That was the chance of Tsuna succeeding in his plan for Vongola. It was a risk, it was completely outrageous, it was something Tsuna never thought he'd ever have to do in a million years - but he swore to the Vongola heads before him that he would once he accepted the ring and Tsuna wasn't someone who would back down on his word no matter how improbable it seemed. Getting rid of Vongola's sins, of the parasites still clinging onto it, of every ill intent he could make out - he would make it happen not only because of his promise, but because Vongola was his now.
It was his to care for, his to grow, and Tsuna refused to let it continue down this path now that he inherited it.
He'd make it safe for his Family, safe for his friends. He'd make it into something to be proud of.
He'll take that 33% and make it a 100%.
12. Dead Wrong
"He's too young."
"Yes, I heard that he used to be a civilian as well. Knowing this was Timeteo's chosen successor makes one wonder how Vongola will fare."
"A weak Boss will only lead to an even weaker Family. It won't be long before there are inner disputes and attacks from the outside if the boy doesn't prove himself."
Tipping the brim of his fedora just high enough to make out the gentleman gossiping beside him, Reborn made note to remember them before redirecting his eyes back to Tsuna, who was talking with the ever affable Gesso Boss on the other side of the room, unaware of both the comments being made about him and Reborn's stare. He smiled at something Byakuran said, looking unbothered when the white-haired man threw an arm around his shoulders and led them over to where the Funeral Wreaths sat fighting over food. Considering Tsuna's usual need for space, Reborn assumed that they were friends if he allowed him that close.
As Reborn's eyes continued to trail after Tsuna, he wondered if the Tsuna he saw and the Tsuna the other men saw were the same Tsuna. He saw hidden strength underneath Tsuna's kind smiles, the way his eyes would flicker with his perfectly controlled and beautifully clear flames, and how he never stepped back or cowered before anyone before him. He stood firm, strong, and didn't give a damn about what the mafia had to throw at him because he'd throw it right back ten times over.
Reborn saw power and pride and the will to fight. If Tsuna had a weakness, one that could keep him from being a competent Boss, then Reborn didn't see it.
13. Running Away
He was afraid.
Tsuna knew. He knew it like he knew blood flowed through his veins or how he knew the sun would rise again in the morning no matter how dark the night. He just didn't want to admit it because admitting this would mean he was what everyone around him thought he was: a faint-hearted civilian without the guts to hold his own.
For the fifth - or was it the sixth? Seventh? - time in the passed hour Tsuna yawned as he scrawled his signature on a document asking for approval to repair the damages done on the mansion during the latest squabble between his Guardians. His hand ached from the last few days of non-stop paperwork and his mind sluggishly tried to stay on top of it after several nights without sleep. His eyes, battling it out against the urge to close, failed to focus as the day wore on.
"A mafia boss shouldn't fall asleep on the job."
Sitting across from him now instead of on his desk, Reborn gave him a critical once-over with blank eyes. He held his spare gun in his hands, having been polishing it diligently for the passed hour.
Tsuna attempted to chuckle but only managed a hollow echo of it. "I'm not sleeping, Reborn." He hadn't slept for the passed two weeks after he substituted power naps in place of actual rest. "I'm not going to, either."
"You could have fooled me," Reborn said, tucking his weapon away. Standing up, he set a hand on the desk, on top of the scattered paperwork, and leaned in close. His eyes bore into Tsuna's. "You look like you're going to fall over at any minute."
Tsuna pasted a smile on his lips, a skill he learned and honed since the beginning of his training to be Decimo. Reborn wasn't fooled for a second, not this time.
"Are you worried?" Tsuna asked. He pushed back the fatigue gnawing away at his bones and focused on leveling his voice into something less exhausted.
Reborn frowned. "I'm stating facts. Look," he said, pointing at something in Tsuna's eyes. "You can barely keep your eyes open."
Reborn parted his lips, eyes narrowed and glinting like the barrel of his polished gun, but stopped himself. He tugged down on the brim of his fedora and sealed his thoughts shut. "Fine," he said and settled back into his seat. That was it.
Tsuna didn't know whether to be more relieved that he dropped the subject or that he didn't leave.
Blood pooled out across the floor he walked on, rippling with each step he took. Everywhere he turned he saw lifeless bodies glare back at him, saw open mouths crying out in outrage, and he choked on the sobs rising up his chest. This was a familiar nightmare, one that had accompanied him each night since he had become Vongola Decimo, dragged him through gore and the stink of death, over and over again. Still, he couldn't stop the dread clogged in his throat or the desperation that clawed at him with every familiar face.
Above, there were eyes glaring down at him. They were eyes he saw no matter the hour, aged with years and sharpened with a wisdom certain that he would fail, would eventually cave under the fact that death had made a home in his hands and in his flames, forever a part of him that he'd never be able to wash away.
Tsuna had always met each obstacle head-on, but this time, just this once, his conviction faltered enough to let him believe they were right.
Tsuna was hanging between consciousness and sleep when he heard the familiar click and grind of the window popping open then sliding back into place, the locks snapping shut. He didn't make a move to greet Reborn, too close to finally sleeping properly for the first time in a while to remind himself of manners, but it didn't seem like Reborn minded all that much when he heard a quiet huff and muted footsteps making their way over to his desk.
"Finally sleeping?" Reborn asked. He slid onto the desk, minding the few scattered documents still on it. There was a slight pause, a moment of complete silence where Tsuna thought Reborn decided to just do nothing but entertain his thoughts, but then there were fingers pressing into his scalp, fingers sliding through his hair, and Tsuna didn't even tense because he was already relaxing into the touch.
"Not yet," he mumbled into his arms. The fingers stopped for a split second, enough for Tsuna to think Reborn had hesitated, but then they resumed their soothing motions as if they hadn't paused in the first place.
"Would you like me to leave?" Reborn asked, and Tsuna would have been surprised if he had been any other person, but he wasn't. Reborn had always respected him, if only his boundaries and the lines he shouldn't cross, but he also asked for confirmation. Never had Reborn done something to deliberately hinder his work or invade his personal space, and this - asking if he was stepping too close to uncomfortable - was normal between them.
Tsuna considered it for a moment. Gokudera would no doubt throw a fit for letting his guard down around someone so dangerous, but Reborn also wasn't, not to him. He trusted Reborn.
"It's fine," he said, adjusting himself slightly so that he was more comfortable. "Just- can you keep doing that until I'm asleep?"
He couldn't see, but he was sure Reborn was smiling when he said, "Of course."
"You pet Vongola Decimo."
Fon used a sleeve to hide what Reborn already knew was a smile. "Right," he said, agreement too easy for it to be anything but the prelude to more teasing. "You only ran your fingers through his hair and made it a habit."
"It's not a habit," Reborn said,
"Oh?" Fon shot him a sly glance. "What would you call it besides a habit? You never touch other people unless it's to bodily harm them."
Perhaps it was the way Fon rarely worded his rebuttals so bluntly, but he gave Reborn an appeasing look in an attempt to lessen the impact of his words. There was no point. Reborn was rather unaffected by it anyway, since he knew it was true. There was little he needed to touch anyone for beyond ending their lives, yet he had felt inclined to run his fingers through Tsuna's hair and liked how natural it felt to do so, enjoyed it.
"You're too obvious, Reborn," Fon said.
Reborn couldn't even argue with that, just clicked his tongue and looked away.
17. Vengeance
Hell hath no fury like Reborn scorned.
"Calm down, Reborn," Lal warned, shooting the man a sharp look.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Don't pretend that look in your eyes isn't obvious. You're glaring at the man spouting off pretty insults to the new Vongola." She swirled her wine around in her glass, lips curling into a smirk as she caught the way Reborn's nails pinched his skin when his fingers wound too tight around his own wine glass. "If you're that upset, go have your way with him after this pointless gathering."
"And I'm not the best sharp-shooter the CEDEF has to offer," Lal retorted. Her eyes slid over to the brunet across the room, spotting the discomfort in his figure even with the distance and obstructions between them.
She didn't understand why Reborn was so enamored with the Vongola Boss, couldn't even with her own observations of him along with stories and rumors she took with a grain of salt, but she knew enough to understand that Sawada Tsunayoshi was a kind person. Kindness was a rare thing here, and every ounce of it should be treasured and protected before it was crushed under the mafia's heel - more so if that kindness was directed to someone like Reborn, who very rarely received, much less accepted, such gestures.
It was enough of a reason for Lal to say, when the man pressed a little too close to Tsunayoshi, "If you need help, I can lend a hand."
When that thought crossed his mind, Reborn pondered over it for all of five seconds before Colonnello plopped down beside him with a conspiratorial grin like he knew what Reborn was thinking.
"What," Reborn said, his face perfectly blank as always.
"Lal told me you were about to maim a man. A man at a gathering - which you don't usually go to, kora. A man at a gathering who was getting a little too cozy with - "
"Shut up." Damn Lal and her mouth.
"- Sawada Tsunayoshi." Colonnello thrived under Reborn's hellfire glare, features brightening as he continued without a care for the more than hostile threat gleaming in Reborn's eyes. "Fon also told me you have an interesting habit now."
Damn Fon and his mouth. "I don't have a habit, though I do have a tendency to shoot idiots with loud mouths." His glare sharpened into something malicious. "Would you like to find out for yourself?"
"No, I'm fine, but you- you, Reborn, need to hurry up and get yourself- what the hell are you doing, kora!" Colonnello threw himself back and scrambled away from Reborn, bullets piercing holes just before his toes. He shot him an offended look and would have retaliated if he had his own weapon with him.
Reborn just looked him dead in the eye, the eerie, blank look more threatening than his coldest of glares, and shot again.
19. Tears
"Tsuna, wake up."
A firm hand roused him from the sleep clinging onto his consciousness, jerking Tsuna out of the nightmare he'd been plunged into. Reborn's stare was palpable as he picked apart Tsuna's expression and too tense muscles and too stiff shoulders.
"Reborn." He tried to smile - really, he did - but the phantom image of his dead Guardians bloody and broken and because of him thwarted his attempt. His lips ended up twisting into something ugly instead. "Sorry, was I sleeping?"
"Yes," the hitman replied, hand still on his shoulder.
"Thanks for waking me," Tsuna said when Reborn didn't say anything else. He tried to pull himself out of his vice grip when Reborn tightened his hold. Tsuna paused and glanced up. "Reborn?
The hitman stared at him, lips pressed into a firm line, brows pulled together in thought. He held Tsuna in place as his other hand reached up, pulling the cuff of his sleeve higher. He moved to wipe away at his eyes and down his cheeks, and Tsuna froze when he felt the cloth pressed against his skin, cool with tears. He hadn't noticed he was crying at all.
"Sorry," Tsuna said quickly, pulling away. He rubbed his eyes with his own sleeve, hyper-aware of the heavy stare observing his every move. "I don't know why I'm crying. Is that why you woke me up, Reborn? I'm sorry. Thank you, though. At least it didn't get on the papers, right?" He laughed a little, trying and failing to lighten the mood.
A hand settled on his shoulder, voice low and certain. "Stop worrying. You're doing fine."
Tsuna sucked in a breath and pressed the heel of his palms to his eyes.
He let out a shuddering breath.
It never escaped Reborn that Tsuna was deadly - he had realized it the moment he met him, unfazed despite being on the other end of Reborn's gun - but it was something he kept under wraps. A wealth of power lying dormant until something snapped it into a concentrated weapon to wound and kill.
It didn't escape Reborn that Tsuna didn't like to hurt, either.
"Reborn?" Tsuna asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. Concern was written in his furrowed brows and searching eyes peeking over the cardboard box in his arms. "Are you okay? Do you need a break?"
Setting his share of boxes down on top of many others, Reborn raised an eyebrow and asked instead, "Do you need a break?"
Tsuna huffed a laugh and went off to help his Lightning with the boxes towering well above his head, saying a hasty, "I'll be right back." Reborn wanted to sigh, to catch Tsuna by the collar of his shirt and drag him somewhere else, somewhere quiet and away from busy work, because Reborn had asked an honest question and wanted an honest answer. Instead, it'd been brushed off, avoided, and even though Reborn knew Tsuna was going to be fine, it hadn't - didn't make the urge go away.
The shadows that rimmed Tsuna's eyes were telling, though it was steadily fading, and Reborn wondered how Tsuna was coping even though he'd reassured him time and time again that he was better.
It would have been easy for Tsuna to silence the ones whispering behind his back, and if he hadn't wanted to then Reborn would have done it if he'd asked, but he didn't. Just stood there and took it all with a smile, and still found it within himself to care for what was his - was good at that, at least, even though he wasn't at taking care of himself.
Tsuna had power, had the means and the motivation, yet he never used it - only dragged it up from its ball and chain when he wanted to protect his precious people but never for anything less than that. It was stupid and admirable, and Reborn wanted to know if he would ever be like that too, now, because he finally found someone of his own that he wanted to protect.
He decided that, if he did, he wouldn't mind.