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It wasn't Dan Heng's plan to bring back Sawada Tsunayoshi. Actually, it wasn't in his plan to bring anyone back from a simple coffee run either.
The Astral Express had docked beside this small moon named Namimori for a quick restock. Mr Yang and Himeko dealt with the essentials with Pompom, but Dan Heng was sent to get food and beverages -- especially the sushi from Sushi Yama -- by all of them. While he had originally planned to sleep off the fatigue he gained from Xianzhou Loufu like he had been for the past 96 system hours, Dan Heng agreed with them that he needed fresh air.
Well, as fresh as the thin air on Namimori can get with the strong smell of ozone. (Different, so different from the humid and warm Scalegorge Waterscape.)
At first when Dan Heng spotted the IPC and men in black, he wondered if Caelus and/or March had caused any trouble on the previous stop they made. Can't blame him for wondering because those two have a track record. He himself was no better, given the recent events. He would have wondered if the Preceptors had sent people to hunt him down if it weren't for how Jing Yuan had them locked down. And that was when he found Sawada Tsunayoshi with the panicky look. It clicked instantly, how dodgy he looked and how the IPCs and men glancing around, patrolling, and staring intensely at the boy. I It instantly reminded Dan Heng of the past when he was still hunted by the Stelleron Hunters. So now that he saw the boy being a prey to the predators, Dan Heng couldn't help but reach out like how Himeko and Mr Yang had back then.
So, he brought him back home.
"I would have expected this from Caelus or March, but not you, Dan Heng." Himeko hummed, far more amused than angry. "But then again, I'm not surprised." She patted his head like he was younger than her as she brushed pass him, smiling at Tsuna who was looking around the Astral Express in awe.
"Hello. Dan Heng has briefly told us about the situation. Welcome aboard! I'm Himeko, the train's navigator. Feel free to stay as long as you need -- we will do our best to help you as much as we can."
Sawada jerked back slightly, face flushing down to his chest. "H-h-hi. Sorry to intrude, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi." He pulled at the hem of his jacket, eyes flitting around anxiously. "You can just call me Tsuna. A-and," He gulped. "Is it truly okay for me to stay? After all, I am, well, sort of a wanted person right now..."
The crew all looked at each other, exchanging a knowing and familiar exasperation. Welt coughed to hide their awkwardness and nodded. "More than okay. In fact, it isn't the first time a Nameless isn't a wanted person."
That... Sounds reassuring? Tsuna didn't know what to feel. Regardless, with Welt's fatherly tone and the crew's kindness, his nerves started to relax. The jitters and exhaustion started to set as he struggle to stand in place anymore.
Seeing his state, Pom Pom instantly ushered him to his, apparently just cleaned, quarters. "Go rest! Pom Pom can't afford a Nameless to faint on the train floor. The clean-up is too difficult!"
Tsuna knew that the rabbit conductor was dangerous. He would've squeaked if the rabbit didn't start pushing him in the direction of the rooms. Or, well, he did squeak but we all don't talk about it.
His room was... Homey. Plain and standard, but homey. Reminds him a little of his own, except without the posters of anime and manga. He wondered if they have some sort of mind reader that can read his mind to find out how his room looked like. Regardless, it was more than enough to make him relax fully, letting down the guards that he did not realize he still holds. The moment the door closes -- something about them waking him up in the morning of tomorrow's system hour, something about fetching a Caelus and a March from somewhere, Tsuna zoned out -- and he instantly collapsed into a slumber on his far too comfy bed.
And he was off to slumberland, one he cannot remember unlike what Penacony offers.
When he woke, it was already 24-system-hour, unlike what they promised about waking him up earlier. The train jerked, once, twice, and came to an urgent stop. Tsuna was flopped around from the inertia and fell off the bed with a loud shriek that he could not stop.
Blinking sleepily, he pulled himself up and bumbled out of the room to see what was wrong. His brain started waking up and something in him rang loudly in alarm.
His goosebumps raised in the same way whenever a bugs flew too close to him.
Sure enough, the moment he slid the door open, a bug was floating in front of him.
It hissed.
Screeching, Tsuna bounced backwards until the bed and pulled at the pillow as a weapon against the bug. “HELP!!!”
There was something shattering in the background followed by frantic footsteps -- and loud metal clanking?? – as the bug slowly floated into his room. It was flapping its wings loudly, spreading some sort of dust that Tsuna could see into the air. He instantly covered his nose.
“Are you oka -- WHAT THE!?” A girl's voice ended with a shrill of similar disgust. Dan Heng instantly pulled his Cloud Piercer out and stabbed the fucking bug in the back. A red-haired man in armor -- the source of the metal sounds -- proceeded to use his own sword and bonked the bug to death.
It exploded into goo in Tsuna’s room, ruining the perfect beddings.
Tsuna wanted to cry.
“Are you okay?” Dan Heng asked, side stepping the bug to reach Tsuna at the corner of the bed heaving in disgust and adrenaline.
“Ew.” A girl with pink hair commented in the background. Ew indeed.
“I-I-I’m alright…” Tsuna rasped out, taking Dan Heng’s hand as the elder pulled him up. He grimaced at the gore on the ground, only to notice that the new comer was staring at the carcass with sparkly eyes. “This is such a beautiful specimen…”
Ok, that’s a certified creep there.
“I have fought with this beast before in the cave and never once did I manage to get such a beautiful carcass. Dan Heng! You and I work well together! Look, Idrila would be so proud of us should THEY get to lay THEIR eyes on it.”
Tsuna could see the visible twitch in Dan Heng’s hands before he kept his Cloud Piercer. The man coughed into his fist as he shook his head. “Uhm. Well. Yes.” Very eloquently said.
“Mr Argenti, although its admirable that you love the corpse, can we leave already? Tsuna looked like he’s going to barf.”
The mentioned boy was turning green. Argenti looked up and to the brown mop of hair and was instantly stunned.
“Oh dear! Let’s bring this child out. We can’t let the corpse tarnish the beautiful crown of brown he has after all.”
Tsuna grabbed onto Dan Heng when Argenti walked over, desperately tugging at his sleeves so that he wouldn’t give him to the creep.
“Argenti, you’re blocking the way.” A new voice sounded from the door. “And you’re so weird!! His hair looked more like bed hair than anything, beautiful?! You definitely need to get your eyes checked!!” The voice tilted into a screech of disbelief as the armored man was tugged out of the room.
When they finally left the room and gathered in the main cart, Tsuna was still holding onto Dan Heng, trying to forget the squishy feeling of the goo from the bug when he inevitably stepped on it while walking out. Pom Pom was throwing a fit around their legs for dirtying the floors of the train, but Tsuna couldn’t bring himself to bother.
Pom Pom ended up pushing him to sit on the sofa so that Pom Pom can clean the bottom of his shoes. He was glad for the distraction, but not glad when he overheard how the bugs had infiltrated all corners of the train and they have to clean up.
“T-t-his doesn’t involve me right?” He squeaked to Pom Pom, “I have zero damage in me.”
Pom Pom looked at him with dead eyes. “Unfortunately, it’s team effort to clean.”
Tsuna wailed.
It took them two hours, and two separate fights with Argenti (why) before they finally exterminated all the bugs in the train. Stella and Caelus -- twins, as they’d introduced themselves whilst going through the rooms -- had led the battle while Dan Heng and Mr Yang dealt the damage. The pink hair girl -- March 7th, what a name -- was cheering at the back while shooting at any strays that ran off course. And Tsuna? Tsuna was desperately trying not to cry at the loud noise and vomiting at the goo of corpse on the ground. At least he had a friend who’s suffering together with him, Velite.
Anyways, they managed to end the infestation of the Swarm, and after some bromance scene between Velite and Argenti who promptly fucked off, the train finally moved on to their destination -- the spaceship wash station, Washtopia.
Tsuna dropped onto the sofa groaning. Despite not doing the grunt of the work, he was tired. Encountering the Swarm was not on his list of escape plans (that had gone up in fire since he stepped onto Astral Express, actually), and especially not one he expected since he woke up.
Still… It was cool to see them in action, especially Dan Heng. His moves with the Cloud Piercer, the Dragon and water, everything. The chuunibyou in him burned.
“Are you alright?” Dan Heng asked, concern whirling in his eyes. He felt responsible for the wilted boy since he was the one who brought him on board. Something something his dragon instinct going ham at how tired the boy looked like.
Akin a mother to a child.
He quickly shoved the thought away. He just met Tsuna for less than a week, for christ’s sake. It’s not like he knew the boy much so he didn’t know why his instinct were going crazy. But then again, he did and felt the same for Stelle and Caelus when they found him so…
Dan Heng, deciding to revisit that another day, handed Tsuna a cup of water, which the boy took gratefully.
“I’m okay, I guess.” Tsuna rasped, finally coming back to life from the water. “I’m just not used to combats…”
Dan Heng patted him on the head, letting the dragon part of him have something it wants before it goes crazy. “That’s understandable. But… You should get used to it.” Tsuna jerked and looked at him eyes wide. Alarm bells rang in his mind as Dan Heng continued, “Combat is… A part of trailblazing.”
“B-b-but I’m just a noodle!!”
Dan Heng patted harder. “Then I’ll teach you how to be stronger.”
And kids, that was how Dan Heng became Tsuna’s teacher.
“Reborn, what are you doing?” Dan Heng asked, yawning as he floats over to the hitman leaning against the door stile looking out into the courtyard. He was sore all over. Despite being able to heal from the soreness with his Cloudhymn magic, he liked this kind of soreness. It made him feel more alive.
Reborn looked back at him with a smirk, one that explained everything, as he reached out to hold Dan Heng against him.
“Watching a mating ritual between a peacock and a mouse.”
Dan Heng twitched at the analogy. “Our kid isn’t a mouse.” A timid cat was more apt, given how he’d bite when threatened, something that Dan Heng and Reborn had taken as a mission to teach the kid. Maybe Dan Heng should make Jing Yuan teach Tsuna as well just so he’d grow into a lion.
He shelved that up for later in his To-Do list.
Instead, he followed Reborn’s line of sight as he leaned against the taller man, boneless, and twitched.
Peacock, indeed.
“Why is Aventurine in our courtyard?” Dan Heng knew how much the gambler loved to tease Tsuna, given how frequent he followed him around when he wasn’t swamped with work dealing with the family. Dan Heng didn’t hate Aventurine, he just found him annoying trying to flirt with their oblivious kid. Also, Dan Heng didn’t trust a man who was planning to sacrifice his own life for something big (yes, all of them noticed, what exactly they didn’t know but Dan Heng was very well aware that it was something Aventurine may 99% not come out alive from) to woo his kid. What if Tsuna truly fell in love, and this fucker truly dies? Dan Heng would personally resurrect him and kill him again if he did.
“Well, Tsuna let him in.” Oh no. Dan Heng had to do some damage control.
As he was about to stomp over and pull his kitten back from the charming range of the peacock, Reborn pulled the Vidyadhara back into his embrace. He cooed into Dan Heng’s sensitive ears and murmured. “It’s fine, I’ll personally make sure of it.”
He knew what Dan Heng was worried about, and he definitely knew about Aventurine’s plan, being the sole person outside of Stelle and Caelus who could talk to inanimate creatures. He definitely had ears everywhere, intel 100.9% accurate. He was already planning how to stop Aventurine’s suicide plan. He couldn’t have his future son-in-law dying under his watch, can he?
Dan Heng gave him a hard stare, that he was unimpressed.
Reborn snorted. Of course the dragon is possessive over his son. Anyone who dared to touch his son wrongly under his eyes would suffer. (As if Reborn wouldn’t, but Reborn was more into seeing the chaos first then revenge.) He rubbed Dan Heng’s arms, consoling him with a peck on the cheek.
“It’ll be okay, baby.” Dan Heng’s long ears – he forgot to change out of his dragon form – twitched at the nickname, huffing and flushing.
“Fine, but if anything goes wrong, I’ll personally castrate you.”
“I’ll lay on the silver platter for you to do that.”
Dan Heng rolled his eyes and kissed him. Reborn gladly returned it with fervor, short of devouring the man.
In the background, Tsuna shrieked when Aventurine raked his touchy hands up his hair to take the coin he sneaked in. A magic trick, he said.
Dan Heng broke the kiss and was absolutely murderous. Reborn sighed in exasperation.