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ember and wildfire ch1
A soft breeze flows through the golden fields here.
Reborn breathes it in, lets the air fill his chest and test the stretch of his lungs. Distantly, somewhere else, he can feel his realm solidify as well. The jagged black walls that make up Chaos' domain, that make up his sense of self, are slowly smoothing out. Eventually, he knows, they will become the exact opposite of what he is at his core. The walls, the floor, the ceiling: all will be smooth and without flaw, a pale contrast to the darkness that keeps him in check. All that will interrupt that empty long room will be towering columns. Oh, it hasn't happened yet, but it will happen eventually. Reborn knows this in the same way rock knows how a persistent drop of water will carve out a path.
It's simply a matter of waiting.
However, even bound and quieted as he is, Reborn can't exactly say that his idea of a fun time is sitting in a room watching it very slowly smooth out. Even just a minute- or maybe it had been a year? Time is so strange- had been more than enough for him.
So. Here he is. Within the small realm that has bloomed gladly under Dino's touch. Off in the distance, a herd of horses grazes serenely amongst the plains and some of the foals prance through shining wheat. Truly Dino is his mother's son. Sure, he's in perfect health and full of energy, unlike Reborn, so finding and creating a space for himself wasn't as much of a struggle. Still. Reborn had seen how easily this section of the realm had unfurled at Dino's steps, filling emptiness with life and gold. It is a place both of the immaterial, the ethereal, and yet connected to so many places more earthly. Wherever horses roam, wherever mortal hands are at work, these fields will lead there.
Reborn is still quite proud of that, frankly. His and Luce's child, the world's firstborn god, and his domain is so encompassing.
The sound of hooves beating against earth draws his attention, and he gives a slight nod of greeting to the horse which travels up to him. "Romario."
"Reborn." The stallion bows his head, well mannered as always. "Good to see your health is well."
"Well enough," Reborn agrees, forcing his hand to stay down instead of reaching up to fiddle with the dark clothes that are wrapped around him. All too often, every second, they are suffocating. In the time since Fon had secured that first cloak around his body, they've changed. Now an entire outfit is what lays across his form, robes and slippers that are still as dark as his eyes. The cloak hasn't left, however. As it has for some time now, it lays heavy over his shoulders and shifts smoothly along with his movements.
Romario says nothing about it, on the basis that he's more common sense than some of Reborn's kin. Instead, he says, "Better than not. Are you waiting for Dino?"
"Not today." Sweeping a hand through his hair, Reborn glances over the fields again. In the distance, a thin trail of smoke curls lazily skywards. Here, it could be a connection to the mortal world or where Dino has made a more steady home. Either way, for as long as he had been tending him, his firstborn could use the space. Both of them could. "I only came to see how things are changing. Kyoya Hibari has changed the layout of this realm as well, hasn't he?"
"It neighbors our fields, in fact." A distinct amusement is laced throughout the horse's tone. "I think he wishes for a rematch, although he disappears so often into his forests that it's hard to say."
Ah. The memory of what started his whole interest in picking the world apart flickers into his mind, and Reborn sets to thinking about other matters as fast as he can. "Good to see he's keeping Dino on his toes then," he says, voice still level. As it should be- he's been practicing on that. Another reason why being alone in his realm had been grinding his patience down. There's only so many times even a being such as himself can sit and do the same thing over and over again. Maybe especially so, considering his essence. "Any other interesting changes that have happened?"
Romario's hoof digs briefly at the ground as he considers the question. "Well, I doubt it's an interesting thing to you, but I have learned a small trick."
"Then by all means..." Reborn inclines his head to him slightly. "Go right ahead."
Turning away, the spiritual steed begins to circle around him with a smooth trot. As he moves, sparks flicker into existence along his hide, burning brighter and faster until he's engulfed.... and, only a second later, steps out from the flames in the form of an older man with short black hair and a mustache above his smiling lips.
Reborn quirks up an eyebrow, almost as amused as Romario had been a moment before. "Are you playing coy in an attempt to fish for compliments?" Because that kind of thing- of something that was once mortal growing so different from the single touch of a god- is extremely interesting.
With fire as well? Of course it's Dino's touch.
Romario's smile is hardly hidden beneath the bushiness of his mustache as he ducks his head and laughs. "Now what would make you say that?"
It's a good companion that Dino has found himself. Reborn can let that be a comfort, at least. Still, he's been here long enough, and the small talk has done its job. Rising up to his feet, he nods to Romario. "Perhaps you'll have more interesting things when I stop by next time," he says simply before shifting away from the soft fields of Dino's home. Existence is wide, and there are plenty more places for him to look over to see what has changed with his focus away from them.
It might be bias that has him go to Her realm first. All of the Arcobaleno have settled themselves in, no longer roaming the earth although there's no denying their connection to it. While he was out of action as the others made their little retreats, he has no doubt that. Much like Dino, Creation crafted Hers with graceful ease. That's what it feels like as he lets his feet touch Her realm, a perfect opposite to his own. All of them are so tightly intertwined, but maybe there's a reason he was able to create a god with Her without even needing to think. Thick greenery presses in on him, bloated with flowers and fruits, and he can see small creatures of all sorts scurrying inbetween the layers of foliage. Up high above, the shadows of birds are cast over him through the gaps of sunlight. Something distantly rotting reaches his nose, a sour scent.
All of Creation thrives here. Every single beautiful and ugly bit.
She's waiting for him in a small clearing- Yuni this time, Her fingers weaving stalks of flowers into each other to make a ring while Skull has his head in Her lap. Even as the Arcobaleno of Suffering jerks upwards, Yuni smiles in Reborn's direction. "Do you like it?" She asks, politely ignoring how Skull tries to hold himself tall and imposing. (It's not working.)
Glancing over the full and thriving realm but not daring to touch any of it, Reborn cocks his head to the side. "It suits you," he says, and enjoys the warmth that winds tight in his chest when She smiles. "So what is Skull doing here?"
Skull is on his feet properly now, which unfortunately means he's in the mood to be chatty in the worst way. Reborn's suspicion is proven correct when the other gestures to himself, hand flinging outwards before coming to rest on his chest. "I've been recuperating!" he says, voice far too loud even for the clamor that comes with Creation's realm. "It took a lot of work to rein you in after all the trouble you caused!" All it takes is for Reborn to flash his gaze in his direction, and Skull shuts up.
Unfortunately for him, that's not enough for the marksman, especially not when he's this tired and his temper on strings. Only that which is wrapped tight around him- that which he has to reluctantly admit that Skull put around his form although he did nothing else- keeps him from lashing out. "Then shouldn't Lal Mirch be in your place?" he says instead, gaining a petty amount of satisfaction from the way Skull flinches.
Before the situation can get worse in any way, even slightly, Aria speaks up glibly. "She'll be here soon, actually."
Reborn freezes right as Skull flails a little bit, the latter yelping, "What!?"
"I think the others have expressed wanting to visit as well," Luce adds, fingers still patiently weaving flower stalks together.
There's no chance for him to politely excuse himself, or flat out leave. Thunder rolls throughout the air, a storm crashing through the peaceful silence, and it's only the abundant leaves absorbing most of the rain that lets Reborn keeps dry as a sudden shower pounds down against them. From one side, Lal Mirch and Colonello emerge. Their weary go over Fon, who trails along them smiling. From the other side, Verde arrives with his mouth already open to no doubt ask some question or other. Abruptly, as he realizes the situation he's walked into, he snaps it shut.
All six of them, Skull included, stand utterly still in the clearing.
Luce smiles. Even as it puts him in this kind of position, Reborn can't help but feel that burning warm feeling in his chest. He loves Her when She's tricky like this.
Among all of them, Fon is the first to recover, lips curving in faint amusement as he looks over everyone who is assembled. "It is nice to see us gathered," he says lightly, something he probably believes. When they're all together, the more likely things are to become a mess. Reborn supposes that's what they have in common, although he'd rather not deal with it now. "Well, all of us save one."
It's true. While Mammon is small and can often be subtle when the mood strikes them, they're nowhere to be found in Creation's lush home. Reborn can't even feel them nearby.
Normally, he wouldn't think it unusual. Mammon is simply like that. Yet he's suspecting something has been happening while he's been recovering when Skull huffs out, "What have they been doing lately? Does anyone even know where they've gone?"
"They've been absent?" Reborn asks, inwardly more than glad to talk about the mystery of Mammon instead of looking over the ruined trail of skin that is spread across Lal Mirch's cheek. If it's been long enough for one of their own to be noticeably missing and she still hasn't healed...
Aria's voice distracts him from thinking much further. "Mammon has their own things to do, I'm sure they'll turn up eventually."
Turning on his heel, Verde waves a dismissive hand at them. "If this gathering is going to be nothing more than idle gossip, I have other things to pay mind to."
"You always have other things to pay mind to," Reborn says dryly, and is surprised when Colonello snorts a little from the side in agreement.
"What's so interesting about the mortal world right now anyway?" The blond nods his head to Aria. "Everything is still recovering again, right?"
Verde takes a long deep breath to settle his own self before he turns back to face them all with one of his typical smug smirks that says more than words how idiotic he finds all of them. "As a matter of fact, recovery in the aftermath of disaster is what makes that world so fascinating. Creatures adapt, or change, or become new from destruction. For humans, this is especially fascinating. Even on their own, without outside help, the cooperation of humans can be amazingly disastrous for other parts of the world."
News like that is enough to make Colonello puff up proudly, a contrast to the stern nod from Lal Mirch as if this is only to be expected. "You shouldn't be surprised, hey!" he says, brash and confident. "That's how strong bonds are!"
As he is now, Reborn should have more control. The void should be tight around him, constraining him to this form. Yet it's still around him, still settling only some parts of himself, because in the end he can't help but raise an eyebrow and ask, "So there's nothing stronger?"
From the side, Fon is already smiling in quiet anticipation, and Verde rolls his eyes before turning on his heel to disappear. Reborn can't say he's surprised with either reaction. It's the bound pair that have his attention, who he watches from the corner of his eyes. Really, the pair of them are perfectly in-sync as they first stiffen slightly in surprise before stepping forward all bristle. Only perhaps Creation could beat them from how well they match.
"Do you have something to say?" Lal snaps, eyes flashing in warning.
Colonello is speaking already as well. "Is that a challenge?"
"Just something to consider," he counters simply, watching Luce's fingers patiently weave flowers together. "It sounds as if a lot of effort is being put into what Verde spoke of. A lot of it could be undone if any of the rest in our number merely flicked a finger." Or in his case, started to tug on a wayward string...
But that's not what either of them want to hear. He can already see their lips parting, ready for another shot. Yet it's neither Lal Mirch's voice or Colonello's that suddenly speaks up. "You know, all I'm starting to hear is empty boasting." Reborn resists the urge to squeeze his eyes shut and smash the back of his head against tree bark, because the owner of that voice is the last person who needs to get involved in this. From the plants behind Yuni, mist creeps out, settling behind Her until Mammon can lazily sit against one side. Along with the usual wet smell that they carry with them, Mammon's mist is filled with the scent of salt and sea. It'd be intriguing, if they weren't poking their nose into this whole business. "If I wanted that, I'd ask Skull to tell me all about what he can do."
"Wh- hey!"
Fon's smile grows more sly with every passing second, and Reborn is already wary of what he'll say before he says it. "Mammon has a point," he says agreeably, 'politely' ignoring the grumble Mammon makes at any contribution of his even if it's technically in their favor. "If anyone here wishes to prove something, well- actions are sometimes louder than the voice."
The worst part is that he can't even be angry at any of them, not with cause. Reborn knows he's the one who couldn't keep his word to himself. So, eyes on him, he rolls his shoulders up in an elegant shrug. "I don't have to prove anything. Still, if you want a demonstration, it's no problem on my end to give one."
Luce doesn't stop them. Yuni doesn't either. In fact, Aria actually says, "If you're really going to do anything, then you might as well do it here." She nods Her head, simple as you please, in the direction of one particular path through the trees. "Some areas of the world that were destroyed are still... sorting themselves out here. So I doubt it's going to change much if you do whatever you like."
Surely She must have something up Her sleeve.... But Reborn doesn't argue against it. His pride has been laid out on the line, so now it's time for him to carry through. That is how he and a handful of the others end up in the part of Her realm that's ephemeral and strange.
It's the best way to describe it. Out in the land of mortals, fever dreams have more physicality than the land She is slowly repairing. Beneath his feet, despite holding him up perfectly well, the ground is unusually soft. Around all of them, the trees are simultaneously too faint and as old as any of their number. Established and yet malleable, young and yet old- no wonder they were shafted over here.
Taking position amongst the trees, Reborn glances back at the audience that he's gathered for himself. His gaze doesn't care to linger long on Lal Mirch, her eyes burning bright over the scarring twisting her skin, or Colonello, subtly trying to position himself a little in front of her. Whenever it comes to the other two who make up the small crowd, however, he sighs a little.
"I wasn't aware you two were part of the bet," he says dryly.
Fon tries to hide his smile behind one long red sleeve in the manner of one who isn't really trying that hard at all. "Shouldn't there be an audience when it comes to a wager such as this one?" he asks coyly. "A third party that holds no bias."
In contrast to Fon- or perhaps because of Fon- Mammon is more honest. "I just want to see what idiocy this results in."
Catalyst and Desire. Out of all of the Arcobaleno, there are no others who tug at his own essence quite as much. Still, trying to chase them away might just invite an argument and through an argument... Well. It's best not to think too heavily on that. For all of them, the course of action least likely to court misfortune may simply be to let them sit and watch. With that careful thinking done with, he turns away.
"Creatures that work in groups," he says, "can do a lot. It's why those humans, still weak independently, can hunt enormous creatures for food or take down enormous trees to cart back as shelter." Glancing over his shoulder, he raises both an eyebrow and a single hand. "But it seems a little much to say that there's nothing stronger than their unity."
Suddenly, sharply, his fingers snap together and a spark erupts from the grind to leap out onto the forest floor. However strange its existence must be, it still reacts to his touch like any other place: catching alight, the spark becoming flames, fire leaping out from one home to the next until the forest is overwhelmed with it all. As fire engulfs it, surrounding them, he turns back to his audience pointedly.
"It only takes a spark to take out what a group could do in longer time."
"Show off," Mammon says glibly, even as Colonello grits his teeth and Lal's eyes burn as bright as the flames.
Well. As bright as the fire in its peak. Perhaps from the severity of it, perhaps because this is Her domain of Creation, it dies out just as fast as it had started. Gray and black wash over the little patch of forest, matching the cloak he wears, and Reborn carelessly glances at the ash that rests along his shoulders. Well, there are consequences, he supposes.
Turning to the group again, he prepares to ask what Colonello and Lal Mirch think now when Fon's eyes light up. He steps forward, head cocked to the side, sharp as a bird's. The attention of catalyst is never a good thing; that alone has Reborn glance over his shoulder to see just what is so interesting.
He freezes.
He'd been too careless in dismissing the area around him as dead and gray. Amidst a pile of ash, something glows bright in defiance of his expectations. There's nothing impressive about it save its sole existence in the midst of emptiness. It's merely an ember. Yet as they stare, sparks crackle out from it, faster and brighter and hotter- until flames burst upwards in a twist of life once more. Unlike that which had come from Reborn's hand, however, it doesn't devour all it can greedily, and not only because there's nothing to be devoured. It keeps to itself- they keep to themself, fire turning in on fire, and a pair of eyes more brilliant than any topaz form.
He stares at them.
They stare back... and begin screaming.
Coincidentally, that's around the time Mammon starts to double over in laughter. Their sudden burst of mirth manages to be in time with how Reborn hurries over, trying to look like he's not hurrying over, to the newfound life. "Did you make another one?" Mammon wheezes out. Scooping the fire up into one arm, he snaps the other out to lash out at them, but it's no use. All that's left for his attack to go through is a patch of mist, twisting lazily past the trees.
So now there's only him, Colonello, Lal Mirch, Fon, and a tiny screaming burning bundle of existence in his arms. Wonderful.
While he's kept from looking at her head on, it's easy to see Lal Mirch grinding the heels of her palms into her ears. "Does that one ever shut up?" she yells over the screaming, and Reborn glances down at the flames which are crawling along his bent arm.
"No," he says.
Still, if there's anyone who can quiet a child....
Yuni is exactly where She was left when Reborn returns to the little clearing, Skull crouched down besides Her. He quickly stands up when Reborn arrives, arms spinning to maintain his balance, but Reborn says nothing to him. Instead, he simply holds out his still blazing arm. "We have an issue."
To Her credit, Aria doesn't burst out laughing at his predicament. Oh, by all means, She's grinning as if only just discovering how for the first time, but She isn't laughing. "The world is certainly filling up quickly," She says fondly as She gets up to Her feet and approaches him without an ounce of hesitation. "Alright, let's see you, shall we? Or at least the you that's not completely covered in fire."
Aria doesn't offer Her arm to be set alight, as Reborn had done. Instead, She curls Her arms around the flames, gathering them up towards Her chest in the way only a patient mother can. In a heartbeat, She's whisked them away from Reborn and he can only watch as She kneels down. From Her grasp falls the fire, burning brightly in place. It's then that Aria starts to patiently dust him off, as if getting rid of dust instead of anything that can burn flesh off bone.
And it works. With each patient swat of Her hand, the flames abide, and show in their place muscle and skin. There a chest, then down to reveal stomach and hips and awkward soft legs. She saves the head for last once She's sure they have two feet to stand upon. A little incredulous, Reborn watches the chubby cheeks that get patted, his latest child's face scrunched up as Aria works on them. Finishing up, Her hands reveal wild messy brown hair that droops, and She finally steps back. Brilliant topaz eyes are what Reborn can clearly remember showing from the flames. However, with Aria's absence, the child opens their eyes once more and stares out into the realm with wide brown.
He- that of which Reborn is a little more sure now that his existence is more stable- has been still screaming this entire time. Yet as they all watch, it quietly tapers down. The young new god hiccups.
That's enough to have Aria beaming. "There!" She says, with quite a bit of finality.
"Hmmm..." At some point, Fon had shown up and Reborn had ignored him, yet his voice draws his attention now. "He's not quite what I was expecting... He's rather different from Dino."
He's not wrong about that. Dino had emerged into the world exactly how Reborn would have wanted him to, their connection alive in his golden hair and his place in the world firmly solidified even before he had found it. There'd never been any doubt that he would be a powerful force. Yet looking at the awkward adolescent who Aria pets fondly.... Reborn isn't quite seeing the same thing here.
Before he can say anything one way or another about the observation, Fon turns to him and smiles. "Still, as always, your fertility is quite impressive, Reborn."
...It's always obvious why Mammon can't stand Fon, but, times like this, it's even clearer.
"I provide nothing but the best," he deadpans, because giving Fon a reaction is exactly what he wants. He's interrupted from saying anything else as a newly born adolescent is suddenly dumped in his arms, and he blinks in bewilderment at Aria over a bird's nest of brown hair.
All She does is smile at him. "You have to name him," She reminds him casually. "He can't go wandering around without a name. In fact, he can't go wandering around without knowing his purpose, either, so you should go take care of that."
Such a simple task, and yet it fills his veins with ice and boils bile in his throat. Dino had been left in Luce's hands for a reason, when he had first been born. Not only had his attention been so fickle back in those days, but Reborn does not, can not, trust his own touch. It keeps off of his face well enough, although not with considerable effort, as he stares down at the young god and wonders how he has not already fallen apart into flame and ash again. It seems like a thing that would be fitting.
Yet in the end, She's right. A name is needed, if only for his own ease. "Tsuna," he says, setting the boy down onto ground. "Let's go." To where? He's not sure. It can't be his own realm, and not only because it puts him on edge to even think of another person there. So, in the end... Reborn takes him to the only other place he can think of.
Dino is over the moon when he sees his newest sibling, because of course he is.
"Look at him," he says, grin wide as Tsuna skitters away from a nearby herd of horses and nearly trips into a pond. The meadows have quite a few of them, Reborn is pretty sure. "Was I that awkward and small when I first started out?"
Idly, Reborn thinks back. It'd been missed for a moment, him and Her so shocked at the creation of something neither mortal nor Arcobaleno, but he feels relatively certain that Dino had tried to stand up and instead, somehow, had gotten a face full of dirt. "You were full formed," he says in lieu of that, not denying parts of the observation. What's different is what's important to him. Tsuna seems close to Skull's testament to disaster, Kyoya Hibari, than Dino. He's in the form of an adolescent than a grown person. Faintly, he wonders if there's something that decides it or, befitting of a creature like himself, the process is utterly random. It still doesn't make him feel any better that he's close to Skull in any aspect.
While he thinks, he and Dino watch the young god cautiously investigate some of the pond turtles. "Well, he'll probably adjust when he figures out his place in things," Dino says lightly, snorting into his hand when Tsuna shouts at the snap of a small turtle's mouth. "That's how it's going with Kyoya. Every time I see him, I think he's become a little more-" He pauses abruptly. "I was going to say 'more adjusted' but that sounds wrong for some reason."
Reborn smirks a little. "Has he stopped trying to attack you yet?"
A distant glaze takes over Dino's eyes. For a second, all he does is stare off into the distance over the fields. "It's amazing how much energy he has," he says at long last. "Honestly? If it wasn't so much fun, I'd say he has too much of it."
'Fun'. He really is Reborn's and it's times like this which remind him of it. So far, there's nothing yet that suggests Tsuna is the same. At least, Reborn can't see it as the boy tentatively pats the shell of one of the more sedate turtles. "You simply wandered around before you found what domain you ruled over, didn't you?" he asks idly, arms crossed and his fingers lightly tapping.
"Well, I mean..." Stepping forward, Dino nudges some of the small turtles across the pond and in Tsuna's direction. "It wasn't quite as simple as that? Except it sort of was." Reborn raises an eyebrow at him and Dino shrugs his shoulders, hands held out helplessly. "I'd always felt a tug, from the second I'd formed enough to feel things. Once I found a part of it, Romario and all other horses, then everything else fell into place?" They're of the same mind, because even as Reborn looks over to Tsuna, Dino is calling the boy himself. "Heeeeey, Tsuna! Come here for a second!"
One close call into the pond later, and the young god in question is trotting over with a small train of little turtles hanging onto the edges of his clothes. As he settles down onto the ground to begin the laborious process of removing their jaws, Tsuna blinks up at them. They're only turtles, able to fit in the palm of his hand, yet his eyes are wide beneath scrunched together brows. "Yeah?" he asks, voice cracking a little bit from the apparently great amount of stress that tiny turtles are placing on him. Reborn sighs.
Showing that he's always going to be his mother's child just as much as Reborn's, Dino laughs at him even as he starts to helpfully remove the turtles. "Do you feel any sort of tugging in you? Like in here-" Reaching over, he splays his fingers across Tsuna's chest. "Or up here?" They go upwards, tapping lightly at Tsuna's skull. Carefully, he watches as the younger god reaches up to touch where Dino's own had been only a moment before.
It's a long moment as Tsuna thinks, only for the end result to be a small shake of his head. "I just feel fuzzy," he mutters, grimacing in a way that has nothing to do with how a turtle tears at his clothing as he removes it. "The only time I didn't feel as bad was in the garden."
The garden- oh. Well, there's no way they can keep Tsuna there with Her for eternity. Reborn steps forward, and Tsuna glances up at him with a particular quirk of his mouth. The way he squints at him reminds Reborn of the way he wants to stare down at the young god. Well, at least in that area, they're on the same terms. "I think the only thing to do then," he announces, "is to do a little bit of searching."
"Where?" asks Tsuna, still so new to existence and not knowing of the world he can go to beyond Her realm or Dino's field. At the sight of Reborn's grin, he immediately twists his face and says with no words how much he suddenly doesn't want to know.
Well, too bad. He's stuck with them now.
The mortal earth is recovering nicely when Reborn and his sons step onto it. Then again, was he ever expecting anything less? This is the place that She created, and which holds a portion of all of the Arcobaleno. Even when he was going on his rampage, he wasn't able to affect more than a relatively small portion of it existence before the others found him. He's always known it's sturdy. What he doesn't know is a lot more, at least firsthand, and Reborn takes his time making his way through its many forests and mountains. If there's one place he avoids, well... A glance back at Dino, laughing and gold as he uses an apple to play catch with Tsuna, shows his eldest isn't paying any mind to where they wander. Good.
Days and nights pass, and none of them give any answers about his newest son. If anything, Tsuna is more hapless than he first thought. Roots constantly catch his feet. Many animals don't seem to care for him, or at least cause him trouble. A part of it seems to be plain bad luck but, honestly, the boy is just oblivious as well. At one point, Reborn bends a tree back and lets it go right when he's in range, only to watch as Tsuna gets smacked with it right onto the ground with a yelp.
"Reborn!" Dino's tone is equal parts alarmed and exasperated as he hurries over to his younger brother. "Really?"
"Pay attention," he calls back, stepping past the trees. "You're too slow, Tsuna." While the two get back to their feet, Reborn pauses as he overlooks the area they've arrived at now. Maybe Tsuna isn't a god of plants and animals, as Kyoya Hibari is and even Dino leans to. In that case.... Before him, a thriving community has carved a place for itself between the forest and a large quiet lake. In the warmth of sunset, he can already see people returning from the waters and from a path that's been carved through the forest. Reborn carefully scans over the settlement, taking in the size and build of the shelters they've made. Certainly, they're an improvement from the buildings he can recall from his earlier memories, but that's not what he's looking for. What he's looking for... is the largest building of the lot, built closest to the shore with plenty of space around it so that no one else is too close. The arrogance is almost enough to smirk, and he nods his head to his sons as the pair of them finally step out from the trees as well. "Make yourself visible to mortals."
No explanation is offered to either of them. Reborn simply starts to make his way down to the small village, adjusting the cloak around his shoulders. It only takes a few changes- fewer than some might think in fact. His hair falls in longer curls, his jawline becomes a little smoother, and it's done.
From Dino's other side, Tsuna blinks at him. "You changed?" he says, a question hanging on the very edge of his words.
"Mhm."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to," Reborn says simply, which is true enough. It had occurred to him, so why not do it? Man or woman or otherwise, she finds no reason to hold herself back in such matters.
At least it's a little amusing to see Tsuna try to puzzle over this, nose scrunching up to match his brows. "So are you like that other person?"
"Use your words, Tsuna. What person?"
"The one who disappeared."
Ah. Right. It'd be a mild mistake to think that Tsuna's awareness had only been when Aria had helped him take form. Embers had existed before that, and he'd grown eyes not too long after. "You're thinking of Mammon," Reborn says as the three of them merge easily into the crowds of mortals that are returning home. "Mammon is different. They're themself, not man or woman." A pause as she considers this. "Well. Unless they wanted to be." When it comes to the personification of desire, it's wise to not make any absolutes in what they do or don't want. "I'm different."
"....I don't have to, right?"
"No unless you want to, Tsuna," Dino says casually, ruffling his brother's hair. "So what are we doing again?"
"You'll see." For the time being, however, she takes her two offspring at a casual pace through the small village. It's not the largest one- she feels in her bones that there are much bigger- but it is on a fast track to such a size. Plenty of people bustle through the small paths that have been worn between the buildings, all sorts of things in hand. Tools, nets bursting with fish, woven baskets that are empty or hold bustles of herbs- the list goes on. None of it is new to Reborn. Ever since Dino had first touched mortals, they had begun to develop at breakneck speeds. Her eldest in question swells with pride as they walk through, in fact, his eyes shining and his grin bright. Reaching over, Reborn lightly bops him upside the head. "Don't get cocky."
Laughing, Dino ruffles his hair. "Hey, hey, I can be a little proud!"
As Dino laughs, Tsuna takes his time looking everywhere and Reborn watches him carefully for any signs of- something. Anything. She wasn't there, really, when Dino found his domain; what is she supposed to look for? Nothing stands out to Reborn in Tsuna's surprised gaping as he takes in the village. It reminds her of Luce, in a way.... That quiet delight in the state of the world.
There's no time for reminiscence. Later, maybe. They've arrived at the opening of the abode which has had Reborn's eye, and she glances over the stilts which keep it above flood water. With Dino and Tsuna behind her, Reborn smirks a little before raising one hand and knocking upon the door.
It doesn't take long for it to open, although only a crack, and a pair of suspicious eyes squint at her. Ah, the suspicious sort. Reborn wonders if there's any claim to such a feeling, or if it's a concoction brewed up inside the mortal's own skull. That's the beautiful thing about them, really: nothing eats them up from the inside out more than a person's own recognition of how they're not doing fair by others.
And the make, position, and size of the house suggests that they've done very unfairly to the rest in this little village.
"Hello," Reborn says, trying to smile without looking too suspicious. "My sons and I have been traveling, and we've just arrived here. Would you happen to have room for us so we can rest for the night before we go on our way tomorrow?"
The answer is one she's expecting. Imperiously, the man's lips curl, and he glances over the trio before him. Reborn doesn't doubt her own looks, slick and dark, but she can't say the same for her sons. Dino tends towards simple clothing, a comfortable robe and sturdy boots finely representing his role as a god of workers. Tsuna? Well, for a newly born god, there's not much... He seems to have taken to copying Dino for lack of any better ideas. So long as it works, she supposes....
Still. Apparently it's not impressive enough for this particular mortal's tastes. "We don't have the food for three more people," he says, the lie drooling from his deceitful tongue. "So we have no room. May the forest shelter you well enough." There's not even a second to spare for any thanks or further questions. Just like that, the door is closed in their faces, and Reborn lets out a snort of a laugh.
"Well," Dino says from behind him, deadpan, "it could have been worse."
"None of us look anything like each other," Tsuna says with quiet dawning bewilderment.
Turning on her heel, Reborn walks past the two of them. "We're alike where it matters," she says simply, although even she has to wonder sometimes. "Now come on." From the corner of her eye, she can see Dino patting Tsuna along.
Small torches line up along the pathways, and people are beginning to light them as their group goes through the village again. It adds a little more light than what the moon grants normally. Not a lot of people are outside of their homes by now, the smoke that curls out lazily from their homes telling of warm fires crackling and fulfilling food being prepared. Still, there is some chatter taking place outside as neighbors talk with one another and others finish late tasks. As Reborn wanders, Dino speeds up a little so that their steps are in-sync.
"So what are we doing?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "You have to be doing this for a reason..." A pause. "Right?" Ha. Good on him to make sure.
"He's obviously not a god of nature. Something would have clicked by now." At least, Kyoya Hibari had certainly made himself at home in the woods in no small time without any help. Whether future gods of similar domain would do the same is a mystery they don't know yet. "Humans are intensely varied. Perhaps spending time with them will kick him into gear." A smirk slashes across her face. "And if all else fails, we can throw him into the deep end."
He'd been glancing at a passing shrine to himself but, at those words, Dino jerks around to face her. "Wait- Reborn what do you mean deep end-"
"Where's Tsuna?" she asks, half to change the subject, half because they have in fact lost him.
Seriously. He's nowhere around.
It's not really something to laugh about, so it's probably bad of Reborn to want to at the distressed keen that falls out of Dino's mouth. "Tsuna!" he calls, turning right on his heel to go back the way he'd come. It's not a forest they've lost him in, after all. Reborn really doubts that their young god has gone far.
True enough, all it takes is going down one path and turning down a smaller one before Tsuna's found. A set of large woven baskets has been placed into his arms and towers over his head of spiky hair. Besides him, a woman with short brown hair is smiling amiably and chatters away at him. As Dino hurries over, with Reborn following at a more relaxed pace, she beams at them. "Oh, hello! You must be Tsuna's family! He just told me about you all." From behind his stack of baskets, Tsuna peers out almost helplessly.
Reborn smiles back, amused despite herself. "That's right," she says with a nod, coming to a stop as Dino helps keep the baskets from tipping over. Even he seems to be laughing quietly at the sight. "It looks like he's been useful to you."
"Oh, he's been very helpful!" she gushes cheerfully. "He did knock them over, but he was certainly eager to help after." Gently, her hair goes to rest in his wild hair. "That's the important thing, isn't it?"
"We're hoping to raise him well," Dino says, grinning as he gives a much harder ruffle into Tsuna's mane. "I'm Dino and this is our mother. We've been..." Pausing, he glances over to Reborn. "Looking for a place to stay the night at."
That's all the woman needs to hear before she beams, and starts to hurry Tsuna and Dino along the path. "Oh, then if you need anywhere at all, you're more than welcome to stay at my home! I'm Nana, by the way- Sawada Nana. It's not much, but it should easily stretch room for three more!"
It's a bit of a tight squeeze, as it turns out, and it's clearly being held together through perseverance and constant repairs. Reborn doesn't say anything about that, and neither do his sons. In fact, Dino says, "Is there anything we can help with? To repay you."
"No," is the immediate answer, although Nana's voice is in no way harsh or sharp. Instead, she seems quite prideful as she takes the baskets from Tsuna to set in a corner. "You're guests! It wouldn't be right for me to make you do work when I've offered you shelter. Then it would seem as if it's only for my own selfishness that I've invited you, and that's not right." Turning around, she taps Tsuna on the nose and smiles. "Remember that!"
Tsuna's eyes cross at the sudden tap, and Dino huffs out a laugh while Reborn settles comfortably on the ground by the fire pit. "If you say so," his oldest responds. "But be sure to let us know if anything comes up."
"Oh, of course!" Yet it doesn't look as if Nana will tell either of them anything anytime soon as she quietly stokes the embers before turning away. As with so many people in this little place, fish make up the easiest food to get, or at least the most plentiful. Yet the pile she has set to the side, each fish wrapped in leaves, isn't a particularly impressive one. Perhaps she hasn't had much luck. Perhaps so many people fish that it's hard to find a good spot. It could be any number of reasons, all of them twisting together to put her on the wrong side of luck. Reborn knows well enough how that goes.
A flare of light from the side catches her attention, and Reborn glances over to the fire pit once more. Tsuna is already recoiling from it, crouched where he is. Light burns and writhes underneath his thin skin, from fingertip to wrist, and he hides it hastily underneath himself as Nana turns around. "Oh!" she explains, pleasantly delighted at how the embers from her simple little pit have suddenly become a strong blaze for her. Grinning, she starts to set the fish up to cook. "Light must have looked kindly on me," she laughs. Reborn laughs with her, and not only because Dino has to plaster the most awkward grin on his face.
A god is certainly to thank for her luck in flames, but it's not the one she thinks.
For all that her home itself lacks, Nana makes up tenfold as she energetically talks to the three of them. If words were food, surely she'd have been able to keep the entire village afloat for decades. She's pleasant enough as well, Reborn finds. While she shares what is possibly every single detail about the village and its surrounding areas, she's also certain to inquire about the three of them as well. "Do they not have a father?" she leans over to ask in a concerned whisper as Dino and Tsuna laugh with each other. Reborn has to bit back her own snicker. "Traveling with only your two sons..."
"We do well enough," Reborn promises, a smirk on her face. "But what about you? Do you live on your own?"
Immediately, her worry blossoms into something proud, and she curls her fingers along her cheek. "Oh, I have someone!" she says, as giddy as a young girl with her first love. "But he travels, you know. Goes to other towns and villages, always bringing me things whenever he comes back."
They must not be much, Reborn reflects as she glances over the modest dwelling once more. "Seems a little lonely," she comments.
All that glow that had been there starts to fade away, and Nana busies herself with cleaning up things. "I have the rest of the town," she promises Reborn. "Everyone is very kind!" That sounds questionable, considering the not-so-friendly person they went to see not an hour ago, but Reborn doesn't call her out on the lie. Partially because she doesn't have a chance to, since Nana keeps right on chatting. "You know, my Iemitsu hunts with a bow! He's really quite good."
Reborn has noticed the bow propped up in the corner. She's also noticed that it hasn't been touched in quite a while. Yet that doesn't seem to bother Nana at all as she keeps cheerfully telling stories about her lover and how skilled a hunter he is. Conversation keeps all of them up well into the night, until finally the fire has to be extinguished properly so that she can go to sleep. "I have to get up early tomorrow," she explains, almost apologetic. "Fish come up with the sun, you know." Still, she gives them thick hide and fur blankets before fading off to sleep herself.
Sleep isn't a thing any of them really need, of course, and it's sort of a moot point as well as far as Reborn can tell. Perhaps it's different for young gods, still so new to existence and their understanding. Yet for her who, even bound, can see and feel and taste every chaotic instance that happens? Is that chaotic instance?
Yeah.
In a corner of the home, Dino is sprawled out with his hands tucked behind his head. For the time being, he seems to be doing a good enough mimic of sleep, his eyes closed and his breath easy. Somehow, Tsuna ends up partially out the entranceway with his hand laying out in the street. When Reborn checks, a few wayward felines of all sorts have gathered by it. Some nap, others groom, but they're all close by.
Maybe she was wrong about Tsuna not being some sort of nature god.
Reborn doesn't let them relax for long. Before the sun can quite warm up the sky, she lazily kicks at Dino's legs and goes to step on Tsuna's stomach a little. Dino gets up smoothly; Tsuna jerks and flails. He might actually have been sleeping. That's a bit strange, but Reborn doesn't dwell on it much. All she does is go to grab the bow that's been left abandoned in the corner. "Come on," she says simply. "There's something we need to do."
"I was sleeping," Tsuna complains quietly as they all slip out from the home, rubbing at his eyes. Helpfully, Dino smacks him hard against the back to wake him up a little more, and the younger god almost goes falling face first before finding his balance again. "What are we doing?"
"Repaying a favor." Reborn pauses after circling the little home. Nana has some land of her own, although for different reasons than a certain other. Unlike being close to the water, no doubt to where all the best fishing can be done and sooner, she's on the outskirts. The forest is closer to her than anything, along with all the little beasts that might not take kindly to humans being near. Pointedly, she looks over to Dino. That's all the prompting her eldest needs before he starts toeing the dirt and grass with his foot, and occasionally he crouches down to sink his fingers into the earth. Even if early morning dew hadn't made everything soft and moist, he could do such easily.
After a little bit of this, with Tsuna trailing after him puzzled, Dino straightens up and dusts off his hands. "I can think of a few crops that would do well here," he says confidently, well within his realm. "It'd only take a moment to get some, encourage the ground a little bit to be kind."
Even if it was the worst kind of ground, hard and stubborn, Dino could make it sweet. Still, that it's easy certainly saves them time. Lazily, Reborn swipes the bow at him and watches both of her sons nearly trip over themselves to duck- Tsuna actually falls backwards. "Then go get them," Reborn says. "No, Tsuna- you stay here."
While Dino disappears to go gather the seeds he wants, Tsuna gets uncertainly to his feet. "The seeds aren't enough?" he asks.
"Of course not." Lightly tapping him at the side of the head with the bow, Reborn turns away to have him follow her. "There's one more thing we ought to get."
An Arcobaleno and a god can easily just appear wherever they like. However, Reborn is in no rush as dawn creeps through the sky. She takes the long way around, occasionally smacking Tsuna in the side or arm whenever it looks like he's lagging. There's no one in the woods on the other side of the lake when they finally get there. No humans, at least. As night birds tuck themselves away in holes and among leaves, others are flitting from branches to get their meals and skimming along the lake surface before humans can take all the fish. Other animals lurk, too. Reborn ignores slender does and their offspring, eyes the larger stags, but eventually she finds a much nicer prize.
It's a boar: enormous, thick, with long tusks that would make a fine trinket or weapon for anyone. In the dark shadows of dawn, it's a threatening mass with no detail to it, and everything on the ground takes care not to get in its way. Of all the animals that have formed and survived to this moment, Reborn has found boars to be among the most sturdy.
She adjusts the bow in one hand. With the other, she extends her palm to Tsuna. "Get me a twig," she orders simply with her eyes focused on the boar. "Straight and long as you can get it. Nothing else matters."
It takes a few minutes, and lots of stumbling, but soon enough Tsuna holds out a good handful of them. Reborn casts a sharp glance over the selection before drawing one out. This should do well enough, although, with how many Tsuna got for her, there was bound to be at least one success. "Remember," she murmurs quietly, drawing the stick back smoothly, "that gods and mortals are tightly bound. Even the wild god that Skull and Fon made allows them to pray in his name, and takes strength when they heed his demands and rely on his domain. Remember that whenever mortals do something for you, small or large."
"...What about you?"
"I'm not a god; I'm not obliged to do anything for or against them beyond my own whims."
And Reborn lets the arrow fly.
Air billow around her as it shoots off, hair flapping in the sudden vicious guest of wind, and the arrow pierces the boars heart before it realizes what's going on. Well... Maybe calling it a "pierce" is understating it. The rudimentary arrow sends it flying with all the force of a giant spear. In that single weapon, there is the strength of an Arcobaleno in it, after all. Trees and branches shatter as it is taken through the air, until it's out of sight to normal eyes. Reborn, fortunately, is far from that. Closing her eyes, she can tell how it breaches the treeline, skims over the water.... and crashes through the roof a certain large house en-route to its destination, a fact which draws a smirk to her face.
That wasn't intended, but it'll add to this lesson that she's imparting. That's fine.
Lowering the old bow, she looks over to Tsuna. His face has gone pale, and one hand is clutched to his chest as if to keep his heart where it belongs. Tsuna's skittishness is nothing new; the boy came into the world screaming. Still, is there something more to the alarm that fills his wide eyes as he stares at the path that the boar's corpse has carved out? Either way, Reborn snaps her fingers pointedly. "Go back to being unseen to mortal eyes," she tells him. "Let's see if Dino has returned."
He has, of course, and he's standing over the boar's corpse right where it's landed near to Nana's house. The village is abuzz as they try to figure out what's happened, but no one has seen to go near the forest. After all, it's the roof of the house near the lake that's damaged. Reborn can already hear the owner's outrage even from where she is. Her look of amusement has Dino sag in exasperation.
"I wasn't even gone that long," he says. "Was that really necessary?"
"I'm giving Nana as much help as she did to us," she says idly. "Now hurry and put the seeds in the ground and the boar in her house. We need to get going."
Tsuna is crouched over by the boar, expression mingled disgust and sympathy, but he looks up at that. "Where are we going?"
"To another village, of course."
Reborn breathes it in, lets the air fill his chest and test the stretch of his lungs. Distantly, somewhere else, he can feel his realm solidify as well. The jagged black walls that make up Chaos' domain, that make up his sense of self, are slowly smoothing out. Eventually, he knows, they will become the exact opposite of what he is at his core. The walls, the floor, the ceiling: all will be smooth and without flaw, a pale contrast to the darkness that keeps him in check. All that will interrupt that empty long room will be towering columns. Oh, it hasn't happened yet, but it will happen eventually. Reborn knows this in the same way rock knows how a persistent drop of water will carve out a path.
It's simply a matter of waiting.
However, even bound and quieted as he is, Reborn can't exactly say that his idea of a fun time is sitting in a room watching it very slowly smooth out. Even just a minute- or maybe it had been a year? Time is so strange- had been more than enough for him.
So. Here he is. Within the small realm that has bloomed gladly under Dino's touch. Off in the distance, a herd of horses grazes serenely amongst the plains and some of the foals prance through shining wheat. Truly Dino is his mother's son. Sure, he's in perfect health and full of energy, unlike Reborn, so finding and creating a space for himself wasn't as much of a struggle. Still. Reborn had seen how easily this section of the realm had unfurled at Dino's steps, filling emptiness with life and gold. It is a place both of the immaterial, the ethereal, and yet connected to so many places more earthly. Wherever horses roam, wherever mortal hands are at work, these fields will lead there.
Reborn is still quite proud of that, frankly. His and Luce's child, the world's firstborn god, and his domain is so encompassing.
The sound of hooves beating against earth draws his attention, and he gives a slight nod of greeting to the horse which travels up to him. "Romario."
"Reborn." The stallion bows his head, well mannered as always. "Good to see your health is well."
"Well enough," Reborn agrees, forcing his hand to stay down instead of reaching up to fiddle with the dark clothes that are wrapped around him. All too often, every second, they are suffocating. In the time since Fon had secured that first cloak around his body, they've changed. Now an entire outfit is what lays across his form, robes and slippers that are still as dark as his eyes. The cloak hasn't left, however. As it has for some time now, it lays heavy over his shoulders and shifts smoothly along with his movements.
Romario says nothing about it, on the basis that he's more common sense than some of Reborn's kin. Instead, he says, "Better than not. Are you waiting for Dino?"
"Not today." Sweeping a hand through his hair, Reborn glances over the fields again. In the distance, a thin trail of smoke curls lazily skywards. Here, it could be a connection to the mortal world or where Dino has made a more steady home. Either way, for as long as he had been tending him, his firstborn could use the space. Both of them could. "I only came to see how things are changing. Kyoya Hibari has changed the layout of this realm as well, hasn't he?"
"It neighbors our fields, in fact." A distinct amusement is laced throughout the horse's tone. "I think he wishes for a rematch, although he disappears so often into his forests that it's hard to say."
Ah. The memory of what started his whole interest in picking the world apart flickers into his mind, and Reborn sets to thinking about other matters as fast as he can. "Good to see he's keeping Dino on his toes then," he says, voice still level. As it should be- he's been practicing on that. Another reason why being alone in his realm had been grinding his patience down. There's only so many times even a being such as himself can sit and do the same thing over and over again. Maybe especially so, considering his essence. "Any other interesting changes that have happened?"
Romario's hoof digs briefly at the ground as he considers the question. "Well, I doubt it's an interesting thing to you, but I have learned a small trick."
"Then by all means..." Reborn inclines his head to him slightly. "Go right ahead."
Turning away, the spiritual steed begins to circle around him with a smooth trot. As he moves, sparks flicker into existence along his hide, burning brighter and faster until he's engulfed.... and, only a second later, steps out from the flames in the form of an older man with short black hair and a mustache above his smiling lips.
Reborn quirks up an eyebrow, almost as amused as Romario had been a moment before. "Are you playing coy in an attempt to fish for compliments?" Because that kind of thing- of something that was once mortal growing so different from the single touch of a god- is extremely interesting.
With fire as well? Of course it's Dino's touch.
Romario's smile is hardly hidden beneath the bushiness of his mustache as he ducks his head and laughs. "Now what would make you say that?"
It's a good companion that Dino has found himself. Reborn can let that be a comfort, at least. Still, he's been here long enough, and the small talk has done its job. Rising up to his feet, he nods to Romario. "Perhaps you'll have more interesting things when I stop by next time," he says simply before shifting away from the soft fields of Dino's home. Existence is wide, and there are plenty more places for him to look over to see what has changed with his focus away from them.
It might be bias that has him go to Her realm first. All of the Arcobaleno have settled themselves in, no longer roaming the earth although there's no denying their connection to it. While he was out of action as the others made their little retreats, he has no doubt that. Much like Dino, Creation crafted Hers with graceful ease. That's what it feels like as he lets his feet touch Her realm, a perfect opposite to his own. All of them are so tightly intertwined, but maybe there's a reason he was able to create a god with Her without even needing to think. Thick greenery presses in on him, bloated with flowers and fruits, and he can see small creatures of all sorts scurrying inbetween the layers of foliage. Up high above, the shadows of birds are cast over him through the gaps of sunlight. Something distantly rotting reaches his nose, a sour scent.
All of Creation thrives here. Every single beautiful and ugly bit.
She's waiting for him in a small clearing- Yuni this time, Her fingers weaving stalks of flowers into each other to make a ring while Skull has his head in Her lap. Even as the Arcobaleno of Suffering jerks upwards, Yuni smiles in Reborn's direction. "Do you like it?" She asks, politely ignoring how Skull tries to hold himself tall and imposing. (It's not working.)
Glancing over the full and thriving realm but not daring to touch any of it, Reborn cocks his head to the side. "It suits you," he says, and enjoys the warmth that winds tight in his chest when She smiles. "So what is Skull doing here?"
Skull is on his feet properly now, which unfortunately means he's in the mood to be chatty in the worst way. Reborn's suspicion is proven correct when the other gestures to himself, hand flinging outwards before coming to rest on his chest. "I've been recuperating!" he says, voice far too loud even for the clamor that comes with Creation's realm. "It took a lot of work to rein you in after all the trouble you caused!" All it takes is for Reborn to flash his gaze in his direction, and Skull shuts up.
Unfortunately for him, that's not enough for the marksman, especially not when he's this tired and his temper on strings. Only that which is wrapped tight around him- that which he has to reluctantly admit that Skull put around his form although he did nothing else- keeps him from lashing out. "Then shouldn't Lal Mirch be in your place?" he says instead, gaining a petty amount of satisfaction from the way Skull flinches.
Before the situation can get worse in any way, even slightly, Aria speaks up glibly. "She'll be here soon, actually."
Reborn freezes right as Skull flails a little bit, the latter yelping, "What!?"
"I think the others have expressed wanting to visit as well," Luce adds, fingers still patiently weaving flower stalks together.
There's no chance for him to politely excuse himself, or flat out leave. Thunder rolls throughout the air, a storm crashing through the peaceful silence, and it's only the abundant leaves absorbing most of the rain that lets Reborn keeps dry as a sudden shower pounds down against them. From one side, Lal Mirch and Colonello emerge. Their weary go over Fon, who trails along them smiling. From the other side, Verde arrives with his mouth already open to no doubt ask some question or other. Abruptly, as he realizes the situation he's walked into, he snaps it shut.
All six of them, Skull included, stand utterly still in the clearing.
Luce smiles. Even as it puts him in this kind of position, Reborn can't help but feel that burning warm feeling in his chest. He loves Her when She's tricky like this.
Among all of them, Fon is the first to recover, lips curving in faint amusement as he looks over everyone who is assembled. "It is nice to see us gathered," he says lightly, something he probably believes. When they're all together, the more likely things are to become a mess. Reborn supposes that's what they have in common, although he'd rather not deal with it now. "Well, all of us save one."
It's true. While Mammon is small and can often be subtle when the mood strikes them, they're nowhere to be found in Creation's lush home. Reborn can't even feel them nearby.
Normally, he wouldn't think it unusual. Mammon is simply like that. Yet he's suspecting something has been happening while he's been recovering when Skull huffs out, "What have they been doing lately? Does anyone even know where they've gone?"
"They've been absent?" Reborn asks, inwardly more than glad to talk about the mystery of Mammon instead of looking over the ruined trail of skin that is spread across Lal Mirch's cheek. If it's been long enough for one of their own to be noticeably missing and she still hasn't healed...
Aria's voice distracts him from thinking much further. "Mammon has their own things to do, I'm sure they'll turn up eventually."
Turning on his heel, Verde waves a dismissive hand at them. "If this gathering is going to be nothing more than idle gossip, I have other things to pay mind to."
"You always have other things to pay mind to," Reborn says dryly, and is surprised when Colonello snorts a little from the side in agreement.
"What's so interesting about the mortal world right now anyway?" The blond nods his head to Aria. "Everything is still recovering again, right?"
Verde takes a long deep breath to settle his own self before he turns back to face them all with one of his typical smug smirks that says more than words how idiotic he finds all of them. "As a matter of fact, recovery in the aftermath of disaster is what makes that world so fascinating. Creatures adapt, or change, or become new from destruction. For humans, this is especially fascinating. Even on their own, without outside help, the cooperation of humans can be amazingly disastrous for other parts of the world."
News like that is enough to make Colonello puff up proudly, a contrast to the stern nod from Lal Mirch as if this is only to be expected. "You shouldn't be surprised, hey!" he says, brash and confident. "That's how strong bonds are!"
As he is now, Reborn should have more control. The void should be tight around him, constraining him to this form. Yet it's still around him, still settling only some parts of himself, because in the end he can't help but raise an eyebrow and ask, "So there's nothing stronger?"
From the side, Fon is already smiling in quiet anticipation, and Verde rolls his eyes before turning on his heel to disappear. Reborn can't say he's surprised with either reaction. It's the bound pair that have his attention, who he watches from the corner of his eyes. Really, the pair of them are perfectly in-sync as they first stiffen slightly in surprise before stepping forward all bristle. Only perhaps Creation could beat them from how well they match.
"Do you have something to say?" Lal snaps, eyes flashing in warning.
Colonello is speaking already as well. "Is that a challenge?"
"Just something to consider," he counters simply, watching Luce's fingers patiently weave flowers together. "It sounds as if a lot of effort is being put into what Verde spoke of. A lot of it could be undone if any of the rest in our number merely flicked a finger." Or in his case, started to tug on a wayward string...
But that's not what either of them want to hear. He can already see their lips parting, ready for another shot. Yet it's neither Lal Mirch's voice or Colonello's that suddenly speaks up. "You know, all I'm starting to hear is empty boasting." Reborn resists the urge to squeeze his eyes shut and smash the back of his head against tree bark, because the owner of that voice is the last person who needs to get involved in this. From the plants behind Yuni, mist creeps out, settling behind Her until Mammon can lazily sit against one side. Along with the usual wet smell that they carry with them, Mammon's mist is filled with the scent of salt and sea. It'd be intriguing, if they weren't poking their nose into this whole business. "If I wanted that, I'd ask Skull to tell me all about what he can do."
"Wh- hey!"
Fon's smile grows more sly with every passing second, and Reborn is already wary of what he'll say before he says it. "Mammon has a point," he says agreeably, 'politely' ignoring the grumble Mammon makes at any contribution of his even if it's technically in their favor. "If anyone here wishes to prove something, well- actions are sometimes louder than the voice."
The worst part is that he can't even be angry at any of them, not with cause. Reborn knows he's the one who couldn't keep his word to himself. So, eyes on him, he rolls his shoulders up in an elegant shrug. "I don't have to prove anything. Still, if you want a demonstration, it's no problem on my end to give one."
Luce doesn't stop them. Yuni doesn't either. In fact, Aria actually says, "If you're really going to do anything, then you might as well do it here." She nods Her head, simple as you please, in the direction of one particular path through the trees. "Some areas of the world that were destroyed are still... sorting themselves out here. So I doubt it's going to change much if you do whatever you like."
Surely She must have something up Her sleeve.... But Reborn doesn't argue against it. His pride has been laid out on the line, so now it's time for him to carry through. That is how he and a handful of the others end up in the part of Her realm that's ephemeral and strange.
It's the best way to describe it. Out in the land of mortals, fever dreams have more physicality than the land She is slowly repairing. Beneath his feet, despite holding him up perfectly well, the ground is unusually soft. Around all of them, the trees are simultaneously too faint and as old as any of their number. Established and yet malleable, young and yet old- no wonder they were shafted over here.
Taking position amongst the trees, Reborn glances back at the audience that he's gathered for himself. His gaze doesn't care to linger long on Lal Mirch, her eyes burning bright over the scarring twisting her skin, or Colonello, subtly trying to position himself a little in front of her. Whenever it comes to the other two who make up the small crowd, however, he sighs a little.
"I wasn't aware you two were part of the bet," he says dryly.
Fon tries to hide his smile behind one long red sleeve in the manner of one who isn't really trying that hard at all. "Shouldn't there be an audience when it comes to a wager such as this one?" he asks coyly. "A third party that holds no bias."
In contrast to Fon- or perhaps because of Fon- Mammon is more honest. "I just want to see what idiocy this results in."
Catalyst and Desire. Out of all of the Arcobaleno, there are no others who tug at his own essence quite as much. Still, trying to chase them away might just invite an argument and through an argument... Well. It's best not to think too heavily on that. For all of them, the course of action least likely to court misfortune may simply be to let them sit and watch. With that careful thinking done with, he turns away.
"Creatures that work in groups," he says, "can do a lot. It's why those humans, still weak independently, can hunt enormous creatures for food or take down enormous trees to cart back as shelter." Glancing over his shoulder, he raises both an eyebrow and a single hand. "But it seems a little much to say that there's nothing stronger than their unity."
Suddenly, sharply, his fingers snap together and a spark erupts from the grind to leap out onto the forest floor. However strange its existence must be, it still reacts to his touch like any other place: catching alight, the spark becoming flames, fire leaping out from one home to the next until the forest is overwhelmed with it all. As fire engulfs it, surrounding them, he turns back to his audience pointedly.
"It only takes a spark to take out what a group could do in longer time."
"Show off," Mammon says glibly, even as Colonello grits his teeth and Lal's eyes burn as bright as the flames.
Well. As bright as the fire in its peak. Perhaps from the severity of it, perhaps because this is Her domain of Creation, it dies out just as fast as it had started. Gray and black wash over the little patch of forest, matching the cloak he wears, and Reborn carelessly glances at the ash that rests along his shoulders. Well, there are consequences, he supposes.
Turning to the group again, he prepares to ask what Colonello and Lal Mirch think now when Fon's eyes light up. He steps forward, head cocked to the side, sharp as a bird's. The attention of catalyst is never a good thing; that alone has Reborn glance over his shoulder to see just what is so interesting.
He freezes.
He'd been too careless in dismissing the area around him as dead and gray. Amidst a pile of ash, something glows bright in defiance of his expectations. There's nothing impressive about it save its sole existence in the midst of emptiness. It's merely an ember. Yet as they stare, sparks crackle out from it, faster and brighter and hotter- until flames burst upwards in a twist of life once more. Unlike that which had come from Reborn's hand, however, it doesn't devour all it can greedily, and not only because there's nothing to be devoured. It keeps to itself- they keep to themself, fire turning in on fire, and a pair of eyes more brilliant than any topaz form.
He stares at them.
They stare back... and begin screaming.
Coincidentally, that's around the time Mammon starts to double over in laughter. Their sudden burst of mirth manages to be in time with how Reborn hurries over, trying to look like he's not hurrying over, to the newfound life. "Did you make another one?" Mammon wheezes out. Scooping the fire up into one arm, he snaps the other out to lash out at them, but it's no use. All that's left for his attack to go through is a patch of mist, twisting lazily past the trees.
So now there's only him, Colonello, Lal Mirch, Fon, and a tiny screaming burning bundle of existence in his arms. Wonderful.
While he's kept from looking at her head on, it's easy to see Lal Mirch grinding the heels of her palms into her ears. "Does that one ever shut up?" she yells over the screaming, and Reborn glances down at the flames which are crawling along his bent arm.
"No," he says.
Still, if there's anyone who can quiet a child....
Yuni is exactly where She was left when Reborn returns to the little clearing, Skull crouched down besides Her. He quickly stands up when Reborn arrives, arms spinning to maintain his balance, but Reborn says nothing to him. Instead, he simply holds out his still blazing arm. "We have an issue."
To Her credit, Aria doesn't burst out laughing at his predicament. Oh, by all means, She's grinning as if only just discovering how for the first time, but She isn't laughing. "The world is certainly filling up quickly," She says fondly as She gets up to Her feet and approaches him without an ounce of hesitation. "Alright, let's see you, shall we? Or at least the you that's not completely covered in fire."
Aria doesn't offer Her arm to be set alight, as Reborn had done. Instead, She curls Her arms around the flames, gathering them up towards Her chest in the way only a patient mother can. In a heartbeat, She's whisked them away from Reborn and he can only watch as She kneels down. From Her grasp falls the fire, burning brightly in place. It's then that Aria starts to patiently dust him off, as if getting rid of dust instead of anything that can burn flesh off bone.
And it works. With each patient swat of Her hand, the flames abide, and show in their place muscle and skin. There a chest, then down to reveal stomach and hips and awkward soft legs. She saves the head for last once She's sure they have two feet to stand upon. A little incredulous, Reborn watches the chubby cheeks that get patted, his latest child's face scrunched up as Aria works on them. Finishing up, Her hands reveal wild messy brown hair that droops, and She finally steps back. Brilliant topaz eyes are what Reborn can clearly remember showing from the flames. However, with Aria's absence, the child opens their eyes once more and stares out into the realm with wide brown.
He- that of which Reborn is a little more sure now that his existence is more stable- has been still screaming this entire time. Yet as they all watch, it quietly tapers down. The young new god hiccups.
That's enough to have Aria beaming. "There!" She says, with quite a bit of finality.
"Hmmm..." At some point, Fon had shown up and Reborn had ignored him, yet his voice draws his attention now. "He's not quite what I was expecting... He's rather different from Dino."
He's not wrong about that. Dino had emerged into the world exactly how Reborn would have wanted him to, their connection alive in his golden hair and his place in the world firmly solidified even before he had found it. There'd never been any doubt that he would be a powerful force. Yet looking at the awkward adolescent who Aria pets fondly.... Reborn isn't quite seeing the same thing here.
Before he can say anything one way or another about the observation, Fon turns to him and smiles. "Still, as always, your fertility is quite impressive, Reborn."
...It's always obvious why Mammon can't stand Fon, but, times like this, it's even clearer.
"I provide nothing but the best," he deadpans, because giving Fon a reaction is exactly what he wants. He's interrupted from saying anything else as a newly born adolescent is suddenly dumped in his arms, and he blinks in bewilderment at Aria over a bird's nest of brown hair.
All She does is smile at him. "You have to name him," She reminds him casually. "He can't go wandering around without a name. In fact, he can't go wandering around without knowing his purpose, either, so you should go take care of that."
Such a simple task, and yet it fills his veins with ice and boils bile in his throat. Dino had been left in Luce's hands for a reason, when he had first been born. Not only had his attention been so fickle back in those days, but Reborn does not, can not, trust his own touch. It keeps off of his face well enough, although not with considerable effort, as he stares down at the young god and wonders how he has not already fallen apart into flame and ash again. It seems like a thing that would be fitting.
Yet in the end, She's right. A name is needed, if only for his own ease. "Tsuna," he says, setting the boy down onto ground. "Let's go." To where? He's not sure. It can't be his own realm, and not only because it puts him on edge to even think of another person there. So, in the end... Reborn takes him to the only other place he can think of.
Dino is over the moon when he sees his newest sibling, because of course he is.
"Look at him," he says, grin wide as Tsuna skitters away from a nearby herd of horses and nearly trips into a pond. The meadows have quite a few of them, Reborn is pretty sure. "Was I that awkward and small when I first started out?"
Idly, Reborn thinks back. It'd been missed for a moment, him and Her so shocked at the creation of something neither mortal nor Arcobaleno, but he feels relatively certain that Dino had tried to stand up and instead, somehow, had gotten a face full of dirt. "You were full formed," he says in lieu of that, not denying parts of the observation. What's different is what's important to him. Tsuna seems close to Skull's testament to disaster, Kyoya Hibari, than Dino. He's in the form of an adolescent than a grown person. Faintly, he wonders if there's something that decides it or, befitting of a creature like himself, the process is utterly random. It still doesn't make him feel any better that he's close to Skull in any aspect.
While he thinks, he and Dino watch the young god cautiously investigate some of the pond turtles. "Well, he'll probably adjust when he figures out his place in things," Dino says lightly, snorting into his hand when Tsuna shouts at the snap of a small turtle's mouth. "That's how it's going with Kyoya. Every time I see him, I think he's become a little more-" He pauses abruptly. "I was going to say 'more adjusted' but that sounds wrong for some reason."
Reborn smirks a little. "Has he stopped trying to attack you yet?"
A distant glaze takes over Dino's eyes. For a second, all he does is stare off into the distance over the fields. "It's amazing how much energy he has," he says at long last. "Honestly? If it wasn't so much fun, I'd say he has too much of it."
'Fun'. He really is Reborn's and it's times like this which remind him of it. So far, there's nothing yet that suggests Tsuna is the same. At least, Reborn can't see it as the boy tentatively pats the shell of one of the more sedate turtles. "You simply wandered around before you found what domain you ruled over, didn't you?" he asks idly, arms crossed and his fingers lightly tapping.
"Well, I mean..." Stepping forward, Dino nudges some of the small turtles across the pond and in Tsuna's direction. "It wasn't quite as simple as that? Except it sort of was." Reborn raises an eyebrow at him and Dino shrugs his shoulders, hands held out helplessly. "I'd always felt a tug, from the second I'd formed enough to feel things. Once I found a part of it, Romario and all other horses, then everything else fell into place?" They're of the same mind, because even as Reborn looks over to Tsuna, Dino is calling the boy himself. "Heeeeey, Tsuna! Come here for a second!"
One close call into the pond later, and the young god in question is trotting over with a small train of little turtles hanging onto the edges of his clothes. As he settles down onto the ground to begin the laborious process of removing their jaws, Tsuna blinks up at them. They're only turtles, able to fit in the palm of his hand, yet his eyes are wide beneath scrunched together brows. "Yeah?" he asks, voice cracking a little bit from the apparently great amount of stress that tiny turtles are placing on him. Reborn sighs.
Showing that he's always going to be his mother's child just as much as Reborn's, Dino laughs at him even as he starts to helpfully remove the turtles. "Do you feel any sort of tugging in you? Like in here-" Reaching over, he splays his fingers across Tsuna's chest. "Or up here?" They go upwards, tapping lightly at Tsuna's skull. Carefully, he watches as the younger god reaches up to touch where Dino's own had been only a moment before.
It's a long moment as Tsuna thinks, only for the end result to be a small shake of his head. "I just feel fuzzy," he mutters, grimacing in a way that has nothing to do with how a turtle tears at his clothing as he removes it. "The only time I didn't feel as bad was in the garden."
The garden- oh. Well, there's no way they can keep Tsuna there with Her for eternity. Reborn steps forward, and Tsuna glances up at him with a particular quirk of his mouth. The way he squints at him reminds Reborn of the way he wants to stare down at the young god. Well, at least in that area, they're on the same terms. "I think the only thing to do then," he announces, "is to do a little bit of searching."
"Where?" asks Tsuna, still so new to existence and not knowing of the world he can go to beyond Her realm or Dino's field. At the sight of Reborn's grin, he immediately twists his face and says with no words how much he suddenly doesn't want to know.
Well, too bad. He's stuck with them now.
The mortal earth is recovering nicely when Reborn and his sons step onto it. Then again, was he ever expecting anything less? This is the place that She created, and which holds a portion of all of the Arcobaleno. Even when he was going on his rampage, he wasn't able to affect more than a relatively small portion of it existence before the others found him. He's always known it's sturdy. What he doesn't know is a lot more, at least firsthand, and Reborn takes his time making his way through its many forests and mountains. If there's one place he avoids, well... A glance back at Dino, laughing and gold as he uses an apple to play catch with Tsuna, shows his eldest isn't paying any mind to where they wander. Good.
Days and nights pass, and none of them give any answers about his newest son. If anything, Tsuna is more hapless than he first thought. Roots constantly catch his feet. Many animals don't seem to care for him, or at least cause him trouble. A part of it seems to be plain bad luck but, honestly, the boy is just oblivious as well. At one point, Reborn bends a tree back and lets it go right when he's in range, only to watch as Tsuna gets smacked with it right onto the ground with a yelp.
"Reborn!" Dino's tone is equal parts alarmed and exasperated as he hurries over to his younger brother. "Really?"
"Pay attention," he calls back, stepping past the trees. "You're too slow, Tsuna." While the two get back to their feet, Reborn pauses as he overlooks the area they've arrived at now. Maybe Tsuna isn't a god of plants and animals, as Kyoya Hibari is and even Dino leans to. In that case.... Before him, a thriving community has carved a place for itself between the forest and a large quiet lake. In the warmth of sunset, he can already see people returning from the waters and from a path that's been carved through the forest. Reborn carefully scans over the settlement, taking in the size and build of the shelters they've made. Certainly, they're an improvement from the buildings he can recall from his earlier memories, but that's not what he's looking for. What he's looking for... is the largest building of the lot, built closest to the shore with plenty of space around it so that no one else is too close. The arrogance is almost enough to smirk, and he nods his head to his sons as the pair of them finally step out from the trees as well. "Make yourself visible to mortals."
No explanation is offered to either of them. Reborn simply starts to make his way down to the small village, adjusting the cloak around his shoulders. It only takes a few changes- fewer than some might think in fact. His hair falls in longer curls, his jawline becomes a little smoother, and it's done.
From Dino's other side, Tsuna blinks at him. "You changed?" he says, a question hanging on the very edge of his words.
"Mhm."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to," Reborn says simply, which is true enough. It had occurred to him, so why not do it? Man or woman or otherwise, she finds no reason to hold herself back in such matters.
At least it's a little amusing to see Tsuna try to puzzle over this, nose scrunching up to match his brows. "So are you like that other person?"
"Use your words, Tsuna. What person?"
"The one who disappeared."
Ah. Right. It'd be a mild mistake to think that Tsuna's awareness had only been when Aria had helped him take form. Embers had existed before that, and he'd grown eyes not too long after. "You're thinking of Mammon," Reborn says as the three of them merge easily into the crowds of mortals that are returning home. "Mammon is different. They're themself, not man or woman." A pause as she considers this. "Well. Unless they wanted to be." When it comes to the personification of desire, it's wise to not make any absolutes in what they do or don't want. "I'm different."
"....I don't have to, right?"
"No unless you want to, Tsuna," Dino says casually, ruffling his brother's hair. "So what are we doing again?"
"You'll see." For the time being, however, she takes her two offspring at a casual pace through the small village. It's not the largest one- she feels in her bones that there are much bigger- but it is on a fast track to such a size. Plenty of people bustle through the small paths that have been worn between the buildings, all sorts of things in hand. Tools, nets bursting with fish, woven baskets that are empty or hold bustles of herbs- the list goes on. None of it is new to Reborn. Ever since Dino had first touched mortals, they had begun to develop at breakneck speeds. Her eldest in question swells with pride as they walk through, in fact, his eyes shining and his grin bright. Reaching over, Reborn lightly bops him upside the head. "Don't get cocky."
Laughing, Dino ruffles his hair. "Hey, hey, I can be a little proud!"
As Dino laughs, Tsuna takes his time looking everywhere and Reborn watches him carefully for any signs of- something. Anything. She wasn't there, really, when Dino found his domain; what is she supposed to look for? Nothing stands out to Reborn in Tsuna's surprised gaping as he takes in the village. It reminds her of Luce, in a way.... That quiet delight in the state of the world.
There's no time for reminiscence. Later, maybe. They've arrived at the opening of the abode which has had Reborn's eye, and she glances over the stilts which keep it above flood water. With Dino and Tsuna behind her, Reborn smirks a little before raising one hand and knocking upon the door.
It doesn't take long for it to open, although only a crack, and a pair of suspicious eyes squint at her. Ah, the suspicious sort. Reborn wonders if there's any claim to such a feeling, or if it's a concoction brewed up inside the mortal's own skull. That's the beautiful thing about them, really: nothing eats them up from the inside out more than a person's own recognition of how they're not doing fair by others.
And the make, position, and size of the house suggests that they've done very unfairly to the rest in this little village.
"Hello," Reborn says, trying to smile without looking too suspicious. "My sons and I have been traveling, and we've just arrived here. Would you happen to have room for us so we can rest for the night before we go on our way tomorrow?"
The answer is one she's expecting. Imperiously, the man's lips curl, and he glances over the trio before him. Reborn doesn't doubt her own looks, slick and dark, but she can't say the same for her sons. Dino tends towards simple clothing, a comfortable robe and sturdy boots finely representing his role as a god of workers. Tsuna? Well, for a newly born god, there's not much... He seems to have taken to copying Dino for lack of any better ideas. So long as it works, she supposes....
Still. Apparently it's not impressive enough for this particular mortal's tastes. "We don't have the food for three more people," he says, the lie drooling from his deceitful tongue. "So we have no room. May the forest shelter you well enough." There's not even a second to spare for any thanks or further questions. Just like that, the door is closed in their faces, and Reborn lets out a snort of a laugh.
"Well," Dino says from behind him, deadpan, "it could have been worse."
"None of us look anything like each other," Tsuna says with quiet dawning bewilderment.
Turning on her heel, Reborn walks past the two of them. "We're alike where it matters," she says simply, although even she has to wonder sometimes. "Now come on." From the corner of her eye, she can see Dino patting Tsuna along.
Small torches line up along the pathways, and people are beginning to light them as their group goes through the village again. It adds a little more light than what the moon grants normally. Not a lot of people are outside of their homes by now, the smoke that curls out lazily from their homes telling of warm fires crackling and fulfilling food being prepared. Still, there is some chatter taking place outside as neighbors talk with one another and others finish late tasks. As Reborn wanders, Dino speeds up a little so that their steps are in-sync.
"So what are we doing?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "You have to be doing this for a reason..." A pause. "Right?" Ha. Good on him to make sure.
"He's obviously not a god of nature. Something would have clicked by now." At least, Kyoya Hibari had certainly made himself at home in the woods in no small time without any help. Whether future gods of similar domain would do the same is a mystery they don't know yet. "Humans are intensely varied. Perhaps spending time with them will kick him into gear." A smirk slashes across her face. "And if all else fails, we can throw him into the deep end."
He'd been glancing at a passing shrine to himself but, at those words, Dino jerks around to face her. "Wait- Reborn what do you mean deep end-"
"Where's Tsuna?" she asks, half to change the subject, half because they have in fact lost him.
Seriously. He's nowhere around.
It's not really something to laugh about, so it's probably bad of Reborn to want to at the distressed keen that falls out of Dino's mouth. "Tsuna!" he calls, turning right on his heel to go back the way he'd come. It's not a forest they've lost him in, after all. Reborn really doubts that their young god has gone far.
True enough, all it takes is going down one path and turning down a smaller one before Tsuna's found. A set of large woven baskets has been placed into his arms and towers over his head of spiky hair. Besides him, a woman with short brown hair is smiling amiably and chatters away at him. As Dino hurries over, with Reborn following at a more relaxed pace, she beams at them. "Oh, hello! You must be Tsuna's family! He just told me about you all." From behind his stack of baskets, Tsuna peers out almost helplessly.
Reborn smiles back, amused despite herself. "That's right," she says with a nod, coming to a stop as Dino helps keep the baskets from tipping over. Even he seems to be laughing quietly at the sight. "It looks like he's been useful to you."
"Oh, he's been very helpful!" she gushes cheerfully. "He did knock them over, but he was certainly eager to help after." Gently, her hair goes to rest in his wild hair. "That's the important thing, isn't it?"
"We're hoping to raise him well," Dino says, grinning as he gives a much harder ruffle into Tsuna's mane. "I'm Dino and this is our mother. We've been..." Pausing, he glances over to Reborn. "Looking for a place to stay the night at."
That's all the woman needs to hear before she beams, and starts to hurry Tsuna and Dino along the path. "Oh, then if you need anywhere at all, you're more than welcome to stay at my home! I'm Nana, by the way- Sawada Nana. It's not much, but it should easily stretch room for three more!"
It's a bit of a tight squeeze, as it turns out, and it's clearly being held together through perseverance and constant repairs. Reborn doesn't say anything about that, and neither do his sons. In fact, Dino says, "Is there anything we can help with? To repay you."
"No," is the immediate answer, although Nana's voice is in no way harsh or sharp. Instead, she seems quite prideful as she takes the baskets from Tsuna to set in a corner. "You're guests! It wouldn't be right for me to make you do work when I've offered you shelter. Then it would seem as if it's only for my own selfishness that I've invited you, and that's not right." Turning around, she taps Tsuna on the nose and smiles. "Remember that!"
Tsuna's eyes cross at the sudden tap, and Dino huffs out a laugh while Reborn settles comfortably on the ground by the fire pit. "If you say so," his oldest responds. "But be sure to let us know if anything comes up."
"Oh, of course!" Yet it doesn't look as if Nana will tell either of them anything anytime soon as she quietly stokes the embers before turning away. As with so many people in this little place, fish make up the easiest food to get, or at least the most plentiful. Yet the pile she has set to the side, each fish wrapped in leaves, isn't a particularly impressive one. Perhaps she hasn't had much luck. Perhaps so many people fish that it's hard to find a good spot. It could be any number of reasons, all of them twisting together to put her on the wrong side of luck. Reborn knows well enough how that goes.
A flare of light from the side catches her attention, and Reborn glances over to the fire pit once more. Tsuna is already recoiling from it, crouched where he is. Light burns and writhes underneath his thin skin, from fingertip to wrist, and he hides it hastily underneath himself as Nana turns around. "Oh!" she explains, pleasantly delighted at how the embers from her simple little pit have suddenly become a strong blaze for her. Grinning, she starts to set the fish up to cook. "Light must have looked kindly on me," she laughs. Reborn laughs with her, and not only because Dino has to plaster the most awkward grin on his face.
A god is certainly to thank for her luck in flames, but it's not the one she thinks.
For all that her home itself lacks, Nana makes up tenfold as she energetically talks to the three of them. If words were food, surely she'd have been able to keep the entire village afloat for decades. She's pleasant enough as well, Reborn finds. While she shares what is possibly every single detail about the village and its surrounding areas, she's also certain to inquire about the three of them as well. "Do they not have a father?" she leans over to ask in a concerned whisper as Dino and Tsuna laugh with each other. Reborn has to bit back her own snicker. "Traveling with only your two sons..."
"We do well enough," Reborn promises, a smirk on her face. "But what about you? Do you live on your own?"
Immediately, her worry blossoms into something proud, and she curls her fingers along her cheek. "Oh, I have someone!" she says, as giddy as a young girl with her first love. "But he travels, you know. Goes to other towns and villages, always bringing me things whenever he comes back."
They must not be much, Reborn reflects as she glances over the modest dwelling once more. "Seems a little lonely," she comments.
All that glow that had been there starts to fade away, and Nana busies herself with cleaning up things. "I have the rest of the town," she promises Reborn. "Everyone is very kind!" That sounds questionable, considering the not-so-friendly person they went to see not an hour ago, but Reborn doesn't call her out on the lie. Partially because she doesn't have a chance to, since Nana keeps right on chatting. "You know, my Iemitsu hunts with a bow! He's really quite good."
Reborn has noticed the bow propped up in the corner. She's also noticed that it hasn't been touched in quite a while. Yet that doesn't seem to bother Nana at all as she keeps cheerfully telling stories about her lover and how skilled a hunter he is. Conversation keeps all of them up well into the night, until finally the fire has to be extinguished properly so that she can go to sleep. "I have to get up early tomorrow," she explains, almost apologetic. "Fish come up with the sun, you know." Still, she gives them thick hide and fur blankets before fading off to sleep herself.
Sleep isn't a thing any of them really need, of course, and it's sort of a moot point as well as far as Reborn can tell. Perhaps it's different for young gods, still so new to existence and their understanding. Yet for her who, even bound, can see and feel and taste every chaotic instance that happens? Is that chaotic instance?
Yeah.
In a corner of the home, Dino is sprawled out with his hands tucked behind his head. For the time being, he seems to be doing a good enough mimic of sleep, his eyes closed and his breath easy. Somehow, Tsuna ends up partially out the entranceway with his hand laying out in the street. When Reborn checks, a few wayward felines of all sorts have gathered by it. Some nap, others groom, but they're all close by.
Maybe she was wrong about Tsuna not being some sort of nature god.
Reborn doesn't let them relax for long. Before the sun can quite warm up the sky, she lazily kicks at Dino's legs and goes to step on Tsuna's stomach a little. Dino gets up smoothly; Tsuna jerks and flails. He might actually have been sleeping. That's a bit strange, but Reborn doesn't dwell on it much. All she does is go to grab the bow that's been left abandoned in the corner. "Come on," she says simply. "There's something we need to do."
"I was sleeping," Tsuna complains quietly as they all slip out from the home, rubbing at his eyes. Helpfully, Dino smacks him hard against the back to wake him up a little more, and the younger god almost goes falling face first before finding his balance again. "What are we doing?"
"Repaying a favor." Reborn pauses after circling the little home. Nana has some land of her own, although for different reasons than a certain other. Unlike being close to the water, no doubt to where all the best fishing can be done and sooner, she's on the outskirts. The forest is closer to her than anything, along with all the little beasts that might not take kindly to humans being near. Pointedly, she looks over to Dino. That's all the prompting her eldest needs before he starts toeing the dirt and grass with his foot, and occasionally he crouches down to sink his fingers into the earth. Even if early morning dew hadn't made everything soft and moist, he could do such easily.
After a little bit of this, with Tsuna trailing after him puzzled, Dino straightens up and dusts off his hands. "I can think of a few crops that would do well here," he says confidently, well within his realm. "It'd only take a moment to get some, encourage the ground a little bit to be kind."
Even if it was the worst kind of ground, hard and stubborn, Dino could make it sweet. Still, that it's easy certainly saves them time. Lazily, Reborn swipes the bow at him and watches both of her sons nearly trip over themselves to duck- Tsuna actually falls backwards. "Then go get them," Reborn says. "No, Tsuna- you stay here."
While Dino disappears to go gather the seeds he wants, Tsuna gets uncertainly to his feet. "The seeds aren't enough?" he asks.
"Of course not." Lightly tapping him at the side of the head with the bow, Reborn turns away to have him follow her. "There's one more thing we ought to get."
An Arcobaleno and a god can easily just appear wherever they like. However, Reborn is in no rush as dawn creeps through the sky. She takes the long way around, occasionally smacking Tsuna in the side or arm whenever it looks like he's lagging. There's no one in the woods on the other side of the lake when they finally get there. No humans, at least. As night birds tuck themselves away in holes and among leaves, others are flitting from branches to get their meals and skimming along the lake surface before humans can take all the fish. Other animals lurk, too. Reborn ignores slender does and their offspring, eyes the larger stags, but eventually she finds a much nicer prize.
It's a boar: enormous, thick, with long tusks that would make a fine trinket or weapon for anyone. In the dark shadows of dawn, it's a threatening mass with no detail to it, and everything on the ground takes care not to get in its way. Of all the animals that have formed and survived to this moment, Reborn has found boars to be among the most sturdy.
She adjusts the bow in one hand. With the other, she extends her palm to Tsuna. "Get me a twig," she orders simply with her eyes focused on the boar. "Straight and long as you can get it. Nothing else matters."
It takes a few minutes, and lots of stumbling, but soon enough Tsuna holds out a good handful of them. Reborn casts a sharp glance over the selection before drawing one out. This should do well enough, although, with how many Tsuna got for her, there was bound to be at least one success. "Remember," she murmurs quietly, drawing the stick back smoothly, "that gods and mortals are tightly bound. Even the wild god that Skull and Fon made allows them to pray in his name, and takes strength when they heed his demands and rely on his domain. Remember that whenever mortals do something for you, small or large."
"...What about you?"
"I'm not a god; I'm not obliged to do anything for or against them beyond my own whims."
And Reborn lets the arrow fly.
Air billow around her as it shoots off, hair flapping in the sudden vicious guest of wind, and the arrow pierces the boars heart before it realizes what's going on. Well... Maybe calling it a "pierce" is understating it. The rudimentary arrow sends it flying with all the force of a giant spear. In that single weapon, there is the strength of an Arcobaleno in it, after all. Trees and branches shatter as it is taken through the air, until it's out of sight to normal eyes. Reborn, fortunately, is far from that. Closing her eyes, she can tell how it breaches the treeline, skims over the water.... and crashes through the roof a certain large house en-route to its destination, a fact which draws a smirk to her face.
That wasn't intended, but it'll add to this lesson that she's imparting. That's fine.
Lowering the old bow, she looks over to Tsuna. His face has gone pale, and one hand is clutched to his chest as if to keep his heart where it belongs. Tsuna's skittishness is nothing new; the boy came into the world screaming. Still, is there something more to the alarm that fills his wide eyes as he stares at the path that the boar's corpse has carved out? Either way, Reborn snaps her fingers pointedly. "Go back to being unseen to mortal eyes," she tells him. "Let's see if Dino has returned."
He has, of course, and he's standing over the boar's corpse right where it's landed near to Nana's house. The village is abuzz as they try to figure out what's happened, but no one has seen to go near the forest. After all, it's the roof of the house near the lake that's damaged. Reborn can already hear the owner's outrage even from where she is. Her look of amusement has Dino sag in exasperation.
"I wasn't even gone that long," he says. "Was that really necessary?"
"I'm giving Nana as much help as she did to us," she says idly. "Now hurry and put the seeds in the ground and the boar in her house. We need to get going."
Tsuna is crouched over by the boar, expression mingled disgust and sympathy, but he looks up at that. "Where are we going?"
"To another village, of course."