Walking through the strange forest, Tsunayoshi clutched the straps of his backpack tightly. He brought his sketchpad, pencils, books (for Reborn to read) and home-made bento he had cooked himself. One bento was for him, while the other was for Reborn. If this were going to become a common occurrence, he would have to give up on giving Reborn more books after this.
He sighed, shifting on the balls of his feet to the heel and back again before he heard powerful growls behind him. Turning on his heel, he spun around and let his perceptive eyes roam around the shrubbery freely.
Then he spotted it- a lightning type tiger. The tiger had a thick, sleek coat which was mostly white with lime green stripes. Its eyes were darker than the lines decorating its fur coat, but were still equally viridescent, seemingly glowing through the shadows made from the looming trees.
Scanning the area in which he was standing in, Tsunayoshi's calculative gaze took in every detail greedily, with not a single spot being unnoticed by the honey brown orbs. The tiger didn't cease its attack, jumping down from the tree branch to reveal its unnatural features.
The ears were longer, coupled with longer fur tufts at the tip and just around the base of the ear. The tail was one and a half metres long, with incredibly long fur growing from the one-metre mark to groom itself into a feather-like shape.
The stripes didn't follow through to the elongated ears, or the tail where the stripes slowly tapered in regularity until they eventually ceased to exist halfway through the snowy tail. The rest of said lengthy tail was a fluffy white colour, encouraging the illusion of a feather-like end to the fully articulated tail.
The creature made its tail move and twist behind it before letting it slump down and trail after its movements, clearly articulated with many small bones and joints. The full paws of the tiger look-a-like spread across the ground from the force which they had to support.
Suddenly, the brunette took off and sprinted through the forest, dodging trees and jumping over bushes and roots which stuck out of the soil. He knew, however, that he was no match for the natural predator following in his wake.
The creature presumably lived in this forest its entire life, clearly implying that it was familiar with the layout of at least one section of the vast forestry ( which covered approximately 14 000~ metres squared around Melbourn Academy's student camp).
Tsuna stumbled every now and again, the added weight on his back making him slower than he usually would be, although the adrenaline coursing through his veins had added to his speed.
The creature leapt and took broad jumps towards the defenceless human, its long tail flickering behind it like a cape. Tsuna panted, breathing deeply, trying to fill his lungs with the oxygenised air to try and keep his body moving farther away from the frightening summon following him, ready to pounce on its prey.
The brunette stumbled upon an uncharted area of the forest, as he could tell by the thicker tree trunks and darker wood- the dark colour of the wood had a grey tinge, with deep grooves in the bark adding more interest to the shadowed palette.
Coupled with the larger, wider roots and shady green shrubbery growing off of the trees, it was clear that this area of the forest was mostly unfound. Almost no light peaked through the leaves, creating a sinister atmosphere as Tsuna could only see five feet in front of him before shadows swallowed the scenery.
He tried to erase his breath, his clammy hands gripping different surfaces; one clasped around his mouth while the other grasped the cracked, dry bark of the wider trunks surrounding the region.
Tsuna mouthed the phrase, "please don't notice me," repeatedly like a mantra, his eyelids shut forcefully- the action rid him of one of his five main senses, sight, which consecutively heightened the sensitivity of his other four senses.
Legs shaking furiously, he willed himself to stay standing. His feet were rooted to the ground, breath laboured and head spinning from the aftershocks of the adrenaline rush he had experienced before this unfortunate predicament. Quickly, he forced his irregular breathing to still and calm down to a safer sequence.
Successfully calming his breathing, he made less sound and hoped that the tiger couldn't smell the fear which seeped through his skin, coating him like a second skin and reaching out in tendrils to grasp onto anything they could find.
His melbourn was undoubtedly shaking, pulsing in erratic and abnormal movements which sent out a type of distress signal. No doubt the other students in a 50-mile radius would be able to sense it, along with other summons and teachers but they wouldn't respond.
They didn't know what Tsuna's melbourn signature was.
Usually, you would be able to find out the affinity, strength and purity of a student's melbourn by using a particular type of technology. However, it could not figure out Tsunayoshi's melbourn's characteristics. They dismissed it as the brunette not having a melbourn at all.
Oh, how wrong they were; if only they knew how strong his melbourn was. The tiger stalked closer, peering at every detail it could grasp and relied on its acute hearing and keen sense of smell to find Tsuna- its prey.
The brunette was acutely aware of how close the creature was; his breath hitched in his throat as he heard it approach his trembling frame.
Suddenly, he heard a squawk. It was a bone-chilling sound which resonated across the otherwise stilled woodland. His eyes snapped open, gaze directed upwards through the miniscule cracks in the greenery.
He saw a flash, a brief blur of black which flew over his head so fast that he would have thought it was his mind playing tricks on him- if it weren't for the foreboding squawk which followed.
He heard the harsh whimper, which he assumed came from the lightning class tiger morph. He swallowed his fear, just now realising how dry his throat was from the lack of fluids before he slowly turned to see the utterly terrifying state of the lightning class.
It was barely standing on its four legs, tail limp and flat. One eye was forcefully closed while the other was half-lidded. Snow white fur caked with blood, dyeing its coat a sickly, dark red while the excess dripped onto the green grass beneath its stocky frame.
Above it, claws drowned in blood was an abnormally large raven with feathers darker than the deepest night, the only colour on the entire bird were its beady eyes which shined a ferocious yellow. Even that yellow was scarce, a thin outline of a large black dot which was supposedly either the iris and pupil or just the pupil itself with the sunny framework being the iris.
Unlike other humans, who would have screamed bloody murder and ran for their lives with crippling fear, Tsuna stood frozen in awe of the beauty of the magnificent creature. Each sleek feather; smooth curvature of the beak; grooves and indentations in the feet.
They were all stunning in Tsunayoshi's eyes. The creature was a thing of beauty, of tantalising detail and other-worldly allure.
He didn't care that the bird may or may not have just attacked another went to the point where they were at the brink of death, nor that the raven was a symbol of death itself or that of apprehension. It was... breathtaking.
Tsuna found himself nearing the creature steadily, with not a trace of dread nor anxiety which was there prior. The backpack had slid off of the boy's shoulders, slumping on the ground with a thump which alerted the raven of the nearing brunette.
It was just then when the brunette was directly in front of the raven when he stared up at it in wonder and awe. "...Breathtakingly beautiful..." Tsuna managed to say, keeping eye contact with the raven who seemed to be taken aback by the compliment.
"Stunning. I mean, really- you should be very proud of yourself. Just, wow..." The brunette rambled, reaching his hand out to stroke the dark feathers as a dark shadowy aura covered the raven.
The tiger, who had now escaped the scene to lick its wounds, had been entirely forgotten- just like the blood covering the bird's claws.
They're just as smooth as they look, Tsuna thought absentmindedly. The shadows covered the raven like a cloak before the smooth texture under the brunette's fingertips morphed into a silky material.
Looking at the same spot, Tsuna noticed that the feathers shifted and instead a man stood in front of him. It was Reborn; the raven had turned into Reborn. "No one's ever said that about my other form before," the man said in a small voice.
It was outlandish, to see the confident male talk so shy and quiet. Tsuna looked up into the onyx orbs, like black marbles which could pierce through his soul and read him like a book, which were now guarded without a single crack in sight as if they were a castle, accompanied by an unbreakable fort surrounding them.
"Then they are fools for not seeing such a bewitching beauty," the brunette whispered, his eyes softening immediately, with a mixture of many different emotions but mostly, the undeniable trace of honesty which rang through the honey brown orbs.
Reborn was confused. Shouldn't the human fear him? Shouldn't Tsuna be running from him? Evidently, the little human shouldn't be complementing his terrifying form and stroking the feathers? It surprised him.
"Stunning"? "Breathtakingly beautiful"? Me? In this form? He asked himself, suddenly self-conscious about his form like he usually would be. But he didn't feel that way anymore- he felt proud. Gorgeous. He believed the words which the human was speaking.
It scared him. He oh so easily trusted the person he met only a day or two ago whole-heartedly. It wasn't normal. He shocked himself, talking in a small voice towards the brunette who shot down his subconscious fears and insecurities.
The boy's words rang through his head: "then they are fools for not seeing such a bewitching beauty." Him? A 'bewitching beauty'? It was an alien concept to the man.
She was scared, terrified, horrified even when she had seen the man's second form. Traumatised, for a couple of weeks before she could face Reborn once again. That was perhaps the breaking point of his insecurities.
That human had betrayed him and scarred him in a way that she didn't even know about. Even though she had attempted to patch things up, he could see the cowardice in her eyes every time she talked to him.
After that incident, Tsuna had to leave unfortunately but shoved a bento into Reborn's arms before he retraced his steps as best as he could.
Reborn could only watch the flex of the brunette's back as he left into the shadows once again. The man left to the place he called home, where six others waited for him to arrive back. Well, maybe not all six but the higher percentage of that number.
As he made his way to a beautiful, homey mansion, he entered the house and walked into the dining room where four others waited for him. "Reborn! Why are you crying?!" A man with long, silky black hair asked in a worry making the others look at Reborn in alarm.
Raising a hand to his cheek, the fedora-wearing man felt the moisture from the salty tears he had shed. He smiled and looked at the four alarmed people, facing them. They all seemed even more shocked, almost fainting, as they had never seen the man genuinely smile.
He looked down at the neatly prepared bento, which had a piece of paper with his name written neatly on it. Just thinking of the person who had written his name was bringing him close to tears, remembering the flourishing compliments the person had given them.
The compliments he had given their other form, as well.
The man looked up and smiled again, explaining the reason for his smile. The four looked between each other, before stunning grins spread across their faces with a hopeful glimmer shining in their eyes.
Reborn left the scene, sniffling and attempting to compose himself on the other side of the door, back pressed against the wood before he slid down it and pressed the bento into his chest.
"He called my second form 'beautiful'."
--={&}=--
A little OOC I know, but does it work? You guys decide:
Yay
Nay
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Ja ne~
-Bell
Edited: 05-10-2018