#tsuna's brain refuses to process what just happened

[stormsthatrage]

Tsuna is kind. Tsuna is compassionate. Tsuna, unlike many bosses, does not see himself as more than simply because of his station.

The only people who are capable of bringing out the entitled, spoiled, possessive Mafia Prince - the tiny piece of Tsuna's heart that is a stereotypically behaved Vongolian Sky - are his closest family. And even then, they can only manage it in very specific circumstances.

Allow me to clarify:

Imagine Tsuna, in a café filled with rubble and smoke, looking down at Hayato's fallen form. He stares at the blood seeping out from Hayato's chest - the chest that was torn open when Hayato jumped in front of a bullet meant for Tsuna.

(The assassin's corpse is cooling on the other side of the room, dead too late at the edge of Takeshi's blade.)

Tsuna keeps his eyes locked on Hayato. Hayato, who lies limp and motionless, no matter how much sun flame Ryouhei pumps in to him.

It feels like a dream. It feels fake. He feels detached from it all, like he's watching the world from far above and emotions can only reach him after traveling through a mile of cotton.

"Move," he tells his sun, his dying will flaring in the midst of his strange numbness.

His sun yanks his hands back, as instantaneously as if he were following a reflex instead of words.

Tsuna surveys the scene for another second, still through that mile of cotton, and then decides, "No. No, I refuse."

And, after all, does he not have a right to? He, the holder of the Vongola Sky Ring, the Guard of the Vertical Axis, the Sky of Skies. Is it not his birthright to seize hold of, to command, the threads of time?

He reaches out, burning, and undoes it.

An orange glow erupts around the two of them - his Hayato, and the assassin.

And then there is the assassin, alive again, aiming at a spot Tsuna is no longer at.

And there is Hayato, alive again, throwing himself to protect where Tsuna once stood.

Tsuna already has an arm raised, and sends a blast of power at the assassin. The assassin crumples. And then Tsuna is turning around, spinning towards Hayato, and he feels, within him, a hot, violent rage swell up. How dare he. How dare he.

He stalks over to his Right Hand, hands shaking with anger, and he spits, "You."

His Right Hand looks at him, all wide-eyed and taken off guard. As if he's not a fucking thief.

Tsuna snarls up at him, right up in his space, "Sit."

His Right Hand's knees fold. He just barely manages to catch himself against the table directly behind him, and it's not so much sitting as propping himself up, but Tsuna doesn't fucking care.

Tsuna's fists clench, and he stares directly into those green, green eyes. "You," he seethes, "took an oath, Gokudera Hayato." He feels himself burning, dying will an inferno on his skin. "You swore yourself to me, yes? Your life is mine. You do not have the right to take it from me."

His Right Hand, his storm, his Hayato, says nothing, eyes wide and face pale and lips parted ever so slightly in shock.

Tsuna feels incandescent with rage. "You dare-"

And then he finds himself losing the words, swaying in place as exhaustion slams down across him.

The last thing he feels is Hayato's arms coming up around him, warm and alive and oh so gentle, and the last thing he hears is Takeshi, saying - absolutely delighted, Tsuna knows that tone - "Oh, he is going to be so embarrassed when he wakes up."

And then darkness.

[therainroguefanfiction]

⁂ Flaws (Jirou Akutagawa) [3 of 4]

◂ Part 2 of 4

Genre: Angst, Mafia AU, Dark, Crossover, Fluff ☁

Word Count: 1,810 ☁

Pairing: High School Reader x Jirou ☁

World: Prince of Tennis & Katekyo Hitman Reborn! ☁

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Can you forgive my flaws?

Reborn sat in his usual spot at the Sawada’s kitchen table, drinking his espresso and reading the newspaper. Tsuna sat across from him, working on his homework despite not being able to really focus. He was still quite worried about you, who had become quite anti-social since the whole ordeal. Nothing like your normal self; you wouldn’t even argue with Gokudera – a task you normally took joy in.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I need a break. I’ve read the same paragraph ten times and still don’t know what it says.”

“Stop worrying about her,” Reborn sipped his espresso. “She’s a big girl, she can handle her own affairs.”

“It doesn’t matter how old she is, Reborn. She’s family, and family takes care of one another.”

Reborn didn’t respond, he merely went back to reading his paper.

Tsuna sighed in frustration, not understanding why the Arcobaleno had been so cold lately. He gathered up his courage and decided to confront him about this, but the sound of his front door slamming open erased any thought of doing so. He jumped up as you stormed into the room, eyes blazing with anger.

He tried to ask you what was wrong but before he realized what was happening, you had already punched Reborn in the face. The impact sent him out of his chair and you pinned him down to the ground.

“Y/N-san!”

“You mother fucker! Tell me what you did!” You demanded, hands wrapped tight around the collar of his dress shirt. “I want the truth, Reborn!”

“Y/N-san, please calm down!” Tsuna didn’t know what to do. He knew he wasn’t physically strong enough to pull you off, but he also knew he had to do something. “Calm down, we can talk about it.”

“He set me up, Tsuna! He arranged it so Jirou would be there at the same time!” Your knuckles were turning white due to how tight you held him. They throbbed, demanding blood flow, but you couldn’t care less. You wanted answers, needed answers, and you’d get them.

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know!” You cried out, fighting back tears. “I don’t know, Tsuna!”

The young mafia leader set his hands on your shoulders. “We can’t solve the problem like this. Let him go,” It took some coaxing, but you finally released your grip on his shirt. He made you sit at the table closest to the doorway.

Reborn, who had remained quiet, rose to his feet. He wiped the small stream of blood from his split lip before leaning against the counter. His face was completely blank and his dark eyes that usually shined with mischievous intent were dull and devoid of emotion.

“Reborn, is there any truth to what she said?” Tsuna asked carefully, glancing at you to make sure you didn’t explode again. He stayed silent, so he turned to you instead. “Why do you say Reborn set you up?”

“I met with a mutual friend of Jirou’s and mine. Jirou told him that Reborn convinced him to go to the park with me that day. He wouldn’t have asked otherwise!”

Tsuna bit his lip in worry. “Is that true, Reborn?”

The Arcobaleno folded his arms across his chest and lowered his head so that his hat covered his eyes. “It is,”

You sprung up out of the chair but Tsuna held his hand up and you stayed put, hands clenched on the table. “Why? Why did you tell him to do that?”

A tense silence fell over the room, lasting a good few minutes before Reborn finally looked up at you. When he did, you froze at the ice in his eyes.

“Because I wanted him to see what you are; what you do. Did you really believe it would last, Y/N? Did you honestly think you could live a happy little life with that boy? He doesn’t love you. He never did. Did you know that he asked you out because of a dare? I did you a favor. You clearly couldn’t take care of it yourself.” And with that, Reborn left the room, leaving behind an ice-cold silence.

You fell onto the chair, your legs not able to hold your weight any longer. Your brain tried to process all of the information it had gathered over the past few days, but it seemed like the more it tried, the harder it failed to make sense of everything. Your head started to pound, feeling as if it would crack in half with the slightest of movement on your part. You didn’t know what to say. You didn’t even know what to feel.

Was Reborn right?

“Y/N-san?” Tsuna called to you, resting his hand on your shoulder gently like you might shatter into pieces if he grabbed you too tightly. “Are you okay?”

“I… I was a dare?” You sounded so lost, it broke Tsuna’s heart. “I was a dare, Tsuna?”

“I don’t know…” He replied, slowly pulling you into his arms.

“What do I do, boss? I don’t know what to do.”

“I think… I think you should confront him. Not just about that, but about that day. It’ll be hard, really hard, but it’s better than leaving things the way they are now. You have to do this. You can do this.”

“What if I’m not strong enough to face him?”

“That’s nonsense. You’re the strongest person I know.” He pulled back, cupping your cheeks and forcing you to look at him. “All those times I wanted to give up, all those times I refused to be the new boss of the Vongola, all those times I doubted myself… you never gave up on me. You were always there for me when I needed you. No matter how difficult the situation was, you never let me back down. Now it’s my turn.” He smiled encouragingly. “I know you’re strong enough.”

“Thank you, Tsuna.” And for the first time since the incident, you smiled.

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After nearly two days of convincing yourself that you were, indeed, strong enough to confront Jirou, you found yourself waiting outside the gates of Hyotei Gakuen. The longer you stood there waiting for tennis practice to end, the more nervous you got. You hated how scared and weak you were feeling. God, you felt like a scared little girl and it pissed you off.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket and you pulled it out to find a new message from Hiyoshi.

‘I’m about to leave the locker room’, it read, ‘Jirou is the last one in there. If you’re gonna do it, now’s your chance.’

Taking a deep breath, you hoisted yourself over the gate and sped over toward the team’s changing room, making sure to avoid the sightline of anyone that got too close. Hiyoshi passed by you just as you made it to the changing room and he punched you lightly on the arm – his way of saying ‘good luck’.

Another deep breath before pushing open the locker room door.

Jirou had already changed back into his uniform and was sitting on the bench, knelt over as he tied his shoes. He hadn’t noticed your entrance, giving you a few extra seconds to compose yourself.

He stood up, putting his bag on his back before turning toward the door and promptly freezing, eyes wide.

“Hey,” you called softly, shoving your hands into the pockets on your jeans as you leaned back against the door. “Can we talk?”

He didn’t respond, just clutched the strap of his bag tighter.

“Listen, I know you’re scared of me. I don’t blame you, okay? I get it.” Deep breath. “I’d never hurt you, Jirou. Not intentionally. I never wanted…”

“Me to know that you murder people for a living?” His voice was low, like he was afraid of speaking too loudly. The words still managed to slice through you. He was right, of course, but it hurt like hell hearing it from him.

“Yeah… I’m part of the mafia and my job is to kill scumbags and protect the innocent. I lied to you, okay? That much is obvious, but I’m not the only one that’s lied.”

His brow furrowed and he seemed almost angry. “What have I lied about?”

You swallowed down the lump in your throat, but your voice still cracked when you spoke. “I was a dare wasn’t I?”

Jirou’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “W-What?”

“You asked me out because you were dared to, not because you liked me.” The pain was slowly starting to mold into anger, as it usually tended to do with you. “Don’t you dare look down on me Jirou Akutagawa. Yeah, I fucking lied, but at least I have the guts to admit it. I was trying to protect you, you were trying to protect yourself.” You paused for a moment, considering your next move.

After a quick internal debate, you pulled a necklace from your pocket and tossed it at him. It was the necklace he had bought for you shortly after you had started dating; a black diamond dragon surrounded by stainless steel. He knew how much you loved dragons and figured that you would love the pendant, which you did, but now it just burned a hole in your pocket. You had to get rid of it or you’d never be able to move on.

“Our whole relationship was built on lies from the ground up. It never would have worked.”

You turned around and left, and Jirou didn’t stop you.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

Rain fell lightly from the darkened sky, matching the mood that you felt. You were sitting on the Sawada’s porch, thinking about everything that had happened the past few days. Your heart was still hurting, but you understand that time heals all wounds.

Although your eyes were closed, you could sense the presence of the sun Arcobaleno approaching you. He didn’t say anything as he took a seat beside you, his arm bumping against your own.

You decided to swallow your pride; keeping it would do nothing. “I’m sorry for punching you,”

“You know how to apologize?”

You didn’t have to look at him to know he was smirking. Rather than the cold demeanor he had been using, he was back to his old self and it made you feel at ease like nothing had changed.

“Don’t get used to it.” You nudged his arm. “We cool?”

Reborn stood up and headed for the front door. “I’ve got a new job for you. If you think you can handle it,”

You smirked, following after the man.

You still thought that Reborn was an ass for what he did, but you came to realize that he was trying to protect you in his own twisted way. After all, Reborn is family, and you don’t turn your back on family.

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▸ Part 4 of 4

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[mafiabosstsuna]

angst prompt: Hayato’s s/o is pushed away by him so much that when she is forced to choose between him and her family she chooses her family.

“Family always comes first.” Your mother had told you when you refused to spy for them again.

 They had thought it would be simple for them to gain delicate information with you dating the right hand man of the Vongola, and they didn’t expect you to refuse them. It was simple in the beginning, you were in love with Hayato there was no need for you to break his trust because your family had grown power hungry. You thought they would drop it. It was foolish for them to try to slight the Vongola anyway, but they persuaded it, which caused you to hide your involvement with your family.  

 Hayato found out about your family however, when they sided with some enemies; their name came up and he learned about your relationship with them while digging for something to use against the small rich family. He shut down on you, the seed of doubt planted in his brain. Why didn’t you tell him about this? Were you sent to spy for them? But why would they make their stance known if you were a spy for them? Or they didn’t think anyone would find out about your relation to the family? The famligia’s safety was everything to Hayato and you had told him there could be a threat to that and you were so close to said threat.

 It was subtle at first. He would have to stay late to do paperwork, his answers became vague, he became distant, and each time you asked him about it he would brush you off. He needed to be careful around you, but he would wait until you showed your true colors.

 You didn’t know why he was acting so cold to you out of nowhere, until your mother pleaded for you to help the family. The Vongola were going to end your family, and their co conspirators. Your family was on the verge of ruin. They had lost most of the little power they had along with a large amount of their members, and their money was disappearing fast. It had happened so quickly that they had no time to react. You were the only one who could save the family. Get something they could use to turn this around, or just survive, anything.

 You were hesitant at first, not knowing what to do. On one hand the fate of your family was in your hands and on the other you didn’t want to betray Hayato, who had been acting so strangely for the last few months. You waited up for him on one of the nights he had to work late. Your mind was made up. You listened to the door open and waited for him to lie on your shared bed, which had only held your body more often than not.

 “Hayato.” You called out to him, not turning in his direction.

 “Why are you still up?” He asked a bit harshly, causing you to wince to yourself. Had you two become so distant, you wondered to yourself.

 “I was waiting for you.” You whispered, “Why were you gone so long?”

   “Work.” He grunted, keeping it as vague as possible.

 “Doing what?” You urged your back still to him.

 It was quiet for a few minutes, you thought he went to sleep choosing to ignore your question, but you heard him sigh.

 “We’re in the process of getting rid of a rival family. They were a problem for a while now. But it should be done by the end of the week.”

 This was the most he had told you in the past few months. It wasn’t much but it might be enough to help your family in some way. If you had turned around you would have seen Hayato glare at the ceiling. What you did with the information would determine whether you were a traitor or not.

 It didn’t take long for you to tell your family about the timeframe they had.

  He quickly went to you when it was evident that they were using information he told you to cut their losses. He had wanted so badly to be wrong, he had wanted you to do nothing with the information and prove yourself to him that you were the caring, trustworthy partner you had portrayed to him. But watching as you looked surprised at being caught disgusted him. Everything you did, every word of encouragement, every loving look and touch had been a means to an end.

 He grabbed your arm roughly, eyes filled with hurt and anger that silenced you. How could you do this to him? He loved you, trusted you. He wanted to have a life with you and you had thrown that away. You silently listened to him yell at you trying to rationalize your betrayal in his mind.

 But you stayed silent even when you were taken to the Vongola boss for your transgression. Tsuna had looked at you in disappointment, as he sent you to be tortured for anything you knew and what you had told, before you were to be executed.  

Now you sat on the lone chair in the interrogation room. Bound and beaten from the previous interrogation. Cuts and bruises littering your form as you sat alone in the dimly lit room, waiting for the next session. The door opened and closed quickly, the noise causing you to look up.

 Hayato looked you over his expression one of contempt, as he walked towards you. You hadn’t seen him since you were found out. He looked tired, almost as tired as yourself as he looked in your eyes.

 “How long have you been spying for them?” He asked.

 “…”

 “Was any of it real?”

 “…”

 “Say something [Name]!” He yelled at you.

 “It was all a lie is that what you want to hear?” You told him coldly, “From the beginning I was with you for information. Of course it took me a while to get your trust, but I was losing it fast when you found out about my family.” You chuckled, “Guess I was a shit spy.”

 He struck you across the face; you felt the pain a moment after the strike. You swore a bit before turning to him again looking at his angered face.

 “Just like you my family will always be the most important thing to me.” You spat, “So you should understand that between them and you it was a simple choice.” You lied.