"I am your tutor, but you are my teacher."

Reborn isn't arrogant. He is proud, but not arrogant. He knows his faults, and undoubtedly acknowledges them. So he knows that he's lacking in many things. He can't understand what it means to live normally, has no idea how to live that way. It was beyond him. Why would anyone want to live a boring uneventful life that might not ever get your blood boiling or your adrenaline pumping? He doesn't understand. He also doesn't know why people fear death. He's always lived knowing that he would die, and that all those around him would too. He doesn't know why people fear for their lives, and why they care so deeply about sacrificing themselves to save one pitiful life, even when that life was much more worthless than the one sacrificing. He doesn't know.

Which is why it seemed to be fate that Reborn became a home tutor. He almost choked when he first saw Dino, as useless as he was. He still remembers sighing and cursing the world for forcing him to teach this boy. Yes, perhaps he did have a little bit of potential, and that tormenting was surely fun, but Reborn hated the complaining. He hated that Dino always would go back to whining the same sentence: that he wanted to live a normal life.

Reborn often lost his mind hearing those words. He watched Dino from morning to night, and he couldn't see how a "normal life" was any good. He simply saw it as a bore. So he never backed down from hitting the boy when he said those words.

When he started working with Tsunayoshi Sawada, he found himself having another dilemma. He saw how Tsuna protected every person he came across, including the stupid cow. He never stopped to ask himself if the person was even worth saving, only that he should. Regardless of the dilemma, however, Reborn didn't tell him to stop. All of the saving was helping him improve, become stronger, so why not?

But he simply never understood this, even up until the point where Tsuna stood in front of him, screaming at him to live. He didn't understand. Reborn couldn't get why Tsuna hurt for Mukuro, or trusted Xanxus. He didn't see a reason for Tsuna using all he had to save Enma, or even waste his breath telling Daemon of the truth. He most of all didn't know why Tsuna would go the lengths to save him, a worthless human being who knew nothing but to kill.

It is years later until Reborn understands why his students were so stuck on their morals. He's already back into his adult form, and Tsuna and his guardians are reaching twenty-eight, some twenty-nine. He lives with them at the Vongola headquarters in Italy, and every day is peaceful, almost the exact same as the days when they were still in Namimori. Reborn likes his life now, and enjoys it the fullest.

He doesn't realize that this was what Dino meant by a normal life until a new enemy of the Vongola barges straight in and wrecks one of their peaceful, calm days. It is only then does Reborn recognize the greed for normality. At first, he had no idea what this feeling was, and sought out an answer in Dino, who was next to him.

Dino had only laughed. "Finally it hits you? Normality, Reborn."

And the first dilemma is solved.

Reborn is sitting in what Takeshi calls the "Judgement Room" with Tsuna and the other guardians when the answer to his second dilemma slowly surfaces.

Tsuna is "judging" a member of a family that had recently been doing human trafficking, and the entire room is tense. The man is kneeling in front of Tsuna, and his eyes are dull and lost. He's broken, Reborn sees, but his heart is hard and doesn't feel an inch of sympathy. This was a proper end to a man who took part in the unforgivable.

He expects Tsuna to give him a lifelong imprisonment with the waiting Vindice guards, but he doesn't. Instead, he shakes his head at the Vindice, and tells them that their job is finished, and to lead the other "judged" back to their prison.

Tsuna turns to the broken man and tells him,

"What you've done is unforgivable. There is no doubt to that. You should be in prison, along with your boss and his lieutenants."

Reborn nods to this, and waits for Tsuna to give the sentence.

"But it was not your fault. I know, sir, that you are the true victim here, and that you had no choice on this matter. I'm sure that you had no idea your work was to accomplish this. Which is why you are not in Vindice. Why you aren't in chains, confined by loneliness, but in front of me, who damned your family. You will still need to pay for your mistakes, and so you will still have to stay in the Vongola prison for a good amount of time. Though that sentence will end. You will be released. And by then, you will find your resolve to be strong to make the right decisions."

Reborn couldn't believe those words. He looked around the room to see if the other guardians felt just as shocked as he was.

To his surprise, all of them seemed to pity the man. Even Mukuro and Kyoya had twinges of sympathy in their eyes.

Reborn didn't understand.

It only came to him when he asked Tsuna after the judgement, and was given a response.

He still remembers the words, clear as day that Tsuna had given him.

"Reborn, I became the boss to help people. And that man was in the most need of help. Reborn, that man was broken. Broken so much to the soul, to the point that he can no longer see hope. I don't know if he would hate me and kill me later on, but all I know is that he can be a good man. And that is what I'll believe in."

Years after those exploits, Reborn sips his coffee, making small talk with his former students. The three of them are laughing, reminiscing in old memories. Reborn watches as Tsuna and Dino converse on a stupid thought, and he smiles.

They turn around, surprised by the warm, gentle smile that Reborn rarely gives. They question him, and ask him of his smile.

"You two idiots. Even I can smile. Hard to believe it was the two of you that taught me my faults."