Muscles worked, contracted and pulled, coating Fon's small body with a sheen of sweat as it worked to express its owner's frustration on a worn sandbag that was four times his size.

Whap. Thwap.

Controlled, precise movements struck the bag, showing no mercy in their blows.

Thwack. Thwack.

Graceful. Elegant. Deadly accurate. Seemingly lazy in their strikes, yet the movements possessed an almost ungodly sense of contrasting violent rigidness behind it.

Unfortunately for him, the flow was bound to be broken, no matter how long he wanted to drag it out.

Thump. Thwack.

"Fon," Reborn says, "you're going to damage your fists."

Thwack.

He stops, and for an eerily uncomfortable moment, turns around slowly to face the other in the room.

"If your intention is to mock me, Reborn," says Fon, his tone sharp with an edge, "I must inform you that I am in no mood to participate in any banter for today either."

Reborn says nothing, watching Fon as he finally moves to wipe his sweat and don his red garb. Slowly, his breathing evens out but even Skull would have been able to tell that Fon was still very much upset.

"My apologies," he says after a while, reverting back into the calm character that this storm hides behind. "I did not mean to lash out. It seems like I still need some time to clear my thoughts and sort my… situation out properly. Perhaps meditation will help this time."

Hide. Find an exit. This is not right.

He is stalling for time, subconsciously trying to prevent the conversation to come, and Reborn realizes this.

"Don't be a fool," Reborn says quietly, and then, "you know fairly well that trying to distract me from bringing your so-called 'situation' up won't work. It is in the best interest of my Sky that I am here to tell you that whatever you're thinking shouldn't be affecting your decision to accept Tsuna as he is, anyway. "

"No?" Fon hisses suddenly, and Reborn is tensed because it would not do him well to forget that this man is dangerous even with half his abilities removed. Dangerous even as a friend. "He is a child, Reborn. Barely fifteen years old and barely starting his journey as a prepubescent teen hitting puberty. What part of this does not seem the least bit upsetting to you? Actually, how is this not affecting you at all?"

'Ah, of course,' Reborn thinks then, 'so this is what it's about.'

"Do not make assumptions about me, Fon. You will just come to realize, once you've met him, the steps that I have taken to deal with my concerns." Fon raises an elegant brow at his reveal but wisely chooses to listen when Reborn speaks again. "For what it's worth, you will not be able to help it, you know. Though I haven't tried separating myself from him, I just know that it's been decided by some sadistic God or the universe itself, that he is to be ours to protect."

Fon glares at him, but he shows no sign of backing down from his claim. "You may have insinuated that I was a fool when you walked through those doors, but do not treat me like I am one. I know what it means to have him etched into our pacifiers."

Reborn shakes his head. "I'm well aware that you're no fool, Fon. But as long as you're aware-"

"But I did not say that I will accept him," interrupts the Storm Arcobaleno. He ignores Reborn's tilt of the head, rejecting the warning that it so obviously represented. "He will be my Sky, that much might be true, but…" he breathes deeply, feeling his Flames flare and burn through his veins, "but he will not be my mate."

Fon's tone has a ring of finality to it, and Reborn has never wanted to shoot Fon as much as he did then.

"You would endanger your Sky, risk him to Dissonance?" His voice is low, silky and does the trick of putting Fon on edge. "You would put your selfish, tainted ideals of a soulmate before your Sky?"

"I am not abandoning him, Reborn."

"But you might as well be. Contrary to whatever it is you're thinking, Fon, being a bonded element is as the same as being a soulmate in our case. If you were to go through with this selfishness just because you think he isn't worthy enough-"

"Worthy? He is a child! To have such feelings towards a child, do you feel no shame? Where has your sense of morality gone, to call me selfish and think that I only consider his strength, out of everything?"

They both stop here, glaring at each other, but sudden revelation dawning about what the other was actually thinking of. Reborn speaks first, quiet and a little hesitant, but no less heavier than before. "You speak of his age, not his strength?"

"Unlike you, it seems," quipped Fon, "no wonder you said I would be able to see the effects of the precautions you took when I saw him. Now, with that confusion aside, do you finally understand my concerns?"

"No. I still don't, if I'm honest. If I'm really honest," Reborn says, ignoring Fon's look of irritation and slight disgust, "I just don't really care. Age doesn't really matter when you have been alive after a few centuries, but apparently, you don't share the same sentiments."

"Obviously. I still stand by my decision, however."

At this point, Reborn wants to knock some sense into an unusually stubborn Fon, but refrains as he remembers that their fight could possibly destroy the only hideout they have. He settles for a polite discussion instead.

"As I've said, ours isn't the same as the common people. You could risk Dissonance for Tsuna if you were to deny him this bond, and as his Storm, you understand what it would mean for you as well as the rest of us. I will not allow this."

Fon's shift in form is slight, but it does enough to send the message that one wrong word could send them both careening headfirst into a fist-fight that they would both end up regretting later.

'So much for being fucking polite,' snorts Reborn mentally, annoyed.

"You will not be telling me what to do, Reborn. You might be the strongest out of all of us, but you would be foolish to think you can order me around and have me ask for permission to do as I like."

The hitman decides then, to fuck it and say his piece instead of tip-toeing around the bushes.

"Since when did you develop a morality complex, Fon? If I remember correctly, we were all starving for a Sky, even when we were with Luce. But now that you've got one that you can finally bond with, you're rejecting him? For such a petty issue as age when you know it's far past to be an issue any longer?" Fon opens his mouth to say something, but Reborn isn't done. "You do know that until this curse is unsealed, we're stuck as literal babies for as long as forever, right? This can literally drag on until he's at the age of eighteen, and hell, the legal age of consent in Japan is fucking thirteen. So the way I see this, the only ones losing out here is us, not Tsuna."

Fon does not say anything for a long moment, then, "You're crass. Disgustingly, uncommonly so."

"But I am right," Reborn counters, "I do draw the line at thirteen being the age of consent, though, in case you're having any doubts. I just want you to know that you're being ridiculous. The bond between a Sky and his element is not to be trifled with."

Still, he shakes his head, sagging slightly as if the fight has been drained out of him. "Say what you want about everything that I already know. Of course, as an element, I will do my best to fulfill my roles, but physical intimacy with my Sky as a child… that's where I draw the line. Do respect that."

As Fon moves to gather his belongings, Reborn thinks this over again, and he weighs these decisions carefully this time. If he really tried, he supposed that he could understand Fon's concerns, but he couldn't understand why Fon seems to think that Tsuna would stay a child forever. In three years' time, he would turn eighteen, wouldn't he? By then, who knows if the curse would have been broken or not, but it seemed highly unlikely at this point, so they wouldn't be aging anyways. Even if it weren't, they could use their Life Flames, and though risky and reckless, it seems worth it if it was to spend some much needed time with their Sky. Could Fon not understand that if they started bonding now, which is bound to happen soon anyway, the absence of intimacy between Sky and element could prove disastrous to both parties? It would be like drawing water from a puddle for the both of them eventually: painful and ineffective as a relationship, thus forming Dissonance between the two.

With this, Reborn could only think up of one solution.

"Tell him."

Fon startles, looking at Reborn with surprised eyes. "What?"

"Tell him about your decisions, Fon. He might be fifteen, but he's not as much as a child as you think he might be."

A pause. "That… is comforting to hear. I guess it would make sense, anyway. He is my Sky after all."

Reborn would admit later that he was also counting on Tsuna to change his mind, but for now, he would agree with what Fon thought was his duty to do. He decides that it would set him at ease to caution Fon a little more, too.

"Don't fuck this up, Fon. I only hope you realize the effects of your stubbornness before it's too late, and if I so much as see the signs of Tsuna suffering because of your actions, you better be ready to get shot to hell and back."

The temperature in the room drops like a rock, and Fon dons a faux smile as he turns to face Reborn from the door. Neither of them moves.

"Of course, not that I would deliberately hurt my Sky," he says, eyes becoming mere slits as he spoke, "but you can most certainly try."

Tsuna was, in every sense of the word, nervous.

Sitting in front of Reborn, he couldn't help but wring his hands and pluck at his nails, fidgeting and sometimes even flinching from small movements. Even the cup of tea Nana gave him wasn't spared from his twitching fingers.

And it wasn't because of Reborn, no. It was because of the ringing in the back of his mind, the small voice that he remembered Reborn telling him to always listen to. But what on earth could that voice be trying to tell him?

"What's wrong, Tsuna?" Glancing up from his cup, he couldn't help the small sag in his shoulders as he felt some of the tension being released at Reborn's concern. Really, he was glad that Reborn was asking him things nicely now, instead of shooting at him to get information out of him.

"Well, something just doesn't seem right," says Tsuna slowly, "my 'Intuition' is acting up and it's kinda making me nervous." He frowns then, and peers suspiciously at Reborn, who was innocently sipping from his cup of tea. "You don't happen to have anything to do with it, do you?"

Reborn hums, flicks Leon's tail in retribution for biting his finger, and says "I don't know what you're talking about."

Tsuna sighs, and accepts the fact that yes, nothing pleasant will be coming out from any big event to come now. After a week of living with the child, Tsuna thinks that he's experienced enough with his antics to know what's about to happen. Jolting up suddenly, he narrows his eyes as he remembers the only 'big' event about to happen.

'He wouldn't, would he?'

"Say, Reborn," calls Tsuna innocently.

"What is it?" replies the hitman, probably already aware of Tsuna's realization of his meddling in his affairs.

"Since the incident with you, I've made some effort to keep track with my timers, yeah? And although I still don't fully believe that all of them would turn up, I still hold hope for them as my soulmates. You know this, right?"

Reborn continues to sip from his cup before nodding sagely.

"Right, so do I have reason to believe that you didn't interfere with the next meeting with my soulmate?"

Tsuna hates how Reborn doesn't even twitch, but instead there is a small smirk present that he could barely catch.

"Why, you're getting more perceptive, Tsuna," says Reborn, clearly amused, "if I did, it's clearly with my best intentions in mind, so trust me a little, okay?"

'Oh he would. He did.'

"Is that why you're waiting with me now? Because you know that one of my timers are about to run out?"

Tsuna swears that he's about ready to cry when Reborn says nothing, choosing to drink more tea instead. Did they even have that much tea in the first place? Tsuna wouldn't know, because dealing with Reborn required his full attention lest he miss something and regret it later.

"Tsuna, you remember what I've told you about the bonding between a Sky and his Elements, yes? And what it means to have your Elements bonded to you the way yours are? What is required of the relationship on both parties?"

The pouting student perks up a little at the sudden questions before blushing a deep shade of red as he remembered exactly what Reborn had said about his situation.

"I remember," he mumbles, "but I still don't get it. Mafia? Flames? Elements? Dissonance? All I really got to know from what you've told me is that I'm the next heir to a big-shot mafia Family, which I still don't agree on, and if I don't have… intimate relationships with my 'partners', they'll suffer and so will I."

"That's because it's more than physical intimacy, Tsuna. Your Flames will need to resonate and Harmonize with your Elements, thus the 'physical' part. It builds trust and strengthens your bonds with each other. Without it, both sides will suffer from the lack of 'bonding' and that's what we call Dissonance. And trust me, when that happens, it's not going to be pretty for either one of you."

They're both quiet, one in deep contemplation and the other patiently waiting. Finally, Tsuna speaks up, though his face significantly a darker shade than before. "Y-you said you were my Sun, didn't you? Does that… does that mean eventually I'll have to sleep with you, too?"

Reborn snorts. "Eventually, yeah."

"But how?" exclaims Tsuna, obviously more than a little panicked, "You're just a child! You're barely two, aren't you? I don't want to get charged with pedophilia at the age of fifteen! And having s-sex-!"

"Calm down, Tsuna. I've told you that in my case, its more complicated than that. Who knows, maybe you might not ever get to sleep with me, but I'll be sure to find a way to spend some time with you before that happens."

"What does that even mean?"

"Anyways, just remember what I've told you when you meet your next soulmate, okay?"

"Reborn-"

"Okay?"

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Tsuna only nods, not wanting to give Reborn the satisfaction of actually replying. "But you'll have to tell me sooner or later, you know."

Reborn snorts again. "I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, just remember what I've said."

It is 4.30 in the afternoon when there is a knock on the door, and Tsuna immediately feels the alarms in his head go haywire. Though not forebodingly, it was enough to confirm his suspicions on who it was on the other side of the door.

"Go on, Tsuna," says Reborn, still seated at the table. "Answer the door."

He rises from his chair and with a glance at the timer on his right forearm to double-check, Tsuna makes his way over to the door with Reborn's advice—and more than a little anticipation in mind.

Author's Note:

A whole lotta shit went down, and there was originally more that was to be revealed in this chapter, but I figured I've kept you guys waiting long enough.

Enjoy now!