Another sad story, this time with Giotto as Tsuna's brother.
Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. If I did everyone would of probably died because of my plot bunnies.
Enjoy!
He could see it in Tsuna's eyes. Everyday. That intelligent and bright mind, trying to break free of his clogged and foggy prison. Some days it would just scratch the surface, before fading away again.
It was stupid and fickle, but it was his hope.
Other days Tsuna would have this heart-wrenching, dead look in his eyes. Like he wasn't even in there anymore.
He knew it. Deep in his heart that Tsuna was still in there somewhere. That the bright and energetic little brother he once had was still inside this broken teen.
He missed those days. Where their parents weren't dead... And Tsuna wasn't dying.
He hated this stupid family disease with a deep, dark hatred. It had taken both his parents and now it was going to take his little brother. He was the only one in this stupid family that didn't inherit it.
It was called Huntington's disease. Every generation it killed another, progressively younger each time.
Their dad's symptoms had shown up just after he married their mum. Neither of them knew they they both where carriers for the silent killer.
Mum got her symptoms just before dad died.
Giotto was 12 at the time. Tsuna was 3.
It hit her hard. She tried so hard to keep fighting for her sons. But there was nothing to be done, and they became orphans anyway.
Giotto had been 17, Tsuna, 8.
They survived off the families menager savings and insurance until Giotto graduated from High school, and got a job working for a fat, greedy man in a office.
But he didn't care. Tsuna was safe and they were recovering well. Their life was coming together again.
But then, one day, in the afternoon - just as Giotto got home from work. Tsuna collapsed.
Giotto had thought about why neither of them had inherited the disease, but never dwelled on it. But when Tsuna collapsed, he knew why.
It had come for Tsuna too.
It had come to take him away too, just like it did to their mum and dad.
Giotto had been 17, Tsuna 8
Now he, the bastard child- was the one who got to survive. He didn't deserve it. He shouldn't deserve to live after everyone else had died.
He didn't want to, either.
Now at 21, he was going to loose another.
Tsuna was now prone to a wheel chair, since he could hardly move his limbs. Only months ago, his mind failed too. He was suffering from dementia. He could hardly speak. Only stare at Giotto with those dying eyes that were the windows his soul.
Every morning, he would lift the small and frail Tsuna from the position on his bed Gitto had laid him in the previous night, and place him in his wheel chair. He would take him around their small house to make breakfast and talk to him. But soon after all was done. He would just sit on a chair, in front of his little brother...And desperately cling to his hope that next year, he wouldn't be all alone.
But Tsuna was going to die. All of them where born to die. That much was clear as day.
Each day passed the same as before, Giotto willing Tsuna to wake up from his dementia induced haze and go back to being Tsuna.
Not a day passed where Giotto hadn't wished to be dying instead.
Why didn't he get the stupid fourth chromosome? Why didn't he fall onto the other side of that 50% chance of probability like Tsuna did? Why didn't he inherit the stupid diseased DNA?
Why was it, that the most energetic, generous and beautiful boy was the one to die?
"Come on Tsuna, up and at 'em" he said as he walked into Tsuna's small and barely decorated room.
Tsuna lay prone in the small children's winter pyjamas Giotto had put him in the night before. He had moved during the night, which greatly surprised Giotto. The boy had now curled himself up into a ball, his small hands clutched the worn knit-teddy to his chest, the one Mum had made him when he was 6. Giotto sighed at the boys actions, Tsuna knew what day it was too. This day, 4 years ago, their mother died- leaving them as orphans.
"Yeah, I know" Giotto said to the boy, sitting at his side on the mattress, looking down at the hands clenched in his lap. "I miss her too".
He heard a slight sniffle from Tsuna. He looked over Tsuna's sea creature-clad back to see his face. Tsuna was crying. Well, the best he could do in his state. His face unmoving as tears fell down from his hazel eyes and into his light blue pillow, sorrow permeating his eyes.
"Oh, Tsuna" he said before curling up at his side, hugging the tiny Tsuna to his chest. They stayed like that for a long time.
He didn't want this boy in his arms to leave him. He wanted Tsuna to stay with him, and play with him. Just like before.
"Mummmmmmmm! Are we there yet?" Asked 13 year old Giotto, who still hadn't grown up one bit.
"Just a few more minutes, and we'll be there.
Their mother had promised to take them to the park all week. She was feeling healthier today so she and whisked them out of the house and onto the footpath.
"But Mummmmm, Tsuna's getting heavy" he had been carrying 4 year old Tsuna, who had decided to take a nap on the way there.
"Look it's just around the corner!" She said to her boys. Giotto's face lit up as he charged around the corner, jostling Tsuna in his rush, waking up the 4 year old.
"WOW!" Exclaimed Giotto. The park lush and green, wide spreading trees providing a canopy over the vibrant green grass, still glistening from the dew. Bright colourful swings dotted the scene with spots of colour.
Tsuna struggled to get down from his brothers back, eager to try the colourful objects. Giotto noticing his struggle, let him down. Tsuna giggled as he grabbed his brothers hand and toddled towards the equipment.
"Let's go play Giotto-Ni"
"Sure my little Tuna-fish" Tsuna pouted cutely at the statement, chubby cheeks puffing up.
"Guess I was wrong, now your a blowfish!" Giotto said to the smaller boy. Dancing away as the boy chased him in a child's run. He ran about slowly, allowing the child to keep up, weaving between trees.
"You can't catch me!" He teased as he ran and hid behind a tree.
Tsuna followed him and jumped on his brothers leg.
"Ha! I caught you!" Said little Tsuna.
"Naw! Not fair!" Giotto replied, pretending to be upset. Tsuna looked up at him.
"Hey Tsuna, wanna do something cool?" He asked the 4 year old. Attention already drawn elsewhere.
"Okay!" Asked Tsuna, his interest heightened.
"But you can't tell Mum, it has to be our secret!" Giotto said, placing a finger on his lips
"Yep, our secret!" Tsuna said, imitating the action.
"See this big tree?" He asked his brother, picking up a small but sturdy twig from the lush green floor. "We're gonna right our names on it!"
"But what about the tree?" Asked cute little Tsuna.
"The tree will keep it safe forever! And we can come back whenever we want and it will always be here!" Explained the childish Giotto.
"Okay big brother" replied the boy.
Giotto wrote both his and Tsuna's name at the guidance of his little brother, careful not to get caught by their wandering mother.
Tsuna, in a bout of stubbornness, demanded to draw something too. Giotto happily gave over the stick.
Tsuna drew a cute picture into the soft bark of them. Giotto was tall, standing next to a cute Tsuna, holding hands.
"Now we will no where to come back to!" Was the explanations from the 4 year old.
Giotto took the stick politely from the boys chubby hand and drew the date above Tsuna's head.
"Now we won't forget when we did this!"
Seeing the cute confused and concentrating expression on Tsunas face, Giotto could help but pick up the child and twirl him around.
"Your soooo cute Tuna-fish, I love you soo much!" Exclaimed the brother. All earlier qualms were forgotten as Tsuna enjoyed the wind rushing by in his brothers arms.
"I love you too, big brother!"
Giotto cried. He mourned the loss of his mother, and his little brother. He missed him. Tsuna wasn't really fully here anymore. He was gone.
He had to accept that his little brother wasn't coming back.
Tsuna woke up in a daze. His chest hurt. Where was Big Brother? Why was he alone? It felt like somebody was trying to crack his skull open with a sledgehammer. It hurt. Every breath hurt, stinging his chest like a zap of fire running though his lungs.
"N-Ni-San?" Was the almost silent whisper that left his lips. Where did he go? Did he leave like mum and dad? He didn't want him to go. He wanted to stay with his big brother forever. He didn't want to be alone.
Being alone was scary. The silence and the darkness creeping in towards him; rising from the floorboards and seeping from the walls, closing in. He strained to hear something, anything, to indicate that his Nii-San was still here.
He wanted to go find his big brother, but he can't move very well, he can't support his weight.
Tsuna struggled on his bed, trying to coordinate his body. Tears fell from his eyes has he tried to move. It hurt. It was frustrating. He wanted to be able to move like before.
Finally he rolled, but empty space greeted him, he fell on his ribs on the wooden flooring, a sharp cry leaving his mouth.
Blood dribbled down his chin, mixing with the tears that fell down his cheeks. It hurt, his ribs stung harshly as he began pulling himself to the door by his forearms, legs dragging behind.
The harsh wooden floor rubbed at his skin, grazing away skin as he pulled himself along.
His arms where shaking from the strain, his eyes felt droopy. He needed to see if his Nisan was okay. He pulled himself along a few more steps before his arms finally buckled and he faded away into the darkness.
Sorry big brother
Tsuna had developed pneumonia.
That was one of the many complications that could occur to Huntington's disease victims, that always led to death.
So, This was how it was going to end. All their hard work was going to end like this. This was how Tsuna was going to die.
He was going to be alone again.
Tsuna couldn't breathe on his own anymore. He had two plugs that wrapped around his ears and up his nose that allowed him to breathe, which attached to a machine next to his bed.
He was bedridden. Doctors had decided that he was now too ill to be moved around.
That had hit Giotto the worst. The fact that Tsuna was now in the final stage. He was only semi-conscious at best now. That he was going to be bedridden for the rest of his life. That he was never going to leave this room again in his life. His very short life.
He never truly got to live.
To be a child.
To have friends.
To learn to write.
To be a teenager.
To rebel.
To sneak out of the house.
To have a girlfriend.
Or to be a adult.
To get a job.
To have a wife.
To make a family.
All things his parents had received. And yet, one child, that had done no wrong, and had not lived, was going to die the same way.
How was that fair on them?
How was it fair that his brother, his baby brother, was going to die the same tragic death as those before him? Why were they cursed with this disease? What had they done? What had Tsuna done?
He barely had any time to live, let alone cause this tragedy.
And how was it fair on him? The one that is left behind. The one that watches each of them die, slowly, painfully.
He has watched each of his family members fall to the fatal genetic disease. And now he was going to lose his final remaining family member.
His pure little brother.
He didn't want this. How could anyone want this?
He had no friends, only colleagues that gave their sympathy. But what did they know? They don't know what it is like to watch everyone you love die around you. The don't know to pain he carries everyday knowing he is just about to lose another.
He watches Tsuna now, in the chair he had barely left since the pneumonia discovery.
Tsuna laying flat on his back, his breathing machine at his side, shining in the afternoon light innocently.
The boy was so still, so weak. Giotto hated seeing him this way.
He knew Tsuna was going to leave him soon. Leave him alone.
"G-Gio-t-t-t-o-Nii" was the quiet voice from the still body. Giotto sat up straight and out of his thoughts. Tsuna hadn't spoken in weeks.
"p-p-park, p-p-please" was all Tsuna could muster. But Giotto understood perfectly. Tsuna was falling back onto his happiest memory, a place where he was happy, safe and loved. His first happy memory.
He knew he was dying. He probably had always known. Smart little boy.
But now he was preparing himself to die.
Giotto understood. If he was going to die. He would like it to be in the same quiet park where his happiest memory was too.
Giotto swallowed thickly. Slowly he moved to his feet, his muscles protesting at sudden movement after a long period of stillness. He moved up to Tsuna,who looked back at him. He smiled at the dying child. Who seemed calm despite knowing what was coming.
"It's okay Tsuna, I understand" he said to the boy, caressing his cheek briefly before shifting and pulling the incredibly small 12 year old onto his back. The boy nuzzled into his neck. Giotto smiled at the action. He picked up the breathing machine in his hand, making his way away from the room and down the stairs. He heard deep, calm breathing behind him, unlike he wheezing that was usually present. Tsuna had fallen asleep. Giotto once again, smiled.
To set out onto the road and into the bright afternoon light. It was nostalgistic. Even though 6 years had passed, they where in the same position. But, this time, Tsuna had the disease in his body, not their mother.
The soft winds flew by his face, leaves swirling behind him. This was the last trip he would make with Tsuna.
Giotto swallowed back tears as he continued on - adjusting his grip on the breathing machine, his precious load none the wiser.
Slowly, the park came into view though the soft afternoon light. Soon his foot falls fell onto grass, only making a soft swishing sound.
The park was still the same. The large trees still canopied the lush green grass below. The bright sunlight filtered though it's earthy green leaves.
The old colourful swings had faded into duller shades. They swung lightly in the wind, the squeaking of the hinges audible over the wind rushing at his ears.
He carried Tsuna to the middle of the abandoned park, slowly sliding him off his back and onto the thick green grass at the base of his favourite tree. He sat behind his brother, settling Tsuna's head on his lap as he lent back against the trunk of their tree. He stared into the setting sun as he held his younger brother.
"I never was a good role model" started Giotto's speech to his semi-conscious and barely lucid little brother. He traced his fingers along their old names, like scarring in the trees smooth surface.
"I always knew this. But if you asked me then, that in 8 years, I would be looking after you. I would of laughed."
"It's not something you expect, you know? I didn't truly understand what it meant, when dad left us. I barely knew him, you probably don't even remember him. But, once again, I didn't realise that it had already gotten its sharp claws into Mum."
"Even after Mum and Dad, I still had my childish naivety, believing that nothing more could happen to us, that we had received our fair share of tragedy and heart break."
"But then it came for you too." Giotto took a deep breath, hearing the breathing machine speed up its functions as it continued to force oxygen into Tsuna's lungs. Forcing him to breathe even when his lungs where giving up.
"By then I knew, after watching it happen twice before, that this was how you where going to die too. I knew this was how it was going to end."
"It's not something that anyone should come to terms with. I shouldn't have to hold my little brother as he dies slowly in my arms."
"We didn't deserve this, Tsuna. I mean, what did we do?"
"We never stole or hurt anyone, we never cheated or broke the law. So why did we receive a punishment befitting of a criminal?" He began tracing his brothers facial features, trying to take them into memory.
"So, why are you dying?" Giotto felt tears slip downs his cheeks as he stared into the sunset, fingers curling in Tsuna's hair.
"Why are you going to leave me alone? I don't want to be alone. Everything else has been taken from me, so why are you?"
"Why do you have to leave?"
"This isn't your time. We Humans are supposed to live into our 60's in the least. I probably will. Majority of the human race will. So why aren't you?"
"Oh yeah. Stupid genetic disease. The bane of my existence."
Tsuna was crying with him now, small salty tears fell from is eyes as he looked up at his older brother. His lungs where inflating and deflating without his consent. Giotto looked down at his brother, hovering over him. He knew Tsuna couldn't hear him anymore, but he continued anyway.
"You've lost your coordination, your mind and now your lungs. Soon it will take your heart and your soul."
"But your ready, aren't you? You've know that you where dying all along. You knew that you where going to leave like mum."
"I know that's why you asked me to bring you here. Your defiant, aren't you? You don't want to die in a hospital bed like mum or dad. You wanted to die, just like this."
"And now you will get your wish"
The sun was almost set, the moon was ready and waiting.
"I should of planned something to say goodbye to you with, but I have nothing. I didn't want to think what my last words to you would be. But you can't hear me anymore, your almost gone."
"But I still want you to know, you where the best little brother I could of ever had. Even if only a small potion of our time together has been happy. You where always there for me, and I was always there for you. We have always been together. But now you are going somewhere I cannot follow. So I will stay with you for as long as I can."
"Please, may you finally find peace up there with mum and dad by your side. Please find the peace that you never had here on earth. May you finally become a family with our parents, something you never experienced."
"But please, do not forget about me, for I will never forget you."
Tsuna breathing was slowly slowing down, his heart along with it.
"I'm sorry Tsuna" Giotto breathed. Cradling his brother cheekbones as he stared down into Tsuna's hazel eyes.
His heart stopped.
And so, just as the sun was setting on the 16th of May, Tsunayoshi Sawada aged 12, died.
Giotto just looked uncomprehendingly at the body in his arms. It happened so quickly, before he could even comprehend, Tsuna was already dead, his soulless eyes staring up at him.
That was not how this was going to end. It couldn't, right? Their story was not going to end here, not like this. After all this struggle, after all this pain and suffering, it couldn't just end like this? Tsuna couldn't just die.
Giotto hung his head as he cried, fists curling in Tsuna's hair. Sobs wrecked his body as he held his dead brothers hair tightly.
His chest hurt. It felt like something has been stuck in his oesophagus, Like a searing pain that wouldn't go away. His heart was broken
He felt sick. Like a dark illness in the pit of his stomach, eating away at his soul.
Slowly, he came to, as the night air slashed though his body. He gingerly sat up, laying his dead brother on the dark grass below. He said his last words towards his family under the watchful eye of the moon.
Goodbye
To my father, whom I never truly knew
To my mother, who cared for me into her dying breath
And to my brother. The one that lived so little but loved so much.
Giotto was 21
Tsuna had been 12.
Okay, so Giotto was conceived and born before Nana and Imetisu married. After they married they had Tsuna. Imeitsu hadn't told Nana that he was dying as he thought no harm could be done by having more children. Since she 'didn't' have the disease. Turns out she did. She dies when Tsuna is still young. Tsuna, being a carrier of both parents disease, got the disease, and in now dying at a much younger age. This is how Huntington's disease works. Each generation, the victims die. Progressively younger each time.
I hope you enjoyed it, or maybe cried. I wanted to do something, and I found this disease in a random web search.
I got a Supernatural story featuring Tsuna coming right up! So stay tuned ;)
God Bless,
SephrinaRose