A/N: This is an experiment. I've been having this idea revolving around my head for months. It came from three separate fics I read. One was a type of au where Tsuna belonged to Hibari. The second explored an idea of the bullying that Tsuna went through before Reborn came in his life. I took these thoughts and came up with this one incident that takes place pre-Reborn in canon time. However, I was split on which course to take. In one I could take it into an AU and change everything and that is very thought provoking to me. And in the other, I could make the pre-Reborn incident part of canon. Have it be exposed somewhere down the line in canon and blow up everyone's expectations. This is based on the third fic I read, it was a one-shot that alluded to a past shared with Hibari and Tsuna that had due with Hibari protecting an endangered Tsuna that led to Hibari's blood thirst showing why he would fit in the mafia so well.
I couldn't decide between the two. So I've decided to do them both. This is the AU version.
Disclaimer: I play in the sand box, but I do not own it.
There is a Zen saying or thought or belief that has to do with how interconnected with are with our lives and how quickly things can veer off path so drastically by one miniscule thing. It is that Zen garden thing where you have a pond of sand and a rock with ripples. Tsuna wasn't sure which he was, a rock or the pond of sand, all he knew was that it was odd how one tiny ripple could affect so much change. It was like that one movie - or was it a weather pattern theory? - about how a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can cause a hurricane in another.
All Tsuna knew was that at that moment he really wished that the water main one street over hadn't burst. It flooded the street and caused his normal routine to be messed with and now the street that he used to walk to school was closed and he had to take a detour.
Everything was going fine. It was a normal day in Namimori and Dame-Tsuna was on his way to another day in school at Namimori Middle School. It wasn't too hot or too cool which is why when Tsuna reached the point that the street he was walking on became blocked, he was confused when he asked an officer nearby about what was going on and why the street was closed and the answer was that a water main burst. Was the pipe old? Is that why it burst? It couldn't have been because the pipes froze over or anything of the like. But as he looked at his watch and saw the time the reason for why the pipes burst left his mind, he was going to be late.
Quickly Tsuna asked the officer if he knew a detour to get to Namimori Middle School. Once he mentioned his school's name the officer paled and stuttered out that he could take the next street over. It led in the same direct as the one that Tsuna was on and would actually get him to his school quicker because it didn't loop around a children's play park like this street did.
Tsuna thanked the pale officer and took off in the direction that the office pointed to. He never thought about why the officer's skin had paled at the mention of his school. He knew the cause of that. Everyone in Namimori knew about Hibari-san and his disciplinary committee that ruthlessly ran the school and the town giving out discipline to all who violated Hibari's laws.
Perhaps the moment that Tsuna most regretted was that he had been running at the time. He was glancing down at his watch to see how close he would make it to being late. This street was unfamiliar to him and while the officer said that it would be quicker Tsuna couldn't really see how he could make up the ten minutes he needed in order to be on time and avoid being disciplined by Hibari-san for being late.
It was an honest mistake. A casual bump in the scheme of things. It was just highly unfortunate for Tsuna that he ran into the worst person that he possibly could.
As Tsuna looked up from his position on the ground where he fell from running into the person, he really wished that the water main hadn't burst.
