A/N: Happy Deepavali! This has to be put up late because my poor Beta had extended studies and TKD and I kept harassing her till she melted into this puddle. Thanks lisa, for putting up with me and my insane, un-ethical antics.
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone. I just gave them OOC masks. :D
Special thanks: beta: English-illiterate; and usagihunny (from deviantart)for the cover. (whom I still have not asked permission from *sweatdrop*
Shout-out: (do these things annoy you? I could stop, if you want.)
Bleach-ed-Na-tsu: Wow. That's really got me fired up and all XD Thank you so much! (no srsly, Thank you~)
Sousie: I know. But it'll all work out in the end, our favourite tuna will get his happiness.
Tsunasoraceillover: yep~ Badass!Tsuna service specially for you guys~ And Nana's probably watchin' over her little Tsu. I guess maybe we should have a few moments of silence for her?
Bigshowvn: *nods in total agreement* yupyup. We all want more sexybadasstsuna, whoot!
Dedicated to: all my followers and favouriters. I really can't keep track anymore, and to not miss anyone out, I am going to leave you all a big thank you in each of the chapters because I write for you guys. You guys are literally the reason I even write. So thank you. So much. You don't even know what you guys have done, and I love all of you. Have a cookie, and this golden statue of yourself. *insert golden statues here*
Chapter Four
Sitting in expectation, please give me more,
I'm tired of waiting for dinner
Returning to the main subject: a tragedy
-Lazy Crazy sung by Gumi
(One of) The Monsters in My Closet
"Dude, what the fuck happened to you?"
"Mochida, when your sister has PMS and is fucking pissed, what do you do?"
Gulp. "Sh-shut up?"
"Good."
"….."
"Sawada, you PM-"
"You finish that and you will NOT be speaking EVER again."
Still, the tendrils of curiosity Mochida was almost-visibly emanating poked and prodded at him till he had no choice but to twist his neck and face the teen saying, "Tutor from my Dad's company is completely fucking crazy."
"Oh. Well, you look like shit."
"You don't have to sound so happy."
"But you look like-"
"He threw me in the fountain I passed by on the long route to school and was dried by getting thrown onto an unused barbeque grill and now I smell like coffee in a can was used to wash my hair. Well fuck you Mochida. Fuck you."
"…..Tough luck, Sawada."
"THANK YOU for noticing."
"You can come and hide in my house, Tsuna, haha!"
"He'll just follow me there! Ugh. Thanks anyway, Takeshi."
"No probs, haha!"
"QUIET!" Nezu practically flew off the ground from the force of his own shout. Silence permeated the room, broken only by rustling of books and bags.
"We have a transfer student," the teacher continued, glaring Takeshi down who only retaliated with a blinding smile and an increased tapping of his pen. "Please welcome Gokudera Hayato. He's from Italy."
Tsuna stiffened.
"Please come in, Gokudera-kun."
The classroom door slid open, squealing harshly and hit its maximum with a 'bang'. They all winced. Gokudera stepped in, chains hooked to his pants clanking, with an aura of fierce defiancy.
"Tch."
Takeshi studied the teen in the front of the room with rare urgency close to no one had seen. Open uniform top revealing skull-printed under shirt, studded bracelets of sorts wrapped his forearms, two belts rested on his hips and a smell of smoke soaked his clothes.
It was the silver hair that clinched it, though.
"Hurricane bomb!" Takeshi snapped, shooting to his feet, swiping at his desk side to pick up his baseball bat at held it out at eye-level, threateningly. "What business do you have here?"
Mochida glanced at him then at Tsuna and picked up his own sheathed katana, rising to his feet as well, eyeing Gokudera with renewed interest.
Said teen reached into his clothes as if for a weapon. "Stop."
They flicked their eyes over at Tsuna, bodies remaining tensed and ready for an attack.
"Chi ti ha mandato qui?" (who sent you here)
"…."
"Rispondere!" (answer)
Gritted teeth. "Reborn."
Tsuna stiffened but nodded. "Guys, sit down. He's not an enemy." Not right now.
Mochida promptly sat, casting another curious look at Gokudera.
"Takeshi."
With an uncharacteristic huff of annoyance, he sat.
The rest of the class erupted into whispers.
"Ne, do you think Sawada knows him?"
"He's got to be yakuza then!'
"I'm going to stay out of this."
"But he's so hot, though."
"You females!"
"Sexist!"
"QUIET!"
The room fell quiet again and the students rummaged around under their desks for their textbooks. Gokudera sat down and focused a stifling glare into the back of Tsuna's head. Said teen ignored it staunchly.
"What is the Smoking Bomb doing in Namimori?" Mochida asked as soon as they had hit the roads. "He's the best teenage hitman out there, isn't he?"
"Actually, only in Italy," Tsuna injected. He paused to retrieve his caned drink from the vending machine's drawer. "Hibari is probably the strongest teen in Japan. He would be the strongest Yakuza head but he's shirked his responsibility and now that job's fallen to me." He snapped the tab of the metal can off and passed it to Takeshi so that he could add that to his collection and took a sip of the carrot juice. "Takeshi is the strongest Japanese teen hitman."
"What about you, Ankoku-sama?"Mochida drawled, chuckling as he dodged the elbow thrown his way.
Tsuna grumbled and continued to sip on the orange-tinted liquid.
"So what is tako-head doing here?" Mochida seemed to recall the original query which had started the thread of discussion.
"Ha ha, tako-head! Good one, Mochida!"
"Let's go grab sushi," was Tsuna's quiet but firm answer.
"Tsu-"
"I have no doubt he'll confront me tomorrow. Let me just attempt at a semblance of normal life for now, kay?" he quirked a smile tiredly. "I already have various assassins after my head and a hitman recruiting me into the mafia."
They fell silent , walking in quiet peace before Tsuna realised his slip-up.
"Say WHAT?"
"MAFIA?"
'Shoot.'
In the end, he managed to avoid all their questions as he ran along the rooftops, dropping down and dashing through the entrance of Takesushi a mere second before his two classmates did, waving a 'hi' to Tsuyoshi and the other customers and ran up the stairs to Takeshi's room.
They now sat in a close circle to avoid dropping off the baseball-fan's bed, sating their hunger with yesterday's leftover sushi, waiting for the others to arrive.
Shoichi was first to arrive, glasses on the verge of dropping off the edge of his nose in his haste, face as red as his mussed up hair, exclaiming: "I'm not late, am I?"
The girls came next, Kyoko leading the way as Hana and Haru followed, the former lecturing the latter who was stuffing her face with chocolate cream cake.
They shifted onto the floor and kicked away the mounds of comics and discarded clothes to commence the meeting over dessert.
"Okay, I called you guys because of project pineapple. Reborn is in town and I don't know how I can hide mist-san from him."
"Hahi? What is Reborn-chan doing here?"
"Eh, about that…"
Takeshi and Mochida turned to stare at him with an intensity which blew even Gokudera off the charts. Tsuna sighed.
"He's training me to take over Vongola as the Decimo."
"WHAT?"
"This sure is a twist desu!"
"Wow. That's cool, Tsu-kun."
"Talk about irony."
"Ugh. Either way, I doubt mist-san will be very happy about this so we'd better let this slide. Also, we should try and reinforce Kokuyo land."
"The illusions won't be enough?"
"I could try something… Eh, do you have any ideas in mind?"
"Thanks. Maybe we should have something to fortress the place with illusions?"
"Hahi! I'll help work on the design!"
-line break-
"You're late."
Tsuna dodged the boomerang and tripped onto his bed. He grumbled and tossed his bag into a corner as Reborn caught and tossed the boomerang-turned-yoyo. "I went out for lunch and got this." He gestured to the plastic bag he'd dropped onto the rug on his floor. Reborn walked over and opened the box to see a coffee-maker encased in bubble-wrap within. "Oh, good. Go make me some coffee."
"Now?!" Tsuna rolled on his side exasperatedly to dodge the bullet which snipped off part of his brown spikes and embedded itself into the wall beside the other three already present.
"Yes, now."
Ten minutes later they sat in silence, a cup of steaming liquid in each one's hands. Tsuna broke the silence first with a loud slurp of his green tea, grimacing slightly as it burned his tongue. He hurriedly swallowed and stared into the murky green depths of his cup, feeling the mouthful burn as it slid down his throat and made its way into his belly.
He blinked, fringe flying as a mallet skimmed off the skin on his nose. "Dame-Tsuna, a Mafia boss is always suave and composed."
"I told you, I'm not going to become a Mafia boss," he replied automatically. He shook his head, brown hair flying. "Anyway, what's your next plan?"
A raised eyebrow.
"It's not like I can probably escape it," he grumbled matter-of-factly and tilted his cup once more, sighing in relief as the cooled tea entered his throat without harm to his sore tongue.
"I want you to gather your guardians."
"Oh? And who do you have in mind?"
"Hm." Reborn sipped at his coffee. "Hibari Kyouya, Sasagawa Rhyohei, Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato, so far."
"Done, done and done." Tsuna smiled cockily. "Not too sure about Smoking Bomb though."
"Hoh. So you know who he is?"
Tsuna hit himself upside the head mentally. 'Not again!'
"I have my ways," he muttered coolly.
The cool metal of a gun met the side of his head.
"Yamamoto Tsuyoshi." He said. "He's an ex-hitman. I'm sure you know that. He's retired but he still keeps tabs on those who might threaten Namimori." The gun was removed and he heaved an internal sigh of relief.
Reborn blinked at him with unwavering obsidian and Tsuna hurriedly squashed the urge to fidget deep into his stomach, trying to keep his half-truth believable. 'Does he know I'm lying?' he wondered.
"I see," Reborn said simply, and hopped off the bed. Tsuna sent him a curious look but Reborn only took a drink of his coffee. The doorbell rang and realisation slipped over Tsuna's features as he swung his legs over the space Reborn had created to exit his room and open the door.
Reborn went downstairs and grabbed a plastic cup, filled it to the brim with coffee beans, and started up the machine. The coffee was just pouring out as Tsuna walked by to grab a couple of chopstick, offering the hitman a fork which he declined. He sipped on his steaming coffee, decided it was acceptable, and headed for the table.
Tsuna was already eating, so he aimed a knife at his head for lack of manners and settled down to eat as well.
The bento was good, he thought, average at worst. "Who made this?" he asked, swallowing a roll of omelette. Tsuna chewed and swallowed before answering (mostly to avoid having to dodge a second knife), "My neighbour, Haru."
"She'll make a good wife," Reborn said, measuring his student's reaction out of the corner of his eye.
"I told her once," Tsuna said, unruffled, "Of course, it didn't really help the huge crush she'd had on me then, but we're good friends now."
Oh? No flustered exclamations or screams of denial? Reborn was more disappointed than surprised. "You're quite confident in yourself, aren't you?"
"Why not?" Tsuna was a picture of indifference until he scowled. "I can't cook well, though…"
"Why not ask her to teach you?"
"Oh, I did. It did NOT end well."
"What happened?" Reborn asked, in spite of himself.
The teen sitting opposite him visibly wilted.
"I'm not saying, but it ended up with me Jello-fied in the bathtub."
-linebreak-
A noise woke him up and Reborn hopped out of his hammock and padded across the fluffy rug over to where Tsuna stood, motionless, but from his wide, shifty eyes, clearly shaken up.
"Dame-Tsuna, getting scared of a dream."
"….. You still don't know anything, huh, Reborn?"
"Hurry up and tell me then, Dame-Tsuna. It's just a dream, no monster is coming to get you."
"I'm the monster."
Reborn fell silent as he surveyed the trembling brunet as tears fell silently by their feet and quiet sobs wrecked the boy's hunched body. He hopped onto the desk and reached out to place a confident hand on his young student's forearm, wordlessly assuring him that he would listen.
"Nana died. Mama died. I was in the same room, same bed, even! Why didn't they kill me?! Why didn't they kill me?! Why did they take Mama? Was it my fault? Why was it only her? I want her back! Why did she die?"
Reborn placed a solemn hand on Tsuna's bowed head and ruffled his unruly spikes, trying to comfort him in his own way as the boy sobbed and screamed, tears streaming down his face, voice turning nasal.
"Why?! Mama!" Emotion choked him up and whatever he said after that was a muffled string of sorrow. Reborn understood though, and placed both his hands onto Tsuna's head and stayed like that, in unbroken contact, until the boy quieted down.
Reborn guided Tsuna to his bed and hopped up on his pillow, pulling the covers up as the teen blew his nose. "I'll keep you safe from the monsters in your closet, baka-dame-Tsuna," he told him and flicked his forehead. "Go to sleep, Tsuna."
A/N: There! R27 fluff, heheh. Hope you like it. If you can't already tell, I'm planning on making this R27 but progress will be slow so for now (and perhaps a long time,) the very most there will be is fluff. And yeah, Tsuna can parkour~
Well, in any case, I hope it wasn't too cliché. Btw, in case you forgot, the meaning of Tsu's "gangsta" name is in the last chappie. See you guys next week and don't forget to leave a review on your way out. Ja ne~