So... I have been re-reading and re-watching KHR and came up with an idea. Tsuna's almost eternal patience with Lambo (other than the one time he snapped) and the others put me to shame. So I wondered what would it be like if he had to care for a bunch of kids, including the rowdy Varia group. This was meant to be a One-shot but well, it became too long. So maybe 3 chapters?
Anyway, their personalities as children were based on my ideas on how would a child in this environment react. It was also supposed to be humorous. More humour will come in next chapter, I promise.
There were always reasons as to why Verde always and really always, puts up signs like "DO NOT ENTER" or "DO NOT TOUCH" on his lab doors, equipment and most of all, inventions in progress. Verde said there was only one. And it would be that he hated his stuff being touched by someone of 'inferior intelligence', which probably meant everyone but him (Reborn is not included in the count for the matter). But somewhere Tsuna, maybe in a moment of hyper-intuition, believed that the inventions would bring carnage if not handled by Verde himself.
And hyper-intuition was always correct.
And today, of all the days in his Mafia life, Sawada Tsunayoshi or Vongola Decimo as he would be addressed now, had never felt that something was so going to go wrong. He wasn't being paranoid really. He has experienced a lot more things than what an average 26-year-old man could ever have. It made him wise beyond his years, and that wisdom is now gnawing at the back of his mind.
"Why the long face, Boss?" Asked his chauffeur. As of current, Tsuna was heading back to one of Vongola's private mansions from the airport (Italy), after final negotiations with an influential mafia family in Russia.
"It's nothing. Maybe just dreading the amount of work I have to attend to." He shuddered at the thought of the stacks of paper and files on his desk. It was a wonder as to why his desk hadn't broke from all the weight, majority contributed by the complaints and financial statements folders. (Not to mention, he also needed three shelves to contain them).
At least right now he had the all guardians returning from their missions, including Basil who returned early from his mission (Tsuna praised the heavens when he heard that, Basil was one of the two- Fuuta was the other, who made wondrous miracles when it came to his paperwork).
The car finally screeched to a stop in front of a mansion, hidden deep in the forest. Thanking the chauffeur, who once again reminded him that he was a boss and shouldn't thank a mere chauffeur, he was ushered to the private mansion.
"Now then, boss. I will take my leave." The man bowed in respect.
"Yes, do enjoy your vacation. I apologise that you have to take time off to pick me up from the airport." Tsuna smiled.
"No, it is my pleasure and duty to do so." He looked up for a moment and paused, continuing after a short second. "Boss, it is not my place to ask, but isn't there too little security members here? In fact, I was rather worried when I was the only one there to pick you up."
It was true. The mansion, usually filled with people dressed in suits, now had no one standing guard at the door.
"Well, it is the period for vacation. So most of the men here have been either located to HQ to guard Vongola Nono or went for a holiday." He then waved his hands when he saw his chauffeur's worried expression. "I have my guardians with me and Reborn is coming back here as well."
At the name 'Reborn', the man finally relaxed slightly. Well, he wasn't the world's greatest hitman for nothing.
"Now go for your deserved vacation, Carlo. Enjoy your time in Milan with your wife."
The man gave a small smile and nodded. He left, but not before reminding Tsuna, at least five times, to phone him if any trouble brewed up. Tsuna felt grateful towards him, but Carlo had been working hard for the past year without a proper break, driving clients away from possible assassinations routes whatnot. So Tsuna decided that poor man had to have a break. Vongola Decimo was no slave-driver; it's Famiglia, not Tirannia.
When Tsuna entered the house, he expected some sort of loud noise, whether it be the crashing of furniture, or the sound of tonfas and tridents smashing together or the bombs and fire alarms going off, or the loud "JYUUDAIME", "SAWADA", or "EXTREMELY". Hence it was strange that everything was quiet. Too quiet.
"Ahh Sawada Tsunayoshi, you're back."
The brown hair individual stared at the other dumbly. Somewhere inside, his wisdom or conscience whichever flared up first, kept screaming at him that something was too wrong. Hyper intuition came shortly after. And when that came up, Tsuna knew something bad was going to happen.
"Yes, I'm back."
"So, erm, Verde-san, where's everyone?" Tsuna inquired, trying his best not to sound too nervous, and just when he had thought that he had finally mastered the poker-face after all these years. Yet, the appearance of the acrobaleno, Verde, in the mansion was unnerving as it is. He had to hold his tongue on the question, "What are YOU (of all the Acrobalenos) doing here?"
"Are you looking for Reborn? If so, he wouldn't be here. But you would be able to make it to the other side on time. He mentioned that should be back around half past four. It's only twelve now." Tsuna continued talking, seeing as Verde hadn't replied. Actually, if Tsuna had to mention, he hadn't seen anyone. Not even the servants. Even if they went away, they should still have a decent number of people left behind. The lack of security would be the least likely to make mistake in the Vongola family.
"I know." Verde replied sternly, pushing his glasses. The brilliant scientist was now in the form of a twelve-year-old since the release of the curse. The acrobaleno were finally growing and Tsuna, who would rather die than say it, admitted to himself that he missed their smaller forms.
"I have something to confess and promise me you wouldn't faint, because the news is quite…shocking." Verde coughed slightly towards the end.
"Faint?" Tsuna frowned, feeling a little insulted. He was a mafia boss, not some weak hearted woman in a drama film.
"I heard you collapsed a lot last year." Verde shrugged.
"It was due to fatigue and anaemia. Plus, it wasn't a lot, it was only five times." Tsuna argued, but then realised that his argument wasn't exactly that strong, especially on the part "only five times". Still, he didn't faint due to some tragic news. It fell on deaf ears as Verde was clearly much more occupied fiddling his pocket for the card key. Tsuna didn't know if he should be relieved or not.
It was then when the door opened and his eyes widened so dramatically to the point of comical.
There was a group of children, lying asleep on the floor. Said children were familiar. Too familiar.
"Explain to me what happened." Tsuna hissed in a low voice. He had wanted to faint earlier (and he did try his best), but he couldn't, and hitting the head on the ground when one is conscious would hurt a lot, so he stood like how a brave man would.
"Don't get too upset with me." The brunette sulked further. Verde as usual, ignored and continued. "I have been working on an enhancing device-"
"And why did you bring it here?" Only to earn a harsh 'shut it', from the bespectacled boy. Tsuna then noted Verde looked rather upset as well, despite his nonchalant tone.
"It fell out of my pocket while I came here for my meeting with Reborn. That Skull-" Tsuna noticed the feral curl of anger on Verde's lips. "-reported everything wrong. I was stuck in the midst of your guardians' shenanigans. It did not help that The Varia was here either. And it was then I realised clearly that I was misinformed-"
"Wait, wait. Why are the Varia here? Aren't they supposed to be in another part of Italy, destroying property, making me pay their bills and cleaning up after them?"
"Stop interrupting me. Haven't you changed at all?" Verde snapped.
"I don't know how to be composed in this situation…!"
"Anyway I was caught in their fight, and all my devices flew out of my pocket. That included a miniature bomb containing sleeping gas which can cause a person to sleep for an entire week within a metre radius." He gawked at Tsuna's incredulous face, obviously asking him as to why he made such things.
"Because the Vongola Decimo decided not to use such violent weapons as to be able to blow people up into sub-atomic particles." The other shook his head and before he could say anything, the green haired individual continued, "So my enhancing device had been caught in the fray. And my miniature bomb collided with it. It had enhanced the area of effect, causing everyone in the mansion to be lulled into a deep sleep."
"And why aren't you-"
"Because I was sent crashing outside the window." Verde answered quickly, looking very offended. "It was so careless of me. I should have never let my guard down. In fact, I wouldn't step out of my lab if not for that Reborn."
"And then I didn't know what happened, the device probably short-circuited, and the ten-year bazooka was beside it. Everyone in that room- which meant Varia and your guardians, went back in time at different years, some ten, some twenty. It was even more of a total chaos afterwards. I silenced them with a sleeping bomb, but the effects only last for five hours."
Tsuna stared. He didn't know what to do nor say. He just stared.
"I am very displeased that my devices got broken… I shall return to fix it, until you can find me a chauffeur to Reborn's location."
"Wait, how long are the effects…? Isn't this way past five minutes? And everyone will be asleep for a week…?!"
"I gave the sleeping bodies flames to sustain themselves. If not, I'd have so many people nagging at me. But I left them as they are, I don't have time and strength clearing bodies off the floor. As for the effects, I will try my best to reverse it. I'll treat it as a by-product of my research." Verde yawned and headed towards the small lab Giannini owned.
"Oh yeah, and it'll be in round three hours' time when they will wake up."
Tsuna wanted to slam his head on the ground.
First things first, he would check on the list of people (he was familiar with) available to help.
Kyoko, Haru and Hana were the first he tried. But Kyoko and Hana left on some vacation course in Hokkaido. Haru was busy with her upcoming job projects, but she would promise that she'll come over quickly once she's done and that would be next week. Tsuna hadn't felt any better.
Sawada Iemitsu and Sawada Nana (aka mom and dad) decided on a trip to France, because Nana thought it was romantic to have their honeymoon there. They disappeared so quickly, even before Tsuna could once again remind his father that vacation breaks in the Vongola doesn't go for four months. Coincidently, it was also when paperwork was at its peak. Really, that old geezer probably mainly wanted to escape that.
Bianchi and Fuuta were out. Both were out on an investigation trip on a smaller rival family.
Giannini was in another base, upgrading weapons.
I-Pin was in school camp, in Nanimori.
Irie and Spanner (They were originally in the ground floor, mechanics room) were dead asleep in the sick ward, that also included Basil (Tsuna wanted to sob hysterically at this point) and Levi (he ignored the smell of gun powder on him). The brunette had taken the heart to move the sleeping bodies there.
Dino was overseas somewhere in Germany, for some negotiations.
Lancia was on his 'pilgrimage trail' on redeeming his sins. He only had this period to do so, ever since five years ago, much persuasion from Tsuna's part, finally joined the Vongola's security team. Tsuna wouldn't want to impose on him. It was a sort of unsaid rule.
Shamal. Hopeless. Women was a go-go. Kids were a no-no. That doctor made his terms quite clearly since back then.
The Kokuyo gang? He didn't know their whereabouts. They were under Mukuro's charge. It was similar as to Hibari's group of disciplinary committee members.
Byakuran? He shuddered, that marshmallow loving, foxed eye bastard would probably chuckle at his situation rather than help. And every time there was a meeting with him, he had to have ten bags of that white sticky horror (associated with Byakuran's face that's why) before said person raided his kitchens.
Yuni…? Impossible. Gamma would electrocute them alive. Tazaru and Nozaru would be only too happy to join in.
So he was left with the Acrobaleno…but they weren't even an option to begin with, even if Tsuna had significantly improved relations with all of them, at least in his opinion. Rising from the title of "useless, whim and a failure of a boss" to "the-still-kind-of-useless-but-at-least-slightly-more-worthy-of-the-title 'Vongola Decimo, Neo-Vongola Primo'", he concluded it was quite a feat.
Anyway, Lal would kill him if he ever called up in between her vacation with Colonello in the Maldives. Verde, yeah, you all saw it, he left Tsuna quite heartlessly. Fon was on some trip in China. He didn't carry any sort of contact device so it wouldn't matter anyway. Mammon didn't leave their contact behind though Tsuna heard they left the Varia temporarily for something (Yes, and till this day Tsuna would ponder if Mammon was a girl or boy). Skull definitely did not define 'help' in proper terms at all. That left Reborn…
It was then his phone rang- an unknown number. On the other end of the receiver was an all too familiar voice.
"Dame-Tsuna. I won't be able to return this week. There is some business Nono asked me to attend to." Tsuna didn't really like how serious Reborn sounded for once. But before he could say another word, Reborn hung up quickly.
He then turned to see Verde at the door and jumped. How did that guy appear so fast? He recalled the last time he came that Giannini's lab was two storeys down!
"I heard the news. I am going to leave to fixed things up. Majority of the tools I need are there. I also installed some security devices here. It'll help."
Tsuna nodded and when the scientist left, he frowned. Hyper-intuition gave him another bad feeling, different from the one earlier. It was usually how he felt when the family was going to be attacked. Yet it should be alright since this mansion was built rather recently, and it functioned as the backup-backup base in times of emergency. Normally, it was used for Tsuna's secret meetings with his guardians.
Still, how and why are the Varia here? What about Reborn? Tsuna was still quite worried from the phone call earlier.
It was then he heard a loud "Hnnnnn" and saw the devils' spawns rousing from their sleep.
He briefly wondered what he had done in his previous life to deserve this.
"One, two, three…" He counted. Thirteen in total. Tsuna wasn't exactly superstitious, but now and then his mind reminded him how thirteen was a dreaded number and much more.
There were many noises and movements that flooded the room at once after fifteen minutes since their drug-induced stupor. Tsuna had to dodge random incoming knifes and bombs, a blow to the stomach and a kick to the crotch all at once.
"Take that, Kidnapper!"
"Die."
"Let us go!"
"BAD GUY!"
"Voooooiiii!"
"Ushishishi~"
"Wait, please stop!" He shouted when he caught sight of a few trying to leave the room. The shout had scared someone, and they began to cry. Exasperated, he turned to the crying child and back to door, where it had opened and the children were running after shouting a series of insults.
He wanted to chase after them initially, but after hearing some noises and thrashing, he realised Verde's security system was doing quite a good job.
Tsuna then paused to access damage around the room. Thank goodness the walls weren't blown away despite the bombs. The room only had a few children left. There was a small girl, which he easily identified as Chrome, began sniffling a little. She was in a pink dress, though quite worn out with small tears around the edges. Her short hair messy and falling all over.
"Uh don't cry, I got some sweets." As soon as he opened his palm to offer it up to her. Lambo, in his cow outfit from the past, came snatching them away. There was a brief sense of nostalgia before slight irritancy settled in.
"Those are Lambo's sweets!"
"Lambo, c'mon give it. You got to share." The smaller refused. "Dame-Tsuna! I don't wanna!"
It was then a black haired boy, dressed in a baseball outfit, walked up to Chrome and pushed a candy onto her. "I've got one. You can have it." He grinned, and Tsuna was grateful for him.
"I am Yamamoto Takeshi. I'm seven years old!" The brunette nodded. He could tell anyway. "You don't seem bad. What is your name and what is this place?"
"Sawada Tsunayoshi." And Tsuna realised he had said it a bit too formerly. He quickly added in. "Just call me Tsuna. Nice to meet you! And you're in my house now."
"Ne, ne, why does Dame-Tsuna sound so old…?" Lambo tugged at his shirt.
"Because I've grown up into an adult." Tsuna sighed, not wanting to elaborate. Lambo looked in confusion but being a child, he didn't dwell much on the matter and continued munching on his sweets.
He then turned to the girl. "Sorry if Lambo stole your sweets. It's good that Yamamoto's nice and gave you one." He smiled as he ruffled her head. She flinched from the first contact, but after a few seconds or so, she settled in comfortably.
"C-Can I eat it?"
"Of course." Yamamoto grinned and Chrome returned the smile shyly.
"What's your name? How old are you?"
"N-Nagi… I'm also seven." Her voice was barely a whisper. Then there was a 'clang' in the room and Tsuna noticed a boy crouching in the corner and another, just standing there glaring at him.
"Hey" he smiled, approaching the glaring boy. His hair was messy and he was dressed in rags. Despite that however, he held a look of disgust when Tsuna came to him.
"Where I?" He snapped in broken Italian.
"In my house." Tsuna replied back, also in Italian. The boy continued glaring.
"Would you like some candy-" Tsuna offered some more from his pocket, only for the other to slap it away. Nagi stiffed at his reaction and hid behind Yamamoto. Lambo did the same.
"Go 'way. Where mom?"
"Uh… I am supposed to care for you for a while." When Tsuna inched in closer, the boy pushed him away harshly.
"Go 'way!" The boy swung a fist near Tsuna's face.
"Wait, I'm not going to hurt you…" Suddenly Tsuna paused as he felt a chill, before dodging a shard of glass aimed at his head. The perpetrator was a child, and Tsuna knew the child so well from sharing so many similar visions with him. The white ragged experimental outfit, with a bandage covering his right eye.
Rokudo Mukuro.
The said kid smiled at him. Tsuna shuddered for a spilt second; that was quite creepy. It was then the glaring child did a kick, and Tsuna had no choice but to hold him in place.
"Stop it, Xanxus-san (this was out of Tsuna's habit)!"
He then heard a loud explosion and the sound of buzzing electricity. Blinking, he turned to look with a struggling Xanxus in hand, and realised that Mukuro disappeared. Panicking a little, he jolted when someone patted his back. He spun around to see a lethargic looking boy wearing an apple- shaped hat. And that hat was really...big.
"I'm so hungry, sir."
Well Tsuna, good luck!
Xanxus used to be raised in the slums, his character was based on before Nono adopting him. Some of the Acrobaleno will be featured in the next chapter.
Please drop a review, thanks for reading this far!