The Dreams That Follow
Summary: His mother had always said that he was a dreamer; she just didn't mean it literally. But Tsuna is one, in both senses of the word, and he knew there was no escaping from the dreams he would accidentally get into at night and the thoughts that would consume him the mornings after. Tsuna-centric.
Author's Note: Made this plot bunny about two years ago, and it was literally just the summary you see above back then. But suddenly, my muse started shouting and I made this chapter yay
I have this at ao3 too, along with Priorities, under the same username HAHA :-)
I hope to finish this one too, so wish me luck! cheers
Chapter 1: The Dreamer
A small, young child reached out his hands, and hugged an invisible image close to him. He suddenly backed off, looking as if he was pulled. He struggled, and weirdly enough, looked as if he was pushing someone away, but it all stopped as he fell from his bed and felt the impact of his face kissing his wooden, bedroom floor yet again.
The young boy blinked his eyes wide open, sleepily shocked from his fall. He whimpered in pain as he poked the purple mark forming on his stomach.
Oh no, he bit his lip as the panicked realization started to settle in. Tsu-kun left the girl all alone!
Tsuna hurriedly climbed back into his bed, draped his blanket all over him and clutched it tigthly. He prayed that sleep would arrive quickly, because he had left the girl in his dreams all alone—
She was all alone.
Teardrops fell from Tsuna's eyes, as he started to cry silently. He tried to wipe them away in vain as he hiccuped, because he remembered what he saw in his dream.
Tall, viscous monsters with sharp teeth had surrounded her when he arrived. They circled the little girl in the middle, snarling at her like wolves in the wild. She had blemishes on her arms, and she was crying for help.
Tsuna shivered, sweat sliding down his face. The monsters looked ten times bigger than him, and their teeth looked so scary and and they looked like they could eat him whole, and it was no wonder that she was wailing.
She was crying, and he was so so scared — Kaa-chan, where are you? — but she was crying, and she needed help—
And so he ran for his life.
He ran for his life, ran towards her, and grabbed her hand; his movements were a little quicker than usual. He pulled her harshly, hurriedly, and they both ran away from the beasts. Their short, chubby legs moved as fast as they could, as their feet thundered against the ashen ground. Miraculously, he did not stumble even once, which helped them run much faster.
Tsuna looked to his left and right, and quickly realized that the place was a monochrome version of the Namimori Park. One path looked distinctly familiar, and so he took the risk and tugged the girl running behind him towards it.
A few moments later, the howling of the gigantic monsters slowly became quieter, and the two small children sat down inside the plastic tube in the playground. Tsuna breathed heavily, coughing uncontrollably, while the little girl hiccuped and rubbed her red eyes.
The little girl's brown hair was all over the place; one of her pigtails was hanging down, the ribbon around it loosened. Tsuna frowned, and started hiccuping himself when the girl started to cry quietly. She rubbed at her face, her cheeks blotched red with her tears.
Tsuna hesitated, not knowing what to do. He had never been in this situation before, being the one who would do the comforting. In fact, he can honestly say that he was always the one who was being comforted.
Her crying grew a little louder, and it was accompanied by her harsh breathing. Tsuna froze, but he strengthened his determination and finally decided to tug her close to him. He hugged her and carefully patted her back with his small hand.
"It's gonna be okay now." Tsuna whispered to her, as gently as he could when he himself was still shaking. He started to pat her head softly, carding his fingers through her brown hair, trying to fix it, just like how his mother would've done. "Tsu-kun's also with you now."
She sniffled, snot coming out of her nose. Tsuna hugged her tighter, trying to hide her from the world.
"We can go out and play later, when they're gone—"
Tsuna stopped, as a sense of horror started to grow inside him, once he turned his head to the right — because there was a giant, black claw right next to him and the monsters found them and they were going to eat them and and—
Tsuna couldn't let that happen.
(For a split second, his brown eyes gained a dullest sheen of orange.)
Tsuna had to protect her.
"Run!" Tsuna shouted, as the monster started to pull him away. He pushed her as hard as his small hands could, as far away as he could. "Tsu-kun will follow!"
She shrieked, her tears flowing again. Her wide eyes stared at him, frightened and concerned — but she had to go, or else the monsters would get her too and so Tsuna pushed and pushed until she finally got the hint and started running away from them.
Tsuna struggled against the monster's hold, twisting and turning with all his might, when the monochrome world started to slowly disappear. He escaped from the monster's claws, and as he fell, he thought he saw the little girl running towards them — and oh no, she came back — but before he could call out a warning, he hit the ground harshly and when he opened his eyes, he was back in his bedroom.
Tsuna clutched his blanket tighter against him, as his cries grew louder and louder. As he finally felt the dregs of sleep starting to pull him, a rush of footsteps approached his room, and his mother opened his door forcefully, and yet at the same time, gently.
Nana cooed in pity, and approached her child in worry. She shook Tsuna carefully, and after a few moments of tired confusion, Tsuna opened his eyes and saw only a blurry image of his mother, as his vision was covered with his tears.
"My poor baby Tsu-kun," Nana whispered softly. "Tell Kaa-chan what's wrong, did you have a bad dream?"
His mom was finally here, and so Tsuna wailed.
"Kaa-chan," Tsuna blubbered, as he sat up and hugged his mother tightly. Snot started coming out of his nose, and Nana wiped it away with a handkerchief. "There was this girl and there were so many monsters and—"
"Hush now, Tsu-kun." Nana comforted, patting Tsuna's back gently. "It was just a bad dream now, isn't it?"
"But Kaa-chan, she felt so real and she was crying," Tsuna cried, as he tried to explain. "And I have to go back to sleep, she's all alone with all those monsters and I have to help her—"
"Silly little Tsu-kun," Nana sighed. She carded her fingers through his hair at a certain pace, attempting to lull him to sleep. She guided him to lay down on his bed again, and tucked his blanket around him. "Go and take a short nap then, I'll wake you up once the cookies are finished."
Nana kissed Tsuna on the forehead, and left the room.
Tsuna sniffled, but comforted by the promise of cookies and the thought that his mother was just downstairs, went back to sleep without much of a problem.
An hour later, Tsuna woke up to the horrifying realization that he wasn't able to go back to the dream with the little girl and that he left her alone with all of the monsters.
When he cried to Nana about this, she kissed his forehead and told him that it was all in his head, and that he just had an overactive imagination.
A week later, Nana was already worried. Tsuna would still have glassy eyes when not spoken to, and every time she'd ask what was wrong, he'd simply answer that he was thinking of the little girl and what happened to her after he left.
That same week, Nana decided that she would bring Tsuna to Namimori Park to hopefully distract him, because enough was enough and she simply did not want her precious child to be sad any longer.