A/N: It's been a while! Here are some prompts!

challenge

31. Colors

A rainbow of colors flashed before Tsuna's eyes, hot and dangerous and tempered to be weld by hands that wanted to hurt. There were many of them, and Tsuna knew the moment he sensed the first wisps of flames that he and his Guardians would be outnumbered.

It didn't matter. These were people who had taken his men, broke them and beat them with grins on their lips and enjoyment shining in their eyes, and Tsuna may be a pacifist on most days but not this time. His precious people had been hurt, and he had come to harm.

"No mercy," he had said, eyes glowing bright with orange-red rage. His Guardians hadn't said anything, just looked back at him with equally grim faces and nodded.

Each and every one of them would see why Vongola was not to be messed with.

32. Exploration

Do you want to hold their hand?

Reborn glared at the question, then looked over the laptop's screen to Fon's smiling eyes.

"I don't see what this has to do with anything," Reborn said, scrolling through the rest of the quiz while catching glimpses of the next couple of questions. He grimaced. "This is something lovesick idiots do, Fon. I don't need a test to know what my feelings are."

"You are a lovesick idiot," Fon retorted with a smile on his lips. "How long has Vongola Decimo been gone? A few days? A week at most? You've been staring out the window and sighing every day since."

Reborn refrained from going for Leon, who was sprawled across his lap, and settled for a blistering glare directed at Fon. "Tsuna's been gone for four days - and I haven't been sighing. I finished more than enough jobs since he left."

"Forget about that," Colonello said from beside Fon. "Keep filling out the test, kora."

"Was this your idea?" Reborn said, his disgust undisguised when he flicked his steely look over to the blond. "I should have known. Only a child would think of something as obtuse as this to figure out their own feelings."

"It's not childish!" Colonello snapped back.

Reborn glanced back at the test, saw Do you know their favorite color?, and levelled Colonello with a deadpan stare. "Right." He clicked on the bubble next to Yes and went on to the next question. "I bet this is what you did, Colonello, when your thick head couldn't figure out that you were head over heels for Lal."

Colonello's silence was telling.

Fon snickered behind his sleeve. Reborn rolled his eyes.

33. Seeing Red

Reborn was making his way into the Vongola mansion when Tsuna and his Guardians returned, battered and bloody and worse for wear. If it were any other situation, Reborn would have sauntered up to them without batting an eye because he knew they were capable, knew they were strong enough to protect themselves, but this wasn't any other situation. Reborn stopped in his tracks and felt dread root him into place.

Tsuna was there, limp in between his Storm and Rain, who had both thrown an arm over their shoulders and were hastily moving at the Sun's orders, and all Reborn could see was red. His feet moved on their own, step by step until he was running over to where Tsuna was. Up close, Reborn saw a different kind of red, one that made his hands fist and breath leave him at the sight of it.

"Hey, Sun Arcobaleno, move it!"

What happened? he wanted to demand, but Reborn wasn't an idiot, could see how dire the situation was, so he stepped aside. The rest of Tsuna's Guardians followed after them, the female Mist Guardian trailing at the end.

When she passed, eyes trained ahead at her Sky, she said, "Boss will be fine."

Reborn knew that. He didn't need anyone telling him that Tsuna would pull through because Reborn knew he wasn't weak, knew that Tsuna wasn't someone who would just off and die, but-

"I know," Reborn said, feeling his shoulders relax.

It was still reassuring to hear.

34. Shades of Grey

It was quiet. Boring. Monotonous. Reborn wondered how he'd lived like this, traveling only to kill and speaking only to gather information - or to lure targets into a trap.

Each day was job after job, kill after kill, on repeat. Clockwork. No room to breathe, only a few hours for sleep. He'd wake up before sunrise and start it over from the beginning.

Quiet. Boring. Monotonous.

"Are you all right, Reborn?" Aria had asked when she caught him slipping into the Giglio Nero base in the dead of the night. He didn't ask why she was up this late; she didn't ask him. "You've been restless."

"I've been busy," was all Reborn offered before he passed her and went to his room, Aria's knowing eyes heavy on his back.

He didn't visit Tsuna.

His world was quiet.

(He missed him.)

35. Forgotten

Tsuna slumped against the counter, resting his head on the cool surface, and tried to fight the pounding headache taking over his thoughts to no avail.

"Am I dying?" he muttered to no one in particular. He eyed the lights overhead, dim in reality but bright as hell with alcohol in his system, and squeezed them shut when a rainbow of color shot passed him and destroyed the wall just a few feet away. He groaned at the noise and buried his face into his arms.

"Fortunately for you, you're not," a voice said next to him, calm despite the cacophony of the world upending itself, shattering like glass. "Unfortunately, you're alcohol intake is terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if you felt like you were dying."

Tsuna only snatched a few words and managed to string then together in a single coherent sentence: You're not dying. He groaned even louder this time and didn't take his face out of his arms when he refuted it with a plaintive, "I am."

"Doesn't look like it."

"I will," Tsuna said with all the certainty of a dazed man with half his conscience numbed with alcohol. He forced himself to sit up, eyes narrowed part because of the lights and part because he was irritated, and glared at the man sitting next to him. He was going to say something - maybe argue with him because it was Tsuna who felt like dying, not him - but then his attention was caught by something else and he stopped.

The man raised a brow. "What?"

"They're curly." Reached out to touch it and was belatedly surprised when the man didn't avoid it. His dark eyes were piercing though, enough so to make him think dangerous even through his alcohol-haze. He settled back in his seat, struggled for a moment, and said, "Sorry."

"You're awfully touchy," the man said, pulling his sideburn straight and letting it bounce back. He looked into flickering brown eyes, saw the way orange flames brightened and dimmed in unfocused eyes, and felt something like intrigue grip him. "What's Vongola's heir doing, getting wasted in a rundown bar?"

Tsuna stared at him, then immediately slumped over the counter again, hiding his face away. "Didn't… want to be anyway."

"But you are."

"And I'm going to die," Tsuna moaned, half-whining. "I'm not- I can't- Everyone's going to- to die because of me."

There was a sound that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle.

"Just don't let them die."

Tsuna grunted. He didn't sound happy. "That's -" He hiccuped and coughed. "That's easier said than... than - " How'd it go again? " - than done." That was it.

Tsuna didn't hear what the man said in reply - if he did at all - but when he peeked up at him through his hair and saw the way his lips were pulled into an amused smile, he couldn't help but mumble a barely there, "You're not very helpful, but your smile's pretty."

A startled blink was all Tsuna could see before he closed his eyes and slipped into the warmth of his flames.

36. Dreamer

Tsuna dreamt of blood and charred flesh, of blood on his fingers, dripping down his cheeks, of screams and pleas, of bright orange flames engulfing everything around him.

Strangely enough, it wasn't a nightmare.

When he woke, he realized it was a memory, realized that the warmth he had vaguely remembered wasn't his flames but the phantom feeling of his red-hot rage, realized that the blood on him then was more so his than anyone else's.

(He thought, briefly, that it may have been him screaming, too.)

Turning onto his side despite the ache in his bones, Tsuna breathed out a sigh and went back to sleep. Dreams would hold him under for a while. Now, more than ever, he gladly preferred them over reality.

37. Mist

"Viper."

"Mammon," the Mist Arcobaleno corrected sharply. She shut the door behind her and made to sit across from Reborn before she thought better of it and floated per usual in front of him. "You're as lovesick as Colonello said you were."

"What are you doing here?" Reborn asked, ignoring the jibe. The wariness in his tone was obvious, as was his exhaustion.

"Aria sent me," Mammon said with a tinge of distaste. Aria was the only one that could get Mammon to do something without using money as an incentive - her, and Xanxus, who Tsuna talked about scarcely, though kindly when he did. Crossing her arms, she stared down at Reborn, eyes shadowed by the hood of her cloak. "Stop sulking, she said."

"I'm not sulking."

"Whether or not you are is no concern to me," Mammon groused back, lips twisting into a scowl. "You made me waste time coming down here. Time is money, and unfortunately I'm not even getting paid for this."

"Then leave," Reborn said. He leaned back against the backrest and levelled Mammon with an unamused stare. Mist arcobaleno or not, Mammon seldom came to the Giglio Nero base, much less interacted with the other arcobaleno willingly. Aria, too, only ever talked to Mammon whenever they crossed paths. To see her here when she usually stayed around those in the Varia, meant no good.

Mammon clicked her tongue at him. "There's one more." She paused, looking as though she was deciding whether or not she should even tell Reborn, but said anyway, sour and more than grudging, "Boss woke up."

Reborn blinked. What?

He leaned forward, something sparking to life in his chest. He shoved it down. "Tsuna's - "

Before he could say anymore, Mammon cut him off with a sharp, "I'm not getting paid to answer your questions," and dissolved out of existence.

Left staring at empty space, Reborn ran a hand through his hair. He glanced at the unopened invitation sitting on the coffee table beside an opened letter. On it, in blocky print, was:

Duration: Two days

Target: Groom

Reborn heaved a sigh.

38. Burning

There was a boiling heat coiling deep in his gut.

"Tsuna, how are you feeling?"

He closed his eyes and let out a careful, controlled breath. Pushing down the blistering heat, Tsuna managed to say, in the calmest tone he could muster, "I'm feeling a lot better, Ryohei. I'm sorry for worrying you."

"Gokudera was about to blow a fuse," Ryohei chuckled as he stood by Tsuna's bed, eyes bright as he smiled at him. "Lambo also refused to leave until Yamamoto knocked him out, and Hibari left Hibird here for a while. We were all extremely worried, Tsuna."

Tsuna ducked his head somewhat guiltily. "I was careless."

"But you don't regret it."

Of course Ryohei could see through him. Tsuna quirked a small smile, fighting down the minute flinch at how it disrupted the heat spreading through him. "I don't."

Ryohei laughed and set a comforting hand on Tsuna's shoulder. "Then you shouldn't apologize. Everything should be fine now, Tsuna, so get some rest. You're going to be extremely sensitive to your flames for a while." He shot Tsuna a look, as if telling him You can't hide these things from me.

Tsuna wilted slightly at that. "Okay."

"Great! I'll keep everyone else away while you're resting and come to check up on you later." He stepped back and gave Tsuna a thumbs-up before he left, door clicking shut behind him.

Burying himself into the thin sheets, Tsuna ignored the scathing heat gnawing on his insides. It would be over soon. He'll wait it out by sleeping through it.

(It was just his luck that he could still feel it even in his sleep.)

39. Out of Time

There was nothing more frustrating than a target that ran, though there was something even more aggravating about a target that did absolutely nothing to save themselves. It was boring when they did that, stand there and accept their fate even before Reborn backed them into a corner, and Reborn could admit that the targets that didn't do anything - didn't make chasing them down fun - were the worst. On any other day, he'd thank his luck whenever his hits made his job interesting.

Today, though, his target was running. Reborn wanted nothing more than to grab him by the neck and make him beg for mercy.

(But that would take too much time, would be too much of a waste, when all Reborn wanted was to end this as quickly as possible.)

When Reborn managed to corner his target, a man no older than forty and terribly unfit to be anything but a frightened nobody, he smiled.

"Chaos," he said when he backed his target into a corner. Leon clambered down to his waiting hand and shifted into a gun.

"W-wait a second," the man said, stumbling backwards until his back hit the wall. He was shaking, hands waving frantically in front of him. "Who's asking you to do this? How much- ? I'll give you as much as you want! Just let me go!"

Reborn clicked his tongue, took a step closer, saw the way the man cowered at the sight of him. "Unfortunately for you, what I want is something you can only give me when you're dead."

As it had always done before, steady and sure, Reborn's hand didn't hesitate when he pulled back the trigger.

40. Knowing How (to Love)

If he were a lesser man, the lack of moonlight would have probably hindered Reborn's attempt to get into the Vongola base via window. As it was, he huffed an aggravated breath when the locks finally clicked and slipped into Tsuna's office. Normally, Tsuna would have kept it unlocked - something he had started to do after the fourth time Reborn had picked the lock - but he wasn't here to do that now. Whether or not that was a good sign was something Reborn would have to find out.

After memorizing the floor plans and visiting for a while now, Reborn knew the layout of Vongola's base as intimately as he knew his kill count. Still, it didn't mean he necessarily went to each individual room outside of Tsuna's office, the basement, and the kitchen - the latter of which he only knew because Tsuna's Guardians occasionally forced him to take breaks, and Tsuna would more often than not bring him along too.

Stepping out into the empty hallway, Reborn decided he'd go and check Tsuna's room before heading over to the medical wing. It was closer; there'd be less people around to avoid.

So he went, and the moment he reached his room and turned the knob, his gun was out and aimed between the narrowed eyes of Hibari Kyouya.

"Sun Arcobaleno," he said, clipped and indifferent. Reborn would have thought he couldn't have cared less about Reborn's appearance had he not caught the way his fingers wrapped tight around his tonfas. Dark eyes regarded him, assessing. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to visit," Reborn replied. His eyes flicked over Hibari's shoulder to the empty bedroom, Tsuna nowhere to be found. "He's still in the medical wing?"

Hibari kept his eyes trained on him but didn't answer. Instead he slipped passed him, purposely shutting the door, and said, "Room fourteen."

Reborn watched him leave and let out a light sigh, turning on his heel to head where he remembered the medical wing was. Tsuna's Guardians were hostile things, protective, but they cared for Tsuna and seemed to trust Reborn enough. For that, he was glad; there were few people he trusted and even fewer who trusted him, though the addition of the Vongola Guardians made that list substantially longer.

When he entered the medical wing, he spotted Tsuna's Sun Guardian skimming through papers with a bleary look in his eyes, more than likely tired from the day. He glanced up at Reborn, recognition flickering passed his eyes even though Reborn had exchanged a grand total of zero words with him.

He tilted his chin when their stare-down stretched for too long. "Go ahead. Room fourteen. He's still sleeping though, so be extremely quiet."

Reborn nodded, feeling vaguely nonplussed by how readily Tsuna's whereabouts was given to him, and made his way down the hall to Tsuna's room. Forgoing knocking, he went in and found Tsuna turned on his side, back to him. Weak moonlight drifted through the window, not nearly enough to make out the finer details of the room, but it was enough to see. He stood there for a moment, silent, waiting for Tsuna to wake at his presence, but nothing happened. Tsuna slept on.

Reborn stepped closer until he was by the bedside and looked down at the sleeping brunet, watched his shoulder rise and fall with each breath, and felt something in his world right itself after being wrenched out of place for so long.

Idiot, he wanted to say, exasperated but fond.

Instead, he set a hand on Tsuna's head, let his fingers sift through his hair, and said: "Welcome back."

A/N: Prompt #35 totally gives away what fandom I've been while writing this - at least in my eyes. Haha! I couldn't resist, honestly. Other than that, thanks for reading!