Hope isn't lost
All started at the age of four. First, there were jokes, laughs, nothing too mean. He laughed with them, he thought that he would also be able to do it like the other. He was indeed clever, even the first of his class, and received a lot of positive attention from his peer. Friends, he had a dozen of them, he also knew a lot of different people and he appreciated them. He had also six older brothers, all skilled in something different: one in soccer, the other in maths, and they had all different personalities, one more timid than the other and again one friendlier… The moments in the house were very loud, but they were all older, much older, the first one was in the twenties and his youngest brother was fifteen. During the years, they started leaving the house.
And it is during these years that things took a sudden turn, but not that unexpected.
He doesn't know when it started but the people around him stopped calling him by his name, but by an affective nickname that he learned to hate during the years: Chibi-Tsuna. He was short. Young, the difference wasn't as perceptible but as the years went on, his nape hurt him: his friends were so tall for him.
This, on the other hand, he remembered when it changed, their joker laughs became mocking, at seven years old, at the start of the school year. It was at that moment that all tumbled over, the looks in the hallways came second, then the insults and finally when some saw that he couldn't retaliate, they took him behind the school's annex and never until this day, was he that hurt. He hid it from his teachers, from his brothers, from his parents, because they too, called him Chibi-Tsuna.
At fourteen years old, he was accustomed to all that, and he didn't argue anymore when someone took him in a dark corner, but when he could, he hid, behind a bush, in a store, anywhere he could pass unseen.
That day, he was running to find a shelter, not only from his bully, but from the rain that took him by surprise too. Afar, he saw a little bridge that went over a little river, without thinking, he dove under it and hid there. After a few seconds, he heard his pursuer going over the bridge. He waited some minutes before relaxing. He looked around and saw a bird lying on the ground not faraway. Curious, he went near it while asking himself what it was doing there and leaned over it to see it better..
What he saw took his breath away, the bird, a skylark he recognized, was shivering from the fear and the cold as it gazed suspiciously at him. On second look he could see its wing bent in an awkward angle. He instantly took pity of it and took off his bag to search something in it, he took out some bandage he always carried around and a bottle of water with a piece of bread, and without thinking more about it he took off his scarf. And, slowly, without scaring the bird, he took the skylark in his arm, bandaged its wing and wrapped it in the clothe. Finally, he fed him the bread and gave him some water.
After some minutes of silence, he started talking to the skylark. "You know, they call me Chibi-Tsuna…" The bird raised its head, stared at him a moment like it was analyzing him then went back to his food. He took that as a sign to continue. "I feel a little foolish to talk to a bird like that but I have nobody to talk to. I will name you, it doesn't bother you" He didn't receive any form of answer. "Then, why not Mukuro, I like it." The bird raised its head and stared at him again. "You don't like it? I don't know then… Oh! I know! I have a nickname that correspond to one of my trait…" He lost his voice, stopped talking a moment and started again more enthusiastic. "You too then! Let's see, I just met you, you seem clever for a bird… um… I know you're a skylark… I know! Why not simply, Hibari!" To this, the bird, Hibari, raised its head an instant then lowered it. Taking that as its agreement, Chibi-Tsuna kept on talking about nothing, still calling it Hibari.
Finally he had found a light in his dark days. He carried on seeing Hibari everyday under the bridge during months, and, every time, the bird was there. It gave him the courage he needed to carry on everyday at school because he knew he'd have a reward afterwards. The tie he created with Hibari was unbreakable, and the bird started playing with him, and let him touch him more and more. He was opening up to him, and he was happy.
Until the day he couldn't come anymore, he had an accident, a horrible one that left paralyzed waist and below.
The people who 'unintentionally' did it were from his class and after so many years, finally paid for everything they did in justice.
Years later, when he finally had the nerve to talk about everything that happened when he was young, his mother suggested to go see Hibari again, even if the chances were slim for him to still be there. He agreed on a whim and his mother took him there. When they arrived at the bridge, Tsuna didn't want to hope but he couldn't stop himself from feeling something.
Finally, his mother pushed his wheeled chair to below the bridge, and there, he didn't see anything, not a hint of Hibari being there. He cried, he knew hoping was absurd but he couldn't stop wishing. And now, reality came crashing down so he cried. His mother didn't say anything, and let him the time to think.
Minutes after, he heard something, 'It's only my imagination.' and continued to languish. Then, he heard it again, he concentrated, it was a bird singing. One he heard so many times. "Hibari?" He said with a crack in his voice. And from the tree next to the bridge, a bird flew to him. "Hibari!" He shouted while opening his arm, the old bird flew straight into his arm and cuddled in them. Tsuna cried, but this time they were tear of joy.
Skylark = Hibari in japanese