Regret

Ienari

quick note; i haven't watched khr in... nearly three years, so i might be inaccurate about some things, feel free to correct me :)

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  "Tsuna, where'd you get that?"

  "What?"

  Ienari pointed to his neck, and on instant reflex, he hopelessly tried to hide the orange pacifier around his neck. He was lucky he didn't seem to realize it was the same as Reborn's, but the thought wasn't one he could rejoice in. With the Decimo's intuition growing at a constant pace, it was no wonder he became more attentive. And it was getting harder to keep up with half-truths.

  "It was a gift," he said briefly. "It's... important to me."

   Or else I'd probably die, he thought wryly.

  Ienari seemed to accept the answer, turning back to his homework. Reborn had entered moments later, his childish smile so innocent and befitting that it was nearly so convincing he was actually an infant, but the two brothers knew better, attempting to look like they were seriously working on problems. He hopped onto the table, looking at Ienari's papers.

  "Do that one over again."

  "Eh? But it's—" he refrained from talking any further as Leon turned into a hammer, hitting him on the head. He hissed in pain, clutching his forehead. Defeated, the older Sawada looked back at the previous problem, scrambling to figure where he even went wrong.

  He eventually settled in for the night, residing to his own room, mentally exhausted. Tsuna watched his back, an awkward sense of deja-vu coursing through him. Ienari was a lot like him, but he wasn't. Huh. He suddenly longed for those boisterous nights Lambo, I-Pin, and Fuuta would be scrambling around the house, energetic and lively as they chased one another.

  But for now, it was only the crybaby Lambo and he was fast asleep already, crying himself to sleep because of Reborn.

  "So, you're a Tsunayoshi from a parallel world," Reborn mused, hopping onto the desk beside his bed.

  "And you're exactly the same where I'm from," Tsuna huffed.

  "Ho, really?" it piqued the hitman's interest. Idly, he wondered if the interest in him was because of the sky's natural charisma, or simply because he was a fellow arcobaleno. It definitely didn't stem from the fact he was another candidate for the Vongola position, though the chances were very awkward and unlikely, given he was holding an arcobaleno position.

Either way, he felt somewhat at ease knowing Reborn would somewhat help him out, even if he wasn't exactly the same—he was not the victim to the questionable tutoring methods, but he was glad he stayed out of most of it and he dare wouldn't complain. Reborn would always be that monstrous tutor, no matter who the student was.

He wondered idly when Dino would appear, it was surely soon.

  Not receiving the tutoring felt odd to him, a bitter taste lingering. He'd grown accustomed to a daily, life-threatening case of his mentality or physical being at stake, but instead, he was a sideline, as if watching himself go through it all again.

  "How was Ienari in that world?" it was an innocent question, but it struck an odd, heavy chord in him.

  "He did not... exist in my world," he said, an odd feeling in his throat. "You were tutoring me."

  Reborn's eyes stared at him warily, gauging the weight of the sky arcobaleno's words. "Who was the arcobaleno?"

   He swallowed. "Aria-san."