Present – 10th Generation
Faster. Kyoya wished he was stronger. That he could reach Tsuna in time… Please. I don't care what happens to me. Just please… please… please… you have to let him be alright. That herbivore… he's strong. He defeated me, after all.
Vongola can't defeat him… after all, they're the darkness that the stupid carnivore and his stupid pack will destroy.
Kyoya swallowed the unfamiliar lump of worry in his throat. (Had he called Tsuna a carnivore? No—he was strong. He was a carnivore. But his herbivorous ways… surely he couldn't be a carnivore? Why had he called him one, then?)
He can't be dead. He thought, for once in his life, desperation thrumming in his chest.
When he finally reached his destination—an old, threadbare warehouse that seemed inconspicuous and abandoned with it's cobwebs and chilly air—he couldn't help but wonder, Is he really here?
Had he begun to doubt? Kyoya had always lived life this way… never doubting, always confident. So why did he feel like this? Why did it hurt so much?
He dashed up the stairs, barely feeling the earth beneath his feet as he scrambled towards the room he knew the herbivore occupied, the only one with the door closed, the one that was windowless yet safe.
As he flung open the door, the bullet was already escaping Reborn's smoking gun, shooting towards Tsuna.
No… He thought. His hands curled into fists at his side, and he moved.
He couldn't think. He couldn't feel. He didn't know what he was doing. But the next thing he knew, he was in front of Tsuna, his arms wide enough to embrace the knowledge that he was dying. Why? He wondered, confused. Why am I okay with dying? …This isn't right. What am I doing? Am I really willing to die? For someone like this?
And some small, warm space inside his cold but confuse heart, answered confidently, Yes.
"No!" He could hear Tsuna screaming as the bullet bit right in the middle of his chest. Not his lungs. Not his heart. But fatal. Still fatal. "Please… no… Why?" Tsuna's face was blurring, dark spots dancing in his vision.
No. He wouldn't give in. Not like this. Ordinary man would've died in an instant. He'd stall. For as long as he could.
"Ha…" Kyoya chocked out. "Herbivore. You look so stupid, crying like that. You're too… strong… for that…" No, he wasn't. Tsuna's strength was how much he cared, how he cried for people that were often overlooked. But he couldn't bear the thought of him crying. Please don't look at me like that…
"No…" Tsuna whispered, his voice hoarse, filled with fear. "NO!"
Kyoya wrapped his fingers around Tsuna's, giving him one last, sad smile. "I'm sorry." He whispered hoarsely before succumbing to the darkness.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Tsuna's body was shaking, and tears were falling out of his eyes, but he was unresponsive as stone. His face, frozen in anguish, stayed like that. Then he froze, and his fingers touched the corpse's chest. "He's not bleeding…" He whispered in confusion. "And he's breathing." His eyes widened. "Why is his heart beating?"
Then, flames escaped his fingers, drawn by the bullet in Kyoya's chest.
What…?
A flash of flames erupted from the bullet, and Tsuna scarcely had time to think, He's not dead!, before they world melted away.
Past – 1st Generation, Meet the 10th Generation
It was a beautiful morning, Giotto thought grouchily as he stared out his window. Soft rays of sun hesitantly peeked inside, but it was nothing compared to the bright colors of the outside world. The sky, a brilliant blue emphasizing the soft tufts of white cloud, seemed almost as though it would be tangible, if he were to reach up and try to touch it.
What a shame, he finished his observations sourly, That I can't go and see how nice it is. Because of something…
With a mutinous glare at his paperwork, Giotto tossed his pen down defiantly.
G, who was reading a book while supervising the blond to make sure he didn't try to skip out on paperwork, sighed. "It's still there." He pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Trying to avoid it won't make it go away, you know."
Giotto pouted. "Shut up." He muttered sourly.
G raised an eyebrow. "Will it make your cursed paperwork go away?" He asked mockingly. "Will it make your situation any better? No? I thought so."
"Just ten minutes?" Giotto pleaded.
"Honestly, are you a child?" G demanded. "Does the word no mean nothing to you?"
For a moment, Giotto looked thoughtful, then he smiled sheepishly and asked, "…Do you really want me to answer that question?"
G groaned. "On second thought, never mind." He muttered. "Go ahead and be free and do whatever."
Giotto's lips stretched out into a wide grin as he punched the air in victory. "Yay!" He cried cheerfully before fleeing out the door. "See ya! Thanks a lot for letting me go!" His cries of thanks continued as he went into the village, but they were hard to hear seeing as he had been far out from the mansion by that time.
G sighed. "That guy's such a handful…" He muttered wearily to himself, then cast a tired glance at the paperwork before standing up and murmuring, "Well, why don't I go for a walk too?"
Meanwhile, as Giotto strolled into town, he stretched his arms into the air, smiling in satisfaction when he noticed that nobody was unhappy to see him. Despite my decision to join the mafia… they're not mad at me for possibly putting them in danger. Ah, they were such kind people.
He took a deep breath of the sweet air, letting out a slight sigh of carelessness as a bird softly chirped out a song. Today was a nice day. Nothing could ruin…
BAM!
Groaning as his head pounded in pain, Giotto rose a hand to his forehead, wincing when he felt a large bump beginning to swell before he stared in stunned amazement at the small figure laying on the ground before him, looking around wildly and weeping considerably.
"…Did you just fall from the sky?" Giotto asked hesitantly. Perhaps he was hallucinating or something… yes, his memory must have been jolted. Because there was no way that the small child before him with a dark afro and a cow suit could have fallen from the sky…
He fell from the sky. Giotto repeated the thought mentally, taking in the situation in stride, before he began to freak out. HE. FELL. FROM. THE. SKY!
"Not that falling from the sky is weird or anything." Giotto panicked, beginning to ramble. "I mean, it's not as if it's something impossible. People fall from the sky every day, right? Ahaha. And just because you landed on my head doesn't mean that it hurts. I mean, it does hurt but it's not that bad. Oh, are you hurt? I mean, my head's pretty hard and my skull's pretty thick. Not like that! I mean, like thick literally, I'm not stupid or anything… I mean…" His heart was racing wildly as the small child stared at him with wide, stunned green eyes.
"…Tsu-nii?" The small child finally whispered in confusion, placing a small hand delicately on Giotto's forehead, causing the blond's eyes to widen as he stopped rambling. "What's wrong? You're acting strangely. Did you get a fever? And why's your hair a different color? Where are we? Lambo-sama wants to know…"
The child's bottom lip started to tremble dangerously, and his lower lip trembled as his eyes watered, glazing over with unshed tears. Giotto began to panic, quickly waving his hands in front of Lambo's. "Hey, hey, it's fine! Don't worry! It'll… all… be…" His heart clenched, and Giotto lowered his head, unable to tell the child that it would all be okay, too scared of being unable to fulfill that promise. "Sorry." He finally whispered hoarsely.
Lambo's young features still were twisted in confusion, and he wrapped his small hand around Giotto's. "You're just pretending that you don't remember everything, right? …This is a joke, right, Tsu-nii? It's not very funny." Lambo's voice trembled ever so slightly. "Lambo-sama's jokes are way funnier… stop joking, Tsu-nii."
Giotto placed a hand on Lambo's head, and pulled the small boy into his chest, ignoring the squawk of surprise. "I'm sorry." He apologized regretfully. "I'm not your Tsu-nii. My name is Giotto. Giotto Vongola…"
In his arms, he could feel Lambo stiffen before he was pushed away, Lambo's eyes wide in fearful panic as his breathing seem to catch in his throat. The child's breath barely escaped his lips, coming out more rapidly than each one before.
"Stop joking!" Lambo yelled, looking absolutely terrified. "This isn't funny anymore! Lambo-sama…" Lambo sniffed slightly, wiping at his eyes. "Lambo-sama's scared… stop…"
"It's not a joke." Giotto replied as gently as possible, slowly inching towards Lambo so that he wouldn't spook him. "My name is Giotto Vongola. I was born in Italy. I'm the leader of the vigilante group that's currently unnamed but residing here to fight the lord who owns this land." Giotto paused. "Are you scared of me?"
"You're not joking?" The small question, escaping the boy's lips, seemed to force reality to settle in, a horrible thing judging from the expression of horror that was beginning to dawn on Lambo's features. "This is really…"
"Yes." Giotto nodded. "I'm sorry…"
"No!" Lambo's scream was one of complete denial as he violently shook his head. "Nonononono… this can't be happening! Please let this be a dream…" But his expression of dread seemed to confirm that this wasn't a dream. "We knew it was going to happen…" He murmured to himself thoughtfully. "Fiamma Voltage… but it wasn't supposed to happen this fast! Lambo-sama knows he destroyed the prints… I was supposed to help Tsu-nii stop them! This wasn't supposed to happen!" His tears came more rapidly than ever. "No…"
Something had lodged itself in Giotto's throat, and he tried to hold Lambo's hand, but the boy whipped his hand away, staring at him fearfully. "What's happening?" Giotto asked, confused.
"This isn't supposed to happen." Lambo whispered. "Lambo-sama thinks…" His cries were soft whines of fear. Lambo-sama thinks that he traveled to the past. But he couldn't say it out loud… not to the enemy…
His head hurt.
Just a little nap… Lambo decided. Then I'll find Tsuna. He closed his eyes, and succumbed to the comforting darkness of sleep.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Tsuna checked Kyoya's pulse, and smiled in relief when he found that Kyoya was perfectly fine, seeming only to be asleep, not even unconscious.
"It's been a while since I've seen you smile like that."
Instantly the smile was wiped off his face as Tsuna peeked up to glare at Reborn. "You're not hurting my friends again." He said firmly. "I don't care what you do to me… just don't even think about so much as looking at them."
"No need to worry." Reborn gave his pistol a disdainful look. "Those stupid Bovino switched my bullets while I wasn't looking, and now we've been sent to the past."
Tsuna's eyes widened. "The past?" He squeaked.
"Yes." Reborn agreed, his usually calm and suave voice now a snarl of fury. "So I'll spend all my time on getting us back. Besides…" He scowled at Tsuna. "I'd rather only use bullets for my line of work, and at the moment my only ones are…" The faux child's lips became a thin line, before he stood up. "If you're not gone by the time I've not returned, you'll find yourself dead in an era 400 years before you were born."
Reborn slipped from their location, and slinging Kyoya over his shoulder, Tsuna sent out a silent prayer to whatever deity may be out there that everyone was safe.
A/N: Sorry about this chapter being so late. I had some issues and... yeah. Anyways, I hope you liked it (even though it stank).
