Yeah, I got side-tracked by KHR-fictions, don't worry I'll update Soul Dream soon.
This fiction had originally been planned as a crossover, but I decided against it. Kudos to anyone who can find out which Anime/Manga it was supposed to be with.
Did you know? There are seven flames in the skies. Yellow flames of the sun, blue flames of rain, green flames of lightning, red flames of the storm, purple flames of the clouds, indigo coloured flames of the mist and the all-encompassing orange flames of the sky. Every person has a flame inside themselves. Quietly burning. Their will to live. But only very few know these flames can be used to strengthen one's self. It is a secret guarded very well in the underworld. Only people in the mafia are taught to utilise these flames. These people are called "flame-active".
Unfortunately these flames are also use to fight and the stronger a famiglia's flame user the more feared they are.
That is the reason this whole fiasco even started.
They had just asked Lal Mirch to train them when Tsuna heard a light chuckle from behind them. He ignored it in favour of looking at the slightly older teen to convey their serious desire to learn.
At least until Yamamoto found himself glomped by the girl who most likely had been the one to chuckle before. She was maybe a couple of years older than them but to their surprise also a few centimetres taller than Yamamoto. Tsuna turned towards his "assaulted" friend in worry which quickly morphed to surprise when he saw his usually so unflappable friend blushing bright red. But Tsuna could quickly determine why that was the case: the girl's chest was pressed flush against his back.
"Takeshi, you're so small!" she exclaimed, "you don't really look like you're 24 anymore. Did you overdo the anti-age treatments while I was gone?"
Lal Mirch just levelled her with a flat stare.
"Of course he doesn't look 24, they're all only 14." she stated blandly.
The blond blinked owlishly before she proceeded to look over the confused teen.
"I didn't know you were this cute at this age! You really shouldn't have hidden the photo albums at home!" she giggled hugging him from behind again and hanging her head over his shoulder.
The teen in question turned red as a tomato and also his friends next to him did when they realised the implications in her statements. Apparently she was not only familiar enough with Yamamoto to call him only by his first name without honourifics but also to hug him openly and then she apparently lived together with him. Were they...? No, Tsuna couldn't make out a ring on her finger. But living together without being married was frowned upon in their society... Was Yamamoto in such a immoral relationship...?!
Lal Mirch sighed loudly.
"There you broke them."
Letting go of Yamamoto the girl pouted.
"Not true. Broken drools more."
The CEDEF agent levelled her with a flat look but didn't deign to reply to this statement. Instead she asked:
"Where were you? You were gone for quite a while according to Yamamoto. They were just about to call for search parties. Again."
"A couple of errands." she replied noncommittally while holding up a shopping bag from one of the local supermarkets before turning back to the boys.
"No seriously, you guys were so cute when you were fourteen. A shame I only came to Namimori when you were already in your second year of high school. But where are my manners? I'm Hine Ayumi but you can call me Ayumi. You meet me three years from the time you came from when I start working in TakeSushi and later become your live-in tutor, Takeshi."
Tsuna and his two Guardians blinked a couple of times before Yamamoto laughed.
"I guess I'm like you then, Tsuna."
To which Gokudera of course instantly objected, "Don't compare yourself to the tenth!"
While Tsuna looks absolutely stupefied.
"But you're younger than future-us!"
She stomped one foot down in a childish manner while turning to Lal Mirch to moan, "why does everyone hold that against me?"
The bluenette just shrugged.
"Anyway it's nice to see you again, Ayumi."
That seemed to be enough for the blonde teen to bounce back to her happy persona.
"It's been ages. We have to catch up with cake and coffee sometime soon."
Lal Mirch hummed in acceptance to which Hine smiled brightly.
"Great! I'll make the cake now!"
Gokudera frowned.
"Great, another air head."
She didn't get far though, as Lambo and I-Pin ran into the room. Furthermore Lambo was holding an armful of guns.
"Look, Tsuna, Look! Lots of fire power!" he exclaimed gleefully.
Tsuna freaked out and ran to the little boy to get him to sit still for once, but obviously had no such luck.
Hine sighed and smiled indulgently.
She walked up behind Tsuna and gently took the guns from Lambo as she lifted him onto her hip with one arm.
"Ayumi-nee-chan!" the little boy exclaimed happily.
The blond smiled gently at the boy.
"Hello, there, Lambo-kun. How are you? We haven't seen each other in quite a while. Have you been behaving?"
Stunned Tsuna cried out, "Hie, Lambo, you know her?!"
Lambo looked at Tsuna incredulously.
"Of course Lambo-san knows Ayumi-nee-chan! She always gives Lambo-san cake if she is around when the pink smoke leaves." he said as if it were outrageous that Tsuna didn't know this.
Hine shook her head fondly and bopped his nose in admonition.
"Manners, Lambo-kun."
Of course Lambo didn't heed the mild admonishing. Instead of admitting his wrongdoing he demanded, "Play with me, Ayumi-nee-chan."
"Ah, that makes sense." Yamamoto mused loudly as if he actually thought Lambo's explanation made sense. Remembering how he still thought the whole mafia business was only a game, Tsuna mused, that might actually be the case.
Gokudera seemed to want to object was however distracted by a crash in the kitchen. Instantly Tsuna ran there followed by his two Guardians.
Only to find something black bloating out from below the sink. It turned out Giannini, the strange apprentice weapons tuner and inventor who had messed up their weapons back in their time, had gotten stuck under the sink in the kitchen while searching for place to store his tools and parts.
The older girl had followed the boys to the kitchen at a more sedate pace. Lambo was chattering a mile a minute and generally enjoying being carried, while she let him talk and hummed at appropriate intervals.
She gently let Lambo down, who ran over to Tsuna to ask him to play with him. That was when the rotund mecha-artist caught sight of the blond.
"Eh, Ayumi?" Giannini asked incredulously, "You entered the base undetected again?!"
The boys turned towards her with wide eyes.
"Did I?" she asked and shrugged innocently as if it were the most normal thing in the world to enter a secret mafia hide-out completely undetected. Then after a moment of thought she added, "You left the fourth hatch open. You should really close it."
"But the disruption barrier should have still picked up on your entering! I upgraded all of the sensors and all of the security cameras in these last two weeks! Nobody should be able to enter without detection!"
Tsuna looked at the girl incredulously. How?
The girl smiled calmly. An air of serenity surrounded her as she walked over to them.
"You focused them on flames again, didn't you, Giannini?" she asked indulgently, "Do I have to remind you again that won't work on me? Didn't you say yourself: I emit no flame wavelength whatsoever since I'm obviously not such a pyromaniac as you guys."
Tsuna frowned.
So she didn't have flames. That meant she wasn't involved in the mafia right? Then what was she doing here?
Giannini pulled at his already thin hair.
"Arg! Even though I made them so sensitive they can even pick up the faintest latent flame!" he lamented.
He was interrupted however when a pungent smell permeated the air.
"Ah, the curry is burning." the blond commented lightly.
Instantly a scramble to save said dish ensued. Sadly, the girls couldn't save the dish anymore. Their long faces were evidence enough.
The blond girl threw one look at the pot and rolled up her sleeves. She motioned for the two five-year-olds to come to her and crouched down.
"I guess the curry's lost. Lambo-kun, would you and I-Pin-chan mind helping me make something else for dinner?"
Both of them nodded eagerly and set out to follow their (new) big sister's orders. Soon the rest of the girls joined the effort to get dinner on the table sooner after their unlucky first try with the curry.
Once served the dinner was consumed with the vigour of a horde of starving people.
Tsuna saw Hine watching them with a smile, while answering the girls' questions concerning her person as she was eating slowly.
Apparently she was a good friend of theirs from their high school time, as well as Yamamoto's tutor as she had mentioned earlier. She also knew how hopeless the boys were when it came to cooking because, so she told them, she was the one who taught their future selves how to cook.
That was how Lal Mirch found them when she burst into the kitchen and announced she agreed to train them.
Tsuna didn't quite know what to make out of Hine's small mischievous smile at this statement. But it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared once Lal Mirch had stated to explain about the Millefiore and the famiglias it was merged from. With an unreadable expression she suddenly excused herself after ensuring it was okay with the girls for them to do the dishes. Although they were surprised by the sudden request, the girls didn't mind. Mere moments later Hine had left the room without another word.
Tsuna hadn't noticed until after the blonde was gone, but the older teen's departure had broken up the CEDEF member's explanation as she sighed and watched the other girl leave with a somber look on her face. Then she clapped her hands and announced: "Let's begin the first lesson. One of you, anyone will do. This box has never been opened. Take the box and open it. But not here, we're moving locations."
Takeshi let out a small yawn and finally decided to call it a night after training by himself for a while. Tsuna had long since gone to bed and it had been quite a while since he heard anything from down the hall where Gokudera had been training. Leisurely Takeshi made his way back towards the room he shared with his friends when something made him stop.
Small sobs from the kitchen made him curious of who it was that was crying so heartwrenchingly. He opened the door silently and looked inside to see the blond girl, Hine Ayumi-san he reminded himself, from earlier hunched over the dining table in the dark her face in the palms of her hands.
"What's wrong?" he asked carefully as he approached her.
Just as the first syllable left his lips her head whipped up and despite the darkness of the room her tearstricken face was in clear view to him. It tugged harshly at his heartstrings.
She put on a smile for him and wiped her eyes with her hands to rid herself from the tears.
"It's nothing, don't worry, Takeshi."
He frowned. If that were the case she wouldn't be here in the kitchen in the middle of the night crying to herself. So he told her exactly that.
"If that were the case you'd not be here crying but sleeping in the girls' room, Hine-san."
A small smile blossomed on her face at his insistence.
"Actually, I have my own room." she deflected weakly. Yet Takeshi couldn't let it go.
"And yet you are not there but here crying. What's wrong?" he asked taking the seat next to her at the table and looking at her expectantly.
She sighed deeply and remained silent. The teen however did not let this deter him and just remained next to her as she tried to dry her tears when new ones continued to fall. The silence reigned for several more minutes before she gave up and let the silent sobs rack her body. Unsure of what to do in such a situation, Takeshi slung his arm around her shoulder and gently squeezed her to his side in an awkward side-hug.
That however seemed to make her self discipline crumble completely as she turned to him and burried her face in his chest as she cried. Still feeling awkward but realising that was what the girl needed, Takeshi gently wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back to comfort her. It took a while but the action seemed to calm her down.
When her sobs had subsided to scattered sniffles she pulled away from him looking distinctly sheepish despite the tears on her face.
"Sorry about that." she mumbled rubbing at her teary eyes, "You don't even know me, but here I break down in your arms."
Takeshi hummed dismissively. She had obviously needed that. So as far as he was concerned it was ok. Better she let someone know about her feelings than bottling them up and covering it with a fake smile. That was just painful and he knew it.
"Will you tell me what's wrong now, Hine-san?" he asked gently.
She sighed.
"I guess I owe it to you, since I think I just ruined your shirt with my tears. You can call me Ayumi by the way. Without any honorifics. We dropped those pretty long ago. It's strange for me otherwise."
Takeshi just smiled at her.
"Don't worry about the shirt. But sharing the pain helps, Ayumi."
Ayumi nodded absentmindedly before once again sighing.
"I told you earlier I used to work for your father and was your home tutor?"
Takeshi nodded.
"Well, Tsuyoshi-san pretty much integrated me into your household. I lived with you guys throughout high school and Tsuyoshi-san became like a father to me. The three of us were really close." she admitted shyly.
Takeshi grinned brightly. He had always thought their home was too big for just him and his old man. He was looking forward to that changing.
"But that's great!"
Ayumi smiled sadly.
"Yes, it was... Now Tsuna and Gokudera know this but I know they won't tell you. They probably fear this information will hurt you too much. But I think you deserve the truth, Takeshi."
Sensing her somber mood Takeshi's grin disappeared and was replaced by grim concern. Ayumi took a moment to compose herself before she finally admitted, "Tsuyoshi-san... Your Dad... He was killed. By the same people who are targeting all of the people around Tsuna."
Frowning he cast his eyes down to the floor. That was a harsh blow. He couldn't imagine a time when his Dad would no longer be there, but apparently that was the case in this time.
"I understand...", he murmured solemnly.
Ayumi shook her head and cupped his face in her hands to make him look at her.
"No, you don't." she stated firmly, "Your father is still alive, right?"
Unsure where she was going with this he nodded in answer to her questions.
"And you realise just how fragile a life is now. So you can protect your father and loved ones with all your might." she explained, "Takeshi, your future self, and I, we didn't pay enough attention. We thought he'd be safe enough because he wasn't close to Tsuna. So you kept away. We were wrong and subsequently we lost him. But you can learn from our mistakes. You can become stronger with our knowledge and surpass us."
Takeshi mulled over her words realising how true they rang. Raw determination blossomed in his heart igniting the calming warmth he now knew to associate with his rain flames.
Meeting his eyes, Ayumi smiled.
"Now you understand. So take the sword style your father passed on to you and make him proud."
"Where were you when Kyoko-chan disappeared?" Tsuna demanded in a clearly upset tone, "you weren't even in the base anymore!"
All had been alright just the night before when they went to bed dead tired after the eventful day. Even if they only had to open the box Lal Mirch had handed them during her training. The following morning everything had gone to hell in a handbasket when they had not only received an distress signal in form of Hibird but Haru also informed them of Kyoko's disappearance during the night.
Luckily Kurokawa had found Kyoko before the Millefiore could and Hibari had attacked Gamma before he could deal a finishing blow against Yamamoto and Gokudera. But still the two of them were in critical condition!
Tsuna couldn't help but feel like Hine's absence was at fault. Even if she seemed to be only an unlucky civilian involved in this stuff by being their friend and therefore knew nothing of the true dangers involved, she was older than the girls and knew way more about this time than their group from the past. And surely if she had been in the base she could and would have stopped Kyoko from leaving. Kyoko would have listened to the older teen. Then him and his Guardians wouldn't have had to split up resulting in his friends' injuries. They could have faced Gamma together until Hibari got there!
Ayumi didn't answer. Instead she averted her eyes guiltily.
"Leave her be." Lal Mirch butted in, just entering the hide-out holding the Storm and Rain Vongola-Rings wrapped with Mammon Chains, "Who did you think ensures there is sufficient supplies around? Sasagawa Kyoko has now been returned to the base. Furthermore there is one thing you must be aware of in this time period: there is a third party in our conflict with the Millefiore called flame zombies."
Tsuna blanched as Lal Mirch let him mull over the implications of the name by himself while she turned to Hine.
"Your alarm?"
The blond smiled weakly.
"Even if it's only connected to our infirmary here, it's a way of helping my most precious people. I'll be treating the injured then."
Lal Mirch dismissed her with a brief nod.
Hine hastened her pace to get to her destination while Lal Mirch turned back to Tsuna who in the meantime had gone into full mental breakdown.
"Hieeee?! Flame zombies?! Are you kidding me?!"
He got a slapped upside the head for that comment. Cradling the new bruise - that hurt! - he looked up to meet the unamused look the CEDEF agent sported. So it couldn't be a joke, which in itself terrified Tsuna even more.
"Why do these crazy things always have to happen to me?!"
She shot him a cold glare for those words, which stopped Tsuna's rant instantly.
"Yes, flame zombies. They are known to go after flame active individuals, who are mainly found in the mafia, as you are aware. There is one rule when it comes to flame zombies: do not let them get close. If they bite you you'll be very lucky if nothing happens." she instructed.
Tsuna nodded quickly, as not to inspire his trainer's wrath, but couldn't quite wrap his head around it if he was honest. The idea just seemed to foreign. But the look in the CEDEF operatives eyes l ft no doubt she was speaking the truth. Not the slightest.
"And if we're not lucky?" he enquired tentatively.
Lal Mirch laughed mirthlessly.
"It affects your flames. Your very core. Either you break instantly and become like them, or you'll start cracking until you break and become like them, which is way, way more painful."
He didn't speak for a moment.
"Okay, don't let them get close." he agreed, "But what does that have to do with Hine-san?"
"They seem to be exceptionally attracted to her."
"How does she deal with them?" he asked suddenly worried for the blonde and guilty for doubting her.
"I run," Hine herself answered, loud enough for them to hear it from where she stood in front of the infirmary door further down the hallway, sadness tinging her voice, "and never look back."
Tsuna noted with a certain amount of relief that Hine didn't show much of a reaction when Bianchi and Fuuta entered. She didn't seem particularly interested in their discussion either. She just checked the IVs connected to the two patients, pulled out several bottles of medication and measured it out carefully before administering it via the drip the two were on. It made Tsuna feel guilty for accusing her beforehand. After all she had rushed back once she found out something had happened and hadn't left the infirmary since.
Quite honestly Tsuna had no idea if she was connected to the mafia or civilian, even if he personally would peg her for civilian. Probably only connected to the mafia by proxy for her connection to their future selves like Haru and Kyoko were. She seemed to know about flames, to an extent at least, but with the way their enemies had been using them and by the tale of 'flame zombies' Lal Mirch had recently shared with him, Tsuna didn't think there was a way not to know about them. Frankly, Tsuna didn't want to ask Hine directly in case she didn't know about the mafia but also didn't know who to ask about it. So he'd just keep on observing for the moment.
He just watched with a morbid fascination as Bianchi finally stopped being so loud about her affection for Reborn and Hine just turned to the older woman with an innocent smile.
"Bianchi, I know you've only just returned, but you're still banned from the kitchen. Two in the infirmary is bad enough as it is."
Bianchi had probably not even heard her, she was so immersed in blissfully hugging the living daylights out of Reborn, yet the blond seemed to be content with the lack of objection. Also she seemed to be the only one not affected by (oblivious of?) Hibari's bloodlust, as he threatened everyone for crowding in the infirmary while she hauled Gokudera back onto the bed, after Bianchi's appearance made him pass out.
Tsuna truly didn't know if he should admire her or be afraid for her, because her apparent lack of self-preservation.
Pulling the covers back over Gokudera she clicked her tongue, "look what you've done. You'd think someone with your IQ'd know better than to rip out an IV like that..."
Of course Gokudera was not coherent enough to hear the slight much less to formulate an retort. Tsuna did wonder though if she didn't see that he had not exactly done it on purpose but rather passed out because that was his natural reac tion to Bianchi's presence. Her nonchalance was rather startling either way.
Then she turned to Hibari with a calm smile.
"Thank you for enforcing the infirmary rules, Hibari-kun. But from a medical point of view I'd ask you not to actually bite anyone, because the human mouth has an enormous amount of bacteria which are a pain when the wound becomes infected."
Hibari didn't answer her, but left the infirmary wordlessly.
Really, Tsuna didn't know what to make of the blond teen their future selves called their friend.
A/N: okay, this is the end of the first chapter. I'll be quite hinest with you: this fiction is very drabble-y and that makes is hard to predict holong the chapters will be. However I hate short chapters, so I will not post short chapters. However I do post the snippets on my tumblr (under the same name). Feel free to read there, if you think the updates here are too slow.
Do leave comments or reviews though. I'd appreciate it immensely. Since I can't get any better if I don't get my mistakes pointed out to me.