Fic: Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Quick Draw [Lambo, I-Pin, Shitt P, Gokudera, Tsuna]
Quick Draw
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Characters: Lambo, I-Pin, Shitt P/Gokudera, Tsuna
Rating: PG-13
Notes: fics about moments in chapters 311-316 - playtime, UMAs, and family matters abound. The scanlations are from IEM.
Lambo loved school. Loved. Even Nana, doting mother that she was, was shocked at how happily the seven-year-old trotted off to school, obediently holding I-Pin's hand.
There were a million other kids to play with at school. Hundreds, even! More than a whole dozen in his own class! And he'd hated his new haircut at first, so short and tiny, but now that his hair was too small to hide weapons in it was so easy to make the teachers say that he was a good boy. Giving up the right to cram hand grenades down people's shirts was worth it for a gold star on his class work. If something made him start sniffling, there were a whole bunch of girls who'd stop skipping to offer him candy and other people who'd pat him on the head, and playing ball with kids smaller than Tsuna and the rest of the family was the best. No one mistook him for the ball anymore!
He played with everybody, and - it very secretly felt surprising, but he definitely didn't bawl in the bathroom about it - everybody played with him.
Lambo didn't get why all his classmates stopped playing, the day I-Pin asked him to play dress-up with her. It was the middle of break time, and it wasn't like he'd put on the high heels that lay in a corner of the dress-up box, so he wasn't walking funny. Everybody stopped so they could stare. He tugged at the hem of his dress, and I-Pin, going pale from all the stares, took his hand.
Then everyone laughed at him - everyone. They called him names as bad as anything Gokudera said, and even if he'd still had weapons to throw at them, he was too surprised that even school could be this way. When he started crying, some people laughed harder.
He ran home, and I-Pin didn't dare speak to him when she came out of school. She left an apology letter by the door of the room he shared with Tsuna.
Lambo thought about it all for a long time, until the house was quiet, Tsuna was rolled right up in all his blankets, Reborn was snoring, and even Leon had blinked once. He had an idea. Or a plan. (In a few terms, he'd get a smile from his pretty language teacher for using one of his vocabulary words correctly: "I have a philosophy.")
The next day Lambo strode to I-Pin's desk, and as she looked down, guilty and apologetic, he said: "Do you want to play dress-up?"
After all, he really did like playing all those games, no matter who asked and no matter what it was.
***
Ten years later I-Pin flew up from her seat, where she'd been cooing and laughing over an old photograph album, yelling in realisation: "You did that on purpose so I'd beat up everyone who laughed!"
Lambo's eyes both widened in a common look: caught out! "And here I thought you were trying to be nice about it, you manipulator!" I-Pin yelled, laughing, and jumped him with a headlock - hugged him - and punched him.
"It didn't turn out so bad, in spite of that. You're still playing with me," he pointed out, muffled, and she settled on a hug.
"Nii-chan?" Tsuna said.
"'Nii-chan'!" Gokudera looked like the word was a dead rat. "What are you talking about, you stupid, ridiculous cow!" Then he groaned and shook his head as Lambo looked towards them from where he sat on the cavern floor. "Ridiculous ten-years-later cow," he amended. "Come on, Tenth. We'd better get that - that disrespectful little-"
He wasn't done by the time they'd reeled Lambo up from the cavern and into their rock-bubble, using Leon as a rope. "How could you say a thing like that that to the Tenth? And in front of the enemy! You'd better not dare try and claim brotherhood with the Tenth Generation Vongola Boss ever again, either! Do you want to grow up to be like - like that Cavallone? Say no right now!"
Tsuna wasn't done either. "Nii-chan," he murmured to himself. "Oh, no..."
Then he grabbed Lambo by the shoulder, pulling him away from Gokudera and kneeling to speak to him. "Hey, are you okay? Did any part of that blast hit you before the Ten-Year Bazooka went off?"
"Lambo-san is invincible! A subordinate would never get the better of me..." He blinked up at Tsuna with large eyes, sticking his thumb in his mouth. "Can I have candy?"
"You can have a juice. Here," Tsuna said, rummaging through his backpack. A juice would be good, right? His mother used to give him sugary drinks when he got a big fright as a kid.
His mother... They really, really had adopted Lambo, hadn't they? All these kids, even the independent I-Pin and Futa - even Bianchi. The situation hadn't been 'these people refuse to move out, thank goodness my mother really loves company and the house has lots of guest rooms' for a long time, or even 'I guess I can get along with teeny tiny assassins after all ... in a way'. Ten-years-later Lambo had looked up at him like he thought Tsuna was a pretty decent human being, who he'd known almost all his life and still liked, and who he knew exactly how to get flustered.
"There, there, Tenth," Gokudera said, patting him on the back. "Make him liaison to the Russian mob. He'll see who's the boss then. Heh."
"He's six years old," Tsuna pointed out, not vehemently. Age didn't stop him from letting Lambo do practically everything else, and besides, he was feeling overwhelmed.
"That was a terrible idea," said Reborn from above, climbing a real rope this time that hung from one of the vertical tunnels. "We should wait a year and then send him."
Gokudera shouted up the tunnel. "Good plan, Reborn-san! Wherever we send him, he needs to get strong enough to give them something to worry about before he runs..."
He grabbed the knotted rope and started climbing, still plotting out loud. Tsuna grabbed Lambo, juice and all, and stuffed him in his backpack to make climbing easier. "We're going for a ride," Tsuna said, totally lying in a way he thought a big brother would.
"This ride is boring!" Lambo yelled halfway through, just like a bratty little brother ought to.
Tsuna thought that being surprised at what adult Lambo had said was a typical no-good move. But he still thought he had a slightly new set of expectations to live up to - and smiled a little. Even for him, it felt like these expectations would mostly be a cinch.
"Where did you learn this stuff about the first storm guardian, Reborn-san?"
Training had tired him enough to be able to meet Reborn's studying stare, caring less than he normally would but not yet wilting. Then Reborn turned away and began packing up his tiny portable espresso set. Even though he'd been looking at his cup more than at Gokudera, he probably hadn't missed a second of the training.
"Old Vongola records. Don't beat yourself up too much about not finding this information," he said, somewhat to Gokudera's surprise. "Even those records aren't very complete. The first generation of the Vongola didn't write much down, and there was too much tension for the second generation to pick up the slack. It's no surprise if you didn't find anything like this in your research. Reborn put the espresso set in Leon-luggage. "Ask Lal Mirch if you want to know more. CEDEF might know more."
When he was less tired, he did, and it was similar to what Reborn had told him. It was the kind of thing you'd think was stupid.
The focus of the incomplete records, especially when it wasn't directly about the first boss, seemed to be mostly about how well people got along. What about details on the fighting strategies of the first generation, or an exploration of how they consolidated power? Nope, this was gossip: 'Sure, the guy was good with a gun, but ooh, his best friend gave him a crossbow and that was...'
Much better. Much, much better. The power of this Vongola box was one of the most solid reassurances Gokudera had got since getting dumped in the future. So they'd passed this trivia on to the adult version of him, too. The version of him that lived in this era had also gone along with getting this box commissioned, based on those old stories. He'd picked the crossbow part of the story, not the gun.
A couple of nights ago he'd gone into the kitchen just for some water, and there was Ryohei sort of looking like he was only so far from bursting into tears. Gokudera only got five steps out of the room before he forced himself back to ask what was wrong, and got a story about the priest with the English nickname, how the guy had killed someone, and how that had been put aside when the first Vongola had to ask for help. Gokudera had yelled that obviously that kind of thing would happen if you went around bare-knuckle boxing, which sounded likely from that nickname. Everybody knew that way more dangerous than the normal kind, and anyway, are you from two hundred years ago and secretly Catholic? I didn't think so! The lawn-headed dumbass was actually easy to cheer up.
Then a night or two later, when Gokudera couldn't force the idea out of his mind - Tsuna had appointed him as their teacher, that one time! - he peeked in on Ryohei and Lambo's training. Ryohei was telling a story about a coward who had a boss who was kind of a bastard to him, and for who the coward still held up a really strong shield. Lambo listened quietly, and Gokudera felt a creepy, weird, strong sense of pride.
Now Gokudera stood in the hallway of the infirmary area and thought about the stories - and then pushed off the wall, because Bianchi, Haru, and Kyoko were down here often to check up on Lal, and Tsuna and Reborn sometimes visited too. He kept thinking about the stories when there was time, and hopefully nobody could see the look on his face.
There was a reason all these stories were being told, especially since it was Reborn who was making sure the information got around. They were supposed to learn from them. It wasn't inspiring - two centuries, and all people said was, 'They got along. They were good buddies. They got each other gifts, and helped each other build a huge legacy, and might have trusted each other even more than they trusted themselves...'
Then he'd remind himself it was ridiculous. Why would you give up a gun you were already a pro with for a crossbow? How was this supposed to help him fight? Stupid!
By the time he heard G's voice coming from his ring it was like he knew the man well enough that he probably ought to apologise about all the times he'd thought the word 'stupid' at him.
That voice, and Giotto Vongola's reply to G, was another thing that he remembered, privately, thinking over sometimes after they'd all made their way home; how they'd sounded angry and laughing and disrespectful and comfortable with each other, all at once.
And he kept thinking that maybe it wasn't the adult Gokudera who'd commissioned the G-Archery box. Maybe it had been the Tenth, for his right hand, thinking about the most important parts of a legacy.
Definitely, he decided, he had a lot to live up to. He grinned, a surge of determination coming with the decision. He'd love to be a legend, and someday Tsuna could use the company.
'You are a freak.'
It wasn't something you went around telling people. You especially didn't say it to friends.
Tsuna thought it to himself less and less as time went by, because even if his friends were freaks, they were his freaks, and having no internal organs or common sense, or stalking one-year-olds, or having a black hole in your hair didn't mean you couldn't be a good person. Besides, he'd met the Varia. There were heights of freakiness his nearest and dearest hadn't begun to reach.
But a girl who everybody seriously thought might be an alien, because there had to be some kind of an explanation for her - she looked at Gokudera (and his overhyped mind, his instantaneous and unchangeable decisions, his constant passionate public announcements, his ability to ignore what was jumping up and down to be noticed), and she told him, basically: "You are a freak!"
Tsuna was thankful Shitt P had done it in a way that also meant "You're really awesome!" because hopefully it softened the blow. He couldn't offer Gokudera any comfort, and he certainly couldn't disagree - he was trying not to burst out laughing at him.
First things first: She'd strip him bare and take all his accessories.
But standing at ground zero, Shitt P was well aware of all the incremental elements between her and Gokudera Hayato, who kept constant company with the rest of the Vongola family and also his hang-up with Sawada Tsunayoshi, which was nearly a viable life form. For her part, there were the practical fractional steps of revenge, Simon against Vongola and herself against all comers.
Of course, when the fight comes and ends and when the noose comes to the neck, Shitt P finds that she has more important things to think about. She can believe how brilliant and boundless and obtuse Gokudera is, how loud, vibrant, fumbling, and passionate. She can't believe how he squanders it on Sawada Tsunayoshi - she can't believe he knows better, when you'd never hear a word of it from him - she can't believe how much more himself all that waste makes him, folding the edges of him back inside so that he's simple and sensible and maybe almost thinks he's happy. He burns brighter and prouder and he wins - but why wouldn't she believe that? It makes perfect sense.
This fight has been true to the things that Gokudera says and does: he likes the Vongola Tenth and fights for him, and never pretends otherwise. And if Shitt P can't quite believe how much strength pours into Gokudera in precise inverse proportion to how much pours out of him, in all his dedication, it is because it seems far too self-indulgent. All that love, wild and welling up - just when she thought it would be a good kind of thing to see for herself, up close on that skinny pretty body.
Of course, she's all about indulging herself.
It's a little too nice to know that he's as amazing as her not to cry, now that she's locked in loops of chain and night, and it's a little too nice not to be happy. She remembers the day they'd begun to talk, and the dreams of intimacy that wound through the facts of revenge. She would've liked to try these sunglasses that go with his new fighting outfit. And naturally, she'd have traded with him - Gokudera would look great in these boots.
Shitt P looks at him, taking the moments in as they come, because whatever the Vindice will have to show won't be nearly as interesting. At least, for the others that had been imprisoned, they'd be able to take her in.