A/N: I so really wanted to give Reborn a scare. And in this chapter, we kind of entered a time leap. Thank you.

Please do heed my disclaimer at the prologue page of my story. Any spec of resemblance of my story in this site or whatsoever would amount to equivalent consequence. Please do respect writers who, with their sweat and blood, worked hard for their stories for you, our dear readers. IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO BASE THEIR STORY TO THIS JUST SEND ME A PM AND WE CAN COMPROMISE. Don't worry, I am not a scary person. :D

© Ellarie Soulhart. May 29, 2017

INTERMISSION I: Panicky Reborn

Reborn was upset. Clearly upset. Actually, the word 'upset' was even an understatement because Reborn didn't get upset.

He was beyond it.

For example, right now, he was actually making holes at his bull's eyes board to get this annoying feeling out of his system. A little more and the boards would become a pile of disturbing wood on the ground and hell knew how one Reborn calmed himself – in short, boards were not enough to appease him,.

On a lighter tone, behind that 'upset' feeling was this foreign emotion called 'panic'. He even consulted Verde for this because he thought his shaking, fidgeting and unsettled thoughts were symptoms of sickness. Of course, being Verde, he snorted at Reborn's stupidity.

Reborn and Stupidity didn't go so well but it had somehow fitted.

"Oi, Reborn, kora!" Colonnello called out to him, panic lacing his tone. He had his trusty rifle hung by his left shoulder already. "What are you standing there and putting holes at the wall?! You've got to—wah! Why are you shooting me, kora?!"

Reborn was never the patient man and Colonnello's incessant talking made him more irritated. "Shut up. You don't tell me what to do."

"He's your charge, damn it!" Colonnello said. He looked around from the top of the coffee table down under the sofa chair. "You are liable here when he gets lost, kora!"

Reborn groaned. He really never agreed being the caretaker. He was a damn professor not some babysitter for some snotty brat.

This brat was actually the now energetic, cute and sparkly ten year old, Tsunayoshi.

"Why do I have to go along with your pathetic hide-and-seek?" Reborn asked and growled when Colonnello pushed him out of his sacred spot to find Tsuna. "Oi, stop pushing me or I'll push you to your death, idiota."

"Death is not even worth it right now, kora!" Colonnello exclaimed, continuously pushing Reborn out of the living room towards the porch area. "You've got to help us find Tsuna or else Luce is going to have us all BALD, kora!" Then he clutched his hair protectively while he whimpered like a kid. "I don't want my precious blonde be wasted, kora!"

Reborn smirked. Seeing Colonnello bald was so worth the punishment but he couldn't let the crazy woman have his head too, no? "Find him yourself." He said and walked away, ignoring the angry calls of Colonnello.

"OI, KORA, COME BACK HERE!"

…:[]:…

Tsuna was happily walking in the middle of tall trees that were just behind their house, unfazed that he was already lost. He had practically no idea that he was already off radius from all the devices that Verde had put around the house. But what was questionable was the fact that there was a lush of tall greens behind the Arcobaleno house. They didn't have that when Tsuna was still a babe, so why now?

The answer was on Luce's little crazy and abrupt mind.

The moment Tsuna was learning how to crawl, walk, jump and speak, she FELT the NEED to build a bigger playground for the little bundle of sunshine. And so, she decided (as the Head of the House, the little princess she was) to buy the whole block (let it be a reminder that there were other houses that occupied the said block) and purchased a whole lot of trees from a tree sanctuary (which was kind of suspicious because the other seven housemates never heard of a tree sanctuary around Japan, or maybe they were just too busy with their careers – and Tsuna - to even bother caring). However, this was Luce they're suspecting about, so this case had to rest.

Anyway, with the whole lot (around 200 square meters) remodeled into some jungle playground for Tsuna (correction: jungle training ground for kids, as Lal, Reborn and Luce insisted because Tsuna needed to learn self-defense, tactical techniques and evasive maneuvers from evil science trinkets, worded by Skull), with some of the trees used and the rest as barriers. The space in-between the trees and the playground had massive grasses that hid security devices to monitor and protect Tsuna. Those were baby-proofed and all had Tsuna's finger, hand and feet prints, including the retina, teeth, voice recognition (all thanks to the mechanics that Reborn know, and well of course, Verde (despite him being a doctor; he still loved making new things anyway even though he loved his profession)).

Back to the situation, Tsuna was practically oblivious and continued on with his trail on finding Mr. Rabbit. The said animal had been spotted not too long ago while Tsuna was 'playing' with the Arcobaleno and it had definitely attracted Tsuna. No one could blame the young boy though since it had been only five years when Tsuna actually learned the real ropes of life. He rarely saw animals too because his adoptive parents were not taking him to the zoo (as they avoid potential dangers). In short, he was not ready to go out to go out yet, even though he came from the streets.

Animals were practically new to his dictionary.

And so, Tsuna was looking for that tiny, fluffy creature. To Tsuna's innocent eyes, the rabbit looked like a pillow stuff toy that needed a playmate; and he decided that he'd be that playmate. Once he got hold of that rabbit, it was a sure thing that he'd smother it with love, hugs, kisses, pats and all other endearments. However, in the course of his search, he tripped over a large root unexpectedly and fell to the forest floor with a thud. He groaned, sat up on his own, and his tears welled when he saw two large ouchies on each knee. He sniffled and his throat threatened him to scream a cry, but he remembered what Papa Reborn told him about crying:

'Boys should not cry because there was no need to. You're weak if you cried and you'll never get to embra—hug anyone because you became ugly.' – Still savage, but Papa Reborn had a point (but it was not a miss that he tried to simplify explaining things to Tsuna).

Amazed with conviction, Tsuna decided not to cry from that day.

But in Mama Luce's view, 'It's okay to cry, honey. It doesn't make you any less of a cute boy if you did cry, especially when you feel hurt. Crying will make you feel better and it will also make your knights come to you when you feel bad.'

'Will Mama Luce…come…when Tsu cry?' Tsuna asked Luce one time in his still broken speech, making Luce chuckle.

'Of course, I will.'

And with that, he cried aloud. He wanted Mama Luce. He wanted Papa Reborn to pick him up. He wanted Papa Colonnello to come and play tag with him. He wanted Mama Viper to make illusions for him. He wanted Papa Verde to make the boo-boo go away so he can play. He wanted Papa Skull to show his new tricks to him. He wanted Papa Fon to make him little houses again. And of course, he wanted his Mama Lal to sing him a lullaby. He wanted all of them.

He didn't notice that someone came down from the trees, wearing such pristine white long tunic which matched the golden ray of the sun that outlined the person's silvery locks. He had this kind yet calculating smile and patted Tsuna's head.

This made Tsuna stop crying and stared at the person hovering him.

…:[]:…

Night was fast approaching and Tsuna was still nowhere to be found. Colonnello was sitting at a corner with his soul barely hanging on, chanting, 'My hair is going to be gone, I'm so done.' His face were as white as paper and he looked like someone who was going to poo with his sitting position. He was so dead.

The others were not in their best self either.

Viper looked like a zombie witch who lost a lot of money from a stupid bet. She might appear calm, but her hands were twitching and her eyes were flickering to Colonnello's direction. She feared for her life too, and her hair.

Verde looked like one of his culturing experiments exploded right in front of his face and there mutated. As soon as Colonnello called him and shouted that Tsuna was missing, he had to pack his things away and put back his experiments into the freezer. His interns sweat-dropped when they saw their resident running in the hospital hallway for the first time, as it was not his personality to do such thing. "Probably something happened?" "Maybe he has a date?" "No, no, maybe he was feeling the need to defecate." "You're gross."

Fon, no surprise there, was calm and collected. He was sitting at the sofa with his eyes closed, arms folded to his chest, and humming silently. But his hums sounded like a lullaby from a horror movie, and it didn't help since Viper seemed to be syncing, making her busy doing dark illusions right in front of Skull's horrified face.

As for Skull, he was indeed horrified because of Viper, but it amused the hell out of Reborn for a bit to see the disgusting, unfinished make-up. He immediately rushed out of the shooting set when Reborn called him and asked about Tsuna's whereabouts. Skull was, apparently, the last to leave the house and still witnessed the playtime of Tsuna with Colonnello. He even joined for a bit. So, it shocked him so much that his make-up was all over the place, making him look like an alien killer clown who failed miserably and decided to wipe the floor with his face.

Lal, was (well) undoubtedly the noisiest of the bunch tonight because she was scolding an almost soulless Colonnello to death. She was fidgety and animated, pacing back and forth, going in circles, and swatting Colonnello with a huge harisen* (she didn't realize that the harisen she was using was actually made out of her blueprints; her fault, because she folded it).

And lastly, Reborn was extremely mad. If his everyday façade was his grumpy, stoic and cool self, this was something fa—r more cool to the point it burns, hard. He was the one who had to face Colonnello's ultimate stupidity the moment he returned home first. The kid was definitely his charge, yes, because he and Tsuna were like attached to the hip the most unlike to others (and he hated admitting it but he was endeared); but, he refused to be the kid's babysitter. He's not some 24/7 magical godfather to attend to the idiot little princeling's whims.

And so, with this predicament, all of them were subject to the 'beheading'. The sadistic, evil princess of the Arcobaleno House was about to come home from her awarding party.

"What should we do?!" Skull exclaimed. "Tsuna was still missing out there and there might be suspicious people plotting to kidnap—,"

"Oi, your worthless brain conjures something stupid." Reborn said and grunted. "In case you forget, the whole place had security devices. Anyone that would step foot in this estate would be definitely 'shark' bait now."

"BUT SQUALO IS NOT EVEN HERE!"

"Your voice irritates me, Skull!" Lal shouted. She was still punishing Colonnello for his irresponsibility. "If anything, this must not be leaked to the Varia Academy, or to whomever else. We can't afford another set of ruckus in this house, especially when we already have a full plate on our hands." And she was referring to Colonnello.

"But I didn't mean to lose Tsuna!" Colonnello defended himself. "I was sure enough that we played in the playground and made sure that the fences were up and secured. When I turned around after the count, Tsuna was gone!"

"That's the very point of it, idiota!" Lal exclaimed and smacked his head again. "You should have not turned and kept watching Tsuna!"

"But that would be cheating—ow! Lal, stop it already!"

The banter filled the whole house and was added by Skull's constant fussing over Tsuna's disappearance to air. Viper was chanting creepily now and Verde was beginning to rot. The only sane person here was Fon—wait,

"Fon, what the hell are you doing?" Reborn asked incredulously.

Fon wasn't able to answer as he was meditating to ease his nerves. Although, his meditation tonight was waaaay too strange – he was upside down, with his back leaning to the back rest of the sofa and his legs were bent backwards, so that his feet were touching the top of the back rest. His arms were positioned like Shiva's hands and his hair was loose and spread, scattered onto the sofa down to the floor like he was Sadako.

Reborn was going to go nuts.

There's only one thing to do: find Tsuna himself.

After all, they only had thirty minutes more before Luce comes home.

…:[]:…

"So Tsuna-kun, you like lions, huh?" The person with a very beautiful smile asked. He was petting Tsuna's head while the other was busy pampering the Persian cat that the person had.

Tsuna nodded in agreement and stroked the fur of the cat excitedly, "Yes! Tsuna happy! Tsuna like li-ra-raions!" He exclaimed happily. "Tsuna not see raions yet. So Tsuna want see next time!"

The person giggled affectionately and picked Tsuna up. He placed the boy into his lap and said, "Do not be like me, okay? There were a lot of people who loves you, Tsuna. Don't forget that."

"Un!"

And the two went on their merry way to play some more, with the person offering to help Tsuna find Mr. Rabbit. Wherever you are, Mr. Rabbit, please show up because your life was also on the line.

…:[]:…

'Only twenty fucking minutes,' Reborn thought relentlessly as he calmly (yes) looked. He was searching high and low for Tsuna's lost self and he was angry to himself for getting involved in this. Why did he have to be Tsuna's guardian, anyway?

The clock was ticking, and oddly enough he could hear it perfectly loud. For (probably) the first time ever since Tsuna barged into their lives, Reborn felt fidgety, clammy and hella worried. Yes. Worried. Such feelings that he deemed foreign to him actually existed, and it was clearly Tsuna's fault. His hands were shaking as he touched every nick and cranny of the trees, tall grasses, and fallen logs.

'Tsuna…where are you?' he thought endlessly and looked around frantically.

Another ten minutes had passed and his nerves had been wrecking him already. He cut through grasses and shot the poor, innocent trees in hope to drive Tsuna out. He paced around like a headless chicken. He was tempted to dig out the soil and turn everything over just to find his charge. Two minutes later, he gave out, his eyes dilated as if he was entering a panic attack, and he was shaking out of anger. He wanted to go for the kill despite his profession. He didn't care whether he lose his teaching license or what, he just wanted Tsuna back.

He wanted his precious sunshine baby back to him.

He was about to fire his handy gun when something fell into his arms hard. He heard it crying hard. He looked down and was surprised to see Tsuna in his arms. The young boy was crying and shaking. He felt himself shake as well and instinctively (his parental side kicking) hugged Tsuna for protection. He looked around to see who carelessly dropped the frightened boy to his arms. What's more suspicious was the perpetrator – the who had Tsuna.

Why was Tsuna-?

"Don't worry, professor, I didn't do anything to your baby boy." The person spoke from nowhere. Reborn scowled and looked around, searching for the source of that voice. "He is so sweet. Don't let him go. Protect him with all your might, because he might be taken from you." Then the presence of the person disappeared.

Reborn held Tsuna tight in his arms and the warmth that he emitted calmed Tsuna down, hiccupping ocassionally. Tsuna looked to Reborn's scowling yet knowingly worried face and his eyes felt teary again, making Reborn's walls totally crumble.

"Papa! Tsuna look for bunny but no find it! Tsuna remember Papa Reborn and got sad. Tsuna miss Papa Reborn!" Then little Tsuna clutched Reborn's suit hard, afraid to let go. It was the same thing for Reborn.

From the silly child's game of hide-and-seek to this rabbit search, Reborn was so sure that he wouldn't let any of the other Arcobaleno near his child. Reborn took one last look at the forest in hope to see the strange person before deciding to let it pass and trailed back to the house. He didn't let go of Tsuna, and even when they reached the house, both refused to let go of each other. Of course, everyone was relieved that Reborn was able to find their little sunshine, but the dreadful threat of Reborn's angry aura didn't go unnoticed by his housemates; which effectively, and silently, backed away from him.

Starting from this day onwards, hide-and-seek was a forbidden game, unless Reborn knew and approved of it.

…:[]:…

Luce came home later than what was calculated earlier and she was dumbfounded when she saw her friends stuck on one place. It made her eyes blink; it's as if everyone was there for over an hour already.

"Hi, guys. What's wrong with you?" She asked and waved a hand in front of Fon's stiff face.

Thankfully, Fon moved (albeit a little nervous and fidgety, which is clearly not his thing) and finally recognized Luce. He sighed and raked a handful of hair backwards and answered her. "Luce…so you're back."

"I am back and you guys seemed to be daydreaming." Luce commented, placing her bag at the sofa where Skull was brooding. The others seemed to have broken from their trance and tried their best to look as if nothing happened. But Luce's eyes were one of the things that they couldn't fool.

Over. My. Dead. Body. Everyone thought.

"Uh, we just had a silly contest, that's all." Fon supplied in a little coolly fashion. He looked around to see everyone moving as fine now, except the still brooding Skull and the petrified Colonnello by the corner. Thankfully, it was not what Luce noticed,

"Where's Reborn?"

And they visibly twitched.

…:[]:…

The next day, Reborn woke up with a slightly good mood. He stayed in bed for a couple of minutes before sitting, but he found it hard to do so. The culprit for that was the little bundle of trouble currently snuggled to his chest, brown tufts of hair sticking out from its covered body. He smiled. Lightly, he tried prying off his arms but Tsuna had a grip that prevented him from pulling away. Also, he heard Tsuna softly whining from a dream. He shook his head.

There's only one thing to do.

Reverting back to his usual, scary (but caring, loving, kind —Tsuna's words, though), and sadistic self, he frowned and flicked Tsuna's head hard several times, making the boy squirm and be awakened.

Tsuna pouted, "Mou, Papa! You wake Tsuna proper!"

"It's properly not proper, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said and flicked his forehead again, making Tsuna whimper in protest. "You're not studying your English well, aren't you?"

Tsuna just smiled sheepishly.

Reborn sighed and got out of the bed. He lifted Tsuna by the armpits when he saw the latter raising his arms like the spoiled brat he was (well, Reborn might not admit, but he spoiled Tsuna more than the others) and walked towards the bathroom to do their morning activities. Tsuna had managed taking care of himself while Reborn did his own. And after a while, and getting dressed after, the two went out of the room to get breakfast.

Once at the dining hall, the duo had to blink their eyes in both confusion (Tsuna) and curiosity (Reborn) at the sight before them: the rest Arcobaleno occupants were nicely tied up like in some BDSM videos on their chairs. They were not gagged though, but Colonnello seemed to have the worse tying of all. He snorted. Soon after, he settled on his own chair and no one even dared speaking, which made Tsuna look at all of them. But as the kid was about to ask, Luce emerged from the kitchen with plates and placed it on the table.

She had this pure smile, and Reborn knew better.

That was a devil's smile.

"Oh, Reborn-chan~ good work yesterday~" She complimented and patted his head once she stopped at her chair and placed a plate. "Did you had fun looking for Tsuna-chan~?"

'So she knew,' Reborn thought and just shrugged. He looked at Fon who was adjacent to him and saw him sigh in defeat. He smirked. 'Fon was forced to tell the truth, huh.'

There were small talks and greetings from Tsuna, but no one was answering. This had effectively made Tsuna upset. On the contrary, Luce had other plans.

"Don't worry, Tsuna-chan~. They are not mad at you~" Luce said and her smile glowed brighter, making (sans Reborn and Tsuna) everyone flinch and worry for their lives.

"Why they not talk to Tsuna then?" Tsuna asked and sniffled. This made the heads of the other Arcobaleno shake in disagreement, only to be stopped by Luce's hard glare. It soon returned to being a happy smile when she returned her attention to Tsuna.

"Oh~ They are not talking because their cheeks hurt." She said in a happy tone.

But it was not happy for Tsuna. He frowned and scrambled from his seat and climbed on everyone's lap to give them a very sweet kiss, making everyone blush in embarrassment. As for Reborn, Tsuna was on his lap, but he didn't kiss the professor. Instead, he leaned and hugged Reborn as if he was the kid's lifeline. Reborn just had to look smug at them.

Luce clapped her hands and said, "Let's eat~"

"You tied their hands, Luce." Reborn pointed out amusingly.

"Indeed I did." She amusingly replied. She handed six spoons to Reborn and said, "Well, that's your job."

"What job?" Reborn asked, not exactly liking the way he saw Luce's smile grew.

"What else? You're going to feed them."

And gasps and clutters were heard. As for Tsuna, he was happily eating his food.

*Harisen - it is a paper fan :D

I think I am going to post this un-beta'ed because I have not gotten in touch with Crane-chan. _ Oh well, I hope you'll like this story~ Sorry for the late post though. ^^;;

Ellarie