To Be A Normal Kid DISCONTINUED REWRITING

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen: Storms on the Horizon

Dawn was not an unusual time for Tsuna to be up. It wasn't an unusual time for any of his guests to be up, either, because of all of their jobs, and school for the two kids. The hour before dawn, however, is a strange time for anyone in the house to be awake. Unfortunately, Tsuna was awake, Luna being his only company.

He's not complaining! He loves Luna and he's lived in solitude for as long as he can remember, so the quiet isn't the problem. What the actual problem is is his dream. He doesn't remember as much of it as he'd like, but he remembers more than he normally does. It's a strange dichotomy and it was confusing him. He remembered a couch, a window, a gale, and rustling papers. He also remembers a voice. He can't remember what was said, where he was, or who the voice belonged to.

Luna meowed and butted her head into his leg, bringing his attention to her. Seeing she had his focus, she flipped to show her belly, loudly purring as he pet her stomach.

"Good kitty," he whispered to her, "Pretty kitty, too." Flipping back to stand, Luna climbed onto his lap and looked up at the tree he was sitting under. He tilted his head slightly. "What's wrong? What do you see?" Instead of an answer, the white cat jumped from his lap and into the tree. "Luna!" Scrambling, Tsuna stood, jumping to grab a lower branch to follow his cat. She didn't stop climbing until she was halfway up the tree.

"Mrow?" she blinked at Tsuna when he caught up. Then, she climbed higher.

"Luna?" he asked, following after her again.

The top of the tree is when she finally stopped. The branches were strong enough to hold her, but not strong enough to hold Tsuna, so he was stuck a few branches below her. She didn't seem to care, though, as she looked at him and then up at the sky with a soft mew.

With nothing much else to do, Tsuna risked his balance and peaked his head from the leaf cover. The ground was a very long way down, the height making him slightly nauseous, but the view was breathtaking. He could see over the roof of his house, Namimori sitting just within eyesight in the still dark sky. The street lamps were on, giving the illusion of a longer road, and very few house lights were on. No human was out, allowing the nocturnal animals to peacefully retreat and for the diurnal animals to peacefully emerge.

Tsuna decided that this was his favourite time of day. When the world is quiet and there's a sense that everything is exactly as it should be. There is no storm on the horizon, there's no preparations to stave off an invading force that needed to be made, there was only the sky and the earth and the few who were lucky enough to be awake bare witness to their friendship.

All too soon, the sun began to peak over the horizon line and the moment was broken. A feeling of doom crept over Tsuna as he watched the clouds turn white with the rising sun. There was something coming. Something big. It was just barely within sight, but he couldn't place it. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stop whatever it was, he just hoped that no one gets too hurt.

***

Reborn made it a point to know everything about everything and everyone. When pieces don't fit together or at all, he devotes entirely too much time to making everything fit. So, when a file with no body turns up, he works to find the missing parts. Even years later, when nothing has been able to give him the complete picture, he's still working to find the pieces. Now, though, the body for the file has turned up. He has a timeline now. Not a complete one, but he has enough to be able to paint the picture.

This, however, brings up another problem. Nono and Iemitsu want him to start from scratch.

With Iemitsu's biological son now located, they want to tell Ieyasu that he was never the heir to the Vongola. They want to take his bonded Guardians and give them to a new Sky. They want Reborn to start training a brand new student. They want to keep the Mafia in the dark.

Fat fucking chance

Reborn is not a known gossip. He likes to know things, and he likes to keep those things held tightly to his chest. Having information means having power. Unfortunately for the Vongola, he has both information and power. He's not their ally. His loyalties lay with Timoteo, not Vonogla Nono, not Irmitsu Sawada, not the Vongola Famiglia. He has, and will again, called them all out on their bullshit.

And that's what this is. Bullshit. He'd thought they'd learned their lesson when Xanxus staged his coup d'etat, but he was apparently wrong. There are differences between Xanxus and Ieyasu, sure, but their situations were similar enough that the caution was entirely justified.

Besides, ripping away one's Guardians is a surefire way to rain hell upon yourself and anyone involved. Ieyasu isn't the strongest Sky that Reborn's ever encountered, neither are his Guardians the strongest Elements. But, they are already bonded. They are loyal to one another. Where one goes, the rest follow. With the exception of Mukuro, but the boy is in prison, so he has a weak excuse. Regardless, even attempting to pull a Sky from their Elements is a bad idea. Worst case scenario, they all fall into Disharmony and die.

For all that he's a hitman and teacher, Reborn does not like to see others suffer needlessly. If Nono and Iemitsu wanted to risk lives because of stupid and careless actions, then so be it. Reborn was not going to be there to pick up the pieces.

Leaving Italy at ten in the morning found the students falling asleep on the plane. It found Ieyasu and his Guardians relaxing for the first time since they first arrived in Italy. It found Reborn with the information that the Varia were no longer in Italy.

There was a shitshow on the way, and Reborn knew he had front row seats to it. He looked over to his student and his friends. They were going to get hurt in the crossfire, whether they were willing participants or not. He frowned. These kids hadn't deserved to get wrapped up in whatever game the older generation was playing. These kids deserve to live as civilians.

With a quiet sigh, Reborn pulled his fedora down slightly. These kids were under his protection now. The least he could do was warn them.

***

At three in the afternoon, the voice in Tsuna's head - can it be trusted - alerted him that something big was going to happen sooner than he'd hoped. Shoichi had to go home around noon, and the Varia were off in town either scouring or setting something up. Probably both, if he knew them as well as he liked to think he did. He had a way to contact them all, but he wasn't going to. He didn't want to worry them.

He ran his hand over Luna's fur again, her soft purring working to calm him down. "Something's going to happen," he told her, "I don't think I'm going to like what's going to happen."

"Mrow?" Luna barely opened her eyes, tilting her head slightly as if to ask him what was wrong.

He smiled softly before focusing back on his book. "Don't worry about it. Just go back to sleep."