Tsuna had an appointment to meet with a blood donor in nine days, even though he and Yamamoto were well fed just from having each other. It was good to introduce new sources of sustenance every once in awhile instead of recycling the same energy through their systems. That was why Tsuna also made sure to keep his meetings with Lambo – the more Tsuna was nourished, the more Yamamoto would be nourished off of him.

But, before he could make that date, he had to have a session with his tutor.

Reborn was a tall, foreboding man in a black hitman suit and fedora. His eyes – like someone had cut out two holes in his skull and stuck obsidian in them, erasing sclera, iris, and pupil in a blanket of glossy black – could send any man or beast to their knees, powerless against his cold glare and unfeeling smirk.

Tsuna was no such man or beast worth mentioning. He was just Dame-Tsuna, No-Good Tsuna, Useless Tsuna. But he had found that, after ten years of off and on being visited by the monster that was Reborn, all he felt when those eyes turned on him was exasperation and suspicion.

Those eyes said to him, "I'm up to something" and that smirk taunted, "You'll never figure out what".

"Chaos," Reborn greeted the moment Tsuna got home from school that day, permanently walking with a limp and hyperaware of the bruises on his hips and thighs. Reborn took all of this in with one sweep of his glare and his smirk grew. "I heard you took on a baby, but doing such naughty things with your own fledgling? I never knew you were so lewd."

"H-he was hungry!"

"There are other ways to feed a baby, Dame-Tsuna."

"But I didn't have energy to give and I can't give my blood to him, so –"

"Which raises the question of how you changed him."

Tsuna flinched. "I… I took his blood… B-but then I, I didn't give him mine, I g-gave him my lifeforce instead."

"And now why. Why did you change him? I thought you were going to deny your nature." Reborn's expression was cast in shadows, exposing nothing but a fanged leer. "Or is that how it happened? Did you let yourself go hungry, Dame-Tsuna? Were you so ravenous that you attacked a civilian? Let me guess what happened next – you felt so guilty, so scared that he would die, that you changed him."

"That wasn't what happened at all!"

"Oh? Then what did happen?"

"I-I was…" His head hung low. "It's true…"

"Now you know better, don't you?"

He did know better. He bit his bottom lip to stop its trembling. "I hate myself."

"Why?"

"I-I took his h-humanity a-away… b-but he k-keeps telling me i-it's no b-big deal a-and he's s-so nice to m-me… I-it only makes me feel wo-worse." Especially since Yamamoto was acting so weird. That was Tsuna's fault too.

"There's no use crying over it. You can't make him human again, just like you can't become human yourself. Suck it up, Dame-Tsuna. Now that you have a baby, at least I know you're not alone anymore." Reborn twirled one of his sideburns thoughtfully. "Maybe I should send some loners your way to build up your family."

It sounded like a suggestion. That was, if it was possible for Reborn to make suggestions.

"Please don't! I can barely take care of Yamamoto-kun, much less take on anyone else!"

"Yamamoto?"

"… Yamamoto Takeshi…"

"Ah. I remember seeing him from time to time. Good choice; he looks like the type to learn fast unlike some Dame-student of mine."

Tsuna sulked at the insult. "Y-yeah…" His body throbbed. Want, it practically screamed at him. Want more. His face flushed scarlet.

Reborn's nostrils flared. "You're so shameless, Dame-Tsuna."

"Mind your own business!"

"I can smell him all over you and now you're getting hard just thinking about him? How often have you been feeding him?"

"F-four, five times a day… He gets really hungry a lot."

"That's normal for a baby. The hunger will simmer down after a few more weeks or months. It all depends on the fledgling and when they're ready to sustain themselves. Hopefully, he'll do a better job than you did."

And avoid doing what you did, were the unsaid words. The small brunette tucked his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. It was impossible for Yamamoto to be normal now because Tsuna had been so selfish. Like Reborn had said, though, it was useless crying over it. This wasn't Rapunzel where he could revive Yamamoto with his tears. Not that their kind was dead anyway. "I don't remember ever being as hungry as him."

"That's because you were born this way. Now introduce your baby to me."

"What are you t-"

His bedroom door crashed open, nearly ripped off its hinges, as Yamamoto stood in the entranceway. Eyes scarlet, fangs extended, his nostrils flared as he found Reborn across the room with so much hatred and distrust in his bloody glare that Tsuna felt his heart stop. A growl began low in Yamamoto's throat.

Tsuna shrank away from him. "Hiiieee! Y-Yamamoto-kun?"

"Chaos." Reborn didn't move a muscle as he greeted the bloodthirsty teen. "Aren't you going to introduce me now? Before he gets himself killed trying to attack me."

"I don't understand!" Yamamoto's eternally crimson glare turned slowly to the small brunette.

Those eyes, usually so warm, so kind, so gentle, were like a beast's. No, not even beasts could look as vicious as Yamamoto did. Monsters in the closet and under the bed were nothing against the creature in the doorway.

So what was with that flash of something in Yamamoto's eyes when he saw him? Almost like he was… relieved.

"He's just a baby, Dame-Tsuna. It's instinct for him to be territorial and possessive of you. So introduce me already, you're the only person he'll listen to right now."

He thought back to the baseball team and Yamamoto's dad, the look in his eyes. Now it made sense, or, at least, more sense than it had. But he hadn't reacted like this before, so why now…?

Because it was Reborn, he thought to himself, and Reborn always carried the air of something anciently powerful. Yamamoto must be able to feel that and perceive Reborn as a greater enemy than humans.

Then he snapped out of his thoughts. Something was moving out of the corner of his eye, bringing a heavy, musty scent with it. Yamamoto, hyped up on hormones and animalistic impulse. He crouched in front of Tsuna like he thought he needed protecting, like he thought he was a guard dog. And he snarled at Reborn, "Leave."

"Yamamoto-kun!" gasped Tsuna. He caught Reborn's eye under the brim of his fedora and gulped thickly. "Y-Yamamot-kun, I'm… I'm okay. This is Reborn, my tutor. That means that he teaches me about everything I am and how to take care of myself, s-so he's not… well…" He couldn't say he was in no danger or that Reborn was one of the good guys. Neither was true. "You don't have to attack him… f-for me."

"Don't forget to reassure him as your mate," Reborn said. Then, at Tsuna's shocked expression, tacked on, "He is your mate, isn't he?"

"… Mate?" Yamamoto hissed, still tense, still ready to pounce, still a mass of barely restrained vengeance.

Tsuna ran a shaky hand through his hair. "A mate is like a husband or a wife… Except there's no wedding and it lasts a lot longer than m-marriage. Reborn has one, so he's not interested in me like that."

Nothing happened for awhile. The balance of Yamamoto's sanity clung to a very thin, very weak string of consciousness that Tsuna couldn't even begin to fathom.

Then he stood up straight, slowly, carefully coming back to himself, and the heavy air dissipated. "Have a good day, mister."

"Thank you, Takeshi." Reborn emerged from his seat in a serpentine flex of movement that was too smooth not to be creepy. "While we're on the subject on mates, Lambo wanted me to tell you to stop whining so much and just take what you need." Tsuna saw a flicker of something uncharacteristically soft in Reborn's glossy glare before he tipped his fedora low over his face. "He can give more than your take, Dame-Tsuna."

He grabbed the door on his way out and it groaned pitifully as it was forced back into its jamb.

It wasn't till minutes later that Yamamoto gingerly took a seat on Tsuna's bed. "What did he mean about this Lambo guy?"

"It's not what you think." Tsuna carefully edged away from the other teen. "Lambo's a catalyst, like an endless source of energy that just keeps growing. If he doesn't get rid of excess energy somehow, he could cause a lot of damage, so he let's our kind feed off of him. Everyone wins…" Except him and Yamamoto, the sports star more than him.

Yamamoto used to be so kind and generous and sweet – now all Tsuna could think about was how terrified he had felt when Yamamoto had one-sidedly faced off with Reborn.

"He is your mate, isn't he?"

But it wasn't possible, because that would mean that Yamamoto cared for him. Tsuna knew Yamamoto didn't, it was just the other teen getting used to what he was. Something Tsuna had made him against his will.

"And you've fed from him?" Yamamoto pulled himself closer.

"Y-yeah…" Tsuna pressed himself against the wall. "Please stay over there."

Yamamoto finally stopped. His hurt expression made Tsuna's heart clench painfully in his chest. "Why, Tsuna? Can't I come closer, please?"

No, because Tsuna was hurt. He closed his eyes and hid his shaking hands behind his back. He was ashamed. If he had done as he had been told and fed regularly, Yamamoto wouldn't be the way he was. But he had been selfish and Yamamoto had had to pay the price.

Those eyes, that growl, the snarling and the possessiveness and the obsessing – that wasn't Yamamoto. That was what Tsuna had turned him into. Hell, he had turned him into a sex addict!

"You're crying again, Tsuna… Do I really make you cry so much?"

"Y-yes! Because I r-ruined your life a-and you're still so nice to me…"

"I don't think my life's ruined…"

"That's because you can't think!" There, he said it! He said it! He catapulted off the bed and across the room away from Yamamoto. "I've been thinking for you! You won't eat unless I'm eating, you w-won't have fun unless it's okay with me, you follow me a-around like a lost puppy a-and – …" It felt like his chest was empty and that something heavy was coiling and strangling his guts. Maybe his heart had turned into a savage fiend that was ripping him apart from the inside out. He would deserve it. "If you were human…" his voice dropped to a low whisper, "you wouldn't even look twice at me. Now I've forced you to do a lot of disgusting things and I can't take it back."

Yamamoto most likely would never have wanted to have sex with him back when he had been his own person, not Tsuna's fledgling. He most likely would have wanted to hang out with his friends, choose his own lovers, keep his own schedule; not wait outside No-Good Tsuna's house just so they could be late together.

But Tsuna had taken that all away from him in the dead of night, crawling along the sidewalk because he'd been too weak to walk and Yamamoto, kind, gentle Yamamoto, had just happened to come by him.

Kind, gentle Yamamoto had endured something he shouldn't have had to, still shouldn't have to, for Tsuna's stubbornness.

A shadow was cast over Yamamoto's expression as he sat there, stone still. "Is that how you feel?"

"Y-yes."

"… If that's true, then you should ask me how I feel."

Tsuna was taken aback. "H-hiee?"

"Ask me. How. I. Feel."

"H-how do you…?"

"I feel like you don't know me at all."

"Hiee?"

"Before I ran into you that night, I already liked you!" That was definitely a blush on his cheeks. "I-I thought you were really cute and your shyness was adorable too. And, even though you were always bullied, you never got angry or said anything mean about anyone. You don't have it in you to hurt anyone or anything – like that Chihauha that chases you around some mornings." He chuckled at Tsuna's mortified expression. "You're lazy and your grades aren't good, but that never mattered to me because I'm pretty much the same way, except not so lazy."

"H-hey…"

"When I admitted to myself that I had a crush on you, the fact that you had no friends made me really happy. Because I'm the jealous type – even back when I was human. I wanted to make sure no one touched you or got close to you, but I was too nervous to tell you about how I felt myself, so I just kind of convinced myself that, as long as no one else took you away, I was happy.

Then that night happened! Even though you were looking really bad, I thought, 'I can help Tsuna! This will be great!' Then you bit me… and kissed me… And when I woke up you were there with me. You said 'I'm sorry, Yamamoto-kun, I'm so sorry', and then stuttered off a lot of other things about being 'different' now and not human. I was just happy that you knew my name! You knew who I was!"

He looked down at his hands. "Then you said, 'I'll try to make this better'. Because of this thing that you did to me, I had an excuse to be with you always. And we make love a lot. The first time I was in you, I was thinking to myself, 'This is nothing like how I imagined. It's so much better!'"

Yamamoto scratched the back of his head sheepishly as Tsuna stared. The small brunette lost all feeling in his legs, arms, face, body – and he slid down the wall to the floor where he lied limply, caught in shock and despair and stupid, painful hope. "Y-you liked me?"

And, wait, as he imagined? He had imagined them having sex before? Okay, not sex, but making love?

If his face was as red as a beet, he wouldn't know. Because he was, again, numb. Like he simply couldn't take anymore and his senses had shut down on him.

"Yeah. But now it's different." Yamamoto got down on his knees on the floor and stalked towards him on all fours. "Now I love you." His head butted against Tsuna's shoulder before settling over his heart, his frantic, galloping heart that wouldn't calm down for anything. "Mah mah, you're heart's going really fast! Just like mine."

He grabbed one of Tsuna's hands and brought it to his chest. "Feel it?" Yamamoto asked.

Tsuna nodded. His voice was somewhere else, he couldn't use it, so his head bobbed and he sniffled as he choked on words that wouldn't come.

"When I tell you that I'm happy to be with you, it's because I really am! Please let me get close again, please?"

"… Y-y-yes…" Because Tsuna couldn't say no. Not to Yamamoto. His other hand came up and his arms loped around Yamamoto's shoulders, dragging him closer. "Yes."

No one had ever loved him before – not in that sense of the word, anyway.

Yamamoto crushed him to his front, burying his nose in his hair. "Is what that Reborn guy said true? Are we really mates?"

"I-I don't know."

"I hope so. I want to love you forever, Tsuna, I really do."

So corny. Tsuna closed his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Not again…"

"I'm sorry t-that I didn't realize your feelings sooner."

Yamamoto kissed him like he was the center of his world. Tsuna was learning pretty quickly that that was about the truth of it too. "I forgive you, Tsuna." He laughed joyfully. "I guess it's both our faults; me for not being clear to begin with and you for being..."

"So stupid?"

"So clueless. I was looking for clueless." Yamamoto kissed him again, longer, flooding his entire being with his emotions. "Now that you know, please take good care of my heart."

Even cornier.

"And of my hunger too."

And now he was alarmed. "Yamamoto-kun!"

"Call me Takeshi."

"T-Takeshi-kun."

"Please? Just Takeshi."

"Takeshi… Where did my pants go?"

"I'm getting really sneaky, Tsuna," Takeshi chirped proudly. "You should reward me."

"Hiieee!"

Maybe Yamamoto had gone a long way in assuaging his fears and guilt, but he was still a sex addict and was turning into the greatest pervert Tsuna had ever known too!

~::~

Author's Note: MORE TO COME.