Un Fiore Per Te

Summary: A mother knows no boundaries when her child's life is in danger. And to protect her daughter, Sawada Nana would do anything. FemTsuna.

Just a warning: FemTsuna, AU, Language, Clichés, CloudGuardian!Bucky, LightningGuardian!Himeko, Granny!Angie, Competent!InvertedCloudGuardian!Skull, Uncle!MistOfficer!Shamal, StormGuardian!VictorCreed, CloudOfficer!Hibari, SunGuardian!IrieShoichi, more in the future…

I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or anything related to Marvel!

Chapter XXII. Maple for Keep it to Yourself

Nana took a deep and shaky breath, trying to keep herself from breaking right there and then.

She gripped the pen in her hand a little tighter, feeling her mother stare at her with so much attention and intensity that it made her feel sick.

After learning about Iemitsu, Nana had stopped being so blind and naïve as to believe that people looked at her without even if a hint of judgment. She had stopped to believe others' words and the fact that they weren't thinking the worst of her.

And how could she?

The only one who didn't think she was a failure of a mother or a disgusting example of human being was her daughter, her sweet Tsu-chan.

Not even Nana herself could bring herself to think well of herself.

She shook her head.

Now wasn't the time for her daily pity party, she had to focus. She had to do the right thing for once and help her daughter somehow. If she wanted to keep her baby safe, Nana needed to act.

Pressing her lips together into a thin line, the woman scanned the papers before her, signing her name at the end of each page and filling whatever information it was asked of her.

Her adopted mother sighed softly, running her fingers through Nana's long hair.

"Are you alright, Nana?" Angie asked. It wasn't the first time she asked that.

Nana didn't answer for a moment. She made a pause for a second at the sound of the older woman's voice before continuing what she was doing.

The Japanese woman knew that she wasn't alright. Especially not after she saw what the documents Angie brought with her were. Especially not when she was having to give her guardianship over her Tsu-chan (Nana didn't even want to know from where Iemitsu's signature had come from).

It was only after she had finished reading those documents that the reality of the whole situation finally hit her and she was coming to understand that after her mother left, that would mean that she would only see her daughter for years to come and that they won't even live in the same country much less the same continent.

But Nana nodded anyway.

Her feelings didn't matter.

If giving up Tsu-chan would keep her safe, if her leaving to America meant that the Mafia couldn't reach her then she would give her daughter up and Tsu-chan would go to America and stay there.

Taking another deep breath, Nana placed her pen aside and pushed the papers away from her.

"Here it is," Nana said, her voice nothing more than a whisper.

She didn't even look in the Italian-American's direction neither did she need to. Nana knew her adopted mother well enough to know that Angie was looking sad for her.

"When are you leaving?" The brown haired woman asked, licking her now dry lips.

Angie sighed, taking the papers. She looked through every single page with the care and attention that one would expect of an lawyer instead of an orphanage matron before replying her daughter's question.

"The day after tomorrow. I still need to talk to Peggy about a few things." The older woman seemed like she wanted to say something else but decided against it.

Nana turned her head slightly to watch as honey brown eyed woman placed the papers back to their respective folders and then put them inside her bag.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke.

"How's she?"

"Peggy?" Angie asked, a little hesitant.

Nana nodded, getting an small smile in return.

"Well, she had been having a few problems a years ago but she was smart enough to go to someone for help." Angie informed her, "She's much better now." The elderly woman made a pause before snorting, "And paranoid."

Involuntarily, the brown eyed woman's lips twitched up at those words.

Nana hadn't interacted all that much with her adopted mother's best friend but Aunt Peggy used to visit the orphanage when the brown haired woman was a child. She especially liked it when Peggy convinced them to play spies.

The young brown haired woman could say without any doubt that she learned a lot of interesting skills from those games alone.

"I thought paranoid was her middle name?" Nana asked, leaning back against her chair.

Angie snorted and glanced at her adopted daughter, glad to see that she had lost a little bit of that depressing aura that had been clinging at her.

The orphanage Matron was no Tsunahana but even she had been able to notice how sad, broken really, the younger woman was acting.

Unfortunately, Angie didn't think that Nana would get better any time soon. At least not until she saw her baby girl and were told that she could stay with the child without fear of anyone hurting Tsuna.

I'll have to keep an eye on her, Angie thought, scowling a little.

The Italian-American was brought out of her thoughts by Nana taking a deep breath.

"Can you tell me about her?" Nana asked.

Angie blinked, "Peggy?"

"No, about –" She licked her lips, looking a little pained as she spoke, "About Tsu-chan's life at the orphanage. About her friends… She had been sending me letters but…"

Nana looked down at her hands, not being able to finish her line of thought. She didn't need to though. Angie knew her well enough to guess what she wanted.

"Of course, dear." Angie smiled, tapping her chin before she started to regard her adopted daughter with stories of Tsuna's antics.

Laying on the roof of the house, Sergeant James Barnes listened to the two woman, making sure to keep his ears open in case anyone approached the house. His lips twitched a few times as he heard Angie's fond exasperation when talking about the infamous Tsuna Effect.

Speaking of which, James thought, ice blue eyes snapping open as he felt something different about the bond he shared with Tsuna, Skull and the others.

Moving his body forward, he turned his head to look in direction of Tokyo, narrowing his eyes in thought.

He wasn't a specialist when it came to the bond. At least not like Shamal who had been studying the bonds between Skies and its Elements for years now, but he was sensible enough to notice that there was something more about it; as if the bond had been hit by an raging storm.

Sighing, James shook his head as he finally understood what this meant.

First there was a teenager mutant with a dark past. After that there was James himself (Enough said), who was followed by a perverted doctor who used mosquitos as weapons. After Shamal there was the sunny and shy genius (Although he really didn't count since the red haired boy had moved out of the country) and last, but not last, there was the cursed stuntman who looked like a toddler and had a love for purple…

James was a little afraid of asking but he was really curious to know what kind of stray Tsuna was dragging home this time around.

He frowned.

Something told him that he won't be all that happy to learn who their new family member was.

Knowing Tsuna and the Tsuna Effect, he thought dryly, it's some kind of assassin or criminal of sorts.

There was pause.

Do I tell Angela...? James rubbed his chin in thought before shaking his head as he heard Angie's laugh, Maybe I should keep this information to myself... Just for a little while.

The last thing he wanted was to cause his sister's best friend to have an heart attack.

Hope you liked it and please, don't forget to:

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-Cissnei.

TIMELINE! (There are more dates on Chapter 10, 17 and 20)

Right now its still October 5, 2001.