Bonding is never easy
“Tsuna.”
“...”
“Tsu—na!”
Tsuna continued to ignore Iemitsu, walking further and further away from his father. Or, at least he tried to, considering that he heard two sets of footsteps trailing not too far behind him.
He really didn’t have a set destination in mind because currently, Tsuna had absolutely no freaking idea as to where the hell they were at.
“Fuuta,” Iemitsu sobbed out, “Tsuna’s upset with papa again and he won’t tell me why…”
He stopped and gave the man a cross look. “Because you were the cause of this! It’s like five in the morning and we’re on some hill or mountain in the middle of nowhere! Seriously, are we still even in Japan?! It’s freezing cold and Fuuta’s here when he was supposed to be in Italy with Basil!” He huffed angrily before he frowned in confusion. “How exactly did you manage to get Fuuta caught up in this mess?”
Iemitsu pouted at his son. “Tsuna, I promise you papa didn’t cause this mess, honest! All I did was ask Reborn for some advice on family bonding.”
Tsuna stared at him— hard . “You asked Reborn for advice...on family bonding .”
“Of course!” Iemitsu said with a wide grin. “He’s been a friend of mine for years.”
Tsuna groaned in frustration. Of course this was Reborn’s fault. He really should have known better that to give the actual devil himself the benefit of the doubt.
“...plus he knows my son best,” Iemitsu added quietly. Tsuna was about to open his mouth to ask what he meant by that when Fuuta ran up to him, gripping at his jacket.
“Tsuna-nii, Reborn told me that we were coming here to make snowmen!”
Tsuna looked at him in disbelief.
“Fuuta…”
“Hmm? What is it Tsuna-nii?” he asked, eyes bright with excitement.
As if Tsuna could say no to that face—a fact that Fuuta exploited way too often.
He sighed, giving him a small, tired smile. “I guess it won’t hurt to make snowmen for a little bit...even if it is at this hour...”
“Really? Yay, thank you Tsuna-nii!” Fuuta exclaimed cheerfully, giving the mafia boss a quick hug. He ran off in the distance, yelling back that he would find the perfect materials for their snowmen. Tsuna sighed, shaking his head fondly.
Mafioso or not, Fuuta was still just a child. It made Tsuna sad to think of all the childhood the boy had been deprived of, but moments like these gave him a bit of hope that not all was lost.
(Even if it meant they had to stick around this place for a couple more hours.)
Tsuna jumped when he felt a heavy hand pat his shoulder, Iemitsu looking at him proudly. “You’ve really grown, you know that Tsuna?”
Tsuna turned to face him, confused. “What do you mean by that?”
Iemitsu held his chin thoughtfully, “It used to be that you didn’t really bother with anyone outside of your little bubble before. But now,” he smiled at Tsuna, “you have your very own famiglia who loves you as much as you love them. Your little world has really expanded Tsuna...papa’s proud of how far you’ve come.”
Tsuna wasn’t sure what to say.
Iemitsu had a point. Before Reborn came into his life, he really didn’t care much for others, just for himself and mama. But once he got involved with the mafia stuff, he found his little circle growing and growing, people calling themselves his allies and family.
(And in turn, Tsuna found himself thinking of them as some of his closest friends.)
“Tsuna-nii!” The two turned to see a faint figure running towards them in the distance, waving his arms. Fuuta almost collapsed when he reached them, Iemitsu steadying him. He smiled at them, his joy overcoming his exhaustion, and held his palm open so that they could see what he was so excited about. “Look...look at what I got! Isn’t it pretty?”
Tsuna paled. “Fuuta...this...this looks like a claw.”
Fuuta shook his head, handing it to Iemitsu, who stared at it with sharp eyes. “No, Tsuna-nii, it doesn’t look like a claw, it is a claw!”
Tsuna’s face paled even more. “W-Where did you find it….?” he asked, already fearing the worst.
Fuuta looked thoughtful. “There was this thing that—”
“Thing?!”
“Mhm! I used my ranking ability on it and it freaked out really badly….” he scratched his head, sounding a little guilty, “and it just dropped the claw! I thought it would make a really cool nose for the snowman!”
“Oh? Not a bad find, Fuuta!”
“Dad, don’t encourage him!”
Iemitsu hummed, carefully inspecting it. “Almost looks like it belongs to—”
“HIE!!” Tsuna screamed as a large creature came within view from the direction Fuuta had just come back from. Upon closer inspection, it was missing a claw. One that was currently in their possession. And the creature looked, really, really , pissed off.
Now, Tsuna’s had his fair share of awful encounters—some being Reborn’s fault, others not so much—but this ….this wasn’t going to end well at all.
The creature stomped closer to the group, raising a long, bulky arm towards Tsuna, which elicited another scream from him. In his haste to scramble out of the thing’s reach, Tsuna tripped backwards.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the fact that they were most certainly on a mountain side, and Tsuna was now rolling down it at an increasingly fast pace…..
...in the form of a snowball.
“Tsuna!”
“Tsuna-nii!”
“Grrr!”
‘’I’M GOING TO THROW UP!’
When he came to, Tsuna found himself lying on a comfortable bed, warm covers wrapped around him. He sat up with a groan, holding his head.
“Where...where am—HIE!” He shrieked when he noticed that Fuuta, his father, and the creature were all sitting by a fireplace, each holding a hot cup of what smelled to be coffee.
“Wha….wha—”
“Oh! Tsuna you’re finally awake, “ Iemitsu said cheerfully, setting his cup down. He walked over to the bedside, smiling brightly at him. “How do you feel?”
“Dad.”
“Hmm? What is it Tsuna?”
“Why are you having coffee with...with,” Tsuna motioned towards the creature, “with him?! Wasn’t he out to get us?”
“Haha, don’t worry Tsuna, it’s just Dr. Neve! He came to deliver materials that Reborn sent but,” Iemitsu chuckled, “looks like he got spooked by Fuuta’s ability.”
Tsuna stared at his father. “So...so this guy….” he turned to look at the cre— pardon , at Dr. Neve, who waved at him, “he’s part of Vongola…?”
“Yup!” Fuuta chimed in. “And again, I’m really sorry I surprised you! I’ll make sure to be careful about it next time!”
“Gr, rr grrrrrr rrrrr grrrr, grgr rrrrrr grrrgr,” Dr Neve chuckled heartily, waving off the boy’s concerns.
Tsuna slumped back on the bed. He really couldn’t keep up with the turn of events.
Iemitsu stood up, smiling cheerfully.
Oh no.
“Now that we have the settled, who's ready to build some snowmen!”
“Dad!”
“I do!”
“Fuuta!”
Tsuna looked up when he felt a hand….er, a paw on his shoulder. He looked up to see Dr Neve giving him a “good-luck-dealing-with-this-face”. The young boss groaned loudly.
“I JUST WANT TO GO HOME ALREADY!”