~~Chapter 1: A Story of Dawn

Four years... such a sad age to die at. Not even old enough to have contemplated meanings. Not even old enough to have made an actual name. Far too young.

A young girl, Vivi Cherry. She was born healthy and beautiful, solemn yet intelligent black eyes, black hair that grew to be long maybe even longer, pale yet healthy skin that was almost white, and an observant personality. She much preferred to stay silent and listen or watch to being the one moving or talking.

Even to a young girl, fate had been quite cruel. She developed a wicked form of cancer that caused her heart to weaken, and her lungs to freeze. At two she was horribly ill and the target of many charities and pity papers. However, despite this pain and sickness, she still smiled and laughed with her family and growing numbers of friends.

She watched her siblings in their daily squabbling every day they visited, and giggled at the playfulness of her parents. They came to see her every day and they put on a show to make her just a spark of hope.

By three and a half, she was bedridden and barely able to move around every day, but she still laughed and smiled with her precious ones. As she awoke one day, she overheard the doctor say something to her family, something about a failure, not much time remaining.

Being the intelligent girl she was, she knew it was of her. Even when her family saw her with puffy eyes, she didn't question. She merely accepted her upcoming death and spent every day with a smile. The brightest smiles she ever showed were those last six months.

That's how she coped with the pain, inabilities, instabilities, despair, and fear. Smile, laugh, love, never back down.

In the last supposed two months, her brothers began telling stories of this anime they watched and manga they read. Katekyo Hitman Reborn is what they called it. The girl soaked every bit of this information into her memory and avidly listened to her brothers every day.

In the last week, she could barely keep her eyes open, but they still visited her, and she still smiled. They came in one day, they looked worn out and as if they'd been crying.

"We finished the manga, little sis." The more mature of the two said with a wavering voice.

"How did it end?" She asked, her voice barely leaving her.

"All of them are safe, and the main character got lots of friends even though he was weak."

"Silly Tsuna." She attempted a giggle as her smile grew wider.

"Yeah, silly Tsuna." The younger laughed a little with her.

They both crouched at her bedside and began telling her of another anime. Naruto? It wasn't the same as the other, but she didn't quite care. The main character was so easy to feel bad for and he seemed to have a similar ability of Tsuna's. She smiled.

The last day, the girl's brothers were telling her about how he looked back and saw all of his friends with him. She smiled as she heard them through the smog surrounding her. Her sister started laughing at something, what was it? Oh, the older had just flicked the younger and they were arguing about something.

She smiled even wider than before and looked right at them, "I love you. Thank you for being happy."

But she couldn't talk, her voice didn't leave her. She smiled so wide, her eyes closed. Oh, it would've been so easy to stop smiling, her face hurt from it. But she didn't stop. She COULDN'T. If she did, her family would start crying, and then she would, too.

The rowdiness halted, and they all looked at her, silent tears streaming down their faces.

"We love you too, Vivi!" They said and they all wore crooked smiles as tears streamed down their faces, "We love you too!"

The girl gave up trying to open her eyes again, but she didn't give up smiling. She would always smile, no matter what happened. She wouldn't ever stop smiling. She would always laugh.

They would never forget her.

It would be a while before the Cherry family laughed in such a carefree way again, but when they look back on her in their future, they would smile in nostalgia and be proud of her amazing strength.

Under a tree, a young girl was shaken awake by a young boy with yellow hair. She opened odd eyes, one gold, one purple. She looks up at the boy's face, worried caramel eyes looking back at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked in concern.

"Yes, I'm okay. I apologize for falling asleep while you were talking."

"It's okay! It wasn't important." A smile.

"Thank you very much for waking me up, father would have been worried if I was out past dark again."

"Say, can we-"

"Giotto! Where did you go?!"

"Sorry G!" He turned back to me and smiled again, "Hurry home, okay? Your father will be very worried if you leave him waiting too long."

"Bye-bye." The four year old girl called, waving after the polite boy with a sleepy, yet genuine, smile blessing her adorable face.

She stood up and brushed her dress free of dirt and grass. She quickly returned to her nearby home, bright blue hair blowing behind her in mighty curls as she ran. She hoped her father wouldn't be mad she scraped her elbow. He always did fret over how precious her "snow white" skin was.

For a brief moment, she thought of how odd her dream had been... No, it wasn't a dream. It had been a memory. A bittersweet one, indeed.