Notes: Special thanks to Kattenprinsen who is my hero when it comes to naming people who are unnamed. They are amazing and helped me out a lot by naming everyone's otherwise unnamed parentals. Thank you! You're the best!

There are a couple of flashbacks here (I don't usually write them in which is why I'm givin a heads-up) but I tried to make them hella obvious with the full italics and brackets.

Chapter Five: Hitmen Don't Like Surprises

From atop the sport equipment shed, Reborn watched the aftermath of the final ring battle descend into total chaos. A petty territory squabble had devolved into a battle over blood which transformed into a revelation of intent and, bizarrely, Iemitsu's character as a man. He hadn't thought his intervention was necessary until it had become clear that Tsuna, regardless of the fact that he and his guardians had technically won the matches, was still willing to give up his rightful position as Decimo.

Reborn had not come to Japan and trained Tsuna only to have the boy turn his back on his bloodline and his future position. He had poured a lot of effort into Tsuna to teach him how to fight with fists and flames and his scattered wits instead of that bloodthirsty instinct that was core to a ghoul's hunting skill. The boy had finally taken to that fighting style, the one that would have let him pass as human in front of future Vongola members, when Xanxus and the Varia had descended upon them.

In fact, he could almost show the fight against Xanxus and, before him, Hibari, as proof that his teaching had sunk in through boy's skull. Tsuna had kept his ghoul blood at bay until he'd gone and bitten Xanxus. Even then, perhaps if Xanxus's blood was of a different type, Tsuna might have retained control of himself.

Not that any of it mattered anymore.

Tsuna had taken more of Reborn's lessons to heart than he had realized. Reborn had laid out the gory and violence filled history of the Vongola and their interaction with ghouls without a third reconsideration. Tsuna had finally showed serious interest in the more intense dealings of the Vongola. Reborn had thought the risk of telling him would be worth the payout in the end.

But now he had to consider what it had meant to Tsuna, as someone who had grown up friendly with ghouls?

He hated to admit it, and never would speak a word of it, would never apologize (why should he when the only one he felt regret towards was dead on the ground in front of him) but he had forgotten that ghouls were human-like, if not exactly human themselves. Namimori ghouls were more human than some people he had known in his line of work. All he had to do was look at ones like that Sasagawa girl. She was considerate, compassionate, diligent in her studies and popular because of her kindness and pretty face. And yet, he had seen her loping down the streets after dark, with her brother at her side and eyes red and black, headed towards the border of Namimori- towards the ghoul hunting grounds.

It was as if Namimori existed primarily to rub him the wrong way. The town was peaceful day and night. Half of the population consisted of ghouls. There were plenty of shops, a functioning police force, even a damn mayor. One could buy packaged human flesh at a butcher, report a robbery to a ghoul policeman or attend a town hall meeting where the laws of the town were meted out by a fifteen year old boy and upheld by the mayor and her staff.

Not that it mattered. None of it mattered now. At least, not to him.

Tsuna was dead. The heir Nono had chosen was dead. The Vongola would rest upon Xanxus's shoulders. A good thing that he'd grown up strong and broad- the title of Decimo would be a heavy weight to bear.

Looking down at the bloodied corpse, at the young man who held it and wept, at the two nearby who held each other, grieving, at the other young faces, many wet with tears or set in somber determination, Reborn did not consider the time spent in Namimori to be a waste.

Tsuna had learned a lot from him. Tsuna's friends had become stronger, more independent people. Reborn had enjoyed his time in Namimori, but now…

He tipped his hat to his former student, gaze solemn. Hibari held Tsuna's face pressed close to his throat, a vulnerable place, but also somewhere he could hide Tsuna's dead expression, or feel any breath should that hole in his chest be a massive ruse. Yes, Tsuna's people had learned a lot from these short months that he'd spent interacting with them.

The distant cloud guardian, the one who had knocked over the first domino on that night's chain of disaster, was as distraught as anyone who had lost a loved one before their very eyes. He certainly had changed from the aloof temperament Reborn had seen him exhibit upon their first meeting.

Reborn wished him the best. Without Tsuna, Hibari certainly would turn his attentions more towards his own family and their connections. In fact, if he had to predict what would transpire, Hibari would pick up Tsuna's guardians (perhaps all but Mukuro and Chrome, because of his animosity towards the former and the latter's dedication to the former) and wield them as his own. And why not?

Gokudera had a good head on his shoulders when he wasn't riddled with his anxiety. Yamamoto was born to be an assassin, whether or not he was a ghoul, Reborn was convinced of this. Sasagawa had been some sort of friend and sparring partner of Hibari before this had transpired. Perhaps he'd simply leave Lambo in the care of Nana but-

Reborn's thoughts stopped dead in their tracks.

Nana.

A cold shiver prickled his skin.

He reached up and tipped his hat down, shadowing his face. "I'll leave this to you, Xanxus." He muttered, "As the Decimo-to-be, you'll have to learn how to clean up this kind of mess." He knew he wasn't heard but that didn't matter.

Reborn had to get out of Japan and fast.

["Reborn," Nana had said with a smile, placing his coffee in front of him. He had looked up at her, opening his mouth to greet her back, but she had kept speaking and overrode his words.

"I know you're having a lot of fun teaching my son how to handle his fists and his head while you groom him to become the next leader of the Vongola, but please consider this." Her eyes, half open, were black and red and bore into his.

Still she smiled, sweet as the cakes she offered him with his coffee from time to time. Cakes that were only big enough for one person. For him.

"Tsu-kun is a miracle to me. Having him saved my life. If anything were to happen to him… You will need your own miracle to save yours."]

Very few people had ever threatened him so blatantly as that. Of that few, Sawada Nana was the only housewife to do so, and the only one that he worried about succeeding. Maybe she wouldn't be able to do him in by herself, but…

Namimori ghouls hunted in packs.

And Reborn knew who Nana considered her pack.

Returning to Timoteo with Tsuna's blood (figuratively) on his hands was by far the better choice than to return to the Sawada residence and explain to Nana how he had driven her son to suicide while pinned under the weight of an older, adult, human, enemy.

Without a word, Reborn bound off the shed. Now was the time to go if he wanted to make it back to Italy in one piece.

Reborn took great pride in being hard to surprise. Because of his size and his skill and his, ah, occupation, he got the drop on people time and time again. This amused him to no end and ultimately lead to him doing more and more outlandish things to get that shock out of people. He had enjoyed that element of his relationship, such as it was, between Tsunayoshi and himself.

He showed up out of the blue, Tsuna would panic and shout. He attacked spontaneously,Tsuna would flail in an attempt to dodge. Add in Gokudera's easily triggered hysterics and the incredulousness of his surrounding friends and teaching-tormenting Tsuna had felt more of a pastime than a job. Really, his whole time in Namimori had been entertaining.

Except for the whole, not realizing his student and his student's mother were ghouls part.

...Oh, and perhaps that all of his Namimori born guardians turned out to be ghouls too.

...And the ghoul-parent-teacher conference he had to participate in when he started to gather the guardians…

His work in Namimori had almost been a vacation, would have been one really, if not for those parts.

Reborn hadn't become the best hitman in the world by luck. He had been born naturally difficult to surprise and had cultivated that until there came a point where he was so unfazed by things going on that he attained a level of pseudo-omniscience. It made tutoring young up and coming mafioso brats highly entertaining.

Nothing any student did could surprise him. Everything he did was surprising to them.

And then Reborn had gone to Namimori.

"Your coffee sir." The airline attendant spoke smoothly, bending over to place the coffee cup on his tray. Reborn nodded to the woman and then, after a moment's hesitation, asked for two sugars.

He got them and slowly stirred them into the coffee, letting them dissolve completely. The coffee was too sweet when he drank it, but, since it was all he was having, it was better this way. People were already staring at the infant in a suit alone in an airplane. He didn't need them staring because all he was having was plain black coffee too.

He had to remember, couldn't forget, that he wasn't in Namimori anymore.

He had to remember, couldn't forget, all the ghoul tells that he had learned from living in that ghoul-infested town.

The coffee was hardly necessary to keep himself alert. He was still jittery from what he had left behind. Nana's smiling face hovered just behind his eyelids, bent over with her hair falling across her features and those dark, black eyes staring down at him in utter sincerity. He had seen her, day in and day out, for months and only twice had he seen a ghoul's eyes looking back at him in that smiling face.

["Thank you for coming, Reborn-san. It is a pleasure to meet the Greatest Hitman in the World, face to face." Hibari Chikai looked every inch the gentle wife. Her dark hair was swept out of her face with a single golden hairpin and her long sleeves held back with slender, pale fingers. She bowed as she welcomed him into the modern home built in a traditional style. "The others are here already."

Yes. She was every inch the gentle housewife. Except for her ghoulish red and black eyes that looked right at him unflinchingly.

"Hibari-san," he said, "Thank you for your hospitality." He followed her through quiet halls to an elegant dining room that would have been suitable in any noble's castle. 'The others' were all adults he had met before: Sawada Nana, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, Sasagawa Atsuko and Daichi, and now Hibari Chikai. She motioned him to his single seat on one of the sides of the table before sitting down opposite him.

"Coffee, Reborn-san?"

"Please," he said.

She had poured him a cup from the kettle, steam rising from the mug as she did. The others already had their own cups, and either held them or sipped from them as they waited.

Under the lip of his fedora, Reborn quickly looked over their faces. He didn't see an ounce of trepidation in one of them. Only mild interest or the slight frown of worry. They were, after all, there to talk about their children joining the mafia.

Not that any of them were supposed to know that their children were doing such a thing. He would have to up the training until they were all run so ragged they couldn't spread secrets like this around. Although, he noted with a glance to Hibari Chikai, it was likely the parents had found out from an alternative source.

Chikai set down her own cup and smiled, showing more teeth than pleasantries. "Let us get right to the heart of the matter. Reborn-san, why should we allow you to take our children and put them in your bloodthirsty Italian mafia? Tell me, what makes the Vongola family the place where my son and his pack will thrive?"

She watched him, almost unblinkingly, with those black and red eyes.

They all did, some of them smiling, some of them serious, all of them with ghoulish eyes and focused attention.

Reborn sipped from his mug. Timoteo should have known better than to call in a favor to get Reborn to train Tsuna to be the Decimo- It would only put Timoteo deeper into Reborn's debt. Ah. Well. The old man had deep pockets and the Vongola would always be good for repayment.

With a nod, Reborn settled in for a long discussion.]

Reborn pinched the bridge of his nose and then, drawing his hand away, blinked hard. He heard someone shuffle and cough behind him and tense up instinctively.

He unclenched his hand from around the cup the attendant had given him and forced himself to relax. Not even an hour had passed by the time he was out of Namimori and on a plane. Sure, it wasn't a straight shot home, but it was the first leg and it should have gotten him out of immediate danger.

As threatening as Nana had been, in her bright, motherly sort of way, it was the Hibari family that worried Reborn. He had left as quickly as possible, giving them as little time as he could to mobilize against him while still in the country. He would have to make a few stops along the way, careful to stay ahead of any pursuers, but he could do it. The long hours would give him plenty of time to figure out how the hell to break the Ring Battle results to Timoteo and Iemitsu.

(He almost hoped that someone else got to them first. He wasn't sure how to safely drop the 'your son is half ghoul' on Iemitsu and 'your heir was almost a ghoul' to Timoteo. Hell, he should have told them when he had found out himself but he hadn't. He had thought- a half ghoul could fake it well enough… And ghoul guardians? Well- That could be worked around, surely.)

Reborn settled back in his chair, sipping again. He glanced out the window at the dark night sky. There was nothing to be seen but ocean and wisps of clouds. With the sun at his back and the jet taking him hundreds of miles across the world, it was going to be a long, long night for him.

The afternoon sun warmed the small sitting room that Reborn waited in. He drowsed slightly, jet lagged from his cross country flight from Namimori to Italy. Leon was asleep on his brim, weighing the hat down to obscure his face.

He blinked to consciousness as the door swung open. Ganauche led the way into the room, with Timoteo behind him and Visconti to follow up. That wasn't the end of the guests, though, as Iemitsu walked in, accompanied by Lal Mirch and another one of his subordinates. Not the young boy but the woman. It took Reborn's fairly frayed mind to pull her name out of- that's right Oregano.

Reborn sat on the arm of the couch that was most likely to not put him to sleep and waited as everyone filed in, found somewhere to settle and a quiet servant came in with refreshments. He wasn't surprised in the least when a cup of coffee was pressed into his hand by Lal. She gave him a Look with an arched brow. "Must be serious," she said, the first to address him directly, "For you to be here yourself, Reborn. Take this. You look like shit."

"Sugar," he muttered and gestured with one hand. "Just a cube."

"You haven't even tasted it," Lal said with a smirk, "You sure you want to add sugar?" But her gaze was worried and she was grabbing the bowl for him. Or rather, Oregano handed it to her and she to Reborn. He dropped in a cube and stirred it.

"Hm?" He said thoughtfully, sipping the coffee. Lowering it from his mouth, he stared at it. "What is this?"

"Coffee," Lal said slowly. "You know. Made from ground coffee beans? Sorry we couldn't fix up an expre-"

He cut her off with a snappish, "I know it's coffee but damn, Lal. This is shitty coffee." He sipped it again and grimaced. At Lal's silence, he glanced up at her. "What?"

She stood back from him, arms folded over her chest. "You sure you want to do this report now? You sound like you haven't slept in days."

He paused in his immediate refute to instead ask, "What day is it?"

"The twenty sixth." The Cloud battle had been on the twenty fourth and, with all his back and forth to keep his trail clear of hitmen, it had taken longer for him to get back.

"Ah." He nodded. Reborn put his mug down, no longer needing it. "Then you would be right. But that's the kind of thing that happens when, well, the shit hits the fan." He was glad they were in an interior room, that meant there were no windows for him to keep glancing out of in ghoul-inspired paranoia.

Iemitsu clearly couldn't contain himself. He lurched to the edge of his own seat, his fist thumping against his knee, "Reborn, tell us what happened during the ring battles. We haven't heard anything since the rain match. How did the mist one go? How bad was the damage done by the Mosca? What about Tsuna? What did Xanxus do when he got the rings?"

Ganauche made a rude noise, not moving from where he leaned against the side of the chair Timoteo sat in. "Whatever he is fighting for isn't enough to counterbalance the weight of the Vongola name. It sure sounds like he put on a good fight, but the man has the Varia to take care of-"

Reborn sighed. He wanted coffee. Good coffee, the kind that Nana made in the morning. Perfectly roasted beans, ground fresh that morning and the boiling water at just the right temperature for the right amount of time… He looked forlornly at the mug he'd set down and said with true regret, "I'm never going to be able to have that coffee again. How am I going to live without it?"

"Reborn," Timoteo's elderly voice was concerned but strained underneath that. "Please. We haven't heard any word since the twenty second. What happened? Why…Why are you here?"

Reborn glanced up at him. A dozen things waited to be said on the tip of his tongue- ranging from the morbid to the absurd. He landed on blunt and spartan. "The mist and cloud ring battles were both won in Sawada Tsunayoshi's favor. However, there was a dispute after the cloud battle between Tsunayoshi and his Cloud. Xanxus intervened, Tsunayoshi fought with him and, after giving up his half of the sky ring, killed himself."

Had he dropped a pin on the coffee table, he would have heard it clatter, spin in place and come to a slow, rolling stop with perfect clarity. As it was, he heard only lungs working, slowly and some with stuttering surprise as he looked straight at Timoteo.

Iemitsu exploded from his seat, reaching for Reborn. "What do you mean he killed himself!? You can't mean- There's no way that- Tsuna would never."

Idiot. Idiot. Iemitsu was the highest class of idiot Reborn could even fathom. It felt like cracking stone as he turned his head away from Timoteo to look at the giant, fucking moron in the room. "Your son." He spoke flat and cold. "Is dead. He put a hole the size of a melon in his chest. No heart. No lungs. Half his ribs gone. Diaphragm. Liver. Probably a good chunk of his stomach. Not that the leaking acid would have damaged anything. He was dead before anyone could do anything."

Again, that aching silence.

Iemitsu stared at him, wide eyed, mouth hanging open. He was shaking. Oregano, at his side, reached out and put her hand on his arm but he didn't seem to even notice it.

"You're certain?" Timoteo whispered, "Absolutely?"

"Xanxus saw him die." Reborn said, adding the other man as a witness without a second thought. "And it was no duplicate body. He spoke right until the last moment. I got close, but was chased away by…" he hesitated. His maddened Rain guardian ghoul. Reborn just couldn't let the words out of his mouth.

In this room, he was the only one who knew about the ghouls in Namimori, and the half ghoul that had been Tsuna.

If other humans discovered half breeds were possible- If other ghouls discovered half-breeds were possible-

Reborn shuddered at the very idea of it.

"So Xanxus is the Decimo," Visconti said firmly, as though he had never even contemplated Tsunayoshi for the position seriously. He nodded once.

"How can you just-" Iemitsu snarled, "Who gives a fuck about Xanxus? My son-"

"Wouldn't have ever fought against him if it wasn't for you," Ganauche murmured.

"Only because none of you would press Xanxus into the position! You turned to my son instead, my fourteen year old son! And now he's fucking dead!"

Reborn watched Timoteo's face as the lines in it deepened and his gaze flicked away in guilt or shame or something else. He was exhausted. It was hard to read even his friend's face. He needed sleep. Hours and hours and hours of it in a safe place.

As much as he wished it was, the Vongola was not a safe place to sleep. Reborn got to his feet. Lal took a step towards him and he shot her a glare. He did not need any help standing. He was only exhausted, not fucking traumatized. She glared back at him and the put up her hands as if to say "Fine. Have it your way."

"One more thing," Reborn said, looking back to Timoteo. Iemitsu was fuming, torn between his rage and his grief and it had, for now, rendered him speechless. Good. "As far as Tsunayoshi's former guardians and" packmates "friends are concerned, I do not think the Vongola will interest them much anymore."

Timoteo's frown deepened. "They know about their flames, Reborn. They can't simply be left alone to use them however they see fit or to teach them to other civilians." He shifted uneasily in his chair and Reborn saw the flash of the cold hearted mafia don that had bloodied the streets of Italy in the prime days of Vongola Nono. "You did not take care of them before you left?"

A slight head shake, "I left as soon as Tsunayoshi died." He could remember Yamamoto's eyes, burning red and deep black, filled with rage and grief and tears and the want of blood and vengeance burning in his face. Yamamoto who had looked at him not as assassin to assassin, but ghoul to their prey. That hatred would not dissipate quickly, not when the Tsuna's Rain felt it so keenly.

That hatred would bleed over to Tsuna's Cloud. Hibari's bloodlust would be as violent and as pervasive as Nana's, Reborn knew that deep in his bones. And both of them knew of his affiliation with the Vongola… "I need to go," he said, interrupting something Timoteo was saying to Iemitsu.

"What?" Lal leaned in, "You just got here. And you're about ready to collapse. Reborn, you need to rest before you go anywhere."

"Tch," he frowned back at her, "I'd like to survive long enough to break this stupid curse, Lal. Getting hunted by the Hibari's isn't exactly going to prolong my life any."

Iemitsu, who perhaps knew the names of Tsuna's guardians as well as Reborn did, snapped to attention, "What do you mean? Why would Hibari be after you? You said that- Tsuna-" He stopped, physically unable to get out the words from the look of it.

"I am the one who tutored the boy," Reborn said, not looking to Iemitsu, but to Timoteo. His old friend was, after all, the one who had asked Reborn to go to Namimori for Tsuna. "I told him he was to be a mafia boss, without exception. I pressured him to fight, to win, to protect his friends, to become the Decimo." He hesitated a moment, his fist tightening against his side.

"Nana entrusted his life to me. She will blame me. She will not allow me to get away with it. And she is friends with Hibari Chikai. It's only a matter of time before my name is at the top of their wanted list." The words came out sour and sharp like the shards of a broken bottle that had been filled with lemon juice.

"Hibari Chikai," Oregano breathed out the name, "But isn't that." She sat up straight, turning towards Iemitsu, "Your wife has contacts with theHibari family? They are a member of the Triads, Iemitsu, one of the largest families that spans several countries- Iemitsu! Why didn't you say anything!?"

"I didn't-" the useless man began.

Reborn had had enough. He was exhausted. He was being hunted. He had fucked up. All he had been trying to do was a favor for a friend and it had blown up in his goddamn face. "Because he's the most idiotic human man on the face of the earth," Reborn said, fingers twitching. Leon was already climbing down to his arm. "I'd kill you myself right now and fuck who has rights to your body! From what I heard Xanxus saying, I don't doubt that you've got a fat little price on your own damn head, idiot Iemitsu. They're going to catch you and drag you back to your pretty little wife, I bet, only so she can turn you over to Xanxus to kill."

They were staring at him, eyes wide, but Reborn didn't care anymore. None of them knew. None of them knew anything. "She might have loved you, Iemitsu, but to Nana? Tsuna was a miracle. Tsuna was her reason for living, for being human. Do you know what happens when you take away a ghoul's reason to pretend to be human?"

"A ghoul's…" whispered Oregano, "reason?" She was the only one who spoke. The rest of them looked at him in silent shock. Iemitsu was so pale that he looked drained of his blood.

"What are you talking about Reborn," Lal asked, low and intent, coming close. "Get ahold of yourself."

Reborn turned away from them sharply. He tipped his hat down over his face. Leon curled his tail between his fingers, ever ready to defend. "Go back to Namimori," he said to Iemitsu. He hardly recognized his own voice, "Go there and mourn your son with your wife. Go back and see that town without your fucking rose colored glasses, Iemitsu. Go back to Namimori and count the graveyards."

With that, he was done. His message delivered, his body shaking from the emotional outburst, Reborn slipped out of the room without another word. He had just barely hit the hallway when he heard shouting erupt in the room behind him.

He didn't have the energy to care. All he could do now was leave the Vongola manor and get to one of his safehouses. One of his real safehouses, where no one but him knew the location of. Then he would be safe. Then he could sleep.

The smell of coffee, familiar and tantalizing, filled the air of Reborn's underground hideaway. It was a specially crafted bunker, one that was sized to him as an Arcobaleno. Sure, it meant that he wouldn't be able to use it when the curse was broken, but that was a good thing.

It meant that the only people could even comfortably enter the bunker and he knew the names and appearances of all six of those people.

He closed the door, wincing slightly as it thunked heavily and locked automatically behind himself. There was a long, silent pause from deeper inside his safehouse, like someone was listening.

With his nerves strung like Belphegor's knives on wires, Reborn walked silently past the entranceway and into the kitchen. Sitting at his table, sipping from one of his mugs, sat Fon.

Across the table was a second mug. He walked over, took his seat, and pulled it close. Coffee. Just coffee. He glanced up at Fon. The Storm Arcobaleno set down his mug and Reborn saw again, coffee. Just coffee.

He expected tea. He had hoped it was tea.

Reborn looked back at his own drink. He loved coffee. He really, really did.

But if this kept up it was going to give him a heart attack without him ever needing to take another sip.

Taking the mug, testing it for poison subtly, finding nothing but coffee in it (no milk, no sugar, nothing else) Reborn sipped. It was good. It was really good, actually. In fact it reminded him of-

["Do you like that blend, Reborn?" Nana asked as she poured herself and Tsuna a cup of the same coffee. "It was a gift from my friend, Chika. She gets this blend from her brother in China. He sends it quite often, since he can't visit her as much as she'd like."

"It's good, Mama," Reborn replied.

Tsuna sipped his own, "I really like it too, but Hibari hates it. He doesn't even like the smell of it."

"Oh?" Nana asked, "I thought you two liked the same flavors!"

"Yeah," Tsuna said, "But he says it reminds him of someone he'd rather not be reminded of." He shrugged a shoulder, "So I figured who it is deserves it, at least as far as Hibari's concerned."]

"Welcome home," Fon said with a little smile.

"Thank you," Reborn said stiffly. Last he had heard, Fon was in China. What was he doing here? How had he found this place? "It's good to see you. It has been quite a while."

"Yes. But this is an important matter." Fon turned his mug back and forth in his hand. The ceramic made a soft scratching noise on the wood. Reborn tried not to think about that.

"Oh?"

"I wanted to thank you in person."

"Really," Reborn fought the urge to drink more of that delicious coffee. Really, the Vongola had nothing on the refined taste of, well, ghouls. He lost the fight and drank another gulp. "I don't recall doing anything worthy of your gratitude lately."

Fon's smile grew just a little. "I have not heard from my nephew since his father… passed on." He lifted his mug. There was a ring of condensation underneath it. Reborn tried to ignore that too. He was certain Fon was doing it on purpose, though it was impossible to tell under that smooth facade of his. "Yet, because of you, I not only got to speak to him but he reached out to me. Of course, it was a phone call, but surely you understand how important that first step is. I'm certain we'll be sitting around the table exchanging Hunting stories and enjoying Mother's premium blend together soon."

"...congratulations on your family reunion," Reborn heard himself say dryly. Fon tilted his head slightly and he tensed, entirely too uneasy in his own supposedly safe kitchen. "I'm happy to have helped."

"Are you really?" Fon asked, "I know your sadistic tendencies tend to make your students curse at the sight of you, Reborn, but I didn't think that pleasure extended to seeing them commit suicide." At once, his genial smile turned brittle as blown glass. "But then who am I to judge? Death took my nephew's affection from me and death has brought it back again."

Reborn felt Leon climbing down the back of his head, where Fon couldn't see, each movement as slow as crystallized honey. Was he fast enough to give himself cover fire as he escaped the bunker? Because, at his current exhausted state, he absolutely did not have the energy to fight Fon toe-to-toe. "I didn't even know you had family," Reborn said, stalling for time as Leon moved foot over foot.

"I have a widowed sister," Fon said, "And her fifteen year old son is my nephew." He set his mug down with a sharp clink on the wood. "They live in a small town in Japan."

The coffee in his throat became hard as ice. Reborn choked it down painfully, blinking dampness from his eyes. He didn't even have to ask. He knew. Namimori. And all at once, that knowledge gave him someone to compare Fon to that he hadn't thought of before.

Side by side, Fon and Hibari Kyoya could have passed as brothers, at the very least. Father and son, even, if one had no idea about the Arcobaleno curse. And Fon's sister being Kyoya's mother-

Hibari Chikai.

The connections leapt into place, hung for a frozen moment as Reborn struggled to keep from coughing and catch his breath, and then slammed into place. He shuddered from crown to sole. He put his mug down, though it clattered against the table from his shaking hand. He forced himself to speak, blanked on something meaningful and instead slipped into inane pleasantries instead. "How is your nephew doing?"

"Not well," Fon admitted, his smile sliding away for the first time. His gaze was downcast, his eyelids so low that his eyes looked shut. "He had something priceless taken from him and then the one responsible for it left on such short notice that he had to contact me to met out the correct punishment."

Reborn's hands clenched around his own cup. He could probably throw that, distract Fon enough to get his gun, and then it would be a straight shot from the chair he was into the front door. Getting that door open would be the worst part. It was locked now, and heavy from its reinforcement. He'd lose precious time to that.

If he survived this, Reborn was going to add escape hatches to his secret hide out.

"And what gives you right to do that?"

Fon's eyes flashed up and bore right into Reborn. Even though he was expecting them to be red and black and burning, Reborn still flinched. It was still a shock, still a surprise to know that there was a ghoul in the Arcobaleno.

"Why," Fon said with a not-smile that bared his teeth, "I'm the strongest ghoul in the Arcobaleno. I have the body rights to all the humans in our group."

Scratch that. There were at least two ghouls in the Arcobaleno. Fuck.

Reborn really, really hated being surprised.

It never ended well.

NEXT TIME: we find out what happened after Reborn left Namimori! whoop!