Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira.

written 03-11 - 12-25-2015

published 03-28-2016

by C.S.Y. Shadows

not beta-ed

It began, as so many of the bigger messes he faced did, with Byakuran. (I know, I know, but bear with me here.) More specifically, it began with Byakuran and his total inability to leave well enough alone and what they were thinking when they let him in was anyone's guess. They were probably not. Thinking, I mean.

In any case, it was that little fact that led to Byakuran getting his hands on the Ten-Year-Bazooka.

Funny thing, that. Lambo, being in his thirties and subsequently a fully realised, fuckin' powerful Guardian by now, had of course long since retired his once favoured weapon. But the Tenth and his Guardians (some of them at least) realized they could neither just give up something so powerful nor destroy it - the possible consequences of both were positively disastrous - so in the end, it was just hidden in a dark corner of the Weapons Vault along with other such dangerous tools.

That was probably another factor in the explosion.

In the end, however, it was a combination of many things that could probably never be reliably replicated and which were nigh impossible to identify in the first place.

It was, in other words, a complete and utter mess. The kind that Tsuna had to deal with on a distressingly regular basis and really, was a break from the insanity too much to ask for?

Everything was Byakuran's fault, Tsuna concluded his mental freak out.

The reason for said freak out? Well, it was - or rather, he was currently frowning down at the Mafia Boss in question with concern shining out of his freakishly familiar eyes set in an equally freakishly familiar face.

"Tsuna? Are you okay?"

Yeah, like no. But Tsunayoshi Sawada was Vongola Decimo, the Neo Primo, Boss of one of the biggest, baddest (and craziest) Mafia Famiglia around and had been for decades. He could handle being confronted with what looked like his friggin' 14-year-old clone. Play along now...

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine."

(On the inside, he cursed - he was a hardened criminal! A fucking grown-ass man! He shouldn't be stuttering! ...If Reborn found out - when he found out, because he always did - he was going to get tortured within an inch of his life.)

The other brunet smiled at him.

"Alright then. Come on - let your nii-san help you up."

The other was warm and kind and understanding and Tsuna - 42 years old now and known through-out the entire criminal underworld - was utterly creeped out. Because he was over 40 and the other behaved as though he were younger and how the hell had Byakuran screwed everything up now because he had no idea what was happening!?

...So maybe he couldn't handle this.

(At least he wasn't squeaking like he used to, his inner optimist tried to point out. So Reborn couldn't go after them for that. ... Yeah, I got nothing, his brain admitted in defeat and curled back up for protection.)

Okay. Okay. He needed to breathe. Deep breaths. He needed to get himself back together. Because as freaky and uncomfortable as the situation was, it did not compare to some of the things he'd gotten caught up in over the years and he really shouldn't be falling apart as badly as he currently was. Something was really, really wrong here and it had nothing to do with his doppelgänger.

As he absentmindedly let himself be helped up (and whoa, had the world gotten bigger while he hadn't been looking?) he managed to find enough mental equilibrium to ask:

"Uh... erm... Nii-san...? What- uh... what happened?"

His 'Nii-san' was frowning again and pulled him closer by the arm. Then he proceeded to carefully feel along his skull in a way that told Tsuna he was looking for a possible injury.

"Are you sure you're alright, Tsuna? You don't look good and you just kind of fell over before."

"I... uhm..."

A serious brown gaze latched onto his. A mop of fluffy brown hair flopped up and down as the other once nodded to himself, decisively.

"Right. I'm taking you home to Kaa-san."

Befuddled, Tsuna let himself be towed along, right up to his old family home and past the gate. Everything on the way looked just like he remembered it - except it was all ever so slightly off and ended up feeling just surreal. He was still staring when he was dragged, stumbling, through the door.

"Oh my. Nobu-kun? Did something happen with Tsu-kun again?"

And his mother was there, wiping her hands on a dish towel - his mother, and it was so, so, so strange to see her like this. Looking at her was just as weird and unsettling as watching the same-old-but-not neighbourhood, like a different world, like... like waking up ten years in the future...

Oh fuck.

Tsuna gave into the urge and clutched at the bridge of his nose in an attempt to ward off the headache.

All Byakuran's fault, I swear.

A/N: Heeeyy, so, this is some kind of try at writing KHR twin!fic. It's only a one-shot/snippet and most likely won't get continued, but I wanted to put it up anyway. Enjoy. (Or something).