Ah, young love... if one doesn't mind your girlfriend being a sociopath with four invisible hands and a really possessive attitude. XD
If that description doesn't give it away, this is an Elven Lied/KHR cross with Kaede (Lucy)/Tsuna pairing. Enjoy.
The first clue should have been the live-in girlfriend. The second clue was the fact that both teens took one look at the gun and immediately treated him as a viable threat, despite the fact he looked like a toddler. The third clue... well it was less of a clue and more of a "WTF" moment because when he attempted to shoot Tsuna with his special bullet, a strange sort of hum filled the air and the bullet never hit it's mark.
A few regular bullets followed suit, and Tsuna was still unharmed and an increasingly irritated girlfriend was glaring at him with genuine murder in her eyes.
His instincts as a hit man said that getting on her bad side was a good way to end up very dead before he had a chance to defend himself. Considering she looked somewhat like a female Xanxus (it was the eyes, he would swear...he knew she dyed her hair because he found evidence of it in the trash earlier), he took that warning seriously.
"What are you trying to do to Tsuna?" she demanded.
Reborn decided to forget the usual shocked embarrassment of his special bullets and explain what he was attempting to do properly.
"This is a special bullet. When someone is hit with it, they are forced to act out their last regrets on top of drawing out their innate abilities. It lasts for five minutes, they go back to normal when the deadline is up, and it's not immediately lethal unless they have no last regrets to speak of," said Reborn...leaving out the part that it also has a habit of stripping the victim to their skivvies as a side effect.
"So why are you trying to hit me with it?" asked Tsuna.
"Nono put a seal on you as a child. This bullet will help to create cracks in that seal, on top of motivate you when you're being stubborn."
"Seal?" said the girl dangerously.
"I can't explain here. It's too public," said Reborn. He did not want the Vindice on his ass.
The two shared a look.
"We know a place."
"Good for disposing bodies," agreed the girl.
Reborn...felt like he should be alarmed, but he was more pissed that Iemitsu had clearly not bothered to keep proper track of his son properly.
No civilian should know a good place to dispose of dead bodies!
Twenty minutes later, Reborn had to agree with their assessment. It was a good place to dispose of the evidence...including the dead.
"This is what's called 'Dying Will Flames'. Nono sealed yours for reasons known only to him when you were a child," said Reborn, creating a small ball of yellow flame in his hand.
Tsuna looked interested, though he had a confused expression on his face.
"I thought they were supposed to be orange?" he asked.
Reborn looked at him intently.
"What."
With a little concentration, Tsuna was able to light his right hand on fire. It wasn't as strong or steady as Reborn's, but it was also more than he should have been able to do with a seal in place.
Reborn stared, before he looked at the two teenagers.
"Have either of you been in any life-threatening situations?" he asked.
Tsuna wilted, and the girl, pulled him into a firm hug with an open scowl.
"Iemitsu called people to take Kaede away. He didn't even care that she was literally the only friend I have in this place," said Tsuna.
"They kept going on about something called a 'diclonius' and how I was an abomination that needed to be destroyed. I killed most of them before Hibari showed up with his gang and had them arrested for carrying illegal weapons. Even the yakuza stick to knives or swords around here," said Kaede with a scowl. "One of them got a lucky shot and he nearly died on the operating table from blood loss. After that Hibari stepped up the guard around the town to keep those bastards from coming back. He was not happy they had caused so much trouble."
Reborn wanted to swear. That damn idiota nearly got his son killed because he didn't like Tsuna's little girlfriend?
"How long ago was this?" he asked.
"About seven or eight years ago?" said Tsuna. "I don't really remember the date, just that it happened shortly after that man visited, before claiming he was 'off to become a star'."
"Hibari has already had to chase off four more teams sent to kidnap me, all of whom were looking for girls with red eyes and pink hair, with oddly shaped 'horns' on the side of their head."
Well that explained the hair dye and the ribbons. The eyes could easily be explained away as an unusual shade of brown. And it explained why the seal was gone... a near death experience of that magnitude would have damaged it greatly to the point it would fall apart.
"Have you gone near a gun since then?" asked Reborn, pinching his nose.
"When Kaede realized they weren't going to stop and would likely use me as bait for her, she started taking lessons the next town over," admitted Tsuna. He had gone with her and learned how to shoot alongside her, but he knew all too well that it would look really, really bad if he started carrying a gun with how much he was bullied.
He did not mention the gun in his desk inside the middle drawer of his desk, taped so that it wouldn't be easily visible from view whenever someone opened the desk.
Well, it would be noticeable if someone bothered to try and remove the drawer, but it was fairly well hidden and taped loosely enough that he could remove it within a few seconds without alerting anyone to it's existence.
"I prefer sniper rifles to handguns," said Kaede absently.
Reborn mentally added "gun training" to the list of things he would have to teach his new students. At least the boy wasn't skittish around one if he was this calm about his girlfriend learning how to use one.
Most civilians were and had ridiculous ideas of how 'dangerous' they were.
"Right. Since clearly that idiota can't be trusted to actually keep a proper profile on his own son, I'm going to need a list of what you two can do and what we need to work on. Starting with your combat abilities," said Reborn irritably.
"Who are you talking about?" asked Kaede.
"Iemitsu. My contacts in this area were too limited to be of use, so I relied on what information CEDEF had on the area, mostly because this is Iemitsu's civilian place of residence. I should have known that idiota was too stupid to be trusted with something like this. He never made any mention of a live-in girlfriend at all!" ranted Reborn.
Kaede and Tsuna both blushed at the "live-in girlfriend" comment.
"This Iemitsu... he wouldn't happen to be a scruffy haired blond with a beard and act like a braying jackass who drinks too much while dressed as a homeless drifter and weild a pickaxe would he?" asked Tsuna slowly.
"Yes."
Tsuna looked at his girlfriend.
"I stand by what I said when we found out he was the reason those people came after you. I will turn a blind eye and ignore all screaming so long as you don't get the blood spatter on me like the last time some idiot assassin tried come after us."
Kaede had a darkly satisfied expression in her eyes.
Between her and Hibari, all the hard core criminals had fled the town in favor of 'safer' stalking grounds. If they didn't get the hint from having a run-in with Hibari Kyouya, then they usually didn't last past their encounter with Kaede.
The demon prefect had an agreement with the 'blood-eyed carnivore'. So long as she restricted her murderous rampages to those society wouldn't miss... I/E rapists, murderers, drug dealers and other hardened criminals with no intention of stopping... he would turn a blind eye to the fact she hunted in his territory.
Tsuna was still confused how exactly Mochida-sempai thought he was confession to Kyoko of all people when he run up to Kaede in his boxers and proceeded to kiss her in full view of the school.
Everyone knew that he had been in love with Kaede for years, and that it was only a matter of time before they became 'official' as a couple.
Yeah, it was embarrassing he had run past the school idol in his boxers, but to be honest she had likely seen worse with someone like Ryohei, who was the captain of the boxing team.
Tsuna's patience with the whole farce, which half the school was going to be watching because they were assholes, snapped.
Right...time to call in reinforcements.
"Kaede, can you insure Ryohei-sempai is alerted to the 'extreme' fight that's going to be taking place at lunch?" asked Tsuna quietly.
"On it," she replied smirking, already getting what Tsuna had planned.
Ryohei might be weird, but there was no questioning his loyalty or
love towards his sister.
As Tsuna stood in the gym, he gave Mochida a flat look. He didn't even bother to pick up the equipment, as he could tell from the way the floor was bending slightly it was heavier than it should be.
"Can you explain what on earth gave you the idea that I liked Sasegawa-san as a potential girlfriend, when everyone knows I've been in love with Kaede for years?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb Sawada! I heard you confessing to her in your boxers!"
"...I was confessing to Kaede, not Kyoko. For that matter there's no way in hell I would consider Sasegawa-san a potential girlfriend."
"What, is she not good enough for you?"
"No, she just looks and acts way too much like my mother for me to consider it. I do not have an Oedipus complex, thank you very much," deadpanned Tsuna.
"A what? Forget it! I challenge you to a fight Sawada! Winner gets Kyoko-chan!"
"Really? And what if she doesn't want to date either of us?" said Tsuna, well aware Kaede had retrieved Ryohei who was surprisingly listening to the entire exchange in silence.
He didn't look happy though.
Mochida didn't answer that.
"Pick up and fight me Sawada."
"No," said Tsuna flatly. "In fact I find it offensive that you think Sasegawa-san is some prize to be won without taking her own feelings into regard. And for that matter, I believe someone would like to have a word with you regarding your behavior towards her. After all, you are trying to court her."
Seeing the confusion in Mochida's eyes, as well as the eyes of nearly everyone there, Tsuna had a vindictive smirk as he stood aside for Ryohei to appear...after a discreet push and explanation from Kaede.
Mochida paled when he realized Kyoko's crazy older brother was there.
"Ryohei-sempai, I believe this fool could use an...extreme...lesson on how to properly treat women," said Tsuna.
Ryohei looked very unhappy with Mochida.
"Onii-san!" said Kyoko in surprise.
"We might as well let them fight. After all, this is one fight you shouldn't intervene in, Kyoko-chan," said Kaede. "Especially considering your brother is going to teach this misogynist a lesson about treating girls like objects."
Kyoko didn't look happy, but she kept her silence.
Needless to say the fight was decidedly one-sided and Mochida was left with a puffy face from the way Ryohei used him as a punching bag.
When they exited the gym (avoiding an amused Hibari-sempai who was bored and decided to threaten them for crowding), Tsuna barely reacted when Reborn took his spot on his head.
"Impressive. You handled that in a very devious way," said Reborn.
"I meant what I said about her. There's no way I would date her when she she looks and acts like my mother. Besides, this puts me in Ryohei's good books since I defended his sister's honor and gave him a chance to defeat the fool who would have damaged it."
Reborn had to admit, he had come to this town expecting a fluffy kitten with no idea of what the real world was life...and found a half-grown tiger cub who had already found a very loyal and protective mate. He was going to enjoy helping to mold Kaede into the perfect mafia wife...who unlike Nana, would actively support her husband both in the board room and the battlefield...for his new student.
Reborn was quietly pleased that Tsuna's stunt earned him the gratitude and interest of Ryohei, who was an Active Sun.
A few days later...
Tsuna looked at Gokudera Hayato...and was not impressed at all. He was like a feral puppy, one that pretended to be loyal but had a bad habit of biting people. Not to mention the amount of 'barking' he did.
Kaede, on the other hand, looked at him speculatively.
"We are not keeping him simply because you're a dog fan," said Tsuna in between classes.
"I know. He's all bark, too much bite and he's barely even house-trained," said Kaede in disappointment.
Tsuna had a sudden thought, and went to a section of wall that he pressed to reveal a surprised...and slightly irritated...Reborn.
"Why did you bring a half-feral puppy here?" he asked bluntly.
"What makes you think I'm responsible?"
"Well we didn't really have an influx of Italians fluent in Japanese until you arrived and the entire thing screams set-up," said Kaede bluntly.
Reborn smirked at that.
"He's a Storm that's roughly the right age, and has good potential into becoming your right hand, should you prove worthy."
"Yeah right. What's the real reason?" asked Tsuna.
"He also happens to be related to your grandfather's Storm Guardian and right hand G."
"And there it is. We'll see whether he's worth the effort of house training, but I have the distinct feeling he's too brash to deal with," said Kaede.
Considering Hayato's ambition was to be the Right Hand of someone important, Tsuna really only had one solution.
He made Hayato a cover for Kaede. No one would expect his lover to be his actual right hand, especially if they did it right. And it meant she had a bit more leeway to work in the shadows, where no one would see her coming.
Reborn certainly approved of the idea. Even if he did wish the two would quit calling the Storm "puppy", and knew damn well that Kaede and Tsuna were going to be searching for a "proper" Storm Guardian.
That didn't mean they would abandon Hayato... proper loyalty was hard to come by and he was overly fascinated with Kaede's powers (she did not appreciate being called a UMA)...but at least they were realistic about Hayato's usefulness.