager said as he softly closed his eyes.

"Mm?" the cursed baby spoke the first word since he had arrived at the temple.

"I won't let you die," Tsuna whispered as he opened his eyes. They were shining with an unbreakable determination, showing that he would do anything to get to his goal.

The best hitman in the world looked up and watched the bright blue sky littered with white clouds.

« "[…]," the younger man whispered with a choked voice. "You can't die…" »

Reborn closed his eyes and tightened his grip on his trousers.

So Tsuna remembers. Finally! But what about Reborn? What do you think? If you seen any spelling mistake, just tell me, I'll fix it.