"Okay." It wasn't something Alex was used to- trusting someone he didn't know to make decisions for him; he didn't even trust those he did know. But there was something in Sawada's eyes, something that said he could trust Sawada's instincts. He didn't like it, but there didn't seem to be many other options. If the other boys were to be believed he was stuck in the future for an indefinite amount of time, and from the ways things looked they might just be in the middle of a mafia war. He didn't have a clue what to do, so he would have to take a leap of faith and trust Sawada to know what to do.
It was in that moment, looking into Adam's eyes and seeing understanding, acceptance, a bit of panic, and that same world weary look that had plagued him since Reborn stepped into his life, that Tsuna knew. When Adult Gokudera called Adam Alex he had not made a mistake. Adam- or rather Alex- was not who he said he was. But that was okay. Because he knew he could trust him. He wasn't sure how, but just like the woman, he knew Alex meant them no harm.
They seemed to walk for hours. Shortly after they'd caught up to the woman she'd given Sawada and Gokudera something she called "Mamon chains" to wrap around their rings. Alex had noticed the rings, of course. Sawada didn't really seem the type for jewelry after all, and it would take something pretty special to convince Gokudera to wear anything that matched Yamamoto. Sasagawa had also worn one, he realized upon further reflection. And he suspected he'd also seen one glittering on the hand of the irascible Head of Namimori's Disciplinary Committee- though Sawada had never let him get close enough to confirm that suspicion. Apparently nobody spoke to Hibari-san.
As the two boys wrapped their rings in chains Alex wondered what their significance was. He would think it was simply a symbol of friendship, except Sawada's was so distinctly different from the others' – and that certainly wouldn't explain why Hibari had one. He didn't seem the type for such symbols of friendship, of attachment. If he even had friends. Which wasn't likely.
"Sawada," he called, hurrying to catch up when he realized the others had started walking again. Pay attention Alex. You're going to get yourself killed. Sawada turned to look at him. "Can you explain something to me?" he asked as he fell into step beside the smaller boy. From Sawada's other side Gokudera growled.
"Sure. I'll do what I can."
"Great." Alex tried to make sure his smile was as un-feral as possible. From the way Sawada shifted uncomfortably, he didn't think it worked. "Would you mind explaining exactly what is going on?"
Sawada looked genuinely confused. "We already told you."
"Yes, yes." Alex was getting frustrated. "You told me that we were shot into the future by a bazooka-wielding five-year-old. Laying aside, for the moment, how a bazooka is even capable of shooting people into the future, it doesn't explain what is going on?"
"What do you want to know?" Tsuna asked. "I don't know everything, sometimes it feels like I don't know anything, but I'll tell you what I can." The look in his eyes said he knew he owed Alex at least that much. Beside them, Gokudera obviously didn't agree. But he would never argue with his precious Juudaime.
"What are those rings?" If Sawada was going to give him free access to information, he was going to take ready advantage of it. Not a brilliant move for a soon to be mob boss. But Alex was not going to complain.
Gokudera motioned for Tsuna to stay quiet, but the smaller boy ignored him. "They are inheritance rings- the Vongola Inheritance Rings. The people who wear them are supposed to be the next leaders of the Vongola Family." And if didn't sound just thrilled about that.
"The Vongola Family? What's that?"
Gokudera snorted in derision. "The Vongola Famiglia is the most powerful mafia family in the world. It's not something someone like you would understand." He was so open about it. Like it was no secret at all.
"Go-Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna stuttered. So he hadn't meant for him to learn everything. Good to know. "You shouldn't speak like that to Walker-san." Or not.
"But Juudaime – ." It was amazing how fast Gokudera could go from a proud, hardened mafioso to a kicked puppy. "This doesn't concern him. He's got nothing to do with it."
"He's does now." Alex was surprised to see Sawada standing up to the other boy. Though Gokudera clearly worshiped the ground Sawada walked on, he also had a habit of pushing his beloved Juudaime around. "We have no idea what's going on, but he's part of it now. We have to stick together."
Gokudera frowned at this, but kept silent. Alex figured it was his turn to step in. "What do you mean, mafia family. You lot aren't part of the mafia." He wasn't sure if Adam Walker would laugh at them, or run for the hills. He settled for simple skepticism. "You do realize you're only fourteen, right. You've not even completed school yet."
Gokudera growled in annoyance- big surprise there- but Sawada was frowning in thought. "I think you know the answer to that yourself. I think you know more than you're telling us."
Alex had to force himself not to react. Not again. He'd thought Sawada had forgotten. Obviously not. "What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Don't you, Alex?" It was interesting, thought Tsuna, that as he said those words, the only thing that changed about Alex were his eyes. Where once they had been open and warm, now they were cold and dead. "Who are you, Alex? What are you doing here?"
Alex stopped walking, forcing the others to do the same if they wanted to keep talking. One look in Alex's eye had Gokudera standing protectively in front of Tsuna, his hands once again filled with explosives. Alex didn't seem particularly disturbed by that. That, in itself, concerned Tsuna.
"I've told you who I am. As for what I'm doing here- you lot would know better than I."
Tsuna sighed. Alex obviously didn't trust them as much as he'd thought. Not surprising, really. "If you don't want to tell us, Alex, that's fine. But we aren't going to hurt you, no matter who you are."
Alex laughed at that. There was no amusement in the sound. It was bitter, and cold as the boy's eyes. "You can't make that promise. You don't know who I am yet."
At least he'd dropped the act. Tsuna looked him directly in the eye, as serious as he'd ever been. "Are you here to hurt my friends?"
"It depends." There was zero emotion in those eyes. "Are your friends going to harm other people? After all, you are in the mafia."
"I will never be in the mafia!" Alex almost jumped at the sudden vehemence in Tsuna's voice. "I don't care what everyone says. I won't be a mafia boss!"
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Then I'm not here to hurt you."
Tsuna couldn't stop the flood of relief he felt at those words. He'd been right. Alex was terribly dangerous, he could feel it. But he could tell, somehow, that when he made a promise, he would keep it to the grave.
Cameron Morgan was worried. Alex had said that he would be going home with Tsuna. She'd been excited, but nervous at the same time. On the one hand, they finally had a chance to get into Tsuna's home and see what they could find. But on the other, he would be going in totally without backup. He'd completely refused the mic she'd tried to give him, and removed both the tracked she'd placed in his shoe, and the bug she'd left on his collar- though he did accept a few to leave around the Sawada home. Before he'd left, Alex had looked her directly in the eye and said, "I don't know much about you, Emma. Joe only said a few things before we left DC. But I swear, if you follow us, you will be sorry. Sawada's perceptive, surprisingly so. I will not let you blow this because of your curiosity, or pride, or whatever it is. I want to go home, and that won't happen if Sawada notices we're being followed by 'my sister'."
There was anger in his eyes, but there was something else too. Worry. Cammie remembered, in that first meeting, Alex declaring that be wouldn't see another partner killed. Tsuna had shown no signs of mafia connections, but Gokudera and Bianchi certainly did, and considering they practically lived at Tsuna's house, they couldn't be too careful. So she had given in, gnawing her lip in worry, and let him go off alone (something that went against all her training) while she returned to Mr. Walker's house to wait.
Seven hours later and she was still waiting. Mr. Walker had returned at about five and told her not to worry, that Alex was a good agent and could take care of himself. Sometimes Cammie wondered if she was the only person who remembered that, agent or not, Alex was a kid, too. By eight o'clock she'd stopped pretending to try to do her homework. Nine o'clock saw her pacing a rut in the floor, and ten o'clock had her pulling on her coat and shoes, determined to go find her partner. She worried, when Mr. Walker came into the living room that he was going to try to stop her. Instead he just asked, "Going to find Alex?"
Cammie nodded warily. If he thought he could stop her – .
"Let me get my coat."
If Cammie had expected Nana Sawada to be surprised to have a couple of complete strangers showing up at her door at ten o'clock at night, she was disappointed. Mrs. Sawada, Sawada-san, was as open and friendly as if they were close friends and it was three in the afternoon.
"Forgive the intrusion, Sawada-san," Mr. Walker said as they were invited into her home. "My name is Edward Walker, and this is my granddaughter, Emma. Adam's my grandson, we were wondering if he's still here."
Sawada-san blinked at them. "I'm sorry, Walker-san. Who's your grandson?"
Cammie felt a very heavy lump of dread settle in her stomach. "Adam Walker. He's a friend of Tsuna's. He told me at school that they were coming here to study."
Sawada-san frowned in confusion. "Tsuna hasn't been home at all this afternoon. I assumed he was out with friends."
Cammie looked at Mr. Walker, worried. "Excuse me, Sawada-san. By friends, do you mean Gokudera and Yamamoto?"
The woman nodded happily. "Mm-hmm. They're such good friends to my Tsu-kun. They spend so much time together." Her words were cheerful, but Cammie thought she could see worry in the woman's eyes.
"They do this often, then?" Mr. Walker asked. "Go off until all hours without telling you?"
Sawada-san nodded again. "Oh yes. They love spending time together, playing their games. Though sometimes they get hurt."
There was definitely worry in Sawada-san's eyes now.
"How long has this been going on?" Mr. Walker asked, making Cammie wonder just what they taught at MI6 for their interrogations to be so heavy handed.
"Almost a year now," Sawada-san readily supplied, seemingly seeing nothing wrong with the conversation. "Ever since I hired Reborn-chan to be Tsu-kun's tutor."
Mr. Walker raised an eye at Cammie. "Is this Reborn-san a good tutor?"
"Oh, yes," Sawada-san gushed. "He takes such good care of my Tsu-kun, and he is so sweet. And when he found a subject he couldn't teach he brought in Bianchi-chan to help!"
"Bianchi? She's friends with Kyoko-chan and Haru-chan, right?" Cammie double-checked. Always double-check your information.
When Sawada-san confirmed that yes, they were indeed friends, Cammie bit her lip in thought. So , not only was Tsuna friends with the mafioso Gokudera, but he was actively being taught by both Reborn and Bianchi. The question now was if this was the reason Alex was missing?
"So you don't know where Tsuna and his friends might be?" Cammie asked, her heart twisting. If Alex had found something he shouldn't have, and was in trouble, with no backup – .
"I'm sorry, no," Sawada-san apologized. "I can have him call you when he gets home though."
Mr. Walker nodded his appreciation. "That would be wonderful. Thank you."
They chatted for a few more tense seconds before they took their leave. They were just pulling on their shoes when a small, tousle haired kid came down the stairs. "Mama?" he asked, rubbing an eye with his little fist. "Where's Tsuna-nii?"
Cammie glanced at Mr. Walker. Wasn't Tsuna supposed to be an only child?
"He's out, Fuuta-kun. Probably with Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun." Cammie couldn't stop her shock. This small, sleepy child was the famous Ranking Prince?
"Are they looking for Reborn?" the boy asked, stifling a yawn. "They're 108th out of 223 families likely to find him, though Tsuna-nii is 1st out of 160 potential bosses least likely to give up."
Cammie blinked, her mind scrambling to figure out what, exactly, the small boy had just said.
"I don't know, Fuuta-kun. But I'm sure both Reborn-chan and Tsu-kun will be home soon."
"I don't mean to pry," said Mr. Walker, concern lacing his voice, "but is everything okay?"
Sawada-san laughed lightly, though there was an edge of concern in it. "Reborn-chan left a few days ago and no one's seen him since. Tsu-kun's particularly worried, but I'm sure he'll be back in a day or two."
"That's probably true," Mr. Walker agreed. "It's very hard to pin down these academic types. Something catches their eye and their gone before you can blink. He's probably holed up in a library somewhere and won't emerge until he's thoroughly researched whatever distracted him."
Cammie nearly snorted at that, but Sawada-san ate it up. "You see, Fuuta-kun. There's nothing to worry about. Reborn-chan will be home soon enough."
The boy blinked sleepily and nodded, but instead of turning around and going to bed he continued down the stairs, not stopping until he'd come to stand directly in front of Cammie. She looked down into his large brown eyes and gasped as his pupils seemed to expand, his eyes being overtaken by a deep black. Her stomach churned; everything around them began to move, hovering around the small child who was now floating in the middle of the room.
"Cameron Ann Morgan," his deep, resonant voice invoked images of planets and solar systems. Cammie collapsed to her knees, eyes locked on the hovering child. "Fifteen years old. Five-four. Capricorn. 1st out of 203 Gallagher Girls for getting in trouble. 1st of 203 Gallagher Girls for getting out of trouble. 3rd on the Circle of Caven's most wanted list." His gaze shifted to Mr. Walker. "Edward Walker. Sixty-seven years old. 23rd oldest retired MI6 agent. 7th most qualified agent for this assignment. 112th most successful of all British Secret Service agents." Fuuta floated for a few more seconds before his eyes returned to normal and he gently touched back down. "I have to go write this down," the boy exclaimed, back to a childish voice, before he scampered from the room, no longer tired.
"What just happened?" Cammie whispered as Mr. Walker came to help her to her feet.
"I'm sorry," Sawada-san said, stifling a giggle. "Fuuta-kun does that sometimes. He loves showing off. Don't pay it much attention. He once told Tsu-kun he was in the mafia." She laughed again, and Cammie and Mr. Walker exchanged uneasy looks.
Mr. Walker excused them once more, thanked Sawada-san for her time, and they left as quickly as they could. They were quiet as they walked home, each immersed in their own thoughts.
