Author's Note: So… I was laying in my bed with my heating pad, wondering who the fuck took my infrared heater out of my room when this decided to pop up and slap me in the face. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO THE TOPIC AT HAND! And I left my muse's house two days ago so you'd think that these drabble-one-shot-things would be done and over with but that is not the case.

So here's a light R27 one-shot that came from the thralls of my mind. No pictures please. Rated for language and implied themes.

Reborn was going to kill him. Straight and simple.

School had let out almost three hours ago and, after a quick trip to the shopping district to get the newest issue of his favorite gaming magazine, he had decided to take a short cut… only to end up in the bad part of Kokuyo—two and a half kilometers away from his destination.

Kokuyo was a separate district that used to be bright and busy until the factory used to make some sort of pesticide was shut down because of a carbon monoxide leak. The places had been mostly abandoned after that for fear of the toxic gas but once the power had been cut off, the threat had been eliminated. There were still some places that operated but they were overrun by low-life thugs and Yakuza operatives now. Tsuna had just signed a death warrant by coming here.

There was a scuffle. Tsuna whipped around, his senses on high alert.

"Hey there," A silken voice said smoothly from behind him. Tsuna stumbled away, facing the one who approached him. "You're pretty cute." So was he, Tsuna thought. The young man—eighteen or nineteen at most—had messy black hair with blonde streaks zig-zagging through the bangs. His eyes were a unique shade of shimmery blue and his skin was a pale ivory. He looked down with a flush. He chucked, "There's no need to be shy." He mused, slinging an arm around Tsuna's shoulder. "What's a cute young thing like you doing in this part of town?"

"A-Ah… I think I took a wrong turn, actually." Tsuna said nervously, shifting a bit under the weight of his toned arm. "I was just heading back to the main road."

"Hm," He looked over Tsuna's uniform. "You're from Namimori Middle."

"U-Un…" Tsuna looked down.

"You know that Hibari bastard?"

"N-Not personally…" Tsuna lied, looking away. Something warned him that telling him otherwise would end badly. "I should be going." He said, looking back at the alley-way he turned down.

"Or you could stick around and hang with me and my buddies." He said, grinning easily… it seemed lecherous to Tsuna.

"Th-Thank you b-but I can't. M-My tutor is expecting me." Tsuna tried to pull away but his grip tightened to the point of being threatening. Tsuna winced. "Please… let me go…" He said quietly, tugging free from his grip.

"Hm… how about no?" And then he snapped.

Six people—all male—dropped from high places. Tsuna twisted, looking around him frantically. He was trapped. There were no openings. "Wh-what're you…?" He began but was cut off when someone's foot collided with the back of his legs. "Ouf." Tsuna was held down, pinned on his knees.

"That's a good position for you." The one with the streaks said and they all laughed lecherously, grinning as though he had said something witty. "Perfect for what I want you to do."

Wanted you to do.

Those words sent something cold rippling through his mind and body. He'd heard about men who waited in alley-ways, charmed their target with sweet words and offered to keep them company… and then they brutally raped them. Were these people like that? And he had been fooled so easily.

He supposed that meant he deserved whatever he got but he wasn't about to go down without a fight.

He jerked out of the guy's hold on his left arm and swung his leg out to kick the other's legs out from underneath him. He was silent as he did this, slipping through the group and knocking them out… until he felt something icy cold and sharp press against his throat. "Now, now, that's far enough." The dual-haired teen said almost with disinterest. He looked around them to see three out of the seven—not including Tsuna—of them unconscious.

And then he smirked.

"It seems we have a fighter." He leered. Tsuna shuddered more out of fear than arousal. As attractive as he may have been, this guy was too twisted to arouse him. "On your knees or I slit your throat." He said in an imperial tone. Tsuna complied, more out of fear for his life than anything else. "Grab him," He commanded, motioning to the three that were still standing. They all grunted and grabbed his arms and shoulders. "Now, you're going to suck me off."

Tsuna scoffed. "Anything you put in my mouth, you're going to lose."

The butt of the knife collided with his cheek. Tsuna grunted at the impact. "You see? This is why I like men. They're more… feisty. They've got more fire than a woman does… and I seem to have hit the jackpot with you."

"Go fuck yourself." Tsuna spat the blood out at his feet. The older teen sneered at the show of disrespect.

"Why you—" He raised the knife over his head. Tsuna reared back as far as he could but he couldn't protect himself because of the firm hold the three conscious cronies had on him.

A gunshot reverberated off of the walls. Tsuna's eyes widened and he tried to look at the source. "Let him go or the next one does more than graze." Reborn's baritone voice threatened. Tsuna wished that the hitman wasn't hiding in the shadows—he wanted to see him.

Tsuna stood up and dusted himself off. "How long have you been there, Reborn?" Tsuna asked.

"Long enough," He sneered, stepping out of the darkness and leering at the men in all of his adult glory. The curse had been broken and his accelerated growth cycle had ended leaving him in one hell of a body. Had Tsuna not been in the situation he was in, he would have flushed and stammered like a teenage girl. "I see your sense of direction is as pathetic as ever."

"I was in a hurry." Tsuna countered lamely.

"Tch. And this moron landed a hit on you." Reborn sneered more out of disgust at the gang's actions than at Tsuna's lack of defense. He raised a hand to touch the bruise but Tsuna hissed on contact. He jerked away from the touch. "Let's go, Dame-Tsuna. We'd better get some ice on that." He tucked Tsuna into his side. He sneered one last time at the frozen scared group before sauntering towards the exit.

"How dare you disrespect me!" He shrieked. Reborn twisted to say some scathing remark but the knife had been poised for attack before he turned around. Tsuna was shoved to the side and Reborn raised his arm to block the clumsy attack. The hand that was hanging limply at his side rose with the weapon of choice—his gun.

BANG!

The bullet collided with the perpetrator's neck with professional aim. The grunts reared back and fled with desperate screams. Reborn cursed under his breath and he turned back towards Tsuna who was looking up with shock painted on his features. Reborn's eyes widened as he came off of his bloodlust high rather abruptly, his pupils dilating with the fear that he'd learned to disguise.

Tsuna had just seen him kill.

Tsuna—the one he vowed to protect, his naïve, cute but fierce student—had just watched him commit a murder.

He looked away, afraid of the rejection that would inevitably follow.

He'd had dreams like this scenario, of course. They usually turned into nightmares filled with fearful eyes, rejection, and emptiness—of Tsuna leaving him or asking him to leave… and now they had become reality.

He was startled out of his agonizing thoughts when a warm hand touched his own—the one that wasn't holding the gun. "You're bleeding." Tsuna frowned. "He must have got you with that knife." Tsuna looked back warily at the unmoving body that was covered with shadows. His eyes slipped close and he focused on his dormant harmony element, the way it could reach for someone else's element and borrow someone else's abilities. He reached out for Ryohei's—through the connection they shared through the Vongola Rings—and let the flame drift over the wound. "Better?" He asked, smiling up at Reborn who, for the barest of moments, looked stunned.

"Yeah…" Reborn murmured, flexing his hand. "Let's get out of here," With one last look, he guided Tsuna out of the alley-way.

Later that night, when Tsuna was freshly showered, lounging in his bed sideways with his knees bent and feet in the air as he watched Reborn clean his guns with fascination, Reborn let the question that was nagging at him most roll off of his tongue with little thought. "Doesn't it bother you?" Reborn asked.

"Hm?" Tsuna looked up, his eyes glittering curiously. "Does what bother me?"

"Me. Killing. What happened earlier." Reborn specified.

Tsuna blinked and tilted his head. "Should it?" Tsuna asked. Reborn felt like throttling his student right then and there. What kind of answer was that?! "Reborn, the guy was an A-class sicko. Attractive," Tsuna said in a tone as though he was pointing out something bland. "But a sicko. You know what he said? He said he likes men because we have more fire than women." Tsuna snorted and rolled onto his back to look at his ceiling. He put his bare feet on the wall and crossed his ankles. "I felt like introducing him to Bianchi."

Reborn stared at Tsuna flatly, the gun that was in pieces forgotten for the moment. Was this kid serious? "Tsuna, I just killed someone in front of you… and that doesn't bother you?"

Tsuna looked back, over his head. His bangs fell out of his face. "You're a hitman aren't you? You introduced yourself as such when we first met." Tsuna pointed out. "I'm not stupid, Reborn. I know what a hitman does for a living." He rolled back onto his stomach without uncrossing his legs.

He was totally missing the point!

"What? Were you expecting me to reject you or something?" Tsuna asked suddenly.

…maybe he wasn't.

Reborn glared at the half-assembled gun in his hands because glaring at Tsuna would confirm the question. He wasn't going to answer that. He jerked slightly when a hand brushed against his cheek from the side. When had Tsuna gotten up from the bed?

"Reborn, it doesn't matter to me if you kill one or one hundred people." Tsuna blinked and smiled brightly. "You're still Reborn to me." He tilted his head to the side, "Ne?"

Reborn stared back at his student with wide eyes before a small, genuine smile flicked up the corner of his lips.

And later that night, when Reborn fell asleep to the soft sounds of his student's even breathing, instead of dreaming about desolate rejection and fearful amber eyes, he dreamt about Tsuna's smile… and his acceptance.

Owari.

Thanks for reading~!