It was less coincidence and more prearranged chaos that had Reborn present when she broke the news to Dino.
As expected of the master of chaos, Reborn took inordinate pleasure in taking many incriminating photos of his ex-student's clumsy reaction to his wife's condition.
Dino looked at Hope with some wariness.
"You planned for him to be here when you told me, didn't you?" he asked suspiciously.
"Honestly Dino, it's not like I had his number and somehow called him with a head's up of potential blackmail," said Hope amused.
Which was true. She had Romario do it, and it took less than five minutes to convince him to make a 'surprise visit'.
"Besides, this could be a good thing! Can you think of a better person to consult when it comes to hiring a good bodyguard than someone who's spent quite a few decades getting past them in order to take out their clients?" said Hope far too cheerfully considering the subject matter. "After all, I can't think of a better person to ask than the World's Greatest Hitman."
Reborn preened at that, especially since she never once made a reference to his...condition. None of the Arcobaleno liked being reminded of the curse or the pacifiers. It was like all their accomplishments had been shoved aside in favor of the cursed artifacts.
Dino didn't like the idea of someone after his wife, but he had to admit she made a strong point. If Reborn couldn't find any faults in the bodyguards around his wife, then it was unlikely anyone would be able to get near her. Especially with her current condition.
"How far along are you, by the way?" asked Reborn.
"Two and a half months. Romario figured it out first, amusingly enough. And I really would appreciate it if you were willing to consult on how to improve the guards around the estate," said Hope sincerely.
"Any idea if it's a boy or a girl?" asked Dino.
"It's too soon to tell. But I do have an idea of what to name them depending on what comes out," said Hope.
It was clear Dino loved his wife, even to Reborn's jaded eyes.
"What names are you considering?" asked Reborn, mostly to make small talk.
"Gabriel or Renato if it's a boy...though I'm leaning more towards Gabriel. And Daniela if it's a girl," said Hope, sipping her tea.
Reborn blinked, though it was only years of experience that kept him from reacting to the second male name she picked.
"Why Daniela?"
"Because she was the most influential and powerful woman in mafia history. The Giglio Nero might be a matriarchy, but it's hard to top a woman who ran the Vongola during World War Two and managed to fight off several male heirs for the position," said Hope promptly. "Besides, naming her Luce or Sepira would be inviting bad luck considering how pathetic Luce turned out to be."
"What makes you say that?" asked Dino.
Hope gave him a flat look.
"The Giglio Nero has the power of foresight, correct?" she asked Reborn.
"That's the general gist, yes," said Reborn carefully.
"Then she obviously knew the curse was coming long before she was actually hit with it. Worse, she willingly condemned her own daughter to carrying it upon her death because she was too weak and cowardly to try and find an alternate solution to it," said Hope without hesitation. "No real mother would stand by and allow their children to take on such a burden, much less condemn their potential guardians to such a fate without even giving them the option of chosing."
Reborn said nothing, but she could sense he didn't know what to think of her.
Dino kept quiet as he could tell this affected his old tutor quite a bit, hearing someone condemn the former Sky Arcobaleno's actions. He didn't know the full story of how they were cursed but he had the feeling Hope had hit that particular nail directly on the head.
"Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm sure you have all sorts of fascinating stories about training my Dino," said Hope.
Reborn's mood took a one-eighty as he smirked at Dino. Dino had a foreboding feeling of inescapable doom...but that always tended to occur around Reborn so he ignored it.
"I would be delighted," he purred darkly.
Dino hung his head. There was no way Reborn wasn't going to tell Hope about the many, many chaotic mishaps he had caused while training Dino to become the next boss.
Reborn took one sip of Hope's coffee...and was an instant convert. Hope was openly amused.
A few weeks later...
"Reborn, would you be offended if I asked to cuddle with you?" asked Hope.
"Why?"
"You feel like a small heater whenever you sit next to me and Dino is currently buried under trade negotiations," she admitted.
Reborn sighed, and allowed her to scoop him up. At least she had asked first and never treated him like an actual child. She sighed happily and cuddled with him, her head brushing against the top of his hair.
They were mostly sitting in one of the spare rooms with the TV on... Hope was kind enough to let him pick the channel as she wasn't particularly interested in watching anything at the moment anyway.
It wasn't until Romario came in that Reborn realized Hope had fallen asleep while cuddling him.
He had to blink at that...most people were too unnerved being this close to him, and yet she had apparently felt comfortable enough to drop her defenses long enough for her to fall asleep.
Instead of questioning it, Reborn did the sensible thing since Hope still had her arms around him. He took a nap himself.
Hope had an abnormally high fever, and nothing Reborn or Dino could do was helping. In fact it seemed to paradoxically make things worse.
Dino feared for both his wife and unborn child...so he bit the bullet and took her straight to a mafia-run hospital that specialized in flames.
Shamal, who came at Reborn's request just in case, stormed into the room with a furious look on his face. He was beyond pissed.
"What is it?" asked Dino with concern.
"It's not anything contagious, I can tell you that," said Shamal, his usual perverted charm gone. Right now he was in full medical professional mode. "Someone has sealed your wife's flames. From the damage I'd say she was not only Active when it happened, but still a child."
"What," said Reborn, his voice still and pissed.
"What does that have to do with her fever?" asked Dino. Though he was not happy.
"Your wife's flames are naturally trying to adjust to the baby. But the seal isn't allowing them to 'spread out' properly, if you catch my meaning. As a result, her flames are attempting to expand while the seal is keeping them forcibly contained, thus raising her temperature. If we don't get that thing off, it could do permanent harm to both her and the baby... at the very least it would raise the risk of a miscarriage exponentially."
Dino looked furious.
"What do we need to do?"
"Normally I'd suggest finding who put the seal on her in the first place. But considering how sloppily it was applied, any Sky of sufficient strength might be able to remove it."
Dino paused.
"This seal...would having it applied be considered grounds for banishment from a famiglia?" asked Dino seriously, mind working on overdrive.
"That's what it was design for," said Shamal, confused why he would even ask.
"So if a known Don applied it to Hope when she was too young to have actually warranted a seal outside of going active, he would effectively be casting her out of the Family in a way that they can't take back, right?"
"Stupid-Dino, what are you trying to get at?" demanded Reborn.
Shamal, however, answered him.
"If you give me enough time to collect the evidence, you could present it to the Vindice in the event that her original famiglia attempts to reclaim her. Why? Do you know who applied this seal?"
"I have a reasonable suspicion. But does it qualify as them effectively casting her out of their famiglia to the point that they would have a very difficult time explaining their claim to the Alliance?" asked Dino.
"The seal is only ever used to banish someone from a Family and to prevent Omerta from being broken. However it's considered 'polite' to at least alert the Vindice of it's use so that they know the person in question has been dealt with properly since they do keep track of that sort of thing."
Reborn drew Leon on his student.
"Stupid-Dino, who sealed Hope?"
"Timoteo Vongola, likely at the orders of his adviser Sawada," said Dino flatly.
Dead silence.
"Why would the Vongola's external adviser care about a civilian woman?" said Reborn confused.
"Because he's Hope's biological father. And having to train her would mean acknowledging he's actually married. She's openly admitted he has barely spent a month in her presence, if that, and that she was basically raised by a single parent," said Dino.
"Do you mind if I ran a DNA test to confirm that? It would make a stronger argument for the Vindice if they attempt to claim she's one of theirs," said Shamal.
He never liked Sawada anyway, so screwing him over was something he could get behind.
Dino nodded.
"So how do I remove the seal?"
"I'll walk you through the basic steps after I have the tests done and the evidence collected," said Shamal.
Reborn looked at Dino with annoyance.
"When were you going to spring the fact she's Vongola on me?"
"Preferably after I asked if you would be willing to be the baby's godfather," said a tired voice. Hope was awake.
Reborn blinked.
"Godfather?"
"You're saying you don't want a free minion slash enabler to train into giving Dino gray hairs from the chaos they'll create in your name?" said Hope smirking. Dino paled at that.
Hope and Reborn had gotten along like a house on fire (almost literally) since the day they met. So the idea of Reborn training his future child into being just like him was enough to give Dino nightmares.
A few hours later, Shamal had the evidence he needed (the DNA test would take a few days).
Dino carefully applied his Sky flames to his wife...it was a good thing she was in an isolated room for those with something that was potentially contagious, because it managed to hide the massive outpouring of Sky and Cloud flames that nearly knocked him flat on his ass.
He wasn't the only one in shock...Reborn had a decidedly bewildered expression on his face.
"You alright?" asked Dino.
"I'm fine...just really tired. I actually feel warm for once," said Hope.
Considering Hope once confided in him that she often felt a chill that she couldn't get rid of, Dino was relieved. Then he noticed the odd look in Reborn's eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"...I think I harmonized with your wife," said Reborn, staring at Hope.
Hope merely reached out and pulled Reborn in for a proper cuddle. She really enjoyed the heat he gave off.
A week later...
Reborn went from "amused conspirator of chaos" to "mother hen" once they were able to confirm he really had harmonized with Hope.
Rather that be annoyed, Hope opted to use it as an excuse to cuddle with her Sun as much as she wanted. Considering it allowed him to keep a constant eye on her condition at all times, Reborn allowed it.
Dino...was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he would never be rid of Reborn.
At least he had the perfect ammunition to use against the Vongola when they remembered Hope existed long enough to track her down. It was rather hard to explain a seal that nearly killed not only her, but the baby she was carrying.
According to Shamal, she would have had the same reaction if she had married a flameless civilian. If it wasn't for the fact Dino had taken her to a mafia hospital when her temperature rose too much, she could have died from the almost certain miscarraige.
The Vongola literally used the worst seal possible on her, and as if it wasn't bad enough, it had been poorly applied too. Most of Hope rather unhappy childhood could be laid to the fact that she was a Sky who was unable to bond with the Elements around her.
Namimori was considered a sort of natural congregation area to those with Flames. Latent, Inactive or the rare Active, it didn't matter...the town tended to draw those with underworld connections to it.
They would have sensed what Hope was, and attempted to bond with her. Except the seal interfered with the process, causing them to lash out without knowing why. According to Shamal, that sort of thing would have lead to people going into Discord in droves...especially those recently Active who were naturally attuned to Hope's Sky.
That would have pissed off the Vindice and she would have been arrested without even knowing what was going on.
(Dino had given Reborn full permission to shoot Iemitsu on sight. Reborn felt it rather telling that Hope told him to go for somewhere permanent and painful if he followed through.)
Hope was going stir crazy. She couldn't really help it as she was confined to bed on Shamal's orders after she nearly blacked out one morning.
She was only allowed to use the bathroom, and even then Dino had some of the female staff hovering around her just in case.
Apparently the seal had left some lingering after effects, which meant Shamal had classified her condition as a 'high risk' pregnancy. If they weren't careful the could lose not only the baby, but her as well.
Shamal had high hopes that after the child was born and her flames had a chance to properly stabilize, that this wouldn't happen again. Either way he was keeping a close eye on his new Sky's condition.
(He was still in shock he had harmonized in the first place. He wasn't complaining though...at least his Sky was a cute woman and not some boring old man.)
Seeing Reborn cleaning another one of his guns, Hope had an idea.
"Reborn can I have one of your guns?"
"Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"I want to take it apart and see how long it would take for me to put it together again," said Hope.
Reborn blinked.
"You want to learn proper gun maintenance?"
"Guns are like puzzles, in a way. And it would give me something to do while I'm stuck in here. You can even time how long it takes me to put it back together again," said Hope.
Reborn debated the pros and cons of her request.
Then decided to give her one of his more 'simple' guns...unloaded of course...to play around with. It wasn't like he couldn't replace it if something went wrong and at least it gave her something productive to do with her time since she was stuck in bed. Besides, it gave them something to bond over.
Dino took one look at what his wife was doing with Reborn's helpful comments...and promptly went to buy some actual puzzles for her to solve. She seemed to have a preference for the more intricate Chinese ones.