Takeshi was content.

Or rather…that's what he kept telling himself.

For the first time since he'd woken up from the accident, about five days before Tsuna had come back to school, Takeshi was in the company of his best friend.

It didn't matter that he didn't remember anything, he kept telling himself.

The two had begun to hang out together every once in a while and had even once had a conversation with the boxing club captain, Sasagawa Ryohei, in which their senpai had invited them both to join his club.

That had been such a nostalgic conversation, reminding him of the many that they'd had in their dreams.

But this wasn't a dream.

And the relationship he had with Tsuna at the moment was only a shadow of what it was supposed to be, almost superficial.

The baseball player kept telling himself to be patient, that time was needed in making such strong bonds as they'd had, but did that mean that he'd have to wait another four years before he and Tsuna could be as they had been in the dream?

Takeshi didn't think he'd be able to bear that.

And so, needing to clear his mind, Takeshi had done what he always did when he needed to think; he played baseball.

And maybe fate decided it wanted to tease him a little bit, because he ended up in the same situation he'd been in the last time this had happened; he broke his arm.

"Tadaima!" called Tsuna as he stepped into his house, humming contently to himself as he took off his shoes and headed up to his room.

Things were going well with Takeshi. Even though they were just barely more than strangers, that would change over time.

All he had to do was be patient.

And he was sure that it wouldn't be too hard to befriend Ryohei.

The older male had already invited him to the boxing club.

"Okaeri, Tsu-kun!" called his mother from the kitchen, where she seemed to be preparing tea and a tray of sweets. "There's someone here to see you! He's waiting for you up in your room!"

"Eh?" asked Tsuna, confusion clear on his face. "Someone here to see me?"

"Hai!" replied his mother in a chirpy voice. "I hired you a home tutor! Be sure to greet him nicely!"

There was a moment of silence after she said this before Tsuna let out a shriek of, "What?"

'Did she just say a home tutor?' thought Tsuna. 'The last time she said something like that-'

Before he could even finish that thought, Tsuna's instincts began screaming at him to get out of the way right now.

Deciding to act first and ask questions later, the brunet dove to the side, just narrowly missing a kick that had been aimed at the back of his head courtesy of a small infant in a black suit and a fedora decorated with a thick orange stripe around its base.

When the infant landed on the table and turned to look back at Tsuna, he nodded approvingly, saying, "Looks like you're not completely pathetic."

Tsuna, though, didn't answer him, merely watching the baby with wide, staring eyes.

And then, he did something that proved just how far gone he was.

With shaking hands, Tsuna reached forward and pinched his tutor's chubby cheeks, pulling them in the way you did with adorable babies, but definitely not with the world's number one hitman.

And Reborn, losing his temper, pulled out of Tsuna's grip and attempted to knee the boy in the stomach.

Tsuna, working on instincts, was able to stop the baby just before he made contact with his stomach and kept a hold of him, hugging him to his chest.

In a voice that just barely escaped shaking, the brunet told his mother, "You don't have to bring the sweets up, kaa-san. Just…don't bother us, okay?"

And then, without another word, Tsuna turned to walk up the stairs.

Reborn, annoyed that a teenage boy had been able to capture him, was about to free himself from the boy's grasp, but stopped when he felt a drop of water hit his cheek.

Perplexed, he looked up into his new student's face, and was shocked at what he saw there.

The boy's expression was completely calm, betraying no emotion, but there were tears pouring out of his eyes; endless tears.

Why? Why was he crying? And why was his face so calm? So devoid of emotion?

A fourteen-year-old boy should not be able to do this.

Other than the tears, there was nothing to indicate that this boy was crying. There were no furrowed eyebrows, no eyes squeezed shut, no teeth bared, no sobs coming out of his mouth.

Absolutely nothing.

And before he even noticed it, they had arrived back at the boy's room, and he let go of Reborn, who immediately turned around to stare at him.

"How…?" he asked, deliberately leaving the question hanging, and the boy, Tsunayoshi, showed an almost nostalgic smile.

"A mafia boss should never show weakness in front of others," he recited, and Reborn's eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously.

With lightning speed, the hitman whipped Leon off his hat, the chameleon immediately transforming into a gun, and pointed him towards the brunet in front of him.

Tsunayoshi didn't even flinch at this, merely continuing to smile.

"But that doesn't apply to you, does it? I mean, you've seen my weakness before. You're the one that trained it out of me, for the most part. You're Reborn. I know you're Reborn, you have to be."

Now he was rambling, but Reborn didn't stop him, listening intently and wondering just how the boy knew it was him.

"You look just like him. You have the fedora, the way too curly sideburns, Leon…you even have the sun arcobaleno's pacifier."

The last statement caught Reborn completely off-guard, startling him, and he was about to attack Tsuna when the boy collapsed to the floor, crying.

Only this time, he was really crying, not just shedding tears. The mask of calm had been replaced by the expression of a child that had seen way more than he should have; someone that had lost almost everything he held dear to him, and had only just found out that they weren't really lost at all.

But even in this vulnerable state, the boy was careful, controlled. He was sitting on his bottom with both legs stretched in front of him, his hands also in front of him with his palms up to show that he wasn't hiding anything. His head was tilted back a little, leaving his neck bare and vulnerable, to show submission, which could also be seen in how the inside of his wrists were left exposed. The boy was silently showing himself to be completely harmless, and Reborn relaxed a little.

"Who are you?" asked Reborn in a quiet voice as he lowered Leon, staring at the boy intently.

Tsuna's shoulder's ceased shaking and he opened his puffy red eyes to look earnestly at Reborn. "I don't think you'd believe me, even if I told you," he replied just as quietly, in a voice just barely above a whisper.

"Try me."

"I'm the Vongola Decimo."

SkyGem: Well, that was quite the emotional chapter. Tsuna finally had his breakdown…anyways, please do leave a review, ne? And I'll be updating "Forgive but Never Forget" in a few hours. Oh, and who else is excited about the new image manager? I can't wait 'til we can start uploading covers for our stories! Anyways, that's all for now! Ciao!