Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I claim ownership over Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

I really should have stayed in bed today, Tsuna thought to himself as he rushed around his room, grabbing up his wrinkled school uniform from off the floor and throwing it on.

I mean, it's the last day of the week, and it's like anyone would notice, or even care that I'm not at school. Well, anyone except Hibari, but he's different.

It was 7:45, and school started at 8. It took Tsuna about 15 minutes to get to school on a good day, but he only had 10 because his alarm clock wouldn't go off, and he woke up late.

"Tsu-kun, do you want breakfast?"

"No kaa-san! Thank you, but I'm going to be late, and Hibari-san doesn't tolerate lateness!" Tsuna yelled down to his mother, cramming his feet into his sneakers, and grabbing his book bag as he ran out the bedroom door. He didn't have time to tie his laces, but he figured, no, hoped, that he would be fine.

Tsuna regretted the decision to not tie his sneakers, though, when he tripped on his laces halfway down the steps.

"Hiee!" Tsuna screamed out, grabbing on to the banister to stop himself from falling down the rest of the stairs, and, with his luck, breaking something.

Tsuna straightened up, and placed his hand on his chest, feeling his racing heart. He took a deep breath in, holding it to the count of 3, before releasing it.

Ok, I need to calm down. I'm only going to make things worse for myself if I hurry around like this and end up hurting myself. If I run, I should be able to make it just in time, and even if I'm a few minutes late, Hibari-san might just ignore me, or, more likely, let me off with a light biting to death.

"Tsu-kun, are you alright?" Tsuna heard his mother ask him from the kitchen, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"I'm fine kaa-san, I just…" Tsuna trailed off as he caught a glimpse of the time on the hallway clock, "I'm going to be late!" he finished, making his way down the rest of the stairs.

Tsuna ran into the kitchen and gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek, before grabbing a piece of toast from off the kitchen table, and heading for the front door. He was almost there when he heard his mother call out to him again.

"Wait, Tsu-kun! You forgot your bento box!" She called out, and Tsuna groaned around the piece of toast in his mouth and quickly turned back around.

Tsuna made his way back to the kitchen and gently took the wrapped up bento box from his mother's hands, before hurriedly stuffing it into his book bag.

"Thank you kaa-san, I'll see you after school." Tsuna said as he turned to make his way make to the front door, moving faster when he caught another glimpse of the time.

"Have a good day at school, Tsu-kun. Kaa-san will be waiting patiently for you to get back." Tsuna heard his mother call back to him, and he waved goodbye over his shoulder before rushing out the front door.

Good day? If she knew what happened at school every day, she would know better than to say that, though I guess it's my fault for never telling her the truth whenever she asks me how my day at school went. I wonder, where does she thinks all the cuts and bruises come from? She never asks questions, but the medicine cabinet in the bathroom is always restocked whenever supplies are running low, and it's only the two of us in the house, so she must know that I'm the one using it. Maybe…maybe she's waiting for me to come to her? I'm sorry kaa-san, but I do…

Tsuna was abruptly shaken out of his thoughts when a body came crashing into him, just as he was turning the corner onto the street that would take him through a shortcut to the school.

He stumbled back and tripped, again, over the shoe laces that he should have tied earlier. Due to the force of the collision, the person and box they were carrying, including everything that was inside of it, all followed Tsuna on his way to the ground.

Tsuna fell with a crash, his book bag flying out of his hand to land on the ground next to him, and his left arm flying back instinctively to try and catch him as he fell.

Tsuna rubbed his head where it hit the ground with the hand that wasn't scrapped up and hurting from trying to cushion his fall, and opened his eyes, squinting in pain at the face of the person holding themselves over him, their arms on either side of his waist.

"Oh no…" Tsuna heard a male voice start to say, before his vision was engulfed in white.

The last thing Tsuna sees as smoke starts to engulf him, is worried green eyes staring out of an unfamiliar face topped with red hair, caught in an expression of shock.


Giglio Nero Mansion

May 4th, 1978

The silence of a rather calm spring day at the Giglio Nero famiglia's main house was broken by a loud Bang!, and a puff of smoke.

A strong gust of wind blew by, dispersing the smoke to show a boy. He was laying on the ground in the forest surrounding the main house, just to the left of the entrance.

Luce, who had been waiting for this very moment, left her seat on the steps leading up to the front doors, and made her way to where she saw the boy appear.

It only took her a few seconds to reach him, and once she did, Luce just stood over him, and stared.

The boy's features were delicate, and even though he looked to be mostly Asian, Luce could see some traces of Italian in him, probably from a distant relative.

He had soft-looking caramel colored hair, and pale white skin, but since his eyes were closed, Luce could only guess at their color. The boy was small, looking to be about 10, 12 at the most, and the skin that was visible where his clothes didn't cover him, was littered with bruises.

He looked so young, and Luce felt her heart breaking just looking at him, because she knew.

Luce knew, looking at the brown haired boy on the ground before her, that what she was going to do was necessary, not only for the future, but also for the happiness of seven special individuals, who, in another world, would have been hers, to care for, to love, and to, most importantly, be the sky that would encompass them all, giving them a home that they would always be able to return too.

In a perfect world, she would have all of that and more, but, unfortunately, the world isn't perfect. No, in fact, it is a place that would see her sacrifice the life of the boy before her, in favor of maintaining the balance. In…in place of her.

Luce knew that it wasn't right, he was just a child, but she also knew that she was selfish. She knew that, once she saw the vision of the future she could have with her little girl, her Aria, she wouldn't be able to give that up—give up being a mother, and being there for her daughter. She wouldn't be able to look away as she was forced into the body of an infant, when she knew how devastated her daughter would be, seeing her die so young.

She knelt down on the ground to pick him up, and gathered him into her arms. Luce marveled at how small he was, how light, once she was holding him standing up.

Luce turned around and made her way back to her home, but as she looked down to the boy's head resting against her shoulder, she had to stop as a wave of sorrow crashed over her, tinged with remorse.

The gift of divination passed down to each head of the family was, at times, both a blessing and a curse, and Luce had made peace with the fact that every action she took would be dictated by her visions of a distant future.

But even then, the decisions she made were only for the good of the famiglia, and never herself. Never her own personal happiness, or solely for her benefit. That meant that, before now, she had never been forced to live with the knowledge that she was destroying another person's life, in order to secure a future solely based on what she wanted.

Luce shook her head, and continued walking. It was time she owed up to the fact that she wasn't entirely a good person, and that she could be just as selfish as anyone else, regardless of what her famiglia thought.

After all, she thought to herself, as she leaned her back against the door that she had previously unlocked, and made her way into the front entrance hall, a good person would never allow what I am about to force this boy, this child to go through, but a good mother, and more importantly, a good boss, would. And I know that, before anything else, I am a good boss.

Luce made her way up the main staircase, and with every step that she took, she felt a weight grow heavier and heavier around her shoulders, a weight that she knew she would be carrying around for the rest of her life, because it was the weight of a guilty conscience.