Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21 or Katekyou Hitman Reborn (or the slight, wannabe Inception reference).

A/N: Hello to anyone reading this little piece of mine. This is actually something that I've wanted to write for a while, but didn't quite know how to go about with. The plot bunny suddenly ambushed me a few hours ago and this was born. I'm not quite sure if it's good or not, so reviews would be much appreciated ;). The whole premise for this one-shot is actually based on a longer, more complex story I've had in mind for a while now. However, as that story has no plot or ending (really, it's just a base setting and idea), I haven't been able to do anything with it.

Thank you very much for reading, feel free to leave a review, and enjoy! :)

(If you do leave a review, thank you in advance and I will definitely reply.)

A Half-Remembered Dream

"I'm home!"

Sena walked into his house, his school bag hanging over his shoulder, and heaved a sigh. For once in what felt like an eternity, he didn't feel completely exhausted after the usual Devil Bats practice. He wasn't sure what had happened, but Hiruma-san had gotten a mysterious phone call in the club room and had then proceeded to kick all of them out of the school with orders to go home and rest. He'd even taken out his special Force-the-Team-to-Work-Harder machine gun. So, it was a bit bewildered, but still relieved, that the team went home a full two hours earlier than usual. He'd walked with Monta and the three brothers for a bit before parting ways a few blocks earlier.

"Is anyone home?" Sena asked when he got no reply. "Mom? Dad?" He wasn't usually home at this hour, but his parents should be. He looked around the hall, where their shoes would be if they were home and spotted them, along with two extra unknown pairs. Sena didn't know much about fashion and high quality items, but the shine and polish of the black leather shoes on the floor next to the usual sets of slightly battered sneakers and slippers seemed to scream rich living.

"Do we have guests today?" Sena was a bit surprised, as his parents would have usually warned him about guests so that he would be on his best behaviour. Still wondering at who this could be (they didn't have such rich acquaintances, at least not that he knew of), Sena tripped on the small step leading into the house.

"HIIEE!"

"Oh my, Sena-kun?" His mother peaked out at him from the living room entrance (from where a small commotion could be heard). "Are you alright, dear? We weren't expecting you home so early, today." She looked back at the living room with slight apprehension.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. Did I bother you? Are there people over?"

"Um..." Mom hesitated at the question. She was now looking back and forth between the living room and Sena. "Sena-kun, why don't you go to your room for now? We'll be eating in a few hours still, and your father and I are a bit busy with the guests..." She stopped, glanced into the room again. "We'll call you when we're done, is that alright?"

"Sure, I'll just... go?" Sena, a bit confused as to what was going on, answered, pointing to the stairs.

"Yes dear. And since you're home early, why don't you get started on your homework for once? You might be doing god knows what after school these days, but your grades haven't improved much." Sena thought he'd heard a small smothered laugh coming from the living room, and his mother blushed, her manner becoming slightly frantic. "That is... I mean, you could do much better in school if you just tried."

There was a comment from inside the room that was too soft for Sena to hear clearly which seemed to calm his mother slightly.

"Um... I'll get started on my homework, then."

"Alright, work hard Sena-kun." His mother turned back towards the living room, already apologizing.

As he headed towards his room, he heard a faint "Are you sure you don't want to meet him, Tenth?", but there was no answer, so Sena simply chalked it off to his imagination.

An hour and a half later, slightly hungry, and very desperate to leave any mentions of algebra behind him, Sena decided to make a small trip to the kitchen to grab a snack. His feet padded lightly along the corridor and he found his eyes wandering, unconsciously, towards the living room, where his parents were still entertaining their guests. As he approached the doorway, the faint murmurings grew stronger and stronger, until finally, he caught a piece of the conversation.

"...getting better at school, and he's been making more friends from what we can tell. He hasn't displayed any affinity to flames yet, though, but it might just be because of the more secure environment. There aren't many things that would trigger a reaction around here." That was his father. What were they talking about?

"That's alright. Actually, it's what I was hoping for." That was probably one of the guests, he didn't recognize the voice. There was a soft rustle of cloth and the scraping of a chair against the floor. "The two of you have been good for him. I'm happy."

"T-tenth!" He heard his parents jump to their feet with a start. "Don't bow to us! It was the least we could do, with what happened to Kyoko-sama, and then Gokudera-san so soon after..." It was his mother now. Sena felt, hearing this, that he should probably leave it alone, stop eavesdropping, but he also felt, somehow, that this was important, and that he should stay. Somehow, Sena felt, though he didn't know how or why, this had something to do with him. However, it seemed like such an intimate conversation, and Sena's conscience won in the end.

As he moved on to the kitchen at the end of the corridor, his mind buzzed. 'What are they talking about? All this talk about school and friends does seem to be related to me, but what was that about fire? What does fire have to do with me? I've never set anything on fire! Or at least from what I can remember. But they said something about affinity, right? And about displaying? Gah, I don't understand anything! And there was something about tenth of something, right? Anyway, I was probably imagining things, there's no way this has anything to do with me.' His mind made up, Sena put the whole conversation to the side.

Once he was done eating and washing his plates, Sena gathered his courage to face another round of formulas, and functions, and letters pretending to be numbers, and headed to his room.

As soon as he'd exited the kitchen, he stopped.

Down the corridor, straight in front of him, was a man with gravity defying brown hair and sharp, blank eyes. He was turned towards Sena's father, who had his back to Sena himself, an expensive looking jacket hanging over his arm. Next to them was another man. But whereas the first one was of a rather average height, the other one towered over everyone else in the room. He had short and spiky black hair and a wide smile on his face. There was also a strange scar along his chin. And he was staring straight at Sena, who was still standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Sena-kun? What were you doing in the kitchen?" His mother, who'd been talking to the black-haired man, had finally noticed that his attention was on something else and looked in Sena's direction. She glanced at the brown-haired man warily. "Weren't you doing your homework upstairs?"

At this everyone's attention seemed to turn towards him.

"Maa~ He walked down here a good 20 minutes ago. He was probably grabbing a snack. It's getting pretty late." The black-haired man stated, eyes crinkling and grin widening.

"Is that so? I didn't notice." The brown-haired man answered with a pointed look in the other man's direction. "Must have been the rain outside, dampening the noise."

"Ahaha! Who knows?" The man gave a laugh, seemingly unaware of the dirty look the other one was now throwing his way.

The brown-haired man must have noticed and given it up as a lost cause, as he turned towards Sena and said with a slight smile "It's nice to meet you Sena-kun, my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, and my friend here is Yamamoto Takeshi. I'm very sorry to have taken up your parents' time like this. We were just on our way out."

"Oh, but Yamamoto-san is right! It's getting near supper time. Why don't you two stay and have supper with us? It wouldn't be any trouble." His father announced with enthusiasm, as his mother nodded rapidly besides him, hopeful.

"No, no, we couldn't possibly impose. Besides, Takeshi and I still have a lot of work to do. It was nice seeing you two again." He turned towards Sena. "And it was a pleasure meeting you Sena-kun."

There was something there, something that was just out of his grasp. Something that he should understand, but somehow couldn't. It was a bit like when he was doing his math problems. The numbers were there, the explanation right was there, and the evidence that it was possible was there. And yet, somehow, he just couldn't seem to understand how to answer the problem.

"Sena?" His father's voice jolted him out of his thoughts and he looked around. The two men were gone.

"Dad? What? Where did they go?"

"Hmm? They left just a few minutes ago. You must have been really lost in thought to not hear them leave." His father laughed and started walking towards the kitchen. "Well, come on then, your mother is preparing supper right now. We should go and help her, yes?"

"Uh-huh" Sena answered, lost in thought again. He needed to talk to this man, Sawada Tsunayoshi. There was something about him, something special.

"Hey, dad? I'll be going out for a bit, I'll be right back!" He yelled back towards the inside of the house, already putting his shoes on and sprinting out the door.

"Sena-kun? Wait..."

But Sena was already barreling down the road with all his might.

'I need to find him, I need to talk to him!' He thought, even as he took a series of random turns.

He caught up to them just as they were getting into their car, a few blocks away.

"Sawada-san! Please wait!"

The men paused and looked towards him.

"Sena-kun, what are you doing here?"

Sena looked up at the brunet man's face, unsure of what to say. He didn't actually know why he needed to see this man so badly. There was just a slight nagging sense at the back of his head that insisted that this was important. It was like...

'Like a half-remembered dream'

Suddenly, it clicked. "Have we met before, Sawada-san?" He blurted out. "I feel like I know you from somewhere, that I should know you from somewhere."

Behind the man, Yamamoto Takeshi's grin seemed to widen and a tinkle entered his eye.

The brunet blinked. "No, I believe this is the first time we've met, Sena-kun."

'He's lying.' Sena thought to himself. 'I just know it; he's lying to me right now.'

"But..."

"I'm very sorry, Sena-kun. As much as I would like to talk with you some more, we have urgent business to attend to." At this Sawada-san gave a small nod and got into the car with a blank face. "We'll see each other again, don't worry."

Yamamoto-san left standing next to the car and he let out a short sigh.

"He's lying, isn't he?" The man seemed to be start slightly as Sena's statement. "I know him, I've met him before. I've met you before too, haven't I Yamamoto-san?" Sena turned hopeful eyes towards the other man.

"..." There was a short silence during which Yamamoto-san didn't seem to know what to do or say. There was a stunned look on his face and a reminiscing look in his eyes.

"Ahaha!" He rubbed the back of his head with a sudden laugh. "You really do take after your parents, Sena-kun! No one could ever lie to their faces!" His burst of laughter was suddenly cut off, replaced by a more serious smile and a sharp glance. "You'll find out everything someday, but I can't say anything right now. I'm sorry, Sena-kun." With a regretful look, Yamamoto-san got into the driver's seat and started the car.

Sena was left to watch the car fade away into the distance, questions swirling in his mind as he walked home.

It wasn't until much later that he realized that he hadn't taken a single wrong turn when he was looking for them, even if he didn't know where they were. And that there wasn't a hint of rain outside, even though he was sure it had been mentioned in the conversation.

In the Deimon Devil Bats club room, a phone rang. Seated at the lavish table in the middle of the room, the teen, machine gun in hand, answered it.

"Deimon Devil Bats, Join our American Football team or die!"

"...Hiruma-kun."

"Ah, it's you. I have nothing to say to you, fucking boss."

"Is that so? Well, I have things to say to you. I'm pretty sure I told you to keep him out longer today, not to send him home as soon as possible."

"I have no clue what you're talking about, fucking boss. I don't remember hearing any of that crap." He blew a bubble with his gum and let it pop.

"I know what you're doing Hiruma-kun, but it's not the right time yet. Even with that Byakuran's sudden death ten years ago, this world is still too dangerous for him."

"Like I said, no clue what you're yammering about, fucking boss."

"Mm-hmm, then I'll pretend, this time, that I don't have a recording of your conversation with Reborn, from last week." Hiruma gave a small start, leaning forward in his seat. "And I'll pretend that I don't know that Takeshi is in on this too. But the next time I catch you disobeying a direct order like this, I'll cut off your weapons supply, consequences be damned." The line disconnected with a beep.

Hiruma stared at the phone for a few seconds, blinking.

"Heh! Damn that fucking boss hasn't lost his touch, then. And fucking Reborn thought he was getting rusty." He gave a short disbelieving laugh. "Well, I guess we'll just have to not get caught next time."