Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
The cell is small, white, spare. Tsuna walks in and nearly scrapes his head against the ceiling.
Sawada Nana looks back at her son tiredly. There are no physical marks on her that Tsuna can see, for which he is grateful.
He is aware that the only reason she was not brutalized or raped, the very fact that she is still alive, is only due to his position as the Vongola Decimo.
"Hello," Tsuna says quietly.
"Tsuna," Nana whispers back quietly, desperately. Her hands weave signs in the air.
For one moment, Tsuna thought she would reach out to hug him before Nana lets her hands drop into her lap.
He tenses automatically. Even though it's him, outside weapons are not allowed within the prison. For dealing with this prisoner, though, Tsuna doesn't need his gloves.
"How are you?" he asks, unsure how to deal with his mother, who is now a criminal despised by a world of criminals.
"Tsuna," his mother says again, and he notices that she hasn't taken her eyes off him since he entered.
"Mother, do you understand your situation?" the Vongola Decimo asks coldly. He cannot let himself be weak now.
"Tsuna, please," she begs now. "You don't have to go through this."
"Go through what, Sawada-san?" Not Mama, never Mama again, because that would hurt too much.
"You – you don't need to live in their world. We can run away together, I know we can. I'll protect you like before; just, Tsuna –"
"You don't seem to understand the situation, Sawada-san. You are a prisoner here. In two days, you will be imprisoned for life in the Vendiche."
"What did I do wrong, Tsuna? Why are we here?"
Tsuna knows she is not just asking about the prison.
"According to the rules of omerta, a member of a mafia family will face sentence between life imprisonment and death if he or she breaks the code of silence," he recited from memory.
Reborn had hammered this into his head long ago, after the Ring Battles.
Frankly, Tsuna was amazed that no one from his family had broken it before that.
The only other possibility was that Reborn had taken care of anyone who noticed. If so, Tsuna's carelessness might have been responsible for the difference between life and death for some individuals.
No. He refused to think of that now.
"What? The omerta?" Nana had obviously never heard of it before. It did not matter. The mafia world forgave nothing, including ignorance.
"The omerta is an unofficial promise to reveal nothing to the outside world of the mafia. You broke that pledge."
"How could I not? You were killing people!" Nana's voice rose as she headed rapidly towards hysterics. "I wanted to –"
"To save me?" Tsuna laughed, not needing to fake the cynicism. Nana's eyes widened.
"I don't need saving, Mama. I chose this path myself."
"No, you're wrong!" she shook her head emphatically. "They made you do it. My son is not a murderer."
"You don't get it, do you? I've known all this time what they've been doing. I was the one who brought them into this world, after all."
"No, I watched all of you! They're the ones who started killing, not you," Nana protested, "Not my son!"
"You think I didn't know?" Tsuna smirked, a horribly twisted expression on the face that looked just like hers.
"Of course I knew. I've known all along. Reborn's been calculating everything from the beginning, I think. You know, it started off like so much fun. Fireworks and games… baseball and birthday parties… I didn't realize, at first, that Reborn was trapping me into the mafia."
"You're not trapped, Tsuna! You can still stop; you don't have to do anything they tell you to –" Nana pleaded.
"And what? All I have to do is say I'm sorry and you'll forgive me and everything will go back to normal?" Tsuna laughed, so bitterly it shocked her.
When had her useless little boy turned into an adult?
"You're wrong, Mama. It's too late for me, because my family means more to me than you do."
Stricken, Sawada Nana began to sob, body shaking uncontrollably.
Nana had lived for years with seeing her husband only once in a blue moon. She had poured all her attention and affection, instead, on her only child. He was everything to her.
She had believed that she was his world, as well.
Tsuna continued chipping away at her, every word meant to hurt.
"Before I knew it," he pondered softly, "I started to love my family." Instead of you.
"I started to want to spend forever with them, to be willing to do anything as long as we could stay together." Not you, all those mornings that I'd wake up and you'd be ready with a big bowl of rice means nothing to me.
"I began to think that more than the fear of becoming a mafia don, I was afraid to lose them." Losing you is – acceptable.
"I will not forgive anyone who threatens my family."
Not even you.
Mother.
Where had her precious child gone?
This stranger was not Nana's beloved son.
"I simply came in here to see the woman who betrayed my family before she is locked up in the Vendiche," Tsuna informed her.
Her face was devastated. Tsuna kept on going, mercilessly.
"You deserve it. I wish you happiness in jail, Sawada-san."
Nana's delicate hands clenched into fists, pretty nails cutting into her palms.
"You're not my son!" she said, wanting this stranger with her son's face out of here.
As far away from her as possible.
"You're a monster!" Nana's voice became a scream.
Where was her son? Where?
Tsuna's eyebrow rose, a move he had perfected after intense training. All he needed was a bit more…
"I wish you never existed!" Hurt and angry beyond bearing, Tsuna's mother reached for her son, hands extended to tear, to hurt.
Finally…
Tsuna did not dodge, even as his mother raked bloody trails down his face. The prison guards made no indication to stop Hibari Kyoya as he went in. Tsuna left before he could hear Hibari begin his work.
Hibari Kyoya, Vongola's executioner.
The ones who broke the omerta belonged to the Vendicare. However, if they threatened or attempted harm to a high-ranking mafia boss, then the mafia family would be allowed to execute that person. That was why Tsuna had brought Hibari to the prison in the first place; Hibari would never allow someone to escape the consequences of breaking the rules.
Tsuna remembered how Mukuro had looked after being released from the mafia prison. Death would be better.
It had to be better than being locked up forever. Because if it wasn't…
Iemitsu had died, long ago. I-pin and Lambo were away. They would know – there was no way to keep it from them – but at least they didn't have to see it.
Hibari was in there, and Sawada Nana would be dead if she wasn't already.
Tsuna did not turn back to look at her and he would never ask Hibari if her death had been painless.
He didn't want to know.
Tsuna drove by himself, parking in a street near his original home.
He walked and suddenly smelled the scent of freshly cooked rice.
For one moment, he was just that little boy again – the useless child who loved his mother.
Then the smell faded and Vongola was parent, child, and everything that made up Tsuna's world again.