Summary: Reborn had just come home from a mission to discover that Tsuna was with Yamamoto. With his emotions in turmoil, he lost control and lashed out at the brunet. Will he be able to repair things before it's too late? 5YL! R27

Note: Byakuran was defeated and everything is back to normal.

Unbeta'd

Disclaimer: Akira Amano owns Katekyo Hitman Reborn

His shoes clacked softly on the immaculate floor of the Vongola mansion as the hitman made his way to Tsuna's office. His hands were shoved into his pockets and his eyes glanced around warily for anyone awake at this early hour. So far the coast was clear, and he intended it to stay that way.

Reborn had just returned from his mission (which had taken a month longer than planned) and was making his way to the office to file his report, as well as check up on his student. He was eager to see his student again and, seeing as it was still early morning, he might have the pleasure of waking the brunet up (if Tsuna still had the habit of falling asleep while doing paperwork late at night). It was a habit, a pastime that he still greatly enjoyed. The sadistic hitman loved the pained expressions that the young Don Vongola made whenever he was caught off guard –which was still quite often. There were times when he was nice enough to allow the brunet to sleep in, but those occasions were extremely rare. So, since Tsuna had an extra month of 'relaxation' (he was sure that Tsuna had avoided the majority of the paperwork during the month that he was gone on his mission), he was ready to get Tsuna back to work.

The creaking sound of a door opening caused Reborn to halt in his tracks and hide behind one of the many potted plants in the mansion, concealing his presence perfectly like the skilled hitman he was. The door that opened was one further down the hall that Reborn was heading down and, upon further inspection, it appeared to be the door to Yamamoto's room. The hitman's eyes narrowed in response, watching as two people, a brunet and a raven, came out of the room together, laughing cheerfully. Reborn was confused. What was his student doing up so early, and in Yamamoto's room?

Something flared in Reborn's chest; an unknown feeling unlike anything that he had ever experienced. He felt hurt, jealous, possessive. But he didn't know why. Reborn had a strong urge to shoot the raven with a few rounds, smirking evilly as the image of the fallen Rain Guardian came to mind.

Tsuna was his.

He blinked at the thought, not understanding why that thought came to mind or his feelings were in turmoil inside of him.

A cry of farewell had him looking up, unclenching his hands (when did he make then into fists?) as he peered around the plant in front of him. Yamamoto was waving farewell to Tsuna and currently heading in the hitman's direction. Reborn had no reason to worry –his presence was completely hidden and Yamamoto walked past him without even a glance in his direction. Once Yamamoto had turned the corner, Reborn straightened his fedora and walked back into the hallway, purposely heading toward the brunet with alarming speed until–

"HHIIIIEEEEEEEE!"

–he unceremoniously smacked the brunet on the head, flattening the chocolate-brown locks. With a large pout and tears forming at the corners of his eyes, Tsuna turned around to face Reborn. His expression immediately turned into one of shock and disbelief –why the latter was there, Reborn didn't know but its presence just got him more riled up.

"What were you doing? Slacking off again?" he growled, killer intent seeping out of him as he stared at the brunet. Tsuna's eyes were red and puffy –most likely from crying– and there were prominent bags under his eyes. It looked as if he had been crying himself to sleep, and for a while too. Reborn's eyes narrowed and the feeling flared inside him again, growing stronger and difficult to control. He really wanted to shoot some bullets at the Rain Guardian; how dare he make Tsuna cry!

Instead he decided to vent his anger on his student before him, reasoning that it was partially Tsuna's fault for being with the Rain Guardian in the first place.

"Training room. Now," he said before Tsuna could say anything about his sudden appearance or rather rude greeting. The brunet immediately paled in fear, able to sense the killer intent Reborn was emitting in deadly waves. Knowing that there was no room for argument, he slowly followed Reborn to the training room, dreading the fate that awaited him due to Reborn's sudden anger.

It's been almost 4 hours since they entered the training room and Reborn wasn't letting up one bit. Tsuna was covered in nicks and bruises, his clothes scorched from the combination of his flames and the gunpowder from the bullets. He was exhausted; his body felt as if it was made of lead and his flames were barely more than wisps, rapidly draining his remaining energy as he tried to dodge every attack that came at him.

"R-Reborn..." he panted between gasps of breath as he barely dodged another round of bullets, "Can we take a break?"

"No."

Tsuna stumbled from exhaustion before ducking to the side to dodge a bomb thrown in his direction. The sound of the explosion resonated throughout the room, the impact throwing Tsuna a few inches from the blast, and it was a few seconds before anything could be heard. It took a while before Tsuna could muster the energy to get up from his fallen state, struggling to get off the ground. Reborn stood where he was, breathing heavily from the training as he stared blankly at Tsuna, confusion evident on his face. After mustering up the energy, Tsuna stood and limped over to where Reborn stood and reached up to cup the hitman's cheek in his hand –he took off his X-gloves while walking– and felt Reborn flinch slightly in his grasp. His intuition was telling him that there was something wrong, that Reborn wasn't acting like his usual self. It wasn't hard to tell. Even with his sadistic nature, Reborn never pushed him this far over his limits, and definitely without reason. "Is there something wrong?"

Reborn's expression turned sour, his jaw clenching slightly under Tsuna's grasp. "Nothing."

Tsuna frowned, gazing into the dark onyx eyes before continuing quietly. "It's obviously something. You're mad at me. What did I do?"

*SLAP*

Tsuna landed on the floor with a thud and a painful cry as his hand was slapped away from Reborn, the force enough to knock him off his feet in his exhausted state. "W-what was that for?!" he exclaimed, nursing his injured hand and bottom. The anger on Reborn's face changed into one of disbelief as he realized what he just did. The hitman was always known for his control over his emotions and yet with that one incident… He had snapped.

"I-I..." He was speechless, unable to come up with words to explain. As he was struggling to come up with words to explain, Tsuna stood up, bangs hiding his expression from view.

"Fine. I see how it is," he said coldly, before running out the door and slamming it shut behind him. The sound jolted Reborn out of his thoughts and brought back the reality of what he did. He cursed, lifting his fedora and running his hands through his spiky black locks before placing the fedora back on his head. The sound of the door opening caused him to turn to face the newcomer, inwardly hoping that it was Tsuna despite how unlikely it was after what he did. Instead, the door opened to reveal Yamamoto, the usually cheerful Rain Guardian, with a grim look on his face.

"What did you do to Tsuna?" His voice was serious, having none of its previous cheerfulness as his eyes narrowed. He must have bumped into Tsuna in the hallway. "He ran out of here limping and crying." Reborn scoffed, not wanting to explain the mistakes in his actions and turned to face away from the angry Rain Guardian.

Which was a mistake.

Before he knew it, Reborn was attacked by Rain flames, barely managing to jump out of the way in time. After training endlessly with his student right after coming back from a long mission, his reflexes were slow and his body felt sluggish. It was a huge mistake on his part, and after 5 years of intense training to make sure they could survive as the next successors of the Vongola, the strength of the Guardians rivaled even the Arcobalenos'. Reborn didn't deny that he was impressed by the progress they had made over the years –they were trained by the best after all– but now wasn't the time. He turned to face the Rain Guardian and growled with barely hidden anger; he was in no mood to fight and his thoughts were already in turmoil.

The Rain Guardian stood still, facing slightly away to hide his expression from the hitman. His ring hand was clenched and his other hand held a opened box weapon. Koujirou flapped next to his shoulder, facing Reborn as if ready to attack with another wave of rain flames at its master's command.

"He was worried." Yamamoto's voice cracked, strained. It sounded as if the Rain hasn't been sleeping well either. Reborn was about to retort angrily when Yamamoto kept talking. "He was worried that something had happened. He would hide it during the day, of course, as id to reassure us that nothing was wrong. But we all knew better. And this past week everyone else was on missions. I made to stay back and watch over him while everyone else was gone. Each day it got worse; he had nightmares of losing you, that you were captured and tortured. It got to the point where he could only sleep with the help of my Flames, and even then it was only for a bit." He grit his teeth, shoulders tense in anger. "And then you came back and hurt him. What type of greeting is that?"

Reborn stood in shock as the reality and cause of Tsuna's lack of sleep and exhaustion hit him.

Tsuna was worried.

About him.

It was true that the mission had taken him longer than it normally would, and he hasn't bothered to contact Headquarters in any way while he was out on the field. When seeking comfort, it was obvious that his student would seek out the Rain, who could easily ease his concerns and fears with his tranquil and carefree personality. He cursed, upset that he had jumped to conclusions and assumed that Tsuna and Yamamoto were together. It was an amateur mistake and now, because of that mistake, the brunet was most likely upset at him.

Now he had to fix the misunderstanding.

"I..." What could he say? Would he even be forgiven with a simple apology?

Yamamoto glanced up and calmed slightly he saw the expressions on Reborn's face, somehow managing to make an accurate guess at what the hitman was thinking. Once he was certain that Reborn had realized and understood what actually occurred –and what a grave mistake he made– he spoke softly. "You really like Tsuna, don't you?" The hitman's head snapped up to face the Rain Guardian upon hearing his words, a look of incredulity plastered on his usually expressionless face.

"… Huh?" To say that he was surprised was an understatement. It was obvious that Yamamoto wasn't only talking about how much he cared for the brunet, but the feelings of possessiveness that he felt and displayed quite openly with his recent actions.

His thoughts were interrupted once again, this time by Yamamoto's soft chuckles echoing in the room they were in. "No wonder you reacted that way." He smiled, washing away all anger like the carefree rain that he was. "You should go find Tsuna. I'm sure everything will work out then." And with his last words of wisdom, Yamamoto left the training room, leaving the stunned hitman to organize his thoughts and feelings before going to make amends with Tsuna.

Reborn opened the door to his student's room and slid in, closing it shut behind him. The door to the balcony was cracked open and there were no lights on in the room, which meant that Tsuna was outside on the balcony. Purposely allowing his shoes to clack on the hard floor, he headed toward the balcony and pushed the door all the way open. Tsuna was leaning over the railing, his head resting in his crossed arms as he gazed into the horizon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun shone brightly from above, providing a warmth for everyone to enjoy.

The hitman walked over next to his student, before tilting his head back slightly to allow the wind to blow through his signature curls. Tsuna didn't react or acknowledge his presence, continuing to stare at the scenery in front of him. Reborn turned to face Tsuna, hands holding onto the railing as he noticed the tear tracks down the sides of his students face. Sighing, he knew that an apology was in order. After a moment of hesitation, and still no movement from the brunet next to him, he spoke. "… I'm sorry."

There was no movement from either of them as they stood there on the balcony. After several minutes passed, Reborn leaned back and sighed again. "Tsuna, what do I have to do so you talk to me?" Tsuna knew that the silent treatment was childish and more likely to get Reborn mad at him again, but he couldn't help it. His feelings were hurt; after spending so much time worrying for his tutor's wellbeing, this occurred. He wasn't going to let Reborn get away with a simple apology even if this was the first time he heard an apology from the hitman.

Lifting his fedora off his head to run a hand through his black locks, Reborn inwardly relented to his feelings and decided to save explanations for later.

"… I love you." Tsuna's head snapped in his direction and the hitman knew that he finally had the undivided attention of his student. "I saw you coming out of Yamamoto's room this morning and I…" Reborn trailed off, unable to continue.

When he saw the brunet with Yamamoto, he was overwhelmed with rage and jealousy. As a hitman in the dark underworld of the Mafia, he didn't have any experience with such feelings. Sure, his experiences and missions had brought him in contact with similar feelings, but never he had experienced them for himself, and he never thought he actually would. This had led to confusion and misunderstanding on his part, one that he was hoping to clear up. Now that he was able to recognize his feelings for what they were –though when did they actually develop, he still had no idea– he had no problem accepting them.

The only question was, would Tsuna forgive him for his actions…

… and would he return his feelings?

A few more minutes passed in silence, Tsuna having already turned away back to face the horizon when it was apparent that Reborn wouldn't say any more. Reborn watched his student's movements closely, looking for any sign of forgiveness, acceptance, rejection. There were none and Reborn was about to lose hope when he heard a soft voice.

"… baka." His eyes widened as Tsuna turned around to face him once again, new tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "It took you that long…?" Tears began flowing freely now, as Reborn understood Tsuna's feelings.

Tsuna had also developed feelings for Reborn. It had started during the Arcobaleno Trials, when the lives of the Arcobaleno were threatened. The young brunet realized that he couldn't live without his tutor, and this feeling strengthened when Reborn had left for a week after the Trials ended to report to the Ninth. He had never expected his feelings to be returned and was happy just having Reborn around every day. But now…

Reborn allowed a smile to appear on his face –not a smirk, a genuine smile. He walked over to the now-crying brunet and enveloped him in a comforting hug, allowing the soft chocolate-brown locks to tickle his chin as he rubbed soothing circles on the brunet's back. Tsuna returned the hug, hands clenching the hitman's shirt tightly as the fabric absorbed his tears.

Once he stopped crying, he looked up to face Reborn, the man who had changed his life. Back when he first met him, he was certain that his life had changed for the worse. But now…

"… I love you too."

… it was definitely worth everything he went through to get to this point.

A/N: Well this is probably late. But happy Valentine's everyone ^^ this was actually written a year or two ago and I dug this out and fixed it up for today.

I hope I didn't make Reborn too OoC... and just in case no one realized, Tsuna's intuition picked up on what Reborn meant and he pieced together why Reborn reacted the way he did. Um.. yea.

I hope you enjoyed this fic and see you in the next update~

Ciao ciao~

Pikachu

Published 15th February 2015