Chapter 68

Someone coughs and he turns around, ignoring the slightly guilty look Renato shoots him, to look apprehensively at Lal Mirch who looks between a mixture of anger and horror, both emotions warring on her face.

Anger wins.

"Who is the male with the bandana?" she asks in a deadly tone.

Tsuna tries to even his breath, to not show his tiredness. He's not successful. "That's Colonello. He tried to save you in the original timeline, but it didn't work. He ended up cursed instead."

Lal visibly swallows but other than that, she doesn't show any other negative signs. She just nods firmly, gazing at his form with pity, and then she sits down. "We are cursed and it's your fault. You were saying?"

"Aren't you going to apologize to little Tsunayoshi-kun, for making him lose control and turn?" Daemon asks with a sharp smile. Lal doesn't even bother rolling her eyes though going on by the narrowing of her eyes, it's obvious she wants to do so. Tsuna doesn't know why, but Daemon keeps insisting, "The last time this happened he was unconscious for four hours. It's miracle he's awake now. And it's all for you, you ungratef-"

He places a tiny hand on the Mist's arm. Not less than a second after, Daemon's aggressive posture melts away to his placid, uncaring one. He leans back, not acknowledging Tsuna's curious gaze.

He doesn't have any more time to ponder this out-of-character action when he soon has a concerned Storm hovering above him, his eyes as warm as always.

"I'm fine," he says, touching lightly the large hand caressing his cheek. He gives him a sad smile. "I've never wondered how you guys were able to do everything you did. I didn't know about your curse, I just thought that the Mafia was crazy enough to have super babies. Then I knew and now I can help but wonder how you guys did it for so long. How were you so strong... I-I was so naïve."

"You're not naïve, Tsuna." He pats his head with care, as if afraid he will break him. He turns his head to look at the others, a fierce glare so unlike his usual calm façade. "Perhaps we can discuss this at another time when you're well enough."

Tsuna shakes his head, grimacing slightly at how his vision swims because of the movement. "They need to know. I don't want to keep putting it off. "

Skull takes a step forward. "I-I came here for answers. Well, and to find you. The man in the Iron Hat told me I would find you here. Don't worry though! It's not for something bad!" he added as he saw Fong stepping lightly in front of him. "Mostly I wanted to give you back your ring; it saved me."

He pushes a familiar ring still on his fingers towards Tsuna. "Thank you. The Vindice would've killed me or something if I hadn't it with me."

Tsuna grabs the ring and immediately a ball of orange fire comes out of it, forming a small lion. Natsu purrs happily as he leaps into the Sky's arms. The now toddler laughs in innocent delight as he hugs his little friend as if it were normal to have flaming animals come out of rings. Though considering his necklace turns into a snake, it shouldn't surprise anyone too much.

"Oh, how much I missed you, Natsu," he whispers as he hugs him, tears gathering in the corner of his eyes. He lets his small friend go, using the back of his hand to clean off the tears. "I'm sorry. This body's hormones are undeveloped. I can't seem to control my emotions as easily as I would otherwise."

"Never apologize for something as innocuous as that," Renato says, leaning forward and tilting Tsuna's head up with a single finger. Finally, he can see the hitman's face, no longer shrouded by shadows as he looks directly into his eyes. "Can't have my Sky excuse himself for such trivialities, can I?"

Tsuna's breath hitches. He grabs the large finger between his hands and leans into its touch, blushing lightly.

"I thought you would change your mind after…"

Renato flicks his forehead with his free hand, stopping him from continuing.

"I don't change my mind that easily, you know. You're mine." He glances towards Luce. "No offense to you, ma'am, but if this curse needs us to harmonize then I'm afraid we'll have to find another way."

"No offense taken," she says with a small amused smile, but his intuition still tingles in the same way it does when someone lies.

He'll have to talk to her in private after this. Though he admits to himself that just the thought of having to do that made him even more tired. The emotion must have shown plainly in his face because even Lal looked concerned when he tried to sit.

Daemon made a tut-tutting noise before lifting him up. "No need to worry. I'll explain everything to you all. You should meditate, Tsunayoshi-kun. Drain off the curse."

'You're being awfully nice,' he wants to say but his intuition, now stronger because of the curse, tells him it'll ruin some progress going on, so he doesn't say anything. Instead, he nods once as Daemon will probably be the best choice to talk without breaking down or leaving things out because of weariness. And if Daemon leaves things out, well, the others can always ask for clarification after he's returned to his body.

"Are you okay with that?" he asks the others, just to be sure.

They don't look at each other as they nod, though it does take them a second of hesitance before they do so.

A second Daemon chooses that moment to come out of the Mist's body. The clone picks him up, ignoring Viper's distressed 'Mou' as he takes him out of the room. Tsuna still manages to wave the now Arcobaleno. "Come find me when it's over."

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