Wayward Sky

But even that isn't enough to deter Tsuna from his newly formed bad habits. He's not even fully recovered yet (maybe that training was a tiny bit too much) when he goes to the bathroom for a few minutes. Few minutes turn into ten, then twenty, then an hour...

Reborn still quickly checks the bathroom before ditching the house.

The first one he finds patrolling the streets near the house is Hibari and Reborn isn't surprised at all when he just shrugs and walks away without saying a single word.

The girls are having a sleepover at Kyoko's house with Ryohei as their official and extremely enthusiastic Snack Bringer and don't have a clue where Tsuna might be.

Yamamoto and Gokudera greet him together at Gokudera's apartment (Colonello and Lal both totally owe him 100 euros) and when asked about Tsuna they share a glance and shrug in union.

"I'm sure he'll be back home soon," Gokudera says with only the barest hint of worry, avoiding eye-contact with Reborn.

"Don't worry, kid. I'm sure Tsuna's fine," Yamamoto says with a smile that's just a little bit too bright.

He doesn't even bother with Mukuro.

A quick scan through entire Namimori doesn't give him any hints either, so he returns home and settles in to wait.

It doesn't really matter if the brats are hiding something from him. They are allowed to do that. And as long as Tsuna's Guardians aren't worried about their boss, Reborn refuses to be worried too. He's just waiting for Tsuna to show up so he can finally train the stupidity out of him.

Except Tsuna shows up that night, dragging his feet and eyes red and puffy like he's been crying, and Reborn thinks that he should've pushed the others more.

He mumbles something about not being hungry as he toes off his shoes, then drags himself upstairs, the door to his room closing with a soft click.

Logically Reborn knows that Tsuna's much better nowadays and has a proper support system a teenage boy and a future mafia boss needs. But Reborn has worked way too hard to get the boy out of that hole and he's not about to leave anything up to chance now.

He finds his student sitting in the dark room on the edge of his bed. He's hugging his legs, head resting on knees.

Reborn shows no mercy when he flicks on the light and says sternly, "Tsuna."

The boy doesn't flinch, but he stiffens, hands clenching the fabric of his pants. Then he relaxes with a quiet sigh and looks up. Reborn expects to see tears or frustration, but all he sees is exhausted resignation.

Somehow Reborn thinks that crying would've been better.

Tsuna plasters on a mechanical smile before he speaks. "Oh, Reborn. Um. I did my homework already, you can go ahead and check it. And you probably want me to do some extra work or get some training done, right? I just... do you think it could wait until tomorrow? I swear, I'll work twice as hard. I'm just... tired right now. Really tired."

Something white flashes in Reborn's sight and he zeroes down on the bright white bandage wrapped around Tsuna's left hand.

"What happened to your hand?" he asks, sharper than intended because while he knows that Tsuna still has some unhealed cuts and bruises from the training (the one on his thigh brutal even by Reborn's book), none of them were bad enough to need wrapping. Reborn is convinced that he knows all of Tsuna's injuries, and his hand wasn't in that list before.

"Ah, this? It's no big deal, I was just clumsy... again. So I burned myself a little. Should be fine in a few days." Tsuna flexes his fingers carefully, showing that it doesn't bother him much. It's wrapped neatly, too, so the brat had to have someone else take a look at it.