I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.


Christmas Traffic

If one more person laid down on their horn, Reborn refused to be held accountable for his actions.

Sitting straight against his seat, he glowered out the windshield, fingers clenched tight around the wheel. He was packed into his lane like a sardine with lines of cars on both sides of him and stretching as far as the eye could see. To make matters worse, the snow was falling steadily, severely hindering visibility.

Honk!

The blast came from behind him, loud and obnoxious. Reborn looked into his review mirror with a dark scowl. "What do you want me to do?" he snapped. "I can't effing move any further than you can!"

And perhaps his tendency for road rage wasn't helping matters.

Groaning in agitation, Reborn closed his eyes briefly and took a breath. Here he was, like a moron with other morons, driving on a major highway on nine o'clock Christmas Eve morning.

It was only typical that his plane was delayed, resulting in him getting back to Italy that morning. If the only the plane had been on time he wouldn't be in this highly undesirable situation.

Another horn blast sounded from beside him and he rubbed the space between his eyes, starting to feel the beginnings of a headache. "I hate you all."

He idly reached inside his suit jacket, feeling the familiar and comforting outline of his gun. A dark fantasy of him shooting his way through the traffic filled his mind and he was sorely tempted to act on his desire. But then he happened to glance at the car to his right, a small orange vehicle, and spotted a toddler strapped securely to a safety seat.

So much for that plan, he thought with some disappointment.

The car in front of him started to inch forwards and Reborn gently applied his foot to the gas, creeping along after the van.

Hoooonk!

"Come on!" an aggressive male voice screamed. "Move it, you effing moron!"

Temper flaring, Reborn waited until they once again came to a stop before reaching for his door handle. The idiot wanted him to move? Oh, he would move. He would move all the way to that sorry piece of crap, drag him out of his car, across four lanes and over the guardrails.

His fingers closed around the handle but before he could push it open his phone started ringing. Reborn reluctantly let go and reached for his cell, activating the speaker phone. "Chaos."

"Hey, Reborn," greeted Tsuna. "How's it going?"

The hitman immediately picked up on the concern in Tsuna's voice. "Dame-Tsuna. Are you checking up on me?"

"Of course not!" exclaimed Tsuna, a bit too quickly. After a brief pause, he admitted, "Maybe. You were supposed to be back yesterday."

"Plane got delayed," he replied. "Now I'm stuck in traffic, attempting to resist the urge to slaughter everyone on this highway."

"How far away are you?"

"Three hours, give or take. Less if I annihilate these morons, more if I sit here and wait."

Tsuna could not help but laugh. "I know you're not a patient person, but just this once, try not to lose it. It's probably going to result in a nasty mess and that'll just delay you longer than the traffic ever could. Wait it out. You'll be home before you know it. Haru-chan and Kyoko-chan are baking cookies now. They'll be ready when you get here."

"They better be. If Lambo eats them all, there's going to be hell to pay."

"The kitchen is pretty much on lockdown," said Tsuna in amusement. "That kid eats enough sugar on a regular basis. He doesn't need an overdose of Christmas sweets on top of that."

"Any new developments while I was gone?"

"I-Pin recently caught a cold. She's laid up in the infirmary so it doesn't spread to the rest of us."

Reborn felt a flare of sympathy for the girl. "Make sure she drinks orange juice. You know how she hates it."

"Yeah, Shamal is pretty much force-feeding it to her."

The cars started to move again and Reborn prepared to move a few inches before hitting the brakes. But this time the cars kept moving, a steady line of vehicles crawling down the highway. "Hallelujah," he muttered. "I think we're actually going to be moving in a continuous manner. I'll see you in a few hours, Tsuna."

"Drive safe. Try not to kill anyone between there and here."

"I make no promises," he replied before hanging up.

Though he knew the ride back home was going to be slow and most likely excruciating, he would do everything in his power to keep his temper reigned in. He just wanted to get home, to see the people he hadn't seen in weeks, and celebrate the holidays with the ones he called family.

And for them, suffering through Christmas traffic was more than worth it.