Not Always Like Father

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"Y'know, I thought for sure he'd marry that Sasagawa girl." Iemitsu took a swig of his beer, suit askew as he leaned on the stone railing of the balcony that overlooked the Japanese Vongola Summer House. Behind him, inside the vast, opulent ballroom, a party was raging. People were singing, drinking, dancing, and giving lots of cheers to the newly wedded couple, Sawada Tsuna and Sawada Haru. Beside Iemitsu was Reborn, sitting on the stone railing, drinking a cup of hot tea. He was listening to Iemitsu babbling on, listening to this father's overflowing emotions on the day of his son's coveted wedding.

"I mean," Iemitsu continued, his cheeks barely flushed pink, "Not that Haru isn't a great girl, but Kyoko was..." Kyoko was what? He thought. He didn't even know, his thoughts were so muddled. But Reborn seemed to know what he was thinking even though he didn't even know.

"Kyoko-san was the spitting image of Nana?" he said. Iemitsu chuckled.

"Yeah. That."

Reborn sipped his tea and then placed it down beside him. He turned to face Iemitsu, crossing his arms. "Iemitsu, he said, almost seriously. "Tsuna is not you." Iemitsu stared at Reborn in shock, his beer almost slipping out of his fingers.

"Wha—of course he isn't!" Iemitsu replied. "He's my son, that doesn't make him me—"

"Then why did you think he would marry Sasagawa Kyoko, the girl who so closely resembles Nana?" Reborn asked. Iemitsu paused, then frowned. The baby had a point.

"I just thought... I mean he's my son and I..." His frown deepened. He wasn't really sure why he thought Tsuna would marry Kyoko just because she resembled Nana. Didn't men marry women who resembled their mothers? That was what he heard anyways.

"Dad? Reborn? What are you guys doing out here?"

They turned towards Tsuna's voice. He was standing in the doorway, Haru clutching his arm. She looked radiant—no, resplendent in her white dress, hair falling in soft waves to brush her tantalizingly bare shoulders. She smiled at them, curtsying to Iemitsu gracefully and then holding her hand out to Reborn. "Ne, Reborn-chan, let's go dance!" she said. Reborn climbed off the stone railing and followed her inside. She didn't seem to question Tsuna when he made no move to follow her. She just gave him the barest hint of a smile and brushed past him. As she left, Iemitsu could see her fingers brush against Tsuna's as she passed him. Iemitsu was always struck by how subtle they were with their affection.

Tsuna came to stand next to Iemitsu, looking out at the beautiful tendered garden that comprised of only a tenth of his mansion and property. This estate wasn't the Vongola HQ (that was based in Italy, of course), but a vacation home that Tsuna built after Haru expressed her homesickness for Japan. Iemitsu was so amazed at it, at the show of will that Tsuna had to build a whole house just for Haru. It was undoubtedly the most beautiful of all his properties, despite being the smallest. His home in America was three times the size of this, and yet this one was the one that felt most like home.

"What's up dad?" Tsuna asked after a long minute of silence. Iemitsu smiled proudly at Tsuna's hyper intuition, built from years of fighting. Even without entering dying will mode, he could tell when even his old man was off. And yet it couldn't be done the other way around. No matter how hard Iemitsu tried, he couldn't read Tsuna anymore. That's probably why he didn't expect Tsuna to marry Haru instead of Kyoko.

"Just lost a lot of money to myself," he said, chuckling. "I bet on the wrong girl." Tsuna, surprised, turned and looked at his father. Iemitsu scratched his cheek, grinning sheepishly. "I thought you'd end up with Sasagawa Kyoko," he told Tsuna. "Because she's so much like your mother, y'know."

Tsuna frowned and turned away to look at the garden again. He plucked the bottle of beer from Iemitsu's hands and took a long swig, to Iemitsu's surprise. When he looked back on it and remembered the conversation that would occur forthwith, Iemitsu thought Tsuna might have needed the liquid courage to say what he said next.

"You know, I really hated you while I was growing up," Tsuna said. Iemitsu winced. He always knew that, of course, but hearing it directly from Tsuna's lips always made him horrible regretful. But Tsuna seemed unfazed as he brought up his childhood, continuing on without a hitch. "You were never home, and when you were here you never took responsibility for what you did."

"Tsuna, I'm—"

"Shut up for a second," Tsuna said, but not harshly, not accusingly. He simply had something to say and didn't want to be interrupted while saying it. "I thought you were a good-for-nothing father who was never home and always left and expected to come back to a family that would welcome you with open arms." Tsuna smirked. "I never welcomed you with open arms." He passed the beer back to Iemitsu, who finished it off. Iemitsu, with his restless fingers, swung the bottle back and forth by the neck.

"Nah," he said, with small puff of breath, a little laugh, "you never did." Tsuna looked at him, his eyes hard, flickering orange.

"But mom did."

Iemitsu stilled, the beer bottle stopping in mid air, in mid-swing. Yeah, Nana was always so happy to see him come home. She often told him she wished he was home more often, so he could relax and play with Tsuna and they could eat dinner as a family. His chest hurt every time she said that those things to him. Now he knew Tsuna's did too.

"At first, I hated you because you were never home. But after I found out you weren't actually a construction worker, but the head of CEDEF. Then I hated you for keeping mom's head buried in the ground."

The beer bottle slipped out of Iemitsu's fingers and disappeared with a quiet rustle into the bushes below them. What? He thought.

"Tsuna... your mother—" he started, but Tsuna cut him off again.

"I know; it's mom," he said. "I know how she is. I don't want her to know about this life either." Tsuna turned around, leaning his back against the railing, looking inside to see his wife, Haru, his mentor, Reborn, and his first love, Kyoko, all dancing together. Reborn was eight now, what Haru would call an adorably cute eight years old. (Tsuna just thought Reborn was still Reborn; the scariest person in the world.) He seemed to be having fun, which made Tsuna smile because he thought that Reborn needed that; needed to embrace his age and have fun like the other children do.

"But dad," Tsuna continued, and in his eyes Iemitsu could see him watching Reborn's smiling and happy face morphing, transforming into a smile that reminded him of Haru and the brightest, clearest orange eyes he'd ever seen, "I'm not going to make the same choice that you did. I'm going to be there for Haru, and for the child that we will inevitably have together. I'm not going to hide from him to protect him. I want to be able to love him, and I want him to know that I love him."

Tsuna looked at Iemitsu, and Iemitsu felt like crying. Tsuna clapped him on the shoulder and smiled at him, and Iemitsu thought he didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve this forgiveness. Because that was what that smile was. It was forgiveness.

Tsuna left, and joined Haru and Reborn and Kyoko in their little dance. He kissed Haru on the cheek, grinning, and she grinned back at him. And it was then that Iemitsu realized Tsuna never really answered the question. Why did he choose Haru over Kyoko?

"Hahi? Sawada-san? What are you still doing out here?"

Iemitsu turned around, a little surprised to see Haru, with her cheeks flushed pink, standing next to him in the chill of the night sky. She blushed, holding her hands to her cheeks in a gesture of shyness and embarrassment. "Or should Haru call you father-in-law? Ehehehe," she giggled. Iemitsu grinned at her, the utter strangeness of her character not lost to him. He was always a bit strange himself. They were almost like kindred souls.

"Father-in-law is perfect," he told her, and then looked out at the same garden he'd been staring at the whole night, left to his thoughts. "I just have something on my mind." Haru placed her hands delicately on the stone railing, tilting her head in curiosity.

"Like a puzzle?" she asked. Iemitsu chuckled.

"Something like that," he said. Haru smiled brightly.

"Haru is very good at solving puzzles! Let me help you, father-in-law," she insisted. But Iemitsu was hesitant. Of course he wasn't going to tell the blissful bride why he wondered why her husband was going to marry her best friend instead of her. That would be just a tad harsh, especially on her wedding day.

"I don't think you'll be able to solve this for me," Iemitsu said, chuckling nervously. Haru pouted.

"Father-in-law won't know until he asks me!" she said vehemently. "Tsuna thought I couldn't crack the code to the Enzo Famiglia's database until I did! I even got past all their super enforced security walls and found out where their shipment of slaves was located!" Iemitsu's eyebrows shot up his forehead. She what?! And Haru saw the disbelief and shock on his face, and slapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with panic. "Hahi!" she said, her voice muffled through her hands. "Was Haru not supposed to say that?" She paused, and was still met with Iemitsu's shocked face. She shrunk in on herself, guilty and apologetic. "Haru wasn't supposed to, was she?" she mumbled.

Iemitsu broke out from his shock. "N-no, you're fine. You didn't break the Omerta," he said, "I'm Vongola, so it's okay." But he still couldn't really wrap his head around this new information. Tsuna had told Haru about the Enzo Famiglia? They were one of the worst Famiglia's in Italy. Human trafficking was the mildest of their businesses. It was still an ongoing battle with them, but that destruction of the slave location was a big bust, and a huge help in halting business for the Enzo Family. And Haru had helped with that? Iemitsu would have never even considered telling Nana about the Enzo's. Telling Nana about their dealings was like violently ripping her innocence from her. And that was what Iemitsu so loved about his wife; her innocence.

But Haru... Haru had gone back to smiling at him. Her eyes were clear and bright, and even while using a bit of his hyper intuition Iemitsu couldn't see any of the darkness that was associated with knowing about the cruel realities of the world. He carried it in his eyes and Reborn in his and Tsuna's in his. But Haru's eyes were just so... unburdened. How...? How was she able to keep her innocence despite knowing all the horrors of the Enzo Famiglia?

"Haru-chan? Ah! Sawada-san, good evening!" Iemitsu and Haru turned to see Kyoko coming out onto the balcony, obviously looking for Haru. Her hair, that she had grown long, was put up in a French twist for the wedding, the opposite state of Haru's hair, which was let down to roam free. She joined them, her head tilting slightly to the right, eyes wide and clear and... innocent, Iemitsu realized. "What are you talking about?" she asked. Iemitsu turned to look at Haru, who laughed nervously.

"Oh, nothing important," Haru said, linking arms with Kyoko. Her eyes were also like Kyoko's, they were also clear, but they were not wide and they were not... innocent. They were... hopeful, Iemitsu realized. Hopeful that the evil of this world would be vanquished, hopeful that people could live justly and goodly. Haru understood fully and completely what the Enzo Famiglia did to countless people over the world, every day, and she did lose her innocence. But that wasn't what mattered, Iemitsu thought, seeing his son's bride in a whole new light. It was the ability she had to let go of that innocence, to embrace the harsh reality of the world, and to believe that there was still good in it somewhere. That was Miura Haru—no, Sawada Haru's true strength.

"Let's go back inside, it's getting a little cold," Haru said to Kyoko. Kyoko nodded.

"Okay. Actually, Tsuna-kun was looking for you..."

Their voices faded away as they disappeared into the room. Iemitsu stared at the doorway they disappeared into, before he turned back around to look out again at the garden. He didn't show surprise at Reborn already sitting beside him on the stone railing, drinking another cup of hot tea, like he never left at all.

Now all Iemitsu needed was another beer.