"Did anything interesting happen?--" Alec yawns, securing his flip phone in between his shoulder and ear as he pours steamed milk foam into his espresso, "--You don't wake up this early."
The soft light from the swollen sun filtering through the large double glazed window brightens the beautiful kitchen oak countertops--he still remembers Lyse sighing in admiration of her older sister's who married a wealthier man--and Wind carries the twittering of birds through the small gap into his ears, lifting his heart like the orange-pink bleeding into the reddish-orange sky.
"Are you sure you don't want to be paid for helping me tutor Tsuna? Don't tell me you don't need the money, you only keep enough for the bare necessities for every identity."
"My answer is still a no," the blond tucks a lock of slightly wet hair behind his ear, carefully carrying his baguette--Guinevere's recipe--and coffee to his low table. "I am not being paid to fulfil what I owe."
"This isn't about what you owe him!" Reborn hisses, "When you said you could cover the extra expenses of the trip I didn't think you'd cut into your budget!"
Alec purses his lips, setting himself down on a cushion over the portion of rug covering the hardwood floor.
"Send your current details, I'll pay. I'll forward the cost to Vongola, don't worry about Nono tracing you."
"...Alright." Alec reluctantly relents, spreading strawberry jam onto his cut baguette. "I'll... message you the details in our code soon."
"The Arcobaleno one or the general one?"
"Arcobaleno," he answers after a moment's pause. "There's something else you wanted to talk about, right?"
"It'll be chaos soon," Reborn's flip into a cheeky voice pulls Alec's lips into a smile as he shakes his head.
"I expect nothing less than the usual disaster-level chaos from you, Sunshine." He lets out a small laugh, eyes crinkling with his wide smile. "I worry for Tsuna sometimes, you'd have killed him with a stroke by now if I weren't here."
"Is that a challenge?"
Alec can imagine the Sun Arcobaleno's eyes gleaming and a smirk playing on his lips. He huffs out another laugh, drifting into a short pause when he furrows his eyebrows in thought before he sighs, mulling over his words.
"...I do think he forgets you're the World's Best Hitman and I'm a retired assassin," he confesses, holding the phone next to his ear, "I thought he'd be more careful after what I've taught and told him. He's either very trusting, trusting and careless or very careless. I haven't re-tested the extent of his thinking but he has improved. I just don't know how much exactly. I know he believes I came here to get away from Tokyo, and I did. It's what he now thinks after knowing I've killed three people recently."
"You want me to help him realise the gravity of the situation?"
"Yeah." Alec exhales softly, "I've talked to Kyo about assassins coming here. He and the disiplinary commitee can deal with the bodies in the scenario they actually get killed."
"You aren't participating?" Reborn asks curiously.
A smile curves the blond's lips, teeth peeking behind his lips. "Are you referring to Alexandre Mercier or Ghost?"
"Reassuring," the hitman mumbles, "I wouldn't even know unless you tell me like you did with Nono's sons. Maybe the next one dies after choking on his saliva. You only did that twice."
"Hey," Alec frowns, "I take my jobs very seriously. You know that."
"Mhmm."
"Oh, c'mon!" he complains, "You're not getting any ideas from me. I've become immune to your little trick."
"A pity." Reborn sighs, "Enjoy your cold baguette and lukewarm."
"You little shi--" Alec hisses into the phone, pulling it from his ear to hold in front of his face, "--t!"
He shoves it into his pocket with a loud groan, staring at his breakfast with lament.
—•—
"When did you get so many fake tattoos?" Alec narrows his eyes sceptically at the weeping brunet, standing in the doorway of the Sawada household with Kyoko behind him.
"Eek!" Tsuna yelps, whipping his head up at him. "Why are you here?!"
"You're cute," Dr. Shamal coos to Kyoko and Wind shuts him up, clamping his mouth shut as he yanks at his jaw with muffled shouts.
"Why the fuck are you hiding here?" Alec hisses, hand snapping out to jerk the assassin behind him outside the house. "Hide somewhere else!"
The man tries to answer but Wind doesn't relent. The blond swiftly darts to Reborn's side, eyes glancing around the marks on the brunet's body.
"D-Don't look!"
Reborn kicks Tsuna's head, landing in front him with a solemn stare. "Alec is the only one who can help you now."
"Isn't this that crappy Skull disease I warned you about?" The blond shifts his gaze to the hitman with a raised eyebrow.
"You IGNORED HIM?!" Tsuna shrieks as Kyoko stares at him with confusion furrowing her brows.
Reborn meeting Alec's gaze.
The blond's expression shifts into something solemn and hauls Tsuna to the nearest room.
"You've got four minutes. Note what you feel," he says as steady-formless-strong silver warms under his skin, shimmering slightly as it seeps through his hands when he clasps them over Tsuna's bare shoulders.
"W-what?" Tsuna stammers, blinking up at Alec to find his eyes burning silver and sapphire. "Y-your e-eyes!"
"Ignore my eyes and feel your flames, Tsuna." The blond furrows his brows, silver flooding a familiar disgusting orange.
Tsuna feels something cool tingle inside him, pricking at something inside his head. Before he thinks it'll get painful, he feels.
His warmth, his fire--what's that other dim and darker fire around it?--why can't he feel his fire?
"Just another moment," Alec's lilting voice pulls him out of his panic and fear.
Tsuna reaches for the silver when it starts to pull away, pausing at the harmonious and warm orange spilling past the other orange.
"Be careful with them," the blond meets the brunet's gaze intently, seeing his amber eyes glow brightly and a small smile works his way up to his lips. "You've beautiful and pure Sky flames but they'll fully break out when mine disappear. Reborn will teach you how to deal with them by the time they do so you can hide them easily."
"What?" Tsuna echoes, mind stuck on the steady-formless-strong glimering next to his warm orange.
Alec huffs as he removes his hands, "What other colours do you see? I know there's more besides my own."
"U-uh," the brunet registers the question a moment later, "Blue, orange and green. The red has some blue, orange, green and... indigo? There's also stronger indigo and another green with purple."
Yamamoto, Ryohei, Lambo, Gokudera--its surprising how many he has--Kyoko and Haru. Alec lists to himself, smiling as he steadies his breathing, hiding his shaking hand in his pocket.
Hopefully we can protect them.
"Put your shirt back on, I need to talk to Reborn."
"R-right!" Tsuna fumbles out with flushed cheeks.
"Do you need the day off?" Reborn walks in, shutting the door and lifts his gaze to see Alec's eyes like wells of molten sapphire. "I asked a lot of you."
"Yeah," the blond lets out the briefest exhale, pulling out his shaking hands in front of his face to look at and for Reborn to see. "But I'll just go to the nurse's office. I'll be better by lunch."
"...Alright," Reborn says and lowers his fedora.
Alec sits in front of Reborn, lifting him onto his lap. "Aren't you curious?"
"I can ask you later, you need to rest," Reborn replies, lifting his head.
"My favourite nephew," Alec laughs, perching the hitman onto his shoulder and hurries to catch up to Tsuna and Kyoko.
Reborn cracks a smile at the comment as Leon flicks his tongue.
"Don't pretend you don't feel smug about it," Alec adds, spotting Tsuna's head of brown spiky hair disappear behind the corner ahead.
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[suuuuper late my only excuses are having a cold with a shitty immune system fucked up my online learning and now I have a lot to catch up on 🤡
so updates are 1x per wk every Friday now and 5 additional chapters to make up for the one's I missed
remember to vote & comment! especially typos and mistakes bc i always miss them lol]