Title: Awakening
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
Characters: Tsuna, the others.
A/N: Uh...might I add that I fail at comedy? Especially if this is what happens. Also, I hope the ending is understandable.
Summary: Something felt odd about this, something in his bones and flesh and memories.
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"Tsuna!"
Who? What? Something sounds wrong about this voice, but he doesn't know why. It's familiar and warm and makes his heart beatbeatbeat-he should know who this is.
He should know why it doesn't sound right.
"Tsuna!"
Suddenly, warm hands encase both of his arms and he opens (when did he close his eyes?) to see Kyoko and Haru on both sides of him. Their smiles are equally bright, their hair pinned back with identical blue chopsticks.
"Eh?"
"Tsuna, what are you doing?" Haru pouts, letting go of him. He can make out the light green dragons on her blue kimono as she looks away from him. "You're late. By an hour."
"Eh? Sorry!" Tsuna-for that is who he is-rubs his head, grinning sheepishly. Why is he late? Oh, that's right, "Reborn was having an extra session and-" The memories flood in and he feels stupid. Just a little.
It's not like him to be so lost. Or at least, not this lost.
"That's ok, at least you're here," Kyoko chimes in, letting go as well. He can still feel her warm hands, still feel her breath tickling his arm, and blushes. Maybe it's a good thing she let go.
"Let's go in, everyone else is waiting too," Haru chirps, getting over the disappointment of having to wait. She clasps Kyoko's hand and they start to dash away.
Purple lilies and green dragons dance in the crowd, shifting in and out of his sight as Tsuna chases after them.
"Hey, wait up!" He's stuck between two men, an arm and a leg sticking out one side of the barrier as he pushes through. Why is he so slow, still?
(The breeze brushes past him, he's as fast as the speed of light, and...and...-)
He's always been so slow. Even with Reborn's training.
The crowd shifts around him, children dragging their parents behind them as they happily point at the prizes hanging off the booths. Lovers glance coyly at each other, friends laugh heartily at a joke, and...he's still lost. Kyoko and Haru are nowhere to be seen.
"Kyoko? Haru?" he yells as he gets past the bulk of the crowd, glancing wildly. "Please, come back! Please..." His voice ends on a broken note, sounding far more afraid than it should. Panic threatens to overwhelm him, his eyes landing on an object just to shift away to another.
He's overreacting and he knows that.
"Hey, Tenth!"
Turning, he sees a mess of silvery-grey hair and the tip of a baseball bat. "Gokudera! Yamamoto!" He sighs in relief, running to the pair. "Have you seen-"
"Tenth, look at the new explosives I've made!" Gokudera grins wildly as he holds out a bulging plastic bag. It's stretched tautly, almost to the point of tearing, and he can make out the tips of hundreds of bombs.
"What?" It's all he can do to tear his eyes from the bag to Gokudera. "This is a festival!"
"Well, they can be fireworks then!" That inane grin is back and Tsuna sputters.
"B-but, that's dangerous!"
Yamamoto laughs. "Don't worry, I know how to handle fireworks."
"They're not...fireworks..."
"Tsuna!" Kyoko and Haru yell simultaneously, waving from a fish booth. "Come here!"
"I've always wanted a fish..." Yamamoto says as he starts to walk over there. His back is straight as ever, smiling broadly as he bends down to catch one.
"You can't catch one that way!" Gokudera snorts. "Let me show you how it's done-Tenth?"
"Oh..." He looks at his hands, which are grasping the boy's right arm, patting it. The shirt is threadbare, the muscles taunt under the lean flesh. A steady pulse drifts through his veins and Tsuna stutters an apology as he lets go. "I...I don't know."
"Ok," Gokudera shrugs it off when he hears Haru's yelp as a goldfish splashes her. "Watch a real master at work! This is the reason I'm the Tenth's right hand!"
"The reason..." Tsuna watches as Gokudera starts to catch a fish. Catching a goldfish is the reason you're my right hand? Of all skills, that is the one? The goldfish escapes at the last minute. AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO IT?
Sighing, he crouches down beside them, watching as Yamamoto and Gokudera try once more to catch something.
"Maybe I should just use my hands...it's easier..."
"Nah, an explosion will work best!"
"That's against the rules!"
"Don't worry, Tenth! I've done this before when I fished."
"WHAT? THAT'S ILLEGAL. And bad to the fish!"
"OW! Haru, don't hit me so hard!"
"I-" TWANG.
Shakily, Tsuna glances up, afraid of what he's about to see.
There, sticking out of the wooden pole, is a black tonfa. As it vibrates, the wooden pole starts to break apart, bringing down the entire booth with it.
"He..Hello," Tsuna chokes out as he turns around to face the prefect.
"...I heard there was a ruckus," Hibari starts, ignoring Gokudera's shouts as he walks over and picks up the tonfa.
"You could have killed the Tenth!" Gokudera bursts out, angrily lighting up a pack of dynamite as he gets up.
"...oh no..." Tsuna glances back and forth from one to another as Hibari smirks, his suspicions confirmed.
"I'll bite you-" A whip snakes through the air and Hibari narrowly dodges it.
"Dino!" A sigh of relief escapes his lips and Tsuna's oddly tense shoulders relax.
"A fight during a festival?" The young leader shakes his head, sighing. Reborn stands on his shoulders, dressed in a samurai outfit.
It is expected that no one else recognized him. Even when Chrome and Mukuro appear, with all their practice with illusions, Tsuna is still the only one to recognize his tutor.
Wait. Tsuna turns to face his companions, surprised. Chrome and Mukuro? What are they doing in the same place at the same time?
"Tsuna, are you okay?" Kyoko pulls his arm, a worried look covering her face.
"Eh?" He blushes, but stops short when he sees the red ribbon on her hair. "That...that shouldn't be there."
"What?"
"That...the colour..."
It drips through her hair, tumbling down her dress in swirling streaks. Bruises bloom on her skin, flowers of purple and black, and he stumbles backwards in surprise.
"Kyoko?" A sticky, wet sound reaches his ears with each steps and he looks down to see the ground dyed a permanent scarlet, a sea forming around him of this liquid. "Blood?"
Gokudera makes a squelching noise and Tsuna looks up in time to see his throat slit open, a waterfall pouring out of the wound. An arm floats by, bloated and rotting, and a baseball bat is in its grip.
A scream echoes in this world, echoes in his ears, and Tsuna realizes it's his own voice. He can't move, frozen all of a sudden, and the lifeless bodies stare at him from all corners.
He blinks, once, twice, and sees the pavement. The normal grey bricks are facing him.
"Oh." He sighs with relief. It was just a bad dream. It was-why is he lying on the ground? Maybe he fainted. "Hey-"
Gokudera lies there in front of him, unconscious. Blood is streaming out of his hair, carving a path through the bricks to him.
Tsuna doesn't need to look to know the others are lying around him, hurt.
The nightmare has only just begun.
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