Author's Note: Revised 5/16/15

Hope you like the new version xp I know I do~

It was heart-wrenching to see, Reborn thought, to see him push everyone away as he tried to cope with what happened to him alone.

He was denying it had happened, still pretending that it happened to someone else, but that didn't stop the nightmares, the anxiety, the trauma from happening. It was beginning to take a toll on his body and without the use of his Flame to heal the damage, he would not be able to keep this up…

So Reborn waited until late one night when he heard the kid on the rooftop, practicing what he only assumed to be formations he created to protect himself.

His fighting style relied heavily on fancy footwork. It took Reborn a moment to see the wires that had been set up in an intricate web. It kind of reminded Reborn of a spider weaving through its web—although if Tsunayoshi was the spider, that made him the bug and he wasn't sure he liked that thought too much anymore…

Tsunayoshi landed on a string and Reborn would hear a cord-like sound reverberate from it. "That's an odd way to utilize your weapon."

"I thought so too. That's why I do it." Tsunayoshi gave him a wicked little smile before he dropped into a crouch. "Would you care to join me in my Sky Web Symphony?"

The wires made a sound like a bow-string drawing across a violin. When he added his Sky Flame to the wires, it made the sound more unique. He used it to taunt those that got caught in the center of the web because the sounds did not cast from the direction they came from.

"...I'm rather fond of my current position, thank you." Reborn said carefully. Tsunayoshi laughed at him, cartwheeling onto one of the lower cords and making a steady strum fill the air.

"Reborn the Number One is afraid of heights?"

"Au contrair, Tsunayoshi, I like being up in high places… I just question the sturdiness of your wire."

"It's reinforced by my Flame. You will not fall." Reborn doubted that. A displeased sound from somewhere above him made him look up. Tsunayoshi was giving him the same sour look he gave Tyr the week prior. "Aren't you willing to trust me, Reborn?"

Reborn scoffed. "Your harmonization is not nearly so effective on me."

"It was worth a shot." Tsuna shrugged. "What if I bribed you?"

"It had better be a pretty damn good bribe."

Tsunayoshi brought his clawed fingers to his lips and let out a shrill sound. Down one of the lines came a little green lizard. "His name is Leon. I found him in an abandoned lab with a bunch of different kinds of animals that had been injected with the same serum I was. On animals, it gives them each unique abilities. It gave Leon the ability to shapeshift. He can turn into pretty much anything you want him to." Tsunayoshi's expression softened. "I've been using him with my Sky Flames but I can tell that he's not compatible. He's intended for an Element—the Sun Element, as a matter of fact. I didn't want to give him up but I won't be able to use him now that I don't have constant access to my core."

"He takes up too much energy?" Reborn asked incredulously. The lizard was so small.

"No. He takes too much concentrated energy. I don't have the same level of control over my Flame in this form as I would in Hyper Dying Will mode." Tsunayoshi held out his hand and let the lizard crawl onto Reborn's hat. "He likes to sunbathe during the day but at night, he goes out to hunt. He's always back before morning and he never stays out past dawn."

"You have him trained?"

It was strange how many expressions someone could make, Reborn thought. Tsunayoshi's face seemed to be overly expressive—had been from the day they met him. It was almost like he could tell what the teen was going to say before he said it.

Well, he thought wryly, at least he was fair. He could read the people around him like an open book and they could read him just as easily. It wasn't hard to work out that his expressions, his movements, his tone of voice… all of it was controlled and he was aware of all of it. That had not changed and Reborn could tell that he was relieved if his… over-dramatic gestures were anything to go by.

"I just ask him to do things and he does them. If he doesn't want to do them, all he has to do is say no."

It spoke levels of their… acquaintanceship that Reborn took him completely seriously.

"Will you tell me no, my sweet chaos?" Tsunayoshi purred, holding out a hand. Reborn watched him warily. He had spent a lot of time around Luce to make up for his horrible first impression and she had given him some insight.

"Tsunayoshi is just a child." Luce told him. "He does not see being a Sky and being human as one and the same. Instead of seeing himself as a different class of human, he excludes himself from the category altogether. It's a very lonely life, to live like that, and when he comes in contact with his own, he feels responsible for taking care of them, be they a man or a woman." She had smiled bitterly. "I expected to see a cold-hearted killer. I got a scared teenage boy instead."

Reborn didn't reply. He couldn't. The more he watched Tsunayoshi dance on the strings, the more Luce's words were reinforced in his mind. Tsunayoshi was just a child. "Don't get so familiar with me." He said, his fedora tipping forward. Reborn reached forward and let Tsuna pull him into the web.

Balancing was a lot easier than he had thought it would be. The line was slippery so that he could move but it wasn't hard to stay still.

He wanted to go higher.

Laughter rang out from somewhere above him. "I knew you'd like it." He looked up to see Tsuna laying on a strand of wire as though it was a comfortable bed. Reborn wondered if that was comfortable because he certainly looked like he was enjoying himself. "I call this my Maze of Mayhem. It's my signature ability."

Reborn felt his blood turn to ice.

Mayhem.

Then he smirked. "I knew there was something interesting about you."

Chaos, he thought, was best suited when cloaked in Mayhem. His smirk turned into a feral grin with he jerked his foot and caused Tsunayoshi to slip. The teen flailed and shrieked as his grip on the wire faltered and Reborn kicked off of the wire to catch him. He landed in a crouch on a branch to a nearby sycamore tree. "Thanks." He said dryly.

"My pleasure… can this knight in shining armor get a kiss for rescuing the princess?"

Tsunayoshi rolled his eyes before he dramatically clasped his hands together. "My hero!" He droned before planting a sloppy kiss on Reborn's cheek. He wiped away the slobber.

"You are such a child." Reborn said, shaking his head. "Let me show you a real kiss."

Reborn unceremoniously dropped Tsunayoshi who barely caught himself on his legs. He didn't have any time to recover before he was pushed back against the thick trunk of the tree and held there. He could only moan when Reborn's mouth slanted over his, their tongues tangling in a wrestling match that did not seem to want to end.

Tsunayoshi had felt only a flash of fear before he realized that he was still armed and the wires were still in place. He still had complete control over the situation. Even if Reborn pushed a point, Tsunayoshi could just use his weapons to get away.

It wasn't until the morning after that Tsunayoshi realized that maybe that had been intentional.

Bonding with Reborn had been incredible. There was so much power that he had to offer—much more than Tsunayoshi had originally. Bonding with an Element that strong usually entitled an increase in his own power-cache but Tsuna really wasn't expecting to use his abilities any time soon.

It was actually kind of nice not having to use them.

But their peace came to an end the next day when they walked into the living room and found a dossier sitting in the middle of the table with a note from Luce.

I've been called to the Vongola estate to have dinner with Nono. As it is rude to turn down a request, I am obligated to join. I do not know how long I will be gone but the seven of you will be left to your own devices until I get back. Try not to destroy anything.

Tsunayoshi ripped the note to shreds.

'How the hell am I supposed to handle seven adults on my own?!' He thought, tears of despair already welling in his eyes.

He was doomed.

"Look at me. I want to see you climax. I want you to see that it is me that is the one making you climax."

Tsunayoshi shivered as those words echoed over the bond. Reborn was teasing him, the sadistic fuck. He was making him relive last night over and over…

'You're going to make me burn breakfast.' He broadcasted over their bond, snickering when the rest of his Elements gave them their own silent versions of the bird through their Flames. It was actually quite amusing. He wished that Fon, who was helping him cook, could experience with them. He was the only one remaining.

Something told Tsunayoshi and Fon was not the type to come so easily, however.

"Is it truly so interesting having those kind of ties?" Fon asked.

Tsuna smiled at him. "It's only intensified because no one here is, by any means, weak. They are more in touch with their Element and can do things that most Elements cannot do—like communicate through a bond that was formed after such a short courting period."

"Four months is considered short?"

"Most Skies spend years tempting and baiting their Elements before they see any results. I may have… sped up the process a bit by influencing them with my Harmony factor. Colonnello helped as well by displaying his dominance over me." Fon deserved to know. He was the most finicky and seemed to want to know what he was getting into before he got into it.

"Is it not the other way around?"

Tsunayoshi shot him a look. "A bunch of grown men are going to let me top." Saying it out loud made Fon see how incredulous his assumptions were. "I submit to them, in the end. All they do is humor my requests."

"What is it you usually request from your Elements?" Fon asked.

"Honestly? I haven't asked anything of them because I do not know why it is the six of you that were presented to me." His lips twitched. "If it is for the reason I think, his choice in Elements is a little off."

"What do you mean?"

"The Sky Compass project. What do you know of it?" He asked instead of answering.

Fon hummed. "I have heard about it from my shisho. Viper knows as much as I," He added quietly. "I know that the original purpose was to resurrect the first generation."

"That was their original purpose… but in order to do that, they needed second-hand genetics. They needed the First Generation's offspring…"

But those offspring were dead, Fon realized, and had been for a long time. The Zeno needed something fresh so they took matters into their own hands. They took direct descendents of the first generation—men and women—and combined the DNA to make a full genetic make-up that would match Vongola Primo's exactly. They would compare it with a capsule of blood—of Primo's blood—and use that DNA to fertilize the egg of a direct descended woman.

Tsunayoshi reached into his back pocket and offered him the laminated photo. "My mother." He said quietly. "A direct descendant of Primo's… or one of them, at least."

"You look like her." Fon commented quietly.

"...her husband is head of the CEDEF." Fon's eyes widened in shock and his head snapped up so fast that Tsuna felt a flash of concern. When Fon said nothing, Tsuna continued. "...it's funny. The last thing I remembered before waking up with that picture in my hand is fire.

"But it's not an ordinary fire, you see. It was a Sky Flame—it was warm and felt safe. I didn't know who the Flame belonged to but I could tell that they would never hurt me." Tsunayoshi looked down. "I wasn't supposed to make it out of the labs alive—I may not remember what the labs looked like but I knew that there was a slaughter coming and I was to be one of the faceless casualties… but I wasn't.

"It would take me years to decipher the memories and the strange words those men spoke but I will never forget what he said.

"You are my son," He recited in Japanese. "You are of my wife's blood, of my blood, and therefore I will call you my son… but it is not time to raise you as my own. That time will come later. Until then, I hope that you will always remember us. We wanted you. Never forget that. We just couldn't keep you under these circumstances."

Fon looked… pale. He excused himself. Tsunayoshi knew he'd come back and explain himself later so he let the Storm go. In the mean time, breakfast was ready. He sent a jolt though his bond to let everyone else know and was only saved from being attacked by several irate men because he had food in his hands.

"Luce took off and I don't know when she'll be back. That means we're on our own." Tsunayoshi said, setting the tray of biscuits down.

Breakfast was tense and awkward but that heavy air was cleared when Skull said something that ticked Reborn off.

It didn't really. Skull was baiting the hitman and the hitman was humoring him. Skull was asking for it from the hitman and the hitman was sadistic enough to oblige. It was amusing but it was good to know that his Elements would get along.

His Elements.

To be honest, he hadn't taken this whole thing seriously. It wasn't until he hooked Skull that he actively started to pursue them and they had responded easily. It had been like someone opened the flood gates and Tsunayoshi just couldn't get enough.

And yet…

There was something off about their bond.

It was…

Well. If he was honest about it, and he really didn't want to be, it almost felt as though their ties wouldn't last.

He found himself wanting them to last for an eternity. If he had known that having those empty slots filled would feel so good, he would have actively hunted a lot earlier. The only reason he didn't outright regret it was because, if he hadn't waited, he would not have had these Elements and these suited him just fine.

Tsunayoshi smiled. Everything was perfect, for the moment.

There was something adorable about a Storm's ability to throw away their inhibitions and go all in when the time called for it. Fon had a lot of passion and loyalty and that made their bond sing. He almost couldn't keep up with the martial artist.

Almost.

He had expected to be repulsed by sex after putting a lid on the constant flow of his Flames because of the rape. He expected to flinch at every touch but instead found himself leaning into it. Nightmares were a job hazard so he was already accustomed to them and being a little paranoid could save his life but the control that he had lost that night he had gained back. It was like a shadow in the back of his mind that was almost forgotten.

He was relieved.

Of everything he felt, relief was the strongest. Being more in touch with his emotions would help him understand human nature better. It would help him interact with people outside of his Elements.

Two days after Fon completed the rainbow, Luce returned with a child in her arms. "This is my daughter, Aria." She said, smiling. "Aria, I'd like you to meet our family—I Prescelti Sette."

She tried to keep them at a distance but slowly, she found herself liking them and before she knew it, she was attached.

Some things were inevitable, she found.

She looked down at the box of pacifiers and sighed.

Some things were just inevitable.

Tsuzukeru.

Thanks for reading~!