Aura

Ever since he could remember, Tsuna had been afraid of the dark. It was a common fear that young children had and maybe some people in their teens and adulthood still have. However, his fear wasn't because of the unknown that may lurk in the dark or the monsters hidden under the bed. No, it was something else.

While others might be afraid because the Boogie Man might be under their bed or something is hiding in the closet, Tsuna never was afraid of the dark for that reason. And thankfully that reason wasn't on his list for being fearful. Tsuna had to remind himself later that he needed to thank his mother for not telling him those scary myths when he was in elementary school. He could only imagine all the insomnia he would have if she did tell him at that age.

Tsuna had been afraid of the dark for a reason and one reason only: The dark reminded him that outside his family, he had no one else. As a young child, when Tsuna slept alone in his room with the lights off, he felt alone. His mother had gone to her room to get some shuteye; Tsuna couldn't blame her. However, that little act reminded him that at school, he also had no one for support. It reminded him that all he could do was to just live with it.

As a young child, he would just lie on his soft bed under those warm blankets but would take no note of the comfort that it provided. He had to have a nightlight on for him to sleep. The light comforted him; the light reminded him of his mother's warm smiles. The light reminded him of the blinding brilliance that his classmates would produce as they talked and laughed happily with one another. Their smiles would shine, causing their surroundings to follow suit, and they would appear to be God-like because they were simply that much better than what Tsuna believed himself to be. They were better in so many areas, no matter how simple or insignificant, than what Tsuna believed himself to be. They were so much better, but their light had Tsuna hoping that he would achieve the same status as them, that he would move up the ladder and away from the position as Dame-Tsuna.

Their light had been a hope that if he had been created the same as them, he could belong in a place that would continually shine despite it being nighttime.

As time went by, Tsuna had grown to no longer need a nightlight. He was already used to the darkness of his room and had chided himself from time to time for being afraid of something intangible. He no longer needed a nightlight and one reason was that he had grown somewhat fond of the darkness.

The darkness in his room reminded him of the darkness when he closed his eyes as his bullies threw a punch to his stomach or kicked the side of his head while reminding the brunette of all the mistakes he made that day. When he closed his eyes, he did not see the vile expression on his upperclassmen's faces. He did not see how much the light surrounding them had darkened. He did not see the graying light that reminded him of what he could become if his anger had gotten the better of him.

Darkness was also what greeted his sights when his mind slept the pain away as he fell unconscious. He would faint in one of the beatings since it was too much for his body to handle. And when he falls unconscious, he sees black and doesn't feel any pain. Tsuna could begin to understand why people, when depressed, sleep very often. When you're asleep you're not aware of the pain, and you no longer feel it. When you're asleep, you are in a state closest to death.

However, Tsuna refused to listen to the pleading his tired mind and body would give him to just give up. He refused to give in to his anger because he knows that once he starts hating, he will never achieve that light he had seen surround his classmates when he was younger. So Tsuna continued to remain optimistic as he continued to sleep in his dark room.

Then when Reborn came into his life, his views on the difference of lighting changed. He no longer cared if he slept with the light on or off. He would just be glad that he actually got some sleep. Maybe the reason Reborn slept so little was because of all the cups of coffee the little hitman drank daily. Maybe Tsuna should try some to be a little bit more prepared for Reborn's tutoring but tea was more accustomed to his tastes.

Tsuna's view on light and dark changed time and time again as he unwillingly and unknowingly recruited people into his Family. When he met Gokudera, he saw that there would always be a certain type of blackness that was mixed in with the light surrounding the bomber. Tsuna ignored that blackness, at first, because he was simply too frightened of the teen Mafioso. However, he had immediately noticed it in their fight. The feelings the blackness produced was also in the sharp words and intense glare being sent his way. It was sickening, and he wanted to do something about it. However, he could do nothing if he was dead so he ran away from the explosives.

The blackness of the words disappeared when Tsuna had saved Gokudera. Instead, it was replaced by sparkles and was that a tail and a pair of dog ears? Tsuna blinked once and twice. Now thrice. The darkness around Gokudera was gone and the light he had seen surrounding his classmates from long ago was present.

After that incident, Tsuna had forgotten about what he saw since he was too busy trying to survive from Reborn's crash course in Vongola history. But as Tsuna looked up at the infant during one of their lessons that, surprisingly, actually helped Tsuna, he could have sworn he saw some of the light coming off the hitman in a peculiar way when Tsuna actually began to understand the lesson. It was as if the hitman was trying to control the light but was failing. Then it disappeared in the blink of an eye, and Tsuna had to question if he was seeing things. But he didn't have that much time to think about it since he was reprimanded, painfully and sadistically, for dozing off.

The next time Tsuna paid particular attention to the difference of lighting was when Yamamoto spoke to him. Well, it was actually the day after since he did not recover from the shock that someone so popular actually talked to him until the next day. But what happened the next day made Tsuna wonder if Reborn kicked his head too much, but Tsuna already knew the answer to that question.

When Yamamoto was dangerously close to the edge, Tsuna had seen that the same blackness surrounding Gokudera was also surrounding the baseball player except it was duller in color. It was a dark shade of gray that seemed so lifeless and so dull that if it could produce a face, the face would be the same as Yamamoto's. The emotions provoked by the strange gray scared Tsuna so much that he didn't want to confront the baseball player. However, with Reborn's forceful help, he managed to help bring life back to the color surrounding the baseball player, to bring back life to Yamamoto. And when the time expired for the Dying Will Mode, bright lights shined with Yamamoto as he smiled his first real smile in a long time. The light surrounding the baseball player had reached out to Tsuna as Yamamoto offered his hand. When Tsuna accepted the hand, he thought he felt the light touch him and course through his body for a moment. It had felt thankful and appreciative towards Tsuna that nothing, but Yamamoto's smile, could communicate how much the baseball player had felt towards the brunette. It made Tsuna smile in return to try to communicate how he felt to Yamamoto, about how glad he was that Yamamoto did not die and was going to be all right.

Tsuna was slightly becoming more aware of the light and dark surrounding people. He almost laughed at what light came off of Lambo. It was waving wildly, as if asking for attention, when he was being ignored by Reborn. It snapped about in annoyance when he had enough of the lack of attention and so Lambo threw grenades at the hitman. Tsuna had not laughed since Lambo was being the new target for Reborn, and the brunette knew how it felt to be Reborn's target of sadism.

When Tsuna had taken Lambo outside to calm down, the light was drooping as if it was melancholy and could not help but stay that way. It had, however, turned a one-eighty and flicked about crazily as Lambo locked his grasp onto Tsuna's leg in fear that Tsuna would leave him. Lambo was so easy to read with that childish light surrounding him.

Then Tsuna was almost blinded with the intensity of Ryohei's light. It was worse than staring at the sun. Maybe Tsuna should save up on buying sunglasses? But then again, he would probably spend the money for paying the damages Reborn, Lambo, and Gokudera would cause to his home.

The light coming off of Ryohei made Tsuna wonder if he was going to become a supernova whenever the older teen talked about boxing. But the light produced a warmth none other than Tsuna had felt before whenever Ryohei would talk about Kyoko. With just saying or mentioning Kyoko's name, Tsuna would know the kind of relationship Kyoko and Ryohei had since the light would become a soothing and flowing protective shield. But that intensity never left, it grew over time. And ever since Ryohei was determined to become the Sun Guardian, Tsuna felt that no one else was more suited for the position.

Now Hibari was a difficult case to classify. Like with Reborn, the light surrounding Hibari was controlled. However, it was being subconsciously controlled so not everything was hidden. Whenever Hibari had someone to bite to death, the light would flare for a second as if to show its fangs to the opponent. Then it would resort back to the calm and cool yet somewhat hard to identify light that surrounded the head prefect. It would move according to his body and react with his reflexes as if it was joining Hibari in biting the opponent to death. That really frightened Tsuna to the point that he would tremble. That wasn't an uncommon sight since many people already trembled at remembering the times when Hibari found them late to class.

Chrome's light had provoked a feeling of curiosity, naiveness, innocence, and something else. He didn't know what it was until he saw the girl fight against Mammon. The feeling was of strong determination, and Tsuna began to trust the girl even more. The light surrounding the girl was smooth like velvet and flowed graciously, following her every step. When she wanted to protect those precious to her, Tsuna couldn't help but realize that the protectiveness in the light was similar to the feeling of the light around Ken, Chikusa, and Mukuro when they're around the girl.

Mukuro's light had changed a lot since the time Tsuna had fought against him. At first, Tsuna thought that it was pitch black, but that was wrong since it grew even darker at the mention of the word "Mafia". That darkness reminded Tsuna of the blackness that had mixed with Gokudera's light before the bomber became loyal. Except Mukuro's blackness was ten times worse. There were feelings of deep hatred and want for revenge. There were feelings of wanting to slice someone until all the limbs, including the head, were chopped off and to watch as the blood poured out of the person. Hate, disgust, revenge. These three words that turned into feelings composed the blackness surrounding Mukuro. And at one time, the blackness looked solid enough to be able to use as a weapon.

At that time, Tsuna finally learned at what he was seeing all this time. He learned what the darkness or light that surrounded a person was as he listened to Mukuro's explanation. What he was seeing this entire time was the representation of their strength, their aura. He had been seeing the emotions generated by each person. And it came as a shock to him when he had time to realize that he had helped all those people he considered as friends to cheer up and be happy.

Now back to Mukuro. Tsuna had wanted to help him just like how he helped his friends get rid of the darkness that made him want to vomit as the feelings associated with it hit him when his friends were having trouble. However, he knew that words would not help Mukuro so he had to fight. He had to find a way to purify that aura. And through the Dying Will Flame, he did. However Tsuna only saw how much of an effect it had months later at the battle with the Varia.

The aura that surrounded Mukuro had changed so much. The majority of it was light, but there was still darkness mixed in. The darkness seemed to disappear in the memory of Mukuro, who possessed Chrome, talking to Iemitsu. It also seemed to disappear as Mukuro stayed behind to let Ken and Chikusa escape. There, Tsuna knew that Mukuro was one he could trust, at least to an extent for the time being.

And as time went by, the darkness surrounding Mukuro seemed to disappear bit by bit and was replaced with the same light he saw around his classmates from long ago. But that light was now surrounding his Guardians, his friends.

Tsuna remembered one of the things he thought about when he was a young child. "The dark reminded him that outside his family, he had no one else." But Tsuna thought about that some more. He didn't need anyone outside his family; he already considers all of his friends as family, as Famiglia.

But before Tsuna could think so much on that, his thoughts turned to something else. Why did he have this ability in the first place? "Just don't think too much about it, Dame-Tsuna." Tsuna recalled that line from his tutor; the time Reborn said that was when Tsuna questioned the ingredients Bianchi used for her cooking. He shuddered at just imagining the things Bianchi used.

"Waah! Tsuna, Ahodera is bullying me!" Lambo screamed as he tackled Tsuna, grabbing onto the brunette's clothing for comfort.

"Get off of Juudaime, Ahoshi!" Gokudera yelled as he stormed towards the child who was still clinging onto Tsuna. The brunette sighed as he patted Lambo's head to reassure him that he won't get hurt anymore... at least not for awhile.

He smiled inwardly as he saw the auras surrounding Gokudera and Lambo behaving the same way his Guardians acted. They were still so easy to read with or without seeing their auras. Now he had to calm Gokudera before Tsuna's room had to end up victim to explosives again.

-/-/-

Omake:

Tsuna sometimes wished he didn't have the ability to read people's auras. Now was also the time, and it was also a dangerous time.

"R-Reborn, the answer is two," Tsuna said with every inch of him frightened at what would happen if he were wrong. Well, he had a very good reason to be.

"Correct. Now answer number ten," Reborn said with a hint of agitation in his tone. Usually the hitman would be calm and maybe even happy at the prospect of using his weapons on Tsuna or the fact that Tsuna has gotten every question correct so far... in fear. The reason why Reborn was having a bad mood was because the coffee machine broke, and the little hitman didn't have a single ounce of his favorite daily drink.

"I-It's fifteen and a half," Tsuna said hurriedly in case he was too slow. The aura surrounding Reborn was so dark that it made closing one's eyes seem to make it as light as Ryohei's extreme aura. Not only that but the aura was in a shape that looked similar to a devil.

"Correct. Now the next question," Reborn said as he watched his student with hawk-like eyes that scared the brunette. It didn't help that the devil-figure, that was Reborn's aura, moved perfectly in sync with the hitman's movements.

"H-Hai," Tsuna said as he hurriedly scribbled down the work. He was now thoroughly convinced that Reborn was the devil in disguise.

A/N: I was looking through my folder of fanfictions and found that I completed this one-shot sometime ago. Tell me what you think.

By the way, for those of you who are waiting for a new SOAMB chapter, I updated it so the real chapter 15 is out.