Fiamma & Famiglia

Chapter 3

Tsuna woke to a blank white ceiling. Staring into nothing, he realized that he felt refreshed in a way that no sleep had ever done before. Then the memory of what had happened came flooding back, causing him to sit up abruptly and look around. He was in a hospital bed in an empty room. Looking down at his arm, there were multiple IVs attached and only then did he realize that there was a breathing mask strapped to his face.
Carefully taking the mask from his head, he dropped it beside the equipment scattered around his bedside. His arms felt irritatingly cold and massively ached from the needles, so he pulled those out with a bit of a grimace. Panting a bit from the effort, he threw his legs over the side of the bed before he realized he didn’t have the power to stand.

But he could feel it. The reservoir inside him waiting for him to call. He had succeeded. To test it, he gave the slightest of mental twist. In response, energy poured into his body. With a stretch, he stood with ease and walked to the window, fingering his Vongola ring that hung from his neck. He was reaching up to pull the curtains back when he realized his hands were covered in bandages. Curious, he began to reach down to unwrap them when a loud crash came from the door to his room.

Looking up, he saw a distraught Kyoko with a shattered vase of flowers at her feet. “Kyoko?” he asked. Before he could say anything else, she had already ran across the room and flung herself into his shocked arms. Through her crying, he could barely make out the words “You’re awake” which she kept repeating over and over. Not really sure of what he should do, having never dealt with a crying Kyoko before, he just quietly held her until she calmed down. Finally, when she subsided to sniffles, he knew what to say.

“I’m sorry. I worried you, didn’t I?” Backing away, she wiped her eyes on her sleeves and silently nodded.

“…telling you, I heard a crash coming from his room!” Gokudera was yelling as he burst through the door. Upon seeing a standing Tsuna, he dropped to his knees and immediately began begging forgiveness.

Typically, it would take him over ten minutes to placate Gokudera, but once again, Tsuna knew what to say for once.

“Thank you, Gokudera.” Gokudera looked up at the smiling Tsuna and fell silent, utterly at a loss for words. Yamamoto, who had followed Gokudera into the room, walked over to Tsuna and stopped.

“You’re looking well, Tsuna,” he said with a smile and a careful pat to Tsuna’s shoulder.

“I’ll go and let the others know that he’s awake!” Kyoko said, dashing out of the room before Tsuna could stop her. Gokudera noticed that she was blushing a bright red as she passed.

Tsuna turned back to the window to cover his own blushes, trying to control the cheering in his head from getting to hug Kyoko. But, once he opened the curtains, his mind and face went blank.

“How…Why…” His eyes widened at the sight outside the window. “W-Why is there snow on the ground?!”

“You’ve been asleep for three months, Tsuna,” came Reborn’s voice. Turning around, he saw Reborn sitting on the bedside. Utterly speechless from shock, he felt his knees start to buckle. Gokudera’s guiding hand helped him find his way back into the bed while Yamamoto poured him some tea to calm him.

When he finally stopped shaking, he looked up at his two friends. “I…”

“Isn’t it about time we got some answers, Tsuna? Before the others get here? Gokudera and Yamamoto deserve to know what you were doing,” Reborn scolded.

Tsuna could only nod and gather his thoughts. Finally, he said, “If…if you think of my abilities and potential like a leaky water faucet, you can kind of understand. When it’s not turned on, there’s only a small drip. That’s the me that’s normally there. But a drip is really “No-Good” at all.” For the first time ever, he could say those words without hurting. “You can’t really do anything with it. But, when Reborn would hit me with the Dying Will Bullet or the Rebuke Bullet, it’s as if someone suddenly turned on that faucet to let out a steady flow.” Reborn and the others nodded. What he’d said made some sense so far. “Well, the plan was to replace the faucet, so to speak, with one that I could turn on and off myself.” He blushed, though he couldn’t really say why.

“I see,” Reborn said. “But to do that, you had to get rid of the old ‘faucet’ first.”

Tsuna nodded. “Right. If you keep with the image of a faucet, I forced so much “water” through that it blew off. I remember that my untrained body could withstand the Rebuke Bullet with only muscle pain as the side effect. I figured that with all the training I’ve been doing, my body would be able to withstand the backlash of a double dose.”

“So,” Reborn asked, “what went wrong?”

“Heh,” Tsuna rubbed his forehead. “I did.” At his friend’s questioning looks, he continued. “I didn’t take into account my own power. It seems that Reborn’s bullets only remove’s a person’s limiters to a certain degree. I didn’t realize that until it was too late. Blowing the ‘faucet’ off removed ALL my limiters. It was too much to handle and I was overpowered at first, so I wasn’t prepared to control it.”

“But in the end you did. Right, Tsuna?” Yamamoto said cheerfully and Gokudera gave a huge thumbs up. Tsuna looked up to his friends, feeling a sudden surge of warmth and relief. Tsuna smiled widely in return, his eyes shining.

“There’s one thing I still don’t get, Tsuna.” Reborn said. “Why did you swallow the bullet? Why didn’t you just have me to fire a second shot?”

Tsuna’s eyes suddenly filled with sadness. He answered honestly, “I had to do it myself. To prove my resolution.”

“I see.” Reborn replied. “Well, I guess it’s your turn to be filled in.” Tsuna looked up in expectation and Reborn said in a serious tone, “First things first… You’re an idiot.” Reborn cracked a small smile as Tsuna’s jaw dropped. He continued before the boy could formulate a reply. “Second! As I’ve already mentioned, you’ve been out of things for three months.” Tsuna calmed as he realized Reborn was going to get serious. “You had first and second degree burns covering nearly your entire body. You can thank Dino and his medical team for your lack of scars. That is…except for your hands. Your right hand should be fine, but your left one will have scars due to frostbite. By the way, you are probably the only person who’s ever gotten frostbite in the middle of a blazing inferno.” Tsuna had the grace to blush. “As you know, your gloves were ruined. I tried to get Leon to make you a replacement pair, but he’s been stubborn lately.” Reborn stopped talking when he heard footsteps coming down the hall. “For now, the last thing I’m going to tell you is that you ran into a burning building to save an old lady’s dog.”

“What?!” Tsuna yelped. But before he could say more, a huge crowd came piling in his room bearing gifts, tears, and smiles.

“Everyone…”

Thanks to a bit of help from Dino, Tsuna was allowed to return home to complete his recovery after three days of medical test. Most of the bandages had finally been removed, though he still didn’t have the courage to unwrap his left hand. After being told that it would scar, he was willing to leave it alone for now.
“Yo, Tsuna,” Dino said, as Tsuna finished putting on his favorite “27” t-shirt. Dino grinned, “After seeing you in hospital clothes for so long, it’s almost strange for you to be wearing a t-shirt and jeans again.”

Tsuna grinned in return. “Well, I can’t say it’s strange for me. While three months passed for you, it was just a good night sleep for me.”

“Tsuna…are you sure you’re okay?” Dino asked with a frown.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there’s something different about you. I just want to make sure it’s nothing bad since I can’t really put into words what’s different.”

There was a glint in Tsuna’s eyes, Dino noticed. “Well,” Tsuna replied, turning to sit on the edge of his former bed, “that’s understandable. What happened changed everything, after all.” Tsuna smiled to reassure his blonde sempai. “I’ve always been a klutz, an idiot, a coward, and over-all a “No-Good” Tsuna. But now…after facing my own personal trial and proving my resolution, I’ve gained the power to change all that. It’s almost like I’ve suddenly gotten a fresh slate.”

Dino sighed to himself. “Well, as long as it’s something that makes you happy, I won’t complain. But…” Dino’s face turned dark and Tsuna could feel the menacing aura coming from him. “If you ever do something that reckless again, you’ll wake up to find Enzio waiting for you in your bathtub.”

Tsuna found himself laughing at such a ridiculous threat, causing Dino to widen his eyes in surprise. “Sorry…It’s just…” Tsuna said around chuckles, “…Enzio and…”

Dino grinned. “You really have changed, haven’t you, Tsuna? Before, when I turned ‘bad-boy’ on you, you’d always scream and hide.” Tsuna got control of his laughter and smiled in return.

“Well, I better get going. I still need to go by the school and pick up all my missed work.” He threw on his jacket and waved a farewell as he finally left the hospital.

The school wasn’t that far away, and he was determined to pick up his missing schoolwork before he returned home to finish recuperating. So, he set a determined pace and within ten minutes, he was walking through the school’s courtyard. As he reached the door, his senses screamed, making him dive for his inner power. Barely, he was able to sidestep the metal tonfa aimed for his head.

Hibari looked at Tsuna with interest, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips. “Hmmm…it seems you were doing more than just recovering, Sawada.”

“Nope, just enjoying a nice long nap.” Tsuna replied, unable to keep the smile from his own lips. His eyes were lit and his inner self felt fully alive.

“Ah, so you’ve merely been truant. In that case, I’ll have to bite you to death.” Hibari once again swung his metal tonfa and once again, Tsuna sidestepped.

“Now, you really don’t want to do that.”

“And why’s that?” Hibari asked, intrigued despite himself.

“Well, if you bite me to death now, it would take all the fun out of later.” Tsuna couldn’t help himself. But he wasn’t trying to bait Hibari for sheer pleasure. He had a plan. One which Hibari would never agree to without being tricked into it.

“Fun, you say? From a herbivore like you?”

Tsuna grinned and shrugged. “Well, as you see, I’m still recuperating from my long nap. Plus, I haven’t got my gloves with me. You remember my gloves from the ring battles, don’t you?” Hibari’s eyes narrowed. Tsuna looked at him in challenge, “It wouldn’t be any fun to fight me before I finished sharpening my fangs, would it?”

Hibari sheathed his tonfas and left, a silent aura of anticipation being his only reply. As he turned the corner, out of sight, Reborn popped out of hiding and jumped on Tsuna’s shoulder. Tsuna, on the other hand, leaned against one of the school entrance’s pillars and closed his eyes to focus. When Hibari had attacked, Tsuna hadn’t had time to gradually increase the flow of his inner flame. He had managed to access it without going to a level that would produce the Dying Will Flame on his head, but after three months of only sleeping, his body wasn’t ready for any flame at all.

He panted as his body began to feel the burden produced from using his flame. Closing that out, Tsuna focused all his will on the mental twist needed to push the flame down to a manageable level. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and finally noticed Reborn.

“So,” Reborn said, “what were you thinking, baiting Hibari like that?”

“I thought you were a mind-reader,” Tsuna replied in jest.

“It’s hard to read you lately,” Reborn answered seriously, causing Tsuna to jerk a bit in surprise.

“Um, well,” Tsuna said, trying to regain his composure as he made his way into the building. “Well, I’ve been doing nothing but sleeping for three months. Once my body’s done healing, I’ll have to start training again, right? I can do the basic training with you, but Basil isn’t here for me to spar against anymore.”

“So you want Hibari to spar with you?” Reborn smiled. “It might be fun.”

Even though it was his idea, he couldn’t help but shiver when Reborn referred to it as “fun”. But before he could think about it anymore, he’d reached his classroom. From the sounds coming from inside, the class had just been released for lunch. As he slid the door open, a loud, angry voice exclaimed, “Don’t call him “No-Good”!”

Tsuna stood in shock when he realized that it hadn’t been Yamamoto or Gokudera, but Kyoko who had yelled. She had turned bright red in embarrassment but her face held a look that dared anyone to disagree. When she looked up and noticed him standing at the door, her face turned an even deeper shade of crimson and she ran from the room. Tsuna looked at Gokudera and Yamamoto in askance, but they could only shrug.

“What are you doing here, Tsuna? Shouldn’t you be at home resting?” Yamamoto asked when he got close.

His answer was a bit distracted, “Um, well, I’ve missed quite a bit of school, so I was going to get my make-up work. That’s the most I can do until I get the okay from the doctor to come back. But what was-”

Before he could finish voicing his question about Kyoko, he was ambushed by Hana. “So?”

“Eh? So what?”

“So, what’s going on between you and Kyoko?”

“EH!? How should I know? I’ve been asleep for three months!” He turned red when he realized he’d shouted. Hana gave him a look full of suspicion, but was unable to say anything due to the appearance of the teacher.

“Ah! Sensei, I’m here to pick up my make-up work.” He followed the teacher over to the filing cabinet where a thick packet of papers was handed over.

“Although, normally you’d be held back for missing so much school, it seems that Dr. Boreen has put in a good word for you. Thanks to that, the Dean agreed that if you finished all these assignments with passing grades, you’d be allowed to resume class as if you were never gone. However!” The teacher, ever vigilant in torturing his students, grinned wickedly. “These are harder than the ones that the class received. Think of it as my way of challenging you.”

Tsuna’s inner flame danced. “A challenge, you say?” He grinned and opened the packet. Indeed, these were much harder than anything he’d had to do before, but his mind was clear now. Just from looking at the top page, he could already see the answers. Unfortunately, he had a feeling that if he got every answer correct, he’d be accused of letting someone else do his work.

“Oi,” he said to the teacher, “there’s not much difference between relaxing at home and sitting at a desk, is there?”

The teacher looked miffed. “Physically, no.”

“In that case, Sensei,” Tsuna smiled with a dangerous look in his eyes, “you wouldn’t have a problem if I relaxed in a desk while I did these, would you?”

Gokudera looked at Tsuna in amazement. “10th…!” The teacher grinned. He’d been trying to find a way to get Tsuna punished for skipping school so often, but the boy had wriggled out of it every time. Having seen Sawada’s tests up until now, he had no doubt that kept away from outside resources, he’d fail.

“Very well. I’ll even let you have a desk in the front row, center.” This was, of course, the desk directly in front of the teacher’s. Tsuna grinned. Perfect.

Over the course of the next two hours, page-by-page Tsuna went through three months of assignments while the rest of the class watched in bewilderment. They were free to watch since the teacher had announced self-study for the rest of the day. This way, the teacher only had to focus on his ‘prey’. The students were glad, since this way they could murmur among themselves about this sudden change. No one had ever seen Tsuna act like this before. To not only challenge a teacher, but to voluntarily turn down the outside help he would have gotten had he taken the work home. It was unheard of.

Finally, Tsuna tapped the papers into a neat pile and stretched. Laying the pile on the teacher’s desk, he left saying only “I think I’ll go home to rest now.” However, if anyone had been watching closely, in the middle of his stretch he had slyly given Kyoko a small wink. The reason for the wink was explained as Tsuna made his way across the school courtyard. From behind him, he could hear the words, “Impossible!” being repeated over and over again from the direction of his classroom.

“Oi, Reborn,” he said to his tutor with a smile, “it seems I passed with flying colors.”

“You look like you were having fun.”

“Well,” Tsuna said as he turned the corner, “I couldn’t let Kyoko’s words go to waste, now could I?”