This came from some nervous energy. I hope you enjoy yet another rendition of my idea of sentient-sky flames. I left this without a title because I couldn't find anything that captured the feelings I was trying to get across. So if you think of anything, let me know in a review!
One morning Tsuna woke up blind. Unsure of what to do, and his heart pounding in near panic, he took a moment to catalogue his body and his surroundings.
It was never certain, after all, that Reborn wasn't playing some kind of trick, or attempting to train Tsuna even well into his boss-hood. And one thing he had learnt in his nine years since meeting Reborn it was that unless his intuition was screaming, take a moment to compose yourself and your surroundings.
It was clear from the way his Hyper Intuition moved in curiosity that Tsuna wasn't in danger from this sudden blindness, it wasn't some kind of attack, and it wasn't something immediately threatening to him or his own. However, there was an edge to his intuition that told Tsuna that this...condition wasn't something that should have happened either.
Sitting up slowly, Tsuna finished up his self-assessment. Other than his eyes and a probing, curious intuition nothing was amiss. His flames were simmering below the surface, closer than usual since his heart rate was still up, but no more or less synchronized with his guardians or with the mansion.
Breathing deeply, trying to quell the instinctual bile in his throat, and still faced with being suddenly blind Tsuna did the only thing he could do, he synthesised.
This was a technique he picked up a long, long time ago. Between Hayato's brilliance, and Reborn's intuitive knowledge of Tsuna, they figured that Tsuna had been doing this since birth. An ability entirely his own - not a play on Primo's technique, or Nono's guidance, not even a hybrid formed with his friends - this was something that only happened because Tsuna's physiology was right for it. His flames spilt out of him in a wave, not unlike sonar, so fine you couldn't feel it unless you were attuned to Tsuna - but even then he could turn his flames so fine not even Reborn could tell he was synthesising with his environment.
Usually, Tsuna did this to help feel out the room. To ping any aggression forming in his enemies and friends. Synthesis didn't usually affect the room, it was more of an effort of his intuition to build a model to work around. Find spaces to move; find spaces his enemies couldn't move.
This time, however, was different. This time, having expected nothing at all and pushing down bile and panic, colour exploded around him.
LIke ink in water, waves of glittering orange, pale in the greyness of his vision ballooned outwards. Tendrils glittered in the blackness, and every surface they touched bloomed into colour too. Walls painted in a misty pale grey wherever his flames touched. The bed, the dresser, all of the features of his bedroom burst into colour as his flames washed across them in waves. The images were ethereal looking, just barely there and misty, like watercolour added to a dot of water on paper. The colours weren't quite right, were paler, translucent. But there.
Curious, his intuition suddenly thrumming with intrigue, and completely forgetting his panic, Tsuna stood and moved to his closet. He knew his rooms better than anyone, having helped design them, and so with this new vision, it wasn't difficult for him to manoeuvre.
It was an overall overwhelming and curious sensation, picking up his clothes for the day. Tsuna was able to see himself, instinctively. He was a pulsing, sparkling circulation of sky flames, but as he touched something, or the soft inky-waves of his flames touched anything they would appear in a strange misty sonar. He could even see the fine paisley pattern of his tie for the day, and the soft purple tone to his slacks.
It's curious, but as Tsuna walks down the halls, he tests the synthesis. The billows of sky flames coat walls and ceilings and objects as he walks, and behind him, the trail remains for a few minutes. If he closes his eyes, the images disappear, which leads him to believe this is some kind of test, even if it's his own body putting him to it.
He isn't sure what he's looking for, and why he was so anxious to leave his rooms instead of waiting for a guardian to collect him until he feels the man walking around the corner.
Even before the man is within his arc of synthesis, Kyouya's own flames flood his way. For a moment, the cloud flames in pale, metallic violet part the glittering orange. However, as soon as Kyouya is aware of Tsuna's flames, the orange and violet merge and sweep together, before the cloud flames cover and surround Tsuna.
Tsuna faltered, and it's enough that the ever-perceptive Kyouya notices and grips his sky's elbow as he pulls level to the man. "Tsunayoshi." But bile rises again because Tsuna realises that he can't see Kyouya. He can feel the prowling flames that are never below the surface but even as orange and violet writhe together in a grappling hug, Tsuna can't see Kyouya and that almost sends Tsuna spiralling.
Except, his perfect intuition jumps ahead, trying desperately to stave off panic.
Tsuna grips Kyouya's hands in his own. He needs to know if it still works, he needs to see, he needs-
Tsuna's flames circle around Kyouya's hand, like a bracelet or cuff, they spin lazily and Kyouya, curious and a little frustrated by the feeling in his chest lets his own flames loose. The two rings twist and writhe together surrounding both men's hands. Kyouya's flames whip out lashes that pull the sky closer, forming threads between the two contrasting colours.
For a moment Tsuna is awestruck. This ritual has become a daily activity between him and his own. It was a balancing, an assurance they were all okay, and on days one person was down and another was feeling great it helped to rebalance everyone or at least make everyone aware of each other's status. But never have it been so vivid to Tsuna as it is now that it's all he can see.
As soon as those flames form threads Kyouya floods into view. His eyes, a metallic violet, so unlike his eyes normally are staring in concern as Tsuna's shaky hand touches his cheek. Kyouya would never allow this normally, but he and Tsuna - since the future-that-never-was - are rarely able to keep secrets, and Kyouya gave up his masks in front of Tsuna when the older man realised Tsuna saw through it even when he pretended he couldn't.
"Tsunayoshi, I'm here, breathe."
And Tsuna does. With it, Kyouya's entire form fills with colour. As if Tsuna had not lost his vision, Kyouya appears. He is still wispy, like the rest of Tsuna's vision, but Kyouya doesn't fade, and all his colours are right. The dark shirt, the light slack. Everything is as it should be except for his eyes which reflect the turbulence of his flames.
"Sorry. I. This morning I woke up not right." Kyouya nods, knowing if it was serious he wouldn't be the first to hear it, and that his sky would tell him if it meant that Tsuna was a weak point.
"Then herbivores should go graze before they fall over." Kyouya snapped softly, a little off-put that Tsuna's syncro with him was so sudden and desperate even. "Do not let your Pride crowd you if you are off kilter today, Tsunayoshi." Even as his tone was disinterested, Kyouya walked with Tsuna all the way to the dining room. That he didn't mention Tsuna walking slower, or stumbling meant that he didn't notice. Kyouya never stood for such things. Even when Tsuna was a little sick.
When the dining hall is in sight, Tsuna is left at the doors, Kyouya sure that their vastest sky would not fall down between the doors and the table. With a quick brush of palm on palm, Kyouya swept away, and his flames remained for hours after, keeping tabs on Tsuna well into the afternoon.
A little frantic, having not seen Kyouya until they touched, Tsuna sends out a wave a little stronger than he intended when he entered the dining hall. He is assaulted by the wave of images that filter into view. His flames splash against the walls and it's where they break that he knows one of his guardian is sitting there.
Before he can get there though he's greeted with a few voices, and as they speak his flames wash against them, cataloguing them. Joshua moves into view and Tsuna's mouth goes dry. The chef he knew to be red-haired, bright eyed and smiling is no longer as such. Synthesis pings people as spots of colour if they are flame active, but Joshua before him is a smiling, joyous man of monochrome. His edges waver like smoke in a glass and his body forms wispy trails as he passes. "Good morning decimo sir!" he greets before moving along.
Tsuna is on autopilot as he walks towards the crashing waves of the table. He knows a guardian is there because of the void in the space.
Tsuna walks past Hayato with a sigh of awesome relief as their hands brush and their flames exchange. Suddenly red explodes in Tsuna's system, making his synthesis tremble. Whenever Hayato and Tsuna trade flames it's like a miniature storms forms in their palms. Lightning crackles and clouds writhe for just a moment before Tsuna's flames harmonize and instead their flames braide together and fade away in tendrils.
Never had tsuna experienced them in such detail, but like with Kyouya before him, as soon as Tsuna clutched Hayato's flames close, the man appeared, not in wispy lines like the maids and butlers around him - visible but in monochrome -but as vividly as he was before Tsuna woke this morning. His eyes though reflect his kaleidoscoping flames.
"Good morning, Juudaime." Hayato sighed warmly, always a little bristly before greeting Tsuna and trading flames.
"Good morning, storm-of-mine." Before Hayato could blubber or fluster at the nickname, Tsuna was moving on, ever more curious about the visions before him.
He isn't entirely hungry, but knows he should eat so he instead heads to the kitchen.
Finally Tsuna takes a seat on the bench in the kitchen. He is amazed as the room floods into rippling colour waves when he walks in and eases himself into the chair. Another ghostly chef places a light breakfast in front of him, and Tsuna almost chokes when a void suddenly presses up against him.
It was very like Takeshi to press as close as humanly possible without making any mention of it. But as Takeshi's body created a line against Tsuna's, foot to shoulder and shoulder to hand, Tsuna couldn't help but feel the tranquility that was entirely his rain push away all the anxiety and tension and unease the day had been building in his gut.
Takeshi's flames pour over his shoulder and thigh like a waterfall off a mountain, Tsuna's sky flames weave through Takeshi's rain flames, forming boulders and ravines for his water to flow. Tsuna is awed again at the image before him, it looks like a changing landscape, changing and playing as the rain tries to find purchase on his body and absorbs the blocks of sky flames. All at once Takeshi's flames cascade and sink into Tsuna's skin, his own sky flames coat Takeshi and sink into his skin too. Takeshi explodes in a brilliant array of colour, and his smile is just as calm as it ever is after they synchronize in the morning.
His eyes are an eerie, misting blue but he is smiling and like every morning Tsuna can't find it in himself to be panicked or tense after he is flooded with rain flames.
"Haha, you don't often eat breakfast in here Tsuna! I usually have to come find you with Hayato."
Tsuna smiles softly, still a little lulled by the flames, "I felt like a change. I just wanted to find everyone as soon as possible this morning."
Takeshi doesn't pause in his drinking, but he does give Tsuna a cryptic look that tells his sky he knows something is different. Maybe his synchronization was too fast, or his flames felt different. Whatever it is, Takeshi knows that Tsuna is doing something different.
"Hahah sometimes a change is good!" Takeshi agrees. "Just don't push yourself too hard, ne?"
Tsuna smiled and agrees, his hand shaking just slightly when he picks up his tea. He loves his guardians so much, it should be terrifying to be known the way they know him. But, then, he wouldn't want them to fear how well he knows them. So in the end Tsuna just basks in the peace of eating breakfast with Takeshi, watching the smokey glittering waves of his surroundings, and the cool, warm waves of Takeshi's flames still flooding over his body.
Ryohei always liked to work out, hard, before synchronizing with Tsuna. He said he always felt too loose if he held Tsuna's flames before working out, and it was never as rewarding. But after working out, Tsuna's flames helped to temper his own which usually tried to heal his muscles too quickly and left him unsatisfied.
Which is why Tsuna Sits to the side, breathing through his panic as he watches Ryohei train. It's an overall strange experience. He can see the spaces that Ryohei isn't. The void in Tsuna's synthesis could only be Ryohei from the size and way his flames moved around Ryohei's body. It's interesting, like paint splatters over a stencil. Still, Tsuna can't help the subtle shake of panic, he doesn't like seeing his guardians. He doesn't like not being able to know they are well. AN dos he is utterly relieved when Ryohei finishes, grabs his towel off the bench beside the training mats and walks over to him.
Ryohei presses a kiss to Tsuna's forehead before ruffling his hair. The same way he does to Kyoko and Haru who has become as close to a sister that someone he met nine years ago can be. As his hand runs through Tsuna's hair and along his scalp a halo of sun flames dance around Tsuna's head. Tsuna grins as his own sky flames explode around them, tendrils lancing out like the rays of the sun, trying and failing to be more ardent than Ryohei who grinds in return.
Except while grinning Ryohei's hands are gentle where he's usually roughly scratch at Tsuna's scalp. "You alright, little brother?" He asks gently, "You don't seem yourself."
Tsuna answers immediately, intuition pushing him to try to hide this for a little longer. "I'm just trying something new." Which isn't a lie even if it doesn't feel like a truth.
Ryohei is quiet for a moment, and though he laughs there is a serious tone to his voice. "Well, if you're training your synthesis so hard it must be EXTREMELY important. Be sure you're eating enough today though. You're burning through your flames faster than normal. Even your reserves can become depleted if you're not careful."
Tsuna blinked in stunned awe for a moment before warmth floods him, Ryohei can obviously feel it from the way his face slacks for a millisecond. Tsuna shouldn't be surprised that Ryohei can tell something is wrong. He isn't the best healer but he is Tsuna's healer. And that makes all the difference. "Don't worry, Onii-san. I am looking after myself."
Tsuna is struck flat in the chest with lightning as he walks into the games room. It makes his entire body tingle and his hairs stand on end. Ozone seems to crackle around him as Lambo find him and tackles him hard in the chest. The boy might be 13 now, but he's always be Tsuna's baby boy.
It isn't easy, with such a gangly body, but the young Don still picks Lambo up and holds him against his side. It is unnerving to hold a ghostly void in his arms. As if his guardian was not the living laughing bundle of energy, and was instead a ghost. "Tsuna-nii! I'm so glad you're awake. Takonii told me to leave you alone and that you were working on something important!" Lambo explains indignantly and Tsuna tried not to shiver at the oddness. Hearing Lambo talk but seeing only a void of colour is terrifying and he can't stand it.
So instead he holds Lambo close and tries to keep the waiver form his voice as his flames follow the lightning strikes that hit him back to the child in his arms.
"I am working on something important, but you know Hayato gets professional when i'm working. You know you can always some see me." Tsuna says, walking towards the theater-couch and holding lambo close. It's always like a game, his synchronization with his littlest guardian. Lambo's lightning crackles and flickers all over Tsuna's body, and Tsuna has to try and catch the lightning and coat it. It's especially difficult when Lambo is especially unbalanced. His lightning is erratic then.
Still, as soon as he catches even the tail end of a lightning strike his whole world flood with colour and he can't help but kiss Lambo's forehead when those beautiful, sparkling green eyes flood into view.
"Let's watch some TV together, little one." Tsuna's voice is thick, and hopefully his littlest guardians doesn't think too much of it.
Lambo agrees enthusiastically, but instead of moving he must have felt something in how quickly Tsuna's flames found him, and stays in Tsuna's lap the entire time.
It is not that Tsuna doesn't see Chrome and Mukuro as two separate people, because they are, it's just that their synchronization is always smoother when they're together. They share flames in a very intimate way and this means that Tsuna's flames, when becoming a part of that have to meld with them together. There are days that Tsuna sees them separately - they have separate missions, separate needs. But today it's Tsuna who need them.
He isn't surprised when as he's walking through the gardens, trying to adapt to the sheer details his synthesis can show, that two voids appear on his sides. Hands are in his before he's even entirely aware and suddenly he is swept away from the present and pulled into the mindscape the three of them have built over the years.
The experience is startling and he knows as his stomach roils that he is not entirely well as he lands. However, he gasps as he opens his eyes, because instead of the willowy wisps of orange and colour he sees for the first time today and his eyes burn at the sight. Chrome and Mukuro are still beside him, and as he gasps their hands tighten sharply. He hasn't gasped at their mindscape for years now, so used to arriving as he wishes.
So instead, Tsuna turns to his guardians only to stop short.
Despite the fact that he can see everything else as normal, his guardians are still black and grey voids in his vision. It must show in his face because Chrome and mukuro takes his hands and place them on his cheeks before flooding him with indigo flames that curl and twist like shackles around his wrists. In return and trying desperately not to cry, Tsuna blankets them,. Wrapping them up and coating those shackles with orange. He has always been shackled to his guardians, but it's Chrome and Mukuro who need assurance that he is willing to keep their shackles on. That no matter what he is theirs, and that he has them too.
"Kufufufu, don't look at us like we're going to disappear, Tsunayoshi." Mukuro purs, even as his grip on Tsuna's hand is tighter than usual. "I still haven't had the chance to take over your body. I'm not leaving."
"We're here boss, even when you can't see us." ANd something about the way Chrome says that forces air from his lungs and he pulls the two guardians to his chest, holding the back of their necks/ Gently, but with all the strength an unbalanced sky can muster. They hold there, soaking in the sudden torrent of Sky flames bathing them, a little stunned and confused.
"Kufufufu, you will not hide what is happening for long, Tsunayoshi." Mukuro is sure, "But if you must keep your secrets for a day we cannot argue." he is unhappy with the arrangement though, Tsuna can tell.
"You're making it hard to create illusions, Boss." Chrome sounds exasperated, "Your flames are everywhere."Tsuna laughs then as their world fades back to the gardens that they're walking around.
Tsuna eased himself into the couch, sighing a little shakily. It was much much later in the day now, closer to dinner than to breakfast. He still didn't quite trust the sheer vividness of his synthesis. He had finally managed to avoid all the guardians, who unaware of what Tsuna was -or wasn't - seeing were still on edge. The guardians knew the level of flame activation that was normal for each other, they could probably feel Tsuna pumping out more flames, even if they were so fine and even that it wouldn't be obvious.
As Tsuna leans back, exhausted from the constant tempering of his flames to maintain the synthesis. Never in all his life has he had to maintain such control over it. He doesn't want his guardians to know now. He needs to figure out what's happening first. Any sign of danger and he'd say something, but his intuition is nothing but curious about this change.
Still, he closes his eyes, forgetting entirely that synthesis cuts out when he does. The air leaves his lungs in a burst and even with his eyes open he's left in the ghostly grey he woke up in. Panic rises quickly, and even though he focuses through the adrenaline on synthesis it doesn't come. He can't even see his own flames even though he knows they're coursing through him in a whirlwind.
Hands land on his shoulders and just like that yellow explodes in his vision, and with it his synthesis. Orange floods the room and like ink-drops, so does the furniture and the man behind him.
"Reborn." Tsuna breaths, he grips the hands on his shoulders, trying to resist the urge to feel the man's pulse to keep time with the flames wrapping themselves around his torso. This was their ritual. Reborn, upon finding his adult body again dropped his bravado. He didn't try to show his power with physical manipulations. He didn't punch, hit, electrocute, or otherwise try to physically harm Tsuna outside of training. He didn't need to, he was an adult again, he wouldn't be underestimated. He wouldn't harm the man who gave all that back to him.
"Your guardians said you've been off. I come home to find the mansion practically saturated with your flames. What's happening you idiot?"
Tsuna isn't sure what to say to that. He's trying to keep it together, trying to figure it out himself, and he wants to tell Reborn. But his intuition is suddenly wavering, not entirely happy with the idea of opening up this vulnerability even to his most precious.
Just to spite his intuition Tsuna almost blabs, almost spills his soul to Reborn. Except like the trials from Giotto before this, Tsuna knows he needs to keep it to himself, just until things become dangerous, or it happens for more than a day.
"I have been. Intuitions just roiling a little, you know?" Tsuna replies, still holding onto Reborn hands for a moment too long. His tutor isn't happy with that answer, he knows Tsuna and knows that Tsuna is hiding something. But like Tsuna, Reborn knows that sometimes Vongola's get given trials, and sometimes they are unable to talk about them. Either the mansion, the rings, or the former bosses give out these trials, it's happened before, it'll happen again.
Reborn just has to trust his own intuition, the guardians, and Tsuna. And he trusts all these things so he relents. He squeezes Tsuna's shoulders and allows their flames to mix finally. To Tsuna it's like little sparklers all over his body and then the flames seep away as if absorbed into his body.
Tsuna relaxes though, he can blink and the synthesis doesn't disappear. A maid walks in, mixing the yellow and orange and all the other colours together in a spiralling mess. "I'll see you at dinner then, I have some research to do."
And just like that. With all his loved ones synchronized Tsuna's anxiety ebbed away. He grew busy with his day to day activities. He had papers to sign and reports to read. He had meetings with the maids and butlers, and with gardeners and kitchen staff. He couldn't let this (hopefully) temporary disability impact him.
He almost completely forgot about it until he had to write and the ink drops played games with the lettering of the paper. Even this though he was able to overcome easily.
His rainbow of loved ones drifted in and out through the day, Kyouya dropped by to make sure he didn't need to upgrade the defence, Ryohei offered a massage for Tsuna's tense shoulders, and Reborn stuck a little closer than usual - if that was possible given that the man was Tsuna advisor, father, friend, bodyguard, and confidant these days.
Yes it was still strange to see ghostly, almost-but-not-quite vivid staff milling around, their feet leaving inky trails as they walked through Tsuna's waves of glittering sky flames, but it was easily adapted to. Tsuna had been adapting since his flames were sealed, then further unsealed. This wasn't anything new.
Before he knows it it is already time to bed. The day has passed and Tsuna was able to adapt easily. He is still terrified that this is his new reality, that he is blind forever. That every new staff is going to be a faceless inky image ghosting through his life.
But, his guardians, and Reborn, and all the loves he has are not inky paintings. They looks like ethereal beings ghosting through their own cloud of inky flames, sure. Their trails are wispy but they are vivid. They are full colour and they are unchanged. Their eyes glimmer with their flames, but in times of great resolve things weren't any different.
So Tsuna goes to bed that night knowing that is this went on for another day he'd have to mention it to Ryohei if not everyone else, but also that if his vision never returned he would be okay with that. He could still protect the ones he loved just as well as he could with sight, and more importantly than that, he could see them just as clearly.