Regret

Animosity

apologies for the delay. life's gotten harder this year. haven't been doing so well.

to save time, the first half takes place a little before his talks with (arcobaleno), where he first meets all of them. i haven't watched khr in about 4-5 years at this point, i cannot recall the honorifics some characters have used. please forgive me.

The tension in Tsuna's room was suffocating him slowly, but he refrained from making any comment. Reborn had finally entered the room, letting the boisterous tenth generation on a wild goose chase with the Cavallone boss.

And with that, all seven arcobaleno were present in Sawada Tsunayoshi's room.

"I can see why you don't trust me," Tsuna said, hoping to start conversation, with the dead silence making things hard enough as it was. This 'meeting' of sorts was spontaneous on its own, and it wasn't helping Reborn wasn't making a snarky, childish comment to irk another arcobaleno.

"You're Iemitsu's son, a Vongola heir, and a stranger that took Aria's place," Skull sneered. Quite obviously this Skull wasn't as friendly as the one he'd known.

"What is of the Tsunayoshi of this world?"

It was a question he knew would come, but he realized his vague answer would only instigate further hostility. If he wanted trust, they wanted answers.

He sucked in a deep breathe, frowning. "Suicide."

.

In his field of vision, the first thing he'd seen was the knife beside him, covered in blood. His blood, but not his blood, he'd realized wearily.

.

Tiny little threatening fingers gripping the collar of his shirt.

"What do you mean, suicide, kora?"

"You sure you didn't kill him yourself? How do we know you're Tsunayoshi of a parallel world?"

Skull's interrogation was pinning him down. It was something he's expected of Reborn or even of Lal Mirch, both of with observing silently. He supposed it was too good to be true to assume everything was the same, he thought wryly.

"How can I prove it to you?" he asked dryly, forcing a laugh. Colonello released his hold, confused, blue eyes remaining glued on him. He showed his hand, fiddling with a small sky flame on his palm, controlling it with ease. "Can any flame user manipulate sky flames as easily?"

"Any sky flame user, for the matter," Verde butted in, raising an eyebrow. He seemed to be penning down thoughts onto a notepad, perhaps calculating thoughts upon him.

Tsuna smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Point taken."

"You're being unreasonably shallow, Tsunayoshi-kun." Fon's gentle gaze looked stern, and his hopes of the kind storm still being that kind storm had sunk down the drain dully. Though, his next words startled him briefly as he heard, "You possess the eyes of a child, and not many children can control their flames as easily as you. Relax your muscles and explain yourself."

  "Because he's in a child's body—"

A gun pointed to his forehead. "Shut up, Skull. Since when have you been so defensive?"

Reborn's oddly dark voice left the arcobaleno silent. Lal quirked an eyebrow, watching him. They were aware the sun user had already spoken with the boy before them, but it didn't guarantee any of them would easily trust the boy. None had heard of Aria nor her condition, and to see a stranger, Iemitsu's son of all people take her place was quite the outrage in itself.