Hermione is on the end of her tether, which is the only reason why she thinks it would be a good idea. Several sleepless nights and extreme stress and worry can do that to a person. She'd been making a lot of good decisions lately, so one bad one had to have snuck in somewhere.

Except, staring at the hitman she had somehow tracked down, the voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Hyacinth chimes in, 'This is a bad idea'.

She knows that!

But desperate times called for desperate and ill-advised measures. So.

"What?" the hitman asks, going so still that she's abruptly reminded of a snake eyeing a target.

"Hyacinth is missing," she repeats, the words rubbing her throat raw on the way out. "And we've tried everything. Her house-elves are all in coma's. Blood tracking is blocked, as is magical tracking. And, Look. I know the two of you broke up but the only way left is the muggle way and you're the only muggle I know who can find her."

Reborn takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

"How long has she been gone?" he asks.

Hermione takes it as agreement and almost sags with relief. Almost, because if she does, then she would fall asleep. She's so wired up that anything might set her off.

"Two weeks," she says. "We don't know who took her. They left no trace. It's like they erased everything."

Reborn shook his head, eyes going distant as his focus shifted inward. "Or like they had a very powerful Mist or a Storm."

He pats her on the shoulder. "I'll take care of this. Get yourself some rest."

Hermione blinks as the hitman walks past her. Hyacinth had told her that Reborn was kind. She'd just never seen it until now.

.

.

Reborn starts calling up favors.

First, he calls Hibari, because if anyone in the Vongola is keeping track of human trafficking, it's the Foundation.

Next, he calls Verde.

"Has anyone asked you to invent a way to block magic?" he asks without preamble.

There is a pause so incredulous that Reborn could hear it in the silence. "Magic, Reborn?" Verde asks scathingly.

He rolls his eyes. He would have been skeptical too, except he'd seen his lover turn the coffee table into a lion.

"Yes, magic. Except they probably coached it in a way that is scientific? Likely some sort of energy, or a radiation? Probably in the shape of handcuffs, a wrist band, or something?"

Really, if he had kidnapped a wizard, looking for a way to block the magic is the step before knocking them unconscious. It had to be something hard to remove and not so noticeable.

The silence at the other end is not incredulous as contemplative. "...Someone did ask me to make specialized anklets a month ago," Verde admits. "I still remember who ordered it, but if they're any half-way decent Mafioso, they would have used a false name."

"A false name is a start," Reborn prods, flames quivering with interest. Which. He's not examining that. He is going to ignore the way his very Will quivers at the thought of Hyacinth in danger. Nope. Denial, thy best friend is Reborn.

.

.

Hibari might be in a bad temper because of Reborn, but that's alright because they just plugged several smuggling routes.

Lal and Colonnello come up dry as well, which pisses all of them off. No one likes having their competence questioned.

Finally he resorts to Viper.

He loves living comfortably and he hates relying on anyone when he can do it himself, which is why Viper is always the last resort. Besides, her Thoughtography is cheating when it comes to tacking down people. It makes it so easy.

"Reborn," Viper greets in that dry, deadpan tone.

"I need a location. Whoever took her are professionals. There is absolutely no trace." That pisses him off too. There is always a trace somewhere. Someone always got clumsy.

"A moment," Viper says, not even pausing. It's a testament to their long acquaintance that Viper doesn't demand payment upfront. "A name?"

Reborn sighs out "Hyacinth Potter," which gets him a choked off cough in lieu of the sneeze he'd been expecting.

"I thought you broke up?" they demand. "Wait, her people couldn't find her?"

Reborn had forgotten momentarily that Viper knows about magic. He pretends not to be too shocked.

"No. She's blocked from magical tracking and blood tracking," he snarls.

Viper muffles a curse and the sneeze he'd been waiting for occurs. After a moment, Viper says, "This is Rome. I have no idea – wait, that's the Tiber River. Reborn, she's very close."

With a savage grin, Reborn drops the call.

.

.

Reborn has seen a lot of things in his life, but he had never seen anyone who could block Viper's Thoughtography. It's an amazing skill and one that is unique to Viper alone.

He sneaks inside the mansion and has his suspicions confirmed. The kidnappers are magical, and no mafia are involved at all, aside from the initial kidnapping.

Damn, he could use the back-up Hermione had offered, but he would rather do missions alone. And adding other people meant that he increased the variable risks involved.

Two floors down and he finds her, locked in a room and practically seething with so much anger that her flames are showing in her eyes. Her captors don't notice at all and continue on obliviously.

There is a food tray placed near her that she is ignoring and Reborn's heart melts without any warning when he sees her give them all a look full of scorn.

"I don't care what your demands are," she says calmly. "I'm not involved in the Ministry anyway."

A handsome man with a charming smile pats her shoulder. "But Miss Potter, your friend is involved! You can simply convince her."

"What you want does not matter to me. You lost the right to civilized conversation the moment you killed my house-elves and took me from my home," she says, the calm finally breached by rage.

It makes Reborn shiver.

At that moment, the man in charge is finally fed up and raises a hand to back-hand her across the face. He could see Hyacinth preparing to roll with the force of it, not bracing herself. (Which meant she'd gotten hit enough times to know how to minimize the damage...!)

Reborn finds himself stepping forward and shooting the raised hand all at the same time. The plan is completely torn to shreds and he does not mind at all.

Everyone turns to look at him and he saunters forward, not a care in the world but very much focused on how Hyacinth's eyes shimmer with unshed tears.

"What are you doing here?" she demands.

The man steps forward, snarling over his injured hand. "I do not care! Kill him!"

Spells start flying around and Reborn dodges them all without breaking a sweat, firing back rounds of bullets shining with Sun Flames, making the bullets fly at speeds they could not avoid at all.

He doesn't kill everyone though, just crippled most of them. Killing shots while dodging takes a bit more thought than Reborn has. And. He can't think with Hyacinth just a foot from him and looking at him like that.

"Merde, you are a troublemaker," Reborn mutters, checking his bullets.

Hyacinth jingles at her bound wrists impatiently. "Then why are you here, if I am such trouble for you?" she demands.

Reborn holsters his gun, unmindful of the heat from the barrel. "I came here because your friend Hermione found me and asked me to help find you. Which I have. End of story."

The ropes come loose and Hyacinth accepts the lock-picks he hands her for the magic-restricting anklets. Then, she sets it on fire with a vindictive flick of her hand.

"Ah yes, your job," she says.

The amount of derision she packs into the four words is impressive. If it hadn't been directed at him, Reborn would be impressed.

"Yes, my job," he agrees. "You've made your opinions about my job perfectly clear, Hyacinth."

She shivers involuntarily, and then scowls at him. "Don't. Don't say it like that. Don't say my name like that. You don't get to say it like you still care about me."

"I don't!" he shouts, finally fed up with everything. He wants to walk away from her, but something is rooting him to the spot. He can't walk away, or everything would start to hurt. "I don't care! Don't put words in my mouth."

She stands her ground. "I know you don't, which is why it hurts. You walked away from me without even arguing for us, Reborn. So. Stop acting like you care! Because you don't!"

He gets into her face, which isn't what he would usually do for arguments. "You think it was easy? Walking away?"

She goes still. "If it wasn't easy, why did you do it?"

Every breath hurts, but he doesn't let it show. "If you loved me, why did you never go after me?" he asks, voice small.

Her face crumples and she hunches in on herself.

"I-I tried," she says. "By the time I could stand up, you were long gone."

She looks defeated. A year ago, he would have wanted to see this, but it is not that time now. Now, it's just wrong.

He sighs and looks around in an effort to distract himself, and finds that he had been so absorbed in arguing with her that all those he'd just maimed are propping themselves along a wall and watching them with wide eyes. Like they're a show.

His temper boils over and he cocks his gun, making everyone in the vicinity flinch.

"Wait, we surrender!" one of them screech. There are seven survivors.

"Don't ever touch her again," he snarls. "Or you'll find out what my real job title is and my gun will be the last thing you'll ever see."

He grabs her hand and tugs her to the exit. He ignores the way her fingers curl against his.

.

.

Hyacinth runs into Hermione's open arms.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asks, concern in her voice. "You look terrible."

"I'm starving," Hyacinth announces. "And you have no room to throw stones, you look just as bad. When was the last time you slept?"

"Yesterday," Hermione says. "Your ex let me sleep while he rampaged all around Italy for you. The news reported it. There were explosions in the span of three hours after I informed him."

Hyacinth's heart skipped a beat. She tells herself it doesn't matter. She ignores the warm concern Reborn had directed at her before he'd noticed her looking and pretended indifference again.

"Let's just go home," she whispers.

Hermione nods at Reborn. "Let's settle debts via owls, later. I'll get her home."

The hitman, who had been watching a few feet away, nods. His face is guarded.

Hermione looks at the both of them and wants to sigh.

.

.

Reborn corresponds with Hermione in the matter of payments via owls.

He doesn't accept Galleons, but he accepts favors. Favors from a witch are more important than money.

He doesn't hear from Hyacinth and he pretends that it doesn't make his flames ache.

Thus, he is considerably surprised when Artemis the screech owl arrives instead of the usual barn owl that Hermione uses.

"Dinner at CiPasso? Just to catch up."

He hesitates. But. He misses her. Talking to her had been the highlight of his day.

He flips the paper over and answers, "Set the time and I'll be there. Don't be late."

He shoots Tsuna when the Decimo points out later that he's smiling.

.

.

There. Let's end this there.

I fixed it.

Merry Christmas!

Stop flooding my inbox with tears.