It wasn't that Tsunayoshi minded- no, quite the contrary -but this was too much. When he woke up that morning, he was being cuddled by Reborn so hard that he could not move. Seriously, it was as if a rope had bound him to the bed.
It was impossible for him to do anything except twitch, wriggle and kick. "Renato, wake up. I need to make breakfast and go to class," the boy explained, attempting to wriggle out of the man's steel grip.
Reluctantly, the man loosened his grip, thus letting the brunette out of his grasp. Even though the seasons have begun to shift, it now being mid-spring, the chilly winter air had still kept its wits about it and held on tightly.
Happily skipping around the apartment, the Sawada hastily folded both the thick and thin blankets which he kept in his living room.
After placing them at the end of the sofa, he made his way into the small kitchen to begin cooking the breakfast, simultaneously thinking of the dormitory he lived in.
Because of the second occupant- Reborn -living in his dorm, the rent had increased. The only thing he really hoped for was that Dino would continue giving him money to his undetected bank account so that he could keep paying for the dorm.
After all, he cannot get a job without the place he was working at being shut down or going bankrupt via his family and Iemitsu.
Reborn could get a job, though he doubted that the man would even consider the idea in the first place. He supposed that he could somehow find a way to avoid his father's agents and get rid of the rigged phone one way or another.
Tsuna sighed, his mind swimming with millions of possibilities. He supposed that he could ask the raven for help. However, he had a reasonable suspicion that the man would take an uncivilised approach.
The murderous look the man had in his coal eyes was a "hint" to his barbaric desires when it came to the Sawada family as a whole. This, of course, did not include Tsunayoshi whom Reborn deemed too "innocent and kind" to be even treated as one of them.
Despite all of this, the brunette still felt compelled to tell the raven his troubles; it was this kind of bond of trust between them, even though they had only known each other for a couple of weeks at most.
He heard a knock at the door, making him stop. At least he had, by this point, settled the scrambled eggs he made onto separate plates.
Once he had dodged the sofa, he opened the door. "Hello," he greeted. Before he could fully see the person, they shoved a small box into his hands with a couple of letters piled on top. "Thank you- oh, where did they go?"
The brunette looked around, noticing that the postman (whoever they may be) had seemingly disappeared into thin air. Shrugging it off- even though the postman did need his signature for the delivery of the box -he closed the door and placed both the box and letters onto the table.
"Who was that?" The ravenette asked, now up and about.
"Just the postman. The stuff is on the table," Tsuna explained quickly, taking the two plates and setting them on the table. "Here, eat up!"
Reborn sighed, sitting down across from Tsuna and yawned from his slight exhaustion. If anyone were to walk in on them, they would think that this was a typical Saturday morning for a couple; sitting down to eat breakfast, sorting through bills and mail, etc.
It was nice... Both males had felt, for once in their lives, normal. Not strange or feared, out of place or even awkward.
It was a typical morning; therefore it was a perfect morning.
The morning did not start with only yourself, spent in silence with just the dread of bullies and boring classes to keep you company.
Nor was it spent groggily with six other people to worry about, and arguments to expect with a rambunctious blonde who has the stamina of a god.
They made small talk over the breakfast, cracking jokes and generally conversing. Tsuna talked mostly about the new classwork and some of the things he learned about by reading the textbooks. Reborn, on the other end of the scale, asked questions and talked about the history of the Earth which he learned about.
It was simply perfect.
The day had run smoothly, with little to no complications at all. Reborn had been surprisingly lenient, staying in the dormitory all day as per Tsunayoshi's request.
This, however, had not stopped him from looking around the entire dorm and invading the Sawada's privacy. He had immediately noticed that the brunette did not own any photo albums of his family or any photos at all. The ones he did have were of nature.
Sunsets, forests, flowers, and other beautiful pictures were all stuffed into photo albums which were stored on the bookshelves in Tsunayoshi's bedroom. Many were yellowed with age, especially the ones which were printed on regular printer paper, but the colours still held strong and vibrant through the glossy plastic they were laminated in.
They were all aesthetically pleasing. Still, no matter how many times Reborn flicked through every single photo album he found, he could not see a single picture of an actual person.
Whether it was the Sawada himself or the family as a whole, he didn't care. It was almost strange to see this- someone who did not have any photos of his family or friends.
For all Reborn knows, he could have pictures on his phone or laptop of his friends but never printed them out, though it was unlikely. Tsuna was not one to do that.
He holds his friends close to his heart.
Giving up entirely on the photo albums, Reborn huffed and walked over to the wardrobe which was settled quite close to the king bed in the centre of the room.
Suddenly, he swung open the doors of the closet and scanned the inside of it. He immediately noticed some essential items which were stored inside of the wardrobe: a couple of medium sized canvases, a box of sketchbooks (most of which were old) and pretty boxes with paintbrushes, pens, fine liners, and other artsy supplies.
There were, however, two tightly sealed cardboard boxes right at the back of the closet which gave them the appearance of the cliche moving boxes you would see in movies and TV shows, sometimes even games.
"Renato? What are you doing?" A soft voice sounded behind him. Knowing that he was already caught red-handed, he decided that replying truthfully was the best course of action.
"I was bored."
The boy huffed, but soon spotted the various cardboard boxes and art supplies scattered across the floor of the wardrobe. "I haven't used any of those in a while..." The boy seemed to be pondering something before he shook his head and turned on his heel.
"Come on. You promised that you'd help me change the sorting in the kitchen!" He beckoned, a child-like glint shining in his equally child-like eyes. The raven rolled his eyes, huffing at how easily swayed he was.
Even though the older male had begrudgingly agreed, no amount of pep talk he gave himself could prepare him for the seemingly endless supply of tools and food hidden away in the deepest corners of the kitchen cupboards.
"Jesus Christ, are you preparing for a zombie apocalypse?" Reborn muttered, looking at a dozen bags of pasta of all shapes, sizes and lengths.
If Tsuna did hear that snide comment, he pretended to be ignorant towards it, happily taking out pots and pans from the higher storage areas and stacking them on the tiled flooring.
The raven was beginning to regret his promise of helping the brunette, taking out boxes of bagged rice, pancake mix, hot chocolate mix, cereal, cans of tuna, baked beans, pickles and other foods which were stored in the endless storage units close to the floor.
Once they had finally taken all of it out, the two had stripped down to shorts and short sleeved shirts, and the tiled floor could no longer be seen under the stacked food and utensils.
The brunette turned to the taller male, giving him a heart-stopping grin. "Well, the brunt of it is done. Now, we just put them inside!" The Sawada commented.
Huffing, the raven ran a hand through his dark hair (his head was getting too heated to wear the stylish fedora). Though, he couldn't help but think that the countless hours of manual labour he had completed by just taking out the bags and boxes and whatnot had all been worth it when he looked over at the enthusiastic brown-haired male.
There was a clear shine shimmering in his beautiful, honey brown eyes. It was that spark of life that the ravenette loved to see in the younger's eyes.
Softly smiling to himself and sighing, he shook his head before he began to place the various assorted bags, boxes and cans into the higher cupboards. It was then that Reborn had remembered the boxes and letters, which still sat dormant on the table.
Tsuna will probably open them later anyway, he thought, dismissing them all together.
Although they were only halfway through putting back the items, they were both feeling worn out from the constant motion.
It took a while, and they ended up leaving some of the pans, utensils and canned foods out while they went to bed. "Renato?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Do you think that I'll ever get a contract- I mean, not for combat or anything but... A contract with a summon so that they're like my companion?"
The raven paused for a couple of moments, looking over at the brunette. While Reborn was laying flat on his back with one of his arms behind his head, Tsuna was laying down on his stomach with one of his arms folded and settled as a pillow for his head.
His other arm was cuddled up close to his body. A simple, black blanket was strewn across both of them, covering their lower halves.
Many thoughts began to circle the Nerilian's mind at that moment, beautiful and blossoming ideas being thrown into the mix as well. Mischievous schemes filled his mind like a pool, not stopping for a single second.
In spite of having to wait for the lengthy amount of time, the Sawada still waited patiently for the ravenette to finish his train of thought.
The brunette had always been quite patient, perhaps too patient for his good, as he would wait for hours to be acknowledged by his family in the past.
It was a habit for him now, a sort of expectant gaze stuck on his face whenever he did wait. He found different ways to amuse himself when he did. One of these was inspecting things in the backgrounds of things.
His observant eyes would meticulously scan paintings, portraits, furniture, wallpapers, doors, engravings, sculptures and so many other wondrous background items while he waited.
The picture his eyes were glued to currently was an old favourite of his; it was a landscape drawing. It depicted a beautiful path with many trees lining it. The painting was painted to be looked at as a first-person piece, as shown by the road starting wide right at the bottom front of the canvas, and stretched out to become gradually smaller.
A perspective piece, in short. The trees were large and tall at the sides, and it appeared as though the painting was first drawn onto the canvas using a reference, as it was hard to believe that one could achieve the perfectly correct placement for the trees otherwise.
No matter how good the artist was, one could not paint a perspective piece by merely creating the image inside of your inner thoughts and projecting it onto the new base.
The branches were covered with pretty pink cherry blossoms, with a couple of stray petals being added onto the path and air to give the illusion of the painting being real. Some petals which were painted onto the edges of the canvas had been continued on the wall itself.
It was a very realistic picture, almost as if you could reach out and feel the rough bark under your fingertips, stroke the silky petals and feel the bumps in the path which had eventually been covered by copious amounts of cherry blossoms.
"Yeah. You will," the raven finally said, smiling and turning his head to Tsunayoshi.
"How do you know?"
"Because. I know I would make a contract with you."
--={&}=--
Painting the sky with millions of shades of auburn, orange, yellow, pink and blue, the sun rose painstakingly slow. Some small white stars could still be seen, and the moon was ever present in its crescent form amongst the barrage of colour.
The clouds, which were ordinarily white and fluffy, had been dabbled with pink and gold highlights and shadows as they, too, travelled slowly across the sky.
Now, with the addition of the colours and clouds, the sky did not look so barren as it usually would have on a clear day, with only the bright and shining sun to keep it from looking mundane.
Many people were still peacefully enjoying their slumber, while others had begun to wake from the pleasant dreams they held close to their hearts.
Some may have had a horrifying nightmare, snapping out of their unconscious state abruptly unlike the natural, calm way the other people would have woken.
Birds of various shapes, sizes and breeds have started to sing and chirp their morning music while they flew around their nests and the trees. Sadly, the cherry blossoms which had previously coated the branches had already wilted.
In their place, luscious green leaves blossomed out of even the smallest branches. Although it was only mid-spring, the leaves emerged one after the other at a rapid pace.
The paved pathways were tinted with warmth, yet the robust, grey colour of the bricks still shone through. Sitting on the rim of one of the many fountains dotting the campus of the academy, was a boy with an A5 sketch pad settled in his lap.
Behind him, the crystal clear water glittered and reflected the burnt orange hues. "You still need to open the letters you got yesterday," a voice reminded.
The boy turned, hair swaying with the slight head movement before he sighed and returned to sketching on the spiral-bound sketchbook paper. "I will don't worry too much about it."
The man huffed, his face stoic as per usual. His hand reached into his pocket before they appeared again with a couple of letters neatly bunched together in their grasp. He nudged them towards the artist, offering the paper envelopes.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
Tsuna snatched the envelopes, sifting through them quickly before he paused and looked at one of them. Red wax sealed the flap of the envelope- the crest on the seal was a simple shield in the centre with a bullet standing vertically inside of it.
Two shotguns were crisscrossed above the shield, with a clam which had wings attached to it nestled at the meeting point of the rifles. Many swirled, feather-like patterns surrounded it and eventually led to a small banner at the bottom with the name "VONGOLA" printed onto it in capital letters.
The Vongola family crest.
The Sawada checked the other side to see if the letter was, indeed, posted to him and not some other relative as he believed.
He opened the envelope. The brunette had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew what was inside the dreaded thing but still checked inside to make sure.
The letter inside was written entirely by hand in beautiful, swooping script. It read:
Dear Tsunayoshi,
We are pleased to invite you to the annual Vongola family meeting on Saturday the 14th of April. The meeting will be held at Vongola mansion, Sicily, Italy as per usual.
Please bring formal attire and clothing for a stay of precisely two days. Routinely, your travel expenses have been paid in advance, and your ticket and flight number will be provided in an email shortly.
You are allowed to bring a total of four guests with you if you wish. This includes friends and summons you may be contracted with/have acquired since the last meeting.
The stay at Vongola mansion will begin on the 14th of April and will commence on the 15th with Monday 16th of April being the day of departure for all guests invited to the event. Please give us your reply as soon as possible so that we will be able to arrange the flight for any additional guests you may wish to bring.
Yours Sincerely,
Giotto di Vongola.
"And so it begins," Tsunayoshi let out a sigh, his drooping expression low. Although it was clear his mood was foul, Reborn could not help but watched as the remains of the morning light bathed his face with light and warmth.
The boy looked almost angelic, with the contours of his face being carefully mapped out by the rays and the colour of his eyes being intensified by the hues.
Reborn sat down next to the boy, quickly scanning the contents of the letter himself before slouching his posture slightly. "I can come with you if you'd like."
Tsuna turned to the older. "You would really do that for me?" He asked, almost hopeful at the offhanded proposal.
The raven nodded, looking out to watch the rest of the sunrise with the soft sounds of the rushing water behind them. Tsuna smiled, leaning his head onto the ravenette. Maybe this meeting won't be so bad after all.
Edited: 15-10-2018