That Is All, For Now – The Sequel

Summary: It's been two weeks. She couldn't forget that night and he couldn't pinpoint his own feelings. Cue another appearance from Alexandro and some secrets-spilling.

Disclaimer: If I told you I own KHR, I would've been shot by Reborn quite a number of times.

A/N: Due to your requests and my own itching hands, I've decided to at least put up another chapter! Thank you all for the reviews and I hope you're going to enjoy this one as I do typing it… Buona lettura!

Warning: Some parts may not make any sense to you at all or a little cliché, maybe too OOC. I was typing 'If We Were Any Different – Version 2' at the same time (If only you knew the content!); plus I might be losing my mind a little.

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'It's wrong to be yearning for his touch again,' thought Tsuna as she strolled past the rose bushes in the garden.

It had been two weeks since the 'incident', and Tsuna couldn't help but let her mind wandered itself back to the safest night she'd felt to this day of her life.

She had woken up early then, on the next morning; there were paperwork waiting for her in the office. Her face facing the cool air, she tried to pry herself off someone's protective cage around her, her mind still foggy with sleep. It was when the arms holding her captive tightened around her that her mind registered that she was in the embrace of one world's greatest hitman. Before she could do anything about it, her mind discarded the thought earlier as she realized of the frown above his brows.

How vulnerable he had looked then was the only thing that clouded Tsuna's mind as she continued her walk, her thoughts still lingering on reminiscing that night; not noticing the slight blush that had adorned her cheeks.

That morning, she had felt the immense urge to reach out her hands to touch him; if only to soothe the frown away.

Too bad she had to realize the position they were in.

She could felt the shriek building up in her throat, and when it was about to burst out of her, a calloused hand had clamped itself onto her mouth.

With her head facing Reborn's clothed chest – the man had slept in his suit and all, while she had turned around earlier to study who was it that was bold enough to sleep on the Vongola Tenth's bed – she slowly turned upwards to face the supposedly not so sleeping man; only to meet with sleepy, tired onyx eyes.

Nearby, her clock sounded and she knew it was just 6 o'clock in the morning. The poor man probably only had roughly two hours of sleep.

"Keep it down, Dame-Tsuna. I'm trying to sleep here," his tired voice rang through the quiet room as he reached one of his arms out to stop the annoying ringing.

And then, he went back to sleep, still having poor Tsuna caged within his arms; not that she minded… much.

There was still paperwork waiting for her to finish, damn it! She could imagine the piling mountain in her office, three halls away, increased itself by the minute; no, scratch that, second!

But the prospect of sleeping in was gaining on her; it wouldn't hurt to get more sleep right? After all, most of her nights were sleepless due to the shadows anyway. And so, sleep it was.

When she next woke up in the same day at 11.38am, Reborn was already gone and in his place was the shadow of a young child sitting with a gleeful smile, patiently waiting for her; a beautiful black-haired girl by the name of Kotonami Risa.

Risa passed away when she was five due to a malignant brain tumor that was caught too late; she had died peacefully but went to Tsuna's side whenever she felt like playing with the older girl. She was probably the only shadow that Tsuna willingly accept in her life; for when she was there, the other shadows, namely Alexandro, would leave her alone. Besides, she would never resent the presence of the young girl that made her smile after a particularly strong emotional 'attack' from the others.

Now, as Tsuna strolled around the gardens of the Vongola Mansion, Risa was running around, giggling as she waved the older girl forward, urging her to walk faster. Tsuna smiled slightly as the younger girl was having fun, even though she knew she was the only one seeing it, and tried to discard any thoughts she had earlier to enjoy the moment.

Up on a balcony facing said garden, a man stood; his faithful green companion sitting patiently on the brim of his fedora. His sharp gaze was following one particular woman weaving her way through the maze of rose bushes, talking cheerily to her own self at intervals. It was as though someone invisible was there; someone that only Tsuna could see.

Reborn narrowed his eyes when Tsuna was seemingly directed to look somewhere near his position; and for a brief moment, he thought he saw a young black-haired girl pointing at him with her other hand holding onto the hem of Tsuna's skirt.

Then, as the older girl's eyes landed on him, he could see, faintly because of the distance, a blush began forming on her cheeks before she looked away; looking down to the air on her left – where the black-haired girl was supposed to be standing earlier – and stuttered a few unintelligible words. Her gaze travelled back to him once more after that and later, she hurriedly went away from the maze, towards who-knows-where.

Reborn smirked slightly before settling for a frown. He needed to know what was going on, especially since he, himself, seemed to be unable to control his body from moving closer to Tsuna unconsciously.

Tsuna, on the other hand, could feel her heart pounding painfully in her chest; a certain hitman in mind.

What was she doing really?! She couldn't answer. Just moments ago, Risa had been pointing her to see a particularly rare blue butterfly; an extremely rare one to be found in Italy. Of course she had complied with the young girl's – shadow's – request; she could never deny the request of a child, living or otherwise.

She was intent on searching for said butterfly that was being pointed out for her when her eyes landed on the balcony our favorite hitman with his trusty chameleon was lounging on. Their eyes could've met for a second, but Tsuna couldn't be sure as the moment she saw him, she'd turned her head away, face flushing as red as a tomato.

And then she'd escaped, after stuttering that she'd find the butterfly on another part of the mansion while the younger of the two just smiled knowingly – as though there was a hidden secret that Tsuna had been missing out on – and disappeared as Tsuna made her way to the pool; which was a bad decision on her part.

The Olympic size pool was just a little ways from the rose maze garden she was in before.

Relishing in the quiet since Risa had disappeared, Tsuna thought of it as an opportunity to meditate.

It was to practice on heightening her senses; or so, her tutor had said once.

Opening her mind up to her surroundings, Tsuna sat down, by the side of the pool; her feet bared and soaked in the crystal clear aqua.

With her eyes closed, Tsuna took in the cool atmosphere; the gentle waves of the pool caused by the wind, the calming breeze that caressed her cheeks every now and then, the lulling sounds of her own breathing… and even the sound of well-muted approaching footsteps. Wait a minute… footsteps?

Startled, Tsuna stood up and turned around immediately; her back facing the waters with her feet slightly over the edge as her eyes scanned around for danger.

After a while of utter silence, Tsuna decided that it was just her imagination playing on her; except, she was starting to feel a chill creeping down her spine.

Fear gripped her being more than it would if she were to face Xanxus or Byakuran again, be it in the battle for the rings or to solve the conflict of the future; it was a sign, a premonition that the shadows – the ones that scared her most – were coming for a visit. Where was Risa when she needed her? The young girl was her shield most of the other times except that one night she had spent with Reborn.

Her feet touched the freezing cold waters and when she thought, hopefully, that the sign was just a false alarm, the face of one Alexandro appeared exactly a mere three or four inches away from hers. Pure shock rippled from her heart and it turned into fear in just a few milliseconds. She fell into the pool in the autumn chill. Alexandro disappeared; probably satisfied at what he had accomplished.

Tsuna, on the other hand, was struggling to get out of the ice cold water. She had felt, somewhere in her semiconscious, that Alexandro had gone away; but that didn't mean that the others had went with him.

No, there were other spiteful shadows out there, wishing for her downfall; for what reasons, she had no inkling of. Maybe it was because of the sin of her Vongola blood, maybe it was just a curse placed upon her by some superstitious person; but it wasn't her main concern at the moment, she's drowning for goodness sake!

Her eyes were closed in her struggle to get out of the water; her lungs were filled with water with the passing of each second. Her breathing started to fail her and Tsuna wasn't sure if she had shed any tear at all as her consciousness started failing her.

Outside of the deep pool, Reborn was just walking into the very pool where he thought Tsuna had gone to. He was about to turn around and leave the place since his favorite subject of torture was nowhere in sight; but call it his hitman's intuition – his pride would not allow it to be anything else – he had ruled against that thought and had continued walking towards the eerily calm surface of the water.

Well, it was a huge shock to him – anyone would be extremely shocked actually – to see that under the calm surface of the icy chlorine-scented aqua, a certain brunette was fighting to break out onto the surface; breaking out of what, no one but she knew.

Without wasting any more time, he plunged – suit and all – into the freezing aqua and pulled out one unconscious Vongola Decimo after much trashing about. He concluded that the girl had probably breathed too much of the pool water into her lungs and had, without a second thought, performed a mouth to mouth respiration on the girl.

Reborn started panicking when his third try to revive his Tsuna failed. He counted vehemently as he pushed at her abdomen, willing her to spew out the water out of her body; his mind was in a panicked frenzy due to his worry of the frail looking girl in his arms.

For the fourth time in the past few minutes that had felt like hours, Reborn pumped on Tsuna's heart again before placing his lips on hers, blowing air into her water-filled lungs, willing for her to come back to him; for him. And this time, he succeeded.

Water, mixed with saliva and mucus alike, was spewed out from the young brunette as she coughed out loud; gasping for air, hungrily taking the much needed oxygen into her body before she screamed once and all energy seemed to leave her, collapsing on top of the relieved-looking hitman.

Later would find the duo locked within Reborn's room, both changed out of their wet clothes. Tsuna's Guardians were worried of course, for their beloved boss' safety, but Reborn was with her at the moment so they thought that she would be safe so they had gone on with their missions and whatnot; thought.

Well, sure Reborn was Tsuna's personal tutor for so long, but they had forgotten that it was when the man was in his baby form; when he was still cursed as an arcobaleno, when Checker Face was still well and alive before passing on to the void a few years back due to some sort of illness.

As we've known, the Tri-set triangle of the Mare (Ocean), Arcobaleno (Rainbow) and Vongola (Clam) was still very much balanced, albeit in a different way now; the Arcobaleno, after being freed of their curse, could be said as semi-freelancers as some, like Reborn had had their allegiance to a famiglia or another, while the others had their allegiance to none but themselves. The Arcobaleno now existed as an organization that will only meet up once every few months for a status report and to hang around of sorts; if you could call group bullying Skull hanging out. However, this would have to be another story for another time.

Back to where I left off, Reborn, who was no longer in the form of a baby, was a man through and through. If it wasn't as clear as day to you yet, Reborn, mighty as he was – self-proclaimed or not – as the world's greatest hitman, was still a human; he was a man who was supposed to have sworn off all if not most of his feelings. This especially included the feelings that involved another person that would make him feel as though he was having ignited butterflies flying around his stomach.

As much as he wanted to deny it, it was probably the closest thing he had to love; if it wasn't what it was. Fate truly could be cruel sometimes.

Reborn paced around the room; dressed in a clean, dry suit. Chrome had come in earlier to change Tsuna's drenched clothing for her.

His mind was replying the scene and thought he had as he rescued the unconscious brunette out of the cold water earlier; had he really referred her as his?

He was shaken out of his stupor by a soft moan of "water". He chuckled amusedly; the young girl had almost drowned – a death brought on by water – and the first thing that she was asking for when she awoke was for the very thing that had almost taken her life? How ironic.

But brought her a cup of water he did. Just as the brunette's eyelids were blinking rapidly to get use to the protruding light, she could felt the cool glass of water pressed onto her lips. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your perspective – her mind took too long for Reborn's liking to register the cool essence before her until it was taken away and a set of warm lips landing on hers, feeding her what the glass had contained earlier.

It took Tsuna a few more seconds to realize that the warm set of lips belonged to her tutor; and he was kissing her!

Tsuna squirmed underneath the fedora-wearing man, but alas, he was too strong for her to push away. Besides, she was starting to like the feel of his velvety lips against hers; thus, she responded to his kiss as well.

With an inaudible groan, Reborn made himself break away from the kiss before it could turn into something else, something that would make the young don regret. He needed a cold shower, he decided.

Tsuna heard the groan and by the time they stopped the kiss, she was panting heavily, her forehead resting against the man's chest. She struggled a little as she tried to even out her breathing.

"Are you feeling better now?" Up until the moment, Tsuna had never realized how smooth, how deep the voice of her tutor had become; it was doing wonders to the butterflies in her tummy.

Not trusting herself to reply, she nodded.

"Good. Then I better get going."

Tsuna, suddenly remembering the events that led up to her current situation, grasped tightly onto the man's suit, not wanting him to leave her on her own lest the shadows make their reappearance.

Reborn, understanding the silent request, pushed the thought of getting his cold shower out of his mind, sat on the bed Tsuna was lying on and gathered the girl into his arms, hugging her tightly as her body began to shake with fear; fear of what, only she knew.

Tsuna was afraid; that much was more than clear. She feared that Alexandro would appear after Reborn leave the room; she wanted to feel as safe as she had felt the other night, especially when she could clearly feel the cold, spine-shuddering presence not that much far away.

"Tell me what happened, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn nothing but commanded.

Tsuna, who was weary from the near-drowned incident and still feeling the ominous presence, told Reborn everything; from how she had always been able to see these shadows of a young age to how Alexandro had been making her losing her sleep to how he had almost managed to drown her just hours before.

It had taken the girl until dinner time that her narration of her own life finally finished.

Reborn sighed as his right forefinger and thumb massaged gently onto his temples; it was a lot of information to take on and frankly, if he hadn't seen the unmasked fear in the brunette's eyes, he wouldn't have believed her.

Faraway, a loud ringing could be heard and Reborn decided that dinner should come first, seeing as the both of them had had nothing for lunch.

As he guided the young don towards the dining hall, he could felt the girl leaning slightly into him as he wrapped an arm around her waist, mentally telling himself that she was still weak from the incidents earlier that day.

Quietly, they made their way there and before he could push open the double door that separated them and the noisy crowd within that was no doubt worrying about her, Tsuna's hand shot out and stopped him.

"Please don't tell them what I told you?" she begged, her eyes tearing up just a little bit as her pupil dilated slightly. For some odd reasons, Reborn couldn't find the heart to say no to that face.

"They will still find out someday, Dame-Tsuna, but I won't tell them; you should be the one to spill the beans yourself," he said softly, the arm around her waist tightened slightly as if he refused to let go; either that or let anything happen to her.

"I know, Reborn. I know," she whispered back, voice equally soft.

Drawing back a deep breath, the girl hugged her tutor once before stepping out of the embrace and into the dining hall with a smile plastered on her face. Reborn, on the other hand, sighed softly at the lost warmth and smiled ruefully, finally understanding the strange emotion that had bugged him since the night they had shared together.

Slowly, he walked into loud dining hall and sat onto his assigned seat. As he sipped his wine, his gaze lingered slightly on the smiling brunette, noticing how her smile would alternate between a genuine one and a strained one.

The other inhabitants of the mansion would wonder but dare not question the hitman's slightly odd behavior throughout the rest of the evening of course, leaving Reborn mostly to his thoughts.

By eleven o'clock into the night, if one would have noticed, a certain hitman couldn't be found in his quarters. Instead, he could be found strolling rather leisurely somewhere in the right wing of the mansion; near the Vongola don's bedroom, dare I add.

He made a vow to himself then, a vow to keep those shadows away as long as he possibly could from her; if that meant that he would need to break the some rules or another, then so be it.

For he, the world's greatest hitman; he, one of the closest advisors of the Vongola Decimo; was falling. And he could only hope that this strange overprotective feeling that was blossoming in his heart would lead for the better rather than the worse; even if he had sworn to uproot any warmth that seeded itself there. But then again, who was he to predict the future? He was no Uni.

He could only hope that his presence, like the other times, would bring the sleeping girl, separated from him by a mere door, some assurance that she, no matter what, would be safe and should feel safe.

If this was what he could do for his love, if that was the word for that warmth, then, without a doubt, he would.

If this was all he could do for her now, then he would do so gladly.

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A/N: DONE! Okay, I admit I am late on finishing this up… But it wasn't exactly my fault that I somehow lost EVERY SINGLE FAN FICTION I've ever typed up; completed or otherwise. And my deepest apologies for rushing the ending a little; my reason would be cause I'm planning of posting this on the afternoon of the 14th October in my country, so I know that while some of you are busy celebrating Reborn's birthday, some of us are celebrating Tsuna's! So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWO OF YOU~!

So, Reborn finally noticed his feelings for Tsuna! I had actually planned for them to acknowledge their feelings for each other in this one and end it all with a kiss, but meh, guess that's what rewriting my original idea do to me. And as my parting words, know that I MAY write another chapter of this. But as always, my studies will come first, especially with another public exam coming up…

So, REVIEW guys and girls! REVIEWS DEFINITELY MAKE ME HAPPY! (Plus a sneak peak for you…)

And iced chocolates… They make me happy as well. *(^_^)*