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Lambo heard the most terrible scream of terror he had ever heard and shivered.
Who the hell had convinced him to go to a haunted castle, at night?
Another yell: “JUUDAIME!!!”
“And Dame Tsuna is gone,” Reborn said; his voice was nothing louder than a whisper, and yet Lambo jumped at the sound of it.
“Oh, come on!” Reborn commented. Lambo placed a hand over his own chest and tried to calm his heartbeat. Whoever had paired him with Reborn was bound to spend a very bad half an hour as soon as he got out of there… if he got out of there.
A sudden bust of chilly air moved the hair on his nape, and Lambo promptly forgot all that was left of his dignity: he let out a muffled scream, all he could with his throat sealed by the fear, and jumped on whatever was at his left.
Which was Reborn.
Lambo, hanging by the side of an extremely unfazed, if not slightly amused Reborn, tried to focus all his will on the task of disappearing there and then.
It didn’t work, of course.
“Come on, Lambo,” Reborn said, peeling the boy off himself, “You have nothing to be afraid of. You’re with me, aren’t you?” Lambo scoffed.
“What? Do you think I won’t be able to protect you?”
“I think that being alone with you in a haunted castle in the middle of nowhere might mean that you’ll be able to kill me and hide my body so that no one will ever find it anymore.”
“And how would I justify your absence to Tsuna?”
“I ran away screaming and you didn’t bother to follow me.”
“Do you have any idea of how much he would fuss if I told him such a thing?”
“Then, I ran away screaming, you followed me but you weren’t able to find me.” Reborn stopped in the middle of the most hideous hallway ever built and grabbed Lambo’s arm.
Lambo, obviously, jumped.
“Did you plan your own death by my hands?” Reborn asked.
“Well, I had a lot of time to think. It took us three hours to get here and I was stuck there with the thought of being paired with you!”
“Does it bother you so much?” Reborn asked, dragging him closer.
“Well, I…” Lambo stepped back, but Reborn stepped forward, keeping the distance between them two to a thin line. Lambo felt the cold thud of the stone wall of the hallway against his shoulder blades, and couldn’t do anything but look up at Reborn.
The hitman’s eyes were shining with a sparkle of mischief and seduction, as he bent over Lambo and said: “Actually, I must confess…”
“That your loneliness is killing you?” Lambo panic interrupted him.
“What?”
“Ah, it’s nothing, ignore me.” Reborn’s hand ran to Lambo’s cheek, leaving a caress behind. The trail of his touch was burning.
“May I tell you?” Reborn asked. Lambo nodded.
“When I paired us together, I wasn’t thinking about killing you.”
“ You paired us together?” Lambo blurted out; somewhere in the castle, a door slammed, and Lambo raised his hands to shut his own mouth.
“Aren’t you relieved by the fact that I don’t want to kill you?”
“Since I haven’t made it out alive yet, it might still be your way to deceive me. I lower my defences, and as soon as I turn my back on you, then I’m gone.”
Reborn didn’t answer; he just stood there, his astonished stare travelling all over Lambo’s face. Then, he burst into an elegant, sensual laughter.
“Oh, God, Lambo, you know what I love about you?”
“What?” Lambo asked back, then: “Wait, what?!”
“You always make my plans fail. I can’t possibly predict what you will do or say next.”
“That might be because I’m the first who doesn’t know, but wait, I…”
“At first I hated you for this. You were the flaw in all my plans. You could wreck anything, even if I had spent months carefully taking note of every possible outcome and finding out a way to avoid a failure.”
“I-Pin tells me the same thing, you know that it’s not a positive trait, do you?”
“To me it is, Lambo,” Reborn said, and he was oh so close now, Lambo could feel a small hint of smoke in his breath.
“How?” he asked, shivering.
“You know who I am. How close do you think I am to developing a disastrous Superman syndrome?”
“Haven’t you already?” Lambo closed his eyes, waiting for the hit, but Reborn merely giggled.
“I was close. Very close. Then, this disaster of a boy happened to me. He kept wrecking my plans, and he still does. He’s my constant reminder that I’m still human after all, and I love him for this. Lambo, you’re the only thing that grounds this mess of a hitman.”
“A… Am I?” Lambo asked, looking up. He could feel his cheeks hot enough to fry an egg, even in the freezing air of the haunted castle.
“You are,” Reborn said, then leaned even closer.
Lambo closed his eyes, then opened them again and said: “Wait.”
“What?”
“Was it always this cold?” Reborn straightened up: “You’re right. Something’s happening.”
“Reborn, I swear to God, if you’re kidding me…” Lambo shut up on his own: Reborn was cocking his gun.
“Is anyone around here?” Reborn asked. Lambo checked his localizer and answered: “No one on this floor.” Reborn nodded.
As soon as the figure turned the corner, Reborn started shooting.
Lambo stepped back: either none of Reborn’s bullets had hit the target, which was crazy to think, or the being was somehow immune to them.
It was also pearlescent, like… “JESUS CHRIST REBORN IT’S A GHOST LET’S GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Lambo shrieked; Reborn didn’t move.
Lambo was ready to leave him there and save his own life, when Reborn finished recharging his gun and started firing again.
This time, the figure stopped and looked at its chest, then looked up again. A grin opened its mouth, distorcing its face until it stopped looking human.
“Fuck!” Reborn yelled, then the creature let out a horrible sound that was neither human nor inhuman, or so it seemed. Reborn grabbed Lambo’s wrist and led him out as quick as he could.
*****
Tsuna, from the secluded booth he was hidden into, tried and failed an evil laughter.
Mukuro, beside him, managed much better: “Kufufu.”
“This serves him right,” Tsuna said, “Thank you, Mukuro.”
“What about Lambo?”
“Collateral damage, as Reborn would put it. But I’ll apologise to him later.”
“Oya oya, so nice of you, Sawada Tsunayoshi.”
“I only wonder what they were doing there. They’ve been in the exact same place for ten minutes.”
“Reborn was confessing. They were about to kiss when I sent them my ghost.”
“WHAT?!” Tsuna screeched, panicking, “Oh, heavens, this is how I die…”