Title: Yesterday, When I Was Young
Fandom: Reborn!
Main Character(s): Lambo
Prompt: Lambo is just so cute and adorable...
Standard Disclaimer Applied
A/N: [12-10-13] Updated. Some grammar and sentence fluency mistakes have been fixes. The title is based off of an old country song called "Yesterday, When I Was Young" by Roy Clark. Lyrically, it's a great song.
Up in the attic of the Sawada household was a collection of neatly packed and marked boxes, and they all held memories from long ago. The boxed had been filled to the top with drawings, notes, and pieces of clothing. But even though the boxes had been carefully put away and taken care of, that didn't really mean that the rest of the attic was clean. Nana Sawada, however was becoming older, and climbing up that stepladder was something that her son, Tsuna, did not like her doing. So when spring cleaning time in Japan came around, he and a few of the guardians went to visit her and help clean.
Lambo was one of those guardians, including Yamamoto and Gokudera. He wanted to see Mama and help her, a feeling he had since the day he met her. Nana greeted them with a great amount of fuss and love from the moment they walked in, and insisted that before they did anything, that they sit to a meal.
"It's nice to have some traditional Japanese food from time to time," Tsuna said with a relaxed voice, sitting next to his mother. She marveled over how tall he had gotten.
"Well, you boys have to feel at home when you come over, and what's more homely then traditional food?" Nana asked. Lambo didn't have the heart to mention that Gokudera and himself were actually from Italy originally. "Your food always taste like home, Mrs... Sawada." Yamamoto said politely, his easy-going smile a sign of his comfort.
"Oh, behave young man! You're making this old woman blush." Nana gushed, touching her cheek and fanning herself playfully.
"Calm yourself, mother," Tsuna said playfully. "Father said he was coming to visit you soon. You wouldn't want to make him feel jealous, would you?"
Dinner continued, and they all caught up upon life. Tsuna was now the boss of Vongola, although he told his mother that it was a private financial company and that he had been promoted to CEO. Gokudera and Yamamoto had obtained jobs on the board of directors, along with Hibari and Ryohei. They also told her that Lambo and I-pin had started their Junior year in Italian high school, although both of them were home-schooled.
"What about that one girl, ooh. What was her name? She had a patch on her eye." Nana said, the name on the tip of her tongue.
"Chrome, ma'am." Gokudera answered, lifting his tea and taking a long sip. "She opened a chocolate shop near our company. It's just starting up, so it's not too successful yet. But she is attracting customers."
"Oh, lovely for her. She was always such a quiet girl. I'm glad that she's doing something she enjoys."
When they eventually finished dinner, Nana gathered the young man to the pull-down stepladder.
"Now, you all must be very careful, alright? I don't want any of you getting hurt are breaking anything," she told them, standing next to Tsuna as Yamamoto pulled town the ladder.
"If we break anything, mom, then I'll blame Gokudera for it!" shouted Lambo, raising his finger in the air in a victory pose.
"Geh- Why you," Gokudera said, who reached his hands out to the young mans throat.
"Now, now Gokudera. Doing something to Lambo wouldn't fix the problem." Tsuna said, stepping in front of the teenager just in time. Lambo looked up at the shadow his Boss, who towered over him, and made a note never to make his boss angry. Even if Tsuna was hardly ever angry, it wouldn't be a good idea to tick off a man who was so much larger and more powerful than him.
Gokudera had stopped the minute the Tenth had uttered a word, standing up ram-rod straight. "I'm sorry, Tenth. I'll watch my temper next time."
Tsuna smiled at the man. "That's very good. Maybe you might also start getting in less trouble with Haru if you start doing that." he finished, chuckling.
When Tsuna turned away to face his mother, Gokudera glared at the teenager. Lambo gulped and moved closer to Mama.
"Alright, everybody. Time to go up," Yamamoto announced. He went up first, followed by Tsuna, then Gokudera, and finally Lambo.
"Call me if you boys need anything, alright?" Nana said to the boys.
"Okay. We will." Tsuna answered, looking down through the opening. She smiled up at him then reached down and handed two electrical lamps to her son. "Use those to see, okay?"
Tsuna reached for the lamps and thanked his mother. She left them to their work, returning to the book by her chair.
The attic was a small place, the ceiling barely high enough for Lambo. This left Tsuna, Gokudera, and especially Yamamoto, hunching forward at an awkward angle. Dust floated in the air, and that strange musty smell that old things tended to have strong in the air. When any of the four took a step the floorboards would creak. Boxes, bags, and large ticket items cluttered the space, although there was some order. Things that had a common use seemed to be grouped together, which would make the job much easier.
"Alright," Tsuna began, naturally using his boss voice. "We'll divide up the work into four parts. Yamamoto, you take that corner." He pointed to a group of old furniture and a few boxes. "Check to make sure that the furniture is any good still. Clean them up a bit if you can." Yamamoto nodded his head and carefully walked to his place.
"Gokudera, how about... You go to that corner." he gestured to another spot, next to Yamamoto's, that had neat(-ish) piles of clothes. "You can go through the clothes, figure out if anything there is to keep... Hold on a second. Mom?" Tsuna shouted through the opening.
"Yes, Tsuk-kun?" Nana called from he living room.
"Do you know of any clothes that you want to keep?"
"Well... Try to keep the little kid clothes please. I also think my wedding dress is up there. If there isn't anything you aren't sure about, just ask me. Otherwise, get rid of it! It's gathering dust anyway!" she said with mock-snootiness.
"Alright. Thanks. You get all that Gokudera?" Tsuna asked. Gokudera nodded.
"Keep the kid clothes, wedding dress might be here, and ask if anything looks special. Rest of the stuff I get rid of."
"Good. Now Lambo." Tsuna said, directing his attention to the teen who sat up very straight now, nearly hit is head against the ceiling.
"You can take that corner. No, Lambo. The one with all the boxes stacked up on the left. If I remember right, that should have things you, Fuuta and I-pin made when you were little. You should know if something is important or not.
"Go through that, will you? Everything there we won't get rid of, but it'd be best to check on the condition of it all."
"Gotcha, Tsuna-nii." Lambo said quickly, turning to his corner. As he walked around things though, he was tripped by something under his feet and fell down.
"Lambo!" Tsuna and Yamamoto called while Gokudera started to laugh loudly. Lambo quickly scrambled up, dusting off his pants.
"No, no. I'm fine. Just tripped..." He told them, bending over to pick up the object that had caused his fall. It was a small purple ball he had played with as a child. Lambo smiled, then just like he did in the past, he chucked the ball straight at Gokudera's head. The rugged Mafioso had still been laughing when the ball hit the side of his head. He stilled instantly, turning his head to Lambo a stone-cold glare. Tsuna stared at him with shock while Yamamoto laughed.
"I'm guessing you have a fucking death wish, you little punk," the silver haired man said through gritted teeth.
"Lambo." Tsuna said calmly. "Why did you do that?
Lambo shrugged and turned to his corner, grabbing one of the lamps. "Just going back to the old days, Tsuna-nii."
Gokudera also decided that he was"going back to the old days" and started to shout, swearing in a wide variety of language. Yamamoto held him back, though the good natured man still found the patience to laugh at the situation. Tsuna himself took a turn to calm down the angry Italian, but Lambo ignored them.
He instead grabbed a box labeled 'I-pin' and opened it to see the contents. Little toys and pictures filled the box, and her practice sheets she had used to learn Japanese were tucked safely to the side. He lifted one of them and read what she had written when they were both still small.
'Lambo took me dog' it started, with the word 'dog' crossed out and replaced with 'doll'. 'So I-pin kick her butt!' She had drawn a little picture of her sentence, him flying through the air after being on the receiving end of one of I-pins kicks. He picked up another sheet, this one neater than the last.
'I-pin got glasses today! I-pin know Mama is prettier than with no glasses.' She had drawn a little smiley face sun next to the writing, with Mama underneath it. Lambo laughed at how sweet she was, even then. He put the papers back in their place and began looking into what else was in the box. The doll of Fon that Ryohei-nii had given her in the future was buried at the bottom, and it looked ragged from the hours and hours of playing it had endured. Lambo remembered that I-pin would always try to feed the doll some of her steaming buns with Japanese green tea, and when he got dirty she would give him baths in the kitchen sink.
There were other things in her box. Pictures she drew, photographs, little trinkets she once held dear. Closing the box to keep it safe, he set it aside and picked up another box, this one labeled 'Fuuta'. The box was a tad bit smaller then I-pins, which wasn't anyone's fault really. Fuuta hadn't been with them as long since he was older, so Mama wasn't able to capture as many memories. But that only made her try twice as hard to record those moments. When he opened the box, at the top, was a large, thick stack of photos. They had been tied together with some string, a little bow keeping it together.
The first photograph was of Fuuta when he fell asleep on the toilet with a book in his hands. Undoing the string revealed that the next photo of him baking chocolate chip cookies with Haru-nee and Kyoko-nee. There was also a photograph of Fuuta's first day of junior high school. He looked comfortable in his uniform and he smiled with excitement. After looking at all photographs, Lambo carefully tied them up and set them down.
He looked in the box again and found a few of Fuutas' favourite book from when he was younger. There was also his junior high tie, the scarf Mama had made him for his birthday, pictures, and notes he wrote in Italian.
'I'm happy here.' one of the notes read, sharing the paper with a drawing of their family. 'Everyone is so nice. I hope they like me as much as I like the,.' said another. He drew a little flower under a sun, a car driving around the page.
Lambo put the items back in the box, careful in positioning everything so that the books kept a straight spine. He put that box next to I-pins' and grabbed a third box. This one was labeled 'Lambo'. The older Lambo wondered what Mama had kept from when he was younger, and he also was curious about what his younger self thought ten years ago. He opened the box and he was taken over with nostalgia.
His old cow suit was at the top, folded precisely and neatly. He was amazed that the thing was still in such good condition. He wore that suit his entire childhood and he had lived through numerous battles in it. He carefully set it down and picked up a think binder of all the art projects he had made.
All the pictures consisted of him as a king, him as the ruler of the world, him as a mafia boss, him besting Reborn in some way, or him eating candy or food. His little notes followed the same basic guidelines as his pictures ('Lambo-san is the coooooolest!','Lambo-san is gonna beat Reborn!', 'Lambo-san is gonna be the best mafia dude EVER!').
He laughed at his foolishness back then. Now he knew that there were people who had more strength than him. In some cases that was a bad thing, a threat to the safety of himself and his family. But he now knew that he had friends and family who would help him if he needed it. Tsuna-nii, Yamamoto-nii, Ryohei-nii, even Gokudera-nii(!) would be there in a heartbeat if he had ever found himself in danger. He also had people who supported him like Mama, Haru-nee, Kyoko-nee, I-pin, and Bianchi-san. They all helped in shaping his character.
He gazed at his box a little bit more. He tried to bring up more memories from his younger years. Those days now seemed so different when he viewed them with eyes that had traveled ten years and learned ten years worth of knowledge. Yet he still had more to learn. Tsuna-nii had told him that he would be an even stronger man. He would hold himself up with strength, courage and confidence. But Tsuna-nii said he couldn't just depend on that knowledge alone. Lambo would have to work hard to reach that point. However, Tsuna-nii said he didn't need to rush. The time to toughen up would come, and it wasn't now.
He closed the box and set it beside the other two, then turned to look at the progress of the other three men. Yamamoto-nii wasn't there, and Lambo assumed he had gone to get some nails and a hammer. Gokudera-nii had thrown the clothes into two different piles, and Lambo could see that the largest one was made up of clothes they had worn growing up. Tsuna-nii thumbed through an impressively large stack of paper, sifting through what was important and what could be recycled.
Lambo turned back to his own corner and he saw a few more boxed. They were labeled with the names 'Tsukkun', 'Gokudera', 'Yamamoto', 'Reborn', 'Bianchi', 'Ryohei', 'Dino', 'Kyoko', and 'Haru'.
Lambo smiled as he took in the sight. They all had been blessed with the love of a caring mother who loved them, even if she did not give birth to them. Mama was truly an angel of some sorts. Because of her, he knew that no matter how much older he got, some things would remain the same. The love his family shared would always be around to guide him. Today, tomorrow, and yesterday, when he was young.