A/N: I posted this to AO3 some days back but decided to share this here too. The idea to this came mainly from Mafia Academy and the way it was portrayed in Bolt from the Blue from Umei no Mai. Also Mnemosyne by Aoife-Nightmare factored a lot. And AUs from I.W. . In general I had the thought of Tsuna going to the mafia school and interracting with Dino and Squalo and co.
At first I thought of it as a time-travel fic but then I started thinking of canon-Tsuna and timeline and possibilities and thus this was born. It isn't the most fine-tuned and through-thought fic and things would need a lot of fleshening up for this to become a full fic but I hope you like this anyways.
Dreaming of Friends
Sawada Tsunayoshi had dreams.
He was six years old he began dreaming. He dreamt of school, of friends, of magical flames and mafia.
They were very strange dreams. In those dreams his name was Tonio and he was youngest child of Marcello Famiglia's current Don. He went to mafia school and interacted there with his friends.
In the waking world, he was Dame-Tsuna who had no friends.
He enjoyed his lessons and participated in both theoretical and practical classes.
Dame-Tsuna never knew the right answers and was abysmal in Physical Education.
At home, he had three older siblings and mother and father. They all loved him even if they liked to tease him a lot.
Dame-Tsuna was an only child. His mother was oblivious to everything around her and father was absent.
Tonio Marcello was a happy child who dreamt of one day assisting his eldest brother when he became the Don.
Dame-Tsuna was miserable child who was fated to become a Don against his own will.
Tsunayoshi looked up from his drawings when his mother appeared in the doorway. She was holding one of his exam papers in her hand. Large red zero within a circle adorned its top right corner.
"Tsu-kun, what have I told you? You need to work more." Sawada Nana scolded the boy who scowled and went back to drawing. Last night he'd had a nice dream again and didn't want to forget it. With so many dreams, depicting chronologically Tonio Marcello's life, Tsuna had sometimes hard time to remember everything. Thus he drew and wrote notes as soon as possible.
Living two lives was so hard. And Tonio was at least three years older than he was even if he lived ten years ago! Tsuna had seen the dates in newspapers and been surprised by the fact even if he'd accepted it eventually…
Nana kept talking but Tsuna wasn't listening anymore. Sometimes… Sometimes he wished that his dreams were real and he wouldn't need to worry about things here. He had friends and was doing okay at school (even with weird mafia subjects) so what else did he need?
Eventually Nana left to make dinner and Tsuna sat up. Papers surrounded him. He had already done his homework. It had taken time and would probably be stolen by his bullies tomorrow again but it was done. Sometimes he struggled with Kanji since he tended to think things as they sounded. And writing in plain hiragana was easy since it could be turned back to romaji and… Okay, maybe he should pay more attention to Japanese lessons but he understood the language, wasn't that enough? And he knew Italian and English too thanks to his dreams. And math was quite universal even if Nezu sabotaged him constantly during lessons and simply couldn't shut up during exams. (And Tonio wasn't that good math either.)
The eleven-year-old sighed and gathered the papers together in the order the dreams had happened last night. He didn't dream of every single day of Tonio's life but some. The important ones in good and bad. A faint smile made his lips twitch. Last night Squalo had beaten their sword instructor for the first time and Constantino (Dino!) had once again tripped on his own two feet. He was as clumsy as Tsuna was in waking world!
They were his friends though. Even when Squalo tended to spend a lot of time with the youngest Vongola scion, Xanxus, who didn't attend the school but had his private tutors.
Tsuna giggled as he drew the pictures. While the circumstances leading to the situation were quite sad, the situation right now in the dreams was quite funny. Dino's elder siblings had been killed in an enemy famiglia's attack, making him the heir, and now he was being tutored by one of the Arcobaleno. The Sun Arcobaleno to be exact. Tonio had met him last night for the first time and rather than paying attention on the baby-sized hitman, the Marcello boy had been fascinated by the chameleon named Leon. Arcobaleno Reborn had been amused by that. Before throwing Tonio to the tutoring session with Dino.
That had been painful.
The now-twelve-year-old frowned. Previously the events in the dreams had coincided in a way that he was always the same age than Tonio but during last year the speed had gone up. Tonio and Dino and Squalo were all fifteen now. Squalo had beaten the Sword Emperor, Tyr of Varia last year in the dreams, which was three months ago for Tsuna. And Xanxus had also taken over the Varia with Squalo.
"So many things going on…" Tsuna muttered, coloring Leon-hammer. "I wonder what's going on…"
It was midnight. Tsuna woke up with a frown. Coup by Varia. Vongola's Iron Fort Attacked. Why? What was going on? Tonio had been with Dino when the news came. but what had happened really?
The boy climbed out of bed and took a new paper from the box on his desk. He lit the desk lamp and began to draw. He couldn't afford to forget anything.
And he dearly hoped to one day get an answer to this all.
Tsuna woke up with a gasp. He was trembling. Tears pricked his eyes.
It was the end. End of the dreams. End of Tonio Marcello. His entire family slaughtered by some assassins that attacked in the middle of night. Mother, father, Ventura, Lauretta, Silvano…
Tsune cried to his pillow.
Tonio Marcello died at age seventeen. On the same date, on the same night, six years ago Sawada Tsunayoshi dreamt of his life for the first time.
In the morning Tsuna drew bloody picture of the massacre and added it as the last page to his latest – last – book he used for storing the images that had preserved Tonio's life.
Next week, his mother informed him of getting him a home tutor.
Next week, the baby-sized hitman from his dreams appeared on his doorstep.
Next week, Tsuna realized that Tonio had been a real person just like the other people in his dreams had been.
Next week, Tsuna hid all his books containing the drawings to a box in attic and hid the box among several identical ones. The only thing marking the box as different was a green spiral – like Leon's tail – doodled in a corner.
There were men in black suits outside his house. They tried to ban Tsuna from entering until they found out that he lived in the house.
There was a big chair in his room and the young man sitting in it introduced himself as Dino Cavallone, the Don of Cavallone Famiglia.
Tsuna could only think of how much his friend had grown. Then his thoughts travelled to the box hidden in attic and took a shot in the dark.
"March 24th 1997." He said quietly. Very quietly and Dino, who'd been in a process of getting up from his chair, froze up.
"What did you say?" The blonde mafia don asked, paling. No wonder. It was the date of Marcello Massacre.
"Nothing." Tsuna said, not letting anything unnecessary show on his face.
("Nothing." Tonio said and smiled innocently, inwardly laughing since Silvano was going to soon trigger a prank and incite Lauretta's wrath.)
They went down for dinner after Dino sent his subordinates away and… he was clumsy again.
"Baka-Dino's effectiveness as a boss decreases by 50% when he is not around his subordinates." Reborn explained.
And then Enzo was growing in size and destroying bathroom and Tsuna was wearing a Romario-mask made by Leon so Dino could take care of it properly.
It was when they were in Tsuna's room again and Dino was using hairdryer to dry Enzo, that Tsuna made his decision.
"Wait here."
He went to the attic and dug up the box that had sat there, collecting dust, and took it back downstairs. He placed it on the floor and picked the first book. He hesitated for a moment but gave the book to Dino then. Reborn watched it all silently.
"March 24th 1997 was when it began for me."
With shaky hands, Dino began flipping through pictures, eyes widening at the story depicted in them and in the scattered comments in mix of Japanese and Italian.
The book fell on the floor when the Cavallone boss reached for Tsuna and enveloped him into an embrace.
"Tonio…" Came the choked sob.
"I really, really wanted it all to be real." Tsuna whispered back. "But until Reborn came I thought it was just something in my head."
On the side, the said hitman had picked the discarded book and was going through it too before picking the next book from the box. And the next and next and next until…
"Tonio Marcello, huh?" The book number seven was open on the page telling about Dino's tutor and the amazingly cute chameleon that the tutor had. The picture itself had only a yellow pacifier, fedora and Leon in it.
"Un…" Tsuna hummed, not really concerned about Reborn knowing. He had his friend after all.
A/N: Please review and tell me what do you think of Tsuna and Tonio. Was Tsuna a reincarnation? Was he mere observer or was he actually Tonio who interracted with other people? What would happen now in Varia arc for example?
Idea is also up for adoption since I doubt I'll be continuing this. Just PM me first so we can discuss about the matter.