Author's Note:
Well hello there. This is my first reborn fic ever.
That being said, here we go.
Listened to Jason Walker – Echo while writing/rereading.
Chapter 1 – Echo
It was a gloomy and rainy autumn day with dark clouds. The cemetery, where men and women in black had gathered, probably loved this day. The cemetery not often enjoyed having a funeral for a five year old.
A priest stood in front of the small open coffin. There were several seats to the recently deceased's right and left. A woman in her twenties held an emotionless expression while a small boy looked very angry. A big man with sun kissed hair beside them had his eyes looking forward, not fixed on the grave, but fixed on an old man to his opposite. From his eyes tears leaked while he held his fists tightly.
The old man to his opposite had a grey hat on and looked just as grieved as the blond man. Timoteo never expected the emergency phone call from Japan. It wasn't often when he told someone that their son died in a traffic accident. It didn't make it easier when that someone was his surrogate son. The look on Iemitsu's face would have made the toughest of men cry, but Timoteo wasn't the Vongola Ninth for nothing. He saw that face all too often. He had even worn it on his own son's funeral. He only had one son left, and if anything ever happened to Xanxus, Timoteo had no idea what he would do.
"Let us commend Sawada Tsunayoshi to the mercy of God. He died too early for his age, may he find peace in the after live," the priest looked around, giving anyone the moment to stand and say something. He looked to the deceased's family. Only the father of the five year old boy stood and walked to the head of the casket.
Iemitsu swallowed bile away, "my son," his voice sounded broken, "my boy," tears dropped on the ground and mixed with the light rain, "my Tsuna-fish, he, he," the CEDEF leader looked down.
"It's alright Iemitsu, you don't have to say anything," Timoteo said as he stood to embrace the man. The blond waved his hand.
"My son, why did he have to be taken? WHY!?" Iemitsu's scream echoed through the cemetery as Timoteo stood next to him, "he was just an innocent boy. He laughed and played like any other of his age, maybe a little bit clumsy, but like any other five year old would. He liked to eat steak, always cooked rare, his favorite drink was green tea and he liked to fish, he, he," he gulped again as the crowd of people looked at him stricken with compassion and sadness. A lot of them were neighbors, teachers from Tsuna's school, but most of them were men and women from Vongola and CEDEF. They came to support one of their own in a time of need. "My precious little boy got run over by a big car. He never liked cars, my Tsuna-fish. Always scared and saying that they would one day eat him with their big grills. He was right in the end," Iemitsu laughed in a broken fit, "I loved him. I loved him so much. I would have given my life for him any day, suffered for his smile. That boy's smile would always lighten my dark days. Now I will never be able to see it anymore on his kind face."
The brother of the deceased, Sawada Tezuka, snarled at his father.
"Tsuna-fish," Iemitsu said as tears fell down more rapidly. Timoteo held a hand on his shoulder, "rest in peace my poor boy." Iemitsu bowed before throwing a red rose on Sawada Tsunayoshi's chest.
He looked so peaceful as he lay there on his back in the beautiful dark casket. His eyes were closed. The dark suit fit perfectly. His hair sat gently on a velvet cushion.
Iemitsu left the funeral site altogether. He refused to see his son being burried . Timoteo followed him towards the large metal gates of the cemetery.
"Iemitsu! Iemitsu!" The Ninth called, but the blond man didn't stop, "I'm not as young as I used to be, please stop," and the CEDEF leader did when they were on the other side of the gate. He turned and looked at the tired old man.
"I'm quitting as CEDEF leader, there's nothing you can say that will change my mind," Iemitsu said with a stern face, tears gone.
Timoteo wanted to demand an explanation, but hearing the casket behind him being lowered into the grave was answer enough. He nodded, "but what will you do from now on?"
"Teach," Iemitsu said with a fake smile, "I taught English back in the day when Tom forced me to attend college and work a few years after graduation," he remembered his predecessor's proud look when Iemitsu had finished his degree. He dully wondered if he would be as proud when he saw Iemitsu as broken as he was now.
"So you'll teach at Namimori and watch over your family?"
"Yes, I won't ever let anything happen to Nana or Tezuka, they're all I have left," it was true because Iemitsu's parents and siblings were all assassinated by enemy Famiglia. He thought it would be alright to leave his family in Namimori while he made sure there was security for them, but security wasn't enough for a car to not hit Tsuna-fish. His eyes threatened to spill again when the smile of Tsuna-fish appeared in his mind. No, he couldn't ever think of Tsuna-fish again, he was dead, he was no more.
Iemitsu would never allow something like today to ever happen to Tezuka, he would make sure of it.
Timoteo couldn't refuse the now ex-CEDEF leader's wish, not after agreeing that Tezuka would be the Vongola Decimo.
It was truly a dead day when Iemitsu arrived in his home in Namimori, no, his only home from now on. Tezuka ran upstairs in loud stomps. Nana simply walked to the kitchen and sat on a chair in front of a round table.
Iemitsu entered his living room and all but landed on the sofa. His eyes were hollow. He didn't register a thing where he looked at. He was about to close his eyes and try to forget the nightmare that was today, until a single picture frame reflected in his eyes.
He immediately stood, took the frame in his hands and smashed it through the window. Iemitsu then gave an ear deafening yell and burst into tears.
"TSUNA-FISH!" The voice echoed throughout all of Namimori as a picture frame with broken glass looked up at the sky.
Sawada Tsunayoshi looked very happy on his fifth birthday; the picture depicted him sitting on his father's shoulders.
Author's Note:
Poor Iemitsu…