"Reborn." The black-haired man ignored the call of his name from the back of the shared household of the Arcobaleno, hoping that Viper will find someone else to bother. It hadn't even been half a minute since he returned to the house after a week-long trip. "I know you heard me."

Reborn exhaled sharply, turning to look at the hooded figure that somehow managed to materialize from a shadowy hallway. We need to add some fucking lights in here, he thought irritably. "What do you want?"

Viper merely extended a snot-covered handkerchief, shaking it in what the sorcerer probably believed to be a beckoning gesture when Reborn made no move to touch the disgusting piece of cloth. "I need you to go to this location."

Unwilling to touch the handkerchief with more than a thumb and forefinger, he gingerly took it from Viper without looking at it. "Why? What's there?"

The sorcerer shot him what Reborn assumed was an annoyed look, but the expression lost most of its effectiveness due to the hood covering most of their face. "You'll need to pay for that information. It should take you half a day to get there and back, if you take a horse."

Reborn rolled his eyes, unfortunately quite used to this response. "I don't get to know why I'm being sent out immediately after getting home? I deserve that much information, at least."

"I'll give you the information if you owe me a favor," Viper challenged. Reborn gritted his teeth at the nerve of his fellow Arcobaleno, but thought it over before he decided that it's not worth it.

"Greedy bastard," he muttered as he grabbed his fedora from where he hung it up upon returning home.

"Thank you," Viper said with an audible smirk in their voice.

Reborn liked to think himself above such actions, but he might have slammed the door a little on his way out. Just a bit.

As much as it hurt his pride to admit it, Reborn might have walked right past the tunnel entrance if his horse, Leon, hadn't stood in front of the vines and refused to move. Even through his annoyance at being sent on another meaningless task by Viper, he reluctantly acknowledged the clever way the tunnel entrance was hidden. The way the vines were arranged helped them blend into the natural order of the scenery.

"Well, someone's trying to hide, hm?" he mused, slipping off the saddle. Taking Leon's reins, he tied them to a nearby rock just in case his horse decided to wander off in search of something more tasty than the available grass. He gave the faithful horse a farewell pat before brushing aside the vines and stepping into the tunnel.

He waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving towards the spot of brightness at the end of the tunnel, careful to mind the sharp rocks and hidden crannies of the stone around him.

After a couple minutes of walking, the end of the tunnel opened into a clearing, lit idyllically by the morning sun. He looked around with a sense of bafflement, noting the meadow of soft grass and occasional brightly colored wildflower dotting the clearing. There was even a gently bubbling brook winding its way through the meadow.

The main feature of the space, however, was the tall stone tower jutting out of the ground at the other end of the clearing, the gaps in its gray stone sporting tendrils of ivy slowly making their way up the tower. The whole scene just radiated peacefulness, which only served to make Reborn warier. What in the actual fuck.

He briskly crossed the clearing, sparing a moment to cast a distrustful look around at the waving blades of grass. Stopping just before the walls of the round tower, he considered his next move. I'm at the place Viper told me to go to, but there isn't anything here. He cast a contemplative look at the top of the tower, eyeing the distance. Well, I'm already here. Might as well figure out what's at the top.

He dug his fingers into the stone and began to climb.

Tsuna would like to maintain that he was having a perfectly normal day up until a stranger dressed in black decided to come in through his window.

Same as any other day of the week, he woke up, cursed his father, felt marginally better, tripped downstairs because of his ridiculously long hair, had breakfast with his mama, said goodbye to the aforementioned mama before she left on her daily and day long trip for groceries, and settled down to do whatever it was that he felt like doing that day.

That day, he happened to choose painting, but gave that up when he remembered that he didn't have any yellow left, berating his forgetfulness. "You know, I wouldn't have this problem if Dad would just let me go out to get my own painting supplies, instead of insisting that I have Mama pick some up with her normal shopping," he mused to Natsu. "In fact, a lot of my problems would disappear if Dad would let me go out on my own." Natsu just looked up at him with his adorable face and barked back quietly.

A scratching sound interrupted his one-sided conversation. Stiffening, he whispered to Natsu, "I think it's coming from the wall." Creeping over to the open window on the side of the room, he came face to face with a surprised, but handsome face. He just barely stifled the urge to shriek. Instead, he channelled his fairly non-existent courage and asked: "Um, hi there. Mind explaining why you're breaking into my tower?"

Well, this is an interesting development. Reborn wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting when he got to the top of the tower, but a young man (with very, very long hair—was there an end to it?) definitely wasn't on the list. Readjusting his hold on the stone brick he was currently gripping, he decided to go with the truth. "Someone hired me to come here."

The blank look he got told him that this wasn't particularly helpful information. Reborn sighed. "Look, it's not particularly comfortable clinging to the side of a—" he chanced a downward look, "—sixty-foot tower. Mind if you let me in?"

The young man flailed around for a few moments, which was admittedly amusing to watch, before graciously stepping aside so that Reborn could haul himself over the ledge and into the tower. "You're not going to hurt or kill me, are you?" He felt miffed that this person would think that he would have time to ask questions before the World's Greatest Hitman could kill him, but the genuinely fearful look on the other's face assuaged his temper.

"Not here to kill you, just to gather intel," he once again answered truthfully. If this conversation went on much longer, his reputation would be methodically ripped into pieces and shoved down the drain. Pushing gently past the young man with the very (very very very) long hair (and ignoring the very un-manly yelp that the other gave), he crossed the threshold to a truly impressive (and very tedious looking) spiral staircase. "Does anyone else live here with you?"

"My mama. My dad visits sometimes. He usually lives at the capital," the young man replied dutifully, before looking suspicious. "You're not going to hurt or kill them either, are you?" Reborn resisted the urge to facepalm. You idiot. Ask before giving away information.

"Nope. Like I said, just gathering intel." He began the long climb down the spiraling staircase, but he hadn't even taken five steps before a delicate hand tugged on the hem of his shirt. Quickly pulling it out of the other's grasp, he glared at the quickly paling young man before smoothing down any potential wrinkles. "What do you want?"

"Um, please leave?" Reborn commended him for sticking it out to the end of the sentence, despite the clear look of fear upon the other's face and obvious rise in pitch at the end. "You said you just wanted information on this place, right? You don't need to go downstairs for that. I can tell you what you want to know." And I didn't even need to threaten him. Maybe my reputation is still intact.

Reborn scrutinized the fearful face in front of him. "Alright," he agreed slowly, thinking about the previous precedents and the way that the other clearly had a problem with his brain-to-mouth filter. "Lead the way."

The two of them backtracked into what seemed to be the young man's room, the other offering, "My name's Tsuna, by the way, and that's Natsu," before going to the bed, sitting on the mattress with a bounce.

At Tsuna's gesture, he turned around to find a tiny lion cub sitting on the the oval carpet (with a truly hideous pattern). ...Right. He turned back to Tsuna, who was now picking at a loose end in the blanket on the bed. "You said your name is Tsuna?"

"And that's Natsu," he agreed with a nod.

"And you live with your parents."

"Just my mom, usually. My dad comes by once a year." Tsuna irritatingly continually avoided eye contact by attempting to pull the loose end out by yanking, but it was only making the situation worse. Reborn was tempted to tell him to find a pair of scissors.

"And what are your parents' names?"

"My mom's name is Sawada Nana. My dad's is Sawada Iemitsu." Reborn didn't miss the brief twitch of irritation at the edge of Tsuna's mouth as he relayed his father's name, mostly because it corresponded with Reborn's own suppressed snarl at the mention of that idiot's name.

"Sawada Iemitsu? As in the one that's the external advisor to the king?"

"That's the one."

"I didn't know that he had a son."

"Not many people do," Tsuna said with a sigh, still picking at the loose end. Reborn didn't understand why he didn't just go and get the scissors. He could literally see them on the dresser behind the brunet.

"And why are you living in this tower?" Tsuna finally lifted his head. Reborn approved of the irritated look on the brunet's face.

"'Cause my dad's an overprotective idiot, that's why." Tsuna crossed to the other side of the room to grab a pair of scissors with orange handles that was laying on a wooden desk. Finally. "He's all, 'Oh, my tuna fishie can't possibly live with me at the castle. It's much too dangerous for him. It's better that he stay in this lonely tower with my own wife for company.'"

While he talked, Tsuna returned to the bed and started in on the loose end. Reborn refrained from telling him that he wasn't just cutting the loose strand of string. "So now I'm stuck here, with my mama gone most of the day and an animal for company—sorry Natsu, you know I love you—and he won't let me cut my hair! Do you know how annoying it is to have to drag around hair that's longer than you? No? Well clearly he doesn't either. And everytime I bring up the topic to him, he's like 'No, tuna fishie, it looks so nice like this!' even though my hair is probably the definition of a Gordian knot! And if Dad wants to keep it, then Mama's not going to do anything about it." Reborn marveled at how much sharp things in someone's hands really added to their argument. He should try that the next time Viper tried to coerce him into doing something.

The two of them spent the next few minutes in silence, with only the snips of Tsuna's scissors breaking the heavy air. Finally, Tsuna sighed and put them down. "Great, now I've ruined another one of Mama's quilts." Another one? "Anyway, that's probably all the information you wanted, right? You should go." He helpfully gestured to the open window with the scissors.

Reborn sniffed haughtily. "You're not even going to show me out the front door?"

"Honestly, I think it would be faster going down the side of the tower than taking your chances with those stairs. It gets a bit sickening after the first three floors." Reborn conceded the point.

Just before he sat down on the window ledge to climb back out of the tower, he turned back to Tsuna, who was already returning the scissors to his desk. "Hey."

Tsuna swung around, a questioning expression on his face.

"Do you want to come with me?" It was almost as if Reborn's mouth was moving without his brain's consent. It wasn't a feeling that he ever wanted to repeat. At Tsuna's incredulous look, he explained, "You mentioned that you've basically been confined to this tower for your whole life. Why not take the chance to see what the rest of the world is like?"

"I don't even know your name. I've been calling you 'Mr. Dark and Mysterious Stranger' in my head this entire time." Reborn vehemently told himself that the flush spreading along Tsuna's cheeks wasn't attractive. Not at all. Really, damsels in distress were so overrated.

"The name's Reborn."

Tsuna still looked doubtful, but not outright dismissive of the idea. Reborn beckoned with a hand. "Come on. It's not like breaking the rules just once is going to matter." He sighed when the expression didn't change.

He pulled out the gun clipped to his belt and brandished it half-threateningly in Tsuna's direction. The brunet replied with an unimpressed look, but joined Reborn at the window ledge, peering down with a look of trepidation on his face.

"Race you down," Reborn challenged with a wink, hopping over the ledge and beginning his descent. Two stones down, he worried slightly that Tsuna ended up changing his mind, but his thoughts were interrupted by a mass of brown shooting over the side of the tower. Startling slightly, he glanced back just in time to see Tsuna rocketing past him, using his very (very very very—seriously, what the fuck, Iemitsu—) long hair as a rope.

A very soft thump signalled Tsuna's arrival at the bottom, but Tsuna's wondrous laughter was much better as an indicator.

Reborn smiled to himself and methodically continued his way down the tower. "First stop: getting you a haircut," he called down.

"YES!"