Disclaimer: I do not own KHR!
Chapter 2: Meeting Part I
Pain. Hurt. Betrayal. Despair. Such feelings poured out of the small body that no boy his age should ever feel, flooding her entire being with those raw emotions. She stretched her arm, trying to reach out to the crying boy in front of her, to comfort him, to give him the warmth that he so desired, to tell him that everything would be all right.
To tell him that what the man said was wrong.
But no matter how much she struggled to move towards the boy, no matter how much she shouted, the boy failed to even notice her presence. She watched helplessly as the boy slowly slipped into darkness as he took his last breath.
Luce jolted out of bed, eyes wide with tears, sweat pouring profusely down her forehead as her heart pounded rapidly in her chest. Beside her, a ten-year-old girl stared worriedly at her mother as she slowly rubbed her mother's back in an effort to calm her down. After a few deep breaths, Luce felt the tension in her body ease as her mind began to clear.
"Mamma, what did you see?" a soft voice rang out in the quite room.
Luce looked down at the worried eyes of her beloved daughter, her lips twitching up into a small sad smile as she hugged the girl who looked so much like her. "I saw a beautiful young boy suffering from such loneliness, Aria. This boy holds so much warmth, so much compassion, so much power…" Luce trailed off before her cerulean blue eyes sharpened in determination, "I will not let this boy die. He does not deserve such a fate so early in his life."
"I- no We will save him."
"Reborn, why are you in your baby form?" the brunette tilted his head to the side, confusion shining in his large doe eyes, as he asked his companion.
"No reason, Tsuna" Reborn replied with his signature I'm-just-an-innocent-baby look. Though Reborn remained in his cursed form just so that he would be able to justifiably punish his new student a greater number of times with every 'you're just a baby' response he already predicted they would get. Not that he really needs any reason to be 'justifiable' when torturing his student; he is after all The Reborn. There is also no need to mention how the sadistic hitman would get a kick out of his student's – or rather, new toy's, reaction when he changes back into his adult form.
The brunette shot the hitman a skeptical look, clearly not believing what he said, especially when a devilish smirk slowly started to form on his face. Reborn, ignoring the look, simply made his way down the bus with Tsuna following behind him. As the two infants continued walking towards their destination, stares of curiosity were directed in their direction as passersby wondered what were two very young children doing on the streets without any supervision. Reborn dressed in a suit, with his signature fedora on his head and Leon perched on the edge, and Tsuna, though dressed more like his age, had a lion with a flaming? mane resting on his spiky brown hair, did little to deter the attention towards them.
Passing by another house, a loud high-pitched bark suddenly interrupted the comfortable silence between the two. Tsuna visibly stiffened before turning to face the monstrosity known as a Chihuahua, behind a purple gate.
"Hiieee!" Tsuna shrieked before ducking behind Reborn while clutching onto the hitman's shoulders. The lion cub on his head let out a fearful 'Gao' while trying to bury itself deeper in the mess of brown hair to hide. No matter how much Tsuna trained or how famous he became in the underworld, he just could not get rid of his fear for dogs. Well not dogs exactly, just Chihuahuas. But not many knew of this weakness, only those close to him. Tsuna mentally thanked the heavens as he imagined what it would be like if his enemies discovered this fact and started to rain Chihuahuas on him.
"You will always have some Dame-ness in you huh," Reborn sighed as he guided the both of them away from the Chihuahua and continued their journey down the streets of Namimori. If it had been anyone else clutching onto his suit like a lifeline (and in turn forming creases on his precious suit), he would have put a bullet between the unfortunate soul's eyes. However, the said person currently attaching himself to the hitman had big caramel eyes filled with unshed tears, a quivering bottom lip caught between a couple of pearly white teeth and a small blush resulting from his embarrassing weakness. Even the world's number one hitman could not steel his resolve enough to resist such an adorable sight.
Soon after Tsuna had calmed down, they reached their destination – the Sawada residence. Quickly placing a flyer in the mailbox, the two jumped onto a tree branch and waited, nervously in the brunette's case, for one Sawada Nana to start turning the wheels of fate.
A scrawny fourteen year old Sawada Giotto Ieyasu was sprawled out on his bed, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth while in deep slumber dreaming about a wedding with the one and only Namimori Middle School idol – Sasagawa Kyoko. As he was just about to take his vows and say 'I do', the incessant calling of his name and the repeated shaking of his shoulders broke him from his wondrous dream.
"W-wha?" Giotto mumbled as he blinked open his bleary eyes, coming face to face with his mother, "Kaa-san, five more minutes.."
"Mou~ Gio-kun, you're going to be late again, it's already 7.40!" Nana chided lightly with her hands on her hips, "School is going to start in 20."
"Hmm?" Giotto stared at the clock on the wall opposite to his bed, blinked a few times to let what he was seeing sink in, before letting out an oh so familiar shriek, "Hiieee! I'm going to be late! Alaude-san is going to punish me to death!" In his haste to get out of bed, Giotto's legs got tangled with his blankets, and his chin hit the ground.
"Oh, that's right!" Nana spoke, ignoring her grumbling son on the ground, already used to his clumsiness. She thrust a leaflet in front of her son's face; "I found an interesting flyer today about two home tutors. They said that they would raise you to be 'the leader of the next generation"
"I don't need a tutor!" Giotto started before his expression turned sheepish. Maybe he does need one considering how he was barely passing in class.
"They are young and good-looking to boot! And as long as they have a place to sleep and a meal, they'll teach you 24/7 for free!" Nana continued, it was in her opinion, a very good deal. And any housewife would never miss a good deal.
"Kaa-san, that sounds like a scam! What if they come to our house and rob us!" Giotto screeched. While he was starting to warm up to the idea getting home tutors considering his grades, this really did sound like a scam in his opinion. And his very vivid imagination did little to help his skepticism. "If I'm going to get a home tutor, at least get someone who sounds more credible and less suspicious," Giotto pleaded.
"I've already called them. They said that they would drop by sometime today," Nana said smiling while Giotto's pleads fell on deaf ears. When Nana was in housewife mode, nothing could stop her or change her mind.
Giotto was about to continue his protest before deciding that it would be more beneficial for his life and sanity if he started getting ready for school or face the wrath of the resident demonic prefect.
"We'll continue this discussion later, Kaa-san!" Giotto picked himself up from the floor and grabbed his school uniform before rushing to the bathroom to wash up.
After Giotto prepared for school in record time, he quickly made his way down the stairs. All would have been fine except his foot slipped on the fifth step and he had his daily morning kiss with the ground at the bottom of the steps. Giotto swore that either the fifth step was cursed or it had a mind of its own and took a dislike to the blonde. As he was groaning in pain and looked up from the ground, two pairs of small feet came into his view, one in orange sneakers another in polished leather shoes. Pushing himself up from the ground he was met with a peculiar sight.
Two very differently dressed infants were standing right in front of him with matching smirks on their faces. One decked out in a expensive looking suit, a fedora with a yellow ribbon around it confining spiky black hair. A yellow pacifier was hung around his chest. And was that a chameleon resting on the hat? The other was a cute brunette dressed more casually in orange bermudas with two large front pockets on each pant leg and a canvas belt of darker shade holding it in place. An orange pacifier was attached to the front of a white shirt that had a black '27' printed on each sleeve. Giotto quickly dismissed the black, well-polished rifle strapped to the infant's back as a toy, not wanting to think about how an infant could possibly be holding a firearm.
But what really shocked Giotto was the lion cub resting on the brunette's head. Seeing a lion cub outside the enclosure in a zoo was enough for Giotto to freak out, but seeing he said cub with a FLAMING mane resulted in him sitting on the ground dumbfounded and gaping like a fish out of water.
"A-ra, are you kids lost?" At the new voice that entered the hallway Giotto snapped out his stupor, turning his head to face his mother. For a second he thought he saw a flash of pain in his mother's brown eyes but dismissed it in favor of questioning the two unexpected guests in their home. How did they even enter the house in the first place?
"Ciaossu, my name is Reborn and he is Cielo," the infant in the suit gestured to his companion next to him as his large onyx eyes bored onto Giotto.
"We are here to tutor Sawada Giotto Ieyasu." The brunette with similar gravity defying hair continued, while smiling sweetly, causing both Giotto and Nana to blush for a moment at his cuteness. Until Giotto's mind kick started and processed the words spoken.
"W-what? Tutor me? The both of you are just babies! What can you two possibly teach me?" Laughter took over him because of the sheer ridiculousness of what he was hearing. As Giotto clutched to his stomach laughing, two small feet connected to his forehead knocking him back to the ground. Were babies supposed to have so much strength?
"Baka, don't laugh at your tutors. It's disrespectful." Reborn said while Tsuna pulled his rifle from his back and proceeded to shoot rubber bullets at the blonde lying on the ground. Giotto scrambled up as he tried to dodge the incoming bullets (to no avail), while yelling for a time out. Familiar shrieks could be heard from the Sawada household in the early morning. After Tsuna felt satisfied enough, he stopped pulling the trigger and placed the rifle back to its original position.
"Oh my, you two already get along so well with Gio-kun. The two of you must be geniuses to be able to be teach at such a young age." Nana was already in her ditzy excited mode as she cooed at how adorable and amazing the two babies were. As if the idea about two infants, who didn't even reach her knees, tutoring her son was a common occurrence (though it probably was in the Mafia world, not that Giotto would know…yet.)
Giotto rubbed his forehead and spots hit by the rubber bullets as he sighed at his mother's naivety and ability to accept the most abnormal situation so easily. Before he could complain, whine or persuade his mother that baby tutors wielding dangerous toys was far from normal, he saw the time on his wristwatch.
"I'm going to be late!" Giotto grabbed the toast and two bentos that his mother prepared, quickly putting on his shoes and dashed out the house after sending a quick 'Ittekimasu' to his mother. He would contemplate what just occurred during science class since he probably would not understand a thing Nezu says. Actually, he wouldn't even try to pay attention considering half the lesson consists of Nezu bragging about himself and the other half trying to embarrass students who were struggling with the subject, him included. Giotto's priority right now was to use his less than stellar athletic abilities to save himself from adding more bruises to the ones he was sure was already forming – by reaching Nami-Chuu within the next five minutes.
Unbeknownst to Giotto, he was being followed by his new tutors who would change his life forever.
The two Arcobaleno watched their new student dash out of the house and turned back to the third person in the house.
"Do you two want to eat breakfast? How about some omelets? Oh, and please call me Mamma" Nana asked cheerfully. It was not often she would get to cook for more than two (or three when G comes over).
"It's okay, Mamma. We have to follow Giotto as his tutors, though we'll take up on your offer for dinner," Reborn answered, as the both of them got ready to stalk and observe their new charge to create the best training, no, I mean torture methods.
"Ah, I see. Please do take good care of Gio-kun," Nana grinned as she opened the door for the two new additions to their home.
As Nana watched them leave, she couldn't help but think how familiar the brunette looked, but quickly dismissed it as her imagination.
After all, it was not possible, was it?
A/N: Thank you for all of your reviews, follows, favorites and words of encouragement! You have no idea happy they made me :D
Anyways, I have decided to split this chapter into two parts, the next part would probably be uploaded soon. And this may not be important, but I've changed the summary a little coz after writing this chapter I realized it kinda differed from the old summary.
Hope you've enjoyed this chap! :)
