Hello, readers-sama. I'm the great Reggaebear-san. Nice to meet you all. I hope you enjoy the story!

I will definitely welcome suggestions and will love each and every fave/follow/review!

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. Reggaebear-san owns KHR, cos he's awesome. :P


Sawada Tsunayoshi first found out about the existence of the Mafia when he was six years and two months old.

It had been unintentional. An accident, really.

Down with a mild fever but not wanting to worry his mother, the boy had lowered the toilet bowl cover, scrambled onto it and stood up shakily. Then, Tsuna proceeded to scour the medicine cabinet for something he could use to bring down his temperature - he still remembered the fever medicine Nana had given him the previous time he had fallen ill.

Just as he thought he had finally found the medicine he'd been searching for, a dizzy spell hit him like a sledgehammer, sending the world spinning all around him. Both hands went up to clutch his head, eyes squeezed shut and he lost his balance. Letting out a yelp, he slipped off the toilet seat, his natural clumsiness not helping in the least. He crashed onto the ground painfully and winced, sure that he would get a bruise or two from that.

"Tsu-kun, are you okay?" Nana called up the stairs, a spatula in one hand as she poked her head out of the kitchen. The loud noise upstairs had caught her attention but it wasn't all that rare for her son to fall or trip over something.

Quickly, before his mother would come and check on him, he shouted back, "H-hai! I s-slipped again!"

"Ah! Do you need help?" Hearing footsteps thudding up the steps, Tsuna panicked. He wouldn't be able to explain why there were all sorts of medicine strewn across the ground.

He flung his hand out and tried to find some sort of purchase to pull himself up. By pure coincidence or perhaps some would argue, the hand of Fate, his index finger sunk into the wall at some point during his struggle.

Panting, he sat up and was just about to answer Nana when his gaze landed on the small compartment that just sprung up. His eyes widened with shock and fear, his whole body beginning to shake.

Were those…guns?

"K-k-kaa-san… H-Help…" He backed away slowly, eyes dilating and sweat beading on his forehead. Even if he couldn't recognise what type of guns they were, the young Tsunayoshi knew what guns were used for. He knew what they did. And he knew who used them.

What were they doing in his house?

His palms were clammy and he wanted to run away and bury himself under his blankets, far, far away from those scary weapons but he didn't have any strength in his legs and his arms were trembling violently. He had never felt so overwhelmingly weak before.

"Tsu-kun?" The kind voice of his mother was just outside the door and he wanted to say something to her; I'm alright, kaa-san, don't come in, because something deep within him screamed that it would be terrible if she found out; help me, kaa-san, because he had never been so frightened in his whole life.

But he couldn't say a thing even if he wanted to and his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, gasping for breath, struggling to live.

Behind him, the door slid open, Nana's eyes first landing on her hyperventilating son. Worried, she bent down and wiped the sweat off his face gently. "Tsu-kun, what's wrong?"

"K-kaa-san… G-gu…" He stuttered, raising a shaky finger to point at the compartment on the wall. Then suddenly, a single sob tore itself from his throat and he buried himself into his mother's shirt, clutching it tightly and murmuring, "T-tsu-kun is scared…"

Nana glanced at where her precious son had just pointed and in a fraction of a second, all of the strength shot out of her veins, leaving her an empty, trembling shell. The world was blurry, fuzzy around the edges - it felt like she was losing her sight and that prospect should have scared her but it didn't.

Strangely, she felt as though she was not really in her body, instead watching from above her own body, feeling but not really feeling. But there was one thing that was certain: her mind was undeniably clear. It was as though the mist had lifted and everything suddenly made sense: her husband's long disappearances, his job that took him all around the world, his countless excuses for not coming back to visit…

He was involved in the underground, wasn't he?

She was suddenly aware of the crying boy in her arms and determination shot through her veins, filling her with renewed vigour. If Tsu-kun's father would never be around, the answer was very simple: she just had to take on the roles of both the mother and the father. She would make sure that her son would turn out to be a kind-hearted, gentle but infallibly strong man. Unlike his father, her mind added unhelpfully, unlike Iemitsu.

As she wrapped her arms around the boy and stroked his head, she couldn't help the tears that seeped out from beneath her eyelids.

Tsu-kun shouldn't have found out about this at such a young age. He should play, laugh and have fun like any other six-year-old does. He should look at her with those wide, innocent eyes and barrage her with curious questions that she could never answer. He shouldn't be here, frightened and crying, clutching onto her tightly barely a meter away from bloody guns.

Right there and then, she swore that she would do everything she could before she let her precious little sun come to harm; she would gladly toss her life away if that's what it took to prevent her son from being dragged and buried underground, where no sunshine can reach. And if her bastard of a husband came home again, she'd punch him and make sure that he'd stayaway from her son.

Quietly, her voice thick with tears, she whispered, "Tsu-kun, don't be scared. I promise…"

She swallowed thickly.

"I will protect you."

The brown head of hair under her chin quivered and the sobs gradually slowed until they finally stopped, but she couldn't shake away the ominous feeling that something had changed.

A mother's instinct was never wrong and she had never been more certain than when she realised: Tsunayoshi would never be the same again.


That incident was never brought up again. It was an unspoken agreement between the two and it was not like either of them wanted to be reminded of it - even if both knew that its effects were obvious in the household.

The atmosphere changed. Where it was once bright, carefree and so blissfully unaware, the house was filled with hidden caution and a subtle wariness. Rooms that were originally littered with toys and scattered with odds and ends were cleaned up, things put into proper places, always orderly, always the same.

Less change, less risk.

But the incident greatly strengthened the bond between mother and son. The shared, traumatic experience, the understanding that passed between them, the doubts and fears they both had - these brought them together. But most of all, the mutual promise to protect each other, to keep the family safe.

They couldn't have been any closer or any more protective.

And without the other's knowledge, so as not to worry each other, they both found out about Iemitsu's true occupation one way or another and did all that they could to prepare themselves for the day they knew would occur eventually, the day when their small family would be under threat from the Mafia and it would be up to just the two of them - a woman and a child - to be strong, to fight, to protect.

For Nana, it involved repeated arguments and numerous debates with Fēng, after which her long time friend and confidant finally came to the conclusion that it would be more dangerous for Nana to know part of the truth than the whole and decided to explain everything to her. Thereafter, he immediately vowed to do everything within his abilities to help Nana out.

For the young brunet, though, it was much more complicated, though it took only two boys to change his whole life.

Or more specifically, the two strongest and most dangerous boys in town: Hibari Kyouya and Yakami Kazuyuu.


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