Chapter Text
Cloud has always been desirable to most Mafioso Famiglia, for one, they are extremely territorial, if you’re part of their territory, they’d protect you to death; and two, in general, Cloud flame users are very strong, usually the strongest in the whole set of guardians.
However, because of their aloof and free-loving nature, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find them, as some even choose to go off-grid, hide away from normal society to thrive in absolute freedom of nomadic life.
This, as a result, makes Cloud, from the second rarest element of the Sky, to become, at times, even rarer than Skies.
‘That’s why’ Reborn thinks ‘Dame-Tsuna should feel lucky that Kyouya decided to stay with them.’ Because a Cloud of Kyouya’s caliber, with a secondary Mist and unfathomable, ever-growing battle prowess, is damn rare. And so, so fucking invaluable. Every famiglia that wants a footing in the underworld would be dying to have a Cloud like Hibari Kyouya.
This, of course, makes Kyouya a quite alluring bait for all criminal syndicates though. Which is both hilarious and annoying. Hilarious because all of them are always so arrogant to think that they could simply pick Kyouya up and have him work for them. Annoying because how dare they?
Tsuna, that idiot, has the opinion that only insane people would want Kyouya as their Cloud. Stupid, dame-dame Tsuna. Does his teaching all go to waste? What do you mean ‘what kind of famiglia wants Hibari-san to join’? Uhm, you? The Vongola? And don’t start with ‘we only stay bitten-to-death-free because you promised him a rematch with Mukuro’ bullshit.
Well firstly, thanks for the recognition. Secondly, maybe you should think of something else to keep him around then, hmm?
Anyway, Clouds like Kyouya attract Skies like moths to flame. And like how it goes for the moth, the Skies stupid enough to get too close burst into millions of pieces.
Literally.
Tsuna finds it gruesome. Reborn finds it charming and texts Fon, with photos, whenever his “precious little nephew” gets kidnapped.
The first time it happened, Reborn was having a little lunch with Fon, Colonello and Lal Mirch. They were doing a little check-up. Well, technically Reborn was having lunch with Fon, the other two simply crashed their date. And Fon, being the kind and polite person that he was, couldn’t really refuse the CEDEF agent and her puppy, despite them not having any single alone time for over 3 months.
Reborn had spent time and effort to find this quaint coffee shop that not only offered the best view of Port di Brindisi, but also served one of the best espressos he had ever had, as well as that herbal mint lemon tea that Fon loved so much. He was planning to have a romantic afternoon with his lover, which would at least conclude with a kiss, infant body be damned. But now that was all ruined.
They’re enjoying their drinks - Fon probably did, but Reborn was trying his best to not put a bullet between Colonello's eyes just to shut his mouth - when Fon’s phone pinged repeatedly. Which apparently was unusual based on his concerned expression. And when he opened the phone, his brows only deepened.
“My nephew… got kidnapped” Fon suddenly dropped the information, which honestly brought more questions than answers.
“How do you know that?” Lal asked tentatively.
“I put tracking devices on all of his clothes." Fon replied, fingers still punching the phone, probably trying to get the address of where his nephew got taken to "You have no idea how easily he got kidnapped, especially when that daring boy just let himself be taken away.”
That shut both Colonello and Lal Mirch really good, because frankly how could you react when one of your friends said that he chipped his nephew because the boy had a kidnap-complex. Reborn certainly had no comment for his lover because kids were weird. This one was just in a different shade compared to others.
“So, what’re you going to do?” Reborn started after a while.
“Oh, I’ll go and pick him up. The kidnappers are kind enough to bring him to Greece, which is a lot closer than last time.” That’s… interesting.
“Uhm, is he… alright, kora?” Colonello asked, clearly concerned.
“Yeah, yeah, he texted me saying he’s fine. These are probably just some small fries; he can deal with them just fine. It’s just that, he doesn’t have any money with him, and he needs to be back in Japan for school, you know.”
A little stunned at what Fon just said, the three of them paid for their drinks absentmindedly, then tagged along with Fon to a 8-hour ferry trip from Brindisi to Greece. During the trip, Reborn and the two Rains tried to remember things they knew about Fon’s nephew. The hitman recalled that Fon used to talk about a younger sister he’s close with before he had to move to China for his training. Wasn't that sister passed away recently and left behind a child? Was that child this nephew? But then wasn't he like… 8 or something?
"He's 7 and his name is Hibari Kyouya" Fon answered when they decided to ask him "Since his parents passed away a few years back, and I got the custody, but, well, you know my work, he mostly lives alone. Sometimes the neighbors will bring him some of their food, but most of the time he can take care of himself."
"Wouldn't that be too much for him? He's a child after all, and what, constantly getting kidnapped? Wouldn't it be safer for him if he stayed in the child protective service?"
"Well, he's a special case. You'll get it when you meet him." Fon replied, not at all concerned with Lal's hidden accusation of child negligence "Besides, it's safer for other kids, and adults that Kyouya is not in the foster systems."
The silence continued even after they got off the ferry and caught a taxi for a 30-minute ride to a seemingly abandoned warehouse. Lal, ever the commander, was about to plan out some tactical infiltration plan, but stopped when Fon straight up kicked open the wooden doors.
The three of them quickly readied for some guns shooting, you could never be too careful with human traffickers after all, but there was none. Instead, there was a cracking sound of metal meeting bones, with a faint groaning echoing the wooden shed.
There was barely any light in the warehouse, other than a single, shade light in the middle of the house (cliche much?). And right under it was a boy, roughly six or seven. He seemed small for his age, with delicate limbs, and head of fluffy jet-black hair.
However, his silhouette, like how his uncle's was, was deceiving as he was standing victoriously over a disfigured corpse of his, presumably, kidnapper, covered head to toe in (hopefully not his) blood, while hands still bore a pair of retractable tonfa. There were more bodies, roughly 10 more, lying around in various conditions around the warehouse.
Okay, Reborn started to see where Fon’s coming from.
“Kyouya” Fon signed as he approached the boy “what did I tell you about making a mess?” He chidden, one hand tugged the boy down while the other brought out his handkerchief.
“Not to” Kyouya replied, sitting obediently still while his uncle wiped the blood off his face.
Despite the lack of light, once his face was clean, Reborn nearly did a double take, because Kyouya looked eerily similar to the Red Pacifier Holder. Their features were identical, from the chubby cheeks, pale skin tone adorned with a healthy baby blush, to their pouty lips. The only difference was their eyes' color. Now while the child and his uncle possessed the exact same slanted eye, he had a pair of silver-blue compared to the other’s chocolate brown, and his were set in a perpetual frown, so much different from Fon’s kind, gentle eyes.
“Did you two have a child behind our backs, kora?” Colonello exclaimed, clearly shocked at the child’s appearance.
"Don't be ridiculous, Colonello. He's my nephew" Fon protested.
But it fell into deaf ears as Reborn seriously considered the blonde's words. The boy definitely had Fon's facial features, but the eyes were his. People might think Reborn's eyes were pitch black, but when he took out his fedora, letting the sunlight hit his eyes just right, they'd be the exact shade as the child's pair. Also his violent tendency, the bloodthirst he still emitted and his wish for chaos to the point that he'd let himself be taken so that he could kill more people? It's all Reborn's.
The boy was, without a doubt, his.
“Who are they?” Kyouya suddenly asked in, surprisingly, Italian.
“They’re my fellow Arcobaleno. That’s Reborn, Lal Mirch and Colonello” Fon answered, finger pointed to each of them as he listed their names.
“Now, it’s my turn to ask.” The martial artist continued when the boy didn’t ask any more questions. Strange “Why are you here? I thought Tsuyoshi-san was babysitting you. He wouldn’t be careless enough to lose you to the kidnappers, would he?”
“No, don’t blame Yamamoto Tsuyoshi. He had to tend to his restaurant, and the herbivores had a kitten with them so I followed them. I left him a note though.”
A… kitten?
“Wait… What kind of kitten?” What kind? A kitten is a kitten. It's either a fat orange kitten or a fat kitten-
“Here, I called her Hiko.” Kyouya said before brought out a ball of spotted fur out of nowhere, its long tail swang lazily back and forth.
… that’s no kitten. That’s a snow leopard cub.
“Kyouya, do you remember what I said about pets?” the Storm Arcobaleno sounded resigned, as if this had happened before.
“No pets until I’m 15, and only domesticated animals. Wild animals are for when I’m 20.” What an interesting rule. Was this how you can teach kids? Because if all kids were like this, Reborn wouldn’t mind having more.
“But I’m not going to keep her.” He quickly continued “She could stay in the backyard. I’ll only feed her since she’s too small. But she won’t be in the main house.”
“…Kyouya we don’t have a backyard.”
“Yes, we do. The forest”
“That’s not- Okay we have a backyard, but when she gets older, we’ll bring her back to her actual habitat.”
“Alright. I’m going to do that anyway.”
“And you can’t have her cubs, not until you’re of age.”
Kyouya didn’t reply, but his annoyed expression said enough.
“Now, about the first question. Why are you here?”
“Those herbivores tried to capture me and other small animals. I woke up halfway to Italy then bit some of them to death and released all small animals to the law enforcement. I let myself be recaptured because I thought the ones in the base would have sharper teeth, turns out all of them are as dull as the worthless worms that they are.”
What in the world was that word salad?
“How many of them though, kora?” Colonello interrupted. Fon didn’t seem to mind, but Kyouya looked one second away from biting his face. Maybe it’s his loud voice, gods knew Reborn hated whenever the Rain Arcobaleno opened his mouth.
“There were 10 small animals, and 20 herbivores, one of them was a deadbeat Sky” Kyouya listed, but to Fon, not Colonello. Rude, but deserved.
“Wait, Sky? Was he the boss then, kora? Why would the boss present in the base, kora?” Mafioso Don, especially the Sky one, were always heavily protected and sheltered, so there was little need for them to show their face in ‘lowly’ operations like this.
“Hmm, he wanted to bond with you, didn’t he, Kyouya?” Fon guessed, which was weird because what kind of person wanted to bond with a 7-year-old?
Seeing the question in everyone’s eyes, Fon only chuckled “He’s a Cloud”
Ah, that actually explained a lot.
“Where’s that Sky by the way?” Reborn was curious alright. He didn’t get to meet many Clouds. The one he knew, Skull, had a rather… pacifistic way to avoid Skies in general. Kyouya, though, seemed to be the exact opposite.
The Cloud child searched around for a bit, before pointing to the far corner of the warehouse. And as Lal shed some light from her phone, well, it’s hard to describe.
It was a splash zone of human remains and with skin and bone scattered around. It’s not clear to any of them where the head nor limbs were. There might be some matted blond hair over there, but Reborn couldn’t tell. What was strange though, it’s that blunt weapons like what the child was using, could not create a splash zone. They would create a lump of flesh, like the initial corpse they had seen, or disfigured bodies with heavy bruises from internal bleeding like a number of others.
“Oh my, I see that you have improved Kyouya.” Fon praised, patting the top of the black haired boy’s head. The boy only responded with a 'Hn' and nudged his head against Arcobaleno's hand, asking for more.
“Damn Fon, do you teach kids how to use explosives now, kora? Didn’t you say only teach martial arts, kora?” Colonello teased.
“Explosives? You thought he used bombs? Oh no, that’s too dangerous. I taught him… something else.” Fon said, mysteriously “You know how during bonding, there will be a flame channel connecting between two people's flame? Its purpose is so the Sky Flame can channel through and 'merge' with the other Element.
"Kyouya has a fairly unique flame energy. Not only is he a Cloud, he also has a secondary Mist flame, and we suspected that it's because of this Mist that gave his Cloud more… structure, a solid edge that made him unlike any other Clouds. Combined with his large reserve, and inherited aggressive nature, he can not only overwhelm any Skies, but also follow through the channel and flood their systems. And as he does so, his Cloud will start the propagation process the moment they arrive, and multiply the cells and blood within the body to an unnatural degree.
"And then, boom. They'd burst like the Sky right here."
… what a terrifying child. Maybe he should start learning how to do the adoption paperwork.
"This particular one though… There were more than one person here. Kyouya, who else did you kill?"
The Cloud child only grinned, lips slightly twisted.
"The Storm mutt kept yapping about pledging loyalty to the better and the Sun herbivore thought that his Sun was better than mine. Naturally their deaths were the worst."
(Later, Fon explained to them that Kyouya can follow through the link between Skies and their bonded Elements to do the same thing he did with Skies. The upside was that Cloud could easily absorb and enhance their attributes with other Flames. Like with Storm, Cloud could become even more aggressive and explosive, like a storm cloud, while Sun could enhance Cloud’s multiplying process.)
"Good job, baobei." Fon cooed, hands reaching out to knead the boy's rosy cheeks.
Kyouya didn't seem to mind. In fact he looked bliss out like a cat receiving a perfect scratch.
"Hmm, let's get you cleaned up and grab something to eat, hmm? And when we go back to Japan we can have a proper celebration at Tsuyoshi-san's place."
The seven-year-old nodded cutely, but before they could leave, Kyouya did a roundhouse kick and smashed one of the henchmen's heads in. The body gave out a final twitch before going limbless, really dead this time.
None of them even noticed the still alive henchman. This kind of instinct though…
Reborn wondered whether Fon would be angry if he got Kyouya a sniper rifle for his next birthday, whenever that was. He had a feeling that the Misty Cloud would appreciate a gentle touch of a gun in his life.