REWRITTEN! I didn't like the original first chapter so this is the rewritten version. Please enjoy.


Chapter 1

"Oi, are you sure, kora?" Colonello looked through piercing blue eyes at his companion, friend, rival, whatever it was.

"Of course I am." Reborn said in his usual haughty tone, pulling down the fedora which was resting on his black hair to cover his large unblinking eyes. "I've been keeping a close eye on her ever since Ryuuki discovered the ring." His tiny pudgy hands moved along the rim of his hat, looking like a thirty year old in a baby cosplay, a very good cosplay but terrible acting skills, "They're all coming together. With Eri already here then I just need to wait for Laurie to arrive."

"Gathering them already?" Colonello folded his arms, considering every move Reborn had made so far. This girl that he was bringing to Japan was barely involved in the Mafia; she barely knew how to fight. Perhaps bringing her early was a good thing but who would train her? Would she even be willing?

"It's needed." Reborn said simply, "The Seasons need to be gathered, Colonello. They're crucial for Tsuna's family." He cleared his throat, unnecessarily but dramatically, "Vongola hasn't seen any Season guardians since Primo's time. And since the rings have finally chosen their bearers after all these years we cannot allow these girls end up with the same fate Primo's Seasons met."


Airports, airplanes and the like were never really on the list of her top ten favourite things. The air in the airplanes smelt just weird, the toilets never failed to get her running, the chance of sitting next to a fat senile old lady was very high and therefore the chance of space was very low. Airports were bustling and squishy and she hated how she had to get there an obscene number of hours before the actual flight.

Well, maybe this plane trip was okay. Only okay, just a little bit. The airport had a few less people than usual but still rather busy. Her bladder had yet to call upon her so the fearsome toilet awaiting her down the aisle was not a problem. There was no person occupying the seat next to her so she was able to prop her bare feet and toned calves onto the seat beside her. She made sure to cover her legs with the thin blanket provided, she guessed passers-by wouldn't like to see her calloused soles, blistered skin and blue-brown-black bruised toenails.

She leaned her head against the flat hard wall beside her. Lucky her. She got a window seat. All sarcasm intended. Or not really sarcasm. Just short of sarcasm, it didn't contain the necessary tone or feeling that sarcasm required. Something more like a numbing iciness, the type that is placed on a person's ear just before they get a piercing.

Burgundy hair, a colour confusingly stuck between red and brown, tilting slightly more to the red colour schemes, twirled around her fingers, curly going to frizzy from the nap she had just taken. Her hands, systematically and almost automatically, fretted over the crazy tresses, binding the long hair into a tight French braid. Layered hair never really worked well with normal braids after all. It all just went… out and pokey. If there were even such a word.

Thick black framed glasses were grabbed from the windowsill that they were precariously balancing on. The crystal blue oasis, otherwise known as her eyes that pointed obviously at her slightly American heritage, looked through the powerless glasses. No magnification, the lens useless.

Her skin looked light, stuck at a pale tan. At least all her hard work was not wasted. SPF 80 sunscreen and everything. Swimming with an umbrella made her look like an idiot but hey, it worked. All of it just to look brilliant for that one moment on stage. To look like she was flying for that one temps levé, that lone grand jeté, that sole pas de chat, that single sissone. Tan may make someone look skinnier but white made them look feathery.

"Passengers please return to your seats. We shall commence landing in…"

The speaker continued before repeating the message back in Chinese and Japanese. A breathy sigh left her lips, wondering why, why, why… She could've chosen to live with her Aunt in Manhattan, her cousins in San Francisco, Uncle down in Sydney or even her Aunt on her father's side in Beijing. But no… she chose none of these. They were all wonderful places, full of opportunities, amazing schools, set in a bustling metropolitan.

No. She didn't want any of that. She was stubborn, firm, whatever… She'd made up her mind after staring out the antiseptic smelling hospital room, light filtering through UV protected windows with warm rays and undeniable life. On the bed side desk an envelope, her name written in neat compact Japanese. At that moment, it had been years, eight to be exact, since she had seen her name printed in Kanji, the characters reminding her of something, something clicking like a light switch.

Perhaps that light switch was broken because she had no idea what was tugging, yearning, begging in her when she told her disappointed relatives that she was not going to another city in America, to Australia or China. All of them sent back distressed emails, unable to leave their busy lives in the big cities or bothering to put pen to paper rather than finger to key, wondering why she had chosen that place instead.

The small, unheard of country town. Only about two or three middle schools were located in the town and with that only so many opportunities to allow her to prosper. Or so they complained. She didn't know if they were truly worried about her well being or if they just wanted to get on her good side so that when the time came to distributing the inheritance, a bit more would go to them. Unlikely but possible.

Now, her seat belt buckled against the tiny rolls of fat at her belly that should not have been there, in her opinion at least. That terrible feeling of the plane diving straight for the ground, a feeling she swear was unnecessary for passengers to feel if the pilot would just gently land, which none of them ever did by the way.

It was slightly ironic that she had chosen Namimori as her place of residence, a close friend of her father's as her host. Not a blood relative and most certainly not in a place that was similar to any of those she had been offered. The fact she had chosen a place that was embedded in her blood as a place she should use to restart her life was almost laughable, a slip of irony.

Maybe, only a very slight slim possibility, she was searching for a home. It was possible, a light numbing cold chance but still possible in its own way. She didn't really know, all of it a jumble of letters, numbers and colours in her conscious mind. Well, if it that were the case then what better place to start than the place she was born?


Tsuyoshi placed down the phone before writing down the details of her taxi. She had landed safely and on time and was now currently in a taxi on her way to Takesushi. He had the cab number and how long until she would arrive.

His son was currently at baseball practice meaning he would arrive home at about the time she was supposed to arrive. Tsuyoshi made a mental note to text his son about her seeing as every time he was with Takeshi the concept slipped his mind. Not that his son even used his phone. Like once every three months would be a very accurate estimate of how much Takeshi ever even looked at his phone, much less used it.

So different from the girl that had just called, from what he remembered 8 months ago, her mobile was her lifeline, figuratively of course. It was almost glued to her person, except for when she was dancing or in class, other than that without fail she will have her phone within reach.

Now, time to go look for that extra futon hidden somewhere in the house. How long had it been since that thing had been whipped out? Good thing he had time. Shop was closed today so it was time to go futon-hunting!


"Good work, Yamamoto!"

"Keep it up!"

"You were awesome!"

Words of encouragement and congratulations rushed through Takeshi's ears as he bid farewell to all his teammates. The sun was setting and there was a cool breath of wind, something rare for the hot summers of Namimori. For some reason he had a certain skip in his step, something just felt good about today. It wasn't like aced his math test, on the contrary he failed it, it wasn't like he had hit an extra homerun, he'd actually hit a few less than usual, and it wasn't like the kid had thought up any more fun games, the kid was missing today for some reason.

Oh well. It was probably just his instincts acting up, again. They were telling him something good was going happen. He had no clue what it could possibly be but he knew that something was bound to happen. His instincts never failed. Except on tests. But hey! They worked with math sometimes, right?

When he finally reached home, the sushi restaurant that was closed for the day, he felt the strong urge to shower. He body was sweating, tip to toe, and a shower sounded like the best thing that came to him that day. Well, next to the thought of Hayato being overly fussy about exam marks. Which he had voiced out of course and a timely Ryohei had shouted was "EXTREMELY" true.

Dropped off his bags by his desk and made a dash for his bathroom, the thought of a nice cool shower too enticing to walk to. He opened the closed wooden door without a second thought, not the least observant to realise that his bathroom door was not usually closed.

Within 5 seconds of opening the door he turned three different shades of red. First light pink, then a reddish-pink and then full out crimson. Standing in front of him, long hair dripping at the ends, was a bare foreign girl with cool blue eyes. Luckily, there was a white towel, undoubtedly the same white towel he used every day, held in her hand, covering up anything important from view.

Staring straight into the cold frozen over azure mirrors he tried to avert her eyes. Just looking into them was like staring into a reflection, a cold numb reflection. He noticed her porcelain skin, close to ivory but tinted with the slightest shade of tan, something hinting at an Asian decent mixed with her American one. Then he noticed the curled wavy locks dripping with shower water, the red-brown almost reaching her hips. From behind the towel he noticed the edge of slightly discoloured skin. A scar? A burn mark? He couldn't make it out from the distance they had but he had enough humility not to scrutinise.

"Get out." She said looking away, her eyes finding themselves lost in bathroom tiles. Within the dry frostbitten voice it was almost like embarrassment was buried somewhere, a hot spring in the middle of a harsh winter.

"S-Sorry!" Takeshi could barely make out before he turned away, stepping out of the steamy bathroom and slamming the door behind him. He leaned back against the door, thinking what in the world just happened.

"Aoi-chan, I'm so sorry I forgot that the towel in Takeshi's bathroom is actually-" Tsuyoshi never got to finish his sentence. Standing in front of the bathroom of where the said girl was showering was his sweating, beet red son. "Oh, Takeshi…"

"Dad, there's someone…" Takeshi could barely string the sentence together, his chest pumping about twenty miles an hour, something of the sort.

"Yeah," Tsuyoshi said rubbing the back of his neck, kind of nervous yet somewhat nonchalant, "that's Koizumi Aoi-chan… She'd coming to live with us after her parents and boyfriend died a few months ago… her dad was a great friend of mine." Tsuyoshi pulled out a grin, slightly watered down, slightly pained, "Must've slipped my mind." Tsuyoshi looked away, Takeshi taking note of the towel that was limp in his father's hands, "You've… er… met?"

"Yeah… kind of ." Like father, like son, he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the heat emanating off of it slowly dying down, excruciatingly slow, his laugh lithely escaping his lips.

"I'm not deaf, you know." The door silently slipped open, Aoi stood in the most simple attire, hair a state between wet and dry, now styled into something like loose ringlets, the white towel now draped around her damp shoulders, "Thanks for explaining for me, Uncle Tsuyoshi." She tucked a wet lock behind her ear, "I'd rather you tell Takeshi than if I did."

"You know who I am…?" Takeshi said pointing to himself, clearly confused, clueless.

"Of course I do." Aoi said simply, her voice nimble graceful but still stuck, lost and wandering, infinitesimally cold with a touch of lost, "You were always forgetful like that."


"Reborn! I can't just go to Yamamoto's house! That's rude!" Tsuna scolded the baby who was dragging him by the ear down to his friend's residence.

"Of course you can. And you will, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn smirked, his hand mercilessly dragging Tsuna along, his legs in stilts, another cosplay he had thought of.

"And I thought you weren't going to cause any trouble today!" Tsuna complained, missing the peacefulness of the school day, no Reborn meant no danger and no embarrassment.

"What kind of tutor would I be if I left you uneventful for one day?" Reborn teased, pinching the ear of his tortured student even hard, his hand fit with puppy fat were anything but soft, instead they were bone hard and incredibly cruel. "Oh, look we're here."

Reborn didn't give Tsuna one moment to breathe a single complaint before dragging him into the closed shop, seemingly empty, peaceful and completely silent.

"Oi, Yamamoto." Reborn called out to as Takeshi came down the stairs leading up to residential area of Takesushi.

"Ah, Tsuna, kid! What are you doing here?" Takeshi asked as he approached the pair, not at all fazed by their sudden appearance.

"I heard you have a visitor. As the boss of the family Tsuna is here to greet any new additions." Reborn replied for Tsuna for the boy was currently wincing in pain, in so much pain that he couldn't even protest, as much as he wanted to.

"Oh, you're playing that game again?" Takeshi queried, laughing lightly, "Are you talking about Aoi?"

"Oi, have you found that futon yet, Takeshi?" Aoi came down the same stairs, hand placed precariously on the wall to make sure she didn't accidentally slip, "Who are they?"

"That's my friend Tsuna from school." Takeshi said pointing to the wincing boy, leaning down to the baby on stilts who was still not letting go of the poor ear in between his fingers.

"And what is happening right now isn't weird at all." Aoi said looking away, her voice dripping with numb sarcasm, "Just hurry up." She looked back sending them all a frostbitten look, "I need somewhere to sleep."

"We'll be going then, right Tsuna? As a boss he just wanted to welcome his new family member." Reborn said slyly, finally letting go of the pitiful ear that was in his grasp, allowing Tsuna's ear to breathe and writhe in even more pain.

"What?" Aoi sent them a sceptical look, eyes glaring through short lashes.

"You'll find out. Let's go, Tsuna." Reborn said before walking out, stilts tapping against the floor loudly.

"Ah, sorry for the intrusion. See you at school tomorrow, Yamamoto." Tsuna said nervously before following his dangerous tutor out the door, his big brown eyes not leaving the almond shaped warm blue eyes of the red headed girl. If warm blue even existed, he caught the tinge of loneliness, confusion and iciness all trapped in the blue mirrors known as her eyes. Trickling, her eyes reminded him of a frozen mountain with a small trickling spring.


Aoi couldn't help but cuddle up to the extra pillow on her futon, exhausted, tired, whatever anyone wished to call it. She was just glad they finally found the bed they had been hunting for. Through the corner of her cobalt eyes she spied Takeshi's futon about a foot away.

Too far…

She barely recognised the thought that registered in her mind, only noticing how restless she felt right now. As tired and sleepy she felt, she couldn't shake off the feeling of insomnia. Not really insomnia though. A loneliness that caused insomnia she supposed…

Takeshi came out the shower, finally receiving the shower he had been longing for since he arrived home, towel drying his hair, using the towel she was supposed to have used. Well, that was until Tsuyoshi came too late and she had already used his towel to soak up all the water that dotted her body.

"Sorry about the thing in the shower." Aoi muttered, only soft because she tired and voice was slowly fading away on her, "I should've locked."

"N-No, I'm sorry!" Takeshi said, waving his hands around in denial.

"Idiot." Aoi said blatantly before sitting up, still hugging the pillow to her chest. She glanced at him, noticing how he didn't seem to be uncomfortable under her gaze, unlike everyone else. She remembered the nurses that gossiped and the patients that steered away.

He sat by the bed that was a good foot away from her's, ready to snuggle into the futon's good warmth. That was before a less than ivory hand shot out and grasped the light blue material of his shirt. He looked back to her, seeing the same lost trickling gaze, except it was staring right into his hazel ones, not looking away in the slightest.

"Aoi…?" Takeshi asked, tilting his head to the side, wondering what was going on.

"I might as well say it." Aoi muttered under her breath in English, an undeniable American accent laced with her words. She turned back into Japanese, coordinating between the two languages she knew so well, "Since we're going to be spending so much time together you should at least know that I get insomnia when I sleep alone."

"Insomnia?" Takeshi questioned, clearly unknowing of what the word meant, clearly creating a slightly annoyed hand that was holding onto his shirt to tighten, only slightly.

"It means I can't sleep." Aoi said simply, "You can refuse to but…" Aoi slipped back into her English tongue, "How do I word this?" She turned back into Japanese, "…I know you don't really remember me and it's probably really weird but can you sleep close to me?"

It took a few moments for the words to register in Takeshi's mind but right as they did, his face broke out into a grin, "Sure."

"Are you…?" Aoi asked raising an eye brow, "I mean I'm…"

"I don't know why but it seems like this isn't the first time I've met you." Takeshi said, already dragging his futon closer to his, the edges of their mattresses now pressed together.

That's because we have, stupid.

Takeshi laid down on his futon, now infinitely closer than it was just a few moments ago. Aoi leaned back down, their backs almost touching and she could feel the slow and steady rhythm of his back, calming, peaceful, tranquil.

"Better?" Takeshi asked and Aoi could almost see imagine the smile plastered onto his face.

"I guess. Thanks." Aoi said, already drifting to sleep, lulling away by the calming rhythm pulsating right by her.


"Dame-Tsuna," Reborn insulted as Tsuna was getting changed. Reborn was perched in his usual sleeping spot, in his usual pyjamas, "that Aoi, she's going to become part of your family."

"What! You can't drag Aoi-san into this!" Tsuna shouted at the baby but he was already fast asleep. That snot bubble was going up and down as usual; his eyes were wide open, typical.

He can't do that to Aoi-san!

Well, then again it was Reborn. He could whatever whenever he wanted. But he can't just go randomly dragging people in. Aoi seemed like the kind of person that didn't need this kind of thing. Actually, nobody needed this kind of thing but she seemed worse off that the average Joe. From what he could see from her eyes, something told him that something happened to her and something small was trying to fight back. That small trickling spring that was trying to thaw an entire mountain. Something like that. Just one pondered on Tsuna's mind as he attempted to fall asleep…

Just who is Aoi-san?


Rewritten and I hope you like it! I like it a lot better than the previous one but it's still up for improvement… tell me what you think okay?

Well, see you next chappie! I think this current chappy 1 fits in with the next chappies a lot better!

Review please!